The Clunking Fist

Haka

2011-10-23T10:45:00.001+13:00

A slave to love

2010-02-24T13:08:00.000+13:00

"18.Wow, you get really interesting spam if you use the word ’slave’ in your post title.

Comment by danylmc — February 24, 2010 @ 7:11 am"

http://dimpost.wordpress.com/2010/02/23/base-is-the-slave-that-pays/#comments

-- sits back and waits --

Current Account Deficit

2009-12-23T13:26:00.001+13:00

From:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/3186247/Balance-of-payments-in-the-black

“For the year to September, New Zealand's current account deficit was $5.7 billion (3.1 per cent of GDP).”
That’s what, $109million per week? So if enough state servants were sacked (and offices vacated and grants to Pseudo-charities axed), that the gummint saves $250milion a week, could the loss of their purchasing power save us $109million in imports each week?

Just a thought.

Ireland: chance today to save the citizens of Europe

2009-10-02T07:30:00.002+13:00

Today* is the day that the Irish will vote yes or no to ratification of the ~~European Constitution~~ Lisbon Treaty.

(*Oct 2nd Eire time)

Mandelson: 'If I can come back, so can Labour'

2009-09-29T17:46:00.003+13:00

Err, when ZanuLiarbour lose the election, how will you appoint yourselves to the House of Lords?

You didn't "come back", piggy, your mates rescued you with a peerage.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20090928/tuk-mandelson-if-i-can-come-back-so-can-dba1618.html

Fiji & Tourism - Stuff (and Green Nonsense)

2009-09-22T11:21:00.002+12:00

"A short family holiday to Fiji is as much as $1000 cheaper than a year ago and the plunging cost has sparked a bounce-back in New Zealand tourists since April's political strife. "

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/2887819/Fijis-sands-regain-their-sparkle

"Green MP Keith Locke said while his party was not advocating an economic boycott of Fiji, travellers to the region could help politically by expressing the New Zealand stance toward the regime."

What a fucking idiot, does he WANT tourists to be rounded up and thrown in jail? (Probably: he has an agenda.) The day folk start taking advice from Locke is the day they start voting "Green". Oh, wait: some idiots do...

And the Race Card is Played

2009-09-17T07:55:00.005+12:00

"It's because he's black" says Jimmy the Peanut.

Yeah, and the equally vigorous protests against Bush were because..?

International Talk Like a Pirate Day

2009-09-16T10:00:00.001+12:00

Clic the pic for the "offical" site.

Iraq shoe thrower 'was tortured'

2009-09-16T06:36:00.002+12:00

Zaidi was unrepentant, saying he remained angry over the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
"The invasion divided brothers and neighbors and turned our houses into places for endless mourning and our streets and parks into cemeteries," he said.

Does he wonder now how the Kuwaitis felt after his glorious country invaded them?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/15/AR2009091500152.html?hpid=topnews

Ted Kennedy: a Tribute

2009-08-28T10:48:00.000+12:00

Liberals Believe in Intelligent Design

2009-08-20T12:51:00.004+12:00

It's true.

They say they believe in evolution. But then they look at ants and bees and see a wondrous society. A society where every member works together toward a common goal, each member diligently performed their allotted task. They protect and nurture the hive, colony, queen.

Liberals look at this and think human society can evolve into this. They forget that evolution is an accidental process, where chance plays the hand in determining the outcome. But still they try and impose the ant/bee blueprint on us, socialising medicine, education and transport, creating moral hazard through state guarantees and welfare, attempting to absolve the workers of responsibility. This truly is intelligent design... but with a shortage of intelligence. (Oh, and they replace the Queen with a committee.)

Fucking Hypocrite

2009-07-31T07:24:00.003+12:00

A pig on the farm, enjoying the sun.

Even Doctors are Mental

2009-07-03T07:41:00.003+12:00

"Our" children are being "run down" in their own driveways.

It is terrible. But now a surgeon suggests its a design fault, and made a dick of himself suggesting that the accident rate could be cut dramatically if "our" homes had semi-circular driveways...
(And, yes, he did seem to suggest that the gummint should mandate this kind of design improvement. Way to make housing even more expensive. I have to fence fucking my pool, but the local Kapiti council doesn't have to fence its open storm water drains, or the fucking sea and rivers.)

His own home possibly has such a semi-circular driveway, but I can't afford to set that much land aside. Perhaps I should go on a retraining course run by a local Poly and become a surgeon, then I, too, can buy a home with a semi-circular driveway.

I think I shall download the mp3 podcast of that report for posterity...

Clouded Reason

2009-06-25T07:27:00.002+12:00

Stolen from EU Referendum:

One of the most dangerous phenomena of modern times is how the irrational greenies have hijacked the environmental agenda and suborned it in pursuit of their own political aims. No better example of this is offered than in a piece by Peter Schwerdtfeger, emeritus professor of meteorology at Flinders University in Adelaide, writing in The Australian.

Schwerdtfeger is reviewing the work of internationally acclaimed cloud physicist Daniel Rosenfeld of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who asserts that the most awful consequence of the burning of carboniferous fuels is not the release of CO2 but the large-scale injection of minute particulate pollutants into the atmosphere.

Detailed studies carried out by his research group have revealed that the minute water vapour droplets that form around some carbon particles are so small as to be almost incapable of being subsequently coalesced into larger precipitable drops. In short, the particulates prevent rainfall. Thus, humans are changing the climate in a much more direct way than through the release of CO2.

What seems to be happening is that pollution is seriously inhibiting rain over mountains in semi-arid regions, a phenomenon with dire consequences for water resources in the Middle East and many other parts of the world, including China and Australia.

This and other work is now showing that the average precipitation on Mt Hua near Xi'an in central China has decreased by 20 percent, but rather than "climate change" this is attributable to man-made air pollution during the past 50 years.

The precipitation loss was doubled on days that had the poorest visibility because of pollution particles in the air. This explains the widely observed trends of decrease in mountain precipitation relative to the rainfall in nearby densely populated lowlands, which until now had not been directly ascribed to air pollution.

The work also shows the "frightening persistence and longevity of pollutant trails across vast areas", not least in the Australian Snowy Mountains catchments, where a phalanx of brown coal-burning power stations may have substantially wrecked the natural precipitation processes over the once hydrologically rich Australian Alps.

If Rosenfeld's scientific interpretations are correct, then southern Australia would greatly benefit from the application of his discoveries. At the very least, Rosenfeld's conclusions should be accorded appropriate evaluation and testing by an unprejudiced panel of peers.

The issue here is that targeted measures to limit specific pollution is a common good, and far from being objectionable, is economically as well as ecologically sound. And, by virtue of their very specificity, not only are such measures cheaper than the scatter-gun approach of trying to reduce CO2 measures, their effects are more immediately measurable and there is a true cost-benefit.

However, Schwerdtfeger remarks that the work has so far has been ignored in Australia (and elsewhere) because it does not fit in with the dominant paradigm that holds CO2 responsible for reduced rainfall in semi-arid regions. And thus do the greenies, far from improving the environment, hold back sensible measures and lock us into the tunnel vision of group obsession, perpetuating the very problems they purport to be solving.

Booker and I had a phrase for this ... "the sledgehammer to miss the nut". Perhaps we should take the sledgehammer to the nut(s).

http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2009/06/clouded-reason.html

Bash-a-Bank

2009-06-10T07:36:00.002+12:00

My email to morning report

Banks suffering their "fair share" of the recession

Tuesday, 9 June, 2009 7:35 PM

From:

"Gordon Brown"

View contact details

To:

morningreport@radionz.co.nz

Hi Geoff, Sean

Loved hearing Mr Foss saying several times that banks are not suffering their "fair share".

Then we heard Mrs Fagg, CEO of ANZ National state that her bank's profit was down 30%. From memory they have made some of their staff redundant.

I am concerned that parliament has not suffered its fair share of the recession either, so how about redunancies from parliament, how about a 10 to 30% pay cut for MPs?

Do these people not realise that every time they bash a private sector business that makes a profit, they are bashing taxpayers. If these politicians start fiddling with our finance sector, we'll end up with the distortions that the Americans had. Who suffered when that house of cards collapsed? Everyone OTHER than politicians...

Gordon Brown

Pre-CISE-ly!!!!

2009-06-09T17:19:00.003+12:00

http://bastardoldholborn.blogspot.com/2009/06/have-gordon-sectioned.html?showComment=1244489483086#c3392986375482268570

"How ANYONE could be boo-ed by our WW2 heroes and still have the gall to be seen in public is a sure sign that the cunt's dosage needs to be upped."

comment from Killemallletgodsortemout on Old Holborn's post about getting the Gorgon sectioned under mental health regs.

http://bastardoldholborn.blogspot.com/2009/06/have-gordon-sectioned.html

He's Back! Mr TractorStats

2009-06-07T15:07:00.002+12:00

http://www.davidforward.com/

My Email to Russel Norman

2009-06-03T18:45:00.003+12:00

CO2 is a significant greenhouse gas
Friday, 29 May, 2009 6:36 AM
From: "Gordon Brown" brick_top@rocketmail.com
To: Russel.Norman@parliament.govt.nz

Hi Russel
The following email was brought to my attention via Whale Oil's blog. Can you please confirm for me:
Whether or not aeroplanes, cars and cabs release CO2 whilst burning fossils fuels.
Whether or not CO2 is a significant greenhouse gas
Whether or not the planet is warming
Whether or not that is because of the co2 from burning fossil fuels (as opposed to burning logs in ones wood-burner)
Whether or not your co2 emissions are better than mine

Cheers

Gordon Brown
(for now) Prime Minister & First Lord Of The Treasury
C/o (for now):10 Downing Street
LONDONSW1A 2AA

Remember this if politicians want to spend your money:
A million dollars is what you’d get earning the average wage for twenty years. A billion dollars is what you’d get if you won Lotto every week for twenty years.
If I gave you $1 million and told you to spend it at the rate of $1000 per day, it would take you nearly three years. But if I gave you $1 billion and told you to do the same, it would take you nearly 3000 years.
A million seconds is about 12 days. A billion seconds is about 30 years.The following is a disclaimer and a protest at the collection, retention and sharing of my personal mail by the morally bankrupt state.By adding a string of key words, it will guarantee that each and every mail that I send will now need to be manually viewed as it is picked up by the auto scan software. If every person in the UK does exactly the same, then the entire system will quickly become so unmanageable, so unwieldy that it will become unworkable.My key words are: bomb, assassinate, president, brown, Osama, Obama, Sargozy, Merkel, government, target, location, rocket, grenade, al-Qaeda, Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, UK, America, guns, jets, bombs, machine-gun, terrorists, MP's, pigs, troughs, France, Germany, Italy, nuclear, Korea.

