I certainly feel this is worth a grand bitch!

Recently received a traffic ticket. The officer giving me the ticket, though not warranted considering the logic behind the ticket makes no sense what so ever, advised that if I feel I shouldn't be given this ticket that I can contact the number listed on the "Front" of the ticket to enter a plea. I also check the back of the ticket and this is what's printed on the back of the ticket:

"OPTION #2 - NOTICE OF INTENT TO APPEAR IN COURT
If you wish to Plea Not Guilty and have a trial, or Plea Guilty and make a submission as a penalty, or Plea Guilty where no amount is specified in the summons, you must contact the court and file a Notice of Intent to appear in Court.  To do this, contact the Court indicated on the front of the Summons"

When the number is dialled, you get an automated machine giving you a bunch of options, none are related to Summons, but more contact information for Cape Breton and HRM Courts.  When you choose HRM, you get phone and fax for Dartmouth and Halifax courts then disconnects.  Once you contact the required court to get information about the Summons and to enter a Plea as advised on the Summons, the person in the Court advises you that they can't do that and you'd have to go to Court and do it in person.

Why The FUCK is the number on the Summons and Why the FUCK are cops ill-informed?  Why is it written on the Summons to call that stupid number! Also if you're a resident of HRM or CBRM, you have no other option but to pay the ticket unless you're willing to travel to the nearest Court!  TALK ABOUT A MONEY GRAB!!!! Summons are given based on the discretion of the officer, whether it's deserved or not, it doesn't matter.  How fucked up is that?!!!! — PUNKASS PROVINCE!

The impact of this tax grab is hidden in the supposedly low cost of $0.06 per kilometre or between $0.42 and $21.81 per toll, depending on the highway stretch.

The estimated cost on twinning the highways is $ 2.8 Billion which equates to an average cost of $7,236,842.11 per kilometre. I could not find a cost this high anywhere in Canada. We already pay some of the highest taxes in the country. We have Federal and Provincial gas tax, registration fees, licensing fees not to mention Provincial, Federal income tax, Property Tax, Tolls already in place and any applicable sin taxes plus whatever taxes I may not know about and of course HST in addition to these.

We all know how talented politicians are when it comes to squandering our hard earned tax dollars.  Adding a toll, to our after tax dollars, is just another way of taking more Tax dollars out of the pockets of already heavily burdened taxpayers.

User pay seems to be the general belief in Road tolls tax based on usage. There is no transit system on these routes so we don’t have a choice. If you use the road more than other people you already pay more in fuel tax. The user already has maintenance costs, snow tires, more frequent vehicle purchases, insurance premiums etc., all resulting in more HST collected.

Some people have raised the point that more wealthy people drive and therefore justify the toll. Although wealthy people drive so do lots of lower income working people. This is in essence a tax on an essential service necessary for well-being, which everyone should be able to access. A tax or fee on an essential service that is not based on ability to pay is regressive. I consider roads an essential service as I depend on them to travel from the Valley to the city for gainful employment for which taxes are collected.

I believe the twinned highways will reduce the number of collisions but could be offset by the increase in accidents on the secondary routes as congestion increases when people try to avoid the tolls.

Then there is the additional administration to be put in place, including additional people and technology required to monitor and collect the toll tax…Road tolls won’t give us the net revenue we need any time soon, nor will they address our most pressing operating budget issues. They will only bury us further in taxes. If efficiency is of no concern we could always use the transfer payments. This would only use 1.5 payments. —Richard

Okay, first thing - bitching about F.M. radio is like going to Moncton in the summer and complaining about the humidity and blackflies. Suffice to say, I used to enjoy listening to a local "Live" radio station, for it's 90's playlist, predictable and limited, though it was.

So, I'd like to send a big wet sloppy infectious Valentine's kiss to the corporate geniuses who have consistently fucked it face first into the ground. First you get rid of the one announcer who had even a shred of talent or personality, probably because some Sharepoint Wizard determined that she was intellectually intimidating to your target audience. Now you plug syndicated shows and try your damnedest to imitate that special frat-boy brand of stupid that a certain other "Rock" station has made its trademark.

Let's not forget that you are continuously advertising on-air for salespeople which suggests that your bull-pen probably resmbles one of those dystopian strip-down-to-a-banana-hammock-and- fight-to-the-death-with-knives arenas made famous in bad Sci-Fi. Final hint - you probably shouldn't run that commercial where you deride other stations for dropping a little B.O.C. between their 90's alt-rock selections. Not when you do the same with mouldy old Zep, G&R and the egregious AC/DC. –Despite All My Rage I'm Still Just Nicholas Cage

