Newstalk ZB have added Cameron Slater to their list of talkback hosts. Radio Live have sacked Keith Stewart, one of the few leftwing radio hosts. He had a very good following apparently so dont understand why they got rid of him. There are now very few lefties on the radio, seems to be a pattern here.
I had the misfortune to tune in when Cameron Slater was on. He was doing the intro and said if anyone had any unwanted Christmas presents? Perhaps like kittens? He’s just a one man wrecking crew. I can understand why his style may appeal to his sycophants, but why on earth would NewstalkZB put him on the radio?
Are you trying to say NewstalkZB is too classy for Cameron Slater?
Have you ever listened to Leighton “Ummmm, Ahhhhhhh, Errrrr, Ahhhhmmmm” Smith, Larry “Lackwit” Williams, Tony “Boot Boy” Veitch, Kerre Woodham, Bruce Russell or Gary Denver?
Please tell us how Cameron Slater is in any way worse or more extreme than any of those hosts?
I’m looking forward to the Open Debate that will be at the centre on the Leadership process in February. The turn out in 2011 was great. The Town Halls in Auckland and Wellington will be needed to accommodate the crowds.
It will be a great chance to convert supporters into Financial Members!
KTo achieve the Open Debate you are looking forward to, means a lot of work needs to be done before hand. You can bet that the ABC faction are not sitting on their hands. I imagine that they will be flat out over the holiday period lobbying Labour MPs, to vote against any Open Debate. (using the promise of promotion and the threat of demotion to get their way). KT to achieve what you seek, the membership need to lobby their local Labour MP even harder. You need to match the threat of demotion with the counter threat of withdrawal of branch electoral support if the wishes of the membership are ignored.
Slater’s exclusive revelation is that disgraced thieving lawyer and “retired” District Court Judge, Michael “what money” Guest (photo top) had made allegations against David Bain relating to Bain arguing at his first trial that he had not worn his mothers prescription glasses, but had later admitted to Guest and co counsel Jonelle Williams that he had in fact worn the glasses the Sunday evening before the killings occurred the following day.
NZ received banana republic status some time back, but it seems these days the place is being taken to the cleaners, to what end!
Again the LF team, provide a decent write up, this and the corrupted judiciary series which can be linked from the main page,
Blubber-boy scores a real own goal there doesn’t He, going mainstream with ‘the sewer’ certainly hasn’t stopped the utter s**t flowing from the fat one,
If Bain was wearing His moms glasses on the Sunday befor the murder of the family that would tend to suggest,(to anyone with half a brain), that His own glasses were already lost to His use and were then likely to have been where they,(the glasses), were later found which doesn’t suit the prosecution’s version of events at all….
QOT, I’ll assume (benefit of doubt) you bothered to read the article linked, and will have realised that the title was a and paste!
Or perhaps you simply chimed in having seen the title in my post, and could not resist the urge to protest the injustice of wording while adding nothing of anything to the discussion about the injustice to David Bain being ratcheted up in the press!
You managed to sucker Marty into the same hollow space too, well done Marty!
Thanks, McFliper. muzza, maybe in future you’d like to include context if it so irks you for people to read the words you choose to use in comments and remark on their general shittiness.
McFlock – No it just means I cut and pasted the orignal text. People getting caught up in language is missing the main points, which illustrates that digital communication can be problematic. Good thing you’re able to read though QoTs intentions though!
QoT – Or perhaps look into the articles context yourself, and comment on the subject not the wording of the title. Seems the irk , is with you!
Marty – Sorry bro, was no ill intended, I ,incorrectly tied your reponse to QoTs lack of value add to the serious injustice being done to David Bane, perpetuated by the establishment. Personally I do not agree with the use of some of the language/wording in the article, but in this instance knowing that there is a vehicle which is speaking out against what is going on to David Bane is the bigger message here, IMO.
Oh, sorry, I forgot the rules.
We should accept othering, marginalisation and hate speech simply because they’re not the “main point”, and are therefore unimportant.
Let us know when it’s okay to start caring about how we treat each other on a daily basis, will you?
Your presumptions are incorrect, and I’m not going to indulge them.
If you would like to offer something on the David Bane situation go ahead, thats what I linked to. Not interested debating the rights or wrongs of the language used, further than I have already.
Quite Marty, which, as pointed out does not actually address the content of the link.
Bain it is McFlock, cheers.
Shitty councilor, corrupt lawyer, yet no new years *honours* for him. Must have not been important enough part of the cover ups/corruption to rate a mention.
Perhaps Guest will extend himself with the Bain *opportunity*, and score himself some *redemptiom* via next years list!
Do what you like McFlock, if language/words in titles or main text detracts from the core message then perhaps thats something which the LF writers might want to consider, ask them, see what you get as a response!
I’ve given my position on it, if you can’t read, or don’t like the position, move on!
Poor wording, possibly, offensive to some, always, hate speech, its not!
Actually, you didn’t give your position on it. You said it was a cut&paste, reckoned that the debate was on the bain thing, took umbrage when called on the fact that this means we should accept othering language because other things are more important, and decided that Guest getting a gong was more important to discuss than othering language. You’ve only just mentioned that you don’t think that using “rent boy” to denigrate someone is hate speech. You mentioned no basis for that position, though.
3.22pm – Mine to Marty Mars
“Personally I do not agree with the use of some of the language/wording in the article, but in this instance knowing that there is a vehicle which is speaking out against what is going on to David Bane is the bigger message here, IMO ”
Actually, you didn’t give your position on it.
Actually I gave it above hours ago, and insinuated no such instruction to anyone on what should or should not bother them. Your presumptions, interpretations and explanations are exceptionally poor today.
Should have used the /sarc tag about Guest, figured you might pick that up, but given the exceptionally poor interpretaions today, clearly I should have used it!
Language is important, thats not been contended, just don’t be sidetracked so readily!
Fair call, I missed the comment explicitly directed at someone else.
But while you issued “no instructions”, you definitely criticised others for “missing the main point” and refused to countenance debate in any subject are you disapproved of.
And frankly, most of the time when I think you’re in the realm of absurdity, you turn out to be stone cold serious. So you might want to tag all your statements for the assistance of people who are on planet earth.
…if language/words in titles or main text detracts from the core message then perhaps thats something which the LF writers might want to consider,
I think QoT and McF are taking it up with you, Muzza. Last I knew there was no rule that you had to link to a headline rather than using your own words or linking to text within the article.
OMG,FFS, surprise surprise Muzza…seems you are up against the same old commissariat tag team. I chose the route to Purgatory because down here our sins are not selective, they are in entirety. We all have sins, even the most bald faced PC blog block warts. There was a holy gent wandering by here talking about the right to cast stones….
But while you issued “no instructions”, you definitely criticised others for “missing the main point” and refused to countenance debate in any subject are you disapproved of.
Dude whats with the absolutes, I don’t believe I criticised anyone, it was only about not being deflected away from the primary subject of the link, which is why I did not want to enter into debate around wording, its not why I had posted the link.
If you want to start a convo about the wording, cool, ill engage, but didn’t fancy it as a spin off of the Bain linked comment, otherwise I would have been getting readily side-tracked (as if ive not been now), which would have been ironic & hypocritical,, given thats what I have been asking others to be cautious of.
And frankly, most of the time when I think you’re in the realm of absurdity, you turn out to be stone cold serious. So you might want to tag all your statements for the assistance of people who are on planet earth.
Written digital comms, very easy to interperet incorrectly from the intent.
Well, if you seriously believe you didn’t come across as criticising anyone, you need to take a class in communication. Actually you probably should, anyway.
And fuck David Bain. As if I thought you cared about that possible injustice any more than any other incident involving death that you bring up here as a hobby.
Well, if you seriously believe you didn’t come across as criticising anyone, you need to take a class in communication. Actually you probably should, anyway.
Irony is a go to play for you innit!
And fuck David Bain. As if I thought you cared about that possible injustice any more than any other incident involving death that you bring up here as a hobby.
Followed by (some inward prejudice perhaps towards DB, or is it general anger, or are you out of smokes), and further incorrect presumptions, and a whiff of accusation, my my McFlock, aren’t we all growns up!
Thing is McFlock, I very much give a damn, but you don’t know me, so you don’t/can’t know that, yet you continue to make incorrect , now abusive assumptions!
For the record, every single act of injustice no matter the scale, or where it happens, not just in NZ, but especially in NZ, has an impact, even to those who are not in the immediate vacinity, or directly affected. Every current global event has an impact on us here in NZ, in some way shape or form.
The negative consequences of events, touches everyone who gives a shit to pay attention, and even those who don’t give a shit, and think that there is no impact to their own life.
Any act of violence, hurt, abuse, neglect, war, famine, poverty, inequality, be it from politicans, bankers, police,, military/intelligence, foreign entities, local entities or the general public, likely as a result of actions/inactions or perpetrated by the afformentioned, does us all damage, it chips away at the collective well being, Attempts to further distort history to hide lies, amplifies the damage, and commits all of us to be living inside of, and with the results, and *solutions* of the lies.
And yet marginalising people on the basis of sexual orientation is fine. Even though it perpetuates inequality, which is apparently one of the things you oppose.
“Any act of violence, hurt, abuse, neglect, war, famine, poverty, inequality, be it from politicans, bankers, police,, military/intelligence, foreign entities, local entities or the general public, likely as a result of actions/inactions or perpetrated by the afformentioned, does us all damage, it chips away at the collective well being”
Repeating homophobic slurs surely falls within this muzza.
You know it’s actually ok to now and then just say “oops, I shouldn’t have said that, sorry”.
Felix – Nah its just I don’t like editing other sites wordings, and didn’t fancy thinking something else up, nothing more to it than that, much as some of you are trying hard to conjure up!.
The link goes to the same place regardless, where you can read the original title and article text, stop picking over semantics with yourself!
Trying, like McFlock and QoT to make some (very weak) case against me for propagating, *hate speech* (McFlock, while being abusive all at the same time), and looking for (suggesting) an apology, seems the brigade might have gotten to you lot eh!
@ McFlock – Take it up with LF bro, see what they say, perhaps my cut & paste violates copyright!
The difference you don’t seem to get is that my “abuse” in this thread is directed solely at you as an individual, and I usually try to avoid belittling entire groups of other people simply to point out that you are a shallow fool who has not the sense to look at their own language.
Whereas you, on the other hand, managed to marginalise homosexuals and sex workers by not recognising the hate speech for what it was. And then saying that it wasn’t the “main point” and so you will make no effort to own it or moderate it in any way, even though it was contained in a link that *you* posted here.
The difference you don’t seem to get is that my “abuse” in this thread is directed solely at you as an individual, and I usually try to avoid belittling entire groups of other people simply to point out that you are a shallow fool who has not the sense to look at their own language.
I get it alright McFlock ,you are intentionally being abusive, thats your language, your words, your choice!
Again, and for the final time, its not my words or my language, (but yes I posted it) I had no inclination or intent to *own or moderate it*!
Take it up with LF if you’re serious about what you’re saying, post the email you send to LF, and any reply you might get back from them on here!
so you made the links and posted the comment, but I should take it up with someone else for you bringing their trash here because the content reproduced here is not your responsibility and you have no inclination to take it.
Felix/McFlock/QoT – The link goes to the same LF article, regardless of the words used to create the link in the post here on TS. The LF article will still have language which you are protesting use of, so yes if you’re genuine, then you would take it up with the LF site McFlock/Felix/QoT. its rather simple! – I look foward to reading your protest email posts to LF, and any response you get!
By your logic I am propagating/repeating *hate speech/homophobic slurs* on *our lawn* (as if I am somehow outside of the *our*, and it belongs to yourself, McFlock. QoT et al?) regardless of linking to the article using the original text, or edited text, it MUST amount to exactly the same propagation, by such logic…..
Which means that your positions, (other than disgracefully trying to prove intent and/or slur me of bigotry/ homophobic hatred etc) MUST be, that people can’t/shouldn’t, etc link to articles, or in this instance, quote link articles, in case someone takes offence at any point in the linking chain! – Yeah, nah!
Good on you Felix, you can’t or won’t defend the logic (which actually leads to the root issue here), and are seemingly ok to go around in circles, deflect/avoid etc, which you are entitled to do!
But, in case you missed it/couldn’t understand/grasp it, and yourself/McFlock/QoT feel like adressing it, (even in your own head is ok, if you’re not wanting to write it) here is again….(new emphasis, for your assistance, para below, line 4/5) – Try to not get confused/hung up by the *own* red herring again, you seemed to be confused by it the first time, recall the use of ?
“By your logic I am propagating/repeating *hate speech/homophobic slurs* on *our lawn* (as if I am somehow outside of the *our*, and it belongs to yourself, McFlock. QoT et al?) regardless of linking to the article using the original text, or edited text, it MUST amount to exactly the same propagation, by such logic…..
Which means that your positions, (other than disgracefully trying to prove intent and/or slur me of bigotry/ homophobic hatred etc) MUST be, that people can’t/shouldn’t, etc link to articles, or in this instance, quote link articles, in case someone takes offence at any point in the linking chain”
The problem you’re having is the word “must” (or MUST, to put it in your terms).
So dispute it then Felix, or keep avoiding it, as you like!
It’s hilarious (by which I mean farking sad) that you think you’re using logic.
I’m not, I have questioned others, and still watching (you currently) avoid the line of questioning, why can’t you answer it Felix, instead of coming back with further deflections?
Pretty simple stuff , which you continue to avoid, why?
You’re claiming that what I said can only possibly mean one thing. That’s what “must” (sorry, MUST) means in the context you used it.
It’s up to you to show that’s the case. Using, you know, logic, which would look something like ‘it must mean this because etc’. All you’ve done so far is make an assertion which no-one is obliged to take as read.
Once you’ve had a go at that and failed (we can all see what I’ve written and it isn’t what you say it is, idiot) then we’ll get onto the other stuff you’ve accused me of, such as “trying to prove intent” which, again, is something you just pulled out of your arse.
In fact, QoT and McFlock made the original allegations about propagation, which was further concured with by your word, so the onus lies with you (QoT/McFlock), just like the irk, lies with QoT, to prove my intent was to propagate *hate speech, and homophobia*. Making such serious false claims against someone is out of order, but not out of character based on your comments here.
Telling me I’m making the claim and to back it up, serves to show how far wrong you have got this one.
The rest of what you write is simply more deflecting garbage.
Come out and openly accuse me of this hate speech/homophobia based propagation, if thats what this is really about, and we will take it from there!
felixviper …
3 January 2013 at 12:41 am
Exactly McF.
He’s dumped a rusty fridge on our lawn and is trying to blame Fisher and Paykel.
“Nah its just I don’t like editing other sites wordings, and didn’t fancy thinking something else up, nothing more to it than that”
Oh I see, it’s not that you’re into spreading bigotry, it’s just that sometimes it’s less effort than not spreading bigotry.
(Semi) clever (thinly veiled) words (my bold, your italic emphasis), which I’m sure you will have an explanation for. No doubt it was just an accusatory enquiry on your part, following your agreement with McFlock!
Muzz, I neither know nor care what your intent was.