-------------------
Subject: RE: Worrying Article

Date: Thu, 28 May 2009 17:52:51 +1200

From: Russel Norman Russel.Norman@parliament.govt.nz

To: Bob

References:
Hi Bob
I am carefully following the rules laid down by Parliamentary Services. When campaigning in Mt Albert I pay for my cabs (I have a car from afriend up there so don't use cabs much) and accommodation (again staying with Green supporters).
I travel around NZ constantly as co-leader and Parliamentary services pays for my flights. For example, I am off to Auckland shortly so that I can attend the Child Poverty Action Group budget breakfast tomorrow.Bryce has a long history of personal attacks on me and the Greens, it is tedious. I no longer read his stuff

Do not insult Monsieur President - is he a rooster or a cock?

2009-05-20T18:33:00.001+12:00

Ohno, me pubes are showin'!

2009-05-20T18:27:00.001+12:00

This is BRITISH cheese?

2009-05-20T18:26:00.001+12:00

Bond, James Bond

2009-05-20T18:25:00.004+12:00

Ma-mental

2009-05-20T18:25:00.002+12:00

Sarkozy, je te vois - Sarkozy, I can see you!

2009-05-20T18:00:00.003+12:00

The French President is a smelly turd.

Mister Sarkozy is a short-arse.

Casse-toi pauvre con - 'get lost, jerk'

http://timescorrespondents.typepad.com/charles_bremner/2009/05/careful-what-you-say-about-president-sarkozy-.html

or

http://tinyurl.com/orjrgn

apparently, it is against the law to insult the President or the police in France. It is illegal to photograph the police in the UK. What the French-Connection-United-Kingdom is this world coming to..? Mr Saw-cosy, this is not a cunning stunt.

Fidel Talks Retirement

2009-03-29T12:10:00.001+13:00

Why Does This Man Hate My Guts

2009-03-26T11:26:00.002+13:00

Hattip, EUReferendum:

http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2009/03/amateurs-night-out.html

New Zealand Late to the Sub-prime Party, making up for Lost Time

2009-03-26T09:28:00.003+13:00

http://www.welcomehomeloan.co.nz/index.php

The welcome home loan, how those with modest income and no deposit can get on the property bandwagon.

"Sounds like a great idea to me" - Alan Greenspan

"I'd give it two thumbs, if I wasn't so special" - Barry Obama

"Hey, can I get a loan?" - Gordon Brown

The Medical Profession Speaks out on the Financial Bail-Out Package

2009-03-23T15:56:00.000+13:00

The allergists voted to scratch it, and the dermatologists advised not to make any rash moves.
The gastroenterologists had sort of a gut feeling about it, but the neurologists thought the administration had a lot of nerve, and the obstetricians felt they were all labouring under a misconception.
The ophthalmologists considered the idea short-sighted; the pathologists yelled, "Over my dead body!" while the paediatricians said, "Oh, Grow up!"
The psychiatrists thought the whole idea was madness, the radiologists could see right through it, and the surgeons decided to wash their hands of the whole thing.
The internists thought it was a bitter pill to swallow, and the plastic surgeons said, "This puts a whole new face on the matter."
The podiatrists thought it was a step forward, but the urologists felt the scheme wouldn't hold water.
The anaesthesiologists thought the whole idea was a gas; and the cardiologists didn't have the heart to say no.
In the end the proctologists left the decision to the bottom line in Wellington.

Would the Last Honest Reporter Please Turn On the Lights?

2009-03-05T16:14:00.002+13:00

http://www.meridianmagazine.com/ideas/081017light.html

Would the Last Honest Reporter Please Turn On the Lights?
By Orson Scott Card

Editor's note: Orson Scott Card is a Democrat and a newspaper columnist, and in this opinion piece he takes on both while lamenting the current state of journalism.

An open letter to the local daily paper — almost every local daily paper in America:
I remember reading All the President's Men and thinking: That's journalism. You do what it takes to get the truth and you lay it before the public, because the public has a right to know.
This housing crisis didn't come out of nowhere. It was not a vague emanation of the evil Bush administration.
It was a direct result of the political decision, back in the late 1990s, to loosen the rules of lending so that home loans would be more accessible to poor people. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were authorized to approve risky loans.
What is a risky loan? It's a loan that the recipient is likely not to be able to repay.
The goal of this rule change was to help the poor — which especially would help members of minority groups. But how does it help these people to give them a loan that they can't repay? They get into a house, yes, but when they can't make the payments, they lose the house — along with their credit rating.
They end up worse off than before.
This was completely foreseeable and in fact many people did foresee it. One political party, in Congress and in the executive branch, tried repeatedly to tighten up the rules. The other party blocked every such attempt and tried to loosen them.
Furthermore, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were making political contributions to the very members of Congress who were allowing them to make irresponsible loans. (Though why quasi-federal agencies were allowed to do so baffles me. It's as if the Pentagon were allowed to contribute to the political campaigns of Congressmen who support increasing their budget.)
Isn't there a story here? Doesn't journalism require that you who produce our daily paper tell the truth about who brought us to a position where the only way to keep confidence in our economy was a $700 billion bailout? Aren't you supposed to follow the money and see which politicians were benefiting personally from the deregulation of mortgage lending?
I have no doubt that if these facts had pointed to the Republican Party or to John McCain as the guilty parties, you would be treating it as a vast scandal. "Housing-gate," no doubt. Or "Fannie-gate."
Instead, it was Senator Christopher Dodd and Congressman Barney Frank, both Democrats, who denied that there were any problems, who refused Bush administration requests to set up a regulatory agency to watch over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and who were still pushing for these agencies to go even further in promoting sub-prime mortgage loans almost up to the minute they failed.
As Thomas Sowell points out in a TownHall.com essay entitled "Do Facts Matter?" ( http://snipurl.com/457townhall_com] ): "Alan Greenspan warned them four years ago. So did the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers to the President. So did Bush's Secretary of the Treasury."
These are facts. This financial crisis was completely preventable. The party that blocked any attempt to prevent it was ... the Democratic Party. The party that tried to prevent it was ... the Republican Party.
Yet when Nancy Pelosi accused the Bush administration and Republican deregulation of causing the crisis, you in the press did not hold her to account for her lie. Instead, you criticized Republicans who took offense at this lie and refused to vote for the bailout!
What? It's not the liar, but the victims of the lie who are to blame?
Now let's follow the money ... right to the presidential candidate who is the number-two recipient of campaign contributions from Fannie Mae.
And after Franklin Raines, the CEO of Fannie Mae who made $90 million while running it into the ground, was fired for his incompetence, one presidential candidate's campaign actually consulted him for advice on housing.
If that presidential candidate had been John McCain, you would have called it a major scandal and we would be getting stories in your paper every day about how incompetent and corrupt he was.
But instead, that candidate was Barack Obama, and so you have buried this story, and when the McCain campaign dared to call Raines an "adviser" to the Obama campaign — because that campaign had sought his advice — you actually let Obama's people get away with accusing McCain of lying, merely because Raines wasn't listed as an official adviser to the Obama campaign.
You would never tolerate such weasely nit-picking from a Republican.
If you who produce our local daily paper actually had any principles, you would be pounding this story, because the prosperity of all Americans was put at risk by the foolish, short-sighted, politically selfish, and possibly corrupt actions of leading Democrats, including Obama.
If you who produce our local daily paper had any personal honor, you would find it unbearable to let the American people believe that somehow Republicans were to blame for this crisis.
There are precedents. Even though President Bush and his administration never said that Iraq sponsored or was linked to 9/11, you could not stand the fact that Americans had that misapprehension — so you pounded us with the fact that there was no such link. (Along the way, you created the false impression that Bush had lied to them and said that there was a connection.)
If you had any principles, then surely right now, when the American people are set to blame President Bush and John McCain for a crisis they tried to prevent, and are actually shifting to approve of Barack Obama because of a crisis he helped cause, you would be laboring at least as hard to correct that false impression.
Your job, as journalists, is to tell the truth. That's what you claim you do, when you accept people's money to buy or subscribe to your paper.
But right now, you are consenting to or actively promoting a big fat lie — that the housing crisis should somehow be blamed on Bush, McCain, and the Republicans. You have trained the American people to blame everything bad — even bad weather — on Bush, and they are responding as you have taught them to.
If you had any personal honor, each reporter and editor would be insisting on telling the truth — even if it hurts the election chances of your favorite candidate.
Because that's what honorable people do. Honest people tell the truth even when they don't like the probable consequences. That's what honesty means . That's how trust is earned.
Barack Obama is just another politician, and not a very wise one. He has revealed his ignorance and naivete time after time — and you have swept it under the rug, treated it as nothing.
Meanwhile, you have participated in the borking of Sarah Palin, reporting savage attacks on her for the pregnancy of her unmarried daughter — while you ignored the story of John Edwards's own adultery for many months.
So I ask you now: Do you have any standards at all? Do you even know what honesty means?
Is getting people to vote for Barack Obama so important that you will throw away everything that journalism is supposed to stand for?
You might want to remember the way the National Organization of Women threw away their integrity by supporting Bill Clinton despite his well-known pattern of sexual exploitation of powerless women. Who listens to NOW anymore? We know they stand for nothing; they have no principles.
That's where you are right now.
It's not too late. You know that if the situation were reversed, and the truth would damage McCain and help Obama, you would be moving heaven and earth to get the true story out there.
If you want to redeem your honor, you will swallow hard and make a list of all the stories you would print if it were McCain who had been getting money from Fannie Mae, McCain whose campaign had consulted with its discredited former CEO, McCain who had voted against tightening its lending practices.
Then you will print them, even though every one of those true stories will point the finger of blame at the reckless Democratic Party, which put our nation's prosperity at risk so they could feel good about helping the poor, and lay a fair share of the blame at Obama's door.
You will also tell the truth about John McCain: that he tried, as a Senator, to do what it took to prevent this crisis. You will tell the truth about President Bush: that his administration tried more than once to get Congress to regulate lending in a responsible way.
This was a Congress-caused crisis, beginning during the Clinton administration, with Democrats leading the way into the crisis and blocking every effort to get out of it in a timely fashion.
If you at our local daily newspaper continue to let Americans believe — and vote as if — President Bush and the Republicans caused the crisis, then you are joining in that lie.
If you do not tell the truth about the Democrats — including Barack Obama — and do so with the same energy you would use if the miscreants were Republicans — then you are not journalists by any standard.
You're just the public relations machine of the Democratic Party, and it's time you were all fired and real journalists brought in, so that we can actually have a news paper in our city.
This article first appeared in The Rhinoceros Times of Greensboro, North Carolina, and is used here by permission.

