tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57029182011-05-21T04:57:20.766-07:00CanadawideExplorations of Modern Life Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.comBlogger1401100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-55010309925781847092007-02-23T13:06:00.000-08:002007-02-23T13:07:36.509-08:00The notion that the lack of an elected senate in anyway constitutes a democratic deficit is patently absurd. As is implied by the notion of a triple E senate, for example, the senate in its current form is an ineffective body devoid of any real powers. The senate adds nothing to the genuine democratic process of the House of Commons and so can not take away anything either.Still, that begs the Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-24463755850496106382007-02-20T02:38:00.000-08:002007-02-20T02:39:12.974-08:00It is time for the Liberal Party to wake up. Polls and focus groups will not provide them with a winning template. The party lacks the resources, the media presence, a strong grass roots base, and quite frankly the people to effectively appeal the “average” Canadian.” The news is not all bad though. Such an approach produces just as many duds as successes. Paul Martin was one such dud. To Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1170751912279675142007-02-06T00:51:00.000-08:002007-02-06T00:51:52.303-08:00Politics is about who is able to define whom. The Liberals need to define the Conservatives. The Liberals understand this of course. What they do not seem to understand is that a winning issue is not always a vote getter. SSM was great example. At the polls it was looser. Canadians were spilt on the issue, but the older one is the more likely one is to be opposed and to vote. The Liberals never Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1168163793579870932007-01-07T01:49:00.000-08:002007-01-07T01:56:39.093-08:00I have long bemoaned vote splitting on the left. However, it would be shame if the NDP were to disappear. The NDP has a place in Canadian politics. At its worst, the NDP is what is today under Jack Layton. Layton seems to believe that there is but one measure of political success in Canada and that is the number of seats one wins. Hence, the 2006 election was deemed an improvement on the 2004 Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1161852168177058112006-10-26T01:42:00.000-07:002006-10-26T01:42:48.203-07:00I interviewed Liberal leadership candidate Stephane Dion on Sunday. I must thank Jason Cherniak http://jasoncherniak.blogspot.com/ for helping set things up and say special thanks to Dion for agreeing to do the interview. Of all the candidates, Dion has been the most accessible to the blogging community. http://jasoncherniak.blogspot.com/ I had emailed the candidates a survey back in Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1161040479666024592006-10-16T16:14:00.000-07:002006-10-16T16:14:39.683-07:00MHF agrees with Ignatieff. Harper lacks a strategy for Afghanistan. However she believes that this was evident all along and “Harpers lack of strategy is why I would have voted no”. This sets her and Ignatieff apart; both agree with the mission in principle, but she was more skeptical of Harper’s ability to pull it off. Politically, this is a very clever approach and one Ignatieff and Kennedy Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1155710622610416922006-08-15T23:43:00.000-07:002006-08-15T23:43:42.623-07:00Strangely, the candidates seem content run on the same platform that got the Liberals tossed from office back in January. Stranger still is the fact that the favorites have been the ones taking the chances (e.g. carbon tax) and the candidates with virtually nothing to loose are the ones playing it most safe.Hedy Fry is the best example of a candidate who should be making noise, but is not. IndeedKobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1151569146492132892006-06-29T01:18:00.000-07:002006-07-02T00:42:43.783-07:00Peace keeping means what it says. It involves keeping the peace between two identifiable warring factions who want peace and have invited third party in to keep it. It really only has a hope of succeeding when those groups are separated from one another by geography. In this sense Ignatieff is right about the Afghanistan mission and the others dead wrong. Afghanistan is not suited to peace Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1150870240839306452006-06-20T23:10:00.000-07:002006-06-22T00:00:52.350-07:00Saying that intervening in foreign conflicts purely for humanitarian reasons is bad foreign policy is certainly legitimate -in fact, this is basically the position of the neocons who dominate the Bush administration (and recall that Bush himself opposed "national building" like NATO's eventual intervention in Yugoslavia after the spectacular failure of the UN in the 2000 election campaign). The Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1150627725766436462006-06-18T03:48:00.000-07:002006-06-18T23:19:06.826-07:00I would love it if a Liberal candidate made a speech resembling the following. Peace keeping means what it says. It involves keeping the peace between two identifiable warring factions who want peace and have invited third party in to keep it. It really only has a hope of succeeding when those groups are separated from one another by geography. As guerilla war supplants state on state Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1150430450220459952006-06-15T21:00:00.000-07:002006-06-15T21:00:50.236-07:00Bob Rae /http://www.bobrae.ca/enontheissues.php has adopted the NDP line that the problem with Afghanistan is that our role has supposedly changed and we have moved from being peace keepers to peace makers. "The unilateral extension of the combat mission is a departure from Canada's traditional role of peacekeeping and reconstruction. Bob believes Canada could have instead focused our military, Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1149811348559530522006-06-08T17:01:00.000-07:002006-06-08T17:02:28.570-07:00Actual policies associated with multiculturalism mean very little and if the associated programs disappeared tomorrow not much would change. That said, the importance of multiculturalism does not lie there. Over the years it has morphed into a founding story of who we are. Indeed it is the antithesis of what conservatives, such as Travers, drone on about. Travers: “In pursuing multicultural Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1149575865767773792006-06-05T23:37:00.000-07:002006-06-05T23:37:45.780-07:00US foreign policy, both real and imagined, is the well spring of terrorism. Anyone who believes the Bush line about they attack the US because they hate their freedoms is an idiot. Similarly anyone who believes Harper’s application of the Bush line to Canada is also an idiot. "We are a target because of who we are, and how we live, our society are diversity our values.” As with US, the major boneKobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1148848169585450572006-05-28T13:27:00.000-07:002006-05-28T13:34:52.770-07:00Decriminalization marijuana, a promise to anyway, SSM and Canada’s opposition to Iraq made Canada in the words of Economist “cool”. Other publications expressed similar sentiments and all cases above three where the focal points. For example: The New Yorker: “They have a comparatively sensible approach to the drug problem: while our federal government tries strenuously to put