Handy tips for flying Airbus

Don't.

Picking at the scab

Tomorrow the scab will be lifted yet again on the festering separate rule sore.

it's about peeling off a septic bandaid and treating the festering sore underneath

The Nats blindsided the electorate with their jumping in with the Maori Party post-election.

it would outline "the most workable and efficient methods" of recognising Maori customary rights and public interest in the coastline

With weasel words like that, as expected, the outcome has already been long decided. The Nats just need to sell it. There will be a big hooha, but mark my words, the coastline is about to be formally given away. Just like NZ lakes.

The true cost of Liarbour Lite getting into bed with the separatist party is about to be revealed.

Socialists in your wallet yet again

It seems executives often treat this money as their own, rather than money collected from students to be distributed on their behalf.

In line with the way of thinking on wealth redistribution, that is your wealth, but not content with theft by mandatory taxation to support Student Unions, some socialists have decided that they wish for a bigger cut of your pie.

Unbelievable, but not unexpected. It is the socialist way.

Underlying WINZ policy is correct

There. I never thought I'd say that about the department of bludgers.

Why am I classed as a single earner paying ACC and income tax when employed but classed as a couple when out of work?

Why not? I fully agree that the family is the correct unit for a household in NZ. A family based on a husband and a wife, not something based on the latest metro-sexual whim of the day.

"outmoded social concepts" such as assuming that everyone lives in single-income families where dad goes out to work and mum stays home with the children

Nothing outmoded about that. Pity there aren't more families based on those concepts.

Californication

Arnie has issued an ultimatum.

the governor has vowed to veto any measure that fails to close the state's entire $24-billion deficit

The state is broke and Arnie is taking a tough stand.

"Whatever needs to be done," Schwarzenegger told reporters outside his Capitol office Friday when asked why he would be willing to delay payments to needy Californians. "I know that there is a history in this building of always being late with the budget, to drag it out and to kick that can down the alley. . . . I don't think we have this luxury this time."

Trying to do the right thing upsets a few, particularly the socialists and unions. The financial controller is about to start issuing IOUs to the tune of $3Bn a month at the end of July when the state runs out of dough.

reorganizing state bureaucracy, eliminating patronage boards and curbing fraud in social services that Democrats have traditionally protected.

Something's got to give. Arnie may be the prime casualty.

"The reality of what these cuts he is pushing for will mean hasn't hit home with the public yet," Cain said. "They see him standing up to unions and trying to cut all the waste and fraud. . . . Until the middle class bleeds in a way they care about, Arnold has the upper hand."

Just like what is required in NZ to clear the decks. Slash the featherbedding by unionised socialists in the bureaucracies of academia, central and local government.

Unfortunately, either way California is stuffed.

Harden Up

Some passengers have second thoughts after going down to the sea on an unstable platform. A poorly secured and poorly maintained platform by all counts.

... officers and crew members onboard, many with 20-30 years' experience at sea, had never experienced rolling of the magnitude that occurred during the trip. It was "unpredictable and rare wave behaviour".

Obviously never been to sea on the Grey Funnel Line. I seem to remember a long time ago being in almost the same area with about 75 knots across the deck stopped dead in the water beam on, doing 60 degree rolls during a SAR operation. Having a smoke on the upperdeck, watching the deckapes launch a Zodiac.

Falling off 10 metre waves in Cook Strait at night or transiting Bass Strait as rescue destroyer up the arse of an aircraft carrier on a wild night is more like not for the faint hearted. The Sourthern Ocean is yet another kettle of fish.

Harden up! You paid good money for such excitement.

Reminds me about a wise yachtie I once knew. His mantra when purchasing a yacht was to imagine it upside down falling into the trough of a wave. Sir Francis Chicester did that a few times and lived to tell the tale. Never ever a problem with me securing for sea.

Breaking the Telecom copper stranglehold

A fantastic milestone this week.

On Monday our house said goodbye to the piece of copper that passes our place and went onto Vodafone wireless for phone calls. Kept the same phone number, our cordless phone base unit plugs into a tiny Vf wireless powered box that talks like a cellphone via a SIM card to the tower on 2G. No connection from the base unit into the copper.

