ceemes

Actually, New Zealand is also ready to accept Gay Marriages or civil unions .

Most of the business there are very receptive to the idea of bilingual signage.....if only to draw in more customers. Chinatown merchants have begun a programme to teach their non-english speaking staff english. What most people don't want to see is some sort of government legislative language law ala Quebec.

I have been saying for years and years that Canada has to cut its economic apron strings with the US, or at least, loosen them up considerably. We are too closely tied to the US economically and badly need to diversify our markets and trading partners. And we have best do it sooner then later, otherwise when the US economy does finally tank and go into an unrecoverable terminal tailspin, we will be sucked down with them. Canada does have a lot to offer the world markets in the way of raw materials, food stuffs, energy exports, technological advances, engineering, medicines, high tech ect.....for the most part we are better educated then our American neighbours, but suffer from a terminal case of self-asbasement. One of the strangest ways I have heard Canadian and Canadian business people discribed was "As Americans who will not answer the phone or call back." This from some of my Japanese counterparts. Time for Canada and Canadians to shed their image of Mr. Nice Guy and start going for broke, at least in the fields of business and trade.

Actually, the US may have to reintroduce the draft, especially if the Iraq and Afganistan situations does not improve quickly and even more so if Bush does decide to go into Iran. One thing Viet nam, Iraq and Afganistan has demonstrated aptly is that you can have all the high tech weaponery and systems, but it is still boots on the ground that win wars. If you cannot control the ground from an infantry POV, then you will lose the war. And right now the US Army does not have enough grunts to secure either Iraq and Afganistan. Nepolian had it right, God favours the army with the biggest battilions. The US places far too much reliance on high tech wiz bang expensive systems and equipment...what they should be concentrating on is acquiring and training more of your basic grunt.

When Stockwell day rode into Penticton riding a seadoo and wearing a flashy wetsuit, the locals started referring to him as Stockwell Gay........or Doris Day........didn't stop him from winning the riding a number of times over......but people up there just dont take him seriously and only vote for him because he is hard right.......but still, one has to wonder how much gay is really in day at times.....especially when you see him in person.....personally I think he could probably give Sven a run for his money

You are making assumptions about the state of the truck, the drivers ability before you have all the facts. Union Protection: The majority of North American truckers are independent owner/operators and classed as small business owners. The only differance between them and other small business owners is that their shop or office moves on our highways. There is a blanket organization called the BCTF (British Columbia Truckers Federation) that does act as a governing body and defacto union, or rather a professional organization, howeve, membership in the organization is strictly volanteery and is not a requirement to drive. Because the industry has been deregulated, shipping rates are now market driven instead of being set by a governing body. Trucking companies and independent operators are now able to set their own rates and under-cut each other. For the shipper and general consumer, this is a boon. For the carrier and driver, it is not such a good thing. WCB: The only thing WCB covers is worker compensation insurance. All trucking companies have to supply coverage for inhouse drivers and all owner-operators have to supply coverage for themselves and their swampers. DOT: The DOT is mandated to ensure that all drivers are properly licenced and trained and that their vehicles are in good repair and operational order. Also, it sets the amount of hours any class one driver operating line haul (Long haul) may work per day. However, there are no restriction on the amount of hours a local tractor driver, be that driver hauling cans or logs can work. Indeed, there have been times during the current busy season I have had driver working up to 16 hours per day. If I do have a driver pulling such a shift, I make sure that he is off for at least a day before I put him on the road again. Many indepenant operators, especially those hauling raw logs out of the woods and into the mills do not have that luxury, they have to work as much as possible during the season to make their money Economics: As we all know, the cost of fuel, insurance, trucks, trailers, and maintenance has been steadily increasing these past few years. However, the freight rates charged to shippers have not been keeping pace with these increased costs. These means that many independant operators are forced to work longer hours and try to squeeze that addition few hundred klicks out of their breaks, tyres, and other maintenance items. Driver fatique is a major problem throughout the entire owner-operator community and until shippers and consumers are willing to cough up the addition coin to pay a decent freight rate, these problems will continue to grow along with highway accidents. Also, truckers pay a hell of a lot more in the way of direct and indirect highway taxes then the average motorist does. And they are the logistics life line that keeps all of our communities alive and kicking. I would argue that they have more right to the highways then joe blow commuter does.

