Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step right up to the mike…
Enquiry into funding of sexual abuse services deadline for submissions this THURSDAY, Oct 10. Hopefully this will lead to better funding and mean that service providers no longer have to resort to begging for funding instead of treating victims.
John Tamihere, “I shave my legs”, but who cares if I do or don’t”– it doesn’t affect my perception or political understanding, am not a Labour Party member, and not part of the Wellington “belt way”. And I think your various pronouncements on issues of gender and sexuality are highly offensive – I would never vote for someone who makes those kinds of statements regularly and continues to stand by them year after year.
The issue of pokies is important, and i am glad you are bringing it into the open once again. There needs to be as much transparency as possible around pokie operations and the money involved. But it still will not be enough to get me voting for you.
I have already voted this week, and I didn’t vote for you, John.
It may be a ‘broad church’, but surely someone who repeatedly gives the finger to the very constitution of the party, who is abusive towards many, if not most of its membership, and large groups within the wider community….. surely…..
But anyway, he made himself unelectable to a sizeable chunk of the electorate, including, I reckon, many form his support base, when he moved home and abandoned his pets to starve, and it was reported in the media.
Cruelty to animals is widely taken by experts – and any decent human – as an indicator of capacity for cruelty to people, even if it were not utterly vile in itself.
“The issue of pokies is important, and i am glad you are bringing it into the open once again. There needs to be as much transparency as possible around pokie operations and the money involved. “
Agree, Karol. If John Tamihere had stuck with social issues like this he would have gone a long way. I remember back in his days at the Waipareira Trust when the advertisement for gambling control was an image of the Sky Tower as junkie’s needle. Awesome. Also the work the Trust did with health and education for families out West.
As it is, he’s too duplicitous to get the votes of people who remember this brain fart about women in politics, among other things. Maybe he’s hoping for the votes of a new generation that is unaware of his past indiscretions.
The idea of Tamihere standing for Labour seat is bloody ridiculous. He was useless last time. I note he says in the article that he is just using the local election as a sounding board for a possible National Election run next year.
By the way I notice the nice Herald has devoted quite a few inches to Tamihere today. Wonder why?
JT has gone down so far in my estimation that when I read he took reporters on a pub crawl I wondered if he had pre-aarange the people on the pokies as “props” to help him make his point.
Slippery the Prime Minister, strutting His stuff Statesman-like across the World stage via 3News last night,
”China is still there and it isn’t going anywhere”, unquote, Lolz i don’t know just how out of context that particular piece of ‘Colonial Cloddery’ was from the PM but i imagined an elongated ”Derrrrr” occurring after He said it,
The bloke is about as deep as a puddle of piss left in the porch by a stray dog and if National are looking for a ‘dead cats bounce’ in the polls from having the PM pontificating on the global political stage, forget it, Crusty the Clown leaves a more lasting image…
Interesting to read reports of John Tamihere decrying Housing NZ which was considering forbidding its tenants to keep dogs. http://www.radiolive.co.nz/Pet-ownership-is-none-of…NZs…/Default.aspx
This was an invasion of their tenants rights he says. Anyone who has lived near to constantly barking dogs, had them defecate on your own property, knows the effort required to train a dog ie socialise it and give it appropriate obedience training, plus the cost of feeding them, plus providing regular care including vet visits, will know that Housing NZ is doing everybody, including the poverty-stricken tenants, a favour.
Actually John T says he understands their poverty which means that dogs will be unaffordable (even cats can be beyond a bene’s budget) so he is happily inconsistent, expressing the most emotional statement that will present him as a caring, sensible fellow. Times are tough and people on the breadline will use their money to pay for food and power. The first thing that goes is the registration and warrant. The majority of people do not want to break the law, they just cannot afford to keep the law.
This may have been mentioned before, but I was surprised to see the Daily blog adopt an “open mike”. It seemed to have the same graphic as this one did (back in the day).
I guess “the more the merrier”, but I doubt the heavy moderation policy over there will be able to accomodate the sort of discussions we have here. It will be interesting to see how it unfolds.
TDB consolidates a lot of writers well, great to see ‘blue collar’ union backing too, (when was the last time anyone wore a blue collar tho? it is all branded clothing or hi-visis these days) it remains a clunky site to use but with good content.
The Standard is number one really, but everyone is catered for somewhere, luvvies at Public Address, and dirty filthy torys at Kiwi and dark half mentals at Whalespew.
“open mike” many are too busy for another one but am sure Jenny will surface there.
I think open mike on TDB will take a different form from here. TS has systems and moderation policies that encourage discussion. TDB has a moderation policy that tends to make discussions more secondary to the posts – some very good posts by some excellent authors.
Jenny does comment over there, but surprisingly she seems quite rational and calm in her comments there (except an occasional complaint about being censored on TS). Of course, as TDB comments all automatically go through moderation before being released, it’s hard to know if all her comments do get released.
But, curiously, there hasn’t been any posts on climate change on TDB in the last week, and no attacks from Jenny about it. Gotta wonder about her double standards and if, she is just out to undermine TS. I hadn’t previously seen her as a provocateur, just an unreliable commentator on TS – but given the disparity with her TDB comments, I can’t help but wonder.
I’ve been noticing that too Karol, and did think it was a different Jenny until I saw the climate change stuff. I reckon TDB’s moderation system and policy is a lot to do with it (ts gives tr0lls a lot of lattitude), but you might be right that Jenny now has a grudge against ts which affects her behaviour here.
…she seems quite rational and calm in her comments there.
From memory karol, Jenny started off the same way on The Standard. Indeed on one occasion at least her ‘comment’ was so good it was elevated to post status. She made good points and was praised by others for them – including me. Then she started to become more and more unreasonable to the point I stopped reading her diatribes. A bit sad.
I don’t know Jenny like the regular folks here do, but I do wonder if there is common ground that she shares with readers, commenters and authors, and that what would otherwise be camaraderie becomes distance and self isolation via her antagonism and repetition. (I see she earned a lengthy ban).
The situation reminds me of when you are in a meeting where there is a common group goal or aim. Then there’s that one person who shares those goals but aims to highjack the group with their own unique view on the goal. They often end taking up much of the speaking time and give the facilitator a difficult time of it whilst alienating the rest of the group from themselves because of their extreme views and actions. Maybe Jenny has a sense of desperation about the topic of climate change, that’s the expression that comes across at least in her comments. It’s hard to have a rational conversation with someone who is feeling desperate because the mind is stuck on a treadmill. It’s a bit of a shame when that happens.
She did, lol. but it wasn’t on open mic it was on “Cunliffe’s first 100 days” by Martyn Bradbury. It’s a shame really, she’s still upset about TS authors not writing an article about the Solid Energy bail out, despite having it explained to her on two occasions that I have read, what the reason for that is.
“For instance, witness the difficulty The Standard is having in getting out a statement on the Bail out of Solid Energy.” – says Jenny. That was posted yesterday.
I like the articles on The Daily Blog and the work they’ve done around live streaming public meetings but I don’t comment anymore for a variety of reasons that I’ve already mentioned. They do good work though, all strength to them.
Honest to god, this is the truth – I saw that comment about Jenny and I thought “I bet Pete George will too” 😈 Then I trotted over to TDB to see what their Open Mike looks like and the first one I come across is this
Why shouldn’t Jenny talk about her displeasure at coal mining without getting banned here? I’ve known Jenny for years, we support different parties, and we have opposite views about mining and climate change. I agree with a lot of her views and disapprove of others, but I will defend her right to write them. If not in this forum then it will be at another. Why don’t you all join us, somewhere else. Freedom of expression no longer exists on The Standard. And we know whose faullt that is.
If you look at what she got banned for this time:-
1. It was for lying about what I’d said about her on my post. 12 weeks
2. Persistently lying about what the greens and labour’s policies were on a number of topics. 12 weeks
The point was that she didn’t damn well know what the policies were because it was apparent that she’d never looked.
In both offenses she’d been warned what would happen if she did it again the day before, and obviously decided to deliberately do it. I acted in accordance with what I’d said.
I’d call it a penalty peddling fantasies as fact and for stupidity. She is welcome to write at other forums where I’m sure that she will be welcomed /sarc
Jenny is quite free to write her views here or there if she follows the rules set at each blog. There are few rules on TS, but people are required to stick by them or get banned, temporarily or permanently.
Jenny has continuously broken 2 of them – attacking authors, and telling us what to write. She could just have posted her own comments on Solid Energy, etc here. But she, as she has done several times before, told us quite aggressively what she thinks we should be writing about. She has been warned about this several times. She then starts claiming she’s being censored and gets aggressive.
She continually is in attack mode, and seems to think her choice of topics to write on should be everyone’s. Too often, Jenny has not engaged in discussions just harangued and attacked people, even though her comments are not always that reliable in fact or judgement. It becomes tiresome and does not help maintain discussions.
This has all been said before. She has a tendency to express her views in ways that just annoy many people – and to spam us with one long comment after another without really engaging in discussion in any depth. It seems like tr0lling, though that probably isn’t her intention.
I’m very happy if she prefers to comment at TDB on any topic of her choosing.
Freedom of speech is not “freedom to write whatever you like wherever you like with no limitations and free from criticism”.
Jenny is perfectly able to start up her own blog on WordPress or (godsforbid) Blogger and writing about climate change and her personal illusions about Labour and Green policies to her heart’s content.
She does not, however, have the right to use this platform, built and maintained by other people, to tell lies and break the rules, especially after being warned about the consequences of doing so.
And that pretty much goes for any commenter on any site.
Actually, Jenny tries to stifle dissent from her own views with her bullying tactics. Freedom cannot happen without responsibility towards others. Just shouting at others, and not really listening to them, is not what I’d call the kind of freedom of expression that serves democracy.
Basically, Jenny was not banned for what (in terms of political views) she said as much as how she said it.
If you want another left wing blog, why not go start it yourself?
You’ve got the wrong end of the stick. It’s not a general comments post, it’s a post about a guy called Michael who is looking to share his feelings – Open Mike.
Bomber doesn’t take criticism or disagreement well so any open mic on his turf will consist of mostly praise and agreement unlike the standard where debate and disagreement is encouraged
TC, I think it’s just a select few like you who get harshly moderated at TDB. The rest of us have figured out where the boundaries lie and accept the ‘my blog, my rules’ ethos and just get on with it.
Oh Those Statins. My MD can beat your MD any day when it comes to arguments about them. And they may not harm memory thinking at all according to the web.
Now I have found what they are, too much curiosity here, I’ll pass on some possibly helpful information. In addition to their well-known benefits in heart disease, high-dose statins appear to reduce gum inflammation caused by periodontal disease, a new report published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology shows. The findings offer more evidence that heart disease and gum disease may be linked, and also help support the view that statins achieve at least some of their effect not through their cholesterol-lowering effect but through separate inflammation-fighting mechanisms. – Forbes
Testimonial –
I was completely ignorant until I began to blog on The Standard. Now I find that I can discuss anything at any pub I choose to visit and people in the street are struck dumb with my field of knowledge which now includes statins.
If they harmed memory or thinking I’d notice it pretty well immediately. My job is 90% of those with a touch of creativity.
However I am still the vagueness for ordinary matters and short-term memory (that isn’t code) that I always was. I still have a dyslexia on names (hat are not classes, variables, or filenames) that I always did. And I still maintain a catalogue of who has been writing what on this site over the last few years that is sufficient to look the relevant comments up. Not to mention politics and science…
It is ordinary living that I forget and don’t think about that much…. 🙂 Not that important unless Lyn insists (and she is often a pretty geek as well).
I’m not even sure that the statins caused much of my weight gain since I started taking them. That could be due to being forced to stop smoking. However when they doubled up the statin dose to the original level a month ago for my ideological specialist’s reasons, my weight which had been stable started increasing again…
Although you can get a report of just about any side effect you want if you have enough of the population taking a medication, weight gain is pretty unusual for a statin unless you’re beginning to develop Type 2 diabetes or if you’re experiencing muscle and/or joint pain which is causing you to not get as much exercise as usual.
if you are experiencing muscle or joint pain or going to the loo more than usual you should get back to your GP ASAP for further tests.
This is an open mike comment, not a TPP point, KK.
I did not say the US Government brought its own buildings down on 9/11.
I simply provided 4 pieces of evidence that suggest events happen because of conspiracies, not coincidence, which would seem to be your case as you use the disparaging definition of the word conspiracy. I tend to go for the less pejorative description of the words, where conspiracy theory is a term that is a neutral descriptor for any claim of civil, criminal or political conspiracy.
On 9/11, I’m assuming you don’t believe that the buildings came down by coincidence. You believe that there was a conspiracy, I assume, organised by Osama bin Laden. That, KK, is a conspiracy theory.
So you are a conspiracy theorist yourself. You just believe in different conspiracies.
That is a very poor conclusion to draw King Kong,
perhaps you should have read the post, clearly by what you are writing you would have learned something.
“In the case of Karol’s fantasy, she has Travellerev agreeing with her which means you can immediately discount the whole thing as fucking nonsense.”
I suppose the other way to form an opinion on karol’s article would be to read it, but I don’t imagine you’ve got time for that what with all the trooling you have to do.
