Cartman

My apologies Sparhawk, I have not posted here in some time so many people might not have realized I was being sarcastic. I suspect, however, that this sentiment is still held by many.

Maybe Bush should cut taxes. That way people, who know how to spend their money best, will get together and build the appropriate infrastructure on their own.

I feel sorry for the less fortunate in our society who are unable to cope with these increases. But for the rest, meh who cares? Over half of Calgary seems to drive massive vehicles that cost $60,000 + and it is not like there was no warning that this was gonna happen. Enjoy these low prices because it will only get much worse. Drive a fuel efficient vehicle. Personally, I will start whining when it hits > $4.00 litre. I say higher fuel prices will have a good impact on society. People will start to drive smaller cars or demand more convenient public transportation, there will be less pollution, fewer cases of illnesses due to smog, we will actually begin planning higher density cities and create fewer roads. We will also make more $$ through exports. Prices on everything will rise, but we consume and waste too much anyways. Taxes or not, Liberals or not, federal government in existence or not, get used to much higher gas prices because this is only the beginning.

Separation sells but nobody is buying. We might as well be arguing about who will own the oil rights on Mars because Alberta is going nowhere. Most of the people I know are recent Albertans who don't care one bit about the issue. I wonder if Fort McMurray will leave Alberta seeing as it has its own unique cultural identity?

Kinda ironic that those professing free trade are often the ones who violate these ideas. Free trade is the ideal I believe, but it seems impossible to implement. The article by Mirror was interesting. I wonder if there are more trade disputes now or if we just hear about them due to having a free trade agreement. Oh yeah, and because there is an election coming before long. Gee, I wonder if this is the Liberals new patriotic, nationalist appeal election platform? They do it every time.

You are theoretically correct August. A toll is not helpful. But if both cities drew up legislation forbidding tolls and the larger one keeps erecting them at will, does the legislation do any good? Given the existence of tolls, does not the smaller city either have to rewrite the legislation to be more stringent, have it applied by a greater power or recognize that it is meaningless and put their own in place (say on oil)? NAFTA is not the same as free trade and if the US keeps violating its provisions, then we are already in a trade war of sorts.

I am not receiving my daily CBC on-line news. :angry: They are not on strike, they are locked out. A strange trend.

Never thought of this before, but a less than 100% Alberta beef burger is rather disturbing. I don't think I would eat a burger that was say, 60% Albertan, 20% Sask. and 20% miscellaneous/other. Sorry for the drift.

While I agree with you for the most part, there seems to be no shortage of opinions as to how various governments supposedly destroy economies.

I was going to buy a 51" television, but then again, there is always the temptation to throw something through my tv when I see Mercer doing the one tonne challenge commercial. :angry: Why does he irritate me so? Gotta thank Kimmy for that because I never even noticed the commercial until she brought it up some time ago. It does seem pretty pathetic and I doubt there is much return on the money spent for this campaign. It seems like a big waste of money.

I, for one, enjoy Hugo's posts. I also really enjoyed the debates between Sweal and Hugo. They would often get quite heated, but they were some of the best debates on this forum IMO. I learned quite a bit from these exchanges. The reason I started this thread is because Sweal could keep posting for weeks on a topic without relent, but this particular subject set him off. I realize he was getting rather "bold" before his ban, but I suspect that there is more to this story than meets the eye. That is, I would not be surprised if someone close to him had suffered during these horrific events. I just wish he had removed the offensive posts, apologized and got back to productive debating. [Edited to add that since Sweal cannot refute things we are saying, I suppose now would be a good time to end the thread given that Greg sounds firm in his decision]

Watch what you say there Argus, the Liberals have been in power here for some time.

Gary Becker and August do not seem compatible to me for some reason.

With such a blatantly biased Liberal media in Canada, how did Mulroney ever get elected twice?

I agree that immigrants do contribute to Canadian society. I don't think that is the issue. The question is how many should be accepted? How does 50,000 per year sound? I often hear the argument that we need more people for our economy to prosper. But population growth cannot occur forever. What is China gonna do? As they have been effective at reducing their population growth, there is likely to be a serious imbalance. Are they gonna have to seek out immigrants some day?

As well, when the police do intervene, they do so sporadically which is highly unfair. A drinker has no problem consuming alcohol, but a pot-smoker may be dogged all his life by a criminal record. A pot-smoker may encounter few problems in Vancouver, but be in trouble in Calgary.

