Well I haven't blogged in a while cause of the chaos in the lead up to christmas and tomorrow is my Sisters wedding so everything is quite hectic at the moment. I will be back later in the year before new years and I will get back into it. So I hope everyone has had a merry christmas and If I don't post before a very happy new year.
Today in Britain the Police have announced that they have arrested a man in relation to the killings of 5 prostitutes in Suffolk. This case brought back memories of Jack the Ripper and other cases where 'Ladies of the Night' were targeted. The photo above is the man that the media believe to have been arrested, one Tom Stephens, He released a press statement earlier saying that he thought he would be arrested as he knew all the suspects and had no alibis.
Cullen has come out today with a statement saying the tax cuts will not be big, with no more than $10 a week in the hand for most. As they raise the thresholds, but the low income earners will get nothing, and the only ones who will win are those that earn amounts over each of the thresholds, so seen as I am at the bottom one currently tax cuts will not help me. I don't think I would call these tax cuts either as moving thresholds is not a cut it is just changing qualifying terms.
Matt Damon has come out saying doing sex scenes with Angelina Jolie was weird. Well when I first read this headline I expected something kinky but no he says its weird having sex scenes with her because she is dating his best friend Brad Pitt, come on Stuff don't lead us on.
Well the Black caps played the last test match against Sri Lanka using every man and his dog in the field and still couldn't win this is a bit of a problem, but having several players who aren't even playing at domestic level leads to some major problems as they proved in this match.
The Bat above is exactly what it seems the Black Caps are using at the moment, they can't hit anything
Check out these guys. Two Kiwis on a European tour and doing some crazy stuff along the way.
SPECTACULAR
An Australian 12-year-old self-taught driver out looking for boys in her grandma's car led police on a brief chase that reached 110kmh in a 60kmh zone early today. Police were shocked to find the driver of a car they were pursuing early this morning was a 12-year-old girl. Police from Reservoir noticed the Mitsubishi wagon driving without headlights along Mahoneys Road, Thomastown about 1.45am but when they attempted to pull the car over it accelerated away and a short pursuit ensued. "Soon as we put the lights on they've taken off of on us at a high rate of speed," said Reservoir Senior Constable Troy Paterson. "We thought 'this driver looks pretty competent' - they crashed a red light. "They've pulled over ... we approached the car and to our surprise, there's a little 12 year-old girl, seat pushed into the steering wheel, could barely see over the bloody steering wheel. "She said 'I'm just taking grandma's car for a spin to meet up with some boys'."We asked her 'how do you know how to drive at 12?' And she said 'oh, I taught myself'." Police believe that at one stage the car reached 110kmh in a 60kmh zone.The car eventually stopped in High Street, Epping and the girl and her 15-year-old female passenger, both from West Heidelberg were arrested. Police expect to charge them both by summons with theft of the car, dangerous driving and other driving offences.
This is Crazy stuff, but only in Australia right??
Yes Animal rights activists have gone mad, according to a Berlin Animal Activist group a planned Ferris Wheel for Berlin will result in the Rhinos stopping breeding which will endanger them more than currently.
If you're opposed to a ferris wheel at least come up with a good reason
What does Chris Martin put in his hands to guarantee a wicket every ball???
A bat of course
Karl Du Fresne this morning wrote an opinion piece in the Dom Post saying that bloggers in New Zealand are constantly ranting about the Bias of the New Zealand MSM, which is partly true, but he also continued that in New Zealand unlike elsewhere this complaining was from both sides, which he said is the way it should be.
Then he went on to say "Some blogs are perceptive and well informed.
They keep the MSM on their toes and open debate to voices that might not find an outlet in conventional publications. But many blogs - both of the Left and Right - are barely literate rants written by angry, selfabsorbed no-hopers with too much time on their hands. They are often toxic, petty, juvenile and malicious.
