Our Members, which art in Confusion,
Restless be thy Mood
Thy Kingdom come.
Thy will be done for the next election,
Though it hasn’t since ’08.
Give your MPs your daily thoughts.
And don’t forgive manipulation,
As you have bit your lip while the Clique trespassed against us.
And stop Trevor &co lead us into another failure,
But deliver us from careerists
For this is your Constitutional Right,
The power, and the leverage,
For a members vote in February
Amen.
A counter…
Just before Xmas I spoke to the few.
On the feb vote, I hope we get the vote too.
For the people’s voice i speak of unity
A new direction, a pathway maybe a cup of tea.
Time for our say, members and all.
Time for hope and to stand tall.
Our pollies are our hope
They must talk what we dream.
But I say to you all.
Time for unity, one voice, one dream.
So in bright early feb give me just one united team.
Hang on… A man assaults his wife repeatedly and gets discharged without conviction with a comment by the judge that the charges will probably have an effect on his chosen career path of training to be a surgeon.
A transgendered woman will have to serve 2 years & 1 month in a men’s prison for a single instance of assault after a fight broke out after an argument at home. A month less and the sentence could have been reduced to home detention. The judge recognised that a transgendered person might be at risk in a men’s prison, but sent her there anyway.
Two questions:
1. Will the prosecution appeal the first sentence because it’s inadequate and domestic violence needs to be taken seriously?
2. Will the defence have the money to appeal the second sentence because it’s dangerous and therefore wrong?
There are separate standards applied in New Zealand justice. One standard for those who are so-called professionals and one for those are so-called mere workers.
If a conviction is likely to cause a problem for someone’s job then tough. I would expect that an assault conviction is easier to turn a blind eye to by the NZ Medical Cartel than it is for a lowly delivery driver to avoid losing his job and not being able to find another.
It is like back when the Amercias Cup was here and that rich billionaire fulla got caught with some pot. The useless judge let him off, and got name suppression because it would have a detrimental to him and his business. Well, frikkin’ duh, it would actually have no impact on a billionaires life. And such a similar event for a local Manuwera lad would have a massive impact on his life.
So the judges are full of shit.
In fact Judge Cooper said this “”It is fair to say any conviction is going to impact adversely on your employment.” So if that is the, what do you call it, reason for the decision (latin term?), then I look forward to seeing it applied equally across the land. Convictions have a greater impact on those less well off than those at the top of the pile, completely and totally contrary to the current understanding of our judiciary.
I wonder how many of these example it will take until people accet that the judiciary in NZ are in fact corrupted, and working for/to a completely differnent agenda.
As shown by the links I posted about the SFO Prosecutor, and the bizaare events in the court room as allowed by Judge Mary Beth Sharp
On Tuesday, via her QC Paul Davison, Killeen pleaded guilty in the Auckland District Court to forgery. However, Judge Mary Beth Sharp discharged her without conviction, describing her as an exceptional person in an exceptional case. The judge accepted Davison’s submissions that Killeen had suffered a rare psychological reaction to a powerful fertility drug she was taking, which can affect 1 per cent of women with symptoms including irrationality, forgetfulness and obsessive behaviour.
I guess some people are more exceptional than others when committing crime!
You are hopelessly wrong. Justice is not linear. Ever crime has different context and differing evidence, remorse, etc. Second guess courts and replacing it with some mob internet rule is just dumber than dumb, its been tried over and again to replace courts and it never works because those with the most money win.
Past behavior is indicative of future behavior, past good civil interactions are always going to add weight to remorse displayed. However if you live a marginal life, then of course your lack of remorse is going to play even more against you. Its one of the problems I believe with the high Maori crime rates, Maori culturally aren’t clued up on how to express good standing and remorse to courts.
While I agree, putting a person who looks and behaves like a women in a man jail does require the prison to take exceptional measures to protect them.
I think you miss the point there aerobubble, as is evidenced by your statement ” However if you live a marginal life, then of course your…….”
The post of muzza and that of mine are (assumed for muzza) based on all else being equal. There is no evidence in the media presentation of these cases that the wife-beater lived a good civil life (simply being a doctor does not equal that – that is just bigotry) or that the tranny lived a less than civil life.
Your assumption that this is the case would seem to be the same assumption that judges always make. I posted a further example of that with the billionaire. This is the exact problem.
I hold the judiciary in high regard. However in this exact area it has failed for a long long time and it was time it was highlighted. Best example being the wildly random application of name suppression and the justifications for and against. It is shit.
The generalization that courts could produce consistency is farfetched given that each crime has its own circumstances, evidence, people, and I doubt we’d want the dictatorship of consistency. Half the court process is just stressing out the accused, lumbering them with costs, putting their lives on hold, even before the case gets going.
Yeah, and wonder how the collecting of that crime levy is going.
The very thing we cannot go into detail about, individual cases, is they very reason we put up a court system to deliberate all the fact in a impartial way. Now yeah, for sure, the Bain of cases comes along too, nobody should think courts are perfect, or could be made that way.
That’s why I took a stance on your general bullshit that courts are all out of kilter with your world view. Poor you, its called a process of compromises, and its never going to be clean or pretty.
What is reasonable, a person who turns up to work, does detailed, highly professional work day in day out for decades, or some transient who hits people to solve their problems. Sorry but people have been around long enough to know that drugs will effect people and they can make mistakes of judgment. But violence, whole different level.
As for the running over, people do, yes even millionaries, have brain fazes when confronted with violence. A very important part, surely of courts, is to find who instigated it. A father with his kid, is more likely to flight than fight, and so if a person is desperate, angry, running at them, avoiding them is only one of the constraints.
Can’t say I agree with you aerobubble. Laws are made and appeals won because courts must show some sort of consistency in sentencing. Of course there are extenuating circumstances in some cases – obviously the reason lawyers argue for them.
My problem with these two cases is that consistency doesn’t seem to be apparent in these cases, and that someone has no sentence for domestic violence because of his status, not because of the crime, and someone else has sentence that, because of her status is unduly harsh. It may even appear bigoted – 2 years + the 1 month so home detention cannot be considered.
Courts hear all the information. Also it doesn’t matter that you can pick out two cases that seem to look inconsistent. Citizens who own their own homes, have savings, are more civil minded because they have more to lose, and so punishing unnecessarily harshly when the mere lose of status in gaining a criminal conviction
would see their career prospect shrink, their kids look question their parents…
As for the puzzle. A person who has nowhere to serve out home detention, and is already give a 15% reduction on their sentence, should necessity a lot of publicity to keep their jailers keen that nothing averse does happen to them when incarcerated.
You see each persons punishment is best contexted to their circumstances, a father has children, children could be harmed and punished too, they lose in other ways that a prison sentence cannot. Like I said, just being accused is punishment (exceptions like attention seekers, sociopaths), so should judges take this into account, the lack of remorse shown by the sociopathic attention seeker self-victim? So unless and until I see every damn piece of evidence I trust in the judges in these trials to weight up decisions. Now, sure if there is a clear skew over time in lots of cases, and fathers are walking scot-free, and trans-sexuals are getting beaten in jail (or worse), then sure no problem it would merit looking at the sentencing, and sacking some managers in the jail system.
One problem with home detention is its consider punishment, so what the country is saying is someone who lives holed up in their home, severely socially inhibited, and effectively the same as punishment to another citizen for the crime of
assault? So I point to you beware making generalizations, I’m sure some will
take it as quite offensive that home detention is offer to people how have been
at the hard end of violence, as they personally may fear leaving their homes
as a result.
aerobubble: Citizens who own their own homes, have savings, are more civil minded because they have more to lose, and so punishing unnecessarily harshly when the mere lose of status in gaining a criminal conviction
would see their career prospect shrink, their kids look question their parents…
Thanks for dismissing all us renters as lacking in community spirit. Actually, the fear of losing one’s home and savings is supporting more of an individualistic focus on what’s in it for themselves and their families. People who rent, and have less savings could be more aware of the need for community-support, caring for others etc.
Certainly I agree that horses for courses, some want to acquire wealth, and thats okay as much as someone who wants to rent. My point was that its not punishment if it doesn’t change their circumstances. A social phobic would be more harshly punished in a prison, but also home detention would be a breeze. So a judge could stipulate limits on say internet access while on home detention, this would be more severe than for most people whose whole community wasn’t online say. Its little point giving home detention to a paraplegic.
So nobody here wants to help me start the ‘Sweet as’ revolution in Hamilton West?
On my home world, we’d call you all mouth and no trousers.
Two minutes silence for fallen internet warriors, but two fingers up at food in kids bellies.
Priorities, nice.
Second track on my website – Games I play.
Sometimes it’s easy. Sometimes it’s rough.
Sometimes it breaks your heart inside. You’ve got to break your heart or hide.
Some people come easy, like some people go.
Some people break apart in sight. They have to run away in fright. But not me.
‘Cause you know? It’s just like a game I play.
‘Cause I know we’re just here to fade away.
‘Cause I’m only here for so long.
Been too lonely here, for too long.
‘Somethings’ aren’t easy. ‘Somethings’ aren’t wrong.
‘Somethings’ can’t fake a hurt inside. They’ve got to take a pain with pride.
Some people go easy. And some people don’t.
Some people make a stand and fight. They have to hold their ground and fight. Just like me.
‘Cause you know? It’s just like a game I play.
‘Cause I’m no way here just to fade. No way.
‘Cause I’m only here for so long.
‘Cause I’m lonely here, but I’m strong.
‘Cause I’m only here for so long.
I’m still standing here, so come on.
So come on.
One by one. All at once, I’ll take you all on.
One by one. All at once, until you’re all gone.
And I win.
Or a ‘special investigation’ by a ‘special branch’ that the pm will never get an email, text or phone call about, even if he makes jokes about it, that no-one heard or saw footage of, even while they we’re destroying it just in case.
For the record, I am an alien, but I’m a permanent resident al1en.
I’m also not a ‘predator’ type teeth gnasher and I never consume humans – It’d be like eating less intelligent Dolphin.
Don’t worry, friend. I’ve got your festive customs nailed down.
Every December, all the politicians get to fuck off on holiday and all the hungry kids don’t.
Whew. I have been working on a post (on media bias -difficult topic) for a couple of weeks. Was working on it just now and made quite a few revisions – clicked save, took forever as all the typing disappeared, leaving me with a blank post. However, I opened the post in another tab and the latest version is all there. Gave me a fright.
Remember to take advantage of our position relative to the international dateline to login at midnight onto every form of social media and start making panic stricken reports of massive earthquakes, huge volcanic eruptions and armies of zombies emerging from nowhere.
Obviously not been out walking or anywhere near large swaths of the public recently…Zombie like they are, all head in some screen or another, mindlessly wandering around..
Better watch out you don’t have to eat humble pie like Nick Smith did last year on March 20th. He said Ken Ring’s prediction of a greater risk of increased earthquake activity around this date was that of a fool so he and others went and had a picnic on the Port Hills of Christchurch to thumb their noses at him.
Unfortunately for them there were several earthquakes that day, including the biggest aftershock since Feb 22, and it was Nick Smith and his cronies that had to back down and admit they didn’t know what they were doing.
Let’s see what happens.
You are aware I’m sure that this date tomorrow is solely a measure of a confluence of astronomical cycles. It is simply a physical measurement of stars and planets and galaxies spinning through space. It is as real and as simple as measuring the trajectory of a ball thrown in a backyard.
Ha ha, yep, that’s what many people suggested. Even if they had picniced at the bottom of the Port Hills would have had more cred. There have been many rockfalls at the slightest shake or rain now that the hills have been shattered like a glass block courtesy of the Great Earth Monster.
Not very convincing when they go to the very safest place to go nyah nyah nyah to possible earthquakes. But then again, like John Key, Nick Smith has never come across as a courageous man. In fact the opposite as exhibited here – cowardly.
Actually, this government can be characterised by this and the bully boy tactics described in the Wellington Cuncil thread. They are cowards and bullies, as is so often the case with bullies.
“Unfortunately for them there were several earthquakes that day, including the biggest aftershock since Feb 22”
Really? I live in Christchurch – and I remember the Port Hills stunt, but I don’t remember any big aftershocks. Ring is full of shit, but even a broken clock can be right twice a day.
Well you need to check your facts Pop. Biggest aftershock since Feb 22, one of the largest for a long time in kaikoura and activation of an old similar fault system in McKenzie Basin.
Also, if Ring is full of shit then so too is Isaac Newton.
Tell me Pop, why do you think Ring is full of shit? Some detail and solid points if you could ta.
Wasn’t this all discussed at the time?
The guy is so vague in dates, location and magnitude that it’s like the met office saying “some rain will occur somewhere on the Pacific Rim this week”. And if a typhoon breaks in Fiji, folks jump on the interwebz to say how accurate he is. You can’t predict a chaotic system based on relatively minor influences, compared to say fucking great loads that might or might not already exist on a particular fault.
And that’s without his “read your cat’s future in its paws” book.
“You can’t predict a chaotic system based on relatively minor influences, compared to say fucking great loads that might or might not already exist on a particular fault.”
Fault systems aren’t chaotic. Example, see Alpine Fault measured movements over time.
Relatively minor influences? Sheesh, ever heard the sayings about straws and camels backs? Then place that into context.
The thing about straws and camel’s backs is that there are many other straws on the camel’s back, too. focusing on one and “predicting” that one like it will eventually break the back is just stupid. There are much bigger straws that planetary alignment.
Fault systems are chaotic. Example, Saharan rainfalls over time.
The point is that there are many factors that affect the friction either side of the fault. Then there are the inner earth magma currents affecting tectonic forces. And different rock densities. All obeying basic and predictable laws of physics, but in exponentially compounding combinations are not even roughly predictable on a slide rule with an astrological chart.
“Tell me Pop, why do you think Ring is full of shit? Some detail and solid points if you could ta.”
Science. All Ring does is fling vague scattershot figures around and sometimes they stick. Sideshow psychics do pretty much the same thing. There are earthquakes of varying magnitudes everyday somewhere in the world. And comparing him to Sir Isaac Newton? You win the arsehat prize for that – the second in the space of a week.
Do you know what Newton was about? I am not a fan of Ring but what he says is simply that when the moon is closer to the earth there is an increased gravitational effect. This has a gravitational effect on the air. This has a gravitational effect on the water. This has a gravitational effect on the land.
It is as simple as that.
His underlying proposition is not shit, it is sound. Tell me how the above is not right.
