Terrorist ‘mastermind’ turns out to be Belgian, Syrian passports are fake, so maybe France should start a bombing run on Belgium. What a mess. Over 100 ppl detained, it does make you wonder WTF the spies watching our online activity do all day, too much time sniffing ppls undies drawers is my guess.
Here’s a little thought experiment: imagine that we’re in Kansas (without Toto) and a bridal party in three rented limos is heading down a highway toward a church where a wedding is about to take place. Suddenly, a small out-of-control plane plummets into those limos killing the bride, the mother of the bride, and five of the seven bridesmaids; 15 others are wounded. Bear with me here, if this particular method of wedding slaughter seems a little farfetched. After all, we don’t (yet) have drones armed with Hellfire missiles patrolling American skies that could take out such a caravan. ….
Genuinely, I have no decent thought on the middle east troubles..
They have arisen due to a confluence of human migrations out of Africa and settlements in those once fertile lands. Such were these circumstances that civilisation actually sprouted there.
These communities have existed for a very long time – in fact longer than any other on the planet currently, due to their proximity to Africa.. which has made them central to the world’s order
But the world and its demographics and migrations have now moved on very substantially from those times and that part of the world is no longer central to the world’s order (other than historic hangover and the current presence of oil – which, in a practical sense, keeps them central to order. But this is passing)
About 5,000 years of them being central to the world.
Just to put that in context, Australian aboriginal cultures have existed for 50,000 years.
On the Eurasian continent, 5,000 years happens to coincide with the general shift from egalitarian culture to dominance culture. There are various theories around that related to the development of agriculture over since 10,000 years ago, but I think that’s as much an accident of geography as anything (the right coinciding of population with fertile land).
As for the world’s order, I don’t see any of the developped world being particularly good at that. Bunch of self-serving warmongers the lot of them.
If someone was killing in the name of my god I would expect my god to act to stop them,if he/she /it didn’t act I would throw that god on the heap with other stupid beliefs I’ve had.
He came across as a legend in his own mind, actually quite a blow arse nutter. Not much of a hunter gatherer taking 5 shots to nail a couple of deer in a fenced paddock. Be an even match in the boxing ring with his mate Slater. Certainly looks like he will help Twyford win his seat with ease, $150 paid to turn Maori voters off Labour was a laugh.
And along with “a legend in his own mind” I quite like “blow arse nutter”. Sums it up really. He’s like the playground bully that grew up and is still a bully, but has no mates. Nothing but a gloating idiot.
If he appeared on the show because he was touting for business as Garner suggested, then he did a great job of shooting himself in the foot – or maybe he genuinely believes that everyone is as corrupted and vicious as he is, and that he might reach that target audience and drum up some business.
On one of the posts somewhere, over the weekend, there was a character called cowboy (I think) who talked about why he isn’t renewing his National Party membership, and how Key’s outburst in the house was the last straw that pushed him to that decision. It was an insightful read, and an honest one from a former Nat supporter.
I reckon there’s lots more like cowboy, conservative, traditional, yet principled, quietly turning away from their party. I look at how my family, a true blue one, just can’t defend Key like they used to. These can’t be the ones that Roy Morgan interviews.
Bringing Simon Lusk out for an airing was a good thing. He’ll drive those principled former Nat voters into the arms of NZ First.
” or maybe he genuinely believes that everyone is as corrupted and vicious as he is, and that he might reach that target audience and drum up some business.”
^^
This. Which also says a lot about the people who associate with him.
If there really is a cabal of recent immigrants putting money up to do a hatchet job on a democraticly elected MP ( Phil Twyford ) that’s all the reason required for the arseholes to be escorted to the border and thrown out.
Where the fuck are the Police ?
probably scared of Lusk.
@Anne – The police are being good neoliberal citizens and giving out traffic tickets of course. You have to fund and justify your own job and existence these days. (in money).
Solving crime is way down the list for police, first being errand boys for Slater and Key, second locking up people that disagree with the above, thirdly under globalism we have ‘overseas friends’ to do the above to, and fourthly gather revenue to keep the above going by issuing traffic fines. Waste your time locking up people who should not be in prison because mental health facilities are closing, homeless facilities are closing, and drug facilities are closing. If there are any resources left – you can do a bit of solving crime in your spare time.
Such old fashioned Liberalism Tracey. Refreshing but so rare these days in the political circles you tend to identify with.
Ask Colonial Viper how it works.
The first thing needed would be to ratify the Kurdish state and enrol them into Nato, this will require some diplomacy on the part of the West in regards to Turkey however its an autonamous state at the moment (more or less) so its not like creating a brand new country
Once this has happened it will be much easier for troops to get on the ground because while you can’t eradicate terrorism (and you never will) ISIS at least has a physical area to target and destroying their infrastructure won’t end them but it will certainly make it harder for them to operate overseas
It’sa good start. And pile billions into the region to establish their infrastructure, and create employment and futures. Without a future people do desperate things or become victims of those doing desperate things. If we took even half the money being used on military offensives and put it into devleopment of countries infrastructures and futures… we might just surprise ourselves.
This can be done concurrently and would certainly be my first choice (if money and political machinations were under my control) but you need the defences and troops on the ground before you build the infrastructure
I agree, would be good. Dunno about NATO though, mainly coz I dunno if the kurds would be interested, we’d have to do what they want to do.
And yeah, the Turks. But also Iran and Iraq. At the moment thngs are fairly cool between the Kurds and Baghdad, but that’s only coz of ISIS. Baghdad isn’t really that keen on letting the Kurds have Kirkuk, though there is not much they can do about it at the moment. Thos there have been incidents between Shia militia and peshmerga forces.
the problem is that our allies have competing interests and we keep ignoring those interests, which is why I think things will carry on as they are until we get reps from all communities (not nations, and I’m explicitly including the Iraqi Sunni in this, they need reps distinct from Baghdad) around a table and work out what the end game looks like.
I wonder if the current leaders of the West have the courage to be what needs to be done in this current situation
I don’t think they do
I think what will happen is some people will tweet prayfor paris, some people will add a tricolour to their facebook pics and in a couple of weeks it’ll all blow over
You’re probably right: they need to stand up to insane racist wingnuts, call an end to useless vengeance fantasies, prosecute war criminals, and stop the mass murder of innocent Muslims, but Donald Trump will say nasty things about them.
” they need to stand up to insane racist wingnuts, call an end to useless vengeance fantasies, prosecute war criminals, and stop the mass murder of innocent Muslims,”
Wow four things about which one can only say.
Every one of these is an ISIL policy.
I wouldn’t hold them responsible for the last bit where you say “but Donald Trump will say nasty things about them”. He will say nasty things about ISIL but I wouldn’t hold anyone except Trump responsible for his views.
Any lasting solution will not be the result of anglophile intervention using tools such as NATO and debt
As long as the ‘western way of life’ continues to be regarded as something other than the corporate destruction that it is, we have NO business in believing we can offer anything but the same , elsewhere
that may well be but it doesn’t change the fact that terrorist attacks are happening more frequently and its only a matter of time before it happens here
Wow, you really keep up with the news don’t you?
One happened in 1984 and the other in 1985. Thirty years ago and nothing since?
Even then no one has ever found out who carried out the first one so it is difficult to really claim it as terrorism isn’t it?
interesting idea, that terrorism is only terrorism if the perpetrators are known.
What are you trying to do – pretend that NZers have never experienced terrorism? Fuck, my local campus was deserted a few weeks back because people were expecting some nutter with a gun.
No, actually.
I am merely saying that in the Trades Hall bombing we have no real idea of why someone did it. It could have been for any reason at all.
We have had a number of cases of terrorism. One was the anarchist nut who tried to blow up the Wanganui Computer Centre in 1982.
After the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, a Greenpeace ship, on 10 July 1985, Prime Minister Fabius summoned journalists to his office on 22 September 1985 to read a 200-word statement in which he said: “The truth is cruel,” and acknowledged that “Agents of the French secret service sank this boat. They were acting on orders.”…
On 17 May 2012, Laurent Fabius became Foreign Minister in the government of Jean-Marc Ayrault, appointed Prime Minister by President François Hollande.
Hopefully age and experience has brought some wisdom.
Claire Trevett has an article in the Remuera National Party Newsletter about how the Labour Party is running at a deficit and therefore can’t criticise the Government for running a deficit. Clutching at straws imho
Can’t convince an electorate to vote for him but expects the country to vote for him, can’t fund raise and run a political party but expects to be able to run an economy
Wtf are you on about? The article said that Labour had unforeseen costs over and above their normal (and budgeted) expenses, such as the leadership changes. That’s what cash reserves are for, to cover unexpected bills. When times are rosy they’ll no doubt build up the reserves again.
In Paris in 1961, Paris police killed 300 peaceful protestors
and then dumped their bodies into the River Seine.
Since the atrocities in Paris on Saturday, we have been inundated with a flood of sanctimonious words, hypocritical posturing, official lies and distortions, accompanied often by mournful assertions that “the world has changed forever”. But one of the most cynical lies repeated over the last couple of days is the contention by French politicians, assiduously reiterated by the media, that Saturday’s horror was “the deadliest violence on its soil since World War II”.
In fact, it wasn’t even close to the deadliest violence on French soil since World War II. That dubious honour belongs not to ISIS, but to the French state…..
France remembers Algerian massacre 50 years on
by KIM WILLSHER in Paris, The Guardian, Monday 17 October 2011
Politicians, historians and protesters gathered in Paris to mark the 50th anniversary of a police crackdown on Algerian anti-war demonstrators that has become one of the most shameful episodes of modern French history.
