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U.S. Says Canada Cares Too Much About Liberties
A cheeky writer at Canada's Ottawa Citizen newspaper has written a story about the U.S. State Department's 2002 Patterns of Global Terrorism.
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We have vast oil resources in Western Canada. It is exported to the US very cheaply, and here in Eastern Canada, we import oil from the Middle East at much higher prices.
Jason
ProfQuotes
They put out a huge ad in the NY Times earlier this year just to let everyone know that they were the US' largest supplier of oil. Apparently not many people know. -Tim
Tim Smith - Ramblings from Nerd Land
http://www.revoketheoscar.com/
Bowling for Columbine is mostly a work of FICTION.
Some people do anything for notoriety. It's even sader when people accept things as fact without any thought to research.
- "Scientia non habet inimicum nisp ignorantem"
The U.S. administration is unhappy that marijuana possession in Canada is now a ticketing offense (parking meter sort of thing) instead of a criminal offense.
Well... not quite yet... The intention to do this has been announced, but no legislation has yet been passed.
As far as I can tell, the headline is simply the author's interpretation of the State Department's report, not the wording of the US government. In actual point of fact, the State Department seems mainly concerned with police funding (which has nothing to do with civil liberties), low penalties for marijuana possession (also not a civil liberty) and privacy laws. Privacy obviously is a fairly important civil liberty, and clearly the US government is going too far with its anti-terrorist legislation, but the headline is also a tad too alarmist. Indeed, the article does not even specify which privacy related laws the US objects to in particular.
"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
If by "liberated" you mean "purchased for cash money from the people who owned it at the time who were not Canadians", then yes, your sentence is true.
If by "liberated" you wish to draw spurious parallels between the purchase of Alaska and the deposing of Saddam, you're an idiot.
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
Completely wrong. Canada used to have nuclear weapons but realised that the nuclear arm race was an insane business. In 1978, Canada Prime Minister Trudeau stated, at the U.N., that Canada was the "the first nuclear armed country to have chosen to divest itself of nuclear weapons. USA never asked Canada to stop. In fact USA was very pissed off because Canada did not continue to build more weapons with them.
Yahh, hiii haaaaa! -Major Kong, from Dr. Strangelove
You only ship the amount you don't use there (that you might want to export elsewhere). What do you mean you buy it back from higher prices? from who? We don't want or get any of you wheat anyway, Ontario produces plenty for our own use and to export to other provinces.
You're on shaky ground to begin with with agriculture as an example. Most farming in Canada is subsidized by the federal goverment, and most of that money comes from Ontario.
What is this hatred you Westerners have against being a part of Canada? My comment was that you give cheap oil to a foreign country instead of your fellow countrymen, and your response is that you are forced to sell your surplus wheat within your own country instead of outside as if that were a bad thing.
Jason
ProfQuotes
Uh, 50% income tax? Maybe 30% on a healthy salary... the highest is around 43% above ~$100,000 CAD.
And round here, these things aren't enforced nearly as much. House is worth $1,000,000, paying property tax for $300,000? Nobody cares to hear about it. And you're certainly not getting thrown in JAIL for dodging taxes.
"[A] high IQ is like a Jeep; you will still get stuck, just farther from help!" --Just d' FAQs, c.g.a
Astonishingly, there is no mention in the report on the United Kingdom of the IRA.
There is a section on the IRA in the appendix on "other Foreign Terrorist Organisations" which notes that the IRA "retains the ability to conduct paramilitary operations" but it accepts that "the IRA reiterated its commitment to the peace process and apologized to the families of what it called "non-combatants" who had been killed or injured by the IRA" without noting that its activities of "kidnappings, punishment beatings, extortion, smuggling, and robberies" are active and continuing.
The report does not mention that two of the leaders of the IRA Army Council were allowed to become Sinn Fein Ministers in the (currently suspended) government of Northern Ireland.
Sinn Feinn, a major political party in Northern Ireland, is acknowledged by everybody except itself as the political wing of the IRA. The name translates into English as "Ourselves Alone" - illuminating its racist basis. Sinn Fein is not mentioned in the report.
Most astonishingly, NORAID's role in fundraising for the IRA within the USA is not mentioned in the report either.
Americans should realise that many British people who are temperamentally and politically inclined to give full support to American foreign policy find it severely compromised by America's sentimental and hypocritical blindness to the IRA threat.
Sure.
l
http://www.hardylaw.net/Truth_About_Bowling.htm
I'm not saying to love America,but dont NOT like it based on a work of fiction. Truth be told I live here and I have some problems with it, but by and large I love my country, the government could use some work, still not as bad as some people make it out to be.
