Guest BloggerJames B. Badger

90 Replies to “Guest BloggerJames B. Badger”

1. Rob wrote:
   “So I’m a psychotic because I’ve been trained to be proactive instead of reactive. Anticipated you would say that, and because of your flawed leftwing nutbag ideology we have four cops dead.”
   Sadly, there are four dead RCMP officers because of right wing crazies in Canada what want their soothers, guns in other words.
   Canadians should have simply banned most of the guns outright. In Canada there never has been a “right to bear arms”, and even in the US that is a perversion of historical facts. Over 70% of Canadians from coast to coast believe in banning ALL guns, and had we done that, we would not have spent several millions of dollars on a gun registry as a compromise measure to right wing lunatics, but which did not solve the problem. I for one am sick and tired of these right wing American perversions drifting across the border like a noxious cloud into this country.
   If there was a national referendum to ban all guns outright, I would vote in favour and so would over 70% of Canada. Had we done that a few years ago, maybe these four young lads would be alive today with their families.
   And Rob, I really don’t give a shit about your NRA membership, you can wipe your ass with it for all I care. What we have here, sadly, is proof positive of the thesis behind Michael Moore’s film, Bowling for Columbine.

2. Joe
   When guns are outlawed, then only outlaws will have guns. That may sound simplistic (to people who believe old testement quotes are literal and call everyone and their dog “neo-cons” without knowing what the term actually means), but take a look at what’s happening in Britain. Violent crime is sky-rocketing. You can vote to ban guns until you’re sick of it, but that will not get rid of them. Also, please let me know where I can find that 70% stat you keep mentioning.
   Also, those four Mounties were killed with a gun that was ALREADY illegal. No amount of legislation or bans would have made a difference.

3. Joe,

   Again in your twisted liberal way you bring up gun control, when I never mentioned it at all. Stop deflecting and answer the question about police shortages and money laundering.

   I to want to now were you got the 70% stat. I have NEVER seen it anyway and know you made it up in your twisted little liberal mind……Bonehead.

   Also, i don’t belong to the NRA, and know nothing about it. I live in canada dipshit.

