Great Britain shows once more that tories hate freedom: ASBOs set to become IPNAs. George Monbiot describes the almost-passed bill for injunctions to prevent nuisance and annoyance. Anyone aged ten or more can be locked up for causing “annoyance”. As Monbiot puts it:
The new injunctions and the new dispersal orders create a system in which the authorities can prevent anyone from doing more or less anything. But they won’t be deployed against anyone. Advertisers, who cause plenty of nuisance and annoyance, have nothing to fear; nor do opera lovers hogging the pavements of Covent Garden. Annoyance and nuisance are what young people cause; they are inflicted by oddballs, the underclass, those who dispute the claims of power.
Have fallen for Giles cartoons at last. He would have had something to draw about this.
But one was appropriate in the Daily Express of 5/7/1979 Policeman addressing leader of toddlers trespassing on the grass in a park.
‘You realise, sir, you are contributing to the ‘avalanche of lawlesness threatening to engulf our civilisation’. http://www.gilescartoons.co.uk/keywordlist3.asp
I love the one highlighted during the Cold War – as seen through the eyes of MI5 and MI6? And the Giles family… don’t you love the dear little children.
It was fictitious family but Giles did admit that some of the characters were based on members of his own family.
Not as far as I am aware. However akismet got removed because they kind of fell over in the silly season.
I’m using a system that looks much more closely at *how* the comments are posted to the site with a few quiet details that should be done by anything talking to wordpress. Are you using a RSS feeder?
BTW: The site software only appears to have a colour discrimination against people with polkadots with high amounts of puce. Some kind of stylistic folly methinks…. Either that or a coulrophobia issue.
Xox
New low for RNZ on Summer program with Suzie and Caitlin. Topic : Auckland University study into blood spray patterns from bullets to the human head! Using a USA pistol, (not used in NZ.) The relevance and lack of judgement by RNZ in broadcasting this item is appalling. What has happened to, once proud, RNZ? It’s gone the way of TVNZ. Lead by Jim, Kathryn, Suzie, Simon, Noelle, it’s off to the sewer. Makes Matinée Idle appear ok! RNZ R. I. P. Where to turn to for sensible, informed media in NZ?
There is often talk about blood splatter in murder cases. It’s relevant because of the violence that is inherent in society and not repressed. Police and experts are interested. I think it was a factor in the Bain case. Sorry but it can’t be dismissed as sensational crap from the USA. Wish we could. Or blame it on Canada, or anywhere.
Why is RODNEY HIDE’s nonsense on the Editorial page?
The “news” is as biased, ridiculous and untrustworthy as ever
Q—What do you do for a living?
A—I am a communicator.
Q—What do you communicate? Scarlet fever? Apprehension?
—A.J. Liebling, The Press (Pantheon, 1961)
If you read the newspapers, listen to the radio or—worst choice of all—watch television in order to see what’s going on in the world, you will occasionally, even regularly, feel a sense of despair: not only at the events being described, but at the flagrantly partisan and irresponsible treatment of those events by the “reporters” and studio anchors, as well as the headline writers and copywriters for not only third-rate tabloids like the New Zealand Herald, but also for quality broadsheets ( 😀 ) like the Waikato Times, Dom-Post and ODT.
Here’s a representative sample, scribbled in disbelief and anger at odd moments during the last few days….
“Sharon was known for bold tactics and an occasional refusal to obey orders.”
—Ian Deitch (AP), in the NZ Herald, 3 January 2014
“…Ramadi and Fallujah, where U.S. forces once fought desperate battles against al-Qaeda…”
—David Martin, CBS, on Prime TV’s 5:30 News, 4 January 2014
“Fallujah was pacified by U.S. troops in 2004…”
—Paul Brennan, 9 a.m. News, Radio NZ National, 5 January 2014
“Biggs has the last word”. “Cheeky floral tribute a final statement from Great Train Robber”
—an entirely laudatory AP, AAP report of Ronald Biggs’ funeral “celebration”, Herald on Sunday, 5/1/14
“Death by dogs disputed”. “Commentators debate truth about death of Korean leader’s uncle”
—Herald on Sunday, 5/1/14
But as bad as this floodtide of trivia, this mountain of distortion and falsehood, this monumental failure by the “news” organisations might be, there is actually something much worse than people like David Martin of CBS, who are after all only acting as functionaries in the service of corporations much bigger and more powerful than they are. The most chilling feature of the “news”—more disturbing than hard-working servants like Martin, Blitzer, Ananpour, Paxman, Wark, Espiner and (shudder) Dallow—is the ideological fanatic who operates as a “commentator”. In spite of the neverending moaning by some that journalists are “liberals” and “leftists”, anyone who actually looks at a few papers and watches TV and listens to the radio will see that the right wing—and usually the most extreme, unhinged part of the right wing—is running wild, unchecked and unhindered over the Op-Ed pages of the mainstream press and in the chairs reserved for guest commentators and “pundits”.
You know the phenomenon of the extreme right wing commentator very well. He (or she) has stunned you on occasion and has left you shaking your head, or screaming at the television screen, and wondering: why the HELL is Bill O’Reilly talking about this?—Karl du Fresne knows NOTHING!—Bat Ye’or is bat-freaking INSANE! The roll-call of this cadre of ideological despots is long and inexhaustible; there are right wing “think tanks” and journalism schools producing these vacuous but self-important talking heads as regularly and reliably as India churns out top-class cricketers. In North America, there is Glenn Beck, David Brooks, David Frum, Sean Hannity, Charles Krauthammer, Bill Maher, Daniel Pipes, Bill O’Reilly, William Safire—and hundreds more. In Great Britain there is Niall Ferguson, Simon Heffer, Boris Johnson, Dame Ann Leslie, Melanie Phillips, Nick Robinson, Bat Ye’or—and hundreds more.
New Zealand and Australia‘s round-up of right-wing reactionaries let loose in the top paddock is equally dismal. It includes: John Ansell, Dr. Michael Bassett, Andrew Bolt, Karl du Fresne, Stephen Franks, Matthew (“I loved Mandela”) Hooton, Alan Jones, Steve Price, David Round, John Tamihere and hundreds of others too dim, depressing and outrageous to mention. (Tune in to Jim Mora’s Panel show if you want to hear some of the worst of them indulge in an uninterrupted rant.)
To compound the faux news that dominated its pages, the 5 January edition of the Herald on Sunday carried a typically bizarre piece by the notorious ACT loon and science-denier Rodney Hide, entitled “Heat gone out of climate claims”. The great thinker opens his barrage of crap with this pearler: “Future historians may point to this one ironic event as the trigger that finally ended the public fear of global warming.” He goes on to sneer at Al Gore and at the “nuttiness” of climate scientists. Hide uses the word “nuttiness” three times, and his sub-editors at the Herald on Sunday compound his mischief by using it a fourth time—in an enlarged, highlighted excerpt: “That’s the climate alarmists’ nuttiness in a nutshell: nothing proves them wrong; everything proves them right.” Hide’s garbage appears on the editorial page, which some people might have thought was for considered and serious writing. Such a placement, aided and abetted by the highlighting of the “nuttiness” quotation, bestows a degree of ex cathedra authority on a piece of writing which, in its poverty of thought and its infelicity of expression, as well as its lame attempts at humour, would embarrass a moderately intelligent Year 9 student.
The overall effect of this is not just to confuse and mislead the listener, or viewer, or reader. Intelligent consumers of this willfully dishonest and/or fantastical and/or depraved “product” realize that it is a vital part of a disinformation regime in which everything we see and understand is cast into doubt. News coverage like this creates a situation in New Zealand, and in every country where people like David Martin of CBS are entrusted with reporting on Iraq and people like Rodney Hide are allowed to write crazed rants against science, very like the situation which pertained in Soviet-bloc countries in the 1970s, where nobody trusted APN or TASS or Pravda, and the intelligentsia simply recognized that they were not to be believed at all. And CBS, as anyone who remembers its bloodthirsty cheerleading from its flag-bedecked studios during the aggression against Iraq in both 1990 and 2003 will know, is a de facto official news channel—along with the other flag-wavers and Obama-cultists at ABC, NBC and CNN, as well as the BBC, Radio New Zealand and TVNZ.
Now you might be thinking: at least there’s Bryan Crump on nights on Radio NZ National. At least there’s one place we can go to hear intelligent and civilized talk. At least there is an island of civilization and rationality amongst all the nonsense. But not so fast! Among the mostly excellent line-up of guests for this year’s “Monday Night Thinkers” feature is…. Rodney Hide. For such a prospect, there is really only one appropriate response….
How can NZ get a non commercial radio network that does not require you to check your brain before listening.
We have what I believe is one of the highest radio station per head of population in the world but they are all the same. National Radio used to provide intelligent programming but these days it is starting to sound like one of the commercial networks.
I would be more than happy to pay a subscription for a decent quality Radio service. I would love to have good quality music, documentaries, radio plays, book discussions, interviews where the subject is more important than the interviewer and all the other items that make up good station.
Also would like to announcers to be capable of stringing two words together with out sounding like idiots.
Is this too much to hope for?
“Shell country manager Rob Jager told the Otago Daily Times no decision had been made on where the company would base its shore operations, but it was between Dunedin and Invercargill…. [Otago Chamber of Commerce past-president] Mr McIntyre said Southland would surely be ”putting its best foot forward” and Dunedin should waste no time showing it could host Shell.”
