Your cheque's in the mail

I saw the imbecilic press release from the Pay Equity Challenge Coalition last week, in which it's claimed that women are effectively working for free until the end of the year because women on average earn 12% less than men, but didn't plan to write anything about it (other than leaving a comment at the Hand Mirror suggesting the coalition get some members who understand statistics).

However, "not writing about it" was before I realised that a group of women at my workplace, some of whom will earn more than I do for a similar job (through longer service), featured in the local newspaper in a protest claiming they're being made to work for free until the end of the year because I, along with the other testicle-equipped, am supposedly ripping them off for 12% of their "deserved" salary.

I could forgive this. Many people fail to understand what the term "average" means and there is a general ignorance in society of how to interpret statistics, so it's not that surprising people should make the mistake. What's unforgivable: it's definitely unsurprising they should make that mistake when the women's group rep organising the protest is a fucking social sciences lecturer.

A qualified social scientist knows how to interpret statistics. A qualified social scientist ought to be someone whose views on how to interpret statistics can be trusted. And a qualified social scientist who says an average figure equals individual results is like a doctor who says antibiotics will cure a viral infection: either too stupid to live, or has some ulterior motive. In the case of this social scientist, I'm picking the ulterior motive "self-interest" rather than stupidity:

Dr Cat Pause said "...it's about wanting more for women."

In recognition of the Pay Equity Challenge Coalition's efforts, I've posted their propaganda photo (slightly edited) above.

+44 (0) 1603 592090

This global warming nonsense is going to provide months of fun for some of us.
The piece below is copied/ ihimaera'd directly from a comment left at the most excelent Bishop Hill blog. It describes the timeline for a FOI which is much the same as our feeble system for making govt departments release info. At the bottom is the email sent by Phil Jones who it turns out is one of the key climate liars in the UK. You will note he is asking Michael Mann (remember him, the hockey stick liar?) to delete emails directly related to the FOI.

Oh, the phone number? It is Phil Jones direct line. Be sure to call him and thank him when our government saddles us with a massive new government department and tax regime cooked up because some nerds in east anglia have conspired to con the world.
No word yet from Bomber over at Tumeke, our thoughts are with him. Bwahahahahaha.


David Holland has also made FOI inquiries to Keith Briffa, a lead author of AR4 chapter 6. Here's a progress report documenting:
May 5 - FOI request

May 6 - CRU Acknowledgement

June 3 - CRU Refusal Notice

June 4 - Holland Appeal

June 20 - CRU Rejection of Appeal

May 5 Holland FOI Request to CRU

Dear Mr Palmer,
Request for Information concerning the IPCC, 2007 WGI Chapter 6 Assessment Process

Drs Keith Briffa and Timothy Osborn of your Climatic Research Unit served as lead authors on the IPCC Fourth Assessment, which by international agreement was required to be undertaken on an comprehensive, objective, open and transparent basis.1 On 31 March 2008, I asked Dr Briffa for important specific information, not so far released, on his work as a lead author to which I have had no reply or acknowledgement, but have, through other FoI enquiries, been given a copy of his email dated 1 April 2008, to several other IPCC participants including Dr Philip Jones, and to which my letter was attached. He told his colleagues his response to me would be brief when he got round to it. Also included in the documents released to me is an email dated 14 March 2008 to Dr Briffa, among others, from Susan Solomon, Co-Chair of WGI, advising the addressees not to disclose information beyond that (which I consider inadequate) already in the public domain.

Accordingly, I hereby request the following information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and/or the Environmental Information Regulations 2004:

Phil Jones, three weeks after David Holland's FOI request:

From: Phil Jones
To: “Michael E. Mann”
Subject: IPCC & FOI
Date: Thu May 29 11:04:11 2008

Mike,

Can you delete any emails you may have had with Keith re AR4?
Keith will do likewise. He’s not in at the moment – minor family crisis.
Can you also email Gene and get him to do the same? I don’t
have his new email address.
We will be getting Caspar to do likewise.
I see that CA claim they discovered the 1945 problem in the Nature paper!!
Cheers
Phil

Prof. Phil Jones
Climatic Research Unit Telephone +44 (0) 1603 592090
School of Environmental Sciences Fax +44 (0) 1603 507784
University of East Anglia
Norwich Email p.jones@uea.ac.uk
NR4 7TJ

Global Warmenising Conspiracy Unravells

This morning Adolf posted on the unmasking of the Global Warmenising Conspiracy here.