The events of 17 October 1961 are considered a massacre by many Algerians, who claim up to 300 members of their community died at the hands of the Paris police. Many are angry that the French government has never officially apologised for the bloody attack – which does not appear in school history books – and that the authorities still dispute the death toll. According to officials, less than a handful of protesters died, while historians say the number of Algerians killed – some of them beaten and thrown into the river Seine – was between 50 and 120.
On Monday, François Hollande chose to mark the tragedy as his first official engagement as the newly elected Socialist party presidential candidate. Hollande, named as the Socialists’ choice to take on Nicolas Sarkozy in next year’s presidential elections barely 12 hours earlier, on Monday threw a single red rose into the Seine from the bridge at Clichy, the suburb where many of the victims lived.
Afterwards he unveiled a plaque engraved with: “From this bridge and other bridges in the Paris region, Algerian demonstrators were thrown into the Seine on the 17 October 1961, victims of a blind repression. In their memory.” Benjamin Stora, a local resident and specialist in Algerian history, said it was a first step towards “recognising one of the biggest French tragedies”.
Bertrand Delanoë, the mayor of Paris who was born in Tunisia, another former French colony, placed a wreath at the St Michel bridge where there is a plaque marking what his office described as a “bloody repression”.
On the evening of 17 October 1961, at the height of the Franco-Algerian war, tens of thousands of Algerian protesters, including women and children, from around Paris gathered at various landmarks to demonstrate against what they considered a “racist and discriminatory” curfew imposed against them. The mobilisation had been organised by the Paris wing of the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN), an organisation that was fighting for Algeria’s independence from France and had been accused of carrying out attacks on Paris police that left a dozen dead.
It was intended to be a peaceful demonstration, but Maurice Papon, the Paris police chief, ordered his officers to stamp out the protests. As the Algerians gathered, the police acted swiftly and brutally, firing on protesters and arresting an estimated 11,500 who were herded on to buses and taken to makeshift detention centres where many claimed they were beaten and held for days without food.
Claims that officers had beaten protesters and dumped them into the Seine appeared to be confirmed when bodies were washed up on the banks of the river.
John Key demonstrates – predictably – cultural ignorance of the country which he represents in his glib response to question regarding the return of soldiers who died in Malaysia and Vietnam: :Kiwi soldiers will remain buried in Malaysia – John Key
It’s been one of my favourites this year. Its’ quite sinister and has some depth to it. The theme is manufactured societies and the authoritarian drive to compel citizens to conform, or else. A good steady plot with some interesting surprises. Melissa Leo’s performance (from Treme) was fantastic.
ALGARY – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s federal government is following through on an election promise to ban crude oil tanker traffic off the coast of northern British Columbia
He sounded as if he hadn’t sobered up yet from last night’s binge.
The interviewer, who usually tries very hard to make him sound as if he had at least a room temperature IQ, finally seemed to give up. Trying to make him sound sensible simply proved to be impossible.
Part of his premise seemed to be that since the Iraqi Army wasn’t currently very good we shouldn’t try and improve their performance by training them.
I wonder if he plans to do something similar here, perhaps in education?
“I’m sorry Mrs Jones. Your son Johnny isn’t able to read very well so we have decided not to try and help him. We think he should just be dumped on the educational scrapheap”.
Last week on the radio, Wellington’s “Green” Mayor defended WCC’s right to let a council venue, the TSB Arena, out for hire for the defence industry conference. She was labelled by the DJ as a hypocrite for previously referring to herself as a pacifist.
Well, I hope CeCe is paying attention now. Not only does hiring a council venue out for a warmongers conference look bad, and is morally questionable it brings avoidable tension to the city that the WCC are linked with because it’s their venue.
I agree, letting council venues to warmongers is bizarre.
Is she a Green mayor?
She is the second mayor of a major New Zealand city to be a member of the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand, after Dunedin’s Sukhi Turner, but she stood as an independent candidate.
“Green Mayor” is more a colloquial term than anything but locals are familiar with her Green Party connections. From your link, under the heading Wellington mayoral campaign 2013 is this:
“Celia Wade-Brown – The incumbent since 2010, she has served as a Southern Ward councillor. She stood for the Green Party for Parliament in 1996 (under the Alliance banner), 1999 and 2002.”
What I find odd about her personal view of it being ok to hire out a council venue to the warmongers conference (and I do mean personal as she’s not the ones taking the venue bookings) is that I have heard her anti war views during the public celebrations for 30 years of Wellington being nuclear free. She spoke with real pride about how we were the first city in NZ to go nuclear free and gave a rousing speech about the importance of communities and countries having a commitment to peace.
FWIW I sense there has been a creeping hypocrisy entering her mayoralty in this term. Just one example – I have tried and failed, to raise with her the environmental failure that is the poorly planned car centric, socially isolated, no amenities housing developments of the northern burbs. Ironically she has been championing them and even worse, is a supporter of the SHA Accord, which strips away the usual requirements for housing development under the RMA.
The only thing that is green about Celia Wade-Brown are those that think she subscribes to Green values. In reality, she is the tame pup of the Business Round Table and the property speculator class. One might say ‘corrupt’ but as yet, no-one seems to have found the brown paper bag full of high denomination notes.
Little? Zero chance. He’s shown he won’t stand up against the corporates as per the TPP. He’s shown he won’t stand up against the security state as per the spying anti terror legislation. He’s shown he won’t stand with benes as per the social welfare reform law.
I lost all confidence in Little when he caved in to the government over the Snooping bill. His speech after that, where he said that “next time” he and the opposition would not cave in like this, was one of the most abject performances I have ever seen.
How stupid are you? You do realise that AQ is still being successful in various regions, and the Taliban is still going strong? Fuck, the Israelis have tried that for years against Hezbollah, Hamas and the PLO.
But apparently using the same volunteer-producing strategy will somehow work against Daesh.
As of 3:59 p.m. EST Nov. 12, the U.S. and coalition have conducted a total of 8,125 strikes (5,321 Iraq / 2,804 Syria).
[…]
As of Nov. 14, U.S. and partner nation aircraft have flown an estimated 57,301 sorties in support of operations in Iraq and Syria.
[…]
As of Oct. 31, 2015, the total cost of operations related to ISIL since kinetic operations started on Aug. 8, 2014, is $5 billion and the average daily cost is $11 million for 450 days of operations. A further breakdown of cost associated with the operations is here.
TV3’s Duncan Garner said last night he was told Mr Lusk was being funded by “Chinese money” to carry out a “direct mailout” that would focus on the Te Atatu MP.
Foreign money needs to be kept out of our politics and thus things like this need to be illegal.
This isn’t new but appropriate to ressurect. Explanation of why so many people are wrong for blaming Islam.
Religious scholar Reza Aslan took some serious issue on CNN Monday night with Bill Maher‘s commentary about Islamic violence and oppression. Maher ended his show last Friday by going after liberals for being silent about the violence and oppression that goes on in Muslim nations. Aslan said on CNN that Maher’s arguments are just very unsophisticated.
He said these “facile arguments” might sound good, but not all Muslim nations are the same.
I really like that dude – I’ve got one of his books at home (“How to win a cosmic war”). Dovetailing that with Ignatieff’s “Blood and belonging” results in a really interesting perspective.
Staunch might be your word for it. He’s a bully.
By pushing the interviewers round, he enabled at least one clear misrepresentation: Turkey as upholder of women’s rights.
In Turkey there’s a diminishing legacy from secularisation, and there is honour killing, child ”marriage”, and women are encouraged to reconcile with violent partners and most crucially, the trajectory is negative.
President Erdogan explicitly stated women are not equal: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30183711
Aslan makes a valid point about Saudi Arabia, but uses that country to narrow the debate and bully those who disagree. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_Turkey
Women aren’t equal anywhere, but in varying degrees, which I think was his point i.e. look at each individual country not one religion as a whole that spans many different countries with different practices.
I don’t see the bullying behaviour. He’s a guest on a show and he’s forthright, and yes he points out where the interviewers are wrong but he doesn’t engage in typical bullying behaviour.
Yes it is his point, and it’s a neat tactic to evade the issue.
By citing gender inequality in the West (the number of elected representatives), and the gross misogyny of Saudi Arabia, he tries to exonerate (and even hold as standard bearers) states like Turkey that are on a negative trajectory in respect of women’s rights.
It’s a dismissive non sequitur to say women ”aren’t equal anywhere”, because the point is the direction of travel.
I don’t see how it’s a neat tactic to evade the issue when he’s making a point about religion not gender. I think you mean he is factually incorrect. Your point about Turkey’s negative trajectory is valid and important, but it doesn’t negate his point, which is that you can’t condemn all of Islam based on cherry picking the worst countries. For instance if you put Turkey aside as an example, is his point still made?
I really wanted him to use Ethiopia and the US as examples of how Christianity suppresses women 😈 Imagine if the mainstream narrative about Christianity was based on Ethiopia instead of the Western Christian countries.
“It’s a dismissive non sequitur to say women ”aren’t equal anywhere”, because the point is the direction of travel.”
We can debate sometime how much of a positive trajectory NZ is on re gender.
I don’t know who’s right, but I suspect Aslan seized on division in Islam over the violent practice to misrepresent the problem.
The wiki article seems reasonable (it points out Christian woman are mutilated as well, but most of the article concerns the Muslim faith): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_views_on_female_genital_mutilation
”In Indonesia, FGM is widespread among Muslim women and considered a religious necessity.”
