Sunday, December 28, 2008

Delta Cares?? - A Bureaucratic Lack of Initiative

Further to my earlier commentary on the damn snow and living in the "sticks" of Delta BC. It appears the requests of the neighbourhood have come upon deaf ears within the Corporation of Delta. Consequently, our worst fear has come true. Tonight as an Ambulance responded to an emergency call they got stuck. Yes, the very vehicle which is intended to save lives was hindered by the municipalities refusal to allocate enough money to a snow removal budget. I feel for the hardworking Paramedics and other Emergency Personnel whose tireless efforts are hindered by the stupidity of the local Bureaucrats. As we were out there helping the paramedics and firemen try to free the Ambulance, one of the paramedics mentioned this was not the first time they had been stuck in North Delta this evening. Hopefully the girl in the Ambulance is ok, but if it was me, I would be suing the Corporation. I have included a couple of video's of the event so those responsible could see the results of their actions (or lack thereof.) The length was cut short as I needed to grab my shovel and help. I thought it was important to document at least a little bit of the event.










Looking at the road conditions in the area, I am seriously wondering if the Lower Mainland (Particularly Delta) will be able to handle keeping the roads clear during the 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

9:18 PM PST There is a second Video, however I was having troubles uploading it. you can find it at http://www.htbwmedia.com/mvi_0366.AVI at this point I am still uploading it to my website server I will then try to send it to Blogger.

Media can download and have free use of the Video's. The unedited video's can be downloaded in AVI format here - All I ask is that you credit www.htbwmedia.com

Short Clip Above shows firemen running to assist ambulance
http://www.htbwmedia.com/mvi_0365.AVI

Longer clip showing neighbours, paramedics and firemen trying to free the ambulance as its' wheels spin
http://www.htbwmedia.com/mvi_0366.AVI

The Business of being a "Minority"

This morning, Google Search trends seemed to be filled with searches for BARACK THE MAGIC NEGRO I guess somebody in the Black Community decided to re-write the Puff The Magic Dragon song. Personally, I thought it was quite funny. Being a honkey, I'm sure there are those who would call me racist for laughing at the humour, even though it was created by a Black person (Am I even allowed to say that.)

I guess what picks my ass more than a little is how a certain segment of society feels it is important to separate themselves out of the "Majority" and call themselves a "Minority." This is not limited to just the African American, the Native Indians have done it, as have the Jewish culture. Shit, some will even say Obama, himself, used his "Minority status" to get elected in the first place.

Don't get me wrong, I am by no means being a racist (Sad I even have to say that.) I am simply pointing out the term "Minority" now has a measurable financial benefit. By being a "Minority" individuals have access to programs such as Affirmative Action, extra labour law protection as well as the ability to pull at the heart strings of the always guilty "Majority".

Of course the Honkey's or Heterosexuals are not allowed to distinguish themselves with elitist programs and parades like the "White Person College Fund" or the "Not Gay Pride Parade"... That would be racist and Gay bashing. But of course "Minorities" having similar elitist events and programs is just considered "Supporting the Community" and "Standing up for their Rights."

I'm all for equality under law and society, however it seems the business of "minorities" would rather have it the other way around. Take for example this whole "Obama is not Black" thang. By pointing out he is not "One of them" the African American Community is able to continue the business of being "Down-trodden" after all, without "Minority" status, there would be no special treatment.

So go ahead, call me a Cracker, call me a racist honkey.... If that makes you feel better.

To see the OBAMA THE MAGIC NEGRO Video and for the LYRICS FOR BARACK THE MAGIC NEGRO Check out http://soyawannaknow.blogspot.com/2008/12/barack-magic-negro.html

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Snow is a Beautiful thing... In the Fucking Mountains where it belongs

Just a letter of mine to the Corporation of Delta

Merry Christmas, hopefully you were able to get out and visit family, we weren't. Not because of money or desire. It seems the Corporation of Delta feels it is acceptable to leave TAXPAYERS and VOTERS stuck behind a wall of snow.
We live on Bremridge Drive in North Delta and most of our neighbouring streets have been left unplowed for the entire Christmas season. The reason I say most, is because it seems the corridor along 79A Avenue, - 114A Street and 77th Avenue has been plowed just enough to create an impassable wall of snow for those in cars with anything less than 30" of clearance. Interesting how governments are pushing for more fuel friendly vehicles, however those living in the neighbourhoods of Delta cannot get around without a Hummer.

Of course there is the excuse, "we are working at capacity" which is odd, because every time I have seen a snowplow driving down the main roads of Delta, it was driving without spreading salt and with plough up. I guess he was on his way to Beach Grove. This also leaves me wondering what "capacity" is within the Corporation of Delta. It seems Surrey is fully capable of at least keeping the major roads salted and cleaning up most of the side streets.

As a taxpayer within any municipality, there comes some level of expectation of service. After all, what are our tax dollars paying for? Perhaps, a modification of property tax rates for those living in the unserviced regions of Delta would be appropriate as we do not seem to be benefiting from the services of the corporation. Shit, even people living in Kamloops have their side streets ploughed on a regular basis.

