“…Normally a land use consent is granted for unlimited duration, as long as the development detailed in the consent has been implemented to a significant level within five years (or a different period as written in the consent). If not, your consent will lapse.
Any land use consent that is granted is attached to the property (as opposed to a specific person)”
I notice the 1080 story has successfully knocked Winston Peter’s campaign in Northland off the top of the headlines.
Oh that ..and Lydia Ko….a biker clocking 218 km/hr….a P smuggler cleared to teach ( another Herald attack on the teaching profession)…..jilted Eagles fans….
The capitalist media in this country is quite a propaganda machine for the banking elite.
As evidence, the Northern Advocate ( part of the APN corporate stable..same group as the Herald) dragged up someone from the Hawkes Bay to write an article slagging off Winston Peters….
And this was their leading story!
The facile fearmongering of The Northern Advocate’s ‘visitor from Hawke’s Bay’ re Winston Peters will piss-off more Northland voters than it will impress. Bad call whoever’s behind it !
Paul, you know APN is now NZME. (New Zealand Media and Entertainment)
Their agenda is clear:
“Right now we’re seen as a publishing business, a radio business and an e-commerce business,” she said. “But clients don’t come to us and say ‘I want to buy publishing’. They say: ‘I have a brand, this is the audience I’m after. How can you connect my brand with that audience?'”
Best use ever for the Granny. Is to be crapped on by a small furry creature of the Genus Feline. (Or walking flea hotel which ever takes your fancy). Yep a very good use of the Granny, more likely to catch something if used for food warming. to say nothing of the taste of burnt paper.
The editor of the local NZH rag veto’s (edits/bins) politically natured stories that he doesn’t like. Twice 2 separate reporters covering local events have said ‘if it gets past the editor’. I think he got kicked to touch as the Waikato Times editor. Wasn’t surprised to hear he is mates with the local Tory old boys network. In saying this 2 of their columnist’s are left leaning, and do publish criticism of the Tories, all be it a Gower type attack follows by one of his pets.
From the article: “Winston will be 70 this month, a pensioner for five years and still being paid a party leader’s salary by the taxpayer.”
What drivel, ageism and meanness.
While I don’t agree 100% with Winston Peters, I think he should be paid a royalty/stipend or call it a “democracy pension” for ALL the services he has done fir New Zealanders in Parliament, a watchful eye and calling people out when he sees or has heard untoward, undemocratic or plain corrupt practices.
He has done more for this country single handedly than many of us collectively could do. Sure he is a rogue, but he has more mana than most other politicians.
@Paul P addicted smuggler teacher is allowed to stay on teaching, with the NZ teachers council disciplinary tribunal saying she is ‘talented’ enough to stay on with just a censure, and you say the herald is attacking the teaching profession….
Really! are you for real or a teacher
Listening to the pair of useful idiots Espiner and Furgeson going big on NatRad “with all the developments on today’s big story” (1080 scare) I wondered where it all went wrong in this country. Our journalists are all now somehow able to combine cynicism and naïvety and be bullies who cringe wide eyed in the face of their masters. There are no “developments” in the story. It isn’t of much interest to anyone offshore, who correctly see it for what it is – a cynically trumped up minor threat – and are doing what they normally do.
Meanwhile, instead of quizzing Key about why he went public against advice, or why he is calling it terrorism and the police are not, or what political agenda Key might be pursuing, our media swallow the hook, the line, sinker, and the wharf.
What a bunch of idiots. Espiner and Ferguson would spend their last show before nuclear armageddon repeating John Key’s assurances that he’ll remain PM from his spacestation, foreign press reaction, and the best way to make stone tipped weapons to fight off the mutants in the post apocalyptic world the survivors will emerge into than dare ask why we were being attacked of if the Key might be to blame.
Nick Smith backed up dear leader on tv3 this morning ,calling the 1080 issue eco terrorism good to keep the fear alive I guess.
Has any one thought it could be industrial espionage, the 1080 letters that is.
Oops sabotage was the word I wanted to use not espionage. I’d imagine there are lots of overseas interests that would be happy to see the nz dairy industry fail.
Wondering how Key got away with exchange between Anette King, Carter and himself in NZQT yesterday?
Implying that Carter should not have let the question through??
Implying he cannot be expected to be speaking as the PM at the PM’s post cabinet speach? Can somebody explain to him he is ALWAYS the Prime Minister, unless he is handing over to deputy PM.
Surely, it is time for Key to play a round of golf in Hawaii with Obama? Any good courses in Northland? He can’t hammer a nail but at least he can putt. Oh wait, Key is too busy bribing campaigning.
Yep. Key’s post Cabinet Press Conference it is not he as PM, when he is challenged by his words spoken at that session. Therefore no need to answer Annette’s questions. And when that does not stop her, then Carter says her supplementary question is too long! They must be rattled?
Even I’m getting confused is he the PM, or the leader of the Nat party, Or a Husband, or someone who puts the cat out at night? We know he’s not a man because Bronagh reportedly gets a Man in.
Do all MP’s get chauffeurs and body guards?
Possibly a very important question, because presumably in each and all his capacities he is still maintaining full protections from those official body guards. Perhaps he needs to tell the nation in what capacity he is acting (someone parading around behind him carrying a banner declaring which.) Could save the taxpayer a lot in these straitened times
A small group of kiwis saved a Kauri from bureaucracy because they were heard by the developers who will be their neighbours. The developers will have to live amongst the people they have upset. Accordingly they have backed down (so they say) and the Kauri will stay.
When people making decisions have to face each other, see the consequences of their decision-making etc theoutcome is often different to those who make decisions on high with the privilege of never actually becoming part of the process, of the people, of the environment.
Why do you think they give you a yoghurt drink in Indian restaurants? There’s something in milk that can dissipate the heat of chillies in the mouth. For the other end? Soft toilet paper.
In 15 cases, the owners reported no improvement following homeopathic treatment. In the other five cases, the owners believed that the homeopathic treatment was associated with a substantial improvement, and reported reductions in pruritus scores ranging from 64 to 100 per cent. These five dogs were selected for the second phase of the study…
Homeopathy made my health worse once – consistently so throughout a course of treatment. During a month or so where I ceased homeopathic treatment, my health condition returned to its (unsatisfactory) norm. When I restarted the homeopathic treatment once more I got noticeably worse again. Quit the whole thing after 3 or 4 more weeks.
But it was a great A-B-A type trial which showed me that homeopathic treatment can have strong biological effects.
Well, I have no problem with practitioners of ‘traditional medicine’ using the placebo effect to treat people, but they should be honest and upfront about it, rather than claiming that their medicine works because of ‘unknown forms of energy’ or other such nonsense.
The placebo effect has be something to do with the mind-body interaction. As the brain is part of the body, it is perfectible reasonable to suggest that the mind is able to influence the physiology of the body. But of course, I don’t know exactly how the placebo effect works, no one does. Regardless, it is possible to study the placebo effect using science, and such efforts are ongoing. This will allow us to eventually understand how it works.
Energy has a very specific scientific meaning. If you are using the term ‘psychic energy’ to explain the placebo effect, then I’m afraid you are venturing into pseudoscientific babble and I’m not interested into engaging with you.
Energy has a very specific scientific meaning. If you are using the term ‘psychic energy’ to explain the placebo effect, then I’m afraid you are venturing into pseudoscientific babble and I’m not interested into engaging with you.
”Like wtl says “energy” in the way you are suggesting is just what I like to define as “woo” or “magic!”.
Basically fucking nonsense”
@Contrarian, what you display is the hubris common in science of dismissing as worthless or nonsense what can’t be explained yet.
Like when scientists first sequenced the genome and wrote off 98% as ”junk DNA” and then later were like Oh, actually it is pretty crucial to understanding how it all works.
Pretty poor example, ER. Even if your summary of ‘junk DNA’ was correct, you need to factor in that there is only 30 years between its discovery (and Crick saying “little more than junk” about 97% of it) and you saying “pretty crucial”.
Homeopathy has been around for a lot longer and yet no evidence previously existed for it being anything other than junk. And the current analysis of everything that is known about it still comes up with, er, junk. And tomorrow, guess what? Yep, still junk.
Scientific and technological progress is starting to bump its head against some very serious limitations now. This civilisation is in the last one or two rounds of true scientific and technological advancement before virtually all that is left of truly creative, public science is all corporatised, commercialised, compartmentalised and/or put to use for the military intelligence industrial government complex.
And for those who fully believe in fossil fuel depletion and climate change, things are going to start sliding backwards very rapidly soon after.
That’s when alternative healthcare methods are going to be very, very useful to have around.
Homeopathy has been around for a lot longer and yet no evidence previously existed for it being anything other than junk. And the current analysis of everything that is known about it still comes up with, er, junk. And tomorrow, guess what? Yep, still junk.
If it doesn’t work for you, then don’t fucking use it. Just don’t presume you can dictate to others what works or does not work for them. BTW there’s a reason a lot of people give up on kinds of medical treatments which are backed by all the evidence – it doesn’t work for them.
It’s not about me, you doofus. I don’t use the products of quacks. It’s about the tens of thousands of people who, out of ignorance or desperation, pay for this sad and useless perfumed piss. Often instead of real medicine that might actually help them. Just as I think pay day loan companies and cigarette manufacturers should be run out of town, I think alternative medical scam artists need to be exposed for what they really are; crooks preying on the gullible.
You silly billy, traditional healing modalities were around while conventional medicine was killing far more people than it was helping, and traditional healing modalities will still be around when most people can no longer access modern medical care.
Get used to it.
Just as I think pay day loan companies and cigarette manufacturers should be run out of town, I think alternative medical scam artists need to be exposed for what they really are; crooks preying on the gullible.
LOL have you ever noticed that over the last 100 years as the scientific medical types have poured both scorn and ridicule, and court cases, against traditional healing methods, that traditional healing methods have been becoming more and more used, and more and more accepted, and not less?
CR: Con-artists and crackpots selling snake-oil have always been around, but now we have the evidence base to demonstrate that their treatments don’t work any better than magic or water. You deal with it.
LOL have you ever noticed that over the last 100 years as the scientific medical types have poured both scorn and ridicule, and court cases, against cigarettes, that cigarettes have been becoming more and more used, and more and more accepted, and not less?
Fixed it for you.
But, seriously, so fucken what? P’s popular too. So’s drinking too much alcohol. So’s Justin fucken Beiber. None of the above are the least bit desirable and just cause they haven’t gone away doesn’t make them magically good for you.
CR: Con-artists and crackpots selling snake-oil have always been around, but now we have the evidence base to demonstrate that their treatments don’t work any better than magic or water. You deal with it.
You have the evidence base eh? Big fucking deal.
The alternative practitioners I know get zero subsidies from the Ministry of Health and DHBs.
Yet patients keep flocking to them for their care, referring in their friends, family members and colleagues, taking their children in to be looked after, and these are patients all willing to pay full coin out of their own pockets, instead of (or often in addition to) using conventional medical care which is often less expensive (or free) due to tax payer subsidies.
ER, smoking continues to rise in popularity globally. The bastards are focussing on the third world now that we in the first world have accepted the facts about tobacco. The West and its damn fixation on scientific analysis, eh! Always putting consumers first, lest they sue, bah humbug.
weka, making informed choices is exactly what I’m asking for. At the moment, it’s all about uninformed choices, which is why this morning’s news is so important.
Anyhoo, one thing I’m sure we all agree is healthy is sleep, so I’m off. Ciao for now.
Oh, I never said that the con-artists and crackpots were bad at selling their bullshit. Just that it doesn’t seem to make the patients any better than a glass of water and a positive attitude can.
The people who choose to reduce or minimise the use of pharmaceutical products and surgical procedures are often amongst the most informed patients there are around.
“weka, making informed choices is exactly what I’m asking for. At the moment, it’s all about uninformed choices, which is why this morning’s news is so important.”
Actually you’re not. You are suggesting that people be denied informed choice. By all means tell people what the view is from the fundamentalist science box, but don’t pretend that you are in a position to judge alternative therapies when you patently don’t know much about them. That degree of patronising arrogance is one of the core reasons why informed consent became such an issue in the patients rights movements. It’s not about bowing to other people’s belief systems, it’s about sharing information and using empowerment models so that people can make their own choices to the degree that they want to. The holier than thou, you’re all stupid attitude taken by some in this conversation is the exact antithesis of informed consent.
McFlock, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you demonstrate an educated understanding of alternative therapies and the people who use them. Not that I read every comment you make, but I think it’s a fair representation of you to say that you’re working off second and third hand ideas.
I am however willing to be proven wrong if you would like to share your experience and knowledge of people who use alternative therapies.
an educated understanding of alternative therapies and the people who use them
Pretty much all the people I know who have used them have been desperate or dropped acid in their past. And yeah, that’s more than a couple of people I know.
Results have been about as mixed as one might expect.
Closest I’ve come is acupunture from a physio and a couple of herbal tea from a flatmate when I had a cold. But then neither claimed to cure cancer.
Vested interests use their considerable institutional power to protect their interests, what a surprise. Was there anything in that article that takes an even handed look at the metastudy? Of course not (they didn’t even link to the study ffs).
“You decide …”
Pretty hard to make decisions when such blatantaly biased information is all that is on offer.
From the Guardian article: ““There will be a tail of people who won’t respond to this report, and who will say it’s all a conspiracy of the establishment,” Glasziou said.”
Guess he got that right. Given that this report basically endorses what the Cochrane Collaboration already found (twice!), and that the Cochrane Collaboration is the exact opposite of “vested interests using their institutional power to protect their interests,” I’d say it’s pretty conclusive.
Pull up 3 pieces of research on homeopathy that the Cochrane group reviewed, and I’ll critique them for you and explain why the meta analysis was flawed.
Seriously? Anonymous internet commenter is going to explain to me how those mooks at the Cochrane Collaboration don’t know how to do systematic reviews properly?
I guess the Cochrane guys are OK right until we get to their reviews which say that the flu jab has been overhyped and seriously lacks the evidence to support its many years of use and tax payers expense.
Are you really this dissociated? Have you been into the ketamine tonight?
CR/CV/Tat: The flu shot seriously lacks the evidence to support its many years of use.
CT: You mean like homeopathy lacks evidence to support?
CR/CV/Tat: *Glib and irrelevant comment*
Do you have no internal dialogue that at least keeps you consistent?
weka, “Pull up 3 pieces of research on homeopathy that the Cochrane group reviewed, and I’ll critique them for you and explain why the meta analysis was flawed.”
Psycho Milt, “Seriously? Anonymous internet commenter is going to explain to me how those mooks at the Cochrane Collaboration don’t know how to do systematic reviews properly?”
That’s a pretty interesting reaction for number of reasons. I’m guessing it’s a defensive reaction because you’ve never looked properly at the Chochrane review on homeopathy and have no idea what the problems might be (you probably just picked up some ideas about the review off the internet). But more interesting is that you appear to believe in the absolute powers of the Cochrane group and that they are infallible and therefore beyond critique. Not even medical science believes that medical science is infallible. Only the fundies think that, and they are demonstrably wrong, including by the structures they put their faith in.
There are very good reasons why medical research largely fails to study homeopathy well. Even if you want to consider one of the reasons to be that homeopathy has no objective efficacy, the genuine science mind would understand that that needs to be based on evidence not belief in a higher power. Thinking that any research or any meta analysis is all powerful is not really that different to believing in the omnipotence of God. Which is all well and good, it’s just not very rational.
Back on point, I’m sure the Cochrane group knows how to do reviews properly. The problem is they’re reviewing research that often doesn’t understand what homeopathy is and fundamentally fails to study it in a scientific manner.
I think the homeopathists’ problem is that a lot of researchers do understand how to research it in a scientific manner, which means they exclude anecdotes involving post-hoc fallacies, don’t for a moment consider whether there might be some woo they aren’t taking into account, and lack all interest in how long this treatment’s been around or how many people think it works.
Cochrane put plenty of effort into weeding out studies that didn’t meet a scientific standard or didn’t take enough steps to eliminate potential bias. They certainly aren’t infallible, but they’re as good as we’ve got.
A link in this story shows the leaked paper in 2012 that revealed the council was considering taking the position homeopathy was unethical before looking at all the evidence.
So this politically motivated hit job need not be taken seriously.
uhh, the evidence that homeopathy is complete bunk has been around since before 2012 and debate about the ethics of it because of its ineffectiveness has been around since before 2012 also so, no, it isn’t a “politically motivated hit job”.
What? That makes no sense.
You were the one hailing this as the great debunking, after which you ”hope finally this can put the myth of Homeopathy to rest”.
Yes because it is ANOTHER widely circulated study which shows it is complete bullshit. There have been MANY of such studies so I am hoping that FINALLY this will hammer it home.
Your “politically motivated hit job” is complete crap because homeopathy has been known to be false for decades.
That’s just a stupid statement right there. You’re not going to invalidate peoples usage of this treatment modality – if it works for them. A big part of the homeopathic effect may be related to the placebo effect – but that is exactly the same for major aspects of medical care.
“A big part of the homeopathic effect may be related to the placebo effect – but that is exactly the same for major aspects of medical care.”
Ummmm no….. for medicines to be registered they must be proven to be safe and efficacious above and beyond the placebo effect. although perhaps you were referring to some other aspect of medical care ……. do tell ?
I wasn’t talking about registered medicines! I was talking about medical care. Seeing someone in a white coat in a nice professional office setting with lots of diplomas framed up on the wall.
Northshoredoc, do you believe that placebo has any positive action in your practice?
Do you believe that the quality of the interaction between you and patients has any impact on outcomes?
“Ummmm no….. for medicines to be registered they must be proven to be safe and efficacious above and beyond the placebo effect.”
Pretty sure some anti-depressants have made it to market that don’t fit tha efficacy criteria. (Lots of drugs have failed the safety test but that’s a different conversation)
I have no idea what you are talking about OAB and to be honest can’t be bothered asking for clarification (aka to tired for the clever dick routine). You know how to communicate well, so when you do that clearly I’ll take it as a sign of good faith in the conversation.
“Do you believe that the quality of the interaction between you and patients has any impact on outcomes?
NO .. very nebulous question though… who measures the quality and what is it ?”
I have to go with weka on this one – if only because the quality of the patient-GP interaction can have a massive effect on:
1. what the patient believes
2. their sense of well-being
3. their future healthcare decision-making
It can also affect how the GP interprets the patient’s concerns.
1 & 2 can be a result of education & reassurance and therefore may be explained away as a placebo (good enough for many worried patients with illnesses/concerns that will disappear without medical intervention). If you’re talking about eventual clinical outcomes in your ‘NO’ answer then you’ve missed the crucial importance of No3.
Delays to appropriate medical care might be one way of measuring the effect of quality of GP-patient interactions. I’m sure there are many others.
@northshoredoc – One measure is how highly communication issue complaints figure in health and disability commissioner’s statistics. I’m pretty sure they outrank treatment complaints, but would need to check.
Consultation quality clearly affects patient outcomes, and is poorly acknowledged in my view.
So if it’s ”known to be false for decades” there was in your view no need to conduct this study?
You reveal your own lack of respect for the scientific method that you claim a moral purchase on.
For those helped by homeopathy, they probably accept it doesn’t work in a mechanistic way, and its results can’t be aggregated to suit evidence based medicine.
By the way, have you checked out the serious doubt over the effectiveness of antidepressants; do you rail against them too?
“So if it’s ”known to be false for decades” there was in your view no need to conduct this study?”
No there shouldn’t be any need to conduct this study but unfortunately it still has to be done because homeopathic “remedies” are still being stacked along side actual medicine.
“You reveal your own lack of respect for the scientific method that you claim a moral purchase on.”
Yeah the scientific method actually works and shows homeopathic remedies are bullshit. And yes, I have serious concerns over antidepressants. But don’t introduce a irrelevant red herring – this is about homeopathy, not SSRI’s.
Says something is not a red herring. Provides another red herring. Oh dear.
And sugar pills don’t harm people, but neither do they have any positive effect. Homeopathic pills are different because there is an expectation that they may have a positive effect and so are dangerous when they are used instead of a proven medical treatment.
If homeopathic remedies are effective as placebo’s then that should be made clear on the labeling – “Has no active ingredient – some placebo effect may be experienced”
Among these doctors, there were various motivations, including the wish to generate psychological treatment effects, to calm patients, to appease patients’ wish for a treatment, and to treat “non-specific complaints.”
Patients can benefit from being treated with sham drugs even if they are told they contain no active ingredient, scientists have found. The finding suggests that the placebo effect could work without the need for any deception on the part of the doctor, as had been previously thought.
A doctor who prescribed a placebo for heart disease, on the other hand, would probably be mistaken or negligent. A quack, on the other hand? What skill their diagnoses?
Not to mention putting flashy looking placebos without any warning that they are actually placebos and have no medicinal effect whatsoever next to actual medicine is kinda misleading and unethical
Reply to CR: obviously placebos have positive effects. They even have effects relative to other placebos, such as blue sugar pills vs red sugar pills for different ailments. None of this in anyway means that giving someone a homeopathic treatment is anything other than quackery, just like anything else where science has comprehensively demonstrated is fraudulent – like crystal healing, faith healing, colour therapy, reiki, chiropracty, naturopathy, anything that makes reference to qi, osteopathy, bloodletting, trepanning…the list is endless really.
