kimmy

I think my highschool might have had a Jesus club where students could go pray together in their spare time. I believe there was also a Dungeons And Dragons club and an Anime club. I don't see a problem, in principle, with students meeting together on school property at lunch hour or before class or after class to participate in shared interests, be that religious or non-religious. However, I do think the possibility of radicalized mooks using the opportunity to preach to their peers is a reasonable concern. I think supervision is probably for the best. -k

You know it went bad when even Breitpravda couldn't find anything good to say about it . They called it "woeful" and "Trump's first major national embarrassment" and feel that if they left-wing wanted to damage Trump, they "should have gone wall to wall" with it. It's pretty remarkable that Supreme Advisor Bannon's own press organ couldn't even find anything positive to say about the Tillerson hearing. This is also noteworthy in that it's only the second criticism of Trump I've ever read from Breitbart (the first being the selection of Rince Priebus instead of Steve Bannon for Chief of Staff.) -k

The people have spoken-- they don't want "elites" deciding what's news! Journalistic standards, ethics, objectivity, all that is finished. The people have spoken and they want short, nuance-free coverage that supports their preconceptions and demonizes people they disagree with. Breitbart became a huge success using that model, and imitators were bound to appear. Trump was ok with "fake news" when Hillary was the subject of it. But now that he's on the receiving end, he's fighting mad. At the press conference, Breitpravda reporter Matt Boyle asked: “[With] all the problems that we’ve seen throughout the media over the course of the election, what reforms do you recommend for this industry here?” One wonders if the thin-skinned President will take action. It's a fine line to walk... how can he suppress legitimate coverage of his administration while still allowing Breitpravda to spew propaganda and Alex Jones to spew crazy-talk? -k

I assume that as of today conservatives are now big fans of Hanoi Jane. -k

It sounds like Tillerson's confirmation hearing is not going well. Rubio lit him up, and with fellow Republicans Rand Paul, John McCain, and Lindsey Graham being openly skeptical about Tillerson, this one might not be a shoe-in. -k

Are you for real? We live in a society where millions of people believe that pedophiles have a secret network of tunnels under a DC pizza shop, because teenagers on a website made it a trending topic on Twitter. Burden of proof? Ain't nobody got time for dat! So as it stands, this is apparently from the dossier distributed by the intelligence community, and major outlets didn't publish the details but Buzzfeed did. Leaving aside the lurid unconfirmed details for the moment, we do know that there's been a lot of communication between Trump's team and Russia, that there was even a private server for that purpose. The FBI had sought warrants from the FISA (the federal court that issues warrants for surveillance by federal agencies) to investigate several members of the Trump team. -k

I personally agree, and wouldn't have my child circumcised. If I had a child. Which I don't. -k

America under President Trump: -an Attorney General who hates civil rights -an Education Secretary who hates public schools -a Treasury Secretary from Goldman Sachs who hates finance regulations -an Environment Secretary who hates environmental protection -a Health and Human Services Secretary who hates Medicare -a Housing and Urban Development Secretary who thinks the Great Pyramids are giant granaries -a Secretary of State who is an oilman with vested interest in Russian and Middle East oil -a Labor Secretary who hates workers ... yep. -k

Wow! That's pretty crazy. Nonetheless, from my limited sampling I'm of the belief that circumcised men don't seem to have any trouble enjoying sex. It's admittedly a pretty small sample size, but from my observations, things seemed to work quite well. I suspect that a reason male circumcision is tolerated in North America is that there are a lot of circumcised men who are pretty happy with how things work. -k

In Canada we make reasonable accommodation for everyone's religious beliefs. -k

Tinfoil hats will protect you from your mind being controlled. -k

No. Your right to religious freedom allows you to worship how you choose. Your right to religious freedom does not allow you to impose laws that would force other people to worship how you think they should worship. Example: a hyper Christian gets elected... he can pray to Jesus before he starts work, but he can't impose a law that says everybody has to pray to Jesus before they start work. Imagine if you're a Muslim and some politician says your children have to pray to Jesus at the start of every school day. That would be grossly unfair. Imagine a Jewish politician gets elected and decides that everybody has to eat only food that complies with Jewish food laws. He can avoid bacon himself, but if he tried to prohibit everybody in Canada from having bacon there would be armed revolt. Imagine a Muslim politician gets elected and decides that nobody gets to have beer anymore. He can avoid beer himself, but if he tried to prohibit everybody in Canada from having beer there would be armed revolt. You can live by your own beliefs, but you don't get to impose your beliefs on others. Everybody has the right to live by their own beliefs, even if their beliefs are different from yours. That's why politicians here don't get to "make state laws suitable to their religious beliefs." -k

You basically made the point the professor was making: if people are going to say that interracial dating is "white genocide", then he can wish for "white genocide" if he wants... maybe he just wants to snuggle up with a cinnamon girl when he gets home, like in the song. Complete agreement re: South Africa... but people get to date who they wish. -k

I get the point you're making... thanks for not responding by linking me a clip from a children's show, at least. -k

One of my all-time favorite knocking-stuff-over songs: Du Hast, by Rammstein. A native German-speaker once explained to me that "Du Hast" is a double-entendre in German, because "Du Hast Mich" (You have me) sounds the same as "Du Hasst Mich" (You hate me.) I don't actually care what the lyrics mean, I just like the crushing guitars. Also by Rammstein: "We're All Living In Amerika! Amerika, ist wunderbar!" -k

