The top sidebar to the right is titled The James Commentary and if you click on “Cry Havoc and let slip the dogs of Reason” it will take you to the James Commentary [which can be access directly at www.crybs.ca].
The James Commentary is short daily comments/observations [100 – 200 words per subject] on what drew my attention, tickled my fancy or demanded comment on any given day.
Originally published November 2012
If Christie Clark is actually serious about balancing the budget next year, come hell or high water, it is time to consider voting green or to run for the legislature as an independent.
The right always likes to trot out the bogyman of irresponsible NDP spending to scare voters as is currently happening in Ottawa.
And while Adrian Dix has demonstrated a worrisome lack of understanding of, or connection to, the financial realities of the province and its citizens Premier Clark’s promise to balance the budget next year borders on the insane.
Insane: utterly senseless: an insane plan.
Consider these givens: the 2012/13 budget called for expenditures of $43,869,000; the deficit for 2012/13 has been revised upwards to $1,470,000 which is 3.4% of the budget; the rise in the deficit is mainly a result of falling provincial revenues, revenues that are realistically not going to recover for the 2013/14 budget year; the promises Finance Minister Mike de Jong has made concerning the return to the PST means provincial sales tax revenues will suffer a significant reduction next year (on top of the $300 million HST repayment to Ottawa); the cost to provide the same services next year as were provided this year will be higher – particularly health costs which are rising faster than costs in other areas; the rationing of mental health services has already resulted in the deaths of British Columbians as a result of the lack of sufficient services; the increases in Justice costs (police, incarceration etc) will necessitate cutting more funds from the rest of the budget.
Balancing the budget for 2013/14 will require cutting 3.4% (+) from next year’s budget.
Given the realities of the way the province spends its money most, if not all, of the cuts will have to come from healthcare and education.
Yes you could make cuts to social services, family services and related programs…..but the hard facts are that cuts in those areas do not result in any savings. Rather they result in higher costs to the government in other areas of the budget such as Justice.
Trying to avoid cuts to health and education by making cuts in other areas, areas that tempt politicians and the public because they seem ‘easier’ than cuts to healthcare and education, will inevitably force even deeper cuts to be made to education and health.
Given the level of wilful denial, of self imposed blindness, embraced by both voters and politicians in British Columbia – Pray that Clark is Lying.
The record setting high temperatures provided solid evidence that with the power windows on the Cougar deciding to open or (worse) close only occasionally – a random, unpredictable occasionally – only the fact the air conditioning works so well will make the Cougar drivable this summer..
Even then driving will be a hot, sweaty affair. And the cost of the gas to run the air conditioner…….well, I could swear that with the air conditioner running you can almost see the gas gauge falling.
Still………..
But when the transmission began to feel……..off, off as in: even if you treat me gently, one of these days I won’t transform engine power into turning wheels…….it was time to consider asking people to keep their eyes out for new transportation for me.
Hoping to find that most rare automotive quarry – an economical vehicle in excellent condition and at a price I can afford. Casting to the winds, to the Universe, my wish to find an incredible automotive deal before the Cougar suddenly needs repair.
As if to encourage me, the pins on the driver’s door shifted allowing the door to sag which requires lifting the door up slightly to alight the latch mechanisms on the door and car body, allowing the door to latch closed. Now this isn’t a problem, when you are aware of it, when closing the door from the outside. The design of the outside door handle makes it easy to lift and close solidly the door.
Once you are aware and remember the need to pay careful attention to closing the door. Interestingly, before that awareness develops the unclosed door provides one a kind of likability index. As in how many people stop to warn you your door is not closed and that they could not get it close. Bonus points if there were two or more and one stayed by the car until you got back to it.
As I said, closing the door from the outside is easy. From the inside on the other hand……I now travel with a piece of yellow nylon rope on the passenger seat. When I get into the car I form a loop, hook it on the bottom corner of the driver’s door and if I lift and pull correctly the door closes and latches. If not done correctly: repeat until door latches.