@ Ergo …re “For those helped by homeopathy, they probably accept it doesn’t work in a mechanistic way”….well it worked in a mechanistic way on my 8 year old
….after going to local GPs for a week and being misdiagnosed as stomach flu ….and being misdiagnosed in hospital for several days… he was eventually reluctantly given an operation to check for appendicitis…he was found to have a leaking gangrenous appendix ( an emergency ) and after being on intravenous antibiotics for several days he was released from hospital still ailing and pale and listless….a neighbour left the appropriate homeopathics for the aftermath of such an operation in the letterbox to try ( my son had not had any homeopathics prior in his life) …. i gave them to my son without telling him what they were or making a song and dance about it….the recovery was almost immediate ….and the specialists at the hospital , who still expected possible complications and a long convalescence and possible return to hospital, were surprised at his robust recovery
….so yup imo homeopathics also work in a mechanistic way ….as well as placebo effect ( this is not to say they are a substitute for other medicine or surgery)…how they work is another question….but the effects are mechanistic
i have also used homeopathics in India and Tibet…and am convinced they work ( not as a substitute for Western medicine …but sometimes they work better than Western medicine) especially for gut diarrhea and chest bronchial issues ( in fact we were advised to use homeopathics by a NZer who had lived in India for years…and who had found Western medicine did not work for gut issues)
You can laugh all you like but there re many people who have had similar experiences as Chooky. My self included. I have a degree in science and the scientific method, have always considered conventional medicine first (and will continue to do so) but I have seen remarkable results in my 2 month old grandson who had floppy airway and serious reflux – so bad he was in hospital under observation for a week. He was given the conventional medicine (can’t remember the name now) but he vomited it up every time. He had a monitor on him at all times for his heart beat and blood oxygen levels. A single treatment of belladonna brought about an immediate change.
Now don’t tell me homeopathic treatment is ineffective.
You think they treated a 2 month old baby with the herb belladonna? LOL. Look it up TC and understand the daftness of what you just said.
It’s pretty obvious to anyone here who knows what they are talking about that Macro was referring to homeopathic belladonna (a well known homeopathic remedy).
Don’t worry about these fundies weka, they can keep going on stuck in a self righteous intellectual rut whereas others can use the best of both conventional orthodox medicine and alternative healthcare modalities, depending on what is more suitable and effective at the time.
Yes was given a homeopathic dosage of Belladona – and just the one one treatment.
We had a public health nurse visiting regularly – he saw a doctor almost every week. Very few babies had as much medical attention as he had in his first few months. He was born with transposed greater arteries, visited 3 hospitals, had 2 helicopter rides, and an operation in his first 24 hours, and open heart surgery at 4 days old. At about 6 weeks old he was again admitted to Hospital in the middle of the night – his breathing was irregular and his blood oxygen levels were low. He was diagnosed with the floppy airway and this was being aggravated with severe reflux – something he would grow out of at around 6 months when his airways enlarged as he grew older. The point was the conventional medicine did not work.
The public health nurse who visited and the hospital paediatrician both acknowledged the effectiveness of the treatment. The ear nose and throat specialist didn’t want to hear. She like so many in her profession have cloth ears and can’t accept that medical science hasn’t all the answers.
@Macro – that’s great. It must have been a huge relief for all concerned.
What works in practice is so much more important than what a textbook says should work when there is suffering.
@ Ergo Robertina
Yes it certainly was a huge relief. My daughter and the grandchildren were living with us in NZ at the time. The family were in between returning to NZ and then returning back to Perth where her husband works at Rockingham Hospital. (It’s a long story – but essentially the Govt changed in 2008 and we waived good bye to our loved ones! – Not what the Nat Bill board said! ). I’m currently in Perth at the moment – just had a 36 degree day today – don’t tell me that the world isn’t heating. Baby sitting the said young monster who is doing very well. 🙂
Wow – that is hot. I was sweltering in Dunedin and I think it got to around 20, although I didn’t hear the official top temp.
I have family in WA too and often find myself saying it actually feels hotter on summer days than the official temp says, but maybe I’ve just acclimatised.
“Where is the line of demarcation between “descriptive” and “mechanistic?”
….”the epithets “descriptive” and “mechanistic” are epistemologically related and differ quantitatively rather than qualitatively. In other words, observations become regarded as progressively less descriptive and more mechanistic as one probes more deeply into a phenomenon. In fact, one might argue that there is no real line of demarcation between descriptive and mechanistic science but that the difference is rather a matter of depth and one’s preferences.”
“Numerous surveys over the past 150 plus years have confirmed that people who seek homeopathic treatment tend to be considerably more educated than those who don’t (1). What is not as well known is the fact that homeopathic medicine is the leading “alternative” treatment used by physicians in Europe…and growing numbers of the citizenry”……
““Numerous surveys over the past 150 plus years have confirmed that people who seek homeopathic treatment tend to be considerably more educated than those who don’t”
One of life’s great mysteries, not proof that homeopathy works better than a placebo.
If it’s a great placebo and it resolves health issues for a person without the risk of liver or kidney failure, what’s the problem???
As TheContrarian pointed out above, it is misleading and unethical to use the placebo effect to treat someone without being honest and upfront about it. Or worse, being deliberately deceptive and coming up with pseudoscientific explanations to trick people into using (and maybe paying for) a treatment when it is only functioning as a placebo.
Firstly because a placebo can’t resolve you of anything like, say, cancer or a virus like a flu – it might make you feel better but it won’t cure you.
Secondly, it is unethical to sell something that is actually placebo while pretending it has a health benefit it doesn’t. I mean you have all but admitted homeopathy is nothing more than a placebo – is it not unethical to actually market it as something else?
Tell me, how do you ascertain whether or not it was the placebo effect of going to a medical practitioners office which helps a patient get better or the prescription the patient was given (which may or may not be filled)?
If on another visit the doctor suggests to the patient that they will probably feel better with a day or two rest, and it actually happens – how do you know that’s not the placebo effect?
Getting better and feeling better are two different things.
Secondly, and actually more importantly, (I’ll actually be verbatim here), it is unethical to sell something that is actually placebo while pretending it has a health benefit it doesn’t. I mean you have all but admitted homeopathy is nothing more than a placebo – is it not unethical to actually market it as something else?
You answer my question of why the medical profession is allowed to use the placebo effect in clinical situations, and not tell patients about it, but no one else is.
So I ask you something, you completely dodge it so I ask again, then you put up a question that I must answer first despite having failed to address anything I have said?
Hmmmmmm, why don’t you actually address the points as they are raised instead of putting up these silly barriers to actually answering what is put to you?
I’ll ask you again and I’ll make it easy on you – just one point which I’ll drill down into a simple format:
You have all but admitted homeopathy is nothing more than a placebo – is it not unethical to actually market it as something else?
Why should I play your silly games about what you personally consider ethical or not? Or to abide by your stupid rules of acceptable rhetoric.
Homeopathy was around while orthodox conventional medicine was killing far more people than it saved, it will still be around long after orthodox conventional medicine is no longer regularly available to the vast majority of the population, and it is a form of healthcare which doesn’t need tax payers subsidies to survive.
Again, medical practitioners use the placebo effect every day, why are you fine with them doing that but not other professions?
“Or to abide by your stupid rules of acceptable rhetoric”
Not my rules buddy – you’d be shit in the house.
“doesn’t need tax payers subsidies to survive.”
And your position on the TPPA and Pharmac is…?
Not to mention it wouldn’t survive is the labels honesty and ethically stated “Contains no active ingredients” instead of making claims of efficacy which are proven to be incorrect. You yourself have all but admitted it is a placebo – why don’t you address false advertising and unethical marketing?
Oh yeah because I ask you something, you completely dodge it so I ask again, then you put up a question that I must answer first despite having failed to address anything I have said.
“Firstly because a placebo can’t resolve you of anything like, say, cancer or a virus like a flu – it might make you feel better but it won’t cure you.”
That’s unlikely to be true. There’s a lot of work being done on the mind body connection which demonstrates real effects via the brain, nervous, immune and endocrine systems from things like meditation. It’s not just about “feeling better”, whatever that might mean, it’s about the roles that improved physiology plays in healing. This is why complementary medicine should be one of the core focusses of cancer research, because it can both improve chances of survival and mitigate side effects of conventional treatment.
“You answer my question of why the medical profession is allowed to use the placebo effect in clinical situations, and not tell patients about it, but no one else is.”
Do you have any instances of where it is ‘allowed’ to prescribe placebos as a clinical remedy without advising patients – i.e. prescribing a bottle of sugar pills?
– Or are you saying advice and reassurance are placebos that are like selling a homeopathic remedy?
– Or are you saying the medical profession that refers people to say, osteopaths, acupuncturists and chiropractors without telling them about the likelihood of it working shouldn’t be allowed to because these are (with a few possible exceptions) not clinically proven therapies?
– Or are you saying that, for example, anti-depressants are being prescribed without any efficacy above the placebo effect and patients don’t know this?
I’m with you on the last two points, but not the first. And if it is something similar to the last two options that you’re complaining about – I suggest it would make more sense to advocate for these practises to cease rather than saying that other treatments with low efficacy should be added to the clinically proven health toolbox.
I wonder what all the science fundies think of phenomena like breast cancer going away by itself without treatment. Do they think its impossible? That it must have been some kind of mistake? That its a one in a million fluke?
Its a very strange world they live in where big pharma products heal, but the body doesn’t.
Do you have any instances of where it is ‘allowed’ to prescribe placebos as a clinical remedy without advising patients – i.e. prescribing a bottle of sugar pills?
I talked about use of the placebo effect, not use of placebo treatments. A patient walks into a professional office, diplomas on the wall, a sincere sounding person with an air of authority in a white coat, and experiences a good interpersonal interaction, there’s a fuck load of placebo effect going on right there.
BTW “proven evidence based therapies” fail a shit load of patients in one way or another. Some very badly. If they didn’t, most of these people wouldn’t be seeking out alternative therapies would they.
miravox, many patients will have no idea of the efficacy above placebo rate of the meds they are on. Pre-internet it would have been most patients.
Here’s something I just pulled off the internet about SSRIs and placebo rates. I haven’t analysed it, but let’s use it as a starting point. There are huge ethical issues around psychiatric prescribing that are far more serious than any ethical issues around homeopathic practice. No-one really talks about it though, funny that.
“BTW “proven evidence based therapies” fail a shit load of patients in one way or another. Some very badly. If they didn’t, most of these people wouldn’t be seeking out alternative therapies would they.”
I think unless one is in circles of people who use alternative modalities, or one is an alternative practitioner, it’s very hard to understand just how many people routinely use healthcare outside of mainstream medicine because mainstream medicine has failed them (i.e. after mainstream medicine has failed them).
Oh dreary contrarian, repeating your sneer merchant mantra will not alter the fact that just as many people will gain health benefit from homeopathy as before this slanted politically motivated hit job was published.
Same denailist tactic as a global warming denier: ignore all the science, claim some kind of political conspiracy, ignore every piece of evidence to the contrary.
Fact: Homeopathy has never shown to be effective and never will because it is scientifically impossible as proven over and over and over and over….
So, was this the strong nuclear force or the weak nuclear force? Gravity? Or are you just making stuff up because you want mystic crystal new age mesmerism nonsense to be real?
Every single time homeopathy is comprehensively shown to be a fraud, people still blithely go ahead and ignore all the evidence in favour of make-believe.
Well, homeopaths don’t need government subsidies to stay in business. So you better convince patients that their practitioners are bullshit, that they themselves are gullible saps, and to quit going to them and ***willingly paying 100% out of pocket***
I’ll tell you what true “magical thinking” is – that more science and more technology is going to be able to answer the major health concerns of society over the next few very difficult decades.
“I’ll tell you what true “magical thinking” is – that more science and more technology is going to be able to answer the major health concerns of society over the next few very difficult decades.”
Yeah because science has totally failed to improve our life span, eradicate disease, and provide a better life for the sick and in-firmed. Yeah lets forget the eradication of smallpox, transplant technology, polio vaccines, extension of life-span, that being diagnosed with HIV is no longer the death sentence it was, 3-printing of limbs and organs, microscopic surgery, greater understanding of diet, research into stem-cells, research into being able to transplant pig organs into humans, hand transplants, rebuilding peoples faces, greater understanding of locked in syndrome, pacemakers, anesthesia, studying into using LSD and other alkaloids for PTSD, early detections of melanoma, breast cancer and bowl cancer drastically improving the survival rates of those afflicted, vaccinations, early childhood care, recognition of previously swept under the carpet mental disorders so people afflicted can now have better lives, Stephen Hawkings fucking chair.
You give me one fucking example of your magical thinking providing anything like the above. I fucking dare you.
So your kid recovered from a serious medical condition after receiving appropriate medical treatment. Also, your kid took a fake remedy that did nothing.
Any further suggestion is a post-hoc fallacy.
Homeopathy is built on “post hoc, ergo propter hoc.” I got better. Also, I took this homeopathic remedy. Therefore, I got better because I took this homeopathic remedy. Works for faith healing, too.
+100 CR…i really dont know why I was so rash to have joined this discussion with these regulars who pretend to be doctors….lol….really they are very threatened!….. that is the only conclusion one can have ….plus they are control freaks….it is a wonder they have any patients left ( that is if they are doctors, which i doubt)…they are so contemptuous of anyone who can think for themselves!….and I know a number of ordinary medical practitioners who offer an alternative in homeopathy treatment …so it is not a big deal…a waste of space arguing here….i also suspect vested interests in BIG PHARMA…homeopathy is very affordable
Identifying a post hoc, ergo propter hoc fallacy isn’t the same thing as “pretending to be a doctor.” In fact, there’s no reason to assume doctors have any particular expertise at identifying logical fallacies.
As opposed to those here knowing they aren’t doctors yet think they can over-turn the vast, overwhelming majority of doctors and medical institutions as well as decades of research that disproves homeopathy in its entirety based upon their own personal anecdotes.
@ TheContrarian…you dont know who is a doctor and who isnt a doctor here!…or are you psychic?…there are many medical practitioners who use homeopathy both in NZ and overseas
That’s really quite a transparent dodge and avoidance of actually addressing what I said.
Are you are a doctor? I’m going with no until you actually state otherwise. So in not being a doctor what makes you think you are qualified in doubting the completely overwhelming medical and scientific evidence that homeopathy has no value whatsoever?
I would hope you could actually address the argument.
So in not being a doctor what makes you think you are qualified in doubting the completely overwhelming medical and scientific evidence that homeopathy has no value whatsoever?
Oh that’s very simple, the studies are not reflective of the actual real life experiences of people in their day to day healthcare.
“Oh that’s very simple, the studies are not reflective of the actual real life experiences of people in their day to day healthcare.”
The studies were, for the most part, the usual blind tests (ie a mixture of homeopathic ‘remedies’ and genuine placebos. In addition, information supplied by the industry was studied. Both sources are examples of studies very much based on the “real life experiences of people in their day to day healthcare.”
Observation.
the RWNJ’s often call-out the Left-wing-Radio-New-Zealand-National.
Yesterday’s Standard discussion re Kathryn Ryan made some references to her politics.
So what evidence do we have of current/former politically aligned left leaning week-day RNZ hosts.
Maggie Barry – National MP
Mike Hoskings
Sean Plunkett
Can anyone add to this list of outed rabid left wing hosts?
I think they base their claim on suspicions rather than actually knowing, and usually amongst those who usually have nothing to do with news production – but media analysis (e.g. Colin Peacock, Jeremy Rose – those bloody Media Studies ‘types’), and others who they suspect are just aging hippie ‘types’ (Phil Obrien, Simon Morton, etc). Disagreement with the current junta simply means they left-wing kinsprissy thereists.
What I find interesting is that Dear Leader used to avoid RNZ like the plague until the Natzis were able to start stacking the deck through their appointments, and the recruitment of Espiner and programme ‘reshuffle’.
Its time that appointments such as to RNZ Board/CEO/etc. should be non-partisan – that is, have cross-party approval.
Espiner has always appeared to me to be moderately right wing.
I have family members who are further to the right than Espiner and I consider them moderate.
He does have blind spots and bad days (we all do).
My impression is that he also approaches his job in a reasonably considered way – as opposed to someone like Gower whose modus operandi seems to be; hassle people in order to get a response that he can edit into a racy sound bite and an exciting sounding heading (facts and context? Don’t be silly).
yes I saw that. I’m loathe to give an opinion on Ms Ryan other than I think she should stay away from political discussions, and that I find her affectations bloody annoying to listen to. I also noted some comments about her ego and being ‘difficult’ to work for – I couldn’t possibly comment – it’d cause issyouse
I find nine to noon much better when Lynne Freeman is standing in. (But then that might be because she’s one of those artyfarty ‘types’ so she must be a bloody leftie /sarc)
Kathryn Ryan is bloody good imo…of course the interviewees dont get done over the way Kim Hill did….but Ryan is a considered interviewer , sometimes brilliant and sometimes not…she tries to walk a neutral line between Right and Left…..she is certainly no slouch…and as much as Lynne Freeman is a nice person and good on the arts ….i think Kathryn Ryan asks sharper questions all around….the only person who comes close to Ryan’s quality imo is “Summer Noelle” (not her real name)
did you listen to this interview? Cos that’s the one I have the beef with. Any move to radically change the system regarding sexual violence will meet some opposition as it did when some chose to misrepresent labour Policy pre election (including Little mis-representing it)… and so an important issue got sidelined and turned into a myth.
Boshier had a chance to speak to those proposed changes and was largely sidelined by Ryan. IMO
“So what evidence do we have of current/former politically aligned left leaning week-day RNZ hosts.
Maggie Barry – National MP
Mike Hoskings
Sean Plunkett”
Perhaps you can enlighten me as your statement is news to me, and I suspect others?
What RNZ week-day programs do these three people you nominate appear on?
Maggie Barry had the Nine to Noon block.
Hoskins – Morning Report
Sean Plunkett – Morning report.
Suggests National radio is a breeding ground for the right.
They were all “impartial” broadcasters fronting news and current affairs.
And read the comment again and you will see that I said weekday – weekday.
Yes you did say weekday. I was not aware that they had different management for the weekday as opposed to the weekend programs though. Surely they aren’t like the Herald?
On the other hand I have never seen any overt political leanings on the part of Plunkett and I wouldn’t really see him as overtly political at all.
The other two don’t work there any more, do they?
Perhaps leaning right is a little like being gay in the old days. Provided you stayed in the closet you kept your job.
When Barry and Hosking “came out” the lost their jobs?
Leaning left was OK for RNZ as the case’s of Edwards and Laidlaw illustrate though. They were hired after they showed up as failed left-wing politicians.
I think the point is @ alwyn that there are those that are prone to letting their own political persuasions affect their journalistic integrity, and those that do not. You might be quite surprised at where say Kim Hill or Wallace Chapman ‘lean’ (I’d say leftish on some things, rightish on others). We know Hosking and ilk make stories more about themselves and what THEY think (as did Yessirree Paul and others).
Ryan peeves me because of her affectations and she appears to have an inflated sense of herself, but I note a number of her guests are impressed with her style (usually during non-political discussions (one can often hear them say “that’s a very good question”.
Let’s have PSB with a bipartisan approach overall – at the moment – weekdays it definitely leans right of centre plus plus and on weekends centre to left of centre.
You can’t deny tho’ that the Natzis have been stacking the deck with appointments since they took office.
It’s a wonder that some have survived. How about that bloody Bollinger. I almost expect a few redundancies sometimes due to another ‘reorganisation’ of their schedule. In such as reorg, we could expect a Bollinger to go (because he comes from a line of commie bastards), and maybe a Matine Idle to bite the dust to be replaced by everyman”s best friend Mora. Talkback even – on the grounds that Natrad is taking heed of the people’s voice!
And of course let’s not forget the number of people who once were ‘lefties’ until they discovered the benefits of American Express Gold (The Act Party is full of ’em from Roger the Dodger to Donna H). And look at Joyce ffs! Once the student radio advocate – now the Apologist in Chief for those with fascist tendencies. They often use the excuse that they grew up and got real and responsible – which is often a euphemism for they got comfortable, lazy, complacent, holier than thou and selfish (life is easier that way – they often get phat too)
“often hear them say “that’s a very good question”.”
Agree, which is why the boshier interview annoyed me so much… but I think that telling her it’s a great question sometimes leads her to think she knows as much as they do and either through personal interest she begins to slip into an exploratory for her own benefit. I know I would find it hard not to divert as things piqued my own interest but I am neither trained not to or paid not to.
… and “current/former”.
As for the weekend magazine shows, – different genre altogether.
Chris Laidlaw and Brian Edwards were excellent interviewers – not the aggressive creeps of the aforementioned closet Tories.