- "Scientia non habet inimicum nisp ignorantem"
http://www.snopes.com/quotes/bush.htm
Right.
Canada has had dick all to do with any military action in the last 100 years.
Learn your history before you start criticising.
You want us to take up arms? How about that time you guys tried to invade us and we burnt your White House down?
Or how about that time that we were busy bombing the crap out of the Nazis while the US was happily being isolationist for 2 years while he tried to take over the world?
Or how about the time that we organized the UN to intervene at the Suez Canal despite England's Security Council veto?
Or how about how we've supplied troops to just about every single UN mission since its inception?
Or wait. Of course none of that happened. It wasn't in the US papers, so it's pretty obvious that Canada doesn't have a military.
I knew a good number of Doctors from my hometown alone (a rather small town in British Columbia) who were working at the MASH units in the first Persian Gulf war who were risking their lives trying to keep UN soldiers alive (including a good number of Americans). But again, it wasn't in any American newspapers so it obviously didn't happen.
Karma: Non-Heinous
Sorry to piss on your little parrade, but after income, sales, property, luxery, and the slew of other taxes here in the U.S., the average middle class American spends about 55% of their income in taxes.
(Funny, why does my AC option keep disappearing?)
Any sufficiently advanced influence is indistinguishable from control.
Yeah I guess those people being held in Guantanamo Bay and throughout the US without a trial or bail of any kind really isn't curtailing civil liberties.
Second, it doesn't have anything to do with terrorism, really, except that it happened to be mentioned in the same article. I would imagine whoever was writing the State Department report probably just let himself wander a bit when discussing impediments to US-Canadian law enforcement cooperation.
"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
In Canada, it is illegal to say you dislike certain people for certain reasons. They have a ways to go before they can criticize the U.S.
And of course he wanted America out of Saudi, which he has now achieved. A brillant mind, as well as a twisted one, he also cunningly used the most powerful military machine in the World to eradicate a secular Iraq, and he doesn't even qualify for a vote in the US, let alone hold high office. Slam dunk!
Yeah, they do tend to tilt more toward the socialist policies.
-- You see, there would be these conclusions that you could jump to
I just want to point out for those of you it may have missed...
Canadian government not falling in line with the American government is one thing.
Canadians not liking the American government is another thing.
Americans not liking the Canadian govenment is yet another thing.
None of the above say that Canadians hate the US. The vast majority of us don't (although, granted, many of us may think of US citizens as a whole as "arrogant").
So please stop with the "Blame Canada" rhetoric. It's been said a billion times, and was only funny about the first four.
Soylens viridis homines es
In fact, the War on (some) Drugs has little to do with the will of the people, and everything to do with being a scapegoat for hysteria, and a way to justify egregious pork budget increases.
And it is a witch hunt... People are so scared of the flowers of a harmless plant that job applicants are mercillessly rejected if they "Test positive" for marijuana. In some states, the "pot paranoia" is so pervasive that they've enacted "Smoke a joint, lose your driver license" laws to further stigmatize marijuana smokers. Without a driver license, where can you work in this country? If you live in a city that doesn't have GREAT public transportation (thats most of them) you simply won't get a job.
In the U.S., felons (for non-Americans, a felon is somebody convicted of a "serious" crime) can't vote. Even though arrests for drugs are about proportional to the proportion of the various races in our society, minorities serve vastly longer sentences than whites arrested for the same offense... They are three times less likely to be offered "diversionary sentencing" (ie. non-jail) to avoid felony conviction, and FIVE TIMES more likely to do jail time for a first-offense.
Of course, since white people in the U.S. on average have more money than their minority counterparts they can afford a lawyer who can get them out of trouble without jail.
So even though it might not have been the original intent, what you have is a de facto concerted effort to disenfrachise "undesirables."
The only advice I have is to write your congressmen and tell them you want legalized buds-- And keep your eyes peeled for cops.
Who did what now?
Not to mention Vimy Ridge. Or the invasion of Italy during WWII. Or the Korean War. Or this little operation called "Operation Overlord". Or the Battle of Britain. Nope, no Canadian involvement in any major military operations in the past century at all.
There is a difference. What Canada wants to do is decriminalize pot so that it will be more like a speeding ticket. Also, larger quantities will still be criminal (trafficing will still land you in jail.) The argument is that we (Canadians) do not feel that people that have been caught with small amounts of pot should end up in jail or have criminal records ruining their lives. A kid that smokes a joint at a party shouldn't have his/her entire life stripped away for a stupid mistake. Think of it more like drinking under-age (illegal, but not criminal), you get caught at a high-school party being stupid (who hasn't), your life isn't over.