Even more Interesting that All the WT buildings came down in their own Footprint. IE: Like when they have been wired and dropped, it’s called Demolition.
“Even more Interesting that All the WT buildings came down in their own Footprint. IE: Like when they have been wired and dropped, it’s called Demolition.”
I’m going to look silly if you were just being sarcastic, but neither of the big buildings did that, and, in fact, a large chunk of one hit the 3rd building. As I say, apologies if you were just taking the pi55.
Well, no they didn’t. Quite a lot of debris fell outside the area they had occupied on the ground. Into other buildings. Some of which also fell down.
But they did fall in a generally “downward” direction. This is due to what people like to call “gravity”. The lack of Godzilla applying a constant lateral force meant that toppling did not occur.
Arguing equivalence because they are the same class of thing while ignoring the degree of plausibility of each thing is pretty much what young-earth creationists do.
If we operated like that in real life, we’d all be paralyzed by existential doubt, including the assumption that: “the bread which I’ve eaten my entire life and has sated my hunger previously will sate my hunger when I eat it today” is equivalent to “the bread which I’ve eaten my entire life and has sated my hunger previously will poison me if I eat it today”.
As it is, the same processes that demonstrated the existence of most of the conspiracies (in its purest “multiple people working in contemporary secrecy” form) you mentioned also demonstrated that towers fell because planes hijacked by terrorists flew into them.
Now, the TPP/APEC thing is interesting, because the same mechanisms as above have demonstrated that multinational corporations are, well, frequently morally bankrupt (especially the tobacco industry), and Karol writes excellently researched, structured and referenced posts. On the flipside, as KK points out, T-eve jumping in adds a certain level of crazy to the mix. But after the Hobbit law change, we all know that Key’s actively marketing NZ as for sale to the quickest bidder, fuck the consequences to the populace.
9/11 is the perfect example of this.
People who believe the story about Osama Bin Laden, 19 hijackers, box cutters, etc etc are conspiracy theorists as this was clearly a ‘conspiracy.’ Not a very plausible one either.
9/11 is the perfect example of this.
People who believe the story about Osama Bin Laden, 19 hijackers, box cutters, etc etc are conspiracy theorists as this was clearly a ‘conspiracy.’ Not a very plausible one eithe
A conspiracy that was exceptionally well documented at the time and has been publicly examined extensively by multiple organisations. Will we ever know all the details of the case, like what the hijackers ate for breakfast? No. But we know the bulk of it.
And alternative theories tend to be demonstrably false, extremely tenuous, posited by nutbars, apparently invented for financial gain, and/or significantly more implausible than the generally accepted version.
They are not equivalent positions, any more than “God created the earth six thousand years ago because a magic book told me so” is equivalent to the Theory of Evolution.
And let’s not forget that the conspirators openly claim to have done it, instead of claiming that they were set up by their enemies and are being attacked without reason. Which would be kind of good line to take if it was true.
I’m having to reply to this comment again as there is no reply button under your comment that goes …
“A conspiracy that was exceptionally well documented at the time and has been publicly examined extensively by multiple organisations. Will we ever know all the details of the case, like what the hijackers ate for breakfast? No. But we know the bulk of it.
And alternative theories tend to be demonstrably false, extremely tenuous, posited by nutbars, apparently invented for financial gain, and/or significantly more implausible than the generally accepted version.
They are not equivalent positions, any more than “God created the earth six thousand years ago because a magic book told me so” is equivalent to the Theory of Evolution.”
1. At no stage did I make a statement saying I believed in alternative conspiracy theories. I stated I did not know what happened and commented that the official conspiracy theory ( Bin Laden etc) was implausible.
2, You are trying to control the tone of the conversation by using emotive language such as nutbar, However, there are reputable people who question the 9 11 story. What about these people’s pedigree? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZEvA8BCoBw
3. I am the sceptic here. You believe in one conspiracy theory; I believe in neither and await evidence that supports the theory presented. I refute your attempt to again to frame the conversation through your use of language ( so that I am on the side of new age creationists).\
4. As a believer, can you explain how WTC7 fell, when it was not hit by a plane? I have not heard any evidence to persuade me to the Bin Laden conspiracy theory.
5. If you apply your own thinking to the official conspiracy theory ( i.e. who made money out of it) then there are plenty of candidates!
The observed collapse of the World Trade Centers 1 and 2 have been measured at near the rate of free fall. This is the rate at which nearly all of the “falling energy” (kinetic energy from gravity) must deliver the building to ground level. This leaves no energy for smashing and pulverizing the concrete slabs nor for shredding construction steel.
1: I do not believe that I have ever claimed that you do believe a particular theory.
2: I don’t give a shit about who “controls the tone”. If I recall correctly, AE911Truth has a membership that consists of <1% of the architects (let alone "engineers") in the USA. That is well within the expected margins for serious mental disorders in a population, but then I also think that some of them are just stupid. Either way, they come under the category I like to call "nutters".
3: No, you are not being a sceptic. Your statement that the well-documented events are "not very plausible" implies disbelief and a lack of impartial evaluation. It is the difference between agnosticism and atheism. Sceptics, in the modern sense, are not completely disbelieving, they just step back and rationally examine the evidence. Whereas you, at best, have gone all Ancient Greek, we cannae know anything ever.
As to my "use of language", I merely pointed out that creationists use the same tactic, not that you are on the same side.
4: Fire after parts of a fecking great building hit it. Try reading one of the many investigations that covered it.
and that goes for the BinLaden thing, too.
5: Yes indeed. But it's difficult to get one person, let alone 19, to kill themselves so you can make money.
Paul, you say that people who made money out of it should be looked at as suspects.
Fair enough.
So what’s the theory?
I’ve asked plenty of truthers for an alternate theory that accounts for all the facts.
I would be more than happy to talk about such a theory, if it existed. It’s been more than a decade now, and such a theory has yet to be presented to me so that I might think about it.
Usually when I ask,I’m told that “It’s not our job to provide a theory”. I do not find this at all convincing, and as a sceptic yourself, I’m sure you agree.
As a sceptic, I have not seen enough evidence to convince me that WTC7 (in particular) and the Twin Towers could have collapsed as they did.
There are many reputable people (not nutters) who similarly question the story.
I am not name calling your opinion, but am continually having to deal with words like truther, nutbar..
Your argument should be strong enough not to rely on name calling
Live and let live McFlock.
You believe, I doubt.
Please don’t let your religious fervour get the better of you and mean you start persecuting those who question the holy truth of 9/11.
I’m not asking for anything as well developed as the official theory, (though I will note the more than a decade again, in passing), just a brief explanation of how these buildings came down if it wasn’t due to the planes that flew into them.
Who might have done it, and why it would have made sense for them to do it. Why doing it, the way they did it, was the best way of achieving their aims.
I’m more than happy to talk about such a theory, and to discuss the official theory too.
Usually I just catch abuse.
‘truthers’ however, is hardly abuse. It’s a self identifier.
@McFlock
Given the fact that I am not privy to key information about the events as: I was not on the commission that investigated the events of 11 September and that much of the evidence was destroyed, I am unwilling to come to unsubstantiated theories without evidence.
That’s the scientific method.
Please don’t let your religious fervour get the better of you and mean you start persecuting those who question the holy truth of 9/11.
Challenging ideas in the same forum that they are raised is not “persecution”.
Reducing overwhelming evidence of fact into a mere difference of opinion is also something that creationists like to do. For what it’s worth.
You doubt, fair enough.
From what you have presented here, you have no beliefs of your own. Fair enough.
You regard fringe youtube theorists to be credible counterpoints to multiple investigations and blanket coverage of the events as they happened. Fair enough.
But to then demand respect for the shallow credulity that ensues from the above? That’s a wee bit unfair.
@McFlock
Given the fact that I am not privy to key information about the events as: I was not on the commission that investigated the events of 11 September and that much of the evidence was destroyed, I am unwilling to come to unsubstantiated theories without evidence.
That’s the scientific method.
I am unwilling to come to unsubstantiated theories without evidence.
That’s the scientific method.
there is quite a lot of evidence though Paul.
And one doesn’t need to have all the possible evidence in order to form a theory that accounts for that evidence which we do have.
That too, is the scientific method. Although working out what happened isn’t really science. It’s more akn to history. We need theories about history to weigh againts each other. We use the balance of probability, and testimony, as well as science, to try and work out what happened.
At the moment, the sceptics of the official theory haven’t had a lot of success, as far as i have seen, in coming up with an alternate theory.
I remain more than happy to discuss one, should it arise.
@PB
“At the moment, the sceptics of the official theory haven’t had a lot of success, as far as i have seen, in coming up with an alternate theory.”
That is true.but then they aren’t the gatekeepers of the knowledge.
e.g. A citizen of Japan is less likely to know details about the TPP than a large US corporation.
there is plenty of evidence available to them. there are many known facts. How do they account for them?
What plausible theory is there, other than the official one/
Again, I’m not asking for conclusive evidence for this theory, just a description of an alternate hypothesis that accounts for the known facts.
Over a decade, and they haven’t even started on one, as far as I can tell.
But I sense you don’t have desire to speculate on even the possibilities of an alternate theory, other than your comment about who made money out of it. Shall we start from there?
These people who made money out of it. Was this a rational way of making the money? Were there easier ways perhaps? Less risky ways? How well do the known facts fit with the explanation of them being motivated by making money?
Those seem like good questions to start with to me.
this ‘gatekeepers of knowledge’ phrasing isn’t particularly helpful I think, in keeping the conversation clear.
Are you suggesting there is another conspiracy to keep the relevant knowledge from us?
Or is this a part of the same conspiracy theory, that is needed to account for the failure to come up with an alternate theory?
I’m asking if this is what you mean, because it’s not clear, I’m not suggesting that is what you mean. Nor am I using conspiracy in any negative sense.
“And alternative theories tend to be demonstrably false, extremely tenuous, posited by nutbars, apparently invented for financial gain, and/or significantly more implausible than the generally accepted version.”
You claimed reasons why people might support alternative conspiracy theories.
I simply posited that there might be financial reasons for people behind the official story.
I repeat . No conclusive evidence has been put in favour of any story.
That’s why many independent people want a proper inquiry. Not the farce that occurred in 2004.
No conclusive evidence has been put in favour of any story.
That’s why many independent people want a proper inquiry. Not the farce that occurred in 2004.
The evidence put forward has been beyond reasonable doubt, not beyond all doubt.
If one requires all reasonable doubts to be exhausted before one draws a conclusion, this is only logical in an imperfect world.
If one requires all unreasonable doubts to be exhausted before one draws a conclusion, then one ‘s stated reasoning is questionable.
If someone hasn’t seen enough evidence to reach a conclusion regarding 9/11, despite everything gathered since (not just 2004), then their reasoning is questionable: either they have closed their eyes for 12 years, or they have no idea that some sources of information are less reliable than others,or their faculty of reason is faulty, or they are being purposefully misleading (the most common reason in society to mislead strangers is to gain profit).
You know, I’ve never been moderated either here or at TDB and I don’t think anyone will ever call me a sycophant – even you RWNJs. Perhaps the problem is that those who do get moderated are just too bloody stupid to be able to put together a well reasoned argument.
True – even I’ve managed to avoid a ban, and I’m a fucking arrogant dickhead who uses rude words and likes to play with hypocritical nutbars. But a few folk don’t seem to get the message when the TERSE BOLD MESSAGES SUDDENLY APPEAR 🙂
[lprent: Sometimes not so terse. I’ve looked at a few of your comments for the pointless abuse behaviour criteria. But on investigating the context decided that the points had already been made. ]
This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died yet whoever feeds on this bread will live forever :
Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
John 6:58
1 Cor. 5:8
Bomber is an extremely dishonest person who serves a great dishonor to the left-wing. Running a blog wherein critical comments are deleted from moderation because they disagree with the party line is somewhat intellectually dishonest coming from a person like Bomber who outwardly champions the freedom of speech…as long as he agrees of course.
And all that bullshit he spun about being hacked by the government. What a fucking crock. Those nice chaps at The Egonomist had a field day with it.
I wouldn’t take it personally, I’ve made a few comments there and think everybody’s comment goes into moderation prior to being released. There’s no way to have a quick debate there, so I just read and leave mostly.
What makes it worse is that there appears to be no easy way to search for comments, so if you go back a day or two later you have to manually search through the dog’s breakfast that is the front page, assuming you remember the name of the post you commented on.
Talking of the Daily Blog, Chris Trotter has an interesting piece there today on the proposed TPPA, Chris in a bit of a ‘lest we forget’ vein exhorts those of us on the left, when we are considering the ramifications of that free trade agreement to remember that ”wealth has to be first created befor that wealth can be redistributed”,
Excuse me Chris, but, What the F**k???, what redistribution of wealth is it that you talk of, all that redistribution of said wealth that has occurred after each act of ‘trade freedom’ that has occurred in the past 40 years perhaps???,
i personally do not see where it is us from ‘the left’ who have forgotten anything here thank you very much Chris Trotter,
Here’s a shortlist of the ‘redistribution of wealth’ so far gained from all this ‘free trade’, 300,000 low waged workers being employed for less than the living wage, another 300,000 workers confined to ‘rotational employment’ having to rely upon welfare benefits as their income as much as they can rely on a wage packet,
The price of dairy products, as the Global demand and therefor prices have increased the cost to those above who obviously have not shared in the miracle of ‘wealth redistribution’ to a point that these are now luxury items off the weekly shopping list as much as they are on it,
And you advocate more of the same Chris Trotter???…
Last day for postal voting apparently (for mail to get delivered by 12pm Sat), according to the GP. Although my papers say to post on Weds at the latest.
