Mayoral contender milks tragedy

Never one for letting possible votes go unnoticed, Mr 'Only a heart beat away from a bye-election' Brown milks the unfolding Samoan tragedy for all it is worth.

"reliable but unconfirmed report"

And guess what will be leading Te News tonight. The MSM may have found a 'New Zealand connection'.

Green nirvana in a coalfield

Great stuff!

would qualify for millions of dollars a year in taxpayer-subsidies of its carbon debt

the urea manufactured would also attract subsidies for farmers, even though it caused the release of nitrous oxide

Neat. Get the taxpayer to subsidise the production of a supposed atmosphere wrecker 300 times more potent than the one the punitive taxes apply to.

There is logic somewhere under all that greenie nirvana of taxing coaldust.

Good taste versus bad taste

And didn't we see a lot of bad taste in the past few days.

On one side LA trash half-heartedly trying to stop a wardrobe malfunction, but not averse to displaying her wares to to hotel staff, whilst on the other side more trash, source unknown, actually brought here to display everything she has, but for an itsy-bitsy bikini. Well, maybe not so itsy.

I'm the first to admit that I don't get Fashion Week. But then, I'm a straight male. None of my gender nor sexuality remotely do. We don't understand the weird walks, the weirder clothes and the view that goodie bags are an end in themselves. But most of all, we don't understand the pretension. The cultish view that fashion is worthy of exclusive veneration, and that the more unwearable the garment then the more watchable it must be. In fact, the only bit we actually got were the size 16 models in the Carpenter's Daughter show, because that's exactly what our wives and girlfriends look like.

Michael with the silent 'h' sums up how I feel about the week.

It was entertainment and as divorced from the average wardrobe as Chelsea Charms is from your wife

This week's entertainment was just that: A lesson in poor taste.

WTF???

Yuk! Too early in the morning for a pic like that. Enough to make you heave.

No wonder young males in NZ top themselves if looking and acting like these mincers is the future for them.

Don't even let me get started on the central piece of trash. Rachael of Glenfield's long lost sister?

Who needs enemies?

Unlike most of the world, we still like Americans

With a statement like that, our Afghani/Paki 'friends' in the Taleban will be over shortly to 'get the whanau together, stay in a bach, crack open the chilly bin and slap on your jandals '.

Probably sooner rather than later as John Boy says if you are looking to 'visit in the next 30 days and I'll pick you up at the airport '.

Some of the Top 10 from Not PC

Global Warming arrives at my front door

Now bugger off back to work lemmings instead of wasting your time reading my blog.

Some of us are off for a nana nap!

ps If you click on the pix, you just might see a pukeko.

Natives get soft separate justice system

I open the Herald online and what do I see?

Bloody unbelievable!  The natives have been given their own justice system.  

Tamaiti [a boy] can stand in front of his family and be accounted for - it's easy to go to a Pakeha court and go ae, ae, [yeah, yeah] and give the fingers and go out

So, if you are one of the 'normal' New Zealanders, ie one with skin colour of a certain shade, you will get to bimble off down to 'da meeting house to get weighed off.

For those with no connection to their roots, this intervention would hopefully be the start of an end to reoffending

As if.  If there is no connection currently, do you really think that the criminal will have an epiphany in da meeting house?

victims would not be left out of the picture as they would have to agree to it

And do you really think that Hohepa Criminal will care any more about their victims in that setting?  I know, if I was a victim, that I would not want be going to some meeting house to see justice done.

60 per cent of those in custody were Maori - was unacceptable

And why?  Because you keep pissing in criminals pockets.  Victims have no rights in the current system.  And you keep taking the soft options like this farce along with the farce that is home detention.  One day you might realise that the only way to deal with a criminal is to lock them up.


God help us.  This country has gone to the dogs since National got the reins.  Come back Winston, all is forgiven.

Voluntary Student Membership First Reading

Big News has a post about voluntary student membership, trying to argue it is not about membership.  Apparently the bill is about to get its first reading.

Being absolutely anti anything union, it is a subject dear to my heart.

Commenter Heine says it all.

'This debate is entirely about membership. It's discrimination to say that you can't get a degree unless you join the union.'