The fact is that you chose to spread it, unmitigated and unaltered.
If I were asked to guess what your intent was initially, I’d probably say that it simply didn’t occur to you, as you were distraced by the hard-on that leapt forth in your pants when you found someone who could provide new, verifiable and unbiased information on the topic agreed with your opinions.
Subsequent discussion has revealed that you don’t believe that some marginalising and bigoted statements are worthy of discussion, although trite “sarcastic” statements about regional nonentities are worthy of your effort. Which I believes indicates your priorities when it comes to othering language (depending on who is marginalised).
For future reference (if you want to avoid being called on the “collatoral damage” your comments cause) you can think about the language you are cut&pasting, and if some of the content is bigoted then try to put a little heads up in the link rather than cut&pasting drivel.
Oh I’m sorry, you missed the “The fact is that you chose to spread it, unmitigated and unaltered.”
Is “rent-boy” not used to denigrate WO by likening him to a homosexual sex worker?
Did you spread/propagate it to this forum, even if you weren’t the original author?
Did you reproduce the headline in full?
Did you criticise the choice of language, even if the article might have raised some interesting points?
Or did you suggest that the choice of language was unimportant and should not be discussed, thus asking us to accept bigoted language without comment?
Just to be completely explicit, based on those questions being answered “yes, yes, yes, no, yes”, my answer to you is:
McFlock – Good on you for providing an answer, even to questions which were not asked!
Next question to you:
Would editing the original title text, but linking to the same protested language/article, still constitute propagating *hate speech & homophobia* ? – Yes/No (just this question)
This is why you should take a class. I’m not your fucking communications teacher.
Basically, bigoted language is like a fart. Try and keep it away from others. If you must share it with them, it’s only courtesy to apologise and open a window.
McFlock – You failed to anwser the question, try again please:
Would editing the original title text, but linking to the same protested language/article, still constitute propagating *hate speech & homophobia* ? – Yes/No (just this question)
Because if interacting like a human being was a list of “yes/no” questions, a zx81 could pass the Turing Test.
This is going to be a list of 50-odd boolean questions, each becoming increasingly specific, and each becoming increasingly irrelevant to anything other than the language fail you started with. And you know what? I’m only human, too. So sooner or later I’ll be completely wrong, and lead you into another thread like this. I’m sure some people already think I was being a precious fuckwit. But then some people IRL think I’m a fuckwit, too. But on the flipside some people like me, and most of the people who think I’m a fuckwit are jerkoffs. So fuck them, is what I say. I also say “fuck” a lot IRL. filters out a lot of jerks.
How about you learn social interaction iteratively, like a normal human being?
It starts with consideration as to what people might read, as opposed to simply what you want to say.
In what universe could you possibly construe anything I’ve written to mean that I don’t think you’re spreading bigotry?
Then answer the question!
You’ve already openly admitted that you did, and you already gave your reason: you couldn’t be bothered not doing it.
I’ve admitted no such thing Felix, you’re making shit up twice in the same sentence! Maybe try something, like dropping the double negatives, they seem to lead you into false spaces!
As for the reason,thats not the full context though is it – What I said about cut, paste of the words was (which seems you have misinterpreted)
“Nah its just I don’t like editing other sites wordings, and didn’t fancy thinking something else up, nothing more to it than that”
I think it’s about time you answered my questions now muzza.
You have yet to anwer one yet, so you think wrong!
McFlock – Lets just leave it at that, as there is no point in trying to pander to every possible offence which could be taken, which is what you are implying (and I’m never going to do), and given you wont answer my second question, Ill take the default as being, that you are in fact about censorship of language, and would have answered yes!
Muzz, it’s not “pandering to every possible offense”. It’s simply understanding the meanings of the words you use.
And I’m not saying you shouldn’t link to it, you moron. It’s not like nobody has ever linked to a tangential article but included a warning because the contents might be disturbing or offensive, even if there is an important message there.
Ever here of the “NSFW” (Not Safe for the Workplace) warning? Same sort of thing. So the long answer is “yes with an if”, short answer “no with a but”.
But then you’re obviously just focused on finding a reason to accuse me of censorship, when all I’ve done is suggest that you not be such an idiot and instead try to see through your obsessions and realise that your language might have unintended consequences. Like contributing to the bigotry of the societal system you love to hate.
McFlock – Anger (my impression from your musings here), swearing, personal abuse (towards me) and repetative sexual references about genetalia! (not just todays convo)
Speaking with someone should assist you with all of these as they will be linked, perhaps something to address before you attempt to take any future moralistic position in discussions around use of language, and so forth!
muzza, sure you did. It was in the sentence you just quoted now where you said you copied a bigoted headline because it was easier than writing a new one. The relevant words are “I didn’t fancy thinking something else up“.
To make it simpler for you (ffs this is amazing) we can break it into two questions:
Is the headline bigoted? [Yes/No]
Did you copypasta it? [Yes/No]
The answer to both of those being yes, you’ve admitted that you were spreading bigotry.
When someone associated the patois of the street with anger, yet is still happy to spread bigoted language, then they deserve abuse (much of which in the base lexicon revolves around reproductive systems). And equating the lingua valde francum with moral or intellectual debasement is remarkably shallow. So they flag themselves as a shallow stupid bigot deserving of more personal abuse.
And avoiding the previous comment by criticising your opponent is plain stupid.
As opposed to abusing your opponent while addressing their comments, which is what I like to do if my opponent is a case study of Dunning-Kruger. Prevents boredom.
muzza, sure you did. It was in the sentence you just quoted now where you said you copied a bigoted headline because it was easier than writing a new one. The relevant words are “I didn’t fancy thinking something else up“.
Felix, yes copied the text, but said I found it bigoted, no I did not!
The error you make is thinking you get to choose the relevant words while trying to crystal ball my intent., The key is really the first part of the sentence, where I said I don’t like editing other sites wordings, the second part you favour, (while reading to right to left), is that I dont want to speak on LF’s behalf, by changing their words, when my intent was quoting verbatim!
To make it simpler for you (ffs this is amazing) we can break it into two questions:
Is the headline bigoted? [Yes/No]
Did you copypasta it? [Yes/No]
The answer to both of those being yes, you’ve admitted that you were spreading bigotry
Is it!
Felix, you have answered the first question on behalf of yourself only,. never put words,thoughts or your blatant prejudices in my mouth!
Edit : McFlock, stop promoting yourself bro its about as challenging to see through as an open window, and its not smart!
So when you said you didn’t personally approve of some of the language in the article, you weren’t talking about the homophobic slur in the headline?
That’d be odd.
So which is it, muzza? Either you disapprove of the language but repeated it out of laziness, which is what you’ve been saying all along and I’ve been agreeing with all along, or you’ve changed your mind and now approve of the language.
If you didn’t think it was bigoted, why did you consider changing the language of the headline before you decided that you “didn’t fancy thinking something else up”?
Or did your “I do not agree with the use of some of the language/wording in the article” not actually refer at all to the bit you reproduced here, the headline? If it did refer to the headline, was it bigoted or was there something else about it you disagreed with?
So when you said you didn’t personally approve of some of the language in the article, you weren’t talking about the homophobic slur in the headline?
Personally I was/am not bothered , as you are about the language in the header, I was more interested in the article details How you interpret it (let it affect you) is your personal choice, as it is mine. The LF team do some great investigative work IMO, but they also use alot of language etc, just like McFlock does, which could detract from the articles message, as I made note of. early in this thread. An example would be the word fuck-tard (used heavily by LF), its not really necessary, but I dont microscope it the way you might, and Ill leave the hand wringing to others, its not for me!
That’d be odd.
Really Felix, given the utter shit you and McFlock come up with, that is of no surprise to me!
So which is it, muzza? Either you disapprove of the language but repeated it out of laziness, which is what you’ve been saying all along and I’ve been agreeing with all along, or you’ve changed your mind and now approve of the language.
You have asked the same thing twice, Im only answering it once, and stop making shit up Felix, its getting tedious!
So you didn’t actually give your position on the material you cut&paste. You don’t have a problem with the marginalising aspects of using “rent boy” in a derogatory way. You think the headline language is appropriate.
Fair enough. You don’t just spread bigoted language, you are a bigot. And if you think potty mouth is even close to hate speech, fuck you fucking stupid fucktard. You don’t even realise the difference between addressing an individual and marginalising entire sectors of society.
edit: you’re also a fucking coward for taking this long to actually address the concerns raised yesterday about the headline language. Tool.
Felix /McFlock – Bigot, coward, liar, stupid – Quite some list of defaming/slanderous accusations there, but then, who would argue with the genius of you two intellectual giants, thought police, censorship committee, deciders/defenders of what is/is not abuse on these here boards, and hypocrites of note!
Fortunately, your musings are transparent and callow, the frothing desire to impose blatant shortcomings, and obvious lack of life experience which is not behind a screen, by demanding that others bend to your predisposed prejudicial mind set, leading to predetermined outcomes of your making to *satisfy* yourselves with.
When challenged about questionable motives,(including by the LF representative) and the desperately desired outcome becomes unattainable, abuse, demands, word twisting, (deliberate?) misinterpretations and misdirection become the go to plays, along with other *tools* which seek to subvert the obvious flaws in the attack methods assumption, and the weakness of the protagonists!
This is followed up with the claiming of *victory* for the *entire marginalised sectors of society*, against the perpetrator of the *hate speech & homophobia*. The closing off of the debate, having rigged a TKO decision, and exiting the arena, patting each other on the back with a hoodwink!
Pausing to imagine that the *pseudonym* they have rounded on to impose their views/will/prejudice, could possibly have direct experiences, preferences and affiliations with those same *marginalised sectors of society*, who they proclaim to be defending against such horrifying bigoted actions of the original post, is simply not possible, such amazing personality traits as predjudice/chips on shoulders/superiority complex, prevent it!
Only they get to decide who is marginalised, and who fits in the box to claim marginalised status, and thus *control* what can/can’t be published here and how, as it panders to their insecurites and bias. Muzza, cannot possibly fit in any box in the minds of these two childlike masterminds!
No, the discussion outcome has been (pre) determined, the profile of the handle named muzza, having been *outed*, assumed in iron clad certainty, as the anti, to their hero status!
whew you guys (non-gender specific) that was an enjoyable exchange – from the outside anyway.
muzza after all that the point still seems to be missed – anyone can be offended by an offensive headline and it is their right to be, as I was. Attacking slater with boring overused lazy hurtful descriptions is a pain because it is so unnecessary and there is too much collateral damage. IMO QoT’s inital post was true and I still agree with it. If you choose not to see that muzza then so be it but it is below the line imo to try and defend someone by attacking a disadvantaged group/s whether indirectly or carelessly.
and it could so easlily have been sorted but the discussion has illuminated so thanks.
muzza after all that the point still seems to be missed – anyone can be offended by an offensive headline and it is their right to be, as I was.
People can take offence at anything they like, I have never intented to argue that. I could take offence (if so wanted) on a daily basis, but it achieves very little.
What I do have a problem with, is people making accusations at me (of a very serious nature) based on the *taken offence,* when there was never any intent, (although they tried to *prove* it) and turn it into slanderous filth using disgraceful , inept tactics!
The point was taken Marty, I can tell you that, its the undirectional point taking, which I find hypocritical!
good for you muzza – I simply care about those who can’t defend themselves and get used tactically as derogatory labels to try and insult others. The people that do that are low and deserve a pile of crap on them. In terms of c&p – I think it is a responsibility of a poster to highlight any area that may adversely affect others especially in areas considered “hot’ – that is a courtesy – some people are courteous and others not. This is not necessary if the headline is in alignment with the views of the poster or they just don’t care. But the old “what?” “me?” innocence panto can’t really be used as a defence – although it is often the favorite one.
The links put up give me information on the interests of the poster and there is a linkage between what a poster puts up as a link and the views of that poster and that relates to the language used and alterations/deletions made, even the way it is presented.
Bigot
You spread bigoted language and said that you had no problem with it,
coward
you took 2 days and however many comments to admit you had no problem with it,
liar
you said you’d addressed the point of the language in the headline when you hadn’t,
stupid
self evident.
Nice monologue, though. Always nice to see how the word appears through idiot-tinted glasses.
As an aside, I notice in my previous comment that I used the term “fucktard”. Upon reflection, it seems plausible that the word is a portmanteau of “fuckwit” and “retard”, in which case I might have offended people and loved ones of people with some types of intellectual disability. I withdraw the word and apologise for my carelessness, and will try to avoid that language in the future. Sorry. muzz: it’s not that fucking difficult, do you see?
muzza, maybe in future you’d like to include context….
Use of the words, like (yours) and perhaps (mine), are offers, or suggestions only, not demands (speaking for myself) hence you trying to play smart arse is hardly necessary!
I made a suggestion to improve your future interactions here. You directed what topics I can comment on. Tiny difference, also, you’re the one who kicked this off by uncritically repeating someone’s prejudiced language, so I’ll play as much of a smartass as I like.
I made a suggestion to improve your future interactions here.
Which made no actual comment about the subject matter, almost certainly having not read past the (imported) title of my post
You directed what topics I can comment on.
No, thats how you have interpreted my suggestion of perhaps reading the article, and adding comment, what you do is entirely your choice obviously.
Tiny difference, also, you’re the one who kicked this off by uncritically repeating someone’s prejudiced language,
You have got to be kidding with that one – If you have an issue with the words, take it up with the LF writers, let me know what they say. I’m not interested in pandering to the needs of every/any bias on here, by editing link headers in case someone takes offence!
so I’ll play as much of a smartass as I like.
Cool, sound game plan. Not enough professionalism around these days!
We would suggest that you brush up on your colloquial English as in its usage in AUSTRALIA, we are after all an AUSTRALIAN site.
The term “rent boy” has no exclusive use clause attached to it and its use in the article Muzza has referred to is certainly NOT homophobic. The colloquial/slang term “Rent-boy” is often used to describe various forms of male prostitution, Straight, POLITICAL, MEDIA, sporting and of course Homosexual. The word Prostitution and or any innuendo/inference attached to it, as with the use of the term “Rent-Boy”, has no prescribed exclusive use policy…..at least that was the case when we last checked.
The English language and the written word is ever evolving, that’s why we here in AUSTRALIA like to update/republish our national Dictionary (Macquarie) every so often, but of course KIWI’s can’t afford that sort of educational TOOL as always they rely on Australia to do the heavy lifting.
Whilst on the subject of TOOLS; YOUR allegation of “anti sex-worker insults” is in fact in our view highly SUSPECT as we certainly made no implicit reference whatsoever to sex workers in our piece, nor are we for that matter denigrating of anyone who is gainfully employed within that industry.
Our only reference to prostitution, by inference, was to the POLITICAL prostitute Cameron Slater and our very accurate observation that the “TRUTH” dedicates an inordinate amount of space to its personals classifieds…….the “tongue in cheek” inference being that it is obviously not a credible publication that relies on quality editorial content to achieve sales…….but you obviously missed that point, if in fact you even bothered to read the piece.
Further, we suspect that you, unlike the author of our article “John Keys “rent boy” Cam Slater wants to fuck Bain [badly] using a corrupt District Court Judge.”, are in all likelihood far from an individual who identifies as Gay and thus not qualified to comment…….but of course that’s just our supposition.
