Disturbing occurrances at the grocery store...

Well, here I am again at the grocery store and once again they're screwing with our heads. This week they've increased the prices on almost everything in the store by 15-20%, but they've done so in such as way as to make it look like the prices have gone down. The franchise owner is getting the following letter from me on this one:

[address redacted]

John Crnogorac, Franchisee
Fortinos South Oakville
173 Lakeshore Rd. W
Oakville, Ontario [L6K 1E9]

July 14, 2009

Dear John Crnogorac,

I’ve been a customer of your store since it re-opened after the renovation (and it’s conversion from a Loblaws) and I have had mixed feelings about many things there. Sunday, July 12th however was a rather distressing experience.

As I went through the aisles I was surprised to see that nearly everything was marked as having being reduced in price. While the stickers were all advertising reduced prices, the actual prices did not seem to be all that much lower. By the time I made it to aisle five I saw what was actually going on. Prices had not been reduced at all on a majority of items but had actually been raised!

One of your employees was in the process of replacing all of the price stickers in the aisle with new ones. Specifically, when I arrived she was removing a sticker that said a product was $2.99 and replacing it with a sticker saying that the product had previously been $3.49 and had now been reduced to $2.99 for a savings $0.50.

This is highly misleading. The product in question had never been, to my knowledge, offered for sale at your store for the higher price, in fact I’m fairly certain that it had been priced at $2.99 since the product’s introduction.

Now I understand that prices do need to be raised from time to time. It’s just the nature of a post gold-standard fiat currency. My objection and concern is not that prices are going up. It’s about the sneaky way it’s being done. The item in question may now be listed as having a regular price of $3.49 in your computers, but if you never sold one for $3.49 then, in my opinion, you cannot in good conscience say that the price has been reduced to $2.99. It’s not a reduction or a sale, it’s an imminent increase. I’m especially offended that it seems you hold the public in such low esteem that they will not see what is really happening.

I also realize that frequently in large chains these decisions are not made at the store level. If that is the case and you are as concerned as I am I urge you to follow your conscience and contact the proper individuals within the corporation. Loblaw Companies Limited claims to operate with transparency and integrity. In this instance it is my opinion that they have failed in their mandate.
I wish to continue to shop with the Loblaw family of stores and the South Oakville Fortinos in particular. Your response to this will have an impact on this decision.

Sincerely and without malice aforethought, vexation or frivolity,




CC: Galen Weston

Bill C-47 authorizes monitoring of internet usage without judicial review

Peter Van Loan introduced this bill on June 18th, just before parliament rose for the summer. I've read it and am extremely disturbed by it's content.

The following is a letter I wrote my my MP. I urge all of you to do the same...

Letter follows:

Ian Xxxxxxxx

[Address Redacted]

Terrence Young

House of Commons

Ottawa, Ontario

K1A 0A6

June 24, 2009

NOTICE

Dear Mr. Young,

I just completed my first reading of bill C-47 “An Act regulating telecommunications facilities to support investigations” and I am very disturbed by its content.

Now, please correct me if I’m wrong, but it was my understanding that we lived in a free country where we were governed by a democratically elected parliament who enjoy legislative power granted by the consent of the governed. Bill C-47 reads like something I would expect from an authoritarian government attempting to rule a reluctant populace. Is Canada, indeed, the Soviet Union reborn?

I am quite willing to admit that there are dangers out there. The internet, and for that matter the whole world, is a dangerous place with unsavory people lurking in some of the corners. The Minister of Public Safety has been quoted as saying this bill won't provide new interception powers to police, but simply update the legal framework designed "in the era of the rotary telephone." I have to agree with him there. This bill gives law enforcement no new tools. This bill removes judicial oversight from the existing set of tools.

There’s a very good reason that a judicial warrant is required. In a free, democratic, country gross violations of privacy, such as those suggested in the bill, must be approved by a third party. If law enforcement officials cannot convince a judge that monitoring is required then they must not have much in the way of evidence. Monitoring of internet usage is no different from wiretapping a telephone, opening mail, or searching a dwelling.