As for arsehat prize – keep it. I see others have you lined up for similar prize. Egg
Sound proposition, but not significant according to the observed data. 1% attribution? Try forecasting weather based on the albedo of roofs in the area.
sanctuary
Don’t frighten the horses. There are enough real and terrible things happening without merry japes as you mention. Not funny. Watch some Mitchell and Webb or something and have laughs at people and politicians to occupy your spare time.
“…. former South Korean military di– uh, ruler”
Language censorship on Television One Breakfast
Television One Breakfast, 7:30 a.m., Thursday 20 December 2012
Newsreader Melissa Stokes read the following: “South Korea has elected its first woman president. Park Geun-hye is the daughter of a former South Korean military di– [pause] uh, ruler.”
The change was so sudden, and Melissa Stokes seemed so momentarily nonplussed, that there’s only one plausible explanation: her actual script said “former South Korean military dictator” but some producer urgently hissed into her earpiece “Don’t call him a dictator, call him a RULER!”
Why would Television One’s administration be reluctant to call a dictator a dictator?
That guy’s not funny. He’s even unfunnier when you look at his actual (not “satirical” or “ironic”) support for the mass murder perpetrated by his favorite real-life regime.
I did think he was funny until I realized how hardline and shameless he is in real life. He actually IS Borat, with all of Borat’s brutal anti-Semitism and callous disregard for others. In the same way that some Jewish people cannot listen to Wagner, I just can’t respect Baron Cohen since I learned what a vicious person he is.
Mozza, you appear to be unaware that Baron Cohen is jewish (and a socialist). He’s not anti-semitic and I think you are going to struggle to find any evidence of him supporting mass murder. He has also won a Golden Globe for comedy, something neither of you is ever likely to do. So, objectively, he is funny. He’s got an award for it and made millions making people laugh. And saying he’s not funny, then admitting that you ‘used to’ think he was funny is pretty funny in itself, Moz.
Is there the slimmest chance that Sacha Baron Cohen is actually the funniest comedian Britain has produced in the last twenty years and you two are humourless bores?
I respect your intellect, my friend, but in this case you don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ll return to this later, with citations you are more than capable of finding for yourself, were you to allow yourself to get out of hero worship mode towards this moral imbecile.
Right now, I have to leave for a few hours, I’m afraid.
Meanwhile, you need to do a little research into Sacha Baron Cohen, that unfunny fraud.
Zionism is inherently Anti Semitic. Palestinians, Egyptians, Jordanians, Syrians and other Arabs living in the Levant are all Semites.
Added to that the Semitic Jews who lived with the Arabs for 2000 years are equally discriminated against by the criminal ruling elite of Israel because the are anti Zionist.
Sasha Baron Cohen is a hardcore Zionist (well documented) and I have always avoided his nasty kind of humour.
I call this speech brilliant in that it describes the US (Which he regards as and which behaves as a Zionist slave state) and most Americans have no idea he is talking about them and their regime (1% is in total control).
But tracellerev, Jews are Arabs too. They are not their own separate race, no matter how much that may suit their aims and ends. Why is this such a problem for people?
No actually, TRV let’s not move on. For those of you interested Sasha Baron Cohen a Habonim boy and his work, every film he made one way or another was intended to ridicule Islam and Muslims.
His impact is huge and he defends Israel and attacks Muslims so to say he is neutral is hypocrite to say the least. You want to move on from this discussion that is fine but for those of you curious hit the search button
God you don’t talk halfshite. Militia, ZOG (fucked if I know what that stands for) and how you’re so disappointed. Are those the new catchphrases your are told to use. Militia, Preppers AND 911 truthers are now primed to be the next terrorists with their wilkd weapon collecting blahblah blah (I hear the mother of the SH shooter was a prepper too! Is that how you have been told to typecast people who want a new and independent investigation into the events of 911?
And the disappoining thing, is that so people will get the impression you are a patient lot but them preppers, militia and 911turhters are such a trying lot?
(ROFL) You don’t know me, you don’t know what I do in my daily life (Or maybe you do…) and you have the gall to be “Disappointed”?
Fuck you PB, Fuck you and your sad and futile attempts to typecast me or those of us who want to have a new and independent investigation into the events of 911.
Well, ignoramus is a harsh word to describe Ev, but, yes, I am playing her. But only in the sense of fish/barrel, you understand.
Any chance you’ve found the cites you reckon you were gonna provide? Just curious, because my brief google search finds nothing to support your various and contradictory descriptions of Baron Cohen.
Great, Ev. Perhaps you’d like to share some of the ones that prove SBC is a “hardcore zionist”. Skip the ones that are just opinion, and just cite the factual ones. Preferably quotes from him saying “I’m a hardcore zionist”. Bet that takes more than 0.26 seconds.
Well, ignoramus is a harsh word to describe Ev, but, yes, I am playing her.
“Her”? [Straightens tie, rubs Brylcreme through hair] “Travellerev” is a GIRL?!?!?!?!??
But only in the sense of fish/barrel, you understand.
C’mon, Te Reo, seriously—stop messin’ about.
Any chance you’ve found the cites you reckon you were gonna provide? Just curious, because my brief google search finds nothing to support your various and contradictory descriptions of Baron Cohen.
Baron Cohen is a racist, extreme supporter of the Holy State. There is nothing “various” or “contradictory” about any of those positions.
What is the problem with being a hardcore Zionist TRP? Why is that something that has to be proven. What is a Zionist other then someone who supports the state of Israel as the homeland of the Jews? And as a consequence has to support the discrimination of Arabs, Palestinians especially?
Tell you what. Here is a link from Jews sans frontieres and people who read this and want to know more to form their own opinion can Google Sasha Baron Cohen and Zionism and draw their own conclusions.
I wouldn’t call my self a “girl”. That has come and gone but yes, I’m of the female gender and I thank you for the sentiment expressed. 🙂
Fair enough, Ev, I get where you are coming from. Like you, I think Zionism is bigotted, but I don’t think all Jews are Zionist, nor all Israelis. I think its unfair to call Baron Cohen a Zionist (and therefore, a racist) without evidence. And there really doesn’t seem to be any evidence. Lots of opinion, sure, but nothing that confirms that he is any other than an excellent comedian who has a Jewish heritage.
I call this speech brilliant in that it describes the US (Which he regards as and which behaves as a Zionist slave state) and most Americans have no idea he is talking about them and their regime (1% is in total control).
I’m not sure what you mean by this Eve, but it really is an unfortunate turn of phrase. On the off chance you aren’t aware of why, please take the time to read this:
I know that you read Alex Jones (or at least you used to) so you may have picked up some of this stuff from some of the things he publishes and links to, or not, I don’t really care. But what I do care about is that when people are researching conspiracy stuff, they practice discernment. There really really are some nasty people manipulating things and pushing memes, and using codes. Don’t be one of their dupes. Please.
There certainly is a lot of conspiratorial, anti-Semitic rubbish in cyberspace. This idea that the U.S.A. is “manipulated” by Israel (which is basically Mearsheimer & Walt’s thesis) is plain wrong, but it’s at the root of a lot of noise on the internet.
However, it is not conspiratorial or paranoid to see that Sacha Baron Cohen is a brutal and unapologetic supporter of Israel, and a ruthless defamer of the Holy State’s victims.
For your information. Alex Jones is married to a Jewish lady if I’m correct and goes through great pains to avoid the Israel controversies.
He is actually accused of being a Zionist shill for that reason even though he has no problem pointing out obvious crimes such as the shelling of Gaza.
So please back off with your patronising shite.
For those of you wanting to know more about how the US is duped into being Israels bully boy here is some information you don’t get from the MSM about one of the most powerful Lobbying groups in the world AIPAC
Oh and PB, over the years you have never given any “conspiracy nutter” as you call them the benefit of being able to have discernment so fuck off about that too.
America is Israel’s slave state and while Netanyahu may not like Obama and that is mutual in the end America will abide by what Israel wants to do. End of story.
And Morrisey. wipe the shit out of your eyes and start doing some proper research about Israel and it’s puppet masters. You’re smart, use your brain!
Fits with some of the other militia inspired crap you’ve endorsed over the years, ( OMG FEMA camps etc) so it’s not really a surprise, but disappointing all the same.
My course of reading to get you up to speed has begun today, with the Steven Salaita piece from Electronic Intifada. I’ll put more up for you each day. Of course, you are entirely capable of doing this for yourself, but I get the feeling this is a case of having to lead a horse to water.
Mozza, you appear to be unaware that Baron Cohen is jewish (and a socialist). He’s not anti-semitic
Yes, he is. He is virulently anti-Arab, and most relevantly, anti-Palestinian. As a state-friendly clown, he is absolved from the necessity to even pretend he gives a damn about the victims of his callous “humour”, and doesn’t have to make any false statements that he cares about Palestinians (like Alan Dershowitz keeps claiming about himself) or pretend to be troubled by Palestinian deaths (like the official spokespersons for the Holy State routinely do even as they justify the killings).
…and I think you are going to struggle to find any evidence of him supporting mass murder.
The evidence is irrefutable. Hopefully, after you’ve read today’s introductory article, you will engage in a little more extensive reading for yourself.
He has also won a Golden Globe for comedy,…
I grant you, Sacha Baron Cohen can be funny, but the old Aristotelian device of Arguing from Awards is unwise. Barack Obama won a Nobel Prize for ….. (WAIT FOR IT!) ….. Peace. Martin Devlin and Murray Deaker have both won awards for sports journalism. Some of the direst songs ever written have won Academy Awards for “Best Song”. I could go on, and may well do so at a later date….
….something neither of you is ever likely to do.
WHAT?!!??!?!? Now that is hurtful.
So, objectively, he is funny.
So, by the same logic, Martin Devlin and Murray Deaker are, objectively, outstanding sports journalists; “Into the West”, “My Heart Will Go On” and “You Light Up My Life” are, objectively, top-notch songs; and Barack Obama is, objectively, a Man of Peace.
He’s got an award for it and made millions making people laugh. And saying he’s not funny, then admitting that you ‘used to’ think he was funny is pretty funny in itself, Moz.
I can see he’s funny, and I don’t criticize you for seeing the same thing. However, he clearly has an agenda—and it’s a brutal one, that needs to be called out.
Is there the slimmest chance that Sacha Baron Cohen is actually the funniest comedian Britain has produced in the last twenty years…
Not a chance. Have you never heard of Jack Dee? Or Frankie Boyle? Or Steve Coogan? Or Ricky Gervais? Or Mitchell and Webb?
…and you two are humourless bores?
I have systematically and seriously made a case for the careful examination and reconsideration of a comedian who is lionized by the establishment. You can call me a “humourless bore” if you want, just like Jimmy Savile used to do about anyone who had the temerity to criticize him.
You could start with evidence, mozza. Any evidence at all would be good. But so far … nothing.
If you were a lawyer, you would be admonished (at the very least) for contempt of court. I have argued with you in good faith, and provided an excellent scholarly analysis of Sacha Baron Cohen’s political agenda for you to read—but you have simply closed up and retreated into your shell.
I leave it to others to see who is arguing, and backing his argument with evidence, and who is cynically trying to stymie any argument.
Oh dear, this is well below your usual standard, Mozza. No evidence at all? Surely you must have found at least one quote from the man by now. Nothing? Really?
M, TRP is a shill. This is what he does. He is an excellent tool to give people who read them links but he will always sidestep, accuse, malign and avoid. Still he keeps threads alive and that means more people will eventually get the information they need to make up their own minds. And many over here have done over the last five years.
For those of you interested in understanding the likes of Te Reo Putake here is a nice list of 25 hallmarks of shill behaviour
This is what he does. He is an excellent tool to give people who read them links
Really? Recently, he has refused to read links, or simply denied their validity.
but he will always sidestep, accuse, malign and avoid. Still he keeps threads alive and that means more people will eventually get the information they need to make up their own minds. And many over here have done over the last five years.
You’re being very charitable, travellerev.
For those of you interested in understanding the likes of Te Reo Putake here is a nice list of 25 hallmarks of shill behaviour.
Or, to see a shill in action, simply observe Sacha Baron Cohen’s behaviour.
No, you are right HE won’t read the links but others will and those are the ones I aim for.
Don’t try to win over the haters, you’re not the jerk whisperer is my motto but over the backs of the haters you can actually reach those who are willing to learn.
I apologise for telling you to wipe the shit out of your eyes and start doing research about Israel but I do mean you should do mor9e research on the state of Israel.
Here is a facebook friend of mine. His name is A href=”http://www.gilad.co.uk/”>Gilad Atzmon. He is Jewish and Israeli. He is also a great musician and writer and he recently published a book called: The wandering who? You might want to start there!
WHERE IS HE?
Whither Populuxe1?
Mass Murder Advocate Fails to Front His Critics
I note with some concern that poor old Populuxe1 has failed to surface after being keel-hauled by all and sundry on Tuesday.
I can see five possible explanations for his failure to mount an argument in defence of himself and his outlandish statement on Open Mike:
1.) He lacks the wherewithal to mount a coherent argument;
2.) He is “on leave”, a la the Rt. Hon. Hekia Parata;
3.) Professor Stuart McCutcheon has gotten wind of Populuxe1’s extra-curricular nonsense, called him in for a talk and delivered a stern warning: “If you continue to make a fool of yourself like this, Dr. Hoadley, even under a preposterous surname, we will have to look at your position a little more rigorously….” ;
4.) He is licking his wounds and preparing for an AWESOME comeback, where he sprays around even more awesomely absurd epithets;
Thank you for that, Lanthanide. While we’re on the subject of errors, I note another grievous one, where I show Prof. McCutcheon warning Dr. Hoadley that he must not make a fool of himself, even under the cover of “a preposterous surname“.
Of course, Prof. McCutcheon, a highly educated man, would have used his words far more accurately.
This is what he would have said: “If you continue to make a fool of yourself like this, Dr. Hoadley, even under a preposterous pseudonym, we will have to look at your position a little more rigorously.”
My apologies for the careless error in the original post.
This line of comments offends me greatly. Not only are you speculating on identities based on the flawless logic “I disagree with H, P disagrees with me, therefore P=H”, you also seem to have constructed a fantasy about H’s legislated academic freedom being interfered with by M, who is connected to you only by virtue of being H’s boss’s boss.
Here’s a thought – lose the obsessive vendetta part of your shiny hat. You might be less of a jerk.
This line of comments offends me greatly.
I’ve already admitted out that my (entirely reasonable) speculation was wrong.
