All posts by Richard

Affordable City, Housing, Local Government, Vote 2013

Berry Welcomes Housing Affordability Working Group

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Tuesday, 26 March 2013

Berry Welcomes Housing Affordability Working Group

Waitemata & Gulf candidate for Auckland City Council, Stephen Berry, says today that he welcomes plans by Mayor Len Brown and Housing Minister Nick Smith to form a working group to look at the issue. “With an opportunity to vote out the current leftist council still being several months away, this is probably the best step toward more affordable housing that Aucklanders have to look forward to.”

“Normally, I’m not a big fan of Government working groups. They’re usually a horrendously expensive chinwag for bureaucrats which achieve little. However in this case I’m cautiously optimistic. Len Brown and his allies are so hopelessly clueless about the devastating effect their policies are having on housing affordability, that I think collaboration with a National government can only be positive!”

Mr. Berry is buoyed by indications from the National government that they are willing to reform the Resource Management Act in order to bring about a reduction in housing prices. “The power that the Resource Management Act grants to city councils and neighbourhood busybodies alike to intervene in property owners business and drag out the consents process is a major cause of housing unaffordability in Auckland and the rest of the country.

“It is also my hope that Nick Smith follows through on his threat to force through changes to local body processes, if necessary, to bring reduced housing costs. Auckland property owners should not have to continue suffering the economic illiteracy of the majority of Auckland City councillors.”

Stephen Berry says that electoral relief for long suffering property owners will be coming soon, in the form of a nation-wide local body political party that promotes small-government ways to improve housing affordability. “A real alternative to Len Brown’s policies is not far away. Let’s just hope he doesn’t bankrupt us in the meantime.”

Stephen Berry
Candidate, Waitemata & Gulf
Auckland City Council
0211653464
stephenberry@xtra.co.nz

Economics, Financial Collapse, Sheeple, State Rape, Tax

Bank robbery?

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Bank robbery? Actually, no. A friend on Facebook (Terry, who is also a regular commenter here) explains.

The Cypriot banks are bankrupt and should be permitted to fail as they deserve. The depositors made a poor investment holding their wealth in fiat currency and giving that fiat currency to a poorly managed bank. By bailing out the Cypriot banks the EU is *giving* those banks’ depositors 90% of their lost money back, not taking 10% of their savings from them. That is not a bank robbery. The gun is pointed at taxpayers in Germany and other productive EU nations, not bank depositors in Cyprus. Bank depositors are receiving the benefit of the illicit money being extorted from taxpayers in other countries.

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Birds, Bugs, Cats, Dinosaurs, Dogs, Evolutionism, Fish, Fruit, Muppets

Why can’t you show me evidence?

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This is the very latest meme from an Evolutionist friend on Facebook.

It seems to me that both Dawkins and his interlocutor miss the point entirely.

Yes, DNA and fossils are evidence for the theory of evolution! But …

According to Creationism

(1) All living things are DNA-based. We’re carbon-based life-forms. One theoretical reason for this is that we’re all creatures of the same Creator. One practical reason for this is that predators need nutritious prey. Silicon-based prey, say, would be indigestible to a carbon-based predator.

(2) When living things die, their remains (or the remains of the thing that ate them and then later died) end up in the ground, to be dug up millennia later by archaeologists.

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So, there is an astonishing amount of evidence for Creationism. You can see it in the DNA and fossils that we found which are in the museums right now …

In one sense, DNA and fossils are evidence for both Evolutionism and Creationism. In another sense, DNA and fossils are evidence for neither, since their mere existence does not help us to determine which is the correct explanation for life on Earth as we know it.

What Dawkins interlocutor seeks is that which Dawkins fails to show, viz., evidence that militates in favour of Evolutionism over Creationism.

Black Sabbath, Catholicism, Gospel music, Jihad on Drugs™, Keep it Metal!

Would you like to see the Pope? A thousand things.

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I’m liking the new Pope Francis. Formerly Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, he chose his papal name in honour of San Francesco d’Assisi). He’s no liberal (none of that gay marriage nonsense) and Pope Francis lays out vision of ‘poor church’ working for the people.

