Posts by Andre
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The power companies all overcharge us anyway - can you imagine how gouged we'd be on prices post-privatisation? Between 2001 and 2007 generator-retailers made at least $4.3 billion excess profits from high spot prices. In the 1990s, electricity lines companies made excess profits which allowed a lump-sum wealth transfer of $2.6 billion from consumers to shareholders. That was while we owned them.
Maybe they are having problems instituting the outcomes from the Ministerial Review into Electricity Market Performance.
http://www.med.govt.nz/upload/70927/summary-of-decisions.pdf
How much are we losing under the ETS - power companies stood to benefit?
From 2004 - 2008, the state made a profit of $3.27 billion (after tax) from the energy sector. And now they want to sell 49% of them off for $7.8 billion? It doesn't make sense. Prices rose by 76% from 2003 - 2008 as well - almost triple the CPI. We're being screwed either way in reality. -
"I do note that Key & English seem to lean heavily on the dark side."
The beehive does occasionally resemble a death star.
I wonder what the star wars equivalent of driving a tractor up the front steps on behalf of wealthy farmers is?
Does Darth's number two have a primary residence on Tattoine or Coruscant but collects a benefit from living on the Death Star?
If the MP's of the Maori Party were in Star Wars whose side would they be on? Would they join the Galactic Empire and kick Hone out for complaining about the results? -
We drove from Riverlea to New Plymouth to see Star Wars - a mammoth undertaking from an eight year-old's perspective. The sequels were looked forward to for years and then discussed for years afterwards. The prequels weren't.
With 53,000 choosing Jedi at the 2001 census we know we're not alone (more than there were Buddhists or Hindus for example). Was it partly because Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith were so puerile in comparison that only 20,000 Jedi showed up at the 2006 census?
Will Jedis even show up at all this year? What does it all mean? Where's Yoda when you need him? -
Poor old Whaleoil... even the wingnuts are disowning him. Like Palin without the good looks.
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The upcoming Alien invasion may see those yanks using their guns after all... http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/jan/10/earth-close-encounter-aliens-extraterrestrials
"Evolution on alien worlds, he said, is likely to be Darwinian in nature. Morris argues that life anywhere else in the universe will therefore probably have important similarities with life on Earth – especially if it comes from Earth-like worlds that have similar biological molecules to ours. That means ET might resemble us, warts and all, with our tendencies towards violence and exploitation."
The Royal Society scientists must know more than we do about this and for them to go public is actually a bit scary. Almost as freaky as these guys last year: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/ufo/8028499/Aliens-are-sabotaging-British-and-US-nuclear-missiles-US-military-pilots-claim.html
Then there was the NORAD officer's prediction that UFO's would appear on mass around major cities on October 13th... and apparently they did: http://news.exopoliticsinstitute.org/index.php/archives/632
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/06/china-ufo-sighting-video_n_753179.html
The NWO and even Mama Grizzly must be worried. Imagine if she became US president and got the job of communicating with them on our behalf. HELP! The upside would be "Conventional wisdom suggests that terrestrial religion would collapse if the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) were confirmed". Imagine all of the resources freed up by the collapse of religion. But then 93% of all scientists are atheists according to Bill Mahers Religulous film, so maybe all of this is a case of wishful thinking. Loughner's news does however pale by comparison I thought. -
We took 8 days at Matauri Bay camping on the beachfront in the "whanau only" zone before Xmas and enjoyed avoiding the New Year crowds. Fresh crays and scallops every day and I caught a few schnapper. The kids loved it but it's getting more difficult keeping them out of the sun for any length of time. Since then we've spent the time at home next to the pool chilling out. Read "Scar Tissue" by Anthony Keidis (what a 100% wasted dude), "True Crime Through History (100 most infamous murderers of last two centuries)" and a lot of pulp fiction. I've also taken time out to be told off by Brian Edwards: http://brianedwardsmedia.co.nz/2011/01/i-receive-and-respond-to-an-email-from-amanda-hotchin/
Lovely jubbly! -
It's just a shame that PA readers chose an abusive term for the WOTY. Its interesting but not that important whereas roflnui (as they tweet apparently) was maybe a bit more important because it mixed languages. Roflnui is rather PC - Kilgallon should use it more often.
Findlay McDonald (SST) and Matt McCarten (Granny H) are the best Sunday columnists but I enjoy laughing at Michael Laws even though our politics are opposite to each others'. Bernard Hickey is now almost the only business commentator I agree with - the rest are a cheerleading team for baby boomers worried they won't get to rip off those younger than themselves. Stunningly Fran O'Sullivan the hard-right Herald columnist has chosen to join Hickey's year-long crusade about inter-generational theft - but she's still dire: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/fran-osullivan-on-business/news/article.cfm?c_id=1502864&objectid=10693466. "But until then, they'll keep on bribing us with our children's money." -
On August 30th in this forum I asked:
How many MP's have something at stake here financially through the huge investments in SCF from Pyne Gould Corporation, George Kerr etc?Damn! I should have referred to government-appointed bureaucrats having conflicts of interest instead!
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10675165
Who would have guessed it...
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Most of our funds were tied up in banks. The finance companies weren't going under because of runs being made on them - in most cases it was either shonky practices or bad lending decisions coming home to roost. They could have included credit unions and building societies . They have different structures than finance companies.
It was just power protecting wealth at the expense of tax payers.
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The word was on the street that certain finance companies were looking really shaky for months before it was reported because the journalists involved would be repeating hearsay and be taken to court for libel if they repeated them in print. The old boys networks knew first and got out before the mom and pops who were burned in many cases. The journalists mixing in those circles were told. How did Allan Bollard somehow never find out? I was in Auckland but surely he should have known more than me about it all even from The Terrace.
We didn't just guarantee our banks, we guaranteed the finance companies as well. What a uniquely kiwi world view.
Allan Bollard unfortunately sold us down the river at that point. He's a nice man but that is the unfortunate outcome. SCF was not a natural disaster so why are my kids still guaranteeing these shonky investments owned by mainly wealthy people? Thanks Allan.