marijuana Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1148778528587020032006-05-27T18:08:00.000-07:002006-05-27T18:08:48.600-07:00The Le Dain Commission called for Marijuana to be decriminalized some 33 ago. quote:------------------------- ------------------------- ------------------------- -----"The ordinary citizen, seeing the assertions implied by the law frequently belied by pharmacological fact or the effects that he himself experiences in the use of drugs, has long since ceased to look for a relationship between the Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1146894391911852932006-05-05T22:45:00.000-07:002006-05-05T22:46:31.926-07:00The Liberal Party of Canada is broken. Its political strategists are grossly incompetent and the party has no long term strategy to speak of. However that is not the worst of it; the party has lost the ability to inspire; it is party without a soul or character. The confrontational, impish, poetic and witty Trudeau is gone, as is the crusty, cagy street fighter Chrétien. The last Liberal leader Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1145256375126749632006-04-16T23:42:00.000-07:002006-04-18T03:17:26.320-07:00The timing of the 2004 election call was all wrong for the Liberals. I told this to a Liberal MP during the 2004 election. He agreed. I said that he should have called a late fall election to coincide with the US election. The Liberals could have more easily painted Bush and Harper as two peas in a pod. However, Martin never fully realized what a pariah Bush had become until well into 2005 and heKobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1143099478751551392006-03-22T23:30:00.000-08:002006-03-22T23:40:40.433-08:00Trevor Carolan: North Shore News ColumnistConservative MPs and ideologues alike have adopted 2006 Conservative candidate’s Rondo Thomas’s most famous utterance as their mantra: “the facts don’t matter.” North Shore News columnist Trevor Carolan is such an ideologue. He is trying to wrestle the title of village idiot away from fellow North Shore News columnist Trevor Lautens. The North Shore News Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1139877544334279812006-02-13T16:36:00.000-08:002006-02-13T16:42:08.120-08:00Trevor Lautens Election Wrap upTrevor Lautens begins his 2006 election rap up http://www.nsnews.com/issues06/w012206/014306/opinion/014306le1.html with “So the West wanted in.” He must be recycling old material from elections past. The Liberals won the most seats in Vancouver and NDP the most seats on the Island. Both are West of Alberta, and Prince George. Politics in Canada is no longer Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1136026893968936482005-12-31T02:47:00.000-08:002006-01-08T15:54:06.176-08:00Cindy Silver Sharon Hayes Endorsement Goes MissingNorth Vancouver Conservative candidate Cindy Silver once listed former Reform MP and current Focus on the Family board member Sharon Hayes as having backed her campaign. The endorsement has vanished from her website, but it can still be found. "When I first met Cindy twelve years ago I saw in her a unique combination of skills. Here is a woman Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1119748040259512562005-06-25T17:57:00.000-07:002005-06-25T18:10:35.760-07:00Tories get Schooled There are conflicting reports as to who approached whom the week before last. However, both the Conservatives and Liberals acknowledged that they had talks over delaying 38.Conservative House leader Jay Hill laid out Conservative thinking for the media. First he said that the passage of bill 48 was basically a forgone conclusion. “eventually they're going to get C-48 anyway." Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1118718490110792052005-06-13T20:02:00.000-07:002005-06-26T03:33:21.300-07:00Vote Liberal it will Annoy The RepublicansListening to Stephen Harper you would think that Canada has never been less relevant to the United States. “We've just become increasingly irrelevant to a country [U.S.] that has a lot of priorities…” (CBC Newsworld, July 11, 2003). In reality the opposite holds true. Our trade with the US is at an all time high. Not only are they are biggest trading Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1118600486639540262005-06-12T10:50:00.000-07:002005-06-14T02:39:21.293-07:00North Vancouver Conservative Candidate Cindy Silver and her PR man at the North Shore News Doug Collins, may he burn in hell, once wrote for the North Shore News. Ted White was once the MP for North Vancouver. The two were friendly. During the 1990s whenever a federal election rolled around, people from outside the North Shore would smirk and say “Ted White will win again; North Vancouver is DougKobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1116899255931754582005-05-23T18:25:00.000-07:002005-05-28T13:53:36.273-07:00Harper the Ideologue On March 19th the Globe and Mail (subscription wall) ran a “news” article from the Canadian press entitled “Conservatives shed Reform baggage in move to centre”. The focal point of the article was Elsie Wayne’s failure to have the party stand against abortion, but the article did mention others. “Also removed from party’s platform were planks calling for the creation of a Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1112950165877932532005-04-08T00:07:00.000-07:002005-04-08T01:49:25.876-07:00It looks like the party is content to let the sponsorship scandal wash over them. Why? To use an old cliché, the best defense is a good offense. One of the only respites the Liberals have had in the sponsorship scandal coverage has been the gay marriage debate. Why stop with gay marriage? The Conservatives did their utmost to avoid issues, such as euthanasia, at their party convention last month Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1112292155255273922005-03-31T09:56:00.000-08:002005-03-31T10:02:35.256-08:00I love this quote and only wish I came accross this first. A Pennsylvania pastor said this about those who attack the teaching of Intelligent Design."We've been attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of the culture" Pogge says it all. "Um, pastor? Think about that." Let me make something clear. The problem with ID is not some of the negative arguments made by its proponents. For exampleKobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1111974097155664502005-03-27T17:40:00.000-08:002005-03-27T17:48:09.143-08:00In the fall of 2003 there was a buzz surrounding Canada's plans to legalize same sex marriage and to decriminalize pot and not just in the Canada. Prominent US news organizations wrote glowing articles about Canada being a northern Nirvana.the New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/?030707ta_talk_hertzbergFrom the NY Times Magazine: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/06/magazine/Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1111211979644306452005-03-18T21:56:00.002-08:002005-03-18T21:59:39.646-08:00A distinction is usually made between “civil marriage” and “religious marriages”. The two are said to overlap for the most part. However, not all civil marriages are conducted in a place of worship and not all religious marriages are recognized by civil authorities. Now, those who oppose gay marriage do not oppose “religious” gay marriage; they oppose “civil” gay marriage. Various religious Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1105522109377359532005-01-12T00:31:00.000-08:002005-01-12T01:28:29.376-08:00As I said, I find the traditional rationales for MD unconvincing.
