Esau.

Since we don't have the video forum anymore, and this is worthy of sharing here it is.

Enjoy your sunday friends.

Parks are heritage assets. Ask First Nations Peoples.

I think his point is (and I could be wrong), why are the National Parks starving for funds, being subjected to cuts while things like snowmobile clubs (for example) are being considered "heritage assets" which tear up such places like our parks - see N.Bay area, 'crownlands' - are getting millions in funding. But, I'll leave the semantics to those who enjoy that stuff.

As for asking First Nations, I can say after living on a reserve for a year (with my g.f at the time, she's Cree) not many are too keen on any of it being called or deemed a Provincial or National Park. Look to places like Emmett Lake, Dundas Valley Conservation Area or Ipperwash, for example(s).

But, I get where your thinking is. Although, I was really only providing an example where a SNN member reports somewhat objectively (which is unheard of really).

[edit to add]

BTW, my semantics comment was directed towards you, just in general from recent conversations with friends about this and the way some folks play on that regarding this issue.

I guess this where the line really is.. $$$$

In malpractice case, Catholic hospital argues fetuses aren’t people

Lori Stodghill was 31-years old, seven-months pregnant with twin boys and feeling sick when she arrived at St. Thomas More hospital in Cañon City on New Year’s Day 2006. She was vomiting and short of breath and she passed out as she was being wheeled into an examination room. Medical staff tried to resuscitate her but, as became clear only later, a main artery feeding her lungs was clogged and the clog led to a massive heart attack. Stodghill’s obstetrician, Dr. Pelham Staples, who also happened to be the obstetrician on call for emergencies that night, never answered a page. His patient died at the hospital less than an hour after she arrived and her twins died in her womb.

In the aftermath of the tragedy, Stodghill’s husband Jeremy, a prison guard, filed a wrongful-death lawsuit on behalf of himself and the couple’s then-two-year-old daughter Elizabeth. Staples should have made it to the hospital, his lawyers argued, or at least instructed the frantic emergency room staff to perform a caesarian-section. The procedure likely would not have saved the mother, a testifying expert said, but it may have saved the twins.

The lead defendant in the case is Catholic Health Initiatives, the Englewood-based nonprofit that runs St. Thomas More Hospital as well as roughly 170 other health facilities in 17 states. Last year, the hospital chain reported national assets of $15 billion. The organization’s mission, according to its promotional literature, is to “nurture the healing ministry of the Church†and to be guided by “fidelity to the Gospel.†Toward those ends, Catholic Health facilities seek to follow the Ethical and Religious Directives of the Catholic Church authored by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Those rules have stirred controversy for decades, mainly for forbidding non-natural birth control and abortions. “Catholic health care ministry witnesses to the sanctity of life ‘from the moment of conception until death,’†the directives state. “The Church’s defense of life encompasses the unborn.â€

The directives can complicate business deals for Catholic Health, as they can for other Catholic health care providers, partly by spurring political resistance. In 2011, the Kentucky attorney general and governor nixed a plan in which Catholic Health sought to merge with and ultimately gain control of publicly funded hospitals in Louisville. The officials were reacting to citizen concerns that access to reproductive and end-of-life services would be curtailed. According to The Denver Post, similar fears slowed the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth’s plan over the last few years to buy out Exempla Lutheran Medical Center and Exempla Good Samaritan Medical Center in the Denver metro area.

But when it came to mounting a defense in the Stodghill case, Catholic Health’s lawyers effectively turned the Church directives on their head. Catholic organizations have for decades fought to change federal and state laws that fail to protect “unborn persons,†and Catholic Health’s lawyers in this case had the chance to set precedent bolstering anti-abortion legal arguments. Instead, they are arguing state law protects doctors from liability concerning unborn fetuses on grounds that those fetuses are not persons with legal rights.