Not only are you speculating on identities based on the flawless logic “I disagree with H, P disagrees with me, therefore P=H”, you also seem to have constructed a fantasy about H’s legislated academic freedom being interfered with by M, who is connected to you only by virtue of being H’s boss’s boss.
As I’ve already said, it was a reasonable supposition. Not many in academia, bar a couple of certifiable cases at Waikato, are as ideologically extreme as Steve Hoadley; our friend Populuxe1 made a stunningly foolish and extreme anti-Palestinian comment; Populuxe has made a point of telling this online community that he works in a university, ergo it was a reasonable inference that the extreme anti-Palestinian Populuxe1 was the extreme anti-Palestinian Steve Hoadley.
Happily, Populuxe1 assures us that he is now “on the side of the innocent civilians, both Palestinian and Israeli”, so assuming he is not lying, there will be no more erroneous assumptions by anyone that Populuxe1 is Steve Hoadley.
Here’s a thought – lose the obsessive vendetta part of your shiny hat.
That was a reasonable inference. You can call it “obsessive”, but on reflection I think you’ll recognize that is not a fair portrayal of my stance.
I work at a university. Am I Hoadley?
There are literally thousands of academic and general university staff, if P was even telling the truth about the sector they worked in at the time they wrote it.
And yeah, inventing conversations between real people based on the fact that you disagree with one person’s pseudonym and another person’s media comments, so therefore it’s a “reasonable supposition” that they are the same person. That’s obsessive.
But nice to know you genuinely believe you were trying to “out” a Standard commenter’s identity. Jerk.
I do not think so. Unlike Populuxe1, you have not been making Hoadley-esque public statements pouring scorn on the victims of state terror.
There are literally thousands of academic and general university staff,
There would be only half a dozen of them that are so brazen and shameless in their public praise of the Holy State.
And yeah, inventing conversations between real people based on the fact that you disagree with one person’s pseudonym and another person’s media comments, so therefore it’s a “reasonable supposition” that they are the same person. That’s obsessive.
No, it is reasonable to assume that an academic brazen enough to publicly state (on radio) that he supports the state that is engaged in the mass murder of imprisoned, ghettoized untermenschen might be foolish enough to come on a popular forum like this and make similar statements, as well as spraying the ridiculous accusation of “anti-Semitism” at anyone who protests at the Holy State’s campaign of terror. That’s what our friend Populuxe1 did.
You can call that “obsessive”, but that slur carries as much critical heft as our friend Te Reo Putake’s repeated claim that any and all evidence is “no evidence”.
But what about pseudonymous comments? With no career reputation to worry about? And besides, I reckon you vastly undercount the number of right-wingers in academia.
No, it is reasonable to assume that an academic brazen enough to publicly state (on radio) that he supports the state that is engaged in the mass murder of imprisoned, ghettoized untermenschen might be foolish enough to come on a popular forum like this and make similar statements,
That is indeed a reasonable assumption. But the assumption you made was that any person who uses a pseudonym to state similar (for a given margin of error) opinions is probably therefore the same person who uses their own name and academic freedom in mass media. Not to mention the defamatory assertion of a vice chancellor interfering in the freedom of an academic to express his opinions.And at least I stated exactly why, with reference to specific facts, I thought you were obsessing over this. Inventing defamatory conversations on the illogical leap you made is not healthy.
But you merely make the assertions, and almost never relate them to verifiable specific facts. Also known as “evidence”.
And I don’t know who Hoadley is, but I ain’t he. However isn’t that sort of speculation against the rules here? Usually the moderators are all over that.
You don’t know who Hoadley is? He’s a far-right commentator from the University of Auckland, who during the recent escalation in Israeli terror against the citizens of Gaza, came onto Radio Rhema (which laughably calls itself the Christian station) and expressed his support not for the victims, but the killers.
Your irrational response the other day led me to think he was you. Seeing you live in Christchurch, obviously that was a mistake.
Anyway, in answer to your vitriol, I condemn Israel’s excessive use of force against the Palestinians and their continued illegal colonisation of the West Bank. It’s bizarre that you assume I would just because I find the continued one-sided generalisations about Israel from you to be irritating, antisemitic and smacking of obsession. FYI Bebe and his Likudniks do not represent the entirety of Jewish or even Israeli opinion.
However I also condemn Hamas for its continued provocations of Israel with little regard for the ordinary Palestinians they were foolishly elected to represent, and for the continued climate of fear it creates for ordinary Israelis. I regard Hamas as a terrorist organisation and I lose no love on them.
I am on the side of the innocent civilians, both Palestinian and Israeli. Now go fuck yourself you presumptive freak.
The vitriol is entirely yours, my friend. I simply held up a mirror.
… I condemn Israel’s excessive use of force against the Palestinians and their continued illegal colonisation of the West Bank.
“Excessive use of force”? What, are you suggesting that there is an ACCEPTABLE use of force that an illegal invading force can use against a civilian population?
It’s bizarre that you assume I would just because I find the continued one-sided generalisations about Israel
What you reflexively and stupidly damned as “anti-Semitism” was in fact a careful, scholarly analysis of systematic bias by the BBC.
… from you to be irritating, antisemitic and smacking of obsession.
I’ve posted some things about Israeli state crimes, as well as crimes by other countries. That’s “obsessive”? You have no strategy other than spraying lame epithets at me?
FYI Bebe…
That’s “Bibi”, actually.
…. and his Likudniks do not represent the entirety of Jewish or even Israeli opinion.
As if we did not KNOW that. So who are Mark Regev, Tzipora Menache and Israel’s other ghastly apologists for state terror representing—the Likudnik regime that runs Israel—or those who belong to the humane, liberal, thoughtful Jewish tradition?
However I also condemn Hamas for its continued provocations of Israel with little regard for the ordinary Palestinians they were foolishly elected to represent, and for the continued climate of fear it creates for ordinary Israelis. I regard Hamas as a terrorist organisation and I lose no love on them.
You don’t know what you’re talking about. You would have condemned the French Resistance, the Yugoslav partisans and the Jewish fighters in the Warsaw Ghetto.
I am on the side of the innocent civilians, both Palestinian and Israeli.
High time you said so, sir. We can look forward to an improvement in the quality and morality of your posts, no doubt.
Now go fuck yourself you presumptive freak.
That sort of abuse is fine when used against, say, Araboushim, or, if you like, untermenschen. Here, all it does is re-emphasize the poverty of your argument.
It’s a lovely day out. Why don’t you get a book on New Zealand birds and go twitting… Or even some bark rubbings. I think you need to get outside in the fresh air more.
It’s a lovely day out. Why don’t you get a book on New Zealand birds and go twitting… Or even some bark rubbings. I think you need to get outside in the fresh air more.
I keep telling folks that Greece should play the exact same game. They should build a printing press right in the middle of the city square of Athens, wind it up and churn out mountains of euros, then drive it by the truckload to the German border and tip it out.
That will expose the system for exactly what it is.
Debt is the most heinous evil inhabiting and inhibiting the world today.
Does it not register with people that money is;
1. issued by privately owned banks and
2. is backed only by a printing machine and
3. must be paid for with interest (even though it is only printed paper backed by nothing. Paying for nothing).
It is the western world’s achilles heel. And nobody even fucking knows!
The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell 10
At some point, should any fellow poster with editing rights have a moment to spare… I’m having the same old, same old problem with scheduled posts not publishing themselves at the designated time I set them for.
There was one slated to go up around 9 O’Clock this morning that didn’t ‘go’. I’ve reschedueled it for tomorrow morning at 8 O’Clock.
Thing is, this same problem has happened previously. Is there something really obvious I’m overlooking in the settings that causes this? I can’t figure it. So…if you have a moment and the inclination, I’d appreciate somebody going into ‘dashboard’ and having a wee look at the post I’ve re-scheduled for tomorrow morning and letting me know if there’s something I’ve not done right or overlooked on the settings front.
I’m getting an effect of tiny white balls falling over my screen from the top noticeable against a dark background. Christmas snowflakes? How cute. By the way Happy Christmas to all and a 2013 year that offers improvements and hope for good direction and achievements in 2014.
Yep. It was a feature that snuck in on wordpress 3.5.
Up in this hemisphere I thought it would be psychological air-conditioning in the sweltering heat. Down in those chilly northern climes it might be a different story as I suspect the storms will be extreme in their winter this year.
Actually I suspect that they will get some quite large snowstorms this year. The oscillating jetstreams have more energy at this phase of the solar cycle and on top of the warming of the Arctic, they’re quite a bit further south. So they’re pushing cold air from the Arctic further south and then it hits more wet air coming up off land and the gulf stream….. Guess what I think will happen.
I agree. We’ve had snow much earlier than usual this year, but have hit a warm-ish period so it’s raining. Pretty boring just before Christmas. It’s an odd climate here with the continental effect enhanced by mountain ranges creating foehn winds up from the desert and then the Siberian/Artic blasts coming the other way.
I’ve been looking around for some graphics of how the oscillating jetstreams are (mis)behaving this year, but there’s not a lot beyond the focus of Britain’s early summer rains.
You saying the outside of the screen will be twitching and black dots will rain across the screen from different directions – whenever I’m at the Standard……until Jan 4?!
US v. Pfc. Bradley Manning is being conducted in de facto secrecy. For more information on the lack of public and press access to United States v. Pfc. Manning, visit the Center for Constitutional Rights, which filed a petition requesting the Army Court of Criminal Appeals (ACCA) “to order the Judge to grant the public and press access to the government’s motion papers, the court’s own orders, and transcripts of proceedings, none of which have been made public to date.”
This transcript of Pfc. Bradley Manning’s testimony at his Article 13 motion hearing was taken at Fort Meade, Maryland on November 29th and 30th, 2012.
[DEFENSE EXAMINATION OF PFC. BRADLEY MANNING ON NOVEMBER 29, 2012]
Defense (Coombs)
Pfc. Manning I know this is a little nerve racking. So what we are going to do, is we are going to ease into this, and just take a little bit of time. Okay?
Pfc. Bradley Manning
Yes, sir.
Defense (Coombs)
Alright, I want to first start off by asking some questions about when you were detained in Iraq. Okay?
Pfc. Bradley Manning
Yes, Sir.
Defense (Coombs)
Alright, do you recall the date that you were initially detained by [Army] CID?
Pfc. Bradley Manning
It was May 27 of 2010.
Defense (Coombs)
And, how did CID first approach you?
Pfc. Bradley Manning
CID first came to– well I was first in the Supply– I was in the Supply office at the Brigade annex, which was a separate building from Brigade headquarters at FOB Hammer in Iraq, and I was– and then, I was escorted by the Supply NCOIC [Non Commissioned Officer in Charge] to an interview room. It was a conference room that had been turned into an interview room. And, I knew that–
Defense (Coombs)
When you walked in, what did you see– when you walked into that?
Manning has supporters from all over the world. Luckily for him, he has not had to rely on the U.S. branch of Amnesty International, which is a compromised and confused organization, to put it very charitably….
Anyone else hear this Mad, Bad and Sad Santa?
NewstalkZB, Thursday 20 December, 10:40 a.m.
NewstalkZB’s notorious supercrank Leighton Smith never turns down an opportunity to turn any occasion into a soapbox for his crazed theories about the world.
But you would have thought that station management would have warned the old loon that it was off-limits to attempt to pound his anti-science, anti-reason, anti-academic agenda into the heads of children, and that it was distasteful, even immoral, to dress a global warming denier up as St. Nick and let him loose on a programme aimed at little children.
Apparently, however, anything goes at NewstalkZB. Absolutely anything….
LEIGHTON SMITH: Ummmm, ahhhh, ummmm…. Here’s a letter, Santa, and I’d ummmmm, aaaahhhh, really ahhhhhmmmm like to, ummmmm, hear what you have to ummmm, say. It says: “How is the state of the polar ice-cap, given that we are told so much about global warming?”
SANTA CLAUS: Oh there is no problem here in the North Pole! There’s PLENTY of ice! All this talk of global warming! What a lot of nonsense!
LEIGHTON SMITH: Thanks for clearing that up, Santa. You’re quite right, this global warming is a load of nonsense. Okay, ummmm, ahhhhh, on the ummmmm…. phone we have another child. Jessica, what do you want to ask Santa?
INTERESTING FACT:
One of NewstalkZB’s many mottoes is “Tune Your Mind.”
Morrissey Thanks for the reports from the front. How you can bear to listen to it beats me. You deserve a medal. Watch out that you listen extensively or you will suffer a bad case of post traumatic stress disorder – too much could blow your receptor valves.
And that bit about Tune Your Mind. Makes me think of the old large console radios that had a function of a green light that brightened as you turned the knob to the optimum station reception. Guess now we’ll have those transplanted in our young so we can receive the sacred murmurings of our old western gurus like Leighton Smith. China had Confucius, Greece had Socrates, we have LS.
Thanks for that, Mr. Nose. I sent an admonitory e-mail to the great broadcaster, but he did not deign to reply.
Luckily for aficionados of the unhinged rant, however, I have a few of his on-air comments and e-mails from some time back, relating to other topics. If you or anyone else is interested, I will give them another airing.
Economic historians instead trace the “lump-of-labor fallacy” back to an 1892 publication by a certain D.F. Schloss who was discussing workers’ attitudes toward piece work. In the first decades of the 20th Century, the National Association of Manufacturers adapted this concept to its fight against the eight-hour day. Economists such as Samuelson unthinkingly picked up arguments from that discussion. The “lump-of-labor fallacy” was just public-relations rhetoric in service to a now discredited cause.
So, the Lump of Labour Fallacy starts off as anti-worker PR and then gets picked up as gospel by the economists but never actually questioned. Sounds like almost everything in economics – stated as fact and yet reality differs and yet the economist fail to note the differences.
Another ‘FarCup’ by the big man with the big stick in chch, his appeal has been lost on the
re-zoning near the airport.
This story is on the TV3 web site.
Sorry can’t link.
The move marks a stark reversal to the neoliberal policies of the 1990s, when a large number of German municipalities were convinced to sell their public services to large corporations. The result was skyrocketing water and power prices.
Well, at least some governments are waking up to the lies of the neo-liberals. Unfortunately, our government happens to be the neo-liberals and they’re the source of the lies and the actions that doom us to increasing poverty.
Fresh from its court victory on asset sales, the Government is considering selling all three state-owned electricity companies next year.
Finance Minister Bill English linked the possibility of three sales to buoyant financial markets and the plan would also mean the most controversial sales were over before election year.