So any effective protest action by the Dunedin public will be met with threats to relocate south. It’s further from the drilling site, but with the smelter on the verge of shutting down; Invercargill will agree to almost anything for jobs (especially since the spill modelling doesn’t show much immediate risk for Southland west of the Catlins). But this ploy will not prevent protest action from the Dunedin Green Party at least:
“Oceans spokesman, Gareth Hughes, said his party opposed all deep sea drilling, as it was too risky.
”This is a particularly risky environment – it’s between the roaring forties and the furious fifties. We saw one of the world’s largest oil companies Exxon Mobil pull out in 2010 because they said the conditions were too harsh and the location remote. Those conditions still exist for Shell.” “
I’m not at all interested in clicking on one of your links without any indication of what cess-pit it’ll land me in (probably something to do with; data massaged by National’s pet pollster by the look of it). If you could quote some part of it in your comments, then I might be interested in that.
Thanks PR-always worth reading what the opposition are saying to get some perspective.
My reading of the graphs is that Labour/Greens/Mana are more likely to get in next time than National, with Winston as the possible deal breaker. I reckon’ he will get 4.8% and miss out. Colin Crayfish is too loony to have much influence.
Speaking of that old cod Winston Peters, I hear he could be going head to head with his sister (Labour) in the rat abandoning ship (Phil Heatley) seat of Whangarei. That’s if Peters sister beats a tranny for the Labour candidacy. All we need now is for bible basher Colin Craig to stand there too, the place is full of god botherers. So maybe Key will ask his blue ribbon lot from the North to vote Craig. Perhaps Dot Blob can add to an interesting electorate contest?
Ok sorry no malice intended, in hinsight speaking loosely. I like the tranny & Peters to a degree, the god botherers are mostly fine, however the brethrens up here are a weird bunch & Colin Craig has some dim views on the likes of Maori & reintroducing beat the kids is plain dumb. I’m no spring chicken myself 🙂
yep – Skinny – from this point of view, it looks like it might be a verrrrry interesting selection for Labour ! Like you, I’m no spring chicken but I look forward to the revelations this election will bring forth in Whangarei ! It might be fun… for a change!
As long as idiots don’t drag the party through the mud in the process. The candidate will need to be sharp & fast on their feet and street wise so that narrows the field down some what. The last election the candidate was woeful as was his campaign crew, I understand the unions now hold sway, which is probably a good thing as organising is their thing.
You’ve got it wrong Skinny – I’m not so sure the unions hold sway – that’s just big talk, no real do, happening. A couple of those unionists are all talk …. no real reputation for doing anything real.
fascinating you thought the last election candidate was woeful – I thought he was pretty good but then i was part of his campaign crew so biased
Dear Skinny as the supposed woeful candidate last time, Id love to know what u based yr comment on… Easy to hide malicious uninformed comments behind a pseudonym isn’t it… I’m guessing from yr nasty personal comments, that you probably would be a member of a Whangarei Nutters Group. The results achieved here last election by the way, don’t point to me being a woeful candidate….
Sorry if I offended you, however i am from the school of hard knocks as should any aspiring MP be. Therefore I will contradict you Mr Newman the last election result;
clearly shows you achieved below the national average for the NZP. Why so? because you and your campaign crew were woeful. You lot gave it your best crack which was simply not good enough.
So rather than front up with an inferior ‘patsy’ candidate why don’t you and your self serving bunch of glorified teachers pull your heads in and get behind the soon to be chosen candidate, think of the big picture.
Lastly, dollars for doughnuts the Unions hold sway alright, that is why Kelly will get the candidacy. But hey it’s a democracy… bring it!
Old grudges up North against Heatley (tho he has done his dash) & Mike Sabin who he hates like no other MP, + he gets votes from Maori & the senior voters rounded out by the church goers and racehorse set. He setup quite a good office in Whangarei last year & his brother & family are locals. Of course the likes of Shane Jones and Winston prefer being list MP’s as they can goof off without being tied down like an electorate MP who has to do some mundane work locally.
In reply to Skinny at 9.2.2.111 on 10 Jan “Therefore I will contradict you Mr Newman the last election result ” the 2011 election result in Whangarei for Labour was on a par with every electorate result for Labour that year. The Labour vote throughout the country went down from the previous election. Whangarei was no different to the rest. An No – it won’t be the Unions who’ll be supporting Kelly : it’ll be the lawyers and others – get your actual facts right, nutcase !
Wrong you old trout the seat was all about the party vote, Newman gathered around a poultry 20 percent, which was pitiful considering the previous electorate results. You ran a poor campaign with a lazy candidate amongst many other things, that’s why your services as chairperson are no longer required.
I’ve spoken to the main Union leaders here and they have confirmed they will not put their own contender up, instead will back the justice lawyer. The only conditions are the candiate must be fully funded to the maximum allowed in all regards, and they push a pro worker platform directed by the union affiliates.
Here is a final tip ‘don’t bother’ trying to get back on the Executive as your not wanted by the majority of the members, your an unwelcome distraction to the task at hand. Now pull that hook out of your nose and sling it further North!
Hey Skinny – for someone who has NEVER run in a campaign, let alone WIN one, you do speak a lot of malicious tosh. The “main union leaders here” (in Whangarei ?)
all TWO of them ! not much help coming from that lot …. as you should know from previous campaigns – but that’s right, you haven’t actually done any organising in a campaign, nor been very much use in a campaign except for banging the odd nail in a hoarding ….. so what do YOU know about it . All bloddy nothing …. just a load of old crock yourself. about time you were put out to rest ….. in those paddocks of yours.
Self serving bunch of glorified teachers eh skinny… You must have been strapped when at school to have such an opinion of teachers like that… Pity as u obviously come from Whangarei that you didn’t actually help out at the last election.. Then as I said earlier, its too easy to criticize from anonymity… By the way note Phil heatleys result was down over 10% on previous election
…..
Another nail in the coffin for Labours hopes at the next election but at least you can guarantee a win in 2017
[lprent: Idiot. Where was there *anything* about the Labour party in that post? FFS: bsprout is a well known green.
Basically we do know where your brain appears to be – but you don’t have to tug on it here just to prove it again.
And you just collected a 2 week ban for intimating this site was a Labour party site (see the about and the policy), and a 2 week ban for being a stupid trolling fool doing diversions at the top of posts.
And moved it to OpenMike as being irrelevant to the post. ]
Is that what you think? I think you might be forgetting a certain John Banks in the dock, and a certain Kim.com appeal hearing in April. And that’s assuming your confidence in the economic tea-leaves proves well-founded, as opposed to just some cocaine-addled banker talking shite.
No one believes a word Krim.con says, the sooner the thieving fat Kraut is sent to the USA and locked up the better. There is to much news about Labour’s Pant’s Down Brown the serial masturbator for anyone to remember John Banks minor memory lapse.
I wonder if the Russians will melt down that Gween Peace ship to make some more drilling pipes
may as well use the steel for a worth while cause.
PS Labour and the Gween Taliban are sunk.
Sure. No-one believes him except the judge, who keeps on ruling in his favour.
Poor wingnuts are especially reality-challenged today. That, and determined to demonstrate that they’re twelve years old – seriously, “gween”? Tee hee, speech impediments are so funny.
Xox
Thanks Morrissey.
Your contribution made me feel a little better. Good to know I’m not the only one thinking along these lines. TV is dead now that quality Public Broadcasting has gone the way of the dodo.
The only encouraging thing in this video is the fact it was teenagers that stepped in to the situation to try to help the kid. Maybe the message is at least getting through to some young people….
crap – a – roo. I had replied to pukish rogue at 9.2.1 (1.39pm) and it has disappeared. When I refreshed the page I got the Standard Banner only and a blank page. I think this happened to phil ure the other day. Just saying.
Long story short, in response to PR I had mentioned Dunne’s influence as a support “party” – far too much in regards to his damaging voting choices: Asset sales, GCSB and TICS Act’s, Sky City and his intention to not vote for Hone’s Feed the Kids Bill (just off the top of my head)
Before clicking on the “submit comment” button, I generally select the whole field and ctrl+C it; that way if it vanishes into the glitch zone, I can get it back with a quick ctrl+V.
I heard that Gareth Hughes is considering going list-only next election, so it may be that Labour’s candidate will be only up against a nominal Green opponent in Ohariu-Belmont. Given his conduct this term, and a coordinated left alternative; I think Dunne and Untied History are done.
Hi Pasupial. Ha ha! I did that little trick last time and it worked………….
Tane Woodley has been selected as the Green party candidate for Ohariu this year, and there is still no word on the Labour candidate. I even emailed the NZLP through their website to ask them but no word as yet. I’m busting to know.
Yes, Dunne absolutely has to go this year, especially as it will be his 30th anniversary of holding the seat. I’m in Ohariu and will be working alongside a non party affiliated group to see what we can do to help move him out. I think it can be done but it will require hard work because he is like a comfortable pair of old slippers for many voters here. Mind you, 64.6% of Ohariu voters said NO in the asset sales referendum, so hopefully the wind is changing direction.
It seems that we will have to wait another six weeks to find out who the Labour Party candidate for Ohariu will be. The LP sent out a candidate selection update just before Christmas, Apparently nominations have closed for Ohariu with two people nominated and so a contested selection. A confirmation meeting is scheduled for 22 February. Names of the nominees were not provided in the update.
Nominations for LP candidates for many electorates do not close until 28 February.
Thanks! Thats very helpful veutoviper and something to look forward to.
I’m hoping the selection of the candidate will reflect the “specialness” of this electorate, in that there have been mutterings of discontent in the street from actual Dunne voters vs. the glue like nature of Dunne’s presence. A crow bar may still be required but the right candidate will be able to harness the section of the community that is waking and feeling pissed off and sold down the river by Dunne.