Powerline has further information just to hand and it is startling. The conspirators have destroyed the evidence of their wrong doing.

"Mike, Can you delete any emails you may have with Keith re AR4? ["AR4" is common shorthand for the U.N. IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report, which was released in 2007.] Keith will do likewise. He's not in at the moment - minor family crisis.

Can you also email Gene and get him to do the same? I don't have his new email address.

We will be getting Caspar to do likewise."

These guys are buggered, now the internet is on to them. It's clearly not a case of hacking but rather of a massive leak by a disgusted whistle blower.

Yes, it looks like jail time coming up for the disciples of Al Gore.

Aaaaaah, Those Bonding Sessions

Somehow Adolf never got to participate in a bonding session like this one.

"The teenager and then 26-year-old teacher "bonded" when putting the school yearbook together and had sex only once after classes for the year had finished but while the student was still technically enrolled."

I wonder if they's save the news clips for the child's twenty-first?

On the drivel of rock stars and actresses

In this morning's Sunday News, a guitarist for a rock band who is related to Rodney Hide's girlfriend, was interviewed over his thoughts on Rodney Hide's recent use of travel perks.

In next week's Sunday News, Rodney Hide will be interviewed over his thoughts on Phil Buscke's guitar playing ability, and the lifestyle of rock musicians.

This follows hot on the heels of Keisha Castle-Hughes commenting on John Key's climate change decisions, with (presumably), a number of meteorologists and scientists also seeking direction from John Key on their acting abilities.

Frankly, I'm sick to death of these wankers and wastrels in acting, music, and other "arty-farty" types who think that their chosen profession entitles them to make all kinds of expert commentary.

And in the case of Ms Castle-Hughes, it's safe to say her own carbon footprint would be significantly smaller if she hadn't decided to engage in unexpected teenage reproduction. It's quite selfish of her to generate added all this unplanned carbon consumption on the rest of us, don't you think?

What John Key Should Read

Powerline's John Hinderaker writes a superlative analysis of the recently hacked e-mails of the world's most prominent global warmenisers. The e-mails are conclusive and devastating. The world has been conned by a bunch of pseudo scientists fronted by a B grade US presidential no-hoper. The gas bag at last has been pricked.




The whole scientific basis of global warming alarmism is flawed and indeed fraudulent.

The much vaunted IPCC report is baseless.

Here's the stand out line:-

"It, along with the rest of the email archive, makes an utter mockery of the alarmists' claim that the science of global warming is settled in their favor. On the contrary, the conclusion an observer is likely to draw from the CRU archive is that the climate alarmists are making up the science as they go along and are fitting facts to reach a predetermined conclusion rather than objectively seeking after truth. What they are doing is politics, not science."

New Zealand should demand a rigorous review of all the so-called 'accepted science' attached to global warming hysteria and as an interim measure we should IMMEDIATELY withdraw from Kyoto and the economic suicidal folly which is an Emissions Trading Scheme.

Adolf Agrees With The Union

Here's a very disturbing case.

Adolf heartily agrees with EPMU president Andrew Little.

What an earth gives the police the right to ask a person who his or her employer is in the first place, let alone trot off and dob in an employee for an offense?

What would they have done if a clever lawyer had successfully defended her case?

By what bizarre twist of bureaucratic chicanery can an employer demand under the OIA the hitherto confidential name of a person charged?

There are many more questions to be asked about this extraodinary orwellian and totalitarian episode.

Climate Change alarmists caught with hands in Co2 jar

I'm off to Wellington for the weekend. Should be fun.

