overthere

"I guess the bigger thread is Global Climate Change. But even if the worst theories about Climate Change prove to be right, I doubt it would bring about humanity's extinction. " In the 70s there were numerous popular books about how population increases would inevitably lead to our extinction within a few days or years. Doom And Gloom is a good business. Cyclcial and notional, but always profitable. Look how Christianity has propered selling it for a couple thousand years! Well, actually the money is in the promise of salvation, but there has to be a bogeyman.....

"Mandel was a complete train wreck of a mayor - the perfect example of "tax and spend". He won exactly how Stelmach did, the third choice of everyone won the second ballot. He is also as NDP as conceivably possible (even considered "left" for Edmonton which should tell you something)." Complete nonsense. First, the voting system for the leader of the PC party is a preferential vote. You vote for first and second. The mayor in Edmonton is a direct vote. Every voter gets to vote for ONE person. Duh. NDP??? Totally oblivious. Edmonton does not have municipal party politics and they do not get slates of candidates overtly or otherwise during or after campaigns. The Council is refeshingly free of that nonsense. If anything, Mandel was the best business head of any mayor in recent memory. He was the complete opposite of Jan Reimer, who was a hardcore lefty and got nothing done during a couple of terms. In contrast, Mandel got a LOT done: loads of major infrastructure including billions on highways, LRT, sewers and the city has grown a lot during his tenure. He fought every klevel of govt hard for every penny, which is what he is supposed to do. This is likely news for a Calgarian, which has gotten a disproportionate share of money(with no effort required) for decades from the endless string of Calagry based Premiers. The downtown of Edmonton is finally growing again thanks to Mandel: new museum, new arena, seveerla major condo towers, office buildings, LRT expnasion. None of that happened with his predecessors. Hydra illustrates my point above why the next Premier won't be Mandel: he is not from Calgary. And that is unforgiveable in Alberta. Nenshi is glib and from Calgary. That is enough.

Ah, no. You have it backwards. The innovation of having demand charges is not new at all, it is only new to residential consumers. It's not about reducing consumption. nobody in the generating , transmission or distribution sectors of the power industry give a shit about that because their profits are not dependent solely on consumption. What it is about is profitability of all three sectors. Residential demand meters provide a massive new revenue stream opportunity for them. If everybody starts running their dryers at 10 PM, they can simply shift the peak or near peak hours to span..... 11PM. What will be the most interesting development n the near future will be self generation of power and net metering. Both have increased and represent a growing threat to the bottom line of large scale generators and their grids. Small scale solar, wind and MicroCHP are all ways for consumers to actually personally address their costs for both consumption and demand charges. If the best we can do is to beleive the illusion that making our toast in the middle of the night matters at all, nothing will change and electric costs will continue to be out of our control.

Species come and go. Shrug. No reason to think we will break that cycle. Darwin was right.

there is another that bumps and trumps the other two down from the #1 reason women are atheists: 1. Women have a brain.* *( I believe that is an actual scientific fact. I know Waldo will demand a cite on that and I apologize in advance for not having it.).

It is certainly a complete coincidence that decreasing class sizes by collective agreement means that many more teachers will be hired and many more dollars will flow to the teachers union. And many more dollars will flow from taxpayers pockets.

They are quite different from each other.... Norway is a placewith a massive social contract, but they can easily afford it because they are expert at squeezing every nickel out of their revenue opportunities and can easily afford to fund pretty much anything they can dream up. Fiscally conservative, socially progressive. Before the oil, they struggled mightily. Notably, they have rejected joining the EU. Sweden used to have a massive social contract, now seriously trimmed to one they can afford. Both countries are run by pragmatists, not opportunistic amateurs. They do share an ability we have so far failed to achieve: the wit to recognize reality and the character to act accordingly on a national level.

The problem with the Leafs is The Curse Of The Harold. They need an exorcism to rid themselves of his evil spirit. Not only did he curse the team for half a century and counting, he managed to get nearly the entire country outside the GTA hating them profoundly. Of course, Harold had plenty of help in that undertaking from CBC, TSN, SportsNet etc.

I don't think Karzai will linger around Kabul waiting for somebody to kill him. He'll have a billion or two parked already in safe places, purchased an arrangement for safe haven elsewhere, and an exit strategy bought and paid for. He'll be sitting at a cafe in Paris sipping espresso in less than 12 months.

another one who doesn't know the difference between debt and deficit. Yeah, Harper failed miserably in not continuing the policy of giving hundreds of millions of dollars to Montreal ad agencies. They've really suffered in the last few years. What a bastard

Wrong about the direction of Albertans voting. They have moved to the center long ago, and that messaage was pounded home sharply least election. There is simply no other interpretation. I know the ROC likes to think the place is bursting with rednecks, but in reality most people here are from soemwhere else, migration has been massive. Wildrose got crushed last election. Mandel was an excellent mayor, and would probably be a very good Premier. He has one small thing against: he is 67, which is old for the job. He has one massive strike against: he is from Edmonton. Premiers in AB MUST BE FROM CALGARY or CALGARY GETS VERY VERY ANGRY. The only Premier in the last few decades not from Calagry was Ed Stelmach, and he got run out of office because.... he wasn't from Calgary.

