My point is that no new legislation is required. Just make sure that your contracts are correctly written.
In my limited experience, that has happened. abc.com won't let me, a Canadian, download shows that their Canadian partners have paid for. I haven't tried it with cbs or nbc or fox, so I don't know if the same holds for them, but I wouldn't be surprised if it did. But I can understand why CTV or Global would be pissed if someone posted an entire episode of say, CSI, on youtube that CTV had paid the Canadian rights for, just as I'm sure CBS would be mightily pissed off in the US.
And there is a market for these shows, even after they've aired originally. For example, I enjoy both "24" and "Prison Break", but with them going on hiatus frequently, changing air times, etc., I've lost track with both current seasons. So I'm waiting for them to come out on DVD, so I can watch the entire season at once - and I'll pay for the privilege of seeing it without commercials. Now if all those episodes were available on youtube (or via torrents), it's pretty clear that the value of the franchise is diminished.
Now, I think the compromise on recorded music in Canada makes some sense; we pay a premium for rip media, and that is used to compensate artists (and the record companies, of course) in return for allowing us to download music, and basically use our music collections as we see fit. But there currently is no such compromise for TV shows, and I can understand why broadcasters are concerned.
Too young? I remember when you had to fill out slips at the LCBO, hand them in at one counter, and pick up your package at another one. Apparently, the LCBO heads studied marketing in Soviet Russia.
But I digress.. yes, the official name was the "Brewers' Retail", but every single person I know (including the Mackenzie brothers) referred to it as the "Beer Store". Seriously, did you know anyone who said "I'm off to the Brewers"?
I think the issue here is Canadian broadcasters pay US networks for the rights to certain shows. For example, CTV has "Lost" and the "CSI" and "Law and Order" franchises, while Global got the "Survivor" series, "Shark", etc. If people are going to stream those videos in Canada, those broadcasters want them streamed from their sites, not US sites. Doesn't sound unreasonable to me.
And, FWIW, as a Canadian, when I went to abc.com to view the episode of "Lost" I had missed, I was told that I was ineligible to view it, as I was accessing the site from Canada. So at a technical level, it looks like it is feasible to block Canadians, and as I noted above, it's not an issue of Canadian broadcasters producing quality shows or not; it's an issue of them protecting the rights that they have paid for.
Um, but M$ forces retailers to promote their products and penalizes them if they advertise other operating systems such as, say, Linux. And there seems to be no shortage of retailers eager to do business with them.
Privacy, yeah, he respects privacy by wishing he could tell us who we can marry. The bedroom, that's a good public place for conservatives to govern, isn't it?
Why don't you go overboard a bit? He wasn't trying to say queers can't pack fudge in the privacy of their bedrooms, he was saying that he thought the term "marriage" should be reserved for straight people. He wasn't against the idea of "civil unions", so he wasn't trying to govern anyone's bedroom or legal status. He just wanted to preserve the meaning of concept that's as old as humankind.
But that wasn't enough for you crybaby fags. So you whined and cried and depicted anyone who disagreed with you as racist, Fascist, and reactionary until you got your way. Now that fat cocksucker Kyle Rae is trying to convince the Toronto school board to teach elementary school kids that families consisting of a father and a mother are the source of most domestic violence and child abuse, and that alternate family structures (like two mommies or two daddies) are better for them. I'm guessing it will be in the curriculum by 2010.
Politicians from both major parties, both in Canada and the US, get much of their funding from the same corporations and industries, so they're beholden to essentially the same interests.
You do realize that Chretien's campaign finance bill prevents corporations from donating more than $1,000/year to political parties? (the amount is adjusted for inflation each year) That might buy 30 seconds of TV ad time in a small market. And any company that receives more than 50% of its revenue from the government can't make any contributions at all. The Conservatives raised all their funds in the last quarter of 2006 from individuals, with over 90% of the contributions $200 or less.
Somehow, I don't think my $200 is going to influence Harper a whole helluva lot. However, I do think you're a moron.
Most 'aussies' are racist, even if they don't admit it (or don't realize it).
