Thursday, May 10, 2007
The Left Hand doesn't know what the other Left Hand is doing
The Centre for Policy Alternatives made a splash today with a study showing that Canadians are paying too much for the price of gasoline. They even have a nifty, simple meter that will tell you how much you are being overcharged based on where you live.
Now, in general, I think I'm getting ripped off at the pumps. But I feel that I'm getting ripped off everywhere - its part of being an old crumudgeon trapped in a young man's body. $13.50 for a moviet ticket is highway robbery. $1.80 for the pleasure of ordering my tea in "grande" size is obscene. ATM fees are a joke. Just today, I purchased a book at the Halifax airport about an ex-drunk cop whose last case before retirement involves a demented serial killer in Mobile, Alabama: $7.99 in the US - $10.50 in Canada.
And don't get me started on booze. Booze is the biggest gouge in our great dominion. I can buy Canadian Club in New Hampshire for half the price I would here in Quebec.
What's strange about this gaggle of progressives howling about the price of gas is that they should be celebrating the gouge, not condemning it. The more expensive we make gas, the less people will consume. That's the whole idea behind the carbon tax - make fuel so expensive that people will modify their behaviour. By gouging us at the pumps, the corporations are merely being proactive in implementing their own personal greenhouse gas fighting initiative. Said another way: if consumers were to pay the "un-gouged" price of gas, we would purchase more, not less gas. And that, according to the Centre for Policy Alternatives, means the end of our species. At least, it did in December.
If I was worried about the destruction of the human species, I wouldn't complain about gas being too expensive.
Now, in general, I think I'm getting ripped off at the pumps. But I feel that I'm getting ripped off everywhere - its part of being an old crumudgeon trapped in a young man's body. $13.50 for a moviet ticket is highway robbery. $1.80 for the pleasure of ordering my tea in "grande" size is obscene. ATM fees are a joke. Just today, I purchased a book at the Halifax airport about an ex-drunk cop whose last case before retirement involves a demented serial killer in Mobile, Alabama: $7.99 in the US - $10.50 in Canada.
And don't get me started on booze. Booze is the biggest gouge in our great dominion. I can buy Canadian Club in New Hampshire for half the price I would here in Quebec.
What's strange about this gaggle of progressives howling about the price of gas is that they should be celebrating the gouge, not condemning it. The more expensive we make gas, the less people will consume. That's the whole idea behind the carbon tax - make fuel so expensive that people will modify their behaviour. By gouging us at the pumps, the corporations are merely being proactive in implementing their own personal greenhouse gas fighting initiative. Said another way: if consumers were to pay the "un-gouged" price of gas, we would purchase more, not less gas. And that, according to the Centre for Policy Alternatives, means the end of our species. At least, it did in December.
If I was worried about the destruction of the human species, I wouldn't complain about gas being too expensive.
Labels: I'd get some help from the Centre for Policy Consistency
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There's not a green puke to be seen anywhere commenting on the price of gas.
No lectures on the wonderful advantages of expensive transportation to be heard. Not a peep.
'Cause, ya see, expensive gas pisses people right off. In fact, it gets them to convulsing in fits of outrage, ready to hang those who would inflict such evil upon consumers by their gonads...perhaps, f'rinstance, on the ends of one of those big wind generator props.
Best we let them vent their rage at the oil companies.
Better them than the Suzuki gang.
And of course, leading the charge on high prices at the pump are the Libs and Dippers.
That would be the very same Libs and Dippers who want to stuff Kyoto and carbon "hot air" taxes up Joe Public's collective whazoo with 2x4s...which, and it don't take rocket science to figure this out, will show up first and foremost at the pumps tagged onto the price of a liter of gas.
Whatever.
I hope it goes to $2.
I'll gladly pay that if the upside is I don't have to listen to another second of babbling idiocy from those fundamentalist enviro-whacko zealots.
No lectures on the wonderful advantages of expensive transportation to be heard. Not a peep.
'Cause, ya see, expensive gas pisses people right off. In fact, it gets them to convulsing in fits of outrage, ready to hang those who would inflict such evil upon consumers by their gonads...perhaps, f'rinstance, on the ends of one of those big wind generator props.
Best we let them vent their rage at the oil companies.
Better them than the Suzuki gang.
And of course, leading the charge on high prices at the pump are the Libs and Dippers.
That would be the very same Libs and Dippers who want to stuff Kyoto and carbon "hot air" taxes up Joe Public's collective whazoo with 2x4s...which, and it don't take rocket science to figure this out, will show up first and foremost at the pumps tagged onto the price of a liter of gas.
Whatever.
I hope it goes to $2.
I'll gladly pay that if the upside is I don't have to listen to another second of babbling idiocy from those fundamentalist enviro-whacko zealots.
