kimmy

Moonlight's daughter? -k

If an equal share of the stimulus money were spent in each riding, Toronto would be so clogged with construction projects that it would be virtually shut down. The projects themselves may be in rural areas, but the benefits are not limited to those areas. The projects use equipment that is obtained from and serviced in larger centers. The workers are not people who live right by the highway, they live in nearby communities and do their shopping in larger centers. Here in BC, a lot of the people working on these highway jobs in remote areas are probably forestry workers who've seen that industry decimated by the economic downturn and mill closures. One could say "well what about Ontario factory workers?" but a ton of money has already been provided to keep southern Ontario manufacturing from going under. -k

I hope Moonlight doesn't let his daughter read Playboy until she's at least 14. -k {I read it for the articles.}

Yes, I'm aware that many Muslims united to denounce terrorism. So I don't see why they couldn't unite against other expressions of extremism as well. I mis-spoke when I referred to the "Canadian Muslim Congress". I meant to refer to the "Canadian Islamic Congress", not the "Muslim Canadian Congress". The "Muslim Canadian Congress" is Tarek Fatah's group; I've mentioned Tarek Fatah in this thread, and previously, as a Muslim who is confronting Muslim extremism. I feel really bad that I wrote "Canadian Muslim Congress" when I meant to refer to the "Canadian Islamic Congress". I confused the similar names, but Tarek Fatah represents what I really respect, and the Canadian Islamic Congress represents the exact opposite. -k

As I've said already, I'm passionate about speaking up for myself and about anything I've got strong feelings or opinions about. Which is why I find it quite perplexing that the leaders of the Muslim faith seem to be so silent about issues like this. Perhaps they just don't have strong feelings or opinions about it, or they don't think it affects them. lame -k

Then your whole argument is based on a false premise. I've never questioned their right to not comment. I just question why they do. -k

This is sheer folly. I've always enjoyed Dick's contributions to the board, and never have I doubted that beneath that massive 'fro is an exceptional mind. -k

People can speak up or not speak up as they choose. On this issue, I would hope that mainstream Muslims speak up, because western secular democracy isn't going to. Absolutely. I selectively speak up. When I speak up, it is because I have selected to do so. I decide to speak out on an issue, based on criteria like: -does this affect me? -do I have strong opinions on the subject? -do I know enough about the subject to contribute something meaningful to the discussion? -are there questions I could ask or ideas I could suggest that might enhance the discussion? I'm pretty sure that you're selective about where you offer your opinion too. I bet I could find at topic on this board that you haven't ventured an opinion on. It might be hard, but I bet there's one or two. Show me somebody who offers their opinion on every single subject without discrimination, and I'll show you a blowhard. And if you're still frosted, after 2 months or whatever it is, that I didn't venture an opinion on Argus's comments about the work habits of Somalis, I'm sorry, I just don't have anything to offer you. Joe Muslim down the street might not, but advocacy groups like the Canadian Muslim Congress certainly seem to. Whining about how mainstream Canadians view Islam isn't the kind of speaking out that the situation requires. I think it might help "Joe Muslim down the street" and the Canadian Muslim Congress to convince Canadians they're different from the kooks if they denounced kookery. If you don't agree, I guess we'll just have to leave it there; there's obviously nothing to be gained from discussing it further. yuh. When I said "speak out, apply moral pressure, issue religious decrees, maybe something else", that's exactly what I was getting at: violent confrontation. cool. I'll be sure to remind you of that "your media cannot report on ongoing trials" thing you just posted every few months. Muslims worldwide are not *obliged* to do anything. They can sit silent and endure this blight on their faith, if that's what they wish. The typical Somali-on-the-street may have no way of standing up to a gun-toting gang of kooks, but what would be wrong with Muslim clerics denouncing the thugs? What would be wrong with Islamic nations denouncing it? If Makmood wants to be seen as a leader for the whole Muslim community, what would be wrong with him showing some leadership on this one? You're not under the impression that I'm a Christian, are you? If you're trying to provoke some sort of reaction where I make some sort of desperate attempt to apologize for Christians and claim "well that's totally different", ...well, it's actually not different at all. In fact it's a good example of what I'm talking about. If Christians stay silent when abortion-providers are murdered in the name of JEEE-zus, their silence will speak for them as well, and what it says is not flattering. If some whacko pro-life fanatic starts sniping at doctors who perform abortions, it is devastatingly bad publicity for the entire pro-life movement. It is a *big problem* for the entire pro-life movement. Such incidents, even as rare as they have been, have been and continue to be used to embarrass the entire pro-life movement, even though most of them are undoubtedly peaceful people who would not commit murder. And pro-life activists, being painfully aware of all of this, do everything they can to distance themselves from those who use violence in the name of the pro-life movement. During the year I spent at college, I noticed that the campus pro-life club was involved in things like rape awareness and raising money for battered womens' shelters, probably in some measure because they believed that abusive relationships and rape are contributors to abortion, but also likely in some measure because they wanted to combat the idea that their views are anti-female. I don't care if you did or didn't. It's pertinent. sure did Well, maybe. What I think you're trying to convey is that you think my prior expression of my right to keep my mouth shut is at odds with my belief that the Muslim world ought to speak out against this. But what I think it's actually about is you're still mad from the last movie and have seized upon this topic as a chance to come at me with a whole bunch more of your "Got'cha ™." -k

