sagenz

From the headline you would think Tame Iti was there

New Zealand News - NZ - Island puts on best face for PM's visit. I would have thought the best face would be the one with a brown eye.

heh

I love trackbacks on google search, Just found out I make the top 10 on google searches for "girlie man" - kewl

Cough - hypocrisy -cough

Having discovered that Just Left had a googlewhack with "Maharey is a plonker" (see posts below) I just had to go back and start reading him again, didn't I.
But then I realised why the sort of woolly thinking hyprocrisy and wanting to have it both ways just does bad things for my blood pressure. Comments from link above by Jordan

Jordan - "Why is 'free' contracting so magic to you? Do you not acknowledge that in general, the relationship between workers and employers is characterised by a power imbalance in favour of the employer?"

Jordan - "My politics is about creating a level playing field where people can make their *own* choices. "

The fella contradicts himself in the same damn post ffs. But in the group 3 world of Helengrad it is very important that we say one thing while taking them rapidly in another. Young Jordan works for young labour and he has some thoughtful posts. You find yourself swept along in a warm glowing river of nice sounding views and strong declarations of honesty and good intent. Then you take a reality check and compare one comment with another. The true meaning comes out. We are free as long as Just Left and his masters in helengrad say we can be free. Really orwellian Animal Farm speak. It is not in the carefully edited posts that the reality is shown. It is in the reaction to comments that hypocrisy and the real thought process are found. I quote the power imbalance bit to demolish it.

Actually in todays world of Helengrad I think that odds are stacked strongly in favour of the employee. The employment tribunal has got things to the point where economically it is cheaper for a business to pay an employee to go away rather than argue the principle. A worker with bad faith can argue stress and cripple their employer with fines and going through adjudication processes that mire the average organisation in bureaucracy and process rather than getting on with the job of making a business.

A worker does not have to take a job and in the US a flexible worker is able to move and find a higher paying job with ease due to their flexible labour laws. It is the stupid thinking of the Europeans that is dragging down their economies. from a level playing field thirty years ago the US has moved to 50% ahead of the average EU income and almost double New Zealands.

The point where comments get really cruelly funny is when you have idiots like millsy who witter about the people who died saving overtime. "do you think that overtime should be abolished? Thats what you are implying. I suggest you start reading the Universal Declaration of Human rights and the ILO conventions that this country is a signatory to. I dont want people like you wrecking the protections that people have died for. "

listen fuckface. People died protecting our freedoms. They are still dying and you are out there protesting against them. Trying to pull in some socialist pronouncement from the ILO on overtime going all human rightsy is just so much bullshit. You dont understand your real human rights and you dont understand that people are still fighting for them. But even then. You still deserve them.

And the right to be paid extra for overtime is a load of shite. If I choose to work 60 hours for a rate or 30 hours for a rate that is between me and an employer. provide the conditions for economic growth rather than stagnation and the market will protect employees. If the employee wants more money for working longer hours then let them negotiate it with the employer or find another job. That is free association. And it is being taken away by the latest employment act amendments.

Maori land court judge gets his law badly wrong

In what are reported comments with a hattip to dpf from one news that are really quite disturbing if true. They indicate the simple lack of judicial clarity to the point where the man is unfit to serve in a senior judicial position. The head of the Maori Land Court thinks treaty settlements are not about grievances but about addressing poverty. He was addressing a session on Treaties with Indigenous Peoples at the International Bar Association Conference in Auckland.

There must be a distinction between arguing that negotiated settlements do not address the grievance and that the government is under some treaty obligation to treat Maori differently from other citizens. Are we getting senior institutional Maori simply laying the judicial ground for claims in decades to come that full and final settlements are not in fact full and final because they did not resolve the grievance. Time to put a stop to the grievance industry I say.

Better to follow the Ngai Tahu/ Tamihere path of stopping complaining about the causes of "poverty" and getting on with life. Are we to believe that the modern "poverty" of Maori as compared with the pre European conditions in which they lived is to be blamed on our current society and further funded by taxpayers. reality check here fella. Conditions, life expectancy and relative poverty is a whole lot different now than it was in pre European Maori times. You cannot have your cake and eat it too.

