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Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Things that hack you off 

A question for general discussion. What would you ban/prohibit/forbid if you were Supreme Commander of the Universe (or at least President-for-Life of New Zealand)? Other than free elections of course?

20/20 cricket?
party pills?
that rule about left-turning traffic having to give way to right-turning traffic?
peter dunne?
mexican waves?
10 months of rugby?

All tempting, I'm sure, but I would focus my attention on:

1/ News agencies parroting political party press releases as "news". Especially National Party press releases. I'm looking at your Newstalk ZB. For some of us, it might of course be tempting just to ban the National Party.

2/ The chaotic system of roadworks in this country, which lets construction work fuck up many areas simultaneously (and laboriously), rather than focussing on one area and actually finishing the job in good fucking time. And yes I would make contractors work evenings and weekends. Three teams working around the fucking clock at each site as far as I'm concerned.

3/ GST on health care and education expenses.

4/ Taxes on taxes (esp. GST on rates).

5/ Public transport fare increases above the rate of inflation.

6/ Rates increases above the rate of inflation.

7/ Robber baron electricity companies. $100/month for turning on a few lights and having hot water? Go fuck yourselves, I'm not made of money.

8/ Murray McCully.

Man, I could really warm to this banning stuff job.

Comments:
How about changing holiday entitlements for teachers? They can have 4 weeks off like the rest of us.

And yes I am deliberately shit stirring with this one.

Actually on a more serious note I'd like to call for a complete ban on the stupid fat people that wander, fatly and stupidly, down the sidewalk and manage to get in everybody's way.

They piss me off. Especially when they stand vaguely in doorways gazing cacantly into the aether (I swear they're dreaming about donuts).

"It's a door, walk through it lard arse!"
 
I'd take #1 further and ban the entire NZ Herald until they all learn some basics of english grammar. I might consider settling for them learning how to use the spell check in whatever piece of shit editorial software they have. Unless it's Notepad, and then I'd probably be a bit more forgiving.

#5 was something that no one seemed to really get angry enough over. Have we resigned ourselves to being constantly fucked over in this country, to the point where we simply can't be bothered complaining anymore? Anyhow, the new fares are a joke. First off they all consist of incredibly stupid amounts of change - $5 was a fare which raised the change of people having the correct change, however with $5.70 the chances are pretty low. So we have to watch the poor conductors wander around the train dealing with huge rolls of coins. Take money, count money, count money again, give change, drop change, pickup change, give change again, rip off ticket, clip ticket, give ticket to customer, frown as customer throws ticket on the floor and shrugs. Awesome.

They updated all of their signage about the new fares, and proudly display the fact that "MONTHLY TICKET IS STILL THE BEST VALUE!". I can't quite work out who for. Maybe if you take the train both ways for 7 days a week (lets ignore the fact that there technically fuck all trains on Saturday and Sunday for the western line), but for those of us who might follow a 5 day a week commuting pattern it barely works out even. Note that I'm taking into consideration the fact that some months have variables such as public holidays and sick days in them etc etc, but for the past 3 months using a monthly pass would have cost me more than paying for my rides using 10 trip concessions. That's just idiotic.

I'm not even going to touch on the reliability issues, the lack of information, the messed up SMS service, and neither am I going to ask what an "operational issue" refers to (there seem to be a lot of those).

Finally let me add one of my own: Cycle Couriers. You fucking idiots are supposed to ride on the STREET. If you ride on the footpath, at least have a little bit of courtesy to watch out for people WALKING on the FOOTPATH. If we were walking on a bikepath I'm sure you'd get all indignant and uptight about it. Also if you're sitting in a cafe then how about you turn your walkie talkie off? Having your dispatch operator nattering in my ear at a million decibels is really not my idea of a way to relax in the morning while waiting for coffee. I might be more tolerant after I've had a coffee, but I doubt it.

Hmmm this really is quite addictive. Maybe making a list of things that shouldn't be banned would be quicker?
 
Cheers guys. I get 4 weeks holiday, so have to agree with you Random. What do you propose the teachers do during all the days the pupils aren't there, though?

Ross, sounds like you're another west auckland commuter. I've recently taken to car-pooling into the city in the mornings. Saves me quite a bit of $$.
 
Ross, I hear you about those trains. I was stunned at finding out what a monthly pass was way back at Uni in the 90s.

i was forced to walking for 30 minutes to and from uni and waiting for up to an hour etc to get a ride home with my dad each day it was such a rip off.

As a teacher I say "Get Fucked!" ;)

If we had 4 weeks holiday a year then they would need to find about 100,000 new teachers immediately and triple their pay. There is a strange effect that teenagers have on the mind. Not to mention adding up all the hours at home on week nights and sundays which we clock up. there's a few weeks right there.

On the news ripping press statements there was a classic on the radio news yesterday.

Somehow they had back to back news bulletins. The first one had a Labour rebuttal on an issue which exposed it to be a pile of shit. The one with the woman who was told to quit her job because she would be better off by work and income. The Labour spokesperson was on saying that the woman had a baby at home and was working at nights. they told her to quit, so she could look after the baby while they would find her more suitable work and arrange for childcare for her child.

Then straight after all this they lead with a storming news headline about what a disgrace it was and National spokesman on damning it all about sending messages etc which was clearly all conjured up BEFORE going to Labout to find out the petty things like..... THE DETAILS.

More incompetent BS on national radio.
 
Murray McCully??? Really???!!!

Interesting that someone calling himself dc-red should want to ban one of the main architects of National's last 3 election losses!!!



Leg Break
 
Well said, LB. He still annoys the hell out of me with his faux culture war warrior antics though.

Sooner or later he might learn something from his Republican overlords, and actually engineer an election victory.

Return East Coast Bays to Social Credit I say. :)
 
He does get some marks for knocking off his press-secretary on his desk though.






Allegedly.

LB
 
What's is with National MPs banging people on roundtables? :)
 
drc_red said "What's is with National MPs banging people on roundtables? :)"





Money perhaps??


LB
 

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