Our Members, which art in Confusion,
Restless be thy Mood
Thy Kingdom come.
Thy will be done for the next election,
Though it hasn’t since ’08.
Give your MPs your daily thoughts.
And don’t forgive manipulation,
As you have bit your lip while the Clique trespassed against us.
And stop Trevor &co lead us into another failure,
But deliver us from careerists
For this is your Constitutional Right,
The power, and the leverage,
For a members vote in February
Amen.
A counter…
Just before Xmas I spoke to the few.
On the feb vote, I hope we get the vote too.
For the people’s voice i speak of unity
A new direction, a pathway maybe a cup of tea.
Time for our say, members and all.
Time for hope and to stand tall.
Our pollies are our hope
They must talk what we dream.
But I say to you all.
Time for unity, one voice, one dream.
So in bright early feb give me just one united team.
Hang on… A man assaults his wife repeatedly and gets discharged without conviction with a comment by the judge that the charges will probably have an effect on his chosen career path of training to be a surgeon.
A transgendered woman will have to serve 2 years & 1 month in a men’s prison for a single instance of assault after a fight broke out after an argument at home. A month less and the sentence could have been reduced to home detention. The judge recognised that a transgendered person might be at risk in a men’s prison, but sent her there anyway.
Two questions:
1. Will the prosecution appeal the first sentence because it’s inadequate and domestic violence needs to be taken seriously?
2. Will the defence have the money to appeal the second sentence because it’s dangerous and therefore wrong?
There are separate standards applied in New Zealand justice. One standard for those who are so-called professionals and one for those are so-called mere workers.
If a conviction is likely to cause a problem for someone’s job then tough. I would expect that an assault conviction is easier to turn a blind eye to by the NZ Medical Cartel than it is for a lowly delivery driver to avoid losing his job and not being able to find another.
It is like back when the Amercias Cup was here and that rich billionaire fulla got caught with some pot. The useless judge let him off, and got name suppression because it would have a detrimental to him and his business. Well, frikkin’ duh, it would actually have no impact on a billionaires life. And such a similar event for a local Manuwera lad would have a massive impact on his life.
So the judges are full of shit.
In fact Judge Cooper said this “”It is fair to say any conviction is going to impact adversely on your employment.” So if that is the, what do you call it, reason for the decision (latin term?), then I look forward to seeing it applied equally across the land. Convictions have a greater impact on those less well off than those at the top of the pile, completely and totally contrary to the current understanding of our judiciary.
I wonder how many of these example it will take until people accet that the judiciary in NZ are in fact corrupted, and working for/to a completely differnent agenda.
As shown by the links I posted about the SFO Prosecutor, and the bizaare events in the court room as allowed by Judge Mary Beth Sharp
On Tuesday, via her QC Paul Davison, Killeen pleaded guilty in the Auckland District Court to forgery. However, Judge Mary Beth Sharp discharged her without conviction, describing her as an exceptional person in an exceptional case. The judge accepted Davison’s submissions that Killeen had suffered a rare psychological reaction to a powerful fertility drug she was taking, which can affect 1 per cent of women with symptoms including irrationality, forgetfulness and obsessive behaviour.
I guess some people are more exceptional than others when committing crime!
You are hopelessly wrong. Justice is not linear. Ever crime has different context and differing evidence, remorse, etc. Second guess courts and replacing it with some mob internet rule is just dumber than dumb, its been tried over and again to replace courts and it never works because those with the most money win.
Past behavior is indicative of future behavior, past good civil interactions are always going to add weight to remorse displayed. However if you live a marginal life, then of course your lack of remorse is going to play even more against you. Its one of the problems I believe with the high Maori crime rates, Maori culturally aren’t clued up on how to express good standing and remorse to courts.
While I agree, putting a person who looks and behaves like a women in a man jail does require the prison to take exceptional measures to protect them.
I think you miss the point there aerobubble, as is evidenced by your statement ” However if you live a marginal life, then of course your…….”
The post of muzza and that of mine are (assumed for muzza) based on all else being equal. There is no evidence in the media presentation of these cases that the wife-beater lived a good civil life (simply being a doctor does not equal that – that is just bigotry) or that the tranny lived a less than civil life.
Your assumption that this is the case would seem to be the same assumption that judges always make. I posted a further example of that with the billionaire. This is the exact problem.
I hold the judiciary in high regard. However in this exact area it has failed for a long long time and it was time it was highlighted. Best example being the wildly random application of name suppression and the justifications for and against. It is shit.
The generalization that courts could produce consistency is farfetched given that each crime has its own circumstances, evidence, people, and I doubt we’d want the dictatorship of consistency. Half the court process is just stressing out the accused, lumbering them with costs, putting their lives on hold, even before the case gets going.
Yeah, and wonder how the collecting of that crime levy is going.
The very thing we cannot go into detail about, individual cases, is they very reason we put up a court system to deliberate all the fact in a impartial way. Now yeah, for sure, the Bain of cases comes along too, nobody should think courts are perfect, or could be made that way.
That’s why I took a stance on your general bullshit that courts are all out of kilter with your world view. Poor you, its called a process of compromises, and its never going to be clean or pretty.
What is reasonable, a person who turns up to work, does detailed, highly professional work day in day out for decades, or some transient who hits people to solve their problems. Sorry but people have been around long enough to know that drugs will effect people and they can make mistakes of judgment. But violence, whole different level.
As for the running over, people do, yes even millionaries, have brain fazes when confronted with violence. A very important part, surely of courts, is to find who instigated it. A father with his kid, is more likely to flight than fight, and so if a person is desperate, angry, running at them, avoiding them is only one of the constraints.
Can’t say I agree with you aerobubble. Laws are made and appeals won because courts must show some sort of consistency in sentencing. Of course there are extenuating circumstances in some cases – obviously the reason lawyers argue for them.
My problem with these two cases is that consistency doesn’t seem to be apparent in these cases, and that someone has no sentence for domestic violence because of his status, not because of the crime, and someone else has sentence that, because of her status is unduly harsh. It may even appear bigoted – 2 years + the 1 month so home detention cannot be considered.
Courts hear all the information. Also it doesn’t matter that you can pick out two cases that seem to look inconsistent. Citizens who own their own homes, have savings, are more civil minded because they have more to lose, and so punishing unnecessarily harshly when the mere lose of status in gaining a criminal conviction
would see their career prospect shrink, their kids look question their parents…
As for the puzzle. A person who has nowhere to serve out home detention, and is already give a 15% reduction on their sentence, should necessity a lot of publicity to keep their jailers keen that nothing averse does happen to them when incarcerated.
You see each persons punishment is best contexted to their circumstances, a father has children, children could be harmed and punished too, they lose in other ways that a prison sentence cannot. Like I said, just being accused is punishment (exceptions like attention seekers, sociopaths), so should judges take this into account, the lack of remorse shown by the sociopathic attention seeker self-victim? So unless and until I see every damn piece of evidence I trust in the judges in these trials to weight up decisions. Now, sure if there is a clear skew over time in lots of cases, and fathers are walking scot-free, and trans-sexuals are getting beaten in jail (or worse), then sure no problem it would merit looking at the sentencing, and sacking some managers in the jail system.
One problem with home detention is its consider punishment, so what the country is saying is someone who lives holed up in their home, severely socially inhibited, and effectively the same as punishment to another citizen for the crime of
assault? So I point to you beware making generalizations, I’m sure some will
take it as quite offensive that home detention is offer to people how have been
at the hard end of violence, as they personally may fear leaving their homes
as a result.
aerobubble: Citizens who own their own homes, have savings, are more civil minded because they have more to lose, and so punishing unnecessarily harshly when the mere lose of status in gaining a criminal conviction
would see their career prospect shrink, their kids look question their parents…
Thanks for dismissing all us renters as lacking in community spirit. Actually, the fear of losing one’s home and savings is supporting more of an individualistic focus on what’s in it for themselves and their families. People who rent, and have less savings could be more aware of the need for community-support, caring for others etc.
Certainly I agree that horses for courses, some want to acquire wealth, and thats okay as much as someone who wants to rent. My point was that its not punishment if it doesn’t change their circumstances. A social phobic would be more harshly punished in a prison, but also home detention would be a breeze. So a judge could stipulate limits on say internet access while on home detention, this would be more severe than for most people whose whole community wasn’t online say. Its little point giving home detention to a paraplegic.
So nobody here wants to help me start the ‘Sweet as’ revolution in Hamilton West?
On my home world, we’d call you all mouth and no trousers.
Two minutes silence for fallen internet warriors, but two fingers up at food in kids bellies.
Priorities, nice.
Second track on my website – Games I play.
Sometimes it’s easy. Sometimes it’s rough.
Sometimes it breaks your heart inside. You’ve got to break your heart or hide.
Some people come easy, like some people go.
Some people break apart in sight. They have to run away in fright. But not me.
‘Cause you know? It’s just like a game I play.
‘Cause I know we’re just here to fade away.
‘Cause I’m only here for so long.
Been too lonely here, for too long.
‘Somethings’ aren’t easy. ‘Somethings’ aren’t wrong.
‘Somethings’ can’t fake a hurt inside. They’ve got to take a pain with pride.
Some people go easy. And some people don’t.
Some people make a stand and fight. They have to hold their ground and fight. Just like me.
‘Cause you know? It’s just like a game I play.
‘Cause I’m no way here just to fade. No way.
‘Cause I’m only here for so long.
‘Cause I’m lonely here, but I’m strong.
‘Cause I’m only here for so long.
I’m still standing here, so come on.
So come on.
One by one. All at once, I’ll take you all on.
One by one. All at once, until you’re all gone.
And I win.
Or a ‘special investigation’ by a ‘special branch’ that the pm will never get an email, text or phone call about, even if he makes jokes about it, that no-one heard or saw footage of, even while they we’re destroying it just in case.
For the record, I am an alien, but I’m a permanent resident al1en.
I’m also not a ‘predator’ type teeth gnasher and I never consume humans – It’d be like eating less intelligent Dolphin.
Don’t worry, friend. I’ve got your festive customs nailed down.
Every December, all the politicians get to fuck off on holiday and all the hungry kids don’t.
Whew. I have been working on a post (on media bias -difficult topic) for a couple of weeks. Was working on it just now and made quite a few revisions – clicked save, took forever as all the typing disappeared, leaving me with a blank post. However, I opened the post in another tab and the latest version is all there. Gave me a fright.
Remember to take advantage of our position relative to the international dateline to login at midnight onto every form of social media and start making panic stricken reports of massive earthquakes, huge volcanic eruptions and armies of zombies emerging from nowhere.
Obviously not been out walking or anywhere near large swaths of the public recently…Zombie like they are, all head in some screen or another, mindlessly wandering around..
Better watch out you don’t have to eat humble pie like Nick Smith did last year on March 20th. He said Ken Ring’s prediction of a greater risk of increased earthquake activity around this date was that of a fool so he and others went and had a picnic on the Port Hills of Christchurch to thumb their noses at him.
Unfortunately for them there were several earthquakes that day, including the biggest aftershock since Feb 22, and it was Nick Smith and his cronies that had to back down and admit they didn’t know what they were doing.
Let’s see what happens.
You are aware I’m sure that this date tomorrow is solely a measure of a confluence of astronomical cycles. It is simply a physical measurement of stars and planets and galaxies spinning through space. It is as real and as simple as measuring the trajectory of a ball thrown in a backyard.
Ha ha, yep, that’s what many people suggested. Even if they had picniced at the bottom of the Port Hills would have had more cred. There have been many rockfalls at the slightest shake or rain now that the hills have been shattered like a glass block courtesy of the Great Earth Monster.
Not very convincing when they go to the very safest place to go nyah nyah nyah to possible earthquakes. But then again, like John Key, Nick Smith has never come across as a courageous man. In fact the opposite as exhibited here – cowardly.
Actually, this government can be characterised by this and the bully boy tactics described in the Wellington Cuncil thread. They are cowards and bullies, as is so often the case with bullies.
“Unfortunately for them there were several earthquakes that day, including the biggest aftershock since Feb 22”
Really? I live in Christchurch – and I remember the Port Hills stunt, but I don’t remember any big aftershocks. Ring is full of shit, but even a broken clock can be right twice a day.
