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Saturday, December 31, 2011
Its only my opinion.
Politician OTY John Key
Political Clutz Don Brash, Just check in to the rest home.
Politician to watch Amy Adams
Most improved politician Russel Norman
Most effective politician Lockwood Smith
Minister OTY Tony Ryall
Minister to be put down Nick Smith
Political lazarus You know who, Mr Trotman
Political disaster (in no particular order)Darien Fenton, Carmel Sepeloni,Trevor Mallard
Only effective Labour MP politically, Damien O'Connor
Sports woman OTY Valerie Adams
Sports man OTY Dougie Bracewell
Sportsman to watch (exiting) Jako Gill
Coach OTY John Wright
Journalist OTY (all media) Mike Hosking
Dead tree op ed Fran O'sullivan
Worst Political journo (content) Barrie Soper
Worst Political journo (Ethics) Patrick Gower
Duncan Garner (close second)
Best Blog (content/discovery) Cameron Slater
Best blog (Quality/ focus) Lindsay Mitchell
Best Blog (quantity/feedback) David Farrer
Best Blog (rural/enjoyable/variety) Ele Luddemann
Worst blog (all categories included) The Standard and all of their "team"
Remember it is only MY opinion.
Happy and prosperous New Year to all.
Perhaps he is signalling that were he to ever again get his grubby paws on the levers of power one is going to need an exit visa from the 'Travel Police' in order to leave NZL.
This from a politician who on his visit to North Korea was happy to raise his glass in toast to Kim Jong-il as the 'Great Leader' ignoring the fact that he oversaw a repressive regime where dissent meant a trip to the Gulag or worse and most of the country lived on starvation rations while he indulged himself on expensive cognac and under-aged girls.
And this from a cheap politician who is not so cheap when it comes to paying back the $156k he rorted from the taxpayer. Only when you pay the money back Mr Peters will I afford you a modicum of respect and little at that.
The Candidate of Character
There have been a number of reviews - one from Lindsay Mitchell and this excellent and detailed review from one Rick Richman of Pajamas Media. It would seem Meryl Streep may be in line for an Oscar.
Mr Richman quotes from and shows videos of a number of Lady Thatcher's speeches. Of particular interest and relevance for New Zealand today was a speech given in 1977 when Britain was at it's economic nadir - almost broken apart by recalcitrant and greedy trade unions.
I think John Key must have read and studied this almost Churchillian speech. The speech was full of optimism and contains an illumination of her political success on the one hand and the irrelevance of the knuckle draggers from the uber-right who, ironically, tirelessly quote Thatcher as their Goddess of slash and burn. Clearly none of them ever read this most revealing speech. Had they done so, they might have learned that Lady Thatcher, like John Key, understood the value of 'taking the people with her.' Not for her the clumsy thuggery of Helen Clark with her axing of appeals to the Privy Council and her notorious Electoral Finance Bill. Not for her the politically suicidal crash and dash of Ruth Richardson.
Here's the extract, my italics:-
In spite of our present difficulties, Britain's future need not be at all gloomy. For the very ills which beset us seem to be creating their own antidotes. People of all backgrounds are casting off socialist illusions in the light of socialist reality, and are coming round to our viewpoint. This is the end of the trend to the Left, and the starting point of a new renaissance.
Lady Thatcher went on to break the trade unions. She got away with it because most of the populace had by then had a gutsful of these institutionalized gangsters, many of whom emigrated to NZ and Australia where they continue to inflict their cankerous and destructive practices upon the productive sectors of the economy - witness Qantas and Ports of Auckland. When she slashed and burned, she made sure she had more than half the people on side before she struck the match. (Apart from the pole tax, that is.) As a result, she enjoyed eleven years at the helm, being re-elected for three consecutive terms.
Of passing interest are the observations of both Lindsay Mitchell and Rick Richman to the effect there seemed to be a rather unsubtle and almost obsessive attempt on the part of the film makers to denigrate Lady Thatcher by depicting her in her dotage. Much the same could have been done to Churchill but in those days even Hollywood leftists had some standards of decency.
I'm looking forward eagerly to seeing The Iron Lady.
If only the roads would stop killing people
Two people are dead and a family of five are in hospital after a high-speed crash at a Kapiti black spot labelled a "killing ground" by a doctor who went to the scene.
Kapiti emergency services director Dr Chris Lane, who attended yesterday's crash and September's crash when Ms Thompson died, said something had to be done about the accident spot. "There can be no more dithering, a barrier has to go in.
"It's a proven killing ground and no more lives should be sacrificed. A barrier has to be erected straight away."
But how did this cruel stretch of road kill these people?
Wellington district road policing manager Inspector Peter Baird said the crash happened about 400 metres south of a passing lane. "A southbound motor vehicle has decided to overtake at the last minute on the passing lane." The driver had "squeezed" in and as a result lost control and hit the oncoming northbound vehicle, Mr Baird said.
Those damn roads!
Friday, December 30, 2011
Wealth redistribution
Thursday, December 29, 2011
The right to protest: Boring legal diatribe to follow
It is completely specious and utterly wrong to talk of his "rights" like this, in the context of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act. Not that he gives a monkey, but in case some want to know how the NZBORA operates, here's a simple, quick lesson.
In assessing whether something is contrary to the Bill of Rights there is a two stage process. The first is to determine whether the act by the police (of removing the protestors from Aotea Square) is contrary to their freedom of expression and their right to peaceful assembly; and then the second is to consider whether this breach of their freedom and "rights" is nonetheless sanctioned by section 5 of the Bill of Rights Act.
Let's presume it is contrary. Because by the act of removal, they cannot "protest" any longer.
Section 5 of the NZBORA then comes into play. It says:
Subject to section 4, the rights and freedoms contained in this Bill of Rights may be subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.So Glen's "rights" and "freedoms" are limited, not exhaustive, but only if the act of removal can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.
Only if this question is answered "no", (i.e. cannot be demonstrably justified) is the act of removing them invalidated, and their rights and freedoms breached.
Section 5 is subject to section 4. Section 4 is a savings provision. It basically says no law is revoked, repealed or invalidated simply because it's inconsistent with the Bill of Rights. So all laws in place for the police to enable removal of the protestors survive. That's pretty much the Joker to Glen's right bower.
But one still needs to go on and ask this question: Is it demonstrably justifiable in a free and democratic society for the police to enforce a court order removing vagabonds from a public space that they have ruined and have used to the exclusion of other citizens for about 90 days, even if said vagabonds are exercising their "rights and freedoms"?
If you think the answer to that is "yes", then the vagabonds go. If you think "no", then they stay. But regardless, it is not as simple as just saying "our rights have been breached, how can this happen"!
The law allows it to happen. Now just go and be done with. Please.
An Arrest Holiday.
It is no wonder the law is regarded by so many as an ass when a judge in Auckland has declined a request from Auckland City Council for warrants to have the few remaining Aotea Square occupiers arrested - apparently on the grounds that the miscreants - already in breach of a court order - will not get access to the courts until January the 16th.
Really? Three weeks in the calaboose is just what these verminous squatters need.
Adolf wonders if all other criminals will enjoy a Christmas 'arrest holiday.'
Thank God I no longer reside in Sooky La La Land.
A Costly Refusal
Their top order collapsed in their second innings and currently they are 126 for 7 with another 150 odd needed for a win.
Adolf wondered why there was no use of the (DRS) referral system for doubtful umpiring decisions. I had not known until now but it turns out both sides must agree to the use of this technology and India has steadfastly refused to agree. Had they not refused, they would have had Ponting and Hussey out early in their second innings (Hussey twice) and Australia may well have struggled to make 200.
And You Think You've Got Problems?
Only not quite like Nelson.
It seems the crocs are a bit of a problem. Not the old crocs the Bros drive around the place unlicensed. These are REAL crocks. Big bastards.
"The last floods we had this year, I think they caught three or four crocs just in and around the community here where the kids go and have a swim.
"So that's the biggest thing. They take all the dogs and sooner or later they'll take a child."
