18 February 2016

Tragedy!

Earthquakes, terrorism and poverty have been put firmly on the back-burner in view of the appalling tragedy taking place in Scotland.

Juniper berries are under dire threat!

This may not sound too tragic, but then again, you may not know that juniper berries are the staff of life, the true manna from heaven.

In other words, you make gin from juniper berries.

Won't someone please think of the widows!
_____________________________

Hope

13 February 2016

It's a long time since people with a social conscience had hope. I mean the kind of hope that Norm Kirk gave us. Lange did too, and he's probably the best recent example.

Someone who gives you hope that we can start building a wall at the top of the cliff rather than have a team of ambulances at the bottom; someone who gives you hope that poverty and inequality can be cured.

Happening at a time of global financial crisis (again) is interesting, because conventional wisdom says people will cleave to what is known.

Yet, right now, we have young and disillusioned voters cleaving to 74 year old Bernie Sanders, a hard-left Socialist by US standards. I've written before at the hope these young voters give to the older generation of democratic socialists - it's as though the lessons are being assimilated by some kind of osmosis, because the world we live in so dedicated to Mammon that real issues rise and fall daily. How many stories have you seen on Syrian refugees lately? They're still there.

What happened yesterday in New Hampshire, USA, will have been either ignored or not understood by Kiwis, but it is a sensational victory for the forces of good in the form of progressive democratic socialism. That a grandfather who's been in Senate for decades can inspire such support from all spectrums is amazing. Opinion polls leading into the vote showed Sanders winning by 10 points or so. The landslide victory he got was unprecedented, and double the official estimates.

Given that Hillary's lead has more than halved in the past two months I am starting to believe it's possible that Bernie can win.

A Jew; a Socialist, a social progressive; anti-war since Vietnam - Bernie embodies everything America hasn't stood for for over half a century.

Allow yourself a little hope. While the odds are still enormous against Bernie winning, as I've said before, it can give us hope for the future. Keep teaching the kids of today that there is an alternative to endless capitalism and we will see change. Real change, and a better world for our kids and grandchildren.
___________________________

Those who can...

11 February 2016

One of my favourite aphorisms was told to me by my first boss: "Those who can, do; those who cannot, teach."

There may be a kernel of truth in the statement, but only insofar as teachers' pay and work conditions keep the vocation as a poor relation to jobs in the private sector for people with similar levels of intelligence and ability. You only have to spend a little time in business to realise that accountants, lawyers, HR executives and most of middle management make teachers look like Einstein. The worthlessness of some people in the workforce is legion.

Yet, despite the lousy pay and poor conditions, teachers are among the most important members of our society: we give our kids to these people for most of their childhood, with teachers spending a lot more waking hours with the kids than most parents; we allow these people to teach our kids morality and values - and even sex! - and we rely on them to keep kids safe from harm during the working week. We expect them to be able to identify and deal with bullying, depression, mental illness and children with disabilities, then we also dump children who cannot speak English on them and expect them to be able to handle that, along with the 25-30 kids they must keep going.

Teaching is a horror job and I only made the comment yesterday that if we want society to grow, we could make a damned good start by doubling teachers' pay.

So, what does society do when the teacher pool is empty?

Right now, NZ (and other) schools are making do with retired teachers. They won't want to do it forever, and the problem can only get worse, given the massive growth in NZ population by migration.

My 13-year-old boy has several teachers to whom English is a second language, yet one of them in teaching English. She cannot speak the language, using such moronic couplets as "tiny small" and "more better". Thankfully, English doesn't matter much in the real world, but what are they learning in maths? My daughter had a teacher who argued that McDonald's owned Subway. In the end, I had to get my daughter to take the share printouts from the NYSE to prove that she was wrong. Again, an unimportant subject, but it raises the question.

And my kids go to a decile 10 school. I can't imagine standards at decile 1 schools are as good, let alone better.

This is another area where the government is consistently failing to act. They should be encouraging more adult degree-holders to join the field, invest in teaching immigrating teachers to NZ standard, (as is done with doctors) and ensuring that a genuine career path is laid out to make teaching more attractive as a career option for kids at uni.

We've seen the destruction of male role models at primary schools, where female teachers generally outnumber males by 5 or 6 to 1. (and more!) This current government seems content to let the decimation of quality teacher ranks blight the entire system as they fiddle with irrelevancies.
______________________________

Message to the EU: Learn some History!

6 February 2016

On the third of September this year it will be 77 years since UK, Australia & New Zealander declared war on Germany.

Hitler was bad; Hitler was hurting our fellow Euro allies; Hitler was denying human rights and killing Jews & Gypsies. Despite being 18,000 km away from the action, New Zealanders and Australians were prepared to die - and did in large numbers - to help our fellow men and women.

Yet, right now, those same Europeans who saw 100 million people die fighting Hitler for their sakes are preparing to enact legislation so repugnant I can barely describe it.

The Syrian refugee crisis is a blot on humanity's already abysmal record and the EU is determined to make it worse still. Thousands of children are dying and the EU is about to ban attempts to help by amateurs and volunteers.

This is a piece of work worthy of Adolf himself. Why the hell did anyone ever bother to save these Eurotrash scum from Nazi rule?
_____________________________

I Smell Bacon!

5 February 2016

 

I decided to have a look at the protests against TPPA; not because I have a great deal of interest in the TPPA, but to see what the cops were up to. Security responses have been way over-reactive in recent times and I was interested to see if the trend would continue.

It sure did!

The agreement was being signed at Sky Coty Grand Chancellor Hotel, and the police presence there was very, very strong.

 

There were 40+ cops semi-hidden around a corner behind these guys - note the bully-boy gloves and biceps on these front-line pigs. Along with the 40 visible in reserve, there were a lot more cops inside the hotel, if needed. Given the 2500-odd protestors, the cops were never going to have trouble keeping it cool, and they displayed that by never losing their cool, or even coming close. They were in complete control the entire time.