Well you need to check your facts Pop. Biggest aftershock since Feb 22, one of the largest for a long time in kaikoura and activation of an old similar fault system in McKenzie Basin.
Also, if Ring is full of shit then so too is Isaac Newton.
Tell me Pop, why do you think Ring is full of shit? Some detail and solid points if you could ta.
Wasn’t this all discussed at the time?
The guy is so vague in dates, location and magnitude that it’s like the met office saying “some rain will occur somewhere on the Pacific Rim this week”. And if a typhoon breaks in Fiji, folks jump on the interwebz to say how accurate he is. You can’t predict a chaotic system based on relatively minor influences, compared to say fucking great loads that might or might not already exist on a particular fault.
And that’s without his “read your cat’s future in its paws” book.
“You can’t predict a chaotic system based on relatively minor influences, compared to say fucking great loads that might or might not already exist on a particular fault.”
Fault systems aren’t chaotic. Example, see Alpine Fault measured movements over time.
Relatively minor influences? Sheesh, ever heard the sayings about straws and camels backs? Then place that into context.
The thing about straws and camel’s backs is that there are many other straws on the camel’s back, too. focusing on one and “predicting” that one like it will eventually break the back is just stupid. There are much bigger straws that planetary alignment.
Fault systems are chaotic. Example, Saharan rainfalls over time.
The point is that there are many factors that affect the friction either side of the fault. Then there are the inner earth magma currents affecting tectonic forces. And different rock densities. All obeying basic and predictable laws of physics, but in exponentially compounding combinations are not even roughly predictable on a slide rule with an astrological chart.
“Tell me Pop, why do you think Ring is full of shit? Some detail and solid points if you could ta.”
Science. All Ring does is fling vague scattershot figures around and sometimes they stick. Sideshow psychics do pretty much the same thing. There are earthquakes of varying magnitudes everyday somewhere in the world. And comparing him to Sir Isaac Newton? You win the arsehat prize for that – the second in the space of a week.
Do you know what Newton was about? I am not a fan of Ring but what he says is simply that when the moon is closer to the earth there is an increased gravitational effect. This has a gravitational effect on the air. This has a gravitational effect on the water. This has a gravitational effect on the land.
It is as simple as that.
His underlying proposition is not shit, it is sound. Tell me how the above is not right.
As for arsehat prize – keep it. I see others have you lined up for similar prize. Egg
Sound proposition, but not significant according to the observed data. 1% attribution? Try forecasting weather based on the albedo of roofs in the area.
sanctuary
Don’t frighten the horses. There are enough real and terrible things happening without merry japes as you mention. Not funny. Watch some Mitchell and Webb or something and have laughs at people and politicians to occupy your spare time.
“…. former South Korean military di– uh, ruler”
Language censorship on Television One Breakfast
Television One Breakfast, 7:30 a.m., Thursday 20 December 2012
Newsreader Melissa Stokes read the following: “South Korea has elected its first woman president. Park Geun-hye is the daughter of a former South Korean military di– [pause] uh, ruler.”
The change was so sudden, and Melissa Stokes seemed so momentarily nonplussed, that there’s only one plausible explanation: her actual script said “former South Korean military dictator” but some producer urgently hissed into her earpiece “Don’t call him a dictator, call him a RULER!”
Why would Television One’s administration be reluctant to call a dictator a dictator?
That guy’s not funny. He’s even unfunnier when you look at his actual (not “satirical” or “ironic”) support for the mass murder perpetrated by his favorite real-life regime.
I did think he was funny until I realized how hardline and shameless he is in real life. He actually IS Borat, with all of Borat’s brutal anti-Semitism and callous disregard for others. In the same way that some Jewish people cannot listen to Wagner, I just can’t respect Baron Cohen since I learned what a vicious person he is.
Mozza, you appear to be unaware that Baron Cohen is jewish (and a socialist). He’s not anti-semitic and I think you are going to struggle to find any evidence of him supporting mass murder. He has also won a Golden Globe for comedy, something neither of you is ever likely to do. So, objectively, he is funny. He’s got an award for it and made millions making people laugh. And saying he’s not funny, then admitting that you ‘used to’ think he was funny is pretty funny in itself, Moz.
Is there the slimmest chance that Sacha Baron Cohen is actually the funniest comedian Britain has produced in the last twenty years and you two are humourless bores?
I respect your intellect, my friend, but in this case you don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ll return to this later, with citations you are more than capable of finding for yourself, were you to allow yourself to get out of hero worship mode towards this moral imbecile.
Right now, I have to leave for a few hours, I’m afraid.
Meanwhile, you need to do a little research into Sacha Baron Cohen, that unfunny fraud.
Zionism is inherently Anti Semitic. Palestinians, Egyptians, Jordanians, Syrians and other Arabs living in the Levant are all Semites.
Added to that the Semitic Jews who lived with the Arabs for 2000 years are equally discriminated against by the criminal ruling elite of Israel because the are anti Zionist.
Sasha Baron Cohen is a hardcore Zionist (well documented) and I have always avoided his nasty kind of humour.
I call this speech brilliant in that it describes the US (Which he regards as and which behaves as a Zionist slave state) and most Americans have no idea he is talking about them and their regime (1% is in total control).
But tracellerev, Jews are Arabs too. They are not their own separate race, no matter how much that may suit their aims and ends. Why is this such a problem for people?
No actually, TRV let’s not move on. For those of you interested Sasha Baron Cohen a Habonim boy and his work, every film he made one way or another was intended to ridicule Islam and Muslims.
His impact is huge and he defends Israel and attacks Muslims so to say he is neutral is hypocrite to say the least. You want to move on from this discussion that is fine but for those of you curious hit the search button
God you don’t talk halfshite. Militia, ZOG (fucked if I know what that stands for) and how you’re so disappointed. Are those the new catchphrases your are told to use. Militia, Preppers AND 911 truthers are now primed to be the next terrorists with their wilkd weapon collecting blahblah blah (I hear the mother of the SH shooter was a prepper too! Is that how you have been told to typecast people who want a new and independent investigation into the events of 911?
And the disappoining thing, is that so people will get the impression you are a patient lot but them preppers, militia and 911turhters are such a trying lot?
(ROFL) You don’t know me, you don’t know what I do in my daily life (Or maybe you do…) and you have the gall to be “Disappointed”?
Fuck you PB, Fuck you and your sad and futile attempts to typecast me or those of us who want to have a new and independent investigation into the events of 911.
Well, ignoramus is a harsh word to describe Ev, but, yes, I am playing her. But only in the sense of fish/barrel, you understand.
Any chance you’ve found the cites you reckon you were gonna provide? Just curious, because my brief google search finds nothing to support your various and contradictory descriptions of Baron Cohen.
Great, Ev. Perhaps you’d like to share some of the ones that prove SBC is a “hardcore zionist”. Skip the ones that are just opinion, and just cite the factual ones. Preferably quotes from him saying “I’m a hardcore zionist”. Bet that takes more than 0.26 seconds.
Well, ignoramus is a harsh word to describe Ev, but, yes, I am playing her.
“Her”? [Straightens tie, rubs Brylcreme through hair] “Travellerev” is a GIRL?!?!?!?!??
But only in the sense of fish/barrel, you understand.
C’mon, Te Reo, seriously—stop messin’ about.
Any chance you’ve found the cites you reckon you were gonna provide? Just curious, because my brief google search finds nothing to support your various and contradictory descriptions of Baron Cohen.
Baron Cohen is a racist, extreme supporter of the Holy State. There is nothing “various” or “contradictory” about any of those positions.
What is the problem with being a hardcore Zionist TRP? Why is that something that has to be proven. What is a Zionist other then someone who supports the state of Israel as the homeland of the Jews? And as a consequence has to support the discrimination of Arabs, Palestinians especially?
Tell you what. Here is a link from Jews sans frontieres and people who read this and want to know more to form their own opinion can Google Sasha Baron Cohen and Zionism and draw their own conclusions.
I wouldn’t call my self a “girl”. That has come and gone but yes, I’m of the female gender and I thank you for the sentiment expressed. 🙂
Fair enough, Ev, I get where you are coming from. Like you, I think Zionism is bigotted, but I don’t think all Jews are Zionist, nor all Israelis. I think its unfair to call Baron Cohen a Zionist (and therefore, a racist) without evidence. And there really doesn’t seem to be any evidence. Lots of opinion, sure, but nothing that confirms that he is any other than an excellent comedian who has a Jewish heritage.
I call this speech brilliant in that it describes the US (Which he regards as and which behaves as a Zionist slave state) and most Americans have no idea he is talking about them and their regime (1% is in total control).
I’m not sure what you mean by this Eve, but it really is an unfortunate turn of phrase. On the off chance you aren’t aware of why, please take the time to read this:
I know that you read Alex Jones (or at least you used to) so you may have picked up some of this stuff from some of the things he publishes and links to, or not, I don’t really care. But what I do care about is that when people are researching conspiracy stuff, they practice discernment. There really really are some nasty people manipulating things and pushing memes, and using codes. Don’t be one of their dupes. Please.
There certainly is a lot of conspiratorial, anti-Semitic rubbish in cyberspace. This idea that the U.S.A. is “manipulated” by Israel (which is basically Mearsheimer & Walt’s thesis) is plain wrong, but it’s at the root of a lot of noise on the internet.
However, it is not conspiratorial or paranoid to see that Sacha Baron Cohen is a brutal and unapologetic supporter of Israel, and a ruthless defamer of the Holy State’s victims.
For your information. Alex Jones is married to a Jewish lady if I’m correct and goes through great pains to avoid the Israel controversies.
He is actually accused of being a Zionist shill for that reason even though he has no problem pointing out obvious crimes such as the shelling of Gaza.
So please back off with your patronising shite.
For those of you wanting to know more about how the US is duped into being Israels bully boy here is some information you don’t get from the MSM about one of the most powerful Lobbying groups in the world AIPAC
Oh and PB, over the years you have never given any “conspiracy nutter” as you call them the benefit of being able to have discernment so fuck off about that too.
America is Israel’s slave state and while Netanyahu may not like Obama and that is mutual in the end America will abide by what Israel wants to do. End of story.
And Morrisey. wipe the shit out of your eyes and start doing some proper research about Israel and it’s puppet masters. You’re smart, use your brain!
Fits with some of the other militia inspired crap you’ve endorsed over the years, ( OMG FEMA camps etc) so it’s not really a surprise, but disappointing all the same.
My course of reading to get you up to speed has begun today, with the Steven Salaita piece from Electronic Intifada. I’ll put more up for you each day. Of course, you are entirely capable of doing this for yourself, but I get the feeling this is a case of having to lead a horse to water.
Mozza, you appear to be unaware that Baron Cohen is jewish (and a socialist). He’s not anti-semitic
Yes, he is. He is virulently anti-Arab, and most relevantly, anti-Palestinian. As a state-friendly clown, he is absolved from the necessity to even pretend he gives a damn about the victims of his callous “humour”, and doesn’t have to make any false statements that he cares about Palestinians (like Alan Dershowitz keeps claiming about himself) or pretend to be troubled by Palestinian deaths (like the official spokespersons for the Holy State routinely do even as they justify the killings).
…and I think you are going to struggle to find any evidence of him supporting mass murder.
The evidence is irrefutable. Hopefully, after you’ve read today’s introductory article, you will engage in a little more extensive reading for yourself.
He has also won a Golden Globe for comedy,…
I grant you, Sacha Baron Cohen can be funny, but the old Aristotelian device of Arguing from Awards is unwise. Barack Obama won a Nobel Prize for ….. (WAIT FOR IT!) ….. Peace. Martin Devlin and Murray Deaker have both won awards for sports journalism. Some of the direst songs ever written have won Academy Awards for “Best Song”. I could go on, and may well do so at a later date….
….something neither of you is ever likely to do.
WHAT?!!??!?!? Now that is hurtful.
So, objectively, he is funny.
So, by the same logic, Martin Devlin and Murray Deaker are, objectively, outstanding sports journalists; “Into the West”, “My Heart Will Go On” and “You Light Up My Life” are, objectively, top-notch songs; and Barack Obama is, objectively, a Man of Peace.