And besides the listener was aware of their political affiliations long before they were on radio.
I suppose we could add a left-winger or two.
Why was Chris Laidlaw ever allowed near the Sunday morning program. Former Labour MP wasn’t he? Would you say that he should have been banned?
Perhaps Brian Edwards should have got the boot. Former Labour candidate after all wasn’t he?
Why is Mike Williams on RNZ. Former Labour Party President of course.
At least we know, like Maggie Barry, their politics. When did Sean ever come out on behalf of a political party?
Are you really of the McCarthy school of politics?
I agree with all you have written except for the Mike Williams bit cos his political affiliation is declared each and every time he appears … no matter how misleading introducing him as a voice of the left may be 😉
My initial observation was that the RWNJ’s continually assert that RNZ is a left-wing dominated network. I asked how many journalists on RNZ have turned out to be left wing zealots but indicated at least three immediately come to mind who have turned out to be Tories. Incidentally none lost their positions but resigned for commercial reasons.
Laidlaw and Edwards were magazine show presenters – not news/current affairs broadcasters with editorial input to emphasis/angle on news. Williams features on a panel as a foil for Hooton in a political forum.
As the new Greek government attempts to reverse the vicious austerity policies of the previous New Democracy/PASOK (in NZ terms, National/Labour) coalition, the troika (EU heads, ECB and IMF) and Greek capital are applying maximum pressure on Syriza to bend to their will.
The response of the US-trained Iraqi army when faced with ISIS has often been to run away. It is the Kurdish militias that have stopped ISIS and pushed it back.
The fact that the PKK, whose forces have done a whack of the fighting and whose armed forces include a significant number of women, is on the terrorism list in this country is indicative of the lies of successive NZ governments about the region and their involvement in it.
If the NZ government was primarily motivated by the desire to help defeat ISIS in order that the people of the region could improve their lives, they could just hand over a load of weapons, medical supplies and money to the Kurdish fighters, with no strings attached.
Instead, they have made it illegal in this country to help one of the key Kurdish movements which stands for people’s liberation and that has thrown back the ultra-right forces of ISIS.
Several things can be done here:
1. Demand that the PKK be removed from the NZ government’s list of terrorist organisations
2. Demand that people here be able to raise funds and other support for the Kurdish liberation movement; and people could raise support and funds for them anyway, regardless of what the government does
3. Demand the government not send NZ forces but hand over to the Kurdish forces the equivalent in funds and/or equipment of what they would spend on having NZ armed forces there; this to be handed over with no strings attached. In other words, if the deployment of NZ forces to Iraq was going to cost X million dollars, then X million dollars should be handed over to the Kurds.
The Kurds have been screwed over continuously by western powers – for instance, when France and Britain carved up the Ottoman Empire after WW1, the Kurds never got a country.
If the NZ government was primarily motivated by the desire to help defeat ISIS in order that the people of the region could improve their lives, they could just hand over a load of weapons, medical supplies and money to the Kurdish fighters, with no strings attached.
Turkey, a key NATO member, wouldn’t like that. Neither would the Shiite authorities in Baghdad.
A lot of the reason for the US and other Western nations not liking/supporting a group like the Kurds is because it will change the established borders. Basically, it comes down to geopolitics and the fact that they know damn well that if those borders are changed in the way that the people there want them changed they will lose power and wealth.
The more I watch the US led nations the more it becomes obvious that they’re operating to shore up the Western Empire and that they’re failing. The whole lot is falling apart and they’re promoting wars and fear of others in an attempt to prevent that.
And BTW – now Boko Haram has pledged allegiance to Da’ish isn’t it about time we offered to support our fellow member of the Commonwealth, Nigeria, with equivalent support and assistance?
Anyone hear the member for Epsom opining this morning that the election of Winston Peters would upset the balance of power.
Now let’s see, we have an MP who has a seat in government on the basis of less than one percent of the vote (Ignore the gerrymander that got him in) talks about upsetting the balance of power. He will also be advising ACT supporters to vote National in Northland. What a magnanimous gesture.
I imagine there was a pretty swift text this morning from Joyce to the Hologram from Epsom along the lines of “just shut the fuck up!”
And a friend in Australia says the nail-fail made the telly news there!
Yeah, ACT received a grand total of 162 Party-Votes in Northland in 2014. (Behind Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis but ahead of the Ban 1080 Party). And a plurality of ACT Party-Voters went for Sabin (rather than the ACT candidate) anyway.
Still, you never know. Could come down to just a handful of votes.
interesting thanks….i think Shaw has huge appeal and ability….question is whether he is right wing?…Really this is the acid question for the Greens. The new co-leader must be unequivocally Left !
Naomi Kleim spells it out with her new book ‘This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs Climate’
Winston Peters take John Key apart on diversionary tactics as regards 1080 scare…”timing smells”…”timing was not coincidental” with other things going on eg Iraq situation and GCSB:
Lot of money to be made when markets are shaken down.
But no, Key thinks its eco-terror.
I think its some meat eater who sources their food locally and does not want their larder poisoned, not ecological more food to mouth subsistenance since they obvioysly do not have a piece of the wider economic rural benefits/trickledown.
lone wolf economically marginalized rural type.
While primarily about Britain, this article is highly relevant to New Zealand, where the ‘golden weather’ of the long post-WW2 economic boom was even more golden than in Britain and lasted a bit longer; what happened here afterwards is also similar to Britain
by Michael Roberts
I am part of the lucky generation. I am a member of that cohort of people born between 1946 and 1965, the baby boomer generation. We are lucky because we came into the world in countries of advanced capitalism at a time when there was unprecedented economic growth, near ‘full employment’, relative low inequality of wealth and income and strongish labour movements able to extract concessions from Capital on labour rights, a welfare state, universal health and education, public housing.
Capital was able to concede these gains for labour because it was experiencing high rates of profitability after the destruction of capital values during the war. It could draw on a huge reserve army of labour in Europe and Asia, along with new technology, to exploit. And global capitalism had one hegemonic power, the US, that could provide credit and investment in Europe and Asia within Pax Americana. In short, this was a Golden Age for capitalism. Concessions to labour were possible. . .
full at: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/03/11/the-lucky-generation/
Interesting article on the post-WW2 long economic boom, its end and what subsequent generations have had to deal with – increasingly casualised employment, extension of working lives through the raising of the retirement age, cuts to public services and commodification or partial commodification of such services too, etc etc. . .
Wasn’t that wonderful for everybody. As a bright 16yr old I was told by my High School career’s advisor in 1966 that I should go to secretarial college as I would make somebody a wonderful secretary. I said that I thought I would make a better “somebody” and that I was going to University.
Yes, there were jobs, but the Help Wanted section in the paper was divided into Men’s Jobs and Women’s Jobs.
In 1981 when I bought my house the policy of the BNZ was that they did not lend $$$ to single women to buy houses. The Manager was too chicken to tell me that – he just rang my father and told him that the only way I would get the loan was if he counter signed for it. Regardless of my substantial deposit and more than adequate income.
And that is before we got onto the treatment of Maori, LGBT and any other minority.
The boomer years were all about white, straight blokes.
What you say is right, but what happened was not an extension of the benefits of being a white straight bloke to the rest of the population. Those who promoted better gender and race conditions also let neoliberalism in the door. Their emphasis was on the individual betterment of women, Maori, and gays, rather than as part of a class. This meant that things got a lot better for some, like the gay Tories that ran the Auckland Pride Parade, but much worse for the trans Maori woman who didn’t want screws marching.
We lost the good things in exchange for a bit of equality for some. We could have had both.
Their emphasis was on the individual betterment of women, Maori, and gays, rather than as part of a class.
I don’t think Māori were particularly interested in being part of a “class struggle.” Particularly as the Māori struggle isn’t about gaining equality with Joe Pākehā.
Plenty of Maori have been very strong in class struggle and I don’t think it was because they wanted to be like Joe. When the whole basis of Kiwi capitalism was the confiscation and purchase of land from Maori, I don’t see how it is possible to stand aside from class struggle anyway. The Maori Party disagrees with me, but I can handle that.
Maskirovka: Deception Russian-Style
Lucy Ash examines the Russian military strategy of deception, maskirovka, from the 14th Century to the current crisis in Ukraine.
Yep, Russia anticipated the west’s move to destabilise Ukraine and turn it into a NATO outpost well ahead of time. There was never any way that Russia was going to allow Sevastapol to become a NATO base, and the west should have realised that from the start.
Prof John Mersheimer says west is determined to peel Ukraine away from Russia
Using three means:
1) NATO expansion eastward.
2) EU expansion eastward.
3) “Democracy promotion” (toppling pro-Russian regimes and replacing them with pro-western, anti-Russian regimes).
Ukraine is a core strategic interest for Russia; however it is not a core strategic interest for the western powers.
A political settlement would be Ukraine becoming a neutral buffer state between Europe and Russia.
here is more on USA foreign affairs …still relevant given Netanyahu’s Israel attempt recently to influence American Foreign policy on Iran….this Published on Nov 23, 2013
‘Gwenyth Todd – Whistleblower on Planned Iran War & WW3′
“Press TV’s documentary program “Untold Truths” is a revealing documentary film about the life and experiences of former White House Middle East policy adviser, Gwenyth Todd, who has now escaped to Australia to keep safe from FBI prosecution”.
Listen to that steady drum beat for us to go to war, a just war, an honourable war, a necessary war, a moral war. So many lefties have forgotten – war is a racket.
Did I hear Armchair General Westmoreland say something about hanging back in the rear while being all keen to send our young men and women off to a civil war?
Off in the distance, through the binoculars, I can just make out a figure retreating into the sunset waving a white flag. Its pitiful whine can just be made out … “Fuckem, fuckem all. I’m alriiiiight jack, so fuckem all …”
It’s good to hear an echo of Old Labour when I read you Te Reo Putake. I can see why we have our preent day NZ going around in wide circles which some have realised are actually slipping away down the plughole. But terrific to see brave Old Time Labour standing strong, like Canute by the waterside, (though he was doing it ironically to show his old Labourites where wish-fulfilment ended and reality starts).
One thing I was thinking about is the relatively low level of tax on high-income earners in NZ.
See this link: http://money.cnn.com/interactive/pf/taxes/top-income-tax-rate/?iid=EL
Only 6 countries in the OECD have a top rate lower than NZ. Australia and Canada are 48%. The UK was 50% in 2012 but is now 45%. USA is 44%. Ireland is 48%. So NZ clearly has the lowest tax rate in the Anglo countries at just 33%. If we look at continental European countries, we see that Denmark taxes at 60%, Netherlands at 52%, Sweden at 57%, Germany at 48%, France at 51% etc etc..
It is quite weird that the sub-35% top tax rates have fallen out of favour in much of the weird yet NZ maintains a 33% tax rate. Labour only proposed a 36% tax rate last election, and even the Greens only went for 40%. Helen Clark would only go up to 39%. Why is something in the 40s so toxic? It is interesting because in general the ‘centre’ of New Zealand politics is more towards the left than in other Anglo countries. (NZ right wingers are less right wing than other Anglo countries and left-wingers are more left leaning. But on tax? Not so much..)
UK Labour support a 50% top rate. US Democratic Party support a 40% federal rate(with the US Progressives supporting a 45% rate), in addition to state-level income taxes which add up to 5-10% on top of that. Why are NZ left leaning parties proposing to maintain such low levels of high-income taxation? Personally I’d propose a 45% or 50% rate on incomes above $180k. Which is not really that radical compared to other countries.
Capital gains and wealth taxes are where NZ totally misses out at the moment. A higher top tier tax rate could be introduced for the top 1% – just remember that many in the top of the top 1% have minimal declared income however and will be totally untouched by that.
Yup. I would just tax all capital gains as normal income from wages on the progressive scale, with an exemption for the family home. Why should someone with income from shares or the sale of a second home pay no tax (or a reduced rate), while the minimum wage earner pays a higher rate?
Can you please explain why you would exempt the family home?
Would you say that someone who invests their money into a business that creates work for other New Zealander’s and rents their place of abode, should pay more in taxes than someone who pours their savings into a mansion in Herne Bay? and doesn’t otherwise save anything
That is an a perfectly debatable point but it isn’t the one that supporters of the Labour and Green Parties make.
It seems to be an article of faith that “We will exempt the family home”.
I could see why you would do it from a political viewpoint, as in the old “don’t do it in the street and scare the horses” but it makes no economic sense to exclude anything.
The $50k/year exemption of course has a problem that if I have an increase in wealth of $50k/yr and realise it I won’t pay any tax.
If I spend 40 years developing a farm and then sell it to retire at an increase in nominal value of $1 million I would be lumbered with a $300k (say) tax bill even though the actual capital gain will be less than half the amount of the person who realises it every year.
Excluding the family home will means a lot of wealthy 16 year olds owning a “family home” in Remuera.
Better excluding the first 400k, say, (it could be set at the median value of an NZ house) of assets from a CGT, or wealth tax makes it more progressive, but also takes away the political disadvantage of taxing peoples homes.
It is more a political decision, because of the fun that NACT would have with “taxing the family home”, even though we already pay a wealth tax on homes. Rates.
I think that could definitely be a fair thing to do.
So capital gains would be taxed as normal income, with an exclusion for the family home up to a cap for an average house sale gain; and people would only be charged tax on the *real* capital gain, not nominal.
What would you do about interest payments?
If you get interest on money you have loaned out you really shouldn’t pay tax on the interest rate which only covers inflation should you?
If I loan money, say to the bank as a TD, and I get 4% when the inflation is 2% I really shouldn’t have to pay tax on the first 2%.
After all that would be paying tax on inflation. The problem is trying to decide on what is interest covering inflation and what is interest that is real income. It gets to be almost impossible when there are multiple amounts of money at multiple interest rates, particularly when money may be in a current account that just pays a nominal 1% and where the amount concerned changes from day to day.
Tain’t easy baby.
It seems that what the left hand taketh away, the right hand giveth back.
The government’s change to the way MP’s salary increases are calculated it seems will return almost the same amount ($800 less over a $31,000 actual increase in the term of this government.)
“Australian comedian Heath Franklin, who goes by the stage name Chopper, will front a new comedy series for TV3, which is set to receive $90,000 of taxpayer money from New Zealand on Air.
The NZoA spokesperson went on to say the key funding criteria is that the production company is based in New Zealand, not the onscreen talent.
The series will be produced by Hikoi New Zealand, a Rotorua-based production company, Managing director Piripi Curtis said they chose Chopper to front the show due to an exisiting relationship with him. He said they never considered using a Kiwi comedian to host the series.
He confirmed Chopper still lives in Australia and would be flown to New Zealand to work on the series…”
Wrong – this should get NO money – wtf firstly this guy is not funny as his stint on the very unfunny 7 days has shown, secondly there is NO good reason a Aotearoan should not get the gig – that would help the local comedians more than this waste of space and they need more help as 7 days has shown IMO
hi marty, u do have a bee in yr bonnet over this.
who are the funny comedians that should get funding for this tv show (that is only being made to sell ads).
i find 7 days humerous and only a year ago was appointment viewing, however have seen one episode this season.
i found chopper to be quite quick witted although sometimes a tad vulgar (australian).
will you be wanting to check the citizenship of all the crew too?
If NZ idol and reality shows can get funding I don’t see an issue with this. Heaths actually funny, unlike most of the 7 days dross dished up, and the show will highlight NZ talent.
Outrageous fortune had an Oz in the lead alongside Malcolm so more herald diversions rather than put some focus on nationals pork barreling in northland and Shonkeys squeaky bum time which has far more national significance than more road crashes.
It’s in the entertainment section so hardly a diversion tc – I think WE have the talent, the people, the ideas so for me NO to using aussies or brits and whatevers – buy local, eat local, employ local, love local
And this is why Telecom should never have been privatised:
Funding to expand the ultrafast broadband (UFB) programme to more of New Zealand has been confirmed – the latest in a string of announcements made in the Northland by-election campaign.
Communications Minister Amy Adams said on Thursday that the Government would push ahead with commitments National made during last year’s general election campaign that boosted the target for UFB from 75 per cent to 80 per cent of the population.
The announcement will raise the cost of the UFB rollout by up to $210 million, with the total cost at more than $2 billion.
We’ve already paid billions of dollars and we’re now having to pay billions more to get the service that we’ve already paid for. The only people that privatisation has benefited are the new owners and everyone else is worse off.
Yes and exactly how does that benefit northland, UFB needs dense population to make it a reasonable cost per dwelling passed, more BS unless Amy nominates which town gets it.
210mill easily swallowed up lighting up the rest of central north island and sth island towns where diversity exists like matamata, morinsville, raglan, etc….con job central.
” This afternoon (11/03 ) Insiders New Zealand published a political poll with just over 500 eligible voters asking New Plymouth voters, if the election were held today who would you choose for MP of New Plymouth?”
56.17% of the voter’s polled said they would vote the Labour Leader Andrew Little, compared to current National MP Jonathan Young’s 26.09%.
7.56% said they were not sure who they’d vote for.
Apparently if it couldn’t get any worse for the former safe blue seat, it has. 78.92% of those that wish to vote Andrew Little will also vote for the Labour Party and just 11.07% will not. 13.21% were not sure.
The poll for Insiders was conducted by Michael Riley and surveyed the opinions of 500 people.
Yes I know there is a long way to go before we are able to test the polls validity, but ….
Good news! I imagine the locals are cottoning on to the fact that having the Prime Minister as your local MP can have real benefits. 2017 can’t come soon enough!
Absolutely.
During the 2014 election campaign the Taranaki Daily News published a poll carried out by the local polytech’s (WITT) journalistic students. Their poll had Andrew Little at 13% support. When I questioned the tutors methodology she said that the students in pairs had a copy of the local telephone book and randomly opened a page and drew a horizontal line across the mid section. One of them rang those people whose numbers were directly above the line ( say 20) while the other rang 20 people below the line. I asked how that would achieve a true demographic picture which should include things like the age of the sample, where people lived, their socio economic status, maybe their race etc. Her response was that this was the method she was taught and for all intents and purposes was the method used in similar teachings.
No wonder we have a MSM unfit for purpose.
Plenty of Maori have been very strong in class struggle and I don’t think it was because they wanted to be like Joe. When the whole basis of Kiwi capitalism was the confiscation and purchase of land from Maori, I don’t see how it is possible to stand aside from class struggle anyway. The Maori Party disagrees with me, but I can handle that.
A great many more Māori disagree with you. The Māori struggle cannot be seen as simply an appendage to other peoples desires for equality. That Māori have supported other peoples struggles is because of the manaaki we share for others but in no way does that support then translate into the subjugation of our Treaty based arguments to fit other peoples agendas. We call that assimilation. Class is a concept off the same boat as the coloniser.
Or to put it another way, your class struggle is atop lands that were stolen.
When the Foreshore and Seabed protest occurred in Wellington, upwards of 80,000 Māori protested, and the only divisions recognised was in terms of tribal connections.
Kia ora Adele
I agree that the Treaty based arguments must not be subjugated. The Foreshore and Seabed protests resulted in the Maori Party, which has since subjugated heaps to FJK’s agenda. Maybe if “divisions” besides tribal connections had been recognised, FJK wouldn’t be so strong today.
I suspect our views of what class struggle entails are not the same.
The Foreshore and Seabed protests resulted in the Maori Party, which has since subjugated heaps to FJK’s agenda. Maybe if “divisions” besides tribal connections had been recognised, FJK wouldn’t be so strong today.
It was a Labour Government that established the rationale for the creation of the Māori Party through its arrogant and dismissive treatment of its treaty obligations towards Māori. Maybe, if Labour hadn’t pissed all over Māori aspirations they would still be in Government. The Māori Party was born from betrayal.
Under National, the Māori Party get to sit at the table. Under Labour, they’re the last cab on the rank. And how convenient that the anti Māori Party stalwarts, never fully contextualise the voting record of the Māori Party. That it votes much more times against the Government agenda than with it. What is Labour’s record in comparison.
National and Labour are cut from the same raggedy cloth. Essentially the same thinking driving both. The only difference is in colour, a blue rag, and a red rag. And golly gosh, Māori get to wear the rags.
We are in the land of plenty but many of my people still cannot afford the cab fare home from the supermarket.
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Sport and Recreation Minister Grant Robertson has welcomed the first release of funds from the $265 million Sport Recovery Package announced as part of Budget 2020. Sport NZ has announced that $4.6 million in funding will go to the Wellington Phoenix, NZ Warriors, Super Rugby teams and the ANZ Premiership ...
An iconic New Zealand tourism attraction and the country’s 31 Regional Tourism Organisations are the first recipients of support from the $400 million Tourism Sector Recovery Plan, to help position the sector for recovery from COVID-19, Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis announced today. The plan includes a Strategic Tourism Assets Protection ...
The Government will legislate to ensure businesses that suffered as a result of the COVID-19 response will get help to resolve disputes over commercial rent issues, Justice Minister Andrew Little announced today. A temporary amendment to the Property Law Act will insert a clause in commercial leases requiring a fair ...