He goes onto say that much of it is cowardly as it is posted behind Pseudonyms and anon. Which I actually agree with, and I agree there are a lot of ranters out there on the blogging scene, but I don't think the situation is as crazy as he puts it out to be. He has said there are only a few that are coherent. I have to say I myself do have a rant every now and then, but I also have some quite perceptive posts as well.
Well the full opinion piece is here
Don Brash gave his Farewell speech in Parliament today, admitting to having made a few mistakes along the way, but also saying he was glad he had done it and he has found respect for many people in Parliament across party borders. Including a respect for Clark and Cullen, even though he disagrees with their policies.
He thanked Gerry Brownlee and Murray McCully for being with him through thick and thin and gave a special thank you to his wife, saying "Only families of those who have been involved in politics knows what they go through."
The excerpts on Stuff are quite thin on the ground, but if anyone finds a copy coulf you please post it on thanks.
This is a spectacular scene from the storms in Newcastle Australia.
I love lightning, I only wish we had the real stuff here instead of the blanket of light we get.
The repayment threshold for student loans has been raised to 17,784 per year. This is only $342 a week. Now I pay rent of 119, phone of 5, power about 13, and internet of 10. thats a total of 147 without counting food and/or travel, I think most people would struggle to survive on the amount that the government thinks is a fair wage, and every dollar over that you don't only lose 20%+ to tax, but also 10% to your loan, and then add on if you have a job on secondary tax, that is then 33% + 10% of every dollar earned so for a second job you pay 43% of it to the government, there really is no incentive to get ahead in this country, and these students when they are studying also receive less money than those on the dole, and their parents are mean tested til they are 25.
I don't see any fairness in this!!!!!
Oh and to compare it to Australia, over there the repayment threshold is $37,355 New Zealand. This is ludicrous, no wonder so many students bail and head overseas.
These guys are true heroes, most of the Firefighters fighting the bushfires in Australia are volunteers and they come from all over Australia and New Zealand and are helping to protect the homes and lives of complete strangers. These guys need a congratulations.
You boys are doing a great job and I commend you for your great work. And keep it up, it is guys like you that make me realise the world isn't such a bad place after all.
Former Hawke's Bay and Wellington representative Edward "Jim" Newbigin couldn't hide a wry smile this week as debate raged over Brendon McCullum's controversial run out of Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan.
Jim himself was involved in a similar situation many years ago and believes that it is all part of the game, he thinks that kids need to be taught to play to win. In Australia this is the case, but here in New Zealand it seems that they aren't. I remember when they decided to stop scoring at Primary school sport, now this is ridiculous they should be taught that you play the game to win, and this is the same in life, why bandy around and play at good sportsmen and women when this is necessary and a part of the game, but sport is about the winning and this is exactly what McCullum was doing.
Good on you McCullum, play to win.
Ask anyone who watches Ice Hockey to play word association with the Devils,and you could see a few words coming up regularly. Defense, Brodeur, and most likely BORING. Now calling a team with 3 titles in the last 11 years boring is very harsh, but it is because of their style of play. They have a suffocating defense and with Brodeur in the goal it is hard to get past them. If the Devils get ahead even just 1-0, it is unlikely you will get back into the game and a 2 goal lead is just unbeatable. when scoring first the Devils are 14-2-1, in 17 games to only lose 3 and 1 of those in overtime shows what I mean. The Devils are even better on home ice, with a record of 11-1-1 (the current best home record in the league) they are nearly invincible at home as they are able to make sure they get their top checking line up against the oppositions top scoring line, which nullifies them almost instantly.
All opposition dislike playing the Devils, but even more so if they play them at home. The Devils have had a more up and down season this year than in past years, but now appear to have turned the corner on away ice and are looking to improve their lead in the Atlantic Division and attempt to chase down the other Division leaders in the Eastern Conference.
For more on this topic go see Chuck Gormley
Well Rae Rae has now come out saying he won't drink drive again, how convenient coming after all the national condemnation. I think this is just a knee jerk reaction to the whole country being offended and he seems to have fooled most of the public and media, but he hasn't fooled me he is nothing but a lying scheming stupid little boy.
