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Very cool column on www.collegefootballnews.com in which four of their writers list their ten greatest college playmakers of all time ...
http://collegefootballnews.com/2006/TQ/ ... estion.htm
Pete Fiutak
Q: The ten greatest playmakers of all-time...
A: Let me start off by saying that I'll accept just about any suggestions you might have to make my list. I twisted my brain to come up with what makes for a great college football playmaker, and in the end, I decided that he 1) has to be able to come up with big plays on his own regardless of the situation, 2) comes through with the biggest plays with everything on the line, 3) turned games around by himself and 4) could do several different things well.
I tried to walk the razor-thin line to separate the difference between the best playmakers and the ten most electrifying players ever. Reggie Bush and Barry Sanders are probably 1-2 on that list in some order, but did they come up with the clutch game-saving plays my top ten guys did? (Did they have the opportunities?) No, I have no real argument whatsoever if you want to put Bush, Sanders, or a slew of other legends in the top ten.
Some who just missed my cut ...
- Rod Woodson, DB Purdue ... Woodson finished his career with 11 interceptions, 445 career tackles with a school-record (at the time) 19 in the 1984 Peach Bowl. He was also a phenomenal kick and punt returner.
- Herschel Walker, RB Georgia ... Walker won the Heisman Trophy in 1982 with 1,752 yards and 17 touchdowns, but his best season was 1981 running for 1,891 yards and 20 scores running for over 100 yards in every game and over 200 yards two of them.
- Hugh Green, DE Pitt ... No defensive player was more disruptive. Missed the top ten because partially because he's missing the signature big game. His best performance was in a loss to Notre Dame.
- Jamar Fletcher, CB Wisconsin ... Fletcher returned five interceptions for touchdowns, a Big Ten record, including game sealing picks in tight games against Northwestern, Purdue (twice) and UCLA in the Rose Bowl.
- Lawrence Taylor, DE North Carolina ... Taylor was directly responsible for beating Clemson and Texas Tech with his game saving tackles in 1980. He finished the year with 16 sacks.
- Rocket Ismail, WR Notre Dame ... Ismail averaged 22 yards per catch and returned two punts for touchdowns in the 1989 win over Michigan.
- Michael Vick, QB Virginia Tech/Don McPherson, QB Syracuse/Major Harris, QB West Virginia ... All three were talented, all three were clutch, and all three carried their teams like few others could've.
- Anthony Carter, WR Michigan ... His touchdown numbers (37), one every four catches, and all-purpose yards per play (17.4) were even more impressive considering he played for the stodgy Wolverines.
- Tommy Casanova, DB LSU ... He did it all as a running back, kick returner, punt returner and defensive back for the Tigers from 1969 to 1971.
- Larry Fitzgerald, WR Pitt ... Despite being a marked man, Fitzgerald scored and scored and scored.
- Nile Kinnick, HB Iowa ... Kinnick had a flair for the dramatic and was the iron man of ironmen on the 1939 team that stunned Notre Dame and Minnesota.
10. (tie) Reggie Bush, RB USC/Barry Sanders RB Oklahoma State
I can't do it. I'm breaking my own rules, but I can't in good conscience put together this list without including these two in some way. Bush did save the day against Fresno State. 2,628 rushing yards, 3,249 total yards, 39 touchdowns and 234 points in 1988 are enough to earn Sanders a spot.
9. George Gipp, HB Notre Dame
Keeping in mind that Gipp amassed these stats from 1917 to 1920, he ran for 2,341 career yards and 21 touchdowns, threw for 1,789 yards and eight scores, punted 96 times for 3,690 yards (a 38.4 yard per kick average), picked off five passes, returned 16 punts for 217 yards, 22 kickoffs for 454 yards and kicked 27 PATs to finish his career with 156 points. His 2,341 rushing yards lasted in the Notre Dame record books until Jerome Heavens surpassed it in 1978. As a defensive back, Gipp never allowed a completed pass.
8. Desmond Howard, WR Michigan
Howard's 1991 season was amazing by any standard catching 61 passes for 950 yards and 19 touchdowns with 23 total TDs. He was the first receiver in Big Ten history to lead the league in scoring with 138 points. Add the 12 scores as a sophomore and two as a freshman and Howard amassed an amazing 37 touchdowns in his career. Evidenced by his diving catches game in and game out, a 63-yard TD catch against Mississippi against the Gator Bowl, and heartbreaking plays against Notre Dame and Ohio State, he was as clutch a playmaker as there was in the 90's. He was also a top kick and punt returner.
7. O.J. Simpson, RB USC
How's this for a two year college career? 3,424 yards, 36 touchdowns and a 23.7-yard average per kick return. Of course, on the field, he'll be known for Red 23-Blast, the 64-yard touchdown for the 21-20 win over UCLA to give USC the 1967 Pac 8 title and a birth in the Rose Bowl where the Trojans beat Indiana and won the national title. Simpson was huge in USC's two bowl games running for 128 yards and two touchdowns against the Hoosiers and tore off 171 yards and a touchdown in a 27-16 loss to Ohio State.
6. Terrell Buckley, CB Florida State
He set an FSU record with 21 interceptions over three years and broke the NCAA record for return yards with 470. Quarterbacks kept challenging Buckley and he kept burning them registering 12 picks in 1991 on his way to winning the Thorpe Award. Talk about a home-run hitter, Buckley returned a pick 83 yards for a touchdown against Cincinnati, 71 yards for a touchdown against Virginia Tech, and intercepted Elvis Grbac's first pass and took it 40 yards for a TD leading the way to a 51-31 Seminole win in the Big House over No. 3 Michigan.
5. Red Grange, HB Illinois
In a day and age (1923 to 1925) when final scores in football looking more like a soccer final, Grange's achievements were remarkable averaging 5.3 yards per carry running for 2,071 yards, catching 14 passes for 253 yards, and scoring a total of 31 touchdowns. He also threw for 575 yards and three scores. The game that turned Grange from a great college player into a legend was the 1924 upset of Fielding Yost's Michigan team that hadn't lost in three years. Grange proved mightier than college football's best team from the start scoring a 95-yard touchdown on the opening kickoff. On the day Grange scored five touchdowns and threw for another in an improbable 39-14 win. To put Grange's performance into perspective, Michigan allowed a total of 32 points in its previous twenty games and gave up 24 points over the 17 games after the the Illinois loss.
4. Charles Woodson, CB Michigan
Even with everyone knowing all about him and hardly ever throwing his way in 1997, Woodson still picked off eight passes including a brilliant one-handed grab against Michigan State which made every highlight reel. Want clutch? Along with the game-saving interception against Ohio State, he killed a drive in the Rose Bowl intercepting Ryan Leaf in the end zone. While QB Brian Griese had a magnificent season and the defense was great as a whole, without Woodson the Wolverines wouldn't have won the national title. Woodson was the difference in the 20-14 win over the No. 4 Buckeyes staying on the field for 83 plays. He clinched the Heisman with 78-yard punt return for a score.
