Author Archive
Fags bad, piss good
Written By: - Date published: 5:54 pm, April 29th, 2010 - 11 comments
Here’s a great interview by RNZ’s Kathryn Ryan with Professor Doug Sellman, Director of the National Addiction Centre, on Government’s bizarre inconsistency in raising the price of fags to discourage consumption while not raising the price of alcohol – despite its alleged interest in addressing alcohol abuse. Sellman also has some interesting things to say about […]
Copying is not theft
Written By: - Date published: 8:33 am, April 19th, 2010 - 25 comments
Here’s a catchy tune for all you pirates out there. Get your kids to sing along!
NZ hero still prisoner of the Japanese State
Written By: - Date published: 8:35 am, April 18th, 2010 - 100 comments
Pete Bethune is one of New Zealand’s heroes. He’s been a successful entrepreneur and gone on to use his wealth to fight the big guys on the grounds of principle. As skipper of the New Zealand flagged hi-tech boat Earthrace, his circumnavigation attempts showcased kiwi ingenuity to the world and demonstrated the value of bio-fuels to […]
How much is $50,000,000?
Written By: - Date published: 8:48 am, April 17th, 2010 - 94 comments
From time to time you hear mention of John Key’s personal fortune of $50M. If you say fiftymilliondollars quickly enough it doesn’t sound that much, especially in the context of politics where most budgets come in factors of millions anyway. But as a personal fortune, that amount of money needs some context to really appreciate […]
Mr Key’s exciting Washington adventure
Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, April 14th, 2010 - 19 comments
Following this masterpiece from Rabid Fire on Key’s F#ck Everybody policy, here’s a lovely summary of Mr Key’s exciting Washington adventure.
… the PM soon brightened, opening the Prime Ministerial lunchbox to show the press gallery his special lunch. “Look! Look! Bronagh’s made me special aeroplane shaped sandwiches for when I go on the aeroplane!”
Garner coy on accusations
Written By: - Date published: 11:55 am, April 11th, 2010 - 29 comments
The day after Zet’s post here on homophobic, imbalanced reporting by TV3’s Duncan Garner, Brian Edward’s wrote a scathing detailed deconstruction of Garner‘s repeatedly vicious coverage of Chris Carter. Edwards suggests Garner’s repeated attacks resemble a personal harassment campaign, a view Dim Post agrees with saying Garner’s obsession with Chris Carter has wandered into dark and […]
National’s Magnificent Seven
Written By: - Date published: 9:25 am, April 8th, 2010 - 49 comments
A while ago at a barbeque a couple of friends were discussing the “Seven Good Pairs of Hands Theory”, namely, that a good government only needs seven very good people at its core to run effectively. Indeed, more than seven can often be problematic because of competition issues, but that isn’t usually a problem in New […]
State enforced amnesia
Written By: - Date published: 10:24 am, April 6th, 2010 - 7 comments
John Key’s National government has, in its infinite wisdom, decided to subsume Archives New Zealand and the National Library within the Department of Internal Affairs. With typical ideological one-eyedness that necessitates a blithe disregard for constitutional values, the merger is likely to have some fairly dire consequences for anyone who considers it important that a […]
Camels, Eyes, Needles
Written By: - Date published: 11:38 am, March 3rd, 2010 - 24 comments
If you agree that money is power, and that power corrupts, then it follows having a lot of money may be a corrupting influence. So imagine the compounding effects of having a lot of money and being like, a Bishop, or a PM. Self-proclaimed Bishop Brian Tamaki is having a few problems at the moment […]
Boag on way, Farrar to follow?
Written By: - Date published: 10:59 am, February 20th, 2010 - 14 comments
Former National Party President Michelle Boag has been told to remove herself from the consultancy charged with selecting executive staff for the Auckland Supershity, because of her conflict of interest as an advisor to John Banks’ campaign
Newswipe
Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, February 20th, 2010 - 14 comments
If you’re not familiar with the manifold reasons why the news you get from corporate media is crap, here’s Charlie Brooker’s Newswipe. It’s funny, incisive and merciless.
It’s also a very damning indictment of the modern Fourth Estate that explodes the myths around corporations acting as watchdogs on behalf of citizens against powerful anti-democratic interests.
Clark on RNZ
Written By: - Date published: 11:40 am, February 18th, 2010 - 35 comments
Have a listen to today’s interview of Helen Clark by RNZ’s Kathryn Ryan on the UNDP and aid strategies during times of international recession. Such a pleasure to hear a PM who’s clearly completely on top of their game, who speaks with credibility, a solid grasp of English and the diction of an educated adult.
