This week South Canterbury Finance was placed into receivership and the taxpayer came to the rescue of its mum & pop investors (read: National Party stalwarts)

Despite what has been portrayed by vested-interest groups, mostly south of the Rakaia River, there was and is no conspiracy here in the form of neo-fascist Serious Fraud Office interrogating Hubbard and his wife like a scene from ‘The Deer Hunter.’

No evil, malicious government at work trying to destroy the reputation of an elderly and much revered ‘God fearing’ businessman.

SCF and the intertwined companies lent money to people who couldn’t pay back the interest & who were sitting on depreciating assets many of which now have values less than the loans taken, some near worthless - all at a time when the world economies were in a tail-spin.

Another ‘nail in the coffin’ were the investors who, prudently as it turns-out, pulled their money-out on maturity date rather than re-investing it. Thus the day to day operating cash needed to operate, dried-up.

This scenario in South Canterbury Finance is little different than the demise of other finance companies we have seen lately.

If you lend investors money to a 2nd hand car yard, a pub, a land developer or a dairy conversion group in Waimate etc and the recipients can’t pay back the loan – then make these bad choices time after time - the end result is the same. The bad investments drag- down the good and it all turns pear-shaped.

In the case of South Canterbury finance they made around $600 million of bad calls.

Cries that the fatal-demise of this South Canterbury institution would seriously harm the local Canterbury economy ring-hollow when we (its new default share-holders) learnt about the scope of its bad debts, much of which evaporated in the metro-sexual haunts of Auckland’s viaduct, Marlborough Vineyards, Luxury Apartments in Queenstown, a Resort in Fiji and even the ubiquitous Dave Henderson got his mitts on SCF’s investors loot.

$700 to $800 million went into what NBR termed ‘non viable building projects.’

It was those who made the bad-calls to loan other-peoples life-savings, money to these defaulting parties who are at fault and not the SFO, evil public servants in Wellington.

To quote SCF’s Chief Executive Sandy Maier “South Canterbury’s failure is a result of its own actions and activities and poor decisions historically.”

The fact that one director of a failed finance company lead a more frugal existence, went to church on Sunday, donates to SPCA etc and his failed contemporaries were hedonistic flash Aucklanders driving Mercs means nothing to me as a tax-payer. The end result of their respective business’s is the same – blood on the ground and the tax-payer left holding the can without getting any say.

Why New Zealanders should feel any sympathy for the Directors of SCF versus say Hanover Finance is beyond me?

In-fact Hanover’s melt-down didn’t bleed every New Zealander to the tune of $400 each, just it’s share-holders - which is the way it should be in a capitalist economy.

For the record I never invested in any of these defunct finance companies – yet there is not only people wanting me to pay for other peoples bad choices - on top of that, there is also an element who want me to cry crocodile tears at the way Mr & Mrs Hubbard have been treated as well!

Well Fuck You!

Fuck the socialist National Party!

As a country we can’t pay for teachers wage rises but we can find a billion-plus for investors chasing high returns in what turned-out to be a portfolio with high risk investments.

If you are comfortable investing in speculative ventures like resorts in that coup ridden basket-case Fiji, fly-by-night glitzy pubs, ‘boom & bust’ agricultural enterprises like vineyards – be prepared to lose your shirt.

By-in-large the ungrateful National voting investors in SCF weren’t happy with the conservative returns offered by Trading Banks or the volatility of the share-market. The investors of SCF were happy taking the high-returns but squealed like pigs to gutless politicians when their money disappeared down the tubes.

For those misguided souls that still worship the cult of Hubbard here’s a message - why-not dip-into your own pockets & the moment you can re-invest in South Canterbury Finance & Aorangi Securities again – do so- if this is as you suggest a matter of principal and such a vital asset worth saving?

After-all the best thing his supporters and fellow parishioners can do to show solidarity with Hubbard and his fellow directors is, the moment statutory management is lifted, to place your money in South Canterbury Finance, Aorangi Securities etc (or for that matter one of the hundreds of companies Hubbard is a director in – there’s a couple of hundred from all accounts)

So if you truly back Allan Hubbard forget posting empty platitudes on Facebook sites and instead have the fortitude to take your own money out of your own bank account and not mine.

Forget the holiday on The Gold Coast, sell the boat, caravan, house, pets, send the kids up chimneys etc & the give all your worldly wealth to that honest & benevolent financial genius Allan Hubbard and his ably qualified & proven team at SCF to prudently invest on your behalf.

Say finish off that resort in Fiji that is languishing.

Dave Henderson certainly could do with your $'s currently.

Personally I wouldn’t lend SCF or Aorangi etc a brass rarzoo and I don’t mind saying so.

Last and by no means-least, I also think its high-time some of these privileged self-interested investors who have been bailed-out should take time away from sending the Hubbards condolences cards and say “Thank-You.” to suckers like me.

For the last few centuries Science and Religion have been playing the equivalent of a game of strip-poker.

Religion is now down-to-its last-vestiges of clothing (a frilly pair of woman’s panties as worn by The Pope) and Science is about to place it’s hand, a Royal Flush, on-to the table.

Rather than the conventional deck these cards come embossed with a simple statement of what is about to be revealed as fact.

GOD DID NOT CREATE UNIVERSE

Read some excepts from Hawkings new book ‘The Grand Design’:

“That makes the coincidences of our planetary conditions - the single Sun, the lucky combination of Earth-Sun distance and solar mass - far less remarkable, and far less compelling as evidence that the Earth was carefully designed just to please us human beings."

"Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing.”

“Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist.”

"It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going."

Nothing gets your average garden variety Christian and Muslim’s ‘knickers in a knot’ than kindly reminding devotees they revere the same God.

In-fact the ‘Abrahanic threesome’, comprising Jews, Christians and Muslims, all happen to worship the same supreme-being.

Yes indeed ladies & gentlemen, at the core of all three of these monotheist religions is the same God.

Muslims, Jews and Christians may well give this supreme-being differing names, different interpretations, different off-spring who came to earth, customs etc - but the basis of all three religions is the reverence of the same megalomaniac sky-daddy.

Call him Elohim, All Haqq, Yah, Messiah, Allah, Everlasting Father, Jehovah, Al Basir or any other derivation - make no bones about it – this is the same invisible geezer generically called God and theists of all colours need regular reminding of less than palatable fact.

So when the September 11th hijackers praised God as they crashed their planes causing the deaths of 3,000 innocent victims – the God they exalted is the same one worshipped at your local Baptist or Catholic church.

Bin Laden and The Archbishop of Canterbury adulate the same God.

Glenn Beck and The Taliban exalt the same God.

The Pope and wacko Mullah Omar pray to the same supreme-being.

When you put it in this context it’s easy to see they are all bonkers!

ALLENTOWN, USA: After installing a camera in their daughters bedroom Pennsylvanian parents discover their local Priest, a teacher at her school, was having-it- off with her. As a good Catholic Reverend Luis Bonilla Margarito didn’t bother to check out if his school-girl lover was ‘on the pill’ and resultantly she ended ‘up the duff,’ Parents are suing the local diocese. Reverend Margarito is now the proud father of a baby girl.

BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA: Facing charges of abusing a 12-15 year-old girl over a three year period in his defence Father Murray Moffat claimed it was the girl who led him-on and pursued the relationship. This would explain why he gave her gifts like a push-bike and sweets (an oldie but a goodie) The court found him guilty, his employers thought the best treatment at the time his pedophilia was discovered was a ‘retreat’ and five sessions with a psychiatrist.

BELGIUM: The then head of the Catholic Church in Belgium attempted to stop a victim of sex abuse going to the police and the story going public. Knowing the people she was dealing-with could not be trusted the victim took the liberty of recording the meeting she had with Belgium’s head Cardinal Danneels and Bishop Vagheluwe the accused. Despite attempts at a cover-up the recordings of the meeting were released to Belgium media.

These are just three articles I’ve spotted ‘off the media wires’ in the last 24 hours.

A microcosm of The Catholic Churches institutionalised degenerate activities.

Is there any hope this worldwide abuse will ever stop?

What is the solution if Catholics themselves both ignore and dismiss these daily stories of endemic abuse?

In July of 1973 three car bombs went off in the sleepy Northern Ireland village of Claudy.

The death toll was nine, including children.

Hundreds were injured.

The mastermind of this atrocity was a Northern Ireland Catholic Priest and IRA sympathiser, Fr James Chesney.

In the just released Police ombudsman’s report, 38 years after the terrorist attack, it has been revealed The Catholic Church on both sides of the Irish border knew of Chesney’s murderous role and further-more protected the priest from prosecution.

In damning revelations information has come to light that explosive traces had been found in the boot of Fr Chesney's parish car when he was stopped at an RUC checkpoint in September 1972.

When implicated Chesney gave false testimony to cover-up for himself and his co-conspirators. Similar to cases of pedophilia once ‘the heat went on’ The Catholic Church, under the auspice of it’s then head Cardinal William Conway, conspired to spirit Chesney south to a new position and out of the reaches of the authorities and justice.

The report also reveals that Chesney continued his ‘IRA activities’ in his new diocese - all with full knowledge of those in authority of The Church – who did nothing to stop him or turn him over to Police.

Not unsurprisingly The Irish Catholic Church have long refused, much to the chagrin of victims families, to release its files on their role in harbouring and aiding this terrorist in their midst.

Further proof the Irish Catholic Church knew and abetted in the deaths of eight people and their tacit support of IRA aspirations.

A few years ago one of my daughter’s mates asked if she would accompany her to a ‘Holiday Camp’ over an extended weekend.

This ‘Holiday Camp’ was run by a local church and there would be a modicum of indoctrination occurring in between the outdoor activities.

This was spelt-out on the info sheet my wife and I were handed, along with a form to sign.

The prothletesing we are talking about here was along the lines of happy-clappy dancing and singing praises to a god of which my daughter was totally unfamiliar. Colouring-in pictures of Jesus and listening to Bible stories etc. Strange as it may sound, these are not the sort of everyday activities that go-on in our household.

In short - I had no problem with her attending this Camp and filled-in the section on the parental permission form under ‘religious affiliation’ with ‘not applicable’ and off she went.

As far as I’m aware she enjoyed the experience.

There was certainly no discernable change in her personality on her return, nor did I question her as to the goings-on other than a cursory open-ended “How did it go?”

Now picture this same scenario in a different light.

1.)The parents of a Muslim child are given the same invite
2.)The parents of Christian child are asked to attend an openly atheist camp

What do you think the chances are of their child attending would be?

How do they explain to a twelve year-old the reasons they can’t go is “these are not people we want you to mix with.” and “we are X and they are Y”?

Why didn’t I feel threatened and yet a Muslim and Christian given the same circumstances would?