I agree

 That's $2.1 billion folks (I hate that you can't correct your own post of a topic Mr. Admin!)

The food bank was suppose to be a stop- gap measure. Now it is a way of life.

I don't waste money Beshpin.  Every dollar I spend is well spent except for the money that I send to Ottawa and which is sent to Afghanistan and blown to hell along with the 154 (and counting) soldiers who have died there as well as the lives and hopes of their loved ones.  If I do happen to review my budget and find that perhaps there is after all some waste it surely will not amount to anything so colossal as the $2.1 billion we'll blow in the next three years or the $18 billion we've already blown.

Over $20 billion spent in a place to which we have no connection and where there are no national interests at stake whatsoever.   That's  about $600 for every man woman and child in Canada and much more than that if we do the calculation on a per taxpayer basis. On a per taxpayer basis its about $1000 per taxpayer.  I KNOW I haven't wasted $1000 at any time.  Certainly I've never spent a dime on anything so futile as this war in Afghanistan.  But, really, the $1000 bucks is nothing compared to the lives lost.  

If somebody said to you that if you cracked in 1000 bucks that all the soldiers who died in the war could be brought back to life and returned to their families you would do it in an instant.  Everybody would.  The problem is, though, we can't bring them back and worse still is that the government is spending our money, not to restore lives but to destroy them, even though there are lives out there that those dollars could yet save, namely, the many hungry and desperate Canadians who are reduced to using food banks to survive.  We can't save the soldiers we've lost but there are plenty of Canadians whose lives and futures are in jeopardy that we can save.  That is where we ought to be turning our attention ... that is where our war needs to be fought.

 Is he taking food out of the box or is he putting it in?  (Notice how the food box is thoughtfully decorated with that cute poppy motif.  I bet that's a real morale booster for the all the hungry people at the food bank.)

Okay!  Watch closely and pay attention!  First we take $2.1 billion out of the box ... and then we put the package of donuts in ...  On the other hand ... Mmmmmmmm .... doughnuts!

rotfl!!!  thanks for the giggle.

And the eye-opener... 

The Globe & Mail spoke today about "Canada quitting Kandahar and making deep cuts to aid" - the perspective is that more money was  needed and the effort will be wasted.

I see that the split in perspective is essentially whether we can do any more good (??) there and what it costs for a proper effort.

On the one hand, we should maybe never have been there at all, OR maybe we should have plowed more money/resources in for a more successful campaign.

Now, that we have been there and its a mess:  1 -we should just pack up & leave and leave them to their own solutions; 2 - stay and pour money in to 'win'; 3 - stay in a limited way to clean up & go; 4 - stay in a way that might  make a difference. 

I wonder if maybe Afghanis should be the one to ask us to stay or go, and even demand some help if they want it. 

Too many variables, too many bad choices already.  I just don't have a clue.

You wonder if Afghanis should be the ones who ask us to go? Interesting concept.  What' wronog with the old way of just invading, killing and stealing?

Oh come now - you mean, sweeping down for the rescue, thwarting evil at every turn, 'restoring' good old American (ok - waspy Canadian) values, and putting their resources to more 'appropriate' use??

I hear cowboy music.  Or "HUT HUT HUT HUT" of cheesy Marines movies.  And a big flag waving overtop while a woman clutching a babe cries tears of joy.

Gee. You won me over. Reminds me of Captain Canuck who, when captured and tied up my Naziis, busrst his bonnds with pure muscle and said, "If Maziis expectt to make Canadians prisoners, they'll have to learn how to make stronger rope."

Trust Beshpin to introduce trivialiity. I wonder if he knows what percent of US foreign aid comes in the form of weapons? (95%).

Now Beshpiin will answer by asking me how much I spend on socks in a year.

^^ How moral.  Do you apply that standard universally, Beshpin, or only when it's convenient?

Thee are bad thngs in the world that people ignore all the time. So we were right to ignore Hitler right up to 1939. Get used to it.

there isn't. We pretend the Naziis were quite different from any other society. But that's only to cover ourselves.  Both Canada and the US discriminated heavily against Jews., right up to 1945 and beyond.  Both Canada slaughtered batuve peoples just as Hitler slaughtered Jews. Much of Hitler's early support came from Amercian business leaders like Henfy Ford - right up to the end if 1941. Indeed, American business carried on sales to Germany and Italy up to early 1942.

The US has invaded more countries than Hitler ever did. It is at least as much a police state as Germany was. It breaks international law more than Hitler ever did.

But you're not allowed to say so.

What Beshpin was trying to say in his awkward English is that it is always wrong to use the name Hitler in comparison to anything. That is, of course, wordy nonsense. It such a fallacy existed, the word comparison would no longer have any meaning.

The good reason is that it demonstrates his point - unless, of course, the person whom he's addressing manages to distract from that point by appealing to taboo.

BesIhpin, I see what you are telling me. You are telling me youdon't know the meaning of ad hominem or ad misercordium - though, to give you credit, you're strong on ad nauseum.

Now, that was adhominem.

My biggest complaint about Canada is Canadians don't know what to bitch about. They're trained to be trivial.

Here in New Brunswick, schools badly need maintenance. Moncton High School was let go so badly by the provincial government for so many years, it has had to be closed until - well, certainly year. Officials say that any repair or rebuilding will mean the meanintence of other schools - which has never even begun - will now have to be cut sharply.

This is the same provincial government that is eager to go partners on Moncton's top priority - a new hockey arena at eighty plus million.