A month is clearly a very long time in Politics.

I've blogged this little gem before. Thousands more receive surgery commitments

I particularly like this paragraph.

"This government has been progressively reforming elective services to create a fairer and more transparent system for patients and their families," Pete Hodgson said. "The days where patients are left with no guarantee of treatment are gradually coming to an end.

But what is now interesting about this is that since late March when this was published praising the DHB's for giving so many new commitments, by late April the story has changed some what already.

MidCentral Health also has waiting list problems

"Unfortunately, we have built up expectations beyond our ability to deliver, so while we have seen more people, we still need to return lower-priority referrals to GP care."

It's not just me doing it.

Stuff. Obese? Take 2 wheels not 4

The cost saving is my main motivation, as stated in earlier post I figure just the savings on petrol and parking save me close to $100/week now. It wasn't that much when I started but both petrol and daily charges where I park my car have gone up in the last 6 months.

However I have also lost just over 20kg's through a slight change of diet and regular exercise.

Life's a Pitch - when Unions get involved

Stuff: TVNZ irks unions with in-house competition

Isn't this great. TVNZ start an internal competition for staff to suggest ideas to help TVNZ gain more market share. The Unions claim that it's negative. "The New Zealand Writers Guild today described the competition as "a real blow" to the local industry."

Come on - if the local writers can't provide better ideas or concepts than the TVNZ staff, then they should just change places. This has got nothing to do with the Union, it's a company trying to do the best it can using it's own staff.

Hey TVNZ: I challenge the EPMU and/or the Writers Guild to a public debate (on TVNZ) about this. If they field a team, so will I.

Do I win the trip ?

Shabby spin attempt.

Stuff: Parker still bruised by accusations

"My wife heard the interview and she phoned me up and said, `Why the hell did you say that?' I said I did not know, and she said she did: `Because you had a sense of disquiet about that whole episode in your life'."

Really !

What is that saying ?

When you file false documents you get the jitters - particularly if your the Attorney-General and the other party you signed on behalf may not have agreed to waiver the audit and appears to want to drag your ass into court about it.

Exonerating David Parker

Before we appoint ourselves as judge and jury on Hyslop’s character and exonerate Parker we should look at the facts that we actually know are true.

A company owned by 3 parties two being from the same family and 1 other failed with financial issue. The family parties represented the lawyer, accountant and controlling interest of the company. The third party claims he was denied taking a prosecution in his bankruptcy. Neither of the accountant/lawyer/family share holders were bankrupted by it. The third parties share sale was messed up and false returns were filed by the company lawyer/accountant. The third parties shares are still on the register, but documents past their normal retention date say they are not his. A Crown Solicitor makes a legal ruling in favour of a Labour party MP who is the lawyer/accountant that filed the false returns. Around the country many lawyers are scratching and shaking their heads. The PM gets involved and gives the aggrieved third party a perceived time limit to get on with his allegations bacause she wants her Minister back in Cabinet. The third party is still claiming he has been denied taking the matter to court and the PM calls Ian Wishart a creep for bringing it all into the public arena.

Anything other than the hard facts are potentially contrived stories from either party in a case like this.

I would think that unless this whole mess goes to court and is audited completely, neither party should be trusted in any business dealings. People supporting the Parker side of the story solely because of political affiliation should consider that it is possible that Parker is not the innocent party the Labour party makes him out to be.

Grumble grumble

I shouldn't really complain, I have travelled 2,000 k's on bikes in the last year and a bit and I haven't had a flat tyre till now. But it would be coming home on a Friday night, in the rain, dark and just after passing a few hot babes on bikes. I guess it's a small price to pay for saving a combined total $100/week on just parking and petrol alone.

Cycle commuting

Ah a great Wellington day for riding the bike to and from work. Gentle Northerly to ride into on the way to work and a gentle Southerly to ride home against.
K's: 11.06, Time: 25:23, Avg:27.11, Max 37.1

Justification

This is justification for removal of the Treaty clauses from health care. Clearly they do not work, apparently they seem to have a negative effect.