In the meantime, Ian Wishart has a biggie. Read this, this & this.

Let's not forget this.

Nor this.

Earlier this week Lucy Lawless, and that failed NIWA spindoctor scientist, Jim Salinger, tried to pull a stunt by giving John Key the airfare money to fly to Copenhagen next month. Key refused.

He should now go. I have written his speech (see below).

Ladies and Gentlemen

New Zealand has this week been shown to be the least corrupt country in the World.

We are justifiably very proud of that.

On that basis we do not wish to be involved with the cheats, liars and frauds running the climate change circus.

We are pulling out of Kyoto and scrapping the ETS.

Have a nice conference.

I'm now flying back to New Zealand in Al Gore's private jet.

Don't reward the plagiaristic University

At the University of Auckland, plagiarism is ok.

Not for the students, who are expected to perform honestly, submit original work, and follow the rules. University staff will work hard to ensure students sit exams in a fair, honest and proper way.

But plagiarism is ok for the staff. In fact, the more senior you are, the better it is to copy other people's work.

Professor Witi Ihimaera is a man whose work I thought was good. But it turns out that he has been a plagiarist, and has incorporated other people's work in his literature, and had profited financially, professionally and socially from it.

It's simply not good enough. And the University of Auckland is complicit in this scandal because they aren't going to reprimand him.

But, I hear you say, maybe Professor Witi Ihimaera should be shown some forgiveness. Perhaps he should be shown a way in which he can make amends? Isn't that what universities strive to do?

Well, the University of Auckland certainly didn't do that when it came to Dr Paul Buchanan, who famously told a student they weren't good enough and they shouldn't expect any easy rides. Buchanan had to go to court to get his reputation back.

So on the one hand, they punish a lecturer for demanding high standards from original work, and on the other hand, they fail to punish a professor for one of the biggest sins in academia - plagiarism.

The University of Auckland has, like it or not, sent a strong and powerful message about itself - they are pathetic eunuchs, and intellectually bankrupt. They don't deserve financial contributions from alumni.

Farmers back ACT position

Federated Farmers, most of whom received numerous propaganda from ACT at the last election on the cost an ETS would put on them, have now done an about turn.

It's true that a tax on carbon won't necessarily affect the weather per se, but as a change-inducing component, it could change behaviour over the long term. A tax on carbon is also fiscally neutral.

Fed Farmers now agree. If they'd just voted ACT last year their 300,00+ votes might have stopped the ETS in its tracks. Now they'll have to wait and see.

If Fed Farmers read this take note: if you vote for who you always have you'll continue to get what you always got.

And of course there is better reason why a carbon tax is better than a rorting scam scheme:

Trading of emission permits around the world will become a financial rort that fails to reduce carbon emissions - and will ultimately be scrapped in favour of a simple carbon tax, a former senior official in the Clinton administration has forecast. Robert Shapiro, former US undersecretary of commerce and author of Futurecast, predicted that the US Senate would reject the emissions trading scheme proposed by President Obama, which is now before it.

ON ECONOMIC SABOTAGE

The announcement by Phil Goff that Labour is abandoning 20 years of monetary policy consensus might be viewed by some as economic sabotage.

Especially when it is accompanied by a refusal to spell out any alternatives.

Others may view it as an abject failure of leadership.

For the Veteran it's a case of any headline in a storm occasioned by dismal poll rating going south and bugger the consequences.

Channeling Mike Williams.

I always find Wellington local politics a bit of a mystery. It is a shitty little town with dreadful weather populated by grey drones that won the eternal Lottery when the Auckland merchants and Canterbury farmers compromised about where to put the government.
This story about some clown trying to bribe students to join a bus protest nearly made me cough up my weetbix. It is right up there with shouting KFC for retards on polling day.

Quote of the day

This time it goes to "Ted" Henry over in the Mother Country when commenting on Neemia Tialata's tweeting of his dropping from the team to play England:

"I had to find out what bloody Twitter was, I thought he was the new five-eighth playing for England," he said.

