Indeed!

That's what they are saying now...



The swine flu, origin Mexico is scaring a few people, including WHO. They have put this on a level just one below pandemic. I guess, just like bird flu, flights to the affected area will be cheap as will hotels! I travelled through Asia during SARS and went back when bird flu hit town. It doesn't worry me - this will blow over and people will look foolish!

No surprises then!

For IV2 and BB

Seeing as Barnsley Bill can't see the funny side of the Smiths and Inventory doesn't know how to work You Tube..........I give you...

Sorry Stephen

Stephen Franks has penned an opinion piece which for once I don't agree with.

He argues the Bain Trial should be called off as it is a bit pricy!

Admittedly he does make some other points with respect to the setting of unfortunate precedents for police or investigative practice, but I think these pale into insignificance compared to what is fundamentally at stake.

5 innocent people were brutally murdered.

The Crown clearly think it is obvious that David Bain is the offender (I thoroughly agree).

The Privy Council recommended a retrial.

To walk away now would condemn a long dead innocent man to a vile and murderous reputation he does not deserve, and establish a laissez faire precedent to the rigorous prosecution for murder.


Sorry Stephen, I am happy for my tax dollars to go to this prosecution rather than the purported $15 million plus for the Karam and Bain show, should a rouge verdict be returned.

Easy National!

It has been wonderful to see Whale Oil and David Farrar singlehandedly smashing up the Labour Party over their potential candidate for Mount Albert, David Shearer who sounds remarkably like an ACT candidate - or at least he is a fish out of water when it comes to much of the current Labour Party.

However this guy looks like he could be a great candidate - possibly the first of hopefully many 1980's style Labour MPs. Imagine a Labour Party with MPs that did good things like Prebble, Douglas, de Cleene, Bassett than the benchwarmers we have now?

I think it is time to let the Labour Party make the best choice and get Shearer the nomination. If Goff loses this nomination he may as well give up the leadership as this is a battle between him and the Clark faction. Meg Bates is Helens mini-me and the other candidates are hilariously out of their depth.

Now I know the Nats keep on calling Shearer more ACT than Labour, but surely they have to get real about this. Why do Nats want to try and claim ACT as their ally when they have been pretty bitchy about ACT for a great many years? (Farrar and Whale excluded) I remember when ACT first entered Parliament and we then too had some great MPs battling for the right and gaining a larger portion per MP of media coverage than any other party. Why don't the Nats themselves get a little backbone and nail their colours firmly to the mast of a freemarket centre right agenda. This means economic and social freedoms for all NZers, even the Labour supporters who personally HATE the idea that we should keep what we earn each week.

Note to National, you'll NEVER get good right wing candidates if you cannot even decide to do simple things like getting rid of the high tax rates and compulsory student union membership. Being right wing means you should be leading the way and not riding on ACTs coat-tails :)

Come on Barcelona... (match preview)

Tonight Barcelona with all their class and talent take on Chelski in the semi finals of the Champions League. I feel sorry for the Nou Camp having to put up with having to play host to Chelskis fans, all of whom are delusional for thinking that money can buy class.

Barcelonas stars should see them off by at least 2 goals setting up an away leg that will yield them another goal sending them to the finals in Rome. I hope Henry smashes a few past Petr Cech who has not had a great time in goal lately.

Of course tomorrows the big game when the almighty Gunners head up north to Old Trafford to take on the Scum. I will put my hand on my heart and say that Arsenal should come away with at worst a draw from that trip meaning the second leg at home will bring us to the final against Barcelona, a grudge match of epic proportions!

Live gamecast here.


**UPDATE**

Curses. Damn, looks like CSKA Chelski were lucky. Thankfully the home leg at the Bridge won't be that bad for Barca. Liverpool scored a tonne of goals there in the quarter finals!

Tonight the Scum will have their own problems... come on you Gooners!!!

Heather and VSM

Heather Roy has been very busy during this new Government term but she still has time to contribute to her regular column, Royters on her website.

Her latest piece is on VSM, a very popular subject with this blog. Here is a snippet in regards to VUWSA (Victoria Student union) and their absolutely stupid nonsense regarding ANZAC Day. Not forgetting that VUWSA is also a base for the Workers Party.

There's a simple solution to this problem—make student association membership voluntary. People can then choose which group they want to speak on their behalf. This works in the rest of the country and there's no reason it can't work at tertiary institutions. Misrepresentations caused by incidents like this — and dozens of others around the country and over the years — confirm that voluntary membership is long overdue. I'm determined to see a change in the law.

