Worse off? Good!

I just have three things to say about Ruth Dysons little hissy fit today:

1) Good bloody job - about time. The difference between lowest wage earner and the beneficiary should be pegged at 30%. Of course under a Libertarian government that rate would be set by your insurer, should you take out insurance, or by your local charity.

2) Of course beneficiaries are worse off - we are all worse off - we are all going down the toilet together - you'd think that would make the politicians happy, they've always wanted equality above all else. Equality = Poverty.

3) It is the productive citizens of this country that raise the standard of living for everyone - blugger or not. The producers have had decade, after decade, after decade of heavy taxes, red tape, hatred and the life generally sucked out of them. Many of the productive have raised one finger on both hands, turned to face Wellington and then left on the next non-Air NZ plane available. Others have struggled on, frustrated that if they were left alone they could create business empires and as a by-product, employ more people, both able and disable. I remember when I was young, there was often one member of staff that was mentally disable that would make the morning tea (or some such occupation). Now the minimum wage doesn't make this viable - to name just one impediment to their employment.

The Communists/Socialists of this country (Labour, National, Greens, NZ First and now it appears ACT) need the productive to steal from - why they want to stop production is just simply baffling.

Q: Why do you think Prebble loved capitalism so much?
A: It gave him access to a larger pile of money to steal from.

Movie: 2 Days in Paris

A friend kindly took me to see '2 Days in Paris' the other day and I must say I laughed out loud - excellent movie.

Many people that have seen the movie haven't like it much, probably because most people that go to see films about the French seem to like the French. I personally have very little time for the French culture with its whingy, whinny, socialist tendencies - 2 Days turned out to be perfect for me.

The story revolves around a French/American couple who stop for 2 days in Paris to meet her family - cultural and language differences make for the most amusing viewing.

Another reason to rush off and see 2 Days is to view another great performance by Adam Goldberg. Goldberg would have to be one of my favourite actors and one we don't see enough of in main roles, although he seems to keep busy none-the-less. Julie Delphy wrote, directed and starred in the movie - which sounds awfully clever and probably is.

Anyway I think it's worth a look.

My apologies Mr Perigo

When I first started down the road of political enlightenment - nearly 15 years ago now - I had a conversation with Lindsay Perigo about the increasing taxes on cigarettes and alcohol. At the time Lindsay said that butter and coffee would be next. I inwardly scoffed (too scared to do this outwardly of course) and thought 'what is this guy on'? Made a comment to the effect that Nanny State would never get this out of line.

Well it appears that I owe Mr Perigo a huge apology (bottle of red on it's way). It appears that I was totally ignorant of how far Nanny and her servants are prepared to go, in fact the controls are turning into a Tsunami - ready to swamp us and smash what remains of our freewill to death - I think it has become unstoppable.

Secretly I hope that Labour win a further term. Why? Because Labour will continue on, at an ever increasing rate, to take control of more and more facets of our lives. Maybe when we aren't allowed to freely eat butter and drink coffee, will the populous stand up in enough numbers and say fuck off. Cause at the moment they are just saying, 'please Mummy Clark, please tell me what to do, I am so useless and stupid I can't possibly manage on my own'.

More on this when I've calmed down - christ I'm pissed off - and most pissed of with those that voted for this. What the hell are you thinking - oh I forgot, thinking is just too hard for your poor wee brains. Don't panic just look over your shoulder - there's Nanny no need to think anymore.

Hat tip: Oswald Bastable.

Remove the Red Tape, the Fibre Optics will follow

Yes, National is right, we do need better broadband coverage in New Zealand, and yes they are right, Telecos are reluctant to upgrade the telecommunications infrastructure. However the solution is not more government intervention it is less ... way less.

We need to look at the reasons why private equity is not flowing into our infrastructure (telecommunications or otherwise). All business decisions ultimately boil down to risk. With infrastructure the main risk is political risk. There is a real fear amongst our business leaders that the government, with a stroke of a pen, will steal assets by nationalising them (in full or in part) or with another stroke tilting the playing field and vamoose, profit is gone. Taken by those that - on average - couldn't make a profitable decision to save themselves.

National just needs to do the following:
1) repeal the Resource Management Act. I know it's hard to admit when you are wrong, but this monster of red tape has morphed into an unholy mess of corruption and is strangling the very heartbeat of the New Zealand economy.

2) once they are in power, remove any legislation that doesn't provide a level playing field and swear that they will not pass any further legislation that restricts our businessmen and their activities.

3) show a strong commitment to private property rights - stop stealing from NZ businesses and from its citizens. Talk about it at every opportunity. Replace the word 'sustainability' with 'property rights'.

