Didn't take long!

Check out this Facebook group.... oh my heart is bleeding for the far left!

Chavez at it again....

Read this in the mornings football column at Yahoo Sports.

Diego Maradona yesterday took a pledge of allegiance to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, vowing to help the socialist win a referendum on allowing him to run for re-election.

Maradona wore a bright red T-shirt emblazoned with the 'Yes' slogan of Chavez's campaign and raised his left hand as the president held a 'swearing in' ceremony to recruit hundreds of supporters from sports associations.

El Diego can count himself among a select group of Chavez advisors that includes former London Mayor Ken Livingstone.

In an unrelated story, the Venezuelan capital Caracas has been overrun in recent times by drugs and traffic.

Scary and yet hilarious at the same time. Mainly because Red Ken did screw up the transport in London and we don't need to mention Maradona and his "coke" problem!

It seems that Chavez has realised that his domestic support for his push to rule until at least 2021 isn't as popular as he imagined. So he has recruited famous sportsmen to publicise his plight to help continue and "complete" his socialist revolution. Not content to leave in 2013, which would mean 10 years in power, Chavez believes he needs much longer.. and of course like his mentor Fidel Castro, he will want to stay for life by the time 2021 rolls around.

Maradona wore a bright red T-shirt emblazoned with the 'Yes' slogan of Chavez's campaign and raised his left hand as the president held a 'swearing in' ceremony to recruit hundreds of supporters from sports associations.
Chavez closed the rally by hugging Maradona on stage as scores of red balloons were released and fireworks exploded.

Scary.

The irony of New Zealands communists

Maire Leadbeater, sister of Keith Locke, daughter of notorious communists Elsie and Jack Locke is upset (as is her brother) that the Government in the guise of the SIS was spying on her and her family.... let's put it this way, Communist Russia, China, East Germany, Hungary, Czechoslovakia.... how did they keep on eye on their citizens?

Maire dribbles these dreadfully ironic sentances....

"I find that the hardest to accept," Leadbeater said. "That small groups of people gathering together in private homes and offices should have someone planted in the meetings.

"It's pretty shocking really. It's potentially very bad for democracy because it makes people anxious about involving themselves in free discussion of ideas and has a big impact on trust if you have to think to yourself `one of us could be a source'."

Get over it hypocrite. The difference between it happening in NZ and in the communist paradise that you worship is that if you showed dissent you would be shipped off to Siberia or killed. Neighbours spying on neighbours, children informing on their parents.. mass murders and the Gulags.

Makes NZ seem pretty safe doesn't it? Spying on your own people isn't acceptable, but the irony that communist sympathisers are lecturing others about privacy and freedom is just too much.

Perhaps we should have built that Gulag in Stewart Island after all!

Story here.

RIP Poneke/Jordan

Another blog has fallen victim of the intellectual credit crisis, not that I'd consider this blog to be one that many clamoured to read every day. The blog I'm speaking about is Poneke. He has password enabled his blog, meaning that he will lose all his dozens of readers within a couple weeks. Hopefully.

Times are so tough even Jordans blog has felt the tough times and he has made it a group blog. Of course he couldn't go fill it with exciting independent minded contributors... I think that is more of a right wing trait. Instead we have more of Labours dregs pining for Dear Leader and putting forward failed ideas.... hilarious.

I guess that by adding more contributors you will increase your readership :) That is how the Standard did it! :)

Matt Damon

Matt Damon is a dick...

His latest comments, like he can talk, are about his dislike of the James Bond franchise.... something he WISHES his Bourne Identity movies were as good as.

The Bourne Identity actor - who plays CIA agent Jason Bourne in three hit films - said: "He's repulsive. Bond is an imperialist, misogynist, sociopath who goes around bedding women and swilling martinis and killing people.

Didn't stop you acting in three movies that were trying too hard to be bigger and better than Bond. If he thinks his opinions mattered maybe he should go back to being a political mouthpiece....

More hypocrisy from the Standard

It seems that if you are John Key, you're damned if you do and damned if you don't!

The Standard were highly critical of MPs wage increases and it seems that John Key, who actually gets the idea that MPs should not be wealthy through politics, agrees too.

