Wow I get to be the first poster on here this time. Just got home from work and wanted to see what was going on.
Everyone have a super awesome weekend!

started using adblock; I can finally read the articles on here without the screen moving. Makes it a lot easier, you should look into it.

As a parent of a soldier I would like to ask if everyone could wear read on fridays to show support for out troops.

That doesn't need to mean yuo agree with where our government sends our troops but instead

show support for

those young men and women who go out and do a job, some very dangerous and some spending huge amounts of time away from friends and family.
All of them protecting our rights.

Have a great weekend all

All I have to say today is look at the cover of the free press this morning. While it is still a little early to get paving in full swing , there is no excuse for our roads to look like that . Time for Dan Rogers and city council to start putting money where it needs to go instead of thrusting winter games upon us and raising our taxes to pay for something we do not need.


BCRacer , to you and your family , thank you for you sons/daughters service. Hoping for a safe return .

Maybe it's time to think about keeping our own oil in our own country and get away from the thieving speculator OPEC group. If the people in the mid east want to kick the crap out of one another we should stay stable with oil prices in Canada. We don't import oil at all from Lybia but yet the prices go up at the pumps.

We can expect tourism to take a big hit here in BC with the price of fuel, $1.30 p/l now just wait till summer, bets are we will paying over $1.60 and it's all greed. Then after that, the BC Liberals will be adding more on fuel for carbon tax.

Forestry has gone for a crap tourism is next. Soon we'll all be sitting home because no one will be able to afford to go anywhere, Sunday drives will be a thing of the past. Our mission in life will be to work just to pay taxes and greedy corporate outfits. No one will be getting any raises except for all forms of politicians, you know... the ones that can give themselves raises and collect undeserved pensions from the taxpayer.

My rant for the day, thanks.

Yes, thanks BCRacer

The main thing I have to bring up today is....our roads!

Between the potholes and the gravel all over the place, it is making for some wonderful spring driving.

Potholes: I don't think that there are very many roads that I drive down personally that are NOT in need of some major attention. To name a few.... North Nechako Road past the trailer parks (HORRIBLE and always has been!!), Ospika (everyone knows about this one), Winnepeg (especially at the bottom of the underpass by parkwood mall, and then at the intersection of Winnepeg and 13th!!) and Tabor Blvd.(when you turn off of 15th Ave onto Tabor and for a little ways down from there) When you can't even avoid them because of oncoming traffic that's pretty bad!!

Gravel: So it is now April and we have had no snow on the roads for a while now and they still haven't swept the streets?!!? I think that the city should have to pay for us to get new windsheilds considering I have a new vehicle (not even a year old) and it already has about 10 chips and a big crack in the middle of the windsheild...I have had to fill all of the chips and paid up the butt for that and then there was apparently a chip on the bottom of my windsheild that I couldn't see so it caused a large crack :( now I need a new windsheild!!

What I don't get is...why can't they sweep the streets right when the snow melts?? I don't see how it saves them money to wait and not sweep until Lord knows when?!?!

Anyways enough negative stuff...hope everyone has a fantastic and safe weekend!!

I knew it was April fools when I read that Meerholz had been released from custody again. Very funny judicial system...very funny!

"Our mission in life will be to work just to pay taxes and greedy corporate outfits."
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Tell that to ANY politician, and they might well ask, "Isn't that what you wanted?"

After all, EVERY one of them, even the environmentally sensitive Greens, are promising to get us 'work', and more of it.

Jobs, jobs, jobs!

And if something DOESN'T need doing, well, we'll find a way to do it anyways. Even if we have to wring up billions more in debts we can never pay off to do it.

For the 'job' is the thing. Not the 'income', and what it will actually BUY.

Do ANY of our would-be 'representatives', or their Parties, or their Leaders, ever try to comprehend that a 'job' and an 'income' are TWO entirely SEPARATE things?

That the goal of most people, whether they're on the management side, or the labour one, or neither, is to maximise the 'income' and minimise the TIME it takes to obtain it ~ the doing of the 'job'.