4. Greg outside Dallas wrote the following:
   “Your military strength lies with us. Your trading partner is mostly us. Outside of cattle and lumber, our trading tradition works smoothly. We speak the same language, live on the same continent, marry each other, go to the same universitities, and read a huge number of the same books.
   My view is that this hostility is unnecessary and pointless, and largely a creation of political opportunism, political stupidity and political bad faith.”
   I would like to respond because you have made some pretty good points that deserve a response.
   You are right that our security interests are closely tied up with the US, indeed with Mexico and other countries in the North American Continent. Historically when the US had a basic posture of “collective security” we found many things we could work on even if we disagreed on other points.
   Canada and the US share a common and undefended border, the longest in the world. Both countries have agreed to do more to thwart terrorism in all its forms, and we have entered into a unique and mutually beneficial defence pact called NORAD.
   The core of NORAD is “detection” and “manned figher aircraft interception of bombers”, hijackings and so forth. That is bedrock doctrine and there is no change in sight that I have read about in practical terms. Still, this Administration keeps poking its thumb in our eye with things like the “northern command”.
   Canada differs with the US on policy respecting the militarization of space. You want it and we don’t think its a good idea. But that difference has not harmed NORAD or its ability to get the job done as it did on September 11, 2001.
   There are similar military interests with the Navies off the West and East Coasts, and even in the Arctic Ocean. There is no shortage of things that we agree on and are prepared to work on from cleaning up DEW LINE sites to giving US military personnel special status in Canada that is available in law only for Canadian Forces members.
   There have been in the past some bone headed military procurement decisions that was highly “anti-American” in my view starting with the Mulroney decision on the CH-101 helicopter program that favoured European and not North American manufacturers. The Liberals for good reason cancelled that program, and saved Canadians well over $6B in the process, and have subsequently thrown our support behind American Sikorsky Helicopters for the Super Hawk, a top of the line Naval Helicopter that is just now passing certification trials, and which will bring a great deal of prolonged benefits to both Americans and Canadians over the life of that aircraft.
   The same thing can be said of the misguided German Leopand tank purchases which has finally been turned around with a side by side purchase with American Forces from General Motors of the state of the art Coyote Vehicle for the Canadian Army. It represents the kind of defence planning for which our countries are famous and also successful.
   We did buy some CH-101 Cormorants in fact, as the Conservatives wanted and they have been nothing but trouble. In fact, if you can believe it, they require four times the level of maintanence that even the aging Sea King machines required.
   We also need to recognize and thank the men and women of NORAD and the USAF and also the Canadian Armed Services for their efforts on September 11, 2001 where the potential harm to our two countries was very substantially allieviated by their efforts and presence, even if this US President is not prepared to acknowledge it. We do and we are grateful for the assistance the USAF provided to Canada over Whitehorse in guiding a Korean Air 747 to a safe landing and into the arms of the RCMP when that aircraft was indicting it was hijacked over the Pacific.
   So I agree that we are natural allies in our military activities, and that as Ambassador Celluci stated, Canada needs to do more in its defence efforts. Canadians agree, and that is why this last budget has provided the largest increase in Canadian defence spending in over 20 years.
   Now just as we are doing that, and studying ways to increase the strength and effectiveness of our collective security arrangements, the US decides on its own to go it alone. Its new policy is “unilateralism” and we know from experience with the US that it was a disaster in Viet Nam.
   You may not remember, but members of the Canadian Armed Forces lost their lives in Viet Nam when they were inserted as peacekeepers between the Communist Viet Cong Forces and the retreating US Military. But that same dangerous arrogance in the US leadership that got your country into so much trouble in Viet Nam has resurfaced, and its very dangerous.
   Now you talk of trade, and I say we had much more peaceful trade relationships in the days before NAFTA and the FTA than today. That matters to me more than making the last nickel on a deal between friends.
   There has been a great deal of negative impact on the US economy from these so-called free trade deals, as Lou Dobbs at CNN has repeatedly illustrated and good neighbours do not do that kind of shit to each other.
   As for cattle, I agree with the US cattlemen that there needs to be a better way to quarantine and contain outbreaks of disease in cattle herds. Or for that matter to protect commercial crops like California or Florida citrus crops.
   I think that we are going to end up with a label program that properly prevents the co-mingling of beef and pork products between US and Canadian producers. That is what the end customers in Japan and China are demanding and I see no problem of giving the customers what they want.
   I think that the market free for all with energy is not acceptable in its current form. Energy security for the US and Canada are vital to our future and while natural gas for California may mean the difference between a heated pool or a cold one, in Canada its a matter of survival in winter.
   We also have got to stop doing dumb things such as operating ocean oil tankers when oil pipelines are available as better technical answers and which can be put in place by treaty, not unlike what we did with the St. Lawrence Seaway Project.
   Finally some wag on this site suggested that the US was just like a big friendly dog that just wanted to be patted on the head and told that he was a good dog. That is a paternalistic and insulting way for Canadians to view Americans. The US is not a dog, and Canada is not a lap dog.
   We share a continent by past events in history, and we will do well or we will do poorly by the decisions that we make.
   If Canadians like me are very harsh on your leadership its for a very good reason. We do not want American leadership to fail. And that is what is now happening and that is what is not acceptable. We should not wait fifteen years as people did during the Vietnam War to decide that there was a mistake.
   I believe that our military capability is improving vis a vis the US, but the real weaknesses in both the US and Canada remain in the diplomatic side of our respective governments.
   Anyone that has read Gen. Romeo Dellaire book “Shake Hands with the Devil” on the Rwanda Genocide and what he experienced trying to stop it with insufficient resources at the United Nations will not disagree with me.
   When you lead, you must clearly state to your allies what you are trying to do, why you are trying to do it, and collaborate with them as to how the best result might be obtained.
   Most of these diplomatic screwups in the US can be put down to inexperience and excess optimism. It often happens in Armies before their first real battle.
   There is one last item and that is that in Canada, the Prime Minister is someone that can catch Hell from anyone. He does not have the luxury of a restained response that your President can sometimes claim from Americans. And as you can see, Canadians have been unrestrained in their criticism of the Bush Administration when it comes to THEIR security interests.
   You are also correct that we speak the same language, watch the same sports and enjoy the same hockey games (except for this year). But Canadians also want to keep something for themselves in this ocean tidalwave of American pop culture.
   For Canadians and Mr. Bush, we have to decide if there is anything that we can work on, or if we should instead plan to wait him out and hope for a much better and capable future US Administration.
   Tell me Greg, what do you think the US has learned about its allies since 911? Apart from the familiar rant that we are undependable etc. etc.

5. “In Canada there never has been a “right to bear arms”, and even in the US that is a perversion of historical facts.”
   Actually, Joe, look into the Glorious Revolution. The Bill of Rights 1689 did indeed include a right to bear arms — for Protestants. I think you’ll find that it and early colonial legislation requiring men to be armed for settlement defence were among the wellsprings of the Second Amendment.

6. Rob wrote:
   “The only solution seems to be for us to opt out of canada. The east hates the west, except when there raping us for cash.”
   Rape??? Rape??? When was the last time you were sexually assaulted and robbed for cash by someone from Eastern Canada???
   The problem with crypto-separtists is their hyperbole as you can see from the above.
   Indeed, Western Separatists in Alberta are as rare as “Left Wing Liberals for Bush” are in Washington. Perhaps even more so because until recently we used to get two bits a tail for one, right along with the gophers.

