Wild Bill

Logical, but unfortunately people aren't logical. As a voting issue, most folks who favour some sort of legalization don't care about the issue enough to make it a deal-breaker as to their party choice. After all, anyone can get marijuana any time they want with almost no risk of being caught! It's as easy as it was to find a speakeasy, all those years ago. The only ones who care about the issue enough to MAKE it a dealbreaker are those against it! Some folks LOVE telling their neighbour what he can or can't do! They will fight to the death against having that power taken away from them! So a party would lose more votes than it would gain. Certainly, if the NDP favoured legalization it would never be enough to get my vote!

Well, your links finally work! Anyhow, I'm not 100% sure of what you're advocating here. Apparently, you want us to study what aircraft are available to suit our needs. Surely the Liberals did this before? Or did they just pick the F-35 out of their butt when they signed us up? Of course, if we bail out of the program we lose all the money we've already put in. I don't think you're suggesting we do that! More likely, you must feel that there are indeed better and cheaper planes out there. Would you like to name one? I hope you don't mean some version of the F-18 that has no stealth capability. How would you like to be the only pilot on a battlefield that the enemy can see clearly? Even if detection capabilities improve, the F-18 will at least be the MOST visible plane in the air! Of course, Liberal support has never been much for our boys anyway, sending them off so Chretien could get a peacekeeping photo-op with bows and arrows against the lightning. From my POV, they don't seem much different from Dief's Tories. He gutted our aerospace industry but the Liberals gutted the entire military! So do you have any other options, or just anything but something during a Tory term of power? Me, I've long said that I would be very much against any son or daughter of mine serving in our forces. Not because I am some sort of pacifist. Quite the contrary. I just think that any country that doesn't properly value the lives of its soldiers to at least send them out with the right colour of camo gear doesn't deserve to be defended!

Well, for a start he could have come up with a plan to encourage people to make their own power for themselves! You see, under McGuinty's plan, you can cover your roof with solar cells or put up a wind turbine or two in your backyard, but in order to sell your power to the Ontario Power Company you have to use a totally separate connection, with its own meter. What this means is that you never use your own power! Your power for your house still happens as it always has, coming in through your meter and you get a monthly bill. The power you generate is fed separately to the grid. You pay for the power you consume with the same old monthly bill you've always gotten. You get a separate cheque for what you feed the grid. The difference is your profit. If you decide to use some or all of that power you've made for yourself you're in trouble. It's VERBOTEN! What's more, if you're a handy type and already knowledgeable about this sort of stuff, you can't build your own system! You have to pay government licensed technicians, at whatever rate they want to charge, to install a system using only government approved parts, at whatever price they want to charge you! Maybe this is how he's going to ensure that they are high-paying jobs. He's given them a "license to gouge!" This is completely different from what many American states do. They let you build it with whatever you want, only reserving the right to have your installation inspected before it is connected to the state system. You use a 2-way meter, so that you can use your own power, draw on the state system when you need more and give the state system power when you have a surplus. The biggest advantage of this sort of system is that you no longer need an expensive, honkin' big battery to store power when you don't need it. A system that can supply your highest, peak load is both super expensive and totally unnecessary. Most of the time you aren't using anywhere near that much power. So you store it in a big battery bank for when you need it. Much more cost-effective. A 2-way meter lets you use the state grid as your battery bank, tracking the usage both ways to calculate how much you owe them or they owe you. Your system can be a lot smaller, since on those occasions when you're using a big power draw like a dryer or an electric stove you just draw more from the state grid. McGuinty won't let you do that here. You HAVE to stay connected to the Ontario grid for your own household needs, where you are not billed just for your power but also lots of other surcharges, such as transmission line fees and a few bucks to pay off the $30 some BILLION dollars that governments wasted with the old Ontario Hydro company, paying off friends with zillion dollar executive jobs and whatnot! Your only alternative is to totally disconnect from the provincial grid and build a system large enough to supply all your own power, which also means a big expensive battery bank. This means you can build it yourself, with your own scrounged parts. If you aren't talented in this area, you can google a bit and you'll find a number of companies who will install such systems for you right now! A wind or solar installation for the average house will cost you in the area of $30,000! Tinkerers and handymen down in the States are doing it for themselves for MUCH less! Even in the colder states! However, they are mostly living on larger country lots, with all the room they need. Doing it in a small, inner city lot is a lot trickier, but it can be done. McGuinty could have encouraged private citizen participation. He could have let us use 2-way meters. He could have let us scrounge and install our own systems, with just an inspection to make sure we built it safe. He could have spotted us some tax breaks, like no HST on parts for alternative energy sources! I'm an older guy and don't have the surplus energy I once had but McGuinty's approach has pissed me off to such an extent that I'm itching to build something for myself and tell him to yank down the electricity connection to my home and stuff it where the sun don't shine! There are some sources for the necessary batteries to build a suitable bank that would make things more cost-effective. Certainly, if I were younger after the first few years of savings to pay off the investment I would get more than enough 'free' years in my lifetime to make it worth it.