Maori disadvantaged in healthcare - Turia

Do as I say not as I do....

This is a classic headline 'Clark calls on politicians to accept responsibilities'

I think it's just fabulous that we can tell politicians in other countries how to behave and what needs to be done - yes the things we don't do ourselves.

It's unusual - but I agree with Mrs Clark.

Let them eat cake !

This statement illustrates the contempt the Govt shows for everyday people in this country. 'They told her they had travelled at great inconvenience to talk to her'.

Having it both ways

We have been hearing a lot recently about crime statistics. Labour are busy telling us that crime is at a 20 year low. But then we hear this 'P lab accidents burn hole in health budget'.

So which way is it - is crime down and health mismanaged OR is crime up and it's burning a hole in the health budget ?

Given that 'P' is apparently a big problem then we can reasonably conclude that only a small number of 'cooks' get injured. IE: If they all did there would be no 'P' on the market. So it therefore also follows that if 'P cooks' having accidents is causing issues for the health system then clearly there is a lot of 'P' being cooked up.

RMA madness

It's nice to have a rooftop space with your office. It's great to sit outside, have the occasional BBQ and socialise with work mates. That is until the exhaust fumes from a burger bar are piped 'above the roof line' in accordance with the RMA directly into your space.

Yes that is our office 'above the roof line' to the right of the picture.

Update: 13 April 2006. It's going to be moved to actualy be above the roof line. Excellent news.

Busting the tinnie houses

Lets look at busting tinnie houses.

Rodney Hide has a great story here.

Travelling through a variety of places you get to see drug policy in action if you mix for any length of time with the locals. You can easily deduce from conversation that drug prices are higher in countries with harsh penalties but the availability is much the same. Drugs being desirable is part of the human condition.

Police forces have poured enormous resources into enforcement in some parts of the world. The efforts to kerb drug usage generally only increase prices and reduce social chatter about usage. As enforcement goes up organised crime becomes established. We like many other counties need to balance the health risks of drug usage vs the health risks of organised crime and drug usage.

I can't think of a better way to enshrine a life of association with drugs than a prison sentence.

Organised crime, increased prices, users committing crime for money and giving lots of people criminal convictions. This is a great way to keep both buyers and sellers associated with drugs.

And we call this an effective drug policy ?

The mountain bike

Awesome weekend. I spent two days riding my mountain bike around in the Whakarewarewa forest. One major spill, grazing my elbow and leg and giving myself a few good bruises but apart from that - all good.

Anyone who rides a mountain bike should check this place out, it's wicked. The tracks are amazing ranging from real easy to mind bending. I rode about 35 K's on Saturday and managed to get about 15 more K's in before leaving at lunch time on Sunday.

While I was there (with a group of 7 people) there was also the xterra race on which provided some entertainment. It's just amazing to see some world class athletes and some absolute Muppet's as well. The xterra course was generally easy track but there were a few tricky sections which provided some great entertainment.

Mountain biking is a great sport to separate the boys from the girls. We were all waiting for one of our bunch to make his way down a track and he had been a while so we determined he must have canned off. Two of us decided to head back up and see how he was and as we were heading back up the track one of the girls shouted out 'Have you got a first aid kit ?' to which the other guy heading up the track with me called out 'No but I've got a camera' :-)) He had canned off but he was fine.

A new national language recognition.

From the horses mouth.
http://www.labour.org.nz/news/latest_labour_news/news-060406a/index.html

I have nothing at all against the idea of spreading the use of sign language. It is a great thing. What surprised me about this was that there are 28,000 people using sign language and 7,000 who are deaf.

Therefore it seems logical to me that as Jim Anderton's Progressive party received 26,441 party votes in the last election, we should push to have Jim's language declared as a national language. This, over time, might give the rest of the country some idea of what the hell he is drivelling on about.

The PM and her drivers....