7. Charles MacDonald wrote:
   “Actually, Joe, look into the Glorious Revolution. The Bill of Rights 1689 did indeed include a right to bear arms — for Protestants.”
   I hope you appreciate that in Canada and by precedent in Britain, that legislation and codifications like the Bill of Rights simply gathered up the Common Law as it then was. There is a tendency in the US to regard law as static, as unchanging, even cast in stone. Our legal traditions are not like that, because the “common law itself springs up from the people”. Over a long time, if the people decide that there will be no guns, that is the value that gets impounded into the common law, and it gets more and more refined in the context of “stari decis”.
   In the current context, with the current technologies, to argue that in Canada one has a “right to bear arms” in “defence of the realm” would not get past first base in a Court of Law.
   That is my opinion, and that is why the whole US debate on guns is so foolish given that kids are being killed in the schools and nothing is being done to stop it.
   The US suffered a major disturbance to the development of its common law with its unfortunate revolution, and that is why some of the more nuttier things prevail, such as the current lack of effective control over firearms.
   In a recent study at Rierson, the US suffered fully 23 times the death rate per capita from guns than did Canadians. There really is nothing to debate about this issue, what is needed is to take all the guns away. It has nothing to do with political liberty, and everything to do with public safety.
   I am certain that the RCMP members would agree with me to the very last man.

8. “I hope you appreciate that in Canada and by precedent in Britain, that legislation and codifications like the Bill of Rights simply gathered up the Common Law as it then was.”
   Unmitigated B.S. The Bill of rights 1689 was not codifying anything — it was Parliament redressing the unconstitutional acts of the Stuarts and ensuring that they would not be repeated. But as one professor at my old law school was famous for yelling, “READ THE G****** ACT!” Parliament made its objectives quite clear in the preamble and the body of the Act:
   http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/england.htm

9. Joe wrote,

   Rape??? Rape??? When was the last time you were sexually assaulted and robbed for cash by someone from Eastern Canada???
   Remember NEP bonehead, 11 billion to quebec, and all the billions of transfers through the years. Your mind conveniently forget those points, and now you want to sneak in a carbon tax under Kyoto with the same outcome. You claim it will go to russia and china, but we know your going to reroute it to quebec through there credits for hydro.

   Still waiting for your 70% source, you obviously don’t get out much if you feel we want to stay.

10. Rob, td182a, Albertanator (and of course Charles),
    Just out of curiosity over the last couple of years I’ve been asking people how they would feel about Alberta’s statehood.
    The answer is always the same, “Hey, that would be great!” Mind you, these are not people who live in Seattle or Detroit and presumably have some sophistication in respect to the matter. These are people without a second thought in respect to who might cut whose throat economically, or who owes whom for military support. They’re simply people who like Alberta.
    I don’t know if separation will ever happen or not. And I realize that separation carries with it several different directions for a possible future. I do know that the idea of US statehood could be sold down here easier than hot dogs at Coney Island.
    I realize that politically the whole thing would be terribly difficult.
    However if Alberta wanted to do a saturation campaign suggesting US statehood, Alberta would probably have 10 or 12 million supporters without having to draw a deep breath.
    I feel quite certain that if statehood ever came about, within 50 years there would be an Albertan in the White House.

11. Greg, I see two possible scenarios leading to Alberta separation. (I see eventual statehood as an inevitable consequence of separation, or the collapse of Canada under the weight of its own irrelevance.)
    The first is a major tax grab by Ottawa in the tradition of the NEP. They can dress it up as a carbon tax to ensure Kyoto Protocol compliance or in any other guise. The fact is most Albertans have reached the limit of paying extortionate taxes for “services” we don’t use and don’t want (to say nothing of financing Liberal fraud and corruption).
    The second is simply that Ottawa continues concentrating on trivialities such as same-sex marriage, marijuana decriminalisation and other Liberal priorities. We just say, “Right. We’ve got better things to do.” Then we just leave while the feds are too stoned to notice.

12. Greg,

    The proposal sounds great, but what’s needed is pressure from all sides to make it occur.

    The liberals are doing there part with there stupidity.

    There are a number of active movements in Alberta, and they are starting to murge together. One such one is this one:
    http://www.separationalberta.com/report/SPAReportV1.pdf

    I think all that’s needed is a little public pressure from your end in the form support to push the balance over the edge. There is approx. 400K Americans already living here in a population of 3 million, so it doesn’t take much. There primarily here due to the huge oil industry.

13. Greg,

    One more thing, platforms like this seem to get the word out and discussion going far faster then any other medium. … 😉

14. Great outside Dallas wrote:
    “I don’t know if separation will ever happen or not. And I realize that separation carries with it several different directions for a possible future. I do know that the idea of US statehood could be sold down here easier than hot dogs at Coney Island.”
    I guess most Americans would be only too happy to incorporate the world’s largest deposits of hydrocarbons into the Union. It already explains so much of the corrupt and perverse “oil baron” policies of this province where Bechtel disparages the abilities of Canadian Engineers and where Halliburton seeks still more “opportunities” to disrupt Canada and one of its Provinces.
    But it is not going to happen. Even Houston’s Little Brothers in Calgary know that Canadians living in Alberta overwhelmingly reject “separtism” or “union with the states”.
    That that said, it does not preclude Americans coming to Alberta to stir up shit just like Charles De Gaulle came to Quebec to stir up shit.
    And no doubt the shock troops for “regime change” are ready, willing and able to “perform their duties” just as Howard Hunt did as station chief in Guatamula as he subverted the legitimate government of the people of that country.
    We may be selling and producing oil owned by the people of this province at an excess rate, but at least we do not have to put up with the NRA, the killings in our schools, and the ravages of American “medical HMOs” and “non-insurance”. And perhaps best of all, we do not have Canadian airwaves saturated and dripping with Rush Limbaugh and his drug dealing empire, or Howard Stern and his endless obscenities.
    To paraphrase a former French Foreign Minister, “there is no accounting for bad taste”.