As Jason Langley, an attorney with Denver-based Kennedy Childs, argued in one of the briefs he filed for the defense, the court “should not overturn the long-standing rule in Colorado that the term ‘person,’ as is used in the Wrongful Death Act, encompasses only individuals born alive. Colorado state courts define ‘person’ under the Act to include only those born alive. Therefore Plaintiffs cannot maintain wrongful death claims based on two unborn fetuses.â€

The Catholic Health attorneys have so far won decisions from Fremont County District Court Judge David M. Thorson and now-retired Colorado Court of Appeals Judge Arthur Roy.

In September, the Stodghills’ Aspen-based attorney Beth Krulewitch working with Denver-based attorney Dan Gerash appealed the case to the state Supreme Court. In their petition they argued that Judges Thorson and Roy overlooked key facts and set bad legal precedent that would open loopholes in Colorado’s malpractice law, relieving doctors of responsibility to patients whose viable fetuses are at risk.

Whether the high court decides to take the case, kick it back down to the appellate court for a second review or accept the decisions as they stand, the details of the arguments the lawyers involved have already mounted will likely renew debate about Church health care directives and trigger sharp reaction from activists on both sides of the debate looking to underline the apparent hypocrisy of Catholic Health’s defense.

At press time, Catholic Health did not return messages seeking comment. The Stodghills’ attorneys declined to comment while the case was still being considered for appeal.

The Supreme Court is set to decide whether to take the case in the next few weeks.

Bob Dylan

Hammersmith Odeon

London, England

13 February 1991

Disc 1:

01 Tangled Up In Blue

02 Lay Lady Lay

03 Masters Of War

04 The Man In Me

05 Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again

06 Wiggle Wiggle

07 Bob Dylan's Dream

08 To Ramona

09 Desolation Row

10 Gates Of Eden

(Total Time 45:30)

Disc 2:

01 Everything Is Broken

02 Man In The Long Black Coat

03 Seeing The Real You At Last

04 Shooting Star

05 God Knows

06 In The Garden

07 Like A Rolling Stone

08 Blowin' In The Wind

09 All Along The Watchtower

(Total Time 39:02)

Wow, this guy is something else..

Rob Ford: I'm humbled;

Reporter: Are you going to do anything different in counsel?

Rob Ford: No

So the ruling claims the amount of money was "insignificant" and not enough to warrant dismissal.

Yep. He won.

Looks like Ford might have won, although not confirmed.

Just saw this on twitter minutes ago..

Richard Ciano, Ford campaign manager Nick Kouvalis's partner, just tweeted: "Good day today."

judgement to appear here at 10:30

http://www.ontariocourts.ca/scj/en/about/judgments.htm

Here's a good example to what I was referring Pat. Akin's referring to an article by Jennifer Ditchburn about Canada's National Parks closing for the winter due to cuts.

Ditchburn’s story is particularly disturbing if you’ve been watching how Conservative MPs have been handing out cheques willy-nilly over the holidays. I’ve counted $600,000 handed out just since Nov. 1 from the federal treasury to fix up curling clubs across the country. And, as Ditchburn wryly notes, the federal regional economic development agency for Quebec has given snowmobile clubs in that province nearly $4 million [as I note in this blog post, Ottawa handed out more than $6 million to snowmobile clubs in the last Parliament] to buy trail grooming machines — while Environment Canada is starved of the funds to properly operate our national parks.

Perhaps the government will thank the volunteers Ditchburn reports on by giving them a tax credit too!

See link for entire article

Tax breaks to save heritage assets? What about our national parks?

Ok, I've deleted and now re-posted my reply to be more clear/relevant to your post. I misread your reply the first time. My apologies.

-----------------------

Out of curiosity, what other devices are available for those services?

As for vonage, after talking to a neighbour and friend who had it for awhile decided it wasn't for me. Neighbour is still in court over discovering a "phantom" number attached to her account (not 100% on what that is) and I prefer dealing with IT support based in Canada (more specifically, in Hamilton).

Anyway, where I am in Hamilton I have the choice between dial up from Bell and my cable provider (Source Cable), even Teksavvy isn't available to me.