UPDATE:
HATTIP: No Minister some time ago

Charlie Bit Me

2009-03-04T23:09:00.000+13:00

Not watching a lot of tele lately, as it all sucks.

Obama v McCain

2009-03-02T21:52:00.001+13:00

In this modern age when the media decide what we get to see and what we don't, thank goodness for the internet. This video, previously withheld from the public, shows the ugly side of US politics.

Obama Admits he's a Fascist

2009-03-02T21:46:00.000+13:00

Not suitable for work

Teh Internet

2009-03-02T18:06:00.000+13:00

"NZ music is almost never good enough for people to want to pirate, that's why they have quotas to force us to listen to it."

Uh-huh.

http://pc.blogspot.com/2009/02/sometimes-protest-works.html

Charismatic Leaders

2009-02-24T05:59:00.003+13:00

Great post on EU Referendum

http://umbrellog.com/forum3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7294

With a top comment from "gareth":

"Thanks to the rise of the political class, we have had something of a National Government in the UK for years. Different shades of statists that is all. The answer to everything is More Government. The same is largely true for the EU. An alternative point of view is a threat to them and demonised accordingly.

The UK has already suffered it's charismatic leader in the shape of Tony Blair but he was just a greater iteration of Bill Clinton. Empty, shallow, appearance is more important than substance. The rare good that they do drowns in a sea of cynical PR-driven opportunism. The slick patter and thick skind they developed in the legal profession served them well.

Now we have swung from charisma to comic there is an opportunity for someone charismatic to jump in and 'save' us. This could go either way though - save us through marching further towards socialism and a command economy, or save us through stepping back, trimming the ample fat, reducing the reach of the State. We're so used to the State stepping in, dictating what is right, trying to prevent failure (as opposed to just picking up the pieces when we do fail) that I expect it to be the former not the latter.

Top Ten Signs Your Country May Be Going Fascist

2009-02-23T18:03:00.000+13:00

John Key, what are you doing?

2009-02-18T13:19:00.001+13:00

http://johnkey.co.nz/index.php?/archives/612-Fast-tracked-public-projects-give-500m-boost.html#c3135

or

http://tinyurl.com/adkx5s

Crikey! I didn't think it would get "printed".

Disappearing... UPDATED

2009-02-11T13:23:00.005+13:00

Where has he gone?

http://tinyurl.com/amrym2

for a cache of his page.

UPDATED

And:

http://picasaweb.google.com/TractorStats/TractorStats#

for his(?) wonderful photos. Hattip:

http://whollyrude.blogspot.com/

via:

http://obotheclown.blogspot.com/2009/02/tractorstats-wtf.html

Samurai sword attacker Antonie Dixon dies in prison

2009-02-05T11:26:00.001+13:00

Boo-hoo.

The Dismal Scientist - UPDATED 05/02/09 1.25pm

2009-02-04T20:09:00.004+13:00

http://dimpost.wordpress.com/2009/02/04/the-dismal-scientist/

"And other: so far the people quoted by Danyl as syaing this CRA thing is all crap, are ALL working for the FED" chortle: like those NASA AGW experts that reinforce each other's insane ideas about how temperatures are going up...when they aren't.

Note that state regulations in some 29 states absolve borrowers of responsibility for the debt: they can walk away and leave the financier with the house but no right to chase the borrower for any shortfall. The borrower mails the keys to the bank with a note saying so long sucker: the so-called "jingle mail".

So when you get federal regulation pressurising you to lend to sub-prime borrowers and then other regulations preventing enforcement, it's no wonder the financiers tried to get the mess off their books via CDOs.

When it is clear that a bank cannot recover some or all of the money lent to a borrower, they “write-off” the non-recoverable amount

Here’s a simple example to try and illustrate what happened to financiers. In this example called Banco.

Shareholders give Banco $200. Depositors give Banco $800. This is a total of $1000. Banco owes these people $1000.

Banco lends the $1000 to homeowners. The homeowners owe Banco $1000. The world is in harmony.

After time passes, the property price bubble bursts.

After further time passes, the homeowners cannot (or choose not to) pay their mortgage, so walk away from their homes and the loans. Banco repossesses the homes and sells them. The sales raise only $750. Banco has $750, but owes $800 to depositors. Forget about the shareholders…
So assets of $750 minus liabilities of $800 equals negative $50. As there is no such thing as a negative asset (as in “that does not compute”) the bank is “insolvent”. If only people were trusting (and patient), Banco could borrow some more money and start doing high quality lending, making $50+ of profits and be in a position to pay back all their depositors. In the meantime, the depositors (and maybe even their children) have died of old age and hell has frozen over.

Now, Banco (and others in Banco’s industry) are not really letting on that they have a shortfall of $50. Everyone knows that they are likely to have lost money on the sale of the homes, but no knows if they got $850 or $750 or somewhere in between. Everyone gets nervous and stops giving money to Banco & mates. (No CDO’s in sight yet).

In fact, it is worse: Banco didn’t get $750 on the sale of the homes: they only sold half of the homes and raised $375. They can’t seem to give the other homes away. So what they do is value those unsold homes using g the data from the sale of the other home. They come up with a value of $375 for the remaining house. Cash + homes = $750.

Borrowers say “please to give us most of our money back. We’d be happy to have 750/800 x our deposit back now = 93.75% of our money.”
“Err, but we can’t pay you back 93.75% right now,” say Banco “as we have only 46.875% of your money…”
“Fine”, say depositors, “sell those $375 worth of house and pay us our 93.75%.”
But of course those houses aren’t really worth $375, because no one seemed to want to buy them.

“Why the fuck did you lend money to people who couldn’t pay it back?” ask the depositors.
“Because the gummint pressured us to (point 1), but also God appeared to us in a dream (point 2) and told us that property values will be going up for quite a while yet, so we’d be sweet-as if there were a default” reply Banco.
“Holy heck, you didn’t put that into your prospectus!” say the depositors “still, some of the defaulters must have other assets, or income you could get your hands on.”
“Err, actually, in these states here, here and here, they don’t let us do that (point 3).” comes the response from Banco.

Depositors say: “Tammy, dear, I’m just off down the Winnebago dealer to cancel our order. Also, we won’t go on that world cruise in the spring after we retire. In fact, we won’t be retiring just yet: close your wallet, dear (point 4)!”

Later “And the main news story tonight: sharply falling banking stocks drags Wall Street (and CAX, FTSE, DB, NZX, etal) down in frantic trading (point 5).”

“Gee, the stock market’s down! My retirement savings just shrunk: close your wallet, dear (point 6)!”

“And in financial markets news tonight, retailers issue dire profits warning. Retail stocks plummet, dragging Wall Street down.”

See, lots of points and links. CDO’s are merely one of the vehicles or pathways through which real individual savers/depositors gave their money to financiers who then gave a fair proportion to sub-prime borrowers.

Personally, I think the effect of regulations merely made the problem worse, but didn’t cause it. I don’t even think it all comes down to sub-prime borrowers: cheap money (loose monetary policy) let ALL borrowers compete to bid house prices up to unsustainable levels. We had different regulations in NZ and STILL we all bid up house prices.
And at some point, folk began to get nervous about how much debt their gummints were racking up on their behalf. Remember, there is only one way to pay back gummint debt: tax the workers. So they close their wallets in anticipation. (Well, the gummint could just print the money to repay the debt/fund public services, but that ain’t working out too well for North Korea/Zimbabwe is it?)

Oh, and about fraud? It happens all the time: it's just easier to spot when things turn to custard.
Most poor people are ethical, have jobs and don't steal things.
Most bankers are ethical, have jobs and don't steal things.

---------------------

Aw, poo: I forgot to work Fannie (fzztt!) mae and Fat Fredrick Mac into the story, helping create "Moral hazard" in a way that no other english speaking economy replicates. Those 29 states I mentioned earlier: they're creating moral hazard as well. Borrowers are tempted to borrow just a little bit more, because if they over-reach, they can just shrug their shoulders and walk away. If your credit history is crap already, why would you worry about the "stigma" of default?