Get get 'em Heather. I am all for a removal of the laws forcing students to join student associations. National have got to pull their fucking fingers out of their asses and get this sorted. We don't have the ability to give students freedom of association now - unlike what Nationals tertiary minister Anne Tolley says - and the only way to fix the law is to amend it - and save students the horrors of having been forced to join a student union, and in essence a far left VUWSA in order to get a degree.

See Heathers column here, and get involved with the comments.


**UPDATE**

Good to see SIT (Southern Institute of Technology) students have been spared the stupidity of Compulsory membership after less than a dozen students attempted a referendum to bring it back to compulsory. Only 447 students out of 11,201 signed the referendum and therefore they failed in even getting the required 1120 signatures!

How crazy for SIT to have compulsion when their campus is based from Invercargill, Gore, Queenstown, and Christchurch - which on all reckonings is a massive area to try and run as a stand alone union for students.

It is great to see that the referendum option is for once screwing up the lefties as well. Put it this way, when the Nats had a chance to fix VSM in the 90's they failed as New Zealand First watered it down. We have a chance with ACT to properly put it into place and I fear that the pissing about from National is going to ruin it again for us.

At least in this case, the SIT students failed, and didn't even get half of the required signatures. If it was VUWSA they would have run this like an election in Zimbabwe! They would have lied about the signatures and then forced compulsion onto all students, attacking anybody who disagreed with their Workers Party paradise in Salient. The SIT folk must have been too honest!

Story here

Exploitative? Hell yes.

Probably one of my favourite music videos... I like the tune but the video is on another level!

Pakistan - the next to fall?

Who else is worried by this situation?

The Swat Valley in Pakistan has been taken over by the Taliban and they have been pushing their power to about 100km from Islamabad. These guys mean business, banning women from going to school, beheading people and stringing them up in the middle of town and other laws designed to implement Sharia law which was supposed to quell Taliban tensions in the area.

The experiement has failed... and I believe this is going to topple the country which is already in danger of collapsing. Militants who had promised the Govt to lay down their arms, in return for Sharia law have picked them up again and are heading to taking over the entire state, town by town - using fear and violence.

More information - Parties discuss Swat Valley agreement

SWAT - Pakistans lost paradise

Taliban pull out - for now.

Oh Darling, what a BLACK budget you have!

David Cameron is currently giving the Labour Govt a deserved thorough thrashing after todays budget has been announced. It'sa shocker - but I'm sure it will make NZ Labour supporters knickers all wet. Lowlights include:

* Income tax for those earning more than £150,000 to rise to 50%
* Alcohol and cigarettes taxes to go up 2% from midnight - one estimate is that it would put 5p on the average pint of beer
* Fuel duty to rise by 2p per litre from September
* Economy forecast to shrink 3.5% in 2009
* Borrowing levels to rise by £173bn, £140bn, £118bn and £97bn in years after
* £525m for offshore wind projects

It is going to be the budget that will KILL Labour. 50% income tax is fucking madness!

Stories here:

- 50% income tax announced.
- Budget at a glance

EPMU or Labour... It's confusing!

I read this story over and over again… and I don’t read it as EPMU President Andrew Little, I read it is Labour Party President Andrew Little.

So we have the President of our main opposition party advocating strikes, direct action and disruption to our national airline.

And people wonder why Labour is so far removed from reality. Is this the model that Andrew Little is basing his presidency on? Will Labour be advocating more militant union approaches and how will his presidency give any hope to business owners if Labour wins again in a few years?

Story here

Eskimo lollys offend Canadians....oh boy!

I have long believed that Canadians are even more limp wristed and PC than Kiwis. Not only do they put North America to shame for their heavy dependence on the state unlike their individualist American cousins, they have a HUGE chip on their shoulders about NOT being mistaken for being Americans, always spotted around the world with big Maple Leaf stickers on their backpacks. It's an invitation to ask what part of America they are from.. the response is always a laugh to watch in person.

Little wonder why Canada is not really that famous for anything considerable despite its size.

So what is my point? Well it seems Canadian tourist Seeka Lee Veevee Parsons (the type of name usually reserved for womynist Victoria University student politicians) has been dreadfully offended by the ICONIC Kiwi sweet - the Eskimo. Read on....

The word Eskimo is unacceptable in her country and carries with it negative racial connotations, she said.

She intends sending packets of the iconic confectionary to the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and her grandfather, a Inuit tribal elder in the Nunavut Territory.

When she found the lollies for sale in Timaru three weeks ago she was surprised a company would be able to use the word for a product.

"I was taken aback. When I was a little girl white kids in the community used to tease me about it in a bad way. It's just not the correct term."

The young woman wondered how New Zealanders visiting Canada would appreciate finding confectionary shaped like Maori warriors and hoped the manufacturers would consider changing the name and shape of the lolly. If anything, she said, it should be shaped like a seal, the Inuits' main source of food.


