Thursday, May 14, 2009
The price of liberty is eternal vigilance...
"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the Government's purposes are beneficial. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal; well meaning but without understanding." Justice Louis Brandeis (1928). Oh... Oops, too late!
Martial ARTS
Karate and Kung Fu are definitive examples of meditative and character forming martial arts in which devotees who have dedicated their lives to years of intense training of both body and mind can, using only their hands and feet, make some of the worst movies in the history of cinema...
Pettifoggery
Did you hear that major research laboratories are starting to use lawyers instead of rats for their experiments? They find that the scientists don't get as attached to the lawyers (and there are some things that even rats wont do). Auctually, I just found out that if you cross a lawyer with the godfather you are likely to get an offer you can't understand.
Rankin Appointed to Families Commission
Your family and your children are NOT safe in the hands of Christine Rankin. Self aggrandizing egomania has as much place in the work of the Families Commission as a PR Consultancy's perfidy does in advising Aucklanders whats best for Auckland.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
The Great West Auckland Motorway Tunnel Renegging
Its really hard not to see this tunnel / motorway backtrack, turnaround reneging farce as just a cynical way of diverting the attention of the great unwashed while Rodney and his overlords quietly steal away local democracy with their crony packed transition committee....
A Quote for Our Times
'I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.' Thomas Jefferson
AN OPEN RESPONSE TO MAYOR BOB HARVEY'S LETTER ON THE SUPER CITY
AN OPEN RESPONSE TO MAYOR BOB HARVEY'S LETTER ON THE SUPER CITY
Dear Bob
RE: Your recent letter on the proposed Auckland "Super City". It seems that Tacitus foresaw this proposal a couple of millennium ago when he commented : "A shocking crime committed on the unscrupulous initiative of few individuals, with the blessing of more, and amid the passive acquiescence of all."
Smaller local democratic run communities are what human beings function best and most healthy in - they are a good thing and should not be tampered with except to refine and strengthen them. The trouble is Bob, that Good Things often turn to shit because its human nature that every dickhead involved is compelled to tinker regardless of whether or not they have anything valid to add. So far the Super City concept appears little more than some dickhead trying to reinvent the wheel by making it square.
The ideology behind the Super City is predicated on the notion that the restructuring is for the benefit of not only 'Greater Auckland' but also the whole country. However the outcome for the individual people in the "local communities" will be the desperation and sickness consequent upon all huge social groups that have bloated outside the abilities of basic human nature to deal with them.
You cannot successfully legislate against human nature except by attempting to contain the sickness that results with even more laws (Tacitus also commented that the degree of corruption in government is reflected in the number of laws it enacts). If you want to see a perfect example of a huge city running with perfect efficiency, you need look no further than an ant or termite nest. Then ask yourself, how important is the individual ant or termite to that system?
We are at risk of losing our local identities and becoming strangers in a crowd! This is NOT "community". It is a nest of termites slaving for an administration that has lost sight of the individuals it was created to serve (not regulate). When its at their expense not only financially but socially, average Kiwis don't not want their communities restructured for the alleged benefit of the country (read "corporations"). Any restructuring should, first and foremost, be for the direct benefit of the local communities.
I do not see this in any "Super City" plan made available so far. Indeed everything I have seen so far, added to by the nature those who are vigorously supporting this concept, confirms that "Super Cities" are little more than a cynical way for corrupt central administrations to suck desperately needed resources out of local communities to fund empire building. Anyone taking issue with this comment clearly has little knowledge of history and is committed to repeating mistakes from which we should have learned.
Then there is the question of the subjugation of democracy in the way this ideology is being railroaded! The sacrifice of democracy (no matter how small a part) on the alter of bureaucratic expediency and political ideology is simply fascism. While the illusion is that the Super City is in the interests of increased efficiency, the more efficient the system, the less relevant and less vigilant the individual - whereas the price of democracy is eternal vigilance. As a representative of the people, how vigilant are you when it comes to democracy? The system does not serve the individual by making them less vigilant; it is simply serving itself!
We once had an umbrella body that looked after the infrastructure of greater Auckland. Of course, like any human political creation it was not perfect but instead of working on it, repairing and refining it, it we pulled it apart and emasculated it. Then we stood back and said look how scewed up this is! Lets get rid of it altogether! Now the Government is trying to help us poor desperate Aucklanders with their shiny new (square) wheel.
To paraphrase Ronald Regan, the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government and I'm here to help!
Regards,
Jon Smyth
Woodlands Park 0604
Waitakere City
RE: Your recent letter on the proposed Auckland "Super City". It seems that Tacitus foresaw this proposal a couple of millennium ago when he commented : "A shocking crime committed on the unscrupulous initiative of few individuals, with the blessing of more, and amid the passive acquiescence of all."
