The Libs get it right here

What I’m talking about is making Christchurch an Enterprise Zone instead of a ward of the state.

• Christchurch must attract resources. Grant Christchurch a complete 3-year tax-free status, to be extended at discretion. Do this and the problem of attracting resources will disappear. The object is to change our view away from a coercive patch job to a freewheeling environment of entrepreneurial opportunity.
• Christchurch must have thousands of new and rebuilt homes. Our government should make immediate steps to remove the bureaucratic hurdles that have stifled growth and rebuilding, and made building affordable houses completely unaffordable. This includes the existing regulatory system of permits and inspections.
  Let those who own their own property determine between them and their insurance company what they wish their building standards to be. Such a system can be set up very quickly as it already exists in reports.
  Building is productive. Letting things lie idle while waiting for permission from people who have no genuine interest is not.
• Cantabrians don’t needs the grey ones breathing down their backs. Make Christchurch an ETS and RMA free zone. (HELL YES!!!!)
• Cantabrians don’t need to be told where and how they will rebuild their city—they don’t need another centrally-planed “worker’s paradise.” Bus town planners out of Christchurch permanently and allow the city to reinvent itself spontaneously. This would be a wonder to see.
• Cantabrians don’t need barriers to employment. Remove the minimum wage. In a situation like Christchurch’s it is better to be earning something than nothing at all. And it is better to be achieving something with the diminished resources available than achieving nothing at all.
  We must trust that consenting adults can come to their own voluntary financial agreements.

(Above from Not PC)

I agree- I would like to see a new, better downtown Christchurch. With the roads up, fibre can be laid and a tramway put in for a far lower cost than would otherwise be possible. Make the center of town into an IT center, an attractive place to work with a revitalized restaurant and bar district (which was already impressive) and the niche and boutique shops that made the central city. Work on the best of Christchurch- more open areas, attractive architecture (the old can be copied while being earthquake resistant) and all that attracts visitors- and monied professionals!

New, attractive town houses were already replacing the old brick and timber rat-hole houses and I see no reason for this to go backwards.

Build it and they will come!

Finally!

...found that a couple of people I have been trying to track down in Ch-Ch are OK!

Wowsers war on wine

"...Displaying alcohol in supermarkets should be treated in the same way as dirty movies are displayed in a video store, the Alcohol Reform Bill select committee was told yesterday.

Alcohol Action said the proposals adapted by the Government from a Law Commission report into alcohol reform did not go far enough.

Alcohol should not be easily accessible and should not be displayed at the front of stores or with other products such as fruit and vegetables, the group said yesterday.

"Supermarkets are treating alcohol like it's a commodity rather than a drug," spokeswoman Professor Jennie Connor said.

"It should be treated like dirty movies, they should be in one corner of the supermarket at the back..."

Don't the wowsers know that these days everyone who cares to, downloads their porn from the interweb!

Maybe if they tried a little wine, these uptight compulsion fuckers might actually mellow out a little!

Shoot the looters

Especially this fucker.

Preferably with a ball of his own shit!

I wondered how long it would take the compulsion vultures to start circling. Like the fuckers that want the Powerball pool to be given to Christchurch.

They are, of course, free to buy tickets and donate their winnings (in the unlikely event they do)

Looters one and all!

And we know what looters need- they all have a lead deficiency that is easily fixed...

No hope for some

There are some truly pathetic specimens out there.

Have they lived in a friggin' cave to be ignorant of the fact that you NEED a minimum of three days supply of food and water, in case of civil emergency?

Especially after having a major earthquake just a few months ago.

This has been widely and frequently publicized for as long as I have been around.

But no, they seem to prefer to get all bent and twisted that 'not enough is being done to help ME!'

Christchurch hit hard

Worse than the first one!

Looks like there has been much loss of life this time...

Update:

65 dead so far and many are missing, trapped in collapsed buildings

Update 2:

Police estimate 200 dead

Welfare Reform

For the reluctant to work. The idle bastards who think work is beneath them.

Get on the treadmill and make electricity for eight hours a day.

Then you get your gruel!

Researching

Time-travelling trillionaires can't always be off having adventures, so I'm doing a little research on how idle moneyed folks used to live.

Especially slightly eccentric ones.

One thing I have learnt- if you want to write, it helps to read a LOT!

Wowsers and Wankers

"Kiwis drank the equivalent of about 750 stubbies of beer each in 2005 but still sank less than their counterparts across the ditch, an international report says.

The World Health Organisation Global Status Report on Alcohol and Health shows New Zealanders drank an average 9.6 litres of pure alcohol each, well above the 6.1-litre global average.

The most popular tipple was beer, followed by wine and spirits.

National Addiction Centre director Doug Sellman said the "extraordinary" figure equalled 750 stubbies of 4 per cent beer, about 100 bottles of 12.5 per cent wine or 24 bottles of 40 per cent spirits..."

