I live in a part of the world where even a little warming that translated into a week or 2 more of good weather for growing crops would be a good thing.

The whole Climate Change deal as presented by the left in the last decade is entirely a scam, on my opinion.

Good is rare. I'm often very discouraged when I think about how little good there is in society. There appear to be almost an endless supply of problems that seem to result from removing consequences from actions.

I believe that no-fault divorce and compulsory child support are the root causes of most of the bad and weak behavior, making good a shrinking commodity. I refuse to believe that people do not respond to economic stimuli.

I have the good fortune to not have any tattoos that can't be covered by a t-shirt and a pair of pants. I don't recall having consciously planned it this way, but I am very grateful all the same. I am conservative in dress and in my lifestyle, so people are shocked at the swimming pool when they see me in swimming trunks, covered in tattoos.

I now think that tattoos in general are very trashy, and visible ones especially so. I'm glad all of mine are at least somewhat tasteful. I also have a few piercings, but nothing more unusual than earrings are visible in my every day life.

I suppose that, more than anything, visible tattoos and unusual piercings demonstrate the triumph of youth and eagerness over prudence.

Start by not buying into the hysteria about the dangers of male sexuality. I'm a divorced father, so I'm automatically subject to the most intense and never-ending scrutiny, but I found it very liberating to stop obsessing over all the bad stuff in the world. It's almost all exaggerated to make people scared and to make society scared of the masculine, so I don't participate.

I'm glad to see another fan of Girlwriteswhat on youtube. Her analysis surely comes as a shock to most who have never questioned  the feminine imperative.

I believe the majority of problems faced by boys and men in today's world are a result of broken homes and the misguided policies that produce more of the same. At the very least, I believe we should stop actively encouraging the formation of households where the father is not present with the mother and children. A few minor tweaks would greatly reduce the amount of illegitimacy. Making stable, two-parent households into the most common arrangement is the first step in improving the lot of our sons.

I have a personal stake, albeit a small one, in seeing RIM's share price improve, so I encourage everyone to buy a new Blackberry now, and when the 10 series phones finally come to market.

I'd also like to see public sector wages cut a la Goldman Sachs. In my part of the world (Alberta, Canada) we seem to have endless scandals of over-compensated health bureaucrats. It seems to me that a 14% across the board cut would instill some accountability, if only from the bottom up, in the huge public health-care system.

I think it is harmful to men and boys to endlessly obsess about male indiscretions and basically ignore all the stepping out done by wives and girlfriends. Why does a well-known infidelity dating website, that rhymes with "trashly badis0n", report that the days after Valentine's Day and Mother's Day are their 2 best days of the year for new female registrations?

Waiting for my fair share of the available care here in Alberta is just a fact of life. There is no choice other than leaving the country and paying entirely out of pocket, which just isn't practical or feasible for the average Albertan or Canadian. I've been on the waiting list for the pain clinic for over 24 months, and while it's only a painful chronic condition that doesn't stop me from working, I'm sure many waiting for their turn at the same and other clinics live lives of severe, debilitating pain.

While I'm very skeptical of Mr. Sherman's claims in general, there definitely is something wrong with the health care system here in Alberta. It wouldn't surprise me if the number of people who died while waiting for their share of care was many times higher than the 250 mentioned. Provincial expenditures on health care are by far the largest item in the budget, and growing, and the treatment we receive is horrible and requires waiting a long time for it. There's nothing about the way care is delivered in Canada that is worth emulating.

Amusing thread! While in many ways, things in Canada are as bad as described by Messrs. Levant and Steyn, and by some of the Ricochet members commenting, Mr. Baldwin has been had by Mr. Kennedy. 

I would also encourage members here to take a look at the National Post and their FullComment section. The Saturday edition is particularly good, and I always buy a paper copy to support their efforts. Sadly, I can't subscribe where I live, as living in a rural area there is limited access to daily deliveries of newspapers. On the plus side, the same rural area is the most conservative and most Conservative (an important distinction) part of the country, though it does still resemble life after 30 years of Obama, with no SCOTUS and a veto equal to all the Senate, not just 1/3.

Can't wait for SunTV to come on the air, I'm very much looking forward to seeing Mr. Levant's show.

On CBC, one of their shows has a conservative host, and after every commercial break they show a disclaimer that his views don't represent the network. This may be because he offers some financial advice though.

Psychosis fears about taking drugs? Seriously? Like make the users lose their minds and run around chopping heads? Let's at least be serious and not try to create a "boogeyman".

I pretty much hide inside from the cold and get used to starting my vehicle to let it warm up. The only thing I really, really miss is golf, but to be honest, I'm not 100% sure I could play every day, 12 months a year without getting burned out. With only 5 or 6 months a year to play, I can dedicate myself to improving without worrying that it might be totally consuming my routine.

On a day like today, with the wind out of the South and a degree or 2 above freezing, it melts a lot of snow here and feels almost tropical. Chinooks are admittedly a poor substitute for decent weather, but I'm sure it will all melt and then turn green in the spring.

I also really enjoy the rural lifestyle, with camping and rodeos and jamborees to look forward to.

I'm not ashamed to admit that skirts and tank-tops look a lot nicer on the other 51% of the population after 6 months of toques and parkas.

I live in rural Southeastern Alberta, in the federal riding of Medicine Hat. I'm a couple hours away from an international airport (YYC), a little farther to the mountains (Banff), and a half hour away from the Red Deer River valley and the badlands (Dinosaur Provincial Park and UNESCO World Heritage Site). Having traveled extensively throughout Europe, North Africa and Mexico / Central America, I'm quite happy to live in this area.

I was born here, but have moved away to live elsewhere on a few occasions, notably out to Vancouver Island and to Torremolinos Spain. My parents live here and life has lead me back here to help them operate their business.

It's miserable here from November until March, but I remain enthralled of the spring-time and hot summer in these parts. I most love the agricultural / rural culture and independence.

I blame universities more than secondary and earlier schooling. I've employed as summer workers a number of young people who were grad students at a major university in my province. Before I'd experienced otherwise, I had thought that simple communication or basic math skill would be needed to get out of high school, never mind earn an undergrad degree. 

While it's a little off topic, it scares me to think back on the large number of people who worked for me who could not read a tape measure or do a simple problem like figure out where to use 8' and where to use 10' sheets of drywall. Write out the invoice and hand it to the homeowner and collect the cheque from them? Good luck!

I now work in a retail environment, and a sizable number of the patrons I see don't even respond coherently to a greeting of "Howdy" or "good afternoon".

I always give a few dollars. While I'm sure many of the people who have asked were buying beer or whatnot, I genuinely believe it's helped many times too. My mother always gives a $20 when it's freezing cold, and we are not a rich family, in fact she grew up poor without much to eat.

Larry Walker, Mark McGuire and not sure if any others deserve it this year.

It is discouraging to read the comments after Kay's article. If nothing else, it shows what a disservice is done to Canadians by having the CBC and the rest of the MSM here portray the USA as the source of all that is bad in the world.