An interesting sideline from a Herald article on the popularilty of Facebook in NZ, this morning:
The next highest ranked site was Blogger, with a monthly unique audience of 803,000.
Seeing as many blogs (like The Standard) don’t use the Blogger site, it might well be that about a quarter of the population visitis the blogosphere every month. That’s a hell of a lot of shut-ins sitting in darkened rooms, and an audience that politicians ignore and/or deride at their peril.
From memory, the four most popular blogs according to the sitemeter data, are all political.
Also, useful data in answer to R0b’s questions about the importance of the blogosphere. Maybe the answer is ‘significant and growing’.
With the obvious partisan nature of our MSM Blogs will continue to rise in their relevance and weight on many issues.
It’s the new media containing fresh and open commentary that people are up for more and more these days rater than the tired hacks and pundits everyone’s seen peddling their bias for decades.
Obama showed the power of the web via social, blog and webcast bypassing the old world media.
The neat thing about websites, including blogs is that everything on the internet can be checked and tracked. Like site demographics for example. You’d think someone would be smart enough to utilise this.
As I recall, Anthony said something about facebook having more of a role in the future than blogs. My preference is for blogs because they can have more of a group or community focus. Facebook is designed around individuals and their links and it is also increasingly becoming a means of delivering individuals to commercial interests. Yes r0b said:
I also think that blogs may be peaking, and that other forms of media (Twitter, Facebook groups) may come to assimilate their role.
I think blogs are a necessary corrective to the corporate dominance of the MSM. Not that everything that appears in the mainstream news/media is bad, but everything needs to be considered critically.
Not that everything that appears in blogs is impartial or fact-based either. And given most blogs only have one admin or mod, they are often just as much about the indivual – Cf. FailOil and that funny little man who looks like an evil baby (his name escapes me – sounds like “farter”?)
FB is under pressure to demonstrate revenues matching its overblown valuation. Which means that their ads and other commercial intrusions are going to worsen over time. Making it more likely that people will get sick of the in your face salesmanship and wave goodbye to them.
Speaking of Dotcom, I wonder if he will run for Parliament? I am actually picking he will, on a platform of internet freedom, copyright reform and civil libertarianism.
I also think the extradition charges will be dropped.
Just when you thought Radio NZ was safe from the neo-liberal barbarians who want to turn it into just another commerical station with hate-filled talkback, endless Katy Perry reruns and crude DJ’s making fun of Louisiana trailer park inhabitants with spontaenusly combusting private parts…it looks like CEO Peter Cavanagh is resigning, and the search is on for a new CEO who would be less resistant to things like sponsorship and more commercial enroachment.
Fate is not without a sense of irony. In 1966 a few mates sought to buy a tramp steamer, fit it out with broadcast equipment and sail into international waters to broadcast Radio Hauraki, challenging an NZBC monopoly that was seen as stuffy, conservative and set in its way, with the government going all out to stop it.
Now, almost 50 years laters, it is the private commerical radio sector that is out of touch, stuffy and set in its ways, with the non-commercial, community sector, as well as Radio NZ seen as the innovators and the ‘something different’, and the government, at the request of the commercial broadcasters, is seeking out to smother it.
===========================
Already the articles about zoning are starting to filter out. with parents paying top dollar for houses in the Auckland Grammar zone, and parents who miss out deciding to send their kids to private school instead. Nothing disgusts the new ‘mum and dad’ kiwis more than their kids having to learn along side working class and beneficary children. All sorts of bad ideas and nasty diseases can come from them.
============================
Another round of tenders goes out for NZDF housing (supposedly surplus). Would love to know why the media isnt looking into this more closely.
Some looking round Facebook and the messageboard forum reveals NZDF personell who are reportedly being turfed out of NZDF homes, as part of the Defence cuts. And another thing, while I accept that our service people want to find their own accomodation and buy their own houses (not like they cant afford it), why isnt the surplus houising being used to alleviate our housing shortages, rather than be snapped up as holiday homes and farming accomodation?
“Nothing disgusts the new ‘mum and dad’ kiwis more than their kids having to learn along side working class and beneficary children. All sorts of bad ideas and nasty diseases can come from them.”
One can only hope the benefits of private education makes the children turn out a lot smarter than their parents.
It’s rightly said that inter generational benefit dependency is a bad thing.
Sons and daughters of Epsom man, cast off your chains.
National wants a US styled class system in New Zealand, when National is finished NZ will be have even more inequality and poverty than parts of the US. The difference in the US though is that employeers care, no employeers care any more in New Zealand. One US supermarket chain Giant (which I go to) helped pay for one of their staff member’s medical treatment (to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars), don’t get compassion like that in NZ any more.
Rightly said. We are a country divided. For the first time in eons I read Rosemary McLeod’s piece in the Press this morning. Normally she is like a wishy washy laundromat but she hit a nail on the head describing how our nation is becoming more divided.
To support this she pointed to Kawhia and the attack on the copper, plus the recent Featherston murder. She is correct, and though she did not state it, it was clear the divide is along financial lines, racial lines, lifestyle lines, the whole lot lines. I have noticed it more too in our wider circles – people are quicker now to spark up on these lines. People are unhappy, on both sides of the line.
And this National government,,, well, it is pretty clear which side of the lines they represent. Bash the beneficiary, give money to the private schools, take money away from the local schools, bring back the class system, introduce drug testing to every sector except your own, give welfare to the farmers and the businessmen, villify the poor.
And then you get wankers who post on here and of course publicly state the same like Wayne and King Kong yesterday who refer to people who can’t get jobs as “lazy losers’. Well it is no wonder we are divided and it is no wonder that people such as Wayne and King Kong are the ones who feel they have to cross the road for fear of being the next one to get ‘stuck’.
There is no truer saying than one reaps what one sows.
Obama has proposed the restricting of the availability of assault weapons and his proposal has been met by the usual response that he wants to take away all guns from all americans, even the sane ones.
The Republicans have responded by indicating they will oppose. The NRA has released an ad asking why should Obama’s kids be protected by armed guards but everyone else’s kids are not. I thought the answer was simple. There are far too many gun touting nuts in the States who have a pathological hatred of the President. Attacking his kids in this way is bound to harden Obama’s resolve.
And the conspiracy theorists have started suggesting that the Sandy Hook was a Government sponsored hoax. Some poor guy who helped out some kids from the school has been harassed and accused of being part of a Government hoax. There is even a youtube video doing the rounds which hints darkly at how it is all a conspiracy to remove guns from decent Americans.
It seems a sizeable number of Americans occupy a different planet to the rest of us …
“It seems a sizeable number of Americans occupy a different planet to the rest of us …”
One can reach that conclusion a lot of the time, however I can assure you there are a lot of people I know over there who look at their newspapers and pundits and have the same WTF reaction and shake of the head that we do.
I quite liked Jon Stewart’s line that the 2nd amendment is indeed inviolable. Gun owners should have the right to possess as many black powder muzzle-loading muskets as they want. Hell, even let them have the bayonets, too.
Because protecting the President (and family) involves that level of security, really can’t see why the GOP thinks ‘consistancy’ implies overturning a policy that likely goes as far back as FDR, or even further. Then again, the GOP hates Obama and children that don’t believe in fundmentalist christianity.
You mean that Barack Obama was born in the US, is neither a Muslim nor a Socialist, is not planning the disarming of all Americans and their incarceration into slave camps and is not planning the usurpation of US control to the World Government but the NRA is a corporate front??
If you think Obama, or the Republicans give a toss about the American people you would be wrong!
MS – Have you read, watched or bothered to spend anytime piecing together the events as they were *reported* by the MSM, and realised that the conspiracy you’re looking for is in the forming of the *official story*.
If you follow the development via the MSM along, you will clearly be able to understand that the conspiracy, is with the forming of the narrative pumped, followed by using the event to peddle political agendas, instead of putting in place measure which will address the root causes of any such events.
The NRA have got nothing on the Federal Government or their global sponsors the war cartel that is the banking industry/Wall St. Banking industry/Wall St = bombs, bullets, guns, tanks, chemical weapons, nuclear weapons, war, death etc, and people are worried about the NRA. Maybe be worried about the entities who put the R, in NRA!
It doesnt help that, from what I understand, that one of the founding fathers wrote words to the effect that if the government got too powerful, or implemented the wrong policy setting(s), the people were within their rights to overthrow it and put in a new one.
Maybe go look into who said what Millsy, then the context that it was spoken, and the situations it was referring which would arise, and how to nullify them, let us know when you have the information to give your comment some meaning.
Sitting back and letting the government *do what thou wilt*, and believing there is nothing the people can/should do, which will stop it, is how nations got into the diabolical predicaments they are presently in, and why there is so much suffering around the world. Comments here also illustrate just how pathetic the mindset of people is in NZ.
Note, private guns are not responsible for an overwhelming % of the global suffering!
A piece of NZ research (findings to be published later this year) shows that “money can buy happiness”.
Except, reading down the article, it’s more that a certain level is more likely to result in happiness than being in poverty – what a surprise!
“Poorer people tended to report more stress, less happiness, lower levels of satisfaction with their lives, and a lower ability to meet basic needs and life necessities.
“The comforting belief that poorer people are compensated by increased happiness and less stress is a delusion in the New Zealand context, and a dangerous one at that.”
But when it came to the link between income and quality of life, the dollar amount wasn’t as notable as a percentage jump in pay packets, Mr Sengupta said.
People whose income doubled from $10,000 to $20,000 reported the same boost in happiness as $100,000-earners whose income rose to $200,000.
“Income does predict how happy people are going to be with their lives . . . regardless of how much they earn.”
But the sample surveyed has a noticeable gender imbalance:
The research was based on statistical analysis of phone surveys of 2746 women and 251 men.
The median household income of those surveyed was $65,000.
While the survey was done in 2008 the results were unlikely to vary much today, because international research showed similar results at different times, Mr Sengupta said.
I remember reading a few studies like this when I was at uni – they all pretty much showed that money increases happiness significantly while it increases to a certain point. Once you get past this point (its the point where you no longer have to worry about money) the returns are diminishing.
On a similar vein when deciding on what motivates you for a job the amount you get paid isn’t a motivating factor, it can demotivate you if it isn’t high enough though. The thing that motivates you is the potential for future pay rises.
The Minister of Social Development has claimed National’s welfare changes,(stage 1),of being a raging success as the numbers of those receiving benefits has fallen to 2008 levels, apparently a drop of 17,000,
Paula of course hasn’t bothered to track where these 17,000 people went after they became Her idea of a raging success,
Should She have bothered, to find out where the individual beneficiaries ‘found work’ that is, She need look no further than the organizations of charity such as the City Missions in various cities who are now the sole means of support for a number of Paula’s success stories, with most of the other 16,000 and something having been driven from New Zealand to Australia as economic refugees,
Never mind Paula, when ‘the dream’ for you in particular and this scummy National Government is all over you seem to have a natural talent as a travel agent,(liars not being in demand anywhere in the economy)…
Bennett was interviewed on Radio NZ’s Checkpoint, but strangely, there was nothing to be heard from Ardern, or for that sake any other politician from the opposition, putting another kind of critical spin onto this story. Shame, shame, shame to Labour, I’d say!
Should have put together a VPN from china to a server at his home, then had that flip through on the work VPN.
Mind you, other than vetting the subbies who receive the data I’m not sure what they think the problem is: they apparently received high quality work for a price they thought was fair.
