So what do you stand for?

The local elections are coming, and one local has possibly the most ridiculous billboard ever. The woman is called Leandra Bowen  and her punchline is

Advocating crime prevention

Now some of you might think I am being a little flippant - but I do not see any of the other candidates with an opposite response, e.g. advocating domestic violence, supporting theft and/or encouraging fraud. I would suggest that my little town has its fair share of other problems - a polluted lake, a dying CBD, a lack of job opportunities, crippling debt and no population growth. I think Ms. Bowen needs to get out more!

Treatygate - the rise of the old white racists

Long time no post; I have kept my output going via various Facebook groups, but since some of them seem to have become the dwelling place of conspiracy theorists, with agendas on Fluoride in drinking water, 1080 poisoning everyone, etc. and, that I was so annoyed by a prat called John Ansell and his "Treatygate" get media commentary on the breakfast news, I felt obliged to start blogging again.

The issue on the news article that regrettably gave Ansell air time for his simplistic views was that of adding the Maori names for the north and south islands of New Zealand. From that link you can see that "the practice was common place until the mid 1950's". It isn't new and the lecturer on marleting that arued for the change blew Ansell out of the water.

Ansell did the usual fear mongering "next we'll be calling New Zealand Aotearoa" - the sooner the better, the sooner we become a republic and free ourselves of the shackles of the manarchy the better.

Some people don't do reading

So here is a visual representation of the liar that is John Key

A Collection of John Key's Lies

A selection - there are more (GST, ACC, etc)

On rivers and lakes or this one

Kiwibank

The income gap between NZ and Australia

Oil and gas exploration of the East Cape

The SAS in Iraq and this about how prisoners were treated


About his share dealings before Kiwirail was renationalised

About those ministerial BMW's

Trying to offer the former National party leader a job out of the country

About job creation

Tax cuts

On mining reserves

More random 'Next Blog' stuff

This week every 'next blog' seems to be a cancer sufferer; I read somewhere that Google monitors the content you are viewing and selects content accordingly. I can't remember googling cancer!

Here's a thought...

When you click the 'next blog' link at the top, why is it that you generally get an American chick with brightly coloured patch work/curtain style backdrops? Quite often they have pleasant info about their trip to New England or South Dakota, copious pictures of kids, friends and animals, with the occasional quote or proverb for good measure.

On mine you get moaning, politics and abuse - who has got this blogging thing right then?

Once upon a time

Well back in the 60's and 70's Mini's were cool.  In fact my first car was a 1970 model, in white, alloy wheels and front fog lights, that when you put them on the heater and radio stopped working, such were the deficiencies of the charging system. It was great, handled brill, looked cute and generally got me mobile. STU155J where are you now?

Anyway, time moves on, and with the demise of the Mini, replaced by the god awful Metro, the rest is simply history. The British motor industry capitulated and several moons later the Germans came in and bought the parent company, or what was left, namely Land Rover, possibly the only bit worth salvaging.

Of course, they plundered the technology, all the 4x4 stuff they now have (funny because BMW always said their cars had the perfect system and didn't need 4wd). They also plundered the brand name - the Mini!





Fast forward another few years and you hit the 'new' Mini. Now, in the basic, ordinary configuration it isn't that horrid; but BMW, as I have blogged in the past are experts in messing things up. I rest my case via the pictures below (a picture is worth more than a few thousand words here!)

What the hell are they doing? Clearly there is a nostalgia market, e.g. the new "Beetle' (a Golf with a crap body shape) and even the Fiat 500 which at least mimics its predecessor. But to make an SUV Mini is, put simply, sacrilege.