The notion that any nation, “rogue” or otherwise would attack the US with ICBM is MAD.
To repeat, a more likely justification, that fits in nicely with the newly minted doctrine of preemption, is that the purpose of the shield is to prevent "rogue" nations, such as Iran with limited nuclear and missile technology from setting up Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1105518895689609882005-01-12T00:00:00.000-08:002005-01-12T00:34:55.690-08:00I have never been a Randy Moss fan. However, the controversy surrounding his pretending to moon Green Bay fans rates just above the reaction to Janet Jackson’s "wardrobe malfunction". In fact in many ways it was worse. Current Colts coach and former TB coach Tony Dungy put it into context. According to Dungy, GB fans traditionally moon the opposing team’s bus as it pulls away from the stadiumKobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1105088118953505522005-01-07T01:54:00.000-08:002005-01-07T00:55:18.953-08:00The purpose missile defense, should it ever gets up and running, is not to defend against Russian missiles, or Chinese missiles. The idea that such a system would work against the Russians is absurd. The purpose is to prevent "rogue" nations, such as Iran with limited nuclear and missile technology from setting up a nuclear umbrella, which would deter the US from attacking. In this sense the Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1103795736235091642004-12-23T01:54:00.000-08:002004-12-23T01:55:36.236-08:00Suddenly saying “Merry Christmas” has become a political act. It is part of concerted effort by social conservatives to take back the holidays from those “liberals” wishing to wash away any religious connotations associated with such traditions. The whole debate drives me around the bend.
Both sides mistakenly believe that the traditions they wish to prop up or do away with still have the Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1103768812570694242004-12-22T18:25:00.000-08:002004-12-22T18:26:52.570-08:00"Thirdly, the process that was undertaken to rewrite the definition of marriage has been absolutely repellant. Attempting to litigate a change in a social institution based on some misguided notion of "right" is a deplorable practice in and of itself. If this was a widely suported initiative it would simply have been raised directly in Parliament."
One of the jobs of the judiciary is strike downKobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1103321154579126912004-12-17T14:04:00.000-08:002004-12-17T14:05:54.580-08:00“The only real way to curb gun violence is to fight with the culture of violence in our country. Whether this is possible with the huge amount of television (culture) and video games (enabler) we surround ourselves with would also make a good debate.”
“If you google up a UBC report which focused on three cities in interior BC as they were introduced to television, you will see that that study Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1103229793115656282004-12-16T13:40:00.000-08:002004-12-16T12:43:13.116-08:00The civil marriage option solves nothing for the opponents of gay marriage. People could still marry someone of the same sex and it would have the same legal standing, viz., nothing, as someone marrying someone of the opposite sex. This they do not like and so no social con speaks of Holland as having workable compromise.
Divorced from the rights issue, churches would be free to marry whom Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1102028926068830292004-12-02T15:06:00.000-08:002004-12-02T15:08:46.066-08:00I sent the following to PBS.
"During the Wednesday December 1 2004 segment on Canada US relations two comments in Gwen Ifill’s lead up were misleading.
1) GWEN IFILL “Prime Minister Martin's efforts to initiate a thaw in icy U.S./Canadian relations were complicated when a liberal member of parliament, Carolyn Parrish, mocked and abused a President Bush doll on Canadian television. She was Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1099905249423646802004-11-08T00:11:00.000-08:002004-11-08T01:14:09.423-08:00American Liberals wanting to leave "Jesus land", Vancouver BC Canada is the place for you
If you like Seattle, this is the place for you. Only be for warned, if you do not like rain, or prefer a place with clearly marked seasons, you are not going to like Vancouver. We have two seasons, rain and summer. When the sun shines, though, Vancouver is one of the world’s most picturesque cities and Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1099596870365379602004-11-04T11:33:00.000-08:002004-11-04T11:34:30.366-08:00Will it be business at usual for Bush and company, or will Bush move to unit a divided country? A Litmus test will be what happens with Rumsfeld. There is general bi-partisan agreement that serious mistakes have made in Iraq and that the person most responsible for these mistakes is Donald Rumsfeld and the cadre of Neo-Cons at the DOD.