# posted by 
: Thursday, May 10, 2007 10:26:00 PM
: Thursday, May 10, 2007 10:26:00 PM 
Yup. On the one had, leftists call for "carbon taxes" on gasoline to make it more expensive and less attractive to buy and use.
But, they are also the first ones to scream blue-bloody murder, and call for price regulation, nationalisation, etc., when the price goes up.
And no one seems to catch on to this inconsistency, least of which, the national media.
But, they are also the first ones to scream blue-bloody murder, and call for price regulation, nationalisation, etc., when the price goes up.
And no one seems to catch on to this inconsistency, least of which, the national media.
# posted by : Thursday, May 10, 2007 10:41:00 PM
: Thursday, May 10, 2007 10:41:00 PM
The difference between the booze and the gas is that it's the governments via taxes who are gouging us.
When governments gouge, it's good.
When anyone else gouges, it's bad.
Ya see, when the private sector "gouges", all we get for it is bigger profits, and thus more jobs and opportunity. Sorta like "prosperity" you could say.
This is bad.
On the other hand, when governments "gouge", usually through taxes up the ol' whazoo, we get...ummm...let's see now...oh, yeah! Great healthcare! And gun registries! And billion dollar airports lined with mothballs! And the best in national defense of the homeland! And awesome, well maintained roads and highways everywhere! And safe streets with no gangs or drugs or home invasions 'cause our courts and policing is the best there is!
...and rootbeer in every fountain, too.
Right.
When governments gouge, it's good.
When anyone else gouges, it's bad.
Ya see, when the private sector "gouges", all we get for it is bigger profits, and thus more jobs and opportunity. Sorta like "prosperity" you could say.
This is bad.
On the other hand, when governments "gouge", usually through taxes up the ol' whazoo, we get...ummm...let's see now...oh, yeah! Great healthcare! And gun registries! And billion dollar airports lined with mothballs! And the best in national defense of the homeland! And awesome, well maintained roads and highways everywhere! And safe streets with no gangs or drugs or home invasions 'cause our courts and policing is the best there is!
...and rootbeer in every fountain, too.
Right.
# posted by : Thursday, May 10, 2007 10:49:00 PM
: Thursday, May 10, 2007 10:49:00 PM
Now that my Canucks are outta the picture I'm protesting by not watching any more hockey this year.
'Cause they were beaten by a team from the, yes, U.S., which, as you well know, also has a "Republican" president.
I say we get the government to pull Canadian teams out of the NHL, and then to pick up the slack, we invite teams in from France, which is a good liberal society same as us, sharing many of the same values...not the least of which is hating Americans, mostly for being greater at just about everything than we are.
Besides, there is terrific upside to this!
The Stanley Cup will be won by Canadian teams pretty much forever!
Yay!
'Cause they were beaten by a team from the, yes, U.S., which, as you well know, also has a "Republican" president.
I say we get the government to pull Canadian teams out of the NHL, and then to pick up the slack, we invite teams in from France, which is a good liberal society same as us, sharing many of the same values...not the least of which is hating Americans, mostly for being greater at just about everything than we are.
Besides, there is terrific upside to this!
The Stanley Cup will be won by Canadian teams pretty much forever!
Yay!
# posted by : Thursday, May 10, 2007 11:07:00 PM
: Thursday, May 10, 2007 11:07:00 PM
Just was just a trial run.
I've decided I'm going to give up and join the Liberal Left.
The tough part, so far, has been beating my own brains out with a 2x4 before breakfast every day.
But I'm getting kinda use to it now. Hardly feel a thing any more.
...any more
...any more
...any more
...any more
*tic*
I've decided I'm going to give up and join the Liberal Left.
The tough part, so far, has been beating my own brains out with a 2x4 before breakfast every day.
But I'm getting kinda use to it now. Hardly feel a thing any more.
...any more
...any more
...any more
...any more
*tic*
# posted by : Thursday, May 10, 2007 11:13:00 PM
: Thursday, May 10, 2007 11:13:00 PM
Like it frikkin matters at this point. You know that it's too late, because eco-friendly has immersed itself in pop culture. Nothing happens in pop culture until it's irrelevant.
Oh great, NEP II, nationalize oil and gas, because they are making profits, those nasty companies, see how Williams squeals when they nationalize oil like Venezula, they have really cheap gas.
Someone mentioned 30% profits, well that's nothing, ask how much they are making on the WII, cell phones and new houses, lots more than 30% but noone is whinning about those industries.
Hey eco-nuts, you should be jumping up and down celebrating high oil prices, this is what you want, this will help us meet our Kyoto targets, you must be estatic, or not.