3. Deion Sanders, CB Florida State
Sanders picked off 14 passes including three in bowl games with a game-sealing interception against Auburn in the 1989 Sugar Bowl. As good a college corner as Sanders was, he was just as good at returning punts leading the nation in 1988 with a 15.2-yard average holding the FSU record with 1,429 career punt return yards and 503 in 1988. His signature return was against Clemson in the classic 1988 game taking a kick 76 yards for a touchdown.
2. Johnny Rodgers, WR Nebraska
Nebraska was never known as a high-octane passing team up until recently. Even so, Rodgers caught 143 career passes for 2,479 yards and scored 26 touchdowns finishing as Nebraska's all-time greatest pass receiver. Known for his thrilling punt return for a touchdown in the 1971 35-31 "Game of the Century" win over Oklahoma, he also helped lock up the Huskers' second straight national title in the 1972 Orange Bowl with a 77-yard return for a touchdown in a 38-6 win over Alabama. In all, he returned eight punts and nine kickoffs for touchdowns, both NCAA records at the time.
1. Vince Young, QB Texas
Doing all the all-time stuff, it's important to avoid the recency effect. It's far easier to remember what Young did than to go by all the historical writings about someone like Red Grange or George Gipp, but I'm still going with No. 10 for the ultimate playmaker. He cranked out 839 yards of total offense in two Rose Bowls, took over the Oklahoma State game last year, and threw a perfect game-winning pass to beat Ohio State. No way, no how do the Longhorns come close to the national title without Young last year.
Richard Cirminiello
Q: The ten greatest playmakers of all-time...
A: 10. Joe Washington, Oklahoma (1972-75) – Washington offset his diminutive size with darting quickness and shifty moves. His offensive wizardry and penchant for breaking open games on special teams helped the Sooners win national championships in 1974 and 1975.
9. Raghib Ismail, Notre Dame (1988-90) – The nickname, "The Rocket", pretty much said it all. Ismail may have been the fastest college football player ever, and he used those jets to torch the opposition, especially as a returner.
8. Desmond Howard, Michigan (1988-91) – An up-and-down NFL career sort of made folks forget just how electrifying Howard was in his days in Ann Arbor. More than just a speedy game-breaker, he also had a knack for delivering the big play when it mattered most.
7. Glenn Davis, Army (1943-46) – Mr. Outside to Doc Blanchard's Mr. Inside, Davis was a pioneer of sorts with the kind of moves and speed that was uncommon in his era. A three-time All-American, he averaged an NCAA-record 8.26 yards a carry throughout his career.
6. Johhny Rodgers, Nebraska (1970-72) – Had he gotten his wish and played for USC, Rodgers might have been ranked even higher. In a conservative Nebraska offense, he was a human dynamo, who could bring a crowd to its feet as a receiver, runner out of the backfield or return man. During his career, Rodgers returned an amazing 17 kicks or punts for touchdowns.
5. Doak Walker, SMU (1945, 1947-49) – More than just a great playmaker, Walker could do just about everything back in the day. On offense, he could run and pass as well as any of his contemporaries. On special teams, he was an ace punt and kickoff returner, while also handling SMU's punting and placekicking duties.
4. Gale Sayers, Kansas (1962-64) – The aptly named "Kansas Comet" was Reggie Bush before the Trojan was ever born. Sayers had the world class speed and swiveling hips that made it impossible to stop or catch him once he broke out into the open field.
3. O.J. Simpson, USC (1967-68) – Simpson played just two years at USC, but authored quite a legacy during that time. Before he arrived, there had been big backs and fast backs, but very few that possessed his devastating combination of track speed on a large frame.
2. Reggie Bush, USC (2003-05) – The word gets tossed around like loose change, but Bush was a bona fide superstar in his three years at USC. No one in his generation has had quite the ability to electrify a crowd or frustrate a defense. Whether he was taking a hand off, catching a pass or fielding a punt, Bush was pure magic for the Trojans.
1. Barry Sanders, Oklahoma State (1986-88) – Sanders was buried behind Thurman Thomas for two years, but when his number was called in 1988, he responded with one of the greatest seasons ever for a college football player--2,628 rushing yards, 3,249 total yards and 39 touchdowns…before running for another 222 yards and five scores in the Holiday Bowl. No back has ever been better at making something out of nothing than Sanders.
John Harris
Q: The ten greatest playmakers of all-time...
As difficult as it was to come up with this list, the thought of trying to 'encapsulate' the word playmaker was even more difficult. So, I had two thoughts coming up with this list. One was that the QBs already had their day, so I left them off this list (see our first greatest ever listing). The second was my 'definition' of playmaker – the guy who, when he had the ball in his hands, was the most difficult to defense. In other words, if I was a defensive coordinator, the one guy who I didn't want to see touch the ball. These were my top ten 'nightmares'.
1. Reggie Bush, USC – Transcendent game/moment – 2005 Fresno State – 513 yards total offense – the nail in the 2005 Heisman Trophy race coffin.
Quite frankly, there was no other college football player in my lifetime that I honestly felt like could take every ball he touched for six. After his first year, I said he was the best college football player in the nation, even before his sophomore year and caught some flack for saying it. Flash forward two years and maybe I was onto something (sorry, I just sprained my shoulder from patting myself on the back). You saw him play. You saw what he did. Let's put it this way – when a team 'holds' a guy to 275 total offensive yards and that's keeping him under control as Texas did in the Rose Bowl, that should tell you something.
2. Herschel Walker, Georgia – Transcendent game/moment (tie) – Running over Tennessee's Bill Bates in his first game or the dive over the top against Ole Miss when he maintains feet and scores TD.
Walker's Georgia teams were strong, no question, but the Dawgs rode his back to a national title as a freshman, an SEC title as a sophomore and a national championship game/Heisman Trophy as a junior. He was one of the first 'combo' backs – powerful with track speed – that the nation had seen. It was hard at the time to think that every back wasn't going to be like him, but there just wasn't another one quite like him. What made Herschel so scary is that he sat back in the I every play, you knew he was going to carry it 35 times for 200 yards and there was very little you could do about it. You just hoped it didn't turn into 275.
3. OJ Simpson, USC – Transcendent game/moment – 64 yard run against UCLA in 1967 Battle of LA.
On the field, #32 changed games when he touched the ball. I thought of him a power runner, but it was a different powerful style than Walker's. He glided to a hole then hit the gas and was by you with his track speed. But, he had everything you wanted out of an every down back and then some. All it took him was two years to build a legacy in Troy that was unequaled by any before, and, arguably, after him. And, it took one, well, let's not go there.
4. Rocket Ismail, Notre Dame – Transcendent game/moment – 1989 two kickoff returns for touchdowns against Michigan.
Some think that Reggie Bush was comparable to Barry Sanders, but to me, he was more like Ismail. The former Irish star returned kicks, punts, ran the ball, caught passes out of the backfield, ran with surprising power, had some shake and a flair for the dramatic. Too bad a clip wiped out perhaps his greatest moment – the 1991 Orange Bowl punt return in the fourth quarter that would've put the Irish ahead late. Leave it to a guy nicknamed the Rocket to leave teams in his wake.