Thankfully New Zealand has no crocodile child killers. Just sixteen year old shitheads, trying to get a Mongrel Mob patch.
Hi Vis jerkin encore
One area that...has changed over the race's 30 year history is the paperwork, particularly in the area of health and safety...Judkins insist that this has always been his focus and points out that his was the first event to insist on competitors holding a kayaking certificate and wearing helmets and lifejackets.
What he objects to, and he's certainly not alone here, is the "stifling" level of bureaucracy now surrounding the multisport and adventure racing industry. "I'm safety conscious anyway, I always have been, I just don't like being told what to do...[T]he risk is the same it was thirty years ago. The risk hasn't increased but where we started out with 22 officials, now it takes 400 officials to run the same race."
The bottom line is that "all the red tape makes events more expensive to run" which is bad news..."[P]rice has become a huge factor".
The same applies for smaller events. They are becoming ridiculously expensive. I readily accept the price mechanism has an effect on people's choices, so making tobacco more expensive (and sugar for that matter) will have an impact. And of course making events more expensive through needless regulation will price people out of the market - less exercise = fatter population.
I am not holding my breath waiting for a reduction in bureaucracy, when the lazy answer is simply to tax people.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Dress in a Hi Vis jerkin and become a Jerk.
I guess we might call it a "play hut/house".
Around 2/3 Sq M, built from building surplus without consent and a possible "bushfire" risk.
Failure to remove the offending structure could incur a fine of over a million dollars and a daily fine over $100k for each day the transgression continues.
Of course had it had "wheels" then it would be moveable and not outside the law.
When we were little buggers, we dug caves and survived (albeit fortunately), made platforms in trees, had clod fights, swam in uncharted waters (at least we could bloody swim), had fights, feigned and real, didn't come home for tea in time and were sent to bed hungry (bloody consequences Eh) and apart from a concerned adult, the dreaded "bobby" or shit oh dear some interfereing busybody telling Mum and Dad, what the hell.
Most of us survived unhurt, at least seriously.
Now we have a swimming pool within meters of an irrigation race required to be fenced, Play ground equipment in a bed of approved ground cover, all cyclists wearing head protection, toys having to comply with any number of requirements as regards safety, and a seemingly endless series of pronouncments from the coroner addressing the dangers to society of everyday encounters that could maim or kill but are avoided by nearly all caring parents.
During the recent troubles in the City of the Damned there have been many instances of "Capn Mannerings" donning a hi Vis jacket and immediately morphing into a gestapo man. Oh for a return to personal responsibility and a cogent assessment of risk by responsible citizens but sadly it aint gunna happn as we are all too thick and ungrateful for the wonderful people who deem it their duty to protect us from ourselves.
Hi Vis Jerkins, the scourge of the early years of the 21st century, wern't bureaucrats in leather elbowed tweed jackets bad enough.
I have a dream that one day I'll gain this freedom I already have
But for those who lived through the fourth Labour govt, there is an awful sense of familiarity in the way the author intersperses shrewd insight and examples of decisive leadership with an over-enthusiasm for currently-popular business theories. I do think we got off very lightly when Lange pulled the plug on these guys in his second term.
The stuff on education is interesting, as the book gives an insight into where ACT's (ie, National's) current education policy is coming from. Prebble approvingly quotes an article by Rodney Hide about visiting his old school, in which three things stood out for me:
1. Rodney is outraged that teachers consider themselves better qualified than him to educate children, writing:
"So here's a guy in walker (sic) shorts who's never left a classroom telling me that I'm not astute enough to look after my own son's education, or to know what he wants or what he needs."
In fact the guy wasn't telling him that at all - he would, after all, be welcome to home school his son and I doubt any of those present would have cast doubt on his ability to do so. What they were actually telling him was that if he wanted to send his son to their school and benefit from their expertise, he would necessarily have to accept that they had expertise to apply, and let them apply it. This is not difficult to grasp, nor unreasonable, and one can only feel a great sympathy for Rodney's doctor, car mechanic, lawyer etc if he subjects their expertise to the same level of contempt.
2. He recommends to the school that it should teach
"The virtues of western civilisation, the Ten Commandments, how to do sums, how to read and how to write."
This is just bizarre. The last three are already taught at every school so can be ignored; the first is so vague as to be useless without some more precise definition of exactly what these virtues are and a test of whether the rest of the nation's parents would agree with the definition; and the second - what the fuck? Of the Ten Commandments, the top three, ie the highest priorities and most important commands, are that you must put no god above Yahweh; that you must create no images or likenesses, nor worship them; and that you must not take Yahweh's name in vain.
In other words, a future leader of the ACT Party recommends that one of the main tasks of public schools in a secular country is to tell the children which god they must worship and some ground rules they must apply to that worship. This is at such a level of batshit crazy that nothing ACT/National offer as education policy should suprise us.
3. This whole weird ACT belief that parents have no choice where to send their kids to school may have started here. Hide writes:
"It was at this moment that my desire to have the power to choose my own son's school rose from something that would be decent and right to a desperate need."This one is even more bizarre than the desire to see schools teaching the Ten Commandments - Hide already has the same ability to choose his son's school that he does to choose an electrician or a plumber, so his desperation for a freedom that he already has just makes him look nuts.
I presume that what lies behind it is the erroneous right-wing view that school zoning is a means of preventing parents from choosing schools. It's actually the reverse - zoning is a means of preventing schools from choosing parents. In fact, the right-wing view is so obviously, plainly and unmistakably wrong it always makes me look for ulterior motives. Presumably there isn't one, but if National makes Rodney's dream come true, by abolishing zoning and issuing parents with vouchers to spend at the school of their choice, what would actually happen is the schools would do the choosing and those parents with kids who are not very bright, have expensive special needs or are just plain likely to cause trouble would be scratching to find a school in bad enough shape to be willing to take their kids. I guess that does tie in with ACT's vision for NZ - social Darwinism - so no ulterior motive is necessary.
The price of milk
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Now it all makes sense
This is blasphemous to those who believe the State should control education; should control curricula; should control where poor and underprivileged kids must go to school. Helen Clark was one of those.
SIR - It is all very well publishing yet more league tables but what is this to parents since they are not allowed any real choice of school?
Children celebrating having a choice of excellent education
I was a headmaster of a maintained comprehensive school and also of an independent grammar school. The independent schools of Britain are among the best in the world; the state schools are varied but include some of the worst.
This is not a matter of money. The Prime Minister should give the state schools the freedoms enjoyed by independent schools: to impose discipline; decide their curricula; and control their own admissions and give parents a free choice of schools without the interference of [local] authorities.
This will transform state education.
The two Johns (Key and Banks) should listen to such excellent advice and not just trial charter schools, but implement them across the country, and their manifestation, School Choice and vouchers. Indeed, our Prime Minister should give our state schools the freedoms enjoyed by independent schools: to impose discipline; decide their curricula; and control their own admissions and give parents a free choice of schools without the interference of [local] authorities.
Just as the obviously intelligent headmaster from Bolton says.
Labour's new head of policy
We now have two newer addictions - sugar and fat. These are the major cause of Diabetes 2, which is responsible for the biggest percentage increase in our health budget.Why don't we just tax people more for not exercising? We could microchip each child at birth and monitor their kilojoule usage, and how many calories they've burned.
Introducing a tax on them will not only reduce these addictions, but provide funds to handle the increasing cost of them.
The simplest tax to administer is an excise tax on sugar and its related products.
And the comparison in the article between tobacco and sugar is specious, and ill-founded. Tobacco is not used in products we need to survive: Food. It is a luxury - a want - rather than a need. We don't tax water - unless Falkenstein wants us to.
Taxing people for use of products people need to survive is mental. Due to that mentalness, I expect Labour to pick it up immediately.
Monday, December 26, 2011
Thoughts of a cricket tragic
Clark won the toss and Australia is being rescued from 45 for two wickets by an ex Captain who many said was past it and a 28 year old Left handed opener on debut.
