Yea, I also was born in England and when I became a Canadian Citizen back in '76 I also had to swear allegiance to the Queen of Canada. Since I never gave up my British citizenry I wonder about if Canada and Britain ever went to war
which would seem to indicate that Earth is the center of the universe, but it is not. Huh, why would the Earth be different from everything else? I mean if everything is the center of the Universe why wouldn't the Earth also be the center of the Universe?
Sure its not your speedometer (odometer) reading low? Most cars have speedometers that read 5% to 10% low and I'd guess the same with the odometer. My last truck had oversize tires (235 vs 215s) and at the smog test the speedometer was just about perfectly accurate and talking to the tester he said it was quite rare to see an accurate speedometer.
Now, the US Prisional system is one of the worst in what relates to prison rape. Any minor crime could turn - if the sites I have read are to be believed, and the stats - into an opportunity to be raped in prision. Isn't this enough for someone to succesfully block any extraditation to the USA? In Canada people have made this argument to stop from being extradited to the States. Seems that getting raped in jail is excepted enough down there that they have billboards saying how if you go to jail you are going to get Bubba as a boyfriend. Pretty sick country if you ask me. Unluckily I can't find any references on line, lots about how executing people is cruel and sentencing people to 25+ years for minor crimes (eg a bit of pot) is also cruel and unusual. A couple of interesting links on the subject http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/398/marcem ery.shtml http://www.ratical.org/renewables/renee_boje.html
Here with government insurance instead of age discrimination we have new driver discrimination. Every year that you drive without an accident your insurance drops 5% down till 60%, so after driving for 8 years accident free you're at the lowest limit. Also there are other bonuses that start kicking in at that point. Conversely every time you get in an accident your insurance increases 10% above the base rate and then starts down again at 5% per year. Seems fair to me, prove you can drive accident free and pay less no matter your physical age, sex, occupation etc. Oh of course those are accidents that you're at fault for.
Do you really think that the rate of copyright infringement is higher in Canada (#11 on list) then the States? I've never seen pirated movies or software for sale on street corners here and I do see articles in the paper occasionally about organized pirates getting busted. True we don't have (yet) a DMCA type law and law enforcement isn't too interested in noncommercial infringement but I really doubt piracy rates are much different in Canada then the USA.
The difference is which rights different countries prioritize. Here in Canada the right to privacy is considered much more important then it is in the States. Someone could have some strange habits that he keeps secret and if you out them and they lose their job, reputation etc because you maliciously publicized that they eg masturbate to barbie dolls, something that is no one else's business though true it is still slander. Personally I think that the right to privacy is an important right and am glad that our supreme court agrees.
Remember, all property ownership is a government granted right. When the white man first showed up in N America and offered to buy land the natives were on the ground laughing much as you would be if I tried to buy a bridge from you. Of course if I sold you a bridge and you had the firepower to keep it it would be yours. Same with things like land, ownership is a government granted right. I mean if I can out gun you why shouldn't I have what you think of as yours?
True, didn't think about a hole in the ground. comes with living far enough north where we almost never need air conditioning. Of course along those lines a cave can be naturally air conditioned so we've had air conditioning since before we were people.
Err, ever hear of the Whitepass and Yukon railway? Uses 3 ft gauge track. And yes it is in this world, at that might be part of the route of this system though I doubt it as it doesn't connect to any other railway currently (Skagway to Whitehorse) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Pass_and_Yukon_ Route is an interesting read.
Here (Canada) I got redirected to a place called zip.ca which works fine in Seamonkey and actually looks like not a bad site, though a bit expensive compared to the corner video rental store. Still if they have enough rare DVDs it would most likely be worth it.
Actually the first air conditioners were simply fountains. Don't know about 50000 years ago but definitely a few thousand and maybe quite a bit more since mankind could divert a stream to go close to home and cool down the local enviroment.
