kimmy

I thought that most polls showed Layton's personal popularity exceeds his party's support. Has that changed? Again, I don't dispute that the NDP support is not very good, I'm just puzzled at the assertion that it'll be any worse than usual in the near future. Wow! What an original idea! What color will it be? ouch! -k

Fight Club pwns Dr Vitz. I'm with T-bag in the agnostic camp in that I couldn't firmly say that there's no god... but I also agree with BD that there's no compelling reason to believe in a god, either. Perhaps the argument would be similar to the hypothetical question, "what if all of this is just the elaborate fantasy in the mind of a butterfly on a planet on the other side of the universe?" (I'm sure I've heard that question posed somewhere, but I don't know where or in what context. Can someone enlighten me?) There might not be any conclusive way to prove this *isn't* the dream of some hypothetical space butterfly, but there's no rational reason to believe that it is, either. From an agnostic point of view, "god" could include God, Wotan, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, the hypothetical space-butterfly, and pretty much any other unknowable, unprovable belief in the origins of ourselves or our world. And btw, I disagree that people don't believe in god because they had lousy fathers. My dad's an awesome dad. -k

Since there doesn't seem to be any legal significance to this recognition of Quebec's distinctiveness, I would say no, there's not going to be constitutional trouble from this. There's nothing here that would require any constitutional talks. And since there are no powers or privileges arising from the motion to recognize Quebec as a nation within Canada, I can't see why other provinces would bother making a fuss. It's like a kid walking past a school for "special kids" and saying "Mommy! Mommy! I want to be special too!" Aside from getting to wear a hockey-helmet when you play on the swings, being "special" isn't actually all that great. -k

Is there a disaster looming for the NDP? I mean, arguably their entire recent history could be considered various shades of disaster, but I'm unaware of any apocalyptic event on the horizon that'll cause them to do significantly worse than usual. It seems as though somewhere around 5% of the popular support, according to polls, shifted from the NDP to the Liberals in the wake of Dion's victory. It seems to me that in recent elections, we've also seen 5% of popular support shift fron the NDP to the Liberals when it comes time to cast ballots. It might just be that there are about 5% of voters who ideologically might prefer the NDP, but vote Liberal as a matter of pragmatism. I suppose that more NDP voters might go Liberal this time, as Dion probably has more lefty appeal than Martin or Chretien did, but generally speaking I'm not sure it'll be a huge number, and I don't expect it's a looming disaster. There seems to be a core of "die-hard" NDP support. -k

I'm not sure how much of a difference this makes, but the Saint John Sea Dogs are a team in the Quebec Major-Junior league. I don't believe that players on major-junior teams are actually "employees". -k

Somewhat true. When people with no education or experience can earn lots of money at construction sites and oil rigs, the service industry has had to raise wages to attract workers. It's not much of an exaggeration to say that every restaurant in Edmonton has a "Now hiring!" sign out front. Same with retail. The kinds of places that used to expect lots of young people to come looking for their first jobs have been having a hard time. A number of places are offering benefits for the kind of positions that never used to come with benefits. Some places even offer incentives (like, earn a $1000 bonus if you work 1000 hours there.) unfortunately, yes. Rents have gone up, and housing is scarce right now. A couple of months ago, while out walking, I stumbled upon a little campsite, hidden in the shrubs alongside a busy intersection. And this wasn't like downtown or river valley or the usual places you might expect to find homeless people, this was on Edmonton's southside, close by expensive homes and near to a large retail and industrial area. With your qualifications, you should be able to make a lot of money in either of those fields, I would think. I don't know what Geographical Information Systems is, but it sounds like something oil companies would pay lots of money for. And I believe Class 1 drivers are in high demand right now. I expect you'd be able to find a job that pays good money, but be aware that there's a bit of a housing crunch right now and that it's not easy to find or cheap to afford. -k

