Details of how a man killed a kitten then placed its remains on his former girlfriend’s bed caused an audible gasp in the Nelson District Court.
Abraham Zacharia McIvor’s angry rampage on the night of January 10 ended with him stomping on the head of the seven-week old kitten, beside which he placed a note warning his former girlfriend she was next, the court heard.
McIvor, a 25 year-old labourer, admitted yesterday wilfully ill-treating a kitten causing it to die, intimidating and assaulting his former partner and a charge of wilful damage. He was remanded in custody for sentencing on March 4.
Meeanwhile his son at least has a sense of humour: Read more »
Fairfax Media is reportedly selling its remaining stake in Trade Me for about A$650 million (NZ$810m).
If the sale were to proceed, it would considerably pay down the company’s debts.
The stake is reportedly being sold to a range of New Zealand and Australian institutions in a placement through UBS, according to market sources.
The quoted sale figure would exceed what Fairfax paid for Trade Me in its initial investment five years ago.
Fairfax bought the online auction company from founder Sam Morgan and his fellow private investors for NZ$700m in 2006 and previously recouped NZ$364m by selling a 34 per cent stake through Trade Me’s initial public offering in December 2011.
It may pay down their debt but it also removes a money spinner…leaving them with assets that are failing in any case…perhaps this is a death spiral.
Sam should know. After all, there was the failure of Pacific Fibre, a company that Sam Morgan was instrumental in funding. Not only did the business fail rather embarrassingly, the subsequent tantrums blaming a government minister, that followed in the hope of corporate handouts could be best described as lacking in dignity.
It might also be applied to the middling to poor performance of Gareth Morgan Kiwisaver funds, of which Sam Morgan was a director until KiwiBank bought them out.
1. Dividends will now go to offshore owners. Where is the outcry as there is when a farm is sold?
2. Why does a company get $250,000 in taxpayer funds when it is backed by some of the richest people in NZ?
Well three questions
3. The taxpayer puts in $250k and less than nine months later the company is flogged off clearly with the intention of quick gains. Where is the slice of the capital gain pie for the taxpayer with its investment? Clearly not a long term growth strategy.
4. And maybe a fourth, Morgan + quick sale for capital gain. Tax? Of course not. Do as I say not as I do.
Calling bullshit on corporate welfare here again. I can understand why the political left get upset when we have faux entrepreneurs trotting their wares using government handouts.
Take your gains but man up and use your own money.
I got to know long-time personal piñatas and found that they were — can you believe it? — human beings, often perfectly nice human beings with perfectly nice families. Even worse, the first words out of their mouths were sometimes, “I admire your work” — and once an author hears that, his estimation of the person voicing this pleasing judgment immediately rises. (She thinks I’m good, therefore she must be good.) At that moment your inventory of ready-made-always-available-in-a-pinch targets would be diminished by one, and since the list is never really that long, the loss of one would be serious. Of course, it might be the case that the person you have learned to dislike in print is even more dislikable in the flesh (oh happy day!), but you can’t count on that and so it is better, all things considered, not to take any chances.
I took some time out before the election to shoot rabbits:
My favourite Kiwiblog posts are when he just copies and pastes something from Whaleoil and then puts some one sentence comment underneath it like he wants to be a real blogger. Kiwiblog is the Lion Red of blogs – very popular, but bland and and poor quality.
Trevor Mallard, when given a choice between telling the truth or telling a lie always picks telling a lie.
Phil Goff suggests blacksmithing as the kind of jobs for the future of New Zealand. With the Greens gaining strength at the expense of Labour he may well be right.
Labour bombed their website again, confusing Maryan Street with Clayton Cosgrove. A simple mistake I know, they are so similar in appearance, but proof yet again that Labour are unfit to govern.
On October 14 I publish details of a planned dirty tricks campaign but an as yet unknown group. I even publish the mock up of their attack and the fact they are seeking quotes. This story explodes into the media a few short weeks later.
Labour candidate Christine Rose blames John Key for Pike River, the Christchurch Earthquake and for the Rena running aground.
Andrew Little does his leadership aspirations a bit of harm in attacking an Auckland City Councillor.
I blog about Labour’s future women…unfortunately none of them got elected because Labour promoted their harpies, harridans and nasties above the lookers.
Phil Goff still keeps voter up with the play at his hobby farm via Twitter. He even tells us he has bought a new puppy but is unsure as to the breed.
Labour and their proxies ran a nasty, dirty smear campaign in Epsom. They tried to get the media to run a particularly nasty smear but none did. Eventually I suspect that the details about the smear will get an airing and then David Parker won’t be looking so smug.