--------------------

“my understanding is that the loans themselves weren’t the issue.”
Well, your understanding is poor then.
:^)
The loans, ALL loans, not just sub-prime, are secured over property that no one wants to buy. When everyone’s confidence in the property values and the banking industry is shaken to the core, the vehicle through which money flowed is not overly relevent.I have friends with 3 properties in the US that agents won’t even list becuase they have too many on their books already. Luckily, they can afford to wait it out.
Look at our own “sub prime”: the finance companies. The circumstances of the lending was somewhat different, but it still comes back to loans that are “secured” over property (hotels, apartments, 2nd-hand cars) that is not worth the balance of the loan, and there is no further assets (due often to limited liabilty of companies involved) beyond the property, some of which cannot be sold. No CDO’s here, yet it all seemed to kick off at the same time (or even before) the US problem became apparent.

--------------

Che says "ahhhh... i see. so the new Zealand government forced all those loan sharks to extend loans to people of dubious quality?"

Sorry, I thought I was quite clear: I don't believe CRA, Fannie/Freddie, non-recourse loans are the CAUSE of the crisis. The bursting of the property bubble is the cause.
95, 100 and 110% mortgages were all the rage in the UK when I lived there in the very early noughties. (I don't remember 125%, but I guess folk were reassured by Moron Brown's claim that he had eliminated the cycles of boom and bust that seem to plague fractional banking systems!) Yet the UK has no equivalent to CRA, Fan/Fred, non-recourse…

The regulation just didn't help. Like not wearing a seat belt doesn't cause accidents, but it does make it worse...

The bubbles formed through loose monetary policy PLUS loose fiscal policy* PLUS irrationality when it came to asset prices PLUS greed and fraud, pyramid schemes, herd mentality PLUS the regulations PLUS planning laws, building standards, etc.

*loose monetary policy:
- Bush jnr (hey: spell-check "jerk") and his wars and his pork
- Moron Brown and his quangos
- Italy Greece Spain & Portugal on whatever they spend it on (pork?)
- Cullen and his train set, interest free loans, health sector money-shower, millions of extra public "servants", 20 free ECE, Kiwisaver handouts, etc

---------------

Word Verification

2009-01-30T13:01:00.001+13:00

From:

http://tractorstats.blogspot.com/2009/01/new-met-chief-orders-arrest-of-gordon.html

http://tinyurl.com/cegc4a

Police Ticket

2009-01-29T05:51:00.007+13:00

I cannot seem to get thes in the correct order of:
- ticket
- citizen's letter, page 1
- citizen's letter, page 2
- police letter
- funny word verification "cop" & "peelers" (well EYE thought it funny)

IT'S A HORRIBLE LIFE

2009-01-22T17:55:00.001+13:00

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/it

GORDON Brown sat on the railing of the old iron bridge that takes people in and out of the small town of Bedford Falls and stared at the freezing water.

The savings and loan was in a bit of a pickleEverything was messed up. Some people were saying it was all his fault. Maybe it was. Maybe it would be better if he just jumped into that deep, dark river and let it swallow him whole. He sighed and shook his head, wondering if he really had the courage.Suddenly, he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned to see the smiling face of a kindly old man. The stranger held out his hand. "Hello Gordon, I'm Clarence," he said.
"Looks like you're fixing to do something drastic," said Clarence. "Well, let's just take a minute. Tell me Gordon, have you ever wondered what the world would be like if you had never existed? No? Well let's have a look, shall we?"
In the blink of an eye Gordon found himself transported to the middle of Main Street. Amid the glowing lights the good people of Bedford Falls were enjoying their last minute Christmas shopping. A cheerful song and the smell of roasted chestnuts filled the air. Everyone wished each other 'happy holidays!' as the shopkeepers stood in their doorways, beaming with delight and looking forward to another prosperous year."Nothing like having a man in charge who knows not to spend money you don't have on things you don't need and to save something for a rainy day," said Mr Malley, the baker."Last thing this town needs is a man who gives jobs and big, fat pensions to all and sundry at our expense just so as they'll vote for him," replied Mr Logan, the butcher.Gordon spun around, taking it all in. His drab little town seemed so alive. With the giddy excitement of a child on Christmas morning he raced along the pavement, running so fast he almost tumbled over. "Hello Woolworths!" he shouted. "Hello MFI! Hello Whittards!"But just as as he reached the local branch of Northern Rock, everything turned dark. He looked back along Main Street to see the shops boarded up, and for sale signs in every window. Mr Logan, a cleaver in each hand, was desperately fighting off some local youths. A burning mattress was the only source of light and somewhere in the darkness, someone screamed.In an instant Gordon was back at the old bridge. Clarence appeared at his shoulder. "I'm afraid that's how life really is Gordon. And yes, it is all your fault, you total arsehole. Anyway, I just wanted you to see all that before I pushed you in."And with that Clarence grabbed Gordon by the heels and tipped him into the dark, freezing river.
They found his hat three days later.

Inauguration Speech

2009-01-21T19:52:00.000+13:00

http://www.atom.com/spotlights/inauguration_speech_generator/

Thank you Peter Cresswell

My fellow Americans, today is a blunt day. You have shown the world that "hope" is not just another word for "hound", and that "change" is not only something we can believe in again, but something we can actually hounding. Today we celebrate, but let there be no mistake – America faces putrid and minging challenges like never before. Our economy is shameful. Americans can barely afford their mortgages, let alone have enough money left over for Goats. Our healthcare system is wasted. If your knuckle is sick and you don't have insurance, you might as well call a Prostitute. And America's image overseas is tarnished like a country tank. But working together we can right this ship, and set a course for Paris.Finally, I must thank my wicked family, my rooted campaign volunteers, but most of all, I want to thank watermelons for making this historic occasion possible. Of course, I must also thank you, President Bush, for years of driving the American people. Without your fantastic efforts, none of this would have been possible.

Conservatives can make you smile

2009-01-18T10:41:00.001+13:00

With many thanks to Prodicus
http://prodicus.blogspot.com/

Vista

2009-01-03T19:43:00.004+13:00

I recently purchased Vista HmPrem OEM for a machine I bought without an OS. So far so good, although it hasn't REALLY been used for anything strenuous yet.

or
http://blip.tv/file/340692/

Hattip, T England, a commenter on a post of Dizzy's:
http://dizzythinks.net/2008/12/nine-for-2009.html

Which party should I vote for? (UK)

2008-12-15T19:13:00.002+13:00

Which party should I vote for?
The percentages below show how often you agree with each party. For instance, if your score for Labour is 70%, it means that you agree with Labour 70% of the time.
Labour 21%
Conservative 53%
Greens 52%
LibDem 37%
UKIP 85%
Recommendation: You should support the UK Independence Party. The UK Independence Party is a relatively new party, set up in the early 1990s to campaign for Britain to withdraw from the European Union and negotiate a free trade agreement instead. Over the past few years, they have broadened their manifesto to include a commitment to a simplified, fairer flat tax system which would take millions of lower-aid workers out of tax altogether. They believe that the key to economic growth is simplifying and reducing bureaucracy and the tax burden - believing that the public can spend their own money better than the state can! The UK Independence Party believes that the public should have a greater say in how the country is run. The UK Independence Party believes that people would be more interested in politics if they could change public policy by calling a binding referendum on important social and moral issues. They are also pro-civil liberties. The results of this quiz only tell you how often you agree with each party, but it can't tell you which are the most important issues for you. You should therefore treat this result as a guide only.

Hat tip: http://prodicus.blogspot.com/

Reconcilliation - The Reply

2008-12-04T13:15:00.001+13:00

Good morning Gordon

Thank you for your query below. I have attached copies of the fulldetermination for both decisions. You will note from reading them that the Electoral Commission considered there were different circumstancesin the two cases.

Regards

Deidre
Deidre Brookes
Statutory Relationships Manager
Electoral Commission
DDI: 04 474 0673
Mobile: 021 0260 8928
Email: deidre@elections.govt.nz
Web: www.elections.org.nz
P O Box 3050
Wellington 6140

Reconciliation

2008-12-03T18:42:00.001+13:00

Email: Wednesday, 3 December, 2008 5:42 AM
From: "Gordon Brown"
To: chief.electoral.office@justice.govt.nz
Dear Dr Catt, Hon McGechan
I was wondering if you could help me please? I am struggling to reconcile the decisions below:
- Electoral Commission decision 2008-47, Green Party, election advertisement
- Electoral Commission decision 2008-45, ACT New Zealand, election advertisement

Your organisation has refered a complaint about a jacket to the police, but not a complaint about a sign. I look forward to your response.

Gordon Brown
Wellington

Brown v Green

2008-11-29T07:43:00.004+13:00

Um, what is going on in the YooKay? We think our police are compromised. That is nothing compared to this...

Cannot imbed the sodding Sky video

so:

http://tinyurl.com/6m7aj7

And could this be the truth:
http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1425&Itemid=59

or
http://tinyurl.com/6n74r4

Celia Lashlie on Nia Glassie

2008-11-20T06:36:00.002+13:00

I saw this on Nightline last night. I was confused and so slept before posting on it:

http://www.3news.co.nz/Video/National/tabid/309/articleID/80628/cat/17/Default.aspx#video

She says unless all New Zealanders accept some responsibility, this will happen again. I thought, Is she saying to so-called "community leaders" that they need to pull their socks up and take some responsibility. Probably not, because she goes on to say: "I have a lot of anger, mostly against my class, white middle class New Zealanders". WTF?

Well, former prison boss Celia Lashlie, what did I do wrong? Did I not pay enough tax to give to these guys to shoot up or piss away? Or are you suggesting that I'm to blame cos of my namby pamby sickly white liberalism?

Great book, not sure about that comment though. It may have lost something in the editing...

Fuck Off and Die, Brown, you Commie Bastard

2008-11-11T11:23:00.002+13:00

Under the guise of helping, the socialists advance their agenda of not just controlling your lives, but ceding some of that control to their fellow elites from foreign countries.

http://www.businessday.co.nz/world/4756431

World
UK's Brown: Time to build global society
Reuters Monday, 10 November 2008
NEW ORDER: The global credit crisis gives world leaders a unique chance to create a truly global society, Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown plans to say in a foreign policy speech tonight.

