have almost anything you want as long as you plan ahead and save for it.
Take a look at this Bloomberg article from last year to check the difference between the $8m and then some CEO and the plight of the minimum wage workers that increases shareholder profits for him.
I hereby resign in protest effective immediately……..
I have served the post-911 Military Industrial complex for 10 years, first as a soldier in Baghdad, and now as a defense contractor……
……I have always believed that if every foot soldier threw down his rifle war would end. I hereby throw mine down……
……Recent revelations by fearless journalists of war crimes including counterinsurgency “dirty” wars, drone terrorism, the suspension of due process, torture, mass surveillance, and widespread regulatory capture have shed light on the true nature of the current US Government. I encourage you to read more about these topics at the links I have provided…….
Brandon M. Toy Stryker Engineering Project Management
General Dynamics Land Systems
Sterling Heights, Michigan
Though on a smaller scale. Our own military and security agencies are just as complicit in these crimes. The efforts of one of our own top journalists to expose our complicity is met by deliberate counter efforts by NZ military commanders to smear and cast him cast him as a liar. What Defence Force Chief Lietenant General Rhys Jones and the like are frightened of, are that following the revelations revealed by Jon Stephenson, are that Kiwi versions of Brandon Toy, Edward Snowden, and Bradly Manning within our own military, security and surveillance agencies will be moved to also put down their rifles and speak out.
In May 2011, a Metro magazine article by Mr Stephenson said SAS troops in Afghanistan took prisoners who were handed over to authorities known to use torture…..
……Mr Stephenson is suing the Defence Force for defamation, saying its press statement on the subject suggested he “made stuff up”. He is seeking damages of $500,000…..
stuff.co.nz
Reading the defence force press releases and statements in court reveals inconssitencies and backtracking in their testimony that speak of deliberate lying. Jon Stephenson deserves the full amount of compensation he is seeking as a lesson to the deliberate liars and defenders of our role in torture and abuse and assault on civil liberties here and around the world.
On May 2, 2011, General Jones issued a press statement that said: “The CRU commander denies speaking with this journalist. The journalist has provided no evidence that he has ever entered the CRU base. We have evidence that he was denied entry.”……
….Lawyer Hugh Rennie, QC, who is representing Defence Force chief Lieutenant General Rhys Jones and the Defence Force, said Colonel B could not be found. However, he said General Jones now accepted that, on the face of it, from what he had heard in court since Monday, Mr Stephenson did go to the base and probably spoke to the colonel……
So our defence force spoke to the CRU colonel, who they claim denied that he was interviewed by Stephenson. Yet now, despite this unequivocal statement, admit that Stephenson probably did talk to him. If they had actually talked with the CRU colonel as they claimed, they would have known that what they now admit was “probably” true, was actual fact all along.
Len – as usual is all about him
Uesifili – good stuff about southern auckland and diversity
John Minto – great points, well made
John Palino – interesting how he made the same general points as John Minto but somehow I think his motivation is different
Penny – you were certainly the only one talking about the stuff you talked about
for sure Auckland will get the mayor they deserve.
Wow, such insight. It needs no citation, it is unfortunately true throughout the industry. But it is certainly not a so what moment, the fact that, in gender ratios, the two lists would be the complete opposite, is not a slam dunk moment Winnie. Back to school and up your national standards before we drug test you at your own expense for being such a numpty.
The Iron Man series of films have been blockbusters. Unfortunately, films with female leads often fail to lead annual box office charts. That suggests a whole other set of issues. Including the fact that female leads in movies are usually younger than male leads and get paid less.
I did have a chortle when you pointed that out because I hadn’t realised. In any case, though, it’s still interesting that the top eight are still men:
There’s no doubt that the whole industry is skewed towards “leading men” in the movies. The way they make the real big bucks is by getting a % of the box office takings. In the case of films like Iron Man that means big ongoing pay packets after a film is released.
Even in ensemble films like The Avengers, women are typically paid less.
Ever since the success of Star Wars in the ’70s, studios have banked on young men aged 13 to 25 to drive the box office, says Oliver Lyttelton at Indie Wire. But of this year’s Top 15 moneymakers, only three were aimed at that demographic — The Avengers, Men in Black 3, and Wrath of the Titans — and the latter two have earned significantly less than their franchise predecessors. And while action movies Battleship and John Carter flopped, female-targeted films like The Hunger Games, The Vow, Think Like a Man, and Magic Mike all surged past expectations. Studios would be wise to ease “off the relentless targeting of teenage boys, and start courting the ladies.
It’s thought that, when women go to the movies with men (eg on dates), it’s the male choice that tends to dominate.
In contrast, TV is seen as more of a medium that attracts women – being mostly viewed in the domestic sphere – that is why soap opera formats have been strong. Soap operas originally targeted housewives. In the later part of the 20th century, many TV genres included a “soap” element (focused on relationships and human behaviour). So ongoing dramas of all sorts tend to have that kind of an element included. Ditto “reality TV” etc.
A smile always rises when any group of humans gets all hot under the collar because their “culture” or their “heritage” or their “tradition” gets told to sharpen up as it is today inappropriate inhumane abusive racist sexist etc.
Latest example being Poland banning Halal and Kosher slaughtering of animals. The Jews are getting all hot under the collar bleating like the entire world is after them. The Muslims are…. well, don’t know because the news article concentrated on the Jews.
Never mind the poor animals eh. Culture and tradition must survive.
Culture and tradition is very often like a big vast empty tub into which anything can be tossed, worthy or otherwise.
And just as often culture, tradition and heritage are just euphemisms for religion, because the latter is meant to be kept out of politics, so can’t be openly cited as the ‘reason’ for opposition.
It’s quite clear to me you have no idea what you are talking about. Kosher slaughter specifies that animals must be slaughtered with “respect and compassion” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shechita
Also, given neither Jews or Muslims eat pork, that creates a whole category of cruel and inhumane farming practices that both are entirely innocent of. Nor does the flowing of blood and unconsciousness suggest any more suffering than death by electrocution or a clumsy bolt to the brain.
You also seem to be ignoring the rather unhappy history of the Jews in Poland, and that they might have a point about people being out to get them – precedence and all.
Still, now I can add to the list of things VTO doesn’t like:
Gays wanting to get married
South Island Maori land owners
Jews eating.
Muslims eating.
“Well either you are denying them religious freedom or you are condemning them to vegetarianism”
I’m doing neither actually Pop. As I stated, I don’t know enough about animal slaughter to have much of an opinion.
Take the emotive language out (condemning?? You fucking drama queen), and all vto is saying is that religious freedom should not supersede animal welfare.
It’s a far fucking cry from saying they should not eat.
So you admit you haven’t got a clue about the practice that supposedly should not trump animal welfare and are just arguing for the sake of arguing. You’re no better – you are trying to impose another set of beliefs on another by pretending it’s somehow more ethical when you have admitted a priori you have no idea whether this is the case or not.
I have made a clear case that halal and kosher slaughter is no more and possibly less stressful on the animal than other more widely used methods. I have demonstrated the hypocrasy of th elaw change given Poland actually flauts EU animal welfare laws in the secular context. I am arguing from the specific example vto is gloating over, not some abstract hypothetical situation.
“you are trying to impose another set of beliefs on another by pretending it’s somehow more ethical when you have admitted a priori you have no idea whether this is the case or not.”
No, I’m not. I simply don’t have a view on it.
As I’ve explained very clearly twice already, my comments have nothing whatsoever to do with halal/kosher issues in any way shape or form.
My comments are purely about your misrepresentation of vto’s comment, as it’s an example of something you do here with monotonous regularity.
Your repeated misrepresentations of mine on this topic are illustrating the point beautifully, thank you.
Oh poppet, you’ve got me all wrong. I’m not misprepresenting your arguments at all, I’m just not fucking interested in them because all you are doing is trying to derail my small, simple truth that in this case the law change may very well be religious persecution and vto shouldn’t be so quick to gloat.
VTO said something I found repellant – I proceeded to show why using his Polish example. You don’t like me, so you attack on sight even though you “simply don’t have a view on it”. Business as usual. Fuck off you addlepated carbuncle.
If you used that tiny little brain it might occur to you that if kosher or halal food is not available, Jews and Muslims are forbidden to eat it, THEY CAN NOT EAT IT – am I getting through? It sounds very much like a ploy to force them out altogether.
Of course you’re getting through. I never had any trouble understanding you, it’s just that you’re objectively wrong.
Not eating halal meat =/= not eating.
Now you don’t have to like that but it’s a fucking fact, so how about you behave like an adult and argue with what vto actually said for once in your life.
So they should become vegetarians?
No, if you can’t actually comprehend that a Muslim is about as emotionally able to eat non-halal meat as you are of eating one of your own children roasted, I’m going to ignore you. It’s a mortal sin, taboo. And lamb and goat in particular are central to the cuisines of most Muslim nations. I’m sorry you can’t grasp that some people are not prepared to give up a central element of their culture and their very core identity just to please bigots, or in your case stubborn dickheads who think you can be empirical about ethics – it’s a matter of human rights.
None of that is relevant to my comments in any way whatsoever.
For the fourth time (ffs) my only concern is that you accused vto of saying muslims and jews shouldn’t eat, and that’s blatantly objectively self-evidently bleeding-obviously a lie.
If you read closely Pop and stop letting your amazing knowledge of everything in the entire world getting in the way of your brain, you will see that I used this as an example of the absolute hubris and bullshit that gets tossed into the overused tub of culture and tradition from time to time… In this instance the apparently barbaric manner of animal slaughter that is involved in halal and kosher slaughter.
Nothing more nothing less.
But don’t let that stop you from adding all of that other crappola you have added in your above posts. You seem to confuse knowledge and understanding…
But really I suspect it was the Jewish connection that got you wasn’t it. Objectivity eh, such a tricky thing to master..
No I didn’t, that is what the poles did, according to the media article. I merely passed comment on the poison that variously gets dumped into the culture and heritage tip across all peoples. I used the pole example as an example.
And it is true.
Some cultural traditions are horribly sexist, some are racist, some are barbaric.
But yes maybe you and pop are right and culture and tradition trumps everything, no matter the effects on other peoples and living organisms on this wee planet, as pop says here ……. ” I’m sorry you can’t grasp that some people are not prepared to give up a central element of their culture and their very core identity just to please bigots, or in your case stubborn dickheads who think you can be empirical about ethics – it’s a matter of human rights.”
You see mcflock? It is all about us. Fuck everyone else. As Pop said one other time – get in first because if you don’t then someone else will. I mean, that’s right isn’t it. Go hard, go first, we’ve got the bomb and all that ………
the MO becomes very clear. Especially in Pop’s case.
You made that argument here. And repeated it. No source, no reasoning as to why kosher or halal slaughter is more cruel than standard industrial practises, nothing. Pop has provided several links, you provided nothing. And yet you still argue that it’s a case of “culture and tradition trumps everything, no matter the effects on other peoples and living organisms”.
mcflock, where did I say I agree with the poles that halal and kosher slaughter is barbaric, or inhumane, or should that be inanimale?
The Poles have banned those slaughters on those particular grounds. I merely passed comment on the reaction to it by jewish and muslim communities and their treasured traditions – on the fact that at times peoples get upset when out of date traditions etc get told to change with the times.
Do you see? The comment was made on the reaction to the issue, not the actual issue. Comprehendez vous?
I am merely pointing out that you chose to comment on the issue that “at times peoples get upset when out of date traditions etc get told to change with the times”, rather than the issue that sometimes nations use enlightened justifications to impose restrictions on the cultural expressions and practices of minority groups (animal welfare in this case, women’s rights and secularism in France regarding hijab, and visual resource management in Switzerland regarding minarets), but upon examination the enlightened pretext doesn’t hold up nearly so much as a desire by parts of the majority culture to limit the expression of others.
Given that you have presented no basis for preferring one perspective over the other, I merely asked if there was some basis for your choice to do so.
Its been a long time since you have written something sufficiently annoying enough to cause me to respond. How we kill animals in this country is neither humane nor animal focused. The utilitarian benefit we attach to animals translates to mechanised slaughtering on such a massive scale that the NZ animal welfare code reads like a horror tale.
As it happens, New Zealand is, apparently, one of the world’s largest exporters of halal sheep meat in the world. Your culture and tradition obviously continues to suffer from delusions of moral superiority.
You see the problem Adele is that people so often misread, make assumptions and see things in posts that are not there and are not even remotely commented on. Your post is a classic example of this.
Who said anything about New Zealand’s morality in this issue? Not me. That is your assumption, mis-reading, lack of focus…..
In fact to the contrary, what you say there enforces the point I originally made.
My apologies for taking so long to get back to you. Lets me count the ways that your missives ever say what they mean:
.
.
.
–
Perhaps you should take up knitting instead.
Kiaora Adele
Haven’t read you lately. You always have something stern to bring us into line. Probably needed. Like your icon. It’s a particularly attractive koru I think.
I guess you are vegetarian? Killing things is never noble. How should we kill our animals?
I am an avowed meat eater although I remain conflicted in terms of liking pigs and loving pork.
I kill fish, my female boss shoots ducks, my sister works in the bush and hunts pigs. My dad and uncle owned butcher shops.
