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Here we go again...Don't mistaken military might for smarts. USA behind Canada A new study released Tuesday by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) says that Canadians are among the best educated people in the world. According to the report, titled "Education at a Glance," 43 per cent of Canadians have some type of post-secondary schooling -- more than citizens living in any other industrialized country. The United States comes in second place with 38 per cent of the population having some kind of post-secondary education. In addition, 83 per cent of Canadians have completed high school, compared to the OECD average of about 65 per cent. OECD analyst Michael Davidson said the report told a very positive story for the country. He added, however, that Canada spends a lot of money on post-secondary education -- 2.5 per cent of its GDP. The United States and Korea are the only other countries that spend more -- each contribute 2.7 per cent of their GDP. There's also good news for educated Canadians looking for jobs. The unemployment rate for Canadians with post-secondary schooling shrank to 4.4 per cent in 2002, compared to 5.3 per cent in 1995. Still, there's a darker cloud for women with post-secondary education. The report says Canada is behind other OECD countries when it comes to creating wage parity between the sexes. Canadian women aged 30 to 44, with post-secondary education only earn 59 per cent of what their male counterparts do. The OECD average stands at 65 per cent. In the U.S., American women in the same category take home 61 per cent of what their male colleagues do. The OECD has 30 member countries. Its annual rankings help industrialized countries measure their education systems against their peers around the world. |
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LOL, that is odd. Women here are more LAID back...I thang you!
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Posted on Wed, Mar. 09, 2005
Times are tough for U.S.-Canada relations By MATT STEARNS Kansas City Star WASHINGTON - With President Bush focused on rebuilding U.S. relations with Europe, big problems continue to brew with a longtime ally much closer to home. Canada: The new France? Not quite, but from long-simmering trade disputes over lumber and beef to a spat in recent weeks over missile defense, Canada-U.S. relations are at their lowest ebb in decades. "They're viewed as national, emotional issues there, that `the Americans are out to get us,'" said David Biette, director of the Canada Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, which is in Washington. A report issued last week by the American Assembly, a think tank at Columbia University, found "disturbing and persistent currents of anti-Americanism in Canada," while also decrying "the emergence on the American right of a troubling anti-Canadianism." O Canada! Our largest - $460 billion in 2003 - trading partner! Supplier of vast tonnages of oil and natural gas, particularly to the Midwest! Where did it all go wrong? And could it get worse? Even a recent episode of the television series "The West Wing" mocked U.S.-Canada relations, portraying the Canadian ambassador as slightly bumbling and thoroughly ineffective. Speaking of Canadian ambassadors, the new, real-life one arrived in Washington last week. A headline in a leading Canadian newspaper said he would have to address "festering irritants" in the two countries' relations, which conjures decidedly undiplomatic images. It's a long way from 1989, when Washington wags dubbed the new Canadian embassy on Pennsylvania Avenue "the Department of Canada" both for its location near other federal buildings and for Canada's relatively deferential attitude toward the United States. Now, the American Assembly report said, "on important bilateral issues, Canada sometimes feels no one is answering the phone in Washington." The latest flare-up came in the past two weeks, when Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin announced that his country would not participate in the development of the missile defense system, a Bush administration priority. Martin also said American commanders would need Canadian permission before firing missiles over Canadian airspace. That decision came as a surprise to the United States, because the two countries have worked closely together since the 1950s on defense issues through NORAD, with Canada generally accepting the U.S. lead. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who has been on a sporadic international goodwill tour since taking office, postponed a planned trip to Canada, citing a scheduling conflict. That's the same reason Bush canceled a trip there in 2003, right after Canada decided not to participate in the war in Iraq; a decision that then-Prime Minister Jean Chretien announced in a speech to a cheering Parliament before telling Bush. The new Canadian ambassador, Frank McKenna, suggested that the missile defense decision was based in part on trade disputes that had riven Canada and the United States. One is over lumber, in which Canada believes the United States has repeatedly taken protectionist stands to help the U.S. lumber industry against a Canadian industry generally regarded as having a better product at lower prices. International trade organizations have repeatedly sided with Canada on the issue, and Canada wants to recoup $4 billion in duties paid to the United States by the Canadian lumber industry. The other issue is mad cow disease. Two Canadian cows were found in the past year to have the disease, as was one U.S. cow that had come from Canada. The United States then closed the border to northern beef and cattle, costing the Canadian economy about $7 billion - so far. The Bush administration wants to reopen the border. But to the chagrin of Canada, a federal court temporarily halted it, and the Senate voted Thursday to try to block Canadian cows. "Canadians don't always understand the president can't control the Senate if they want to pass an amendment," said James Blanchard, a former U.S. ambassador to Canada. "The average Canadian is going to view any delay as a retaliation on missile defense. It's got nothing to do with that." But trade disputes have a long history in muddying U.S.