Hoodie Day

Today is National Hoodie Day with the slogan "Its wotz under da hood dat counts" - paid for by the usual suspect - The Taxpayer - at a cost of $35,000. More money down the drain.

Who is the hairbrained idiot who thought this up - the Ministry of Youth.
Who are the hare brained idiots who support it - again the usual suspects in the Maori Party as well as the Greens.
Who are the hare brained idiots who can't even promote good English.


As usual, common sense from MP Ron Mark.

He says it is sending the wrong message. "I think it's a little bizarre that a Maori MP would be promoting black American gang culture as a way to try generate some positive messages about New Zealand youth."

Why don't the Government spend $35,000 lauding our top students.

A Kapiti politician took National Hoodie Day to the extreme by donning a Ku Klux Klan costume at a council meeting, in a move that stunned district councillors and the public. He might have the right idea but a really stupid way to promote it.


Electricity - Why do we always seem to have power shortages - it doesn't happen in Australia, UK, Brazil etc. Talk about fiddling while Rome burns. Action to save power should have been taken months ago and getting more power generration should have been done 10 years ago. Went to a talk by a Transpower Executive this week who thinks it is going to be a very difficult winter unless we get rain. My impression is that with an election due the Goverment are hoping to toughen it out and pray for rain.

Another thought, following on from a previous Blog; although they cannot prosecute Kahui with dereliction of the children because he was found not guilty of the murder, she wasn't charged with anything, so why don't the Police charge her. I wonder if they gave her immunity from prosecution - if so they should say so.

A rude T-Shirt. It has the slogan "I love country music" along with pictutes of - an eye, a heart, Hillary Clinton, a tree and musical notes.

Enough said.

Cover stories

A couple of pictures made up through a site I found.

Silence in Court and Great Scott!!

I have been told that once a person is charged with a crime then they can't be later charged with a lesser crime if it is related to the original charge.

That is why the Police cannot charge King/Kahui with derelection of the children. This is to stop constant coming back by the Police. I can understand that, but I still believe people should have to give evidence if called upon in a Court, even if they are the accused. The stupidity is that if it is a Serious Fraud, they can be compelled to be cross examined, but don't if it is murder, rape etc.
In the Sunday Times Rosemary McLeod wrote lawyers are not after the truth - so true.




Scott Dixon wins the Indy 500.

A great Kiwi boy but he was born in Brisbane to NZ parents and returned to New Zealand and started racing Go-Carts at age 10.

So what was the headline in Australia - Brisbane Boy Wins Indy 500.

Budget 2008

The Budget - Probably some reasonably smart moves by Cullen. But as one who at this stage of the economic cycle is not really keen on large tax cuts, especially when we have to borrow $3.5 billion (according to today's Sunday Times) to finance them. He seems to have taken John Key by surprise and hasn't left much, if any, room to sensibly manoeuvre.

Not that the electorate, as per usual will care - they just seem to look at the money in their hip pocket and things are becoming quite difficult economically.

I see that Key is now starting to hedge his bets on his own tax cuts. The problem is that the electorate has been geared into thinking only about cuts and Cullen has decided to try and win the election because if he had been more responsible, then Labour would be toast (to quote an expression used in the House this week). I wonder what the Budget would have been like if it was the first year of the Parliamentary term. Quite different and much more conservative I would imagine.

Of course the side effect is that interest rates will be held up by the Reserve Bank.

Be some interesting times ahead.

Super 14 - on to the finals as predicted - Crusaders - Waratahs, and I can't see past the Canterbury franchise.

A lot of comment about Macsyna King in the sunday papers. She is one of the worlds low lifes and is probably not improving. It all seems to have started with her 'parents' who were also as bad as her.

Courts and the semis

It seems to be all about the Courts at the moment, with several cases all coming to a head at once, along with the Budget.

The Kahui case - almost an OJ Simpson with the Jury only being out for 10 minutes. That is impossible, except they had gone to lunch first (for it seems about an hour) so I suppose most of the talking would have been done then plus they would have been dicussing it in the days leading up to the final day. My view - probably both should have been charged. Now it seems nobody will be charged with anything. How is it that they haven't been charged with dereliction of duty towards the children. On the way to the hospital with the twins they stopped at McDonalds!! No reporter ever asks the Police why they aren't charged. What is going on?
As for King and Kahui - what a pair - they deserve each other.

Christchurch - two cases, one still to be resolved (charged with murder using a car) and the other the Zimbabwean found not guilty. Did the Police get it wrong - the Jury thought so.

