War or fuel cells; You'd think the math was easy

A study reported by Marketwatch says that $200 billion in subsidies in addition to $145 billion from private sector investors could put millions of hydrogen fueled cars on the road over the next two decades. Petroleum would no longer be inflaming the world.

In contrast, the Iraq war has cost the US, in solely monetary terms, up to $25 billion per month, with low estimates clocking in at $10 billion. The US government could have subsidised the whole shot, and exceeded it's Kyoto targets, by spending the money with in it's own shores. Instead, it has gone from a budget surplus to a deficit exceeding $1 Trillion, is deeply embroiled in an unpopular war and paying ever higher gas prices. The man in charge, George W. Bush, will leave a legacy of failure, even of failing to capture the most infamous terrorist alive.

Osama bin Laden, the man behind the 9/11 attacks, is still free, and the Taliban are regaining strength after the US abandoned Afghanistan in favour of invading Iraq. Given the well known connections between the Bush and Bin Laden families, it would have been inopportune for G.W.Bush to be the president responsible for catching and executing the sons of one of his business partners.

To see this whole imbroglio as anything but the great game played by those heavily invested in oil is shorted sighted. Fortunately, the next generation of leaders don't sit on the Boards of directors of Exxon or BP.

Inappropriate Christmas blogpost

So what...I'm on vacation. Doing whatever I choose. And I choose to find memorable qoutes from the Futurama episode "X-Mas Story". The story centers around Fry's first Christmas in the 30th century and his encounter with Robot Santa Claus - mayhem ensues...

[singing]
Amy Wong: He knows when you are sleeping.
Professor Hubert Farnsworth: He knows when you're on the can.
Leela: He'll hunt you down and blast your ass / From here to Pakistan.
Dr. Zoidberg: Oh...
Hermes Conrad: You better not breathe / You better not move
Bender: You're better off dead, / I'm tellin' you, dude.
Fry: Santa Claus is gunning you down!

Santa Claus Robot: I'm going to tear off your skin like wrapping paper and deck the halls with your guts!

More of the Old "In-and-out"

The Conservatives appointed Marc Mayrand to head Elections Canada. Now their appointee has confirmed that only the Conservative party has used "in-and-out" funding in the last two General Elections. If this movement of funds was used to circumvent advertising restrictions, fines and jail time are a possibility.

For a government so avowedly focussed on law and order issues, they seem to play fast and loose with the laws that are supposed to keep the Government of the day in check. Or perhaps 'Peace, order and good government' doesn't apply to the Tories.

Still deadlocked- Tories and Grits

The statistically tied major parties continue to glare at each other, the Liberals following a defensive policy rather than trying to defeat the minority Conservatives. Despite the occasional outlier that usually shows a bounce for the Conservative party, they remain essentially tied.

I would have thought a spring election likely, as while Conservatives tend to show bounces in newspaper polls, the Liberals tend to bounce in general elections. However, an election will wait until Fall, now. A clue to such timing will be the results of the upcoming by-election in Westmount. The Liberals are fielding former Astronaut Marc Garneau. He will win, because Westmount is strongly Liberal. The question is how will the other parties fare?

A strong showing by the Greens or the NDP might actually lead to the Liberals continuing to avoid forcing a confidence vote. On the other hand, an exceptionally low Conservative vote might encourage the Opposition to bring down the Government. The problem facing all the parties is that Canadian's positions regarding policies have ossified around the parties. Liberals support Liberal policies, and Conservatives reject them

"Harper's reaction to the tax shift was to say Dion was "screwing the whole country,"

while the other parties hardly register on policy issues...NDP....Green...Bloq

Unfortunately, the vicious polarisation that characterises politics south of the border seems to have infected the House, which is why the Harper Government seems to do nothing but choose crudities to deride the positions of the other parties.

Governement by News Release: Harper at Toyako

So Mr Harper attended the G8 summit, and committed to cutting green house gas emissions in half by 2050. How he will do this is something of a mystery, since he wont be in power long before that date is reached. How about a 1% reduction per year for the first 4 years, then 1.3% thereafter, with an option to accelerate as the economy adapts to new energy sources?

But such a plan would require doing something, other than producing press releases that say global warming is bad, and increased oil production is good, and we should do something. And Canada's New Government is at it's best spinning news releases and avoiding questions.