15. And then there is this from Rob.
    “The proposal sounds great, but what’s needed is pressure from all sides to make it occur.”
    Rob, you are a god damned traitor. Where are you taking this asshole? Are you inviting American CIA goons like Hal Banks into Canada to “convince” Canadians with baseball bats and broken knee caps?
    You are a right wing cockroach, lower than a snake’s belly.
    But we have seen your kind before, and we have prevailed. And if Americans think they are going to come up here and sack York again, they are going to have to be given a booster shot from the War of 1812.
    Some people never learn, and others like Rob are as dumb as a sackful of hammers and incapable of learning.

16. Western separation has been a topic of political debate for over 20 years – at that time, I knew few people who thought it was anything but a fringe effort.
    Today, the same people who used to dismiss the idea are completely open to it. There has been that much change. It’s quiet change. Currently, they’re still supporting conservative parties, in the hopes that change can come from within.
    But if another NEP or similar effort comes down the pipes, as U of S professor Red Williams said at a debate a couple of weeks ago – “all bets are off”. Nobody challenged him.

17. Ha, there it is… I�m a traitor cause I don�t believe in Joe�s demented view of reality. Before all this I was Uncanadian, Unpatriotic, etc. etc.

    typical response of the liberal left to all that doesn�t agree with there position.

    So because I don�t agree with SSM, gun control, Kyoto, NEP, stealing all your citizens money with high taxation, a corrupt government, etc. etc., I�m a traitor…….. well OK, if that�s the conditions for being one, I guess I fit.

18. Kate someone should have taken on this professor at the U of S.
    Anyone who has been studying cross border issues and the way people perceive them and deal with them will understand that the gulf between Canadians and Americans in INCREASING, not DECREASING, as these “separtists” claim.
    Even with the disaster of NAFTA and the lie of an “integrated continential beef market”; people in Canada are not misled by the siren song of US corporate interest that would simply love to digest Alberta, suck out its wealth as they did in Oklahoma, and then spit out what was left into the American backwater.
    Just look and that crap posted here for an inkling of how this works. “Greg not all home in Dallas” thinks that maybe in 50 years someone from Alberta might be president. Contrast that with today, where Alberta had had not one, but two Deputy Prime Ministers in Don Mazankowsky and Ann McLellan, one a Liberal and the other a Conservative. Or look at the Prime Ministers from Alberta. R.B. Bennett from Calgary, Joe Clark from Okatoks. It goes on and on.
    What this stupid talk of separatism actually does and the only thing it does, is injure all Canadians. In Quebec, separtism depresses the value of the Canadian dollar by between $0.05 and $0.10 and in Alberta, it simply unsettles and unfocuses our body politic with non-starter issues. Its a great distraction for irresponsible politicans like Ralph Klein who welcomes any distraction from his miserable track record. But separtism, and harm to Canada’s Confederation, serves no one’s interests, including those doing the bitching and complaining about how bad off they are in Alberta.
    We DO have a problem with excess American immigration into Alberta and far too much American influence in the national life of Canada and the life of this Province. But there are not very many obvious answers to this problem, and that is why loudmouth yahoos like Rob can get away with his treacherous shit.
    Look at how misguided and delusioned Rob actually is. His complaint is the NEP, something that was repealed over twenty years ago. SSM, with which many Liberals and Conservatives agree on with him. Kyoto which he has not a clue about in terms of its business opportunities that at the same time drive down green house gas emissions. High taxation? Give it a break, compared to what?
    And finally my all time favourite, gun controls. Here at last is a real Rob type “value”. Rob wants to arm every last teenager with an assault rifle and then hang them if they kill anyone. THIS is the very heart and soul of the neocon mind.
    That makes Rob not only a traitor to his country, it makes him a certifiable lunatic fit for compulsory treatment at Alberta Hospital under the terms of the Dependant Adult Act, the very same one that he and his friends use to bilk seniors of this province out of their money.
    What a whore!

19. Mistake…gun registry, and no that you’ve identified I’m a lunatic, did you ever step back to consider the cause. Did you live through the sting of the NEP? Do you think giving 11 billion to PQ is fair? Do you agree with paying out money for dead chickens on a stick and calling it art?

    I could go on and on but dealing with you is pointless as you have an eastern liberal mentallity that everything should be state run.

    Ask why separation, not No Way. No voice in the west, assholes like you forcing issues down our throats for years that are only mainstrem in the east.

    Joe, I will continue to fight your idiocy because you have not experienced the sting of it’s tail.

20. Could you define “neocon”, Joe? I’ve been asking people to do so since the mid-1980s. In that entire time, very few have been able to articulate anything that distinguishes neocons from other conservatives — without slipping into racialist nonsense. Perhaps you can, since the neocon seems to be your bete noire.

