Self-centred and arrogant to the last

There are a hundred things that stand out in the last 24 hours, not the least of which is that we have finally divested ourselves of the lily-livered, limp-wristed left-leaning socially inept Labour losers. Of course, I hardly expect John Key and his National cronies to do much better, but who could do worse?

But the thing that really stood out for me was how Queen Helen was self-centred and arrogant to the last. According to numerous commentators, John Key held back a little to allow Clark time to get to her people and make her speech. He needn't have bothered. To her last breath it was all about her. Her announcement that she was stepping down as Labour leader was a guaranteed front page winner, a thunder stealer, and tantamount to packing up her toys and leaving the sand-pit, and thumbing her nose at us all. I didn't buy for a second her disingenous "respect" for the NZ people who voted her out. She hasn't respected us for the last 9 years, and the 20 before that. Why does she suddenly respect us? Yeah right.

And of course, the media bought into it. TVNZ cut the end of John Key's speech to go back to Mark "ooh look at my big moustache" Sainsbury's inane comments. And Queen Helen's sand-pit tantrum made the front page of the SST. I'm sure she rubbed her hands reading it this morning while sipping her breakfast Moet with that awful, arrogant, half-sneer, half-sucked lemon leer she's perfected.

Today we got to see the lefty commentators for what they really are. Whingeing, whining, bitter sore losers, the chief of whom is this guy. You should have seen him on Eye to Eye (I found it kind of pathetic how he announced he was going to be on the show in his blog). He was grunting and scoffing and interrupting and being beligerent, sucking up to Chris Trotter. And don't get me started on Chris Trotter. The Left's 9/11?? Helen lost because men on the right "couldn't cope with the idea of being led by an intelligent, idealistic, free-spirited woman". Good grief. Didn't have anything to do with Labour's sanctimonious intrusions into our private lives? Didn't have anything to do with their wanton theft from hard-working New Zealanders so that their beneficiary buddies (and not only thise in the Green Party) can be kept in hooch? Didn't have anything to do with the snubbing of our international friends, who have been friends for hundreds of years, and the parasitic coupling with cultures and economies that would bleed us dry then slit our throats becasue we are no longer of use to them? No, couldn't be any of that. We just don't want to be led by a woman.

Of course, the clarificatioin of Clark's gender is still up for debate.

Sarah Palin. Now there's a woman "men" wouldn't mind being led by. I could handle watching her on the news every night.

ass-u-me

"We should assume there isn't intelligent life out there."

It's this kind of grammatically incorrect, arrogant, self-centred, narrow-minded thinking that fuels my contempt for the entire scientific house of cards the white-coated stiffs have built.

Has this guy never seen a single episode of Star Trek?

"We see no evidence based on evolution on Earth for a tendency to develop human-like intelligence."

I should hope not if this idiot represents the most intelligent of our species. He seems to be presuming that "intelligence" is limited to the small amount of space found between human ears. He seems to be suggesting that if it hasn't "evolved" two legs, two arms and a rock-melon-like brain, it can't be intelligent. Or at least it can't be intelligent like us.

How many times did Kirk and the team, while cruising the cosmos, come across some incredibly clever being that resembled a big sparkly dust cloud? And it talked, and calculated and everything! Or what about Q and The Continuum? While they could take human form, they didn't really look like us. And they were omnisciently clever. Even cleverer than Pickard. And that's saying something.

And then there are the aliens from War of the Worlds? They weren't particularly clever when it came to fighting off the bugs, but they were wicked smart at building machines and weapons. And although we didn't really get a good look at them, I don't think they were human-like.

It astounds me that these science boffins can't think outside the square to a scenario involving intelligence in a non-human form, like a sparkly cloud or a handsome but overly-sarcastic omnipotent shape-shifter. And who says only an earth-like planet revolving round a sun-like star can sustain life and intelligence?

Of course, I didn't hear the lecture, and given that the media in this country are as brainless as most of the scientists, the report could be wrong, or at least incomplete. But I've heard a number of times some kooky biochemist suggesting that intelligent life cannot possibly exist somewhere else in the Universe because the conditions required to facilitate evolution are not evident.

Duh.

On this we're taking a bath

Let me add my voice to the outcry over this bastard Labour government attempting to limit the water pressure in our showers. How dare they. How $@*&^%% dare they!

This government has to go. But I'm afraid they won't be going because John Key is really starting to show his inexperienced moronic colours. He caved on the anti-smacking bill when he could have done what he was supposed to do. Be the opposition!! And god forbid, actually listen to the NZ public.

Sure the economy's tanking, crime is on the rise, health is down the toilet, education is a joke. Like sheep we just bleat from the cheap seats, knowing that as Joe average NZ citizen we are absolutely powerless to do anything to stop the political monster that the elite has created. Hence the growing - smouldering, festering - sense of resentment and rage that something like this shower thing illustrates. We accept that the government sits around all day thinking up new ways to torment us, to play with our lives to feed their egos. But when something happens so close to home, like the anti-smacking bill, and the government steps inside our home, we feel just how powerless, and at their mercy, we are.

Democracy would be nice, but democracy is a myth. It doesn't exist. The rich elite have always held the power, and they always will.

The economy is denuded and average families are struggling. I guarantee the politicians will vote themselves and accept a 15 or 20 per cent pay rise. Their expenses increase by inflation plus ten. John Key can take time out in his $5m house in Hawaii. Queen Helen can spend $40m on her own personal tramping ground and call it conservation.

I'll bet the water pressure at her house is good.

Money go-round

Two things have been bugging me for the past couple of weeks. They're entirely unrelated . . . or are they?

The US Congress has finally passed the $700 billion bank bailout. Which is good, I guess, for civilisation as a whole. I'm in the school that says if the US goes under we will all go under and Western civilisation as we know it would change irreparably. Very few people can claim to have lived in times when the fabric of civilisation changed overnight.

Now, while the stock market was struggling, it was continued to be buoyed somewhat by the deep seated knowledge that common sense would prevail and the US government would save the economy with the much needed boost.

But they said "NO!" And stocks began to plunge as the market crumbled. Once valuable shares plummeted in value.

Imagine this dark corner conversation between an average US politician and his brother-in-law:

"We're going to vote no on the first draft of the bailout bill."
"But that will . . ."
"I know."
"So you want me to . . ."
"Yes."
"But . . ."
"Then next week we're going to vote yes on the bailout bill."
"Ah, so then we can . . ."
"Yes."
"And we never had this conversation."
"What conversation?"

There is only one constant in this market. The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer.

I think I'll get to the other thing that's bugging me tomorrow.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.