Watch out for the petition from Su’a William Sio to be presented in Parliament this week, from people anxious about the East-West link. I think this is going to be quite a movement against this massive arterial/motorway, and a key organising issue leading to the election next year for southern Auckland.
+1 don’t need be vegan to be healthy but for some people it’s seems to be the only way they finally get how to do so. A bit like going gluten free did for me even though I don’t weight problem in the sense of being too heavy more not heavy enough. Of course unlike Vegans it’s not a lifestyle choice because a medical condition isn’t really a choice. Even though more crap food is becoming gluten free I built up such a great eating habit I don’t want eat that stuff.
As much as I appreciate some of the appeals of the vegan lifestyle, I personally view it as a diet of affluence even moreso than meat eating because the missing dietary requirements usually have to be met through supplements (it’s the only way I’ve ever managed it) or specific targeting of foods that aren’t easy to locally produce in any single environment.
Meat-eating is still highly intensive but I have personally found that chickens will eat your vegetable scraps and scrounge around grass/garden areas very effectively (not requiring much maintenance), provide eggs and one of the best lean meat protein sources available.
The issues with our food production is *how* we do it, not *what* we eat…
uh – I am not talking about “expense” in dollar terms. I was actually referring to the high-level technological/transport infrastructure that is required just to meet a vegan diet. It is a diet that in use only in affluent nations where the infrastructure exists to provide the necessary nutrition through more advanced means.
Sooooooo… basically you just confirmed my hypothesis. You are getting a necessary vitamin that is readily available through meat consumption from your local supermarket…
It’s what I was trying to point out – those food miles add up and they are a significant contribution to issues in the world. On top of that, these are food products available here and around the Western world in our supermarkets because we *are* affluent societies. We *can* go down to the supermarket and, as long as we have the cash, buy these things.
Others may argue about the health benefits, I could care less. I’m more concerned about the misrepresentation of veganism as a viable alternative in a low energy economy.
You might be better to follow the other part of his advice. “I was so congested from all the drugs and bad cocaine”.
Better you gave up the drugs and see how much better you will be. Why you might even get a job and get off the benefit system.
David Scott won 6 World Ironman championships as a vegan. Peter Brock is a vegan as are Mac Danzig, Ruth Heidrich and Greg Chappell just to name a few of many top vegan athletes.
And on it goes, the wailing of ex-Green Party candidate David Hay at the Party decision not to include Him on it’s 2014 Party Vote list just became farcical as Hay calls for Green Party activists and volunteers to ‘strike’ over what He sees as unwarranted treatment by the Party,
It would seem that Hay is more than happy to use the NZ Herald in what can only be described as a futile attempt to split the Party,(and the Herald will more than happily indulge Hay in His elongated hissy fit),
What the ongoing public display of child-like whining from Hay shows about Hay’s character to me is that it was the ME aspect of Hays character that lead His political ‘thinking’ and as his self advancement has been stymied He has no further use for the Party and is happy to attempt to ferment dissent within it,
My view is that the sooner the Party makes the ex-candidate an ex-member the better for all it will be…
Well said Marama, you have to wonder what irks or eats away at the mind of the David Hay’s of this world, how many candidates have put their names forward to the Green Party,(and any other for that matter),only to be rejected by a selection committee,
Zillions i would say over the decades and do they all run off to the media whining like beaten dogs over having had their ego’s bruised, like hell they do and my opinion is the well disciplined Green Party has escaped a bullet by not selecting a candidate, who by His actions has shown He cares little for the discipline or the unity of the Party,
While the Green Party sticks to both arms of it’s it’s foundation, Enviroment and Social justice and equality for all then the Parliamentary members can expect the full support of the members and quite frankly those who wish to exploit their ego driven agenda at the expense of the Party should be invited to fuck off and join Colon Craig…
The David Hay thing seems all a bit odd to me. Never heard of the guy before – so he can’t have much of a political/activist profile, even though he was on last election’s list.
And there’s been vague accusations about the GP having moved away from its core values, but nothing explicit.
OTOH, Hay has been deemed unsuitable to be on the GP list, with no clear reasons given – though Hay’s own actions in the last week make him look like he’s not GP material – all ME and little about being a team player or anything about the ways he’s working for the good of the community.
Yep a narrative for people to relate to. Different approach to well lit guys in suits saying vote for ME! Many previous candidate ads could be mistaken for network tv or radio ads. Also put spot ads on facebook.
The Green campaign a couple of elections ago using a young girl broke convention a little, ditch ad agency orthodoxy but don’t go too negative on the Key gang, go positive on Labour Green Mana–“you deserve better”.
I was wondering about the legality of signs with just a face that people hold up in the street or at at political meetings or in the background of TV interviews. Do they need an authorisation statement? I hope not, because I want to make some.
e.g. a Muldoon face in the background when Key is being interviewed on TV. I’m not actually going to do that one but you get the idea. http://i40.tinypic.com/2mdl7vr.jpg
I doubt that anything about Muldoon would really work today. I suspect that only people near retirement age actually remember him. It will be, after all, at the time of the next election, 30 years since Muldoon was PM and about 22 since he died.
Try finding someone under the age of 45, excluding the sort of people who remain glued to these blogs, who actually remembers Rob. Even the people of any age who do remember would be hard pressed to tell you anything bad about him. That is except for the ones that believe that Saint Roger Douglas cleaned up the mess Rob caused. Very old people would tell you he gave them super at 80% of the average wage and that you got it at 60, not like the 67 these evil Labour people want to impose.
No it would be a bit like saying what a terible man Forbes was as PM.
I’d say that roughly half of all voters were 45 and over. So a fair proportion of voters will remember Sir Rob. And it’d be a good political economic history lesson for the young ones.
I would say, having read many of the comments in “John Key is Rob Muldoons Doppelganger”, that most people do not remember Rob at all.
To have such a lot of people equate Key’s and Muldoon’s behaviour proves my point that people simply do not remember Rob.
In terms of their actual policy platforms Rob was very close to the currently expressed views of the Labour and Green parties. The worst thing he did for New Zealand was in his attempts to have the state control things like prices and salaries, and his attempts to pick winners in industrial companies. He also wanted the state to own many businesses and to set their policies. He also liked to force companies to do things he wanted, not things that were good for either the companies or New Zealand.
Remember supplementary minimum prices, carless days, state insurance companies, Think Big? Remember him swinging a punch at people who had heckled him (Mallard anyone)?
Sounds awfully like Norman and Cunliffe doesn’t it?
Yes, that would seem to describe them very aptly. I guess that Winston must be the last MP who entered Parliament when Rob was PM. Dunne, Goff, Mallard, McCully were all in 1984 weren’t they. None of the veteran MPs except Winnie would remember Rob in his prime.
and his attempts to pick winners in industrial companies.
Yeah and this government has been picking Warner Bros, SkyCity, Serco and a few others as winners.
Car-less days were a result of the OPEC oil reduction. Pity that they didn’t continue it – we’d have excellent public transport now.
As for state insurance companies, well, insurance is actually a natural monopoly. I know, I know, it doesn’t really seem that way as there’s plenty of companies in the market place but it’s one of those things that is what I term a demand monopoly – everybody needs it and when that happens the obvious economies of scale pertain only to a monopoly. There’s a few other reasons as well.
Think Big would have been great – if Muldoon hadn’t borrowed to build it. Just printed the money and utilised our own resources effectively. It was the borrowing that killed Think Big, not the project itself. Oh, and a fixed NZ$.
Remember him swinging a punch at people who had heckled him (Mallard anyone)?
Nope, that was Bob Jones and we all had a great laugh at it at the time.
Bob Jones certainly belted a TV reporter who chased him along the river when Bob was fishing.
However Rob did take a swing at people who were heckling him after an election meeting in Auckland. He insisted on leaving the hall by the front door and then took some swings at people in the street. He wasn’t the boxer that Bob Jones had been though so I don’t think there was any damage done. In that regard Rob was like Mallard.
Carless days were totally nuts. Muldoon was stupid enough to demand that Government owned vehicles must have their day between Monday and Friday so that it meant that some sacrifice be made. The sacrifice was the taxpayer’s of course because they then bought 25% more cars to cover the needs.
I am sure we (wife and I) were not the only ones who bought a second car when the policy came in.
I suggest that you put on your reading glasses and have another look at what I said Tracey.
I said that “… old people will tell you he GAVE them super at 80% of the average …”
I said GAVE Tracey, not STOLE. They would tell you that it was the Labour Government that stole it when they means tested it.
They are probably too complicated for a billboard. It has to be a message that people can take in within a second or two whilst driving past.
I am not going to get into a debate on them but the National party “Iwi/Kiwi” were absolutely superb in that regard. I don’t mean the content, I mean the speed with which the message could be absorbed.
I think that it would take to long to register the meaning of the billboards you are proposing.
Is the same for me. All indented left and is the same on 4 different browsers, and on 3 different computers, one a brand new win 8 machine I am building. But at least the reply is now working, hopefully.
NZ Herald editorial: anti-government regulation rant focused on core political issues /sarc.
Portable swimming pools, no wine in dairies, “anti-smacking Bill”, lightbulbs, banning cell phones while driving, compulsory immunisation, water flow in showers, – cause they limit people’s “freedom” and can have unintended consequences, especially on the “economy” (does that mean the impact on business profits?).
Still, it’s saying Key’s government is more “nanny state” than Clark’s government was.
Blubber Boy, infamous in His own bathtub,(just ask the rubber ducky about it’s treatment),has made the RadioNZ news with the defamation case,(much higher none of us could expect Him to slither),
Even Bryce Edwards, He of NZ Herald fame supports Blubber in His quest to have ‘wail oil’ taken by the Court as media,(Bryce has a point which after i have finished poking the stick i will get to),
My thoughts this morning is that the Blubber should stand up for journalistic integrity,(stop that laughter),everywhere and refuse point blank any courts order to divulge the contents of and identify His sources which lead to Him claiming that an Auckland businessman was intimately involved with Bevan Chuang,
Such a noble upholding of the journalistic ‘right’ to protect a ‘source’ in the face of the power of the judiciary would probably,(hopefully), result in Blubber Boy getting tossed in a jail cell and we might see a ‘Free the whale’ campaign start someplace,(go on Bryce make our day), while the rest of us sit around and laugh like loons as Blubber Boy eats cold wheat-bix in a jail cell where most of us think He belongs anyway,
Oh and befor i forget, Bryce’s point about Blubber being ‘media’, it appears in this latest of court appearences,(serial offender or what),Blubber is being told by the Court that He aint ‘media’, however, in a previous case the offending offensive one was told after He published the name of someone who the Court had given name suppression that ‘wail oil’ was ‘media’,
Seems at the least to be a little 2 faced by the judiciary, and damn i really want to see Him swing…
[Agreed bad12 and I have just posted about this – MS]
i never read whaleoil..(haven’t for at least a couple of yrs..i think..i stopped over the postings of pics of severed heads of animals he has slaughtered..)
..and i may be one of the few who have not read the (so i’m told) gripping/detailed accounts of len browns’ jism/seed/bodily-functions..(and no thank you..i’ll maintain that innocence..if you don’t mind..)
..but i am feeling uncomfortable over a court deciding what is or what isn’t ‘media’..
..and i see that ruling as a total orifice-pluck on the part of that judge..
..however much individuals may criticise slater for his choices of material/uses of that media..
..he..much as ‘truth’ was..is definitely part of the new media landscape..
Agreed. pu. I also don’t read WO and haven’t read all that spurious Len Brown stuff. But am also not comfortable with the court ruling on what is media – especially given the current sad state of a lot of our so-called press and news media.
Nor me (1 ever visit to the wallowing Whale, and another to a site operated by some sort of Penguin – both by links from this site me thinks).
I’m confident – relaxed even, that I’m not missing too much. The right wing view comes from various “horses’ mouths”.
Strangely enough, they all seem very similar, as though they were singing some sort of chorus. Even the new lingo is the same. Where is it they face? – it’s not Mecca …. Helensville perhaps?, or maybe the direction of the nearest talk-back radio transmitter.
The media issue, I assume is important because if he is media he can rely on public interest but does the press have an obligation to research, avoid bias, and report any surrounding circumstances, would it include an obligation to at least put the allegations to them before publishing and print their response?
Does the public interest have to be significant, and is it objective or subjective?
If Whaleoil’s sources are not protected, is anyone writing on The Standard protected?
With a slippery slope argument arriving any minute, let me put the question:
If being a “news distributor” is the principle criteria for protecting source anonymity, could all contributors to The Standard be revealed if required to do so?
Whaleoil’s (uncomfortable) interests are pretty similar to ours.
Try pressing Shift + Refresh (the circled arrow). THis should force your browser(s) to reload the style sheets.
There was a problem retransferring the DNS over the weekend. I was down with a dose of the flu (still am a bit) and didn’t deal with it early enough and then made a screwup on the time to live.
Quick note to McFlock, Karol, Weka, Bill, Rogue, Puddleglum….just reread the whole thread on 29 November Open Mike 18-18.5.1.1.1.2 excellent reading. Really enjoyed the insights and the easy debate. We may differ, disagree etc but hell , that’s one hell of a good read. Thank you all.
Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly. In the end it bites like a serpent and stings like an adder. (Proverbs 23:29)
Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. (John 19:29)
Although he promptly dropped dead afterwards, so the term “vinegar” might genuinely imply something even less palatable than a Central Otago vanity plonk.
Life in the 21st century western style (USA version). I just heard some consumer related news on Radionz item. Thanksgiving day trading, some stores have opened for the first time. 10 million transactions in one day I think. $54 billion I think taken. Protests by workers wanting more pay outside Walmart.
The old kaleidoscope effect. Every time you shake it and look at it you get a different colour, perspective. Some in my family support NACTs. Looking at the same happenings in NZ we think about them entirely differently.
Concerned about the Auckland ‘daft lunatic Plan’ and ‘democracy for developers’?
Live in the Eden-Albert area?
Seen this?
“You are welcome to attend a Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan Public Meeting.
There will be a Presentation on the Notified Unitary Plan by independent planner David Wren – with particular emphasis on Albert-Eden area and topics which are likely to be of interest to locals.
David Wren will speak for about 40 minutes followed by plenty of time for questions and answers.
Date: Saturday 7 December 2013
Time: 9.30am to 12 Noon (doors open at 9.30am and there is access to displays in the lobby and opportunities to discuss issues prior to the main presentation).
Venue: Mt Eden War Memorial Hall, The Chamber Room, 489 Dominion Road, BALMORAL”
____________________________________________________________________________
and while I’m here,
“It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of (philosopher? ) kings”- 25:2.
Now, away to a tangi, people die, very moving.
Great listening on RadioLive right now – Cameron Slater and Michelle Boag arguing because he called her a lying poisonous scumbag, which is in itself ironic coming from someone like Slater. Also, Michelle once again stated that Slater is an ACC beneficiary, which is another irony when his favourite sport is beneficiary bashing.
So far the greatest number of ‘likes’ on the NZ Herald for New Zealander of the Year article have gone to Graham McCready for taking a private prosecution against the ‘Not-So-Honorable’ John Banks – ACT Leader and MP for Epsom!
todays’ revelations are about/detail how australian spooks/govt offered unlimited raw data on australian citizens to their five eyes partners..to do with what they wished..
..whoar..!..eh..?..
..i wonder when our revelation will happen..?
..and is helen clark ‘sweating’ at all on these upcoming revelations..over there in noo yawk…?
NR radio again. Imagine again that NR decries the lack of factual correctness on the internet. Yet a smidgen of common sense would stop a guest from spouting nonsense. Its known that the firepower of an army is key to its success, that soldiers are trained in rapid accurate fire, so when a former top shot in the US marines guns down the president, looking down on a log slow moving cavalcade in Texas, is it any wonder Oswald got three shots off. You can imagine the jokes had he missed, former Marine couldn’t shoot diddly. So to my surprise NR guest declares he couldn’t believe that a lone gun man could of gotten three shots off in quick succession. Has the man never seen war movies of lines of muskets, highly trained to do just that, rapid fire. No, imagination mixed with common sense is not a requirement in a guest on Moro.
Cycling past this exit onto a cycle way, and keep meeting these aggressive drivers. Well turns out they were likely exiting a gym, didn’t make the connection until I heard about hormone abuses. I wonder do police stats show more accidents near gyms?
I recently had the pleasure of driving from Wellington to Auckland.
To maintain my sanity and ensure I didn’t do anything stupid like fall asleep at the wheel I divided the trip into 3 sections over 2 days.
As a quick aside, I totally recommend checking out any one of the short walks in Tongariro National Park, it was my best stop of the trip.
The traffic and behaviour of other drivers was pretty good right up until I hit the Bombay Hills. The increase of frequency of aggresive, rude and plain dangerous driving was stark.
I saw one incident of a frustrated driver shortly before I left Wellington compared to almost a dozen between Bombay and Glen Eden.
I ride a pushbike on almost a daily basis in Auckland so I am used to psychotic drivers, but this experience highlighted just how normalised bad driving is in Auckland compared to other cities and towns in New Zealand.
Hehe. Your comment brings to mind this piece that starts off:
“My gym has begun to sound like the set of a porno. So much grunting and heaving and panting. It reverberates around the room in a testosterone-laden symphony of man clownery.
“I’ve had enough. Grunty bloke, it’s time to shut up. I’m fairly certain I work out just as hard, yet you don’t hear me groaning like a constipated caveman on steroids every time I break a sweat.
“Women deliver babies with less fuss than the way you puff and whine through a bicep curl.
“Unless you’re attempting to pass a bowling ball through the tip of your urethra there’s really no reason for all the noise.
“And I’m not buying your ”but grunting makes me stronger” nonsense.”
Coming up on the Panel this afternoon: Neil Miller and Jordan Williams
Another black day for Radio New Zealand National
Monday, 2 December 2013
Miller is a smug and conceited git who is on record touting the racist right wing “humorist” P.J. O’Rourke as his favorite writer. If Miller stuck to beer assessing, then he would be sufferable, if only just sufferable. Unfortunately, he tends to veer into political commentary, but he knows little about anything other than beer.[1] Jordan Williams is a junior colleague of the infamous ex-ACT M.P. and S.S. spokesman Stephen Franks, and is becoming well known to Panel listeners as a pretentious but shallow commentator—very like Franks and Miller, in fact. So far, Williams’ most infamously stupid contribution—and there are many to choose from—remains this classic, uttered on the Panel a couple of months ago: “Capping rents seems like a recipe for disaster”. [2]
So look at what’s happened, whether accidentally or not: two government-friendly right wing commentators appear on the day that another right wing commentator, Cameron Slater, is one of the major topics of discussion. That represents another minor victory for the beleaguered National-led regime, which needs all the help it can get after the disaster (for National) in Christchurch over the weekend. But it represents another body-blow to the credibility of Radio New Zealand National.