With two telephone lines, internet and digital cable my bill is about $110-120 a month with no cap. I get 1000 minutes free LD (North America), and for some reason they have never charged us for calling my brother (in Scotland, UK), and my local calling area is really large. For example, I can call GTA, Port Dover, Brantford, to name a few, all locally.

Perhaps not the cheapest deal going, but it's all local and 100% Canadian. For me, that makes it worth it.

As mentioned HBO/AMC are part of my digital cable package (AMC part of basic even). As well TSN, TSN2, SNE, SNW, NFL, RSP and SN1 are included.

And when my computer craps out?

No use for netflix (Cdn or US version), same with Hulu, don't see the point in paying for numerous sports packages when all the games I want to watch, plus HBO Canada & AMC are on my basic cable - which is also how I get my telephone and internet.

Simpler solution would be to let me pick the channels I wish to watch and pay for them, instead of a package here, a package there and a VPN.

dump cable.

I would if I could get hockey/sports etc, fishing channel, HBO & AMC without it.

[edit to add]

What alternative would you suggest then?

I did read that AD, Coyne is one of numerous journalists I follow twitter, although I hardly agree with everything he reports/says I have to agree with him about that.

Coyne and Levant had quite a back and forth on twitter last night actually - Levant got owned. Coyne was clear, concise and most of all, rational in his views whereas Levant was simply making outlandish remarks, grasping at straws claiming they [sun news] were a hard hitting credible news source that produces more Canadian content then CTV. Generally making blanket statements with little to no weight at all, and whining about the "media party" going on and the vicious attacks against him, SNN and free speech. Near the end Levant said he would quote Coyne "verbatim!" on some remark he made in what appeared to be an attempt to discredit or shame him. Coyne's response was perfect: "Go for it. Meanwhile, I will be arguing for alienating the CBC subsidy and abolishing the CRTC. What will you be arguing for?"

It was quite entertaining.

I wasn't going to bother posting this here as I assumed most folks knew/know about trash TV's (Sun media - aka Fox News North) application for mandatory carriage on Canadian TV and how to go about filing an intervention with the CRTC. As they step up the misinformation and outright lies as they slowly sink I figured I may as well try and help counter. Currently it appears the general public is against this happening, but as we have all come to learn, as with our current gov't, the appearance of public general consensus isn't always as it seems. (rumor from anon grp is QMI is asking cpc MP/ministers for help) As well, our federal gov't never plays fair as we've seen with cpc ministers using gov't websites for partisan attacks (for example), but that's another story.

Of course noted Canadian racist Ezra Levant is on a verbal rampage, attacking everyone and any group that opposes it - even to the point of making fun of peoples living conditions, appearances or religious beliefs etc (unrelated: currently he's taking to making fun of Chief Spence's weight). The verbal diarrhea and hypocrisy coming from this hate monger is beyond reprehensible. No Canadian should be required to pay for the hate and racism he promotes, so this brings me to my point..

If you oppose (or support I suppose) being required to pay for this garbage on basic cable let the CRTC know by filing an intervention on their website, it's not hard and only takes a couple minutes.

https://services.crtc.gc.ca/pub/Intervention/Submission-Soumission

"Sun , he wrote, “is not, nor has it ever, asked for ‘mandatory carriage’ by cable or satellite companies.†Why, the very idea: “this would be tantamount to a tax on everyone with cable or satellite service.†- Former Sun vice-president & communications director for Harper, Kory Teneycke.

Shackleton's whiskey returned to Antarctic hut

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/01/19/shackleton-whiskey.html?cmp=rss

Talk about whisky on ice: Three bottles of rare, 19th century Scotch found beneath the floor boards of Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton's abandoned expedition base were returned to the polar continent Saturday after a distiller flew them to Scotland to recreate the long-lost recipe.

But not even New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, who personally returned the stash, got a taste of the contents of the bottles of Mackinlay's whisky, which were rediscovered 102 years after the explorer was forced to leave them behind.

