The new Real Estate legislation is well overdue. This Dilbert cartoon sums it up in many peoples minds. Interesting that even in the US they think along the same lines. I have had few dealings with Real Estate Agents as it is not often in your life that one sells a house. However, apart from dealing with a personal friend who is an Agent (and he was great) the other dealings have ranged from poor to abysmal. At the time we dealt with the abysmal one a friend, who was also dealing with the same Agent, tape recorded all his actions and used that as proof of the lies to obtain a payment from the firm.

The only fault I see in the legislation at present is that the fines are far too low - should be up to $500,000.

John Key was on TV this morning and he seems to favour the legislation but he is turning into a "burbler" - going on and on and seemingly wants to have a bet both ways on this as well as the fireworks problem and the Fiji disaster.

DNA

DNA - the famous double helix.

John Key has proposed people being charged with a crime that could mean a jail sentence have their DNA taken. It they were found NOT GUILTY the DNA would be destroyed. As usual the the usual suspects are bleating and missing out the vital pount that only convicted criminals DNA would be retained.

The usual suspects are probably scared that the Police will use the DNA taken to look at other crimes and some of these would be solved (ie criminals will go to jail - how terrible).

The most important aspect is that we must make sure that the DNA matching is done correctly.

The last time we were in the UK a woman got stopped and was charged with being over the limit. Under their law they were able to take her DNA which showed a family link to a series of 20 year old rapes. They then charged her brother - who got something like 40 years jail.

As is well known, they only linked him to about 5 rapes, but upon searching his house they found he had taken a pair of shoes from each victim. The total meant he had raped over 20 women.

La vien rose

Went to see the film La vien rose about Edith Piaf last week. Found it reasonable in the story line, but it had too much flashback for me so it became a little disjointed. However the acting was a different story, particularly that of Marion Cotillard as Piaf. She was extraordinary. I noticed it seemed to gloss over the war period.

To sum up the state of the Hollywood film industry, I got my better half 10 film tickets for Xmas 2006. This gave entry to our local multiplex and since then we have only attended two films - one French as above, and the other being "The Queen" - British. So three films to go. At the present rate it will be 2009 before we use them.

And Hollywood wonders why they are not getting the patrons.

The new Cabinet was announced today. Was Trev really demoted. Watch for a comeback if the win the next election. Almost as important was the announcement of the Super 14 teams. I will have to study them before commenting.

Get in behind Trev

Mallard is my local MP and I have, over the years, had some interaction with him and have always found him reasonably helpful and inclined to act rather than talk. Probably a trait that has got him into the hot water he now finds himself. I would guess his career prospects are down the gurgler. You would think that Goff must be the front runner to replace Clark.

Interesting that it was Tau Henare (who I have a bit of time for) as their "relationship" goes back some years as Tau is Tuku Morgan's brother in law.

When we are overseas and being hassled by hawkers etc we speak a few words of Maori in an attempt to pretend we don't speak English. We usually start of with Tau henare, Matui Rata Pakeha Aotearoa. Has only worked a couple of times.

Telecom - a promise for faster (but at what cost?) Broadband. Again, although a new captain at the helm, seeing will be believing.

On the personal front I am involved with a Seniors Expo (which could have been organised better although there are some outside factors that have not helped) and we have now got a wireless connection for our laptop so we will see how that works out. I read on the Aardvark site about another insane Copyright problem. In Canada they put some Public Domain (according to Canadian law) sheet music on the Net but got a complaint from a German firm claiming the were breaching German Copyright. As per usual you know who won. It is like saying to one country you can't publish something that is legal in your country because it breaks anothers laws. Madness.

Its all yours South Africa plus some sex and petrol

What a poor game. It is often possible to have a tryless game that is a great game - good skills, a close encounter etc. But I don't think this was one of those. The almost try was ruled correctly in my view.

A classic that the claims of non-consensual sex against the Kiwi League player did not seem to have been able to go further as he filmed the "event". But again League is in the gun as going outside the "role model" role - if indeed they and other sports people should be setting standards of morality?

Labour Day tomorrow but most holidays don't worry me now but I did see that the price of petrol has risen in anticipation of people returning. But having said that for once I saw that BP was $1.63 while Mobil was still at $1.60 so that is something. I bet it won't last more than 24 hours.

Painting and the best of the tournament

Kipp went to Playcentre the other day and tried his hand and face at painting!!

At least he enjoyed himself!!

He came round on Friday as I said in the previous post and was looking a lot cleaner. Will be with me again tonight as they are all going to the Opera and leaving me to watch the final of the Air NZ Cup and to look after him.

C'mon the Lions.

The Bronze Medal. To prove I can't pick 'em France was completely destroyed by Los Pumas and who said Argentina were one dimensional. It was the best game of the tournament in my view and also probably with that first try after halftime they scored what is probably the best try so far. The try when the had a man in the "bin" was also a beauty.

Congratulations Argentina!!

Down to the wire

Down to the wire - well the final between

South Africa - England.

I hope for the good of the game that South Africa thump them and with style. Winning ugly is England. Although New Zealand has not been short of that, and winning is everything, it is now a professional game (entertainment) competing with many other options. I think France to beat Argentina and South Africa to win.

It seems like the rest of the planet, we have joined the world of the terrorist (and a huge explosion in Pakistan today). Yeah right! I think our ones are just a few of lifes nutters and are small time compared to the overseas variety and hopefully, basically harmless. But having said that we can't be too careful and if they do have illegal weapons then that cannot be allowed. But it certainly brings out all sorts of views.

I have been reading Scott Adams book about his cartoon character Dilbert. It took a while to grow on me and some are not funny (or I am too thick to get it) but some are hilarious.

Ran our first Blogging for Seniors class at SeniorNet (apart from the Course test class) and I certainly gained the impression that it was one of the more enjoyable ones.

Kip and crew are coming for tea tonight and of course it is the Labour Day weekend although holidays don't really affect me now.