Lowdark

All the best!

Happy Belated Birthday!

I have had the privilege of seeing Isabella a handful of times but I saw her last week at her new downtown location and she remains a warm, caring sexy woman who will make you feel outstanding. I recommend that anyone visiting her exchange a few emails since she has so much to appreciate on top of her beauty. Treat her with respect and dignity and she'll treat you like a true gentleman.

Happy Birthday!

Congrats Penelope!

Happy Birthday!

Turned on the news this afternoon and was shocked to see news of her passing. A complete tragedy. Best wishes to her family and friends.

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Everyone should take a moment to commemorate the contributions Dr. King made to the world-all without raising a fist in violence.

All parties were pretty much silent on the issue. Jack Layton briefly mentioned it in a local interview. It was never mentioned in the Leader's debate. As far as this issue is concerned, it was like voting in China or Cuba.

 

 

Arguing that you have to arrest over 1000 people to weed out the few criminals is a common argument in totalitarian countries. We can always arrest everybody on my street and we will surely be safe!

 

The overwhelming, overwhelming, majority of those arrested were peaceful protestors. This was clearly a case of the state overstepping it's bounds.

You are absolutely right, the state did overstep its bounds. Stephen Harper, Dalton McGuinty, David Miller and Toronto's police chief at the time should have all found themselves answering some very difficult questions in front of the public and media. I won't argue that in the slightest. Much of what went down was wrong and an abuse of power that no one has ever been held accountable for. The system (as well as the media) failed the public big time.

But neither can it be argued that the protesters are innocent. Without a doubt, the vast majority are peacefuland intelligent, articulate and deserve to be heard, but when they sit silently by and watch those wearing black masks light cars on fire and deliberately destroy public and private property with silent approval, they are empowering the violent element that give the police an excuse to go to such appalling extremes. And by silently approving the violent minority, the majority loses credibility and their message is lost in the media noise that results in 24 hour coverage of burning police cars and mask wearing "protesters" throwing molotov cocktails through Starbucks windows. The majority of protesters will only be taken seriously when they are seen on camera denouncing and criticising the black masks during a protest.

Wow. Guess that ends that thread. Like I said at the beginning, I'm not a football fan but this situation has intrigued me and I plan to see what the future holds for Tim next season.

Thanks Estaman. I usually pride myself on being informed but I dropped the ball on that one. I admit I was wrong. We now return to regular scheduled programming. . .

We do have one thing at our disposal countries like Cuba and China do not; we can vote. Didn't like what happened at the G20 in Toronto-you can vote against the governing Conservative party and the provincial Liberal party (yes, the McGuinty government had a part in that too). The federal political landscape changed in Canada after the Sponsorship scandal broke and it cost the Liberals the government. We also saw some blowback against the provincial Liberals last fall. Just as similar controversies could (and should) cost the Conservatives power. Want to protest-vote. Get informed, do your research engage yourself, encourage others to vote and get yourself to a voting booth sometime that day. By refusing to vote, you are letting the politicans forget they are answerable to us, the citizens.

As for the protests, yes many police tactics were appalling and there should have been a public enquiry called, but the protesters were hardly innocent angels themselves. There is no shortage of people showing up with black masks and carrying explosives and combustibles. Even "peaceful" assemblies can break out into violence (remember Vancouver last June with nary a police officer around?). Regardless of what you do, there will be violence between police and protesters. If we are going to contiue holding these types of summits, they should be held in an aircraft carriers in the Indian Ocean or a military base in the arctic. The people I felt sorry for the most in Toronto were the small businesses that were vandalized. You can bet their insurance companies were doing back flips to get out of any kind of settlement and the government refused to compensate them in any way. That was the real tragedy.

This woman has the right idea-tolerance, empathy and acceptance. As long as it is consensual between adults, what you do has no impact on me and I should accept it. I also like how she touched on the bullying element regarding homosexual youth, that their shame drives them to the unthinkable. Can we vote this woman Prime Minister?

The markets are quite regulated, but I would admit that there have definitely been abuses. The problem is that the government swooped in to protect those companies rather than the companies having to deal with the consequences of their actions. If the government had stayed out of it, the markets would have finally "cleared," in an economic sense, and we woudl all be better off. Also, the people who caused the problem, be they a*holes or idiots, would have been held accountable for their actions.

 

And you cant really believe that China's communism has anything to do with its current economic success (which is probably being highly overstated). It has everything to do with highly un-regulated free markets and the availability of cheap and reasonably-educated labor.

The reason the government was so quick to swoop in was because Wall Street owned plenty of politicans, as they continue to do. And they own them on both sides of the aisle. There was no higher moral principle about Universal Healthcare, merely the Health Insurance companies puting the policians they owned into service against it. It can be argued that every major policy decision in living memory is based on pure economics. Wall Street has a significant ownership stake in the White House, plain and simple. I would also argue that the laws regulating the markets proved inadequate since the practice of selling toxic investments and then betting against them went on for years and regulatory bodies looked the other way. And China's communism may not have much to do with their economic propsperity, but the simple fact is that the largest stakeholder in American debt is the largest Communist country in the world. Every bubble bursts, the question is can this one be prevented?

Additional Comments:

I get the idea that you and i would differ greatly on matters of politics Bailey Dog, but you have the right idea in helping-get involved and change the beast from the inside.

I agree completely with baileydog except that he's being too apologetic for "capitalism." Its not perfect, but if anyone has a better solution it certainly hasn't proven itself yet.

 

Any economic system has its faults, but to paraphrase Milton Friedman, no other economic system has ever brought so much wealth and prosperity to so many. Nothing else even comes close. Ignore this, belittle this, quote Lenin (how did Communism work out for you, btw?), etc., etc. at your own economic risk.