Well I started this blog on September 14th 2004, and made it to 100 posts on August 13th 2005, about 11 months later. I made 200 on September 4th 2006, and it now seems I have upped the Ante a bit making 300 just over 3 months later, as this is now up to averaging more a day.
I am not going to say anymore on the matter, but I will work towards 1000 now considering NZ Paradigm dies at 199posts.
Ok so NO sugary drinks in school from 2009.
Ok now while on the surface this may seem fine, yeah it cuts back on tooth decay and obesity. Well no how does it do that?? Banning something does not work, look at Prohibition.
And then to top it off you are punishing everyone because the few can not control their diets and exercise.
I am totally against this, how about an education set-up to educate people how to live properly. or start with the parents 90% of the problems we have these days extend from the childs early years and a lack of discipline etc, or bad habits introduced by the parents.
Don't punish the many to help the few.
According to some critics in the USA, they claim the reason that the NHl is going to stay as a second rate sport in the states is because of the extreme lack of stars after the big names of Jagr Ovechkin etc. Shawn Roarke has a great list of stars in every single team, I agree with him their is no lack of stars in the NHL it is just more that they don't get in the news for the wrong things like the players in the NFL and baseball and NBA.
The list is here.
New Jersey defeated Boston 5-1 last night as they head along on a 5 game winning streak, and improved their away record. They have had a near perfect record at home with 14-1-1, but have struggled to win away from home. But this victory over the Bruins gives them a boost in their hunt for a fourth Stanley Cup.
The Devils now have a 2 point lead in their division and a game in hand. It also pulls them in striking distance of the Atlanta Thrashers for 2nd in the Eastern conference, but to grab that either the Thrashers would have to fall apart or the Devils would need to extend their winning streak even more, though the Devils have always been good in December and January so chances are looking good. Especially if they can continue their record at home.
Johnny Reid has won the latest round of the A1GP. He won both the Sprint Race, the Feature race and started from poll. For the third round in a row he got the fastest single lap in qualifying and for the 2nd in a row the fastest lap in the sprint race. leading into the round in taupo in January this is looking very good for NEw Zealand as we have climbed to 5th in the title race and our teammate Germany is sitting at the top, we have clearly had one of the fastest cars all season...
NZ for A1 Champs 06/07
I have noticed a lot of cases coming to court lately where criminals have committed a multitude of offences and end up being sentenced concurrently. This means in effect they only serve the longest of the several sentences they are handed down. And then of course they are out after two thirds of that under the parole system. This is making a farce of the justice system. I say no more concurrent sentencing, I like the US system if you kill 5 people you get 5 life sentences, meaning you will never ever be out of Jail, In New Zealand under current law 5 life sentences at the maximum is still only 85 years... Yet this is more than fair, if you commit multiple crimes you should serve the sentences for every single one of them.
The teens involved in the 14-hour binge drinking session followed by a car chase running away from the police and rolling the van they were driving. Their parents though have said they won't be punished as it is the first time they have done something like this. In my Humble opinion this is exactly when they should be punished, if not at the first time they do something then you will keep letting them off and then eventually they will be out of control and I personally think if these kids are doing a 14 hour bender and then driving they are already out of control and need to be taught a lesson right away, it is problems like these that are leading to the culture of violence and excessive prison numbers we have. (Though in my opinion harsher sentences should be handed down) of course this will open the prisons up and increase the number of people behind bars, but I believe that it will eventually curtail and head back down as the deterant factor kicks in.
New Zealand made a great game of the test match against Sri Lanka and came out on top, but all the commentators can do is bitch about McCullum dismissing Muttaih in the second innings as he went to congratulate Sangakarra on making his century. I agree completely with McCullums actions, the rules of the game stand and this talk of 'spirit' of the game is a load of crap in the days of the chronic players not leaving when they know they edged it, in the past this was considered extremely bad sportsmanship. In this day and age all batsmen hang around til that finger goes up.
