‘Tens of thousands rally in Madrid demanding end to austerity
Inspired by events in Greece, support grows for Podemos and its call for a new political order.’
In the Swedish study, they’re differentiating between milk, and fermented products like cheese and yoghurt.
“Further analysis showed a positive association between milk intake and biomarkers of oxidative stress and inflammation.
In contrast, a high intake of fermented milk products with a low lactose content (including yoghurt and cheese) was associated with reduced rates of mortality and fracture, particularly in women.”
I would posit two things here. One is that modern diets are high in refined sugars and so eating another high sugar food like milk is probably overloading people into earlier deaths from things like Syndrome X (via insulin resistance). This is true for big populations that have been studied like the US. I don’t know what the usual diets are like in Sweden.
The other is that traditional diets all over the world have prioritised fermented milk over unfermented. They also drink milk raw. These are crucial differences.
That article you link to has a pretty misleading and narrow visioned public health control approach to raw milk, so I wouldn’t take anything it says too seriously. It also fails to point out that the Swedish researchers say there is a correlation but no proven causation between milk consumption and early death, and completely ignores that the findings for fermented dairy were the opposite. This is typical of much superficial health reporting, and it’s also grossly negligent IMO. You need to go to professional medical and health journalists if you want to understand the research and what it means.
The Asian thing is a different story, because most people in east Asian countries are not genetically adapted to eating milk (although I’m curious about the cross overs between India/Tibet/Nepal etc and East Asia and where dairy stops being a traditional staple). The low fracture rate can also be attributed to other things in the diet rather than absence of milk.
Moderation is thr mantra.
Cheese yes cheese has been shown to be the most Dangerous food when it comes to strokes.
Those with a high consumption of cheese are the most likely to die of strokes.
High in fat and very high in salt!
are the reasons.
With our government about to hack into state housing, we will soon be in the state London is in.
‘Thousands gather in London to protest against lack of affordable housing
The March for Homes brings together campaigners, tenants and trade unionists to demand building of council homes and curbing of private rents.’
The self-serving vitriol of these wrong white clowns drowns out the most interesting implications of what Catton was really talking about. The fundamental problem here is that New Zealand doesn’t invest enough in growing strong and stable institutions to nurture and develop its next generation of leaders, thinkers and creators.
Never thought I’d recommend a Rodney Hide column but this is interesting reading.
“Little spoke of reducing inequality. Good. And even here he was interesting: he says the spin-off of reducing inequality is better growth. That, too, would be better for business and farmers.
Jobs and growth are his focus. And small business. That sets him apart from Key who, in his deals with Warner Bros, SkyCity and Rio Tinto, is tied to the big end of town.”
Yes I missed Normans comments? Look I support the greens I have voted for them once it’s the tarring us all as ecological destroyer s that I will attack at every chance.
Just yesterday weka said something about farmers pouring shit into the rivers and that is a lie on the odd occasion a farmer gets caught literally doing that the book gets thrown at them and rightly so.
I let it pass and I shouldn’t have.
I have no doubt that that over stocking, use of urea and over irrigation is degrading rivers but as for pouring shit into the river, not happening and if any knows were it is they should report it.
I have no doubt that that over stocking, use of urea and over irrigationpouring shit into rivers is degrading rivers but as for pouring shit into the river, not happening and if any knows were it is they should report it.
FTFY
It’s not just that farmers are pouring shit into the rivers but that we have far too much land as farms. We need to decrease the amount of farms to be enough to feed us and that’s it.
I don’t live in a town or city but rain is good so I get mine downstream from the clouds.
I would never say there are no good farmers – hell I know a few – but the bad ruin it for everyone – the good farmers have to tidy up their sandpit (farmers) rather than just hold their hands up pleading ignorance – they derive their profit from the commons and i think they are responsible to the commons too. And the same for cityfolk.
I’ve suggested to 3 bosses and two neighbours in the sheep n beef industry that they had a few creeks that would be easy to fence off it didn’t achieve much .
It’s going to take laws to make a change unfortunately.
I didn’t say farmers pour shit into rivers. I said NZers think it’s ok to pour shit into rivers. And I think it was obvious from the conversation that I didn’t mean this literally, but that we allow our rivers to be polluted by farming, mostly dairy farming. That’s not actually in dispute. Do you need a link?
I think you will also find that I’m one of the ones that’s been arguing recently for not lumping all farmers into one evil group and that it’s better to name the ones that are causing problems.
As for the GP, I suggest that you stop reading the spin via the media and go directly to the GP and see what they have to say about farming. They’re actually very supportive and progressive. You can look at their policy, which you may or may not agree with, but it’s not anti-farmer. You probably remember that Jeanette Fitzsimons was a farmer before during and after she was an MP and co-leader of the GP, and I see a lot of her influence in GP attitudes.
Yes, I know what you were referring to and I know what I said. I’ve just given you a detailed explanation of that. Did you even read it? How about you respond to my points?
edit, and just to make it really fucking clear, here’s what I said,
but these people are just getting on with doing the right thing by the land while NZ still thinks it’s acceptable to clear native ecosystems and pour cow shit into the water.
That’s not a statement about farmers, it’s a statement about NZers. As I explained.
Yeah, I don’t get it. Do you mean the greenies will be angry that Labour mentioned farmers? Bit subtle for me I’m afraid.
btw, I don’t think Little was talking about farming in his speech. He was talking about Fonterra, and the context was business productivity and worker rights. He did mention something about payouts but again, it was in the context of how the unions and Fonterra worked together.
I think it’s important to read as a warning that Little still intends to let business run the show. The planet cannot afford growth any more. We have to discover how to live without it.
When Rodney Hide likes something, I worry even more. It’s quite possible they can see Key is on a downward slope and are grooming a right wing successor. Little already caved on squirrel powers. What is he going to give away without a fight next?
FJK and FAL.
I disagree with your interpretation, I think Hide is just doing what all the other rightwingers have done in the wake of the state of the nation.
Farrar and Hooton instantly jumped on the talk about small business to say “oh, but if you really cared about small business you’d scrap the policy to abolish 90-day trials!”
Now Hide is trying to goad Labour into doing something stupid by “praising” Little as a non-leftwing leader. Look at the way he wilfully quotes “it’s important to create wealth before you can share it” then re-writes it one sentence later as “it’s important to create wealth before you can spend it.” It’s the same old rightwing claptrap about Labour being a terrifying tax-and-spend party. He’s dogwhistling to the right on one hand and trying to unsettle the left with the other.
Hard case that Rodney Hide believes the best way to find out what politicians are about is to listen to what they say – see opening line of the article.
By his own example that’s hardly good advice. Remember ThePerkBuster of yore ?
Again and again and again he said he was a straight-up, rort-hating type of guy.
Many people listened and believed that he was indeed what he said. Then it turns out that all along he was as bad a free-loading rorter, trougher, junketer, hypocrite as anyone. So no, listening doesn’t inform, particularly in respect of the Right.
The rest of his article – faint praise he can invoke later on to claim objectivity and balance. He remains an extreme right wing fantasist who’ll engage DP at will. Not to be trusted. Especially not on the score of what he says.
I never read Roddy’s columns why would I he is a non event politically and a certified failure.
Try NOT reading them a save your bloodpressure.
His last task of any note was throwing the carefully studied and thought out
plan for Auckland City into the rubbish bin and coming up with his version in a matter of months. Enough said.
And there’s more from NZH where they report on a 3 News/Reid Research poll and asks Has Key met his match?
A 3 News Reid-Research poll has revealed 55 per cent of voters think Little is potentially a better match for Prime Minister John Key than his Labour Party leader predecessors.
3 News political editor Patrick Gower said the poll result was a huge boost for Little.
“It means more than half of voters think he can do a better job than Phil Goff, David Shearer or David Cunliffe,” Gower said.
“And the fact that it’s over half shows it’s well and truly beyond the people who vote for Labour normally and into centre voters and probably some National voters as well.”
It’s too soon to tell, and Labour’s recovery will take more than Little to step up a few notches, but this poll result looks promising for Little’s prospects.
Little said the poll result was “nice” but he wouldn’t be taking any false hope from it.
“Things like this kind of go up and down. You’re in favour and you’re out of favour … it’s nice to have the kind of start that I’ve had. But we’ve got a long way to go yet and a lot of work to do so I’m focused on that.”
Little sounds realistic about where he’s at now.
So this is promising for Little but more important for Labour will be the party poll result, which will be revealed on 3 New tonight at 6 pm.
Pretty shifty there Petey. After yesterday’s all out troling, a pretty much unanimous cry from participants to stop, including being being told off by a moderator, you’ve picked a topic that all the lefties here might agree with and will want to talk about despite it meaning having you in the conversation.
It would be nice to think you learnt something yesterday, but I think the thread showed that the community had learnt something instead.
I think you have a lot of bridges to mend before you can expect to take part here in any genuine way.
Are you really thick? You could either:
1. Ignore the comment
2. Comment on the content
3. Start a new thread on the topic
4. Make it all about your petty crusade.
How about these idiot pollsters actually run polls on topic’s that people care about. Who gives a toss about dead beat former Labour leaders like Goff, Shearer, and too a lesser extent DC.
How about polling the U turn on further asset sales, given John Key wearing his National leaders hat categorically stated ‘no more asset sales’ during the last election campaign.
The Aussies in Queensland just threw the Tories out for the sheer mention of asset sales.
Did you vote for National to further sell public assets?
A public march protesting selling off state housing should be on the cards. Might see what can be arranged for up at Waitangi. Bit of a focus on asset sales might make the Nats visit that little bit more unpleasant.
Petty George.
Your Wikipedia stats don’t match up to stats nz or treasury numbers.
Quite often wikipedia is historically inaccurate as it is a popularity contest.
And often Right wing spuriously funded insitutes Spam Wikipedia to alter historical facts!
Yeeha! Good news from Queensland. The toxic little imitation of a man, Campbell Bjelke-Newman, has gone. Now I’m hoping for a reconstituted Crime and Misconduct Commission to put a few of the corrupt inbreds in prison.
That and reversing newmans gutting of the party donations legislation Anna Bligh rolled out so they could do as has been done here.
Unlike here Newman couldn’t own the MSM and had the bad luck / karma of getting on the wrong side of Alan jones over a mine in his home area. Jonesy paid out on him big time.
That and the perception that Campbell comes across as an arrogant bullying establishment twat.
Jones works in NSW. The LNP does pretty much run the Queensland media. The Courier Mail, Brisbane’s only daily, is a piece of Murdoch trash. It makes Whalespew look balanced.
Jones was raised in Acland, west of Brisbane where a coal mine expansion isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.
Yes he works in Sydney, most of the top shock jocks do but they treasure their Aussie battler image, good for the ratings etc and Newman went up against that.