Speaking right now is another guest on the programme—-Garth “The Knife” McVicar. By way of some kind of justification for giving this bloodthirsty lout airtime, Mora prefaced his appearance by saying this: “Okay, we’ve had CRIMINOLOGISTS on the programme before….”
So treating violent psychopaths like McVicar respectfully is some kind of balancing manoeuvre.
..was how mora just sat by and let that clown mcvicar deny the provable-facts of the drop in crime here..
..(a drop that is but an echo of the international trend of sharply dropping rates of crime..)..
..mora makes no mention of that international trend echo..(does he not know..?..could someone tell him..?
..if he does know..?..huh..!..)
..why does he/mora just let these outright/easily provable lies go uncalled/unquestioned..?
..he does himself no favours by doing this..
..today i linked to a story on how sweden is closing four of their prisons..
..a combination of those dropping rates..and the swedish focus on rehabilitation..instead of being solely focused on retribution..as is practised here..
..i noted at the foot of that story/link..how at a time when sweden is closing four prisons..
..we are building a new super-prison..
..have handed our prison system over to the american private industry model..(now there’s a success story/role-model..eh..?..that american prison system..)
..and the cherry on top of this cake of fucken wrongheaded-incompetence/ignorance..
..is that the govt has signed contracts with these private prison spivs..
..guaranteeing to supply enough prisoners to fill their prisons..(!)
..now..that just fucken bends my head out of shape..that prisoner-guarantee..
Had to laugh at the “highbrow???” of Mensa Mora’s Mucky Show 4-5 pm today. The Mad Machiavellian Miller crapping on about whom, according to his girlfriend and others, he resembles.
James McOnie and someone else and someone else apparently. One only has to Google a pic of said Mad Miller to know that the most striking likeness is to – wait for it – SlaterPorn. There must be whakapapa !
Thought about you with anticipation Morrissey as in the course of a three hour plus drive home to the North I listened to the fascinatingly gross right wing fucks Jordan Williams, Mad Miller, and Garth McVictim. Gushingly hosted by The Nicest Man On Earth. Truly incredible !
A passing comment by Mad Miller suggests he might’ve been a late call to today’s Mucky Show – you may well be correct in your suspicion that a troika of outlandish right wingers was rapidly assembled to provide “balance” in the wake of the Christchurch result.
A passing comment by Mad Miller suggests he might’ve been a late call to today’s Mucky Show
Miller replaced Mai Chen at the last moment. It’s a pity, because she has shown a willingness to contest lazy ideologists in the past. Her absence ensured that Jordan Williams got (yet another) free ride.
– you may well be correct in your suspicion that a troika of outlandish right wingers was rapidly assembled to provide “balance” in the wake of the Christchurch result.
As bad as Neil Miller and Jordan Williams are, what I found utterly insulting was bringing on that S.S. obergruppenführer to “discuss” law and order. Surely, if McVicar is acceptable to the producers of this programme, then Kyle Chapman has to be consulted next time the Panel has a discussion about arson.
Probably already covered somewhere above but don’t have time to check – who would have thought it – forgive me the following words we’re not allowed to use – “G….y” Herald caning “N…y” National ???
The award for MSM capabilities in photojournalism goes to ……
c a m e r o n b u r r r N E L L ! ! ! for
“Turning the Sod”
(unassisted – the guy rolls over all on his own)
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Transforming New Zealand: Brian EastonBrian Easton will discuss the above topic at 2/57 Willis Street, Wellington at 5:30pm on Tuesday 26 February at 2/57 Willis Street, WellingtonThe sub-title to the above is "Why is the Left failing?" Brian Easton's analysis is based on his view that while the ...
Salvation Army’s State of the Nation 2025 report highlights falling living standards, the highest unemployment rates since the 1990s and half of all Pacific children going without food. There are reports of hundreds if not thousands of people are applying for the same jobs in the wake of last year’s ...
Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Correction: On the article The Condundrum of David Seymour, Luke Malpass conducted joint reviews with Bryce Wilkinson, the architect of the Regulatory Standards Bill - not Bryce Edwards. The article ...
Tomorrow the council’s Transport, Resilience and Infrastructure Committee meet and agenda has a few interesting papers. Council’s Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport Every year the council provide a Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport which is part of the process for informing AT of the council’s priorities and ...
All around in my home townThey're trying to track me down, yeahThey say they want to bring me in guiltyFor the killing of a deputyFor the life of a deputySongwriter: Robert Nesta Marley.Support Nick’s Kōrero today with a 20% discount on a paid subscription to receive all my newsletters directly ...
Hi,I think all of us have probably experienced the power of music — that strange, transformative thing that gets under our skin and helps us experience this whole life thing with some kind of sanity.Listening and experiencing music has always been such a huge part of my life, and has ...
Business frustration over the stalled economy is growing, and only 34% of voters are confidentNicola Willis can deliver. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 12 are:Business frustration is growing about a ...
I have now lived long enough to see a cabinet minister go both barrels on their Prime Minister and not get sacked.It used to be that the PM would have a drawer full of resignations signed by ministers on the day of their appointment, ready for such an occasion. But ...
This session will feature Simon McCallum, Senior Lecturer in Engineering and Computer Science (VUW) and recent Labour Party candidate in the Southland Electorate talking about some of the issues around AI and how this should inform Labour Party policy. Simon is an excellent speaker with a comprehensive command of AI ...
The proposed Waimate garbage incinerator is dead: The company behind a highly-controversial proposal to build a waste-to-energy plant in the Waimate District no longer has the land. [...] However, SIRRL director Paul Taylor said the sales and purchase agreement to purchase land from Murphy Farms, near Glenavy, lapsed at ...
The US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has been a vital tool in combatting international corruption. It forbids US companies and citizens from bribing foreign public officials anywhere in the world. And its actually enforced: some of the world's biggest companies - Siemens, Hewlett Packard, and Bristol Myers Squibb - have ...
December 2024 photo - with UK Tory Boris Johnson (Source: Facebook)Those PollsFor hours, political poll results have resounded across political hallways and commentary.According to the 1News Verizon poll, 50% of the country believe we are heading in the “wrong direction”, while 39% believe we are “on the right track”.The left ...
A Tai Rāwhiti mill that ran for 30 years before it was shut down in late 2023 is set to re-open in the coming months, which will eventually see nearly 300 new jobs in the region. A new report from Massey University shows that pensioners are struggling with rising costs. ...
As support continues to fall, Luxon also now faces his biggest internal ructions within the coalition since the election, with David Seymour reacting badly to being criticised by the PM. File photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Not since 1988 when Richard Prebble openly criticised David Lange have we seen such a challenge to a Prime Minister as that of David Seymour to Christopher Luxon last night. Prebble suggested Lange had mental health issues during a TV interview and was almost immediately fired. Seymour hasn’t gone quite ...
Three weeks in, and the 24/7 news cycle is not helping anyone feel calm and informed about the second Trump presidency. One day, the US is threatening 25% trade tariffs on its friends and neighbours. The reasons offered by the White House are absurd, such as stopping fentanyl coming in ...
This video includes personal musings and conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). Wherever you look, you'll hear headlines claiming we've passed 1.5 degrees of global warming. And while 2024 saw ...
Photo by Heather M. Edwards on UnsplashHere’s the key news, commentary, reports and debate around Aotearoa’s politics and economy in the week to Feb 10 below. That’s ahead of live chats on the Substack App and The Kākā’s front page on Substack at 5pm with: on his column in The ...
Is there anyone in the world the National Party loves more than a campaign donor? Why yes, there is! They will always have the warmest hello and would you like to slip into something more comfortable for that great god of our age, the High Net Worth Individual.The words the ...
Waste and fraud certainly exist in foreign aid programs, but rightwing celebration of USAID’s dismantling shows profound ignorance of the value of soft power (as opposed to hard power) in projecting US influence and interests abroad by non-military/coercive means (think of “hearts and minds,” “hugs, not bullets,” “honey versus vinegar,” ...
Health New Zealand is proposing to cut almost half of its data and digital positions – more than 1000 of them. The PSA has called on the Privacy Commissioner to urgently investigate the cuts due to the potential for serious consequences for patients. NZNO is calling for an urgent increase ...
We may see a few more luxury cars on Queen Street, but a loosening of rules to entice rich foreigners to invest more here is unlikely to “turbocharge our economic growth”. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Let us not dance daintily around the elephant in the room. Our politicians who serve us in the present are not honest, certainly not as honest as they should be, and while the right are taking out most of the trophies for warping narratives and literally redefining “facts”, the kiwi ...
A few weeks ago I took a look at public transport ridership in 2024. In today’s post I’m going to be looking a bit deeper at bus ridership. Buses make up the vast majority of ridership in Auckland with 70 million boardings last year out of a total of 89.4 ...
Oh, you know I did itIt's over and I feel fineNothing you could say is gonna change my mindWaited and I waited the longest nightNothing like the taste of sweet declineSongwriters: Chris Shiflett / David Eric Grohl / Nate Mendel / Taylor Hawkins.Hindsight is good, eh?The clarity when the pieces ...