She wants them banned.... no surprise there. I bet she also votes Green. I reckon she should STFU. I bet she'd have kittens if she had seen the Eskimo Pie ice-cream, another iconic NZ sweet.Story here.

You can buy Eskimo lollies here.


Don't forget Canada is the birthplace of Jordan Carter... I rest my case. :)

I would

The famous saying that when Kiwis leave to go to Aussie it raises the IQ in both countries.... I wonder that if we send our most filthy feminazis to the United States if they have enough beautiful women to balance this out?

Yep they do,



I'm so sorry America!!!

Well done Everton

Now do all you can to smash Chelski in the final.

At least I'm 50/50 in my weekend predictions, pity it wasn't the other way round!

FA COFF - FA CUP!

Good god. How thoroughly disappointing. I wish we had some of our more seasoned back. Not having Rosicky, Gallas, Almunia, Clichy, Sagna and Djourou available sure made a difference on the day. But no excuses - we lost the game against Chelski and what we can only hope is that they don't win the FA Cup.

Tomorrow Everton is all pumped up to take on The Scum, again at Wembley. It looks like a United, Chelski final - and if that is the case I hope they kill each other.

So, what were you doing this weekend Mr Obama?

First you get all friendly with a guy who has said:

1) "I have said it already, I am convinced that the way to build a new and better world is not capitalism. Capitalism leads us straight to hell.”

2) I hereby accuse the North American empire of being the biggest menace to our planet.”

3) (to president Bush - via tv) "You are a coward, a killer, a [perpetrator of] genocide, an alcoholic, a drunk, a liar, an immoral person, Mr Danger. You are the worst, Mr Danger. The worst of this planet"

4) (to Tony Blair) "You are an imperialist pawn who attempts to curry favour with Danger Bush-Hitler, the number one mass murderer and assassin there is on the planet"

5) In 2004, he praised Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe as a "freedom fighter".
"I give you a replica of liberator Simon Bolivar's sword. For you who, like Bolivar, took up arms to liberate your people"




And then you get the Unelected President of Cuba all excited:

Speaking at the summit, Mr Obama said he wanted to establish "a new beginning" with Cuba.

Cuban president Raul Castro said Cuba was "ready when they [the US] want to discuss everything. Human rights, freedom of the press, political prisoners".

What does that exactly mean? That the US is willing to compromise their belief in Human Rights, Freedom of the Press and political prisoners? What will Obama do to make the Cubans more comfortable - does that mean the US will ignore the injustices in Cuban society? Does it mean that they will turn a blind eye to the lack of freedoms that end up putting Cubans on death defying boat trips to the US?

Whatever he does is spitting in the face of every single President who has fought against the Cuban regime to make the point that Communism does not work. Is this the change that he promised? No wonder why he isn't setting the US alight...

Story here

The OECD get it right!

Finally some commonsense....

In its 2009 report on New Zealand the 30-member Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development paints a fairly downbeat picture of this country's immediate future.

About a third of the report is devoted to healthcare.

"With the risk of a baseline level of debt much higher than expected before the [global economic] crisis, controlling future health (and pension) costs is even more important," the OECD report says.

As in even before the crisis Labour was fucking it up for us. Sir Roger was right that we should stop spending our way out of this recession as well...

The report talks a lot about imbalances within the New Zealand economy and says the country needs to close the "substantial" income gap with other OECD nations.

It makes a number of suggestions on structural policies. These include lower taxes, the Government selling off "non-core" assets, user-pays road charges, improved incentives for private investment in electricity generation and transmission, and reduction in local government ownership of port assets to bring more "market discipline" to the sector and raise the return on assets.

Alarm bells must be going off in Parliament! Did Rodney and Roger get early morning phonecalls from the PM to ask them what to do next? Did the OECD read ACTs pledgecard and sign it off only for National to ignore it to get into bed with 3/4 of parliament?

Lets look at it this way:

1) Lower Taxes - It goes without saying!
2) Selling non core assets - NZ Post, Railways, Ports, Airlines, ACC and the BANK!
3) Incentives for Private investment - YES PLEASE!!

All good core arguements not worth ignoring. Labour ignored commonsense for 9 years, National have inherited an economy that was stuffed by Labour and then hit by recession. It is not the time to ignore advice from the OECD, in fact much of the National Party SHOULD agree with these proposals or they belong in Labour.

So what now John? Get on the phone and call ACT!

Story here.

The Green Nazi report sheet

Commandant Kedgley has released the findings of their jährliche Schulenahrungsmittelübersicht (annual school food survey) and it makes for reading that deeply upsets the Green Party.