LOLZ, takes employment to it’s logical conclusion, 10 years from now China will be the source of all ‘labour’ and ‘Bob’ was just getting in ahead of the inevitable,
On a deeper note tho it simply highlights the failure of the Global Free Market Ism, should all currencies and all minimum wages of all the economies engaged in this little ‘competition’ have been of an equal value at the time the ‘competition’ began we all would have something like a coherent fully functioning economy…
Another Minister who it would seem has a questionable grasp on reality has Her Ministry,(Corrections), again appearing in the High Court at Auckland where an inmate of Paremoremo Maximum Security Prison, Arthur Taylor, having successfully argued before the High Court previously that the blanket ban on inmates smoking in New Zealand prisons was unlawful is now challenging Correction and the Minister over the labeling of Tobacco as ‘contraband’ thus denying the inmates who have the legal right to smoke in prisons the possession of Tobacco,
From news reports on RadioNZ National it appears that while Corrections have conceded that inmates have the legal right to smoke tobacco in their cells ‘other’ laws allow them to ban anything they want as being contraband,
You are excused if your reaction to such a quixotic situation is initially ”what the f**k”, and i dare recommend that the Minister in question, Judith Collins,(who else), might consider seeking psychiatric assistance as not only has Her moral compass become confused,(if She ever possessed such), but Her and Her Ministry appear to have not only been treating prison inmates unlawfully, they appear to have taken every step possible to continue that unlawful behavior simply to circumvent the previous decision of the High Court…
In news this morning ‘the HairDo’ (from Ohariu) Revenue Minister Peter Dunne signaled moves to close at least one tax loophole to the accompanying squeals and shrieks of rage from some Bizness spokesperson from some obscure Bizness organization i missed the names of,
Dunne says He plans on passing regulations where companies of a multi-national nature declare their profits in the lowest taxing jurisdiction in which they operate and declaring losses in the highest taxing jurisdiction,
It seems that for more years than i find it good for my mental health to consider such companies have been allowed to claim that what produced the ‘profit’ here in New Zealand was the part of the company registered in whichever tax haven and what produced the loss was down to the New Zealand arm of of the company even when any actual ‘physical business’ that produced that loss wasn’t done in New Zealand,
Who would have thunk it, export ya profits and import ya losses and RORT the New Zealand tax system every which way, now that’s Bizness efficiency for you,
Sounds to me like the whole f**king lot of them need locking up in a jail cell someplace…
We are hell bent on it because it IS a “mind your own business keep your nose out sort of thing”. There are bigger threats to society than 2 blokes getting hitched. Neo-liberalism being one. Even conservative right-wingers used to warn of the dangers of unleashing the capitalist system.
“Even conservative right-wingers used to warn of the dangers of unleashing the capitalist system.”
I know that.
Parties of the Left an Right fell into the thrall of neo liberlism, plus the postmodernist/feminist/identity politics crowd have helped suck the life force out of the Left.
“There are bigger threats to society than 2 blokes getting hitched.”
It’s the principle. Besides its still going to be socially corrosive. And the push is coming from the radicals – feminists/deconstructionists/neo marxists – not the real Left.
word to the wise: in debates involving sexuality, best avoid colourful but unpopular figurative expressions. Or at least specify what type of “necklacing” to which you refer. Somewhat distracting at first glance…
“Marriage isn’t a “mind your own business, keep your nose out!” kind of institution – it is a social/public recognition and honouring.”
If the state denies a freedom of choice because of sexual preference, then it goes way beyond institution and social honouring. It’s discrimination at it’s basest form.
Judging by most poll results I’ve seen, marriage equality is not much an issue unless one is a bit of a twat, so like most people, I say if it’s okay for one, it’s okay for all.
“It’s the principle.”
Is it bollocks. It’s just bigotry and ignorance.
“Besides its still going to be socially corrosive.”
I’m guessing mostly in yours and colin craig’s houses, but do feel free to march down Queen Street in opposition and get the public recognition and honouring you types really deserve.
“Marriage isn’t a “mind your own business, keep your nose out!” kind of institution – it is a social/public recognition and honouring.”
What is the purpose of a law?
The issue is the recognition given by the state to the arrangements of people in personal relationships or in corporate relationships of other kinds. Assuming that the church and state function separately (and to argue otherwise would be to argue for theocracy – and be my guest if you wish to do so), the state has no “moral” role whatsoever. The law’s role is purely to ensure that the “mechanism” of society functions with as little friction and as much constancy as possible.
OK, on those terms, then let heterosexual marriage be honoured as much as you like. Are laws created for the purpose of honouring? Are laws supposed to govern all social intercourse… such as the respect and honour we give to other people? Should a law determine how much respect and honour I give to another person? If not, why not? Suppose I don’t like someone – should a law tell me that no matter what I think, I should like them? The law does not require you to like or “honour” anything else, so why do you suppose that it requires you to like a gay couple?
Laws do not exist and are not made to “honour” people.
It’s not some weird obsession with your private lives where most people would mind their own business, think of K-P’s attention as a “social/public recognition and honouring.”
Back to the crazy assertion that marriage is a private matter, “Nobody elses business!”
But the whole point is marriage is the public recognition of a particular relationship – that’s what you lot are demanding. You want the state and/or society to recognise a particular type of relationship.
Not surprising though, considering the poor philosophical foundation of neo-marxism/deconstructionism/feminism.
So you do actually have an unhealthy interest in speculating about the sex lives of commenters here? You weren’t just honouring them with public recognition?
Bit of a sick, obsessive little turd then, aren’t you? Why should anyone give a flying fuck about the moral opinions of a pervert like you?
I assume that there are All Blacks who are mammals. That indicates that I must be fixated on mammals.
A little more seriously, considering that there are a constant percentage of the population who are gay, and that being gay is irrelevant (since it has not been positively proven to be otherwise) to one’s ability to play rugby, then the odds are that there are or have been in the recent past and near future, if not the present, gay All Blacks.
I also suppose that there are photons with a frequency of 6000 angstroms, without referring to any particular photon or photons in general.
I guess that I’m one of “They” who promote the 6000 Angstrom agenda. Or the mammalian agenda. Or something.
On the other hand, Occam’s razor would however suggest that KP is a bit of a loon who has a peculiar obsession with homosexuality verging on paranoia.
“As of December 2012, 1118 players have been All Blacks.” – Source
There are no good stats on the rates of same-sex attraction in the general New Zealand population, so let’s limit ourselves to what we can absolutely establish: people in committed relationships who’ve sought state recognition via civil union or marriage.
(Imagine how many more are just fucking.)
301 same-sex civil unions registered in the year ending 2011 out of (76 hetero civil unions and 20,231 marriages) = 1.5% of people in same-sex relationships committed enough to marry.
1.5% of 1,118 All Blacks = possibly a minimum of 16-17 non-heterosexual All Blacks over the history of the team.
Unfortunately there are no more accurate stats on actual rates of non-heterosexuality in the population of NZ, but this survey of youth returned a rate of 7.8% experiencing some level of attraction to their own sex.
So the odds that there is currently or has been a gay All Black are pretty good.
Of course, this probably just establishes my “fixation” with the concept of gay All Blacks, unlike the commenter who chose to initiate a conversation on the topic by blatantly misrepresenting what a columnist said and who categorically cannot accept the notion of an All Black liking the cock because it clashes with his notions of masculinity.
You keep referring to non hetrosexuality in your stats then jump to gay in your final statement.
You are just pulling it out of your arse.
You are one of those deconstructionist/postmodernists/neo marxists feminists, no?
If so you are totally contradicting your own philosophy which dismisses science and any possible objectivity or concrete reality to relate truth statements to ( statistics included).
You are one of those deconstructionist/postmodernists/neo marxists feminists, no?
I don’t know, old chap, you’re the one who keeps saying so.
All I did was use non-exclusive language while conveying my own thoughts and then echoing your own stunted understanding of human sexuality when referring to yours.
It is quite clear that Knight is saying that those in rugby (presumably players, caoches and administraters) should be supporting elite athletes about being open about their sexuality (if they choose to do so). One assumes you either didn’t read the column properly or deliberately misrepresented it.
You do realise that being homosexual is no longer a crime? Stop being a prat.
Aaron Mauger and Adam Thomson are at least 2 All Blacks that have been supportive of LGBT issues – hell it’s even happening in the US where Baltimore Ravens linebacker Brendan Ayanbadejo has been openly supporting LGBT issues and even raised the issue of gay players in the NFL and former fringe NFL player Wade Davis has now come out openly about being gay and other gay NFL players. If there are gay players in the NFL you can be damn sure there have been gay All Blacks (and almost certainly gay players at Super Rugby and ITM cup level).
At least unlike QofT you aren’t evasive about your chosen school of philosophy.
But post structuralist don’t believe in an objective reality, knowable via science – so you have contradicted yourself in a previous post.
And here it has to be asked – you claim to be on a crusade for “inclusiveness” and “social justice”.
But according to post structuralism they are basically meaningless terms – arbitrary constructs you have created. No more right or wrong than the Nazi construct of “Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer “.
Well, he’s just done a Godwin Version 1.2 anyway, so debate in as light or as serious or as absurd or as sarcastic a tone as you like. A decade ago he’d have said “Feminazi” – which is version 1.0, then a couple of years later he’d have said “I didn’t call you a Nazi – I just said that you were exactly like a Nazi”, which is Version 1.1, but now it’s “Now I’m going to say that you’re saying things about me that I say that they said about Nazis!” I wonder how recursive 1.3 will be?
Yes – The Ravens (AFC) and the Vikings (NFC) are my 2 teams in the NFL – never really thought about them both having Purple playing uniforms before. Hmmm
(And although the Vikings are out of the playoffs, the Ravens play for the AFC Championship this weekend – after an extremely exciting win over the No.1 Denver Broncos last Sunday – and then hopefully it’s the Superbowl!)
Ravens dark wings, take to flight, Dive in and show them your might
Ummm – Sorry – back to the regular political discourse!
I’m beginning to think K_P’s a satirical character in the style of Ali G or David Brent. Basically with the objective of being interviewed by Rush Limbaugh and called “too extreme”.
I mean, the line where he said you were pulling “gay” out of your arse is too obvious a reference to me missed by someone who is that obsessed with other people’s sex lives, but then they would have used at least an exclamation mark, and maybe a smiley face, just in case someone missed how much of a comedic talent they possessed.
McF. Maybe, but in my experience, there really are people that thick, and lots of them. There really are people amazed and utterly baffled by the demand that they produce evidence to support their assertions and think that name-calling and robotic blithering about deconstruction, the Jews or whatever is equivalent to reasoned argument. And they vote.
The other side of Poe’s Law, I suppose… It doesn’t matter if KP is real or not because there are people who think like that and their arguments must be opposed publicly.
You do realise that statistically it’s impossible that there aren’t gay All Blacks. I really can’t do much about the rest of your woeful ignorance, but if you are going to be a pathetic bigot (probably a self-loathing closet case internalising all that homophobia), you could at least acknowledge reality.
Labour’s Summer School 2013 is just over two weeks away!
Labour’s annual Summer School is a unique opportunity for Party members of all ages from all over the country to think about and discuss some of the biggest issues our country is facing in a relaxed environment. It encourages Labour members to think beyond day-to-day politics and to push the boundaries of what we can achieve.
This year the programme includes the first speech of the year from leader David Shearer. David will speak on Labour’s political priorities for 2013 in a media inclusive session on the Sunday afternoon.
Where: Brookfield Scout Camp, 562 Moores Valley Road, Wainuiomata
(only 40mins from Wellington)
It seems that in the past 5 years, 864 state houses were sold. Of that number, 269 were sold in the past year (The highest number).
..and the HCC about outsourcing:
“……The major activities we currently contract out include:
• the operation of the three waste facilities such as the Refuse Transfer Station, Recycling Centre and the green waste recovery at the Hamilton Organic Centre.
• road construction and maintenance (including footpath, street lighting maintenance)
• waste and recycling collection
• legal services
Everything else from graffiti removal, CitySafe patrols, noise control, parking enforcement, parks and gardens and visitor information are all managed in-house. These are all listed in the “Our Services” section of the Annual Report….”‘
The annual report can be found on the HCC website.
Here’s a question that I would like an intelligent response to:
If gay marriage is ok because it doesn’t affect a straight guy or his marriage, then surely polygamy is ok because it doesn’t affect a straight guy or his marriage?
