allaboveboard

Fact is relationships end. Unfortunately some of those endings are unpleasant. The biggest losers are generally any children caught up in adult issues. The family court in previous years was helpful in helping sort out very messy situations. It wasn't a perfect system but for the main part it worked. Most of the negatives I witnessed involved the lawyers especially those appointed lawyer for child. As is often the case the people caught up in these situations were mostly low income so legal aid came into play. The only people exploiting that were the lawyers. That is especially unfortunate as that is the last thing the parties need at that time and there is little or nothing they can do about it. The best interests of the children involved must be served so the parents press on. I've routinely seen single mothers for example use the court system to keep themselves and their children safe / protected. Fathers also of course. God only knows what would have occurred without the family court and more importantly legal aid. Now the government is chasing after these mothers five years after the event and demanding they repay the legal aid. I know of three single mothers this is happening to right now. They have zero chance of repaying this legal aid which they NEVER agreed to repay in the first place. All three earning not much more than the minimum wage but the court is demanding they repay that legal aid or have huge penalties added to it. Without doubt they are being bullied and are those in our society who can least afford this debt. Meanwhile rapists who used legal aid to beat their charge are not being asked to repay that legal aid. Clear discrimination against females and families. Now this Government has once again displayed it's complete ignorance and indifference toward vulnerable low income families at their most vulnerable time by bringing in legislation so these families have to pay for the lawyer for child. This is just reprehensible contempt for those who can least afford to pay. It's discrimination against the poor,against families and against woman. The tosspot bean counter who pushed this through needs to be held accountable for treason against the very people they are there to protect. These wankers have fucked things up so badly that their must find money from somewhere to pay for all their fuck ups. It's an absolute disgrace. http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/top-stories/22274892/court-changes-make-it-harder-for-families-says-law-society/

Those who have been around the traps for a while would well remember Barry Cook when he trained for many years out of Paeroa. He loved winning races anywhere but especially so on his old home track of Paeroa. He had a handy team around him with many going extra good on wet tracks. Pearls Paul is one that springs to mind. We won a small fortune off his runners then he disappeared off the radar six years ago. Not sure of the reason but I recall the Paeroa course were putting a stop to the track being used as a training centre around that time. Today I noticed a horse racing at Otaki called Buffalo Boy with the trainers name Barry Cook,Cambridge. I wondered if this could possibly be the same Barry Cook. The horse won brilliantly at big odds and has a nice future. At a time when some trainers are moving away from NZ or flagging away I wondered if this was one returning after six years. What a story to highlight there. Then he was interviewed post race by "Bevan" and there he was as large as life and great to see. Bevan asked him about his first two runs despite the fact it clearly states in the racebook it was transferred into his care from the Autridge stable after those two races. Some homework would have been handy Bevan. Then Barry points out this is his first horse he's trained for six years since he trained at Paeroa. There was Bevan's cue to ask him about that etc. Instead Bevan didn't even acknowledge he'd said it. Then he crossed back to "Russell' in the studio who said "Excellent work Bevan". Pity these guys don't know which way is up but that aside it's great to see Barry back. Wish him the best of luck.

I'm the first to admit I know very little about Greyhound Racing. My dad loved the sport but I've never really been that interested. Is your leading trainer John McInerney magic or is he just so much better than every other trainer in NZ or both? In the Harness game success breeds success. You win races and you get offered nicer horses to train. You attract bigger owners etc. John McInerney seems to have hundreds of dogs starting all over NZ. Many seem to be just average types of dogs yet he manages to achieve remarkable results. I watched him win a race earlier today with Otto Baxter. Seemed to have a lot of late money on it. Looked like an adult racing a child to my eye. Was never going to lose. Then I see him race an out of form Homebush Zelda. The write up said "Isn't racing well enough to challenge others with sounder claims here" It didn't just win it annihilated it's opposition. Won by a big margin and looked like it could go around twice more for exactly the same result. Won like a $1.04 shot. Couldn't help wonder how this dog has ever been beaten previously. Is John McInerney that good a trainer?

Person sets out to deliberately scam those who can least afford it. The offending is so serious and involves enormous amounts of money that the Serious Fraud Office takes over the investigation and devotes a considerable amount of time and effort into the case. Ramni Kumar admitted ten charges of fraud involving 3.9 million dollars. The maximum sentence is 7 years prison and this offending is at the top end. The fact all of the victims are low income earners highlights the impact this offending must be having on the victims. It should be remembered that when a person pleads guilty to x amount of charges they have usually been offered deals too good to be true. For example you plead guilty to 10 and we will drop 14 other charges. Another typical offer is "you plead guilty and I guarantee you a minimal sentence where you don't serve ANY time in prison". For this major case the offender was sentenced to 250 hours community work and 12 months home detention. Lets examine that penalty. You've been sentenced to 12 months at home. You can still do all the things you enjoy doing but you just have to do them at home. It's considered by most as an enforced "holiday at home". Then we have the 250 hours community work. This penalty is considered laughable by most who know how to get around it. Periodic Detention is a different ball game. With that you are supervised from 8am till 4.30pm every Saturday while you cut gorse etc etc. It's akin to being in prison for one day a week. Community work on the other hand is often farcical. All you need is someone with a minor restrictive issue to write a note saying you worked for them for x amount of hours. The offender in this case used documents to commit fraud so will have no difficulty getting a family friend who's had a hip replacement to say you've mowed her lawns and did a load of gardening for her that took 250 hours. It happens EVERY day. In short after a long and very costly investigation to the taxpayer this offender has been convicted of serious offending that warranted a long stay in prison. Instead they have received a comical sentence. How is this justice? What sort of slap in the face is this to the victims? Where is the deterrent factor in the sentence? Why bother having a 7 year maximum sentence available? Why even bother investigating the case? http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/top-stories/22321378/no-jail-for-role-in-3-9m-mortgage-fraud/