John Key has frozen MPs wages for the time being. Why shouldn't MPs tighten their belts when the rest of the country has to. It's good politics - so good that Obama H Christ did it himself on his first day of power - in between walking on water and solving global warming (another one of the Standards freakish predictions).

But The Standard are not happy about the wage freeze.

Oh no! How dare politicans have to live to the same restraints as every day citizens? I know that The Standard hold politicans like Helen Clark in the same regard as Africans do to food parcels, but to me they are normal people like me and you. Except many of them choose to become politicians to wield power over others and to spend taxes without accountability. We call them Labour MPs.

The Standard need to STFU. We already know what they will write for the next 6 years, in fact I could write it for them and they could go get real jobs.

Playing House in the White House

Read another excellent article about the Bush daughters (Jenna and Barbara) writing an open letter to Obamas two young daughters about life in the White House.

What made it even better was this parting message.

...it isn't always easy being a member of the club you are about to join. Our dad, like yours, is a man of great integrity and love; a man who always put us first. We still see him now as we did when we were seven: as our loving daddy. Our Dad, who read to us nightly, taught us how to score tedious baseball games. He is our father, not the sketch in a paper or part of a skit on TV. Many people will think they know him, but they have no idea how he felt the day you were born, the pride he felt on your first day of school, or how much you both love being his daughters. So here is our most important piece of advice: remember who your dad really is.

A well written piece by the proud daughters of a President who with his wife, did a great job installing good values into their children. Well worth a read!

Read it here.

You got to feel sorry for the lad....

Jordan Carter is a desperate man. After getting slammed in the elections where he stood in a seat where he hardly ever visited (to help Judith lose her seat). He has decided the best way to jusitfty his politics is by riding on the coat tails of Obama.

He believes that the NZ Labour Party in all their magnificence are the true brothers/sisters to the Democrat Party and if Obama could have voted, he is a shoo in as a true red Labour voter.

The same Labour Party who banned smacking, tried to wreck election laws and used the US to attack National. The same Labour Party who has a extreme dislike of the US and their foreign policy. Yeah Jordan - well done. Expect a phone call from the White House any moment...

I guess losing elections and being cast aside by your own party really does affect people pretty badly. Although I won't be taking up a collection for him just yet!

HA HA HA HA

Four reasons why The Standard should have packed up and became stand up comedians a long long time ago... and this time, surprise surprise - it was about our new messiah and king of kings... Obama. Apparently he will stop the seas from rising!

Read their 4 reasons here... hold back from commenting as these guys like to be fed.

Easy money from the TAB

I know bugger all about boxing, but in my opinion if Tua is the favourite at the TAB to beat Cameron then I suggest you put the house on Cameron to win. Tua is washed up, a has been. A small fish in a giant pond, world famous in New Zealand – who choked when facing proper opposition. The guy has been out of the ring for too long and should have been taken out the back and shot ages ago.

The TAB reckon that because Tua was hand-fed “ better” opposition over his career, that he is the favourite to win this encounter, against a ring ready fitter Cameron.

As mentioned before, I know nothing about boxing – but this match reeks of “final payday” rather than NZ’s match of the century. Story here.

Thoughts?

The legacy of President Bush

With all the lunatics braying about the end of Bush, very few of them paid any attention to the enormous efforts Bush led to fight the AIDS virus.

President Bush's President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR sent 15 billion dollars to the African continent to fight the AIDS virus hard and to prevent the virus from spreading. It has left him many admirers in the continent, and in such places like South Africa - which received more money in 2008 than they did uner 8 years of Clinton, PEPFAR has done an awful amount of good.

Bush was right to not put this money into the UN pot. Even idiots like Geldof and Bono saw that this fund was doing excellent work. Once again people who saw the good work led by the President were able to open their minds and see through all the nonsense made up about him.

Here is an excellent article about the legacy Bush has left behind in Africa, his initiative to help fight the AIDS virus, the largest international health initiative in history for a single disease. Remember that as you fawn over a new president who's single biggest achievement to date is to be elected as President... that's it. You have every right to expecta lot from Obama - he has huge shoes to fill.

Disappointing

I got home from woek today and despite everything I read in the papers, saw on TV and the emails.... the guy DIDN'T walk on water. All the water in my house is not Chardonnay either.