Do this and entrepreneurs (Kiwi or otherwise) will have the confidence to invest and infrastructure concerns will be a thing of the past.

The complete lack of business nous is understandable if we were talking about Labour or the Greens, but the National Party? It's just plain unbelievable.

Smoking

Well I thought it was funny!

Plain English, Red Tape & Corruption

Many years back (1979) there started a campaign called 'Plain English', which was an attempt (and reasonably successful I think) to present the English language in, well, Plain English. Corporate speak, jargon and just general bullshit was to be banished from the spoken and written word.

Lawyers, academics, politicans, public servants, corporate employees and the general public were encouraged to keep it simple and to simply 'cut the BS'.

Here's an example I found on ShareChat from the departing Elaine Campbell "My tenure as head of market supervision can perhaps be characterised as one of building the capacity of NZX as the front line regulator of its markets, and bringing to our performance of that role public accountability by ensuring transparency in our decision making". I wonder if she ever notices eyes glassing over when she speaks.

The Plain English Campaign website provide some fine examples of what the poor public has to put up with:

Before: High-quality learning environments are a necessary precondition for facilitation and enhancement of the ongoing learning process.
After: Children need good schools if they are to learn properly.

Before: Your enquiry about the use of the entrance area at the library for the purpose of displaying posters and leaflets about Welfare and Supplementary Benefit rights, gives rise to the question of the provenance and authoritativeness of the material to be displayed. Posters and leaflets issued by the Central Office of Information, the Department of Health and Social Security and other authoritative bodies are usually displayed in libraries, but items of a disputatious or polemic kind, whilst not necessarily excluded, are considered individually.
After: Thank you for your letter asking for permission to put up posters in the library. Before we can give you an answer we will need to see a copy of the posters to make sure they won't offend anyone.

A fun pastime is to challenge those that use jargon, corporate speak and general 'gobbledygook'. Ask them what they mean in Plain English, half the time they have no idea, they simply parrot their colleagues and have been too proud to admit they don't understand the words themselves. Sometime their complete lack of comprehension leads them to mock you for your 'ignorance' - hehe, you know you've got them then.

Most crimes against Plain English is, more often than not, composed by the public servant. A person who has forgotten who they work for and have morphed into the ugly bureaucrat.

It is the bureaucrat that is suffocating our economy and it is the bureaucrat that needs to be pulled into line - urgently. The best means to do this is by mockery and reward. Mock the bureaucrat when they stifle us and award them when they act more like a public servant.

So we need a new campaign, one that smashes Red Tape, stifles Bureaucrats and gives us back our oxygen. Just have to think up a catchy name ...... uummmm!

A side battle of this campaign should be to discourage our children from taking government jobs, and if they do, to understand that they should be a benign public servant, not an aggressive blood sucking parasite.

A serious side effect of bureaucracy is corruption - I suppose a campaign against one is a campaign against the other - cool, now it sounds like a Crusade.

Pea, Pee or P

A friend of mine emailed this to me:
".... I ask 4-year old* if she would like to go and see 'The Princess and the Pea' at the theatre, and she asks 'Does the princess pee on stage?'.

Then I ask husband* if he would like to take daughter to see 'The Princess and the P' at the theatre, and he asks 'What, is it about drugs?'

Don't you love the English language.

* Names obscured to protect the very young and the very stupid.

Green-apes

Finally caught up with the weekend papers and spied a great Sunday Hearld column by the charming Kerry Woodham titled "Up yours, Greenpeace".

I too was a member of Greenpeace in my youth - not entirely sure why now, but it probably had something to do with my brain dead vegetarian years, not entirely sure why I did that either. Funnily enough all coincided with my socialist period - thank god I've got an excuse for embarrassing lapse in rationality - obviously not enough braincells to think clearly.

Anyway, the other day a Greenpeace lass knocked on my door to try and pry some hard earned dollars out of my wallet. I informed her that I was an atheist and didn't subscribe to groups that live in laalaa land - just ones that base their views on rational thought and evidence. She said that Greenpeace wasn't a religion, but I begged to differ.

She then asked if I wanted a "better world for my children". Was initially taken aback that I looked like I might have children - in her defence I was wearing my trackies so she can be excused for thinking so. "Yes" I said "I do want a better world for my nieces" and that was precisely why I wouldn't support Greenpeace or any other environmentalist organisations. It is the very people that Greenpeace attack that make my world, this world, a beautiful place to live in. They provide me with light when it's dark, food when I'm hungry, movies when I'm bored, champagne when I'm celebrating, chemo when I'm dying, planes when I'm in the mood to view this beautiful world. They also provide me all the necessities that allow me to do the job I love - books, computers, software, internet, financial markets, the cup that holds my tea and the tea itself.