This strikes me as another example of the mentality August speaks of: medieval peasants... with cell-phones. Death to the infidel medicss! By Allah, somebody has to be held responsible for this, because it's unthinkable that their own lack of knowledge of modern blood-screening protocols could be at fault. And despite repeated testimony that the epidemic began before the convicted medical staff even arrived in Libya, they're the handiest scapegoats. The Bulgarians in particular, because their government might be willing to cough up a bunch of money. This somewhat reminds me of the popular African conspiracy theory that HIV was invented in Western laboratories to wipe out Africans. In this instance, they even caught 5 Westerners administering the virus first-hand. Peasants with cell-phones. All in all, another example of why Kimmy will never set foot in the middle east, no matter how much money they're willing to pay westerners to come work there. -k

I have been fairly pleased at how well this minority government has performed. I don't think it has been gridlock, and between using "the levers of power" to enact policy, and getting cooperation in the House to get key votes passed, I think the Conservatives have done quite well in their first 10 months in power. I always scoff when I hear talk of how Canadians "choosing" a minority government. Last time I voted, there were a bunch of names on the ballot, and I got to choose one name. I didn't see an option for "minority parliament" anywhere on the ballot. I didn't get to consult with people in neighboring ridings to say "ok, we'll elect a Liberal if you guys elect a Tory and those guys elect a Dipper." No such arrangements took place, and the fact that things worked out as they did was a result of regionalized party support, not an en masse preference for a minority government. -k

I think the point was not so much "we could use some genocide to thin these guys out a little", but more along the lines that Europe's collective guilt over the Nazi holocaust has caused Europe to embrace multiculturalism to an absurd degree. Indeed. Muslims have brought us stupidity, ignorance, intolerance... and shawarma. I jest. However, I don't think the point is as outrageous as is being made out. Like, as much as we like to spout platitudes like "diversity makes us stronger!" ...in the case of our Muslim community, I'm having a hard time seeing how. In Canada, we've seen first-hand examples of stupidity, intolerance, and ignorance from the mouths of Mohammed Al-Masry of the Canadian Islamic Congress, or Sheikh Younus Kathrada of the Dar al Madinah mosque in Vancouver, or the Khadr family. We've seen stupidity, ignorance, and intolerance in action in the form of that dumbass who got his ass shot up in Chechnya, or that tool from Montreal who tried to smuggle a bomb into Seattle, or the alleged terror plot in Toronto. Maybe it's just a few bad apples. (Europe, of which the author was speaking, has had more than a few bad apples, they've had a considerable number of bad apples in recent years. Race riots, rape-gangs, and home-grown terrorists seem to be the result of Europe's Muslim experience.) What's positive that the Muslim immigrant community has brought to Canada? I mean, I know that "stupidity, ignorance, and intolerance" isn't a fair description of the Muslim community as a whole (although it certainly descrivbes an element within that community) but at the same time I'm not sure of anything Muslims have contributed to Canada that shows how "multiculturalism makes us all richer" either. -k

Can you imagine that job? They'd have files on coming out their ears! PolyNewbie is totally going to get a body cavity search next time he goes to the airport. -k

What? How do "we" make money under Kyoto? Under Kyoto, rich and productive nations (ie, us) will be sending billions of dollars to poor and unproductive nations, in exchange for ... nothing. From a sheer dollars and cents perspective, nothing could be better for Canada than staying the hell out of this "emissions trading industry". An "industry" produces something. This "emissions trading industry" won't produce anything, it will be (rather literally) just pushing hot air around. The notion that Canadian business could make a profit at this is ... rather disturbing, and frankly I somewhat agree with Leafless (which is a first) that if some Canadian businesses make big profits in an "industry" whose primary purpose is sending money *out* of our country, you don't need to be a genius to figure out who is going to be paying for those profits. Companies making money by literally pushing hot air around? Isn't that what Bernard Ebbers and those Enron punks are serving hard time for? -k

Can you provide examples of how the more restrictive laws didn't work? -k

Why is it you always talk about Alberta like it is not part of Canada or it is the only place to live. In two short one sentence paragraph's you mentioned Alberta twice. Uh, he mentioned Alberta because it was relevant, Einstein. While some people are trying to use the article to say that Wind Power doesn't work, Geoffrey's comments show the opposite: in Alberta, wind power is generating *too much* power. The article in the original post says the same: A relative of mine built a new home in northern Alberta and went "off the grid" for power because the utility company was going to charge them almost $30,000 to run powerlines to their home. For less than the cost of powerlines, they built a solar and wind power generating setup. The sun doesn't shine all the time, and the wind doesn't blow all the time, but they have a diesel generator that kicks in when the battery reserves start getting low. They tell me that in the time they've been running this setup, they haven't had to buy much diesel. And the same logic applies to a wind-farm. The wind doesn't blow all the time, but we still have fossil fuel generating stations to take up the slack. If the fossil fuel stations run at low capacity most of the time and only fire up to full capacity when the wind farms are running slow, that's still a big reduction in pollution. -k {B-Max, mikedavid, and Leafless posting in the same thread? It's "the perfect storm".}

