Open mike 08/10/09

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, October 8th, 2009 - 30 comments
Categories: open mike - Tags:

mikeA lot of stuff happens in the world, and Standard writers don’t cover all of it. Let’s try a daily “Open mike” post and see what happens. Hopefully the concept is self-explanatory, a place to post a comment on any topic*.

Clearly this is modelled on Kiwiblog’s daily “General Discussion” posts, but we hope there will be some differences. Here “Open mike” will have the same same (admittedly quirky!) standards of good behaviour and moderation as any other post. We hope it can be a place for serious discussion about topics of interest that we writers miss.  The threaded structure of the comments (use “Reply”) should make it possible for discussions to develop around any comment at the “top level”.  OK – over to you lot…

[* Of course if you want to write up a full “Guest post” to email us that works too…]

30 comments on “Open mike 08/10/09 ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. toad 1
    8 October 2009 at 7:26 am

    Could this have been “reasonable force for the purpose of correction” under the old section 59?

    • felix 1.1
      8 October 2009 at 9:32 am

      Or how about this case.

      • toad 1.1.1
        8 October 2009 at 10:04 am

        I don’t get you, felix.

        Sure, my post is largely copy and paste from the ODT. But the point I was making (that the ODT did not) was that the woman could have raised the defence of reasonable force for the purpose of correction – and may possibly have succeeded with it – under the old law.

        And anyway, posts that largely copy material from elsewhere don’t constitute link-whoring.

        Link-whoring is going to great lengths to get other people to link to ones own website or blog. My comments on The Standard link to lots of blogs and sites – and many don’t link to anything at all. Just because I occasionally link to a Green Party blog that I post on doesn’t constitute link-whoring, especially in this instance when it is on an Open Mike thread which is for the purpose of readers raising their own issues.

        But your link above doesn’t appear to relate to my linking from the Standard, but to my post at g.blog itself. So I still don’t get what you’re on about.

        • lprent 1.1.1.1
          8 October 2009 at 10:10 am

          I’ve never noticed you link-whoring…..

          • marty mars 1.1.1.1.1
            8 October 2009 at 3:02 pm

            Do you want us to linkwhore?

            • r0b 1.1.1.1.1.1
              8 October 2009 at 3:31 pm

              I’d say that a certain amount of linkwhoring (don’t like that phrase!) is OK in Open mike, after all we want to point to other interesting stuff going on, but no one should get excessive about it.

        • felix 1.1.1.2
          8 October 2009 at 11:17 am

          toad,

          I was just noting that you linked to your own blog’s reporting of the reporting of a story rather than just linking to the story.

          It was just supposed to be a light-hearted poke at your shameless self-promotion so please don’t read too much into it.

  2. illuminatedtiger 2
    8 October 2009 at 7:41 am

    One of Larry’s “good parents” no doubt.

  3. Captain Rehab 3
    8 October 2009 at 7:48 am

    Pita Sharples has been forced to apologise to John “big massa” Key for the RWC bid – http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10601936

    How mana enhancing is that?

    • jcuknz 3.1
      8 October 2009 at 9:34 am

      I think his excuse of ‘being a new boy’ is pretty feeble. If he hadn’t learnt the rules of consultation in government, or any organisation if fact, long before he joined, he shouldn’t be there in the first place.

  4. Pascal's bookie 4
    8 October 2009 at 8:21 am

    Phyllis Schlafly’s little boy Andy, (the unintentional comic genius behind ‘Conservapedia’), clearly feels he hasn’t been mocked enough already.

    http://www.conservapedia.com/Conservative_Bible_Project

    • Out of bed 4.1
      8 October 2009 at 8:51 am

      blessed are the cheesemakers

      • Pascal's bookie 4.1.1
        8 October 2009 at 9:18 am

        heh, now that there is derived from an obviously corrupted by liberalism misquote of His Holy Word.

        G_d is not an idiot afterall.

        “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of G_d.” phhht.

        Note the idiotic derived from relativism phrase ‘peace maker’, and the subjectivism of the second clause.

        Clearly, G_d knows that peace is obtained not through compromising with evil, but defeating it. A more accurate rendering of His Word would thus be:

        “Blessed are the victors, for they are the sons of G_d.”

  5. marty mars 5
    8 October 2009 at 8:31 am

    Friends of the earth are pulling together testamony from women on the effects of mining on them and their communities. Mining re-sisters!

    http://mars2earth.blogspot.com/2009/10/re-sisters-worldwide-group-of-women.html

    check out their you-tube group

    http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mining+re-sisters&search_type=&aq=f

  6. r0b 6
    8 October 2009 at 9:12 am

    Carrying on with the astronomical theme (last Sunday), a photo of the international space station above NZ. Computer – enhance image and show me my house… (sorry, I’ve seen Bladerunner far too many times).

