Stella Award

[2Sirius]

Actually, I was making a feeble joke about Inquartata's remark about driver's licenses.

Perhaps they could put a notation on the driver's licenses they probably shouldn't have anymore...

[KShan5[PrFC]]

hmmm.....guess I missed it....I don't know how to follow a conversation, sorry.

[2Sirius]

No problem. The joke was so anemic, it had died a painful death long before your post.

[pkt]

What about the other stories?

Since someone mentioned about young drivers, here's some genuine analysis about traffic accidents in BC.

http://www.canada.com/vancouver/stor...3-A67EF89B05B4

I'm of the position that one should, if at all possible, to read the whole book FIRST before judging it.

The recent firestorm of criticism against the outgoing Malaysian PM Mahatir concerning his remarks about the killing of Jews in Europe in WWII is another of these examples of people taking something out of context and condemning the part without the context.
http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vanc...b-2b63b52ed347

PK

[2Sirius]

pkt,

The other stories are probably fabrications. See Philistine's post somewhere above.

It's interesting to see essentially identical stats for the age of drivers involved in traffic accidents in U.S. and Canada. I simply assumed that 16 to 18 year olds have the worst records because their driver insurance rates are the highest. I'm sure the insurance bean counters keep close tabs on that.

[pkt]

I don't know about in the US, but there's been quite an uproar about the increases in auto ins rates here in Cda where there are no Public auto ins. - 5 provinces have them.

There's a new gov't in Ont, an the first act the new gov't did was to fulfil the election promise of freezing the auto ins rates.

The ins industry complied. They had to for fear of being "nationalised'.

The "nationalised" auto ins. companies diomore than just providing insurance. they also involve themselves in road safety, etc. This is another instance where Cda is more socialist than the US.

PK

[Philistine]

Originally posted by pkt
What about the other stories?

You have been the victim of an internet hoax.

As discussed Here

Mass circulated e-mails are perhaps not the best source material.

www.snopes.com is a very good source for debunking a number of such urban legends. And it's entertaining in its own right.

--Philistine

[jeff]

pkt's post about Mahathir Mohamad itself illustrates the danger of describing a story incompletely or out of context.

While Mahathir Mohamad does in fact chastise fellow Muslims for backwardness, he also makes several anti-Semitic remarks that deservedly call a "firestorm" down on his head. He said "The Europeans killed 6 million Jews out of 12 million, but today the Jews rule the world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them", and "they have now gained control over the most powerful countries". This repeats an ancient slander against Jews secretly running the world; he also speaks of Jewish arrogance. In place of "Jew", substitute "Christian", "Muslim", "white", "black", "French" or "Chinese" and you can see what a racist remark it was.

pkt's post doesn't tell the whole story, and makes it look as if criticism of Mohamad is unfounded. Talk about ""examples of people taking something out of context and condemning the part without the context"

[Soldier]

I hadn't read his anti-Semitic remarks, but if it's true what he was saying about Islam, then that part sounded pretty good to me...

[pkt]

jeff,

Pls read Jonathan Manthorpe's piece if you haven't.

I intentionally did not tell the whole story so you may, if you wish to, read JM's piece.

Yes, I do agree with Manthorpe that if MM's so-called "anti-Jew remarks" is but a few lines of his 13-page speech, and if the bulk of the 13-page speech is taking his fellow Muslims to task, and no one takes him to task but for the few lines of his 13-page speech that is "anti-Jews" then what conclusion can one draw.

I'll let you draw that conclusion for yourself.

Furthermore, who are the semites? This is who the Semites are according to M-Webster:
"Main Entry: Sem·ite
Date: 1848
1 a : a member of any of a number of peoples of ancient southwestern Asia including the Akkadians, Phoenicians, Hebrews, and Arabs b : a descendant of these peoples."

On this point MM is wrong.

PK



PK

[Louweasel]

Originally posted by a517dogg
Age does have something to do with it - my grandma's hands shake when she drinks from a cup (they didn't use to, they shake because of her age). If your hands are shaking when you're drinking a cup full of hot scalding coffee, you are going to spill it on yourself and burn yourself.

Aha, I have the answer! Clearly McDonald's should have refused to serve her hot coffee on the grounds of age and possible shakiness! Then she could have sued them for age discrimination...

Or how about if we allowed McDonald's to sue Stella Liebeck for time wasted (and therefore loss of revenue) now they must wait for the coffee to cool down?! They could include a claim for the price of the coffee thermometers they will now have to purchase...

Even better, let's all sue Stella Liebeck for purchasing MacDonald's coffee, thereby encouraging and supporting them in making the most vile and disgusting coffee I've ever tasted (and I'm really not fussy about these things)?

