June 2009

Smacking poll in hands of mother – The dark-haired, bespectacled woman talking forcefully across an outdoor table laden with scones, cake and drinks on Family First’s pro-smacking website does not have a bionic arm and cannot run faster than a speeding car. But Sheryl Savill is New Zealand’s $6 million woman. [Stuff Politics]

Enough already about moaning about the $9 million cost of the referendum. The referendum is mandated by law. Enough signatures were collected in the time prescribed by the law. The signatures were checked and verified as prescribed by the law and now the referendum must be held as prescribed by the law.

The cost can fairly and squarely be sheeted home to the mendacity of Helen Clark who was far too scared to hold a referendum at the time of the election. But since we are talking about cost and the supposed waste associated with it let’s look at some previous waste that the left-wing justified as entirely appropriate.

• More than $4 million of government money has been allocated to fund “mind-boggling” doctorate research topics such as the value of children’s drawings.
• $15.8 million per annum spent over 5 years aimed to increase energy efficiency by 20 per cent by 2012, and to increase the use of renewable energy by between 19% and 42%. But a review of the Government’s energy-efficiency strategy, released yesterday, found that the percentage of energy use coming from renewable resources was actually falling and so was cancelled.

• In a breathtaking display of wanton spending on something just not wanted or needed by a population the government has announced it will spend $450 million on Aucklands rail network.

  As David Farrar points out that only 9000 per day use the trains and the and that amounts to $67000 per passenger.

• Government house gets a $50 million makeover – Officials are describing the 50 million dollar renovation of government house in Wellington as money well spent.

I am sure there are more examples. If you know of any, let me know.

About the only thing worse than losers who commit suicide are the losers whose lives are so screwed up they can’t even kill themselves properly. They are real losers.

A case in point is the loser cheese eating surrender monkey rugby player who got attacked from behind in what was probably a gay gang bang got wrong, got a facial, lied about it and then fessed up. Apparently he has tried to kill himself.

Ok, this is in bad taste, but did he try to ram his head into a table repeatedly?

Private hospitals get greater public role – Private hospitals are to be given a greater role in carrying out taxpayer-funded elective surgery under a Government plan to treat more patients. The aim is to get better prices by smoothing the flow of patients and increase the… [NZ Herald Politics]

Great news in Health. Tony Ryall is proving to be a very effective Health Minister who is looking for solutions rather than being doctrinaire and ideological.

If private hospitals have capacity then it makes sense to use their capacity to further reduce waiting lists for elective services.

Labour’s health spokeswoman, Ruth Dyson, said the party had never been opposed to taxpayer-funded elective surgery being done in the private sector, but “it must not undermine the public sector”.

Labour as usual are being disingenuos and economical with the truth. The specifically removed contracts for services from private hospitals under their watch purely for ideological grounds. They had nine years to sort this out, why they are even asked for comment is beyond me.

I came across a Green party newsletter in the mailbox the other day, always good for a laugh I thought to myself as I flicked through it, but to my horror, I saw on the 3rd page this picture!!

Now as a normal kiwi parent who has been indoctrinated in the ways of the meddling after nine years of socialist governments certain things jumped out at me.

Straight away where the hell is the fire guard around that fire? My God, there is a child under the age of 4 playing right next to it!!! The Dad (if he is in fact the father) has his (is it really his) baby (held securely) perched on his knee less than an arms reach away from the top of the fire, one moments inattention, and this is a disaster waiting to happen!!

Also, the woodbasket is way to close to the fire, looks like wicker to me, highly flammable!!

Not to mention the fact that there are two children ALONE with two males. Don’t you know all men are rapists, child beaters and kiddy fiddlers.

And about the fire. Please explain to me how this is carbon neutral, sustainable or Earth friendly in any way.

All this coming from the same people who are trying to tell us how to raise our kids, and oh no, dont give them a smack if they are naughty, but hey let them burn themselves and horribly disfigure themselves for life, thats ok according to this Green Party leaflet!!