Same with DDT. Sprayed indiscriminately with no though there were enough bad side effects it was a net harm. But since the scare and ban a few million people have died from malaria who could have been saved with a more sensible use of the stuff. But they are poor brown and black people so screw em if the spotted owls are OK, right? After all we still need to lose a couple of billion people if we are going to stop global warming. What are you talking about? Have a couple of million Americans (only black I guess) died from malaria lately? Perhaps another first world country? DDT is still used to control malaria in third world countries though not sprayed so indiscriminately as in the past. Of course after years of DDT usage some mosquitoes have evolved to thrive on DDT so usage should be minimal. Here are a couple of links from malaria.org. Note the second one is talking about how DDT is not banned when used to prevent disease. http://www.malaria.org/DDTcosts.html http://www.malaria.org/DDTpage.html
What are you talking about? It only took a few years for mosquitoes to become DDT resistant. They were moving to heavier and heavier organochlorine based pesticides back then before switching to various organophosphorus pesticides that at least broke down. The organophosphorus pesticides are closely related to nerve gas and also have major problems with insects evolving resistance. I'm sure I got the spelling of the above wrong, its been over 25 years since I had a pesticide ticket. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/artic le/2005/06/04/AR2005060400130.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDT
Actually the reality is authors who distributes their works for free (and of course sell hard copies) do very well as people like nice hard copies of books and most important is free books equals publicity. Go here and read the first page, http://www.baen.com/library/ and while there download some books.
The World Trade Center was not full of simple innocent civilians but civilians who made their living from pillaging the third world so they were not just an indiscriminate target. About good will. Don't know much about Europe besides the fact that my parents were always amazed how pro American Europeans seemed to them when going there. Here in Canada Bush wasted a lot of good will that we had. First by insulting us as one of his first acts (traditionally newly elected presidents start out saying something good about Canada before any other foreign governments due to us being your largest trading partner and best friend. Bush stated how Mexico was Americas largest trading partner and best friend). But the real damage was done immediately after 9/11. When you guys were to scared too let any planes fly or land over your country we stepped up to the bat and said fly here, land here and we took numerous Americans and others into our own homes until you felt secure enough to let them fly in to your country. When Bush thanked the world for all the help and condolences that America received on and after 9/11 he couldn't even be bothered to mention Canada which to us seemed to be quite the insult.
On the other hand (at least here in the west) there are a number of people who pirate, like what they pirate and then buy. So sometimes pirating leads to more sales.
This is what most people forget. Russia invented the secret police (long before the Soviet Union) and have a great tradition of doing this sort of stuff.
I think your Bill of Rights is about as effective as ours. The government creates exceptions and work arounds of which the free speech zones are one example. Here hate speech is another example. What gets me is certain Americans who rant and rave about the first amendment like it is perfect with no exceptions. Also you are right about problems from the fact that it is a 200 yr old document compared to ours being about 25 yrs old. Still our supreme court has interpreted parts much wider than written, eg the search and seizure provision being a general right to privacy to the point where it is illegal to out source certain programs to the USA as your corporations are not held to the same standards, things like selling info on customers. Just get mad when certain Americans act like your Bill of Rights is perfect and the government follows it without exception.
As for topless women, in the summer it is not that rare to actually see one around here walking down the road or riding her bike though it is still rare enough to get mentioned. More common on the beach of course. I also understand that in some states women have the same freedom. NY being one IIRC. To show the culture differences between Canada and the USA the CRTC (Canadian FCC) got quite a few complaints about that Superbowl halftime. Not one was about Janet's boob, instead it was a beer commercial that some people considered racist.
As for the political issues, what I meant by black box was not the secret ballot which I think is needed for democracy to function but the mysterious voting machines which act like a black box. One never really knows if they are counting votes honestly or not and it is that not knowing that I find questionable. Here I can show up at the polling station in the morning, watch the empty ballot boxes being unloaded and verify they are empty. Stand around all day watching the voting procedure and also watch the counting procedure and every major political party does have representatives watching. Even though minor cheating is most likely still possible by eg getting on the voting list more than once generally there is no question about the elections. Also generally we only vote on one thing at a time so the people are more likely to be informed compared to you where the ballot can easily be multi page with everyone from the President down to the dog catcher being decided at once. Also $50000 is quite a bit of money to me and $49000 more then is legal here. It seems quite a few laws are passed in the States where it seems to benefit some corporation more then the populace.