So good on McCullum and the critics can shut up. Oh and also does anyone think Sri Lanka would be complaining if they had won?
And I agree completely with Flemings statement, "If we threw and Overthrow on that ball I am sure they would've taken the run."
Labour has backed down on attempting to get data from its citizens at the borders and will not be including it in changes to the laws on immigration and travel that are to be coming out. They have decided that there was too much opposition to making New Zealanders give fingerprints, Retina scans and in extreme cases DNA as they leave and enter the country.
Michael Laws has written a great opinion piece in the SST today, the bit that will get him in trouble is a reply to the critics of his "fat brown slug" comment from earlier about Tonga. He has come aut and said that it is true, the King was a fast brown slug, but it is acceptable to use being brown as an excuse. While this comment is kinda racist it is also true, people in New Zealand are led to believe that "brown" people are behind the 8-ball to begin with so therefore it is ok if they don't achieve. But the bit that I agreed with the most was the part about New Zealand being confusing and the parties leading the charge for fighting back against the coup, while condemning those involved in the riots in Tonga, both of these were fights for democracy. Though I think the governments line on it is going to be that Tonga was against the 'rightful' government, while Fiji was for the 'rightful' government, as countries of New Zealands ilk are supposed to support the government of other countries, but I agree with Laws they are being two-faced.
Well now it has finally let me move over to Blogger Beta and I will try and edit all my previous posts into catergories for everyone as well...Thanks for your own going support.
Well my Devils picked up a win over Philly last night, their fourth win on the trot and the 84th Career shutout for Marty Brodeur came in the 2-0 victory. Now they are top of their Division and looking good for a spot in the playoffs, even at this early stage of the season, the Devils are frequently sitting at the bottom of the top 8 at this point yet always improve near the end of the season. Today they face off against Boston and could solidify their placing. They are 2 points clear in their division and have a game in hand, meaning tonight they could move 4 points clear.
Top of the East. (placings Div leaders 1-3)
-GP in brackets
Buffalo 44 (28)
Atlanta 40 (30)
New Jersey 34 (27)
Montreal 36 (28)
Carolina 34 (31)
NY Rangers 32 (28)
NY Islanders 31 (28)
Ottawa 31 (29)
Toronto 31 (30)
Ok well in the East Buffalo are looking very good to take out the top spot, while New Jersey and Atlanta should fight it out for 2nd and 3rd. But it is very tight for the last few spots with 3 more teams on 30 points. So it looks like a 7 way race for the last 3 spots in the playoffs, is a great season to be following Ice Hockey.
Top of the West
Anahiem 50 (31)
Nashville 39 (28)
Edmonton 34 (28)
San Jose 40 (29)
Dallas 38 (29)
Detroit 36 (27)
Minnesota 32 (28)
Calgary 29 (26)
Vancouver 29 (29)
Well in the West it looks to be taking less points to qualify for the playoffs, but more points to get near the top. The race for a playoff berth is also not as tight, but Colorado on 28 (28) would feel gutted if they end up missing out come April. Anahiem look like runaway winners in the West and it is unlikely anyone will challange them and they should be playing for the Stanley cup.
Well in my Dashboard, it told me I had access to being upgraded to the new version, yet when I clicked to accept this offer and entered my details, it told me I have to wait, I really would like Bloggers new version now, but it seems I will have to wait. Oh well.
I posted that I thought New Zealand would get walloped in the first test, but it seems like the result could swing the other way instead. At stumps on Day 1 Sri Lanka have been bowled out for a measley 154 after electing to Bat who knows why when the Groundsman has been saying all week that it would be a bowlers pitch on day one, and in reply New Zealand is 85/2. With Fleming on 7 and Cumming on 37.