But it found much of their discussion supported fewer MPs because participants “did not trust politicians to represent them with integrity”.
/facepalm
The number of MPs has no bearing on them representing with integrity. That requires being able to hold them to account as the John Banks saga has shown. The problem that we have don’t have systems in place to ensure that the MPS are upholding the necessary standards and neither the police nor the MSM seem willing to even when there is obvious breaks in an MPs integrity.
I know a couple of smokers who answered NO to the are you a smoker question, but I don’t know anyone ‘pretending’ to be an MP, other than the obvious..
The Rev. Al Sharpton—one of those black leaders in whose memory the likes of Matthew Hooton need never feel obliged to make a mock tribute on Public Address—and Michael Moore try their best to keep things rational and civilized here. Valerie Plame also pitches in on the side of decency and tolerance, but this is Bill Maher‘s show, and with his watery English henchman Richard Dawkins he won’t be having any liberal crap about tolerance and understanding and context spoiling things this evening.
Valerie Plame’s very first contribution to this conversation is a vacuous statement, chiming in to support Bill Maher just after he’s assured everyone that he is “not racist.” But after that vapid beginning, she does get better. She, like Bill Maher, is out of her intellectual depth though—I got the impression she was not overly bright when I read her (much redacted) book a year or so ago.
Bill Maher, on the other hand, only gets worse as this clip goes on. Every single utterance he makes is bumptious, hateful and obnoxious. He is backed up, languidly, by Richard Dawkins, who is at his hypocritical worst here. If Dawkins has ever uttered even a mild statement condemning Christian or Jewish violence, could someone please post it up?
Observers of this kind of pretentious but empty upper class drawing room honking will be aware Dawkins has taken up some of the burden since Christopher Hitchens died. At first glance, he would seem to fill Hitchens’ two key roles perfectly: 1.) the steady dripping of hateful slurs against all Muslims, at the same time scoffing at anyone who dares point out that there is also massive Christian and Jewish and Buddhist violence; and 2.) playing the suave and sophisticated Englishman, the sine qua non at any smart Manhattan soirée, where you will also hear the sort of ignorant, racist opinionating that Maher and Dawkins specialize in. A few generations it was “the Jews” on the receiving end of such vile bigotry; now it’s Arabs and Iranians.
But watch carefully and you’ll see that there’s something gravely wrong here. Dawkins has not really bought in to the role that Maher expects him to play. Dawkins seems detached; he seems to be phoning it in instead of engaging in the scenery-chewing, snarling and faux outrage of a committed role-player like Hitchens. He nods wanly in support of Maher, but he doesn’t really seem to have his heart in it. Unlike Hitchens, he is incapable of summoning up the display of bogus rage needed when one engages in the kind of needling provocation Bill Maher expects of his back-up men.
As for the pitiful Maher: his intellectual level is perfectly illustrated by the very last words he utters on the clip: “Hitchens said a great thing—” he burbles—and then he is cut off.
Now I find Bill O’Reilly a distasteful man most of the time. But today, he crossed a line, from being distasteful idiot on the right, to a numb skull who deserves to be retired from the media forever. This is from my libertarian capitalist mates, even they are finding him and fox news nothing more than propaganda for arch-conservatives. I wont repeat what they said as children may be watching, except to say, this is an example of out of touch conservatives, whose grip on reality has failed.
A full world
Nineteenth century economists assumed that the economy would stop growing naturally, reaching “a very pleasant steady state,” said UC Berkeley economist Richard Norgaard, chairman of the Delta Independent Science Board advising California on water issues, and a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “People would have more time for the arts and less time spent working.”
Sometime in the 20th century, the idea that the economy must grow became a truism, he said, yet “there is no theoretical reason why the economy has to keep growing.”
In fact an economy must not keep growing as that will destroy the environment totally.
The first thing we need to do is to tell the politicians and business people that we will no longer support more growth. We’ve had massive growth over the last three decades and yet poverty is worse than ever and so it’s obvious that growth is not the panacea to poverty.
The scary thing about that is just how accurately it describes humans but, then, art has been doing that in subtle and not so subtle ways for millennia.
But I will not sit idly back and let this discussion be derailed by the Speaker of the House and the dominant culture or by Māori men justifying gender essentialism based on a context that no longer afflicts our interactions with each other. Tikanga is fluid. It can adapt. But its up to Māori to decide if they will adapt.
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New Zealand has another Prime Minister who does not have a basic grasp of the three articles of the Treaty of Waitangi. THOMAS CRANMER writes: It is simply astonishing that New Zealand’s next Prime Minister, Chris Hipkins, is unable to give even a brief explanation of the three articles ...
A statue of a semi-naked Nick Smith puts the misogyny debate into perspective. GRAHAM ADAMS writes … In the wake of Ardern’s abrupt resignation, the mainstream media are determined to convince us she was hounded from office mainly because she is a woman and had to fall on her sword ...
A Different Kind Of Vibe: In the days and weeks ahead, as the Hipkins ministry takes shape, the only question that matters is whether New Zealand’s new prime minister possesses both the wisdom and the courage to correct his party’s currently suicidal political course. If Chris “Chippy” Hipkins is ...
An editorial in the NZ Herald last week, titled “Nimbyism goes bananas as housing intensifies“, introduced Herald readers to a couple of acronyms that go along with the now-familiar NIMBY (Not in My Back Yard): “bananas” (build absolutely nothing anywhere near anyone) “cave” dwellers (citizens against virtually everything). The editorial ...
Back in the dark autumn of 2020, when the prospect of Covid was freaking the country out, Finance Minister Grant Robertson set himself and Treasury a series of questions about what a post-Covid economy might look like. Those were fearful days, and the questions in part reflected a series ...
Buzz from the Beehive Yet another day has passed without Ministers of the Crown posting something to show they are still working for us on the Beehive website. Nothing new has been posted since January 17. Perhaps the ministers are all engaged in the bemusing annual excursion ...
Incoming Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has already indicated he intends making the tax system “fairer”. That points to the route a government facing an election could take to tilt the odds towards winning in its favour, given Labour’s support in the last months of the Ardern era had been ...
NewsHub has a poll on the cost-of-living crisis, which has an interesting finding: the vast majority of kiwis prefer wage rises to tax cuts: When asked whether income has kept up with the cost of living, 54.8 percent of people surveyed said no and according to 58.6 percent of ...
Labour has begun 2023 with the centre-left bloc behind in the polls and losing ground. That being so, did his colleagues choose Chris Hipkins as the replacement for Jacinda Ardern because they think he has a realistic shot at leading them to victory this year, or because he‘s the best ...
Two Flags, Two Masters? Just as it required a full-scale military effort to destroy the first attempt at Māori self-government in the 1850s and 60s (an effort that divided Maoridom itself into supporters and opponents of the Crown) any second attempt to establish tino rangatiratanga, based on the confiscatory policies ...
The first of Kiwirail’s big network shutdowns to fix the foundations on our tracks is now well underway with the Southern Line closed between Otahuhu and Newmarket. This is following on from the network wide Christmas/New Year shutdown, during which Kiwirail say that nearly 1,300 people working across 69 different ...
This is a re-post from the Citizens' Climate Lobby blogIn last year’s passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Congress included about $20 billion earmarked for natural climate solutions. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is responsible for deciding how those funds should be allocated to meet the climate ...
You’ve really got to wonder at the introspection, or lack thereof, from much of the mainstream media post Jacinda Ardern stepping down. Some so-called journalists haven’t even taken a breath before once again putting the boot in, which clearly shows their inherent bias and lack of any misgivings about fueling ...
Over the weekend I was interviewed by a media outlet about the threats that Jacinda Ardern and her family have received while she has been PM and what can be expected now that she has resigned. I noted that the level of threat she has been exposed to is unprecedented ...
Dr Bryce Edwards writes: The days of the Labour Government being associated with middle class social liberalism look to be numbered. Soon-to-be Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Deputy Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni are heralding a major shift in emphasis away from the constituencies and ideologies of liberal Grey ...
A Different Kind Of Vibe: In the days and weeks ahead, as the Hipkins ministry takes shape, the only question that matters is whether New Zealand’s new prime minister possesses both the wisdom and the courage to correct his party’s currently suicidal political course. If Chris “Chippy” Hipkins is able to steer ...
The days of the Labour Government being associated with middle class social liberalism look to be numbered. Soon-to-be Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Deputy Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni are heralding a major shift in emphasis away from the constituencies and ideologies of liberal Grey Lynn and Wellington Central towards the ...
Following the surprise resignation of Jacinda Ardern last week, her replacement, Chis Hipkins, has said: Over the coming week, Cabinet will be making decisions on reining in some programs and projects that aren’t essential right now That messaging is similar to what Jacinda Ardern said late last year and as ...
Much of what will mark the early days of Chris Hipkins’ Prime Ministership would have happened anyway. By December, the Prime Minister and Finance Minister were making it clear the summer break and early days of this year were going to be spent on a reset of government policy. ...
Going to try to get into the blogging thing again (ha!) what with an election coming up and all that. So today I thought I'd start small and simple, by merely tackling the world's (second) richest man.I'm no fan of Elon Musk. You don't want to know why, but I'll ...
A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 15, 2023 thru Sat, Jan 21, 2023. Story of the Week State of the climate: How the world warmed in 2022With a new year underway, most of the climate data for ...
Well, that was a disappointment. As of today, the New Zealand Labour Caucus opted for Chris Hipkins as our new Prime Minister, and I cannot help but let loose a cynical cackle. ...