I think most of us can agree that twinning major highways in Nova Scotia, especially the 103, is beneficial. If you disagree you’re either a closed-minded moron or you’re dismissing their worth as a ruse to hide your aversion to any associated price tag, which I will get to later. Case and point: the Cobequid Pass. There were close to 50 deaths in the 10 years prior to its twinning vs. 3 in the 19 years after construction. This lower death rate is not a coincidence. And then you had the ill-informed audacity to say that twinning “does not work” without any credible evidence to back up your sorry excuse for an argument. Sure there will still be accidents on twinned highways but most of them are single car rollovers. Fatalities and critical injuries are what matters. Yes, distracted driving and human error are usually the cause of accidents but highway design is also a contributing factor in the case of head on collisions. If two cars driving 100 KPH collide with each other, the impact speed is doubled and you’re not going to walk away from it. You don’t need to be Isaac Newton to understand this. There is no disputing that twinning almost nullifies the occurrence of head on collisions and significantly decreases fatalities. If there is a Speedy Gonzales on the road, I would feel much better about him or her going by me than towards me. We can toughen laws and educate people until we are blue in the face but there will ALWAYS be people who choose to drive while impaired or distracted and just plain make stupid decisions. Not to mention the fact that even if you have adjusted your driving for adverse weather conditions, accidents can still happen and there is not a lot of room for error on an undivided highway. This utopian world you’re dreaming of where we only have law abiding, attentive drivers on the road will NEVER exist. You know what else will always be a reality? A lot of things aren’t free! Highway twinning costs BILLIONS of dollars and this penniless province just doesn’t have that lying around. It has to come from either increased taxes or tolls. You have no business throwing out the poor card while you buy Starbucks (or Roll up the Rims), lottery tickets, smoke cigarettes or pay interest on your credit card. If you do any of these things and complain about tolls, you’re the epitome of a hypocrite. If paying $8.00 (maximum) per round trip is really going to put you in the hole, you need to get your shit together. There are likely some adjustments you can make to your fiscal mismanagement to allow for tolls in your budget. If there aren’t, you probably shouldn’t be driving at all because that means you’re not in a position to pay for any unexpected car bills. As for me, I’m more than happy to spend money on a toll for a well-maintained highway that is safer to drive on (and I just might sip on a Starbucks while I’m doing it!) because I see the value in them. I don’t want to die because a car is coming towards me due to driver error or circumstances that may be out of their control. Your cheap ass can always take the back road while you risk beating your car to pieces and ending up getting a nasty car bill you can’t afford. —The Toll Troll

Can everybody shut the fuck up about the smoking cop?

This is how far the anti-tobacco hysteria has come. Throughout the country, Canadians are finally coming to realize what many of us have known for years - that "law enforcement" attracts a higher percentage of bullies, liars and border-line sociopaths than exists in the general population. THAT'S the crisis we have. And the best bitch Coast readers can come up with is more whinging about fucking tobacco?

That really is pathetic. The only point here is that yes, we can get stupidly "fined" for a butt. Cigarette buts are everywhere now, more than ever because there are no longer ashtrays and smoking areas to contain them...careful what you wish for...and that really IS bullshit. And so, I am actually drafting a letter to the HRM drawing attention to this seemingly trivial incident, as ridiculous as the whole thing IS...only because I too have heard of the RCMP stopping a 100,000 lb. transport for flicking a butt. What fucking BS. Do what I do - "Field strip" the hot ash off the butt, and then tuck it harmlessly back into the pack...OR, flick it curbside when out. Fines for a butt, from cops, are you kidding me? The defense to use here is that "it was just an ash"...which will lead to the surreal situation of RCMP "scientists" demanding a DNA sample, and coellecting and testing the last quarter mile of butts... as well as lawyers defining at what specific mass does something become "litter"? E.G. - everyday we discard billions of our dead skin cells....oh oh...

The problem, as I see it, is lack of ashtrays and properly ventilated smoking areas.

And so, not only do we have more butt litter outdoors, but now bars are almost inhabitable now due to the reeking BO and cheap perfume that used to be masked by a bit of smoke...

Butts on the ground are not harmful, at all, to 'the environment'...it's just litter. Perhaps it's unpleasant for you to look at...but so are your coffee cups and, to me, many of your scowling and unsmiling faces ...so what? Mother Nature doesn't care about litter...she has more to worry about, trust me.

As the earth continues to be raped to support your iPod-wearing, big-house dwelling, new car driving, latest fashion-wearing, new camera every 6 months-buying, latest cel-phone-carrying, Cancun-flying, materialistic, competitive and selfish "western" culture...she now has to contend with billions of more folks who, thanks to having gathered around the village satellite dish watching reruns of "Friends" and the "superbowl" ads, now want THEIR piece of the pie! Good for them!

And you can't stop it, unless you're willing to take a hit on your own cushy sandal-wearing lifestyle - you know, the one where you think that as long as you recycle and change your lightbulbs you're "doing your part"!

Good grief.

So go ahead, cram your stockings full, and shove that new flat-screen into the kitchen....but it's YOU that are the problem, not the billion people around the world that derive a little comfort from tobacco, you sad pathetic hypocrites...

---baD mR fRosTy

I don't usually pick on transit operators or passengers but after 14 trips on our system today I need to make a few comments: