murraysovereign

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

Don't sweat it, Sisu, we always laugh at Alaskans anyhow

Hey, Upper Class Twit of The Year, It's a Monty Python Skit, entitled: "The Architect Skit". Pearls before Swine, my good man. Pearls before Swine...

Murray, this means you've won. Congrats. I WON?! I don't think I've ever won before. Yeay, me! I !!!! This is FUN!!

I believe they already are. I say, 'retaliate'! But retaliate for what? You said at the outset that being "rude" to prisoners is perfectly alright. So even if there were any American prisoners out there (and I don't think there are any, are there?), if they were being mistreated, well, that would be "permissible" because, as you said, war is Hell. Since their being mistreated is "permissible" why would you feel any need to retaliate?

So, Trask, can I assume you'd be OK with Iraqi or Taliban units roughing up captured GIs? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure you'd be among the first ones screaming for blood if it were revealed that someone had been "rude" to an American POW. Maybe you're thinking the Geneva Convention should only protect US troops?

Are you saying you liked it, or that it was "crap" as in the title of the thread? I've heard pretty good things about this film, but have never seen it. or ?

Don't forget, in the aftermath of 9/11 and the lauching of the "War on Terror", senior Administration officials were quite open and candid about the deliberate misinformation they were going to be spreading as part of their "war effort." They told us they were going to lie to us, that it would be necessary to lie to us, and that we would have no way of knowing when they were lying to us and when they were telling the truth. Since lying is official government policy, and since they told us in advance they were going to be lying to us, we shouldn't be too surprised to find that, when they told us they were going to lie to us, they weren't lying. Until now. Now they're lying, but having promised us that they would, they have to, otherwise they'd have been lying when they announced their policy of lying to us. And everyone knows lying is wrong. Unless you're only doing it to fulfill your earlier promise to lie, in which case you're pretty much morally obliged to lie. Right?

That's just great - now we're going to have to contend with huge volumes of Alaskan home-grown flooding the BC market, depressing prices, putting our own growers out of work. We'll have to impose some sort of countervailing duty on the stuff to try to protect our domestic producers. I see a nasty, protracted trade war looming...

I think Ascensions still sells a re-gluing kit which is basically just pre-glued backing paper that you apply to the clean skin, and then iron. This mimics the way the glue is applied at the factory, and helps it bond to the fabric, and you don't end up with glue all over the iron. Alternatively, when you buy new Ascensions skins, keep the backing paper instead of throwing it out. Then, when you need to re-glue, use the brown paper procedure to remove the old wax, repeating as often as necessary to get right down to clean base fabric. After you apply the new glue, lay the old backing paper on the skin ("teflon" side down) and run over it with a hot iron.

Looks about right - only one out of the whole group can read, while the rest sit around pretending to understand

It's true that Parliament can be a bit of a mosh pit, not for the thin-skinned or weak of heart, but on State occasions they're usually pretty civilized. Bush may have been subjected to a bit of heckling, but it's not as if they would have put him through the wringer the way they do each other in regular session - especially Question Period. It would have been about the same as a State of the Union Address, but without the interminable Standing Ovations. Maybe the odd cat-call, but pretty tame, really. I honestly can't see what he's scared of.

Isn't this the same guy who, just a few months ago, was puffing up his chest and spouting things like "Bring It On"? What a whiny little chicken-shit. Maybe he'd agree to give the speech if they let him wear the flight suit?

You obviously haven't met all the local (Squamish) mounties then. Snoboy beat me to it, but I'm going to reiterate - we've got a pretty good-looking Detachment here. That may explain some of the delinquincy problems here, with teenaged males trying to get busted on purpose, maybe even frisked And as for the car security issues, the Council, RCMP, and a number of concerned individuals are going to be meeting soon to plan some sort of counter-attack. It will probably involve three or four different initiatives, and we hope to have everything in place in time for next Spring. And just so you all know, there were a number of RCMP "Sting" operations in various parking lots over the past summer, but no-one took the bait. They're going to keep trying, though, 'cause they want to nail these bastards as badly as any of us do.

Even when at attention, if you watch very closely you'll sometimes see they're rocking slightly back and forth from heels to toes and back to heels, just to keep the calf muscles contracting and relaxing to help move the blood back up. The big difference between standing and hanging in a harness, though, is that when hanging, the leg loops act like a tourniquet (tell me you've never noticed this...) - blood can make it down into the legs, but the combination of gravity and constriction from the leg loops is too much for the heart to counteract, so the blood is trapped in the legs.

Alpine Forecast for Whistler - Blackcomb looks pretty good to me: Tonight..Snow Tapering To A Few Flurries Overnight. Alpine Low Minus 5. Snowfall Accumulation 3 To 5 Cm. Sunday..Snow Heavy At Times. Fog Patches. Alpine High Minus 2. Snowfall Accumulation 10 To 15 Cm. Freezing Level..1500 Metres This Afternoon And 1200 Metres Tonight And Sunday. Mountain Top Winds..South 30 To 40 Km/H. Extended Forecast For Whistler - Blackcomb. Monday.. Snow. Snowfall Accumulation 10 To 15 Cm. Freezing Level 1250 Metres. Tuesday.. Snow. Snowfall Accumulation 15 To 25 Cm. Freezing Level 1600 Metres. Wednesday.. Cloudy. 70 Percent Chance Of Flurries. Snowfall Accumulation Trace To 1 Cm. Freezing Level 750 Metres. Not a bad start, I'd say