I agree.....he should get his class one and then come see me....I'll put him in a fairly new Volvo hauling 48' reefers around the Lower Mainland of BC for a week...

As many of you are aware, I have been away from the forum for a bit, started a new job and funnily enough that job is directly related to this thread. I am the Operation Manager and Driver Supervisor for a trucking firm and I can tell you point blank, you get rid of those big trucks, you will starve and freeze this winter. Truckers for the most part are professional drivers and trucking companies are except for a small minority I could name extremely safety aware. This accident is a tragedy and the odds are that the driver of the logging truck was an independant trucker. These guys operate in a highly competitive environment, basically working for piece work money, the more trips they make, the more money they earn...and given the cost of fuel, repairs, insurance and the capital cost of the truck and trailer, they have to work long hours just to make ends meet. And because they do, you can enjoy relatively cheap goods and products. Rail is good for point to point transport between major centres, but no good for door to door delivery.

There will be a great wailing and crying because of the Bush victory...but it will come from the mothers who will lose their sons and daughters to Bush's Holy Crusade against the world. The only thing this election proves is that over half the American electoric actually like being lied to, having their jobs and futures shipped oversea, watching the value of their dollar take a kick in the nuts, seeing their national debt skyrocket upwards promising to all but bancrupt their grandkids future, and endless wars in foreign lands to chew up their kids. Kerry may not of been the greatest choice, but he would of been better then Bush..hell, even Bozo the Clown would of been a better choice the Shrub..... If this election proves anything at all, its that the dumbing down of the American population is all but complete....four more years of Bush and the process should be done......

Two benefits most of us enjoy because of the race to the moon......microcomputers and teflon........there are many others too.

I was a soldier back in the late 70's to the mid 80's under both Liberal and Conservative governments.......and to be fair....both gave the CAF the shitty end of the stick..... Sadly, that seem's to be a time honoured tradition in Canada and one most Canadians seem to agree with...ignore the Armed Forces until you need them.....back in '39 when we declared war against Hitler's Germany, the hue and cry went out "Where is our Navy? Where is our Army? Where is our Air Force? Too which the politico's said, "Hey, you didn't want to support (read: spend tax money on them) any of those things, so we cut their funding and shrunk their numbers and equipment allotment just as you wished." Back in the mid to late 70's, a Naval Reserve Commander conducted a study on the size and effectiveness of the entire CAF, including regulars, primary reserves and those who were on the call back list...his findings were that Canada could defend half of Rhode Island for half a day. In 1981, I took part in Exercise RV '81, the first of the RV exercises held. Part of the exercise was to conduct division sized manouvers....trouble was, even pulling in as many reservist as possible, pulling troops out of Germany and from UN missions, we failed to reach divisional numbers... This was almost 25 years and the situation has not improved one iota.

hehehehe.... Well.....Canada has never, as far as I know, had any Strategic nukes, we did have a few tactical ones....namely anti-aircraft airburst bombs designed to take out large incoming Soviet bomber formations and nuclear torps and depth charges......in fact, as late as 1982, CFB Comox had more the a few of anti-air nukes in its inventory.....

This is true.....and their Sea Kings are fairly new and have state of the art electronics and sensors aboard them.... As for the Subs...I have always maintained that Canada should build its own equipment for our military, however the UK does have an excelent reputation and record for building subs......and if I am not mistaken, part of the cost was paid off in granting the UK military training establishments on Canadian soil.....sort of a lend lease deal..... Also, it should be noted that the Canadian Navy did sign off on the refurbished subs and declared them to be completely seaworthy after they had been "Canadianized"....so a large part of the blame has to be given to those that signed off on its seaworthyness. Subs are dangerous at the best of time....even the US and the Russians has lost a couple of nuclear sub with all hands.

I well remember a time in the early 70's when the Canadian Dollar was worth US$1.10

Just like they are in Iraq eh?...funnily enough, about the only time Iraqi's seem to be dancing in the streets is usually around the burning carcus of a US military vehicle...... Going into Iran when neither Iraq nor Afghanistan are secure would be foolish in the extreme.....that being so, I will put my money on the boy idiot Bush to just that if the America electoric suffers from a massive brain meltdown and re(s)elects him.

