Serge's Jabber » British Columbia

BC Liberals too pig headed to remove the dreaded Carbon tax in economic downturn

Serge — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 16:17:20 +0000

I’ve always voted for the right side of the spectrum when it comes to BC political parties. This time around the liberals have made a bonehead mistake by sleeping with the enviros on the hated carbon tax. Anybody that lives outside the lower mainland is seething at he idea that all their energy requirements for survival is taxed to the hilt with more to come for the next few years.
Even though some Canadian oil comes from eastern part of this province we already have some of the highest gas prices in the country due to our geography and ,according to the oil companies, our lack of refinery abilities but Mr. Campbell insist on making it even more costly not to mention everything from heating oil to diesel to, believe it or not, firewood.
The only party talking against the carbon tax is the NDP. I wonder whom the citizens outside of the lower mainland and looking to voting for?

Gas price Baloney

Serge — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 23:17:48 +0000

According to USA today the average price of gas in the US continues to tumble, almost free falling toward levels not seen in five months. Mike O’Connor, president of the Virginia Petroleum says, “The reason prices are going down so far so fast is that they shouldn’t have been that high in the first place.”
With a barrel of oil falling from a high of $149 a barrel to today’s low of $112.72 why is it that their nationwide average for regular was $3.85 a gallon, that was 10.9 cents lower than a week earlier, That equals to $1.01 cents a liter.
BC prices have hardly shown that dramatic a reduction in price. Even when you figure in our outlandish taxes and the tiny difference in the dollar, the cheapest price per liter of fuel in BC is 1.25.4 in Mission at the Save-On- Foods gas pumps. The most expensive is in the Powel River area where the prices are still in the $1.49 per liter range. When I last looked in Nanaimo we were still paying $1.37 a liter.
The last time the price of a barrel of oil was 112.00 was in mid April of 2008. The price of a litre of fuel in our area was $1.26 that’s a full $.11 cents less than the prices were paying today. When I asked the powers in the oil companies why there is such a discrepancy, their answer was that they have to sell off the high priced reserve oil in their tanks and eliminate that from their inventory before they can pass on the savings.
That my friend is a load of bull. When I asked why they didn’t pass on the saving of the cheaper oil they purchased when the oil was skyrocketing they had no answer and the price at the pump went up almost faster than world market price. They certainly didn’t wait to pass on the savings on these occasions The gas business is one of the only markets where you can have your cake and eat it too.
I think the reason the gas industry in this country is not in any hurry to please the masses is the same reason the telecommunication industries have absolutely no fear of consumer retaliation. No real competition exists in this country. We will have to scream loud enough for enterprising politicians to hear us and run with the ball. Until then I think were stuck with higher prices and the utter arrogance and indifference of the gas companies.

Gas prices for Campbell, CA. August 2, 2008 @ 12:30PM these were reduced by over .10 cents By August 11, 2008.

B.C. POLICE IDENTIFY ONE OF THE FIVE HUMAN FEET THAT WASHED ASHORE

Serge — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 14:27:08 +0000

Vancouver Police have identified one of the five human feet that have washed up on B.C. shores in the past year, according to news reports. RCMP in B.C. told CTV News one of the first two feet found on islands in the Strait of Georgia matches the DNA of a depressed man who went missing last year. It wasn’t clear from the report which foot matched. Police told the news agency they planned to talk to the man’s family yesterday. More information may be released next week. B.C. RCMP could not be reached yesterday to confirm the report. Five human feet, all wearing running shoes, have washed up on islands and the mainland in the Strait of Georgia since August, 2007. The mystery of whom the feet belong to has been covered extensively by the international media. Meanwhile, a Washington state coroner yesterday said he wants to work with the B.C. Coroners Service to see if there’s a connection between footless skeletal remains discovered in the San Juan Islands and the mysterious severed feet that have washed ashore in southwest B.C. Coroner Randall Gaylord said a body was discovered by a hiker on Orcas Island in the San Juan archipelago in March, 2007.

The mysterious severed feet of British Columbia

Serge — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 18:46:02 +0000

Out here in God’s country, beautiful British Columbia, people are not necessarily losing their heads, but we have received up to five mysterious lost feet. The big story of course is that we’ve discovered that two of the 5 feet that mysteriously washed ashore over the past year are from the same man. The right foot was found on Valdes Island in February the second and the left foot was found on Westham Island on June 16, and they matched through DNA testing.

The RCMP have said police have been going through release of hundreds of missing people trying to find a match. Based on that information, the authorities have identified 243 missing males that could be associated with these feet. So far they’ve been able to eliminate up to 132 people from that place.

The RCMP identified 159 women could match the missing female foot, but didn’t mention that they eliminated anybody from that list.

One of the things I find interesting is that they can’t see anywhere where the feet were severed there are no tool marks on the feet.

The RCMP spokeswoman Constable Ann Linteau said, “It appears that these feet have naturally disarticulated from the body through a natural process.” Linteau also mentioned that they ruled out the possibility that some of the feet may belong to murder victims.

My particular interest in the story is that a man and his 12-year-old daughter visiting from the US found the first foot on Jedediah Island. In the early 90s, as a real estate agent, a client approached me and offered to purchase Jedediah Island. I’m sure there’s no connection to the man from the US and his 12-year-old daughter but I still have some very vivid images of that beautiful piece of real estate burned into my brain.

The discovery of a second foot was found on the beach relatively near my former home on Gabriola Island. The third foot was found on Valdes Island adjacent to Gabriola Island. We were starting to get worried that we had people dumping bodies near our beautiful islands. All sorts of theories existed at the time from mob hits to gang wars to ship wrecks and shark attacks.

The feet kept showing up. The fourth foot was found on Kirkland Island at the mouth of the Fraser River and the fifth foot, The only left foot, was found on Westham Island at the mouth of the Fraser River. Both of these Islands or on the other side Strait of Georgia, and are relatively far enough away from Gabriola and Valdes. It kind of alleviated our fears about murderers in close proximity to our beautiful islands.

Reading the paper the other day I noticed that they found a 6^th foot on a beach in Sweden earlier this week, and the authorities are trying to figure out if it was tied into the British Columbia floating feet.

I guess it just goes to show that nothings ever boring in beautiful British Columbia. There’s always something interesting happening.