-Canada relations without larger consequences, said Robert Bothwell, a historian at the University of Toronto who specializes in the two nations' relationship. In the 1940s, it was oats and barley. In the 1950s, lead and zinc. In the 1960s, uranium. Salmon has leapt up as a hot topic now and then. And the lumber dispute has been going on, in one form or another, for decades. "At the moment, political relations aren't hot, but what does that have to do with the number of Canadians going to Florida, or the price of natural gas flowing from Alberta, or the number of duck hunters coming to northern Manitoba?" Bothwell said. "The political side is only a part of the relationship." Indeed, Bernard Etzinger, a spokesman for the Canadian embassy, noted that 96 percent of the trade between Canada and the United States remains free of disputes. He also pointed out that Martin recently raised the Canadian defense budget by more than $12 billion over five years - the biggest increase in decades - to help work with Washington on issues, including Afghanistan. Still, it's important for two neighboring countries so tied together economically to have a good political relationship, Biette said. "Perception is reality," Biette said. "It does need mending." The White House announced last week that Bush would meet with both Martin and Mexico President Vicente Fox in Texas on March 23 to discuss security and trade issues. "It's always a good thing when leaders meet ... and keep the dialogue open," Etzinger said. "You'll not always agree, but it's a chance to work on the shared agenda." Some experts say healing the rift may have to wait until Bush leaves office, because the simple fact is that most Canadians have low regard for Bush, and Canadian leaders must respond to that. One poll indicated that the Canadian antipathy toward the United States was Bush-centric: It found that 64 percent of Canadians had an unfavorable opinion of Bush, but only 18 percent of them had an unfavorable opinion of Americans in general. There is, however, potential in Bush's recent European charm offensive, Blanchard said. "President Bush is changing his ways, changing the way he deals with our historic allies," Blanchard said. "Eventually, that should help with Canada. I think things can only get better." http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansas...d/11089474.htm |
Canada, The only hope in rescuing American children in need
The conventional wisdom is that if you are looking to adopt that perfect baby, a healthy infant, you will wait years and pay tens of thousands of dollars. You may have to go to Eastern Europe, Latin America or China. But what if you were told there are hundreds of healthy newborns that private adoption agencies are struggling to find homes for, right here in the United States, who are available within a few weeks of being born. They’re black or mixed-race infants. With an estimated 2 million American families looking to adopt, it may surprise you where these babies are ending up. Correspondent Lesley Stahl reports. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- British Columbia, in Northwest Canada, is best known for its vast wilderness, where blacks are point .65 percent of the population. And some of that minority are children adopted from the United States. Dave and Juanita Alexander adopted Elias two years ago. They got Keiran last summer. The Alexanders, both teachers, live in Langley, a community 30 miles outside Vancouver. After trying unsuccessfully to adopt a child in Canada, they contacted The Open Door, a Christian adoption agency in Thomasville, Ga., that has placed more than 200 children in British Columbia. The Alexanders dug deep to come up with the fee of $10,000. No sooner had they sent in the paperwork, than the phone rang about Elias. "That was fast," recalls Dave Alexander. "I wasn't expecting that at all. … Two weeks." With Keiran, it was longer -- just three weeks. There are now at least 300 families with African-American children in British Columbia. The parents there have organized a monthly gathering so their kids can get to know each other. It’s a kind of support group where the parents get help from each other. It’s not just Canadian families adopting African-American babies. You can find them all across Europe, from Italy to Norway, even in Peru. One Florida adoption agency sent more than half its black infants out of the country last year. No one keeps count, but 60 Minutes was told it could involve as many as 500 children a year. Many adoption professionals we talked to were shocked when they heard that the United States was, as they put it, “exporting” black babies. Walter Gilbert, CEO