The policies and aim of these environmentalists are no less than a desire to turn man back into animals, scrambling around in caves, or at best eking out a meager existence on a farm. This world they desire would mean millions upon millions would stave to death, and they would be the lucky ones. The rest would live a short and miserable existence in a truly malevolent world. A world that would kill me and my nieces and all future generations of my family. I would no sooner align myself with the green movement as I would the Ebola Virus.

The day that the greenies advocate for nuclear power is the day I might (might, I add) start to listen to them. I think it's safe to say that day will never come.

Insurance Companies - not charities

There has been a bit said about our East Auckland mugging victim over the past couple of days. But one strange idea that keeps coming up is that the insurance company should pay for the cars that were damaged in this, all together inspiring, act of retaliation.

When did everyone start to think of insurance companies as some kind of charity? When you sign up for insurance there is a list of events that the insurance company will pay for - using you vehicle as a weapon is most definitely not one of them. Can you imagine the claims that would suddenly start flowing in if they agreed to this claim (not that I think the man was stupid enough to even put a claim in). Can you imagine the increases in insurance premiums.

If you really think this guy deserves his car to be fixed by someone other than himself, then send him some money - don't demand that the insurance companies should pay for something they never agreed to insurer.

Anyway it sounds like he doesn't want any help anyway - he accepts that it was his decision to ram the other car and that he should pay - good man!

Gang Hero - Jim Anderton

The gangs must be rubbing their hands with glee - Jim Anderton has handed them even more money on a plate with the banning of BZP party pills.

Drug dealers all round New Zealand must be stocking up on the pills and storing them for the oncoming price rise that goes along with any product that is made illegal or scarce - even the most stupid amongst us understand this concept - but apparently not the politicians. Mind you they are Socialists so their understanding of action and reaction is markedly limited at the best of times.

They are so lacking in common sense that I can only conclude that they have been partaking too much in their drug of choice - alcohol.

Of course like all things in business it's not guaranteed that users of party pills will continue to buy them - the law may actually do what it intended and reduce the number of BZP pills used ... as users switch over to speed etc - brilliant!

And now instead of chatting to the nice shop owner they will be chatting to gang members and the such like - New Zealand is now a better place.

Jim you are no ones hero but the gangs - up to now there have been no deaths attributed to the use of BZP in New Zealand - but just watch the death toll mount up in a month or so.

Kiwi girls

Three men were sitting together bragging about how they had given their new wives duties.

Terry had married a woman from America, and bragged that he had told his wife she was going to do all the dishes and housework. He said that it took a couple days but on the third day he came home to a clean house and the dishes were all washed and put away.

Jimmie had married a woman from Canada. He bragged that he had given his wife orders that she was to do all the cleaning, dishes, and the cooking. He told them that the first day he didn't see any results,but the next day it was better. By the third day, his house was clean,the dishes were done, and he had a huge dinner on the table.

The third man Dave, had married a New Zealand girl. He boasted that he told her that her duties were to keep the house cleaned, dishes washed, lawn mowed, laundry washed and hot meals on the table for every meal. He said the first day he didn't see anything, the second day he didn't see anything, but by the third day most of the swelling had gone down and he could see a little out of his left eye. Enough to fix himself a bite to eat, load the dishwasher, and call a landscaper.

Thought: Could this be the real reason that more kiwi boys are marry lasses from overseas?

The Ex-Expat has a great blog on the ugly attacks coming from all angles at the lovely single kiwi lady.

I'm not sure why we have become public enemy #1 - all the single girls I know are extremely well presented, kind, fun and intelligent - yes they have opinions, but who doesn't?

I'm back ...

I'm back ... maybe not for long ... but I managed to get a full nights sleep last night and so brain is kind of operating again - hopefully it's back to stay - yay!

The right of self-defense

At the NZ Herald today I read that the New Zealand Police would like more Tasers to curb the increase of violence. I couldn't agree more with Senior Constable Denis Bergman's urgent request for Taser Guns to be issued immediately.

However, an interesting comment was made by Westport's Senior Constable and it goes as follows:

"... there were people who wanted to take away from police their ability to protect themselves and the public."

Please note Mr Bergman that it was the Police that started New Zealand on this path, when they denied New Zealand citizens the right of self-defence. Show your real concern for all members of New Zealand and call for the immediate cessation of persecution, by the Police, of those that injure or kill during the process of defending themselves and their property.