Earlier this month the High Court dismissed a bid by the Maori Council to delay the float of Mighty River Power, now scheduled for the first half of 2013.
The council is appealing to the Supreme Court, but the matter could be resolved in February.
Mr English said this could clear the way for at least two floats in 2013 as previously signalled, while a third was now being considered.
“We’d certainly do two [sales in 2013], the question is whether we do three. Some people have suggested it,” Mr English said.
“I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, [but] the market’s suggesting it might be possible. That will all get tested if we get through the Supreme Court case.”
Treasury advise against the sale of all three power companies due to flat market and low return rate from the sale.
Hopefully the referendum will stall the sale and or polarise the electorate. Roll on 2014.
Road rage man seeks job back or $600,000
By Matthew Theunissen
Guy Hallwright was convicted of causing grievous bodily harm with reckless disregard.
Former Forsyth Barr financial analyst Guy Hallwright is seeking his job back or about $600,000 in lost earnings after being dismissed following his conviction for running over a man with his car.
Wonder what the sentence had been if a patched gang member had done the same thing to Guy Hallwright?
Let’s change the scenario…….
‘Mongrel Mob member XXXXX – in a fit of ‘road rage’ – runs down senior Forsyth Barr analyst Guy Hallwright, and breaks both his legs.
Mr Hallwright has multiple operations since the 2010 incident.
Mongrel Mob member XXXXX is sentenced to 250 hours community work, disqualified from driving for 18 months and ordered to pay victim Guy Hallwright $20,000 reparation after a jury finds he unintentionally ran Hallwright down with his car in September 2010.”
Seems to be QUITE a different story/ sentence if you swap the patched jacket for a pin-striped suit ……?
Facebook is so intensively tracking readers and commenters on this site, for profile details, with background scripts they use to do this. It is a real worry.
Like a WSJ article on 07 Dec. rightly reported, the internet is anything but free and anonymous anymore, and rather becoming a large grazing ground for information gathering for commercial profiling, advertising and so forth.
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The Green Part has been accused of lack of transparency in two recent situations. The first was the claimed media lockdown during Green's annual conference and the second was Julie Ann Genter's refusal to release a letter she had sent to Phil Twyford.I do get frustrated when journalist's succumb to ...
The Green Part has been accused of lack of transparency in two recent situations. The first was the claimed media lockdown during Green's annual conference and the second was Julie Ann Genter's refusal to release a letter she had sent to Phil Twyford.I do get frustrated when journalist's succumb to ...
Last week, the ongoing democracy protests in Hong Kong saw a pro-Hong Kong student assaulted at the University of Auckland. The Chinese consulate in Auckland followed this up with a press release "express[ing] its appreciation to the students for their spontaneous patriotism" - effectively condoning the assault and inciting further ...
Only those who close their eyes and minds to the evidence can still be in any doubt that we are facing a climate change crisis. The evidence is conclusive that the world is not only getting inexorably hotter, but also that the rising temperatures are creating a number of other ...
Rural communities are wailing about forestry conversions "taking land out of production" and putting it into locking up carbon. Its driven purely by economics: there's more money and lower costs in carbon than in sheep or beef, and if carbon prices rise, there'll be more net money than dairy even. ...
This week, the government introduced its (underwhelming) Abortion Legislation Bill. And despite having negotiated the text of the bill through the coalition process, Winston Peters is now suggesting that he will demand a referendum on it:NZ First leader Winston Peters has hinted that his party may only support the Government's ...
Blowing-Up The House: Is Winston Peters planning to put himself at the head of all those New Zealanders who refuse to countenance the Coalition Government caving-in to the Ihumatao protesters? The most effective way of doing this would be to issue Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern with an ultimatum. If she ...
Last night the police dramatically incresed their numbers at Ihumātao, shoving over protestors and threatening them with arrest. Despite police talk about the need to maintain "public order" and prevent a "breach of the peace", there appeared to be absolutely no justification for this: the protest camp is, was, and ...
A Cult, that many actors, politicians, and those with a low IQ are joining is sweeping across civilisation, with one main intention – ending humans reign on Earth. Starting as a well meaning though deeply flawed theory, that the Earth was warming due to mankind emitting greenhouse gasses, it was ...
Today's abortion reform announcement is just the latest in a long line of disappointing decisions or outright failures from the Labour government. The 90-day law. KiwiBuild. A capital gains tax. Climate change. Every time they make one of those decisions, we hope for better next time. No repeal of the ...
The Greens used their party conference over the weekend to push for a rent-to-own scheme, where people would be able to work towards home ownership by renting from the government. Its a sensible policy, and one which could make a real difference to home ownership rates. But its also basicly ...
by Daphna Whitmore Over the past fortnight, thousands of people have come to the Ihumātao land protest in South Auckland. On 23 July police prepared to evict a few dozen people who had maintained the encampment at Ihumātao for the past three years. As hundreds of supporters arrived the ...
The following article is translated from an article in Lutte de Classe (Class Struggle), the magazine of the French revolutionary workers’ organisation Lutte Ouvrière (Workers Struggle). The United States’ blacklisting of the Chinese telecommunications company Huawei, which took shape in Google’s ban on Huawei using its systems on its phones, marks a ...
There is a military phrase: “Full spectrum dominance”. It refers to the all-encompassing policy to dominate across all spheres of war. Lately, that has come to include the internet – in other words, cyberwarfare initiatives. That is in addition to land, sea, air and the like. Now, if ...
The IMF issued a Report on the state of the Economy as it is at present. Some of it points out significant issues that certainly warrant attention, but that we know already exist. Some of it is very much tied to the very obvious context of global concerns, that everyone ...
I'm glad to see the Lib Dems won.I had a moment of terror yesterday thinking that the Conservatives might cling on, due to a combination of Johnson's elevation to the premiership, the apparent uselessness of the Lib Dem candidate (who had failed to be elected in other constituencies) and the ...
. . Current Leader of the National Party, Simon Bridges gave the usual rah-rah speech to the Loyal & Faithful in Christchurch today (27 July). With National’s party polling and his own personal popularity sliding steadily in the polls, Mr Bridges has not much left to reverse his fortunes. ...
Those concerned for Langridge’s wellbeing say they hope he’ll change his mind when he sees the ocean coming. The protester who has vowed to stand outside Parliament every day until the Government announces a climate emergency says he accepts that his quest will most likely end in drowning. Ollie Langridge, ...
What will climate change do to our capital city? The Wellington City Council has updated its projections, ditching its optimistic 0.6m estimate for sea-level rise in favour of a more realistic 1.5m. And the result is devastating:Wellington City Council has unofficially ditched an optimistic sea-level rise scenario in favour of ...
Image Credit: How To Start a Blog – Beginner’s Guide for 2019 I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. ...
Opportunities to dodge tax are shrinking with the completion of a new tax agreement with Switzerland, Revenue Minister Stuart Nash announced today. Mr Nash and the Swiss Ambassador David Vogelsanger have today signed documents to update the double tax agreement (DTA). The previous DTA was signed in 1980. “Double tax ...
Small Business Minister Stuart Nash says the report of the Small Business Council will help maintain the momentum for innovation and improvements in the sector. Mr Nash has thanked the members of the Small Business Council (SBC) who this week handed over their report, Empowering small businesses to aspire, succeed ...
Extra Police officers are being deployed from Northland to Southland with the graduation of a new wing of recruits from the Royal New Zealand Police College. “The graduation of 78 constables today means that 1524 new constables have been deployed since the government took office,” says Police Minister Stuart Nash. ...
Almost $600 million has been paid into taxpayers’ bank accounts in the past two months, after the first season of automatic tax assessments. Revenue Minister Stuart Nash says the completion of this year’s tax refund season is a significant milestone. “The ability of Inland Revenue to run auto calculations for ...
Sunday, 18 August, 2019 - Environmental groups and well known New Zealanders are preparing to deliver a 55,000 strong petition to the steps of Parliament tomorrow, calling on the Government to protect the world’s smallest dolphin. ...
The Government’s proposed rescue plan must be strengthened because it is the last chance to save Māui dolphins from extinction and secure the future for Hector’s dolphins, Forest & Bird says. ...
Simon Shepherd: Roads, schools, hospitals, prisons, the building blocks that keep society functioning. And we don't have enough. It's called the infrastructure deficit and will be the focus of a major conference this coming week. The man charged with ...
New Zealand has been issued a stark challenge from Pacific leaders to dramatically upscale its action to address climate breakdown, Oxfam says, after a clear rallying cry from nations at this week’s Pacific Islands Forum. ...
Support for Recreational Dope Going ‘Up in Smoke’ Family First NZ is welcoming yet another poll showing plummeting support for legalising cannabis in New Zealand. The Horizon Research poll shows support for legalising has plummeted from 60% last ...
The prospect of ending wider cannabis prohibition looks increasingly unlikely. Over the last nine months, the percentage of New Zealanders who would vote for legalising the personal use of cannabis has declined at a near linear rate of around 10% per ...
“It’s disappointing that news out of the United States of hospitalisations linked to illegal street drugs is somehow seen as relevant to the New Zealand vaping scene,” says Ben Pryor, Director of Alt New Zealand – the largest Kiwi-owned vaping company. ...
The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) welcomes the successful passing of Misuse of Drugs Amendment Bill through parliament, by the New Zealand Government. ...
Today’s news from the Electoral Commission has provided the party with the clarity it was seeking around use of the word “Coalition” being used as the brand name of the party. ...
A recently released Otago University study has provided further evidence that low-quality housing is a significant problem in Aotearoa. This has prompted the Chief Executive of the Association of Consulting Engineers (ACENZ) Paul Evans to question “why ...
With the BNZ-Business NZ PMI signaling manufacturing is contracting , the Government needs to seriously consider tax relief, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union . ...
The New Zealand Maori Council has called for an overhaul of the Public Services executive ranks as the Corrections debacle shows mis-management and incompetence at the highest level. Matthew Tukaki, Executive Director of the New Zealand Maori Council has said ...
Findings from the 2018 New Zealand Consumer Survey have been released and the results are in; 48 per cent of respondents consider their purchases based on how ethically employees are treated. ...
The responsibility for the fact that Westland Milk Products is now in the hands of an overseas conglomerate 25% owned by the Chinese government can be laid fair and square at our government's doorstep. ...
As Fonterra is projecting multi million dollar losses for the second year in a row, it is clear the writing is on the wall for dairy as more and more Kiwis turn to plant milks. 22nd August is International Plant Milk Day and there is now a different plant ...
The $65,000 granted to Interislander so it can install electric vehicle chargers on its ferries is the most absurd waste of money yet to be delivered by the “Low Emissions” vehicle fund, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union. ...
Wellingtonians will have the chance to hear international child rights experts from Ireland, Scotland and Samoa speak at the Making Child Rights Real in Aotearoa New Zealand seminar to be held in the city on Wednesday 21 August. ...
Paul Evans, Chief Executive of the Association of Consulting Engineers (ACENZ), is advocating a balanced approach to the development of productive land. ...
CPAG (Child Poverty Action Group) says that new research from the University of Otago provides a solid foundation for why the Government must not delay instating a comprehensive Warrant of Fitness for tenanted homes in Aotearoa-New Zealand, and ...
The Independent Police Conduct Authority has found that an officer drove carelessly during a pursuit and that this was the primary cause of a collision with a motorcycle that injured the rider. ...
Responding to the Prime Minister’s commitment of $150 million in funding for climate change response in the Pacific, New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says: “It is no secret that many Pacific nations lack serious oversight when it ...
AUT research not only shows an increase in political affiliation, but that candidates affiliated to a central political party are more likely to win seats in Auckland local government. ...
On the 23rd of August School Strike NZ will join Ollie Langridge in his 100th day of sitting outside of New Zealand Parliament calling for the government to declare a climate emergency. School Strike 4 Climate NZ also demand that Parliament acknowledge ...
You have stood up for what is fair, and I am sure you will speak for over 7 million people who have been muted and rendered voiceless in Indian occupied Kashmir for more than a 10 days now. I am writing to bring to your notice the plight of Kashmiri ...
In the last 10 months alone, 11 petitions have been delivered to Parliament calling for medicines to be funded by Pharmac. Today, another nine petitions have been launched by Patient Voice Aotearoa (PVA) members asking that life changing, saving and extending ...
When we were first working to get Miscanthus approved for import into New Zealand, the Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA) waived the fee for their work because they thought that having Miscanthus in New Zealand was so very much in the ...
PHARMAC’s recent decision to fund two additional drugs from December this year has been widely welcomed by patients and the general public alike. The drugs, Kadcyla and Ibrance, are used in the treatment of advanced lung and breast cancers and will ...
Animal rights organisation SAFE is urging the Government to include experts and advocates from outside the agriculture industry on its newly announced winter crop grazing taskforce. ...
The Government’s plans to prohibit housing on ‘productive’ farmland will serve as yet another regulatory tax on housing, and is a shameful breach of Jacinda Ardern’s promise to fix housing supply, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union . ...
The latest round of the Ethnic Communities Development Fund opens today, supporting projects that grow the leadership and capability of ethnic groups, improve cultural understanding, and ensure our ethnic communities are a vibrant and celebrated part ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is warning of the dangers of hiking excise tax, in response to calls from a former Prime Minister for stronger action on alcohol harm. Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, “It seems inevitable ...
LGNZ will be cautiously assessing the wider implications of the newly proposed National Position Statement on Highly Productive Land (NPS-HPL), noting that that it traverses a number of highly complex policy areas including housing affordability and property ...
Horticulture New Zealand has welcomed the Government’s draft National Policy Statement on Highly Productive Land, saying it will help ensure that New Zealand can grow its own vegetables and fruit. ...
Background documents for Budget 2019 are now available from on the Treasury website: https://treasury.govt.nz/publications/information-release/budget-2019-information-release ...
The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry has welcomed a move by Crown agencies to lift confidentiality obligations on survivors of abuse in State care arising from settlement agreements with the Crown. ...
An evaluation of New Zealand’s first sexual violence court has confirmed that the approach taken in the judge-led pilot considerably reduces the time that cases take to reach trial. ...
The National Party is pleased to announce the appointment of Paula Bennett as our Campaign Chair for the 2020 General Election, President Peter Goodfellow says. ...
14 August 2019 – 18 senior business leaders and employment experts have been appointed as judges for New Zealand’s sixth annual Equal Pay Awards reflecting the breadth of companies who have entered. The Awards added three new categories in 2018: Innovation, ...
Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, “This is more proof that bureaucrats do not make good tech tycoons, no matter how much taxpayer money they throw at geeks in Silicon Valley.” ...
August marks five years of the Community Finance initiative. In addition to its well established Financial Mentoring service, The Salvation Army has held more than 5800 financial conversations with Community Finance clients. The loan program helps ...
Today 14/8/19 on news hub AM show Duncan Garner asked National Party leader Simon Bridges ‘what would he do to combat climate change and improve the economy again if he is the next PM”. https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2019/08/simon-bridges-says-most-kiwis-believe-system-gamed-at-last-election.html ...
DairyNZ Chief Executive Dr Tim Mackle is urging the Government to work with agricultural groups to drive real behaviour change on farm, instead of imposing a broad-based tax. Sector organisations have put forward an alternative Primary Sector Climate ...
Iwi forging closer relationship with Stats NZ over Māori data solutions The Data Iwi Leaders Group supports the findings of an independent review into the 2018 New Zealand Census – but says its failings provide a unique opportunity to co-design ...
“Any justification for paying exorbitant salaries to senior managers in business has just been buried in the Fonterra debacle” said Peter Malcolm spokesperson for Income Equality Aotearoa New Zealand Inc---“Closing the Gap” ...
Good on their own, even better with cheese – these crisp, moreish crackers are destined to become your new go-to savoury snack.These crackers have been on high rotation in our household – they’ve filled lunchboxes, accompanied fine cheeses on evening platters and been eaten by the fistful straight from the jar. ...
Lists are good and so are Sundays. We combine both those things in a new Spinoff feature. This week: Headlines from the past six months about the the Reserve Bank governor, Adrian OrrRBNZ prepares to stick its Orr inASB, March 29Banks Orr-struck yet againThe Australian, April 10Big banks brace for ...
Over 300 hours of interviews condensed into five episodes that cover the entirety of New Zealand’s comedy history – how do you even start to approach that? Sam Brooks interviews Paul Horan, the documentarian behind the show.It’s one of those projects that sounds utterly futile – how does one cover ...
Judgement prevents understanding, which in itself is a barrier to preventing unsafe behaviour. Are different approaches to harm reduction in the Rainbow community needed? Sex. Drugs. Carly Rae Jepsen. This is the iconography that tends to be massaged into mainstream conceptions of gay culture. Depictions in TV/film see us railing lines ...
The Spinoff is covering local elections across the country with a new pop-up section. To kick things off, Hayden Donnell went to a mayoral debate at Grey Power on the North Shore of Auckland.John Tamihere walked into the mayoral debate at North Shore Grey Power on Friday just minutes after ...
The Spinoff is covering local elections across the country with a new pop-up section. To kick things off, Hayden Donnell went to a mayoral debate at Grey Power on the North Shore of Auckland.John Tamihere walked into the mayoral debate at North Shore Grey Power on Friday just minutes after ...
Things I Learned at Art School is a new series featuring artists discussing how they do what they do and know what they know. In the second instalment, Megan Dunn talks to Berlin-based New Zealander Simon Denny about Michael Parekowhai, teaching and technology, and an idea involving the online shoe ...
With the acquisition of global rugby streaming leader RugbyPass, Sky might have just secured its future, writes Trevor McKewen.For several months now, the war between Sky and Spark Sport for the peerless prize of All Blacks and New Zealand rugby rights from 2021 onwards has been escalating. Every week, one ...
The Lightbulb asks innovators and entrepreneurs how they turned their ideas into reality. This week we talk to Jamie Cashmore, co-founder of Auckland-based edible packaging company Twiice. First of all, give us your elevator pitch for Twiice.Twiice is a company making edible coffee cups with plans to progress into other areas ...
The recent discovery of a fossil parrot the size of a human toddler is even more reason for Foulden Maar to be protected, writes the chairperson of Save Foulden Maar, Kimberley Collins.Last week, scientists discovered a new species of extinct parrot in the St Bathans Fauna. Weighing in at seven ...
Could a new hybrid of all the government’s major media holdings solve multiple media and government problems? Duncan Greive assesses the case.The media industry, despite what some of us might like to believe, really doesn’t matter all that much economically. Doesn’t employ all that many people. Relatively low wage. ...
The three governing parties are turning their attention to next year’s general election. RNZ‘s Jo Moir surveys the field.The night New Zealand First formed a government with Labour and the Greens, its leader Winston Peters quoted the song “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”.Almost two years later all three ...
Analysis: The botched census brings down a chief executive, there's another wave of speculation about Christopher Luxon standing for National and NZ First could sink an attempt to reverse the ban on prisoner voting. ...
Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk Wording has played a crucial role in a reportedly “fierce” Pacific Islands Forum in Tuvalu with Australia allegedly managing to alter documental terms to downplay its commitment to climate change mitigation. According to RNZ Pacific, a communiqué and separate statement on climate change was released ...
Australia’s coal policy and its use of carry over credits to fulfill its obligations under the Paris Agreement have come under fire and been major points of contention at this year’s 50th Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) Meeting in Funafuti, Tuvalu. READ MORE: ‘We should have done more for our ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael O’Keefe, Head of Department, Politics and Philosophy, La Trobe University The Pacific Islands Forum meeting in Tuvalu this week has ended in open division over climate change. Australia ensured its official communique watered down commitments to respond to climate change, gaining ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Xanthe Mallett, Forensic Criminologist, University of Newcastle Even in death, the voice of Carl Williams is louder than that of his victims. Intimate prison letters written by the convicted murderer and drug trafficker to his ex-wife, Roberta – herself arrested this month ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brianna Chesser, Senior Lecturer in Criminology and Justice, RMIT University In September 2018, a prominent Melbourne surgeon and academic was charged with rape and sexual assault for alleged offences committed a year earlier against a male doctor. The surgeon and doctor had ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Dearnaley, Associate Professor, University of Southern Queensland The blotched butterfly orchid (Sarcochilus weinthalii) looks fairly unremarkable when it’s not flowering, generally resembling the far more common orange blossom orchid. But when it flowers, it is exquisite. Dark purple blotches stand out ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Cropper, Senior Lecturer, Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne Almost every person throughout the existence of humankind has looked up at the night sky and seen more than just a random scattering of light. Constellations of stars have helped ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Desbrow, Associate Professor, Nutrition and Dietetics, Griffith University A recent study published in the journal Depression and Anxiety has attracted widespread media attention. Media reports said eating chocolate, in particular, dark chocolate, was linked to reduced symptoms of depression. Unfortunately, we ...
He’s the artist who launched a million memes and over a billion streams. Sam Brooks picks out Bazzi’s best moments so far, from his career-making breakthrough to his mature new mixtape Soulsearching.1. ‘Mine’“You’re so fuckin’ precious when you smile.”It’s the line that didn’t just launch a million memes, it’s the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Crosby, Professor, Monash University Since President Trump tweeted about imposing new tariffs on China, global equity markets have gone into a tailspin. Trump’s more recent announcement that the new tariffs would be delayed has not calmed the markets, with recent days ...
A new poem by Waikato poet Loren Thomas.to convince myself we’re dreamingwe were walking through suburbia houses kissing front lawns copied one after anotheryou tasted like mint leaves and chlorophyll that’s been pissed on by catsI held your hand and we walked towards the ocean dodging planks from dead train ...
The ancient Australian shock-jock yesterday targeted Jacinda Ardern, urging Australia’s PM to ‘shove a sock down her throat’. It’s all in keeping with a substantial history of being an arse.The plucky nation of Australia excels in a range of endeavours, but nowhere more than the angry, anguished howls of bloated, ...
Today, TVNZ released its latest findings on who is watching what on TVNZ OnDemand. Sam Brooks analyses the results.Today, TVNZ released the 2019 figures for who is watching TVNZ OnDemand, what they’re watching and in what kind of numbers. The big numbers are hopeful – over 1.4 million people reached ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jock Collins, Professor of Social Economics, UTS Business School, University of Technology Sydney The federal government wants to boost the number of migrants moving to regional areas in Australia to fill job vacancies and reduce the pressure on our cities. That’s why ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Associate Professor, Criminology and Justice Studies, RMIT University There can be no doubt violence against women is a national crisis. On average in Australia, one woman every week is killed. A 2016 survey found one in four women experienced violence ...
One dignified resignation was a bouquet in a sea of brickbats this week as low levels of accountability had eyes rolling. James Elliott has the news of the week. ...
Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein on the band’s ninth studio album, working with St Vincent, and the departure of bandmate and drummer, Janet Weiss.It’s been almost five years since Sleater-Kinney broke their decade-long hiatus with an album that received almost near-universal praise. It was “raw”, “bristling”, “emotive”, “taut” – all adjectives you’d ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Colleen Murrell, Associate Professor, Journalism, Swinburne University of Technology When news of the stabbings in Sydney on Tuesday afternoon came through, one of the first tweets about the incident came from Sky News reporter Laura Jayes. Immediately it got retweeted and sent ...
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 Normal People by Sally Rooney (Faber & Faber, $23)Sally Rooney Sally Rooney Sally Rooney Sally Rooney2 An ...
When Emily Writes reviewed a life-changing sex toy, the response from orgasm-starved women was huge. So why are so many having so few orgasms, and what can be done?For the last two years I’ve been running a pretty small – about 600-odd member – group for mostly New Zealand women ...
When Josie Adams broke her laptop last week, she knew she’d never find love like that again. Can the Asus Chromebook Flip C213SA offer a new kind of technological relationship? She reviews how it stands up to everyday use and the cosmic forces that seek to destroy her.Last Thursday I ...
Wine should be fun, not intimidating, all you need is a little knowledge. Yvonne Lorkin co-founder and chief tasting officer of WineFriend provides some simple tips to help you empower your palate. Even I can get scared by wine. I’m usually super-meek and a tad feeble at high-brow, ‘industry’ wine tastings. ...
Pacific Media Watch NewsdeskBy Makereta Komai in Funafuti, Tuvalu Tonga’s Prime Minister, ‘Akilisi Pohiva, has delivered a stinging attack against regionalism and the Pacific Islands Forum’s stance of leaving no one behind, for failing to amicably resolve the issue of West Papua. Pohiva admitted the issue has divided ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s content by Dr Bryce Edwards.Corrections, Christchurch mosque shootings Chris Trotter (Daily Blog): Upholding The Accused’s Right To Write Mark Daalder ...
Open mike 20/12/2012 
In the previous two posts, I laid out the context and set the theoretical framework to answer a question: whether indigenous economies should take the LEAP. This final part outlines ways to conceive of practicing mana motuhake within the existing legal system by carving out special jurisdictions that enable Indigenous ...2 hours ago
Fully Informed? Labour’s 2017 promises raised expectations that were little short of revolutionary. Unfortunately, they were never adequately shaken through the fiscal sieve. The hard economic work was not done – and it shows. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s critics have long complained that her grasp of the way the New ...7 hours ago
You cannot expect to pound communities into the ground day after day, year after year, decade after decade and just expect them to take it lying down. There’s a point at which the place will explode. And we’re faced with some very big ructions on both sides of the Atlantic ...2 days ago
Back in May, Destiny Church leaders Brian and Hannah Tamaki launched another political party. Despite consisting entirely of followers of their religion, they grandly called it "Coalition New Zealand", in a vain effort to suggest it was something broader. But when they applied for registration, submitters opposed the name, as ...2 days ago
The following article is excerpted and translated from two articles in recent issues of Lutte de Classe (Class Struggle), the magazine of Lutte Ouvrière (Workers Struggle), the revolutionary workers group active in France. We don’t necessarily agree with everything in it – for instance, the 1956-62 war for independence involved rather more revolutionary forces than ...2 days ago
2 days ago
Going Down? Once truth and propaganda become fused in the minds of one’s followers, debate and discussion become redundant. If one’s opponents are all outrageous liars, then engaging with them in any way is pointless. Rather than waste its time, a political party should, instead, target all its messages at ...2 days ago
We need to fundamentally reframe our systems settings to address the drivers causing and underpinning inequality; structural change in systems especially financial. The Equality Network Hui was held in Wellington on 27 June 2019. The hui covered important topics such as child poverty; a living wage; taxation; public health; mental ...4 days ago
The views-per-page for some of my recent postings:Depressing, isn't it? Provide thoughtful and wise commentary on the mainstream of British politics and no-one notices. Make a passing reference to Tommy DICKHEAD Robinson in a thread title and you get hundreds of views. Write something about anti-Semitism and you get another ...4 days ago
The government has announced plans to move the Treaty of Waitangi and other taonga to a new site. Great news! So where are they going? Right next to the old one:The new plan will see a new 22,000-square-metre archive built on the former site of Defence House - the former ...4 days ago
Back in June, StatsNZ went public about a project to track population data on an hourly level by using people's cellphones. It wasn't as bad as it initially looked - they were receiving no individual data, only counts by suburb - but there was still a huge consent problem, so ...4 days ago
Most economists agree that a currently slowing economy could do with some stimulus – and they would also agree that there is no shortage of infrastructure projects which could be brought to productive fruition with help from that stimulus. In view of the current practice of sub-contracting economic policy decisions ...4 days ago
I did an interview on the TVNZ Breakfast Show about the situation in Hong Kong. I tried to frame the issue as a collective action problem between two sides with very different end games. The video is here. Because of time constraints we could not discuss the fact that the ...4 days ago
Image Credit: Wild Rose College A new study reporting the ranges of values for kidney and liver parameters in a healthy population is being actively misrepresented by anti-fluoride campaigners. The Fluoride Action Network’s (FAN) latest ... 4 days ago
Alone, Alone. All, All Alone: Will it be a good or a bad thing, when humanity’s bright blue spacecraft is stricken by the civilisation-destroying problem of Climate Change, that no Huston Control will be standing-by to rescue the crew?“WE HAVE A PROBLEM, HUSTON.” These were the words used by the ...5 days ago
Divided Loyalties: Can the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, be relied upon? That’s what the boys and girls at Foggy Bottom and the Pentagon needed to be reassured about. Because, from the perspective of Washington, it’s looking more and more like Jacinda Ardern and her Labour Party comrades are getting ready ...6 days ago
This handy Queer Theory Glossary is from thetranswidow.com In case you’ve had trouble keeping up with the spate of new queer theory terms, here’s a handy glossary for your reference. Queer – A straight person with an interesting haircut. Non-binary/genderqueer – A chubby young female, typically 16-28, who has ...1 week ago
The winter grazing issue is becoming a highly sensitised one that I hope will not become so politicised that it delays solutions and results in the suicides of some very stressed farmers.Winter grazing has hit the headlines after a determined campaign, including the release of a video of some very ...1 week ago
The Green Part has been accused of lack of transparency in two recent situations. The first was the claimed media lockdown during Green's annual conference and the second was Julie Ann Genter's refusal to release a letter she had sent to Phil Twyford.I do get frustrated when journalist's succumb to ...2 weeks ago
Blowing-Up The House: Is Winston Peters planning to put himself at the head of all those New Zealanders who refuse to countenance the Coalition Government caving-in to the Ihumatao protesters? The most effective way of doing this would be to issue Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern with an ultimatum. If she ...2 weeks ago
A Cult, that many actors, politicians, and those with a low IQ are joining is sweeping across civilisation, with one main intention – ending humans reign on Earth. Starting as a well meaning though deeply flawed theory, that the Earth was warming due to mankind emitting greenhouse gasses, it was ...2 weeks ago
There is a military phrase: “Full spectrum dominance”. It refers to the all-encompassing policy to dominate across all spheres of war. Lately, that has come to include the internet – in other words, cyberwarfare initiatives. That is in addition to land, sea, air and the like. Now, if ...2 weeks ago
The IMF issued a Report on the state of the Economy as it is at present. Some of it points out significant issues that certainly warrant attention, but that we know already exist. Some of it is very much tied to the very obvious context of global concerns, that everyone ...2 weeks ago
I'm glad to see the Lib Dems won.I had a moment of terror yesterday thinking that the Conservatives might cling on, due to a combination of Johnson's elevation to the premiership, the apparent uselessness of the Lib Dem candidate (who had failed to be elected in other constituencies) and the ...2 weeks ago
. . Current Leader of the National Party, Simon Bridges gave the usual rah-rah speech to the Loyal & Faithful in Christchurch today (27 July). With National’s party polling and his own personal popularity sliding steadily in the polls, Mr Bridges has not much left to reverse his fortunes. ...2 weeks ago
Those concerned for Langridge’s wellbeing say they hope he’ll change his mind when he sees the ocean coming. The protester who has vowed to stand outside Parliament every day until the Government announces a climate emergency says he accepts that his quest will most likely end in drowning. Ollie Langridge, ...2 weeks ago
Image Credit: How To Start a Blog – Beginner’s Guide for 2019 I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. ... 2 weeks ago
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Our Members, which art in Confusion,
Restless be thy Mood
Thy Kingdom come.