Secularism is more like political agnosticism. We have many religious groups in our country, which is why no religious group is allowed to impose overtly religious rules upon others. No politician is prohibited from participating in their own religious beliefs. They are prohibited from using law to impose religious beliefs upon others. This is done to protect religious minorities from being compelled to violate their beliefs. -k

maaaan.... how old are you guys?! -k

There seems to be a fantasy among Canadian conservatives that Trump is going to "teach Trudeau a lesson". We saw much the same when Obama became POTUS... Canadian left-wingers eagerly anticipating that Obama would punish Harper for being conservative or for being friends with G.W. Bush. Didn't happen. Of course, since Trump himself says he has the temperament of a first-grader, there's no guarantees. Since Trump has already backed away from most of the things he said in his campaign, from #LockHerUp to #DrainTheSwamp to "tough on Wall Street" to "it's gonna be a big, beautiful wall, and Mexico is going to pay for it", it's clear that Trudeau was right. -k

Regarding population growth, to me it seems like the immediate issue facing Canada is not a shortage of land or resources, but the shortage of land in the places where people need to be. We have vast amounts of land, we could have hundreds of millions more people living here. But everybody who comes here (and most of the people who are already here) need to go to the same handful of overcrowded urban areas where housing costs are through the roof. In places where living is affordable there are few jobs, and in places where there are many jobs the cost of living is extremely high. During my recent visit to Vancouver I looked into the finances of relocating there... a contact mentioned a position that on paper would have been a raise for me, but after I factored in cost of living, it would actually be a significant pay cut. Kim City faces challenges as well, particularly a shortage of people to fill menial jobs. Living here is beyond the reach of anybody making minimum wage or anything close to it. These companies need to raise wages to compete for workers... but their business model doesn't work if the workers get more than minimum wage. Also during my trip to Vancouver I noticed as I drove toward the city, a continuous string of red tail-lights staring back at me pretty much all the way from Abbotsford to Vancouver. A continuous string of cars over 60km long. People who want to work in Vancouver are spending 2 hours a day driving back and forth so that they can afford a place to live. Hypothetically, suppose some skilled professional contributes $200,000 a year of productivity to his employer's business. One day he decides he can't deal with spending 2 hours a day commuting anymore. He runs some numbers and concludes that he could buy a home in Maidstone Saskatchewan and work from designing web applications. On paper, it would be a huge pay-cut, but the cost of living in Maidstone would be so much lower and not having to spend 2 hours a day commuting, and having a home and a yard for his family, and not having to pay daycare costs, and so on... he concludes that it makes sense. The value of his new web applications is only $40,000 a year, but for him personally it makes financial sense. For his employer, it's not so good... they lose $200,000 a year of productivity until they find a highly skilled replacement. They might lose business or miss deadlines, or delay other projects. For the overall economy, the guy's career decision results in a less optimal use of his skills-- he's doing much less valuable work now-- the economy as a whole loses $160,000 a year of productivity because this individual's circumstances made the less-optimal use of his skills more sensible than the more optimal use of his skills. The growing inability of people to live where they are most needed is a factor that will restrict economic growth from reaching its potential. -k

I have seen a couple of clips from Letterkenny, and it looks hilarious. -k

Whether or not Trump likes Trudeau, approving the Keystone XL pipeline was one of his campaign promises, so we're on the radar in that respect. As for the rest, whatever. Trump promised protectionism during his campaign, and in the unlikely event that he does what he says, I don't see that being Trudeau's fault. Trudeau has been pursuing trade with Europe and Asia, and if Trump puts tariffs on Canadian goods, we'll hopefully have other places to sell our stuff. As for Kellyanne cancelling her Calgary trip... no loss to anybody except for the conservative political action group that was counting on her speaking at their fundraiser. She didn't punish Canadians, or Albertans, or Justin Trudeau, or Rachel Notley by cancelling the trip. She punished the Alberta Prosperity Fund, a group dedicated to defeating Rachel Notley. -k

In the early 2000's, a Japanese animation company created an anime series called "Ghosts in the School," about a group of brave students who investigate (wait for it) ghosts in their school. It was based on a popular book series, but the show was terrible in almost every respect and completely bombed in Japan. A few years later, its creators were desperate for money and sold the program to an American company that specialized in dubbing Japanese animation videos with English voices for US audiences. The new owners decided that the show was beyond saving, in its original format. They decided to trash the scripts and redo the whole thing as a comedy. The character names and general story remain the same, but all the dialogue has been replaced with politically incorrect humor, offensive stereotypes, ad-libs, and 4th-wall-breaking dialogue pointing out how stupid the show is. The new version, now called "Ghost Stories", has to be seen to be believed. Warning, this video is offensive to almost everyone, and should not be viewed by anyone. Part 2 Part 3 -k

Prolific reproduction among less advanced societies around the world is hardly a new thing. For as long as I can remember, people have been sounding the alarm over explosive population growth in parts of Africa and Asia... long before anybody was worried about "invading Muslim hordes" and so on. Attempting to spin rapid population growth a Muslim problem seems dishonest. -k

Of course he's gonna say that. What else is he going to say? Nothing in his campaign or his platform or the things he's said since the election or the people he's picked for cabinet posts indicate he has any intention of "building consensus" or "bringing people together". -k

The last time America was truly united was in the aftermath of 9/11. Bush had unlimited goodwill at that point, and squandered it within a couple of years. -k