The Slate’s Fred Kaplan lays out the case for such a Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1099469611920266912004-11-03T01:12:00.000-08:002004-11-03T00:13:31.920-08:00Humble pie is in the oven. I am about ready to pronounce time of death. The gulf between America and the rest of the Western world became that much greater. We now turn our back on you America. You have made your bed; now lie in it. The night could not have gone better for Bush.
Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1099414054290440722004-11-02T08:45:00.000-08:002004-11-02T08:47:34.290-08:00My prediction
Drum role please.
Barring a terrorist attack, Kerry will win and it will not be as close as many people have been predicting.
I do not know whether there is more or less to the Democratic claims about vote suppression, but this will emerge as the story. There is no better cure for voter apathy among a particular group than to try to suppress the vote of that group. Either wayKobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1099173843105344012004-10-30T15:02:00.000-07:002004-10-30T15:04:03.106-07:00 Since Bush took office, the Vancouver Sun has regularly trotted out editorials decrying Canadian Anti-Americanism. Of particular concern of these Bush apologists has been Carryon Parrish ‘bastards” comment and Françoise Ducros’s “moron” comment. To my knowledge, no Sun columnist has ever taken credit for one of these childish pieces and with good reason; they have their reputations to Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1099126834609612062004-10-30T01:59:00.000-07:002004-10-30T02:00:34.610-07:00Capitalism is not an ideology; it is economic system. As for Marxism, it is a critique of capitalism and its central tenants were first laid out by Marx some 150 years. These include, but are, by no means, limited to the following theses, declining rate of profit, the immiserization thesis, thesis, the labour theory of value, class consciousness, and proletariatization.
Now, contrary to Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1098691791532298662004-10-25T00:07:00.000-07:002004-10-25T01:09:51.536-07:00I would like to make two clarifications about the last post. First, Multiculturalism helped speed up the process of cultural change and make the transition less painless. It was not the driving force behind cultural change; increased immigration was. Another important factor that helped birth the new Canada was that social mobility for new Canadians has been, relatively speaking, pretty good.Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1098613154969802312004-10-24T03:18:00.000-07:002004-10-24T03:19:14.970-07:00Official multiculturalism has been a success, but not in ways usually appreciated. Official multiculturalism proved to be the death nail Anglo Canadian identity based on god, king and country. As it stood Anglo Canadian values were not woven together by prominent national myths as in the United States and without official state sanction such an identity simply dissolved as Canada opened its Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1098302780576891862004-10-20T13:03:00.000-07:002004-10-20T13:06:20.576-07:00http://slate.com/id/2108429/ "Kerry's health-care speech Monday in Tampa was a classic of the form. The written text contained a little more than 2,500 words. By the time he was finished, Kerry had spoken nearly 5,300 words—not including his introductory remarks and thank-yous to local politicians—more than doubling the verbiage. Pity his speechwriters when you read the highlights below. It's notKobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1098221164726951092004-10-19T14:25:00.000-07:002004-10-19T16:18:27.246-07:00Deficit spending invariably leads to higher interest rates; high interest rates are not only a drag on the economy, but are many ways the same as a tax increase.
As for taxes, I quite frankly have no desire to pay to the private sector in terms of fees what I am now paying to the government in terms of taxes for the same service and I totally disagree with the Harper maximum that there is more Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1097882328421062042004-10-15T16:17:00.000-07:002004-10-15T17:01:01.346-07:00Belief and Desire not Choosen
Beliefs are not something one chooses. I do not choose to believe there is a computer screen in front of me, nor do I choose to believe I am now typing. I just so believe. The same goes with desires. I do not choose to desire a glass of water. I just desire one. Why anyone would think it any different when in comes to sexual desire is beyond me. The whole debate Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1096963686550622592004-10-05T00:04:00.000-07:002004-10-05T01:28:19.590-07:00Kerry and I seem to be in the same boat:
Me: what I sent to the Democrats: “It was a mistake to outsource the job of encircling Bin Laden at Tora Bora to the Northern Alliance. The world’s most powerful army would have done a better job.”
Kerry: “I would not take my eye off of the goal: Osama bin Laden. Unfortunately, he escaped in the mountains of Tora Bora. We had him surrounded. But we Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1096755235314390672004-10-02T15:07:00.000-07:002004-10-02T17:58:25.600-07:00Tora Bora "Disaster"
http://www.indepundit.com/archive2/2004_election/ “So here’s my question for Senator Kerry, the armchair general (who served in Vietnam, don’t you know):
What would you have done differently in Afghanistan?
