caroljane

And your smug collectivization of interracial couples into a "norm" of your own devising leaves me quite breathless. And I am not even fat.

What was the point of the Parker quotes? He isn't much of a stylist. If that woman was "impregnably" married, how did she have two children? Your own remarks on race are beyond boorish. I don't know what it is like where you live, or how you receive your knowledge of the world outside of it. but not much seems to have gone into your mind or to come outof it.

I agree some interesting things were going on but from what I saw of the BBC history of WWI on the Military Channel the Czar was impotent and largely isolated within the palace walls. He was certainly isolated but far from impotent, until the revolution had actually been accomplished, Since his father had freed the serfs (and got assassinated for his pains) Nicholas II distrusted and feared the westernising "liberal" ideas that called for political reform and freedom. His ministers warned him that cracking down on protestors, sending writers to Siberia etc, would fuel the opposition but he just increased the secret police and army brutalitya\\. That he was one of the stupidest men ever to ascend a throne did not help either, He believed profoundly that God wanted him to do exactly what he and his wife felt was right.

There were ideas of freedom to overcome in Russia, the push for freedom which Nicholas II's authoritarianism was fighting, was taken advantage of by the Bolsheviks.

You are the expert at nitpicking, but the first sentence is ridiculous, as the Bolshevik tyranny was established pretty much overnight, and nobody knew that more personally than Rand. But maybe she thought Kant had been patiently plotting it with Lenin etal via seance.

As if things weren't bad enough jts, I read today that the habitat of great apes such as chimps and bonobos is shrinking alarmingly, I hope your bunker is well stocked when they come swarming in from Africa.

In fact, if you ever saw "Kids of DeGrassi Street", I live 3 blocks away from that street, literally.

You are wrong about Canada, at least. I live next door to a high school and I don't know if there is a cafeteria, but at lunchtime they all seem to be out at the pizza or Chinese takeouts. I also am on the bus with them frequently (not a schoool bus!) and the friend groups are more than half racially mixed. Against your universal assumption of adolescent self segregation I will offer the example of my own sons. The younger out of a group of about 10 friends from grade school up (he is 28 now)two are black, one is Asian and two are Persian (twins with Irani parents). athe rest are white. Of course there is self-segregation invlved but in this case it is pure jingoism. An East Yorker of any colour or creed is superior to anyone from Riverdale, downtown or (gasp) the West End... and as for Scarborough...beyond the pale. I do not hold up Toronto as multicultural paradise because it isn't, and of course kids (and adults) like to be in a peer group with common sensibilities. I am just saying that here, at least, although bigotry and xenophobia do exist, they are not predominant or considered "natural".

The "civilised man" sentence sounds like a Rand quote. Is it?

Carol, I await your review of the National Health Service in Great Britain. Robert Campbell You would have to wait awhile, as I do not know anything about it, nor about the socialised medicine in the Scandinavian countries or any other westernised nations that might have it. I only speak of my own country. The comments about doctors I remember from three doctors, two relatives and my own family doctor, who have worked in the States. One in Maine and two in Florida.

I already wore out my feet standing for Buttman: http://www.objectivi...8935&hl=buttman Geller tried to use the Government, in other words initiate force, to stop the Ground Zero Mosque, or whatever it's proper name is. Now the Government is giving her the run around and actually attracting more attention to her cause. Subways ought to be privately owned anyway, in which case it would be up to the owner's discretion whether her ads could go up and rile people, or not. I gotta go cry me a river over this one. Your video will not play because of "copyright infringements", ha, that is what the anti free speech jihadists always say.

Gulch, Your pit bull colleagues may have visited Canada and noticed that the patients in a single payer system die and recover at the same rate or better than in a chaotic HMO-run one, and that the doctors make a good living, with less paperwork and fewer bosses than in the US.

On this topic I will quote our ex-PM Mulroney, who knew all about politics and was a bribe-taker* while i office: "There's no whore like an old whore." *in cash in a paper bag

We know you have nothing against sluts qua sluts, having claimed to be a total one yourself.But when they are Democratic sluts that seems to make them extra evil like Clinton.

Wouldn't the same be true if it were Ward Churchill or Noam Chomsky's freedom of speech that needed protecting? That's how freedom of speech works. Robert Campbell All too true. So we have to listen very carefully to what everyone standing with us is really saying.

Word has leaked from behind-closed-door negotiations that the Edmonton Oilers Fans Union have threatened to move Daryl Katz to Seattle, in five separate containers. Asked for comment, Edmonton great Wayne Gretzky said, "It'll never happen." His old teammate Mark Messier said, "Don't be so sure."

Adam, I would ask if you are a Kim Kardashian fan but I do not think I want to know the answer.

Are you implying that Michael is attracted to Geller? He is a happily married man!

Hey thanks Adam! I had no idea that little classic was ever filmed or animated,

Dan: A cynic is a humanist with experience. Adam Not according to Wilde. I bet Dan knew the value of that bottle, but was regretting the price of it when it was empty. However, you can at least get 10 cents on an empty.

Leacock's "My Financial Career" is in my opinion the basis of modern fiscal libertarianism.

Mine too. Twain, Leacock, Rogers

Ah, a freelancer. As Will Rogers said, there's nothing like losing a good government job to bring out a man's literary talent.

You usually are.

I thought it was Naomi Klein and wasted a whole 15 minutes.