As for Marijuana I think we should agree to agree to disagree about harm that it causes. Still I don't see how you could argue that hemp that is very low in THC should be treated the same as Marijuana yet try buying some hemp product down there. Blue jeans being one example. As for the seizure of assets, it does seem to be getting better down there but here are a couple of examples, though about money more than homes. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drug s/special/forfeiture.html http://www.the-dispatch.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article? AID=/20060927/NEWS/609270339/1005/news http://www.isil.org/resources/lit/looting-of-ameri ca.html and of course a google search shows many more though as I said it seems to of gotten better since the '90s. The history of prohibition is quite interesting. A couple of points. The constitution had to be amended to prohibit alcohol so under that reasoning any other Federal prohibition laws would also need constitutional amendments to be legal. Chocolate came very close to also being prohibited around the turn of the last century. Chocolate has also been being bred for
First I should apologize for posting when drinking and coming across harsher then I meant. Individually the Americans I have known have been nice people and though I have never lived in the US I have spent most of my life close enough to be heavily influenced by it. Still I stand by most of what I said. You're bill of rights seems to be broken all the time. Free speech being limited to free speech zones doesn't sound very free. You are right that I should of said slave owners but the point stands that it is very hypocritical for someone to own another person while preaching freedom. In the present there is American government spying on its own citizens, talking about torture like it is fine. The enemy combatant thing, and a basic disrespect for Non Americans even though much of your Bill of Rights references people, not just citizens. Not to mention that you haven't even given women the same rights as men. Compare the difference between a mans shirt falling of during the Superbowl compared to a woman. Equality includes some things that some people find distasteful. Also remember that I was replying to an AC who did seem to think they are better then everyone else.
About the elections. Whether your elections are honest or not is unknown as your voting system now consists of a black box. Push button, get result. Hopefully they are honest but its not like you can watch the whole process as I can when voting here. The huge amounts of money needed to run for office in the States creates the need for large campaign contributions which creates a large conflict of interest in your politicians about whether to serve their constituents or their financiers. As for the politicians writing the election districts for their advantage, may I suggest checking out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering
Hemp after being renamed Marijuana (no one would of stood for illegalized one of the most useful crops) was illegalized due to the fact that a machine had been invented that allowed breaking the stalks to extract the fiber without back breaking labour. This opened up all kinds of possibilities like cheap good paper. At this time Hearst was just starting to push pulp paper after investing heavily in the process. To stop the competition he manipulated the government to start on the road to illegalizing hemp. Laws were passed with very little notice. The American Medical Association just managed to show up to argue against the criminalization and the hemp farmers didn't even get a chance to show up. There were other factors at the time such as a large branch of the government not having anything to do due to alcohol now being legal. A puritan push to make anything illegal that people enjoyed. The fact that minorities used various drugs and of course DuPont pushing nylon for rope. So you have laws being passed just to allow one industry to not have to compete. This is political and crimes created by this process are political crimes. Its not like hemp hurt anyone, at least not as much as lets say coffee or Aspirin which kills thousands of Americans a year. And of course a political crime is still a crime on the books and just like China has the right to bust people for belonging to the wrong religion as it is against the law there so do you. Your country does have an amazing percentage of its population in jail, of which a good number, though maybe slightly less then a million, are there rather directly or indirectly from the war on drugs. Indirectly including the problems caused by the artificial scarcity caused by the war on drugs. Another thing about the drug laws down there is they totally ignore due process. You can get arrested for dealing drugs, the government can take all your belongings then they can drop the charges. A citizen is out of there house etc without any due process and now lots of police forces depend upon that money so it is politically expedient to keep certain laws on the books.
