takeanumber

This is a common statement made by anti-slavic people. I give full credit to the Russian people for defeating both fascists. They burned everything, harrassed supply lines, and during the Great Patriotic War, moved whole factories furthur East, and produced an incredible amount. Did winter play a part? Sure it did. But I think it was a very small part compared to the overall picture. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and say that you're not anti-slavic. I'm not even Russian or slavic, and I still took offense. ----------------------------------- Russia is a bear. The Islamists really have awoken that bear. Russia's grumbling now about striking terror wherever it is, well, I didn't like the Bush doctrine. Look where it's gotten us. I don't think it's a good thing. But I think the Russians are going to go all Swordfish. (The movie, if you've seen it, you'll understand the idea). They're a welcomed ally.

Go get a spoon. ------------------------------------------------- The Caliphate is actually what Bin Ladin was referring to in that famous tape of him celebrating 9-11. It's a falacy to say that Islam does not contain a political structure. Islam IS a political structure. It was the very first religion that had contained within it, exactly how a country should be run. That's part of Islam's success in the first years. I strongly sense that many people havn't even had a cursory glance at the Koran. I suppose I can understand why some people on the Left (Black Dog in particular) tries to make blanket assumptions about things they clearly don't know anything about. If you don't understand Islamism, it is impossible for you to understand the Totalitarian overtone. If you don't understand totalitarianism, then you can't fully realize the consequences of sympathizing and rationallizing with them will have. Look, I'm not some ranting neo-con here. I'm a small l liberal. Our ancestors both on the right (isolationists) and left (apologists) really screwed up during the second and cold wars. Why the hell arn't we learning here people? Are the habits of the past really that hard to break? The threat is Islamism. For christ's sake, they gunned children in the back, and you're sitting there in the comfort of your home, sipping your Starbucks latte, and typing "well let's put this into the much larger context of the oppression in trans-caucasia, disposing of the mesosystemic aspects of the horror, and determining some sort of path to excuse the actions of those involved by blaming it all on Putin, and of course the universal enemy, American foreign policy." Just because the real facts don't gel with your ignorance, Black Dog, doesn't make them any less factual. Islamism is a threat, and it wasn't the fault of those kids, or the Russian or American governments, that they got gunned down.

If you don't want to live in Afghanistan, best get onside against Islamism. Because they're bringing it home to Canada. And they won't stop until they win. Neither can we.

It believe that for the treaty to be declared invalid, something like 10 years have to expire. I don't believe that Israel has nukes. THey have capability, but so does Canada. I'd argue under nuclear non-proliferation, 5+2 is enough. (Original big 5, plus India and Pakistan....um, South Africa disarmed, and Brazil and Argentina's programs are on hiatus, and I don't think NoKo is there yet.) Anyway, that's my justification. 7 powers is already too many. The ideal number is zero.

@BlackDog That's right, when you can't argue back with facts, make fun and be sarcastic. I can tell you're out. @theloniusfleabag August is right, Osama Bin Ladin is just a character who ascribes to the set of beliefs that comprise 'islamism'. The Taliban intalled an Islamist regime. If you want a picture of what life would be like if the Islamists win, think Afghanistan under the Taliban. That's who you're defending, Blackdog, when you make excuses for Islamists.

They're already in violation of that treaty. The Americans are letting the Europeans fail in their approach to Iran, just as they failed with Afghanistan. Why shouldn't they get the bomb? Well, I know you're a member of the Left, and as such, you are committed to nuclear non-proliferation as a point. It's gospel. As for my logic? If Iran gets the nuke, it's already in the wrong hands. They want to get rid of Israel. I can't advocate the extermination of another 5 million Jews, in spite of what the Israeli government is doing, they don't deserve to die. Although I'm sure some people in the NDP, Conservatives and even Canadian Islamists (who for some reason are allowed to remain in Canada), would argue that Israel deserves to be wiped off the map. Given the population distribution of Isreal, it would be easy to cause catastrophic damage with just 5 nukes. I can't advocate that. If Iran gets'em, they'll find some excuse to use'em.

