Fellow Engineering Contractor and Triumph Brother Clark and I thought we would check out this ‘Bike nite’.
Got down town about 6pm, and grabbed myself a Black Monteiths, and went for a wander around the bikes.
Road and sport had a Van and Gazeebo set up in the car park and there were bikes displayed in several groups.
Because of Bureaucratic ‘issues’ regarding drinking alcohol in the Car park we had to leave our drinks in the garden bar area of Joe’s while we scoped the bikes… and then trundle back for another swill.
Road and Sport dished out Prizes… HD torches… Talisman Bells…
Road and Sport had this V Rod Drag bike there on display…. did not look street legal, and sounded bloody awesome when they fired it up.
Cant help but wonder what it’s like to ride when you throw open the NOS!
There was a good variety of Hogs on display.
I cant tell you what models these are… yet I will add descriptions later as Peeps in the know are sure to correctly identify them.
Judging by the Fancy LED tail lights, this Harley above was probably the latest model bike on display…. or it could be this Sporty… (below)
I’m not a huge fan of Choppers mostly because they cost a fortune, are impracticable on NZ roads, and many look like they belong to David Bowie, or the Village people…. š yet I really liked this one.
And it’s a real beast… apparently the motor is 117 CI.
There was just this 1 Victory…. very nice.
It’s a Vagas owned by ‘Shayne’.
There were 3 Triumphs. A Speedmaster… owned by fellow ‘New Zealand Biker @ Facebook’ Cloudy McLeod, a Bonnie (owned by Cloudy’s wife!), and a 70s Trident in very smart condition (below)
There was even this Yamaha V Max.
^^^ That’s Matt. He won ‘Best Harley’ with his very tidy Kinda military Green 2008 Street Bob.
^^^ That’s Matt’s Girlfriend riding a very nice Wide-glide.
Go time!
The whole deal was finished as the Sun was setting… probably around 7.30, so Clark and I dropped by Biddy Mulligans Irish Pub as it was the monthly Hamilton Blues Club nite.
I got myself a Guinness and kicked back for another hour listening to Local Blues talents Jammin.
I then left Clark there as It was time for me to get back to the Missus and kid.
I had a good nite.
it was particularly good fortune that the bike show was on the same nite as the Blues Club… and Road and Sport said they were keen to put on more shows… What a good excuse to head into the City for an Ale… or 5.
It disturbs me that according to Lenin, “He who does not work shall not eat” is a necessary principle under socialism (the preliminary phase of the evolution towards communist society, according to Marx).
It disturbs me because under New Zealand socialism the exact opposite is true, “He who does not work shall eat”. Will the real socialism please stand up?
It disturbs me more that this aphorism is taken directly from Paul’s Second Epistle to the Thessalonians.
For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. (KJV)
But there it is in Article 12 of Chapter 1 of the 1936 Soviet Constitution. š
What does the Bible say about communism?
Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.
But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, and with his wife’s knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles’ feet. But Peter said, āAnanias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.ā When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. And great fear came upon all who heard of it. The young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him.
After an interval of about three hours his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. And Peter said to her, āTell me whether you[a] sold the land for so much.ā And she said, āYes, for so much.ā But Peter said to her, āHow is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.ā Immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. When the young men came in they found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things. (ESV)
Now I’m not suggesting that this passage from the Acts of the Apostles endorses communism as we know it. But it certainly describes communism of a sort. There’s no escaping the fact that the first Christians were commies!
I’m also not suggesting that comrades Ananias and Sapphira were struck dead for being insufficiently communistic. They died because they lied.
What I am suggesting is that this passage confirms the theory of property rights according to which property rights are conventional.
Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. (ESV)
Luke says that “no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own” so it might almost seem that the Apostles were maintaining a contradiction. Of course, any of the things that belong to you are yours! But I think that two conventions are being alluded to in this passage. The prevailing convention in society at large, that of private property, and the convention in force amongst the Apostles, that of communal property.
So the question arises, were Ananias and Sapphira thieves or misers? Did the proceeds of the sale immediately fall to the collective, such that in keeping back some of the proceeds of the sale Ananias and Sapphira were guilty of theft of communal property? Or did they proceeds of the sale fall to Ananias in the interim, and in keeping back some of the proceeds he (and his wife, who was party) were guilty instead of being mean and selfish and breaking an accord?
You exemplify everything which is good about Family, and a Libertarian commitment to justice.
Fighting for your beloved sister caught in the Jaws of an Evil system, you risked everything for her sake.
Happy Birthday Mercedes…. from Eternal Vigilance.