[sarcasm] Thats right. Shouldn't I have the right to break in to your house and seize your computer (don't worry, you'll get it back in 10 or perhaps 12 years) to examine your swap file to make sure you didn't infringe on my copyright on this post. Who knows, you might of quoted it in a reply [/sarcasm]
Funny thing is the one person I know who digs ditches for a living is a millionaire. There is good money in digging ditches though you need a million dollars in equipment to do it right. Poor guy in school always felt weird when the teachers would say if you don't do better you'll end up digging ditches when his old man was totally raking it in digging ditches. (Actually drainage for farms)
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Yea, I also was born in England and when I became a Canadian Citizen back in '76 I also had to swear allegiance to the Queen of Canada. Since I never gave up my British citizenry I wonder about if Canada and Britain ever went to war
which would seem to indicate that Earth is the center of the universe, but it is not.
Huh, why would the Earth be different from everything else? I mean if everything is the center of the Universe why wouldn't the Earth also be the center of the Universe?
Sure its not your speedometer (odometer) reading low? Most cars have speedometers that read 5% to 10% low and I'd guess the same with the odometer.
My last truck had oversize tires (235 vs 215s) and at the smog test the speedometer was just about perfectly accurate and talking to the tester he said it was quite rare to see an accurate speedometer.
Unluckily I can't find any references on line, lots about how executing people is cruel and sentencing people to 25+ years for minor crimes (eg a bit of pot) is also cruel and unusual.
A couple of interesting links on the subject
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/398/marce
http://www.ratical.org/renewables/renee_boje.html
Here with government insurance instead of age discrimination we have new driver discrimination. Every year that you drive without an accident your insurance drops 5% down till 60%, so after driving for 8 years accident free you're at the lowest limit. Also there are other bonuses that start kicking in at that point.
Conversely every time you get in an accident your insurance increases 10% above the base rate and then starts down again at 5% per year. Seems fair to me, prove you can drive accident free and pay less no matter your physical age, sex, occupation etc.
Oh of course those are accidents that you're at fault for.
You're reading it wrong. It is Mercury has quite a strong field compared to Mars or Venus.g netosphere/magsphere_overview.html&edu=high
Heres a short blurb which mentions that Mercury probably has a molten core written in 2003, http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/mercury/Ma
Do you really think that the rate of copyright infringement is higher in Canada (#11 on list) then the States? I've never seen pirated movies or software for sale on street corners here and I do see articles in the paper occasionally about organized pirates getting busted. True we don't have (yet) a DMCA type law and law enforcement isn't too interested in noncommercial infringement but I really doubt piracy rates are much different in Canada then the USA.
The difference is which rights different countries prioritize. Here in Canada the right to privacy is considered much more important then it is in the States.
Someone could have some strange habits that he keeps secret and if you out them and they lose their job, reputation etc because you maliciously publicized that they eg masturbate to barbie dolls, something that is no one else's business though true it is still slander.
Personally I think that the right to privacy is an important right and am glad that our supreme court agrees.
Remember, all property ownership is a government granted right. When the white man first showed up in N America and offered to buy land the natives were on the ground laughing much as you would be if I tried to buy a bridge from you. Of course if I sold you a bridge and you had the firepower to keep it it would be yours. Same with things like land, ownership is a government granted right. I mean if I can out gun you why shouldn't I have what you think of as yours?
True, didn't think about a hole in the ground. comes with living far enough north where we almost never need air conditioning.
Of course along those lines a cave can be naturally air conditioned so we've had air conditioning since before we were people.
Err, ever hear of the Whitepass and Yukon railway? Uses 3 ft gauge track. And yes it is in this world, at that might be part of the route of this system though I doubt it as it doesn't connect to any other railway currently (Skagway to Whitehorse)_ Route is an interesting read.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Pass_and_Yukon
Here (Canada) I got redirected to a place called zip.ca which works fine in Seamonkey and actually looks like not a bad site, though a bit expensive compared to the corner video rental store.
Still if they have enough rare DVDs it would most likely be worth it.
Actually the first air conditioners were simply fountains. Don't know about 50000 years ago but definitely a few thousand and maybe quite a bit more since mankind could divert a stream to go close to home and cool down the local enviroment.
DDT is still used to control malaria in third world countries though not sprayed so indiscriminately as in the past. Of course after years of DDT usage some mosquitoes have evolved to thrive on DDT so usage should be minimal.