4. Jim Brown, Syracuse – Transcendent game/moment – scoring all 43 points against Colgate in 1956
Versatility is thy name. In his era, players were forced to do a little bit of everything. Brown just did it better than anyone had ever seen to that point. It's hard to believe that the man finished fourth in the Heisman Trophy balloting his senior year, when he had games when he scored 43 points and 21 points twice, including the Cotton Bowl against TCU, by himself. He may have been ultimately held back by Syracuse's offense, but Brown was still a freak of nature who dominated games.
5. Johnny Rodgers, Nebraska – Transcedent game/moment – 1971 punt return against Oklahoma in the Game of the Century
Rodgers wasn't a glider or a smooth runner. He ran with fury when he got the ball in his hands. His cuts were explosive and somewhat herky jerky all at once, a 1970s version of former FSU whirling dervish Peter Warrick. But, when he got into the open field, one on one against a defender, forget it. He averaged 13.8 yards every time he touched the ball – run or pass or return.
6. Barry Sanders, Oklahoma State – Transcendent game/moment – 1988 Holiday Bowl against Wyoming
It's scary to think what we might've seen in Stillwater if Barry wouldn't have had Thurman Thomas in front of him at the outset of his career. His running style was a sight to behold. Sanders' 1988 season defies anything, from a production standpoint (2,628 rushing yards with 39 total touchdowns), that we've seen before or since. I just wish we would've gotten to see him, more regularly for more than just that one great year.
7. Marshall Faulk, San Diego State – Transcendent game/moment – 299 yards rushing against BYU in 1992
Faulk has a run in that BYU game that tells you everything you would want to know about Marshall. He finds a seam on an inside run, bursts past the linebackers and into the secondary. The BYU corner from the other side of the field has the angle on him, but just as he's about to make the tackle, Faulk put it into another gear – you can visibly see him run away from that defender. It's one of those runs that words just can't describe.
8. Tony Dorsett, Pitt – Transcendent game/moment – 202 yard performance in 1977 Sugar Bowl/National Championship game
Consistency and productivity were his hallmarks. Oh, that and his vision and quick feet. Dorsett's record for career yardage stood for 25 years and it epitomized the fact that people were still chasing Aliquippa's finest, just as they did in the 1970s. The man was All-American for four years, a record that'll never be topped.
9. Billy Cannon, LSU – Transcendent game/moment – 1959 Halloween night against Ole Miss – 89 yards into history
The punt return that still reverberates in Bayou land made Cannon more than just the 1959 Heisman Trophy winner – it made him a legend. After shaking off about 20 Rebels to match his jersey number, Cannon finally had clear sailing in the rain and muck, helping put the Tigers in the Sugar Bowl at season's end. He was the foundation of the 1958 national championship team and was one of the greatest SEC players in the history of that storied conference.
10. Desmond Howard – Michigan – Transcendent game/moment – 1991 Notre Dame – the diving catch
Most everyone remembers what Desmond did in his Heisman Trophy year, especially the Catch against Notre Dame. He made big plays with the cameras on and, as a college player, no one in the Big Ten put fear into opposing defensive coordinators like this guy.
Honorable Mention ("2nd Ten" – in no certain order) – Gale Sayers - Kansas, Eric Dickerson - SMU, Peter Warrick - Florida State, David Palmer - Alabama, Doak Walker – SMU, Anthony Carter – Michigan, Marcus Allen – USC, Bo Jackson, Auburn, Glenn Davis, Army, Tim Brown – Notre Dam
Matthew Zemek
Q: The ten greatest playmakers of all-time...
A: One should be able to sense what a playmaker truly is, but just to be clear about it, a playmaker is someone who--whenever he touches the ball--is the kind of lightning-bolt threat who can score a touchdown on any play if the defense takes a one-second mental holiday (and even then, it might not matter). Playmakers scare the living daylights out of the opposition and its fans. You want to use chipped kickoffs, out-of-bounds punts, and radically altered tactics to contain these guys.
1) Red Grange, Illinois. A playmaker so good, he created a national sensation in the 1920s that helped lift college football to previously unseen heights of popularity. What he did on just one afternoon--October 18, 1924--is enough to cement his credentials as an all-time great playmaker:
402 rushing yards on just 21 carries in a 39-14 win over Michigan. (And 78 passing yards on six completions, too.)
2) Vince Young, Texas. Well, duh. The greatest playmaker in the history of the Rose Bowl, that's for sure.
3) Reggie Bush, USC. Well, duh, part two. As purely electrifying a player as this sport has ever seen.
4) Michael Vick, Virginia Tech. The average American's attention span is short and getting shorter, but one should be able to assume that the 1999 and 2000 seasons can be remembered to some extent, especially the 2000 Sugar Bowl.
5) Raghib Ismail, Notre Dame. Sure, his touchdown in the 1991 Orange Bowl was called back because of a penalty. However, that didn't detract from his personal excellence, the stupidity of the Colorado special teams unit, or the electricity generated in Miami's venerable stadium when he touched the ball on that one memorable occasion.
6) Tony Dorsett. He performed big, he performed consistently big, he did so in the sport's great settings (Notre Dame Stadium and the Superdome for the
'77 Sugar Bowl), he won the Heisman, and he won a national title. His imprint upon Pitt football is a particularly large mark imposed by one player upon a program.
7) Desmond Howard, Michigan. That a man could strike a Heisman pose and not come across as begging for votes tells you all you need to know about the legitimacy of this guy's playmaking ability.
Tim Brown, Notre Dame. The first of two Golden Domers who struck fear into the hearts of the opposition during the second half of the 1980s.
9) Terry Baker, Oregon State. The notion of a dazzling, ultra-fast playmaker is something that admittedly belongs to more recent years, but Baker was a guy who, in 1962, outran entire defenses and scored points very much on his own at a school not traditionally known for football excellence. That Baker won the Heisman is a testament to how good a playmaker he was in his day. A man who deserves to be included with the faster, cooler cats of more recent vintage.
10) Anthony Carter, Michigan. Put it this way: Carter was as dynamic as his Bo Schembechler offense was simple. That tells you how much he stood out on his team and, frankly, in the sport during the years he played the game.


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Debates of March 22nd, 2011
House of Commons Hansard #146 of the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was c-12.
- Question Period
- Committees of the House
- Telecommunications Act
- Petitions
- Questions on the Order Paper
- Citizen's Arrest and Self-Defence Act
- Democratic Representation Act
- Points of Order
- Democratic Representation Act
- Hockeyville
- Jewish Refugees
- Jean-Luc Labrecque
- The Budget
- The Economy
- World Water Day
- The Economy
- Luc Picard
- Global Transportation Hub
- Chinese Canadians
- The Economy
- Government Accountability
- Regional Development
- Government Advertising
- The Economy
- Wolseley Barracks
- Government Accountability
- Champlain Bridge
- Ethics
- Access to Information
- Ethics
- Champlain Bridge
- Canada--U.S. Border
- Public Safety
- National Defence
- The Budget
- Ethics
- Shipbuilding Industry
- Citizenship and Immigration
- Aboriginal Affairs
- Health
- Regional Development
- Official Languages
- G20 Summit
- Research and Development
- Taxation
- Presence in Gallery
- Privilege
- Democratic Representation Act
- The Budget
Democratic Representation Act
Government Orders
12:50 p.m.