I have recently moved back to my turangawaewae in the East Coast of the North Island and it appears that the only household that doesn’t have a gun is Tame Iti’s.
Killing animals is not the issue. Its western society fooling itself that it is more humane in its killing practices in comparison to other cultures that would rather confront the death of an animal face on than to sanitise the reality through mechanised killing factories.
“Coming up: heartbreak all over New South Wales as Queensland wins the deciding State of Origin!”
—Rachel Smalley tries to talk up the world’s most boring two-horse race.
TV3 Firstline, 8.15 a.m., Thursday 18 July 2013
Humbug Corner is dedicated to gathering, and highlighting, the most striking examples of faux solicitude, insincere apologies, and particularly stupid recycling of official canards. It is produced by the Insincerity Project®, a division of Daisycutter Sports Inc.
More humbugs….
No. 17 Jay Carney: ““He is not a human rights activist, he is not a dissident.”
No. 16 Barack Obama: “I wish Muslims across America & around the world a month blessed with the joys of family, peace & understanding.” http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-11072013/#comment-661330
No.15 John Key: “They know this is an issue of national security…”
No. 14 Charles Saatchi: “I abhor violence of any kind against women…”
No. 13 Toyota New Zealand: “The more Kiwis that lean, the more motivated our ETNZ crew will be to win.”
No. 12 Pem Bird: “We’re there to do the business of advancing our people.”
No.11 Whenua Patuwai: “They’re my brothers and to see one of them goes [sic]—it’s tough.”
No. 10 [REMOVED]
No. 9 [REMOVED]
No. 8 Barack Obama: “…people standing up for what’s right…yearning for justice and dignity…” No. 7 Barack Obama: “Nelson Mandela is my personal hero…”
No. 6 John Key: “Yeah well the Greens’ answer to everything is rail, isn’t it.”
No.5 Dr. Rodney Syme: “If you want good, open, honest practice, you have to make it transparent.”
No. 4 Mike Bush: “Bruce Hutton’s… integrity beyond reproach…such great character…”
No. 3 Dean Lonergan: “Y’ know what? The only people who will mock them are people who are dwarfists.”
No. 2 Peter Dunne: “What a load of drivel and sanctimonious humbug…”
No. 1 Dominic Bowden: “It’s okay to be speechless.”
Why would I do that? I know nothing about him, his politics, or his motivations. However I suspect his actions will have far greater impact on basic human rights and freedoms more sorely needed than those of Bonnie Prince Snowden. Of course, the main difference is that the US government needs to keep its shenanigans secret from its public whereas Mugabe can pretty much steal from and massacre thousands of Zimbabweans with complete impunity – that says rather a lot about your comparison.
I would never normally cite a professional philosophy troll like Slavoj Žižek, but in this instance his take down of Numb Chumpsky nails perfectly the reasons that make you a tosser
And yet he’s absolutely right about you and Chomsky – you pretend you are being empirical but really you are just not interested in inconveniently subjective things like context or intent. You are a sad inflexible muppet.
If by “inflexible” you mean “not prepared to abandon all standards of decency and humanity just because the State Department instructs one to” then you are right on the money, my friend.
Actually, that IS what you mean. I am not joking at all here.
For those feeling ennui! about politics and would like to wash the dirty dust off their person – here is someone campaigning for clean water who is 150% sparking compared to the rest of us. He is motivational and we could all do something worthwhile being involved with a campaign like this.
Radionz http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon
10:05 Tara Okan – waste water scientist and magician
Tara Okan is a waste water scientist working for DCM Process Control Limited.The company has high-tech machines which can measure the waste products from sewage treatment and industrial plants.
In his spare time he is also a magician. (And that is fascinating too.)
I don’t have a car and if I go to town at night I usually take a taxi. Most of the time by that hour the drivers are Afaghni, and because I speak a little Pushtun and Farsi I quite often strike up a conversation. Innevitably the story about home and the Taleban is exactly the same – it isn’t a fantasy, it’s all true and very much what life was like under the Taleban. The only loon is you.
Oh, would those be the Afghans who worked as translators? While I’m not blaming them for anything I have to say that those who collaborated with the Germans in Holland during the occupation ended up in jail or covered with tar and feathers and bald if you where a female. Much nicer than the Afghans would deal with the people who had to leave Afghanistan and all they had known for their entire life because the threw in their lot with the invaders.
When Māori rituals are undertaken without context – misunderstandings and misinformation occurs. Whose job is it to ensure that participants and those involved understand that context? Well I think the iwi do, but the general public don’t and king definitely doesn’t. The Government has a responsibility to help people understand but they don’t and haven’t because it doesn’t add to the divisiveness they require and that has been both labour and national. Now I’m not actually talking about pōwhiri here because that is just the particular battleground on this day and believe it or not Māori have been and are debating and discussing this for quite a while imo.
Interesting to note that King has decided what is best for tangata whenua
Labour MP Annette King said she was not comfortable with the “segregated nature” of the welcoming.
“In no way would this have happened during Helen Clark’s day,” she said.
Ms King said she would strive for gender equality for future Powhiri’s so that they could “accurately reflect” the House of Representatives.
“A change is long overdue, in my opinion,” she said.
Great mighty mars. You have to give clear direction to all these middle class women coming from a professional level as they tend to think they know everything and have reached the heights of understanding with only one-way interaction between them and others – downwards from their two and a half pillars of wisdom.
And I mention women because now that many have had the chance to move up from the lower positions once held, they have become more self-satisfied than men because they are so proud of that new achievement.
I can’t tell if you are being serious or sarcastic Rt sorry – imo all inequality is wrong and should be addressed in whatever way it can be by those who suffer from, and advocate for the removal of, that inequality. That includes gender, sexuality, ethnicity, ability, age and all of the others. But it is not the oppression-olympics and privileged people cannot impose solutions that they like onto other groups less privileged.
Well I’m being serious and not at all sarcastic. And I think your approach is really good. Mighty! It is not for Annette King to impose cultural behaviour in the name of Maori, it should be Maori who approve it. I have heard Maori say that it would be better not to have a powhiri at all rather than do a half-pie version.
This should be a matter for discussion with Maori to find what would be a suitable ritual. If one of the problems is the length of time required for a true powhiri, which sometimes is hard for timetabling that needs a discussion with those concerned.
Middle class women more “self-satisfied” and arrogantly pontificating,…. than…. whom? Gerry Brownlee? Simon Bridges? Ranting shock jock Laws? etc, etc? Peter Dunne?… etc, etc.
And then there’s Metiria Turei, Jane Kelsey, Anne Salmond….. etc, etc.
Karol, people need to make no mistake, the woman in politics, by and large, are chosen for for certain traits they have, and share many of the male politicians.
One only has to look at the female power players, in NZ and abroad, to see they are every bit, as poor quality, and corrupted as the men.
I know people believe that equality is a path to , well, equality, but thats too simplistic.
Certain types are chosen to rule over us, male/female, make no difference, because its got nothing to do with it, other than keep the little people snapping each others heels…
We gotta get rid of the sociopaths and such like, which means the system, has to go, because the players won’t change!
Oh those wicked women not knowing their place, not gratefully accepting the right to vote and resignedly slinking back off to the kitchen to be seen and not heard /sarc
But it sounds like you’re saying Maori tikanga is dead and static. I always understood it to be adaptive and evolving – you know, a living culture. I don’t know many Maori under the age of 35-40 who would still buy into that gender segregation crap.
Of course it is a living culture and continually evolving – you know that and you know I think that. It isn’t gender segregation – bloody hell why does everything have to be filtered through your particular worldview. The debate is there within Māoridom with strong advocates on all sides. Have you actually considered any of those views? Have you considered for instance that, as some argue, the whole debate about who gets to speak is based on a context where male behaviour is used as the norm against which female behaviour is judged. Or how about the idea that within an oral culture there are many ways to speak not just the obvious one and that women speak in many ways throughout pōwhiri and within a Māori cultural context – but oh it doesn’t fit the ‘right’ way to speak which is based upon an imposed western cultural system which is assumed to be the best way. Anyway there are many other angles and points around this other than the knee-jerk – oh look at the gender segregation. A living culture is able, entitled and obligated to evolve within its own parameters and worldview without interference from those who assume a superiority that isn’t deserved or matched with the realities they create in the world they dominate.
Woman’s mag editor humiliates dyspeptic old sod
“Let’s Ditch the Royals” The Vote, TV3, Wednesday 17 July 2013, 8:30 p.m.
I swear this dog of a program only ever gets worse. I just cannot sit through the whole vacuous, advertising-larded hour, but here are a few of the “highlights” I garnered from brief looks at last night’s travesty.
For the Moot: Duncan Garner, Louise Wright, Ron Mark, Simon O’Connor
Against the Moot: Guyon Espiner, Laila Harré, “Sir” Robert Jones, Shane Jones
Moderator: Linda Clark
Like a fish, a show rots from the head. Linda Clark has a law degree and is actually quite bright, but you would never know it by watching her on this program. Guyon Espiner might as well not even be there, he’s so disinterested. And Duncan Garner’s sole idea is to shout, “You’re a HYPOCRITE, Sir Bob!” intermittently throughout the hour.
As if Clark, Garner and Espiner aren’t substandard enough, just take a quick gander at the “talent” the hapless producers have lined up for this show. Louise Wright? She’s the particularly vacuous editor of a vacuous magazine, the Women’s Weekly. “Sir” Robert Jones? He’s unpleasant, cantankerous, and often physically violent. Linda Clark hinted the other day that Jones “behaved very badly” during this show; perhaps he will actually “do a Rod Vaughan” on Ron Mark or Simon O’Connor. Louise Wright is probably safe, though—even “Sir” Robert would probably not punch a woman on television. Ron Mark is notorious as a vacuous motormouth who has that rare ability to keep talking, even though he is actually saying nothing that makes sense. His too long tenure in parliament was marked by only one thing: his extraordinarily lengthy, anacoluthonic masterpieces during Question Time. Mark evidently considered himself to be quite clever. As anyone who listened to his questions, or managed to sit through last night’s program will know, he is anything but. In contrast to those three, Simon O’Connor, Laila Harré and Shane Jones should perform reasonably well.
So the choice of Wright, Mark and “Sir” Robert is a stark demonstration that the producers have absolutely no commitment to producing a serious show. Perhaps, though, the “talent” will confound us….
Actually, Louise Wright does exactly that, when she deals to the dreadful old property millionaire. She is vapouring on interminably about the love New Zealanders have for the Queen, and the great affection the Queen has for New Zealanders, when this happens…
SIR ROBERT JONES:[scowling and spluttering] Arrrrrghhhh! You would have been big on DOLLS when you were a little girl!
There is an uncomfortable silence. Just as animals in the wild can sense when a creature is rabid, the audience has quickly divined that Jones is slightly unhinged. Linda Clark dutifully breaks the tension…
LINDA CLARK:[nervously] Ha ha ha ha ha! AUDIENCE:[hesitantly] Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! LOUISE WRIGHT:[icily] Your charm is exceeded only by your beauty. SIR ROBERT JONES: Arrrrrrrrggghhhh! Harrrumph! [He scowls and slumps into a resentful, glowering silence.]
For the rest of the program, Sir Robert mostly retreats into his shell. He has been upstaged and humiliated by not only a woman, but the editor of a woman’s magazine. For someone who labors under the ridiculous impression that he is an antipodean Evelyn Waugh, that is a catastrophic humiliation. Occasionally he will emerge from his glowering silence to snarl out angrily, “Arrrrrgggghhhh!”, “Pass the vomit bucket!” and “That’s ridiculous, RIDICULOUS!”
Perhaps the funniest thing Sir Robert says all night—funny because he is absolutely serious—is when he utters a threat: “You all heard that, there’s a defamation suit going out next week!” and then waved his arms in angry dismissal of the whole assembly. For a more disturbing display of pathetic, even heart-rending anger, you’d have to watch Twelfth Night, with the humiliated Malvolio swearing, “I’ll be revenged on the lot o’ you!”
The rest of the program was, as I suspected it would be, simply dreadful. Ron Mark has gotten even more full of himself since leaving parliament. Now he sports a natty Van Dyke, which somehow serves to underline his glibness and vacuousness. He embarked on one of his trademark wandery locutions, and would not have stopped if Linda Clark had not intervened. As Mark rambled on, Jones buried his head in his hands.
DUNCAN GARNER: Are you saying we should throw out everything from England, Shane? SHANE JONES: No I’m not. I’m talking about an organic set of changes. DUNCAN GARNER: Well what does THAT mean? “An organic set of changes”.
After that, there is an especially witless exchange between Guyon Espiner and Ron Mark, mercifully broken up by the ever cheerful “moderator”…. LINDA CLARK: All right! Let’s cut it there! LOTS to think about when we come back….