I feel let down.

Mr T needs money

I can't go a week without seeing Mr T on TV. Maybe that has to do with my awful taste in TV shows... but I reckon it's more likely because the man needs money... badly. I found this excellent infomercial with him in it... it's cringeworthy for the entire presentation!

Shortland Street WHAT?

This girl is a hottie - why on earth she thinks Shortland Street is a high point in her career? What are you putting in your water New Zealand??

As soon as she is based in the States she will disappear along with the mentions of Shortland Street on her CV :)

Sickening

Arrgh, every time I turn on the TV..some TV channel has a long winded and overly emotional advertisement for "full coverage" of the upcoming inauguration of President Obama. Images of Mandela (commie), JFK and other darlings of the left are flashed across the screen...with a serious voice over speaking of the immense priviledge and honour the world has ever seen, to be witness to this event.

Get out the sickbags the gushing over this will not let up for some time.

The hilarity that Obama has hired much of the Clinton administration to run the show is brilliant. I knew that the Dems were still wanting to hark back to their glory days and it looks like Obama has been captured by this feeling from his party to deliver this to them. Obviously Obama will be a two term President, I don't believe his honeymoon will end until mid next year. Of course you will have his die hard supporters out there who will believe he will never do wrong... but thankfully the US has democraticallu placed term limits!

The word "change" has been dirtied forever, no politician will be able to use it after Obamas abuse of it. It fooled most of the people esily enough, but how strictly will these people scrutinise Obamas administration? Will these people be as quick to start asking the hard questions as those who said on Day One of the Bush administration that he was a bad president? Or is it that the left are immune to this?

For now I will be switching channels.....

Update - oh dear, they have the celebrity Obama music showcase on TV as well. Fawning Hollywood finally get themselves a man they can talk about in the same breath as Mandela, Ali and er, Christ himself...

Something for the weekend....

When I first saw this I laughed so much I cried... :)



click for larger image

Small Minded Kiwis

How sad, Don Brash gets shouted down by a few stupid and ignorant people because he had the guts to nominate Sir Roger Douglas as our greatest living New Zealander.

I had a read through the comments made and was shocked at how stupid some of the people are. I understand people have the right to their own opinion, but some of the comments were mad. No wonder people voted 9 years of Labour!

Some people even said that Helen should be nominated!

I posted a comment which I am sure will go down well. :) Why would Kiwis treat somebody who is internationally well regarded as badly as they do in his own backyard?

Story here.

BACK in London

Well... I made it made it back to the UK in one piece. It only took me 29 hours this time as we didn't stay too long in Shanghai. I am presently sitting in my office watching the grey foggy cloud from my window and people walking past tightly bundled up in thick coats and feeling quite smug with my brown all over tan, especially as I come to work in a white T shirt!

A month away is long, especially when I only just started a new job - but I enjoyed all of the trip to NZ, especially all the fun I had meeting new people and hitting the piss with old/new friends in Dunedin, Nelson and Wellington...often not getting home until the sun was coming up. Coming back hasn't been too bad though, especially as I quite enjoy living in London despite the shitty weather and I know the wife was missing a decent shopping mission. I like being close to Europe and I have a full calendar of events to keep me busy until March anyway, so I won't have much time to get too teary eyed that I won't be back for about 2 or 3 years.

New Zealand has changed a bit since I left in 2003. Prices have shot up which I noticed right away. Loads more people are wearing NZ themed t shirts as well, which is what I was more used to for ex-pats living outside NZ. I remembered how terribly incestuous Wellington is and how far away Dunedin is. Auckland has never been a place I would like to settle but I do like their beaches - having seen more than few during my trip up there including an epic 4 hour swimming session at Piha on the day I flew out. :) I have pretty much counted out everywhere else apart from Wellington if I was to come hoem to settle, I know a lot of people who have made the choice to live there... almost too many people! I think for now I am going to stick to my original decision and set up a financial and family base in the Czech Republic and in a few years review my decision and the right economic/political climate exists in NZ.

Thanks to everybody for catching up and I wish I was able to see everybody that I missed. Well done to those who stuck through on the late nights as well, I heard that 2 bar staff were repremanded for making us snakebites in Wellington! Nice one.