I don't think it's racist to be angry at people who come to the fairly successful countries we have built in Canada and Oz, and then want to change the rules to those of their fairly fucked up countries that they were so eager to leave. Why can't we put up Xmas trees in our schools? Because some immigrants are "offended". Well, I'm offended when I see women walking around all covered up, and refusing to take off their veils when, for example, store clerks are trying to verify photo ID. This reached its latest peak in the Quebec provincial election due Monday. The government, in response to protests from a few dozen Muslims, was going to allow Muslim women to not take off their veils to verify their identity. (Everyone else has to provide photo ID before being allowed to vote.) Only after massive protests that would have seen native Quebeckers wearing masks, bags, etc. on their heads did the government back off.
Moreover, since my wife is from the Philippines and we have visited there many times, I can attest that there are commercial schools in the Philippines that instruct people on how to apply for refugee status once they're in Canada, how to get welfare, how to get free medical care, etc. In Somalia, emigrants learn how to manipulate the Landlord-Tenant Act in Ontario, which is supposed to balance the rights of tenants and landlords. Instead, these people move into an apartment after paying first and last month's rent, then overcrowd it, and never pay rent again until they are evicted - a process which takes 6-9 months, and costs the landlord thousands of dollars.
In short, if you want to move to my country, then be prepared to accept the laws and norms of our society, and don't try to impose the failed rules from the country you were so desparate to escape. Muslims seem quite prepared to kill each other in Iraq; why don't other Muslims in Pakistan, Syria, etc., rise up and overthrow their despotic governments? Until emigrants are prepared to accept Canada's rules and standards, I want them to stay home.
They wanted to keep charging $30 a month just for the privilege of having a crappy old copper POTS line and massive long distance charges for each call.
Massive long distance charges? What planet do you live on? LD rates have been dropping for years. I remember when Vancouver to Toronto was $0.56/minute (and that's in 1980 dollars). Now that call is 3 cents a minute. So rates have dropped dramatically, especially when you consider inflation.
And if you don't want to play with Verizon, buy a phone card. From Toronto, I can call halfway around the world for 17 cents a minute - hardly what I call "massive".
You don't hear about the millions of reasonable, open-minded religious people who are capable of realizing that the Bible doesn't actually say how old the earth is and Genesis 1 was meant to be poetic rather than a scientific account of how God created the universe.
Hear, hear! How scientists can claim the "Big Bang" as an event with no extraneous cause is less subject to disbelief than "And God created light" is beyond me. I agree with Skeezix that the fundamentalists with their 6,000 year old Earth are completely out to lunch. But I would like to suggest the following analogy:
Many/. regulars have played games such as SimCity. Let's consider a time when computing power is sufficiently advanced that the entities created in a "SimWorld" have awareness. What would their cosmology be? Would they eventually create their own "Big Bang" theory? And in a sense, would that be right? Was their world created when you decided to create it, to them out of nothing? Or are you the "God" of their world that you created, in your own image? And, considering you have the ability to direct the fate of their world, irrespective of their will or desire, are you not, by any standard definition, a "God"?
Further, many people cite the misery of the world - Hitler, Stalin, Iraq - as proof that an "omnipotent, omnipresent" God does not exist. But, in a sufficiently complex Sim game, could you pay attention to every issue and every parameter at all times? Clearly not, as many current SimCities die, and at an infinitely lower level of complexity.
It's not unreasonable to suggest, IMHO, that God did create our universe many millions (billions?) of years ago, and like a gardener, tends to different sections of it at different times. When he turns his attention to our planet, he may see a tendency towards evil, and so he sends or directs a Hammurabi, a Moses, a Lao-Tzu, a Jesus, a Buddha, etc. That this direction doesn't come as frequently or dependably as scientists would like for proof is of no matter to Him.
To me, this view reconciles evolution and creationism, and allows me to worship God without denying the physical evidence that the world is millions of years old.