That’s such a great write up Shane, thanks. Her story covers so many important points, esp about the failures of legal meds and the problems when medical staff get stuck in their prejudices about pain syndromes. Very good to hear the success too, and the details on how she figured out what to do.
btw, your blog is looking good. Nice layout, uncluttered, easy to read and access, all of which is important for people in pain. The only thing I’d suggest is changing the header texts to a dark colour as the white is hard to read.
Hang on, did you just say that I’m having a go at you by commenting positively to someone else when you’re not even in the conversation??
I’ve not serially sneered at your efforts/postings on dak. I’ve said I can’t read your comments because you insist on posting illiterately. Apart from you being pro-cannabis, I don’t actually know much about your position.
You’ve done this before phil, confused my critiques of your position on veganism with my non-critiques of your views on cannabis. I suggest from now on you link to show what you are talking about, otherwise I’ll just be telling you to fuck right off.
funny you’re making plenty of comments like you actually do give a fuck – you know, often the trailblazer doesn’t get the recognition they covert but that doesn’t mean the contribution wasn’t valuable
I know your supportive Phil, my POV is from the middle using rational arguments, I haven’t read your work, but If you are a sufferer yourself, you may not be looking at things from the other side of the fence? this post was to appeal to Tory concerns of cost etc, one less person a sickness benny, but there are many more like her.
Get over yourself, FFS. There was no passive aggression in weka’s comment. There was in your one about PG’s clothing. You should just be happy that someone is pushing something that you agree with. Try it.
bummer. WordPress went more towards paid in recent years. You used to be able to get themes with lots of control for free. The theme you are using is very nice otherwise though.
Jesus phil, if you’re trying to convince us that you really don’t care about weka paying someone else positive attention you’re going about it all wrong.
Last time phil did this, in the Spring, it was the claim that while he was on his ban I’d “pumped out yr (un-cited/footnoted) prohibitionist/anti-pot bullshit while i wasn’t here”.
I tried to point out that wasn’t true and eventually posted this comment, which is a search engine result for the time period in question, of weka +cannabis. The results show that I am pro-use and pro-decriminalisation (which I am).
What I didn’t say in that thread was that while phil was on his ban I posted some critical comments about vegan diets when they are presented as the one true way for all humans (I would link but the search still doesn’t go back past 35 pages. 35 pages of phil’s comments only takes us back to the end of Dec).
I think phil has gotten confused between his two pet projects and is now set in his head that I am anti-pot. I’m not even anti-vegan except where it’s presented as the one true way or as a quick fix for CC/the environment.
Phil, I haven’t said I can’t read your comments, I’ve said they are difficult for me to read so I don’t usually bother. Please don’t distort what I say. It’s starting to look like you are making up another lie about me.
Now, unless you can link to back up your assertions about me, I’m just going to keep linking back to this comment and the link above to demonstrated what you are more than happy to tell lies about someone even when you’ve been proven wrong (twice).
Categorising weka’s response as “fawning” because she gives a few simple compliments on a new blogger’s work is a sad little tactic.
You have outright lied about weka’s past behaviour and comments in order to fabricate a “pattern” to justify your harassment.
I’m also in the club of people who, 95% of the time, scroll past anything you say because it’s rarely worth the effort of interpretation. But when I see you having a personal go at someone just because they liked someone else’s work and didn’t kiss your ass sufficiently to your liking, I make the effort.
Question:
Does NZ still have some sort of press club – as in 4th Estate?
Back in the 70’s there used to be a primitive sort of thing in Hobson Street where various journalists went to get pissed as newts – even then nothing like the Australian Press Club that provides a venue where journalists and jonolists can have politicians give speeches and call them to account.
Henry, hoskings, Sabin, Simpson, young, hide etc as one subset of them with public declarations of support for national and or family connections before we start on the ones who play the impartial commenter role.
All that and DP thrown in for good measure, relentlessness and effective is what it has grown into while the sheeple graze on gazing at their house values thinking all is well in my world.
as I imagined then. One where they all go to get pissed and feed off each others egos. Where is it? The TVNZ caf, or Backbenches, or Mermaid’s possibly? Or maybe Barry and Heather’s basement?
“Shoot him in the back of the head.”
The BBC’s comedy crisis is now more than just a sick joke.
Since it was effectively spavined following its brief deviation into the reporting of facts that exposed government crimes in 2003 [1], the BBC has turned into nothing much more than the propaganda arm of the British government. In the rare event that a dissident, no matter how brilliant and respected, appears on a show like HARDtalk, he or she is almost inevitably hectored and ceaselessly interrupted, [2] in stark contrast to the virtually open forum accorded the continual stream of paid government, corporate and military spokespeople who appear.
The BBC has moved to censor, curb and/or ban its own “unacceptable” and critical voices too: clever and thoughtful talents like Frankie Boyle are systematically excluded from its increasingly anodyne comedy panel shows. Even the hilarious—and nonpolitical—Jack Dee was recently in danger of being censored by the mediocracy in charge of the modern BBC, [3] while crude, racist, unfunny but government-friendly louts like Jeremy Clarkson are indulged repeatedly. [4]
And now the BBC, which has given the world such immortal comedy-writing teams as Galton and Simpson, Croft and Perry, Esmonde and Larbey, Jay and Lynn, Clement and La Frenais, Curtis and Atkinson—to name only a few at random from a stratosphere of brilliance—has commissioned a team of “comedy” writers to make light of the British government’s persecution of the dissident journalist Julian Assange. I say “make light of” advisedly, because in case anyone harboured any lingering hope that the BBC might extend even a hint of fair treatment to Cabinet Enemy No. 1, consider this grim fact: the writer of this new “comedy” once called for the police to publicly shoot the Wikileaks founder in the head.
The Corporation’s comedy crisis, which was already painfully obvious, is now an unmitigated embarrassment. We are now accepting from the BBC the kind of anti-dissident ridicule that spewed out of Moscow in the 1930s and ’40s, and out of Peking in the 1960s and 70s. I would not be surprised at all to see some vicious moron like A.A. Gill appear on a special broadcast some time soon and start ranting from his prepared script: “It is our aim to expose and criticize the ways in which the political swindler Julian Assange made use of reactionary trends and reactionary schools of thought to attack the proletariat, so that we can fight more effectively against such swindlers.”
And they say the AMERICANS have no sense of irony…
Fury over BBC writer’s ‘kill Assange’ tweet Chortle, 30 January 2015
The writer of the BBC’s new comedy inspired by Julian Assange once called for the police to publicly shoot the Wikileaks founder in the head.
Supporters of Assange say tweets Thom Phipps posted about him were ‘shocking’ and ‘dangerous’ – and make him unfit to write about the issue. BBC Four’s new three-part sitcom Asylum is inspired by the controversial figure’s enforced stay in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. He took refuge there in June 2012 to escape extradition to Sweden on sexual assault charges, which he fears will pave the way for him to be sent to the US to face an espionage trial.
Two months after Assange was given political asylum, Phipps posted: ‘If the met [police] want to regain my trust they should drag Assange out the embassy + shoot him in the back of th head in the middle of traf square.’ Phipps now says: ‘It was something I tweeted over two years ago and it was clearly a joke.’
However, backers of Assange took the issue more seriously, and have complained to the BBC over its ‘shameful’ decision to employ Phipps. One of them, Emmy Butlin, said Phipps ‘advocated for the public extrajudicial assassination’ of the Wikileaks founder and queried why the corporation would ’employ someone with extreme views’ to write the comedy.
She is also angry that the show is to air as part of the BBC’s Taking Liberties season to mark the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta, saying: ‘Mr Phipps has called for Mr Assange’s assassination, going against the most fundamental principals.’
On her blog she also highlighted another tweet Phipps made in 2012, saying: ‘its cool to imagine assange as a spartacus figure cuz that means he’s going to be forcibly nailed to a piece of wood at one point.’
Another blog, Domestic Empire, complained that the ‘writer chosen to write Assange-inspired comedy advocates murder over democratic free speech’.
Butlin complained to the Corporation saying: ‘I find it offensive that Mr Phipps who has publicly incited violence and propagated the murder of Mr Assange, has been employed by the BBC’ and calling for action…..
Sorry, weka. My words are the first four paragraphs, and then I cite the article from Chortle. Maybe I should just give the link in future after my preamble.
Most people on ts are using either blockquote or italics to quote, or if it’s very short, “double quotes”. It’s a kind of informal house style. Not saying you have to use these, you may find another way, but it’s that same thing of making comments accessible and respecting the readers enough to make it clear what you are saying, and what is something else’s words (that’s respect for the other writers too).
Short but crucial reading for anyone wanting to understand more about the role of women in Islam in the US context. I think there are also things here for the West to learn about the value of gender specific spaces, and how culture affects that.
David Seymour is reported as saying “The worst thing I could do is to prejudge it if there isn’t anything perverse,”
So he was saying perversion is the point at which they can be prejudged, which might be unwelcome news by any who have been falsely accused of a crime.
This battleground between indigenous people and projects designed to maintain the extravagant western lifestyles is HOT and will continue to heat up.
The LA Times indicates, we are at a “Flashpoint” between competing value-systems. Bodies have been exhumed, and geoglyphs destroyed, in an area that is a long-term indigenous settlement.
“Who Are My People?” depicts how the world’s energy firms like Solar Millennium, have met their match in a small group of Native American elders, in the hottest desert on the planet.
The film takes us behind the scenes of two of the largest solar projects in the world,
“fast tracked” by US renewable energy policies.
It’s why the whole green tech as saviour thing is just wrong, because it keeps us in the same belief systems, value systems and behaviours as what got us in this mess in the first place. It won’t solve CC, and even if it did we would still fuck up all the other things that are consequences of humans ruling the world.
Am I missing something or is John Roughan actually saying something quite on to it here?
Basic benefits have been increasing with the cost of living as measured by the consumer prices index, which was generous in the 1970s when wages could never quite catch galloping inflation.
Since the reforms of the 80s, New Zealand has enjoyed low inflation and economic growth that has enabled wages to rise more than prices, increasing the national living standard.
Boston and Chapple make a good case for increasing benefits by the rate of average wage rises.
It is strange that Labour did not make this change 10 or more years ago when it had budget surpluses, National should do now. Ideally, it would backdate the increases as far as surpluses might permit, giving benefits quite a boost in the next few years.
I find this:
“Since the reforms of the 80s, New Zealand has enjoyed low inflation and economic growth that has enabled wages to rise more than prices, increasing the national living standard.”