Indonesia was Aslan’s other standard bearer of women’s rights, wasn’t it?
According to the Observer’s review of Aslan’s book, he describes the motivation of one of the London July 7 bombers as ”love”, and his writing becomes ”overwrought” with emotion over Obama’s election.
So definitely not my kind of dude, but each to their own and all that.
Also events have overtaken Aslan’s book and its prescriptions, as many jihadists now are from prosperous societies (and have had good opportunities on an individual basis). http://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/aug/16/win-cosmic-war-reza-aslan
It’s still an interesting read – the Guardian review seems to ignore most of what I remember about the book. The review seems to lose the forest for the trees, IMO.
Is there any bag of foul wind fouler than that hypocrite Dr Phil McGraw? Dr Phil, TV3, Tuesday 17 November 2015
sanctimoniousadj. showing or marked by false piety or righteousness; hypocritically virtuous.
The TV3 programme notes on this show billed it like this: “Two young women accuse their father of physically and verbally abusing them.” #blamingdad
The dad was pretty much the model of what Bob McCoskrie would call a perfect father. He protested to Dr Phil: “I ain’t the greatest dad in the world, but I ain’t no ogre. I spanked them and I slapped them but…”
But all the protestations in the world cut no ice with Dr. Phil, that supreme moral arbiter, that exemplar of core American values, that upholder of all that decent and right in the world. Dr Phil sternly lectured him that violence and shouting had no place in his relationships with his daughters, no matter how old they were.
So what WOULD that dad have had to do to earn praise, rather than censure, by Dr. Phil? Well, he might have tried shooting hundreds of people, including women and children, in another country…
Of course he was right to upbraid him about hitting his daughters.
The point of my post was to note how odd it was for him to take that stance, in view of the fact he had, earlier this year, called a notorious mass murderer “a modern-day American hero”.
Click on the links from my first post, and it will be quite clear. But, briefly, my objection to Dr Phil pronouncing about anything is this:
Earlier this year he claimed that the notorious Chris Kyle, the American sniper who killed hundreds of men, women and children in Afghanistan (the Department of “Defense” officially confirmed he had more than 160 victims) was “a modern-day American hero”….
The life and death of Chris Kyle has captivated millions. He risked his life fighting for this country. He miraculously survived the most dangerous combat zones …. a modern-day American hero.”
In the light of the depravity of his endorsement of Kyle, I don’t think Dr Phil is a fit and proper person to make a judgement on the character of anyone.
Sorry, still don’t know what you are on about. The first link isn’t that clear, the second two are identical and going on about an Imperial Wizard. If you want me to answer your question you’re going to have to make your point in plain English that doesn’t require 10 mins of further research to understand what you are on about.
1. Chris Kyle was a mass murderer. He was praised by Dr Phil earlier this year as “a modern-day American hero.”
2. Dr Phil, who praises mass murderers as “modern-day American heroes”, has the temerity to upbraid someone for yelling at his daughters and spanking them.
3. I don’t approve of spanking, but then I don’t approve of mass murder either. I think I am entitled to lecture someone who spanks his daughters to desist.
4. Dr Phil doesn’t approve of spanking, but he DOES approve of mass murder. I don’t think he is entitled to lecture ANYONE about anything, because he is a moral imbecile.
5. Now please read my original links, because it’s all perfectly clear.
“1. Chris Kyle was a mass murderer. He was praised by Dr Phil earlier this year as “a modern-day American hero.””
Citation for Dr Phil ‘praising’ Kyle. The link you provided implies the programme is about Kyle’s parents discussing his mental illness and that he wouldn’t have murdered people if he’s gotten the help he needed. Presumably if Phil did praise Kyle, it wasn’t for the murders. Did Phil praise Kyle for his pre-murdering life? I’m betting it wasn’t for his murdering life.
“2. Dr Phil, who praises mass murderers as “modern-day American heroes”, has the temerity to upbraid someone for yelling at his daughters and spanking them.”
Lots of people have relative morality. Myself, I think context is important.
“3. I don’t approve of spanking, but then I don’t approve of mass murder either. I think I am entitled to lecture someone who spanks his daughters to desist.”
I’m not in a position to judge you on that.
“4. Dr Phil doesn’t approve of spanking, but he DOES approve of mass murder. I don’t think he is entitled to lecture ANYONE about anything, because he is a moral imbecile.”
Citation needed that Dr Phil approves of mass murder. Pretty sure you are making shit up now.
“5. Now please read my original links, because it’s all perfectly clear.”
As mentioned, I tried and I’m not going to attempt that dog’s breakfast of a comment because I’m guessing it’s full of the same illogic as this one.
The life and death of Chris Kyle has captivated millions. He risked his life fighting for this country. He miraculously survived the most dangerous combat zones …. a modern-day American hero.”
Now what part of that do you not understand? He is praising a U.S. Army sniper who is “credited” officially with more than 160 kills.
You can vapour on all you like about how he is praising him for his “pre-murdering” actions, but nobody will take you seriously.
I would be offended by your allegation that I am “making shit up”, but it’s quite obvious you have basic problems in comprehension, as well as a history of hostility towards me. I have humoured you this evening, but I haven’t forgotten how credulous you were a couple of years ago in swallowing all that government black propaganda about Julian Assange, and how you continued, in spite of the allegations being conclusively refuted, to defiantly traduce not only Assange but anyone who dared to support him.
You can resort to all the ad homs you like Morrisey (and more lies), but when you say “but he DOES approve of mass murder.” I believe you are making shit up. There is a large difference between being able to see someone’s contribution to their country and approving of mass murder. What’s not believable is that Phil McGraw approves of what Kyle did. You are grossly misrepresenting his position for your own argumentative gratification.
I think any reasonably intelligent person would interpret these words as endorsement: “He risked his life fighting for this country. He miraculously survived the most dangerous combat zones …. a modern-day American hero.”
The person he is endorsing is a sniper who picked off women and children from positions of almost complete safety.
I am not going to waste any more time with you while you play your endless game of feigned incomprehension.
no, most people would understand that it’s possible to appreciate a soldier’s former life and not approve of them murdering multiple people. There is nothing in what you have posted that supports your assertion that Phil McGraw approves of mass murder (your words).
“He risked his life fighting for this country. He miraculously survived the most dangerous combat zones …. a modern-day American hero.”
There is only one google hit for any of that quote (your comment), so I’m guessing you transcribed it from the video. Given your transcriptions are shall we say loose at the best of times I’m going to assume that you have grossly misquoted McGraw out of context. I’ll also hazard a guess the McGraw was introducing Kyle when he used those words and the implication is that he was a modern-day American hero for his work as a soldier not for his later mass murder.
I’m not surprised you are giving this no more time because you can’t answer the challenge to your argument.
The Paris attacks need to be analyzed by serious, informed commentators.
So why on earth are these fools even trying to talk about them? The Panel, RNZ National, Tuesday 17 November 2015
Jim Mora, Penny Ashton, John Bishop, Julie Moffett
bewildermentn.1. The condition of being confused or disoriented. 2. A situation of perplexity or confusion; a tangle: a bewilderment of lies and half-truths.
PENNY ASHTON: Bombing them is probably not going to stop them.
JOHN BISHOP:[gravely] It might not, but what’s the alternative?
PENNY ASHTON:[thoughtfully] Mmmmmm.
JOHN BISHOP: The West is certainly vulnerable, in terms of soft targets…. [He carries on bloviating for several minutes then, thankfully, stops.]
Automated investment platforms are part of the ‘robo-advice’ sector in the US, though they are also being used by client-facing advisers as supplementary tools to guard against losing business to the traditional robo-advice giants, such as Betterment and Wealthfront.
Robot advice is being used in investment, the computer buy and sell on target prices etc.
This goes further. And when there is a paradigm for juding voting patterns and winning elections then?
CNN anchors berate innocent Paris Muslim because
he won’t ‘accept responsibility’ for attack
by DAVID EDWARDS, Monday 16 November 2015
Two CNN hosts berated the spokesperson for a Muslim outreach group over the weekend because he would not agree that all Muslims share responsibility for the recent attacks in Paris.
During an interview early Sunday morning, Yaser Louati of the Collective Against Islamophobia in France told CNN anchors Isha Sesay and John Vause that hate speech was being directed toward the Muslim community in response to the attacks.
“The problem is that you’re still mixing the Muslim community and somehow giving them an affiliation with these terrorists,” Louati explained. “But [French Muslims] are paying two prices. The price of being targeted by these terrorists and some of the right-wing columnists.”
“We are being asked to choose our camp,” the guest pointed out. “Our camp is the French one. Make no mistake about it.”
“If your camp is the French camp, then why is it that no one within the Muslim community there in France knew what these guys were up to?” Vause asked.
“Sir, the Muslim community has nothing to do with these guys,” Louati insisted. “Nothing. We cannot justify ourselves for the actions of someone who claims to be Muslim.”
“Why not?” Vause interrupted. “What is the responsibility within the Muslim community to identify people within their own ranks when it comes to people who are obviously training and preparing to carry out mass murder.”
“Sir, they were not from our ranks!” Louati exclaimed. “We cannot accept the idea that these people are from us, they are not. They are just byproducts of our societies exporting their wars abroad and expecting no repercussions back home.”
Co-host Isha Sesay insisted that Louati had to “accept that responsibility to prevent the bigger backlash” because the “finger of blame is pointing at the Muslim community.”
“This is a very complicated issue,” Vause said, concluding the segment. “I have yet to hear the condemnation from the Muslim community on this.”