Ponting and Ed (Fred) Cowan have both made half centuries and are still batting.
Want to know why we so often fail against them, who was the last guy Cricket NZ picked as an opener who valued his wicket as 'Fred" does, 51 no from some 130 deliveries today and in front of over 50 000 fans.
NZ would not total that number of paying fans in a years cricket at any venue, and I guess an answer to part one would be current coach John Wright
The BCI has declined to employ the video technology that was viewed as a bit controversial when NZ took a rare win from the neighbours in Hobart. It will be interesting if it bites them on the bum.
Oops after a Ct behind that was given not out and looked very close it was followed by catching practice for 2nd slip and Ricky heads back for a solid 62.
Fred has been an interesting cricketer, toured Sri Lanka as an under 19 Australian Rep but although had a long career and now representing Tasmania is on debut at 28 yo.
Once handed a Baggy Blue by NSW he was awarded for a match in which he never made the 'paddock', handed it back with the words he would keep it when he had actually earned it.
Apparently grows his own vegetables to boot. Not quite a "Warnie" but does have a minor TV celeb as a partner.
Almost a legend already so I hope he gets his ton.
Saturday, December 24, 2011
The very best to you all
Cheers Murray
Continued Affirmation From The Voters
The thrust of his argument is that 'one swallow doesn't make a summer,' or in other words, you can't make major enduring changes after winning just one election.
But constitutional conservatives need to keep in mind that the Constitution places limits on them as well as others. The conservative House Republicans who rejected (or forced Speaker John Boehner to reject) the Senate's patchwork compromise on the payroll tax extension bill had good policy reasons to do so, but that turned out to be terrible politics. These conservatives have been frustrated that despite their historic victory in the November 2010 elections, they have not been able to achieve many of their policy goals.They have this in common with those commentators and members of the public bemoaning political gridlock: they ignore the fact that conservative policy shortfalls and political gridlock are a result of the Constitution. The Constitution does not allow you to control government by winning just one election......
......In those circumstances it is foolish to engage in maneuvers, like the rejection of the Senate payroll tax cut compromise, which while justifiable in policy terms make no sense politically. Avoiding such fiascos is not a betrayal of constitutional principle. It is acting in the spirit of the Constitution, which requires continued affirmation from the voters before major policy changes can be made.
The very same scenario applies in New Zealand and John Key understands this. Rather than the US constitution with its staggered election for two houses and a president, New Zealand has an essentially left leaning population which has been conditioned by fifty years of rampant welfarism. Any right of centre government which won an election (2008) and embarked upon a slash and burn programme would be in opposition today, watching ALL its reforms being reversed.
Clearly, many of the long winded knuckle draggers from the uber- right do not understand this and never will.
Merry Christmas to you all.
Around the traps
It appears split votes in Waitakere cost Carmel Sepuloni her seat. Who would have thought.
Danyl over at Dim Post (along with Lew one of the more astute lefties on the blogs) has a completely accurate post on why no one likes Labour any more.
And the Whale has an incredible post about comments allegedly made on his blog by a Maori MP ministerial staffer.
French Tits and Bali Tats
Interesting juxtaposition of news items to day.
First we learn of all those Pommy sheilas slipping over to La Belle France for a surreptitious up size, only to find they've suddenly lost their endearing young charms. Quelle domage!
More than 1,000 ruptures pushed Health Minister Xavier Bertrand to recommend the estimated 30,000 women around France with the implants to get them removed at the state's expense.
And then there is the sad story of the young chap from Perth who went off to Bali and acquired HIV while having a tattoo applied to his brainless carcase. One assumes the poor bastard didn't even get a Balinese bonk as compensation for his dread affliction.
The WA Aids Council says travellers need to be aware of local conditions when they are having sex or getting piercings or tattoos overseas.
Adolf wonders what particular 'local conditions' one should beware when entering a Balinese brothel. Clouds of blowflies, perhaps?
Merry Christmas
But was it the Christmas spirit?
The Mortgagee auction failed to reach the reserve price of $75k with only one bid of $40k.
Ms Brandon is rightly relieved that she can have Xmas in her home of 20 years.
Sadly when the new year rolls around none of her troubles are gone, only postponed.
As an outcome it is nice for her for now but why doesn't someone in that outstanding daily paper of Freds do a bit of digging.
1 Why did she need to borrow the original $20k in 3 installments? Sounds a bit like borrowing for the groceries to me.
2 Why was she not at a bog standard bank rather than the 3rd tier lender?
3 Why did she ignore the numerous mailed demands?
4 Is she thick, sick or hick?
5 Is there any WINZ component here for her or her Daughter, the co borrower?
6 Is there any criminal connection to all this?
7 How was the alleged $50k settlement found that was declined. Having to borrow the initial $22k in 3 installments suddenly over twice that was supposedly available?
Why am I asking? quite simply if this is all as simple as so far portrayed then there are so many lessons for the many who seek 3rd tier borrowing and for the people who spend every day trying to sort out the shambles that emerge from the whole sordid mess created by ignorance, desperation and apparent hopelessnes and delivered all to easily.
Happy Xmas Ms Brandon but rest assured New Year seems doomed to not be prosperous for you on the evidence so far.
Friday, December 23, 2011
Couldn't Resist
hattip DimPost
Joe Bennett, right or wrong?
Joe's home is deemed to be in danger of being demolished by falling rocks that 'could' be dislodged by an earthquake.
Now other homes have suffered that very fate but Joe's has survived the three major seismic events (he is virtually on the Epicenter of a couple of them) and all the associated aftershocks and in spite of the promulgated theory that they have formed part of a one in one thousand year event the drips under pressure have ordered Joe to leave and he doesn't want to.
Joe is an intelligent man and after assessing the danger has made an informed decision to stay.
Now should Joe be a very stupid lover of the out doors, go into the mountains in the face of a deteriorating weather forcast, there is absolutely nothing to prevent him doing just that and when it all turns to sh*t, SAR will go into the mountains at considerable risk to themselves to find and rescue him.
However should he consult widely and in the face of what he knows and learns make an informed decision to stay in his house, then the unelected, self opinionated, shiney arsed, erring on the ridiculous side of avoiding a possible danger have made a ruling.
There has been a bit of over re-action going around lately, sort of shutting stable doors after horse departing.
In Akaroa we have seen the closing of the Gaeity Theatre, The Hospital and lastly the old Post Office that now also houses the Council community contact center and the Local information center. The old PO also serves as the CD HQ and is usually evacuated before the CD is up and running in two of the quakes but no one among the drips under pressure has thought to relocate it yet.
In the case of the Hospital the decision was made on a Monday and they were given until the following Friday to vacate. The cynic in me wonders if it was that bad why was there no danger of a calamity during the 5 days grace to vacate, why not all out now.
Go Joe, dont always agree with you, sometimes wonder why anyone would want to live in Lyttleton but it is your bloody right to stay.
Dont let the bastards get you.
The soft cocks cant get a tent city to move out of Hagley Park so don't worry.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
But in some cases I can easily be persuaded otherwise.
A 5-year-old girl, visiting New Zealand from Europe, is in a serious but stable condition in hospital after what appears to have been a sexually motivated attack.
The girl was sleeping in a caravan with her 3-year-old brother at Club Habitat Holiday Park in Turangi last night.
Do People Pay Moody's For Advice?
Yesterday's headline and commentary:-
World Cup boost hid a struggling economy: Moody's
The group expects a 'solid' 0.6 per cent growth when Statistics New Zealand releases Gross Domestic Product for the three months to September 30 tomorrow, but says that both the World Cup and the Christchurch rebuild have off-set the underlying trends of a "struggling economy."
New Zealand is still seeing consumer caution and a continuing trend of households choosing to save and repay debt rather than spend.
They point also to the manufacturing sector, which has taken a hit from weaker dairy and meat processing as well as wholesale trade.
Today's reality
Far from 'struggling,' the economy delivered a robust 0.8% growth.
