Palin steps down as governor of Alaska

SirJosephPorter

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Finally I caught up with the thread (whew!). I am going away for one week starting tomorrow, so I expect I will have to catch up when I get back.
 

Machjo

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Oct 19, 2004
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That is not so unusual, Machjo. He could very well have been a Pakistani (or Indian) doctor. Many professional have a great deal of difficulty getting their qualifications approved by the professional organizations in Canada.

In this respect, Canada is much worse than USA. It is a crying shame, a lot of talent goes waste, because the engineers and doctors cannot get their qualifications recognized by the professional institutions.

Two points to make:

1. Though I agree with what you say, yu too have misunderstood me. By intellectual in this context I was not limiting myself only to those with degrees, but any of the so-called intellectual working class, those blue-collar workers who do in fact have a brain on their shoulders, degree or no degree, the Tolstoys of the world if you will.

2. Our Ministries of Education are at least partially to blame for this. When was the last time your provincial Minister of Education had gone abroad to consult on establishing common curricula for various trades and professions? What? Are they too busy playing golf? In fact, when was the last time they consulted with the Ministires of Education of neighbouring provinces, let alone foreign ministries of education?
 

Machjo

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Good points Machjo... Seeing how we've seen ho well the academic crowd has managed to run nations, Trudeau, Dion, Iggy and let's not forget Obama - you'll recall that he is the one that applied for foreign-born student scholarships to make his way through post-secondary.

Captain, and I assume your Bush did a stellar job of managing the economy? Spoken like a true believer. And Dion and Iggy mismanaged the economy? Even without being the Prime minister? I didn’t know they have that much power over your Messiah.

So I assume the current 50 billion dollars plus deficit by your Messiah is purely the fault of Iggy and Dion? Your Messiah is totally blameless; he is going a great job of managing the economy?

You true blue conservative loyalists never cease to amuse me.

I see you don’t mention Mulroney here, I assume in your opinion, he was the best there is in fiscal management, I assume under him economy prospered as never before?

At least you had the decency not to claim that economy tanked big time under Chrétien and Martin, that under them we had high inflation and high unemployment (and huge deficits, bigger than under your other Messiah, Mulroney). I give you some credit for that.

But if Bush did such a great job of managing the economy, why did your party (Republicans) suffer such humiliating defeats in 2006 and 2008? Was it all due to Democratic propaganda? I assume Mulroney lost purely due to Liberal propaganda (those evil, nasty Liberals wouldn’t let poor Mulroney explain to the people how good things were under Mulroney). Do you give the same reason for Republican losses?

Come come, Captain, amuse me some more.

In defense of Captain, I'm not sure how he defines 'intellectual'. For my part, it has nothing to do with degrees. Bush has a Master's degree from Harvard, but I'd hardly call him an intellectual; while Tolstoy was a university drop out, yet his intellect surpassed that of many.

Looking at it that way, I would not judge Iggy as an intellectual just because he holds a degree or taught at university. I'd consider him an intellectual owing to a proven ability to apply his mind to solving practical problems. Same with Obama. University degrees are for sale nowadays.
 

Walter

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I think you can see that from Alaska.

Can You Really See Russia From Alaska?Yes, but only the boring parts.

By Nina Shen RastogiPosted Monday, Sept. 15, 2008

In her Sept. 11 interview with ABC's Charlie Gibson, Sarah Palin had this to say about Russia: "They're our next-door neighbors, and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska." Is that true?

Yes. Russia and Alaska are divided by the Bering Strait, which is about 55 miles at its narrowest point. In the middle of the Bering Strait are two small, sparsely populated islands: Big Diomede, which sits in Russian territory, and Little Diomede, which is part of the United States. At their closest, these two islands are a little less than two and a half miles apart, which means that, on a clear day, you can definitely see one from the other.
 

Machjo

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That is the far right protesting, ironsides. Up until two years ago they were in power (with Bush). Now they have lost all the levers of power (except the Supreme Court), so protest is the only way they can make their discontent known.

Can you be sure of that? I could see the same person who protested the War in Iraq now protesting corporate bailouts. Would that be far right in your mind?
 

Machjo

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Can You Really See Russia From Alaska?Yes, but only the boring parts.

By Nina Shen RastogiPosted Monday, Sept. 15, 2008

In her Sept. 11 interview with ABC's Charlie Gibson, Sarah Palin had this to say about Russia: "They're our next-door neighbors, and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska." Is that true?

