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mattm Obviously I can't dispute what Steph's sister says about her experience. I do think that the blanket statement is a stretch though - there's no way that can be proved and it weakens everything it touches. When I was in Afghanistan, the people I talked to admonished me for being Canadian too - except they wanted Canada to do more "like the Americans." Canada wasn't doing nearly enough to satisfy the people I talked to on the streets, in the markets, in the stores, etc. That was a bit of a shock to me, to say the least. That was almost 5 years ago now, but from what I hear the situation is even more tense because the foreign forces in Afghanistan backed off for a couple years and allowed militants to take hold again. Now they are trying to regain ground. That's blatantly untrue and is complete weaksauce when trying to prove any point except that you've read some anti-American propaganda in your days. It's pretty clear that you have a large anti-military bias and I think that might be colouring your opinions, to say the least. That's pretty vague / wrong. Tell me how Canadian troops are killing families to rebuild Afghanistan. Canadian soldiers do not share a unanimous viewpoint about their job. How do you know what they see? The reporting about this could be all / mostly lies yes - I am leaning that way because it's not plausible any other way. I don't take any offence whatsoever - I hope you don't take any either. Civilians have just as many biases, if not more, that military service people. I don't think that the fabrication of blanket 'facts' and opinions of soldiers adds anything to her or your story - I think it detracts. I also think it's quite reasonable for a normal person to create an informed opinion by reading / viewing many media reports, hearing from Army people, civilians, even historical anthropologists. You say you'd rather take the word of one person over news sources - why is one source more trusted than many? Obviously you've heard quite a bit from someone who was there, and that's positive. It just seems that everything you've heard is a big, wrong blanket statement reeking of a probably unjust bias that can't be recognized. It's a good debate though; doing it on the Internet with tiny snippets of information, some of it second or third-hand isn't all that productive however.

My understanding is firstly, to rebuild schools, roads, dams, hospitals, irrigation, agriculture, judiciary, business, health systems, economic systems, education systems, government systems. Secondly, to rid the country of Taliban elements that wish to prevent regular Afghanis from having a safe and stable and productive life. If by 'they' you mean 'Afghanis,' the only thing they have done is ASK FOR OUR HELP to rebuild and get rid of Taliban that are ruining Afghanistan. Canadian troops are not on the offensive against Afghanis - they are on the offensive against Taliban. See my first answer. There are plenty of viable reasons as to why Canadian troops are there. It is sad that a number of our troops have been murdered by rogue elements in Afghanistan. It is also sad when innocent Afghanis are killed for any reason, but you can't really think that Canadian troops are over there to 'murder' innocent people. That's the most counter-productive and illogical thing our troops could do. As for Myanmar, I don't like your argument that the UN should go in and it would be fine because the Army can't be all that strong. Something needs to be done, air-drops, strong-arming the junta, something drastic, but it's a very slippery slope. I have no answer.

the rest of your post was interesting yet kind of scary, but why weaken your argument with this?

not as bad, but great headline: http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/427223

^^^^ comicgold

that doesn't sound like work you freeloader

shit mutherfucker, have a great birthday!

Chuck Klosterman IV

That is indeed sad. I hope you get by on the good memories. Cheers to Wilson!

those are set times for tonight, friday. i have no clue about any of those bands.

He's not on YouTube

uh... yes! they and other companies are! in canada and europe recognizable faces have to be blurred in the case of google streetview and comparable technology (i know this because I work with comparable technology). this isn't a requirement in the USA, but google is currently testing their technology to automatically blur faces. i don't know what the law says about a dude with a camera, signatures, etc and it's not a van, it's a Chevy Cobalt (in north america). although in europe they are using sedans and vans. most of canada's large cities have been captured by the streetview crew - they cannot release any of the imagery in google maps until the blurring technology is perfected and deployed. story relating to your question: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2007/09/25/tech-google-streetview.html interesting article here: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/06/want_off_street.html

I need to get a Skoda to cart around my Henkels and Zepters Anyone got good deals?

check and mate

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One Night Band: 10:30-11:00 Whitey: 9:45-10:15 Clock Strikes Music: 9:00-9:30 Tea For The Voyage: 8:15- 8:45 Bad New Bears: 7:30-8:00 DJ Scotchy will be DJing traditional ska, skinhead reggae and 2tone!

Maybe Bouche has a contact that can shed light onto the seating / GA question? The venue does both seated and GA shows - I'm hoping the assigned seating was just a mix-up when they started selling for the show.

awesome! i hope nobody spaces and forgets to get tickets. will most likely be the smallest venue they play for the remainder of the year. and tickets are cheap. no excuses for missing this!!

The Acorn are in my top 5 for sure. Fiftymen are right up there. Greenfield Main played a show a while ago. They are also in my top 5.

HILOTRONS can i post honorary mentions?

i didn't know that Toews is a stud. top notch reporting

not trying to put you in a bad mood velvet. i'm not a huge 'cell-phones are awesome' flag waver, i used to hate them too. until i found they made my life a bit easier. gonna stop there for the sake of your mood.

it's a bad and dangerous habit, for sure, but the benefit of cell phones is very apparent in crashes as well - 911 calls are made immediately. i'd like to think that lives have been saved. i wonder which way the scale tips.