So, we should speed things up and commit the same atrocious acts as we did then? As far as we know, there are no intelligent species residing within our solar system to commit atrocious acts upon. And any extrasolar species we run into out there more then likely would be advanced enough to give us a run for our money....so this argument is laughable. The Andromeda Strain Syndrome.......well, the odds of an alien bacteria or whatever having a genetic make up that is compatible with ours is highly unlikely. The bugs we Europeans brought to the America's were born and bred on earth, therefore the natives were perfect hosts for them, having no immunity to them.

For now that is true......but as those resources become more and more scarce, or more and more expensive, then invasion and occupation could easily become a viable option for an energy hungry and water thristy USA. I read an essay a few years back that basically stated that the wars of the 1700's were for religion and territory, the wars of 1800's were for markets and empire, the wars of the 1900's were for political ideology and that all future wars will be for diminishing resources, especially oil and water. Canada is doublely blessed and cursed, we have these resources in abundance, in fact depending on how you measure oil reserves, Canada may have the largest reserves on the planet. And Canada, if I am not mistaken has around 25% of the worlds fresh waters reserves. This is both our blessing and potentially our curse. The US is both our neighbour and our largest trading partner, it also consumes the vast majority of the world energy production even though it holds only 6% of the world population. Having the US as our neighbour and trading partner again is both a blessing and a curse. The fact of the matter is, the US demand for both oil and water is increasing, while its supply or access to both is decreasing. Already in the agriculture heartland of the Midwest, the aquafillers are being emptied faster then they can be replenished. California is also demanding more and more water for its industry, agriculture and cities. Again supply is fast outstripping demand. There are currently major disputes between a number of western states over water rights. As for oil, well with the unrest in Iraq and the uncertainity in the region, production has been cut. But the biggest threat to US oil imports from OPEC comes from China. It is expected that in the next twenty years, China's demand for oil and energy will surpass that of the US, and she will have the economic and military might to be able to buy it. As we speak, China is set to send some 2000 combat troops to the Sudan to protect its oil and pipeline interest there. Soon you can expect China to exert more influence into the Middle East. There may come a time in the near or distant future where the US will consider that armed annexation of Canada will be needed to meet its own energy and water demands. This is not all that far fetched, untill around the mid-80's, the Pentagon kept plans on the books for just such an action. Indeed, there were a number of military bases that were closed during the Reagan and Bush Sr. Administration who's only purpose for existing was as a launch point for an invasion of Canada. As for the question of arming Canada with nukes and required delivery systems. Ten years ago I would of said no, there was no need for them.......Today however, I think we would be extremely foolish not to consider the option. If there are acouple of things that history has taught us, its |A| today's friends can easily become tomorrows enemy and |B| any nation that does not arm to protect itself from a more powerful if currently friendly neighbour is doomed to be taken over sometime in the future.

A 50/50 split is foolish..... The fact is, proper space exploration and science is far too expensive for any one nation to do on its own, even the US. Basically what is needed is a coordinated international effort where all the nations who are currently involved in space exploration and science to act together in order to maximize the effort. As it is, there is already far too much duplication of effort and reinventing the wheel going on between the competing nations. The international space station is a good if somewhat flawed start. A unified and joint effort where every nation contributes where it can best assist would speed up space exploration. If the conquests and exploration of the America's carry on at the speed that manned exploration of space is, then the various first nations peoplese would still own the land from the Artic to the tip of South America.

How about addressing the issue August? You asked for proof of Bush's flip flops and lies, and they have been given.

The Israelis???? If the use of missiles from an Apache helicopter against a man in a wheelchair isn't a 'blunt hammer' approach, I don't know what is. (I saw Yassin's remains on a Palestinian website. One of the missiles hit him squarely. Not pretty!) Yes the Israeli's do use the blunt hammer approach, but I was thinking more along the line of the Entebbe Raid of 1976, not the assassination of Hamas or PLO figures. The Entebbe Raid was well planned, well executed and highly successful with minimal casualties, only one Israeli Commando and three civilain were killed. All seven terrorist along an unknown number Ugandan soldiers who were guarding both the terrorist and victims were killed. Then there was the SAS raid on the Iranian Embassy in London 1980. What is interesting to note, that since both of those actions, neither country has suffered a major terrorist related kidnapping. Car and suicide bombing yes, but now major hostage events. However, Russia has had two, and both have ended badly. I believe that when the Theater attack two years ago ended badly with the rescuers killing as many victims as the terrorist, the terrorist took note. I think that the terrorist in the school event were on a suicide mission and planned all along to have the Russian forces commit another botched rescue attemp that would result in many innocent casualties and further discredit the effectiveness of the Russian forces in the eyes of the Russian public. We are already seeing this in the various news feeds out of Russia. People are not questioning the terrorist actions, but rather the actions of the Russian security forces who stormed the school. And to add insult to injury, it is suspected that four of the terrorist actually slipped away and made good their escape. As much as I hate to say it, this has been both a tactical and propaganda victory for the Chechen rebels and their allies.

