Sir Bandelot

I agree, although I do not feel it is "retarded" myself. Some women might prefer it, perhaps because they do not want to be judged by people based on how nice their hollywood hairstyle looks today, or how round their asses are. In our culture women are glorified as sex objects, not always openly but always at the subconscious level. Anyway not sure how I feel about that, but the point is there's no need to use LAW to ban clothing, in this case there's really no problem. And the former head of this muslim association says pretty much the same thing. If someone WANTS to wear it, they should still be allowed to. My view on a solution is more generous- let those who want to wear them go ahead, but the overall attitude towards it is that it should not be necessary, young muslim girls should be taught to be proud of their femininity and raised to become confident adults who should never feel ashamed of it. Then the burkas will disappear all on their own.

WHich clearly shows, Ignatieff is not actually a Liberal. and thats why he will fail, in my opinion. Precisely. Although i don't know much yet about this amendment, the point is that the Senate has its own a role to play. Otherwise we don't need a senate at all.

I wonder how much of an icon Obama is now, to these teenagers since he has been publicly ridiculed by the extreme right, who use their access to media to broadcast their hate for him (Limbaugh, Wilson). In some cases, even racially charged statements, and comments by Jimmy Carter etc. This has done more damage by revealing the racial divide even more clearly. Whereas in the recent past, this was at least somewhat hidden by a thin veneer of civility, its become quite obvious to everyone around the world. Obviously the kids can see it too. Hence my reasoning, Obama is not something to be celebrated after all. If he is to represent an inspirational figure for black youth, it fails.

Eugenics rears its ugly head?

So despite the bailout, or whatever term is in vogue for it now, there still is a problem with liquidity. Don't want to give loans? No problem. I and millions of other Canadians don't want or need their credit. Consumerism is in decline. And that will only make the situation worse for them, and maybe everyone, since it appears they can never lose. Even when they win due to our hard work and sacrifices, we still lose. Maybe we can start trading some currency the descendents of Rothschild don't control... like Iranian Rial...

Olegs got it right... once again.

My take on the situation is this: Canada was well positioned to weather the economic storm thanks to years of paying down the deficit. In essence we had a very low debt-load, with room for taking on more if necessary. The sitting government knew this to be the case, hence they did not lie when they came out with their initial responses that there was no need for stimulus package. Next thing that happened, either the Canadian banks complained they would lose their competitive edge if Canada didn't follow suit, or the US or some other monetary agency essentially forced the finance ministers hand. Canada has room to take on some debt load, in this case we are paying for other peoples mistakes and irresponsible fiscal policy. think about that when filing your taxes this year.

Perhaps. But Make No Mistake- my "case" was not for suppressing free speech (that sacred jewel in the crown of liberalism), in the sense that it might offend the Islamicists. My case is that such broad generalizations, when given a mass media platform affect us, our perceptions of Islam, in ways similar to what happened to the Jews in old Europe. All Jews were portrayed as subversive enemies, by the very nature of them being Jews. Their features and clothing were ridiculed, and finally they were openly, publicly despised. In those days, the use of radio and tv, and posters describing the sinister Jew as a bogeyman who would suck the breath out of white children while they slept at night... etc, was the medium for propaganda to affect peoples attitudes. Jews portrayed as ridiculous characters on posters, is not different from the Muslims shown in these cartoons. The criticism has to be very clearly directed, and I don't think Wichman or the Danish cartoonists ever considered that aspect of it. They have created a rift in our own society, even among peaceful law abiding citizens. Now good honest muslims are afraid of going into public with their traditional dress. Thats a loss of liberty.

