Written By: - Date published: 9:42 pm, July 1st, 2009 - 11 comments
When we talk politics we often use words like positioning, frame, context – words are a vital part of the programme of political communication. Here’s a really interesting thought from US academic Lera Boroditsky, who asks How does our language shape the way we think? …patterns in a language can indeed play a causal role …
Written By: - Date published: 5:16 pm, July 1st, 2009 - 51 comments
This post by Scott Yorke over at Imperator Fish amused me. It is such an apt description of the differences between the two major political partisan blogs in New Zealand. I like to visit The Standard now and then. There’s an occasional gem to be found there, although an angry hectoring tone largely dominates. The main …
Written By: - Date published: 3:57 pm, July 1st, 2009 - 20 comments
Richard Long, the main man behind Don Brash’s racist Owera speech is just about the poorest propagandist you get: “Why only two to a cell? When that suggestion replaced the blackboard menu outside a cafe in Ngaio, Wellington, a few months ago, it was clear the Government had won the “lock them up and throw …
Written By: - Date published: 3:16 pm, July 1st, 2009 - 105 comments
The Foreshore and Seabed review panel have reported back with the recommendation that the law be scrapped and people be allowed to attempt to prove ownership rights over the foreshore and seabed in court as they can with any other land. Good. Ever since the Government issued a proclamation in 1872 to stop the Native …
Written By: - Date published: 1:57 pm, July 1st, 2009 - 7 comments
This goes out to all the dispossessed emos of Manners Mall, the forgotten victims of Wellington City Council’s new bus lane: [Hat tip: the wellingtonista.]
Written By: - Date published: 1:20 pm, July 1st, 2009 - 11 comments
I wonder if Patrick Gower could keep a straight face while writing this: Social Development Minister Paula Bennett has dropped her additional Disability Issues portfolio because Prime Minister John Key wants her to concentrate on the growing numbers of people losing their jobs. Note his phrasing. Not ‘concentrate on reducing the growing number of people …
Written By: - Date published: 11:59 am, July 1st, 2009 - 55 comments
I am outraged to learn that the Department of Labour told its employees they were not allowed attend the pay equity rally at Parliament yesterday. A leaked email from the department to its staff said: “Attendance at such a demonstration may well be perceived as crossing the line by criticising a decision of the Government. …
Written By: - Date published: 11:52 am, July 1st, 2009 - Comments Off
Fran O’Sullivan had some interesting things to say in today’s Herald on Mark Weldon’s recent address to SOE board members, telling them to develop strategic plans for part-privatisation, first mentioned by Trevor Mallard on Red Alert. This was the most revealing comment: Of course, Weldon’s thesis fits exactly with the drum roll the Government is …
Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, July 1st, 2009 - 21 comments
I see John Key is promising new ideas to stop job-losses: We’ve got an economic strategy … and I intend over the next few weeks to spell out my thinking in that area It strikes me as another one of his vague PR-driven promises. Like the promise he made in March about the initiatives that …
Written By: - Date published: 5:48 am, July 1st, 2009 - 104 comments
Why does this myth that the private sector is better persist in this country? At every turn, the bosses show themselves to be a bunch of greedy, short-sighted half-wits. Take Line 7. Outsourced their production to China. Built their business model on the assumption that the NZD would stay high. Didn’t hedge. NZD, predictably, falls. Business model stuffed. …
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