MigL

So we all agree with Raider's assertion that there is good debt and bad debt. And bad debt is to be avoided, while good debt can provide economic stimulus. What about when a party ( just to bring this back to the Canadian election ) promotes a platform for the next several years relies on borrowing just to run the government as the Liberals have? Who knows how much larger it will be with the BQ and NDP making demands of them. To be fair the Conservatives also projected deficits for 4 yrs, but a balanced budget on the fifth, and we have 4 yr terms so they may not be in power in the 5th yr. ( good way to cover your ass, isn't it ? ) And these are favorable economic times. What happens if a recession doe hit us next year ( as has been predicted by some ) ? My understanding ( I'm not an economist either John ) was that economic stimulus, through deficit spending, is provided in bad economic times, while good economic times allow for balanced budgets and re-payment. Doing otherwise seems foolish to me. And what you call your currency has little to do with its value/amount, INow. Greece was simply spending more than it could afford. They maxed out their credit card, and the lenders imposed a re-payment plan on them. ( just like household budgets, isn't it ? )

You can look at it any way you want INow, but ( again using the Ontario 2019-20 budget numbers because I'm familiar with them ) that 8.2 % of Government revenue that has to be paid to service the debt, is NOT available for program spending. IOW it will not grow the economy or provide services. IOW it is equivalent to a 'cut' of 13.1 Bill dollars which could otherwise ( if there was no debt ) be used for program spending. It's simple addition and subtraction. ( by the way, I also enjoy our head-butting, as you've never made it personal )

You saw the numbers I posted 5 hrs ago regarding the Ontario budget. Even if we don't pay off the debt ( ie never borrow again ), our Provincial Government pays 8.3 % of all tax revenue to nameless banks ( who are making Billions of dollars profits every year ). Isn't that equivalent to a 'cut' of 8.3% ? !3.1 billion dollars of money that can't be used to grow the economy or provide services is certainly much higher than the 1 billion in 'cuts' D Ford is accused of making ( and as CharonY posted above, he hasn't ). And that's just our Provincial Government. And yes, sometimes if you borrow too much, your creditors see you as a higher risk of defaulting and lower your credit rating ( it has happened in the past ), resulting in even higher interest payments and even less money available to grow the economy and provide services. The solution from some political parties is not to 'tighten their belts' but to borrow even more, thereby making the situation even worse, with higher interest rates and larger interest payments. How do you think Greece got in such a mess ? ( sorry INow, I remain a fiscal Conservative, but feel free to try and convince me otherwise )

Well you're from the coast, so you're aware of the risks, and it seems you've lived it. ( scariest fire I've ever fought is 2 tons of molten Phosphorus metal all over the floor of a building ) All I'm saying is you can't tell one ( large ) portion of the country 'stop what you're doing and go back to an agricultural lifestyle' without giving them a viable alternative. That's where our politicians are failing us.

As our American friends say... "Get over it. Everyone does it."

I can't figure that one out either, CharonY. D Ford is accused of making massive cuts while spending more money. Talk about politics of 'fear'. Must be 'fake news'.

"Is it wabbit season? I tought it was duck season." ( said in a porky voice )

Sorry, my mistake... The biggest problem is politicians not sticking to election promises. Those are just used to buy votes with our own money.