SCRAP THE ETS!!!

I feel like it's campaign 2008 all over again.

Of course, only one party campaigned on scrapping the ETS in 2008.

ACT Leader Rodney Hide today launched a scathing attack on the Emissions Trading scheme, vowing to have it scrapped and to pull New Zealand out of Kyoto Agreement.

"The scheme involves strict penalties on New Zealand businesses and farmers who allow Co2 emissions - which includes farm animals belching," Mr Hide said.

"Today we held a piece of street theatre in Auckland's Cornwall Park involving an unfortunate farmer being whipped by a broom-wielding witch as he hauled a trailer bearing a cheque for $5 billion dollars made out to Russians and signed by Helen Clark on behalf of New Zealand taxpayers.

"That's the ETS money that will be sent to the UN - which will, in turn, pay it to the Russians because they have large forests. New Zealand farmers alone will pay $1,200 million into the scheme.

"This is sheer lunacy - New Zealand emits 0.02 percent of world Co2 emissions. Nothing we do will change the world's weather.

"The ETS scheme will cost the nation tens of millions of dollars, cost 22,000 Kiwis their jobs and not do anything to mitigate global warming.

"We need smart green policies, not this madness. The Germans and Canada have said they will not wreck their economies to meet Kyoto obligations, and nor should we.

"We need to grow our economy - not shrink it with this nonsense. Only a country with a strong economy can engage in smart green polices to protect our environment. ACT will scrap both ETS and Kyoto," Mr Hide said.

Quote of the day

"Look, who knows what the price of carbon will be tomorrow, next week or in twenty years time. We just don't know".

John Key, on Newstalk ZB this morning, whose party is introducing a price cap on carbon.

Extreme Treemendus Stupidity

Adolf deplores the folly which is the ETS - no matter whose version. It is a disastrous nonsense based on entirely spurious junk science which every day is further debunked.

Yesterday saw TV3 run a story which was picked up by one or two lustily lame brained blogs.

Nick Smith has given away the DOC estate to the Maoris. Or so the story went.

In vain did Adolf seek some reporting in the egregious Herald on the subject. Perhaps Mr Murphy fears being sued by Ngai Tahu so has decided to set the story to one side. The Bros are rich fullas now, eh Tim?

Not so derelict however are the people at Stuff. Here we see a good report on the events leading up to the fuss made by TV3 about claims National is about to give away vast swathes of the conservation estate to Iwi in return for the Maori Party supporting National's version of the biggest pile of bullshit since tulips became common currency.

It turns out no deal has been done. Negotiations are underway though and it seems Iwi might be permitted to crop some small parts of the dock estate. That is to say, plant the land in pines and harvest the trees when mature.

That does not seem to Adolf to be particularly unreasonable or noxious. There is no evidence to suggest they will be given title to land. Minister Smith says other interests already enjoy similar arrangements but these cases are not identified.

Politics is all about the art of negotiation and if Adolf were in the National chair on this one he would be locking in Maori Party support for mining the DOC estate in return for the aforementioned largess.

Then you could watch Goff swallow his Adam's apple and the Greens spew blood.

Len Brown runs with the hares and the hounds

The more I look at Len Brown, the more I get the impression he runs with the hares and the hounds.

Firstly, we've heard about how Len Brown wants to build unity as Mayor.

Yet his announcements as a Mayoral candidate have done the exact opposite. We've heard about how he wants Sue Bradford (Who has united 90%z of New Zealand against her) as his deputy, and now we've heard how Dick Hubbard announce how he is a part of Brown's gameplan as well. It's hard to imagine what a council with Sue Bradford in charge of social policy and Dick Hubbard is charge of finance would look like - because it's almost impossible to imagine a scenario that disastrous!

Secondly,the Dub-Dot-Dash blog has picked up on something. Len Brown fancies himself as a man of the youth - someone who professes a love of hip hop culture and who famously flashed rapper hand signals and made all sorts of unusual chants on stage at a music show.

