overthere

I was not aware that Canada or Brazil had so many sworn enemies who refused to recognize their right to exist as a state, and promised to extrerminate the place and everybody in it. Thanks for the update.

The worst emitter is of course coal, which is in decline. I would venture that few people know how the grid works, and its central position in our privileged lives. An utterly reliable supply of electricity is taken for granted, until it is not there 'Expensive redundancies' is a term that is in itself redundant, any redundancy is by definition both expensive and absolutely essential. The redundant capacity has to be as reliable as the main sources too. Not just generating capacity, but to a lesser extent transmission capacity too.

Our bird population is in direct relation to the number of predators in the neighbourhood. The main predators are magpies and jays and myself. The first two decimate smaller bird populations, and the last predator noted affects the big bird numbers.. Every couple of years I borrow a pellet gun and adjust that balance. The songbirds seem to appreciate my efforts.

I'm not talking about what happened in 1947 or in 82 BC. I mean right now. Not interested in but but but but..... Yes or no. We can poll the Palestinian state question later

Fixed. This is another example of a refusal to answer the question, to deflect into frustration and lack of resolution. I get that is the motive of many in this argument, chiefly much of Hamas, Iran, KSA etec etc and certainly some within Israel itself. Peace is not a desired option for some.. But we don't have to do that. Whether or not Israel chooses to be a Jewish state is secondary. Like the many Islamic and Christian states, they can call themselves whatever they wish if indeed they are a state at all. But .... no buts.

I've hammered at this reality for years, and am glad to see you writing about it. You cannot turn massive conventional systems off and on as the sun shines or doesn't, and the wind blows, or doesn't. And we absolutely MUST have totally secure supplies of electricity. So the renewables are mostly simply expensive redundancies, and cannot even replace the conventionals reduindancies a system must have for breakdow, maintenance. If you add renewables to the grid in the expectaion that they 'll be extensivley used, you also must upgrade everything downstream to handle the increased (and unnecessary? new laod: power transmission lines, substations etc. This is just not as simple as bolting a panel to your roof and connecting to the grid. You still need a line running the other way to provide 100% of your household demand when your panels produce zero.

Funny that. I would not know what religion Harper followed if his haters did not tell me frequently. If he evangelizes or goes door to door, he doesn't do it in my neighbourhood. Funny also, Chretien was a devout Catholic but it did not seem to inform his politics. Other than his consistent votes against same sex marriage of course. Somehow this evangelical Christian PM has yet to revoke that law. Curious.

If you are referring to Wildrose, you won't be welcome there now. The party was formed by two groups, initially. The first was a discontented rump of PCs, the right leaning, fiscally and socially conservative wing that was not at all happy with the surprise election of Ed Stelmach as leader. He had two huge failings in their eyes: he was a moderate red Tory, and he was not from Calgary. The second was the very socially conservative church groups, not large in number but organized and willing to shop their votes to the right party. The PCs moved left, the rump and the churches just left and formed Wildrose. By doing so they handed a huge opportunity to an increasingly moribund mainstream PC party, a party that had gone to sleep under the last few years of Klein. The opportunity was to rid themselves of vocal portions of their own party that prevented them moving to the center. And it isolated that new party on the fringes, which makes it very hard for Widlrose to baclk away and modertae their message. That unmoderated message cost them dearly in 2012, it in fact cost them an election. Wildrose leader Danielle Smith just had another bill come due, with the defection of at least four MLAs(two now and two a while ago) who recognized that the fundie dogma of social conservatism just diod not resonate with nearly enough Albertans and worse, was actively alienating many, many more. She is in a box, and now has mostly just the far right and the fundies in her camp . She has tried hard to shift the party and tired really hard to shift public perception but has failed. I think the party is consigned to the rubbish heap for the foreseeable future. If you support same sex marriage, Widlrose won't be a happy home for you. And it is an increasingly small home, the walls are closing in.

CMHC is not a subsidy. It is a self supporting insurance scheme, and in combination with a restrictive Bank Act has allowed many millions of Canadians to own homes, almost all of whom would have never been able to save the requisite 20% down. More recently, the mandatory national mortgage qualifications of CMHC saved our collectives asses in the last global recession. The subprime loan fiasco was exponentially smaller here than in the US. Oh, and CMHC does not have a monopoly on insuring high ratio loans, there are at least two other insurers, both private sector. Public education has an excellent economic argument too.

And the indications that Harper is a hardcore Reformer are(this is the part where you list The Secret Agenda): 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. You can fill in the blanks. Best of luck, Harper moved the CPC to the center long ago, which is why he is PM. Somehow, so many missed that move then and still do now. Prentice is nothing new at all in Alberta. Late term Klein, Stelmach and Redford all also moved the party fully to the middle of the political spectrum for a common, simple motive: because that's where all the votes are..... The novel thing about Prentice so far is that he is a smooth operator, much more so than his predecessors. But on the poltical spectrum? No different really.

Yes, I know exactly how much it costs to own a home in the bloated Lower Mainland market. However, I did not know that you had to live there, and that you had to own a home. Are those court orders, forcing those choices on you and your partner? At what point in the breeding cycle did you realize that having a child, buying a house and sending the kid to ballet were all mandatory requirements in your lives and not things you freely chose as an adult? I'll tell you an alternative, a couple of them Own fewer things. Move to somewhere with disposable income. Consume less. Plan ahead Depend more on yourself for quality of life, and less on the vagaries of an inconstant government . Accept that choices have consequences, personal consequences, to careers, finances and life. I knew- in advance of providing the sperm- that my life was going to be very different in many ways when I had children. It still surprises me that so many have not thought that through beforehand.

