Good Friday morning to y'all, hope you have a brilliant week end.
metalman.

What is up with freeking gas prices, how do you go from a May long weekend price of 98.9 then down to 93.9 then within hours up to 106.9 something is wrong here. the rich just get richer. oh well summer time time to raise prices lol

still NDP signs out on the highways....brutal! sore losers!!!!!

They simply did not have the volunteer base from the looks of it.

Happy Friday! Anyone noticed whats happening at ACS? the cities 3rd (5th) largest employer. With the news of client T-Mobile pulling out in mid July, and severance packages announced, they have begun firing anywhere from 2 to 10 people everday, in an effort to avoid the previously mentioned severance. Follow the path from ACS to Employment Standards...

My wife got a $167.00 seat belt ticket last Saturday. It must be a gash grab because she was the passenger and I was driving, my son was in the back and we ALL had our seat belts ON. He stopped us and went to my wife's window and told her she was being fined because she didn't have her belt on. He said he saw her putting it on. What she was doing as we were waiting at the intersection was pulling on it to seat it better across her body. The officer was coming from the other direction in his car and had to look up into my window, past me and see what could only have been a sillouete of my wife as he was a least 15 feet away. When my wife told him what she was doing he just said she was lying and see you in court. She told him that she has never ever driven without her seat belt and he said "I highly doubt that" Totally rude. I asked him if he could be any friendlier and he just asked me to produce my license to proof who I was. Wow.. way to treat law abiding citizens. Well.. I guess we'll see him in court and waste some more tax payer money. Also my son who witnessed this asked " are all cops like that" I said no but I am sure that it left an impression on the him as he said it's kind of hard to trust a cop if they act like that. I obviously can't name him but I have already been told by others who know him that he has a huge attitude and some colleages won't deal with him. Lucky me. I guess we'll see you in court pal..

Garth Turner (former M.P.) posted the following today on his blog - greaterfool.ca. I think it is an excellent summary of what is currently happening in our financial world. I hope people read this and ask themselves the following question: Is it prudent in this economic climate for the City of Prince George to be borrowing a whole bunch of money to spend on capital projects which are not absolutely essential. If you answer no to this question, then please let the Mayor and City Council know your views on the subject, and more importantly, please be sure to sign the petition during the alternate approval process, if this process is indeed activated, so that the permission for the City to borrow this money is denied.

"Britain's about to become one of the First World countries to achieve junk bond status. The kingdom will soon lose its G-8, Triple-A credit rating, as Standard & Poor’s lowers its outlook from “stable” to “negative.” Stating the obvious, S&P said the UK will soon have a debt equal to 100% of its entire economy, which would place that country not far behind the average US household (130% debt) or the typical Canadian family (127% debt). This was enough to rattle financial markets, send stocks skidding and raise the prospect other countries will soon be following suit. Like the US.

Why is this happening? What does it mean?

Simple. Political leaders are doing whatever possible to prevent a neo-depression on their watch. This involves massive and unprecedented spending increases, issuance of currency, repurchase of debt obligations, corporate bailouts, the wholesale embrace of deficit spending and debt accumulation and the gutting of monetary policy resulting in zero interest rates. The consequences of this are unknown, since such actions have never before been taken. But they won’t be positive. Count on that.

Britain, for example, is torpedoing the long-term value and stability of its currency, guaranteeing a return to high tax rates, reduced competitiveness and a lower standard of living for virtually all of its citizens – especially homeowners with mortgages who will suffer falling equity (who wants to live in a stagnant, high-tax land?) and rising debt costs (interest rates have only one direction in which to travel).

In fact, actions today by short-term thinkers like Gordon Brown, Stephen Harper and Barack Obama will have an impact on the next generation or two of consumers, investors, voters and families. In order to escape the debt holocaust we all so richly deserve – and narrow cheated in November – political leaders have opted to spread the pain out over the next couple of generations.

In doing so, they have created this alternative universe in which the misinformed, misinformed and merely ignorant believe their governments and the media sycophants. It’s sad what is happening, and about to happen, to a few great countries.

Sadder still for the common folk. Many have been set on a path to perdition"

The following is the link to the post on Garth Turner's blog

http://www.greaterfool.ca/2009/05/22/lion-en-hiver/

vocer - be sure to stop by the RCMPolice station and get a copy of the file which will have the officers comments on it. Also write down everything that happened and date it so that you can bring it with you to your court appearance.

So after the election is over , the Northern Development Trust Fund released their 2008 annual report. They lost 46 million dollars from the year before through poor investments. If you count the amount they should have made by investing in safe government bonds, then they lost over 50 million dollars. And they claim in their annual report that they have conservative investments.
So I guess with the Liberals back in power , this is another issue that will be swept under the rug. No one is held accountable. No one loses a job that they shouldn't have. And nothing changes.
Where is the media attention on this fiasco? Do they collectively need to grow a set of gonads to tackle this subject- and how long will that take? Lose 50 million bucks of the taxpayers money and no one seems to care? Are people in this town really so whipped?