Reading the thread below we are also inclined to suspect that your comment (above) had an ulterior motive which unfortunately back-fired; we were in fact alerted to the existence of the comment by an unprecedented volume of traffic being referred to our site by http://www.thestandard.org.nz.
We would recommend that you read these two pieces and then purchase a sense of humour:
Given that you QoTViper are obviously a self-styled dedicated anti-homophobia crusader (Yeah Right!) you will no doubt be getting right in behind our up coming series on the Peter Ellis case.
Have you heard of the bloke? Well if not he’s one of your Gay Kiwi brothers that rotted in jail for around a decade; all as a result of an impossible series of pornographic Hans Christian Andersen inspired fairy tales involving Lions, Giraffes, secret tunnels, trap doors and of course the now infamous black Penis……..now hows that for PC language QoTViper?
In our humble opinion Mr Ellis is yet another victim of your so-called justice system. In fact we will be arguing that he was the victim of a rampantly HOMOPHOBIC macho society, its police force, crown law office and the HOMOPHOBIC political movers and shakers of the era.
In fact, given your obvious concern with homophobia we’re a little surprised that you and your mates (below) are not already doing time for breaching the name suppression orders in and around the Peter Ellis case……..why is that?
New Zealand and its inhabitants are an international laughing stock, but its actually not that funny given that many of your innocent fellow citizens have suffered in the circus that is now destroying New Zealand’s reputation!
In closing we’ve formed the view that you might be more than a little challenged when it comes to distinguishing “shit from clay”, Or perhaps its just that you’re a POLITICAL shit stirrer or then again perhaps just a National Party TROLL………After all neither you, nor any of the tag team assembled below, bothered taking up Muzza’s suggestion (again somewhere below) to contact us for clarification…… so just why was that QoTViper, or are you not one who subscribes to the legal maxim of natural justice?
New Zealand and its inhabitants are an international laughing stock,
Illustrated nicely in the response above by Felix – (lol) -WTF is that about!
NZ has of course been an experiment (on-going), and we see some of the consequences via the protest/responses by the likes of QoT/Felix and McFlock, and the energy expended in fighting against injustice (Fuck David Blain – to quote McFlock), while manufacturing bias based *injustice* born of incorrect perception of their own (programmed) world view. They scramble to both attack and defend injustice simultaneously, while throwing distractions around trying to defend obvious prejudical bias. Failure to understand that there is a bigger picture, and what it might look like , a huge problem!
Much as I would like to think that Felix/QoT/McFlock and others are not representative of the *average kiwi*, experiences and interactions, tell me the optimism is misplaced!
Help me, Jebus! I love the way the writer can’t help launching into a racist tirade against Kiwis, before chiding TS posters for being too sensitive. That certainly makes the use of ‘rent boy’ look less bigoted, eh, what?
Still, at least they are honest about the motivations of their sources; the article notes that they got a copy of the Truth from a regular reader.
“Our supporter bought the paper for the prostitute ads section”.
Agree on a heavy (and increasing) tax being introduced. But I think the idea of dispensing that tax back to consumers is flawed. I’d rather it went to government and was earmarked for a rapid development of carbon free public transport systems. (I can’t remember what info has gone into posts I’ve written to date, but over 40% of NZs CO2 comes from road transport…so replacing private transport with public transport would make a large intitial dent in emissions)
Also, Hanson appears to suggest that a tax would increase the feasability of alternative energy supplies…but alternative energy supplies (infrastructure) takes a fair amount of time to develop and build. So although I’d agree that it needs built, I don’t think it can be relied on it to solve the problem of emissions in the short/medium term. In other words, I’m going along with Anderson who reckons the demand side is absolutely crucial for now.
Interesting that Hansen had to make this proposal in the context of “not increasing the size of government”. Clearly he’s talking to an American audience.
But absolutely it seems that the idea of ‘peak oil’ somehow saving us from our own folly would appear to be a false hope. While we have reached a bumpy production plateau; it would seem that there’s still enough extractable carbon in the ground to be ‘game over’ from a climate perspective.
As Jenny has been saying for sometime now … we actually have to leave the damn stuff in the ground in order to have any hope whatsoever. Given that our whole economy is based on coal, oil, concrete and steel … that has massive implications everywhere. And people know this instinctively.
Personally I think the best hope is for the WAIS and/or Greenland to collapse catastrophically and dramatically raise sea-levels by 2-7m metres in less than a decade … and force the issue globally.
Unfortunately you might be right in saying that a catastrophic event is needed to wake us up. I hope not, because it’s not so easy to respond and adapt when the shit has already hit the fan. And if there is a likelihood of one non-linearity feeding into a subsequent one – eg, loss of arctic ice kick starting methane release…
I suspect you are being too optimistic.
Capitalism, consumerism and the resource extraction required to keep both going are going to grind onwards at the maximum pace that the smartest minds in the world can organise for. Even against ever increasing headwinds and the detriment of growing numbers of people at the bottom.
George Bernard Shaw
Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire; you will what you imagine; and at last you create what you will.
or just follow on from John Lennon’s song…
Imagine if all the parties that do not support asset sales joined together and agreed to and made a public unified announcement *All assets sold will be renationalised on our return to government.*
Quote KV 1/1/13 7.50pm, except I’m proposing all like minded parties put their policy on the line,
“A simple statement by the leader of the opposition re the re-nationalisation of unique or monopoly class assets like the hydro-dams and electricity infrastructure will be a major red-flag highlight of the risk analysis by the Australian, US and Asian investment analysts. All assets sold will be renationalised on our return to government.”
Would love to see an Imagine blog, no judgemental follow ups, just a brain storm of what TS readers would add to the IMAGINE list. Happy 2013.
Is the top left hand corner of the Stuff website main page, it’s version of “page three”? Do they assume that their readership is largely people who want to gaze upon pretty young women as often as possible, regardless of significance of said women?
Yes, they do vary the images a little from time to time, often with laddish stuff like male rugby heroes. But the main default option seems to be those retro pretty young women.
Blow the weather. They always have a story promoted with an image there. This morning it includes images of the things people want to give up in their New Year resolutions – really? Do people actually make those resolutions?
Gotta get NZ news from somewhere. I prefer Stuff to the cluttered mess that is the NZ Herald site . But I also check out Scoop, RNZ and google NZ news.
RNZ-World Watch-“coal consumption increased great and widely last annum
Dom-MOH directive to reduce ED arrivals revealed to St John, despite projected growth in “falls” workload; wtf?
-Hollywood films “bloated” length; Time for Intermissions.
(Pi did not appear that long, or to go on forever and ever, unlike Titanic, yet sadly, long enough)
-US Military “four pillars” is likely a one-legged dog called Old Yellow; a “military to military” relationship with China (60% of the fleet in the Pacific by 2020, budgets sailing through)
RT, we took my 84 and 85yr old parents to the movies yesterday. The last movie they went to was The World’s Fastest Indian and prior to that Forrest Gump so it’s been a while. Funnily enough Dad asked about getting an ice-cream at intermission. We explained that was no longer an option so he’d need to stock up prior to going in. Fortunately as it was Quartet and only 93mins long, it was ok for elderly bladders’! Dad also recalled sound proofed mothers’ rooms with microphones, something I hadn’t known of. I reassured him we wouldn’t be standing to sing God Save the Queen and on a sadder note he also recalled racially segregated Theatres.
Ah we kids knew there was something different about us lot when mum took us to the flicks and She refused to even stand for God Save the Queen, us kids didn’t dare do anything else but follow suit….
“The man who comes back through the Door in the Wall will never be quite the same again -(chauvanistic period)- as the man who went out. He will be wiser but less sure, happier but less self-satisfied, humbler in acknowledging his ignorance yet better equipped to understand the relationship of words to things, of systematic reasoning to the unfathomable mystery which it tries, forever vainly, to comprehend”
-Aldous Huxley : The Doors of Perception
(“but if the prevalence of illicit drugs is any indicator, it seems our people long to see the world afresh again” ) I did and grew Salvia D. (it’s legal, and if you can Master that…you have begun a journey)
but that was a long time ago, in a place far, far away.
We were getting hammered by multiple bingbots running all over the site trying to find out how close to 100% CPU they could make the server run. I was using .htaccess to deny the bot. Unfortunately I hadn’t thought it through and was denying everyone pushed through one of the cloudflare servers (oops). I should have used the cloudflare tools..
I have now taught the bingbot that using a geoip to look at location of our server and then hammering it in the middle of the server’s ‘night’ is not a good idea for our site. Used the bing webmaster tools to say when the middle of the night was.
Umm. Re-reading that I see what you mean. The short version:-
Frigging microsoft was hogging our site and making it slow (hiss!). I stopped them (yay!) and taught them a think or two. But I’m sorry that I screwed up access to the site while I was doing it (contrition).
● Concerned about what the new ‘Social Security (Benefit Category and Work Capacity) Amendment Bill’, currently before the Social Security Committee of Parliament, will bring in the way of PRIVATISED WELFARE in the form of outsourced medical and work capacity assessments, NGO agency involvement and so forth;
● presently on the Sickness or Invalid’s Benefit, or likely to have to apply for these, or the future Jobseeker Support Payment, or the Living Support Payment benefits;
● who are working in the health, disability or any related areas, involved with assessing, caring for, supporting or otherwise working with sick, disabled or injured, dependent on welfare support;
● who are advocates for the above types of persons, or activists, seriously concerned and ready to take actions to avoid serious harm, suffering and unreasonable pressures to be placed on sick, injured and disabled;
● who are perhaps presently on ACC, or are likely to be claimants for serious health and injury issues causing disability and incapacity to work, and who may in some cases also still end up with WINZ on their benefits.
The following article ‘A Tale of two Models: Disabled People vs Unum, Atos, Government and Disability Charities’ – by Debbie Jolly, DPAC, is a MUST to read, as it reveals how key players in the form of the UK state department DWP, the private insurer Unus and private work capacity and medical assessor ATOS, have and are working together, to restrict entitlements for sick, injured or disabled depending on state support.
Key professional players are mentioned, who have in part been on the payroll of questionable private insurer Unus, or worked for organisations or institutes set up under that insuer’s and the state’s funding, who have worked together, linked together, refrained from disclosing interests, and thus were involved in high level lobbying and introduction of major, restrictive reforms to welfare in the UK.
Names turn up, who should be well familiar to any person, who has ever read, listened to or seen any of the highly one sided presentations by the Principal Health Advisor for Work and Income, and paid for by MSD, Dr David Bratt, a staunch promoter of a “work ability focus” already, who is involved here in New Zealand (together with other key players in the game), to bring in very harsh, questionable reforms, that have led to serious harm, psychological distress, untold pressures and even increased suicides in the UK.
It is time to be informed, be alert, take a solid stand, and to voice opposition to the most draconian, unfair, not evidence based, unbalanced and unreasonable welfare reforms New Zealand has seen since the early 1990s.
I am yet to read the link and will do so carefully.
Did you see this today?
ACC pays $61m to patients injured in care
“Figures related to Fairfax under the Official Information Act show the 10 most expensive treatment injury claims totalled $3.2 million in the last financial year.”
“A total of 61.3m was paid to 7832 people for treatment injuries in the same year.”
Not hard to see why people end up on ACC and then they are chucked onto a Work and Income NZ benefit (sickness/invalid) and Work and Income NZ now want to say that thousands of people got good treatment within the health system.
I have not yet addressed the Work and Income NZ cases where the health system are not diagnosing or treating them.
The DSM – V due out in 2013 is only going to make the stats higher for medical misadventure.
Happy New Year to those who are at the mercy of the health system because Work and Income NZ now want to poke you; the new carrot and the stick.
So 61.3 million paid to 7,832 claimants is on average only $ 7,826.86 per person.
Of course that sounds like a fair bit of money to some, but what is the “news-worthiness” of this, as the costs are likely to have been totally justified, and the payments needed to cover essential treatment and so forth?!
Taking the 3.2 million for the 10 most expensive claims out leaves 58,100,000 to divide by 7822 leaves $ 7,427.77 per person on average.
With operation costs ranging from tens to hundreds of thousands per case, it is not surprising that there will be some quite expensive claims resulting in such figures. Other measures may over time also cost a lot.
That Stuff.Co article is just typical mainstream media figure juggling and so forth. It is actually quite detrimental to write such one sided articles, as it tries to give the impression to Joe Average and Jill Average, that there is too much money being spent, so measures need to be taken to make cuts and to tighten up on entitlements.
If only some more people would use a calculator do get some more realistic figures, and above all their brains, to get a hang of what really goes on, we would not have a debate about some misleading political agendas.
Precisely xtasy. The same’s done with the “total welfare bill” with no recognition of increased numbers of people qualifying and the huge decreases in what individuals receive. Even NZ Superannuation is often thrown in for good measure. Same with benefit “fraud” statistics. The whole thing’s a sham to make it look like government spending is out of control. It’s nasty stuff, but gives us more reason to be even more vigilant to make sure people are given the opportunity to see the truth.
My criticism was not really so much directed at you, Treetop!
I know where you come from, it is the costs of unacceptable levels of medical misadventure, and I can tell you, this is just the tip of the iceberg, as not all is covered by ACC.
What about cases going unnoticed, because patients die, commit suicide, are unable to make a claim due to incapacity as a result of mental and physical damages, and the list goes on!
What also about “misadventure” in the mental health areas???
I have first hand experience with a scandalous case of more or less criminal negligence of a person I know, yet the health board used the Privacy Act and other laws to block all information applied for, while the patient in question did not have the ability or guts to take it further!
So much goes under the radar, it is not funny. And who pays for the costs? The tax payer, who reads such articles like the one in The Press, part of Fairfax Media, who also own and run Stuff.Co., and then thinks, wow, am I paying for all this???
Yes, the article should have raised more issues than just present a few swiftly arranged figures! Appalling modern day, laissez faire, lazy journalism!
Just to add: I know it is a bit long an article, but it is quite interesting, revealing and full of valuable information about persons and stakeholders involved, as well giving a good historic overview of how things evolved in the UK.
Part 2 I find much more important as part 1, as in part 1 the writer largely reflects on the “social model”, how it came about, is being viewed now, and so forth.
It is terminology like “bio-psycho-social” aspects, and the use of such terminology in models favoured by welfare privatisers now, in the UK and NZ, that gives real reasons to worry about where the journey is going!
A story regarding Lesley Longstone which is only now surfacing following her sacking/resignation.
Apparently Longstone was a very caring and compassionate person. A few weeks before she exited she was walking out of a supermarket in Wellington. She saw an old lady struggling to get her shopping into a car. Longstone walked over and asked the old lady “can you manage love?”
The old lady gave Longstone a mouth full followed by the finger. As she was climbing into the car the old lady muttered “you applied for the job, you came half way round the world for the job, with Hekia in place, you can have it”.