Or we could all save a lot of hassle, court time and solicitors' fees by cutting out the middleman and simply suing ourselves! And giving up coffee.

*louweasel scampers off to award herself £1000,000 in punitive damages, mental trauma and medical expenses spent getting her tongue out of her cheek*

[MikeHarm]

Has your grandmother asked her doctor about the shaking? Sometimes that happens with parkinsons or other disorders. I wouldn't write it off to age without having it looked at.

Originally posted by a517dogg
Age does have something to do with it - my grandma's hands shake when she drinks from a cup (they didn't use to, they shake because of her age). If your hands are shaking when you're drinking a cup full of hot scalding coffee, you are going to spill it on yourself and burn yourself.

[civiltech]

Originally posted by pkt
I don't know about in the US, but there's been quite an uproar about the increases in auto ins rates here in Cda where there are no Public auto ins. - 5 provinces have them.

There's a new gov't in Ont, an the first act the new gov't did was to fulfil the election promise of freezing the auto ins rates.

The ins industry complied. They had to for fear of being "nationalised'.

The "nationalised" auto ins. companies diomore than just providing insurance. they also involve themselves in road safety, etc. This is another instance where Cda is more socialist than the US.

PK

You've got part of the story right. True to their word, the new Liberal Government capped Car insurance. However, now if you have less than an exemplary record, the insurance companies will simply not insure you, or make it next to impossible for you to obtain it. It is not in there best interest to lose money on a sure thing. Thats the end of that. They are not afraid of being nationalized. We should be though. Even the CBC, (communist broadcasting corporation of Canada) agreed some days before the election in one of there unbiased "interviews with an expert."
I'll try and dig out the exact reasoning for you sometime.

[CarlKnoch]

Originally posted by Peach
Unfortunately, as I explained at length recently in another thread, the McDonald's coffee case was in no way frivolous. There are certainly frivolous suits, but please read
http://www.centerjd.org/free/mythbus..._mcdonalds.htm for a good summary of the reasons why this really unfortunate woman does not deserve the bad rap and why this is a lousy example of lawsuit abuse.

I disagree. This is a case where the woman made the mistake of spilling coffee in her lap, and wants someone else to be held responsible.

[civiltech]

Originally posted by CarlKnoch
I disagree. This is a case where the woman made the mistake of spilling coffee in her lap, and wants someone else to be held responsible.

Please refer to the other thread "Those were the days!"

Responsibility for your own actions is becoming obsolete. The new norm is finding someone responsibile for your own misfortune, or mistake. And God forbid if "no one's" at fault! It just can't happen anymore.

Was the lady driving her car as she opened her coffee? God forbid if she was driving with a cell phone in her hand...they'd lock her away and throw away the key!!1

[pkt]

Civiltech,

I like your bit about the Queen.
Did you read Maurice Strong's piece in today's G&M - 2003/10/30 re Adrieene Clarkson's trip to Finland, Iceland & the Russian Fed?

The ICBC - Insurance Corp of BC do other things that no other private auto insurers would do.

A good example is the 'Bait car" programme. In spite of a 7% increase in car thefts in the surrounding municipalites, Vancouver - the only Lower Mainland City that has the test programme - has a 6% decrease in car thefts. So that's a 13% improvement.

The bait car programme is one in which cars provided by ICBC is rigged with hidden video cameras, GPS, engine control mechanisms. The bait cars are left in parking lots where there are high incidents of cars being stolen.

when a thief takes a bait car, the Police is notified, the thief photographed, then at an appropriate location, the thief is notified that he's in a bait car, the engine is killed and the thief arrested. So far 22 thiefs ahve been arrested. About 500 car thefts did not take place...

http://www.canada.com/search/story.a...3-0faf3ce430a6

PK

[civiltech]

The article by Maurice Strong was good, however slightly flawed. People tend to forget that HM is not just the Queen of Britain. She is the Queen of Canada as well. This does not make us subject to Britain (not anymore with our own constitution in 1980's) It seems the biggest chip on people's shoulders is that they believe we are somehow subject to the rule of Britain under Queen Elizabeth. The average cost per citizen of Canada to maintain the presence of the Governor General/Lieutenant Governor's etc runs between 60 cents and a buck each, per year. A little cheaper than holding separate elections for a president, or maintaining an entirely separate entitiy like that. (I am really saying you get your bang for the buck this way!) And I love Adrienne Clarkson. WOW! What a statesman. Much more pronounced than Romeo LeBlanc.

