Gas prices in Victoria · Friday May 11, 2007 by colin newell
Ok. So the word is out. The lock-step gas prices in Victoria B.C. Canada are a conspiracy of lies and deceit.
Yesterday I listened to both sides.
The center for policy alternatives calmly stated that the gas stations out West, particularly Victoria and Vancouver, are robbing patrons to the tune of 25 to 30 cents on every litre.
A representative from the gas monopoly was a piece of work.
With contempt and utter disdain dripping from his voice he offered: “Have you people ever heard of Katrina? Have you ever seen a refinery fire?”
As if I haven’t heard of Katrina? Ya. I have. That was the storm that devastated New Orleans. You know, the one that the U.S. government couldn’t much help with ‘cause they were busy tracking Osama in the streets of Baghdad.
Anyway – the pure contempt in this oil dudes voice was sickening.
He failed to acknowledge the 100 billion in profit that We put in the companies coffers last year. Like every other Canadian executive, all he could offer was a syrupy spew of utter contempt for the people that created this profit margin.
So what can we, as consumers, do? Nothing you say?
Think again. Ever heard of peaceful protest?
Try this.
Next time you need gas, pick out your least favorite gas station. That shouldn’t be difficult.
Pull up to the pump. Get out of your car. Pump 5$ worth of gas into the tank. Pay in pennies or small change. Buy a slushie.
And sit in your car for 15 minutes at the pump while you drink it. Conversely, buy your 5$ of gas. And spend 15 minutes wiping your windshield and wiper blades.
This is a peaceful blockade folks.
And remember one important thing:
The staff at ALL gas stations are your friends and brothers in this struggle. Do not harass the support staff at gas stations.
Yesterday I drove by a station near the Oak Bay junction where they had just “adjusted” the price to almost $1.26/litre. The staff were standing outside wondering where everyone was. Normally there is at least one person pumping gas. In this time interval, there was no one.
Anyway – want to do something about this issue?
Become an active member in the peaceful consumer army.

Gas - Burnt at the pumps · Thursday May 10, 2007 by colin newell
Cheryl de Wolfe has comfirmed my suspicions all along.
We are getting screwed at the gas pumps.
Or maybe doused and set alight.
(Don’t try this at home…)
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has confirmed, pretty much, what every Canadian from Tofino to St. Johns, Newfoundland already knows.
They have us by the fuel injectors and ain’t letting go.
So as Cheryl de Wolfe says as she fills her tank:
Whistle a happy tune and imagine a dog actually eating a refinery. It makes the price of mobility a little easier to swallow
Grrrrr. Arf! Snipple! Snap!

Poison land · Thursday May 10, 2007 by colin newell
In an effort to harmonize Canadian pesticide rules with those of the United States, Ottawa will soon allow higher residue levels on fruits and veggies.
Harmonize? Harmonize?
You mean fold to the whim of America? Bend.
Mutilate.
My god. What is wrong with this country anyway?
Differences in residue limits, which apply both to domestic and imported food, pose a potential trade irritant, said Richard Aucoin, chief registrar of the Pest Management Regulatory Agency, which sets Canada’s pesticide rules.
A trade irritant huh? Oh boo-hoo.
Pesticide and growth hormone abuse is so rampant in Central America that girls are reaching puberty at 11.
What else are we going to have to do to placate American industrialists.
Irritant my ass.
Read the full story on Canada.Com

America the challenged · Tuesday May 8, 2007 by colin newell
WASHINGTON An odd-looking Canadian coin with a bright red flower was the culprit behind the U.S. Defense Department’s false espionage warning earlier this year, The Associated Press has learned.
The odd-looking but harmless poppy coin was so unfamiliar to suspicious U.S. Army contractors traveling in Canada that they filed confidential espionage accounts about them. The worried contractors described the coins as “anomalous” and “filled with something man-made that looked like nano-technology,” according to once-classified U.S. government reports and e-mails obtained by the AP.
The silver-colored 25-cent piece features the red image of a poppy, Canada’s flower of remembrance – inlaid over a maple leaf. The unorthodox quarter is identical to the coins pictured and described as suspicious in the contractors’ accounts.
The supposed nano-technology actually was a conventional protective coating the Royal Canadian Mint applied to prevent the poppy’s red color from rubbing off. The mint produced nearly 30 million such quarters in 2004 commemorating Canada’s 117,000 war dead.
It did not appear to be electronic or analog in nature or have a power source,” wrote one U.S. contractor, who discovered the coin in the cup holder of a rental car. “Under high power microscope, it appeared to be complex consisting of several layers of clear, but different material, with a wire like mesh suspended on top.”
The confidential accounts led to a sensational warning from the Defense Security Service, an agency of the Defense Department, that mysterious coins with radio frequency transmitters were found planted on U.S. contractors with classified security clearances on at least three separate occasions between October 2005 and January 2006 as the contractors traveled through Canada.
One contractor believed someone had placed two of the quarters in an outer coat pocket after the contractor had emptied the pocket hours earlier. Coat pockets were empty that morning and I was keeping all of my coins in a plastic bag in my inner coat pocket, the contractor wrote.
This proves my theory that the average U.S. government employee has the equivalent intelligence of a randomly selected 6 year old Canadian kindergarden drop-out.