Stuff has an article about the worlds ugliest dogs.

A prominent under-bite, scrunched face and floppy ears are the hallmarks of a winner – the winner of the World’s Ugliest Dog contest, that is.

Pabst, a boxer-mix rescued from a shelter by Miles Egstad of Citrus Heights, California, won the annual contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair in Northern California.

I reckon they missed some out of the line up

This one from New York

This one from Auckland

This one from the Waikato

This one from Wellington

and this one also from Wellington

They all have faces you can break bottles on and you certainly wouldn’t wish breeding traits that that on anyone let alone your dog.

Jetstar is rooted. They have lost the PR battle. Last night on TV3 they essentially blamed us stupid Kiwis and the stupid Kiwi media for their mis-fortune.

When you see Twitter mesages like this though, you know that the actual problem is them.

The left are screaming that unemployment is rising. Matt McCarten writes that National is doing nothing, the lap-bloggers likewise and of course Labour is wailing too.

Social Development Minister Paula Bennett show how proper use of social media can help spread the message and at the same time say something that the MSM would never print because it doesn’t sit their story or the lines they are running on behalf of chosen party.

Clear, concise and to the point, showing the utter hypocrisy of Labour’s and the left’s whining.

If only other MPs would likewise utilise the tools now at their disposal to better communicate with fans, constituents and supporters.

Perhaps Paula’s colleagues might like to have a chat about hos she can manage to do it while they sit with their thumbs up their collective asses wailing about not being able to get the message out.

SOEs told ‘think like a business’ – State-owned enterprises should act as if they face part-privatisation in two to five years, Stock Exchange boss Mark Weldon says, prompting suggestions he is acting as a stalking horse for the Government. [Stuff Politics]

Mallard is doing a massive beat-up in his role as de facto Leader of labour over Mark”Speedo” Weldon’s comments to SOE heads about how they should act.

Speaking to SOE heads at a meeting at the Treasury, Mr Weldon said that as part of sharpening their performance they should “form a strategy based on the prospect of a partial listing in two to five years”.

“Whether or not such an event comes to pass is immaterial. It is the right question because, were such an event to occur, you would want to ensure the maximum return to your current shareholder from the sale of any stock.”

A clear plan to increase shareholder value in a defined period, and a clear mechanism for measuring that, such as a stock exchange listing “or analog” would be a catalyst for a good strategy from the board and its crisp execution by management. That would include identifying now “the story you would want to be able to tell, were you to be inviting direct investment by New Zealanders in two to five years”.

Those comments are as they should be. There seems little point in having SOE’s and the SOE model unless they act in that way. Otherwise they as may as well just be bloated government departments. I think Trevor is using this to further raise is profile before toppling the pro tem Leader of the Opposition Phil Goff.

Editorial: Everyone wins from sale of state houses – Tenants of state houses will shortly be given an opportunity to buy them. Housing Minister Phil Heatley has announced that houses will be offered to tenants at market valuations from September and Housing New Zealand will use the… [NZ Herald Politics]

Of course it is a win/win scenario, except for the plonkers in Labour and the Greens.

This news has been greeted with predictable disapproval from Labour, the Green Party and various advocacy groups who claim to be concerned for people in urgent need of a state house. Their preferred solution seems to be to spend whatever it takes to house everyone who cannot afford to buy a home.

On Friday I posted the video of Phil Heatley ripping Goff a new one over his hypocrisy on state houses. DPF has finally caught up on that.

The policy looks to be good for the tenants, good for their neighbourhood, good for those waiting for a state house, good for the taxpayer, the building industry and the economy. Good for everyone, in fact, except those who live on constituencies of state dependence.

Ouch, that i a stab at the socialists, the last sentence. New Zealand surely needs to wake up to exact problem that for more than 50 years successive governments have bred and indeed encouraged state dependence at the expense of individual self reliance.