Every time I get into the car provides encouragement to ask people to keep an eye out a suitable replacement vehicle; but does not provide a sense of undo urgency.
That sense of urgency was provided as I was making my Tuesday trip to Mission for coffee and conversation. As I was heading onto the Mission bridge a piece of tire flew past the driver’s window as the front end got a little wobbly.
1 + 1 = %$#@!!~!! The driver’s side front tire would appear to be having…….issues.
Wisdom winning out over convenience I pull over and stop, before I got out onto the two lane bridge deck.
Setting the four way flashers to flashing I carefully exit the car and take a look at the tire; finding a big piece of rubber missing, snapped steel strands and an ominous big bulge. Looking at that bulge I am torn between the wisdom of stopping and the knowledge of having to change the tire right there.
Maybe Fate, the Universe, is not using the Cougar to toy with me or test me or to get me and I would have made it across the bridge and into parking at The Junction. Right, and the phone call yesterday telling me I had won a free cruise and there were just an item or two I needed to take care of to get my (not so free) ‘free’ cruise was not a scam.
I empty enough stuff out of the trunk to be able to retrieve the tire changing paraphernalia and proceed to change the tire. A job made easier by having performed it on more than one occasion and having stopped where there is ample room. A job made dangerous by all the thinking challenged distracted drivers who apparently not only fail to see the big boat of a Mercury Cougar with its emergency flashers flashing, but fail to notice my non-petite self. Forcing me to pay careful attention so I can I scramble to safety when needed.
Interlude:
I was in Shoppers Drug Mart this week filing a prescription and while I was waiting for the prescription to be prepared I wandered into the drool and dream area – electronics and computers. And there in the computer area was the item from Jay Leno’s monologue – a product to allow you to attach your tablet etc to the steering wheel to make using your device(s) easier while driving.
Corporate profit is not an evil thing, but corporate profits on devices that promote and enable using electronic devices while driving is definitely Corporate Irresponsibility.
Returning to out tale, I have managed not to be hit, to remove the old tire and put on the spare. I lower the jack and discover that, as I should have anticipated, the spare is flat. Oh Joy!
It is my background as a Chartered Accountant, and not paranoia that Fate or the Universe is out to get me, which has me carry a big old fashioned heavy steel red bicycle pump in the trunk of my car. It is a decision whose wisdom has been proved on several occasions over the years.
150 pumps and a few breath catching breaks later the spare (rejoicing that it is a small spare and not a full size tire) is reasonably inflated and not leaking I make sure everything is loaded in the Cougar, do a final walk around to make sure that everything is really in the car and that there are no other apparent mishaps waiting to happen.
I climb into the Cougar, loop the yellow nylon rope around the bottom corner of the driver’s door and with the door, with just two attempts, closed proceed over the bridge for coffee – and the opportunity to wash the grime off my hands.
Now prepared to spread my search for a ridiculously excellent……an incredibly, ridiculously, mind blowing excellent……an incredibly, ridiculously, mind blowing, unbelievably excellent…… an – you get the idea – deal of exceptional automotive value, an automotive gem at a zircon cost.
Casting my words, my petition, my orison as it were, into cyberspace – hoping they might…ahem….’net me a paragon, a pearl, a prize.
Casting my words onto the breezes and winds, hoping to open a path to an outstanding automotive prize.
Casting my words upon the ears of those whose paths cross mine that, in the manner a stone dropped into a pond sends outward ripples that rebound and intersect, the words may find their way to the ears of someone seeking to bestow the gift dependable transportation.
Coda:
Rolling along in my automobile
Bushwhacked by my front wheel
That adversarial fate
Decided to delaminate
In the blink of an eye
Past my window did fly
A warning most dire
A chunk of the tire
Forewarned
Forearmed
The Break
To Brake
Fortune turning away
Fate’s sly game play
Preserving the day
For walking the Way