21. Not only that Charles, but he keeps wrapping himself in the flag as justification for anti Amercanism, which was the point of this whole post, and doesn’t realize that his, and other attitudes, are the cause for me being a traitor(his words).

    There is absolutely no excuse to bash the americans, when this nation is filled with problems and decent. When you can say that all your nations people are, for the most part, truly content, and they agree with you, then you have the right to be critical of others.

22. Charles asked:
    “Could you define “neocon”, Joe?”
    A “neo-conservative” is a “new conservative” although in fact their politics are as old as the Roman Empire.
    In order to develop a little perspective, the Canadian communities that began north of the Great Lakes and north of the St. Lawrence River, and which spread across the prairies until it joined with the communities on the west coast, were basically made up of hard working, peaceful and God fearing people, meaning that most attended Church regularly, believed in a moral foundation for their lives, and stressed the importance of right vs wrong, and always placed compassion and forgiveness at the top of their list of virtues to be emulated and practiced in their dealing with others.
    Liberals and Conservatives embraced common bedrock ideals such as the importance of a fair trial against charges leveled at individuals, they believed in loyalty to one’s own God and one’s own King and Country. Liberals tended to want to “forge ahead” and do “reforms” and “make improvements” while Conservatives tended to mistrust human nature, were cautious and careful and were mindful of human weakness.
    This was the cauldon in which the Westminster Parliamentary Tradition evolved with its notions of “responsible government”, “democracy” and “loyal opposition”.
    It gave rise to “civil” behavior, and “courtesy”.
    These values were drawn from historic Christian Judao foundations.
    The “neocons” arrived much later and I would place their significant appearance as being after the Second World War, with the appearance of Senator Joe McCarthy, who was the prototype. These “conservatives” and “republicans” were not like the previous ones, these were secretive, fanatical, highly centralizing in their views of authority, indeed facist in the management of political power.
    Richard Nixon was a “neocon”. Neither McCarthy nor Nixon gave a shit about the sort of ideals that were advocated by traditional conservatives who guided their own behavior with certain principles. Neocons had no respect for the ideas of Edmund Burke for example, the famous British Conservative, and they had no respect for contemporary Conservatives like Firing Line host Wm. F. Buckley.
    However it was not until Ayn Rand appeared on the scene, that “neocons” really got their philosophical sea legs. Anchored directly in Rand’s atheism, her “philosophy” of “selfishness” took full flight. Like Karl Marx, she gave “moral permission” to “necons” to engage in every imaginable act of barbarism, no different what what Marx gave communists. One of Rand’s heros was a pirate, a terrorist for capitalism you might say.
    Neo-conservatives embraced her “philosophy” that basically rejected the entire foundation of Western Civilization, no different that what Karl Marx proposed. In fact much of the savagery and perversion in both Marx and Rand flowed directly from their shared atheism.
    If you want to know and understand “neocons”, read her novel Atlas Shrugged. If you want to understand her sexual perversions, read Fountainhead. If you want to learn how she succeeded in this enterprise of converting vice into virtue, read “The Virtue of Selfishness”.
    And if you want to understand such opportunists as Ezra Lavant, Stockwell Day, Tom Long, Rod Love and David Frum, read her book “Capitalism, the Unknown Ideal”.
    It actually mirrors Hitler’s book Mein Kampf, and it very closely resembles the stucture of Das Kapital by Marx.
    Rand’s bottom line was that community does not matter.
    Marx’s bottom line was that individuals do not matter.
    Communists acted that way and murdered tens of millions of people. Capitalists did the same thing, using the positions that Rand developed and they likewise killed and murdered tens of millions of people.
    Todays “neocons” in North America are not “conservatives” they are “fascists”. They believe in “power” just like Hitler did. They have no restraits on their personal behavior. And they can and do kill for power, money, and prestige.
    So did the communists and viewed from a wider lens, there was not much difference between them.
    Thus if you look at the contemporary scene, in the US there are “conservatives” like John McCain, and Richard Luger. But there are “necons” like George Bush, Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfwitz and Richard Perle. These are simply American fascists.
    In Canada, the neocons are men like Brian Mulroney, Tom Long (an American actually who meddles in Canadian political affairs), Rod Love, Peter Lougheed, Ralph Klein and Mike Harris. None of them believe in anything other than themselves and their power and prestige and their money.
    But there are also “conservatives” who value ideas and traditions. Joe Clark is perhaps the most famous example. But so is David Orchard, who tried to get an agreement in written form from Peter McKay, who is not a “conservative” but a “neocon”. For neocons, like the Nazi, agreements and principles do not matter. Lying does not matter. Truth does not matter. They know that modern propaganda manufactures the “truth” before gullible audiences.
    So “neocons” stand in relationship to “conservatives” the same way that “communists” stand in relationship to “liberals”.
    The Westminster Tradition of Parliament has no significant place for unprincipled people like “neocons” and “communists”. That is why today you have this huge hue and cry for “reform” of Parliament, when in fact it works pretty well for most Canadians. Fanatics are marginalized in our Parliament, and that is not a bad thing.
    Hard boiled communists have run their course in history, just as Dr. Ravi Batra predicted. And now the time has come for “neocons” to join the communists on the scrapheap of history, just as Dr. Ravi Batra predicted they would.
    So when you read snot-nosed little shits like Rob for example, these are not worth the time of day because “neocons” have nothing of value to offer by way of either ideas or values. These are simply fanatics.
    So it turns out that “neo-cons” are not very new at all. They are as old as human wickedness and evil itself.