Get ready for a major political reset once Chris Hipkins is sworn in as Prime Minister this week. Labour’s new leader is likely to push the Government to the right economically, and do his best to jettison the damaging perceptions that Labour has become “too woke” on social issues. Overall, ...
Things have gone sideways… and it’s only the third week of January? It was political earthquake time. For some the Prime Minister made a truly significant announcement. For others – did you have this on your bingo card? – a body double did so (sit tight, you’ll understand later, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Because our hard-working Ministers of the Crown are engaged in Labour Party caucus stuff in Napier, no doubt jockeying to ensure they keep their jobs or get a better one, Point of Order was not surprised to find no fresh news on the Beehive website this ...
By the end of 2019, Jacinda Ardern was a political superstar heading towards an election defeat. She was an icon, internationally beloved, on track to be an ex-prime minister before the age of forty. It was the year of the Christchurch terror attack when Ardern’s response to the atrocity saw ...
People complain about their jobs being meaningless. Does it matter?David Graeber, author of Bullshit Jobs: The Rise of Pointless Work and What We Can Do About It, would have smiled at Elon Musk’s sacking half the Twitter workforce. Musk seems to be confirming the main thesis of the book, that ...
Dr Bryce Edwards writes: Should New Zealand have a snap election? That’s one of the questions arising out of the chaos of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s shock resignation. There’s an increased realisation that everything has changed, and the old plans and assumptions for election year have suddenly evaporated. ...
Should New Zealand have a snap election? That’s one of the questions arising out of the chaos of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s shock resignation. There’s an increased realisation that everything has changed, and the old plans and assumptions for election year have suddenly evaporated. So, although Ardern has named an ...
I warned about the trap of virtue signaling in my article Virtue signaling over Ukraine. This video is still relevant – but have we moved on since then? The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 was universally condemned at the time. Or was it? Certainly, the political atmosphere ...
Earlier this week Point of Order carried a post by Geoffrey Miller on how Japan under a new security blueprint is doubling its defence spending. The plans see Japan buying up advanced weaponry – including long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles from the US – and spending more on ...
Anyone else suffering back-to-work-blues? We’re battling, but still upright. Haere tonu! Today’s cover image is of sunset over Tirohanga Whānui Bridge, sourced from Twitter. The week in Greater Auckland On Monday, Jolisa pondered the fate of AT’s ‘Statements of Imagination’. Tuesday’s post was a guest post by Grady ...
Open access notables Bad news delivered by an all-star cast of familiar researchers: Another Year of Record Heat for the Oceans. From the abstract: In 2022, the world’s oceans, as given by OHC, were again the hottest in the historical record and exceeded the previous 2021 record maximum. According to IAP/CAS data, ...
The resignation of Jacinda Ardern has already made more global headlines than you might expect for that of the PM of a small commonwealth nation like say Sierra Leone (population 6.5 million) or Singapore (population 5.5 million). But international observers might not be too surprised by Ardern’s announcement that ...
One of my earliest political memories is the resignation of Prime Minister David Lange in August 1989. I remember this because of a brown felt-tipped pen drawing I did of the Beehive, the building that houses the Executive of the New Zealand Government. More than thirty years later, we ...
Buzz from the Beehive Hard on the heels of our Buzz from the Beehive earlier today, the PM has made two announcements – the 2023 general election will be held on Saturday 14 October and she will not be campaigning to win a third term as Prime Minister. She will ...
Jacinda Ardern had an outsized impact on New Zealand’s international relations. While all Prime Ministers travel internationally, Ardern’s calendar was fuller than most. Ardern’s first major foreign trip came within weeks of her election in 2017, to the APEC summit in Vietnam. The meeting gave Ardern her first in-person encounter ...
She gave it her all. No New Zealand Prime Minister has ever dominated the political scene at home as she has done, or has established an international profile to match hers. No New Zealand Prime Minister has had to confront such a sequence of domestic and international catastrophes – from ...
Jacinda Ardern's shock resignation announcement today has left a lot of us with a lot of complicated feelings. In my case, while I've been highly critical of Ardern's government, I'm still sorry to see her go. We've had far too many terrible things happen during her term as Prime Minister ...
The decision by Jacinda Ardern to end her term as Prime Minister on February 7 has come as a stunning surprise. It turns the task of a centre-left government winning re-election this year from difficult to nigh on impossible. No-one else among the Labour caucus has Ardern’s ability to explain ...
Jacinda Ardern’s first press conference as Labour leader in August 2017 was a defining moment in the past decade of New Zealand politics. A young woman (by the standards of politics) who had long been tipped for higher office, she had underperformed as a minister and Andrew Little’s noble resignation ...
An Astonishing Rapport: Jacinda Ardern's "Politics of Kindness" raised so many progressive possibilities. Her own tragedy, and New Zealand's, is that so few of them were realised.MUCH WILL BE WRITTEN in the coming days about "The Ardern Years", some of it sympathetic and insightful, most of it spiteful and wrong.For ...
The tools exist to help families with surging costs – and as costs continue to rise it is more urgent than ever that we use them, the Green Party says. ...
Members of Parliament for the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand have today written to Iran’s Grand Ayatollah Khamenei to condemn the ongoing violence and killing of women’s rights and democracy protesters, and to call on him to intervene immediately. ...
Ka papā te whatitiri, Hikohiko ana te uira, wāhi rua mai ana rā runga mai o Huruiki maunga Kua hinga te māreikura o te Nota, a Titewhai Harawira Nā reira, e te kahurangi, takoto, e moe Ka mōwai koa a Whakapara, kua uhia te Tai Tokerau e te kapua pōuri ...
Carmel Sepuloni, Minister for Social Development and Employment, has activated Enhanced Taskforce Green (ETFG) in response to flooding and damaged caused by Cyclone Hale in the Tairāwhiti region. Up to $500,000 will be made available to employ job seekers to support the clean-up. We are still investigating whether other parts ...
The 2023 General Election will be held on Saturday 14 October 2023, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced today. “Announcing the election date early in the year provides New Zealanders with certainty and has become the practice of this Government and the previous one, and I believe is best practice,” Jacinda ...
Jacinda Ardern has announced she will step down as Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party. Her resignation will take effect on the appointment of a new Prime Minister. A caucus vote to elect a new Party Leader will occur in 3 days’ time on Sunday the 22nd of ...
The Government is maintaining its strong trade focus in 2023 with Trade and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor visiting Europe this week to discuss the role of agricultural trade in climate change and food security, WTO reform and New Zealand agricultural innovation. Damien O’Connor will travel tomorrow to Switzerland to attend the ...
The Government has extended its medium-scale classification of Cyclone Hale to the Wairarapa after assessing storm damage to the eastern coastline of the region. “We’re making up to $80,000 available to the East Coast Rural Support Trust to help farmers and growers recover from the significant damage in the region,” ...
The Government is making an initial contribution of $150,000 to the Mayoral Relief Fund to help communities in Tairāwhiti following ex-Tropical Cyclone Hale, Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty announced. “While Cyclone Hale has caused widespread heavy rain, flooding and high winds across many parts of the North Island, Tairāwhiti ...
Rural Communities Minister Damien O’Connor has classified this week’s Cyclone Hale that caused significant flood damage across the Tairāwhiti/Gisborne District as a medium-scale adverse event, unlocking Government support for farmers and growers. “We’re making up to $100,000 available to help coordinate efforts as farmers and growers recover from the heavy ...
A vaccine for people at risk of mpox (Monkeypox) will be available if prescribed by a medical practitioner to people who meet eligibility criteria from Monday 16 January, says Associate Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall. 5,000 vials of the vaccine have been obtained, enough for up to 20,000 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Ward, Postdoctoral research fellow, The University of Queensland Five years ago, bulldozers with chains cleared forests and woodlands almost triple the size of the Australian Capital Territory in a single year. Brazil? Indonesia? No – much closer: Queensland. In 2018-19, ...
Auckland Transport has apologised for confusing messaging that suggested attendees of tonight’s Elton John concert should drive. In a post on Facebook last night, AT said “driving to the concert is recommended” – a suggestion that prompted backlash due to the lack of parking options near the stadium. The announcement ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Tingay, John Curtin Distinguished Professor (Radio Astronomy), Curtin University Asteroid 20223 BU’s path in red, with green showing the orbit of geosynchronous satellites.NASA/JPL-Caltech There are hundreds of millions of asteroids in our Solar System, which means new asteroids are discovered ...
In his memoir Spare, Prince Harry revealed he attended the future King and Queen of England’s wedding with a frostbitten penis. A veteran of Antarctic expeditions says it’s not an issue that crops up often, if at all.Now that the avalanche of coverage about the Duke of Sussex’s memoir ...
A new poem by Wellington poet and publisher Ash Davida Jane. objects in the mirror are closer than they appear if a dog digs in the right spot and unearths a rib what do I care if a woman grows from that bone take her in and tend to her ...
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.AUCKLAND1Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Grove Press, $25) Everyone’s chowing down on fiction ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Susan Hazel, Associate Professor, School of Animal and Veterinary Science, University of Adelaide schankz/Shutterstock Have you ever worried if the play between your cats was getting too rough? A new study published in Scientific Reports has investigated play and fighting ...
More water than anything else, the cucumber is the perfect counter to intense and fiery flavours. Cucumber is without a doubt the most refreshing vegetable*, the antidote to hot summer days. At 95% water, a cucumber is basically an edible, crunchy, waste-free water bottle. Beside water, the cucumber has almost ...