He’s got an award for it and made millions making people laugh. And saying he’s not funny, then admitting that you ‘used to’ think he was funny is pretty funny in itself, Moz.
I can see he’s funny, and I don’t criticize you for seeing the same thing. However, he clearly has an agenda—and it’s a brutal one, that needs to be called out.
Is there the slimmest chance that Sacha Baron Cohen is actually the funniest comedian Britain has produced in the last twenty years…
Not a chance. Have you never heard of Jack Dee? Or Frankie Boyle? Or Steve Coogan? Or Ricky Gervais? Or Mitchell and Webb?
…and you two are humourless bores?
I have systematically and seriously made a case for the careful examination and reconsideration of a comedian who is lionized by the establishment. You can call me a “humourless bore” if you want, just like Jimmy Savile used to do about anyone who had the temerity to criticize him.
You could start with evidence, mozza. Any evidence at all would be good. But so far … nothing.
If you were a lawyer, you would be admonished (at the very least) for contempt of court. I have argued with you in good faith, and provided an excellent scholarly analysis of Sacha Baron Cohen’s political agenda for you to read—but you have simply closed up and retreated into your shell.
I leave it to others to see who is arguing, and backing his argument with evidence, and who is cynically trying to stymie any argument.
Oh dear, this is well below your usual standard, Mozza. No evidence at all? Surely you must have found at least one quote from the man by now. Nothing? Really?
M, TRP is a shill. This is what he does. He is an excellent tool to give people who read them links but he will always sidestep, accuse, malign and avoid. Still he keeps threads alive and that means more people will eventually get the information they need to make up their own minds. And many over here have done over the last five years.
For those of you interested in understanding the likes of Te Reo Putake here is a nice list of 25 hallmarks of shill behaviour
This is what he does. He is an excellent tool to give people who read them links
Really? Recently, he has refused to read links, or simply denied their validity.
but he will always sidestep, accuse, malign and avoid. Still he keeps threads alive and that means more people will eventually get the information they need to make up their own minds. And many over here have done over the last five years.
You’re being very charitable, travellerev.
For those of you interested in understanding the likes of Te Reo Putake here is a nice list of 25 hallmarks of shill behaviour.
Or, to see a shill in action, simply observe Sacha Baron Cohen’s behaviour.
No, you are right HE won’t read the links but others will and those are the ones I aim for.
Don’t try to win over the haters, you’re not the jerk whisperer is my motto but over the backs of the haters you can actually reach those who are willing to learn.
I apologise for telling you to wipe the shit out of your eyes and start doing research about Israel but I do mean you should do mor9e research on the state of Israel.
Here is a facebook friend of mine. His name is A href=”http://www.gilad.co.uk/”>Gilad Atzmon. He is Jewish and Israeli. He is also a great musician and writer and he recently published a book called: The wandering who? You might want to start there!
WHERE IS HE?
Whither Populuxe1?
Mass Murder Advocate Fails to Front His Critics
I note with some concern that poor old Populuxe1 has failed to surface after being keel-hauled by all and sundry on Tuesday.
I can see five possible explanations for his failure to mount an argument in defence of himself and his outlandish statement on Open Mike:
1.) He lacks the wherewithal to mount a coherent argument;
2.) He is “on leave”, a la the Rt. Hon. Hekia Parata;
3.) Professor Stuart McCutcheon has gotten wind of Populuxe1’s extra-curricular nonsense, called him in for a talk and delivered a stern warning: “If you continue to make a fool of yourself like this, Dr. Hoadley, even under a preposterous surname, we will have to look at your position a little more rigorously….” ;
4.) He is licking his wounds and preparing for an AWESOME comeback, where he sprays around even more awesomely absurd epithets;
Thank you for that, Lanthanide. While we’re on the subject of errors, I note another grievous one, where I show Prof. McCutcheon warning Dr. Hoadley that he must not make a fool of himself, even under the cover of “a preposterous surname“.
Of course, Prof. McCutcheon, a highly educated man, would have used his words far more accurately.
This is what he would have said: “If you continue to make a fool of yourself like this, Dr. Hoadley, even under a preposterous pseudonym, we will have to look at your position a little more rigorously.”
My apologies for the careless error in the original post.
This line of comments offends me greatly. Not only are you speculating on identities based on the flawless logic “I disagree with H, P disagrees with me, therefore P=H”, you also seem to have constructed a fantasy about H’s legislated academic freedom being interfered with by M, who is connected to you only by virtue of being H’s boss’s boss.
Here’s a thought – lose the obsessive vendetta part of your shiny hat. You might be less of a jerk.
This line of comments offends me greatly.
I’ve already admitted out that my (entirely reasonable) speculation was wrong.
Not only are you speculating on identities based on the flawless logic “I disagree with H, P disagrees with me, therefore P=H”, you also seem to have constructed a fantasy about H’s legislated academic freedom being interfered with by M, who is connected to you only by virtue of being H’s boss’s boss.
As I’ve already said, it was a reasonable supposition. Not many in academia, bar a couple of certifiable cases at Waikato, are as ideologically extreme as Steve Hoadley; our friend Populuxe1 made a stunningly foolish and extreme anti-Palestinian comment; Populuxe has made a point of telling this online community that he works in a university, ergo it was a reasonable inference that the extreme anti-Palestinian Populuxe1 was the extreme anti-Palestinian Steve Hoadley.
Happily, Populuxe1 assures us that he is now “on the side of the innocent civilians, both Palestinian and Israeli”, so assuming he is not lying, there will be no more erroneous assumptions by anyone that Populuxe1 is Steve Hoadley.
Here’s a thought – lose the obsessive vendetta part of your shiny hat.
That was a reasonable inference. You can call it “obsessive”, but on reflection I think you’ll recognize that is not a fair portrayal of my stance.
I work at a university. Am I Hoadley?
There are literally thousands of academic and general university staff, if P was even telling the truth about the sector they worked in at the time they wrote it.
And yeah, inventing conversations between real people based on the fact that you disagree with one person’s pseudonym and another person’s media comments, so therefore it’s a “reasonable supposition” that they are the same person. That’s obsessive.
But nice to know you genuinely believe you were trying to “out” a Standard commenter’s identity. Jerk.
I do not think so. Unlike Populuxe1, you have not been making Hoadley-esque public statements pouring scorn on the victims of state terror.
There are literally thousands of academic and general university staff,
There would be only half a dozen of them that are so brazen and shameless in their public praise of the Holy State.
And yeah, inventing conversations between real people based on the fact that you disagree with one person’s pseudonym and another person’s media comments, so therefore it’s a “reasonable supposition” that they are the same person. That’s obsessive.
No, it is reasonable to assume that an academic brazen enough to publicly state (on radio) that he supports the state that is engaged in the mass murder of imprisoned, ghettoized untermenschen might be foolish enough to come on a popular forum like this and make similar statements, as well as spraying the ridiculous accusation of “anti-Semitism” at anyone who protests at the Holy State’s campaign of terror. That’s what our friend Populuxe1 did.
You can call that “obsessive”, but that slur carries as much critical heft as our friend Te Reo Putake’s repeated claim that any and all evidence is “no evidence”.
But what about pseudonymous comments? With no career reputation to worry about? And besides, I reckon you vastly undercount the number of right-wingers in academia.
No, it is reasonable to assume that an academic brazen enough to publicly state (on radio) that he supports the state that is engaged in the mass murder of imprisoned, ghettoized untermenschen might be foolish enough to come on a popular forum like this and make similar statements,
That is indeed a reasonable assumption. But the assumption you made was that any person who uses a pseudonym to state similar (for a given margin of error) opinions is probably therefore the same person who uses their own name and academic freedom in mass media. Not to mention the defamatory assertion of a vice chancellor interfering in the freedom of an academic to express his opinions.And at least I stated exactly why, with reference to specific facts, I thought you were obsessing over this. Inventing defamatory conversations on the illogical leap you made is not healthy.
But you merely make the assertions, and almost never relate them to verifiable specific facts. Also known as “evidence”.
And I don’t know who Hoadley is, but I ain’t he. However isn’t that sort of speculation against the rules here? Usually the moderators are all over that.
You don’t know who Hoadley is? He’s a far-right commentator from the University of Auckland, who during the recent escalation in Israeli terror against the citizens of Gaza, came onto Radio Rhema (which laughably calls itself the Christian station) and expressed his support not for the victims, but the killers.
Your irrational response the other day led me to think he was you. Seeing you live in Christchurch, obviously that was a mistake.
Anyway, in answer to your vitriol, I condemn Israel’s excessive use of force against the Palestinians and their continued illegal colonisation of the West Bank. It’s bizarre that you assume I would just because I find the continued one-sided generalisations about Israel from you to be irritating, antisemitic and smacking of obsession. FYI Bebe and his Likudniks do not represent the entirety of Jewish or even Israeli opinion.
However I also condemn Hamas for its continued provocations of Israel with little regard for the ordinary Palestinians they were foolishly elected to represent, and for the continued climate of fear it creates for ordinary Israelis. I regard Hamas as a terrorist organisation and I lose no love on them.
I am on the side of the innocent civilians, both Palestinian and Israeli. Now go fuck yourself you presumptive freak.
The vitriol is entirely yours, my friend. I simply held up a mirror.
… I condemn Israel’s excessive use of force against the Palestinians and their continued illegal colonisation of the West Bank.
“Excessive use of force”? What, are you suggesting that there is an ACCEPTABLE use of force that an illegal invading force can use against a civilian population?
It’s bizarre that you assume I would just because I find the continued one-sided generalisations about Israel
What you reflexively and stupidly damned as “anti-Semitism” was in fact a careful, scholarly analysis of systematic bias by the BBC.
… from you to be irritating, antisemitic and smacking of obsession.
I’ve posted some things about Israeli state crimes, as well as crimes by other countries. That’s “obsessive”? You have no strategy other than spraying lame epithets at me?
FYI Bebe…
That’s “Bibi”, actually.
…. and his Likudniks do not represent the entirety of Jewish or even Israeli opinion.
As if we did not KNOW that. So who are Mark Regev, Tzipora Menache and Israel’s other ghastly apologists for state terror representing—the Likudnik regime that runs Israel—or those who belong to the humane, liberal, thoughtful Jewish tradition?
However I also condemn Hamas for its continued provocations of Israel with little regard for the ordinary Palestinians they were foolishly elected to represent, and for the continued climate of fear it creates for ordinary Israelis. I regard Hamas as a terrorist organisation and I lose no love on them.
You don’t know what you’re talking about. You would have condemned the French Resistance, the Yugoslav partisans and the Jewish fighters in the Warsaw Ghetto.
I am on the side of the innocent civilians, both Palestinian and Israeli.
High time you said so, sir. We can look forward to an improvement in the quality and morality of your posts, no doubt.
Now go fuck yourself you presumptive freak.
That sort of abuse is fine when used against, say, Araboushim, or, if you like, untermenschen. Here, all it does is re-emphasize the poverty of your argument.
It’s a lovely day out. Why don’t you get a book on New Zealand birds and go twitting… Or even some bark rubbings. I think you need to get outside in the fresh air more.
It’s a lovely day out. Why don’t you get a book on New Zealand birds and go twitting… Or even some bark rubbings. I think you need to get outside in the fresh air more.
I keep telling folks that Greece should play the exact same game. They should build a printing press right in the middle of the city square of Athens, wind it up and churn out mountains of euros, then drive it by the truckload to the German border and tip it out.
That will expose the system for exactly what it is.
Debt is the most heinous evil inhabiting and inhibiting the world today.
Does it not register with people that money is;
1. issued by privately owned banks and
2. is backed only by a printing machine and
3. must be paid for with interest (even though it is only printed paper backed by nothing. Paying for nothing).
It is the western world’s achilles heel. And nobody even fucking knows!
The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell 10
At some point, should any fellow poster with editing rights have a moment to spare… I’m having the same old, same old problem with scheduled posts not publishing themselves at the designated time I set them for.
There was one slated to go up around 9 O’Clock this morning that didn’t ‘go’. I’ve reschedueled it for tomorrow morning at 8 O’Clock.