Dub dot dash wonders if this is the same Len Brown who protested against famous American rapper "Ice T" coming to perform in Manukau around two years ago.

Said Len Brown back in 2007: "Why is Ice Cube coming to the Telstra Pacific Centre on 22 August this year? We don't want him. We don't need him. He is not welcome here,” said Brown. "Ice Cube brings a gangsta message to our community via his gangsta rap. This message promotes gangs, gang violence and drugs.” Brown then stated: "We don't want this in our homes. We don't want it on our streets.”

Yet the Hip Hop culture is full of this pathetic bravado about tough guys, gangs and more, and Brown has fed off this by flashing his gang hand symbols to try and look more like a rap star.

It adds more fuel to the fire that this guy is prepared to say anything to get elected. I would fear for the Queen City if a middle aged Labour lawyer from Otara cum rap star was in charge of the new Auckland.

Proving Wealth is no Substitute For Brains

Dick Hubbard announces his intention to stand for Auckland City Council to protect all those poor innocent lefties from the barbaric hordes set to rape and pillage the place when John Banks is elected Lord Mayor.

Adolf's only enduring memory of Big Ears' tenure as Mayor was that glorious cartoon which showed Hubbard shaking hands with Hucker. Hubbard was thinking "Motherhucker" and Hucker was thinking something similar, in the vernacular of Hone Harawira. Can you see this fellow running the city? Where has he been?

Gilbert and Sullivan could not have produced a better show than the race for control of Auckland Super City. John Bank's ribs will need physio for a month.

Put your hand on the lower level

No doubt by now everyone else has noticed this piece in the Guardian re new educational initiatives in Spain. As with all educational reform, the proposed pedagogical benefits are disputed:

Commentators questioned why the poorest region in Spain was paying for a campaign to promote onanism.

I'm in two minds about it really. On the one hand (sorry), as a kid I was crap at wanking. By the time I started to become genuinely useful to myself, girls were available and the utility value of masturbation was in a nose-dive, except in the "mutual" sense in which it would have helped a hell of a lot to have known how girls wank. So I can see there would have been a real personal benefit in the education system teaching me best practice for digitally servicing either sex.

But on the other hand, one thinks back to one's teachers at the time, and shudders at the thought...

MORE ON HONE

The continuing Hone Harawira story has a certain soap opera touch about it. Nevertheless it is fascinating to speculate how it might all end up. I see it this way .....

Scenario #1 ... No change. Hone stays with the Maori Party who, in the spirit of Aroha, forgive their errant MP after extracting from him a promise to 'behave' (whatever that means). One week ago I would have bet money on this. Now the comments of Sharples, Turia and Winiata have made this unlikely .... not impossible but unlikely. If they give way now their leadership will have been undermined to the point where Hone will walk over them.

Scenario #2 ... Hone resigns his seat and exits stage left never to be seen again except at Waitangi where he and/or his relations can, once again, turn what should be day of celebration into a day of confrontation. Possible but Hone has never walked away from anything.

Scenario #3 ... Hone walks and resigns his seat to stand again as an Independent. Maori Party also contests seat. Possible but unlikely. The Maori Party vote would split and, in all probability, Labour's Kelvin Davis would win the seat. Davis is already a List MP having stood against Hone in the last election. He is seen as one of Labour's rising stars.

Scenario #4 ... Hone walks and resigns his seat to stand again as a Independent with the Maori Party sitting out the election. My assessment is that Hone would bolt home. Would he achieve much as an Independent MP? Reality is the National/ACT/MP/UF coalition would still have the numbers. We might see him as sidelined and ineffectual but Hone would see himself as the voice for Maori grievances, real and imagined.

Scenario #5 .... Phil Goff puts Hone up against a wall and shoots him !!!!!!!!!!!!

Taking bets on #4

Pablo on terrorism

Pablo at Kiwipolitico has another interesting post on terrorism. Following is the comment I posted over there. I think the war against the jihadists is far from won even though it appears we are winning the battle in Iraq and are pressing forward in Afghanistan and Waziristan.