Fortunately we do live in a democratic country and we do have a freely elected government which governs with the consent of those it governs. This legislation does NOT have my consent. Further, if you vote in favour of this legislation you will no longer enjoy my consent (albeit tacit) to represent me. I see this legislation as being extremely detrimental to Canada and all those residing within. This bill must not pass.

Without Prejudice, malice aforethought, vexation or frivolity,

Ian Xxxxxxxx

CC: Minister of Public Safety, Prime Minister, Michael Ignatieff, Gilles Duceppe, Jack Layton

$700bn bailout passes US Senate...

... and scheduled for a vote in the House of Representatives today or tomorrow.

http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2008/10/01/us-bailout.html?ref=rss

The strikes me as a horrendously bad idea and guaranteed to be inflationary. Bankers have been making loans to people whom they knew couldn't repay them for years and are now seemingly in shock that their businesses are in trouble. I recall a time when making bad business decisions meant your business would fail, that was a strong incentive to make the right choices.

As for the inflation side, they've just monetized $700bn of debt, essentially thrown the printing presses into overdrive. This will have a devaluing effect on the US dollar and will therefore drive prices up. At the same time cash strapped consumers will have more and more trouble making ends meet. This means more bankruptcies, more foreclosures and more bad debt that the banks will have to write down (or that the US gov't will have to monetize).

Now admittedly, a lot of this will happen whether they pass this or not, it's really all a matter of time. In the opinion of this author, I'd rather see it crash quickly so we can get over it quickly as opposed to stretching it out over years or decades (it will take a LONG time to repay $700bn in loans, even if the US balances its budget).

The other question is who will the US sell all this debt to? Until recently China has been covering most of the US debts. As of last week, however, the Chinese Central Bank has forbidden Chinese banks from lending to US banks. So who is going to pickup all this debt?

Now, for the Canadian perspective, Stephen Harper says that this isn't a problem for us, that our economy is fundamentally different. Well, he's right, we are fundamentally different. We have a resource based, energy based, export driven economy... with one primary customer. Let's remember that 80% of those exports go to the US. If they're not buying, it won't matter what our fundamentals are. Cover the US on a world map... Canada is as isolated as Australia.

On a final note, this is about where I think is what we ought to be doing right now...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMBZDwf9dok&feature=related

Evacuation protocols

Yesterday I was looking at CNN (that's unusual in and of itself as I tend to stick to Canadian media.) and saw one of those oh-so-typical photos: a 10 lane divided highway with one side completely jammed, stop and go, and the other side deserted.

What I want to know, is why are they doing this? More importantly, why are there not people guiding motorists onto the other side of the highway to make use of the extra space? Now admittedly, an operation like this would need co-ordination, people to stay back and direct traffic. This is where the police, reserves and citizen volunteers come in. A couple mailings, and some public service announcements on radio and TV would get the ball rolling, then it's just a bit of practice...

In a city like Toronto, where every highway on-ramp has a gate across it it would be even easier. All you need to do is close the gate at every second on-ramp and put an "Evacuation Route ->" sign on the opposite direction's off-ramp and move on to the next one.

Again, more people will need to be involved to make this work. Perhaps as an extension of the police auxilary... maybe the "Evacuation Corps". Give it a name and a special hat and the volunteers will come. Maybe a tax credit as well....

Overly moral dating site

Most of you know that I'm single and getting tired of it. Well, on Thursday night I decided to take a look at eHarmony.

Having been exposed to the worst parts of the Internet for well over a decade now, I thought I had seen everything. eHarmony surprised me though.

First off I noticed that they only service "Men seeking Women" and "Women seeking Men". They've made no provision for same-sex couples at all.

Then I start going through their questionare, well that took an hour. There were close to one hundred questions to answer, strangely church kept coming up... well I answered them all. Finally at the end I'm informed that they cannot help me because I'm not single. Well, that's true. I've been separated for 4 years now but am still legally married, that's just a matter of paperwork though. They instead referred me to their "eHarmony Marriage" service which will help me save my marriage. Yeah, ok.

