Scotty

So the sunshine list is out again and once again we get to see how grossly overpaid so many municipal and provincial employees are. Hospital executives are, as usual, huge earners. Another big, profitable group of high earners are the executives of Ontario Power Generation, whose president earned $1.7 million dollars. Tons of other people in hydro and OPG make mega salaries well above anything seen in the federal public service. The top three earners in Ontario are OPG execs, but lots more execs from OPG and hydro are high on the list. Toronto's city manager makes $363,000, This is actually as much as the top public servant in all of Canada, the clerk of the privy council. You'd think one job would command a somewhat lower rate of pay than the other, but apparently not. The chief of police in Toronto makes $343,000, whichi is considerably more than the Chief of Defense Staff for the Canadian army makes. And unlike the chief, the CDS is actually competent. There are a bunch of hospital executives earning from $400,000-$750,000. By comparison, Canada's deputy minister of health makes $270,000. University presidents are very well rewarded, too. The president of the University of Toronto makes more than $700,000. By comparison, the University of Western Ontario's president gets a paltry $560,000, and the associate dean of business at UofT only $440,000 Again, the guy who runs the federal public service, consisting of close to 300,000 employees, full and part time, spending tens of billions of dollars makes about $340,000. Can anyone tell me why a university president or hospital executive should be paid twice as much? There are tons of doctors on this list, which, for the most part, I don't begrudge, but also tons of cops and firefighters, which I do. These are positions which do not require any real education or unique skills, and are grossly overpaid. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/which-public-servants-earn-more-than-100000-search-the-sunshine-list/article17699726/

I would say those are a loosely stated collection of 'good things' but they don't mean anything in terms of a 'goal'. If there was a goal it was to put in place a stable governmental structure which would, above all else, ensure Afghanistan did not return to a state of religious fanaticism which would allow it to be used as an open base for terrorists intent on attacking the west and its allies. That was a worthy and sensible goal and it failed utterly. Everyone knows the current government will be in Dubai with their stolen money within a few months of western soldiers leaving, and Afghanistan will be returned to the control of the Taliban. And this wasn't a a failure of military force. It was a failure of government building. The US, in its blundering way, just as it did in Iraq, insisted on trying to plant democracy in a land which was not prepared for it, rather like conquering Alaska and insisting on planting palm trees everywhere. That is the failure in Afghanistan. And that is why everything will return to the way it was shortly after you guys leave.

I guess I was giving you more credit to understand my point without spelling it out. The NSA is not a threat to you. The NSA doesn't give a shit what you do or say or who you do it with or say it to. The NSA doesn't know your name and never will. But there are legions of hackers out there, LEGIONS of them who definitely bear everyone ill will, who want to steal your money, want to steal your privacy, and want to abuse you. They aren't as technically competent as the NSA but there are a LOT more of them out there, all of whom are easily able to break into your computer, and they're in your city, some probably living close by, and any one of them who decides to have a look at you is way more dangerous to your privacy than the NSA will ever be. But I'll bet you never spared a thought to them and aren't at all worried about it either. Want to bet there aren't people on this web site who don't hack? In terms of the threat to your privacy on the internet, I would say 49.9% comes from google and other official corporate sites, 49.9% come from hackers, and 0.02% at the very most, come from government intelligence agencies. But it's the latter that have you and the other paranoid anti-government types looking nervously out your windows for black SUVs parked there watching you.

A guy was sent to prison today for hacking into girls computers, activating their webcams, and taking naked pictures and videos of them which he then used to blackmail them. And you are worried about the NSA having a list of phone numbers you called last year?

Which they have yet to do.

What was the objective in Afghanistan?

In order to state the international community failed in Afghanistan you'd need to state what the goals were.

Foolishly so.

The Ontario Liberals don't make decisions based on whether something is a good idea or not. They never have. It's how it feels that matters, whether it feels good, or feels morally proper or feels like it should be allowed, encouraged or banned as per liberal philosophical standards. Consequences and costs really don't enter into their decisions.

No, they have bloodmobiles that visit large employers, at least here in eastern Ontario.

You make that sound like it's a big deal. In the news today, Canada's oil output reached a record 4.3 million barrels per day. Anti pipeline people and the media use gallons to denote spills beause it sounds more impressive that way. But 110 million gallons works out to about two and a half million barrels... over fourteen years. So what you're complaining about is that over a period of fourteen years throughout the entire United states, approximately half a day of Canadian oil production was spilled. I use CDN because it's handy. A little research seems to indicate US oil production is about 7.5 million barrels per day. So about one third of one day's oil production was spilled over the course of a 14 year period. My math sort of sucks but doesn't that work out to roughely 0.0000654%? Doesn't that make the pipelines pretty close to perfect at transporting oil without spilling it?