A couple of interesting things - firstly, all six major road points outside the hotel were staffed by sole, very senior, cops. They were taking no chances on a newbie not getting the required response right.

Most interesting of all was this bloke:

 

He looked - and may well be - Polynesian, but I've never seen a Polynesian wearing a cloth cap in my entire life, so he should stand out a bit. I couldn't get a face shot; he's about 6 feet tall, very solid and muscular and could no doubt kill you in three seconds.

He was the clear boss of security on the street, chatting to and clearly giving orders to the uniformed pigs on the flashpoints.

If you think you know who he is, let me know on alan@charman.co.nz
_____________________________

4 February 2016

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi!

Aussie, leading the world in [atrocious] treatment of refugees, is showing the way to deal with dangerous criminal refugees.

Send 'em off to Nauru!

It's obvious this latest crop of refugees are terrorists in waiting:

 

Good plan Aussie!

Yes, those children are about to be deported to Nauru, to a camp described by Australia's own Senate Committee as unfit for human occupation.
______________________________

29 January 2016

Big Pharma Exposed (again), and why the Paris Agreement is a Joke

First things first - and you've read about this one before if you read my pages - anti-depressants are now firmly linked to suicide, and the drug companies have been lying for years.

The only thing I have to add is that if ever you or a loved one - or even a friend - thinks they need anti-depressants (or much worse, is prescribed them) do not let them take the useless things. Get ahold of some psilocybin, magic mushrooms. They are easily obtainable.

On a global scale, and therefore of infinitely more import, is the Paris Agreement. It is being overshadowed by the TPPA, which is really a red herring. While despicably in favour of USA, the net effect is almost zero, and it distracts from far bigger issues.

Just last month, the world's presidents and leaders hailed the historic Paris Agreement on climate change.

In it, countries agree to try really hard not to destroy the planet.

It is pathetic. No targets are set, and it is voidable by most of the signatories. Worst of all, in the real world, with incredibly cheap fossil fuel, the chances of a major reduction in greenhouse gas pollution is about as likely as aliens landing in Wellington to teach us how to fix Earth.

As I watched Saturn a few nights ago, shining majestically, with its moons bright against the backdrop of the galaxy, I once again marvelled at the stupidity of the human species. We have such a miniscule piece of the universe that it shouldn't be too hard to keep it fairly clean, but we are slowly destroying the life forms that live on it. The Paris Agreement is meant to stop that, but it is not happening.

In Nevada, clean energy producers are being penalised for producing clean energy, and at the very same time, oil is so cheap that storing it aboard ships has become an option.

Here in little old NZ, our leader has done plenty of talking, but there is still a budget of $0-00 to fight climate change. Action takes money, yet our government isn't prepared to spend a cent on it.

The Paris Agreement is destined to take its place in infamy alongside Chamberlain's paper that he waved as he chanted "Peace in our time!"
_____________________________

I call Bollocks!

26 January 2016

This story appeared in the Herald just now: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11579819

To save you the trouble, all you need to see is the headline, which shrieks: "War veteran forced to beg after pension cut off"

What a load of complete bollocks! The headline should read: "Dopey old git gets pension cut off after failing to appear in court"

The facts are very simple; this guy is one of the detestable bunch of clowns who occupied the Kaitaia airport illegally. They say it was a Maori land claim - which is complete nonsense - despite it is not being on the agenda for claims, and as  airport, is a public facility of use to every person living in the hell-hole that is Kaitaia. His claim is s legitimate as the piece of crap who threw office workers out of an office in Auckland last year. The Herald then referred to the perpetrators as "activists".

To get his pension back, all Selwyn Clarke needs to do is turn up to court.

The other alternative is a two-stage system in New Zealand whereby Maori are separate from everyone else in terms of the laws of New Zealand. That's where these people want to head; don't let it happen.
___________________________

Sensing Bullshit

21 January 2016

I was surprised and disappointed to see Sensing Murder on TV for repeats over the summer.

The series aired several years ago, and it would be funny to see how unsuccessful the psychics were if it weren't for their blatant exploitation of bereaved families.

Note, not a single fact has been uncovered by the series, and the psychics have been proven wrong in every prediction they gave. The full story on this despicable bullshit is here.
__________________________

15 January 2016

Mental Illness & Drugs

Once again, I find myself beating the same drum - when will our psychiatric profession join the 21st century? We have doctors at the cutting edge of human medical advancement, yet psychiatry seems to be stuck in 1950.

40 years ago, viewers watched in horror as Jack Nicholson gave his career-defining performance to display a small insight into the horrific world of psychiatric illness. One of the most harrowing scenes is where Randle McMurphy (Nicholson) receives what psychiatrists amusingly refer to as "electroconvulsive therapy". The rest of us at the time knew that process as "shock treatment". For simplicity, it's usually and euphemistically referred to as "ECT".

Pretty simple: take one loony, fire electricity through his brain, at voltages up to 150v. This is supposed to help the person's mental illness by zapping a certain part of the brain and shutting it down. Psychiatrists are performing this insane "remedy" in full knowledge that the relapse rate within six months of receiving ECT is a nice, round 100%.

I read today that 247 patients who were given in 2016 in NZ. All but 40 of them agreed to it, but did they know the likely consequences? I'm guessing now, as most people wouldn't agree to undertake such a damaging treatment knowing it's temporary - if it works at all.

Modern psychiatry is still prescribing drugs that turn patients into zombies because the effects are so strong in some anti-psychotic drugs that the person taking them will often stop due to the awfulness of those effects. There is ample evidence that medicines prescribed by psychiatrists will often make people feel worse while on the drugs.

I am constantly reminded of Doc McCoy, in Star Trek IV, the Voyage Home, when he sees late 20th century medicine as barbarism. We are trying to cure minds using techniques that don't work, or are actually worse than not working.