Oh, too easy. How does the restriction of marriage to straight folks affect gay folks?
You talk in pseudo-scientistic (ref, “scientistic” = “scientism”, not science) about “objective” reality, therefore you have to prove that marriage is as grounded in objective reality as Keplerian dynamics. I’d like an intelligent, empirical response to that.
If gay marriage is ok because it doesn’t affect a straight guy or his marriage, then surely polygamy is ok because it doesn’t affect a straight guy or his marriage?
Aside from the deliberate and disingenuous red herring of invoking the slippery slope argument, what is your objectivist reason for calling it wrong? No metaphysics please.
“How does the restriction of marriage to straight folks affect gay folks?”
They don’t get to marry. But how has your question answered my original question?
“you have to prove that marriage is as grounded in objective reality as Keplerian dynamics.”
More evasiveness in the form of meaningless jargon. Are you a post modernist like Karol?
Here’s a good example of mumbo jumbo from the oracle of Deconstructionism, Derrida:
“The Einsteinian constant is not a constant, is not a center. It is the very concept of variability — it is, finally, the concept of the game. In other words, it is not the concept of something — of a center starting from which an observer could master the field — but the very concept of the game. ”
You can see why I think you might be a devotee of his, Rhino, LOL.
“deliberate and disingenuous red herring of invoking the slippery slope argument”
Pretty straight forward question, why can’t the “No harm to YOUR marriage” argument be applied to polygamy or love between a brother and sister?
You can’t answer it can you, Rhino, that’s why you’ve freaked out.
Illogical, circular argument which does not address the basis for the argument.
Are you a post modernist like Karol?
Irrelevant insinuation and argumentum ad hominem.
Here’s a good example of mumbo jumbo
Distraction. A broad categorisation and insinuation is irrelevant to this case.
Pretty straight forward question, why can’t the “No harm to YOUR marriage” argument be applied to polygamy or love between a brother and sister?
Irrelevant. Prove empirically the basis of your argument and – this is crucial – show that it applies as an objection to marriage equality.
You repeatedly state that your beliefs are somehow “objective”. If this is the case, it should be possible to do so using references to generally accepted scientific principles. Cite them. However you refuse to do so, instead you use the “Ew, postmodernists!” argument, which is not an argument at all. It’s name-calling – you may as well say that I’m a ginga.
um – love between a brother and sister has negative genetic repercussions in the case of procreation, but also often involves consent issues relating to the power relationships within the pre-existing familial structure, plus an issue relating the desired margin for error in addressing those issues on a case by case basis.
Inbred, usually fucked up, and too difficult to fairly separate out the few non-fucked-up situations without letting through a few fucked up ones.
Personally I have no problem with it between consenting adults but there are much more involved legal issues with polygamy which would have to be dealt with. Although this in an American context you can look at some of the issues here .
Don’t see why marriage between same sex couples needs to be delayed while polygamy is sorted out though.
Would you like to move on to bestiality now? I’m sure there are some goats near you that might be interested in having that sorted out.
And if reproduction is the determinant, what about cloning, mitosis or even mimesis? You’ve got to look out for slippery slopes – they’re everywhere! For example, is not “indoctrination” a form of spreading memes, which are encoded information, just like genes? In that case, all people involved in teaching, or any form of cultural production, or for that matter anyone who persuades anyone of anything, a shameless slut, producing countless bastard offspring?
I say we ban mimetic reproduction! No more education, certainly not education state-sanctioned by the conferment of degrees!
And don’t you start mentioning siblings either… Rand only knows what implied filth siblings get up to with their “familial interdependence”!
And every corporation should have boards of infertile people of the different sexes, just as long as they don’t reproduce because all unions are somehow representative of the duality of genders but not necessarily dependent on the capacity of those involved to reproduce and… otherwise we’d have to ban the marriage of post-menopausal women… right, now I realise that not every board can have just two members, to make the point that all associations must be between opposite genders but not necessarily interfertile couples, so I suggest that there be new genders invented so that people can freely enter into state-sanctioned and assuredly secular associations having nothing to do with reproduction, nosiree, and that… oh shit, where was I? Anyway, something about inventing new sexes, as long as they’re different, no matter how many there are, and not having children, ‘cos we’d have to ban infertile people and it has nothing to do with what God, Allah, Yahweh, the Flying Spaghetti Monster or any other arbitrary deity determine and, and… because science!
Or to cut through all that shit, since “science”, or rather a contingent stereotype of science is invoked by KP, what is the empirical, peer-reviewed and generally accepted scientific basis across all disciplines that is not grounded in any way in any metaphysics for the state to sanction and favour over any form of association over another? Current popularity is not sufficient because it has been established by an explicitly religious accommodation – hence there is an obvious bias – and moreover, it is generally justified by arguments that are metaphysical.
The current legislation is about gay marriage between two people, you’re the one who has dishonestly invoked the slippery slope argument and I’ve brought up the reductio ad absurdam. Of course you’re too thick to understand that. Now you’re trying to divert matters.
Tell me, and again, I ask you to bring up scientific evidence, since you keep ranting on about it, what is the scientific basis for your objection in relation to the current bill?
And the pro gay marriage lot furiously deny that polygamy is next.
That’s the problem with the PGM crowd, their revision of the definition of marriage leaves them having to accept all kinds of arrangements as marriage if they want to remain consistent.
Actually, the pro gay marriage crowd furiously deny that child-marriage or turtle-sex is next.
Who gives a fuck about polygamy? I mean, one could argue that beyond a certain number the close relationship implied by “marriage” might not be able to be maintained (e.g. 400 husbands), but the real issue for same-sex marriage is informed and free consent between two people with a strong bond.
And the whole point is your revisionist definition can’t stop the rest of the BS.
If you think you can chuck out the gender bit because it is “discriminatory” and revise the definition to consent and love, what argument do you give for limiting it to a specific number of participants?
In fact if you want to remove the heterosexual act of coitus bit, what is your argument for not removing sex from the definition all together – that way a couple of old mates cohabiting could get married to. Or grandma and her grandchild living with her out of circumstance?
what argument do you give for limiting it to a specific number of participants?
Well, exactly. That is what you’re trying to say, and claiming that it’s a matter for the state.
Give me the scientific reason for the state to by legislation favour the bond between fertile individuals who produce children through the fertilisation of egg by sperm. Otherwise, you’ll have to find some pretty damn compelling arguments that somehow aren’t metaphysics and which aren’t therefore “objective”.
Why do think I’m forced to give a scientific argument?
It’s a philosophical one. After all this is political philosophy ( which scientific knowledge may contribute to ).
Is it because I pointed out the deconstructionist denial of scientific objectivity – so you now fly off the handle demanding I give a scientific argument on an issue of political philosophy?
Why do think I’m forced to give a scientific argument?
Because you claim that your assertions have some sort of basis in scientific reality, idiot.
It’s a philosophical one. After all this is political philosophy ( which scientific knowledge may contribute to ).
So it may you now say. That’s not what you said before. You said that your claims have a basis in “objective” reality, which is constant and all-pervading by definition.
You claim repeatedly that it is your arguments that do have a basis scientific reality. Now you deny that, suddenly invoking the vague – i.e.., meaningless – term of “political philosophy”.
Is it because I pointed out the deconstructionist denial of scientific objectivity – so you now fly off the handle demanding I give a scientific argument on an issue of political philosophy?
No, it’s because you are inconsistent even with your own explicitly stated premises and refuse repeatedly to substantiate your points according to those premises.
Now show me the money. This has nothing to do with deconstruction and has everything to do with you backing up your own claims on the very terms that you say supports them.
Hang on: your argument against same-sex marriage isn’t that it is harmful, just that you can’t think of any reasons why other non-traditional forms of marriage shouldn’t exist?
I’ve responded to your polygamy and incest examples elsewhere in the thread.
What is a public good? Why is “marriage”, defined as a union between fertile man and women as opposed to civil union between same-sex couples, fertile heterosexual couples, infertile heterosexual couples or marriage between infertile heterosexual couples a public good? Explain, with citations.
That’s the problem with the PGM crowd, their revision of the definition of marriage leaves them having to accept all kinds of arrangements as marriage if they want to remain consistent.
In any case, even as a thought experiment, justify your advocacy for the state recognition and limitation of marriage as being between two people of the opposite sex as opposed to any other arrangement, without metaphysics, which means that reproductive viability or performance as “role models”, real or symbolic, is ruled out.
Why should the state recognise “marriage” in any form at all as opposed to a civil union?
Come on Mr Science, give me the peer-reviewed objective papers accepted across all relevant fields that prove this.
Show me the money!
By the way, is “public good” different from “legal reality”? I’d still like to know the answers to these questions if it’s the same:
What is a “a legal reality”? Is what is legislated real? If the law changes, does the reality change? If the fact that slavery was once legal mean that slavery is always legal? Does the fact that polygamy is legal in some countries make it real everywhere, does the fact that gay marriage in some countries is legal make it real everywhere?
I don’t care what it is if it can’t be substantiated. If it cannot be substantiated, if it does not have any recognition by anyone other than the voices in your head, then it is irrelevant.
It’s certainly not a science, I gather, since you refuse to provide any empirical basis for your statements, despite repeatedly saying that you had some.
Now how about answering a question? Any of them. Perhaps another? Which colour do you prefer, blue or orange?
Or, more to the point, justify one single assertion that you have made according to any objective principle with citations or according to verifiable “political philosophy”.
Only if you answer a completely off-topic, intended-to-derail-serious-conversation question of mine first. Except I’m not an unoriginal copy-pasting MRAbot.
And there KP shows how his “mind” works. The twit couldn’t even pass the Turing Test.
Come on Mister Science, produce the empirical, “objective” material to support your assertions. Prove you’re better! What’s a legal reality? Is it the same as objective reality, even is legal realities change? Does that mean by law you can change the speed of light, or does it mean that if you can’t, the speed of light isn’t subject to law and that law is not the same as objective reality?
I already did, sweetums. Back in September. From the record it looks like you ran away and hid rather than acknowledge that your sources were bullshit.
That’s a really shit question.
Marriage equality isn’t okay because it doesn’t affect anyone else, it’s okay because everyone is equal, and discrimination based on sexual preference is wrong.
You can try linking polygamy into the argument, but ultimately the sanctity or validity of one’s marriage isn’t shaped by their neighbours marriage or a tv celeb couple’s marriage or whoever.
You have no argument to win, especially with such poorly informed opinion.
Q. If polygamy were legal for straights, would you oppose it for homosexuals?
Is it a public institution or simply a tradition? What makes it a public institution as opposed to civil unions? Civil unions are explicitly secular whereas marriage is hardly marriage if it is shorn of its spiritual component – unless you are able to prove that a civil union is in essence indistinguishable from marriage – or otherwise you must prove that the state must inevitably incorporate a theocratic component, in which case, considering the various religious interpretations of marriage, you must either reconcile all religions or justify one religion in particular. You therefore have to say that someone’s religious faith is everyone’s business and – another leap – subject to regulation by the state.
You don’t have to get married in a Churh, you can get married by an Elvis impersonator if you really want.
OK, suppose a polygamous Mormon shows up. What is the value of a Mormon versus someone married by an Elvis impersonator? What is your position on gay Mormon Elvis impersonators? Present your argument “scientifically”.
Your argument that marriage isn’t a public institution because it contains a spiritual component is La La Land stuff.
Why and how?
You invoke “science” repeatedly. Do so now, stop moving the goalposts. Justify the favouring of an institution by empirical and consistent means.
Then what makes it marriage then, as opposed to a civil union, remembering that there are marriages that are polygamous and therefore inevitably have – symbolically if not actually – a homosexual element?
What is a “a legal reality”? Is what is legislated real? If the law changes, does the reality change? If the fact that slavery was once legal mean that slavery is always legal? Does the fact that polygamy is legal in some countries make it real everywhere, does the fact that gay marriage in some countries is legal make it real everywhere?