You are missing the historical point. Countries were trying to adopt and improve mass production techniques in the 1920's and 1930's - in part because of the work of Taylor and others on time and motion studies, etc., and in part because European countries were rearming quickly during the 30's.
Highway networks in the 30's were sparse, poorly maintained, and low capacity. Railway networks carried large numbers of people and large quantities of goods far more quickly, and far more reliably than the auto/truck networks of the time. It made sense to invest in them as a precursor to the "just in time" manufacturing system, and then to ensure they operated efficiently.
Eisenhower realized that auto networks would be more important in America after WWII, due to country's size and distributed population, so he created the Interstate system. So I would suggest governments concentrate energy on efficient and reliable use of their major transportation systems. I don't have the figures, but I'd be willing to bet that more money has been spent on airports and the FAA in the last 20 years than highways, but that is just a guess.
I view Libertarians as people who desire freedom so that they can behave as poorly as possible without being called to account.
Then you clearly don't understand Libertarianism at all. I'm tired of a bunch of overpaid buttinskis telling me what I can and cannot do - if I'm not hurting you directly, leave me alone. Banning smoking indoors at bars; OK, even if the science is dubious at best (it actually shows that the only people with significantly heightened risk from secondhand smoke are people who are married to smokers). But to ban it on outdoor patios? The Germans seem to be able to drive at 100 mph without killing themselves more frequently than US or Canadian drivers. Mandatory bicycle helmets? It's my head, thank you; if I want to expose it to injury, that should be my choice, not yours. I prefer the freedom to make the choices in my life, and not have you extort money from me through taxation to support a giant bureaucracy that then imposes its will on me.
In fact, in Canada, we had a recent issue in just this area. The left wing parties wanted to set up a national day care network, which of course would have hundreds of bureaucrats, and provide parents with only one choice. The Conservative party decided to offer a system where parents receive a set amount of money per child, and then can make their own choices about where to spend it: at a traditional daycare, or perhaps a neighbour, or to support stay-at-home moms. Each family makes the choice that makes the most sense for them, and the money-grubbing 'crats are left in the cold. Libertarianism provides many interesting solutions for today's problems.
From rough memory, I think that at each point our eyes stop while reading we only see a few words with any accuracy, and our eyes stop almost constantly as we read, even including jumping back over single words two or three times.
Well, only if you've been poorly trained. If you've ever looked at increasing your reading speed, the techniques most recommended are training your eyes to take in larger chunks (i.e. wider) of text at each time, and to move down the page constantly. I took an Evelyn Wood course at 8 or 9 years old, and increased my reading speed to over 400 words per minute (the average adult reads about 100-150 wpm), while still maintaining high comprehension scores. Now that's when I'm trying to absorb information which I basically understand, like history, fiction, or literature. If I'm reading a text on SQL programming, I have to slow down to make sure I understand how the code works.
Math was especially true in this regard, math homework was nothing more than endless repetition of braindead problems designed to wear down your spirit and break you as a human being.
Sure. And shooting hundreds of free throws is nothing more than endless repetition designed to break your spirit, and not at all about making you a better basketball player, or doing scales over and over is designed to make you a better piano player.
Here's a quarter; buy a clue. Practice helps. I have two daughters, 13 and 10, who have been in the Kumon program for the last five years. Kumon is just organized drill, but it has helped my girls get straight A's in math and reading since Grade 2, and both are now in the gifted program. Just like weight training reps help build strength, math reps help build brains. I've stopped being surprised by the number of university graduates I meet who can't figure out a 15% tip without a calculator. My girls are numerate as well as literate, and I ascribe that to Kumon, as well as our family support. My older daughter is in Grade 7, and in Kumon, she is working on quadratic equations, while in school, they are doing elementary algebra. She is so far ahead of her peers, her biggest problem is dealing with boredom at school. Your whining post suggests you were pissed off that you couldn't play video games due to homework. Tough.
The leader of the Liberal Party, Stephane Dion, has integrity and fights for what he believes in.
