BigAl

Good lord. This is why I differentiate between politicians and soldiers. Whether or not I agree with the government or the conflict, I have to give the utmost respect for men like you who have to deal with these difficulties in the name of doing your job. For what it's worth, thanks for doing it.

Correct again, Army Guy. We are entirely too willing to blame government (or media or whatever) for the problems with our children, when in fact it is our responsibility as parents and as a community to instill base morality and promote tolerance in our youth.

Good man. JC would be disheartened to say the least if he were to show up tomorrow and take a look around at how perverted his teachings had become. I have more faith in my own morality to lead me to Heaven (if that's where we're headed) than in subverting my own judgment in favour of an organization that promotes hate and bigotry.

It's funny you should mention that Argus. Apparently some people (like the NAACP for example) really get antsy about that sort of thing. Personally I don't understand what all the fuss is about.

Agreed. I foresee a really unpleasant awakening for the American public in a few months when the skies haven't parted and everything isn't unicorns pooping rainbows all over the place. I know it's idealistic to say, but just once I would love to see a political leader actually *do* the things they promise and live up to the hype (without getting, you know, assassinated).

I would point out, Mr. Canada, that deep down inside every religious or spiritual person, there is a little part of them that questions their faith as well. None of us can be certain beyond all doubt of anything in this life, other than the absolute certainty of death. What comes after is very much open to interpretation. but I think religion is less about "what happens when we die" and more about "how do we conduct ourselves while we're alive". Good people are good people, Jesus notwithstanding, in my devout opinion.

However true that sentiment may be (and it is true) you still tread on dangerous ground when you want to open the conversation to "how many people actually died" etc. etc. For better or worse, the lens of Western history takes a very dim view of those who would deign to question not only the validity of the horror but also the empirical details. It seems to be anathema in our culture to want to discuss this issue -- on the other side of that coin, of course, is the firm conviction that we must never forget that it happened. I guess it's set in stone...?

haha. Agreed -- there doesn't seem to be much of a Canadian Dream per se, but I would argue that the American Dream has been perverted from "work hard, do well" to "get rich quick". I don't know...it just seems to me that a lot of people would rather take the easy route and "come into" money, rather than spending their whole lives scraping up from the bottom to the illustrious top, you know?

Oh, clearly. I would be the last person to say that *all* Americans (or Canadians for that matter) don't want to work hard. That's why I used the modifier "most".

This is one of the very few times I'm going to unequivocally agree with you Mr. Canada. When I was in grade school I attended an extremely multicultural school (my kindergarten classroom looked like an episode of Sesame Street) which was really cool for me, because I was introduced to a myriad of different cultural backgrounds. However, the school petitioned (and this was in the mid-80s) to fly a flag and play an anthem based on the home country of the largest population of students at the school. My mom shit a brick and petitioned the school to reverse the decision, and honestly even at that time I agreed with her. I'm all for multiculturalism and diversity -- really I am -- but this is still Canada and our traditions (at least the secular, patriotic ones) really should be recognized. I'd be fully in support of singing a national anthem of any country I lived in -- it's just respectful, you know?

My assumption would be that if extra-terrestrial intelligence was mining the asteroid belt, they probably have the technology to ensure that SETI doesn't see hide or hair of their operation. It's frustrating -- would be nice to imagine some kind of Roddenberry-esque utopian future in which we move out into the solar system as one people, but unfortunately it's more likely we'll just move our Earth-bound conflicts out with us. No doubt -- if the Israelis decided to make the Titan moon the next "promised land" there would probably be a bunch of Arabs on Phobos who'd be pissed about it, and the United States of Neptune would have to step in. Or something.

At the risk of reviving a tired trope, I always found it fascinating that followers of a true-to-form hippie like JC would read into his teachings that you should hate and fear "love". Jesus was all about love your neighbour, love your enemy -- who's to say he is talking strictly of "tolerate them and try not to break their shit"? I like to think that Jesus was the kind of guy who would have been all about loving everybody, however you want to. Jesus cures homosexuality? How about Jesus cures bigotry and ignorance? And yeah Kimmy, I got the joke...I just thought it was a good segue into what I wanted to say

Wowee. Those are some pretty loaded comments dude. What's your definition of "savage" anyway? I'd say anybody who's willing to send people to die for a cause or slaughter children or whatever (on EITHER side of this debate) could fit a pretty broad definition of "savage", wouldn't you?