"I think we're all tempted to crack it open and have a little drink ourselves now," Key joked at a ceremony handing over the bottles to Antarctic Heritage Trust officials at New Zealand's Antarctic base on Ross Island.

The whisky will be transferred by March from Ross Island to Shackleton's desolate hut at Cape Royds and replaced beneath the restored hut as part of a program to protect the legacy of the so-called heroic era of Antarctic exploration from 1898 to 1915.

Bottled in 1898 after the blend was aged 15 years, the Mackinlay bottles were among three crates of Scotch and two of brandy buried beneath a basic hut Shackleton had used during his dramatic 1907 Nimrod excursion to the Antarctic. The expedition failed to reach the South Pole but set a record at the time for reaching the farthest southern latitude. Shackleton was knighted after his return to Great Britain.

Shackleton's stash was discovered frozen in ice by conservationists in 2010. The crates were frozen solid after more than a century beneath the Antarctic surface.

But the bottles were found intact — and researchers could hear the whisky sloshing around inside. Antarctica's minus -30 Celsius) temperature was not enough to freeze the liquor.

'Such a lovely aroma'

The bottles remained unopened as they were returned Saturday — if Shackleton couldn't have a dram, no one could — but their contents nevertheless formed the basis for a revival of the blend.

Distiller Whyte & Mackay, which now owns the Mackinlay brand, chartered a private jet to take the bottles from the Antarctic operations headquarters in the New Zealand city of Christchurch to Scotland for analysis in 2011.

The recipe for the whisky had been lost. But Whyte & Mackay recreated a limited edition of 50,000 bottles, costing about $157 each. from a sample drawn with a syringe through a cork of one of the bottles. The conservation work of the Antarctic Heritage Trust has received five per cent of the proceeds from every bottle sold.

The original bottles had flown in two combination-locked containers with Key to Antarctica in a U.S. Air Force transport plane from Christchurch on Friday.

Antarctic Heritage Trust manager Lizzie Meek, who was part of the team that found the whisky, recalled its pleasant aroma.

"When you're used to working around things in that hut that perhaps are quite decayed and some of them don't have very nice smells, it's very nice to work with artifacts that have such a lovely aroma," Meek told the ceremony by radio from explorer Robert Scott's Antarctic hut which she is restoring.

"And definitely the aroma of whisky was around very strongly."

Another cpc minister just thumbing his nose at the rules and of course, the blame is someone else's.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2013/01/15/pol-ndp-leader-tom-mulair-power-politics.html

The Canadian International Development Agency has abruptly pulled partisan letters from its website after NDP Leader Tom Mulcair blasted the published correspondence as “highly partisan†and a breach of federal rules.

One of the letters, titled “Dear NDP: CIDA Does Not Need Your Economic Advice,†was dated Dec. 21, 2012, and signed by Minister Julian Fantino. It was penned in response to an article NDP critic Hélène Laverdière wrote for the Huffington Post.

“I find it ironic that the NDP, a party that wishes to impose a $21-billion carbon tax on Canadians and more than $50 billion in radical spending measures while we face global economic uncertainty, now wants to give advice to developing countries on their economic development,†the letter reads, after accusing the NDP of taking “their reckless economic sideshow to the developing world.â€

The letter goes on to outline work and positive results the Conservatives have achieved on the CIDA file.

Another letter took the Liberals to task and contrasted their policies with those of the Conservatives.

Addressing the issue on CBC News Network’s Power & Politics, Mulcair called the letter critical of the NDP a “clear violation of the rules.â€

“I’ve never seen that in my life — that a minister would use government property for a partisan political attack,†he told host Evan Solomon.

According to Treasury Board rules, government departments must inform the public about policies, programs, services and initiatives in an “accountable, non-partisan fashion consistent with the principles of Canadian parliamentary democracy and ministerial responsibility.â€

A spokeswoman for Fantino said posting the letter was a mistake.

“CIDA was asked to add appropriate web content and these were posted in error. CIDA has been asked to remove them immediately,†Meagan Murdoch wrote in an emailed statement to CBC News.

