green

We have an easier time of it up here in Canada. We elect minority governments whenever we, the people, cannot reach a consensus at election time.

Of course the war is damaging your economy! Wars aren't free, you know. Someone has to pay for the personnel, the armaments, transport, fighter jets, yadda, yadda. Britain's economy and her status as a major global power were destroyed because of the cost of the Second World War, a war which the Allies won. Of course the citizens of your country are on the hook for this war. Who do you think is paying for the trillions that have already been spent? The Wall Street debacle is just a case of the sh!t being piled ever higher!

I don't think that it is fair to judge Palin for her daughter's pregnancy. Young people often tend to be curious, rebellious, and attracted to risk taking. This is why illegal street racing is an adolescent sport. Adolescents also have high sex drives. Sex education and the easy availability of contraceptives will help some of those who are determined to have sex avoid pregnancy and/or disease...but not all. Some girls will get caught and sometimes this is by design. Some teenage girls want babies. Palin's daughter is pregnant: so what? This is a big fat problem for the Palin family to deal with. It doesn't concern any of us. My only thought is that it will be a pity if she does marry the baby's father. Levi sounds like he is very selfish and immature. Not good father and husband material.

I had my abortion as soon as I found out that I was pregnant and could arrange it. I figure that I was 7 or 8 weeks along.

In the Canadian media we have been getting the same reports of extremist behaviour from McCain-Palin supporters at their rallies. If what you are saying is true, then the fact that this information is false is scary.

Your comments are interesting, Jack. Up here there is a tilt to the left on our national taxpayer-funded television channel (and the two radio channels, CBC 1 and 2 for that matter), the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and on the Ontario public channel, TVOntario. I am aware that there are many publications, both north and south of the border, which tilt in one direction or another. Surely the public is aware of this and subscribes to those offerings which they find the most satisfactory in view of their own interests.

Wow! That was scary! Thanks for posting it, Watcher.

Your comment interests me because I was under the impression that there are just as many outlets south of the border which tilt to the right. Certainly, such entertainers/political pundits as Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, and Bill O'Reilly are conservatives. Up here in Canada, the liberal/left bias is much more pronounced. Although I am kind of a centre-left wing-nut I like to receive information and ideas from both sides and this is why the two newspapers I subscribe to are centre-right and right wing in their political stance.

That is a very nice story, one with a happy finish.

The Pew site has a number of interesting articles on this election including the one on the media bias. Thanks for posting this site.

Gadget, please post what you find out. I have always been curious about this and yet far too much of a squeamish princess to set about and collect my own piss. In fact, one of the reasons I don't like babies and very young children is that you have to clean 'em. Ugh! sez me. But a guy I used to work with pointed out that if I live long enough I will be changing my own diapers. Ugh! sez me.

I think the expression "wing-nut" is cute. I always refer to folks as left or right wing-nuts. I myself am a left wing-nut.

So what if Obama knew Ayres. Obama is not Ayres. Palin's husband was a member of an Alaskan separatist party. How anti-American is that???

Obama proposes to raise the taxes of folks who make a quarter of a million bucks or more by a mere 3%. Your country has been haemorrhagging money to the tune of trillions due to this Iraq war. I have read that by embarking on this iniative baby Bush has mortgaged your grandchildren's earnings. There are, moreover, a myriad of other reasons why a state needs tax money. There is an entire infrastructure from which every citizen will benefit. Not every tax dollar taken from you will automatically go into the pocket of a worthless drugged out welfare bum and his brats. I find this notion to be mean-spirited, paranoid, and ridiculous.

It strikes me, Gadget, that you are over-reacting on this issue. As home schooling is a state controlled matter, it is unlikely to the point of impossible that a Democratic president would be successful at wresting control of this issue away from the individual states. Furthermore, to attempt to do such a thing would badly damage his popularity and yet there would be no upside to such an action, even if it were possible! Besides, I believe the president will find that his time will be taken up by other issues: the crumbling domestic economy, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, international affairs.... Nope, I really don't think that Obama and company are or will be concerned with this matter of home schooling.