Parteisprecher Kedgley announced that a 14 per cent rise in pie, hot dog, sausage roll and hot-bite sales compared with the year before. This means that the NZ Govt MUST reinstate the School Food Guidelines ditched by Education Minister Anne Tolley this year. The disestablished guidelines provided minimum standards for food served in tuckshops... or anything that fell into line with the meddling Greens views on what our children have the freedom to eat.

First the Greens want to dictate what our kids eat and drink at school.... next they will decide what they wear and what they will learn. They already wish to re-educate us on "environmentalism" and global warming and may want to go further pushing their anti capitalist views to everybody.

The last thing we need are our schools being dictated to by uppity Greenies who want to control our lives. We send our kids to schools and we do the parenting - not teachers or politicians. The Green Party can go fuck off and let our kids eat sandwiches and drink coke. Just as we are allowed to punish our own kids if they deserve it! Story here.

Veitch gets justice - This will upset the feminists

Susan Wood, Susan Devoy, Bernadine Oliver-Kirby, Jim Hickey, Graham Henry, Hamish Carter.... all visionary New Zealanders - men AND women - who gave character statements for Tony Veitch at his sentancing... so what will our feminists have to say about the women on this list?

Womens Refuge decided to attack the males on the list, suggesting Graham Henry should get councilling..... which shows more about their cowardice rather than attack the more popular women who went in to bat for Tony.

Let this go to rest, he has shown remorse and has been hauled over the coals for his stupid deed that injured his ex partner. The ex partner who was trespassing on his property - the one who would not leave his house. Yes I think the injuries she recieved were way over the top in accordance to her crime, but the evidence shows that Tony was sorry and has admitted his mistake and been up front ever since.

The angry people, i the same moustached feminists still beating on the anti Paul Henry drum - will never rest or be satisfied despite his devastated state of mind. They want him out of NZ, maybe dead? Tony will just have to face up to his mistakes and move on. He has an excellent support group behind him to help him face his problems and to learn from his mistakes.

After all - we all make mistakes - it would be callous to never forgive him.

Story here

Why don't we see this in NZ?

Another reason to love America is their inherant distrust of politicians and their willingness to protest against Tax increases.

Unlike Kiwis, who constantly reply to Labour pollers that they would like more of their money going into the black hole of Government - Americans have a healthy attitude that they are the ones who should be able to look after themselves in their communities better.

How can we trust our politicans to deliver a health or education system that will succeed for every family? Simple - we can't. So we should be able to spend our wages on a system that does.

I have read on a couple NZ blogs, ya know, the ones that sneer at the idea that individuals should have free choices, the ones who believe that high taxes and maximum Govt interference will bring us success... they are saying that the protests around America are all backed by evil big business and interest groups...

The photos tell another story.

So does the story.

GET IN YOU GOONERS!

I didn't forget! I was just very happy to see the 3-0 thrashing of Villarreal last night.


Now we get to play the SCUM in the semis in a couple weeks.... onwards and upwards!

Are you offended?

Sigh, it seems a few "people" were worried about this ad. Put it this way, the deliberate use of the word "people" in the news story makes me believe the 3 complainants were women...



Three people complained to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) that the advert implied that the beer would give the man confidence to make negative comments about the woman or to take advantage of her.

Take advantage???

What kind of twisted world we live in when we aren't even allowed to make jokes about the time honoured question posed to us by our girlfriends and wives? Is this the big pressing issue facing feminists today?

The sad thing is that the brewing company had to try extra hard to make sure this simple advery would not offend..

The Wells & Youngs Brewing Company said it had taken care to ensure there was no reference to bravery in the advert and that consumer research had found no suggestion that the beer would give the man confidence

And yet despite the fact that the consumers said it was ok, it only took three fucking idiots to spoil it - chalk up another loss of liberty to feminism.

Story here.

Who will get the Labour Party nod?

I was sent a bit of information that led me to a webpage for Meg Bates, Labour Party hopeful for the Mt Albert seat, vacated (thankfully) by Ms Clark.

Argh. Do we really need somebody who helped push the nasty attacks on Don Brash in our parliament? I don't think so.

Typical resume for such a character too:

o President of Young Labour New Zealand
o Electorate Secretary (part-time), Rt Hon Helen Clark, MP for Mt Albert
o Young Labour Women’s Representative, New Zealand Women’s Council
o Sandringham Branch Chair, Mt Albert Electorate
o Co-coordinator Labour 90th Anniversary Oral History Project
o Helen Clark nominee at the inaugural Aspiring Leaders Forum

So a lifetime of suckling close to the teat of Auntie Helen (sorry for that image). It also shows that Megs going for her Masters in Politics and her current job is head tutor for the Politics department at Auckland University. How does this qualify her as a candidate that knows a world outside the pearly gates of the University and Helengrad? How would she be able to communicate with a public that is overwhelmingly happy to see the back of her mentor?