This is almost the opposite of what I predicted though a big first innings lead will be New Zealands aim now, and kicking on to try and win by an innings
Well now the Rugby season is over we are into the Summer of Cricket. New Zealand is about to begin its first test of the season against Sri Lanka, personally I don't think that the games are going to be as high scoring as commentators are seeming to suggest. Both teams have very potent bowling attacks, but New Zealands top order is still yet to fire. I have a suspiscion that New Zealand will go down big time in the first test as they just can't keep up with the Sri Lankans. Our Bowlers are where we have to beat them, and probably the batting will end up resting on McCullum, Oram, Vettori and Franklin again, So maybe our team can just rely on our bowlers, oh and wicket keeper. The specialist batsmen that have been selected for this series still worry me, yes picking younger players is a good idea, but How and Cumming have both failed before, and Sinclair is not much better. Lets get some completely new faces into the picture, how about Jesse Ryder???
I think making the changes was necessary, but I just don't think the right ones were made.
I have had to postpone my OE for a while, I have always had problems with my teeth and I have decided it is time to get them fixed once and for all. So I am postponing my OE until I can get my teeth fixed and then save to go, but I am still planning on heading out.
So seen as I am here for a while longer if anyone hears of any policy analyst positions avaliable I would be delighted to hear from them.
I was very pleased to see 11.1% of us agree that we are all New Zealanders. I hate the dividing by RACE! It doesn't matter who you are, if you are born in New Zealand you are a New Zealander. I am shocked to see that 157,000 of us do not speak english...this is quite bad, I am wondering how some of them survive in a society where the only language spoken in general is English, well ok other languages are spoken, but I mean in businesses, retail, restaurants, bars, etc.
And even though the government is looking at making Maori compulsory in schools only 23 % of Maori actually speak their own language. I am all for equal opportunity, but why force people to learn something when by choice they are choosing not to? I do not see how it will help them in the future.
The whole census and all the stats are brilliant, and hours could be spent intepreting them, but I am going to look at the New Zealander section in more detail. 11.1% put it as their choice this time despite having to tick other and add it to the form a number of these also chose to identify themselves as another ethnicity as well, and much to the shock and disbelief of the statisticians who seemed to think this was a redneck term, there were a large percentage of Maori in these, nearly equal to the 14.7% of Maori in New Zealand as a whole. This is significant in my opinion because it shows that at least 11% of New Zealanders, though I guess if you go by the statistics ALL New Zealanders (god thats a great term) are sick of the divisive policies of Race and being told where they fit by government and other groups. This is a very good sign for the future and I expect that if New Zealander was given its own tick box the number would greatly increase again. The government will not read into this anything at all and will continue to claim that it is just a bunch of Rednecks and White Supremecists, though this makes no sense as they would be more likely to put "European" as this places them 'above' the other races in their opinion, which is why I have never understood why it has been thought to be a redneck term.
Good on you 11%
Well I am going to have my say on the court cases that are currently happening following the man attempting to rob a gun store with a machete. Personally I agree with both cases. The Man who tried to rob the place should be on a slightly higher charge than the one he is on, but thats not anything major. In the papers hundreds of people have condemned the police for prosecuting the man who shot him, I agree with the police in this case, If he didn't have a license for the gun he used he should be done under the law, but why was he working in a store when he didn't have a license to cover all the guns in the store?
I think the problem here is not with the police but solely with the law, obviously you can work in a gun store without a license to be in posession of a fire arm. This seems ridiculous. But he broke the law...its that simple.
Well I have been following this closely lately, and it seems since I have changed my blog to my new address that the hits on my old one have stayed the same or there abouts averaging about 20 a day unique visitors, while my current site fluctuates a lot between 0 and 20 never seeming to get the forwarded traffic, I am thinking about making the old site just a direct redirect over to my new one, but the problem is that would remove my old archives, I was wondering if anyone has an idea for how I can keep my archives from my old site and coninue them on my new one.
Also on the comments front I have been very thin, I would love to hear what people think and what they have to say on my blog, so go ahead and comment as much as you like.
Well my beloved Devils are sitting 2nd in their Division and 7th in the Eastern Conference for me this is quite disgusting on their track record since I started supporting them back in 1995. Since then they have won 3 titles and been runner up twice. just over a quarter of the way through the season this is one of their worst starts, but it is not as bad as last season where they ended the season with an 18 game winning streak to make the playoffs. So there is still hope.
