Molly

Zzzz-i-i-n-ng!

Yup. And... what Argus said. (Bill, too.)

Bah! "Les separatistes" have always tried to ignore reality. I quit offering credence to that movement 30 years ago when folks questioned a post-separation continuance of the preferential dairy deal of the day, and were offered the argument that the west was reliant on PQ for a market for beef, and therefore PQ could command an ongoing subsidized dairy monopoly in Canada... Stupidest thing I ever heard.

So... if those graphic posters, as part of a student art show or hanging in the bookstore wouldn't pass obscenity laws, then they've got no grounds for complaint. Sounds like they are graphic enough for that to be the case.

No no. That would be 'baying at the moon'.

And I'll note that McGuinty's time was up last election, but Tory tied a huge red ribbon around the province and handed it back. That was the most stunningly huge political brain-cramp I have ever observed- and I've seen a lot of politicians say and do a lot of stupid things. Lifelong Conservatives couldn't vote Conservative with that on the table... and Tory cleraly didn't get it, even when he took it back. Still doesn't.

Ha! I didn't mention that those buses followed one another around, and only took unique routes at the very last second, to go to schools that were more or less within line of sight/ walking distance of one another, and that they were all very nearly empty at all times as they were followed down the road by carloads of kids.... Obscene beaurocracy... Aye I've noted that, too. We arrived in this province at the height of the screaming about Mr. Harris having 'gutted' the school system -- arrived from rural Saskatchewan with a child entering high school. What we saw was an education system that was jaw-droppingly lush, undemanding of either staff or student, an extraordinarily well-padded, habitually wasteful baby-sitting service...

Honestly, Nicky... when? Certainly access to information legislation has been necessary simply because no administration likes to have folks sniffing through the laundry basket, and many politicians have found compliance deadly uncomfortable (and dragged their feet as hard as the law would allow)... but when did the Liberals approach this kind of obsessive (mendacious) drive to suppress information? This is one for which I don't believe the Tory whine that 'The Liberals did it first.' That's a disgracefully poor excuse even when it's true... but on this issue, I don't think it is.

There's signifigant savings to be found just in busing alone. For a good long time our short, dead-end road with 20-ish houses (many occupied by retired/childless) saw 7 buses every morning and every night. That's just dumb.

Maybe not so much. It's certainly political suicide to support taxpayer funding for religious schools. Every time Catholic schools are used as the sample of why other religions should have the privelege of access to the public purse, it reminds folks that Catholic schools are religious schools and not just a public alternative.... Their days are numbered.

Yes. We are all familiar with how effective 'muscular six foot 3, two hundred and thirty pound males' are at dealing with distraught polish-speaking airline passengers who are making a fuss (among so many other situations that could be brought up here with the same degree of sarcasm). Scribletts quote from the NP: For too long, many good potential recruits have not even bothered to apply for RCMP positions, knowing that since they were not one of the favoured groups being sought by the sensitivity guidelines of the moment, their chances of being accepted were slim to nil. is a double-edged sword. Those 'good potential recruits' is intended to indicate white males, but part of the reason that minorities are hard to recruit now is because that profession was so hostile to anyone but white males for so long that anyone worth their salt would have to question whether the heirarchy is actually over it and prepared to deal with them fairly even yet.

http://www3.thestar.com/static/googlemaps/starmaps.html?xml=080919_gunowners.xml I found this set of maps interesting-- starting with the revelation that ALL of the numbers are under 5%. I don't think I've ever lived in a community in which gun ownership would be under 5%... and yes, I have lived in cities. What a strange beast this Onterrible is!

Well yeah... but this is hardly 'new'.

Not likely. The Conservatives have been consistent- hate it and voted that way. No doubts about it, and no bait and switch. The Liberals have likewise been consistent- a policy of that party, and they voted to preserve it. The NDP, though, especially a few MPs (like Stoffer) talked one story for years, and then did a last minute about-face. The vote that was supposed to be conscience appears to have been whipped; the 'improve it' song and dance is obvious rhetorical horse-pucks--- Seriously, if anyone pays, it'll be the NDP. And anyone who could have voted Conservative on the basis of this single issue, but already chose not to one or more times, isn't going to swing from hard left to hard right over it now.

Yes, it does. It will be very interesting to see what it does to some of those NDP MP's come next election. It seems to me that some of them could pay an ugly price. Conservatives are already licking their chops, anticipating recieving the votes of the disenchanted, but I don't think the equation is quite that simple. The NDP will lose some votes over it, but I can't see them moving very far.

Which incident? Mayerthorpe? Roszko had a history of violent and sexual offenses, was under investigation for a collection of drug and property crimes, and was legally prohibitted from owning a firearm of any kind. No, not exactly your run-of-the-mill, normal law-abiding citizen. Definitely not your average duck hunter. The fact is that owning/possessing a gun does not cause criminal violence, and only barely adds to enabling it. (Any number of other things can be used to create such mayhem/ lack of ownership and/ or failure to write down registration numbers do not preclude possession.)

Perhaps that possibility should be addressed by folks who might actually need/want/use a handgun. Actually... has anyone actually said that a handgun registry is effective? Really, what is it intended to do?

What? How utterly, utterly specious! What bizarre, paranoid claptrap! By that logic, a ball player is only a law-abiding sportsman until he bludgeons someone with a 32 oz. bat; a mechanic is only law abiding until he goes berserk and staples his neighbor to the fence, using a complete set of screw-drivers as stabbing instruments! The kindly old lady down the street is only a sweetie-pie until she begins lacing those chocolate chip cookies with rat poison. Emotional human beings that they are, they could turn into vicious killers at the drop of a hat! Be afraid. Be very afraid.

I find this suspiciously convenient, since the RCMP chose not to keep the same information as provided by FAC's. I don't believe the information, as urban civilians imagine it, has any value whatsoever, but the freedom to 'inspect' would be the handy-dandiest little loophole since delete buttons were invented. Team that up with a whole collection of undefendable, throwaway offenses with which to threaten folks, and I'll just bet they find it 'useful'.

During the last decade they have gradually lost what we, with a cosy little Swedish word, call "problemformuleringsprivilegiet". Unwrap that from the end; the privilege of formulating the problem (see how easy Swedish is!). What this means is to have the power of the grand narrative: to describe the society and its problems in a way that fits into a certain political agenda. Because as we all know, politics is not about solving problems per se but about finding problems for which one's party has the solutions. I'm not going to identify the source for this one. (It's not an authouritative voice. Just easier to quote it than to reformulate.) The two idea, though: government controlling the grand narrative; and of available solutions defining the problems... both interesting notions.

Yes. (Good grief.)

In a way, that's a thing folks should say more often, Greenthumb. No one mentions it, and when they do, they usually face ridicule. That is exactly why so very many guns went underground, and why so many of them have stayed underground, in spite of amnesties. When people know so little about guns/gun laws, yet are so clearly hostile to them, they are not bound by fact nor influenced by reason, so across-the-board confiscation is the obvious endpoint. No amount of yielding or compliance could ever be 'enough'.

It's hard to object to it when you've marched out, unbidden, to prove beyond all doubt that the fit of that shoe trenscends perfection...

Moved to Calgary from where, Wyly? Obviously not from ranch country, where horses can and do go where ATVs fail to tread. You'd know all about folks who use horses for work too, wouldn't you, Radsickle--- living as you do a couple of thousand miles from where saddles have horns. Far be it from me to defend a Tory, but the brand of this criticism is juvenile and much, much more false than the image Bezan is presenting.