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Originally Posted by Alistriwen
Nope, stats wasn't required for either of my degrees nor a pre-requisite to get into law school. I did however take various courses which relied on polling and surveys and the research methods involved as well as courses in formal logic and reasoning.
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okay, good to know
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Have you ever taken any anthropology or sociology courses in university and done well in them? Mathematicians can come up with formulas but unlike mathematics where there is 100% repetition and every permutation always turns up the same, the real world doesn't work that way. Any social scientist would tell you that a sample size of 1000 is far too small to be representative of anything over 1 million. Considering the diversity of Canada they couldn't possibly have hit enough different locations for it to be accurate. The mathematical formula might work when you're dealing with just numbers (have a friend who was an A+ student in stats and I know how it all works from her) but these are real people not numbers and 1000 is far too small.
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I haven't got A on them, it that's what you are asking.
Since you are talking about real world. How about the election polls? I find them to be generally reflective of the actual voting. 2004 was an abberation, because majority of the undecided voters decided to vote for Liberals in the last minute. Generally speaking, the party that won had the highest % in the pre-election polls.
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As far as the number of Muslims, I took the info from a site that is run by Muslims vis-a-vis wikipedia which is a user created resource. I'll go with the numbers provided by statcan though, being that it is the most accurate site for Canadian demography. In 2001 it put muslims at approx 580,000 and Jews at approx 330,000. Again that is an old statistic and assuming an average growth rate of roughly 3% per year the population of Muslims is roughly 700,000 in Canada today. The Jewish populations is roughly the same as 2001. This means that the number is about 2:1.
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one grows and the other doesn't? That sounds awfully racist.
What are you trying to say here?
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As for your article, from my reading, it seems to support my point, not yours. It says that yes, now there is some division within the party with regards to Israel but makes note of the fact that the Liberal party has been quick to condemn Israel, which it has done time and time again in U.N. resolutions. I think you need to re-read the article. It states exactly what I said, that the liberals are only concerned with getting votes and not what is right. It also says that Harper has shifted the traditional Canadian position on the Israel-Arab conflict. Im not sure what you aimed to prove with the article, but you missed your target, by a long shot.
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What I'm saying is that Liberal has nothing to gain by condemning Israel. Jewish community is a big part of its support. So, there is no such thing as Muslims influencing Liberal's policies.
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You seem quite passionate about statistics... are you Asian? I don't give away much about my personal background for a reason and I will continue to do so. If I said I was Jewish, then my opinions wouldn't count because Im obviously just being too one sided. If I said I was an evangelist, then I only support Israel because I want to see the second coming of Christ. If I said I was a Muslim, then you'd be shocked that I could possibly side with Israel? If I was a Catholic then I would probably be a neo-con who was towing the conservative line. Point is, my religion, or lack thereof has no bearing on my opinions whatsoever. I consider myself an agnostic for the record, I don't go to churches of any sort or celebrate any religious holidays on my own, though I do take part in the celebrations of friends and family on occaision.
I am very passionate about this because I've visited the region on many occaisions, been to several of the countries in the region multiple times, and seen what is truly going on there. I have spoken with people from all sides of the conflict and come to my conclusions that way, not based on any affiliations I have or do not have. What gave me my conviction was the experiences I had there and the studying I did afterwards. Speak to any number of Israelis and ask them their opinion on the situation, then go on the Arab street and try to even make mention of Israel. To quote an Egyptian Christian friend of mine, "they [muslims] hate everybody." I have recognized the threat radical Islam presents to our planet and I have recognized that Israel is the front line in that battle and THAT is why I support them. I support the country because they are a people who yearn for nothing more than peace and stability and because history plainly shows who is right and who is wrong in the situation and it is so glaring that you literally need to ignore history to come to any conclusion (as many many people do).
People call it a "religious war," when in reality the conflict started out as a result of pan-Arabism and not Pan-Islamism. The conflict is defined in dogmatic terms that totally ignore the hard truth of the situation and ignore the causal reality which has led to it. I support Israel because I feel that to be the only way the problem will ever be solved and frankly I found your question to be distasteful and un-academic, especially coming from someone who professes to have a university education.
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Yes, I'm Chinese as most people here knows. I have nothing to hide.
Also, I haven't even picked a side yet. I'm just saying your argument has flaws. I will tell you that I've had non-religious Lebanese friend, Jewish friends and Islamic friends. All of these parties are the same from my experience with them. In fact, I found that my Islamic friends respect that I have deep faith in Christianity rather than no belief at all.
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I'd have to dig for proof but my opinion comes from personal experience with my fellwow Canadians. My best freind who unfortunately is a huge beleiver in just about every conspiracy theory under the sun thinks Bush was the mastermind behind 9/11. I can't even get into a serious conversation with the guy on the subject without him flying off into another rant about aliens and such.....
Another freind thinks Bush is the next Hitler while completely egnoring the terrorism issue nor does she offer any tangable alternative to hitting them where they live.
My freinds are not stupid, they are merely miss-informed.
Its a matter of complaciency, Canadians have few WW2 era role models left to discuss the finer points of just when we should fight and why. As Alistriwen has stated, Canadians still cling to the Peacekeeping mantra, a mantra which clearly has its shortcomings in a region where both sides are content to beat the holy hell out of each other rather than settle for peace. When embrasing the "peacekeeping" mantra its tough to accept the "peacemaking" doctrine thats needed in situations where combantants simply don't want to give up the fight.
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Well, we know that a large of Canada actually don't care either way. From what I can see amongst people I know. There are pro-Israeli and pro-Lebanese people amongst informed and uninformed group.