Christian Ouellet Brome—Missisquoi, QC
Mr. Speaker, I will answer the hon. member for Wellington—Halton Hills that it is not the rest of Canada that has protected French in Quebec, it is Quebec that has protected its French, and it is having a lot of trouble protecting it.
It is obvious that we are having difficulty, even with the federal government, in selecting the immigrants who come to Quebec. I do not think that the federal government can congratulate itself right now for having preserved French in Quebec. It is Quebeckers who are protecting their French and their culture. Furthermore, to add to what I have just said, democracy depends on the moral weight of the nation and not on the weight of numbers.
Democratic Representation Act
Government Orders
12:50 p.m.
Robert Bouchard Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC
Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate my colleague from Brome—Missisquoi on his speech.
Certain points stood out for me. For instance, Bill C-12 makes no sense and does not recognize the Quebec nation.
I would like to know what the consequences for Quebec representation in the House of Commons might be if Bill C-12 is passed.
Democratic Representation Act
Government Orders
12:55 p.m.
Christian Ouellet Brome—Missisquoi, QC
Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the hon. member for his question.
The consequences will be immediate and obvious. We will forever be seen as Quebeckers from a small nation, people with no power. And nothing we bring forward in the House will be considered important. They will think that we are fewer in number and less powerful. And they will say that it does not matter because Quebec is no longer important to Canada and we will be forgotten.
Democratic Representation Act
Government Orders
12:55 p.m.
Paul Szabo Mississauga South, ON
Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for his considered input into the debate on Bill C-12.
We are presently debating an amendment proposed by the member for Joliette that the bill not be read a second time. However, in the discussion from the member for Outremont, he referred to a further proposed Bloc amendment which I understand would anchor the total number of Quebec seats at no less than the seats that were held by the Bloc on the date at which Quebec was recognized as a nation in this House.
Is that a correct understanding of the possible amendment or feeling coming from the Bloc? Could the member address how that would fit in with the intent of the bill?
Democratic Representation Act
Government Orders
12:55 p.m.
Christian Ouellet Brome—Missisquoi, QC
Mr. Speaker, our position is very clear right now. We do not want this bill to be studied any further. In other words, we want this bill to be withdrawn. Our position is clear and precise. If other amendments are eventually put forward, I think that they should only be studied once this bill has been rejected in its entirety and permanently set aside.
Democratic Representation Act
Government Orders
12:55 p.m.
Pascal-Pierre Paillé Louis-Hébert, QC
Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate my colleague on his speech. With the introduction of this bill, the government's inconsistent attitude towards the people of Quebec is quite clear.
In 2006, the Conservatives brought forward a resolution regarding the Quebec nation. Now they have introduced a bill that completely flies in the face of that motion dated November 22, 2006.
I wonder if my colleague would agree that the Conservatives' rhetoric has been completely inconsistent.
Democratic Representation Act
Government Orders
12:55 p.m.
Christian Ouellet Brome—Missisquoi, QC
Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for his question, for it is really very pertinent.
Yes, the Conservative government has been inconsistent, on several points. The Conservatives say they want open federalism. First inconsistency: they slam the door on that. Second inconsistency: they move a motion to recognize Quebec as a nation, they vote in favour of that motion, and then they no longer recognize it as such. Third inconsistency: they always work from an American mentality based on numbers. In reality, a country like Canada cannot be based solely on numbers. It must be based on moral values and on the value of communities. That is what the Constitution was trying to establish in 1867; that much is perfectly clear. Thus, they are inconsistent in that, as well. They do not respect the spirit that they say epitomizes their Canada. They do not abide by Canada's spirit. Thus, they are inconsistent.
I thank my hon. colleague, because there really are three inconsistencies. And it is rare for a government to create that many with a single bill.
Democratic Representation Act
Government Orders
12:55 p.m.
Robert Bouchard Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC
Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the hon. member another question.
Does he not think that we have here two different philosophies or visions? On one hand, the government is saying that Quebec must be a province like the others under Bill C-12 and, on the other, the Bloc is saying that Quebec is a nation and that we must protect and defend that nation by ensuring that it has 25% of the seats in this House.
Democratic Representation Act
Government Orders
1 p.m.
Christian Ouellet Brome—Missisquoi, QC
Mr. Speaker, I think that it is very appropriate to look at this bill from the perspective of basic philosophies because that is what is at work here. We have two philosophies stemming from two different cultures and so it stands to reason that we would apply or want to apply completely different rules. This is an issue that comes up all the time; it is not a new issue pertaining only to this bill.
I do not know if you have ever read any public opinion surveys, but there is always a difference between the opinions of Quebec and Canada.
Democratic Representation Act
Government Orders
1 p.m.
Paul Szabo Mississauga South, ON
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have an opportunity to make some comments on Bill C-12.
The issue of democratic reform means different things to different people, and, quite frankly, the starting point for us is in this chamber itself. A reform of this chamber would certainly the problem in the democracy level here and we could lead by example.
We are presently debating an amendment at second reading. That amendment is that the House proceeds with the bill no further and that it not be read a second time, so it would just die. That came from the member for Joliette, a member of the Bloc Québécois.
I honestly believe that the government does not want the bill either. In 2006, the Conservatives presented that they were in favour of working on proportional representation and looking at it seriously. In 2008, we had the same thing again. Here we have Bill C-12, which was introduced in the House last April 1, almost a year ago. That means the bill has a number and it sits there until the government decides it will start debate. Debate started on December 16 past. We went from April Fool's Day to December 16 before it got the very first words in the House on the bill. That was the last day the House sat before it took its Christmas break. The bill then languished and here we are on March 22, which is budget day, and we are continuing the debate.
Any objective observer would suggest that if this were a bill that dealt with a substantive matter of importance to Canadians that had the government's full support and intent to pass at all stages through the other place, get royal assent and become law in Canada, we would not be here almost a year later dealing with an amendment that the bill be not read a second time, and in fact just die.
When we look at bills, it is important to understand whether there is the enthusiasm of government to deliver or whether it is words that we will continue to recycle. It is much like the justice bills. A litany of justice bills have been presented to the House. There might have been 20 different bills and then the House prorogued. We could have reinstated them at the same position, some of them were already moving forward, but the government decided to put two or three of those together. However, when we put them together into a consolidated bill, all of a sudden we have to start at the beginning with all of them in that one bill. Others were never reintroduced. Some were changed and therefore could not be reinstated at the same position.
We have been going through this since 2006 and many of those bills are still there. I just looked at the list and the status of various justice bills today. I think faint hope is coming back. I think it was about a year and a half ago we debated that bill.
I am not sure whether Canadians would understand that if we have a bill, we should put it on the floor of the House, have a robust debate, intense questioning and come to a decision.
There is another option that I have talked about with regard to many bills. The public will understand that when a bill comes forward to be debated for the first time, it is called second reading. At second reading, we go through the process. We have a vote at the end of debate and, if the bill is approved at second reading, that is approval in principle, and substantively, once it goes past second reading and goes to committee, we cannot tinker around with the fundamental foundation of that bill. We can make some amendments to try to make it a little bit better, but we cannot just create a whole new, unthought of, undebated part of the bill that we wanted to amend. Therefore, second reading is very important.
