Hi Dave,

Thanks for the info about the other tax 'resistors'. It will be interesting to 
see what the outcomes are of their situations. It is a pity it all has to be so 
difficult. What would the harm be to have just a fraction more power in where 
our tax dollars go? I think most people would at least be prepared to let some 
of it go to defence if it were only defence and not attack as such. 

I also totally agree about your comments regarding government subsidies into 
renewable energy sources. I am at a loss to understand why Australia does not 
seem to have embraced renewables. We have just returned from 12 years in Europe 
(my husband is Swiss) and we assumed that most houses would have solar panels at 
least. I would estimate that about 80 percent of the houses I saw in Germany had 
solar panels on them and they surely get half the sunlight there that we do here 
- they are partially government subsidised but I did have one German friend who 
refused to have the system installed in their brand new house because he claimed 
it was still not worth the money and that the panels would need replacing before 
they paid for themselves. Not sure how true that was, he was also the guy who 
didn't believe in wind power because of the damage to bird life. We lived in 
Holland for 6 years where all our energy came from windmills and apparently bird 
populations were not affected in the slightest as far as I was aware. I actually 
loved the modern windmills - reminded me of swimmers for some reason with long 
arms reaching around all the time. 

Well thanks again for all your insights. Good luck with everything. 

Belinda

By the way, the only reason I know how much mums worry about their sons is 
because I am a mum with a son. The worry will never actually leave us but I 
guess it can be eased sometimes.