I wont comment on Longstones character, I don’t know her or have any experience of her, so in my book she remains innocent of charges, accusations, conjecture etc, What I do have experience of is the “MBA” class of corporate mercenaries, hired guns making nasty policies hit the road running regardless of human impact. There is a whole international class of them, hired guns with a method but no excuse, bar the threadbare shibboleths of their masters ideology. Lesley appears to be one of them.
just idling along https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/542100_10151150888055957_863074373_n.jpg
at least The Standard’s not usually a matinee showing for children, which reminds me, eyed a copy of Lies at 4 Square…now the Rogue has a long-held intuition (that’s all it is mind) about this matter, having The Dark Half that is fading gently away, and observed and studied sociopathy and psychopathy in detail, yet i am not and never will be a juror…Oh Well, Time Will Tell, very sad outcomes for dysfunctional families.
Now regarding Health Politics, I am encouraging my good friend who is primary health care nurse to come out of the bushes (Woodwork,Woodworm,Wormwood or Worm-tongue?) and share her learnings which are to the left, for example, the damage that MARGERINE is doing to peoples circulatory systems and the outcomes when body defenses act to dislodge the buildup of product not far removed from plastic (common knowledge amongst the medical profession apparently), yet it’s Budget. I have said it before and I’ll say it again BIG FAT LIES http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13519011-big-fat-lies
Joe Bennett writes well and irreverently in Todays Dominion and other The Press
(gypsy or Tiger?)
from the desert, by 2016, the Populations of Palestinians and Jewish people in Israel and the Occupied territories will be similar in number and by 2020 Palestinians will be the numerical majority
(may need another few tents)
HBToday: Intoxication Intoxication Intoxication with some UV Radiation slapped in for the price.
(House prices are going to continue to climb in ak; Excellent writing and insight ak)
RNZ were repeating an article about the lack of Central and Local Govt wiil towards the educational advancement of our Pacifica Citizens (consider, the decline of manufacturing, without stereo-typing) underemployment and diet.
Any chance you can set up an autoplay thing which takes you through each track one at a time in an ongoing loop? And maybe provide an email address on your website that people (and aliens) can contact you on…
If I knew how to do any of that, I would.
I obviously have trouble enough with the music, let alone getting the website how I want it.
I’ll ask a friend.
My thinking is name the ‘band’ al1en.org and just put a buy now/donate button on the site.
Direct from source, no middle men, no expenses, 100% for the cause.
Do have a look at it though ‘cos it is really simple to use and does a whole lot of stuff, in the long run a lot simpler than doing a whole lot of simple things yourself if you know what I mean. Also costs nothing except (I think) 15% if you’re selling stuff.
I’ve used soundcloud to post up demos before, and I like the new interface, but I think I’ll stick with my own site for now.
I tried to get funding from NZonair for the faeces record, sort a fuck off to Key’s constituency chairman complaining about the inside child poverty documentary that inspired me to start this project, but found that unless you’ve had existing success, a large fan base, or live following, there’s not much chance of it happening, save winning a monthly talent show at http://www.theaudience.co.nz/ for a 6k grant.
I’ll put it up if people keep voting for it. See if they’ve got the balls if it won.
Use the system to beat the system, or at least make it uncomfortable.
NZonair funding is a strange beast, aloof, nepotistic and arcane. At some point most people have to decide whether the time and energy spent navigating the system, kissing the appropriate arses, and jumping through the requisite hoops might be better spent writing recording and performing for audiences of actual people.
Sooo, all the international stock exchanges are in a good mood again today, the “fiscal cliff” has been averted, that is the silly story going around the news tickers. What a load of bollocks! So the Democrats and Republicans in the US agree to a 2 month postponement for resolving and addressing the expenditure issues, and tax increases will only be hitting those over 400 k per annum, or about that.
Yes, what a bloody “achievement”, but nothing has been resolved or achieved. The quantitative easing will need to continue, burdens will be shifted around, ultimately to be paid by the bulk of middle class and certainly the poor, and no solution is there, to get more balance in international trade, to get rid of deficits that have accrued, and to create a desperately new economic order for the whole globe, to steer away from neo capitalist agendas playing off populations between nations, between societies within nations (classes), and to keep wasting energy, that took tens to hundreds of millions of years to be created.
What about climate change issues, are we getting any solution there?
No, nada, zilch, nichts, rien, rien ne va plus, indeed, and we get the shit mainstream media give us snippets of infotainment distraction about what is supposedly going on in the world. Where is the NZ media even reporting about details about all this?
I am afraid, the NZ media is in the process of being dissolved and got rid off, as the private corporate remnants of controlling commercial media outlets have just signed the last deal, to advertise for the status quo, to uphold our dear Hawaiian Leader Maximus Incomprehensiblus, mumbling from “leader” to “leader” across the political ditches, that are crossed by going surfing and BBQing together at some stage, to mend the society, and to run the real dictatorship NZ has become. Thank you John and David (who?), we know what goes on down under.
Yesterday I received come lovely feedback following my Star Wars themed newsletter. A few people mentioned they’d enjoyed reading the personal part at the beginning.I often begin newsletters with some memories, or general thoughts, before commencing the main topic. This hopefully sets the mood and provides some context in which ...
April 30 was going to be the day we’d be calling Mum from London to wish her a happy birthday. Then it became the day we would be going to St. Paul's at Evensong to remember her. The aim of the cathedral builders was to find a way to make their ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
The Government Communications Security Bureau denies hosting a foreign spying capability flagged by the watchdog, differentiating it from the system recently criticised. ...
RNZ News A group of academic staff at New Zealand’s largest university have expressed concern at the administration’s move to block a protest encampment that was planned to take place on campus calling for support for the rights of Palestinians. This week, the University of Auckland warned that while it ...
Genterwocky After a hard days marching, Sir Doocey calls in at the Village Tavern For a pint of ale and a pork pie. The grim villagers stare at him. “Do not be travelling on the forest road,” warns a crusty old beak. “And why is that, antique peasant?” Grins Sir ...
Political conferences after a party returns to power are usually a chance for some healthy, even unhealthy backslapping. Yet National Party president Sylvia Wood’s address to its mainland representatives on Saturday hardly contained the unalloyed delight that one might have expected following National’s escape from the wilderness of opposition. Yes, ...
Comment: Almost half the world is voting in national elections this year and artificial intelligence is the elephant in the room. There are genuine fears AI-generated or AI-edited deepfakes will potentially manipulate election outcomes not just in the US and UK, but critically in countries such as India. For that ...
Ahead of the reality franchise’s return to New Zealand, allow us to introduce the eight brides and grooms. Chuck on a veil and tie back your man bun, because it’s time to say “I do” to a new season of Married at First Sight NZ. The reality TV “social experiment” ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Norton, Professor in the Practice of Higher Education Policy, Australian National University Every year on June 1, student debt in Australia is indexed to inflation. In 2023, high inflation pushed the indexation rate to 7.1%, the highest since 1990. This ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Changes in the May 14 budget will cut the student debt of more than three million people, wiping more than $3 billion from what people owe. The government will cap the HELP indexation rate ...
Asia Pacific Report The prosecutor’s office at the International Criminal Court (ICC) has appealed for an end to what it calls intimidation of its staff, saying such threats could constitute an offence against the “administration of justice” by the world’s permanent war crimes court. The Hague-based office of ICC Prosecutor ...
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk A women’s union in New Caledonia has staged a sit-in protest this week to support senior Kanak indigenous journalist Thérèse Waia, who works for public broadcaster Nouvelle-Calédonie la Première, after a smear attack by critics. The peaceful demonstration was held on ...
New Zealand Food Safety is monitoring overseas recalls of Indian packaged spice products manufactured by MDH and Everest due to concerns over a cancer-causing pesticide. ...
By Stephen Wright and Stefan Armbruster of BenarNews Fiji’s ranking in a global press freedom index has jumped into the top tier of countries with free or mostly free media after its government last year repealed a draconian law that threatened journalists with prison for doing their jobs. Fiji’s improvement ...
We might be in Invercargill but all anyone can talk about is Gore. Specifically, Salford Street. That’s where three-year-old Lachlan Jones lived, south of the centre of town, between the A&P Showgrounds and the Mataura River. Roughly 1.2 km away from the single level home he lived in with his ...
MONDAY I lined up the latest round of civil servants from city hall against the wall, and signalled for the firing squad to drop their rifles. I stepped up onto a wooden crate to look at the office workers in the eye. But that didn’t feel right, so I found ...
Keen hiker and second-year MSc student Liam Hewson wears two hats when he’s in the great outdoors. “The scientist in me appreciates nature and goes, ‘Oh, there’s that thing and there’s another thing,’ but then the tramper and the outdoorsy person in me thinks, ‘Cool bush.’” Born and bred in ...
After a long and illustrious career as a goal kicker, Dan Carter’s favourite way to unwind is… kicking goals. Why can’t he get enough of it? And what it’s like to watch him do it for an hour straight? A semicircle of people wielding cameras and phones has formed in ...
Dame Susan Devoy takes us through her life in television, including late night ER debriefs, her proudest CTI moment and the show she watches in secret. Quite aside from her four world champion squash titles, Dame Susan Devoy will likely go down in history as one of the best Celebrity ...
Hera Lindsay Bird reveals the best places in Ōtepoti to score more for your apocalypse-prep book hoard.Sometimes I get the feeling I’ve been killed in a car crash, and this second half of my life is just the brain unspooling itself, like one of those episodes of a hospital ...
ThreeNow’s new murder mystery series takes us on a dark, damp journey into the Australian wilderness.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. High Country is ThreeNow’s new Australian eight-part crime drama, set in a remote part of the Victorian highlands. It tells ...
Introducing a new way to read The Spinoff every weekend. After nearly 10 years of being an online magazine, we’re finally embracing the weekend liftout. Despite our best efforts to convince you otherwise, writers and editors at The Spinoff don’t work weekend. It is through the sheer power of technology ...
Tip one: let yourself be nurtured by this big old man. Tip two: don’t ask him to adopt you. So, you’ve arrived at your first session with a new therapist. He tells you to make yourself comfortable and you opt for the tweed armchair, hoping it makes you look like ...
I didn’t know books could open you back up; that there were books that stayed with you, where reading was like a chemical event. I knew nothing.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.Not too long ago, I was listening to the American ...
Former Olympic swimmer James Magnussen has already started training for the Enhanced games, though says he won’t start taking performance enhancing substances until about nine months out from the competition. The Australian world champion was the first athlete to be announced by Enhanced, but he says the organisation has had ...
Everyone thinks he’s dead. Every day they expect his body to be washed up along the coast. Most likely up Karitane way, the way the tide’s running. But nobody’ll be too surprised if his body’s never found. Even in death he wouldn’t have wished for such attention. He would have ...
Council members voted 21 to 4 in favour of Ahluwalia returning to the Laucala campus following a much-awaited meeting in Vanuatu this week. It comes as USP and its two unions — the Association of the University of the South Pacific Staff (AUSPS) and the Administration and Support Staff Union ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicola Henry, Professor & Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Social and Global Studies Centre, RMIT University Shutterstock Following an emergency meeting of the National Cabinet this week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a raft of measures to tackle the problem ...
Analysis - A poll showing the opposition is more popular than the government raises questions, politicians go through their 'trial by pay rise' and a Green MP loses her cool in the debating chamber. ...
The entire stretch of Tokomaru Bay on the East Coast will be subject to a joint customary marine title for two hapū, and extending up to four miles out to sea. A High Court judge has found the two groups, who during the case settled a dispute over boundaries for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Hall, Lecturer, Media & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University A longstanding feud between TikTok and Universal Music Group seems to have finally reached an end, with both parties signing a deal that will see Universal-backed music returned to the social media ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Siobhan O’Dean, Postdoctoral Research Associate, The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney After several highly publicised alleged murders of women in Australia, the Albanese government this week pledged more than A$925 million over five years ...
Political parties have now fully disclosed the donations they received last year - with National getting more than double the cash of any other party. ...
A Pacific regionalism expert has called out New Zealand's Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS military pact. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard de Grijs, Professor of Astrophysics, Macquarie University Bruno Scramgnon/Pexels All systems are “go” for tonight’s launch of China’s next step in a carefully planned lunar exploration program. Placed on top of a powerful Long March 5 rocket, the Chang’e 6 ...
National returned a massive donation the day after a Newsroom story linked the donors to a property being investigated for operating unlawfully as a migrant workers’ hostel. The party’s 2023 donation filings, released on Friday, show it returned a $200,000 donation from Buen Holdings on August 23. That was the ...
Pacific Media Watch New Zealand has slumped to an unprecedented 19th place in the annual Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index survey released today on World Press Freedom Day — May 3. This was a drop of six places from 13th last year when it slipped out of its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joshua Black, Political Historian and Administrator Officer, Australian Historical Association, Australian National University Australia has had its fair share of public record-keeping controversies in recent years. Some have been mere farce, as in the case of two formerly government-owned filing cabinets (containing ...
Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), a United Nations-affiliated organization dedicated to fostering peace through civilian-led initiatives, has issued a statement in response to the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. ...
A poem by Tessa Keenan, from AUP New Poets 10. Mātou These days we are a photograph; one of a farm strewn with cows that used to be bright harakeke or swamp. The kids point at it and say the sun sits behind a smudge (left by someone at Christmas); ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Faber & Faber, $25)The masterful Irish writer ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. Key facts Marriages and civil unions In ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lennon Y.C. Chang, Associate Professor of Cyber Risk and Policy, Deakin University Taiwan stands out as a beacon of democracy, innovation and resilience in an increasingly autocratic region. But this is under growing threat. In recent years, China has used a variety ...
In this excerpt from her new memoir, Dame Susan Devoy remembers her turn as star contestant on the 2022 season of Celebrity Treasure Island. The most anxious time of every day was pre-elimination, when you knew this could be your final day on the show. I felt such contradictory emotions, ...
A week that began in triumph ended in an all-too-familiar disaster for the Green Party. Duncan Greive asks if there’s something in the mission that breaks its best and brightest. A long, strange week for the Green party began with a fantastic poll result. On one level this is hardly ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Vanuatu’s former prime minister and opposition MP Ishmael Kalsakau has stepped down — just two days after he confirmed he was the rightful opposition leader. Kalsakau, MP for Port Vila, confirmed to ABC’s Pacific Beat, and the Vanuatu Daily Post on Thursday that he ...
What’s to blame for the coalition’s choppy start? Six months in, and the mojo meter is in the doldrums. A new poll would put National out of power and sees its leader, Chris Luxon, sliding in popularity. How much is it about policy, how much coalition management and a perception ...
The striking report goes far beyond the proposed repeal of the Oranga Tamariki Act’s Treaty of Waitangi provision, and its impact should be felt far beyond the unique circumstances of the claim it addresses. Earlier this week, the Waitangi Tribunal released an interim report on the government’s proposed repeal of ...
The world has been experiencing a productivity slowdown, from which New Zealand has not been exempt. COVID-19 temporarily boosted labour productivity, but more recently, productivity has retreated. The overall trend since 2007 has been one of slow productivity ...