 

Now everybody stop yer whining and get back to work!! :icon_smile: :icon_smile:

To quote a previous post, it isn't capitalism that should be railed against, but unchecked capitalism. Current capitalism is creating a class system and rewarding illegal behaviour. The 2008 economic meltdown was the result of unchecked and unregulated markets and what has the world learned as a result? Nothing. There are no new checks and regulations to prevent another collapse on the same scale, mostly because the interested parties have blocked it through the politicans they own. That is the objection. Not the body of capitalism, but the greedy cancer that has invaded it.

And while communism may be a politically reprehensbile system, it must have its economic perks. Last time I checked, China, the world's largest Communist state, owns the majority of the U.S.'s staggering debt.

Stephen King once said that Hell is repetion-for eternity. Imagine being stuck in the same grocery store with the same crazy old ladies who think that their carts are crash derby cars for the rest of eternity. Brrr.

I got nothing against capitalism or a free market economy as long as the rules apply to everybody.

 

-When Nortel executives fuck up and run the company to the ground, they should heed their obligations to former employees who had insurance and a pension, not collect bonuses.

 

-When respected rating agencies give AAA ratings to junk bonds, their CEO's should be fired, not receive bonuses.

 

-When Goldman Sachs fraudulently sells junk derivatives as AAA bonds, they should be prosecuted like any common fraudster, not bailed out by the tax payer.

 

-When Sun Media uses the airwaves to whine about the CBC's federal funding in the name of the taxpayer, they should look at themselves and give back all government subsidies they have received over the years.

 

-Why is it that rich CEO's that failed get government bail-outs and bonuses, but everyday people who can't pay their mortgages, are evicted from their homes.

 

-When people line up at Citibank to close their accounts, they should be allowed to do so, not arrested by authorities. (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2049976/Banks-country-refuse-let-customers-close-accounts-protest.html)

 

-Why is it that Hugh Heffner can legally pay for sex with his Playboy bunnies under the cover of his playboy mansion, but when I ask to pay, the state government of the same country says it's crime.

 

It's not capitalism I am against, it's what it as become of it.

Perfectly stated. This is what the (true) movement is about. There is a different set of rules for the wealthy 1%, many of whom got their wealth through unethical or illegal means (or were simply born to it) then the rest of us. It's not as bad in Canada as the U.S., but tuition rates are climbing enough that one's level education is becoming more determined by their income than by their intelligence or their work ethic. There should have been a condition on all that stimulus money the "too big to fail" companies got from various governments-no bonuses for your CEOs and minimize your layoffs. As it stood, how many companies and corporations collected stimulus money and paid their CEOs million dollar bonuses (for running their companies into the ground or knowingly participating in illegal practrices) while they laid off thousands of workers? And if it were up to me, the price of doing business in Canada would include obeying a law that if a major company or corporation goes under, then the pensions they owe their employees is creditor number one-how many Nortel employees are now left without hard earned pensions they invested in?

I can't add anything to the outstanding post made by Mighty Pen, but I would like to make a suggestion; at your convention, overhaul the Liberal Party and remake it into something that can perform in the 21st century. I am not a card carrying member of any political party but a strong democracy needs strong opposition and options. And with the unfortunate passing of Jack Layton, there is no significant opposition in our Government these days. The Liberal party has suffered it's two worst historic defeats back to back and there's nothing to suggest that they wouldn't fare even worse with Bob Rae at the helm if there was an election today. The Liberals border on becoming politically irrlelvant. If you simply churn out another leader without addressing the reasons why Canadians have abandoned the Liberal fold en masse, you will be repeating the failures similar to the ones made by Wall Street-arrogantly burying your heads in the sand and ignoring the roots of the problems, inviting them to happen again.

Lol. When you've made Conan, you know you've become a cultural icon.

Congradulations Silverado!

Congradulations Lee! And keep up the awesome Avatars!

Which one? Apollo 18 or Drive lol. I just couldn't invest much into the characters, there was very little dialogue and the plot was pretty confusing. Went to see it with a group and when the lights went up we all looked at each oher in disbelief. Gosling was much better in Ides of March.

Interesting, I have not seen the movie but if you do a google search it is considered one of the year's best, not that means anything, just interesting that you found it one of the worst.

Super 8 was a nice little gem (a more mature E.T. told by J.J. Abrahms). And my favorite animated movie was Kung Fu Panda 2. Funnier than the first but not as profitable.

Well, 2011 is in the books and we get to look forward to a long list of hotly anticipated releases in 2012. But with both the Oscars and the Raspberries less than two months away and buzz building about potential nominees, I thought I'd like to recap noteworthy titles-both good and bad-from 2011.

My Favorite: Rise of the Planet of the Apes was my favorite movie of the summer. A smart story and Andy Serkis should get an Oscar nodd for his work as Ceasar.

Worst: Apollo 18 was going to win this prize until I saw Drive with Ryan Gosling in October. Ugh. Can't describe how bad it was.

Most Disappointing: Contagion. Interesting idea and a killer cast but while it efficiently told its story it completely forgot to be entertaining and left a number of plot lines dangling. And Green Lantern. I really wanted this movie to be good and it turned out to be really average (at best).

Guilty Pleasures: Transformers 3 and Suckerpunch. Yeah, yeah, they were both pretty bad but great visuals-giant battling robots, dragons, zombie Nazis-how can that not appease your inner geek?

Pleasant Surprise: Thor. Complete opposite of Green Lantern. Went in with low expectations and was really pleased. Thought they did a great job of reconciling Asgardian myth as story and made Loki a sympathedic villain.

What about everyone else?

Having a wonderful brunch with one of my favorite people in the world. And I even got bananas on my French Toast!