Text Of The Day

From todays Hawkes Bay Today.

`Giveway rule change coming soon? Evidence is slim that a rule exists now.' Unattributed.

"Restorative justice"

File under "What the fuck?"

Most of us are probably old enough to remember this case.  One of the murderers is now being released on parole to continue his interrupted role of making unfortunate women's lives a misery (or ending them). That part isn't surprising, it happens all the time.  There's something else - only one of his victims died, the other survived.

The pair kidnapped Mrs Goodwin and Ms Bishop and forced them to take a cocktail of drugs and alcohol, before bashing Mrs Goodwin with a brick and pushing a car containing Ms Bishop off a cliff near Opunake.
The elaborate plan was intended to mislead police into thinking the pair had died following an alcohol-related crash.
...
The plan was foiled when Ms Bishop miraculously survived. She was found by a fisherman after escaping the mangled wreckage seven hours after being pushed off the cliff.

Next, we read among the points in the murderer's favour for parole:

The board said it was important to note a restorative justice meeting had been held between Goodwin and Ms Bishop.

Seriously, what the fuck?  You get to sit down with somebody who planned and executed a cold-blooded attempt to murder you, and...  what, exactly?  Tell him that murdering people is wrong and you shouldn't do it?  That you feel very disappointed and hurt that he would attempt to kill you in a violent and unpleasant manner, an attempt you survived only through your own sheer guts and determination and no thanks to him?   Wouldn't fancy it myself...

Text Of The Day

From todays Hawkes Bay Today.

`Lady on mobility scooter got a place to watch Art Deco car parade at about 10am on Saturday (18 Feb). At 12.30pm a lady stood in front of her. When asked to move as the first lady said `I cannot stand' the reply was `not my problem'. Not an attitude we need on such a a good spirited weekend. MD.

I hope someone gave her her pedigree and told her she was an ignorant, selfish bitch.

Critical Friends

My, my. What a quaint turn of phrase.

The Labour Party is to seek the advice of 'critical friends' as it seeks to cast off its near terminal current affliction.

















A quick look at the short list of critical friends is enough for Adolf to opine that Labour does not need enemies when it has this lot pouring bad breath all over the Party.

Other "critical friends" included current MP Parekura Horomia, former MPs Margaret Wilson and Tim Barnett and former British Labour MP Bryan Gould.

Looks like the old gang of academics, Bros and poofters is well in charge.

Of all people, Margaret Wilson would be the last person anyone should turn to for advice when looking to bury any vestige of the disastrous Clark debacle. Academic know-all Bryan Gould follows Wilson by a nose. These are yesterday's people.

The people who should be in there advising Shearer and Co are the real people of this world. Guys like John Tamihere, Damien O'Connor, Mike Moore and Kelvin Davis.

Mr Shearer more and more is looking like a piece of flotsam in search of a beach.

Welfare tinkering

Anybody else feeling underwhelmed by the governments actions yesterday?
Despite the hysterical screeching from the welfare industry evidenced by the gallons of bile on the standard and the usual primitive grunting from Sue Bradford I really cannot see any downside for the tens of thousands of people in this country who are the fortunate recipients of tax payer charity.

1.Bennet has declared that the government is going to "make" the charity receivers LOOK for work at certain milestones in their dependancy.
LOOK. Nowhere in any of the releases has anybody said that benefits will be removed.

2.And then they are going to pay youth charity recipients MORE charity if they take advantage of opportunities for training and advancement.

Anybody getting outraged by this needs to make a fist with their left hand and repeatedly hit themselves in the face until they are a little less stupid. If clarity has not been reached by the time the left arm gets too tired then switch to your right arm.

And now for a suggestion on further reforms that will cost us more money but might actually help break the cycle of hopelessness.

From Pukenui to Bluff we have many tens of thousands of migrant workers..... WORKING.
Orchards, farms, hospo. We are importing labour by the plane load.
An excuse put about by the welfare industry to explain why our own people do not want these jobs is the fact that many of the roles are seasonal and the stand down period would see people without an income for many weeks between seasons.
Remove the stand down period for seasonal workers.
Putting aside the fact that many of the farmers, horticulturalists and orchardists in the Far North have given up trying to hire local labour because of the drunk, stoned, thieving antics that accompanies almost every effort to take on a local we need to do something to break the cycle.

That coupled with the two sensible changes outlined yesterday will go a long way to fixing many of the social problems that are destroying the Far North

Questions/quiz for the day

A virtual prize for the first person to post a comment on here pointing to the first MP who asks for a taxpayer bailout of the Otago Rugby Union.

Another prize for the person who can guess how long it will take today.

Biggest loser from the plight of the ORU?  Dunedin ratepayers who funded a white elephant stadium that will now sit empty for most of the year.