"Manufacturing activity rose 2.3 per cent in the latest quarter, led by production of meat, dairy , wood and paper products........."
."household consumption expenditure (up 1.5 percent), driven by a rise in the volume of
expenditure on non-durables........"
Bill English should be having a few stern words to these fellows who now have the temerity to rate our sovereign debt. I hope to God they are not providing any consultancy services to the New Zealand Gummint.
It's A Recession, I Tell You! A Recession
One of them was having a moan a few weeks ago about how tough it was during this recession. Never mind the fact she has been a twenty year beneficiary on account of her chronic hypochondria which renders her unemployable. (facsimile below)
"Oh really?" I replied to Mudguts. "I didn't know we had slipped into recession. That's big news and not good for National, two weeks out from an election. Have we had two consecutive quarters with negative growth in GDP? I thought I might have noticed."
"What are you taking about?" shot back the grossly obese lifelong Labour voter. "Everybody knows there's a recession on."
Well, there you have it. Labour were busy spreading their lies, damaging consumer confidence and sabotaging economic recovery, in the vain hope of scoring a cheap shot at John Key.
So today's news of 0.8% GDP growth comes as very good news. The best part of all is that most of the growth has come from fundamental long term business activity, not the one off burp associated with RWC.
The biggest moves in the September quarter were:
Manufacturing (up 2.3 per cent) - mainly driven by a 6.3 per cent increase in food, beverage, and tobacco manufacturing;
Retail, accommodation, and restaurants (up 2.5 per cent) - the largest quarterly increase in this industry since the March 2007 quarter; and
Finance, insurance, and business services (up 0.6 per cent) - mainly due to business services.
So there you go Mudguts, stick that where the sun ain't never going to shine.
Our Famiy law and government child protection solutions are a Disaster.
Lindsay Mitchell has a good overview of the "Train-smash" that is the outcome of the first 9 years of the life of baby 'm' with a link to the "Smith Report".
There were apparently 4 years of the early life of "baby M" when she was in foster care that the child was in a state approaching normality, then the all too familiar unfolding disasters are revealed when the train actually hits something solid, in this case the imprisonment of baby m's mother for five years without parole.
As is always the case Lindsay says it all, so go and have a squiz.
My contribution follows the problem that legislation such as the Privacy Act, OIA, Race relations Legislation and simple information sharing between most if not all the alleged 25 entities that allowed this train-wreck to happen.
It is just too easy for people, later exposed to have failed by actions or omisions, to shelter behind misuse of statutes when in fact they just failed to do a job they are well paid to do.
As Smith pointed out this morning, four little souls have died in the "Care" of family since he wrote his report.
Just referring to the mother's (term used advisedly) current squeeze as a freekin "care giver" is symptomatic of how out of control the train still actually is.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
In The Tank
Not so Fairfax, which had a summary of the speech up within minutes of delivery.
I'll be very interested to see the next lot of circulation figures, the real ones that is, papers sold - not some botched up bullshit called 'readership.'
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
F Troop
Most American TV comedies are crap. Anything made during the last twenty years certainly qualifies. But go back a few years and there were some beauties, combining slapstick with subtle satire and irony. Shows like Hogan's Heroes and F Troop.
Channel Nine is rerunning episodes of F Troop currently and Adolf watched one such episode this afternoon. He was inexorably drawn to conclude there is a strong resemblance in this show to the new Labour front bench.
Captain Parmenter - the bumbling naive leader.
Seargent O'Rourke - the scheming second in command.
Corporal Agarn - the loyal dumbarse.
Major Duncan - Parmenter's nemesis who technically outranks Parmenter and always arrives with a 'saddleful of trouble.'
Rangler Jane - the bimbo with long eyelashes but nothing between the ears.
Wild Eagle - the big noise indigenous blowhard of the Whakaewe tribe.
Crazy Cat - Wild eagle's offsider who appears to have done everything except watch porn movies.
A Gardner with ambition?
An 18 year old youth is in court, lots of suppression orders.
There was a legend around Nth Canterbury in the early half of last century when long extinct, as a school, Amberley House was a desirable place of learning for a daughter of the gentry.
'Wanted an assistant Gardener to "trim the borders" and other gardening duties'.
Alas he did just that but misunderstood "boarders/borders", oh dear.
I Smell Another Non-Story Here
Here's the headline which might have been accurate if the money was a grant.
Auckland ratepayers to hand NZTA $100 million loanWe are not told what interest rate applies to the loan and one can presume it will not be interest free. Of course this story begs the question of how it comes to pass that Auckland City Council just happens to have a spare hundy mil sitting about ready to be lent on the commercial market.
Rates a bit too high perhaps?
I doubt some of these TVNZ journalists who shill for Labour could make a living selling used cars.
To my fellow bloggers; Milt, Adolf, BB. GD, Lou & Nick, thank you all for your contributions. Always interesting and thought provoking and it matters not a jot to me if some consider the odd post to be controversial ... that to my mind is what blogging is all about ... the contest of ideas.
So, to all, including those who inhabit No Minister (and even those who infest it) a very merry and safe Christmas and (in the immortal words of Dave Allen) 'May your Gods go with you'.
Monday, December 19, 2011
No not North and South Korea.
When I was a lad in short pants I attended a farewell in our village "Memorial Hall" for two young men of our district who were going to war.
They were going to serve in a United Nations army to prevent a takeover of South Korea by the Comunist North.
One of the pics above shows the late unlamented leader of one of the scourges of the world whose death has been announced. The other shows Peasants of that miliartistic dictatorship searching through threashed straw for the few grains that escaped the harvest.
Most of the people of that benighted state live in real poverty and want for basic necessities. Not for the IPads, MP3 players, Flat screen TVs et al that the wailing classes here in New Zealand call poverty but grinding starvation, basic health care, opportunities for making a better life and all the things our welfare state makes available to all.
That Muppets like Locke Minto Sykes Hatfield et al can rabbit on about the socialist utopia that is Nth Korea is a complete nonsense.
Initial reports claimed he died from overwork, pfft, the pic of him reviewing his main support group gives the lie to that claim. I think too much fine brandy might have contributed tho.
I rejoice that another cocksucker is dead and just as all the seemingly hopless causes for freedom self determination and self rule are falling to education and enlightenment the same will eventually happen in that benighted state.
Judith Collins may need hand reconstruction surgery
David Shearer has clearly demonstrated that Clark still runs the show with his delivery today of the shadow cabinet.
In such a target rich environment it is dificult to know where to begin pouring scorn.
Jacinda Ardern.
Never had a job. From UNI to Helen Clarks office with a brief sojorn working for the last Labour govt in Britian.
Lots of free trips as the big cheese at the union of socialist youth and then back to a nice safe list position. Has lost two electorate battles.
The ultimate insider.
Has she ever strugled to feed the family or juggled power and phone bills?
Grant Robertson. The next leader of the Labour party when he defeats Cunliffe in around 18 months. Another suckhole who went from School to Parliament in an uninterrupted feed at the public trough.
Mahuta? Enough said.
I may add to this after dinner, feel free to expand in the comments. But leave Mallard. The ultimate vote repeller needs a post all of his own.
Brainless One Liner
Labour was planning on offering a different way of doing things, Shearer said.
The Government had the same vision as was used in the 1960s - selling protein off-shore.
Oh dear. That will give confidence to the primary industries and exporters.
Perhaps he thinks we should sell it all in New Zealand and keep the profits here? Perhaps he has not yet learned that protein is but a minute portion of milk solids? Perhaps he's just trying to be smart and not succeeding?
Someone needs to take him by the ear and firmly rub his nose in a few home truths about the difference between exporting butter, lamb carcases and sides of beef to Great Britain (1960s) and the vast myriad of value added products manufactured in New Zealand and exported by Fonterra; the remarkable development of luxury specialist cuts of beef, lamb and venison, sold all over the globe (2011.)
If this is the best he can do, he won't last very long at all.