Now I am back the blog will be ticking over a bit more and we'll have a few new features to add over the weeks to come. Thanks to my co-bloggers for holding the fort in my absence!

Stupid Stupid Stupid

I know that it isn't PC but this is just really dumb and blurs the line between fantasy and real life. This time it is bordering on stupidity.

Kate Winslet is an actress who protrayed a charactor who critics say made her look too sympathetic - as her role was a Nazi prison guard. Put it this way, she read the lines from a script and followed the directors instructions, and Jewish critics are now saying she will not get an Oscar because of it.

I wonder if we will live in a age when the milking of world war 2 atrocities will end. Yes we all know it was terrible, as were the killings of any race during the war - perhaps the people who spend their lives trying to maximise sympathy and stir should use their considerable influence to educate people on the horrors of war for everybody included?

Story here.

Wellington Drinks

I am flying my lazy ass to Wellington this afternoon for a brief 2 day visit to catch up with mates and no doubt bump into a few adversaries.

Will be having drinks at the Backbencher (as it is right up from where I am crashing) on Friday night from 6:30pm. If anybody is around and wants to say hi then feel free. My Facebook invite for this event already has a who's who of bloggers and other interesting people attending so should be a good night!

Don't be shy either if you do decide to show up!

More books that will never be written

Steve Maharey is working on a book....

..but don't expect a tell-all of the Clark years: "I think that's despicable. It's a privilege to be in the room with Helen Clark during a difficult moment and I have no intention of going to tell people how things work."

Rather, it will focus on how the ideas behind policy has changed, from Rogernomics to the Third Way.

And this guy was trusted with a budget of $32 billion and he can't see the commonsense in a book that will make his legacy compared to a book that his students will also find incredibly dull?

Good grief. If I read more fluff pieces from ex Labour MPs about how much of a privilege it was to work for Clark I will be ill.

Bloody Russians!

I was only just saying the other day when asked what would stop me from moving to Europe when my UK life is over and Russia was pretty much top of my list. I have been sitting back with my folks in Sunny Nelson discussing pros and cons about coming home to live or following the wife to her country and this question popped up.

Russia is a bully and a bully with the power to cut most of Europe off from natural gas supplies. They have major problems with the Ukraine - surprisingly coinciding with their anger at them wanting to join NATO instead of aligning with Russia. There are other problems too - and raising the price of natural gas can usually help make things difficult for the Ukrainians too, to a point that much of Europe is in a little bit of trouble with their natural gas supplies - and no there is no viable alternative.

Russia also has beef with Poland and the Czech Republic - as they too want to get involved in non Russian military operations. Russia has not endeared themselves to their neighbours for many reasons, I suspect the occupation of their nations in the past enslaving tens of millions in a corrupt and oppressive ideology may have little to do with it! However I do not see why the Russians are choosing to play the bully in all this, you don't see the Americans threatening South America for Russias latest attempt to create a sphere of influence over there. Sure the Americans were worried about Cuba, but now are comfortable about the budding romance between Moscow and Caracas.

The Cold War is over and Eastern and Central Europe should have nothing to fear from Russia but they do - and with Russia wanting to reclaim parts of its old land and influence in the region we do have much to fear from them.

Latest article here - Natural Gas shortage hits Europe.

Just say yes!

India want to play another Test.

Ummm why the wait?

FFS say YES!

5 days of Dravid, Tendulakar,Dhoni and that 4 year bowler with long hair who looks like a horse!!!! Hell yeah.

Is Justin Vaughan going to condemn NZ to less than mediocrity by not organising this asap, or is he adding to his scrap book of fuck ups (Bond......Shane Bond) by letting it pass ?

Just When You thought it was safe!

Dear me,

It didn't take long for the big government "do as your told" streak to come out from the Nats.

Looks like they are going to stop the development of profitable small businesses on the basis of misdirected moral fear and panic. I am referring to the small liqour outlets who Labour were legislating out of existence because they some how magically kill innocent people.

Well the Nats are going to continue this.

Article here


"Justice Minister Simon Power said the National-led Government would go ahead with legislation tabled by the outgoing Labour Government in August to ban alcohol sales in shops of less than 150sq m and give councils the power to draw up local alcohol plans controlling hours, location and density of liquor outlets."