Here's a place that really needs a dose of your free-speech virus. But they are your close friends, eh? Kiss kiss? So of course no criticisms will be heard, from the genuflecting western leadership and their media megaphones- http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33206895/ns/wo...ideastn_africa/

Those results are not due to just a few short years of financial planning. The Cons came into power after the former Liberal government, inheriting a healthy balanced budget, at least much more so for Canada than in most other countries in the world. And I remember that was the big debate at the time under the Libs- whether to use surplus money to pay down the deficit, or spend it on infrastructure projects. Paul Martin, as finance minister under Chretien took the initiative to pay down the debt... in other words, looking to the distant future, despite it being unpopular right now, despite criticism from opposition voices, despite its seemingly unorthodox approach compared to what the US and other countries were doing at the time. - And I will admit, I was one of those who criticized the Liberal government for it. as I and many other Canadians had to "tighten our belts" once again, to pay off some debt that was abstract to me, and everyone. But time has proven that Paul Martin was right, and today reap the benefits of his excellent work, while most Canadians are probably not even aware of these facts. Let alone those who would like to re-write history for their partisanship...

They have accused Flaherty of ignoring the slump as late as last November, when he tabled an economic update that boasted of balanced budgets for years in the future. That forecast came to an abrupt end in January, when Flaherty’s budget called for a $34-billion deficit this fiscal year. It has since been revised twice — to $50 billion and to the now-expected $56 billion. Nevertheless, Canada has not been as deeply impacted by the deficit as many other industrial nations, who have gone far deeper into debt to keep their economies afloat. I'm no partisan but I know some history. This success is largely thanks to Paul Martin. Had Flaherty et al been in power instead during those Liberal years, with neocon fiscal policy we would have been carrying a huge debt load and sunk like a goner. Despite what some magazine might say, the actual truth of what happened last fall is, Flaherty showed himself to be a complete jackass.

How about some real facts, instead of just your unsubstantiated personal opinion of the problem. Earlier I posted a link that pulls the rug out from under every statement you make here. Crime levels decreased, and it was under the Liberal government. Yet you just come along and spout off junk as if it were the gospel. So how about some real facts to back up your statements, refute the claims in the latest report. Or do you just want to play the antagonist, for fun and amusement. And your brilliant mathematical deduction that, while crime rates are going down, the number of crimes is increasing because the population is increasing leaves me speechless... not only cans't Johnny read, he cans't add too good neither

What I Saw at the Afghan Election By Peter W. Galbraith October 4, 2009 Before firing me last week from my post as his deputy special representative in Afghanistan, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon conveyed one last instruction: Do not talk to the press. As my differences with my boss, Norwegian diplomat Kai Eide, had already been well publicized (through no fault of either of us), I asked only that the statement announcing my dismissal reflect the real reasons. Alain LeRoy, the head of U.N. peacekeeping and my immediate superior in New York, proposed that the United Nations say I was being recalled over a "disagreement as to how the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) would respond to electoral fraud." Although this was not entirely accurate -- the dispute was really about whether the U.N. mission would respond to the massive electoral fraud -- I agreed. Instead, the United Nations announced my recall as occurring "in the best interests of the mission," and U.N. press officials told reporters on background that my firing was necessitated by a "personality clash" with Eide, a friend of 15 years who had introduced me to my future wife. I might have tolerated even this last act of dishonesty in a dispute dating back many months if the stakes were not so high. For weeks, Eide had been denying or playing down the fraud in Afghanistan's recent presidential election, telling me he was concerned that even discussing the fraud might inflame tensions in the country. But in my view, the fraud was a fact that the United Nations had to acknowledge or risk losing its credibility with the many Afghans who did not support President Hamid Karzai. ... If Afghanistan represents some kind of watershed for western democracy, then we have utterly failed. Worse, with the last election fiasco and the way the situation was handled post-election, we have poisoned the concept of democracy in the minds of people throughout the middle east region. To these people democracy is a hollow lie and we westerners, in particular the leadership and the UN, those who call themselves overseers, must appears as a complete bunch of hypocrites. This problem has quietly dropped off the radar of western media propaganda outlets, an unresolvable embarrassment, maybe even the biggest failure so far in the whole Afghanistan misadventure. Where's the outcry over this electoral fraudulence? Is it because this fraud is OUR responsibility, unlike when Iran has some issues, when so many western leaders were completely certain that electoral fraud occurred, and condemned their government. No, its not a problem... the west has its own solution. These garishly bold, bald-faced liars would never concede their own dishonesty and manipulations. When there's a problem in western style democracy, it's simple enough to legislate a solution. Thats all it takes... if its made into a law, how can it be wrong? New Afghan vote rules may ensure Karzai victory Mon Oct 5, 2009 KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan's U.N.-backed election watchdog will treat presidential candidates as equally likely to be guilty of vote fraud in suspicious cases, new rules issued on Monday show, a move that may ensure a win for Hamid Karzai. The ECC published its recount rules on Monday, saying candidates would have ballots nullified in proportion to the total number of ballots they have in boxes considered suspicious, regardless of which candidate perpetrated the fraud. The arithmetic appears to favor Karzai. Under the recount rules, ballot boxes considered suspicious are grouped into six categories according to the grounds for the suspicion, but are not separated according to which candidate benefited from the suspected fraud. The complaints watchdog will look at 10 percent of the suspicious ballot boxes in each category, determine what share of the boxes were fake, and then reduce each candidate's tally of votes in that category by the same percentage, it said.

