Merry Xmas!

34 comments on “Merry Xmas! ”

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1. felixviper 1

   25 December 2012 at 12:54 am

   Merry Christmas all.

   It’s been a really tough year for a lot of people under this bloody awful government, so well done to all the authors and commenters* here who keep pushing for a better, fairer NZ.

   A special Christmas greeting to Lynn the Grinch 😉 for your tireless work keeping the site running and keeping this a safe place to speak where people know their privacy is respected.

   *To all those who read the site but don’t comment, you also play a big part in making the site one of the most popular, and increasingly one of the more influential beyond the blogosphere. Don’t be afraid to add your voice to the mix either.

   Peace out.
   • happynz 1.1

     25 December 2012 at 2:55 am

     To all those who read the site but don’t comment, you also play a big part in making the site one of the most popular, and increasingly one of the more influential beyond the blogosphere. Don’t be afraid to add your voice to the mix either.

     That’s me for the most part. Even though I rarely posted before, and haven’t since leaving New Zealand this past July (currently in the US and will be in Southeast Asia next week to start a new job), I still check in daily to read one of New Zealand’s finer political blogs.
   • kiwicommie 1.2

     25 December 2012 at 4:05 am

     Yep. Conservatives across the world are busy pushing neo liberal propaganda. Left blogs play an important role, as the MSM bash Labour and the Greens daily. It is nice to have something like the Standard to read, kudos to the Standard and commentators for keeping things positive. 🙂
2. rosy viper 2

   25 December 2012 at 1:58 am

   Merry Christmas, Frohe Weinacht and thank you moderators, techos (looking at you, Lynn), post authors, and commenters on The Standard. It’s been a treat and an education.

   All the very best over the holidays and in the new year.
3. bad12 3

   25 December 2012 at 6:31 am

   A big ups on this day to all those who will spend their day giving those less fortunate a Christmas day, i havn’t been able to celebrate Christmas for so many years i’ve lost count,

   There’s a couple of reasons why it’s a non-starter in my world, the first being my rebellious nature just doesn’t allow me to be told by ‘them’ when,what, and how to celebrate ‘anything’, the other reason of course is that i refuse to take part in an exercise that has been specifically designed to remove from me copious amounts of money when i have always lived under the strains of a tight budget,

   My Christmas ‘wish’, both Slippery the Prime Minister and Dave Shearer went into the Christmas break saying that next year, 2013, was going to be all about ’employment’, the wish is just for once that they both come back to the Parliament and openly admit that the economic system we labor under does not and can never deliver anything near full employment for all those who are able to and seek work,

   Only when ‘our leaders’ stop bullshitting us about employment can there be some form of intelligent discussion where the ‘punishment’ of those who cannot find work stops….
4. IrishBill 4

   25 December 2012 at 7:06 am

   Well it’s a cracker day here, we’ll be getting the bbq fired up and knocking the tops off a few with a few friends.

   I’d just like to thank the stadardista community for making this site what it is and invigorating the left in New Zealand.

   I’d also like to thank everyone who has to work today for looking after the rest of us – it’s much appreciated.
   • RedLogix 4.1

     25 December 2012 at 11:53 am

     Cheers IB.

     One eye on The Standard, the other on the job.

     The Standard has become my wee corner on the net because of Lynn Prentice, and a whole group of people I’ve come to admire and respect for their experience and knowledge. Over the years we’ve had a huge number of people contribute, many of whom have passed on to other things …. but a handful such as Irish, zetetic, Eddie and felix have pretty much been with us all the way.

     The current group of authors, James Henderson, r0b, karol, QoT, Bill, yourself and others are carrying the torch forward with fabulous energy and commitment. I’d write more often, but frankly I spend enough time moderating as it is, and not being on the inside loop of the political system I tend to only post when I feel I have something I really want to say. I’m humbled by the sheer effort and capability you guys bring and I’m always learning from you.

     And to the commenters who breath life into this place. While I love to moan about the sheer number to trawl through each day … I also love reading you all. There’s a real heart and spirit you bring.

     And to all of you who read us but never comment; yes I understand. Sometimes the threads must seem like a bit of a cliquey shark-pool to the uninitiated. It takes time to find your voice; but it’s the flak and crap that you have to wade through which refines and sharpens your thinking.

