Written By: - Date published: 5:57 pm, January 25th, 2018 - 8 comments
Thoughtless thugs. Killers.
Written By: - Date published: 9:01 am, December 23rd, 2017 - 26 comments
Just some light-hearted musings.
Written By: - Date published: 11:35 am, December 11th, 2017 - 69 comments
When an apple tree is shaken, pips can fall to the ground and germinate. And then things grow back more or less as before.
Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, July 20th, 2017 - 35 comments
If you know that feeling of dread when you get a WINZ letter, or if you’ve had roiling anxiety from being ‘called in’ for a WINZ interview, or sighed with relief when the letter from WINZ turns out to be a replacement community services card, then follow #IamMetiria. And if you just don’t recognise those, then you might want to follow #IamMetiria to find out why others do…
Written By: - Date published: 7:37 am, October 30th, 2016 - 16 comments
Slam, Tourettes and Sam, Le Guin as a man.
Written By: - Date published: 10:28 pm, September 8th, 2016 - 106 comments
The Human Rights Commission is calling on New Zealanders to sign the open letter to New Zealand Rugby, which asks them to seek support in addressing their internal culture issues.
Written By: - Date published: 1:26 pm, September 2nd, 2016 - 109 comments
In France and Italy there have been recent examples of men telling women what they can and cannot wear.
Written By: - Date published: 4:20 pm, June 17th, 2016 - 27 comments
It’s been a hard week, and many of us could do with some kindness and good news. Let’s take a moment to remember Matariki. What would Standardistas and other politically progressive people like to see for the coming year?
Written By: - Date published: 1:55 pm, May 29th, 2016 - 30 comments
“It is possible to live in a society with a world view that does not include empire”
– Winona LaDuke
Written By: - Date published: 12:11 am, May 20th, 2016 - 173 comments
What does it really mean to reduce NZ’s total fossil fuel use by 50% by 2030: a warm up discussion for an upcoming thought experiment.
Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, February 6th, 2016 - 108 comments
Advantage asks why is Waitangi Day not treated the same as Anzac day?
Written By: - Date published: 2:00 pm, November 12th, 2015 - 45 comments
Previously posted at Boots Theory. Content note: discussion of sexual violence and the experience of survivors. Yesterday I did a round-up of the women’s voices on Twitter talking about recent events in Parliament, where women MPs from the Opposition, many of them survivors of sexual violence, were thrown out of the House for taking exception […]
Written By: - Date published: 7:58 am, September 29th, 2015 - 115 comments
Christianity doesn’t compromise with other religions or has the World Finally Gone madder?
Written By: - Date published: 7:02 am, July 14th, 2015 - 3 comments
Something a bit different for The Standard. A review of the film Crossing Rachmaninoff which premiers in Auckland on the 18th of July as part of the International Film Festival.
Written By: - Date published: 2:20 pm, May 10th, 2015 - 49 comments
There’s a major and rather obvious contributory factor to UK Labour’s failure in the UK general election that doesn’t seem to have drawn any comment. Until now…
Written By: - Date published: 12:24 pm, March 19th, 2015 - 120 comments
There are many failings outlined. Police were found to have largely treated women and girls with respect and compassion but their investigations were not robust or thorough, inadequate follow-up enquiries…
Written By: - Date published: 3:36 pm, February 11th, 2015 - 63 comments
It seems that just as the 30’s offered the chance to turn dreams into reality, Syria is offering that chance up to ‘the left’ today. Suddenly, for me, the recent travel bans and the passport confiscation laws etc make sense since we are potentially looking at an international influx of non-nutters and non- psychopaths as happened during the Spanish Revolution of the 30s.
Written By: - Date published: 4:17 pm, February 7th, 2015 - 15 comments
The only person to receive 100% in the world for her work was a young kiwi with only two years background. Read more here.
Written By: - Date published: 8:48 am, February 6th, 2015 - 30 comments
A Guest Post by David Meech presenting an irreverent view of Waitangi day, and New Zealand history and culture.
Written By: - Date published: 2:13 pm, February 5th, 2015 - 76 comments
The social democracy of my youth has radically collapsed into our current culture of individualism, privatisation and personal greed.
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…
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.
Written By: - Date published: 9:16 am, July 10th, 2014 - 97 comments
Tania Billingsley has waived her right to name suppression in the case against the Malaysian diplomat accused of attempted rape – and a Minister of Foreign Affairs who wants the finger pointed at anyone but him.
She’s spoken to 3rd Degree about it, and I think she’s a big damn hero.
Written By: - Date published: 8:48 am, January 6th, 2014 - 47 comments
In The Matrix Neo discovers that his “reality”, is a virtual world that had kept him from seeing “the desert of the real”. George Monbiot cites research that shows how capitalism is eating itself and its consumers. The marketing con of “the good life” – desert of the real.
Written By: - Date published: 4:17 pm, November 5th, 2013 - 282 comments
The attitudes put on display by the young men calling themselves the ‘Roast Busters’ aren’t a glitch or the product of some unsavoury sub-culture. Those young men and the attitudes they hold are the product of very long and complex processes whereby some very fucked up shit has become normalised.
Written By: - Date published: 11:34 am, January 1st, 2013 - 147 comments
It’s nothing but ardent colonial nonsense to be celebrating a seasonally determined cultural event in the wrong season and about six months off the mark. Every culture that marks new year celebrates around the time of, well…new year. And every culture that marks New Year locates it somewhere in the winter; notionally around the time […]
Written By: - Date published: 5:00 pm, December 31st, 2012 - 32 comments
We tend to rework reality, included political knowledge and understanding, into a basic (fictionalised) story structure, with villains, heroes, and values absorbed from pleasurable forms of fiction, including TV. This is a look at the political values embedded in some popular TV dramas.
Written By: - Date published: 8:21 am, November 11th, 2012 - 56 comments
John Key’s selling out of NZ workers’ rights, tourism industry and identity to Hollywood, the TPP and US corporates, has reached a new low. OIA papers reveal the extent to which Warners is dictating the NZ government’s promotion of 100% Middle-earth.
Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, October 27th, 2012 - 124 comments
Plain packaging isn’t just an unproven idea, it’s pointless, illogical in the current circumstances, and seriously condescending.
Written By: - Date published: 11:10 am, October 8th, 2012 - 76 comments
In another slippery John Key u-turn, after his mission to Hollywood ‘sweeteners’ are now on the table. Key is bending over to let US-based conglomerates extend their dominance in NZ, in support of their own interests and values.
Written By: - Date published: 8:17 am, October 4th, 2012 - 66 comments
As Key heads off to the US to promote the NZ film industry, I look back at the Hobbit union-busting case and the issues it raised. Will Key’s latest mission to Hollywood, boost the economy, increase jobs and provide benefits to the NZ film industry? Or will it actually undermine the NZ’s economy and democracy, further Americanising NZ’s culture along with it?
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