What is a “legal reality”? Is it like physics, like – you know, science?
Better yet – if you want to revise the tax code, yeah everyone else gets to see what the fuck you are wanting to change and why and block you if it isn’t for the public good.
You’re the one insisting that because marriage is a “public institution”, it must be public business. It’s not my problem if your argument doesn’t hold up to a light breeze.
Well. In fact I think income tax should be public.We would soon see who is ripping off the system. And it ain’t those on welfare. It would very quickly shut the cockies up, for a start.
However, I have no wish to even think about what some people do in their bedrooms. Imagining some of our political masters having sex, is a truly mind fouling prospect.
A public library is also a public institution, but I have no interest in whatever horrible, low brow and probably horrific books you might borrow, if indeed you read at all – which I somehow doubt.
One in two marriages fail.
What have you done personally to intervene and protect this so called ‘public institution’?
Or is it just gays and lesbians that motivate?
Moot point this marriage equality debate – It’s a done deal in parliament, and with the support of the majority.
Why does everyone have such a problem with one group in society wanting its own institution separate from others? It’s not as if that is anything new now is it. In fact specific institutions and organisations and groups for separate parts of society is the way these things are going – separate parts for separate groups. And that is good – viva la difference!
Imo gay people who want to tie a knot in it should get their own institution and leave those straight people alone ffs instead of gate-crashing someone else’s party.
Mind you, arguing against that, single people both straight and gay and tri and buy share the same institution of singleness.
In fact, a little further, perhaps the straight married crowd should simply wander off and set up another institution just for themselves and leave marriage to the non-straights.
Yes, I do actually – that’s why I’m calling you out because you are full of shit. Every New Zealander should have exactly the same rights as every other New Zealander – anything else is apartheid and a symptom of a sick society. I’m gay, and what you think I should or shouldn’t be able to do based on that is entirely irrelevant to me and most people like me because it’s nothing to do with you and everything to do with fairness and justice.
First sentence “Yes, I do actually – that’s why I’m calling you out because you are full of shit.”
Irrelevant.
Second sentence: “Every New Zealander should have exactly the same rights as every other New Zealander – anything else is apartheid and a symptom of a sick society.”
I don’t disagree and there was no reason for you to think otherwise. I merely outlined that currently “apartheid” as you put it is alive and growing in our society. And endorsed by govt and many others organisations and people. It exists, so let everyone play by the same rules.
In addition, you non-thinking egg, the rights are equal, just different institutions. No problema with same rights, as has been stated many many times.
Third sentence: “I’m gay, and what you think I should or shouldn’t be able to do based on that is entirely irrelevant to me and most people like me because it’s nothing to do with you and everything to do with fairness and justice.”
Why don’t you apply that to straight people too? You actually argue against your second sentence when you state that what you do is nothing to do with anyone else and you should be able to do what you like. Same with people who want an institution solely for straight people tying the knot – what they think or want is nothing to do with you either, so butt out. Get your own party.
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8. The universe was ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Beaglehole, Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Otago niphon/Getty Images The number of people accessing medication for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in Aotearoa New Zealand increased significantly between 2006 and 2022. But the disorder is still under-diagnosed and ...
To celebrate the start of New Zealand music month, we look back at the best local tuneage that managed to weasel its way into Hollywood productions. There’s nothing quite like the thrilling zap of recognition when New Zealand weasels its way into a glamorous Hollywood production. Crack open a Tui ...
People trust other people more than institutions. So how can the media gain that trust through journalists without losing what’s important about the institution? Anna Rawhiti-Connell reflects on two years of curating the news for The Bulletin.Amonth ago, armed cops descended on my neighbourhood as calls to “lock your ...
Opinion: PFAS – per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances – are a class of thousands of man-made chemicals used widely in everyday consumer items such as textiles, packaging, and cookware, popular for their water, grease and stain-repellent properties. However, the very properties that make PFAS so attractive to manufacturers are also what ...
NONFICTION 1 The Last Secret Agent by Pippa Latour & Jude Dobson (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)’ This is the hottest book in New Zealand, number one with a bullet in its first week, selling more than any overseas title, and demand is so huge that it’s already been reprinted. A ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A,DIV,A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 3 May appeared first on Newsroom. ...
A warning – suicide is discussed in this podcast New Zealand’s own long-running soap Shortland Street doesn’t hesitate to kill off its much-loved characters. But would TVNZ dare to kill off our favourite soap? That’s the fear as times get tough in television – even though it’s been pointed out ...
Essay: If the Crown harms children, how do you hold it accountable? Analysis by Aaron Smale in light of the Waitangi Tribunal court decision. The post The Crown versus Māori Children appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Asia Pacific Report A West Papuan resistance leader has condemned the United Nations role in allowing Indonesia to “integrate” the Melanesian Pacific region in what is claimed to be an “egregious act of inhumanity” on 1 May 1963. In an open letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Organisasi Papua Merdeka-OPM ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra A key part of the Albanese government’s political strategy is to fill the news cycle with its presence and messaging. Ministers are deployed to the maximum, even when they’ve little to say. This week ...
Recent extreme weather events showed the importance of a well-functioning insurance system, says Commerce and Consumer Affairs minister Andrew Bayly. ...
By Jo Moir, RNZ News political editor, and Craig McCulloch, deputy political editor New Zealand’s Labour Party is demanding Winston Peters be stood down as Foreign Minister for opening up the government to legal action over his “totally unacceptable” attack on a prominent AUKUS critic. In an interview on RNZ’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christian Brakenridge, Postdoctoral research fellow at Swinburne University, Centre for Urban Transitions, Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute The Conversation, Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock People have a pretty intuitive sense of what is healthy – standing is better than sitting, exercise is great for overall ...
The Wellington-based Reserve Force soldier is now almost three years into his New Zealand Army career with 5th/7th Battalion, Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment. ...
"The Government needs to release the review immediately as this reckless approach to change risks disjointed decision making and creates more distress and uncertainty for staff," Fitzsimons said. ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor Jeremiah Manele has been elected Prime Minister of Solomon Islands, polling 31 votes to 18 over rival candidate and former opposition leader Mathew Wale with one abstention. The final result of the election by secret ballot was announced by the Governor-General, Sir David Vunagi, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Priestley Habru, PhD candidate, public diplomacy, University of Adelaide Former foreign minister Jeremiah Manele has been elected the next prime minister of Solomon Islands, defeating the opposition leader, Matthew Wale, in a vote in parliament. The result is a mixed bag for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shaun Eaves, Senior Lecturer in Physical Geography, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Jamey Stutz, CC BY-SA How often do mountains collapse, volcanoes erupt or ice sheets melt? For Earth scientists, these are important questions as we try ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Flood, Professor of Sociology, Queensland University of Technology Shutterstock Most young adult men in Australia reject traditional ideas of masculinity that endorse aggression, stoicism and homophobia. Nonetheless, the ongoing influence of those ideas continues to harm men and the people ...
The NZQA proposal released to staff today would involve a net loss of 35 roles. There are 66 roles being disestablished with 13 of those currently vacant, and 31 new roles proposed, said Fleur Fitzsimons Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga ...
Alex Casey talks to Loren Taylor, the writer, director and star of new film The Moon is Upside Down, about assembling her dream ensemble cast, toilet paper pads and turning literal dreams into reality. There’s a moment in The Moon is Upside Down where frazzled anaesthetist Briar (Loren Taylor) gets ...
Renters and realtors are upset with a government decision to scrap a bill meant to regulate property managers over concerns about unethical and unlawful behaviours. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cassy Dittman, Senior Lecturer/Head of Course (Undergraduate Psychology), Research Fellow, Manna Institute, CQUniversity Australia With winter sports swinging into action, adults around the country have volunteered or been volunteered by others (humorously known as being “volun-told”) to coach junior sports teams. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Karleen Gribble, Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Western Sydney University richardernestyap/Shutterstock Parents are often advised to burp their babies after feeding them. Some people think burping after feeding is important to reduce or prevent discomfort crying, or to ...
Workers at a major ASB contact centre in Auckland have voted to take strike action and withdraw their labour following disappointing pay negotiations with the employer and an "offer" to workers that would leave them worse off than the previous year. ...
As the government tries to get the country back on track with a school phone ban, Tara Ward has an idea for where they should turn their attention to next.New Zealand students returned to school on Monday morning, but their cellphones did not. The government’s new phone ban began ...
The Labour Party is demanding Peters be stood down, saying "he's embarrassed the country" with a "totally unacceptable" attack on a prominent AUKUS critic. ...
The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance, whose members were victims of a China-backed cyber attack, is discussing forming a standing committee to deal with foreign influence. ...
The PSA is concerned that the voluntary redundancies being offered to staff by Stats NZ will impact on the agency’s ability to deliver on its core functions. ...
Results ranged from surprisingly yum to soul-destroying. I love cooking. The kitchen is a hearth of culinary creation, of sensory delights, of gastronomic poetry. I also can’t afford anything nice. Why does a pack of instant noodles and some milk cost ten bucks? I love you, Aotearoa, but I miss ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor Police in Solomon Islands are on high alert ahead of the election of the prime minister today. The two candidates for the top job are former foreign affairs minister Jeremiah Manele at the head of the Coalition for National Unity and Transformation, which is ...
He’s fine but it feels like I’m losing a friend and it’s making me bitter. How do I say ‘enough is enough’? Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzHey Hera,I’ve recently moved in with a girlfriend, her partner Steve, and his friend. We all live in a lovely little house. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nick Chartres, Senior Research Fellow, Faculty of Medicine & Health, University of Sydney shutterstockAhmet Misirligul/Shutterstock You go to the gym, eat healthy and walk as much as possible. You wash your hands and get vaccinated. You control your health. This is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jacqueline Hendriks, Research Fellow and Lecturer, Curtin University Children and young people may be seeing news headlines about men murdering women or footage of people rallying to call for action. Perhaps they or their friends have even gone to the protests. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Balanzategui, Senior Lecturer in Media, RMIT University ABC “Bluey mania” shows no sign of abating. Bluey’s season finale, The Sign, was the most viewed ABC program of all time on iView. A “hidden” follow-up episode, aptly named The Surprise, created ...
Labour market figures came in softer than the Reserve Bank had forecast, but they won’t be enough to move the needle on interest rates, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Unemployment ...
The campaign will engage the community and encourage submissions on the bill to the New Zealand government by the closing submission deadline of Friday 31st of May 2024 4pm. ...
The paper raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand's political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency plays in that. ...
The Urban Habitat Collective was an attempt to built an innovative new form of apartment building in Wellington. Here’s why it failed, and why the idea could still work, writes co-founder Bronwen Newton. When we started the Urban Habitat Collective in November 2018, we thought we were starting a revolution, ...
Two decades ago this week, a controversial law that attempted to define ownership of the foreshore and seabed prompted a formidable display of outrage and kōtahitanga as 15,000 marched to parliament. Jamie Tahana looks back.‘Hīkoi, hīkoi,” they chanted by the thousands as the biggest Māori march in a generation ...
A Labour Party Member’s Bill aims to plug a culpability gap between manslaughter and health and safety breaches The post New push for corporate killing laws appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Terence O’Brien had the rare and no doubt undesired distinction of rising to one of the most exalted positions in New Zealand diplomacy, then being unceremoniously recalled to Wellington without explanation just when his career was at its zenith. What is perhaps more surprising is that he appears to have ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A,DIV,A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Thursday 2 May appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Why has New Zealand slipped from third to 12th on Quality of Death Indexes over the past decade or so? Hospice New Zealand Chief Executive Wayne Naylor has a list of reasons. “We don’t have a current national strategy – the Government hasn’t renewed our 2001 strategy, so we don’t ...
An interesting sideline from a Herald article on the popularilty of Facebook in NZ, this morning:
The next highest ranked site was Blogger, with a monthly unique audience of 803,000.