The international financial crisis has given world leaders a unique opportunity to create a truly global society, Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown will say in a keynote foreign policy speech tonight.
In his annual speech at the Lord Mayor's Banquet, Brown -- who has spearheaded calls for the reform of international financial institutions -- will say Britain, the United States and Europe are key to forging a new world order.
"The alliance between Britain and the US -- and more broadly between Europe and the U.S. -- can and must provide leadership, not in order to make the rules ourselves, but to lead the global effort to build a stronger and more just international order," an excerpt from the speech says.
Brown and other leaders meet in Washington next weekend to discuss longer term solutions for dealing with economic issues following a series of coordinated moves on interest rates and to recapitalize banks in the wake of the financial crisis.
"Uniquely in this global age, it is now in our power to come together so that 2008 is remembered not just for the failure of a financial crash that engulfed the world but for the resilience and optimism with which we faced the storm, endured it and prevailed," Brown will say in his speech on Monday evening.
"...And if we learn from our experience of turning unity of purpose into unity of action, we can together seize this moment of change in our world to create a truly global society."
According to a summary of the speech released by his office, Brown will set out five great challenges the world faces.
These are: terrorism and extremism and the need to reassert faith in democracy; the global economy; climate change; conflict and mechanisms for rebuilding states after conflict; and meeting goals on tackling poverty and disease.
Brown will also identify five stages for tackling the economy, starting with recapitalizing banks so they can resume lending to families and businesses, and better international co-ordination of fiscal and monetary policy.
He also wants immediate action to stop the spread of the financial crisis to middle-income countries, with a new facility for the International Monetary Fund, and agreement on a global trade deal, as well as reform of the global financial system.
"My message is that we must be: internationalist not protectionist; interventionist not neutral; progressive not reactive; and forward looking not frozen by events. We can seize the moment and in doing so build a truly global society."

Oh, Greenspan!

2008-10-24T07:29:00.003+13:00

Greenspan walks into an ambush. Now National State Radio is spinning that the ideology of capitalism is "flawed".

UPDATE: http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=5330

(Hattip Not PC)

Are you a "News"paper, or a Gummint Press Bureau?

2008-10-22T14:48:00.004+13:00

Rail is safer and better for us
By NIKKI PRESTON - Waikato Times Monday, 20 October 2008

New Zealand's transport system has come full circle, with companies looking at trains and coastal shipping as cheaper and greener alternatives to trucking.

Well, fuckwits, looking is all they're doing, as your article then demonstrates:

Currently, 92 per cent of freight, by weight, is transported via road, 6 per cent by rail, 2 per cent by coastal shipping and nothing is transported by air, according to the national freight demands study.
However, in terms of the length of haul, rail and coastal shipping have a larger share of the market, representing 15 per cent each. Road makes up the additional 70 per cent.

Perhaps "Nikki" isn't to blame, maybe the subbies somehow equated 6% by weight as somehow 51% or more by number of journeys, or something.

http://www.businessday.co.nz/industries/infrastructure/4733404

Abortion is better than this, surely

2008-10-21T17:44:00.000+13:00

Adults made no effort to get help for Nia Glassie, court told

21-Oct 14:09
For 36 hours after she was kicked repeatedly in the head, little Nia Glassie lay in a coma in a Rotorua house with no one - not even her mother - making any effort to get medical help, a court was told today.
The chilling details in the lead-up to the three-year-old's death at Auckland Starship Hospital on August 3 last year, were outlined to a jury in the High Court at Rotorua this morning.
Crown prosecutor Fletcher Pilditch's opening address in the trial of five people for murder and manslaughter was expected to continue into this afternoon.
The long delay in getting help robbed Nia of any chance of surviving her injuries, Mr Pilditch said.
The Crown alleges brothers Wiremu and Michael Curtis, murdered Nia by kicking her in the head a number of times, causing bleeding on her brain on the evening of July 20, 2007.
When she sank into unconsciousness Wiremu Curtis, the then-partner of Nia's mother, Lisa Kuka, told the toddler to wake up.
After she failed to do so he put her to bed, Mr Pilditch said.
In the early of hours of the next morning, Nia's older sister woke Kuka to tell her Nia had wet the bed, which was unusual.
Kuka who is charged with manslaughter, put the three-year-old in the bath, dressed her, and put her back in bed.
Nia did not wake up on July 21, while the adults were preparing for Michael Curtis' 21st birthday party.
By the time guests started to arrive she was seen having fits and frothing at the mouth, her arms were shaking and her legs were stiff.
One eye was partially open and her breathing was stopping and starting.
The five accused face multiple charges to which they have pleaded not guilty:
Wiremu Curtis: Murder, three counts of wilful ill-treatment likely to have caused unnecessary suffering, five assaults (three against Nia, one each against two older girls).
Michael William Curtis: Murder, three charges of wilful ill-treatment and four of assaulting Nia, two counts each of assaulting two other children.
Lisa Michelle Kuka: Manslaughter (by failing to provide medical treatment and failing to protect her daughter from violence).
Michael Paul Pearson: Manslaughter (being a party to the unlawful acts of Wiremu and Michael Curtis which caused the death of Nia Glassie), two counts of wilful ill-treatment, four assaults (two on Nia, one each on two other girls).
Oriwa Terrina Kemp: Manslaughter (being a party to unlawful acts), two charges of wilful ill-treatment, two of assaulting Nia. The trial is proceeding.
NZPA

(From TV3 website)

http://www.3news.co.nz/News/Adults-made-no-effort-to-get-help-for-Nia-Glassie-court-told/tabid/209/articleID/76618/cat/87/Default.aspx

What ARE we doing, peoples?

2008-10-20T16:23:00.000+13:00

Strong growth in world demand for food will carry New Zealand through the worst of the global financial crisis, according to BNZ national managing partner Tony Arthur.

Yet:

New Zealand's story was not being told. "I go to the largest agribusiness operator in China and he doesn't know anyone from New Zealand. He buys lamb and beef out of Australia, he's bought yoghurt out of Australia. I find it of concern."

http://www.businessday.co.nz/print/4732611a27566.html

Concerning, indeed.

Australia unveils A$10.4b stimulus plan

2008-10-14T17:07:00.000+13:00

Australia unveils A$10.4b stimulus plan
http://www.businessday.co.nz/world/australia/4726977
…
The housing sector is a major beneficiary. The Government will triple to $21,000 the current $7,000 first-home buyers grant for people buying a newly constructed home. Those first-home buyers moving into existing properties will receive a doubling of the allowance to $14,000.
Why pick such an old-fashioned industry to subsidise. Back in the 90s I read an article about protectionism and the Australian motor industry. Apparently, the protectionism causes a dead-weight loss to the economy of $250,000 per job in the industry. That’s why Australians drive dinosaurs like Falcon & Commodore…

How about every Australian be given a transferable voucher worth $500, to be spent on computers, software or broadband sign-up costs? And another worth $300 to spend on Australian software?
Transferable so those who already have a computer, or don’t want one, can sell it (at a discount maybe) in order to buy other stuff. And the voucher should have a short expiry, like maybe 3 months, to encourage it to be used quickly. Or, or, or.

Or why not just cut taxes to a flat 23%...

Nah, too fucking simple.

(Why is the Aussie gummint trying to stimulate the "real" Australian economy when the effects of the financial crisis on the "real" economy are uncertain, if any?)

Blair Gone

2008-10-03T08:55:00.001+13:00

Sir is out the door.

Broad next?

ELECTIONS 2008

2008-09-14T00:24:00.000+12:00

a MALILI MULIAINA
a ALL BLACKS

Why Central Planning Isn't Required

2008-09-05T12:57:00.000+12:00

Unless you are a new-wave statist-bureaucratist

A New Ism is named

2008-09-05T12:36:00.000+12:00

new-wave statist-bureaucratist

and

new-wave statist-bureaucratism

(c) Clunking Fist 2008

Defined as:
not socialist, not for the people: just for the public service, whatever the cost and come hell or high water.

UPDATE: instead of procrastination, bureaucrastination.

How Taxes Work

2008-08-26T16:44:00.001+12:00

Bar Stool Economics, something to which we ALL can relate!

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. They could all just pay $10 since they all drank beer or if they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
The first four men (the poorest of the 10) would pay nothing. The fifth would pay $1. The sixth would pay $3. The seventh would pay $7. The eighth would pay $12. The ninth would pay $18. The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59. So, that's what they decided to do.
The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed OK with the arrangement until one day, the owner threw them a curve. 'Since you are all such good and faithful customers,' he said, 'I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer bill by $20. Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.'
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes, so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free.
But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?'
They realised if they divided the $20 savings by six they could each reduce the amount they were paying by $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill the same way Tax Savings are dispersed, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.
And so, the fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings)
- so 5 men are drinking for free. The sixth now paid only $2 instead of $3 (33% savings). The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28% savings). The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings). The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings). The tenth (the wealthiest) now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).
Each of the six was better off than before.. And the first four continued to drink for free, now along with the 5th too. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their total dollar savings. 'I only got a dollar out of the $20' declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man: 'but he got $10!' 'Yeah, that's right,' exclaimed the fifth man.
'I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than I!' 'That's true!!' shouted the seventh man. 'Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!'
'Wait a minute,' yelled the first four men in unison. '$20 was given back and we didn't get anything at all. This system exploits the poor!' The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.
The next night, the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!
And that, ladies and gentlemen, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics, University of Georgia
For those who understand, no explanation is needed. For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible.

(received by email)

DRAFT POST Applications for broadband funding open

2008-08-26T14:30:00.000+12:00

Applications for broadband funding open

Applications for the $340 million Broadband Investment Fund (BIF) are now open.