This one has been done to death I know but it's a great little story.
http://www.rodneyhide.com/index.php/weblog/comments/clark_and_benson_pope_make_a_perfect_pair/P25/

Speaking for myself, if I were a passenger and my driver just left the scene of an accident I'd be pretty pissed and demand he/she stopped to check for injuries and deal with any consequences from the accident. But then I don't normally have a Police escort who can quickly and efficiently mop up the scene.


So I would suggest that leaving the scene under the PMs circumstances is not actually an offence at all. There was no issue of responsibility to ascertain, there were not going to be any conflicting stories.

It should have been such a simple thing to deal with ! Some people are their own worst enemy.

Kicking the Police

I was reading the story the other day on stuff about an Otaki chap who's car was stolen. The long and the short of it is he called the Police and alerted them to where he thought it was. They didn't dispatch a crew to check it out. He eventually chased the car down half way up the country weeks later. Checking changed REGNO details via a post shop and seeking out it's new owner. Not a great story.

A friend had her car stolen on Sunday night. She had just got back from a weekend away with the kids and had a car full of 'stuff' when it was stolen, shortly after she got home and got the kids sorted. Today she was driving around in a borrowed car and did a bit of sweeping the side streets and found it. She called Police, they quickly dispatched a car and a tow truck. She emptied almost all of her own stuff out of the her car into the borrowed car and her car was taken away for forensics.

Bet this story of procedure being followed and action being swift and effective won't make the headlines !

It's a human condition.

One of things I feel quite passionately about is allowing my children to be competitive in sport and education.

I'm going to possibly step over the PC line here, but I'll try to be PC about it.

How can any institution that teaches both sport and education give a message in sport 'be happy to participate' and in education 'achieve is good enough'. There must be some smarter people in the education system than me and to me it's bloody obvious. We are teaching people to be mediocre.

We have a success issue with certain races, in this country, when it comes to tertiary education. So we have quotas on competitive degrees for people of this race. Statistically this race has a similar intelligence bell curve to any other race, but we see a large proportion of this race not achieving at the same level as other races in tertiary education and therefore the professional workforce. It's not an intelligence issue, it's a cultural and training issue.

We are training all our children to participate and immigrants and earlier european settlers have more cultural capital in the social system we live in, and therefore have a greater depth of parental guidance on how to succeed in it.

Would it not be easier to encourage all people to succeed. Winning is good, not bad. There will always be a looser and that person should still be glad they participated and so should all the other people in the competition. Well placing people who were not first can also be proud. Immediate runners up can be proud but they should realise they almost had first. Do not tell them that what they did was no more important than last.

Telling the winner that the person who came last has just as much to celebrate is taking something from the winner - not giving something to the looser. There are many competitive disciplines, there will be many winners. By encouraging competition we... encourage competition.

I'm not overly competitive when I ride my bike because I'm not that fast, I don't have a particularly fast bike (42 big ring) and I don't have the time to train hard enough to be 'super fit'. Although I always give it a nudge when I have the chance with the philosophy that I'm doing this for exercise as well so make it count. This time to just enjoy my own being is precious - don't waste it.

Riding home tonight I was passed early, I recognised him, I had chased him once before. The ride was fast with a blustery but not strong northerly blowing. It took me 3 1/2 K's to catch him, passing him was hard and I knew we also had an upwind leg only 3k's away. Turning into the wind he had caught me and he pounced. Passing me with ease. We take different legs on a junction shortly after that and we gave it a nudge all the way to the intersection.

He was the winner, sure it didn't really matter. But it was important, it's the second time he's beaten me and I'll try harder next time.

Ride: K's 10.98 23:54, Avg: 28.10, Max: 47.9, Odo: 1330.

Cycle commuting

Yesterday was a well proportioned northerly. Ride to work was hard into it - 35:20 after some technical glitches at in the first 15 minutes. Ride home was great :-) Home: 10.97K's, 22:52, Avg: 29.23, Max: 49.8.