the praiseworthy and the pitiful

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The difference between a terrorist and a good old boy

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:48 am, January 4th, 2016 - 76 comments

In the US of A the armed invasion of a State Building by a group determined to hold onto the building has been met with no response from the police.

The myth of drug dependancy and poverty

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 10:39 am, January 2nd, 2016 - 306 comments

New research from Morgan Foundation suggests that poverty can be alleviated by increasing incomes and that the beneficiaries will be children of poor families not vendors of alcohol and cigarettes.

Sir Lynton Crosby and Dame Paula Rebstock

Written By: Natwatch - Date published: 9:42 am, December 31st, 2015 - 106 comments

The British Conservative Government and the New Zealand National Government have both rewarded their friends with titles.

The Standard’s ten most popular blog posts of 2015

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 8:30 am, December 30th, 2015 - 10 comments

The ten most popular Standard posts of 2015 based on page views.

The media in 2015

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 12:25 pm, December 29th, 2015 - 88 comments

Some random musings on what happened in New Zealand’s media this year.

Apparently solar panels suck up all the sun’s energy and cause cancer

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:46 am, December 16th, 2015 - 59 comments

Elected representatives in Woodland North Carolina were persuaded by arguments that solar panels were sucking up all of the sun’s energy, were preventing plants from photosynthesising and were causing cancer to ban a proposed solar panel farm.

New Zealand wins fossil of the day award – again

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:52 am, December 11th, 2015 - 43 comments

For a small country New Zealand is certainly punching above its weight. It has been awarded a second fossil of the day award by the Climate Action Network.

Donald Trump does not like muslims

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 11:54 am, December 8th, 2015 - 64 comments

Donald J Trump may have reached peak craziness or peak political opportunism with his call to ban all Muslims from entering America.

Duncan Garner and the great Christmas beatup

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 12:56 pm, November 30th, 2015 - 114 comments

In which Duncan Garner goes trolling with a great Christmas beatup, and gets taken to task for it.

Towards banana republic status

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:30 am, November 19th, 2015 - 43 comments

National has passed legislation with retrospective effect under urgency to change previous legislation also passed under urgency so that the law says what it thinks the law should have said, despite the existing law being abundantly clear.

A government of spin

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:00 am, November 14th, 2015 - 52 comments

Two recent articles suggest that this Government is more interested in spin and PR than in achieving good. And one of the articles previously posted in the Herald has mysteriously disappeared.

There are no kiwi rapists on Christmas Island

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:23 am, November 12th, 2015 - 169 comments

John Key’s claim that Labour and Greens support the rapists on Christmas Island has struck a snag. There are none. And the brave action of progressive women MPs talking publicly about the sexual abuse they have suffered has shown how morally bankrupt Key’s politics are.

International shame – again

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 7:34 am, November 12th, 2015 - 64 comments

Key and Carter have brought NZ international shame yet again. Males in a position of power using rape as a cheap political tactic and then punishing women for speaking up. Brighter Future.

Maori Television’s receptionists

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:07 am, November 10th, 2015 - 18 comments

Two liked and respected receptionists at Maori Television have lost their jobs because they are not fluent in Te Reo. But half of the executive are also not fluent speakers yet they retain their jobs.

TV3’s woes and a media bouquet

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 12:33 pm, November 5th, 2015 - 21 comments

Excellent piece on TV3’s woes at Spinoff this morning. It’s a grim picture for news over all, and we are much the poorer for it. (Bonus bouquet to Kirsty Johnston at The Herald for her current series on education.)

Whaleoil shall overcome

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 10:55 am, November 3rd, 2015 - 116 comments

Cameron Slater has had his advertising income from Google cut off for stating that the only solution is to kill adherants of the Islamic faith before they kill us. And he thinks that fundamental rights are involved …

Muslim Gives Away Medal.

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 1:21 pm, November 1st, 2015 - 51 comments

For some, winning isn’t just about grabbing the glory.

We are paying for Key and Coleman to attend the World Cup

Written By: Natwatch - Date published: 8:58 am, October 28th, 2015 - 207 comments

John Key and Jonathan Coleman are attending the World Cup on the taxpayer’s tab.

Paula Bennett and the social housing crisis

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:00 am, October 23rd, 2015 - 64 comments

Paula Bennett has uncovered the most significant risk that New Zealand faces. Or has she?

Tony Veitch and the power of redemption

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:40 am, October 21st, 2015 - 124 comments

Tony Veitch has caused a major social media response by posting a comment which suggests that he is a victim of a bad relationship and not guilty of inflicting domestic violence.

Congratulations Jane Kelsey

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 12:39 pm, October 13th, 2015 - 61 comments

The High Court has upheld Jane Kelsey’s application for a declaration that the Government and Tim Groser improperly considered her application for information concerning the TPPA negotiations.

Key pinches Labour’s Kermadec Sanctuary Policy

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:00 am, September 30th, 2015 - 88 comments

National’s announced intention to create a marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands looks remarkably like Labour’s policy from the last election. And why did John Key not tell his caucus beforehand?

What other countries are doing about climate change

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 10:30 am, September 29th, 2015 - 27 comments

There is hope that the cumulative effect of all the international pledges for the Paris climate change conference may buy the world some time to prevent runaway global warming. Some countries are pledging to becoming carbon neutral. New Zealand’s pledge is pathetically weak in comparison.

Christianity doesn’t compromise with other religions

Written By: tracey - Date published: 7:58 am, September 29th, 2015 - 115 comments

Christianity doesn’t compromise with other religions or has the World Finally Gone madder?

Groser don’t go

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 3:22 pm, September 28th, 2015 - 5 comments

Greenpeace, 350 Aotearoa and the Coal Action Network have jointly urged John Key not to send Tim Groser to Paris for the climate change talks because the Government’s policies and proposed response will embarrass New Zealand and damage its international reputation.

Pandas for everyone

Written By: Natwatch - Date published: 1:25 pm, September 22nd, 2015 - 56 comments

John Key is trying to divert attention away from the numerous problems the country is facing by talking about pandas.

All the left wants is a clean contest of ideas

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:56 am, September 15th, 2015 - 153 comments

Josie Pagani yesterday chose as a left wing commentator to condemn Jeremy Corbyn’s politics as being based on narcissism where hard decisions never need to be made, and the unpopularity of a policy was evidence not of its failure but of its virtue. She should have analysed his history before making these claims. And in the interests of balance the media really needs to choose left wing commentators who will proudly stand up and support progressive ideals rather than repeat right wing attack lines.

UK – Cameron loses his shit, new members flood to Labour

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 6:10 am, September 14th, 2015 - 183 comments

Cameron hysterical tweet

Key and Abbott are prepared to sacrifice the Pacific

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:07 am, September 12th, 2015 - 98 comments

Climate change induced sea level increases poses a huge threat to most Pacific Islands. They are seeking support for a goal of limiting temperature increases to no more than 1.5 degrees. Australia and New Zealand are insisting on sticking to a goal of no more than 2 degrees even though this will likely mean that many Islands will disappear.

MPs are harmful to digital communications

Written By: lprent - Date published: 8:23 am, September 11th, 2015 - 21 comments

As anticipated, what is the first complaint at this site under the Harmful Digital Communications Act 2015? Not from a kid cyber-bullied by the classmates. But by an adult trying to stifle legitimate criticism and analysis of what they wrote and distributed digitally. And they didn’t read what they were required to do under the act.

National’s refugee backdown

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:01 am, September 5th, 2015 - 82 comments

In both England and New Zealand conservative Prime Ministers are looking to urgently backtrack from recent refusals to do anything further for refugees.