overthere

Unless Canada gets some customers for our oil other than America, this is not good news at all for our economy as we'll have another strong competitor virtually on our doorstep. Supply and demand, ya know?

I have given multiple examples that demonstarate the opposite, from both ends of the political spectrum. You just keep squawking the same things like some kind of gigantic parrot.

Lets look at that. The local rags run Rob Ford news items because they are owned by Toronto-based corporate entities. My paper had Ford covergage because it was free, cost 'em nothing to fill the paper as comapred to local news that costs money to accumulate. They also had news about Justin Bieber. It is comparable to sports networks like TSN and SportsNet(all Toronto based) running long stories across Canada about Leafs practices. It's the same old navel gazing nonsense seen for generations in the Canadian media. CBC does it too. It makes people from the GTA think the rubes give a shit. We don't.

Cuba and China have strong public education systems, but very little in the way of personal freedom, democracy or 'spocial justice'. Explain the contradiction. Take your time. You still have not made any connection between public education and the strength of a democracy. Any timetable on when that might happen?

Let's be honest. People steal music and movies and books off the Internet because they can get away with it nearly all the time. They would not dream of shoplifting a CD or DVD or print book because..... well not because they have any moral qualms about stealing from the store, but because they fear the consequences of getting caught. On the Internet, they are unlikely to get caught, so they steal. Simple as that.

That is not a particularly articulate rationalization for the theft of somebodys property. It does not matter if the vendor is an artist or somebody who has bought the rights from the artist. ditto

No matter how it is rationalized, downloading copyrighted material is theft. It is not a victimless crime.

yes, you keep saying that but provide nothing at all to back it up. Did you read that slogan on a Tshirt and liked the rhythym? I provided examples of three large and healthy democracies that have signifcant private education components. I'll give you examples of another side of it: Cuba has a totalitarian government and a strong public education system with high degree of literacy. Kerala, a state in India, has had a communist govt for decades and has a very high literacy rate in the world. China has a public school system, high rate of literacy and makes little pretence at democracy. Your turn to provide examples oif how and why you think public education required for a democracy to be strong.

If we as taxpayers are on the hook for large operating deficits and truly massive unfunded pension liabilities, I don't reckon there is anything 'substantially cheaper' about Canada Post delivery costs. It's a long term shell game, and now it is time for all of us to pay for your cheap parcels.

IMO, they should have cut home delivery everywhere in the 1980s. When CPC became a Crown Corp, they got two big advanatges: the first class monopoly , and they got a lot of real estae and equipment assets for free. CPC cannot fix the pension situation, period. They are $6 billion in the hole, and growing. Despite CPC being a supposedly independent, revenue dependent entity the hole they dug themselves is too deep. There is no way out, the taxpayers are going to foot the bill for postie pensions. And all the announcements about downsizing through attrition, cutting back delivery and raising stamp prices dramatically are all just delaying the inevitable. The first class mail protectionist monolpoly has to go- it is increasingly pointless as both businesses and consumers find ways to get around it. When they jack up prices, it will also cut first class volumes even more. They are in a death spiral now. Harper may as well cut our losses by eliminating the monopoly now. We can still sudisdize rural and remote delivery, just as we do now, without pretending not to be. And it won;t be that expensive, the volumes going to Iqaluit and CowMuffin, SK are not large. Disclosure: I know a lot about Canada Post operations because I used to work in their buildings doing signficant contractor things. One of the things they dont talk about much lately is just how horrible their labour relations remain. It's a testament to how bad their senior and middle management has been for a long time. The only reason they have had relatively calm unions recently is that the unions know they are in a seriously sunset business and are just hanging on to what they can while they can. I think a lot of that is going to change soon.

For people outside the bizarre affliction known as The Centre of The Universe, the reaction of Torontonians to Ford is more interesting. The train wreck is the relentless handwringing about how Toronto is perceived. How much do they think the world cares about Rob Ford or Toronto? Answer: not much.

Many countries with floursihing, healthy democracies including India, UK, USA have plenty of private or semi-private education and those are strong democracies. I support public eduction because it serves the most people for the least cost, but cringe at the 'absolutely necessaary' generalization.

Back to the OP, movies seen recently..... I don't bother with listing those seen on TV, these are on at theaters now: Hunger Games: this series is derived from books aimed at a juvenile market and the first one kind of failed to move it out of that target audience. I reckon Chapter Two is quite a bit better, and without giving away any plot it does move towards a climax which will come in Chapter Three. The main reason I have any interest really is that it features Jennifer Lawrence, a young actress who has already accomplished a fair bit and has a killer future. Her very best so far is her role in Winters Bone from a couple years ago. I'd say go see this chapeter but only if you've seen the first one. Dallas Buyers Club: already commented on this, but can repeat that this has at least two Oscar contenders in Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto. McConaughey has gone from barechested fluffmeister to some seriously great work in the last couple of years. Killer Joe, Mud, Bernie and Dallas Buyers Club are all examples of some fine work. DBC is directed by a Canadian, Jean -Marc Vallee. Worth seeing. Philomena: stars Judi Dench and Steven Coogan, a true story of Irish orphans. It's a tearjerker but Dench is so very good at her craft you can overlook the cliched characters and admire a fine actress doing her thing. To be seen soon: The Hobbit, American Hustle

Saw Dallas Buyers Club a few days ago. Matthew Mc Conauaghey is terrific and Jared Leto is better than that. There wil be one or two Oscar nominations out of this movie, though not for Best Picture.