@August Yup. @Black Dog I'd hazard to say that your blind support for the terrorist cause is the real issue here. First off, your position that Russia started the Chechen war first, I find, is quite erroneous. I recall a CBC documentary about Chechnya in 1993. It was very obvious that the seperatists were Islamist. I'm not sure about who started what first, but I'm pretty sure Russia was responding to the Chechen seperatists when they saw them armed with RPG's and deliberately challenging the authority of the state. Now, I know how much you dislike Russia in general (by the sounds of it), but even Russia has the right to territorial integrity. If Russia was Canada, they'd have a referendum and a single gunshot would not have fired. Somehow, I don't think the Islamists would have supported a referendum though, a) because they wouldn't like the result, and because they believe that sovereignty rests with God, not the people. The connection between Islamism and Chechnya is quite obvious. You can deny it if you want, just as French Socialists denied the link between anti-semitism and Nazi-ism at first, and then tried to rationalize it...much the same our modern day socialists try to do. (After all Black Dog, I'm sure you could come up with an excuse for the extermination of Israel.) In any case, I can tell that you know nothing of Islam, the Koran, or even the contents therein. You can't understand Islamism because you refuse to learn about it. I know you don't want to admit that we gotta stamp out radical Islamism and truly liberate the moderate muslims, but of course, you're not used to taking responsiblity for anything, so why should that change now? That's just a characteristic of people on the far Left. I wish that perhaps a few more of you would get knocked loose and wake up to real threat, but, I've long since revised my expectations downward. As to the charge that I swallowed propaganda, none of my sources are from the Right Wing. Bergman is a small l liberal, from which most of my arguements derive. PWNED!

The union really is a scam though. Getting paid minimum wage AND, AND, lol, having to pay dues. Classic.

It's still against the spirit, if not the letter, and certainly -- the founder's intent, of the Constitution.

Are you serious? Alright, let's go over the colonialist and imperialist charges. First and foremost, the USA and Britain stopped being both as of the 1960's. If you still believe that the USA and Britain are imperialists, you're a marxist, and I really don't have much to say to you. You're simply wrong. ------------------------------- The charge of self-defense. Classic. The Japanese used similar logic during the rape of nanjing and let's not forget, pearl harbour. Justifying 9-11 by saying that it was self-defense is exactly what French Socialists said to themselves when Hitler tore up the treaty of Versaille, and later took the Sudatenland. Self-defense? Hardly. I suppose the Beirut bombings are self-defense too? I can't put this in any clearer terms. The Islamists want us to convert or die. Does foreign policy factor? Yes. The only reason why it does is because we exist. It's that clear. It's that obvious. You need to make the decision to open up your eyes to the terrible situation and admit that we gotta fight to keep our freedoms.

Right on Baku. @Caesar: You'd whine too if it happeneeed tooooo youuuuuuu.

Alberta doesn't 'gauge' anybody. The high world oil price allows Alberta to access oil that would be otherwise unrecoverable, allowing Alberta to benefit from what's under the ground. If you have a problem with high world oil prices, take it up with Dubya. Don't blame Alberta. It doesn't control the market.

Fewer Albertans would have lost their homes if the oil was there to cushion their blow. Instead, as a result of the NEP, there was no 'made in canada' price, and everybody in Canada who would have lost their homes from the interest rate rise, still would have lost their homes, plus all of those in Alberta. Interest rates and the NEP were a one-two punch that hit Alberta harder than any other province. It was literally devastating. People not only got sqeezed on payments, but lost their incomes, so they didn't even have the CHANCE, even the CHANCE, to respond to the changes. (And surely, many would have survived the interest rate squeeze had they had their jobs!) The NEP was the Rest of Canada ganging up on a single province. And this wasn't about some willy-nilly, trivial 'night of the long knives' constitutional thing that doesn't impact on many people's lives here, this was something that hit every single Albertan personally and really quite hard, nearly instantly. Compared to Quebec, Alberta's ongoing reaction makes Quebec's seem like a hissy fit.

I see...so when I suppose the Nazi's were only attacking French foreign policy then? lol. Get your head out of the sand! Islamists won't stop until we're all converted or all dead. It's that simple. That's all totalitarianism can produce: death and destruction. You're a fool to think that all Islamists want is 'freedom'. They want the opposite. They want the Islamic form of freedom, which IS repression. Do yourself a favour and actually read Bin Laden's statements, some of the statements from British, Iranian and Saudi Mullah's. It might actually open up your eyes the severity of threat to OUR freedom of religion and OUR freedom of democracy.