No longer are we paying the monopolistic Telecom $50 a month for their piece of copper to connect to the outside world at dial up speed on a good day. Round these parts fibre will never happen. I feel being rural puts this area in the 25% which will never get cabled. And less than 10Km from town.

Total comms spend has come down by $35 a month and thrown in is a free Vodem giving 3GB of wireless Internet capability at broadband speeds. Great stuff, gives portability with broadband. Only drawback is you have to dial local numbers prefixed by the area code. Seems to work well so far.

Goodbye Telecom, it feels so good to no longer have to deal with your monopoly. I've been waiting 30 years for this week.

Breaking news: Mr Moonwalker dead

Maybe the heartbreak of losing a fellow performer was just too much and needed to be upstaged.

In for a Rogering?

The stranded blog is looking for nominations in the upcoming Roger Awards.

A Roger is awarded on the following criteria.

• Economic Dominance - Monopoly, profiteering, tax dodging, cultural imperialism
• 
  
• People – Unemployment, impact on tangata whenua, impact on women, impact on children, abuse of workers/conditions, health and safety of workers and the public
• 
  
• Environment – Environmental damage, abuse of animals
• 
  
• Political interference – Interference in democratic processes, running an ideological crusade

Yup, fits Liarbour to a T. Hope they nominate themselves. Would win hands down.

Plod lays charges over fake passports

Now Mr Plod has a list with names, can I expect mass dawn raids from Immigration?

Didn't think so. Why not?

Mentality of Mr Plod blindsided by criminal's age

Senior Sergeant Fred van Durren said it was a huge leap to say the 3-year-old had stolen the bike

Excuse me?

A brat walks into a shop, walks out with a brand new bike without paying and the Senior Sergeant suggests a crime has not been committed.

At what point does theft become crime, Snr Sgt?

One does wonder if the man has all his marbles.

Mile High Club looking for pork injection

Rob Fyfe, puppet CEO of our nationalised airline, has been looking at the recent conference jolly airline reps had in KL.

Today's situation is unprecedented, the most difficult ever. Governments and partners must understand that we are struggling to survive with a new and harsh reality," Mr Bisignani says. The assumptions of the past are no longer valid and change is critical.

"The failure to act by governments would be irresponsible."

A brazen request for a handout. As if a billion dollars bailout to an enterprise that had all but failed in our case a few years ago was not enough, the world's airline's are gearing up to put the hard word on their respective governments for a injection of pork stimulant.

Until such market interference is removed and a system with the right commercial pressures introduced, we will not make progress.

I definitely agree and say no to moves toward a pork injection. If the company does not survive on its own two feet, let it fold.

Scam Alert!

Con artists are using the Maori Party's good name to fleece locals.

Hapu Tino Rangitiratanga Atawhai Whangai was targeting Pacific Island communities, pretending to represent the Maori Party

Apparently it is a scam. With the Maori Party being a racially separatist organisation pandering to a select few, no wonder the locals were easily confused by conmen using a name espousing similar tenets.

We don't have the basic educational or cultural background to make it in those institutions

But then we knew that as the Maori Party's master of oratory spews forth attempting to con the electorate with affirmative actions.

$100K well spent

One conference may have cost $100K to cancel, but think of the millions saved by serving notice to all the hangers on about the change in gummint direction. And in 400 odd health workers actually on the job at the coalface, not on a jolly to sports stadium.

And to the Ministry of Plagues and Sickness that incestuous sponsorships would no longer be tolerated. $88K was saved on this conference alone. Probably much more on ditched future sponsorship.

As to be expected, the left are whinging.

Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?

NO.

$Billion Dollar man wins

The motorway starts in earnest on Monday.

What a fitting memorial for the 12,000 losers that voted for Uncle's memory.

Ravi, Ravi, Ravi, wherefore art thou?

Was anything else expected?

Bring back Ravi!

Sporty type told to naff off by ACC

Into self induced joint wrecking injuries from a long sporting history?

highlighting the involvement in these sports as a "continuous process of damage" to his knees

You'd do well to take out some of your own medical insurance after this ruling against an insurer trying to claim off the taxpayer. Rightly so. Why should the taxpayer pay for your self-harm over the years? Now watch the cost of such insurance rise.