PS With Ma Hooter in charge of Education the teachers' unions can look forward to being crushed by 2014. And with Cosgrove as chief parliamentary attack dog, the Gnats can look forward to nothing more injurious than the odd tickle now and again. He couldn't land a hit on a tied down punchbag.
Shearers "Dream Team"
1 David Shearer
2 Grant Robertson, environment Tertiary education
3 David Parker, Finance
4 Jacinta Adern, Social Policy.
5 David Cunliffe economic development.
6 Clayton Cosgrove, SOES Commerce small business assoc Finance.
7 Shane Jones, regional development, fisheries and assoc maori affairs.
8 Nania Mahuta, Education.
9 Maryanne Street is 1st on second row.
Shearer is faced with two less front bench places due to shrinkage, Health is still a mystery, Goff Foreign Affairs and King are down to 16 and 17, Mallard must be the numbers man as he holds shadow leader of the house at 12.
Moroney, Dyson, Horomia (Maori affairs) and Mackey seen to be dropped. almost out the back door.
Interesting matchups;
Parker vs English.
Adern vs Bennett.
Mahuta vs Parata.
Cosgrove vs Ryall Partial share sales
Cosgrove described by his leader as the attack Bulldog, Pug may be a better fit
Adern is the number one shielagh with only two on the front bench.
Dalziel around 15 ChCh EQ
Evidence aplenty that all is not well in the changing shed, then again options were somewhat fraught.
Quiz Results
It was a picture looking Nth Nth/West across Loch Katrine, a beautiful little lake West Of Lake Sumner on the Nth Branch of The Hurunui.
1 Dame Whina Cooper
2 Mangatainoka Rugby ground west of The Brewery and scene for an annual pre season game for the Hurricanes.
3Manawatu Gorge Rail, on one sid and Road on the other. Road at present closed due to major slip.
4 Loch Katrine (will use it again some day better size.
5 Limestone Formations on Castle hill Stn west of Porters on the Arthurs Pass Hwy. A facinating world of make believe for kids with imagination.
Hp 1 but as usual a good read
Similar for Adolf causing smiles with his Waimate idea.
pdm, Ray and Cadwallader share a two.
PMofNZ and Chris Bird solid 3s
Simon Arnold wih a win under Duckworth Lewis system with a possible against the reduced target and an ecigar.
Apologies again and watch this space as we are on the move again for the next three weeks.
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Over the years I developed a respect for most of the worlds great religions (cults excluded) acknowledging that each has it's share of ratbags but that the vast majority are good people following the tenants of their faith.
And so it is that I am angry, very angry, that what many may consider to be the rouge parish of St Matthews in the City in Auckland should set out quite deliberately to offend New Zealand's half a million plus Roman Catholics by their insensitive billboard featuring Mary and a pregnancy test. You can view the story here
I care not a toss for the weasel-words of the Vicar of St Matthews arguing that his is a 'progressive' congregation (spare me) and all that they want to do is to engage in honest debate . Nor do I care for the refusal of the Anglican Bishop of Auckland to get involved. Wimp out if you want to but someone has to speak up. Your non action make me ashamed to be an Anglican and I may not be one for much longer joining the 77,000 who left the Church in the decade leading up to 2006.
Sad and, just before Christmas, unforgivable.
Ugly stuff
What despicable cretins.
|Community Co Advocacy's photo of Paula Bennett
He certainly must be worth a quid of two so as to be able to indulge himself this way. There has to be a story there. Does anyone know it?
KNOW YOUR COUNTRY Sunday 18th Dec
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Waitakere humour post No.2
I've just remembered something else quite hilarious. All I need to do to explain it is:
- Re-post a comment I made at The Standard in September; and
- Publish the results from Waitakere both before and after the recount.
From the Herald:
"She said the Green Party candidate had also publicly endorsed her, telling people at a community meeting to give their electorate vote to Ms Sepuloni. The Green Party candidate got 1676 votes last election – more than Ms Bennett's winning margin."
Bennett won with a margin of 632 in 2008. I am certain Bradford's name on the ballot paper will guarantee some of those candidate votes will go from the Greens to Bradford, despite what a candidate says at a meeting – let's say 500. Bradford will also, by default, pick up other disgruntled votes – let's say 500.Here are the results after the special votes came in, and leading to the victory for Sepuloni.
So Bradford gets 1,000 candidate votes, the Green candidate gets 800 (a total of 1,800 – more than the Green candidate got last time) and Sepuloni is left wondering "what the F*** happened to *her* votes". This wouldn't matter so much in a seat that isn't so marginal, but when you're arguing over 632 votes, it will.
The other factors are this: MMP historical voting patterns show that the Right is smarter at splitting its vote. How is three left wing candidates good for enabling one left wing candidate to win? Also, Bradford is one of the best campaigners in the country. Her name, voice and campaign will ensure she gets vital candidate votes, despite her best intentions.
Most votes are won in the middle, not on the fringes. Remember Chris Trotter's "Waitakere Man"? Sepuloni needs to take votes from those voters to win. I am quite confident she won't do it.
Disclaimer: I don't live anywhere near Waitakere.
PS: Feel free to call me a troll, Lynn P. Can't see it myself.
PPS: If I am proven wrong I will gladly turn up here and admit it.
BENNETT, Paula NAT 13,457
BRADFORD, Sue MANA 320
LYE, Jeff ALCP 330
MOUNTAIN, Danny CNSP 609
OSBORNE, Peter LIB 55
SEPULONI, Carmel LAB 13,468
TOLLESTRUP, Steve GP 1,846
And here are the results from the official website, after the recount.
BENNETT, Paula NAT 13,465
BRADFORD, Sue MANA 322
LYE, Jeff ALCP 331
MOUNTAIN, Danny CNSP 611
OSBORNE, Peter LIB 55
SEPULONI, Carmel LAB 13,456
TOLLESTRUP, Steve GP 1,855
Is that 11 more votes for Sue Bradford and the Green Party candidate after the recount? And what was Sepuloni's majority after the specials? I believe it was 11. Her votes actually reduce by 12.
Bloody funny the Labour commentariat at The Standard couldn't see this coming.
Analysing Shearer
Boss Paul Vitti: Doc, if you gotta talk, try to be vague. Can you do that?(Analyse This (1999) starring Robert De Niro, Billy Crystal).
Doc Sobel: I'm a psychiatrist. Believe me, I can be vague.
I can't really figure David Shearer out yet. I have a fair idea he is to the right economically. He was indecisive and muddling on his TV appearances on these issues during the leadership campaign. I suspect that's because his inclination is to wear his right wing economics on his sleeve, yet he ummed and arred his way through them. An example is private prisons:
I further suspect Shearer knows that to win in 2014 he needs to grab votes from the centre and so must become more centrist on economics. Shedding some votes to the Greens on the Left won't bother him, if he can take more votes off Key in the middle. That's one reason why I think the Labour caucus chose him - a left-leaning Cunliffe on economics just won't attract money or votes.
Derek Cheng in today's Herald reveals more slightly confusing stuff - socially liberal where it will be popular, but socially conservative where it won't.
Gay adoption. Tick. Gay marriage. Tick. Decriminalising Cannabis. Cross. Lower drinking age. Cross. Anti Springbok tour protestor. Check. Republican. Check. Independent foreign policy (i.e. anti America). Check.
I wish Derek had asked him about flat taxes, less government, school choice , cap on government spending, privatising new roads, privatising new hospitals, privatising state assets, privatising ACC etc.
Here's hoping that will be next week.
Friday, December 16, 2011
Can't even tick the box properly
They were probably pissed and thought two ticks Labour meant giving her two votes.
Comment of the Week
Shearer just needs to pull Cunliffe aside and tell him: "I'M running this show now."Comment by Exclamation Mark — December 16, 2011 @ 3:14 pm
Following a Judicial recount where the Judge cancelled several votes for the ungracious one sees The Hon Paula Bennet win Waitakere by NINE votes.
Carmel Sepulone joins Brendan Burns at the dole queue with a too low list ranking.