Good god. Is there anybody in Labour who doesn't have embossed photos of Helen on their walls and has their own mind? If I was a Labour voter in Mt Albert I would be looking seriously at the alternatives!

Kiwiblog also has a post on her.

Tragic Irony

The case recently in Australia of the tragic death of a baby after a prolonged "homebirth" becomes even more tragic when you find out that the mother was a leading advocate for home birth.

Article here

This so called feminist believed that medical intervention in child birth was "birth rape"................says it all really.

I don't care when stupid ideologies hurt the nutcase purporting them e.g vegans. But in this case the women is peddling misinformation to vulnerable women who find appeal in the "hug a polar bear" mentality.

As the linked article says, child birth is dangerous. 100 years ago maternal and neonatal mortality were several fold higher than today. We have modern medicine to thank for that.

Today babies are bigger due to improved (or increased) nutrition, but the pelvic outlet has not increased in proportion. The failure for a labour to progress is very common because of this and if appropriate intervention does not occur then tragedies like this would occur daily.

The advocates for homebirth quote dodgy science that quotes similar outcomes for low risk pregnancies. The problem here is that a you never know if yours truly is low risk and your status can become high risk very quickly. These many cases disappear from the data.

I said so called feminist as I whole heartedly agree with the last sentence in the linked article.

"But reacting to the problem of too much intervention with no medical assistance at all is absurd. Fraser's "free birth" argument, which on the surface appears feminist, is actually the opposite. It doesn't empower women to take control of their own bodies. It sends them and their babies into the dark ages of medical care - where women give birth with no medical care at all and face the very real possibility of death as a consequence."

Tragic

Something to get in behind....

MikeE and others are helping the organisers for a gig up in Auckland in May to raise funds for Oxfam.
Here are the details:

On Friday the 8th of May 2009, Auckland’s drum and bass community is coming together to raise funds for Team Vagabond in the Oxfam Trailwalker, a team which is committed to walking 100km in less than 36 hours down by Lake Taupo.

Everyone involved in the night from the DJ’s to the flyer designer, MC’s to the doorgirl are all donating their time and effort into supporting this cause and all proceeds made from the night go directly to support Oxfam New Zealand, whose humanitarian; development and advocacy work lift some of the world's poorest people out of poverty.

For more information please visit www.oxfam.org.nz

Venue: Zen - 17 Albert Street
Date: Friday 8 May 2009
Time: 10.00pm – 6.00am
Ticket Price: $10

The Lineup:

* drumandbass.co.nz - Nato + Catalyst
* Subtronix - Riddle
* Kinetic - Orawan + Dusty Groove + King Kapisi
* Your Sound - Phantom + Luca
* Liquid Recreation - Lobo + Flirt with Dirt
* Mashup Mafia - Aphid, Static + Popcod
* Tech Support - Bugsy + Merge
* Lead the Way - Grind + Rhyas
* Soul Science - Control + Romantech

Sounds like a good event, get in behind for this good cause.

All details here.

**Update** I think I have corrected the above, Mike is not organising it but helping out the organisers :)

Let the Easter traditons begin!

Ahh yes, soon I will be resident in the Czech Republic and as I mention here every year, they indulge in the best Easter tradition ever.

Pomlázka

Young, live pussywillow twigs are thought to bring health and youth to anyone who is whipped with them. An Easter pomlázka (from pomladit or "make younger") is a braided whip made from pussywillow twigs. It has been used for centuries by boys who go caroling on Easter Monday and symbolically whip girls on the legs.

Dousing a girl with water has a similar symbolic meaning as the pomlázka.

An Easter carol, usually asking for an egg or two, would be recited by the boy while whipping. The girl would then reward the boy with a painted egg or candy and tie a ribbon around his pomlázka. As the boys progressed through the village, their bags filled up with eggs and their pomlázkas were adorned with more and more colorful ribbons.

This tradition is still largely upheld, especially in villages and small towns, although it may have lost its symbolism and romance and is now performed mainly for fun. Some boys and men seem to have forgotten that the whipping is supposed to be only symbolic and girls don't always like that. The reward has also changed - money and shots of plum brandy (slivovice) are often given instead of or in addition to painted eggs and candy. So by early afternoon, groups of happy men can be seen staggering along the roads... All that aside, Easter remains one of the most joyful holidays on the Czech calendar.


Happy Easter! - Veselé Velikonoce!

FUCK PETA

I am not one to ever stop making fun of dumb things, no matter what side it comes from.

So what, Joe Biden wanted a showpiece dog to make him look "better".

And what happened??

