Just another friggin' day

...of working in the hot sun (yes, we get that in NZ- from time-to-time)

Four more 13-hour days, as well as being on call for the other 11 hours.

This does not make for a happy disposition, especially when the region is full of moronic holiday-makers. None of whom have the first idea of how to drive.

They don't have some of the local knowledge, either. Especially the lot that were parking along the roadside that is a thoroughfare for oversized tractors and combine harvesters. Good luck there.

If they were local, they would also know that the river they were swimming in has an E.Coli count normally seen in the more crocodile-infested parts of Africa. In the season the Wildebeest migrate. Good luck with your bowels, too.

It would be a lot simpler if the loopys just gave me their money. I could give them a dose of the salts and bang their new beemer 4wd lookalike with a sledghammer.

It might cheer me up some too...

Cry-baby of the week

"A Taupo truck driver hurt in a crash involving three cars and his truck in Hawke's Bay is laying an official complaint with St John Ambulance, saying no ambulance staff approached him after the crash and he could have been "lying in a ditch" unnoticed.

Les Bennett, 28, said he was dazed and limping after the crash that left 12 people in hospital, but was not asked if he needed help..."

Girl!

You were up and moving about- they were dealing with TWELVE people who needed to be admitted to hospital- quite a few of them seriously injured.

"...Three people remained in a serious condition in Hawke's Bay Hospital yesterday and four were listed as stable..."

All you had to do was ask to be checked out. Did you expect your own personal physician?

Or are you ACC-seeking...

On Poverty

I followed a link in the comments at Lindsay Mitchell's blog and found this outstanding piece on the condition we call 'Poverty':

What is Poverty?
Theodore Dalrymple

What do we mean by poverty? Not what Dickens or Blake or Mayhew meant. Today, no one seriously expects to go hungry in England or to live without running water or medical care or even TV. Poverty has been redefined in industrial countries, so that anyone at the lower end of the income distribution is poor ex officio, as it were—poor by virtue of having less than the rich. And of course by this logic, the only way of eliminating poverty is by an egalitarian redistribution of wealth—even if the society as a whole were to become poorer as a result.

Such redistribution was the goal of the welfare state. But it has not eliminated poverty, despite the vast sums expended, and despite the fact that the poor are now substantially richer—indeed are not, by traditional standards, poor at all. As long as the rich exist, so must the poor, as we now define them.

Certainly they are in squalor—a far more accurate description of their condition than poverty—despite a threefold increase in per-capita income, including that of the poor, since the end of the last war. Why they should be in this condition requires an explanation—and to call that condition poverty, using a word more appropriate to Mayhew's London than to today's reality, prevents us from grasping how fundamentally the lot of "the poor" has changed since then. The poor we shall always have with us, no doubt: but today they are not poor in the traditional way...

Whole article here

The digital bottle opener

No, there really is such a thing!

I saw one today.

I refuse to own one, on the grounds that it could be used as evidence against me...

The unpleasant truth

...is spelled out clearly and concisely by Lindsay Mitchell.

That should have the hand-wringers and the grievance/victim industry frothing at the mouth!

Dealing with Christmas season zombies

Interesting

IN past years, hits have dropped at this time of year. You would expect that to happen as people get busy stockpiling cheap wine and crap from the warehouse.

THIS year, my site hits have more than doubled the usual rate.

Probably means something- like papers are now almost three bucks.

The non-stress Christmas/Saturnalia pig-out

1- All stuff that food eats is prepared the night before (that's salads to you womenfolk!)

2- All food that food eats that needs cooking must be able to be cooked by boiling (That would be spuds)

3- All food shall be cooked in or on the barbecue. This is MAN'S domain. If the owner of the barbecue is renowned for burning the food, the men shall select an accomplished barbecue master to take charge.

4- The barbecue-master shall be supplied with sufficient beer or red wine that he has no need to leave his post- apart from calls of nature where he may briefly retire behind the garage/lemon tree.

5- The meal will be done, when it is done. Early or late afternoon/evening should be enough information.

6- Chips, nuts and pickles are adequate entrees.

7- Go back in history and bread sufficed as a plate. The only utensils were knives. I see no reason to change what worked.

8- Let the kids eat exactly what they want for this one day of the year. They will probably survive it.

9- Any person mentioning diets to be flung into the pool/hosed.

