Miscellany 2

On 3 November 2009 I posted a blog called Miscellany. It was a vehicle to help me feel better about various idiocies. If I write it, I can move on. Here is Miscellany...2.

..................................

An early 19th century captain in the British Royal Navy was renowned not only for his seamanship, but also for his Christian piety and his propensity to quote the Bible. It is said that another naval captain, whose ship had been badly damaged in an encounter with the French, had lost its masts and was crippled, saw this man sailing up to his aid. He was flying a signal, and it read, “Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth.”

.................................

An utterly irascible Scottish general in the British army in India, David Baird, was captured and held for a while by an Indian rebel leader whose custom was to chain his prisoners in pairs. When this was reported to General Baird’s mother in Scotland she said, “I am so sorry for the poor man chained up with my Davie.”

.................................

I once heard the late BBC raconteur Frank Muir give an after dinner speech at the British Club in Tokyo. He began by saying he was honoured to have been invited, but that it was rather like having been invited to kiss Margaret Thatcher full on the mouth, in that the honour outweighed the pleasure.

.................................

We learn that Donald Trump has already started his run for the Republican nomination to stand for President of the USA. Can there be worse news? We hear he has joined the paranoids committed to the belief that Obama was not born in the USA and therefore is ineligible to be president. This is a curious phenomenon, akin to climate change denial and worship of Michael Jackson. It can sometimes seem as though the collective silliness of the USA might just elect him. It’s terrifying. And now the news is that Arnold Schwarzenegger, having presided for two terms over the disintegration of the California economy, may now look to be president of the European Community. This cannot be so. I trust the Germans, French, Swiss, and even the Albanians, are falling about laughing.

..........................................

But back home, there is worse. Don Brash is suddenly challenging Rodney Hide for leadership of the Act Party. Don is not at present a member of the Act Party. The NZ Herald is running a poll on which you would prefer as leader of Act, Rodney or Don... That choice is akin to asking whether you would rather die painfully of a stomach tumour or a liver tumour. Both blokes are buffoons. Somehow (I don't need to understand this) we are also getting threatened with John Banks in the mix. Well, perhaps it is best to have them all in one camp, a kind of political isolation ward -- close to the psychiatric wing.

..............................................

We were told that the Rugby World Cup represented riches to New Zealand, and that the fortunes invested would bring dividends enabling us to build roads and set up magnificent sports facilities... Now we have been informed that the revised and improved estimates are out, and they show:

Cost $1.2 billion.
Net Income $700 million.
Deficit $500 million.

Now remind me... I concede that sport is important, although it is supremely unimportant to me. The RWC is about one arguably minor sport on the world stage, Rugby Union football. Most of the world will neither know nor care about the RWC.

It will come, it will happen, countless litres of beer will go down the alimentary tracts of thousands and into the gutters and drains. Something called Party Central (taxpayer subsidised) will operate in downtown Auckland, to the detriment of everything from the environment to the drinkers’ livers, to decency and order -- but not to the detriment of the brewers. Anyone who reaches for words like disgust will be accused of being a party-pooper. The ticket scalpers came out in force weeks ago and the whole event will be marked by increasing corruption. All sorts of necessary tasks in the community will get neglected while people are caught up in the waves of hysteria...

And then it will all go. We are left here with a $500 million deficit. Great. Maybe (which heaven forfend) we won’t even be holding the Cup. Oh dear, how sad, never mind.

.,..............................................

Solar bonus blowout to sit on budget bottom line



...Headline in the Sydney Morning Herald, 24.04.11.