A ruddy good job

The Oz election has been a resounding win to Labor (spelt the American way) but although they have a large seats number win the percentage difference between Labor and the Liberals/National coalition is only a couple of points. Typical of the De Facto First Past the Post system they run.

Sounds like a ruddy good job that "Honest John" Howard has gone.

It would have been interesting had Howard quit say 12 months ago and Costello had been the opponent as I think Howards day had passed but as usual he couldn't see it. Nearly 12 years as PM in a Democracy is a very long time.

Anyway here are some much better pictures- with a much better looking fellow as well!!








Top left was taken when we had him for the day when Mum and Dad went to the Martinborough Wine Festival and we went down to the stream to feed the ducks.

Its only our money

Just back from seeing the play I mentioned in the previous blog. It was excellent.

Its only money - especially when its not theirs.

I was clearing a P O Box for an organisation I belong to and inside was a leaflet from the Labour Department telling the Boxholders what the holiday dates for 2008 are. Good grief. Can't firms and people find this out for themselves. As they have probably sent a copy to every Post Office Box holder in the country plus they would have had a team to design the form, I suppose we wouldn't have got any change from $250,000. But of course they would say, it is only a infitisimal amount when taking into account the Departments total budget.

As a taxpayer I say "every cent counts"

I see that Auckland City Council have come to an agreement over their logo - on top of the estimated $1 million wasted only about another $50,000 down the drain!!

Another blog - another day

Christmas is coming fast and as usual at this time of the year we have been out Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and will also be out this coming Friday - a play at the local repertory. Caught up with a few ex-work mates on Wednesday at a Pensioners function. Its free so we went!! Although we also try to attend the mid year one which we have to pay for ourselves.

The annual charity raffle that I am involved in started today so that will take up some time as usual. SeniorNet is down to the last couple of weeks of classes and I tutored at a Blogging for Seniors Course today which I felt went really well as they all seemed quite excited about the possibilities.

Crime again - our first real prosecution of a case under the new anti smacking Bill took place with the father being found guilty. Although what the papers said he did seemed quite inocuous, I think there was more to it.

Further to my last blog, we now find that the murderer who was out on bail when he killed again was previously charged with rape but got off as somebody gave him an alibi. Later, it was discovered that the witness perjured himself so, although they were charged with this, under the "Double Jeopardy" law he could not be charged with the rape. I know this law is being looked at but it seems crazy.

As they say the law is often an ass.

The World (NZ) is MAD!!

Todays news -

• a juror is sick and vomits listening to the evidence in another murder of a child
• a child is being flown to Auckland from Eltham as it has been bashed by the things that are supposed to look after it
• a Judge breaks down when sentencing a person to 18 years in jail for the murder of two people (and the person it is said shows no remorse)
• a girl has gone missing and her car is found burnt out
• a woman (a recidivist drunk) is picked up well over the limit with 6 unrestrained children in her car
• a person is found guilty of murder who was on bail at the time being charged with murder (why was he let out to kill again ?)
• over 20 people with numerous previous records are picked up drunk (some 5 times over the limit) in the Far North etc etc etc

Just another day in paradise!!

What can we do with these monsters.

The question that doesn't get asked about the recidivist drunk drivers is why aren't they banned for driving for 20 - 30 years, why aren't they banned from owning a car (everybody should have to identify themselves with their Drivers Licence when they purchase a car ), if they are driving somebody elses car then the other person also loses their licence and their car.

Of course as we know with the bail law the politicians recently made it easier to get bail.

Madness!!!

Morality?

Morality - a definition is - "concern with the distinction between good and evil or right and wrong; right or good conduct"

I found an online morality experiment as follows -

The Sheriff of Nottingham captured Little John and Robin Hood and imprisoned them in his dungeon. Maid Marion begged the Sheriff for their release, pleading her love for Robin. The Sheriff agreed to release them only if Maid Marion spent the night with him. To this she agreed. The next morning the Sheriff released his prisoners. Robin demanded that Marion tell him how she persuaded the Sheriff to let them go. Marion confessed the truth, and was bewildered when Robin abused her, called her a slut, and said that he never wanted to see her again. At this Little John defended her, inviting her to leave Sherwood with him and promising lifelong devotion. She accepted and they rode away together.

Now in terms of realistic everyday standards of behavior, put Robin, Marion, Little John, and the Sheriff in the order in which you consider they showed the most morality and honesty. There is no "right" answer, and you'll be given the psychologist's estimate of you for each of the 24 arrangements.

The "answers" are at http://www.talisman.org/quizzes/robin-hood-morality.shtml

In my answer I put the Sheriff at the bottom - but one of my daughters put him at the top???
Her reasoning was that he stood by his agreement - mine is that if it wasn't for him the problem would not have arisen.

There is of course no right answer but I see that my morale stance was the majority view although not by much as the percentage difference is very small across the first few top responses.

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.