We salute you!
Tuesday (7th October) is Mercedes Corby’s birthday. Please join us in wishing her a truly wonderful and stress-free day.
When Schapelle was wrongly arrested in 2004, a nightmare began for Mercedes too. She stayed in Bali to be with her sister, and brought up her young family there. She helped to sustain Schapelle through the most harrowing and horrendous experiences.
She took up the cause with everything she had. Knowing her sister was completely innocent, she did everything in her power to free her from the chains of corruption.
She confronted politicians, she faced down the AFP, and she fought through the courts in Australia, where even her sisterās book royalties had been stolen by the government. She followed every lead, and sought help everywhere possible.
She explored every avenue in Indonesia, applying for clemency for Schapelle, and eventually, getting the parole through. She campaigned endlessly, and she told the truth to anyone who would listen.
In doing so, she became a threat to many interests and many corrupt individuals. So she was abused, maligned, and vilified by the most repugnant media on the planet. She became a target for sewer journalists, and malicious cowardly predators. She was even brutally beaten on the street.
One day, her own story will be told, and like Schapelle’s, it will shake the world.
Today, she remains by her sister’s side. And again, like Schapelle, her human rights continue to be openly breached, as she is illegally gagged. Her own government support this, and the media applaud it. But still she remains strong.
Wisdom calls aloud in the street
She raises her voice in the public squares
At the noisy streets she cries out
In the gateways of the city she makes her speech
How long will you simple ones
love your simple ways?
How long will mockers boast
and fools hate knowledge?
I would have poured out my heart to you
And made my thoughts known to you
Seek me while you can
Or it will be too late
Then you will call to me
But I will not answer
Since you rejected me when I called
Since you ignored all my advice
And would not accept my rebuke
I in turn will laugh at your disaster
How long will you simple ones
love your simple ways?
How long will mockers boast
and fools hate knowledge?
I would have poured out my heart to you
And made my thoughts known to you
Seek me while you can!
They will call to me
But I will not answer
They will look for me
But they will not find me
They will call to me
But I will not answer
They will look for me
But they will not find me
Since they hated knowledge
And did not choose to fear the Lord
They will eat the fruit of their ways
And be filled with the fruit of their schemes
The waywardness of the simple will kill them
The complacency of fools will destroy them
Whoever listens to me will live in safety
And be at ease without fear of harm
How long will you simple ones
love your simple ways?
How long will mockers boast
and fools hate knowledge?
The Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party‘s electorate candidates did well in last Saturday’s general election. (See Part 1.) But the ALCP’s share of the party vote was down.
The 2014 GENERAL ELECTION – PRELIMINARY RESULT gives us 0.41% of the party vote. That’s roughly 20% down on 2011’s final result of 0.52%, and pretty much back to where we were in 2008. (But we’re projected to be 0.45% after special votes are counted.)
With cannabis law reform happening in many jurisdictions around the world (e.g., Jamaica, Uruguary, Colorado, Washington) and the “synthetic cannabis” industry derailing itself this year here in New Zealand, cannabis law reform was supposed to have been much more of an election issue. But it wasn’t. So what happened?
Before we get to that, let’s take a look at our party vote performance in previous MMP elections. The ALCP first contested the general election in 1996, which was New Zealands first under the Mixed-Member Proportional system. (See NEW ZEALAND ELECTION RESULTS.)
Year
1996
1999
2002
2005
2008
2011
2014
Percent
1.66
1.10
0.64
0.25
0.41
0.52
0.41
The 1996 general election saw the ALCP’s best party vote result. Subsequently, its vote share steadily declined to an all-time low of 0.25% three elections later in 2005. It’s risen since then, to 0.52% of the party vote in 2011. Last Saturday’s result is a slight dip, but as much as 20% down on 2011’s result nonetheless. How to explain all this?
I think a big part of the explanation is obvious. After 1996 and again after 1999, cannabis law reform voters came to the realisation that a vote for the ALCP was a “wasted” vote. Wasted in the sense that it was extremely unlikely that the ALCP would ever reach the 5% threshold and have MPs enter Parliament. Nonetheless, a vote for the ALCP is worthwhile as a protest vote, worthwhile because protesting is worthwhile and it’s absolutely clear what AlCP voters are protesting about: cannabis prohibition.