Yes. Russia and Alaska are divided by the Bering Strait, which is about 55 miles at its narrowest point. In the middle of the Bering Strait are two small, sparsely populated islands: Big Diomede, which sits in Russian territory, and Little Diomede, which is part of the United States. At their closest, these two islands are a little less than two and a half miles apart, which means that, on a clear day, you can definitely see one from the other.

Who's ever disputed that? What they are disputing I beleive is that that comment was made to point out Palin's knowledge of foreign arrairs. Being able to see a foreign island hardly qualifies as sufficient knowledge of foreign affairs to run a country. Even a kid with 20/20 vision, or even who's just wearing eye glasses, and maybe not even that, could achieve the same task of seeing an island.
 

gopher

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''Being able to see a foreign island hardly qualifies as sufficient knowledge of foreign affairs to run a country. ''


I see a hospital and manufacturing business from my window -- if I were a Republican, that would 'qualify' me to run both.
 

petros

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Nov 21, 2008
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Reminds of a joke. Jesus nailed to the cross starts to call out "Peter Peter where is my brother Peter?" Peter yells out from the crowd "I'm coming my Lord. jesus calls out again "hurry peter i have something I must tell you before i die" Tell me my Lord" he shouts back. Peter my dear brother you're not going to believe this. "What is it my Lord". "Peter it is amazing." says Jesus. "What is amazing my brother" says Peter. "I can see your house from up here."
 

ironsides

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That is al very well, ironsides, but you still didn’t answer my question. Does this mean that Speaker of the House etc. must be born in USA? I seriously doubt it.

Henry Kissinger was Secretary of State under Nixon, he was born in Germany. According to the list provided by you, he was 4th in line, yet he was foreign born. I think the way it works out is that Speaker of the House, Leader of the senate, anybody may be foreign born. But if due to some reason presidency comes to him, he cannot become a president.

Thus Kissinger was 4th in line. If due to whatever reason, Nixon, his VP and Speaker of the House had died, Kissinger would not get to be the President, it would go to next in line, Secretary of Treasury.

But I think anybody except president may be foreign born.

You got it.
 

ironsides

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That is the far right protesting, ironsides. Up until two years ago they were in power (with Bush). Now they have lost all the levers of power (except the Supreme Court), so protest is the only way they can make their discontent known.


That is just an assumption on your part, we have no idea how many supported Obama in the election, I know I don't.
 

SirJosephPorter

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That is just an assumption on your part, we have no idea how many supported Obama in the election, I know I don't.

I don’t either, but my guess is that the tea parties are attended mostly by the far right Republican base. The issues they protest about are the typical Republican talking points such as budget deficit (even though Bush, a Republican drove the deficits sky high, he got rid of Clinton surpluses), government intrusion in peoples’ lives (even though republicans want to intrude into peoples’ lives in the most intimate way possible, they want to ban abortion, restrict availability of contraception, discriminate based upon who people have sex with in their bedroom etc.).

But none of the issues tea parties protest about are left wing issues; they are all right wing issues. Based upon this, it is my opinion, that it is just the Republican far right base protesting, unhappy with being driven out of power in 2006 and 2008.
 

SirJosephPorter

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Who's ever disputed that? What they are disputing I beleive is that that comment was made to point out Palin's knowledge of foreign arrairs. Being able to see a foreign island hardly qualifies as sufficient knowledge of foreign affairs to run a country. Even a kid with 20/20 vision, or even who's just wearing eye glasses, and maybe not even that, could achieve the same task of seeing an island.

Machjo, I remember seeing on television that you can see Russia from a remote part of Alaska, and that Joan of Arc had never been to that part of Alaska anyway. So while it may technically be true that you can see Russia from Alaska, Joan of Arc herself had never seen Russia.

Since apparently it is so easy to become an expert in foreign affairs, one would think that the first thing Joan of Arc would have done (after being picked by McCain) was to go to the remote island, see Russia with her own eyes and thereby establish herself as the undisputed expert in foreign policy.

Such an easy step towards becoming an expert and she could not be bothered to do even that. If she had done that trip, at least her far right base would have accepted her as the undisputed expert in foreign policy.
 

ironsides

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I don’t either, but my guess is that the tea parties are attended mostly by the far right Republican base. The issues they protest about are the typical Republican talking points such as budget deficit (even though Bush, a Republican drove the deficits sky high, he got rid of Clinton surpluses), government intrusion in peoples’ lives (even though republicans want to intrude into peoples’ lives in the most intimate way possible, they want to ban abortion, restrict availability of contraception, discriminate based upon who people have sex with in their bedroom etc.).