Hard to square with this:
“child … poverty rate in recent years has been around 25%; this is almost twice the rate experienced during the 1980s, which averaged about 13%” (Perry 2012, 124)
How so? Isn’t that the discrepancy between beneficiaries and wager earners, with child poverty being weighted into the beneficiary group? I would expect the increase in standard of living just means some people are doing way better and others are doing worse ie they’re not using a very subtle measuring tool.
I imagine he is technically correct, and the average standard of living has increased.
Real shame that during that time the percentage of children in poverty has nearly doubled.
Might be worth seeing if the median standard of living has increased.
Well he is of the class that has done very well out of the 80s reforms, so I expect he is blind, probable willfully blind, to the numbers of people that haven’t done well.
I don’t know how they measure standard of living. Hopefully a boffin will post.
The child poverty increased with the Richardson black budget which slashed beneficiary rates – and these have never been increased back to the level they were at during the 1980s.
“So far, the biggest hurdle has been the environmental concerns.”
Wrong!
By far, the biggest hurdle has been concerns about climate change.
The Keystone XL requires an appraisal by the U.S. Department of State (DOS) and approval by both Congress and the President.
So far, the biggest hurdle has been the environmental concerns.
Most of them have been dealt with in a preliminary DOS finding (the full report has yet to be released) and with the recent verdict by Nebraska that the pipeline poses no environmental threat.
DR. KENT MOORS Oil and energy investor
As students prepare to return to their studies in a few weeks, many will be wondering how on earth they will be able to afford it, and survive getting a mortgage of student debt many years before the can dream of owning a home. Let’s remember that when we help the next generation to fulfil its potential, we help our whole country to be the best it can be. Labour will do a ground-up review of student loans and allowances when next in office.
David Cunliffe on Facebook.
I for one hope that means scrapping the student loan scheme is on the table.
It’s time NZ started following international best practice, by making education free, rather than continuing to unthinkingly follow failed ideology. This applies to other policies too.
Be nice to see Labour wake up from its market fundamentalist stupor.
I wonder if they are going to announce Gerry Brownlee comes out in support of his mini me national list MP to seek the party nomination to contest the candidacy and become the next Northland MP. This comes after he failed to beat Shane Reti for the Whangarei candidacy. Brownlee is rumoured to be heading to Waitangi in an attempt to secure the nod for his mini me from party members.
Apparently Gerrys errant boy has contacted the head chef at the Copthorpe hotel Waitangi and will be forwarding Gerrys dietary requests, including his favorite pork pie recipe.
The whole 200kg pig is spit roasted and then pastry wrapped and glazed. The newbie MP’s get briefed not to get too close to Brownlee whilst eating his pork pie. Appears Gerry is well known for lashing out at the trough, guess you just have to look at Nic Smiths scarred face as proof.
That’s not actually true.
It’s just that few people are so obsessed with whinging that they push that particular barrow at the slightest (and yes, it was very slight) excuse.
Depends on the audience.
I thought it was pretty reasonable.
And (sadly) one of the few times I could both understand and agree with ure, the thread gets zonked by someone who can’t just feel happy about recognising the success of others without turning it into a whinge-fest.
Just watched TV3 news & Gower was showing his bias & arse licking towards Key & was blatantly putting the knife into Andrew Little, while reporting on the latest poll. Every time I see Gower or hear his voice it makes me want to puke.
I wondered how long it would take Gower to put the knife in to Andrew Little.
Looks like Dirty Politics part 2 has begun
National would have drawn its gains from the Cons and NZF. Labour would have made its gains from the Greens, NZF and IMP. Internet-Mana is pretty much dead (although I wouldn’t rule out Harawira making a successful run in 2017).
NZF is the big loser in this poll. As Little continues to build his profile, he should start pulling some soft National supporters too as the year progresses.
I also think international trends will play into 2017. We ‘re looking at a single-term LNP government in Australia and in the UK Labour are enjoying a narrow lead (with the further spoiler of UKIP likely to split the Tory vote in this year’s election). Our electoral outlook may synch up with the rest of the Anglosphere.
Yes the Tories have wreacked havoc in the UK, Cameron and his cronies will be sent packing as will idiot Abbott in OZ.
Which makes things a lot easier here. Little is smart enough to either get the Left leaders out here or get on a plane and go on a visit to strengthen relationships. Key should get the cold shoulder from them.
New Zealander’s are sheep and if the slogan ‘time for a change’ is repeated often enough they will duly oblige by voting the Nats out. The odds are Key will hand over the leadership once the worm really turns. Sabin’s hurried exit is the start of a bad year for Key and it will get worst I’m picking.
I just hope you are right.
I am worried the government will press ahead with the TPP, charter schools, destroying the RMA, and privatising health and housing further.
Key is desperate to comply with instructions from America to get the TPPA signed and our fate sealed, the EMA is all part and parcel. The Maori-Tory party should ethically cross the house as the TPPA & RMA reforms will lead to bad outcomes for Maori in particular.
Anyway the last anti TPPA rallies were well attended, I can see huge crowds at the next round.
If only our opposition politicians dealt with our media the way Greece’s New Finance Minister handles a Newsnight Interview.
Greece’s new finance minister Yanis Varoufakis interviewed on 30 January 2015 on BBC’s Newsnight.
“As a fan of the BBC, I must say I was appalled by the depths of inaccuracy in the reporting underpinning this interview (not to mention the presenter’s considerable rudeness).Still, and despite the cold wind on that balcony, it was fun!” – Yanis Varoufakis
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Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Sleep mode is a power-saving state that allows your computer to quickly resume operation without having to boot up from scratch. This can be useful if you need to step away from your computer for a short period of time but don’t want to shut it down completely. There are ...
Introduction Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) has revolutionized the field of translation by harnessing the power of technology to assist human translators in their work. This innovative approach combines specialized software with human expertise to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of translations. In this comprehensive article, we will delve into the ...
In today’s digital age, mobile devices have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Among the vast array of portable computing options available, iPads and tablet computers stand out as two prominent contenders. While both offer similar functionalities, there are subtle yet significant differences between these two devices. This ...
A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to carry out a set of instructions. The basic components of a computer are the processor, memory, storage, input devices, and output devices. The Processor The processor, also known as the central processing unit (CPU), is the brain of the ...
Voice Memos is a convenient app on your iPhone that allows you to quickly record and store audio snippets. These recordings can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as taking notes, capturing ideas, or recording interviews. While you can listen to your voice memos on your iPhone, you ...
Laptop screens are essential for interacting with our devices and accessing information. However, when lines appear on the screen, it can be frustrating and disrupt productivity. Understanding the underlying causes of these lines is crucial for finding effective solutions. Types of Screen Lines Horizontal lines: Also known as scan ...
Right-clicking is a common and essential computer operation that allows users to access additional options and settings. While most desktop computers have dedicated right-click buttons on their mice, laptops often do not have these buttons due to space limitations. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on how to right-click ...
Powering up and shutting down your ASUS laptop is an essential task for any laptop user. Locating the power button can sometimes be a hassle, especially if you’re new to ASUS laptops. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on where to find the power button on different ASUS laptop ...
Dell laptops are renowned for their reliability, performance, and versatility. Whether you’re a student, a professional, or just someone who needs a reliable computing device, a Dell laptop can meet your needs. However, if you’re new to Dell laptops, you may be wondering how to get started. In this comprehensive ...
Two-thirds of the country think that “New Zealand’s economy is rigged to advantage the rich and powerful”. They also believe that “New Zealand needs a strong leader to take the country back from the rich and powerful”. These are just two of a handful of stunning new survey results released ...
In today’s digital world, screenshots have become an indispensable tool for communication and documentation. Whether you need to capture an important email, preserve a website page, or share an error message, screenshots allow you to quickly and easily preserve digital information. If you’re an Asus laptop user, there are several ...
A factory reset restores your Gateway laptop to its original factory settings, erasing all data, apps, and personalizations. This can be necessary to resolve software issues, remove viruses, or prepare your laptop for sale or transfer. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to factory reset your Gateway laptop: Method 1: ...
“You talking about me?”The neoliberal denigration of the past was nowhere more unrelenting than in its depiction of the public service. The Post Office and the Railways were held up as being both irremediably inefficient and scandalously over-manned. Playwright Roger Hall’s “Glide Time” caricatures were presented as accurate depictions of ...
Roger Partridge writes – When the Coalition Government took office last October, it inherited a country on a precipice. With persistent inflation, decades of insipid productivity growth and crises in healthcare, education, housing and law and order, it is no exaggeration to suggest New Zealand’s first-world status was ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – In 2022, the Curriculum Centre at the Ministry of Education employed 308 staff, according to an Official Information Request. Earlier this week it was announced 202 of those staff were being cut. When you look up “The New Zealand Curriculum” on the Ministry of ...
Chris Bishop’s bill has stirred up a hornets nest of opposition. Photo: Lynn Grieveson for The KākāTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate from the last day included:A crescendo of opposition to the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill is ...
Monday left me brokenTuesday, I was through with hopingWednesday, my empty arms were openThursday, waiting for love, waiting for loveThe end of another week that left many of us asking WTF? What on earth has NZ gotten itself into and how on earth could people have voluntarily signed up for ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.State of humanity, 20242024, it feels, keeps presenting us with ever more challenges, ever more dismay.Do you give up yet? It seems to ask.No? How about this? Or this?How about this?Full story Share ...
Determining the hardest sport in the world is a subjective matter, as the difficulty level can vary depending on individual abilities, physical attributes, and experience. However, based on various factors including physical demands, technical skills, mental fortitude, and overall accomplishment, here is an exploration of some of the most challenging ...
The allure of sport transcends age, culture, and geographical boundaries. It captivates hearts, ignites passions, and provides unparalleled entertainment. Behind the spectacle, however, lies a fascinating world of financial investment and expenditure. Among the vast array of competitive pursuits, one question looms large: which sport carries the hefty title of ...
Introduction Pickleball, a rapidly growing paddle sport, has captured the hearts and imaginations of millions around the world. Its blend of tennis, badminton, and table tennis elements has made it a favorite among players of all ages and skill levels. As the sport’s popularity continues to surge, the question on ...
Abstract: Soccer, the global phenomenon captivating millions worldwide, has a rich history that spans centuries. Its origins trace back to ancient civilizations, but the modern version we know and love emerged through a complex interplay of cultural influences and innovations. This article delves into the fascinating journey of soccer’s evolution, ...
Tinting car windows offers numerous benefits, including enhanced privacy, reduced glare, UV protection, and a more stylish look for your vehicle. However, the cost of window tinting can vary significantly depending on several factors. This article provides a comprehensive guide to help you understand how much you can expect to ...
The pungent smell of gasoline in your car can be an alarming and potentially dangerous problem. Not only is the odor unpleasant, but it can also indicate a serious issue with your vehicle’s fuel system. In this article, we will explore the various reasons why your car may smell like ...