Seeing as many blogs (like The Standard) don’t use the Blogger site, it might well be that about a quarter of the population visitis the blogosphere every month. That’s a hell of a lot of shut-ins sitting in darkened rooms, and an audience that politicians ignore and/or deride at their peril.
From memory, the four most popular blogs according to the sitemeter data, are all political.
Also, useful data in answer to R0b’s questions about the importance of the blogosphere. Maybe the answer is ‘significant and growing’.
With the obvious partisan nature of our MSM Blogs will continue to rise in their relevance and weight on many issues.
It’s the new media containing fresh and open commentary that people are up for more and more these days rater than the tired hacks and pundits everyone’s seen peddling their bias for decades.
Obama showed the power of the web via social, blog and webcast bypassing the old world media.
The neat thing about websites, including blogs is that everything on the internet can be checked and tracked. Like site demographics for example. You’d think someone would be smart enough to utilise this.
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/blogspot.co.nz#demographics
Maybe the key is in the words “unique audience”.
I should have included a link:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10859596
I note the data comes from a Neilson survey of 3000 people.
From my brief reading, it does seem that the Alexa data is based on ‘total traffic’ rather than numbers of different readers.
A bit rude to delete a part of a comment that someone has answered, Aww.
As I recall, Anthony said something about facebook having more of a role in the future than blogs. My preference is for blogs because they can have more of a group or community focus. Facebook is designed around individuals and their links and it is also increasingly becoming a means of delivering individuals to commercial interests. Yes r0b said:
I think blogs are a necessary corrective to the corporate dominance of the MSM. Not that everything that appears in the mainstream news/media is bad, but everything needs to be considered critically.
Not that everything that appears in blogs is impartial or fact-based either. And given most blogs only have one admin or mod, they are often just as much about the indivual – Cf. FailOil and that funny little man who looks like an evil baby (his name escapes me – sounds like “farter”?)
mini-mean?
The Penguin?
Blog Davidian?
Twins?.
FB is under pressure to demonstrate revenues matching its overblown valuation. Which means that their ads and other commercial intrusions are going to worsen over time. Making it more likely that people will get sick of the in your face salesmanship and wave goodbye to them.
Google Zeitgeist also provided some interesting information about user searches.
The top news searches were:
Kim Dotcom
Tongariro
Transit Of Venus
Belarus
Marmite
Margaret Mahy
Jock Hobbs
White Island
Give Way Rules
Sophie Pascoe
Aside from Dotcom, they weren’t very political in nature. Nor were the top trending searches for New Zealanders.
Valerie Adams
Kimbra
Sarah Walker
Margaret Mahy
Mahe Drysdale
Nick Willis
Lisa Carrington
Mark Todd
Jock Hobbs
Martin Henderson
As politically inclined as we are, we may be in a bubble as to what interests the average NZer.
Speaking of Dotcom, I wonder if he will run for Parliament? I am actually picking he will, on a platform of internet freedom, copyright reform and civil libertarianism.
I also think the extradition charges will be dropped.
Is he a NZ citizen. He could stand for the NZ Pirate Party. He’d probably get in.
As the Pirate Party keeps it’s membership status secret, it’s possible he already is… Or isn’t…
Just when you thought Radio NZ was safe from the neo-liberal barbarians who want to turn it into just another commerical station with hate-filled talkback, endless Katy Perry reruns and crude DJ’s making fun of Louisiana trailer park inhabitants with spontaenusly combusting private parts…it looks like CEO Peter Cavanagh is resigning, and the search is on for a new CEO who would be less resistant to things like sponsorship and more commercial enroachment.
Fate is not without a sense of irony. In 1966 a few mates sought to buy a tramp steamer, fit it out with broadcast equipment and sail into international waters to broadcast Radio Hauraki, challenging an NZBC monopoly that was seen as stuffy, conservative and set in its way, with the government going all out to stop it.
Now, almost 50 years laters, it is the private commerical radio sector that is out of touch, stuffy and set in its ways, with the non-commercial, community sector, as well as Radio NZ seen as the innovators and the ‘something different’, and the government, at the request of the commercial broadcasters, is seeking out to smother it.
===========================
Already the articles about zoning are starting to filter out. with parents paying top dollar for houses in the Auckland Grammar zone, and parents who miss out deciding to send their kids to private school instead. Nothing disgusts the new ‘mum and dad’ kiwis more than their kids having to learn along side working class and beneficary children. All sorts of bad ideas and nasty diseases can come from them.
============================
Another round of tenders goes out for NZDF housing (supposedly surplus). Would love to know why the media isnt looking into this more closely.
Some looking round Facebook and the messageboard forum reveals NZDF personell who are reportedly being turfed out of NZDF homes, as part of the Defence cuts. And another thing, while I accept that our service people want to find their own accomodation and buy their own houses (not like they cant afford it), why isnt the surplus houising being used to alleviate our housing shortages, rather than be snapped up as holiday homes and farming accomodation?
“Nothing disgusts the new ‘mum and dad’ kiwis more than their kids having to learn along side working class and beneficary children. All sorts of bad ideas and nasty diseases can come from them.”
One can only hope the benefits of private education makes the children turn out a lot smarter than their parents.
It’s rightly said that inter generational benefit dependency is a bad thing.
Sons and daughters of Epsom man, cast off your chains.
National wants a US styled class system in New Zealand, when National is finished NZ will be have even more inequality and poverty than parts of the US. The difference in the US though is that employeers care, no employeers care any more in New Zealand. One US supermarket chain Giant (which I go to) helped pay for one of their staff member’s medical treatment (to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars), don’t get compassion like that in NZ any more.
Rightly said. We are a country divided. For the first time in eons I read Rosemary McLeod’s piece in the Press this morning. Normally she is like a wishy washy laundromat but she hit a nail on the head describing how our nation is becoming more divided.
To support this she pointed to Kawhia and the attack on the copper, plus the recent Featherston murder. She is correct, and though she did not state it, it was clear the divide is along financial lines, racial lines, lifestyle lines, the whole lot lines. I have noticed it more too in our wider circles – people are quicker now to spark up on these lines. People are unhappy, on both sides of the line.
And this National government,,, well, it is pretty clear which side of the lines they represent. Bash the beneficiary, give money to the private schools, take money away from the local schools, bring back the class system, introduce drug testing to every sector except your own, give welfare to the farmers and the businessmen, villify the poor.
And then you get wankers who post on here and of course publicly state the same like Wayne and King Kong yesterday who refer to people who can’t get jobs as “lazy losers’. Well it is no wonder we are divided and it is no wonder that people such as Wayne and King Kong are the ones who feel they have to cross the road for fear of being the next one to get ‘stuck’.
There is no truer saying than one reaps what one sows.
Great round-up Millsy.
A post in itself, in fact.
That’s possibly the most accurate misspelling I’ve ever seen 😈
Only in America …
Obama has proposed the restricting of the availability of assault weapons and his proposal has been met by the usual response that he wants to take away all guns from all americans, even the sane ones.
The Republicans have responded by indicating they will oppose. The NRA has released an ad asking why should Obama’s kids be protected by armed guards but everyone else’s kids are not. I thought the answer was simple. There are far too many gun touting nuts in the States who have a pathological hatred of the President. Attacking his kids in this way is bound to harden Obama’s resolve.
And the conspiracy theorists have started suggesting that the Sandy Hook was a Government sponsored hoax. Some poor guy who helped out some kids from the school has been harassed and accused of being part of a Government hoax. There is even a youtube video doing the rounds which hints darkly at how it is all a conspiracy to remove guns from decent Americans.
It seems a sizeable number of Americans occupy a different planet to the rest of us …
America is out of control.
The NRA is to the USA what the Taleban is to Afghanistan. They are extremists.
“I thought the answer was simple. There are far too many gun touting nuts in the States”
That’s funny, but I doubt many Amerikans will get it 😆
“It seems a sizeable number of Americans occupy a different planet to the rest of us …”
One can reach that conclusion a lot of the time, however I can assure you there are a lot of people I know over there who look at their newspapers and pundits and have the same WTF reaction and shake of the head that we do.
Yep, a reason why the US Congress has a miserable 23% favourability rating amongst those polled.
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/111209/public-satisfaction-congress-at-record-lows-acco
I quite liked Jon Stewart’s line that the 2nd amendment is indeed inviolable. Gun owners should have the right to possess as many black powder muzzle-loading muskets as they want. Hell, even let them have the bayonets, too.
Because protecting the President (and family) involves that level of security, really can’t see why the GOP thinks ‘consistancy’ implies overturning a policy that likely goes as far back as FDR, or even further. Then again, the GOP hates Obama and children that don’t believe in fundmentalist christianity.
I suggest http://ogdaa.blogspot.co.nz/?m=1 if you want to really have your eyes opened as to how nuts some are….
Lotsa crazy here, here and here.
More:
http://mediamatters.org/video/2013/01/16/rush-limbaugh-to-caller-you-know-how-to-stop-ab/192281
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/01/16/watch-new-nra-video-doubles-down-on-politicizat/192280
Lotsa stupid too.
http://governor.state.tx.us/news/press-release/18060/
Wow, it hurts, it hurts …
Have a shot of anti-venom:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/01/16/reagans-solicitor-general-scoffs-at-rights-fantasy-about-obama-tyranny/
Surprise surprise…
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/01/new-evidence-that-the-nra-might-be-just-another-corporate-front/267244/
You mean that Barack Obama was born in the US, is neither a Muslim nor a Socialist, is not planning the disarming of all Americans and their incarceration into slave camps and is not planning the usurpation of US control to the World Government but the NRA is a corporate front??
Who would have thunk it?
Probably Planet Key.
If you think Obama, or the Republicans give a toss about the American people you would be wrong!
MS – Have you read, watched or bothered to spend anytime piecing together the events as they were *reported* by the MSM, and realised that the conspiracy you’re looking for is in the forming of the *official story*.
If you follow the development via the MSM along, you will clearly be able to understand that the conspiracy, is with the forming of the narrative pumped, followed by using the event to peddle political agendas, instead of putting in place measure which will address the root causes of any such events.
The NRA have got nothing on the Federal Government or their global sponsors the war cartel that is the banking industry/Wall St. Banking industry/Wall St = bombs, bullets, guns, tanks, chemical weapons, nuclear weapons, war, death etc, and people are worried about the NRA. Maybe be worried about the entities who put the R, in NRA!
Focus!
It doesnt help that, from what I understand, that one of the founding fathers wrote words to the effect that if the government got too powerful, or implemented the wrong policy setting(s), the people were within their rights to overthrow it and put in a new one.
Maybe go look into who said what Millsy, then the context that it was spoken, and the situations it was referring which would arise, and how to nullify them, let us know when you have the information to give your comment some meaning.
Sitting back and letting the government *do what thou wilt*, and believing there is nothing the people can/should do, which will stop it, is how nations got into the diabolical predicaments they are presently in, and why there is so much suffering around the world. Comments here also illustrate just how pathetic the mindset of people is in NZ.
Note, private guns are not responsible for an overwhelming % of the global suffering!
A piece of NZ research (findings to be published later this year) shows that “money can buy happiness”.
Except, reading down the article, it’s more that a certain level is more likely to result in happiness than being in poverty – what a surprise!
But the sample surveyed has a noticeable gender imbalance:
I’m not sure how that would skew the results.
I remember reading a few studies like this when I was at uni – they all pretty much showed that money increases happiness significantly while it increases to a certain point. Once you get past this point (its the point where you no longer have to worry about money) the returns are diminishing.
On a similar vein when deciding on what motivates you for a job the amount you get paid isn’t a motivating factor, it can demotivate you if it isn’t high enough though. The thing that motivates you is the potential for future pay rises.
Yep, that’s it Chris.
Money doesn’t make one happy – that’s looking at the wrong side of the mirror.
It is in fact that the lack of money makes one unhappy. Or rather actually – lack of ability to provide for one’s self makes one unhappy.
Money has an effect. That effect is a negative one if there is insufficient. There is no positive effect – it merely removes the negative effect.