An immediate improvement to the lawlessness we now experience, will be to allow us to arm ourselves with Tasers (check out this model - it even allows you to play music). The first citizens that need urgently to defend themselves are the Dairy workers - I'm not sure how many have died over the years, I can think of two cases in Auckland off the top of my head.

Without the right to self-defence we have given all power to the criminal and the thug. To reclaim back our lawful power, it is not just the NZ Police that needs to be armed with Tasers, it is the New Zealand citizen that urgently need its protection.

Some moral support from the Police would be appreciated as well.

Relgious Humour

It's raining, raining, raining, ... so I'm spending the afternoon surfing my 'Favourites' on the web and landed up spending an hour reading religious humour:
4 Jesus and Mo,
4 Russell's Teapot, &
4 Lindsay Perigo (advice to Lindsay - don't watch Fox, it'll rot your brain.

Well it seemed more fun than finishing my blog on the Drug War.

The Evil Witch vs. Snow White

Now in general I'm not the biggest fan of female singers - their high shrieking tones just hit my inner ear and send me running from the room. One that particularly makes my skin crawl is Kiri Te Kanawa.

So I laughed when I spotted the front page of the Herald this morning with Kiri lashing out at Hayley Westenra. Talk about the Wicked Witch of the West having a go at Snow White. And why the bitterness? Could it be the green eyed monster raising it's ugly head Kiri?

Hayley has a highly successful career and has added some spice to what really is a very stuffy boring art form - and she does this without making my ear drums shatter. Apparently men don't hear the high grating sounds that Soprano singers reach - nor those wailing electric guitar riffs - nor their nagging whining wives - not their screaming children. Might it be because they have lost some of their hearing? But for the rest of us with perfect hearing, soprano's, electric guitars, whining, screaming and whistling are just simply torture.

Listen here to the clear and young tones of Hayley.

Listen here to bitter tones of Kiri, is that a microphone I see?

And what did Hayley have to say about Kiri's nasty little act of unprofessionalism? "No comment" - very classy indeed my young friend.

Rules for life #2: sleep is heaven

Well it's official - I've gone mad!

It has now been 4 months since I've had a full night’s sleep - #*&#^&!@ - and I've hit the wall hard. Can't walk straight, can't think straight, have fuzzy brain, burst into tears under stress and worst of all, I cry at sad TV moments! That's what my girly, girlfriends do, not me! Well not very often anyway.

God sleep is so important - life as we know it ceases to be the same and in fact ceases full stop if deprivation goes on for too long. Every part of you suffers - mind, body and soul.

I can see why interrogators use sleep deprivation to get confessions out of prisoners - hell if Helen or John could guarantee me 12 hours sleep, I'd vote for either of them in the blink of an eye. Mind you that's not even that fast these days - takes about two seconds to take my eye lids down then up again and then another two seconds to focus. I am prepared to sell my soul for sleep, maybe even my first born.

And don't put me on a jury for the man who shoots his neighbour after said neighbour kept him awake just one night too many - I'll acquit him in a second. Probably give him a Victoria Cross for courage under fire to boot.

As it turns out there appears to be a medical reason for all this. After feeling like Wonder Woman a few months after chemo I started to go downhill again. Initial panic - thought that the cancer was back - not so, just the treatment stuffed up my hormones. Hormones those wonderful things that we know little about, but can turn one’s life into misery. To add insult to injury I've stacked on the weight - looking forward to the 6-month struggle to get that all back off. But it should be easier to get to the gym once I can achieve the sound-asleep status again.

So I've got a two week wait to see the specialist Endocrinologist - feels like a life time. In the meantime don't expect anything of interest out of me and I may burst into tears for no apparent reason, and yes I realise that this doesn't fit my character, but it should be amusing for you all anyway.

So Rule for Life #2: Sleep is heaven - get heaps of it - interrupt sleepers at your own risk and with no sympathy from me should you incur injuries. In fact this should really be Rule for Life #1.

Keeping up with The Joneses

The Joneses has gone under. Well no surprise here, I predicted that one months ago when I saw how they marketed properties. No agents names on the adverts or signs and buyers phone a central call centre. No individual person appeared to be held responsible for the sale of the property. This is hardly the formula that allows good agents to build their profile and presence in a market, let alone have any great incentive to sell anything. I could only see below average agents joining this agency.

Disclaimer: I once was a real estate salesman and now sit on the other side of the fence, dealing with agents on a regular basis.