Presumably, he would have used American military forces, instead of “outsourcing” the effort to local warlords. But what forces where available in theater at the time? Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1096536576965899222004-09-30T00:28:00.000-07:002004-09-30T02:53:10.590-07:00Outsourcing Tora Bora
I was planning to sell anti-bush T-shirts with slogans on them. Alas, shipping costs proved prohibitive. So, I fired off one of the sayings I thought up to the Democrats on a whim. This is what I sent them: “It was a mistake to outsource the job of encircling Bin Laden at Tora Bora to the Northern Alliance. The world’s most powerful army would have done a better job.” Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1096534224177837052004-09-29T23:49:00.000-07:002004-09-30T01:50:24.176-07:00In his most recent article for Slate, Hitchens says that things have gotten so bad for the Democrats that some unnamed Democrats are not only entertaining paranoid fantasies about the Republicans harboring Bin Laden somewhere only to trot him out at the right time, but they are actually hopping, at least “subliminally”, for bad news from Iraq. http://slate.com/id/2107193/
Now, I am sure Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1096408139852609832004-09-28T14:47:00.000-07:002004-09-28T14:49:57.366-07:00From the Weekly Standard http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/004/686yfvgm.asp?pg=2 "European governments are steadily beginning to realize that Kerry will ask the Europeans for all kinds of things they will be unwilling or unable to provide. The Democrat has staked his candidacy on getting more international support in Iraq and Afghanistan. He will find it hard to take "Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1096313084070569812004-09-27T13:10:00.000-07:002004-09-27T12:29:11.506-07:00The fact that the US gets most of oil from sources outside the Middle East is neither here nor there when it comes price. The US is dependent on oil and much of the world's oil production is centered in the Middle East. If oil does not flow freely from that area, the price of oil will skyrocket. If supply dips and demand stays the same, prices will go up. What is more, Saudi Arabia is unique in Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1096263452845436812004-09-26T22:36:00.000-07:002004-09-26T22:39:07.076-07:00Jay Currie http://www.reviewing.blogspot.com/ “Koby, there was rather a lot to gain by Canada supporting the invasion of Iraq, not the least of which was a seat at the table deciding how best to a) invade, b) handle the occupation. The argument that we should not have gone because Quebec was against the invasion essentially concedes to Quebec a veto over Canada's foreign policy. Remember, in WWIIKobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1096148138345063602004-09-25T14:32:00.000-07:002004-09-25T14:35:38.346-07:00I supported the US going into Iraq, but I never supported Canada getting involved. (The Bush administration’s gross adminstrative incompetence and political hubris has greatly undermined my belief that going in was the right thing. This worried me before going into Iraq, but I fooled myself into believing that they could not botch both Afghanistan and Iraq.) There was nothing to gain for Canada Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1095987035413853182004-09-23T17:48:00.000-07:002004-09-24T13:34:12.093-07:00Mr. Blix argued, as France did, that the Security Council “owned” the resolution 1441 as a collective.
As I said (see previous post), I think Blix is wrong. 1441 stated that if Iraq did not comply with all relevant resolutions, then there would be serious consequences. As 688 was one of the relevant resolutions and America was able to determine when they were in violation of that, it follows Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1095763846499804522004-09-21T00:48:00.000-07:002004-09-21T03:50:46.503-07:00The word “terrorist” has a long and storied history and its use is highly contested to say the least. Its origins date back to the Terror in France and originally applied to state actors, but since it was applied to Russian anarchists in the last 19th century, it has been used to refer to exclusively to non-state actors who illegally use violence or the threat of violence to further certain Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1095541824247711522004-09-18T14:09:00.000-07:002004-09-18T14:10:24.246-07:00BBC reports that some Nadar supporters and Kerry supporters have come to something of a compromise. Nadar supporters in swing states are pairing up with Democrats in solidly red states and promising to support the other person’s candidate. For example, a Nadar support in Florida will promise to vote for Kerry if a Kerry supporter in Texas will vote for Nadar. I like it.
Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1095415437296868742004-09-16T23:03:00.000-07:002004-09-17T03:03:57.296-07:00Andrew Sullivan: "I have to say that the risible statement given by CBS News last night finally did it for me. Who do these people think they are? They have failed to find a single expert who will back the authenticity of the memos; their own experts say they warned CBS not to go with the story; Killian's secretary thinks they're fakes ... and yet Rather and Heyward say they stand by their story Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1095386728240406762004-09-16T19:04:00.000-07:002004-09-16T19:05:28.240-07:00I was wondering one someone in the media was going to discuss the possability, which I raised a few posts back, of the Bushies being behind the forgies.
MAUREEN DOWD NY TIMES: "Here's how bad off the Democrats are: They're cowering behind closed doors, whispering that if it should ever turn out that Republicans are behind this, it would be so exquisitely Machiavellian, so beyond what Democrats Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1095325269385641732004-09-16T00:02:00.000-07:002004-09-16T02:40:51.460-07:00The majority of people in the States do not believe in evolution and a large number of people hold views similar to Stockwell Day’s position. Does this make views such as his respectable? Of course not. Day’s view is intellectual junk and such views are rightly mocked. However, for purposes of rallying the base, Karl Rove and company have helped create a social-cultural environment were such Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1095122850914178062004-09-13T17:45:00.000-07:002004-09-13T17:47:30.916-07:00CBS Forgies: Bushies lucky or Devious?