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on UnsplashHere’s what we’re watching in the week to February 16 and beyond in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty:Monday, February 10The Kākā’s weekly wrap-up of news about politics and the economy is due at midday, followed by webinar for paying subscribers in Substack’s ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, February 2, 2025 thru Sat, February 8, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
Today, I stumbled across a Twitter Meme: the ending of The Lord of the Rings as a Chess scenario: https://x.com/mellon_heads/status/1887983845917564991 It gets across the basic gist. Aragorn and Gandalf offering up ‘material’ at the Morannon allows Frodo and Samwise to catch Sauron unawares – fair enough. But there are a ...
Last week, Kieran McAnulty called out Chris Bishop and Nicola Willis for their claims that Kāinga Ora’s costs were too high.They had claimed Kāinga Ora’s cost were 12% higher than market i.e. private devlopersBut Kāinga Ora’s Chair had already explained why last year:"We're not building to sell, so we'll be ...
Stuff’s Political Editor Luke Malpass - A Fellow at New Zealand IniativeLast week I half-joked that Stuff / The Post’s Luke Malpass1 always sounded like he was auditioning for a job at the New Zealand Initiative.Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. For a limited time, subscriptions are 20% off. Thanks ...
At a funeral on Friday, there were A4-sized photos covering every wall of the Dil’s reception lounge. There must have been 200 of them, telling the story in the usual way of the video reel but also, by enlargement, making it more possible to linger and step in.Our friend Nicky ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is methane the ...
The Government’s idea is that the private sector and Community Housing Providers will fund, build and operate new affordable housing to address our housing crisis. Meanwhile, the Government does not know where almost half of the 1,700 children who left emergency housing actually went. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong ...
Oh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youOh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youSongwriters: Alexander Ebert / Jade Allyson CastrinosMorena,I’m on a tight time frame this morning. In about an hour and a half, I’ll need to pack up and hit the road ...
This is a post about the Mountain Tui substack, and small tweaks - further to the poll and request post the other day. Please don’t read if you aren’t interested in my personal matters. Thank you all.After oohing-and-aahing about how to structure the Substack model since November, including obtaining ...
This transcript of a recent conversation between the Prime Minister and his chief economic adviser has not been verified.We’ve announced we are the ‘Yes Government’. Do you like it?Yes, Prime Minister.Dreamed up by the PR team. It’s about being committed to growth. Not that the PR team know anything about ...
The other day, Australian Senator Nick McKim issued a warning in the Australian Parliement about the US’s descent into fascim.And of course it’s true, but I lament - that was true as soon as Trump won.What we see is now simply the reification of the intention, planning, and forces behind ...
Among the many other problems associated with Musk/DOGE sending a fleet of teenage and twenty-something cultists to remove, copy and appropriate federal records like social security, medicaid and other supposedly protected data is the fact that the youngsters doing the data-removal, copying and security protocol and filter code over-writing have ...
Jokerman dance to the nightingale tuneBird fly high by the light of the moonOh, oh, oh, JokermanSong by Bob Dylan.Morena folks, I hope this fine morning of the 7th of February finds you well. We're still close to Paihia, just a short drive out of town. Below is the view ...
It’s been an eventful week as always, so here’s a few things that we have found interesting. We also hope everyone had a happy and relaxing Waitangi Day! This week in Greater Auckland We’re still running on summer time, but provided two chewy posts: On Tuesday, a guest ...
Queuing on Queen St: the Government is set to announce another apparently splashy growth policy on Sunday of offering residence visas to wealthy migrants. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, February 7:PM Christopher ...
The fact that Waitangi ended up being such a low-key affair may mark it out as one of the most significant Waitangi Days in recent years. A group of women draped in “Toitu Te Tiriti” banners who turned their backs on the politicians’ powhiri was about as rough as it ...
Hi,This week’s Flightless Bird episode was about “fake seizure guy” — a Melbourne man who fakes seizures in order to get members of the public to sit on him.The audio documentary (which I have included in this newsletter in case you don’t listen to Flightless Bird) built on reporting first ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Karin Kirk The 119th Congress comes with a price tag. The oil and gas industry gave about $24 million in campaign contributions to the members of the U.S. House and Senate expected to be sworn in January 3, 2025, according to a ...
Early morning, the shadows still long, but you can already feel the warmth building. Our motel was across the road from the historic homestead where Henry Williams' family lived. The evening before, we wandered around the gardens, reading the plaques and enjoying the close proximity to the history of the ...
Thanks folks for your feedback, votes and comments this week. I’ll be making the changes soon. Appreciate all your emails, comments and subscriptions too. I know your time is valuable - muchas gracias.A lot is happening both here and around the world - so I want to provide a snippets ...
National’s cuts to disability support funding and freezing of new residential placements has resulted in significant mental health decline for intellectually disabled people. ...
The hundreds of jobs lost needlessly as a result of the Kinleith Mill paper production closure will have a devastating impact on the Tokoroa community - something that could have easily been avoided. ...
Today Te Pāti Māori MP for Te Tai Tokerau, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, released her members bill that will see the return of tamariki and mokopuna Māori from state care back to te iwi Māori. This bill will establish an independent authority that asserts and protects the rights promised in He Whakaputanga ...
The Whangarei District Council being forced to fluoridate their local water supply is facing a despotic Soviet-era disgrace. This is not a matter of being pro-fluoride or anti-fluoride. It is a matter of what New Zealanders see and value as democracy in our country. Individual democratically elected Councillors are not ...
Nicola Willis’ latest supermarket announcement is painfully weak with no new ideas, no real plan, and no relief for Kiwis struggling with rising grocery costs. ...
Half of Pacific children sometimes going without food is just one of many heartbreaking lowlights in the Salvation Army’s annual State of the Nation report. ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report is a bleak indictment on the failure of Government to take steps to end poverty, with those on benefits, including their children, hit hardest. ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill which would restore decision-making power to local communities regarding the fluoridation of drinking water. The ‘Fluoridation (Referendum) Legislation Bill’ seeks to repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 that granted centralised authority to the Direct General of Health ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill aimed at preventing banks from refusing their services to businesses because of the current “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework”. “This Bill ensures fairness and prevents ESG standards from perpetuating woke ideology in the banking sector being driven by unelected, globalist, climate ...
Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
Today marks a historic moment for Taranaki iwi with the passing of the Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill in Parliament. "Today, we stand together as descendants of Taranaki, and our tūpuna, Taranaki Maunga, is now formally acknowledged by the law as a living tūpuna. ...
Labour is relieved to see Children’s Minister Karen Chhour has woken up to reality and reversed her government’s terrible decisions to cut funding from frontline service providers – temporarily. ...
It is the first week of David Seymour’s school lunch programme and already social media reports are circulating of revolting meals, late deliveries, and mislabelled packaging. ...
The Green Party says that with no-cause evictions returning from today, the move to allow landlords to end tenancies without reason plunges renters, and particularly families who rent, into insecurity and stress. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
A bill to make revenue collection on imported and exported goods fairer and more effective had its first reading in Parliament, Customs Minister Casey Costello said today. “The Customs (Levies and Other Matters) Amendment Bill modernises the way in which Customs can recover the costs of services that are needed ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Department of Internal Affairs [the Department] has achieved significant progress in completing applications for New Zealand citizenship. “December 2024 saw the Department complete 5,661 citizenship applications, the most for any month in 2024. This is a 54 per cent increase compared ...
Reversals to Labour’s blanket speed limit reductions begin tonight and will be in place by 1 July, says Minister of Transport Chris Bishop. “The previous government was obsessed with slowing New Zealanders down by imposing illogical and untargeted speed limit reductions on state highways and local roads. “National campaigned on ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has announced Budget 2025 – the Growth Budget - will be delivered on Thursday 22 May. “This year’s Budget will drive forward the Government’s plan to grow our economy to improve the incomes of New Zealanders now and in the years ahead. “Budget 2025 will build ...
For the Government, 2025 will bring a relentless focus on unleashing the growth we need to lift incomes, strengthen local businesses and create opportunity. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today laid out the Government’s growth agenda in his Statement to Parliament. “Just over a year ago this Government was elected by ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour welcomes students back to school with a call to raise attendance from last year. “The Government encourages all students to attend school every day because there is a clear connection between being present at school and setting yourself up for a bright future,” says Mr ...
The Government is relaxing visitor visa requirements to allow tourists to work remotely while visiting New Zealand, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis, Immigration Minister Erica Stanford and Tourism Minister Louise Upston say. “The change is part of the Government’s plan to unlock New Zealand’s potential by shifting the country onto ...
The opening of Kāinga Ora’s development of 134 homes in Epuni, Lower Hutt will provide much-needed social housing for Hutt families, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I’ve been a strong advocate for social housing on Kāinga Ora’s Epuni site ever since the old earthquake-prone housing was demolished in 2015. I ...
Once upon a time it was all about being an astronaut, a firefighter or doctor; but these days kids have their sights set on becoming vloggers or YouTubers.That’s according to a 2019 study by Lego that surveyed 3000 children between the ages of eight to 12 from the US, the ...
MONDAYSheriff Seymour rode slowly down the main street of Dodge on his faithful white horse Atlas Network.He liked what he saw.Children were being fed free lunches prepared by kind people who collected the scraps from an offal rendering plant.“Very strongly flavoured liver, such as ox liver, can be soaked overnight ...
Madeleine Chapman reflects on the week that was. From the moment I started high school and realised almost every other girl in my year was at least partially interested in what the boys were up to, I realised that I would be single for life. The feeling wasn’t one of ...
The Pacific profiles series shines a light on Pacific people in Aotearoa doing interesting and important work in their communities, as nominated by members of the public. Today, Selina Alesana Alefosio.All photos by Geoffery Matautia.On a bright Sunday morning from her grandparent’s home in Pito-one, I spoke with ...