“The point he is making is, ‘It’s not our fault,’” Sesay noted. “But the fact of the matter is when these things happen, the finger of blame is pointed at the Muslim community and so you have to be preemptive. It’s coming from the community. You’ve got to take a stand.”
“The word responsibility comes to mind,” Vause opined.
“It just comes to mind,” Sesay agreed. “You can’t shirk that.”
Tatang Koswara (1947 – 2015) was a sniper credited with at least 41 confirmed kills during the U.S.-backed Indonesian invasion of East Timor in the 1970s.
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 ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
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 ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Sleep mode is a power-saving state that allows your computer to quickly resume operation without having to boot up from scratch. This can be useful if you need to step away from your computer for a short period of time but don’t want to shut it down completely. There are ...
Introduction Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) has revolutionized the field of translation by harnessing the power of technology to assist human translators in their work. This innovative approach combines specialized software with human expertise to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of translations. In this comprehensive article, we will delve into the ...
In today’s digital age, mobile devices have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Among the vast array of portable computing options available, iPads and tablet computers stand out as two prominent contenders. While both offer similar functionalities, there are subtle yet significant differences between these two devices. This ...
A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to carry out a set of instructions. The basic components of a computer are the processor, memory, storage, input devices, and output devices. The Processor The processor, also known as the central processing unit (CPU), is the brain of the ...
Voice Memos is a convenient app on your iPhone that allows you to quickly record and store audio snippets. These recordings can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as taking notes, capturing ideas, or recording interviews. While you can listen to your voice memos on your iPhone, you ...
Laptop screens are essential for interacting with our devices and accessing information. However, when lines appear on the screen, it can be frustrating and disrupt productivity. Understanding the underlying causes of these lines is crucial for finding effective solutions. Types of Screen Lines Horizontal lines: Also known as scan ...
Right-clicking is a common and essential computer operation that allows users to access additional options and settings. While most desktop computers have dedicated right-click buttons on their mice, laptops often do not have these buttons due to space limitations. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on how to right-click ...
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 Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
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 ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
A new exhibition in Wellington showcases the faces behind your local goods and services. Back in 1977, when I was a fine arts student at the University of Canterbury, I took a series of photographs of Christchurch shopkeepers. The photos were for a calendar – a project for my end ...
Toomaj and his resistance to tyranny through his songs have become an icon for the youth of Iran, so his sentence has hit the nation hard. Toomaj Salehi is not the first artist to pay the price for standing with the people. ...
My cousin Dylan and I spotted these big eels under the bridge that summer. We watched them lounging under the dark weed, facing into the flow of water, their mouths frozen open. Dylan and I couldn’t stop thinking about those eels. The night we went down to the creek, we ...
Newsroom, home of satire. My long-running weekly satirical series The Secret Diary has moved to Newsroom and will appear every Saturday, with Victor Billot’s wildly popular satirical Odes continuing to appear every Sunday. Diaries, Odes – while serious political columnists toil at meaningful opinions and stroke their chins to an ...
Tara Ward unravels the many nuanced layers of a cartoon about talking dogs.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. It’s not often an episode of a children’s cartoon has adults sobbing into their sleeves, but that’s exactly what happened this week when ...
Working as a doctor in developing countries to help communities achieve better health outcomes is nothing short of a life goal for Jessica Tater. The University of Otago medical student has her sights firmly set on joining the international humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) when she qualifies ...
There’s an island in the far reaches of Auckland’s territory, sitting off the tip of the Coromandel Peninsula, 30 minutes by air from the city or four hours on the slow boat. Aotea Great Barrier is off-grid, it has a population of fewer than a thousand people … and most ...
Asia Pacific Report An Australian author and advocate, Jim Aubrey, today led a national symbolic one minute’s silence to mark the “blood debt” owed to Papuan allies during the Second World War indigenous resistance against the invading Japanese forces. “A promise to most people is a promise,” Aubrey said in ...
Asia Pacific Report The Freedom Flotilla is ready to sail to Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. All the required paperwork has been submitted to the port authority, and the cargo has been loaded and prepared for the humanitarian trip to the besieged enclave. However, organisers received word of an “administrative ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
The ministers responsible for green-lighting major projects need to be open about potential conflicts of interest, says Transparency International. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Lichen, the first described example of symbiosis.AdeJ Artventure/Shutterstock Once known only to those studying biology, the word symbiosis is now widely used. Symbiosis is the intimate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Hemsley, Head, Childhood Dementia Research Group, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Olena Ivanova/Shutterstock “Childhood” and “dementia” are two words we wish we didn’t have to use together. But sadly, around 1,400 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Whiteford, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The government’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has just published its second report. It was set up by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth in 2022 to provide: ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne The Queensland state election will be held in October. A YouGov poll for The Courier Mail, conducted April 9–17 from a sample ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Naeni, PhD candidate at Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University There’s been much talk in recent months about what a possible second Donald Trump presidency in the United States could mean for Europe, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the ...
A brief round-up of submissions on the controversial proposed law. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week, submissions on the controversial Fast-track Approvals Bill closed just hours after the government released a list of stakeholder organisations who were sent letters advising how they could ...
A poem from Robin Peace’s new collection Detritus of Empire: feather / grass / rock. Cereal giving I see a woman’s hands, see her curious hands break a stalk as she walks through the tall prairie, the savannah, the steppe, wherever it was. See her idly bite the grass that ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)A handsomely produced (debossed cover, lovely ...
The Commissioner's decision validates the longstanding efforts of the local community and ensures that Awataha Marae will be managed to serve the needs of the local community, particularly for hosting tangihanga. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tristan Salles, Associate professor, University of Sydney Examples of Australian landscapes.Unsplash Seventy thousand years ago, the sea level was much lower than today. Australia, along with New Guinea and Tasmania, formed a connected landmass known as Sahul. Around this time – ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Castagna, Lecturer, Creative Writing, Western Sydney University Day Day Market, ParramattaPhoto: Garry Trinh I live on the edge of Parramatta, Australia’s fastest-growing city, on the kind of old-fashioned suburban street that has 1950s fibros constructed in the post-war housing boom, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Ryan, Teaching Fellow in Economics, University of Waikato GettyImagesfatido/Getty Images There is an ongoing global debate over whether the high inflation seen in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic can be lowered without a recession. New Zealand is not ...
The ‘Wicked Game’ heartthrob is in his late 60s now. That didn’t stop him putting on a lively, goofy and very sparkly show. Apart from ‘Wicked Game’, which graces a sultry playlist of mine simply called 💋, my last sustained Chris Isaak listening session took place when I was about ...
Analysis - Two ministers were stripped of portfolios in a warning to Cabinet, drama broke out at the Waitangi Tribunal, and the gang patch ban bill ran into opposition. ...
Tara Ward makes an impassioned plea for some vital pop culture merch. In April 1999, I became obsessed with a new reality television show called Popstars. Every Tuesday night, five strangers transformed into music royalty before my very eyes as Joe, Keri, Carly, Erika and Megan were chosen to form ...
PNG Post-Courier In the early hours of ANZAC Day, aerial photographs captured an impressive gathering of Australians and Papua New Guineans at Isurava in the Northern (Oro) Province. The solemn dawn service yesterday was held at a site steeped in history, where some of the fiercest battles of World War ...
The PSA is shocked that Oranga Tamariki has used the cost cutting drive to downgrade its commitment to Te Ao Māori and remove many specialist Māori roles. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Kemish, Adjunct Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland There can be no more powerful symbol of the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea than the prime ministers of these neighbouring countries walking together on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharon Robinson, Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director of ARC Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF), University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong Andrew Netherwood Over the last 25 years, the ozone hole which forming over Antarctica each spring has started to shrink. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Viktoria Kahui, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Economics, University of Otago Getty Images/Amy Toensing Biodiversity is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. This suggests the ways we currently use to manage our natural environment are failing. One emerging concept focuses on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Colin Bednall, Associate Professor in Management, Swinburne University of Technology marvent/Shutterstock Finding the best person to fill a position can be tough, from drafting a job ad to producing a shortlist of top interview candidates. Employers typically consider information from ...
Wondering where to host your next BYO? Whether its a small gathering or a massive party, we’ve got some recommendations. I was first introduced to the concept of BYOs at Dunedin’s India Gardens, a legendary but sadly defunct establishment, which purveyed enormous quantities of mango chicken to Aotearoa’s drunkest future ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julien Cooper, Honorary Lecturer, Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University Julien Cooper The hyper-arid desert of Eastern Sudan, the Atbai Desert, seems like an unlikely place to find evidence of ancient cattle herders. But in this dry environment, my new ...
The sector says it’s hopeful her replacement Paul Goldsmith will be able to throw it a lifeline, after six months with a minister deemed missing in action, 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 ...
The government can't just rely on axing public sector jobs and has to do more to cut spending, says the chief economist at a free market think tank. ...
Rock The Vote NZ, known for its advocacy for minor party unity and its role within the Freedoms NZ Coalition during the 2023 General Election, celebrates this merger as a strategic enhancement of its operational strength and outreach. ...
Nearly everyone has experienced the frustration of something you use breaking and being difficult or expensive to fix. Proposed legislation could change that. It’s been raining on and off all Sunday afternoon but people are lining up outside a building in a corner of Gribblehirst Park in Sandringham, Auckland. In ...
What does a forever relationship look like when you don’t believe in marriage? And how do you celebrate it? This essay is part of our Sunday Essay series, made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.I’m going to do it, right now. I’m going to say ...