Smaller local democratic run communities are what human beings function best and most healthy in - they are a good thing and should not be tampered with except to refine and strengthen them. The trouble is Bob, that Good Things often turn to shit because its human nature that every dickhead involved is compelled to tinker regardless of whether or not they have anything valid to add. So far the Super City concept appears little more than some dickhead trying to reinvent the wheel by making it square.
The ideology behind the Super City is predicated on the notion that the restructuring is for the benefit of not only 'Greater Auckland' but also the whole country. However the outcome for the individual people in the "local communities" will be the desperation and sickness consequent upon all huge social groups that have bloated outside the abilities of basic human nature to deal with them.
You cannot successfully legislate against human nature except by attempting to contain the sickness that results with even more laws (Tacitus also commented that the degree of corruption in government is reflected in the number of laws it enacts). If you want to see a perfect example of a huge city running with perfect efficiency, you need look no further than an ant or termite nest. Then ask yourself, how important is the individual ant or termite to that system?
We are at risk of losing our local identities and becoming strangers in a crowd! This is NOT "community". It is a nest of termites slaving for an administration that has lost sight of the individuals it was created to serve (not regulate). When its at their expense not only financially but socially, average Kiwis don't not want their communities restructured for the alleged benefit of the country (read "corporations"). Any restructuring should, first and foremost, be for the direct benefit of the local communities.
I do not see this in any "Super City" plan made available so far. Indeed everything I have seen so far, added to by the nature those who are vigorously supporting this concept, confirms that "Super Cities" are little more than a cynical way for corrupt central administrations to suck desperately needed resources out of local communities to fund empire building. Anyone taking issue with this comment clearly has little knowledge of history and is committed to repeating mistakes from which we should have learned.
Then there is the question of the subjugation of democracy in the way this ideology is being railroaded! The sacrifice of democracy (no matter how small a part) on the alter of bureaucratic expediency and political ideology is simply fascism. While the illusion is that the Super City is in the interests of increased efficiency, the more efficient the system, the less relevant and less vigilant the individual - whereas the price of democracy is eternal vigilance. As a representative of the people, how vigilant are you when it comes to democracy? The system does not serve the individual by making them less vigilant; it is simply serving itself!
We once had an umbrella body that looked after the infrastructure of greater Auckland. Of course, like any human political creation it was not perfect but instead of working on it, repairing and refining it, it we pulled it apart and emasculated it. Then we stood back and said look how scewed up this is! Lets get rid of it altogether! Now the Government is trying to help us poor desperate Aucklanders with their shiny new (square) wheel.
To paraphrase Ronald Regan, the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government and I'm here to help!
Regards,
Jon Smyth
Woodlands Park 0604
Waitakere City
THE 20 PERKS OF BEING OVER 50
THE 20 PERKS OF BEING OVER 50
Bring this to the attention of everyone you know who is over 50 - if you are over 50, DO IT NOW (before your forget...) Oh, and if you are emailing it, put it in BIG PRINT.
01. Kidnappers are not very interested in you.
02. In a hostage situation you are likely to be released first.
03. No one expects you to run anywhere..
04. If someone calls you at 9pm normally ask: "did I wake you?"
05. People no longer view you as a hypochondriac.
06. There is nothing left to learn the hard way.
07. Things you buy now won't wear out.
08. You can eat supper at 4pm.
09. You can live without sex (but not your reading glasses).
10. You get into heated arguments over pension plans.
11. You no longer think of speed limits as a challenge.
12. You never hold your stomach in (no matter who enters the room).
13. You sing along with elevator music.
14. Your eyes won't get much worse.
15. Your investment in health insurance is finally beginning to pay off.
16. Your joints are more accurate meteorologists than the Met service.
17. Your secrets are safe with your old mates (they can't remember them either).
18. Your supply of brain cells is finally down to manageable size.
19. You can't remember who sent you this list.
20. Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.
Bring this to the attention of everyone you know who is over 50 - if you are over 50, DO IT NOW (before your forget...) Oh, and if you are emailing it, put it in BIG PRINT.
01. Kidnappers are not very interested in you.
02. In a hostage situation you are likely to be released first.
03. No one expects you to run anywhere..
04. If someone calls you at 9pm normally ask: "did I wake you?"
05. People no longer view you as a hypochondriac.
06. There is nothing left to learn the hard way.
07. Things you buy now won't wear out.
08. You can eat supper at 4pm.
09. You can live without sex (but not your reading glasses).
10. You get into heated arguments over pension plans.
11. You no longer think of speed limits as a challenge.
12. You never hold your stomach in (no matter who enters the room).
13. You sing along with elevator music.
14. Your eyes won't get much worse.
15. Your investment in health insurance is finally beginning to pay off.
16. Your joints are more accurate meteorologists than the Met service.
17. Your secrets are safe with your old mates (they can't remember them either).
18. Your supply of brain cells is finally down to manageable size.
19. You can't remember who sent you this list.
20. Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.
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