We sit here at our keyboards complaining and criticising of publicly funded stadiums and other sports and arts facilities and this is why.  They are lemons.  Theu suck money down the drain.  It is all so evident.  Yet a lot of people argue they simply need more money.

Staggering.

Text Of The Day

From todays Hawkes Bay Today.

`Mission Concert. Rod was amazing as expected. However the combo of rain, booze, hill being steep and uneven and poor lighting made for a hazardous night. PM.

Well PM having been to about 10/12 previous Mission Concerts it has always been that way. It is all part of the experience. Don't knock it because the `fun police' have already stopped people taknig their own booze and have also put in some other limitations.

You Can't Recycle A Used Lemon

At last the ALP has started to use some common sense. Their mentally unstable used lemon has been dispatched to the back benches where he will fulminate and continue to undermine his party. Thrashed by a vote of nearly three to one.












This guy is the ultimate white ant. Don't be surprised if, in the event he misbehaves (and he will,) the faceless men see to it that he is denied preselection at the forthcoming general election.

Meanwhile the left has written a complete portfolio of attack adverts for the Libs.

Here's my favorite, from the nose picking wax eater himself:-

"A childless, atheist ex communist."

Come to think of it, New Zealand had one of those for a while and it did a hell of a lot of damage.

As Whaleoil said the other day - 'It doesn't get better than this!'

Sheepish Romney

It is impossible to imagine this fool beating the Obama/Media/Union machine.

Mitt Romney's big economic speech in Detroit on Friday could hardly have gone more awry.

First, the venue, Ford Field, home of the Lions, seats 65,000, but Romney managed to draw just 1,200. That was too many for the first venue the campaign had picked, but in the cavernous stadium, the crowd -- despite the campaign's strenuous efforts to position it more favorably -- looked pathetically puny. As a metaphor for the lack of grassroots enthusiasm Romney attracts, the scene was irresistible.

As if that weren't bad enough, Romney then veered off script -- disastrously.

"I drive a Mustang and a Chevy pickup truck," he observed, meditating on the virtues of Detroit-made cars. "Ann drives a couple of Cadillacs, actually."

Nothing wrong with loving American automobiles, but the casual reference to more than one luxury vehicle was beyond tone-deaf. The reaction, on social media and elsewhere, was an immediate eruption of schadenfreude from liberals and anti-Romney conservatives alike.

A Glorious Insult

From Powerline's Steven Hayward:-

"I mentioned to my cruise mates John O’Sullivan and David Pryce-Jones over drinks down here in the South Atlantic a couple days ago that based on the available evidence, Britain is currently being governed by its second woman prime minister. They immediately offered the predictable dissent, namely, that while the description clearly fits David Cameron, Lady Thatcher was among the more manly political figures of the last century. "


Ouch, ouch, double ouch.

Surviving Forty Degrees Plus

Try this gorgeous long drink. One of life's little known pleasures.


















Take the biggest tumbler you can find - forget about those poncy wine glasses, peanut butter glasses are pretty good.

Fill with large blocks of ice.

Apply cheap dry red wine to the half way mark. (Why waste the good stuff?)

Top up with soda water and gently stir.

When Adolf was calling on Italian fruit growers in the hills behind Pertt in 1970, the fruit pickers didn't drink tea at morning and afternoon smoko. They drank red wine and iced water. The Dings just weren't into soda water.

Sunday Joke

Two couples went away on a two week vacation together and after the first week they were bored stiff and decided to swap partners. The next morning one of the husbands said:

"What a great idea this was, absolutely fantastic - we will have to do it more often. Now lets go and see hw the girls are getting on."

IT'S TROUBLING ME

One has to wonder if Jessie Ryder is brain dead or terminally drunk.

He cost us the final 20/20 match when he put himself before team fending off dot ball after dot ball in an attempt to reach 50.

I suspect he will cost us today's 50/50 with a stupid no nothing shot instead of playing intelligent cricket and waiting out a couple of overs until NZ took the batting power play.

Bring back Ross Taylor quick and consign Jessie back to Club cricket where he belongs.

'SIR' DOUGLAS GRAHAM

I note there has been a predictable Pavlovian response following the conviction of the 'Lombard Four' for Douglas Graham to be stripped of his Knighthood. The matter is certainly worthy of debate.

But it would be unfair to focus entirely on Graham just because he has a Knighthood. Graham also enjoys the Right Honourable (Rt Hon) honorific while Bill Jeffries (also one of the four) is an Honourable (Hon) from his time as Minister of Justice in the fourth Labour Government.

While it is clear that what was bestowed can also be taken away, New Zealand does not have a track record of stripping awards off people. I think back to Sir Graham Latimer convicted of tax evasion; Hon Taito Philip Field, imprisoned for corruption; Hon Roger McClay, QSO, convicted of uttering; there are others.