In the meantime, there is growing evidence that psilocybin (magic mushrooms) and LSD are far better at treating mental illness than any drug the pharmaceutical companies make. The American Psychiatric Association has this to say:

...this study demonstrates that the careful and controlled use of psilocybin may provide an alternative model for the treatment of conditions that are often minimally responsive to conventional therapies, including the profound existential anxiety and despair that often accompany advanced-stage cancers.

It is an outrage that we are destroying lives in two ways: first by denying treatment that could be life-saving, and secondly by making criminals out of people dealing a drug proven to be of negligible harmfulness to humans.

There's no way the laws of New Zealand will change, so I do recommend that people source and take magic mushrooms to help their mental illness. While it is no guarantee, it is infinitely less likely to cause further harm, and infinitely more likely to help. At the very least, it provides a certain respite from the ravages of mental illness. To find the drugs, this is a very good resource that sets out the where and when to find the right ones.

Use that famed Kiwi DIY to treat your illness - do not use the archaic and barbaric methods endorsed by the psychiatric profession.

Note: New Investigation launched today into contracts v employment agreements. No details yet, this is being recorded to note the start date - in case anyone tried to contradict me later! Date 17 January 2016. Page EDF
________________________________

What 2016 will bring

7 January 2016

Facebook is not one of my favourite sites. Sure, it has some uses and lots of people enjoy it, but Facebook is a hypocritical and cynical organisation that is exploiting its users in ways most of them don't understand.

Of the visible issues around Facebook, we've seen an heard plenty about not being able to display pictures of a breastfeeding mother while allowing sites like Roast Busters to get away with promoting sexual abuse.

Now comes possibly the best of all - enabling terrorism. Quite why Facebook has decided it's ok to allow terrorists to advertise for helpers, I have no idea, but that is exactly what they're doing right now. No, not ISIS, silly, the terrorists currently illegally occupying - under arms - the Malheur Wildlife Refuge, in Oregon.

They may just look like good ole boys and rednecks, but they're terrorists exactly the same as ISIS: occupied territory of a legitimate government? Check. Armed resistance? Check. Stating they will fight to the death if attacked? Check. Cliven and Ammon Bundy are plain terrorists and yet the US Government has caved into them once already, ironically while muredering hundreds of civilians in an attempt to kill terrorists thousands of miles from any US territory.

If you try to upload a video of ISIS seeking recruits you will have your Facebook account cancelled within minutes and can expect a visit from police - probably in their butch gear, with guns - very soon afterwards. If, on the other hand, you want to recruit terrorists for a domestic plot in USA, Mark Zuckerberg and his buddies will gladly take the views and promotion your videos get them.
______________________________

What 2016 will bring:

1 January 2016

I've been asked a few times lately why I don't blog so often these days.

Primarily, it's because I get sick and tired of repeating myself! As time goes on, more and more of my posts have been emphasised by events since writing them, so I don't need to repeat them.

As the calendar ticks off another year, it's going to be an interesting start for the northern half of North Island - the tropical storm about to hit is likely to be serious business for some localised spots. I sure as hell would not want to be camping today.

So, what will 2016 bring?

The end of ISIS as a "state". They have just about shot their bolt, with Syria and Iraq both making inroads as the magnificent Kurds keep pushing against the centre. Related to ISIS, I have explained how the teenagers joining ISIS from the west are just little morons devoid of imagination or life skills. Just yesterday cam a story that is to be hoped will dissuade any more young women from thinking it's cool to go on a big adventure with the heroes of ISIS.

Samra Kesinovic was a beautiful young Austrian girl* who took that big adventure and was seen as an overjoyed young woman when her brave ISIS soldiers surrounded her with beaming young twats and their AK47s. What a superb poster girl for ISIS she was. I bet they had to hold a lottery for who got to crack that cherry.

Then her silly wetsren upbringing made her a bit sad at all the atrocities and beheadings going on (shoulda read a newspaper before leaving!) and thought she'd go home.

Except ISIS aren't big on desertion, so she was beaten and raped to death. Darwin seen with an ironic smile.

*I'm guessing that with her name, while an Austrian, she was probably an ethnic Bosnian Muslim.

We'll see the end of ISIS, but not David Cameron or John Key.

We won't see an end to the asset bubble we've created, although the pace will slow as governments and central banks are asked to wrestle with the question of the two-speed economy we've developed the asset-rich, who have no problem with no wage inflation, and the asset-poor, who will be forced deeper into deprivation because their wages aren't increasing. Expect more kids turning up to school hungry.

The refugee crisis will continue, but it will continue to be ignored. Other than Sonny-Dildo's tweets, what news have you seen on the refugee crisis over the past 3-4 weeks? There was a huge burst of publicity, then it dies off as people suffer from information overload - you can't describe a crisis in 140 characters and you can only trend for so long. Hundreds of refugees are still arriving in the Greek islands daily, but it's not being reported any more.

The biggest problem of 2016 will be the drought-driven famine across Africa. Multiple countries will be affected and in the light of considerable evidence that shows major crises of famine bring about civil unrest and war, Africa is likely to be a very bad place to be in late 2016.

So, is there any good news on the horizon?

Of course there is - you just have to be in the right socio-economic group.
____________________________________

A Christmas Miracle

22 December 2015

Next time someone complains that all Muslims are terrorist enablers, talk about this story:

A group of Al-Shabab terrorists - already responsible for killing hundreds of Christian Kenyans - hijacked a bus full of people and tried to separate the Muslims from the Christans. Clear intention being the massacre of all of the Christians on the bus. The Muslim passengers refused to move so the passengers all stayed in one bunch. The terrorists, no doubt remembering their Koran lessons, would realise that killing fellow Muslims would bring a quick trip to hell, had no choice but to withdraw and walk away.

This group of Kenyan Muslims has shown how it can be done. Non-violent response to violence.

Wins. (How cool it happened in Kenya!)

Sisi ni Wakenya zote.
___________________________________

What the Hell is Going On?