After the break, Sir Robert Jones is back on the warpath. Having failed against the woman, he sets his sights on the youthful National MP for Tamaki, Simon O’Connor…. SIR ROBERT JONES:[dyspeptic, choking on bile] He’s wearing BROWN SHOES, for God’s sake! AUDIENCE:[uneasily] Ha ha ha ha ha! SIR ROBERT JONES: You’re a thirty-five-year-old octogenarian! If you are the future of the National Party, then—- arrrrrrrggghhh! AUDIENCE: Ha ha ha ha ha! SIR ROBERT JONES: This is NONSENSE! The question is ABSURD! [choke, splutter, snarl] Arrrrrrgggghhhh. It’s ABSURD! LINDA CLARK: Pause! Just PAUSE!
….Advertising…..
Sir Robert Jones’ epically funny meltdown was cringe-inducingly bad, but someone even more pathetic was to come. Regular listeners to Jim Mora’s Panel and Larry Lackwit Williams’ dire Huddle segment on NewstalkZB will have recognized the hapless figure that featured next: Tim Watkin unconvincingly pretending to “work the phones”, frenetically updating viewers on the “live voting”—no numbers ever supplied— for the New Zealand “Head of State” if we ever became independent: “A lot of votes for Mateparae, lots for Apiata….” he shouts breathlessly, as if he’s in the middle of a conflagration in a war zone. As Watkin spews out this garbage, he is backed by urgent music, to underline the high drama of the occasion. Then it’s back to the top-level debate….
SIR ROBERT JONES: Look, I don’t want to be unkind, so I’ll just be FACTUAL. Look, most of them are quite STUPID! AUDIENCE: Ha ha ha ha ha! SIMON O’CONNOR: Look, Prince Charles earned hundreds of millions of pounds last year for charity. He is a man who LOVES New Zealand. He has promoted New Zealand wool…. SIR ROBERT JONES: Arrrrrrgggghhhh! AUDIENCE: Ha ha ha ha ha! LINDA CLARK: Ha ha ha ha ha! Sir Robert, you’re like that grumpy old bastard from the Muppets! AUDIENCE: Ha ha ha ha ha! LINDA CLARK: I was tempted to come down and do a Rod Vaughan on you! AUDIENCE: Ha ha ha ha ha!
At the end of the program, all the voting is tallied up—-no actual numbers given, mind you—-and the pro-monarchy side has triumphed by 59 percent to 41. Nobody is surprised.
DUNCAN GARNER: I’m going to continue the debate on my Radio Live Drive program tomorrow. Thanks for watching The Vote. GUYON ESPINER: Good night!
This government is contracting out more and more of essential state services. It really is to the point to ask if the government is doing this because of these malpractices that boost profit.
Fraud, cherry picking ….
AS IF we haven’t been through it ALL before. (User pays in the health system during the 90s – for example).
Dear dear ole Helen had SUCH an opportunity in her third term to reverse some of those ills. It’s a shame she chose to have a lay down and a cuppa – it gave the likes of the ABC a foot in the door.
Now Labour are wondering why the masses are ditching them.
– Having a lay down in the third term
– 3rd Wayism
– Losing the principles on which they were founded (and that allowed most of them their careers)
– Continued sense of having ‘payed their dues’ and entitlement – all the while forgetting that they were ‘elected representatives’ (quaint idea I know).
$250, $225, $220, $215, $195, $175, $165, $150….hundreds of independents, all just chewing up Auckland dime!
Even some administrators around $100ph
Of course, once you map out the relationships, and all the alumni, it becomes clear that council, is run over by corporate types, most with no public sector experience what ever, and many only recently arrived in NZ!
The best way to honour Nelson Mandela would be to do what he used to do: struggle for justice. For instance, you might like to drop a line to New Zealand’s best journalist, John Stephenson, who is currently battling in court against the New Zealand Army, which has slandered him. Or you might sign up for this petition…. http://www.bradleymanning.org/featured/nyt-ad
Suggesting that John Key, who is the absolute antithesis of Mandela, “do something to celebrate Mandela’s achievements” is utterly inane.
Morrissey
Okay. You have been working so hard exposing the triviality of some on our airwaves probably you’ve got overheated. Turn off and drop out for a while. Did you listen to the clip link I put up for Bob Dylan and the lyrics too?
Forget the morality, worry about the ACCENT
Noelle McCarthy on the case
On today’s edition of The Panel, Noelle McCarthy chortles, they will be talking about Benedict Cumberpatch’s new movie role: as Julian Assange. What is exercising McCarthy’s mind is not whether this is another hatchet job on Assange, which is what a serious and intelligent journalist would be concerned about. No, what Noelle McCarthy is worrying about is whether or not Cumberpatch can do a passable Australian accent.
And don’t expect any intelligent or humane contributions from Zoe Ferguson, Chris Trotter or Lisa Scott, either. Ferguson is as determinedly frivolous and as reflexively right wing as Susan Baldacci, and as for Trotter and Scott, well, here’s how they went last time they were on the programme…. http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-14062013/#comment-648511
As you read these transcripts, or sacrifice valuable time listening to their witless witterings, just remember that this is where YOUR tax money is going.
the company has tipped its hand and shown us the dark side of a culture where books are only available in electronic form. If the WhisperNet service from Kindle allows the company to delete books silently from your device, what other information might they have access to? Can the company monitor what you’re reading and when – and then hand that over to law enforcement? Can it replace a book file with a different file whose content is changed?
In the world of today, that final question "Can it replace a book file with a different file whose content is changed? "is a largely overlooked concern. Who regularly checks all their folders to see if any contents have changed? A recent spring cleaning of storage devices of various ages was an excellent reminder of how much data a person can collect. Even legally acquired/created data quickly piles up to the point there is no way a person will be able to reliably track what it is in their possession. (Add illegal movies and tunes into that mix and it is even more challenging)
History is written by the *winners*, nothing has changed, other than now, those who control history, can re-write it or delete it, and no one will realize!
We are in the very dangerous time of existence, which so many are blinded by the gadget bling, they simply can’t see where its all going to finish up.
Once life is fully digital, its good night from me, and its goodnight from him!
Just heard Matthew Hooton on the radio saying if the Pakeha Party gets into the game they’ll be taking votes from Winston Peters.
lolz. 50,000 facebook likes didn’t come from NZ First supporters you fool.
Would anyone like to hazard a guess which party the large numbers of i’m-all-right-jack, middle nz, anti-treaty, it’s-pc-gawn-mad, one-law-for-all, casually racist bbq dickheads have voted for in the last, oh let’s say three elections?
What I find concerning is that it’s the third consecutive RM fall for Labour (even if still above 30). Haven’t previously had consecutive falls this term. Although the descent seems to be slowing, so we’ll see, but it’s still concerning.
Well, I suppose I have a little happiness matrix regarding election2014:
🙂 🙂 🙂 Optimum outcome is a Lab/grn coalition under Shearer, just to laugh at the chicken littles.
.
🙂 🙂 Second-tier result is lab/grn coalition under someone else (C/R/who gives a shit). You’d be insufferable, but the nats would be out.
.
:)Third-tier is lab/grn/nz1 govt under anyone.
.
🙁 🙁 Fourth-tier (and first negative) result is Nat govt with Labour campaigning under C. I’d be insufferable, but the nats would be a third term govt.
.
🙁 🙁 🙁 Worst result is a nat govt with Labour campaigning under S. A third nat term and you’d be insufferable.
… and I suppose it’s never occurred to some of the Labs that they might start getting more traction by actually calling the Government to account for its incompetence, instead of indulging in an orgy of tragic butthurt because their favourite missed out on the Party Leader job…
Hang on Daveosaurus – its all those pro-Shearer Labour MPs who are NOT taking on the Nats, and who should be – that’s the real problem with the Labour caucus
Two options:
A) whine on the internet and pass as much ammunition as possible to the greasy cetacean and his ilk; or
B) use one’s political brilliance by caning the branch selection process and winning a seat to show the sluggards how it’s done.
It would appear that very few commenters here have chosen method B.
Look at posts on The Standard. Every day around 80% of posts are bleating on about real or imaginary faults of the National Government.
Left leaning folks use every opportunity to bag Key and his ‘cronies.’
Sadly though this is all preaching to the faithful.
The general public aren’t buying the bleating so it is ineffective and much hot air.
This is primarily why 2014 will go to Key and then the divided (and reduced) Labour caucus will flap around like fish out of water trying to decide how they lost election number 3.
I think you are all a callus bunch of dreamers , leave Shearer alone he and his party are doing a grand job.
With the labour getting on so with the greens our futures are all secure .
This combination will get the result they truly deserve at the next election .
Earths atmosphere is already loaded with radio active isotopes, its only lies and such which keeps people from understanding the real danger we have been in, since science began earth, sea and sky with nuclear weapons!
Thousands of detonations over many decades, add chernobyl, etc!
ABRE has the potential to create 21,000 high value engineering and manufacturing jobs; maximize the UK’s access to a conservatively estimated £13.8 billion launcher market over the next thirty years; and provide economic benefits from spill-over technology markets.
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, we need our own, government funded, space program.
The massive amount of resources and people we have sitting idle would tend to indicate that we could do the space program while also addressing those other areas. Funding really isn’t the problem – government just needs to create the money, spend it and possibly raise taxes slightly.
I’m not for the idea of developing a highly toxic, polluting industry for the sake of importing lots of printed overseas dollars, and which does little (or nothing) to help us adapt to climate change or fossil fuel depletion. There’s got to be a better way.
1.) It’s not highly polluting if you do it properly
2.) I really couldn’t care less about the imported dollars but while we’re trading in the world then we actually do need them
3.) Last time I looked James Hansen was employed by NASA so I’d say that there was a high probability that a space program would help us adapt to climate change
There’s got to be a better way.
Perhaps you’d prefer it if we went back to living in caves?
In a “Rejoinder to Noam Chomsky” in early October, Christopher Hitchens put up two sentences regarding my own writing, as follows:
“Mr. Herman has moved from opposing the bombing of Serbia to representing the Milosevic regime as a victim and as a nationalist peoples democracy. He has recently said, in a ludicrous attack on me, that the ‘methods and policies’ of the Western forces in Kosovo were ‘very similar’ to the tactics of Al-quaeda; an assertion that will not surprise those who are familiar with his style.”
This packs a lot of misrepresentation into two sentences. Nowhere in my writings have I ever used any one of the three words “nationalist peoples democracy” to describe the Milosevic regime and never would, so Hitchens’ language is straightforward fabrication and misrepresentation. For Hitchens I must be an apologist for Milosevic because I have “opposed the bombing of Serbia,” just as one might be called an apologist for Saddam Hussein for objecting to the “sanctions of mass destruction.” But of course he is not an apologist for NATO and Bill Clinton for supporting the bombing of Serbia.
Notice also that he speaks of my making the “Milosevic regime” the “victim” of NATO bombing rather than the people of that regime. But I have never focused my sympathy on the regime as victim, just the people killed, injured and traumatized. Imagine how Hitchens would assail for outrageous insensitivity to the real civilians massacred an individual who spoke sarcastically of somebody being bothered by the recent New York/Washington attacks which only “victimized” the “Bush and capitalist regimes.”
Hitchens says that I equate the tactics of Al-Quaeda with those of the Western forces “in Kosovo.” But the text that he is criticizing was comparing the attack on civilians in New York and Washington with the systematic NATO bombing of civilian facilities in SERBIA, not the military operations in Kosovo. In both the attacks on New York/Washington and Serbia, civilian “collateral damage” was either entirely acceptable or positively desired. In the Serbia bombing case there is solid evidence that the destruction of civilian facilities and inevitable civilian deaths and injuries were planned for and seen as positive….
Christopher Hitchens is/was a common prostitute to the ruling money class.
One of these people who are so flakey as to be “look at me look at me” wahanui Trots’ and Commies early on and then jump heaps of fences clear to the other side of the political spectrum. Announcing their arrival with redoubled tino wahanui as though no one’s noticed. Classic con-men/women. For example Rob Campbell…….Progressive Youth Movement back in the day……..latterly a seriously malevolent right wing Ports of Auckland schemer.
I must have got it wrong but I thought the unappealing egomaniac Hitchens died a couple of years ago. If you want some fun have a look on YouTube at the debate at some US university – Hard out George Galloway and Mr Pompous Narcissist Hitchens.
Beautiful ! In keeping with the narcissism Hitchens thought he’d won. HaHaHa !
I thought the unappealing egomaniac Hitchens died a couple of years ago.
He did indeed, but not before writing a particularly stupid autobiography. It looks like the poor fellow spent most of his last few months trying to get even with all those who had humiliated him over the last shameful decade of his life.
And by the way, no one considered that Hitchens got the better of Galloway in that epic confrontation in 2005. The person who, more than anyone else, realized that Galloway had vanquished him was Hitchens himself.
That laughable autobiography of his fires a few limp shots at Galloway, but I think even as he composed his bilious and dishonest prose, the dying Hitchens realized he was flogging a dead horse.
I recommend it if you want a good laugh, or indeed, a melancholy look at what happens to the venal and unfeasibly self-important.
National education data shows schools are not meeting the ambitious targets set by the government as part of its better public service targets…
Just what does Hekia hope to glean from these figures? Apparently she said the data was for regions to look at and understand. Well she could start by telling the journalists to provide us with some accurate data. (Apart from the percentage of children who can stand on their heads while reciting the magna carta and drink through a straw.
Take a look at the national standards for these central regions. They have an awful symmetry about them.
