Record breaking 2.8 Billion provincial deficit this year.
From no deficit, to small deficit, to the biggest deficit yet.
BC to have lowest minimum Wage.
Good thing we don’t have a high cost of living!
113 Comments
#111, brooming, although common in Newfie, is metaphorical. No one is actually counselling the assault of some poor shlepp on a bicycle. The facts about our politicians being inadequate and to have designed a unusable system and now trying to misdirect the problems created at other factors when they've simple mindedly thrown these sytems at each other and can't explain them selves away from thier own incompetance is the bigger issue.
Bikes on the public car lanes are like condoning children playing on the freeway. Like you couldn't see a problem occuring out of that?
@realpaul – But I do agree that real wages don't stretch as far. We may choose to cycle for environmental reasons regardless, but right now it's not really a choice because of cost of living vs. wages. So I agree that the middle class is being squeezed pretty fiercely.
I think we'd likely still wish to bike commute, however. For the exercise, one (cheaper than a gym), and for the lesser carbon footprint. And because paying someone $10 for parking is ass.
@realpaul – Actually, I read your "brooming" as (another) threat. Even IF my husband and I only care about the environment because our wages don't go as far and we've been totally snowed by propoganda and secretly covet a BMW, it doesn't really matter. 'Cuz when you make jokes about beating him up just for being there, it makes me feel scared and sick. He takes heat out there for shit he doesn't do, like Critical Mass, or breaking traffic laws, at least once a month.
Specuskeptic: #109 I can't fully agree with you when we mined so many gems like this one from the respondants yesterday, "But believe me, if I’m treated unjustly, run off the road for no rational reason, or trashed, I might catch up! I’m fit, I’m armed, I have a camera, I’m pumped, I can throw a decent punch. " This is exactly the type of mind set that is probably two light beers away from a meltdown. What do you read from these types of comments? That the writers sense of entitlement and inadeqaute response recognition is ill defined. That goes with out saying. That this persons needs are not being met through his daily interactions and is probably chaffing at the bit from a perception of incomptence at work by a boss who's always pushing, at home where a… Read more »
"The fact is that people generally are getting poorer and they are feeling squeezed and they are casting around for some one to blame their personal frustrations on. Thats what happens when like the incident in Toronto a drunken biker courier who was chased away from a girls apartment by the police is suddenly raging and violent when he sees a well cut man in an expensive car drive by. The biker exploded in a fit of personal frustration at what he probably interpreted as his own inadequacies and he wanted to strike out at the ‘rich guy’."
Project much RP? Jeebus.
absinthe: #106 Are you enviornmentally concerned or just broke and pissed off because of bad government policy and trying to find a reasonable justification based on current trends to explain what has happened to your disposable income over the past many years? Hear me out before your knee hits the underside of the desk. Its easy to get your head turned by the fancy dance of government propaganda. Lets look at the transportation issue as it really is and not the way the spinsters would have us characterise it ie: as a generational fight or a car vs bike, an enviormental issue or one thing against another ad nauseum. These are all just scape goats to hide behind. In the propaganda world its called mis-direction. As long as the government can get you and I to fight with one another… Read more »
Re: Cyclists
Ok it's been a good debate (and at times a pissing match).
Here's the story re: the TO cyclist. Obviously the courts will have to sort out the details.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2009/09/01…
If cyclist will follow the rules, obey the laws, and not use their choice of vehcular mode as a political statement, we will get along.
My husband rides to work because commuting by car involves too much (car) traffic, because parking and gas and insurance are too expensive for us, and because we don't want to contribute a big carbon footprint. Like many, he's made insane by those riders who don't follow the law and supports their ticketing, but he's still a commuter and cyclist. We're not involved in a credit subsidized lifestyle, which we'd have to be to drive, or even take regular transit. Our margins are small. I've been a bear a long time, but everyone else on these boards seems to be richer than we are and are able to afford the 2K/month rents, a car, and a thousand bucks in the bank per month. Which is great. But it's not everyone. My family doesn't have that money. Still we believe in… Read more »
How stupid do you have to be to grab onto a car on the street? Its not rocket science to know that if you grab on to someone's car (or the AG's head)he is going to hit the gas peddle. I would. There should be no charges laid against the AG, but rather charges laid to the dead courier.
realpaul:
That bankrupt Traveller's in story sounds rather goofy.
The entire chain is bankrupt, yet the owner pland on paying everyone back 100% and then selling all his assets and giving $70 million to charity and then going back to Africa?
It's unclear what his total assets are versus total liabilities.
Anyway… I wonder how many similar stories will be forthcoming in this economic climate.
"50% of the budget goes to health care."
Well, at least it isn't 50% for defence, as in Israel.
realpaul: "poop, poop, poop, poop, poop, poop, poop"
Your ideas intrigue me and I'd like to subscribe to your newsletter.