Fifteen minutes of fame turned into four months of bitter remorse for the Chester County woman who sold the Bidens their adorable little German shepherd puppy.

Linda Brown's been investigated, scorned and had her life threatened.

"I thought when Joe Biden bought a puppy from me, what an honor," Brown told the Daily Local News. "Out of millions of breeders in the country, in the world, he picked me."

That was December.

When the story got out, Brown faced backlash from pet lovers who thought the Bidens should have opted for a shelter over a breeder to find their new puppy.

PETA seized the moment as an opportunity to blame the killing of shelter animals on people who buy from breeders. The organization's TV commercial, "Buy One, Get One Killed" ran in Delaware after the Biden puppy story made headlines.

Dog wardens from the state showed up at Brown's Wolf Den kennel, repeatedly, for inspections.

"I was cited for a piece of kibble on the floor and five strands of dog hair. They took a picture of that, they walked around, snapped pictures and don't tell you why," Brown told the newspaper.

She was found "not guilty" for each citation, but hiring a lawyer for the court hearings has cost her $4,000 so far in legal fees.

Brown says she and Biden both received death threats from animal activists.

Put it this way, PETA were behind this, them and their idiot supporters who are behind much of the retarded brand of radical action against individual freedom. The worst thing is people listen to them and organisations act upon their hysterical calls to action.

I wonder what links PETA have with the NZ Green movement...I doubt our Greens are that well connected with any organisation not linked to Stalin and Ho Chi Minh. :)

Story here

Say what?

WTF? This is madness!

Executives at kiwifruit marketer Enza are fuming over the country's kiwifruit marketer Zespri making growers destroy one million trays of green export fruit after Enza was knocked back from exporting 340,000 trays to new markets in a collaborative licensing agreement with Zespri just days earlier

That's just silly. We could be out there aggressively pushing our food to the international markets or at least dumping it on the starving nations! Stupid protectionism!

And yet this is the stuff that would happen regularly under a Green led Government. Yeah you know exactly what I mean - Green led "economic 20 year plans" and all that nonsense to emulate the great (and failed) socialist programmes of their heroes.

Story here.

Keep them open Rodney!

Will Rodney Hide - the saviour of small business and killing red tape - be the saviour to the ridiculous archaic easter trading laws and crucify them where they belong?

Why should I be allowed to buy hardcore erotica and yet not able to buy a shrub?

Why should shops be fined for opening for non christians or in fact anybody?

Why should staff who are muslim be forced to stay home to observe a holiday they don't believe in?

Why is it that the staunchly anti religious Unions and far left suddenly clamouring for people to be able to enjoy their religious days off?

Who will stop the madness?

RODNEY - you can do it! Lets drag New Zealand into the 21st century!

Question

Why is it that that Muslims protest about anything that even for one second looks like its making fun of them - or not. This is usually something innocent and yet the locals are being bullied into all sorts of PC measures to not offend them.

And yet they make no noise during Easter and Xmas nor about the holidays they get as result of these overtly and hardly subtle christian holidays?

Hmmmn.

Something for the long weekend

Sounds about right....

Another contender for best guitar riff (well solo)

Check out this performance by Prince at the George Harrison tribute at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This features a few of the good old boys of rock n roll and I remember this as being a moment that showed more and more people the brilliance of self taught guitarist Prince. Many people diss him for being "weird" but he is a true genius.

Greatest Guitar Riff of all time

If you have a few spare hours, perusing the NME feature "Greatest Guitar riffs off all time" is worthwhile. Very comprehensive although the competition appears to have been hijacked by MUSE fans.

Feature here

A bit biased to European music so here is my pic for good ole NZ musos.



Happy Easter!!!

BREAKING NEWS. Unionists and Labour Pollies involved in brothel scandal

Not content with screwing you with your money, those defenders of the workers, those high principled bastions of righteousness have been caught with their pants well and truly down!

Article here

The hypocrisy of those charged with defending workers rights actively exploiting probable illegal labour for their own jollies frankly doesn't surprise me.

The Quangos live on courtesy of National

Can anybody tell me what the Government has to do with Kordia, Quotable Value the MetService. What about Landcorp, the Lotteries Commission and NZ Post

Surely stacking these organisations with ex politicans and party members is stupid? But even dumber is the fact that our Government actually has these Quangos running! Taxpayers do not benefit from ownership of NZ Post - nor should even Kiwibank be part of the bigger picture of Government ownership.

Of course the trump card of complete stupidity is giving Michael Cullen a job on a board. Any board.
National are supposed to be better than Labour who put Bolger in at Kiwibank but it seems that the two main parties are still playing footsie with each other. Cullen does not deserve to be picking up a taxpayer salary.