Someone mentioned 30% profits, well that's nothing, ask how much they are making on the WII, cell phones and new houses, lots more than 30% but noone is whinning about those industries.
Hey eco-nuts, you should be jumping up and down celebrating high oil prices, this is what you want, this will help us meet our Kyoto targets, you must be estatic, or not.
Excellent point, Chuckercanuck! Thanks goodness I don't fill my own gas. Last time I did, I broke something and now we can't pop the trunk. Very expensive indeed.
# posted by : Friday, May 11, 2007 8:31:00 AM
: Friday, May 11, 2007 8:31:00 AM
This is certainly a point of contention I currently have with the Left - total wild inconsistency with their stated/pretend aim of "environmentalism".
"Gas is too high because of Bush's CEO ties!" Hello, gas - as you say - should be expensive, both because you allegedly want people to drive less, AND because it comes from the developing world - if fair trade coffee and chocolate are worth extra, why isn't gas?
"Nuclear power is just so scary!" This is where I write the speaker off as an ideologue, no different from Right wing ideologues. It's a potential alternative in Canada and deserves real debate and discussion.
The environment is just a dress-up costume for the Left - they care about it exactly as much as the Right does. They're just more eager to use it to pretend to "care" more than you do.
"Gas is too high because of Bush's CEO ties!" Hello, gas - as you say - should be expensive, both because you allegedly want people to drive less, AND because it comes from the developing world - if fair trade coffee and chocolate are worth extra, why isn't gas?
"Nuclear power is just so scary!" This is where I write the speaker off as an ideologue, no different from Right wing ideologues. It's a potential alternative in Canada and deserves real debate and discussion.
The environment is just a dress-up costume for the Left - they care about it exactly as much as the Right does. They're just more eager to use it to pretend to "care" more than you do.
Er, nevermind - Springer seems to have said it best.
So did Adrian Macnair - except that lots of pop culture is relevant, it's just that most of it is crap fluff.
So did Adrian Macnair - except that lots of pop culture is relevant, it's just that most of it is crap fluff.
When it comes to the environment, I ask myself:
"What would Paris do?"
"What would Paris do?"
# posted by : Friday, May 11, 2007 9:40:00 AM
: Friday, May 11, 2007 9:40:00 AM
Forget what Paris would do. What would Brian Boitano do?
# posted by : Friday, May 11, 2007 10:03:00 AM
: Friday, May 11, 2007 10:03:00 AM
and good beer.
$5.50 - $6.00 for a pint (half-liter) of beer (no, not Coors - but then that's no beer, laddy).
we're being gouged, i tell ya ...
$5.50 - $6.00 for a pint (half-liter) of beer (no, not Coors - but then that's no beer, laddy).
we're being gouged, i tell ya ...
# posted by : Friday, May 11, 2007 1:06:00 PM
: Friday, May 11, 2007 1:06:00 PM
The CPC brought up this point in QP yesterday, when the BQ started hinting at nationalization.
Haven't seen it in the media...
Haven't seen it in the media...
Here's the dirt on the CCPA or as I heard it called, the Canadian Center for Alternatives to good Policy.
The NDP govenments and the CCPA have scammed taxpayers a few times.
http://www.taxpayer.com/main/news.php?news_id=1520
http://www.taxpayer.ca/main/news.php?news_id=1387
http://www.taxpayer.com/main/news.php?news_id=665
http://www.taxpayer.com/main/news.php?news_id=1387
As far as trying to pound any sense into a leftards head about high gas prices being good for the environment, you're wasting your time.
Hating George Bush is tops, hating corporations, especially oil companies, is next, then Fox News, etc etc. Wanting to do something usefull about the environment is near the bottom, although talking about doing something is in the top ten.
The NDP govenments and the CCPA have scammed taxpayers a few times.
http://www.taxpayer.com/main/news.php?news_id=1520
http://www.taxpayer.ca/main/news.php?news_id=1387
http://www.taxpayer.com/main/news.php?news_id=665
http://www.taxpayer.com/main/news.php?news_id=1387
As far as trying to pound any sense into a leftards head about high gas prices being good for the environment, you're wasting your time.
Hating George Bush is tops, hating corporations, especially oil companies, is next, then Fox News, etc etc. Wanting to do something usefull about the environment is near the bottom, although talking about doing something is in the top ten.
# posted by : Friday, May 11, 2007 7:54:00 PM
: Friday, May 11, 2007 7:54:00 PM
The thought of Sheena sitting in an UNconditioned apartment and sweating.... now THAT gives me a woody, and THAT I can enjoy!
Thanks, honey!
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Thanks, honey!
# posted by : Friday, May 11, 2007 8:17:00 PM
: Friday, May 11, 2007 8:17:00 PM << Home