Ah yes.........more power to councils, that well recognised method of violent crime reduction!

It's not liqour or shops or small businesses that murder. It's criminals. Less knee jerk ineffective populism and more addressing the core issue please.

This will piss off the teaching unions!

Decided to read the wretched Sunday Star Times after promising I'd ignore the Sunday papers when I got here and saw the lovely article stating that in fact we SHOULD be paying good teachers more than bad teachers!

I have been saying this, as well as many others, for about a decade. It's a bloody great idea and because of this - the teachers unions are against it.

The silly bitch, Kate Gainsford, head of the secondary teachers' union says it is "extraordinarily problematic ... on so many fronts" to work out an excellence-based pay formula.". Of course the unions have always been against this sort of reward for their best performers. I would even hazard a guess and state that the better teachers are coincidentally the ones who are too clever to join these unions or if they did they didn't get involved in the stupidity that the unions like to spread. I could always tell who my unionist teachers were at school, they were wet, wishy washy and never encouraged us to be better than others. Many were preoccupied into turning us into Labour voters (a couple of them brainwashed my wee sister into a Labour robot!) and not preparing us for the big wide world.

Lets pay our teachers what they are worth - and that means give our best teachers the reward that they work hard for. Will National stand up and do this for our children? Or will ACT have to do all the hard work/talking again? At least ACT have also been saying this for as long as they have been in politics - and now that ACT are helping National this time around we have no exuse but to steamroll this ahead!

Link - NZ study challenges world on teaching

Good article

I wil remain one of the few people I know that will look positively and more objectively on the presidency of President George W Bush and I am damn proud of that. Mainly because so many people thought they were qualified to discuss his mentality and intelligence or his apparent lack of, without having anything logical to base it on. Too many people sent around those stupid "chimp-Bush" emails and commented that he is stupid, an idiot or worse - and yet I can't recall any of these people ever having even a tenth of the qualifications or experience than W had.

When I asked anybody why they would say such generalised stuff - usually the domain of the vicious far left - they would say that Bush was given his education because he was rich and had a powerfual father and that he was undeserving of his achievements. Often people would be proud to state without any evidence that he was simply an idiot who didn't care about the people and only cared about the oil - and helped rig his election as well.

Even close friends of mine who I thought knew better would categorically state that Bush was the worse President ever, that Iraq was only about oil and that everythign wrong with the world can be traced back to a "corrupt" and inept President.

Since when did we ever expect perfection from any political figure? Why all this upon one person? What is it really saying about people these days when they all blindly accept something without reading a little behind the scenes or pick up a book?

I read today a great analysis on President Bush. It's a well thought out piece and delivers some insight into the guy who did care about his country, the people and getting the best for the people. I recommend you read it here.

I also recommend you watch this You Tube clip that I posted months ago as well as a great article that rebukes that Bush was the most unpopular President and will leave a lasting legacy for decades to come.

As we get closer to the beginning of Obamas time in the White House, it will be interesting to see how the media and others behave and comment on about Bush. No doubt lefties will be cheering ignorantly their "Bush bad - Obama good" stupidity and others will be ignoring the achievements of the past few years and concentrating themselves on the smoke and mirrors that have been symbolic of the Obama show. Little research or investigation has been put to the Obama camp and anybody can see that compared to Bush and Palin, the others have been given an easy run by the media.

I believe that because of the hysteria surrounding Obama, most people will ignore his negatives and give him a far fairer go than Bush. I remember watching people back when Bush won his first election - they were already planning on giving him the roughest ride in town - and he hadn't even started his presidency. This time it's the opposite and the hypocrisy is stinking the entire world up.

I will give Obama a fair run - I am extremely critical of how little coverage of his past has been provided by the media and I do not believe any politician should be treated like he has. He isn't the second coming and he has a lot to live up to.

Anybody who has sent idiot emails about Bush will stop sending them and I bet they will never sent anti Obama emails. I got sent some inspirational email about Obama which quoted bible verses and talked about the world hand in hand..... I believe everybody has been duped by an excellent campaign and we will find out soon.

I hope everybody is ready!