A few more Bush Flip Flops and outright lies. Bush is against a Homeland Security Department; then he's for it Bush is against a 9/11 commission; then he's for it. Bush is against a WMD investigation; then he's for it. Bush is against nation building; then he's for it. (Even before 9/11 it was part of his foreign policy, PNAC. So drop the "everything changed after 9/11" malarky.) Bush said he'll provide money for first responders (emergency services); then he doesn't. Bush is against deficits; then he's for them. Bush is for free trade; then he's for tariffs on steel; then he's against them again. Bush said he'll reduce Greenhouse gases; then doesn't do it. Bush is for a patient's bill of rights then; then he fights against it. Bush say that "help is on the way" to the military; then he cuts benefits. Bush talks about helping education; then he cuts funding. Bush says the U.S. won't negotiate with North Korea; then he says we will. Bush campaigns at racist Bob Jones University; then says he shouldn't have. Bush says he will demand a U.N. Security Council vote on whether to sanction military action against Iraq; then he announces he won't call for a vote. Bush says the "mission accomplished" banner was put up by the Navy; then he admits it was his advance team. Bush is for fingerprinting and photographing Mexicans who enter the US; then he's against it. Bush is for a state's right to decide on gay marriage; then he's for amending the constitution to prevent it. Of course the dirtiest and viliest lies and flip flops said by Bush were against the same regular, reserve and guard troops he sent to Iraq, this betrayal alone is worthy of him being line up against the wall and shot. “Having been here and seeing the care that these troops get is comforting for me and Laura. We are -- should and must provide the best care for anybody who is willing to put their life in harm's way.”-- Walter Reed Army Hospital, 1/17/03 -That same day the Bush Administration cut off access to its health care system from approximately 164,000 veterans. These are but a few of the lies and flip flops GW Bush has made or told in the past 3.5 years.

I got your point, ceemes. Did you get mine?You seem to blame the Russian authorities for the nature of this attack. As you say, "they use the blunt hammer approach". You don't get it. These people took over a school with over a thousand people, mostly children. They provided no food nor drink. These terrorists were not disgruntled postal workers. Sorry, the SWAT psy-trained negotiators don't work in such a situation. The Russians were not dealing with anything civilized. I suppose you would say that Stalingrad was destroyed in the Second World War because the Russians took a heavy-handed approach to military affairs. Judging from the various press reports, it sounds as if the Russian screwed up by the numbers......big time...... Yes these terrorist had taken kids, teachers and parents hostage, however there were negotiations that were ongoing and some hostages had been released. Basically, the Russian were ill prepared and ill trained to deal with this situation and innocents paid the price. I don't blame the Russian for the nature of the attack, that blame lays squarely on the shoulders of the terrorist. However, the odds are these types of attacks are likely to continue until some sort of political deal is negoticated between both parties. This being the case, then the Russian had best learn from the pro's on how to deal with them. If they don't, then you can expect a lot more dead innocent civilians. The blunt hammer approach is not the way to go, just ask the SAS or the Israelis.

