kimmy

One thing we believe in is providing better training for chimpanzees. -k

Relook? I agree: SSM is an issue of such little significance that I can't imagine why we'd be talking about it when there's so many real issues to be addressed. However, the Liberals will be talking about it and so the press will be asking about it. -k

Harper should stay with the findings of Gomery, which are plenty damaging to the party in power and are widely accepted by Canadians. Harper should avoid making the more outre allegations, such as the involvement of organized crime. That's not something most Canadians are willing to believe, and therefore it stretches Harper's credibility when he says that sort of thing. To borrow a football analogy, it seems as though he's trying to throw a hail-mary, at a point in the game when the field is wide open for a short-passing attack. Patience, Stephen. Stay on message. Stay with the facts that Canadians accept. Let the Liberals be the ones to run around making desperate accusations. -k

If the question here is whether Harper should answer questions about this issue directly, or whether he should try to evade the question, well, I think the former is better. He ought to make reference to the fact that the policy was stated at the CPC policy convention in Montreal, just to reinforce the point that this is not anything new or radical. I think Harper's position on the issue-- allowing equal status civil unions for gay couples, while reserving the name "marriage" for traditional marriages-- was quite acceptible to the silent majority of Canadians. Those who demand the use of the word marriage, as well as equal status, are people who would never vote Conservative anyway. -k

Is that why women find Harper "scary"? He reminds them of men they've had bad experiences with? If the leaders remind me of men I know... Harper reminds me more of dad: a dour, capable sort who likes working with his hands, and hates dealing with people. Martin reminds me of one of mom's brothers-- the guy who talks a lot about all the great things he's going to do. The one who is always pinching or tickling, thinking it's great for bonding, even though the recipient actually hates it. Layton's odd speech and mannerisms are vaguely creepy to me, and remind me somewhat of the junior high music teacher that got removed from school amid disturbing rumours. Is this the sort of factors on which women are making their choices? Or is it based on actual policies? If it's the latter, I personally don't get it. What, exactly are women scared of? That he's going to use the notwithstanding clause over and over again to turn this into 1910? juvenile I'm in the cervice industry; I have to deal pleasantly with people who I'd rather blast in the face with a pool-cue. I suspect Harper feels the same when he's dealing with the press. I don't distrust people with fake smiles-- it's often a fact of life. I do, however, distrust people who walk around smiling for no reason. Such people are clearly either up to something, or mentally incapable. -k

Actually, I doubt it. You'd most likely be catatonic from pain and blood-loss. (that's just a guess. I doubt guys are up to committing homicide after suffering that sort of injury...) (...I once heard a news story about a Thai man who severed his own ...bobbitt, as a protest against his wife's infidelity. Not a good plan, in my view. If she was looking outside the marriage for sex *before* hand, I think that was probably not going to help.) (also, I read on the Darwin Awards once, where there was this man who ... well, the details are rather horrific. However, it involved golfing-buddies, alcohol, and the words "Hey, I dare you to..." Although the man survived the accident, he was eligible for Darwin Award consideration on the grounds that the specifics of the injury were such that he would never be able to reproduce, and had, therefore been "naturally selected" against, in the Darwin tradition.) -kimmy {kimmy is opposed to the severing of guy-parts and girl-parts.}

But as many in these parts proudly point out, Canada is not the United States. In Canada, administration and revenue from resources is allocated to the provinces by the constitution. -k

If some adult, whether 50 or 25, becomes sexually involved with my hypothetical 14 year old child, they're going to get the mother of all curb-stompings, legal age of consent be damned. -k

"not even trying to stay on topic"? That's putting it rather charitably! I wonder if Jonah was the return of our old friend "onlythetruth". On one hand, if it is him, his psychosis has deepened and shifted focus. The content of his jibberish seems to have changed. And yet, what are the odds of two different people with such grave mental problems being able to operate computers, let alone find this forum? Strange indeed. -k

I liked this part... ...but ultimately, the Conservatives won't get anywhere unless they provide something for people to vote *for*. They have done a poor job of this. -k

Haven't you heard? It's "A National Crisis." -k

The couple had said that Katie would be foregoing her own quite lucrative career in favor of raising Baby Scientologists for Tom. As she's giving up large paycheques she could be earning, I don't see this as being an unreasonable request. Another point that might be relevant is that Tom Cruise is a complete nutjob. -k

