ecnarf

They don't taste very good.

those people are morons.

Quite true, Moonlight. I still don't see how that entirely justifies keeping the voting age at 18, though. It still tends to operate on that assumption that the second you turn 18, you have gained all the wisdom of the world. p.s. for the record, I am 17, not 16, since some of you probably thought I was 16.

Give fetuses (feti?) guns and fetus on fetus crime will go down! An armed fetus is a safe fetus!

A man with a very firm handshake is confident but at the same time warm and friendly. It says "Hi, nice to meet you, I am unafraid to make an impression."

Well, I highly doubt the stoners would show up and vote (they'd all space out on the day, a la the simpsons). And even then, legalizing marijuana is a long way off, precisely because of all those baby boomers who think that marijuana is the devil incarnate and that legalizing it will bring about the apocalypse. However, I think 16 year olds definitely have a stake in the government, as secondary and post-secondary education are two issues that drastically effect us, especially when it comes to provincial politics.

I am completely aware of that. Like I said, if the voting age were lowered to 16 today, you wouldn't see very much participation in the election in January. But give it a few years, and I'd be willing to bet money that the rate would go up significantly.

When I woke up, I was shaking because I was having a nightmare. Except it was 10:30 in the morning.

Apparently, the initial "rush" of energy after you drink red bull is pure placebo. The Canadian Military did some experiments, and chewing gum with caffeine in it is a highly effective of delivering caffeine, as glands in your mouth deliver it to your body far faster than your stomach can. However, the caffeine in Red Bull does give you energy. The formula was happened upon by the founder of his company in Hong Kong, where taxi drivers would drink this stuff to keep them awake at all hours. He bought the rights to sell it in Europe and added carbonation to it. So it can definitely deliver energy... in a form more convenient than, say, coffee.

I only act like that on TV...

Bullshit, Anton. If there were a more demeaning way to treat minors, I couldn't think of it. "Okay... your opinion is worth one fourth of this guy's, and next year, you'll be smart enough that your opinion will be worth half!" They might as well not institute voting under 18 if you're not going to institute a full vote.

I was listening to CFRB in the car tuesday night (what can I say? Jim Richards is the cool) and they were discussing a recent proposal by Statistics Canada (or whoever) that lowering the voting age to 16 could potentially increase voting among young people by engaging them in the political process earlier. Virtually every guest that phoned in that night a) disagreed and B) was well over the age of 30, and they all participated in an orgy of poorly formulated opinions, which were rationalized by the following gems: -this would allow them to run for office, and all it would take is a collaboration of all the high schools in Toronto to get one 16 year old into parliament (I particularly like this one, because it shows blatant ignorance of how our election system works, not to mention ignorance of the fact that 16 year olds have school to go to). If I can remember correctly, "When you're 16, you want to take over the world." -they can't serve in the army, so they shouldn't be allowed to vote -they can't buy cigarettes, so they shouldn't be allowed to vote -they can't buy/drink alcohol, so they shouldn't be allowed to vote -WE'RE TRUSTING 16 YEAR OLDS WITH A VOTE??? -this would create problems in social science courses, with restrictions on what teachers could or couldn't tell students And so on and so on. If I had access to a phone at the time (I was driving the car down to band rehearsal), I would have phoned in and torn these idiots a new one for their extreme stupidity. I'm not sure that I agree that the voting age should be lowered to 16, but if you're going to have an opinion on the topic, at least try to not be full of shit. I would like to know - what exactly would explode if 16 year olds were allowed to vote? I really can't think of anything set to kill millions of people if the voting age were lowered. Besides that, there definitely is potential to increase voting among youths if they're engaged in the political process earlier. We are, after all, forced to take courses where we learn the painfully irrelevant details of our government that one adult who phoned in to voice his stupidity seemed to have forgotten. The caller who phoned in to say that it would cause sweeping regulations on political correctness - bullshit. A good social science teacher is capable of taking an opinion and playing devil's advocate without revealing very much about their own political beliefs. I took a world history course last year that dealt with everything from the Renaissance to the Cold War. I did a major ISP on the Vietnam War to boot. Forming and defending opinions are a part of education, and when the subjects deal with something other than who is to blame for the downfall of an obscure Shakespearean character, it makes everything that much more interesting. Simply because we can vote for one party or another won't take away from classroom discussions on the Cold War. And lastly, the pathetic argument I like this most is "You can't do x or y, therefore you cannot z." We are told on an almost constant basis not to smoke and not to drink. Constantly. I remember one of the grade six teachers back in the day telling her students abject lies on the dangers of alcohol (i.e. the carbonation in beer can kill you if your body doesn't expell the carbon dioxide). So if they're going to lie to us about alcohol and bombard us with messages about not smoking, why is it that we shouldn't be able to vote because we can't do something we're told not to do in the first place? Whether or not one can legally spend money on alcohol has as much to do with one's ability to vote as it does with your ability to juggle. It just doesn't follow logic to any degree. Granted, there are plenty of 16 year olds that just won't vote within the first few years. That's to be expected. But I'd be willing to wager that, if the voting age were lowered to 16 today, within five years, the voter turnour among that age group would rise considerably. And the same effects would transfer to slightly older age groups. Anyways, carry on.

One time I was at a pet store and I saw one puppy giving oral sex to another puppy!

You have excellent taste in guitars.

Just like urea.

As do I. P.S. bone her before things go wrong.

More like die and get fat.

What I said was that they lacked the infrastructure for me to come in and volunteer. Besides that, we're all supposed to be intelligent enough to know that Jim Harris isn't about to become the freaking prime minister. It's not about getting the Greens into the PMO, it's about getting the Greens representation in parliament, and representing the considerable percent of the population that supports Green policies.

I'd vote for the Greens if I could. But I can't.

Funny that you're all on about Red Bull with it's 80mg of caffeine when a standard cup of coffee has 200 mg of caffeine. Your typical espresso has only 40 mg, but in a much more delectable, cultured and sophisticated package than anything else you'll find.

Things I wouldn't mind: -underarmour "coldwear" hoodie, mock turtleneck "coldwear" sweater, long pants so i can keep warm while skiing/being outside in the cold -camelbak water hydration thingie for skiing -clothes that don't suck -new pair of skis/bindings as i broke my old ones -new set of GHS .11 gauge guitar strings -iTunes gift card -all my ducks in a row

I'll have you guys know that I managed to stay up late and write essays that got marks of 95 and 100 percents sans energy fixes. It was great.

You probably don't need to be diagnosed with ADHD to get it though... the writer said he took it as an experiment for a week, and since he clearly had a prescription, your doctor might prescribe some to you to help you study or focus or whatnot. It doesn't appear dangerous, and as long as your medical history doesn't indicate that you're at risk if you take it, your doctor may well give some to you.

You know you need a girlfriend when...

The whole Rathergate was ridiculous, I think. In the first place, it was simply irresponsible of CBS to air the story without having an unimpeachable source on the other end. On the other hand, Republicans were just kidding themselves by pretending that George Bush served "honourably" in the National Guard and that it was John Kerry whose service should be called into question. I shit you not, I have seen comments on LittleGreenFootballs suggesting that Kerry should be tried for treason because of what he said during the election about his service. Yikes. It's plainly obvious that George Bush didn't show up for his national guard service, which he only went into to escape Vietnam without having to move to Canada. Kerry, on the other hand, put his life on the line out of a sense of patriotism by going to that war. Yes, the medals he won were probably awarded somewhat dubiously, but that's no fault of Kerry - it's because the U.S. Army has a nasty habit of dubiously handing out awards to commanding officers than rank and file troops. People are idiots. That pretty much sums up my political beliefs.