Tale of two tapes 1) Commericial bankruptcy up. Whatever happened to the shopping binge and staycation? http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Victoria+bas… 2) And yet the fools continue to fiddle while Rome is burning http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Mortgage+rat… I'm satisfied that my bicycle topic brought out the nutbags and flamers to air in the light of day. Having the screwballs ( for whatever reasons of their own) set their hair on fire is excetionally poignant. In itself, the bizarre expressions of rage ( " I can punch" and " I am armed") and pent up video game fuelled hostility ( similar to 'roid' rage except much more wimpy) has put a point on how the wasted life of a drunken bike courier could result in a 'bike attacks car' story. This is an example of entitlement gone insane. As another poster pointed out correctly ( nice to see… Read more »
oneangryslav2: rentah: Some striking ‘50%-facts’ that emerged in the budget discussion: 1. 50% of BC residents pay no income tax. 2. 53% of income tax is paid by the top 10% of earners. 3. 50% of the budget goes to health care. A couple of questions: 1. Do these people pay no federal or no provincial income tax (or neither)? Keep in mind that "BC resident" means any human being who lives in the province, i.e. it includes children, disabled people, retirees, etc. Back in the 1960's over half the population was under 25 and I wouldn't be surprised if 50% of BC residents paid no income tax then either. As for slav's question, I would guess that just about everyone who pays no federal income tax pays no provincial income tax and vice versa. Exceptions are possible for persons… Read more »
98 Mr. Spock Says:
QUOTE
September 3rd, 2009 at 12:32 am
78 Not Anonymous Says:
September 2nd, 2009 at 8:28 pm
Anonymous:
Which Anonymous are you ?
FYI, any dickhead that can’t type their name in the “name” box is listed as Anonymous.
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QUOTE:
September 2nd, 2009 at 8:59 pm
Not Anonymous. you are saying people don’t provide name is a dickhead.
Must be the subconcious things, you know.
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Anonymous..you still don't get it.Go back to ESL class
Non Anonymous does get it.
78 Not Anonymous Says:
September 2nd, 2009 at 8:28 pm
Anonymous:
Which Anonymous are you ?
FYI, any dickhead that can’t type their name in the “name” box is listed as Anonymous.
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Drug dealers and other gang members should be integrated into the 2010 Biathlon. They could take turns shooting each other while skiing. Call it the Bindy Johal memorial.
Vanshithole has ‘pretend’ bike lanes, recently made up to pretend like we have a city council and city planners too. A designated bike lane is a lane set aside for bikes only, not the green ribbon for all type of bullshit you’re ’share the space man” talking about.
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Again, I agree completely. What a typical Vancouver solution with these ridiculous "suicide lanes" to make up for 30 years of total neglect. See, it only costs a few gallons of white paint and…… PROBLEM SOLVED! Welcome to the Best Place on Earth.
you are right – bike users should be fined if they break the road rules – as should vehicle drivers who cut cyclists off etc.
whatever our personal opinions, both set of users are legally allowed on the road, with all the rights and responsibilities that entails.
The bike nuts are going way over the top with the support they’ve gotten from the little reterded boy mayor who’s bicycle play time is causing the arrogance of the bike nazis to spill over into a free for all. ========================== Agreed. If bikers want to be accepted as users of the road they must learn and obey the rules of the road. It is simply outrageous what I see every day. Ignoring traffic lights, racing down on sidewalks and on the wrong side of the road is apparently completely ok for bikers. Any driver would immediately lose his licence for a small fraction of the violations bikers get away with. And I have yet to see a cop making any attempt whatsoever to enforce the traffic rules when it comes to cyclists. Add to this the lack of road… Read more »
Because everyone that isn’t exactly like realpaul is a retarded kid with shit stained pants, right?
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10-4 That is affirmative
Dave, is that you?
At what point will you consider Garth as being wrong? Wasn't he calling for at least a 50% haircut last Fall?
Here is the latest data:
VANCOUVER — Real estate prices rose again in August and were approaching their levels of a year ago, numbers released Wednesday by the Greater Vancouver and Fraser Valley real estate boards showed.
realpaul: What's the deal with your fecal fixation? You don't seem to be able to complete a sentence without including some form of poo in it.
If I follow your argument properly, it seems to be that people shouldn't cycle because there are not proper routes, and we shouldn't have proper routes because people shouldn't cycle. everyone should drive, whether they're commuting 15 block or 15 miles.
Because everyone that isn't exactly like realpaul is a retarded kid with shit stained pants, right?
#79, Vanshithole has 'pretend' bike lanes, recently made up to pretend like we have a city council and city planners too. A designated bike lane is a lane set aside for bikes only, not the green ribbon for all type of bullshit you're 'share the space man" talking about.
Of course you have a bike lane on the sea wall, thats exactly where bike lanes should be. If you want to play bikes with your imaginary friends you should go to the park and zoom around at super speed wheeeeeeeeeee. Isn't that exactly what I said?