We do have our ideological differences Rangerx. I happen to think that one of our bigger problems in Canada is the spiralling debt. And I know you dislike D Ford, but at least he ran on a platform of debt reduction; seems disingenuous to complain about the debt reduction after everyone votes him in. As an example, enrollment in Ontario public schools decreased by 110000 ( 5.2 % ) during the years of 2006 -16 while spending increased by 30 %, from 15 Bill to 21 Bill, and I think threats from custodial staff ( 3 weeks ago ) and high school teachers ( coming up ) to strike, directly affected the results of the federal election in Ontario at least. ( J Trudeau seemed to be campaigning against D Ford, not A Sheer ) Consider also the of the 2019-20 Ontario budget, total program expenditures of 150.4 Bill, Interest on debt of 13.1 Bill, and total revenues of 157.6 Bill, leaves Ontario with a shortfall of 5.9 Bill. The interest on the debt is edging closer to 10 % of program costs. Think about how many more programs could be had if that interest didn't have to be paid, and that 10 % could go into general revenues. Borrowing money effectively reduces the amount you can spend on programs ( and is equivalent to cutting programs ). And that isn't even considering the fact that increased borrowing lowers your credit rating and forces higher interest payments, or that the interest payments go directly to big lenders/banks. and so could be considered a give-away to the rich ( and the people who got bailed out by governments after 2008-9 ). I'm sure Canada as a whole, is in much the same situation as Ontario with its debt. Ironically Alberta/Saskatchewan probably are not. As for pipelines, I agree that AGW is a major issue and something need to be done about it sooner rather than later. However I expect a government for ALL people. If the Government proposed a tax to install quick charge plugs at every gas station and every home, so that people can make the switch to E-cars, I wouldn't have a problem with that. What our 'progressive' parties are proposing instead is a tax on usage, so that the wealthy ( J Trudeau used two older fuel inefficient jets in his campaign ) who can afford it can go on polluting while the poorer middle class suffers. Things like mass transit may be practical in big cities, but try making do without a truck in Alberta. It is inexcusable that we should ask Westerners to give up their livelihood and suffer ( without any real plan ) so that the rest of us can stick to our ideals and be 'good' environmentalists (yes I mean you Quebec ) while still receiving equalization payments from Alberta. You may wonder what this has to do with pipelines ( sorry for the long-windedness ), but pipelines are still the safest way to transport oil, and until an actual plan to reduce oil dependency and GHG emission reduction is proposed/implemented, instead of no plan to actually reduce emissions and simply collecting more money for Government/rich people, they are our safest bet. I also have an issue with J Singh, and his refusal to bring up Quebec's discriminatory Religious freedom bill. Why didn't he ask " what do you find so offensive about my turban ?". Or are his ideals of rights and freedoms easily compromised by the lure of gaining/not losing seats in Quebec ? I can see your point of view ( except for the Greens aligning with Conservatives, please explain ), but a Government needs to be for ALL the people. While J Trudeau attacked the Conservatives for spreading fear and being divisive, everyone of his speeches mentioned fear of what a Conservative Government 'might' do, and have divided the country more than it has ever been. ( maybe it had to do with the fact that Liberal and Conservative platforms were very similar, so they had no other talking points )

The fact that A Sheer couldn't win against a 'damaged' Prime Minister like J Trudeau ( whose only kept promise is the bungled legalization of pot, and a multitude of scandals ) doesn't bode well for him; we may just see P Mackay leading the Conservatives in the next election. J Singh is a likeable enough person ( not as weasel-y as the others ) but he reduced the NDP seat count by almost half; his chances don't look good for 2023 either. M Bernier and his party are toast, but E May comes across as sincerely believing her vision for the future of Canada, and will be around. I don't even know what a provincial party like the BQ is doing, running in a federal election, as they certainly don't represent anyone outside Quebec, but Y-F Blachett has brought the BQ back as a regional power and again raises the specter of separation. And when you combine that with the solid 'blue as far as the eye can see' between the Ontario/Manitoba border and the Rockies of Western alienation, I don't see how this is good for Canada. I hope your optimism is warranted.

Just waiting around on the results of our election. I assume you've already voted and got results for your area, JC, and if you haven't gotten out yet Rangerx, make sure you go vote. I may have a preference of our 5 main parties ( depending on criteria for 'party' ) but I sure am glad none of ours sink to the level of some American parties ( and even some of the Brits' ). "Get over it" you Americans. ( to quote your President's Chief of Staff )

It doesn't really work that way. Any population will have varying degrees of resistance to antibiotic agents, such that !0 % ( as an example ) would be completely impervious to that agent; even your so-called weaker breed. Once the 90 % that are affected are killed off, the remaining 10 % will spawn a generation of bacteria that is immune o that specific agent. Once the agent is removed however, over a period of time, random processes reintroduce weaker strains that are sensitive to that agent again. The usual therapy, that was used before/after my eye operations, is using one gent to kill 90 % of bacteria, leaving the 'stronger' 10 %,and after two weeks switch to another agent ( yes, most poisoning has a 'half-life' ) which may kill another 90 % of the 'stronger' strain. You now have 1 % remaining, and you can repeat with a third agent, if needed, and so on. This can be repeated until you run out of antibiotic agents, but you will never get rid of all the population.