of The Open Door, views these adoptions as a "win-win" situation for the children, and he has strong opinions about why. "Especially in Canada, people are just color blind," says Gilbert. "That's been our experience. We would tend to tell them [birth mothers] that our experience has been there's less prejudice. They know what they experience here." But the Alexanders say Canada is not as colorblind as Gilbert thinks. "The first time we walked into school with Elias, and the comment that was made was, 'Your basketball program just got a big shot in the arm,'" says Juanita Alexander. "Or the assumption that he's got rhythm and he's a great musician," adds Juanita's husband, Dave. "Do you take all of those comments as racist, or how do you accept those things," asks Stahl. "We can't necessarily always blame them for the comments, and the curiosity that they have, because, you know, families like ours aren't that terribly common here," says Juanita Alexander. The Open Door also places black babies in the United States, but mainly with white families. Gilbert says blacks tend to adopt directly from relatives or from foster care, often because there’s no fee. He adds that they "never have enough black families." But even if they did, it might not make that much of a difference. Today, it’s the biological parent who gets to choose who adopts their child, and at The Open Door, only 10 percent of them insist on a black family. Mark Dedrick and Shante Easterling already had a 4-year-old daughter, and a son with costly health problems, when they found out Shante was pregnant again. After combing through a stack of applications, they decided the best place for their child, Keiran, was with the Alexanders in Canada. Mark and Shante chose the Alexanders over a well-off American black family. "It wasn’t money, it wasn’t color, it was more who could raise my child and do the best job," says Mark Dedrick. Another issue for Mark and Shante was keeping the connection. The black family didn’t want to do that. "They weren’t willing to send photos or be, you know, in our life, like Dave and Juanita are," says Shante. The Alexanders have Mark and Shante’s picture hanging in Keiran’s bedroom, and they send letters and photos every month, reporting on Keiran’s progress. Michelle Johnson, a sociologist in Minneapolis, counsels people who want to adopt. She knows firsthand what Elias and Keiran will face as they get older. She was one of two black children adopted by a family in the lily-white suburbs of Minneapolis in the '70s. "[It was] very lonely. Very alienating and confusing at times," says Johnson, who remembers her mother seething when strangers would come up to her and her brother in the supermarket. "Touching us. Asking inappropriate questions. … The hair, a big thing. Or skin." She adds, "I don't think the hurt truly came until I entered school." It was the first day of kindergarten and a classmate called her the “N-word.” Most white families who adopt a black child, she says, don’t handle situations like that well because they’re not prepared for the telltale signs. "Denying that racism exists. Thinking that love is enough," says Johnson. "Not being able to contemplate what happens when Bobby is 10 and grandma gives gifts to the birth kids who are white and not to your child who is brown? What are you gonna do about that?" And she says it happens all the time. From what 60 Minutes saw, the Canadian parents are aware of the pitfalls, and so they invite in black adults to be mentors, send their children to all-black summer camp, and organize seminars to educate themselves. But what about when the kids get older? "In the teen years, when you're dealing with 'Who am I,' 'Where do I belong,' those questions take on a whole new meaning when you're doing a balancing act between two cultures," says Johnson. Isaac Birch, 11, was one of the first black American babies to be adopted in Canada. He says he's already felt the sting of racism: "I was actually on the school bus, and I was bickering with another kid. And he called me a black freak. So that kind of made me a little upset." "I can’t even begin to understand what it’s like to be black," says Isaac's mother, Brenda. Brenda and her husband, Gary Birch, who is paralyzed from a car accident, realized from the start they would need help raising Isaac. "We wanted to actually meet the birth mother before the child was born and develop a relationship," says Brenda. What they wanted is called an “open” adoption, which was rare 11 years ago when Brenda Birch met Isaac’s birth mother, Sonya Norsworthy, a single mom from Houston who wanted to go to college. "I figured I'd do the best that I could for both of us," says Norsworthy, who thought that doing the best for Isaac would mean giving him up for good. Instead, she ended up with a couple willing to push “open adoption” to the limit. Sonya and her daughter, Lily, visit Isaac in Canada every year, and Isaac comes to Houston to visit them. "It allows him to know all of himself. His mom and his dad who raise him," says Norsworthy. "And then it also allows him to know his family that's here in the United States. … He doesn't have to search for 'Who am I,' 'Where did I come from?'" Gary Birch says he wanted the open adoption: "But the more I realized what that really meant, I started to get scared. And, Brenda said, 'You know, you can never have too many people that love him.'" "That doesn't mean there weren't times, particularly early on, where I wondered, 