Funniest comment ever. This guy was minister of the environment for four years, and didn't do a thing to curb carbon emissions. Now that he is in opposition, he's Mr. Greenjeans. He's a hypocrite and an opportunist; integrity is one thing he doesn't have.
Wielded by people who get angery when someone doesn't take the time to learn their profession language, but they won't take time to learn someone elses profession language.
Management talks that way, and it makes sence within it's context, learn it or whither.
Whither, indeed. Perhaps you might take the time to learn English.
Rent the video of John Cleese's "Meetings, bloody meetings". It's hilarious, and it shows exactly why so many meetings are pointless. On the other hand, I once had a sales manager whose Monday morning kickoff was great. It started exactly on time (the door was locked at 8:00 am; if you were late, you were out of luck), he had a definite agenda which he stuck to, and he didn't allow conversations to meander or ramble. We always came out charged up and looking forward to the week. So, not all meetings suck, just most of them!
I know from my experiences from crossing the U.S. / Canada border literally hundreds of times:
% times I was searched, detained, or questioned when I was traveling alone or with only other white people: 0%
% times I was sent back to the U.S. when traveling alone or with only other white people: 0%
% times I was searched, detained, or questioned when traveling with non white people: 100%
% times I was sent back when traveling with non white people: around 75%.
I too have crossed the border hundreds of times. I am married to a Chinese woman, and her relatives
frequently come to visit from Asia, and we often take them to the States. These are people from the
Philippines with proper visas, etc. We have never been detained, searched, or questioned any more than
"What's the purpose of your visit?" and "Do you have any alcohol or firearms?". The border guards do
inspect their passports, but I'd expect them to do that. So I'm calling "bullshit".
American customs agents like to hassle people about things as silly as their occupation or education
About 20 years ago, I was travelling by car from Waterloo, Ontario to Chicago to demonstrate our software
product to some customers. We had it installed on a Compaq luggable (thing weighed about 25 lbs.). The US
customs agent detained us for nearly an hour, wanting to know why we were bringing this computer into the
US. I pointed out that it was built in Texas, so it wasn't like we were trying to bring some "foreign"
equipment into the country. He didn't care. He seemed obsessed with the idea that we were going to sell it
once we had it in the US. Finally, after insisting we fill out a bunch of forms, he let us in, but to this
day, I still remember him shouting at us as we got in our car "You make damn sure that thing leaves the country
with you!".
The concept of "Royalty" is a history-encompassing scam where brigand families who murdered and backstabbed their way to political dominance, then established the fiction that they were fundamentally superior by the grace of genetics and edict of God, and used that fiction to claim right to subjugate and torture their "subjects" when not embroiling them in self-enriching wars. They are not better than anyone else, worse in fact because they lived high on the hog on the lie that they were better. The history of most "royal" families should make being a member a mark of shame, not something to be elevated.
Even if the Royal family doesn't have power anymore, it should be as disgusting and shameful as the Confederate flag, a symbol of when one class had institutional, irrevocable license to dominate over another. I have no respect at all for even the symbolic institution of royalty. I wouldn't associate with someone who clung proudly to their ancestral plantation heritage, and likewise I wouldn't accept an honor from a false institution such as royalty. If anything, you are the one preconditioned to accept such garbage, not us to reject it.
"Oh, but you can't expect to wield supreme executive power just because some watery tart threw a sword at you."
Slashdot Mirror
In my limited experience, that has happened. abc.com won't let me, a Canadian, download shows that their Canadian partners have paid for. I haven't tried it with cbs or nbc or fox, so I don't know if the same holds for them, but I wouldn't be surprised if it did. But I can understand why CTV or Global would be pissed if someone posted an entire episode of say, CSI, on youtube that CTV had paid the Canadian rights for, just as I'm sure CBS would be mightily pissed off in the US.
And there is a market for these shows, even after they've aired originally. For example, I enjoy both "24" and "Prison Break", but with them going on hiatus frequently, changing air times, etc., I've lost track with both current seasons. So I'm waiting for them to come out on DVD, so I can watch the entire season at once - and I'll pay for the privilege of seeing it without commercials. Now if all those episodes were available on youtube (or via torrents), it's pretty clear that the value of the franchise is diminished.