Thy will be done for the next election,
Though it hasn’t since ’08.
Give your MPs your daily thoughts.
And don’t forgive manipulation,
As you have bit your lip while the Clique trespassed against us.
And stop Trevor &co lead us into another failure,
But deliver us from careerists
For this is your Constitutional Right,
The power, and the leverage,
For a members vote in February
Amen.
Amen +1
Amen.
Amen
For thine is social democracy,
The power and the material glory,
Redistributed.
Forever and ever,
Amen
A counter…
Just before Xmas I spoke to the few.
On the feb vote, I hope we get the vote too.
For the people’s voice i speak of unity
A new direction, a pathway maybe a cup of tea.
Time for our say, members and all.
Time for hope and to stand tall.
Our pollies are our hope
They must talk what we dream.
But I say to you all.
Time for unity, one voice, one dream.
So in bright early feb give me just one united team.
Hang on…
A man assaults his wife repeatedly and gets discharged without conviction with a comment by the judge that the charges will probably have an effect on his chosen career path of training to be a surgeon.
A transgendered woman will have to serve 2 years & 1 month in a men’s prison for a single instance of assault after a fight broke out after an argument at home. A month less and the sentence could have been reduced to home detention. The judge recognised that a transgendered person might be at risk in a men’s prison, but sent her there anyway.
Two questions:
1. Will the prosecution appeal the first sentence because it’s inadequate and domestic violence needs to be taken seriously?
2. Will the defence have the money to appeal the second sentence because it’s dangerous and therefore wrong?
Surely you don’t think we live in A land of one rule one law for everyone do you..
Justice in NZ is not blind, it is retarded.
@ HS – Actually no, its completely corrupted!
This is appalling. Judge Cooper is full of shit.
There are separate standards applied in New Zealand justice. One standard for those who are so-called professionals and one for those are so-called mere workers.
If a conviction is likely to cause a problem for someone’s job then tough. I would expect that an assault conviction is easier to turn a blind eye to by the NZ Medical Cartel than it is for a lowly delivery driver to avoid losing his job and not being able to find another.
It is like back when the Amercias Cup was here and that rich billionaire fulla got caught with some pot. The useless judge let him off, and got name suppression because it would have a detrimental to him and his business. Well, frikkin’ duh, it would actually have no impact on a billionaires life. And such a similar event for a local Manuwera lad would have a massive impact on his life.
So the judges are full of shit.
In fact Judge Cooper said this “”It is fair to say any conviction is going to impact adversely on your employment.” So if that is the, what do you call it, reason for the decision (latin term?), then I look forward to seeing it applied equally across the land. Convictions have a greater impact on those less well off than those at the top of the pile, completely and totally contrary to the current understanding of our judiciary.
Judge Cooper is a brainless fool.
I wonder how many of these example it will take until people accet that the judiciary in NZ are in fact corrupted, and working for/to a completely differnent agenda.
As shown by the links I posted about the SFO Prosecutor, and the bizaare events in the court room as allowed by Judge Mary Beth Sharp
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10853717
Blames fertility drug…
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10853492&ref=rss
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10854173
I guess some people are more exceptional than others when committing crime!
You are hopelessly wrong. Justice is not linear. Ever crime has different context and differing evidence, remorse, etc. Second guess courts and replacing it with some mob internet rule is just dumber than dumb, its been tried over and again to replace courts and it never works because those with the most money win.
Past behavior is indicative of future behavior, past good civil interactions are always going to add weight to remorse displayed. However if you live a marginal life, then of course your lack of remorse is going to play even more against you. Its one of the problems I believe with the high Maori crime rates, Maori culturally aren’t clued up on how to express good standing and remorse to courts.
While I agree, putting a person who looks and behaves like a women in a man jail does require the prison to take exceptional measures to protect them.
I think you miss the point there aerobubble, as is evidenced by your statement ” However if you live a marginal life, then of course your…….”
The post of muzza and that of mine are (assumed for muzza) based on all else being equal. There is no evidence in the media presentation of these cases that the wife-beater lived a good civil life (simply being a doctor does not equal that – that is just bigotry) or that the tranny lived a less than civil life.
Your assumption that this is the case would seem to be the same assumption that judges always make. I posted a further example of that with the billionaire. This is the exact problem.
I hold the judiciary in high regard. However in this exact area it has failed for a long long time and it was time it was highlighted. Best example being the wildly random application of name suppression and the justifications for and against. It is shit.
The generalization that courts could produce consistency is farfetched given that each crime has its own circumstances, evidence, people, and I doubt we’d want the dictatorship of consistency. Half the court process is just stressing out the accused, lumbering them with costs, putting their lives on hold, even before the case gets going.
Yeah, and wonder how the collecting of that crime levy is going.
The very thing we cannot go into detail about, individual cases, is they very reason we put up a court system to deliberate all the fact in a impartial way. Now yeah, for sure, the Bain of cases comes along too, nobody should think courts are perfect, or could be made that way.
That’s why I took a stance on your general bullshit that courts are all out of kilter with your world view. Poor you, its called a process of compromises, and its never going to be clean or pretty.
What is reasonable, a person who turns up to work, does detailed, highly professional work day in day out for decades, or some transient who hits people to solve their problems. Sorry but people have been around long enough to know that drugs will effect people and they can make mistakes of judgment. But violence, whole different level.
As for the running over, people do, yes even millionaries, have brain fazes when confronted with violence. A very important part, surely of courts, is to find who instigated it. A father with his kid, is more likely to flight than fight, and so if a person is desperate, angry, running at them, avoiding them is only one of the constraints.
Can’t say I agree with you aerobubble. Laws are made and appeals won because courts must show some sort of consistency in sentencing. Of course there are extenuating circumstances in some cases – obviously the reason lawyers argue for them.
My problem with these two cases is that consistency doesn’t seem to be apparent in these cases, and that someone has no sentence for domestic violence because of his status, not because of the crime, and someone else has sentence that, because of her status is unduly harsh. It may even appear bigoted – 2 years + the 1 month so home detention cannot be considered.
Courts hear all the information. Also it doesn’t matter that you can pick out two cases that seem to look inconsistent. Citizens who own their own homes, have savings, are more civil minded because they have more to lose, and so punishing unnecessarily harshly when the mere lose of status in gaining a criminal conviction
would see their career prospect shrink, their kids look question their parents…
As for the puzzle. A person who has nowhere to serve out home detention, and is already give a 15% reduction on their sentence, should necessity a lot of publicity to keep their jailers keen that nothing averse does happen to them when incarcerated.
You see each persons punishment is best contexted to their circumstances, a father has children, children could be harmed and punished too, they lose in other ways that a prison sentence cannot. Like I said, just being accused is punishment (exceptions like attention seekers, sociopaths), so should judges take this into account, the lack of remorse shown by the sociopathic attention seeker self-victim? So unless and until I see every damn piece of evidence I trust in the judges in these trials to weight up decisions. Now, sure if there is a clear skew over time in lots of cases, and fathers are walking scot-free, and trans-sexuals are getting beaten in jail (or worse), then sure no problem it would merit looking at the sentencing, and sacking some managers in the jail system.
One problem with home detention is its consider punishment, so what the country is saying is someone who lives holed up in their home, severely socially inhibited, and effectively the same as punishment to another citizen for the crime of
assault? So I point to you beware making generalizations, I’m sure some will
take it as quite offensive that home detention is offer to people how have been
at the hard end of violence, as they personally may fear leaving their homes
as a result.
aerobubble: Citizens who own their own homes, have savings, are more civil minded because they have more to lose, and so punishing unnecessarily harshly when the mere lose of status in gaining a criminal conviction
would see their career prospect shrink, their kids look question their parents…
Thanks for dismissing all us renters as lacking in community spirit. Actually, the fear of losing one’s home and savings is supporting more of an individualistic focus on what’s in it for themselves and their families. People who rent, and have less savings could be more aware of the need for community-support, caring for others etc.
Perhaps we should go back to the good old days where only property owning (Christian men) could vote.
Certainly I agree that horses for courses, some want to acquire wealth, and thats okay as much as someone who wants to rent. My point was that its not punishment if it doesn’t change their circumstances. A social phobic would be more harshly punished in a prison, but also home detention would be a breeze. So a judge could stipulate limits on say internet access while on home detention, this would be more severe than for most people whose whole community wasn’t online say. Its little point giving home detention to a paraplegic.
So nobody here wants to help me start the ‘Sweet as’ revolution in Hamilton West?
On my home world, we’d call you all mouth and no trousers.
Two minutes silence for fallen internet warriors, but two fingers up at food in kids bellies.
Priorities, nice.
Second track on my website – Games I play.
Sometimes it’s easy. Sometimes it’s rough.
Sometimes it breaks your heart inside. You’ve got to break your heart or hide.
Some people come easy, like some people go.
Some people break apart in sight. They have to run away in fright. But not me.
‘Cause you know? It’s just like a game I play.
‘Cause I know we’re just here to fade away.
‘Cause I’m only here for so long.
Been too lonely here, for too long.
‘Somethings’ aren’t easy. ‘Somethings’ aren’t wrong.
‘Somethings’ can’t fake a hurt inside. They’ve got to take a pain with pride.
Some people go easy. And some people don’t.
Some people make a stand and fight. They have to hold their ground and fight. Just like me.
‘Cause you know? It’s just like a game I play.
‘Cause I’m no way here just to fade. No way.
‘Cause I’m only here for so long.
‘Cause I’m lonely here, but I’m strong.
‘Cause I’m only here for so long.
I’m still standing here, so come on.
So come on.
One by one. All at once, I’ll take you all on.
One by one. All at once, until you’re all gone.
And I win.
Is it snowing on The Standard? 🙂
It stops and then comes back again
And the screen is twitching.
Glad you’ve got it too, I thought I might have picked up a bug.
Ain’t a twitch. It’s a shiver 😉
Or a ‘special investigation’ by a ‘special branch’ that the pm will never get an email, text or phone call about, even if he makes jokes about it, that no-one heard or saw footage of, even while they we’re destroying it just in case.
For the record, I am an alien, but I’m a permanent resident al1en.
I’m also not a ‘predator’ type teeth gnasher and I never consume humans – It’d be like eating less intelligent Dolphin.
😉
The Allen
Merry Christmas dude. Find some earthling to explain it to you and then enjoy it.
Don’t worry, friend. I’ve got your festive customs nailed down.
Every December, all the politicians get to fuck off on holiday and all the hungry kids don’t.
Enjoy yours though, if you conscience lets you.
it seems to be following the cursor
Wind from the NE this time!
Gone from twitching/shivering to fitting at the bottom of the screen.
Calling Dr LPrent if you have a minute.
Firefox, vista home premium.
A feature that’s gone rogue??
On OSX 10.6.8, Safari it’s still a nice snow shower…sorry hear it’s stormy elsewhere…
And it’s behaving using Firefox 14.0.1 on the same O/S.
Whew. I have been working on a post (on media bias -difficult topic) for a couple of weeks. Was working on it just now and made quite a few revisions – clicked save, took forever as all the typing disappeared, leaving me with a blank post. However, I opened the post in another tab and the latest version is all there. Gave me a fright.
Happens. I was fixing a problem with a plugin update last night and the system was a bit upset.
The back button often works if you have to walk backwards…
If you have a wordpress account you can go here and turn off the snow for blogs you look at (I assume this doesn’t work if you log out):
https://wordpress.com/#!/settings/ (untick the snow box)
Eta: doesn’t work 🙁 although it is supposed to http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2011/12/01/its-getting-cold-in-here/ Is this a wordpress.org thing?
Yes. You’d have to login to the site to do that here.
Remember to take advantage of our position relative to the international dateline to login at midnight onto every form of social media and start making panic stricken reports of massive earthquakes, huge volcanic eruptions and armies of zombies emerging from nowhere.
Obviously not been out walking or anywhere near large swaths of the public recently…Zombie like they are, all head in some screen or another, mindlessly wandering around..
Better watch out you don’t have to eat humble pie like Nick Smith did last year on March 20th. He said Ken Ring’s prediction of a greater risk of increased earthquake activity around this date was that of a fool so he and others went and had a picnic on the Port Hills of Christchurch to thumb their noses at him.
Unfortunately for them there were several earthquakes that day, including the biggest aftershock since Feb 22, and it was Nick Smith and his cronies that had to back down and admit they didn’t know what they were doing.
Let’s see what happens.
You are aware I’m sure that this date tomorrow is solely a measure of a confluence of astronomical cycles. It is simply a physical measurement of stars and planets and galaxies spinning through space. It is as real and as simple as measuring the trajectory of a ball thrown in a backyard.
Port Hills? They lack the courage of their convictions. Sitting under the Cathedral would have been more impressive.
Ha ha, yep, that’s what many people suggested. Even if they had picniced at the bottom of the Port Hills would have had more cred. There have been many rockfalls at the slightest shake or rain now that the hills have been shattered like a glass block courtesy of the Great Earth Monster.
Not very convincing when they go to the very safest place to go nyah nyah nyah to possible earthquakes. But then again, like John Key, Nick Smith has never come across as a courageous man. In fact the opposite as exhibited here – cowardly.
Actually, this government can be characterised by this and the bully boy tactics described in the Wellington Cuncil thread. They are cowards and bullies, as is so often the case with bullies.
Cowardly bullies
“Unfortunately for them there were several earthquakes that day, including the biggest aftershock since Feb 22”
Really? I live in Christchurch – and I remember the Port Hills stunt, but I don’t remember any big aftershocks. Ring is full of shit, but even a broken clock can be right twice a day.
Well you need to check your facts Pop. Biggest aftershock since Feb 22, one of the largest for a long time in kaikoura and activation of an old similar fault system in McKenzie Basin.
Also, if Ring is full of shit then so too is Isaac Newton.
Tell me Pop, why do you think Ring is full of shit? Some detail and solid points if you could ta.
Wasn’t this all discussed at the time?
The guy is so vague in dates, location and magnitude that it’s like the met office saying “some rain will occur somewhere on the Pacific Rim this week”. And if a typhoon breaks in Fiji, folks jump on the interwebz to say how accurate he is. You can’t predict a chaotic system based on relatively minor influences, compared to say fucking great loads that might or might not already exist on a particular fault.
And that’s without his “read your cat’s future in its paws” book.
“You can’t predict a chaotic system based on relatively minor influences, compared to say fucking great loads that might or might not already exist on a particular fault.”
Fault systems aren’t chaotic. Example, see Alpine Fault measured movements over time.
Relatively minor influences? Sheesh, ever heard the sayings about straws and camels backs? Then place that into context.
The thing about straws and camel’s backs is that there are many other straws on the camel’s back, too. focusing on one and “predicting” that one like it will eventually break the back is just stupid. There are much bigger straws that planetary alignment.
Fault systems are chaotic. Example, Saharan rainfalls over time.
The point is that there are many factors that affect the friction either side of the fault. Then there are the inner earth magma currents affecting tectonic forces. And different rock densities. All obeying basic and predictable laws of physics, but in exponentially compounding combinations are not even roughly predictable on a slide rule with an astrological chart.
“Tell me Pop, why do you think Ring is full of shit? Some detail and solid points if you could ta.”
Science. All Ring does is fling vague scattershot figures around and sometimes they stick. Sideshow psychics do pretty much the same thing. There are earthquakes of varying magnitudes everyday somewhere in the world. And comparing him to Sir Isaac Newton? You win the arsehat prize for that – the second in the space of a week.
Do you know what Newton was about? I am not a fan of Ring but what he says is simply that when the moon is closer to the earth there is an increased gravitational effect. This has a gravitational effect on the air. This has a gravitational effect on the water. This has a gravitational effect on the land.
It is as simple as that.
His underlying proposition is not shit, it is sound. Tell me how the above is not right.
As for arsehat prize – keep it. I see others have you lined up for similar prize. Egg
Hey did you note that you are lighter when the moon is over head.
Sound proposition, but not significant according to the observed data. 1% attribution? Try forecasting weather based on the albedo of roofs in the area.
sanctuary
Don’t frighten the horses. There are enough real and terrible things happening without merry japes as you mention. Not funny. Watch some Mitchell and Webb or something and have laughs at people and politicians to occupy your spare time.
“…. former South Korean military di– uh, ruler”
Language censorship on Television One Breakfast
Television One Breakfast, 7:30 a.m., Thursday 20 December 2012
Newsreader Melissa Stokes read the following: “South Korea has elected its first woman president. Park Geun-hye is the daughter of a former South Korean military di– [pause] uh, ruler.”
The change was so sudden, and Melissa Stokes seemed so momentarily nonplussed, that there’s only one plausible explanation: her actual script said “former South Korean military dictator” but some producer urgently hissed into her earpiece “Don’t call him a dictator, call him a RULER!”
Why would Television One’s administration be reluctant to call a dictator a dictator?
There are no dictators any more. Here is a brilliant speech from the Dictator! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEUKZCFqyIw
That guy’s not funny. He’s even unfunnier when you look at his actual (not “satirical” or “ironic”) support for the mass murder perpetrated by his favorite real-life regime.
I totally agree but he is of course describing the US as it really is. Brilliant the speech is but funny he is not!
I did think he was funny until I realized how hardline and shameless he is in real life. He actually IS Borat, with all of Borat’s brutal anti-Semitism and callous disregard for others. In the same way that some Jewish people cannot listen to Wagner, I just can’t respect Baron Cohen since I learned what a vicious person he is.
Citaions needed. Lots of them!
Mozza, you appear to be unaware that Baron Cohen is jewish (and a socialist). He’s not anti-semitic and I think you are going to struggle to find any evidence of him supporting mass murder. He has also won a Golden Globe for comedy, something neither of you is ever likely to do. So, objectively, he is funny. He’s got an award for it and made millions making people laugh. And saying he’s not funny, then admitting that you ‘used to’ think he was funny is pretty funny in itself, Moz.
Is there the slimmest chance that Sacha Baron Cohen is actually the funniest comedian Britain has produced in the last twenty years and you two are humourless bores?
I respect your intellect, my friend, but in this case you don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ll return to this later, with citations you are more than capable of finding for yourself, were you to allow yourself to get out of hero worship mode towards this moral imbecile.
Right now, I have to leave for a few hours, I’m afraid.
Meanwhile, you need to do a little research into Sacha Baron Cohen, that unfunny fraud.
An antisemitic practicing orthodox Jew????
Populuxe, please look on the thread below. You have a case to answer.
Zionism is inherently Anti Semitic. Palestinians, Egyptians, Jordanians, Syrians and other Arabs living in the Levant are all Semites.
Added to that the Semitic Jews who lived with the Arabs for 2000 years are equally discriminated against by the criminal ruling elite of Israel because the are anti Zionist.
Sasha Baron Cohen is a hardcore Zionist (well documented) and I have always avoided his nasty kind of humour.
I call this speech brilliant in that it describes the US (Which he regards as and which behaves as a Zionist slave state) and most Americans have no idea he is talking about them and their regime (1% is in total control).
Nope Sasha is as wrong as it gets!!!
But tracellerev, Jews are Arabs too. They are not their own separate race, no matter how much that may suit their aims and ends. Why is this such a problem for people?
No actually, TRV let’s not move on. For those of you interested Sasha Baron Cohen a Habonim boy and his work, every film he made one way or another was intended to ridicule Islam and Muslims.
His impact is huge and he defends Israel and attacks Muslims so to say he is neutral is hypocrite to say the least. You want to move on from this discussion that is fine but for those of you curious hit the search button
To PB,
God you don’t talk halfshite. Militia, ZOG (fucked if I know what that stands for) and how you’re so disappointed. Are those the new catchphrases your are told to use. Militia, Preppers AND 911 truthers are now primed to be the next terrorists with their wilkd weapon collecting blahblah blah (I hear the mother of the SH shooter was a prepper too! Is that how you have been told to typecast people who want a new and independent investigation into the events of 911?
And the disappoining thing, is that so people will get the impression you are a patient lot but them preppers, militia and 911turhters are such a trying lot?
(ROFL) You don’t know me, you don’t know what I do in my daily life (Or maybe you do…) and you have the gall to be “Disappointed”?
Fuck you PB, Fuck you and your sad and futile attempts to typecast me or those of us who want to have a new and independent investigation into the events of 911.
Wow.
I guess it’s the Zionists telling me what to say huh?
Watch out Eve, the Jews are coming for yer shootn arns.
“Sasha Baron Cohen is a hardcore Zionist (well documented)”
So you’ll have no problem providing proof, then, will you, Ev?
You’re playing the ignoramus, Te Reo. That’s never a charming look.
Well, ignoramus is a harsh word to describe Ev, but, yes, I am playing her. But only in the sense of fish/barrel, you understand.
Any chance you’ve found the cites you reckon you were gonna provide? Just curious, because my brief google search finds nothing to support your various and contradictory descriptions of Baron Cohen.
That’s funny TRP because my quick google search comes back with 250.000 results in 0.26 of a second!
Great, Ev. Perhaps you’d like to share some of the ones that prove SBC is a “hardcore zionist”. Skip the ones that are just opinion, and just cite the factual ones. Preferably quotes from him saying “I’m a hardcore zionist”. Bet that takes more than 0.26 seconds.
Well, ignoramus is a harsh word to describe Ev, but, yes, I am playing her.
“Her”? [Straightens tie, rubs Brylcreme through hair] “Travellerev” is a GIRL?!?!?!?!??
But only in the sense of fish/barrel, you understand.
C’mon, Te Reo, seriously—stop messin’ about.
Any chance you’ve found the cites you reckon you were gonna provide? Just curious, because my brief google search finds nothing to support your various and contradictory descriptions of Baron Cohen.
Baron Cohen is a racist, extreme supporter of the Holy State. There is nothing “various” or “contradictory” about any of those positions.
Evidence, Mozza, evidence! No point you having a crack at Populuxe for not backing up his/her arguments if you can’t do it yourself.
And, yes, Ev is a woman. Is if that mattered. 🙄
What is the problem with being a hardcore Zionist TRP? Why is that something that has to be proven. What is a Zionist other then someone who supports the state of Israel as the homeland of the Jews? And as a consequence has to support the discrimination of Arabs, Palestinians especially?
Tell you what. Here is a link from Jews sans frontieres and people who read this and want to know more to form their own opinion can Google Sasha Baron Cohen and Zionism and draw their own conclusions.
I wouldn’t call my self a “girl”. That has come and gone but yes, I’m of the female gender and I thank you for the sentiment expressed. 🙂
Fair enough, Ev, I get where you are coming from. Like you, I think Zionism is bigotted, but I don’t think all Jews are Zionist, nor all Israelis. I think its unfair to call Baron Cohen a Zionist (and therefore, a racist) without evidence. And there really doesn’t seem to be any evidence. Lots of opinion, sure, but nothing that confirms that he is any other than an excellent comedian who has a Jewish heritage.
Anyhoo, time to move on?
I call this speech brilliant in that it describes the US (Which he regards as and which behaves as a Zionist slave state) and most Americans have no idea he is talking about them and their regime (1% is in total control).
I’m not sure what you mean by this Eve, but it really is an unfortunate turn of phrase. On the off chance you aren’t aware of why, please take the time to read this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zionist_Occupation_Government
I know that you read Alex Jones (or at least you used to) so you may have picked up some of this stuff from some of the things he publishes and links to, or not, I don’t really care. But what I do care about is that when people are researching conspiracy stuff, they practice discernment. There really really are some nasty people manipulating things and pushing memes, and using codes. Don’t be one of their dupes. Please.
There certainly is a lot of conspiratorial, anti-Semitic rubbish in cyberspace. This idea that the U.S.A. is “manipulated” by Israel (which is basically Mearsheimer & Walt’s thesis) is plain wrong, but it’s at the root of a lot of noise on the internet.
However, it is not conspiratorial or paranoid to see that Sacha Baron Cohen is a brutal and unapologetic supporter of Israel, and a ruthless defamer of the Holy State’s victims.
For your information. Alex Jones is married to a Jewish lady if I’m correct and goes through great pains to avoid the Israel controversies.
He is actually accused of being a Zionist shill for that reason even though he has no problem pointing out obvious crimes such as the shelling of Gaza.
So please back off with your patronising shite.
For those of you wanting to know more about how the US is duped into being Israels bully boy here is some information you don’t get from the MSM about one of the most powerful Lobbying groups in the world AIPAC
Oh and PB, over the years you have never given any “conspiracy nutter” as you call them the benefit of being able to have discernment so fuck off about that too.
America is Israel’s slave state and while Netanyahu may not like Obama and that is mutual in the end America will abide by what Israel wants to do. End of story.
And Morrisey. wipe the shit out of your eyes and start doing some proper research about Israel and it’s puppet masters. You’re smart, use your brain!
So you were endorsing a ZOG thesis then.
Fits with some of the other militia inspired crap you’ve endorsed over the years, ( OMG FEMA camps etc) so it’s not really a surprise, but disappointing all the same.
Citaions needed. Lots of them!
My course of reading to get you up to speed has begun today, with the Steven Salaita piece from Electronic Intifada. I’ll put more up for you each day. Of course, you are entirely capable of doing this for yourself, but I get the feeling this is a case of having to lead a horse to water.
Mozza, you appear to be unaware that Baron Cohen is jewish (and a socialist). He’s not anti-semitic
Yes, he is. He is virulently anti-Arab, and most relevantly, anti-Palestinian. As a state-friendly clown, he is absolved from the necessity to even pretend he gives a damn about the victims of his callous “humour”, and doesn’t have to make any false statements that he cares about Palestinians (like Alan Dershowitz keeps claiming about himself) or pretend to be troubled by Palestinian deaths (like the official spokespersons for the Holy State routinely do even as they justify the killings).
…and I think you are going to struggle to find any evidence of him supporting mass murder.
The evidence is irrefutable. Hopefully, after you’ve read today’s introductory article, you will engage in a little more extensive reading for yourself.
He has also won a Golden Globe for comedy,…
I grant you, Sacha Baron Cohen can be funny, but the old Aristotelian device of Arguing from Awards is unwise. Barack Obama won a Nobel Prize for ….. (WAIT FOR IT!) ….. Peace. Martin Devlin and Murray Deaker have both won awards for sports journalism. Some of the direst songs ever written have won Academy Awards for “Best Song”. I could go on, and may well do so at a later date….
