SmoothedShredder

FTR I believe people are fundamentally survivors, not inherantly good or evil... which is tough cause ultimately no one survives! So starting with this strong irrational passionate foundation... Good and evil are determined by your actions, and no action is free from positive and negative (good and evil) consequences. It's how one is aware of the good and evil in everything, and how they manage it which is important... which means it's a skill... which means if I combine your idea with mine JonYak that babies are born really really evil immoral beasts, and only become less evil as they get better at it and are properly trained... and that you JonYak, must be self admitadly at an All-star callibre. I can accept that... but I'll also have to accept that the size of the allstar team is far far greater than half the population of the world... and like I stated before, I don't think people are really good and evil in that democratic sense... so I now say nah! To that argument!... Go Babies! Is Poo evil? Not entirely, but there's a great deal of evil in it, you can't deny it! You are what you don't poo! I'm going to get me a mushroom pizza now! mmmmmm And I still want to know what the good is in 'evil'. Anyone? Evil mouse?

I think that this is just the kind of concession that The Province of Quebec has been aiming for since the Plains of Abraham. It's not much in terms of cost... and it seems to of brought two groups closer together that at one point (and many points) trying to rip each other apart. What I think people involved are wary of are all the 'back doors' that might be opened... some that may interest me would be: a) Regional Offical Languages, so every form the government produces does not have to be written in two languages... think of the paper savings alone Batman! More Autonomy for Quebec, and eventually all the provinces... Canada is too big to be held together as a Federation, and we've spent too much valuble time on the issue (Thanks Liberal Mulroney Sandwich!!!), and too small to be incharge of the entire world so this was inevitable... besides Quebec isn't "going anywhere"... we'll always know exactly where she is! They just want a little lip service from the side that kicked their asses over 150 years ago!!! But didn't enialate them... okay maybe it was a tie... Besides it's a resource economy now, and EVERY provice is stinkin rich, so each should be allowed a certain amount of autonomy at creating their own sustaiable regional ecconomies. The Federation with all it's inane waste of management of these vast pools of resources and labour have been a great hinderance to each and every province achieving this goal... kinda the exact opposite reason of why a Federation was deemed useful in the first place... And that's like totally my opinion man! I got no problems with the term Quebecois... the real problem comes when I try to give myself a similar identity... I've come to the conclusion I'm a Morontowian... Montorwanian?!... ah, whom I kidding I'm just jelous cause Quebec is so damn cool! Hehe, I just thoght about that Ottawa Sports station... during station Identification, the say "More On Sports" and it always sounds like Moron Sports to me... you would of thought that would of been gone along time ago! But during a recent Sens game!...

Is this thread about the Christmas style Peace Wreath or what?! Wow, symbology is an enigma! A really big idea (or lots of little ideas) packed together in a slick package. Solutions you say?! Well for me it's keep up the damn wreath. The progress that has been made on taming religon appears to me to be like this: At one point religion contained government... it decided what the government decided... Some Guy named God and his son Jesus came along and gave us the general rules that the 'governing body' would interpret and use the guide their decisions. That has (was suppose to) changed by 'separating' state and religon. With regards to this particular issue (re: christmas peace wreath, and things like Santa Claus in the mall, Christmas pagents and the like)... the message has gone too far. The Governments irrationally tried to 'separate' itself from religous things by not allowing them within it's beuracratic reasoning AND in public spaces is sees over... This was never the point of separating church and state... Government went too far, and now individuals (like those on the Committee to ban the peace wreath) have taken that lead, and are flexing their muscle confident that since the Government did, we can too... well they can't... individuality is protected in the Constitution, and a subdivision is in no way one of the institutions that the goverment holds free Dominion over... For me this was not the point of 'separating' Church and State, and want to clarify that no separation actually occured... rather just the nature of the relation between the two... Where once Religon contained Government, Government now contains religon... all of them. So the solution: The Woman can do what ever she wants with her wreath... The Subdivision has no power (in a governmental sense) to control her, and should 'self-realize' that about themselves and fuck off (unless of course there's some contract or agreement that she signed when she moved into the subdivision which hasn't yet been mentioned). If the government were to do ANYTHING in this situation, it would be to moderate the discussion between the two paying close attention to and bringing to light how the Constitution would be used to interpret this particular situation... no doubt in my mind, this individual has a right to express her identity... she's not hurting anyone who isn't already hurting themselves by getting offended by these Pagan symbols... therefore in this particular case, there's your solution. It might be a bumpy road, but I'm optomistic this will be the outcome... but who knows, maybe they'll stone her, and teach her about what their god thinks about her god Old testament style!!! To summarize: The Government Contains Individuals and groups of individuals The Government Contains Religon The Government does not look to religon to help it make decisions, rather the government makes those decisions based on rational thought and by applying conflicts to a general code agree upon and adjusted by Individuals and Groups, not by citing Religous norms... The Government allows individuals and groups to co-exist... preferably with as little intrusion and conflict... but when two of those groups have a conflict (which has or may escalate to an infringement of rights), it's the governments duty to help find the solution. So it can seem simutaniously that the government is supporting a religon (either peace, or Christianity (I'm assuming cause it's Colorado where the Wreath icident took place)), and doing so from a secular point of view. I'd like to hear if there has been an offical update to the wreath story and what they actually accomplished out there though... I hope the wreath stays, and no fines, and that they all get together and have some egg nog, and actaully enjoy each others company over the holidays! Remember spring is a long time away, and these Holiday celebrations (if done right) can do a lot of good at curbing the negative effective of frozen water and no plant life for four months!! This is all much a do about nothing... kinda pathetic... I'm going to go check the Tabloids for any juicy K-Fed gossip now! Peace, ~W

I liked the movie... The most interesting thing about all the Hype, and waiting a few years to see what it was all about was that I had no idea that much of the controversy was over the idea of a "female aire" to the throne of Christ, and that the Christian "God" was more of a Mortal like Mohommad, than immortal, like the texts created 300 years after Christs death suggest he was... as well as the choice to write Mary Magdalin role as a prostitute oppsoed to Christs wife, and the important balance that Perhaps the real Christ would of prefered to have had relate his legacy to his and her deciples. With all the Pop Culture fodder I came across, I had no idea that these were the themes causing all the controversy, and that in itself I found interesting.

