murraysovereign

One of the states - Montana, I think? - has or had laws that say drinking while driving is OK, but not driving while drunk. So if you want to have a beer as you drive home from work, that's OK; if you're impaired they'll throw the book at you. It's a strange approach by the standards of most jurisdictions, but I can respect them for distinguishing between a harmless activity (drinking a beer), and a dangerous activity (drunk driving). Kinda like being allowed to own a gun, but not being allowed to discharge it into a crowd of people.

Maintaining a presence in the western Pacific may have something to do with this

I'm born and raised in this country, and I have never actually seen a plate of poutine in all my life. It's more of a Quebec thing, with periodic outbreaks occurring in the Maritimes and Ontario.

Hang on a sec. All he did was pick up a platter of fake turkey and get his picture taken showing it to a GI. I don't think it's an impeachable offense. Besides, now that everyone knows it was fake, the propaganda value of that photo for next year's campaign has been greatly diminished.

cuz you can drink it. Not after it's been used for flushing - at least, not in my country. But hey, you guys have always kind of gone your own way, so we'll just leave you to it. Bon apetit.

stop it. being stoopid yurself that is. as if fewer toilets would limit the number of shits and flushes. The key words here are "potable water." If you want more than two toilets in the house, they need to be either composters or incinerator style or chemical, or they have to use recycled water to flush (bathtub / shower / sinks all drain into cystern that is used for flushing). You can still have as many toilets as you want, but only two can use drinking water. Makes sense to me, in fact why should any toilet use perfectly good drinking water to flush, except as a last resort? It's probably just a matter of time before this sort of thing becomes standard regulation in a lot of places with limited access to clean water.

They're for real. Puma is trying to cash in on the whole "extreme" thing by making street shoes that look sorta like climbing shoes might look if they'd been designed by someone who had no intention of ever climbing in them. Strictly Mall-wear, for people with more money than brains.

"Tangs" got somethin' to do with "poons" don't they?

There's an news item in a couple of the weekend papers about a labour rights organization in Austria that's trying to have the playing of Christmas music in malls restricted to only a couple of hours a day. They say it's to preserve the sanity of workers who are subjected to the stuff all day long, day after bloody day, for weeks on end. They're calling it "Psychological Terrorism" Boy, now there's a war effort I could get behind, ridding the world of Christmas Music "Terrorists" like Celine Dion and Whitney Houston and Michael Bolton, and anybody anywhere who has ever produced a recording of "The Little Drummer Boy." Where do I enlist?

The CBC ran a documentary last week about the embedded journalists and what they went through, and the stuff they filmed that didn't get past the censors at the time, also their thoughts on the whole embedding idea and whether they felt it was a good thing or not and so on. There was some pretty horrific shit, a lot of introspection about what gets filmed/reported and why other things get left out, and some interesting insights into the whole media/military relationship. Good program - I wish I'd taped it.

Ummm...it's our Anniversary, isn't it? I bet I forgot our Anniversary again. Geez, I'm sorry. I don't know how, but I'll make it up to you somehow, I promise.

I took "Bo" Duke (aka John Schneider) out to Murrin for his first ever day of rock-climbing. He had some time off from filming "Smallville" so drove up from Vancouver to kill the day, and ended up learning a new sport. Had a ball - great guy, lots of fun.

"It was a woman who drove me to drink, and I never had the courtesy to thank her" W.C Fields

John Baldwin's "Backcountry Whistler Map" is a pretty good guide to the whole Spearhead Traverse area. Printed on waterproof paper, lots of useful beta on routes, access points, yo-yo-ing spots, escape routes... Available at a fine shop I know of just off the highway in Squamish The new Hostel in Squamish is pretty nice. It's less crowded, and less $$ than anything in Whistler. It's only about a 45 minute drive to the lifts, and at the end of the day you get to leave Whistler behind, which can be a nice feeling. Squamish International Hostel 38220 Hwy 99 Squamish BC (604) 892 9240 hello@squamishhostel.com www.squamishhostel.com But if you insist on staying at the Zoo, there's a variety of hostels in Whistler that are usually pretty full but you could try giving them a call. Here's what I could find on-line, in no particular order: YWCA Hotel / Residence (604) 895-5830 (604) 681-2550 (fax) http://www.ywcahotel.com hotel@ywcavan.org Hostelling International-Whistler 5678 Alta Lk Rd, Whistler, BC V0N1B0 (604) 932-5492 (604) 932-4687 (fax) http://www.hihostels.ca Shoestring Lodge (604) 932-3338 (604) 932-8347 (fax) Southside Lodge (604) 938-6477 (604) 932-0551 (fax) Whistler Backpackers 2124 Lake Placid Road, Whistler, BC V0N1B2 (604) 932-1177 Hope that helps

Thank God this guy was armed, because otherwise he would have been... you know... unarmed. And there's no telling what might have happened then. Probably no-one would have been shot, and that's just the thin edge of the wedge. Before you know it, all kinds of people everywhere wouldn't be getting shot.