23. What ever Joe,

    You just keep trying to marginalize and oppress a move from centralized power and discriminating policies. i quite frankly don’t give a shit how many books you quote, as we out here live in the real world. Dictation and marginalization of a totally corrupted power like Ottawa will fall, just like all other powers in history before it.

    I find it strange that you still critices Bush’s policies when democracy is spreading like wild fire throughout the middle east, but of course in your tiny mind you would never accept that.

    Another shock would be that maybe Klein and the rest of us would like democracy for western canada, but of course that is beyond your comprehension.

    You will continue to spew your liberal minded agenda and only you will know in your mind that they are correct, because the rest of us are not going to accept your drive to keep the power distribution centralized.

    Marginalization, opression, and robbery by ottawa is no longer acceptable.

24. rob, Charles, and Kate, I looked at the site rob suggested, and it looks very interesting. I’ll probably send them an email.
    What we could use down here is a site that Americans can be sent to that explains in simple terms:
    1) Many in Alberta would like to consider statehood. Albertans appreciate the way America’s system of government operates and admires American traditions.
    2) Because of rep-by-pop and an official government bilingual requirements, in effect you have taxation with lower level of representation than we “enjoy” in the US. (This is an issue that Americans can really become upset with, because as you know, our whole country was started because of taxation without representation. We grew up with this in our minds as an important issue.)
    3) the gun registry
    4) Alberta and the Kyoto Treaty
    5) (This probably should have been item 2) It needs to be made clear to Americans that separation is largely at the disposal of the free will of the Albertan people because of procedures in your Charter. Americans understand that something like separation could be very messy, but no Americans would wish to inspire violence in Canada. (On the other hand, if during the process of a perfectly lawful desire for secession, freely entered into by the Albertan people, Americans would doubtlessly not sit by idly should there be a threat of human right vioations.)
    6) It would be a good idea to explain how powerful a resource based economy Alberta is. Right now, Americans who find the subject interesting do so simply because they like Alberta and the Albertan people. They have no idea that there could be benefits to the United States beyond the inclusion of a beautiful place with great people who see eye-to-eye with many Americans.
    Americans need a plain-spoken, educational tool that can allow those interested to get up to speed in respect to this issue. I don’t know if talks between influential Albertans and Americans have ever taken place about this, and I don’t know where Saskatchewan stands on the issue.
    Kate, I should mention that Americans were feeling very much as you described in a earlier post. Many of us felt like the US was no longer the country we grew up living in and fighting for. With Reagan and with Bush we are getting it back.

25. Hi Greg,

    Thanks for the interest. Basically, if the conservatives come out of there convention and be seen to be on the pink side(same as the liberals). Another thing that will definitely push it over the edge is a carbon tax.

    As far as Alberta’s advantage, there is a very strong economy here. Even with BSC the economy is superheated. Information about some of this can be obtained here:
    http://www.alberta-canada.com/economy/index.cfm

    and oil industry information, which is huge here, much like TX in it’s stronger days, can be obtained here:
    http://www.suncor.com/start.aspx

    Suncor and syncrude are the biggest projects.

    As for Sask., there is also a movement there, but I’m unsure of it’s strenght. One of there reps were on Peter Warren today, a national radio show, and there didn’t seem to be much in the way of negative feedback from the callers, which might be an indication of the sentiment there as well.

    If Alberta was to leave, we actually do have the resources, economy, etc. to go it alone, which would also probably involve the US, as we are landlocked.

    This is just some info. If you were to relate us to a state, or economy would probably be in the top 10 in terms of output.

    Just some general info.

26. WOW. I really have to catch up on what lefties consider “neocon”. George Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney are definately NOT neocons. They are old-time conservatives. So is Mulroney. And for crying out loud, you couldn’t be any further out in left field with McCarthy.
    It seems that you just named everyone to the right of Stalin and branded them with a term you know absolutely nothing about.
    Mike Harris, Ralph Klien (not any more) and Lougheed could possibly have been considered neocons for wanting smaller, accountable governments, but since they had little to do with foreign policy even that’s a stretch.
    Also, if you want examples of fascism, I suggest first looking the term up in the dictionary and then looking at Canadian federal politics, such as the Chretien and Martin “liberals” with their powerful connections worldwide and strangling control over Canadians from the cradle to the grave. And if you want examples to make a tirade against the evils of capitalism, look no further.
    Good God, man, I nearly pissed myself laughing when you had the audacity to actually call Joe Clark a conservative who holds values in ideas and traditions. HAAA HA HA Ha haha Holy crap! The guy was the Marshall for the gay pride parade! Oh man, my side hurts.