In that measure I would say that the jihadists are losing, which is what prompted me to open the post with the quote from a veteran SOLIC professional. However, when it comes to the likes of Pakistan, the Sudan or Afghanistan, then the issue remains very much open. A fascinating post and discussion as usual. I wish I had more time to consider and post more appropriate and well thought responses. I disagree with the last gasp of a dying man quote but understand why you included it. Gavrip Principio, Eire, Israel, the Boer and any number of other examples during the retreat of the British empire are sufficient to demonstrate the effectiveness of terrorism as a weapon. The point is well made by the Tamils & Al Qaeda in Iraq that when the terrorists turn on their own population rather than the ruling class they are losing. Andrew W makes a good point that politically weak governments are prone to manipulate the spectre of terrorism for their own ends. And weak politicians simply choose appeasement over hard decisions. That is what we are seeing with Obama. I am interested in peoples views on the Clash of Civilisations. This post is an interesting contextual first chapter but it must be leading somewhere. Personally I see jihadist terrorism as being a multi generational conflict. Until those Islamic nations have developed and educated and prosperous middle class living reasonably democratically there will be no sustained peace. Iraq represented a country much further along that path than Afghanistan which is why it was chosen. Oil and Bush unfinished business with Saddam were not sufficient reasons in and of themselves to justify war. The possibility of WMD being provided to and used by terrorists and the opportunity to provide an example democracy to the rest of the Arab world were the reasons for going into Iraq. Leaving Afghanistan as the sole front in the war against Jihadist terrorism would mean inevitable defeat due to the nature and backwardness of the country. imho the jihadists are trying to overthrow our Western democracy and it is legitimate for us to take the fight into countries that are not ruled democratically or at least with popular support. So I look forward to the next chapter where Pablo develops the clash of civilisations theme, either agreeing or disagreeing or in a different direction.

We won!!!

Nuff said.

Kiwis qualify for South Africa

What is New Zealand's national dish?

Busted blonde asks a very good question

What is New Zealandsquintessential National dish?

Is it a lamb roast?
Warehou and chips?
Paua fritters
Whitebait fritters?
Pavlova?
Muttonbirds?
Bluff oysters?
or in New Zealand a country of many unique plates?

For my money, and speaking as someone presently living in the UK the lamb roast and fish and chips in any form are simple english imports with better quality base ingredients. oysters, whilst delicious from bluff, again, are an international dish. The ozzies try to nick our pavlova for their own but it would definitely make the national pudding for the number of times it graced our christmas table (every time). I have never tasted mutton birds and I guess nor have many non mainlanders so think that, whilst certainly exclusive, does not make the cut for a national dish. Paua fritters have always mystified me. At the takeaway or beating the crap out of an abalone and mixing rubber strips into a fritter is not my idea of a delicacy. Mush or chewy they dont make the cut.

There is only one truly New Zealand dish that I remember from childhood that I have never tasted anywhere else in the world. In some places I have eaten what are called whitebait fritters but they are basically deepfried chinese sardines and not on the same planet.

There is nothing on this world like the taste of whitebait fritters in the morning, and only one country that delicacy is truly available in.

So whitebait fritters gets my vote.

Continuing Our Proud Tradition

In what must be a world first, New Zealand Golf has produced a new world record.



In the JBWere Australian Masters tournament, after two rounds we have no less than seven players in the top ten.

Unfortunately, that's the top ten to miss the cut.