Oleg is here primarily to serve as a living example of what a man can achieve once he realizes that education is worthless and that the school of life is where it's at. If you want to live the kind of epic life that Oleg does, forget college (and high-school for that matter) and basically just start impregnating any women you can find who'll have sex with you. That's what I've learned from Oleg. He's quite an inspiration. -k

I asked before and nobody responded... but is this more or less unprecedented? I personally can't recall a mainstream news organization (let alone 2!) taking the step of defending a politician from criticisms made during a comedy segment, but I'm certainly open to the possibility that there are some that I've forgotten or wasn't aware of. This isn't a challenge or anything, it's just a request for information. -k

I saw him on the CBC coverage of the 2006 Olympics as a broadcaster. He looked totally haggard. -k

I think we were talking about the Democratic primaries. -k

Somebody driving a car while wearing a burqa would be a hazard to other people on the road. -k

Gee, it sounds like Obama would have lost if women voted along gender lines as vigorously as blacks voted along racial lines. -k

Former Olympic snowboarding gold medalist Ross Rebagliati is seeking the vacant Liberal nomination in the Okanagan-Coquihalla riding, where Stockwell Day is the current MP. Funny, I'd have thought he'd go Green. -k

Nova Scotians beat seals, and Somalis beat women, so it's practically the same thing. -k

Women did favor Clinton, but not by anything like the landslide that blacks favored Obama. For example: http://www.gallup.com/poll/104104/hillary-...ma-narrows.aspx http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/categ.../nevada/page/2/ http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/02/05/...in3795497.shtml (etc) -k