The White Lotus star reflects on her life in TV, including the local ad reference that doesn’t work in Australia, and her bananas co-star on Neighbours.Morgana O’Reilly was scrolling her phone next to her sleeping son on an idle Saturday morning when she got the call confirming that she ...
Claire Mabey explores the pros and cons of puff quotes on book covers.In January, Publishers Weekly put out an article by Sean Manning – publisher of Simon & Schuster’s flagship US imprint – in which he said he’d “no longer require authors to obtain blurbs for their books”.The ...
New Zealand’s Entomological Society is hosting its annual bug of the year contest. Here are some of the insects in the running. For some reason – perhaps humans’ inherent competitiveness, the idealisation of democracy, the need to demarcate winners and losers – one of the best ways to get people ...
A journey along the border, with words and illustrations by Bob Kerr.The Spinoff Essay showcases the best essayists in Aotearoa, on topics big and small. Made possible by the generous support of our members.The Sunset Limited leaves Union Station New Orleans on time at nine in the morning. We ...
Neville Peat is the 2024 recipient of the Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement in nonfiction. He’s written 56 books, mostly on natural history; this excerpt is from The Falcon and the Lark: A New Zealand High Country Journal, first published in 1992. The falcon wintering on the Rock and ...
It was a light-hearted gesture Greta Pilkington will be forever grateful for – thanks to an Aussie rival who jumped in when the Olympic sailor couldn’t be at her own graduation.Pilkington, then 20, had been leading a double life – while qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics in the ILCA ...
I was born in the back of my grandfather’s ute, by an overgrown windbreak in a remote place called Wahi-Rakauyou can’t find on a map. I was born a girl but given the man’s name Harvey, as my dad always wanted a violent-minded boy to one day help him ...
“We’re not here to interfere in people’s property rights,” Ngāi Tahu’s Te Maire Tau has told the High Court.Tau, a historian, Upoko (traditional leader) of Ngāi Tūāhuriri, and a university professor of history, is the lead witness in a case designed to force the Crown to recognise the tribe’s rangatiratanga ...
Pacific Media Watch Trump administration officials barred two Associated Press (AP) reporters from covering White House events this week because the US-based independent news agency did not change its style guide to align with the president’s political agenda. The AP is being punished for using the term “Gulf of Mexico,” ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific Presenter/Bulletin editor France’s top diplomat in the Pacific region says talks around the “unfreezing” of New Caledonia’s highly controversial electoral roll are back on the table. The French government intended to make a constitutional amendment that would lift restrictions prescribed under the Nouméa Accord, which ...
By bringing these global voices to the fight for free expression in New Zealand, we’ll continue to protect and expand our culture of free speech, says Nathan Seiuli, the Free Speech Union's Events Manager. ...
The issue is no longer a hypothetical one. US President Donald Trump will not explicitly suggest death camps, but he has already consented to Israel’s continuing a war that is not a war but rather a barbaric assault on a desolate stretch of land. From there, the road to annihilation is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cecelia Cmielewski, Research Fellow, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University To be selected as the artist and curator team to represent Australia at the Venice Biennale is considered the ultimate exhibition for an artistic team. To have your selection rescinded, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steve Turton, Adjunct Professor of Environmental Geography, CQUniversity Australia Severe Tropical Cyclone Zelia is bearing down on the northwest coast of Australia and is likely to make landfall early Friday evening. It’s a monster storm of great concern to Western Australia. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Danielle Ireland-Piper, Associate Professor, ANU National Security College, Australian National University A Victorian government decision to allow dingo culling in the state’s east until 2028 has reignited debate over what has been dubbed Australia’s most controversial animal. Animals Australia, an animal welfare ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hassan Vally, Associate Professor, Epidemiology, Deakin University Overnight, Robert F. Kennedy Jr was confirmed as the secretary of the US Health and Human Services Department. Put simply, this makes him the most influential figure in overseeing the health and wellbeing of more ...
Everything you missed from day five of the Treaty principles bill hearings, when the Justice Committee heard eight hours of submissions.Read our recaps of the previous hearings here.It was another work from home day for the Justice Committee, the only people in Room 3 being security guards, committee ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milad Haghani, Associate Professor & Principal Fellow in Urban Risk & Resilience, The University of Melbourne Juris Teivans/Shutterstock In Australia, fatal road crashes are climbing again, especially since the pandemic, and despite years of attempts to reduce road trauma, the numbers ...
In its eagerness to appease supporters of Israel, the media is happy to ride roughshod over due process and basic rights. It’s damaging Australia’s (and New Zealand’s?) democracy.COMMENTARY:By Bernard Keane Two moments stand out so far from the Federal Court hearings relating to Antoinette Lattouf’s sacking by the ...
“The reality is we’re getting poorer. The government this year is leaning heavy on chasing economic growth, which is absolutely the right thing to do.” ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 The Vegetarian by Han Kang (Granta, $28) Han Kang’s astounding novel was based on an ...
This new docuseries about two single comedians looking for love is also a joyful celebration of female friendship. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. “How many people do you think are boning right now?” Kura Forrester asks Brynley Stent as the bright ...
A new poem by Freya Turnbull. Hunger Song – After Kaveh Akbar (Untitled With Hunger And Matcheads) I hold my age in ripped fishnet hold an empty vessel oldyoung body cracks like gunshot like killa i was a father ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dominik Koll, Honorary Lecturer, Australian National University View of the Pacific Ocean from the International Space Station.NASA Earth must have experienced something exceptional 10 million years ago. Our study of rock samples from the floor of the Pacific Ocean has found ...
Troy Rawhiti-Connell reviews Kia Tupu Te Ara, a documentary chronicling the meteoric rise of Aotearoa’s groundbreaking metal band. “Two brothers attempt to storm the world of thrash metal with the Māori language, despite the fact they’re both still teenagers,” reads the synopsis of Kent Belcher’s documentary, Kia Tupu Te Ara. ...
Three freelance writers have been awarded grants to work on their ambitious journalism projects. In January, The Spinoff announced the Vince Geddes In-Depth Journalism Fund, supported by the Auckland Radio Trust (ART). The fund was established to provide much-needed financial and editorial support to talented freelance journalists, empowering them to ...
Watch out for the petition from Su’a William Sio to be presented in Parliament this week, from people anxious about the East-West link. I think this is going to be quite a movement against this massive arterial/motorway, and a key organising issue leading to the election next year for southern Auckland.
isnt it like asset sales and too late?
nope fully in play
“..16 Celebrities You Never Knew Were Vegan
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/01/vegan-celebrities_n_4351908.html
Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson turned vegan in 2010 –
– and has since loss 100 pounds.
“Becoming a vegan gave me another opportunity to live a healthy life.
I was so congested from all the drugs and bad cocaine – I could hardly breathe –
– [I had] high blood pressure, -[was] almost dying – [and had] arthritis.
And once I became a vegan – all that stuff diminished” – said Tyson..”
phillip ure..
So maybe he should have stopped taking drugs instead? Being vegan doesn’t make you lose weight. Not eating sugary bullshit and exercise does.
+1 don’t need be vegan to be healthy but for some people it’s seems to be the only way they finally get how to do so. A bit like going gluten free did for me even though I don’t weight problem in the sense of being too heavy more not heavy enough. Of course unlike Vegans it’s not a lifestyle choice because a medical condition isn’t really a choice. Even though more crap food is becoming gluten free I built up such a great eating habit I don’t want eat that stuff.
16 celebrities whose vegan-status means absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of things.
@ lanth..
..given the environmental giant-boot-print from eating flesh and the multi-varied bye-products..
..’vegan status’ does actually mean quite a bit..
..and given the influence of celebrities on the opinions of others/popular culture..
..’in the grand scheme of things’..
..how can it not mean ‘something’….?
..phillip ure..
As much as I appreciate some of the appeals of the vegan lifestyle, I personally view it as a diet of affluence even moreso than meat eating because the missing dietary requirements usually have to be met through supplements (it’s the only way I’ve ever managed it) or specific targeting of foods that aren’t easy to locally produce in any single environment.
Meat-eating is still highly intensive but I have personally found that chickens will eat your vegetable scraps and scrounge around grass/garden areas very effectively (not requiring much maintenance), provide eggs and one of the best lean meat protein sources available.
The issues with our food production is *how* we do it, not *what* we eat…
@ zorr..
..not having bought meat for decades..i occaisonally take note of current prices..
..and..whoar..!..eh..?
..nah..!..you are wrong..being vegan is not more expensive that being a carnivore..
..it is much cheaper..
..and you r eating chook arguments stand if only viewed thru a single lens..
..myself..and many others..are vegan for animal welfare/environmental reasons – as much as for personal health reasons..
..it’s a three-fer..eh..?
..personal health/wellbeing..not hurting any animals..and helping the planet..
..are the three legs of the vegan-stool…
..phillip ure..
uh – I am not talking about “expense” in dollar terms. I was actually referring to the high-level technological/transport infrastructure that is required just to meet a vegan diet. It is a diet that in use only in affluent nations where the infrastructure exists to provide the necessary nutrition through more advanced means.
@zorr..”.. I was actually referring to the high-level technological/transport infrastructure that is required just to meet a vegan diet…”
cd u expand on that plse..i don’t understand what you are referring to..
“..It is a diet that in use only in affluent nations..”..well..not really..if you take rice/vegetables as the basic third world diet..