Kim Campbell is chief executive of the Employers and Manufacturers Association
What do you expect him to say?
He’s representing his mates.
Paying people more might mean his mates less profits.
Less international holidays, deluxe cars…..
And the Herald’s editors give him a platform to publicise his vile opinions to a large audience.
I wonder who pays them to give the elite’s perspective so much hearing?
Where do you stand on the political spectrum? Michael Marien came up with a table of named ideological positions in 1970 which has been updated in this link. The way that people can sort themselves under different definitions or labels is shown in in an amusing and artful way.
Yes I still read Heinlan and EE Doc Smith, John Wyndham and Harry Harrison of the very very sexist Stainless Steel Rat fame. But one of the best Sci Fi books I ever read was Joe Haldemans The Forever War. But for some more modern Writers, and sexism is now out the window. Corey Doctorow short stories are good Like “When sysadmins ruled the world, And I robot. But for a book that I have read 3 times so far, and I am still enjoying re-reading it, is Accelerando by Charles Stross.
I haven’t read Wyndham in a long time either, that might be worth a look. I read Doctorow’s Little Brother and thoroughly enjoyed it. Funnily enough I got my first wave and pay eftpost card in the mail today (gee thanks ANZ).
Robert Heinlein. I hadn’t heard of him, did quite a lot of things including science fiction. If he said something sexist he was a child of his time I think, born in 1907.
Within the framework of his science fiction stories, Heinlein repeatedly addressed certain social themes: the importance of individual liberty and self-reliance, the obligation individuals owe to their societies, the influence of organized religion on culture and government, and the tendency of society to repress nonconformist thought. He also speculated on the influence of space travel on human cultural practices.
I would rate Heinlein in the top five (fiction) authors who influenced me in my late teens. Great story telling. And yes the sexism was of his time, although there are other writers of his generation whose work has stood the test of time better. I was disappointed to find I can’t read him now. Maybe I’ll try again when I am older.
DTB
Also suitable for The Coiffure.
The original table by Michael Marien had more listings (some regarded as dated) with one called – Primitive Populist with a view of concerns as Domination by pointy-headed pseudo-intellectuals. Proposals were Throw briefcases in [Wellington Harbour] Potomac, and restore common sense.
Has anyone else had long waits to get onto The Standard? This time I went through google as otherwise I couldn’t get connection. Also I again have the annoyance of having things underlined and colours heightened and the edit box partly hidden. Something, some other site, whatever seems to set this off. So have to find how to reset the page from my helper.
Yeah – but I always think its because I’m overloading the computer too quickly and after a while give up …… go and make dinner or do something useful (clean the bathroom) and by the time I get back to it, its unplugged itself !
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Akismet is our offshore anti-spam checker at wordpress.com. I’ll clear them manually until it clears
Thanks for fix Lynn. And that comment from Northshore guy sounds worthy of action. Keep well. I’m planning to go on my one hundredth planned diet. If I actually do follow it, his will give me passing grades in Diet 101.
You need to research the stories you upload, rather than simply repeat what you hear.
You need to think critically.
First up, the Daily Torygraph is hardly a unbiased viewer or source on the matter.
I wonder whether the ‘many Venezuelans’ mentioned are the very wealthy ones who own Venezuela’s media?
One name stands out. Michael Shifter
From Wikipedia.
Michael Shifter is President of the Inter-American Dialogue and an Adjunct Professor of Latin American Studies at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.[1] He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations[1] and writes for the Council’s journal Foreign Affairs.[2] He is also a member of the Latin American Studies Association(LASA), and a contributing editor to Current History.[1]
The Daily Council on Foreign Relationsis hardly a unbiased viewer or source on the matter.
If you look at the article you will notice this :
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Venezuela expels top US diplomat 30 Sep 2013
I wonder if Uncle Sam has been fomenting unrest?
Now for KK’s education, that is a conspiracy theory.
“A conspiracy theory is an explanatory proposition that accuses two or more people, a group, or an organization of having caused or covered up, through deliberate collusion, an event or phenomenon of great social, political, or economic impact.”
It has happened everywhere south of the Rio Grande, and still is in much of Latin America. Both the US and Canada have been caught recently spying on Brazil, which possibly means we are as well. After the independent place we began to take in the world, we have gone a long way backwards under Shonkey.
“Higher tax revenue and lower than forecast core Crown expenses helped to more than halve the Government’s operating deficit before gains and losses to $4.4 billion in the year to 30 June 2013, compared with a $9.2 billion deficit the previous year.”
So losing $4.4 billion in a year is good, pr?
“Treasury’s Budget 2013 forecasts show net core Crown debt is expected to increase from $10.3 billion in June 2008 to over $70 billion by June 2017.”
And blowing out the government debt to $70 billion an example you would give of fine financial management?
Why do you doubt Labour could have done better? The only time Labour’s maintained government accounts and the economy worse than national was under the ACT government 1984-1990.
The operating balance (after gains and losses) was in surplus by $6.9 billion – $12.6 billion better than Treasury forecast at the start of the year, and $21.8 billion better than in the previous year.
Wow – off by 200% in a six month forecast?
Fire Treasury.
That’s the mantra of the choir. Shame it’s utter bullshit – national simply loot the government finances for their mates, stagnating the economy on the way. The “stability” of the cemetery.
nah, never.
The best you’ll get is when he manages to hit the “reply” button before dropping another slogan. He’s the tory equivalent of the stereotypical Maoist cadre-leader who only screams aphorisms from the little red book.
All of the Green supporters I know have productive jobs or are toiling their way through academia.
While I haven’t met nearly as many Mana supporters, those that I have met usually have productive jobs as well.
In my experience and speaking in general, the party with the parasites supporting it is National. They may have jobs, but many are highly unproductive jobs..
Sorry I can’t answer every post (have to fit it in around work) but yes National made the best of a bad situation, had Labour been in then the policies of Clark, sorry I meant Goff, no dammit I meant Shearer, oops a daisy I mean Cunliffe would have meant NZ in worse position then it is now
So well done John Key, Bill English and (most but not all of) the cabinet for making the decisions that needed to be made
I, for one, am amazed that the enormous magnitude of your lies in a comment that small did not create a terminal critical mass of highly dense bullshit and thereby tear a singularity of logical failure in the fabric of the universe, sucking us all into a parallel dimension of surreality, where the laws of nature are fish sticks.
PR
And why PR? Isn’t that set of initials a dead give away. The stuff he has been quoting sounds as if it’s culled from Key’s newsletter that I might look at if he has funny icons through it and underneath.
The interesting question into 2014 for Cunliffe’s team is what angles they will have to attack National on either in economic management (if the economy keeps stuttering upwards even with 7% uinemployed) or in fiscal management (if they ever get to break even on the public accounts).
If I were briefing Cunliffe it would be simply remainind people of the Clark years: massive term-on-term sustained economic boom, running huge government surpluses to be spent on curing social ills (until the last year alone).
Whereas the Nats, well, pick any Nat term in the last 40 years: can’t get either economic growth or prudent fiscal management in any term you can name.
And now Johnnie can give back the $500,000 he has trousered out of the tax cuts and demand his mates do the same. That will help pay back the debt the Nacts have mismanaged us into.
So you think that losing $4.4 billion in a year is good and blowing out the government debt to $70 billion is an example you would give of fine financial management.
Unbelievable.
Talk about an ideological and doctrinaire approach!
it is, because Puck doesnt think for himself, he relies on Blinglish’s spin of facts. he finds life is easier and he can walk around with a smile on his face, even if it is a bit Gomer pyle.
As Vallas, Kleinman and Biscotti (2009, 66) eloquently summarize: …the knowledge economy did not spontaneously emerge from the bottom up, but was prompted by a top-down stealth industrial policy; government and industry leaders simultaneously advocated government intervention to foster the development of the biotechnology industry and argued hypocritically that government should ‘let the free market work’.
Mazzucato, Mariana (2013-05-15). The Entrepreneurial State: Debunking Public vs. Private Myths in Risk and Innovation (Kindle Locations 1603-1607). Anthem Press. Kindle Edition.
It’s interesting how she manages to shoot down the entire myth of the innovation of the free market in almost all aspects. The simple reality is that capitalists don’t do risk or uncertainty – they do sure things. The reality is that it’s the governments of the world that fund and support the risky stuff of innovation – the private sector comes in after and takes all the laurels and profit for itself without doing any of the real work.
The market would be a gamble if the government didn’t backstop it for their selected heroes. Underlying the entire neo-liberal era are policies that reward the rich for being rich and ensure that if anything does happen that might endanger those riches then protections are in place to prevent that loss.
Besides, I live and learn. Something that economists and RWNJs don’t seem capable of.
Different forms of neurostimulation in humans have now been shown to boost our ability to learn and perform motor actions, to pay attention to events in the environment, to recall information in memory, and to exercise self-control. At the same time, evidence is mounting for more complex effects on cognition. For instance, stimulation of the human prefrontal cortex can enhance or inhibit our tendency to lie, improve our ability to lie successfully, and can encourage us to comply with social norms that carry a punishment for disobedience.
[…]
except that it doesn’t tell the whole story because anything that can boost or rehabilitate human abilities could also be exploited for military or security purposes, as well as by questionable private enterprises. Predictably, some of the major innovations in brain stimulation research are being funded by the US military.
So far the applications of brain stimulation proposed by the military are far-fetched, but what happens when the science catches up with their ambitions? What army wouldn’t take advantage of a method that could make soldiers more alert, faster to react, faster to learn, less likely to binge-drink off duty, and more compliant with authority? What intelligence agency wouldn’t embrace a technology that could help their operatives become better liars, or which limits the ability of prisoners to lie under interrogation?
Could it be used to stop politicians from lying?
The brain is miraculous, and such research could be used to help people with disabilities or brain damage.
Make people more compliant with authority? Worrying.
MIT scientist John Romanishin has done what some said couldn’t be done: He has created a mini-cube robot that has no external moving parts yet can move, climb, leap, and — most importantly — work together with its fellows to create larger shapes.
We already have nano-bots, they’re called “bacteria” 😛 Probably what we’ll end up seeing is modified cell lines that have added in man-made metabolic systems that allow them to do all sorts of interesting chemistry.
Check the notes section. Also in that particular ‘verse the military have long had a means of turning off empathy and other “problematic” bits of the human mind, to create the perfect solider, aka zombies.
But yeah, everything you are is mostly in your head and it turns out organic minds are prone to being hackable via all sorts of stuff. From diet to drugs, to strong magnetic fields, to pathogens and parasites that alter behaviour in very specific ways. Even altering social systems can shift a persons behaviour (see Rule 34, by Charles Stross). So it should come as no surprise that the military will take these things and see if they cannot craft a “better” solider, even if that means creating monsters…
The pilots in WW2 or a bit after, probably in one of those other little wars you know, last century, were given LSD because it enabled them to keep going longer so they could fly longer distances and return apparently safely. Don’t know whether they lived to a happy old age, but does any sentient being since we got civilised?
Is Rodney Councillor Penny Webster’s company’s contract with Auckland Council Controlled Organisation (CCO) Watercare a ‘conflict of interest’?
Should Rodney Councillor Penny Webster be disqualified from standing again, under the Local Authorities (Members’ Interests) Act 1968, because she and her husband have entered into transactions with the Auckland Council Group, totalling $32,189 during 2012, for services provided by their jointly-owned private company, All Rural Fencing Limited ?
Disqualifying contracts between local authorities and their members
(1) Except as provided in subsection (3), no person shall be capable of being elected as or appointed to be or of being a member of a local authority or of any committee of a local authority, if the total of all payments made or to be made by or on behalf of the local authority in respect of all contracts made by it in which that person is concerned or interested exceeds $25,000 in any financial year.
________________________________________________________
I made an inquiry to the Office of the Auditor-General (OAG) – who have the sole responsibility for administering the Local Authorities (Members’ Interests) Act 1968.
This is the reply from OAG Senior Solicitor Belinda Rynhart:
“The prohibition on contracting between local authorities and their members (section 3 of the Local Authorities (Members’ Interests) Act 1968) does not apply to contracts with council-controlled organisations. ”
Belinda Rynhart
Date: Tue, Oct 8, 2013 at 2:01 PM
Dear Penny
I am writing in response to your phone query to us on Friday 4 October. You are concerned about Auckland Council councillor Penny Webster’s husband providing services to the Auckland Council.
This issue was first raised with us at the beginning of the election period. Our preliminary inquiries revealed that in the financial year 2012-2013 All Rural Fencing Limited (Penny’s husband’s company) did not contract with Auckland Council.
All Rural Fencing did however contract to deliver services to one of the Council’s subsidiaries -Watercare Services Limited.
The prohibition on contracting between local authorities and their members (section 3 of the Local Authorities (Members’ Interests) Act 1968) does not apply to contracts with council-controlled organisations.