Here are a couple of links from malaria.org. Note the second one is talking about how DDT is not banned when used to prevent disease.
http://www.malaria.org/DDTcosts.html
http://www.malaria.org/DDTpage.html
Sadly a lot of psychopaths become CEOs, various other bosses and politicians.
There are a lot of jobs where having empathy will make you a failure.
What are you talking about? It only took a few years for mosquitoes to become DDT resistant. They were moving to heavier and heavier organochlorine based pesticides back then before switching to various organophosphorus pesticides that at least broke down. The organophosphorus pesticides are closely related to nerve gas and also have major problems with insects evolving resistance.c le/2005/06/04/AR2005060400130.html
I'm sure I got the spelling of the above wrong, its been over 25 years since I had a pesticide ticket.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/arti
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDT
Actually the reality is authors who distributes their works for free (and of course sell hard copies) do very well as people like nice hard copies of books and most important is free books equals publicity.
Go here and read the first page, http://www.baen.com/library/ and while there download some books.
The World Trade Center was not full of simple innocent civilians but civilians who made their living from pillaging the third world so they were not just an indiscriminate target.
About good will. Don't know much about Europe besides the fact that my parents were always amazed how pro American Europeans seemed to them when going there.
Here in Canada Bush wasted a lot of good will that we had.
First by insulting us as one of his first acts (traditionally newly elected presidents start out saying something good about Canada before any other foreign governments due to us being your largest trading partner and best friend. Bush stated how Mexico was Americas largest trading partner and best friend).
But the real damage was done immediately after 9/11. When you guys were to scared too let any planes fly or land over your country we stepped up to the bat and said fly here, land here and we took numerous Americans and others into our own homes until you felt secure enough to let them fly in to your country.
When Bush thanked the world for all the help and condolences that America received on and after 9/11 he couldn't even be bothered to mention Canada which to us seemed to be quite the insult.
On the other hand (at least here in the west) there are a number of people who pirate, like what they pirate and then buy. So sometimes pirating leads to more sales.
This is what most people forget. Russia invented the secret police (long before the Soviet Union) and have a great tradition of doing this sort of stuff.
I think your Bill of Rights is about as effective as ours. The government creates exceptions and work arounds of which the free speech zones are one example. Here hate speech is another example. What gets me is certain Americans who rant and rave about the first amendment like it is perfect with no exceptions.
Also you are right about problems from the fact that it is a 200 yr old document compared to ours being about 25 yrs old.
Still our supreme court has interpreted parts much wider than written, eg the search and seizure provision being a general right to privacy to the point where it is illegal to out source certain programs to the USA as your corporations are not held to the same standards, things like selling info on customers.
Just get mad when certain Americans act like your Bill of Rights is perfect and the government follows it without exception.
As for topless women, in the summer it is not that rare to actually see one around here walking down the road or riding her bike though it is still rare enough to get mentioned. More common on the beach of course. I also understand that in some states women have the same freedom. NY being one IIRC.
To show the culture differences between Canada and the USA the CRTC (Canadian FCC) got quite a few complaints about that Superbowl halftime. Not one was about Janet's boob, instead it was a beer commercial that some people considered racist.
As for the political issues, what I meant by black box was not the secret ballot which I think is needed for democracy to function but the mysterious voting machines which act like a black box. One never really knows if they are counting votes honestly or not and it is that not knowing that I find questionable. Here I can show up at the polling station in the morning, watch the empty ballot boxes being unloaded and verify they are empty. Stand around all day watching the voting procedure and also watch the counting procedure and every major political party does have representatives watching. Even though minor cheating is most likely still possible by eg getting on the voting list more than once generally there is no question about the elections. Also generally we only vote on one thing at a time so the people are more likely to be informed compared to you where the ballot can easily be multi page with everyone from the President down to the dog catcher being decided at once.
Also $50000 is quite a bit of money to me and $49000 more then is legal here. It seems quite a few laws are passed in the States where it seems to benefit some corporation more then the populace.
As for Marijuana I think we should agree to agree to disagree about harm that it causes. Still I don't see how you could argue that hemp that is very low in THC should be treated the same as Marijuana yet try buying some hemp product down there. Blue jeans being one example.
