Nice to know the lawyers are looking after us.

“FORMER PSYCHIATRIC PATIENTS CAN SUE”

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/2875133/Former-psychiatric-patients-can-sue

Isn’t Sonja Cooper a great person for helping all those people who were badly treated by the mental health system all those years ago? We need more people like Sonja to set examples so the rest of us can aspire to be so concerned for our fellow NZers.

“Wellington barrister Sonja Cooper received the most from legal aid funds for the final six months of last year, topping over $1,580,000 in payments for her psychiatric-related claims in the six month period.

For the 18 months up until the end of 2007 Ms Cooper received over $2.8 million, placing her in second place nationally behind major law firm Kensington Swan, whose total for the 18 months was over $3.6 million.”

Source:

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0802/S00300.htm

“FIRM PUTS ABUSE COMPO AT 50 MILLION”

http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/news/2669312/Firm-puts-abuse-compo-at-50m

Now that we have anti smacking legislation a group of us should contact her and sue the government because we were beaten with canes and paddles in the 1960’s.
It’s only because we would want to see fairness and justice. (Insert on Tui billboard).

"Big Government"

Big Government” is becoming a populist catch phrase on the Internet and rolls off the tongue easily, don’t let it stop you examining all the information and making your own mind up.
Big government is certainly bad but it wasn’t they who caused the crap we are witnessing, that was financial traders who leech from the productive elements in society without contributing jack shit. Don’t deflect from the core problem. Big government is a side issue. The biggest mistake big government made was bailing these thieving bastards out. We can sort big government out after we deal with the main problem, financial traders.

Unless of course you subscribe to the view (that many do) that government and big business are the same beast. That it is irrelevant who the head of state is, the power brokers are the money behind the men.

If that is the case then the job ahead is massive and the upheaval will be traumatic as we aren’t just talking about getting rid of a few bad businesses, but major political and societal change – revolution in some form or other. I don’t know the truth yet, too much “stuff” out there but the next few years will be interesting. Keep reading and above all think critically. Make your own mind up, don't be a lazy bastard and accept the first thing you read.

“Too big to fail” is the problem. Let them go, we will work it out. The bastards produce nothing so what will we miss?

New Zealand and the Emmission Trading rort.....

I have to admit to being one who thinks pollution of all sorts isn’t a great idea and it would be magic if we can stop it, however I am also a realist and have to agree with what many say regarding us being leaders in legislating a costly emission trading scheme which finds the average joe subsidising industry.

NZ only produces .001 % of the apparent pollutants.
If China, India and other substantial polluters don’t come to the party there is absolutely no point in us turning up on our own and standing around with a 6 pack and our thumb up our arse. If you play a game and most don’t play by the rules there isn’t much point in playing. All we will do is further hamper our best producers in markets that are tough enough without adding more impediment and punish the average household.

Leading by example sounds lovely but it won’t pay the power bill. Adding yet another level of administration and bureaucracy for garbage like the ETS is the last thing we need.

If we want to lead by example then instead of taxing people even more, why not invest in R&D in “green” technologies? (Solar, wind, hydro) These are slowly catching on and the more they do the more the costs will come down and the more viable they will become economically.
Instead of buying the technology from others why not try and be leaders and innovators? As has been demonstrated, we can’t compete on labour costs and nor should we try so we have to be smarter.

We should be encouraging the creation of a viable “green” industry as is being done in Germany:

“According to the Environmental Technology Atlas from Roland Berger, environmental technology will make up 16% of German industrial production by 2030 – a fourfold increase since 2005. Germany is the world’s leading exporter of environmental technology.”

http://engineers.ihs.com/news/roland-environmental-tech.htm

By approaching the so called problems this way through tackling power, building, manufacturing issues we could reap multiple benefits.

It helps reduce demand on our power generation system reducing the need to build more capacity.

• The same applies to designing and manufacturing energy efficient building materials.
  

• We create jobs in new industry.
  

• We create new products for export markets.

• We help keep NZ “clean and green” which is our greatest marketing advantage in the tourism field.

Instead of taxing the shit out of people wouldn’t we better to be proactive rather than reactive? Use the carrot not the stick?
If we haven’t got the ability to do it ourselves then maybe we should create a tax regime with incentives for companies and entrepreneurs who have those skills. Same as what Ireland did in the late 80’s which saw huge investment by software companies in that country.
It’s a no brainer but then that seems to be what we have running the country for the last 10 years. MP’s with no brains.