This means that All Rural Fencing’s contracts with Watercare Services do not cause Penny Webster to be disqualified from being a member of the Council. She did not need to seek the approval of the Auditor-General to be interested in the contracts, and no breach of the Local Authorities (Members’ Interests’) Act has occurred.
In my considered opinion, it is absolutely unacceptable for elected members (or their families) to contract for any form of Council services, whether provided directly by Council, or ‘indirectly’ by Council-Controlled-Organisations (CCOs).
As an ‘anti-corruption /anti-privatisation’ Public Watchdog, I am ‘blowing the whistle’ long and hard on this issue, in order to help achieve a very long-overdue law change to this very outdated piece of legislation.
The Auckland Council ‘Code of Conduct’ states:
“5.3. Public Interest
Members have a duty to make decisions in the public interest. They must not act in order to gain financial or other benefits for themselves, their families, friends or business interests. “
OAG Senior Solicitor Belinda Rynhart told me that the OAG agreed that the Local Authorities (Members’ Interests) Act 1968, was out-of-date, but getting a law change was the responsibility of the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA).
Given that the OAG, not the DIA has administrative responsibility for the Local Authorities (Members’ Interests) Act 1968, I have sent the following ‘Open Letter / OIA request to the CEO of the DIA:
MAYORAL CAMPAIGN 2013 OPEN LETTER TO THE CEO OF THE DIA re OAG requested law changes to the Local Authorities Members Interests Act 1968
What is the public ’perception’, when an Auckland Councillor, Penny Webster (former Chair of the Auckland Council Strategy and Finance Committee), calls on citizens and ratepayers to provide a free service by mowing Auckland Council-owned grass berms, while she and her husband get paid for services provided by their privately-owned company – All Rural Fencing Services Ltd?
______________________________________________
“Rodney councillor Penny Webster says that at a time when household budgets are tight, the council cannot afford the $12 million to $15 million cost of mowing berms for the whole region.
“It’s not fair that one area gets berm mowing, while other areas mow their own,” said Mrs Webster, a former Act MP. “The council had to make things even without increasing rates even more.”
She was disappointed with local body election candidates from the AucklandCity area who were complaining about something the rest of the region did without fuss.
The council voted to save $3 million by not cutting grass berms in the old AucklandCity area from July.
Waitemata councillor Mike Lee said Mrs Webster’s comments were “exactly the outer suburban small-mindedness and parochialism” he had to deal with in his days at the Auckland Regional Council, and which the Super City was meant to stop. ….. ..”
How is this not blinding hypocrisy from Rodney Councillor Penny Webster?
In my considered opinion, as an ‘anti-corruption’ Public Watchdog, Rodney Councillor Penny Webster is NOT ‘fit for duty’, and if I were a Rodney voter, I most certainly would not be voting for her.
I look forward to the turning of this ’bad thing into a good thing,’ and the ensuing public ‘fuss’, over this Rodney Councillor Penny Webster ‘conflict of interest’, helping to achieve a prompt updating of the Local Authorities (Members’ Interests) Act 1968.
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Two-thirds of the country think that “New Zealand’s economy is rigged to advantage the rich and powerful”. They also believe that “New Zealand needs a strong leader to take the country back from the rich and powerful”. These are just two of a handful of stunning new survey results released ...
In today’s digital world, screenshots have become an indispensable tool for communication and documentation. Whether you need to capture an important email, preserve a website page, or share an error message, screenshots allow you to quickly and easily preserve digital information. If you’re an Asus laptop user, there are several ...
A factory reset restores your Gateway laptop to its original factory settings, erasing all data, apps, and personalizations. This can be necessary to resolve software issues, remove viruses, or prepare your laptop for sale or transfer. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to factory reset your Gateway laptop: Method 1: ...
“You talking about me?”The neoliberal denigration of the past was nowhere more unrelenting than in its depiction of the public service. The Post Office and the Railways were held up as being both irremediably inefficient and scandalously over-manned. Playwright Roger Hall’s “Glide Time” caricatures were presented as accurate depictions of ...
Roger Partridge writes – When the Coalition Government took office last October, it inherited a country on a precipice. With persistent inflation, decades of insipid productivity growth and crises in healthcare, education, housing and law and order, it is no exaggeration to suggest New Zealand’s first-world status was ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – In 2022, the Curriculum Centre at the Ministry of Education employed 308 staff, according to an Official Information Request. Earlier this week it was announced 202 of those staff were being cut. When you look up “The New Zealand Curriculum” on the Ministry of ...
Chris Bishop’s bill has stirred up a hornets nest of opposition. Photo: Lynn Grieveson for The KākāTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate from the last day included:A crescendo of opposition to the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill is ...
Monday left me brokenTuesday, I was through with hopingWednesday, my empty arms were openThursday, waiting for love, waiting for loveThe end of another week that left many of us asking WTF? What on earth has NZ gotten itself into and how on earth could people have voluntarily signed up for ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.State of humanity, 20242024, it feels, keeps presenting us with ever more challenges, ever more dismay.Do you give up yet? It seems to ask.No? How about this? Or this?How about this?Full story Share ...
Determining the hardest sport in the world is a subjective matter, as the difficulty level can vary depending on individual abilities, physical attributes, and experience. However, based on various factors including physical demands, technical skills, mental fortitude, and overall accomplishment, here is an exploration of some of the most challenging ...
The allure of sport transcends age, culture, and geographical boundaries. It captivates hearts, ignites passions, and provides unparalleled entertainment. Behind the spectacle, however, lies a fascinating world of financial investment and expenditure. Among the vast array of competitive pursuits, one question looms large: which sport carries the hefty title of ...
Introduction Pickleball, a rapidly growing paddle sport, has captured the hearts and imaginations of millions around the world. Its blend of tennis, badminton, and table tennis elements has made it a favorite among players of all ages and skill levels. As the sport’s popularity continues to surge, the question on ...
Abstract: Soccer, the global phenomenon captivating millions worldwide, has a rich history that spans centuries. Its origins trace back to ancient civilizations, but the modern version we know and love emerged through a complex interplay of cultural influences and innovations. This article delves into the fascinating journey of soccer’s evolution, ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
I’m on the wrong side of 40, I never pursued creative work and now my job is killing my soul. Help! Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,May I start with the least original conversation opener you’re likely to hear around the motu at the moment, particularly in Wellington: ...
“Never again - No AUKUS” was the message of the wreath laid at this morning’s national ANZAC Day commemorative service at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park this morning by the Stop AUKUS group. ...
Until this month, Auckland swimmer Hazel Ouwehand had never met a qualifying time in an Olympic event for a New Zealand team, even as a junior. Now she’s very likely off to the Paris Olympics after swimming well under the qualifying standard in the 100m butterfly twice – both in ...
While Anzac Day has experienced a resurgence in recent years, our other day of remembrance has slowly faded from view.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand. Original illustrations by Hope McConnell.First published in 2022.The high school’s head girl and ...
Australian and New Zealand volunteers fought together in the Waikato War, yet still its place in the Anzac tradition is unacknowledged by our defence forces or Returned Services Association.First published in 2018.When I was a boy cub I attended Anzac Day services in the South Auckland suburb of ...
A poem by Wellington writer Tayi Tibble.Hoki Mai She kisses him goodbye with her eyes still wet and alight from their last swim in the Awatere river. At the train station celebration, she leads the Kapa Haka but her voice keeps breaking under and over itself like waves. ...
A poem from Bill Manhire’s 2017 book of verse Some Things to Place in a Coffin.My World War I Poem Inside each trench, the sound of prayer. Inside each prayer, the sound of digging. Image courtesy of Auckland War Memorial Museum. ...
There are three books I have wolfed down in one sitting over the last two years. Colleen Maria Lenihan’s gorgeous and sad debut Kōhine, Noelle McCarthy’s memoir Grand about becoming her mother and then unbecoming her, and now Hine Toa, a staunch yet gentle self-portrait by living legend Ngāhuia te ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Thursday 25 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Asia Pacific Report Students and activist staff at Australia’s University of Sydney (USyd) have set up a Gaza solidarity encampment in support of Palestinians and similar student-led protests in the United States. The camp was pitched as mass graves, crippled hospitals, thousands of civilian deaths and the near-total destruction of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James B. Dorey, Lecturer in Biological Sciences, University of Wollongong Australian teddy bear bees are cute and fluffy, but get a look at that massive (unbarbed) stinger! James Dorey Photography Most of us have been stung by a bee and we ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jen Roberts, Senior Lecturer, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong Aussie~mobs/FlickrVictor Farr, a private in the 1st Infantry Battalion, was among the first to land at Anzac Cove just before dawn on April 25 1915. Victor Farr ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Gregory Moore I had the good fortune to care for the sugar gum at The University of Melbourne’s Burnley Gardens in Victoria where I worked for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel Ong ViforJ, ARC Future Fellow & Professor of Economics, Curtin University Just when we think the price of rentals could not get any worse, this week’s Rental Affordability Snapshot by Anglicare has revealed low-income Australians are facing a housing crisis like ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tracey Holmes, Professorial Fellow in Sport, University of Canberra When the news broke last weekend that 23 Chinese swimmers had tested positive to a banned drug in early 2021 and were allowed to compete at the Tokyo Olympic Games six months later ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cally Jetta, Senior Lecturer and Academic Lead; College for First Nations, University of Southern Queensland Australian War MemorialAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains names and images of deceased people, as well as sensitive historical information ...
RNZ News Melissa Lee has been ousted from New Zealand’s coalition cabinet and stripped of the Media portfolio, and Penny Simmonds has lost the Disability Issues portfolio in a reshuffle. Climate Change and Revenue Minister Simon Watts will take Lee’s spot in cabinet. Simmonds was a minister outside of cabinet. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Lindenmayer, Professor, Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University laurello/Shutterstock Some reports and popular books, such as Bill Gammage’s Biggest Estate on Earth, have argued that extensive areas of Australia’s forests were kept open through frequent burning by ...
Analysis - Christopher Luxon framing the demotion of two ministers as the portfolios getting "too complex" is a charitable way of saying they weren't up to the job. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra With Jim Chalmers’s third budget on May 14, Australians will be looking for some more cost-of-living relief – beyond the tax cuts – although they have been warned extra measures will be modest. As ...
Analysis: Melissa Lee has lost the media portfolio and her spot in Cabinet after multiple failed attempts to find solutions for a media industry in crisis. On Wednesday, the Prime Minister announced Lee would be losing her spot in Cabinet along with her media and communications ministerial portfolio. The job ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Wilmot, Senior Lecturer, Film, Deakin University Among the many Australian who served during the second world war, there is a small group of people whose stories remain largely untold. These are the Muslim men and women who, while small in number, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kelly Saunders, PhD Candidate, University of Canberra There has been much analysis and praise of Justice Michael Lee’s recent judgement in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case against Channel Ten. Many people were openly relieved to read Lee’s “forensic” and “nuanced” application of law ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathy Gibbs, Program Director for the Bachelor of Education, Griffith University zEdward_Indy/Shutterstock Around one in 20 people has attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It’s one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders in childhood and often continues into adulthood. ADHD is diagnosed ...
The Fairer Future coalition of anti-poverty groups say Whaikaha must be properly funded going forward, and that to argue that poor financial management of the new Ministry is a red herring by the Prime Minister. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is today congratulating Hon. Paul Goldsmith on his appointment as Minister for Media and Communications and urges him to rule out state intervention in the private media sector. ...
Asia Pacific Report The West Papuan resistance OPM leader has condemned Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and US President Joe Biden, accusing their countries of “six decades of treachery” over Papuan independence. The open letter was released today by OPM chairman Jeffrey P Bomanak on the eve of ANZAC Day ...
Welcome to The Spinoff Books Confessional, in which we get to know the reading habits and quirks of New Zealanders at large. This week: writer and one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2024, Lauren Groff.The book I wish I’d writtenIf I wish I’d written a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Fechner, Research Fellow, Social Marketing, Griffith University mavo/Shutterstock Imagine having dinner at a restaurant. The menu offers plant-based meat alternatives made mostly from vegetables, mushrooms, legumes and wheat that mimic meat in taste, texture and smell. Despite being given that ...
“Three Strikes is a dead-end policy proposed by a dead-end government. The Three Strikes law ignores the causes of crime, instead just brutalising people already crushed by the cost of living.” ...
By Don Wiseman, RNZ Pacific senior journalist An Australian-born judge in Kiribati could well face deportation later this week after a tribunal ruling that he should be removed from his post. The tribunal’s report has just been tabled in the Kiribati Parliament and is due to be debated by MPs ...
With its clear mandate for police use, political nuances, and nuanced public trust, Denmark's insights provide valuable considerations for Australia and New Zealand. ...
Books editor Claire Mabey reviews poet Louise Wallace’s debut novel. A famous poet once said to me that he’s always suspicious when a poet publishes a novel. I never really understood why but maybe it’s something to do with cheating on your first form. Louise Wallace is a poet. She’s ...
For a few months at the turn of the millennium, TrueBliss burned bright as the biggest pop stars in the country. Alex Casey chats to two superfans who still hold the flame. During a humble backyard wedding in Nelson, 1999, one of the cordially invited guests had to excuse themselves ...