Manawatu – Wanganui:
National standards 2012:
Reading – 77.4 per cent
Maths – 73.6 per cent
Writing – 70 per cent
and Wellington:
and Tasman:
and Marlborough:
and Nelson:
and West Coast:
and Canterbury:
and Otago:
Exactly the same figures for them all … lazy journalism, bad cut and paste, or meaningless data.
The schools warned that she would misuse the data and this is obviously a starter.
In the round this is at least a moral win for Stephenson……….”the authorities” have had to admit that the ShonKey Python style of governance, the stock bizo ……. “deny and mock” ……. is shit.
Just hope he’s able to negotiate David’s legal costs being met by Goliath. Otherwise it’s a case of them cynically calling him a liar………he goes to court to force them to admit that he’s not, they admit they were wrong and they finally admit he’s not a liar like they said, then it costs him his entire worth.
Lives in Parnell..so well out of South Auckland, then. Indeed as he admits himself, he now lives among the wealthiest. Hope they have not put him up to split the Pacific Island vote and let a wingnut in.
Apparently a recent drone crash in the US was that of a QF-4. Its a full size Phantom F-4 jet fighter kitted out to be flown remotely from the ground. This makes me wonder what other full size jet planes they can fly remotely…
This makes me wonder what other full size jet planes they can fly remotely…
Any and all. All they need is the plane to have fly-by-wire and it’s easy to convert. If it doesn’t then it’d be slightly harder.
BTW, those military drones aren’t small. One of the bigger ones mentioned is described as having the wingspan of a 727. It’s not as big as a 727 but pictures I’ve seen of them would indicate that it’s bigger than a Beechcraft Baron.
They’ve been flying QF-4s for years. They’re basically just a supersonic target, following a line begun years ago and passing through the Queen Bee, a drone Tiger Moth (which certainly lacked fly by wire). They don’t have any of the offensive capabilities or autonomy found in Obama’s latest toys.
Drones can be as big as they like. They typically make them big enough to do the job, and no bigger. They start at about the size of a mosquito, which obviously won’t have much range or payload.
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Graham Adams writes about the $55m media fund — When Patrick Gower was asked by Mike Hosking last week what he would say to the many Newstalk ZB callers who allege the Labour government bribed media with $55 million of taxpayers’ money via the Public Interest Journalism Fund — and ...
Note: this blog post has been put together over the course of the week I followed the happenings at the conference virtually. Should recordings of the Great Debates and possibly Union Symposia mentioned below, be released sometime after the conference ends, I'll include links to the ones I participated in. ...
The following was my submission made on the “Fast Track Approvals Bill”. This potential law will give three Ministers unchecked powers, un-paralled since the days of Robert Muldoon’s “Think Big” projects.The submission is written a bit tongue-in-cheek. But it’s irreverent because the FTAB is in itself not worthy of respect. ...
One Could Reduce Child Poverty At No Fiscal CostFollowing the Richardson/Shipley 1990 ‘redesign of the welfare state’ – which eliminated the universal Family Benefit and doubled the rate of child poverty – various income supplements for families have been added, the best known being ‘Working for Families’, introduced in 2005. ...
Buzz from the Beehive A few days ago, Point of Order suggested the media must be musing “on why Melissa is mute”. Our article reported that people working in the beleaguered media industry have cause to yearn for a minister as busy as Melissa Lee’s ministerial colleagues and we drew ...
1. What was The Curse of Jim Bolger?a. Winston Peters b. Soon after shaking his hand, world leaders would mysteriously lose office or shuffle off this mortal coilc. Could never shake off the Mother of All Budgetsd. Dandruff2. True or false? The Chairman of a Kiwi export business has asked the ...
Jack Vowles writes – New Zealand is said to be suffering from ‘serious populist discontent’. An IPSOS MORI survey has reported that we have an increasing preference for strong leaders, think that the economy is rigged toward the rich and powerful, and political elites are ignoring ‘hard-working people’. ...
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. ...
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. ...
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. ...
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. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
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 ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today paid tribute to Singapore’s outgoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Meeting in Singapore today immediately before Prime Minister Lee announced he was stepping down, Prime Minister Luxon warmly acknowledged his counterpart’s almost twenty years as leader, and the enduring legacy he has left for Singapore and South East ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. While in Singapore as part of his visit to South East Asia this week, Prime Minister Luxon also met with Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and will meet with Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Giovanni E Ferreira, NHMRC Emerging Leader Research Fellow, Institute of Musculoskeletal Health, University of Sydney Last week in a post on X, owner of the platform Elon Musk recommended people look into disc replacement if they’re experiencing severe neck or back pain. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Hayward, Emeritus Professor of Public Policy, RMIT University anek.soowannaphoom/Shutterstock NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey caught the headlines yesterday, courtesy of a blistering speech condemning the latest GST carve-up. New South Wales, he claimed, would be A$11.9 billion worse off over the ...
While police are "broadly in favour", the government's proposed anti-gang laws are facing pushback from lawyers, rights groups and former gang members. ...
By Miriam Zarriga in Port Moresby Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has arrived at Kokoda Station, Northern province, at the start of his state visit to Papua New Guinea. Both Albanese and Prime Minister James Marape will meet with the locals and the Northern Provincial government before they begin their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chris Wallace, Professor, School of Politics Economics & Society, Faculty of Business Government & Law, University of Canberra Shutterstock An important principle was invoked by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last week in defence of the government’s Future Made in Australia industry ...
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk Security forces reinforcements were sent from France ahead of two rival marches in the capital Nouméa today, at the same time and only two streets away one from the other. One march, called by Union Calédonienne party (a component of the ...
A poll last August found that just 16% of New Zealanders oppose bringing back the ‘Three Strikes’ law. The nationwide poll of 1,000 New Zealanders was commissioned by Family First NZ and carried out by Curia Market Research. ...
The solo show from Ana Scotney is both sprawling and intimate, and a must-see, writes Mad Chapman. In the opening moments of Scattergun: After the Death of Rūaumoko, writer and performer Ana Scotney lays out the groundwork, literally. Silently moving around the square stage, Scotney is not so much dancing ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Burridge, Professor of Linguistics, Monash University Who makes the words? Why are trees called trees and why are shoes called shoes and who makes the names? – Elliot, age 5, Eltham, Victoria Good question Elliot! Let’s start with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne at amRawpixel.com/Shutterstock Roles of health professionals are still unfortunately often stuck in the past. That is, before the ...
COMMENTARY:By Malcolm Evans Last week’s leaked New York Times staff directive, as to what words can and cannot be used to describe the carnage Israel is raining on Palestinians, is proof positive, since those reports are published verbatim here in New Zealand, that our understanding of the conflict is ...
In the case of New Zealand, the results confirm that there is no popular support for the vicious austerity program being imposed by the National Party-led government, which is backed in all fundamental respects by the opposition Labour Party. ...
The ‘Vampire’ singer has never visited our part of the world, but that might all be about to change. We assess the evidence.Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts World Tour is pulling in massive crowds as it whips around the US and Europe, even helping to catapult regular supporting act Chappell Roan ...
Testing of drinking water in rural Canterbury over the weekend by Greenpeace revealed that several public town supplies were reaching levels of nitrate above 5 mg/L - the threshold which a growing body of scientific evidence has linked to increased ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rohan Fisher, Information Technology for Development Researcher, Charles Darwin University It may come as a surprise to hear 2023 was Australia’s biggest bushfire season in more than a decade. Fires burned across an area eight times as big as the 2019–20 Black ...
Responding to the Government’s announcement of changes to resource management laws, Taxpayers’ Union Executive Director, Jordan Williams, said: “These changes are a step in the right direction in terms of removing ideological and unworkable ...
More than two years after the Human Rights Council called for the establishment of a national human rights commission, such a body has yet to be formed. ...
Comment:An emergency management system with wide variations in performance, significant capability gaps, funding shortfalls and above all a setup that is not meeting the needs of New Zealanders at times of crisis. The Government’s inquiry into the response to Cyclone Gabrielle and other severe weather events in the North ...
Welcome to the whirring wonders of one brain trying to align its actions with its beliefs within a system it thinks is evil. My brain has been spiralling in a woke conundrum ever since I found out a bookshop I’ve never been to was shutting down. Good Books, a bookshop ...
We repeat our call for criminal justice policy to be based on evidence, something the three strikes regime neglects to recognise – with no evidence that it either reduces crime or assists with rehabilitation. ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor in Honiara With only four more seats in the 50-member Parliament yet to be officially declared, there is no outright winner in the Solomon Islands elections. As of Monday, the two largest blocs in the winner’s circle, independents and the incumbent Prime Minister Manasseh ...
Two/fiftyseven is a multi-purpose space hidden in the heart of Wellington that is paving a way for sustainable building and responsible landlording in Aotearoa and beyond.By 2060 the world is predicted to double its entire building stock, which equates to building an entire New York City every 34 days, ...
Popstars wasn’t just a reality television revolution, it was also a huge moment for Y2K fashion.It’s 25 years since girl group TrueBliss was formed on New Zealand national television, breaking new ground for both the reality television industry and the shiny clothing industry. With the first episode on NZ ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Pepping, Associate Professor in Clinical Psychology, Griffith University Marvin / Shutterstock Are all single people insecure? When we think about people who have been single for a long time, we may assume it’s because single people have insecurities that make ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By William Geary, Lecturer in Quantitative Ecology & Biodiversity Conservation, The University of Melbourne Trismegist san, Shutterstock Landscapes that have escaped fire for decades or centuries tend to harbour vital structures for wildlife, such as tree hollows and large logs. But these ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Gladstone-Gallagher, Lecturer in Marine Science, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Shutterstock/S Curtis Why are we crossing ecological boundaries that affect Earth’s fundamental life-supporting capacity? Is it because we don’t have enough information about how ecosystems respond to change? Or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matthew Crocker, PhD Student in Economics, Deakin University Here’s something for the board of the Reserve Bank of Australia to ponder as it meets next month to set interest rates. It has pushed up rates on 13 occasions since it began its ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a charity director outlines how she’s saving for retirement and buying secondhand. Want to be part of The Cost of Being? Fill out the questionnaire here.Gender: Female Age: 45 Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: Charity director, mum of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sophie Yates, Research Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Many Australians with disability feel on the edge of a precipice right now. Recommendations from the disability royal commission and the NDIS review were released late last year. Now a ...
It’s been called a failed experiment and a judicial straightjacket but the government says the revised three strikes law will be a more workable regime, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Three ...
New Zealand’s Palestinian community and Palestinian Youth Aotearoa are voicing alarm and disappointment with the lack of factual rigour present during the Israeli Ambassador’s appearance as a guest on TVNZ’s Q+A With Jack Tame Sunday (21/04). ...
Both ACT leader David Seymour, who played a key role in drawing up the assisted dying law, and hospice leaders say it's time the legislation was changed. ...
Public submissions on proposed gang control laws are being heard today. Rising gang membership has been cited as rationale for a crackdown – but what do we actually know about how many people belong to gangs in New Zealand?What’s all this then?A rise in the number of gang ...
Climate activists are setting their sights on an unpopular target, and hoping to bring lots of the public with them. It’s hard to miss the Majestic Princess: the enormous cruise ship, docked at Auckland’s Prince’s Wharf, looms over the nearby buildings. The ship, which can fit nearly 6,000 people, ...
Black Ferns trailblazer Kendra Cocksedge was on the verge of tears when her young protégé, Hannah King, unassumingly broke the news. Three-time Rugby World Cup winner Cocksedge and Lincoln agriculture student King meet every few weeks over a hot chocolate, in an enduring mentorship that’s spanned years. “Before we even ...
Opinion: We’ve kicked the tyres on the perception NZ’s economy is in a parlous state compared to Australia. We take a quick tour of relative trends in GDP, housing markets, labour markets, trade, the fiscal situation, and the outlooks for inflation and interest rates. We find the cyclical positions of ...
Opinion: Making sure developers, local and central government, and landowners are all on the same page makes sense The post A new kind of city deal appeared first on Newsroom. ...
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The following korero between Ngāhuia te Awekōtuku, author of the newly published memoir Hine Toa, one of the year’s most important books, and Dale Husband from e-tangata, was first published in October. It traverses her involvement with the activist group Ngā Tamatoa at Auckland University in the early 1970s, her ...
In the 16 years since it was bought by the government for $690 million, KiwiRail has had several overhauls and turnaround plans worth billions of dollars. Its ambitions as a successful, profitable operator of tourism, freight and ferries have often been derailed by disasters from earthquakes to cyclones, mine explosions ...
By Russell Palmer, RNZ News digital political journalist New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Winston Peters is putting off recognition of Palestine as a state, despite opposition Labour’s formal request that he make the move. Peters said diplomatic recognition of Palestine was a matter of “when not if”, but doing so now ...
