HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 2009-10-28, Page 7Goderich Signal -Star, Wednesday, October 28, 2009 - Page 7
Opinion
Landowners urged show concernforland,neighbours
To the Editor; the wind farm poses no health risks to land- from dizziness, heart palpitations and insom-
The October 21 edition of the Goderich owners. What they fail to reveal is that their nia (along with other less common, com-
Signal-Star carried an announcement from health studies are funded by the windmill plaints) the expense of a government study
Twenty -Two Degrees about their proposed companies themselves and conducted by is more than justified. One only has to look at
wind farm for Goderich Township. people hired by those companies. ; the millions of dollars wasted in other ways
In this ad the company asked landowners This has been pointed out to the govern- to see how ridiculous this statement is.
to contact them if they were interested in par- ment, time and time again, and landowners Whether landowners believe that the
ticipating by allowing wind turbines on their have asked the same question: How can these problems are legitimate or not, allowing the
farms. Twenty -Two Degrees, controlled by studies be unbiased? It's a given that the find- wind turbine companies to conduct their own
Texas oil baron T. Boone Pickens, intends to ings will be in favour of wind turbines. health studies is foolish. The government, in
submit a land use proposal to the government The government claims that anyone can its push to cavy out their vision of a green
in less than a month and Pickens and com- approach them and ask for an independent Ontario by 2014, chooses to ignore anything
pany are pushing to come up with enough study funded by the government, but to date that might stand in the way of their plan.
land. Before farmers sign away a few acres, every request has been denied. The reason: But farmers cannot afford to brush off
it's too expensive. So they let the windmill problems associated with wind farms. They
Tob ac CardIs ensu
O a 1 t t o t companies ensu foot the bill. need to protect their land and show concern
ring good health and allowing farm- for their neighbours.
ers to remain on their land worth the ex-
pense? For anyone living in close proximity
to a wind turbine, who claims to be suffering
To the Editor;
I'm sure that many readers of the God-
erich Signal -Star are aware that' our
Premier, Dalton McGuinty, through the
Attorney General's Office has filed a
law suit against the tobacco industry for
health care costs going back to 1955.
What most people probably don't real-
ize, though, is that a legal action of this
nature will most likely take decades to re-
solve at extraordinarily high costs to the
taxpayer. Am I for the tobacco industry?
No, most definitely not! So, I hope that
no one thinks I am advocating on their
behalf.
What really annoys me with this recent
action though, is that it has not only been
Fingernails
A recent survey revealed that the two
phrases most people find annoying are
"whatever" (pronounced what -EVER! As
in hul-LO!) and "it is what it is."
The terms that cause me to cringe are
"at first blush", "the bottom line", and "our
thoughts and prayers are with them." It is in
direct retaliation to these three nauseating
lines that I tend to respond with "whatever."
"Sustainability" is a word you're going to
become sick of real soon and "green" will
eventually turn all . of us that colour. Hon-
estly, I'd rather hear "okey dokey" than "all
in" or "twenty-four seven", or "party" used
as a verb. But it is interesting to look at the
things that irritate people the most.
At the moment, the practice of check-out
staff at supermarkets and the LCBO asking
me if I want to donate to a local charity is
driving me to drink. Okay, then more drink.
I don't mind the raffle tickets on the coun-
ter and I like the kids at the curb selling but-
tons or ribbons, but don't make me feel like
a heel for not donating two dollars to chari-
ties I've already covered with the volunteers
going door to door.
So what's more annoying? A snorer in the
room next to you at the motel or a screamer.
Letters
opinion
however, the voices from landowners in oth-
er areas, where wind farms have impacted so
many lives, need to be heard.
If the farmers in Goderich Township ignore
them, they are doing a disservice to people
just like themselves — farmers who, in many
cases, own farms that have been in their fami-
lies for generations.
The problem is this: the wind turbine
companies ('I\venty-Two Degrees included)
claim that health studies have been done and
the tobacco industry who has known
the dangers of smoking since 1955, but
so has the government. I am also quite
sure that if an investigation were done, it
would be found out that political parties
of all stripes took campaign contributions
from tobacco companies back in those
days. Whether the governments of today
want to admit it or not, that's just the way
the world was once and there really isn't
anything that can be done to change that
fact.