10- Thank the cooks, even if the food was shit. You can show them up next year.

Public safety warning- Don't fall Down

Not everywhere was a shit-fight

A hot sunny day, beer on tap, a sheep on the barbecue and a pool.

THAT is the way to do the Christmas thing!

Let the Shit-Fight commence

Christmas eve at Pak & Save

Rumor control

"...that there has also been a lot of talk in the NZ Army about adopting 7.62mm rifles. The troops who have been deployed in Afghanistan are not happy with the 5.56mm performance. They, unlike the US and recently the British, they do not have a 7.62x51mm chambered semi-automatic in a designated marksmen role..."

5.56 is for shooting at the bad guys.

7.62 is for SHOOTING the fuckers!

Here endth the lesson...

I hate this time of year

An arse needs kicking

"The military get paid too much and get allowances that should have been abolished two years ago, according to a report prepared for the Government's Defence White Paper.

Military personnel get an average of $23,000 or 30 per cent more than other public servants generally and this is not justified, says the value-for-money review by former Telecom boss Rod Deane..."

Ever put you well-paid neck on the chopping block, you soft-cocked little weenie?

I saw a review like this done on Corrections some years ago. They we horrified that all these blokes that HAD NO TERTIARY QUALIFICATIONS earned more than the chicken-shit average wage.

I would bet money most of these consultant types would piss in their label pants if they ever set foot in a prison wing. Or Afghanistan with a bit of lead flying.

I wonder if Rod Fucking Deane was one of those prat who was beaten up, had his beer stolen and his girlfriend given the fucking she had always wanted by some serviceman?

I hope it was me!

Don't make excuses for it

"Masterton's worst illegal dumper will dodge a potential $5000 fine after ditching a trailer-load of beer bottles, nappies, and other "unhygenic items" at Henley Lake...

...Grant Howard, co-ordinator of Wairarapa Free Budget Advisory Service, said that while he detested illegal dumping, he had sympathy for those struggling to pay the dump charges.

"It's far too high - $42 for a trailer load? It's expensive and I think education and recycling should be pushed.

"In lawyer fees it's probably $2000 to $3000 for the council to prosecute someone when they could run two or three week-long courses to recycle properly."

Since the rise in GST in October, Mr Howard said he was seeing more low-income people who could not cover basic living costs..."

If they have so many beer bottles they can't dispose of them through the kerbside recycling, I would suggest they don't have a poverty problem at all!

And as for dumping them in the friggin' park- even most of the local low-class trash manage to dump their crap outside the transfer station gate!

The Masterton gene pool needs more chlorine in the shallow end!

This should be the default setting

"Wellington rates could rise by 8 per cent unless the city council slashes services and increases user fees across all departments in what it labels "austerity proposals"..."

"Austerity" is what I call 'Not wasting our friggin' money'

In other words, cut everything not essential - these are invariably contracted out in any case, so it should be a small step to privatize water, sewer, waste and so on.

Let volunteers groups look after the parks, sports clubs maintain sports facilities and have trusts/ not for profits run facilities such as pool, libraries and museums- assuming people will set up for the facilities they profess to need. Otherwise, leave it to private business or do without.

Any wonder when dealing with zealots?

"A senior nurse at Starship hospital's child protection unit told a conference of medical professionals that "all parents are liars until proved otherwise", doctors who attended say.

The revelation comes after a Sunday Star-Times investigation into practices at the unit, Te Puaruruhau, revealed concern it is being run like a police station, with staff treating parents as guilty until proven innocent over unexplained injuries.

Families have complained that the unit's doctors rushed to judgements, refused to budge from their initial assessments, and failed to apologise when injuries were shown to be accidental.

There has also been judicial criticism, with a judge saying doctors in one case seemed to have closed minds and had not considered alternative explanations..."

Yet I bet these PC ninnies would be morally outraged at the suggestion that they do a bit of profiling! ESPECIALLY if (if- yeah, right...) that profiling involved skin colour.

So lets just treat EVERYONE like they are shit parents...

Truth hurts

"A former Social Development Ministry employee landed in hot water after posting a Facebook description of herself as a "very expensive paperweight", "highly competent in the art of time wastage, blame-shifting and stationary [sic] theft"..."

Certainly couldn't be accused of lying!

Something I'm NOT allowed for Christmas

Bugger!