Have you listened to Keith Urban, BM? He's a country star but he plays guitar like a Pat Travers or a Dominic Troiano...

You poor man! That sort of abuse is grounds for divorce! Won't she compromise with some folksy Willie Nelson? Or better yet, some modern country with some great guitar playing, like Keith Urban? We should pass the hat for you and buy you an Ipod with some headphones that REALLY block out ambient sound!

Waldo may very well have some "legitimate and credible points to make". The problem is, he's likely to express them in such a mean-spirited and "crankbag" manner that no one will want to listen to them! "Is this 'Abuse'?" "No, sorry! It's 'Getting Hit on the Head' lessons in here!"

Star, you really should read up on a few of those details! McGuinty is paying wind and solar producers a HUGE price above the normal cost! Solar producers are getting 80 cents per KWH, as opposed to the regular price of around a nickel! He has guaranteed to take ALL their power, even when we are in a surplus situation, which means regular producers have to throttle back or shut down, while he has to PAY Quebec or New York to take our surplus! So he has encouraged wind and solar new generation by means of a gigantic subsidy, guaranteed for 20 years! THAT'S why our electricity bills are jumping over 46% over the next 5 years! We have been told for the past few years now that countries in Europe like Norway are years ahead of us with wind power. Now we see many of these countries shutting down their turbines. It seems they were only profitable because of big subsidies and now the countries just can't afford to pay extra to have wind power. Yet McGuinty seems blissfully unaware of their example and is hellbent to repeat their mistake. It's a stupid and unnecessary way to do it. It will unnecessarily hurt a lot of people on fixed incomes. It will make the idea of a business locating in Ontario and having to pay far more for electricity a very stupid and unprofitable one, at a time when we are hurting as traditional manufacturing is leaving our province and we desperately need alternatives to replace them. Oh wait! There's no need to worry about that! McGuinty has told us there will be 50,000 new, great-paying new jobs in the alternative energy sector, building those wind and solar generators! Where did he get that number? Why are these new manufacturers going to settle in Ontario and not ship parts in from China? Why are they going to pay high salaries here when with our unemployment rate being so high they can certainly find lots of people to work for much less? Obviously, he's pulled all his info out of his butt! It just doesn't add up. Take away his high subsidies and no one will build alternative power plants! What he should have done is try to change things so that people would find it profitable to build new plants WITHOUT subsidies! What he has done is like trying to lower the price of gas by using tax money to subsidize the price per litre. It all comes out of the same pocket anyway! The only difference is that if people don't take the trouble to understand this then they will just love him for being 'green' and give him their (unearned) support, BECAUSE HE SOUNDS NICE! It's just a con game. Maybe he knows it and is deliberately conning us. Maybe he's just a typical, stupid Liberal. Whatever, it's all still just a con.