'What would I do if she said really, 'Actually, I changed my mind and I want to raise Isaac,'" adds Brenda Birch. "What if I have to give him up? And that was really important for me to face." "So few people know about these transnational adoptions," says Stahl to Johnson. "Really, we've talked to people in your business who didn't know about it." "I think that it's an embarrassment that Americans, with all of the wealth and all of the things that are going on here, that we cannot place our own children," says Johnson, who believes that adoption agencies should work harder to find American families for these children, and especially black American families. "We're in all the Yellow Pages in all the state," says Gilbert. But he admits that he hasn't visited black churches, or promoted The Open Door in black publications and media. "Is it possible that black families then just don't know about you," asks Stahl. "It's possible," says Gilbert. "That would be an area that we could focus on, you’re right." But before he does that, Dave and Juanita Alexander hope to adopt more black children from the United States. As for Norsworthy, she did go to college and went on to get a master's degree -- and she has a relationship with her son. Is he having the kind of life she hoped he was going to have? "I get teary-eyed. He told me, two nights ago, that he loves the way he lives," says Norsworthy. "And his two families. He's having a wonderful life. He's having a terrific life." |
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Ha Dennis! |
Ah mon ami Jonahs!
Oui, oui, je parlez francais. C'est ca facile avec mon ecole. Vive Le France!  You gotta visit Paris man! Just once. Even though the people there are *******s. |
Klaus,
What's wrong with our beef? The strained relations in my books, is between the politicians only. |
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Your beef is mad and the straining is Spidey struggling to think. |
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ooooooo DRTYFN mmmmmmmmmmmm you bitch you ... it so turns me on when you talk dirty to me |
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ooooooo DRTYFN mmmmmmmmmmmm you bitch you ... it so turns me on when you talk dirty to me </div></BLOCKQUOTE> I only have two words for you- Dil-do. |
I can't belive I wasted my time reading this.
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USA behind Canada A new study released Tuesday by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) says that Canadians are among the best educated people in the world. According to the report, titled "Education at a Glance," 43 per cent of Canadians have some type of post-secondary schooling -- more than citizens living in any other industrialized country. The United States comes in second place with 38 per cent of the population having some kind of post-secondary education. In addition, 83 per cent of Canadians have completed high school, compared to the OECD average of about 65 per cent. OECD analyst Michael Davidson said the report told a very positive story for the country. He added, however, that Canada spends a lot of money on post-secondary education -- 2.5 per cent of its GDP. The United States and Korea are the only other countries that spend more -- each contribute 2.7 per cent of their GDP. There's also good news for educated Canadians looking for jobs. The unemployment rate for Canadians with post-secondary schooling shrank to 4.4 per cent in 2002, compared to 5.3 per cent in 1995. Still, there's a darker cloud for women with post-secondary education. The report says Canada is behind other OECD countries when it comes to creating wage parity between the sexes. Canadian women aged 30 to 44, with post-secondary education only earn 59 per cent of what their male counterparts do. The OECD average stands at 65 per cent. In the U.S., American women in the same category take home 61 per cent of what their male colleagues do. The OECD has 30 member countries. Its annual rankings help industrialized countries measure their education systems against their peers around the world. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>How dumb can people be. With canada having public educaton that is outcome based and each student being graded against themselves and not others so it doesn't hurt their feelings when they realize how dumb they are. Of course you have more poeple gooing to graduate. I mean when you dumb everhting down to the dumbest person it makes it easier for everyone to get degrees and stuff. |
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Another reason NOT to drop out at Grade 4. LOL! I hear a banjo playin. |
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LOL! I don't think night school will help you. |
Originally posted by no spittin spermy,
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Are you on drugs up there or are you just retarded. First you use my own words in support of you, against me , Then you take a nice shot at me and then you have the balls in the next post to ask for a truce . As far as a truce is concerned there spermy, I got to tell you, I don't see it happening. And to celebrate this non-truce, I have a little poem....... There once was a guy named spidey Who liked to suck c#ck almighty His real name was Scott He took a mouthful of snot To all the fags thanks a lot. |
Oh man guys. Give it up. Can't we think of something more intelligent than this for the forum?? A little funs okay but cheesh.