Oh, in true Liberal fashion, Dalton McGuinty is removing the cap on electricity rates here in Ontario...right after he capped car insurance premiums......A true politician! Give with one hand, and take it right back with the other.

http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/...BNStory/Front/

I'm pretty pissed at Ernie Eves over our 5.6Billion defecit, and I'm willing to give Mr. McGuinty the benefit of the doubt. But he's not off to the greatest start!

[pkt]

The Queen is also the Queen of the Commonwealth.

I guess you all know that I prefer a constitutional monarchy over a republican president so I won't belabour that point.

McGuinty did what is necessary, what is required. Ernie Eves did what was politically expedient. As fara s the electricity rates are concerned, he didn't learn from the Calif experience.

A further example of, I think BC handled things bette than Ont. other than SARS, BC Hydro recognising that demand is going to exceed supply in the near future, given the fact that there is great resistance on built anything to generate electricity, be it more dams, fossil fuel generating plants, wind mills, whatever, people are going to object to them. So the solution is to reduce demand. In what i think a stroke of genius, BC Hydro is giving away 2 fluorescent bulbs per household at a a retail cost of about CAD10. If enough people participate in this the result would be a reduction in the demand of electricity. The total give-away is for approx. 4 fluorescent bulbs worth about CAD 20.

The Campbell "Liberals" - small "c" conservatives in reality - finally saw the error in their ways about their intent to "privatise" ICBC, BC Ferries, BCHydro, etc. They have seen the political suicidal course for privatising auto insurance. the mess in Ont. and Calif re deregulating electricity, etc.

I've never understood the concept of 'streamlining' a companies operations by reducing staff. Staff that caters to clients. To wit, the fiasco about Telus. Since taking over BC Tel, and cutting 5,000 staff, complaints about their servce to the CRTC - the regulatory body - have increased substantially. 4 weeks to get a new phone line installed! 30 minutes wait to get to talk to s person re service! Sacre bleu.


PK

[civiltech]

Originally posted by pkt
The Queen is also the Queen of the Commonwealth.

I guess you all know that I prefer a constitutional monarchy over a republican president so I won't belabour that point.

McGuinty did what is necessary, what is required. Ernie Eves did what was politically expedient. As fara s the electricity rates are concerned, he didn't learn from the Calif experience.

A further example of, I think BC handled things bette than Ont. other than SARS, BC Hydro recognising that demand is going to exceed supply in the near future, given the fact that there is great resistance on built anything to generate electricity, be it more dams, fossil fuel generating plants, wind mills, whatever, people are going to object to them. So the solution is to reduce demand. In what i think a stroke of genius, BC Hydro is giving away 2 fluorescent bulbs per household at a a retail cost of about CAD10. If enough people participate in this the result would be a reduction in the demand of electricity. The total give-away is for approx. 4 fluorescent bulbs worth about CAD 20.

The Campbell "Liberals" - small "c" conservatives in reality - finally saw the error in their ways about their intent to "privatise" ICBC, BC Ferries, BCHydro, etc. They have seen the political suicidal course for privatising auto insurance. the mess in Ont. and Calif re deregulating electricity, etc.

I've never understood the concept of 'streamlining' a companies operations by reducing staff. Staff that caters to clients. To wit, the fiasco about Telus. Since taking over BC Tel, and cutting 5,000 staff, complaints about their servce to the CRTC - the regulatory body - have increased substantially. 4 weeks to get a new phone line installed! 30 minutes wait to get to talk to s person re service! Sacre bleu.


PK

My dear PKT,

Why must you always make it about BC vs. Ontario!

We are quite content being the powerhouse of the Canadian Economy over here. We feel like the US does on the international scene: "No one likes a winner, everyone always pulls for the underdog." Well, we're here, we are a lean mean economic machine. We'll see if Dalton McGuinty will keep us there.

(Oh by the way, the 5.6 Billion Defecit, well...there we're a few items that the Communist Broadcasting Corp.. keeps failing to mention as they tout there new leader in power....

1) Does not include for the impacts from: SARS, Recent Blackout, Mad Cow Scare, or Softwood Lumber Dispute. The SARS was estimated to have caused $1B in lost revenue alone.

2) Does not include for the transfer payments by the Federal Gov't that were simply "delayed" prior to the election by Jean Chretien. (Several Billion) Hmmm.....Dalton McGuinty will look like a hero when these billions role in now AFTER THE ELECTION WHEN HE HAS A GIANT DEFECIT and can still keep his election promises.

Same old Liberal Politics...well....I did have high hopes. See you in four years when our steam has run out, and we have to put the Conservatives back into power to straighten everything out!

[Soldier]

So...any new comments about frivolous lawsuits?

I mean, sure, Canadian politics is fascinating, but...