America’s banal and insincere Consoler-in-Chief
President Obama comes to Boston
by BILL VAN AUKEN, 19 April 2013
Three days after the bombing that killed three people and wounded more than 170 at the Boston Marathon, President Barack Obama flew to Boston to deliver a speech at an interfaith service for the victims and survivors.
This marks the fifth time that Obama has delivered such an address following a mass killing, beginning with Fort Hood, Texas in November of 2009 and including Tucson, Arizona in January 2011, Aurora, Colorado in July 2012 and Newtown, Connecticut last December.
The corporate media, which have cynically dubbed Obama the “consoler-in-chief,” hailed his latest speech as “inspiring”, “powerful” and “moving.” It was all they wanted to hear and in no way conflicted with their efforts to frame the events in Boston within the reactionary narrative of the “war on terrorism,” turning them into another justification for war abroad and attacks on democratic rights at home.
In reality, it was painfully evident that Obama was working off of a template, engaged in a national ritual that is utterly routine, banal and insincere.
Almost invariably, he begins these speeches by invoking “scripture.”
“Scripture tells us,” were the first words out of Obama’s mouth after he rose to address the crowd from the pulpit of Boston’s Cathedral of the Holy Cross.
“Scripture tells us, ‘Do not lose heart,’” he began his remarks to a prayer vigil for the 26 victims of the Newtown school massacre.
“Scripture says that ‘He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and….
No, we’ll just call your little tantrum typical laziness on your part, and move on.
The article was not criticizing Obama’s anodyne words; he is defintely the go-to guy when it comes to sonorous and content-free oratory. He’s unimprovable, in fact.
The article criticizes the role the media plays in his sentimentalizing and politicizing of these tragedies.
“The article criticizes the role the media plays in his sentimentalizing and politicizing of these tragedies.
You would realize that if you actually read it.”
Or you could simply have introduced your comment with that one sentence explanation of what you thought was important about the article.
I find many of the links without commentary interesting, but it’s not laziness that stops me from reading all of them. I mostly come here for the interaction with other people and to hear their views on current events, politics etc.
Fair point, weka and Al1en. I try not to post too often without some kind of preliminary comment; 1.) I don’t want to bomb people with excess articles, and 2.) I don’t want another one-month ban.
What the article shows is the Obama is a cynical bastard using biblical quotes explain away the cause of ‘terror’ as ‘evil’. What he doesn’t do is what Lincoln did i.e. draw the conclusion that that ‘evil’ is an answer to ‘evil’. In Lincoln’s case slavery was the evil and the civil war the answer.
What should Obama have said? Nothing different since today the US President has to justify the ‘war on terror’ for the very survival of US imperialism. But assuming that freed from this requirement, and that Obama had Lincoln’s grasp on reality, he would recognise that the ‘terror’ that the US visits on the world in the name of ‘freedom’ is imperialism – the modern equivalent evil of slavery – and that the ‘counter-terror’ that causes all these acts of mass murder, is part of the answer.
Of course coming from the Socialist Equality Party, the author stops short of spelling out what would be necessary to answer imperialism fully i.e. not the mayhem of individual mass shootings which are disorganised and counter-productive (eg citizens of Boston wildly cheering the police for dealing to the biblical ‘evil’) but the organised working class forming a popular militia and overthrowing the imperialist state.
In one of the more cynical moments of Obama’s speech, he invoked a widely circulated image of the youngest of those killed in the Boston bombings, eight-year-old Martin Richard, holding a poster upon which he had written, “No more hurting people. Peace.” Obama repeated the phrase twice.
The day before he came to Boston, US drones fired missiles into a Pakistani village leveling a house and killing five people inside. Seven others were wounded. On the same day, a drone strike in Yemen demolished a car, killing its five occupants. As is well known, Obama personally selects assassination victims and has arrogated to himself the power to order the deaths of American citizens without charges or trials. The young boy’s plea reads like an indictment of the US president himself.
Thanks M! I read an analysis of O’s speeches when he first was elected tying the format of the speeches to psychological tactics to disengage critical thinking. Fascinating stuff.
From memory the scripture part of it wasn’t incorporated in his earlier speeches (at least not as a key feature right at the start of the speech).
A Contender for Dumbest Statement Ever by Amnesty USA?
by JOE EMERSBERGER at Apr 19, 2013
Amnesty USA has called on the Venezuelan government to eliminate post-election violence. The small matter that the violence has been directed at government supporters was comically evaded.
Showing off its command of the obvious, Amnesty USA stated: “Violent incidents around Venezuela following last Sunday’s presidential elections are only likely to increase unless the authorities carry out prompt, effective investigations and bring those responsible to justice”
That recent deaths strongly implicate opposition supporters should have been impossible to miss, even for Amnesty USA, given statements put out by Henrique Capriles, the candidate who lost the presidential election to Maduro. Reuters reported that Capriles said: “To all my followers … this is a peaceful quarrel. Whoever is involved in violence is not part of this project, is not with me,…. It is doing me harm.”
Capriles cancelled a march on the National Electoral Council (CNE) alleging that the government would “infiltrate” it with violent saboteurs.
HRW put out a similarly fatuous statement condemning Maduro for saying he would forbid the opposition march that Capriles ended up cancelling.
When it suits them, the human rights industry pretends that governments the USA dislikes are omnipotent – that they exert complete control of opponents and supporters alike and can “guarantee” security for all without the slightest infringement of civil liberties. Weeks prior to the US perpetrated coup in Haiti in 2004, Amnesty and Human Rights Watch, put out statements demanding that Jean Bertrand Aristide, who was just about to be kidnaped by US troops, guarantee the security of his opponents – including people financing terrorists to overthrow him.
Amnesty USA refuses to make obvious demands of its own government – demands like “disclose who you are funding and working with”, and “stop trying to overthrow democratically elected governments”. That would actually be useful to promoting human rights rather than US-backed coups. That is expecting too much of Amnesty when it cannot even recognize Bradley Manning as a Prisoner of Conscience, or acknowledge that Saudi armed rebels in Syria will inevitably commit atrocities.
Stupidity is not actually the problem as Chris Hedges made clear when he resigned from PEN after Suzanne Nossel, recently head of Amnesty USA, was appointed to run that group: “Nossel’s relentless championing of preemptive war—which under international law is illegal—as a State Department official along with her callous disregard for Israeli mistreatment of the Palestinians and her refusal as a government official to denounce the use of torture and use of extra-judicial killings, makes her utterly unfit to lead any human rights organization, especially one that has global concerns.”
It should not be up to Chris Hedges alone to denounce the “hijacking of human rights organizations to promote imperial projects”.
When she has a moment to spare from her humane work, that great humanitarian Suzanne Nossel might reflect, in the small hours of the morning, that the word AMNESTY anagramizes into NASTY ME.
Amnesty has had a pretty damaged brand for a long time now. Their insistence that the oppressed remain pacifists and refusal to take on many cases have ended up with them supporting the oppressor, as in Venezuela today. I haven’t had much time for them since they refused to support Marx Jones in 1981.
Interesting article in the Guardian regarding the many internet wannabee CSIers who got it so badly wrong trying to parse the various photos of the Boston bombing:
Yet you know the *authorities* loved the fact they were able to see this happen, by that I mean, getting the masses all bagging on eachother while searching for, *the enemy*
Obamas citizen security force he called for, seems to be rolling out, no dounbt helped by *friendly establishment* agencies all playing their role!
That and the resultant , marshall law in place in Boston!
Oh, and don’t forget to look into the regions history/present where the two (soon to be both dead, conveniently, yet again), *accused* are from, and what else is happening is that part of the world.
Great result for the establishments propgation of fear, violence, troops on the street, unwarranted searched of houses et al!
Strange question! I’m part of the NWO conspiracy, muzza. But, hey, you know that already, so it’s weird that you ask, given we’re both in the same black ops unit. If you’ve blown our cover, Obama is going to be well pissed.
BELIEVE IT OR NOT!
Kim Hill pronounces Michael Burleigh “balanced”
National Radio, Saturday 20 April 2013
Kim Hill is a very smart and well read person. I was concerned, therefore, to hear her speak positively, a few minutes ago during an interview with Professor John Carson Lennox, of a book by the notoriously unhinged Michael Burleigh. She gave the impression that Burleigh was “balanced”. Any sane person who has managed to struggle through some of his insane books or articles would dispute that.
While it is clear that she reads a great many books, comments like that about someone as notorious as Michael Burleigh lead one to wonder if she really does read all of them thoroughly.
Anyway the discussion with Prof Lennox was a fascinating in-depth one. Interesting that the Prof believes that the Resurrection is proof of God. Without the Resurrection presumably the God would become god. But of course there is only the Bible to offer “proof.”
“John Carson Lennox is a British mathematician and philosopher of science who is Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford, and Fellow in Mathematics and Philosophy of Science at Green Templeton College, Oxford University. He is the author of a number of books, including and God’s Undertaker: Has Science Buried God? (Lion Books, ISBN: 978-0-82547-912-0) and Gunning for God: Why the New Atheists are Missing the Target (Lion Books, ISBN: 978-0745953229).”
Not up yet for replay.