However, we do not need to have a bill come to us when it is tabled at first reading and then second reading. There are occasions when it would be more appropriate that the bill be referred directly to a standing committee for consideration, with expert witnesses and with all parties represented on the committee, to get to the fine details.
Here we are at second reading, a year after the bill was tabled, and I do not think there is very much new information on the table. New information would not come out until we have talked with representatives of the various provinces, particularly those that are significantly impacted, such as Ontario, Alberta, B.C. and Quebec. It is not just the members of Parliament.
The fact that the bill is before us at second reading, spinning its wheels, and will likely never go forward, should be a message to Canadians that the government is not serious about this bill. There are a number of other bills on which the same could be said. We are going to spend our time here having these debates. I think every time we come to these situations the point has to be made.
Some years ago, a former colleague, the hon. Diane Marleau, was a minister in this House. As a matter of fact, when I first came here in 1994, she was the minister of health. She represented a remote riding in northern Ontario. She had a private member's bill in which she argued the case that she came from an area that was extremely large in terms of land mass but which had a very small population. For her to travel from one part of a community in her constituency to another could take several hours and sometimes even requiring her to fly.
We have a member here whose riding is the size of France. There are some times during the year that the member cannot get to his constituents until it freezes over and there are ice roads. That is so constituents can see their member of Parliament and vice versa.
The point of the bill was that if we continue to do redistribution based on the idea that every riding must have 108,000 voters, or population, then what will happen is rural and remote ridings will become ever greater as the population diminishes, as the agriculture science evolves and shows us how fewer people can grow more. This has been going on for years. All of a sudden these ridings will be getting bigger and bigger.
The former member's bill basically said that we needed to understand that proportional representation, or one person, one vote as some people like to refer to it, is laudable, but having representation at all is even more important. If constituents cannot see their MP more than once a year, or something like that, how is their community being served?
There is another argument for saying that a model which says that we start with the premise that we are going to have in this bill, one member, one vote, proportional representation among the provinces, and then we are going to initially base that on the centennial census, which I think was 108,000 the last time it was done, then we are going to make the adjustments because some provinces have grown substantially since the last time there was a redistribution of seats.
This process really takes a long time, as members will know. We have been through this before, at least since I have been here. It takes a long time and a lot of public consultation. We are dealing with boundaries and communities of interest which are subjects that have often come up in this debate.
It is a very complicated thing because everybody wants it to be perfect. However, we need to understand that there is no way that we will ever have a perfect representation by population system in Canada because there are exceptions already built in and this bill seeks to make other exceptions.
For instance, coming into Confederation, the province of P.E.I. was granted four seats in the House of Commons and four senators. That means that a member from Prince Edward Island represents about 30,000 to 35,000 constituents each, whereas all the other ridings are over 100,000 each. This means that one member of Parliament in a small land mass has just 30,000 to 35,000 constituents. One might wonder how that works. That is guaranteed by the Constitution. It was granted in perpetuity to P.E.I. for entering into Confederation. That is one problem.
Then we have this other situation of Quebec where Quebec traditionally has had approximately 25% of the seats. That dates back some time. The debate that has been going on now with the Bloc, primarily, is that the Bloc wants to ensure that it retains 25% of the seats, notwithstanding its population.
Therefore, if we are going to require the other provinces to have sufficient numbers of members of Parliament to have at least 108,000, or whatever the number will be adjusted to, the size of our Parliament will grow. Maybe the starting point would be to ask Canadians whether they want more members of Parliament in Ottawa to manage our country. I suspect there would be an interesting debate on the streets of Canada if Canadians were engaged in that.
However, the point is that if we want mathematics to work to get this best effort at proportional representation that is what would need to happen. If we cannot take away from those who cannot meet the average constituent population, we will need to make it up by giving more seats to others, and in this place right now we are talking about Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia.
I must admit that I did not catch all of it but I do understand from the member for Outremont, who had mentioned it during his speech, that the Bloc has talked about the possibility of making an amendment or proposing that there could be an amendment that might be acceptable in some circumstances whereby the number of seats to be granted to Quebec would equal the number of seats that it held on the date on which the House voted to recognize Quebec as a nation That would, in terms of percentage, reduce it from 25% down to, I think, 24.3%, but given the numbers involved it would probably be close enough to effectively achieve the representation.
Where do we go from there? The issue really comes down to making some initial corrections and then the bill provides for what happens when we get to the next centennial census when we do again a redistribution.
The population certainly did shift to the west with the energy boom and with free trade as well. A lot of people migrated as a result of free trade where jobs were lost in certain regions of the country. I remember that it was during that debate that we were talking about the fact that Canadians would need to be more mobile in terms of filling the positions that will be available in other regions of the country that have the growth occurring, which has certainly happened in the west.
Bill C-12 includes some principles that the bill and the formula should represent. It is interesting to note the repetition of the word "whereas" in half the bill, indicating the assumptions being made. However, the word is not operable. It is there simply to refresh or remind people of some of the foundational principles the government is trying to reflect in the bill.
The first one is that the House of Commons:
—must reflect the principle of proportionate representation of the provinces and the democratic representation of the Canadian people.
That certainly describes the intent of the bill. Then, the second states that the:
—proportionate representation of the provinces must balance the fair and equitable representation of faster-growing provinces and the effective representation of smaller and slower-growing provinces.
When I read that I understood that the situation of Ontario, Alberta and B.C. requires those provinces getting a larger proportion of members of Parliament in the House of Commons, simply because their populations warrant it mathematically.
Although there is no "whereas" here, this all presumes that if a province has 30% of the members of Parliament as a whole, due to the size of its population, it will have a significant influence over virtually every piece of legislation brought forth in the House. Imagine what would happen if there were a province that had more than 50% of the population of the country and in fact was legislated to have more than 50% of the members of Parliament. I raise the point because that situation is possible. I do not know whether it is probable, but it is possible.
The next item has to do with the issue I talked about when I mentioned the bill the hon. Diane Marleau, namely the effective representation of the smaller and the slower-growing areas. This is a complicated issue. It is an important debate whether having one person and one vote is more important than having representation, having a member of Parliament to represent one's interests and not somehow being impaired in one's ability to utilize the services of that member of Parliament simply because of being in a rural or remote community. Canada is one.
I think the representation of rural and remote areas of Canada, whether Nunavut or the Yukon, would generate much interesting discussion, particularly as it relates to first nations as well. I am quite sure that first nations would say they also wanted a guarantee of effective representation in Parliament. The last I heard, first nations represented about 1% of the population of Canada and, therefore, should have a 1% share of the seats in the House. That level should remain there rather than first nations' share dropping below it. That is certainly another interesting aspect of the issue.
I must admit, I am disappointed that this bill did not go to committee before second reading so that we could have had input not only from the members of Parliament of the various parties but also from stakeholders and those who have a special interest to ensure that all members of Parliament were thoroughly informed about the facts they were faced with and the consequences of doing one thing versus another, so that we, as we say in our prayer each and ever day when we start in this place, can make good laws and wise decisions.
Democratic Representation Act
Government Orders
1:20 p.m.