The opposition has laid into the government's plan to reintroduce a "three strikes" regime, saying it's inequitable and there's very little evidence it works. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Nicholls, Senior research associate, University of Sydney Australia’s eSafety Commissioner has ordered social media platform “X” (formerly known as Twitter) to remove graphic videos of the stabbing of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel in Sydney last week from the site. The incident ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Turnbull, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Sydney John Turnbull, CC BY-NC-ND In past bleaching events on the Great Barrier Reef, the southern region has sometimes been spared worst of the bleaching. Not this time. This year’s intense underwater heat has ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Austin, Lecturer in Theatre, The University of Melbourne Darren Gill/Mackey, Darling & Collaborators The relationship between witchcraft and teenage girls has been the subject of many books, films and television shows. Over time, the traditional image of witch as crone ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. 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 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Becky Freeman, Associate Professor, School of Public Health, University of Sydney Andres Siimon/Unsplash There are no silver bullets, magic tricks or secret hacks to solving complex public health problems. Taking on the global tobacco industry and reducing the devastating consequences of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adam B. Watts, Research Associate in galaxy evolution, The University of Western Australia ESO/A. Watts et al., CC BY We breathe oxygen and nitrogen gas in our atmosphere every day, but did you know that these gases also float through space, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Nielsen, Professor and Deputy Director, Monash Addiction Research Centre, Monash University Maxime Bhm/Unsplash A new group of drugs called nitazenes has been detected in Australia. They have been sold as heroin as well as other drugs like ketamine. Concerns ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anne Twomey, Professor emerita, University of Sydney Image from Bradlow + Bock campaign Can the job of being a federal member of parliament be shared by two or more persons? Two prospective candidates for the inner-Melbourne federal seat of Higgins, Lucy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Zoe Rathus, Senior Lecturer in Law, Griffith University Shutterstock In October 2023, the federal parliament passed major changes to how children’s cases are decided under the Family Law Act, which kick in next month. Among other things, they repeal a ...
By Salwa Amor in Istanbul Palestine solidarity activists are preparing a flotilla to deliver urgently needed humanitarian aid to Gaza, vowing to break Israel’s blockade of the Palestinian territory on board the Akdeniz, a seven-deck passenger ship. Currently docked in Istanbul, the ship will carry 800 people from more than ...
The Government is putting at risk the defences of our land and sea borders against organised crime, and our online defences against child exploitation, terrorism and online crime with cuts to critical frontline roles at Customs and Internal Affairs. ...
We round up everything coming to streaming services this week, including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Apple TV+, ThreeNow, Neon and TVNZ+. If you love a good cry: All of Us Strangers (Disney+)It’s the dreamlike, emotional film that had viewers running from the cinema in floods of tears, and ...
The foreign minister says diplomatic recognition of Palestine is a matter of "when not if", but doing so now could impede progress towards a two-state solution. ...
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-17072013/#comment-664319
I posted this overnight, but reckon it’s worth doing again. McDonalds agrees workers require two jobs to to make a living in the U.S. …
According to their helpful budget you can work two jobs and
Take a look at this Bloomberg article from last year to check the difference between the $8m and then some CEO and the plight of the minimum wage workers that increases shareholder profits for him.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/07/16-5
Though on a smaller scale. Our own military and security agencies are just as complicit in these crimes. The efforts of one of our own top journalists to expose our complicity is met by deliberate counter efforts by NZ military commanders to smear and cast him cast him as a liar. What Defence Force Chief Lietenant General Rhys Jones and the like are frightened of, are that following the revelations revealed by Jon Stephenson, are that Kiwi versions of Brandon Toy, Edward Snowden, and Bradly Manning within our own military, security and surveillance agencies will be moved to also put down their rifles and speak out.
Reading the defence force press releases and statements in court reveals inconssitencies and backtracking in their testimony that speak of deliberate lying. Jon Stephenson deserves the full amount of compensation he is seeking as a lesson to the deliberate liars and defenders of our role in torture and abuse and assault on civil liberties here and around the world.
So our defence force spoke to the CRU colonel, who they claim denied that he was interviewed by Stephenson. Yet now, despite this unequivocal statement, admit that Stephenson probably did talk to him. If they had actually talked with the CRU colonel as they claimed, they would have known that what they now admit was “probably” true, was actual fact all along.
Here you go folks!
Those of us who have announced our candidacy for Auckland Mayor, were each given 300 words by the NZ Herald to explain why people should vote for us.
(I’ve listed the Auckland Mayoral candidates alphabetically.)
Split vote could lead to close mayoral contest
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10899525
Why you should vote for me: Penny Bright
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10899523
Why you should vote for me: Len Brown (incumbent)
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10899535
Why you should vote for me: John Minto
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10899529
Why you should vote for me: John Palino
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10899534
Why you should vote for me: Uesifili Unasa
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10899531
Cheers!
‘Her Warship’ 😉
Penny Bright
http://www.occupyaucklandvsaucklandcouncilappeal.org.nz/
Thanks Penny I enjoyed reading all of those.
Len – as usual is all about him
Uesifili – good stuff about southern auckland and diversity
John Minto – great points, well made
John Palino – interesting how he made the same general points as John Minto but somehow I think his motivation is different
Penny – you were certainly the only one talking about the stuff you talked about
for sure Auckland will get the mayor they deserve.
Even the top ten highest paid actors are men. What a coincidence.
http://nz.entertainment.yahoo.com/news/article/-/18029478/robert-downey-jr-named-highest-paid-actor/
So what? The industry pays actors what they think they’re worth which is why the porn industry pays women more.
[citation needed]
Wow, such insight. It needs no citation, it is unfortunately true throughout the industry. But it is certainly not a so what moment, the fact that, in gender ratios, the two lists would be the complete opposite, is not a slam dunk moment Winnie. Back to school and up your national standards before we drug test you at your own expense for being such a numpty.
The Iron Man series of films have been blockbusters. Unfortunately, films with female leads often fail to lead annual box office charts. That suggests a whole other set of issues. Including the fact that female leads in movies are usually younger than male leads and get paid less.
That and you picked an exclusive male only list, Mary. Forbes does another list for “actresses”.
I did have a chortle when you pointed that out because I hadn’t realised. In any case, though, it’s still interesting that the top eight are still men:
http://www.forbes.com/pictures/mfl45gdgh/angelina-jolie-30-million/
There’s no doubt that the whole industry is skewed towards “leading men” in the movies. The way they make the real big bucks is by getting a % of the box office takings. In the case of films like Iron Man that means big ongoing pay packets after a film is released.
Even in ensemble films like The Avengers, women are typically paid less.
Generally, in recent decades, Hollywood movies predominantly target a (fairly young) male audience:
It’s thought that, when women go to the movies with men (eg on dates), it’s the male choice that tends to dominate.
In contrast, TV is seen as more of a medium that attracts women – being mostly viewed in the domestic sphere – that is why soap opera formats have been strong. Soap operas originally targeted housewives. In the later part of the 20th century, many TV genres included a “soap” element (focused on relationships and human behaviour). So ongoing dramas of all sorts tend to have that kind of an element included. Ditto “reality TV” etc.
Thats what happens when ideology meets the real world because I’m guessing you think its wrong that female actors arn’t paid as much as male actors.
The studios are there to make money and they give people what they they want and this is what they want.
Most (but not all of course) movies wouldn’t make as much money if the male leads were replaced by females.
Are you sure about that or is it your inbuilt sexism talking?
A smile always rises when any group of humans gets all hot under the collar because their “culture” or their “heritage” or their “tradition” gets told to sharpen up as it is today inappropriate inhumane abusive racist sexist etc.
Latest example being Poland banning Halal and Kosher slaughtering of animals. The Jews are getting all hot under the collar bleating like the entire world is after them. The Muslims are…. well, don’t know because the news article concentrated on the Jews.
Never mind the poor animals eh. Culture and tradition must survive.
Culture and tradition is very often like a big vast empty tub into which anything can be tossed, worthy or otherwise.
And just as often culture, tradition and heritage are just euphemisms for religion, because the latter is meant to be kept out of politics, so can’t be openly cited as the ‘reason’ for opposition.
You can be rest assured that whilst their response has not been reported, Muslims are strapping on the bomb vests as we speak.
well, that comment did not improve my impression of you, KK*.
Hes not probably not wrong though, plenty of naive, misguided fools well be whipped into a frenzy over this
Really? What are you planning to do?
KK shows his age and breeding yet again.
It’s quite clear to me you have no idea what you are talking about. Kosher slaughter specifies that animals must be slaughtered with “respect and compassion”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shechita
Nor does Halal slaughter cause any more and possibly less trauma than other practices
http://www.mustaqim.co.uk/halalstudy.htm
Also, given neither Jews or Muslims eat pork, that creates a whole category of cruel and inhumane farming practices that both are entirely innocent of. Nor does the flowing of blood and unconsciousness suggest any more suffering than death by electrocution or a clumsy bolt to the brain.
You also seem to be ignoring the rather unhappy history of the Jews in Poland, and that they might have a point about people being out to get them – precedence and all.
Still, now I can add to the list of things VTO doesn’t like:
Gays wanting to get married
South Island Maori land owners
Jews eating.
Muslims eating.
Carry on.
I’m no expert on animal slaughter so I’ll leave that well alone.
However vto saying people shouldn’t slaughter animals in a certain way is not at all the same thing as saying people shouldn’t eat.
It’s that same old set/subset/superset thing you often have so much trouble with.
Well either you are denying them religious freedom or you are condemning them to vegetarianism, based almost entirely on some very dubious views about the cruelty of a practice. Poland, for example, has, along with Italy, ignored EU regualtions against battery farming http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jan/03/egg-producers-challenge-imported-battery
and other practices
http://www.ciwf.org.uk/news/beef_and_dairy_farming/polish_investigation_reveals_cruelty.aspx
So I can only conclude that these Polish law changes are motivated by bigotry, and vto’s cheering them on is only making him/her/it complicit in that bigotry.
“Well either you are denying them religious freedom or you are condemning them to vegetarianism”
I’m doing neither actually Pop. As I stated, I don’t know enough about animal slaughter to have much of an opinion.
Take the emotive language out (condemning?? You fucking drama queen), and all vto is saying is that religious freedom should not supersede animal welfare.
It’s a far fucking cry from saying they should not eat.
So you admit you haven’t got a clue about the practice that supposedly should not trump animal welfare and are just arguing for the sake of arguing. You’re no better – you are trying to impose another set of beliefs on another by pretending it’s somehow more ethical when you have admitted a priori you have no idea whether this is the case or not.
I have made a clear case that halal and kosher slaughter is no more and possibly less stressful on the animal than other more widely used methods. I have demonstrated the hypocrasy of th elaw change given Poland actually flauts EU animal welfare laws in the secular context. I am arguing from the specific example vto is gloating over, not some abstract hypothetical situation.
“you are trying to impose another set of beliefs on another by pretending it’s somehow more ethical when you have admitted a priori you have no idea whether this is the case or not.”
No, I’m not. I simply don’t have a view on it.
As I’ve explained very clearly twice already, my comments have nothing whatsoever to do with halal/kosher issues in any way shape or form.
My comments are purely about your misrepresentation of vto’s comment, as it’s an example of something you do here with monotonous regularity.
Your repeated misrepresentations of mine on this topic are illustrating the point beautifully, thank you.
Oh poppet, you’ve got me all wrong. I’m not misprepresenting your arguments at all, I’m just not fucking interested in them because all you are doing is trying to derail my small, simple truth that in this case the law change may very well be religious persecution and vto shouldn’t be so quick to gloat.
VTO said something I found repellant – I proceeded to show why using his Polish example. You don’t like me, so you attack on sight even though you “simply don’t have a view on it”. Business as usual. Fuck off you addlepated carbuncle.
If you used that tiny little brain it might occur to you that if kosher or halal food is not available, Jews and Muslims are forbidden to eat it, THEY CAN NOT EAT IT – am I getting through? It sounds very much like a ploy to force them out altogether.
Of course you’re getting through. I never had any trouble understanding you, it’s just that you’re objectively wrong.
Not eating halal meat =/= not eating.
Now you don’t have to like that but it’s a fucking fact, so how about you behave like an adult and argue with what vto actually said for once in your life.
So they should become vegetarians?
No, if you can’t actually comprehend that a Muslim is about as emotionally able to eat non-halal meat as you are of eating one of your own children roasted, I’m going to ignore you. It’s a mortal sin, taboo. And lamb and goat in particular are central to the cuisines of most Muslim nations. I’m sorry you can’t grasp that some people are not prepared to give up a central element of their culture and their very core identity just to please bigots, or in your case stubborn dickheads who think you can be empirical about ethics – it’s a matter of human rights.
None of that is relevant to my comments in any way whatsoever.
For the fourth time (ffs) my only concern is that you accused vto of saying muslims and jews shouldn’t eat, and that’s blatantly objectively self-evidently bleeding-obviously a lie.
If you read closely Pop and stop letting your amazing knowledge of everything in the entire world getting in the way of your brain, you will see that I used this as an example of the absolute hubris and bullshit that gets tossed into the overused tub of culture and tradition from time to time… In this instance the apparently barbaric manner of animal slaughter that is involved in halal and kosher slaughter.
Nothing more nothing less.
But don’t let that stop you from adding all of that other crappola you have added in your above posts. You seem to confuse knowledge and understanding…
But really I suspect it was the Jewish connection that got you wasn’t it. Objectivity eh, such a tricky thing to master..
What’s so “barbaric” about halal/kosher methods of slaughter?