I got glasses

That all depends on what statistics you want to quote. Canada is pretty new at this game of mandaTory minimums, so for some information we could look at the United States. I've looked it up before... lots of people in jail, lots of violence. No clear corellation that shows mandaTory minimums work at all. But it does appear to create lots of jobs for the prison industry, so it's not completely a bad thing...

Violent crime in 15-year decline: report Violent crime has steadily declined in Canada over 15 years, says a new report. The report's figures show a 12 per cent overall decline in crime since 1991. The Vital Signs annual report, released Tuesday, compiles statistics on a variety of subjects in an attempt to demonstrate the health and well-being of communities across the country. Its figures are based on research collected from community foundations in 16 participating communities. The report says the largest declines have been in violent crimes, such as homicide, attempted murder, assault, sexual offenses, abduction and robbery. Since 1991, homicides have dropped 32 per cent, sexual offenses by 36.4 per cent and abductions by 64.5 per cent, according to the report. Alright, now that we know that (and some of us have known about it for some time) I would like to ask why the urgent need for mandaTory minimums? And why so hot to remove the gun registry? Its existence seems to coincide nicely with the drop in violent crimes... I guess that gun licensing is just not considered mandaTory, but jail for non-violent offenders is...

or, 3) Nukes are a necessary evil that now exists and cannot be completely eliminated, ever. So from now on we must have some nukes of our own, to counter theirs. So long as there still is an "us" and them".

Good one, I've read that before. I've also read, that in Iran the rights of Jews goes beyond even what many western countries have established in their legal system. The rights of Jews to worship in their synagogues in Iran is protected by LAW. In addition they are entitled by LAW to have at least one representative of the Jewish clerical leadership seated in the government. For this the Jews are allowed to select their own representation, by democratic election. Rue is allowed to search for it on the web, and get educated

Relax, I didn't mean to get your knickers in a bunch. But I won't bother to respond with some links of my own. They would probably be "from Iran" so they are the words of our enemies, and therefore must be all lies. Your propaganda, my propaganda... where does it all end?

I lke most of what you said, except for the mandaTory minimums part. Judges should be given the discretion in sentencing, based on the specific merits of each case. That's the only path to justice, in my view.

Unfortunately for NL the Cod are not recovering well and any serious fishing will only result in another collapse. Man just can't leave nature alone long enough for it to heal, and thenmanage it responsibly for the future. In a sense, the re-opening of this industry is bad for NL... like given heroin to drug addicts who've gone "clean' for a long while.

If these criticisms are levelled at terrorists only, they do not need to include insults to Islam itself. But in answer to the apologists of people like Wichman, I will let Mr. Canada speak for me on the general reaction of the public towards these kind of media messages.

The anorexic heroin-addict look has become "fahionable" these days, thanks to the degenerate liberal arts and media groups. This is to the detriment of impressionable kids, among whom eating disorders is becoming an epidemic, both boys and girls.

A far as NPT goes, and the idea of protecting nukes from being acquired by terrorists, Pakistan is the 800 pound gorilla in the room.

No. I've known for some time that Ahmadinejad does not hate Jews. Jews are tolerated in Iranian society, their rights are protected by law. Whats interesting is how easily we are manipulated by inflammatory media releases.