How long are we going to remain at cross purposes, with those talking about industry endlessly preaching more 'jobs', while those running industry are just as endlessly trying to do their level best to eliminate as many of them as possible? Or does 'increased efficiency' and 'more productivity' have some other meaning?

kaymac - I was downtown yesterday and it looked like all of the streets there had been swept.

In my neighbourhood there is still snow covering the parts of the street.

I for one do not mind waiting a bit for sweeping. In prevvious years they have swept too early and then a late snowstorm causes them to resand the roads anyway.

OMG did you read Sympatico news, check out this link:
http://news.sympatico.ca/home/contentposting_april/massive_gas_price_increase_overnight/ab0a8a0f

A hoex I hope....please let it be...

I am also tired of paying 'World prices' for our own oil. Canada needs to build a few more refineries and then have two market prices, Canadian and world. Until new technology makes gasoline obsolete, the big oil speculators will have us over a barrel.....

Socredible: "After all, EVERY one of them, even the environmentally sensitive Greens, are promising to get us 'work', and more of it."

There are only two options:

a)get educated, find a job, work, earn money to sustain yourself. Some people work because they are fulfilling a calling and the money is an added and necessary bonus. They would go bonkers if they were forced to stay at home idling.

b)don't bother even if your are strong and healthy to find a job and work to sustain yourself - demand that the government (us working people) sends you *free* money so you don't starve and die of exposure.

Those who fell out of the working loop and are unemployed and looking for work will benefit (hopefully) from the stated agenda that EVERY one of them, even the environmentally sensitive Greens, are promising to get them 'work', and more of it.

Reality strikes again.

Why anyones' "goal" in life is to have a job is beyond me. I only have a job because it is a necessity. The "goal" of every Canadian should be to retire as early as possible. I understand that societies have to function and that requires a certain amount of labour to accomplish it, but the notion that life is all about working and toiling 8-12 hrs a day for 40-50 years of your lifetime is disturbing to say the least. If people who have been layed off because of mechanization were to take that as an opportunity to live a more self-sustaining lifestyle, jobs wouldn't be the be all end all of human existence.

re: bill
"started using adblock"
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Thx bill!

Downloaded it and YES... works like a charm. There are other International news websites that are much more annoying to me. Looking forward to seeing it in action on those sites as well. One of them is CNN.

chloe
OMG did you read Sympatico news, check out this link: http://news.sympatico.ca/home/contentposting_april/massive_gas_price_increase_overnight/ab0a8a0f

A hoex I hope....please let it be...
---------------------------------------------

YES IT IS INDEED A HOAX.

You were supposed to click on the link titled "Click here to find out how much gas will cost in your city"... where you would then be taken to the APRIL FOOLS page of Sympatico.

Nice try though....

What is it with some of the drivers out there? Why do they insist upon driving along the edge of the road right in the gravel? It smashes windshields, injures pedestrians and creates clouds of wonderful dust for everyone to breathe.
I can understand it when dodging potholes etc, but this isn't the case and it's getting ridiculous. Pay attention to your driving and stay out of the dirt for crying out loud!

You dopes need to wake up and smell the coffee!

>>>>>>>started using adblock; I can finally read the articles on here without the screen moving. Makes it a lot easier, you should look into it.

Do they make one for television? Why do we have to pay for service when they have so many commercials...five minutes of show followed by five minutes of commercials...enough already.

But: "Why anyones' "goal" in life is to have a job is beyond me. I only have a job because it is a necessity."

----------------------------------

True enough! I wasn't born as a Royal or as a child of a millionaire either, so I had to go to work out of necessity. Nobody would give money to me. Then, I made the best of it and actually enjoyed what I was working at. Reality was/is like that.

Maybe in the far off distant future some utopian society will allow all of us to choose NOT to work and just do whatever turns us on. Better yet, do nothing at all.

Who will pick up the garbage, pave the streets, deliver the mail, attend to our needs in the hospital, police the streets?

"Do they make one for television? Why do we have to pay for service when they have so many commercials...five minutes of show followed by five minutes of commercials...enough already"

Do what I did. Get rid of cable or satellite TV and go with the internet. Everything that is on TV is online and you can download and watch it when you want to and what you want to, commercial free. Even hockey night in Canada.