August has already done a great job in replying to this, so I won't repeat a similar arguement. We can trace the roots of this conflict right back to the mythical roots of Isiah and Abraham, or to what happened at Mecca and Medina back around 700 A.D. The fact remains: the universal enemy to our way of life, our freedom of religion (the freedom to, in our personal sphere, to worship a spoon, or Jesus, or Allah if we want to), and liberal democracy, are totalitarian Islamists. Anything they do to attack us, including gunning our children down in the back, is an afront to all of us, including the Left Wing's right to be wrong about nearly every issue nearly all the time. That right is under attack right now. All I'm saying is that perhaps those on the Left, although your accustomed to having everything fought for you, at least have the common courtesy of being disgusted by the gunning down of children and not to justify the violence. It's a human decency thing.

There's a difference between 'hogging' wealth and 'earning' wealth. Your logic is faulty in that it ignores that.

You wouldn't know how to read an academic citation. Who are you kidding?

To advocate the mass slautering of innocent people to send a political message is, by definition, terrorism. I guess we know what you are, and what your values are.

It'd also like to point out that the Constitution is set up to protect individual provinces from the excesses of central Canada, and from each other. It's how Brown intended it to be. To have two central provinces (Quebec and Ontario) and four Eastern ones gang up on a single one, Alberta, and to rob it of its wealth, is contrary to the spirit of the constitution. The constitution was also intended to protect Quebec from Ontario, and the rest of Canada. I seriously doubt any soft sovereinist here would argue against that point. So, what works for Quebec and Ontario, and every other province, should work for Alberta to. It's not Albertan Exceptionalism, it's Constitutional Parity.

It is agression. It doesn't 'seem' like agression. Using that same analogy, it could be implied that the Jews had it comming, right? I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and believe that's not what you intended. There's literally nothing to understand here. The acts of violence against children is horrific, in spite of attempts to diminish the scale of the terror by trying to rationalize and 'understand the motivation'.

It did. I have academic proof, but I can't post it because it's copywritied and the link is behind a firewall (hefty subscription). Those are the facts.

Thx Kimmy. The Koran is a complete guide to how to run a society. The Bible is a complete guide to how to run your life, and there are bits in there about how to run a society. Moderate and 'secularized' Christians have long since dismissed large parts of the Bible (especially the Old Testament) as being methaphoric. Nobody takes some of those things seriously. Moderate and 'secularized' Muslims have a similar view of their Koran. Many Muslims (Turks come to mind) believe that state and religion should be seperated. Other don't subscribe to the repression of women, the cutting off of limbs as remedies, and the rabid anti-semitism found within the pages of the Koran. I'm not advocating the genocide of 1.2 billion people. I'm not advocating a 'crusade' in the traditional sense where all muslims are labelled as 'infadels'. I believe that most regimes in the middle east are using the extremist interpretation of Islam to keep a lock on power, to justify repression, torture, and in Sudan and Palestine, genocide. The war has to be against totalitarian Islamism. It has to be against these regimes, and it has to be against their terrorist cohorts. (The war between Saudia Arabia and Al Queda can best be understood in terms of the Soviets fighting the Nazi's., one believes that they are holier than the other.) The West needs to provide back up to secularized and moderate muslims. ---------------------------- I remind you that nobody here, on the Left gave a damn about Chechnya last month. Nobody here supported a secularized seperate state for them. You didn't care. It's disgustingly opportunistic of you to rationalize the horror just because you have a bone to pick with Putin. What's the correct answer in my view? It's horrific how in Chechnya, the legitimate desires of the moderate, seculized majority of Chechens were victimized by their extremist Islamist brothers, and the conduct of Russian troops during the war has in fact been horrible. Full Stop. It's horrific how extremist Islamists gunned children in the back, and how, I'm sure, several so-called mullah's approve of this. Full Stop. The two issues are distinct and seperate. There is nothing rational, acceptable, or negotiable with these people. Chechen independance and these Islamists are seperate issues. You, grinding your Putin axe with the blood of Russian children, is the real shame here.

There is quite a bit of racism in Calgary, but that hardly makes it the 51st state. It's a clean city. The urban sprawl is a result of market demand, and the traffic is far, far better than LA, SD or SF. It's not perfect, but better than most. Housing prices are really low still.

Trudeau bankrupted thousands of Calgarians with is policy. Literally. He took away the livelyhoods of thousands of Calgarians. If Trudeau did that to Montreal by targetting Bombardier with a similar program, Quebec really would have seperated and would have called the decision illegitimate. And it would be. Just because a policy takes from the English and gives to the French doesn't make it any more legitimate than taking from the French and giving to the English.

Nope. I don't eat banana's. But my original question is just as sophisticated as this topic was. And Trivial. "Politicians lie" Stop the presses.