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Haiku.
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Gesundheit |
Spike is a WOODTICK down South
Who's biggest problem of course is his mouth. He's laughed at by most After they read one of his posts Because of it's lame content and Babbling. He tries so hard to be funny But instead comes across as a dummy Still he continues to try but in vain Tortured he looks for others to blame OHHH how I loathe the world of the Insane |
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Somehow this thread reminds me of the stupid pink Energizer bunny...it just keeps going and going and going...
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originally posted by spidey the retard
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Hey you must be excited Spike It's Friday night
Time to call up your Buds Blacky, Rocky and Buzz and head down the the smorgy for the all you can eat buffet. |
originally posted by spermy,
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 You dumb jerkoff!! |
Hang on let me think about it hhhmmmmmmmmmmmm Glory Hole VS an all you can eat buffet...
glory hole .. buffet yeh yeh I see I see Ya gotcha's a close one there |
originally posted by spidey,
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Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm spidey sense tingling
What's this....................?? could it be ...????  |
COMPETITION ?????.........
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ugly lookin feller !!!
To successfully remove a WOODTICK : - swollen or newly attached, have available forceps or tweezers, a needle - either a sewing needle or a #25 needle (for a syringe,) and a bit of alcohol or betadine or some other antiseptic within reach. To begin grip the tick's body GENTLY (so it doesn't squish :-) with the forceps or the tweezer. Then, insert the point of the needle UNDER the head, where it's dug in and lift up some flesh with the needle. (lifting the body slightly with the forcep helps to find the point of insertion.) some people may object to this pin prick and slight 'digging' to release the tick's mouth. When you have loosened the head of the tick this way, gently pull the body BACK with the forceps and the tick will come out with a piece of flesh still visible in it's mouth. Swab the area with disinfectant using a Q-tip or a cotton ball. I keep an old spice jar on the grooming table filled with alcohol, and I drop the tick from the forceps right into the alcohol, put the lid back on and it eventually dies in the bottle. Nasty ... What have I got myself in for ??? |
originally posted by spideythespermchugger,
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Your posts, like you are sooooo weak!! You really are a dumb jerkoff. |
Spidey did you have yourself another sausage party? Fag.
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Gee whiz WOODTICK
What's on the agenda tonight -- wait -- Let me guess It's Saturday night It's either hitting the lanes with Buzz, Skip, Duke ,Lefty and Slim for some aggressive 5 pin bowling **remember Beer on tap special tonite -- buck a glass. Then at 10 Pm hit Joe's 24 hour diner --- the Hungry mans 2 for 1 special with those mmm mmm so good powdered potatoes n eggs. Great time to talk to the fella's and nail down dates and RV park for the upcomming Reno trip. Then off to your place for a few more brewskys, smokes and potatoe chips. Endless possibilities with this bunch -- beer guzzlin contest, caps, farting contest ooh boy !!! Or Hit the laundrymat since you rolled your quarters last week. Besides You could use the spare time clear up some nagging issues What kind of Tatoo should you get to put in the last spot left on your arm? How much is your 8 track collection worth ?? Should you get your genitals pierced ?? How do they get the caramel in that damn bar.  BTW WOODTICK bleach works OK on skidmarks but you know what the best is ?? LEARN TO WIPE YOUR ASS BETTER !! .... just a thought |
Oh God. Not again.
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Howdy, **** for Brains So after 3 days this is the best you can come up with ?? You keep putting Fag after each sentence Did you recently come out of the closet or something ?? |
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Howdy, **** for Brains So after 3 days this is the best you can come up with ?? You keep putting Fag after each sentence Did you recently come out of the closet or something ?? </div></BLOCKQUOTE> You are definitely a retard. Either that, or one of the guys whose dork you serviced orally smeared some kind of hallucinogen all over it so when your were slobbering all over it you ingested not only his man glue but the psychedelic. That would explain your delusions. |
DRTYFN
Hey looks like some rest did you some good. Good on ya Mate. I was disapointed in you some of your last posts less then typical DRTYFN material -- well at least some of them. This is much better you're back to normal. Dennis emailed me said you were good guy give him a chance -- good enough for me. as has be quoted before "Where's the Beef" AND If I'm in a smart ass mood and ever call you lunkhead again -- it's just in fun |
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