27. Correction, Bush WAS an old time conservative, who can be described as a neocon ever since 9/11. He has taken on a similar view of the world as Ronald Reagan had.
    But man, that Joe Clark joke STILL has me giggling. heh heh

28. jhuck opined:
    “WOW. I really have to catch up on what lefties consider “neocon”. George Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney are definately NOT neocons.”
    You are a lying “neocon” whore in the fascist tradition of Mr. Gobbels and his propaganda machine. You believe like the Nazi, that if you lie enough and often, people will come to believe it.
    Then you pump out more shit:
    “They are old-time conservatives. So is Mulroney. And for crying out loud, you couldn’t be any further out in left field with McCarthy.”
    I guess that Republican Senator Joe is now an embarassment to “neocons” which is why you disown him. But you are mistaken about Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney; these are American fascists, not “conservatives”. Rumsfeld basically subverted the American Intelligence Community by relocating them into the Pentagon, and then proceded to criminalize a number of American military personnel that are now breaking international law around the globe.
    Not that breaking laws ever before bothered “neocons”.
    One other thing asshole. Like it or not, Joe Clark was the Prime Minister of Canada and he did that as the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party. Don’t blame me because I did not vote for him, but that is a historical fact you “neocons” hate to admit.
    Clark was a “conservative” while Mulroney was a conniving “neocon”. Mulroney is a treacherous little shit that worked against his own leader and his own party to say nothing of working against his own people in Canada.
    You scoff at Mr. Clark being Prime Minister, but you have no problem supporting Lyin Brian Mulroney who by American standards would be regarded as a felon for his role in the Archers Daniels Midland criminal conviction for price fixing. Quite obviously you do not share “conservative values”, you are a “neocon” whore that fraterizes with criminals but scoff at honest political leaders like Mr. Clark.
    One last thing asshole. Mr. Clark won his seat in Downtown Calgary of all places, so don’t give me any shit about how much Mr. Clark is out of touch with Alberta.

29. Greg outside Dallas wrote”
    “1) Many in Alberta would like to consider statehood. Albertans appreciate the way America’s system of government operates and admires American traditions.”
    What are you smokin Greg? People in Alberta get frustrated with delays in Ottawa, and you want to compare that to the gridlock on the beltway?
    I am a Canadian born and raised in Alberta. There is not much that I admire about the workings of your Constitution or its system of Government. You took over a year to decide if President Clinton should be impeached because he got a blowjob in the Oval Office from a consenting adult female working there with him.
    Margaret Thatcher fell like a stone once Conservatives in Britain decided they were done with her abuses of power. With Mulroney in Canada, he was gone in a matter of days once the caucus decided they were going to lose the election if he stayed.
    I don’t know which Canadian would see anything to admire about this feature of the American Republic. I regard it as a joke and a waste of time and money.
    But hey, its your country, run it any way you wish. But don’t come up here and peddle snake oil about how good it is, or lie about how well it works.
    Canadians may take a lot of time in making up our minds, but we are not stupid.

30. Oh man, you are WAY too funny. This has to be a joke or else you are actually frothing at the mouth. Please wipe the spittle from your screen. And don’t yell at it., I won’t be able to hear. I’m surprised you haven’t typed everything in Caps Lock yet.
    I’m not sure what you’re arguing about. I never said anything about Clark with regards to Alberta. I never said Clark was NOT Prime Minister and I’ve never voted for Mulroney.
    You seem to be progressively getting more and more insanely and delusionally irate with anyone who disagrees with you. ie “You are a lying “neocon” whore in the fascist tradition of Mr. Gobbels and his propaganda machine””Asshole”. That’s a classic. I am actually laughing my butt off right now. And please, so I don’t piss my pants, stop with the Joe Clark jokes -“honest political leaders like Mr. Clark”. Is that the same Mr. Clark that used a private, for-profit hospital just before denouncing them as the destruction of Canada during an election?
    And why, oh why, do you keep calling me a neocon? It seems that according to you, only Joe-Who Clark and yourself are the ONLY people in the world who aren’t neocons.
    Please, for your own health, take a couple of Asprin.

31. Greg disconnected from reality in Dallas wrote:
    “5) (This probably should have been item 2) It needs to be made clear to Americans that separation is largely at the disposal of the free will of the Albertan people because of procedures in your Charter.”
    That is exactly right. In Canada, all people in the Provinces have a right to self determination, something recognized by the United Nations as well as the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Unlike the United States, people in Canada have a right to leave, alter or rejoin Confederation under mutually acceptable terms and conditions. Its called “Flexible Federalism”.
    In the United States, “union” is “forever”, and you folks killed more of your own people in the Civil War than in all wars you have subsequently fought around the world, including World War I and World War II.
    If you were honest, you would be telling people contemplating “union” with the US to be very, very careful because you cannot later change your mind, as most people around the globe recognize is the right of a people. In the US, you get sucked in, and then locked in, forever. Why do you think Puerto Rico is taking so much time to make up its mind?
    Of course with the “neocons”, they lie about everything, and this item is no exception.
    This loose cannon from Dallas continues:
    “Americans understand that something like separation could be very messy, but no Americans would wish to inspire violence in Canada.”
    Bullshit! You have an entire organization in the NRA that has been running wall to wall ads doing exactly that, inspiring violence in Canada with Charleton Heston’s perverted view of guns and his “cold dead hands”.
    Unfortunately for the NRA, this bullshit does not work in Canada and because Canadians themselves abhor violence, particularly political violence.
    Which brings me to the issue of how many political leaders have been murdered in the US over the past hundred years or so. How many Greg? Ten? A Hundred? a Thousand? How many Kennedy’s, How Many Dr. Martin Luther Kings? How many John Lennon’s?
    Go ahead Greg, make my day. Tell me how many Canadian political leaders were likewise assasinated and murdered?
    Hint” The last one was over 35 years ago. The one before that over 100 years ago. Can you even name them?
    How many Canadian Judges have been murdered while sitting in Court? How many American Judges have been murdered while sitting in Court? Forget about the past couple of years, just tell me in the past year Greg. How many?