Isn't it true that regardless of the political goings-on, the consensus of the constabulary is to look the other way? Not just the constablulary - although you're right they've been turning a blind eye to simple possession - the Judiciary are the ones that prompted the new legislation, by telling Parliament that the existing possession laws were basically null and void. Rather than leave it completely undefined and unregulated, the proposed legislation was going to at least establish the limits for simple possession, and prescribe small penalties. Now that it has died on the order paper with Parliament being prorogued, there is essentially no law at all governing simple possession. Presumably Paul Martin will want to bring in something to fill that legislative vacuum, but it's unclear just how far he'll go to suck up to the "Reefer Madness" crowd in Washington. He won the leadership in large part by promising the back-bench MPs that they'll have far more say in setting the legislative agenda, more input at the committee stages, and more free votes. The same back-benchers are solidly in favour of decriminalizing simple possession, and they're going to hold him to his promises about responding to their concerns, so he's going to have to choose sides - is he the Prime Minister of Canada, or an employee of the DEA?

From Nov 14 issue of the "Squamish Chief" newspaper: "Formal charges are now being processed against six Squamish residents in connection with this summer’s July long weekend attack on three American campers at Kinsmen Campground. Jason McKinney, Jack Shillito, Cory Braumberger, Nikki Dawe and Kevin Goodwin are all charged in connection with the incident which received widespread attention from media outlets in B.C. and Washington State. A sixth suspect was charged, but cannot be named because the rules of the Youth Justice Act prohibit publication of the 16-year-old male’s identity. According to Cpl. Dave Ritchie of the Squamish RCMP, the sixth suspect did not appear for his first appearance and a warrant was issued for his arrest. The five adults identified by police range in age from 18 to 21. The group of accused individuals faces charges that range from causing a disturbance to assault. First court appearances were made on Nov. 5 at the provincial courthouse in North Vancouver. Ritchie said a seventh suspect might be charged in the future. “We are discussing with Crown whether or not this individual will be charged,” he said. Ritchie said the seventh person is under the age of 18 so if charges are laid, the individual’s name will not be made public. After appearing on Nov. 5, the group had their case set over to Nov. 26. The only exceptions were for Goodwin, 21, and the 16-year-old who was charged but did not appear at court on Nov.5. According to the North Vancouver courthouse, Goodwin did not appear on Nov. 5 and a warrant was issued for his arrest. Ritchie said that as of late Thursday (Nov. 13) morning, the local RCMP were not in possession of a warrant for Goodwin’s arrest in connection with the July long weekend incident. “We do have a warrant for Goodwin on an unrelated matter,” Ritchie said. Ritchie believes the Remembrance Day long weekend may have delayed the delivery of the warrant as the North Vancouver courthouse sends warrant information in its original form to the Squamish RCMP through the postal system. The six people charged in connection with the incident are accused of roughing up three Washington State visitors. Jeremy Dahl, Shannon Scott and Jay Barklay came to Squamish to climb the Smoke Bluffs. Their visit was well publicized when they came forward with a story of violence and disrespect that caught the attention of reporters from up and down the West Coast. They said that a group of young people trashed their camp area, damaged their car and kicked and punched Barklay."

Klahanie Crack, next to Shannon Falls, is a good one, also. Someone has to lead it before it can be TR'd, but it's pretty forgiving. Hell, even I could ropegun it for you.

Well, OK, there was that one...

I've re-read this thread from the beginning and I can't see where anyone is "crapping" on anything. There are a handful of posts acknowledging the contributions of veterans living and dead, a discussion of the different tone of Nov 11 in the US vs Canada, and some suggestions that current governments, through various policy decisions, are perhaps being less than faithful to the memory of those veterans. Along the way, there may have been a few points raised that some people may have disagreed with, but the overall tone of the discussion has been pretty sincere and respectful.

"…can’t have the VP in jail, now can we? Or the president and the rest of his cabinet for that matter." Hmmm... just because something's never been done before, doesn't mean it can't be done. Why don't you give it a try, and see what happens?

I agree, there's no question much of the difference can be traced back to your country's experience in Viet Nam, the deep divisions it produced at home, and the mistrust of the Pentagon that resulted. Add in Watergate for good measure, and you're inevitably going to see some cynicism come out of it. By contrast, when Canadians look back over our military history, there's far less ambiguity. There have been some bad experiences to be sure (Singapore or Dieppe, for instance, or Ypres, where Canadians were among the first to experience the effects of Mustard Gas) but certainly nothing that we're ashamed of. And much to be proud of - Vimy Ridge, the Battle of Britain, Ortona, Juno Beach... So perhaps it is just "easier" for us. But I still think part of it is due to the fact that Remembrance Day is about remembering the dead, whereas Veteran's Day is about everyone who ever served in whatever capacity. It's hard to hold a grudge against the dead, hard to blame them for the stupid political decisions that got them killed. But when the veteran you're supposed to be honouring may have been a part of My Lai, or may have been part of the senior command that made things like My Lai possible, well, it's a bit harder to really put your heart into it. Maybe if you changed the name from Veterans Day back to Remembrance Day, and put the focus back on those who died rather than all those who ever wore the uniform, the occasion may regain some of the respect it seems to have lost. But enough: I don't want to flog this to death. It's just that when two peoples are so similar in so many respects - virtually indistinguishable much of the time, in fact - it's interesting to look at the subtle differences and try to figure out where they originated and why they persist.