Vocer, well the officer is only doing his job to protect you and your family. He has probably seen a hundred accidents where people who do not have there seat belt on, go flying through the windshield.

Thus he is not after the $168.00, he wants to make a lasting reminder to ensure that the seat belt is on.

I noticed that you never argued that she did not have it on, and she put it on as she saw the RCMP.

Mowed the lawn yesterday.....still snow on the ground in spots!! I'd like to give global warmin a chance up here. Have a good weekend!

"Northern Development Trust Fund"???

They have a local board. Go talk to them about how well they invest the money which they have been entrusted with. They are the decision makers, not the government.

The board are all Liberal appointees, they do everything they can to make the Liberals look good, including election eve job creation schemes. Give your head a shake Gus.
They are not going to fire themselves, are they?

Have we gone nuts , a 167 dollar Fine for not using your Seatbelt (I know you did)This is Taxing the People , not like Mulroney he only pays on 50% of is Income!

If you think $167 is too steep of a fine for not wearing your seatbelt then there is an easy fix. Wear your seatbelt.

He Spoke:
"Vocer, well the officer is only doing his job to protect you and your family"

Oh, the officer was doing his job alright except that the refused to listen when my wife explained what she was doing. He has no people skills thats for sure. he could have explained that he was trying to keep us safe as you say but no he just told us he would see us in court.. Why would I argue about anything.. She had her seatbelt on.

Everything said has been documented, dispute has been registered and letters written about this officers conduct. I do have respect for the RCMP but this guys approach was totally unwarranted

If everyone went to court to dis;pute their tickets, all the RCMP Officers would be cooling their heels in the Courthouse, and none would be available for giving out more tickets. They do not want you to dispute these tickets, and in a lot of instances the Officer issuing the ticket does not show up at the hearing.

A number of years ago a Judge stated that there are too many people who are legitimately innocent of traffic tickets who for convenience sake pay the tickets because it is easier than going to court. He stated that this type of action leads to abuse of the law, because innocent people are pleading guilty. He strongly suggested that more people go to court and stand up for their rights.

Anyone know whats afoot at 7th & Vic? Looked like a bunch of people escavating with shovels & garbage cans. Hopefully they didn't find an old Indian pot fragment or something.

Vocer, I apologize, that i did not read the portion correctly where it was adjusting her seat belt.

It would be my suggestion than that you approach it from the position that she was readjusting her seat belt at a stopped position.

The officer may be a bit aggressive, but who is going to testify against him. His fellow officers will not. However the judge may be already aware of the officers aggressive nature.

At the end of it all, what are you trying to attain. It sounds like the $167 is not as important as trying to do the right thing infront of your son's eyes. Thus prepare for the loss, and dealing with the impression that it will leave on your son. I am assuming he is under 12

Herbster, Have you looked at your RRSP portfolio lately, We all took a hit on it. No one is immune to the market place.

How you play with your retirement fund is up to you. A public trust should be invested in safe government bonds. Had they done so they would have been ahead at least 6 million dollars, not behind by 46 million.

By the way, 52 million is roughly $500 out of the pocket of every man woman and child in the area that NDTF is supposed to serve.

Just heard on TV news that the Feds are going to contribute to a ring road around Calgary. Wish it was Prince George; sure would help our roads.
Vocer- I am sad that happened to your family. I want to be able to respect the RCMP.

Why does the NDTF have so much in cash to invest?
Should this money not already be allocated to investment in the north?
If they have tens of millions in cash available to invest in equities, then they are not dispersing the funds to the community per their mandate.

More self serving political appointee behavior.

"The corporation operates seven Trust Accounts with funding focused on ten primary investment areas: agriculture, economic development, energy, forestry, mining, olympic opportunities, pine beetle recovery, small business, tourism, and transportation."

Come on herbster...the only safe investment in the last year was cash. Now making 1% beats losing 25%, but only armchair portfolio managers can look back and predict the worst market meltdown in 75 years.

I thinkthe important thing for vocer to do is to show that getting a ticket when you are innocent is NOT acceptable. His wife had her belt on, the cop was wrong and thus it is vocer's duty to show up in court. Rudeness is neither here nor there, but injustice must be opposed unless we want our kids to lose respect for the legal system (not a good thing).
As for cynical cops, well I wouldnt bother giving tickets on the fly to folks who, for all i know had the belt on and were adjusting it. I am sure there were enough people caught without resorting to questionable calls followed by rude behaviour. For the record not all people are criminals. Many of us are law abiding. Also, as canadians we have our pride. If you want to get on someones bad side, call him a liar. I know it works for me. It would help the RCMP's image if they considered this when dealing with the public at large.