Ballard died 23 years ago. Maybe the Curse of the Harold lives on.

Excuse me? There is no need to be a total asshole, I suggested nothing of the kind and you can go fuck yourself.

I have been wondering about this topic for a while. Like many others, almost all of what we watch now is on DVR. About the only 'destination' TV I consume is sports. With so very many people skipping the ads, what impact does that have on revenues?. Networks cannot expect advertisers to pay full pop for 60 seconds of ad on Mad Men if half the viewers never see it. The OP: the new show I have most enjoyed this year is Ray Donovan. Excellent cast, well written and can't wait for the next season. on Movie Central.

I don't know why you do the things you do. I was commenting on your comparison of the Leafs 47 and counting to the Oilers record, which is grim lately but obviously not in the same league of utter futility. The crazy thing is that the Leafs had about 40 years of no Finals appearances when there was no salary cap. The Leafs are very profitable and could have easily afforded to buy anybody they wanted but chose not to. Perhaps that speaks to how they view their fan base: captive milk cows, the gift that never stops giving..

The only reason I could see Harper calling an election early is if he thinks or knows the economy is headed downhill sharply. He can campaign now on Canada having survived a recession in relatively good shape. If that changes, he's done like dinner. He also knows that the Liberals have yet to raise big bucks off the allure of Trudeaus hairstyle- but they wili sooner or later. My take on the Senate scandal is that many voters don't care. Nothing remotely approaches Adscam, the new gold standard in sleaze.

The shocking number in the last Alberta election was the huge jump in voter turnout. All the people that didn't vote in the last Tory landslide came out for this won, and they all voted.... Tory. They'd seen enough from Danielle Smith and her cast of human dinosaurs. Nary a pundit predicted it. Puzzling. Smith is going to have to dial down the volume on her entire party including herself to have any chance next time. She';ll have to strap muzzles on a majority of her candidates and choke diseent to an extent that would make Harper look loquacious to succeed- and they won't stand for it. She is going to be in a very tough spot.

The Alberta PCs are not a right wing party and neither are the people who voted for them. They are solidly in the center, like nearly all successful parties in Canada. Credit Farmer Ed Stelmach for much of that, he quietly engineered a winning scenario from his own political execution. The provinical Liberals are done here, they sealed their fate by electing the certified idiot Raj Sherman as their leader. Sherman bleated relentlessly about queue jumping scandals, bullied Redford in having a full and expensive public enquiry, and has had to hide ever since when the enquiry came up with a big fat nothing for $10 million. in expenses. Nobody knows or cares where the Liberals are in the political spectrum, I doubt they know themselves. Larry Decore must be rolling in his grave, he came pretty close 20 years ago. I don't see Wildrose gaining much traction in the middle. To do it they'd have to do exactly what the PCs did a few years ago: jettison all the hardcore Godbotherers and right wing lunatic fringe from their ranks. What would be left of Wildrose? The PC party.... Won't happen, not soon anyway.

Neither can I, I confess I haven't watched that one. I just threw it in to see if anybody was paying attention. It is an actual movie though. Who was discussing that? Cybercoma defined the context a while back.. On the other hand, Wall E is a far, far better movie about space than Gravity. mmm, good one. Gravity has terrific CGI and a feeble central character, an accomplished scientist who is (not believably) reduced somehow to gibbering paralysis by any hint of stress. Contact has a compelling story that is burdened by some awkward subplots and is at least half an hour too long. I'd have to call this one a tie. Matthew McConaughey is a lead in Contact, one of the tiring subplots that add little to the story. I mention him because I saw him in Dallas Buyers Club last night. This guy has done a 180 degree turn in his career in the last few years. Most of his previous roles involve him preening without a shirt,a poor mans hunk. Lately he has had some great turns in good movies: Bernie, Killer Joe, Mud, and now Dallas Buyers Club. For me, he has gone from being an actor to more or less avoid to one I will watch for with anticipation.

"The big lies the LCBO perpetuates are that their prices are set for social responsibility and the workforce has to be very well paid union staff to keep alcohol out of minors." You cannot expect anything at all from the management of any Crown agency or department in terms of fiscal responsibility. Every manager in the bloated hierarchy must have people reporting to them and budget to 'manage' to maintain their tenured positions and plump salaries. They have to find other reasons to pretend civil serviants are required to sell an everyday commodity. There are no compellig reasons, so they come up with weak crap like 'social responsibility. The only ones with both the ability and motive to privatize are the politicians. They won't do it because they fear the political power of civil service unions, who go utterly apeshit when they hear of any move to eliminate a single job, the reasons don't matter to them. You are right about privatized businesses - liquor stores and bars- being very careful about checking for minors. They have everything to lose.

In what way was Stalin a nation builder or in any way interested in freeing his oppressed people?

Both were heavily involved in the birth of their nations. Nothing opposite there, though the paths they took were different. A great deal of that divergence was due to the nature of their respective opposition; the situations were different but the objectives and outcomes were similar. Interim outcome would be more accurate in the case of South Africa, it is too early now. Gandhi was an extraordinary warrior