Yes to all that. The potential coalition partners realized immediately that they had made a serious mistake, and never had anything to say about the whole charade after. Except for Ignatieff, who took over at that point from Dion and said 'not going to happen, not talking about it ever again next question please".

Alberta balanced their budget, contributed to equalization and started to run a budget surplus when oil was $10-$20 through the 1990s. They will find a way. Not to worry, the gravy train is not yet stalled.

Its classic Billy Beane. He does not have a rebuilding schedule, he does it every day when he can find a dance partner. Lawrie has potential to be a really good player. Actually he is a really good player, but injured too much. He makes less than half of what Donaldosn gets, and that is key for Oakland who rank 25 out of 30 teams in payroll. And the prospects- at least two of them could be fine players, and they really only need one to work out for Oakland to win this deal. It is no coincidence that prospects also make almost nothing . More Billy Beane........

Alberta political primer in a few sentences. NDP: new and dynamic leader, Rachel Notley. Should increase seats dramatically in the next election by taking popular vote from the Liberals. They have four seats, they might get six.(out of 85 available). Party did nothing under their old leader, who was 'outraged' by everything. Liberals: have 5 members now under a certifiable idiot as leader, Raj Sherman. Hopelessly lost despite having some good MLAS excluding Sherman. 20 years ago they nearly became the govt. Wildrose: down to 14 seats and fading. They probably need to get a new leader, but in the meantime they need to shut up for a while or sink even further. PC: they moved strongly to the center out of necessity a few years ago, when Wildrose formed and took their right wing away- which was fortuitous indeed.. That move was expedited by Stelmach and by Redford. They have a new leader/Premier Prentice who has made many visible changes since taking power. He is going to be hard to remove now. 63 seats.

That faction is also what cost them the last provincial election. Wildrose had a substantial lead in the polls, and the PCs mopped the floor with their bleeding corpses. Since them and in recognition that Wildrose seriously needed to move towards the center leader Danielle Smith has worked hard to tone down the social conservative faction. But she has a huge anchor in church groups that are extremely convervative and it looks like she wont be able to overcome their influence. Wildrose was formed in part by these very conservative groups, plus a rump of disaffected PCs. The PCs have succeeded in taking the center away from everybody. Smith has had a disastrous month or so. - One of her most articulate MLAs left to sit as an independent - the govt held four byelections and won all of them. That is a profound comment on the alternative- Wildrose -last week two MLAS left Wildrose to cross the floor and join the PCs. One of them was a WR stalwart and close personal friend. I don't think that Wildrose will recover from this. In the meantime, new Premier Jim Prentice is doing all the right things. Very tough times for Wildrose

Does anybody have an advance copy of The Final UN Report on Gaza? It was done months ago by the usual suspects, surely it has been leaked by now. They could just use the old ones as a template, change the names and dates and save a lot of time in ersatz 'investigations'.

Don't let that stop you. The government will cash that cheque. Come The Revolution, you will be hailed as a Hero of The People.

You could always send back your share of the wealth if you're really bothered.

There is nothing ambiguous about what the Insurance Bureau of Canada says about the UberX situation. I don't get into vehicles that I know are not insured or licensed. Your choice may be different.

I've been to India three times and seen countless locals eat with spoons. And hands. Whatever suits the grub. It's not political

^^^^^^ tax avoidnace vs tax evasion. Everybody does the former, criminals do the latter. Hundreds of billions. The best way might be none of the above. As long as there are different taxes and tax systems for companies and individuals. I'm interested in the possibilities of completely eliminating taxes for corporations, and taxing every dollar accruing to persons. Every dollar in profit earned by a company eventually trickles down to a person. Share sales, capital gains, dividends, pay cheques, bonus money and so on. Tax it then.

I liked the first one more than the second, and will see the new one soon. Jennifer Lawrence is an outstanding actress, one of the very best of her (new) generation. If you have not seen it, check out what she does in a movie called Winters Bone. She was nominated at age 19 as Best Actress for that role, and should have won. She is only 24 years old and already in the enviable position of being able to choose roles. I hope she chooses wisely. Latest movie seen was St Vincent, with Bill Murray and Melissa McCarthy. Bill Murray is one of those guys who is just always good. He is so relaxed onscreen. he plays the role of hardcore curmudgeon with a heart of gold. But.... I had the feeling I'd seen this film before... It is quite funny and a bit touching but I'd wait for it on Movie Channel cable.... it should be there pretty soon.

No we do not.

It is not a red herring at all, and your refusal to answer is typical. The correct answer is yes. In response to your separate question about the right to a Palestinian state, the answer to that question is also obviously yes. I will ignore your usual attempt to refuse to answer the first question. Now, all we need to do is to get Israell enemies, such as yourself , Hamas, Hezbollah, many of the Gulf States, Iran , Syria etc to say yes as well and I can guarantee that a resolution will be reached. It seems a simple thing, but you and your buddies don't want a resolution that does not involve the extinction of Israel. Is that a fair summary?