Wouldn't home schooling be a state issue? Not a federal one? This should mean that the president of your country really would have no say in its legitimacy.

I have or have had ties with people who have done things I wouldn't do. And there are people who have ties with me, an individual who has done things that they wouldn't do. I believe that adults can associate with other adults, even enjoy and value their company, and yet still maintain their own intrinsic standards of behaviour. One of my closest friends for many years was a Communist and an ardent trade unionist. She tried for many years to get me interested but the "magic" never ever did rub off! For 9 years I went to a boarding school run by nuns but belief never rubbed off, either. By the way, I really do find it impossible to believe that Obama is quietly knitting bombs thanks to his association with Ayres.

Stevegoad has done a nice job of answering your question of how I feel about William Ayres. He was a radical when he was a young man. He is now a respected professor. Obama seems to know him - and only slightly, I gather - in this, his current role. And no, I would have no problem if McCain launched his political career from the living room of someone who had at one time been responsible for bombing abortion clinics but who had become a respected member of society by the time that McCain was associating with him. I do admit that I would be ill at ease with a politician who had associations with KKK members, former or otherwise. I would certainly want to know more about the association. But in general, I believe that it is a good thing for anyone to make the acquaintance of a wide variety of individuals in one's life. It is a way of deepening and broadening one's understanding of others. It is, for instance, only thanks to the internet that I have met so many Christians. I don't tend to run across them in my "real" life. The folks I know are either atheists or have a weak and ill-defined belief that there is something out there.

As for Palin, her husband was a member of a party which desires independence for Alaska. Ain't he a traitor?

As has been pointed out, William Ayres was a radical when he was a young man and Obama was only 8 years old. He is now a professor at a respected American university, the University of Chicago. Does this mean that those who sit on the hiring board of this university are also traitors to your country? Or does this mean that William Ayres has in some fashion redeemed himself over the years? I am inclined to think that the second guess is more likely. Also, I see nothing particularly wrong in Obama's association with this man or his rather unusual pastor. Your own Jesus Christ associated with quite an array of folk who could not be considered to fall into the mainstream of society at the time that He was alive. It is utterly idiotic (and grasping at straws) to consider Barack Obama a traitor merely through association.

Sadly, there has been a tradition of assassinations and assassination attempts of public and controversial figures in your country. There is also a vivid tradition of racism in certain parts of the States. There are many folks who are foolish enough to believe that the colour of Obama's skin and the fact that his middle name is Hussein are defining factors of his "wrongness" as a presidential candidate. The colour of his skin and his middle name are not accomplishments but simply part of what the man came equipped with at birth. What any individual should be judged on is his own accomplishments and Obama's, and those of his wife, are impressive. Nevertheless, there are nutbars who are present at the McCain/Palin rallies who yell out truly odious idiocies about Obama; they call this man a "traitor." This level of hatred, one which would deny the basic facts of Obama's life, does not bode well, in my opinion. In my opinion, Obama is being held to a different, and higher standard than that applied to Palin and McCain. This difference arises from racism, I think. It is unlikely that these crazies will go away once Obama becomes President. He will need to have excellent security in place.

Yep, I can be annoying. lol

I personally don't like tats. I grow bored easily and like to make changes with my appearance. A tat is forever and when you are 65 you may feel quite differently about a skull and crossbones on your hip. Your husband might be a purist and prefer the idea of unmarked human skin. And besides, these days it seems that everyone has tats. Personally speaking, I like to be different.

By the way, Watcher, you are right: you sure cannot spell. But you sure do launch some very interesting threads. Thank you, sez Green.

I think that assassination attempts might be likely. Palin and McCain are stirring up the crazies in their campaign by implying that Obama has terrorist/Islam ties or that he is in some way unAmerican. It is disgusting.