We have contacted the Corporation of Delta to request snow clearing on 2 occasions and have been met by a rude receptionist who suggested we hire someone to clear our streets. "Most people are hiring private companies to clear their streets" she said.

Today is December 27th, my truck has been held up for about a week now. Although there have been several breaks in the snowfall where the main roads were clear and dry, the plows have not found their way down most of the North Delta side streets. The temperature is warming up and the snow has turned to rain, now were are surrounded by 2 foot high piles of slush covering a very slippery ground. Although the main roads are once again clear, the side streets remain a bloody mess. I guess you guys are waiting for the snow to melt, typical.

Trapped in Delta

Friday, December 19, 2008

Bank Bailouts, Real Estate Douche Bags and Stupid Consumers

The "Credit Crunch" and World financial crisis is on everyone's mind of late. I found an interesting article this morning which related to banks and their origin as small time hoodlums. It points out that Banks started out as Artisans with vaults storing gold for people then lending out little pieces of paper as promissory notes so people could buy shit. Basically the creation of a "Cash" system over a Gold based system.

Since that time, the creation of these pieces of paper has been taken over by federal mints. As a guess, to thwart the scammers and create a stable financial system. Of course, this was soon circumvented by the creation of Credit Cards. The Banks now had ultimate control. Add this to the low interest introductory rates and the big banks (of which CITIBANK is one of the biggest culprits) had world consumers by the short and curlies.

But wait, are the Banks solely responsible for this credit crisis? Ya they were the ones with those low interest loans, no money down mortgages and various other money lending tools, however they cannot hold all the blame.

This is not the first time this has happened, back in the 80's a similar crunch happened with Balloon payments, housing market crash and money devaluation followed by a rapid increase in lending rates. It is no secret this was bound to happen again. So who is responsible.




We went through the Bank role in this,now how about the Real Estate Agents. This particular level of Douche bag who are supposed to be educated in the ways of the housing market kept telling home buyers"Oh you must buy now the prices are going "up up up!" Of course this was true, only because these wolves in cheap suits were feeding the frenzy.

Combine that with the Bankers and their low interest rates and no money down mortgages and all of a sudden, the stupid people were getting into the housing market.

By way of a wicked segue, that brings us to the consumers. This particular level of idiot believed everything they were told. And why not, it wasn't like a recession ever happened in the past (Sarcasm). They believed this was different, they wanted to live in the lap of luxury, they wanted all the toys without actually paying for them up front, THEY WANTED INSTANT GRATIFICATION. This all comes down to CONSUMER STUPIDITY.

For the past couple of years, my favorite catch phrase among friends when they asked me how my business was doing (Great by the way) was "Consumer Stupidity is at an all time high." It was easy to sell almost anything, consumers wanted and demanded the best. They didn't care about the cost, after all their "friends" at the credit card companies and banks were there to take care of them.





Anyways, here is the article which sparked all of this. I found HERE
it is definitely an interesting read.
-------------------------------------------------


Where did banks come from?

Here's a really short answer in one kind of long, run-on sentence:

"Banks" started as little lending operations by guys who had vaults in their little artisan shops, and they had a little bit of gold that they wanted to keep safe, and because they had these vaults in their little Artisan shops they could keep other people's gold safe for them in those vaults as well, and they could issue little promissory notes to those people whose gold was stored in their vaults, and originally these folks made a little bit of money renting out space in the vault in which other people could store their gold, and then they started making a little more money when they began, at first, lending out their gold (with interest, of course), and then later on lending out little pieces of paper that represented a certain amounts-worth of gold---both their gold AND those folks who had their gold stored for safe keeping in their vaults---or using those now-accepted little pieces of paper themselves to lend to other people (more and more interest), and then even later on by creating more and more pieces of paper that were supposed to be backed by gold in the vault, but no one really knew what was in the vault so these guys could issue as much paper as they wanted: and they, in turn made more and more money off of the interest of their lending and hoped of course that people wouldn't all come to their vault at once and demand their gold instead of the little pieces of paper. That's banking 101, or banking in a nutshell.





Of course you can recognize that centuries of European Colonialism and Expansionism (and subsequent American Expansionism and Globalization via the IMF and The World Bank) was funded either through the vaults of the throne, OR by "little pieces of paper that were accepted as representing a certain amount of gold" lent---at interest---by these guys who used to be Artisans who happened to have vaults, but now had become proto-bankers, or, money-lenders. And of course as these guys got richer and richer, and their operations became larger and larger, and their prestige and importance grew and grew, the "industry" of banking became a centerpiece in the evolution of the global economy.

Kind of intriguing, isn't it? Banking was born because sneaky guys with vaults found out that they could make money without really ever having to do any work. Seriously. The guys who at one time were Artisans---you know, like millers and silversmiths and distillers--- discovered that simply by charging rent, and then interest, vis-a-vis the storage of gold in their vaults and the creation of little pieces of paper that were, in theory, backed by that gold, they they could stop doing the labor, and stop producing the stuff that they had been producing all this time through all of their hard work, and simply sit back and watch their fortunes grow. Brilliant. And everyone soon came to rely upon the good favor of the banker, because no one's income vis-a-vis their production of goods and services allowed them to make ends meet. (Hmmm, I wonder why?)