Mulcair also called the Conservative government’s decision to freeze future funding to Haiti pending a full review a “tragic mistake†and a “heartless approach.â€

“Take care of the money, follow the money, be there, have more people following it — but don’t punish the people who need the help right now. That’s a terrible approach,†he told Solomon about aid to the island nation still recovering from a devastating earthquake three years ago.

Mulcair was hosting his provincial leader counterparts in Ottawa Tuesday to discuss policy and ways to build the NDP’s support in Western Canada.

He told Power & Politics he supports Canada’s “limited approach†to send a C-17 military aircraft for one week to back the French-led mission in Mali — but insisted that any broader contribution will need to be debated in the House of Commons

“Anything else is going to have to go through Parliament. There’s been no request for a special debate on that so far,†he said.

Even though I support the idea, I'll never vote for this party again. They lost me when they originally proposed the mandatory minimums idea in the early-mid nineties.

They supported mandatory minimums just four years ago (C-15) but after Harper got his majority they were opposed to the idea in 2011.

Way too much flip flopping on this topic to trust them anymore. Liberals are just red conservatives now-a-days.

[edit to add]

Re: "consider" - nothing more then political double speak in an attempt to garner support for a party hanging onto life.

Unfortunately, I doubt we'll see this position filled anytime soon. If I was betting man I'd put my money on a handful of stealth changes coming this spring, and some positions fading to black. Like this department being dismantled in the name of saving taxpayers money.

Our country needs more folks like Kevin Page in gov't.

http://www.hilltimes.com/2013/01/14/feds-dragging-feet-on-finding-successor

Canada’s Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page, known in some parts as “dead man walking†for his hard-hitting, critical reports on government spending, will finish his term on March 24, but he says government appears to be dragging its feet on finding his successor.

“None of us know what’s going on,†said Mr. Page.

Mr. Page’s five-year appointment ends on March 24, and he has said that he would not be asking the government to renew his term.

“That process that starts to identify names hasn’t started yet, to my knowledge,†said Mr. Page.

The PBO works under the Library of Parliament, so Parliamentary Librarian Sonia L’Heureux is responsible for leading the search for Mr. Page’s successor. She is to work with a panel of experts, likely to be made up of former senior public servants and public administration experts, to interview candidates, and to come up with a short list of three.

Those three names will be submitted confidentially to the government through Government House Leader Peter Van Loan (York-Simcoe, Ont.), and the government will make the final decision, said Privy Council Office spokesperson Raymond Rivet.

The Privy Council Office would not confirm if the government has started its search for a replacement. The Library of Parliament did not respond to a request to interview Ms. L’Heureux.

In September, the Library of Parliament asked the Parliamentary Budget Office to update the qualifications for the position. Mr. Page said he did so and he has not heard what became of the information.

“What we strengthened is the language around knowledge and experience,†Mr. Page said of the revisions.

“This office is more than one person, but the next Parliamentary budget officer needs to be a person who has the experience and the knowledge, worked in the federal budget community and central agencies, knows what it’s like to put together a budget. That’s important, to decide what priorities need to be looked at for Parliament,†he explained.

Mr. Page is the first Parliamentary budget officer, and he was appointed in the spring of 2008. The position was created under the Federal Accountability Act, and pays between $139,900 and $164,500. The Parliamentary Budget Office has an annual budget of $2.8-million and a staff of 14.

“The government undertakes publicly-advertised, competency-based selection processes for most full-time and leadership positions appointed by the governor-in-council,†said Mr. Rivet.

The position does not appear on the government’s public service careers website, nor does it appear on any of the leading Canadian job search sites.

Consistent with other high-level government hiring processes, the Library of Parliament is likely to hire an executive search firm to help identify candidates, but a search of the government’s contract tendering website, Merx, did not indicate that a search firm has been chosen.

While the PBO is not involved in the selection process, Mr. Page said he has a few candidates in mind.