Muliaga - the Coroner is now investigating her death from the power being cut off. It has been reported that they had gone into arrears 50 (fifty !!) times before. Also they had a string of debts.

Wellington - Two boy racers kill a person while racing and each loses his licence for 4 years. They appeal and get it cut to 3 years. My judgement would have been they lose them for 20 years!!

The Super 14 semis were finally found and I still can't overlook the Crusaders to beat the Hurricanes and the Waratahs to defeat the Sharks. The final of course to be the Crusaders.

Budget day - used to be a big deal and always at night - I will think about for the next Blog.

Bledisloe Cup and a loss

Went to the local Plunket today as they were having a fund raiser to have your picture taken with the Bledisloe Cup. We of course took Kipp down, but the photos were a bit dark.

Christine is going to try and lighten them.

After the photo shoot we went to play in the park by the Plunket for a while. Kipp loves the swing - probably because he doesn't have to do anything, while the slide etc take some effort. Funny how in the swing he doesn't smile and seems unhappy, but take him out and a stamping of the feet takes place.

Joe etc came around last night to watch the Hurricanes - Blues. The penalty that won the game for the Blues came from what the NZ Herald called a 'mysterious' ruling when the Ref overruled the touch judge (sorry - Assistant Referee!!) who was closer to the alleged offence. So now it is in the hands of the other games in Australia and South Africa tonight.

Found a site which backs up Blogs for free - Blog Backup Online - so have registered this effort and the SeniorNet one. I suppose we can only find out if something goes wrong.

Todays photo shoot with some better (enhanced) ones from the Cup shoot to come, I hope.

Kipp's Cafe

Went into Wellington today for our second lot of jabs for the South America trip. As we were walking along Lambton Quay we saw Kipps Cafe. Christine took a phone picture and will probably put it up in a day or two when I get it sent to me. Had our jabs and return for the last lot in a couple of weeks.


Went to the usual Quiz but were awful, coming about 9th out of 13 - although we didn't have Joe Brainbox with us. The problem was our bonus round where we scored only about 4 while in Science, where I thought we would be terrible, we got an 8. One question was, which is the smallest - Chile (our answer - WRONG), Equador (CORRECT) or Columbia. We should have known as we have been looking at the map ready for the trip. Before this I would have guessed Columbia.


Another Kapiti Island photo taken by a friend - It didn't bite!


Music - I have been looking for a song by Dave Burgess for some years now and managed to get it the other day. It came out around 1957 - only 51 years ago so impossible to get in NZ.

Kapiti Island

Kapiti Island trip with Rotary - Sunday 11 May 2008.

We went to Kapiti Island last Sunday. This was a visit that had been postponed from earlier in the year due to bad weather. We were worried about the weather on the day but it turned out to be reasonable; rain in the morning with a pleasant sunny afternoon, although the swell got up a bit later. Probably would have been worse if the predicted weather of a sunny morning and wet afternoon had come about.

At 521 metres high it was quite a climb. From the seashore it certainly doesn't give the impression that it is that high. My muscles are still suffering however Sarah and I did make it to the top.

Christine took a stack of photos and a few of them are below.

Sarah showing off - again!!

Wayne getting the bird.

Angela dry - Christine wet.

Going over on the boat.

Made it to the top - 521 metres up in the air.

Sitting on top -sitting not shitting - I hope!!

Serious - and only half way up.

Jabs and billionaires

Went into the Travel Doctor today to get our shots for the trip to South America. Yellow Fever seems to be the big one; she said there were some serious outbreaks at the moment so it is compulsory. But on top of that we had to get a couple of others including Rabies and another.
Plus we have to go back for two more boosters over the next couple of weeks.

It seems the Yellow Fever gives the disease to a person in a mild form to make them immune.
It is all far too much for me to understand.

The Kapiti Island trip is on Sunday - weather willing - and because others have pulled out both Sarah & Angela are coming with us. It isn't a good forecast so we can only hope it improves.

Had the usual Quiz Evening on Wednesday and we came 3rd. A surprise as our Bonus Round selection, when a team get double points, we really crashed, getting only 5 when we were averaging nearly 8 points for the other rounds. I think my best moment was when they asked for the third actor in The Good the Bad and the Ugly. My first thought was Warren Oates but as I had the actor pictured in my mind I finally thought of Elli Wallach. Not a well known star but a great character actor. I also came up with Mars other moon apart from Phobos. It took a while but I finally got there.

Went to the SeniorNet Federation AGM on Wednesday morning and met a chap I had not seen for about 50 years ago in the BNZ Auckland.