(Bold mine)

Whoop de frickin; do!

An 'extraordinary TWO BEERS A DAY. Or two bottles of wine a week.

Cat Shit One

Damn, they pulled the video!Have to find something else that is totally silly!

v=JMlmEFIxdb4">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMlmEFIxdb4

The changing face of retail

"Whitcoulls customers are being asked to spend at least twice the face value of their gift vouchers if they want to redeem them.

The bookseller, along with Borders, was put under administration in New Zealand and Australia yesterday, after Australian parent firm REDgroup Retail called in voluntary administrators to the business..."

I expect to see a lot more of this, especially in entertainment retail. The small specialist stores will survive, but mainstream music, video and books are being swallowed up by online sales.

I can see why- today I went looking for a CD at the Red Shed. Couldn't find it. On line it took me less than 15 seconds.

Then there is the far lower overhead of the on-line store.

Expect to see more of these stores vanish from sight soon.

Boot camp for bad buggers

There has been a lot of noise on the unknown effectiveness of the so-called 'Boot Camps'.

It is my belief that these are useful for 'kick starting' direction-less youths. I personally know of several that went through the old LSV scheme, back in the eighties. They went on to stay in employment, working up to positions of responsibility- in one case she is now self- employed and is particularly successful in business.

They are probably less effective in turning future career criminals and thugs around. There is a great difference in molding clay and trying to fix a badly-fired pot.

So what do I propose to do from those who go on to re-offend, after being given their chance?

They go to the BAD camp. The punishment camp. The one with the discipline on the harsh side of severe, the physical training like that on the SAS selection course and the food that is served in British schools.

Did I mention it is on an island? One of the sub-arctic ones...

NOT a good day

All day lifting big heavy things and bolting them to other big heavy things- in a hot building with about 98% humidity.

All the big heavy things had to line up to within about 2mm and then not leak when under pressure.

Nastier than what I was just watching on 'Dirty Jobs'!

Rocket Science

Spent the last couple of hours teaching Cubs how to make rockets out of bottles, using baking soda and vinegar for propellant.

I'm covered in baking soda and malt vinegar- the kids had a great time!

Valentine's day

Bunch of crims got machine-gunned in a Chicago garage.

Nothing else happened- however much chocolate you brought.

Donning the hair shirt

Three books for a total of 265,000 works to line edit.

It's going to take a month or two. I have finally learnt that slow is the only way.

I'm getting lots of minor punctuation and formatting screw-ups, thanks to upping the font size and enabling the mark-up. Typos or 'wrong words' that don't get picked up on the spell check are running at about one every eight pages. I'm doing a few minor wording changes too, as I sometimes slip into 'Yoda" mode when writing I am.

Those wondering why I don't pay somebody are probably not from New Zealand, where we do it ourselves-at least for the first couple of times ;-)

Bludger

"A Kiwi beneficiary has travelled the world funded by the dole, spending nearly two years seeing the sights of Europe, Asia and Africa without his unemployment benefit being cut off.

In an international escapade that has left Social Development Minister Paula Bennett and Work and Income fuming, Peter Freedom, 34, has admitted seeing the world at taxpayer expense.

Mr Freedom left New Zealand for Australia on April 11, 2009, expecting his benefit would be cut off two weeks later. "I was just amazed when it didn't," he said from Dubai.

He visited Europe, the Balkans, Britain, North Africa and Asia before his benefit was finally axed late last month.

Work and Income head Mike Smith said Mr Freedom – previously known as Petrus van Druten – would be prosecuted for benefit fraud if he returned to New Zealand..."

He gets my vote for this week's person in need of a damned good flogging!

So many toys, so little money

What does 'Petty Crime' cost us>

I found this over here- an interesting site.

Owner Operators

The proportion of loss incurred by retail business is often higher than expected. Find your store type and calculate your loss.

Industry Type	Average Loss	Proportion of Profit Lost
Bookshops	1.91	28.75
Clothing / Fashions	1.91	27.55
DIY Hardware / Car	1.86	25.70
Dept Store	1.70	17.80
Electrical Goods	1.60	13.33
Footwear / Sports Goods	1.12	11.70
Furniture / Textiles	0.75	12.90
Grocers / Supermarkets	0.83	25.00
Jewellers	1.53	18.20
Chemists	2.54	15.50
Toys / Music / Video	2.14	21.20

Despite what they say:

"...The household does not pay this. In the real world with tightening margins, competition from many other stores and more discerning customers;

The retailer, you, pays this..."

At the end of the day the cost is passed onto EVERYONE, given that thieving is spread right across the board.

I imagine the business wants to stay afloat, so they load up the prices to cover the loss- which the end user ends up paying.

Not even close

"Government plans for a welfare shake-up have been attacked as "punishment" and ''a nonsense''.