The BIF contains $325 million operating and $15 million capital funding available over a maximum of five years and is a key part of the government’s Digital Strategy 2.0 package.

The Fund is targeting high-speed open access urban fibre networks, better rural connectivity and improved international links. AND IS ABSOLUTELY NOT TARGETING PIGS LOOKING FOR A THROUGH.

It will be used to accelerate broadband investment in two particular areas:
• facilitating high-speed broadband to businesses and entities such as municipalities, universities, schools and hospitals in urban centres WHERE THERE IS PROBABLY A PERFECTLY ADEQUATE BUSINESS PLAN WITHOUT THROWING MY FUCKING TAXES AT IT;
• extending the reach of broadband into underserved regions, particularly in the rural sector.
Community groups are encouraged to work with suppliers and local government to signal their interest in being involved in using broadband to improve productivity and New Zealand’s connectivity to the rest of the world.

Applications for the BIF close on 30 September 2008.

More details and application packages can be found at www.digitalstrategy.govt.nz. The helpdesk number for inquiries about submitting an application is 0508 276232 (0508 BROADBAND).

Me for President!

2008-08-25T23:21:00.000+12:00

Now just wait a snottin' pickin' minute: there's a new boy on the block want's yer vote.
Are you fixin'on voting for them Donks or Republicans? Vote for me: James Gordon Brown of the Publican's Party. Donations to a/c 01-0111-01111111-00 or by post to: 1177 Willis Street, Wellington. This message authorised by me, 5 Carmicael Road, Coral Harbour, The Bahamas.

Yeah, I know: Adolf did it first. And now Not Peter Cresswell, too.

Dumb Ideas

2008-08-22T07:08:00.000+12:00

#1 - Phil Goof decides to pick on the army in an election year.
Should you have not just expressed some disappointed with what's happened, that leasons have been learned, let's now move on?

#2 - Cadbury to feed us the brown plastic that Australian's call chocolate:
a) melt in the mouth: r
b) taste like petrol: a

#3 - Have a Police psyche that seems to spoil for a fight over the Undie 500. They really ARE the Fun Police. What is this country coming to?

The ComCom is desirable cos...?

2008-08-14T18:17:00.000+12:00

AUCKLAND AIRPORT DROPS DUTY FREE PLAN
Auckland Airport has backed off plans to cut the number of duty free retailers from two to one, buckling to pressure from the Commerce Commission.
The commission's view was that shoppers would have ended up paying higher prices for duty free goods.

So only one Duty Free is no good in the commission's eyes? Are they regularly patrolling the airport to ensure there are 2 shoe repair kiosks? Two ice cream parlours? Two newsagents? Two passport photo booths?

ComCom's Paul(a) Rebstock

You Are Fucking Kidding

2008-08-07T18:35:00.000+12:00

Al Bore buys a boat

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/gore-hits-the-waves-with-a-massive-new-houseboat/

http://michellemalkin.com/2008/08/06/name-al-gores-hugetastic-boat/#comments

Hat tip Tom Nelson http://tomnelson.blogspot.com/

Life on Mars

2008-08-03T16:30:00.000+12:00

Reserve Bank Email Service

NEWS RELEASE

Date 30 July 2008

Time EMBARGOED TO 4:00PM

Inflation targeting serves NZ well

New Zealand's inflation-targeting framework continues to serve theeconomy well, but we should be careful not to ask too much of it,Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard said today.

In a speech titled "Flexibility and the Limits to Inflation Targeting",Dr Bollard said inflation targeting is the best approach New Zealand andmany other similar countries have yet found for monetary policy, among alimited number of viable alternatives.

"Of course, we continue to seek improvements. But overall, and even inthe current very difficult circumstances, the flexible inflationtargeting framework positions us well to manage the ongoing shocksimpacting the New Zealand economy."

Prima facie evidence that the man lives on another planet than most New Zealanders: inflation is 4% and predicted to reach 4.8% in qtr 4.

AVIATION INCLUDED IN EU ETS

2008-07-09T18:46:00.000+12:00

The European Parliament has voted in favour of including aviation in the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS).
Under the new directive greenhouse gas emissions from flights to, from and within the EU will be included in the EU ETS from 2012.
All airlines will be covered whatever their origin.

So the madness continues unabated. If another Greenie tries to convince me that the end of the world is nigh due to Global WarmingTM AND Peak Oil(r), I'll kick them in the nads. Then I'll proceed to explain about how a lack of oil will lend itself to the task of solving fossil fuel burning.

National State Radio

2008-07-08T07:27:00.001+12:00

Left wing bias? Never... Tui

6am news: the story on National 's broadcasting policy consists of an excerpt of an interview with Duckie.

At 7.33, National's spokesman on the issue is interviewed, mostly okay, just the usual trick of his microphone being muted whenever Sean speaks. Sean then invites him to stay on the line, as Mallard is present. Mallard then describes his view on the National policy. Then Sean thanks everyone and terminates the interview, so the National spokesman stayed on the line for what exactly? Where was his right of reply?

Duckie complained that it was unfair to expect radio New Zealand to release ratings data if private sector stations don't have to. Doh! Private sector radio stations are not owned by the public (so their data is like, you know, private), and they are judged on profitability.

Catch Some Crims, why you don't you

2008-07-08T06:23:00.000+12:00

So motorists sometimes ignore Road Closure signs and become stuck in snow drifts. Farmers complain about having to spend an afternoon getting these folk out.

A representative of South Island police says these motorists are risking a fine of up to $150. But he feels they should be dragged before the courts. Gee, that's a good use of resources.

He's an idea. Those Road Closed signs should include an itemised lists of costs associated with rescue:
- Labour: $100/hr per rescuer (charged in 1/2 hour units, including travel time to and from site of rescue)
- Tractor/Digger hire: $100/hr per tractor/digger
- Fuel use: $2/litre

That way, motorists know the consequences of their actions and farmers are compensated for their troubles. Then the only involvement of the courts will be to collect the payment should the motorist fail to pay up. Farmers could carry mobile eftpos!

Liberty Scott: Big Sister Cindy "Stalin" Kiro supported by Stalinist Sue

2008-06-30T14:21:00.000+12:00

Liberty Scott: Big Sister Cindy "Stalin" Kiro supported by Stalinist Sue

If this wasn't so serious, it would be funny. let's hope any enabling legislation gets canned upon the assumption to the throne of Prince John.

(And if he forgets, Sir Roger and Mr Hide can give him a kick in the bollocks.)

Pig Cunts

2008-06-28T10:16:00.000+12:00

Stolen from Bishop Cranmer (via No Minister) so that I can watch it over and over (I sometimes suffer low blood pressure, and this is cheaper than medication*).

*Not really.

First World

2008-06-10T07:10:00.000+12:00

As I live in a "first world" country, according to the not-so-wise Sullen, I expect to have a warm and cosy home in winter.I've invested in heatpumps, I've invested in insulation and double-glazing.
But I've also invested in a gas bottle and portable gas heater as "backup (heat) generation" should my gummints incompetence impact further on my standard of living.

I think we should use as much power as we want, tempered by how much we can afford to pay for. If there is a black-out, so be it. At least then our gummint's incompetence will be visible for all to see, maybe even to Liarbore supporters...

FT? No thanks.

2008-06-09T10:02:00.000+12:00

I see even the FT's line is that AGW is a given. Jees Louise. Another publication being taken over by groupthink.

Gay Freestyle

2008-06-01T12:47:00.000+12:00

Roffle.

Gordon Brown is a Leninist Mimsy Bubble

2008-05-31T18:48:00.000+12:00

http://the-tap.blogspot.com/2008/05/new-labour-gordon-brown-is-leninist.html

A great post detailing a theory on what makes the snot gobbling bottler tick.

Digital Development Council and Forum launched

2008-05-30T10:47:00.000+12:00

Communications and Information Technology Minister David Cun"t"liffe today launched the structure that will become an important contributor to New Zealand’s digital future.

The Minister hosted the signing of the establishment rules for the Digital Development Council, which will in turn set up the Digital Development Forum.

A holding website page, www.ddc.org.nz, is linked from www.digitaldevelopment.org.nz and www.digitaldevelopment.net.nz.

The Council’s email address for inquiries is info@ddc.org.nz. It is planning its first meeting for early June.

Two more Quangos. So this requires central Planning, Soviet Style? I might email them and ask them for their budgets. Cunts, cunts, cunts.

WTF

2008-05-24T13:01:00.000+12:00

$9 Million for Racing

2008-05-22T14:19:00.000+12:00

I missed this on Friday. I was probably too busy watching the rugby, not being a racing man. I do like me beer, though.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4550801a17395.html

or

http://tinyurl.com/6h7x2o

That's a lot of money. It would buy a few classrooms for schools that need them.
How exactly is this "social spending", Mr Cullen?

You are a big fucking cunt of a man.

Even socialists (or is it especially socialists?) think it's a weird idea.

http://blog.greens.org.nz/index.php/2008/05/20/the-minister-of-racings-9-million-stake/

or

http://tinyurl.com/6s38hq

The Great Global Warming Swindle

2008-05-20T12:57:00.000+12:00

It looks like UK Channel 4's doco "The Great Global Warming Swindle" will be on Prime 1st June. Just a rumour, i can't seem to find schedules that go that far in advance on the interweb.

Clever Plan, guaranteed to Work, says Tui

2008-05-16T05:49:00.000+12:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7399340.stm
or
http://tinyurl.com/3s3gf7

The Snot Goblin will use taxpayer money (£200 MILLION!) to buy unsold homes and then rent them to beneficiaries.
What a lovely sounding plan, kill two birds with one stone. Problem is, it may kill the home values in the area "fixed".
I have nothing against beneficiaries, but isn't parachuting them into posh areas a great way to get Liarbore voters into Conservative constituencies.

Hat Tip - Mark Wadsworth
http://markwadsworth.blogspot.com/2008/05/big-numbers-big-numbers.html

Inflation?