But none of the issues tea parties protest about are left wing issues; they are all right wing issues. Based upon this, it is my opinion, that it is just the Republican far right base protesting, unhappy with being driven out of power in 2006 and 2008.


Increase taxes, potentially bankrupting the country are issues for everyone. Even the poor must know that someone has to be left to pay their expenses. Even our so called inferior medical system is better than any other. People still come from all over the world for medical treatment in the U.S. You do not have to be right wing or left to know that increasing our debt 3-4 times over what Bush was accused of doing is wrong. We complained about the debt being thrust upon our children because of Bush's policies, so the solution is to quadruple it. Now that sounds like a perfect solution. No, we have a greedy bunch of politicians who missed out on what Bush passed out and are taking their cut now. I can say we now have a goverment with a gangster type mentality. No, this is not a Left/Right issue, this is a National issue.
 

Walter

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Palin/Romney, Palin/ Paul, Palin/Thompson, Palin/Huckabee all sound good to me. The reason the dems put so much effort and money to find dirt on Palin is because they are scared of her. Anything they have dug up has been discredited.
 

YukonJack

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'Reminds of a joke. Jesus nailed to the cross starts to call out "Peter Peter where is my brother Peter?" Peter yells out from the crowd "I'm coming my Lord. jesus calls out again "hurry peter i have something I must tell you before i die" Tell me my Lord" he shouts back. Peter my dear brother you're not going to believe this. "What is it my Lord". "Peter it is amazing." says Jesus. "What is amazing my brother" says Peter. "I can see your house from up here."'

Joke? Only to ignorant insensitve louts.

Tell a similarly offensive "joke" about blacks, Hispanics and/or gays and you'd be booted from the forum, and well-deservedly so.
 

YukonJack

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SirJosephPorter, you often use the pejorative "poodle" about people whose views are different from yours.

Did you take your "poodle" - Machjo - for his/her walk today.

He/she will be lonely while you will be gone.

Have safe and enjoyable trip!
 

JLM

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'Reminds of a joke. Jesus nailed to the cross starts to call out "Peter Peter where is my brother Peter?" Peter yells out from the crowd "I'm coming my Lord. jesus calls out again "hurry peter i have something I must tell you before i die" Tell me my Lord" he shouts back. Peter my dear brother you're not going to believe this. "What is it my Lord". "Peter it is amazing." says Jesus. "What is amazing my brother" says Peter. "I can see your house from up here."'

Joke? Only to ignorant insensitve louts.

Tell a similarly offensive "joke" about blacks, Hispanics and/or gays and you'd be booted from the forum, and well-deservedly so.

A joke is a joke is a joke and should generally be taken in that context. Since that joke is about people who are no longer around, nobody has been hurt by it and it gave me a laugh, so some good came out of it.
 

YukonJack

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"You're right, maybe I was being a little hard on Bush. It can be hard to keep subject-verb agreement in your mother-tongue of English when all you have is a Master's degree from one of the United-States' finest educational institutions."

Based on your post #40 you'd do yourself a favour by shutting up about Sarah Palin's eloquency and/or George W. Bush's use of grammar.

By the way, wha6t have you accomplished in your life? What punblic office havu evere been elected? What qualifies you to criticize people whose boots you are not worth to lick?
 

YukonJack

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"A joke is a joke is a joke and should generally be taken in that context. Since that joke is about people who are no longer around, nobody has been hurt by it and it gave me a laugh, so some good came out of it."

That is not the point, JLM.

This insensitive, crude "joke" is just as offensive to Christians as calling Martin LutherKing Jr. a N*g**r would be.

Or, according to your logic, would that be OK because MLK is dead?
 

TenPenny

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"A joke is a joke is a joke and should generally be taken in that context. Since that joke is about people who are no longer around, nobody has been hurt by it and it gave me a laugh, so some good came out of it."

That is not the point, JLM.

This insensitive, crude "joke" is just as offensive to Christians as calling Martin LutherKing Jr. a N*g**r would be.

Or, according to your logic, would that be OK because MLK is dead?

No, it's not. That's pathetic. In the Joke, nobody is called a derogatory name. The joke simply suggests that Jesus had a sense of humour.

You may believe he doesn't, that's your choice. Some 'Christians' are offended by any levity involving the church, some can laugh at what is obviously a silly joke that makes no sense.