Jean-Yves Laforest Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC
Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to speak today to Bill C-12 and more specifically to the amendment proposed by the hon. member for Joliette.
The amendment states:
That the motion be amended by deleting all the words after the word "That" and substituting the following:
"the House decline to give second reading to Bill C-12, An Act to amend the Constitution Act, 1867 (Democratic representation), because the Bill would unacceptably reduce the political weight of the Quebec nation in the House of Commons and does not set out that Quebec must hold 25 percent of the seats in the House of Commons."
When we look at this bill from the angle of the amendment proposed by the Bloc Québécois, it is very clear that every MP from Quebec, whether they are Conservative, Liberal, NDP or Bloc, is going to vote in favour of the amendment, at least I hope so. This is a fundamental issue for Quebec society and for the nation of Quebec.
It was almost five years ago, on November 22, 2006, that the Conservative government moved a motion calling on the House to recognize the nation of Quebec. This motion was adopted. Since the House of Commons recognized that Quebec formed a nation, we thought this motion would be followed by other positions or policies to strengthen this concept, for example by strengthening culture and communications. Furthermore, a bill was introduced on the matter. I was the sponsor of the bill to recognize that Quebec could control its own culture and communications and could create a Quebec radio-television and telecommunications commission. The federalist parties voted against that bill and made themselves perfectly clear on the matter, even though this decision was in direct contradiction to their vote recognizing the nation of Quebec.
We also expected more support for the French language, the language of Quebeckers and the official language of Quebec. French is a language that must be protected, since Quebeckers are a minority within Canada. The culture and language of that minority must be protected.
We might have thought that the Conservative government would introduce bills that would strengthen this protection. For example, it could have recognized Bill 101, which has protected the French fact in Quebec since 1977 or 1978, since the first Parti Québécois government came to power. We would have thought that the government would introduce a bill to do that.
Far from introducing a bill to strengthen the French language, the government and the Liberals voted against the bills we introduced that put in place a structure that would have brought people in establishments where there are workers under federal jurisdiction, like banks and airports, under Bill 101. That was rejected.
In addition to not taking the initiative themselves to strengthen the recognition of the Quebec nation, every time we gave the federalist parties an opportunity to support us, they did not do it and they sidestepped it.
Today, Bill C-12 proposes to change the democratic representation. This bill could have been acceptable if it had been to strengthen the idea of the Quebec nation, but the opposite is true. They are presenting a bill that reduces the political weight of Quebec, of the Quebec nation. This is completely unacceptable.
Since that motion was passed, in November 2006, the Conservatives have systematically attacked the Quebec nation. They recognize the Quebec nation, but they attack it. They have rejected any proposal that was intended precisely to give tangible expression to the recognition of the Quebec nation, whether in terms of language, culture or communications. By introducing Bill C-12, which will marginalize the Quebec nation even further within the broader whole of Canada, the Conservative government clearly intends to diminish the political weight of Quebec in the House of Commons.
In 1867, 36% of the seats were assigned to Quebec. With Bill C-12, Quebec's representation will fall to 22.4% of the seats in 2014. We have before us a government that recognizes the Quebec nation and that promised open federalism, but in fact it practises a muzzled and closed federalism. This is the complete opposite of what it says.
In Quebec in particular, this bill, this measure, this intention has never been, is not and never will be a matter on which there is consensus; the opposite is true. Twice, all of the members of the National Assembly of Quebec have passed motions calling on the federal government to withdraw bills that reduced Quebec's political weight. If we add the 125 Quebec members of the National Assembly, all parties combined, to all of the Bloc Québécois members of Parliament, who account for nearly two thirds of the seats representing Quebec in the House of Commons, that makes 175 out of 200 Quebec representatives who reject that position. The Conservative and Liberal members and the New Democrat member from Quebec absolutely must support our efforts and the amendment brought forward by the Bloc Québécois, to have this bill completely withdrawn. That is the form in which our amendment is presented.
All elected representatives from Quebec, in both the National Assembly and the House of Commons, represent 87% of the elected representatives of the Quebec nation and are calling for the bill to be withdrawn. That percentage must be increased, and it is up to the other members to make sure it is. They absolutely must take up the defence of the Quebec nation, starting now.
The former Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs of Quebec, Benoît Pelletier, in fact stated his government's position on May 17, 2007:
I appreciate that the House is based on proportional representation. But I wonder whether there might be special measures to protect Quebec, which represents the main linguistic minority in Canada, is a founding province of Canada and is losing demographic weight...Why could Quebec not be accommodated because of its status as a nation and a national minority within Canada?
That is the question. In their speeches, my colleagues were saying that it was not simply a matter of numbers or proportion.
This bill seeks to raise the number of MPs in those provinces where the population is increasing more significantly than elsewhere. However, Parliament also has a duty to assess all the factors. The number of people living in a riding is not the only criterion to determine how many MPs a province should have. For example, if I am not mistaken, Prince Edward Island has four ridings. However, the population in these ridings is less than one quarter of the national average. In Prince Edward Island, we apply a principle whereby a province with a somewhat smaller population should still be represented by a minimum number of MPs. A certain degree of strength is necessary. However, the government refuses to grant this protection to Quebec, which is one of the founding nations of Canada. Political weight is important to Prince Edward Island, but it is also important for the Quebec nation.
Other bills have been introduced regarding this issue. In fact, after the Conservatives and the Liberals voted against the Bloc Québécois' motion, the Quebec National Assembly passed a third motion on April 22, 2010, almost one year ago, reaffirming that Quebec, as a nation, must be able to enjoy special protection for the weight of its representation in the House of Commons. In that motion, elected members from all political parties in Ottawa were asked not to enact any bill that would diminish the weight of the representation of Quebec in the House of Commons.
That is basically what I deemed important to point out. We should not look strictly at the numbers and figures when the time comes to establish a degree of proportionality with the number of members in the House. We must also be mindful of other commitments made by the House of Commons, including those that have to do with the representation of certain provinces. We must not look merely at the numbers, but also at the moral aspect of the decision and ensure that it is consistent with the fact that the House of Commons has recognized Quebec as a nation.
Democratic Representation Act
Government Orders
March 22nd, 2011 / 1:30 p.m.
Robert Bouchard Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC
Mr. Speaker, I congratulate my colleague from Saint-Maurice—Champlain on his speech.
In a nutshell, he mentioned in his remarks that the Conservative government passed itself off as an open government, but that by introducing Bill C-12, it instead demonstrated that it was a closed government. He also remarked that the National Assembly voted twice in favour of urging the House of Commons to reject the proposal to reduce Quebec's political weight.
I would like the member to tell us what message Bill C-12 would send to Quebeckers should it pass.
Democratic Representation Act
Government Orders
1:35 p.m.
Jean-Yves Laforest Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question.
I will answer the second part of his question about how Quebeckers would react to the passage of Bill C-12. I think that people are starting to open their eyes. The government says that it is going to practise open federalism. Over the course of the 2006 and 2008 election campaigns, the government said that it was open to the notion of the Quebec nation and that it had helped pass a motion to recognize this nation. But the government says one thing and ultimately—through its actions and its bills—does quite the opposite to what is meant by recognizing a nation. Quebeckers actually expect the government to pass legislation that strengthens their culture and their language; they do not expect it to pass bills such as Bill C-12, which reduces Quebec's political weight.
