jester

It has been cancelled according to reports.......

The watch lists and airport securityare reaching stupid proportions. There was an interview at a British airport about how dumb things are getting. The person being interviewed said that he is searched and checked every time he flies and asked one day why? The response was that he may try and take over the plane to which he responded "I'm the pilot I'm supposed to take over the plane". Another person took hand luggage on the aircraft but on the RETURN journey was refused with exactly the same hand luggage. There is a top limit with information collecting where a point is reached and overload commences. I would say that we are very near that point now and are in fact making things more dangerous due to the massive info backlog being produced and people being made complacent in their own security. I mean how smart do you have to be to watch bags all day every day..........

1) A perfect seperation of power would only happen if you banned political parties. One party with a majority in both houses will have control no matter how many divisions you have. Only by limiting the ability of any one group to dominate can you ensure there will be no overall control. 2) What benefit are you looking for? Did G. Bush(elected head) have any less ability to go to war than T. Blair(non elected head) without party or government approval. Elected or non-elected it is the person in the job who decides how it will work. 3) Australia is seen as independent except strangely by Australians themselves. The "some" people who say different must have a really bad inferiority complex and usualy have their own political agenda. I always thought independance was ealier.. http://www.thecheers.org/article_2061_Aust...dependence.html Australia's Secret Independence 4) I assume you mean the Queen. Do you want an elected head with no power or a hereditary head with no power? A republic doesn't have a head of state really. 5) Doesn't Australia have forced voting by statute? How can you have more democracy just because it's a republic? People vote and take part because they want to, even dictatorships have public participation. A republic will not make government or elections more interesting than any other form of government. 6) How can a republic be less or more of anything? It is the people not the form that determines most of your questions. Would you say America has less discrimination and more democratic rights than everywhere else? Australians of a certain political bent think that turning into a republic will heal all ills. Rubbish.... A republic is just one form of democratic government, it has good points and bad. No method of government is perfect so just changing won't fix any problems that aready exist.

How about gun owners. Not only for the injuries but for the other crimes commited with guns. You either treat everyone the same or you charge everyone different, but you still charge everyone. As the saying goes -let him without sin recieve free health care, everyone else pays.......,:)

Oh puleeese, how are you expected to follow or monitor that many people. Just think SA every time you send an e-mail or a post or mention terrorism on the phone you pop up on a watch list. The more you send the higher your number on the watch list will be, in fact you are probably being monitored right now.......

As a species or as individuals? As a species no because by maths the odds are against us being alone. As an individual yes because you are all figments of my imagination.........,:)

Just for an opposing view. http://www.thespoof.com/news/spoof.cfm?headline=s3i20394 TheSpoof.com : Gods to go on strike! funny satire story

The whole climate change from both sides is becoming boring. People are tired of being told we are doomed and all politicians come up with are more taxes or costs. If the sea level goes up 20m people are not just going to sit there getting wet they will move. The planet changes all the time and either we will or we won't change as well, it doesn't really matter who turns out to be right in the end. All the contests for who has the most points and scientists are wasting time that could be better used.

This climate arguement is getting like playing soldiers as a kid--" I shot you--No you didn't you missed--never did--etc,etc". It will happen no matter what we do and at it's own time and speed. The problem isn't how to stop it (we can't) or slow it down but what will we do during and after. Are we as a species going the way of 99.9% of the rest of life on Earth, extinct, or will we manage to survive and evolve ourselves and our society. At present we will follow the mammoths example during the last climate change only with more arguements and " I told you so".....

This article is just a comentary not factual.

I trust that in your secular society the Christian church or any other will be kept at arms length as well. Extremists aren't only Muslim are they..............

why not one of these mounted on a truck and parked on a hill top........ http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/weaps/mk-15.htm MK 15 Phalanx Close-In Weapons System (CIWS) Cheap and nasty and reusable.......

Gosh how Canada has changed so that betsy can use the word "liberal" as an insult. It's a bit surprising how someone who says they are a Christian is so abusive and dismissive of others. What happened to love thy neighbour?

A bit of additional info on the British road tax scheme--over 2 million people signed a petition against the proposal (all ignored by the gov), it would cost approx £8 billion a year to run. The equipment for the system is to be paid for by the car owner, at last guess £600 ($1,200) per car. A novel idea of you paying so you can be taxed.......

