Queenmandy85

It was discovered in Wuhan. Before that, a person died in France and was recently discovered to have been positive for Covid-19. The French have asked other nations such as Germany to test sample from people who died with pnumonia-like symptom to determine if they were Covid-19 positive. It is unknown if there was any link to Wuhan. It is possible the French sample was contaminated. Nobody knows, and as in any investigation, you don't make any conclusions until all of the evidence is in. As much as people would love for it to have originated in China, if wishes were horses, I would have a horse.

No, China is behaving just like everyone else. This behaviour is hard wired into our brains. Human being, like most animals love a heirarchy, as long as we are the ones on top. Xi is looking out for Xi. Putin is looking out for Putin, and so on. These individuals recognize that it is to their advantage to appear strong and to make China / Russia great again. The voters in the United States did not elect President Trump to make Uraguay great again. Recognizing facts is not defending them. When conducting an investigation, it is a bad idea to jump to any conclusion until all of the evidence is in.

I am not defending the wet markets. I am saying that a person died in France with covid-19 before the virus was detected in China. The remains were tested in France a week or two ago. I am not saying they did not get it from Wuhan, just that there is no evidence to determine where they got it. The wet markets are suspected of being the source of the virus but so far there is no scientific link to say precisely where or how it originated other than it was a natural source. While speculation is futile, I would speculate the Chinese government did not do this on purpose. They may be evil psychopaths, but they are clearly not stupid. As for henta virus, you don't get it from eating rodents, you get it from their droppings.

Everyone is an exploiter of weaker nations. The French colonized and exploited England. The English colonized and exploited France. The Danes did the same to Ireland, England and France. The Blackfeet did it to the Kootenai, the Shushwap exploited the Sinixt. Conquest and colonization are part of the universal human experience. The English were better at it than most and the Blackfeet were nastier.

You don't know that. Nobody has determined where it originated. The first KNOWN case was in France.

Oh, yes, I know it very well. I should have specified when I said the Chinese, I meant the government. My point was, if you do business with the Chinese Government, be aware, and if you get taken, it is not like you weren't warned. It is just like the Yankee traders of old. They believe in China First. Xi isn't there to protect the interests of Angola, the US or Canada. Xi also has a strong sense of self preservation. His huge Navy will not be used to precipitate a World war that will leave China an unpopulated, radioactive, glass plate. He wants influence, respect and power, just like the US, Russia, France and the UK.

The dislike of China expressed on social media reminds me of anti-Americanism. Many people disliked the Yankee traders because they were so good at business. (The term "Yankee" derives from my favourite pirate, Janke Whillims, a dutch member of the Bretheren Of The Coast.) The Chinese are very good at establishing a network of alliances by "be-friending" countries no one else wants to touch with a 3 metre pole. They lend money to anyone who wants it and then the people who borrow it, complain. Always blame the money lender for our own indebtedness.

Did Italy, or the other nations, at any time, say "No?" I would go so far as to say they gave explicit consent. Therefore, it is not rape.

Last week there was a report that the first case of Covid-19 known so far was in France. Remember that the "Spanish" flu actually started in Kansas. So far, there is no evidence of where or how Covid-19 moved into the human population. Corona viruses are generally found in bats but they can sometimes be passed to another animal such as poultry or swine before moving into the human population. This is my long winded way to make the point we don't know where it originated and speculation and blame is counter- productive. As for globalism, if you don't like it, buy Canadian, but don't expect you have the right to make the rest of us live like Albanians.

Ministers are chosen, among other criteria, for regional representation. Because they are not experts in the ministry, they rely on senior public servants. Like all of us, public servants a human but they bring years of experience that can be invaluable to a new minister. There is nothing worse than a new boss with no experience in the field trying to tell someone who knows what they are doing, how you are doing it wrong. Your friend is clearly better equipped than most but if Sir James Hacker did not have the advice of Sir Humphrey, he would not have been able to avoid the pitfalls from dealing with TPLC's.

