IntenseDebate - hardmouth

14 years ago @ Macleans.ca - The race to save the c... · 3 replies · -2 points

This debate is now pointless, it's now too late to save the long-form census. The point of no return has been reached, the forms have been printed, the damage is irreversible. If civil servants were to receive orders tomorrow to re-instate, they wouldn't be able to do it in time, and not without considerable extra expense

14 years ago @ Macleans.ca - A backbencher gets his... · 0 replies · +12 points

The conservatives are by far the worst offenders when it comes to decorum... I know, I sat in the gallery every day for a month. It's true that all parties could do better, but the conservatives really drag the tone a few notches. Payne is definitely one of the worst of the bunch.

14 years ago @ Macleans.ca - The Iowa car crop · 0 replies · +3 points

Well said!

14 years ago @ Macleans.ca - Yankee, go ... get 'em · 0 replies · +2 points

Well killing people tends to be a bit emotional... i see your point.

14 years ago @ Macleans.ca - Yankee, go ... get 'em · 1 reply · 0 points

Yeah the ideas they represent do terrify me, BECAUSE THEY'RE CRAZY!!!!

Also, the whole 'you're just JEALOUS' line? really? are you in fifth grade?

14 years ago @ Macleans.ca - Yankee, go ... get 'em · 1 reply · 0 points

1) I respect your right to have an opinion. But I certainly don't respect the *substance* of your opinion, because your opinions are bad and dangerous, and reflect poorly on you as a person. Not all ideas/thoughts/opinions are created equal, some positions are better than others. So yes, I most definitely reserve the right to judge/condemn/evaluate a person on their political beliefs (to the extent that I judge anyone at all.... which to be honest I try and avoid doing because it's generally unhelpful)... But if you were to judge someone, what better to judge them on than their beliefs?... something that is within a person's control to change, and crucial to their identity? (I should probably note here that it's important to take into account factors beyond someone's control that shape opinion as well: political socialization, access to education, etc.)

2) This is what separates my discrimination from classic bigotry, bigotry is hatred against someone for something they cannot control. To the extent that an individual has agency over her values and beliefs, discrimination is acceptable and necessary.

14 years ago @ Macleans.ca - The Iowa car crop · 5 replies · +1 points

This would be a great argument if Canada didn't currently have a trade deficit.... perhaps indefinitely since the manufacturing sector has been totaled. At this point our only comparative advantage is sucking oil out of the tar sands.

Furthermore, governments themselves can often create comparative advantage where non existed. As Clyde Prestowitz, former trade negotiator for Reagan, notes in a recent article here at Macleans.ca:

American jobs are being lost not only to low-wage competition from emerging economies, but to strategic policies by foreign governments to dominate critical sectors of the economy, or to keep their currency values low to promote exports.“Other countries recognize the importance of economies of scale and promote the development of certain industries, whether solar panels, or semiconductors, and we don’t,” says Prestowitz.

14 years ago @ Macleans.ca - The most provocative b... · 0 replies · +1 points

God? so I have this rash.....

14 years ago @ Macleans.ca - A phony gun battle · 0 replies · 0 points

you're right. You can't prove incontrovertibly the causal relationship of something *that didn't happen* ... that's impossible. It's also hard to prove whether carelessness was the crucial causal factor in suicides because the party involved happens to be dead. I would argue that correlation is a strong and legitimate form of evidence.... For instance, no one can causally explain how gravity works, but I'm quite sure that it exists.

14 years ago @ Macleans.ca - Yankee, go ... get 'em · 17 replies · -3 points

That's a terrible argument Andrew.... the NRA and elected office holders of the US are not equivalent. Every Canadian is uncomfortable with American interference, but they are WAY more uncomfortable with NRAness.

The NRA, Fox News, Tea Partiers, are all toxic organizations to Canadians... and I don't think it's just because they're foreign, but because they're CRAZY, and extreme. This is, of course, why the Liberals are trying desperately to link the Conservatives to the NRA... not so much because it's American, but because it is *conservative* American, which I think you'd agree is a different species (or was) from Canada's own conservative tradition.

The Conservative Party are the ones who thought it would be fun to play Culture War to divide the electorate to their advantage with this registry issue in the first place. Well the blade cuts both ways, my friend. If the Conservatives want a culture war, the Liberals should give it to them.

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