Michelle Hewitson on Susan “Yeah I am” / “No I [ain’t]!” Devoy this morning
She is patently aggrieved that people have made up their minds about her and that they think all she is is “someone who wriggles around a little racket” and “the assumption is that I’m white and that I’m right wing.” Well, she is, isn’t she? “Yeah, I am. But I’m not so right wing and I’m not so conservative.” She says she’s worked with disadvantaged people and done a lot of work for Maori organisations. “And they say you’re as Maori as you feel.” But it just sounds daft when she says it. Does she think she’s Maori? “No I don’t!”
It dawned on us during our Friday evening dinner that when Natz talk about jobs, they are really talking about their own jobs and their cronies’ . . . . .
A large part of the population, believe they have an idea about issues, the drivers, and hence in their wisdom, decide to vote, in a system which will strangling them, and removing any future for their children etc.
Most people are clueless, which is what happens when lies are the SOP over extended period of time, the lies in turn dumb them down, and what you have is what we are seeing played out in front of us!
She is patently aggrieved that people have made up their minds about her and that they think all she is is “someone who wriggles around a little racket” and “the assumption is that I’m white and that I’m right wing.” Well, she is, isn’t she?
Susan Devoy is a patently stupid woman. Helen Kelly’s assessment is spot on: Devoy’s appointment is part of a deliberate strategy by the government, i.e. Steven Joyce, to denigrate and lessen the authority of the Race Relations Commission.
Someone asked me if I wanted a dog on Thursday. Lovely mid sized cutie, fully trained and good with kids and came with all it’s doggie stuff.
The thing is I really do want a dog that needs a forever home <3
The home or the dog
But….I have learned there are people in the world who can have dogs, and those who can’t and I most definitely can not own a dog unless I own a house to go with it. There is no way that I can afford to further disadvantage myself in the cray-cray Wellington rental market by having a dog (the cat I took in from a friend who moved is bad enough).
Landlords don’t like dogs or their owners and will pick an animal free tenant whenever they can so it would be cruel to take in the dog and eventually end up having to make the choice between re-homing my new furry baby or becoming homeless myself.
I wish someone had explained all this to me when I was younger.
Don’t have much time for dogs in cities. Or rather, not much time for their owners handling of their dogs. So much dog shit on the street, barking dogs in our hood BOWOO BOWOWOWOWO waking everyone up, New Zealanders are bloody boofheads when it comes to dog responsibility around others. Neanderthals (actually, I bet neanderthals never put up with such shit from dog owners).
Quick work by the US authorities. Seems like the bad guys were total amateur hour. Did they not have an out after the op? They just stayed in the neighbourhood? What were they going to do, just turn back up to classes as normal next week?
And from Kyrzygstan…this is going to be interesting.
All I know is that the dorm mates of one suspect say he was an ordinary guy they hung out with, ate with, and played sport with.
Apparently the suspect turned up to classes as normal after the bombing and even went to a party, even as he must have known that FBI CCTV footage was appearing on air. This is frakking weird.
The Czech Republic and Chechnya are two very different entities – the Czech Republic is a Central European country; Chechnya is a part of the Russian Federation.
well, according to the nice policeman on Campbell Live, the arrogance of motorists cutting into queues is growing…
Blessed are the merciful
for they will be shown mercy
not likely to be the wisest, or the richest, yet
a man who has not the wherewithal to be bountiful or liberal
may be truly merciful.
partake of the afflictions of our brethren
have compassion on the souls of others
pity the ignorant and instruct them,
the careless, and warn them
snatch the lost as brands out of a burning forge
for doing good is one of the most purest and refined delights
it is more blessed to give than receive
for with the merciful God will show himself merciful
the most charitable and merciful cannot pretend to merit
Fuck’s sake, CV, he’s 19 and we have no fucking idea why the bombings took place. It’s a bit early in the piece to be getting all smug about how un-hardcore a suspect is, don’t you think?
You know, your professions of concern for that little boy would carry some weight if you were not on record applauding the killing of hundreds of little boys and girls in Gaza.
We need to carefully consider a couple of pertinent questions: 1.) Why is there a TANK on the scene? 2.) Who is in the wrong: the soldier inside the tank or the peasants trying to repel the tank?
Are you saying that 19 year old soldiers who don’t die ‘lose their nerve’?
Frankly, I don’t give a shit. David Frum, George Bush’s speech writer who coined the axis of evil phrase made the same point you made. So that’s the company you’re in.
I think you might be reading far too much into CV’s comments there, but there is no equivalence between a nineteen year old soldier and a nineteen year old terrorist.
oooo, a few anarchist threats in there joe; Excellent link. I heard recently from the Sky that the Feds see the Earth Liberation Front (The Elves) as their number 1 targets of attention. btw, do you think that there has been an a-typical frequency of large earthquakes just recently; off Japan, now China…
The following clarification needs to be read by listeners to NewstalkZB, the hosts of NewstalkZB, Stephen Franks, Jordan Williams, Neville “Breivik” Gibson, Garth “Gaga” George, Christine “Spankin'” Rankin, Brett Dale and any other bewildered souls out there….
Statement of the Ambassador of the Czech Republic on the Boston terrorist attack
19.04.2013 / 21:27
As many I was deeply shocked by the tragedy that occurred in Boston earlier this month. It was a stark reminder of the fact that any of us could be a victim of senseless violence anywhere at any moment.
As more information on the origin of the alleged perpetrators is coming to light, I am concerned to note in the social media a most unfortunate misunderstanding in this respect. The Czech Republic and Chechnya are two very different entities – the Czech Republic is a Central European country; Chechnya is a part of the Russian Federation.
As the President of the Czech Republic Miloš Zeman noted in his message to President Obama, the Czech Republic is an active and reliable partner of the United States in the fight against terrorism. We are determined to stand side by side with our allies in this respect, there is no doubt about that.
Nice one, Viper. You are now on the Christmas card list.
By the way, what do you think the Czech ambassador means when he insists that his country is an “active and reliable” partner of the United States? Does that just mean they support the U.S. in its anti-democracy shenanigans at the U.N.? I was also amused by the tag at the end of the following assurance: “We are determined to stand side by side with our allies in this respect, there is no doubt about that.” That sounds extremely like the “don’t you worry about that” phrase used by Sir Les Patterson.
now, being the critic of the medico-technical complex that I am, I didn’t want to link to this Horrific Burns
yet, I am personally aquainted with a wee young lassie, about 2 months of age, who has had
-an MRI
-an EEG
-CSF tapped
-anti-viral course
and been seen by two eye specialists and yet they are still unable to determine why she is unable to see more than contrast. a big sigh indeed; where are all these “tele-medicine” benefits we learn of in the MSM propaganda? likely she will have to go to Starship next, while Tony’s royally shafting the health consumer.
hey, you’re from outer space where they have all those teccy shape-shifter doo dads; can you, or Draco, or RedLogix, or Lynn, or the Viper, or anybody with some experience in these matters advise some-one back from the other side of minimum specs
-processor speed
-Hard drive storage
-RAM
-Vid cards
to run a couple of programs simultaneously, switch effortlessly between say 5 open tabs, maximise fibre potential, optimise viewing of streamed audio / visual and to interface with freeview / satellite tv.
(just looking for an un-vested opinion)
Response will be greatly appreciated and chocolate fish (slightly melted) will be apportioned 😀
thanx felix; i realise it was a fairly lame query; was just a little overwhelmed and did not want to waste what little income I have; seems 2.8Ghz, 2GB RAM, 500GB HD a few drops in the ocean to start with?
Get more RAM, it’s probably the best “bang for buck” upgrade you can do in most cases.
Just remember to check whether your running a 32bit or 64bit operating system; a 32bit system will only make use of 3GB of RAM no matter how much you put in.
Dude. Yeah the problem is the “Windows” tax where you have to pay good money to get the basic operating system.
The one to get, if you have to buy a copy, is Windows 7 Home 64bit, someone with a student ID may be able to get you an academic price on it, and sometimes the “OEM” price is cheap too. Avoid that frakking loser Windows 8 “let’s pretend your desktop PC is an Android Tablet” shite whatever you do.
You have a mate who can screw the thing together for you?
If so this is my suggestion (check for latest prices with pricespy.co.nz):
AMD “Trinity” processor A8 5600K: budget level quad core with good built in graphics ability. ~$150 This quad core is definitely slower than the Intel quad cores but its pretty fast, cheaper than the Intels and its graphics are also much faster…for casual 3D gaming haha
ASRock FM2A75M-DGS micro-ATX form factor motherboard ~$98
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1866MHz ~$120 total (in this case, for better performance you want 2 x 4GB RAM chips as they give you twin lane communication speed, not 1 x 8GB chip which gives you the same amount of RAM but just at single lane communication speed)
IN WIN EM020 Black uATX USB3.0 Mini Tower Case with 400W Power Supply built in (insufficient for heavy duty gaming if you want to include a big discrete gaming video card but certainly fine otherwise) ~$115 I think the case will fit in a 2nd and 3rd HDD if you need more storage room (you’ll have to check if the PSU has the cables to power them up but it should do)
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD10EZEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA3 ~$100 If you’re going to store a lot (a lot) of video, photos etc then a second 2TB WD Caviar Green internal HDD would be a go. If you’re going to store relatively little, but want very fast performance, forget the traditional HDD and go an Intel 335 SSD (180 GB capacity) for ~$230 is the go.