I guess there will be those who would argue that were Government to act unilaterally to strip people found guilty of 'serious' crimes of their honours and awards it would constitute double jeopardy. On balance I would have to disagree. There is a certain status afforded the holders of honours and awards. Those that bring the system into disrepute do not deserve that status.

In the Lombard case both Graham and Jeffries were high profile lawyers. We had a right to expect they were fully conversant with their responsibilities as Directors. While clearly they were 'names' they were not there just to eat their lunch and to collect their Directors Fees. They had a responsibility to ensure the prospectus they signed-off on was accurate in every respect. Directors have a responsibility not just to the Company but also to Mr & Mrs Joe Investor.

And yes, those firms were operating in a under regulated equivalent of the wild west to which the then Government was happy to turn a blind eye. But try telling that to the Mum and Dad investors some of whom lost their life savings. And yes, the old adage that 'higher the return, higher the risk' stands true. But that does not absolve the Directors of their responsibilities.

So, where am I headed. IMHO there is a subtle difference between a Royal Honour and the Rt Hon/Hon honorific. I would suggest a two level approach.

In the case of a person awarded either a Rt Hon or Hon honorific they should automatically forfeit the award on being convicted of a crime that provides for a term of imprisonment (awarded or not).

In the case of a person holding a Royal Honour and convicted of a crime that provides for a term of imprisonment (awarded or not) the protocol should be that they offer up the award for a final determination by the Government on a case by case basis. That ensures the award is put on the line while providing an 'out' should the circumstances so dictate in which case the Government would have to defend its decision. Above all it ensures the integrity of the awards system and does not cheapen the honour held by others.

That's my view anyway. Looking forward to the debate.

p.s. I declare my position as the holder of a Royal Honour.

True colours

There is a certain morbid fascination in watching the ALP leadership battle between Krudd and Gillard unfold across the Tasman.

You tend to see the heart of the matter.

Politicians spend countless hours of electioneering telling us that they want our vote so they can serve us and look after our best interests. Bloody noble of them.

Meanwhile behind the scenes they stab each other in the back at the first possible opportunity- put their personal interests and survival at the trough ahead of everything. They pretend to play for the same side but that is bullshit.

These two ozzy twats are the perfect example why Labour parties, including our own, are just a pack of self serving pricks, more than happy to rip the very system of government that has given them the freedom to stand in the first place.

The Western world can't afford these type of people anymore.

Text Of The Day

From todays Hawkes Bay Today.

`What a fantastic concert by NZ's own Will Martin on Sunday night at the Opera House. Thanks Art Deco and the Opera House staff. Will would be great for New Years Eve. Unattributed.

I do wonder if the texter has the Opera House which is in Hastings and the Municipal Theatre which is in Napier mixed up. Or did Hastings `horn in' on Napiers Art Deco weekend. As we weren't going to see Will Martin I did not take any notice of the venue for his concert.

Real Estate Agents Wonder WHY??

Stuff reports that some property owners in Christchurch are selling cheap as increasing panic delivers desperation.

Yes some will be selling without recourse to the "services" of an "agent" but there will be many being taken for a ride by licenced members of an organisation who spend millions of dollars attempting to climb higher on the list of "trusted" professions.

The first thing an agent wants an owner to sign is a 'contract of agency' a document the agent will claim is a document that outlines all the benefits the seller will enjoy when they commit.
The truth is the Contract of agency is the bit the nice agent needs to sue the arse off the seller when a dispute arises over "Who sold the freekin property", no more no less.

An agent has a fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of the seller at all times but that submerges into the swamp of manipulation once an increasingly desperate agent moves to getting a "deal" whatever it takes.

There are many sharks circling in the muddy waters of the devastated suburbs and a vast pool of the vulnerable for them to feed on.

What a heaven sent opportunity for the real estate industry has to really polish its image but sadly they will just enjoy the opportunity to join the feast.

Placeholder

Have been kicked off a thread at the Hand Mirror for daring to point out that men don't get pregnant.  Apparently, the best way to convince the general population that this view is not only completely wrong, but also hurtful and offensive, is to shout it on your blog and then prevent any  commenters from disputing it.   Ironically, the moderator's statement that further arguments against her views will be deleted comes on a post immediately above one entitled "Abuse is not an argument."  Indeed it isn't, but neither is deleting comments, I would have thought.

Anyway, I've put this here so I can direct to it anyone who is willing to try and mount an argument for the case that pregnancy has nothing to with whether you're male or female.

In the news again..

Fancy this nice guy being in the news again

Just like the H Fee

I didn't know this, but 3 1/2 years ago the US media started asking for 17,000 pieces of Sarah Palin's official records, including emails.

Those records produced no bombshells, while painting a picture of an image-conscious, driven leader, struggling with the gossip about her family and marriage, involved in the day-to-day duties of running the state and keeping tabs on the signature issues of her administration.

The media should have gone straight to Mike Williams and asked him how successful he was trawling through people's history and records.