Rob, there's a rule in the blogosphere: the 1st person to bring up Hitler in a discussion thread automatically loses the argument. Congrats on opening and surrendering on the very first post! That's got to be a record.

And while we're speaking of the record, do you *seriously* think that you are on the side of logic and reason? I've got three words for you pal: Read a book. Heck, read several. You're very far behind.

Jason Whiting

To defend my position that the Minister of the Environment looks ridiculous in a suit standing on top of mountain. 

Strange, really. 

I've flown over the rockies on my way to Victoria a couple years back to attend a conference. The view of the rockies from the air is quite striking. Mostly the intensity of the clear cuts everywhere. I am surprised environment canada/conserative party of canada was able find a spot in the rockies that hasnt been clear cut. Or perhaps the clear cut was just outside the field of view.

"I've flown over the rockies on my way to Victoria a couple years back to attend a conference."

You once saw the Rockies out the window from business class? On the way to a conference? Are you sure it wasn't the Pacific Coast Range? It's kind of hard to tell from 32,000 feet.

Yup, those trees will never grow back. Ever. And not even a Starbuck's where you can get a decent double vente Frappacino. That pretty much describes the Rockies (or whatever you thought you were looking at).

If this little vignette doesn't perfectly sum up many urban liberals' experience of the real world, I don't know what does. LOL!

West Jet, so I don’t think they have class sections it’s all the same, yes, conference for the International Society for Ecological Restoration/Canadian Reclamation Association in Victoria, I was presenting some research there. I know which mountains are which, though I have no proof of that.

Considering my education is in ecology and botany, I realize full well trees grow back but my post never said they didn’t. As you have no doubt know, a spruce typically leaves over 100 years, generally between the 200-300 range for picea glauca and marianna it takes more than a few years to reach a mature stand following a clear cut. Never the less the point of my post is that there are an awful lot of clear cuts in the Rockies.

Don't drink coffee and refuse to go to mega chains if I did. My home town is Ashern Manitoba Canada, and if you care not to look it up, it’s a rural ranching community of approximately 800 people. So, you are yet again wrong in your assumptions......Though it’s good to see that you like posting about things that you have no idea of.....

Rob's posts here are deliberately provocative and outrageous to keep us busy arguing with him and distract us from doing what we do -- what you clearly do -- that might actually make a difference. He's posting from Bismarck, ND, where he runs a right-wing blog and diddles around on other blogs pretending to be something he's not. I can provide URL & email address if anybody would like to engage him directly on his home turf.

I, too have been shocked by the extent and degree of clear-cuts, both flying over and on the ground. It was a sickening feeling to stand on the slopes of the Pacific coast of Vancouver Island surrounded by ragged stumps. "Clear cut" suggests surgical precision. It's not. It's shattered and messy and wasteful. I had the distinct sense that in a steady rain the whole thing would come loose and slide right into the sea. This is a case where the reality check of seeing the checker-board of stripped mountainside might actually justify the flight!

Some people can only think in black and white, red and blue, liberal and conservative. This is one of the reasons Rob has such troubles with environmental issues, he sees them as a left-wing issue, a socialist agenda etc... 

Then again, if your target demographic largely consists of 8-year-olds, you may be on to something?

Very clever, Rob. You're clearly the maturest person here. And the funniest! You deserve a Gold Star. Heck, you are a star! We're just so glad that, though you're obviously a very mature person with lots of important grown-up things to do, you still take the time out of your busy schedule to grace us with your witty--but mature--reparte. The one about the Central Planning Committee? Priceless! The one about Hitler? Brilliant! Totally original! How do you come up with this stuff? Are all your "friends" as witty as you?

My 4 year old can already surf the web -- maybe this is an audience I'm overlooking. Hmmmm. Thanks for the suggestion!

I have decided to place my deposit on an attractively priced pre-owned off-road equipped Hummer H2, which has caught my eye at my local GM dealer. I intend to drive it with a clear conscience, while I peel out of the lot, doing a 100 yard burnout.

Plowing my new Hummer through pristine fields of daisies won't hold a candle to your wanton destruction of the planet by having children -- children that you allow to use electrical appliances, like your computer; children that fill our sewers with their excrement; children that devour food from dwindling arable land, like locusts; children that flush toilets, turn on lights, ride in elevators, use central heating and exhale deadly "greenhouse gasses" twenty-four hours a day for their entire lives.

At least my Hummer will not be spewing hateful "greenhouse gasses" when the key is not in the ignition -- which is more than I can say for your kid.

While you piously waggle your finger at anyone who criticises your ideology, maybe you should consider who the real eco-criminal is here, breeder.

You are a deeply disturbed person, Rob.

That's pretty rich, coming from someone who's raping our planet by adding to overpopulation.

Time for you to practise what you preach.

Says the hypocrite who is wasting energy by using a computer to spout useless nonsense.

Rob, you're the one adding to the greenhouse gas problem with all the hot air you spew out of your mouth.

Before you start flinging mud, Rob, get your facts straight. You don't know how many kids any of us have got. I don't know about Kevin, but I stopped at one. I am beginning to wish your mother had passed on parenthood altogether!

Hey Rob, aren't you a little worried about how the changing climate may be affecting North Dakota? Abnormally dry a year ago, and some drought conditions now. Is this a trend you really want to make worse?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,206222,00.html

July 2006:
...An area stretching from south central North Dakota to central South Dakota is the most drought-stricken region in the nation, Svoboda said...

...Brad Rippey, a federal Agriculture Department meteorologist in Washington, said this year's drought is continuing one that started in the late 1990s. "The 1999 to 2006 drought ranks only behind the 1930s and the 1950s. It's the third-worst drought on record — period," Rippey said...

http://drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html

...showing everyone how darned grown up you are. Stop it, you're embarrassing us. Really.

Ugh. VJ, that visual you gave with Baird in the same wetsuit as Day wore made me sick to my stomach! :S

Ditto on that, Stephen!

Sorry! :D