The Minister for Small Business says new data from Xero highlights the urgency of prompt payment practices to small and medium enterprises as we move into economic recovery. Last month Government ministers wrote to significant private enterprises and the banking industry to request they join efforts by government agencies to ...
Young people in Waikato will be the first to have free access to period products in schools in another step to support children and young people in poverty,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. During term 3, the Ministry of Education will begin providing free period products to schools following the ...
The Minister of Police Stuart Nash has issued the following statement in response to charges filed against three Police officers this morning in the New Plymouth District Court. “Any incident involving a loss of life in Police custody is taken very seriously. The charges today reflect the gravity of the ...
$196 million for Crown Research Institutes $150 million for R&D loan scheme $33 million for Māori research and development opportunities $12 million for the Nationally Significant Collections and Databases $10 million to help maintain in-house capability at Callaghan Innovation New Zealand’s entrepreneurs, innovators and crown researchers will benefit from a ...
Further temporary changes to NCEA and University Entrance (UE) will support senior secondary school students whose teaching and learning have been disrupted by COVID-19. “The wellbeing of students and teachers is a priority. As we are all aware, COVID-19 has created massive disruption to the school system, and the Government ...
Minister for Racing Winston Peters today announced that the terms for the directors of the Racing Industry Transition Agency (RITA) have been extended to 30 June 2021. Due to the COVID-19 crisis the transition period has been extended to ensure that the Racing Industry Bill can complete its progress through ...
The deadline for landlords to include detailed information in their tenancy agreements about how their property meets the Healthy Homes Standards, so tenants can see the home they are renting is compliant, has been extended from 1 July 2020 to 1 December 2020. The Healthy Homes Standards became law on 1 July 2019. The Standards are ...
Justice Minister Andrew Little today announced details of further appointments to the Criminal Cases Review Commission. “I am pleased to announce Paula Rose QSO OStJ as Deputy Chief Commissioner for a term of five years commencing on 15 June 2020,” said Andrew Little. “I am also pleased to announce the ...
The Targeted Training and Apprenticeships Fund (TTAF) will pay costs of learners of all ages to undertake vocational education and training The fund will target support for areas of study and training that will give learners better employment prospects as New Zealand recovers from COVID-19 Apprentices working in all industries ...
The Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) will finally start to cut New Zealand’s greenhouse gas pollution as it was originally intended to, because of changes announced today by the Minister for Climate Change, James Shaw. The changes include a limit on the total emissions allowed within the ETS, rules to ensure ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio says the Queen’s Birthday 2020 Honours List provides an abundance of examples that Pacific people’s leadership capability is unquestionable in Aotearoa. “The work and the individuals we acknowledge this year highlights the kind of visionary examples and dedicated community leadership that we need ...
The Government is backing a new $27 million project aimed at boosting sustainable horticulture production and New Zealand’s COVID-19 recovery efforts, says Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor. “Our horticulture sector has long been one of New Zealand’s export star performers, contributing around $6 billion a year to our economy. During and ...
Applications have opened for 2021 Ngā Karahipi Uru Rākau – Forestry Scholarships, which will support more Māori and women to pursue careers in forestry science, says Forestry Minister Shane Jones. “I’m delighted Te Uru Rākau is offering Ngā Karahipi Uru Rākau – Forestry Scholarships for the third year running. These ...
The Queen’s Birthday 2020 Honours List once again highlights the dedication by many to looking after our native plants and wildlife, including incredible work to restore the populations of critically endangered birds says Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage. Anne Richardson of Hororata has been made an Officer of the New ...
The Government will invest $10 million from the One Billion Trees Fund for large-scale planting to provide jobs in communities and improve the environment, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor and Forestry Minister Shane Jones have announced. New, more flexible funding criteria for applications will help up to 10 catchment groups plant ...
Organisations that support women are invited to apply to a new $1,000,000 fund as part of the Government’s COVID-19 response. “We know women, and organisations that support women, have been affected by COVID-19. This new money will ensure funding for groups that support women and women’s rights,” said Minister for ...
Healthier waterways are front and centre in a new project involving more than 300 King Country sheep, beef and dairy farmers. The Government is investing $844,000 in King Country River Care, a group that helps farmers to lift freshwater quality and farming practice, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor announced today. “Yesterday ...
A major funding package for libraries will allow them to play a far greater role in supporting their communities and people seeking jobs as part of the economic recovery from COVID-19. “Budget 2020 contains over $60 million of funding to protect library services and to protect jobs,” says Internal Affairs ...
A jobseekers programme for the creative sector and four new funds have been set up by the Government to help our arts and music industry recover from the blow of COVID-19. Thousands of jobs will be supported through today’s $175 million package in a crucial economic boost to support the ...
Minister for Veterans Ron Mark has welcomed the First Reading of a Bill that will make legislative changes to further improve the veterans’ support system. The Veterans’ Support Amendment Bill No 2, which will amend the Veterans’ Support Act 2014, passed First Reading today. The bill addresses a number of ...
Views sought on Order in Council to help fast track the reinstatement of the Christ Church Cathedral The Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration, Hon Poto Williams, will be seeking public written comment, following Cabinet approving the drafting of an Order in Council aimed at fast-tracking the reinstatement of the ...
The law setting out New Zealanders’ basic civil and human rights is today one step towards being strengthened following the first reading of a Bill that requires Parliament to take action if a court says a statute undermines those rights. At present, a senior court can issue a ‘declaration of ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters today reiterated the deep concern of the New Zealand Government following confirmation by China’s National People’s Congress of national security legislation relating to Hong Kong. “New Zealand shares the international community’s significant and long-standing stake in Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability,” Mr Peters said. “New Zealand ...
Thousands of artists and creatives at hundreds of cultural and heritage organisations have been given much-needed support to recover from the impact of COVID-19, Prime Minister and Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Jacinda Ardern announced today. “The cultural sector was amongst the worst hit by the global pandemic,” Jacinda ...
Key New Zealand assets will be better protected from being sold to overseas owners in a way contrary to the national interest, with the passage of the Overseas Investment (Urgent Measures) Bill. The Bill, which passed its third reading in Parliament today, also cuts unnecessary red tape to help attract ...
Setting higher health standards at swimming spots Requiring urban waterways to be cleaned up and new protections for urban streams Putting controls on higher-risk farm practices such as winter grazing and feed lots Setting stricter controls on nitrogen pollution and new bottom lines on other measures of waterway health Ensuring ...
The Government is on the verge of reaching its target of state sector boards and committees made up of at least 50 percent women, says Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter and Minister for Ethnic Communities Jenny Salesa. For the first time, the Government stocktake measures the number of Māori, ...
Does a move to Covid-19 Level 1, that Cabinet is considering tomorrow (Monday, June 8), mean back-to-normal for 290,000 rental property owners and managers, Tenancies War spokesman Mike Butler said today. The Covid-19 Response (Urgent Management) Act, ...
ANALYSIS:By Denis Muller of theUniversity of Melbourne When a newspaper with the authority of The New York Times chooses to publish a party-political essay calculated to further inflame the violence wracking cities across America, serious questions arise. On June 3 the Times published in its opinion section an ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level two – read The Spinoff’s giant explainer about what that means here. For official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is made possible thanks to donations from Spinoff Members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Noble, Education Policy Fellow, Mitchell Institute, Victoria University Three quarters of a million Australian children are likely to be experiencing employment stress in the family as a result of COVID-19. This is on top of around 615,000 children whose families were ...
Spice up the classic banana muffin with a subtle touch of star anise.These muffins came about one rainy Saturday when the cupboards were bare and there was nothing much left in the fruit bowl aside from some very sad-looking bananas. Fortunately we know sad bananas result in the best kind ...
For years, Work and Income has been telling New Zealanders they couldn’t get the benefit until their redundancy payments ran out. Turns out, it was wrong.What’s all this then?Work and Income has long told New Zealanders receiving redundancy payments that they weren’t eligible for the benefit until their redundancy money ...
New Zealand writer Anna Rankin reports from Los Angeles. Last Friday afternoon, I went downtown to a protest outside the enormous Los Angeles Police Department headquarters on 1st Street. The LAPD had set up cordons, placing orange cones across streets to block traffic. Arms crossed, they stood with a wide ...
Until the sudden closure of Bauer Media in April, Simon Farrell-Green was the editor of HOME, New Zealand’s oldest architecture magazine. Here he explains what comes next.Being the editor of a major architecture magazine was the best job I ever had. I got it in 2016, after a career spent ...
A global success story or an overly generous, unsustainable scheme that is doing lasting damage to our fish stocks? Ethan Neville looks at the ongoing debate over New Zealand’s fishing quota management system. The management of our fisheries is a touchy topic – and why wouldn’t it be? New Zealanders ...
By RNZ News Thousands of people were protesting across Australia today to oppose the deaths of Indigenous people in police custody. It comes as Black Lives Matter protests are held around the world after the death of George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer in the US ...
Wrapping everyone in a blanket of love, whakapapa and mauri for Matariki is the brave, exuberant and generous fabric art of Maungarongo Te Kawa, writes Amanda Thompson.E te AtuaNau enei rau harakeke he taongaTukuna ki a matouKia tika o matou mahiKo Papatuanuku e takoto neiTuturu WhakamauaKia tina, tinaHui eTaiki e.‘Karakia ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level two – read The Spinoff’s giant explainer about what that means here. For official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is made possible thanks to donations from Spinoff Members. ...
One press statement from the Beehive yesterday sounded more like advertising – or a barker’s pitch – than a Government announcement. Another advised of two diplomatic appointment, one of them – has the woman who landed the post done something wrong? – to protest-troubled and politically volatile Hong Kong. And ...
It’s not often that someone graduates from university one year and becomes a senior economist commentating on national media the next. George Driver investigates the meteoric rise of the high-flying Brad Olsen.Google “senior economist Brad Olsen” and you’ll find him quoted in no fewer than 167 articles in the past ...
As public sentiment turned against Uber Eats, a new local operation emerged promising a more ethical alternative to help New Zealand’s struggling hospitality industry. But now Eat Local NZ has suspended trading after falling out with its Australian partner Mr Yum. So what happened?A dispute between local hospitality platform Eat ...
By Budi Sutrisno in Jakarta As the death of George Floyd, an African-American man who died while being arrested in the United States, sparks a global outcry, Indonesian rights advocates and young people have stepped forward to remind fellow citizens that racism has long been an issue at home as ...
Edward Cullen became a vampire to survive the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918. Now a new Twilight novel looms and Laura Surynt, a New Zealander living in the UK, wants to live forever too. As I lay in bed this morning watching Instagram stories, Tayi Tibble told my reluctant little Capricorn ...
Over the lockdown period, thousands of people joined a Facebook group dedicated to remembering the nightlife of inner-city Auckland. Its creator Simon Grigg explains why it touched a chord in lockdown.Within a few days of The Lost Nightlife of Inner-city Auckland Facebook page accidentally going live on May 12, we ...
Throughout Anglo colonial states there is a constant habit of defining people who aren’t white as a problem, writes Aaron Smale in this personal essay. It was a balmy summer evening in the capital and cops were standing over a young brown man. I was walking down Courtenay Place on ...
"The countdown clock ticks 2, then 1, then the prime minister raises her drink": dystopia, by Ōtautahi writer Laura Borrowdale. You stand in the centre of the room, and around you, the guests seem to swirl and blend into one. There’s a mouth, gaping and red, filled with laughter. A ...
Martin Luther King Jr said in 1963: “America has given the Black people a bad cheque, a cheque which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds’." Six generations of egregious police violence later, the sentiment out of which those bad cheques were born could be shifting. In the wake of egregious police violence, ...
WATCH: In a candid interview on Sky Sport, Dame Susan Devoy talks on her concern for rising sports stars, the state of NZ squash, and the spectre of racism. Dame Susan Devoy is proudly still “a little terrier who fights for the underdog”. “I have been doing it all my life and ...
Of the huge funding boost coming for early childhood education, Playcentre has been left with just the crumbs, writes Kate Barber. Amidst all the celebration of the $430m funding boost for early childhood education (ECE) announced in this year’s budget, little attention was paid to the plight of Playcentre. The ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vikrant Minhas, PhD candidate, University of Adelaide Although bacteria are single-celled and microscopically small, they still need energy to survive, just like us. One of the most efficient ways of acquiring energy for bacteria is through sweet, soluble carbohydrates: sugars. In fact, ...
PACIFIC PANDEMIC DIARY:By David Robie Three cartoonists had especially poignant takes on the tragic and toxic political aftermath of martyr George Floyd’s brutal killing under the knee of a white American policeman in Minneapolis last week. The Boston Globe’s Christopher Weyant featured a split frame contrasting a red-capped “Make ...
Are central bankers jealous that epidemiologists are the rock stars of the current crisis?There is talk that both the British and New Zealand central banks might institute negative interest rates as part of the policy response to the Covid shock. While Sweden’s central bank ended its five year experiment ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Monika Sarder, Senior Strategic Analyst, Monash University Algorithmic decision-making has enormous potential to do good. From identifying priority areas for first response after an earthquake hits, to identifying those at risk of COVID-19 within minutes, their application has proven hugely beneficial. But ...
LISTEN: This week's Extra Time podcast discusses racism in sport and the role of athletes and organisations in making a stand for good. Former Silver Fern and Black Fern Louisa Wall believes today's sports stars must have a social conscience and stand up against discrimination and divisiveness. Sport and politics, once ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Thomas, Associate professor, Flinders University We have seen ten days of protests in the United States over the death of George Floyd. While thousands of people have gathered to express their outrage peacefully, some demonstrations have been marred by vandalism and ...
40 percent of millennials have one, and an increasing number of GenXers and Baby Boomers do too. Two Cents' Worth delves into the world of side hustles. ...
Auckland writer Caroline Barron has a terrific book out today called Ripiro Beach: A Memoir of Life After Near Death. Here, she writes about the memoirs that have been a balm, a lesson, or both. Throughout my life, I’ve sought solace between the covers of books, particularly memoirs. There, I’ve learnt ...
An exclusive interview with Steve McSteverson about his traumatic and tragic ordeal this week.Many New Zealanders are struggling with the news that a children’s book not commissioned or authorised by Jacinda Ardern was advertised in a newsletter for children’s books. This horrific attack on New Zealanders whose ears are permanently ...
Air New Zealand staff are dismayed and angered at the company’s announcement to cut a further $150 million from their wage bill. On Friday, the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Greg Foran, made the announcement to employees, who are still ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dr. Bodean Hedwards, Lecturer, Monash University This week the leaders of India and Australia reaffirmed their mutual interest in closer diplomatic and economic ties. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison during their long-delayed Thursday “virtual summit”: ...
The Herald reported this morning that MediaWorks was on the verge of selling its TV assets to US TV giant Discovery – but an internal email and senior source suggest the story may have been premature.A senior MediaWorks source has emphatically denied a report in the NZ Herald that a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gery Karantzas, Associate professor in Social Psychology / Relationship Science, Deakin University Life in lockdown has been tough on many relationships. But negotiating the transition back to “normal” as restrictions continue to lift could also be a challenge for couples. So what ...
A slight bounce in the economy is brightening the outlook as the country heads into the winter months, Radio NZ reports. Retail spending is up and NZ shares rose on Thursday for a third day running. Key indicators have led some economists to point to a faster recovery than expected. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Geoff Hanmer, Adjunct Professor of Architecture, University of Adelaide HomeBuilder is a good idea gone bad. It is possibly the most complex and least equitable program the government could have devised to deliver construction jobs. It gives $25,000 to people who already ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Keller, Professor of Cognitive Science, Western Sydney University The coronavirus pandemic has silenced the world’s concert halls and opera theatres. Organisations specialising in live performance face an existential crisis under current restrictions on social gatherings, with up to 75% of people ...
Finance Minister Grant Robertson, wearing his Sport and Recreation ministerial hat, can show he can be a big spender and draw voters’ attention to his largess each time he dispenses money from the funds under his control – or the control of an agency within his ministerial bailiwick. Yesterday he ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Pi-Shen Seet, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Edith Cowan University Scott Morrison wants to overhaul the skills workforce to ensure a better post-COVID-19 recovery. But there may not be enough people with the necessary skills to do so. And travel restrictions, which ...
As we transition out of a Covid-focused world and prepare for what comes next, New Zealand’s ICT industry is gearing towards growth.From app development helping track the Covid-19 virus to website engineering keeping businesses in touch and online, ICT knowledge has been crucial to keeping New Zealand working over the ...
Analysis: As New Zealand eases restrictions, it no longer has international precedent to look towards and must decide on its own how to reopen the economy while reducing the risk of a second wave of infections, Marc Daalder reports While most of the country eagerly awaits a likely move to ...
Ten days is too long. That from insurance claimant advocate, Ali Jones. EQC has today made contact with homeowners via email after accidentally releasing confidential details of 8000 insurance claims on May 26. Jones says although she has not received ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo (Penguin Classics, $24)Winner of the 2019 Booker Prize. The other day, ...
Simon Day discovers how the voluntary carbon market allows both individuals and companies to offset their emissions at the same time as investing in native forest regeneration.When Celia Wade-Brown sold her first batch of carbon credits earned from the native forest on her Wairarapa farm, she had two customers: Z ...
Simon Day discovers how the voluntary carbon market allows both individuals and companies to offset their emissions at the same time as investing in native forest regeneration.When Celia Wade-Brown sold her first batch of carbon credits earned from the native forest on her Wairarapa farm, she had two customers: Z ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin. The conversation around the 2020 covid19 pandemic has been widely framed as ‘health versus the economy’. It has been quite political, with people leaning to the left emphasising ‘health’, and people leaning to the right emphasising ‘the economy’. A couple of weeks ago ...
Sam Brooks pays tribute to Alex Rider, and the new TV series that (finally) captures the spirit of the books.“What if James Bond was a teenager?”The concept for Anthony Horowitz’s Alex Rider series is so simple but so brilliant. There’s a reason why the franchise has managed to sustain 12 ...
Analysis - The PM resists pressure to move immediately to level 1, Winston Peters' tactics play into the hands of the Opposition and the government at last works out a commercial rent solution, writes Peter Wilson. ...
Source: Council on Hemispheric Affairs – Analysis-Reportage By COHAFrom Washington DC Federal charges against the four protectors of the Venezuelan Embassy, who defended the building in Washington DC against violent opposition crowds for several weeks between April 10 and May 16 of 2019, were completely dropped in a case that ...
Source: Council on Hemispheric Affairs – Analysis-Reportage By COHA Editorial TeamFrom Washington DC The Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA) joins the Black Alliance for Peace[1] and other pro-democracy organizations throughout the world in calling for the United Nations to address the systemic violations of human rights by the police and ...
Being shot by police had a profound, transformational effect on Rob Mokaraka’s life in more ways than you’d expect. A new documentary, airing on Māori TV at 7.30pm on Sunday, explores the work he’s done to heal his own mind and to ensure nobody has to go through the same ...
Human rights watchdog TAPOL has condemned the demand by Indonesian prosecutors seeking 17 and five years imprisonment for West Papuan activists Buchtar Tabuni and Irwanus Uropmabin. On June 2, the Jayapura District Prosecutor’s Office issued 33 pages containing charges against the defendant Irwanus Uropmabin. In the document, the Public Prosecutor ...
The arrival of Dan Carter is far from the first time the ever-struggling Auckland team has hoped to turn around its fortunes with a star signing, writes Jamie Wall.New Zealand rugby Twitter is a generally desolate place, especially lately given that there’s been nothing to talk about ever since the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Senior Lecturer in New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity US President Donald Trump delivered an address this week in which he threatened military action on the nation. Then he walked to the nearby St John’s Episcopal Church ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vincent Ho, Senior Lecturer and clinical academic gastroenterologist, Western Sydney University Why do we burp? We sometimes also burp before meals, why does this happen? — Ahaana, age 7 That is a really interesting question, Ahaana! There ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Justine Bell-James, Associate Professor, TC Beirne School of Law, The University of Queensland After years of litigation, Australia’s highest court will today make a major decision on the fate of the controversial proposed expansion to the New Acland Coal mine in Queensland. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicholas Williams, Associate Professor in Urban Ecology and Urban Horticulture, University of Melbourne Tomorrow is the first World Green Roof Day. Cities around the world will celebrate the well-documented environmental, economic and social benefits of green roofs. New ground-level green spaces are ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Senior Lecturer, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Robodebt isn’t the only measure the government should consider withdrawing. Late last Friday, after a long press conference from the prime minister which avoided any mention of the topic, the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Holden, Professor of Economics, UNSW Harvard University’s Alberto Alesina died suddenly of a heart attack on May 23. He was 63. His long-time colleague and friend Larry Summers wrote that before him, “there was no academic field of political economy. Today, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julian Meyrick, Professor of Creative Arts, Griffith University What keeps democracies together? As America burns, Brazilians die and Europe braces for another wave of the coronavirus, the question assumes an alarming immediacy. If the answer is complicated in one way, it is ...
Open mike 12/03/2015 
Open mike is your post.