What’s more wasteful than spending $315k on syrup and machine maintenance? Trying to drum up a controversy about it.Cast your mind back to the pre-pandemic idylls of 2019. A “rat” was a disgusting rodent and not a self-administered plague test; the sixth Labour government was in power; and the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Fitz-Gibbon, Professor of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, Monash University, Monash University Ken stocker/Shutterstock In the wake of numerous killings of women allegedly by men’s violence in 2024, thousands of Australians have joined rallies across the country to demand action ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Henry Cutler, Professor and Director, Macquarie University Centre for the Health Economy, Macquarie University Oleg Ivanov IL/Shutterstock Waiting times for public hospital elective surgery have been in the news ahead of this year’s federal budget. That’s the type of non-emergency surgery ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Konstantine Panegyres, McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow, Historical and Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne Amna Artist/Shutterstock One of the earliest descriptions of someone with cancer comes from the fourth century BC. Satyrus, tyrant of the city of Heracleia on the Black Sea, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Rose, Professor of Sustainable Future Transport, University of Sydney LanaElcova/Shutterstock Electric vehicles are often seen as the panacea to cutting emissions – and air pollution – from transport. Is this view correct? Yes – but only once uptake accelerates. Despite the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Giselle Natassia Woodley, Researcher and Phd Candidate, Edith Cowan University There is widespread agreement Australia needs to do better when it comes to gender-based violence. Anger and frustration at the numbers of women being killed saw national rallies over the weekend and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Graham, Lecturer in Economics, University of Sydney Mark and Anna Photography/Shutterstock As home ownership moves further out of reach for many Australians, “rentvesting” is being touted as a lifesaver. Rentvesting is the practice of renting one property to live ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sukhmani Khorana, Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, UNSW Sydney Netflix The new season of Heartbreak High is garnering mixed reviews. Critics are writing about the racy story lines, comparing it to other coming-of-age series about teenage relationships and ...
Bob Carr intends to launch legal action against Winston Peters and Julie Anne Genter is facing a second allegation of bullying. Both sucked the air out of an announcement on education, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in ...
Dumb New Zealand
NewstalkZB, Wednesday January 2, 2013, 6:25 a.m.
It’s quiz time on NewstalkZB….
TIM DOWER: If you were suffering from consumption, would you (a) have eaten too much Christmas pudding, or (b) would it be something else?
CALLER: [long pause] Consumption? [long, long pause] Ahhhhhhmmm, I’m gonna have to go with (a) eaten too much Christmas pudding.
DOWER: No, but I’ll give you another try. The answer iiiiiiiiis?…..
CALLER: The other one.
DOWER: Yes. Well done! I’ll get your details so we can send you your prize; stay on the line, will you?
INTERESTING FACT: One of NewstalkZB’s mottoes is “Tune Your Mind.”
I always suspected….
Newstalk ZB have added Cameron Slater to their list of talkback hosts. Radio Live have sacked Keith Stewart, one of the few leftwing radio hosts. He had a very good following apparently so dont understand why they got rid of him. There are now very few lefties on the radio, seems to be a pattern here.
I had the misfortune to tune in when Cameron Slater was on. He was doing the intro and said if anyone had any unwanted Christmas presents? Perhaps like kittens? He’s just a one man wrecking crew. I can understand why his style may appeal to his sycophants, but why on earth would NewstalkZB put him on the radio?
Marty:
“I can understand why his style may appeal to his sycophants, but why on earth would NewstalkZB put him on the radio?”
Maybe many of their listeners are “sycophants”?
Are you trying to say NewstalkZB is too classy for Cameron Slater?
Have you ever listened to Leighton “Ummmm, Ahhhhhhh, Errrrr, Ahhhhmmmm” Smith, Larry “Lackwit” Williams, Tony “Boot Boy” Veitch, Kerre Woodham, Bruce Russell or Gary Denver?
Please tell us how Cameron Slater is in any way worse or more extreme than any of those hosts?
I’m looking forward to the Open Debate that will be at the centre on the Leadership process in February. The turn out in 2011 was great. The Town Halls in Auckland and Wellington will be needed to accommodate the crowds.
It will be a great chance to convert supporters into Financial Members!
Do you think that there is the numbers in caucus willing to trigger that ‘debate’ in February???…
At the conference in November ’11 the majority of the membership’s delegates voted
For: an open and robust debate that gives them an insight into the policy and leadership capabilities and styles of the contenders.
Against: back-office deals and arm twisting to force another pyric 100% endorsement of a leader and a choking of membership power.
KTo achieve the Open Debate you are looking forward to, means a lot of work needs to be done before hand. You can bet that the ABC faction are not sitting on their hands. I imagine that they will be flat out over the holiday period lobbying Labour MPs, to vote against any Open Debate. (using the promise of promotion and the threat of demotion to get their way). KT to achieve what you seek, the membership need to lobby their local Labour MP even harder. You need to match the threat of demotion with the counter threat of withdrawal of branch electoral support if the wishes of the membership are ignored.
John Keys “rent boy” Cam Slater wants to fuck Bain [badly] using a corrupt District Court Judge.
NZ received banana republic status some time back, but it seems these days the place is being taken to the cleaners, to what end!
Again the LF team, provide a decent write up, this and the corrupted judiciary series which can be linked from the main page,
Blubber-boy scores a real own goal there doesn’t He, going mainstream with ‘the sewer’ certainly hasn’t stopped the utter s**t flowing from the fat one,
If Bain was wearing His moms glasses on the Sunday befor the murder of the family that would tend to suggest,(to anyone with half a brain), that His own glasses were already lost to His use and were then likely to have been where they,(the glasses), were later found which doesn’t suit the prosecution’s version of events at all….
Because it’s simply impossible to criticise Cameron Slater without resorting to cheap homophobic/anti-sex-worker insults. 🙄
+ 1 I’m sick of it.
QOT, I’ll assume (benefit of doubt) you bothered to read the article linked, and will have realised that the title was a and paste!
Or perhaps you simply chimed in having seen the title in my post, and could not resist the urge to protest the injustice of wording while adding nothing of anything to the discussion about the injustice to David Bain being ratcheted up in the press!
You managed to sucker Marty into the same hollow space too, well done Marty!
oh ffs.
So because homophobic/anti-sex-worker insults were used off site, that makes their inclusion in the dialogue on or offsite okay?
QoT wasn’t saying YOU originated it. Just that there is no place in it to criticise WO.
WO belittles himself enough with no effort needed from anyone else, imo.
Thanks, McFliper. muzza, maybe in future you’d like to include context if it so irks you for people to read the words you choose to use in comments and remark on their general shittiness.
McFlock – No it just means I cut and pasted the orignal text. People getting caught up in language is missing the main points, which illustrates that digital communication can be problematic. Good thing you’re able to read though QoTs intentions though!
QoT – Or perhaps look into the articles context yourself, and comment on the subject not the wording of the title. Seems the irk , is with you!
Marty – Sorry bro, was no ill intended, I ,incorrectly tied your reponse to QoTs lack of value add to the serious injustice being done to David Bane, perpetuated by the establishment. Personally I do not agree with the use of some of the language/wording in the article, but in this instance knowing that there is a vehicle which is speaking out against what is going on to David Bane is the bigger message here, IMO.
Oh, sorry, I forgot the rules.
We should accept othering, marginalisation and hate speech simply because they’re not the “main point”, and are therefore unimportant.
Let us know when it’s okay to start caring about how we treat each other on a daily basis, will you?
Your presumptions are incorrect, and I’m not going to indulge them.
If you would like to offer something on the David Bane situation go ahead, thats what I linked to. Not interested debating the rights or wrongs of the language used, further than I have already.
Yeah. You got his name wrong.
And Guest was a shitty city councilor, too.
But there’s still no reason for anyone to use hate speech.
muzza, my intrepretation of QoTViper’s comment was based on
“Because it’s simply impossible to criticise Cameron Slater without resorting to cheap homophobic/anti-sex-worker insults. :roll:”
there is not much about bain in there.
Quite Marty, which, as pointed out does not actually address the content of the link.
Bain it is McFlock, cheers.
Shitty councilor, corrupt lawyer, yet no new years *honours* for him. Must have not been important enough part of the cover ups/corruption to rate a mention.
Perhaps Guest will extend himself with the Bain *opportunity*, and score himself some *redemptiom* via next years list!
So we’re just supposed to *ignore* other injustices and hate speech until *you* feel they’re *important* enough to address.
Do you *really* think that mediocre *honours* for a provincial *nonentity* are more important than hate speech?
Do what you like McFlock, if language/words in titles or main text detracts from the core message then perhaps thats something which the LF writers might want to consider, ask them, see what you get as a response!
I’ve given my position on it, if you can’t read, or don’t like the position, move on!
Poor wording, possibly, offensive to some, always, hate speech, its not!
Actually, you didn’t give your position on it. You said it was a cut&paste, reckoned that the debate was on the bain thing, took umbrage when called on the fact that this means we should accept othering language because other things are more important, and decided that Guest getting a gong was more important to discuss than othering language. You’ve only just mentioned that you don’t think that using “rent boy” to denigrate someone is hate speech. You mentioned no basis for that position, though.
Unimpressive.
3.22pm – Mine to Marty Mars
“Personally I do not agree with the use of some of the language/wording in the article, but in this instance knowing that there is a vehicle which is speaking out against what is going on to David Bane is the bigger message here, IMO ”
Actually I gave it above hours ago, and insinuated no such instruction to anyone on what should or should not bother them. Your presumptions, interpretations and explanations are exceptionally poor today.
Should have used the /sarc tag about Guest, figured you might pick that up, but given the exceptionally poor interpretaions today, clearly I should have used it!
Language is important, thats not been contended, just don’t be sidetracked so readily!
Even by your standards McFlock, yes, yes it is!
lol
Fair call, I missed the comment explicitly directed at someone else.
But while you issued “no instructions”, you definitely criticised others for “missing the main point” and refused to countenance debate in any subject are you disapproved of.
And frankly, most of the time when I think you’re in the realm of absurdity, you turn out to be stone cold serious. So you might want to tag all your statements for the assistance of people who are on planet earth.
I think QoT and McF are taking it up with you, Muzza. Last I knew there was no rule that you had to link to a headline rather than using your own words or linking to text within the article.
OMG,FFS, surprise surprise Muzza…seems you are up against the same old commissariat tag team. I chose the route to Purgatory because down here our sins are not selective, they are in entirety. We all have sins, even the most bald faced PC blog block warts. There was a holy gent wandering by here talking about the right to cast stones….
Actually, this is the first time QoT and I have been on the same side in a while.
But language is important. There’s really no need for collatoral damage when talking about whaleoil. He’s enough of a jerk already.
Yeah no worries on missing it, easily done.
Dude whats with the absolutes, I don’t believe I criticised anyone, it was only about not being deflected away from the primary subject of the link, which is why I did not want to enter into debate around wording, its not why I had posted the link.
If you want to start a convo about the wording, cool, ill engage, but didn’t fancy it as a spin off of the Bain linked comment, otherwise I would have been getting readily side-tracked (as if ive not been now), which would have been ironic & hypocritical,, given thats what I have been asking others to be cautious of.
Written digital comms, very easy to interperet incorrectly from the intent.
So anyway, David Bain eh!
Well, if you seriously believe you didn’t come across as criticising anyone, you need to take a class in communication. Actually you probably should, anyway.
And fuck David Bain. As if I thought you cared about that possible injustice any more than any other incident involving death that you bring up here as a hobby.
Irony is a go to play for you innit!
Followed by (some inward prejudice perhaps towards DB, or is it general anger, or are you out of smokes), and further incorrect presumptions, and a whiff of accusation, my my McFlock, aren’t we all growns up!
keep stroking that ego, muzz. And avoid making eye contact with yourself in the mirror.
Dunedin’s a small town, mate. Some of us are sick to death of conceited little jerkoffs like you pretending to give a damn.
Thing is McFlock, I very much give a damn, but you don’t know me, so you don’t/can’t know that, yet you continue to make incorrect , now abusive assumptions!
For the record, every single act of injustice no matter the scale, or where it happens, not just in NZ, but especially in NZ, has an impact, even to those who are not in the immediate vacinity, or directly affected. Every current global event has an impact on us here in NZ, in some way shape or form.
The negative consequences of events, touches everyone who gives a shit to pay attention, and even those who don’t give a shit, and think that there is no impact to their own life.
Any act of violence, hurt, abuse, neglect, war, famine, poverty, inequality, be it from politicans, bankers, police,, military/intelligence, foreign entities, local entities or the general public, likely as a result of actions/inactions or perpetrated by the afformentioned, does us all damage, it chips away at the collective well being, Attempts to further distort history to hide lies, amplifies the damage, and commits all of us to be living inside of, and with the results, and *solutions* of the lies.
I understand that, do you!
And yet marginalising people on the basis of sexual orientation is fine. Even though it perpetuates inequality, which is apparently one of the things you oppose.
Your principles seem somewhat precisely targeted.
“Any act of violence, hurt, abuse, neglect, war, famine, poverty, inequality, be it from politicans, bankers, police,, military/intelligence, foreign entities, local entities or the general public, likely as a result of actions/inactions or perpetrated by the afformentioned, does us all damage, it chips away at the collective well being”
Repeating homophobic slurs surely falls within this muzza.
You know it’s actually ok to now and then just say “oops, I shouldn’t have said that, sorry”.
snap
Felix – Nah its just I don’t like editing other sites wordings, and didn’t fancy thinking something else up, nothing more to it than that, much as some of you are trying hard to conjure up!.
The link goes to the same place regardless, where you can read the original title and article text, stop picking over semantics with yourself!
Trying, like McFlock and QoT to make some (very weak) case against me for propagating, *hate speech* (McFlock, while being abusive all at the same time), and looking for (suggesting) an apology, seems the brigade might have gotten to you lot eh!
@ McFlock – Take it up with LF bro, see what they say, perhaps my cut & paste violates copyright!
The difference you don’t seem to get is that my “abuse” in this thread is directed solely at you as an individual, and I usually try to avoid belittling entire groups of other people simply to point out that you are a shallow fool who has not the sense to look at their own language.
Whereas you, on the other hand, managed to marginalise homosexuals and sex workers by not recognising the hate speech for what it was. And then saying that it wasn’t the “main point” and so you will make no effort to own it or moderate it in any way, even though it was contained in a link that *you* posted here.
I get it alright McFlock ,you are intentionally being abusive, thats your language, your words, your choice!
Again, and for the final time, its not my words or my language, (but yes I posted it) I had no inclination or intent to *own or moderate it*!
Take it up with LF if you’re serious about what you’re saying, post the email you send to LF, and any reply you might get back from them on here!
so you made the links and posted the comment, but I should take it up with someone else for you bringing their trash here because the content reproduced here is not your responsibility and you have no inclination to take it.
Been taking lessons from dunnokeyo, have you?
Exactly McF.
He’s dumped a rusty fridge on our lawn and is trying to blame Fisher and Paykel.
“Nah its just I don’t like editing other sites wordings, and didn’t fancy thinking something else up, nothing more to it than that”
Oh I see, it’s not that you’re into spreading bigotry, it’s just that sometimes it’s less effort than not spreading bigotry.
