Acc Levies

Hurray! The ACC component of motor vehicle registration has gone up $50! I'm picking motor vehicles = all vehicles.

http://www.acc.co.nz/levies-and-cover/levy-consultation-2008-09/index.htm

and so has the levy on petrol...so petrol just got dearer again!

http://www.acc.co.nz/levies-and-cover/news/DIS_CTRB094595?ssSourceNodeId=4209&ssSourceSiteId=1494

Sensible parenting

I ain't got no kids, I ain't no expert but I like this guy's style:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/22/AR2007062201668_pf.html

ACC Levies

Scary, scary, found this article about ACC levies:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10481024

Looks like they're thinking of stinging bikers even more for ACC levies due to their fuel efficiency (less ACC from petrol taxes).

Also interesting is the "The average cost of motorcycle injuries per year is $1500 per registered motorcycle." Let me guess this calculation was cost of all motorcycling injuries divided by the number of registered bikes. What about all the unregistered trailees & farm bikes/quads? What about all the other sports / hobbies where no ACC levies are paid? It goes on about other road users (forgetting cyclists & pedestrians) subsidising bike injuries - but doesn't everyone that pays ACC levies somewhere or other pay for all those non-levied activities? Don't cars sometimes hit bikes?

Too hard - just sting the bikers...

Telemarketing 2

You'll never guess...yep two nights in a row I've been pestered!

This time it was someone selling insurance and I wasn't in the mood for mucking around with them. I just told them I was insured up to my eyeballs and they gave up.

Still a couple of minutes of my life wasted though...

Telemarketing

Don't ya just get sick of people ringing up and wanting to do you a better deal on something, beg money off you or answer some survey? Well I do and here's my latest experience.

Phone rings at just before 9pm. Foreigner on the other end takes about three goes at saying "Hi I'm someone from Slingshot".

When we finally get past this bit she says, "Who have you got your home phone rental & tolls with - Telecom or TelstraClear?"

I say, "Neither."

She says, "Who are you with then?"

Me: "None of your business."

She wises up and senses she's not going to get anywhere and gives up...

One of my better experiences - got rid of them pretty quick and had a bit of a laugh. Recommend you try a similar strategy - try to put all of their customer services training to the test: see if you can make them mad, infuriate them, give them nothing, have fun. It's their job to be polite & friendly - see how far you can stretch things. After all if they insult you then you can always ring their manager to complain. If they're happy to waste your time by interrupting your life then make sure you waste every second they spend speaking to you. Have fun!

Cheesecutters again

Forgot to mention in the previous blog that the cheesecutter website (www.cheesecutter.co.nz) has the petition online. If you haven't been able to sign a copy (NZ bikers only) you can do it there. Just make sure you only sign it once or your name will not count.

If you're a bike or anyone concerned about the safety of the barriers, please sign the petition.

Cheesecutter Wire Barriers

Been a long time since I ranted so I'll ease back into with some snippets from my bike blog about the Cheesecutter Protest ride that was held in the weekend.

As a result of a horrific accident in Auckland where a young biker was
killed after crashing and hitting a Wire rope barrier the NZ biker community
(particularly on the Kiwi Biker website) has been pretty vocal in their condemning of the wire "cheesecutter" barriers and a number of protest rides have been organised.

Sunday the 11th of November was Wellington's turn and so I had to be there. Mark & Shelly were keen and I managed to talk Brian into stealing his brother's bike and bringing Linda down for the ride too.

When we got into Wellington we hooked up with the other group of riders and made our way to park up outside the parliament buildings before heading into the parliament grounds for the speeches.

First up was "Colapop" who had done a lot of the organising for the ride and he spoke very well about why we were there and what we were hoping to achieve - a top guy.

Secondly we had Marian Hobbs explaining how our petition might help us get a voice at any select committee looking into road safety etc.

Lastly, another Kiwi Biker who's name escapes me read quite a long speech but was once again very well spoken and made some very good points.

All up the organisers think that around 200 bikers turned up with some coming from the Hawkes Bay and Wanganui.

Full Blog here.

More of my pics here.

Other Kiwi Bikers' pictures here.

Ride discussion thread here.

And the Cheesecutter website here.

Anti-smacking

Haven't ranted for a while - been trying to control the rage. The anti-smacking bill is ripe for a good old rant but I can't be bothered wasting my breath so here's something I got in my email...

I didn't see you

While out enjoying a quite Sunday ride (see my other blog here) an annoying thing happened - a twat in a van backed off a one lane bridge and into my bike and me stopped well back from the bridge.

After my major sounding off to the young guy driving the van I got the standard "I didn't see you". (Think this is an automatic response for most car drivers when they clobber a bike). "You mean you didn't see the big blue bike with it's headlight on, the rider wearing black helmet and riding gear with fluorescent markings in the broad light of day?"

I would have much preferred to hear the truth, "I panicked when I saw the other car on the bridge and just threw the van into reverse without looking". He didn't even mention that he didn't here my horn or yelling at him to stop either - hard to hear over his stereo I know.

What can you do about this? This is the 2nd time I've been backed into by someone in a car. Both times were when the driver obviously hadn't been concentrating on what they were doing to begin with - it's not normal to have to stop and back your vehicle up when driving, generally reversing is for getting out of driveways or into/out of car parks. There are definitely some people who are not capable of reacting calmly and thoughtfully when something out of the ordinary happens to them. They drive around thinking that everyone else out there is a good driver/rider so they'll look out for me.

There is a solution, but not the obvious one of poking their eyes out so that next time they'll be able to honestly say they didn't see you. The solution is for more people to ride bikes or maybe even make riding a bike or scooter for a period of time before getting a car license. When you are on a bike you are putting it right out there on the line - you have to look out for number one because there are people out there trying to kill you. You learn to look everywhere for trouble and to not trust anyone else on the road. It would also have another benefit, because there would be more bikes on the road, car drivers would get more used to looking out for bikes and spend less time cutting them off etc. Hell, 99% of truckies on the road are excellent at this - they're always looking in their mirrors and pulling over to let you past.

Maybe this'll could stop it happening to me a 3rd time. I sent the guy on his way (after getting his details etc) with the warning: "You won't make that mistake again, will you?" Here's hoping he learnt something - I just had a reminder not to take the possession of car keys and a licence to mean competence to drive. Shame it had to happen that way - now I'm without a bike for a while...

More on Graeme Burton

Seems Graeme Burton has recovered enough to be charged with a total of 25 offences. Has had one of his rat bag mates come in and try to visit him, then leave saying he's gonna get the cops that shot Burton and vandalise a cop car outside the hospital. Now the cops are after another scum sucker - maybe they'll get the chance to put his one down.

http://stuff.co.nz/3925729a11.html
http://stuff.co.nz/3925179a11.html
http://stuff.co.nz/3924335a11.html
http://stuff.co.nz/3926677a10.html

Oh, and another parolee is on the run - lock ya doors:

http://stuff.co.nz/3924996a11.html

And still more, in the Dominion today, news that another scum ball charged with firearms offences has jumped bail and the cops are looking for him. How the hell did he get bail? What's wrong with our judges?

Scum Bags on Parole

There's not a lot more I can say after Andrews effort.

Yes Graeme Burton was truely a mad bastard and in hind sight the parole board should have known better. We will probably never know the information they had to base their decision on. It's just a bloody shame that other people had to get hurt in the process. Innocent people minding their own business.

The only real question I have is why the cops shot him in the leg. Now I've done a bit of hunting and have learnt that the best way to make sure your target goes down is to aim for "the big bit" ie the chest. It's much easier to hit a big target than a small one.

I would have also thought that an offender carrying a gun can still shoot back after being shot in the leg. He sure as hell ain't going to shoot back if hes been shot in the chest.

Now I wasn't there in the heat of battle but surely these guys have been trained for this type of situation.

The latest rampage

Great, another pscho let off the leash to wreck havoc in the community! Over the past week another convicted murderer (Graeme Burton) out on parole has been on the run and finally has only been caught after killing another innocent person. I've decided, for this blog to list the good/bad, lucky/unlucky aspects for those involved:

The Killer:

- Lucky: to get out of jail after only serving 14 years for killing someone in a drug-induced rage.

- Unlucky: the police were chasing him as soon as he breached his bail conditions (great).

- Lucky: had a good stash of weapons and didn't mind breaking into other peoples' houses to get more or more money etc.

- Unlucky: to get chased into some bush.

- Lucky: to run into a guy on a quad. Kill the guy, steal quad.

- Unlucky: quad won't start.

- Lucky: some mountain bikers turn up. Assault one, shoot and injure 2 more (didn't really know how to safely handle firearms).

- Unlucky: the word got out to the police and the armed offenders turned up and popped him.

- Lucky: Only wounded in the leg. Police poor shots - supposed to aim for chest area.

- Unlucky: Lost his leg (boo hoo).

- Lucky: was talk he may be eligible for some sort of ACC payout.

- Unlucky: after a bit of hoo hah in the news - no payout.

- Lucky: he'll never have to work again in his life - will be in prison for a couple of years (probably get parole again) and when he get's out will probably just end up on a disability pension.

http://stuff.co.nz/3921945a11.html

http://stuff.co.nz/3922189a11.html - the excuse

http://stuff.co.nz/3921702a11.html

http://stuff.co.nz/3922739a11.html

http://stuff.co.nz/3922951a11.html

The Public

- Lucky? to have a parole system that looks after the baddies

- Unlucky: every now again convicted scumbags reoffend which means more innocent people are harmed when maybe they should have been better protected.

- Lucky: the cops got the man

- Unlucky: before they got him, he killed 1 person and injured a number of others.

- Lucky: the cops shot him

- Unlucky: they made a has of it the guy's still breathing and we're paying for his hospital bills.

- Lucky: he should get locked up for a while

- Unlucky: we're still paying for this and he wont be the last...

http://stuff.co.nz/3923106a10.html

The Police

- Unlucky: they have to pick up the pieces when the justice system fails

- Unlucky: weren't able to get their man before he killed again and will take some flack over this

- Lucky: got there man without any cops getting shot

- Unlucky: poor shooting

- Unlucky: some cop has to be investigated to see if the shooting was warranted

- Lucky: should be open and shut case

- Good: the cops are pretty good at getting these morons.

Parole Board

- It's all bad...Let a maniac out to kill again

- Unlucky: probably haven't got the powers to really help keep public safe.

- Lucky: according to the news tonight only 7% of parolees get re-convicted in their first year out of prison. Probably takes justice system over a year put them back into prison so they end up in the 2nd year's statistics???

- Weird: they say that it is asking for trouble to release hardened criminals without parole as a method of making sure they are rehabilitated correctly into the community. Fine, but why let them out early on parole? Let them do their time first and then put them on parole.

PS: Don't want this blog to look anti-police - great work getting this guy. Shame about the shooting accuracy.