Slate’s Tim Noah “I can say with confidence that I never would have relied on the documents that 60 Minutes relied on, based on how they were described in its broadcast, had they landed in my lap. But before you pat me on the back and say "well done," you should know that I did make the error of racing to comment on the documents before actually reading Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1095071992621015762004-09-13T00:36:00.000-07:002004-09-13T03:39:52.623-07:00I find the whole Vietnam thing very annoying. Kerry did not so much enlist as preemptively enlist. He has said a number of times that it was inevitable that he was going to be drafted and by enlisting he gained some flexibility. He never supported the war, even when he enlisted. He did not volunteer for the swift boats because they were dangerous. At the time he signed up for them, it was a Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1094853511276527462004-09-10T14:57:00.000-07:002004-09-10T14:58:31.276-07:00From what I have read of Kerry, he was probably solidly against going into Iraq. Temperamentally, Kerry is much like Colin Powell, extremely wary of committing the nation to military action. He is also not unlike his dad a liberal internationalist with realist sympathies; Like any good realist he is profoundly skeptical of political grand versions, but utterly lacking Kissinger’s Machiavellian Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1094852832036487182004-09-10T14:44:00.000-07:002004-09-10T14:47:12.036-07:00Kerry has said he did not dirctly sanction the Iraq war; so as to strengthen Bush’s hand vis-via Iraq, he merely authorized the use of force. The underlying implication being that he believed, or was misled to believe Saddam needed to be disarmed and like any good American he believed the president would only go to war if dipolmacy had been exhausted. At various times he has said the case for Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1094589845216814422004-09-07T13:43:00.000-07:002004-09-07T13:46:51.656-07:00Kerry
The whole Vietnam strikes me as, well, bizarre, but then again the Vietnam War was over by the time I was born and I am also not American. I am simply not moved by what Kerry is purported to have done in Vietnam and I have never understood why a purple heart being a badge of honor. The other side scored a hit. This is not something to celebrate. Sorry, I just felt like being cheeky. The Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1094459166147255182004-09-06T00:13:00.001-07:002004-09-06T01:26:06.146-07:00Jean “Poutine” regularly butchered the English language and from what I am led to believe the French language as well. However, even Chrétien is not as fascinating in this regard as George Bush. Here are some classic Bushisms and other related gems.
Bushisms
"There's an old saying in Tennessee - I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee - that says, fool me once, shame on - shame on Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1094201173731293802004-09-03T01:40:00.000-07:002004-09-03T02:15:43.836-07:00Inadvertently or not, the Vancouver Sun has continually run stories and columns that have painted Harper as a moderate. This is the latest from columnist Barbara Yaffe (July 22, 2004 unfortunately you need a subscription.) “An Alberta-based Christian group keen to become more involved in the political process could be the helpers-from-hell for the Conservative party. At a time when Conservatives Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1094202853854156372004-09-03T00:30:00.000-07:002004-09-07T14:06:55.716-07:00Why Bush is a terrible "War President"
Whatever one thinks about Bush administration’s Wilsonian/ neo-conservative idealism, one thing is certain. The Bushies have badly handled the “War on Terror”.
Troubles arose almost immediately. The administration did not take the Al Qaeda threat as serious as they should have and as a result failed to show leadership in mobilizing the country’s Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1092704845581160092004-08-16T18:05:00.000-07:002004-08-16T18:07:25.580-07:00Why Social Conservatism is not Mainstream
Throughout the Federal election campaign (Canada) I frequently came across the following argument. Given the strong support for social conservatism countrywide, (e.g., on abortion and gay marriage), it is wrong to paint social conservatives as being outside the mainstream. The argument is superficially convincing.
The problem with it is this. What is “Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1089101275468323172004-07-06T01:06:00.001-07:002004-07-06T01:07:55.476-07:00Ted White Looses
What happened in BC election night was that at the same time as Alliance/new Conservative Party lost its status as a Western protest party the Federal NDP partly regained its status as one stopped being weighed down by its provincial brethren. As a result, for the first time since the 1988 election Federal voters returned to the NDP in droves. Moreover, the unpopularity of the Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1088274574996755822004-06-26T11:27:00.000-07:002004-06-26T11:29:34.996-07:00Conservatvie MP Ted White is Bashed by own Staffer
"Dear Anna Marie [Senior Editor North Shore News]
As discussed, I'm forwarding to you a copy of an email message which I received from Mr.Ted White yesterday afternoon. The email contains an attachment which outlines threatened legal action against the NS News based on what I consider to be a convoluted interpretation of the Elections Act and aKobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1086899313049189022004-06-10T13:27:00.000-07:002004-06-10T13:28:33.050-07:00Vote With Your Head and Not with Your Heart
There is no chance of Liberal majority. The Conservatives and Liberals are tied. 32% each. The NDP have no hope in hell of forming a majority. They are at 17%. The best case scenario now, is a Liberal NDP minority government. For this reason, I ask supporters of both parties to vote strategically; the Liberals and NDP are essentially one party now. IfKobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1086586516202104972004-06-06T22:34:00.000-07:002004-06-06T22:35:16.203-07:00Cheryl Gallant
From the Liberal Party website "Controversial Alliance Conservative MP has once again made national news for her irresponsible comments regarding Bill C-250 hate propaganda legislation:
“The danger in having sexual orientation just listed, that encompasses for example pedophiles. I believe that the caucus as a whole would like to see it repealed.” (Cheryl Gallant, CTV News, June Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1086400050746913412004-06-04T18:46:00.000-07:002004-06-06T22:32:23.466-07:00Ted White North Vancouver
I posted the following comment on elections board. Ted White: "At least 40% of all the Iranians living there are refugee claimants. Most of them are bogus." Someone else described White's comment as "racist" and said the Iranian community would not be voting for Ted White.
This appeared on the board today. "Mr. Ted White has threatened legal action against Election Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1086255339209605542004-06-03T02:34:00.000-07:002004-06-03T02:35:39.210-07:00Stephen Harper's Abortion Red Herring.