He mentioned to me the name Owen Glenn, the billionaire who had just given funds to Auckland University and was a donor to the Labour Party. He said did I remember him when we all worked together at the BNZ Auckland. ?? It all came back.
I didn't connect the name with how he looked today - then again 50 years changes us all. When I got home I Googled him and see he spent about 11 years with the BNZ before heading off to make his fortune. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. I should have said - Owen why don't we go into business together.

Then again, probably he would have been a billionaire and I would still have been me!!

As for the SeniorNet AGM - was an excellent meeting - the talent of the volunteers who are on the Executive of the Federation is incredible.

Bridges and Berryman

When Law Prevents Righting a Wrong

Staples Hughes a North Carolina lawyer, was on the witness stand and about to disclose a secret he believed would free an innocent man from prison. But the judge told Mr. Hughes to stop.
“If you testify,” Judge Thompson said at a hearing last year on the prisoner’s request for a new trial, “I will be compelled to report you to the state bar. Do you understand that?”

Mr. Hughes recalled last week, “it seemed to me at that point ethically permissible and morally imperative that I spill the beans.”

The Cumberland County Superior Court in Fayetteville, did not see it that way, and some experts in legal ethics agree. The obligation to keep a client’s secrets is so important, they say, that it survives death and may not be violated even to cure a grave injustice — for example, the imprisonment for 26 years of another man, in Illinois, who was freed just last month.

A lawyer’s broad duty to keep clients’ confidences is the bedrock on which the justice system is built, they argue. “Lawyers are not undercover informants,” said Stephen Gillers, who teaches legal ethics at New York University. Indeed, said Steven Lubet, who teaches legal ethics at Northwestern, few clients would confess to their lawyers if they knew the lawyers might some day choose to disclose that information.

In the Illinois case, Dale Coventry and W. Jameson Kunz waited 26 years to speak up about a client’s confession that freed Alton Logan, who had been serving a life sentence for murder. The lawyers said their client had given them permission to talk once he was dead. Last month, Mr. Logan was granted a new trial and freed on bond.

A Virginia lawyer, Leslie P. Smith, waited 10 years to disclose a secret that may save Daryl R. Atkins from execution, acting only after the Virginia State Bar gave him permission to speak.
Those lawyers have faced criticism from some laypeople for staying quiet so long. Mr. Hughes, by contrast, was rewarded with a disciplinary complaint for speaking up at all.

Madness!!!

This is the short version of an article on the Book of Joe blog and my first thought is 'typical American stupidity' - but is it. Probably the same idiocy applies here.

So we move to the Berryman case.

When talking about the law the Berryman case is a case in point. This is the bridge, built by the Army on what was supposed to be the farmland of the Berrymans. This the bridge on which a beekeeper lost his life when it collapsed when he was driving across it.

The Berrymans were prosecuted - some say persecuted - for the accident and found at fault. However a final (we hope) judgement has now come out absolving them of the blame. They in the meantime have been bankrupted and suffered healthwise.

Again, the only people who got anything out of it are the lawyers(except of course for the wonderful Bob Moodie).

To me it seemed simple. A bridge was built - it wasn't built correctly so those responsible for building it are at fault. I can't see how anybody could argue if the Auckland Harbour Bridge collapsed due to construction mistakes it would be the Mayor of Aucklands fault.

But our legal system took the view it is the fault of the landowner. Plus as it turned out, the bridge wasn't even on the Beerymans land, although this wasn't realised at the time. However, in mitigation of the Coroners report at the time (as the Judges points out) the Army hid their documents acknowledging that they had made mistakes in the construction.

Years go by and finally commonsense arrives and the fault sheeted home to the right party.

Madness!!!

May

Mad May has arrived.

And a Mad May Revolution in the UK where 'Red Ken' Livingstone has been ousted as the Mayor of London by Boris 'The Buffoon" Johnson.

Time for a change. And maybe the same here as the polls continue to show a Labour decline. But I am sure it will tighten up, and with no real partners on the right apart from Act, National could still struggle. The Maori Party may be pivotal as although their natural home is Labour the Party has not been as helpful as they the Maori Party think they should have been.

Saw an article about Credit Cards and it said the Fly Buys scheme is one of the worst for benefits against dollars earnt while the ASB True Rewards was better. Made me look at the ASB card and I see it still has 90 days Travel Insurance. So for the first time in 50 years am going to have a good look at our Banking arrangements.

Went out to a function last night and put the water at a dollar scheme mentioned in the last post. People seemed to think the idea was alright but worried about the funds going to the right place.