It’s routinely done in NZ, in accordance with animal welfare guidelines.
ask the poles
You’re the one who framed it here as a conflict between animal welfare and cultural practise.
No I didn’t, that is what the poles did, according to the media article. I merely passed comment on the poison that variously gets dumped into the culture and heritage tip across all peoples. I used the pole example as an example.
And it is true.
Some cultural traditions are horribly sexist, some are racist, some are barbaric.
But yes maybe you and pop are right and culture and tradition trumps everything, no matter the effects on other peoples and living organisms on this wee planet, as pop says here ……. ” I’m sorry you can’t grasp that some people are not prepared to give up a central element of their culture and their very core identity just to please bigots, or in your case stubborn dickheads who think you can be empirical about ethics – it’s a matter of human rights.”
You see mcflock? It is all about us. Fuck everyone else. As Pop said one other time – get in first because if you don’t then someone else will. I mean, that’s right isn’t it. Go hard, go first, we’ve got the bomb and all that ………
the MO becomes very clear. Especially in Pop’s case.
Which and whose cultural traditions are racist?
sorry, I ended up going out for the night.
You made that argument here. And repeated it. No source, no reasoning as to why kosher or halal slaughter is more cruel than standard industrial practises, nothing. Pop has provided several links, you provided nothing. And yet you still argue that it’s a case of “culture and tradition trumps everything, no matter the effects on other peoples and living organisms”.
mcflock, where did I say I agree with the poles that halal and kosher slaughter is barbaric, or inhumane, or should that be inanimale?
The Poles have banned those slaughters on those particular grounds. I merely passed comment on the reaction to it by jewish and muslim communities and their treasured traditions – on the fact that at times peoples get upset when out of date traditions etc get told to change with the times.
Do you see? The comment was made on the reaction to the issue, not the actual issue. Comprehendez vous?
I am merely pointing out that you chose to comment on the issue that “at times peoples get upset when out of date traditions etc get told to change with the times”, rather than the issue that sometimes nations use enlightened justifications to impose restrictions on the cultural expressions and practices of minority groups (animal welfare in this case, women’s rights and secularism in France regarding hijab, and visual resource management in Switzerland regarding minarets), but upon examination the enlightened pretext doesn’t hold up nearly so much as a desire by parts of the majority culture to limit the expression of others.
Given that you have presented no basis for preferring one perspective over the other, I merely asked if there was some basis for your choice to do so.
It appears not.
Kiaora vto
Its been a long time since you have written something sufficiently annoying enough to cause me to respond. How we kill animals in this country is neither humane nor animal focused. The utilitarian benefit we attach to animals translates to mechanised slaughtering on such a massive scale that the NZ animal welfare code reads like a horror tale.
As it happens, New Zealand is, apparently, one of the world’s largest exporters of halal sheep meat in the world. Your culture and tradition obviously continues to suffer from delusions of moral superiority.
You see the problem Adele is that people so often misread, make assumptions and see things in posts that are not there and are not even remotely commented on. Your post is a classic example of this.
Who said anything about New Zealand’s morality in this issue? Not me. That is your assumption, mis-reading, lack of focus…..
In fact to the contrary, what you say there enforces the point I originally made.
’til next time
Kiaora, vto
My apologies for taking so long to get back to you. Lets me count the ways that your missives ever say what they mean:
.
.
.
–
Perhaps you should take up knitting instead.
Kiaora Adele
Haven’t read you lately. You always have something stern to bring us into line. Probably needed. Like your icon. It’s a particularly attractive koru I think.
I guess you are vegetarian? Killing things is never noble. How should we kill our animals?
Kiaora, Rose-tinted
I am an avowed meat eater although I remain conflicted in terms of liking pigs and loving pork.
I kill fish, my female boss shoots ducks, my sister works in the bush and hunts pigs. My dad and uncle owned butcher shops.
I have recently moved back to my turangawaewae in the East Coast of the North Island and it appears that the only household that doesn’t have a gun is Tame Iti’s.
Killing animals is not the issue. Its western society fooling itself that it is more humane in its killing practices in comparison to other cultures that would rather confront the death of an animal face on than to sanitise the reality through mechanised killing factories.
Humbug Corner
No. 18: RACHEL SMALLEY
“Coming up: heartbreak all over New South Wales as Queensland wins the deciding State of Origin!”
—Rachel Smalley tries to talk up the world’s most boring two-horse race.
TV3 Firstline, 8.15 a.m., Thursday 18 July 2013
Humbug Corner is dedicated to gathering, and highlighting, the most striking examples of faux solicitude, insincere apologies, and particularly stupid recycling of official canards. It is produced by the Insincerity Project®, a division of Daisycutter Sports Inc.
More humbugs….
No. 17 Jay Carney: ““He is not a human rights activist, he is not a dissident.”
No. 16 Barack Obama: “I wish Muslims across America & around the world a month blessed with the joys of family, peace & understanding.”
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-11072013/#comment-661330
No.15 John Key: “They know this is an issue of national security…”
No. 14 Charles Saatchi: “I abhor violence of any kind against women…”
No. 13 Toyota New Zealand: “The more Kiwis that lean, the more motivated our ETNZ crew will be to win.”
No. 12 Pem Bird: “We’re there to do the business of advancing our people.”
No.11 Whenua Patuwai: “They’re my brothers and to see one of them goes [sic]—it’s tough.”
No. 10 [REMOVED]
No. 9 [REMOVED]
No. 8 Barack Obama: “…people standing up for what’s right…yearning for justice and dignity…” No. 7 Barack Obama: “Nelson Mandela is my personal hero…”
No. 6 John Key: “Yeah well the Greens’ answer to everything is rail, isn’t it.”
No.5 Dr. Rodney Syme: “If you want good, open, honest practice, you have to make it transparent.”
No. 4 Mike Bush: “Bruce Hutton’s… integrity beyond reproach…such great character…”
No. 3 Dean Lonergan: “Y’ know what? The only people who will mock them are people who are dwarfists.”
No. 2 Peter Dunne: “What a load of drivel and sanctimonious humbug…”
No. 1 Dominic Bowden: “It’s okay to be speechless.”
🙄
Populuxe1 will no doubt be joining in the campaign against THIS whistleblower
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-17/mugabe-offers-243002c000-for-outing-of-anonymous-whistleblower/4824498
Unless he’s a canting hypocrite, of course.
Why would I do that? I know nothing about him, his politics, or his motivations. However I suspect his actions will have far greater impact on basic human rights and freedoms more sorely needed than those of Bonnie Prince Snowden. Of course, the main difference is that the US government needs to keep its shenanigans secret from its public whereas Mugabe can pretty much steal from and massacre thousands of Zimbabweans with complete impunity – that says rather a lot about your comparison.
Ha! Just as I thought.
You condemn yourself with every craven sentence you write.
I would never normally cite a professional philosophy troll like Slavoj Žižek, but in this instance his take down of Numb Chumpsky nails perfectly the reasons that make you a tosser
http://esjaybe.wordpress.com/2013/07/15/zizeks-response-to-chomsky/
You are out of your depth. You already know that painful fact, of course, but it needs to be said.
Quoting a poseur like Žižek is of no help to your already shattered credibility.
“Numb Chumpsky”? Oh I see what you’re doing! You’re quite the wit.
And yet he’s absolutely right about you and Chomsky – you pretend you are being empirical but really you are just not interested in inconveniently subjective things like context or intent. You are a sad inflexible muppet.
If by “inflexible” you mean “not prepared to abandon all standards of decency and humanity just because the State Department instructs one to” then you are right on the money, my friend.
Actually, that IS what you mean. I am not joking at all here.
Ha! Just as I thought.
You condemn yourself with every craven sentence you write.
…the US government needs to keep its shenanigans secret from its public
Ha! Just as I thought.
You condemn yourself with every craven sentence you write.
For those feeling ennui! about politics and would like to wash the dirty dust off their person – here is someone campaigning for clean water who is 150% sparking compared to the rest of us. He is motivational and we could all do something worthwhile being involved with a campaign like this.
Radionz http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon
10:05 Tara Okan – waste water scientist and magician
Tara Okan is a waste water scientist working for DCM Process Control Limited.The company has high-tech machines which can measure the waste products from sewage treatment and industrial plants.
In his spare time he is also a magician. (And that is fascinating too.)
very interesting interview, thanks
Weird letter from a Taliban leader apologising for shooting Malala Yousafzai, but still claiming it was her fault. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/17/taliban-letter-malala-yousafzai
A bit embarrasing for the loon posting here the other day claiming the shooting never happened. Shamed by the Taliban; a world first.
“You made me shoot you”
– Sounds depressingly familiar
We hear it every day from the U.S. president.
Are you still buying this, Voice.
The Teleban leader apologised, what a crock of shite!
You can smell the stench on the Malala story a mile away!
The loons are those taken in by these, stories, which is all they are, fantasy to sucker in the believers!
I don’t have a car and if I go to town at night I usually take a taxi. Most of the time by that hour the drivers are Afaghni, and because I speak a little Pushtun and Farsi I quite often strike up a conversation. Innevitably the story about home and the Taleban is exactly the same – it isn’t a fantasy, it’s all true and very much what life was like under the Taleban. The only loon is you.
Oh, would those be the Afghans who worked as translators? While I’m not blaming them for anything I have to say that those who collaborated with the Germans in Holland during the occupation ended up in jail or covered with tar and feathers and bald if you where a female. Much nicer than the Afghans would deal with the people who had to leave Afghanistan and all they had known for their entire life because the threw in their lot with the invaders.
Pop, notice, I am not saying the Teleban, are/are not for real, or that they are good/bad/ugly.
I am only stating my opinion on this particular point – That is, the Malala story, is piffle!
Designed and timed, for whatever reason, to serve whatever purpose!
When Māori rituals are undertaken without context – misunderstandings and misinformation occurs. Whose job is it to ensure that participants and those involved understand that context? Well I think the iwi do, but the general public don’t and king definitely doesn’t. The Government has a responsibility to help people understand but they don’t and haven’t because it doesn’t add to the divisiveness they require and that has been both labour and national. Now I’m not actually talking about pōwhiri here because that is just the particular battleground on this day and believe it or not Māori have been and are debating and discussing this for quite a while imo.
Interesting to note that King has decided what is best for tangata whenua
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1307/S00226/youth-parliament-gender-segregated-powhiri-wrong.htm
Short answer from me is, get stuffed king, you don’t get to tell tangata whenua what to do.
Great mighty mars. You have to give clear direction to all these middle class women coming from a professional level as they tend to think they know everything and have reached the heights of understanding with only one-way interaction between them and others – downwards from their two and a half pillars of wisdom.
And I mention women because now that many have had the chance to move up from the lower positions once held, they have become more self-satisfied than men because they are so proud of that new achievement.
I can’t tell if you are being serious or sarcastic Rt sorry – imo all inequality is wrong and should be addressed in whatever way it can be by those who suffer from, and advocate for the removal of, that inequality. That includes gender, sexuality, ethnicity, ability, age and all of the others. But it is not the oppression-olympics and privileged people cannot impose solutions that they like onto other groups less privileged.
Well I’m being serious and not at all sarcastic. And I think your approach is really good. Mighty! It is not for Annette King to impose cultural behaviour in the name of Maori, it should be Maori who approve it. I have heard Maori say that it would be better not to have a powhiri at all rather than do a half-pie version.
This should be a matter for discussion with Maori to find what would be a suitable ritual. If one of the problems is the length of time required for a true powhiri, which sometimes is hard for timetabling that needs a discussion with those concerned.
Cool – I agree with your comment.
Middle class women more “self-satisfied” and arrogantly pontificating,…. than…. whom? Gerry Brownlee? Simon Bridges? Ranting shock jock Laws? etc, etc? Peter Dunne?… etc, etc.
And then there’s Metiria Turei, Jane Kelsey, Anne Salmond….. etc, etc.
Karol, people need to make no mistake, the woman in politics, by and large, are chosen for for certain traits they have, and share many of the male politicians.
One only has to look at the female power players, in NZ and abroad, to see they are every bit, as poor quality, and corrupted as the men.
I know people believe that equality is a path to , well, equality, but thats too simplistic.
Certain types are chosen to rule over us, male/female, make no difference, because its got nothing to do with it, other than keep the little people snapping each others heels…
We gotta get rid of the sociopaths and such like, which means the system, has to go, because the players won’t change!
Oh those wicked women not knowing their place, not gratefully accepting the right to vote and resignedly slinking back off to the kitchen to be seen and not heard /sarc
But it sounds like you’re saying Maori tikanga is dead and static. I always understood it to be adaptive and evolving – you know, a living culture. I don’t know many Maori under the age of 35-40 who would still buy into that gender segregation crap.
Of course it is a living culture and continually evolving – you know that and you know I think that. It isn’t gender segregation – bloody hell why does everything have to be filtered through your particular worldview. The debate is there within Māoridom with strong advocates on all sides. Have you actually considered any of those views? Have you considered for instance that, as some argue, the whole debate about who gets to speak is based on a context where male behaviour is used as the norm against which female behaviour is judged. Or how about the idea that within an oral culture there are many ways to speak not just the obvious one and that women speak in many ways throughout pōwhiri and within a Māori cultural context – but oh it doesn’t fit the ‘right’ way to speak which is based upon an imposed western cultural system which is assumed to be the best way. Anyway there are many other angles and points around this other than the knee-jerk – oh look at the gender segregation. A living culture is able, entitled and obligated to evolve within its own parameters and worldview without interference from those who assume a superiority that isn’t deserved or matched with the realities they create in the world they dominate.