18 December 2015

What is happening on New Zealand roads?

Death tolls had been falling consistently up until last year, since when a distinct rise has been seen in the death rate, with a real spike in the first half of December. Multiple crashes are happening all over the place, and so are crashes with multiple fatalities.

The fact that the spike appears to be occurring at a time when the weather has turned changeable is deeply suspicious.

The Taupo horror that killed three was unquestionably a dry road being hit by "summer ice" - that mix of a road that has been dry for so long that a small amount of water raises an oily surface with sudden loss of traction. I've found them myself in years past and on much quieter roads, thankfully.

That there are now 3 or 4 times as many cars on the road means that when these conditions hit, you are much more likely to hit someone when you lose control. There are a couple of other crashes that look like they might be due to very similar circumstances.

New Zealand roads are, and always will be, uniquely challenging. We don't teach people how to react in skids and slides unless they choose to do so for themselves and have become so used to the car handling the roads that we might be getting a little in front of our abilities.

The holidays are coming up and the roads will be the busiest they've ever been, with a quickly-swelling population and tens of thousands of overseas visitors.

Drive to the conditions; start early and don't rush. Better to be ten minutes late than booking funerals.
_________________________________

 

Good News!
17 December 2015

New Zealand ranks equal 9th with Canada, eh!

As in the best places in the world to live, according to the UN Human Development Index.

Yet, we see the Children's Commissioner's annual report showing the number of Kiwi kids living in poverty increasing, with 15% living without adequate heating. John Key's absurd riposte that drugs are to blame is bullshit, and on three entirely different levels.

First off, I do not believe for a second that that many children are in that position because their parents are druggies. Some of them are just struggling, especially in an Auckland market where the median rent of $500 a week is exactly $25 less than the minimum wage worked for 40 hours a week.

Second, if Key and his wunch of banker MPs could see fact instead of fantasy, they'd be embracing the enormous evidence that legalisation of drugs is by several light years the best option to stop drug problems in society.

Third, and maybe most importantly, if the problem is as large as Key claims, it is an abject admission of failure by he and his Cabinet cronies that in seven years of National rule, their education and health policies have worsened a situation by a factor of 50%.

Whatever way you look at the numbers, it testifies to failure by Key & National. The desire to sweep it all under the rug as "their own fault" is outrageous.
________________________________

Doubling Down the Stupidity

12 December 2015

This story arrived in Stuff today: deer hunters vilified for shooting hinds with young that aren't yet weaned, meaning the fawns die of starvation.

There's no doubt in my mind this has become a story on the back of the completely unsurprising news that farmers treat male dairy calves very badly.

The premise is idiotic, and the story has completely missed an extremely important point in the case of feral deer. They are every bit as destructive to New Zealand's native flora - and therefore fauna - as possums and rabbits. Forestry companies pay people to shoot them, they are so damaging to young trees. Left unchecked, deer would destroy NZ native forests in a couple of generations. Why is nobody mentioning this little but crucial point?

Are we to now consider shooting rabbits and possums with young to be "animal cruelty"? Or is it the case that because people don't think rabbits and possums are cute they don't care? There's the true double standard.

No thought whatsoever is given to the horrific way rabbits and possums die after poison drops, so yet again, we have the case that anthropomorphising of animals is what really matters. Baby deer are cute, therefore they shouldn't be allowed to die of starvation. Much better they should be allowed to grow to maturity and destroy more native forest.
____________________________

Evidence

8 December 2015

Evidence is what drives rational people. The best evidence is that obtained using the scientific method of double-blinding and re-testing. This means that an experiment cannot show bias by the designers, operators or collators of the information. This exact same rule applies to drugs and humans. To make sure drugs work, medical scientists test their inventions and concoctions on real people. (uni students, mostly: it pays very well)

There are occasional spectacular and horrific failures, best known of which is Thalidomide - currently showing promise as a drug to treat brain cancer! -  for the horrific birth defects it caused. There have many others, but we also know from many years of using drugs as treatment for disease that hundreds of millions of lives have been saved. From the massive increase in human longevity during the past century, to the lack of deaths from polio, to  bacterial infections which were fatal a century ago that are now treated by a doctor giving you a few pills, we know for a certain fact that medical science works.

Yet some clearly insane people believe it does not.

Even in 2015, some crazy old hag by the name of Imelda Hitchcock has managed to convince people for thirty bloody years that Timaru should not add fluoride to its water supplies.

Imelda isn't a scientist, she isn't a dentist; she's a former housewife with no brain at all. Sure, there are one or two - and I do mean one or two - scientists around the world who will give you reasons to be anti-fluoride, while well in excess of 99% of dentists and dental scientists will tell you that fluoride is safe, and is a superb tool in the fight against childhood dental decay.

There is no question at all - people who are anti-fluoride are wilfully ignorant, and to promote these ignorant views with vigour is a form of societal attack. Why would this insane old cow want to harm kids?

The same applies to anti-vaxers. If a person beats a child, they are criminally liable. If a person manages to entreat a parent to not vaccinate their children and one of those kids dies of measels, there is no legal means of charging the person for a crime far worse than most child beatings.

In both fluoride and vaccinations, we have the evidence of billions of people over fifty years of medical science. Measured in single human-years, we have over 100 billion years worth of evidence. In all of those hundreds of billions of human-years, we can say with complete certainty what the outcomes of vaccination and fluoridation are. Arguing against them is idiotic, which is why the "movements" attached to the anti-fluoride and anti-vax lies are always people like Imelda Hitchcock: people who are scared of science, don't accept change and are too stupid to realise how wrong they are.

Don't be fooled by these dangerous scum - check the evidence. All of it points to better health outcomes and minimising harm. Medical science is a friend, not a foe.
______________________________

So, was I right?

2 December 2015

Sure as hell.

Check the blog from 22 November, where I draw a parallel between loser little muslins and loser little white guys.

