Wellington Blows.

Nothing like a trip to Wellington to make one appreciate Christchurch. How did this place ever become the capital? The road network was designed by bored crack addicts with no regard to either the permanent torrential rain or the frequent landslides, the street lights seem to be powered by cheap batteries and give off a weak, useless pink glow that does nothing to penetrate the gloom. Everything seems kind of fungal and mouldy and the whole city smells like it has athlete's foot.

Parking is double the price in Christchurch and what little there is of it has been contracted out to a deranged scalper named "Wilson".

The vaunted Wellington dining experience is the same generic Asian crap, pub grub, and American fast-food that you can get in Bluff or Eketahuna.

Theairport was apparently designed to channel the roaring 40s wind straight across the runway.

South Island independence anybody?

Why the NYT and not the WSJ?

My frequent correspondent B. Shuai asks why we lambaste the poor NYT but not the "right-wing" Wall Street Journal. Actually we don't particularly care for the WSJ's chamber of commerce brand of conservatism either, but that's another story. The answer to Brother Shuai's question is

here.

Te Papa

Te Papa? I'm sorry, but this is NOT a museum, it's an arcade. All the worthwhile exhibitions cost extra--a lot extra-- and there's only enough parking for about a tenth of the suckers, I mean patrons, who are trapped there by the crappy weather.

Mr. Assad, this is your wake-up call.

You have to like this. The last time the Israelis buzzed Boy Assad's house the sonic boom broke the windows. Message: We know where you live.

It must really suck to be a Great Dictator and not be able to take a nap when you want to.

New York Times: Yawn.

The latest act of treason at the New York Times should have been anticipated. The NYT long ago stopped having anything original to say. They're more like the old Pravda or the Peoples Daily in that on any issue you know, without reading the story, exactly what the Times is going to say.

They used to be important, then they were deliberately obtuse and kind of patronizing, now they're just boring.

Stop, or we'll blow ourselves up.

"Hamas Sets Conditions For Soldier's Release"

Doesn't look to me like the bright boys in Gaza City are in any position to have conditions about anything.

Report an Unusual Animal to ABC

Tim Blair has a capital idea. Report any sightings of unusual animals to ABC News. Of course since Tim lives in a place where the all the animals are weird, it's easy for him.

I reported the hedgehog that I saw wearing a Hawaiian shirt yesterday. Global warming or just a hedgehog with a fever?

What If There's Already a Warhead?

I hope (but without much confidence) that someone besides me is thinking about this. What if Bouffant Boy has already put some kind of warhead on the missile that North Korea is about to test? What if BB has decided that a demonstration detonation in the Aleutians or somewhere in the north Pacific would be a dandy way to impress the world with his seriousness? What do we know: 1) the NoKo's have at least one weaponized fission device; 2) the NoKo's have at least one--but probably only one-- long range missile; 3) the NoKo's are led by a man whose world view is not, strictly speaking, firmly grounded in objective reality. Given those three facts, shouldn't we (by which I mean the West), be giving serious consideration to destroying the launch site? We know where it is, we can see it and we have all sorts of large explosive devices that can be delivered with great accuracy. (right, Zark? What was that? You're gurgling again.) We do not, a week from now, want to be explaining why Seattle will be uninhabited for the next 400 years due to fallout from one explosion somewhere in Alaska.

Just Shoot It Down

If Kim "Bouffant Boy" Jong-il goes ahead with his missile test, the United States and Japan should make every effort to shoot the thing down. I don't know whether we have any functioning component of SDI in the area, but if so this would be as good a time as any for a live test. What are North Korean's going to do, complain to the UN? Then again.....

Keep Your Eye on the Red Dot

"North Korea appeared close Sunday to test-firing a long-range missile capable of reaching the United States, prompting the White House to warn of an appropriate response and Japan to threaten a "fierce" protest to the United Nations."

Just listen for the loud bang, Bouffant Boy.

What was that? Rosebud? Raisins?

"He mumbled something, but it was indistinguishable and it was very short," U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said at a news conference."

Rot in hell.

He's Dead Alright.

In the immortal words of Billy Bob Thornton "He needed killin'."

Abu al-Zarqawi, Dead Man.

If this BBC story is correct, it's a great day. Rumours of this thug's demise have been exaggerated in the past however, so I'll hold off on the celebrating until I see some body parts. Maybe one of those jammed machine guns let him down. At any rate he was a murderous, psychotic sub-human and he died like a rat in a hole.

Just When You Think It Can't Get Worse

Nurse Martin has not been struck off.