You mean like governments do all the time? Or at least try to. City planners do it all the time just rezone certain areas or refuse building permits, it's not rocket science. Banks etc benefit from the labour of the employees doing the congestion, it's called profits. if nobody travelled to work in the offices thrre wouldn't be any congestion. Why not tax them for every employee that travels into the city centre and use the money to improve or build public transport. True but the government isn't using it to deliberately tax you or know where you have been. In the UK it is estimated that every person is on a CCTV camera 300 times a day, but this systems only use targets you for the purpose of monitoring you movements and taxing you on them. Bigger government isn't always better government........

Why not look at the cause of congestion. Roads are not busy ALL the time but at certain times of the day.This is usually because everyone goes to work at the same time. Solution 1--stagger work times. Virtually every city centre is full of large office buildings. Why do they all have to go to work at the same times? Divide each building into 4 time groups with different travel times,eg 7-8, 8-9, 9-19, 10-11. If there are 100,000 coming in each day on a network that can handle 80,000 you have cut congestion by 75% each hour with plenty of spare capacity. Solution 2--Most of these buildings are used by banks,financial institutions and corporate headquarters. Why do they all have to be in the same place? Do not allow any more large buildings in city centres and enforce a clear zone around each new one, say 1 mile for every 1,000 workers in a building. This will spread any traffic into a larger area . I mean why are they all jammed in the same place, they don't pass bags of money or notes to and fro any more do they? A side benefit of spreading out large office buildings is that the financial benefit they carry is spread out as well along with decreased travel for the employees getting there. Solution 3--Rebuild the entire road network. Most congestion is caused by traffic stopping and going which is mainly due to intersections, remove the intersections. Make all east west roads at a different level than north south roads with pedestrian walkways at another level. This results in no traffic lights and no pedestrian crossings so traffic can move at a steady pace all the time, no congestion again. Solution 4--Why tax somebody just for going to work? Tax who benefits from that work, the banks, financial institutions and corporate headquarters. Charge them for every employee who travels at high congestion times into the city centre. If they move offices into less congested areas or stagger start times they pay less so congestion falls. Another fault with congestion charging is the liberty problem. Are you willing to have a computer in your car that will tell the government everywhere you go so they can charge you for it? How long before it is used to police illegal parking or speeding or to monitor where people go and with who? And remember the politicains and the rich won't pay this, we will through subsidies, company cars and tax breaks. Congestion charging carries too many other risks and penalties that have nothing to do with clearing the roads, why not just ban anyone who makes less than $100,000 from owning or driving a car........

Doesn't modelling always show what you want it too? After all they put the info in and tell it what results to look for.

Seems the price for a road pricing scheme in the UK has soared to £62 billion, building an entirely new road network twice the size of the present one would cost £60 billion saving £2 billion. http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=37714 UK road pricing 'to cost £62 billion' http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml...19/nroads19.xml Drivers face £600 bill for an in-car road pricing black box | Uk News | News | Telegraph Road pricing only sets up a rich drive---poor walk system, really annoying as the poor will end up paying for the system after all.....

Only the topping not the mushy bit at the bottom.........

I'm having trouble getting this--An I slamic suicide bomber blows up himself and some other Muslims in Pakistan and somehow it's Israels fault--is that it? Are they to blame for me not winning the Lottey as well because I've often wondered if there's a conspiracy and this would explain it.

What about comet or meteorite strikes, supernovas, ice ages,or even global drift.

You are also assuming that the western idea of god is the correct one. What happens if at the end you are there shouting "All hail the Lord" and the answer is "I Odin accept your veneration". There are lots of religions floating about touting for believers, and many more existed in the past. They cannot ALL be right so there will be a lot of red faces come judgement day...........

should get a lot of god botherers out of politics then. On a side note will he be getting rid of child molesting priests as well?

What happens though when the guy next door starts thinking that the neighbours wife on the other side is better looking and friendlier than yours?

By trying to bring forth the rapture aren't they trying to force their gods will and so are acting against that will at the same time. I would be pretty sure that any god worth the name could bring about their own rapture when they feel like it without any help from loonies down here. And I don't think a plague of boils and sores are that bad and wouldn't the frogs eat the locusts??? So there we are, a couple of boils--a sore or two--eating frogs legs, must be hell then.........