Felix/McFlock/QoT – The link goes to the same LF article, regardless of the words used to create the link in the post here on TS. The LF article will still have language which you are protesting use of, so yes if you’re genuine, then you would take it up with the LF site McFlock/Felix/QoT. its rather simple! – I look foward to reading your protest email posts to LF, and any response you get!
By your logic I am propagating/repeating *hate speech/homophobic slurs* on *our lawn* (as if I am somehow outside of the *our*, and it belongs to yourself, McFlock. QoT et al?) regardless of linking to the article using the original text, or edited text, it MUST amount to exactly the same propagation, by such logic…..
Which means that your positions, (other than disgracefully trying to prove intent and/or slur me of bigotry/ homophobic hatred etc) MUST be, that people can’t/shouldn’t, etc link to articles, or in this instance, quote link articles, in case someone takes offence at any point in the linking chain! – Yeah, nah!
1. Where did I exclude you from “our”? Be specific. Show me or apologise please.
2. You dumped it, you made a decision to do that, so take responsibility for it.
1: LOL Felix, youre reaching, and attempting to distract!
2: Take responsibility for your own logic, or contest my contention of it, see where it leads you!
You accused me of excluding you from something with a statement I made.
Show the statement.
It had a ?, which is not an absolute Felix, its a variable!
Stop running around in circles, contest your logic or STFU!
Ah, I see. You’re a fuckwit? with comprehension problems.
Good on you Felix, you can’t or won’t defend the logic (which actually leads to the root issue here), and are seemingly ok to go around in circles, deflect/avoid etc, which you are entitled to do!
But, in case you missed it/couldn’t understand/grasp it, and yourself/McFlock/QoT feel like adressing it, (even in your own head is ok, if you’re not wanting to write it) here is again….(new emphasis, for your assistance, para below, line 4/5) – Try to not get confused/hung up by the *own* red herring again, you seemed to be confused by it the first time, recall the use of ?
Fin!
The problem you’re having is the word “must” (or MUST, to put it in your terms).
It’s hilarious (by which I mean farking sad) that you think you’re using logic.
So dispute it then Felix, or keep avoiding it, as you like!
I’m not, I have questioned others, and still watching (you currently) avoid the line of questioning, why can’t you answer it Felix, instead of coming back with further deflections?
Pretty simple stuff , which you continue to avoid, why?
You’re making the claim, back it up yourself.
You’re claiming that what I said can only possibly mean one thing. That’s what “must” (sorry, MUST) means in the context you used it.
It’s up to you to show that’s the case. Using, you know, logic, which would look something like ‘it must mean this because etc’. All you’ve done so far is make an assertion which no-one is obliged to take as read.
Once you’ve had a go at that and failed (we can all see what I’ve written and it isn’t what you say it is, idiot) then we’ll get onto the other stuff you’ve accused me of, such as “trying to prove intent” which, again, is something you just pulled out of your arse.
In fact, QoT and McFlock made the original allegations about propagation, which was further concured with by your word, so the onus lies with you (QoT/McFlock), just like the irk, lies with QoT, to prove my intent was to propagate *hate speech, and homophobia*. Making such serious false claims against someone is out of order, but not out of character based on your comments here.
Telling me I’m making the claim and to back it up, serves to show how far wrong you have got this one.
The rest of what you write is simply more deflecting garbage.
Come out and openly accuse me of this hate speech/homophobia based propagation, if thats what this is really about, and we will take it from there!
No, you’re making claims about what I said.
I take great personal offense at being told that I’ve said things I haven’t said and I’d like you to show me where I said these things or apologise.
What’s unreasonable about that? If I really have been “trying to prove intent” then you’ll be able to show where.
If I really did say something that must mean I think that “people can’t/shouldn’t, etc link to articles”, then you’ll be able to show where.
Get it, dick? So far you’ve shown nothing of the sort, because I didn’t say either of those things. If I had, you’d have been able to show where.
Any reason you think should be able to make up these lies about me and not apologise, my quite stupid but quite wriggly little friend?
(ps everything I’ve accused you of, you’ve admitted to already so you can drop that particular line of bullshit, thanks)
(Semi) clever (thinly veiled) words (my bold, your italic emphasis), which I’m sure you will have an explanation for. No doubt it was just an accusatory enquiry on your part, following your agreement with McFlock!
I don’t see which part of that you’re disputing, muzza.
How about you break down the intention of your words Felix – 3 January 2013 at 12:41 am, and explain them simply and clearly, step through it?
Then there’s reduced chance of misunderstandings!
What of it? It means exactly what it says – you chose to copypasta the bigoted headline because it was easier to repeat it than to re-word it.
Anything there you disagree with? If so, say which bit.
Not too interested in stating what your intent in the words is eh Felix!
In your words, I have posted a bigoted headlined link, so are are your words
intended to accuse me of propagating *hate speech & homophobia* or not?
Muzz, I neither know nor care what your intent was.
The fact is that you chose to spread it, unmitigated and unaltered.
If I were asked to guess what your intent was initially, I’d probably say that it simply didn’t occur to you, as you were distraced by the hard-on that leapt forth in your pants when you found someone who
could provide new, verifiable and unbiased information on the topicagreed with your opinions.Subsequent discussion has revealed that you don’t believe that some marginalising and bigoted statements are worthy of discussion, although trite “sarcastic” statements about regional nonentities are worthy of your effort. Which I believes indicates your priorities when it comes to othering language (depending on who is marginalised).
For future reference (if you want to avoid being called on the “collatoral damage” your comments cause) you can think about the language you are cut&pasting, and if some of the content is bigoted then try to put a little heads up in the link rather than cut&pasting drivel.
McFlock (same question as I asked Felix)- For the record, do you accuse me of propagating *hate speech and homophobia* – Yes/No
Felix – I’ll wait to hear your response to the same question, which I asked you above – Yes/No
Oh I’m sorry, you missed the “The fact is that you chose to spread it, unmitigated and unaltered.”
Is “rent-boy” not used to denigrate WO by likening him to a homosexual sex worker?
Did you spread/propagate it to this forum, even if you weren’t the original author?
Did you reproduce the headline in full?
Did you criticise the choice of language, even if the article might have raised some interesting points?
Or did you suggest that the choice of language was unimportant and should not be discussed, thus asking us to accept bigoted language without comment?
Just to be completely explicit, based on those questions being answered “yes, yes, yes, no, yes”, my answer to you is:
YES
McFlock – Good on you for providing an answer, even to questions which were not asked!
Next question to you:
Would editing the original title text, but linking to the same protested language/article, still constitute propagating *hate speech & homophobia* ? – Yes/No (just this question)
oh ffs.
This is why you should take a class. I’m not your fucking communications teacher.
Basically, bigoted language is like a fart. Try and keep it away from others. If you must share it with them, it’s only courtesy to apologise and open a window.
McFlock – You failed to anwser the question, try again please:
Would editing the original title text, but linking to the same protested language/article, still constitute propagating *hate speech & homophobia* ? – Yes/No (just this question)
Amazing.
In what universe could you possibly construe anything I’ve written to mean that I don’t think you’re spreading bigotry?
You’ve already openly admitted that you did, and you already gave your reason: you couldn’t be bothered not doing it.
If you’ve changed your mind about that and are offering some other reason, go right ahead and say so. It won’t help your case though.
I think it’s about time you answered my questions now muzza.
Because if interacting like a human being was a list of “yes/no” questions, a zx81 could pass the Turing Test.
This is going to be a list of 50-odd boolean questions, each becoming increasingly specific, and each becoming increasingly irrelevant to anything other than the language fail you started with. And you know what? I’m only human, too. So sooner or later I’ll be completely wrong, and lead you into another thread like this. I’m sure some people already think I was being a precious fuckwit. But then some people IRL think I’m a fuckwit, too. But on the flipside some people like me, and most of the people who think I’m a fuckwit are jerkoffs. So fuck them, is what I say. I also say “fuck” a lot IRL. filters out a lot of jerks.
How about you learn social interaction iteratively, like a normal human being?
It starts with consideration as to what people might read, as opposed to simply what you want to say.
Then answer the question!
I’ve admitted no such thing Felix, you’re making shit up twice in the same sentence! Maybe try something, like dropping the double negatives, they seem to lead you into false spaces!
As for the reason,thats not the full context though is it – What I said about cut, paste of the words was (which seems you have misinterpreted)
“Nah its just I don’t like editing other sites wordings, and didn’t fancy thinking something else up, nothing more to it than that”
You have yet to anwer one yet, so you think wrong!
McFlock – Lets just leave it at that, as there is no point in trying to pander to every possible offence which could be taken, which is what you are implying (and I’m never going to do), and given you wont answer my second question, Ill take the default as being, that you are in fact about censorship of language, and would have answered yes!
felix, muzz now chooses to only understand monosyllabic boolean responses to his/her interrogative statements.
Just fyi.
Muzz, it’s not “pandering to every possible offense”. It’s simply understanding the meanings of the words you use.
And I’m not saying you shouldn’t link to it, you moron. It’s not like nobody has ever linked to a tangential article but included a warning because the contents might be disturbing or offensive, even if there is an important message there.
Ever here of the “NSFW” (Not Safe for the Workplace) warning? Same sort of thing. So the long answer is “yes with an if”, short answer “no with a but”.
But then you’re obviously just focused on finding a reason to accuse me of censorship, when all I’ve done is suggest that you not be such an idiot and instead try to see through your obsessions and realise that your language might have unintended consequences. Like contributing to the bigotry of the societal system you love to hate.
McFlock – Anger (my impression from your musings here), swearing, personal abuse (towards me) and repetative sexual references about genetalia! (not just todays convo)
Speaking with someone should assist you with all of these as they will be linked, perhaps something to address before you attempt to take any future moralistic position in discussions around use of language, and so forth!
Thanks McF, I’ll try.
muzza, sure you did. It was in the sentence you just quoted now where you said you copied a bigoted headline because it was easier than writing a new one. The relevant words are “I didn’t fancy thinking something else up“.
To make it simpler for you (ffs this is amazing) we can break it into two questions:
Is the headline bigoted? [Yes/No]
Did you copypasta it? [Yes/No]
The answer to both of those being yes, you’ve admitted that you were spreading bigotry.
Muzz, that’s one of the advantages to swearing.
When someone associated the patois of the street with anger, yet is still happy to spread bigoted language, then they deserve abuse (much of which in the base lexicon revolves around reproductive systems). And equating the lingua valde francum with moral or intellectual debasement is remarkably shallow. So they flag themselves as a shallow stupid bigot deserving of more personal abuse.
And avoiding the previous comment by criticising your opponent is plain stupid.
As opposed to abusing your opponent while addressing their comments, which is what I like to do if my opponent is a case study of Dunning-Kruger. Prevents boredom.
Felix, yes copied the text, but said I found it bigoted, no I did not!
The error you make is thinking you get to choose the relevant words while trying to crystal ball my intent., The key is really the first part of the sentence, where I said I don’t like editing other sites wordings, the second part you favour, (while reading to right to left), is that I dont want to speak on LF’s behalf, by changing their words, when my intent was quoting verbatim!
Is it!
Felix, you have answered the first question on behalf of yourself only,. never put words,thoughts or your blatant prejudices in my mouth!
Edit : McFlock, stop promoting yourself bro its about as challenging to see through as an open window, and its not smart!
So when you said you didn’t personally approve of some of the language in the article, you weren’t talking about the homophobic slur in the headline?
That’d be odd.
So which is it, muzza? Either you disapprove of the language but repeated it out of laziness, which is what you’ve been saying all along and I’ve been agreeing with all along, or you’ve changed your mind and now approve of the language.
If you didn’t think it was bigoted, why did you consider changing the language of the headline before you decided that you “didn’t fancy thinking something else up”?
Or did your “I do not agree with the use of some of the language/wording in the article” not actually refer at all to the bit you reproduced here, the headline? If it did refer to the headline, was it bigoted or was there something else about it you disagreed with?
edit: fuckballs
another edit: shitsnap felix 🙂
Personally I was/am not bothered , as you are about the language in the header, I was more interested in the article details How you interpret it (let it affect you) is your personal choice, as it is mine. The LF team do some great investigative work IMO, but they also use alot of language etc, just like McFlock does, which could detract from the articles message, as I made note of. early in this thread. An example would be the word fuck-tard (used heavily by LF), its not really necessary, but I dont microscope it the way you might, and Ill leave the hand wringing to others, its not for me!
Really Felix, given the utter shit you and McFlock come up with, that is of no surprise to me!
You have asked the same thing twice, Im only answering it once, and stop making shit up Felix, its getting tedious!
Muzz, I refer you to my comment here and your reply.
So you didn’t actually give your position on the material you cut&paste. You don’t have a problem with the marginalising aspects of using “rent boy” in a derogatory way. You think the headline language is appropriate.
Fair enough. You don’t just spread bigoted language, you are a bigot. And if you think potty mouth is even close to hate speech, fuck you fucking stupid fucktard. You don’t even realise the difference between addressing an individual and marginalising entire sectors of society.
edit: you’re also a fucking coward for taking this long to actually address the concerns raised yesterday about the headline language. Tool.
Finally we get there.
I don’t think muzza has any idea what he’s just said, but it’s about the third time he’s admitted it and I’m sure anyone else can see it so I’m out.
On record as a bigot, a coward, and a liar, and too stupid to notice.
Felix /McFlock – Bigot, coward, liar, stupid – Quite some list of defaming/slanderous accusations there, but then, who would argue with the genius of you two intellectual giants, thought police, censorship committee, deciders/defenders of what is/is not abuse on these here boards, and hypocrites of note!
Fortunately, your musings are transparent and callow, the frothing desire to impose blatant shortcomings, and obvious lack of life experience which is not behind a screen, by demanding that others bend to your predisposed prejudicial mind set, leading to predetermined outcomes of your making to *satisfy* yourselves with.
When challenged about questionable motives,(including by the LF representative) and the desperately desired outcome becomes unattainable, abuse, demands, word twisting, (deliberate?) misinterpretations and misdirection become the go to plays, along with other *tools* which seek to subvert the obvious flaws in the attack methods assumption, and the weakness of the protagonists!
This is followed up with the claiming of *victory* for the *entire marginalised sectors of society*, against the perpetrator of the *hate speech & homophobia*. The closing off of the debate, having rigged a TKO decision, and exiting the arena, patting each other on the back with a hoodwink!
Pausing to imagine that the *pseudonym* they have rounded on to impose their views/will/prejudice, could possibly have direct experiences, preferences and affiliations with those same *marginalised sectors of society*, who they proclaim to be defending against such horrifying bigoted actions of the original post, is simply not possible, such amazing personality traits as predjudice/chips on shoulders/superiority complex, prevent it!
Only they get to decide who is marginalised, and who fits in the box to claim marginalised status, and thus *control* what can/can’t be published here and how, as it panders to their insecurites and bias. Muzza, cannot possibly fit in any box in the minds of these two childlike masterminds!
No, the discussion outcome has been (pre) determined, the profile of the handle named muzza, having been *outed*, assumed in iron clad certainty, as the anti, to their hero status!
