Open mike 12/04/2010

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, April 12th, 2010 - 30 comments
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30 comments on “Open mike 12/04/2010 ”

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  1. h1 1
    12 April 2010 at 8:55 am

    A metafilter post, settle in cos this is a goodie.

    http://www.metafilter.com/90936/The-Woman-Who-Just-Might-Save-the-Planet-and-Our-Pocketbooks.

    Captcha: contribute.

    • Draco T Bastard 1.1
      12 April 2010 at 1:52 pm

      I think you mean this link.

      A rather interesting read.

      Fran: Many people associate “the commons’ with Garrett Hardin’s famous essay, “The Tragedy of the Commons.’ He says that if, for example, you have a pasture that everyone in a village has access to, then each person will put as many cows on that land as he can to maximize his own benefit, and pretty soon the pasture will be overgrazed and become worthless. What’s the difference between your perspective and Hardin’s?

      Elinor: Well, I don’t see the human as hopeless. There’s a general tendency to presume people just act for short-term profit. But anyone who knows about small-town businesses and how people in a community relate to one another realizes that many of those decisions are not just for profit and that humans do try to organize and solve problems.

      If you are in a fishery or have a pasture and you know your family’s long-term benefit is that you don’t destroy it, and if you can talk with the other people who use that resource, then you may well figure out rules that fit that local setting and organize to enforce them. But if the community doesn’t have a good way of communicating with each other or the costs of self-organization are too high, then they won’t organize, and there will be failures.

      We really need to get away from the idea that all competition is good. It isn’t. Cooperating with each other within the community is better for us and the world. And cooperation needs communication and all knowledge to be readily available. It also needs rules that can be enforced.

    • Quoth the Raven 1.2
      12 April 2010 at 10:27 pm

      I’ve discussed Elinor here before. Libertarians absolutely adore her work. It’s not all about the simplistic dichotomy of rightists and leftists “unregulated” vs regulated, private vs state ownership, she shows that there are commons that manage themselves well without a central authority. Brilliant stuff for libertarians/anarchists.

  2. Dan 2
    12 April 2010 at 9:25 am

    I am not normally a conspiracy theorist but a plane crash that takes out the Polish elite flying to an anniversary of the Katyn massacre seems either an extremely sad coincidence or Soviet spite?

    • Pascal's bookie 2.1
      12 April 2010 at 10:03 am

      Extremely sad coincidence would be my take Dan (without further evidence). It was a Polish plane, warned to divert to a different airport (by Russian air controllers) due to the conditions. For unknown reasons they didn’t take that advice.

      It’s tricky when things like this happen, The raw grief means that people will feel, think and say all sorts of things, and the history between Russia and Poland will certainly mean that people will be thinkng about conspiracy. I don’t judge them for that, anymore than I judge American citizens who in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 talked about nuking wherever. Like I said, grief doesn’t make for clear thinking. Clear thinkng is still required though methinks.

      • prism 2.1.1
        12 April 2010 at 2:29 pm

        Interesting article on Polish disaster crash in I think Dominion Post Monday – I can’t find it on google on stuff.
        The Polish President was authoritarian – he and Russia were at odds, he had countermanded a decision to avoid fog and land elsewhere once before. Seems he might have got hoist with his own petard.
        I think article said that Russia hadn’t invited him so don’t know whether they had planned a memorial service or the Poles instigated it. The thinking is that he may have suspected the Russians of shuttling him away from area so the Poles couldn’t attend on the day of the official 70th anniversary of the happening.

  3. prism 3
    12 April 2010 at 9:28 am

    Another meeting about internet freedom in secret. Interview about matter on Nat Radio this morning with experienced Canadian commentator and Kathryn Ryan. Government trying to flex its muscles in an authoritarian way doesn’t feel good. This ACTA planned seems extreme, seems a move against the right of ordinary people to do business. I like government regulation provided it guards reasonable freedoms but this goes too far.
    You hear about the music business and other copyright holders who want to continue to earn for centuries. They are forcing this extreme law because they are losing money. Some law is necessary to limit this but not the rigid law drawn up under the umbrella of business lobbyists.
    Haven’t there been numerous cases of artists being defrauded of money by their agents? Leonard Cohen comes to mind, Janis Ian also.

    That has been bearable but the big guys want to screw down the pourer on the lamp so only they can rub it and get the genie!

    • Draco T Bastard 3.1
      12 April 2010 at 2:09 pm

      Capitalism is about restriction. If everyone could do what they wanted then capitalists wouldn’t be able to siphon all the wealth to themselves. The reason why these ACTA negotiations are being done behind closed doors is because if everyone saw them then they would know that they are being shafted and put a stop to it. This way though they are presented with fait accompli.

      We really need to be demanding that our government discontinue with these negotiations unless they become open. Even then we probably need the government to stop the negotiations.