It's business. How many horses will come along that have a realistic chance of winning multiple Derbies? The connections have mapped out a plan they want followed to the letter. It's their horse. It's their call. Personally I believe their is probably more to it than just one questionable ride. Perhaps they feel he is arrogant and if you're driving their Ferrari you must drive it only how they instruct you. Who knows maybe they feel a rider that describes his fellow riders as muppets may also result in riders being unhelpful to him in races?

Those interested in races there that are not being televised by Trackside can do a lot worse than this website link that is free and not only shows the races it also gives you all the relevant betting odds on the American market. http://www.yonkersraceway.com/livevideo/

I've just been and watched the replay of this race again especially the last quarter and completely disagree with you. You can start making ground on the leaders prior to asking your horse for it's best effort. The driver sat as quiet as a church mouse at exactly the time he needed to be shortening the distance between himself and the front runners some distance ahead of him. By the time Lee asked the horse to get serious the race was effectively all over. If his goal was to win the race it was at best a poorly judged final quarter. If on the other hand his goal was to just give his charge a good blow out he did the job perfectly. You are right in saying he has a horse for next time but it would be foolish to suggest anything otherwise if he had displayed more urgency and started making up ground on the front runners sooner. I note the horse was going better and stronger than all other runners at the line which adds more weight to the obvious conclusion that a more positive result would have been easily achieved with a more positive drive. I'm not suggesting this is the case here but very few family or friends etc of a driver will ever concede the driver got it badly wrong etc. Their motivation somewhat different to that of others. Some who got their fingers burnt on the punt feel strongly one way while family and friends will defend regardless. I invested nothing on the race and don't know the driver personally so feel my perspective is neutral.

kar·ma [kahr-muh] noun 1. Hinduism, Buddhism. action, seen as bringing upon oneself inevitable results, good or bad, either inthis life or in a reincarnation: in Hinduism one of the means of reaching Brahman. Compare bhakti ( def 1 ) , jnana. 2. Theosophy. the cosmic principle according to which each person is rewarded or punished in oneincarnation according to that person's deeds in the previous incarnation. 3. fate; destiny. Synonyms: predestination, predetermination, lot, kismet. 4. the good or bad emanations felt to be generated by someone or something: Lets get out of here. Thisplace has bad karma.

More diabolical attacks on tourists. Everything about this crime is shocking. Overseas tourists should be able to enjoy our beautiful country without being brutally attacked as if they were in a high crime area of some diabolical war torn third world country. It's also a horrendous and totally unprovoked attack against woman in general. Tourists deserve protection and respect. Woman deserve protection and respect. As NZ relies on significant income generated from tourism such attacks are also an attack against all of us and our Country. The latest air thief piece of shit offender sounds like a mad wild dog that should be taken out the back and shot immediately. No further expense to NZ and it's people. Forget rehabilitation. A TOTAL lost cause who has more than given up his right for ANY consideration. Sending the strongest possible message to the other human excrement out there considering the same crimes on "soft targets" is vitally important Any money being considered to spend on him should be redirected toward many fine kiwi's who simply cant afford to pick up their all important prescriptions from the chemist etc etc etc etc etc etc etc. Instead he will have a long drawn out case centering around the fact he wasn't breast fed for long enough. He will receive a totally inadequate sentence and then the tax payer will be held to ransom for all his wants and needs. Surely we have a million other places we can spend those millions? http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/top-stories/22267590/armed-stand-off-ends-west-coast-pursuit/ http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/top-stories/22267590/armed-stand-off-ends-west-coast-pursuit/

I agree horses are not machines and are a lot easier to drive from the stands. I didn't catch the interview pre race with Lee but I'm fairly confident he didn't say "I'm going to sit at the back and wait till it's physically impossible to catch the front runners then start my run" It was not a good look but no worse than hundreds of examples that occur every week. I'm not saying it was the case here but the plain fact is some trainers don't want to win some races. There can be many reasons for that which fall into the category of "managing" your horses race results. Two things made this example at least "appear" to be worse than the usual bullshit contempt for punters. The first was the fact the horse was hot fav. The second was the fact the race caller said at least three times during his call "he still hasn't moved on Shak'n Cullen" Not sure if Dave had a dollar or two on the horse but he's not the sort of caller that highlights what is essentially a negative situation. I feel it is reasonable to ask the question at least "did Lee fail to obtain the best possible situation"? If you're going to do that however you will make a lot of work for yourself as "managing" is very common. One thing for sure,Gordon Lee has some nice horses who will win plenty for him.