Tree sap can be a sticky, unsightly mess on your car’s exterior. It can be difficult to remove, but with the right techniques and products, you can restore your car to its former glory. Understanding Tree Sap Tree sap is a thick, viscous liquid produced by trees to seal wounds ...
The amount of paint needed to paint a car depends on a number of factors, including the size of the car, the number of coats you plan to apply, and the type of paint you are using. In general, you will need between 1 and 2 gallons of paint for ...
Jump-starting a car is a common task that can be performed even in adverse weather conditions like rain. However, safety precautions and proper techniques are crucial to avoid potential hazards. This comprehensive guide will provide detailed instructions on how to safely jump a car in the rain, ensuring both your ...
Graham Adams writes about the $55m media fund — When Patrick Gower was asked by Mike Hosking last week what he would say to the many Newstalk ZB callers who allege the Labour government bribed media with $55 million of taxpayers’ money via the Public Interest Journalism Fund — and ...
Note: this blog post has been put together over the course of the week I followed the happenings at the conference virtually. Should recordings of the Great Debates and possibly Union Symposia mentioned below, be released sometime after the conference ends, I'll include links to the ones I participated in. ...
The following was my submission made on the “Fast Track Approvals Bill”. This potential law will give three Ministers unchecked powers, un-paralled since the days of Robert Muldoon’s “Think Big” projects.The submission is written a bit tongue-in-cheek. But it’s irreverent because the FTAB is in itself not worthy of respect. ...
One Could Reduce Child Poverty At No Fiscal CostFollowing the Richardson/Shipley 1990 ‘redesign of the welfare state’ – which eliminated the universal Family Benefit and doubled the rate of child poverty – various income supplements for families have been added, the best known being ‘Working for Families’, introduced in 2005. ...
Buzz from the Beehive A few days ago, Point of Order suggested the media must be musing “on why Melissa is mute”. Our article reported that people working in the beleaguered media industry have cause to yearn for a minister as busy as Melissa Lee’s ministerial colleagues and we drew ...
1. What was The Curse of Jim Bolger?a. Winston Peters b. Soon after shaking his hand, world leaders would mysteriously lose office or shuffle off this mortal coilc. Could never shake off the Mother of All Budgetsd. Dandruff2. True or false? The Chairman of a Kiwi export business has asked the ...
Jack Vowles writes – New Zealand is said to be suffering from ‘serious populist discontent’. An IPSOS MORI survey has reported that we have an increasing preference for strong leaders, think that the economy is rigged toward the rich and powerful, and political elites are ignoring ‘hard-working people’. ...
Chris Trotter writes – MELISSA LEE should be deprived of her ministerial warrant. Her handling – or non-handling – of the crisis engulfing the New Zealand news media has been woeful. The fate of New Zealand’s two linear television networks, a question which the Minister of Broadcasting, Communications ...
TL;DR: The podcast above features co-hosts and , along with regular guests Robert Patman on Gaza and AUKUS II, and on climate change.The six things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the ...
Policymakers rarely wish to make plain or visible their desire to dismantle environmental policy, least of all to the young. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above between Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent ...
I like to keep an eye on what’s happening in places like the UK, the US, and over the ditch with our good mates the Aussies. Let’s call them AUKUS, for want of a better collective term. More on that in a bit.It used to be, not long ago, that ...
TL;DR: The global economy will be one fifth smaller than it would have otherwise been in 2050 as a result of climate damage, according to a new study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and published in the journal Nature. (See more detail and analysis below, and ...
New Zealand is said to be suffering from ‘serious populist discontent’. An IPSOS MORI survey has reported that we have an increasing preference for strong leaders, think that the economy is rigged toward the rich and powerful, and political elites are ignoring ‘hard-working people’. The data is from February this ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is understood to be planning a major speech within the next fortnight to clear up the confusion over whether or not New Zealand might join the AUKUS submarine project. So far, there have been conflicting signals from the Government. RNZ reported the Prime Minister yesterday in ...
Life throws curveballs, and sometimes, those curveballs necessitate wiping your iPhone clean and starting anew. Whether you’re facing persistent software glitches, preparing to sell your device, or simply wanting a fresh start, knowing how to factory reset iPhone without a computer is a valuable skill. While using a computer with ...
Gone are the days when communication was limited to landline phones and physical proximity. Today, computers have become powerful tools for connecting with people across the globe through voice and video calls. But with a plethora of applications and methods available, how to call someone on a computer might seem ...
Open access notables Glacial isostatic adjustment reduces past and future Arctic subsea permafrost, Creel et al., Nature Communications:Sea-level rise submerges terrestrial permafrost in the Arctic, turning it into subsea permafrost. Subsea permafrost underlies ~ 1.8 million km2 of Arctic continental shelf, with thicknesses in places exceeding 700 m. Sea-level variations over glacial-interglacial cycles control ...
The operating system (OS) is the heart and soul of a computer, orchestrating every action and interaction between hardware and software. But have you ever wondered where on a computer is the operating system generally stored? The answer lies in the intricate dance between hardware and software components, particularly within ...
Laptops have become essential tools for work, entertainment, and communication, offering portability and functionality. However, with rising energy costs and growing environmental concerns, understanding a laptop’s power consumption is more important than ever. So, how many watts does a laptop use? The answer, unfortunately, isn’t straightforward. It depends on several ...
Screen recording has become an essential tool for various purposes, such as creating tutorials, capturing gameplay footage, recording online meetings, or sharing information with others. Fortunately, Dell laptops offer several built-in and external options for screen recording, catering to different needs and preferences. This guide will explore various methods on ...
A cracked or damaged laptop screen can be a frustrating experience, impacting productivity and enjoyment. Fortunately, laptop screen repair is a common service offered by various repair shops and technicians. However, the cost of fixing a laptop screen can vary significantly depending on several factors. This article delves into the ...
Gaming laptops represent a significant investment for passionate gamers, offering portability and powerful performance for immersive gaming experiences. However, a common concern among potential buyers is their lifespan. Unlike desktop PCs, which allow for easier component upgrades, gaming laptops have inherent limitations due to their compact and integrated design. This ...
The annual inventory report of New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions has been released, showing that gross emissions have dropped for the third year in a row, to 78.4 million tons: All-told gross emissions have decreased by over 6 million tons since the Zero Carbon Act was passed in 2019. ...
Experiencing a locked computer can be frustrating, especially when you need access to your files and applications urgently. The methods to unlock your computer will vary depending on the specific situation and the type of lock you encounter. This guide will explore various scenarios and provide step-by-step instructions on how ...
While the world has largely transitioned to digital communication, faxing still holds relevance in certain industries and situations. Fortunately, gone are the days of bulky fax machines and dedicated phone lines. Today, you can easily send and receive faxes directly from your computer, offering a convenient and efficient way to ...
In our increasingly digital world, home computers have become essential tools for work, communication, entertainment, and more. However, this increased reliance on technology also exposes us to various cyber threats. Understanding these threats and taking proactive steps to protect your home computer is crucial for safeguarding your personal information, finances, ...
In the ever-evolving world of technology, server-based computing has emerged as a cornerstone of modern digital infrastructure. This article delves into the concept of server-based computing, exploring its various forms, benefits, challenges, and its impact on the way we work and interact with technology. Understanding Server-Based Computing: At its core, ...
The absolute brass neck of this guy.We want more medical doctors, not more spin doctors, Luxon was saying a couple of weeks ago, and now we’re told the guy has seven salaried adults on TikTok duty. Sorry, doing social media. The absolute brass neck of it. The irony that the ...
Buzz from the Beehive Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones relishes spatting and eagerly takes issue with environmentalists who criticise his enthusiasm for resource development. He relishes helping the fishing industry too. And so today, while the media are making much of the latest culling in the public service to ...
Having written, taught and worked for the US government on issues involving unconventional warfare and terrorism for 30-odd years, two things irritate me the most when the subject is discussed in public. The first is the Johnny-come-lately academics-turned-media commentators who … Continue reading → ...
Eric Crampton writes – Kainga Ora is the government’s house building agency. It’s been building a lot of social housing. Kainga Ora has its own (but independent) consenting authority, Consentium. It’s a neat idea. Rather than have to deal with building consents across each different territorial authority, Kainga Ora ...
Muriel Newman writes – The Coalition Government says it is moving with speed to deliver campaign promises and reverse the damage done by Labour. One of their key commitments is to “defend the principle that New Zealanders are equal before the law.” To achieve this, they have pledged they “will not advance ...
Chris Trotter writes – The absence of anything resembling a fightback from the public servants currently losing their jobs is interesting. State-sector workers’ collective fatalism in the face of Coalition cutbacks indicates a surprisingly broad acceptance of impermanence in the workplace. Fifty years ago, lay-offs in the thousands ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Māori are yet to see anything from this Government except cuts, reversals and taking our people backwards, Māori Development spokesperson Willie Jackson said. ...
The Coalition Government’s refusal to commit to ongoing funding for social housing is seeing the sector pull back on developments and families watch their dreams of securing a home fade away, says Labour Housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today paid tribute to Singapore’s outgoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Meeting in Singapore today immediately before Prime Minister Lee announced he was stepping down, Prime Minister Luxon warmly acknowledged his counterpart’s almost twenty years as leader, and the enduring legacy he has left for Singapore and South East ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. While in Singapore as part of his visit to South East Asia this week, Prime Minister Luxon also met with Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and will meet with Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has made further appointments to the Board of Antarctica New Zealand as part of a continued effort to ensure the Scott Base Redevelopment project is delivered in a cost-effective and efficient manner. The Minister has appointed Neville Harris as a new member of the Board. Mr ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis will travel to the United States on Tuesday to attend a meeting of the Five Finance Ministers group, with counterparts from Australia, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. “I am looking forward to meeting with our Five Finance partners on how we can work ...
The coalition Government has today announced purrfect and pawsitive changes to the Residential Tenancies Act to give tenants with pets greater choice when looking for a rental property, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Pets are important members of many Kiwi families. It’s estimated that around 64 per cent of New ...
State Highway 1 (SH1) through Wellington City is heavily congested at peak times and while planning continues on the duplicate Mt Victoria Tunnel and Basin Reserve project, the Government has also asked NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) to consider and provide advice on a Long Tunnel option, Transport Minister Simeon Brown ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters have condemned Iran’s shocking and illegal strikes against Israel. “These attacks are a major challenge to peace and stability in a region already under enormous pressure," Mr Luxon says. "We are deeply concerned that miscalculation on any side could ...
Hundreds of people in little over a week have turned out in Northland to hear Regional Development Minister Shane Jones speak about plans for boosting the regional economy through infrastructure. About 200 people from the infrastructure and associated sectors attended an event headlined by Mr Jones in Whangarei today. Last ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti has today thanked outgoing Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora Chair Dame Karen Poutasi for her service on the Board. “Dame Karen tendered her resignation as Chair and as a member of the Board today,” says Dr Reti. “I have asked her to ...
