Open mike 01/01/2024

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, January 1st, 2024 - 40 comments
Categories: open mike - Tags:


Open mike is your post.

For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.

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40 comments on “Open mike 01/01/2024 ”

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  1. bwaghorn 1
    1 January 2024 at 6:49 am

    http://politics The year that could be: Stuff's political predictions for 2024 5:00am

    Happy new year!!

    Step up and have a swing in the prediction game.

    Luxon will not attend Waitangi day, is mine

  2. Robert Guyton 2
    1 January 2024 at 8:14 am

    Fed by a massive amount of grey matter and powered by even more massive ambition, Luxon sprouts a complete head of long, wavy, brown hair.

    Hang on.

    I meant Willis.

  3. Robert Guyton 3
    1 January 2024 at 8:39 am

    Tolstoy on why we drink (and otherwise stupefy)

    "In a word, it is impossible to avoid understanding that the use of stupefiers, in large or small amounts, occasionally or regularly, in the higher or lower circles of society, is evoked by one and the same cause, the need to stifle the voice of conscience in order not to be aware of the discord existing between one’s way of life and the demands of one’s conscience."

    https://www.themarginalian.org/2014/12/30/why-do-men-stupefy-themselves-leo-tolstoy/

    • Ad 3.1
      1 January 2024 at 11:13 am

      Alcohol in short doses is good for releasing dopamine and seratonin, and can also dissolve enough feeling to decrease cortizol (the stress hormone).

      We had about 7,000 young people on the Wanaka waterfront last night, most had preloaded. There were a few chucking in the St Johns tents, but otherwise frankly it was good for them.

      • weka 3.1.1
        1 January 2024 at 11:58 am

        I tend to agree, that letting rip at NY is a good thing, although I agree with Robert's quote that many people also use getting out of it (to small or large degrees) to avoid reality.

        Thing is though, it's not the alcohol, or cannabis, or ecstasy, it's the pattern of behaviours, and the culture that surrounds and upholds them

        In my teens, I knew young people (nearly all young men) who drank and drove, died in car accidents thus, ended up in A and E with alcohol poisoning, got into serious fights while drunk.

        I also had a close friend who at 15 was raped by multiple teen boys while she was too drunk to do anything about it, and the boys lined up outside the room waiting for their turn. The whole narrative (including amongst our circle of friends) was that she was a slut.

        And while things are slowly changing around rape culture, we know from Roast Busters and the Christchurch schoolgirls and what young women report about boys who use porn alot, that rape culture is still a very strong thread in our society.

        Alcohol and sexual assault go hand in hand.

        Out of 7,000 mostly out of it teens, it's likely there were sexual assaults last night. But of course, no woman or girl gets raped in Wanaka.

        Letting rip at NY is good, but it doesn't have to be done in such destructive ways, and NZ is long overdue to attend to this.

        • Ad 3.1.1.1
          1 January 2024 at 12:28 pm

          There is no doubt alcohol consumption is an accelerant to a lot of crime. It's not hard to list that harm.

          In 2022 about 25% of drinkers drank enough to do themselves injury or major risk to someone else, or harm. Guys punching people. In particular violence inside a home by adult males against family members.

          Also in driving where in 2022 in 163 fatal crashes alcohol and drugs were a contributing factor, so 178 people died and 245 people were seriously injured.

          Regrettably most of the stats on alcohol-crime causality are over 6 years old.

          And on the other hand, alcohol consumption has been steady in NZ for a decade despite fast population growth, and most crime has gone down – apart from massive spikes in theft and burglary and gun crime over the last 15 months.

          So for the peak events like last night, to avoid that harm, this is what they did:

          • Banned alcohol on the street for 48 hours
          • Supported Rhythm and Vines up the road so about 22,000 adult revelers were highly managed off site
          • Stopped all cars into and out of the waterfront for 12 hours
          • Saturated the place with Police, who also appeared in the media preparing parents for what would happen
          • Barricaded and checkpointed the party areas
          • Plenty of St Johns and other helpers.
          • Invested in about 20 minutes of fireworks
          • Fleets of taxis getting people home fast
          • Shut the whole thing down by 1am
          • Checkpoints at all exits out of town
          • Cleaned up like it had never happened by 6am

          I'm pretty sure the best one I ever attended was the Te Anau one (because of the enormous bonfire), but for alcohol harm management the Wanaka one was pretty good.

      • Tricledrown 3.1.2
        1 January 2024 at 11:29 pm

        Over use of alcohol does the opposite increases the amount of cortizol. Moderation is the key so the old Friday habit of a couple of beers can be good to reset for a relaxed weekend and fresh start to the week.Or we could be like Russia where Vodka is cheaper than milk and much if the population is Drunk for most of the time.

    • Jester 3.2
      1 January 2024 at 4:55 pm

      [deleted]

      • bwaghorn 3.2.1
        1 January 2024 at 5:16 pm

        Fuck you’re starting off the year by exposing your self as loathsome creep.

      • bwaghorn 3.2.2
        1 January 2024 at 5:34 pm

        Maybe if you going to attack one of the few people here that has the courage to use his real name you should have the guts to use your real name

        [deleted]

        • weka 3.2.2.1
          1 January 2024 at 6:28 pm

          please don't do that. It's akin to flaming but worse. It opens the door for really nasty shit online that destroys people's lives.

          (also, we protect people here by allowing and encouraging pseudonyms, for obvious reasons on a political blog)

          I completely agree with your first comment though.

      • Incognito 3.2.3
        1 January 2024 at 6:01 pm

        Mod note

  4. mary_a 4
    1 January 2024 at 10:02 am

    No predictions from me. I wish good health & a peaceful year ahead for you all.

  5. Reality 5
    1 January 2024 at 10:16 am

    Sunny fine day in Wellington, no wind! Good start to 2024. May it continue.

    Interesting to see Jessica M-M moving into the corporate world. Not surprising as she will now be able to consort with "her" people and not have to bother with "attempted impartiality".

    • Anne 5.1
      1 January 2024 at 11:41 am

      I recall Maggie Barry attempting 'reasonable impartiality' as a broadcaster many years ago. Look how that turned out. 🙂

    • Jilly Bee 5.2
      1 January 2024 at 1:39 pm

      We were with the National Bank of NZ/ANZ Bank for 52 years until John Key became Chairman. We baled out and went to Kiwibank, a decision we have not regretted at all. Now that Jessica Mutch McKay has joined that nest of vipers, it has just reinforced our decision.

    • aj 6.1
      1 January 2024 at 8:25 pm

      Todd McLay taking credit by default. Why didn't labour pre-empt this sort of thing by putting out a press release, the National machine doesn't knock off for the holidays.

  7. Descendant Of Smith 7
    1 January 2024 at 7:52 pm

    Best thing I've read all year.

    “In your own words how would you describe libertarians?

    Answer: Housecats. They are convinced of their fierce independence while utterly dependent on a system they don’t appreciate or understand.”

    https://x.com/InternetH0F/status/1741535320972169495?s=20

  8. Blazer 8
    1 January 2024 at 8:01 pm

    Wonderful Australian journalist John Pilger passed away on 30/12/23.

    A man who dedicated his life to the oppressed and unfortunate and had the courage and to challenge the power of Western Capitalism .

    Recommend a book of his I read recently..'Heroes'.