I completely disagree. What he / she has stated makes perfect sense. Does not look stupid at all. On the other hand with all the technology available to the TAB in 2014 why should a customer/punter who placed a bet on the internet for example WRITE into the TAB and ask for their money? That's akin to an old horse and cart. Many would either not know or would not bother with all that hassle and delay. Surely the TAB very aware of that. Question must be asked why does the TAB not just pay out when they can see who wagered and when?

As a country we need people in Government who's number one priority is all the people of NZ. National have been magnificent at looking after themselves and those fortunate enough to be doing very nicely thank you very much. Meanwhile those less fortunate can go fuck themselves. They just couldn't possibly care less. They are adamant they are doing well by NZ and will twist any and all stats to prove that. I honestly believe NZ cant afford another 3 years of John Key and his ilk. Make a bonfire and throw the lot of them on it for treason. Labour are even worse. They masquerade as a party that once looked after the working man. That farce has long since been put to bed. The only people who will vote for those pack of wankers are those with very short memories and those who think Donald Duck is better than Mickey Mouse. So who's left? pardon the pun. The Greens ffs!. I'm thinking they can't be any worse than the others. What a choice! Perfect timing for someone to come along and give us a meaningful choice worth voting for. If the fat German was anyone else I'd probably vote for him. As it is now the only vote he gets of mine is me voting for him to fuck off

The worst type of suicide is the one done on behalf of others. Those "others" are generally children taken out by a parent taking themselves. I recall a dickhead throwing his two young kids off the harbour bridge then jumping himself about 20 years ago. Taking someone out who has absolutely no say in the matter the most selfish act any human being can take.. Of course there is also the Jim Jones type of fruit loop who convinced most of his followers in Guyana to take themselves out with a cool aid drink mixed with cyanide. He got the parents to kill their children first so the parent would have nothing left to live for. If the Pilot on this plane did commit suicide on behalf of everyone on that plane he wouldn't be the first. There has been so many theories on what happened so this may just be another theory with no validity but then again who knows at this time. I recall the Egyptian pilot accused of deliberately crashing a plane in 1999 http://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/mar/16/duncancampbell

I could only be talking about the fat German. Dot Com believes his political party has a realistic hope of passing the 5% threshold by September. This the wackiest left field bullshit stunt I've ever seen attempted by a political party. Without a shadow of doubt he has ZERO chance of getting 1% let alone 5%. That would be the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest backwards at night with a blindfold on. Why would anyone even attempt such a task when it is 100% guaranteed to fail? Has he just got too much money? Is he a narcissist ? He showed his political naivety at best by trying to court the Maori Party via the media. They wouldn't be remotely interested in anything he says or does. They are well funded and already have several huge ego's so what did Dot Com have that the Maori Party could use? NOTHING. All Dot Com did was give the Maori Party a platform to reject him and to highlight what the goals of the Maori Party are. That was the ONLY thing that could have happened. It's just nuts. Also showed Dot Com will do and say anything to get into power. That at least highlights the fact he has the makings of a politician. How much would it cost Dot Com to find out this little fantasy is absolutely guaranteed to fail? Two million dollars? It's an obscene waste. If he has that much money to throw in the shitter and actually gives a monkey's toss about the people of his adoptive country he would gain a lot of support if he redirected those funds to the thousands of children in NZ living in poverty. http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/top-stories/22191153/dotcom-launches-his-internet-party/ http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2008/08/04/how-to-spot-a-narcissist/

I completely agree. Apart from the odd exception every Trackside presenter valued and appreciated by viewers has been shown the door by Trackside. These were people with a long history in the game who had real credibility and value. If they saw something that was good they would say so. If they saw something that was not good they would also say so. They were real. They possessed all the qualities experienced viewers want and expect from a racing / gambling presenter. They have all largely been replaced by totally unsuitable presenters that are fronting a gambling / racing TV channel. For the most part they do one or all of the following. Read cue cards State the obvious Just repeat the words of the race caller. Smile They have virtually no credibility with experienced punters etc but they are extremely important to the decision makers at Trackside. They will do what they are told exactly as if they were a puppet. They will be devoid of personality but stick to the script down to the letter. NEVER mention anything negative or controversial. Just pretend everything in the game is 100% perfect. It's like one big completely unreal Saatchi and Saatchi advertisement. Highlight the positive and completely ignore / sweep everything else under the carpet. All very nice but devoid of reality and credibility. It's like watching the news but having it all completely sanitized. Don't show or talk about what's real. Just focus on who won lotto last week and the story of the kitten being rescued from the drain etc etc. Ignore the rest. Everything is just fine and dandy and they all lived happily ever after. How nice. We are all the poorer for it as a result. We should use Australia as our benchmark for presenters. If the TV racing presenter is not good enough to front their racing show then they shouldn't be fronting ours. To be fair on the presenters they all seem like nice people. They are not the issue. The problem is with the people hiring them.