REVIEW:By Rowan Callick Radio Australia was conceived at the beginning of the Second World War out of Canberra’s desire to counter Japanese propaganda in the Pacific. More than 70 years later its rebirth is being driven by a similarly urgent need to counter propaganda, this time from China. Set ...
The yellow brick road to Mt Smart stadium looks to be packed this weekend as thousands travel to dual Elton John concerts In the words of pop royal Elton John, “I think it’s going to be a long, long time” - in this case for the 40,000 odd concert-goers driving ...
The decision by Sport Northland to deny 'Stop Co-Governance', a community group, use of their Whangarei venue to hold a public meeting is illegal and defies the rights given to all Kiwis to voice their political opinions. This case, yet again, illustrates ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rolf Gerritsen, Professorial Research Fellow, Northern Institute, Charles Darwin University The supposed dimensions of the “crisis” in Alice Springs have been exhaustively portrayed in the media, both nationally and in the Northern Territory. The stories abound: shopfront windows repeatedly broken, groups of ...
Children’s Commissioner, Judge Frances Eivers: "Myself and previous Commissioners have been clear that the use of motels at all is deplorable, and a symptom of a system that is failing children. "Concerns around the practice have been raised repeatedly ...
Everything you need to know to get through the chaotic commute to to the Elton John concert in Tāmaki Mākaurau this weekend. Fans heading to Elton John’s concerts at Mt Smart Stadium this weekend have been advised to drive or walk thereby Auckland Transport (AT). In a Facebook post ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tamara Borovica, Research assistant and early career researcher, Critical Mental Health research group, RMIT University Shutterstock If your new year’s resolutions include getting healthier, exercising more and lifting your mood, dance might be for you. By dance, we don’t ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julie Andrews, Professor and Academic Director (Indigenous Research), La Trobe University ShutterstockAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains names and images of deceased people. Many people do not know about the early activism undertaken ...
Finance minister Grant Robertson has opted to go list-only for the upcoming election, meaning he will not seek to be re-elected as MP for Wellington Central. It opens up the door for a swift exit from politics should Labour lose the election; without an electorate, no byelection would be triggered ...
Tory Whanau told The Spinoff’s When The Facts Change podcast that National’s transport spokesperson would push Wellington ‘backwards’ if he becomes transport minister.Wellington’s left-leaning mayor is worried her plans for the city could be scuppered by a new National-led government – and specifically by the party’s most likely candidate ...
Thousands of people are expected to flock to Auckland’s Western Springs on Monday for the triumphant return of the Laneway Festival. But with severe weather warnings in place, is it going to be reduced to a Splendour in the Grass-style “hellscape”? According to the organisers, no. In an email sent ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert G. Patman, Professor of International Relations, University of Otago A German Leopard 2 heavy battle tank of the type destined for Ukraine.Getty Images The recent decision by Olaf Scholz’s German government to supply Ukraine with Leopard 2 tanks – after ...
The Hauraki Gulf Alliance, a group of diverse organisations representing more than 1 million people, has rubbished proposals to continue trawling and dredging in New Zealand’s first marine park, the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park. The Hauraki Gulf Fisheries ...
Te Kāhui Tika Tangata Human Rights Commission has shared experiences of children and young people in emergency housing ahead of New Zealand’s review under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in Geneva this week. “The government ...
It’s felt like a long time between drinks, but everyone’s favourite/least favourite family are almost back on our screens. HBO today released a trailer for the upcoming fourth season of Succession and announced a March release date. Check out the trailer – which doesn’t give away too much, but successfully ...
Want to avoid being a bad visitor at the beach this summer? Just follow these simple steps.My partner’s whānau has had a bach in Whangaparāoa, 45 minutes north of Auckland, since the 1950s. They’ve been around long enough to become a part of the bay’s furniture. They know the ...
A slightly underrated track from Elton John gained real life resonance last night. Fans heading to his concerts at Mount Smart Stadium in Auckland this weekend have been advised to drive or walk there by Auckland Transport as work on the rail network upgrade has closed the Penrose train station. One of ...
Morning Report - RNZ political editor Jane Patterson and deputy political editor Craig McCulloch run the ruler over the transition to Prime Minister Chris Hipkins, and the co-governance debate. ...
Activists from the Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses (CPR) will gather right outside the main entrance of the Wellington Cup with props that symbolise the blood that is shed on the racetrack. ...
Waking up this morning was like a return to my summer break, where I was lulled out of my sleep by the sound of torrential rain. The North Island is in for a wet, windy and generally just bleak weekend. That’s particularly bad news for those of us at the ...
A lot of it is from Auckland as business leaders and a local MP make their requests. Further south, leading academics want plans for a new airport scratched, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign ...
Parts of the nation’s capital have turned into a wasteland of red stickers, and ‘for lease’ signs. WellingtonNZ CEO John Allen has been given the challenge of breathing new life into the city’s economy, businesses, and image. He talks to Bernard about housing and hotel shortages, sewerage on the streets, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sam Baron, Associate Professor, Philosophy of Science, Australian Catholic University Counterfactuals are claims about what would happen, were something to occur in a different way. For instance, we can ask what the world would be like had the internet never been developed. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Grant Duncan, Associate Professor, School of People, Environment and Planning, Massey University Getty Images With a new prime minister sworn in and a cabinet reshuffle imminent, it’s no exaggeration to say the election year has begun with a bang. Already ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lindy Willmott, Professor of Law, Australian Centre for Health Law Research, Queensland University of Technology, Queensland University of Technology Shutterstock By the end of 2023, eligible people in all Australian states will be able to apply for voluntary assisted dying ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kelly-Ann Allen, Associate Professor, School of Educational Psychology and Counselling, Faculty of Education, Monash University Shutterstock Teachers around Australia are preparing to head back to the classroom for 2023. But amid excitement about a new school year, there are ongoing ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Liz Giuffre, Senior Lecturer in Communication, University of Technology Sydney Ian Alexander “Molly” Meldrum is 80 on January 29 2023. The Australian music industry would not be where it is today without his work as a talent scout, DJ, record producer, ...
The Bill that will create a new public media entity has been improved by the select committee that studied it, but it remains unfit for purpose. Kio Tū: The Centre for Informed Futures, a think tank at the University of Auckland, had submitted that ...
Never mind the chief executives and TV cameras in the CBD – it was a small business grouping in west Auckland that had the new Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister as a captive audience, to talk through the challenges for struggling employers. Jonathan Milne reports.Mark Hauser and his ...
This morning, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child called out the failure of the New Zealand Government to raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility. Referring to the current minimum age of criminal responsibility, the Committee stated ...
Eighty years after Jewish youths fought for their lives on the streets of the Warsaw Ghetto, the family of an Auckland Holocaust survivor is calling on New Zealanders to reject hatred and treat everyone with dignity, no matter their background. Alicja ...
Our box-fresh prime minister sat down Auckland’s CEO set for his first public audience yesterday. Duncan Greive was there.“I did say we wanted to get closer to business,” quipped our very new prime minister, Chris Hipkins. He sat alongside former National leader, now Auckland Business Chamber CE Simon Bridges, ...
In the northern part of Aotearoa, mangroves occupy mudflats and river mouths. They’re not always loved – but given our rising sea level, maybe they should be. It took a long time for Mere Kepa (Ngati Raka, Ngati Ira) to learn to love the manawa. She grew up around their ...
Kiwis are still buying oodles of new gas guzzlers, David Williams writesOpinion: I like a positive news story, especially when it comes to the environment – I really do. But it’s hard to reconcile progress on the Government’s clean car discount scheme with the urgency we need to reduce ...
Being an international hockey player and a business owner is busy work for Brooke Roberts, but it's taught her the values of self-belief and looking after yourself. And they're values that the Black Sticks have brought into a partnership with Women's Refuge this weekend. When Brooke Roberts was put in ...
David Ruck was held on remand for months after a judge determined he was likely to continue sending death threats if released, Marc Daalder reports A 45-year-old Christchurch man was sentenced to 14 months in prison last year after making several threats to kill Jacinda Ardern. David Anthony Ruck, who ...
FICTIONThe latest Nielsen BookScan New Zealand bestseller list, described by Steve Braunias 1 Kāwai by Monty Soutar (David Bateman, $39.99) The longlist for the 2023 Ockham New Zealand national book awards will be announced on Thursday, February 2, including 10 books competing for the $64,000 as winner of ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Prime Minister Anthony Albanese did the right thing in dashing off to Alice Springs this week in response to the publicity about that city’s crime crisis. But in doing so, he set up a test ...
A leading economist says New Zealand has never had a "proper conversation" about what immigration is for, which is creating uncertainty for both immigrants and businesses in the country. ...
Te Tai Hauāuru MP and Speaker of the House Adrian Rurawhe will not stand for the Māori electorate in October's general election and will instead move to the Labour Party list. ...
Auckland Central MP Chlöe Swarbrick has written to the new prime minister, thanking him for making Auckland one of his first priorities as leader. Chris Hipkins spent the day in Tāmakai Makaurau meeting with business leaders, as well as attending the tangi for Māori activist Titewhai Harawira. In the letter ...
RNZ Pacific The Indonesian military says a tribunal has sentenced an army major to life in prison for his involvement in the brutal murder of four Papuan civilians in the Mimika district. Their mutilated bodies were found in August 2022. Benar News reports that human rights activists and victims’ relatives ...
Forest & Bird is deeply disappointed that bottom trawling, dredging and Danish seining will still be allowed under the Hauraki Gulf Fisheries Plan , released in draft form last week . “We need to move beyond ripping up the seafloor to catch ...