The Prime Minister has committed to resuming direct flights to Thailand. But it’s not a promise he will be able to deliver on anytime soon. The post Prime Minister jumps the gun in Thailand appeared first on Newsroom. ...
It’s not that long ago Eliza McCartney was seriously wondering if the Paris Olympics would be her pole vaulting swansong. After years of being hounded by injury after injury, the Rio Olympics bronze medallist was still confident she would compete at her second Olympics in Paris in July, unless something ...
FICTION 1 Take Two by Danielle Hawkins (Allen & Unwin, $36.99) There’s commercial fiction, like this book, and then there’s quality fiction, quality writers, quality literature; the forthcoming Auckland Writers Festival is full of quality, and ReadingRoom has two tickets to give away to the following events: Paul Lynch (Dublin ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],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 26 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
You can’t have missed the Gallipoli story as the movies, documentaries, essays and books capture what it was like for New Zealand troops in their eight-month campaign on the Peninsula. But this Anzac Day the Auckland War Memorial Museum has published a book that sheds light on a little-known aspect of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra In the free-for-all between the Australian government and Big Tech boss Elon Musk this week, the government had to be on a winner. Most people would have little sympathy with Musk’s vociferous opposition to ...
Asia Pacific Report Chief Mandla Mandela, a member of the National Assembly of South Africa and Nelson Mandela’s grandson, has joined the Freedom Flotilla in istanbul as the ships prepare to sail for Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. Mandela is also the ambassador for the Global Campaign to Return to ...
Pacific Media Watch Journalists who report on environmental issues are encountering growing difficulties in many parts of the world, reports Reporters Without Borders. According to the tally kept by RSF, 200 journalists have been subjected to threats and physical violence, including murder, in the past 10 years because they were ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
ACT's Rural Communities and Veterans spokesman Mark Cameron responds to cancellations and protests of ANZAC Day commemorations in Wellington. He says, "These pitiful attempts to detract from ANZAC Day are not at all indicative of the feelings of mainstream ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Terrorist ‘mastermind’ turns out to be Belgian, Syrian passports are fake, so maybe France should start a bombing run on Belgium. What a mess. Over 100 ppl detained, it does make you wonder WTF the spies watching our online activity do all day, too much time sniffing ppls undies drawers is my guess.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/serbian-police-arrest-man-carrying-syrian-passport-with-exact-same-details-as-document-found-on-a6736471.html
That was only ever an excuse to breach privacy for other ends IMO with national security a large blanket thrown over everything they spy on.
Another passport that appeared.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/mar/19/september11.iraq
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176069/tomgram%3A_laura_gottesdiener%2C_the_angel_of_death/#more
Here’s a little thought experiment: imagine that we’re in Kansas (without Toto) and a bridal party in three rented limos is heading down a highway toward a church where a wedding is about to take place. Suddenly, a small out-of-control plane plummets into those limos killing the bride, the mother of the bride, and five of the seven bridesmaids; 15 others are wounded. Bear with me here, if this particular method of wedding slaughter seems a little farfetched. After all, we don’t (yet) have drones armed with Hellfire missiles patrolling American skies that could take out such a caravan. ….
Drone killings
41 men targeted but 1,147 people killed: US drone strikes – the facts on the ground
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/nov/24/-sp-us-drone-strikes-kill-1147
What are you, a goddam’ Commie?
Genuinely, I have no decent thought on the middle east troubles..
They have arisen due to a confluence of human migrations out of Africa and settlements in those once fertile lands. Such were these circumstances that civilisation actually sprouted there.
These communities have existed for a very long time – in fact longer than any other on the planet currently, due to their proximity to Africa.. which has made them central to the world’s order
But the world and its demographics and migrations have now moved on very substantially from those times and that part of the world is no longer central to the world’s order (other than historic hangover and the current presence of oil – which, in a practical sense, keeps them central to order. But this is passing)
About 5,000 years of them being central to the world.
Next 5,000 years bullshit
Just to put that in context, Australian aboriginal cultures have existed for 50,000 years.
On the Eurasian continent, 5,000 years happens to coincide with the general shift from egalitarian culture to dominance culture. There are various theories around that related to the development of agriculture over since 10,000 years ago, but I think that’s as much an accident of geography as anything (the right coinciding of population with fertile land).
As for the world’s order, I don’t see any of the developped world being particularly good at that. Bunch of self-serving warmongers the lot of them.
If someone was killing in the name of my god I would expect my god to act to stop them,if he/she /it didn’t act I would throw that god on the heap with other stupid beliefs I’ve had.
Is Simon Lusk New Zealand’s angriest man?
He should stop killing things and just come out.
Who is Paul Honnor, and what’s that all about?
He came across as a legend in his own mind, actually quite a blow arse nutter. Not much of a hunter gatherer taking 5 shots to nail a couple of deer in a fenced paddock. Be an even match in the boxing ring with his mate Slater. Certainly looks like he will help Twyford win his seat with ease, $150 paid to turn Maori voters off Labour was a laugh.
“a legend in his own mind,” Thanks. That’s good. I’ll use that sometime.
And along with “a legend in his own mind” I quite like “blow arse nutter”. Sums it up really. He’s like the playground bully that grew up and is still a bully, but has no mates. Nothing but a gloating idiot.
If he appeared on the show because he was touting for business as Garner suggested, then he did a great job of shooting himself in the foot – or maybe he genuinely believes that everyone is as corrupted and vicious as he is, and that he might reach that target audience and drum up some business.
On one of the posts somewhere, over the weekend, there was a character called cowboy (I think) who talked about why he isn’t renewing his National Party membership, and how Key’s outburst in the house was the last straw that pushed him to that decision. It was an insightful read, and an honest one from a former Nat supporter.
I reckon there’s lots more like cowboy, conservative, traditional, yet principled, quietly turning away from their party. I look at how my family, a true blue one, just can’t defend Key like they used to. These can’t be the ones that Roy Morgan interviews.
Bringing Simon Lusk out for an airing was a good thing. He’ll drive those principled former Nat voters into the arms of NZ First.
” or maybe he genuinely believes that everyone is as corrupted and vicious as he is, and that he might reach that target audience and drum up some business.”
^^
This. Which also says a lot about the people who associate with him.
Blabbermouth Lusk runs his mouth too much. Sam Lotu-Iiga is the gift that keeps on giving. Thanks Blabbermouth.
Just forced myself to watch some of the video. Had to curb the vomit.
He’d have to be the antithesis of Sir Ed.
I particularly enjoyed the way he appeared to own up to criminal behaviour:
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1993/0087/latest/DLM310402.html
Depressingly, Duncan Garner didn’t appear to know that treating was an offence, despite having been a Political Editor…
If there really is a cabal of recent immigrants putting money up to do a hatchet job on a democraticly elected MP ( Phil Twyford ) that’s all the reason required for the arseholes to be escorted to the border and thrown out.
Where the fuck are the Police ?
probably scared of Lusk.
Where the fuck are the Police ?
Turning a blind eye of course.
@Anne – The police are being good neoliberal citizens and giving out traffic tickets of course. You have to fund and justify your own job and existence these days. (in money).
Solving crime is way down the list for police, first being errand boys for Slater and Key, second locking up people that disagree with the above, thirdly under globalism we have ‘overseas friends’ to do the above to, and fourthly gather revenue to keep the above going by issuing traffic fines. Waste your time locking up people who should not be in prison because mental health facilities are closing, homeless facilities are closing, and drug facilities are closing. If there are any resources left – you can do a bit of solving crime in your spare time.
Can’t and shouldn’t throw people out for what they are thinking of doing.
Such old fashioned Liberalism Tracey. Refreshing but so rare these days in the political circles you tend to identify with.
Ask Colonial Viper how it works.
To Pascals bookie following on from yesterday
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-27838034
The first thing needed would be to ratify the Kurdish state and enrol them into Nato, this will require some diplomacy on the part of the West in regards to Turkey however its an autonamous state at the moment (more or less) so its not like creating a brand new country
Once this has happened it will be much easier for troops to get on the ground because while you can’t eradicate terrorism (and you never will) ISIS at least has a physical area to target and destroying their infrastructure won’t end them but it will certainly make it harder for them to operate overseas
It’sa good start. And pile billions into the region to establish their infrastructure, and create employment and futures. Without a future people do desperate things or become victims of those doing desperate things. If we took even half the money being used on military offensives and put it into devleopment of countries infrastructures and futures… we might just surprise ourselves.
This can be done concurrently and would certainly be my first choice (if money and political machinations were under my control) but you need the defences and troops on the ground before you build the infrastructure
I agree, would be good. Dunno about NATO though, mainly coz I dunno if the kurds would be interested, we’d have to do what they want to do.
And yeah, the Turks. But also Iran and Iraq. At the moment thngs are fairly cool between the Kurds and Baghdad, but that’s only coz of ISIS. Baghdad isn’t really that keen on letting the Kurds have Kirkuk, though there is not much they can do about it at the moment. Thos there have been incidents between Shia militia and peshmerga forces.
the problem is that our allies have competing interests and we keep ignoring those interests, which is why I think things will carry on as they are until we get reps from all communities (not nations, and I’m explicitly including the Iraqi Sunni in this, they need reps distinct from Baghdad) around a table and work out what the end game looks like.
