overthere

True, Obama was too busy building US export capacity, and banning Keystone XL on the pretense that it has something to do with the environment was convenient. The real reasons were to buy time for him to build US capacity and infrastructure, and to eliminate the competition from CDN oil. "MIssion Accomplished". Not only that, there are many mentally deficient people in Canada who think it was a green initiative.

It is certainly possible that NA could beat Canada, though admittedly Canada looks really strong.. The record of North America against the semi finalist is very strong after all. North America beat Europe- a semi finalist- twice and beat them handily both times. They also defeated the other semi finalist, Sweden. They should have beaten Russia too, in a very close game. Canada- Russia depends a lot on the goalies. Bobrovsky looks very good, and Carey Price will have to play well.

If? What are you talking about? There is no question whatsoever that China executes prisoners. The number has dropped to an estimated 2,500 or so in recent years, a number no doubt influenced by potential victims running for their lives to places like....Canada. The tradition is for their families to pay for the ammunition required, posthumously. Why do you think they want them returned? For a stern talking to? So your angle is to let a bunch get extradited and killed, or torutured in their system of kangaroo courts , then launch a court battle here? WTF is wrong with this country lately?

No. Any team led by Dion or McKenna is severely handicapped before they begin. And they have begun. And of course Trudeau is not around enough to provide direction, beyond the relentless search for new slogans. Did you see the laughable piece with Dion pumping Trudeaus tires? This handjob is what passes for a day at the offcie now in Ottawa. http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/canadian-politics/justin-trudeau-is-now-the-most-prominent-and-popular-politician-on-the-planet-dion-says

Finland just did not have enough offence this tournament, only scored one goal in three games. But the future looks OK, they have some really good young forwards in Laine , Pululjarvi, and Aho, some promising defencemen and Finnish goalies are always great. Next time!

Team North America were expected to do poorly here, or at best were an unknown quantity. Their defence was seen as a weak spot. But they followed the old quote from Wayne Gretzky, who said ' defence is less important when your team always has the puck'. What stirred the drink for hockey lovers was the insane speed that they played at, very exciting firewagon hockey. They won two out of three games, and should have beaten Russia...... If they had hung in and beaten the Swedes in regulation rather than overtime, they would have ended up in a 2 way tie for first place, and would have gotten through on goal differential tie breaker.... they were that close.

That is the most tortured analogy I have seen here for quite a while.

Hire some qualified people to do a trade deal, one that is not linked to extortion on other issues like release of prisoners, extradition treaties to countries without due process or fake canola crises. Trudeau, Dion and McKenna are just not capable at this level..

LIke NAFTA? Please stop trying to sell this rubbish.

Not surprisingly, the only Western democracies that have extradition treaties with China are Spain and Australia. Spain did the treaty as part, an incidental part, of a much bigger trade agreement whereby China invested heavily in Spanish solar technology and manufacturing. The Chinese subsequently took the technology home, and built their own industry using much cheaper labour. The extradition treaty remains, the Spanish jobs in that sector are gone too because they cannot compete with hina now. Australia engaged in the treaty with China because they are in the position of having to do what they are told to do by their largest customer by far. Oz is a huge commodity producer, and China matters a great deal to them. Let's speak frankly: Australia doesn't want Asian immigrants much anyway, so if they have to return some to China for execution or kangaroo courts it won't bother them as much as losing for example a gas or coal or iron ore supply contract. The treaty with Canada is a wee section of the a very similar blueprint played out in Australia. Trudeau, Dion and McKenna will have a very different spin on the matter, but that is where it is going under their watch. I don't think any of them, singularly or collectively, are up to the task of negotiating with China.

I am far too mature these days to engage in any behaviour that involves dropping trousers and flashing the big white orbs.

That might be the only time in his life Kessel made a joke, and it really pissed off some of his Team America compatriots. It was directed at Team USA management for not picking him, but as noted he is a renowned floater. And he had hand surgery after the season. On the other hand, team USA was really short on offence- which is where Kessel shines. He might be a floater, but he undeniably gets it done on offence. In balance, Phil should have kept his piehole shut..... Go Finland!!! I think they have a very legitimate shot at winning, which is enhanced by their loathing of Russia and Russians.