“I think I’ve made sure that we have succession opportunities. We have people in this office who can definitely take over and make sure the office continues to grow,†he said.

“Mostafa Askari, Sahir Khan and Chris Matier are three names of people with vast experience in the public service, working in central agencies, they have built this office over the past five years, are great public servants and are willing to take the job,†he added.

Mr. Askari is currently an assistant PBO and director general of economic and fiscal analysis. Mr. Kahn is also assistant PBO and the office’s director general of expenditure and revenue analysis, and Mr. Metier is the senior director of economic and fiscal analysis. They have each been with the office since its early days.

“It takes a special type of public servant to want to do this work given the weakness of the legislation. In my view, Mostafa Askari, Sahir Khan and Chris Matier are three names within the office that have the experience, that are willing to work in an environment even with the weak legislation,†he said.

After the PBO faced a $1-million budget shortfall in 2009, some say because Mr. Page was too independent and outspoken during his first year on the job, both the NDP and the Liberals began calling for the job to be made independent. Currently, the PBO serves at the pleasure of the Prime Minister, noted Mr. Page.

The NDP has introduced private members’ bills to make the PBO independent, but they haven’t made it past first reading.

“What we need is some real clarity on the position and its role within the Library or as a separate officer of Parliament. It’s been a murky, debatable, position,†said Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett (St. Paul’s, Ont.), a longtime member of Parliament’s Standing Joint Committee on the Library of Parliament.

It’s important to have strong Parliamentary watchdogs, said Carleton University public policy and administration professor Christopher Stoney.

“The bigger problem is that our Parliament is not doing a good job of holding anybody to account. … For better or for worse, we’ve shifted toward this sort of outside watchdog type of role. Given that we’ve done that, I think these positions have to have teeth and oversight, otherwise we’re left with no Parliament and no effective watchdog,†he explained.

Mr. Stoney said that the PBO’s work on costing government programs, such as the F-35 fighter jet program, has been “stellar.â€

“I think that Kevin Page has really revealed an awful lot in his time in office, at a large personal cost. He’s been called ‘dead man walking’ for a long time now. Anybody that kind of crosses this government is likely going to be given a hard time,†he said.

Ms. Bennett said that there’s no question that Mr. Page’s work has been “exceedingly important†to Parliamentarians.

“Things like the estimates, things like costing out bills, doing these things that allow us to do our jobs, and allow us to be accountable to Canadians,†she said.

During his tenure, the Parliamentary Budget Office has released reports costing the price of Canada’s mission in Afghanistan, the government’s crime legislation, the sustainability of Old Age Security, and purchasing the fighter jets. In the case of the F-35s and others, the government has tried to discredit his work when it contradicts their own numbers.

Last year when the PBO requested information from departments on how they intended to enact billions of dollars of spending cuts, Mr. Page was first stonewalled by Clerk of the Privy Council Wayne Wouters, and then told by Treasury Board President Tony Clement (Parry Sound-Muskoka, Ont.) and others that the request was outside of his mandate.

Mr. Page and the NDP are now at the Federal Court, asking for legal clarification of his mandate. The group appeared before the court Jan. 10.

“If we’re not working on the major files, we’re not being useful for Parliamentarians,†said Mr. Page.

He added that he is proud of the PBO’s working style.

“The way we’ve operated, in a very open and transparent fashion and a very analytical fashion, it’s the brand that we built at the office. We feel very proud about it. If somebody, like an Askari, a Khan or a Matier takes over, they were part of building this office, they believe in this brand,†he said.

The concern is the government will appoint someone less zealous than Mr. Page, who has built and defined the office, said Prof. Stoney.

“If they bring in somebody to do a sort of dampening, lowering of expectations, and turn it into a paper-shuffling department, then his legacy will be really gone,†he said.

Mr. Page said that he hasn’t heard anyone in the bureaucracy’s financial community express interest in the job, though there are a number of qualified people.

“I think part of it is they see the challenges, they see the opportunity, the dynamic, the cultural divide around transparency and the weakness in the legislation.