Just as well for New Zealand that, for most of us, money ranks behind satisfaction in what we do, as a motivator.
Except for financial and management types, who, it seems, will only work if they get paid hundred of thousands.
The Minister of Social Development has claimed National’s welfare changes,(stage 1),of being a raging success as the numbers of those receiving benefits has fallen to 2008 levels, apparently a drop of 17,000,
Paula of course hasn’t bothered to track where these 17,000 people went after they became Her idea of a raging success,
Should She have bothered, to find out where the individual beneficiaries ‘found work’ that is, She need look no further than the organizations of charity such as the City Missions in various cities who are now the sole means of support for a number of Paula’s success stories, with most of the other 16,000 and something having been driven from New Zealand to Australia as economic refugees,
Never mind Paula, when ‘the dream’ for you in particular and this scummy National Government is all over you seem to have a natural talent as a travel agent,(liars not being in demand anywhere in the economy)…
Bennett was interviewed on Radio NZ’s Checkpoint, but strangely, there was nothing to be heard from Ardern, or for that sake any other politician from the opposition, putting another kind of critical spin onto this story. Shame, shame, shame to Labour, I’d say!
Had this guy been the CEO they would have given him a big bonus.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2414357,00.aspx
Hmmm.
Should have put together a VPN from china to a server at his home, then had that flip through on the work VPN.
Mind you, other than vetting the subbies who receive the data I’m not sure what they think the problem is: they apparently received high quality work for a price they thought was fair.
LOLZ, takes employment to it’s logical conclusion, 10 years from now China will be the source of all ‘labour’ and ‘Bob’ was just getting in ahead of the inevitable,
On a deeper note tho it simply highlights the failure of the Global Free Market Ism, should all currencies and all minimum wages of all the economies engaged in this little ‘competition’ have been of an equal value at the time the ‘competition’ began we all would have something like a coherent fully functioning economy…
Another Minister who it would seem has a questionable grasp on reality has Her Ministry,(Corrections), again appearing in the High Court at Auckland where an inmate of Paremoremo Maximum Security Prison, Arthur Taylor, having successfully argued before the High Court previously that the blanket ban on inmates smoking in New Zealand prisons was unlawful is now challenging Correction and the Minister over the labeling of Tobacco as ‘contraband’ thus denying the inmates who have the legal right to smoke in prisons the possession of Tobacco,
From news reports on RadioNZ National it appears that while Corrections have conceded that inmates have the legal right to smoke tobacco in their cells ‘other’ laws allow them to ban anything they want as being contraband,
You are excused if your reaction to such a quixotic situation is initially ”what the f**k”, and i dare recommend that the Minister in question, Judith Collins,(who else), might consider seeking psychiatric assistance as not only has Her moral compass become confused,(if She ever possessed such), but Her and Her Ministry appear to have not only been treating prison inmates unlawfully, they appear to have taken every step possible to continue that unlawful behavior simply to circumvent the previous decision of the High Court…
some light hearted & amusing comments to help pass your afternoon for those not adverse to twitter – #keyinantarctica
Haha, if you’re not twitterati just click this: https://twitter.com/search/realtime?q=%23keyinantarctica&src=typd
Thanks felix. 🙂
“I am just going outside and may be some time.” – here’s hoping…
In news this morning ‘the HairDo’ (from Ohariu) Revenue Minister Peter Dunne signaled moves to close at least one tax loophole to the accompanying squeals and shrieks of rage from some Bizness spokesperson from some obscure Bizness organization i missed the names of,
Dunne says He plans on passing regulations where companies of a multi-national nature declare their profits in the lowest taxing jurisdiction in which they operate and declaring losses in the highest taxing jurisdiction,
It seems that for more years than i find it good for my mental health to consider such companies have been allowed to claim that what produced the ‘profit’ here in New Zealand was the part of the company registered in whichever tax haven and what produced the loss was down to the New Zealand arm of of the company even when any actual ‘physical business’ that produced that loss wasn’t done in New Zealand,
Who would have thunk it, export ya profits and import ya losses and RORT the New Zealand tax system every which way, now that’s Bizness efficiency for you,
Sounds to me like the whole f**king lot of them need locking up in a jail cell someplace…
Gay Propaganda 101 ( co-requisites: Wymin Studies 106, Men Are Rapists And Murderers! 108 )
Gay guy says gay All Blacks have to be outed.
Of course he assumes that there are gay All Blacks.
What would he know? Dream on girlfriend, LOL.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10859605
Of cource, if a gay AB came out, rednecks like you would have him lynched from the Eden Park goalposts.
Though the rest of us would more than likely accept it.
I’m not a red neck.
I wouldn’t care as long as he didn’t go on about ‘gay marriage’.
Dont like gay marriage? Dont marry a gay man, or go to a gay wedding, simple really.
Marriage isn’t a “mind your own business, keep your nose out!” kind of institution – it is a social/public recognition and honouring.
Otherwise you lot wouldn’t be so hell bent on it.
We are hell bent on it because it IS a “mind your own business keep your nose out sort of thing”. There are bigger threats to society than 2 blokes getting hitched. Neo-liberalism being one. Even conservative right-wingers used to warn of the dangers of unleashing the capitalist system.
“Even conservative right-wingers used to warn of the dangers of unleashing the capitalist system.”
I know that.
Parties of the Left an Right fell into the thrall of neo liberlism, plus the postmodernist/feminist/identity politics crowd have helped suck the life force out of the Left.
“There are bigger threats to society than 2 blokes getting hitched.”
It’s the principle. Besides its still going to be socially corrosive. And the push is coming from the radicals – feminists/deconstructionists/neo marxists – not the real Left.
Socially corrosive my arse. Youre as bad as McCroskie, who by the way, has refused to deny that he wants the Homosexual Law Reform Act 1986 repealed.
When have I ever said anything like that?
It pisses me off when anyone who doesn’t tow the party line gets a political necklacing.
Im talking about McCroskie, not you.
word to the wise: in debates involving sexuality, best avoid colourful but unpopular figurative expressions. Or at least specify what type of “necklacing” to which you refer. Somewhat distracting at first glance…
To be fair McFlock, the pearls did not get a mention…
“Marriage isn’t a “mind your own business, keep your nose out!” kind of institution – it is a social/public recognition and honouring.”
If the state denies a freedom of choice because of sexual preference, then it goes way beyond institution and social honouring. It’s discrimination at it’s basest form.
Judging by most poll results I’ve seen, marriage equality is not much an issue unless one is a bit of a twat, so like most people, I say if it’s okay for one, it’s okay for all.
“It’s the principle.”
Is it bollocks. It’s just bigotry and ignorance.
“Besides its still going to be socially corrosive.”
I’m guessing mostly in yours and colin craig’s houses, but do feel free to march down Queen Street in opposition and get the public recognition and honouring you types really deserve.
“Marriage isn’t a “mind your own business, keep your nose out!” kind of institution – it is a social/public recognition and honouring.”
What is the purpose of a law?
The issue is the recognition given by the state to the arrangements of people in personal relationships or in corporate relationships of other kinds. Assuming that the church and state function separately (and to argue otherwise would be to argue for theocracy – and be my guest if you wish to do so), the state has no “moral” role whatsoever. The law’s role is purely to ensure that the “mechanism” of society functions with as little friction and as much constancy as possible.
OK, on those terms, then let heterosexual marriage be honoured as much as you like. Are laws created for the purpose of honouring? Are laws supposed to govern all social intercourse… such as the respect and honour we give to other people? Should a law determine how much respect and honour I give to another person? If not, why not? Suppose I don’t like someone – should a law tell me that no matter what I think, I should like them? The law does not require you to like or “honour” anything else, so why do you suppose that it requires you to like a gay couple?
Laws do not exist and are not made to “honour” people.
“Gay guy says gay All Blacks have to be outed.”
If you’re going to tell lies, it pays not to link to the thing you are lying about, liar.
He says ” the reality is that having an out gay All Black is important and overdue. ”
We all know where that is leading. After all it would hardly be a new tactic employed by radical queer activists, would it now?…
And if there aren’t any, whats he going to do, demand an Affirmative Action quota – make it compulsory!!?
Very assuming.
Speaking of outing All Blacks, I have heard names being bandied about — not going to repeat them here though.
I’m not aware of any All Blacks acting in an effeminate manner.
Not gay blokes are effeminate. You’ve been watching too many ‘Carry On’ movies..
“Not [sic] gay blokes are effeminate.”
I bet felix and QofT don’t like those ones very much.
And just because they might have a bit of a play now and then doesn’t make them gay either.
Nearly there…
http://www.theonion.com/articles/why-do-all-these-homosexuals-keep-sucking-my-cock,10861/
Your new fixation seems to be on my and felix’s sexual preferences. Interesting.
“New”?
Well he seems to have become bored of putting “rape culture” in scarequotes every five minutes. New shiny toys were required.
It’s not some weird obsession with your private lives where most people would mind their own business, think of K-P’s attention as a “social/public recognition and honouring.”
Back to the crazy assertion that marriage is a private matter, “Nobody elses business!”
But the whole point is marriage is the public recognition of a particular relationship – that’s what you lot are demanding. You want the state and/or society to recognise a particular type of relationship.
Not surprising though, considering the poor philosophical foundation of neo-marxism/deconstructionism/feminism.
So you do actually have an unhealthy interest in speculating about the sex lives of commenters here? You weren’t just honouring them with public recognition?
Bit of a sick, obsessive little turd then, aren’t you? Why should anyone give a flying fuck about the moral opinions of a pervert like you?
“We all know where that is leading.”
no we don’t. You’re just telling lies still.
The piece explicitly talks about people outing themselves, and you claimed he said “gay All Blacks have to be outed”.
Liar.
If you read between the lines it means outed one way or another…
He assumes there are gay All Blacks, which indicates his fixation with the issue.
Like I said they’ve employed the tactic before.
“Read between the lines”?
Oh, you mean “make shit up”.
I assume that there are All Blacks who are mammals. That indicates that I must be fixated on mammals.
A little more seriously, considering that there are a constant percentage of the population who are gay, and that being gay is irrelevant (since it has not been positively proven to be otherwise) to one’s ability to play rugby, then the odds are that there are or have been in the recent past and near future, if not the present, gay All Blacks.
I also suppose that there are photons with a frequency of 6000 angstroms, without referring to any particular photon or photons in general.
I guess that I’m one of “They” who promote the 6000 Angstrom agenda. Or the mammalian agenda. Or something.
On the other hand, Occam’s razor would however suggest that KP is a bit of a loon who has a peculiar obsession with homosexuality verging on paranoia.
“As of December 2012, 1118 players have been All Blacks.” – Source
There are no good stats on the rates of same-sex attraction in the general New Zealand population, so let’s limit ourselves to what we can absolutely establish: people in committed relationships who’ve sought state recognition via civil union or marriage.
(Imagine how many more are just fucking.)
301 same-sex civil unions registered in the year ending 2011 out of (76 hetero civil unions and 20,231 marriages) = 1.5% of people in same-sex relationships committed enough to marry.
1.5% of 1,118 All Blacks = possibly a minimum of 16-17 non-heterosexual All Blacks over the history of the team.
Unfortunately there are no more accurate stats on actual rates of non-heterosexuality in the population of NZ, but this survey of youth returned a rate of 7.8% experiencing some level of attraction to their own sex.
So the odds that there is currently or has been a gay All Black are pretty good.
Of course, this probably just establishes my “fixation” with the concept of gay All Blacks, unlike the commenter who chose to initiate a conversation on the topic by blatantly misrepresenting what a columnist said and who categorically cannot accept the notion of an All Black liking the cock because it clashes with his notions of masculinity.
You keep referring to non hetrosexuality in your stats then jump to gay in your final statement.
You are just pulling it out of your arse.
You are one of those deconstructionist/postmodernists/neo marxists feminists, no?
