Tuesday, September 23, 2008

My Kingdom for a Trust Fund, four houses, shares, and a chauffer driven BMW

Have you noticed how every now and then the news pops up that this MP or that MP has this amount of shares or that number of houses around the country? And don’t get me started on the perks they get.

John Key is “independently” wealthy, of course. We know intimately about his riches. Apparently he bought a “holiday house” in Hawaii for a mere 5,000,000 dollars. But I wonder, too, how much of his mammon has been accumulated on the backs of hard working, middle class New Zealanders? Who knows exactly where the shares in question came from?

Helen Clark apparently has a few houses to her name, and no doubt a significant retirement fund. And probably a healthy portfolio of shares. And a number of interests in trusts.

Winston Peters has interests in the WRP Family Trust. But nothing noted about the Spencer Trust, with which he apparently has some interest.

Most of them have Family Trusts. Of course, lots of people do. I wonder how many of their family members have trusts, set up to siphon funds away from public scrutiny?

And have you ever noticed that the representatives of the poorest countries at the UN and various other Global bodies are big fat cats dressed in expensive suits and are chauffer driven in the fanciest cars. While their people starve in the streets and children die of diseases that could be cured for three dollars? They vote to increase military spending by trillions of dollars.

There must be something in politics. They all seem to be doing extremely well. I wonder if they worry about the power bill, or if the food will stretch ‘til next pay day.

With hundreds of dollars a day in allowances and a running tab at Bellamy’s, I doubt it.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Please Miss . . . can you spank me

Ah . . . I love it when stupid, ill thought out policies are shown up to be just that.

Who but the dimmest among us could not have predicted the dilemma now facing an Auckland primary school? A teacher has been moonlighting as a prostitute. And now the wowsers are wringing their hands, wondering what to do.

They can do nothing! It’s legal. End of story.

The school, the Board, the Ministry, the courts – none of them can make a moral determination that would prohibit her from shagging whoever she likes and getting paid for it.

Unless it is affecting her duties, says the Teacher’s Council. And I wondered how that might look. Does she turn up to class with that profoundly satisfied but unnervingly goofy looking post-orgasmic grin on her face? When she opens her purse in the staff room do condoms, an assortment of vibrators and a ball-gag fall out? Does she get texts from tricks during story time?

I’m assuming not.

Is she engaged in “conduct that brings discredit to the profession”? No one has established which profession she might be discrediting. Perhaps prostitutes who moonlight as teachers are regarded as the black sheeps of that fine profession. And some of the teachers I have known are the grumpiest, bitterest, most cynical mean spirited apathetic people around. It’s okay for them to teach our kids?

The Board’s hands are tied, although that would probably cost extra. And apart from giving new meaning to the parent-teacher evening (I’ll bet her schedule is filled with concerned fathers months in advance), you’d be hard pressed to disqualify her from her secondary employment.

Unless, of course, she is engaged in that most despicable, anti-social criminal of activities – failure to pay the correct taxes.

Sunday, September 07, 2008

She wishes

I thought I'd written something about not being able to trust much nowadays, including, or especially, what you see and read on the Net, but I couldn't find it. However . . .

Case in point. This photo popped up on the Net shortly after Sarah Palin hit the headlines. Obviously there's just something a little suspicious about it, not the least of which is that to the casual observer, as wealthy, powerful, and energetic as she may be, that does not look like the body of a 40 something mother of . . how many? One of which is only a few months old.

She wishes.

Of course, it didn't take those heroes of truth and justice on the Net to track down the original offending photo. How do they do that? Google "American bikini"?

Apparently it's a BB gun, not a real rifle.

I knew those pictures of Laura Bush naked were fake!

Saturday, September 06, 2008

Stooopid

Another lowlife moron has held up a TAB in South Auckland. The cops will have him in a few hours. Which is not to say as much about the ability of the police, as it is about the sheer stupidity of the moron in question.

How many times have you heard about some violent crime and the police are onto the perps within hours. How stupid are these criminals? Do they not have a plan?

"Ah, yeah. Let's do a TAB."
"Then what?"
"We can figure that out later."

In broader terms I've often wondered, too, how some idiot can go on a shooting rampage for several hours and manage only to kill four people and injure three more. We should be thankful that the person in question is so incompetent, but I still wonder. Is it testimony to the intelligence of those being shot at (and their survival instinct), or is it really just an indication of how useless the shooter is?

Every day in the news some other lowlife robs a dairy, shoots a liquor store owner, or beats up an asian immigrant in the middle of town. Within hours, they're in police custody.

I think stupidity should be a crime added to their list of charges.

If you're going to rob a dairy don't you think you should have a plan for what to do afterward? I wonder how many thieves have been caught, an hour later, at home eating the potato chips, and drunk on the booze they stole.

Friday, September 05, 2008

GOP

Is it just me, or is it possible Sarah Palin learned everything she knows about acting like a VP from watching Air Force One. There just seems to be a vague similarity between Palin and Glenn Close's character.

Don't get me wrong. I'm starting to like Palin. And I've always like McCain. But I hate the look of celebrity about the whole process. I hate the parading of cute and pretty children (even if pregnant), of patriotic sons who are off to Iraq, and of the all-American (can you be all-American in Snow-mobiling? I'm sure you can) Vogue-modelesque husband.

I liked the spectacle that was her RNC speech, but I would much prefer to be a fly on the wall of her home for a week. See what really happens. And I would haved LOVED to have been there for the pregnancy announcement.

Anyway, if Rudy Guiliani thinks she's okay, she must be. And she is a hottie.

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Ah McCain, you've done it . . .

I think the American Presidential race just got a whole lot more interesting. If that were possible.

It has to be said. America is not ready for a black President. I don't think they are ready for a female President, hence Hillary's defeat. Obama is black, but at least he's male.

So McCain, a frail old white man - but a man - shoots himself in the foot by running with a female. And a dodgy female at that. Thereby alienating all those who breathed a sigh of relief when Obama got the nod.

John Key momentarily compared himself to Barak Obama. Now he can compare himself to McCain, in the sense that the only way he can lose the election is that if he does something so stupid as to convince voters he's not up to the job.

The first thing Key did along that path was to side with Labour on the anti-smacking bill. Has McCain started along that path by putting woman a heart-beat from the Oval Office? I'm sure they've done the numbers, but already Palin's family life and legal problems are overshadowing her nomination.

Perhaps that will send a number of voters - enough? - back to what they know best, two males at the helm. Even of one of them is black.

For the record, though, I still think McCain will win. But it will be close. Closer than it was going to be before Palin's appointment.