A 14 year old buys a car?!??!

An article here notes that a 14 year old teen was involved in a car accident, where the vehicle rolled over three times and killed two 15 year-old passengers. The 14 year old had recently purchased the car, as a gift for his 15 year old brother.

Let’s see:

• you can’t legally drive in Ontario at 14
• apparently it is quite legal to purchase a car though
• quite legal to license the vehicle
• quite legal to insure the vehicle
• just not legal to drive it

The parents of the teen insist they had no idea he had purchased the car. Maybe the car was a real beater, and he purchased it for $500 from someone. But he had to then use cash (who would take a cheque form a 14 year old?). What if it was a $2000 vehicle? Or even new? How the heck does a 14 year old make a purchase like that without the parents even knowing about it? And where the frak did he park the thing??

Meanwhile, the Premier (Dalton McGuinty) is vowing to ‘look into what, if anything’ they can do to keep unlicensed drivers off the road. Wow…such a bold statement!

This just boggles my mind…

The Way Nature Intended? WTF?

So I am driving around town and I see a sign for Fabutan. Their signs are always amusing, promoting the benefits of exposing yourself to radiation. Today's example is particularly funny. More and more evidence is pointing towards Vitamin D as being key to health, especially in northern latitudes (such as Calgary). Normally produced by exposure to sunlight, this is in short supply in the Great White North half the year. So what does Fabutan do? Claim that their artificial bulbs are the way to get "Vitamin D - the Way Nature Intended It!"

Ummm...no. That would be getting outside more. Maybe you want to tan, but a week in Mexico is a far better alternative. Better scenery too!

I called it - gas WAS too cheap

This week saw gas prices rise about 6 cents per liter to around 97 cents. See my earlier post on gas prices where I said it was too cheap!

Look at it another way. In the summer crude oil was approx. $65-75 per barrel. In October, the average price was more like $85-90 per barrel. Have gas prices actually gone up 20-30% over that time? NO! Until this week, the price was actually down slightly over that time. Cost up, revenue down. Doesn't take a genius to realize that major integrated oil companies are reporting lower profits.

(Good to see the media catching up to me)

Another Bush-ism?

"You can't be the president and the head of the military at the same time" Bush said.

George Bush has apparently told the President of Pakistan, that he cannot be the military chief AND the President at the same time. How very interesting coming from the US President, who is also the Commander in Chief for the US Military! It is days like this that I will miss The Daily Show and The Colbert Report – they would have so much fun with a quote like that.

Granted Bush is a civilian commander, but he still technically outranks all military commanders and can assume control if he desired.

Boycott Telus

Telus will now charge customers for accessing their long distance, even if they have selected another carrier as their long distance provider.

What?!? You have the right (due to deregulation) to choose your LD provider. It may be the same as your local provider, it may be different. But now Telus wants to charge local customers a LD fee ($2.95 per month) for NOT using LD. Of course, you can avoid this fee by choosing one of the following options:

1. Subscribe to a Telus LD plan, starting at $4.95 per month
2. Block ALL LD calls from your phone (but there is a fee to remove this block). 'Dial around' services 10-10-xxx will not work with this option.

Telus is claiming that the fee relates to LD, so it is not regulated, and therefore can be put in at will. How they can twist the fact that your LD 'fee' will ONLY apply if you do NOT have LD with Telus is beyond me.

Today, I spent an hour looking at alternatives to Telus. For me, the package of Shaw Digital Phone Lite and Shaw High Speed Internet will nicely replace my Telus services, thank you.

If you do this, make sure you send a note to Telus and let them know!