Bingo - 4 sucky little white guys who even got caught because they posted details on 4Chan.

In what way are a bunch of loser white boys opening fire on a group of black protestors different from a bunch of loser muslin boys opening fire on a theatre crowd?

Shithead Cops, Part CLXII

After massive political pressure, the cops caved in on giving information to Jarrod Gilbert, so they get no kudos for that, but they get a huge brickbat for this one:

The Heather du Plessis- Allen story of buying a gun without a licence is a major story of national importance. That the idiot pigs went and changed the way online purchases are handled confirms that there was indeed a problem and that Heather was 100% correct to expose the issue.

For the cops to come out and make idiotic claims that she could go to jail, after conducting a search of her house, are enormous abuses of police power.

What were they looking for? Tens of thousands of people saw what she did and how she did it and they can easily get a copy of the piece. What did they hope to find in a search of her house? As you can see, even a retired judge has waded in on the police going well beyond the reasonable. Do you like the way they're going to have a talk to him? An emeritus district court judge? Do they think they might slap a restraining order on him?

The police expose their attitude with every move or statement. They are arrogant in protection of their position, such as it is after the inquiry into sexual abuse by police; they abuse their power and act more like gangsters controlling their turn through threats than the "Safer Communities Together" byline they operate under. Heather did them a favour, exposing a method crooks could have used. The defensiveness and immediate assault on journalistic rights is a bloody disgrace.

If no surprise.
____________________________

NZ 2015 AD

30 November 2015

In among all of the international events, I haven't actually forgotten about New Zealand, and the problems haven't gone away.

Top of the list is housing, and Auckland housing in particular. The part that everyone (except Bernard Hickey) keeps missing is the absolute crisis among low-earning residents of the allegedly 3rd best city on the planet. Rents have been held down for some years, mainly because landlords were too busy counting their tax-free capital gains to bother, but the pressure of migration has put enough pressure on the market that rents are moving up, and quite quickly.

Wages are not increasing. This is proven by the government's own data, which shows wages (growth +1.8%) barely keeping up with the paltry headline inflation rate, or CPI (if petrol costs are excluded) and languishing well below the rent increase of around 10% in 2014-2015.

Even more interesting, despite our "rockstar" economy, unemployment is increasing.

The reason these problems exist is entirely due to allowing the housing bubble to expand at the exponential rate it has, but that's irrelevant, because dealing with these twin issues of unemployment and housing crisis is immediate and won't be fixed by legislation. We know for an absolute fact that families under pressure are more likely to experience domestic violence, and here we are putting families under enormous pressure.

Note that this is happening at a time when police resources are being stretched even thinner than usual by the additional anti-terrorist work they're now required to do, and it's pretty easy to see that the perfect storm of social discord I've written about in the past is growing more and more potent as it is left to simmer without interference by government policies.

The only questions is "what happens next?" and I think I have a good answer to that.

More domestic violence, more poor outcomes from low-decile schools, bigger jails.

You know that's going to happen, because the tourism and migration are keeping the economy flying, with only today, confidence reaching a 6-month high. What we have is the absolute division of a two-speed economy - one at full steam ahead, led by the services sector, the other, quietly dissolving under the pressure of longer hours and lower returns. As National celebrate the booming property markets and service sector staffed by minimum-wage Indian students, the underclass of poorer people in Auckland grows less and less cohesive with the rest of society.

And it's not just low-income workers. As noted in today's Herald, superannuitants are going to struggle in the future.
___________________________

Apathy Rules!

25 November 2015

In amongst the fallout from the Paris terrorist attacks, the shooting down of a Russian plane by the Turks and all the other shit going on in the world, there is a story out today that exemplifies everything wrong with "the system" as it works in 2015.

This is a story so outrageous it could be drawn straight from the pages of Orwell, as the author of the article notes. Dr Jarrod Gilbert is being targeted by police under their powers that are trumping the Privacy Act. He is without doubt one of the country's leading lights in academia as it relates to modern society, and his job is actually charged with asking questions of legislation and legislators, yet the police are enforcing the point that they are above the laws of the land.

This should be a national outrage, but it isn't, which is due solely to apathy. Quite why Kiwis (and everyone else in the world) lost their enthusiasm for fairness, equity and a man's house being his castle. I don't even care why the apathy exists, but it's pathetic - people would rather watch a "reality" TV program than even take notice that these abuses of police powers are going on under their noses. Even at age 15, I knew that this kind of crap was wrong, and at age 25, in 1984, I laughed at how wrong Orwell's 1984 was.

Sadly, he wasn't. He just got the date wrong by 30 years.
_____________________________

Absurdity, Part 2

25 November 2015

The difference in treatment of sexual assault and rape on females and males has never been more clearly displayed than in a case that was sentenced yesterday.

A bloke is raped with a broomhandle and is so badly injured as a result that he wasn't even able to be properly medically assessed for several days afterwards. There is no doubt in my mind that the perpetrator would have been sent to jail for at least five years had it been a female victim. It is a horrific crime in anyone's book.

In NZ in 2015, however, the perpetrator has been given probation and 80 hours community work. Not the guilty party was given an additional 80 hours of community service for traffic fines.

Ergo, it is entirely possible to state that in New Zealand, raping an unconscious man with a broomhandle is the equivalent to a parking or speeding fine.

Meanwhile...
___________________________

Absurdity

23 November 2015

I'm almost apologetic to still be banging on the same subject, but the whole subject is like Topsy, she just keeps growing and growing.

Terrorists.

And my subject is the still-increasing shockwaves going around the world - not in terms of terror attacks, but in terms of public over-reaction. I've given the links to the poor old Sikhs being terrorised by halfwits who can't tell the difference between earphones and a bomb, and now I can give just two examples of what's going on at airports: one, two.

While Belgium seems to have been home to several of the terrorists, closing the entire capital seems a bit over the top. London has seen enormous drops in the number of people shopping, and UK isn't even on alert!

