My wife is currently answering a political poll over the phone. Just to sit here and listen to her is a treat, especially without hearing the other side of the conversation. My wife's responses are in quotes below. You can guess at the pollster's questions yourself.

"Because the teachers' union annoys me. (pause) That's A-N-N-O-Y-S. (pause) Yes. Annoys me."

"Health care? Uh, I'm happy with it. (pause) No, happy with it. (pause) Yes. I'm happy with the way the provincial government runs the health care system. (pause) Because whenever I've needed to use the health care system, I've been able to do so promptly."

"I'm happy that they've lowered taxes. (pause) Because I've been living in the United States, and I've seen that lower taxes provide incentives for people to produce. (pause) Lower taxes. (pause) Provide incentives. (pause) For people to produce."

The pollster seems to have a bit of an agenda, but I think my wife's opinions are getting through.

...that I don't have a television?

(Shamelessly ripped off from Mark Shea's much better blog)

This caught my eye:

Coal would be a lot less valuable if it was found as a layer one centimeter thick spread over an area the size of the states of Iowa and Nebraska; the collection process would defeat the purpose. How difficult would it be to gather it all? How much equipment would be needed? Would it make sense economically to buy it all, given that each piece of equipment could only collect a relatively small amount of coal? Unfortunately, it wouldn't.

In fact it turns out that Alberta is covered by a 1-cm thick layer of coal. If you go down in the river valley you can see the coal layer, maybe 20-30 ft. down from the surface.