books

Categories under books

  • No categories

Sturgeon, like Ardern, a casualty of online abuse

Written By: - Date published: 7:25 am, February 21st, 2023 - 65 comments

Nicola Sturgeon’s shock resignation as Scotland’s First Minister was something of a replay of Jacinda Ardern’s resignation. While subject to widespread abuse, both were reluctant to cite this as their main reason for quitting. But the abuse undoubtedly played a major role. But the misogynist trend is endemic and needs to be quelled.

The future of Capitalism

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, December 23rd, 2019 - 128 comments

2019 has been a remarkable year for those wanting social, economic, and environmental renewal. The level of protest remains high, the idealism as strong as ever, but the ferment is not generating progressive wins, is weakening democratic reflexiveness to challenge, and is weakening pan-national institutions. It’s not that easy to get on the shelves here, […]

Taking out the trash – Whaleoil site sold to Blomfield

Written By: - Date published: 2:29 pm, August 9th, 2019 - 67 comments

Matt Blomfield has brought the Whaleoil site from the official assignee. This fulfills a long held wish of, not only Matt, but a whole pile of people that this arsehole-run paid-for defamation lying site have damaged over the years. Chapter 27 of the Margie Thompson’s Whale Oil book is now available online…

Happy Birthday Ursula Le Guin

Written By: - Date published: 2:37 pm, October 22nd, 2017 - 15 comments

An unsung hero of the civilised burn.

What are our SAS up to? An easy to digest guide!

Written By: - Date published: 2:18 pm, August 15th, 2017 - 8 comments

A short video looking at the major issues in the Hager/Stephenson book ‘Hit and Run’

Hit and Run – time for an inquiry

Written By: - Date published: 10:37 am, March 22nd, 2017 - 21 comments

Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson’s book Hit and Run makes a compelling case for the Government to conduct a full inquiry to see if New Zealand forces were complicit in the killing of innocent men and women and if there was a cover up.

Lefty book reviews: Don’t Buy It

Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, August 7th, 2016 - 98 comments

Cross-posted from Boots Theory. Where to start with Anat Shenker-Osorio’s Don’t Buy It: The Trouble With Talking Nonsense About The Economy? This review seems redundant, because literally every person I’ve encountered in the past year has been subjected to my near-evangelist recommendation of it. I don’t know every lefty in New Zealand (despite what Matthew […]

Those who would censor

Written By: - Date published: 10:12 am, September 8th, 2015 - 106 comments

NZ’s first book banning in over 20 years. Another own goal from “Family First”.

Imperator Fish: A clarification

Written By: - Date published: 3:50 pm, January 28th, 2015 - 31 comments

Sexist right-wingers are lining up to abuse Eleanor Catton for speaking her mind. The odious Sean Plunket is the worst, calling Catton a “hua” (sounds like and sometimes defined as “whore”). Imperator Fish responds

Eleanor Catton on NZ

Written By: - Date published: 5:17 pm, January 27th, 2015 - 212 comments

Award winning author Eleanor Catton has expressed her disappointment and anger with politics in general and the government in particular.

Bill Gates on Piketty and inequality

Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, December 26th, 2014 - 64 comments

Thomas Piketty in his book Capital in the Twenty-First Century came to the strong conclusion that capitalism left by itself will increase inequality and cause increased risk of social, economic and democratic upheaval.  He has an unlikely supporter, albeit critical, in Bill Gates, one of the richest men in the world.

‘Dirty Politics’ symposium, streaming today

Written By: - Date published: 11:34 am, September 5th, 2014 - 16 comments

The University of Otago had a symposium on Nicky Hager’s Dirty Politics book now. The event has ended but video on youtubeInterviews with Hager, speakers, panel.

Spinning the media: commericial imperatives

Written By: - Date published: 10:55 am, September 2nd, 2014 - 24 comments

The main problems with dirty media-blogger connections, as exposed by Dirty Politics lie with the commercial dominance of our news media. Mediawatch focuses on issues raised by the book. Online Standards Authority is not the answer.

The Hager Book – National fights back

Written By: - Date published: 12:07 pm, August 15th, 2014 - 91 comments

Two days after Nicky Hager’s book has been released and National’s response has been interesting. They are doing everything from attacking the author to the means of obtaining the information, to saying that it is politics as usual and Labour does it too. But John Key’s recent response to TV3 looked desperate. And the veracity of what he said needs to be checked.

Dim-Post on two comparisons

Written By: - Date published: 10:14 am, May 13th, 2013 - 4 comments

Danyl at Dim-Post on the strangely muted media response to the GCSB spying legislation, the witch-hunt against NZ Power, and more. Plus – check out Danyl’s (first) book – looks like a treat in store…

Review: Fighting to Choose by Alison McCulloch

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 pm, May 8th, 2013 - 61 comments

Abortion has a long and dramatic history in NZ, but it’s not a history we talk about, or remember.  And remembering that history is vital to our continuing push for reproductive rights today.  That’s where Alison McCulloch comes in, with a new, brilliant, history of the struggle so far.

Tales from Christchurch

Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, February 23rd, 2012 - 4 comments

As a followup to the “big media” coverage of Christchurch yesterday, there are plenty of people posting on their experiences of life in the quake-ridden city. One that I follow is the blog of award winning Kiwi author Helen Lowe.

Operation 8: Deep in the Forest

Written By: - Date published: 8:46 pm, April 19th, 2011 - 15 comments

Last night walking into the film screening in Auckland I was a bit apprehensive about how it would all be put together. Fortunately my fears were unfounded and the film did justice to the complex issues involved.

Whitcoulls

Written By: - Date published: 8:19 am, February 20th, 2011 - 32 comments

Whitcoulls has been here since forever — “one of New Zealand’s most famous and enduring retail chains”.  But the chain is in big trouble, and it’s sad to watch the ongoing wreck.  Let’s hope that Whitcoulls can be saved before hundreds more workers and families in NZ lose their livelihood to the moribund economy.

A bit of culture

Written By: - Date published: 6:11 am, September 13th, 2009 - 2 comments

If you’re looking for something to do on a Sunday that’s a bit more uplifting than arguing politics, why not check out some NZ literature instead? This is brilliant: 1000 New Zealand classics released as eBooks New Zealanders can now freely download—and store in their pockets—hundreds of our most well-known books, courtesy of Victoria University’s […]

Coincidence?

Written By: - Date published: 5:00 am, May 4th, 2009 - 17 comments

Here’s the cover of Ian Wishart’s latest piece of scientifically illiterate climate change denialism, Air Con: And here’s the poster for World Fair Trade Day 2008: It seems an unlikely coincidence. [Hat tip: forgetaboutthelastone in the comments.]

Neuro-Liberalism

Written By: - Date published: 12:43 pm, June 24th, 2008 - 16 comments

George Lakoff has a new book out. You might remember him from such books as “Moral Politics” and “Don’t Think of an Elephant”. These books largely dealt with what he termed “reframing” of political metaphors – using belief structures to which voters already subscribe as supports for arguments for progressive policies. The NYT reviews his […]

The server will be getting hardware changes this evening starting at 10pm NZDT.
The site will be off line for some hours.