How will the recent wave of job cuts impact ethnic diversity in the media? In November last year, I was working a very busy day in the newsroom of a large online news site, interviewing whānau about their concerns over the imminent closure of one of the few puna reo ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ruth Knight, Researcher, Queensland University of Technology Have you ever felt sick at work? Perhaps you had food poisoning or the flu. Your belly hurt, or you felt tired, making it hard to concentrate and be productive. How likely would you be ...
Despite heavy criticism and an ongoing select committee process, the Police Minister says the Government will forge ahead with a ban on gang patches. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sam Whiting, Lecturer – Creative Industries, University of South Australia Shutterstock Everyone has a favourite band, or a favourite composer, or a favourite song. There is some music which speaks to you, deeply; and other music which might be the current ...
A new survey says ‘outlook not great’ for those charged with building infrastructure, while RMA changes delight farmers and depress environmentalists, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. First RMA changes announced ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Olli Hellmann, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Waikato Getty Images When New Zealanders commemorate Anzac Day on April 25, it’s not only to honour the soldiers who lost their lives in World War I and subsequent conflicts, but also ...
A leaked document shows the Canterbury/Waitaha arm of health agency Te Whatu Ora is scurrying to save $13.3 million by July. The “financial sustainability target”, which was “allocated” to Waitaha, is consistent with what’s happening in other districts, says Sarah Dalton, executive director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists. ...
A look at the state of the previous government’s affordable housing scheme, and what could come next.Remind me: What’s KiwiBuild again?First announced in 2012, KiwiBuild was a flagship policy of the Labour Party heading into both its 2014 and 2017 election campaigns. With Jacinda Ardern as prime minister, ...
Labour in opposition will be shocked to learn which party had six years in power but squandered any chance to make real change. Grant Robertson’s valedictory speech was a predictably entertaining trip down memory lane. The acid-tongued incoming Otago University chancellor administered a sick burn to the coalition government. He ...
Taiwan’s semiconductor industry is seen some as its ‘silicon shield’ against invasion – but how will overseas expansion affect that protection? The post The state of Taiwan’s silicon shield appeared first on Newsroom. ...
There’s relief for building owners bending under the weight of earthquake strengthening rules – and costs – that came into force seven years ago. Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk has announced a scheduled 2027 review of the earthquake-prone building regulations will now start this year. Owners will also get ...
Opinion: It has been announced that nine percent of roles at Oranga Tamariki will be disestablished, presumably to help fund the tax cuts promised by the coalition Government. I am reminded of the graphics used to illustrate pandemic events, where five thousand people are standing in a field and then ...
After more than two sleepless days, running through savage terrain, Greig Hamilton didn’t know if he was going to finish one of the most gruelling psychological assaults in sport. He was metres away from the finish line, a yellow gate made famous in a Netflix documentary; a race he’d dreamed ...
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Enquiry into funding of sexual abuse services deadline for submissions this THURSDAY, Oct 10. Hopefully this will lead to better funding and mean that service providers no longer have to resort to begging for funding instead of treating victims.
http://thehandmirror.blogspot.co.nz/2013/10/government-inquiry-on-sexual-violence.html
Contact the clerk of the house if you want your submission kept private, OR make a generic submission. If you don’t have time to write a submission, print this off to sign and send in freepost or copy and paste the text and submit it online http://www.wellingtonrapecrisis.org.nz/images/stories/pdfs/standardsubmissionformneedingsignatureonly.pdf
John Tamihere, “I shave my legs”, but who cares if I do or don’t”– it doesn’t affect my perception or political understanding, am not a Labour Party member, and not part of the Wellington “belt way”. And I think your various pronouncements on issues of gender and sexuality are highly offensive – I would never vote for someone who makes those kinds of statements regularly and continues to stand by them year after year.
The issue of pokies is important, and i am glad you are bringing it into the open once again. There needs to be as much transparency as possible around pokie operations and the money involved. But it still will not be enough to get me voting for you.
I have already voted this week, and I didn’t vote for you, John.
An acid test for the Labour Party.
It may be a ‘broad church’, but surely someone who repeatedly gives the finger to the very constitution of the party, who is abusive towards many, if not most of its membership, and large groups within the wider community….. surely…..
But anyway, he made himself unelectable to a sizeable chunk of the electorate, including, I reckon, many form his support base, when he moved home and abandoned his pets to starve, and it was reported in the media.
Cruelty to animals is widely taken by experts – and any decent human – as an indicator of capacity for cruelty to people, even if it were not utterly vile in itself.
“The issue of pokies is important, and i am glad you are bringing it into the open once again. There needs to be as much transparency as possible around pokie operations and the money involved. “
Agree, Karol. If John Tamihere had stuck with social issues like this he would have gone a long way. I remember back in his days at the Waipareira Trust when the advertisement for gambling control was an image of the Sky Tower as junkie’s needle. Awesome. Also the work the Trust did with health and education for families out West.
As it is, he’s too duplicitous to get the votes of people who remember this brain fart about women in politics, among other things. Maybe he’s hoping for the votes of a new generation that is unaware of his past indiscretions.
The idea of Tamihere standing for Labour seat is bloody ridiculous. He was useless last time. I note he says in the article that he is just using the local election as a sounding board for a possible National Election run next year.
By the way I notice the nice Herald has devoted quite a few inches to Tamihere today. Wonder why?
JT has gone down so far in my estimation that when I read he took reporters on a pub crawl I wondered if he had pre-aarange the people on the pokies as “props” to help him make his point.
Slippery the Prime Minister, strutting His stuff Statesman-like across the World stage via 3News last night,
”China is still there and it isn’t going anywhere”, unquote, Lolz i don’t know just how out of context that particular piece of ‘Colonial Cloddery’ was from the PM but i imagined an elongated ”Derrrrr” occurring after He said it,
The bloke is about as deep as a puddle of piss left in the porch by a stray dog and if National are looking for a ‘dead cats bounce’ in the polls from having the PM pontificating on the global political stage, forget it, Crusty the Clown leaves a more lasting image…
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9254385/Free-trade-Key-in-last-minute-US-talks
Once again! Shonkey being told exactly what the US of A wants.
This deal is very suitable for Key. It’s as Shonkey as it gets
Slippery the PM, the running dog of US foreign and trade policy any time a minor official of the US State Department yanks on His chain…
will he say nothing like he did last time he chaired something here????
…why are you turning red Mr Key?
Shut-up, I’m not, it’s hot, times up, stop picking on me….
John Tamihere and abandoned dogs (actually cats), bad 12 with an animal theme. Is that going to be a trend for the day.
Further about the cats http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10124140
Interesting to read reports of John Tamihere decrying Housing NZ which was considering forbidding its tenants to keep dogs.
http://www.radiolive.co.nz/Pet-ownership-is-none-of…NZs…/Default.aspx
This was an invasion of their tenants rights he says. Anyone who has lived near to constantly barking dogs, had them defecate on your own property, knows the effort required to train a dog ie socialise it and give it appropriate obedience training, plus the cost of feeding them, plus providing regular care including vet visits, will know that Housing NZ is doing everybody, including the poverty-stricken tenants, a favour.
Actually John T says he understands their poverty which means that dogs will be unaffordable (even cats can be beyond a bene’s budget) so he is happily inconsistent, expressing the most emotional statement that will present him as a caring, sensible fellow.
Times are tough and people on the breadline will use their money to pay for food and power. The first thing that goes is the registration and warrant. The majority of people do not want to break the law, they just cannot afford to keep the law.
This may have been mentioned before, but I was surprised to see the Daily blog adopt an “open mike”. It seemed to have the same graphic as this one did (back in the day).
I guess “the more the merrier”, but I doubt the heavy moderation policy over there will be able to accomodate the sort of discussions we have here. It will be interesting to see how it unfolds.
TDB consolidates a lot of writers well, great to see ‘blue collar’ union backing too, (when was the last time anyone wore a blue collar tho? it is all branded clothing or hi-visis these days) it remains a clunky site to use but with good content.
The Standard is number one really, but everyone is catered for somewhere, luvvies at Public Address, and dirty filthy torys at Kiwi and dark half mentals at Whalespew.
“open mike” many are too busy for another one but am sure Jenny will surface there.
I think open mike on TDB will take a different form from here. TS has systems and moderation policies that encourage discussion. TDB has a moderation policy that tends to make discussions more secondary to the posts – some very good posts by some excellent authors.
Jenny does comment over there, but surprisingly she seems quite rational and calm in her comments there (except an occasional complaint about being censored on TS). Of course, as TDB comments all automatically go through moderation before being released, it’s hard to know if all her comments do get released.
But, curiously, there hasn’t been any posts on climate change on TDB in the last week, and no attacks from Jenny about it. Gotta wonder about her double standards and if, she is just out to undermine TS. I hadn’t previously seen her as a provocateur, just an unreliable commentator on TS – but given the disparity with her TDB comments, I can’t help but wonder.
Comment from Jenny praising Bomber’s post, but gently chiding him on environmental issues.
Jenny critical of Trotter’s strangely pro TPP post.
And totally reasonable in reply to my comment on TS’s role in making the Kelsey Vs Mapp debate happen.
Almost seems like a different commenter, with a totally different tone – but I think it is the same one.
I’ve been noticing that too Karol, and did think it was a different Jenny until I saw the climate change stuff. I reckon TDB’s moderation system and policy is a lot to do with it (ts gives tr0lls a lot of lattitude), but you might be right that Jenny now has a grudge against ts which affects her behaviour here.
From memory karol, Jenny started off the same way on The Standard. Indeed on one occasion at least her ‘comment’ was so good it was elevated to post status. She made good points and was praised by others for them – including me. Then she started to become more and more unreasonable to the point I stopped reading her diatribes. A bit sad.
I don’t know Jenny like the regular folks here do, but I do wonder if there is common ground that she shares with readers, commenters and authors, and that what would otherwise be camaraderie becomes distance and self isolation via her antagonism and repetition. (I see she earned a lengthy ban).
The situation reminds me of when you are in a meeting where there is a common group goal or aim. Then there’s that one person who shares those goals but aims to highjack the group with their own unique view on the goal. They often end taking up much of the speaking time and give the facilitator a difficult time of it whilst alienating the rest of the group from themselves because of their extreme views and actions. Maybe Jenny has a sense of desperation about the topic of climate change, that’s the expression that comes across at least in her comments. It’s hard to have a rational conversation with someone who is feeling desperate because the mind is stuck on a treadmill. It’s a bit of a shame when that happens.
“Jenny will surface there”
She did, lol. but it wasn’t on open mic it was on “Cunliffe’s first 100 days” by Martyn Bradbury. It’s a shame really, she’s still upset about TS authors not writing an article about the Solid Energy bail out, despite having it explained to her on two occasions that I have read, what the reason for that is.
“For instance, witness the difficulty The Standard is having in getting out a statement on the Bail out of Solid Energy.” – says Jenny. That was posted yesterday.
I like the articles on The Daily Blog and the work they’ve done around live streaming public meetings but I don’t comment anymore for a variety of reasons that I’ve already mentioned. They do good work though, all strength to them.
PS: I see Karol beat me to it above 🙂
“Jenny will surface there”
Honest to god, this is the truth – I saw that comment about Jenny and I thought “I bet Pete George will too” 😈 Then I trotted over to TDB to see what their Open Mike looks like and the first one I come across is this
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2013/10/08/open-mike-tuesday-8th-october/#comment-110671
Lol, yes, saw that comment by ol’ Petey this morning.
I bet he’ll banned within a month.
Old Petey can’t change sadly.
Followed by a loooooong, comment by Jenny… on …. guess what?
Why shouldn’t Jenny talk about her displeasure at coal mining without getting banned here? I’ve known Jenny for years, we support different parties, and we have opposite views about mining and climate change. I agree with a lot of her views and disapprove of others, but I will defend her right to write them. If not in this forum then it will be at another. Why don’t you all join us, somewhere else. Freedom of expression no longer exists on The Standard. And we know whose faullt that is.
go on
If you look at what she got banned for this time:-
1. It was for lying about what I’d said about her on my post. 12 weeks
2. Persistently lying about what the greens and labour’s policies were on a number of topics. 12 weeks
The point was that she didn’t damn well know what the policies were because it was apparent that she’d never looked.
In both offenses she’d been warned what would happen if she did it again the day before, and obviously decided to deliberately do it. I acted in accordance with what I’d said.
I’d call it a penalty peddling fantasies as fact and for stupidity. She is welcome to write at other forums where I’m sure that she will be welcomed /sarc
Jenny is quite free to write her views here or there if she follows the rules set at each blog. There are few rules on TS, but people are required to stick by them or get banned, temporarily or permanently.
Jenny has continuously broken 2 of them – attacking authors, and telling us what to write. She could just have posted her own comments on Solid Energy, etc here. But she, as she has done several times before, told us quite aggressively what she thinks we should be writing about. She has been warned about this several times. She then starts claiming she’s being censored and gets aggressive.
She continually is in attack mode, and seems to think her choice of topics to write on should be everyone’s. Too often, Jenny has not engaged in discussions just harangued and attacked people, even though her comments are not always that reliable in fact or judgement. It becomes tiresome and does not help maintain discussions.