I used to know! Then the kids came and my brain doesn't work as well as it used to...

Yeah, he gave us zip all for our football stadium! Maybe we should've asked in French!

Reminds me of a line from an old black blues singer idol of mine: "Well, some I spent on whiskey, and some I spent on wild women, and the rest I just wasted!"

Betsy, that was totally biased and unfair! Pinko pointed out a perfectly logical possibility. You twist it into an implication that he is projecting some internal problems and then tell him not to answer, further implying that he is fooling himself. That's outright arrogant! NOT logical! This is why you provoke some negative reactions. It's not that you are challenging some people's beliefs. You are arrogantly trying to paint them as something they're not! This is very disappointing, Betsy. You are living proof why we should have a separation of Church and State. If YOUR church were to be running things, they would need a lot of guns to keep people under control... I think I'll hang on to my tea and cookies...

Betsy, one can't deny that many people have a deep longing for some answers. What has that got to do with how true some of those answers are? You may have seen where I posted this before: "Show them a light and they'll follow it anywhere!"---Firesign Theater No matter how desperately you want to see that light doesn't mean it may not be a false one.

Nope! Is it as good as a Robert B. Parker crime novel?

Well, I will agree that his "green energy" plan is exceptional. It's downright loopy! As a techie sort of person, I truly believe that Dalton and his Liberals don't have a clue what they are doing in this field! They've made choices that look good but in fact are going to drive the average homeowner's electricity bill through the roof, UNNECESSARILY! There are much better ways he could have accomplished far more. His deal with Samsung really should be investigated by the RCMP. His MicroFit program for home wind and solar generation is an expensive joke, unfairly administered! It's all just smoke and mirrors for the ignorant! If you know nothing about how any of the stuff actually works then you hear the word "green" and you feel all warm and fuzzy! I don't think he's deliberately lying to us. I truly think he's too ignorant to understand what he's doing and he's following bad advice that he doesn't understand anyway. Energy brokers are going to get rich on his plans. Perhaps the RCMP should investigate how many provincial Liberals have invested in this sector.

Odd! One would expect that those Christian fundamentalist Reform/Bible thumpin' Tories would all be teetotallers...

I don't know if it's you or me but so far out of all the links you've put up NONE of them will work for me! Does anyone else have this problem with GWiz's links?

Not really cancellation fees. Just lost discounts! This started some years ago. The Liberals signed us up for the program, with the initial commitment to buy the 65 planes we keep talking about. This earned us more favourable pricing and a better place in the line. It also guaranteed a few billions for our Aerospace companies, who would get contracts to build some of the pieces. If we renege then we don't get our deposit back and although I don't know the exact figure apparently it was considerable. If we bail out, argue our faces off at home and then decide that there's no other plane for us we start from square one. Full price, we wait our turn and screw Canada for those billion dollar contracts. Then we can all sit around and smugly tell ourselves that we don't need to spend any money on our military 'cuz the Yanks have to protect us anyways. We'll keep sending our boys overseas on peacekeeping missions in the wrong colour of camo gear, with obsolete bows and arrows to fight against countries like Serbia that have us outgunned! Of course, we'll get very indignant when the US doesn't bother to take us seriously, since we are essentially freeloaders. And we'll all take off our hats as the bodies are transported down the Highway of Heroes. Many of those boys would be still alive if we had have had the helicopter support Chretien torpedoed years ago, just out of petty spite for Mulroney! The bastard should have been forced to commute daily in a Sea King! Oh dear! I can feel my blood pressure going up! Time for a cuppa...

Well, I thought that "interplanetary or beyond travel" was what we were talking about! Anyway, I mentioned that site because I do believe Mr. 'Bonam' works for them. Not that that makes him infallible but still, a very qualified opinion.