I recommend "The Take" directed by Naomi Klein: The Take Website

Is it December yet? It seems, hopefully, that the Sens have finally manage to buck some trends of theirs... comeback victories, sucessfully holding off one-goal leads in the third... scoring lots in the final minutes of the game... now they're not back safetly in the arms of the playoffs in the standings, but it's only the quater poll, and I think alot of these still young, and well experienced playoff guys have finally found a new swagger. And for the record: Alfie stays... I don't know what I was thinkin!, Emery is and will be for a long long time the #1 Goalie, and Gerber will accept and thrive his roll as backup... maybe by Feburary!

I'm convinced that there are just people out there who Love to fight... I guess when you're an Idealistic Empire, you head to the Mideast and Duke it out. Strategically though with the geography... it's impossible to protect all the differnt flanks over the great and diverse region... and every empire is at the mercy of the next great conquror... easy to to win... tough to stay... I'm glad it's a signal of the end of American dominance in global power... one day, and it'll be soon, they will retreat and it'll happen all over again... hopefully people will learn to be happy where they are and happy others have some place to be happy too.

I think when it comes to the issues that it is possible to hold true two points of view which are seemingly oppisite simutaniously. On one hand you have the rigid 'membership' of a group that defines the 'mosaic' we have in Canada... but we also have many arena's where the mosaics tiles 'bleed together' almost like a melting pot. In my dream of Canada, and Canadian values, everyone has a right to feel comfortable about being part of a smaller group/nation/tribe within Canada... just stick to some basic useful rules, help us build some roads, schools, and hospitals, and spend time with the people you choose. But little by little in Toronto I see the lines between these groups being blurred... partially because more and more people are living on top of each other and it's getting harder and harder to maintain clear and distinct physical boundaries for these cultural groups! Little Italy is certainly not 100% Italian anymore... Spadina's China Town now has a sister town in the East end, and you can find more indie rock kids at any given moment than you can a person from Asia... though there certainly are lots of people in general! So basically I'm trying to say that the Idea of Multicultralism is just a propaghada design to make immagrants feel comforatable with a place to go to feel 'at home' when they arrive, and the natives tollerant (In canada:Canadians... not just aboriginals).. becasue there are just too many examples of native's being intollerant in the past. The reality though, is that it's all mixing together (kinda like a crock pot melting pot) Beautiful ground work for Urban United Nations... kinda... and slowly going in the right direction IMO. Sure there are some old 'fight lines' that seem to rear their ugly heads from time to time, and we are making some new fight lines everyday with some of the foregin policy that we and the Americans, and immigrants all participate in, but I'n my befuddled optimisim, I think we have been growing a garden for sucess for quite sometimes, and I really enjoy when I get glipses of all the positive things we can achieve in Toronto... I'm sure it's like this all over Canada in some way or the other too!

So it seems: a) There's a Dutch dude now heading the NATO mission in Afghanistan The forces have pulled back from the 'friction zones' and the soilder death rates have declined c) There has been more focus on reconstruction efforts and solidifying 'relationships' in places where they have already conqured or if you prefer, removed the Taliban presence/control. I'm haven't read if they are buying all the poppy crops from the Farmers in the SouthWest, but I think it's a great idea. I mean sure opium gets a bad rap in the ole' Drug Heiarchy, but compared to some of the synthetic stuff we got over here and use in Hospitals all the time, it's probably quite tame... I read the idea in another thread on this board, and thought it was a really good idea.

The Food there is Amazing! Nuno and Randy are Master Chefs and have created an amazing regular menu and always try to do something interesting with the specials. Their soups are made from scratch everyday, and there's no stopping them from putting squash into everything... even stir fry's. If you're not 'adventerous' then the Organic Chicken Dish is cooked to perfection and has a savory gravy which reminds me of the holiday diners my Mom used to make! The Gypsy Platter is a tasty and reasonably priced started for the whole table with funky presentation which will make you feel like you paid more for it than you did. I've seen their food order list, and there's about two dozen vegetables, herbs, and other ingredients that this simpleton has never heard of before. The sound system is awful... but thankfully Mr. Something Something is loud enough on their own that it won't be a serious issue!

Wow, heavy Margaret! I know everyone is on point when they say that future employments not going to be hard for a person of your caliblre to find... but when I got to the part about Grandfather, well, I guess I can just say sorry and send you a big big hug! Take care of yourself! And looking forward to giving you this hug in person! Peace, ~W

I wonder if everyone knows about Hals "Participaction" initiative? Get off the couch and go play!!! Bunch a know-it-alls!!!

Yeah, DEM, I have that song in the back of my head all the time... the more mundane the task, the louder it gets.

How does everyone feel about Songwriters who use god or the devil to conjure up imagery, or to convey a meaning? Just a wonderin...