Harper threw out a Red herring the other day and a lazy and docile press took the bait. Specifically, he said the conservatives "will not be bringing in abortion legislation. We will not be sponsoring an abortion referendum." Of course, he would never hold a referendum on abortion; they will loose hands down. As for his suggestion that he would not be Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1086249521954079142004-06-03T00:57:00.000-07:002004-06-03T00:58:41.953-07:00Getting the Youth to Vote
I think the solution is not making political platforms more attractive to young people per say. Anyway, this is very hard to do and still run an effective election campaign. There are some very large generational gaps opening up (e.g., gay marriage) and in so long as the under 45 crowd shows up in far fewer numbers than the over 45 crowd, the political parties have no Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1086225567054433842004-06-02T18:19:00.000-07:002004-06-02T18:19:27.053-07:00Grandparent Government
According to stats Canada there are 2.62 million Canadians aged 18 to 24. There are 9.09 million Canadians aged 25 to 44. There are 7.29 million Canadians between 45 and 64. Finally there are 3.88 million seniors. 25.4 per cent of 18 to 24 years old vote. 54.2 percent of 25 to 44 year olds vote. 70.9 percent of 45 to 64 years vote. Lastly, 82 percent of seniors vote. If Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1086212784018235152004-06-02T14:45:00.000-07:002004-06-02T14:46:24.020-07:00Harper let the provinces decide if they want abortion?
It is time people and the press start reading between the lines. A reporter yesterday asked specifically Harper how he would respond if one of his MPs brought forward a private members' bill to cut funding for abortion. He responded by saying "I would oppose that. I think health-care money should go to the provinces for them to decide how toKobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1086166337612692402004-06-02T01:50:00.000-07:002004-06-02T01:52:17.613-07:00Rob Merrifield and a Lazy and Biased Press
I am tired of hearing how this or that conservative member undermined Harper and how Harper had to bring them back into line. It was Harper that appointed Larry Spencer Family Issues Critic. (A conservative former Baptist minister, Spencer said homosexuality should be illegal.) It was Harper that appointed Scott Reid, who authored a book on how Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1085903601454814342004-05-30T00:52:00.000-07:002004-05-31T01:09:01.486-07:00Remember Stockwell Day?
Here is just a little reminder of who lead the Alliance Party before Stephen Harper. From http://www.flora.org/mai/forum/21111
On whether his moral views should play a role in governing, part one: ".we often hear that 'moral' questions have no place in modern
politics. But political discourse itself is essentially a series of moral questions." Speech to Civitas Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1085782559523474502004-05-28T15:14:00.000-07:002004-05-29T02:23:40.756-07:00Alliance/Conservative party Homophobic?: You Decide
Stephen Harper MP: "When Mr. Harper rose to blast the Liberal government for "shameful" conduct and alluded to newspaper "mug shots" of four Liberal ministers. He remarked that the pictures could be posted "in most of the police stations in the country."
When Mr. Robinson rose to complain about the unparliamentary language, Mr. Harper Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1085715449809801382004-05-27T20:35:00.000-07:002004-06-10T17:47:35.036-07:00Stephen Harper and Ted White
Harper stated goal has been to lower Canadian taxes to such an extent that they lower than what they are in the US. At the same time, he promises to blance the budget. Under his “legislated taxpayer protection plan” he plans to make deficits illegal! I will let you figure out where that leaves Canada's social programs. This all seems to be part of the plan. For Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1085446640420010482004-05-24T17:55:00.000-07:002004-05-24T17:57:20.420-07:00Harper's Law and Order Promise
During the summer, the Bushies were trying to play down the violence there. In order to convince people that things were not that bad, some staffer had the bright idea to point out that given the data they had, probably incomplete, Baghdad's murder rate was lower than New York city's. The underlying message was that things in Baghdad were just peachy. After all, asKobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1085435784815698242004-05-24T14:52:00.000-07:002004-05-24T15:04:19.016-07:00Free Iraqi Forces!: Woolsey with egg on his Face
While on the News Hour with Jim Lehrer, former CIA director and Neo Con thinker James Woolsey, who calls the war on terrorism World War 4, the Third World War being the Cold War, blamed the CIA and The Statement Department for the lack of troops in Iraq. Come again you say? Was it not Rummy and crew that insisted on a small force. Woolsey said Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1085357339596349482004-05-23T17:07:00.000-07:002004-05-27T20:39:02.420-07:00Canada Needs Krugman
If I was to write a letter to Krugman telling him of about the scourge that is Stephen Harper, it would go something like this.
“I am concerned that what happened in the States with George Bush will happen in Canada. A Federal Election will be held on June 28th and the person that is trying to pass himself off as a compassionate conservative is the Conservative Party's Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1085340281775136102004-05-23T12:21:00.000-07:002004-05-23T12:24:41.776-07:00Stephen Harper: A Money Quote
"Alberta and much of the rest of Canada have embarked on divergent and potentially hostile paths to defining their country.
Alberta has opted for the best of Canada's heritage -- a combination of American enterprise and individualism with the British traditions of order and co-operation. We have created an open, dynamic and prosperous society in spite of a Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1085292171136222542004-05-22T23:02:00.000-07:002004-05-22T23:02:51.136-07:00Powell Far From Finished
Admittedly, I am little late commenting on Powell’s interview with Tim Russert last Sunday. However, better late than never. This is how the Washington Post described the incident, which happened towards the end of interview.