All parties engage in mudslinging to one degree or another, it's probably been like that ever since the Classical Greek Democratic (democratic being loosely termed) City States. However, none of the parties here engaged in the types of personal attacks we have seen coming from the pro-RNC groups against Kelly. Comparing the mudslinging going on in the US to the mudslinging that happened during our last Federal Election is like comparing the explosive power between a firecracker and a Hydrogen bomb..... What?? I live in WESTERN Canada (where Liberals aren't liked) and WE got ads quoting Liberal dogma, not real-life quotes. Threats about what would happen if we elect a conservative government, things that they claim the Conservatives have done to Canada (scandals ironically that only the Liberals themselves could have done, since they have been in power 4, terms =p) Mudslinging is not honest claims, it is personal attacks that are often unfounded and meant to destroy the credibility of the target to those who are too lazy/ignorant to double-check the information they are being fed. As I said, we had ads from the Liberal Campaign quoting past statements made by Harper that called in question the direct he wanted to take Canada. These questions must of struck a resonant chord in many Canadians to make them grit their teeth, hold their noses and put the Liberals back in power after so many scandals. Basically what Harper had stated in the recent past did not jive with what he was saying during the election. First off, the Liberals ARE liars, thieves, and DO support the degradation of society under the disguise of tolerance and understanding. Have fun convincing people who know the truth that the Liberals are angels. You don't have to prove to me the Liberal aren't angels, after all I have been living in Campbell's Liberal BC for years. However, as bad as the Federal Liberals were and are, the neo-Conservatives under Harper struck me as being potentially worse. But I am curious, just how are the Federal Liberals degrading Canadian society? We are after all a multi-cultural society and always have been. Is it their pro-gay marriage stances that worries you? I would be more concerned and worried about the religious right that plays a major if quiet part of Harpers Alliance Faction of the neo-Conservative party. They would roll back many of the rights and freedoms we all enjoy if they had their way. Yeah, that was rational, re-elect the guy responsible for 20 years of corruption in the treasury, claim he is a 'new man' with a 'new government', and all his responsibility in the scandals are suddenly forgotten? I dont think so, at least you know you are a true Socialist for your blind hatred and fear of anything not wearing Red I looked at it as buying time. I figured at best the Liberals would win a minority government lasting no more then 2 years max. In that time, I hope my Conservative Party will find the balls to rid itself of the more radical elements of the old Reform/Canadian Alliance that came with the merger. I miss the Progressive element of the old PCP and I am not overally thrilled with the Regressive elements that have taken over the party. I am no socialist by any stretch of the imagination, although I do agree with some of socialist type programmes we as Canadians enjoy, ie health care, education, CPP, EI etc. I take no great joy in having the Liberals in power still, but as far as I was concerned, the Liberals winning a minority government was the lesser of many evils. Oh you mean like what the Liberals did 5 times in a row? *cough* flip-flop *cough* You have the right idea, sadly you just dont act correctly on it. Because you keep re-electing the proven corrupt government and ignorantly reject a TRULY;new government; simply because the already-corrupt government claims the;new government; isn;t going to keep their promises. You confuse me (read my quote =p) Exactly, but you must look at the REASONS they were supported. Everything has a context, did the US Administration support those evil regimes so that those evil regimes could become more evil or so they could keep a worse evil from coming to be? With Saddam the USA supported him to keep in check the radical sect of islam that was spreading rapidly through Iran. Also, none of these evil regimes were originally evil, they were puppets who turned on their masters =p Now the USA is cleaning up their mess, and they are getting roasted for trying to do it while at the same time people are condemning them for NOT doing it. Cant win these days. And yet, radical Islam came into power because of the Shah of Iran, who was put into power after the CIA overthrew Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh, the Prime Minister of Iran in 1953 with Operation AJAX. Mossadegh lead a nationalist party that was nationalising Irans oil fields, much to the great displeasure of British and American oil companies. You say that none of these evil regimes were evil to begin with. You are totally wrong on that account, both the Shah's regime and Saddams were evil from the getgo. Both used secret police, torture and summary/secret executions to silence any and all opposition within their countries. However, not only did the US turn a blind eye to these crimes, it actually aided and abetted them by training these various internal security agencies and financed them. I take you have have heard of CIA training institute called the School of the Americas? The message to all despots was loud and clear, "You can do as you wish with your own people as long as you do not screw with American business or commericial concerns." The message was also loud and clear to any reformers "Screw with American business or commericial concerns and we will crush you completely." You also seem to think it is okay for the US to overthrow government at will and install puppet regimes? Tell me, how can you justify this? And they are not cleaning up their messes are they? Take Afghanistan for instance, after arming the anti-Soviet forces including the Taliban and UBL's AQ, the US turned its back on the country after the Soviets left, leaving it to fall in to endless civil war and extreme Islamic fundalmentist control. And ever after ousting the Taliban, the US has all but ignoreed the mess there. As we speak, the Taliban are regaining control of the southern end of Afghanistan and various warlords are fighting over the rest. Its the same in Iraq and in other parts of the world where the US has put in and supported military dictatorships. Jacobo Arbenz is ALOT more complicated than you give it credit. After he and his military supporters overthrew the reigning dictator they went faaar to the left, grabbing land from people, massively rupturing their economy with payouts to the people, and pissing off the wrong people =p He wasn't all that strongly in place as it was, there was a friend of the past dictator who ran opposite him in the elections and gained over 40% of the support from free elections. That tells you that the people didn't whole-heartedly support Jacobo Arbenz in the first place. Then he goes and starts passing veeery socialist legislation with regards to centralization of almost everything. What caused his fall was when he took vast amounts of land from the United Fruit Company, offering only in compensation per acre they took and gave away. This resulted in the United States interceding and demanding they pay $75 per acre which was of course refused. This led to furthur problems, in addition to a shaky reign as it was, and communist sects rising up against him (Since he wasn't a total communist, but he was practically fostering it) his reign collapsed when Carlos Castillo attacked him (Castillo was actually one of the men who helped in the first overthrow) I would say 60% of the popular vote makes for a strong support and a strong mandate, hell any Canadian PM or American President would give his left nut for such support. What you are glossing over is that United Fruit held vast tracts of land along with a strangle hold of the economy. The people of Guatemala were being paid peanuts even by the standards of the day. The lands that were taken from United Fruit to be given to the peasents were land that were not in production at that time. Here a little history to put it in perspective and a bit of US political history with United Fruit So you are saying that the only the US and US companies have the right to decide how other countries are to be governed or how to utilize their lands, products and resources? You have got to be kidding me.......Bush flip flops so much that he reminds me of fish landed on the deck of a boat. It would take an entire thread just to list all his flip flops and broken promises. Oh Iam pretty sure he was a Republican, the NRA decal and gun rack in the truck cab would seem to indicate more right wing leanings then left wing. Like it or not, a lot of Republicans are disallusioned and put off by Bush and his crew. And Bush has lied, all too often to count....it seems when he isn't lying, he is flip flopping about.....sad. Well... I live 1 1/2 hours from the BC border, that has to count for something rofl In that case, you are just an easterner with a fetish for cowboy hats and boots :