These are things you are almost infinitely more likely to die from than a terrorist attack: (figures are year to date death totals for the world)

Car crashes: 1.2 million
Falls: 639,000
Drowned: 300,000
Burns: 240,000

In other words, people in western countries are 2000 times more likely to die from burns than a terrorist attack, and 10,000 times more likely to die in a car crash, but is the world closing down so people don't die in car crashes?

Yes, terrorist attacks are awful, but the over-reaction is absurd. Attacking Muslims because other Muslims are committing atrocities isn't just absurd, it's incredibly ignorant and deeply immoral. Best of all, it's helping the terrorists - driving a wedge between the west and Islam aids them by radicalising more and more young men. What else are they supposed to think when the cowardly white shits like the ones in that article are attacking their sisters and mothers?

Update 25 November 2015 - A brilliant point from Professor of Law at Waikato Uni, Andrew Gillespie as some moron tells people to be vigilant at Britomart and the Santa Parade when he appealed for the public not to overreact: "People have a much greater risk of dying of domestic violence in this country than we have of a terror incident ... "
_________________________________

The Birth of a Terrorist.

22 November 2015

A young man sits at home in his insecurity. He's scared of women, or thinks he's a loser - quite often because other kids tell him he's a loser - and has extremely low self-esteem.

This young chap has several choices, but he might not even realise they're choices. He doesn't know what he wants, and if he does, he has no idea to get it. He is rudderless, drifting through his young adult years, watching jealously as kids he went to school with succeed, get laid and live life as best it can be lived.

He goes on the internet a lot. Winding his way through the billion sites on today's web, he comes to a chat site. Here's a place where guys are just like him. They vent, they type eloquently, and they teach. They teach him that the sickness is society, not him. The losers are the ones who think the world is without a greater purpose. There is a way to make a difference.

The way is with guns and bombs!

Go out in a blaze of glory. Everyone knows who Billy the Kid and Ned Kelly were, but who were their victims? Jack the Ripper only killed a few cheap hookers yet his legend lives on well over a century later, but who were his victims? Who remembers them? Bundy, Kaczynsky, Gacy, McVeigh, James Homes... the list is endless, but can you name a single victim? I bet the only serial murder victim anyone can name is Sharon Tate, and that's only because she was famous before she got murdered by the Manson "Family".

Take as many victims as possible, destroy as much property as you can.

These are the thoughts being nurtured on the internet, both clear and dark.

In the end, it could be a schoolkid in USA, or a young man of Islam. It doesn't matter what is corrupting them, what matters is why they're able to be corrupted so easily. We are letting these people slip through the gaps of society and they're committing murder.

Update: 17/11/15. Nailed - the "terrorists" are actually losers with no life.

Update: 21/11/15 Nailed #2. A disturbed young woman coming out of an abusive childhood. (note she didn't blow herself up but died when one of the bombers detonated, so the number of female suicide bombers still stands at 0.

Update 22/11/15 - the terrorists aren't just winning, they've won when morons start seeing Sikhs with earphones and thinking they're terrorists. We have reached a stage of perfect fear, where everyone is shit scared of something less likely to kill you than falling out of bed.
_____________________________

John Key Part XXIV

13 November 2015

As you will all know, I am no fan of the Combover Kid, John Key, but he really has surpassed himself this week with the attack on Labour for "Supporting child murderers and rapists!!" as he frothed at the mouth, clapped on by his team of moronic sycophants. (Note chief sycophant Jami-Lee Ross in all the pics). Key thinks it's funny!

The sad news is, as pointed out by the admirable Tobny Manhire, is that none of them are rapists or murderers - they are deported straight out of jail and are sent on the first available flight. The people on Christmas Island had been mostly living and working in Australia but have been caught in the ironic net of Aussie wanting to deport [transport] al of its criminals.

The people are actually ordinary Kiwis who happen to have served time in jail. Most of them are for very minor crimes, but Key ill never let facts stand in the way of labelling people paedophiles and murderers to get people's disgust aroused.

The disgust should be reserved to Key, who has every intention of turning NZ into the same anti-culture racist desert on the big island a few thousand clicks off our west coast.

Shameful.
____________________________

The Worst War Crime Ever Committed

8 November 2015

We were all outraged to find that the Medecin Sans Frontieres hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, had been attacked by US forces, but the investigation by MSF has turned the case into one utterly damning of the incident.

US planes circled over the ruined hospital and shot defenceless doctors, medical staff and patients as they ran from the hospital.

Not the Nazis, not the Japanese in WWII, not even ISIS or the Taliban have ever deliberately shot people trying to escape a burning hospital. The attack is clearly the most despicable act by humans in all history.

Here is the full report.

Read it and weep. For all humankind, that such a thing could happen.

Nobody will ever be charged with a war crime over the attack, that much is plain.
_____________________________

Locally, the news is somewhat funnier, with the Mongrel Mob gaining a liquor licence, but cops demanding that liquor outlets near an AC/DC concert be closed.

Those old rockers like me are obviously more trouble than the Mongrel Mob.
_____________________________

Captain Obvious & Charter Schools

4 November 2015

Any regular readers will know I am no fan at all of Charter Schools.

They started in USA and have had varying degrees of arguable success, with the debate still raging. A charity that funds Charter Schools decided to cut through the bullshit once and for all and conduct a serious independent study of how good or bad they are in the real world.

The results were surprising.

Well, not to me. The finding was that children enrolled at Charter Schools would be equally well-served by staying at home.

A bad joke being perpetrated on the people of NZ. This government seems unable to get to grips with hundreds of years of educational and social justice - often led by New Zealand - that show the best way for things like health, education and prisons is for them to remain under the public service banner. Private enterprise has its place.

The disgrace in Mt Eden prison shows the dangers of privatisation of prisons, the study shows the dangers of privatisation of education for underachieving groups.
______________________________

Whoops x 2!

2 November 2015

Wow, almost a disaster here... But it's good news!