Me, I had my first cigarette at the age
of ten and by the age of 44 I was a three
pack-a-day smoker well on my way to-
wards death if I did not quit. When it
Letters continued on page 10
A Whys Line Resident
S.L. Mewls
Kinsmen Club does good for kids
To the Editor; This location, as well as the wonder -
I am a home childcare provider ful staff for the Ontario Early Years pro -
through Huron County, and the mother grams, allows our community to provide
of three wonderful boys. a warm and safe place to socialize, play
I would like to extend a big 'thank- and educate our little ones, especially in
you' to the Goderich Kinsmen for pro- the not -so -desirable weather months.
viding us with such a fabulous location
to attend our much-needed Ontario Early Dawn Lyndon
Years playgroup. Goderich
on a blackboard, or Bill O'Reilly?
The swine flu or the flu shot that
might cause you to avoid or con-
tract the disease?
What bothers you most? The
systemic rudeness of Air Canada
employees or the seat configura-
tion on Air Transat planes that
force you to eat your inflight meal
off the head of the person in front
of you? The hidden taxes on air-
line fares or paying an airport tax
to Pearson International which is
the most expensive, inefficient
and inconvenient airport in the world?
What's worse — an accountant, a mortician
or an actuary who manages to be a bit of
both? The weather man who's seldom right
or the cop with the radar gun who's rarely
wrong? Smokers or born-agains? Jehovas or
jihadists? Sports mascots or mimes? People
who talk during movies at the cinema or the
guy who threatens to strangle them to death
with his bare hands unless they stop? (And
I would, if it wasn't illegal and involved a
lot of paperwork.) The ban on pitbulls in
Ontario or allowing Jim Flaherty out in pub-
lic as long as he's on a leash? People who
come to dinner and bring their home-made
All the World's
A Circus...
wine or people who come empty-
handed? The fact we're releasing
criminals because our court sys-
tems are hopelessly backlogged or
the twenty judges who have their
own TV shows?
People who talk loudly on their
cell phones in public or... no, there's
nothing more annoying than that.
What's worse — blow dryers in
washrooms instead of paper tow-
els or stingy automatic water taps?
Coffee stations that make you open
four tiny packets of sugar and five tiny thim-
bles of milk where a sugar jar and a carton of
milk would do just fine, or gas stations that
clean their washrooms annually. Diets that
don't work or laxatives that work too well?
Junk mail or spam?
Who should be jailed first — litterers or
people who scoop their dog's poop and then
drop the bag when nobody's looking? Driv-
ers who go slow in the passing lane or lane
jumpers trying to get around drivers who go
slow in the passing lane? The operator of the
truck dropping stones off your windshield or
the loon with the flashing lights pushing you
from behind? Cottagers who set off illegal
fireworks on neighbours who think you too
should enjoy their godawful taste in music?
(And for the record, in the rock song Help
Me Rhonda, the line "Help me Rhonda" is
repeated thirty-four times.)
Who's more annoying? Larry King or
Bill O'Reilly? Dalton McGuinty or Ronald
McDonald? Kate or Jon? Donnie or Marie?
Kurt Browning or Don Cherry? Joan Rivers
or Richard Simmons? Rush Limbaugh or
Andy Rooney? Fabio or the so-called doc-
tor in the infomercial who claims you have
twenty pounds of undigested hamburger
spackled to the walls of your lower colon?
Conrad Black or Fergie of the Black Eyed
Peas? Benedict, the German Pope or Ber-
lusconi, the Italian buffoon? Bryan Burk or
Delta Burke?
What grates on your nerves the most —
you, trapped in an elevator with all the peo-
ple mentioned above or those women on the
The View? Yeah, no contest.
There's an awful lot of things out there to
be genuinely irked about. As Don Cherry
once said when someone threw the word
`exasperating' at him — "exasperatin"? Why
itta drove me nuts!" And it does, it doe-.
r