..it is the first world diet rich in animal/bye-product fats that is causing the ‘first world diseases’..(as they are known as..and for good reason..)
“..where the infrastructure exists to provide the necessary nutrition through more advanced means..”
..again i am usure as to what you are referring to..
..is it supplements..?
..factcheck:..i have been vegan for 15 yrs..i take no supplements..
(..a vegan diet doesn’t mean having to neck handfuls of supplements..)
..i am on no meds of any kind..
..i had a recent health-check..(blood-pressure of a young man’ etc etc..)
..and i know people who have been vegan for twice as long as i have..
..who are in similar general good health..
..that is the evidence i lean to ..zorr..
..phillip ure..
If I may ask then, where do you get your B12 from?
@ b12..soy milk..marmite..etc..etc..
..phillip ure..
Sooooooo… basically you just confirmed my hypothesis. You are getting a necessary vitamin that is readily available through meat consumption from your local supermarket…
It’s what I was trying to point out – those food miles add up and they are a significant contribution to issues in the world. On top of that, these are food products available here and around the Western world in our supermarkets because we *are* affluent societies. We *can* go down to the supermarket and, as long as we have the cash, buy these things.
Others may argue about the health benefits, I could care less. I’m more concerned about the misrepresentation of veganism as a viable alternative in a low energy economy.
You might be better to follow the other part of his advice. “I was so congested from all the drugs and bad cocaine”.
Better you gave up the drugs and see how much better you will be. Why you might even get a job and get off the benefit system.
‘drugs’..alwyn..?
..these days i use pot…that’s it..
..no booze..
..how about yrslf..?..there alwyn..?
…(hic..!..)..what’s yr poison..?..(aside from ‘unjustified feelings of superiority’..eh..?..)
..looking forward to getting really pissed @ the xmas parties..?
..there..alwyn..?
phillip ure..
Anyone actually win the heavyweight boxing championship while vegan?
David Scott won 6 World Ironman championships as a vegan. Peter Brock is a vegan as are Mac Danzig, Ruth Heidrich and Greg Chappell just to name a few of many top vegan athletes.
Yeah, not the question I asked, is it?
The point is that saying “LOOK MIKE TYSON’S A VEGAN” is pointless. He became a vegan after the sporting achievements he’s famous for.
Not to mention the fact that Bill Clinton’s “vegan diet” isn’t:
http://www.fathead-movie.com/index.php/2013/08/13/bill-clintons-vegan-diet/
Or this vegan poster boy who isn’t:
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB120122116182915297
(“Small servings” of chicken and fish, huh?)
… and when you add that all up the result is my severe side-eye for vegans trying to convert me to their way of eating.
Oh that’s mean
And on it goes, the wailing of ex-Green Party candidate David Hay at the Party decision not to include Him on it’s 2014 Party Vote list just became farcical as Hay calls for Green Party activists and volunteers to ‘strike’ over what He sees as unwarranted treatment by the Party,
It would seem that Hay is more than happy to use the NZ Herald in what can only be described as a futile attempt to split the Party,(and the Herald will more than happily indulge Hay in His elongated hissy fit),
What the ongoing public display of child-like whining from Hay shows about Hay’s character to me is that it was the ME aspect of Hays character that lead His political ‘thinking’ and as his self advancement has been stymied He has no further use for the Party and is happy to attempt to ferment dissent within it,
My view is that the sooner the Party makes the ex-candidate an ex-member the better for all it will be…
Excellent comment about this from Marama Davidson here:
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2013/12/01/fair-democracy-let-david-hay-speak-and-put-his-hand-up-fair-democracy-common-sense-and-strong-leadership-spoke-back/
Well said Marama, you have to wonder what irks or eats away at the mind of the David Hay’s of this world, how many candidates have put their names forward to the Green Party,(and any other for that matter),only to be rejected by a selection committee,
Zillions i would say over the decades and do they all run off to the media whining like beaten dogs over having had their ego’s bruised, like hell they do and my opinion is the well disciplined Green Party has escaped a bullet by not selecting a candidate, who by His actions has shown He cares little for the discipline or the unity of the Party,
While the Green Party sticks to both arms of it’s it’s foundation, Enviroment and Social justice and equality for all then the Parliamentary members can expect the full support of the members and quite frankly those who wish to exploit their ego driven agenda at the expense of the Party should be invited to fuck off and join Colon Craig…
The David Hay thing seems all a bit odd to me. Never heard of the guy before – so he can’t have much of a political/activist profile, even though he was on last election’s list.
He’s been making vague accusations about the GP leaders, but nothing concrete: the GP has upped it’s (previously pretty non-existant) MPs living in the Auckland area in the last few years: Julie Ann Genter has been high profile about Auckland’s transport system. Denis Roche & Kennedy Graham are pretty active Auckland-based MPs. On top of that I’ve often seen other Green MPs at Auckland actions, notably Gareth Hughes and Jan Logie.
And there’s been vague accusations about the GP having moved away from its core values, but nothing explicit.
OTOH, Hay has been deemed unsuitable to be on the GP list, with no clear reasons given – though Hay’s own actions in the last week make him look like he’s not GP material – all ME and little about being a team player or anything about the ways he’s working for the good of the community.
Hay seems a bit too, managerialist for my liking, even though he says a lot of good things about green issues. He’s been part of the Auckland Council team – but that could mean anything.
Hay stood against Banks and Goldsmith in Epsom, and apparently was way more popular with men than women.
my five cents worth on david hay..
http://whoar.co.nz/2013/comment-whoar-i-am-puzzled-by-the-leveldegree-of-attention-paid-to-the-green-challenger-david-hay-but-he-hay-does-have-a-valid-point-about-the-green-partyies-long-neglect-of-inattention/
(excerpt:..)
“..ed:..the link will take you to (yet another) media piece on the quixotic tilt at russel norman..by one david hay..
..and just why the media have seized upon this exercise in clowning..by this (obvious) outlier is beyond me..”
(cont..)
phillip ure..
Suggestion for labour or greens at nextyear campaign.
Cartoon style billboards
Two panels
First panel
Paula Bennet climbing a ladder labelled support for single mothers, retraining for single mothers, etc
Second Panel
Paula Bennet at top of ladder pushing away while others still on it
Then another of Key climbing the career success ladder with State housing support, widow pension, free university education
second panel
at top pushing it away
and so on…
Simple to the point, highly visual.
Yep a narrative for people to relate to. Different approach to well lit guys in suits saying vote for ME! Many previous candidate ads could be mistaken for network tv or radio ads. Also put spot ads on facebook.
The Green campaign a couple of elections ago using a young girl broke convention a little, ditch ad agency orthodoxy but don’t go too negative on the Key gang, go positive on Labour Green Mana–“you deserve better”.
I was wondering about the legality of signs with just a face that people hold up in the street or at at political meetings or in the background of TV interviews. Do they need an authorisation statement? I hope not, because I want to make some.
e.g. a Muldoon face in the background when Key is being interviewed on TV. I’m not actually going to do that one but you get the idea.
http://i40.tinypic.com/2mdl7vr.jpg
I doubt that anything about Muldoon would really work today. I suspect that only people near retirement age actually remember him. It will be, after all, at the time of the next election, 30 years since Muldoon was PM and about 22 since he died.
Try finding someone under the age of 45, excluding the sort of people who remain glued to these blogs, who actually remembers Rob. Even the people of any age who do remember would be hard pressed to tell you anything bad about him. That is except for the ones that believe that Saint Roger Douglas cleaned up the mess Rob caused. Very old people would tell you he gave them super at 80% of the average wage and that you got it at 60, not like the 67 these evil Labour people want to impose.
No it would be a bit like saying what a terible man Forbes was as PM.
I’d say that roughly half of all voters were 45 and over. So a fair proportion of voters will remember Sir Rob. And it’d be a good political economic history lesson for the young ones.
I would say, having read many of the comments in “John Key is Rob Muldoons Doppelganger”, that most people do not remember Rob at all.
To have such a lot of people equate Key’s and Muldoon’s behaviour proves my point that people simply do not remember Rob.
In terms of their actual policy platforms Rob was very close to the currently expressed views of the Labour and Green parties. The worst thing he did for New Zealand was in his attempts to have the state control things like prices and salaries, and his attempts to pick winners in industrial companies. He also wanted the state to own many businesses and to set their policies. He also liked to force companies to do things he wanted, not things that were good for either the companies or New Zealand.
Remember supplementary minimum prices, carless days, state insurance companies, Think Big? Remember him swinging a punch at people who had heckled him (Mallard anyone)?
Sounds awfully like Norman and Cunliffe doesn’t it?
NZ First would seem to me to be the zombie of Muldoon’s National Party: grey, rotting, bits dropping off, but still lurching on.
Yes, that would seem to describe them very aptly. I guess that Winston must be the last MP who entered Parliament when Rob was PM. Dunne, Goff, Mallard, McCully were all in 1984 weren’t they. None of the veteran MPs except Winnie would remember Rob in his prime.
Yeah and this government has been picking Warner Bros, SkyCity, Serco and a few others as winners.
Car-less days were a result of the OPEC oil reduction. Pity that they didn’t continue it – we’d have excellent public transport now.
As for state insurance companies, well, insurance is actually a natural monopoly. I know, I know, it doesn’t really seem that way as there’s plenty of companies in the market place but it’s one of those things that is what I term a demand monopoly – everybody needs it and when that happens the obvious economies of scale pertain only to a monopoly. There’s a few other reasons as well.