The technology of extracting oil for the tar sands has improved and combined with the world price of crude at this time, it is a very profitable endevour.

I will pause from your nonsense to say that I too would prefer to live in an ideal world of an insane hijacker, upset with a contract and demotion, who enters a building with a gun or two.The fire fighters who died in those buildings in NYC, did you see that? Have you been to NYC? Have you seen the hole that was left? Are you clueless? We didn't provoke them. We did nothing wrong. We are all like those firemen on the World Trade stairway. We are all like those people on the Madrid trains. We are all like the children in that Russian school. How have you explained this to kids in Canada you know? Now, what should we do? Your rhetoric and rantings are telling and you completely missed my point. My main point is, the Russian Special Forces are ill-trained to deal with hostage takings and terrorist actions. They take a blunt hammer approach when what is need is stealth and patience. During any hostage taking, you use negotiations to defuse the situation, win concessions from the terrorist, namely freed hostages and plan a quick, coordinated counterstrike if need be. Both the SAS and the Israeli Special Forces have successfully conducted anti-terrorist counterstrikes that resulted in minimal hostage deaths and maximum terrorist kills. These counterstrikes were well planned out and coordinated and lightening fast. An hour into the Russian assult of the school, the battle was still raging and innocent hostages were dying. That is twice in the past two years where the sledge hammer approach of the Russians has caused hostage deaths. They badly need the expertise and training that groups like the SAS or Israelis can offer them. Lets face it, the Russians and Chechens have been fighting a long and bitter civil war for over two years now and it shows no signs of abating. So you can expect to see even more of these incidents in the future and if the Russians are going to deal with them effectively, then they will need to gain the skills to do so, skills that they are sadly lacking at this time. Also, the hostage taking in Russia and the WTC attacks while both terrorist operations, are as different as apples and oranges, comparing the two events is dishonest.