For those of us who have never darkened the doorstep of the varsity, or more recently a technical institute, the debate is entirely about forced union membership.

To take up and complete a tertiary course externally via correspondence I am compelled to join a student union delivering 'services' I will never use.  That I can actually complete the said course without setting foot on the campus or even holding a student ID confirms the issue for for me.  I will never get to listen to campus radio or read the student rag.

Big News argues that you are not compelled to join any union.  His line is 'if you do not want to join a union, do not study'.

Not studying because you have to join the union is a value worth pursuing to stop unions being funded directly through forced membership or alternatively via backdoor methods from the government for 'student services'.  It is indeed an ethic I have used, apart from where work has compelled me to do so, to actually not study because I would have to fund a union.

I do hope this bill passes, removing the forced membership and funding of unions from the taxpayers purse.  Also I look forward to being able to do courses of study without having to fund a union to which I do not wish to belong. 

And, incidentally, a corresponding drop in course fees.

Union thuggery in the Waikato

Rocks were apparently thrown at vehicles passing the workers' picket line outside the factory yesterday

Reports of vehicles getting windows smashed and gross pollution of local waterways.

a disgruntled employee was behind the sludge-dumping

When dealing with the lowest common denominator one expects nothing less, union thuggery knows no bounds, always resulting in violence.

Petting Nanny

Kidz in Gordonistan are about to be banned from petting animals says Nanny.

 parents should "think very hard" about letting children under five touch the animals at petting farms

Apparently modern kidz have not consumed enough of their bushel of dirt to ward off such bacteria, so banning is the fix.

 admitted that he was "not terribly happy" with the idea of under-fives touching ruminants such as lambs, calves and young goats

Time for a Tui.   

Rugrats should be walked regularly through a warm cow pat or two in bare feet to harden up.  As for the bureaucrat, a real nanny with horns would deal properly to him.

Arse covering of the first magnitude

Over the weekend and yesterday we witnessed arse covering of the first magnitude by yet another NZ tertiary institution.  Again, after all the riots down south a week earlier.

Lincoln University has apologised for the Nazi-themed dress of first-year students celebrating Oktoberfest at a halls of residence-run party

Prof Field apologised for any offence caused by the students

All that was required was something along the lines of 'some young students had a pissup and made dickhead choices in their fancy dress'. Period.

many of the students who attended were first years and may not know have known what the "holocaust was all about"

Instead we get a full blown arse covering reacting to a few expressions of disgust.  While it was a disgusting choice of dress, students have to learn somewhere about making poor life choices.  They certainly wouldn't have got any life skills from their previous teachers in our high schools.  Halls of residence pissups will always happen and unfortunately some students will make dumb decisions.

Most of us would have been there, done that in different shades.  Even Prince Harry has been there.  A few papers sell, the sun still comes up tomorrow.

One day institutions might actually tell the story like it is, not spray weasel words covering their backsides.

League tables in NY

have "a natter about domestic politics"

John Boy is off to the UN to get his skool report card for the first year, majoring in Liarbour-Lite, from the headmistress herself, Uncle Nanny.  Shades of the league tables to come?


As a sideshow, he might also get to talk to the Obama-Messiah himself.

What are the Police doing???

negotiating with activists...

Get stuffed with talking. Talk time stopped this morning when these pirate bastards boarded the ship. They should be treated as terrorists. Saltwater 4" hoses at 10 deg C on mist spray would have solved the problem hours ago. But Mr Plod turns to jelly and takes the soft route.

So what if a Greenpeace terrorist slips from a great height onto a steel deck? Not one NZ farmer would likely shed a tear.

Greenpeace was anti-farming: "It's a despicable new tactic that has Greenpeace's loathing of farming written all over that ship.

BTW, has the anti-terrorist legislation been sorted yet?

Funny that

A post I did three days ago referred to an obscure overseas piece. A reference, like all I might use, that I credit the source and how I get there.

Now I see the same article is in Granny Herald today. And elsewhere. No hat tips though. Whilst one might expect the number one blog in NZ to not read my post, it's neat to see that journalists are trawling the fringes of NZ blogs for content.

Come on guys, some of us in the outer reaches thrive on a mention here and there.

What's on your bucket list?