Actually, Mr. Whiz, Bonam doesn't write fiction or non-fiction concerning this stuff. He works for the companies that MAKE this sort of stuff! Hard, real-world engineering of things that you can reach out and touch RIGHT NOW! Not old stories from 1930's scifi pulp magazines. He knows whereof he speaks probably better than anyone else on this board about this kind of thing. This site might be of interest to you. These guys are doing stuff NOW! They are stepping into the void with NASA retiring the shuttles with commercially built craft to reach orbit and the space station. (Considering the only other option is the Russkies and they are intending to charge a FEROCIOUS rip!): http://www.spacex.com/updates.php

Huh??? GWiz, the problem is not finding the planet. Planets orbit stars and stars are so far away that if you've solved the problem of reaching the star then matching orbits with a particular planet is trivial! We already have technology that can tell us the approximate mass of a planet (your 'shadows') and its approximate distance from its star. That tells us if it's in the "Goldilocks Zone", where it orbits not too far or too close to its Sun. This means not too cold and not too hot for liquid water, which is the basis for our type of life. Of course, we still can't get a clear picture but there are LOTS of other options! First off, an unmanned probe could go there and return with more accurate information. Roundtrip, that could take 20 or 30 years with propulsion systems only a bit more advanced than what we have right now. With present technology it might take 100 years. I admit that might be too long for most politicians to care to support. Or, if we have "hibernation" techniques" we might be able to send a ship on a course intending to check out more than one planetary system, only stopping at one that looks good enough for our style of life to colonize. However, those scifi writers you've dismissed so quickly before have long ago moved past these ideas. They now ask the question, why colonize another planet at all? It would be far easier and cheaper to mine asteroids for materials. You can smelt the metals in them with free solar power! Hollow out an asteroid a few miles in diameter and set it spinning. The centrifugal force of the spin will act like gravity to those on the inner wall. Living in constant zero g seems to be bad for bones and pregnant women so some gravity would be a good idea. You just don't need nearly as much as we have on Earth! 1/10 G is enough to keep coffee in your mug. The reduced stress on your back and your heart however would mean decades more to your life, at least. There's not much you can do on a planet that you couldn't do on a space habitat. The amount of asteroid material to be mined is GINORMOUS! For practical purposes, we would never run out for thousands and thousands of years. With free sunlight and materials colonists would be self-sufficient. So again, why the rush to colonize planets? Give us a couple of hundred years developing space habitations and industry and it won't be such a big step to go check out planets orbiting other stars.

Well said!

Exactly! Back in the 70's there was an FM radio morning show duo named Pete and Geets, who were a pair of absolute wackos! I'll never forget one election how they were selling bumper stickers that read: "Don't vote! You'll only encourage them!"

Ah Max, with the choices we have today I think on Voting Day we ALL could use a good snort!

I was going to file this one under "alarmist crap" and just forget about it but I thought I'd post the link here, for others more informed than I am to perhaps give a better appraisal: http://www.salem-news.com/articles/february042011/globaltemp.php "(CHICAGO) - NASA has been warning about it.scientific papers have been written about it.geologists have seen its traces in rock strata and ice core samples. Now "it" is here: an unstoppable magnetic pole shift that has sped up and is causing life-threatening havoc with the world's weather. Forget about global warming.man-made or natural.what drives planetary weather patterns is the climate and what drives the climate is the sun's magnetosphere and its electromagnetic interaction with a planet's own magnetic field. When the field shifts, when it fluctuates, when it goes into flux and begins to become unstable anything can happen. And what normally happens is that all hell breaks loose. Magnetic polar shifts have occurred many times in Earth's history. It's happening again now to every planet in the solar system including Earth. The magnetic field drives weather to a significant degree and when that field starts migrating superstorms start erupting." I suspect this guy is talking to his toaster but perhaps someone has some enlightenment to offer.

One thing I've learned, if I can play it then it must be crap! But if you want your amp modded to give you Eddie Van Halen's "brown sound" then I'm your man!