"Biological function" is "all-important"? So, sterile men, infertile women, couples who can't have kids, and couples who choose not to have kids, they should all just step off, because it's all about the rug-rats? -k

I know a Canadian, with Canadian parents, who has German citizenship because his parents were stationed with NATO forces in Germany when he was born. (I believe hockey star Dany Heatley is also a German citizen, for the same reason.) Canada is obviously not the only country that does this. I agree with the premise that there's no need to grant citizenship to babies who are born here just because the parents were in town for a couple of weeks. However, what about long-time legal residents who have not yet obtained citizenship? For instance, hockey player Doug Weight and his wife were American citizens who I don't believe ever obtained Canadian citizenship, but lived in Edmonton for many years and had kids here and raised them to school age before Doug was traded to another team. Should his kids have been Canadian citizens? -k

Mr Seromba begs to differ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_...wandan_Genocide The article cites this Human Rights Watch report: http://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/rwanda/Gen...htm#P893_245534 ...which seems to be thoroughly footnoted. I am going to have to read Dallaire's book one of these days. -k

Did they offer any evidence of this? Any proof that his suicide was connected to his treatment? She speaks of Alan Turing, whose skills in cryptography and code-breaking for Britain during World War 2 might qualify him as something of a war hero. While the claim that he invented the computer seems to be hyperbole, he seems to have contributed a great deal to the field of information theory and computer programming. On his death: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing#P...uring.27s_death -k

We generally don't expect much from third-world knuckleheads, but one might have hoped for a little more enlightenment from a priest. Apparently not. I notice that other representatives of the Catholic church have also been indicted in the genocide, and I'm confused as to why. Was it a case where people turned to the church for shelter, and therefore the church people were in a position to betray them? Or did the church have some vested interest? I'm confused. -k

It must be a slow news day if we're recycling the Liberals' campaign material from the 2004 election. -k {checking out the window to see if any "Team Martin" signs have sprung up overnight.}

I whisked through a Best Buy and a Wal-Mart the other day, and noticed lots of copies of "Eternal Forces" were on the shelves at both places. I guess this means that it's (a) widely available, and perhaps ( not exactly flying of the shelves. I guess we'll have to watch the discount bins in upcoming weeks and months to find out for sure. I suspect that gaming enthusiasts have probably read reviews and heard the game just doesn't stack up, while sincere Christians as a group probably aren't wild about the idea of killing people, "In His name" or otherwise. -k

It seems like lots of people like RTS. My favorite are car racing games. My current favorite is Need for Speed: Carbon. The addition of classic muscle-cars like the gorgeous 1969 Dodge Charger and the fearsome Plymouth Hemi Barracuda brings an exciting new element to the NFS series. You can now experience (in a virtual way) the sheer thrill that can only come from a 7-litre engine. Feel the sheer power, and take pride that you're single-mindedly putting Canada's Kyoto targets in jeopardy! I love this game. And as soon as I have the kind of job that'll permit me to drive a car that only gets 11 miles per gallon, I'm getting myself a classic Charger. -k

Platos Republic, actually, The Rupublic Of Plato is a book (I shouldn't have expected you to know that). I'm sorry it wasn't an attempt at "intellectual thuggery". You, sir, have a highly underdeveloped sense of humour. -k

I guess it depends what you mean by "dress to the 9's", "inappropriately", and the proviso "...if you're a good looking guy". -k

Only part right. Much like the Canadian Forces, I believe in the "3 D" system. Dress, deportment, and discipline. It's find to be all cocky and confident, but if you look like a slob or can't handle your liquor, you can head straight back to latrine duty, Private. -k

"her ....ummm....qualifications"? -k