St. Francis of Assisi, the pope said, was “the man of the poor. The man of peace. The man who loved and cared for creation and in this moment we don’t have such a great relationship with the creator. The man who gives us this spirit of peace, the poor man who wanted a poor church.”

But his views on recreational drug use are anachronistic to say the least.

Cardinal Bergoglio bashes bill to legalize drugs for personal consumption

Archbishop of Buenos Aires Jorge Mario Bergoglio criticized yesterday the bill that aims to legalize drugs for personal consumption, which is sponsored by the ruling Victory Front and backed by the Radical Civic Union and the Broad Progressive Front. Bergoglio, who headed the traditional mass and procession of Corpus Christi in Plaza de Mayo, warned young people about the intentions of those who sell illegal drugs.

“Don’t trust the merchants of death,” said the archbishop as he delivered a speech to the people who took part in the youth march that anticipates the Corpus Christi celebration.

“Some people dedicate their life to corrupt others, don’t let them trick you, no matter if they promise you a thousand things,” insisted Bergoglio.

The cardinal also condemned the lawmakers’ who agreed to debate the initiative.

Currently a draft bill is being debated by the Committee for the Prevention of Drug Addiction and the Criminal Law Committee. Last week Supreme Court Justice Eugenio Raúl Zaffaroni backed the initiative when he was invited to give a talk.

Let’s not look to the Vatican for startling new drug law reform initiatives.

Would you like to see the Pope on the end of a rope,do you think he’s a fool?

Keep it Metal!, QOTSA, State Rape, Tax

How fair is that?

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Yesterday I opened a letter from my bank informing me that they had recommenced raping my bank account—at the behest of the IRD. “Fair” enough, I suppose. It’s the IRD’s job to be fair. Why me? I guess I must “owe” them money because I don’t “PAYE” them anything.

Then I watched BBC World News. I was flabbergasted to learn that the Cypriot government is proposing to rape the bank accounts of literally everyone with an onshore bank account. Luckily, it’s a one-time tax, in which Cypriots stand to lose 7%-10% of their life savings in one hit, rather than the easy weekly payments I have to contend with. How fair is that?

Robert Tracinski says

The news broke over the weekend that in exchange for a bailout—or “bail-in,” whatever that means—of banks in Cyprus, bank deposits would be hit with a one-time “wealth tax” of 7% to 10%, depending on the size of the account. One expert sums up the reaction in the markets: “traders and investors are aghast.” So are depositors, who quickly emptied the island’s cash machines.

This is one of the biggest bank heists in history, and it is being carried out, not by the crew of charming rogues in your favorite caper flick, but by finance ministers. So it’s an inside job.

For an informed analysis of this latest episode in the Eurozone crisis, read Liberty Scott’s latest post. Scott notes that

The Cypriot Parliament, which must vote on this law, wont do so until Friday. Cypriot banks will remain closed until then. Will this trigger panic more widely? What would you do?

WWJD? (Trick question, Jesus never had a bank account.) To my mind, the proposal is so unthinkable that it’s unthinkable even to propose it. It’s goddamn communism! Let’s hope this proposal isn’t adopted but, even if it’s not, as Scott notes, “the damage is done to Cypriot banking.” Deposit funds into account with Bank of Cyprus? Yeah right.

Lindsay Mitchell has just the right quote

Any government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you have.

and Queens of the Stone Age have just the right song.

First it giveth
Then it taketh away

Luke, New Testament, Tax

Zacchaeus the Tax Collector

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Zacchaeus in the Scyamore Tree Luke 19:2-5

Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.

When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.

All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”

But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”

Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (NIV)

Green Party

Are the Greens communists? (Part 1)

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The image below is iconic. It’s a satellite image of North Korea and South Korea at night. (You’ve seen it before, unless you’ve been hiding under a rock or lying in a puddle.)

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Here’s another iconic image. (See my previous post.) This time it’s a satellite image of Haiti and the Dominican Republic during the day.

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The Dominican Republic on the right is green, verdant, forested. The Dominican Republic uses fossil fuels. Haiti on the left is brown, desolate, deforested. Haiti uses renewable “green” energy.

Are the Greens communists? Yes or no, Green energy policies lead to the same outcomes as communist ideologies, viz., misery, poverty and death.