The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has signalled their proposed delivery approach for the Government’s 15 Roads of National Significance (RoNS), with the release of the State Highway Investment Proposal (SHIP) today, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Boosting economic growth and productivity is a key part of the Government’s plan to ...
New Zealand is renewing its connections with a world facing urgent challenges by pursuing an active, energetic foreign policy, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Our country faces the most unstable global environment in decades,” Mr Peters says at the conclusion of two weeks of engagements in Egypt, Europe and the United States. “We cannot afford to sit back in splendid ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced the Australian Governor-General, His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley and his wife Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley, will make a State visit to New Zealand from Tuesday 16 April to Thursday 18 April. The visit reciprocates the State visit of former Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced that Medsafe has approved 11 cold and flu medicines containing pseudoephedrine. Pharmaceutical suppliers have indicated they may be able to supply the first products in June. “This is much earlier than the original expectation of medicines being available by 2025. The Government recognised ...
New Zealand and the United States have recommitted to their strategic partnership in Washington DC today, pledging to work ever more closely together in support of shared values and interests, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The strategic environment that New Zealand and the United States face is considerably more ...
April 11, 2024 Joint Declaration by United States Secretary of State the Honorable Antony J. Blinken and New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs the Right Honourable Winston Peters We met today in Washington, D.C. to recommit to the historic partnership between our two countries and the principles that underpin it—rule ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor in Honiara Solomon Islands’ incumbent prime minister Manasseh Sogavare has been re-elected in the East Choiseul constituency. It is the opening move in the political chess match to form the country’s next government. Returning officer Christopher Makoni made the declaration late last night after ...
Headline: The moment of friction. – 36th Parallel Assessments In strategic studies “friction” is a term that it is used to describe the moment when military action encounters adversary resistance. “Friction” is one of four (along with an unofficial fifth) “F’s” in military strategy, which includes force (kinetic mass), ...
The Fast-track Bill, if passed, would allow three Ministers, unchallenged and unchecked, to approve the immediate extraction and exhaustion of one-off resources. ...
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People in Britain are hearing about greedy, bully boy and culture less government.
Eleanor Catton has shone a light on its crassness.
Good on her.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/30/eleanor-catton-blasts-critics-jingoistic-national-tantrum
And a good article explains how Key and Plunket have proved the point Catton was making.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11394725
Europe in revolt.
‘Tens of thousands rally in Madrid demanding end to austerity
Inspired by events in Greece, support grows for Podemos and its call for a new political order.’
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/31/podemos-spain-austerity-rally-madrid-syriza
(gratified to see my milk-health-concerns seeping thru into the mainstream/corporate-media.)
“..Milk does the body good? – A look at science..
..RECENT QUESTIONS:
Some scientists have begun to question previous statements about milk’s benefits.
For example – some researchers have noted low fracture rates in Asian countries where little milk is consumed-
– and questioned whether there is enough evidence to support the federal milk consumption recommendations.
What’s more – some studies have linked milk to risk of ovarian and prostate cancers–
– though many scientists believe more research is needed before drawing conclusions about milk as a cause.
THE SWEDISH STUDY
Last year a Swedish study published in a British medical journal –
– found women who drank three or more glasses a day died at a nearly twice the rate of those who drank less than one glass a day.
Broken bones were more common in women who were heavy milk drinkers – too..”
(cont..)
http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/well-good/teach-me/65631672/milk-does-the-body-good-a-look-at-science
In the Swedish study, they’re differentiating between milk, and fermented products like cheese and yoghurt.
“Further analysis showed a positive association between milk intake and biomarkers of oxidative stress and inflammation.
In contrast, a high intake of fermented milk products with a low lactose content (including yoghurt and cheese) was associated with reduced rates of mortality and fracture, particularly in women.”
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/10/141028214051.htm
I would posit two things here. One is that modern diets are high in refined sugars and so eating another high sugar food like milk is probably overloading people into earlier deaths from things like Syndrome X (via insulin resistance). This is true for big populations that have been studied like the US. I don’t know what the usual diets are like in Sweden.
The other is that traditional diets all over the world have prioritised fermented milk over unfermented. They also drink milk raw. These are crucial differences.
That article you link to has a pretty misleading and narrow visioned public health control approach to raw milk, so I wouldn’t take anything it says too seriously. It also fails to point out that the Swedish researchers say there is a correlation but no proven causation between milk consumption and early death, and completely ignores that the findings for fermented dairy were the opposite. This is typical of much superficial health reporting, and it’s also grossly negligent IMO. You need to go to professional medical and health journalists if you want to understand the research and what it means.
The Asian thing is a different story, because most people in east Asian countries are not genetically adapted to eating milk (although I’m curious about the cross overs between India/Tibet/Nepal etc and East Asia and where dairy stops being a traditional staple). The low fracture rate can also be attributed to other things in the diet rather than absence of milk.
Moderation is thr mantra.
Cheese yes cheese has been shown to be the most Dangerous food when it comes to strokes.
Those with a high consumption of cheese are the most likely to die of strokes.
High in fat and very high in salt!
are the reasons.
With our government about to hack into state housing, we will soon be in the state London is in.
‘Thousands gather in London to protest against lack of affordable housing
The March for Homes brings together campaigners, tenants and trade unionists to demand building of council homes and curbing of private rents.’
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jan/31/hundreds-gather-london-march-for-homes-protest-city-hall-affordable-housing
Here’s the guts of it by Paul Little –
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11394725
Bears repeating my earlier comment on “Eleanor Catton responds” –
“Deep inside Plunket squirms with embarrassment because he KNOWS he’s been OWNED by Eleanor Catton. Deliciously it’s all his own work.”
Is this a genuine John Key “muppet” or what ?
yeah..i don’t often link to little..but i did to that one…
Whereas Heather du Plessis-Allan can muster only catty passive-aggression to dampen Catton’s essential message. And in the process highlights it.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11394709
Ever seen Ms Heather giggly-mouthed cavorting on TVOne trying to be satellite to Key acolyte Hosking ?
Obscene it is. Another Cafe Society twit consumed by ‘self’ is Ms Heather.
du-plessy-allen is a shocker..
..she has proved that over and over again..
Land of the Wrong White Clowns
Never thought I’d recommend a Rodney Hide column but this is interesting reading.
“Little spoke of reducing inequality. Good. And even here he was interesting: he says the spin-off of reducing inequality is better growth. That, too, would be better for business and farmers.
Jobs and growth are his focus. And small business. That sets him apart from Key who, in his deals with Warner Bros, SkyCity and Rio Tinto, is tied to the big end of town.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11394722
What !! a labour leader who mentioned farmers ‘well I never’
Angry greenys In 321…
short-listed for silly-comment-of-the-day..?
..and so early in the day..!
..and did you miss the serial blowing of reassuring-kisses from norman to the cow-folk..?
Cool to use a dog trial term ” I hope I’m still on the board at the end of the day “
Yes I missed Normans comments? Look I support the greens I have voted for them once it’s the tarring us all as ecological destroyer s that I will attack at every chance.
Just yesterday weka said something about farmers pouring shit into the rivers and that is a lie on the odd occasion a farmer gets caught literally doing that the book gets thrown at them and rightly so.
I let it pass and I shouldn’t have.
Before dismissing it as an occasional event, you should watch the documentary River Dog
In short, it’s about a number of farmers in a region who regularly graze their cattle on a stretch of river and the lack of action by the authorities.
[Link fixed – MS]
so..waghorn..
..if the farmers aren’t doing it…
..who is making most of our rivers unswimmable/polluted..?
..the tooth-fairy..?
I have no doubt that that over stocking, use of urea and over irrigation is degrading rivers but as for pouring shit into the river, not happening and if any knows were it is they should report it.
r u not just fussing over a mostly irrelevant point..?
..the facts r..the rivers r fucked..farmers did it..
..any questions..?
FTFY
It’s not just that farmers are pouring shit into the rivers but that we have far too much land as farms. We need to decrease the amount of farms to be enough to feed us and that’s it.
I’ll say it again – let farmers get their drinking and house water from the river below their farms. If they want to drink shit water they can.
As long as all you’r water comes from below you’re town/city that’s fine
I don’t live in a town or city but rain is good so I get mine downstream from the clouds.
I would never say there are no good farmers – hell I know a few – but the bad ruin it for everyone – the good farmers have to tidy up their sandpit (farmers) rather than just hold their hands up pleading ignorance – they derive their profit from the commons and i think they are responsible to the commons too. And the same for cityfolk.
I’ve suggested to 3 bosses and two neighbours in the sheep n beef industry that they had a few creeks that would be easy to fence off it didn’t achieve much .
It’s going to take laws to make a change unfortunately.
It’s a pity shame doesn’t work.
I didn’t say farmers pour shit into rivers. I said NZers think it’s ok to pour shit into rivers. And I think it was obvious from the conversation that I didn’t mean this literally, but that we allow our rivers to be polluted by farming, mostly dairy farming. That’s not actually in dispute. Do you need a link?
I think you will also find that I’m one of the ones that’s been arguing recently for not lumping all farmers into one evil group and that it’s better to name the ones that are causing problems.
As for the GP, I suggest that you stop reading the spin via the media and go directly to the GP and see what they have to say about farming. They’re actually very supportive and progressive. You can look at their policy, which you may or may not agree with, but it’s not anti-farmer. You probably remember that Jeanette Fitzsimons was a farmer before during and after she was an MP and co-leader of the GP, and I see a lot of her influence in GP attitudes.
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-30012015/#comment-960150 This link would say other wise re cow shit and water
Yes, I know what you were referring to and I know what I said. I’ve just given you a detailed explanation of that. Did you even read it? How about you respond to my points?
edit, and just to make it really fucking clear, here’s what I said,
That’s not a statement about farmers, it’s a statement about NZers. As I explained.
then of course there are the green party bbq’s..
..where they show their support for the ‘industry’..
..in the most sincere/practical of ways..
“What !! a labour leader who mentioned farmers ‘well I never’
Angry greenys In 321…”
What does that mean?
Its very rear that labour appears to think about the rural sector IMO.
The next bit was a we poke/joke
Yeah, I don’t get it. Do you mean the greenies will be angry that Labour mentioned farmers? Bit subtle for me I’m afraid.
btw, I don’t think Little was talking about farming in his speech. He was talking about Fonterra, and the context was business productivity and worker rights. He did mention something about payouts but again, it was in the context of how the unions and Fonterra worked together.
i think that he was expecting u to come and grumble/grump at him..
..ready..?..3..2..1..
