Mar 29, 2008
Over the last 3 decades, environmentalists and activists of all kinds have promoted all sorts of catastrophic scenarios from global cooling to population explosions and diseases from chemicals that have been shown to be false. Now, they promote global warming. Andrew Potter columnist at the Ottawa Citizen calls them “declinists”. He wrote an interesting column about them, it was published yesterday, here is an excerpt:
“As the declinist sees it, the rights-based politics of liberal individualism, combined with the free-market economy, have served to undermine local attachments and communitarian feelings, leading us to seek meaning in shallow consumerism and mindless entertainments.
That is why climate change is the ultimate declinist wet dream. Sure, there is a long tradition of declinist hobby horses, including overpopulation, the exhaustion of natural resources and the industrial poisoning of the land and the sea, but climate change is the rug that pulls the whole room together. From cars and consumerism to mass travel, fast food and inexpensive lighting, declinism gathers up everything the left dislikes about contemporary society and puts it all in the dock facing the same charge: it is causing the planet to heat up. Thanks then to the imagined horrors of climate change, declinism transforms what is essentially an aesthetic preference for live entertainment over television, locally grown produce over fast food and the ability to walk to work instead of commuting in a car into a lifestyle choice of world-historical importance.” [The Ottawa Citizen]
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Mar 9, 2008
If recently you bought a car in the U.S., you probably had to go through some red tape and additional expenses. It’s becoming more complicated to buy a car south of the border. It all began when car manufacturers ordered American car dealers not to sell cars to Canadians. Since last January, some manufacturers imposed new constraints on car import to Canada. Manufacturers have restrictions on their warranties in Canada. To have more information on warranty restrictions in Canada when importing a car into Canada, visit the Automobile Protection Association (APA) website. The APA is a membership based non-profit association dedicated to promoting consumer interests in the marketplace.Regulations became so complicated, that the APA recommends dealing with a broker when buying a car in the USA. A Tale of Two Prices is a good site where you can compare Canadian and US car prices.
“Now, as a Canadian, that makes me furious. There’s no excuse for it. The media have started to pick up on this and there is some pressure on the manufacturers, all of which have remained stonily silent. I suspect that if the reverse were true, and American’s were being fleeced out of $16,000 everytime they buy a vehicle, they’d be a little more responsive. I did hear Buzz Hargrove, spokesman for the Canadian Auto Workers Union, say that this wasn’t about pricing, it was about keeping jobs in Canada by supporting the Canadian auto industry. What? Like the Canadian auto industry is supporting us by giving us clear, fair and transparent pricing? Buzz, you have your head up your ass. This is about not treating customers like a bunch of stupid sheep. It’s about doing the right thing and valuing us. And if you can’t do that, you don’t deserve your jobs. I want Canada to be able to compete in a fair and open market place, not by slipping a fast one past your neighbours.”
“What the manufacturer’s, like Toyota, don’t seem to understand is that in today’s world, the customer isn’t ignorant. We know when we’re being screwed. And we don’t like it. Why would you expect us to react differently?” [Out Of My Gord]
Technorati Tags: Consumerism, Cars, Car buyers
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