PocketRocket

Thanks for the link. That was hilarious. In another thread I mentioned something about leaders needing charisma to sway voters. While I am not at all happy with the performance of the Libs over the past several years, in Martin, they picked the right man to lead the party. Charisma, and a sense of humour, and not afraid to be self-deprecating. Hard to not find him likeable.

If this was true then it does not back Spar's remarks but rather Mr. Twiss remarks as the Canadian people a far more tolerant of our goverments misdeeds as they are aware of them daily. . <{POST_SNAPBACK}> North Americans in general NEED to be more tolerant. Considering how much crap we hear about each and every day on the news, we HAVE to be, or we'd all go bloody bananas. Every once in a while, I'll sit and watch, REALLY watch the news. I'll take every story personally, like it's happening to me, or a close friend or family member. It doesn't take long before I have to walk away from the set. Try it some time. You'll realize exactly why we've all become inured to all the crap. It's simple self-preservation.

*ahem* who originated gst??? *ahem* But hey, if you want to sling childish generalizations, the how's this; the Conservatives are all about WHINE WHINE WHINE WHINE because nobody wants them back in after Brian screwed up, and then in true Conservative fashion, jumped ship and left the mess squarely in Kim Campbell's lap. Too bad, too. HER I would vote for.

Have you ever asked yourself WHY the Liberals have continued to get voted into power again and again and again and again and.......??????Hmmmmm????? Perhaps if there was a better alternative out there they would not. I mean let's face it, there HAS to be a conservative who has some charisma, AND some common sense about how to sway a voter's opinion. Unfortunately, whoever those conservatives may be, they are never voted in as party leaders, so we're stuck with choices like, well, like Harper, a cold fish if ever I've seen one. Mulrony, one of the few Cons who DID get in had just that, charisma, and a sense of what the public wanted to hear from a leader. Harper has neither. Joe Clark had a fair bit of both, but had the misfortune to be pitted against PET, who was a walking charisma machine. CPC shoulda stuck with Preston Manning. I voted reform several times before the party, sadly, metamorphosized into something totally other than what it was. Want votes for Conservative??? The answer is simple, get a credible party leader. And just to pick on one more point.... ....if the Libs were "bad" for flip flopping on their promise to remove the GST, then what were the Cons for putting it in place in the first place??? (Translation of #9: If I shit on the floor, it's okay, but if you don't clean it up, you're bad.)

We have this thing now called "abortion".... and this other thing called "adoption". Some of the best behaved children I've ever seen come from homes in which, to feed the family, pennies were pinched so hard that they were turned into copper foil. The state of a family's finances should not be a determining factor in how well behaved a child is. Intelligence, or temperment. Unfortunately, this rather draconian suggestion would not likely be adopted. I have a niece who is, shall we say, not playing with a full deck. She has two kids. The first was taken away by my niece's mother. I don't know where the second is as I have not had contact with them for a couple years. But thankfully my niece got her tubes tied after the second kid (at the insistence of her mother). I shudder to think how those kids would turn out if my niece were to raise them.

Okay, done. no questions, but I will make a comment (or 2, or 3 or..... ) As much as I dislike the idea, because I am not thrilled with how the Libs have behaved in the past several years, I still believe they'll get back in, but as a minority because too many people are also upset with them. The reason for this is that the NDP have never done all that well, and there's no reason to believe they will make all that great a gain this time around. The Conservatives have Harper, who simply doesn't "play" well to a lot of voters. I don't think the Cons will get in this time, either. Alas, I think it'll be Libs again. But at least as a minority they'll have to play ball and not simply have their own way.

G'day, LEAFLESS Well, learn to bake. Nothing like fresh-baked, home-made bread Or, alternatively, use the Marie Antoinette solution, and simply "(let them) eat cake"

Just to address this at face value, from the title of the thread..... I would have to say no. Although some races tend to have higher rates of crime, just being a member of such a race is not a cause in and of itself. This reminds me of an incident several years back. I spent almost 20 years on the road as a touring musician. One week we were playing way up in Moosonee, on the James Bay coast. Had to load our equipment from our truck into a train, and then have it transported via a couple pickup trucks from the Moosonee train station to the arena there. At the gig, the population in the arena was about 95% Native. There were 3 trouble-makers in the crowd that night. All 3 were white guys. Maybe it's just being part of being a minority in any given area that causes people to act out-of-whack. Hard to say. I have done many gigs on reserves elsewhere over the years, and have noticed a similar trend. Natives, who are the majority, all well behaved, whites, the minority, acting up and stirring up shit. Strange.