I posted that Who Shot Thebarman would be the winner of the Melbourne Cup, but I made a huge mistake! He is trained by Chris Waller, and I got his colours mixed up.

The horse who was putting in an amazing finish but ran into a brick wall was actually Grand Marshall.

Fortunately, he's at $40, so an even better price. He's won the Sydney Cup, so well proven at two miles and can definitely win. Not a great draw, but he will be coming from the back anyway.

Update after the race The second whoops. Never got close in the worst Melbourne Cup in history. The track was useless more than a couple of metres out from the rail and inside barrier draws gave huge advantage to the horses drawn there and it was no coincidence that the first three in the Cup drew 1, 2 & 4.

A bigger travesty than the Makybe Diva track watering. I think a lot of comment has been stifled by people not wanting to try to take anything away from the winner, and that might be a fair point, but they have the cup and can't lose it. Along with 3.6 million smackers, and more power to them. It doesn't detract from the fact that track was appalling. The penetrometer reading for the entire middle of the track was a soft 5-6, while the running rail was a good 3.

Quite absurd on one of the world's greatest racedays.
___________________________

Hilarious!

30 October 2015

People claim New Zealand is over-regulated, with red tape stopping people doing business.

Some people are smarter than that and find loopholes in the system, and I have a classic example.

Fireworks in New Zealand are heavily regulated, with sales only allowed for four days prior to 5 November. Storage and handling of fireworks must be undertaken within the guidelines set out by the enforcement body, the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency). Fireworks are dangerous and can be lethal, so the EPA ensures that importing, transport and sale are conducted properly.

Unless the fireworks are stored and sold from private residential property.

We have a house about 100m down the street which has an enormous store of fireworks in its garage. This being New Auckland, that means the fireworks - that I estimate between 1000 and 2000 kg of gunpowder - are stored about 2 metres from the neighbouring home. I hope the people rest well at night with that much explosive next to their bedroom. Here are what explosions look like when only 5 kg of TNT is used, or the very near equivalent of the fireworks in the garage with 1000 kg of ANFO.

Sleep tight!

And that's not even the funny part - the hilarious thing about all of this is that nobody actually cares. I spoke to the EPA and the woman even spoke to her supervisor to confirm it - they have no jurisdiction over private homes and suggested I talk to Auckland City Council.

I duly phoned Auckland City and spoke to the very helpful Dirk Tint, who told me that there were no regulations for fireworks because they are covered by the EPA!

Genius! A perfect hole in the law, which means these people are impervious to any legal challenge to them storing a tonne or more of explosives at their house.

More power to them for exploiting the law, but it shows how insane and toothless our laws can be in the face of clever people wanting to make a buck.
__________________________

Australia - Little USA

29 October 2015

I've said for many, many years that Australia fancies itself as the USA of the Southern Hemisphere, and it's getting truer all the time. There was even a drive-by shooting of the home of the top horse racing investigator the other day. Cops are armed, and while shootings are rare thanks to Draconian gun laws, Australian attitudes to crime, punishment and illegal immigrants are fairly similar. What USA would give for an all-coastine boundary!

As well as sending refugees to live or die in tin sheds on tropical islands guarded by sadistic privateers, Australia is in the process of deporting every Kiwi in the land who has served more than a cumulative one year in jail. There are expected to be up to 5000 people caught in this new legislation, and they're shooting them all back here. Permanently.

The NZ government, as Brian Rudman rightly notes, has no idea how to handle this situation, and you can therefore bet your last dollar the result will be bad news.

The only people who will benefit are cops - more money, more surveillance, more customers. The rest of society will quickly have to adapt to these people, because the vast majority of them will end up in Auckland, for the simplest of reasons - that's where they get dropped off.

When they arrive here, they will be subjected to police surveillance, yet the fact must stand that many of these people are productive members of society. Even using the worst-case scenario, at least half of them will go straight from here on, but is that going to be possible without any support? How do you create a social network for ex-cons? Where will they work?

Integration into any alien society is a difficult task, and all the more so when deliberately removed from family.

Australia owns our banks and as I've blogged on many occasions, corporate Aussie treats NZ as a fat cash cow, they have long treated Kiwis as second-class citizens, and now they're using NZ as a dumping ground for all Kiwis caught in this net.

All countries deport people when they can, but a blanket legislation like this is inhumane. Deportation needs to be handled individually.

Take a look at how New Zealand judges and judicial systems handle dangerous offenders.
_________________________

The Rugby World Cup

27 October 2015

The perfect game - NZ v Aus for the Rugby World Cup.

Quite amazing that it's taken 38 years to get us both into a final, considering we've been ranked in the top three forever, but here it is at last.

Whoever wins takes quite a few bragging rights - first team to win 3 cups being the biggest.

The All Blacks are in dominant form, while the Aussie backs have looked the best of the tournament so far.

My pick is that the ABs will win, and win comfortably.
_____________________________

The Early Bird Catches the Worm!

20 October 2015

And the early punter catches the good odds.

Two weeks out from the mighty Melbourne Cup and I'm willing to put my stick in the sand now and say the winner will be the Kiwi galloper Who Shot Thebarman.

He goes the two miles, is already a placegetter - having run third last year, is brilliantly weighted - carrying half a kilo less than last year, and his run in the Caulfield Cup was superb.

Last in the running for most of the race, along with the Japanese raider Fame Game, who was just in front of him. Much has been made of Fame Game's run, storming home from the rear, and it was a good run. Who Shot Thebarman's was better. He came from further back and the only thing that stopped him from being well in front of Fame Game was running into a brick wall at the 200m when his jockey made an error in where to aim for.

Two miles, the giant Flemington straight; hitting form at the exact right time - this is a good bet, and at good money.

Get on! (and remember who picked him first)
____________________________

When to Love Your Enemies

15 October 2015

Most votes taken in Parliament are voted for on strict party lines - that's why the big parties have Whips - actually to whip them into shape to ensure sufficient numbers are available to vote on legislation.