The top ten on the dingo bucket list.

1.Travel non-stop for at least a year

2. Get healthy and fit

3. Road-tripping with no destination

4. Travel first class

5. Swim with dolphins

6. Take a luxury cruise

7. Ride the Orient Express

8. Learn another language

9. Walk the Great Wall of China

10. Attend the ANZAC dawn service at Gallipoli

Number 2: What is the point of having a dead fit frame and then cark it? Where I'm probably headed in the hereafter looks won't matter.

Number 8: "I'll have deux beers and my mate will pay!"

Lies, damned Lies...

You know the rest.

Granny Herald will do anything to sell dead trees, so we have the following headline.

Motorcyclists more often to blame for crashes

When the story is read and digested, I find the figures speak for themselves.

* Vehicles at fault

(crashes involving motorcycles in Auckland City):

2004: 6 scooter, 7 motorcycle - 69 per cent

2005: 4 scooter, 12 motorcycle - 76 per cent

2006: 8 scooter, 12 motorcycle - 74 per cent

2007: 8 scooter, 14 motorcycle - 69 per cent

2008: 9 scooter, 16 motorcycle - 61 per cent

It is patently clear that the kamikaze temporary New Zealanders on step-through scooters are the leading cause of fault in two wheeled riders, not motorcyclists. Ban them and their suicidal riders!

Anything for a headline. Spam journalism.

Social Inclusion with free condoms

At their first party conference away from the dominatrix Helen, Liarbour has apologised for the Nanny State.

The conference has suggested a Commissioner of Social Inclusion along with free condoms at the local supermarket. Non- flavored and non-ribbed types only before ya all get hard and start spewing forth.

So I got into a bit of googling (not ogling) on the Net to see where such policies might lead.

Over in Oz, they have a Social Commissioner with a bloody big website full of nothing but empty platitudes reeking of bureaucracy. Statements similar to the incredible one below.

"acts contrary to the council's visions, values and social inclusion agenda, and which conflict with its community leadership role"

The Newcastle upon Tyne Council in the UK went down on this social inclusivity lark a few years ago. And banned Roy Chubby Brown. Why anyone would want to ban Roy beats me. As a commercial success, such displays of free speech, albeit usually blue, apparently need to banned to keep jobsworths on mission interfering in people's lives.

On a similar vein I found a recent article about family planning and global warming. Free condoms are apparently a cost effective method of combatting global warming.

From the cost-benefit analysis, it has been found that family planning (considered purely as a method of reducing future CO2 emissions) is more cost-effective than most low-carbon technologies.

It is recommended that an optimum mix of carbon-reducing methods includes family planning as one of the primary methods.

So this is where Liarbour is heading. Banning free speech (EFA MkII anyone?) and stopping you breeding under the religion of climate change. What's the betting breeders like Liarbour target voters never make it to the supermarket freebies in time.

So Liarbour gets a new logo with the following statement of intent.

The Opposition announced today that it is changing it's emblem to a condom because it more clearly reflects the Opposition's political stance.

A condom stands up to inflation, halts production, destroys the next generation, protects a bunch of pricks, and gives you a sense of security while it's actually screwing you.

HT The Disaffected Lib for the global warming piece.

A new Green tax

The prospect of cyclists paying a charge, like motorists, to use roads

Showing greenies the true cost of their gay abandon on the roads for which motorists have dearly paid.

the most likely method of implementing the tax would be to register all bicycles and making it a legal requirement for owners to have a registration document.

The tax would then be paid yearly or six-monthly in a similar way to vehicle excise duty.

That is a tax I would most definitely support.

Sorry is what is required Phil

Sorry. Five letters. No qualifications.

That is the word you are desperately looking for Phil.

Sorry for The Electoral Finance Act
Sorry for politicising the Police Force
Sorry for imposing eco lightbulbs
Sorry for thieving $800,000
Sorry for wrecking the status of marriages with civil unions
Sorry for legalising and promoting homosexuality
Sorry for downsizing your showers
Sorry for making middle class NZ welfare bludgers
Sorry for failing to stand up to Helen
Sorry for KiwiSlaver
Sorry for Welfare for Families
Sorry for purchasing the KiwiRail wreck
Sorry for criminalising parents
and the beat goes on...