This has all been said before. She has a tendency to express her views in ways that just annoy many people – and to spam us with one long comment after another without really engaging in discussion in any depth. It seems like tr0lling, though that probably isn’t her intention.
I’m very happy if she prefers to comment at TDB on any topic of her choosing.
I will defend her right to write them.
Freedom of speech is not “freedom to write whatever you like wherever you like with no limitations and free from criticism”.
Jenny is perfectly able to start up her own blog on WordPress or (godsforbid) Blogger and writing about climate change and her personal illusions about Labour and Green policies to her heart’s content.
She does not, however, have the right to use this platform, built and maintained by other people, to tell lies and break the rules, especially after being warned about the consequences of doing so.
And that pretty much goes for any commenter on any site.
But please, http://youtu.be/GdNI0_cx22s?t=6s
Of course I was paraphrasing Voltaire’s beliefs on freedom of thought and expression, which don’t apply here.
I think we need another left-wing blog.
Actually, Jenny tries to stifle dissent from her own views with her bullying tactics. Freedom cannot happen without responsibility towards others. Just shouting at others, and not really listening to them, is not what I’d call the kind of freedom of expression that serves democracy.
Basically, Jenny was not banned for what (in terms of political views) she said as much as how she said it.
If you want another left wing blog, why not go start it yourself?
Were his beliefs along the lines of “I disapprove of what you say, but I will publish it in its entirety, repeatedly, and cover the cost myself”?
No?
well, then.
…and they don’t know how to spell “mic” either…
You’ve got the wrong end of the stick. It’s not a general comments post, it’s a post about a guy called Michael who is looking to share his feelings – Open Mike.
Keep it up KK, as they say on RedGreen tv ‘If they don’t find you handsome, they’ll at least find you handy.’
Bomber doesn’t take criticism or disagreement well so any open mic on his turf will consist of mostly praise and agreement unlike the standard where debate and disagreement is encouraged
I disagree
So do I.
TC, I think it’s just a select few like you who get harshly moderated at TDB. The rest of us have figured out where the boundaries lie and accept the ‘my blog, my rules’ ethos and just get on with it.
You mean the sychophants don’t get moderated? Quelle suprise.
KK
How cultured you are in your ripostes!
reading TS has broadened their lingo
They had better watch out – too much TS broadens the bottom!
I find that too high a dose of statins does that…
Oh Those Statins. My MD can beat your MD any day when it comes to arguments about them. And they may not harm memory thinking at all according to the web.
Now I have found what they are, too much curiosity here, I’ll pass on some possibly helpful information.
In addition to their well-known benefits in heart disease, high-dose statins appear to reduce gum inflammation caused by periodontal disease, a new report published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology shows. The findings offer more evidence that heart disease and gum disease may be linked, and also help support the view that statins achieve at least some of their effect not through their cholesterol-lowering effect but through separate inflammation-fighting mechanisms. – Forbes
Testimonial –
I was completely ignorant until I began to blog on The Standard. Now I find that I can discuss anything at any pub I choose to visit and people in the street are struck dumb with my field of knowledge which now includes statins.
If they harmed memory or thinking I’d notice it pretty well immediately. My job is 90% of those with a touch of creativity.
However I am still the vagueness for ordinary matters and short-term memory (that isn’t code) that I always was. I still have a dyslexia on names (hat are not classes, variables, or filenames) that I always did. And I still maintain a catalogue of who has been writing what on this site over the last few years that is sufficient to look the relevant comments up. Not to mention politics and science…
It is ordinary living that I forget and don’t think about that much…. 🙂 Not that important unless Lyn insists (and she is often a pretty geek as well).
I’m not even sure that the statins caused much of my weight gain since I started taking them. That could be due to being forced to stop smoking. However when they doubled up the statin dose to the original level a month ago for my ideological specialist’s reasons, my weight which had been stable started increasing again…
Although you can get a report of just about any side effect you want if you have enough of the population taking a medication, weight gain is pretty unusual for a statin unless you’re beginning to develop Type 2 diabetes or if you’re experiencing muscle and/or joint pain which is causing you to not get as much exercise as usual.
if you are experiencing muscle or joint pain or going to the loo more than usual you should get back to your GP ASAP for further tests.
http://www.medsafe.govt.nz/profs/datasheet/l/lipitortab.pdf
“You mean the sychophants don’t get moderated? Quelle suprise.”
No, I meant that socially illiterate idiots get moderated. As you well know.
Personally I have never been to TDB as I believe that encouraging Bomber is akin to teasing retards.
The usual ‘play the man, not the ball’ tactic KK?
This is an open mike comment, not a TPP point, KK.
I did not say the US Government brought its own buildings down on 9/11.
I simply provided 4 pieces of evidence that suggest events happen because of conspiracies, not coincidence, which would seem to be your case as you use the disparaging definition of the word conspiracy. I tend to go for the less pejorative description of the words, where conspiracy theory is a term that is a neutral descriptor for any claim of civil, criminal or political conspiracy.
On 9/11, I’m assuming you don’t believe that the buildings came down by coincidence. You believe that there was a conspiracy, I assume, organised by Osama bin Laden. That, KK, is a conspiracy theory.
So you are a conspiracy theorist yourself. You just believe in different conspiracies.
I suppose it was a bit of a coincidence that the buildings came down on the same day a plane hit them.
Of course conspiracy theories can turn out to be true but sometimes a good yard stick to their veracity is the pedigree of those promoting them.
In the case of Karol’s fantasy, she has Travellerev agreeing with her which means you can immediately discount the whole thing as fucking nonsense.
That is a very poor conclusion to draw King Kong,
perhaps you should have read the post, clearly by what you are writing you would have learned something.
Yes it was a co-incidence. After all, on 9-11, 3 large buildings collapsed but there were only two plane impacts.
Don’t you start!
“In the case of Karol’s fantasy, she has Travellerev agreeing with her which means you can immediately discount the whole thing as fucking nonsense.”
I suppose the other way to form an opinion on karol’s article would be to read it, but I don’t imagine you’ve got time for that what with all the trooling you have to do.
What about these people’s pedigree?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZEvA8BCoBw
Tackling the player, not the ball.
Is this the only way you discuss issues?
Even more Interesting that All the WT buildings came down in their own Footprint. IE: Like when they have been wired and dropped, it’s called Demolition.
“Even more Interesting that All the WT buildings came down in their own Footprint. IE: Like when they have been wired and dropped, it’s called Demolition.”
I’m going to look silly if you were just being sarcastic, but neither of the big buildings did that, and, in fact, a large chunk of one hit the 3rd building. As I say, apologies if you were just taking the pi55.
Well, no they didn’t. Quite a lot of debris fell outside the area they had occupied on the ground. Into other buildings. Some of which also fell down.
But they did fall in a generally “downward” direction. This is due to what people like to call “gravity”. The lack of Godzilla applying a constant lateral force meant that toppling did not occur.
King Kong,
Don’t you agree that the events of 9/11 were a conspiracy?
@ McFlock: lol!
Hmmmm. @Paul
Arguing equivalence because they are the same class of thing while ignoring the degree of plausibility of each thing is pretty much what young-earth creationists do.
If we operated like that in real life, we’d all be paralyzed by existential doubt, including the assumption that: “the bread which I’ve eaten my entire life and has sated my hunger previously will sate my hunger when I eat it today” is equivalent to “the bread which I’ve eaten my entire life and has sated my hunger previously will poison me if I eat it today”.
As it is, the same processes that demonstrated the existence of most of the conspiracies (in its purest “multiple people working in contemporary secrecy” form) you mentioned also demonstrated that towers fell because planes hijacked by terrorists flew into them.
Now, the TPP/APEC thing is interesting, because the same mechanisms as above have demonstrated that multinational corporations are, well, frequently morally bankrupt (especially the tobacco industry), and Karol writes excellently researched, structured and referenced posts. On the flipside, as KK points out, T-eve jumping in adds a certain level of crazy to the mix. But after the Hobbit law change, we all know that Key’s actively marketing NZ as for sale to the quickest bidder, fuck the consequences to the populace.
9/11 is the perfect example of this.
People who believe the story about Osama Bin Laden, 19 hijackers, box cutters, etc etc are conspiracy theorists as this was clearly a ‘conspiracy.’ Not a very plausible one either.
A conspiracy that was exceptionally well documented at the time and has been publicly examined extensively by multiple organisations. Will we ever know all the details of the case, like what the hijackers ate for breakfast? No. But we know the bulk of it.
And alternative theories tend to be demonstrably false, extremely tenuous, posited by nutbars, apparently invented for financial gain, and/or significantly more implausible than the generally accepted version.
They are not equivalent positions, any more than “God created the earth six thousand years ago because a magic book told me so” is equivalent to the Theory of Evolution.
And let’s not forget that the conspirators openly claim to have done it, instead of claiming that they were set up by their enemies and are being attacked without reason. Which would be kind of good line to take if it was true.
I’m having to reply to this comment again as there is no reply button under your comment that goes …
“A conspiracy that was exceptionally well documented at the time and has been publicly examined extensively by multiple organisations. Will we ever know all the details of the case, like what the hijackers ate for breakfast? No. But we know the bulk of it.
And alternative theories tend to be demonstrably false, extremely tenuous, posited by nutbars, apparently invented for financial gain, and/or significantly more implausible than the generally accepted version.
They are not equivalent positions, any more than “God created the earth six thousand years ago because a magic book told me so” is equivalent to the Theory of Evolution.”
1. At no stage did I make a statement saying I believed in alternative conspiracy theories. I stated I did not know what happened and commented that the official conspiracy theory ( Bin Laden etc) was implausible.
2, You are trying to control the tone of the conversation by using emotive language such as nutbar, However, there are reputable people who question the 9 11 story. What about these people’s pedigree?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZEvA8BCoBw
3. I am the sceptic here. You believe in one conspiracy theory; I believe in neither and await evidence that supports the theory presented. I refute your attempt to again to frame the conversation through your use of language ( so that I am on the side of new age creationists).\
4. As a believer, can you explain how WTC7 fell, when it was not hit by a plane? I have not heard any evidence to persuade me to the Bin Laden conspiracy theory.
5. If you apply your own thinking to the official conspiracy theory ( i.e. who made money out of it) then there are plenty of candidates!
The observed collapse of the World Trade Centers 1 and 2 have been measured at near the rate of free fall. This is the rate at which nearly all of the “falling energy” (kinetic energy from gravity) must deliver the building to ground level. This leaves no energy for smashing and pulverizing the concrete slabs nor for shredding construction steel.
1: I do not believe that I have ever claimed that you do believe a particular theory.
2: I don’t give a shit about who “controls the tone”. If I recall correctly, AE911Truth has a membership that consists of <1% of the architects (let alone "engineers") in the USA. That is well within the expected margins for serious mental disorders in a population, but then I also think that some of them are just stupid. Either way, they come under the category I like to call "nutters".
3: No, you are not being a sceptic. Your statement that the well-documented events are "not very plausible" implies disbelief and a lack of impartial evaluation. It is the difference between agnosticism and atheism. Sceptics, in the modern sense, are not completely disbelieving, they just step back and rationally examine the evidence. Whereas you, at best, have gone all Ancient Greek, we cannae know anything ever.
As to my "use of language", I merely pointed out that creationists use the same tactic, not that you are on the same side.
4: Fire after parts of a fecking great building hit it. Try reading one of the many investigations that covered it.
and that goes for the BinLaden thing, too.
5: Yes indeed. But it's difficult to get one person, let alone 19, to kill themselves so you can make money.
Paul, you say that people who made money out of it should be looked at as suspects.
Fair enough.
So what’s the theory?
I’ve asked plenty of truthers for an alternate theory that accounts for all the facts.
I would be more than happy to talk about such a theory, if it existed. It’s been more than a decade now, and such a theory has yet to be presented to me so that I might think about it.
Usually when I ask,I’m told that “It’s not our job to provide a theory”. I do not find this at all convincing, and as a sceptic yourself, I’m sure you agree.
As a sceptic, I have not seen enough evidence to convince me that WTC7 (in particular) and the Twin Towers could have collapsed as they did.
There are many reputable people (not nutters) who similarly question the story.
I am not name calling your opinion, but am continually having to deal with words like truther, nutbar..
Your argument should be strong enough not to rely on name calling
You’re the one who linked to the ae911truth video.
But let’s start with the basics: have you enough evidence to convince you that WTC7 (in particular) and the Twin Towers actually existed?
Live and let live McFlock.
You believe, I doubt.
Please don’t let your religious fervour get the better of you and mean you start persecuting those who question the holy truth of 9/11.
So no theory at all then?
I’m not asking for anything as well developed as the official theory, (though I will note the more than a decade again, in passing), just a brief explanation of how these buildings came down if it wasn’t due to the planes that flew into them.
Who might have done it, and why it would have made sense for them to do it. Why doing it, the way they did it, was the best way of achieving their aims.
I’m more than happy to talk about such a theory, and to discuss the official theory too.
Usually I just catch abuse.
‘truthers’ however, is hardly abuse. It’s a self identifier.