And so now here we are, on the cusp of 2009. And what started out somewhat innocently, and arguably by accident, has evolved and morphed and mutated into the global economic foundation of a way of life. And it is banking that has finally---and irreparably---destroyed our civilization. Make no mistake about it: banking and the governments who facilitate banking (Fractional Reserve Banking within regimes of FIAT currency to be more specific) have, through their greed and accumulation of wealth based upon the production of NOTHING, led us to this point. Quadrillions of dollars of "wealth" created by and for armies of bankers and financiers and hedge fund managers who produce nothing. Nothing! And now, a brief eleven years after the birth of the derivatives market, another QUADRILLION dollars in DEBT: "wealth" that actually doesn't exist at all!! And we're all banging on the doors of the guys who have these vaults full of our "gold"---but the vaults are worse than empty: they are filled with TRILLIONS and TRILLIONS of dollars of worthless little pieces of paper. And all of our capital has been destroyed. And the entire banking industry---that usurious industry in which people sit back and make millions off of the work and production of the rest of us---the entire banking industry is insolvent, bankrupt, shipwrecked on a coral reef of DEBT. And when Paulson and Kashkari talk about lending money to "healthy" banks, they are lying. Because in this environment NO bank has assets in their vaults that could be considered healthy. Most banks are leveraged 30, 40, 50:1, debt to equity. But even banks that are leveraged 10:1, or even 5:1 (they don't exist, but just for arguments sake) are insolvent because NONE of that debt is being serviced. None of that debt can be serviced, because everyone is bankrupt. And when our money---OUR MONEY!!!---is given to these financial institutions by Paulson and Bernanke and Barney Frank and Nancy Pelosi in order to keep them from collapsing, please realize what this means: it means that our money is being given by the TRILLIONS of dollars to institutions that produce NOTHING, and whose only source of wealth is through loaning our money back to us and taking us for the interest!!!

So, what is to be done? I figure that the folks who have a stake in the survival of this system will do everything they can to keep this dirty little secret from the masses---that all money is debt, and that bankers and their agents in government become rich by maintaining a system in which the rest of us remain in debt servitude throughout our lives. I also think that only by becoming very small---subsisting in the smallest of communities and attempting to insulate ourselves from the usurious leeches---will we be able to eventually undermine the system enough and leave it mortally wounded. Unfortunately, as is easy to see, the rulers of this system will be damned if they're gonna let us get away with it.

Banking 101.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Auto Industry and Union Boneheads

OK, I know I tend to go off on tirates when it comes to Unions and how they are partly responsible for our current economic crisis... Well that and consumer stupidity combined with the never ending greed of the banks.

Today's little news tidbit really got my blood pumping. Apparently the US Democrats, being the lefties they are, have decided keeping Union Wages in the auto plants is more important than actually saving those jobs. SAY WHAT, give your heads a fucking shake people, THERE IS NO MONEY. Sorry to say, the cash cow has run out of milk.

I have said it before and I will say it again, Unions will cause the death of society. Yes, at one point in time they did help. The thing is, the need for unions has diminished. Fact of the matter is, if Unions were not so demanding, many low education jobs would not be farmed out to Asia. Of course there are other factors, however stripping the power of the unions would be one piece of the puzzle.





For those who still don't understand, here is a simple layout on how unions are fucking over the economy:

- Busines owners are in business to make money. They take the risks so therefor they deserve a profit. That and investors and RRSP Funds also need that profit as their income depends on those companies being profitable.

- Union workers come in and say, wait a minute, we want more money because we need to be a couple steps above the cost of living index so we can buy Hummer's and other Big Trucks Ugg Ugg, penis needs power.

- An increase in wages increases the cost of making and delivering products. Companies now need to balance things out so their investors and those holding RRSP's don't get pissed off and dump the stock, or worse the company doesn't go out of business. To get this money back, the company must raise the price of their products and or services. These costs get passed down the chain effecting everyone in various sectors of the economy.





- Whoa, hold on everything costs more, union workers start to bitch, we can't afford gas for our bug trucks, we can't afford Beer, Cigarette's and other essentials. So what happens next??? The Fucking Union goes on strike because, yes once again, they want more Fucking money.

Can you see this trend. Eventually, corporate and investor need for profit results in labour out sourcing, which then creates a trade deficit and money devaluates.

OK, so this might be an over simplification of things, but it is happening and will continue to happen so long as these Dumb ass Union leaders are dragging the world around by the short and curlies.

City workers wages increase taxes
Teachers wages increase taxes
Increase taxes increase cost to do business
This increases cost of products
Production union guys see themselves needing more money to pay for this
They go on strike this increases cost of products
Teachers and City workers start to bitch
and the death grip continues






For more on this story:

Union Death Grip on Auto Industry http://soyawannaknow.blogspot.com/2008/12/union-wage-hold-outs-may-be-death-of.html