Hey Black Dog, right-wingers agree with you. The Alberta Alliance thinks that health care "premiums" are a regressive tax as does the Fraser Institute. Only Ralph supporters believe that a health-care premium is different from a tax, a fee, a duty, an excise, a levy, a toll etc. etc. They should remember that there are several layers of government (tax collectors), but only one level of taxpayer. Why we have these health-care premiums (remember not to call them "TAXES" which are bad in this province) when we are supposedly making bank on oil is beyond me. This is called "postmodern accounting". Simply rename a tax and you can collect all you need in the name of reducing taxes!

Some great, constructive ideas from people who generally obey current rules and make the forum work as is. I do not want to force the matter, but I would really like to know if The Terrible Sweal will be given a break here. Sweal appears to be a Liberal to me and I am certainly no Liberal, but I really enjoy his posts even if they are arrogant and bold at times. Cartman

This is an excellent thread, but it requires careful consideration. I will reflect and respond soon.

Argus wrote: Sorry to cross-thread, but I believe this is an important topic and the above a compelling post. I agree with Argus that our immigration policies are flawed. They are so flawed that if one even questions this policy, they run the risk of being labelled racist. But our immigration policies are not entirely based on humanitarian sentiment folks. We generally take only the most skilled immigrants (to help ourselves) and accept a much smaller number of refugees to make us feel good about ourselves. How many immigrants should Canada accept on an annual basis? Can we please ensure all posts on this topic are thoughtful and decent?

I looked at his last 20 or so posts and a couple did include profanity. Sweal has always been an emotional poster. But, unlike others I believe should be banned but are not, he usually engages people in a substantive way. With over 1,700 posts, his ideas are usually and obviously thoughtful and worthy of consideration. There was also a reason for this particular use of profanity and the emotional outburst that I suspect most people can understand touched a sensitive nerve with him. Profanity is not helpful, but what I find more useless even embarrassing are the knee-jerk one-liners that can always be predicted about some people. I also dislike intentionally stupid, trolling topics. I quickly looked at our first page of federal politics topics and here are a few I think lower the intelligence of everyone here. “Conservative Government’s: Horrible?” “Paul Martin - SLIME” “Toronto: The perennial small town” “Paul Martin a Bigot?” “Do Rats Leave A Sinking Ship?” “More Conservative BS Exposed” “Who is the Bigot?” “Out of the closet: Gays and Bigots” None of these titles were generated by Sweal or veteran posters for that matter. Personally, I think the word "bigot" should be stricken from MLW. Insinuating that any person is full of hatred is a serious accusation. So, I hope that Sweal's ban is temporary.

Using this logic, we should clearly keep the Liberals in power considering how long they have formed government.

Did it ever occur to people that governments are simply not corporations? Corporations are expected to generate profits and when they do, they are successful especially considering that they cannot be guaranteed any revenue at all. Profit is not the goal of government. Repeat, profit is not the goal of government. This would be rather easy though, as they are guaranteed revenue unlike corporations. Governments are expected to govern many aspects of society in the best interests of all society. Regardless of whether the government has a surplus or a deficit, the fundamental accounting error is the same. When governments generate deficits this is evidence that they have not predicted revenues and expenditures properly and when governments generate massive surpluses this is evidence that they have not predicted expenditures and revenues properly. Mismanagement all the same. Only a Conservative could consider surpluses as evidence of good management. The government has taken far too much of your hard earned money than is needed for the services you pay for and this is considered success? I got an idea. When governments mismanage and have too much of MY money, give me MY money back. When a company overcharges me, they return MY money. They do not wave it in front of my face and say what a great management job they have done. Gouging is illegal for corporations, but government gouging is evidence for good management? Give your head a shake buddy because stealing is not a virtue or an amazing skill and even the federal Liberals have managed to generate surpluses. All one has to do is continue taxing and reducing services. This is what king Ralph has done here. So, if you want the government to take more of YOUR money than they need to run the government, then go ahead and vote Conservative. While you are at it, go buy a $3.00 candy bar from the "Try and Save" store because I am sure you will find them really well "managed".

Not true, many of us just do not know a whole lot about US politics. I say Gore would have made a good president because he is intelligent, thoughtful about policy alternatives and well, appears to be quite honest. The only thing he really lacks is charisma. He was no Clinton.

As a PC, was Premier Getty that sophisticated with the budget? I recall an election promise to pave every secondary road in the province...even Conservatives thought the idea was silly.