Thing is, this same problem has happened previously. Is there something really obvious I’m overlooking in the settings that causes this? I can’t figure it. So…if you have a moment and the inclination, I’d appreciate somebody going into ‘dashboard’ and having a wee look at the post I’ve re-scheduled for tomorrow morning and letting me know if there’s something I’ve not done right or overlooked on the settings front.
I’m getting an effect of tiny white balls falling over my screen from the top noticeable against a dark background. Christmas snowflakes? How cute. By the way Happy Christmas to all and a 2013 year that offers improvements and hope for good direction and achievements in 2014.
Yep. It was a feature that snuck in on wordpress 3.5.
Up in this hemisphere I thought it would be psychological air-conditioning in the sweltering heat. Down in those chilly northern climes it might be a different story as I suspect the storms will be extreme in their winter this year.
Actually I suspect that they will get some quite large snowstorms this year. The oscillating jetstreams have more energy at this phase of the solar cycle and on top of the warming of the Arctic, they’re quite a bit further south. So they’re pushing cold air from the Arctic further south and then it hits more wet air coming up off land and the gulf stream….. Guess what I think will happen.
I agree. We’ve had snow much earlier than usual this year, but have hit a warm-ish period so it’s raining. Pretty boring just before Christmas. It’s an odd climate here with the continental effect enhanced by mountain ranges creating foehn winds up from the desert and then the Siberian/Artic blasts coming the other way.
I’ve been looking around for some graphics of how the oscillating jetstreams are (mis)behaving this year, but there’s not a lot beyond the focus of Britain’s early summer rains.
You saying the outside of the screen will be twitching and black dots will rain across the screen from different directions – whenever I’m at the Standard……until Jan 4?!
US v. Pfc. Bradley Manning is being conducted in de facto secrecy. For more information on the lack of public and press access to United States v. Pfc. Manning, visit the Center for Constitutional Rights, which filed a petition requesting the Army Court of Criminal Appeals (ACCA) “to order the Judge to grant the public and press access to the government’s motion papers, the court’s own orders, and transcripts of proceedings, none of which have been made public to date.”
This transcript of Pfc. Bradley Manning’s testimony at his Article 13 motion hearing was taken at Fort Meade, Maryland on November 29th and 30th, 2012.
[DEFENSE EXAMINATION OF PFC. BRADLEY MANNING ON NOVEMBER 29, 2012]
Defense (Coombs)
Pfc. Manning I know this is a little nerve racking. So what we are going to do, is we are going to ease into this, and just take a little bit of time. Okay?
Pfc. Bradley Manning
Yes, sir.
Defense (Coombs)
Alright, I want to first start off by asking some questions about when you were detained in Iraq. Okay?
Pfc. Bradley Manning
Yes, Sir.
Defense (Coombs)
Alright, do you recall the date that you were initially detained by [Army] CID?
Pfc. Bradley Manning
It was May 27 of 2010.
Defense (Coombs)
And, how did CID first approach you?
Pfc. Bradley Manning
CID first came to– well I was first in the Supply– I was in the Supply office at the Brigade annex, which was a separate building from Brigade headquarters at FOB Hammer in Iraq, and I was– and then, I was escorted by the Supply NCOIC [Non Commissioned Officer in Charge] to an interview room. It was a conference room that had been turned into an interview room. And, I knew that–
Defense (Coombs)
When you walked in, what did you see– when you walked into that?
Manning has supporters from all over the world. Luckily for him, he has not had to rely on the U.S. branch of Amnesty International, which is a compromised and confused organization, to put it very charitably….
Anyone else hear this Mad, Bad and Sad Santa?
NewstalkZB, Thursday 20 December, 10:40 a.m.
NewstalkZB’s notorious supercrank Leighton Smith never turns down an opportunity to turn any occasion into a soapbox for his crazed theories about the world.
But you would have thought that station management would have warned the old loon that it was off-limits to attempt to pound his anti-science, anti-reason, anti-academic agenda into the heads of children, and that it was distasteful, even immoral, to dress a global warming denier up as St. Nick and let him loose on a programme aimed at little children.
Apparently, however, anything goes at NewstalkZB. Absolutely anything….
LEIGHTON SMITH: Ummmm, ahhhh, ummmm…. Here’s a letter, Santa, and I’d ummmmm, aaaahhhh, really ahhhhhmmmm like to, ummmmm, hear what you have to ummmm, say. It says: “How is the state of the polar ice-cap, given that we are told so much about global warming?”
SANTA CLAUS: Oh there is no problem here in the North Pole! There’s PLENTY of ice! All this talk of global warming! What a lot of nonsense!
LEIGHTON SMITH: Thanks for clearing that up, Santa. You’re quite right, this global warming is a load of nonsense. Okay, ummmm, ahhhhh, on the ummmmm…. phone we have another child. Jessica, what do you want to ask Santa?
INTERESTING FACT:
One of NewstalkZB’s many mottoes is “Tune Your Mind.”
Morrissey Thanks for the reports from the front. How you can bear to listen to it beats me. You deserve a medal. Watch out that you listen extensively or you will suffer a bad case of post traumatic stress disorder – too much could blow your receptor valves.
And that bit about Tune Your Mind. Makes me think of the old large console radios that had a function of a green light that brightened as you turned the knob to the optimum station reception. Guess now we’ll have those transplanted in our young so we can receive the sacred murmurings of our old western gurus like Leighton Smith. China had Confucius, Greece had Socrates, we have LS.
Thanks for that, Mr. Nose. I sent an admonitory e-mail to the great broadcaster, but he did not deign to reply.
Luckily for aficionados of the unhinged rant, however, I have a few of his on-air comments and e-mails from some time back, relating to other topics. If you or anyone else is interested, I will give them another airing.
Economic historians instead trace the “lump-of-labor fallacy” back to an 1892 publication by a certain D.F. Schloss who was discussing workers’ attitudes toward piece work. In the first decades of the 20th Century, the National Association of Manufacturers adapted this concept to its fight against the eight-hour day. Economists such as Samuelson unthinkingly picked up arguments from that discussion. The “lump-of-labor fallacy” was just public-relations rhetoric in service to a now discredited cause.
So, the Lump of Labour Fallacy starts off as anti-worker PR and then gets picked up as gospel by the economists but never actually questioned. Sounds like almost everything in economics – stated as fact and yet reality differs and yet the economist fail to note the differences.
Another ‘FarCup’ by the big man with the big stick in chch, his appeal has been lost on the
re-zoning near the airport.
This story is on the TV3 web site.
Sorry can’t link.
The move marks a stark reversal to the neoliberal policies of the 1990s, when a large number of German municipalities were convinced to sell their public services to large corporations. The result was skyrocketing water and power prices.
Well, at least some governments are waking up to the lies of the neo-liberals. Unfortunately, our government happens to be the neo-liberals and they’re the source of the lies and the actions that doom us to increasing poverty.
Fresh from its court victory on asset sales, the Government is considering selling all three state-owned electricity companies next year.
Finance Minister Bill English linked the possibility of three sales to buoyant financial markets and the plan would also mean the most controversial sales were over before election year.
Earlier this month the High Court dismissed a bid by the Maori Council to delay the float of Mighty River Power, now scheduled for the first half of 2013.
The council is appealing to the Supreme Court, but the matter could be resolved in February.
Mr English said this could clear the way for at least two floats in 2013 as previously signalled, while a third was now being considered.
“We’d certainly do two [sales in 2013], the question is whether we do three. Some people have suggested it,” Mr English said.
“I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, [but] the market’s suggesting it might be possible. That will all get tested if we get through the Supreme Court case.”
Treasury advise against the sale of all three power companies due to flat market and low return rate from the sale.
Hopefully the referendum will stall the sale and or polarise the electorate. Roll on 2014.
Road rage man seeks job back or $600,000
By Matthew Theunissen
Guy Hallwright was convicted of causing grievous bodily harm with reckless disregard.
Former Forsyth Barr financial analyst Guy Hallwright is seeking his job back or about $600,000 in lost earnings after being dismissed following his conviction for running over a man with his car.
Wonder what the sentence had been if a patched gang member had done the same thing to Guy Hallwright?
Let’s change the scenario…….
‘Mongrel Mob member XXXXX – in a fit of ‘road rage’ – runs down senior Forsyth Barr analyst Guy Hallwright, and breaks both his legs.
Mr Hallwright has multiple operations since the 2010 incident.
Mongrel Mob member XXXXX is sentenced to 250 hours community work, disqualified from driving for 18 months and ordered to pay victim Guy Hallwright $20,000 reparation after a jury finds he unintentionally ran Hallwright down with his car in September 2010.”
Seems to be QUITE a different story/ sentence if you swap the patched jacket for a pin-striped suit ……?
Facebook is so intensively tracking readers and commenters on this site, for profile details, with background scripts they use to do this. It is a real worry.
Like a WSJ article on 07 Dec. rightly reported, the internet is anything but free and anonymous anymore, and rather becoming a large grazing ground for information gathering for commercial profiling, advertising and so forth.
Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
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The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
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Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
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Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
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A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
Photo by Alvan Nee on UnsplashIt’s that new day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news ...
Buzz from the Beehive One minister is talking tough while a colleague – whose ministry had acted tough and drawn a barrage of flak – has shown an official softening. Some ministers are doing what Labour was good at, which is distributing public funds to causes regarded as worthy or ...
A ballot for 4 Member's Bills was held today, and the following bills were drawn: Insurance Contracts Bill (Duncan Webb) Income Tax (Clean Transport FBT Exclusion) Amendment Bill (Julie Anne Genter) Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill (Greg Fleming) Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) ...
One of the strongest narratives about "our" spy agencies is that they are basically institutional traitors, working for foreign powers (or just themselves), without any control or oversight by the elected government. And today, we have yet another report from the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security which explicitly confirms this. ...
“It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April to meet the Prime Minister’s ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria Nicholas, Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy Education, Deakin University Earlier this month, the New South Wales government announced it would roll out programs for gifted students in every public school in the state. This comes amid concerns gifted school ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney Massachusetts General Hospital In a world first, we heard last week that US surgeons had transplanted a kidney from a gene-edited pig into a living human. News reports said the procedure was a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tombs, Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago The 5th-century Maskell panel showing Jesus in a loincloth.British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA When Jesus is shown on the cross, he is almost always depicted wearing a loincloth around ...
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Our Members, which art in Confusion,
Restless be thy Mood
Thy Kingdom come.
Thy will be done for the next election,
Though it hasn’t since ’08.
Give your MPs your daily thoughts.
And don’t forgive manipulation,
As you have bit your lip while the Clique trespassed against us.
And stop Trevor &co lead us into another failure,
But deliver us from careerists
For this is your Constitutional Right,
The power, and the leverage,
For a members vote in February
Amen.
Amen +1
Amen.
Amen
For thine is social democracy,
The power and the material glory,
Redistributed.
Forever and ever,
Amen
A counter…
Just before Xmas I spoke to the few.
On the feb vote, I hope we get the vote too.
For the people’s voice i speak of unity
A new direction, a pathway maybe a cup of tea.
Time for our say, members and all.
Time for hope and to stand tall.
Our pollies are our hope
They must talk what we dream.
But I say to you all.
Time for unity, one voice, one dream.
So in bright early feb give me just one united team.
Hang on…
A man assaults his wife repeatedly and gets discharged without conviction with a comment by the judge that the charges will probably have an effect on his chosen career path of training to be a surgeon.
A transgendered woman will have to serve 2 years & 1 month in a men’s prison for a single instance of assault after a fight broke out after an argument at home. A month less and the sentence could have been reduced to home detention. The judge recognised that a transgendered person might be at risk in a men’s prison, but sent her there anyway.
Two questions:
1. Will the prosecution appeal the first sentence because it’s inadequate and domestic violence needs to be taken seriously?
2. Will the defence have the money to appeal the second sentence because it’s dangerous and therefore wrong?
Surely you don’t think we live in A land of one rule one law for everyone do you..
Justice in NZ is not blind, it is retarded.
@ HS – Actually no, its completely corrupted!
This is appalling. Judge Cooper is full of shit.
There are separate standards applied in New Zealand justice. One standard for those who are so-called professionals and one for those are so-called mere workers.
If a conviction is likely to cause a problem for someone’s job then tough. I would expect that an assault conviction is easier to turn a blind eye to by the NZ Medical Cartel than it is for a lowly delivery driver to avoid losing his job and not being able to find another.