Woman’s mag editor humiliates dyspeptic old sod
“Let’s Ditch the Royals”
The Vote, TV3, Wednesday 17 July 2013, 8:30 p.m.
I swear this dog of a program only ever gets worse. I just cannot sit through the whole vacuous, advertising-larded hour, but here are a few of the “highlights” I garnered from brief looks at last night’s travesty.
For the Moot: Duncan Garner, Louise Wright, Ron Mark, Simon O’Connor
Against the Moot: Guyon Espiner, Laila Harré, “Sir” Robert Jones, Shane Jones
Moderator: Linda Clark
Like a fish, a show rots from the head. Linda Clark has a law degree and is actually quite bright, but you would never know it by watching her on this program. Guyon Espiner might as well not even be there, he’s so disinterested. And Duncan Garner’s sole idea is to shout, “You’re a HYPOCRITE, Sir Bob!” intermittently throughout the hour.
As if Clark, Garner and Espiner aren’t substandard enough, just take a quick gander at the “talent” the hapless producers have lined up for this show. Louise Wright? She’s the particularly vacuous editor of a vacuous magazine, the Women’s Weekly. “Sir” Robert Jones? He’s unpleasant, cantankerous, and often physically violent. Linda Clark hinted the other day that Jones “behaved very badly” during this show; perhaps he will actually “do a Rod Vaughan” on Ron Mark or Simon O’Connor. Louise Wright is probably safe, though—even “Sir” Robert would probably not punch a woman on television. Ron Mark is notorious as a vacuous motormouth who has that rare ability to keep talking, even though he is actually saying nothing that makes sense. His too long tenure in parliament was marked by only one thing: his extraordinarily lengthy, anacoluthonic masterpieces during Question Time. Mark evidently considered himself to be quite clever. As anyone who listened to his questions, or managed to sit through last night’s program will know, he is anything but. In contrast to those three, Simon O’Connor, Laila Harré and Shane Jones should perform reasonably well.
So the choice of Wright, Mark and “Sir” Robert is a stark demonstration that the producers have absolutely no commitment to producing a serious show. Perhaps, though, the “talent” will confound us….
Actually, Louise Wright does exactly that, when she deals to the dreadful old property millionaire. She is vapouring on interminably about the love New Zealanders have for the Queen, and the great affection the Queen has for New Zealanders, when this happens…
SIR ROBERT JONES: [scowling and spluttering] Arrrrrghhhh! You would have been big on DOLLS when you were a little girl!
There is an uncomfortable silence. Just as animals in the wild can sense when a creature is rabid, the audience has quickly divined that Jones is slightly unhinged. Linda Clark dutifully breaks the tension…
LINDA CLARK: [nervously] Ha ha ha ha ha!
AUDIENCE: [hesitantly] Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
LOUISE WRIGHT: [icily] Your charm is exceeded only by your beauty.
SIR ROBERT JONES: Arrrrrrrrggghhhh! Harrrumph! [He scowls and slumps into a resentful, glowering silence.]
For the rest of the program, Sir Robert mostly retreats into his shell. He has been upstaged and humiliated by not only a woman, but the editor of a woman’s magazine. For someone who labors under the ridiculous impression that he is an antipodean Evelyn Waugh, that is a catastrophic humiliation. Occasionally he will emerge from his glowering silence to snarl out angrily, “Arrrrrgggghhhh!”, “Pass the vomit bucket!” and “That’s ridiculous, RIDICULOUS!”
Perhaps the funniest thing Sir Robert says all night—funny because he is absolutely serious—is when he utters a threat: “You all heard that, there’s a defamation suit going out next week!” and then waved his arms in angry dismissal of the whole assembly. For a more disturbing display of pathetic, even heart-rending anger, you’d have to watch Twelfth Night, with the humiliated Malvolio swearing, “I’ll be revenged on the lot o’ you!”
The rest of the program was, as I suspected it would be, simply dreadful. Ron Mark has gotten even more full of himself since leaving parliament. Now he sports a natty Van Dyke, which somehow serves to underline his glibness and vacuousness. He embarked on one of his trademark wandery locutions, and would not have stopped if Linda Clark had not intervened. As Mark rambled on, Jones buried his head in his hands.
DUNCAN GARNER: Are you saying we should throw out everything from England, Shane?
SHANE JONES: No I’m not. I’m talking about an organic set of changes.
DUNCAN GARNER: Well what does THAT mean? “An organic set of changes”.
After that, there is an especially witless exchange between Guyon Espiner and Ron Mark, mercifully broken up by the ever cheerful “moderator”….
LINDA CLARK: All right! Let’s cut it there! LOTS to think about when we come back….
After the break, Sir Robert Jones is back on the warpath. Having failed against the woman, he sets his sights on the youthful National MP for Tamaki, Simon O’Connor….
SIR ROBERT JONES: [dyspeptic, choking on bile] He’s wearing BROWN SHOES, for God’s sake!
AUDIENCE: [uneasily] Ha ha ha ha ha!
SIR ROBERT JONES: You’re a thirty-five-year-old octogenarian! If you are the future of the National Party, then—- arrrrrrrggghhh!
AUDIENCE: Ha ha ha ha ha!
SIR ROBERT JONES: This is NONSENSE! The question is ABSURD! [choke, splutter, snarl] Arrrrrrgggghhhh. It’s ABSURD!
LINDA CLARK: Pause! Just PAUSE!
….Advertising…..
Sir Robert Jones’ epically funny meltdown was cringe-inducingly bad, but someone even more pathetic was to come. Regular listeners to Jim Mora’s Panel and Larry Lackwit Williams’ dire Huddle segment on NewstalkZB will have recognized the hapless figure that featured next: Tim Watkin unconvincingly pretending to “work the phones”, frenetically updating viewers on the “live voting”—no numbers ever supplied— for the New Zealand “Head of State” if we ever became independent: “A lot of votes for Mateparae, lots for Apiata….” he shouts breathlessly, as if he’s in the middle of a conflagration in a war zone. As Watkin spews out this garbage, he is backed by urgent music, to underline the high drama of the occasion. Then it’s back to the top-level debate….
SIR ROBERT JONES: Look, I don’t want to be unkind, so I’ll just be FACTUAL. Look, most of them are quite STUPID!
AUDIENCE: Ha ha ha ha ha!
SIMON O’CONNOR: Look, Prince Charles earned hundreds of millions of pounds last year for charity. He is a man who LOVES New Zealand. He has promoted New Zealand wool….
SIR ROBERT JONES: Arrrrrrgggghhhh!
AUDIENCE: Ha ha ha ha ha!
LINDA CLARK: Ha ha ha ha ha! Sir Robert, you’re like that grumpy old bastard from the Muppets!
AUDIENCE: Ha ha ha ha ha!
LINDA CLARK: I was tempted to come down and do a Rod Vaughan on you!
AUDIENCE: Ha ha ha ha ha!
At the end of the program, all the voting is tallied up—-no actual numbers given, mind you—-and the pro-monarchy side has triumphed by 59 percent to 41. Nobody is surprised.
DUNCAN GARNER: I’m going to continue the debate on my Radio Live Drive program tomorrow. Thanks for watching The Vote.
GUYON ESPINER: Good night!
“For the Moot … Against the Moot” – you had a 50% random chance of getting that one right.
For the record, this writer, i.e. moi, is FOR the moot.
I/S is on to it again:
This government is contracting out more and more of essential state services. It really is to the point to ask if the government is doing this because of these malpractices that boost profit.
Fraud, cherry picking ….
AS IF we haven’t been through it ALL before. (User pays in the health system during the 90s – for example).
Dear dear ole Helen had SUCH an opportunity in her third term to reverse some of those ills. It’s a shame she chose to have a lay down and a cuppa – it gave the likes of the ABC a foot in the door.
Now Labour are wondering why the masses are ditching them.
– Having a lay down in the third term
– 3rd Wayism
– Losing the principles on which they were founded (and that allowed most of them their careers)
– Continued sense of having ‘payed their dues’ and entitlement – all the while forgetting that they were ‘elected representatives’ (quaint idea I know).
Yep – it’s time to CUT OUT THE CONTRACTORS!
At both central and local government.
Penny Bright
Good luck with that Penny.
Top independent rates I see around
$250, $225, $220, $215, $195, $175, $165, $150….hundreds of independents, all just chewing up Auckland dime!
Even some administrators around $100ph
Of course, once you map out the relationships, and all the alumni, it becomes clear that council, is run over by corporate types, most with no public sector experience what ever, and many only recently arrived in NZ!
I wonder if Serco are adopting the same sort of practices in running the NZ prison as they are accused of in the UK.
I wonder if Serco are adopting the same sort of practices in running the NZ prison as they are accused of in the UK.
There has been a suggestion that people in South Africa do something for each other or the country to celebrate Nelson Mandela’s great achievements.
I wonder what John Key would provoke or enthuse people to do for each other in NZ.
The best way to honour Nelson Mandela would be to do what he used to do: struggle for justice. For instance, you might like to drop a line to New Zealand’s best journalist, John Stephenson, who is currently battling in court against the New Zealand Army, which has slandered him. Or you might sign up for this petition….
http://www.bradleymanning.org/featured/nyt-ad
Suggesting that John Key, who is the absolute antithesis of Mandela, “do something to celebrate Mandela’s achievements” is utterly inane.
Good job that Rt didn’t suggest that then.
Good job that Rt didn’t suggest that then.
Oh God, I’ve flown off the handle without checking carefully, yet again. Sorry, Rosetinted. I thought you were smarter than that, and you are.
As “Sir” Robert Jones would say: “Arrrrrrrggggghhhh!”
Morrissey
Okay. You have been working so hard exposing the triviality of some on our airwaves probably you’ve got overheated. Turn off and drop out for a while. Did you listen to the clip link I put up for Bob Dylan and the lyrics too?
Morrissey link here for Bob and great poetry I reckon.
http://thestandard.org.nz/sick-bastards/#comment-664450
Thanks for that, Rosetinted. I’ll tune in, drop out and turn on your link.
Forget the morality, worry about the ACCENT
Noelle McCarthy on the case
On today’s edition of The Panel, Noelle McCarthy chortles, they will be talking about Benedict Cumberpatch’s new movie role: as Julian Assange. What is exercising McCarthy’s mind is not whether this is another hatchet job on Assange, which is what a serious and intelligent journalist would be concerned about. No, what Noelle McCarthy is worrying about is whether or not Cumberpatch can do a passable Australian accent.
And don’t expect any intelligent or humane contributions from Zoe Ferguson, Chris Trotter or Lisa Scott, either. Ferguson is as determinedly frivolous and as reflexively right wing as Susan Baldacci, and as for Trotter and Scott, well, here’s how they went last time they were on the programme….
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-14062013/#comment-648511
As you read these transcripts, or sacrifice valuable time listening to their witless witterings, just remember that this is where YOUR tax money is going.
Doctor’s advice Morissey:
Don’t listen – you’ll do yourself an injury! I just turned her off after Van Morrison.
Let her pump her ego. It’s all the rage
Don’t listen – you’ll do yourself an injury!
Thanks, Dr. Tim. But I have to listen, and I have to transcribe. It’s a kind of sickness, I know, but I have to do it….
http://io9.com/5317703/amazon-secretly-removes-1984-from-the-kindle
In the world of today, that final question "Can it replace a book file with a different file whose content is changed? "is a largely overlooked concern. Who regularly checks all their folders to see if any contents have changed? A recent spring cleaning of storage devices of various ages was an excellent reminder of how much data a person can collect. Even legally acquired/created data quickly piles up to the point there is no way a person will be able to reliably track what it is in their possession. (Add illegal movies and tunes into that mix and it is even more challenging)
Indeed, Freedom!
History is written by the *winners*, nothing has changed, other than now, those who control history, can re-write it or delete it, and no one will realize!
We are in the very dangerous time of existence, which so many are blinded by the gadget bling, they simply can’t see where its all going to finish up.
Once life is fully digital, its good night from me, and its goodnight from him!
Just heard Matthew Hooton on the radio saying if the Pakeha Party gets into the game they’ll be taking votes from Winston Peters.
lolz. 50,000 facebook likes didn’t come from NZ First supporters you fool.
Would anyone like to hazard a guess which party the large numbers of i’m-all-right-jack, middle nz, anti-treaty, it’s-pc-gawn-mad, one-law-for-all, casually racist bbq dickheads have voted for in the last, oh let’s say three elections?
Anyone?
How many of those “likes” were for trolling purposes, though?
No way of knowing, but I wouldn’t imagine it’s a huge number compared to 50,000.
I’d like to think a lot of that number were just clicking like because they thought it was a laugh and they weren’t really thinking too much about it.