Sorry RB, I gotta disagree. Some women want to get into a career. Some women want to be housewives. If it makes you feel better, I have a friend who is a stay-at-home dad, while his wife has the career. Does the fact that he accepted this role mean it's the first step in the demise of all men??? If not, then it can be no more true than your assertion. Again, you're painting all men with the same broad brush. Some men want to be dominated (not speaking of sexual habits here, although there's plenty of that as well). Many men have no problem with having their wives "wear the pants" in the family.

Well, I carefully read through your post, but did not see any questions, only statements. Where are these 199 questions??? And wasn't Airbus one of Mulrony's boondaggles??? I seem to remember him taking a lot of flak over Airbus issues.

I agree. Again, agreed. Or they have not applied to this department. I think in a case like this, look first for the best-qualified people, then if there are minority members amongst the group, hire the minority person. But if none of the minority people applying are qualified, then hire THE BEST QUALIFIED PERSON.

Unbelievable. And sick.

Okay. This is first exposure to this story, so I'll have to take the word of everyone who has seen other versions of this story that the boys were black, because that is not mentioned in the TS article AUGUST1991 linked to. (Although I found later it IS mentioned in KIMMY'S link. Thanks to you both) What bothers me is the "Sexual Assault" label. It can mean anything from full-penetration rape to copping an unwelcome feel. "Sexual assault" is like a blanket charge. It covers EVERYTHING that could possibly be construed as having sexual intent. You can get charged for rubbing someone's shoulders, for God's sake. Something needs to be done about that so that someone who grabs a girl's ass in an elevator is not subjected to the same penalties, or the same stigma, as someone who has actually committed rape. Again, I would like to know what form this "assault" took. As for the staff washroom, gotta say the kids got brass. 1) You and me both 2) For a minority person, using the word "race" is a great way to get headlines and sympathy. In some cases it's almost like a minority complex (pun not intended), and any time something happens to them, they feel it's because of racial persecution. I've come up against this a few times in my 15 years on the road. It ain't pretty. 3) Evidently someone is concerned, or the alleged offenders would not have been arrested. 4) See reply above 5) Hmmm. You'd have to be more specific on this one. From KIMMY'S post: It also held this quote...... Hmmmm. A 31-year-old mother of a 16-year-old, who, like, talks totally like a valley girl, like, especially, like, when she's totally, like, in shock. What do you expect, Mom??? You think your kid is going to come home after school and say "I did math, science, remedial reading, and, oh yeah, I sexually assaulted one of my classmates in the stairwell". And the reply, "That's, like, nice dear, like, totally awesome." Uh-huh. Let's see now, my son doesn't tell me he's committing crime, so he just CAN'T be committing crime. Turn off the soap-operas, Mom, real life ain't like that. Maybe if she was concentrating on her own schoolwork instead of popping out kids at 15 years of age, she'd be better equipped to handle parenthood, because it does seem she's the parent of a hood.

China is probably going to change the whole geo-political-economic landscape in the coming years. I mean let's face it, one-third of the world's population is opening its doors for business, with an unbelievably huge cheap-labour pool. The times, they are a' changin'.

Aww, c'mon people, give the poor guy a break. He's 90 years old. He was fighting for Canada before most, if not all, of us were born. He feels he's got some legitimate beefs. IMHO, he has definitely EARNED the right to voice them in public, moreso than any of us have. It's a different world, and a different Canada. For a 90 year old who has watched all the changes over the years, that can all be pretty scary. Especially having to sit beside some mohawk-wearing kid on the bus.

Okay, but as a Canadian, I may have to say something polite to you Oh-oh, I was right, I feel a burst of politeness coming on....... I agree completely. That was the most sensible thing I've read here in ages. Hmmm. That bit of politeness wasn't too bad, I guess It's really hard to say what would have happened with the Soviet Union. Would they have still aspired to unchecked growth via invasion, or was that simply a reaction to what they saw as growing power in the west??? Probably the former, but who knows for sure??? How far would they have gotten??? Without the USA to counter the Soviets, I'm sure Britain and Canada (still strong then) would have stepped up to plate, along with the rest of Nato. In the absence of the USA, other countries would have positioned themselves in more of a war footing. Kinda like WWII. Most of the world was fighting that war. The USA was providing a lot of arms and ammo, but didn't actually join into the war itself until forced in by Japan, and that was quite late in the war. The war in Europe had already been going on for over 4 (???) years at this point. But this all just speculation, and could well lead to some strife right here on this board, so I'll go no further on that train of thought. But I will say this; as long as the USSR was around, the USA served as a check to that threat, and vice-versa. Two superpowers makes for an uncomfortable truce. One superpower makes for a looming threat. Yeah, I know, the USA are the "good guys". So far. But if "absolute power corrupts absolutely", then the citizens of the USA, and the world, must stay on guard. Oh yes, we must also remain polite