And if the Americans had this attitude when young Amar Bose came to the USA... He still owns 51% of the Billion dollar business he built... that ships around the world... and let's not forget the thousands of well-paid people in his employ... How about the recently deceased German immigrant, Klaus Woerner who built up an automation business with his own hands.... and it's a multi-billion dollar Cambridge Ontario based company, Automation Tooling Systems.... His business employs a whole lot of 'skilled' Canadians who otherwise might not have been employed... and exports to every country in the world... Should we keep these kinds of immigrants out in case their wives don't get good jobs..... But does it stop at wives? For every skilled immigrant, how many unskilled family members come to Canada? RB presents an interesting case-- skilled immigrants who came to Canada who aren't allowed to practice their skills because of a professional association. Now, obviously there has to be some sort of standard for certifying medical professionals before they're allowed to practice here... but it sounds as though the CMA has in this case made it very difficult for the new immigrants to obtain certification. Perhaps immigration and the CMA should have a chat with each other to determine whether we want more doctors in Canada or not. -k

I suspect that Klein is right, and I suspect that most analysts believe the same. Does what Klein said make Ontario voters less likely to vote CPC? I don't see why it would. -k

The briefing note identifies speed and driver inexperience as contributing factors and specifies safe operating conditions-- notably, specifying a maximum 30 degree side-slope. One could easily envision this figure being exceeded in a number of driving conditions, such as in hilly terrain, driving over obstacles, making turns when travelling rapidly, pulling into the ditch, and so on. One can tell just from the picture that the vehicle has a high center of gravity-- big armored turret and weapon on top, big armored body in the middle, and rubber tires and 18 inches of ground clearance on the bottom. Like SUVs, Jeeps, and ATVs, the design looks like a recipe for rollovers. I tend to suspect that a replacement would probably have the same configuration, and therefore also likely be susceptible to rollovers. If the vehicles are new and well-suited to the purpose for which we've purchased them, then I don't see buying replacements as very likely. However, perhaps some modifications could be made to make them more stable-- perhaps the wheels could be moved out farther, perhaps it needn't have so much ground clearance, perhaps the suspension could be stiffer to make it less prone to body roll. -k

The Prime Minister met with leaders of Toronto's black community over gun violence issues. I'm surprised that Paul Martin didn't tell these people that gun violence couldn't possibly be spiraling out of control, because the gun registry makes that impossible. However, that didn't happen. Instead, PMPM appears poised to reach for the wallet. The Star: Gun violence summit ...cash... and a hugs-for-thugs program. uh huh CTV: More with the summit. The rest of the country isn't ignoring you, Sandra. The rest of the country is paying attention, and is grateful that we don't live there. (Black Action Defence Committee?) Yeah, in a situation where crime and violence are out of control, a "law and order" approach is the last thing you'd want. Cash, please. -k

At least metal had the pretense of being music. And it's also educational! After borrowing my special guy's collection of Iron Maiden cassettes from the 1980s, I found that I'd inexplicably learned about Nathaniel Hawthorne, Frank Herbert, Aldus Huxley, Alexander the Great, the Charge of the Light Brigade, the Rime of the Ancient Mariner, the Battle of Britain, and more. Imagine how surprised the bible-thumpers would be if they knew that the secret subliminal messages in the music were Fancy Book Larnin'. But indeed, Rocket, making a big deal about "50 Cent" is just going to make him that much more popular with his target audience. -k

I am in agreement with those who say that keeping "50 Cent" out of Canada will only add to his appeal with the segment of the populace that buys his products (I believe he's now not just a recording artist, but also a line of clothes and a video game as well.) This is, after all, a guy who has turned the fact that he was once shot into a lucrative career. Banning him from entering the country would just add that much more to his "street cred." "Whitey banned Fiddy because they all afraid of what he sayin, dawg!" I would assume that his next record would sell 5 times his usual volume in this country. I'd expect his record label would capitalize on the infamy by releasing a special EP called "Banned in Canada" that would sell zillions here. Unless, of course, one were to also ban him from selling records, videos, and other even more draconian measures that go far beyond simply issuing this dumb-ass a performers visa. -k

If we bring over a skilled immigrant-- perhaps a computer programmer from India-- he is able to bring to Canada a number of family members-- wife, brother, nephew, second-cousin twice removed-- who might have no skills in the least. Perhaps tightening up who they're allowed to bring to Canada would make sense. It would probably cost votes, however... -k