I think it’s important to read as a warning that Little still intends to let business run the show. The planet cannot afford growth any more. We have to discover how to live without it.
When Rodney Hide likes something, I worry even more. It’s quite possible they can see Key is on a downward slope and are grooming a right wing successor. Little already caved on squirrel powers. What is he going to give away without a fight next?
FJK and FAL.
I disagree with your interpretation, I think Hide is just doing what all the other rightwingers have done in the wake of the state of the nation.
Farrar and Hooton instantly jumped on the talk about small business to say “oh, but if you really cared about small business you’d scrap the policy to abolish 90-day trials!”
Now Hide is trying to goad Labour into doing something stupid by “praising” Little as a non-leftwing leader. Look at the way he wilfully quotes “it’s important to create wealth before you can share it” then re-writes it one sentence later as “it’s important to create wealth before you can spend it.” It’s the same old rightwing claptrap about Labour being a terrifying tax-and-spend party. He’s dogwhistling to the right on one hand and trying to unsettle the left with the other.
+1 So many whistles, it might be a dog trial.
He also pushed the divide between Labour and the crazy Greens who can’t be trusted.
Fairly typical Hyde, hard to see it as anything other than PR for NACT.
+1 Stephanie
Hard case that Rodney Hide believes the best way to find out what politicians are about is to listen to what they say – see opening line of the article.
By his own example that’s hardly good advice. Remember ThePerkBuster of yore ?
Again and again and again he said he was a straight-up, rort-hating type of guy.
Many people listened and believed that he was indeed what he said. Then it turns out that all along he was as bad a free-loading rorter, trougher, junketer, hypocrite as anyone. So no, listening doesn’t inform, particularly in respect of the Right.
The rest of his article – faint praise he can invoke later on to claim objectivity and balance. He remains an extreme right wing fantasist who’ll engage DP at will. Not to be trusted. Especially not on the score of what he says.
I never read Roddy’s columns why would I he is a non event politically and a certified failure.
Try NOT reading them a save your bloodpressure.
His last task of any note was throwing the carefully studied and thought out
plan for Auckland City into the rubbish bin and coming up with his version in a matter of months. Enough said.
Just another Herald hack.
And there’s more from NZH where they report on a 3 News/Reid Research poll and asks Has Key met his match?
It’s too soon to tell, and Labour’s recovery will take more than Little to step up a few notches, but this poll result looks promising for Little’s prospects.
Little sounds realistic about where he’s at now.
So this is promising for Little but more important for Labour will be the party poll result, which will be revealed on 3 New tonight at 6 pm.
Pretty shifty there Petey. After yesterday’s all out troling, a pretty much unanimous cry from participants to stop, including being being told off by a moderator, you’ve picked a topic that all the lefties here might agree with and will want to talk about despite it meaning having you in the conversation.
It would be nice to think you learnt something yesterday, but I think the thread showed that the community had learnt something instead.
I think you have a lot of bridges to mend before you can expect to take part here in any genuine way.
He’s out to get the nasty we hobbits he is they ruins it for him
Are you really thick? You could either:
1. Ignore the comment
2. Comment on the content
3. Start a new thread on the topic
4. Make it all about your petty crusade.
Chelsea 1, Manchester city 1.
Discuss
United Win 3-1
Liverpool 2-0
Five points clear with nine to go, I’m cautiously optimistic.
See?
🙄
more a ‘petey’-crusade..?
🙄
How about these idiot pollsters actually run polls on topic’s that people care about. Who gives a toss about dead beat former Labour leaders like Goff, Shearer, and too a lesser extent DC.
How about polling the U turn on further asset sales, given John Key wearing his National leaders hat categorically stated ‘no more asset sales’ during the last election campaign.
The Aussies in Queensland just threw the Tories out for the sheer mention of asset sales.
Did you vote for National to further sell public assets?
A public march protesting selling off state housing should be on the cards. Might see what can be arranged for up at Waitangi. Bit of a focus on asset sales might make the Nats visit that little bit more unpleasant.
Agreed.
A pointless poll to encourage people to talk about pointless subjects.
Petty George.
Your Wikipedia stats don’t match up to stats nz or treasury numbers.
Quite often wikipedia is historically inaccurate as it is a popularity contest.
And often Right wing spuriously funded insitutes Spam Wikipedia to alter historical facts!
All this does is clearly display the dismal level of political reporting in New Zealand.
The article tells me absolutely nothing of any import.
I want the 20 seconds of my life I wasted reading the article back!!
Yeeha! Good news from Queensland. The toxic little imitation of a man, Campbell Bjelke-Newman, has gone. Now I’m hoping for a reconstituted Crime and Misconduct Commission to put a few of the corrupt inbreds in prison.
that is an astonishing turn-around..
..i think labour were down to about 7-9 mp’s after the last election..
..where they were whupped for promising not to sell-assets..
..and then selling assets..
..(much like key is doing here with state houses..and whatever upcoming/still-secret nasty-surprises he has lined up..)
..labour have again promised not to sell-assets..
..and they will likely keep their word this time..
That and reversing newmans gutting of the party donations legislation Anna Bligh rolled out so they could do as has been done here.
Unlike here Newman couldn’t own the MSM and had the bad luck / karma of getting on the wrong side of Alan jones over a mine in his home area. Jonesy paid out on him big time.
That and the perception that Campbell comes across as an arrogant bullying establishment twat.
Jones works in NSW. The LNP does pretty much run the Queensland media. The Courier Mail, Brisbane’s only daily, is a piece of Murdoch trash. It makes Whalespew look balanced.
Jones was raised in Acland, west of Brisbane where a coal mine expansion isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.
Yes he works in Sydney, most of the top shock jocks do but they treasure their Aussie battler image, good for the ratings etc and Newman went up against that.
A return to work thanks to the pain relief effects of Cannabis, here in NZ, cost savings abound.
http://yournz.org/2015/01/31/medicinal-cannabis-and-the-return-to-work/
Alternate address
https://mmj4chronicpain.wordpress.com/2015/02/01/medicinal-cannabis-and-the-return-to-work/
as you are a running-dog/fellow-traveller with the beige-one..
..r u able to confirm 4 us the beige safari-jacket/perma-press polyester-trousers/ elastic-sided ‘loafers’ rumours..?
That’s such a great write up Shane, thanks. Her story covers so many important points, esp about the failures of legal meds and the problems when medical staff get stuck in their prejudices about pain syndromes. Very good to hear the success too, and the details on how she figured out what to do.
btw, your blog is looking good. Nice layout, uncluttered, easy to read and access, all of which is important for people in pain. The only thing I’d suggest is changing the header texts to a dark colour as the white is hard to read.
heh..!..and there is some more of that passive-aggression..g.p.-style..
.’cos..y’see..that weka has done nothing but serially-sneer at my efforts/postings in support of medical-cannabis..
..and then you come along..and she falls over herself in her fawning…
..v.funny..!
..and so so obvious..it sticks out like a vegan at a green party bbq…
Hang on, did you just say that I’m having a go at you by commenting positively to someone else when you’re not even in the conversation??
I’ve not serially sneered at your efforts/postings on dak. I’ve said I can’t read your comments because you insist on posting illiterately. Apart from you being pro-cannabis, I don’t actually know much about your position.
You’ve done this before phil, confused my critiques of your position on veganism with my non-critiques of your views on cannabis. I suggest from now on you link to show what you are talking about, otherwise I’ll just be telling you to fuck right off.
oh..!..i must have missed yr fawning-support for all the med-pot pieces i have posted..
..my bad..!
Did you read what Weka said, Phil? Make any attempt to understand it?
did you miss my point..?..(selective-fawning..)
..(the ‘point’ that still stands..)
“..Make any attempt to understand it?..”
Like Weka, I find your comments unreadable.
However, in this case, I think the spectacle of a grown man whining that someone else is getting attention is a little…Petty, to say the least.
that’s ‘petey’..
..and no..’whine’-free..i am laughing @ the inconsistancies/blatant-biases/passive-aggression of the weka..
..i really couldn’t give a fuck..otherwise..
..and that wd also go for yr also being ‘unable to read’..
..go and stand in the corner..next to her…
..share yr ignorance..
😆
Keep telling yourself that Phil.
yr..right..!..
..i really just want weka/you to love me..!
..i lie awake at nite – tossing and turning..(that’s ‘toss’ in its’ rolling-over meaning..but not always..)
..sob..!
..heh..!
..you’ll get comedian-of-the-day – if yr not careful..
“.i really couldn’t give a fuck”
funny you’re making plenty of comments like you actually do give a fuck – you know, often the trailblazer doesn’t get the recognition they covert but that doesn’t mean the contribution wasn’t valuable
interesting/amusing typo..
..and arguing for med-pot in the 60’s might have been ‘trailblazing’..
..hardly now..
..and i am pointing out a knowledge-asset to a (welcomed) new campaigner in that cause..
..who seem to believe i have done ten yrs of bong-reviews..
..and that his ‘rational’-arguments will be like a tsunami in a desert..(more than a whiff of hubris there/in that..)
..and when general-polling shows 87% of new zealanders favour ending prohibition..
..is he targeting that recalcitrant 13% of right/left-wingers/non-thinkers..?
..to my mind the arguments have been made/won..
..it is the politicians who are the problem..
..not the proving/arguing of the ‘rational’ evidence..
no typo 🙂
but seriously – what’s the point?
ahh I see you added the point – seems a bit more to it than that but whatever
phil,
I DON’T READ YOUR POSTS ON YOUR BLOG, OR 95% OF YOUR COMMENTS ON TS.
Grow the fuck up.
shouting won’t help weka..u know that…
(what was that ‘boom!’-sound..?
..was that the sound of an exploding weka..?..)
“..I’ve said I can’t read your comment..”
..yet..u seem to be able to..
..does someone translate 4 u..?
ok, fine. You’re in full out trole mode, happy to treat you as such.
translator present then..?
I know your supportive Phil, my POV is from the middle using rational arguments, I haven’t read your work, but If you are a sufferer yourself, you may not be looking at things from the other side of the fence? this post was to appeal to Tory concerns of cost etc, one less person a sickness benny, but there are many more like her.
yes..that is one of many facets i cover/have covered..
..I don’t just do bong-reviews..in fact i have never done a bong-review..
..what i have done is cached ten yrs worth of material/evidence in support of that cause..
..maybe you need to read not so much /’my work’..
..but the small mountain of evidence from others..
..that i have collected/collated/cached..
http://whoar.co.nz/?s=medical+marijuana+cannabis
(and i don’t wanna go all sub-editor on you..
..but i wd tweak the end of yr intro..
(in my ‘teaser’ i inserted another word..did the edit for you..)