I live in Alberta, but when I retire some day I will have to move to Quebec to take advcantage of both provinces tax regimes and social contracts.

If the wreckage is 2500 kms southwest of Perth that is truly in the middle of nowhere. Its also a place of mountainous waves and prolonged horrible weather.

"I don't really understand all this animosity toward teachers, they are arguably the second most important people in a kids life next to their parents, sometimes the most important. While I don't always agree with their union's position, the fact they are teachers doesn't disqualify them from having the right to advocate for themselves and what they think is best for the children in their care." You've fallen smack in the middle of the trap set by the teachers union: Equating the uniuons efforts to better the financial/benefit package for their members with the4 welfare of children. Unless the teachers are badly underpaid so they simply cannot attract good people to the profession(not the case in Canada, anywhere) there is no correlation between a 0% increase in wages and the quality of the kids education. No, its the old civil service cononundrum- demands for annual wage increases that exceed inflation or the ability of the public to pay. It just does not happen in the private sector, once the cost of labour becomes onerous enough that there is no profit, the business folds or moves offshore. Not so with teachers, there is no effective brake on wages because there are no votes in a politician growing a pair of balls. Taxes can always be increased. And every shop steward in every staff room in every school in BC knows it. They know parents will freak out if they have to find day care for Sally and Jimmy during a strike. Easy Peasy.

I just don't get how anybody could believe the baloney that smart meters were ever intended to save consumers money. They are specifically intended to increase revenue for generating utiltiies with a very minimum of investment and a short payback period. It doesn't matter if the rates get jacked up or stay the same, the profit will go up because they can manipulate time of day demand charges to guarantee revenue. They also know people don't understand the effect of a brief demand spike. It's a shame consumers are unaware of the depth of this con, since in reality many people cannot change family life schedules to have any hope at energy savings. No, you can't use the dryer or make toast at 3 AM when it is cheapest.

Bieber has a new song that c/w interpretative dance. It may not be a good career move

Don't count the Tories out. Everybody: media, pollsters, and Wildrose diod last election and Wildrose got crushed in a sweep that was much more anti-Wildrose than it was pro-PC.. The most remarkable event in AB politics in recent years was that Danielle Smith kept her job. She won't survive another loss. Smith has tried hard to moderate the underlying anti-gay, anti-woman, anti immigrant and pro-creationist elemnts that that are thick in Wikdrose, but she failed. Expect the same next time. Albertans- like all Candians- like the middle ground and that is still solidly PC. Actually again not so much pro-PC but.... -Smith of Wildrose remains a redneck horror -Sherman of the Liberals is a certified clown on the way down furhter, if that is even possible Mason of the NDP is completely irrelevant, and refuses to step aside for the much smarter Rachel Notley Do not count the PCs out. Whoever they pick as leader will be from Calgary, because that is the way it is in Alberta. A darkhorse contender will be old Mr second place Jim Dinning. Jim Prentice may rear his handsome head too. Within the party, Doug Horner will run and lose again. I doubt Gary Mar(despite being a very competent guy) can overcome the taint of his current job.

It will change 'negotiations' dramatically. Saying 'I hate you', packing your stuff, leaving the house, and starting to date other people doesn't mean you're divorced, but it's a hell of a start.

"So, men, better start getting your women screaming passionately and continuously," My wife was screaming passionately though not continuously at me last week, and there were quite a few f##k yous in there. Being a sensitive new age guy(SNAG)I was quite certain there was no actual or implied consent to sex anywhere in that monologue.

"in this very election, the PQ can point to the "bullying tactics" of the Federal government and win votes that they might not otherwise get. There will be a time and a place for the Feds to put reality on the table," There is always more than one version of reality, and if Quebec votes to secede I think we'll see one version from Quebec within hours of the ballot count. They'll declare independence ASAP, which means they won't have any interest in the federal Clarity Act, since of course it won't apply in a sovereign nation. And of course the debts of Canada and the role of a former entity in that debt by the defunct Province of Quebec won't be of much interest moving forward. I feel a bit sorry for the unions in Quebec, they must be feeling conflicting emotions about Peladeau

I don't see why the railroads can be expected to voluntarily invest millions and /or billions in new locomotives, rolling stock or track when they are running at or near capacity and making boatloads of money off their current capital investments. Why risk the capital? If the govt wants something else or anything specific shipped, are they going to pay for it now, and pay for it later if and when demand lessens?

The relentless optimism of Leafs fans is very endearing. Sort of.

I have always favoured Come Again? as the title for a sequel. There might be copyright issues, that title may already have been used in the adult film industry.

Thanks for the clarification. I live in Alberta, where the Alberta Teachers Association continues to promote their charade of having a professional association and a union under the same roof. Literally under the same roof.

You are being treated fairly. You're not getting everything you want. See the difference? Unions exist to promote the interests of its members, and that is what yours is doing. Please stop pretending otherwise with this 'social justice' gibberish. Don't get me wrong, I acknowledge this is business and treat it as such. You might have enough respect for others to do the same. If you felt a strong yearning for social justice, you'd be teaching impoverished children in Congo for free. Instead, you are arguing over improvements to already extraordinary benefits and whether your wages should be capped at $95 or $105k per annum. Try again, we're not falling for it.