If so you are totally contradicting your own philosophy which dismisses science and any possible objectivity or concrete reality to relate truth statements to ( statistics included).
You are one of those deconstructionist/postmodernists/neo marxists feminists, no?
I don’t know, old chap, you’re the one who keeps saying so.
All I did was use non-exclusive language while conveying my own thoughts and then echoing your own stunted understanding of human sexuality when referring to yours.
It is quite clear that Knight is saying that those in rugby (presumably players, caoches and administraters) should be supporting elite athletes about being open about their sexuality (if they choose to do so). One assumes you either didn’t read the column properly or deliberately misrepresented it.
You do realise that being homosexual is no longer a crime? Stop being a prat.
Aaron Mauger and Adam Thomson are at least 2 All Blacks that have been supportive of LGBT issues – hell it’s even happening in the US where Baltimore Ravens linebacker Brendan Ayanbadejo has been openly supporting LGBT issues and even raised the issue of gay players in the NFL and former fringe NFL player Wade Davis has now come out openly about being gay and other gay NFL players. If there are gay players in the NFL you can be damn sure there have been gay All Blacks (and almost certainly gay players at Super Rugby and ITM cup level).
Well, there’s certainly one ex- Wales rugby captain who is an out gay man. Not someone who I would describe as effemonate.
And then there is an ex-Aussie rugby league player who is also gay.
I must admit I was really surprised when Roberts came out. He was IMHO the toughest forward in the league at the time.
He came out during his career and no one seemed to batter an eyelid.
All I can say is RESPECT.
Hello my little post structuralist tweety bird!
At least unlike QofT you aren’t evasive about your chosen school of philosophy.
But post structuralist don’t believe in an objective reality, knowable via science – so you have contradicted yourself in a previous post.
And here it has to be asked – you claim to be on a crusade for “inclusiveness” and “social justice”.
But according to post structuralism they are basically meaningless terms – arbitrary constructs you have created. No more right or wrong than the Nazi construct of “Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer “.
Along with Ayanbadejo I’ve got to plug intensely-awesome dude Chris Kluwe of the
Baltimore RavensMinnesota Vikings, who notably said gay people “won’t magically turn you into a lustful cockmonster”.(Edited for team misnaming, in my defence they both wear purple)
Well, he’s just done a Godwin Version 1.2 anyway, so debate in as light or as serious or as absurd or as sarcastic a tone as you like. A decade ago he’d have said “Feminazi” – which is version 1.0, then a couple of years later he’d have said “I didn’t call you a Nazi – I just said that you were exactly like a Nazi”, which is Version 1.1, but now it’s “Now I’m going to say that you’re saying things about me that I say that they said about Nazis!” I wonder how recursive 1.3 will be?
Yes – The Ravens (AFC) and the Vikings (NFC) are my 2 teams in the NFL – never really thought about them both having Purple playing uniforms before. Hmmm
(And although the Vikings are out of the playoffs, the Ravens play for the AFC Championship this weekend – after an extremely exciting win over the No.1 Denver Broncos last Sunday – and then hopefully it’s the Superbowl!)
Ravens dark wings, take to flight, Dive in and show them your might
Ummm – Sorry – back to the regular political discourse!
Redacted – due to misplacement (I can’t delete). See below.
Poor k_p. I guess because he’s in constant battle mode, he’s developed an us vs them mentality.
He’s left exasperated and confused when he can’t squeeze someone into one of a few leftwing pigeonholes.
I’m beginning to think K_P’s a satirical character in the style of Ali G or David Brent. Basically with the objective of being interviewed by Rush Limbaugh and called “too extreme”.
I mean, the line where he said you were pulling “gay” out of your arse is too obvious a reference to me missed by someone who is that obsessed with other people’s sex lives, but then they would have used at least an exclamation mark, and maybe a smiley face, just in case someone missed how much of a comedic talent they possessed.
McF. Maybe, but in my experience, there really are people that thick, and lots of them. There really are people amazed and utterly baffled by the demand that they produce evidence to support their assertions and think that name-calling and robotic blithering about deconstruction, the Jews or whatever is equivalent to reasoned argument. And they vote.
The other side of Poe’s Law, I suppose… It doesn’t matter if KP is real or not because there are people who think like that and their arguments must be opposed publicly.
You do realise that statistically it’s impossible that there aren’t gay All Blacks. I really can’t do much about the rest of your woeful ignorance, but if you are going to be a pathetic bigot (probably a self-loathing closet case internalising all that homophobia), you could at least acknowledge reality.
Labour’s Summer School 2013 is just over two weeks away!
Labour’s annual Summer School is a unique opportunity for Party members of all ages from all over the country to think about and discuss some of the biggest issues our country is facing in a relaxed environment. It encourages Labour members to think beyond day-to-day politics and to push the boundaries of what we can achieve.
This year the programme includes the first speech of the year from leader David Shearer. David will speak on Labour’s political priorities for 2013 in a media inclusive session on the Sunday afternoon.
Where: Brookfield Scout Camp, 562 Moores Valley Road, Wainuiomata
(only 40mins from Wellington)
When: Friday 25 January – Sunday 27 January 2013
Summer School is organised by Young Labour.
You can contact them at summerschool@younglabour.org.nz.
Just got an OIA request back from Housing NZ.
It seems that in the past 5 years, 864 state houses were sold. Of that number, 269 were sold in the past year (The highest number).
..and the HCC about outsourcing:
“……The major activities we currently contract out include:
• the operation of the three waste facilities such as the Refuse Transfer Station, Recycling Centre and the green waste recovery at the Hamilton Organic Centre.
• road construction and maintenance (including footpath, street lighting maintenance)
• waste and recycling collection
• legal services
Everything else from graffiti removal, CitySafe patrols, noise control, parking enforcement, parks and gardens and visitor information are all managed in-house. These are all listed in the “Our Services” section of the Annual Report….”‘
The annual report can be found on the HCC website.
Thank-you, Millsy. Useful information. Have any other state houses been bought to replace the ones sold?
The response I got was that “the proceeds were re-invested in new housing stock”, but there was no mention of numbers or locations.
Here’s a question that I would like an intelligent response to:
If gay marriage is ok because it doesn’t affect a straight guy or his marriage, then surely polygamy is ok because it doesn’t affect a straight guy or his marriage?
Oh, too easy. How does the restriction of marriage to straight folks affect gay folks?
You talk in pseudo-scientistic (ref, “scientistic” = “scientism”, not science) about “objective” reality, therefore you have to prove that marriage is as grounded in objective reality as Keplerian dynamics. I’d like an intelligent, empirical response to that.
If gay marriage is ok because it doesn’t affect a straight guy or his marriage, then surely polygamy is ok because it doesn’t affect a straight guy or his marriage?
Aside from the deliberate and disingenuous red herring of invoking the slippery slope argument, what is your objectivist reason for calling it wrong? No metaphysics please.
“How does the restriction of marriage to straight folks affect gay folks?”
They don’t get to marry. But how has your question answered my original question?
“you have to prove that marriage is as grounded in objective reality as Keplerian dynamics.”
More evasiveness in the form of meaningless jargon. Are you a post modernist like Karol?
Here’s a good example of mumbo jumbo from the oracle of Deconstructionism, Derrida:
“The Einsteinian constant is not a constant, is not a center. It is the very concept of variability — it is, finally, the concept of the game. In other words, it is not the concept of something — of a center starting from which an observer could master the field — but the very concept of the game. ”
You can see why I think you might be a devotee of his, Rhino, LOL.
“deliberate and disingenuous red herring of invoking the slippery slope argument”
Pretty straight forward question, why can’t the “No harm to YOUR marriage” argument be applied to polygamy or love between a brother and sister?
You can’t answer it can you, Rhino, that’s why you’ve freaked out.
They don’t get to marry
Illogical, circular argument which does not address the basis for the argument.
Are you a post modernist like Karol?
Irrelevant insinuation and argumentum ad hominem.
Here’s a good example of mumbo jumbo
Distraction. A broad categorisation and insinuation is irrelevant to this case.
Pretty straight forward question, why can’t the “No harm to YOUR marriage” argument be applied to polygamy or love between a brother and sister?
Irrelevant. Prove empirically the basis of your argument and – this is crucial – show that it applies as an objection to marriage equality.
You repeatedly state that your beliefs are somehow “objective”. If this is the case, it should be possible to do so using references to generally accepted scientific principles. Cite them. However you refuse to do so, instead you use the “Ew, postmodernists!” argument, which is not an argument at all. It’s name-calling – you may as well say that I’m a ginga.
um – love between a brother and sister has negative genetic repercussions in the case of procreation, but also often involves consent issues relating to the power relationships within the pre-existing familial structure, plus an issue relating the desired margin for error in addressing those issues on a case by case basis.
Inbred, usually fucked up, and too difficult to fairly separate out the few non-fucked-up situations without letting through a few fucked up ones.
Personally I have no problem with it between consenting adults but there are much more involved legal issues with polygamy which would have to be dealt with. Although this in an American context you can look at some of the issues here .
Don’t see why marriage between same sex couples needs to be delayed while polygamy is sorted out though.
Would you like to move on to bestiality now? I’m sure there are some goats near you that might be interested in having that sorted out.
And if reproduction is the determinant, what about cloning, mitosis or even mimesis? You’ve got to look out for slippery slopes – they’re everywhere! For example, is not “indoctrination” a form of spreading memes, which are encoded information, just like genes? In that case, all people involved in teaching, or any form of cultural production, or for that matter anyone who persuades anyone of anything, a shameless slut, producing countless bastard offspring?
I say we ban mimetic reproduction! No more education, certainly not education state-sanctioned by the conferment of degrees!
And don’t you start mentioning siblings either… Rand only knows what implied filth siblings get up to with their “familial interdependence”!
And every corporation should have boards of infertile people of the different sexes, just as long as they don’t reproduce because all unions are somehow representative of the duality of genders but not necessarily dependent on the capacity of those involved to reproduce and… otherwise we’d have to ban the marriage of post-menopausal women… right, now I realise that not every board can have just two members, to make the point that all associations must be between opposite genders but not necessarily interfertile couples, so I suggest that there be new genders invented so that people can freely enter into state-sanctioned and assuredly secular associations having nothing to do with reproduction, nosiree, and that… oh shit, where was I? Anyway, something about inventing new sexes, as long as they’re different, no matter how many there are, and not having children, ‘cos we’d have to ban infertile people and it has nothing to do with what God, Allah, Yahweh, the Flying Spaghetti Monster or any other arbitrary deity determine and, and… because science!
Or to cut through all that shit, since “science”, or rather a contingent stereotype of science is invoked by KP, what is the empirical, peer-reviewed and generally accepted scientific basis across all disciplines that is not grounded in any way in any metaphysics for the state to sanction and favour over any form of association over another? Current popularity is not sufficient because it has been established by an explicitly religious accommodation – hence there is an obvious bias – and moreover, it is generally justified by arguments that are metaphysical.
The current legislation is about gay marriage between two people, you’re the one who has dishonestly invoked the slippery slope argument and I’ve brought up the reductio ad absurdam. Of course you’re too thick to understand that. Now you’re trying to divert matters.
Tell me, and again, I ask you to bring up scientific evidence, since you keep ranting on about it, what is the scientific basis for your objection in relation to the current bill?
You’ve obviously stopped taking your meds.
Would you care to construct a logical answer on the terms that you have repeatedly stated?
Can you?
Rhino. I think I agree with you. But reading that made my head hurt.
Can’t we just say.
What two, or more, consenting adults do in their own home, is there own business.
And that the law should not discriminate because of sexual orientation.
Just do not scare the horses!
So we have a polygamy supporter here! LOL
And the pro gay marriage lot furiously deny that polygamy is next.
That’s the problem with the PGM crowd, their revision of the definition of marriage leaves them having to accept all kinds of arrangements as marriage if they want to remain consistent.
Actually, the pro gay marriage crowd furiously deny that child-marriage or turtle-sex is next.