Dragonmaster

FORGET IT... let it go... you're not going to "change the world".

There are idiot drivers ALL OVER THE PLACE and everyone of them thinks they're RIGHT!

I live in Vernon and I see if EVERYDAY here too. People driving 120 on the highways think that if YOU don't move over YOU'RE the idiot. I've been travelling 90 or 100k only to have someone "push my rear bumper" to force me to get over. Then they pass me like I'm standing still. When I catch up to them later they give me the finger.

The BEST one yet was when I knew there was radar ahead so I GLADLY pulled over and politely let him by. I got "The Look" as he drove past me in utter frustration.

I gave him "The Look" back when I drove by him... pulled over by the police.

Oh yeahhhhhh.....

As a parent of a soldier I would like to ask if everyone could wear read on fridays to show support for out troops.
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How times do change. I have just received a copy of “Triumph At Kapyong” by Dan Bjarnason. It would be interesting how many Canadians know where Kapyong is much less have ever herd of it.

Sorry I will not be wearing a red ribbon for the guys in Afghanistan. They are all volunteers engaging in an American style operation. By getting in their armoured vehicles driving down an unknown road and getting their vehicle blown out from under them. They don’t bother to sweep the roads they travel on for IED’S which a thousand dollar dog could do for them.

These babies come home with mental problems. As a war veteran I came home went back to my job and it took the Government 50 years before I got a small pension for my disabilities. A RED ribbon grow up.
Cheers

Hey,

I see that PG has moved up in the Best Cities in Canada rankings by MoneySense magazine.

Opinion250 news is reporting that Prince George was listed as 134 out of 180 communities in the 2011 report. That’s up from the ranking of 164 from last year, and slightly better than the 137 rank in 2009. http://www.opinion250.com/blog/view/19828/1/p.g.+moves+up+in+best+city++ranking?

Well I'm proud to say that ONCE AGAIN the beautiful Okanagan city of Vernon (where I now live) has kicked PG's proverbial butt and is listed at 49 out of 180. And we dropped a few.

Jealous?

LOL... okay so I'm just having some fun with ya. I LOVE PG... I lived there for almost 50 years but am also proud to call Vernon my new home.

My point was that most things in society are based on getting and education so that you can get a "job". I think kids from a very young age should be taught to explore what they enjoy doing and as they get older that will become more clear. Right now they are encouraged to get an education based on getting a job that pays the most money instead of a career or activity that they really enjoy doing. There will be plenty of people whose calling will be the doctors and nurses of our society just as there will be enough people whoses ambition will be such that they will be doing manual labour jobs, some of which can be enjoyable for some people as well. Our education system has to start refocusing our youth and stop making jobs seem attractive based on quantity of money earned, but rather on the enjoyment one gets out of doing that service or task.

Are we being BAMBOOZLED.

The HST has been in effect for 9 Months. We have been paying this tax on all sorts of articles that used to be tax exempt. The Government is raking in the dough, and business and corporations are enjoying the benefits of this $1.9 Billion dollar tax shift to consumers. Where is the benefits to taxpayers.

1. Where are the jobs that were supposed to be created by this tax.?

2. Where are the lower prices because of this tax?

The fact of the matter is there are no benefits for consumers. We have been BAMBOOZLED.

At this point in time we have received absolutely nothing. We have a vague promise of a binding referendum on June 24th, however the Government has not as yet brought in any legislation, to allow this to happen. They have to make some changes to the BC Elections Act before they can have a referendum.

Are they continuing to stall for time so that people continue to get used to paying this tax?. Are they then going to bombard us with propaganda to convince us that this is a good tax, and we should keep it.

The big question is. Just how stupid are we???.

All we have accomplished so far with the HST petition is to have Gordon Campbell retire a few years earlier than he wished, and maybe threw a wrench into Colin Hansens, ambitions to become Premier. Other than that we have nothing.

Its time to start thinking seriousley about getting rid of this tax once and for all. Forget about all the BS that will be thrown at you, and concentrate on voting to get rid of the HST.