What we in Canada call Thanksgiving is what Americans call Columbus Day. What Americans call Thanksgiving is what we in Canada call "Thursday". But Happy Thanksgiving to you. -k

I've had conversations with someone who works at an emergency room in an Edmonton hospital. This individual told me that the majority of patients who come through emergency are natives, even though natives comprise less than 2% of Edmonton's population. The emergency room sees the same things over and over again-- drug overdoses, alcohol poisoning, poisoning from trying to get a high from substances not safe for human consumption, and lots and lots of stab wounds. My emergency room acquaintance has become frustrated and exasperated from seeing a continual string of these patients, and from seeing the same people come in over and over again-- sometimes even on the same night. The people involved in these activities might not represent the majority or even a significant portion of the native populace. But from the perspective of the emergency room people, they see this continual stream of natives come through their doors to be treated for self-inflicted stupidity. This experience has tainted her view of natives as a whole, as unfair as this might be. And I tend to suspect the police and RCMP have the same sort of experiences with natives. They interact with the bad apples continually. They see the same sorts of activities continually. They know that when they receive a call for certain types of situations, there is a high likelyhood that natives are involved. This kind of ongoing experience can't help but affect their view of natives. Like my emergency room acquaintance, the police and RCMP tend to continually deal with the bad apples and it affects them. So while I don't mean to sound like I'm making excuses for the RCMP in this case, I can understand where this sort of view comes from. I would expect that even somebody who enters a situation with the most enlightened perspective would be affected by it somewhat. -k

Not to be pedantic, but a councillor is somebody who sits on a council, such as city council. A counsellor is somebody who gives counsel-- advice. I suspect you mean the latter, not the former. Can't get anything past your sharp eyes... I likened cops and councillors in the above quote as people that you would go to when in distress. I wasn't suggesting that they put cops in the school, but really, if the school is that bad, maybe it would be a good idea to put the school on a cop's beat... I wasn't pointing out that counsellors are not cops just for the sake of being pedantic. I don't believe anybody respects counsellors as authority figures. And at a school where the teachers and administration were unable to maintain discipline, I believe an authority figure would have made more difference than having somebody to give out hugs and shitty personal advice. Pansy-ass suburban white kids don't even respect counsellors as authority figures; I can't imagine urban toughguy types would feel any differently. -k

Yes, people are people and individuals can't be dealt with in stereotypes. But in the bigger picture, doesn't avoiding a discussion of racial and cultural factors prevent us from figuring out *why* the statistics are so heavily skewed? As Argus says, I don't think anybody here is suggesting that skin pigmentation determines criminal behaviour. So why *are* the statistics what they are? What causes it, and what can we do as a society to fix it? -k

Bill Whatcott could be considered a crook; his pamphlets have gotten him sued in the past, and deemed to "incite hatred". "Crook" usually implies theft; "criminal" might be a more accurate description of Mr Whatcott. -k

Indeed. And despite his protestations of innocence, IMT is too intelligent to not have known what he was doing. The source of the controversy was the title of the original press release, which I believe was "Paul Martin supports child porn?" and that remained the source of the countroversy even though the press release was quickly retitled "How Touch Is Paul Martin On Child Pornography?" It was a fair question, given the timing. Keep in mind that the same week, the killer of 10-year old Holly Jones had confessed and claimed that Internet Child Porn had caused him to do it. In response to the media furor and questions of what he's doing about child porn, Paul Martin had claimed he was tough on child porn. Raising his voting record on related bills in parliament was absolutely fair game. If somebody makes a claim like that, impeaching them using facts is fair game. And obviously the original title of the press release was way out of line. It was a miserable failure of somebody in the party's PR group. It's the kind of shrillness that one expects from extremists, not major political parties. In media scrums, Harper tried to focus the message on the body of the press release rather than the original title, which was what the press wanted to talk about. Should he have apologized? From a manners standpoint, probably it would have been the right thing to do. From a campaign standpoint, I'm not sure. Harper was trying to bring the discussion back to Martin's voting record on the issue, which was fair game, but the media wanted to focus on the headline misstep. Would apologizing have let Harper get the discussion back to his message? It's difficult to say. This is the heart of it. There's no reason to believe the CPC has anything to do with this, but the thread seeks to imply a connection. -k