takeanumber

Calgary Herald, Thursday September 2, 2004, pages A1 and A6.

When Mulroney is in power, and the economy tanks, it's the fault of the global economy. When Harris is in power, and the economy booms, it's not the global economy, it's the tax cuts. There's also a massive fault in your logic. (this is why conservatives who know squat about economics really should keep their mouths shut) When you cut government spending, you're in fact hurting the growth. When you cut deficit spending, you're in fact slowing the growth of the economy in the SHORT term. When you cut taxes, depending on how large the multiplyer is, you're improving growth in the economy. These are fundamental macroeconomic laws. If you don't buy them, you need to go have a chat with the pacos at the DoF, cos this is what they use. Now: if you're cutting the deficit, while cutting spending, but reducing taxes not as much as you are spending, then pure economic logic suggests that the economy is in fact slowing in the short term. In other words: Harris had nothing to do with the 1995 bounceback. Moreover, he had nothign to do with the 1998 recovery after the Baht crisis. However, I'll tell you what he was responsible for: He was responsible for weakening CRITICAL institutions that could not cope with the crisis', or even ROUTINE problems that they were supposed to handle. Walkerton. SARS. And you havn't even seen the long term consequences in other areas yet. Enjoy your tax cuts. They were financed by the deaths they caused.

If you don't like concentration of media, go out and create your own goddamned newspaper. If you're really that angry with it, subscribe to such an alternative. Don't just scream and bicker. Give the bastards in the 'Peg and Toronto a run for their god damned money. Based on what I've read on these boards, you clearly have enough to say. It could be 80% 'opinion' and 20% local news.

I've been saying all along there's a problem with the public-party-leader interface, but nobody seems to agree with me. I wouldn't equate pie chucking with the Left. I think Leftists are just like Rightists: there are good people and bad people at either end of the scale. Just because we're glad it was a pie and not bullet doesn't make the pie any more 'right'. Just because a politician hurls abuse at his public (or minorities) doesn't give somebody carte blanche to take him out if there are democratic means available. Anyway: 30 days was too little. I think maybe 90 served on the weekends, and 1000 hours of community service would be about right. But meh, it's subjective. I wouldn't want to ruin his life over it, but I certainly wouldn't want people copying his acts.

It's simple really. If you live in Calgary: Don't eat beef for the next 2-4 weeks. Just don't do it. Penalize the whole industry. Continue to penalize the bastards until they stop feeding animals to other animals, and start demanding that every single damned cow is tested. Punish them all, from the farmer to the middleman, from the slaughterhouse to the packer to the retailer. It's the only way to do it.

I actually think it's pretty sick that Americans allow Dynasties. It's like Indonesia down there.

I don't truly believe that the polls matter all that much nationally. I don't trust them anymore than I trusted the Canadian seat counts. Looking at the electoral math, I think Kerry is actually leading, since most undecideds vote for the challenger. But shhh. It's best if the Republicans stay cocky and believe they have a lead. Anyway, I don't think Bush served honourably, nor has he led a very good life. He drank and drove, snorted cocaine, and drove every single company given to him straight into the ground. He's had everything handed to him on a silver platter, and it's wrong for him to claim that he worked for everything he got. That's a falsehood. If you want to compare Kerry and Bush on character alone, Kerry is the better man.

A death is NOT a death is NOT a death. They're not all equal. That's just my opinion though. There's no political proof I can show or offer, so I'll leave at that. Geneva should be respected by all.

When the Liberals are in power, and there's a global recession, it's the Liberal's fault. When the Cons are in power, and there's a global recession, it's the global economies fault. Typical double standards. Anyway. Harris cut taxes before he got the deficit under control. That was stupid, and undisciplined.

One sign of fanaticism is the denial of reality. I think he's getting there, if he isn't already.

I'll agree with Sweal on the last post. They're different cases. 1000 dead though. The hardest part of environment economics is calculating the value of a human life. Let's be conservative and say that each soldier would have produced AND consumed one million dollars over the rest of their life, had they been able to live it. 1 000 000 000. That's 1 Billion dollars. That pales in comparison to the 200 billion spent, or the 13 billion wasted on Haliburton, but you know...it's a lot of money. It's a lot of life. And 700 of them didn't need to die if Bush had planned things better. But no. He didn't. There was no plan. And that's the reason why Bush should go. ------------------------ Why isn't the media focusing on Haliburton more? Moreover, why arn't the Republican Humpers on these boards concerned about Haliburton?