If all those who signed the petition vote to Axe the Tax, it will be defeated, and the so called **New** Liberal Government can then decide how they will once again get the $1.9 Billion from business and corporations.

They can look at all the options they want, however in my opinion the option of having me pay this tax for business and corporations is not on the table.

Have a nice day.

When humans were primarily a tribal society of hunters and gatherers, there were no "jobs". There were duties. There was survival.

No hunting, no food, no survival. DEATH.

No cooking, no edible food, no survival. DEATH.

No children, no next generation, no one to take care of elders who could no longer hunt. DEATH.

No sharing with the weak. DEATH.

No healer. DEATH.

Who would have thunk that we are hard wired for that kind of life. It is so bad that we have entire segments of our society whose sole purpose is to invent some new gizmo that we all need for survival. It is actually not the gizmo that we need for survival. What we actually need is to be one of the chosen ones who will make the gizmos, transport the gizmos, sell the gizomos and, if it is an expensive gizmo, repair the gizomos, and then recycle the component parts.

ANd, of course, there are the healers and shamans who have it all figured out how to get out of those hard toil duties to ensure the "survival" of the group.

Taxes. Yup, same thing. It is today's version of sharing the catch of the day with the rest of the clan.

We are so hard wired that when some say, STOP, we should all get off this treadmill, we ridicule them.

Hmmmmm....feels like a pizza weekend...

The opnly reason why Vernon is that high is because places like Tofino are not even considered.

1. Where are the jobs that were supposed to be created by this tax.?

They were sent offshore. The government forgot to close that loophole.

gus

Okay gus... I'll except you're arguement.

That puts us at number 50 now!

BUT WE'RE STILL WAY AHEAD OF PRINCE GEORGE...

Vulgar Sage says that it feels like a pizza weekend...

I AGREE Vulgar Sage...

So do you need my address so you know where to send the pizza's?

So we block the ads, whoich may affect the statistics of the number of times that ads are downloaded and which Ben and Elaine use to sell the ads to businesses.

That means less income to Ben and Elaine, which means a higher net cost of running this site, which means less news, less bandwidth for reading and posting on here, with the ultimate fate being the shut down of this site.

Remember, TV in this country used to be free over a rooftop antenna, not unlike the dishes of today. But today we pay for TV reception. And we pay more for commercial free TV reception.

Perhaps in the future sites like this will become part of an industry association which will work through a portal put together by the Rogers and Bells of this country that will gather user fees in return for a feepayers access to certain base sites plus theme packages as extras.

Then .... no more ads, or fewer ads ... but more money.

The freeloading will be over.

But, till then, enjoy. Just remember, you are the ones who where the pioneers who brought about the change. :-)

Relax about the HST. We will get a voting opportunity to get rid of it. I don't feel bamboozled because I never had a choice when it was brought in. Had I voted in favour of it and found out later that I had allowed myself to be deceived, well I would be ... sore.

It was beyond everybody's control.

Well. Vernon has a nice theatre. You guys must be paying through the nose for that. How can you possibly afford the taxes with such wanton spending for the use of the elite in town? :-)

Have you heard the one about the weekend pizza tale?

She is now called my wife.

Have you heard the one about the weekend pizza tale?

She is now called my wife.

Ok gus.....

You don't know everything about everything.

It's ok to be jealous...

You wanna talk about spending for the use of the elite in town? Let's talk about the waste of 5 million dollars for the art gallery beside the 4-Seasons...

We can go back and forth all day but you guys still had to shovel TONS of snow this year... and we didn't. How you gonna change that?

Have you heard the one about the weekend pizza tale?

She is now called my wife.

I am not posting that over and over...seems like my browser tells me to refresh my page to reload it and then it gets posted again. sorry

But

Yes.. refreshing your browser will automatically repost your last post.

After I post a message I just click on the "Home" link at the top of the page and once I get back to the homepage I then click on the "Friday Free For All" link to get back here.

That solves it. I can refresh all I want after that.

For those using adblock on this site, do you like opinion 250. If you do not look at the adds now and again how long do you this site will last.