It is like back when the Amercias Cup was here and that rich billionaire fulla got caught with some pot. The useless judge let him off, and got name suppression because it would have a detrimental to him and his business. Well, frikkin’ duh, it would actually have no impact on a billionaires life. And such a similar event for a local Manuwera lad would have a massive impact on his life.
So the judges are full of shit.
In fact Judge Cooper said this “”It is fair to say any conviction is going to impact adversely on your employment.” So if that is the, what do you call it, reason for the decision (latin term?), then I look forward to seeing it applied equally across the land. Convictions have a greater impact on those less well off than those at the top of the pile, completely and totally contrary to the current understanding of our judiciary.
Judge Cooper is a brainless fool.
I wonder how many of these example it will take until people accet that the judiciary in NZ are in fact corrupted, and working for/to a completely differnent agenda.
As shown by the links I posted about the SFO Prosecutor, and the bizaare events in the court room as allowed by Judge Mary Beth Sharp
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10853717
Blames fertility drug…
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10853492&ref=rss
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10854173
I guess some people are more exceptional than others when committing crime!
You are hopelessly wrong. Justice is not linear. Ever crime has different context and differing evidence, remorse, etc. Second guess courts and replacing it with some mob internet rule is just dumber than dumb, its been tried over and again to replace courts and it never works because those with the most money win.
Past behavior is indicative of future behavior, past good civil interactions are always going to add weight to remorse displayed. However if you live a marginal life, then of course your lack of remorse is going to play even more against you. Its one of the problems I believe with the high Maori crime rates, Maori culturally aren’t clued up on how to express good standing and remorse to courts.
While I agree, putting a person who looks and behaves like a women in a man jail does require the prison to take exceptional measures to protect them.
I think you miss the point there aerobubble, as is evidenced by your statement ” However if you live a marginal life, then of course your…….”
The post of muzza and that of mine are (assumed for muzza) based on all else being equal. There is no evidence in the media presentation of these cases that the wife-beater lived a good civil life (simply being a doctor does not equal that – that is just bigotry) or that the tranny lived a less than civil life.
Your assumption that this is the case would seem to be the same assumption that judges always make. I posted a further example of that with the billionaire. This is the exact problem.
I hold the judiciary in high regard. However in this exact area it has failed for a long long time and it was time it was highlighted. Best example being the wildly random application of name suppression and the justifications for and against. It is shit.
The generalization that courts could produce consistency is farfetched given that each crime has its own circumstances, evidence, people, and I doubt we’d want the dictatorship of consistency. Half the court process is just stressing out the accused, lumbering them with costs, putting their lives on hold, even before the case gets going.
Yeah, and wonder how the collecting of that crime levy is going.
The very thing we cannot go into detail about, individual cases, is they very reason we put up a court system to deliberate all the fact in a impartial way. Now yeah, for sure, the Bain of cases comes along too, nobody should think courts are perfect, or could be made that way.
That’s why I took a stance on your general bullshit that courts are all out of kilter with your world view. Poor you, its called a process of compromises, and its never going to be clean or pretty.
What is reasonable, a person who turns up to work, does detailed, highly professional work day in day out for decades, or some transient who hits people to solve their problems. Sorry but people have been around long enough to know that drugs will effect people and they can make mistakes of judgment. But violence, whole different level.
As for the running over, people do, yes even millionaries, have brain fazes when confronted with violence. A very important part, surely of courts, is to find who instigated it. A father with his kid, is more likely to flight than fight, and so if a person is desperate, angry, running at them, avoiding them is only one of the constraints.
Can’t say I agree with you aerobubble. Laws are made and appeals won because courts must show some sort of consistency in sentencing. Of course there are extenuating circumstances in some cases – obviously the reason lawyers argue for them.
My problem with these two cases is that consistency doesn’t seem to be apparent in these cases, and that someone has no sentence for domestic violence because of his status, not because of the crime, and someone else has sentence that, because of her status is unduly harsh. It may even appear bigoted – 2 years + the 1 month so home detention cannot be considered.
Courts hear all the information. Also it doesn’t matter that you can pick out two cases that seem to look inconsistent. Citizens who own their own homes, have savings, are more civil minded because they have more to lose, and so punishing unnecessarily harshly when the mere lose of status in gaining a criminal conviction
would see their career prospect shrink, their kids look question their parents…
As for the puzzle. A person who has nowhere to serve out home detention, and is already give a 15% reduction on their sentence, should necessity a lot of publicity to keep their jailers keen that nothing averse does happen to them when incarcerated.
You see each persons punishment is best contexted to their circumstances, a father has children, children could be harmed and punished too, they lose in other ways that a prison sentence cannot. Like I said, just being accused is punishment (exceptions like attention seekers, sociopaths), so should judges take this into account, the lack of remorse shown by the sociopathic attention seeker self-victim? So unless and until I see every damn piece of evidence I trust in the judges in these trials to weight up decisions. Now, sure if there is a clear skew over time in lots of cases, and fathers are walking scot-free, and trans-sexuals are getting beaten in jail (or worse), then sure no problem it would merit looking at the sentencing, and sacking some managers in the jail system.
One problem with home detention is its consider punishment, so what the country is saying is someone who lives holed up in their home, severely socially inhibited, and effectively the same as punishment to another citizen for the crime of
assault? So I point to you beware making generalizations, I’m sure some will
take it as quite offensive that home detention is offer to people how have been
at the hard end of violence, as they personally may fear leaving their homes
as a result.
aerobubble: Citizens who own their own homes, have savings, are more civil minded because they have more to lose, and so punishing unnecessarily harshly when the mere lose of status in gaining a criminal conviction
would see their career prospect shrink, their kids look question their parents…
Thanks for dismissing all us renters as lacking in community spirit. Actually, the fear of losing one’s home and savings is supporting more of an individualistic focus on what’s in it for themselves and their families. People who rent, and have less savings could be more aware of the need for community-support, caring for others etc.
Perhaps we should go back to the good old days where only property owning (Christian men) could vote.
Certainly I agree that horses for courses, some want to acquire wealth, and thats okay as much as someone who wants to rent. My point was that its not punishment if it doesn’t change their circumstances. A social phobic would be more harshly punished in a prison, but also home detention would be a breeze. So a judge could stipulate limits on say internet access while on home detention, this would be more severe than for most people whose whole community wasn’t online say. Its little point giving home detention to a paraplegic.
So nobody here wants to help me start the ‘Sweet as’ revolution in Hamilton West?
On my home world, we’d call you all mouth and no trousers.
Two minutes silence for fallen internet warriors, but two fingers up at food in kids bellies.
Priorities, nice.
Second track on my website – Games I play.
Sometimes it’s easy. Sometimes it’s rough.
Sometimes it breaks your heart inside. You’ve got to break your heart or hide.
Some people come easy, like some people go.
Some people break apart in sight. They have to run away in fright. But not me.
‘Cause you know? It’s just like a game I play.
‘Cause I know we’re just here to fade away.
‘Cause I’m only here for so long.
Been too lonely here, for too long.
‘Somethings’ aren’t easy. ‘Somethings’ aren’t wrong.
‘Somethings’ can’t fake a hurt inside. They’ve got to take a pain with pride.
Some people go easy. And some people don’t.
Some people make a stand and fight. They have to hold their ground and fight. Just like me.
‘Cause you know? It’s just like a game I play.
‘Cause I’m no way here just to fade. No way.
‘Cause I’m only here for so long.
‘Cause I’m lonely here, but I’m strong.
‘Cause I’m only here for so long.
I’m still standing here, so come on.
So come on.
One by one. All at once, I’ll take you all on.
One by one. All at once, until you’re all gone.
And I win.
Is it snowing on The Standard? 🙂
It stops and then comes back again
And the screen is twitching.
Glad you’ve got it too, I thought I might have picked up a bug.
Ain’t a twitch. It’s a shiver 😉
Or a ‘special investigation’ by a ‘special branch’ that the pm will never get an email, text or phone call about, even if he makes jokes about it, that no-one heard or saw footage of, even while they we’re destroying it just in case.
For the record, I am an alien, but I’m a permanent resident al1en.
I’m also not a ‘predator’ type teeth gnasher and I never consume humans – It’d be like eating less intelligent Dolphin.
😉
The Allen
Merry Christmas dude. Find some earthling to explain it to you and then enjoy it.
Don’t worry, friend. I’ve got your festive customs nailed down.
Every December, all the politicians get to fuck off on holiday and all the hungry kids don’t.
Enjoy yours though, if you conscience lets you.
it seems to be following the cursor
Wind from the NE this time!
Gone from twitching/shivering to fitting at the bottom of the screen.
Calling Dr LPrent if you have a minute.
Firefox, vista home premium.
A feature that’s gone rogue??
On OSX 10.6.8, Safari it’s still a nice snow shower…sorry hear it’s stormy elsewhere…
And it’s behaving using Firefox 14.0.1 on the same O/S.
Whew. I have been working on a post (on media bias -difficult topic) for a couple of weeks. Was working on it just now and made quite a few revisions – clicked save, took forever as all the typing disappeared, leaving me with a blank post. However, I opened the post in another tab and the latest version is all there. Gave me a fright.
Happens. I was fixing a problem with a plugin update last night and the system was a bit upset.
The back button often works if you have to walk backwards…
If you have a wordpress account you can go here and turn off the snow for blogs you look at (I assume this doesn’t work if you log out):
https://wordpress.com/#!/settings/ (untick the snow box)
Eta: doesn’t work 🙁 although it is supposed to http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2011/12/01/its-getting-cold-in-here/ Is this a wordpress.org thing?
Yes. You’d have to login to the site to do that here.
Remember to take advantage of our position relative to the international dateline to login at midnight onto every form of social media and start making panic stricken reports of massive earthquakes, huge volcanic eruptions and armies of zombies emerging from nowhere.
Obviously not been out walking or anywhere near large swaths of the public recently…Zombie like they are, all head in some screen or another, mindlessly wandering around..
Better watch out you don’t have to eat humble pie like Nick Smith did last year on March 20th. He said Ken Ring’s prediction of a greater risk of increased earthquake activity around this date was that of a fool so he and others went and had a picnic on the Port Hills of Christchurch to thumb their noses at him.
Unfortunately for them there were several earthquakes that day, including the biggest aftershock since Feb 22, and it was Nick Smith and his cronies that had to back down and admit they didn’t know what they were doing.
Let’s see what happens.
You are aware I’m sure that this date tomorrow is solely a measure of a confluence of astronomical cycles. It is simply a physical measurement of stars and planets and galaxies spinning through space. It is as real and as simple as measuring the trajectory of a ball thrown in a backyard.
Port Hills? They lack the courage of their convictions. Sitting under the Cathedral would have been more impressive.
Ha ha, yep, that’s what many people suggested. Even if they had picniced at the bottom of the Port Hills would have had more cred. There have been many rockfalls at the slightest shake or rain now that the hills have been shattered like a glass block courtesy of the Great Earth Monster.
Not very convincing when they go to the very safest place to go nyah nyah nyah to possible earthquakes. But then again, like John Key, Nick Smith has never come across as a courageous man. In fact the opposite as exhibited here – cowardly.
Actually, this government can be characterised by this and the bully boy tactics described in the Wellington Cuncil thread. They are cowards and bullies, as is so often the case with bullies.
Cowardly bullies
“Unfortunately for them there were several earthquakes that day, including the biggest aftershock since Feb 22”
Really? I live in Christchurch – and I remember the Port Hills stunt, but I don’t remember any big aftershocks. Ring is full of shit, but even a broken clock can be right twice a day.
Well you need to check your facts Pop. Biggest aftershock since Feb 22, one of the largest for a long time in kaikoura and activation of an old similar fault system in McKenzie Basin.
Also, if Ring is full of shit then so too is Isaac Newton.
Tell me Pop, why do you think Ring is full of shit? Some detail and solid points if you could ta.
Wasn’t this all discussed at the time?
The guy is so vague in dates, location and magnitude that it’s like the met office saying “some rain will occur somewhere on the Pacific Rim this week”. And if a typhoon breaks in Fiji, folks jump on the interwebz to say how accurate he is. You can’t predict a chaotic system based on relatively minor influences, compared to say fucking great loads that might or might not already exist on a particular fault.