(and we are all ‘sufferers’..it’s the human-condition..)
thanks, will keep that as a bookmark to go through, thanks for the repost. (I assume it was you)
thanks, will keep that as a bookmark to go through, thanks for the repost. (I assume it was you)
Get over yourself, FFS. There was no passive aggression in weka’s comment. There was in your one about PG’s clothing. You should just be happy that someone is pushing something that you agree with. Try it.
yeah I know, unpaid one wont let me change the color, 🙁
that’s a bit harsh on petey..!
..does he insist on pastels..?
No, on the alternative site of my own, using the free wordpress schemes, the white text header doesnt go so well on on the light green leaves.
whoar..!..yes..i did know what u meant..
..r u aware of the rightwing s.o.h-byepass syndrome..?
..do you recognise the symptoms..?
SOH byepass, stop speaking in riddles! out with it! 🙂
sense-of-humour.
bummer. WordPress went more towards paid in recent years. You used to be able to get themes with lots of control for free. The theme you are using is very nice otherwise though.
‘should i break out the doilies..?..cup of tea..?..’
How about a nice cold cup of sour grapes? 😆
..sounds good..i like the bitter/tart..
Jesus phil, if you’re trying to convince us that you really don’t care about weka paying someone else positive attention you’re going about it all wrong.
r u seriously saying u cannot see the incongruities i highlighted..?
..the sneer/fawn-contrast..(and weka suddenly finding an inner pot-warrior..?..whoar..!..colour me pot-surprised..!)
..i actually find it filed under ‘funny’..
..along with being ‘unable to read comments’..but seeming able to do so..
..when it is so desired..
..no amusing-pattern available there 4 u..?
..nothing of any note..?
Unreadable prose
Or unread erudition
Meh I scroll along
Last time phil did this, in the Spring, it was the claim that while he was on his ban I’d “pumped out yr (un-cited/footnoted) prohibitionist/anti-pot bullshit while i wasn’t here”.
I tried to point out that wasn’t true and eventually posted this comment, which is a search engine result for the time period in question, of weka +cannabis. The results show that I am pro-use and pro-decriminalisation (which I am).
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-24112014/#comment-930382
What I didn’t say in that thread was that while phil was on his ban I posted some critical comments about vegan diets when they are presented as the one true way for all humans (I would link but the search still doesn’t go back past 35 pages. 35 pages of phil’s comments only takes us back to the end of Dec).
I think phil has gotten confused between his two pet projects and is now set in his head that I am anti-pot. I’m not even anti-vegan except where it’s presented as the one true way or as a quick fix for CC/the environment.
Phil, I haven’t said I can’t read your comments, I’ve said they are difficult for me to read so I don’t usually bother. Please don’t distort what I say. It’s starting to look like you are making up another lie about me.
Now, unless you can link to back up your assertions about me, I’m just going to keep linking back to this comment and the link above to demonstrated what you are more than happy to tell lies about someone even when you’ve been proven wrong (twice).
“..35 pages of phil’s comments only takes us back to the end of Dec)…”
bloody hell..!
Categorising weka’s response as “fawning” because she gives a few simple compliments on a new blogger’s work is a sad little tactic.
You have outright lied about weka’s past behaviour and comments in order to fabricate a “pattern” to justify your harassment.
I’m also in the club of people who, 95% of the time, scroll past anything you say because it’s rarely worth the effort of interpretation. But when I see you having a personal go at someone just because they liked someone else’s work and didn’t kiss your ass sufficiently to your liking, I make the effort.
power-imbalance kicks in again…eh..?
..and stills my tongue..
..i wd like to draw this exchange to a close..
Ah, so we should all read what you want, discuss what you want, and cease discussion when you want.
Who are you, Louis XIV? 🙄
“power-imbalance kicks in again…eh..?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKNxeF4KMsY
um..!..no..
..more a fear of banning..
..what about ‘power imbalance’ do u not understand..?
..you really do have the intelligence of a broom-handle..
..don’t you..?
“..more a fear of banning..”
Which buys your silence, which makes you a coward, which proves me right, which trumps your faux intellectualism.
Question:
Does NZ still have some sort of press club – as in 4th Estate?
Back in the 70’s there used to be a primitive sort of thing in Hobson Street where various journalists went to get pissed as newts – even then nothing like the Australian Press Club that provides a venue where journalists and jonolists can have politicians give speeches and call them to account.
Oh there’s a club alright, but not as you’ve described it.
A long list of media hacks in club national too.
Henry, hoskings, Sabin, Simpson, young, hide etc as one subset of them with public declarations of support for national and or family connections before we start on the ones who play the impartial commenter role.
All that and DP thrown in for good measure, relentlessness and effective is what it has grown into while the sheeple graze on gazing at their house values thinking all is well in my world.
as I imagined then. One where they all go to get pissed and feed off each others egos. Where is it? The TVNZ caf, or Backbenches, or Mermaid’s possibly? Or maybe Barry and Heather’s basement?
They rotate venues think it’s Hoskings or Smiths, correction it’s a BBQ on the back lawn at Garner and boyfriend Gowers place.
“Shoot him in the back of the head.”
The BBC’s comedy crisis is now more than just a sick joke.
Since it was effectively spavined following its brief deviation into the reporting of facts that exposed government crimes in 2003 [1], the BBC has turned into nothing much more than the propaganda arm of the British government. In the rare event that a dissident, no matter how brilliant and respected, appears on a show like HARDtalk, he or she is almost inevitably hectored and ceaselessly interrupted, [2] in stark contrast to the virtually open forum accorded the continual stream of paid government, corporate and military spokespeople who appear.
The BBC has moved to censor, curb and/or ban its own “unacceptable” and critical voices too: clever and thoughtful talents like Frankie Boyle are systematically excluded from its increasingly anodyne comedy panel shows. Even the hilarious—and nonpolitical—Jack Dee was recently in danger of being censored by the mediocracy in charge of the modern BBC, [3] while crude, racist, unfunny but government-friendly louts like Jeremy Clarkson are indulged repeatedly. [4]
And now the BBC, which has given the world such immortal comedy-writing teams as Galton and Simpson, Croft and Perry, Esmonde and Larbey, Jay and Lynn, Clement and La Frenais, Curtis and Atkinson—to name only a few at random from a stratosphere of brilliance—has commissioned a team of “comedy” writers to make light of the British government’s persecution of the dissident journalist Julian Assange. I say “make light of” advisedly, because in case anyone harboured any lingering hope that the BBC might extend even a hint of fair treatment to Cabinet Enemy No. 1, consider this grim fact: the writer of this new “comedy” once called for the police to publicly shoot the Wikileaks founder in the head.
The Corporation’s comedy crisis, which was already painfully obvious, is now an unmitigated embarrassment. We are now accepting from the BBC the kind of anti-dissident ridicule that spewed out of Moscow in the 1930s and ’40s, and out of Peking in the 1960s and 70s. I would not be surprised at all to see some vicious moron like A.A. Gill appear on a special broadcast some time soon and start ranting from his prepared script: “It is our aim to expose and criticize the ways in which the political swindler Julian Assange made use of reactionary trends and reactionary schools of thought to attack the proletariat, so that we can fight more effectively against such swindlers.”
And they say the AMERICANS have no sense of irony…
Fury over BBC writer’s ‘kill Assange’ tweet
Chortle, 30 January 2015
The writer of the BBC’s new comedy inspired by Julian Assange once called for the police to publicly shoot the Wikileaks founder in the head.
Supporters of Assange say tweets Thom Phipps posted about him were ‘shocking’ and ‘dangerous’ – and make him unfit to write about the issue. BBC Four’s new three-part sitcom Asylum is inspired by the controversial figure’s enforced stay in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. He took refuge there in June 2012 to escape extradition to Sweden on sexual assault charges, which he fears will pave the way for him to be sent to the US to face an espionage trial.
Two months after Assange was given political asylum, Phipps posted: ‘If the met [police] want to regain my trust they should drag Assange out the embassy + shoot him in the back of th head in the middle of traf square.’ Phipps now says: ‘It was something I tweeted over two years ago and it was clearly a joke.’
However, backers of Assange took the issue more seriously, and have complained to the BBC over its ‘shameful’ decision to employ Phipps. One of them, Emmy Butlin, said Phipps ‘advocated for the public extrajudicial assassination’ of the Wikileaks founder and queried why the corporation would ’employ someone with extreme views’ to write the comedy.
She is also angry that the show is to air as part of the BBC’s Taking Liberties season to mark the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta, saying: ‘Mr Phipps has called for Mr Assange’s assassination, going against the most fundamental principals.’
On her blog she also highlighted another tweet Phipps made in 2012, saying: ‘its cool to imagine assange as a spartacus figure cuz that means he’s going to be forcibly nailed to a piece of wood at one point.’
Another blog, Domestic Empire, complained that the ‘writer chosen to write Assange-inspired comedy advocates murder over democratic free speech’.
Butlin complained to the Corporation saying: ‘I find it offensive that Mr Phipps who has publicly incited violence and propagated the murder of Mr Assange, has been employed by the BBC’ and calling for action…..
Read more….
http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2015/01/30/21744/fury_over_bbc_writers_kill_assange_tweet
[1] http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2004/07/butl-j16.html
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B00qgKnz-uU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNAKWF1uQ08
[3] http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2014/jun/20/jack-dee-threatens-to-leave-im-sorry-i-havent-a-clue
[4] http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/lostinshowbiz/2011/sep/15/day-the-festival-dream-died
Morrisey, I can’t tell if those are your words or someone elses. Didn’t we have this conversation?
Sorry, weka. My words are the first four paragraphs, and then I cite the article from Chortle. Maybe I should just give the link in future after my preamble.
You obviously know how to use html tags. Is there some reason you won’t use blockquotes? Or italics?
Actually, I don’t know how to do the blockquotes technique. I don’t use italics except for emphasis and titles.
What do you have to mark up to get blockquotes?
Instead of bold /bold write blockquote /blockquote
http://thestandard.org.nz/faq/#simple_tags
Most people on ts are using either blockquote or italics to quote, or if it’s very short, “double quotes”. It’s a kind of informal house style. Not saying you have to use these, you may find another way, but it’s that same thing of making comments accessible and respecting the readers enough to make it clear what you are saying, and what is something else’s words (that’s respect for the other writers too).
Thanks very much! You’re a big help.
Cool. I just had to edit that because it kept reverting my examples to html, so hope it’s clearer now.
Interesting to see the way Frankie Boyle’s been given the cold shoulder over the last couple of years.
He is especially impressive and thoughtful in the following interview, in spite of the irritating interviewer….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MRz9RPlsDQ
Short but crucial reading for anyone wanting to understand more about the role of women in Islam in the US context. I think there are also things here for the West to learn about the value of gender specific spaces, and how culture affects that.
http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-82686764/
National Party values on display again.