Probably didn't want to clash with Snoboy's truck

That would explain the errors in the reporting, then, wouldn't it? Your average High School can produce a better paper than the Province

So in other words, you have to own a gun, unless you don't want to... Boy, that's a pretty Draconian piece of legislation.

True dat. Check the statistics on numbers of innocent by-standers killed by stray stranglings, or who got picked off by some guy hiding in the trunk of a car knocking people off with a baseball bat from across the street. I tell ya, it's outta control. Drive-by knifings are an increasing problem in many urban areas. In fact, cutlery-related homicides are so prevalent, they've even found their place in popular culture: remember that Boom-Town Rats song - "I Don't Like Mondays" - about that guy who killed all those students with a spoon from up in the clock tower?

isn't that kinda the point; that people will kill each other regardless of the impliments involved? oh and happy un-thanksgiving dru! It's more a reflection of a much lower incidence of murder-by-firearm. Since a lower proportion of murders are committed using guns, it's inevitable that the proportion involving "other" weapons will be higher, be they knives or baseball bats or poison-tipped arrows or whatever else was handy at the time. But I think you'll also find that Canadians are far less likely to kill one another overall than are Americans, regardless of method used. I don't have a ready explanation for that one, but I expect the Fraser Institute can find a way to portray our lower murder rates as further proof of the inferiority of our criminal justice system and the moral corruption of our political structures. Either that, or they'll ignore it altogether because it doesn't further their agenda.

Having been subjected to a constant bombardment from this outfit for as long as I can remember, I've learned to take anything from the Fraser Institute with huge doses of salt. These guys have come out with "studies" and "reports" that would have made Hitler blush. Some of their stuff is pretty straight-up and objective, but when they get their ideological teeth into something (and guns is one of their favourites, along with tax cuts for the rich, and the elimination of social supports to pay for those tax cuts) the results are pretty predictable. They're experts at taking the most vague, inconclusive statistics and finding Armageddon hidden in the numbers. I tend to discount most of their reports just because their one-sided bleating and ranting is getting so tiresome.

Yep, me too (although "hate" may be overstating it a tad). And a foreigner, to boot. But credit where credit is due: it was good to see Bush pull off what was essentially just a goofy stunt, and to see him (and everyone else in the room) so obviously enjoying it. For a moment there, he seemed almost human. Good on ya, Dubya.

Actually, we ALL pay for card fraud. Sure, the banks are the ones who actually cover the charges, but they don't just pull that money out of thin air - they pull it out of you and me and the girl working at the coffee shop and the guy who tunes up your car and... Ever heard of service charges? Ever been charged interest on anything? Banks have to cover hundreds of millions of dollars each year in credit card fraud in the U.S. alone, which means they have to charge their customers (including you) hundreds of millions of dollars in fees and interest each year to cover those costs, and that amount is increasing rapidly. They also charge retailers like me a % fee for each transaction. The more fraud they have to absorb, the higher that % goes, and that increase eventually shows up in the price of every single item you buy. So if the Exit 38 bandit is in fact credit card related, then by all means do what you can to stop them, because make no mistake they are costing each of you money, even if it isn't your car or your credit card that's involved, even if you've never been to or even heard of Exit 38.

Friend of mine in High School was taking her exam for the 2nd time, having failed on fairly minor technical points the first time. So, she was pretty nervous, not wanting to screw up again. In her somewhat distracted state, she ran a stop sign and t-boned an RCMP cruiser Oh, well, third time lucky. She's actually a pretty good driver, just wasn't very good at tests I guess.

The 3-pin/cable option is a nice one for B/C simply for the redundancy. If your cable blows, you can still make it out on the pins, and if you rip out of your pins (rare, but it can happen) you still have the cables. If you somehow blow both cables and pins, then the SAR team can just tuck your skis into the chopper next to your stretcher