     Nothing would delight me more than to have to wade through 1000 comments a day. We’ve become a bit of a tribe. A very loose, nomadic one … but loud, energetic and fun.

     Whatever happens in 2013 I’d love for you to all remember these two things:

     1. It’s about values. What is important to you? What is important to the other person?

     2. It’s about people. We’re all different and while we put boundaries around behaviour, it is our diversity which is our strength and source of inspiration.

     Best wishes and love to you all.

     RedLogix
     • lprent 4.1.1

       25 December 2012 at 7:09 pm

       And I àm really happy with having other people moderating, especially since I only seem to write posts when I am irritated. While I mix it in with work, mostly while compiling after header changes or updating target hardware, there are getting to be too many comments. I’m sure we have already had days with more than a thousand comments.

       There have been days when I only get to read comments before work, and after I crawl home after an 11 hour day. But on those days I mostly just read what other moderators did with their varying styles. It works pretty well having a number of people with a little time to spare to read and modate the comments stream… And we never have to organize it – it just happens….

       🙂
5. karol 5

   25 December 2012 at 7:33 am

   And so say all of us! ave a good day everyone.

   Thanks to Lynn for all the hard work and smarts in making this blog work. Thanks to all the commenters, the lurkers and all the other authors.

   Murky weather here in Auckland, which is pretty normal for this time of year.
6. Jenny 6

   25 December 2012 at 7:41 am

   To all those at The Standard you are the church bells of the 21st C.

   Snoopy’s Christmas

   The Baron had Snoopy dead in his sights

   And reached for the trigger to pull it up tight.

   Why he never fired

   Will we never know?

   Or was it the bells from the village below

   Why the elites fear the internet.

   Although fictitious, the song recalls a historical event. During World War I, in 1914, “The Christmas Truce” was initiated not by German and British commanders, but by the soldiers themselves.[2] The length of the cease-fire varied by location, and was reported to have been as brief as Christmas Day or as long as the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day. Trench-bound combatants exchanged small gifts across the lines, with Germans giving beer to the British, who sent tobacco and tinned meat back in return. No Man’s Land was cleared of dead bodies, trenches were repaired and drained, and troops from both sides shared pictures of their families and, in some places, used No Man’s Land for friendly games of football.[3] The song even has the initiator correct as it was generally the German soldiers who called over to the British and initiated the truce and, in the song, it is the Red Baron—a German WWI hero—who extends the hand of Christmas friendship to Snoopy.

   “Snoopy’s Christmas” reached the #1 position in the New Zealand pop charts in 1967, and remains a popular Christmas song in that country.*

   Wikipedia

   Before the internet there was only one borderless means of communication heard by all and that couldn’t be censored.

   Christmas truces 1914, 1915, 1916

   Richard Schirrmann, who was in a German regiment holding a position on the Bernhardstein, one of the mountains of the Vosges, wrote an account of events in December 1915: “When the Christmas bells sounded in the villages of the Vosges behind the lines ….. something fantastically unmilitary occurred. German and French troops spontaneously made peace and ceased hostilities; they visited each other through disused trench tunnels, and exchanged wine, cognac and cigarettes for Westphalian black bread, biscuits and ham. This suited them so well that they remained good friends even after Christmas was over.” He was separated from the French troops by a narrow No Man’s Land and described the landscape as: “Strewn with shattered trees, the ground ploughed up by shellfire, a wilderness of earth, tree-roots and tattered uniforms.” Military discipline was soon restored, but Schirrmann pondered over the incident, and whether “thoughtful young people of all countries could be provided with suitable meeting places where they could get to know each other.”.

   Christmas bells, those Christmas bells ringing through the land.

   While the church bells were spreading their message of peace and goodwill, heard across the front line, giving soldiers the courage to defy their officers, the mainstream media were playing their usual role.

   The events of the truce were not reported for a week, in an unofficial press embargo which was eventually broken by the New York Times on 31 December. The British papers quickly followed, printing numerous first-hand accounts from soldiers in the field, taken from letters home to their families, and editorials on “one of the greatest surprises of a surprising war”. By 8 January pictures had made their way to the press, and both the Mirror and Sketch printed front-page photographs of British and German troops mingling and singing between the lines. The tone of the reporting was strongly positive, with the Times endorsing the “lack of malice” felt by both sides and the Mirror regretting that the “absurdity and the tragedy” would begin again.