Easy isn't it? Nothing less will do Phil. Then some might just believe in your message of reform.

Do it Phil. You know you want to.

In-house at the Fight Club

The trustees have informed the beneficiaries that it was investigating payments made to two of the trustees

The in-fighting at the Fight Club continues.

With hindsight, some of our investment decisions were questionable and those decisions together with the global recession have led to the situation that we are in today

Still, when the circling legal sharks have had their cut and the followup knockout occurs, beneficiaries will rest easy knowing that they can always go to the New Zealand taxpayer for another full and final settlement.

MMP works - Time for a Tui

The separatist party reckons MMP works has done this for you

It has delivered Kiwibank,

paid parental leave

and home insulation

Big deal. All methods to keep bludgers voting for minorities.

However, I see MMP very differently. A failed 16 year experiment in the futility of minority politics.

In my view MMP has delivered

120 or more useless MP's on the taxpayer teat

List MP's that are not elected

MP's that do not represent an electorate

MP's that answer to no one but the party

Minorities such as tree huggers and separatists wagging the dog

There is no second place in politics. Winner takes all. Proportional representation is a political disease favouring vocal collectivist minorities that should be eradicated.

Thought of the Day

We must limit politicians to two terms:

One in office and one in jail

Flogged from Theo

Poor spelling in Herald

Airbourne Jeep ...

Another source spells 'airborne' correctly. And another.

Come on Herald, you can do better.

Icanhasreputashunback?

Investigate the myth of cat intelligence, along with 49 other fun ways to spend your day on the big I.

Things like

• Follow the train wreck that is Sarah Palin

• Question opponents with 'agendas'

• Spread the word about dogging

• Challenge doctors and other professionals with a God complex with hardcopy

• Take comfort that your intensely private intimate session with a goat in the Sudan will go viral - quicker than a global flu pandemic

• You can inspect suspect gift horses from Nigeria very closely

can all be found right here.

In a minority?

How do you know you are in a minority?

When a national newspaper lists 15 ways to say hello and 'Hello' is not one of them.

Brinksmanship and risk

Yesterday, First Past the Post elections in Local Government without non-elected seats reserved via skin colour in the Super City. Today John Boy Key is hinting that we will get to vote on MMP via a new referendum at the next election.

There is a fundamental issue of fairness at stake here

No wonder Winston is keen on doing a Lazarus (HT The Inquiring Mind) act this time around. The 2014 election should be back to a two horse race minus the tree huggers and the separatists. Act and National should do well. Rightly so and stable government ahead without the MMP farce of list MP's.

Maybe the anti-smacking referendum was just testing the waters. Having confirmed there is fervent desire to be shot of Nanny, full steam ahead back to FPP whilst the proverbial iron is hot. The next referendum will be expensive, a spin merchants wet dream as minorities fight tooth and nail to retain their unfairly gained hold on their place at the trough.

Gamesmanship will again come into calculations on the sequencing of the MMP referendum. Businessman Peter Shirtcliffe has been campaigning for "enough intellectual and organisational horsepower" to be applied so a single stage definitive referendum could be held next year, then applied at the 2011 election.

Some would like the referendum next year and actually vote under the new rules in 2011.

Fantastic stuff, interesting times ahead for Luigi and other minorities.

The long game has changed yet again. Risky business, but a high dividend.

Westie dinosaur is out of a job

And he's not happy.

• underwhelming
• they have delivered local government lite
• local boards ... will be little more than sewing circle meetings
• It's clear that this reform is driven by political ideology
• the process of getting to this point has been "completely undemocratic"

I'd say he has finally realised he has just received a DCM with a pink slip. Excellent. And the Henderson Ivory Towers which the ratepayers have been saddled with for the next lifetime are now redundant. The sewing circle meetings will now be held in local community halls.

Waitakere City Council staff will continue to deal openly and constructively with the Auckland Transition Authority

Pity the same can't be said about the Mayor and deputy who have done everything possible to disrupt this process for the last year trying to implement Liarbour ideology.

Super City Report: First look

However, the majority of us believe that the question of whether the
existing legislation provides adequate opportunities for Māori representation
in local government is an issue of national significance, extending beyond Auckland. Resolving this issue should therefore be considered in that context rather than through this piece of legislation.