Think Big would have been great – if Muldoon hadn’t borrowed to build it. Just printed the money and utilised our own resources effectively. It was the borrowing that killed Think Big, not the project itself. Oh, and a fixed NZ$.
Nope, that was Bob Jones and we all had a great laugh at it at the time.
Bob Jones certainly belted a TV reporter who chased him along the river when Bob was fishing.
However Rob did take a swing at people who were heckling him after an election meeting in Auckland. He insisted on leaving the hall by the front door and then took some swings at people in the street. He wasn’t the boxer that Bob Jones had been though so I don’t think there was any damage done. In that regard Rob was like Mallard.
Carless days were totally nuts. Muldoon was stupid enough to demand that Government owned vehicles must have their day between Monday and Friday so that it meant that some sacrifice be made. The sacrifice was the taxpayer’s of course because they then bought 25% more cars to cover the needs.
I am sure we (wife and I) were not the only ones who bought a second car when the policy came in.
Something had to be done about the extremely high oil prices at the time, which were crippling our balance of payments.
what? Very old people remember he stole their pension. I guess you missed the baby boomer phenomenon.
I suggest that you put on your reading glasses and have another look at what I said Tracey.
I said that “… old people will tell you he GAVE them super at 80% of the average …”
I said GAVE Tracey, not STOLE. They would tell you that it was the Labour Government that stole it when they means tested it.
It was 1984 Labour, sorry ACT, that stole our future.
Douglas’ better future, remember, bit like Key’s really.
They are probably too complicated for a billboard. It has to be a message that people can take in within a second or two whilst driving past.
I am not going to get into a debate on them but the National party “Iwi/Kiwi” were absolutely superb in that regard. I don’t mean the content, I mean the speed with which the message could be absorbed.
I think that it would take to long to register the meaning of the billboards you are proposing.
What is wrong with The Standard? I thought I’d fixed it by deleting cache and cookies etc, but now it’s back to looking like shit again.
Is the same for me. All indented left and is the same on 4 different browsers, and on 3 different computers, one a brand new win 8 machine I am building. But at least the reply is now working, hopefully.
The TS is back to normal for me since last night. Before that it looked like a mid-to-late 1990s message board – low graphics, naff layout.
It’s looking fine for me now on Chrome.
Today it is Kiwiblog up the creek with just a single word below each contribution from Jadis and one cannot log-in.
Oh well, whatever is going on… it isn’t partisan. 🙂
Mine is the same as David H.
All back to normal again.
So have the Conservatives got any policies yet which are actually conservative?
Or are they still all extreme? Like guns for all.
Conservatives, my arse….
NZ Herald editorial: anti-government regulation rant focused on core political issues /sarc.
Portable swimming pools, no wine in dairies, “anti-smacking Bill”, lightbulbs, banning cell phones while driving, compulsory immunisation, water flow in showers, – cause they limit people’s “freedom” and can have unintended consequences, especially on the “economy” (does that mean the impact on business profits?).
Still, it’s saying Key’s government is more “nanny state” than Clark’s government was.
Where are the blazing DEMOCRACY UNDER ATTACK banners then?
The Herald’s anonymous editor should have to repeat these words about too many rules to the families of. Pike River..
Ah, a jonolist learned a new word: eczematous
and then used it incorrectly.
Blubber Boy, infamous in His own bathtub,(just ask the rubber ducky about it’s treatment),has made the RadioNZ news with the defamation case,(much higher none of us could expect Him to slither),
Even Bryce Edwards, He of NZ Herald fame supports Blubber in His quest to have ‘wail oil’ taken by the Court as media,(Bryce has a point which after i have finished poking the stick i will get to),
My thoughts this morning is that the Blubber should stand up for journalistic integrity,(stop that laughter),everywhere and refuse point blank any courts order to divulge the contents of and identify His sources which lead to Him claiming that an Auckland businessman was intimately involved with Bevan Chuang,
Such a noble upholding of the journalistic ‘right’ to protect a ‘source’ in the face of the power of the judiciary would probably,(hopefully), result in Blubber Boy getting tossed in a jail cell and we might see a ‘Free the whale’ campaign start someplace,(go on Bryce make our day), while the rest of us sit around and laugh like loons as Blubber Boy eats cold wheat-bix in a jail cell where most of us think He belongs anyway,
Oh and befor i forget, Bryce’s point about Blubber being ‘media’, it appears in this latest of court appearences,(serial offender or what),Blubber is being told by the Court that He aint ‘media’, however, in a previous case the offending offensive one was told after He published the name of someone who the Court had given name suppression that ‘wail oil’ was ‘media’,
Seems at the least to be a little 2 faced by the judiciary, and damn i really want to see Him swing…
[Agreed bad12 and I have just posted about this – MS]
i never read whaleoil..(haven’t for at least a couple of yrs..i think..i stopped over the postings of pics of severed heads of animals he has slaughtered..)
..and i may be one of the few who have not read the (so i’m told) gripping/detailed accounts of len browns’ jism/seed/bodily-functions..(and no thank you..i’ll maintain that innocence..if you don’t mind..)
..but i am feeling uncomfortable over a court deciding what is or what isn’t ‘media’..
..and i see that ruling as a total orifice-pluck on the part of that judge..
..however much individuals may criticise slater for his choices of material/uses of that media..
..he..much as ‘truth’ was..is definitely part of the new media landscape..
..and to claim otherwise is a nonsense..
..phillip ure..
Agreed. pu. I also don’t read WO and haven’t read all that spurious Len Brown stuff. But am also not comfortable with the court ruling on what is media – especially given the current sad state of a lot of our so-called press and news media.
karol +1
Nor me (1 ever visit to the wallowing Whale, and another to a site operated by some sort of Penguin – both by links from this site me thinks).
I’m confident – relaxed even, that I’m not missing too much. The right wing view comes from various “horses’ mouths”.
Strangely enough, they all seem very similar, as though they were singing some sort of chorus. Even the new lingo is the same. Where is it they face? – it’s not Mecca …. Helensville perhaps?, or maybe the direction of the nearest talk-back radio transmitter.
Agree, the judiciary can’t have to both ways.
The media issue, I assume is important because if he is media he can rely on public interest but does the press have an obligation to research, avoid bias, and report any surrounding circumstances, would it include an obligation to at least put the allegations to them before publishing and print their response?
Does the public interest have to be significant, and is it objective or subjective?
If Whaleoil’s sources are not protected, is anyone writing on The Standard protected?
With a slippery slope argument arriving any minute, let me put the question:
If being a “news distributor” is the principle criteria for protecting source anonymity, could all contributors to The Standard be revealed if required to do so?
Whaleoil’s (uncomfortable) interests are pretty similar to ours.
**Hmm will shift this over to relevant debate**
Cannot reply. Same on Firefox and Safari. Text for comments are OK but layout very basic. All other sites are as normal.
Try pressing Shift + Refresh (the circled arrow). THis should force your browser(s) to reload the style sheets.
There was a problem retransferring the DNS over the weekend. I was down with a dose of the flu (still am a bit) and didn’t deal with it early enough and then made a screwup on the time to live.
I’ve purged all of the caches at the server end in case that is the problem.
That seemed to work for me on IE as it suddenly righted itself without me doing anything.
Thanks, lprent – and take care of that flu. We need you …..
Sorry to be a nuisance 1prent. I have no “circled arrow” or any key resembling word “refresh” on it. Can you hazard a guess which key it should be?
Oh… its suddenly come right. Life’s normal again. If you did something 1prent… thank-you. 🙂
Shift + F5 on windows keyboards
The refresh button on the button bar usually looks like a green circle cut at either one or two points with arrow(s) on them.
It has righted and back to usual bright and breezy format. Thanks Iprent.
lprent
+1
Quick note to McFlock, Karol, Weka, Bill, Rogue, Puddleglum….just reread the whole thread on 29 November Open Mike 18-18.5.1.1.1.2 excellent reading. Really enjoyed the insights and the easy debate. We may differ, disagree etc but hell , that’s one hell of a good read. Thank you all.
cheers – yes, it definitely gave me a fair bit to mull over, too – thanks 🙂
Mulled wine at Christmas – is that your bag?
If I were to be completely honest, my bag is probably anything with more ethanol than methanol in it.
According to an oenophile friend, the problem really is what I’m drinking 🙂
Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly. In the end it bites like a serpent and stings like an adder. (Proverbs 23:29)
Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. (John 19:29)
Although he promptly dropped dead afterwards, so the term “vinegar” might genuinely imply something even less palatable than a Central Otago vanity plonk.
he he (and that’s all folks, at this time of the mornin’ to ya’) ffs 😀
“A word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver”- 25:12
Yaaaaaay, TS back to ‘normal’ (using that word plurally) 🙂
Life in the 21st century western style (USA version). I just heard some consumer related news on Radionz item. Thanksgiving day trading, some stores have opened for the first time. 10 million transactions in one day I think. $54 billion I think taken. Protests by workers wanting more pay outside Walmart.
The old kaleidoscope effect. Every time you shake it and look at it you get a different colour, perspective. Some in my family support NACTs. Looking at the same happenings in NZ we think about them entirely differently.
Hi folks!
Concerned about the Auckland ‘daft lunatic Plan’ and ‘democracy for developers’?
Live in the Eden-Albert area?
Seen this?
“You are welcome to attend a Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan Public Meeting.
