Reader Tips

Steve Sailer:

"Punditry as male "If I ran the world" fantasy

Writing public affairs commentary is rather like running one of those fantasy sports franchises where you "draft" NFL players and then score points versus the other obsessives in your league based on how well your boys do on Sunday, while the women in your life (if any) roll their eyes. In other words, punditry is basically just something that guys do, like pretending they own a football team. It's pretending you run the world.

Granted, this is pretty pathetic. On the other hand, the people who actually do run the world are far less competent at their jobs than the people who run NFL teams, so there is some justification for commentary. On the other other hand, is there any evidence that the people who run the world learn from good commentary?

On the other other other hand, unlike in a fantasy football league, nobody keeps score in punditry to see if you are as smart as you say you are."

isteve.blogspot.com/2007/05/punditry-as-male-if-i-ran-world-fantasy.html

To which I'd answer: why don't we keep score?

Kate

Watershed moment eh?

If past behavior is any indication of future developments, the MSM will be reporting this story around 2020.

Ohhh...wait a sec...AGW will have wiped us out by then.

Forget that...i'm clearly out of my element.

Syncro

Lorrie Goldstein, again, is not afraid of revealing the truth.

Seems that Maggie Thatcher may have kicked off the Kyoto Kult thing. Mo and Susuki and the UN must have had supporting roles though, IMO.

VERY STRANGE BED FELLOWS

//www.torontosun.com/News/Columnists/Goldstein_Lorrie/2007/05/20/4194834-sun.html

"According to Nigel Lawson, chancellor of the exchequer and energy minister in Thatcher's cabinets, it resulted from a bizarre, temporary alliance of convenience between the right-wing Thatcher and left-wing radicals."

Careful what you ask for.

"By the mid-1980s, Thatcher had lost faith in coal and oil as secure energy sources for Great Britain, due to her confrontations with British mine workers and the oil crisis of the 1970s. Thatcher favoured nuclear power and upon learning that nukes, unlike coal and oil, didn't emit carbon dioxide, used it to forward her agenda."

Sounds like a politician, alright.

"Thatcher poured government money into research on global warming, creating the climate modelling unit that would serve as the basis for the now famous (or infamous) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change."

And then, along-came-Mann.

"Patrick Moore, the co-founder of Greenpeace who broke with the environmental movement over what he calls its increasingly "anti-human" views, says two things radicalized it in the 1980s, prompting many to jump on the global warming bandwagon."

La protest du jour crowd.

"By then, most people agreed with the sensible measures environmentalists were proposing and "the only way to remain anti-establishment was to adopt ever more extreme positions." Plus, "world communism failed, the wall came down (in 1989) and a lot of peaceniks and political activists moved into the environmental movement, bringing their neo-Marxism with them, and learned to use green language in a very clever way to cloak agendas that actually have more to do with anti-capitalism and anti-globalization than ... ecology or science."" Patrick Moore.

More extreem positions, alright. Think Paul Watson's human cull idea. Must pare down to a Billion, ya know.

"Prof. Philip Stott, a biogeographer at the University of London, says these radicals used global warming to "legitimize" their " anti-car, anti-growth, anti-development and, above all, anti ... U.S." agenda."

Also, think Parrish, Dion, Martin, Layton, Strong, Suzuki.

A Trillion light bulbs, non incandescent, of course, just came on. Thanks Lorrie. And Kate, for revealing this agenda thing the last few years.

Anyone who has not watched the Fred Thompson moment should do so - it has had me smiling for two days. What on earth is that man doing smoking tobacco in an office? Thank Heavens it was unlit, he could have damaged the filmers working with him for life!! One whiff is lethal. Where is Moore's outrage?

BTW I recently spoke to a person who went to Cuba in Feb.; he told me tourists can smoke anywhere they feel like smoking in Fidel's land of ban - only Cuban citizens are regulated - they don't have any power because the Cuban people do not spend hard currency. Communist flexibility.