I wonder if the current leaders of the West have the courage to be what needs to be done in this current situation
I don’t think they do
I think what will happen is some people will tweet prayfor paris, some people will add a tricolour to their facebook pics and in a couple of weeks it’ll all blow over
You’re probably right: they need to stand up to insane racist wingnuts, call an end to useless vengeance fantasies, prosecute war criminals, and stop the mass murder of innocent Muslims, but Donald Trump will say nasty things about them.
http://time.com/4113333/paris-attacks-donald-trump/
The idiot trump at his best saying that if more French carried guns less people would of died. Because it works so well in the us.
He’s got company.
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/11/because-twitter-is-our-national-id-here-are-the-worst-conservative-reactions-to-the-paris-attacks/
” they need to stand up to insane racist wingnuts, call an end to useless vengeance fantasies, prosecute war criminals, and stop the mass murder of innocent Muslims,”
Wow four things about which one can only say.
Every one of these is an ISIL policy.
I wouldn’t hold them responsible for the last bit where you say “but Donald Trump will say nasty things about them”. He will say nasty things about ISIL but I wouldn’t hold anyone except Trump responsible for his views.
Yes, Alwyn, you’ve finally noticed how much US foreign policy and Daesh have in common. Slow clap.
Any lasting solution will not be the result of anglophile intervention using tools such as NATO and debt
As long as the ‘western way of life’ continues to be regarded as something other than the corporate destruction that it is, we have NO business in believing we can offer anything but the same , elsewhere
that may well be but it doesn’t change the fact that terrorist attacks are happening more frequently and its only a matter of time before it happens here
what, you mean like bombing a trades hall or a ship?
Wow, you really keep up with the news don’t you?
One happened in 1984 and the other in 1985. Thirty years ago and nothing since?
Even then no one has ever found out who carried out the first one so it is difficult to really claim it as terrorism isn’t it?
interesting idea, that terrorism is only terrorism if the perpetrators are known.
What are you trying to do – pretend that NZers have never experienced terrorism? Fuck, my local campus was deserted a few weeks back because people were expecting some nutter with a gun.
No, actually.
I am merely saying that in the Trades Hall bombing we have no real idea of why someone did it. It could have been for any reason at all.
We have had a number of cases of terrorism. One was the anarchist nut who tried to blow up the Wanganui Computer Centre in 1982.
Re the ship – the French Foreign Minister and using State terrorism to deal with dissent.
Hopefully age and experience has brought some wisdom.
Claire Trevett has an article in the Remuera National Party Newsletter about how the Labour Party is running at a deficit and therefore can’t criticise the Government for running a deficit. Clutching at straws imho
Can’t convince an electorate to vote for him but expects the country to vote for him, can’t fund raise and run a political party but expects to be able to run an economy
Yup
How does a political party run at a deficit and still survive?
What are you borrowing against?
Its good for a government to run a deficit but pretty shonkey for a political party to be running a deficit I’d have thought
Did you not read the article PR or are you just shitestirring?
They’re not running a deficit, they merely funded some of their (unexpected) operating expenses from cash reserves. That’s what a reserve is for.
That’s pretty disgusting ‘journalism’ from Trevett IMO.
and those reserves won’t last forever but of course people are voting with their wallets…
Bet the Greens coffers arn’t too bad at the moment
“and those reserves won’t last forever ….
Wtf are you on about? The article said that Labour had unforeseen costs over and above their normal (and budgeted) expenses, such as the leadership changes. That’s what cash reserves are for, to cover unexpected bills. When times are rosy they’ll no doubt build up the reserves again.
silly question 🙂
No doubt Trevett had a cushy position lined up for her services to Dear Leader.
Bloody minded,..Political capital mate, just as English thinks debt an asset.
👿
In Paris in 1961, Paris police killed 300 peaceful protestors
and then dumped their bodies into the River Seine.
Since the atrocities in Paris on Saturday, we have been inundated with a flood of sanctimonious words, hypocritical posturing, official lies and distortions, accompanied often by mournful assertions that “the world has changed forever”. But one of the most cynical lies repeated over the last couple of days is the contention by French politicians, assiduously reiterated by the media, that Saturday’s horror was “the deadliest violence on its soil since World War II”.
In fact, it wasn’t even close to the deadliest violence on French soil since World War II. That dubious honour belongs not to ISIS, but to the French state…..
France remembers Algerian massacre 50 years on
by KIM WILLSHER in Paris, The Guardian, Monday 17 October 2011
Politicians, historians and protesters gathered in Paris to mark the 50th anniversary of a police crackdown on Algerian anti-war demonstrators that has become one of the most shameful episodes of modern French history.
The events of 17 October 1961 are considered a massacre by many Algerians, who claim up to 300 members of their community died at the hands of the Paris police. Many are angry that the French government has never officially apologised for the bloody attack – which does not appear in school history books – and that the authorities still dispute the death toll. According to officials, less than a handful of protesters died, while historians say the number of Algerians killed – some of them beaten and thrown into the river Seine – was between 50 and 120.
On Monday, François Hollande chose to mark the tragedy as his first official engagement as the newly elected Socialist party presidential candidate. Hollande, named as the Socialists’ choice to take on Nicolas Sarkozy in next year’s presidential elections barely 12 hours earlier, on Monday threw a single red rose into the Seine from the bridge at Clichy, the suburb where many of the victims lived.
Afterwards he unveiled a plaque engraved with: “From this bridge and other bridges in the Paris region, Algerian demonstrators were thrown into the Seine on the 17 October 1961, victims of a blind repression. In their memory.” Benjamin Stora, a local resident and specialist in Algerian history, said it was a first step towards “recognising one of the biggest French tragedies”.
Bertrand Delanoë, the mayor of Paris who was born in Tunisia, another former French colony, placed a wreath at the St Michel bridge where there is a plaque marking what his office described as a “bloody repression”.
On the evening of 17 October 1961, at the height of the Franco-Algerian war, tens of thousands of Algerian protesters, including women and children, from around Paris gathered at various landmarks to demonstrate against what they considered a “racist and discriminatory” curfew imposed against them. The mobilisation had been organised by the Paris wing of the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN), an organisation that was fighting for Algeria’s independence from France and had been accused of carrying out attacks on Paris police that left a dozen dead.
It was intended to be a peaceful demonstration, but Maurice Papon, the Paris police chief, ordered his officers to stamp out the protests. As the Algerians gathered, the police acted swiftly and brutally, firing on protesters and arresting an estimated 11,500 who were herded on to buses and taken to makeshift detention centres where many claimed they were beaten and held for days without food.
Claims that officers had beaten protesters and dumped them into the Seine appeared to be confirmed when bodies were washed up on the banks of the river.
Read more….
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/oct/17/france-remembers-algerian-massacre
Thanks for the informative post.
John Oliver appears to have figured out who the terrorists are,
http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2015/nov/16/tv-satirist-john-oliver-responds-to-paris-attacks-with-a-moment-of-premium-cable-profanity
John Key demonstrates – predictably – cultural ignorance of the country which he represents in his glib response to question regarding the return of soldiers who died in Malaysia and Vietnam: :Kiwi soldiers will remain buried in Malaysia – John Key
I’ve missed something. What is this reference to “crickets” on TS lately, often in response to the screwy logic of RWer’s?
Any relation to “there are no crickets in Wayward Pines” ? (not on this trailer, but it’s an excellent show. You can watch on line)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsQ9Fl0VCkk
Rosie, ‘crickets’ refers to silence in the airwaves…as in nothing but the sound of crickets chirping
Search on youtube, “Awkward Silence Cricket Sound”, and you should get it 🙂
Thanks CR and maui. Now I am up with the times.
This from you tube explains it too:
“Great to use right after the comedy drum when no one talks or laughs at your stupid joke.”
Looks like a good show. Might have to watch
It’s been one of my favourites this year. Its’ quite sinister and has some depth to it. The theme is manufactured societies and the authoritarian drive to compel citizens to conform, or else. A good steady plot with some interesting surprises. Melissa Leo’s performance (from Treme) was fantastic.
ALGARY – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s federal government is following through on an election promise to ban crude oil tanker traffic off the coast of northern British Columbia
http://calgaryherald.com/business/energy/northern-gateway-hopes-crushed-as-canada-moves-to-ban-oil-tankers-off-b-c-coast
Can anyone explain what on earth Little was saying on Morning Report today?
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/201779039/little-details-current-stance-on-iraq-deployment
He sounded as if he hadn’t sobered up yet from last night’s binge.
The interviewer, who usually tries very hard to make him sound as if he had at least a room temperature IQ, finally seemed to give up. Trying to make him sound sensible simply proved to be impossible.
Part of his premise seemed to be that since the Iraqi Army wasn’t currently very good we shouldn’t try and improve their performance by training them.
I wonder if he plans to do something similar here, perhaps in education?
“I’m sorry Mrs Jones. Your son Johnny isn’t able to read very well so we have decided not to try and help him. We think he should just be dumped on the educational scrapheap”.
Aww cute! You’ve got another false dichotomy. Speaking of IQ, it’s hardly surprising you failed to grasp Little’s remarks.
Schadenfreude is like sugar: I know I shouldn’t but it tastes so sweet!
Ha ha ha ha ha…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blpe_sGnnP4
Looks like a win for media works.
Replaced 11 staff with a couple of sub contractors, if I was media works I’d be stoked
Michael Laws will be choking in bile when he hears this news…
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/whanganui-district-council-gets-an-official-h
Excellent, now to change the rest of the place names that make no sense in Maori.
Last week on the radio, Wellington’s “Green” Mayor defended WCC’s right to let a council venue, the TSB Arena, out for hire for the defence industry conference. She was labelled by the DJ as a hypocrite for previously referring to herself as a pacifist.
Well, I hope CeCe is paying attention now. Not only does hiring a council venue out for a warmongers conference look bad, and is morally questionable it brings avoidable tension to the city that the WCC are linked with because it’s their venue.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/74106973/protesters-clash-with-police-at-defence-industry-forum-in-wellington
I agree, letting council venues to warmongers is bizarre.
Is she a Green mayor?
She is the second mayor of a major New Zealand city to be a member of the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand, after Dunedin’s Sukhi Turner, but she stood as an independent candidate.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celia_Wade-Brown
“Green Mayor” is more a colloquial term than anything but locals are familiar with her Green Party connections. From your link, under the heading Wellington mayoral campaign 2013 is this:
“Celia Wade-Brown – The incumbent since 2010, she has served as a Southern Ward councillor. She stood for the Green Party for Parliament in 1996 (under the Alliance banner), 1999 and 2002.”
What I find odd about her personal view of it being ok to hire out a council venue to the warmongers conference (and I do mean personal as she’s not the ones taking the venue bookings) is that I have heard her anti war views during the public celebrations for 30 years of Wellington being nuclear free. She spoke with real pride about how we were the first city in NZ to go nuclear free and gave a rousing speech about the importance of communities and countries having a commitment to peace.
FWIW I sense there has been a creeping hypocrisy entering her mayoralty in this term. Just one example – I have tried and failed, to raise with her the environmental failure that is the poorly planned car centric, socially isolated, no amenities housing developments of the northern burbs. Ironically she has been championing them and even worse, is a supporter of the SHA Accord, which strips away the usual requirements for housing development under the RMA.
I could go on but won’t.
The only thing that is green about Celia Wade-Brown are those that think she subscribes to Green values. In reality, she is the tame pup of the Business Round Table and the property speculator class. One might say ‘corrupt’ but as yet, no-one seems to have found the brown paper bag full of high denomination notes.
Will New Zealand get a Labour leader with courage like Jeremy Corbyn?
Let’s hope so….
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2015/11/jeremy-corbyns-refusal-offer-labour-mps-free-vote-syria-shows-his-newly
Little? Zero chance. He’s shown he won’t stand up against the corporates as per the TPP. He’s shown he won’t stand up against the security state as per the spying anti terror legislation. He’s shown he won’t stand with benes as per the social welfare reform law.
I lost all confidence in Little when he caved in to the government over the Snooping bill. His speech after that, where he said that “next time” he and the opposition would not cave in like this, was one of the most abject performances I have ever seen.
How long will it take to decapitate ISIS leadership? A few bombs will reunite them with their Allah.
FFS.
How stupid are you? You do realise that AQ is still being successful in various regions, and the Taliban is still going strong? Fuck, the Israelis have tried that for years against Hezbollah, Hamas and the PLO.
But apparently using the same volunteer-producing strategy will somehow work against Daesh.
Clean Power reckons its as easy as taking out the Boss at the end of a computer game level.
Stupid with bells on I reckon.
As of 3:59 p.m. EST Nov. 12, the U.S. and coalition have conducted a total of 8,125 strikes (5,321 Iraq / 2,804 Syria).
[…]
As of Nov. 14, U.S. and partner nation aircraft have flown an estimated 57,301 sorties in support of operations in Iraq and Syria.
[…]
As of Oct. 31, 2015, the total cost of operations related to ISIL since kinetic operations started on Aug. 8, 2014, is $5 billion and the average daily cost is $11 million for 450 days of operations. A further breakdown of cost associated with the operations is here.
http://www.defense.gov/News/Special-Reports/0814_Inherent-Resolve
Contrary to what you RWNJs believe anybody can be a leader. Due to this fact CEOs should actually be on minimum wage.
They need to bomb Washington, London, Riyadh and Ankara, which are the main supporters of ISIS.
An heroic stand against the 3-year-old orphan threat.
/
Hugh Hewitt Verified account
@hughhewitt
Because he lacks confidence in Administration’s vetting ability, @ChrisChristie says no Syrian refugees now, not even “3 year old orphan
https://twitter.com/hughhewitt/status/666362298965999616
Some of the comments on that make for disturbing reading
Bad stuff we already know via Jane Kelsey, but reproduced here in longer form for those in other countries
http://theinternationalforecaster.com/International_Forecaster_Weekly/Terrible_TPP_Clauses_Explained_in_Plain_English
Phil Twyford responds to reported smear campaign against him.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11546733
Foreign money needs to be kept out of our politics and thus things like this need to be illegal.
This isn’t new but appropriate to ressurect. Explanation of why so many people are wrong for blaming Islam.
Religious scholar Reza Aslan took some serious issue on CNN Monday night with Bill Maher‘s commentary about Islamic violence and oppression. Maher ended his show last Friday by going after liberals for being silent about the violence and oppression that goes on in Muslim nations. Aslan said on CNN that Maher’s arguments are just very unsophisticated.
He said these “facile arguments” might sound good, but not all Muslim nations are the same.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzusSqcotDw
I really like that dude – I’ve got one of his books at home (“How to win a cosmic war”). Dovetailing that with Ignatieff’s “Blood and belonging” results in a really interesting perspective.
It was the intelligence and ability to communicate so well (and staunchly) that I liked.
Staunch might be your word for it. He’s a bully.
By pushing the interviewers round, he enabled at least one clear misrepresentation: Turkey as upholder of women’s rights.
In Turkey there’s a diminishing legacy from secularisation, and there is honour killing, child ”marriage”, and women are encouraged to reconcile with violent partners and most crucially, the trajectory is negative.
President Erdogan explicitly stated women are not equal: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30183711
Aslan makes a valid point about Saudi Arabia, but uses that country to narrow the debate and bully those who disagree.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_Turkey
Women aren’t equal anywhere, but in varying degrees, which I think was his point i.e. look at each individual country not one religion as a whole that spans many different countries with different practices.
I don’t see the bullying behaviour. He’s a guest on a show and he’s forthright, and yes he points out where the interviewers are wrong but he doesn’t engage in typical bullying behaviour.
Yes it is his point, and it’s a neat tactic to evade the issue.
By citing gender inequality in the West (the number of elected representatives), and the gross misogyny of Saudi Arabia, he tries to exonerate (and even hold as standard bearers) states like Turkey that are on a negative trajectory in respect of women’s rights.
It’s a dismissive non sequitur to say women ”aren’t equal anywhere”, because the point is the direction of travel.
I don’t see how it’s a neat tactic to evade the issue when he’s making a point about religion not gender. I think you mean he is factually incorrect. Your point about Turkey’s negative trajectory is valid and important, but it doesn’t negate his point, which is that you can’t condemn all of Islam based on cherry picking the worst countries. For instance if you put Turkey aside as an example, is his point still made?
I really wanted him to use Ethiopia and the US as examples of how Christianity suppresses women 😈 Imagine if the mainstream narrative about Christianity was based on Ethiopia instead of the Western Christian countries.
“It’s a dismissive non sequitur to say women ”aren’t equal anywhere”, because the point is the direction of travel.”
We can debate sometime how much of a positive trajectory NZ is on re gender.
Aslan’s claim about FGM and Africa has been challenged:
https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2014/10/18/guest-post-the-relationship-between-islam-and-female-genital-mutilation/
I don’t know who’s right, but I suspect Aslan seized on division in Islam over the violent practice to misrepresent the problem.
The wiki article seems reasonable (it points out Christian woman are mutilated as well, but most of the article concerns the Muslim faith):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_views_on_female_genital_mutilation
”In Indonesia, FGM is widespread among Muslim women and considered a religious necessity.”
Indonesia was Aslan’s other standard bearer of women’s rights, wasn’t it?
According to the Observer’s review of Aslan’s book, he describes the motivation of one of the London July 7 bombers as ”love”, and his writing becomes ”overwrought” with emotion over Obama’s election.
So definitely not my kind of dude, but each to their own and all that.
Also events have overtaken Aslan’s book and its prescriptions, as many jihadists now are from prosperous societies (and have had good opportunities on an individual basis).
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/aug/16/win-cosmic-war-reza-aslan
It’s still an interesting read – the Guardian review seems to ignore most of what I remember about the book. The review seems to lose the forest for the trees, IMO.
Is there any bag of foul wind fouler than that hypocrite Dr Phil McGraw?
Dr Phil, TV3, Tuesday 17 November 2015
sanctimonious adj. showing or marked by false piety or righteousness; hypocritically virtuous.
The TV3 programme notes on this show billed it like this: “Two young women accuse their father of physically and verbally abusing them.” #blamingdad
The dad was pretty much the model of what Bob McCoskrie would call a perfect father. He protested to Dr Phil: “I ain’t the greatest dad in the world, but I ain’t no ogre. I spanked them and I slapped them but…”
But all the protestations in the world cut no ice with Dr. Phil, that supreme moral arbiter, that exemplar of core American values, that upholder of all that decent and right in the world. Dr Phil sternly lectured him that violence and shouting had no place in his relationships with his daughters, no matter how old they were.
So what WOULD that dad have had to do to earn praise, rather than censure, by Dr. Phil? Well, he might have tried shooting hundreds of people, including women and children, in another country…
http://www.drphil.com/shows/show/2377
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-19082015/#comment-1060544
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-19082015/#comment-1060544.
You think Phil McGraw is wrong to not support a man who hits his daughters? I don’t get the reference to shooting.
Of course he was right to upbraid him about hitting his daughters.
The point of my post was to note how odd it was for him to take that stance, in view of the fact he had, earlier this year, called a notorious mass murderer “a modern-day American hero”.