I have never understood why the public believe that agents are paid too much? I certainly wouldn't have done the job for less than what I received - and I wasn't even that good at it. The talented agents definitely wouldn't do it for less. In fact we offer our agents extra incentives over and above their fees to focus on the leasing or selling of our properties.

The problem we have with real estate is that the agents remuneration is public knowledge. I can't think of any other sales job that so publicly displays its pay. Anyone who works in a business that has salesmen will have noted that they get special treatment and incentives and overall salesmen get paid huge amounts of money - and in my mind deservedly. Without the income that these hardworking and talent salesmen bring these companies would die.

Not to say there is no problems with the real estate industry - the REINZ being mine. The case they took against The Jones last year being a case in point. It also bugged me, when I was an agent, that I was forced to belong to a below par, totally ineffective industry body that generally ignored major fraudulent behaviour - the case they took against agents in South Auckland last year was incredibly unusual, considering that this kind of thing (and worse) has gone on for years.

Clayton Cosgrove thinks that he can fix the problems with the industry by pushing more laws onto the agents. My advise to him - take the government controls and stuff them where the sun don't shine, along with your MBA*. Let the public decide weather they want to work with an agent from REINZ or another organisation or simply a freelance agent. The rules have produced a less than perfect industry - why can't you see that more rules will only make it worse? Open up the industry for competition from other organisations (or individuals) other than REINZ, this will allow much needed criticism and discussion within the industry to flourish. For those of you who are not aware, a sales agent can not publicly criticise other agents or their practices - talk about a recipe for disaster!

* And another thing .... what is it with MBA graduates and their love of rules and systems - I have never met one that has any real business talent. Some would say that once a business has been set up there is a need for some boring arse to keep it ticking away, as opposed to the entrepreneur that set up the business. But with the fast moving nature of modern businesses I think you need an entrepreneur of some degree at the helm throughout the entire life of a business.

Babies, babies everywhere

I was commenting to a friend the other day that lately, just about every women out on the streets seems to be either pregnant (no not just fat) or pushing a pram - and it appears that I was close to the truth.

The birth rate is now 2.2 births per woman, up from 2.0. Since I haven't contributed in anyway to this figure, nor most woman I know, someone has been very busy - bravo!

Australians must also be happy, even more educated, taxpayers heading their way, without the expense of educating them - brilliant!

Kiva

I just signed up to Kiva to make loans to third world entrepreneurs. This is like the Grameen Bank who make small loans to the world's poor. The Grameen Group was founded by Nobel Prize winner Dr Muhammad Yunus, the father of Microcredit.

I love that I'm not just handing out money - I don't believe that this helps the self esteem of either party and I also love that my money comes back and I can make the loans over and over again. Yes am totally aware that the borrower might default on the loan, but only 1% of the loans default.

So now that I've done my good deed for the day - I'm off up north, for a weekend of arguing, drinking, more arguing and general mayhem with 16 of my closest friends - love it.

Update: No arguing actually - how dull.

Ideas from the Edge

In 2005 the Edge World Question Centre brought us "What do you believe is true even though you cannot prove it?"

In 2006 it was "What is your dangerous idea?"

In 2007 it was "What are you optimistic about?"

And this year it is "What have you changed your mind about? Why?"

This website brings together over 150 of the worlds academics and asks them all the same question - brilliant! Lots of differing opinions of course - hours of reading - enough to make you go blind.

Changing ones mind is often a sign of intelligence - well in my case anyway. So what have I changed my mind about?

I confess here and now that I use to be a socialist - yes very embarrassing I know, but there you have it. The process of change started in my second year of university and was almost completely out of my brain a few years later, then a brief period of dabbling in the right, until I developed into a fully blown Libertarian at about 27 years of age - hey, better late than never.

Why did I change my mind?
The issue that dragged me out of the misery that is the left, was censorship and by extension freedom of speech. I basically got sick of listening to white fat middle aged women bleat on about the sins of pornography - it was also the time that I realised how annoying many women are.

I had been noticing other weakness in the policies of the left - every time they enact a policy it did exactly the opposite of what was intended. Also noticed the patronising attitude that believed that the poor and minorities, particularly Maori, are stupid and can't look after themselves. Even more frustrating were the Maori leaders (all socialists), who believed exactly the same. How they expect their kids to gain great heights with this mentality is beyond me. A mentality that still prevails for women as well, I might add.

I also noted that many socialists were often the beneficiaries of state funds - either as beneficiaries or state employees - funny that.

The one big problem with being a Libertarian is that I'm surrounded by Socialists, and with New Zealanders happy to sell their vote to the highest bidder every single election, I suspect it will be so for the remainder of my lifetime.

Question: What have you changed your mind about? Why?