A front case fan for about $15 would be useful if the room you run the PC in gets warm, otherwise I wouldn’t bother unless you are planning to run the machine full tilt fairly often.
Uh no idea about the Freeview stuff (I presume you get an add in tuner card for it???), but this 3.6 GHz quad core box with 8GB RAM will run nice and fast for all home uses. $600 in parts will give you a box faster than most $900 boxes you get from the main street retailers. Oh yeah you still have to add the windows tax on top of that.
Also do double check that all the parts make sense, I sorta did this in a rush, but should be good.
I’m not a technical, though I did spec, source and build my own desktop unit a year and a half ago.
I’ve had no issues with my quad core i7 2600 using onboard graphics (no vid card) and stock fan, 8gb ram and 500gb hard drive.
Using my processor hungry music software, it handles all I throw at it and never at more than 20% cpu usage.
An i5 would be the minimum I’d suggest, but I’m like Mel.
thnx. u hav restored my faith in extra-terrestrials; an i5 was recommended as a start, guess i’ll go for more ram and dual-core if drachmas permit (what is the speed of your processor?)
If you don’t need/want a 64bit operating system, don’t waste money on lots of ram. 32 bit systems can’t access over 3. something of it, so more than 4gb (2×2) is a waste.
I believe i7s are quad core with hyperthreading (8 cores), i5s are quad core with no HT and i3s are dual core.
My chip runs at 3.4, which most of the range seems to run at, or around.
thanx. see i learned somethings elses important.all ya gotta do is ask the right OP 😉
(reasons i put it out there were, a) gotta fire old gertie up and go into town see a man abouta doo-dad, and then b) he’s a gonna try’n upgrade me to some fancy veehickle I don’t rightly need). Now, ise canna find me one on that new-fangled Trades-whatsa-me-callit, where they done try and sell yoo all sorts of purty trimmins.
Window shop online and take the sales sharks out of the equation and then when you’ve found what you want at your price, take the magical mystery tour.
Win patrol which is a nice tidy program that warns you if start page is being high jacked or things are being added to start menu. Also allows you to easily view and control what is in your start menu, what’s running now etc.
I’ve likely got a copy of Office 97 sitting in the garage somewhere if you are interested in it for free. It just might take a bit of finding and I’m away for the next few weeks but happy to dig it out.
Yep. Most of the actual benefit is in the memory addressing. I also notice a difference between 32 bit and 64 bit when you get more cores.
And to actually get that benefit – use linux. Windows just keeps putting more junk on board until it is effectively the same speed as a old pentium. I just compiled a Qt4/boost program on 32bit windows MSVC2008 on windows7, and it took about 4x as long as g++ did on a 32bit ubuntu 12.04. And I’m not going to even mention the time it took to startup and shut the system down. I’m tempted to pop VC2005 on that system because I’d swear that was faster?
But seriously look at putting in even a 32-64GB SSD as a boot. Now those things seriously kickarse for boot and accessing system programs. Too expensive for terabyte storage, but ok for planting the OS.
About the only thing that windows is useful for these days is games. I’m too serious for games… 0ad starts…
In terms of RAM, you’re going to want a minimum of 4gb. If you’re not planning on playing games, then 4gb is probably fine for your purposes. RAM is pretty cheap though so getting more isn’t a huge imposition.
cool link Lanth. I will be well armed with that. Thanks. much appreciated. puts components in perspective. sigh. such a learning curve. oh well, coulda stayed out-of-it 🙂 you guys, wotta ya like aye, wotta ya like. Excellent thinkers, thats what you are like (kinds and all that)
There’s a black cop I remember from a few years back who won’t be cheering either. His two white colleagues beat the shit out of him while he was undercover.
Then there’s the Boston cops who were dealing in drugs……
And you somehow think that Boston cops are respected more than ours.
Yeah we have some crap with our cops as well but it ain’t nothing like the Boston people have to put up with.
You keep trying to tell us how great the US is and how shit we are. I don’t know who you are trying to convince or why you bother but you are not convincing me.
“Yeah we have some crap with our cops as well but it ain’t nothing like the Boston people have to put up with.”
You might be right Ssssmith, but Rickards and co, as well as some of the stories that have come out of places like Dunedin are pretty damning indictments of the NZ police.
And it’s not like the cops here aren’t being used to spy on Maori, activists etc.
It’s not just that we have some crap cops (and some good ones). It’s that the police force culture is very corrupt in some ways (Rickards etc) and highly unethical in others (Tuhoe raids)
I certainly wasn’t suggesting our cops are all sweet and sugar coated – clearly there are issues from time to time and no question there has been a degree of racism amongst some police for ever.
I’m always cautious in including Rickards in that group due to the testimony that he had a broken leg in plaster at the time of the particular incident most refer to. It was something that was quite provable and he has always maintained he wasn’t there.
The others no question about their abysmal behaviour and abuse of power.
The abuse of power is of course sometimes political as was seen with the use of Maori police at Bastion Point. There’s times when you (generic) need to look beyond the individual police or the police culture.
“Inland Revenue is not ruling out the possibility of a cyber-attack after it wrongly sent emails to 47 people yesterday.
The error has prompted the department to shut down all inbound emails while it investigates whether it is the latest Government agency to be hit with a privacy breach.”
I have a very wide screen and truly magnificent lunar travel thanks Marty. But just who were those folk down by the 3rd crater from the right who were waving white flags?
I’m not sure if this John Armstrong opinion piece in the Herald got linked to here or not, but I found the first 10 comments interesting.
Armstrong discusses the sloppiness of John Key’s having given four different answers to the question “How did you get Ian Fletcher’s number?” and the ammunition it gave to the opposition.
“Politicians – certainly not Prime Ministers – are not supposed to behave in this fashion. They are supposed to have one story and stick to it come hell or high water.”
It’s not the failure to be truthful that disappoints Armstrong, but the failure to simply stick to one story. He concludes with a “but who really cares how he got the number anyway,” line.
Of the first ten comments, two agreed with the ‘who gives a toss’ line, one bemoaned who embarrasing our political stories were in general, one lamented Armstrongs propensity to claim that he knows how ‘most people’ feel about a given issue, and the other six pointed out that the issue is not how he got the number, it’s the lying about it – the chronic and consistent failure of credibility.
What interested me was the relative ‘for and against’ likes in the comments. The two comments agreeing that they couldn’t give a toss got a total of 174 likes, the six comments disagreeing and calling out Key as a liar got a total of 1,947 likes.
This has given me hope that John Key has indeed jumped the shark.
It’s important to remember that he most likely doesn’t care beyond some in the moment ego bruising. He’s done the job he was sent in to do, and he can still do alot of damage on the way out.
Absolutely, I’ve been saying here for a while that as soon as his asset sales job is done, Key is off to his next corporate money making scheme with an “Ackshully New Zilund, I’ve been great.”
I’m just glad the tide is finally turning on his public perception. Once you see the tranzrail eyes, you realise that that’s all there is. He’s not a leader with our best interests at heart, he’s a corporate manager, tasked with making sure the sleepy hobbits don’t blink while he smiles and waves and sells our country to the highest bidder.
Reinforces the separation of government and the courts as being absolutely essential.
Now if we could just ensure that the separation of government and parliament was more defined so that select committees weren’t a sham and urgency wasn’t abused.
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Sleep mode is a power-saving state that allows your computer to quickly resume operation without having to boot up from scratch. This can be useful if you need to step away from your computer for a short period of time but don’t want to shut it down completely. There are ...
Introduction Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) has revolutionized the field of translation by harnessing the power of technology to assist human translators in their work. This innovative approach combines specialized software with human expertise to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of translations. In this comprehensive article, we will delve into the ...
In today’s digital age, mobile devices have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Among the vast array of portable computing options available, iPads and tablet computers stand out as two prominent contenders. While both offer similar functionalities, there are subtle yet significant differences between these two devices. This ...
A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to carry out a set of instructions. The basic components of a computer are the processor, memory, storage, input devices, and output devices. The Processor The processor, also known as the central processing unit (CPU), is the brain of the ...
Voice Memos is a convenient app on your iPhone that allows you to quickly record and store audio snippets. These recordings can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as taking notes, capturing ideas, or recording interviews. While you can listen to your voice memos on your iPhone, you ...
Laptop screens are essential for interacting with our devices and accessing information. However, when lines appear on the screen, it can be frustrating and disrupt productivity. Understanding the underlying causes of these lines is crucial for finding effective solutions. Types of Screen Lines Horizontal lines: Also known as scan ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
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 ...
A new exhibition in Wellington showcases the faces behind your local goods and services. Back in 1977, when I was a fine arts student at the University of Canterbury, I took a series of photographs of Christchurch shopkeepers. The photos were for a calendar – a project for my end ...
Toomaj and his resistance to tyranny through his songs have become an icon for the youth of Iran, so his sentence has hit the nation hard. Toomaj Salehi is not the first artist to pay the price for standing with the people. ...