Historical fact #1:
Before the USA, Britain and France, after a war that can only be described as "accidental", imposed a horrendously humiliating peace accord on Germany, which paved the way for Nazism, Germany was actually a highly flourishing democracy.
Historical fact #2:
The American war of independence was fought with French money, French wepons and, to a not insigifficant degree, French troops, in order to achieve French ideals.
Once again, Welcome to old Europe!
Ethics is what you say you do. Morals is what you actually do.
sources:
-- "At Microsoft, quality is job 1.1" -- PC Magazine, Nov. 1994
FACT: Alaska was not purchassed from the canada, alaska was purchassed from the russia.
Bombing for peace is like fucking for virginity!
As much as i love that quote, its authenticity is in dispute. You can read about the source here: http://irregulartimes.com/honest.html
In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane. -Oscar Wilde
You're such a troll but I will bite anyway.
> Let's not get into WWII. If you think the US
> didn't do dick or spill blood in WWII, then you
> have a real problem.
Yes, you are correct, Americans did die in WW2. Lives lost is not a good thing, no matter when and where it happens. That was not the point though. The point was that the U.S. sat on the sidelines for 2 years while the rest of the "free" world was getting their asses kicked.
> Supplied troops to every single UN mission?
Yes. If you are referring to the current war with Iraq. That is not a UN mission. That's why were are not involved.
> How many of anyone in your hometown gave their
> lives to depose today's hitler?
None. Because there is no equivalent of "Today's Hitler" in the world. Calling Sadam Hitler must be something that CNN came up with. Don't get me wrong, Sadam is bad but he isn't the equivalent of Hitler.
> After all, we deserve it, don't we? You are
> morally superior to us, aren't you?
Nobody said we were morally superior. We have our problems. We make mistakes. We're human. We just don't FORCE our views on everyone else.
> And as for the "riding the backs of the US
> military", I suggest you look within your own
> country for the criticism. Because I've seen it
> come from your own country more than anywhere
> else. From canadian news letters to the
> editors, from canadian news pundits, from
> canadians being interviewed on the street, from
> canadian politicians.
Yes, every country in the world rides the back of the US military. You know why? It's because the U.S. is too busy being the bully of the school yard and sticks it's nose in everything. Someone has to go in and clean up your mess.
Do you really want to know why Canada didn't join your war against Iraq? We all agree that Sadam is bad and should have been removed. There is no argument about that. We didn't join in because we do not want to be a TARGET. That's right, a TARGET. Just think about this in a logical fashion. Look at the possible chain of events.
- We join War on Iraq (tm)
- Terrorists attack Canada (ie Toronto)
- Canada turns to U.S. for support.
- Canada changes privacy policies to help fight "terrorism"
- Canada becomes part of the U.S.
See, you are correct. We ride on the backs of the U.S. military enough as it is and we don't want to. The more we rely on you, the more indebted we are. That's not good.
The people in the US without medical coverage, as well as those who are under HMOs CANNOT CHOOSE which doctor to go. That's not freedom. 3) We like guns. You guys used to. We ceased to like them when we realized that they are used to kill people. Oh, you're allowed to have guns to kill animals, but not guns that kills people (who'd use an UZI for hunting???)...
No, the French hate Americans, no wonder there was a standing ovation at a movie that blatantly ripped on us.
Truth about Bowling
Want a real link? There you have it. Real facts, real commentary on why Michael Moore's movie is hack job. Might not be 'blatantly obvious', but it was definitely meant to be misleading. Check out the comparison of the first speech Heston gives. It's not about statistics, it's about unethical and sometimes fraudulent misrepresentation of another groups's words and actions. You complain when Microsoft uses the same mislead tactics against Linux. But when it's against America, that's in vogue, must be okay.
That's right.
Canadian scientists worked on the Manhattan Project. The uranium for the Manhattan Project came from Canada. Most of the uranium enrichment was done at Chalk River, Ontario, using a process invented by someone from my home town of Winnipeg. We had the ability to create nuclear weapons right from the beginning.
Our nuclear stockpile was aimed at russian bombers crossing the pole. Our fighter/intercepters were equipped with "Genie" nuclear air-to-air missiles, or as the pilots called them, "Little Buckets of Sunshine". We also had the "Bomarc" ground-to-air missile.
Moore is a guy who lives in a millionaire apartment in Manhatten. Whether he is nice is to be debated. He certainly tries to play on that "illusion" that people have that he's fighting the tough fight.