And that’s without his “read your cat’s future in its paws” book.
“You can’t predict a chaotic system based on relatively minor influences, compared to say fucking great loads that might or might not already exist on a particular fault.”
Fault systems aren’t chaotic. Example, see Alpine Fault measured movements over time.
Relatively minor influences? Sheesh, ever heard the sayings about straws and camels backs? Then place that into context.
The thing about straws and camel’s backs is that there are many other straws on the camel’s back, too. focusing on one and “predicting” that one like it will eventually break the back is just stupid. There are much bigger straws that planetary alignment.
Fault systems are chaotic. Example, Saharan rainfalls over time.
The point is that there are many factors that affect the friction either side of the fault. Then there are the inner earth magma currents affecting tectonic forces. And different rock densities. All obeying basic and predictable laws of physics, but in exponentially compounding combinations are not even roughly predictable on a slide rule with an astrological chart.
“Tell me Pop, why do you think Ring is full of shit? Some detail and solid points if you could ta.”
Science. All Ring does is fling vague scattershot figures around and sometimes they stick. Sideshow psychics do pretty much the same thing. There are earthquakes of varying magnitudes everyday somewhere in the world. And comparing him to Sir Isaac Newton? You win the arsehat prize for that – the second in the space of a week.
Do you know what Newton was about? I am not a fan of Ring but what he says is simply that when the moon is closer to the earth there is an increased gravitational effect. This has a gravitational effect on the air. This has a gravitational effect on the water. This has a gravitational effect on the land.
It is as simple as that.
His underlying proposition is not shit, it is sound. Tell me how the above is not right.
As for arsehat prize – keep it. I see others have you lined up for similar prize. Egg
Hey did you note that you are lighter when the moon is over head.
Sound proposition, but not significant according to the observed data. 1% attribution? Try forecasting weather based on the albedo of roofs in the area.
sanctuary
Don’t frighten the horses. There are enough real and terrible things happening without merry japes as you mention. Not funny. Watch some Mitchell and Webb or something and have laughs at people and politicians to occupy your spare time.
“…. former South Korean military di– uh, ruler”
Language censorship on Television One Breakfast
Television One Breakfast, 7:30 a.m., Thursday 20 December 2012
Newsreader Melissa Stokes read the following: “South Korea has elected its first woman president. Park Geun-hye is the daughter of a former South Korean military di– [pause] uh, ruler.”
The change was so sudden, and Melissa Stokes seemed so momentarily nonplussed, that there’s only one plausible explanation: her actual script said “former South Korean military dictator” but some producer urgently hissed into her earpiece “Don’t call him a dictator, call him a RULER!”
Why would Television One’s administration be reluctant to call a dictator a dictator?
There are no dictators any more. Here is a brilliant speech from the Dictator! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEUKZCFqyIw
That guy’s not funny. He’s even unfunnier when you look at his actual (not “satirical” or “ironic”) support for the mass murder perpetrated by his favorite real-life regime.
I totally agree but he is of course describing the US as it really is. Brilliant the speech is but funny he is not!
I did think he was funny until I realized how hardline and shameless he is in real life. He actually IS Borat, with all of Borat’s brutal anti-Semitism and callous disregard for others. In the same way that some Jewish people cannot listen to Wagner, I just can’t respect Baron Cohen since I learned what a vicious person he is.
Citaions needed. Lots of them!
Mozza, you appear to be unaware that Baron Cohen is jewish (and a socialist). He’s not anti-semitic and I think you are going to struggle to find any evidence of him supporting mass murder. He has also won a Golden Globe for comedy, something neither of you is ever likely to do. So, objectively, he is funny. He’s got an award for it and made millions making people laugh. And saying he’s not funny, then admitting that you ‘used to’ think he was funny is pretty funny in itself, Moz.
Is there the slimmest chance that Sacha Baron Cohen is actually the funniest comedian Britain has produced in the last twenty years and you two are humourless bores?
I respect your intellect, my friend, but in this case you don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ll return to this later, with citations you are more than capable of finding for yourself, were you to allow yourself to get out of hero worship mode towards this moral imbecile.
Right now, I have to leave for a few hours, I’m afraid.
Meanwhile, you need to do a little research into Sacha Baron Cohen, that unfunny fraud.
An antisemitic practicing orthodox Jew????
Populuxe, please look on the thread below. You have a case to answer.
Zionism is inherently Anti Semitic. Palestinians, Egyptians, Jordanians, Syrians and other Arabs living in the Levant are all Semites.
Added to that the Semitic Jews who lived with the Arabs for 2000 years are equally discriminated against by the criminal ruling elite of Israel because the are anti Zionist.
Sasha Baron Cohen is a hardcore Zionist (well documented) and I have always avoided his nasty kind of humour.
I call this speech brilliant in that it describes the US (Which he regards as and which behaves as a Zionist slave state) and most Americans have no idea he is talking about them and their regime (1% is in total control).
Nope Sasha is as wrong as it gets!!!
But tracellerev, Jews are Arabs too. They are not their own separate race, no matter how much that may suit their aims and ends. Why is this such a problem for people?
No actually, TRV let’s not move on. For those of you interested Sasha Baron Cohen a Habonim boy and his work, every film he made one way or another was intended to ridicule Islam and Muslims.
His impact is huge and he defends Israel and attacks Muslims so to say he is neutral is hypocrite to say the least. You want to move on from this discussion that is fine but for those of you curious hit the search button
To PB,
God you don’t talk halfshite. Militia, ZOG (fucked if I know what that stands for) and how you’re so disappointed. Are those the new catchphrases your are told to use. Militia, Preppers AND 911 truthers are now primed to be the next terrorists with their wilkd weapon collecting blahblah blah (I hear the mother of the SH shooter was a prepper too! Is that how you have been told to typecast people who want a new and independent investigation into the events of 911?
And the disappoining thing, is that so people will get the impression you are a patient lot but them preppers, militia and 911turhters are such a trying lot?
(ROFL) You don’t know me, you don’t know what I do in my daily life (Or maybe you do…) and you have the gall to be “Disappointed”?
Fuck you PB, Fuck you and your sad and futile attempts to typecast me or those of us who want to have a new and independent investigation into the events of 911.
Wow.
I guess it’s the Zionists telling me what to say huh?
Watch out Eve, the Jews are coming for yer shootn arns.
“Sasha Baron Cohen is a hardcore Zionist (well documented)”
So you’ll have no problem providing proof, then, will you, Ev?
You’re playing the ignoramus, Te Reo. That’s never a charming look.
Well, ignoramus is a harsh word to describe Ev, but, yes, I am playing her. But only in the sense of fish/barrel, you understand.
Any chance you’ve found the cites you reckon you were gonna provide? Just curious, because my brief google search finds nothing to support your various and contradictory descriptions of Baron Cohen.
That’s funny TRP because my quick google search comes back with 250.000 results in 0.26 of a second!
Great, Ev. Perhaps you’d like to share some of the ones that prove SBC is a “hardcore zionist”. Skip the ones that are just opinion, and just cite the factual ones. Preferably quotes from him saying “I’m a hardcore zionist”. Bet that takes more than 0.26 seconds.
Well, ignoramus is a harsh word to describe Ev, but, yes, I am playing her.
“Her”? [Straightens tie, rubs Brylcreme through hair] “Travellerev” is a GIRL?!?!?!?!??
But only in the sense of fish/barrel, you understand.
C’mon, Te Reo, seriously—stop messin’ about.
Any chance you’ve found the cites you reckon you were gonna provide? Just curious, because my brief google search finds nothing to support your various and contradictory descriptions of Baron Cohen.
Baron Cohen is a racist, extreme supporter of the Holy State. There is nothing “various” or “contradictory” about any of those positions.
Evidence, Mozza, evidence! No point you having a crack at Populuxe for not backing up his/her arguments if you can’t do it yourself.
And, yes, Ev is a woman. Is if that mattered. 🙄
What is the problem with being a hardcore Zionist TRP? Why is that something that has to be proven. What is a Zionist other then someone who supports the state of Israel as the homeland of the Jews? And as a consequence has to support the discrimination of Arabs, Palestinians especially?
Tell you what. Here is a link from Jews sans frontieres and people who read this and want to know more to form their own opinion can Google Sasha Baron Cohen and Zionism and draw their own conclusions.
I wouldn’t call my self a “girl”. That has come and gone but yes, I’m of the female gender and I thank you for the sentiment expressed. 🙂
Fair enough, Ev, I get where you are coming from. Like you, I think Zionism is bigotted, but I don’t think all Jews are Zionist, nor all Israelis. I think its unfair to call Baron Cohen a Zionist (and therefore, a racist) without evidence. And there really doesn’t seem to be any evidence. Lots of opinion, sure, but nothing that confirms that he is any other than an excellent comedian who has a Jewish heritage.
Anyhoo, time to move on?
I call this speech brilliant in that it describes the US (Which he regards as and which behaves as a Zionist slave state) and most Americans have no idea he is talking about them and their regime (1% is in total control).
I’m not sure what you mean by this Eve, but it really is an unfortunate turn of phrase. On the off chance you aren’t aware of why, please take the time to read this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zionist_Occupation_Government
I know that you read Alex Jones (or at least you used to) so you may have picked up some of this stuff from some of the things he publishes and links to, or not, I don’t really care. But what I do care about is that when people are researching conspiracy stuff, they practice discernment. There really really are some nasty people manipulating things and pushing memes, and using codes. Don’t be one of their dupes. Please.
There certainly is a lot of conspiratorial, anti-Semitic rubbish in cyberspace. This idea that the U.S.A. is “manipulated” by Israel (which is basically Mearsheimer & Walt’s thesis) is plain wrong, but it’s at the root of a lot of noise on the internet.
However, it is not conspiratorial or paranoid to see that Sacha Baron Cohen is a brutal and unapologetic supporter of Israel, and a ruthless defamer of the Holy State’s victims.
For your information. Alex Jones is married to a Jewish lady if I’m correct and goes through great pains to avoid the Israel controversies.
He is actually accused of being a Zionist shill for that reason even though he has no problem pointing out obvious crimes such as the shelling of Gaza.
So please back off with your patronising shite.
For those of you wanting to know more about how the US is duped into being Israels bully boy here is some information you don’t get from the MSM about one of the most powerful Lobbying groups in the world AIPAC
Oh and PB, over the years you have never given any “conspiracy nutter” as you call them the benefit of being able to have discernment so fuck off about that too.
America is Israel’s slave state and while Netanyahu may not like Obama and that is mutual in the end America will abide by what Israel wants to do. End of story.
And Morrisey. wipe the shit out of your eyes and start doing some proper research about Israel and it’s puppet masters. You’re smart, use your brain!
So you were endorsing a ZOG thesis then.
Fits with some of the other militia inspired crap you’ve endorsed over the years, ( OMG FEMA camps etc) so it’s not really a surprise, but disappointing all the same.
Citaions needed. Lots of them!
My course of reading to get you up to speed has begun today, with the Steven Salaita piece from Electronic Intifada. I’ll put more up for you each day. Of course, you are entirely capable of doing this for yourself, but I get the feeling this is a case of having to lead a horse to water.
Mozza, you appear to be unaware that Baron Cohen is jewish (and a socialist). He’s not anti-semitic
Yes, he is. He is virulently anti-Arab, and most relevantly, anti-Palestinian. As a state-friendly clown, he is absolved from the necessity to even pretend he gives a damn about the victims of his callous “humour”, and doesn’t have to make any false statements that he cares about Palestinians (like Alan Dershowitz keeps claiming about himself) or pretend to be troubled by Palestinian deaths (like the official spokespersons for the Holy State routinely do even as they justify the killings).
…and I think you are going to struggle to find any evidence of him supporting mass murder.
The evidence is irrefutable. Hopefully, after you’ve read today’s introductory article, you will engage in a little more extensive reading for yourself.
He has also won a Golden Globe for comedy,…
I grant you, Sacha Baron Cohen can be funny, but the old Aristotelian device of Arguing from Awards is unwise. Barack Obama won a Nobel Prize for ….. (WAIT FOR IT!) ….. Peace. Martin Devlin and Murray Deaker have both won awards for sports journalism. Some of the direst songs ever written have won Academy Awards for “Best Song”. I could go on, and may well do so at a later date….
….something neither of you is ever likely to do.
WHAT?!!??!?!? Now that is hurtful.
So, objectively, he is funny.
So, by the same logic, Martin Devlin and Murray Deaker are, objectively, outstanding sports journalists; “Into the West”, “My Heart Will Go On” and “You Light Up My Life” are, objectively, top-notch songs; and Barack Obama is, objectively, a Man of Peace.
He’s got an award for it and made millions making people laugh. And saying he’s not funny, then admitting that you ‘used to’ think he was funny is pretty funny in itself, Moz.
I can see he’s funny, and I don’t criticize you for seeing the same thing. However, he clearly has an agenda—and it’s a brutal one, that needs to be called out.
Is there the slimmest chance that Sacha Baron Cohen is actually the funniest comedian Britain has produced in the last twenty years…
Not a chance. Have you never heard of Jack Dee? Or Frankie Boyle? Or Steve Coogan? Or Ricky Gervais? Or Mitchell and Webb?
…and you two are humourless bores?
I have systematically and seriously made a case for the careful examination and reconsideration of a comedian who is lionized by the establishment. You can call me a “humourless bore” if you want, just like Jimmy Savile used to do about anyone who had the temerity to criticize him.
You could start with evidence, mozza. Any evidence at all would be good. But so far … nothing.
You could start with evidence, mozza. Any evidence at all would be good. But so far … nothing.
If you were a lawyer, you would be admonished (at the very least) for contempt of court. I have argued with you in good faith, and provided an excellent scholarly analysis of Sacha Baron Cohen’s political agenda for you to read—but you have simply closed up and retreated into your shell.
I leave it to others to see who is arguing, and backing his argument with evidence, and who is cynically trying to stymie any argument.
Oh dear, this is well below your usual standard, Mozza. No evidence at all? Surely you must have found at least one quote from the man by now. Nothing? Really?
Playing dumb does you no credit, my friend.
M, TRP is a shill. This is what he does. He is an excellent tool to give people who read them links but he will always sidestep, accuse, malign and avoid. Still he keeps threads alive and that means more people will eventually get the information they need to make up their own minds. And many over here have done over the last five years.
For those of you interested in understanding the likes of Te Reo Putake here is a nice list of 25 hallmarks of shill behaviour
M, TRP is a shill.
I am well aware of that. Thanks for the heads-up.
This is what he does. He is an excellent tool to give people who read them links
Really? Recently, he has refused to read links, or simply denied their validity.
but he will always sidestep, accuse, malign and avoid. Still he keeps threads alive and that means more people will eventually get the information they need to make up their own minds. And many over here have done over the last five years.
You’re being very charitable, travellerev.
For those of you interested in understanding the likes of Te Reo Putake here is a nice list of 25 hallmarks of shill behaviour.
Or, to see a shill in action, simply observe Sacha Baron Cohen’s behaviour.
No, you are right HE won’t read the links but others will and those are the ones I aim for.
Don’t try to win over the haters, you’re not the jerk whisperer is my motto but over the backs of the haters you can actually reach those who are willing to learn.
I apologise for telling you to wipe the shit out of your eyes and start doing research about Israel but I do mean you should do mor9e research on the state of Israel.
Here is a facebook friend of mine. His name is A href=”http://www.gilad.co.uk/”>Gilad Atzmon. He is Jewish and Israeli. He is also a great musician and writer and he recently published a book called: The wandering who? You might want to start there!
WHERE IS HE?
Whither Populuxe1?
Mass Murder Advocate Fails to Front His Critics
I note with some concern that poor old Populuxe1 has failed to surface after being keel-hauled by all and sundry on Tuesday.
I can see five possible explanations for his failure to mount an argument in defence of himself and his outlandish statement on Open Mike:
1.) He lacks the wherewithal to mount a coherent argument;
2.) He is “on leave”, a la the Rt. Hon. Hekia Parata;
3.) Professor Stuart McCutcheon has gotten wind of Populuxe1’s extra-curricular nonsense, called him in for a talk and delivered a stern warning: “If you continue to make a fool of yourself like this, Dr. Hoadley, even under a preposterous surname, we will have to look at your position a little more rigorously….” ;
4.) He is licking his wounds and preparing for an AWESOME comeback, where he sprays around even more awesomely absurd epithets;
5.) In his shame and desperation, the poor oaf has actually shown some courage and taken the time-honored option, viz. …..
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/Giotto_-_Scrovegni_-_-47-_-_Desperation.jpg
Conoisseurs of the bizarre and deranged can peruse the poor chap’s comment by clicking here….
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-18122012/comment-page-1/#comment-564232
Sorry, but Hekia is only Hon., not Rt. Hon.
But she is a real Right One.
Thank you for that, Lanthanide. While we’re on the subject of errors, I note another grievous one, where I show Prof. McCutcheon warning Dr. Hoadley that he must not make a fool of himself, even under the cover of “a preposterous surname“.
Of course, Prof. McCutcheon, a highly educated man, would have used his words far more accurately.
This is what he would have said: “If you continue to make a fool of yourself like this, Dr. Hoadley, even under a preposterous pseudonym, we will have to look at your position a little more rigorously.”
My apologies for the careless error in the original post.
This line of comments offends me greatly. Not only are you speculating on identities based on the flawless logic “I disagree with H, P disagrees with me, therefore P=H”, you also seem to have constructed a fantasy about H’s legislated academic freedom being interfered with by M, who is connected to you only by virtue of being H’s boss’s boss.
Here’s a thought – lose the obsessive vendetta part of your shiny hat. You might be less of a jerk.
This line of comments offends me greatly.
I’ve already admitted out that my (entirely reasonable) speculation was wrong.
Not only are you speculating on identities based on the flawless logic “I disagree with H, P disagrees with me, therefore P=H”, you also seem to have constructed a fantasy about H’s legislated academic freedom being interfered with by M, who is connected to you only by virtue of being H’s boss’s boss.
As I’ve already said, it was a reasonable supposition. Not many in academia, bar a couple of certifiable cases at Waikato, are as ideologically extreme as Steve Hoadley; our friend Populuxe1 made a stunningly foolish and extreme anti-Palestinian comment; Populuxe has made a point of telling this online community that he works in a university, ergo it was a reasonable inference that the extreme anti-Palestinian Populuxe1 was the extreme anti-Palestinian Steve Hoadley.
Happily, Populuxe1 assures us that he is now “on the side of the innocent civilians, both Palestinian and Israeli”, so assuming he is not lying, there will be no more erroneous assumptions by anyone that Populuxe1 is Steve Hoadley.
Here’s a thought – lose the obsessive vendetta part of your shiny hat.
That was a reasonable inference. You can call it “obsessive”, but on reflection I think you’ll recognize that is not a fair portrayal of my stance.
You might be less of a jerk.
Oooff! Now THAT hurt. I now have hurt feelings….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8sShWY6llE
I work at a university. Am I Hoadley?
There are literally thousands of academic and general university staff, if P was even telling the truth about the sector they worked in at the time they wrote it.
And yeah, inventing conversations between real people based on the fact that you disagree with one person’s pseudonym and another person’s media comments, so therefore it’s a “reasonable supposition” that they are the same person. That’s obsessive.
But nice to know you genuinely believe you were trying to “out” a Standard commenter’s identity. Jerk.
I work at a university. Am I Hoadley?
I do not think so. Unlike Populuxe1, you have not been making Hoadley-esque public statements pouring scorn on the victims of state terror.
There are literally thousands of academic and general university staff,
There would be only half a dozen of them that are so brazen and shameless in their public praise of the Holy State.
And yeah, inventing conversations between real people based on the fact that you disagree with one person’s pseudonym and another person’s media comments, so therefore it’s a “reasonable supposition” that they are the same person. That’s obsessive.
No, it is reasonable to assume that an academic brazen enough to publicly state (on radio) that he supports the state that is engaged in the mass murder of imprisoned, ghettoized untermenschen might be foolish enough to come on a popular forum like this and make similar statements, as well as spraying the ridiculous accusation of “anti-Semitism” at anyone who protests at the Holy State’s campaign of terror. That’s what our friend Populuxe1 did.
You can call that “obsessive”, but that slur carries as much critical heft as our friend Te Reo Putake’s repeated claim that any and all evidence is “no evidence”.
But what about pseudonymous comments? With no career reputation to worry about? And besides, I reckon you vastly undercount the number of right-wingers in academia.
That is indeed a reasonable assumption. But the assumption you made was that any person who uses a pseudonym to state similar (for a given margin of error) opinions is probably therefore the same person who uses their own name and academic freedom in mass media. Not to mention the defamatory assertion of a vice chancellor interfering in the freedom of an academic to express his opinions.And at least I stated exactly why, with reference to specific facts, I thought you were obsessing over this. Inventing defamatory conversations on the illogical leap you made is not healthy.
But you merely make the assertions, and almost never relate them to verifiable specific facts. Also known as “evidence”.
Have you changed your meds recently?
And I don’t know who Hoadley is, but I ain’t he. However isn’t that sort of speculation against the rules here? Usually the moderators are all over that.
You don’t know who Hoadley is? He’s a far-right commentator from the University of Auckland, who during the recent escalation in Israeli terror against the citizens of Gaza, came onto Radio Rhema (which laughably calls itself the Christian station) and expressed his support not for the victims, but the killers.
Your irrational response the other day led me to think he was you. Seeing you live in Christchurch, obviously that was a mistake.
Anyway, in answer to your vitriol, I condemn Israel’s excessive use of force against the Palestinians and their continued illegal colonisation of the West Bank. It’s bizarre that you assume I would just because I find the continued one-sided generalisations about Israel from you to be irritating, antisemitic and smacking of obsession. FYI Bebe and his Likudniks do not represent the entirety of Jewish or even Israeli opinion.
However I also condemn Hamas for its continued provocations of Israel with little regard for the ordinary Palestinians they were foolishly elected to represent, and for the continued climate of fear it creates for ordinary Israelis. I regard Hamas as a terrorist organisation and I lose no love on them.
I am on the side of the innocent civilians, both Palestinian and Israeli. Now go fuck yourself you presumptive freak.
Anyway, in answer to your vitriol,
The vitriol is entirely yours, my friend. I simply held up a mirror.
… I condemn Israel’s excessive use of force against the Palestinians and their continued illegal colonisation of the West Bank.
“Excessive use of force”? What, are you suggesting that there is an ACCEPTABLE use of force that an illegal invading force can use against a civilian population?
It’s bizarre that you assume I would just because I find the continued one-sided generalisations about Israel
What you reflexively and stupidly damned as “anti-Semitism” was in fact a careful, scholarly analysis of systematic bias by the BBC.
… from you to be irritating, antisemitic and smacking of obsession.
I’ve posted some things about Israeli state crimes, as well as crimes by other countries. That’s “obsessive”? You have no strategy other than spraying lame epithets at me?
FYI Bebe…
That’s “Bibi”, actually.
…. and his Likudniks do not represent the entirety of Jewish or even Israeli opinion.
As if we did not KNOW that. So who are Mark Regev, Tzipora Menache and Israel’s other ghastly apologists for state terror representing—the Likudnik regime that runs Israel—or those who belong to the humane, liberal, thoughtful Jewish tradition?
However I also condemn Hamas for its continued provocations of Israel with little regard for the ordinary Palestinians they were foolishly elected to represent, and for the continued climate of fear it creates for ordinary Israelis. I regard Hamas as a terrorist organisation and I lose no love on them.
You don’t know what you’re talking about. You would have condemned the French Resistance, the Yugoslav partisans and the Jewish fighters in the Warsaw Ghetto.
I am on the side of the innocent civilians, both Palestinian and Israeli.
High time you said so, sir. We can look forward to an improvement in the quality and morality of your posts, no doubt.
Now go fuck yourself you presumptive freak.
That sort of abuse is fine when used against, say, Araboushim, or, if you like, untermenschen. Here, all it does is re-emphasize the poverty of your argument.
