Author Archive
Sustainable living resources
Written By: - Date published: 7:47 am, December 21st, 2009 - 33 comments
I’m trying not to get too depressed about the lack of an outcome at Copenhagen. As one analyst put it – “Leaders came to Copenhagen to rewrite history and left having made a few notes in the margin”. Not good enough. However, with or without a formal agreement, it was always going to come down […]
Failing the future
Written By: - Date published: 9:41 am, December 20th, 2009 - 99 comments
So Copenhagen has ended in failure. I’m not surprised, but I am disappointed. As The Guardian reports: Low targets, goals dropped: Copenhagen ends in failure Deal thrashed out at talks condemned as climate change scepticism in action The UN climate summit reached a weak outline of a global agreement in Copenhagen tonight, falling far short […]
Tilly the Cat’s Christmas Lesson
Written By: - Date published: 3:30 pm, December 19th, 2009 - 3 comments
Not related to anything in particular, Peter Giddens has written a sweet little Christmas story that I thought it would be fun to share: Tilly the Cat’s Christmas Lesson . . . Tilly was a very bossy cat. She was in charge of the whole house, or so she thought. The people in the house […]
More jobs for the old “boys”
Written By: - Date published: 1:01 pm, December 19th, 2009 - 17 comments
Back at the start of the month Marty G pointed out that Brash’s useless 2025 Taskforce looked like nothing so much as a pension scheme for retired Tory old boys. Marty wrote: No more jobs for Nats’ old mates So far, we’ve paid $400,000 to employ some rightwing old boys for a crap report that […]
Government barely survives first year
Written By: - Date published: 10:22 am, December 19th, 2009 - 39 comments
Audrey Young finally gets around to mentioning how close the government came to imploding last month: Rodney Hide survived moves to oust him as Act Party leader last month after Prime Minister John Key privately indicated National’s deal with Act would be off if the minister were dumped. And it is believed that at the […]
A knife edge and an open letter
Written By: - Date published: 8:37 am, December 19th, 2009 - 5 comments
As the final stages of diplomatic chaos play out in Copenhagen, and with at least the possibility of some truly significant goals emerging, the world is teetering on a knife edge this morning. I hope that Obama has had plenty of time to think about this letter – reposted from SignOn: Kumi Naidoo, Executive Director […]
Words and deeds
Written By: - Date published: 3:02 pm, December 18th, 2009 - 18 comments
Words: Prime Minister John Key has urged the world’s major economies to listen to the voices of vulnerable nations facing climate change. .. The current system of limited participation under the Kyoto Protocol had to be moved to one of “comprehensive global coverage”, he said. “For this to be achieved we need international commitments from […]
Copenhagen violence
Written By: - Date published: 7:39 am, December 18th, 2009 - 67 comments
Photograph: Christian Charisius/Reuters Earlier in the year there was a lot of media attention on the police tactics at the G20 Summit in London. How depressing to see the same heavy handed approach being deployed in Copenhagen. A reported 100,000 protesters marched in a mostly peaceful event last Saturday, and further marches and events followed […]
The Climate Scoreboard
Written By: - Date published: 11:02 am, December 17th, 2009 - 41 comments
More details here.
The stamp of democracy
Written By: - Date published: 7:01 am, December 17th, 2009 - 120 comments
Another disgraceful Herald editorial recently: Teachers must learn to obey Govt’s orders Three years ago, when the National Party announced its plan to make all primary schools test pupils’ ability in reading, writing and mathematics, teachers were scornful. … The union, in league with the Principals Federation, says the standards are being rushed … Mrs […]
Worth 1000 words
Written By: - Date published: 10:25 am, December 16th, 2009 - 72 comments
Cartoon by Nick Anderson.
Scientific conspiracy on a global scale
Written By: - Date published: 1:54 pm, December 15th, 2009 - 40 comments
In a recent post my good friend and fellow concern troll DPF covered the Associated Press review of the leaked “climategate” materials. The review concluded that the science of global warming was genuine. But DPF had some concerns: “My worry is that there is now a mindset where only data that fits the thesis is […]
Govt stimulus creates 2300 jobs
Written By: - Date published: 9:45 am, December 14th, 2009 - 8 comments
“Govt stimulus creates 2300 jobs” reads the headline! It’s a bit misleading though. A more accurate headline would have been – “Labour Govt stimulus creates 2300 jobs”. How’s that, I hear you cry? Follow the money: The Government estimates its economic stimulus package has created about 2300 jobs through increased infrastructure spending of more than […]
Deserted cities
Written By: - Date published: 8:50 am, December 13th, 2009 - 39 comments
I think it is a pity that the currently dominant country / culture in the world, America, has had such a short history. Pakeha history in New Zealand suffers from the same limitation. All of our history has been about expansion and growth. “Progress”. It seems to us to be the natural state of affairs. […]
Dual obligations
Written By: - Date published: 8:24 am, December 12th, 2009 - 19 comments
The more I ponder the scrapping of the TVNZ charter the dafter it seems. There are obvious downsides. What is the upside? What possible reason could there be to further weaken the already vestigial representation of our own culture on our main free to air TV channel? The only reason I’ve seen given is “dual […]
Deniers are traitors
Written By: - Date published: 2:31 pm, December 11th, 2009 - 116 comments
Strongly worded piece by Chris Trotter this morning: In the war for nature, the deniers are traitors … The question of why war, alone of all our endeavours, possesses the power to inspire such tremendous collective exertions and unstinting sacrifices by human communities is not a new one. Ninety-three years ago, the American scholar William […]
Kill your television
Written By: - Date published: 2:02 pm, December 10th, 2009 - 19 comments
