overthere

I'm a sceptic still. Their offence is on fire. Their defence is adequate most nights. But I don't trust their pitching at all. Happ and Hendriks at 4 and 5 spots in the rotation? Yikes. Dickey and Hutchison both have ERAs near 4, which ain't gonna work if the hitters have a slow day. Buehrle is lights out right now. The bullpen has been both great and utterly brutal so far. Time will tell which one is reality. Great to see Janssen back in form, they needed him badly. I have trained countless kids how to pitch baseball, and he is a pitcher that I can say to them: throw like that! If they are still in the hunt at the end of August, I'll take a seat on the bandwagon.

It is always instructional to realize that some people think cause and effect have no connection whatsoever.

The EU is not about to fail, but the recent elections have given the big dogs in the Union a reason to step back and examine their future a little more closely. Quite a few members are uneasy about the loss of sovereignty that is increasingly evident in EU direction. Most are Eurozone mebers as well, and some of those are not comfy with the creeping amount of fiscal policy coming from Brussels. Adoption of the EU as a very strong financial buffer against global economic trouble has proved to be not nearly as effective as hoped, because there are key elements missing. Economic policies using a single currency are fine and can serve both weak and strong partners. But without accompanying fiscal policy the Union is far less powerful. But here is the rub: a joint fiscal policy means a serious loss of sovereignty, and nobody much wants to be told to turn over their entire economic direction to people they spent generations mistrusting. Greece for example would be roughly equivalent to Zimbabwe if they leave the EU or are kicked out. If they stay, they are obliged to do what they are told, which galls them enormously. What has saved their asses is another factor entirely: the need for a huge exporting economy like Germany to keep the Euro less valuable. If the weak sisters are dumped in the EU, the Euro would shoot up in value and Germany would be in trouble overnight because their exprots would be so expensive. Even worse for Germany would be if the Euro were abandoned entirely and Germany went back to the mark. So I think everybody will take a step back for a bit.

It's true, I was unaware of the facts on colonialism. Back to school for me! But perhaps not a residential school.

The 100+ years of forcibly taking children from their parents to enjoy several years of state sanctioned starvation, humilation, sexual abuse, religious brainwashing and a jolly introduction to tuberculosis could not possibly have any effect on past or current generations. No way. It must be something genetic in those dirty Indians that makes them want to die. If only they would accept that our way in not just the best way, it's the only way.

of course it has an impact on wealthy powerful people here and elsewhere in the West. At the very least, they have to be careful about what happens in their foreign business, because it can have a really crappy effect on their own lives . In the countries that take bribes, it has a trickle down effect in business. It's a start. I can tell you that corruption cases are in the news in India every day. If a Canadian doing business there got busted for bribery, there'd be an endless stream of stories tracking down who got hwat on the Indian end. Without our bribery laws, that would be much more unlikely. It isn't a solution, but its a start in getting our own house in order. Next we'll help you with global poverty and whirled peas.

Everybody wants more money. You're angry because for the first time ever your employer is telling you to suck it up. Perhaps they could cut health care funding to give you more. I hope the kids don't die before they get speling and grammer lessons from your colleagues.

There are no waits in Alberta, you just phone in for an appt and show up. No money required either. Oh, and unlike Amerikkka, your physician is unlikely to get shot in the parking lot.

For a while, there was a fuss over Canadian women from certain ethnic groups going to the US for a gender determining ultrasound, then possibly an abortion. Dunno what came of that, the furor died down.

Its nothing to get an abortion most provinces, though sometimes you have to travel as clinics or hospitals are not in every village. Kind of like the US. Unlike the US, it if free. As a US visitor, you'd have to pay. The details and your fee schedule are here:http://www.morgentaler.ca/

Dude give it up. You're simply wrong.

You're confused, going to Detroit or Blaine for a rub and tug is not a 'reproductive service'.

Maybe we should steal another couple of generations of their children, teach them some manners. right?

It takes a special kind of brain to equate fracking with the contractual and constitutional obligations of the federal govt relations with First Nations.

I don't get the whining. Clearly the threat of jail time and other penalties from being convicted domestically for international bribery has an effect on the actions of Western corporations. Actually the specific effect is on the persons who run those corporations, which is far more effective. In many cases it will have an effect on the personal lives of those who receive the bribes too. It is a positive start and a vast improvement over past practices globally. I suspect nothing less than a complete turnaround in the nature of humanity would be enough for some though.

Edmonton Oil Kings vs Guelph Storm play today for the Memorial Cup. The Oil Kings beat Val D'or on Friday in triple overtime to get to the final. Guelph is heavily favoured. I'm taking the Kings to gut out another win. On a side note, in every game the Sportsnet commentators have disrespected the Oil Kings. They blab on endlessly about how good their opponents are, while the Kings dominate on the ice. Bizarre stuff. In your ear, Sam Cosentino!

Why would a rich person give a stuff about you, me or our children? Rich people live in big houses, by and large.

You are overlooking the other side of what happens when somebody in Canada or US or Yurp gets busted for bribing people elsewhere: the people who took the bribe elsewhere also get caught. Not just caught, but exposed in their home countries doing something that will likely get them jailed there. If the light of international exposure in a specific- not institutional- case shines on a local, it is a positive thing. 20 years ago it would be brushed aside but now the Internet insures that everybody knows who got what. Getting caught matters at both ends of the bribe.

Atlanta Olympic Games were not a model of organization.

You don't really want to know what happens , do you? That's a problem with having read the books......

Yeah, except his desire to nail Sansa is rooted in his unrequited love for her mother. Extremely creepy IMO. Littlefinger was already creepy, this takes it to a new level. The snow in the courtyard scene where they kiss looked fake. It might fool many, but no Canuckistani is falling for that fluff.

Class size and money are totallly linked anyway.... Decreased class sizes, even without an increase in student numbers, means that more teachers must be hired. There is no way around that: decrease class size, increase number of teachers. And of course pay all of them more. But who cares, the largesse of taxpayers is unlimited.

If only the world was that black and white. India and Indonesia, for example, are not dictatorships. India is in IMO the greatest democracy on earth. Our Canadian influence on their culture is nil and they would laugh in our faces about the Pollyannish notion that we are somehow pure as the driven snow. They'd point out- for example- that the recent global recession that essentially collapsed the global economy was the result of profound greed, lack of regulation/oversight and corruption in Western banks operating under Western laws in Western countries, and very very few people went to jail anywhere for that little buntoss. Our corruption is not smaller, just less distributed.

I noted that Family Services and the provincial board of professionals assigned to assess and intervene in these cases both declined to do so.

Our courts are the only jurisdiction where any coherent action could take place, since the countries that are corrupt also tend to have a severely bent set of judges too.