Harper has made it a habit not to respond to PQ provocations. The PQ wants him to respond, want to get into a fight with him. They've been trying for years so they can portray themselves as champions of Quebec fighting the evil redneck Alberta conservative. No one plays the victim card better than the PQ. What I do find interesting is a very union friendly party taking on a very violently anti-union, anti-worker star candidate who clearly feels he will be the successor to Marois. I agree with Bob Rae when he says public servants and union membes voting for this guy would be like chickens voting for Colonel Sanders.

I agree with Lawrence Solomon's column. What he basically said is that Quebec will stay as long as it's in their economic interest to stay. As long as they are a have-not province and are being subsidised. If they ever become a have province, though, and are faced with paying subsidies to other provinces, they will leave. I also agree with him that Quebec is defacto a foreign country right now, anyway.

I take it this is a magic pie, you're talking about.

I would be happy to see the paramedics and ambulances given to the fire department to manage, and stationed at firehalls.

I'm not aware of any great Muslim, Buddhist or Hindu painters, sculptors, or composers. I think much of Islam thinks music is evil, and painting or sculpting images of people is sinful.

Ok, but the vast majority are car fires, brush fires and small fires which present no particular danger to the firefighters. And yes, toxic fumes used to be an issue, but that's why firefighters now wear masks. Look, I'm not questioning whether firefighting, or for that matter, policing or military service are worthy jobs. They are. I'm questioning why they need to be paid more than just about anywhere else in the world. For example, have a look at the salary listing for the London Fire Brigade (UK). I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest they do everything the OFS or for that matter, the TFS does. I believe the TFS now pays $90,000 for a first class firefighter and assume the OFS rate is in that neighbourhood. http://www.img.fbu.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/njc-06-12-pay-award-final.pdf

I saw the video and announcement about Amazon planning to use drones to deliver most small packages within five years. Quite interesting. I wonder how many deliverymen that's going to put out of work. And I'm reminded of a scene in an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie where he jumps into a taxi and the robot driver swivels its head and asks where to. Taxi drivers will be a thing of the past too once cars become automated. I'm betting that happens within 20 years. That will also mean the end of longhaul truck driver jobs and, in fact, most trucking jobs. Bus drivers will probably be eliminated, as well. Automation is about to bring on a new wave of job losses amongst the semi-skilled.

What great scientific advances do you think might arrive within our lifetimes, or maybe not, and how long do you think it will take? For example, doctors are experimenting with gene therapy now, with techniques which will remove severe genetic disorders from eggs before implantation. So long long until genetic disorders are a thing of the past? I think within the next 20 years they'll be, if not gone, then significantly reduced. Someone said not very long ago, that people will be having sex with robots within five years. I doubt it, but how soon will we get at least primitive consumer robots, ones that can push a lawnmower, shovel snow, maybe wash the floor? Yes, I do think we'll get sexbots, but not within the next twenty years. Google, among others, is experimenting with driverless cars, and having great success. Will we be driving our own cars in thirty years or will they all be automated? I think all cars will be automated within thirty years. People will miss driving their cars (including me) but it will save lives from accidents and allow much more efficient use of roadways. The best idea I've seen in a while is glass roads. The US transportation department has awarded money to a company to experiment with the idea, and the experiment is now well-underway. The roadways will act something like solar collectors, and can not only keep themselves warm (no more snow and ice) but will be able to power electric cars and probably whole cities as well. Obviously the glass is pretty strong. I think we'll have them within 25 years.

This is a story in The Economist I ran across detailing the growing number of Americans who are non-violent, yet given life without parole. You would think that would be unconstitutional given the petty nature of some of the offenses, but apparently no one cares very much in the land of the free. LANCE SALTZMAN did not like the way his stepfather, Toni Minnick, settled arguments with his mother, Christina Borg. Once Mr Minnick fired a gun into a wall beside her. A couple of weeks later, says Ms Borg, he threatened to shoot her. So Mr Saltzman went into his stepfathers bedroom and took the gun. He sold it to a friend, who used it in a burglary. Mr Saltzman was charged with burglary, theft and being a felon in possession of a firearmall for taking a gun from his own houseas well as with the burglary committed using the gun, in which he says he took no part. He was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole. He was 22. http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21589868-shocking-number-non-violent-americans-will-die-prison-throwing-away-key

I don't think that's exaggerated given the state of military policing in the US, the high crime rate, and the belief among so many that whatever the police do it must be okay, and the people who are involved in drugs, or even suspected of it, deserve what they get, especially if they're minorities.

But if the award is high enough that's it painful to the citizens, meaning there either has to be a tax inrease or they go into bankruptcy, there will be repercussions. Hit them in the wallet and they'll squeal like pigs. They'll make sure the next chief of police knows what to tell his officers about highly intrusive and illegal searches.

McKay? Nobody is going to follow Mckay after his miserable screwups at Defense. And I remind you that the Tories haven't lost any of their popularity due to this so-called scandal.