T72	AUS	Marcus Fraser	1	3	4	74	73	0	--	0
T72	AUS	Simon Furneaux	1	2	4	73	74	0	--	0
T72	AUS	Matthew Millar	1	3	4	71	76	0	--	0
75	AUS	Aaron Townsend	2	4	5	75	72	0	--	0
76	AUS	Kim Felton	3	5	6	76	71	0	--	0
77	AUS	Damien Jordan	4	9	7	69	78	0	--	0
--	AUS	Brad Andrews	--	--	--	73	75	--	--	148
--	NZL	Michael Campbell	--	--	--	74	74	--	--	148
--	NZL	Josh Carmichael	--	--	--	73	75	--	--	148
--	NZL	Josh Geary	--	--	--	72	76	--	--	148
--	NZL	Todd Nicholson	--	--	--	73	75	--	--	148
--	NZL	Hamish Robertson	--	--	--	73	75	--	--	148
--	AUS	Rudi Bezuidenhout	--	--	--	74	75	--	--	149
--	NZL	Michael Hendry	--	--	--	75	74	--	--	149
--	AUS	Michael Light	--	--	--	72	77	--	--	149
--	NZL	Mark Purser	--	--	--	73	76	--	--	149
--	AUS	Brett Rumford	--	--	--	74	75	--	--	149
--	AUS	Ed Stedman	--	--	--	74	75	--	--	149
--	NZL	Brenden Stuart	--	--	--	76	73	--	--	149

Only Mahal Pearce hung in there to be a creditable five shots off the pace set by Tiger Woods with Doug Holloway a further two shots off the pace and Tim Wilkinson one shot behind Holloway.

World Cup Soccer - New Zealand v Bahrain

Enough has already been said and written about in respect of this game tonight so I'll keep it brief.

Go the All Whites. Go the All Whites. Go the All Whites.

I am concerned about the 3-4-3 formation. In the first game, I felt Bahrain showed up Leo Bertos down the flank when defending and I felt the midfield weren't inventive enough when supplying our 3 strikers. McGlinchey changed that when he came on and I think he should start tonight as an early goal will be fundamental. We lack a Gazza, or a Maradona or a Michel Platini/Zidane type player so McGlinchey has to start IMHO.

I would also have one of the strikers, probably Killen, playing just in behind the front two for better linkages.

I do worry about playing three across the back. I don't think it worked in the first leg and we were lucky to escape with a clean sheet. But I am not the coach.

I'll be screaming my lungs out tonight, in my lounge, urging the players on in the same way as I blew at the TV set to create some wind when the Americas Cup was on here. Yip, the Americas Cup we lost 5-0. That shows I am not a very good windbag.

Let's hope the result is different tonight. If I was a betting man I'd have the All Whites as very slight favourites purely because of home advantage.

Go the All Whites.

(Pic for Cactus Kate as, like her, I'm already nervous as well).

The New Zealand Nuanced Herald

Today's Herald thrusts down its readers throats two pieces of leftist inspired inanity. One from John Roughan and the second from an unidentified editorial scribbler.

The usually reliable Roughan would have you believe that a juvenile university graduate travelling on the Trans Siberian Railway during the eighties somehow could discern the strength of the Soviet military at the time. Even more laughable is his assertion that 'freedom of speech' rather than American military strength and aggressive diplomacy on the part of President Reagan, Pope John Paul and Margaret Thatcher brought down the wall.

"Second drafts are written in nostalgia, and they look for heroes. Beside Gorbachev, they chose Pope John Paul II, who might have been an inspiration to his native Poland, but whose role was hardly pivotal.

Communism collapsed because it couldn't survive free speech. Collectivism left too much to be desired. But nobody could have predicted the collapse would come when it did, as suddenly as it did."

Perhaps he didn't think long enough to discern that the Soviet attempts to keep up with the American military so weakened and deprived the civilian sector that the people finally said enough is enough. It wasn't free speech which knocked off the Soviets, it was economic defeat. The people were hungry because there wasn't enough left over after the military had been fed..

Roughan's approach is what has become known as 'nuancing' which in this case is rewriting history for your own point of view.

But worse was to come.

Some slippery faceless social engineer then takes two pages of waffle to tell us that Joris de Bres needs to spend more of our money to tell us why it's OK for Hone to call us 'white motherfuckers' because the Race Relations Commission is only for black bastards and whiteys should just suck it up and go on paying their taxes.

To social policymakers, racism is inseparable from political power. Racial discrimination does real harm when it is practised by members of a race with power, usually a democratic majority. When discrimination favours a minority, to preserve its identity perhaps, or boost its educational enrolments, it does no real harm and probably some good..........