Democratic Representation Act
Government Orders
1:35 p.m.
Michael Chong Wellington—Halton Hills, ON
Mr. Speaker, once again, I appreciate the debate that the members of the Bloc are contributing to the amendment to the bill, but I want to reverse the question. If we do not do this, what are the consequences?
One consequence may very well be that the Supreme Court of Canada may rule the current distribution of seats unconstitutional, as reinforced in its 1991 ruling on the fundamental constitutional principle of representation by population.
The other consequence of not enacting the legislation is that it would become more difficult politically in 10 years to do this than it would be to do it now. In 10 years the gap would be that much larger than it is today.
There are serious consequences both in the constitutionality of the current structure and in the political difficulties in achieving change if we do not enact the legislation.
Democratic Representation Act
Government Orders
1:35 p.m.
Jean-Yves Laforest Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC
Mr. Speaker, the Conservative member just proved our point. Judges recently confirmed sections of a Constitution, which Quebeckers never signed. This decision only demonstrates to Quebeckers that the Canadian Constitution was not written with them in mind and that all it does is set roadblocks in their way.
When the government recognized the Quebec nation, it should have made sure that that also meant it would give Quebec the tools it needed to flourish. Bill C-12 does quite the opposite.

subset: commoncrawl


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quote:When Wonderful Christmastime comes around I'll switch to another station. I think that's one of Pauls biggest mistakes over the years. But when you've written so much beautifull stuff you're allowed to make a mistake every 10 years
Gotta disagree. Just my opinion though, of course. I think Wonderful Christastime is a GREAT song. Every time I hear it around the holidays, it just makes me FEEL like Christmas. Now, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reggae, that's a different story. [xx(]


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New Markdowns
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Style: 570078404
Out of Stock
Enjoy non-stop luxury from a dress in silky soft knit with a velvety touch. Slender empire waist silhouette has a double-V neckline, dolman sleeves that cover the top of shoulders, and a narrow band of smocking at the waist.
- Double-layered bodice for soft support.
- Flattering border print adds height and draws the eye away from the mid-section.
- Approximately 56.5" from shoulder.
- 90% Polyester, 10% Spandex. Machine wash. Imported.
Read more… Read less…


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Welcome to Petaluma Speedway
Welcome to the new Petaluma Speedway. We are the Wine Country's center of speed, featuring 360 Winged Sprints, Wingless Sprints, IMCA Modifieds, Super Stocks, Dwarf Cars, Mini Stocks, and 600's. Come join us Saturday Night's for non-stop racing action as we celebrate our 54th anniversary of racing in the wine country.
Come join us at the speedway Saturday nights. The grandstands open at 4:00, qualifying at 5:00, racing at 5:30 pm.
Raceceivers and Transponders Mandatory for ALL classes at all races. Rentals available at the track or If interested in purchasing contact Margaret at 707.486.8140


text:
Table of Contents | Search Technical Documentation | References
Main Quality Control Findings of Interest
Participation, Exclusion, and Accommodation Rates
Given the complexity of the weighting procedures utilized in NAEP, a range of quality control (QC) checks was conducted throughout the weighting process to identify potential problems with collected student-level demographic data or with specific weighting procedures. The QC processes included
To validate the weighting process, extensive tabulations of various school and student characteristics at different stages of the process were conducted. The school level characteristics included in the tabulations were racial/ethnic group enrollment, median income (based on the school zip code area), and locale. At the student level, the tabulations included race/ethnicity, gender, relative age, students with disability (SD) status, English language learners (ELL) status, and participation in national school lunch program (NSLP) status.


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Three nights for the price of two, October to March Sunday to Thursday, weekends and school holidays not included.
Welcome to Cornerstones
Luxury 5 Star
B&B in Llangollen, North Wales
Our beautifully restored sixteenth century guesthouse, sits side by side on the banks of the river Dee in the centre of the Welsh market town of Llangollen. Each of our three rooms have their own unique appeal with a luxurious 5 star gold rating with the Welsh Tourist board. We are happy to arrange a block booking for all three rooms, creating a home from home for special occasions. All our rooms are beautifully furnished and include a 32" flat screen TV with built-in DVD and we also have a library of DVD's available. Each room has a fridge with fresh milk and a selection of various tea's and coffee, cake, biscuits and Welsh water. Hair dryers, straighteners, dressing gowns, toiletries, slippers, a safe for your valuables and wine chillers are all provided and we also have ice buckets which you can order on arrival. After a good night's sleep, you can enjoy one of our famous Welsh breakfasts. We source all our produce locally and a vegetarian option is also available. Free car parking passes are provided on arrival for use in any of the Town's car parks. Guests are allowed five minutes to unload on the double yellow lines outside Cornerstones. We also have a lockable garage available for cars and motorbikes, located a few minutes' walk away. There is a charge of £10.00 per night for the garage and reservations can be made by contacting us directly. Guests are requested to remove their shoes before entering the stairs leading to bedroom, although slippers are provided. We can also store pushbikes and we have drying facilities for walkers.
Check out our special offer page for latest reduced rates. We look forward to welcoming you to Cornerstones.
Over the busy festive period a 50% non refundable deposit will be charged.
A 5% discount will be received for all bookings made direct by phone.
- Cornerstones Guesthouse rated "excellent" by travellers


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Women's Sunglasses
Things are looking bright with our range of easy-on-the-eye sunglasses. Show your love for the classics with Ray-Ban and Quay Australia, or look to the new generation flat lens and round frames in cool colourways.
Something went wrong, we're working hard to fix it so please try again in a second or two.


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From the December issue of INC. Magazine, there was an interesting article about "Going Carbon Neutral".The first line sums up the marketing of going carbon neutral.
"If it were cheap and easy, would you reduce your carbon emissions to zero?"
The whole article is a propaganda piece for carbon "offset" providers. They want you to hire them, so they can estimate how much carbon you offset a year, charge you a small fee. Enough to make you feel like your helping the planet, but not enough to make you feel like your getting robbed.
Most carbon providers take your money and fund some kind of green technology such as solar or wind power. They say it encourages people to reduce the amount of energy they use. I simply don't think that will work.
2 different issues
But we are dealing with 2 different issues. Individuals who want to reduce their carbon foot print can easily do it without buying carbon credits.
Start recycling, unplug appliance that aren't in use. reduce how much you consume, take your coffee mug to Startbucks instead of using a paper cup. Make your home more energy efficient.
Big corporations on the other hand would much rather just pay the fee. That way they have a scapegoat for why they haven't changed their business practices. "Well we are carbon neutral because we buy carbon credits from so and so."
But it goes against common sense!
If you take 100 flights overseas every year, but buy carbon credits to off set it, your still taking 100 flights a year. You didn't reduce, reuse or recycle your way to carbon neutral. You took the easy way out.
And that's what these carbon providers are hoping for. That there are millions of people who will pay to relieve their guilt.