Those who follow sporting thuggery on telly like Alf from Eke' are safe in their armchairs with a whisky in hand. It's only the ones on the other side of the box with an active history sporting that this seems to apply to. Although, I suspect ACC like any insurer would weasel out of elbow bending as RSI if they could.

#58 In

Two to go before Stephen Franks makes the grade.

Shouldn't be long. Who's next? Ms Lee? Hush my mouth.

A political corpse late on Friday arvo

My conscience is clear.

Those who have chosen to try to ruin my reputation should perhaps now examine theirs.

Richard Worth resigns. Late on Friday, before a bye-election.

And whilst conscience is being examined, how's yours Trev? Looking to roll your ever so slightly exposed leader?

Permanent restraint

"Don't run out of money, because I'm not going to give you any."

That was the blunt message from Finance Minister Bill English at the annual Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics conference in Wellington yesterday.

The Government expected to be in debt for the next decade, meaning "restraint (was) now permanent", he said.

That's positive news in my book. Live within your means.

Key's Government: The good news keeps on coming

2000 jobs to go with a Super City? An academic pushes the buttons. Or were her buttons pushed by Phil In looking for a worthless distraction on a Friday arvo?

Yay! 30% less bureaucrats has to be great in my book.

And 700 of those will help to drop the rates bill in Waitakere as the bottom feeders are routed from my rates bill.

Up yours, Mr Bollard

Business as usual. Rabo breaks through the political noise.

Stick that, Mr Bollard.

'E's resting!

Chancellor : Oh yes, the, ah, the Caledonian Red... What's, ah... W-what's wrong with it?

Mr. Praline : I'll tell you what's wrong with it, my lad. It's dead, that's what's wrong with it.

Chancellor : No, no, 'e's, ah... he's resting.

Mr Praline attempts a complaint over at HMP Albion.

A Java fix

Thieved in-toto from Nobody's Listening.

Sun Microsystems Can Kiss My Big Ol’ White Butt

Java. What the fuck is it for? Does anyone know - or care - any more? I remember it was the absolute pinnacle of the tech zeitgeist around 10 years back, when it promised to be a utopia of write-once-run-anywhere programming and cubicles were packed with dickheads pulling down £8999k p.a. because they understood those big diagrams that people used to draw to explain what Java did… but now?

Now it sits there on my hard drive glowering resentfully because no-one uses it any more - the ginger-haired stepchild of programming languages (or whatever the fuck it is).

I can handle that - I don’t use HongKong RAMfucker or PornLocator any more; but at least they have the decency to sit there quietly in the background until the day that I need to fuck my RAM or locate some porn.

What I can’t handle is Java’s constant crying out for my attention… update me… please! Every single bastard day that little system tray bubble comes up, winking at me cheerily to remind me there’s another Java update. So for days I dutifully close it and yet, the very next day, there it is again.. taunting me. Look: I didn’t update you yesterday. Or the day before. Or the day before that. Please take the fucking hint - no-one likes you any more. Imagine if your girlfriend behaved like that!

And then, eventually, I concede defeat and download it just to get that fucking message out of the way. Only its not an ‘update’ in the sense of “here’s a couple of megsworth of patches and files” but a full 23323327Gb download of the entire fucking thing that slows everything down to a crawl and puts a big fat install dialogue up in my grill for what seems to be a week, reminding me of all the pointless crap Java ‘enables’ me to do.

And then, when you’ve done all that and your heartrate has returned to normal levels, you find some gimcrack, cobbled-together piece of toss on the internets that does actually use Java to do something - usually something completely fucking gay like add an animated reflection to a picture of the Taj Mahal - and the fucking thing still isn’t right. Sometimes you get a message saying that the version you’ve got is too fucking new!

And to add insult to fucking injury every one of these damn Java applets in the world has to tell me that it’s using Java before it loads. Imagine popping a CD into the tray and having Brian Blessed announce that you are using CD Technology. Actually - that would be pretty fucking awesome. So imagine instead opening your sandwich box to be greeted with a cheery “you’re eating Kingsmill bread!” The world would grind to a halt as people flung sandwiches out of the window in pulsating, red-faced rage, making pavements impassable and putting Dairylea out of business. That’s what “this is a Java application” messages do to the internets.