@McFlock
Given the fact that I am not privy to key information about the events as: I was not on the commission that investigated the events of 11 September and that much of the evidence was destroyed, I am unwilling to come to unsubstantiated theories without evidence.
That’s the scientific method.
Challenging ideas in the same forum that they are raised is not “persecution”.
Reducing overwhelming evidence of fact into a mere difference of opinion is also something that creationists like to do. For what it’s worth.
You doubt, fair enough.
From what you have presented here, you have no beliefs of your own. Fair enough.
You regard fringe youtube theorists to be credible counterpoints to multiple investigations and blanket coverage of the events as they happened. Fair enough.
But to then demand respect for the shallow credulity that ensues from the above? That’s a wee bit unfair.
So how do you know the towers existed at all, again?
Oh, and no, it’s not the scientific method
I am unwilling to come to unsubstantiated theories without evidence.
That’s the scientific method.
there is quite a lot of evidence though Paul.
And one doesn’t need to have all the possible evidence in order to form a theory that accounts for that evidence which we do have.
That too, is the scientific method. Although working out what happened isn’t really science. It’s more akn to history. We need theories about history to weigh againts each other. We use the balance of probability, and testimony, as well as science, to try and work out what happened.
At the moment, the sceptics of the official theory haven’t had a lot of success, as far as i have seen, in coming up with an alternate theory.
I remain more than happy to discuss one, should it arise.
Of course the Towers existed.
Are heading for a philosophical discussion?http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meditations_on_First_Philosophy
@PB
“At the moment, the sceptics of the official theory haven’t had a lot of success, as far as i have seen, in coming up with an alternate theory.”
That is true.but then they aren’t the gatekeepers of the knowledge.
e.g. A citizen of Japan is less likely to know details about the TPP than a large US corporation.
That’s irrelevant though.
there is plenty of evidence available to them. there are many known facts. How do they account for them?
What plausible theory is there, other than the official one/
Again, I’m not asking for conclusive evidence for this theory, just a description of an alternate hypothesis that accounts for the known facts.
Over a decade, and they haven’t even started on one, as far as I can tell.
But I sense you don’t have desire to speculate on even the possibilities of an alternate theory, other than your comment about who made money out of it. Shall we start from there?
These people who made money out of it. Was this a rational way of making the money? Were there easier ways perhaps? Less risky ways? How well do the known facts fit with the explanation of them being motivated by making money?
Those seem like good questions to start with to me.
One other thing paul.
this ‘gatekeepers of knowledge’ phrasing isn’t particularly helpful I think, in keeping the conversation clear.
Are you suggesting there is another conspiracy to keep the relevant knowledge from us?
Or is this a part of the same conspiracy theory, that is needed to account for the failure to come up with an alternate theory?
I’m asking if this is what you mean, because it’s not clear, I’m not suggesting that is what you mean. Nor am I using conspiracy in any negative sense.
just seeing the limits of your “scepticism”.
And what PB said as to the rest.
“And alternative theories tend to be demonstrably false, extremely tenuous, posited by nutbars, apparently invented for financial gain, and/or significantly more implausible than the generally accepted version.”
You claimed reasons why people might support alternative conspiracy theories.
I simply posited that there might be financial reasons for people behind the official story.
I repeat . No conclusive evidence has been put in favour of any story.
That’s why many independent people want a proper inquiry. Not the farce that occurred in 2004.
Yes, I did.
The evidence put forward has been beyond reasonable doubt, not beyond all doubt.
If one requires all reasonable doubts to be exhausted before one draws a conclusion, this is only logical in an imperfect world.
If one requires all unreasonable doubts to be exhausted before one draws a conclusion, then one ‘s stated reasoning is questionable.
If someone hasn’t seen enough evidence to reach a conclusion regarding 9/11, despite everything gathered since (not just 2004), then their reasoning is questionable: either they have closed their eyes for 12 years, or they have no idea that some sources of information are less reliable than others,or their faculty of reason is faulty, or they are being purposefully misleading (the most common reason in society to mislead strangers is to gain profit).
You know, I’ve never been moderated either here or at TDB and I don’t think anyone will ever call me a sycophant – even you RWNJs. Perhaps the problem is that those who do get moderated are just too bloody stupid to be able to put together a well reasoned argument.
True – even I’ve managed to avoid a ban, and I’m a fucking arrogant dickhead who uses rude words and likes to play with hypocritical nutbars. But a few folk don’t seem to get the message when the TERSE BOLD MESSAGES SUDDENLY APPEAR 🙂
[lprent: Sometimes not so terse. I’ve looked at a few of your comments for the pointless abuse behaviour criteria. But on investigating the context decided that the points had already been made. ]
“the quality of mercy is not strain’d, it droppeth as the gentle rain from heav’n upon the place beneath” 🙂
This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died yet whoever feeds on this bread will live forever :
Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
John 6:58
1 Cor. 5:8
Very wise.
Bomber is an extremely dishonest person who serves a great dishonor to the left-wing. Running a blog wherein critical comments are deleted from moderation because they disagree with the party line is somewhat intellectually dishonest coming from a person like Bomber who outwardly champions the freedom of speech…as long as he agrees of course.
And all that bullshit he spun about being hacked by the government. What a fucking crock. Those nice chaps at The Egonomist had a field day with it.
Lots of assertion there TC.
Outwardly, sure – lots of assertion. But I’ll let my comment stand.
Make of it what you will.
Yeah I have given up replying, or anything there, and I am still in Moderation, and I signed up the day after it went on line, from memory.
I wouldn’t take it personally, I’ve made a few comments there and think everybody’s comment goes into moderation prior to being released. There’s no way to have a quick debate there, so I just read and leave mostly.
What makes it worse is that there appears to be no easy way to search for comments, so if you go back a day or two later you have to manually search through the dog’s breakfast that is the front page, assuming you remember the name of the post you commented on.
Yep, it’s a bloody horrible site to navigate through which is why I don’t go there much.
a bit though…(we see, secret squirrel).
Talking of the Daily Blog, Chris Trotter has an interesting piece there today on the proposed TPPA, Chris in a bit of a ‘lest we forget’ vein exhorts those of us on the left, when we are considering the ramifications of that free trade agreement to remember that ”wealth has to be first created befor that wealth can be redistributed”,
Excuse me Chris, but, What the F**k???, what redistribution of wealth is it that you talk of, all that redistribution of said wealth that has occurred after each act of ‘trade freedom’ that has occurred in the past 40 years perhaps???,
i personally do not see where it is us from ‘the left’ who have forgotten anything here thank you very much Chris Trotter,
Here’s a shortlist of the ‘redistribution of wealth’ so far gained from all this ‘free trade’, 300,000 low waged workers being employed for less than the living wage, another 300,000 workers confined to ‘rotational employment’ having to rely upon welfare benefits as their income as much as they can rely on a wage packet,
The price of dairy products, as the Global demand and therefor prices have increased the cost to those above who obviously have not shared in the miracle of ‘wealth redistribution’ to a point that these are now luxury items off the weekly shopping list as much as they are on it,
And you advocate more of the same Chris Trotter???…
then why dont we just legalise class A drugs and tax the crap out of them?
Surely you mean. The Class C ones like Pot. Not the A class like P and Heroin ?
How about we legalize them and not tax the crap out of them?
Just a thought.
Last day for postal voting apparently (for mail to get delivered by 12pm Sat), according to the GP. Although my papers say to post on Weds at the latest.
I have been told libraries will have ballot boxes Wed to Fri of this week.
on the topic of TDB;
“our own Prisons ”
-a compassionate article.
“More!, you want more?”
a not so compassionate article follows
Kim Campbell is chief executive of the Employers and Manufacturers Association
What do you expect him to say?
He’s representing his mates.
Paying people more might mean his mates less profits.
Less international holidays, deluxe cars…..
The 1%, eh?
be fair, they dont mind paying CEO’s more in hard times and good.
Translation: Kim Campbell tells us that the present subsidy to the rich is fine and that we should all stop whinging.
And the Herald’s editors give him a platform to publicise his vile opinions to a large audience.
I wonder who pays them to give the elite’s perspective so much hearing?
Their owners.
Where do you stand on the political spectrum? Michael Marien came up with a table of named ideological positions in 1970 which has been updated in this link. The way that people can sort themselves under different definitions or labels is shown in in an amusing and artful way.
http://upgradeparty.com/public-policy-proposers/
I think I might be classified here as a Romantic Ecologist. Everyone take a look and laugh and ponder!
also an RE, yet not Romantic 😉
Do people still read Heinlen and not choke on the extreme sexism? Not sure why such people should be given the role of future upgrader.
Like grokking to A Stranger. 😀
😀
Yes I still read Heinlan and EE Doc Smith, John Wyndham and Harry Harrison of the very very sexist Stainless Steel Rat fame. But one of the best Sci Fi books I ever read was Joe Haldemans The Forever War. But for some more modern Writers, and sexism is now out the window. Corey Doctorow short stories are good Like “When sysadmins ruled the world, And I robot. But for a book that I have read 3 times so far, and I am still enjoying re-reading it, is Accelerando by Charles Stross.
I haven’t read Wyndham in a long time either, that might be worth a look. I read Doctorow’s Little Brother and thoroughly enjoyed it. Funnily enough I got my first wave and pay eftpost card in the mail today (gee thanks ANZ).
Robert Heinlein. I hadn’t heard of him, did quite a lot of things including science fiction. If he said something sexist he was a child of his time I think, born in 1907.
Within the framework of his science fiction stories, Heinlein repeatedly addressed certain social themes: the importance of individual liberty and self-reliance, the obligation individuals owe to their societies, the influence of organized religion on culture and government, and the tendency of society to repress nonconformist thought. He also speculated on the influence of space travel on human cultural practices.
I would rate Heinlein in the top five (fiction) authors who influenced me in my late teens. Great story telling. And yes the sexism was of his time, although there are other writers of his generation whose work has stood the test of time better. I was disappointed to find I can’t read him now. Maybe I’ll try again when I am older.
Well, found the Pete & Pete Party:
DTB Heh heh.
DTB
Also suitable for The Coiffure.
The original table by Michael Marien had more listings (some regarded as dated) with one called – Primitive Populist with a view of concerns as Domination by pointy-headed pseudo-intellectuals. Proposals were Throw briefcases in [Wellington Harbour] Potomac, and restore common sense.
Has anyone else had long waits to get onto The Standard? This time I went through google as otherwise I couldn’t get connection. Also I again have the annoyance of having things underlined and colours heightened and the edit box partly hidden. Something, some other site, whatever seems to set this off. So have to find how to reset the page from my helper.
Now and then, but have had regularly on the Daily Blog. GCSB/NSA login?
Haven’t had any CPU or database spikes since whatever caused last nights outage went through…
Yeah – but I always think its because I’m overloading the computer too quickly and after a while give up …… go and make dinner or do something useful (clean the bathroom) and by the time I get back to it, its unplugged itself !
Notice popping up in the system
Akismet is our offshore anti-spam checker at wordpress.com. I’ll clear them manually until it clears
Thanks for fix Lynn. And that comment from Northshore guy sounds worthy of action. Keep well. I’m planning to go on my one hundredth planned diet. If I actually do follow it, his will give me passing grades in Diet 101.
Looks like Maryan Street had a big dose of common sense.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2448611/Blind-Dutch-woman-euthanised-loss-sight.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/venezuela/10359267/As-socialist-dream-crumbles-Venezuelans-find-Nicolas-Maduro-a-bad-copy-of-Chavez.html
– Can’t even run a country rich in oil…bad omens for NZ
“…bad omens for NZ”
Wow that’s news worth reporting, had no idea Nicolas Maduro intends to run for office in NZ.
You are getting desperate Pukey.
You need to research the stories you upload, rather than simply repeat what you hear.
You need to think critically.
First up, the Daily Torygraph is hardly a unbiased viewer or source on the matter.
I wonder whether the ‘many Venezuelans’ mentioned are the very wealthy ones who own Venezuela’s media?
One name stands out. Michael Shifter
From Wikipedia.
Michael Shifter is President of the Inter-American Dialogue and an Adjunct Professor of Latin American Studies at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.[1] He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations[1] and writes for the Council’s journal Foreign Affairs.[2] He is also a member of the Latin American Studies Association(LASA), and a contributing editor to Current History.[1]
The Daily Council on Foreign Relationsis hardly a unbiased viewer or source on the matter.
If you look at the article you will notice this :
Related Articles
Venezuela expels top US diplomat 30 Sep 2013
I wonder if Uncle Sam has been fomenting unrest?
Now for KK’s education, that is a conspiracy theory.
“A conspiracy theory is an explanatory proposition that accuses two or more people, a group, or an organization of having caused or covered up, through deliberate collusion, an event or phenomenon of great social, political, or economic impact.”
” I wonder if Uncle Sam has been fomenting unrest? ” Wouldn’t be surprised, Paul.
Its happened before – Nicaragua, Chile etc etc
It has happened everywhere south of the Rio Grande, and still is in much of Latin America. Both the US and Canada have been caught recently spying on Brazil, which possibly means we are as well. After the independent place we began to take in the world, we have gone a long way backwards under Shonkey.