The current Season Leaders.
Points
Jaromir Jagr 40
Marion Hossa 39
Rod Brind'amour 36
Goals
Marion Hossa 20
And in the lead for the Presidents Trophy we have:
Anahiem 46, Buffalo 42 and San Jose 40.
3 of the top 6 teams come from the Pacific Division of the Western Conference, this is a huge over representation. Philadelphia one of the teams almost everyone would put in the playoffs every year have been struggling so far this year and are languishing in 28th of the 30 teams. While Pittsburgh whose start was nearly as good as Buffalo (11-0) have now dropped off and are sitting in 22nd, their start of 10-1 has dropped to new stats of 11-14.
National has come out today saying they will support the electoral funding review which will include measures such as the removal of trust funds as a funding scheme, and possibly go so far as to make campaigning funded completely by the Tax Payer. They also want the removal of 3rd party electioneering. But as in the case of the EB last year, does this funding count as support for every party, but the ones they attacked??
I personally even with the suggestions that have been made have started to see loop holes for more possible "secret" funding, Dummy Companies, Dummy Societies etc are not hard to set-up and would be a perfect method of funding. I personally see it as Labour annoyed that they get less outside funding than National does, who knows why National has agreed to support it? Though maybe they have already noticed the loopholes as well and plan to exploit them.
Thanks to DPF
According to Jeremy Clarkson, and I tend to agree with him on this one. Slow Drivers are serial Killers. look at the history, he mentioned more names than this, but here are a few examples, Adolf Hitler...He made the Volkswagen Beetle, not exactly a fast car, Saddam Hussein could you see him driving fast...and has any Race Car driver ever gone psycho and killed anyone??
So therefore after a mass killing the police should be looking for the car driving away at 40km/h not the one speeding away at 200KM/h.
If Labour and New Zealand First have their way the Immagration service will be able to take fingerprints, eye retina scans and (in extreme cases) DNA at the borders. This will not be only of immigrants and visitors, but also of citizens. I see this as a direct attack on my personal freedom, even though I know someone will come out and say that only the bad people need be worried. I disagree, I think that I have a right to certain freedoms and even in the states the only record is of foreigners or immigrants. This is not right!!! Though of course it may just be another means for the Police to catch criminals...like the scandal recently over blood taken from babies.
Well I didn't think anyone could be this stupid or use a point so ridiculous, Well no of course the Ancient Greeks didn't have cars, but neither did the Maori, you bloody blathering retard, oh and I don't think there is a real religion in the world that is based in a time with cars, so how about no religious blessings of roads, no need according to Che's logic the Gods don't understand it anyway.david. nope. never tire of it.
but that said, "Take
Greece as an example. Their culture was 12 Gods etc, and all the powers and
myths. Great job they preserve the culture, but you'd be locked up as insane
in
Greece if you proposed spending public money on having people call on
Zeus to
take away the spirits of those who died in car crashes."
the
ancient greeks
didn't have cars. so, that argument isn't flying
either.Che Tibby on Kiwiblog
I was just checking the stats on my blog histories and referals and it is unbelievable, the largest referrer to my site is google image search of one man.
I can't believe this but it is kinda amusing, the man in the photo above is none other than Alexander Ovechkin.
Yes the most referrals to my Blog are about a Hockey Player Brilliant.
Well this morning I thought I should just take a random glance at the Salient Web page and I happened across this...The Last Lonely Letter So I didn't make the last salient with my letter, but this is much better and more appropriate. Cheers James, I must say I enjoyed this year of Salient more than any other yet.
Well as people have probably realised with me heading to the States next year I am going to be in a very interesting position next September when the time of the Rugby World Cup comes around, now I don't know what the coverage will be like in the states so I may just have to Jump the border to the North so I can find somewhere to watch the World Cup. Now this means that my trip will include two countries purely so I can watch the Rugby.