He doesn't ask tough questions noone else hasn't asked. When the asks the "tough" questions he ruins it all by resorting to misinformation and fear. If his points were valid (and many are) he wouldn't need to lie about the facts. Just tell it like it is.
Moore is no better than the fear mongering media he talks about. I find it rich that a guy who gets his agenda across by using the very tactics he despises. To me, the only name for Michael Moore is "hypocrite". He makes us left-ists look like idiots.
Western Canadian oil is sold (to everyone, even the US) at the world price. AFAIK the cost of transporting said oil to US is, again, market driven. Oil imported from the Middle East (and everywhere else) is bought at the world price. AFAIK, Middle East oil transportation costs are not artificially high; once again, a market driven cost.
So, please explain how it is the Western Canadian oil "is exported to the US very cheaply", whereas we "import oil from the Middle East at much higher prices".
I do hope that there is a rationale explanation and that we are not witnessing yet another example of Eastern Canada thinking it is entitled to Western Canada's resources at whatever pittance it is willing to pay. Shades of Trudeau and the NEP.
Jim Robinson
Vancouver, BC
Canada
Why is it "Interesting" that Canadians have a higher quality of life than Americans. This should be modded as "Well, Duh!"
--
BTW, thanks for taking care of the dirty work so that we may enjoy this quality of life.
Please, before moving to Canada, can I ask you all to please register to vote and actually *vote*!?
Register for the primaries too and vote against the encumbants who support the PATRIOT act (I & II), the Iraqi misadventure and other pieces of legislation you love to hate. Remember, a lot of Democrats also voted for the above.
Considering America's low participation in its own democracy, you shouldn't be surprised the American government is acting against its citizens' own best interests.
The bitter lessons of a veteran coder: http://bitterprogrammer.blogspot.com
That was the British Army, not the Canadian Army. Canada didn't exsit as a nation at that time.
At least try to have a better grasp of history than us Americans.
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
> Tell me, do you really think they'd give an Academy Award to such a 'blatantly obvious hack job'? Or a 10-minute standing ovation at Cannes?
Umm, you've got to be joking? It wasn't a blatantly obvious hack job. I applaud Mr. Moore for his very good directing skills, I couldn't come close. The problem is that they gave it to him for being a documentary, which it is NOT EVEN CLOSE to being.
That's the important bit. If you reply, reply to the previous, 'cuz the following will be construed as a troll or flamebait (what the hell's the difference anyway):
Liberals, who are always up in arms about conspiracies, don't surprise me as much as they should when they don't say anything about this crap -- a "documentary" full of lies and deceit should be discredited immediately. But a strange thing: when the lies & trash follow their line of beliefs, they are noticeably quiet. Don't think I'm picking on Liberals, I'm sure Conservatives would do the same if they ran Hollywood.
You have to admit (unless you lie) that both the Oscars and especially the Cannes "Film Festival" are mostly run by extremely left-wing people. Amazing that this one slipped through the cracks, eh? And before you start attacking my as one of those bible-kissing, GWB-loving Republicans, I am not. By a long shot.
That was the British Army, not the Canadian Army.
:)
You'd probably like to claim those were British indians fighting on our side.
Canada didn't exsit as a nation at that time.
The war of 1812 was one of the defining moments of the Canadian nation, every bit as much as the British North America Act Act of 1867, "An Act for the Union of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick". As you can see, Canada already existed by that time.
Upper Canada was created by the Constitution Act of 1791. If you want to get picky, Canada remained a colony of Britain until the Constitution Act of 1982. So when exactly was the nation of Canada born, according to you?
At least try to have a better grasp of history than us Americans.
Would you like us to aspire to your grammatical ability, as well?
Have you got your LWN subscription yet?
I know a lot of soldiers from both sides of the border, and they mostly agree on the following:
1) Canadian Army reserves have the same level of training as the American Army regulars
2) Canadian Army regulars have similar level of training as the American Green Berets.
We do not have the numbers, but we do have quality (at least in personnel, equipment-wise...well, let's not go there).
Oh, and yeah, we do have a Special Forces Unit (similar to the Navy Seals).
My 2 cents.
ACLU on Immigrant detentions
Mass detentions in LA
'Handful' detained in Houston
CIvil liberties groups file suit on behalf of INS detainees
US detains nearly 1200 during registry
Forgotten detainees
After Oaklahoma City, the US passed laws allowing the use of "Secret Evidence" to detain or deport. It's been used almost exclusively on Arabs and Muslims.