All of the above works whether the global warming/climate change argument is true or false or somewhere in between.

Financial Circus

The levels of hype emanating from the mainstream media re the end of the financial crisis would be hilarious if they weren't so tragic. It just goes to show how poor the media are at actually doing stories for themselves.




Most do not ask questions anymore, instead they regurgitate press releases that are spewed from the perpetrators of the problems. Irrationally optimistic press releases full of garbage, spin and bullshit. Some of their dribblings would rank alongside Neville Chamberlain saying he had sorted out the wee problem with Hitler and everything is going to be hunky dory.

The Real Estate companies have been at it for months, the recent speech by the head of the Real Estate Institute would have to be right up there with General John Sedgwick who, as he looked out over the parapet at enemy lines during the Battle of Spotsylvania in 1864 said:

"Stand up you cowards, they couldn't hit an elephant at this dist........."

They were of course the last words he spoke.

I enjoy being positive and looking on the bright side. I certainly don't predict Armageddon but seriously, think about what this. The only reason the world financial markets give the illusion they are out of trouble is because of the phenomenal amount of money slopping around in the system thrown there by various Governments, taxpayers money, money that has to be paid back at some time in the future. Now ask yourself, fundamentally what has changed? Nothing at all. The bogeymen are back repackaging crap and selling it to each other, they are back paying out the big bonuses, they have learned nothing. They are still creating money out of thin air and as we will find out eventually, you get nothing for nothing.

They are creating nothing of value and we are being robbed by our Governments to do it! Our government is as culpable as any of the others with our guarantee scheme. We have removed "faith" with a guarantee to prop up the biggest Ponzi scheme the world has ever seen. How long will we let them get away with this?

Seriously, do yourself a favour on your time off, do some research. Look up "fractional reserve banking" for a start, that isn't too difficult to get your head around. Wikipedia has an excellent piece on it. Make sure you read the "criticisms" section at the bottom. You will think you have read the excerpts from the time traveler's diary.
'Then look for a copy of a DVD called "The Money Masters" it can be found in some places to download for free on the net.

Keep up the positivity people but obviously our mainstream media have good torches with them because normally it's pretty dark where they have their heads.

Little feet

No not the band, we had the 20 week scan last week and I must admit to some trepidation on the way in after last year's disappointment. This time it was fine! Well better than fine really! Got to see the hands and feet, legs and arms and everything looked right on track which is outstanding news. The scan man said the baby was in the 92 percentile and asked Janene if she knew what that meant. Janene's eyes started watering, apparently it means the baby is in the top 10% for size. Ouch...... I am going on Saturday to learn massage technique apparently. Whatever happened to wandering of into the bush to give birth while the spuds are boiling? Not like the old days........

Anti smacking referendum

OK I have posted my heart out on this on Kiwiblog so I'm not going into great detail. The main points are:

National have fucked this one up really badly.

Key and the Nat's rating will drop around 10 points at the next poll.

It won't stop any kids getting killed.

It won't stop me smacking my kids if I feel it is warranted - jail me.

Everybody needs to watch zeitgeist addendum as it is the only thing I know which gives some insight into the behaviour of the money markets and our politicians.

The death throes of the mainstream media

It has been evident for a while now that the drive for ratings has turned the mainstream media into whores. Income and therefore content is dictated by attracting the most viewers/readers/listeners. Talkback radio is probably the worst example of this I believe. There is no real attempt to have a reasoned debate, it is better to find a controversial and preferably polarising topic to encourage the loonies to call in for a rave. There are occasionally good contributions but in reality, the hosts don’t want a solution.
Newspapers are becoming more and more tabloid every day, they might as well go the whole hog and stick the topless model on page three. TV is worse. There is no investigation, no depth or insight.
Blogging allows relatively instant interaction, debate and pretty much covers all the angles of a story. It doesn’t mean that you have to agree with them but the opinions and angles are out there and this can help you modify your own particular viewpoint. The mainstream media rarely allow this to happen. MSM used to control much of what was held to be true by many of the population. That was an incredible amount of power.
Times are changing, information is getting out there instantly, people are exposed to so many more points of view. This is the start of a whole new age and there are going to be some interesting years coming up.