It's the economy, stupid!

Back to normal tomorrow? [updated]

Thank God the cricket will be all over tomorrow bar the endless post mortems.

There are other things to do rather than listen to never ending commentary on boys chasing a ball.

Some normalcy may return to New Zealand.

[update]

Apparently the tossers snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.  Losers.  The nation will be in mourning.

Now wouldn't that be just desserts for the politically unscrupulous

Angry Andy, a unionist long known to be devoid of any scruples, sought to throw the bye-election by telling his electorate to ignore his token candidate and vote for Winnie.  Hypocritical Labour voters previously willing to slam 'cups of tea for Epsom' willingly lapped up the ploy.

Supposedly a strategic vote to send the evil Mr Key a message.  In doing so he probably has killed Labour stone dead as well as the greenie vote.  The next polls will tell.

Winston First has just pulled a swifty on the leftoids, taking both Labour and tree hugger votes.  Winnie, ever the opportunist, always to the right of centre, will go where the real power is and that is working with the government of the day.

Winston First will work with the lefties arch-nemesis, the evil Natz.  Together the two will now enjoy a massive 70 seat or so majority.  First on the block, the RMA.

The rabid leftie ferals never saw that coming as oblivion beckons.  And Mr Key may be eating heaps of humble pie as he chases Winston.

Not many dopeheads in Northland

With 98% of the by-election count in, less than 100 have voted for legalising dope.

And 1300 or so couldn't bring themselves to hold their noses by ditching Labour and ticking Winnie.

The Natz have been given the message.  How to turn a near 10,000 majority into a 4,000 loss in barely 3 months since the general election.  Maybe the tossers that are the Natz will take heed and revert to their long held principles, instead of being Labour-Lite.

Looks like Winston is the new MP for Northland.  Fun times ahead as Winnie will no doubt daily reinforce the message for the Natz that ignoring the regions is at your peril.

This is what cojones are for.

It is a couple of 17-year-old idiots who chose to knowingly breach a crystal clear code of conduct, I am sure they are at heart good young men, but their parents need to let them absorb the consequences.

A real headmaster.  With cojones.

criticising their parents' action in taking the school to court as "inexcusable, infantile and reprehensible"

Meanwhile the fathers are made to look like the right tossers they've proven themselves to be.

Another dingo without cojones

Cotton On appears to have backed away from plans to strip workers at its Auckland distribution centre of their tea breaks

Another company succumbs to vile unionist hysterics via the Twatterati.  No cojones on that dingo.

Gemini: A lifetime ago...

On March 23, 1965, America launched the first two-man Gemini flight designed to bridge the Mercury missions and the upcoming Apollo flights to the moon. 

Before the program ended with the splashdown of Gemini XII on Nov. 15, 1966, NASA had learned a lot it would need to know to send men to the moon in 1969. 

Spacewalking, docking, maneuvering and working as a team in space all happened first in Gemini spaceships.

50 years today the story toward man's greatest step in space started.  A lifetime ago we watched in awe on the goggle box.

NZ rebuild in VoD is an embarrassment compared to Vanuatu

Just on Te News, the good people of Vanuatu were shown getting on with their rebuild a couple of days after the cyclone.  No cavalry required or likely to turn up other than immediate aid like food and water.

Not a council bureaucrat in sight anywhere.  No CERA stymieing your rebuild.  No planning required, just getting on with it, no doubt learning how to do things slightly better.

Meanwhile in the VoD the now four year embarrassment that is the rebuild continues apace.

Snickers gets stuck into Jeremy Clarkson

Very good!

'Choo Choo' Len will be wetting himself

Transport Minister Simon Bridges has confirmed a rail option will be part of an alternative Waitemata Harbour crossing that he says will "future-proof" the proposal.

Bridges said the move was necessary because of the rapid growth in Auckland over the next 20 years

The business case will look at a range of public transport options, including heavy rail. NZTA and Auckland Transport will be working together on this part of the project, including any necessary route protection for public transport.

Somehow I don't think the Government will be stumping up for Len's wet dream toy train set, but he'll be wetting himself.  He won't get his city loop but a through rail.  Might as well utilise the big drill we've brought and paid for at Pt Chev.

Useful long term, possibly heavy rail all the way to a new port at Whangarei and linked directly to Tauranga.  Now that is worth spending big money on.  At least this option gets rail onto the North Shore.

The Government has just endorsed rail in JafaLand. 

The extra perks do not cease when fired

The Vet at No Minister supporting his beloved underpaid Natz:

And please, let no-one that MPs are well paid.   A back bench MP is paid about as much as a mid ranking Lieutenant Colonel equivalent in the military or a Deputy Principal in medium size secondary school.    Many MP's would take a salary cut on being elected.      They are not well remunerated by any stretch of the imagination and those who would argue otherwise are saying much about their own level of competence. 

Really?  Most we've seen elected recently get a massive boost in base pay with zero skills brought to the table.  They then get a large slot at the trough with utterly obscene extra perks on travel, accommodation and superannuation.