As for the seizure of assets, it does seem to be getting better down there but here are a couple of examples, though about money more than homes.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drug s/special/forfeiture.html
http://www.the-dispatch.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article? AID=/20060927/NEWS/609270339/1005/news
http://www.isil.org/resources/lit/looting-of-ameri ca.html
and of course a google search shows many more though as I said it seems to of gotten better since the '90s.
The history of prohibition is quite interesting. A couple of points. The constitution had to be amended to prohibit alcohol so under that reasoning any other Federal prohibition laws would also need constitutional amendments to be legal.
Chocolate came very close to also being prohibited around the turn of the last century. Chocolate has also been being bred for
First I should apologize for posting when drinking and coming across harsher then I meant. Individually the Americans I have known have been nice people and though I have never lived in the US I have spent most of my life close enough to be heavily influenced by it.
Still I stand by most of what I said.
You're bill of rights seems to be broken all the time.
Free speech being limited to free speech zones doesn't sound very free.
You are right that I should of said slave owners but the point stands that it is very hypocritical for someone to own another person while preaching freedom.
In the present there is American government spying on its own citizens, talking about torture like it is fine. The enemy combatant thing, and a basic disrespect for Non Americans even though much of your Bill of Rights references people, not just citizens.
Not to mention that you haven't even given women the same rights as men. Compare the difference between a mans shirt falling of during the Superbowl compared to a woman. Equality includes some things that some people find distasteful.
Also remember that I was replying to an AC who did seem to think they are better then everyone else.
About the elections. Whether your elections are honest or not is unknown as your voting system now consists of a black box. Push button, get result. Hopefully they are honest but its not like you can watch the whole process as I can when voting here.
The huge amounts of money needed to run for office in the States creates the need for large campaign contributions which creates a large conflict of interest in your politicians about whether to serve their constituents or their financiers.
As for the politicians writing the election districts for their advantage, may I suggest checking out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering
Hemp after being renamed Marijuana (no one would of stood for illegalized one of the most useful crops) was illegalized due to the fact that a machine had been invented that allowed breaking the stalks to extract the fiber without back breaking labour. This opened up all kinds of possibilities like cheap good paper. At this time Hearst was just starting to push pulp paper after investing heavily in the process. To stop the competition he manipulated the government to start on the road to illegalizing hemp.
Laws were passed with very little notice. The American Medical Association just managed to show up to argue against the criminalization and the hemp farmers didn't even get a chance to show up. There were other factors at the time such as a large branch of the government not having anything to do due to alcohol now being legal. A puritan push to make anything illegal that people enjoyed. The fact that minorities used various drugs and of course DuPont pushing nylon for rope.
So you have laws being passed just to allow one industry to not have to compete. This is political and crimes created by this process are political crimes. Its not like hemp hurt anyone, at least not as much as lets say coffee or Aspirin which kills thousands of Americans a year.
And of course a political crime is still a crime on the books and just like China has the right to bust people for belonging to the wrong religion as it is against the law there so do you.
Your country does have an amazing percentage of its population in jail, of which a good number, though maybe slightly less then a million, are there rather directly or indirectly from the war on drugs. Indirectly including the problems caused by the artificial scarcity caused by the war on drugs.
Another thing about the drug laws down there is they totally ignore due process. You can get arrested for dealing drugs, the government can take all your belongings then they can drop the charges. A citizen is out of there house etc without any due process and now lots of police forces depend upon that money so it is politically expedient to keep certain laws on the books.
The dishonesty th
[sarcasm] Thats right. Shouldn't I have the right to break in to your house and seize your computer (don't worry, you'll get it back in 10 or perhaps 12 years) to examine your swap file to make sure you didn't infringe on my copyright on this post. Who knows, you might of quoted it in a reply
[/sarcasm]
Funny thing is the one person I know who digs ditches for a living is a millionaire. There is good money in digging ditches though you need a million dollars in equipment to do it right.
Poor guy in school always felt weird when the teachers would say if you don't do better you'll end up digging ditches when his old man was totally raking it in digging ditches. (Actually drainage for farms)