Bob Jones’ Remedy for the “welfare-dependent underclass” : Books
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/education/news/article.cfm?c_id=35&objectid=11136373
(even second-hand ones would probably do the trick peasants).
http://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/crown-accounts-show-surplus-within-reach
– Well done Bill English, I doubt Labour could have done better
“Higher tax revenue and lower than forecast core Crown expenses helped to more than halve the Government’s operating deficit before gains and losses to $4.4 billion in the year to 30 June 2013, compared with a $9.2 billion deficit the previous year.”
So losing $4.4 billion in a year is good, pr?
“Treasury’s Budget 2013 forecasts show net core Crown debt is expected to increase from $10.3 billion in June 2008 to over $70 billion by June 2017.”
And blowing out the government debt to $70 billion an example you would give of fine financial management?
Why do you doubt Labour could have done better? The only time Labour’s maintained government accounts and the economy worse than national was under the ACT government 1984-1990.
Wow – off by 200% in a six month forecast?
Fire Treasury.
Labour lack the discipline and have lacked it for a number of years whereas National have had stability
That’s the mantra of the choir. Shame it’s utter bullshit – national simply loot the government finances for their mates, stagnating the economy on the way. The “stability” of the cemetery.
No answer to 16.1, puckish?
nah, never.
The best you’ll get is when he manages to hit the “reply” button before dropping another slogan. He’s the tory equivalent of the stereotypical Maoist cadre-leader who only screams aphorisms from the little red book.
Except I have a productive job…unlike most of the Mana and Green supporters 🙂
You produce nothing.
All of the Green supporters I know have productive jobs or are toiling their way through academia.
While I haven’t met nearly as many Mana supporters, those that I have met usually have productive jobs as well.
In my experience and speaking in general, the party with the parasites supporting it is National. They may have jobs, but many are highly unproductive jobs..
I’m a Mana supporter with a productive job.
You “can’t answer every post” but have time for cheap shots like this?
@ Puckish Rogue….a productive job in right wing PR?
Sorry I can’t answer every post (have to fit it in around work) but yes National made the best of a bad situation, had Labour been in then the policies of Clark, sorry I meant Goff, no dammit I meant Shearer, oops a daisy I mean Cunliffe would have meant NZ in worse position then it is now
So well done John Key, Bill English and (most but not all of) the cabinet for making the decisions that needed to be made
I, for one, am amazed that the enormous magnitude of your lies in a comment that small did not create a terminal critical mass of highly dense bullshit and thereby tear a singularity of logical failure in the fabric of the universe, sucking us all into a parallel dimension of surreality, where the laws of nature are fish sticks.
.
presactly
PR
And why PR? Isn’t that set of initials a dead give away. The stuff he has been quoting sounds as if it’s culled from Key’s newsletter that I might look at if he has funny icons through it and underneath.
The interesting question into 2014 for Cunliffe’s team is what angles they will have to attack National on either in economic management (if the economy keeps stuttering upwards even with 7% uinemployed) or in fiscal management (if they ever get to break even on the public accounts).
If I were briefing Cunliffe it would be simply remainind people of the Clark years: massive term-on-term sustained economic boom, running huge government surpluses to be spent on curing social ills (until the last year alone).
Whereas the Nats, well, pick any Nat term in the last 40 years: can’t get either economic growth or prudent fiscal management in any term you can name.
Post- Script
And now Johnnie can give back the $500,000 he has trousered out of the tax cuts and demand his mates do the same. That will help pay back the debt the Nacts have mismanaged us into.
great, soon we can use the 75m surplus to paydown the 79bn they have run up by the time we are in surplus.
This is like saying
“look, I have $5 in my bank account, havent I done well.” when your mortgage is $1.2m
Is John Tamihere as toxic a brand in Auckland as Mallard is in Wellington?
“I annoyed people in the beltway of the Labour Party – the rainbows, the women that don’t shave their legs and a few others”.
“A few others” is an understatement, it includes anyone with hair and anyone who shaves hair.
With Shearer gone this gutless blokey posturing is gone too.
He’s welcome to NZFirst if he wants. I could easily see him as Winston’s successor.
So you think that losing $4.4 billion in a year is good and blowing out the government debt to $70 billion is an example you would give of fine financial management.
Unbelievable.
Talk about an ideological and doctrinaire approach!
it is, because Puck doesnt think for himself, he relies on Blinglish’s spin of facts. he finds life is easier and he can walk around with a smile on his face, even if it is a bit Gomer pyle.
Been reading this book:
It’s interesting how she manages to shoot down the entire myth of the innovation of the free market in almost all aspects. The simple reality is that capitalists don’t do risk or uncertainty – they do sure things. The reality is that it’s the governments of the world that fund and support the risky stuff of innovation – the private sector comes in after and takes all the laurels and profit for itself without doing any of the real work.
“The simple reality is that capitalists don’t do risk or uncertainty – they do sure things.”
What bullshit. The entire market is a fucking gamble and you have said so yourself.
@ The Contrarian,
The entire market is a fucking gamble and you have said so yourself.
Not when there are bailouts. The market becomes a very sure thing for those considered too big to fail.
The market would be a gamble if the government didn’t backstop it for their selected heroes. Underlying the entire neo-liberal era are policies that reward the rich for being rich and ensure that if anything does happen that might endanger those riches then protections are in place to prevent that loss.
Besides, I live and learn. Something that economists and RWNJs don’t seem capable of.
Oh. This is scary stuff. Research in brain manipulation being explored by/for military and security interests.
Could it be used to stop politicians from lying?
The brain is miraculous, and such research could be used to help people with disabilities or brain damage.
Make people more compliant with authority? Worrying.
Want scary?
Was reading an article a few weeks back where they’d managed to alter the memories of a mouse.
That is scary. Science fiction often goes there first. Replicant or human?
Well – you did ask.
MIT scientist John Romanishin has done what some said couldn’t be done: He has created a mini-cube robot that has no external moving parts yet can move, climb, leap, and — most importantly — work together with its fellows to create larger shapes.
http://bigthink.com/ideafeed/the-swarmbots-have-arrived?
We already have nano-bots, they’re called “bacteria” 😛 Probably what we’ll end up seeing is modified cell lines that have added in man-made metabolic systems that allow them to do all sorts of interesting chemistry.
Pretty neat work though.
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/simple-scheme-for-self-assembling-robots-1004.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aZbJS6LZbs
Please tell me that this is all romancing? I do not want to know this!!
Yoink: http://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm
Check the notes section. Also in that particular ‘verse the military have long had a means of turning off empathy and other “problematic” bits of the human mind, to create the perfect solider, aka zombies.
But yeah, everything you are is mostly in your head and it turns out organic minds are prone to being hackable via all sorts of stuff. From diet to drugs, to strong magnetic fields, to pathogens and parasites that alter behaviour in very specific ways. Even altering social systems can shift a persons behaviour (see Rule 34, by Charles Stross). So it should come as no surprise that the military will take these things and see if they cannot craft a “better” solider, even if that means creating monsters…
The pilots in WW2 or a bit after, probably in one of those other little wars you know, last century, were given LSD because it enabled them to keep going longer so they could fly longer distances and return apparently safely. Don’t know whether they lived to a happy old age, but does any sentient being since we got civilised?
FYI
Is Rodney Councillor Penny Webster’s company’s contract with CCO Watercare a ‘conflict of interest’?
Does the Local Authorities (Members’ Interests) Act 1968 URGENTLY need updating?
______________________________________________________________________________
http://www.pennybright4mayor.org.nz/is-rodney-councillor-penny-websters-companys-contract-with-cco-watercare-a-conflict-of-interest/
8 October 2013
Is Rodney Councillor Penny Webster’s company’s contract with Auckland Council Controlled Organisation (CCO) Watercare a ‘conflict of interest’?
Should Rodney Councillor Penny Webster be disqualified from standing again, under the Local Authorities (Members’ Interests) Act 1968, because she and her husband have entered into transactions with the Auckland Council Group, totalling $32,189 during 2012, for services provided by their jointly-owned private company, All Rural Fencing Limited ?
http://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/EN/planspoliciesprojects/reports/annual_report/Documents/annualreport20122013volume3.pdf (Pg 80 ) ]
___________________________________________________________
All Rural Fencing Limited (NZ Companies Office)
http://www.business.govt.nz/companies/app/ui/pages/companies/1512665/directors
___________________________________________________________
The relevant LAW is the Local Authorities (Members’ Interests) Act 1968:
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1968/0147/latest/DLM390003.html#DLM390021
Disqualifying contracts between local authorities and their members
(1) Except as provided in subsection (3), no person shall be capable of being elected as or appointed to be or of being a member of a local authority or of any committee of a local authority, if the total of all payments made or to be made by or on behalf of the local authority in respect of all contracts made by it in which that person is concerned or interested exceeds $25,000 in any financial year.
________________________________________________________
I made an inquiry to the Office of the Auditor-General (OAG) – who have the sole responsibility for administering the Local Authorities (Members’ Interests) Act 1968.
This is the reply from OAG Senior Solicitor Belinda Rynhart:
“The prohibition on contracting between local authorities and their members (section 3 of the Local Authorities (Members’ Interests) Act 1968) does not apply to contracts with council-controlled organisations. ”
Belinda Rynhart
Date: Tue, Oct 8, 2013 at 2:01 PM
Dear Penny
I am writing in response to your phone query to us on Friday 4 October. You are concerned about Auckland Council councillor Penny Webster’s husband providing services to the Auckland Council.
This issue was first raised with us at the beginning of the election period. Our preliminary inquiries revealed that in the financial year 2012-2013 All Rural Fencing Limited (Penny’s husband’s company) did not contract with Auckland Council.
All Rural Fencing did however contract to deliver services to one of the Council’s subsidiaries -Watercare Services Limited.
The prohibition on contracting between local authorities and their members (section 3 of the Local Authorities (Members’ Interests) Act 1968) does not apply to contracts with council-controlled organisations.
This means that All Rural Fencing’s contracts with Watercare Services do not cause Penny Webster to be disqualified from being a member of the Council. She did not need to seek the approval of the Auditor-General to be interested in the contracts, and no breach of the Local Authorities (Members’ Interests’) Act has occurred.
Yours sincerely
Belinda Rynhart
Senior Solicitor
Office of the Auditor-General Te Mana Arotake
100 Molesworth Street, Thorndon
PO Box 3928, Wellington 6140
_______________________________________________________
In my considered opinion, it is absolutely unacceptable for elected members (or their families) to contract for any form of Council services, whether provided directly by Council, or ‘indirectly’ by Council-Controlled-Organisations (CCOs).
As an ‘anti-corruption /anti-privatisation’ Public Watchdog, I am ‘blowing the whistle’ long and hard on this issue, in order to help achieve a very long-overdue law change to this very outdated piece of legislation.
The Auckland Council ‘Code of Conduct’ states:
“5.3. Public Interest
Members have a duty to make decisions in the public interest. They must not act in order to gain financial or other benefits for themselves, their families, friends or business interests. “
http://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/SiteCollectionDocuments/aboutcouncil/governingbody/codeofconductelectedmembers.pdf
OAG Senior Solicitor Belinda Rynhart told me that the OAG agreed that the Local Authorities (Members’ Interests) Act 1968, was out-of-date, but getting a law change was the responsibility of the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA).
Given that the OAG, not the DIA has administrative responsibility for the Local Authorities (Members’ Interests) Act 1968, I have sent the following ‘Open Letter / OIA request to the CEO of the DIA:
MAYORAL CAMPAIGN 2013 OPEN LETTER TO THE CEO OF THE DIA re OAG requested law changes to the Local Authorities Members Interests Act 1968
What is the public ’perception’, when an Auckland Councillor, Penny Webster (former Chair of the Auckland Council Strategy and Finance Committee), calls on citizens and ratepayers to provide a free service by mowing Auckland Council-owned grass berms, while she and her husband get paid for services provided by their privately-owned company – All Rural Fencing Services Ltd?
______________________________________________
“Rodney councillor Penny Webster says that at a time when household budgets are tight, the council cannot afford the $12 million to $15 million cost of mowing berms for the whole region.
“It’s not fair that one area gets berm mowing, while other areas mow their own,” said Mrs Webster, a former Act MP. “The council had to make things even without increasing rates even more.”
She was disappointed with local body election candidates from the AucklandCity area who were complaining about something the rest of the region did without fuss.
The council voted to save $3 million by not cutting grass berms in the old AucklandCity area from July.
Waitemata councillor Mike Lee said Mrs Webster’s comments were “exactly the outer suburban small-mindedness and parochialism” he had to deal with in his days at the Auckland Regional Council, and which the Super City was meant to stop. ….. ..”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11133160
How is this not blinding hypocrisy from Rodney Councillor Penny Webster?
In my considered opinion, as an ‘anti-corruption’ Public Watchdog, Rodney Councillor Penny Webster is NOT ‘fit for duty’, and if I were a Rodney voter, I most certainly would not be voting for her.
I look forward to the turning of this ’bad thing into a good thing,’ and the ensuing public ‘fuss’, over this Rodney Councillor Penny Webster ‘conflict of interest’, helping to achieve a prompt updating of the Local Authorities (Members’ Interests) Act 1968.
Penny Bright
2013 Auckland Mayoral candidate