Herb are you talking safe government bonds like Iceland(worthless)? Or are you talking about the safest AAA rated Asset backed paper that is also pretty much worthless.

dow7500, There was indication in early 2008, that @#$% was going to hit the fan, but nobody believed it. They needed to deal with the sub prime loans. But they also needed to ensure that the recepients had the capacity to pay it back.

I am not a economist, but fundamentally, the American system was based on future growth. There are two ways to get future growth. One is to steal market place from other countries. The other is to have inflation which circulates devalued money. It appears that the Americans are trying to devalue their dollar. I would say by the end of this year, the Canadian dollar will be back to par with the American dollar. We have gained 3 cents in the last week already.

i think the average American is now ready to work hard for a better future, instead of the masses which was relying on the rising real estate market as their retirement.

Dow7500, in no means am i against your statement that the stock market took a beating because of the lack of confidence in the free enterprise system. There is a lot of armchair portfolio managers who can do a lot of CSI work to identify what happened. We should be more concerned about what is going to happen next, instead of checking the rear view mirror.

Vocer,
Lucky you din't get shot or tasered. I can only assume your stapler was unloaded and securely locked in the trunk otherwise think what might of happened.

You are all correct.. its not so much about the money (although I dont want to pay that either). In my wifes eyes she was called a liar by an unreasonable police officer and that burned her more. My son is 14 and was quite taken aback by this. My wife puts her seatbelt on to move the vehicles in our driveway.. sound nuts I know but its true...lol. She has instilled safety into our children so much they yell at me if I dont get my belt on fast enough.
This is more about princible now. She has written letters to The superintendant, Traffic services, Staff Sargent. She probably sent one to the solicitor general for all I know. Either way some things need standing up for. Be interesting to see if we get a responce.

See the Tyee article for all the gory details at
http://thetyee.ca/cms/Views/2009/05/04/BCRail/

"At the beginning of 2006, after its initial year of operation, NDIT's fund balance stood at $187.3 million. The gain was due to investment income of nearly $3.8 million, with disbursements limited to a few grants and loans for regional projects, and administrative overhead.

At this point, the board of directors decided to take its endowment out of a low-risk, money-market account managed by the provincial government's Municipal Finance Authority, and switch it into a variety of funds overseen by SEI Investments Canada Company, a Toronto-based investment firm.

(This decision, and the potential for investment losses in 2008, was reported in a superb piece by the Vancouver Sun's crack political columnist, Vaughn Palmer, on Jan. 29.)

Loki wrote: "Why does the NDTF have so much in cash to invest? Should this money not already be allocated to investment in the north?"

They are supposedly "investing" in the community in such a fashion that they will not run out of money. In other words, in a supposed sustainable way.

Present value of NDIT? $144 million.

Hear ye, hear ye
We, the contributors of opinion 250 should start a local business and solicit funding from NDIT.
Any good ideas?

I think we could start something for about $40 Million

Look at their conditions to disperse funds. You might want to rethink that thought.

he spoke, you don't manage prudent money on gut instincts, you manage on long term statistical allocations. There was nothing obvious in early 2008 that would re-allocate 150 million plus in funds.

The market blowoff has very little to do with a collective repudiation of capitalism. What we are experiencing is how capitalism corrects itself. 150 year old wall street firms have gone down. Much more to come. Bailing out the titans of industry, as Obama is trying to do, will have a very predictable outcome.

Capitalism without bankruptcy is like Christianity without hell.

You manage public money conservatively. You should not be day trading with a public trust. They made their decision to pull our money out of safe investments -and they lost. They deserve to lose their jobs as well.

Capitalism without accountability is Hell.

Dow7500, Actually, I had quite a lengthy discussion during the Christmas of 2007 with a person in the leasing industry, he was not a qwack either. He clearly indicated that when the subprime loans become due, in the spring of 2008, @#$% was going to hit the fan. It was starting to happen in the spring of 2008.

Remember the fall of the stock market happened because of the problems with the banks. It became a perfect economic storm.
You have nation that thinks that they are # 1, and they do not have to work from the sweat of their brows. They rely on the real estate to keep going up. They can not compete in the world market, but consumes world market products. They have a fundamental flaw in the loan system and a government run by lobbyists. Of course it was going to fail..... look at what happen to the Romans.

Very interesting remarks, He spoke. It looks like the same thing is happening here in BC. A lot of our economic growth was a result of the US and BC real estate boom. Although Campbell said he knew how to run the province, he didn't have a clue. We are going to be in big trouble. I hope all of you have deep pockets to pay for his ponzie schemes.

it is an immutable law of physics that one cannot have infinite growth in a finite space.
Our current and past economic paradigm has always been based on growth.
IMO, we have reached and surpassed critical mass. Then we have 150 year old companies conducting business as it always has.
Now the global economy is where it is.