But then I remember 2005…
Latest Roy Morgan is out. National up to 47%, Labour down to 31%, Greens drop 1.5% to 11.5%.
Not good …
http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/new-zealand-morgan-poll-july-18-2013-201307180442
Bugger.
What I find concerning is that it’s the third consecutive RM fall for Labour (even if still above 30). Haven’t previously had consecutive falls this term. Although the descent seems to be slowing, so we’ll see, but it’s still concerning.
At least it’ll cheer up CV.
Not fussed mate; I see the true level of support for Labour as sitting around 32%-33% so this falls exactly in line with my expectations +/- 2%.
However once National pile on the pressure in election year (Labour not fit to govern etc.) I expect that figure to drop by quite a bit.
lol
There you are, back to happily predicting another national government.
I’m hoping Robertson uses his sway in caucus to move Shearer on and initiate a leadership primary, instead of letting that Shearer based defeat occur.
Well, I suppose I have a little happiness matrix regarding election2014:
Man, you’re thorough if nothing else, mate.
The Labour Party caucus is a sick man…with constipation
Perfect numbers for the right wing dead wood of Labour who would get to sidle up to Winston and lock themsleves in for another few years…
Coup watch from Duncan Garner about to intensify
And yet you seem to be ignoring that NZF economic policy is well to the left of Labour’s
… and I suppose it’s never occurred to some of the Labs that they might start getting more traction by actually calling the Government to account for its incompetence, instead of indulging in an orgy of tragic butthurt because their favourite missed out on the Party Leader job…
I’ve read that several times but it still doesn’t make any sense.
Who is not calling the government to account? Or, who is?
Who isn’t? All the people who are whining about Shearer when they should be taking on the Nats, that’s who.
Hang on Daveosaurus – its all those pro-Shearer Labour MPs who are NOT taking on the Nats, and who should be – that’s the real problem with the Labour caucus
Under-performing caucus in your opinion?
Two options:
A) whine on the internet and pass as much ammunition as possible to the greasy cetacean and his ilk; or
B) use one’s political brilliance by caning the branch selection process and winning a seat to show the sluggards how it’s done.
It would appear that very few commenters here have chosen method B.
Rubbish that is happening.
Look at posts on The Standard. Every day around 80% of posts are bleating on about real or imaginary faults of the National Government.
Left leaning folks use every opportunity to bag Key and his ‘cronies.’
Sadly though this is all preaching to the faithful.
The general public aren’t buying the bleating so it is ineffective and much hot air.
This is primarily why 2014 will go to Key and then the divided (and reduced) Labour caucus will flap around like fish out of water trying to decide how they lost election number 3.
Robertson holds the key to not losing election number 3.
Go Grant!
Go Go GO!!
Let’s do it!!!
Not a surprising result, National have started campaigning and have scored some easy points against a pathetic Labour Leader.
I think you are all a callus bunch of dreamers , leave Shearer alone he and his party are doing a grand job.
With the labour getting on so with the greens our futures are all secure .
This combination will get the result they truly deserve at the next election .
Don’t ya just love it.
Should we be concerned?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/asia/8936213/Steam-rising-from-Fukushima-reactor
The Japanese Government has assured people that they are safe and that the situation is stable and closely monitored.
Who are we to disagree?
No not really.
Earths atmosphere is already loaded with radio active isotopes, its only lies and such which keeps people from understanding the real danger we have been in, since science began earth, sea and sky with nuclear weapons!
Thousands of detonations over many decades, add chernobyl, etc!
No wonder they are replacing there nuclear power stations with coal fired generation , Germany the same.
You can always count on coal.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10899523
Who are members of the Committee for Auckland – who are the real corporate controllers of the Auckland region?
http://www.committeeforauckland.co.nz/membership/member-organisations
Check for yourself………………
Penny Bright
Does Shearer need a “I’m with Stupid –>” T-shirt?
http://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2013/07/does-he-mean-the-start-of-the-bbq-season/
Spending time in the sewer is not good for you.
Yes Wolf, but perhaps with the arrow pointing upwards.
ps pay no attention to Lusk, he’s a coward who hides behind a fool.
UK Invests in World’s First Air-Breathing Rocket Engine
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, we need our own, government funded, space program.
Just like our own advanced semiconductor industry? No, I don’t think so.
Got a reason why not?
The massive expense of a space program in light of other areas that are in desperate need of funding is a start.
The massive amount of resources and people we have sitting idle would tend to indicate that we could do the space program while also addressing those other areas. Funding really isn’t the problem – government just needs to create the money, spend it and possibly raise taxes slightly.
They’re always going to object to ideas that create jobs and use our resources for our own advantage.
If you want the likes of TheContrarian to support it you’ll have to find a way to funnel the profits and benefits offshore.
I’m not for the idea of developing a highly toxic, polluting industry for the sake of importing lots of printed overseas dollars, and which does little (or nothing) to help us adapt to climate change or fossil fuel depletion. There’s got to be a better way.
No doubt there is. Perhaps a massive investment in solar energy and catskin farming.
Catskins are renewable and while solar is not, it should be good for another couple of hundred million years.
Damn right it’s renewable. We feed the rats to the cats and the cats to the rats and get the cat skins for nothing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qii5us2lB4
Well,
1.) It’s not highly polluting if you do it properly
2.) I really couldn’t care less about the imported dollars but while we’re trading in the world then we actually do need them
3.) Last time I looked James Hansen was employed by NASA so I’d say that there was a high probability that a space program would help us adapt to climate change
Perhaps you’d prefer it if we went back to living in caves?
Yeah, right. Funnel money offshore. Uh-huh.
Say what? Do some MSM journalists have a sufficient understanding of out political system? Or is the problem off-shore copy editors?
NZ Herald Amelia Wade article on out of control wheel clamping in Mt Roskill:
Or did Phil just switch sides?
Switch sides to what?
Here’s his facebook post.
Of course, neither Goff nor the MSM seem to realise that the actual problem is people using cars to pick up their kids from school.
“Minister” rather than “Member” seems to be the issue.
Ah, missed that 😳
Morgan poll is hardly surprising. It looks like even Shearer has given up …
https://twitter.com/DavidShearerMP
Did anything happen in July? Apart from government pissing on the law, shafting the poor and other trivial matters?
He lost his phone a few weeks ago. His staff are gonna get another one, no hurry though.
And none of them know how to use Twitter from a computer instead.
Yeah but they have to set up a new twitter account for him. He lost his phone.
And they’ll get him a new phone once they find the insurance policy and make the required claim?
Yep, and if they wait another 6 months they can still get the no-claims bonus for this year.
Long term strategic thinking they call it.
Did they check the Sky City corporate box?
Yeah they found the smashed up remnants of a phone but it was beyond identification.
Looked liked it had been hurled at the wall by a passionate man in a manly fit of passion.
I hope it was just his phone.
Am beginning to feel more despondent for Labour.
Unforgettable Ass-Kickings
No. 1: Ed Herman deals to Christopher Hitchens
Rejoinder To Christopher Hitchens
by EDWARD HERMAN, 25 August 2008
http://www.zcommunications.org/rejoinder-to-christopher-hitchens-by-edward-herman
In a “Rejoinder to Noam Chomsky” in early October, Christopher Hitchens put up two sentences regarding my own writing, as follows:
“Mr. Herman has moved from opposing the bombing of Serbia to representing the Milosevic regime as a victim and as a nationalist peoples democracy. He has recently said, in a ludicrous attack on me, that the ‘methods and policies’ of the Western forces in Kosovo were ‘very similar’ to the tactics of Al-quaeda; an assertion that will not surprise those who are familiar with his style.”
This packs a lot of misrepresentation into two sentences. Nowhere in my writings have I ever used any one of the three words “nationalist peoples democracy” to describe the Milosevic regime and never would, so Hitchens’ language is straightforward fabrication and misrepresentation. For Hitchens I must be an apologist for Milosevic because I have “opposed the bombing of Serbia,” just as one might be called an apologist for Saddam Hussein for objecting to the “sanctions of mass destruction.” But of course he is not an apologist for NATO and Bill Clinton for supporting the bombing of Serbia.
Notice also that he speaks of my making the “Milosevic regime” the “victim” of NATO bombing rather than the people of that regime. But I have never focused my sympathy on the regime as victim, just the people killed, injured and traumatized. Imagine how Hitchens would assail for outrageous insensitivity to the real civilians massacred an individual who spoke sarcastically of somebody being bothered by the recent New York/Washington attacks which only “victimized” the “Bush and capitalist regimes.”
Hitchens says that I equate the tactics of Al-Quaeda with those of the Western forces “in Kosovo.” But the text that he is criticizing was comparing the attack on civilians in New York and Washington with the systematic NATO bombing of civilian facilities in SERBIA, not the military operations in Kosovo. In both the attacks on New York/Washington and Serbia, civilian “collateral damage” was either entirely acceptable or positively desired. In the Serbia bombing case there is solid evidence that the destruction of civilian facilities and inevitable civilian deaths and injuries were planned for and seen as positive….
Read more….
http://www.zcommunications.org/rejoinder-to-christopher-hitchens-by-edward-herman
Christopher Hitchens is/was a common prostitute to the ruling money class.
One of these people who are so flakey as to be “look at me look at me” wahanui Trots’ and Commies early on and then jump heaps of fences clear to the other side of the political spectrum. Announcing their arrival with redoubled tino wahanui as though no one’s noticed. Classic con-men/women. For example Rob Campbell…….Progressive Youth Movement back in the day……..latterly a seriously malevolent right wing Ports of Auckland schemer.
I must have got it wrong but I thought the unappealing egomaniac Hitchens died a couple of years ago. If you want some fun have a look on YouTube at the debate at some US university – Hard out George Galloway and Mr Pompous Narcissist Hitchens.
Beautiful ! In keeping with the narcissism Hitchens thought he’d won. HaHaHa !
I thought the unappealing egomaniac Hitchens died a couple of years ago.
He did indeed, but not before writing a particularly stupid autobiography. It looks like the poor fellow spent most of his last few months trying to get even with all those who had humiliated him over the last shameful decade of his life.
And by the way, no one considered that Hitchens got the better of Galloway in that epic confrontation in 2005. The person who, more than anyone else, realized that Galloway had vanquished him was Hitchens himself.
That laughable autobiography of his fires a few limp shots at Galloway, but I think even as he composed his bilious and dishonest prose, the dying Hitchens realized he was flogging a dead horse.
I recommend it if you want a good laugh, or indeed, a melancholy look at what happens to the venal and unfeasibly self-important.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10899904
National education data shows schools are not meeting the ambitious targets set by the government as part of its better public service targets…
Just what does Hekia hope to glean from these figures? Apparently she said the data was for regions to look at and understand. Well she could start by telling the journalists to provide us with some accurate data. (Apart from the percentage of children who can stand on their heads while reciting the magna carta and drink through a straw.
Take a look at the national standards for these central regions. They have an awful symmetry about them.
Manawatu – Wanganui:
National standards 2012:
Reading – 77.4 per cent
Maths – 73.6 per cent
Writing – 70 per cent
and Wellington:
and Tasman:
and Marlborough:
and Nelson:
and West Coast:
and Canterbury:
and Otago:
Exactly the same figures for them all … lazy journalism, bad cut and paste, or meaningless data.
The schools warned that she would misuse the data and this is obviously a starter.
In the round this is at least a moral win for Stephenson……….”the authorities” have had to admit that the ShonKey Python style of governance, the stock bizo ……. “deny and mock” ……. is shit.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/8935989/No-decision-in-Defence-defamation-trial
Just hope he’s able to negotiate David’s legal costs being met by Goliath. Otherwise it’s a case of them cynically calling him a liar………he goes to court to force them to admit that he’s not, they admit they were wrong and they finally admit he’s not a liar like they said, then it costs him his entire worth.
Not right !
On the Herald…..Why you should vote for me: Uesifili Unasa
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10899531
“As a young migrant from Samoa, growing up in Kelston, ministered in Mangere, living in Parnell
Lives in Parnell..so well out of South Auckland, then. Indeed as he admits himself, he now lives among the wealthiest. Hope they have not put him up to split the Pacific Island vote and let a wingnut in.
The Drone That Killed My Grandson
Apparently a recent drone crash in the US was that of a QF-4. Its a full size Phantom F-4 jet fighter kitted out to be flown remotely from the ground. This makes me wonder what other full size jet planes they can fly remotely…
http://www.airspacemag.com/military-aviation/Where-Have-All-the-Phantoms-Gone.html
Any and all. All they need is the plane to have fly-by-wire and it’s easy to convert. If it doesn’t then it’d be slightly harder.
BTW, those military drones aren’t small. One of the bigger ones mentioned is described as having the wingspan of a 727. It’s not as big as a 727 but pictures I’ve seen of them would indicate that it’s bigger than a Beechcraft Baron.
They’ve been flying QF-4s for years. They’re basically just a supersonic target, following a line begun years ago and passing through the Queen Bee, a drone Tiger Moth (which certainly lacked fly by wire). They don’t have any of the offensive capabilities or autonomy found in Obama’s latest toys.
Drones can be as big as they like. They typically make them big enough to do the job, and no bigger. They start at about the size of a mosquito, which obviously won’t have much range or payload.