Before a fresh group of Treasure Island castaways wash ashore next week, we predict what their go-to words of wisdom might say about how their gameplay. When the Treasure Island: Fan v Faves castaways find themselves marooned on a deserted Fijian beach, it’s likely they’ll need to call on some ...
By Meri Radinibaravi in Suva Fiji’s Constitution does not require everything related to the government to be called Fijian, says Attorney-General Siromi Turaga. Speaking during a media conference, he said there was no right or wrong way to describe a title or name a government. He said FijiFirst party general ...
Alice Webb-Liddall has watched a lot of netball in her life. This was hands down the most confusing five minutes she’s ever seen.This morning at the crack of dawn, I and presumably no more than 10 or so other New Zealand netball tragics woke up to watch the Silver ...
Pacific Media Watch A prominent Papuan journalist has said a recent bombing near his home is the latest in a string of attacks against him, reports ABC Pacific Beat. Victor Mambor said he heard motorbikes ride past his home before a bomb exploded about 3 metres from his house on ...
RNZ Pacific Police interviewing of FijiFirst Party general secretary and former attorney-general Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum has reportedly been suspended but will continue later. FBC News reports the interview with Sayed-Khaiyum will continue. The police Chief of Intelligence and Investigations, Assistant Commissioner Surend Sami, told the state broadcaster the suspension is to ...
Councils representing more than a million New Zealanders are calling on the new Prime Minister to take a fresh look at a model for water reform that works. The member councils of Communities 4 Local Democracy He hapori mō te Manapori (C4LD) said that ...
The new prime minister enjoyed what he described as a “constructive” meeting with senior members of the business community in Auckland this morning. The hour-long, closed doors discussion was Chris Hipkins’ first engagement since being elected leader of the Labour Party and, therefore, prime minister. Speaking to media after the ...
His groundbreaking work conducted in Christchurch in the 1960s was never pursued. Now a legal loophole could make NZ a global leader in LSD research.This story was first published on Stuff. When Mark Livingstone was going through his father’s possessions after his death in 1970, he discovered a small ...
CPAG has long thought that Working for Families (WFF) needed to be renamed to put children at its centre, not work. In a letter to the editor today (26 January) Chris Brown of Tauranga came up with a title that accurately reflected the reality of low ...
New prime minister Chris Hipkins is meeting with Auckland business leaders this morning at a roundtable event – his first official engagement in the top job. Greeted by Auckland Business Chamber head Simon Bridges, the former National Party leader, Hipkins gave opening remarks before media were ushered out of the ...
From eggs to houses and (almost) everything in between.If there’s one thing New Zealand doesn’t currently have a shortage of, it’s shortages. It’s a word so commonly seen at the supermarket or in the news at the moment that it’s stopped looking like a real word. For a while, ...
*This story was originally published on RNZ and is republished with permission* Prime Minister Chris Hipkins speaks to media after meeting with business leaders in Tāmaki Makaurau this morning. Hipkins says Auckland is incredibly important to the New Zealand economy, and our gateway to the world. He says his meeting with business ...
i made a major discovery about colin craig this morning..
..that i feel i should share with you..
..i joined two pulsating/obvious dots..
..and was then driven to cannabilise/re-write the lyrics..
..of a kim carne song..
..and yes..colin craig really has..
..’ann coulter eyes’..
http://whoar.co.nz/2014/ann-coulter-does-what-she-does-and-whoar-colin-craig-really-has-ann-coulter-eyes-video/
phillip ure..
Great Britain shows once more that tories hate freedom: ASBOs set to become IPNAs. George Monbiot describes the almost-passed bill for injunctions to prevent nuisance and annoyance. Anyone aged ten or more can be locked up for causing “annoyance”. As Monbiot puts it:
Yay, turn our cities into giant privately owned malls where “loitering without intent to shop” is a punishable offense.
That’s the libertarian paradise, isn’t it? Every space controlled by private hands.
Libertarianism = privatisation of dictatorship.
So you are saying that a love of liberty leads to private dictatorship.
I would suggest that inept love of liberty, like that exhibited in the American Republican party, is doing so.
Have fallen for Giles cartoons at last. He would have had something to draw about this.
But one was appropriate in the Daily Express of 5/7/1979 Policeman addressing leader of toddlers trespassing on the grass in a park.
‘You realise, sir, you are contributing to the ‘avalanche of lawlesness threatening to engulf our civilisation’.
http://www.gilescartoons.co.uk/keywordlist3.asp
Thank you for reminding me of Giles greywarbler. A cartoonist supremo. Nobody was sacrosanct.
feast on them
I love the one highlighted during the Cold War – as seen through the eyes of MI5 and MI6? And the Giles family… don’t you love the dear little children.
It was fictitious family but Giles did admit that some of the characters were based on members of his own family.
Otherwise known as feudalism.
One word. Totalitarian.
Getting a lot of moderation lately. Was it something I said? Is it ‘cos I is black?
I’m not aware of any gravitar moderation.
Perish the thought felix!
Akismet does some strange things sometimes.
Not as far as I am aware. However akismet got removed because they kind of fell over in the silly season.
I’m using a system that looks much more closely at *how* the comments are posted to the site with a few quiet details that should be done by anything talking to wordpress. Are you using a RSS feeder?
BTW: The site software only appears to have a colour discrimination against people with polkadots with high amounts of puce. Some kind of stylistic folly methinks…. Either that or a coulrophobia issue.
Xox
New low for RNZ on Summer program with Suzie and Caitlin. Topic : Auckland University study into blood spray patterns from bullets to the human head! Using a USA pistol, (not used in NZ.) The relevance and lack of judgement by RNZ in broadcasting this item is appalling. What has happened to, once proud, RNZ? It’s gone the way of TVNZ. Lead by Jim, Kathryn, Suzie, Simon, Noelle, it’s off to the sewer. Makes Matinée Idle appear ok! RNZ R. I. P. Where to turn to for sensible, informed media in NZ?
What’s wrong with it?
You a little squeamish or something?
There is often talk about blood splatter in murder cases. It’s relevant because of the violence that is inherent in society and not repressed. Police and experts are interested. I think it was a factor in the Bain case. Sorry but it can’t be dismissed as sensational crap from the USA. Wish we could. Or blame it on Canada, or anywhere.
Why is RODNEY HIDE’s nonsense on the Editorial page?
The “news” is as biased, ridiculous and untrustworthy as ever
Q—What do you do for a living?
A—I am a communicator.
Q—What do you communicate? Scarlet fever? Apprehension?
—A.J. Liebling, The Press (Pantheon, 1961)
If you read the newspapers, listen to the radio or—worst choice of all—watch television in order to see what’s going on in the world, you will occasionally, even regularly, feel a sense of despair: not only at the events being described, but at the flagrantly partisan and irresponsible treatment of those events by the “reporters” and studio anchors, as well as the headline writers and copywriters for not only third-rate tabloids like the New Zealand Herald, but also for quality broadsheets ( 😀 ) like the Waikato Times, Dom-Post and ODT.
Here’s a representative sample, scribbled in disbelief and anger at odd moments during the last few days….
“Sharon was known for bold tactics and an occasional refusal to obey orders.”
—Ian Deitch (AP), in the NZ Herald, 3 January 2014
“…Ramadi and Fallujah, where U.S. forces once fought desperate battles against al-Qaeda…”
—David Martin, CBS, on Prime TV’s 5:30 News, 4 January 2014
“Fallujah was pacified by U.S. troops in 2004…”
—Paul Brennan, 9 a.m. News, Radio NZ National, 5 January 2014
“Biggs has the last word”. “Cheeky floral tribute a final statement from Great Train Robber”
—an entirely laudatory AP, AAP report of Ronald Biggs’ funeral “celebration”, Herald on Sunday, 5/1/14
“Death by dogs disputed”. “Commentators debate truth about death of Korean leader’s uncle”
—Herald on Sunday, 5/1/14
But as bad as this floodtide of trivia, this mountain of distortion and falsehood, this monumental failure by the “news” organisations might be, there is actually something much worse than people like David Martin of CBS, who are after all only acting as functionaries in the service of corporations much bigger and more powerful than they are. The most chilling feature of the “news”—more disturbing than hard-working servants like Martin, Blitzer, Ananpour, Paxman, Wark, Espiner and (shudder) Dallow—is the ideological fanatic who operates as a “commentator”. In spite of the neverending moaning by some that journalists are “liberals” and “leftists”, anyone who actually looks at a few papers and watches TV and listens to the radio will see that the right wing—and usually the most extreme, unhinged part of the right wing—is running wild, unchecked and unhindered over the Op-Ed pages of the mainstream press and in the chairs reserved for guest commentators and “pundits”.
You know the phenomenon of the extreme right wing commentator very well. He (or she) has stunned you on occasion and has left you shaking your head, or screaming at the television screen, and wondering: why the HELL is Bill O’Reilly talking about this?—Karl du Fresne knows NOTHING!—Bat Ye’or is bat-freaking INSANE! The roll-call of this cadre of ideological despots is long and inexhaustible; there are right wing “think tanks” and journalism schools producing these vacuous but self-important talking heads as regularly and reliably as India churns out top-class cricketers. In North America, there is Glenn Beck, David Brooks, David Frum, Sean Hannity, Charles Krauthammer, Bill Maher, Daniel Pipes, Bill O’Reilly, William Safire—and hundreds more. In Great Britain there is Niall Ferguson, Simon Heffer, Boris Johnson, Dame Ann Leslie, Melanie Phillips, Nick Robinson, Bat Ye’or—and hundreds more.