Both of those things are completely unapparent in your original comment. Still no idea what you are talking about.
Click on the links from my first post, and it will be quite clear. But, briefly, my objection to Dr Phil pronouncing about anything is this:
Earlier this year he claimed that the notorious Chris Kyle, the American sniper who killed hundreds of men, women and children in Afghanistan (the Department of “Defense” officially confirmed he had more than 160 victims) was “a modern-day American hero”….
In the light of the depravity of his endorsement of Kyle, I don’t think Dr Phil is a fit and proper person to make a judgement on the character of anyone.
Do you?
Sorry, still don’t know what you are on about. The first link isn’t that clear, the second two are identical and going on about an Imperial Wizard. If you want me to answer your question you’re going to have to make your point in plain English that doesn’t require 10 mins of further research to understand what you are on about.
1. Chris Kyle was a mass murderer. He was praised by Dr Phil earlier this year as “a modern-day American hero.”
2. Dr Phil, who praises mass murderers as “modern-day American heroes”, has the temerity to upbraid someone for yelling at his daughters and spanking them.
3. I don’t approve of spanking, but then I don’t approve of mass murder either. I think I am entitled to lecture someone who spanks his daughters to desist.
4. Dr Phil doesn’t approve of spanking, but he DOES approve of mass murder. I don’t think he is entitled to lecture ANYONE about anything, because he is a moral imbecile.
5. Now please read my original links, because it’s all perfectly clear.
Thanks for explaining.
“1. Chris Kyle was a mass murderer. He was praised by Dr Phil earlier this year as “a modern-day American hero.””
Citation for Dr Phil ‘praising’ Kyle. The link you provided implies the programme is about Kyle’s parents discussing his mental illness and that he wouldn’t have murdered people if he’s gotten the help he needed. Presumably if Phil did praise Kyle, it wasn’t for the murders. Did Phil praise Kyle for his pre-murdering life? I’m betting it wasn’t for his murdering life.
“2. Dr Phil, who praises mass murderers as “modern-day American heroes”, has the temerity to upbraid someone for yelling at his daughters and spanking them.”
Lots of people have relative morality. Myself, I think context is important.
“3. I don’t approve of spanking, but then I don’t approve of mass murder either. I think I am entitled to lecture someone who spanks his daughters to desist.”
I’m not in a position to judge you on that.
“4. Dr Phil doesn’t approve of spanking, but he DOES approve of mass murder. I don’t think he is entitled to lecture ANYONE about anything, because he is a moral imbecile.”
Citation needed that Dr Phil approves of mass murder. Pretty sure you are making shit up now.
“5. Now please read my original links, because it’s all perfectly clear.”
As mentioned, I tried and I’m not going to attempt that dog’s breakfast of a comment because I’m guessing it’s full of the same illogic as this one.
Read this quote carefully….
Now what part of that do you not understand? He is praising a U.S. Army sniper who is “credited” officially with more than 160 kills.
You can vapour on all you like about how he is praising him for his “pre-murdering” actions, but nobody will take you seriously.
I would be offended by your allegation that I am “making shit up”, but it’s quite obvious you have basic problems in comprehension, as well as a history of hostility towards me. I have humoured you this evening, but I haven’t forgotten how credulous you were a couple of years ago in swallowing all that government black propaganda about Julian Assange, and how you continued, in spite of the allegations being conclusively refuted, to defiantly traduce not only Assange but anyone who dared to support him.
It seems you have not improved at all.
You can resort to all the ad homs you like Morrisey (and more lies), but when you say “but he DOES approve of mass murder.” I believe you are making shit up. There is a large difference between being able to see someone’s contribution to their country and approving of mass murder. What’s not believable is that Phil McGraw approves of what Kyle did. You are grossly misrepresenting his position for your own argumentative gratification.
I think any reasonably intelligent person would interpret these words as endorsement: “He risked his life fighting for this country. He miraculously survived the most dangerous combat zones …. a modern-day American hero.”
The person he is endorsing is a sniper who picked off women and children from positions of almost complete safety.
I am not going to waste any more time with you while you play your endless game of feigned incomprehension.
no, most people would understand that it’s possible to appreciate a soldier’s former life and not approve of them murdering multiple people. There is nothing in what you have posted that supports your assertion that Phil McGraw approves of mass murder (your words).
“He risked his life fighting for this country. He miraculously survived the most dangerous combat zones …. a modern-day American hero.”
There is only one google hit for any of that quote (your comment), so I’m guessing you transcribed it from the video. Given your transcriptions are shall we say loose at the best of times I’m going to assume that you have grossly misquoted McGraw out of context. I’ll also hazard a guess the McGraw was introducing Kyle when he used those words and the implication is that he was a modern-day American hero for his work as a soldier not for his later mass murder.
I’m not surprised you are giving this no more time because you can’t answer the challenge to your argument.
The Paris attacks need to be analyzed by serious, informed commentators.
So why on earth are these fools even trying to talk about them?
The Panel, RNZ National, Tuesday 17 November 2015
Jim Mora, Penny Ashton, John Bishop, Julie Moffett
bewilderment n. 1. The condition of being confused or disoriented. 2. A situation of perplexity or confusion; a tangle: a bewilderment of lies and half-truths.
PENNY ASHTON: Bombing them is probably not going to stop them.
JOHN BISHOP: [gravely] It might not, but what’s the alternative?
PENNY ASHTON: [thoughtfully] Mmmmmm.
JOHN BISHOP: The West is certainly vulnerable, in terms of soft targets….
[He carries on bloviating for several minutes then, thankfully, stops.]
PENNY ASHTON: Ummm, ahhh, the, y’know, uhhhh, I’m tying myself in knots here…..
et cetera, et cetera, ad nauseam….
Useless mouthpieces.
The Panel is lightweight magazine drivel.
Yes I heard that – don’t have the stamina for listening to mindless drivel that you have Morrissey. Turned it off.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/289923/meatworkers-win-dispute-with-affco
Good news!
Well done to the ONLY loud and proud workers union I spotted at the Hamilton TPPA rally.
Robot advice. How long before we can’t trust our own judgment, or what’s left of it.
http://www.investmentweek.co.uk/investment-week/news/2408891/robo-advice-alert-issued-in-the-us?utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=rt-rtcom
Generic economic assumptions, framed questions and de-personalised recommendations that do not properly take into account changing circumstances or investment time horizons are among the concerns identified in an alert issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
Automated investment platforms are part of the ‘robo-advice’ sector in the US, though they are also being used by client-facing advisers as supplementary tools to guard against losing business to the traditional robo-advice giants, such as Betterment and Wealthfront.
Robot advice is being used in investment, the computer buy and sell on target prices etc.
This goes further. And when there is a paradigm for juding voting patterns and winning elections then?
CNN anchors berate innocent Paris Muslim because
he won’t ‘accept responsibility’ for attack
by DAVID EDWARDS, Monday 16 November 2015
Two CNN hosts berated the spokesperson for a Muslim outreach group over the weekend because he would not agree that all Muslims share responsibility for the recent attacks in Paris.
During an interview early Sunday morning, Yaser Louati of the Collective Against Islamophobia in France told CNN anchors Isha Sesay and John Vause that hate speech was being directed toward the Muslim community in response to the attacks.
“The problem is that you’re still mixing the Muslim community and somehow giving them an affiliation with these terrorists,” Louati explained. “But [French Muslims] are paying two prices. The price of being targeted by these terrorists and some of the right-wing columnists.”
“We are being asked to choose our camp,” the guest pointed out. “Our camp is the French one. Make no mistake about it.”
“If your camp is the French camp, then why is it that no one within the Muslim community there in France knew what these guys were up to?” Vause asked.
“Sir, the Muslim community has nothing to do with these guys,” Louati insisted. “Nothing. We cannot justify ourselves for the actions of someone who claims to be Muslim.”
“Why not?” Vause interrupted. “What is the responsibility within the Muslim community to identify people within their own ranks when it comes to people who are obviously training and preparing to carry out mass murder.”
“Sir, they were not from our ranks!” Louati exclaimed. “We cannot accept the idea that these people are from us, they are not. They are just byproducts of our societies exporting their wars abroad and expecting no repercussions back home.”
Co-host Isha Sesay insisted that Louati had to “accept that responsibility to prevent the bigger backlash” because the “finger of blame is pointing at the Muslim community.”
“This is a very complicated issue,” Vause said, concluding the segment. “I have yet to hear the condemnation from the Muslim community on this.”
“The point he is making is, ‘It’s not our fault,’” Sesay noted. “But the fact of the matter is when these things happen, the finger of blame is pointed at the Muslim community and so you have to be preemptive. It’s coming from the community. You’ve got to take a stand.”
“The word responsibility comes to mind,” Vause opined.
“It just comes to mind,” Sesay agreed. “You can’t shirk that.”
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/11/watch-cnn-anchors-berate-innocent-paris-muslim-because-he-wont-accept-responsibility-for-attack/
Great Snipers of Our Time
No. 1 TATANG KOSWARA
Tatang Koswara (1947 – 2015) was a sniper credited with at least 41 confirmed kills during the U.S.-backed Indonesian invasion of East Timor in the 1970s.
http://jakarta.coconuts.co/2015/03/04/indonesian-sniper-tatang-koswara-passes-away-68
Great Snipers of Our Time is compiled by Morrissey Breen for Daisycutter Sports Inc.
http://thehill.com/policy/international/trade/260364-obamas-trade-deal-is-in-trouble
TPPA in trouble.