Tom Farr in an excellent article on Medium presents in-depth the central arguments around prostitution decriminalisation, unionisation, and its conceptualisation as work, specifically from a socialist perspective The Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic facing numerous countries across the world is undoubtedly a dire time for anyone who in some way depends on ...31 mins ago
You’ve got to wonder why the New Zealand Police undertook an armed response teams (ARTs) trial in the first place? Of course there was the Christchurch mosque terrorism attack, but that was an isolated incident and therefore cannot be used as an excuse to arm Police. What this trial does ...9 hours ago
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, May 31 through Sat, June 6, 2020 Editor's Choice The world must seize this opportunity to meet the climate challenge As current and former central bankers, we believe the pandemic offers ...15 hours ago
The 60 Years of New Zealand Television celebrations, such as they were, seemed to rely heavily on the classics: here we go again with Lynn of Tawa, A Week of It and the Country Calendar spoofs. Wonderful highlights of our televisual past, to be sure, but after hearing Paul Holmes’ ...1 day ago
The Two Americas Collide: You gotta love the Americans marching for George Floyd and the fragile promises of the US Constitution. But, you also gotta keep your eye on the pale rider in the White House, and understand that behind him Hell follows.THE FRAGILITY of democracy’s promise is becoming clearer ...2 days ago
Oliver Twist, famously asked for ‘more’. He did not challenge the system of workhouses – Dickens did – nor the authority of Beadle Bumble. He was only nine. I am often struck how critics of the current income maintenance system are like Oliver Twist. They ask for more, but they ...2 days ago
New Zealand’s history as a sheep-farming nation means the command “Get in behind!” has long had a particular resonance — but not usually for journalists. However, in late March, as panic over the coronavirus pandemic surged around the world, Dr Gavin Ellis — former editor-in-chief of the NZ Herald — ...2 days ago
When the New Zealand Police started using Armed Response Teams - gangs of heavily-armed police cruising Māori-Pacifica neighbourhoods in juiced-up gun-trucks - they told us it was a "trial". But it turns out that those armed police - who were mainly doing traffic stops and bail checks, rather than the ...2 days ago
Another study comparing effect in children from nonendemic areas (Dagang) and endemic fluorosis area (Jinghai) about 80km apart in the Tianjin area of China. Hardly sampling the same population. Anti-fluoride campaigners still use studies from ... 3 days ago
George Thomson, Nick Wilson, Richard Edwards This blog discusses the passing of the Smoke-free Environments (Prohibiting Smoking in Motor Vehicles Carrying Children) Amendment Act last week. We briefly review some lessons from this legislation’s long journey and explore future smokefree possibilities in Aotearoa / New Zealand. A law ...4 days ago
For a good part of my adult life I have studied civil-military relations. I have studied authoritarian and democratic variants, and I have studied them across countries and regions. I have also worked in and with several US security agencies and have lectured on the theme at a number of ...4 days ago
by The Spark “The system is broken”—the words of a young black man in Minneapolis watching flames destroy a police precinct demonstrators had torched. Broken? Yes, it is! What else could you say about a system whose police for nine minutes casually knelt on a black man’s neck, watching until ...5 days ago
Like the rest of the world, I have been aghast at what I have seen of, and read and heard about, what is happening currently in the United States. It seems incredible that a once great country should be suffering the worst effects and the highest number of deaths worldwide ...6 days ago
Image credit: Writing an Article vs. Writing a Blog Post: What’s the Difference? I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is ... 6 days ago
It’s almost painful to watch. Let’s be honest, maybe a pleasure too, in some quarters, but painful nonetheless. Because the fact is, for a democracy to function properly, any sitting Government does need honest and proper Opposition so that it doesn’t get ahead of itself. That’s what we should ...1 week ago
Well, we are out of lockdown, essentially. I did end up getting the wage subsidy while we were on levels 3 and 4 but I would have been fine if we didn’t. The first day of level 2, the Thursday, the office opened again for the people who weren’t able ...2 weeks ago
Hon Shane Jones, NZ First List MP based in Northland New Zealand First MP Hon Shane Jones has today announced his candidacy for the electorate of Northland. Speaking at a New Zealand First meeting in Kerikeri, Northland, Mr Jones said it was a privilege to be selected by the Party ...6 hours ago
We started the week by announcing free apprenticeships to support Kiwis into work and to help get New Zealand moving again - and we ended the week by extending the wage subsidy to 40,000 more businesses, helping to protect businesses and workers alike. ...2 days ago
The Green Party is urging the New Zealand Police to rule out the use of Armed Response Teams, following their recent trial in communities around Aotearoa. ...3 days ago
This summer presents a great opportunity for New Zealanders to get out into nature with bookings on Great Walks for 2020/21 set to open next week, says Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage. Bookings for the Great Walks will open between 9 and 11 June, excluding Milford and Routeburn tracks which ...2 days ago
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The Spanish-owned contractor behind the stalled Transmission Gully Public Private Partnership is accused of abandoning projects in Australia. ...3 hours ago
ANALYSIS: By Denis Muller of the University of Melbourne When a newspaper with the authority of The New York Times chooses to publish a party-political essay calculated to further inflame the violence wracking cities across America, serious questions arise. On June 3 the Times published in its opinion section an ...8 hours ago
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level two – read The Spinoff’s giant explainer about what that means here. For official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is made possible thanks to donations from Spinoff Members. ...9 hours ago
New Zealand writer Anna Rankin reports from Los Angeles. Last Friday afternoon, I went downtown to a protest outside the enormous Los Angeles Police Department headquarters on 1st Street. The LAPD had set up cordons, placing orange cones across streets to block traffic. Arms crossed, they stood with a wide ...16 hours ago
Tania Tapsell is replacing MP Anne Tolley as National's candidate for the East Coast. ...1 day ago
One press statement from the Beehive yesterday sounded more like advertising – or a barker’s pitch – than a Government announcement. Another advised of two diplomatic appointment, one of them – has the woman who landed the post done something wrong? – to protest-troubled and politically volatile Hong Kong. And ...1 day ago
Throughout Anglo colonial states there is a constant habit of defining people who aren’t white as a problem, writes Aaron Smale in this personal essay. It was a balmy summer evening in the capital and cops were standing over a young brown man. I was walking down Courtenay Place on ...2 days ago
"The countdown clock ticks 2, then 1, then the prime minister raises her drink": dystopia, by Ōtautahi writer Laura Borrowdale. You stand in the centre of the room, and around you, the guests seem to swirl and blend into one. There’s a mouth, gaping and red, filled with laughter. A ...2 days ago
Martin Luther King Jr said in 1963: “America has given the Black people a bad cheque, a cheque which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds’." Six generations of egregious police violence later, the sentiment out of which those bad cheques were born could be shifting. In the wake of egregious police violence, ...2 days ago
WATCH: In a candid interview on Sky Sport, Dame Susan Devoy talks on her concern for rising sports stars, the state of NZ squash, and the spectre of racism. Dame Susan Devoy is proudly still “a little terrier who fights for the underdog”. “I have been doing it all my life and ...2 days ago
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The kauri tree will stay, proclaims the Herald.
A small victory.
But will the Herald actually look at the law changes this government made that took away protections from trees in our city?
Doubt it.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11415759
We need a binding promise from the landowners. The letter looks like a promise but when you reread it the letter looks more like an offer …
Yep, sounds like they are angling to sell the land to the council or similar organisation.
I wouldn’t come down from the tree until the owners have written to council and asked to quash the RC and the council has done that.
“…Normally a land use consent is granted for unlimited duration, as long as the development detailed in the consent has been implemented to a significant level within five years (or a different period as written in the consent). If not, your consent will lapse.
Any land use consent that is granted is attached to the property (as opposed to a specific person)”
auckland council website
There is a provision in the RMA under which a resource consent holder can request/require the Council to revoke the consent. Have used it meself
guy up tree seems to know it too…
thanks for the clarification.
I notice the 1080 story has successfully knocked Winston Peter’s campaign in Northland off the top of the headlines.
Oh that ..and Lydia Ko….a biker clocking 218 km/hr….a P smuggler cleared to teach ( another Herald attack on the teaching profession)…..jilted Eagles fans….
The capitalist media in this country is quite a propaganda machine for the banking elite.
As evidence, the Northern Advocate ( part of the APN corporate stable..same group as the Herald) dragged up someone from the Hawkes Bay to write an article slagging off Winston Peters….
And this was their leading story!
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/northern-advocate/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503450&objectid=11415367
Love the online below the story!
The facile fearmongering of The Northern Advocate’s ‘visitor from Hawke’s Bay’ re Winston Peters will piss-off more Northland voters than it will impress. Bad call whoever’s behind it !
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/northern-advocate/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503450&objectid=11415367
My, the wheels do seem to be falling off……
Of the 42 comments only 2 were supportive of the writer.
Those 2 probably written by Farrar and Slater.
Paul, you know APN is now NZME. (New Zealand Media and Entertainment)
Their agenda is clear:
“Right now we’re seen as a publishing business, a radio business and an e-commerce business,” she said. “But clients don’t come to us and say ‘I want to buy publishing’. They say: ‘I have a brand, this is the audience I’m after. How can you connect my brand with that audience?'”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11330863
I still have difficulty understanding why people read the Herald.
I’m off to listen to the Scoop report on the radio 🙂
(And now we have Eveningreport.nz !)
No need for rags like the Herald.
“No need for rags like the Herald.”
How else would we keep our fish ‘n’ chips warm???
Or provide a lining for the kitty tray…………..
“Or provide a lining for the kitty tray…”
Hell no, would not think of using it for that. The poor thing might catch something
Best use ever for the Granny. Is to be crapped on by a small furry creature of the Genus Feline. (Or walking flea hotel which ever takes your fancy). Yep a very good use of the Granny, more likely to catch something if used for food warming. to say nothing of the taste of burnt paper.
FIFY. 😈
The establishment do not like him because he takes them on at every turn. Simple really.
Paul your quite correct with your claim.
The editor of the local NZH rag veto’s (edits/bins) politically natured stories that he doesn’t like. Twice 2 separate reporters covering local events have said ‘if it gets past the editor’. I think he got kicked to touch as the Waikato Times editor. Wasn’t surprised to hear he is mates with the local Tory old boys network. In saying this 2 of their columnist’s are left leaning, and do publish criticism of the Tories, all be it a Gower type attack follows by one of his pets.
From the article: “Winston will be 70 this month, a pensioner for five years and still being paid a party leader’s salary by the taxpayer.”
What drivel, ageism and meanness.
While I don’t agree 100% with Winston Peters, I think he should be paid a royalty/stipend or call it a “democracy pension” for ALL the services he has done fir New Zealanders in Parliament, a watchful eye and calling people out when he sees or has heard untoward, undemocratic or plain corrupt practices.
He has done more for this country single handedly than many of us collectively could do. Sure he is a rogue, but he has more mana than most other politicians.
70 is nothing! Look at this 95-yr old smashing the WR 200m sprint. I just love the headline that he’s a retired dentist. LOL
@Paul P addicted smuggler teacher is allowed to stay on teaching, with the NZ teachers council disciplinary tribunal saying she is ‘talented’ enough to stay on with just a censure, and you say the herald is attacking the teaching profession….
Really! are you for real or a teacher
Listening to the pair of useful idiots Espiner and Furgeson going big on NatRad “with all the developments on today’s big story” (1080 scare) I wondered where it all went wrong in this country. Our journalists are all now somehow able to combine cynicism and naïvety and be bullies who cringe wide eyed in the face of their masters. There are no “developments” in the story. It isn’t of much interest to anyone offshore, who correctly see it for what it is – a cynically trumped up minor threat – and are doing what they normally do.
Meanwhile, instead of quizzing Key about why he went public against advice, or why he is calling it terrorism and the police are not, or what political agenda Key might be pursuing, our media swallow the hook, the line, sinker, and the wharf.
What a bunch of idiots. Espiner and Ferguson would spend their last show before nuclear armageddon repeating John Key’s assurances that he’ll remain PM from his spacestation, foreign press reaction, and the best way to make stone tipped weapons to fight off the mutants in the post apocalyptic world the survivors will emerge into than dare ask why we were being attacked of if the Key might be to blame.
Nick Smith backed up dear leader on tv3 this morning ,calling the 1080 issue eco terrorism good to keep the fear alive I guess.
Has any one thought it could be industrial espionage, the 1080 letters that is.
of course not… Industry would never act otherwise in the best interests…
an example below of the kinds of people that Hooton helps on a daily basis…
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=11415707
See they don’t care who they hurt in the chase for the almighty fuckin dollar.
There should be a court these pricks can be taken, and charged with crimes against children!
they have a court, it is the one propose din the TPP, it will be made up of corporate lawyers… is that what you meant? 😉
No not really of was thinking of one for the Children. Not one for the corporate leeches. And the Tpp courts will be heaven for these leeches.
National does not seem to think crimes against children are all that bad really.
well said murray .. an exacting truth.
Oops sabotage was the word I wanted to use not espionage. I’d imagine there are lots of overseas interests that would be happy to see the nz dairy industry fail.
Wondering how Key got away with exchange between Anette King, Carter and himself in NZQT yesterday?
Implying that Carter should not have let the question through??
Implying he cannot be expected to be speaking as the PM at the PM’s post cabinet speach? Can somebody explain to him he is ALWAYS the Prime Minister, unless he is handing over to deputy PM.
Surely, it is time for Key to play a round of golf in Hawaii with Obama? Any good courses in Northland? He can’t hammer a nail but at least he can putt. Oh wait, Key is too busy bribing campaigning.
Yep 😈
Yep. Key’s post Cabinet Press Conference it is not he as PM, when he is challenged by his words spoken at that session. Therefore no need to answer Annette’s questions. And when that does not stop her, then Carter says her supplementary question is too long! They must be rattled?
If he speaks about GCSB or Iraq he is representing the USA, so in fairness he is not being our PM then…
Even I’m getting confused is he the PM, or the leader of the Nat party, Or a Husband, or someone who puts the cat out at night? We know he’s not a man because Bronagh reportedly gets a Man in.
I watched that. Carter and FJK both disgusted me.
Do all MP’s get chauffeurs and body guards?
Possibly a very important question, because presumably in each and all his capacities he is still maintaining full protections from those official body guards. Perhaps he needs to tell the nation in what capacity he is acting (someone parading around behind him carrying a banner declaring which.) Could save the taxpayer a lot in these straitened times
I’m sure if he had to do without the Praetorian Guard, he’d be prumstah 24 hours a day.
A small group of kiwis saved a Kauri from bureaucracy because they were heard by the developers who will be their neighbours. The developers will have to live amongst the people they have upset. Accordingly they have backed down (so they say) and the Kauri will stay.
When people making decisions have to face each other, see the consequences of their decision-making etc theoutcome is often different to those who make decisions on high with the privilege of never actually becoming part of the process, of the people, of the environment.
The Kauri is not “just a tree”.
Homeopathy; scam or just preying on the hopes and fears of the gullible to make money? You decide …
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/mar/11/homeopathy-not-effective-for-treating-any-condition-australian-report-finds
Or both. I hope finally this can put the myth of Homeopathy to rest.
I’m sorry to say: prepare to be disappointed. Contradictory facts harden false beliefs.
Exhibit a: The National Party 😉
I’ve always thought it was as effective as placebo for some people.
Homeopathy has worked amazingly well on my dogs and cats as a placebo. How did they know?
What homeopathy have you used on your pets?
Exhibit b.
More to the point how did you know ?
“More to the point how did you know ?”
It actually doesn’t matter, but consider this. If you eat chilli and your mouth gets hot, how do you know the chilli caused that? And does it matter?
Yeah, it does. Who made the diagnosis, for example?
If you cut your finger at home, do you need a professional diagnosis before you put on a bandaid?
I’m unlikely to give my dog a sugar pill to treat a wound.
Capsaicin…… there’s some violent examples about for sale these days…dangerous going in and coming out !
Tolerance can be acquired lol
Why do you think they give you a yoghurt drink in Indian restaurants? There’s something in milk that can dissipate the heat of chillies in the mouth. For the other end? Soft toilet paper.
Hey Doc! Check this awesome scienciness:
Sad and true.
😆
Homeopathy made my health worse once – consistently so throughout a course of treatment. During a month or so where I ceased homeopathic treatment, my health condition returned to its (unsatisfactory) norm. When I restarted the homeopathic treatment once more I got noticeably worse again. Quit the whole thing after 3 or 4 more weeks.
But it was a great A-B-A type trial which showed me that homeopathic treatment can have strong biological effects.
Before I call complete bullshit……could you share what the treatment was and for what condition ?
It was a bit of nasty infected eczema resistant to conventional treatment, including fluclox.
You can hardly call bullshit on a patient’s reported experience though. They actually lived through it while you haven’t.
Actually I can quite happily call bullshit on you comment that
“But it was a great A-B-A type trial which showed me that homeopathic treatment can have strong biological effects.”
feel free to cut out sources of knowledge and information, not my problem.
heh.
Cutting out the source of your problem is a good idea.
What control did you use to rule out the nocebo effect?
Exactly! Both the placebo effect and nocebo effect are very powerful phenomena. Traditional medicines understand it pretty well.
Well, I have no problem with practitioners of ‘traditional medicine’ using the placebo effect to treat people, but they should be honest and upfront about it, rather than claiming that their medicine works because of ‘unknown forms of energy’ or other such nonsense.
Hmmm? How do you think the placebo effect actually works if not through energy, psychic or otherwise?
The placebo effect has be something to do with the mind-body interaction. As the brain is part of the body, it is perfectible reasonable to suggest that the mind is able to influence the physiology of the body. But of course, I don’t know exactly how the placebo effect works, no one does. Regardless, it is possible to study the placebo effect using science, and such efforts are ongoing. This will allow us to eventually understand how it works.
Energy has a very specific scientific meaning. If you are using the term ‘psychic energy’ to explain the placebo effect, then I’m afraid you are venturing into pseudoscientific babble and I’m not interested into engaging with you.
Energy is directly proportional to mass and both mass and energy are measurable, can’t be accounted for, can be studied and have specific meaning.
Like wtl says “energy” in the way you are suggesting is just what I like to define as “woo” or “magic!”.
Basically fucking nonsense
Just to recap: homeopathy actually works because the placebo effect uses midochlorians.
Or maybe placebos just work on patient-reported symptoms like pain or nausea, but not really on tumour size or the actual condition being treated.
Then we’re both quite happy. Cheers.
@mcflock….no according to the america’s college of homeopaths, it’s great for cancer !
http://www.thehomeopathiccollege.org/cancer-treatment/homeopathy-effective-cancer-treatment/
The words “Batshit” and “crazy” come to mind.
”Like wtl says “energy” in the way you are suggesting is just what I like to define as “woo” or “magic!”.
Basically fucking nonsense”
@Contrarian, what you display is the hubris common in science of dismissing as worthless or nonsense what can’t be explained yet.
Like when scientists first sequenced the genome and wrote off 98% as ”junk DNA” and then later were like Oh, actually it is pretty crucial to understanding how it all works.
Pretty poor example, ER. Even if your summary of ‘junk DNA’ was correct, you need to factor in that there is only 30 years between its discovery (and Crick saying “little more than junk” about 97% of it) and you saying “pretty crucial”.
Homeopathy has been around for a lot longer and yet no evidence previously existed for it being anything other than junk. And the current analysis of everything that is known about it still comes up with, er, junk. And tomorrow, guess what? Yep, still junk.
Scientific and technological progress is starting to bump its head against some very serious limitations now. This civilisation is in the last one or two rounds of true scientific and technological advancement before virtually all that is left of truly creative, public science is all corporatised, commercialised, compartmentalised and/or put to use for the military intelligence industrial government complex.
And for those who fully believe in fossil fuel depletion and climate change, things are going to start sliding backwards very rapidly soon after.
That’s when alternative healthcare methods are going to be very, very useful to have around.
If it doesn’t work for you, then don’t fucking use it. Just don’t presume you can dictate to others what works or does not work for them. BTW there’s a reason a lot of people give up on kinds of medical treatments which are backed by all the evidence – it doesn’t work for them.
It’s not about me, you doofus. I don’t use the products of quacks. It’s about the tens of thousands of people who, out of ignorance or desperation, pay for this sad and useless perfumed piss. Often instead of real medicine that might actually help them. Just as I think pay day loan companies and cigarette manufacturers should be run out of town, I think alternative medical scam artists need to be exposed for what they really are; crooks preying on the gullible.
You silly billy, traditional healing modalities were around while conventional medicine was killing far more people than it was helping, and traditional healing modalities will still be around when most people can no longer access modern medical care.
Get used to it.
LOL have you ever noticed that over the last 100 years as the scientific medical types have poured both scorn and ridicule, and court cases, against traditional healing methods, that traditional healing methods have been becoming more and more used, and more and more accepted, and not less?
“Often instead of real medicine that might actually help them”
Citation for that please. I rarely meet people who have rejected conventional medicine out of hand. Most people use both.