...........The commissioner, Joris de Bres, initially rebuffed demands that he investigate the Harawira email, saying the MP was exercising his freedom of opinion. It is true that he would not have said that about a Pakeha MP using abusive language about Maori. He ought to explain the difference.

Here you can see the real damage done to the fabric of new Zealand by nine years of Labour's social engineering and infiltration of its minions into every part of our life.

Absolutely extraordinary. Read this article for a true insight into the twisted minds of the left.



Joris deBes does not need to explain anything other than why he has not resigned.

NACTionalMP needs to boot him out quick smart.

Untergang

Spent the last couple of weeks in the States - San Francisco and Denver. A few things sprang to mind:

1. Americans are so polite compared to us. I did notice on the bus in Denver a sign pointing out that causing a disturbance on the bus could count as disruption of a public transport system, which carries a fine of up to $750,000 and a jail term of up to 15 years, so maybe that kind of kick-ass approach to not being polite has an effect.

2. Americans are way better public speakers than us. It seemed like every one of the people at this conference except me was capable of getting up on his hind legs and speaking loudly, clearly, confidently, fluently and to the point. Where do they learn that?

3. How does a place with that much money still contrive to have homeless people camped out in every single public space?

Anyway, back to work on Wednesday, and today I went to a talk by the new German ambassador on the Mauerfall 20 years ago. As expected it was an interesting talk, although carefully diplomatic, him being a diplomat an' all. My favourite bit, paraphrased from memory:

The wall came down for different reasons depending on who you talk to. If you ask the East Germans, it was People Power; if you ask the West Germans, it was the fruit of years of careful and consistent Ostpolitik; if you ask the Poles it was all down to Pope John Paul II and Lech Walesa; if you ask the Russians it was Gorbachev's fault; and if you ask the Americans Ronald Reagan gets the whole credit. It's like the blind men trying to describe an elephant by touching different parts of it.

I asked him about my pet theory that the guys wearing the uniforms and carrying the guns in East Berlin in Nov 1989 deserve some credit for doing the right thing, instead of doing what they were supposed to and shooting the people trying to cross the border. He wasn't having that for a moment - pointing out (with some justification) that the Soviet puppet regimes had proved quite happy to shoot people in 1953, 1956 and 1968 because they had the Soviet Union backing them. The big difference in 1989 was that the Soviet Union had made it clear they wouldn't be committing troops to prop up their puppet regimes. On that basis, the puppets had to accept that they were going under. Big ups to Gorbachev then, I guess.

On reflection though, I still don't buy it. The Iranian govt doesn't have superpower backing either, but it does have a bunch of guys willing to pull the trigger on protestors. That really would have been all the Honecker regime needed in 1989, but the trigger men weren't playing along. To my mind, that's a pretty good thing.

Enough to Give You The Shits

Adolf is pleased to see Otago University students still have a refined sense of humour.

It takes real genius to come up with a student prank which makes tourists look silly; makes the pompous arses at DOC look silly; takes the piss out of our foolish politically correct fetish with 'environmentalism' and causes Japanese tourists to walk with their knees locked together.

No doubt the dunny at the top of the steep rock face was a long drop.

The Illiterates Who Write For The Herald

Adolf's attention was drawn by the headline.

'Flasher' causes bus to collide with police station

But he read on and saw the same faux pas repeated in the opening line.

"A bus has collided with a police station after a man on-board allegedly flashed another passenger."

You see, it takes two moving objects to constitute a 'collision.' When one moving object strikes a stationary object, that is a 'crash.'

Perhaps it was a mobile police station?

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE

Hone Harawiri is a demagogue who panders to the prejudices of his constituency by blaming white motherf*****s for every misfortune, real or imagined , that has ever visited upon them.

Winston Peters is a demagogue who panders to the prejudges of his constituency by blaming foreigners of any persuasion for every misfortune, real or imagined, that has ever visited upon them.

Spot the difference ... I can't.