    • Quoth the Raven 3.2
      12 April 2010 at 3:38 pm

      On a related note an internet provider in the UK is refusing to follow all the rules in the UKs new digital economy act.

      we stand by our pledges to our customers:

      Unless we are served with a court order we will never surrender a customer’s details to rightsholders. We are the only major ISP to have taken this stance and we will maintain it.
      If we are instructed to disconnect an account due to alleged copyright infringement we will refuse to do so and tell the rightsholders we’ll see them in court.

  4. Quoth the Raven 4
    12 April 2010 at 11:04 am

    Another article on Obama’s ordering of an assassination of a US citizen without trial.

    Here again, we see one of the principal and longest-lasting effects of the Obama presidency: to put a pretty, eloquent, progressive face on what (until quite recently) was ostensibly considered by a large segment of the citizenry to be tyrannical right-wing extremism (e.g., indefinite detention, military commissions, “state secrets” used to block judicial review, an endless and always-expanding “War on Terror,” immunity for war criminals, rampant corporatism — and now unchecked presidential assassinations of American citizens), and thus to transform what were once bitter, partisan controversies into harmonious, bipartisan consensus.

    This is a big story and it doesn’t seem to be gaining much traction probably because so many are still hypnotized by their false messiah.

  6. grumpy 6
    12 April 2010 at 1:44 pm

    The NZ Herald has an article on “local” iwi accepting payment from Meridian Energy for their support for the building of a dam on the Mokihinui River.

    Perhaps someone can answer the following questions;

    1.

  7. The Baron 7
    12 April 2010 at 1:45 pm

    Authors,

    This blog seems to be turning into the Marty G. show. Where are the rest of you?

    You may want to consider bolstering your ranks a bit – cos this single viewpoint is beginning to get a bit myopic…

    [lprent: It shifts and changes depending on who has time. But if you care to exercise the mouse scroll and look back over the weekend… ]

    • felix 7.1
      12 April 2010 at 2:34 pm

      I’d like to see a better class of right-wing fuckwits commenting here. These ones aren’t worth bothering with most of the time.

  8. grumpy 8
    12 April 2010 at 1:46 pm

    The NZ Herald has an article on “local” iwi accepting payment from Meridian Energy for their support for the building of a dam on the Mokihinui River.

    Perhaps someone can answer the following questions;

    1. How many maori actually live in the river’s catchment?
    2.

  9. grumpy 9
    12 April 2010 at 1:50 pm

    The NZ Herald has an article on \’local\’ iwi accepting payment from Meridian Energy for their support for the building of a dam on the Mokihinui River.

    Perhaps someone can answer the following questions;

    1. How many maori actually live in the river’s catchment?
    2. How many sites of historic tribal significance will be affected
    3. What advice or services were provided by the local iwi to justify the payment?

    The answer to all the above is -NONE

    (sorry about the repeat but things got carried away automatically – and the edit function is not working).

  10. ianmac 10
    12 April 2010 at 1:52 pm

    But VOR, surely this just shows that strong leadership works. Its all a matter of confidence as Muldoon demonstrated. Surely not satire?

  11. Rex Widerstrom 11
    12 April 2010 at 5:14 pm

    The NZ Police – proudly spying for their political masters in return for a lack of accountability. And lying about it. Repeatedly.

    http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2010/04/more-police-spying.html

    Can there be any argument against a genuinely independent Anti Corruption Commission in light of this? And if not, why isn’t there more call for one? (after all, it’s not like any political party is going to just give us a watchdog over their private army).

  12. Fisiani 12
    12 April 2010 at 7:48 pm

    The number of New Zealanders receiving an Unemployment Benefit dropped by almost 4000 in the last month, while overall benefit figures fell by 11,477.

    8,316 people went off a benefit because they found work.
    Good balance to “the sky is falling in” usually found here.

    • Zorr 12.1
      12 April 2010 at 8:12 pm

      Any evidence for those figures Fisiani?

      I would be interested in seeing them.

      • Fisiani 12.1.1
        12 April 2010 at 10:49 pm

        Look at National.org. I just cut and pasted.

        • Marty G 12.1.1.1
          12 April 2010 at 11:05 pm

          the decrease was the normal seasonal variation.

          post on it coming tomorrow champ.

        • Draco T Bastard 12.1.1.2
          12 April 2010 at 11:55 pm

          Yeah, um, National don’t have any sort of credibility when it comes to numbers. I think they get confused by them.

          So, got any credible sources for that?

  13. Fisiani 13
    12 April 2010 at 7:53 pm

    Unemployment goes up – Evil National.
    Unemployment goes down – Evil National

    • The Voice of Reason 13.1
      12 April 2010 at 8:57 pm

      Try reading past the headlines, Fisiani. Even Bennett isn’t claiming the credit for this one. The numbers dropped because last month was the height of temporary seasonal work and large numbers of students were heading back to the lecture theatres.

  14. Fisiani 14
    12 April 2010 at 9:36 pm

    And the reason for the rise was the same but the sky was still falling in.