CR: Con-artists and crackpots selling snake-oil have always been around, but now we have the evidence base to demonstrate that their treatments don’t work any better than magic or water. You deal with it.
LOL have you ever noticed that over the last 100 years as the scientific medical types have poured both scorn and ridicule, and court cases, against cigarettes, that cigarettes have been becoming more and more used, and more and more accepted, and not less?
Fixed it for you.
But, seriously, so fucken what? P’s popular too. So’s drinking too much alcohol. So’s Justin fucken Beiber. None of the above are the least bit desirable and just cause they haven’t gone away doesn’t make them magically good for you.
What are you on about? Smoking rates have fallen in most countries as knowledge of the harm has increased.
Yeah, ‘cos getting pissed is just like making informed choices about one’s health care.
You have the evidence base eh? Big fucking deal.
The alternative practitioners I know get zero subsidies from the Ministry of Health and DHBs.
Yet patients keep flocking to them for their care, referring in their friends, family members and colleagues, taking their children in to be looked after, and these are patients all willing to pay full coin out of their own pockets, instead of (or often in addition to) using conventional medical care which is often less expensive (or free) due to tax payer subsidies.
ER, smoking continues to rise in popularity globally. The bastards are focussing on the third world now that we in the first world have accepted the facts about tobacco. The West and its damn fixation on scientific analysis, eh! Always putting consumers first, lest they sue, bah humbug.
weka, making informed choices is exactly what I’m asking for. At the moment, it’s all about uninformed choices, which is why this morning’s news is so important.
Anyhoo, one thing I’m sure we all agree is healthy is sleep, so I’m off. Ciao for now.
Oh, I never said that the con-artists and crackpots were bad at selling their bullshit. Just that it doesn’t seem to make the patients any better than a glass of water and a positive attitude can.
The people who choose to reduce or minimise the use of pharmaceutical products and surgical procedures are often amongst the most informed patients there are around.
Keep telling yourself that.
“weka, making informed choices is exactly what I’m asking for. At the moment, it’s all about uninformed choices, which is why this morning’s news is so important.”
Actually you’re not. You are suggesting that people be denied informed choice. By all means tell people what the view is from the fundamentalist science box, but don’t pretend that you are in a position to judge alternative therapies when you patently don’t know much about them. That degree of patronising arrogance is one of the core reasons why informed consent became such an issue in the patients rights movements. It’s not about bowing to other people’s belief systems, it’s about sharing information and using empowerment models so that people can make their own choices to the degree that they want to. The holier than thou, you’re all stupid attitude taken by some in this conversation is the exact antithesis of informed consent.
Wishing you a good sleep nontheless 🙂
“Keep telling yourself that.”
McFlock, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you demonstrate an educated understanding of alternative therapies and the people who use them. Not that I read every comment you make, but I think it’s a fair representation of you to say that you’re working off second and third hand ideas.
I am however willing to be proven wrong if you would like to share your experience and knowledge of people who use alternative therapies.
Pretty much all the people I know who have used them have been desperate or dropped acid in their past. And yeah, that’s more than a couple of people I know.
Results have been about as mixed as one might expect.
Closest I’ve come is acupunture from a physio and a couple of herbal tea from a flatmate when I had a cold. But then neither claimed to cure cancer.
from what I can make out they’re all gullible, easily misled, not very smart.
edit – oh McFlock out did me, I should have included, drug addled and fucked in the head.
BTW most physios who use acupuncture needles don’t actually do acupuncture.
Some were desperate.
All had their good points.
Contaminated water?
Maybe they were just thirsty.
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/mar/11/homeopathy-not-effective-for-treating-any-condition-australian-report-finds
Vested interests use their considerable institutional power to protect their interests, what a surprise. Was there anything in that article that takes an even handed look at the metastudy? Of course not (they didn’t even link to the study ffs).
“You decide …”
Pretty hard to make decisions when such blatantaly biased information is all that is on offer.
I’ve always found this article to be a reasoned view on homeopathy.
http://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2012/apr/03/homeopathy-why-i-changed-my-mind
An concise summary, thanks.
From the Guardian article: ““There will be a tail of people who won’t respond to this report, and who will say it’s all a conspiracy of the establishment,” Glasziou said.”
Guess he got that right. Given that this report basically endorses what the Cochrane Collaboration already found (twice!), and that the Cochrane Collaboration is the exact opposite of “vested interests using their institutional power to protect their interests,” I’d say it’s pretty conclusive.
Pull up 3 pieces of research on homeopathy that the Cochrane group reviewed, and I’ll critique them for you and explain why the meta analysis was flawed.
Seriously? Anonymous internet commenter is going to explain to me how those mooks at the Cochrane Collaboration don’t know how to do systematic reviews properly?
I guess the Cochrane guys are OK right until we get to their reviews which say that the flu jab has been overhyped and seriously lacks the evidence to support its many years of use and tax payers expense.
You mean like how homeopathy seriously lacks the evidence to support it?
Were you jilted by a pretty homeopath in your younger days?
Are you really this dissociated? Have you been into the ketamine tonight?
CR/CV/Tat: The flu shot seriously lacks the evidence to support its many years of use.
CT: You mean like homeopathy lacks evidence to support?
CR/CV/Tat: *Glib and irrelevant comment*
Do you have no internal dialogue that at least keeps you consistent?
Oh lighten up a bit for goodness sake contrarian. You’re getting personal in a way that CV, while being somewhat cheeky, did not.
no
weka, “Pull up 3 pieces of research on homeopathy that the Cochrane group reviewed, and I’ll critique them for you and explain why the meta analysis was flawed.”
Psycho Milt, “Seriously? Anonymous internet commenter is going to explain to me how those mooks at the Cochrane Collaboration don’t know how to do systematic reviews properly?”
That’s a pretty interesting reaction for number of reasons. I’m guessing it’s a defensive reaction because you’ve never looked properly at the Chochrane review on homeopathy and have no idea what the problems might be (you probably just picked up some ideas about the review off the internet). But more interesting is that you appear to believe in the absolute powers of the Cochrane group and that they are infallible and therefore beyond critique. Not even medical science believes that medical science is infallible. Only the fundies think that, and they are demonstrably wrong, including by the structures they put their faith in.
There are very good reasons why medical research largely fails to study homeopathy well. Even if you want to consider one of the reasons to be that homeopathy has no objective efficacy, the genuine science mind would understand that that needs to be based on evidence not belief in a higher power. Thinking that any research or any meta analysis is all powerful is not really that different to believing in the omnipotence of God. Which is all well and good, it’s just not very rational.
Back on point, I’m sure the Cochrane group knows how to do reviews properly. The problem is they’re reviewing research that often doesn’t understand what homeopathy is and fundamentally fails to study it in a scientific manner.
I think the homeopathists’ problem is that a lot of researchers do understand how to research it in a scientific manner, which means they exclude anecdotes involving post-hoc fallacies, don’t for a moment consider whether there might be some woo they aren’t taking into account, and lack all interest in how long this treatment’s been around or how many people think it works.
Cochrane put plenty of effort into weeding out studies that didn’t meet a scientific standard or didn’t take enough steps to eliminate potential bias. They certainly aren’t infallible, but they’re as good as we’ve got.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-11/homeopathy-no-more-effective-than-placebos-major-study-says/6302722
A link in this story shows the leaked paper in 2012 that revealed the council was considering taking the position homeopathy was unethical before looking at all the evidence.
So this politically motivated hit job need not be taken seriously.
Exhibit c.
uhh, the evidence that homeopathy is complete bunk has been around since before 2012 and debate about the ethics of it because of its ineffectiveness has been around since before 2012 also so, no, it isn’t a “politically motivated hit job”.
What? That makes no sense.
You were the one hailing this as the great debunking, after which you ”hope finally this can put the myth of Homeopathy to rest”.
Yes because it is ANOTHER widely circulated study which shows it is complete bullshit. There have been MANY of such studies so I am hoping that FINALLY this will hammer it home.
Your “politically motivated hit job” is complete crap because homeopathy has been known to be false for decades.
That’s just a stupid statement right there. You’re not going to invalidate peoples usage of this treatment modality – if it works for them. A big part of the homeopathic effect may be related to the placebo effect – but that is exactly the same for major aspects of medical care.
“A big part of the homeopathic effect may be related to the placebo effect – but that is exactly the same for major aspects of medical care.”
Ummmm no….. for medicines to be registered they must be proven to be safe and efficacious above and beyond the placebo effect. although perhaps you were referring to some other aspect of medical care ……. do tell ?
I wasn’t talking about registered medicines! I was talking about medical care. Seeing someone in a white coat in a nice professional office setting with lots of diplomas framed up on the wall.
+1
Northshoredoc, do you believe that placebo has any positive action in your practice?
Do you believe that the quality of the interaction between you and patients has any impact on outcomes?
“Ummmm no….. for medicines to be registered they must be proven to be safe and efficacious above and beyond the placebo effect.”
Pretty sure some anti-depressants have made it to market that don’t fit tha efficacy criteria. (Lots of drugs have failed the safety test but that’s a different conversation)
Some anti-depressants haven’t met efficiency criteria, so toss them in the trash with the sugar pills.
PS: do the quacks use specially blessed organic sugar or just the regular evil ‘refined’ stuff? 😈
Huh? Which ones are you thinking of that have been removed from the market for that reason?
I was (mis)quoting Weka – for efficiency read efficacy.
I have no idea what you are talking about OAB and to be honest can’t be bothered asking for clarification (aka to tired for the clever dick routine). You know how to communicate well, so when you do that clearly I’ll take it as a sign of good faith in the conversation.
@ weka
Northshoredoc, do you believe that placebo has any positive action in your practice?
NO
Do you believe that the quality of the interaction between you and patients has any impact on outcomes?
NO .. very nebulous question though… who measures the quality and what is it ?
“Do you believe that the quality of the interaction between you and patients has any impact on outcomes?
NO .. very nebulous question though… who measures the quality and what is it ?”
I have to go with weka on this one – if only because the quality of the patient-GP interaction can have a massive effect on:
1. what the patient believes
2. their sense of well-being
3. their future healthcare decision-making
It can also affect how the GP interprets the patient’s concerns.
1 & 2 can be a result of education & reassurance and therefore may be explained away as a placebo (good enough for many worried patients with illnesses/concerns that will disappear without medical intervention). If you’re talking about eventual clinical outcomes in your ‘NO’ answer then you’ve missed the crucial importance of No3.
Delays to appropriate medical care might be one way of measuring the effect of quality of GP-patient interactions. I’m sure there are many others.
@northshoredoc – One measure is how highly communication issue complaints figure in health and disability commissioner’s statistics. I’m pretty sure they outrank treatment complaints, but would need to check.
Consultation quality clearly affects patient outcomes, and is poorly acknowledged in my view.
@miravox…most of my patient contact is whilst they are unconscious ……….
for some light relief on the day we’ve lost a great writer can i direct you to two comedians on the subject of homeopathy.
So if it’s ”known to be false for decades” there was in your view no need to conduct this study?
You reveal your own lack of respect for the scientific method that you claim a moral purchase on.
For those helped by homeopathy, they probably accept it doesn’t work in a mechanistic way, and its results can’t be aggregated to suit evidence based medicine.
By the way, have you checked out the serious doubt over the effectiveness of antidepressants; do you rail against them too?
http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.0050045
“So if it’s ”known to be false for decades” there was in your view no need to conduct this study?”
No there shouldn’t be any need to conduct this study but unfortunately it still has to be done because homeopathic “remedies” are still being stacked along side actual medicine.
“You reveal your own lack of respect for the scientific method that you claim a moral purchase on.”
Yeah the scientific method actually works and shows homeopathic remedies are bullshit. And yes, I have serious concerns over antidepressants. But don’t introduce a irrelevant red herring – this is about homeopathy, not SSRI’s.
It’s not a red herring, it points out a double standard.
At least sugar pills don’t harm people. The same can’t be said for psychiatric medicine.
No one is talking about SSRI’s – this conversation is about homeopathy and about how it is proven, once again to be utter horseshit.
Says something is not a red herring. Provides another red herring. Oh dear.
And sugar pills don’t harm people, but neither do they have any positive effect. Homeopathic pills are different because there is an expectation that they may have a positive effect and so are dangerous when they are used instead of a proven medical treatment.
WTF? “Sugar pills” (inert placebo) pills have positive effects all the time!!! This has literally been documented in thousands of studies.
If homeopathic remedies are effective as placebo’s then that should be made clear on the labeling – “Has no active ingredient – some placebo effect may be experienced”
When doctors prescribe placebos
with good results.
A doctor who prescribed a placebo for heart disease, on the other hand, would probably be mistaken or negligent. A quack, on the other hand? What skill their diagnoses?
Not to mention putting flashy looking placebos without any warning that they are actually placebos and have no medicinal effect whatsoever next to actual medicine is kinda misleading and unethical
Reply to CR: obviously placebos have positive effects. They even have effects relative to other placebos, such as blue sugar pills vs red sugar pills for different ailments. None of this in anyway means that giving someone a homeopathic treatment is anything other than quackery, just like anything else where science has comprehensively demonstrated is fraudulent – like crystal healing, faith healing, colour therapy, reiki, chiropracty, naturopathy, anything that makes reference to qi, osteopathy, bloodletting, trepanning…the list is endless really.
Karate makes reference to Qi. Just saying.
@ Ergo …re “For those helped by homeopathy, they probably accept it doesn’t work in a mechanistic way”….well it worked in a mechanistic way on my 8 year old
….after going to local GPs for a week and being misdiagnosed as stomach flu ….and being misdiagnosed in hospital for several days… he was eventually reluctantly given an operation to check for appendicitis…he was found to have a leaking gangrenous appendix ( an emergency ) and after being on intravenous antibiotics for several days he was released from hospital still ailing and pale and listless….a neighbour left the appropriate homeopathics for the aftermath of such an operation in the letterbox to try ( my son had not had any homeopathics prior in his life) …. i gave them to my son without telling him what they were or making a song and dance about it….the recovery was almost immediate ….and the specialists at the hospital , who still expected possible complications and a long convalescence and possible return to hospital, were surprised at his robust recovery
….so yup imo homeopathics also work in a mechanistic way ….as well as placebo effect ( this is not to say they are a substitute for other medicine or surgery)…how they work is another question….but the effects are mechanistic
i have also used homeopathics in India and Tibet…and am convinced they work ( not as a substitute for Western medicine …but sometimes they work better than Western medicine) especially for gut diarrhea and chest bronchial issues ( in fact we were advised to use homeopathics by a NZer who had lived in India for years…and who had found Western medicine did not work for gut issues)
🙄 😆
“so yup imo homeopathics also work in a mechanistic way ”
Your opinion goes against the entire body of science on the subject.
+100 😆
You can laugh all you like but there re many people who have had similar experiences as Chooky. My self included. I have a degree in science and the scientific method, have always considered conventional medicine first (and will continue to do so) but I have seen remarkable results in my 2 month old grandson who had floppy airway and serious reflux – so bad he was in hospital under observation for a week. He was given the conventional medicine (can’t remember the name now) but he vomited it up every time. He had a monitor on him at all times for his heart beat and blood oxygen levels. A single treatment of belladonna brought about an immediate change.
Now don’t tell me homeopathic treatment is ineffective.
“A single treatment of belladonna brought about an immediate change.
Now don’t tell me homeopathic treatment is ineffective.”
That’s not homeopathy
@Contrarian. What – so now you get to define the nature of an effect you don’t believe exists??
It’s a distinct feature of conversations like this, that the science fundamentalists argue against something when they don’t even know what it is.
Because Homeopathy is distinct.
Merely using belladona is not homeopathy. It’s about dilution and using like to treat like. You should know this
You think they treated a 2 month old baby with the herb belladonna? LOL. Look it up TC and understand the daftness of what you just said.
It’s pretty obvious to anyone here who knows what they are talking about that Macro was referring to homeopathic belladonna (a well known homeopathic remedy).
Here, I’ll save you the google http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atropa_belladonna
Don’t worry about these fundies weka, they can keep going on stuck in a self righteous intellectual rut whereas others can use the best of both conventional orthodox medicine and alternative healthcare modalities, depending on what is more suitable and effective at the time.
True, but the belladonna comment TC made was classic, and a very good example of the irrationality of the science fundamentalists.
And Macro’s story was a great read.
🙄
So the baby was not given belladonna, it was given water.
I presume the baby was given a belladonna homeopathic preparation.
that’s what I said.
Yep. And you were 99.999% right.
Actually, I was competely right.
Yes was given a homeopathic dosage of Belladona – and just the one one treatment.
We had a public health nurse visiting regularly – he saw a doctor almost every week. Very few babies had as much medical attention as he had in his first few months. He was born with transposed greater arteries, visited 3 hospitals, had 2 helicopter rides, and an operation in his first 24 hours, and open heart surgery at 4 days old. At about 6 weeks old he was again admitted to Hospital in the middle of the night – his breathing was irregular and his blood oxygen levels were low. He was diagnosed with the floppy airway and this was being aggravated with severe reflux – something he would grow out of at around 6 months when his airways enlarged as he grew older. The point was the conventional medicine did not work.
The public health nurse who visited and the hospital paediatrician both acknowledged the effectiveness of the treatment. The ear nose and throat specialist didn’t want to hear. She like so many in her profession have cloth ears and can’t accept that medical science hasn’t all the answers.
Oh what’s a billionth between friends eh.
Macro, ta for the detailed field report.
“Macro, ta for the detailed field report.”
+tahi.
Nothing, if the “billionth” is almost certainly not in there.
@Macro – that’s great. It must have been a huge relief for all concerned.
What works in practice is so much more important than what a textbook says should work when there is suffering.
@ Ergo Robertina
Yes it certainly was a huge relief. My daughter and the grandchildren were living with us in NZ at the time. The family were in between returning to NZ and then returning back to Perth where her husband works at Rockingham Hospital. (It’s a long story – but essentially the Govt changed in 2008 and we waived good bye to our loved ones! – Not what the Nat Bill board said! ). I’m currently in Perth at the moment – just had a 36 degree day today – don’t tell me that the world isn’t heating. Baby sitting the said young monster who is doing very well. 🙂
Wow – that is hot. I was sweltering in Dunedin and I think it got to around 20, although I didn’t hear the official top temp.
I have family in WA too and often find myself saying it actually feels hotter on summer days than the official temp says, but maybe I’ve just acclimatised.
“Where is the line of demarcation between “descriptive” and “mechanistic?”
….”the epithets “descriptive” and “mechanistic” are epistemologically related and differ quantitatively rather than qualitatively. In other words, observations become regarded as progressively less descriptive and more mechanistic as one probes more deeply into a phenomenon. In fact, one might argue that there is no real line of demarcation between descriptive and mechanistic science but that the difference is rather a matter of depth and one’s preferences.”
http://iai.asm.org/content/77/9/3517
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dana-ullman/homeopathic-medicine-euro_b_402490.html
“Numerous surveys over the past 150 plus years have confirmed that people who seek homeopathic treatment tend to be considerably more educated than those who don’t (1). What is not as well known is the fact that homeopathic medicine is the leading “alternative” treatment used by physicians in Europe…and growing numbers of the citizenry”……
““Numerous surveys over the past 150 plus years have confirmed that people who seek homeopathic treatment tend to be considerably more educated than those who don’t”
One of life’s great mysteries, not proof that homeopathy works better than a placebo.
If it’s a great placebo and it resolves health issues for a person without the risk of liver or kidney failure, what’s the problem???
As TheContrarian pointed out above, it is misleading and unethical to use the placebo effect to treat someone without being honest and upfront about it. Or worse, being deliberately deceptive and coming up with pseudoscientific explanations to trick people into using (and maybe paying for) a treatment when it is only functioning as a placebo.
Firstly because a placebo can’t resolve you of anything like, say, cancer or a virus like a flu – it might make you feel better but it won’t cure you.
Secondly, it is unethical to sell something that is actually placebo while pretending it has a health benefit it doesn’t. I mean you have all but admitted homeopathy is nothing more than a placebo – is it not unethical to actually market it as something else?
Tell me, how do you ascertain whether or not it was the placebo effect of going to a medical practitioners office which helps a patient get better or the prescription the patient was given (which may or may not be filled)?
If on another visit the doctor suggests to the patient that they will probably feel better with a day or two rest, and it actually happens – how do you know that’s not the placebo effect?
You skipped both points –
Getting better and feeling better are two different things.
Secondly, and actually more importantly, (I’ll actually be verbatim here), it is unethical to sell something that is actually placebo while pretending it has a health benefit it doesn’t. I mean you have all but admitted homeopathy is nothing more than a placebo – is it not unethical to actually market it as something else?
You answer my question of why the medical profession is allowed to use the placebo effect in clinical situations, and not tell patients about it, but no one else is.
So I ask you something, you completely dodge it so I ask again, then you put up a question that I must answer first despite having failed to address anything I have said?
Hmmmmmm, why don’t you actually address the points as they are raised instead of putting up these silly barriers to actually answering what is put to you?