I have to call you on that. You are slandering a large number of fine people. It is the citizen's responsibility to participate in the democratic process. I don't know how many MP's or candidates you know but in my experience, most MP's that I have met are there to serve. I've worked for six Progressive Conservative candidates including cabinet ministers. I worked on two leadership campaigns for former Prime Minister Joe Clark, the only guy to ever beat a Trudeau. I know cabinet ministers from the Liberal Party and the NDP, including a former Premier. They all had the best interest of the Nation in mind. To borrow a page from my friend Taxme's book, how many MP's do you know and what leads you to believe they do not have the interests of the nation in mind? PS.: Globalism is trade. Without trade, your standard of living will drop precipitously.

President Trump saved the MSM. People suddenly became interested in US news to see what he will do next.

The insurance company won't learn anything more from your health records than they would find out from the application, unless you lie and then the policy is void anyway.

That is a great sentiment to put on a bumper sticker but I would give dying a miss if I could. A lot of people have lived as slaves rather than die. There were 3 million slaves in the US before the Civil War. There were millions of slaves in Nazi Germany during the war and many of them endured in the attempt to stay alive. The same for POW's captured by the Japanese. Life is a lot more precious than freedom for most people. I don't mean that those who choose liberty rather than life are not heros, but they are heros because their act is extraordinary.

There comes a point when you have to have faith in the people you elect. Life is full of risks and we could mistakenly elect a sneaky bastard who could wreck it all but if we go too far the otherway and lose that trust in each other and in government, it would be almost impossible to function as a society. It is all a trade off.

Privacy is over rated to a certain degree. How are my medical records of any interest to anyone but my Doctor and myself. If they were printed on the front page of the Globe and Mail, would that have the slightest impact on my life, good or bad? I can't think of anything in my life that would be of interest to anyone...except for those times on Saturday nights in Calgary...but then nobody knows about that except...

Now that would be great if i'm skiing in the back country and get lost. Good idea. It would make search and rescue a lot safer.

If the government wants me to have a cellphone, I hope they pay for it. The only people who ever call me are those nice people at CRA who warn me about that pesky warrant out for my arrest and the microsoft support who tell me my windows computer has been hacked.

That is something we can agree on. You and I rarely agree. If we did, it wouldn't be very interesting. Thanks.

Rue, do we have another one?

It's all fine and good but some of us don't have a cell phone. As for privacy, people express concern over the government invading our privacy but many of those same people think nothing of sharing their most imtimate details of their lives on social media. In my view, speaking only for myself, privacy is over rated. As that great Canadian sage, Danny Finkleman (Finkleman's 45's) said, people will give up a lot of freedom in exchange for personal security.

It is not a flu virus. It has a higher mortality rate than H1N1, and is far more contagious than SARS, MERS and Ebola. It is no where near as bad as the Black Death which was is believed to have been a combination of Bubonic and Pneumonic plague. It also has a longer incubation period during which the patient shows no symptoms but is contagious for several days. It has killed almost three million people in five months and is only getting started in South America and Africa where its impact will be far worse. In regions where the shut down and testing were vigourous and early, with massive buy-in by the public, the impact of the virus his been moderated. Maintaining public compliance will be the true test. PS. I get the impression you have never met anyone who actually lived under "communism." (It is really just a totalitarian cleptocracy). They would tell you how different and how terrible it really is. We have it pretty great here. If this were really a communist country and I were an officer in the Kometat Gosudarstvenoi Bezopasnoti, Shluzba section, I would be taking notes and one of these days, Argus is going to be asking, "Gee, I wonder where Taxme is?" Of course Argus would be smart enough to not ask because he doesn't want to vanish either. At work,, back in the 1980's and 90's there were a fair number of international students from the People's Republic of China. They lived in the student residences and a few of them were actually Political Officers, there to watch over their flock and give them "guidence" if they required it. Just so you know, real "communism" is very bad. If it were actually here, you would not survive. All power to the Prolitariat, Tovarich.

Maybe Russia? How is the weather there in Moscow, Tovarich?

It is interesting that the earliest known case of covid-19 was in France. Wouldn't it be ironic if it originated in Europe? After all, the "Spanish" flu started in Kansas.

Actually, my favourite classic last words are: "Hey, I can do that. Hold my beer."