There will be a Presentation on the Notified Unitary Plan by independent planner David Wren – with particular emphasis on Albert-Eden area and topics which are likely to be of interest to locals.
David Wren will speak for about 40 minutes followed by plenty of time for questions and answers.
Date: Saturday 7 December 2013
Time: 9.30am to 12 Noon (doors open at 9.30am and there is access to displays in the lobby and opportunities to discuss issues prior to the main presentation).
Venue: Mt Eden War Memorial Hall, The Chamber Room, 489 Dominion Road, BALMORAL”
____________________________________________________________________________
Kind regards,
Penny Bright
http://www.pennybright4mayor.org.nz/democracy-for-developers/
A look into the lives of the people who make the electronics we use.
http://www.jsonline.com/business/migrant-workers-pay-to-get-jobs-making-electronics-b99151857z1-234004661.html
and while I’m here,
“It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of (philosopher? ) kings”- 25:2.
Now, away to a tangi, people die, very moving.
You’re back, format and all. Great, no more of John Key’s dirty deeds. Funny how the site crashed on the day of the by-election.
wtf!
Great listening on RadioLive right now – Cameron Slater and Michelle Boag arguing because he called her a lying poisonous scumbag, which is in itself ironic coming from someone like Slater. Also, Michelle once again stated that Slater is an ACC beneficiary, which is another irony when his favourite sport is beneficiary bashing.
Seen this folks?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/your-views/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501154&objectid=11149526
So far the greatest number of ‘likes’ on the NZ Herald for New Zealander of the Year article have gone to Graham McCready for taking a private prosecution against the ‘Not-So-Honorable’ John Banks – ACT Leader and MP for Epsom!
YAY!
dodgy john is going…. going…. 🙂
Penny Bright
http://www.dodgyjohnhas gone.com
todays’ revelations are about/detail how australian spooks/govt offered unlimited raw data on australian citizens to their five eyes partners..to do with what they wished..
..whoar..!..eh..?..
..i wonder when our revelation will happen..?
..and is helen clark ‘sweating’ at all on these upcoming revelations..over there in noo yawk…?
..d’yareckon..?
..phillip ure..
NR radio again. Imagine again that NR decries the lack of factual correctness on the internet. Yet a smidgen of common sense would stop a guest from spouting nonsense. Its known that the firepower of an army is key to its success, that soldiers are trained in rapid accurate fire, so when a former top shot in the US marines guns down the president, looking down on a log slow moving cavalcade in Texas, is it any wonder Oswald got three shots off. You can imagine the jokes had he missed, former Marine couldn’t shoot diddly. So to my surprise NR guest declares he couldn’t believe that a lone gun man could of gotten three shots off in quick succession. Has the man never seen war movies of lines of muskets, highly trained to do just that, rapid fire. No, imagination mixed with common sense is not a requirement in a guest on Moro.
Cycling past this exit onto a cycle way, and keep meeting these aggressive drivers. Well turns out they were likely exiting a gym, didn’t make the connection until I heard about hormone abuses. I wonder do police stats show more accidents near gyms?
Are you in Auckland?
I recently had the pleasure of driving from Wellington to Auckland.
To maintain my sanity and ensure I didn’t do anything stupid like fall asleep at the wheel I divided the trip into 3 sections over 2 days.
As a quick aside, I totally recommend checking out any one of the short walks in Tongariro National Park, it was my best stop of the trip.
The traffic and behaviour of other drivers was pretty good right up until I hit the Bombay Hills. The increase of frequency of aggresive, rude and plain dangerous driving was stark.
I saw one incident of a frustrated driver shortly before I left Wellington compared to almost a dozen between Bombay and Glen Eden.
I ride a pushbike on almost a daily basis in Auckland so I am used to psychotic drivers, but this experience highlighted just how normalised bad driving is in Auckland compared to other cities and towns in New Zealand.
Hehe. Your comment brings to mind this piece that starts off:
“My gym has begun to sound like the set of a porno. So much grunting and heaving and panting. It reverberates around the room in a testosterone-laden symphony of man clownery.
“I’ve had enough. Grunty bloke, it’s time to shut up. I’m fairly certain I work out just as hard, yet you don’t hear me groaning like a constipated caveman on steroids every time I break a sweat.
“Women deliver babies with less fuss than the way you puff and whine through a bicep curl.
“Unless you’re attempting to pass a bowling ball through the tip of your urethra there’s really no reason for all the noise.
“And I’m not buying your ”but grunting makes me stronger” nonsense.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/wellbeing/9399413/Grunty-gym-bloke-please-pipe-down
Coming up on the Panel this afternoon: Neil Miller and Jordan Williams
Another black day for Radio New Zealand National
Monday, 2 December 2013
Miller is a smug and conceited git who is on record touting the racist right wing “humorist” P.J. O’Rourke as his favorite writer. If Miller stuck to beer assessing, then he would be sufferable, if only just sufferable. Unfortunately, he tends to veer into political commentary, but he knows little about anything other than beer.[1] Jordan Williams is a junior colleague of the infamous ex-ACT M.P. and S.S. spokesman Stephen Franks, and is becoming well known to Panel listeners as a pretentious but shallow commentator—very like Franks and Miller, in fact. So far, Williams’ most infamously stupid contribution—and there are many to choose from—remains this classic, uttered on the Panel a couple of months ago: “Capping rents seems like a recipe for disaster”. [2]
So look at what’s happened, whether accidentally or not: two government-friendly right wing commentators appear on the day that another right wing commentator, Cameron Slater, is one of the major topics of discussion. That represents another minor victory for the beleaguered National-led regime, which needs all the help it can get after the disaster (for National) in Christchurch over the weekend. But it represents another body-blow to the credibility of Radio New Zealand National.
[1] http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-2092013/#comment-690249
[2] http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-12092013/#comment-695426
UPDATE!!!
Speaking right now is another guest on the programme—-Garth “The Knife” McVicar. By way of some kind of justification for giving this bloodthirsty lout airtime, Mora prefaced his appearance by saying this: “Okay, we’ve had CRIMINOLOGISTS on the programme before….”
So treating violent psychopaths like McVicar respectfully is some kind of balancing manoeuvre.
This programme is now beyond satire.
what really pissed me off about today..
..was how mora just sat by and let that clown mcvicar deny the provable-facts of the drop in crime here..
..(a drop that is but an echo of the international trend of sharply dropping rates of crime..)..
..mora makes no mention of that international trend echo..(does he not know..?..could someone tell him..?
..if he does know..?..huh..!..)
..why does he/mora just let these outright/easily provable lies go uncalled/unquestioned..?
..he does himself no favours by doing this..
..today i linked to a story on how sweden is closing four of their prisons..
..a combination of those dropping rates..and the swedish focus on rehabilitation..instead of being solely focused on retribution..as is practised here..
..i noted at the foot of that story/link..how at a time when sweden is closing four prisons..
..we are building a new super-prison..
..have handed our prison system over to the american private industry model..(now there’s a success story/role-model..eh..?..that american prison system..)
..and the cherry on top of this cake of fucken wrongheaded-incompetence/ignorance..
..is that the govt has signed contracts with these private prison spivs..
..guaranteeing to supply enough prisoners to fill their prisons..(!)
..now..that just fucken bends my head out of shape..that prisoner-guarantee..
..we are ruled by ignorant fools..
..phillip ure..
ACT – less than 1% of the voters
25% of panel invitees.
Had to laugh at the “highbrow???” of Mensa Mora’s Mucky Show 4-5 pm today. The Mad Machiavellian Miller crapping on about whom, according to his girlfriend and others, he resembles.
James McOnie and someone else and someone else apparently. One only has to Google a pic of said Mad Miller to know that the most striking likeness is to – wait for it – SlaterPorn. There must be whakapapa !
Thought about you with anticipation Morrissey as in the course of a three hour plus drive home to the North I listened to the fascinatingly gross right wing fucks Jordan Williams, Mad Miller, and Garth McVictim. Gushingly hosted by The Nicest Man On Earth. Truly incredible !
A passing comment by Mad Miller suggests he might’ve been a late call to today’s Mucky Show – you may well be correct in your suspicion that a troika of outlandish right wingers was rapidly assembled to provide “balance” in the wake of the Christchurch result.
A passing comment by Mad Miller suggests he might’ve been a late call to today’s Mucky Show
Miller replaced Mai Chen at the last moment. It’s a pity, because she has shown a willingness to contest lazy ideologists in the past. Her absence ensured that Jordan Williams got (yet another) free ride.
– you may well be correct in your suspicion that a troika of outlandish right wingers was rapidly assembled to provide “balance” in the wake of the Christchurch result.
As bad as Neil Miller and Jordan Williams are, what I found utterly insulting was bringing on that S.S. obergruppenführer to “discuss” law and order. Surely, if McVicar is acceptable to the producers of this programme, then Kyle Chapman has to be consulted next time the Panel has a discussion about arson.
Probably already covered somewhere above but don’t have time to check – who would have thought it – forgive me the following words we’re not allowed to use – “G….y” Herald caning “N…y” National ???
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/9466873/Work-starts-on-MacKays-to-Peka-Peka-expressway
The award for MSM capabilities in photojournalism goes to ……
c a m e r o n b u r r r N E L L ! ! ! for
“Turning the Sod”
(unassisted – the guy rolls over all on his own)
The Guardian is picking up on the Government’s attempt to soften us all up for a fall in NZ’s Education Sector ranking in the OECD Pisa Report.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/dec/01/michael-gove-labour-international-league-table