I’ll ask you again and I’ll make it easy on you – just one point which I’ll drill down into a simple format:
You have all but admitted homeopathy is nothing more than a placebo – is it not unethical to actually market it as something else?
Why should I play your silly games about what you personally consider ethical or not? Or to abide by your stupid rules of acceptable rhetoric.
Homeopathy was around while orthodox conventional medicine was killing far more people than it saved, it will still be around long after orthodox conventional medicine is no longer regularly available to the vast majority of the population, and it is a form of healthcare which doesn’t need tax payers subsidies to survive.
Again, medical practitioners use the placebo effect every day, why are you fine with them doing that but not other professions?
“Or to abide by your stupid rules of acceptable rhetoric”
Not my rules buddy – you’d be shit in the house.
“doesn’t need tax payers subsidies to survive.”
And your position on the TPPA and Pharmac is…?
Not to mention it wouldn’t survive is the labels honesty and ethically stated “Contains no active ingredients” instead of making claims of efficacy which are proven to be incorrect. You yourself have all but admitted it is a placebo – why don’t you address false advertising and unethical marketing?
Oh yeah because I ask you something, you completely dodge it so I ask again, then you put up a question that I must answer first despite having failed to address anything I have said.
Just goes to show that more education does not always make people wiser.
“Firstly because a placebo can’t resolve you of anything like, say, cancer or a virus like a flu – it might make you feel better but it won’t cure you.”
That’s unlikely to be true. There’s a lot of work being done on the mind body connection which demonstrates real effects via the brain, nervous, immune and endocrine systems from things like meditation. It’s not just about “feeling better”, whatever that might mean, it’s about the roles that improved physiology plays in healing. This is why complementary medicine should be one of the core focusses of cancer research, because it can both improve chances of survival and mitigate side effects of conventional treatment.
Belief can effect physiology.
“You answer my question of why the medical profession is allowed to use the placebo effect in clinical situations, and not tell patients about it, but no one else is.”
Do you have any instances of where it is ‘allowed’ to prescribe placebos as a clinical remedy without advising patients – i.e. prescribing a bottle of sugar pills?
– Or are you saying advice and reassurance are placebos that are like selling a homeopathic remedy?
– Or are you saying the medical profession that refers people to say, osteopaths, acupuncturists and chiropractors without telling them about the likelihood of it working shouldn’t be allowed to because these are (with a few possible exceptions) not clinically proven therapies?
– Or are you saying that, for example, anti-depressants are being prescribed without any efficacy above the placebo effect and patients don’t know this?
I’m with you on the last two points, but not the first. And if it is something similar to the last two options that you’re complaining about – I suggest it would make more sense to advocate for these practises to cease rather than saying that other treatments with low efficacy should be added to the clinically proven health toolbox.
I wonder what all the science fundies think of phenomena like breast cancer going away by itself without treatment. Do they think its impossible? That it must have been some kind of mistake? That its a one in a million fluke?
Its a very strange world they live in where big pharma products heal, but the body doesn’t.
I talked about use of the placebo effect, not use of placebo treatments. A patient walks into a professional office, diplomas on the wall, a sincere sounding person with an air of authority in a white coat, and experiences a good interpersonal interaction, there’s a fuck load of placebo effect going on right there.
BTW “proven evidence based therapies” fail a shit load of patients in one way or another. Some very badly. If they didn’t, most of these people wouldn’t be seeking out alternative therapies would they.
miravox, many patients will have no idea of the efficacy above placebo rate of the meds they are on. Pre-internet it would have been most patients.
Here’s something I just pulled off the internet about SSRIs and placebo rates. I haven’t analysed it, but let’s use it as a starting point. There are huge ethical issues around psychiatric prescribing that are far more serious than any ethical issues around homeopathic practice. No-one really talks about it though, funny that.
http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=185157
“BTW “proven evidence based therapies” fail a shit load of patients in one way or another. Some very badly. If they didn’t, most of these people wouldn’t be seeking out alternative therapies would they.”
I think unless one is in circles of people who use alternative modalities, or one is an alternative practitioner, it’s very hard to understand just how many people routinely use healthcare outside of mainstream medicine because mainstream medicine has failed them (i.e. after mainstream medicine has failed them).
That wasn’t my point Chooky. There are other ways in which things work other than mechanistic or placebo.
Not every energy force is understood.
“There are other ways in which things work other than mechanistic or placebo.”
Yeah but in the case of homeopathy it doesn’t work – as proven time and time again.
Oh dreary contrarian, repeating your sneer merchant mantra will not alter the fact that just as many people will gain health benefit from homeopathy as before this slanted politically motivated hit job was published.
Dead right, ER, exactly the same number will benefit. Zero is a number, isn’t it?
Same denailist tactic as a global warming denier: ignore all the science, claim some kind of political conspiracy, ignore every piece of evidence to the contrary.
Fact: Homeopathy has never shown to be effective and never will because it is scientifically impossible as proven over and over and over and over….
TRP – No, a great many people receive benefit. And better informed detractors acknowledge the fact.
People better informed than the overwhelming majority of the medical community? Who are these amazing polymaths?
You do know what the term ”detractor” means?
I think you misunderstood the comment.
Anyway, enough procrastination for me, work is calling.
I do.
Can you list any of these detractors?
You guys seem a bit stressed. Rescue remedy anyone?
So, was this the strong nuclear force or the weak nuclear force? Gravity? Or are you just making stuff up because you want mystic crystal new age mesmerism nonsense to be real?
Every single time homeopathy is comprehensively shown to be a fraud, people still blithely go ahead and ignore all the evidence in favour of make-believe.
Like I said – just like a climate change denier
Very many are not.
But homeopathy had no ‘energy force’ because it is compete bullshit. Magical thinking….
Well, homeopaths don’t need government subsidies to stay in business. So you better convince patients that their practitioners are bullshit, that they themselves are gullible saps, and to quit going to them and ***willingly paying 100% out of pocket***
I’ll tell you what true “magical thinking” is – that more science and more technology is going to be able to answer the major health concerns of society over the next few very difficult decades.
“I’ll tell you what true “magical thinking” is – that more science and more technology is going to be able to answer the major health concerns of society over the next few very difficult decades.”
Yeah because science has totally failed to improve our life span, eradicate disease, and provide a better life for the sick and in-firmed. Yeah lets forget the eradication of smallpox, transplant technology, polio vaccines, extension of life-span, that being diagnosed with HIV is no longer the death sentence it was, 3-printing of limbs and organs, microscopic surgery, greater understanding of diet, research into stem-cells, research into being able to transplant pig organs into humans, hand transplants, rebuilding peoples faces, greater understanding of locked in syndrome, pacemakers, anesthesia, studying into using LSD and other alkaloids for PTSD, early detections of melanoma, breast cancer and bowl cancer drastically improving the survival rates of those afflicted, vaccinations, early childhood care, recognition of previously swept under the carpet mental disorders so people afflicted can now have better lives, Stephen Hawkings fucking chair.
You give me one fucking example of your magical thinking providing anything like the above. I fucking dare you.
@thecontrarian
I believe CVs answer to such questions is….’because ‘merica and multinationals !’ ….mmmmmmkay ?
So your kid recovered from a serious medical condition after receiving appropriate medical treatment. Also, your kid took a fake remedy that did nothing.
Any further suggestion is a post-hoc fallacy.
Homeopathy is built on “post hoc, ergo propter hoc.” I got better. Also, I took this homeopathic remedy. Therefore, I got better because I took this homeopathic remedy. Works for faith healing, too.
And note how those who argue for the efficacy of homeopathy rely purely on anecdotal evidence without a shred of actual evidence
The evidence is yourself or your child getting better when medical options struggled to offer anything workable.
Get off your intellectual high horse.
+100 CR…i really dont know why I was so rash to have joined this discussion with these regulars who pretend to be doctors….lol….really they are very threatened!….. that is the only conclusion one can have ….plus they are control freaks….it is a wonder they have any patients left ( that is if they are doctors, which i doubt)…they are so contemptuous of anyone who can think for themselves!….and I know a number of ordinary medical practitioners who offer an alternative in homeopathy treatment …so it is not a big deal…a waste of space arguing here….i also suspect vested interests in BIG PHARMA…homeopathy is very affordable
That’s a special kind of crazy right there Chooky. But homeopathy isn’t cheap – it’s very expensive water.
You are no better than a climate change denier
A robin feathering his nest…
…these regulars who pretend to be doctors…
Identifying a post hoc, ergo propter hoc fallacy isn’t the same thing as “pretending to be a doctor.” In fact, there’s no reason to assume doctors have any particular expertise at identifying logical fallacies.
…these regulars who pretend to be doctors…
As opposed to those here knowing they aren’t doctors yet think they can over-turn the vast, overwhelming majority of doctors and medical institutions as well as decades of research that disproves homeopathy in its entirety based upon their own personal anecdotes.
@ TheContrarian…you dont know who is a doctor and who isnt a doctor here!…or are you psychic?…there are many medical practitioners who use homeopathy both in NZ and overseas
…you are full of bullshit
That’s really quite a transparent dodge and avoidance of actually addressing what I said.
Are you are a doctor? I’m going with no until you actually state otherwise. So in not being a doctor what makes you think you are qualified in doubting the completely overwhelming medical and scientific evidence that homeopathy has no value whatsoever?
I would hope you could actually address the argument.
Oh that’s very simple, the studies are not reflective of the actual real life experiences of people in their day to day healthcare.
@CV 🙄
But only a day or two back you were whining that you didn’t have access to studies that you couldn’t understand anyway, so how would you know?
Shorter CV:
“Those studies are flawed because they didn’t ask my neighbor about his personal anecdote”
The same as saying
“Global warming is false because it felt cold during summer”
“Oh that’s very simple, the studies are not reflective of the actual real life experiences of people in their day to day healthcare.”
The studies were, for the most part, the usual blind tests (ie a mixture of homeopathic ‘remedies’ and genuine placebos. In addition, information supplied by the industry was studied. Both sources are examples of studies very much based on the “real life experiences of people in their day to day healthcare.”
That’s actually the way such studies are done.
Australians and their establishment do not tolerate conventional Doctors or free speech either
Sherri Tenpenny
Observation.
the RWNJ’s often call-out the Left-wing-Radio-New-Zealand-National.
Yesterday’s Standard discussion re Kathryn Ryan made some references to her politics.
So what evidence do we have of current/former politically aligned left leaning week-day RNZ hosts.
Maggie Barry – National MP
Mike Hoskings
Sean Plunkett
Can anyone add to this list of outed rabid left wing hosts?
I think they base their claim on suspicions rather than actually knowing, and usually amongst those who usually have nothing to do with news production – but media analysis (e.g. Colin Peacock, Jeremy Rose – those bloody Media Studies ‘types’), and others who they suspect are just aging hippie ‘types’ (Phil Obrien, Simon Morton, etc). Disagreement with the current junta simply means they left-wing kinsprissy thereists.
What I find interesting is that Dear Leader used to avoid RNZ like the plague until the Natzis were able to start stacking the deck through their appointments, and the recruitment of Espiner and programme ‘reshuffle’.
Its time that appointments such as to RNZ Board/CEO/etc. should be non-partisan – that is, have cross-party approval.
They attacked Espiner on Monday because of his questioning of Key. Espinner – left wing??? I reckon that he would be a shoo-in for a safe Nat seat.
Espiner has always appeared to me to be moderately right wing.
I have family members who are further to the right than Espiner and I consider them moderate.
He does have blind spots and bad days (we all do).
My impression is that he also approaches his job in a reasonably considered way – as opposed to someone like Gower whose modus operandi seems to be; hassle people in order to get a response that he can edit into a racy sound bite and an exciting sounding heading (facts and context? Don’t be silly).
I made a post yesterday about Kathryn Ryan. I do not know what her politics are.
yes I saw that. I’m loathe to give an opinion on Ms Ryan other than I think she should stay away from political discussions, and that I find her affectations bloody annoying to listen to. I also noted some comments about her ego and being ‘difficult’ to work for – I couldn’t possibly comment – it’d cause issyouse
I find nine to noon much better when Lynne Freeman is standing in. (But then that might be because she’s one of those artyfarty ‘types’ so she must be a bloody leftie /sarc)
I agree @ Lynne Freeman BUT I am usually happy enough with Kathryn Ryan but yesterday was a step too far for me…
Kathryn Ryan is bloody good imo…of course the interviewees dont get done over the way Kim Hill did….but Ryan is a considered interviewer , sometimes brilliant and sometimes not…she tries to walk a neutral line between Right and Left…..she is certainly no slouch…and as much as Lynne Freeman is a nice person and good on the arts ….i think Kathryn Ryan asks sharper questions all around….the only person who comes close to Ryan’s quality imo is “Summer Noelle” (not her real name)
did you listen to this interview? Cos that’s the one I have the beef with. Any move to radically change the system regarding sexual violence will meet some opposition as it did when some chose to misrepresent labour Policy pre election (including Little mis-representing it)… and so an important issue got sidelined and turned into a myth.
Boshier had a chance to speak to those proposed changes and was largely sidelined by Ryan. IMO
“So what evidence do we have of current/former politically aligned left leaning week-day RNZ hosts.
Maggie Barry – National MP
Mike Hoskings
Sean Plunkett”
Perhaps you can enlighten me as your statement is news to me, and I suspect others?
What RNZ week-day programs do these three people you nominate appear on?
Maggie Barry had the Nine to Noon block.
Hoskins – Morning Report
Sean Plunkett – Morning report.
Suggests National radio is a breeding ground for the right.
They were all “impartial” broadcasters fronting news and current affairs.
And read the comment again and you will see that I said weekday – weekday.
Yes you did say weekday. I was not aware that they had different management for the weekday as opposed to the weekend programs though. Surely they aren’t like the Herald?
On the other hand I have never seen any overt political leanings on the part of Plunkett and I wouldn’t really see him as overtly political at all.
The other two don’t work there any more, do they?
Perhaps leaning right is a little like being gay in the old days. Provided you stayed in the closet you kept your job.
When Barry and Hosking “came out” the lost their jobs?
Leaning left was OK for RNZ as the case’s of Edwards and Laidlaw illustrate though. They were hired after they showed up as failed left-wing politicians.
I think the point is @ alwyn that there are those that are prone to letting their own political persuasions affect their journalistic integrity, and those that do not. You might be quite surprised at where say Kim Hill or Wallace Chapman ‘lean’ (I’d say leftish on some things, rightish on others). We know Hosking and ilk make stories more about themselves and what THEY think (as did Yessirree Paul and others).
Ryan peeves me because of her affectations and she appears to have an inflated sense of herself, but I note a number of her guests are impressed with her style (usually during non-political discussions (one can often hear them say “that’s a very good question”.
Let’s have PSB with a bipartisan approach overall – at the moment – weekdays it definitely leans right of centre plus plus and on weekends centre to left of centre.
You can’t deny tho’ that the Natzis have been stacking the deck with appointments since they took office.
It’s a wonder that some have survived. How about that bloody Bollinger. I almost expect a few redundancies sometimes due to another ‘reorganisation’ of their schedule. In such as reorg, we could expect a Bollinger to go (because he comes from a line of commie bastards), and maybe a Matine Idle to bite the dust to be replaced by everyman”s best friend Mora. Talkback even – on the grounds that Natrad is taking heed of the people’s voice!
And of course let’s not forget the number of people who once were ‘lefties’ until they discovered the benefits of American Express Gold (The Act Party is full of ’em from Roger the Dodger to Donna H). And look at Joyce ffs! Once the student radio advocate – now the Apologist in Chief for those with fascist tendencies. They often use the excuse that they grew up and got real and responsible – which is often a euphemism for they got comfortable, lazy, complacent, holier than thou and selfish (life is easier that way – they often get phat too)
“often hear them say “that’s a very good question”.”
Agree, which is why the boshier interview annoyed me so much… but I think that telling her it’s a great question sometimes leads her to think she knows as much as they do and either through personal interest she begins to slip into an exploratory for her own benefit. I know I would find it hard not to divert as things piqued my own interest but I am neither trained not to or paid not to.
… and “current/former”.
As for the weekend magazine shows, – different genre altogether.
Chris Laidlaw and Brian Edwards were excellent interviewers – not the aggressive creeps of the aforementioned closet Tories.
And besides the listener was aware of their political affiliations long before they were on radio.
I suppose we could add a left-winger or two.
Why was Chris Laidlaw ever allowed near the Sunday morning program. Former Labour MP wasn’t he? Would you say that he should have been banned?
Perhaps Brian Edwards should have got the boot. Former Labour candidate after all wasn’t he?
Why is Mike Williams on RNZ. Former Labour Party President of course.
At least we know, like Maggie Barry, their politics. When did Sean ever come out on behalf of a political party?
Are you really of the McCarthy school of politics?
I agree with all you have written except for the Mike Williams bit cos his political affiliation is declared each and every time he appears … no matter how misleading introducing him as a voice of the left may be 😉
My initial observation was that the RWNJ’s continually assert that RNZ is a left-wing dominated network. I asked how many journalists on RNZ have turned out to be left wing zealots but indicated at least three immediately come to mind who have turned out to be Tories. Incidentally none lost their positions but resigned for commercial reasons.
Laidlaw and Edwards were magazine show presenters – not news/current affairs broadcasters with editorial input to emphasis/angle on news. Williams features on a panel as a foil for Hooton in a political forum.
NORTHLAND : The learned judge declares the winner :
[1] KEY (in spinning loop ) : http://i.imgur.com/9M2KqSs.gif
[2] PETERS (in macho cool ) : https://t.co/QZAgTYC28f
[3] AND THE WINNER IS (in unforgettable victory) :
http://a.disquscdn.com/uploads/mediaembed/images/1823/821/original.jpg?w=600&h
The ref was biased.
Well put together! Thanks.
As the new Greek government attempts to reverse the vicious austerity policies of the previous New Democracy/PASOK (in NZ terms, National/Labour) coalition, the troika (EU heads, ECB and IMF) and Greek capital are applying maximum pressure on Syriza to bend to their will.
There’s an interesting article by a Syriza central committee member on the way forward that went up on Redline last night: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/03/11/the-road-forward-for-syriza-a-view-from-a-central-committee-member/
Phil
The response of the US-trained Iraqi army when faced with ISIS has often been to run away. It is the Kurdish militias that have stopped ISIS and pushed it back.
The fact that the PKK, whose forces have done a whack of the fighting and whose armed forces include a significant number of women, is on the terrorism list in this country is indicative of the lies of successive NZ governments about the region and their involvement in it.
If the NZ government was primarily motivated by the desire to help defeat ISIS in order that the people of the region could improve their lives, they could just hand over a load of weapons, medical supplies and money to the Kurdish fighters, with no strings attached.
Instead, they have made it illegal in this country to help one of the key Kurdish movements which stands for people’s liberation and that has thrown back the ultra-right forces of ISIS.
Several things can be done here:
1. Demand that the PKK be removed from the NZ government’s list of terrorist organisations
2. Demand that people here be able to raise funds and other support for the Kurdish liberation movement; and people could raise support and funds for them anyway, regardless of what the government does
3. Demand the government not send NZ forces but hand over to the Kurdish forces the equivalent in funds and/or equipment of what they would spend on having NZ armed forces there; this to be handed over with no strings attached. In other words, if the deployment of NZ forces to Iraq was going to cost X million dollars, then X million dollars should be handed over to the Kurds.
The Kurds have been screwed over continuously by western powers – for instance, when France and Britain carved up the Ottoman Empire after WW1, the Kurds never got a country.
Some pieces:
The Kurds: treated as pawns by the western powers: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2014/12/04/the-kurds-treated-as-pawns-by-western-powers/
The ‘other’ Kurds fighting the Islamic State: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2014/09/08/the-other-kurds-fighting-the-islamic-state/
PFLP calls for international support for Kurds fighting ISIS at Kobane: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2014/10/15/pflp-calls-for-united-revolutionary-support-for-kurds-at-kobane/
Phil
Turkey, a key NATO member, wouldn’t like that. Neither would the Shiite authorities in Baghdad.
I’ m sure they wouldn’t!
And, of course, no NZ government this side of a revolution would do any such thing.
But if they were motivated by what they pretend to be motivated by, that’s what they’d do.
Phil
A lot of the reason for the US and other Western nations not liking/supporting a group like the Kurds is because it will change the established borders. Basically, it comes down to geopolitics and the fact that they know damn well that if those borders are changed in the way that the people there want them changed they will lose power and wealth.
In a related vein:
Maybe Obama’s Sanctions on Venezuela are not really about his “DEEP CONCERN” over suppression of political rights
The more I watch the US led nations the more it becomes obvious that they’re operating to shore up the Western Empire and that they’re failing. The whole lot is falling apart and they’re promoting wars and fear of others in an attempt to prevent that.
If they were really concerned about the suppression of political rights they would be looking at Columbia, Haiti and Panama, for a start.
Not to mention Saudi Arabia, who has beheaded many more people, than Isis.
Of course, their Governments are suitably supportive of US corporate power.,.