Now, I think the compromise on recorded music in Canada makes some sense; we pay a premium for rip media, and that is used to compensate artists (and the record companies, of course) in return for allowing us to download music, and basically use our music collections as we see fit. But there currently is no such compromise for TV shows, and I can understand why broadcasters are concerned.
Absolutely! Check out the following "Hinterland Who's Who" from the Canadian Wildlife Service:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHzdsFiBbFc
But I digress.. yes, the official name was the "Brewers' Retail", but every single person I know (including the Mackenzie brothers) referred to it as the "Beer Store". Seriously, did you know anyone who said "I'm off to the Brewers"?
The liquor store? In Ontario in the 1980's? Sorry, my friend, it was "The Beer Store".
And, FWIW, as a Canadian, when I went to abc.com to view the episode of "Lost" I had missed, I was told that I was ineligible to view it, as I was accessing the site from Canada. So at a technical level, it looks like it is feasible to block Canadians, and as I noted above, it's not an issue of Canadian broadcasters producing quality shows or not; it's an issue of them protecting the rights that they have paid for.
Um, but M$ forces retailers to promote their products and penalizes them if they advertise other operating systems such as, say, Linux. And there seems to be no shortage of retailers eager to do business with them.
Why don't you go overboard a bit? He wasn't trying to say queers can't pack fudge in the privacy of their bedrooms, he was saying that he thought the term "marriage" should be reserved for straight people. He wasn't against the idea of "civil unions", so he wasn't trying to govern anyone's bedroom or legal status. He just wanted to preserve the meaning of concept that's as old as humankind.
But that wasn't enough for you crybaby fags. So you whined and cried and depicted anyone who disagreed with you as racist, Fascist, and reactionary until you got your way. Now that fat cocksucker Kyle Rae is trying to convince the Toronto school board to teach elementary school kids that families consisting of a father and a mother are the source of most domestic violence and child abuse, and that alternate family structures (like two mommies or two daddies) are better for them. I'm guessing it will be in the curriculum by 2010.
You do realize that Chretien's campaign finance bill prevents corporations from donating more than $1,000/year to political parties? (the amount is adjusted for inflation each year) That might buy 30 seconds of TV ad time in a small market. And any company that receives more than 50% of its revenue from the government can't make any contributions at all. The Conservatives raised all their funds in the last quarter of 2006 from individuals, with over 90% of the contributions $200 or less.
Somehow, I don't think my $200 is going to influence Harper a whole helluva lot. However, I do think you're a moron.
I don't think it's racist to be angry at people who come to the fairly successful countries we have built in Canada and Oz, and then want to change the rules to those of their fairly fucked up countries that they were so eager to leave. Why can't we put up Xmas trees in our schools? Because some immigrants are "offended". Well, I'm offended when I see women walking around all covered up, and refusing to take off their veils when, for example, store clerks are trying to verify photo ID. This reached its latest peak in the Quebec provincial election due Monday. The government, in response to protests from a few dozen Muslims, was going to allow Muslim women to not take off their veils to verify their identity. (Everyone else has to provide photo ID before being allowed to vote.) Only after massive protests that would have seen native Quebeckers wearing masks, bags, etc. on their heads did the government back off.
Moreover, since my wife is from the Philippines and we have visited there many times, I can attest that there are commercial schools in the Philippines that instruct people on how to apply for refugee status once they're in Canada, how to get welfare, how to get free medical care, etc. In Somalia, emigrants learn how to manipulate the Landlord-Tenant Act in Ontario, which is supposed to balance the rights of tenants and landlords. Instead, these people move into an apartment after paying first and last month's rent, then overcrowd it, and never pay rent again until they are evicted - a process which takes 6-9 months, and costs the landlord thousands of dollars.