I noted that Mr. Blackburn recently shut down the INDOOR smoking rooms of Federal employees - who knew? - only the 'entitled'. Federal employees were allowed to have indoor smoking rooms , in our cities, in Canada ...IN SPITE of all the blanket bans for the rest of us!! Things that should make taxpayers go humm?

Fred Thomson is my favorite for 2008.

In other news, have a look at Al Gore's computer setup. And I'm supposed to feel guilty about my computer habit?
link

Unionized Workers Disturb Catholic Mass

An English translation of this article. It's relatively brief, so I'll post it here.

Eighty unionized workers of the cemetary in Côte-des-Neiges (Montreal) are in lockout. On Sunday, they came to disturb the Mass comemorating the 350th anniversary of the arrival of Sulpician priests in Montreal, in front of Notre Dame Basilica in Montreal.

The Basilica and the cemetary are both by the "fabrique" (think "council") of the parish of Notre-Dame. The religious staff is made up of Sulpicians.

The workers wanted to get the attention of the Sulpicians, the dignitaries and of the greater public, for their cause.

Tens of whistles and sirens were sounded off. The noise replaced the usual contemplative atmosphere that is normally found during religious ceremonies.

The unionized workers voted on a mandate to strike, despite the lockout that has been in place for about a week.

Negotiations are on-going about the retirement plan, a four-day work-week, sub-contracting, compensation packages,and a guaranteed work-week of 36 weeks, for those temporary workers who only get 26 hours a week.

The union has 129 workers, 72 of which are seasonal.

If the conflict is not resolved in eight weeks, funeral homes will have to take charge of storing the bodies. The cemetary can receive 50 bodies a week, for a total capacity of 400 [per season, I imagine].

Ron

Well said...rotflmao!

Syncro

I saw a small, one paragraph story in the Toronto Sun that said that the Windsor Board of Education was starting an Arabic immersion program. Is it just me or is this not kinda backwards? Or is the preparing us government preparing us for when the muzzies take over?

Reader tip, I'm having big fun adding to the CO2 problem today, blasting things with my torch. So far two stubborn hinge pins and the pitman arm have yielded to the gentle ministrations of the gas wrench.

Big honkin' fun! Woo hoo!

A smoke wrench is a wonderfull thing.

Syncro

Oil, trees, copper and coal are natural resources that belong to all Canadians, yet aside from some trees, these valuables are entrusted to Corporations who have a responsibility to harvest them carefully and share the proceeds with us through taxes.

A few countries who enjoy great wealth from Oil even see fit to return an annual dividend directly to their citizens.

As a free enterpriser, I have run businesses and the profit to cost ratio has been somewhere in the 33% zone for services like retail trucking.

Oil, for some reason, seems to return far above any average business profit, after all taxes. Probably because it has been allowed to continue as a monopoly energy source for all activity in the country far beyond any reasonable term.

Exxon-Mobile has had the highest annual return of any corporation in North America for 2006.

Look at the cash register over at Exxon Mobil. The company has just posted 2006 profits (not revenue, which was an obscene $377.64 billion last year) of $39.5 billion. Aside from being the largest annual profit by a U.S. company, how much is that, exactly? $39.5 billion profit in one year = $39,500,000,000.00 = $759,615,384.62/week. That is almost 760 Million$ a week.

One has to wonder if when government needs extra money, that oil corporations reap extra profits.

Taxes are supposed to be for road upkeep, but I suspect the golden oil tax goose provides for far more than that one item.

I am just beginning to look into bio-fuels and am surprised to find the industry has been going for more than 20 years and is huge. Looking at bio-fuel outlets in the USA, I see most bio-fuel depots are for military and government fleet use.

That serves to help government avoid dependency on oil in a crisis and to avoid paying gasoline taxes to itself.

However, so far I know very little about all that goes on, including the LNG supertankers going to US Pacific ports from our little Kitimat here in BC.= TG

I've talked with a couple of conservative republicans and they assure me, in response to my question: "But is he conservative?".

Yes he is. Let's hope he runs and wins and wins - just like the Ottawa Senators.

TG . . its a no-brainer . just buy oil stocks and go along for the ride . .its been wonderful for the ol' RRSP.

Oil Companies always make money ? Nope.

I was in Edmonton in 1986. Devastating.

Oklahoma City too. Every thing was for sale. Depression.

It will happen again. Guaranteed.

Biofuels are no "secure" supply at all. Takes more fossil fuel BTUs to make them than what bioes yield.

Biofuels have been around for decades, yes, but have never got anywhere because they are a loosing battle ---- without govmit subsides. When the music stops, as it surely will, many will take a bath. Mostly greenies, I'm afraid.

"An on board biofuel 3 cyl 4 stroke genplant can extend the range anytime. anywhere." TG

In-town, 'golf cart type' trips, ok. But out on the highway --- different story.

Batteries dead in a few kilometers, due to the high draw the of the 15-20kw electric motor at highway speeds. Would then need a genplant alright. At minimum, a 60hp-20kw job. Sounds like a Civic 'gas job' --- except it now has to haul around a tonne of electrical equipment.

Ok TG since you started on the oil thing/bio fuel got to say my peace.(off topic)
How many people know at the start of WW2 Germany had no oil wells.
So where, did they get the oil?.
Well they had plants producing synthetic gas and diesel, and get this from Hydrogen and CO2
(nasty C02 green house gas) I didn’t believe it myself until I looked into it. They found it cheaper to make it all using coal so the hydrogen plants got phased out but not closed, and then it all got bombed out.
Peter

Like Fred Thompson, it is time for Harper to start making his salient points to the world via the internet as well.

The intense hatred that Canadian MSM holds for Harper and conservatism is breathtaking.

The onslaught will intensify as time passes and the lefty greenies, commie fellow travellers like the lesser Trudeau and even crypto-jihadists will have more favour from MSM than Harper can ever hope to get for his efforts to run a clean Canadian conservative administration.

Conservatism is a very dirty word in the lexicon of Canadian MSM, just as Fred Thompson understands it is (GOP) in the eyes of the US leftoid MSM.

Diamonds tell tale of comet that killed off the cavemen

Fireballs set half the planet ablaze, wiping out the mammoth and America's Stone Age hunters. ...-

To: Renfield

They even made a song about it:

You shake my nerves and you rattle my brain
Too much love drives a man insane
You broke my will, But what a thrill
Goodness, gracious, great balls of fire.* ...-
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1836898/posts
*H/T Jerry Lee Lewis

My dear Mr. Guitar. $39.5 billion profit on $377.64 billion revenue is 10.46%. Remember, you have to scale your rate factors to volume. I hardly consider that an unreasonable rate of return.

I share your interest in new technology and the future of electric cars, Tony, and there's great stuff in the pipe with nanotechnology, et cetera, but your predilection to corporatist conspiracy theories detracts, in my opinion, from your presentation. Not that I'm in favour of corporatists, either, but they are not equivalent to free-market capitalists.

In any large group of people, say, 1 or more, some people do good things some of the time, some most of the time, and some people do bad things some of the time, some most of the time. In my experience, and yes this is only anecdotal evidence, there are plenty of good and very good people working in all kinds of groups to make things better, and enough of the other kind to be a problem.

Those good people are not the problem, independent of the group they are working in. The two types of problems are (1) those who are doing bad things most of the time, and (2) those who do nothing but complain, without working on good things (resulting in a net loss of human results, because of the unoffset cost induced by our having to deal with their unbridled complaining).

Over the last few decades, as a software developer, I have been invited into the inner sancta of many different types of groups, such as business and government, to learn their methodologies, in order to instruct computers how to help them. I have not found, in my work with them, to choose your example, large petrochemical companies to be populated by either type 1 or type 2 problems. Indeed, in my experience, in general I have found more of those sorts of problems in governmental and public organizations than I have in private ones.

Anyway, please don't take the above as an attack, TG, we're on the same side. Just remember, the people who build the electric cars of the future will be businesses, just as they always have been, whenever they've been successful. Every time government tries, it's a disaster.

Why are bio-fuels used, as you say, mostly used by the government? Because they're not (yet, perhaps) cost effective, so the free market won't support them, so the state uses taxes to make up the difference. If the state wasn't wasting so much of our money on economic failures, then gasoline taxes wouldn't be five times higher than producer profits.

"Lenin truly admired Stalin's ruthlessness. "That is exactly the sort of person I need," he said."

Fine young criminal

Antony Beevor reviews Young Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore

This book is the prequel to Stalin: the Court of the Red Tsar, a rare event in the biography business. With the wisdom of hindsight, it might have been preferable for the two volumes to have appeared the other way round, but readers are unlikely to be disappointed. Young Stalin is a gripping read. The prose is a little breathless at times, especially at the ends of chapters, but Simon Sebag Montefiore's research, especially in the Georgian archives, is brilliant. The book provides a wealth of serious and scurrilous detail, creating a memorable portrait of one of the 20th century's greatest monsters.

It is worth quoting Montefiore's summary of the contrasts in this gangster-revolutionary:...-
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/05/10/bomon05.xml

By golly, I have to agree with Vitruvious on his last comment. The answer is out there but it is no one size fits all cure. I was watching Discovery Channel and a small piece on some scientists up the street at Rice University and their nano-technology. Seems that by using nano tech they can replace sulphur molacules in rubber with these engineered dudes and get a more plyable rubber. better tires mean better gas mileage, more traction and a safer ride. There were a lot of other ideas the world is working on that will ultimately improve transportation and the reliance on fossil fuels. It just takes time.

I wish I was a researcher for this study:

http://hotair.com/archives/2007/05/20/299-of-canadian-women-welcome-grinding-as-a-male-approach/

Vitruvious,

Points well taken. On volume like 377.6 Billion$, I should think everyone concearned would be extremely pleased with ROI of 10.6%.

Exxon and Chevron are in pursuit of good returns for their share holders and that is normal enough.

My questions are about how much windfall profit may occur when it is in the interest of government to encourage pump prices upward.

When government collects road taxes by reading our EV miles traveled every quarter, there will be NO upward pressure on electric rates.

In fact electric rates pressure will be downward. Cheaper rates, = more miles traveled, = more mileage tax collected. = TG

maz2: But where oh where is the delightful, delicious and delovely lberia (aka hhimmler, as he himself has been happy to accept)?
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/archives/006145.html#c162544

I would just like a bit more outrage that someone can happily comment using as a pseudonym the name of two of the last century's greatest murderers.

There were Mao and Pol Pot but I don't think they had a single secret police chief/interior minister quite as personally associated with mass murder. But I could be wrong.

Of course in the USSR there were also Yagoda and Yezhov.

Perhaps the fellow who is so happy to be identified with secret police mass murder chiefs might change his pseudonym to:
"yylbhh".

He is of course free to add other letters.

Mark
Ottawa

Al Gore's Got Video.

http://beingrightisnotwrong.com/2007/05/20/planet-saving-tip-23897/

Vit

Well said.

Syncro

Vitruvius: "Indeed, in my experience, in general I have found more of those sorts of problems in governmental and public organizations than I have in private ones."

Might be a matter of perspective/focus. I have found that the scope of the problem/solution/time-lines/business case can be more "easily" defined and addressed in private enterprise.

Within gov't/public funding seems to be the main concern ... which usually means vast overkill or under-kill. The academic environment is hopeless.

Tony - Would you be extremely pleased if you bought something for .59 cents sold it 1.00 and had to give the government .34 cents off the top ... and pocket .07 cents? Multiplying the amounts does not change the proportion.

On the contrary, my dear, enlarging the numbers changes the margin for government and who is the Oil industry to protest, that while percentages relative remain the same, the larger over all numbers please both Ottawa collectors and big oil no end. = TG

Tony,

The margins are the same - the overall take is bigger for the gov't. But what the hell ... this is what the sun deniers want for us. BTW: What do you think the next target will be? I'm betting electricity.

*
Is it really the long weekend... without a big chunk of hash
and the all-time definitive report on UFO sightings?

*

Electricity is the next target already in Tontario . . eh?

BTW,, Honda thinks they are a target of the feds and they are having a fit about their *Fit* model not qualifying for the $1000 rebate.

So much so that they are taking ads of protest out against the feds.

** The Canadian province of Ottawa government is learning the hard way that one does not mess with Honda Canada. We reported last month that the automaker was irritated its Fit just missed qualifying for a federal ecoAUTO rebate of $1,000 CDN that was established to promote the purchase of fuel efficient cars.

The rebate applies to new cars that use less than 6.5 liters of gas for every 100 kilometers driven. The Honda Fit uses 6.6 liters/100km, which means shoppers who purchase a Fit aren't eligible for the $1,000 rebate.** More good stuff at:
================
autoblog.com/page/2/

**Though it has voiced its concerns to Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, Honda is stepping out and fighting back. The company has bought ad space in newspapers across Canada and is publishing an open letter that criticizes the Canadian government's rebate program.**
================

= TG

Ahem, Sorry to rain on your parade Vitruvious and Tony G, but ROI is based on invested capital divided by net profits. Your calculation shows margin on total sales.

No one in their right mind today would even think about putting up the capital investment employed by a typical Oil Co. Mind you, accelerated depreciation and write-offs help to a great degree.

You both love math problems - if you were Rev Canada - tell us which you would prefer. GST on 60 cents/litre or on $1.20/litre???

What we see at the pump is the result of the incestious relationship that all levels of Governments have with Oil Co's.

Peter,

You are so right about seeing the point with Ottawa and oil. You do get it!

Don*t worry about the loose use of ROI, it was just a messy spash of genrality and nothing at all hair - splittingly accurate. = TG

Peter,

I'm not a bean counter. However, I assume that profit is what is left over once all sales are made and less all expenses/costs are paid (amortized over what ever period).

When I do it for myself it kinda aligns to the penny.

My oath - talking about taxes and profit in the same sentence. Taxes are taxes - they produce nothing ... they are a burden ... absolutely no value-add ... none ... in fact, it costs to collect them ... no risk ... no competition.

Compare that with any free enterprise.

The British Conservatives have made some changes.

Check out their new logo. Gone is the torch - replaced with an unformed, undefined green smeer on a stick. www.conservatives.com

Their new logo: "Vote Blue - Go Green".

Triangualtion at work. God help us if our Tories are denied their majority in the next election - the voices for this kind of green idiocy here might become overpowering.

is you a wag?

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070520/afghan_poll_070520/20070520?hub=TopStories

I put this along with voting for climate change.

Poll: "The source of news info that deserves the most trust is:
16% Internet
4% Magazines
28% Newspapers
12% Radio
41% Television

http://www.mytelus.com/new_homepage/

In other breaking news....41% of Canadians are brain dead, lazy, suckhole, smug.......ummm....well...you know who you are.

Warren...jason...

Syncro

Peter, I spoke of a rate of return, not the rate of return on investment. There are many ways to take the derivative of return.

Also, if the price of gas doubles, that does not imply that GST returns double, because most people will take the money out of some other category of spending that would have been subject to the GST. Only if the additional expenditure comes out of funds that would have otherwise been saved and invested does the tax man see a difference, and then only until other taxes, such as capital gains, kick in. As the Beatles sang, "declare the pennies on your eyes".

Anyway, I do agree, Peter, that the worst of all, at least from the perspective of the free-market capitalist, is when the corporatists get in bed with the statists. To the extent that we can diminish the power of the statists and corporatists, and increase the power of the free-market capitalists, we will see a net benefit.

Socialism: The Host, The Parasites, and the Red-Green Vulture.

Who would kill the Host? What is the motive for the killing?
...-

Rowers feast on Davis' kindness

[...]

The environment, however, was the top priority of Davis, 66, the son of a wealthy Toronto businessman who donated millions to such environmental agencies as the World Wildlife Fund and the Sierra Club of Canada. Active and remarkably fit, Davis would spend three months annually in remote northern Canadian locales. "I don't think he was ever as happy as when he could look as far as the eye could see and see no trace of other people whatsoever," said Green Party Leader Elizabeth May....-
http://torontosun.com/News/Canada/2007/05/21/4196633-sun.html

Mao Stlong in Beijing sends gleetings to all Owimpicers: Bring plenty cash. We supply protection\bullets for organ harvest.
...-

China set to severely punish Olympic 'troublemakers'

A leaked speech by a police commander in charge of security at the 2008 Beijing Olympics has disclosed that the authorities fear mass protests by disaffected Chinese as the biggest threat to the Games. ...-
national newswatch

Shootouts. Anarchy is shootouts. Are the shooters registered/legal guns?
...-

Teen near death after shootout [Toronto, Canada]

A wild shootout on the streets of Kensington Market early yesterday sprayed bullets down a residential street, tore holes through several cars and left a teenager near death. (canoe news)
...-

Lebanese army battles (Islamist) militants, 8 civilians dead

NAHR AL-BARED, Lebanon (Reuters) - Lebanese tanks shelled Islamist militants in a Palestinian refugee camp on Monday and at least eight civilians were killed, raising the death toll in two days of fighting to 65, security sources said. Tanks pounded the coastal camp of Nahr al-Bared, home to some 40,000 refugees in north Lebanon, as fighters of the al Qaeda-inspired Fatah al-Islam group fired grenades and machineguns at army posts on the perimeter, witnesses said. The Sunni Muslim faction, which emerged late last year, has only a few hundred fighters and scant political support in Lebanon, but appears to be...-
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1837050/posts

Agree with Joe Molnar. It's time for Harper to do some key messaging on the internet. There is no better way can he get out the plain unspun facts.

The MSM even have the gall to forge different meanings into actual speeches he gives. It's as if the words he uses have dual meanings according to what they want them to be to fit their agenda.

This is shameful behavior yes but it also very dangerous in a Democracy to have the MSM skewing the facts and manipulating opinion.
It's the stuff of Banana Republics.

When we see the likes of Strawhead Delacourt and Schnozzola Travers on Donny Newman we know the crap will flow. We also know, and they don't know, that we are onto them and they look like a bunch of tired old retreads, well past their prime.
But we must listen to their all-knowing rants and spins for no other reason than to call them on every outrageous statement they make.

Has anyone noted all the old Liberal stalwarts like Tobin and Manley are largely silent? They are not running around singing Dion's praises because they know the truth about what's transpiring in their Party.
This of course makes the job of the MSM much tougher in their attempts to smear the Conservatives and get their beloved Libranos back on the wine and dine circuit.

Message from Mao Stlong in Beijing: Holy cats; CarBQ. Ho, Paul Martin, Jr., old buddy, old PayPal; get me outta here ... socialism is not what it is reputed to be.
...-

Villagers riot in China, attack officials, burn cars
[...]
The protests were linked to local government moves to intensify family-planning policies, villagers said. Some couples with more than one child must pay fines of up to tens of thousand yuan (thousands of dollars), the villagers said.

China launched its one-child policy in 1980 to curb a ballooning population, now at more than 1.3 billion. The restrictions, which vary from city to countryside, have bolstered a traditional preference for boys and have drawn fire from Western countries and human rights watchdogs after widespread reports of forced abortions and female infanticide. ...-
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSPEK34284620070521?feedType=RSS&rpc=22

Some group of American professors are saying that the spontaneous growth of the Internet is the root cause of all the troubles we've read about relating to spam and security breaches.

Here's the money shot:

"The real hitch? Ask telecommunications companies such as Bell and AT&T, which became Internet providers in the mid-1990s in the hopes of making huge fortunes. 'One of the dirty little secrets of the network is that the network infrastructure is not economically sustainable or profitable,' Prof. McKeown says.

"In fact, he wonders if the only economically sustainable model for the Internet may be a nationally funded or regulated infrastructure – or some sort of government monopoly. (Though he adds that, 'in the current economic and political climate' of the U.S., proposing this idea 'is nearly suicide.')

"Another thorny issue facing advocates of a 'clean slate' approach to the Internet is how to balance privacy and security concerns. Making the network less open to spam and viruses, for example, also means curtailing the freedom and anonymity of the Internet."

Bump & Grind.

If you run a blogsite that often makes cutting revelations about Librano$ and leftist National Dipstick types, you may be in the market for a bullet-proof set of wheels.

Would you prefer a light *Gurkha* or a dark *Balkan*? Your choice... click TG below for photos. = TG

Taliban Jack Layton-NDP is in deep mourning. AP, aka Assoc. Press, will not admit/say that the taliban are Muslim Islamist murderers.
...-

25 suspected Taliban killed in clash
By RAHIM FAIEZ

KABUL (AP) - Insurgents ambushed a U.S.-led coalition and Afghan patrol in the volatile south, sparking a battle and air strikes that killed 25 suspected insurgents, officials said Monday....-
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/War_Terror/2007/05/20/4195335-ap.html

Newfoundland to review faulty [breast] cancer testing

ST. JOHN'S -- Responding to mounting pressure to explain years of faulty breast cancer testing and incomplete information disclosure, Newfoundland and Labrador's Health Minister says he will announce the details and scope of a review by next week. (google news) ...-

More than 300 NL patients got wrong results, 36 have since died ChronicleHerald-ca
...-

Geography Question: Who is the Premier of Newfoundland-Labrador*?

* premier@gov.nl.ca [aka D. Williams, aka Shyster Williams]

News Releases [sic]
Atlantic Accord 2005
February 14, 2005

PRIME MINISTER PAUL MARTIN AND PREMIER DANNY WILLIAMS
CELEBRATE NEW REVENUE SHARING ARRANGEMENT
http://www.gov.nl.ca/atlanticaccord/releases.htm
[sic]

Vitruvius wrote on May 20, 2007 8:47 PM

>>> $39.5 billion profit on $377.64 billion revenue is 10.46%. Remember, you have to scale your rate factors to volume. I hardly consider that an unreasonable rate of return.

Peter says: The last sentence clearly states;
>>> that the 10.46% is hardly an unreasonable rate of return

But 'rate of return' always implies return on imvestment. MARGIN (or profit margin) is the residual after costs and expenses.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Vitruvius also wrote on May 21, 2007 6:23 AM

>>Peter, I spoke of a rate of return, not the rate of return on investment. There are many ways to take the derivative of return.

Peter says: see posting above. And also - there is no such term 'derivative of return' used in accounting.

Vitruvius also wrote;
>>> Also, if the price of gas doubles, that does not imply that GST returns double, because most people will take the money out of some other category of spending that would have been subject to the GST. Only if the additional expenditure comes out of funds that would have otherwise been saved and invested does the tax man see a difference, and then only until other taxes, such as capital gains, kick in.

Peter wonders; what the hell Vitruvius is trying to say here???
>>> It matters not which pocket you take it out of - you will still pay 7% GST on the invoice price.
$0.60 x 7% = $0.042/litre.
$1.20 x 7% = $0.084/litre.
The calculation above does not 'imply' that the GST is doubled, it just proves that you have been screwed out of 8.4 cents a litre and don't know it!!!

------------------------------------------
ural wrote on May 21, 2007 12:48 AM

I'm not a bean counter. However, I assume that profit is what is left over once all sales are made and less all expenses/costs are paid (amortized over what ever period).

Peter says: ural - for a non bean counter you are right on the money, you get the free trip to Disney World!!!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Peter says: the moral of the issue is; don't try and confuse a bean-counter with figures!!!

Both the comedy and the pain of numbers is fully appreciated. And appreciation is the unfortunate main theme. = TG