+ 100
And BTW – now Boko Haram has pledged allegiance to Da’ish isn’t it about time we offered to support our fellow member of the Commonwealth, Nigeria, with equivalent support and assistance?
Anyone hear the member for Epsom opining this morning that the election of Winston Peters would upset the balance of power.
Now let’s see, we have an MP who has a seat in government on the basis of less than one percent of the vote (Ignore the gerrymander that got him in) talks about upsetting the balance of power. He will also be advising ACT supporters to vote National in Northland. What a magnanimous gesture.
I imagine there was a pretty swift text this morning from Joyce to the Hologram from Epsom along the lines of “just shut the fuck up!”
And a friend in Australia says the nail-fail made the telly news there!
How helpful! He might shift the vote towards National by a whopping one-half of one percent.
Yeah, ACT received a grand total of 162 Party-Votes in Northland in 2014. (Behind Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis but ahead of the Ban 1080 Party). And a plurality of ACT Party-Voters went for Sabin (rather than the ACT candidate) anyway.
Still, you never know. Could come down to just a handful of votes.
“He will also be advising ACT supporters to vote National in Northland. ”
He can take them all out for dinner.
Table for 150 please!
That gave me a genuine laugh.
So that’s three more votes for the National candidate!
Phil
Shaw to bid for co-leadership?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/67256847/mp-bids-for-greens-coleader-role
interesting thanks….i think Shaw has huge appeal and ability….question is whether he is right wing?…Really this is the acid question for the Greens. The new co-leader must be unequivocally Left !
Naomi Kleim spells it out with her new book ‘This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs Climate’
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/sep/19/this-changes-everything-capitalism-vs-climate-naomi-klein-review
Speaking of Naomi, I came across this today:
Johann Hari & Naomi Klein: Does Capitalism Drive Drug Addiction?
http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2015/3/11/johann_hari_naomi_klein_does_capitalism
Winston Peters take John Key apart on diversionary tactics as regards 1080 scare…”timing smells”…”timing was not coincidental” with other things going on eg Iraq situation and GCSB:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/20170584/winston-peters-scoffs-at-act's-threat-to-swing-its-support
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/20170582/recent-1080-poison-scare-draws-parallels-with-2005-foot-and-mouth-hoax
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/20170566/anti-1080-campaigner-says-police-visit-was-a-surprise
Lot of money to be made when markets are shaken down.
But no, Key thinks its eco-terror.
I think its some meat eater who sources their food locally and does not want their larder poisoned, not ecological more food to mouth subsistenance since they obvioysly do not have a piece of the wider economic rural benefits/trickledown.
lone wolf economically marginalized rural type.
While primarily about Britain, this article is highly relevant to New Zealand, where the ‘golden weather’ of the long post-WW2 economic boom was even more golden than in Britain and lasted a bit longer; what happened here afterwards is also similar to Britain
by Michael Roberts
I am part of the lucky generation. I am a member of that cohort of people born between 1946 and 1965, the baby boomer generation. We are lucky because we came into the world in countries of advanced capitalism at a time when there was unprecedented economic growth, near ‘full employment’, relative low inequality of wealth and income and strongish labour movements able to extract concessions from Capital on labour rights, a welfare state, universal health and education, public housing.
Capital was able to concede these gains for labour because it was experiencing high rates of profitability after the destruction of capital values during the war. It could draw on a huge reserve army of labour in Europe and Asia, along with new technology, to exploit. And global capitalism had one hegemonic power, the US, that could provide credit and investment in Europe and Asia within Pax Americana. In short, this was a Golden Age for capitalism. Concessions to labour were possible. . .
full at: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/03/11/the-lucky-generation/
Interesting article on the post-WW2 long economic boom, its end and what subsequent generations have had to deal with – increasingly casualised employment, extension of working lives through the raising of the retirement age, cuts to public services and commodification or partial commodification of such services too, etc etc. . .
Ain’t capitalism glorious?
Phil
Wasn’t that wonderful for everybody. As a bright 16yr old I was told by my High School career’s advisor in 1966 that I should go to secretarial college as I would make somebody a wonderful secretary. I said that I thought I would make a better “somebody” and that I was going to University.
Yes, there were jobs, but the Help Wanted section in the paper was divided into Men’s Jobs and Women’s Jobs.
In 1981 when I bought my house the policy of the BNZ was that they did not lend $$$ to single women to buy houses. The Manager was too chicken to tell me that – he just rang my father and told him that the only way I would get the loan was if he counter signed for it. Regardless of my substantial deposit and more than adequate income.
And that is before we got onto the treatment of Maori, LGBT and any other minority.
The boomer years were all about white, straight blokes.
What you say is right, but what happened was not an extension of the benefits of being a white straight bloke to the rest of the population. Those who promoted better gender and race conditions also let neoliberalism in the door. Their emphasis was on the individual betterment of women, Maori, and gays, rather than as part of a class. This meant that things got a lot better for some, like the gay Tories that ran the Auckland Pride Parade, but much worse for the trans Maori woman who didn’t want screws marching.
We lost the good things in exchange for a bit of equality for some. We could have had both.
Kiaora Murray
Their emphasis was on the individual betterment of women, Maori, and gays, rather than as part of a class.
I don’t think Māori were particularly interested in being part of a “class struggle.” Particularly as the Māori struggle isn’t about gaining equality with Joe Pākehā.
Plenty of Maori have been very strong in class struggle and I don’t think it was because they wanted to be like Joe. When the whole basis of Kiwi capitalism was the confiscation and purchase of land from Maori, I don’t see how it is possible to stand aside from class struggle anyway. The Maori Party disagrees with me, but I can handle that.
Surprised that the Marlborough Express devoted a full page to explaining “Snowden Files Spooks Collect Your Data.” Includes the Waihopai explanation. Did other papers publish this?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/marlborough-express/news/67082905/Snowden-files-Inside-Waihopais-domes
(The online version is reduced compared to the paper version)
This was interesting on National Radio last night
Maskirovka: Deception Russian-Style
Lucy Ash examines the Russian military strategy of deception, maskirovka, from the 14th Century to the current crisis in Ukraine.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02kq0gq
NB not that I’m taking sides on the Russia/Ukraine conflict – just interesting background to Russian military strategy
An excellent piece. Particularly relevant now that Putin has admitted lying about the Crimea invasion.
Yep, Russia anticipated the west’s move to destabilise Ukraine and turn it into a NATO outpost well ahead of time. There was never any way that Russia was going to allow Sevastapol to become a NATO base, and the west should have realised that from the start.
🙄
Prof John Mersheimer says west is determined to peel Ukraine away from Russia
Using three means:
1) NATO expansion eastward.
2) EU expansion eastward.
3) “Democracy promotion” (toppling pro-Russian regimes and replacing them with pro-western, anti-Russian regimes).
Ukraine is a core strategic interest for Russia; however it is not a core strategic interest for the western powers.
A political settlement would be Ukraine becoming a neutral buffer state between Europe and Russia.
http://rt.com/shows/sophieco/238905-us-ukraine-ceasefire-russia/
thanks …i will check it out
here is more on USA foreign affairs …still relevant given Netanyahu’s Israel attempt recently to influence American Foreign policy on Iran….this Published on Nov 23, 2013
‘Gwenyth Todd – Whistleblower on Planned Iran War & WW3′
“Press TV’s documentary program “Untold Truths” is a revealing documentary film about the life and experiences of former White House Middle East policy adviser, Gwenyth Todd, who has now escaped to Australia to keep safe from FBI prosecution”.
http://rt.com/news/225539-netanyahu-congress-usa-rift/
Watching the doco on Gwyneth Todd…wow. Thanks for the link. Iranian TV hit this one out of the park.
That is a good link CR and explains the line that you have been outlining here over the last month. It sounds like the only viable way to go.
Chur GW.
Colonial Rawshark speaks a lot of sense….
Listen to that steady drum beat for us to go to war, a just war, an honourable war, a necessary war, a moral war. So many lefties have forgotten – war is a racket.
A lot of sense? Sadly, not for a quite a while. Colonel Viper is a long, long way back from the frontline on so many issues these days.
Did I hear Armchair General Westmoreland say something about hanging back in the rear while being all keen to send our young men and women off to a civil war?
Off in the distance, through the binoculars, I can just make out a figure retreating into the sunset waving a white flag. Its pitiful whine can just be made out … “Fuckem, fuckem all. I’m alriiiiight jack, so fuckem all …”
It’s good to hear an echo of Old Labour when I read you Te Reo Putake. I can see why we have our preent day NZ going around in wide circles which some have realised are actually slipping away down the plughole. But terrific to see brave Old Time Labour standing strong, like Canute by the waterside, (though he was doing it ironically to show his old Labourites where wish-fulfilment ended and reality starts).
One thing I was thinking about is the relatively low level of tax on high-income earners in NZ.
See this link: http://money.cnn.com/interactive/pf/taxes/top-income-tax-rate/?iid=EL
Only 6 countries in the OECD have a top rate lower than NZ. Australia and Canada are 48%. The UK was 50% in 2012 but is now 45%. USA is 44%. Ireland is 48%. So NZ clearly has the lowest tax rate in the Anglo countries at just 33%. If we look at continental European countries, we see that Denmark taxes at 60%, Netherlands at 52%, Sweden at 57%, Germany at 48%, France at 51% etc etc..
It is quite weird that the sub-35% top tax rates have fallen out of favour in much of the weird yet NZ maintains a 33% tax rate. Labour only proposed a 36% tax rate last election, and even the Greens only went for 40%. Helen Clark would only go up to 39%. Why is something in the 40s so toxic? It is interesting because in general the ‘centre’ of New Zealand politics is more towards the left than in other Anglo countries. (NZ right wingers are less right wing than other Anglo countries and left-wingers are more left leaning. But on tax? Not so much..)
UK Labour support a 50% top rate. US Democratic Party support a 40% federal rate(with the US Progressives supporting a 45% rate), in addition to state-level income taxes which add up to 5-10% on top of that. Why are NZ left leaning parties proposing to maintain such low levels of high-income taxation? Personally I’d propose a 45% or 50% rate on incomes above $180k. Which is not really that radical compared to other countries.
Which is odd when you consider that we are constantly told how over taxed such people are
The burden falls on low and average earners while high income earners pay nothing on their capital gains and get away with a 33% tax rate.
Capital gains and wealth taxes are where NZ totally misses out at the moment. A higher top tier tax rate could be introduced for the top 1% – just remember that many in the top of the top 1% have minimal declared income however and will be totally untouched by that.
Yup. I would just tax all capital gains as normal income from wages on the progressive scale, with an exemption for the family home. Why should someone with income from shares or the sale of a second home pay no tax (or a reduced rate), while the minimum wage earner pays a higher rate?
Can you please explain why you would exempt the family home?
Would you say that someone who invests their money into a business that creates work for other New Zealander’s and rents their place of abode, should pay more in taxes than someone who pours their savings into a mansion in Herne Bay? and doesn’t otherwise save anything
Just exempt the first $50K of capital gains a year, from whatever sources.
That is an a perfectly debatable point but it isn’t the one that supporters of the Labour and Green Parties make.
It seems to be an article of faith that “We will exempt the family home”.
I could see why you would do it from a political viewpoint, as in the old “don’t do it in the street and scare the horses” but it makes no economic sense to exclude anything.
The $50k/year exemption of course has a problem that if I have an increase in wealth of $50k/yr and realise it I won’t pay any tax.
If I spend 40 years developing a farm and then sell it to retire at an increase in nominal value of $1 million I would be lumbered with a $300k (say) tax bill even though the actual capital gain will be less than half the amount of the person who realises it every year.
I agree with you for once.
Excluding the family home will means a lot of wealthy 16 year olds owning a “family home” in Remuera.
Better excluding the first 400k, say, (it could be set at the median value of an NZ house) of assets from a CGT, or wealth tax makes it more progressive, but also takes away the political disadvantage of taxing peoples homes.
It is more a political decision, because of the fun that NACT would have with “taxing the family home”, even though we already pay a wealth tax on homes. Rates.
Hmm, I do agree with you on that:
What about an exemption on the first home, up to a cap? So you get say the first $100-200k of your capital gains on the family home tax-free.
AND off set the capital gain by inflation, so you don’t pay tax on inflation.
I think that could definitely be a fair thing to do.
So capital gains would be taxed as normal income, with an exclusion for the family home up to a cap for an average house sale gain; and people would only be charged tax on the *real* capital gain, not nominal.
What would you do about interest payments?
If you get interest on money you have loaned out you really shouldn’t pay tax on the interest rate which only covers inflation should you?
If I loan money, say to the bank as a TD, and I get 4% when the inflation is 2% I really shouldn’t have to pay tax on the first 2%.
After all that would be paying tax on inflation. The problem is trying to decide on what is interest covering inflation and what is interest that is real income. It gets to be almost impossible when there are multiple amounts of money at multiple interest rates, particularly when money may be in a current account that just pays a nominal 1% and where the amount concerned changes from day to day.
Tain’t easy baby.
http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/has-government-got-its-planned-pay-rise-limit-mps-wrong-6253468
It seems that what the left hand taketh away, the right hand giveth back.
The government’s change to the way MP’s salary increases are calculated it seems will return almost the same amount ($800 less over a $31,000 actual increase in the term of this government.)
shaking head…
The Herald even went so far as to call the bill a ‘shambles’.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1988-04-17/news/8803090394_1_marconi-scientists-suicides
Dead Scientists
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/reagans-great-lie-in-the-sky-star-wars-scientists-may-have-deceived-moscow-and-congress-about-the-project-writes-david-usborne-in-washington-1463972.html
Q. Did they die because of the work they were doing ?
Spies parking data overseas to ticket us later. Onerous govt.
Bye-bye Bibi?
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/11/israel-elections-rising-panic-in-likud-ranks-as-opposition-gains-momentum
not laughing
“Australian comedian Heath Franklin, who goes by the stage name Chopper, will front a new comedy series for TV3, which is set to receive $90,000 of taxpayer money from New Zealand on Air.
The NZoA spokesperson went on to say the key funding criteria is that the production company is based in New Zealand, not the onscreen talent.
The series will be produced by Hikoi New Zealand, a Rotorua-based production company, Managing director Piripi Curtis said they chose Chopper to front the show due to an exisiting relationship with him. He said they never considered using a Kiwi comedian to host the series.
He confirmed Chopper still lives in Australia and would be flown to New Zealand to work on the series…”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=11416198
Wrong – this should get NO money – wtf firstly this guy is not funny as his stint on the very unfunny 7 days has shown, secondly there is NO good reason a Aotearoan should not get the gig – that would help the local comedians more than this waste of space and they need more help as 7 days has shown IMO
hi marty, u do have a bee in yr bonnet over this.
who are the funny comedians that should get funding for this tv show (that is only being made to sell ads).
i find 7 days humerous and only a year ago was appointment viewing, however have seen one episode this season.
i found chopper to be quite quick witted although sometimes a tad vulgar (australian).
will you be wanting to check the citizenship of all the crew too?
yeah I’ll untie my bonnet the bee has stung – lol
and, sure, humour is subjective – I’m glad some find enjoyment in there.
the best bits crew are quite funny
If NZ idol and reality shows can get funding I don’t see an issue with this. Heaths actually funny, unlike most of the 7 days dross dished up, and the show will highlight NZ talent.
Outrageous fortune had an Oz in the lead alongside Malcolm so more herald diversions rather than put some focus on nationals pork barreling in northland and Shonkeys squeaky bum time which has far more national significance than more road crashes.
It’s in the entertainment section so hardly a diversion tc – I think WE have the talent, the people, the ideas so for me NO to using aussies or brits and whatevers – buy local, eat local, employ local, love local
Wasn’t in that section online when I saw it, it was in the main section alongside other leaders.
hmmm well I agree they would use anything to create a distraction from the shit their beloved leader is doing or usually not doing.
And this is why Telecom should never have been privatised:
We’ve already paid billions of dollars and we’re now having to pay billions more to get the service that we’ve already paid for. The only people that privatisation has benefited are the new owners and everyone else is worse off.
Yes and exactly how does that benefit northland, UFB needs dense population to make it a reasonable cost per dwelling passed, more BS unless Amy nominates which town gets it.
210mill easily swallowed up lighting up the rest of central north island and sth island towns where diversity exists like matamata, morinsville, raglan, etc….con job central.
” This afternoon (11/03 ) Insiders New Zealand published a political poll with just over 500 eligible voters asking New Plymouth voters, if the election were held today who would you choose for MP of New Plymouth?”
56.17% of the voter’s polled said they would vote the Labour Leader Andrew Little, compared to current National MP Jonathan Young’s 26.09%.
7.56% said they were not sure who they’d vote for.
Apparently if it couldn’t get any worse for the former safe blue seat, it has. 78.92% of those that wish to vote Andrew Little will also vote for the Labour Party and just 11.07% will not. 13.21% were not sure.
The poll for Insiders was conducted by Michael Riley and surveyed the opinions of 500 people.
Yes I know there is a long way to go before we are able to test the polls validity, but ….
Good news! I imagine the locals are cottoning on to the fact that having the Prime Minister as your local MP can have real benefits. 2017 can’t come soon enough!
Absolutely.
During the 2014 election campaign the Taranaki Daily News published a poll carried out by the local polytech’s (WITT) journalistic students. Their poll had Andrew Little at 13% support. When I questioned the tutors methodology she said that the students in pairs had a copy of the local telephone book and randomly opened a page and drew a horizontal line across the mid section. One of them rang those people whose numbers were directly above the line ( say 20) while the other rang 20 people below the line. I asked how that would achieve a true demographic picture which should include things like the age of the sample, where people lived, their socio economic status, maybe their race etc. Her response was that this was the method she was taught and for all intents and purposes was the method used in similar teachings.
No wonder we have a MSM unfit for purpose.
Breaking news.
Andrew little appears to have quit and moved with his family to Oamaru.
Have a look at the photo and admire the speed with which he grew a beard.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/nz-life-leisure/66872932/family-of-six-lives-off-less-than-90-a-week
Is the one who looks like a goat Trevor?
Three Hellfire missiles – $330,000.
5:18 a.m.
Pilot: They’re praying.
Sensor: This is definitely it. This is their force. Praying? I mean, seriously, that’s what they do.
Mission intelligence coordinator: They’re going to do something nefarious.
[…]
8:45 a.m.
Sensor: Hey, MC.
Mission intelligence controller: Yes?
Sensor: Remember, Kill Chain!
MIC: Will do.
[…]
9:10 a.m.
Mission intelligence coordinator: Screener said there weren’t any women earlier.
Sensor: What are those? They were in the middle vehicle.
Mission intelligence coordinator: Women and children.
[…]
Families of the dead ultimately received $5,000 each, plus one goat.
http://boingboing.net/2015/03/11/drones-and-the-rise-of-the-hig.html
Kiaora Murray
Plenty of Maori have been very strong in class struggle and I don’t think it was because they wanted to be like Joe. When the whole basis of Kiwi capitalism was the confiscation and purchase of land from Maori, I don’t see how it is possible to stand aside from class struggle anyway. The Maori Party disagrees with me, but I can handle that.
A great many more Māori disagree with you. The Māori struggle cannot be seen as simply an appendage to other peoples desires for equality. That Māori have supported other peoples struggles is because of the manaaki we share for others but in no way does that support then translate into the subjugation of our Treaty based arguments to fit other peoples agendas. We call that assimilation. Class is a concept off the same boat as the coloniser.
Or to put it another way, your class struggle is atop lands that were stolen.
When the Foreshore and Seabed protest occurred in Wellington, upwards of 80,000 Māori protested, and the only divisions recognised was in terms of tribal connections.
Kia ora Adele
I agree that the Treaty based arguments must not be subjugated. The Foreshore and Seabed protests resulted in the Maori Party, which has since subjugated heaps to FJK’s agenda. Maybe if “divisions” besides tribal connections had been recognised, FJK wouldn’t be so strong today.
I suspect our views of what class struggle entails are not the same.
Kiaora Murray
The Foreshore and Seabed protests resulted in the Maori Party, which has since subjugated heaps to FJK’s agenda. Maybe if “divisions” besides tribal connections had been recognised, FJK wouldn’t be so strong today.
It was a Labour Government that established the rationale for the creation of the Māori Party through its arrogant and dismissive treatment of its treaty obligations towards Māori. Maybe, if Labour hadn’t pissed all over Māori aspirations they would still be in Government. The Māori Party was born from betrayal.
Under National, the Māori Party get to sit at the table. Under Labour, they’re the last cab on the rank. And how convenient that the anti Māori Party stalwarts, never fully contextualise the voting record of the Māori Party. That it votes much more times against the Government agenda than with it. What is Labour’s record in comparison.
National and Labour are cut from the same raggedy cloth. Essentially the same thinking driving both. The only difference is in colour, a blue rag, and a red rag. And golly gosh, Māori get to wear the rags.
We are in the land of plenty but many of my people still cannot afford the cab fare home from the supermarket.
Well said Adele.
Yes, Labour is the party of betrayal. They are also not a party of class struggle.