smoking guns...

what do cannons and prisons have to do with each other.
In the usual run of things not much but existentially in New Zealand  they do.
In the 17th century the British swapped from making bronze to iron cannons and cleaned up as they say.
Prior to that the major artillery makers were the Italians casting in bronze but as  British superiority grew the Italians stayed with bronze but began to make their pieces more and more ornate which diminished their efficiency even further.
The analogy with NZ prisons is this.
They have become more and more festooned with altruistic do-gooders who believe that it is possible to reason with criminals and malefactors to change their minds.
Yeah right.
all sorts of half baked ideas and persons have been allowed to enter the prisons based solely on their own self  recommendation.
This is a very poor way to conduct either punishment or rehabilitation.
As for smith or traynor or whatever he calls himself then hopefully his 10 grand runs out pretty quick and he will probably disappear in some dark alley in Brazil.

John Key cavalier dismissal of his whereabouts is pretty crummy and I guess that is the way with carpetbaggers who dont really understand the concerns of real people.
His defence of ignorance as an excuse is another example of trying to place himself and his own personal wishes over and above the law of the land.
three strikes and he is out.

Memo to  Barack Obama.
Hi Boss.
I see the right wing shriekers are back on your case in the gossipblogs over chewing gum.
They retailing half truths at full price again.
Anyway now is probably not the best time to mention it but the best way to quit is to follow the procedures outline in Gillian Riley's book ,How To Give Up Smoking and Stay Stopped For Good.
That is the journey I took and it worked.