The truly depressing thing is, I could do this post every single day. All the things wrong with our Big State Welfare society can be gleaned by simply quoting the first paragraphs of a smattering of Press articles read over lunch, and from only the first three pages. I didn't have the stomach to trek further in today.

Former Labour MP Georgina Beyer plans to move to Australia because she cannot find work. The three-term Wairarapa MP, the world’s first transsexual politician, told The Press she was disillusioned with life after politics and upset at the treatment she had received from her former Labour Party colleagues. While other former Labour MPs were appointed to boards, Beyer said she had received nothing and was turned down for a position on the Human Rights Commission. … Her comments follow publicity about former Labour list MP Dianne Yates, who has been appointed to four boards this year by the Labour-led Government.

[The only surprising thing about this is why she hasn't taken a discrimination case against the Commission. It is her right, after all, that we taxpayers pay her some sort of stipend for the rest of her life, she is a transsexual after all, or more poignantly, a socialist politician.]

The grills, the bling, the world record-sized diamond pendant – the King of Crunk has landed. Lil Jon, a global hip-hop superstar, yesterday arrived in Christchurch for this weekend’s Snow Jam festival. Lil Jon ... was given a full Maori welcome when he touched down at Christchurch Airport.

Wow, he's a good role model for Maori.

Oh, here's one for, I suspect, every post 60 year old on this forum:

The dangers of older people drinking too much alcohol have been highlighted in a new public health booklet. The booklet – aimed at older people … has been released by the Alcohol Advisory Council, the ACC and Age Concern.

We've got three, that's THREE government busy-bodies lecturing mature, old people how to live their lives. F'ing great, ain't it, like. And like, wait until our masters announce, that to ensure these silly old duffers don't further become part of the obesity epidemic, they're gonna be force fed Lil Jon's crunk, channelled through speakers into every room of the nation's retirement homes.

And then that continuing story of 'one of our own', apparently:

The controversy over whether the Christchurch City Council paid far too much for David Henderson’s Sydenham Square site deepened yesterday.

I'm going to come back to this one in a much longer, dedicated blog soon. An open letter to David. I'm sick and tired of fighting this battle in Christchurch (by the way Linz, I can vouch that TV1's Close Up read this site or certainly my release on Parker), and constantly having thrown at me that David is a self styled Libertarian.

David, this deal you have done with the devil has put the state right back into my wallet. Nothing libertarian about this. Via State coercion I have now purchased properties for the 2006 peak prices, during a property crash. I am coerced into paying your interest costs for the next ten years, while you take your developer's margin at my expense, and for no risk, because you have the power of the State with you. For the life of me, I cannot figure out why the Council has given you the absolute monopoly for the ongoing development of these sites. Oh, and all for the 'common good' of Christchurch, no less. Let's not let a little thing like free enterprise get in the way - why isn't every other property developer suing the council, who have never put this work out to tender? No valuations to buy. No tendering process for the future work. What the hell is going on here?

Anyway, rambling: now every mis-informed Libertarian critic can, and is, throwing at Libertarianz the accusation we are unethical and unprincipled, because profiteering comes first. As a Libertarian I believe my standard of living, as a free man, comes from the making of profit: but, the bottom line for a Libertarian is not profit, it is principle, the living of a life on our own individual terms, responsible for ourselves, without the State controlling us, per every other headline above. That's what I'm about as a Libertarian.

You have sold (out) to the Council yet another leash to tie me down. My battle is with this idiot Christchurch Council, but to you I am not thankful. If you want to respond, please do so to this forum.

(And the dumbness of this council is stunning: they were as lambs to the slaughter. Rushing in to buy these five properties so they wouldn't be bidding at a mortgagee sale: come again? We are in a seriously depressed market, the property developers main line of credit, Finance Companies, has gone, the whole model has gone, and Council rushes in to buy these properties for peak prices! I wonder if there would even have been bidders in a mortgagee sale. Who could stomach this risk in the current environment? Oh, yes, the Council with my money. How can I keep forgetting that. All common sense reasons why you would never let bureaucrats into business, albeit, beside the point.

The point being, the principle.)