Birdy

I know you didn't. It still made me throw up a little to read that others believe he defends 'the freedom of man'. Others as in Israel Adam Shamir, the letter writer. The guy is a warped, twisted, fraudulent fuck. I'm weary of his 'open questioning' of Zionism. It comes from a man who has been accused of wishing Israel to be totally obliterated and of describing the Holocaust as a myth. Doesn't really do wonders for those, like myself, who'd prefer a world where we don't confuse anti-Zionism with anti-semitism. Yet people say he's misunderstood, and that's fine, but he makes no effort to make himself clear. Instead he attends UN conferences and gives hate-filled speeches, he says he won't execute juveniles and he executes juveniles, he claims his nuclear interest is for energy purposes and tests missiles. All aggressive behaviour for a man looking to promote peace. Even peace, according to the binds of Islam. And you're right, the West is no better. If at all possible, i'd have George Bush tried on war criminal charges in a heart beat. I half cried/half cheered out loud the day Obama signed the papers to close Gitmo. And the Democrats won the debate for me when Obama said the key to foreign policy is open communication without sanctions first. But to think after thousands of years of sticking our noses in other's business, that suddenly we're going to come to the realization that 'live and let live' is going to work is a beautiful pipe dream. We're always going to influence and be influenced by the outside. Foreign policy will always be a question. And there will always be ambitions. I think they key to it all is globalization, developing an international code of conduct and respect, and practicing what we preach. Fucking good luck with that one. In the meantime, close your eyes and hope for the best.

That Virilio quote is somewhat defeating in it's truth, Thorgnor. I wonder if we'll ever get to the point where humans exist in harmony with nature. Or if we'll just continue on down the same line - fixing solutions of the preceding generations. It's hard wanting the harmony and settling on the latter. To think that we're doing good only to be proven incorrect with time and science. Fuck.

Yah, definitely - as free distances would differ greatly from urban to rural living, highly dependent on what levels of public transport you have readily available. Seems like it would be a difficult program to implement for this reason... and what if a person moves? they'd need to register this and probably have their distance allowance recalculated...

These all seem like such good ideas until i remember that i live in Chatham and i don't have public transportation to rely on. My work place isn't within the city limits and i have to drive 10km each way, every day. I'm afraid when we talk about decreasing the dependency on cars, we're in effect planning to ghost town rural Canada. I've yet to be able to wrap my head around this one. And because of that, i'm kinda now feeling thrown off the whole idea. How do we counteract these problems our solutions create?

Oh and stricter urban growth boundaries. Not so surprisingly, Calgary doesn't have any.

I just threw up a little. At a recent UN conference on ending discrimination...

I'm not sure if Toronto does this (i'm thinking not), but one idea is to impose a congestion charge much like the city of London (UK) does on motor vehicles. Cars have to pay 8GBP every day they enter into one of the 'congestion zones' and then get a much heavier fine if not paid. Needless to say, it's a major deterrent to driving around the city - one that Toronto could definitely use as that city is a gridlock nightmare at times. All profits from the congestion charge can be used for infrastructure upgrades. It's too bad city planners didn't consider building up and not out when it came to Calgary. That city is an urban sprawl disaster.

I think i'd be on to something much better if i knew how to make all the aforementioned work or happen, but i don't. Other then vote for the Green party, i guess. And hope people don't cast away their votes because change is unlikely. And ask my friends to start phone-trees to our local councillors. For the most part, i think green-savvy architects and engineers knew all of this well before i even thought about it and are probably sitting around entering design contests waiting for society to shift it's opinions.

So jealous of you! All i have for you is Bottletree Ranch - it's just outside of Helendale, CA, which is about an hour and a half outside of LA. It's the work of Elmer Long who constructed a whole forest out of old, used bottles he inherited. He dedicated the work to everyone who has lived and died on Interstate 66. Have fun!

i'm half in the bag after family dinner/drinks out at the lake. my uncle passed out in the middle of things and Henry the dog licked crumbs off his balls... well, off his pants. it was the funniest ever.