Woman’s Day pays creep to stalk Mau
Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, February 16th, 2010 - 58 comments
Tabloid trash mag Woman’s Day has being paying someone to follow Alison Mau and her family to take pictures to fuel their prurient interest in her personal life, according to a statement by Mau on TVNZ’s Breakfast. In her statement Mau pleaded for Woman’s Day Editor Sarah Henry to “call off the dogs” and the “creepy guy in […]
Mirror on a tale of two offices
Written By: - Date published: 3:00 pm, February 15th, 2010 - 5 comments
Julie Fairey at The Hand Mirror has posted a follow-up on the curious tale of how National’s Dr Jackie Blue “had told the Herald that Nathan’s job ended because of an office merger with new National MP Sam Lotu-Iiga, when actually they both still have separate offices, in different suburbs.” Joan Nathan you will recall, […]
Iwi tuaroa is Maori for spine
Written By: - Date published: 8:41 am, November 15th, 2009 - 15 comments
Throughout the mana enhancing relationship between the National and Maori parties, we haven’t yet seen a lot of give and take. Well, I guess that’s only half true – we’ve seen a lot of taking for granted by National and a lot of giving concessions by the Maori Party, but none of the other way […]
Still a trader at heart… gambling with Kiwi lives
Written By: - Date published: 1:38 pm, November 14th, 2009 - 12 comments
Here is one excellent article from Tracey Barnett in the Weekend Herald … Admit it: John Key’s most memorable moment in one year of office was seeing him on the stage of The David Letterman Show, smiling like somebody’s brother-in-law you’d forgotten you went to school with. … It’s as if we ordered a competent […]
Heads will roll!
Written By: - Date published: 11:50 am, November 12th, 2009 - 4 comments
The Government has today announced a full inquiry into all instances of politicians calling for ‘heads to roll’ following the controversy over Mr Harawira suggesting Mr Goff should be shot. Mr Key said “It’s just not good enough that people have been going around literally threatening what is in reality very violent metaphoricals in a […]
Eek! ANGRY BLACKMAN
Written By: - Date published: 3:45 pm, November 11th, 2009 - 112 comments
OK, so Hone says If I should be suspended for my language, he [Phil Goff] and his mates should be lined up against the wall and shot. Just as saying something about [blue] mofos does not mean therefore all [blues] are mofos, the comment about Goff is not an incitement nor is it meant other than […]
Equality Trust
Written By: - Date published: 2:45 pm, November 10th, 2009 - 4 comments
Fancy a link to a well laid-out repository of comparative social statistics with sound credentials, all arranged to demonstrate why inequality is bad for society? Here you go.
Rodney puts on his best chastened little boy voice
Written By: - Date published: 12:04 am, November 9th, 2009 - 28 comments
You just have to listen to this. After “solid reflection” Rodney has realized that despite being adamant for several days that he’d done no wrong, he now understands that no, he has done wrong and has already returned the cash to the government coffers. Did it last week apparently, which is a bid odd in […]
One of these things is not like the other IX
Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, November 8th, 2009 - 35 comments
One of these things is not like the other, One of these things is not quite the same… Can you guess which one is not like the other, Can you tell me before I finish the game?
The Good Oil: Blast the Right
Written By: - Date published: 11:28 am, November 7th, 2009 - 2 comments
God knows you’ll never hear this sort of stuff from the transnational corporate duopolies that are our erstwhile msm, so many thanks to one of our readers who kindly put me on to this excellent US grassroots site by Jerold Block. It’s a repository of podcasts that basically just contain countless well put counter-arguments to […]
Oh Dear. Buster Perky hits the canvass again
Written By: - Date published: 7:24 am, November 7th, 2009 - 8 comments
Hypocrisy is such a difficult tag to shake in NZ politics. After blowing $50,000 of tax payer money on a trip with his girlfriend to visit her brother and wander around Disneyland, it seems like Rodney Hide has been caught yet again pilfering public funds to help with his romantic chances, this time another $10,000 […]
Why National really hates proportional electoral systems
Written By: - Date published: 2:22 pm, November 5th, 2009 - 25 comments
These data, taken from the Elections NZ site, show election results since National’s inception up until the last First Past the Post (FPP) election in 1993. I think they show fairly clearly why National is so keen to dump our proportional electoral system in favour of FPP or its drag cousin Supplementary Member (SM), which […]
Maybe not very social, but definitely networking
Written By: - Date published: 9:12 pm, November 4th, 2009 - 13 comments
And so my nomination for the 2009 Best Named Site Award goes to a fan club for our beloved Mayor of Whanganui Mr Lhaws: Michael Laws is a complete twat Probably unduly flattering when you think about it, but hey in the overall scheme of things you’ve earned it Mick. More than 3000 members and […]
Bomber’s War on News
Written By: - Date published: 2:03 pm, November 4th, 2009 - 9 comments
If you didn’t take my last hint to keep watching this, here’s your chance to catch up. I think it’s genuinely good. It’s like TV, only true.
Ecosexploitation 350
Written By: - Date published: 11:05 am, November 1st, 2009 - 22 comments
One of the many problems facing people who want to grow popular awareness of matters ecological is that for the large part, it’s bloody depressing if you start to get the reality of it. So I imagine director Cameron Russell sold the pitch for this vid with an argument something like “we need to catch […]
Hey Righty
Written By: - Date published: 3:25 pm, October 30th, 2009 - 172 comments
One of our commenters prism asked a good question on Open Mike the other day: The honeymoon for the Nats stretches on and I’m puzzled as to why? It would be interesting to hear what actual policies and actions are perceived as so good let’s hear the examples from Nat fans, rather than generalisations. Or […]
Anyone remember this guy?
Written By: - Date published: 2:28 pm, October 29th, 2009 - 6 comments
With all the noise around Obama you don’t hear much about this guy now. He was politically naive but knowingly and willingly acted as a front for much more machiavellian minds. He came to politics with lots of money and was promoted very quickly, but he wasn’t too good at inspiring confidence by way of […]
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