A definition of insanity says:
Doing the same thing the same way, over and over, expecting a different result.

The laws of physics and thermodynamics are just beginning to make a "Correction" and it won't be pretty.

Good for your wife Vocer. There's no need for name calling. What happend to respecting people. I hope she gets an apology at least. Fight it!!

One billion birds are killed in the U.S. each year. http://birdchaser.blogspot.com/2008/03/cats-kill-over-1-billion-birds-each.html

Where are the enviro's on that one, oh ya petting their cat.

"it is an immutable law of physics that one cannot have infinite growth in a finite space."

The premise of that hypothesis is that the space is finite.

What space are you talking about?

In what sense do you consider it to be finite?

"One billion birds are killed in the U.S. each year."

How many birds die of natural causes every year in the USA?

How many birds are hatched every year in the USA?

There are something like 73.5 million cats in the USA.
http://www.mapsofworld.com/world-top-ten/countries-with-most-pet-cat-population.html

That means there are 13 birds killed each year by the average cat. Given that many are in-house cats, that is a high kill ratio per outdoor cat.

On our property, while we do not have cats, we do have cats from other yards "visiting" us, there are more birds killed that fly into windows than are killed by cats. We probably average around 3 to 4 kills a year of birds with poor eyesight.

The only space we can currently occupy is the earth. It is definitely finite.

And

We currently perceive Space (I take your meaning to be the universe) to be infinite only because we have not yet been able to find and measure any limit. It is a theory that space (the universe) is infinite.

Also in the economic space there are finite limits.

Let's confine it to inhabitable space, the earth. It is finite and we have exceeded its capacity to sustainably support our current way of living based on ever more growth or expansion. Whether it is food production and distribution or economics, we have exceeded those capacities.

We are not really feeling it as much here in the middle of North America, but look at the news. Billions of people around the world are not sure where their next meal will come from. And we are belly aching because our RRSP has dropped. They are not going to retire, they are going to expire from starvation.

Hey what happen to this Friday Free for All when it gets knocked off at 3:20.

gus the birds don't have poor eyesight, they are flying into the reflection in the windows, which is usally lawn, trees, etc.

Eats Bushes Shoots Trees.

I heard that there was going to be a community garden put in at 7th and Victoria. This is part of the downtown beautification plan.

Loki .... "Whether it is food production and distribution"

I understand that North Americans eat 40% more food, on average, than they need to in order to survive.

So we spend in order to try to reduce the weight - expensive diets, Gold`s Gym or whatever they are called, doctors in order to shorten the intestines, pills, etc.

We build bigger houses than we need, set them on larger properties than we need, drive further to get to them than we need, eat more food out than we need.

in a word, we are gluttons.

In Britain they are now spending to the tune of 65% of all government spending paid for by issuing new paper debt (printing money) that dilutes existing savings (monetary inflation tax) and passes the debts payable to the next generation. In the Weimar Republic they had trillion fold hyper inflation with only a 50% rate of debt spending. Britain is bankrupt, and so is their political system. Britain has boughten hook line and sinker the zionist economic policy of monopoly capitalism, because they are an occupied nation politically speaking. Obama is following the British zionist economic model. Canada is being dragged in this wake by our own neo-con occupation (at the party level) of policy decision making. Soon hate speech legislation will make it illegal to make this analysis.

This year signals the end of the epoch of Christianity and the values of a Christian economy based on fairness, equal opportunity in business (free enterprise), and universality of the law.

The new age of the Banker Sovereign and the model atheist eunuch citizenry serving their new sovereign is now upon us. This is a new master slave relationship of society that has been in the accelerated transition stage for most of the last 40-years since the assassination of JFK. We are now democracies of the people in name only IMO. Winners and losers will be picked not on merit, but rather on obedience to political ideology.

Finance and monopoly capitalism 'to-big-to-fail' are the center of gravity of this new master/slave relationship society is governed for. Democracy will never again be allowed to threaten the banksters IMO because they will own all the power over our governments through their strangle hold on the policy and the personnel of our political parties. It doesn't bode well for future generations....

NDI Trust is an example of political ideology governing the picking of winners and losers with public dollars based on ideology and not economics. NDI was sold (as well as BC Rail) as a source of Northern venture capital for an opportunity to source capital for free enterprise ventures... its implementation was anything but with restrictions to investments in non-profit organizations and otherwise normally government funded pet projects... no money is to be allocated for seed capital in for-profit enterprises. Odd then that its alright for the BOD to then invest this capital for profit in a risky investment strategy that costs them 25% of their capital in a single year... no accountability and a government that you work for... not a government that works for you.

The first part of fighting this new master slave relationship is to recognize it... most people are asleep or ignorant until its to late IMO.