LOL
whew you guys (non-gender specific) that was an enjoyable exchange – from the outside anyway.
muzza after all that the point still seems to be missed – anyone can be offended by an offensive headline and it is their right to be, as I was. Attacking slater with boring overused lazy hurtful descriptions is a pain because it is so unnecessary and there is too much collateral damage. IMO QoT’s inital post was true and I still agree with it. If you choose not to see that muzza then so be it but it is below the line imo to try and defend someone by attacking a disadvantaged group/s whether indirectly or carelessly.
and it could so easlily have been sorted but the discussion has illuminated so thanks.
Hi Marty, bigot muzza here
People can take offence at anything they like, I have never intented to argue that. I could take offence (if so wanted) on a daily basis, but it achieves very little.
What I do have a problem with, is people making accusations at me (of a very serious nature) based on the *taken offence,* when there was never any intent, (although they tried to *prove* it) and turn it into slanderous filth using disgraceful , inept tactics!
The point was taken Marty, I can tell you that, its the undirectional point taking, which I find hypocritical!
You did not do this, others have!
good for you muzza – I simply care about those who can’t defend themselves and get used tactically as derogatory labels to try and insult others. The people that do that are low and deserve a pile of crap on them. In terms of c&p – I think it is a responsibility of a poster to highlight any area that may adversely affect others especially in areas considered “hot’ – that is a courtesy – some people are courteous and others not. This is not necessary if the headline is in alignment with the views of the poster or they just don’t care. But the old “what?” “me?” innocence panto can’t really be used as a defence – although it is often the favorite one.
The links put up give me information on the interests of the poster and there is a linkage between what a poster puts up as a link and the views of that poster and that relates to the language used and alterations/deletions made, even the way it is presented.
anyway…
Bigot
You spread bigoted language and said that you had no problem with it,
coward
you took 2 days and however many comments to admit you had no problem with it,
liar
you said you’d addressed the point of the language in the headline when you hadn’t,
stupid
self evident.
Nice monologue, though. Always nice to see how the word appears through idiot-tinted glasses.
As an aside, I notice in my previous comment that I used the term “fucktard”. Upon reflection, it seems plausible that the word is a portmanteau of “fuckwit” and “retard”, in which case I might have offended people and loved ones of people with some types of intellectual disability. I withdraw the word and apologise for my carelessness, and will try to avoid that language in the future. Sorry.
muzz: it’s not that fucking difficult, do you see?
QoT – Or perhaps look into the articles context yourself, and comment on the subject not the wording of the title.
No, muzza, you don’t actually get to tell me what to do.
Did you forget what preceeded that suggestion…
Use of the words, like (yours) and perhaps (mine), are offers, or suggestions only, not demands (speaking for myself) hence you trying to play smart arse is hardly necessary!
I made a suggestion to improve your future interactions here. You directed what topics I can comment on. Tiny difference, also, you’re the one who kicked this off by uncritically repeating someone’s prejudiced language, so I’ll play as much of a smartass as I like.
Which made no actual comment about the subject matter, almost certainly having not read past the (imported) title of my post
No, thats how you have interpreted my suggestion of perhaps reading the article, and adding comment, what you do is entirely your choice obviously.
You have got to be kidding with that one – If you have an issue with the words, take it up with the LF writers, let me know what they say. I’m not interested in pandering to the needs of every/any bias on here, by editing link headers in case someone takes offence!
Cool, sound game plan. Not enough professionalism around these days!
sucker marty here – umm I wasn’t meaning you muzza
We would suggest that you brush up on your colloquial English as in its usage in AUSTRALIA, we are after all an AUSTRALIAN site.
The term “rent boy” has no exclusive use clause attached to it and its use in the article Muzza has referred to is certainly NOT homophobic. The colloquial/slang term “Rent-boy” is often used to describe various forms of male prostitution, Straight, POLITICAL, MEDIA, sporting and of course Homosexual. The word Prostitution and or any innuendo/inference attached to it, as with the use of the term “Rent-Boy”, has no prescribed exclusive use policy…..at least that was the case when we last checked.
The English language and the written word is ever evolving, that’s why we here in AUSTRALIA like to update/republish our national Dictionary (Macquarie) every so often, but of course KIWI’s can’t afford that sort of educational TOOL as always they rely on Australia to do the heavy lifting.
Whilst on the subject of TOOLS; YOUR allegation of “anti sex-worker insults” is in fact in our view highly SUSPECT as we certainly made no implicit reference whatsoever to sex workers in our piece, nor are we for that matter denigrating of anyone who is gainfully employed within that industry.
Our only reference to prostitution, by inference, was to the POLITICAL prostitute Cameron Slater and our very accurate observation that the “TRUTH” dedicates an inordinate amount of space to its personals classifieds…….the “tongue in cheek” inference being that it is obviously not a credible publication that relies on quality editorial content to achieve sales…….but you obviously missed that point, if in fact you even bothered to read the piece.
Further, we suspect that you, unlike the author of our article “John Keys “rent boy” Cam Slater wants to fuck Bain [badly] using a corrupt District Court Judge.”, are in all likelihood far from an individual who identifies as Gay and thus not qualified to comment…….but of course that’s just our supposition.
Reading the thread below we are also inclined to suspect that your comment (above) had an ulterior motive which unfortunately back-fired; we were in fact alerted to the existence of the comment by an unprecedented volume of traffic being referred to our site by http://www.thestandard.org.nz.
We would recommend that you read these two pieces and then purchase a sense of humour:
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/schools-news/170815/madly-politically-correct
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8128866/Bastards-booze-wheres-our-sense-of-humour
Given that you QoTViper are obviously a self-styled dedicated anti-homophobia crusader (Yeah Right!) you will no doubt be getting right in behind our up coming series on the Peter Ellis case.
Have you heard of the bloke? Well if not he’s one of your Gay Kiwi brothers that rotted in jail for around a decade; all as a result of an impossible series of pornographic Hans Christian Andersen inspired fairy tales involving Lions, Giraffes, secret tunnels, trap doors and of course the now infamous black Penis……..now hows that for PC language QoTViper?
In our humble opinion Mr Ellis is yet another victim of your so-called justice system. In fact we will be arguing that he was the victim of a rampantly HOMOPHOBIC macho society, its police force, crown law office and the HOMOPHOBIC political movers and shakers of the era.
In fact, given your obvious concern with homophobia we’re a little surprised that you and your mates (below) are not already doing time for breaching the name suppression orders in and around the Peter Ellis case……..why is that?
New Zealand and its inhabitants are an international laughing stock, but its actually not that funny given that many of your innocent fellow citizens have suffered in the circus that is now destroying New Zealand’s reputation!
In closing we’ve formed the view that you might be more than a little challenged when it comes to distinguishing “shit from clay”, Or perhaps its just that you’re a POLITICAL shit stirrer or then again perhaps just a National Party TROLL………After all neither you, nor any of the tag team assembled below, bothered taking up Muzza’s suggestion (again somewhere below) to contact us for clarification…… so just why was that QoTViper, or are you not one who subscribes to the legal maxim of natural justice?
lol.
Illustrated nicely in the response above by Felix – (lol) -WTF is that about!
NZ has of course been an experiment (on-going), and we see some of the consequences via the protest/responses by the likes of QoT/Felix and McFlock, and the energy expended in fighting against injustice (Fuck David Blain – to quote McFlock), while manufacturing bias based *injustice* born of incorrect perception of their own (programmed) world view. They scramble to both attack and defend injustice simultaneously, while throwing distractions around trying to defend obvious prejudical bias. Failure to understand that there is a bigger picture, and what it might look like , a huge problem!
Much as I would like to think that Felix/QoT/McFlock and others are not representative of the *average kiwi*, experiences and interactions, tell me the optimism is misplaced!
“Illustrated nicely in the response above by Felix – (lol) -WTF is that about!”
It’s all the response that semi-literate drivel deserved.
Yep, this massive overreactive rant has certainly put me in my place.
Help me, Jebus! I love the way the writer can’t help launching into a racist tirade against Kiwis, before chiding TS posters for being too sensitive. That certainly makes the use of ‘rent boy’ look less bigoted, eh, what?
Still, at least they are honest about the motivations of their sources; the article notes that they got a copy of the Truth from a regular reader.
“Our supporter bought the paper for the prostitute ads section”.
Wow! (that’s all I can say) phew, sure gets hot in the outback, especially today I hear; I pray no more lives are lost.
“He said (Binnie) the issue was largely irrelevant because there was no evidence showing Mr Bain was wearing the glasses at the time of the murders.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10856832
Glasses are not an issue.
People love to tangle up truths and half truths and throw in some bull shit for good measure.
James Hansen speaking to a Union conference:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-dbmqhon5TY
Agree on a heavy (and increasing) tax being introduced. But I think the idea of dispensing that tax back to consumers is flawed. I’d rather it went to government and was earmarked for a rapid development of carbon free public transport systems. (I can’t remember what info has gone into posts I’ve written to date, but over 40% of NZs CO2 comes from road transport…so replacing private transport with public transport would make a large intitial dent in emissions)
Also, Hanson appears to suggest that a tax would increase the feasability of alternative energy supplies…but alternative energy supplies (infrastructure) takes a fair amount of time to develop and build. So although I’d agree that it needs built, I don’t think it can be relied on it to solve the problem of emissions in the short/medium term. In other words, I’m going along with Anderson who reckons the demand side is absolutely crucial for now.
Interesting that Hansen had to make this proposal in the context of “not increasing the size of government”. Clearly he’s talking to an American audience.
But absolutely it seems that the idea of ‘peak oil’ somehow saving us from our own folly would appear to be a false hope. While we have reached a bumpy production plateau; it would seem that there’s still enough extractable carbon in the ground to be ‘game over’ from a climate perspective.
As Jenny has been saying for sometime now … we actually have to leave the damn stuff in the ground in order to have any hope whatsoever. Given that our whole economy is based on coal, oil, concrete and steel … that has massive implications everywhere. And people know this instinctively.
Personally I think the best hope is for the WAIS and/or Greenland to collapse catastrophically and dramatically raise sea-levels by 2-7m metres in less than a decade … and force the issue globally.
Unfortunately you might be right in saying that a catastrophic event is needed to wake us up. I hope not, because it’s not so easy to respond and adapt when the shit has already hit the fan. And if there is a likelihood of one non-linearity feeding into a subsequent one – eg, loss of arctic ice kick starting methane release…
I suspect you are being too optimistic.
Capitalism, consumerism and the resource extraction required to keep both going are going to grind onwards at the maximum pace that the smartest minds in the world can organise for. Even against ever increasing headwinds and the detriment of growing numbers of people at the bottom.
+1
As capitalism absolutely requires increasing resource extraction the only hope we have of decreasing GHG emissions is to drop capitalism.
IMAGINE
George Bernard Shaw
Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire; you will what you imagine; and at last you create what you will.
or just follow on from John Lennon’s song…
Imagine if all the parties that do not support asset sales joined together and agreed to and made a public unified announcement *All assets sold will be renationalised on our return to government.*
Quote KV 1/1/13 7.50pm, except I’m proposing all like minded parties put their policy on the line,
“A simple statement by the leader of the opposition re the re-nationalisation of unique or monopoly class assets like the hydro-dams and electricity infrastructure will be a major red-flag highlight of the risk analysis by the Australian, US and Asian investment analysts. All assets sold will be renationalised on our return to government.”
Would love to see an Imagine blog, no judgemental follow ups, just a brain storm of what TS readers would add to the IMAGINE list. Happy 2013.
Is the top left hand corner of the Stuff website main page, it’s version of “page three”? Do they assume that their readership is largely people who want to gaze upon pretty young women as often as possible, regardless of significance of said women?
Hey now, sometimes they have super-grainy zoomed-in screenshots from hilarious YouTube videos which went viral six months previously.
Yes, they do vary the images a little from time to time, often with laddish stuff like male rugby heroes. But the main default option seems to be those retro pretty young women.
Why can’t I see these pictures? All I get in the top left is the weather.
Blow the weather. They always have a story promoted with an image there. This morning it includes images of the things people want to give up in their New Year resolutions – really? Do people actually make those resolutions?
Ah I see. At the moment it’s a young boy wearing pink shoes OH THE HORROR.
Why are you reading that dross anyway?
Gotta get NZ news from somewhere. I prefer Stuff to the cluttered mess that is the NZ Herald site . But I also check out Scoop, RNZ and google NZ news.
RNZ-World Watch-“coal consumption increased great and widely last annum
Dom-MOH directive to reduce ED arrivals revealed to St John, despite projected growth in “falls” workload; wtf?
-Hollywood films “bloated” length; Time for Intermissions.
(Pi did not appear that long, or to go on forever and ever, unlike Titanic, yet sadly, long enough)
-US Military “four pillars” is likely a one-legged dog called Old Yellow; a “military to military” relationship with China (60% of the fleet in the Pacific by 2020, budgets sailing through)
“She’s The Queen of The Silver Dollar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TV5ztdWx56I
-Hookie
RT, we took my 84 and 85yr old parents to the movies yesterday. The last movie they went to was The World’s Fastest Indian and prior to that Forrest Gump so it’s been a while. Funnily enough Dad asked about getting an ice-cream at intermission. We explained that was no longer an option so he’d need to stock up prior to going in. Fortunately as it was Quartet and only 93mins long, it was ok for elderly bladders’! Dad also recalled sound proofed mothers’ rooms with microphones, something I hadn’t known of. I reassured him we wouldn’t be standing to sing God Save the Queen and on a sadder note he also recalled racially segregated Theatres.
Ah we kids knew there was something different about us lot when mum took us to the flicks and She refused to even stand for God Save the Queen, us kids didn’t dare do anything else but follow suit….
Great role model and influence to think for yourself +1
Why the Tree Loves the Ax
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1172799.Why_the_Tree_Loves_the_Ax
-Lewis
(notes from the crypt)
An Aura Nation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurignacian -buried their dead, made some tools and painted inside the Cave (Nick-Murder Ballads, “They Call Me The Wild Rose”) became “intelligent Like Water for cocoa Beans, baked beans, ma baked beans…
now, there conceptualization of their world was not a “misfire” at fantasy (mixed with Asch es)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_Asch the metaphorical came with the “literal”. Theres that
Recurring Phenomena again http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenomenology , philosophically and psychologically, year after freakin Yeah! Some very perceptive “pontification”-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Merleau-Ponty.
Even “Dr Bombay” concurs with the diagnosis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V.S._Ramachandran.
Use some the Wishbone Ash (and bud the rod for the children if you care)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blowin%27_Free:_An_Introduction_to_Wishbone_Ash
-Isaac (The Man Who Was Not There)
or, One could try some Nazareth (from where good things Do come)
clean off our bicycles
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEpD9RH-Wds
look out for This Flight Tonight
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylW6sC6NNhY
and of course
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pHNkOQCIzk
Ouch*
(thanks to the doubling and tripling up of property)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6j76FeCVDFE
-Whitesnake ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ready_an%27_Willing )
this actually belongs on “Politics and Pleasure” yet there does not seem to be much pleasure flowing from this government, Oh Well
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flesh_and_Blood_%281985_film%29
-The Hitchiker (Shiny Happy People Holding Hands)
p.s. thanks to the socratic whirlpool one, i’m not so glum either 🙂
Shite, so many words so little light;
“The man who comes back through the Door in the Wall will never be quite the same again -(chauvanistic period)- as the man who went out. He will be wiser but less sure, happier but less self-satisfied, humbler in acknowledging his ignorance yet better equipped to understand the relationship of words to things, of systematic reasoning to the unfathomable mystery which it tries, forever vainly, to comprehend”
-Aldous Huxley : The Doors of Perception
(“but if the prevalence of illicit drugs is any indicator, it seems our people long to see the world afresh again” ) I did and grew Salvia D. (it’s legal, and if you can Master that…you have begun a journey)
but that was a long time ago, in a place far, far away.