Granted the conditions imposed means that she's unlikely to practice again, but why didn't the board just say that this person believes that it is permissable to take a human life if she thinks her victim is suffering too much, and so is utterly unfit to be a nurse...and especially unfit to work in critical care and intensive care, which is her specialization?

Just imagine, you're in intensive care after an accident, in terrible pain and just this side of the grave, but man, you do want to fight, you do want to live...and who walks in but Nurse Angel-of-Death.

Just let me know which hospital she winds up at so I can avoid it.

Hospital Waiting Lists a Problem? Call Nurse Martin

TVNZ has this story on would-be murderer Lesley Martin's hearing as to whether or not she should be struck off as a nurse. Why, surely there's no reason why a woman who did her best to murder her own mother as an act of "mercy" shoudn't be allowed to nurse other peoples parents. To quote from the story:

"Martin, who is a nurse, was found guilty of attempting to murder her mother by an overdose of morphine, and spent seven-and-a-half months in Arohata prison.

The Nursing Council referred Martin to the Tribunal after conducting an investigation that concluded her conduct might affect her fitness to practise as a nurse."

Got that? Being a euthanasia campaigner and trying to commit murder MIGHT affect her fitness to be a nurse.

What do these 12 people have in common?

1. Fahim Ahmad, 21, Toronto;
2. Zakaria Amara, 20, Mississauga, Ont.;
3. Asad Ansari, 21, Mississauga;
4. Shareef Abdelhaleen, 30, Mississauga;
5. Qayyum Abdul Jamal, 43, Mississauga;
6. Mohammed Dirie, 22, Kingston, Ont.;
7. Yasim Abdi Mohamed, 24, Kingston;
8. Jahmaal James, 23, Toronto;
9. Amin Mohamed Durrani, 19, Toronto;
10. Steven Vikash Chand alias Abdul Shakur, 25, Toronto;
11. Ahmad Mustafa Ghany, 21, Mississauga;

According to the Mounties, nothing at all. They're just lads from the "broad spectra of society" who "for various reasons appear to have become adherents of a violent ideology inspired by al-Qaeda." "Various reasons?" "Appear to to have become"? Let's see if it works better my way, twelve urban dwelling Muslims purchase three tons of ammonium nitrate, enough to take out a city block. Nah, just a coincidence I'm sure. Probably just wanted to plant some potatoes in the vegie patch. Broad spectra of society? As Michelle Malkin puts it, a regular Benetton ad. Yep, no way twleve bearded Muslim men who attended training camp together could have anything in common, and you sir, are racist and a knave for thinking otherwise.

A Correction

I'm back. It's been a busy and rather unpleasant few weeks here on the mountain. Never mind that though, I have a correction to make, No, no not of any my stuff..but of a certain mindset held by those on the left. Contrary to received wisdom, conservatives for the most part are not inclined to support "the party" or even Our Leader, when they do things that are overly ideologically unsound or, worse, things that are manifestly stupid. For that reason, the Republicans are highly likely to lose at at least one house of Congress in the upcoming election.

Whereas the Angry Left and their fellow travellers will donate to and vote for anyone, knave or fool, who is not the Other, conservatives will let their man or their party go down in flames rather than vote for someone who they believe takes them for granted or for fools.

Thus as W morphs into LBJ, his approval ratings plummet. Those aren't Democrats causing the numbers to go so low they'll soon have ro be measured on the Kelvin scale. Democrats, even nominal ones, were never on the positive side of that question. Those are conservatives voting with their bare or booted feet against a President and a party who have failed them on trade, failed them on the deficit, failed them on taxes, failed to prosecute the war, presided over a massive expansion of entitlements and corporate welfare and then took them for idiots during the immigration debate. Are American conservatives to be left with a choice between bad and worse?

Democrats should make W a saint. He's all but detroyed the house that Reagan built.

Listen and Remember

UA 93. The last words on this tape are "a puff of smoke".

Reverse Invasion

This is bloody brilliant. I love it. The US will agree to allow open immigration from Mexico if Mexico extends the same privilege to American and Canadian citizens. That includes the automatic right to free (and bilingual) education,the right to work, the unrestricted right to buy land (foreign nationals in Mexico are highly restricted in what sort of investments they're allowed), to start and own 100% of a company, automatic Mexican citizenship on a reciprocal basis, etc. We'll see who changes whose country.

Affleckted

Ben Affleck moves from being a mere John Kerry suckass to being utterly deranged. I hope the Secret Service is having a heart to heart with him.