But cannabis law reformers want more than just to protest, they also want to effect change. And I think another part of the explanation of the decline in the ALCP’s party vote share in 2002 and 2005 is that the cannabis vote was cannibalised by the Green Party. In 1996 Nandor Tanczos and Metiria Turei were candidates on the ALCP’s list. In 1999 Nandor Tanczos was on the Green Party’s list and entered Parliament. By 2002 it was obvious to cannabis law reform voters that in the dreadlocked skateboarding Rastafarian MP the CLR cause had a champion in Parliament, and in 2002 Nandor Tanczos was joined by Metiria Turei (after her 1999 stint with the McGillicuddy Serious Party). (Nandor Tanczos has since left the toxic hellhole that is New Zealand’s Parliament. Metiria Turei remains and is now the Green Party’s co-leader with Russel Norman.)
I confess that I party voted Green once (I’m pretty sure it was in 2002) and for exactly the reason just outlined. I’m sorry. š
Giving my CLR vote to the Greens turned out to be a mistake. (Even though in my book Nandor Tanczos was, and still is, cool.) It was a mistake for two reasons. Because, beyond legalising a couple of strains of industrial hemp, the Greens have done nothing for cannabis law reform despite having had Parliamentary representation for 18 years now. And my vote for the watermelons (green on the outside, red on the inside) no doubt helped further their far-left agenda. Fortunately, in 2003 I saw the light of liberty, identified as a libertarian, and joined the Libertarianz Party. š
Fast forward to 2014 and the cannabis vote was again cannibalised. This time by the Internet Party who basically copied the ALCP’s cannabis policy (stopping only just short of full, Colorado-style legalisation) and announced it barely two weeks out from the election. With much song and dance, since Internet Party leader Laila Harre’s partner in crime, the Mana Movement’s leader Hone Harawira, balked and gave the Internet Party’s policy pronouncement a great deal of extra publicity. (See, e.g., Internet Mana leaders fall out over weed and Mana leader angry at cannabis plan.)
It’s hard to tell how many party votes went to the Internet Mana Party that would otherwise have gone to the ALCP, given that the IMPs gained only 1.26% of the party vote (although projected to rise to 1.37% after special votes are counted). I’d like to think it was at least as many party votes as we lost compared to our 2011 election result.
This time I wasn’t anywhere near stupid or unprincipled enough to give my party vote to the IMPs. But those who were and did also made an electoral mistake. We witnessed InternetMana self-destructing over cannabis policy. Hone Harawira lost his (inaptly named) Te Tai Tokerau seat to Labour’s Kelvin Davis, and so all those CLR voters who voted IMPs flushed their party votes straight down the toilet. They should have protested instead! Then at least we’d know that they voted for cannabis law reform.
Regardless, perhaps John Key will hear the CLR message and legalise cannabis in the Fifth National Government’s third Parliamentary term.
From Facebook…
“Please Help Vinny Eastwood rebuild his YouTube Subscriber base!
His Channel With 16,000+ Subs (NZ’s Most Subscribed News Channel) Was Deleted Without Warning 2 Weeks Before The New Zealand Election!
This link will take you to the new channel http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-kt7gUEoTqWj1qMrT8td6w?sub_confirmation=1
Please Subscribe and SHARE THIS POST EVERYWHERE!
Help Vinny get back on his feet!”
*****
Now Vinny is a Door in an abandoned shack being blown back and forth by a Hurricane!… and that’s a frightening thing!…. yet to my mind what is more frightening is that the powers that be and their little demonic minions busy themselves manipulating companies like Youtube, and facebook into shutting down Vocal dissenters and Critics like Vinny.
Thus it is in the name of Free Speech that I am doing my bit to help Vinny recover from the grievous injustice he suffered loosing his Youtube Channel.
Tim Wikiriwhi.
Christian Libertarian.
Good evening. Today is Wednesday, September the 24th, and this is my last broadcast. Yesterday I announced on this program that I was going to commit public suicide, admittedly an act of madness. Well, I’ll tell you what happened: I just ran out of bullshit. Am I still on the air? I really don’t know any other way to say it other than I just ran out of bullshit. Bullshit is all the reasons we give for living. And if we can’t think up any reasons of our own, we always have the God bullshit. We don’t know why we’re going through all this pointless pain, humiliation, decays, so there better be someone somewhere who does know. That’s the God bullshit. And then, there’s the noble man bullshit; that man is a noble creature that can order his own world; who needs God? Well, if there’s anybody out there that can look around this demented slaughterhouse of a world we live in and tell me that man is a noble creature, believe me: That man is full of bullshit. I don’t have anything going for me. I haven’t got any kids. And I was married for thirty-three years of shrill, shrieking fraud. So I don’t have any bullshit left. I just ran out of it, you see.