Yep. According to David Seymour, it seems perversion is the point at which a teacher becomes unsuitable.
Any other dodgy behaviour?
In fine ACT tradition, no worries.
David Seymour is reported as saying “The worst thing I could do is to prejudge it if there isn’t anything perverse,”
So he was saying perversion is the point at which they can be prejudged, which might be unwelcome news by any who have been falsely accused of a crime.
good laugh for a Sun morning.
http://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/richard-dawkins-reads-hate-mail-fans
Is weka the most bat shit crazy contributor on this site
Discussion
[r0b: I will let this comment through, but I strongly suggest not feeding the troll]
no..
..t.s. has the likes of wayne-the-warmonger..and missry-guts…
..u also step up sometimes..eh..?
..with yr ‘batshit-crazy’ rightwing ideas..
..eh..?
Nope, the most bat shit crazy contributor is Draco “lets smash comets and dwarf planets into Mars to make it more habitable” T Bastard.
It’d make a good movie, but I’m afraid science fiction ain’t gonna save this civilisation.
weka os one the most sane, actually I can’t think of anyone here I’d call ‘bat shit crazy’.
Worst tr0ll: Gosman, srylands
Worst waste of time: Pete George
Worst writing style / most pointless arguments: Phil Ure
Agreed fully, except fisiani gets a special commendation for being the closest to being a trousered ape.
How can you be sure that he wears trousers while commenting on The Standard?
i always thought he had fins and a fish tail
Not even close. Have a look at a couple of comments from one contributor:
“Global warming was made up by the Masons, was it not.”
“Proud to be a bigot, […] call me a bigot, I don’t care.”
yeah..that’s pretty ‘woof!..woof!’..
Not by a long shot. I’d say you’d be a better candidate for that title.
Murdoch on the differences between Norman’s resignation and Sabin’s (also GP leadership and National).
https://twitter.com/domesticanimal/status/561632145433559042
Past and Present
http://thebilzerianreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/past-present.gif
This battleground between indigenous people and projects designed to maintain the extravagant western lifestyles is HOT and will continue to heat up.
http://whoaremypeople.com/
What price progress? Who pays that price?
This.
It’s why the whole green tech as saviour thing is just wrong, because it keeps us in the same belief systems, value systems and behaviours as what got us in this mess in the first place. It won’t solve CC, and even if it did we would still fuck up all the other things that are consequences of humans ruling the world.
Am I missing something or is John Roughan actually saying something quite on to it here?
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11394288
see first comment in yesterdays’ o.m..
I find this:
“Since the reforms of the 80s, New Zealand has enjoyed low inflation and economic growth that has enabled wages to rise more than prices, increasing the national living standard.”
Hard to square with this:
“child … poverty rate in recent years has been around 25%; this is almost twice the rate experienced during the 1980s, which averaged about 13%” (Perry 2012, 124)
How so? Isn’t that the discrepancy between beneficiaries and wager earners, with child poverty being weighted into the beneficiary group? I would expect the increase in standard of living just means some people are doing way better and others are doing worse ie they’re not using a very subtle measuring tool.
I imagine he is technically correct, and the average standard of living has increased.
Real shame that during that time the percentage of children in poverty has nearly doubled.
Might be worth seeing if the median standard of living has increased.
Well he is of the class that has done very well out of the 80s reforms, so I expect he is blind, probable willfully blind, to the numbers of people that haven’t done well.
I don’t know how they measure standard of living. Hopefully a boffin will post.
The child poverty increased with the Richardson black budget which slashed beneficiary rates – and these have never been increased back to the level they were at during the 1980s.
Let’s all ignore climate change.
“Why the Keystone XL Will Be Built”
by DR. KENT MOORS | published January 30th, 2015
“So far, the biggest hurdle has been the environmental concerns.”
Wrong!
By far, the biggest hurdle has been concerns about climate change.
Why climate change is not an environmental issue
lol
Plot idea: 97% of the world’s scientists contrive an environmental crisis, but are exposed by a plucky band of billionaires & oil companies.
https://twitter.com/scottwesterfeld/status/446805144781348865
Fonterra lurching from crisis to farce and all points in between.
sounds sticky.
David Cunliffe on Facebook.
I for one hope that means scrapping the student loan scheme is on the table.
It’s time NZ started following international best practice, by making education free, rather than continuing to unthinkingly follow failed ideology. This applies to other policies too.
Be nice to see Labour wake up from its market fundamentalist stupor.
TV3 poll out tonight. Oh well. Never mind.
I wonder if they are going to announce Gerry Brownlee comes out in support of his mini me national list MP to seek the party nomination to contest the candidacy and become the next Northland MP. This comes after he failed to beat Shane Reti for the Whangarei candidacy. Brownlee is rumoured to be heading to Waitangi in an attempt to secure the nod for his mini me from party members.
Apparently Gerrys errant boy has contacted the head chef at the Copthorpe hotel Waitangi and will be forwarding Gerrys dietary requests, including his favorite pork pie recipe.
is that the one where he gets served the whole pig on a platter..?
..with some pastry on the sides..?
Close Phil.
The whole 200kg pig is spit roasted and then pastry wrapped and glazed. The newbie MP’s get briefed not to get too close to Brownlee whilst eating his pork pie. Appears Gerry is well known for lashing out at the trough, guess you just have to look at Nic Smiths scarred face as proof.
does anyone know how long nic smith has been a gurner..?
..it is one of the highlights of commentating on q-time..
..smith somewhere in shot..
..gurning his little head off..
Rumor has it Gerry prefers whale blubber.
what is it with the young people of today..?
..that lorde..and that ko…
..are they trying to make the rest of us feel inadequate..?
..or something..?
Girls to we’ll have to left our game us blokes.
Kiwi boys are doing much worse in school and university numbers these days, not that anyone cares enough to take affirmative action.
well, that went downhill quickly.
From young people are awesome to the men’s rights brigade in three short comments.
Like I said, few people give a shit.
That’s not actually true.
It’s just that few people are so obsessed with whinging that they push that particular barrow at the slightest (and yes, it was very slight) excuse.
Shit I was having a joke didn’t work obviously.
Depends on the audience.
I thought it was pretty reasonable.
And (sadly) one of the few times I could both understand and agree with ure, the thread gets zonked by someone who can’t just feel happy about recognising the success of others without turning it into a whinge-fest.
that battle is well lost..
..tho’ lord did have little-the-ditty-maker..
..and ko did have that bloke-coach for all of those development yrs..
Just watched TV3 news & Gower was showing his bias & arse licking towards Key & was blatantly putting the knife into Andrew Little, while reporting on the latest poll. Every time I see Gower or hear his voice it makes me want to puke.
I wondered how long it would take Gower to put the knife in to Andrew Little.
Looks like Dirty Politics part 2 has begun
Do you remember the poll numbers?
I think it was 49% national & 28% labour.
– National 49.8% (up 2,8)
– Labour 29.1% (up 4.0)
– Greens 9.3% (down 1,4)
– NZ First 6.9% (down 1.9)
– Conservatives 2.7% (down 1.3)
– Maori Party 1.3% (no change)
– Internet Mana 0.6% (down 0.8)
– ACT 0.4% (down 0.3)
– United Future 0% (down 0.2)
More details: http://yournz.org/2015/02/01/3-news-poll-first-for-2015/
NAT – 49.8% –
LAB – 29.1 –
GRN – 9.3
NZf – 6.9
CON 2.7
MAO- 1.3%
INT-MANA 0.6
ACT – 0.4%
UF – 0
National really high and Labour cannabilising the Left
It will be interesting to see if you’re still crowing here in 2016
Awwww, Fisi, Fisi, Fisi, why must we go through this charade every single time ?
Reality:
Labour cannibalising the Left, National cannibalising the Right.
National would have drawn its gains from the Cons and NZF. Labour would have made its gains from the Greens, NZF and IMP. Internet-Mana is pretty much dead (although I wouldn’t rule out Harawira making a successful run in 2017).
NZF is the big loser in this poll. As Little continues to build his profile, he should start pulling some soft National supporters too as the year progresses.
I also think international trends will play into 2017. We ‘re looking at a single-term LNP government in Australia and in the UK Labour are enjoying a narrow lead (with the further spoiler of UKIP likely to split the Tory vote in this year’s election). Our electoral outlook may synch up with the rest of the Anglosphere.
Yes the Tories have wreacked havoc in the UK, Cameron and his cronies will be sent packing as will idiot Abbott in OZ.
Which makes things a lot easier here. Little is smart enough to either get the Left leaders out here or get on a plane and go on a visit to strengthen relationships. Key should get the cold shoulder from them.
New Zealander’s are sheep and if the slogan ‘time for a change’ is repeated often enough they will duly oblige by voting the Nats out. The odds are Key will hand over the leadership once the worm really turns. Sabin’s hurried exit is the start of a bad year for Key and it will get worst I’m picking.
I just hope you are right.
I am worried the government will press ahead with the TPP, charter schools, destroying the RMA, and privatising health and housing further.
Key is desperate to comply with instructions from America to get the TPPA signed and our fate sealed, the EMA is all part and parcel. The Maori-Tory party should ethically cross the house as the TPPA & RMA reforms will lead to bad outcomes for Maori in particular.
Anyway the last anti TPPA rallies were well attended, I can see huge crowds at the next round.
fisi..never mind a silly poll..
..isn’t it exciting what has happened in greece..?
..and is about to also happen in spaim/portugal/scotland..and likely ireland..
..in the fairly near future..
..the destruction of the neo-lib paradigm..?..(i do so like writing those words..)
..isn’t it exciting..?
..and given yr political-analysis skills..
..how much contagion d’ya reckon will have seeped down here by ’17..?
..and how about that labour in that queensland..eh..?
..from 7 mp’s to ruling..now that is a landslide on steroids..
..are you at all fretting about these outbreaks of lefty-looniness all over the place..?
..if u aren’t..u r seriously in denial..eh..?
..and for us..happier days soon..eh..?
Every second typing messages to fisi and his ilk is a second of your life wasted.
nah..!..he is just a foil..
..a blank sheet upon which to write..
Abbot s called a emergency cabinet meeting wonder if he’s going to quit.
Cheers fellas.
If only our opposition politicians dealt with our media the way Greece’s New Finance Minister handles a Newsnight Interview.
Greece’s new finance minister Yanis Varoufakis interviewed on 30 January 2015 on BBC’s Newsnight.
“As a fan of the BBC, I must say I was appalled by the depths of inaccuracy in the reporting underpinning this interview (not to mention the presenter’s considerable rudeness).Still, and despite the cold wind on that balcony, it was fun!” – Yanis Varoufakis
Full interview here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiIO4YciewU