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notices and features - Date published:
6:00 am, September 12th, 2010 - 26 comments
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The current rise of populism challenges the way we think about people’s relationship to the economy.We seem to be entering an era of populism, in which leadership in a democracy is based on preferences of the population which do not seem entirely rational nor serving their longer interests. ...
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Govt to push through emergency quake laws
Anyone else have an uneasy feeling about what might get tagged on to/incorporated/hidden in this?
The shock doctrine?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/4119579/Matt-McCarten-has-his-own-take-on-cancer
The ‘Stuff’ header says: “The Union Hardman’s Cancer Battle”
– So I was already bristling with the stereotypical union meme – straight out of the biased media depiction of union leaders I grew up with. At least in those days the unions actually were militant at times. And the reporter seems to have perservered with her unionist-thug angle right through the story.
I suspect it’s an angle McCarten would have preferred to the saccharine sympathy and fawning that usually characterises this kind of story, but she’s painted him as a cartoon caricature of a ‘baddie’ unionist IMO.
Anyway, it’s the reporter’s portrayal of the Alliance split that seriously pissed me off. – McCarten didn’t accept that Labour had returned to its labour roots – really? – can the anonymous ‘Anderton camp’ really say that with straight faces in 2010?
It seems there always was a mosque at ground zero, a Muslim prayer room on the 17th floor of the south tower.
On any given day, Mr. Abdus-Salaam’s companions in the prayer room might include financial analysts, carpenters, receptionists, secretaries and ironworkers. There were American natives, immigrants who had earned citizenship, visitors conducting international business — the whole Muslim spectrum of nationality and race.
This is just so fucked up, from the national review, body part pr0n!!
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/246243/disturbing-map-daniel-foster
Alissa Torres writes in Salon, The media duped us.
As I watch other victims argue over Park51, I feel like reporters turned us into the experts we never were
The more things change.
From a marine’s letter, OCT 06
Most Profound Man in Iraq — an unidentified farmer in a fairly remote area who, after being asked by Reconnaissance Marines if he had seen any foreign fighters in the area replied “Yes, you.”
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1543658,00.html
Auditor wants power to force MPs to answer
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/4112512/Auditor-wants-power-to-force-MPs-to-answer
Council debt soars
Some councils have increased their debt loads by more than 500%.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/business/4093499/Manukau-City-offers-350m-bonds-issue-as-debt-soars
Quake exposes appalling insurance anomaly
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/news/4120015/Quake-exposes-appalling-insurance-anomaly
Deborah Coddington says:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10672703
It seriously sucks that Coddington conflated foreign investment in manufacturing, finance and insurance into the same category. The first is a part of the real productive economy, the last two often the province of the international money go-round and financial speculators.
And there is no way I can see her figures being correct.
$219B of foreign investment in NZ manuf/finance/insurance??? I have a feeling that is more than the country’s GDP. Enough to rebuild Christchurch 75-100x over. Don’t know about you but I didn’t see anywhere near that magnitude of money go into building the country’s productive capacity last year.
Where the heck does she get those figures.
And if that level of capital is being funneled into the country – why do we still have families who can’t afford to buy meat and milk every day.
Heard a replay of comment by Peter Dunne, Revenue Minister criticising media coverage of Christchurch. What a senseless outburst, all in a deep, confident tone of a supposedly intelligent man. No doubt he was talking his brand of ‘commonsense’ which is really just shallow thinking.
Yeah looking forwards to Dunne being given the boot in 2011.
Hi for those interested more evidence climate change is gathering pace.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/travel/Arctic%20continuing%20down%20death%20spiral/3509174/story.html
Here are a couple more about the Artic Ice:
Physorg.com Sep 7, 2010 “Climate: New study slashes estimate of icecap loss”
BBC Hardtalk Aug 18, 2009 (youtube)“Greenpeace Leader Admits Arctic Ice Exaggeration”
arcus.org Pan-Arctic Summary Sep 1, 2010 “September Sea Ice Outlook: August Report”
IARC-JAXA Information System (IJIS) Sep 10, 2010 “Data of Sea Ice Extent (Graph)”
It’s amazing how the trends from 2002 to 2010 are soo uniform.
Climate is most definitely changing – anyone who won’t admit that climate is changing must be living in a vacuum.
http://www.postcarbon.org/video/136726-bill-mckibben-on-david-letterman/12877-climate
Great interview with Bill McKibben on Letterman on climate change.
http://www.billmckibben.com/index.html
Refer link for brilliant explanation we now live on a different Earth to the one of 40 years ago Climate change is here. Bill Mckibben has written a book Eaarth with two a’s to illustrate this fact.
The irony . . . it burns.
Find it interesting that no one here seems to be mentioning the allegations of electoral irregularities up auckland way. Too close to home? So not going to mention it?
Sunday’s not one of our big news days, and this doesn’t seem like a major event. So it may show up early next week – or it may not – depends if any writer gets interested.
appreciate the quiet sunday. but how is it not a big story?
Another C&R smear . . . yawn.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10672889
Oh dear, why does Auntie HoS have to remind their readers that Onslow Road, Mt Eden is connected with former PM Helen Clark – the reporter was positively salivating about it rather than the fact that some unfortunate guy had been murdered there. It rather seems that Helen Clark just may have had a point about the clientele who live at said property. At least the Sunday Star-Times simply reported the facts.
Ten years ago . . . ten fucking years ago!!! In the interim, John Banks sold the council’s sheltered accommodation for psych patients who, poor souls, have had to cluster into these 19th century doss houses. Why didn’t the tabloids follow that up . . . seems far more pertinent to the issue than Helen signing a neighbourhood petition a decade ago. FFS!!
Also the submission process removed some of the worst features of the boarding house proposal, namely the bedrooms with windows so close to the neighbours they were proposed to have opaque glass, and the bedrooms opening straight off the living areas which were really noisy etc.
It was, and still is, a grotty dump, stuck on the front of a lovely old villa and all about cramming as many poor people as possible into the space.