No change to the National majority in the Parliament but a blow to David Shearer as he struggles to put up fresh faces on his front bench.
Update Kiwi Blog reported, apologies David.
Kiwi Blog posted this at 1700, the Herald at 1725, and Stuff still silent at 1730 and Farrer is on Holiday in Cape Town SA.
Welfare is a safety net, yeah right
Ex greek policeman who ceased working in 2003 and has lived on welfare since by fabricating nonexistent 19 children and living on the subsequent welfare has been arrested!!!
If Welfare is the answer then it must have been a monumentally stupid question!!!
Please Explain...........
A huge National/ACT/Maori Party/What'sisname public relations FAIL.
"AMI's liabilities for current and future earthquake claims will be held by a new company to be owned by the government, with IAG providing support services, .....".
Thursday, December 15, 2011
NZRU setting themselves up for a trainsmash?
Occasionally they had a bit much to drink but slow cars, a need for most to work next day or the day after meant they survived and their a boss confronted by such a worker would tell the recalcitrant, do it again and you are outer here. That was the way it was with bugger all employment law.
Nowadays the players are professionals not in the educated sense, just paid enormous amounts of money to perform.
That leads to young men full of their own importance with money to burn, full of testosterone and quickly bored as one can only spend so much time being a star, therefor trouble is too often just next door.
Norm Hewitt, Isaia Toeava, Adam Thompson, Sione Luaki, Jimmy Cowan, Xavier Rush Just a few who come to mind, caught on Camera and/or appearing in court and invariably alcohol abuse is involved or alleged.
Very recently a young man with a golden future as a world class wing went to Raratonga for a "holiday" after the stress of the RWC, not for him back to work on the Monday as many of the 1987 winning team had to do, they wern't Professional you see.
Poor little rich boy Zac Guildford 22 years old, was charged with entering a Bar, buck naked and it was alleged he assaulted two people, it was also alleged he was drunk, who wudda thunk that.
Now this little scroat has a bit of a "rep" as a bad boy in his home town in Hawkes Bay but just as some other troubled young men have done, he wisely decided to get amongst the Canterbury Crusaders environment and perhaps make something of his above average Talent.
Following his "troubles" up in the Islands, "He has been given another chance", his employers have extracted a pledge that he will moderate his alcohol use for the next year and stand down for four weeks that will only include the first Round Robin game of the super rugby draw. Big deal, he can still train, will still be a part of the squad and it will be when not if that he will fall off the wagon again.
Now I have a little sympathy for the young man, His Father suffered a fatal cardiac arrest around the finals of the world under 19 Championships when Zac was a key player in the team, a pretty poignant occurrence associated with what would be a big moment in anyones life.
That was three years ago FFS.
A similar unfolding of events occurred when Athol Earl, a member of the Gold medal winning rowing eight lost his dad to a cardiac arrest just prior to the final in Munich and I believe the news was withheld from Athol until the medal was won.
I don't recall him going nuts in a tourist bar but maybe in the 1970s he had a farm to run following the untimely death of his Dad, bit different eh.
Back to the guts of this fairy tale, Get a grip Zac some day the NZRU is going to actually go through with their endless empty threats and wrist slaps and after a protracted legal battle some sad young man will find himself unemployed but it will most likely be some poor up and coming talent with little to back him not someone such as you Zac Guildford who has had a small fortune invested in you and you have the wherewithall to actually employ the legal muscle to make it difficult if not impossible for your employer to make it stick.
What I found was a very well written and persuasive argument IN FAVOUR of retaining dual candidacies under MMP. That is, to allow a defeated electorate candidate to slide into the House via the list.
This is the first decent argument in favour, I have seen so far.
Maybe I/S is right. Perhaps it is a mistake to focus on the short term and the examples of dross sitting in opposition today after being heavily defeated in their respective electorates. After all, the real loser in this case is the very party which stacked its list with time servers and drones. They will continue to pay a heavy electoral price for this folly in 2014 because they have no talent in the house - their brightest and best having been consigned to the scrap heap in favor of aforesaid drones.
Maybe the problem is not with MMP but rather with Helen Clark's version of Labour.
I'm more concerned that list MP's can threaten to resign from the party and go independent. (I think, or do I have this wrong?) If a list MP chooses to resign from his party or is expelled, then that should be that. He should be out of parliament and the next person on the list should be in.
His New Product
A Manifesto for Sustainable Capitalism
By AL GORE AND DAVID BLOOD
Gore and Blood? Really? You must be kidding!!!
The world's greatest charlatan recognises his global warming gravy train is permanently derailed and launches into a whole new realm of money making possibilities with the wonderfully touchy feely moniker "Sustainable Capitalism."
Not too long ago, Adolf got himself chucked out of a company meeting. After listening to a cliche saturated mid level executive for half an hour waxing lyrical about all the changes he was making, including 'building a sustainable business' Adolf held up his hand and asked if the exec would mind defining the unique features of a sustainable business which might distinguish it from a profitable business. He didn't have an answer.
As far as the messy pair Gore and Blood are concerned, capitalism has survived pretty well intact in spite of the depredations of his ilk during the past fifty years and no doubt it will survive and prosper, just so long as it takes heed of not one word written or spoken by these two clowns.
David Shearer immediately conflates inequality with poverty
In the formal announcement about Labour's leadership yesterday, Mr Shearer said he did not want to see the gap between the rich and poor grow further, and wanted to be part of the Government's proposed poverty committee.
|David Shearer conflating poverty with inequality
I explained briefly here why they are not related, and why inequality is not the problem.
NZ Classical Liberal does it better than I with this post.
If David Shearer is going to lead Labour to be a party of ideas, he'll need to ensure he's on top of basic and completely different conceps like poverty and inequality.
What exactly is happening at mill
Two days ago Labour installed a new leader, a Mr Shearer.
In the meantime John Key has had his ministry sworn in, Zac Guildford has claimed he is off the booze, The NZ Cricket Team have returned triumphant, Ex Labour Deputy Leader has announced an interest in the Wellington Maroralty, Phil Goff has announced an intention to be happy just being the member for Mt Roskill, Nelson has almost been swept off the Map and Defeated David has asked for time to consider his options.
But what of the victor of Tuesdays OK Stockyard shootout, did he sucumb to wounds we were not told about.
The millpond above seems disconcertingly calm, are the people all at a BBQ somewhere?
Just wondering.


text:
- Top 100
- Athletes
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"andrew wk gl house"
Profession:Singer, Record producer, Musician, Actor, Motivational speaker
Date of Birth: May 9, 1979
Nicknames:Andrew Wilkes Krier, Andrew WK, Andrew W. K., Andrew F. Wilkes-Krier, W.K., Andrew
Height: 1.9 m
Country:United States of America
Date of Birth: May 9, 1979
Nicknames:Andrew Wilkes Krier, Andrew WK, Andrew W. K., Andrew F. Wilkes-Krier, W.K., Andrew
Height: 1.9 m
Country:United States of America
Andrew Wk
Andrew Wk Net Worth is $4 Million. Singer, musician, and motivational speaker Andrew W.K. has a net worth of $4 million. He's accumulated his net worth mostly through his career in music, but also through his recently acquired second career as a moti. Andrew Fetterly Wilkes Krier...
Andrew Wk Net Worth is $4 Million.Andrew Wk Net Worth is $4 Million. Singer, musician, and motivational speaker Andrew W.K. has a net worth of $4 million. He's accumulated his net worth mostly through his career in music, but also through his recently acquired second career as a moti Andrew Fetterly Wilkes Krier , better known by his stagename Andrew W.K., is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, entertainer, motivational speaker and music producer. He was the host of the television series Destroy Build Destroy.
Andrew Wilkes-Krier was born in Stanford, California, and grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan. At age 4, he began learning classical piano at The University of Michigan School of Music. He attended the private college preparatory Greenhills School for middle school before attending the alternative Community High School from 1993-1997, where he studied jazz keyboard. His father is Professor James E. Krier, a well-known legal scholar at the University of Michigan Law School and co-author of the widely used Dukeminier & Krier Property casebook.