My cousin Dylan and I spotted these big eels under the bridge that summer. We watched them lounging under the dark weed, facing into the flow of water, their mouths frozen open. Dylan and I couldn’t stop thinking about those eels. The night we went down to the creek, we ...
Newsroom, home of satire. My long-running weekly satirical series The Secret Diary has moved to Newsroom and will appear every Saturday, with Victor Billot’s wildly popular satirical Odes continuing to appear every Sunday. Diaries, Odes – while serious political columnists toil at meaningful opinions and stroke their chins to an ...
Tara Ward unravels the many nuanced layers of a cartoon about talking dogs.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. It’s not often an episode of a children’s cartoon has adults sobbing into their sleeves, but that’s exactly what happened this week when ...
Working as a doctor in developing countries to help communities achieve better health outcomes is nothing short of a life goal for Jessica Tater. The University of Otago medical student has her sights firmly set on joining the international humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) when she qualifies ...
There’s an island in the far reaches of Auckland’s territory, sitting off the tip of the Coromandel Peninsula, 30 minutes by air from the city or four hours on the slow boat. Aotea Great Barrier is off-grid, it has a population of fewer than a thousand people … and most ...
Asia Pacific Report An Australian author and advocate, Jim Aubrey, today led a national symbolic one minute’s silence to mark the “blood debt” owed to Papuan allies during the Second World War indigenous resistance against the invading Japanese forces. “A promise to most people is a promise,” Aubrey said in ...
Asia Pacific Report The Freedom Flotilla is ready to sail to Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. All the required paperwork has been submitted to the port authority, and the cargo has been loaded and prepared for the humanitarian trip to the besieged enclave. However, organisers received word of an “administrative ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
The ministers responsible for green-lighting major projects need to be open about potential conflicts of interest, says Transparency International. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Lichen, the first described example of symbiosis.AdeJ Artventure/Shutterstock Once known only to those studying biology, the word symbiosis is now widely used. Symbiosis is the intimate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Hemsley, Head, Childhood Dementia Research Group, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Olena Ivanova/Shutterstock “Childhood” and “dementia” are two words we wish we didn’t have to use together. But sadly, around 1,400 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Whiteford, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The government’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has just published its second report. It was set up by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth in 2022 to provide: ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne The Queensland state election will be held in October. A YouGov poll for The Courier Mail, conducted April 9–17 from a sample ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Naeni, PhD candidate at Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University There’s been much talk in recent months about what a possible second Donald Trump presidency in the United States could mean for Europe, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the ...
A brief round-up of submissions on the controversial proposed law. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week, submissions on the controversial Fast-track Approvals Bill closed just hours after the government released a list of stakeholder organisations who were sent letters advising how they could ...
A poem from Robin Peace’s new collection Detritus of Empire: feather / grass / rock. Cereal giving I see a woman’s hands, see her curious hands break a stalk as she walks through the tall prairie, the savannah, the steppe, wherever it was. See her idly bite the grass that ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)A handsomely produced (debossed cover, lovely ...
The Commissioner's decision validates the longstanding efforts of the local community and ensures that Awataha Marae will be managed to serve the needs of the local community, particularly for hosting tangihanga. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tristan Salles, Associate professor, University of Sydney Examples of Australian landscapes.Unsplash Seventy thousand years ago, the sea level was much lower than today. Australia, along with New Guinea and Tasmania, formed a connected landmass known as Sahul. Around this time – ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Castagna, Lecturer, Creative Writing, Western Sydney University Day Day Market, ParramattaPhoto: Garry Trinh I live on the edge of Parramatta, Australia’s fastest-growing city, on the kind of old-fashioned suburban street that has 1950s fibros constructed in the post-war housing boom, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Ryan, Teaching Fellow in Economics, University of Waikato GettyImagesfatido/Getty Images There is an ongoing global debate over whether the high inflation seen in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic can be lowered without a recession. New Zealand is not ...
The ‘Wicked Game’ heartthrob is in his late 60s now. That didn’t stop him putting on a lively, goofy and very sparkly show. Apart from ‘Wicked Game’, which graces a sultry playlist of mine simply called 💋, my last sustained Chris Isaak listening session took place when I was about ...
Analysis - Two ministers were stripped of portfolios in a warning to Cabinet, drama broke out at the Waitangi Tribunal, and the gang patch ban bill ran into opposition. ...
Tara Ward makes an impassioned plea for some vital pop culture merch. In April 1999, I became obsessed with a new reality television show called Popstars. Every Tuesday night, five strangers transformed into music royalty before my very eyes as Joe, Keri, Carly, Erika and Megan were chosen to form ...
PNG Post-Courier In the early hours of ANZAC Day, aerial photographs captured an impressive gathering of Australians and Papua New Guineans at Isurava in the Northern (Oro) Province. The solemn dawn service yesterday was held at a site steeped in history, where some of the fiercest battles of World War ...
The PSA is shocked that Oranga Tamariki has used the cost cutting drive to downgrade its commitment to Te Ao Māori and remove many specialist Māori roles. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Kemish, Adjunct Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland There can be no more powerful symbol of the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea than the prime ministers of these neighbouring countries walking together on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharon Robinson, Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director of ARC Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF), University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong Andrew Netherwood Over the last 25 years, the ozone hole which forming over Antarctica each spring has started to shrink. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Viktoria Kahui, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Economics, University of Otago Getty Images/Amy Toensing Biodiversity is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. This suggests the ways we currently use to manage our natural environment are failing. One emerging concept focuses on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Colin Bednall, Associate Professor in Management, Swinburne University of Technology marvent/Shutterstock Finding the best person to fill a position can be tough, from drafting a job ad to producing a shortlist of top interview candidates. Employers typically consider information from ...
Wondering where to host your next BYO? Whether its a small gathering or a massive party, we’ve got some recommendations. I was first introduced to the concept of BYOs at Dunedin’s India Gardens, a legendary but sadly defunct establishment, which purveyed enormous quantities of mango chicken to Aotearoa’s drunkest future ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julien Cooper, Honorary Lecturer, Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University Julien Cooper The hyper-arid desert of Eastern Sudan, the Atbai Desert, seems like an unlikely place to find evidence of ancient cattle herders. But in this dry environment, my new ...
The sector says it’s hopeful her replacement Paul Goldsmith will be able to throw it a lifeline, after six months with a minister deemed missing in action, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign ...
The government can't just rely on axing public sector jobs and has to do more to cut spending, says the chief economist at a free market think tank. ...
Rock The Vote NZ, known for its advocacy for minor party unity and its role within the Freedoms NZ Coalition during the 2023 General Election, celebrates this merger as a strategic enhancement of its operational strength and outreach. ...
Nearly everyone has experienced the frustration of something you use breaking and being difficult or expensive to fix. Proposed legislation could change that. It’s been raining on and off all Sunday afternoon but people are lining up outside a building in a corner of Gribblehirst Park in Sandringham, Auckland. In ...
What does a forever relationship look like when you don’t believe in marriage? And how do you celebrate it? This essay is part of our Sunday Essay series, made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.I’m going to do it, right now. I’m going to say ...
The Prime Minister has committed to resuming direct flights to Thailand. But it’s not a promise he will be able to deliver on anytime soon. The post Prime Minister jumps the gun in Thailand appeared first on Newsroom. ...
It’s not that long ago Eliza McCartney was seriously wondering if the Paris Olympics would be her pole vaulting swansong. After years of being hounded by injury after injury, the Rio Olympics bronze medallist was still confident she would compete at her second Olympics in Paris in July, unless something ...
FICTION 1 Take Two by Danielle Hawkins (Allen & Unwin, $36.99) There’s commercial fiction, like this book, and then there’s quality fiction, quality writers, quality literature; the forthcoming Auckland Writers Festival is full of quality, and ReadingRoom has two tickets to give away to the following events: Paul Lynch (Dublin ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 26 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
You can’t have missed the Gallipoli story as the movies, documentaries, essays and books capture what it was like for New Zealand troops in their eight-month campaign on the Peninsula. But this Anzac Day the Auckland War Memorial Museum has published a book that sheds light on a little-known aspect of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra In the free-for-all between the Australian government and Big Tech boss Elon Musk this week, the government had to be on a winner. Most people would have little sympathy with Musk’s vociferous opposition to ...
Asia Pacific Report Chief Mandla Mandela, a member of the National Assembly of South Africa and Nelson Mandela’s grandson, has joined the Freedom Flotilla in istanbul as the ships prepare to sail for Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. Mandela is also the ambassador for the Global Campaign to Return to ...
Pacific Media Watch Journalists who report on environmental issues are encountering growing difficulties in many parts of the world, reports Reporters Without Borders. According to the tally kept by RSF, 200 journalists have been subjected to threats and physical violence, including murder, in the past 10 years because they were ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
ACT's Rural Communities and Veterans spokesman Mark Cameron responds to cancellations and protests of ANZAC Day commemorations in Wellington. He says, "These pitiful attempts to detract from ANZAC Day are not at all indicative of the feelings of mainstream ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
America’s banal and insincere Consoler-in-Chief
President Obama comes to Boston
by BILL VAN AUKEN, 19 April 2013
Three days after the bombing that killed three people and wounded more than 170 at the Boston Marathon, President Barack Obama flew to Boston to deliver a speech at an interfaith service for the victims and survivors.
This marks the fifth time that Obama has delivered such an address following a mass killing, beginning with Fort Hood, Texas in November of 2009 and including Tucson, Arizona in January 2011, Aurora, Colorado in July 2012 and Newtown, Connecticut last December.
The corporate media, which have cynically dubbed Obama the “consoler-in-chief,” hailed his latest speech as “inspiring”, “powerful” and “moving.” It was all they wanted to hear and in no way conflicted with their efforts to frame the events in Boston within the reactionary narrative of the “war on terrorism,” turning them into another justification for war abroad and attacks on democratic rights at home.
In reality, it was painfully evident that Obama was working off of a template, engaged in a national ritual that is utterly routine, banal and insincere.
Almost invariably, he begins these speeches by invoking “scripture.”
“Scripture tells us,” were the first words out of Obama’s mouth after he rose to address the crowd from the pulpit of Boston’s Cathedral of the Holy Cross.
“Scripture tells us, ‘Do not lose heart,’” he began his remarks to a prayer vigil for the 26 victims of the Newtown school massacre.
“Scripture says that ‘He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and….
Read more…
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/04/19/pers-a19.html
So what should Obama have said?
Post up your own speech for comparison.
Otherwise it’s just looks like rage.
Read the article. Carefully.
If you can’t post what OB should have said, we’ll just call it morning rage and move on.
No, we’ll just call your little tantrum typical laziness on your part, and move on.
The article was not criticizing Obama’s anodyne words; he is defintely the go-to guy when it comes to sonorous and content-free oratory. He’s unimprovable, in fact.
The article criticizes the role the media plays in his sentimentalizing and politicizing of these tragedies.
You would realize that if you actually read it.
“No, we’ll just call your little tantrum”
There is no hint of tantrum in any of my posts, unlike your last one. I’m way too accomplished for that.
“You would realize that if you actually read it.”
Best way one can make a point, and it’s really easily, is if you actually post it in the first instance.
“typical laziness on your part”
We’ll find out if that cap fits, when some one fetches it for me.
For some reason I can’t edit “and it’s really easily” to read ‘and it’s really easy’
Alien, you have to read the article very carefully. On mushrooms.
“The article criticizes the role the media plays in his sentimentalizing and politicizing of these tragedies.
You would realize that if you actually read it.”
Or you could simply have introduced your comment with that one sentence explanation of what you thought was important about the article.
I find many of the links without commentary interesting, but it’s not laziness that stops me from reading all of them. I mostly come here for the interaction with other people and to hear their views on current events, politics etc.
Fair point, weka and Al1en. I try not to post too often without some kind of preliminary comment; 1.) I don’t want to bomb people with excess articles, and 2.) I don’t want another one-month ban.
“I don’t want to bomb people with articles.”
I renamed my music pc’s recycle bin ‘The hurt locker’ and it retaliated by changing my login to ‘V for vendetta’ 😆
What the article shows is the Obama is a cynical bastard using biblical quotes explain away the cause of ‘terror’ as ‘evil’. What he doesn’t do is what Lincoln did i.e. draw the conclusion that that ‘evil’ is an answer to ‘evil’. In Lincoln’s case slavery was the evil and the civil war the answer.
What should Obama have said? Nothing different since today the US President has to justify the ‘war on terror’ for the very survival of US imperialism. But assuming that freed from this requirement, and that Obama had Lincoln’s grasp on reality, he would recognise that the ‘terror’ that the US visits on the world in the name of ‘freedom’ is imperialism – the modern equivalent evil of slavery – and that the ‘counter-terror’ that causes all these acts of mass murder, is part of the answer.
Of course coming from the Socialist Equality Party, the author stops short of spelling out what would be necessary to answer imperialism fully i.e. not the mayhem of individual mass shootings which are disorganised and counter-productive (eg citizens of Boston wildly cheering the police for dealing to the biblical ‘evil’) but the organised working class forming a popular militia and overthrowing the imperialist state.
In one of the more cynical moments of Obama’s speech, he invoked a widely circulated image of the youngest of those killed in the Boston bombings, eight-year-old Martin Richard, holding a poster upon which he had written, “No more hurting people. Peace.” Obama repeated the phrase twice.
The day before he came to Boston, US drones fired missiles into a Pakistani village leveling a house and killing five people inside. Seven others were wounded. On the same day, a drone strike in Yemen demolished a car, killing its five occupants. As is well known, Obama personally selects assassination victims and has arrogated to himself the power to order the deaths of American citizens without charges or trials. The young boy’s plea reads like an indictment of the US president himself.
Thanks M! I read an analysis of O’s speeches when he first was elected tying the format of the speeches to psychological tactics to disengage critical thinking. Fascinating stuff.
From memory the scripture part of it wasn’t incorporated in his earlier speeches (at least not as a key feature right at the start of the speech).
A Contender for Dumbest Statement Ever by Amnesty USA?
by JOE EMERSBERGER at Apr 19, 2013
Amnesty USA has called on the Venezuelan government to eliminate post-election violence. The small matter that the violence has been directed at government supporters was comically evaded.
Showing off its command of the obvious, Amnesty USA stated: “Violent incidents around Venezuela following last Sunday’s presidential elections are only likely to increase unless the authorities carry out prompt, effective investigations and bring those responsible to justice”
That recent deaths strongly implicate opposition supporters should have been impossible to miss, even for Amnesty USA, given statements put out by Henrique Capriles, the candidate who lost the presidential election to Maduro. Reuters reported that Capriles said: “To all my followers … this is a peaceful quarrel. Whoever is involved in violence is not part of this project, is not with me,…. It is doing me harm.”
Capriles cancelled a march on the National Electoral Council (CNE) alleging that the government would “infiltrate” it with violent saboteurs.
HRW put out a similarly fatuous statement condemning Maduro for saying he would forbid the opposition march that Capriles ended up cancelling.
When it suits them, the human rights industry pretends that governments the USA dislikes are omnipotent – that they exert complete control of opponents and supporters alike and can “guarantee” security for all without the slightest infringement of civil liberties. Weeks prior to the US perpetrated coup in Haiti in 2004, Amnesty and Human Rights Watch, put out statements demanding that Jean Bertrand Aristide, who was just about to be kidnaped by US troops, guarantee the security of his opponents – including people financing terrorists to overthrow him.
Amnesty USA refuses to make obvious demands of its own government – demands like “disclose who you are funding and working with”, and “stop trying to overthrow democratically elected governments”. That would actually be useful to promoting human rights rather than US-backed coups. That is expecting too much of Amnesty when it cannot even recognize Bradley Manning as a Prisoner of Conscience, or acknowledge that Saudi armed rebels in Syria will inevitably commit atrocities.
Stupidity is not actually the problem as Chris Hedges made clear when he resigned from PEN after Suzanne Nossel, recently head of Amnesty USA, was appointed to run that group: “Nossel’s relentless championing of preemptive war—which under international law is illegal—as a State Department official along with her callous disregard for Israeli mistreatment of the Palestinians and her refusal as a government official to denounce the use of torture and use of extra-judicial killings, makes her utterly unfit to lead any human rights organization, especially one that has global concerns.”
It should not be up to Chris Hedges alone to denounce the “hijacking of human rights organizations to promote imperial projects”.
http://www.zcommunications.org/a-contender-for-dumbest-statement-ever-by-amnesty-usa-by-joe-emersberger
It is a shame to see Amnesty International damaging their brand like this.
When she has a moment to spare from her humane work, that great humanitarian Suzanne Nossel might reflect, in the small hours of the morning, that the word AMNESTY anagramizes into NASTY ME.
Amnesty has had a pretty damaged brand for a long time now. Their insistence that the oppressed remain pacifists and refusal to take on many cases have ended up with them supporting the oppressor, as in Venezuela today. I haven’t had much time for them since they refused to support Marx Jones in 1981.
Interesting article in the Guardian regarding the many internet wannabee CSIers who got it so badly wrong trying to parse the various photos of the Boston bombing:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/19/boston-bombing-suspects-reddit-social-media
Wonder if these basement CSIers were as studiously grim and unsmiling as those fantasy CSI “experts” on those hopelessly dull network shows….
http://www.dnatestingblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/gtl_csi_effect.jpg
Yet you know the *authorities* loved the fact they were able to see this happen, by that I mean, getting the masses all bagging on eachother while searching for, *the enemy*
Obamas citizen security force he called for, seems to be rolling out, no dounbt helped by *friendly establishment* agencies all playing their role!
That and the resultant , marshall law in place in Boston!
Oh, and don’t forget to look into the regions history/present where the two (soon to be both dead, conveniently, yet again), *accused* are from, and what else is happening is that part of the world.
Great result for the establishments propgation of fear, violence, troops on the street, unwarranted searched of houses et al!
Freedom costs a buck O five!
Yeah, we all hate it when social experiments go wrong.
Who are you representing, exactly , other than yourself, by using *we all* ?
Strange question! I’m part of the NWO conspiracy, muzza. But, hey, you know that already, so it’s weird that you ask, given we’re both in the same black ops unit. If you’ve blown our cover, Obama is going to be well pissed.
Alex Jones will set you free!!
Oh, and who is this Marshall Law that we hear about so much?
Nice guy. I played water polo with his brother Johnny in in high school.
I fought johnny once, but the Law won.
😀
Predictive got me there, poor proofing on my part.
As for Alex Jones, personally I don’t use his site, I’ve had that conversation with people here before, could have even been you, Murray!
DON’T BREAK COVER!!! DON’T BREAK COVER!!! YOU’LL GET US ALL LIQUIDATED!!!
Fusion centers will be working overtime taking it all in….the baseless allegations will be used as “proof” at a later date no doubt.
Another reason to be thankful to live in a small backwater country.
What does Sandy Hook and the Boston marathon have in common?
http://i.imgur.com/WedLF8K.jpg
Sad crazy people trying to make out both are a US Government hoax?
BELIEVE IT OR NOT!
Kim Hill pronounces Michael Burleigh “balanced”
National Radio, Saturday 20 April 2013
Kim Hill is a very smart and well read person. I was concerned, therefore, to hear her speak positively, a few minutes ago during an interview with Professor John Carson Lennox, of a book by the notoriously unhinged Michael Burleigh. She gave the impression that Burleigh was “balanced”. Any sane person who has managed to struggle through some of his insane books or articles would dispute that.
While it is clear that she reads a great many books, comments like that about someone as notorious as Michael Burleigh lead one to wonder if she really does read all of them thoroughly.
yes, Mozza, I listened to that interview (was gonna link it) 🙂 and I was disappointed with Kim.
Anyway the discussion with Prof Lennox was a fascinating in-depth one. Interesting that the Prof believes that the Resurrection is proof of God. Without the Resurrection presumably the God would become god. But of course there is only the Bible to offer “proof.”
“John Carson Lennox is a British mathematician and philosopher of science who is Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford, and Fellow in Mathematics and Philosophy of Science at Green Templeton College, Oxford University. He is the author of a number of books, including and God’s Undertaker: Has Science Buried God? (Lion Books, ISBN: 978-0-82547-912-0) and Gunning for God: Why the New Atheists are Missing the Target (Lion Books, ISBN: 978-0745953229).”
Not up yet for replay.
Podcast re Lennox http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/sat/sat-20130420-0815-john_lennox_maths_science_and_god-048.mp3
Michelle Hewitson on Susan “Yeah I am” / “No I [ain’t]!” Devoy this morning
She is patently aggrieved that people have made up their minds about her and that they think all she is is “someone who wriggles around a little racket” and “the assumption is that I’m white and that I’m right wing.” Well, she is, isn’t she? “Yeah, I am. But I’m not so right wing and I’m not so conservative.” She says she’s worked with disadvantaged people and done a lot of work for Maori organisations. “And they say you’re as Maori as you feel.” But it just sounds daft when she says it. Does she think she’s Maori? “No I don’t!”
Yeah, her appointment remains the most ridiculous out of all of the cronies so far this year.
What would Jon Stewart say about this if he were commenting on NZ politics instead of the US?
It dawned on us during our Friday evening dinner that when Natz talk about jobs, they are really talking about their own jobs and their cronies’ . . . . .
jackie blue
susan devoy
ian fletcher
and coming up next,
absentee cabinet minister tim groser
(thanks, working taxpayers, for funding his swanning around internationally to secure that job he wants in august): http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10878297
*feel free to add to this list
p.s. I’d like to see the opposition parties campaigning to clean up the shit on the government benches.
Yep, National are only about themselves. It’s a pity that such a large part of the population haven’t woken up to that yet.
A large part of the population, believe they have an idea about issues, the drivers, and hence in their wisdom, decide to vote, in a system which will strangling them, and removing any future for their children etc.
Most people are clueless, which is what happens when lies are the SOP over extended period of time, the lies in turn dumb them down, and what you have is what we are seeing played out in front of us!
You may like this
http://truth.co.nz/knucklegate-the-media-labour-and-cronyism/
Whailoil????
Yep.That was really inter….zzzzzzzzzzzzz
Would he able to stop laughing long enough to say anything?
😈
I did laugh though when she said she got rung and told she should apply for the job but couldn’t remember who called her.
She sounded so Prime Mnisterial she did.
She is patently aggrieved that people have made up their minds about her and that they think all she is is “someone who wriggles around a little racket” and “the assumption is that I’m white and that I’m right wing.” Well, she is, isn’t she?
Susan Devoy is a patently stupid woman. Helen Kelly’s assessment is spot on: Devoy’s appointment is part of a deliberate strategy by the government, i.e. Steven Joyce, to denigrate and lessen the authority of the Race Relations Commission.
Someone asked me if I wanted a dog on Thursday. Lovely mid sized cutie, fully trained and good with kids and came with all it’s doggie stuff.
The thing is I really do want a dog that needs a forever home <3
The home or the dog
But….I have learned there are people in the world who can have dogs, and those who can’t and I most definitely can not own a dog unless I own a house to go with it. There is no way that I can afford to further disadvantage myself in the cray-cray Wellington rental market by having a dog (the cat I took in from a friend who moved is bad enough).
Landlords don’t like dogs or their owners and will pick an animal free tenant whenever they can so it would be cruel to take in the dog and eventually end up having to make the choice between re-homing my new furry baby or becoming homeless myself.
I wish someone had explained all this to me when I was younger.
Don’t have much time for dogs in cities. Or rather, not much time for their owners handling of their dogs. So much dog shit on the street, barking dogs in our hood BOWOO BOWOWOWOWO waking everyone up, New Zealanders are bloody boofheads when it comes to dog responsibility around others. Neanderthals (actually, I bet neanderthals never put up with such shit from dog owners).
Looks like the second bombing suspect has been found, shots, tear gas and an ambo heading into the locked down area.
Quick work by the US authorities. Seems like the bad guys were total amateur hour. Did they not have an out after the op? They just stayed in the neighbourhood? What were they going to do, just turn back up to classes as normal next week?
And from Kyrzygstan…this is going to be interesting.
Anyone know what the motive was?
All I know is that the dorm mates of one suspect say he was an ordinary guy they hung out with, ate with, and played sport with.
Apparently the suspect turned up to classes as normal after the bombing and even went to a party, even as he must have known that FBI CCTV footage was appearing on air. This is frakking weird.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/04/19/bombing-suspect-attended-umass-dartmouth-prompting-school-closure-college-friend-shocked-charge-boston-marathon-bomber/8gbczia4qBiWMAP0SQhViO/story.html
From kyrzygstan? Well best we invade pakistan then. Or, no, afghanistan. Hang on, we already done that. I know.. Iranistan, let’s get those bastards!
And the two earliest known suspects are brothers.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/04/19/older-bombing-suspect-may-have-had-child-with-rhode-island-woman/EExLtob82SMvdsCmxjtPuI/story.html
Here’s a photo of one of the suspects accepting a Golden Gloves boxing trophy in 2010.
lol
Send them back to Africa.
lolz
“Seems like the bad guys were total amateur hour.”
Ideal patsies.
Invade Kazakhstan immediately, I say.
Radio, With Pictures
Chechnya actually, so it’s already gotten interesting
A senior politician, unbelievable.
https://twitter.com/GrahamBlog/statuses/325348075197583361
https://twitter.com/GrahamBlog/statuses/325346404644048897
Crikey. It’s just like kiwiblog
The comments are interesting. 4:1 to say that the suspect is a US citizen who should not be stripped of their constitutional rights.
Oh dear.
http://www.mzv.cz/washington/en/czech_u_s_relations/news/statement_of_the_ambassador_of_the_czech.html
The Czech Republic and Chechnya are two very different entities – the Czech Republic is a Central European country; Chechnya is a part of the Russian Federation.
meh, it’s clear that all the -stan’s are terrorist countries no?
Let’s pray that will not include anything to do with metropolitan or even Manhattan.
Seems he’s in the boat.
https://twitter.com/TimWilliamsCBS/status/325399138139271168/photo/1
well, according to the nice policeman on Campbell Live, the arrogance of motorists cutting into queues is growing…
Blessed are the merciful
for they will be shown mercy
not likely to be the wisest, or the richest, yet
a man who has not the wherewithal to be bountiful or liberal
may be truly merciful.
partake of the afflictions of our brethren
have compassion on the souls of others
pity the ignorant and instruct them,
the careless, and warn them
snatch the lost as brands out of a burning forge
for doing good is one of the most purest and refined delights
it is more blessed to give than receive
for with the merciful God will show himself merciful
the most charitable and merciful cannot pretend to merit
next follows the pure in heart
…let me tell you a story about the Joker
…and the thief in the night
Well done to the Boston Police for capturing the second suspect. Hats off to them.
Captured alive. Which means the perp lost his nerve late in the piece.
Fuck’s sake, CV, he’s 19 and we have no fucking idea why the bombings took place. It’s a bit early in the piece to be getting all smug about how un-hardcore a suspect is, don’t you think?
The family members of of Martin Richard, Lingzi Lu, Krystle Campbell and Officer Sean Collier are glad that he has been caught and will face justice.
well let’s see if the US applies constitutional justice or mob justice.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/325399795051147264
fundamentally, across the ditch, “where the bloody hell are they?
Australia is ahead of NZ in the sold out sense, so this is no surprise from them!
War/Terror/*Intelligence* – BIG BUSINESS.
Gotta control the worlds population somehow, and this along with the monetary supply monopoly (aka the central banking system), is how its done!
I see and hear the *drift” muzza
Martin Richard had something to say.
You know, your professions of concern for that little boy would carry some weight if you were not on record applauding the killing of hundreds of little boys and girls in Gaza.
..o’rly ..and where and what did I applaud…?
I think he was replying to Brett.
I think he’s talking to Brett Dale.
Yeah, having a re-read he probably was
.
If so, apologies Morrissey
That’s okay, joe. I wasn’t aiming at you, but our confused friend Brett Dale.
Just making an observation QoT. And 19 year olds destroy tanks and launch bombs all the time.
We need to carefully consider a couple of pertinent questions: 1.) Why is there a TANK on the scene? 2.) Who is in the wrong: the soldier inside the tank or the peasants trying to repel the tank?
No CV, you were being a dick.
Are you saying that 19 year old soldiers who don’t die ‘lose their nerve’?
Frankly, I don’t give a shit. David Frum, George Bush’s speech writer who coined the axis of evil phrase made the same point you made. So that’s the company you’re in.
I think you might be reading far too much into CV’s comments there, but there is no equivalence between a nineteen year old soldier and a nineteen year old terrorist.
Perspective.
https://twitter.com/DougSaunders/status/325342086293508096/photo/1
oooo, a few anarchist threats in there joe; Excellent link. I heard recently from the Sky that the Feds see the Earth Liberation Front (The Elves) as their number 1 targets of attention. btw, do you think that there has been an a-typical frequency of large earthquakes just recently; off Japan, now China…
anyway
more Police And Thieves ies
Recent major quake, Iran/Pakistan border
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/457788/20130416/iran-pakistan-earthquake-21-dead-death-toll.htm
Wonder what their definitions of ecoterrorism and anarchoterrorism are. Or even right wing (I assume it included attacks on abortion providers).
The following clarification needs to be read by listeners to NewstalkZB, the hosts of NewstalkZB, Stephen Franks, Jordan Williams, Neville “Breivik” Gibson, Garth “Gaga” George, Christine “Spankin'” Rankin, Brett Dale and any other bewildered souls out there….
Statement of the Ambassador of the Czech Republic on the Boston terrorist attack
19.04.2013 / 21:27
As many I was deeply shocked by the tragedy that occurred in Boston earlier this month. It was a stark reminder of the fact that any of us could be a victim of senseless violence anywhere at any moment.
As more information on the origin of the alleged perpetrators is coming to light, I am concerned to note in the social media a most unfortunate misunderstanding in this respect. The Czech Republic and Chechnya are two very different entities – the Czech Republic is a Central European country; Chechnya is a part of the Russian Federation.
As the President of the Czech Republic Miloš Zeman noted in his message to President Obama, the Czech Republic is an active and reliable partner of the United States in the fight against terrorism. We are determined to stand side by side with our allies in this respect, there is no doubt about that.
Petr Gandalovič
Ambassador of the Czech Republic
http://www.mzv.cz/washington/en/czech_u_s_relations/news/statement_of_the_ambassador_of_the_czech.html
See also….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4OakqPbUj0
The main people who need to read this clarification is the Pentagon…you know, so they don’t accidentally invade Iran.
Nice one, Viper. You are now on the Christmas card list.
By the way, what do you think the Czech ambassador means when he insists that his country is an “active and reliable” partner of the United States? Does that just mean they support the U.S. in its anti-democracy shenanigans at the U.N.? I was also amused by the tag at the end of the following assurance: “We are determined to stand side by side with our allies in this respect, there is no doubt about that.” That sounds extremely like the “don’t you worry about that” phrase used by Sir Les Patterson.
I presume it’s because the Czechs are about to join NATO.
And what about their Warsaw Pact obligations?!?!????!?!?!??!?
more on Key’s legacy (the former V.C Waikato, must read te Standard)
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10878341
McDonalds are lovin’it though, John
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10878531
Re Maccas
Think about that for a bit.
WTF is a company taking out a loan to pay dividends?
now, being the critic of the medico-technical complex that I am, I didn’t want to link to this
Horrific Burns
yet, I am personally aquainted with a wee young lassie, about 2 months of age, who has had
-an MRI
-an EEG
-CSF tapped
-anti-viral course
and been seen by two eye specialists and yet they are still unable to determine why she is unable to see more than contrast. a big sigh indeed; where are all these “tele-medicine” benefits we learn of in the MSM propaganda? likely she will have to go to Starship next, while Tony’s royally shafting the health consumer.
Great to see the people of boston cheering on their police force, instead of wearing FTP teeshirts, like the boyracers do here.
Feed The People? Free The Protesters?
File Transfer Protocol.
It’s probably something to do with Kim Dotcom.
yay for unionised civil servants.
“instead of wearing FTP teeshirts”
Fuck any arsehole bully who pushes little girls faces into the ground, I say.
hey, you’re from outer space where they have all those teccy shape-shifter doo dads; can you, or Draco, or RedLogix, or Lynn, or the Viper, or anybody with some experience in these matters advise some-one back from the other side of minimum specs
-processor speed
-Hard drive storage
-RAM
-Vid cards
to run a couple of programs simultaneously, switch effortlessly between say 5 open tabs, maximise fibre potential, optimise viewing of streamed audio / visual and to interface with freeview / satellite tv.
(just looking for an un-vested opinion)
Response will be greatly appreciated and chocolate fish (slightly melted) will be apportioned 😀
guess that’s a no then…
So many variables.
eg “run a couple of programs simultaneously” could be anything from Minesweeper and Solitaire all the way to Final Cut Pro and Abbleton Live.
Do the “5 open tabs” have online games and videos loading or are they text pages?
You’d have to be pretty specific to get any really useful advice beyond “get as much ram, processing and hard drive space as you can afford”.
thanx felix; i realise it was a fairly lame query; was just a little overwhelmed and did not want to waste what little income I have; seems 2.8Ghz, 2GB RAM, 500GB HD a few drops in the ocean to start with?
Get more RAM, it’s probably the best “bang for buck” upgrade you can do in most cases.
Just remember to check whether your running a 32bit or 64bit operating system; a 32bit system will only make use of 3GB of RAM no matter how much you put in.
edit: listen to the voices 🙂
ran out of edit time: yet “more RAM, more RAM”, the voices in my head keep calling…they keep calling 😀
Dude. Yeah the problem is the “Windows” tax where you have to pay good money to get the basic operating system.
The one to get, if you have to buy a copy, is Windows 7 Home 64bit, someone with a student ID may be able to get you an academic price on it, and sometimes the “OEM” price is cheap too. Avoid that frakking loser Windows 8 “let’s pretend your desktop PC is an Android Tablet” shite whatever you do.
You have a mate who can screw the thing together for you?
If so this is my suggestion (check for latest prices with pricespy.co.nz):
AMD “Trinity” processor A8 5600K: budget level quad core with good built in graphics ability. ~$150 This quad core is definitely slower than the Intel quad cores but its pretty fast, cheaper than the Intels and its graphics are also much faster…for casual 3D gaming haha
ASRock FM2A75M-DGS micro-ATX form factor motherboard ~$98
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1866MHz ~$120 total (in this case, for better performance you want 2 x 4GB RAM chips as they give you twin lane communication speed, not 1 x 8GB chip which gives you the same amount of RAM but just at single lane communication speed)
IN WIN EM020 Black uATX USB3.0 Mini Tower Case with 400W Power Supply built in (insufficient for heavy duty gaming if you want to include a big discrete gaming video card but certainly fine otherwise) ~$115 I think the case will fit in a 2nd and 3rd HDD if you need more storage room (you’ll have to check if the PSU has the cables to power them up but it should do)
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD10EZEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA3 ~$100 If you’re going to store a lot (a lot) of video, photos etc then a second 2TB WD Caviar Green internal HDD would be a go. If you’re going to store relatively little, but want very fast performance, forget the traditional HDD and go an Intel 335 SSD (180 GB capacity) for ~$230 is the go.
A front case fan for about $15 would be useful if the room you run the PC in gets warm, otherwise I wouldn’t bother unless you are planning to run the machine full tilt fairly often.
Uh no idea about the Freeview stuff (I presume you get an add in tuner card for it???), but this 3.6 GHz quad core box with 8GB RAM will run nice and fast for all home uses. $600 in parts will give you a box faster than most $900 boxes you get from the main street retailers. Oh yeah you still have to add the windows tax on top of that.
Also do double check that all the parts make sense, I sorta did this in a rush, but should be good.
“hey, you’re from outer space where they have all those teccy shape-shifter doo dads”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMWDPJymksI
“-processor speed
-Hard drive storage
-RAM
-Vid cards”
I’m not a technical, though I did spec, source and build my own desktop unit a year and a half ago.
I’ve had no issues with my quad core i7 2600 using onboard graphics (no vid card) and stock fan, 8gb ram and 500gb hard drive.