I think that many Libertarian Republicans (Ie. True small 'l' liberals) can't stomach Bush. The 'Patriot' Act is simply an atrocious piece of legislation. Mind you, we have worse in Canada, it's just that most people don't know that. I won't attack his wife, his parents or his daughters. I'll attack what they said in public. To imply that W is a victim is just disgusting. To come out and say that W is a victim is just plain sick.

It's not quite to that point. Hopefully the middle class wakes up. I think Dobbesian Economics is doing that. One thing is for certain: Bush will go down as one of the most reviled villains in world history.

Meh. Forget it.

It's pretty sick, and it illustrates the lengths that Islamists (*note the language pls) will go to get their way. Such actions are never justified. They don't even PRETEND to respect the Geneva Convention. It's sick.

While I reject the 'give an inch, take a mile' logic in the previous post, I'll just add that by definition, it's still assault, it's still a violent act, and in domestic politics, we don't engage in violence to prove a political point.

I don't care much for Kerry, and in the initial post, I correctly pointed out that justifying Bush's doubletalk by pointing to Kerry is invalid. Dan Rather aside, Bush did not serve honourably. Moreover, it wasn't a very honourable way to serve. I never did vouch for the Rather papers, but just the fact that pappy pulled strings for him, etc, it's pretty evident. ----------------- Agreed. It's VERY scary that he actually believes what he's saying.

See, the Ontario conservatives got it all wrong. First you get out of the hole, and then you cut taxes as a reward. Cutting taxes and spending at the same time is just plain irresponsible. And people died as a result. Enjoy your tax cut. That money most certainly does smell.

What's your reaction? Personally, I think it's horrific and terrible. The CIA needs to find these guys.

This is a rare instance where I agree with BD. So savour it. If kids are going to screw, and they usually do anyway, then three words: Condoms.Condoms.Condoms Have the baby talk with the kids as soon as they hit puberty. Of course, what passes these days for 'parenting' isn't that good. LoL. Many parents don't even teach their kids about consequences, little though how to think. It's no surprise then why so many screw around without 'protection'. Aw well. There should be an optional course available to all parents free of charge, and follow up courses for the parents a week before elementary/preschool and before they turn 12. Make it totally optional. Invite a number of teachers from the different schools of thought, or better yet, if there's demand, have the churches do it and offer a secular public alternative. But, yet again, public education is just one of those things that don't really seem to work...so what to do about it.

See Cooper and Miljan for an excellent quantitative analysis of media bias in Canada. It's called "Hidden Agendas" by Barry Cooper and Lydia Miljan. Their findings are too many to enumerate here. PM me if you decide to pick up the book and read it.

I think it's outrageous that our politicians...nay, ANYBODY in Canada needs security guards. I don't think anybody here would disagree with MS: the leader-party-public interface is severely broken in this country. However, let's talk about tactics here. One of the first things I learned as a kid was that the act of hitting somebody was wrong. It's assault. Hitting somebody, whether it is with forty featers or just one, is assault, because it is by definition, assault. Mind you, I havn't seen anybody assault somebody else with a pillow, but yet again, five years ago I hadn't heard of anybody getting assaulted with a pie. I don't think the cause of resolving the interface problems can be solved through violence, little though stunts like that. Wanna bring Klein down a peg? Empower yourself to start a moderate, centrist party that appeals to the soft red tory and baby blue tory vote. Stunts like that only serve to alienate most of the electorate.

I just can't believe that there exists people who actually buy some of the stuff he says.....it's incredibly contradictory.

The protester attacked Chretien. Chretien throttled him, and most Canadians applauded. The reason: the protestor started it. Pluralism fails when the system becomes unresponsive. 35%-40% of the votes in Calgary go wasted every single election. Their opinion counts for nothing. Forget Western Alienation...you should hear this minority. Who are they? The people who persistently vote for Liberals, NDP and Greens. Under this system, is violence acceptable? No. Throwing a pie into somebody's face is assault and public humiliation. It is a violent act. If you want to protest, go for it. If you want to lobby to get the system ganged, go for it. But what seperates us from the third world is our refutation of violence in politics (on the home front).

The contamination of the well was an accident. The institutional supervision by the DoE that was hacked away by the Harris government allowed a simple case of contamination to result in the deaths of many people. Institutions are there for a reason. When people who don't understand institutional capacity hack away without considering the consequences, people die. Ditto SARS. When you weaken institutions -- and exogenous factors occur that that instiution is supposed to respond to, then the cutter bears quite a bit of responsiblity for the outcome. What is it with Conservative-Supporters and accountability? Fess up what the policies you support cause.