“A lot of these are career public servants, they fear as well that there’s no public service career after this job for them, potentially, if they do the job correctly. I think there’s some ambivalence in taking on this type of role,†he said.

Ms. Bennett said candor would be an important quality for Mr. Page’s successor.

“The ability to speak truth to power is something that obviously has been a real strength of Kevin Page. I think that we also want someone who understands the role of Parliament in our democracy and the need for Parliament to be able to hold the government to account. That it is someone who does believe that transparency and accountability is the hallmark of a democratic institution and a democratic country, and is prepared to play that role fearlessly,†she said.

If the government doesn’t appoint an interim or permanent Parliamentary budget officer in time, the work of the office would be frustrated, said Mr. Page. He said that while the PBO is under the Library of Parliament, the ability to present reports or speak for the office rests with the PBO and not with Ms. L’Heureux.

“Somebody needs to be in this position,†he said. He added that he would be willing to stay on past the end of his term while the government makes a selection.

When auditor general Sheila Fraser retired in 2011, deputy AG John Wiersema stepped in for six months before a successor was found. Former Public Service Commissioner Maria Barrados and former Senate Ethics Officer Jean Fournier also stayed on in their posts for several months before their replacements were named.

Ms. Bennett said she is worried about the apparent lack of progress: “The concern that I have, and that Kevin Page has articulated, is it doesn’t look like anything’s started. When will they begin the process of looking for somebody?â€

http://www.dslreports.com/Cable-Industry-Finally-Admits-Caps-Not-About-Congestion

For years the cable industry insisted that they imposed usage caps because network congestion made them necessary. You'll recall that Time Warner Cable insisted that if they weren't allowed to impose caps and overages the Internet would face "brown outs." Cable operators also paid countless think tanks, consultants and fauxcademics to spin scary yarns about a looming network congestion "exaflood," only averted if cable operators are allowed to raise rates, impose caps, eliminate regulation or (insert pretty much anything here).

The problem of course was that real data from researchers like Andrew Odlyzko repeatedly showed that well-run fixed line networks don't have serious capacity issues, and that looming video growth was easily handled by even modest network investment.

It only took the better part of a decade, but the cable industry has apparently realized they can no longer pretend that caps are really about congestion. Speaking at a meeting this week, former FCC boss turned top cable lobbyist Michael Powell finally acknowledged caps weren't about congestion, though he did continue pushing the myth that caps are about "fairness":

[color:gray]National Cable and Telecommunications Association president Michael Powell told a Minority Media and Telecommunications Association audience that cable's interest in usage-based pricing was not principally about network congestion, but instead about pricing fairness...Asked by MMTC president David Honig to weigh in on data caps, Powell said that while a lot of people had tried to label the cable industry's interest in the issue as about congestion management. "That's wrong," he said. "Our principal purpose is how to fairly monetize a high fixed cost."

Except the argument that usaged pricing is about fairness has been just as repeatedly debunked. If usage caps were about "fairness," carriers would offer the nation's grandmothers a $5 a month tier that accurately reflected her twice weekly, several megabyte browsing of the Weather Channel website. Instead, what we most often see are low caps and high overages layered on top of already high existing flat rate pricing, raising rates for all users. Carriers keep insisting they're just "being creative" with pricing, but so far consumer wallets aren't feeling the creativity.

Still, acknowledging that the Internet won't collapse if cable operators aren't allowed to charge $10 per gigabyte is a positive baby step. Perhaps in ten years the cable industry will acknowledge what caps are really about: driving up the cost of data for all users in order to offset the inevitable decline in TV revenues, while trying to retain the competitive upper hand in the age of streaming video.

It's an Akin article though, and he tends to *try* and be closer to a balance then the (mass) majority at SM/QMI. His twitter and news blog presence seem to reflect that as well.

Doug said he would play for 3 hours straight...

He did.

Good times. :chug:

Embedding disabled.

http://youtu.be/GeN3-Uq3iVI