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Andrew Wk Latest News
andrew wk
Portland's biggest summer music festival is less than month away, and the first truly summer-like weekend is basically here. Seems like a perfect time to introduce our MusicfestNW presents ...
Posted: February 20, 2019, 9:00 am
Groundbreaking comedian revealed as 'Masked Singer'
Not since bloody-nosed rocker Andrew WK gave a keynote speech to an audience of bronies at a My Little Pony convention or Insane Clown Posse's Violent J attended a furries convention in an ICP ...
Posted: January 24, 2019, 7:03 am
Andrew W.K., Jenny Don't & The Spurs
We need your help. The coronavirus crisis in Portland is a major threat to the Mercury's ability to keep the city informed. We pride ourselves on having navigated many storms in the world of ...
Posted: September 7, 2018, 12:40 am
Andrew WK Performs A Very Special Song For Rage 2 | Bethesda E3 2018
Bethesda's E3 2018 press conference kicked off with Rage 2 and a special performance by rockstar Andrew WK. View Comments (2) ...
Posted: May 16, 2020, 5:00 pm
Andrew W.K. parties hard, but how's his putting?
Already a subscriber? Donate to our new Journalism Fund. Thank you. Call it "Oh, Florida," concert edition: Andrew W.K. is performing at a Wesley Chapel golf course. That's right, the Party Hard ...
Posted: August 31, 2019, 2:05 am
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
Let's take a trip back in time, back to the bulging-biceps days when fitness facilities were gyms—not health clubs, and certainly not wellness centers. There were no masseuses on staff or yoga instructors teaching mind-body classes. You couldn't take Pilates and group cycling. Tai chi? Go to Chinatown. If you weren't there to bench press, you'd better not show your face.
Forget children, the elderly, the deconditioned or the rehab patient. The gym's primary customers were men. And not just any man. These were manly men. Sure, women snuck their way into an aerobics class—mainly because that was the one place the guys would never dare to go—but alpha males pretty much dominated the clubs.
We've come a long way, baby.
"Today's club member is different than a member from the '80s," explains Mike Clark, the director of sports performance for Physiotherapy Associates; the director of sports science, research and education for Optimum Perform-ance Institute; and the director of research and education for the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM). "The '80s member maybe was only interested in muscle hypertrophy. Today's is maybe middle-aged and just wants to get in better shape."
Thankfully, it's the year 2001, and while remnant fitness clubs still cling to the "tough guy" mentality, the vast majority of health facilities are tapping into a much wider market with a variety of health and wellness programs that tout physical well-being over bulking up. And, as trainers have gotten more educated, the approach to fitness has become more educated as well.
Enter functional training.
Functional training is not new (the ancient Greeks, Romans and many other civilized cultures were utilizing it in their athletic training programs), but it's certainly the current buzzword in the industry. "We've come full circle in the way we train our bodies," explains Stephen S. Roma, a chief operations manager with WOW! Work Out World (Brick, N.J.), which has invested in functional-training equipment from Ground Zero (now part of ICON).
"In ancient times, Greeks and Romans were training their bodies in a very holistic way," Roma continues. "With regular weight training, it's very specific to the muscle that you're training…. Functional training is looking at the body as a full unit—a complex chain." Phrases like core training, coordination, multi-planar movements, integrated training and close chain movements all tap into the essence of functional training without providing an exact definition. That's because there isn't an exact definition.
"If you asked a bunch of different people what functional training is, [you'd probably get] as many answers as the people you asked," says Greg Highsmith, senior director of product management for strength products at Life Fitness. "[Functional training] is a spectrum. It's a continuum."
While its exact definition may be a bit fuzzy, functional training is, basically, any type of exercise that relates directly to the activities you perform in your daily life. In other words, functional training is reality-based: Your body mimics everyday movements that you already perform, but want to perform better.
You don't have to look to ancient Greece to find traces of functional training, though. In our modern world, you don't have to search any farther than rehabilitation centers.
"We went into the physical therapy world and plagiarized them, but I think we're a little more creative about it," quips Michael Youssouf, the manager of trainer education at the Sports Center at Chelsea Piers in New York.
According to Darcy Norman, president of Advanced Fitness (a Wash-ington-based company that offers functional-training program design, management and consulting), there is "a gap between medical rehabilitation and personal training. Functional training bridges this gap.
"Training people functionally was born from the need to rehabilitate people for their return to their lives or jobs," he says. "Functional goals were written as a result of physical therapists having to answer to insurance companies; therefore, the exercise became the test, and the test the exercise.
"In order to say someone could lift 40 pounds to return to work, they had to be able to do it. The problem came when the patient could lift a 40-pound dumbbell, but he could not lift or maneuver a 40-pound crate of apples to do his job. So the therapist had to mimic the patient's environment to rehabilitate the patient, which in itself is functional training."
Tracey Gropper, who will open up a functional-training facility this spring in Los Altos, Calif., offers her own insight. "The idea for this training started in rehab and through that we learned that the best way to train an athlete is to overprepare their body for the sport," she explains.
That being said, what is functional for a teen-ager interested in enhancing her soccer skills is entirely different from what is functional for a bodybuilder who wants broader shoulders. But because functional training operates on a progression, it is adaptable to suit the needs of any individual.
"If you're a grandmother or a trainer in the Olympics, you'll benefit from functional training," says Juan Carlos Santana, the founder and director of Optimum Performance Systems (a performance-enhancement consulting company in Boca Raton, Fla.) and the Florida director for the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA). "It's not a fad, it's nothing new. It's been here since the beginning of time," he adds. "Understand that everyone needs it, and everyone uses it every day…. It's certainly more of a commonsense approach than bodybuilding. Bodybuilding has no emphasis on performance… It is a by-product of the training. Functional training targets performance."
And by targeting performance, trainers are targeting a higher rate of success. The industry is hoping that once people see how functional training improves their daily lives, the retention rate at clubs will increase.
Bob Piane—the CEO of the Wilmington, Del.-based Vortex, a manufacturer of functional-training machines—shares this personal example. Piane's grandfather couldn't even pick up a cup of coffee because his hands trembled terribly from muscle atrophy. So the 85-year-old joined a gym and worked out on cable strength machines, which could mimic real-life movements.
"He said, 'This is beautiful. This is how I live my life!'" remembers Piane.
In an even more moving example, John Graham, the director of the Allentown Sports Medicine and Human Performance Center in Pennsylvania, talks about a client whose simple goal was to be able to use the stairs. The challenge? He was an amputee. Thanks to functional training, the client "was able to go up and down the stairs for the first time in 25 years," reports Graham, who has worked with rehab patients and Olympic athletes.
"A lot of what we do with functional training is common sense," he explains. "If you have a client who has trouble going up and down stairs, you start with a 4-inch box and progress to a 6-inch box and then to an 8-inch box. And eventually, they are going to be able to go up and down the stairs."
Different-sized boxes? Clubs don't exactly keep them on the premises. Then again, who ever said functional training must be limited to standard equipment? Functional training gives trainers the freedom to improvise, depending on the needs of a client.
Chain Reaction
C.C. Cunningham, the owner of performENHANCE, an Evanston, Ill.-based sport and adventure athlete training company, points out that functional training can't be isolated within a health club setting. "Very few people are doing exercises in the gym to be better at the exercises in the gym," she says.
Still, this doesn't mean that functional training makes common club equipment obsolete. According to Chuck Wolf, the director of sports science and human performance for the USA Triathlon National Training Center at Orlando Regional Healthcare in Clermont, Fla., functional training operates on the kinetic chain relationship of the joints in relation to one another. Put another way, functional training works on a chain of muscles. Traditional strength equipment, on the other hand, often isolates a particular muscle.
"Machines don't necessarily en-hance [the kinetic chain] relationship," Wolf says. "Functional training can. However, sometimes you have to work on the weak link on the chain, and this is where isolated work is best."