In short, if you want to move to my country, then be prepared to accept the laws and norms of our society, and don't try to impose the failed rules from the country you were so desparate to escape. Muslims seem quite prepared to kill each other in Iraq; why don't other Muslims in Pakistan, Syria, etc., rise up and overthrow their despotic governments? Until emigrants are prepared to accept Canada's rules and standards, I want them to stay home.
Massive long distance charges? What planet do you live on? LD rates have been dropping for years. I remember when Vancouver to Toronto was $0.56/minute (and that's in 1980 dollars). Now that call is 3 cents a minute. So rates have dropped dramatically, especially when you consider inflation.
And if you don't want to play with Verizon, buy a phone card. From Toronto, I can call halfway around the world for 17 cents a minute - hardly what I call "massive".
Hear, hear! How scientists can claim the "Big Bang" as an event with no extraneous cause is less subject to disbelief than "And God created light" is beyond me. I agree with Skeezix that the fundamentalists with their 6,000 year old Earth are completely out to lunch. But I would like to suggest the following analogy:
Many /. regulars have played games such as SimCity. Let's consider a time when computing power is sufficiently advanced that the entities created in a "SimWorld" have awareness. What would their cosmology be? Would they eventually create their own "Big Bang" theory? And in a sense, would that be right? Was their world created when you decided to create it, to them out of nothing? Or are you the "God" of their world that you created, in your own image? And, considering you have the ability to direct the fate of their world, irrespective of their will or desire, are you not, by any standard definition, a "God"?
Further, many people cite the misery of the world - Hitler, Stalin, Iraq - as proof that an "omnipotent, omnipresent" God does not exist. But, in a sufficiently complex Sim game, could you pay attention to every issue and every parameter at all times? Clearly not, as many current SimCities die, and at an infinitely lower level of complexity.
It's not unreasonable to suggest, IMHO, that God did create our universe many millions (billions?) of years ago, and like a gardener, tends to different sections of it at different times. When he turns his attention to our planet, he may see a tendency towards evil, and so he sends or directs a Hammurabi, a Moses, a Lao-Tzu, a Jesus, a Buddha, etc. That this direction doesn't come as frequently or dependably as scientists would like for proof is of no matter to Him.
To me, this view reconciles evolution and creationism, and allows me to worship God without denying the physical evidence that the world is millions of years old.
Highway networks in the 30's were sparse, poorly maintained, and low capacity. Railway networks carried large numbers of people and large quantities of goods far more quickly, and far more reliably than the auto/truck networks of the time. It made sense to invest in them as a precursor to the "just in time" manufacturing system, and then to ensure they operated efficiently.
Eisenhower realized that auto networks would be more important in America after WWII, due to country's size and distributed population, so he created the Interstate system. So I would suggest governments concentrate energy on efficient and reliable use of their major transportation systems. I don't have the figures, but I'd be willing to bet that more money has been spent on airports and the FAA in the last 20 years than highways, but that is just a guess.
Then you clearly don't understand Libertarianism at all. I'm tired of a bunch of overpaid buttinskis telling me what I can and cannot do - if I'm not hurting you directly, leave me alone. Banning smoking indoors at bars; OK, even if the science is dubious at best (it actually shows that the only people with significantly heightened risk from secondhand smoke are people who are married to smokers). But to ban it on outdoor patios? The Germans seem to be able to drive at 100 mph without killing themselves more frequently than US or Canadian drivers. Mandatory bicycle helmets? It's my head, thank you; if I want to expose it to injury, that should be my choice, not yours. I prefer the freedom to make the choices in my life, and not have you extort money from me through taxation to support a giant bureaucracy that then imposes its will on me.
In fact, in Canada, we had a recent issue in just this area. The left wing parties wanted to set up a national day care network, which of course would have hundreds of bureaucrats, and provide parents with only one choice. The Conservative party decided to offer a system where parents receive a set amount of money per child, and then can make their own choices about where to spend it: at a traditional daycare, or perhaps a neighbour, or to support stay-at-home moms. Each family makes the choice that makes the most sense for them, and the money-grubbing 'crats are left in the cold. Libertarianism provides many interesting solutions for today's problems.