So the Nats have decided to kill public service television broadcasting: TVNZ’s charter is to be repealed in a move commentators say will end its public broadcaster role and turn it into a “cash cow” for the Government. Broadcasting Minister Jonathan Coleman introduced a bill yesterday to repeal the charter, which was created by Labour […]
Yes he can
Written By: - Date published: 10:45 am, December 9th, 2009 - 15 comments
In America the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has just ruled that greenhouse gases “threaten the public health and welfare of the American people”, and that they are pollutants that can be regulated under the Clean Air Act. Ho hum, so what? Quite the opposite. It isn’t clearly spelled out in much of the media coverage, […]
Palin supporters
Written By: - Date published: 10:53 am, December 7th, 2009 - 24 comments
Sarah Palin supporters, in their own words. Ok, it’s a cheap shot – I’m pretty sure you could eventually compile similar inane footage from the supporters almost any major political figure or party. But hey – never let it be said that I’m above cheap shots when it comes to Sarah Palin. Plus, it’s funny. […]
Give a goat for Christmas
Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, December 6th, 2009 - 4 comments
Got too much stuff? Know people with too much stuff? Do something different for your friends and family this Christmas. Instead of giving them a gift, give a gift in their name. Give a goat. Or a water pump. Or a pair of sandals. Or medical help. Or any one of a huge range of […]
O Canada
Written By: - Date published: 2:02 pm, December 5th, 2009 - 18 comments
Depressing reading in this piece by George Monbiot on Canada: So here I am, watching the astonishing spectacle of a beautiful, cultured nation turning itself into a corrupt petro-state. Canada is slipping down the development ladder, retreating from a complex, diverse economy towards dependence on a single primary resource, which happens to be the dirtiest […]
Planet A – Saturday!
Written By: - Date published: 6:08 am, December 4th, 2009 - 16 comments
Tomorrow Saturday it’s the Planet A Concert and March (the concert to be webcast live): In Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, you’ll be able to march, dance, listen to speakers, sing, and jump on bouncy castles in support of a good outcome in Copenhagen. From a massive free public concert in Auckland featuring top NZ bands […]
Key of the seven veils
Written By: - Date published: 8:48 am, December 3rd, 2009 - 59 comments
Here’s a wee gripe in the morning. John Key. Did you ever see such a prima donna? Headline on Newsroom this morning: “Key And Copenhagen – Prime Minister John Key is preparing to relent on his refusal to attend the world climate change conference in Copenhagen”. In The Herald: “Key books flight to Copenhagen – […]
Obama – war president
Written By: - Date published: 7:03 am, December 3rd, 2009 - 41 comments
Well, any lingering hopes that Obama was something different can now be out of their misery. He’s just another American establishment politician after all. Drawing on the rhetoric of 9/11 Obama has committed to an escalation in Afghanistan: WASHINGTON – President Obama unveiled his plan Tuesday night to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, declaring […]
What works?
Written By: - Date published: 11:29 am, December 2nd, 2009 - 49 comments
As the dust settles on the cynical theatre that was the 2025 Taskforce, one fact is becoming abundantly clear. The political Right haven’t a clue what to do about the economy. Key and English don’t have a clue, or they’d be doing it. Brash and his Taskforce don’t have a clue and they said so: […]
Undoing the trouser button
Written By: - Date published: 12:28 pm, December 1st, 2009 - 9 comments
Recall that last week Speaker Lockwood Smith tried to heavy the press, demanding that they stop doing stories on MP’s expenses or he would do away with the Press Gallery. I suspected at the time that this was a tactical blunder, any hack worth their salt should take that as fighting talk! And it may […]
Planet A – Concert & March
Written By: - Date published: 7:02 am, November 30th, 2009 - 73 comments
Mark your calendar, and turn out next Saturday for the Planet A Concert and March (the concert to be webcast live): In Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, you’ll be able to march, dance, listen to speakers, sing, and jump on bouncy castles in support of a good outcome in Copenhagen. From a massive free public concert in Auckland […]
Fry on blogs
Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, November 29th, 2009 - 14 comments
The delectable Mr Stephen Fry doesn’t like the people who comment on blogs, and says so in his usual forthright, erudite and whimsical way: “I don’t know about you but whenever I read a blog I do not let my eye drop below half the screen in case I accidentally hit the bit where the […]
Wee gripes: Another Tolley lie
Written By: - Date published: 11:29 pm, November 28th, 2009 - 10 comments
Minister of Education Anne Tolley is obviously feeling the heat of the reaction to her inexplicably daft decision to read a moralising children’s story book* to the PPTA Executive. Minister defends reading kid’s book to PPTA …The council says it was left somewhat bemused and feeling patronised that the minister chose to read to them […]
Lockwood threatens the press
Written By: - Date published: 10:03 am, November 28th, 2009 - 19 comments
Lockwood Smith seems to be losing the plot. He’s now issuing open threats to the Press Gallery of all things: Parliament’s Speaker, Lockwood Smith, has warned the media that the coverage of MPs’ expenses borders on lobbying, and if it continues he will treat journalists as lobbyists. … If the newspapers do want to have […]
The evidence on warming
Written By: - Date published: 9:29 am, November 27th, 2009 - 94 comments
Much ado about nothing in the last few days, with the release of materials related to climate change and warming on both the international and local scales. First the international event – “Climategate” (sigh) – the now well known theft and publication of data from the University of East Anglia’s world renowned Climate Research Unit. […]
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