G'day, SPAR. Just so you know, this is already being discussed here...... http://www.mapleleafweb.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=4205

No way. Just this morning I saw Canada out there jogging, and again later doing push-ups More seriously, I think the nail was hit squarely on the head when it was pointed out by SPAR that our good Mr. Twiss did not specify exactly what his major complaints are. Let's face it, there have been SO MANY changes over the past 50 years, that to someone who saw Canada then, and today, without actually having lived through the changes, well, they probably wouldn't recognize the country. Mt Twiss did, however, briefly allude to today's politicians being more sleazy than those of his day. Well, I'll take that one with a grain of salt, too. Here's why; the difference is that today's media is so much more inclusive. Parliament hill is under a microscope. Hell, the whole world is. Very little transpires today without almost immediate media coverage. Svend steals a wristwatch??? We all know about it within hours. Bill gets a blowjob??? Details at eleven. Back in the 40's there were no home computers, no TV's, few radios, and all the news announcers all had that brassy voice, and were content to read on the air whatever was handed to them. Investigative journalism had yet to be invented. I would imagine that anyone who has the personality type to be a politician would have the same inherently greedy characteristics, then, just as now. The difference is that for reasons outlined above, the general public would probably not be aware of any corruption in high places. Cold, followed by summer.

Howdy, BB, always a pleasure. You are mistaken, my friend. Exactly right. I voted to give an apology. If you look back you'll see that my beef was solely with monetary reparations. *chuckle* Not so young as you may think, but thanks. But, as previously stated, I already did so my good sir (or madam, as the case may be). I have not, however, voted for "Canada's Most Beautiful Mind". Probably won't, either. Hard to tell whose mind is the most beautiful without actually pulling out their brains and taking photos. Perhaps we should be exercising that kind of poll on all our politicians. I think pulling out their brains would probably serve to raise the average politician's IQ by several points. Hey, no problem. The pleasure is all mind, uh, mine (sorry )

Exactly my point. No one from that time is still alive to collect. The "community" as it stands today can hardly be said to have been damaged, so they should not be getting monetary reparations. In fact it could be argued that the community is stronger as a result of these tribulations of by-gone days. If there's any truth to the old saw about how hardship builds strength, character and spirit, then perhaps WE should be asking THEM to pay us for helping to make them grow stronger Hell, if we went that route, think of all the groups, formerly "persecuted", that we could hit up for this type of thing. We could call it "Character Building Tax"

I think you may have missed the point. No one is going to step forward to collect monetary reparations from something that happened to them PERSONALLY 120 years ago......because they are DEAD. At least that's the assumption. How many 120-year-old people do you know of???

In Ontario, if you're driving 30kph over the posted limit, you are subject to a fine of $210.00. In addition, the cop giving the ticket has the discretion to add on other charges like "Reckless driving", "Endangerment" etc. Considering that cops take your license to their cruiser and radio in to make sure you're a valid driver, he also has indirect access to your driving record. Because of this, a friend of mine (great guy, lousy driver) had several extra charges added to what otherwise would have been a simple speeding charge. When he protested to the cop, he was told that with a record like his he's lucky that the cop didn't pull his license then and there. He was doing about 25 over, and ended up paying close to $500.00, which included a hefty charge for not wearing his seatbelt. But you also have to consider that the most irresponsible drivers are like career criminals; they are not considering the consequences while performing the act.

I disagree. I say let's pay them. All those who personally suffered a wrong at the hands of the Canadian government 120 years ago, please step forward. Anyone??? No??? Okay. On to the next item of business.....

You would think that is the case, but apparently it is not. Look at the case of the Canadian who was busted for selling pot seeds into the USA. (Can't recall his name at the moment, but it's a pretty recent event) If you or I were to go to the USA tomorrow and shoot someone, we would definitely be tried in the USA, under USA laws, for a crime commited in the USA against a citizen of the USA. Don't necessarily need to be a citizen of the USA to be tried by a US court. However, for someone who is NOT a citizen of the USA who may be tried there, it's tough to say what rights that person would have. Would even Miranada still apply???

Hi there, T-Bag I'll try to find it in my heart... Land mines? Or the old abandoned kind filled with rats and zombies like I have seen in those George A. Romero documentaries? Land mines??? Only in the sense that the mines were dug into the land. Although some of those INCO workers do seem kinda zombie-like. Now you have me wondering. Is it on 'Amityville Street'? Surrounded by lovely Karst formations? No, it's not Amityville St, and what the hell is a "Karst formation"??? (Yeah, I'm too lazy to search it, but I'm sure your definition will be funnier than anything Google comes up with) I am having trouble imagining 'luckier'....??????????? Actually, I see a great circular stain on the table where the glass used to be. Watermarks are such a pain to remove.