New Zealand and Australia‘s round-up of right-wing reactionaries let loose in the top paddock is equally dismal. It includes: John Ansell, Dr. Michael Bassett, Andrew Bolt, Karl du Fresne, Stephen Franks, Matthew (“I loved Mandela”) Hooton, Alan Jones, Steve Price, David Round, John Tamihere and hundreds of others too dim, depressing and outrageous to mention. (Tune in to Jim Mora’s Panel show if you want to hear some of the worst of them indulge in an uninterrupted rant.)
To compound the faux news that dominated its pages, the 5 January edition of the Herald on Sunday carried a typically bizarre piece by the notorious ACT loon and science-denier Rodney Hide, entitled “Heat gone out of climate claims”. The great thinker opens his barrage of crap with this pearler: “Future historians may point to this one ironic event as the trigger that finally ended the public fear of global warming.” He goes on to sneer at Al Gore and at the “nuttiness” of climate scientists. Hide uses the word “nuttiness” three times, and his sub-editors at the Herald on Sunday compound his mischief by using it a fourth time—in an enlarged, highlighted excerpt: “That’s the climate alarmists’ nuttiness in a nutshell: nothing proves them wrong; everything proves them right.” Hide’s garbage appears on the editorial page, which some people might have thought was for considered and serious writing. Such a placement, aided and abetted by the highlighting of the “nuttiness” quotation, bestows a degree of ex cathedra authority on a piece of writing which, in its poverty of thought and its infelicity of expression, as well as its lame attempts at humour, would embarrass a moderately intelligent Year 9 student.
The overall effect of this is not just to confuse and mislead the listener, or viewer, or reader. Intelligent consumers of this willfully dishonest and/or fantastical and/or depraved “product” realize that it is a vital part of a disinformation regime in which everything we see and understand is cast into doubt. News coverage like this creates a situation in New Zealand, and in every country where people like David Martin of CBS are entrusted with reporting on Iraq and people like Rodney Hide are allowed to write crazed rants against science, very like the situation which pertained in Soviet-bloc countries in the 1970s, where nobody trusted APN or TASS or Pravda, and the intelligentsia simply recognized that they were not to be believed at all. And CBS, as anyone who remembers its bloodthirsty cheerleading from its flag-bedecked studios during the aggression against Iraq in both 1990 and 2003 will know, is a de facto official news channel—along with the other flag-wavers and Obama-cultists at ABC, NBC and CNN, as well as the BBC, Radio New Zealand and TVNZ.
Now you might be thinking: at least there’s Bryan Crump on nights on Radio NZ National. At least there’s one place we can go to hear intelligent and civilized talk. At least there is an island of civilization and rationality amongst all the nonsense. But not so fast! Among the mostly excellent line-up of guests for this year’s “Monday Night Thinkers” feature is…. Rodney Hide. For such a prospect, there is really only one appropriate response….
A pic of wealth inequality in the USA. I wonder what a NZ version look like.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/If-us-land-mass-were-distributed-like-us-wealth.png
About the same – we have similar levels of inequality after all.
How can NZ get a non commercial radio network that does not require you to check your brain before listening.
We have what I believe is one of the highest radio station per head of population in the world but they are all the same. National Radio used to provide intelligent programming but these days it is starting to sound like one of the commercial networks.
I would be more than happy to pay a subscription for a decent quality Radio service. I would love to have good quality music, documentaries, radio plays, book discussions, interviews where the subject is more important than the interviewer and all the other items that make up good station.
Also would like to announcers to be capable of stringing two words together with out sounding like idiots.
Is this too much to hope for?
The old divide and rule trick in action once more:
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/287558/dunedin-urged-show-it-can-support-shell
“Shell country manager Rob Jager told the Otago Daily Times no decision had been made on where the company would base its shore operations, but it was between Dunedin and Invercargill…. [Otago Chamber of Commerce past-president] Mr McIntyre said Southland would surely be ”putting its best foot forward” and Dunedin should waste no time showing it could host Shell.”
So any effective protest action by the Dunedin public will be met with threats to relocate south. It’s further from the drilling site, but with the smelter on the verge of shutting down; Invercargill will agree to almost anything for jobs (especially since the spill modelling doesn’t show much immediate risk for Southland west of the Catlins). But this ploy will not prevent protest action from the Dunedin Green Party at least:
“Oceans spokesman, Gareth Hughes, said his party opposed all deep sea drilling, as it was too risky.
”This is a particularly risky environment – it’s between the roaring forties and the furious fifties. We saw one of the world’s largest oil companies Exxon Mobil pull out in 2010 because they said the conditions were too harsh and the location remote. Those conditions still exist for Shell.” “
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2014/01/polls_december_2013.html
– In case anyones interested
PR
I’m not at all interested in clicking on one of your links without any indication of what cess-pit it’ll land me in (probably something to do with; data massaged by National’s pet pollster by the look of it). If you could quote some part of it in your comments, then I might be interested in that.
Likewise.
Thanks PR-always worth reading what the opposition are saying to get some perspective.
My reading of the graphs is that Labour/Greens/Mana are more likely to get in next time than National, with Winston as the possible deal breaker. I reckon’ he will get 4.8% and miss out. Colin Crayfish is too loony to have much influence.
Well even if he gets in he won’t have much influence anyway, how much influence have any of the support parties really had?
John Banks has had plenty of influence, all detrimental from memory except his interest in animal welfare with regards to party drug testing.
Speaking of that old cod Winston Peters, I hear he could be going head to head with his sister (Labour) in the rat abandoning ship (Phil Heatley) seat of Whangarei. That’s if Peters sister beats a tranny for the Labour candidacy. All we need now is for bible basher Colin Craig to stand there too, the place is full of god botherers. So maybe Key will ask his blue ribbon lot from the North to vote Craig. Perhaps Dot Blob can add to an interesting electorate contest?
^^ so much worthless abuse, so little content.
Oh great we have the content police amongst us! Touch a nerve did I old coot?
Bigotry such as your does tend to piss me off.
Ok sorry no malice intended, in hinsight speaking loosely. I like the tranny & Peters to a degree, the god botherers are mostly fine, however the brethrens up here are a weird bunch & Colin Craig has some dim views on the likes of Maori & reintroducing beat the kids is plain dumb. I’m no spring chicken myself 🙂
yep – Skinny – from this point of view, it looks like it might be a verrrrry interesting selection for Labour ! Like you, I’m no spring chicken but I look forward to the revelations this election will bring forth in Whangarei ! It might be fun… for a change!
As long as idiots don’t drag the party through the mud in the process. The candidate will need to be sharp & fast on their feet and street wise so that narrows the field down some what. The last election the candidate was woeful as was his campaign crew, I understand the unions now hold sway, which is probably a good thing as organising is their thing.
You’ve got it wrong Skinny – I’m not so sure the unions hold sway – that’s just big talk, no real do, happening. A couple of those unionists are all talk …. no real reputation for doing anything real.
fascinating you thought the last election candidate was woeful – I thought he was pretty good but then i was part of his campaign crew so biased
Dear Skinny as the supposed woeful candidate last time, Id love to know what u based yr comment on… Easy to hide malicious uninformed comments behind a pseudonym isn’t it… I’m guessing from yr nasty personal comments, that you probably would be a member of a Whangarei Nutters Group. The results achieved here last election by the way, don’t point to me being a woeful candidate….
Sorry if I offended you, however i am from the school of hard knocks as should any aspiring MP be. Therefore I will contradict you Mr Newman the last election result;
http://www.parliament.nz/en-nz/mpp/electorates/data/DBHOH_Lib_EP_Whangarei_Data_3/whangarei-electoral-profile
clearly shows you achieved below the national average for the NZP. Why so? because you and your campaign crew were woeful. You lot gave it your best crack which was simply not good enough.
So rather than front up with an inferior ‘patsy’ candidate why don’t you and your self serving bunch of glorified teachers pull your heads in and get behind the soon to be chosen candidate, think of the big picture.
Lastly, dollars for doughnuts the Unions hold sway alright, that is why Kelly will get the candidacy. But hey it’s a democracy… bring it!
Why doesn’t Winston stand in North harbour. Wouldn’t that make things interesting?
Old grudges up North against Heatley (tho he has done his dash) & Mike Sabin who he hates like no other MP, + he gets votes from Maori & the senior voters rounded out by the church goers and racehorse set. He setup quite a good office in Whangarei last year & his brother & family are locals. Of course the likes of Shane Jones and Winston prefer being list MP’s as they can goof off without being tied down like an electorate MP who has to do some mundane work locally.
In reply to Skinny at 9.2.2.111 on 10 Jan “Therefore I will contradict you Mr Newman the last election result ” the 2011 election result in Whangarei for Labour was on a par with every electorate result for Labour that year. The Labour vote throughout the country went down from the previous election. Whangarei was no different to the rest. An No – it won’t be the Unions who’ll be supporting Kelly : it’ll be the lawyers and others – get your actual facts right, nutcase !
Wrong you old trout the seat was all about the party vote, Newman gathered around a poultry 20 percent, which was pitiful considering the previous electorate results. You ran a poor campaign with a lazy candidate amongst many other things, that’s why your services as chairperson are no longer required.
I’ve spoken to the main Union leaders here and they have confirmed they will not put their own contender up, instead will back the justice lawyer. The only conditions are the candiate must be fully funded to the maximum allowed in all regards, and they push a pro worker platform directed by the union affiliates.
Here is a final tip ‘don’t bother’ trying to get back on the Executive as your not wanted by the majority of the members, your an unwelcome distraction to the task at hand. Now pull that hook out of your nose and sling it further North!