Red tide rising? No. This time the dykes of democracy saved us from the impending communist doom.
Thank God that Hone Harawira, Annette Sykes, John Minto, Laila Harre, Kim Dotcom and Martyn Bradbury have neither presence in nor influence on New Zealand’s new Parliament.
The Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party took a big hit in Saturday’s general election. I don’t mind saying that I’m somewhat disappointed. (It’s my party – I’m the Vice President – and I’ll cry if I want to.)
The 2014 GENERAL ELECTION – PRELIMINARY RESULT gives us 0.41% of the party vote. That’s roughly 20% down on 2011’s final result of 0.52%, and pretty much back to where we were in 2008.
This time around was supposed to have been our election. With many jurisdictions around the world decriminalising (e.g., Jamaica) and some countries (Uruguay) and US states (Colorado, Washington) outright legalising, globally the tide has turned on cannabis prohibition. Consciousnesses were supposed to have been raised and cannabis law reform was supposed to have been much more of an election issue. But it wasn’t.
I was optimistic that we’d double our vote and achieve 1%. I never doubted that we’d stay safely above 0.5%. But we didn’t. So what went wrong?
Before we get to that, let’s take some big bong hits. All our candidates did well in their electorates, and their individual successes are worth celebrating.
Preliminary vote counts are highlighted in the table below, with some comparable figures from the NEW ZEALAND ELECTION RESULTS from the previous two general elections in 2011 and 2008. (Figures in brackets may not be the same candidate, the same electorate or the same party. Two out of the three.)
Candidate
2014
2011
2008
Electorate
KINGI, Emma-Jane Mihaere
838
703
–
Te Tai Tonga
DOMBROSKI, Jamie
608
439
–
New Plymouth
GRAY, Abe
466
(398)
(483)
Dunedin North
CRAWFORD, Julian
395
(398)
(483)
Dunedin South
WILKINSON, Robert
373
(254)
(487)
Christchurch Central
GOODE, Richard
332
332
(64)
Mana
MANNING, Romana Marnz
307
352
–
Tukituki
McDERMOTT, Adrian
267
(319)
–
Te Atatu
GREGORY, Alistair
258
(404)
(407)
Wellington Central
LYE, Jeff
221
(331)
–
Kelston
–
(559)
(788)
Te Tai Tokerau
WILKINSON, Steven
(203)
450
623
West Coast-Tasman
MACDONALD, Fred
(107)
253
–
Otaki
Clear star of the show is Emma-Jane Kingi harvesting 838 votes in the southernmost Maori electorate of Te Tai Tonga. EJ, you rock! Also a very strong showing from Jamie Dombroski harvesting 608 votes in the New Plymouth electorate. Solid numbers too from the ALCP’s Leader Julian Crawford and Deputy Leader Abe Gray in the Dunedin South and Dunedin North electorates respectively. (The numbers in brackets are Julian’s results from 2011 and 2008 when he ran in the Dunedin North electorate.) And well done to budding newcomer Robert Wilkinson representing the party in the Christchurch Central electorate.
I’m happy enough with my own preliminary result of 332 votes in the Mana electorate. I expect a few more votes when the special votes are counted and the Electoral Commission announces the final results early next month. But my tally right now is exactly the same as last time. It’s significant that I got over 5 times as many votes standing under the ALCP banner this time and in 2011 as I did in 2008 when I was a Libertarianz Party candidate. Whose mast you nail your own colours to matters a great deal. I’ve included a couple of candidates in the table above who stood as ALCP candidates in previous elections, but who went their own ways this time. Both Steven Wilkinson and Fred Macdonald stood as Independents, and both more than halved their yields.
Satisfying results from our other candidates too, albeit slightly down on previous figures at this stage. I’d anticipated a few more votes for rising star Alistair Gregory who ran a stellar campaign in Wellington Central. In fact, the not quite comparable numbers in brackets are votes won in previous elections by Michael Appleby, the ALCP’s locally well-known leader and brand-recognised figurehead since the party’s inception in 1996 until he stood aside late last year. Suffice it to say, Ali had big shoes to fill.
But I think there’s another reason that Ali’s (and Jeff’s and Adrian’s) vote counts were down a little on previously (and also why Julian’s and Abe’s vote counts were steady despite Dunsterdam being this election’s ALCP campaign headquarters). They all had competition in their electorates from Internet Party candidates. Which brings me to what I think accounts for the significant drop in the ALCP’s party vote.
The Internet-Mana Party cannibalised the cannabis law reform vote. Read more in Part 2.
