9/11: The Video Game

I kid you not. Some creep (from France, naturally) has designed a video game based on 9/11: http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4074265. The goal of the game is to shoot down planes before they crash into the Twin Towers. The maker of the game has claimed that the game is designed to show the futulity of "America's War on Terror", because "no one can ever win".

Rarely am I speechless, but this is just such an occasion.

Price gouging north of the 49th Parallel

One of the interesting "side effects" of the sharp rise in the Canadian Dollar against the U.S. Dollar has been that Canadians are now coming to the realization that they are being taken to the cleaners by retailers in the Great White North. Previously, price discrepancies were invariably explained away by citing to the difference in value between the two currencies. However, once parity was achieved, prices should have been equalized too. For example, a stereo that costs $750 in the United States should now cost the same in Canada, or so one would think.

That has not been the case. For the most part, there continues to be a sharp difference in prices between the two countries: http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/consumers/price-drops.html. This has rightfully led many in Canada to complain that they are being gouged. Just over this past weekend, the two BHG sisters were in town, and they made a beeline for the local mall, with a focus on the bookstore, because books are anywhere from $3 to $7 cheaper here than there.

Canadian retailers are going to learn the hard way that they can't gouge the consumers.

Have I poisoned the little BHGs?

Well, if you believe this article, I have: http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3275264&page=1. This is the type of thing that causes me angst. Mrs. BHG and I have spent literally hundreds of dollars on the Thomas the Tank Engine toys...............

Here is a partial list of the items recalled so far: http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml07/07212.html#http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml07/07212.html. I can't imagine that it won't get longer.

Let the Hype and Gas Price Hikes BEGIN!

Forecasters are calling for a busy hurricane/tropical storm season: http://www.tampabays10.com/news/local/article.aspx?s=rss&storyid=55334. With gas already hovering at or above $3 a gallon, how long do you think that it will be before Big Oil uses the pretext of a tropical system to boost the prices even higher? I seriously think that we're looking at $4 a gallon gas by September.

Gas Prices

I am far from an alarmist, and don't often scream "price gouging", but with oil prices fairly flat, how is it that gas prices are now almost at the levels they were when Hurricane Katrina hit: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070520/ap_on_bi_ge/gas_prices. Yes, I have also heard the stories about "refineries being serviced", but honestly, do you really buy that? I drive by a bunch of refineries on the New Jersey Turnpike and they all look fully operational. I have little doubt that when the time comes for the oil companies to announce their quarterly financial reports, we will once again hear the words "record profits".

All in favour of alternative fuel sources, say "Ay".....................