Some moral issues are voted for on conscience, which means the MP votes with their heart, not the party position.

Euthanasia is clearly a subject that would require a conscience vote, and now that a majority of Kiwis support euthanasia, there is a good chance of it becoming law - if it ever gets voted on.

Andrew Little, shortly after assuming the lead for Labour, discounted supporting Maryan Street's Euthanasia Bill, saying there were "more important things to focus on". Give that being a year ago and Little being largely invisible during that time, I would question what the hell those things were, because nothing he's said or done comes close to the importance of euthanasia. Maybe Andrew feels that quibbling about the bloody flag is more important?

Anyway, David Seymour, of ACT has a bill in the ballot, and John Key has yet again come out in support of a voluntary euthanasia bill and said he would vote for it if it gets plucked from the ballot box.

Let's hope.

The time is ripe for a law change - to once and for all give people the choice of dying with dignity instead of lingering to support the archaic beliefs of the few Kiwis left who treat the bible as a life guide. I have said many time that there is no secular argument against euthanasia and despite a couple of people saying that isn't so, they're christians, and wrong.
______________________________

Laugh of the Week

9 October 2015

Today's winner comes courtesy of the RNZAF:

What sets our air force apart from other nations?

Planes.

Other air forces have planes.
_____________________________

Hot Water

9 October 2015

Hot water has become the latest hot topic, thanks to a couple of people contracting Legionnaires' Disease.

The cute little legionella bacteria is a beast that likes to live in warm water - preferably around 50 degrees Celsius. The pair of cases in Hawkes Bay has led health authorities to advise people to turn their hot water up to 60 degrees or higher as this will kill the bug, or at least stop it breeding.

Easy. Who would want to harbour a bacteria that can kill or maim you?

There is another side to this issue, and it's a clear case of where the greater good is being ignored for the sake of the smaller good. Yes, turning your hot water to 65-70 degrees will destroy all those nasty bacteria, but for what gain? That's a total of two people who have contracted legionella infections from their hot water cylinders. Just two.

Out of 4 million people, most of whom use water heated in a cylinder multiple times a day. So what are the chances of actually contracting Legionnaires' Disease fro your hot water cylinder? 1 in a billion? 1 in 100,000,000? Whatever it is, it's an extremely low number because the vast majority of legionella infections come from commercial water towers for air-conditioning units.

Hot water burns. In fact, at 70 degrees, it will kill your legionella bacteria, but will also cause third-degree burns in one second. For an adult. For a young child, with far more delicate skin, third-degree burns can occur within seconds in temperatures as low as 60 degrees Celsius.

So, do you take the millions to one chance you might get legionella? Or do you accept that hundreds of children are admitted to hospital in NZ every year with burns caused by hot water? One third of all burns cases have injuries caused by hot water or liquid. Hot water is almost infinitely more likely to cause injury than a dangerous infection, but I bet there are hundreds or thousands of people right now adjusting their hot water temperatures up to dangerous levels.

A classic example of humans out-thinking themselves and taking the choice of most potential harm.
______________________________

Balance

5 October 2015

It doesn't always happen, but I do try to balance the opinions.

A very good case is happening right now, and it's conveniently straight after me taking the piss out of Maori. Like everything, some things Maori do are good, some are bad and some are funny.

What isn't reasonable is Maori being linked to something that is not a Maori issue.

I'm talking about John Wanoa. This is the clown who threw the workers out of a council-owned business last week, claiming to be reclaiming land. As you can see, the newspapers have consistently called him a "land activist" or "protestor", of which neither is true.

 

John Wanoa is simply barking mad.

He has advised the Queen that he is going to arrest her in his right as King of Moai. Now, don't let the Moai part confuse you, it's the name for Polynesian statues of the type best known from Easter Island. Well, John is the king of them and that's where he gets his power. As I said, barking mad.

Calling him a land activist or protestor is unreasonable and prejudicial - I can't imagine any Iwi having anything to do with him and he certainly shows no links to any. The idea that he is somehow king of everybody on the planet should be a guide that there is no legitimacy whatsoever to his idiotic claims and he should be merely described as a very dumb crook.

\While alerting mental health authorities...
______________________________

Billy T James

1 October 2015

Man, I miss that guy.

Fred Dagg (John Clarke) was funny, but Billy T typified Kiwi Maori humour and he is sadly, sadly missed.

How badly could we do with Billy, when Maori are making headlines for all the wrong reasons?

I've covered some of them, but here are the recent highlights:

Tariana Turia, former Maori MP, campaigning to have a wife-beater rapper allowed to come into New Zealand when Maori are horrifyingly over-represented in domestic violence statistics. "He's repented," she says. "Big bloody deal," the repeat victims say. It's really bloody easy to say sorry when you can make millions of dollars out of saying it.

There is, of course, the dual Maori claim to Auckland. And not even by Auckland Maori! Both the Maori King for Tainui to the south and Ngapuki to the north, lay claim to our fair city. (Bonus prize if you can count how many times old Tukuroirangi Underpants appears in these stories, especially if the Kingitangi or Tainui has its snout in the trough.)

Maori Charter Schools having a hundred grand to buy a fully-fledged waka as other schools struggle to buy a plastic canoe. It's not as though normal kids who haven't been in trouble with the cops deserve to have money spent on them.

And possibly best of them all, the idea that a new marine reserve at the Kermadec Islands should contain a provision for iwi as it's a traditional fishing ground.

It's a thousand kilometres from New Zealand! Maori never bloody fished there - unless they arrived there by pure chance. You don't set out to travel two thousand kilometres in an outrigger canoe when you can catch the exact same fish 990 km closer to shore. The idea is blatantly idiotic. The Kermadec fishery is about as traditional to Maori as rapiti.
 

 

Click here to access the full database of articles, opinions and evidence-based comment.

[ Home ]