Yes, Dimreepr, actually Its been a pretty trying weekend. And it may be affecting my posting. I'm glad to have friends who are concerned enough to ask. ( see Swansont, that's how it's done; I didn't consider Dim's question dickish at all )

Dickish ? What exactly are the implications of this... Why are you allowed to perceive my OP in the worst possible way, but I'm not allowed to infer anything from your above statement ? DICKISH ? The fact that you would equate my asking a question about a decision that you made, and the possible reasoning behind it ( which could include a stressful day ) with 'calling you out', and me being 'dickish', says quite a bit more about your character than it does mine.

Sure, a downvote... A lot easier than explaining why, or even if, someone is wrong. Really 'grown-up' way to conduct a discussion. My fault for not realizing that simply asking a question is equivalent to 'calling someone out' and being threatened with a rule violation.

I simply asked the question as I didn't know the answer. ( that's not against the rules is it ? ) At first I thought the snarky thread title may have put you off, but the fact that you perceive my asking a question as 'calling you out' indicates the title may not have been far off the mark.

I remember in Asimov's Nightfall; the planet followed a convoluted orbit about a multi-star system, such that night only came every thousand years. Night would bring darkness and a view of the stars. People lost their minds and their civilization ended with each cycle. Such planets exist in fiction; don't know about RL.

Don't send money through the mail. Send me a cheque. I asked because, up to now, the practice has been to move new posts to the appropriate forum...

There are people downloading movies who probably have.

A brand new member ( 0 post count ) misplaces his query about getting more heat from his outdoor fireplace, and his thread is shut down. Not moved from the Sandbox to the appropriate place, mind you, but 'closed to further replies'. Have we adopted a 'zero tolerance' approach since I was last on ?

You realize you can get 256GB flash drives, shipped ( free ) from Hong Kong or Taiwan for about $15. Mind you, this is quad level nand flash memory, not as ' as 'robust' as SLC, MLC, or even TLC flash; write ops are greatly reduced because reading the discrete levels becomes harder and harder after each successive write operation. I've found that they also 'seem' to be slightly more reliable using extFAT rather than NTFS. If you are just going to write massive amounts of data ONCE, and just read from them, they are perfectly adequate ( Just like CD-Rom/DVD/Blu-ray ). Oh, and get name brands ( Sandisk, Kingston, etc. )

I bet no one asks this silly question in all the other possibilities where there is 'nothing'.

Just to be argumentative ( because frankly, I don't care what you eat )... If everyone buys 'fresh', there will be a lot of spoiled and wasted food. :Fresh' doesn't usually last very long. I'll get scurvy because there won't be any 'fresh' fruit between October and May in Canada. And a lot of people that rely on transported foods will go hungry ( think wheat/ grains, meats, seasonal produce, etc ). It is modern technology, like cooling/freezing and preservatives, which allow food to be distributed to places which may not have any available, and to feed the world's population. ( I work for a company which makes/markets a non-flammable Phosphine based fumigant for grains/nuts/rice/etc. that will de-pest whole silos, and is applied from a cylinder ) It is only us gluttons in the western world that have the luxury of choice between 'fresh' and preserved/prepackaged

Justice is one of those concepts which has a 'common' definition which we, as a society agree upon and ( attempt to ) enforce (fairly, but often fail to ), and also an individual subjective definition. Same with the concept of 'rehabilitation'. What you, or I, or a Parole Officer consider 'rehabilitation' are totally different. Do I need to quote you Red's ( Morgan Freeman ) speech to the Parole Officer in The Shawshank Redemption ?

Just now.