Other countries have ex finance ministers being handpicked for plum jobs internationally but Cullen has been forced to sit on the second bench waiting for something.... and I don't subscribe to the idea that National should throw a pity party for Cullen. If I was Key I'd ensure he retired from Parliament and was kept far far away.

"left of Mao, a bloody communist and a lesbian"

FINALLY!!!

After years of shouting it at anyone that will listen, the media (Te Radar), finally get hold of my weekly press release delivered when I travel through customs at Auckland airport.


...........and no I am NOT John Tamihere!

Article here

Feminist names are funny

Bit of outrage headed to NZs shores soon with the arrival of a "controversial" book telling wives to "do it" more often with their husbands.

The chapter getting couples and critics hot and bothered is called "Just Do It", about the idea that women should say yes to sex even when they don't feel like it.

Cue controversy: bloggers have dubbed Arndt a "rape cheerleader" and called her "yes" message "marital rape". One critic wrote: "Don't worry about why women aren't interested in sex any more, just pressure them into it by threatening the future happiness of their families, and pretty soon their libido will be bouncing right back."

Hilarious, I am sure the girls at the Hand Mirror will be frothing at the mouth for something like this to get their teeth into. They have beaten the Paul Henry thing to death so must be getting bored by now.

The best thing about this story wasn't all the hysteria - cause we all know socialist feminists absolutely haaaaate freedom of speech, but it was the names of the two feminists who were outspoken about this, I had to make sure it wasn't an April fools joke.

Prue Hyman, a feminist economist and adjunct professor at Victoria University, hadn't read the book but was aware of the debate and was concerned at the idea of men or women having sex just to keep their partner happy.

Firstly - Feminist economist???? WTF? However the name Hyman is too funny for a feminist. It would be perfect material for Paul Henry to staart asking her about her obvious sexual name...

It gets better..

Australian feminist Eva Cox has weighed in against Arndt, saying that by bedtime many women just want to sleep. "After an evening of organising kids, dinner, the shopping, the washing, the homework, etc, maybe [women] are too tired to want sex."

Brilliant. I wonder if they all get to meet up, what would cox and hymans have in common? :)

Anyway expect the hysteria any day now, if not then maybe after all I am the only proper feminist blogger in NZ?! Stranger things have happened. I will end this post with a quote from the auther herself.... brilliant!

In her first New Zealand interview, Arndt told the Sunday Star-Times she had braced herself for this "huge kerfuffle", and she thinks some of her more strident critics are missing the point.

"I'm not saying `just do it, lie back and suffer, lie there like a log' I'm saying that if you put the canoe in the water and start paddling, the chances are you may well enjoy the experience. Just see, just try paddling and see what happens.

Arndt said many members of the public were far from outraged by her book in fact it had reignited sparks in bedrooms. "The letters coming in are amazing... They are getting more sex! There are some men saying the drought is breaking!"

Hallelujah! Story here.

The farce of NZ cricket

NZ cricket in recent days really has shown its stupidity. And it's not confined to those who work directly for NZ Cricket, but also perhaps the worst commentator to have ever commentated in cricket, let alone sport.

First, NZ Cricket set the 3rd test match to begin at 11am with the full knowledge of day light saving finishing half way through. We now have the extraordinary situation where in Wellington, it's almost dark and play has been called off early. Why not begin at 10:30? Stupid.

Second, some lunatic has taken control of the microphone and rants and raves into it telling us trite facts such as "Ian O'Brien coming into the attack from the Southern end". I expect a 5 year old school boy watching the game could discern that Ian O'Brien was indeed bowling let alone the need to tell us. There is also the fake, try hard falsetto when announcing the arrival of, say, Sachin Tendulkar to the batting crease. When a 50 or 100 is brought up we are told how many balls and how many minutes this feat took despite it appearing on the scoreboard. It's a recession isn't it? Why can't this bore be a victim of it?

But third, and worst of all, is Sky TV's horrific commentary team spearheaded in the nonsense category by Simon Doull. Take away the simplistic superlatives, high school hyperbole, and collequilisms, and what you are left with is the most vacuous use of English you may as well have a kindergarden group sing ring a ring a rosy. He adds nothing, says the most trite rubbish, and in the Sunday News writes the most cheesy rubbish, he is a blight on the game of cricket. He confessed during the West Indies series to offering his advice to the NZ cricket team and "being turned down" (or something to that effect). I wonder why.

Still, on a positive note, it was admirable to see how the NZ crowds have applauded Sachin Tendulkar, certainly one of the greatest cricketers of all time. A shame he has to put up with the Doull commentating......

BRUNO the movie

This looks like it could be a bit of fun...

Click here for the latest from the creator of Borat.