Java is a big bunch of balls, and Sun Microsystems are a big bunch of ball washers. Fact.

HT to Obnoxio.

Jackson James Wood

The Salient candidate from Wellytown finally visits his soon to be electorate on Media 7 tonight.

Mt Albert?

I wouldn't live in the dump.

'Nuff said.

Innocent until proven guilty

The cheese eating surrender monkeys have opted to ditch the 'guilty until proven innocent' three strikes law.

The French Constitutional Council had the final say. 200 years plus of legal precedence. And a revolution to boot.

It criticised its 'assumption of guilt' by quoting the French Revolution to highlight their concerns, saying that "...under section nine of the Declaration of 1789, every man is presumed innocent until they have been proven guilty".

Ms Bruni's bed warmer will be pissed.

Talking of bedfellows, Herr Sarkozy was in bed with the frog entertainment industry.

the initial success of the French three strikes law was held up by the recording industry as a key milestone in its worldwide 'graduated response campaign'

I wonder how that organisation will comment.

And I bet you thought this was another Bain or Worth beatup.

New Ministry: Commission to Counteract the Falsification of History to the Detriment of Russian Interests

A blatant attempt to rewrite history in their favour.

One minute Leon Trotsky was a hero of the Revolution, the father of the Red Army and a strong contender to succeed Lenin; the next minute he never existed.

Until the late 1980s, the 1917 Revolution was the pinnacle of human achievement; suddenly in the 1990s it was seen as an utter failure.

I wonder if they will be banned from editing Wikipedia like some of the left in NZ.

Sounds like fun.

A questionable utterance: Update

Said to be 'I shot the prick'.

One wonders what a jury might made of such an utterance.

Surely the unadulterated recording was played during proceedings or was it the contested transcript only?

LOL.

Update:

IV2 says at 12:37pm:

it seems that the evidence that the jury heard was only that which would lead them to concluding that the charges had not been proven beyond reasonable doubt.

Margaret Wilson's beloved Supreme Court has passed its first test, just as she intended that it would.

Phil In trying to distance himself from troublemaker

One of the victims of the scams run by her husband says she is a "troublemaker".

Phil Goff the stirrer is now on the receiving end as troublemaker complainant 'A' is found to be nothing but a trouble maker.

I believe she had credibility because I knew about some of those events as they were occurring

Mr Goff said Mrs Choudary was now under enormous stress.

Self induced stress as she has been worked over and some by the Liarbour sleaze machine. Phil is now fabricating an out should he need to bail fast.

Keep looking for those texts Phil. We have noted how long you sat on the information when it came to hand.

It is so delicious watching people throwing stones whilst inside the glasshouse.

Shaking the baby

Local councils are one baby that needs a damned good shakeup. Core services only to keep the beast.

[Mr Hide] is trying to reduce local government's powers to the point where they are unable to deliver social and environmental services.

Rodders is pushing all the right buttons for me, especially when bottom feeders such as Kedgley are crying foul. A minister of action. Long may it continue. I look forward to a drop in rates as dross is being bluntly excised from councils.

Sheeting the full cost of environmental, social and cultural claptrap back to central government will soon put a stop to such follies.

Key said he did not agree with Mr Hide's definition of "core services"

And it would be nice if Key could actually back his minister. Fence sitting bastard. Stop being Mr Nice Guy and grow some.

Severe pruning of local council powers would be better than any tax cut at this stage. Shake the baby as hard as you like Rodney.

Grim Poll

So what if Melissa doesn't win next Saturday.

The $Billion man will still have to explain the above ground motorway. He will look strikingly unattractive to those who voted for him as the criminal hordes come up the motorway.

Polictical Spectrum

Not quite right enough.

Surprised I had a liberal component. Did the test twice over a couple of days - just moved a couple of notches further right.

3rd Party Insurance on hold

Adam over at Inquiring Mind suggests Transport Minister Joyce has made a bad decision re putting 3rd party insurance on hold.

I say otherwise. I will make my own decisions as to what property I will insure.

