Merry X-Mas

Never! :P

My family has all gone to bed.
And thanks Yanny. nice of an atheist to remember us Christians (as well as us materialistic gift-buyers) on our sacred day.
Peace out,
cc

You call it sacred day, I call it Winter Break. :P

Yanny, if u want to be politicly correct u should change the title to-“winter celebrations”

Leave Yanny alone!
Also, i have been wished Merry Christmas by Jews and Muslims this year. It’s this bizaare cadre of “well meaning” people who wish these stupid new age greatings and celebrate “the 12 days of giving”.

CC - I’ll have to wish you a Merry Christmas a day late, because my computer was off for the Holiday!!! Belated wishes to all from this atheist, my thoughts and theories can take a few days off…

@Yanny:

Not Atheist… Agnostic

And the ironic thing is, Jesus wasn’t born in December. The Church just decided to place the holiday for his birth on the same day as Romans had some holiday…

Back to Christmas…

The Eastern Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas in January, not in December.

I wish we northern-hemispherists celebrated in June 25th. No snow cancelling visits by grandma and grandpa, fewer accidents due to icey streets/parking lots, i’d rather get the time off in June than December (or take a week vacation in December to go somewhere warm rather than stick around here to “be with family”. Plus we’re outdoors all the time going from one place to another, shopping etc. I can appreciate the church wanting to relate to Roman solstice celebrations blah blah blah, but really - couldn’t they appreciate a summer solstice more?

@Yanny:

F*** political correctness

Amen!

well we hear in canada are very happy to be politacly correct!
with a sucky military, econemy, and health care you got to be good at somthing!

@GeZe:

well we hear in canada are very happy to be politacly correct!
with a sucky military, econemy, and health care you got to be good at somthing!

military - not so much sucky. We actually spend a fair amount of money on it, just not much relative to our GDP Well trained soldiers, and a decent airforce.
economy - GDP grew 4.1% over the last year with 12 months with increases in productivity in a row. We have the fastest growing economy in the G8, and it is turning into the envy of the United States which is struggling considerably. Sure we have a low dollar, but i think at this point it is unrelated to the economy as it fluctuates irrespective of the markets or national productivity growth.
health care - one of the most expensive in the world (age adjusted relative to GDP) with some of the best health outcomes in the world including around 4-5th highest life span and lowest peri-natal mortality. Check out the OECD webpage in its comparitive health report on Canada.

Best wishes to all.

Good wishes to all, sans those baby-eating communists :)

@cystic:

@GeZe:

well we hear in canada are very happy to be politacly correct!
with a sucky military, econemy, and health care you got to be good at somthing!

military - not so much sucky. We actually spend a fair amount of money on it, just not much relative to our GDP Well trained soldiers, and a decent airforce.
economy - GDP grew 4.1% over the last year with 12 months with increases in productivity in a row. We have the fastest growing economy in the G8, and it is turning into the envy of the United States which is struggling considerably. Sure we have a low dollar, but i think at this point it is unrelated to the economy as it fluctuates irrespective of the markets or national productivity growth.
health care - one of the most expensive in the world (age adjusted relative to GDP) with some of the best health outcomes in the world including around 4-5th highest life span and lowest peri-natal mortality. Check out the OECD webpage in its comparitive health report on Canada.

Decent military? With World War 2 planes you think we have a decent airforce? Spitfires and Landcaster bombers went out with the Cold War. The only thing that Canada has is NORAD.

Well, Norad and around 120 CF-18s (the crown jewel of the USAF) and 18 Auroras (operated with “flying success” in Afghanistan), fully upgraded, expected to be operationally relevant until 2020.
This is not too mention the 6 Buffalos (utility aircraft - SAE), 15 Cormorants (replacing the Sea Kings), 100 Griffon (5 year old utility choppers). The older aircraft (CT133’s - circa 1950, Tutors - 1960) are used for training, and are being phased out. There are dozens of other more current training aircraft, many of which might well be used in combat scenarios (the Hawk, for example).
Our airforce also trains not only Canadians, but airforce pilots from other countries as well. Our aerevac unit trains units from 22 other Nato and allied countries (i’d love to hang out with THOSE medical teams). We’re the second country in the world to fly 3 unmanned aerial vehicals simultaneously (first is the US), Canadians won an international parachuting competition (42 teams in the US - “leapfest”), and in other international competitions (topgun, etc.) our crews are typically amoung the best in the world.
You are right about one thing. We have 1 spitfire - owned by the CEO of Cognos, and flown for pleasure, and i think that we have a rebuilt Lancaster Avro with the heritage museum.