Riiight. Because it’s a position you agree with, John Q. Taxpayer should just take it up the keister and shut up. Thanks for the tip.

“Wouldn’t it be an interesting country if we could tag our tax dollars…”

Wouldn’t it be nice? I think it would. A fair compromise might simply be something similar to the USA where any new tax increase must by law be declared for a purpose (ie. funding this or that) and then agreed to by the constituents in a plebiscite.

“…a government may be made up of a whole bunch of different parts, but it is a single entity.”

And therein lies the rub. Government is not monolithic. The bean counter at Revenue Canada who signs the income tax returns has NOTHING to do with the administrator of the residential schools program. Just like the Newfie fisherman who paid his taxes to said bean counter and has never even heard of a residential school has nothing to do with it. Government is not monolithic, taxpayers are not culpable bystanders to crime, and YOU ARE WRONG.

“[1] Since the churches in Canada are tax exempt your tax dollars effectively subsidize them - how do you feel about subsidizing the sexual assault claims that have already been paid out?”

You know, I have explained the exact mechanism for church funding about 3 times in the course of these posts, and each time I see you completely misunderstanding how churches operate. I can only think this is wilful ignorance on your part, and a very hypocritical avoidance of doing actual research into what you believe to be true. I can’t believe you bozos have had the gall to demand that I “get an education” on subjects before speaking.

“[2] If you are unhappy with the current governments spending policies who are you going to vote for next time around?”

What is your point? That unless I sit silently and approve of everything Mr. Harper’s government does, then I must necessarily change my vote? You people are never satisfied are you? I make a concession, you ram it down my throat. I dissent from my party’s position, then I’m not really serious about my politics, but if I don’t dissent, I am a mindless drone brainwashed neocon. Get a grip.

And yes, I am losing my civility again as I once again realize exactly what kind of people I am wasting my typing skills “communicating with”. Were you guys ever really in this to discuss the issue? It sure doesn’t seem like it.

I wouldn’t worry about it. Modern-day Stalinists always try to end debate in this manner.

Did you vote in the last election? How about the one before that? If you voted in the last election, and specifically if you voted Conservative, you have given the government your approval to do whatever it is legally allowed to do with tax dollars. As soon as they have your tax dollar in their hand, whether you actually got to touch it or not, it ceases to be yours anymore and you have no say over how it is, or is not, spent.

(The same holds true if you go to church, as soon as whatever you drop into the collection plate leaves your hand it is not yours anymore.)

Wouldn’t it be an interesting country if we could tag our tax dollars as they are forced off our pay cheques, or paid voluntarily at the cash register - I can tell you right now government spending would look a hell of a lot different than it does today wouldn’t it?

The government that you helped to put in power (if of course you voted) is spending what has been labeled the “public purse” in a manner best befitting, and for the good of, the nation as a whole - just ask ‘em, that’s what they will tell you.

– and in this case I agree whole heartedly with that spending.

Unfortunately we cannot send governments to jail the way we can send parents, or guardians, to jail - a government may be made up of a whole bunch of different parts, but it is a single entity.

And in this case that entity launched an assimilation program that targeted not a “special interest” but a group of Canadians. That entity paid for, and monitored, that assimilation program, and they, and their agents, ignored crimes and abuses committed against those Canadians under that program - during the time those children were in residential schools at entity was their guardian, and that makes that entity liable for damages.

A couple of closing thoughts:

[1] Since the churches in Canada are tax exempt your tax dollars effectively subsidize them - how do you feel about subsidizing the sexual assault claims that have already been paid out?

[2] If you are unhappy with the current governments spending policies who are you going to vote for next time around?

Now, if the entirety of that order is extracted from those responsible or complicit in the crimes, that’s fair. Same as it would be in Canada if the reparations were only being extracted from those current and former members of government responsible or complicit for the crimes committed in the residential schools scenario.

Please note the first paragraph as well, man. I specifically acknowledged that some of my ideas in our debate were not as well thought out.

I have been told in recent days, that for me to say this is “racist”. That I am a bigot for not accepting my fair share of blame for the pain caused by people I don’t even know, for wrongs I never even knew were being committed.

No, you were being called a bigot because you advocate that money paid (or about to be paid) to Aboriginal claimants is a “waste of money”, you were being called a bigot because you advocate that money paid (or about to be paid) to Aboriginal claimants is “a reinforcement of victim hood”, and you were being called a bigot because you advocate that Aboriginal claimants are “extorting” money - while saying that claims like the LA archdiocese is not promoting the reinforcement of victim hood, is not a waste of money, and is not the claimants extorting money.

Tell me Shane, is the LA archdiocese claim holding to a degree, every single member of that congregation liable for the crime?

No long reply needed, you don’t bring up Iraq or Rwanda and I won’t bring up South American pygmy headhunters — a simple yes, or no…. is the LA archdiocese claim holding to a degree, every single member of that congregation liable for the crime?

http://neiswonger.wordpress.co.....onference/

http://www.tiu.edu/godandgoverning/

All the best,

Christopher Neiswonger