Hey Skinny – for someone who has NEVER run in a campaign, let alone WIN one, you do speak a lot of malicious tosh. The “main union leaders here” (in Whangarei ?)
all TWO of them ! not much help coming from that lot …. as you should know from previous campaigns – but that’s right, you haven’t actually done any organising in a campaign, nor been very much use in a campaign except for banging the odd nail in a hoarding ….. so what do YOU know about it . All bloddy nothing …. just a load of old crock yourself. about time you were put out to rest ….. in those paddocks of yours.
Self serving bunch of glorified teachers eh skinny… You must have been strapped when at school to have such an opinion of teachers like that… Pity as u obviously come from Whangarei that you didn’t actually help out at the last election.. Then as I said earlier, its too easy to criticize from anonymity… By the way note Phil heatleys result was down over 10% on previous election
…..
Nah. (@pukish)
Another nail in the coffin for Labours hopes at the next election but at least you can guarantee a win in 2017
[lprent: Idiot. Where was there *anything* about the Labour party in that post? FFS: bsprout is a well known green.
Basically we do know where your brain appears to be – but you don’t have to tug on it here just to prove it again.
And you just collected a 2 week ban for intimating this site was a Labour party site (see the about and the policy), and a 2 week ban for being a stupid trolling fool doing diversions at the top of posts.
And moved it to OpenMike as being irrelevant to the post. ]
Is that what you think? I think you might be forgetting a certain John Banks in the dock, and a certain Kim.com appeal hearing in April. And that’s assuming your confidence in the economic tea-leaves proves well-founded, as opposed to just some cocaine-addled banker talking shite.
Labour/Green for the win in 2014.
No one believes a word Krim.con says, the sooner the thieving fat Kraut is sent to the USA and locked up the better. There is to much news about Labour’s Pant’s Down Brown the serial masturbator for anyone to remember John Banks minor memory lapse.
I wonder if the Russians will melt down that Gween Peace ship to make some more drilling pipes
may as well use the steel for a worth while cause.
PS Labour and the Gween Taliban are sunk.
You put an N there instead of Cr….i.e: Craki Man..
Sure. No-one believes him except the judge, who keeps on ruling in his favour.
Poor wingnuts are especially reality-challenged today. That, and determined to demonstrate that they’re twelve years old – seriously, “gween”? Tee hee, speech impediments are so funny.
Slater appears to have sprung a leak in his sewer.
Xox
Thanks Morrissey.
Your contribution made me feel a little better. Good to know I’m not the only one thinking along these lines. TV is dead now that quality Public Broadcasting has gone the way of the dodo.
There are still many excellent programmes, though, Phil. And then there’s ConcertFM—still the best radio station in Australasia.
This has to be shared: http://e2nz.org/2014/01/08/8-year-old-boy-caught-drinkingdrugged-and-family-allow-it/
The only encouraging thing in this video is the fact it was teenagers that stepped in to the situation to try to help the kid. Maybe the message is at least getting through to some young people….
crap – a – roo. I had replied to pukish rogue at 9.2.1 (1.39pm) and it has disappeared. When I refreshed the page I got the Standard Banner only and a blank page. I think this happened to phil ure the other day. Just saying.
Long story short, in response to PR I had mentioned Dunne’s influence as a support “party” – far too much in regards to his damaging voting choices: Asset sales, GCSB and TICS Act’s, Sky City and his intention to not vote for Hone’s Feed the Kids Bill (just off the top of my head)
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1311/S00216/unitedfuture-will-oppose-harawira-bill.htm
Rosie
Before clicking on the “submit comment” button, I generally select the whole field and ctrl+C it; that way if it vanishes into the glitch zone, I can get it back with a quick ctrl+V.
I heard that Gareth Hughes is considering going list-only next election, so it may be that Labour’s candidate will be only up against a nominal Green opponent in Ohariu-Belmont. Given his conduct this term, and a coordinated left alternative; I think Dunne and Untied History are done.
Hi Pasupial. Ha ha! I did that little trick last time and it worked………….
Tane Woodley has been selected as the Green party candidate for Ohariu this year, and there is still no word on the Labour candidate. I even emailed the NZLP through their website to ask them but no word as yet. I’m busting to know.
Yes, Dunne absolutely has to go this year, especially as it will be his 30th anniversary of holding the seat. I’m in Ohariu and will be working alongside a non party affiliated group to see what we can do to help move him out. I think it can be done but it will require hard work because he is like a comfortable pair of old slippers for many voters here. Mind you, 64.6% of Ohariu voters said NO in the asset sales referendum, so hopefully the wind is changing direction.
Morning Rosie
It seems that we will have to wait another six weeks to find out who the Labour Party candidate for Ohariu will be. The LP sent out a candidate selection update just before Christmas, Apparently nominations have closed for Ohariu with two people nominated and so a contested selection. A confirmation meeting is scheduled for 22 February. Names of the nominees were not provided in the update.
Nominations for LP candidates for many electorates do not close until 28 February.
Thanks! Thats very helpful veutoviper and something to look forward to.
I’m hoping the selection of the candidate will reflect the “specialness” of this electorate, in that there have been mutterings of discontent in the street from actual Dunne voters vs. the glue like nature of Dunne’s presence. A crow bar may still be required but the right candidate will be able to harness the section of the community that is waking and feeling pissed off and sold down the river by Dunne.
A real-time map of global winds to waste your day away.
http://earth.nullschool.net/
Thanks, awesome like the Flightrader and the Marinetraffic links you supplied some time ago Joe90.
Type something (slowly) and tele-port around the world.
http://www.instantstreetview.com/
Seems to be making the rounds.
Too many MPs in that House
/facepalm
The number of MPs has no bearing on them representing with integrity. That requires being able to hold them to account as the John Banks saga has shown. The problem that we have don’t have systems in place to ensure that the MPS are upholding the necessary standards and neither the police nor the MSM seem willing to even when there is obvious breaks in an MPs integrity.
lol
I know a couple of smokers who answered NO to the are you a smoker question, but I don’t know anyone ‘pretending’ to be an MP, other than the obvious..
That included Hawaii, where it was -8 degrees Celsius atop Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano…
Al Sharpton and Michael Moore versus two hateful bigots
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLsxnMmhec4
The Rev. Al Sharpton—one of those black leaders in whose memory the likes of Matthew Hooton need never feel obliged to make a mock tribute on Public Address—and Michael Moore try their best to keep things rational and civilized here. Valerie Plame also pitches in on the side of decency and tolerance, but this is Bill Maher‘s show, and with his watery English henchman Richard Dawkins he won’t be having any liberal crap about tolerance and understanding and context spoiling things this evening.
Valerie Plame’s very first contribution to this conversation is a vacuous statement, chiming in to support Bill Maher just after he’s assured everyone that he is “not racist.” But after that vapid beginning, she does get better. She, like Bill Maher, is out of her intellectual depth though—I got the impression she was not overly bright when I read her (much redacted) book a year or so ago.
Bill Maher, on the other hand, only gets worse as this clip goes on. Every single utterance he makes is bumptious, hateful and obnoxious. He is backed up, languidly, by Richard Dawkins, who is at his hypocritical worst here. If Dawkins has ever uttered even a mild statement condemning Christian or Jewish violence, could someone please post it up?
Observers of this kind of pretentious but empty upper class drawing room honking will be aware Dawkins has taken up some of the burden since Christopher Hitchens died. At first glance, he would seem to fill Hitchens’ two key roles perfectly: 1.) the steady dripping of hateful slurs against all Muslims, at the same time scoffing at anyone who dares point out that there is also massive Christian and Jewish and Buddhist violence; and 2.) playing the suave and sophisticated Englishman, the sine qua non at any smart Manhattan soirée, where you will also hear the sort of ignorant, racist opinionating that Maher and Dawkins specialize in. A few generations it was “the Jews” on the receiving end of such vile bigotry; now it’s Arabs and Iranians.
But watch carefully and you’ll see that there’s something gravely wrong here. Dawkins has not really bought in to the role that Maher expects him to play. Dawkins seems detached; he seems to be phoning it in instead of engaging in the scenery-chewing, snarling and faux outrage of a committed role-player like Hitchens. He nods wanly in support of Maher, but he doesn’t really seem to have his heart in it. Unlike Hitchens, he is incapable of summoning up the display of bogus rage needed when one engages in the kind of needling provocation Bill Maher expects of his back-up men.
As for the pitiful Maher: his intellectual level is perfectly illustrated by the very last words he utters on the clip: “Hitchens said a great thing—” he burbles—and then he is cut off.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLsxnMmhec4
Now I find Bill O’Reilly a distasteful man most of the time. But today, he crossed a line, from being distasteful idiot on the right, to a numb skull who deserves to be retired from the media forever. This is from my libertarian capitalist mates, even they are finding him and fox news nothing more than propaganda for arch-conservatives. I wont repeat what they said as children may be watching, except to say, this is an example of out of touch conservatives, whose grip on reality has failed.
http://reason.com/blog/2014/01/07/bill-oreilly-makes-millions-of-marijuana
Read at own peril – it will disturb.
Efforts to curb unbridled growth that’s killing the planet
In fact an economy must not keep growing as that will destroy the environment totally.
The first thing we need to do is to tell the politicians and business people that we will no longer support more growth. We’ve had massive growth over the last three decades and yet poverty is worse than ever and so it’s obvious that growth is not the panacea to poverty.
Classifying the human species
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Na9-jV_OJI
The scary thing about that is just how accurately it describes humans but, then, art has been doing that in subtle and not so subtle ways for millennia.
Pōwhiri and gender essentialism