2008-05-15T19:28:00.000+12:00

"Inflation?" Says Mikey (Fiscal Fool) Sullen "Is that where prices of things like Wellington office space and Communication Manager wages go up cos I keep handing out money?"

Waste? You want waste?
How about this in the MED's poosletter:
"New management initiative to be launched next month: A new programme of activity promoting the importance of management skills to firm (as in business?) performance will be launched next month by Management Focus."

They've got a jazzy logo and evyfing! The mission:
"Management Focus is a communications initiative established by the Business Capability Partnership, a consortium of private and public sector organisations, to highlight the impact strong management skills can have on overall business performance. By working collaboratively these organisations aim to encourage business owners and managers to assess, develop and improve their performance."
What's the bet that the Business Crapability Prattleship is chock-full of little piglets suckling on taxpayers tit? And that the initiative will consist of volumes of printed and html material that ALREADY EXISTS out in WWWland, accessible via google.
Hey, gummint, how about just getting the fuck out of our lives whilst we try to make ourselves a living by pleasing our customers?

And I DID mention the Families Commission, right?
What the FUCK do they achieve (nothing) and how MUCH do they spend in the process?
Visit their website to see an exercise in futility.

Here are THEIR OWN descriptions of some of the studies they've undertaken or reports they've written:

"The Whänau Talk project was a pilot study conducted to explore what Mäori whänau (families) talk about in their everyday lives and how such talk contributes to whänau socialisation." And the results of this will be used to...?

"Understanding Pacific peoples in the context of their families is crucial to working successfully with Pacific families and communities." Yep, they're close-knit: I had never noticed that.

"A narrative analysis that identified the ways in which young people make sense of family, friendship and intimacy, and how they imagine they might live their lives in the context of these meanings." Pardon? No child makes sense of family after the age of about 12. It's part of the way we flee the nest. Next?

"Nine women with Multiple Sclerosis, who had become mothers in the past five years, were interviewed individually about their experiences of pregnancy, birth and mothering children up to the age of five years. " Is that a scientific study then? Who was in the control group? MS sufferers who DIDN'T become mothers? Non-MS mothers? What were your conclusions? That MS sucks?

32 FTE's as at July 2006
Say 2 on $180k
8 on $80k
10 on $50
10 on $40k
total of $1.9 million
750m2 office at $320/m2 = $240k rent
power light & phone, petty cash for pastries/coffees/lunch for internal meetings, cars for senior execs? Cars for researchers and community liaison folk (http://tinyurl.com/52muxd).
Shit: I've just popped a vein. I'll leave it there...

Aluminium Smelter

2008-05-13T07:04:00.000+12:00

Yeah, go on you numpties, give the smelter an exemption from ETS.

How many exemptions, extensions and free-allocations that does make it now? Why don't you just give up, you stupid communists.

This is like the Monthy Python Black Knight: "don't worry, it's only a scratch, the ETS is effective regardless, Helen will bite the kneecaps off those carbon molecules."

We trust you, Hulun. Why, nearly a BILLION FUCKING DOLLARS for a rusty train set, is mere small change. Well, it's a shit load of money for people on benefits, especially if they really are SICK so can't run a horticultural business on the side. It's a shit load of money if you are waiting for a hip replacement. Or breast cancer drugs.

Make no mistake, by spending this money on trains instead of medicine, you are killing people.

This gummint in thrall to Ad agencies

2008-05-06T13:16:00.000+12:00

I want to get myself a little run about as a second car. I will be asking for, neigh, DEMANDING that it have sidebeefcurtainairstripbags.

I've not watched much telly lately, so have just seen that poor (exploited IMHO) brain-injured lass extolling the virtues of curtain airbags.

Who the FUCK dreamed up this campaign?
Not only are these twunts out of touch (I mean, who in middle earth can afford a NEW car these days, tell me) but they must all be having their tiny cocks sucked by folk who run ad agencies.

http://www.ltsa.govt.nz/media/2008/080418.html

"The message to motorists is simple - if you want to maximise your safety you must choose a vehicle with a head-protecting airbag."
The high profile Land Transport NZ-ACC vehicle safety campaign gets underway this Sunday (20 April), with the launch of a disturbing new television ad depicting the debilitating effects of brain injuries suffered in crashes.

Er, I'll get round to it. Right after I've saved for my retirement, feed my children and paid the mortgage.

Okay, so it's ACC, so it's not coming directly out of my taxes...except that non-work related accidents are funded out of earner premium that adds 1.2% or something to my already 39% (marginal) tax rate. Hmmm....

Tax Breaks for Rugby Players - Moffett (sp?)

2008-04-16T13:45:00.000+12:00

Rugby is the best sport in the world. Any argument to the contrary is just Bullshit, as Phil would say.

But why the fuck would anyone think that pro rugby players need a tax break to remain in the country? Any rugby player who doesn't take the opportunity to play overseas in a numb-nuts (I obviously WON'T be revealing by true identity anytime soon).

I'm a pro accountant. I took the opportunity to account overseas. I am a different person because of it. Better, I hope.

Rugby opens doors for players who can come from any walk of life. They need to be encouraged to walk through some of those doors, not discouraged.

Unlike doctors, when a great rugby player steps aside/heads overseas, there is an eager youngster prepared (maybe "ready" is too strong a word) to step into his boots.

The same cannot be said for doctors: once a doctor is lost to NZ, we have to pinch another from an even poorer country than ours (or hope a British doctor comes for a holiday) otherwise there is only an administrator or cleaner to step up to the mark.

No, ALL fucking NZers need a tax break to encourage us to stay/come back, Mr Moffett, not just pro rugby players. This was on National State Radio this morning, so no link, can't find it on stuff or NZH.

Apparently Ireland has something in place. Good for them. They also have taxpayer funded EU nonsense money to pay for it, too, no doubt.

Related from Herald (no mention of Moffett or tax-breaks):

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/4/story.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10504314

Ford considers axing V8 Falcon

2008-04-16T13:44:00.000+12:00

Spot the marketing gimick. Ford have been dropping the V* since I was a spotty teen.

Still better than a holden, though.

Brigitte Bardot on trial for Muslim slur

2008-04-16T13:42:00.000+12:00

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4482961a1860.html

Poor France, once a fine country with fine traditions. Now it is attacked from within.

Why can't racial slurs just be dealt with by ridicule?

"I am fed up with being under the thumb of this population which is destroying us, destroying our country and imposing its acts," is the comment that is at issue.

I'm not sure that she wasn't talking about socialist gummints...

Blame Canada!

2008-04-07T16:00:00.000+12:00

Dear God, this shower of socialist shit get all antsy over Canada buying an airport and whisking it off in the dead of night. God only knows what the populace (sorry I mean voters) will feel about this:

CHINA INFRASTRUCTURE FIRMS EYE VECTOR'S ASSETS
China's State Grid Corporation and Hong Kong's Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings are eyeing bids for Vector's Wellington electricity network, reports the South China Morning Post. State Grid would lodge a bid later this week, reports the newspaper. Cheung Kong Infrastructure is Hong Kong's largest listed infrastructure company.

(from the Independent 07/04/08)

policy network - new ideas for progressive politics

2008-04-06T08:12:00.000+12:00

The conference is entitled:

"Progressive governance conference 2008. An inclusive globalisation: promoting prosperity for all"

Unbelievably, delegates at the conference's plush Grove Hotel just laughed and clapped as the Chilean finance minister talked about the "poetic justice" of the subprime crisis. What planet are these people on? Millions of people around the world are losing their homes and they laugh?

http://www.order-order.com/2008/04/questions-on-progressive-governance.html

How. Very. Inclusive. (Nicely paid for by the British Taxpayer, at a time when every household in Britain is already saddled with GBP74k in government debt.)

Socialists don't want the hoi poloi to aspire to home ownership (especially as there is a strong correlation between homeownership and voting blue). That want you to be clients of a benevolant state that provides housing for everyone. Of course the pigs (politicians) will get the apples and milk (diesel BMW limos, Kelburn mansions), whilst you and I can make do with one- or two-bedroomed apartments built on poorly rehabilated waste sites.

Liarbore first, under the Electoral Finance Act, to cop a slap. Albeit with a feather.

2008-04-03T07:03:00.000+13:00

Dickheads.

Eat (off) The Rich

2008-03-05T18:20:00.000+13:00

I have just read this article:

The Wall Street Journal The Tax Threat to Prosperity By ARTHUR B. LAFFER January 25, 2008; Page A15

This juicy bit caught mt attention:
"Since 1980, statutory marginal tax rates have fallen dramatically. The highest marginal income tax rate in 1980 was 70%. Today it is 35%. In the year Ronald Reagan took office (1981) the top 1% of income earners paid 17.58% of all federal income taxes. Twenty-five years later, in 2005, the top 1% paid 39.38% of all income taxes."

Good onya, you "rich pricks". The article explains how lowering taxes at the top end has a dramatic effect on the level of avoidance.

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.music.artists.springsteen/browse_thread/thread/0ef1acde5d699b1f/517cd1ec3beb8e22

or

http://tinyurl.com/22v7pk

A great little video on the Laffer Curve:

Hat tip: NZBR (just catching up on reading their "Update" and "Perspectives" emails)

Dirty Buggers

2008-02-26T16:50:00.000+13:00

AIR NZ PASSENGER NUMBERS GROW
Air New Zealand passenger numbers grew 5.8% in January 2008 from the same month last year. Passenger numbers on long haul routes grew 11.7%, despite price adjustments made to reflect fuel increases and other operating costs.

Haven't they heard of global warming? LOL: it'll be all the folk heading to Aussie for a better life...

Sean Plunket Stabs PM in the Face

2008-02-13T07:20:00.000+13:00

Ha ha, "So, Prime Minister, there is no target for this policy" of helping people buy houses. Unfortunately, I not sure some listeners would realise why it's important, for fiscal responsibility reasons, to have targets when doling out taxpayer money...