Prominent beneficiary advocate Sue Bradford this morning lashed out yesterday's statement to Parliament by Prime Minister John Key, which she said was just an effort to appeal to the National Party's core supporters..."

Anything less than unconditional surrender by labor-lite would be harsh treatment of the poor underclasses.

MY ideas (for the long-term bludger subset) WOULD involve punishment for their idleness- Namely, the Workhouse, or for those that cannot learn from a term in the Workhouse- permanent incarceration in a recidivist settlement.

If you want to call it a ghetto, call it a ghetto. I could care less.

If you want to live off the taxpayer, you can do it in spartan conditions and in an unpleasant enviroment. Much like our military have had to endure.

No it isn't

"A Blenheim family has been given a month to move out of their state house in Girling Ave, after their 50-year-old mother died.

Sesa Ifopo, who leased the house, died unexpectedly on January 21 after a heart attack.

She had lived in the house with her 16-year-old son Alastair since 2005 and her 18-year-old daughter Renee moved in three months ago when she had a baby..."

(Bold mine)

This IS NOT their bloody house. The house belongs to the NZ taxpayers via Housing NZ.

They are just tenants- and it would appear, not the official ones.

I have seen a lot of this crap- bloody tenants who believe that occupancy equates to ownership.

Wrong!

Try to understand that the world DOES NOT owe you a living.

This could be the wrong way around

"Parrots tend to be lefties

BUNCH OF LEFTIES: Australian researchers have discovered most parrots favour their left foot.

Parrots, like humans, choose to use one side of their body more than the other, with more of them left handed - or, more precisely, left footed than anything else.
Some species even try out both before deciding on one side.
Australian researchers found that virtually all the parrots they studied prefer to use either their left eye and left foot, or right eye and right foot..."

I have certainly observed that lefties display parrot-like behaviour.

Loud raucous screeching
Capable of speaking, but little comprehension
Repeats the same few words over and over

Best kept in a cage and covered up at night...

Mostly Socialist Media report on witchdoctors

...while really interesting news goes unreported.

Nanotechnology is going to have a profound effect on our world, in the near future.

Imagine phones, tablets and computers that only need a recharge once a month- and that takes just a few minutes.

Electric cars that are actually practical.

The ability to store significant energy while demand is low at night.

That is a tiny bit of what nanotech offers.

If the greenies were serious about energy efficency, they could abandon the carbon-credit rort and plug for this.

But I bet the Luddites find it unnatural or suchlike...

Look at ME!

Anything to get your fifteen minutes of fame!

"A Waitangi dawn ceremony ended with a Maori elder prophesying the destruction of Wellington in a huge earthquake that would leave the Beehive "lying in the debris of the streets".

In a strange end to this morning's prayer ceremony at the Treaty Grounds, Kerei Tia Toa said he had "seen" a great earthquake that was going to ravage Wellington.

He predicted the earthquake would create a tsunami that would stretch down to Kaikoura and when the water returned it would rush into the streets of the capital and cause widespread destruction as far north as Whanganui..."

Probably 2012.

or not.

Dreams ain't that reliable. I'm still waiting for the one with the three naughty 19-year old gals to happen to me.

I'm not holding my breath waiting...

How is cozying up to the enemy working for you now, John Boy

"...As the party, including Maori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples, approached the whare a group of protestors with a megaphone began advancing on them calling: "John Key is the enemy, the enemy is amongst us..."

You bend over backwards and kiss their arses, and they still spit on you.

You will pick up some votes if you slap the troughers down. You ain't picking up any support from that lot, no matter how much of our money you throw their way.

After our wee storm

Full marks to:

Telecom- excellent service that exceeded my expectations.

AMI insurance- the fastest call to get a broken window sorted.

The old chap next door- he gave me a crayfish for removing a branch that was threatening his power and phone lines (and it was MY tree!)

GV Electrical (Carterton)- on the job soon after they were called, sorting my power out.

Epic fail to:

Contact Energy- Called out the local volunteer fire brigade, when clearly told the line was not broken. Then we waited two days hearing nothing. A follow-up call to them and we were told that the damage to the house connection was OUR problem.

It would have been nice to have been told that when they found out on day one.

What would Sheriff Joe do?

"Prison beds made by some of the country's toughest inmates became rusty within months of being installed and landed the taxpayer with a $2.6 millon fix-up bill..."

Problem solved.

Aggressive begging

"A bylaw to ban begging in Porirua is being considered to combat an increase in incidents of youths accosting shoppers and asking for cash.

Kapiti Mana police area commander inspector John Spence met with Porirua Mayor Nick Leggett on the issue last week.

Mr Spence said the number of complaints to police concerning street beggars in central Porirua and Cannons Creek - particularly groups of kids, often near ATM machines - had increased in the past 12 to 18 months..."

I prefer the idea of culling them like pigeons. They have bred to numbers that the ecosystem can no longer support- so they have to be thinned out.

Perhaps point bags laced with cyanide?