I would say that's true not so much of religion as a concept, but of fundamentalist mindsets of any stripe -- religious, political, social, you name it. JC once said "let he who is without sin cast the first stone"...it strikes me that a lot of people have a real hard time slinging mud in the direction of their own glass houses. But if you can't laugh at yourself, you can't laugh at anything else either (in my opinion).

Paint with all the colours of the wind. Perfect. I agree with you -- there's nothing "post-racial" about human society, let alone American society. It's an unfortunate reality, but it's a reality nonetheless -- the majority of people are not colour blind and they're not about to become so anytime soon. I don't get this whole "we elected Obama and therefore our sins are forgiven" mentality, nor do I get the "we elected Obama, so everything should become rainbows and kittens by next Thursday latest" mentality. There is a LOT of sh*t left to scrape through...this was only the first step (and even that isn't for sure yet!)

Apparently nobody got the joke. I did, and I laughed heartily.

Always enjoy your posts Army Guy...and thanks for offering to help the soldier in question. I have family who are veterans of several conflicts, and it's just a nightmare to see how some of them come back and what it's done to their perceptions of reality. I had an Uncle who served in Vietnam and came back with some serious PTSD...he scared the hell out of me as a kid when we were watching a fireworks display and he suddenly dove behind a bush and started freaking out. War sucks.

Agreed. There is no fundamental difference between extremists on either side of the political spectrum. Why, right this very moment I was having a conversation with a coworker about preachy vegetarians versus preachy meat-eaters. It's the same sh*t in a different pile, as far as I'm concerned.

Agreed, agreed, agreed. Also -- how about the prevalence of so-called "white collar" crime? Drug sales don't exist in a vacuum; they have to come from somewhere and they pass through an awful lot of hands before they get to those evil black gangs who sell them on the street corners. I'll give you three guesses as to the skin colour of a lot of those hands. Go ahead, I'll wait. (for those playing the home game, the correct answer is "rich white motherf*ckers)

Yep, here in Canada we might not be good at too many things, but we can still throw balls through hoops, ice skate and hit things with sticks at the same time, strike a moving ball with a bit of wood and then run a lot, and (last but not least) KICK YOUR ASS.

Normally I'm not one to support the concept of "tradition" because it's largely hollow (I remember a lot of people in my grade school / high school years who sort of mumbled their way through the song if they bothered with it at all), but this one strikes me as kind of close to home. I think there's still something to be said for honouring our past and taking pride in our nation, and I'm going to have to agree with Alta here -- there are way too many "entitled brats" running around this country who don't know -- or care to know -- anything about how good we have it here, relative to other nations. I think it's well worth it to take two minutes and remember that we're quite lucky to be living in a nation like Canada -- much as it's two minutes less students will be inundated with a lot of stuff they're not going to remember tomorrow anyway, I still think it's worthwhile.

Well of course -- we're talking about a nation in which people believe winning the lottery will provide for their retirement...the whole "rags to riches" thing is a nice idea but it involves work -- and most Americans just don't want to work that hard. Better to happen upon a vein of gold or oil sands or something -- or release a mediocre album that sells ten million copies. It's a sad, sad world.

The idea of pay reflecting how well students do is unfortunately flawed -- already in this province we have a bad track record of passing students through who haven't learned the necessary skills to move on. My mother used to teach at a community college, and although this was in the 70s, she was literally dealing with students who were functionally illiterate. My own experiences in high school and university were similar...there seems to be this notion that everyone can and should attend an academic university, and therefore the trend is to ensure that all students have grades allowing them to do so. It's a larger problem than we are suggesting it is.

Uh oh, I have to agree with Oleg again... But he's right. The moon is a rock, and as far as I'm aware, there isn't much in the way of useful ore to be found there. Also, there have only been limited studies on the subject of humans living in a low- or zero-gravity environment, and based on what I've read of physical tests done on astronauts who spend considerable time in space, it doesn't sound like the best thing in the world for people to live anywhere that lacks gravity, so that calls into question the value of establishing colonies on the moon or elsewhere. To say nothing of the fact that -- once again agreeing with Oleg -- we should really fix our problems planetside before we start trying to take ourselves out into the Final Frontier.

If it flings off into space?? Please read the following: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity