Open mike 18/12/2010

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, December 18th, 2010 - 66 comments
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66 comments on “Open mike 18/12/2010 ”

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  1. big bruv 1
    18 December 2010 at 7:46 am

    Has Goff paid the money back yet?

    Has Goff resigned in disgrace?

    Will creepy Pete be asking questions about Goff’s blatant lie?

  4. jcuknz 4
    18 December 2010 at 10:04 am

    A lesson for today, as if we didn’t already know it …
    “what happens when an ideology backed by vast wealth and immense power confronts inconvenient facts. And the answer is, the facts lose. ” Paul Krugman.
    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/17/opinion/17krugman.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=a212
    Writing about the commission set up to find the cause of the bubble breaking.

    Then there is another about the crazy situation where a Judge and likely the Supreme Court is going to upset the requirement that every American must buy health insurance.
    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/17/opinion/17mazzone.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=a212

    Of course if they were not so mortally afraid of communism and its near relative socialism
    they could say the present compulsory insurance was un-constitutional and provide government health care like civilized countries do. ie. NZ for one 🙂
    Personally I believe that health insurance is a con the way the premiums vary to match the likely payout and the only satisfactory system is a state organized system with payment based on one’s income as a proportion of the total need on a whole of life basis. So healthy younger people do not free-load but pay a premium based on whole of life expectations of sickness. With perhaps payments going to their estate in the case of early death, before say 60yo., to help their surviving family cope with the loss of their support.

  5. jcuknz 5
    18 December 2010 at 10:09 am

    How do you moderators reconcile your presence on this site with the ‘buttonhole’ advert on the right of the page? 🙂

    • RedLogix 5.1
      18 December 2010 at 10:26 am

      Simple. Freedom of speech is not the same as being free to say any damn thing you please.

      It’s a paradox that few people understand: that true freedom lies in abiding by the rules.

    • lprent 5.2
      18 December 2010 at 11:16 am

      We really don’t ‘censor’ ideas apart from those that fall outside the bounds of the policy – although I will get pretty damn sarcastic sometimes. We do moderate the standard of behavior for those who appear to be incapable of doing it themselves. Notably the trolls. And generally to most peoples relief who comment and read here.

      The difference is that between a censorship office (which we don’t do) and that of the police.

      And before someone goes on about ‘bias’ (the usual next play in this tactic), I’d point out that the people on the ‘left’ don’t seem to mind that this site exists – even when they strongly disagree with authors. Whereas it is extremely easy to find comments where many of those on the right do find that they don’t want this site to be exist, and the behavior towards that end gives them the responses listed in the policy.

    • Marty G 5.3
      18 December 2010 at 11:50 am

      freedom of speech is not the same as being allowed to say whatever you like wherever you like. This site is our property and we set the rules. That doesn’t stop someone setting up their own site to say things we don’t allow here. For instance, freedom of speech gives paul henry the right to say racist or homophobic things but it doesn’t oblige tvnz to employ him to say those things

  6. Janice 6
    18 December 2010 at 10:25 am

    I have had a bewildering few days trying to work out the Savings Commission’s recommendation that raising GST will increase savings. Surely it will mean that (poor) people will have less to save. Could someone please put me out of my misery so and explain how this will work so I can get on with the Christmas shopping. Have I got the wrong end of the stick again, or did I mishear?

    Anti spam: policies

    • Draco T Bastard 6.1
      18 December 2010 at 1:38 pm

      No, you seem to have it right.

      GST is a consumption tax which is supposed to penalise buying stuff. Unfortunately, the poor actually have to spend their entire income on living (food etc) and so all it does is put the price up for the poor.

      The people with enough money to save already do so and the GST won’t make any real difference to their consumption.

  7. pollywog 7
    18 December 2010 at 10:55 am

    A former MP facing fraud charges involving nearly $2 million will find out next week whether he can keep secret his identity.

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/4470204/Former-MP-facing-fraud-charges

    So which team does this ex MP bat for…RED, BLUE, BLACK, YELLOW or GREEN ???

    • just saying 7.1
      18 December 2010 at 11:05 am

      If the rumour’s I’ve heard are true, this will be a very interesting week in the blogosphere.

      Pity I’ll be off doing the Xmas things, so unless it’s covered by the mainstream media, I’ll miss it.

  8. The Voice of Reason 8
    18 December 2010 at 2:18 pm

    Some bad news for all us ageing hipsters. Don van Vliet has died of complications from MS.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/dec/18/captain-beefheart-dust-forward-back

    • Bored 8.1
      18 December 2010 at 3:35 pm

      Hoping he is sitting on a cloud right now chewing the fat with Frank Zappa right now. Once saw them together, he was a complete fruit loop, talented but….

  9. Gina 9
    18 December 2010 at 2:40 pm

    Have we discussed Goff’s current scandal and if not why not. He’s not as bad as John Key but really that is not a seal of approval. And Labours website aiming at middle New Zealand well that’s not me. That should be changed to include everyone thanks. Quite a mess isn’t it really. Theres no one in Labour to fill his Goff’s shoes and now he’s tainted plus also shown to be a hypocrit. Bring back Helen and Michael is all I can suggest.

    Old labour supporters will look at the party website and think I don’t fit into Labour any more. Does this new pitch to middle New Zealand come from the party or their advertising guru, cause I’ll tell you something, any corporate media agency who got Labour elected would be shunned by the corporate media and they very likely know it. That advertising agencie’s business would dry up if the corporate sector lost their tax cuts. Thats the way it goes, the corporate sector must look after the corporate sector and getting labour elected is not their priority.

    Admittedly I have no idea who Labours advedrtising people are. I can tell you that highly qualified media people working in organisations that support unions and workers are fish out of water. The reason being is that they must consider job opportunites in the corporate sector should they need to get a new job. E.G. TVNZ staff will know if they leave TVNZ then the only job opportunities are those in the corporate media. That will often influence how far they are willing to go in fully reporting corporate corruption or being fair to a union etc etc.

  10. NickS 10
    18 December 2010 at 2:50 pm

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/4472206/More-beaches-unsafe-for-swimming

    Ted Taylor, Greater Wellington’s environmental monitoring and investigations manager, said the level of rainfall usually dictated bacteria levels.

    “Rainfall causes bacteria to be washed into rivers and streams.”

    Lolwut?

    You only get high bacteria levels when you’ve got significant nutrient fluxes in water systems, say ye olde leaking sewerage pipes, so how the hell does the manager of environmental monitoring for Wellington not know this? Even the ever inept Christchurch City Council admits that sewerage leaks into Christchurch’s streams and rivers isn’t helping bacterial counts and doesn’t blame it on the rain alone and then there’s the road run off that shouldn’t be occurring. That and slow flowing streams and grassy river banks are prime water fowl pooping habitat.

    • RedLogix 10.1
      18 December 2010 at 3:52 pm

      I strongly suggest Ted would agree with you. More likely his words have been misrepresented by a reporter who didn’t understand what they were typing up.

      Of course whenever it rains the measured bacterial counts will rise, but that statement alone is entirely mute about the source of that contamination.

  11. mickysavage 11
    18 December 2010 at 4:48 pm

    And the winner of the Te Atatu Labour candidate selection is ………..

    /drumroll/

    Phil Twyford. All the best to Phil and best of luck with the election.

    And commiserations to the other candidates.

    • The Voice of Reason 11.1
      18 December 2010 at 5:02 pm

      Nice one. Now we wait for the RWNJ’s to start claiming it was a head office fix …

      • mickysavage 11.1.1
        18 December 2010 at 5:23 pm

        You should see what they are saying over at the sewer.

        These guys have no idea how the Labour Party works, were not at the selection meeting, know none of the locals or the candidates or even understand the process or the local dynamics and yet they feel qualified to spout all sorts of conspiracy reasons for what may or may not have happened. And they do not even have the decency to be embarrassed when it is proved conclusively without a doubt that they are wrong.

        • Draco T Bastard 11.1.1.1
          18 December 2010 at 5:50 pm

          And they do not even have the decency to be embarrassed when it is proved conclusively without a doubt that they are wrong.

          RWNJs don’t believe in reality or facts. They only believe in their opinions and, because they’re their opinions, they’re always right. Oh, and their opinions can only be changed by their leaders telling them that they’ve changed.

          • lprent 11.1.1.1.1
            18 December 2010 at 6:09 pm

            Fox ‘news’ syndrome.

            If you tell each other bullshit often enough, you have faith that the lie will overcome reality.

            Kind of silly really.

            • MrSmith 11.1.1.1.1.1
              19 December 2010 at 8:19 am

              The Bible would be a good example of that Iprent.

            • KJT 11.1.1.1.1.2
              19 December 2010 at 2:04 pm

              Not really. It actually works. In that if you repeat something often enough it becomes fact. Even people from the left who should know better are buying into the Neo-lib mantra that benefits and pensions are unaffordable. I.e. We cannot afford to feed and house all our population even though we export 90% of the food we produce.

          • jcuknz 11.1.1.1.2
            18 December 2010 at 10:13 pm

            I’m currently reading Susan Howatch’s “High Flyer” and I love her lead character’s expression ‘nutterguff’ 🙂

            Draco .. can I remind you of the Krugman quote I posted earlier today.?

    • lprent 11.2
      18 December 2010 at 5:41 pm

      Good. Phil will be good for Te Atatu, he is a hellishly good campaigner, and having a electorate base will help us in the overall Auckland campaign.

    • lprent 11.3
      18 December 2010 at 6:07 pm

      Post is up…

  12. Carol 12
    18 December 2010 at 9:47 pm

    An interesting article by George Monbiot, about right wing astroturfing of online forums, especially as seen on The Guardian website & on some US forums & websites. Monbiot claims there is evidence that some of the disruption and shutting down of debates is organised, and maybe sometimes paid for:

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/2010/dec/13/astroturf-libertarians-internet-democracy

    Reading comment threads on the Guardian’s sites and elsewhere on the web, two patterns jump out at me. The first is that discussions of issues in which there’s little money at stake tend to be a lot more civilised than debates about issues where companies stand to lose or gain billions: such as climate change, public health and corporate tax avoidance. These are often characterised by amazing levels of abuse and disruption…

    The second pattern is the strong association between this tactic and a certain set of views: pro-corporate, anti-tax, anti-regulation. Both traditional conservatives and traditional progressives tend to be more willing to discuss an issue than these rightwing libertarians, many of whom seek to shut down debate.

    So what’s going on? I’m not suggesting that most of the people trying to derail these discussions are paid to do so, though I would be surprised if none were. I’m suggesting that some of the efforts to prevent intelligence from blooming seem to be organised, and that neither website hosts nor other commenters know how to respond.

  14. Draco T Bastard 14
    19 December 2010 at 12:08 am

    Symphony of Science
    Quotes by well known scientists set to music.

  15. augustine 15
    20 December 2010 at 10:57 pm

    Hey OM – how about a “Whatever happened to ?” section.
    We could start with !! Tony Resnick !!

  16. augustine 16
    28 December 2010 at 10:00 pm

    And next – ! Matthew Wilkin !

    ShhhhSIS

  17. augustine 17
    30 December 2010 at 10:13 pm

    and maybe ! Kees Klein !

  18. augustine 18
    30 December 2010 at 10:21 pm

    and then we never heard any-else regarding this assault in Coromandel; ! Naked Israeli tourist !

    http://www.jpost.com/home/article.aspx?id=102597

  19. augustine 19
    30 December 2010 at 10:47 pm

    and that Asian guy being attended by Ambo’s on the Rosedale tarmac outside Heletranz in the Kees / Police wake? Encountered all this during an interlude in Lance J trial @ Albany.
    Hey LP – this is your backyard.

  20. augustine 20
    4 January 2011 at 11:41 pm

    http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2011/01/04/wikileaks-japan-japanese-spy-flights-pressure-whaling-deals/

    Omeka – Sardonyx -> OS Enterprises Limited – Glenn and Andre -| Hey Gav – how was your Aussie holiday last New Year??
    .

  21. augustine 21
    5 January 2011 at 12:27 am

    http://www.sardonyxint.com/seaMarshal.htm

    and references to Lockforce ?

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