The problem is that the scum that infest Parliament think because they're doing the Lord's work that they are still entitled to the never ending list of perks when they're eventually fired.

Cyclone? What high winds?

Was there a cyclone somewhere?

Flat calm round these parts last night as in wee small hours ex-Tropical Storm Pam stalled on its march southward past East Cape. 

Mind you, probably dodged a bullet on high winds (100km/hr is normal here near the Ruahines) but will be lost in easterly clag backed up against the hills for a day or so.

Tanks are full, a few days of drizzle will kick off some late autumn growth.

Absolute scum: Why MPs are reviled

A proposal to nearly double the international travel allowance of former MPs has been "slipped in under the radar"

for former MPs who qualified for the perk, it would increase the maximum rebate to around $20,000 a year

Absolute scum. 

Labour MP Annette King said the law change ... had nothing to do with former MPs "trying to grab something."

One of the turkeys voting for more of the same. And they wonder why MPs are reviled.

Fossil fuel nirvana for non-believer warmists

That fossil fuels are finite is a red herring

It is an ironic truth that no nonrenewable resource has ever run dry, while renewable resources—whales, cod, forests, passenger pigeons—have frequently done so.

Explained in detail for the non-believer warmists that infest the left.

the shale revolution has yet to go global. When it does, oil and gas in tight rock formations will give the world ample supplies of hydrocarbons for decades, if not centuries. Lurking in the wings for later technological breakthroughs is methane hydrate, a seafloor source of gas that exceeds in quantity all the world’s coal, oil and gas put together.

After fracking, I look forward the harvest of some hydrates to warm the Arctic.

3.2.1. - I can hear the screaming from here

A very questionable picture of the young lass from the screenshot a few minutes ago. 

I can hear the screams of the PC Feminazis about to roast the Ferald from here.

Titirangi NIMBY assists in decimation of local natives

Ms Bonar said she cut down a protected karaka tree because its poisonous berries killed her dog

Oh, the irony.  Whilst assisting in the invasion of the neighbour's private property to save young Titirangi natives weeds, she admits to cutting down native trees.  

 

It wasn't an old tree, it was a young tree, and it had poisonous berries and our dog was poisoned

 

The fruit is widely known as very poisonous to stock and animals, but it killed her sodding mutt is the excuse.  From DOC ...

... the kererū is under threat, so too are our native trees which depend on the kererū as a seed disperser. Fruit is its favourite food, and trees such as the karaka, taraire, tawa, miro and others depend on the kererū to carry their seeds to new areas of forest. The bird's extinction would be a disaster for our forests.

 

Only one problem.  Karaka seed being so big are only spread by one bird, the native kereru or wood pigeon which happens to have dire numbers in the cities.  So by chopping the fruiting karaka tree, she is accelerating the demise of keruru and in turn the neighbour's forest.

 

We're not talking about a 500-year-old kauri. I mean, it's completely different. I actually don't see the connection to what we're dealing with next door.

Bonar said she went through a "considered process" when felling the karaka tree

 

An own goal by the rabid NIMBY.  The hypocrisy is really strong with this one.

Developers stiffed by local NIMBYs

Protest organiser Aprilanne Bonar: 

"This goes part way to achieving the outcome we require"

A local NIMBY of the worst type it would seem.  One who appears to be a director of a local tearooms, a design business and seems to live across the gully from the trees in question.  So close in fact that via Google Maps the given company address of 12 Paturoa Rd almost backs onto 40/42 Paturoa Rd.  Below is a marked up street view screen grab.  As mentioned on WOBH, no wonder she can 'watch' the trees in question.

NIMBYism of the worst kind when your immediate neighbours are willing to go feral green to keep their own backyard bush views.  And really ugly that ignoring the developer's legally consented property rights was fully supported by council, Labour and greenie reps, as well as high ranking government MPs. 

So much for democracy and a sense of community in Titirangi. 

I'd be testing my noisy chainsaw regularly on the roadside in the wee small hours for months to come in Paturoa Rd.  Something to do the next time I'm passing through JafaLand.

Take a close look at best piece of road seal north of Puhoi

For the last 9 months this approx 200m temporary piece of asphalt in the above pic has been the smoothest surface anywhere on SH1 north of about Puhoi.   I know, I've travelled it about 20 times so far in the last year, including when the cyclone went through.  Northlands roads were shocking before the cyclone last winter and remain rooted.

The rest of the roads, particularly north of the Brynderwyns are one continuous road works with no end in sight.   Thousands of small patchworked repairs with resultant  hideous overlaps onto previous failed repairs, loose stone chips everywhere.  Lumps and bumps on grades immediately approaching bridges and culverts remain a specialty of Northland road repair gangs.

Mind you, the SH1 Taupo road crews come a close second.  When you're doing 2000km round trips over a week or so, it is very noticeable where your roading dollar is not being spent on SH1 and SH2.

But well done that farmer who saved the day with his land adjacent to the washout on SH1 above.

And now they're about to rip it up.