Mulroney? Ben Mulroney? What about John Turner? And Tupper- what a jerk! Slogan: "Vote Trudeau, we do not have enough drama at food banks!!!" I realize now why Trudeau has joined the Chinese puppet bank AIIB. Sooner rather than later, borrowing to finance an uncontrolled deficit from other sources is going to get difficult. So Justin borrowing $1 billion to buy shares, to borrow it back later, is prudent. It is akin to a drunk hiding a bottle of gin in the garden shed.

The young guns are in tough against Sweden, who play a really disciplined shutdown game, have a great defence and solid goalie. I'd love to see them win though, I think they would play Canada in a semi final in that event, and Sweden would meet Europe. It is also very possible that the North Americans could go through with a loss to Sweden, assuming that Finland beats Russia. NA has the best goal differential of Finland Russia and themselves. If Sweden loses and Russia wins, Sweden goes through unless the Russians greatly improve their goal differential. There are several permutations, my point is that NA is not in a bad position f they get into a tiebreaker, though of course winning is their easiest path.

You can still edit your plainly stated generalization: It is simply not true.

That is simply not true. At all. Ever been to Istanbul? London? Toronto?

That is surprising, since there have been countless cases of jetliners fully loaded with fuel flying at 400 mph directly into 110 storey buildings. What puzzles me is the airliner that did not fly into the Pentagon. Where did it go? When will it land. They must have run out of peanut and pretzel snacks by now. Does this study mention the central role of The Joos and Mossad?

Nothing serious, since we came into this fiscal year with a surplus as agreed by the Dept of Finance and the PBO. I agree with you, it has not taken long for Justin to drive the economy into the crapper. And these will soon be considered the good old days, the flight of investment , capital and jobs has only just begun. Sunny Ways. Now please, tell me more about that ratio of increasing deficits to a shrinking or non expanding works again.....

Is that the big deficit that came at the absolute insistence and threat of three opposition parties in the midst of the greatest global economic meltdown since the Great Depression? Trudeau did not even have an actual recession to blithely dump at least $30 billion on us. Yippie ki yay. Look, I get that you think massive deficits are meaningless. You are wrong.

oooh, envy. And enjoy, it should be very quick! I am enjoying the NA team because they play throwback hockey, the run n' gun style of the 80s. Super fast, lots of goals and 'what the hell is 'the trap'?'. I think they will do OK against teams like Russia. Where they might flounder is against hardcore defensive teams, and teams that have really good defencemen, like Canada and Sweden. The Sportsnet Toronto- centric coverage of the games is getting very annoying. Last night they were bleating the idiocy that Auston Matthews has been the big story so far. Really? The reason he got 6 shots against the Finns was because he kept getting sweet feeds from McJesus.

That is a beautiful baseball venue, and there is never a wrong time to go there. Unless it is raining, Seattle sucks in the rain. They did not look very competitive against the Angels in the last couple of games. They looked defeated from the first pitch of each, despite having won the first two games.. I don't think Gibby has ever had this room, or lost it long ago. So very many selfish at bats, all season!! And both Gibbons and the team just refuse to play to win. Mike Sioscia of the Angels gave a masters clinic in managing a mediocre team into winning those two games, I doubt Gibby even noticed. And back to my latest whipping boy, Bautista. What does he do for this team that warrants him hitting cleanup? Every at bat has him pouting and whining about umpires calls on balls and strikes, and now the much of the rest of the team does it often too. He is the opposite of 'leader'. and it is clearly contagious. He should be hitting 6th to 8th on the days he plays at all.

No, he is not saying the budget will balance itself, he is saying that massive deficit spending is sustainable indefinitely.

Yes, because economists are always right, and that math works according to you. It is errant nonsense to assume that adding 15% to our national debt per year every year is sustainable. I assumes steady, high GDP growth that won't happen, and interest rates that remain close to nil. Would you be interested in buying a bridge? Why do you hate future generations?

I think they played both the US and CDN anthems for the North America team, and nothing for the Yurpeens. Maybe they should play the latest Eurovison song contest winner for the Euros, even though that dismal musical swill would drive the crowd shrieking into the night.