   Coverage in Germany was more muted, with some newspapers strongly criticising those who had taken part, and no pictures published. In France, meanwhile, the greater level of press censorship ensured that the only word that spread of the truce came from soldiers at the front or first-hand accounts told by wounded men in hospitals.[21] The press was eventually forced to respond to the growing rumours by reprinting a government notice that fraternising with the enemy constituted treason, and in early January an official statement on the truce was published, claiming it had happened on restricted sectors of the British front, and amounted to little more than an exchange of songs which quickly degenerated into shooting

   Now just imagine if there had been an internet in 1914

   *That “Snoopy’s Christmas” reached the #1 position in the New Zealand pop charts in 1967, and still remains popular is not an accident.

   This was at the height of the Vietnam war, when New Zealand politicians, following Australia’s example were contemplating bringing in conscription. It was also at a time when pirate radio was taking off, breaking through the MSM monopoly control of the airwaves was able to give “Snoopy’s Christmas” message of peace, the airtime denied it in other countries.
   • Rogue Trooper 6.1

     25 December 2012 at 7:07 pm

     on target! (synchronised)
   • Puddleglum 6.2

     26 December 2012 at 10:40 pm

     Good comment Jenny.

     It’s always been one of my favourites despite the fact that many people seem to loathe it (inexplicably).

     If you want an interesting read on the same topic, try a chapter in Robert Axelrod’s famous book ‘The Evolution of Cooperation’. As a political scientist, one of the examples he looked at was the ‘outbreak of peace’ between the troops in WWI. He analysed it in terms of the conditions that allowed cooperation to occur. He also noted how the ‘High Command’ recognised the subversive nature of the cooperation and eventually twigged to how to undermine it – by altering one of the important conditions for cooperation to emerge amongst humans.

     Merry belated Christmas to all!
7. freedom 7

   25 December 2012 at 7:56 am

   happy xmas to ‘The Standard’ and all who fly its colours
   NZ would be a far worse place without you all
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8Vfp48laS8

   Aroha nui
8. marsman 8

   25 December 2012 at 8:15 am

   Merry XMas to the Standard, it’s captains, it’s crew and all who sail in her. The Standard has been a mainstay for me, a supportive community in a time of political nastiness. Shipley made me depressed, Key makes me angry but not depressed and that is mainly due to the balancing haven that the Standard represents. Thank you.
9. KJT 9

   25 December 2012 at 8:45 am

   Merry Christmas to all of you who celebrate Christmas.

   Happy midwinter festival, to the pagans.

   Happy family get together time for the atheists.

   Happy Helios for the sun worshipers.

   And to everyone else my best wishes and may your boxing day bargains be a steal.

   And Merry Christmas to the Standards crew for all their hard work making this a relevant and interesting forum.
10. travellerev another viper 10

    25 December 2012 at 8:59 am

    To all the Standardistas and all the commentators a happy Festivus and may all of you be there next year to spar with and annoy the shit out off. Peace out!
11. ak 11

    25 December 2012 at 10:00 am

    Happy Christmas Standardistas and to all who have contributed ever since those long ago kiwiblogblog days, especially Lynn, r0b, the Bills and all other fearless and generous commenters and posters since Robinsod, and thank God too for the courageous Tapu Misa (linky thing below, read her and weep), John and Gordon Campbell, Chris Trotter and the Hickeys, Orams et al who dare to put others before themselves and carry on the unstoppable two millenia legacy of Progression whose birth we celebrate today. The point is tipping, brothers and sisters, peace and strength to you all.

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10855864

    (ps Lynn was thatthe Lyn Prentice on TV3 news last night?)
    • lprent 11.1

      25 December 2012 at 7:11 pm

      Nope. Not me…
12. Shona 12

    25 December 2012 at 10:07 am

    I rarely comment as others at the Standard do a far better job than me discussing the reality of life for most of us in NZ under the Key /Nact government. But the Standard is an important part of my day and my political understanding would be lost in a sea of public relations propaganda without my daily dose of the country’s best blog. Compliments of the season to everyone.
13. Mary 13

    25 December 2012 at 10:27 am

    Yes, Merry Marxmas, David Shearer.
14. Dean Reynolds 14

    25 December 2012 at 10:49 am

    Big ups to all who keep The Standard functioning – you guys are awsome! The next 2 years will see this shitty neo liberal government in its death throes, but the challenge for the Left will be to present to voters,cohereht Social Democratic policies focusing on full employment, poverty elimination, social justice, equality of opportunity & environmental enhancement.