Raise gas prices and decrease our dependency on cars to move us around. Build high-speed rail to move people quickly and efficiently instead. Wait for the green movement to really shift public attitude on what acceptable levels of pollution in our cities are. Lobby urban planners and council members for smart infrastructure and pedestrian only zones. Build up instead of across because we realize cars aren't as efficient as we once thought. The list could go on... and is probably (hopefully) only a matter of time. Emphasis on the hopefully. I'm a competitive gardener. :laugh:

so the architect now manufactures communities, and even could go so far as adapting the family unit? for some reason, i always cringe at the idea of co-housing communities. i'm so of the 'i like a nice front lawn, big backyard and dinner around a table' variety. And i'm a little weary of adapting the family structure - but i suppose in this day and age of single parents, having three dads and four moms is better than one mom who is too busy to parent. I'm an idealist though. that said, in bigger cities, i love pedestrian only zones and think architects and town planners could do the world one solid huge favour by putting more of these in - one big car park at the edge and then use your feet and get some exercise. Town squares of parks in the middle for green space - or tall buildings with roof-top parks. The possibilities are limit-less.

It's all very rich Ollie. It's even rich that you break out lines like "symptomatic of the detereorating level of standards we have for public figures in society" when describing those who aren't going on some sort of moral crusade on behalf of a cause that should not even be insulted by these words so clearly taken out of context. We can all certainly draw our own conclusions, but if we don't communicate our thoughts, we'll never learn from one another.

Riiiight, because I could vote Liberal and get more of the same (minus the non-actualized threat of the religious right). The difference between us, Hux, is this - I don't ask or want people to compromise their ideals for the benefit of the political game. You roll your eyes at me because i'm not voting for a party that has the weight to stop Harper. But if i were to follow your suggestion, the Green Party will NEVER have the weight to stop Harper, and our country will forever be stuck flip-flopping between two parties that don't have the balls or the fore-sight to see what the fuck is REALLY and TRULY wrong with this country. Thanks, but no thanks.

No, the media is to blame for perpetualizing (is that a word?) this kind of behaviour amongst our politicians. I don't think what she said was a big deal if you consider the context in which it was spoken. I liked the column. As Thorgnor says "we'll only ever be heard if we speak up". If it weren't for people like Blatchford drawing attention to the ridiculousness of this situation, well... the situation will never be considered ridiculous. It does feel good! I'm so done with the old.

I disagree. Amen, sister.

So's Iggy.

And running in Central Nova was a stupid move that didn't do her party any favours. Nor was her last minute attempt to jump the 'Anything but Conservative' band wagon and almost throw all of her hard work out the door because of her own tendency to sensationalize.

Don't get me started on the seeming need for Canadian politicians to jump all over another's choice of words rather than their actions. I get political correctness and just general politeness and think Raitt an idiot for making her 'sexy' comment and all, but another part of me is so sick of reading full news briefs on he said/she said stuff. Don't we have anything better to report on? It irritates me because i think too much time is devoted to hacking it all up, and demanding explanations of it... time that's probably way better spent actually dealing with real issues, not slips of jargon. But whatever. I can't change what goes down in parliamentary sessions. But i do feel much more hopeful with my recent declaration, and do very much feel like i have a better chance for the future. For what it's worth though, I've always been on team future. I just thought we could work with existing circumstances and now i think we need to abandon those circumstances and create new ones. I'm so with you on Khadr.

Not in my head. It's because she comes across as too spirited, too animated, too ... i don't know. Too not serious enough. But now that you say it... and GAD, i wish it weren't so, but to couple two major hurdles - 'chick' politicians and the environment as the prime policy motivator into one pill for the public to swallow makes a pretty big pill. eek.

I think they need to replace Elizabeth May. She's so cute and bubbly and feisty... but almost too much of the above to be taken seriously. It's a problem that when i close my eyes she looks more like a caricature than a real person. I feel almost bad for thinking this as I think she advanced the party a great deal in the past election campaign because of these characteristics, but she lacks the finesse to take it from the idea level into the political arena.

Datsyuk's BACK!

zing! hahaha :susel: