[tomder55]

If my benefits are excluded from taxation then I guess the government thinks it's OK to tax my employer instead to compensate for the tax loss ? You see ,under the old arrangement ,employer provided benefits are tax deductible to the employer and non taxable to the employee. But you see taxing the employer as a way to force employers to pay for your policies .

[talaniman]

I have been saying all along that employers don't have to pay a tax for rising costs. Even the larger employers are restructuring how they pay for health care and seeing more bang for the buck and saving more money to boot.

Issues in S and T, Summer 2003, Restructuring the U.S. Health Care System

Such reform, seemingly utopian now, may eventually gain wide support as the failure of market-based health care services to meet the public's need becomes increasingly evident, and as the ethical values of the medical profession continue to erode in the rising tide of commercialism.

[speechlesstx]

Well that's a nice way to put it...

Germany’s Effort at Clean Energy Proves Complex

Ya think?

It is an audacious undertaking with wide and deep support in Germany: shut down the nation’s nuclear power plants, wean the country from coal and promote a wholesale shift to renewable energy sources.

Irina Lucke spent most of last year on the low sandy island of Borkum in the North Sea supervising the assembly of the 30 soaring turbines that form the wind farm, which probably will not generate electricity until next year.

But the plan, backed by Chancellor Angela Merkel and opposition parties alike, is running into problems in execution that are forcing Germans to come face to face with the costs and complexities of sticking to their principles.

German families are being hit by rapidly increasing electricity rates, to the point where growing numbers of them can no longer afford to pay the bill. Businesses are more and more worried that their energy costs will put them at a disadvantage to competitors in nations with lower energy costs, and some energy-intensive industries have begun to shun the country because they fear steeper costs ahead.

Newly constructed offshore wind farms churn unconnected to an energy grid still in need of expansion. And despite all the costs, carbon emissions actually rose last year as reserve coal-burning plants were fired up to close gaps in energy supplies.

A new phrase, “energy poverty,” has entered the lexicon.

“Often, I don’t go into my living room in order to save electricity,” said Olaf Taeuber, 55, who manages a fleet of vehicles for a social services provider in Berlin. “You feel the pain in your pocketbook.”

Mr. Taeuber relies on just a single five-watt bulb that gives off what he calls a “cozy” glow to light his kitchen when he comes home at night. If in real need, he switches on a neon tube, which uses all of 25 watts.

Mr. Taeuber may not have any light at home but at least he has cleaner air. No wait, emissions actually ROSE last year. So what exactly does he have now? Does anyone care, or are you happy that ridiculous progressive energy policies are taking people back to the stone age?

[paraclete]

Well that's a nice way to put it...

Ya think?

Mr. Taeuber may not have any light at home but at least he has cleaner air. No wait, emissions actually ROSE last year. So what exactly does he have now? Does anyone care, or are you happy that ridiculous progressive energy policies are taking people back to the stone age?

It is a fact of life that we are all paying for Thatcher's jaunt into nuclear energy and the fable that Global warming would be the result if we didn't. It must be tough for german's. Here we also know what a 250% increase in power prices means after the society went mad with solar installations but interestingly we haven't built any coal fired power stations or any nuclear ones either and we haven't regressed to the stone age

[tomder55]

Well that's a nice way to put it...

Germany’s Effort at Clean Energy Proves Complex

Ya think?



Mr. Taeuber may not have any light at home but at least he has cleaner air. No wait, emissions actually ROSE last year. So what exactly does he have now? Does anyone care, or are you happy that ridiculous progressive energy policies are taking people back to the stone age?

We are well on our way to a same fate..
New Rules On Power Plants Will Kill Coal Industry - Investors.com

Maybe all those laid off coal workers can get jobs building bridges and roads, to their former plants and mines.

[paraclete]

Well maybe they will or they will build wind turbines and nuclear plants

[NeedKarma]

maybe all those laid off coal workers

I wonder whatever happened to those horse carriage manufacturers... their jobs should have been preserved!

[paraclete]

I wonder whatever happened to those horse carriage manufacturers...their jobs should have been preserved!

Well they became auto workers but what happened to the farriers?

[tomder55]

Did they replace the horse carriage before the auto was viable ? The trouble with libs is they put the cart before the horse.

[tomder55]

well maybe they will or they will build wind turbines and nuclear plants

Wind turbines are inefficient blights on the landscape . Nukes work for me ;but everyone has developed a phobia about them.

[Tuttyd]

You can continue tqalking with yourself....I was't talking to you then....and you still don't get it...and I'm not talking with you about it either since you don't want to go back and read the conversation....

I understand the part about talking to oneself and the bit about going back and reading the conservation. However, the rest of your sentence is largely unintelligible.

I have already read the conservation and rereading changes nothing in relation to your social Darwinism. I also invited you to defend this position. More specifically in relation to natural order and sterilization

You have the microphone. Go for it.

[paraclete]

wind turbines are inefficient blights on the landscape . Nukes work for me ;but everyone has developed a phobia about them.

Tom nuclear is both expensive and as we have seen with Fukashima fraught with problems when things go wrong, not to mention the difficulty of disposal of waste, not enough wars to spread the spent uranium over the planet

Solar is becoming viable but of course only in certain parts of the planet and wind really only blows enough in a few inhospitable places but neither solar or wind are long term solutions. I love hydro myself, build a hydro generator and you have it for a century but the environmentalists won't let you build dams

[paraclete]

surprise, surprise!

Now they tell us once again, global warming is actually happening and guess who caused it? I'm wondering why do we need to be told this over and over again, and now there will be no ice at the North Pole in the summer of 2050, well I don't know about you but I don't think I will be here to check whether this prediction comes true and if their predictions are anywhere near true nor will the rest of us because the unstated consequences of that piece of computer extrapolation are somewhat dire and I haven't heard anyone mention permafrost, did they forget about that? No Ice at the poles means massive release of methane and maybe they haven't noticed, it is a greenhouse gas

Another wonderful prediction; Australia will have 100 days above 20 degrees Celsius, guess what, scientific dudes have you asked anyone here what the weather is like, like we have at least 240 days of SUNSHINE now and it is early spring and the temperature is over 20 degrees in some places it is even 33 degrees C

[smoothy]

I understand the part about talking to oneself and the bit about going back and reading the conservation. However, the rest of your sentence is largely unintelligible.

I have already read the conservation and rereading changes nothing in relation to your social Darwinism. I also invited you to defend this position. More specifically in relation to natural order and sterilization

You have the microphone. Go for it.

I don't like repeating myself... and I was quite clear the first time.

[paraclete]

I don't like repeating myself...and I was quite clear the first time.

Don't worry smoothy, it takes a while for the signal to travel this far we haven't got the NBN yet

[Tuttyd]

I don't like repeating myself...and I was quite clear the first time.

You were not clear the first time. Some parts were decipherable, but the rest was unintelligible. Would you like to have another go at it?

[tomder55]

surprise, surprise!

now they tell us once again, global warming is actually happening and guess who caused it? I'm wondering why do we need to be told this over and over again, and now there will be no ice at the North Pole in the summer of 2050, well I don't know about you but I don't think I will be here to check whether this prediction comes true and if their predictions are anywhere near true nor will the rest of us because the unstated consequences of that piece of computer extrapolation are somewhat dire and I haven't heard anyone mention permafrost, did they forget about that? No Ice at the poles means massive release of methane and maybe they haven't noticed, it is a greenhouse gas

Another wonderful prediction; Australia will have 100 days above 20 degrees celcius, guess what, scientific dudes have you asked anyone here what the weather is like, like we have at least 240 days of SUNSHINE now and it is early spring and the temperature is over 20 degrees in some places it is even 33 degrees C

Throughout history the 'end of the world ' 'chicken little's' have been disappointed periodically that their predictions have not come true. So although this new IPPC report greatly dials back the alarm;they just can't help themselves in keeping their basic premise in tack ( warming is man made.. the science is settled... people who don't believe their orthodoxy are "deniers " [a not so subtle attempt to smear them with the same pejorative used for holocaust deniers] ) . Call it job security . The east side a Manhattan can be a great place to work ,and most government and nonprofit funding has gone to global warming alarmists .

[smoothy]

You were not clear the first time. Some parts were decipherable, but the rest was unintelligible. Would you like to have another go at it?

If you are as intelligent as you think, you could figure it out.

[speechlesstx]

Throughout history the 'end of the world ' 'chicken little's' have been disappointed periodically that their predictions have not come true. So although this new IPPC report greatly dials back the alarm;they just can't help themselves in keeping their basic premise in tack ( warming is man made ....,the science is settled.... people who don't believe their orthodoxy are "deniers " [a not so subtle attempt to smear them with the same pejorative used for holocaust deniers] ) . Call it job security . The east side a Manhattan can be a great place to work ,and most government and nonprofit funding has gone to global warming alarmists .

Funny how they retreat on previous claims but up the ante saying our only hope is geo-engineering.. Even odder is their apparent deep concern on how to address the actual data that puts a huge scientific kink in their agenda... yes, we can admit the politics of global warming trumps the science.

[Tuttyd]

If you are as intelligent as you think, you could figure it out.

I don't think I am intelligent and at no stage have I ever made such a claim.