When will NZ get some MSM that is not reflexively anti american

When you read childish crap in the Herald and think that so many new zealanders only source of news is a biased repeater of bullshit it is no wonder that people beome indoctrinated. John Roughan becomes an anti american wingnut.

"The US is not the same country that elected George Bush four years ago. That country had literally not a care in the world. The Cold War was over, the economy had been booming for eight years. The main political concern had been the retiring President's sexual weakness. I should have considered all that before predicting Al Gore would be elected comfortably.

I dare no prediction this time. Americans are not the people I thought I knew. Too many reacted to the attack of September 11 like a lynch mob, for which Bush is mostly to blame. They needed leadership that would remind them of the law they stand for and the intelligent restraint that makes effective use of overwhelming power. "

Apparently 911 is all bush's fault. Well it is if you believe Osama and John Roughan. America was attacked and they are doing their level best to go after the causes of that attack.

Not the simplistic couriers and street level dealers of terror that have been hunted by police forces all over the world since Islamist terrorism started a few decades ago. But the suppliers of terror. Those regimes and organisations that foster hatred of our lifestyle and that will only be satisfied when the world is dominated by islamofascism and their interpretation of the word of Allah.

Wake and and smell the reality. The war on terror is our war. Only by going after those regimes that support terror and bringing the sunlight of the moderation of democracy will people in all countries be able to practice their religion (or lack) with tolerance and moderation. Bush and Blair and many others are not waging the war on terror out of any long held beliefs in the superiority of their system of government but because ensuring that people have a choice in how their states are governed is the only way that Americans and Brits and New Zealanders will be able to live in peace.
May sound like a rant but sometimes the sanctimonious wittering of those too blind to understand that our democracy is here because we fought to protect it. We need to keep on fighting to protect it.

Blogging from Budapest

Beautiful autumn morning. Clear skies and the city is looking great. Brings back some good memories as I wander past the bars and cafes we used to hang out in. Magyar women still have that special something missing from their kiwi counterparts

Gareth Morgans excellent series continues

The Government has consistently branded banks as a rapacious, profiteering cartel. Hence the rationale for Kiwibank. Can something similar be said about life insurance companies?
Unfortunately the evidence says yes. From a consumer's perspective this sector is evil.

He nails the reasons why New Zealanders prefer to invest in property than superannuation funds. we can only hope that the Cullen fund has slightly more investment clout. For the individual investor it is clear direct investment is the only option

From Ann Coulters latest book

**** The Iraq war and the Democrats: "John Kerry has said that we need to 'de-Americanize' the war -- I guess on the theory that the 'de-Americanizing' process has worked so well for the Democratic Party."

**** Gay marriage: "Gays usually bring up the argument about all the straight couples living in 'sham' marriages, but I see no point in dragging the Clintons into this."

**** Hillary's memoirs: "Hillary has already gotten a record $8 million advance from Simon & Schuster for the book -- reportedly the most anyone has ever received for rewriting history."

**** The New York Times's war coverage: "Apparently, the Times's stylebook now requires all reports of violence anywhere within 1,000 miles of Iraq to be dated from Bush's speech declaring an end to 'major combat' operations."

SOME Kiwis work second-longest hours in the West

The herald reports that Kiwis work second-longest hours in the West but then the detail shows the reality

"The International Labour Organisation study found that 20 per cent of the New Zealand workforce worked at least 50 hours a week, compared with less than 10 per cent in most European countries. "

Now who do you think those favoured few are having to work longer to support. Thanks helen

Good on ya fella

In a statement yesterday, the album's owner said he was prepared to destroy it if members of the Tuhoe tribe protested against its sale instead of bidding for it.

It is sacred no doubt as long as Tuhoe dont have to pay for it. This is the same tribe that kidnapped Goldie paintings.