Using my processor hungry music software, it handles all I throw at it and never at more than 20% cpu usage.
An i5 would be the minimum I’d suggest, but I’m like Mel.
thnx. u hav restored my faith in extra-terrestrials; an i5 was recommended as a start, guess i’ll go for more ram and dual-core if drachmas permit (what is the speed of your processor?)
If you don’t need/want a 64bit operating system, don’t waste money on lots of ram. 32 bit systems can’t access over 3. something of it, so more than 4gb (2×2) is a waste.
I believe i7s are quad core with hyperthreading (8 cores), i5s are quad core with no HT and i3s are dual core.
My chip runs at 3.4, which most of the range seems to run at, or around.
Good luck.
thanx. see i learned somethings elses important.all ya gotta do is ask the right OP 😉
(reasons i put it out there were, a) gotta fire old gertie up and go into town see a man abouta doo-dad, and then b) he’s a gonna try’n upgrade me to some fancy veehickle I don’t rightly need). Now, ise canna find me one on that new-fangled Trades-whatsa-me-callit, where they done try and sell yoo all sorts of purty trimmins.
Window shop online and take the sales sharks out of the equation and then when you’ve found what you want at your price, take the magical mystery tour.
Couple of handy little program’s that don’t use up much space to stop your computer filling up with crap and things being high jacked.
I like these two for their simplicity and always add them to a new computer when I get one:
Crap Cleaner for cleaning up temp fies, caching, stored web pages, cookies and so on.
http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner
Win patrol which is a nice tidy program that warns you if start page is being high jacked or things are being added to start menu. Also allows you to easily view and control what is in your start menu, what’s running now etc.
http://www.winpatrol.com/download.html
Both are free to use.
I’ve likely got a copy of Office 97 sitting in the garage somewhere if you are interested in it for free. It just might take a bit of finding and I’m away for the next few weeks but happy to dig it out.
http://pricespy.co.nz/
All you’ll ever need to build a system.
BTW, I’d always recommend going for a 64 bit OS. You’re going to have a 64 bit PC you might as well get the full performance out of it.
Yep. Most of the actual benefit is in the memory addressing. I also notice a difference between 32 bit and 64 bit when you get more cores.
And to actually get that benefit – use linux. Windows just keeps putting more junk on board until it is effectively the same speed as a old pentium. I just compiled a Qt4/boost program on 32bit windows MSVC2008 on windows7, and it took about 4x as long as g++ did on a 32bit ubuntu 12.04. And I’m not going to even mention the time it took to startup and shut the system down. I’m tempted to pop VC2005 on that system because I’d swear that was faster?
But seriously look at putting in even a 32-64GB SSD as a boot. Now those things seriously kickarse for boot and accessing system programs. Too expensive for terabyte storage, but ok for planting the OS.
About the only thing that windows is useful for these days is games. I’m too serious for games… 0ad starts…
If you’re on a budget skip the Intel chips and go for AMD. Much cheaper both for the motherboard and the CPU.
This isn’t going to answer your question outright, but you can use it as a useful guide: http://www.logicalincrements.com/
Prices are in $US I believe.
In terms of RAM, you’re going to want a minimum of 4gb. If you’re not planning on playing games, then 4gb is probably fine for your purposes. RAM is pretty cheap though so getting more isn’t a huge imposition.
cool link Lanth. I will be well armed with that. Thanks. much appreciated. puts components in perspective. sigh. such a learning curve. oh well, coulda stayed out-of-it 🙂 you guys, wotta ya like aye, wotta ya like. Excellent thinkers, thats what you are like (kinds and all that)
Good resource.
I’d also reiterate what The Al1en said (implied) about graphics cards – if you’re not a serious gamer you don’t really need one.
One could always become a serious gamer…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iflmHVj1dzU
Or keep your gaming on a console and leave your PC for other stuff. If you got kids stops them filling up your PC with crap.
Boring
😈
And I thought you supported diversity!
http://www.ign.com/videos/2013/02/23/crysis-3-graphics-comparison-ps3-vs-pc-vs-360
What would cause people to wear FTP t-shirts?
Shit like this and this?.
Yeah, thats what people do when the cops actually catch genuine bad guys.
Yeah it never rains in Southern California either.
http://ftp.dailypaul.com/259426/aclu-records-reveal-boston-police-spy-on-political-and-peace-groups
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/crime/2013/03/boston_police_catfishing_indie_rockers_cops_pose_as_punks_on_the_internet.html?utm_source=tw&utm_medium=sm&utm_campaign=button_chunky
http://www.metalinjection.net/latest-news/animals-as-leaders-vs-boston-police
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=Z_A6_CzvpEE&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DZ_A6_CzvpEE
There’s a black cop I remember from a few years back who won’t be cheering either. His two white colleagues beat the shit out of him while he was undercover.
Then there’s the Boston cops who were dealing in drugs……
And you somehow think that Boston cops are respected more than ours.
Yeah we have some crap with our cops as well but it ain’t nothing like the Boston people have to put up with.
You keep trying to tell us how great the US is and how shit we are. I don’t know who you are trying to convince or why you bother but you are not convincing me.
“Yeah we have some crap with our cops as well but it ain’t nothing like the Boston people have to put up with.”
You might be right Ssssmith, but Rickards and co, as well as some of the stories that have come out of places like Dunedin are pretty damning indictments of the NZ police.
And it’s not like the cops here aren’t being used to spy on Maori, activists etc.
It’s not just that we have some crap cops (and some good ones). It’s that the police force culture is very corrupt in some ways (Rickards etc) and highly unethical in others (Tuhoe raids)
I certainly wasn’t suggesting our cops are all sweet and sugar coated – clearly there are issues from time to time and no question there has been a degree of racism amongst some police for ever.
I’m always cautious in including Rickards in that group due to the testimony that he had a broken leg in plaster at the time of the particular incident most refer to. It was something that was quite provable and he has always maintained he wasn’t there.
The others no question about their abysmal behaviour and abuse of power.
The abuse of power is of course sometimes political as was seen with the use of Maori police at Bastion Point. There’s times when you (generic) need to look beyond the individual police or the police culture.
“Inland Revenue is not ruling out the possibility of a cyber-attack after it wrongly sent emails to 47 people yesterday.
The error has prompted the department to shut down all inbound emails while it investigates whether it is the latest Government agency to be hit with a privacy breach.”
Breeches getting to be the norm?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10878684
Unbelievable – in a good way
http://www.universetoday.com/101594/zoom-into-the-moon-with-this-insanely-high-resolution-mosaic/
the fishing don’t look too good.
I have a very wide screen and truly magnificent lunar travel thanks Marty. But just who were those folk down by the 3rd crater from the right who were waving white flags?
Laal – Dehshatgardi Murdabad
Junior Brown – Hung it Up
I’m not sure if this John Armstrong opinion piece in the Herald got linked to here or not, but I found the first 10 comments interesting.
Armstrong discusses the sloppiness of John Key’s having given four different answers to the question “How did you get Ian Fletcher’s number?” and the ammunition it gave to the opposition.
“Politicians – certainly not Prime Ministers – are not supposed to behave in this fashion. They are supposed to have one story and stick to it come hell or high water.”
It’s not the failure to be truthful that disappoints Armstrong, but the failure to simply stick to one story. He concludes with a “but who really cares how he got the number anyway,” line.
Of the first ten comments, two agreed with the ‘who gives a toss’ line, one bemoaned who embarrasing our political stories were in general, one lamented Armstrongs propensity to claim that he knows how ‘most people’ feel about a given issue, and the other six pointed out that the issue is not how he got the number, it’s the lying about it – the chronic and consistent failure of credibility.
What interested me was the relative ‘for and against’ likes in the comments. The two comments agreeing that they couldn’t give a toss got a total of 174 likes, the six comments disagreeing and calling out Key as a liar got a total of 1,947 likes.
This has given me hope that John Key has indeed jumped the shark.
it is quite clearly all down hill for Key and it has been for some time
there is now no way back.
see ya Key, thanks for nothing
It’s important to remember that he most likely doesn’t care beyond some in the moment ego bruising. He’s done the job he was sent in to do, and he can still do alot of damage on the way out.
Absolutely, I’ve been saying here for a while that as soon as his asset sales job is done, Key is off to his next corporate money making scheme with an “Ackshully New Zilund, I’ve been great.”
I’m just glad the tide is finally turning on his public perception. Once you see the tranzrail eyes, you realise that that’s all there is. He’s not a leader with our best interests at heart, he’s a corporate manager, tasked with making sure the sleepy hobbits don’t blink while he smiles and waves and sells our country to the highest bidder.
A succinct analysis of a hollow man.
Mate just told me about this
http://oceana.org/en/blog/2013/04/victory-offshore-oil-drilling-stopped-in-belize
Yay to both people power and court process.
Reinforces the separation of government and the courts as being absolutely essential.
Now if we could just ensure that the separation of government and parliament was more defined so that select committees weren’t a sham and urgency wasn’t abused.
FYI:
Interesting Keiser this week – i.e both KR on RT, and Paxman and Keiser on Newsnight (bbc)