Carbonfund.org even suggest you buy carbon offsets for your friends and family for the holidays and give them the gift of a better future! They reinforce their belief with their slogan:
Reduce what you can, offset what you can't
Or Terrapass has a whole gift section of green gadgets that will help save the world. I wonder if you order a gift and they ship it to you, if they pay for the carbon offset to ship it too?
It's so great lets make it mandatory
These companies are lobbying congress and Washington to make carbon credits mandatory. you own a car, now you owe a carbon tax. You want to buy a new washer and dryer, better stick a carbon tax on top of the sticker price to offset the carbon.
You have an older home, oops sorry that's not as efficient as newer homes, your going to have to make up the difference in carbon offsets.
I'm not against people reducing, reusing, and recycling,we all should be. People should examine their lifestyles and make some changes. We have lived without consequences for too long, and we need to replace our short term outlook with a long term vision.
What I am against is corporations making huge profits off of selling snake oil, by duping their customers with slick presentations, psychological babble about how they are saving the earth and providing a future for their grand kids.
Carbon Credits the new indulgence
Buying carbon credits is the same thing as the Catholic Church selling Indulgence's in the 1500's. You sin, no problem you just need to buy this little indulgence to limit the consequence of your sin. It didn't change the fact that you sinned, it didn't even promise to forgive you, only Jesus could do that. The indulgence was strictly to avoid punishment for your sins.
Say like owning a factor and polluting local rivers for the last 40 years. Or shipping tons of toxic toys across the world. Our letting 5% of the worlds population consume 40% of the worlds resources.
"Oh we shouldn't do that, well we're carbon neutral"
It's a crock. These company's are profiting off of a think tank's idea that global warming is man made and killing the earth. Just read the Club of Romes report "The first Global Revolution", page 75


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This paper was presented at the 21st International Conference on Electricity Distribution CIRED, Frankfurt.
Abstract: The purpose of this work is to assess three selected business cases in a smart grid environment that have been designed by project members of the EU co-funded SmartHouse/SmartGrid project. These cases cover balancing services, demand side management and micro grid operations. Each business case and its individual technology architecture are evaluated with respect to expected costs and revenue. Results suggest that in the modeled reference scenario, there are profitable business cases and also cases which are not yet profitable under current conditions.


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Intel Corp. and Micron Technology demonstrated a jointly developed DRAM concept called Hybrid Memory Cube (HMC). The memory cubes promise to dramatically reduce energy consumption and boost performance and thus will improve power efficiency by around seven times. The HMC has 10 times the bandwidth and 7 times the energy efficiency than even the most advanced DDR3 memory module available.
The Hybrid Memory Cube, demonstrates a new approach to memory design delivering a 7-fold improvement in energy-efficiency over today's DDR3. Hybrid Memory Cube uses a stacked memory chip configuration, forming a compact "cube", and uses a new, highly efficient memory interface which sets the bar for energy consumed per bit transferred while supporting data rates of 1Tb/s (one trillion bits per second). This research technology could lead to dramatic improvements in servers optimized for cloud computing as well as ultrabooks, televisions, tablets and smartphones
Current DRAM technologies – which include DRAM manufacturing processes, modules and other devices – enable massive memory capacity within at a low manufacturing cost. However, as the number of individual processing units (cores) on a microprocessor increases, the need to feed the cores with more memory data expands proportionally and input/output interface becomes a constraint for performance. The increase of the amount of DRAM modules increases power consumption and thus lowers power efficiency. There are severe limitations to achieving high-speed and low-power using a commodity DRAM process, according to Intel.
"We knew that future high-speed memory will need to conquer a challenging set of tradeoffs and achieve low cost and power as well as high density and speed. We came to the conclusion that mating DRAM and a logic process based I/O buffer using 3D stacking could be the way to solve the dilemma. We found out that once we placed a multi-layer DRAM stack on top of a logic layer, we could solve another memory problem which limits the ability to efficiently transfer data from the DRAM memory cells to the corresponding I/O circuits," said Bryan Casper, an Intel official.
Getting the data out of the memory cells to the I/O is analogous to the difficulty of navigating the streets of a crowded city. However, placing the logic layer underneath the DRAM stack has a similar effect to building a high-speed subway system underneath the streets, bypassing encumbrances such as the DRAM process as well as the routing restricted memory arrays. Additionally, the adjacent logic layer enables integration of an intelligent control logic to hide the complexities of the DRAM array access, allowing the microprocessor memory controller to employ much more straightforward access protocols than what has been achievable in the past, according to Intel.
The result of this joint research project between Micron Technology and Intel has been the development of some key achievements. Last year, Intel designed and demonstrated an I/O prototype that achieved a record-breaking 1.4mW 1Gb/s energy efficiency that was optimized for this hybrid-stacked DRAM application. The two companies worked together to jointly develop and specify a high-bandwidth memory architecture and protocol for a prototype that was designed and manufactured this year by Micron. This hybrid-stacked DRAM prototype, known as the Hybrid Memory Cube (HMC), is the world's highest bandwidth DRAM device with sustained transfer rates of 1Tb/s. On top of that, it is also the most energy efficient DRAM ever built when measured in number of bits transferred versus energy consumed. This groundbreaking prototype has 10 times the bandwidth and 7 times the energy efficiency than even the most advanced DDR3 memory module available.
Intel believes that the developments will likely have a fundamental impact on data centers and supercomputers that thirst for low-power high-bandwidth memory accesses. With this technology, next generation systems formerly limited by memory performance will be able to scale dramatically while maintaining strict power and form factor budgets. Additionally, these developments may play a key role in the optimization of system architectures and memory hierarchies of future mainstream systems in the client and server markets.


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Contributor News & Resources
Revision Information
- Revision id: 13489
- Created:
- Creator: Verdi
- Comment: New video and updates for April 18/19
- Reviewed: Yes
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The big things this week
Minutes of the latest weekly meeting
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Currently we are looking for:
- Contributors to proof read the English KB and Reviewers for Linux.
- a Finnish and a Swedish localizer.
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If there is anything wrong on SUMO, please let us know, so we can fix it. As usual at Mozilla, we use Bugzilla to track bugs. Check SUMO bugs to see if your issue is not yet in Bugzilla and just provide a summary and a brief description of the problem.
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- On support-release.allizom.org we have an exact copy of the software that runs on the production servers. If you want to make a change and are unsure how it works, you can test it on this server first. During the short period after a code freeze, but before we ship, the new version of the software is tested on this server.
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IRC meeting: Mondays (meeting duration approx. 30-45 minutes) at: 10:00 AM PST, irc.mozilla.org: #sumo
Staying connected
We want to hear from you! Got ideas for improving Firefox Help, questions about helping, or just want to know more about us? Here's how to get in touch:
- Contributors Forum: This is the main place where we talk about everything related to Firefox Help.
- #sumo IRC channel: The best place to chat with other contributors. You can also find the Firefox Help staff there: David Tenser (djst) - Project lead, Cheng Wang (Cww) - Forum guru, Kadir Topal (Topal) - Community manager, Michael Verdi (michaelverdi) - Knowledge Base content manager, and Matthew Middleton (zzxc) Live Chat master. If you don't have an irc client, connect via Mibbit.
- Firefox Support (SUMO) blog: the latest project updates and developments are discussed here.