Tree owners cave in to eco-terrorists

We have a clear focus on protecting kauri particularly in areas such as the Waitakeres, but in this case a resource consent was lawfully applied for and granted and that decision must stand

Good, some hope but the two-faced mayor continues the pressure so he looks the hero.

last night the council was working with the property owner to consider other options and "another way forward"

Absolutely makes me sick to the core.   The owners then caved in to the eco-terrorist pressures.

Property rights mean nothing in New Zealand when you have feral greenie loons and NIMBYs leering over your fence ever ready to break the laws of the land and the revenue gathering Mr Plod not willing to enforce those laws.

Government pressuring mayor to ignore property rights

I think the number of protesters indicates that there is significant community interest, but ultimately that is a decision for the Council.

Well I encouraged the mayor and said, look, there is significant concern, the Government's spending $25 million on trying to protect kauri trees.

Our preference would be if a way could be found to save this tree, but the regulatory tools rest with the Council.

It was a constructive meeting with the mayor - I expressed to him some of the concerns people have over the loss of this kauri tree. He indicated to me that he wanted to get back to Auckland and look at the options.

They might have to revise their position.

The Government cannot stand the heat in the kitchen.  We know which way Lying len will flop when his tree hugging leftie mates come calling. 

Property rights in New Zealand are about to be confirmed as non-existent, but then most real New Zealanders already knew that.

Terrorists and zealots are amongst us - checking the boxes

Following on from my posts yesterday, the Ferald looks at 'fringe extremists'.  You know, the sort of nutters that typically infest the left.

• those who want to cause harm don't usually give warnings beforehand - No warnings given, treehugger climbed tree in early hours - CHECK
• only radicals were able to justify acts as extreme as adding 1080 to infant milk if the pesticide wasn't pulled from government programmes - Treehugger willing to invade your property till you relent - CHECK
• When people's beliefs get to that point they [have] lost perspective on matters - Is a rabid treehugging feral greenie? - CHECK
• They feel so strongly about it they believe the ends justifies the means - CHECK
• likely to be on the fringe of society and spending a lot of time inside their own head - Loons the lot of them, especially the Waiheke ones - CHECK
• type of person who would go through with it would actually be deranged - You have to be totally deranged to be a greenie - CHECK
• have a radicalised mindset. They can't be convinced otherwise. They're the types who chain themselves to buildings and you have to eventually cut the padlock rather than talk them down - Is there a rabid treehugger in your tree? - CHECK
• do whatever they want, play with your brain and work on fear - CHECK

Checks all the boxes for your run of the mill leftie.  All are fringe extremists.  As for rabid communist greenie treehuggers, well they fit into the zealous terrorist category.

By the way Mr Key, have you fixed that domestic terrorism legislation yet?

Feral greenies bottom line is physical violence

If the tress come down then so should the houses that are built in their place.
Burn the fucking things down, and when they are rebuilt burn em again. 

Nice to know that the neighbours will torch your property if they don't get their way.

Silent T desperately wants to be a treehugger for votes

Former Labour leader David Cunliffe has offered to climb a kauri tree under threat of being felled in Auckland

none of his Labour Party colleagues appeared willing to join him

Effin' unbelievable, you couldn't make this sh*t up.  As if he hasn't learnt from his predecessor's flopping in Parliament with the undersized snapper.

The desperate things lefties will do for votes.

Treehuggers exercised over young Titirangi weeds

Residents upset with plans to axe a 500-year-old kauri in their Auckland neighbourhood have managed to keep the tree-cutters away - for now

About 100 people gathered at Paturoa Rd, in West Auckland's Titirangi, early yesterday to protest the scheduled felling of the centuries-old kauri to make way for two houses that have consent to be built on the site

Property rights mean zip to these ferals.

the climber, activist Michael Tavares, planned to remain there overnight

I'd trespass the lot of them, hosing the tree regularly to ensure the 'comfort' of any tree climbing treehuggers, making sure my property rights were upheld.


Agathis Australis (kauri) grows like a weed in the Waitakeres.  Most of the ranges were totally clear felled and farmland in the 19th century, bar a few acres here and there on the steeper inland parts, so any 'cowdy' tree in the area is not likely to be more than 150 years old.  Especially ones not 75 paces from the Manakau sewer harbour from whence the Waitakere kauris were exported worldwide.

Waitakere Ranges Local Board member Greg Presland, who was pictured with fellow member Saffron Toms and chairwoman Sandra Coney, had posted the Facebook photo

All the usual suspects are there to stir the pot.  Even her indoors from the UN with the crooked teeth makes a FB post, whilst other Lopdell House (the local hangout for arty-farty leftie greenie types dearly paid for by ratepayers) denizens like the prime nimby lawyer from Glen Eden have fronted.  No doubt all the unwashed and unemployed in the area.  All singing the same song about a 500 150 year old weed.

residents and supporters were joined by members from Reweti Marae and mana whenua (guardians of the land)

Guardians of the land?  The resident natives, fresh from Northland mid century, after murdering and eating the few resident locals, flogged their land and trees to the highest colonist bidder.  Don't make me laugh calling themselves guardians!