“Toward the end of a "Meet the Press" interview with Secretary of State Colin Powell in Jordan, the camera suddenly moved off Powell to a shot Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1085280136337476722004-05-22T19:41:00.000-07:002004-05-22T23:03:58.750-07:00Cole and Sullivan Spat
Sullivan and Cole got into quite the spat a few days back. It all started when Sullivan, rightly, singled out the following quote for derision. "Paul Wolfowitz kept crowing last summer about how the US saved the Marsh Arabs from Saddam, but now that many of them have joined the Sadrists in Kut and Amara, Wolfowitz is having the Marsh Arabs killed just as Saddam did, and Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1084261013310677582004-05-11T00:34:00.000-07:002004-05-11T17:28:45.676-07:00Conservative war Backers No Longer Plagued by Bad faith over Bush's mishandling of the War
Andrew Sullivan:
"THE INEXCUSABLE: The one anti-war argument that, in retrospect, I did not take seriously enough was a simple one. It was that this war was noble and defensible but that this administration was simply too incompetent and arrogant to carry it out effectively. I dismissed this as facile Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1083536580944717892004-05-02T15:23:00.000-07:002004-05-02T15:26:10.263-07:00BC "Liberal" party goes too far by empossing a Retroactive wage Cut
For some time now the BC Liberal party has wanted to undermine the public sector unions. Since coming to power they have imposed contracts on the teachers, doctors, nurses and transit workers. They are now going after hospital support staff. Now, whatever side of the issue you come down on, I think it safe to say that they Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1083491836736368172004-05-02T02:57:00.000-07:002004-05-02T03:00:25.890-07:00The Fallujah Pull out
Personally, I think the US has made a huge mistake by pulling out of Fallujah. Sure, a case can be made that this type of model can work in certain instances. However, now is not the time. First crush the rebellion and then you can go ahead with such an arrangement. By pulling out the way they did, they not only crushed the moral of their own troops, they gave the Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1083447581185564322004-05-01T14:39:00.000-07:002004-05-06T22:34:55.153-07:00Is "only the fittest survive" a tautology?: A Wittgensteinian Take
“One of the best documented examples of natural selection in modern times is the English Peppered Moth. Typically, this moth is whitish with black speckles and spots all over its wings. During the daytime, Peppered moths are well-camouflaged as they rest on the speckled lichens on tree trunks. Occasionally a very few moths have aKobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1083220443322621922004-04-28T23:34:00.000-07:002004-04-28T23:37:08.966-07:00Fallujah, Juan Cole and Intellectual Dishonesty
Juan Cole is at it again. “It does not matter that some Fallujans are trying to kill Marines. You cannot punish the entire city for that. … Although about 1/3 of Fallujans have reportedly left the city, that would leave 200,000 or so inside.” If I wanted to be an ass, I would say that they are being collectively punished because they are Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1083205017075879522004-04-28T19:16:00.000-07:002004-04-28T23:38:57.246-07:00Fallujuh is not under seige nor is it encircled.
The media is getting on my nerves. Everyone one from the NY Times to CNN is calling what is happening in Fallujah as a siege. The thing is that it is just plain silly to describe what is happening in Fallujah as a “siege” and it is even more ridiculous to say that the Americans have the city encircled. Yes, the Americans do have enough troopsKobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1083187400315183562004-04-28T14:23:00.000-07:002004-04-28T14:26:27.326-07:00A reply to Gatehouse
"Like the know-it-all neighbour who never misses a chance to bend your ear over the back fence or critique your yardwork, Canada has become the block bore. The "special" status that we once took for granted, able to withstand even the frankest disagreements, seems in doubt. Things between our countries are apparently getting worse all the time. And, the evidence suggests, Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1083132350500139902004-04-27T23:05:00.000-07:002004-04-27T23:08:55.373-07:00I watched Wolf Blitzer today. He led with a story about the US launching a “major” attack on Fallujah using AC 130 gun ships. An LA Times reporter set him straight. The Times reporter said that AC 130 gun ships had carried out similar raids every night for the last two weeks and on the scale of 1 to 100 this one was about a 50. Blitzer ignored him. He had pictures after all. Look at those Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1082187051690740772004-04-17T00:30:00.000-07:002004-04-17T00:33:45.233-07:00Bin Laden gears his message to a Western Audience
If there was any doubt that Bin Laden is trying to drive an electoral wedge between the US and Europe, I think that was put to rest yesterday. That said, what was surprising was not what he said per say, but how he said it. His message was geared to a Western audience, albeit not a very sophisticated one, and contained none of the fruit Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1082002610861881682004-04-14T21:16:00.000-07:002004-04-15T00:12:33.060-07:00Bush's Timing is Terrible
The Bush Administration is perhaps the most incompetent administration in modern US history. However, what they did today really takes the cake. With the cease fire in North breaking down, and the situation in the Southern Iraq precarious, what does Bush do? He throws his weight behind an Israeli plan to strengthen several major Israeli settlements in the West back and Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5702918.post-1081760729684658912004-04-12T02:05:00.000-07:002004-04-12T02:12:07.606-07:00British officer alleges US Racism
A British officer says that many Americans soldiers look on the Iraqis as Untermenschen (A German term used by Hitler to describe inferior human beings). There is probably a grain of truth to this.
The average GI is less educated, younger, and less worldly than the average American. Add to this the fact that their job is to kill people and the likelihood Kobyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03407275645274060038noreply@blogger.com0