Which comes first, a raise in taxes or the politicians giving themselves a pay raise to cover the tax increase.

Why do so many people bash the Americans but at the same time enjoy the lifestyle. I find American bashers are generally ignorant of world affairs. So without the Americans the world would be in peaceful harmony, ya right. What regime would you rather live under and why are you not there now?

Retired 02 it is impractical to sweep for IED's constantly and dogs are slow and no where near 100% and limited by the high temps. I suggest doing some internet searching on the subject, lots of information out there. I support the troops 100% and I suggest you look at the big picture.

But

Yes.. refreshing your browser will automatically repost your last post.

After I post a message I just click on the "Home" link at the top of the page and once I get back to the homepage I then click on the "Friday Free For All" link to get back here.

That solves it. I can refresh all I want after that.

Okay...... forget that advice.....

I just refreshed and it reposted.....

What the....?

That's never happened to me before.....

I'm gonna go take a computer course now...

Because when you refresh, you are repeating the command to repeat the previous algorithm which was your post.

Because when you refresh, you are repeating the command to repeat the previous algorithm which was your post.

Put Money away in good times and with a bit of Luck you can quit this Rat Race early, I did and never looked back, don't have a Trail Bike, Snowmobile, 4 Wheeler, Boat and don't travel the World(travel Canada) but do what ever I want when I want.

HarleyGuy72
I suggest you check today's date before you get too frustrated. That monster hole is photoshopped in as an April Fool joke.

As for street sweeping, city crews have been working around the clock on the task for weeks. It's another time consuming job that can't be rushed if it's to be done properly.

i see a big rig driver put a few comments in the free press today about the traffic light problem in prince george. perhaps the people responsible for programming the lights should maybe try driving a fully loaded semi through the city before they decide on the timing of the lights.
btw, if you read the article in free press you will see that the truck driver was given a ticket for running a red light.
give me a break.

The city could do a much better job in timing the traffic lights through modern PLC controls instead of treating each intersection as a separate entity. The by-pass is a prime example where communication between intersections would allow for a much smoother traffic flow and drastically reduce emissions. The powers at city hall would rather spend the money on a couple of battery powered vehicles as it makes a far better photo op.

Vernon might be able to boast about their theatre, but do they have a $50 million cop shop, an underground heating system, community gardens on prime downtown lots, ownership of boarded up hotels and vacant land. Do they give ever increasing tax breaks to downtown developers.

Exactly lonesome sparrow The way the lights are set up now, you stop at everyone of the them along the so called "Bypass" Yet the air fairy will get you for idling you vehicle at Timmy's

What about Meerholz. This young fellow doesn't seem to get it at all. He doesn't want tot go back to S.Africa but will not change his ways here to remain. I say send him back and the sooner the better.

Hey seamutt you need to do some research as well. Yeah I also support the troops but there is a problem with the picture as well with the officers in charge of the operation.

Tell me why would they continue to be hit by IED's. And I dont have to do the research its because they use the same routs every day and that the problem. Why? I've been there smart ass.
Cheers

Hey retired why the names, that all you got and not so sure you where there?

I know seamutt there are a number of things that you are not sure about.
Cheers

I have a comment and hopefully a recommendation about the unrelenting increases in municipal taxes.

It's time for an ombudsman/woman to investigate munipal spending. It's totally out of control. And this is province wide.
Should this person be Provincially appointed? Perhaps not so much.
Indepentant? Yes.

How bloated are our municpal governments? Let's find out. Pay attention to the upcoming municipal elections. It's your most valuable vote. They have the ability to tax our homes. Look back at your municipal taxes from 2004 to 2010.

We can make a difference in Prince George by supporting candidates that get our town back to the basics. Infrasture and making the city work.
Look at Vancouver. Gregor Robertson is an idiot. Bike lanes and forcing street vendors to only buy and serve nothing but "organically" grown hot dogs?
Our world has gone mad.
Pay attention to your most valuable dollar. Your municipal council. That's grass roots. That's where our homes are.