32. He..he … Joe you getting more insane by the minute. Bringing the UN into this…. another organization full of corruption and scandle. Isn’t this the same organization that sits back while genocide is happenning around the world. The same organization that has the French killing civilians on the ivory coast?

    were we going to next ….space?

33. I find it strange that you still critices Bush’s policies when democracy is spreading like wild fire throughout the middle east, but of course in your tiny mind you would never accept that.

34. Rob wrote:
    “I find it strange that you still critices Bush’s policies when democracy is spreading like wild fire throughout the middle east, but of course in your tiny mind you would never accept that.”
    Rob cannot tell the difference between a democratic process and a civil war.

35. Rob cannot tell the difference between a democratic process and a civil war.

    I see, so Suadi Arabia has a civil war, the palestinians have a civil war, etc., etc, … look out martha we got a world civil war happening….

    Uh….like read current events….. or it doesn’t fit in that tiny mind of yours.

36. Good points, Greg. Kate has her finger on the pulse, whereas Joe’s version of Albertan beliefs and attitudes is almost totally alien to me. (As usual, I’ll use “Alberta” to include large swaths of B.C., Saskatchewan, Manitoba, rural Ontario, etc., where the thinking is not much different.)Even among Albertans who have no interest in separation or statehood, only a small but deeply embarrassing minority engage in this sort of virulently anti-American diatribe.
    For one thing, there is widespread support for American actions since 9/11, and many of us feel that we should be active participants. (We call this “adulthood” and “responsibility.”) We derive as many benefits from a more stable, democratic world as any American citizens, after all.
    Some of us believe in an American-style “ownership society,” which contrasts so starkly with the Canadian “confiscation society.”
    Some of us have a high regard for American leaders as people. Who wouldn’t love to have George and Laura Bush at a dinner party? George H.W. and Barbara? Or, in better times, Ron and Nancy? Who would even think of inviting Paul and Sheila Martin, except someone who’s grubbing for Liberal Party patronage?
    There are too many personal, family and business ties between Alberta and the U.S.A. for strident anti-Americanism to gain much of a foothold. Most of us know which side our bread is buttered on.
    I’ve commented before on the strong religious ties. It’s not just the Mormon communities of southern Alberta. I grew up in a town where the two largest churches were the Baptists and the Church of Christ, both of which have strong American affiliations.

37. Charles MacDonald wrote:
    “Kate has her finger on the pulse, whereas Joe’s version of Albertan beliefs and attitudes is almost totally alien to me.”
    Are you mad Charlie?
    Kate comes from Saskatchewan, which perhaps as a Province has suffered more from “neocon” criminals than any other jurisdiction in Canada.
    Grant Devine raped the Province and left it with a billion dollar debt. Fifteen of his cabinet ministers were charged and convicted with criminal offences. Other “neocon” appointees in Saskatchewan in the Senate of Canada resulted in criminal convictions, all linked to Mulroney and Devine.
    Devine ruined the Progressive Conservative Party of Saskatchewan just like Mulroney ruined the National Party federally.
    No wonder Kate has been strangely quiet on all this corruption discussion.
    With Devine, he and the Party got caught and it was so bad, that the Progressive Conservative Party was DISBANDED. In Alberta, this has still not caught up to the Klein Government, but it will.
    Ah what a tangled web they weave, when first they practice to deceive.

38. Hey psyhco Joe….see you come back when no ones around in the hopes no one would answer. Still spewing your filth and lies I see.

    I’ll have to pay a visit to the other blogs you frequent and get them up to speed on ya…

39. It is clear now.
    Joe Green is a member of the Jehovah’s Witness sect.
    They are headquartered in Brooklyn.
    Joe gets to trash undistributed “Watch Tower” mags.
    He also licks stamps.

40. maz2 wrote:
    “It is clear now.
    Joe Green is a member of the Jehovah’s Witness sect.
    They are headquartered in Brooklyn.
    Joe gets to trash undistributed “Watch Tower” mags.
    He also licks stamps.
    With such penetrating insight, maz should be helping Kate walk her pet miniature poodle. You know the one, goes by the name of Ezra.
    I hear he has a problem. Seems he wants to pee on the fire hydrant just like the big dogs. Problem is that he can’t get his hind leg up high enough, and Kate is still consulting Grant Devine as to which vet to see.