My old dunger is not one of those I wish to waste premiums on, although I am compulsorily covered through ACC via punitive taxes for loss of life or limb. If I hit someone? So what? Sue me!

Suppression of In Confidence

While we have lately witnessed Phil In Goff rapidly narrowing the odds over identifying his 'strikingly beautiful' in-confidence client, we now have Granny Herald trying very hard to maintain a suppression order.

Seems a MP's son has been in dock of late. Nice photo of a police car courtesy of the BOP Times.

Subtle, eh?

Guilty? Or not? Updated:

The Bain result is in. Not guilty by virtue of a retrial.

Technically maybe, for reasonable doubt definitely exists.

For me, there is something deeply disturbing about this case. I feel a verdict of not proven guilty is long overdue as a third choice in the NZ justice system.


On a different note.


The Worth result is not in. Not guilty by virtue of no formal charge. Maybe yet to come.

Technically maybe, for persons are deemed innocent until proven guilty.

For me, there is also something deeply disturbing about the actions taken so far. We have the Leader of the Opposition holding out for perceived maximum political advantage, a position which is fast being reversed. Secondly, unproven allegations have been publicly laid and the irreparable damage to an MP's career done.

I feel handling of such allegations needs clarification. Most businesses would immediately suspend an employee till such matters are sorted. Why not MP's?


Guilty or not? Your thoughts?


Update:

TSmithField over at the Stranded sums up Goff's actions. Or lack of it.

Xenophobic and racist

They take our welfare and they don't want to accept our way of life," she said after the council vote. "Hezbollah is a terrorist organisation. I'm sorry, I just don't want them in Australia.

Pauline Hanson MkII steps up to the plate on behalf of Oz battlers and farmers. Just like the UK's BNP, One Nation gets support in these hard times.

They will sensationalise. You have to cop it sweet.

The media feeding frenzy will be a delight to watch.

Siege? What siege?

The Oz cops give a salutary lesson in how to end an armed siege before daybreak.

He had a damaged leg.

Armed siege. Cop shot in shoulder. Incapacitate the guilty bastard. End of problem inside 4 hours.

A damaged leg would be the least of his issues once the criminal leaves hospital.

The real cause of global warming

scientists found 10 new colonies of penguins

salty penguin guano "over time will corrode your boots,"

Yes, penguin poo is the culprit.

Like wild horses and baby seals, I suggest we cull a few to save our planet.

Desperate for a hit

Recent actions by Phil In Goff, Temporary Leader of the Opposition thugs in NZ's government has confirmed where politicians lie.

Goff said he had privately raised concerns with Key last month about allegations regarding Worth's "inappropriate political ... and sexual behaviour"

No amount of digging for dirt is too much. Trained by her indoors, he is only continuing where Williams left off wasting taxpayer time and no doubt vast amounts of money on getting traction on the government. I suspect that this bit of salacious gossip leads all the way back to Liarbour and Phil In is only the messenger boy.

Ever desperate for that hit, it a pity our politicians don't put in as much effort on things that really matter.


BTW, Well done Whale Oil. Nice to see you on the box sticking it to both sides.

Worth resigns

'He advised me of some private matters...'

Doesn't sound like personal reasons of health although has been given two weeks of leave.

More like reasons of 'personal interest' and two weeks out the limelight while the spin doctorate goes to work.

'Toughen Up!'

$20 is all Genesis thinks it's slighted customers are worth.

But is considering more compo. Read 'if you don't make much more noise, that's all you will get.' Ta, very much.

16 out 182 with medical problems? Pull the other one. Unintended consequences of stupid law protecting idiots from personal responsibility more like it.

'Practically Unsinkable'

Dean was one of 706 people — mostly women and children — who survived. Her father was among the 1,517 who died.

The last survivor of the 1912 RMS Titanic passes over at 97.

Bridge Security?

There wasn't any. I read this with a laugh. Might have been a couple of cameras on top on the road, certainly nothing underneath. Never saw the story in the local rag - Mum and Dad probably stopped us reading such things in those days.

As one grew who lived on Northcote Point near the Gold Hole* for a few years and can remember the day in 1959 as a just 5 year old when the bridge opened. As young teens we used to play around the northern end of the bridge all the time.

And when the Nippon Clippons were being fitted, we used to go up the vertical caged ladder from the Point onto the under roadway walkway. It was often left unlocked. No problems to us kids on a weekend, 175' up above the water under the main arch not a safety belt in sight. Hell, we used to build huts 70' up pines trees in the bush just to give mum heart failure from her kitchen view. Only problem was that you couldn't get off the bridge at Westhaven, some security sod had a locked gate at that end with barbed wire.

And another one for the young would be hoons of today. In Little Shoal Bay (left of the bridge, heading north) where the motel sits now was the gasworks and adjacent a tip. Yes, under those nice playing fields is a stinking great tip leaching into your fine Jafa harbour. Only in those days it was a tip which flooded with every high tide. A small one, Ngataringa Bay in Devonport was big, along with the granddaddy Auckland City Meola Road tip where the Motat planes now sit.

I assembled many a bicycle out of Little Shoal Bay tip. And my first motorbike (offroader, local bush tracks only). We used to get 3 or 4 kapok matresses and a wire-wove base tied together and launch them as rafts into the harbour. Days later, the bottom mattress would eventually get sodden, so we got a dry new one from the tip on top every so often. Herne Bay, Watchman's Island, Pt Chev reef - no probs.

Now corrugated iron and apple boxes (remember them?) were in bountiful supply at the tip. Apple boxes were good for carts with a few pram wheels. But the corrugated iron was even better. Fold it in half longways, slap in the ends of an apple box, a few nails, plug up the holes with clay, make a paddle and you had 15' canoe. Fantastic, went right round Rangitoto one day with my brother. The great expedition. Used to regularly row up and down the harbour wharves, into and out of Westhaven and around the bridge piles. Right up to Paremoremo (before the prison was built) mudflats sometimes. Not a life jacket in sight. Yes we could swim very well in those days.

I could just see the look on kids face today if they saw such carrying on making their own entertainment. Didn't cost a cent. And no doubt getting arrested for ignoring every aspect of maritime safety. Fun was plentiful and cheap in the Sixties. Fond memories.

* The Gold Hole was a big hole where the steep road went down to the boat yard at the side of the Point just down from the local boozer, the Northcote Trough in Queen/Princes St. Must have been a dig out for a temporary bridge pillar during the original bridge construction, but was long rumoured to have had gold found there.

Thoroughly Deserved

One Ian Brackenbury Channell.

AKA The Wizard of New Zealand.

I remember him in action one lunchtime in the early 70s at ATI (Auckland Technical Institute before it went downhill and became a varsity).

None more so deserving of a 'For Services to the Community' award.

Pssst! Want 9.25% return on your dosh?

Cactus Kate does due diligence on a great investment.

Backscratchers Anon

News earlier this year: NZ Honours re-established on the old UK system.

Full List.

Members of the Order of Backscratcher

Jennifer Barbara Gibbs CNZM, Auckland
For services to the arts
(number one backscratch by those in the know if there was ever one)

Simon Peter Wallace Murdoch, Wellington
For public services, lately as Secretary of Foreign Affairs
(just doing his job for a gong)

Paula Rae Rebstock, North Shore
For public services, lately as chair of the Commerce Commission
(hasn't she gone very quiet of late. Since she got the nod?)

Murray James Boyd Deaker, North Shore
For services to broadcasting
(a bloody radio show sports commentator for God's sake)

Robin Moncrieff Oliver, Wellington
For services to the Department of Inland Revenue
(a backscratch for a tax inspector)

Irene van Dyk, Upper Hutt
For services to netball
(is this what all sporting imports can expect?)

Derek Quentin Battersby JP, Waitakere
For services to local body affairs
(one of Brown-eye Bob's mates - at the trough for decades)

Che Fu, Auckland
For services to music
(a hip-hop artist. Really?)


A larger than normal list with some obviously deserving their awards. Except for the above listed backscratchers. I see the military continue to excel in their normal arts of Backscratchers Anon.

I half expected to see HEC or MC in the list for services to NZ taxpayers and the world, so at least I was spared that ignominy.