No to undemocratic representation via seats reserved by skin colour.

the majority of us consider that retaining the FPP system of voting at
both the council and local board level would be preferable

Retain First Past the Post voting, not STV, that dreadful disease voters have caught of late.

the northern boundary of Auckland city should be generally based on a line between the mouths of the Puhoi and Makarau rivers, dividing the current Rodney district in two

we urge the commission to consider carefully retaining all of Pukekohe and Waiuku as part of the Auckland region, rather than splitting them each in two

New boundaries. Goodbye to the Mare of Rodney. Still trying to have the Auckland cake though with recommending retaining regional parks management out of the area in the north. I still reckon Brynderwyn's to Bombay's is the natural features boundary. Anything south of the Bombay's/Hunua's should be Waikato.

Watercare to be solely resonsible for water and wastewater. Wonder how the organisation will deal with a Kaipara Harbour that is being polluted by two differing local governments?

We strongly believe that the new Auckland Council has a fundamental
responsibility to effectively address social issues across the region

Social engineering delivered by local council is to remain. This is one area I believe local councils have should not have any part. Delivery of social services is a central government issue and should be delivered by their over funded and numerous under worked agencies.

Pages 20 to 33 summarise the minority views of the Labour, Green and Maori Parties. Extremely anti to say the least.

Pages 37 to 76 is the actual bill.

we expect the local activities that will be the subject of local
board plans would be likely to include the operation and development
of local facilities, including sports and recreation centres, swimming
pools, and parks; the operation of community services such as libraries,
community centres and halls; supporting local community
events; administration of funding to local community groups and
youth centres; community safety, graffiti prevention, and other social services; promotion of local economic development activities such
as Business Improvement Districts, and improving streetscapes and
signage; developing and proposing local bylaws to reflect local community
concerns and preferences; and undertaking effective community
engagement and seeking community views on both local board
activities and the regional and regulatory functions of the governing
body

On first look, a very balanced report. Well done Rodney and team.

All will be revealed

Today the Super City makeup report is made public. Some are still being vocal and anti on all matters, others continue being deathly quiet and others are looking for undemocratic representation by virtue of their skin colour.

There will be much posturing and weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth by the end of the day hopefully as the troughers are brutally excised from my rates bill.

There are too many people who are involved who don't understand local government. They just think it's about rates and roads and rubbish. They don't realise there's lots of other things local government has to do

The Mare of Rodney continuing to spout off only confirms why councils are getting a hammering. The people do understand local government. Local government that rips them off, taxes them to hell and beyond, has their nose into every central government social engineering program possible.

You see, a council's job is only rates roads and rubbish. Period. All the extra social engineering junk for which the ratepayer is stiffed is the domain of central government agencies for which we are again over taxed. It is time the burden on ratepayers is considerably lightened.

I can only hope Mr Hide has a favourable report.

'Notable for their rarity'

Let's hope so.

An apology and technical explanation of the GMail failure. Seems it was a self-induced (routine maintenance - as always - 'It came apart in my hands, Chief') ungraceful failure. As the failure escalated, a lack of headroom on their routers for such an event aggravated the issue.

Laws gets mis-addressed letter

Some schoolkids sent a letter to an unknown organisation resident in an unlisted town. Since it was a local school, The Mayor of Wanganui being the font of knowledge in all matters Wanganui apparently graciously received it and has forwarded an answer.

So nice of him to take time out his no doubt busy schedule ensuring no patched gang members are visible in his Wanganui main street, but that's another story.

Back to the mis-addressed letter.

Well we think that Laws reply will stagger you. It is undoubtedly racist.

Busted Blonde has taken exception and suggests the reply is racist. Being unable to read the original as it is not in English, I am unable to judge that for myself. The tone of the reply, in English, merely appears to suggest the sender is under some mis-apprehensions, possibly from the children's teacher.

Where is racism in that?

Cactus changes tack. Again.

responding swiftly to the market

Well I never. A mere minnow in the blogosphere makes an observation the other day, it gets traction.

I AM SORRY

You cannot take two fiercely independent bloggers used to their own control, space and audience and put them together to share space. Let us all learn that lesson in the NZ blogosphere and learn it well for the future.

Catctus shows her readers the right way to say sorry, with a lesson to be learnt.

From Oswald's fine words, 'Real bloggers do it alone'.

"Never, never, never say never"

Again straight from the horses mouth. And we have have learnt from previous escapades that it is not true unless it has been uttered by said mouth.

You will not see such a quote on No Minister, or so they say.

Anyway, the one whose name must not be mentioned has opened Election 2011 by beginning to rebuild an 'army' from the south. He looks forward to being kingmaker again.

I can name three former leaders of the National Party who said the identical same thing and could not wait to call me on election night

And a warning to the incumbents.

If we could almost win in the worst campaign we have ever had, then I think we have got a great chance of making it

Typical Winnie getting right back into the spotlight, not that he ever really moved out of it.

Game on!

Gotcha MeMe

Obviously a work in progress at Gotcha. One that I have gone right off reading in recent days.

Two of the best Kiwi blogs, Whale and Cactus, have descended in the Spondre sewer of meme at Gotcha. A move I feel will lose readers.

Trying to mimic Public Address, another blog that is extremely hard to read, Gotcha is the latest incarnation. Both blogs had high profile individual brands, now are subsumed in a single brand along with other nobodies.

When I hit a blog, I want to skim read the whole article in one hit, bugger the 'continue reading this' lark. All the current Gotcha format does is waste my time, bandwidth and datacap reloading pages. Not all readers have the luxury of super duper broadband. Some of us are on just slightly better than dialup.

As for the ads on various blogs, just another bandwidth killer. I personally use the same machine to do most of my lurking, so it is usually relatively easy to block newspaper and blog site ads via the hosts file. Have been known to block ads on other machines I regularly use, just by updating the hosts file from a memory stick. Pop-ups - never allow them for normal browsing. Waste of time having ads - I am never going to read them, let alone click on them.

Guess I will never make that rarified league of the upper echelons of NZ blogging, so I will keep doing my thing and have a bitch at the leaders now and then. BTW, as various blogs go dark (tm The Inquiring Mind), I do hope my blog will move up the lists a couple of notches.

As you know, blogging is all about meme.

Cheers, have a nice one!

I have a question: First in a series

In what could be a start of a series, I am going to ask a question looking for a semi-techo explanation without the right vs left emotion.

Today's topic: Carbon Trading

I have not really been following the horse trading that is carbon credits and the associated ETS.

Can any of my readers explain how this trading bit works? Or direct me somewhere without the emotive Gorebull crap with a half decent explanation of the process.

The way I see it so far is:

When I grow some grass or trees, plants doing their thing lockup some carbon from the sky, some are better at it than others. Apparently locking up carbon is good for me. God knows why.

When I chop down the tree or cut the grass, to me the carbon is still locked up, but can be possibly readily unlocked by me burning the wood or my cows eat the grass/hay. At that stage the locked up carbon is unleashed on our unsuspecting planet.

So how does the horse trading in carbon get into the process?

Assassinating Threatened MPs

There is no place for threats to politicians in New Zealand politics

So says the Prime Minister after she who had it coming gets all antsy over a minor comment saying she was an overripe candidate for New Zealand's first political assassination.

It's part of the job

Still she complained. Nasty, venal political point scoring on her part.

Anyway, who needs to get physical (or would want to) with MPs? You'd only get locked up for that.

Pollies threaten themselves all the time. Must be a Darwin gene in there somewhere.

Novice John Boy Key is setting a prime example of how to commit political suicide when threatened and cornered by ignoring the very clear wishes of 1.4 million voters on good parenting.

Eco-dinosaur gets into bagging snot

Bags Not! is an eco city partnership with residents and businesses to achieve a plastic shopping bag free Waitakere.

I wonder how much are the 'free' bags going to cost me as a ratepaying stiff, Mr Eco-Dinosaur?

www.bag snot.co.nz A well chosen web address. Not! Nice to see there are are no supporting businesses.

Pictures of non-indigenous storks and tortoises stuck in plastic are absolute spin.

Another prime example of an unfettered council wasting rates on social engineering matters.