  7. jcuknz 7
    8 October 2009 at 9:29 am

    There is an interesting ‘op-ed’ at NYT today about China and Afghanistan. A Chinese government owned company is mining various minerals and protected by American and other forces against the Taliban etc. Chinese benefit both ways, by America draining its resources to maintain their forces, and if they withdrawn China gains from ‘loss of face’ in the world by the States. One option comes to my mind that Chinese military be invited to join in the action alongside the Allies. Effectively what the world authority we call the United Nations should be about rather than Sheriff America ..

    • Bill 7.1
      8 October 2009 at 11:46 am

      Nice exercise in turning reality on it’s head to fit some ideological viewpoint or preference.

      It is the US, not China that needs Afghanistan as a transit route…look at a map and figure how to transit goodies from the Caspian Sea area west. You can’t go through Iran. The pipeline running through Georgia straddles six war zones and the Russians can monkeywrench it anytime they like. ( hint. pipeline running through Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan to coastal India…. TAPI)

      China and Russia have multiple options. The US doesn’t.

      And as for India and China being supposedly at loggerheads, well India has ongoing observer status in the SCO….the US asked to attend and was told to F.O.

      Of course, you might prefer to think of the US as being engaged in a war against terrorism rather than in a struggle to secure access and control over resources.

  8. MartinJ 8
    8 October 2009 at 9:33 am

    I would like to alert people to a little reported government cut but one with a lot of significance to our kids and their learning. The government has cut funds for the National Library library advisors. These are the professionals who give advice and support to school librarians. These days school libraries are not just about books – librarians also teach kids about wise ways to use the internet and IT.

    Once upon a time school librarians themselves could go into the National Library branch offices and select books for their students. Under the last National government this was cut (along with other unfortunate cuts to the National Library such as selling off books etc), and schools could instead access library advisors would visit and help schools.

    Funding for each school library has to come out of the bulk funded school operations grant and librarians are support staff employed by the school board. So they are already working on a shoe string, and school support staff have also suffered attacks on their pay equity claim from this government. And now a major support for them has been cut. But of course this isn’t newsworthy.

  9. logie97 9
    8 October 2009 at 10:35 am

    100 per cent Nationwide Television Coverage.

    Who checks these claims. I recently stayed in a hotel in Thorndon (Wellington) and surfed the channels of the room television set.
    TV1, 2, 3 and C4 were excellent. Prime was like a 1960’s snowy reception and MTV – well I could hear the voices but the picture was virtually non existent.

  10. the sprout 10
    8 October 2009 at 10:38 am

    good initiative r0b, hope it catches on

    • the sprout 11.1
      8 October 2009 at 10:49 am

      ah the joys of binding referenda dominated by wealthy interests.

      that’s what you get when you vote for tax cuts, tax cuts and more tax cuts -> a bankrupt state.

      • Zorr 11.1.1
        8 October 2009 at 11:05 am

        It is a rather amusing issue with California actually sprout. It only requires a simple majority vote to put through a tax cut. However, to raise taxes requires a >75% majority vote. Hence why they can only ever get tax cuts.

    • toad 11.2
      8 October 2009 at 12:26 pm

      Pssst! Don’t tell Larry Baldock. I want to see him make a dork of himself again.

  12. Draco T Bastard 12
    8 October 2009 at 12:13 pm

    Govt docs reveal secret mining veto on new parks

    Government mining papers released by the Green Party this week, and confirmation from the Minister’s office, show that the minerals industry will now have the privilege of being able to veto new conservation park boundaries, in secret.

    National – Democracy by secret veto.

  13. BLiP 13
    8 October 2009 at 1:24 pm

    Privatisation by stealth at ACC!

  14. Tim 14
    8 October 2009 at 1:46 pm

    Love the idea.

    So…cell phones banned, parents prevented from bashing their kids, cold pills illegal, drinking limits reduced, cigarette taxes to be increased, illegal signing of documents, driving three times the legal limit for a ‘shower’ and taking away our freedom of expression through electoral finance rejigging, fraudulant housing claims, sex scandals – thank goodness National came in to sort out all those horrible “nanny state” policies of the previous government and restored some dignity to office.

    Amazing that this is only 10 months in. Imagine what they will be able to achieve by 2011.

    • Zorr 14.1
      8 October 2009 at 3:40 pm

      Tim… they will achieve the one thing they really needed to by 2011. A stint as a one term government. Nothing says “You suck” more than not being rehired for the job after only completing the first contract. ^_^

  15. gitmo 15
    8 October 2009 at 5:42 pm

    Interesting article from the Herald, be careful what you say on a blog ………it may come back to bite you and relying on anonymity may no longer be prudent.

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10602050