    Let’s never forget that the first Labour Government, coming out of the 1930’s Deopression & heading into WW2, had abolished entrenched poverty within 7 years of gaining office – if we did it once, we can do it again.
15. mickysavage 15

    25 December 2012 at 11:19 am

    Merry Christmas to all Standardistas.

    And lprent and the authors do deserve special praise and recognition. Something for the rest of us to contemplate in the new year.
16. ColonialPete 16

    25 December 2012 at 11:30 am

    Merry Christmas to all. May its message of peace, mercy, charity and fellowship live on.
17. QoTViper 17

    25 December 2012 at 12:08 pm

    Happy whatever-you-celebrate-at-this-time-of-year, everyone.
18. Saarbo 18

    25 December 2012 at 1:20 pm

    From me to you all, Merry Christmas.

    And thanks to all for the stimulating posts and comments, I’m learning every day. Awesome!

    This is a community of people trying to make our little country a better place for everyone, keep up the good work.
19. vto 19

    25 December 2012 at 1:21 pm

    Yes a mighty big merry christmas to all. I am trying to waste less time with you lot but its pretty hard to ignore when things pop up and go astray or our elected reps run amok in all sorts of naughty ways.
20. Rogue Trooper 20

    25 December 2012 at 7:14 pm

    i have turned over yet another leaf; clean for the first time in a wee willie winkie while.
    (so i will not be forgetting this birthday, and look forward to spending my prudent resources on some Real Serious political commentary and satire in the new year)

    -Rock On (Machine) and i liked your comment ak(79?)

    Merry Christmas from James the Hebe 😉 Turn The Page-Metallica
21. RedLogix 21

    25 December 2012 at 8:54 pm

    In the spirit of Marxmas:

    So where does debt come from if it isn’t naturally a part of human societies? Again it is the imposition of scarcity by the ruling class — designed to extract and hoard wealth in the hands of a powerful elite — that creates the notion of debt. Does this sound familiar in today’s context? Many countries were “modernized” throughout the 20th Century by introducing market systems that structure debt into the economies of newly founded nations. These nations now must pay tributes — in the form of interest payments — to external banks that extract wealth from the poor countries and hoard it in the coffers of wealthy countries.

    It’s worth remembering that almost all the problems we have are man-made. Therefore they can be unmade.
22. the sprout 22

    25 December 2012 at 9:32 pm

    Nice work folks.
    Best wishes
23. ropata 23

    25 December 2012 at 11:05 pm

    Kia ora have a great kiwi christmas best wishes for 2013. May it hold better things for all people not just the 1%.
    Ma Ihowa koe e manaaki, mana koe e tiaki.
24. LynWiper 24

    25 December 2012 at 11:20 pm

    Merry Xmas and wishing you all happy times. Thanks to each and every one of you for making The Standard the great blog that it is. I read daily and appreciate the time, effort and thought that goes into making it such a treasure.
25. r0b 25

    25 December 2012 at 11:53 pm

    Brilliant day in Sunny Dunedin. Ho ho ho.
    • karol 25.1

      26 December 2012 at 9:39 am

      Ah yes. The bottom of the South Island certainly got the most summery weather yesterday.

      However, Auckland, after a gloomy start to the day, turned out not so bad in the end. Not very summery, but it was fine, warm and humid. I enjoyed a bit of a walk along a beach in the East Coast Bays, in a refreshing and bracing wind – kind of like this NZH author recommended:

      http://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/news/article.cfm?c_id=7&objectid=10855957

      Some were swimming and playing on the beach also (I’m not so much into swimming these days, in our not-so-100% pure waters).

      Today, whoever, is back to gloomy and wet.

      Hop you’re making the best of your summery weather, r0b.
26. AmaKiwi 26

    26 December 2012 at 1:17 am

    Colonial Viper, I miss you. Come back soon.

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