LIFE - Odds and sods

So we're out of the 2007 Rugby World Cup, and the post-game analysis has begun. And while the games are won and lost on the pitch, outside of that I'll say we lost because modern rugby is about:

* Selling little bits of dirt from rugby pitches All Blacks have played on.
* Selling little Dan Carter figures that can't stand up.
* What underwear Dan Carter is wearing.
* What colour jerseys the team will wear (Admittedly we didn't seem too fussed).
* Who's airing how much of 'someone else's' game footage.

...Modern rugby is all about the commercials now. Stuff this. I read in the US, that a while back, college football had increased in popularity at the expense of the NFL because of how commercial professional football had become. And the same thing is happening to international rugby. I'll stick with the Air New Zealand Cup. The All Blacks need to get back to their roots (IMHO) and focus on winning rugby, and stuff all this commercial crap.

Now. On to another topical subject. New Zealand's 2007 Local Government Elections. I saw in the paper that the initial receipt of votes would seem to be indicating an apathetically low rate of voting. Let me tell you this. There are people in Myanmar who have DIED recently to try and get the right to vote which so many of us take for granted. If you don't vote, then you have ABSOLUTELY NO RIGHT to complain once about anything (Be is traffic, the cost of rates, where your kids go to school, the state of local healthcare, trash and tagging, how much is costs to go to the tip, etc). Vote damn it!