I strongly believe Sacha Baron Cohen will be murdered one day! :P

Kiwibank

It has been found out that Kiwibank, the people responsible for those godawful ads on TV and the papers about being the "good guys" fighting against the rich, wealthy successful international banks, are using an AUSTRALIAN call centre for many of its customers.

Of course it is. The empty rhetoric was designed to sucker in Labour/Green voters and the brain dead (well ok they are the same people) into joining them. Our bank is now as bad as the others... well except I know many other banks have NZ call centres.

So Kiwibank is putting the wool over your eyes - that was all it stood for, so in that case John Key... SELL IT! No reason to hang onto it now is there?

AT least it will save us from those ads! Lets sell it to the highest bidder. China or Japan would be good, as would the Aussies! Story here

"It's only property"

Oh dear. The protesters who disrupted London have some pretty messed up heads. They were chanting that the city was theirs, the streets were theres and the banks were theirs. They then set about to destroy it.

These people are behind the illegal action to smash up the CEO of the RBS personal house. Thankfully he was away on holiday when this happened, however the protesters continued to destroy the main RBS yesterday, smashing some of the huge windows and attempting to set the place on fire..... failing miserably.

Hilariously the stories coming out of the city show that they had absolutely no idea what to do once they smashing up the front windows of the bank. These were rebels without a clue, let alone cause!

If they knew what they wanted, and many didn't, the demonstrators brandished an idealistic and diverse set of demands: peace in Palestine, carbon restrictions, and action against climate change. Some admitted they were as bewildered as their leaders about how to change the world for the better.

"It doesn't feel that coherent, but that's how things are at the moment. We don't know how to move forward," said Anna Coatman, 21, from Leeds.

Many were seen wandering around not knowing what to do next. You can imagine what would have happened if a full scale revolution had taken place - although the cause itself was pretty clueless! What was the point of burning an effigy of a banker?

On the news you could see how aggressive the protesters were getting, I was surprised at how much slack they were getting despite many kicking and throwing punches at them - the cops were pushing them off and telling them to settle down.

But no surprises, these people don't care for the law nor do they care about other peoples property.

A professor from a local University who got suspended from his post at University of East London for predicting that the crowds might lynch bankers, said: "I'm feeling good. I said the revolution would happen at noon and it did. I'm sorry that the RBS got smashed, but it is only property."

So its fair we all go round to his and take care of his house for him? It's only property! Story here.

Another excellent VSM article

Peter from Campus ACT has put together a neat article on VSM which he bravely got into Salient this week. It puts together all the good arguments for VSM and also delivers some fresh new perspectives to this long running debate.

This year vuwsa received over $1.5 million in levies taken from students. This is very unusual income; it’s unlike any income received by other types of incorporated societies. vuwsa has not earned this income. vuwsa has not persuaded people to join the association and pay the fee. vuwsa has not sold its membership to individuals who have purchased membership because they want to access the services that vuwsa offers and believe the fee is good value for money. vuwsa never has to go out to students and ask them to become members.

Instead, students have paid the vuwsa levy because they must before they can receive an education at Victoria University. vuwsa free rides on people who want to receive a tertiary education. If you try to enrol without paying your $131.90 to vuwsa, your application won’t even be processed. Did I mention yet that the levy is set by vuwsa itself, with no legal limit on what it can be?

To read it all in its entirety go here.

To view (and comment!) on the Salient web page then go here.

Clarks secrets and lies....

An interesting article on Stuff today about the "bulging suitcase of secret documents" literally thousands, of documents being stored at the National Archives that belong to Helen Clark. These will not be accessible to the public until she dies.

I wonder why? What does she have to hide? We already know she and her party screwed NZ over the good times and did all they could to prevent future Governments to correct their wrongs. We know that she tried to bankrupt the country to stop National give tax cuts to workers.

What other gems could she be hiding from us? Surely somebody who works in the archives can get some of the juicy stuff out for us to see for ourselves?

I wonder how much is there about Winston?

How much about LAX and her husband?

I hope that when the time comes that a book exposing her to the country is written. This book will make anything else ever written pale by comparison.

Story here.

G20 protests

My oh my... what a complete crock that the protests were not designed to shut down London and to cause as much mayhem and destruction as possible!

Photos are not mine but are from the Times Online.

Naughty naughty... this was when they tried to tear apart the Royal Bank of Scotland.

One of the main stories of the day was when a protester ran out with a huge pipe and hit a police officer with it and all his colleagues could do was to run in and pull him out. This officer also came out pretty badly from the mobs.

Ahh, how dumb is this poster? Yeah we should ban consumption! I know most of them have banned the use of soap at home :)

Now where should the city of London send the bill to?

Subprime Primer