-John
Sorry about the outage. My fault.
We were getting hammered by multiple bingbots running all over the site trying to find out how close to 100% CPU they could make the server run. I was using .htaccess to deny the bot. Unfortunately I hadn’t thought it through and was denying everyone pushed through one of the cloudflare servers (oops). I should have used the cloudflare tools..
I have now taught the bingbot that using a geoip to look at location of our server and then hammering it in the middle of the server’s ‘night’ is not a good idea for our site. Used the bing webmaster tools to say when the middle of the night was.
My heads hurting L, just do what you have to.
Umm. Re-reading that I see what you mean. The short version:-
Frigging microsoft was hogging our site and making it slow (hiss!). I stopped them (yay!) and taught them a think or two. But I’m sorry that I screwed up access to the site while I was doing it (contrition).
🙂
You had me on “sorry about the outage” In your hands totally!
Done! Better than a magazine subscription. Finally got around to donating to The Standard. Once again thanks Lynn and co for all you do.
So I heard: “The day that Microsoft makes something that doesn’t suck will be the day they start manufacturing vacuum cleaners”.
You lost me after “Now listen carefully Max,…”
THIS is a MUST READ for ALL who are:
● Concerned about what the new ‘Social Security (Benefit Category and Work Capacity) Amendment Bill’, currently before the Social Security Committee of Parliament, will bring in the way of PRIVATISED WELFARE in the form of outsourced medical and work capacity assessments, NGO agency involvement and so forth;
● presently on the Sickness or Invalid’s Benefit, or likely to have to apply for these, or the future Jobseeker Support Payment, or the Living Support Payment benefits;
● who are working in the health, disability or any related areas, involved with assessing, caring for, supporting or otherwise working with sick, disabled or injured, dependent on welfare support;
● who are advocates for the above types of persons, or activists, seriously concerned and ready to take actions to avoid serious harm, suffering and unreasonable pressures to be placed on sick, injured and disabled;
● who are perhaps presently on ACC, or are likely to be claimants for serious health and injury issues causing disability and incapacity to work, and who may in some cases also still end up with WINZ on their benefits.
The following article ‘A Tale of two Models: Disabled People vs Unum, Atos, Government and Disability Charities’ – by Debbie Jolly, DPAC, is a MUST to read, as it reveals how key players in the form of the UK state department DWP, the private insurer Unus and private work capacity and medical assessor ATOS, have and are working together, to restrict entitlements for sick, injured or disabled depending on state support.
Key professional players are mentioned, who have in part been on the payroll of questionable private insurer Unus, or worked for organisations or institutes set up under that insuer’s and the state’s funding, who have worked together, linked together, refrained from disclosing interests, and thus were involved in high level lobbying and introduction of major, restrictive reforms to welfare in the UK.
Names turn up, who should be well familiar to any person, who has ever read, listened to or seen any of the highly one sided presentations by the Principal Health Advisor for Work and Income, and paid for by MSD, Dr David Bratt, a staunch promoter of a “work ability focus” already, who is involved here in New Zealand (together with other key players in the game), to bring in very harsh, questionable reforms, that have led to serious harm, psychological distress, untold pressures and even increased suicides in the UK.
http://blacktrianglecampaign.org/2012/05/31/a-tale-of-two-models-disabled-people-vs-unum-atos-government-and-disability-charities-by-debbie-jolly-dpac/
It is time to be informed, be alert, take a solid stand, and to voice opposition to the most draconian, unfair, not evidence based, unbalanced and unreasonable welfare reforms New Zealand has seen since the early 1990s.
I am yet to read the link and will do so carefully.
Did you see this today?
ACC pays $61m to patients injured in care
“Figures related to Fairfax under the Official Information Act show the 10 most expensive treatment injury claims totalled $3.2 million in the last financial year.”
“A total of 61.3m was paid to 7832 people for treatment injuries in the same year.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/8135203/ACC-pays-61m-to-patients-injured-in-care
Not hard to see why people end up on ACC and then they are chucked onto a Work and Income NZ benefit (sickness/invalid) and Work and Income NZ now want to say that thousands of people got good treatment within the health system.
I have not yet addressed the Work and Income NZ cases where the health system are not diagnosing or treating them.
The DSM – V due out in 2013 is only going to make the stats higher for medical misadventure.
Happy New Year to those who are at the mercy of the health system because Work and Income NZ now want to poke you; the new carrot and the stick.
Happy New Year to everyone else as well.
So 61.3 million paid to 7,832 claimants is on average only $ 7,826.86 per person.
Of course that sounds like a fair bit of money to some, but what is the “news-worthiness” of this, as the costs are likely to have been totally justified, and the payments needed to cover essential treatment and so forth?!
Taking the 3.2 million for the 10 most expensive claims out leaves 58,100,000 to divide by 7822 leaves $ 7,427.77 per person on average.
With operation costs ranging from tens to hundreds of thousands per case, it is not surprising that there will be some quite expensive claims resulting in such figures. Other measures may over time also cost a lot.
That Stuff.Co article is just typical mainstream media figure juggling and so forth. It is actually quite detrimental to write such one sided articles, as it tries to give the impression to Joe Average and Jill Average, that there is too much money being spent, so measures need to be taken to make cuts and to tighten up on entitlements.
If only some more people would use a calculator do get some more realistic figures, and above all their brains, to get a hang of what really goes on, we would not have a debate about some misleading political agendas.
Stuff “Stuff.co”, they are getting worse also.
Precisely xtasy. The same’s done with the “total welfare bill” with no recognition of increased numbers of people qualifying and the huge decreases in what individuals receive. Even NZ Superannuation is often thrown in for good measure. Same with benefit “fraud” statistics. The whole thing’s a sham to make it look like government spending is out of control. It’s nasty stuff, but gives us more reason to be even more vigilant to make sure people are given the opportunity to see the truth.
It is not about the money for me, it is about the errors made in the delivery of health care.
My criticism was not really so much directed at you, Treetop!
I know where you come from, it is the costs of unacceptable levels of medical misadventure, and I can tell you, this is just the tip of the iceberg, as not all is covered by ACC.
What about cases going unnoticed, because patients die, commit suicide, are unable to make a claim due to incapacity as a result of mental and physical damages, and the list goes on!
What also about “misadventure” in the mental health areas???
I have first hand experience with a scandalous case of more or less criminal negligence of a person I know, yet the health board used the Privacy Act and other laws to block all information applied for, while the patient in question did not have the ability or guts to take it further!
So much goes under the radar, it is not funny. And who pays for the costs? The tax payer, who reads such articles like the one in The Press, part of Fairfax Media, who also own and run Stuff.Co., and then thinks, wow, am I paying for all this???
Yes, the article should have raised more issues than just present a few swiftly arranged figures! Appalling modern day, laissez faire, lazy journalism!
Just to add: I know it is a bit long an article, but it is quite interesting, revealing and full of valuable information about persons and stakeholders involved, as well giving a good historic overview of how things evolved in the UK.
Part 2 I find much more important as part 1, as in part 1 the writer largely reflects on the “social model”, how it came about, is being viewed now, and so forth.
It is terminology like “bio-psycho-social” aspects, and the use of such terminology in models favoured by welfare privatisers now, in the UK and NZ, that gives real reasons to worry about where the journey is going!
Keep up the good fight like I intend to regarding health politics.
Great article – well worth a read.
Thanks for the link Xtasy.
A story regarding Lesley Longstone which is only now surfacing following her sacking/resignation.
Apparently Longstone was a very caring and compassionate person. A few weeks before she exited she was walking out of a supermarket in Wellington. She saw an old lady struggling to get her shopping into a car. Longstone walked over and asked the old lady “can you manage love?”
The old lady gave Longstone a mouth full followed by the finger. As she was climbing into the car the old lady muttered “you applied for the job, you came half way round the world for the job, with Hekia in place, you can have it”.
Longstone seemed neither compassionate nor competent when she obediently launched into her ignorant rant against teachers.
She lacked the courage and the integrity to tell Steven Joyce to keep his opinions to himself.
I wont comment on Longstones character, I don’t know her or have any experience of her, so in my book she remains innocent of charges, accusations, conjecture etc, What I do have experience of is the “MBA” class of corporate mercenaries, hired guns making nasty policies hit the road running regardless of human impact. There is a whole international class of them, hired guns with a method but no excuse, bar the threadbare shibboleths of their masters ideology. Lesley appears to be one of them.
Exactly what I meant, Ennui. Thanks for putting it so eloquently.
Well put ennui.
just idling along
https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/542100_10151150888055957_863074373_n.jpg
at least The Standard’s not usually a matinee showing for children, which reminds me, eyed a copy of Lies at 4 Square…now the Rogue has a long-held intuition (that’s all it is mind) about this matter, having The Dark Half that is fading gently away, and observed and studied sociopathy and psychopathy in detail, yet i am not and never will be a juror…Oh Well, Time Will Tell, very sad outcomes for dysfunctional families.
Story telling heals
https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/574949_521544454545672_1020923242_n.jpg
Revolution of The Mind
http://www.theidealistrevolution.com/19-signs-that-america-has-become-a-crazy-control-freak-nation-where-almost-everything-is-illegal/
The weather has sure been wild down South
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_weather_man
Its raining men, hallelujah it’s raining men
Now regarding Health Politics, I am encouraging my good friend who is primary health care nurse to come out of the bushes (Woodwork,Woodworm,Wormwood or Worm-tongue?) and share her learnings which are to the left, for example, the damage that MARGERINE is doing to peoples circulatory systems and the outcomes when body defenses act to dislodge the buildup of product not far removed from plastic (common knowledge amongst the medical profession apparently), yet it’s Budget. I have said it before and I’ll say it again BIG FAT LIES
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13519011-big-fat-lies
Joe Bennett writes well and irreverently in Todays Dominion and other The Press
(gypsy or Tiger?)
from the desert, by 2016, the Populations of Palestinians and Jewish people in Israel and the Occupied territories will be similar in number and by 2020 Palestinians will be the numerical majority
(may need another few tents)
HBToday: Intoxication Intoxication Intoxication with some UV Radiation slapped in for the price.
(House prices are going to continue to climb in ak; Excellent writing and insight ak)
RNZ were repeating an article about the lack of Central and Local Govt wiil towards the educational advancement of our Pacifica Citizens (consider, the decline of manufacturing, without stereo-typing) underemployment and diet.
Kia Kaha mm
guess I’ve always been a Fortunate Son
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_4GVm9adaU
playing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAOxCqSxRD0
Wickedly
-christian
Just realised it was half ten and I hadn’t posted any thing derogatory about anyone.
New years resolutions – Made to break 😆
Don’t go to my site and listen to the first couple of tracks on side two, they’re crap, and the guy’s an arsehat. 😆
http://www.al1en.org
Any chance you can set up an autoplay thing which takes you through each track one at a time in an ongoing loop? And maybe provide an email address on your website that people (and aliens) can contact you on…
I did just put up a valid email address (just tested it), even if I couldn’t put my first reply (22) in the right place.
Great minds…terrestrial or not.
At 45 for 9 who would want to be a New Zealander
ALL OUT 45 in the first session. how fucking embarrassing, but thats how we do it in New Zealand
Never mind the coach will sort it out.
Could always try changing the captain, i’ve heard that works really well…
They may need a conference to bolster spirits. Get head office to give a rousing speech. Everything will be sweet as.
If I knew how to do any of that, I would.
I obviously have trouble enough with the music, let alone getting the website how I want it.
I’ll ask a friend.
I think I’ve just put a valid email address up.
Thanks for the nudge.
I recommend http://bandcamp.com
Their embeddable players will play your whole album, and you can add tracks to your album whenever you like (which I see you like to do)
I’ll have another look at it, ta.
My thinking is name the ‘band’ al1en.org and just put a buy now/donate button on the site.
Direct from source, no middle men, no expenses, 100% for the cause.
And also a small copyright notice.
© 2013 al1en.org. All rights reserved.
😉
Yeah keeping it simple is good.
Do have a look at it though ‘cos it is really simple to use and does a whole lot of stuff, in the long run a lot simpler than doing a whole lot of simple things yourself if you know what I mean. Also costs nothing except (I think) 15% if you’re selling stuff.
I’ve used soundcloud to post up demos before, and I like the new interface, but I think I’ll stick with my own site for now.
I tried to get funding from NZonair for the faeces record, sort a fuck off to Key’s constituency chairman complaining about the inside child poverty documentary that inspired me to start this project, but found that unless you’ve had existing success, a large fan base, or live following, there’s not much chance of it happening, save winning a monthly talent show at http://www.theaudience.co.nz/ for a 6k grant.
I’ll put it up if people keep voting for it. See if they’ve got the balls if it won.
Use the system to beat the system, or at least make it uncomfortable.
NZonair funding is a strange beast, aloof, nepotistic and arcane. At some point most people have to decide whether the time and energy spent navigating the system, kissing the appropriate arses, and jumping through the requisite hoops might be better spent writing recording and performing for audiences of actual people.
Sooo, all the international stock exchanges are in a good mood again today, the “fiscal cliff” has been averted, that is the silly story going around the news tickers. What a load of bollocks! So the Democrats and Republicans in the US agree to a 2 month postponement for resolving and addressing the expenditure issues, and tax increases will only be hitting those over 400 k per annum, or about that.
Yes, what a bloody “achievement”, but nothing has been resolved or achieved. The quantitative easing will need to continue, burdens will be shifted around, ultimately to be paid by the bulk of middle class and certainly the poor, and no solution is there, to get more balance in international trade, to get rid of deficits that have accrued, and to create a desperately new economic order for the whole globe, to steer away from neo capitalist agendas playing off populations between nations, between societies within nations (classes), and to keep wasting energy, that took tens to hundreds of millions of years to be created.
What about climate change issues, are we getting any solution there?
No, nada, zilch, nichts, rien, rien ne va plus, indeed, and we get the shit mainstream media give us snippets of infotainment distraction about what is supposedly going on in the world. Where is the NZ media even reporting about details about all this?
I am afraid, the NZ media is in the process of being dissolved and got rid off, as the private corporate remnants of controlling commercial media outlets have just signed the last deal, to advertise for the status quo, to uphold our dear Hawaiian Leader Maximus Incomprehensiblus, mumbling from “leader” to “leader” across the political ditches, that are crossed by going surfing and BBQing together at some stage, to mend the society, and to run the real dictatorship NZ has become. Thank you John and David (who?), we know what goes on down under.
What a bloody disgrace, good night, had enough!