And let's not forget about Max Headroom, the Zikzak Corporation, and "blipverts".
Well, only if you've been poorly trained. If you've ever looked at increasing your reading speed, the techniques most recommended are training your eyes to take in larger chunks (i.e. wider) of text at each time, and to move down the page constantly. I took an Evelyn Wood course at 8 or 9 years old, and increased my reading speed to over 400 words per minute (the average adult reads about 100-150 wpm), while still maintaining high comprehension scores. Now that's when I'm trying to absorb information which I basically understand, like history, fiction, or literature. If I'm reading a text on SQL programming, I have to slow down to make sure I understand how the code works.
Sure. And shooting hundreds of free throws is nothing more than endless repetition designed to break your spirit, and not at all about making you a better basketball player, or doing scales over and over is designed to make you a better piano player.
Here's a quarter; buy a clue. Practice helps. I have two daughters, 13 and 10, who have been in the Kumon program for the last five years. Kumon is just organized drill, but it has helped my girls get straight A's in math and reading since Grade 2, and both are now in the gifted program. Just like weight training reps help build strength, math reps help build brains. I've stopped being surprised by the number of university graduates I meet who can't figure out a 15% tip without a calculator. My girls are numerate as well as literate, and I ascribe that to Kumon, as well as our family support. My older daughter is in Grade 7, and in Kumon, she is working on quadratic equations, while in school, they are doing elementary algebra. She is so far ahead of her peers, her biggest problem is dealing with boredom at school. Your whining post suggests you were pissed off that you couldn't play video games due to homework. Tough.
Funniest comment ever. This guy was minister of the environment for four years, and didn't do a thing to curb carbon emissions. Now that he is in opposition, he's Mr. Greenjeans. He's a hypocrite and an opportunist; integrity is one thing he doesn't have.
Edward de Bono, Six Thinking Hats
Management talks that way, and it makes sence within it's context, learn it or whither.
Whither, indeed. Perhaps you might take the time to learn English.
Rent the video of John Cleese's "Meetings, bloody meetings". It's hilarious, and it shows exactly why so many meetings are pointless. On the other hand, I once had a sales manager whose Monday morning kickoff was great. It started exactly on time (the door was locked at 8:00 am; if you were late, you were out of luck), he had a definite agenda which he stuck to, and he didn't allow conversations to meander or ramble. We always came out charged up and looking forward to the week. So, not all meetings suck, just most of them!
% times I was searched, detained, or questioned when I was traveling alone or with only other white people: 0%
% times I was sent back to the U.S. when traveling alone or with only other white people: 0%
% times I was searched, detained, or questioned when traveling with non white people: 100%
% times I was sent back when traveling with non white people: around 75%.
I too have crossed the border hundreds of times. I am married to a Chinese woman, and her relatives frequently come to visit from Asia, and we often take them to the States. These are people from the Philippines with proper visas, etc. We have never been detained, searched, or questioned any more than "What's the purpose of your visit?" and "Do you have any alcohol or firearms?". The border guards do inspect their passports, but I'd expect them to do that. So I'm calling "bullshit".
About 20 years ago, I was travelling by car from Waterloo, Ontario to Chicago to demonstrate our software product to some customers. We had it installed on a Compaq luggable (thing weighed about 25 lbs.). The US customs agent detained us for nearly an hour, wanting to know why we were bringing this computer into the US. I pointed out that it was built in Texas, so it wasn't like we were trying to bring some "foreign" equipment into the country. He didn't care. He seemed obsessed with the idea that we were going to sell it once we had it in the US. Finally, after insisting we fill out a bunch of forms, he let us in, but to this day, I still remember him shouting at us as we got in our car "You make damn sure that thing leaves the country with you!".
Geez, now all I can think of is lawyers with frickin' laser beams on their heads.
"Oh, but you can't expect to wield supreme executive power just because some watery tart threw a sword at you."
There, condensed that for you.
Is that where she climbs all over the bill in question? Or possibly mounts Parliament Hill? Or did you perhaps mean "Royal Assent"?