It’s a lovely day out. Why don’t you get a book on New Zealand birds and go twitting… Or even some bark rubbings. I think you need to get outside in the fresh air more.
It’s a lovely day out. Why don’t you get a book on New Zealand birds and go twitting… Or even some bark rubbings. I think you need to get outside in the fresh air more.
TRANSLATION: “I got nothing.”
That’s a clever response.
Pretty much a literary correlative to Option 5, really.
Now I know where DunnoKeyo got his fiscal directions from ….
Australia will be a casualty of the currency wars
He’s copying the Australian reserve bank example note for freakin note M8’s!
The NZ MSM should take note of a real article written by real journalists as well!.
I keep telling folks that Greece should play the exact same game. They should build a printing press right in the middle of the city square of Athens, wind it up and churn out mountains of euros, then drive it by the truckload to the German border and tip it out.
That will expose the system for exactly what it is.
Debt is the most heinous evil inhabiting and inhibiting the world today.
Does it not register with people that money is;
1. issued by privately owned banks and
2. is backed only by a printing machine and
3. must be paid for with interest (even though it is only printed paper backed by nothing. Paying for nothing).
It is the western world’s achilles heel. And nobody even fucking knows!
I have the worst hangover in the history of the world.
LOL. It cannot be that bad because:
1. It is not even 9.30am
2. You are obviously able to turn on your computer or other device
3. You typed that comment without spelling errors!
Food, lots and lots of water and paracetemol.
With sympathy
VV
Get up, stagger, eat, stagger around a little bit more, go back to sleep for a while longer, wake up ….. et voila !
Umm.. Talking about zombies…
So, vto – what dooo youuu eat..
At some point, should any fellow poster with editing rights have a moment to spare… I’m having the same old, same old problem with scheduled posts not publishing themselves at the designated time I set them for.
There was one slated to go up around 9 O’Clock this morning that didn’t ‘go’. I’ve reschedueled it for tomorrow morning at 8 O’Clock.
Thing is, this same problem has happened previously. Is there something really obvious I’m overlooking in the settings that causes this? I can’t figure it. So…if you have a moment and the inclination, I’d appreciate somebody going into ‘dashboard’ and having a wee look at the post I’ve re-scheduled for tomorrow morning and letting me know if there’s something I’ve not done right or overlooked on the settings front.
Cheers.
Ummm there is both the basic system and a backup system that sends them off when they overshoot.
I’ll start having a look at scheduled posts.
Just had an embarrassing thought. (cough) It wouldn’t be that I’m meant to hit the publish button to make it load to the schedule would it?
Bugger! Guess not. Oh well.
After you schedule it, the button changes from “Publish” to “Schedule”, and yes that has to be pressed 😈
I’m getting an effect of tiny white balls falling over my screen from the top noticeable against a dark background. Christmas snowflakes? How cute. By the way Happy Christmas to all and a 2013 year that offers improvements and hope for good direction and achievements in 2014.
Yep. It was a feature that snuck in on wordpress 3.5.
Up in this hemisphere I thought it would be psychological air-conditioning in the sweltering heat. Down in those chilly northern climes it might be a different story as I suspect the storms will be extreme in their winter this year.
It will turn itself off on Jan 4
In these northern climes it makes up for the rain outside when it should be snowing 😉
Actually I suspect that they will get some quite large snowstorms this year. The oscillating jetstreams have more energy at this phase of the solar cycle and on top of the warming of the Arctic, they’re quite a bit further south. So they’re pushing cold air from the Arctic further south and then it hits more wet air coming up off land and the gulf stream….. Guess what I think will happen.
I agree. We’ve had snow much earlier than usual this year, but have hit a warm-ish period so it’s raining. Pretty boring just before Christmas. It’s an odd climate here with the continental effect enhanced by mountain ranges creating foehn winds up from the desert and then the Siberian/Artic blasts coming the other way.
I’ve been looking around for some graphics of how the oscillating jetstreams are (mis)behaving this year, but there’s not a lot beyond the focus of Britain’s early summer rains.
Umm. I will try to track some down. Was last looking at it when Sandy hit the US. Usually NOAA is the best source.
You saying the outside of the screen will be twitching and black dots will rain across the screen from different directions – whenever I’m at the Standard……until Jan 4?!
Anything I can do to mitigate Lprent?
Ok – that isn’t the effect it is meant to be happening. Sounds like a meteor shower. What browser and operating system?
I’ll turn it off.
Many thanks for turning off the storm LPrent!
No, it’s just irritating.
Grinch 😀
WITCH TRIAL
Witness | Pfc. Bradley Manning’s Testimony, Article 13 hearing Nov. 29 and 30, 2012
US v. Pfc. Bradley Manning is being conducted in de facto secrecy. For more information on the lack of public and press access to United States v. Pfc. Manning, visit the Center for Constitutional Rights, which filed a petition requesting the Army Court of Criminal Appeals (ACCA) “to order the Judge to grant the public and press access to the government’s motion papers, the court’s own orders, and transcripts of proceedings, none of which have been made public to date.”
This transcript of Pfc. Bradley Manning’s testimony at his Article 13 motion hearing was taken at Fort Meade, Maryland on November 29th and 30th, 2012.
[DEFENSE EXAMINATION OF PFC. BRADLEY MANNING ON NOVEMBER 29, 2012]
Defense (Coombs)
Pfc. Manning I know this is a little nerve racking. So what we are going to do, is we are going to ease into this, and just take a little bit of time. Okay?
Pfc. Bradley Manning
Yes, sir.
Defense (Coombs)
Alright, I want to first start off by asking some questions about when you were detained in Iraq. Okay?
Pfc. Bradley Manning
Yes, Sir.
Defense (Coombs)
Alright, do you recall the date that you were initially detained by [Army] CID?
Pfc. Bradley Manning
It was May 27 of 2010.
Defense (Coombs)
And, how did CID first approach you?
Pfc. Bradley Manning
CID first came to– well I was first in the Supply– I was in the Supply office at the Brigade annex, which was a separate building from Brigade headquarters at FOB Hammer in Iraq, and I was– and then, I was escorted by the Supply NCOIC [Non Commissioned Officer in Charge] to an interview room. It was a conference room that had been turned into an interview room. And, I knew that–
Defense (Coombs)
When you walked in, what did you see– when you walked into that?
Read more…
http://www.alexaobrien.com/secondsight/wikileaks/bradley_manning/witness_profiles_us_v_pfc_bradley_manning/pfc_bradley_manning_testimony_article_13.html
Bradley Manning – does he have a support group – like amnesty international?
Manning has supporters from all over the world. Luckily for him, he has not had to rely on the U.S. branch of Amnesty International, which is a compromised and confused organization, to put it very charitably….
http://electronicintifada.net/content/amnesty-urged-reject-tainted-funds-leonard-cohen-concert/978
Anyone else hear this Mad, Bad and Sad Santa?
NewstalkZB, Thursday 20 December, 10:40 a.m.
NewstalkZB’s notorious supercrank Leighton Smith never turns down an opportunity to turn any occasion into a soapbox for his crazed theories about the world.
But you would have thought that station management would have warned the old loon that it was off-limits to attempt to pound his anti-science, anti-reason, anti-academic agenda into the heads of children, and that it was distasteful, even immoral, to dress a global warming denier up as St. Nick and let him loose on a programme aimed at little children.
Apparently, however, anything goes at NewstalkZB. Absolutely anything….
LEIGHTON SMITH: Ummmm, ahhhh, ummmm…. Here’s a letter, Santa, and I’d ummmmm, aaaahhhh, really ahhhhhmmmm like to, ummmmm, hear what you have to ummmm, say. It says: “How is the state of the polar ice-cap, given that we are told so much about global warming?”
SANTA CLAUS: Oh there is no problem here in the North Pole! There’s PLENTY of ice! All this talk of global warming! What a lot of nonsense!
LEIGHTON SMITH: Thanks for clearing that up, Santa. You’re quite right, this global warming is a load of nonsense. Okay, ummmm, ahhhhh, on the ummmmm…. phone we have another child. Jessica, what do you want to ask Santa?
INTERESTING FACT:
One of NewstalkZB’s many mottoes is “Tune Your Mind.”
Morrissey Thanks for the reports from the front. How you can bear to listen to it beats me. You deserve a medal. Watch out that you listen extensively or you will suffer a bad case of post traumatic stress disorder – too much could blow your receptor valves.
And that bit about Tune Your Mind. Makes me think of the old large console radios that had a function of a green light that brightened as you turned the knob to the optimum station reception. Guess now we’ll have those transplanted in our young so we can receive the sacred murmurings of our old western gurus like Leighton Smith. China had Confucius, Greece had Socrates, we have LS.
Thanks for that, Mr. Nose. I sent an admonitory e-mail to the great broadcaster, but he did not deign to reply.
Luckily for aficionados of the unhinged rant, however, I have a few of his on-air comments and e-mails from some time back, relating to other topics. If you or anyone else is interested, I will give them another airing.
Just for a laugh.
The Alleged “Lump-of-Labor Fallacy”
So, the Lump of Labour Fallacy starts off as anti-worker PR and then gets picked up as gospel by the economists but never actually questioned. Sounds like almost everything in economics – stated as fact and yet reality differs and yet the economist fail to note the differences.
Another ‘FarCup’ by the big man with the big stick in chch, his appeal has been lost on the
re-zoning near the airport.
This story is on the TV3 web site.
Sorry can’t link.
Lies and hatred from a coward and a bully. 2 more months untill the Messiah returns
[lprent: Context free silly comment – moved to OpenMike. ]
Oops
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/rebuilding-christchurch/8104255/Brownlee-changes-unlawful-Court-of-Appeal
Is this it VV
Berlin to buy back grid and go 100 percent renewable
Well, at least some governments are waking up to the lies of the neo-liberals. Unfortunately, our government happens to be the neo-liberals and they’re the source of the lies and the actions that doom us to increasing poverty.
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
This could be put to Key by one of our esteemed regular interviewers of our PM, say like that radio station The Rock. Ffs.
And here is what Bill English is up to, no doubt hoping to slide this in ‘under the rader’ at this time of year.
Hidden deep in the Business section of Stuff today
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/8101449/Possible-sale-of-three-SOE-power-companies
For this “… the market’s suggesting it might be possible…”
Read … the brokers and investment banks want to get in as quickly as possible.
For fucks sake that is like listening to real estate agent advice. They only aim for their fee.
The market, the market, the market is best,
So up with the market and down with the rest.
(Apologies to Flanders and Swan)
Treasury advise against the sale of all three power companies due to flat market and low return rate from the sale.
Hopefully the referendum will stall the sale and or polarise the electorate. Roll on 2014.
Possibly the most encouraging global-Left news all year.
Great stuff.
What do folks think of this one?
Road rage man seeks job back or $600,000
By Matthew Theunissen
Guy Hallwright was convicted of causing grievous bodily harm with reckless disregard.
Former Forsyth Barr financial analyst Guy Hallwright is seeking his job back or about $600,000 in lost earnings after being dismissed following his conviction for running over a man with his car.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10855219
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Wonder what the sentence had been if a patched gang member had done the same thing to Guy Hallwright?
Let’s change the scenario…….
‘Mongrel Mob member XXXXX – in a fit of ‘road rage’ – runs down senior Forsyth Barr analyst Guy Hallwright, and breaks both his legs.
Mr Hallwright has multiple operations since the 2010 incident.
Mongrel Mob member XXXXX is sentenced to 250 hours community work, disqualified from driving for 18 months and ordered to pay victim Guy Hallwright $20,000 reparation after a jury finds he unintentionally ran Hallwright down with his car in September 2010.”
Seems to be QUITE a different story/ sentence if you swap the patched jacket for a pin-striped suit ……?
Penny Bright
‘Anti-corruption campaigner’
http://www.dodgyjohnhasgone.com
Was this a first time offence for Guy Allright! Some leniency to suit guy please! /sarc
Facebook is so intensively tracking readers and commenters on this site, for profile details, with background scripts they use to do this. It is a real worry.
Like a WSJ article on 07 Dec. rightly reported, the internet is anything but free and anonymous anymore, and rather becoming a large grazing ground for information gathering for commercial profiling, advertising and so forth.
I just wonder how many here are aware of this.