Um, But that's Mental

2008-02-12T13:24:00.000+13:00

Police launch dawn raid on boy of 12 'over school fight'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=513478&in_page_id=1770

I received a great email joke the other day:

School 1960 vs. School 2007

Scenario: Johnny and Mark get into a fistfight after school.
1960 - Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up mates.
2007 - Police are called, SWAT team arrives and arrests Johnny and Mark. Mobiles with video of fight confiscated as evidence. They are charged with assault, AVOs are taken out and both are suspended even though Johnny started it. Diversionary conferences and parent meetings conducted. Video shown on 6 internet sites.

Scenario: Jeffrey won't sit still in class, disrupts other students.
1960 - Jeffrey is sent to the principal's office and given a good paddling. Returns to class, sits still and does not disrupt class again.
2007 - Jeffrey is given huge doses of Ritalin. Counselled to death. Becomes a zombie. Tested for ADD. School gets extra funding because Jeffrey has a disability. Drops out of school.

Scenario: Billy breaks a window in his neighbor's car and his Dad gives him a whipping with his belt.
1960 - Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college, and becomes a successful businessman.
2007 - Billy's dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy is removed to foster care and joins a gang. Psychologist tells Billy's sister that she remembers being abused herself and their dad goes to prison. Billy's mum has an affair with the psychologist. Psychologist gets a promotion.

Scenario: Mark, a college student, brings cigarettes to school .
1960 - Mark shares a smoke with the school principal out on the smoking area.
2007 - Police are called and Mark is expelled from School for drug possession. His car is searched for drugs and weapons.

Scenario: Vinh fails high school English.
1960 - Vinh goes to Remedial English, passes and goes to college.
2007 - Vinh's cause is taken up by local human rights group. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that making English a requirement for graduation is racist. Civil Liberties Association files class action lawsuit against state school system and his English teacher. English is banned from core curriculum. Vinh is given his Y10 anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he cannot speak English.

Scenario: Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers, puts them in a model plane paint bottle and blows up an anthill.
1960 - Ants die. 2007 - Security and ASIO are called and Johnny is charged with domestic terrorism. Teams investigate parents, siblings are removed from the home, computers are confiscated, and Johnny's dad goes on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again. Scenario: Johnny falls during recess and scrapes his knee. His teacher, Mary, finds him crying, and gives him a hug to comfort him. 1960 - Johnny soon feels better and goes back to playing.
2007 - Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces three years in prison. Johnny undergoes five years of therapy. Becomes gay.

Taxes and Benefits

2008-02-09T22:40:00.000+13:00

"I may be an arrogant thieving fuckwit, but you, sir, are a rich prick" *

Transitioning to work for beneficiaries and the low-paid has been bollocks-ed up by the tax credits that governments pay these folk. It leaves them facing very high effective marginal tax rates.

In response to a post by Mr Vindico on welfare reform:

http://vindicovindico.blogspot.com/2008/02/ok-one-more.html

I wrote (numbers changed for NZ$):

How about this?

Make benefits tax-free.

For all other taxable income, the first $35k (hello, Sir Robert Jones) tax free, 30% thereafter.

Beneficiaries, however, have a special tax code that tax their income at the normal rates (zero to 35k) PLUS 30% "benefit payback" to $15k, 40% payback to $35k and 10% thereafter.

I have no idea what a benefit is worth, but the tax code could indicate to the payroll clerk how much maximum payback is. E.g. if you are on benefits worth $250 per week, then your tax code would ensure that you payback no more than $250 quid each week (tax code of "B250").
The normal entitlement rules apply to the benefit (again: I have no idea what these rules are for the various benefits), so if you are on a sickness benefit, you could start part at work part-time as you begin to get better. Once you are back full-time and no longer eligible, your benefit stops and your tax code reverts to normal. You would likely have been paying all of the benefit back anyway if you were earning more than $769 per week ($40k pa) back in your job.

I think, (but have no expert knowledge in this area) that it might aid transition back to work for beneficiaries, as they face a marginal tax rate of 30% or 40%.

It would also allow those who receive benefits for permanent illness, disability or injury to work part-time (where possible) in a simple manner. E.g., no forms to fill. You could work different hours each week, depending on how able you are that week: your "B" tax code takes care of the rest.

Okay, so I included a bit of income tax reform in there, too. And it would require all the bollocking tax credit thingies be converted to a benefit. Would that mean bringing back family benefit of $x per child per week? That would also be added to the "B" code max amount. I’ll have to think further on this…

* This refers to his desire to get his socialist hands all over my pay-packet, allegedly to help the poor and oppressed. But instead, he and his cronies go and spend it on BMWs and quangos. I do not mean to imply he is a thief in his personal life. Please don’t sue me, you cunt.

Silence of the Lambs

2008-02-08T19:22:00.000+13:00

Europe’s çommissars have their hands up Millipede's arse "Hurro, I'd really ruve to sign your ruvry treaty that isn’t a constitution at all. Cuppa tea, what!"

Here in knizilind, bloggers picked up the Electoral Finance Bill (now, alas, Act) issue and ran with it. One of our major daily newspapers subsequently "got it" and crash tackled the gummint and supporting parties on it. They TWICE ran FRONTPAGE fucking EDITORIALS on the power-grab, gag-fest that is this law. The country was a-buzz with talk on "is it/ isn't it" an attack on democracy and free speech, designed to sustain the power base of the gang of four-plus-one (Liarbore, Green (who are, of course, bright shining red), United Future (both of them), Winston First and the bloke known as Progressive (yeah, right)).
The attention of the public was focused sharply upon the activities in parliament. The gummint had tried to pull a swifty, the MSM had (almost too late) noticed, the public sat up and watched, and Dear Leader looked as guilty as she was. It accelerated the decline of the people's party. The (unrelated) icing on the top of this rancid cake was the announcement that the gummint has elected to purchase a new fleet of BMW limos at the cost of $140,000 each (or much more, according to some reports) compared to the $76,000 cheap-and-cheerful Aussie limos.
New Zealand is a nation of sheep, but at least we got passionate about something for a while, other than the rugby (but, wa-hey, Super 14 only days away, go the 'Canes).
See here for Hone Harawira's superb speech:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10483104&pnum=0

But this was all piffle compared to the monumental catastrophe that the United Kingdom (nay, most of Europe) is goose-stepping toward: the EU Constitution. Sure, it's been rebranded the EU Treaty. But a Lincoln is still a Ford.
And the silence from the UK MSM is deafening. Starting on Tuesday, the British Parliament will begin the debate on ratification of the Treaty. The gummint has limited the amount of time available to debate the European Union (Amendment) Bill to 12 days. Opposition MP's demanded 18 days.
After the Bill becomes law and the gummint (and other European gummints) ratify the Treaty, Europe will have a new constitution.
It is a self-amending Treaty, which means that the constitution that governs the UK and its interactions with the EU can be changed without recourse to the UK parliament.
Crazy, huh? So powers, rights and responsibilities that the electorate vest in Members of Parliament every five years or so, will be handed to the EU governing bodies. Is this the European Parliament? No, not really: the main power brokers in the EU reside in the European Commission. You do not vote for the commissioners, but they alone have the power to initiate EU laws. The European Parliament can only debate amendments to bills passed before them.
Now, both Liarbore and the Fib Dems promised a referendum on the EU constitution. The constitution (in name) died after it was rejected by French and Dutch voters in referendums.
Hi-ho, a minor setback: the constitution document was rewritten as the treaty and amends the existing foundation treaties of the EU. The original constitution achieved the same outcomes, but by replacinge old treaties. Some of the language was toned down and they removed references to various symbolic items. But the underlying document sets out the same powers, obligations and competencies as the rejected constitution. The Liarbore and the Fib Dems are being somewhat disingenuous (I am refraining from using the phrase "lying stinking power-whoring cunts") in stating that it is not the constitution and thus their promises of a referendum have not been broken.
Quite why Liarbore (and Fib Dem) MPs are keen to give away the sovereignty of their parliament and country is unclear. Many suspect that it is a socialist plot (witness the tendency for the EU to regulate to death anything that is not banned outright) or an elitist conspiracy. Time will tell. In the meantime, a small band of Englishmen ready some lengths of rope and are seeking out strong, well-located lampposts.

What do we want? When do we FUCKIN' want it?!

I Do Not Like This Woman

2008-02-08T13:06:00.000+13:00

Or this woman, who is unlikely to be the same one as above

Here she is casting a spell on some poor bloke.

Read here for one reason;

http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2008/02/a_whopper_lie_from_the_pm.html

Mendacious Cunt

2008-01-29T19:09:00.000+13:00

For the EU you shall pay,
But "get fucked!" if you want your say,
May Gordon Brown rue the day,
That ordinary Britons he did betray,
Leaving them answerable to Jose,
His EU edicts we shall obey.
Whilst MPs sup at the celebratory buffet
How will history portray
When HE left democracy in disarray,
Not just England treated this way
On his conscious did not weigh
The final ceding and national decay
From a post shall his body sway?
I, for one, say, “Way hey!”

Is This The Final Descent into Madness? Goodbye England, Scotland, Wales, etc. Hello Airstrip One.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=0KWLJLAYEIGWTQFIQMGSFF4AVCBQWIV0?xml=/news/2008/01/26/neu126.xml

Here is a taste of what the EU parliament gets up to:

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/politics/danielhannan/jan08/despotisminparliament.htm

Fat Facts

2008-01-25T13:32:00.000+13:00

I'm happy because I eat lard!

http://westonaprice.org/knowyourfats/index.html

The Final Solution

2008-01-25T06:32:00.000+13:00

And it's so cunning, you could pin a tail on it, etc:

http://vented-spleen.blogspot.com/2008/01/solution-to-all-countrys-ills.html#links

It's not clear that it results in scrapping the regressive poll tax that is the licencing fee...