Well, I said separated in the interests of complete accuracy, I'll just update my status and get on with it. No such luck. I don't have access to that information. A bit of hunting through their FAQs and I find this (excerpted):

"We understand that no broad general policy can cover every conceivable situation, but we still have to create rules based on what's best for most of the people, most of the time. We look forward to welcoming you as an eHarmony member once your divorce is final.

Once your divorce has been finalized, please use the link below to e-mail us with the following information:

1. The county and state of your divorce proceedings
   
2. The name of the judge
3. The date your divorce was finalized"

Seems a little overly moralistic to me. That's fine, I'll take my money elsewhere...

Beautiful Women with Idiot Men

First of all, don't worry, this isn't one of those "poor me, we nice guys always get the shaft" posts. I'm not looking for pity, just sharing an insight.

There seems to be a surplus of attractive, intelligent women dating or married to idiots, assholes and knuckle-draggers. The obvious reason is that "women only go for bastards". Well, I've been thinking about this one for a little while and think the obvious answer is the wrong answer.

Having spoken with both Rob and Andreas (many of those who know me know these two as well so credit where credit is due) I think this needs to go out into distribution. Nice guys, listen up!

So last week I met someone whom I'm interested in (no details, except to say I'm trying to get her number as we speak, I need to work through her friends for that so I'm sure all kinds of background checks are being done). My initial thought, which kept me from saying anything when I was actually with her and could speak to her was, "Yeah, but she's way out of my league...". I've done that many times over the years... usually considered myself not good enough to even ask.

Well, this week I've been thinking about that. What I've come up with is so what? There is no harm in asking. What the worst thing that could happen? She says no and my life continues as it has been? Well, isn't that where I am now? Where's the downside to that?

Note: I suppose the actual worst thing that could happen is that we could hit it off, get married and on out wedding night she could kill me. I don't think that's likely, I'm a better judge of character than that (at least a bit).

I shared that with Rob on Tuesday and he agreed. He also added the following (I'm paraphrasing): "Most nice guys are intimidated by beautiful women, think exactly what you think and stay quiet. Only the idiots and assholes actually ask so they're the ones who win in the end."

Andreas backed that up today with a quote from Cameron Diaz about how she can't find a date.

I guess this is all true.

Now, assignment time. Nice guys like me - Forget this "out of my league" shit and if you're interested, say something! I know it's hard. Believe it or not it's just as hard at 34 as it is at 17... I'm sure it won't be easier when I'm 68 either... What's the worst that can happen? You get shot down? OH WELL! You can't win unless you enter the game.

Idiots, assholes and knuckle-draggers (you know who you are) - Just crawl back under your damp rock. It's our turn now.

Prices at the grocery store

Ok, bear with me while I pull my tinfoil hat a little lower over my ears... that's better. (for the record I don't know who the guy in the picture is... he's on the Wikipedia "Tinfoil Hat" article and it's a public domain photo...)

I think the grocery store is screwing with us again. About three weeks ago I was in there and the price of everything had gone up significantly (in many cases the price doubled).

This I can understand. Between falling dollars (yes, the Canadian dollar is doing very well against the US dollar, that just means it's not being devalued quite as fast (more on this one later...)), high commodity prices (partially due to falling dollars) and high energy costs (again, falling dollars are a major factor here as well) I expected prices to go up.

When I went in last week I noticed that almost everything in the packaged food sections had stickers advertising lower prices. I thought, "that's nice to see," and went on with my business.

This week I actually took a closer look, while scouring my memory to see if I could remember what the price had been.

From what I can tell (based on faulty memory), the price of everything went up a lot three weeks or so ago then came down a little. For example, something they're advertising for sale at $1.99 (reduced from $2.19) was $1.39 a month ago. Big increase, small decrease. Leave the price high(er) for a week so they can legititely say that the price has been reduced. Get people mad then show how you're helping them. Since most people don't pay that much attention, all they see is the card in front of them saying that this product is $0.20 less than they say it was before.

Also, I notice that this did not happen with fresh foods. Their prices went up and stayed up. A 4-pack of peppers I would have paid $4.99 for a month ago, and $5.99 a week ago is now $7.99. Chicken went from $12.50/kilo to $21/kilo.

Ok... not exactly a conspiracy theory but if you give me a couple weeks I'll find some way to link this to Roswell, JFK, the US Federal Reserve (well, the falling dollar again...), 9/11, DDT and China.