Who gives a fuck about polygamy? I mean, one could argue that beyond a certain number the close relationship implied by “marriage” might not be able to be maintained (e.g. 400 husbands), but the real issue for same-sex marriage is informed and free consent between two people with a strong bond.
And the whole point is your revisionist definition can’t stop the rest of the BS.
If you think you can chuck out the gender bit because it is “discriminatory” and revise the definition to consent and love, what argument do you give for limiting it to a specific number of participants?
In fact if you want to remove the heterosexual act of coitus bit, what is your argument for not removing sex from the definition all together – that way a couple of old mates cohabiting could get married to. Or grandma and her grandchild living with her out of circumstance?
what argument do you give for limiting it to a specific number of participants?
Well, exactly. That is what you’re trying to say, and claiming that it’s a matter for the state.
Give me the scientific reason for the state to by legislation favour the bond between fertile individuals who produce children through the fertilisation of egg by sperm. Otherwise, you’ll have to find some pretty damn compelling arguments that somehow aren’t metaphysics and which aren’t therefore “objective”.
Why do think I’m forced to give a scientific argument?
It’s a philosophical one. After all this is political philosophy ( which scientific knowledge may contribute to ).
Is it because I pointed out the deconstructionist denial of scientific objectivity – so you now fly off the handle demanding I give a scientific argument on an issue of political philosophy?
You are definitely off your meds, mate.
Why do think I’m forced to give a scientific argument?
Because you claim that your assertions have some sort of basis in scientific reality, idiot.
It’s a philosophical one. After all this is political philosophy ( which scientific knowledge may contribute to ).
So it may you now say. That’s not what you said before. You said that your claims have a basis in “objective” reality, which is constant and all-pervading by definition.
You claim repeatedly that it is your arguments that do have a basis scientific reality. Now you deny that, suddenly invoking the vague – i.e.., meaningless – term of “political philosophy”.
Is it because I pointed out the deconstructionist denial of scientific objectivity – so you now fly off the handle demanding I give a scientific argument on an issue of political philosophy?
No, it’s because you are inconsistent even with your own explicitly stated premises and refuse repeatedly to substantiate your points according to those premises.
Now show me the money. This has nothing to do with deconstruction and has everything to do with you backing up your own claims on the very terms that you say supports them.
Hang on: your argument against same-sex marriage isn’t that it is harmful, just that you can’t think of any reasons why other non-traditional forms of marriage shouldn’t exist?
I’ve responded to your polygamy and incest examples elsewhere in the thread.
No, the Revisionist argument redefines the word marriage into nonsense. That is very destructive to society because marriage is a public good.
Okay, what’s the “revisionist” definition, and why is it nonsense?
What is a public good? Why is “marriage”, defined as a union between fertile man and women as opposed to civil union between same-sex couples, fertile heterosexual couples, infertile heterosexual couples or marriage between infertile heterosexual couples a public good? Explain, with citations.
That’s the problem with the PGM crowd, their revision of the definition of marriage leaves them having to accept all kinds of arrangements as marriage if they want to remain consistent.
In any case, even as a thought experiment, justify your advocacy for the state recognition and limitation of marriage as being between two people of the opposite sex as opposed to any other arrangement, without metaphysics, which means that reproductive viability or performance as “role models”, real or symbolic, is ruled out.
Why should the state recognise “marriage” in any form at all as opposed to a civil union?
“Why should the state recognise “marriage” in any form at all ”
Because it is a public good in the heterosexual form of a union between a man and a woman.
explain. As opposed to heterosexual civil union, I mean.
Why where are you going with this…?
Heterosexuals can have marriage or a civil union.
Homosexuals can only get a civil union.
What is the public good that exists in marriage, but not a civil union, and that should be kept away from homosexuals?
Cue “think of the children” in 3 … 2 …
must have gone to bed like I did. I guess the debate has finished in a mighty victory for the terrified conservatives. 🙂
Why and how is it a public good?
Come on Mr Science, give me the peer-reviewed objective papers accepted across all relevant fields that prove this.
Show me the money!
By the way, is “public good” different from “legal reality”? I’d still like to know the answers to these questions if it’s the same:
What is a “a legal reality”? Is what is legislated real? If the law changes, does the reality change? If the fact that slavery was once legal mean that slavery is always legal? Does the fact that polygamy is legal in some countries make it real everywhere, does the fact that gay marriage in some countries is legal make it real everywhere?
“Come on Mr Science, give me the peer-reviewed objective papers accepted across all relevant fields that prove this.”
Do you not know what Political Philosophy is?
Do you not know what Political Philosophy is?
I don’t care what it is if it can’t be substantiated. If it cannot be substantiated, if it does not have any recognition by anyone other than the voices in your head, then it is irrelevant.
It’s certainly not a science, I gather, since you refuse to provide any empirical basis for your statements, despite repeatedly saying that you had some.
Now how about answering a question? Any of them. Perhaps another? Which colour do you prefer, blue or orange?
Or, more to the point, justify one single assertion that you have made according to any objective principle with citations or according to verifiable “political philosophy”.
I’m just glad he didn’t try to compare it to paedophilia – he’s obviously that sort of moron.
Awwwww, look at the brave little commenter, parroting US fundies’/Family First’s key messages like they’re his own original thoughts.
Any time you want to answer the question, cupcake…
Only if you answer a completely off-topic, intended-to-derail-serious-conversation question of mine first. Except I’m not an unoriginal copy-pasting MRAbot.
Go find the stuff I’m cut and pasting then, wonder woman. Should be easy.
All the crapdelicious stuff you come up with is derivative feminist received wisdom.
stuff I’m cut and pasting then
And there KP shows how his “mind” works. The twit couldn’t even pass the Turing Test.
Come on Mister Science, produce the empirical, “objective” material to support your assertions. Prove you’re better! What’s a legal reality? Is it the same as objective reality, even is legal realities change? Does that mean by law you can change the speed of light, or does it mean that if you can’t, the speed of light isn’t subject to law and that law is not the same as objective reality?
Not exactly a new contribution. And includes a discussion on the minimean blog a week ago.
I already did, sweetums. Back in September. From the record it looks like you ran away and hid rather than acknowledge that your sources were bullshit.
That’s a really shit question.
Marriage equality isn’t okay because it doesn’t affect anyone else, it’s okay because everyone is equal, and discrimination based on sexual preference is wrong.
You can try linking polygamy into the argument, but ultimately the sanctity or validity of one’s marriage isn’t shaped by their neighbours marriage or a tv celeb couple’s marriage or whoever.
You have no argument to win, especially with such poorly informed opinion.
Q. If polygamy were legal for straights, would you oppose it for homosexuals?
Same with the “Its none of your business!” defense of gay marriage.
Marriage is a public institution, how can anyone assert “It’s nobody elses business”?
Is it a public institution or simply a tradition? What makes it a public institution as opposed to civil unions? Civil unions are explicitly secular whereas marriage is hardly marriage if it is shorn of its spiritual component – unless you are able to prove that a civil union is in essence indistinguishable from marriage – or otherwise you must prove that the state must inevitably incorporate a theocratic component, in which case, considering the various religious interpretations of marriage, you must either reconcile all religions or justify one religion in particular. You therefore have to say that someone’s religious faith is everyone’s business and – another leap – subject to regulation by the state.
You are way off the mark, mate.
“whereas marriage is hardly marriage if it is shorn of its spiritual component”
You don’t have to get married in a Churh, you can get married by an Elvis impersonator if you really want.
Your argument that marriage isn’t a public institution because it contains a spiritual component is La La Land stuff.
It’s status as a public institution is a legal reality.
Illogical circular argument.
You don’t have to get married in a Churh, you can get married by an Elvis impersonator if you really want.
OK, suppose a polygamous Mormon shows up. What is the value of a Mormon versus someone married by an Elvis impersonator? What is your position on gay Mormon Elvis impersonators? Present your argument “scientifically”.
Your argument that marriage isn’t a public institution because it contains a spiritual component is La La Land stuff.
Why and how?
You invoke “science” repeatedly. Do so now, stop moving the goalposts. Justify the favouring of an institution by empirical and consistent means.
You don’t have to get married in a Churh
Then what makes it marriage then, as opposed to a civil union, remembering that there are marriages that are polygamous and therefore inevitably have – symbolically if not actually – a homosexual element?
What is a “a legal reality”? Is what is legislated real? If the law changes, does the reality change? If the fact that slavery was once legal mean that slavery is always legal? Does the fact that polygamy is legal in some countries make it real everywhere, does the fact that gay marriage in some countries is legal make it real everywhere?
What is a “legal reality”? Is it like physics, like – you know, science?
Income tax is a public institution and I’m pretty sure mine is nobody else’s business.
Come off it, completely different functions.
Is that the best you can do?
Better yet – if you want to revise the tax code, yeah everyone else gets to see what the fuck you are wanting to change and why and block you if it isn’t for the public good.
You’re the one insisting that because marriage is a “public institution”, it must be public business. It’s not my problem if your argument doesn’t hold up to a light breeze.
What is the basis for the state favouring one specific function over another? What functions do you mean? Specify, empirically.
Not in Finland. Everybody’s tax returns are publicly available. Quelle horreury
Well. In fact I think income tax should be public.We would soon see who is ripping off the system. And it ain’t those on welfare. It would very quickly shut the cockies up, for a start.
However, I have no wish to even think about what some people do in their bedrooms. Imagining some of our political masters having sex, is a truly mind fouling prospect.
The SIS is a public institution. Now go and say that what they do is your business.
A public library is also a public institution, but I have no interest in whatever horrible, low brow and probably horrific books you might borrow, if indeed you read at all – which I somehow doubt.
One in two marriages fail.
What have you done personally to intervene and protect this so called ‘public institution’?
Or is it just gays and lesbians that motivate?
Moot point this marriage equality debate – It’s a done deal in parliament, and with the support of the majority.
Dry your eyes, mate.
Why does everyone have such a problem with one group in society wanting its own institution separate from others? It’s not as if that is anything new now is it. In fact specific institutions and organisations and groups for separate parts of society is the way these things are going – separate parts for separate groups. And that is good – viva la difference!
Imo gay people who want to tie a knot in it should get their own institution and leave those straight people alone ffs instead of gate-crashing someone else’s party.
Mind you, arguing against that, single people both straight and gay and tri and buy share the same institution of singleness.
In fact, a little further, perhaps the straight married crowd should simply wander off and set up another institution just for themselves and leave marriage to the non-straights.
Do you know what apartheid means?
Do you know what relevance means?
Yes, I do actually – that’s why I’m calling you out because you are full of shit. Every New Zealander should have exactly the same rights as every other New Zealander – anything else is apartheid and a symptom of a sick society. I’m gay, and what you think I should or shouldn’t be able to do based on that is entirely irrelevant to me and most people like me because it’s nothing to do with you and everything to do with fairness and justice.
Pop let me evaluate your reply;
First sentence “Yes, I do actually – that’s why I’m calling you out because you are full of shit.”
Irrelevant.
Second sentence: “Every New Zealander should have exactly the same rights as every other New Zealander – anything else is apartheid and a symptom of a sick society.”
I don’t disagree and there was no reason for you to think otherwise. I merely outlined that currently “apartheid” as you put it is alive and growing in our society. And endorsed by govt and many others organisations and people. It exists, so let everyone play by the same rules.
In addition, you non-thinking egg, the rights are equal, just different institutions. No problema with same rights, as has been stated many many times.
Third sentence: “I’m gay, and what you think I should or shouldn’t be able to do based on that is entirely irrelevant to me and most people like me because it’s nothing to do with you and everything to do with fairness and justice.”
Why don’t you apply that to straight people too? You actually argue against your second sentence when you state that what you do is nothing to do with anyone else and you should be able to do what you like. Same with people who want an institution solely for straight people tying the knot – what they think or want is nothing to do with you either, so butt out. Get your own party.
Get it?