...so, they had it coming, basically? -k

I thought they were very interesting, Michael. -k

Question posed was "what should we in the west do about this situation?" And my answer remains: nothing. I certainly do speak up when my government does something I disagree with. A wide number of threads on a wide number of topics during my time here are evidence of that. And if the Jihadis are perusing my opinions on this forum and are unhappy with the lack of condemnation of Canada's involvement in Afghanistan, or the lack of condemnation of Canadian troops when civilians have been harmed in Afghanistan, they can draw their own conclusions about how I feel about those subjects. And when moderate Muslims decline the opportunity to speak out against wacko-Islamists, people draw conclusions as well. I have little concern as to whether the Muslim world likes me. I couldn't care less, in fact. However, Muslims living in western countries tell us that they're very concerned about how they're viewed by the rest of us. I comment on the idiocy of fundamentalists (of all religions) all the time. But I can't speak on behalf of Muslims. Mrs Palin?! I'm not talking about Muslims attempting to defend/justify/excuse their faith to the rest of us. I'm talking about Muslims confronting Muslim extremism. In Canada we have Tarek Fatah and Irshad Manji doing that. Why aren't there more? That's like arguing that the Inquisition wasn't a Christian problem because most of the victims were Christians. If some fringe kooks are doing stuff in the name of the faith, it's a problem for the faith. Again, I'm not talking about having some Muslim clerics tell *us* that their religion is peaceful and that this nonsense is not part of Islam. I'm talking about Muslim clearings telling *the thugs* that their religion is peaceful and that this nonsense is not part of Islam. I do think that if religious leaders denounced this activity, it could make a difference. It might not make any difference to the extremists themselves, but everybody else might be less accepting of this behavior if it was made clear that this *isn't* part of Islam. You seem to have such a keen memory for things I say, so you'll remember that the other part of that was that I'm passionate about standing up for myself because nobody else is going to do it for me. Muslims will have to figure out how to deal with this on their own, because the west isn't going back to Somalia any time soon. The west can't even keep Somalis from pirating ships at sea, let alone police the streets of Mogadishu. The Muslim world, if they care about their brothers and sisters in Somalia, can try to do something to help-- speak out, apply moral pressure, issue religious decrees, maybe something else. Or, I guess, they can chose not to. If we in the west were to involve ourselves in every situation that offends our sensibilities, well, in order of priorities, I don' t think that the Somali Bra And Beard Police rank in the top 50. -k

If I'm the average Canadian girl, then the average Canadian girl didn't learn a damned thing about it in school, beyond a brief pablum-like mention ("...many people died due to famine because agricultural productivity dropped as farmers resisted collectivization..." or similar gloss.) If the average Canadian girl learned about the Holodomor the way I did, it means she was wandering around downtown Edmonton one day and chanced upon the little bronze memorial near city hall, and having Ukrainian ancestry on her mother's side, was interested enough to find out more. I dunno, how many cities (other than "The 'chuk") have a little bronze memorial like that? How many people actually stop to read the placard? How many of those people actually feel inclined to learn more? Just about nobody, I would suspect. Most Canadians are lazy about learning anything and expect to have information fed to them with a spoon... you work in advertising, so I'm sure you agree completely. -k

You mean, trying to turn every thread into a rant about socialism? It reminds me of the native activists on this board who are sure that whatever you're discussing, you're actually discussing native rights. It's quite tedious. -k

We have that. It's secret, you can't read anybody else's messages, you don't get replies, and stuff mysteriously gets deleted all the time. You're going to love it! I'm so excited that you are joining the revolution! Soon you will not want to post anywhere else. -k {director kimmy, China Politics Forum Peoples' Freedom Youth Brigade.}

thanks for the link. CNN is not alone in fact checking SNL. Yahoo News also published this article, fact-checking the skit http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20091005/pl_ynews/ynews_pl942 And somebody even fact-checked the fact-check http://www.bookwormroom.com/2009/10/05/yah...act-checks-snl/ and came to the conclusion that "nada" isn't really that unfair after all. Yes, I recall SNL got a lot of *coverage* during the election. Mostly I recall a lot of laurels for Tina Fey. I do recall some discussion of how much the sketches actually influenced peoples' views of the politicians, and lots of grumbling from right-wing folks that the comedy was too one-sided. But I can't recall a news network ever doing a story to claim that a comedy skit was unfair to a politician before. Can you? Valuable kimmy-points to anybody who can cite me another example. -k {maybe CNN is still sore at SNL for the side-splittingly funny "In The Tank For Obama" skit.}

Until such time as somebody produces information to convince me otherwise, I think Morris is full of shit in claiming that most Canadians are well informed about the Holodomor. (likewise, the horrors of Pol Pot, or of Mao.) I think ToadBrother (who is certainly a bright and well informed person, probably much more so than the typical person on the street) probably illustrated the typical level of knowledge when he said of the millions who died under Stalin and Mao: "it wasn't any malice in particular, just arrogance and stupidity." I think that if I go to the grocery store or the mall or the library and ask people at random what they know about the Holocaust and about the other genocides we're discussing, I think the general level of information about the Holocaust will be much higher than about any of the other events. Is one less deserving of being known than the other? -k