Rail Travel

** This was actually written on Saturday June 14, 2008 **

As I write this I'm on the train between Ottawa and Toronto. It's been a kinda crappy trip. I'm heading home a day early because technical problems kept me from doing the work I was supposed to, which also means that my wallet is coming home lighter than I expected, the weekend billings will cover my travel and not much else. I'm still in a good mood though, reflective but very positive.

I'm sure this is influenced by the fact that I'm traveling first class. That's the kind of thing that always cheers you up (I think it's the free booze). It's not just that though... Rail travel is still kind of magic for me.

My father was a railroader and I've been taking the train since I was a toddler (my mother would tell horror stories about hauling me screaming through Union station because a train had scared me). Once I got over my initial fear though I really came to enjoy it. I've used cars, buses and planes to travel, but rail remains my favorite.

There's just something a little magic about riding on a train, something you don't get using other modes. I like the way the world looks through a train window... especially when I'm sipping cognac after a nice meal. It's not as smooth as air, it's not as convenient as taking your own car but it's still the nicest.

Not just inter-city trips either. I take the GO Train into Toronto at least once per week. Even there, packed in there with all the other commuters going to work it still makes me cheerful. I just like trains.

I like to experience things to their fullest and, for me, the train does that. Take the GO Train for example. You show up at the station in the early morning, and wait on the platform for the train to arrive. You're standing there with various people waiting for the train. The sun is low in the sky, you're right out there in the elements. If it's sunny, I'll be right out there, watching the sky, watching cars and people around me, listening to the sounds, smelling the smells (usually just a cigarette from someone standing near me). Just *BEING* there.

If it's cold, or drizzling or even raining lightly, I'll be out there experiencing that too. I'm not one to hide from a bit of weather. It's there to be experienced. If it's cold I'll dress warmly, if it's raining I'll wear my raincoat and hat. I'm here to experience what life has to offer (ok... if it's raining hard I'll seek shelter, but otherwise I'm out there).

Once on the train I'll exchange some pleasantries with the folks around me (usually nothing more than "good morning") before picking up my book. Again, I shun headphones, preferring to hear the sounds around me. When out I like to *BE* out.

I find the experience to be very different from driving or taking other forms of transit. There's just a romance to rail travel. I can't explain it, but I'll continue to love it.

Closet Realizations

Today I did laundry and was hanging up my shirts. Now, this time I had left laundry longer than usual so I was literally washing EVERYTHING.

As I'm hanging things up, I'm trying to space things out a bit in order to allow things to dry reasonably quickly (Dress shirts and pants get hung up wet. This saves both drying costs and, more importantly, ironing.) but I'm having trouble making room for it all.

So I'm looking at my 44" of closet space, wondering what to do, when I realize that I have ANOTHER 44" behind me, completely unoccupied. OK... dress clothes on one side, casual clothes on the other side. Lots of room now.

So why was the other side empty? I guess I was saving it for someone. Even though I've been separated for 4 years now I guess I haven't quite gotten used to it yet. The thing is, I moved into this place as a bachelor.

I guess today I realized that I'm a single man and, between the demands of business and parenthood, am likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. I might as well enjoy the extra closet space.

Why I buy Silver...

Recently I told you about my discussion of precious metals with a professional trader. That's what got my interested. From there I started to research things. Reading, reading, reading. Here's some of what I've learned so far:

• Silver has been recognized as money for close to 4000 years (the English Pound was originally composed of 240 silver pennies, weighing a total of one pound).
• Unlike gold, silver is one of the most versatile industrial metals. While gold is mined and hoarded, silver is consumed.
• In 1980, there were approximately 4 billion oz of silver inventories above ground. In 2007 there were maybe 1 billion.
• Most of the silver which has been consumed (mostly in consumer electronics) is very difficult to recover.
• Historically (400+ years), silver has traded at a ration of about 15:1 with gold. Today it's closer to 50:1.
• There is 4-5 times as much gold in inventory than there is silver.

These and other factors have led me to believe that silver is due to make a big move over the next few years.

More to come...