Cunningham argues that traditional equipment is needed before any real functional training can begin. "There are two phases for functional training," she explains. "The first phase is the basic, traditional, strength-training phase where you're trying to find any imbalances in the muscles…. [I]t's really hard to isolate a muscle in a complete movement. The second phase is trying to train a movement where the body is already familiar with the movement."
In other words, clubs interested in functional training shouldn't scrap all their weight machines and invest spare money in medicine balls, pulleys, rubber tubing, dumbbells, balance boards, cable machines and the like. Rather, experts agree that trainers should incorporate all available equipment into their clients' routines. "You don't make your whole workout functionally based….," says Graham. "You incorporate it into a good fitness routine."
Even if the routine's goal is to tone up, functional training can have a place in the workout. While it certainly has its practical uses, this kind of training can be just as aesthetically enhancing as traditional strength training (and as grueling).
"I have used functional training for weight loss," says Tracy Morgan, director of the Cybex Institute, Cybex International's facility for human performance training and education. "[I]t incorporates more muscle groups. So potentially 12 reps of this movement…is going to expend more energy."
In addition to burning fat, functional training can build mass. "Some people say they don't see themselves gaining as great a degree of muscle definition…, but we really haven't seen a major change," Graham says.
Besides being big on muscles, the functional-training workout is big on fun. "It just makes so much more sense," says Morgan. "You're still weight lifting. It's fun because you're mimicking things the client likes to do, and it's different every time. [The clients] do feel a difference."
Clubs also feel a difference—in their bank accounts. With the exception of the cable machines, most functional-training equipment is inexpensive. One medicine ball can be used in literally thousands of ways for a minimal cost to the club. Even something as simple as a banister, an egg crate or a step can be incorporated into a routine. "The beautiful thing about functional training is you can just use your environment," explains Norman of Advanced Fitness.
One functional tool that's absolutely free is gravity. For example, exercises involving a bench make the body completely stable. In real life, the human body has to contend with gravity, unstable surfaces, multiple planes of movement, and, at times, imbalances. Functional training takes that into account. Furthermore, functional-training equipment is portable, doesn't require much space and can be used for multiple applications.
While a functional-training program doesn't need a lot of room or a big investment, it does need qualified personnel. Personal trainers must be more educated about physiology and biomechanics in order for this method to be safe and effective. In some cases, trainers may even find that they need to "relearn" their approach to fitness. "It's going to require thinking outside the box," says Youssouf of the Sports Center at Chelsea Piers.
"Everything is still there, but you just have to look at it in a different way," adds Santana of Optimum Per-formance Systems. Injuries can occur when a personal trainer doesn't understand the proper progression for his client. For instance, an 80-year-old woman will not be at the same level on the balance boards as a 19-year-old yoga student.
"The biggest thing is knowledge," says Gropper, "because you can do a lot of damage with any kind of exercise if you're not careful." Functional training is still considered new, but there is plenty of information if you know where to look (see sidebar on page 56). Still, don't expect to cram everything you need to know into a quick session.
"The specific challenge of this work is exactly what makes it exciting to teach," says Colleen Craig, a certified Pilates instructor who's developed a Pilates-based exercise ball video series (her videos are available through Ball Dynamics International). "Functional training is very layered work that cannot be learned in a weekend seminar. It is an ongoing learning process for the teacher as well as the student."
Imitation of Life
Besides beefing up on education, many clubs have to confront their own prejudices before exploring functional training. One of the biggest challenges is the "traditional viewpoint/mind-set of looking at training in a real static, isolated environment," says Clark, who's developing a functional-training course through NASM. "But life doesn't function in a real controlled environment like that."
This is something that clients must understand as well. "People walk into a health club and think the goal of being in a health club is how to use a machine," explains Annette Lang, a personal trainer at New York City's Equinox, as well as a Reebok University Master Trainer and National Consulting Director for the Esquerre Fitness Group.
This type of bias can work against members. Therefore, it's up to the club to help them see things in a different light—to see that exercise can have very real applications in their daily lives. Ultimately, both the members and the trainers benefit.
"It's just another way to vary the workout," Lang continues. "That's what I say to personal trainers. If nothing else, you've got more tools to work with."
Functional Training Resources
The Name: Advanced Fitness
Creator of the Integrated Functional Fitness training systems, Advanced Fitness provides functional-fitness program development and management, as well as equipment selection and maintenance. The company is also offering a functional-fitness manual and plans to complete a CEU course by late spring.
The Numbers: (877) ATC-CSCS; (206) 696-0320
The Web Site: www.advancedfit.com
The Name: Paul Chek
Considered an industry expert on functional training, Chek is the author of more than 40 videos, two books, 12 correspondence courses and numerous seminars. He founded the C.H.E.K. Institute in San Diego, which offers education courses for exercise professionals, including the Corrective High-Performance Exercise Kinesiology Certification course.
The Numbers: (800) 552-8789; (760) 632-6360
The Web Site: www.paulchekseminars.com
The Name: Cybex
Cybex offers the FT 360 Functional Trainer machine. The company has also sponsored a series of functional-training seminars.
The Numbers: (888) GO-CYBEX; (508) 533-4300
The Web Site: www.ecybex.com
The Name: Ground Zero
Ground Zero designs, manufactures and distributes the Free Motion strength equipment product line, a neuromuscular training tool used by many functional-training facilities. It also offers classes in functional training. ICON recently purchased this company.
The Numbers: (877) 363-8449; (719) 955-1100
The Web Site: www.gzdesign.com
The Name: Life Fitness
Life Fitness offers the Hammer Strength Ground Base plate-loaded strength-training equipment line. These machines provide numerous exercise options in multiple planes of motion while allowing exercisers to train with their feet on the ground, thereby encouraging total body stabilization and balance. In addition, the company's Dual Adjustable Pulley System offers unlimited, functional applications.
The Numbers: (800) 735-3867; (847) 288-3300
The Web Site: www.lifefitness.com
The Name: MF Athletic Company
This exercise equipment company offers a large catalog of functional-training and rehabilitation equipment, training tools and accessories—including Juan Carlos Santana's own video series. The company's catalog includes everything from stability balls and functional-training books to slide boards and balance pads. Aside from the catalog, MF Athletic offers North East Functional Training Seminars.
The Number: (800) 556-7464
The Web Sites: www.performbetter.com or www.mfathletic.com
The Name: National Academy of Sports Medicine
According to Mike Clark ([email protected]), the director of research and education, NASM will be offering the first functional-training certification courses, beginning in April.
The Number: (800) 656-2739
The Web Site: www.nasm.org
The Name: Reebok University
Reebok University offers the Reebok Reactive Neuromuscular Training (RNT) and the new Reebok Core Training/CORE Board programming. Reebok RNT is a program that has been developed by physical therapists for personal trainers. RNT's goal is to expand a trainer's knowledge base in concepts involving movement patterns and repetitive stress; cumulative trauma disorder; and training movements instead of muscles.
The Number: (212) 330-7570
The Web Site: www.reeboku.com/about_reeboku/about_reeboku.asp
The Name: Juan Carlos Santana
Juan Carlos Santana has been involved in fitness and athletics for more than 20 years, as both a professional and a national caliber athlete in five different sports. He is currently the director of Optimum Performance Systems (OPS)—a performance-enhancement consulting company based in Boca Raton, Fla.—and offers a series of functional-training videos through MF Athletic. He also offers seminars throughout the year.
The Number: (561) 393-3881
The Web Site: www.opsfit.com
The Name: Schwinn
Schwinn's RiPP Pro is a fully functioning, adjustable weight bench on wheels with a resistance engine powered by SpiraFlex, a technology endorsed by NASA that creates isotonic resistance.
The Number: (888) 471-0014
The Web Site: www.schwinn.com
The Name: Vortex
The two-year old company will be unveiling its Columbus line of Free-Movement Functional Strength Training Systems at the IHRSA trade show this month in San Francisco.
The Numbers: (877) 676-4677; (302) 654-7976
The Web Site: www.vortexfitness.com