Prince George:- "Maybe in the far off distant future some utopian society will allow all of us to choose NOT to work and just do whatever turns us on. Better yet, do nothing at all."
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The standard workday was 12 hours before the dawn of the 20th century, then it dropped to 10 hours for a little more than a decade, and in the closing days of World War One it was reduced to 8. Where, for most of us, it's been ever since.

Save for the last decade or two, where many of us have been told we have to work longer and harder to remain "globally competitive".

I would contend that we're already pretty "globally competitive" when it comes to comparing actual 'output' per Canadian worker, given our access to technology, education, etc., which many of our global competitors still lack.

Regardless, no matter how you try to spin it, "increased productivity" and "greater efficiency" still boil down to LESS 'jobs', not MORE. More physical output from less labour input is what's desired, not the opposite.

So the day of the 'job' being the only ticket to the 'income' is something whose time is running out, whether we like it or not. There is really nothing 'Utopian' about it. It is a FACT ~ a verifiable fact ~ of modern times. We should start to realise it, and deal with it. Could we not LEAD for once, or must we always follow?

Another FACT. We ALL have to 'consume' to go on living. But we most certainly are long past the point where we ALL have to 'produce' to enable that consumption.

Now if we have people amongst us whose continued 'production' is of no advantage to themselves or their fellow man, (and in fact only adds to a surfeit of goods that already can't all be sold at the cost of their making), then how can their continued 'consumption' be a disadvantage to themselves or their fellow man? The ticket to that 'consumption' is an INCOME ~ not a 'job'.
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Prince George:-"Who will pick up the garbage, pave the streets, deliver the mail, attend to our needs in the hospital, police the streets?"
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Suppose you offered everyone who does those jobs now immediate retirement at full pension . I admit the travel agents, golf courses, beaches, and ski hills might all be a little crowded for awhile, but do you really honestly think those jobs would go long undone?

People would still 'work', Prince George, because the work needs to be done. Look what happens when there's an extended garbage strike in a major city. How long do the residents put up with stinking refuse piling up on their streets before they decide to get rid of it?

People might not work as long as they do now, but is that such a terrible thing? Maybe a shorter workday would be the norm, and maybe that might open up opportunities for many who can not now get employment.

Some, admittedly, might not work at all. But look at it this way, if you were an employer, just what do you want? An employee who actually takes an interest in the job, whatever it is, and wants to work at it, (but maybe not 12-16 hours a day, everyday, as some are now FORCED to do); or one who has no interest in the job at all, who's just looking for the pay cheque, and, in all likelihood one you'll expend more of YOUR energy trying to get some work out of than the amount of energy he's ever going to give you back in return? Which is the more "efficient" way to go?

Look at the enthusiasm and energy that the average amateur sports team exerts on the playing field in trying to win the game. If you could harness that same kind of energy and enthusiasm in the workplace, even half of it, look at the real rise in productivity and efficiency we'd gain. Where is the difference between the playing field and the workplace? Is it not found mainly in the length of TIME those participating are engaged in each activity?

ALL government spending is "out of control", faithfulreader. Out of OUR control.

Has been for all of our lifetimes, and an awful lot longer than that.

Governments don't just spend to provide the over-taxed public with goods and services. They spend because otherwise the 'floating debts' of the private sector would become increasingly unrepayable.

And the basis of security for those debts, which is fundamentally the ability of a business to make, and get, a price for its products in excess of its costs, would be seriously impaired.

Government spending allows those private sector "floating debts" to become "fixed debts" of the public sector. The theory being that the "fixed debts" of any government can always be serviced, because of any government's singular ability to tax.

So long as that ability can be maintained, the theory has some validity in practice. Only nowadays it's becoming increasingly difficult for that ability TO BE maintained. The answer won't be found in "pinching the pennies". That's been tried. And failed. And is being tried again, in spite of past experiences. it will be found instead in having "proper bookkeeping" where the 'figures' are made to actually REFLECT the 'facts'. Something they currently increasingly misrepresent.

I for one do not mind waiting a bit for sweeping. In prevvious years they have swept too early and then a late snowstorm causes them to resand the roads anyway.