….something neither of you is ever likely to do.
WHAT?!!??!?!? Now that is hurtful.
So, objectively, he is funny.
So, by the same logic, Martin Devlin and Murray Deaker are, objectively, outstanding sports journalists; “Into the West”, “My Heart Will Go On” and “You Light Up My Life” are, objectively, top-notch songs; and Barack Obama is, objectively, a Man of Peace.
He’s got an award for it and made millions making people laugh. And saying he’s not funny, then admitting that you ‘used to’ think he was funny is pretty funny in itself, Moz.
I can see he’s funny, and I don’t criticize you for seeing the same thing. However, he clearly has an agenda—and it’s a brutal one, that needs to be called out.
Is there the slimmest chance that Sacha Baron Cohen is actually the funniest comedian Britain has produced in the last twenty years…
Not a chance. Have you never heard of Jack Dee? Or Frankie Boyle? Or Steve Coogan? Or Ricky Gervais? Or Mitchell and Webb?
…and you two are humourless bores?
I have systematically and seriously made a case for the careful examination and reconsideration of a comedian who is lionized by the establishment. You can call me a “humourless bore” if you want, just like Jimmy Savile used to do about anyone who had the temerity to criticize him.
You could start with evidence, mozza. Any evidence at all would be good. But so far … nothing.
You could start with evidence, mozza. Any evidence at all would be good. But so far … nothing.
If you were a lawyer, you would be admonished (at the very least) for contempt of court. I have argued with you in good faith, and provided an excellent scholarly analysis of Sacha Baron Cohen’s political agenda for you to read—but you have simply closed up and retreated into your shell.
I leave it to others to see who is arguing, and backing his argument with evidence, and who is cynically trying to stymie any argument.
Oh dear, this is well below your usual standard, Mozza. No evidence at all? Surely you must have found at least one quote from the man by now. Nothing? Really?
Playing dumb does you no credit, my friend.
M, TRP is a shill. This is what he does. He is an excellent tool to give people who read them links but he will always sidestep, accuse, malign and avoid. Still he keeps threads alive and that means more people will eventually get the information they need to make up their own minds. And many over here have done over the last five years.
For those of you interested in understanding the likes of Te Reo Putake here is a nice list of 25 hallmarks of shill behaviour
M, TRP is a shill.
I am well aware of that. Thanks for the heads-up.
This is what he does. He is an excellent tool to give people who read them links
Really? Recently, he has refused to read links, or simply denied their validity.
but he will always sidestep, accuse, malign and avoid. Still he keeps threads alive and that means more people will eventually get the information they need to make up their own minds. And many over here have done over the last five years.
You’re being very charitable, travellerev.
For those of you interested in understanding the likes of Te Reo Putake here is a nice list of 25 hallmarks of shill behaviour.
Or, to see a shill in action, simply observe Sacha Baron Cohen’s behaviour.
No, you are right HE won’t read the links but others will and those are the ones I aim for.
Don’t try to win over the haters, you’re not the jerk whisperer is my motto but over the backs of the haters you can actually reach those who are willing to learn.
I apologise for telling you to wipe the shit out of your eyes and start doing research about Israel but I do mean you should do mor9e research on the state of Israel.
Here is a facebook friend of mine. His name is A href=”http://www.gilad.co.uk/”>Gilad Atzmon. He is Jewish and Israeli. He is also a great musician and writer and he recently published a book called: The wandering who? You might want to start there!
WHERE IS HE?
Whither Populuxe1?
Mass Murder Advocate Fails to Front His Critics
I note with some concern that poor old Populuxe1 has failed to surface after being keel-hauled by all and sundry on Tuesday.
I can see five possible explanations for his failure to mount an argument in defence of himself and his outlandish statement on Open Mike:
1.) He lacks the wherewithal to mount a coherent argument;
2.) He is “on leave”, a la the Rt. Hon. Hekia Parata;
3.) Professor Stuart McCutcheon has gotten wind of Populuxe1’s extra-curricular nonsense, called him in for a talk and delivered a stern warning: “If you continue to make a fool of yourself like this, Dr. Hoadley, even under a preposterous surname, we will have to look at your position a little more rigorously….” ;
4.) He is licking his wounds and preparing for an AWESOME comeback, where he sprays around even more awesomely absurd epithets;
5.) In his shame and desperation, the poor oaf has actually shown some courage and taken the time-honored option, viz. …..
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/Giotto_-_Scrovegni_-_-47-_-_Desperation.jpg
Conoisseurs of the bizarre and deranged can peruse the poor chap’s comment by clicking here….
Sorry, but Hekia is only Hon., not Rt. Hon.
But she is a real Right One.
Thank you for that, Lanthanide. While we’re on the subject of errors, I note another grievous one, where I show Prof. McCutcheon warning Dr. Hoadley that he must not make a fool of himself, even under the cover of “a preposterous surname“.
Of course, Prof. McCutcheon, a highly educated man, would have used his words far more accurately.
This is what he would have said: “If you continue to make a fool of yourself like this, Dr. Hoadley, even under a preposterous pseudonym, we will have to look at your position a little more rigorously.”
My apologies for the careless error in the original post.
This line of comments offends me greatly. Not only are you speculating on identities based on the flawless logic “I disagree with H, P disagrees with me, therefore P=H”, you also seem to have constructed a fantasy about H’s legislated academic freedom being interfered with by M, who is connected to you only by virtue of being H’s boss’s boss.
Here’s a thought – lose the obsessive vendetta part of your shiny hat. You might be less of a jerk.
This line of comments offends me greatly.
I’ve already admitted out that my (entirely reasonable) speculation was wrong.
Not only are you speculating on identities based on the flawless logic “I disagree with H, P disagrees with me, therefore P=H”, you also seem to have constructed a fantasy about H’s legislated academic freedom being interfered with by M, who is connected to you only by virtue of being H’s boss’s boss.
As I’ve already said, it was a reasonable supposition. Not many in academia, bar a couple of certifiable cases at Waikato, are as ideologically extreme as Steve Hoadley; our friend Populuxe1 made a stunningly foolish and extreme anti-Palestinian comment; Populuxe has made a point of telling this online community that he works in a university, ergo it was a reasonable inference that the extreme anti-Palestinian Populuxe1 was the extreme anti-Palestinian Steve Hoadley.
Happily, Populuxe1 assures us that he is now “on the side of the innocent civilians, both Palestinian and Israeli”, so assuming he is not lying, there will be no more erroneous assumptions by anyone that Populuxe1 is Steve Hoadley.
Here’s a thought – lose the obsessive vendetta part of your shiny hat.
That was a reasonable inference. You can call it “obsessive”, but on reflection I think you’ll recognize that is not a fair portrayal of my stance.
You might be less of a jerk.
Oooff! Now THAT hurt. I now have hurt feelings….
I work at a university. Am I Hoadley?
There are literally thousands of academic and general university staff, if P was even telling the truth about the sector they worked in at the time they wrote it.
And yeah, inventing conversations between real people based on the fact that you disagree with one person’s pseudonym and another person’s media comments, so therefore it’s a “reasonable supposition” that they are the same person. That’s obsessive.
But nice to know you genuinely believe you were trying to “out” a Standard commenter’s identity. Jerk.
I work at a university. Am I Hoadley?
I do not think so. Unlike Populuxe1, you have not been making Hoadley-esque public statements pouring scorn on the victims of state terror.
There are literally thousands of academic and general university staff,
There would be only half a dozen of them that are so brazen and shameless in their public praise of the Holy State.
And yeah, inventing conversations between real people based on the fact that you disagree with one person’s pseudonym and another person’s media comments, so therefore it’s a “reasonable supposition” that they are the same person. That’s obsessive.
No, it is reasonable to assume that an academic brazen enough to publicly state (on radio) that he supports the state that is engaged in the mass murder of imprisoned, ghettoized untermenschen might be foolish enough to come on a popular forum like this and make similar statements, as well as spraying the ridiculous accusation of “anti-Semitism” at anyone who protests at the Holy State’s campaign of terror. That’s what our friend Populuxe1 did.
You can call that “obsessive”, but that slur carries as much critical heft as our friend Te Reo Putake’s repeated claim that any and all evidence is “no evidence”.
But what about pseudonymous comments? With no career reputation to worry about? And besides, I reckon you vastly undercount the number of right-wingers in academia.
That is indeed a reasonable assumption. But the assumption you made was that any person who uses a pseudonym to state similar (for a given margin of error) opinions is probably therefore the same person who uses their own name and academic freedom in mass media. Not to mention the defamatory assertion of a vice chancellor interfering in the freedom of an academic to express his opinions.And at least I stated exactly why, with reference to specific facts, I thought you were obsessing over this. Inventing defamatory conversations on the illogical leap you made is not healthy.
But you merely make the assertions, and almost never relate them to verifiable specific facts. Also known as “evidence”.
Have you changed your meds recently?
And I don’t know who Hoadley is, but I ain’t he. However isn’t that sort of speculation against the rules here? Usually the moderators are all over that.
You don’t know who Hoadley is? He’s a far-right commentator from the University of Auckland, who during the recent escalation in Israeli terror against the citizens of Gaza, came onto Radio Rhema (which laughably calls itself the Christian station) and expressed his support not for the victims, but the killers.
Your irrational response the other day led me to think he was you. Seeing you live in Christchurch, obviously that was a mistake.
Anyway, in answer to your vitriol, I condemn Israel’s excessive use of force against the Palestinians and their continued illegal colonisation of the West Bank. It’s bizarre that you assume I would just because I find the continued one-sided generalisations about Israel from you to be irritating, antisemitic and smacking of obsession. FYI Bebe and his Likudniks do not represent the entirety of Jewish or even Israeli opinion.
However I also condemn Hamas for its continued provocations of Israel with little regard for the ordinary Palestinians they were foolishly elected to represent, and for the continued climate of fear it creates for ordinary Israelis. I regard Hamas as a terrorist organisation and I lose no love on them.
I am on the side of the innocent civilians, both Palestinian and Israeli. Now go fuck yourself you presumptive freak.
Anyway, in answer to your vitriol,
The vitriol is entirely yours, my friend. I simply held up a mirror.
… I condemn Israel’s excessive use of force against the Palestinians and their continued illegal colonisation of the West Bank.
“Excessive use of force”? What, are you suggesting that there is an ACCEPTABLE use of force that an illegal invading force can use against a civilian population?
It’s bizarre that you assume I would just because I find the continued one-sided generalisations about Israel
What you reflexively and stupidly damned as “anti-Semitism” was in fact a careful, scholarly analysis of systematic bias by the BBC.
… from you to be irritating, antisemitic and smacking of obsession.
I’ve posted some things about Israeli state crimes, as well as crimes by other countries. That’s “obsessive”? You have no strategy other than spraying lame epithets at me?
FYI Bebe…
That’s “Bibi”, actually.
…. and his Likudniks do not represent the entirety of Jewish or even Israeli opinion.
As if we did not KNOW that. So who are Mark Regev, Tzipora Menache and Israel’s other ghastly apologists for state terror representing—the Likudnik regime that runs Israel—or those who belong to the humane, liberal, thoughtful Jewish tradition?
However I also condemn Hamas for its continued provocations of Israel with little regard for the ordinary Palestinians they were foolishly elected to represent, and for the continued climate of fear it creates for ordinary Israelis. I regard Hamas as a terrorist organisation and I lose no love on them.
You don’t know what you’re talking about. You would have condemned the French Resistance, the Yugoslav partisans and the Jewish fighters in the Warsaw Ghetto.
I am on the side of the innocent civilians, both Palestinian and Israeli.
High time you said so, sir. We can look forward to an improvement in the quality and morality of your posts, no doubt.
Now go fuck yourself you presumptive freak.
That sort of abuse is fine when used against, say, Araboushim, or, if you like, untermenschen. Here, all it does is re-emphasize the poverty of your argument.
It’s a lovely day out. Why don’t you get a book on New Zealand birds and go twitting… Or even some bark rubbings. I think you need to get outside in the fresh air more.
It’s a lovely day out. Why don’t you get a book on New Zealand birds and go twitting… Or even some bark rubbings. I think you need to get outside in the fresh air more.
TRANSLATION: “I got nothing.”
That’s a clever response.
Pretty much a literary correlative to Option 5, really.
Now I know where DunnoKeyo got his fiscal directions from ….
Australia will be a casualty of the currency wars
He’s copying the Australian reserve bank example note for freakin note M8’s!
The NZ MSM should take note of a real article written by real journalists as well!.
I keep telling folks that Greece should play the exact same game. They should build a printing press right in the middle of the city square of Athens, wind it up and churn out mountains of euros, then drive it by the truckload to the German border and tip it out.
That will expose the system for exactly what it is.
Debt is the most heinous evil inhabiting and inhibiting the world today.
Does it not register with people that money is;
1. issued by privately owned banks and
2. is backed only by a printing machine and
3. must be paid for with interest (even though it is only printed paper backed by nothing. Paying for nothing).
It is the western world’s achilles heel. And nobody even fucking knows!
I have the worst hangover in the history of the world.
LOL. It cannot be that bad because:
1. It is not even 9.30am
2. You are obviously able to turn on your computer or other device
3. You typed that comment without spelling errors!
Food, lots and lots of water and paracetemol.
With sympathy
VV
Get up, stagger, eat, stagger around a little bit more, go back to sleep for a while longer, wake up ….. et voila !
Umm.. Talking about zombies…
So, vto – what dooo youuu eat..
At some point, should any fellow poster with editing rights have a moment to spare… I’m having the same old, same old problem with scheduled posts not publishing themselves at the designated time I set them for.
There was one slated to go up around 9 O’Clock this morning that didn’t ‘go’. I’ve reschedueled it for tomorrow morning at 8 O’Clock.
Thing is, this same problem has happened previously. Is there something really obvious I’m overlooking in the settings that causes this? I can’t figure it. So…if you have a moment and the inclination, I’d appreciate somebody going into ‘dashboard’ and having a wee look at the post I’ve re-scheduled for tomorrow morning and letting me know if there’s something I’ve not done right or overlooked on the settings front.
Cheers.
Ummm there is both the basic system and a backup system that sends them off when they overshoot.
I’ll start having a look at scheduled posts.
Just had an embarrassing thought. (cough) It wouldn’t be that I’m meant to hit the publish button to make it load to the schedule would it?
Bugger! Guess not. Oh well.
After you schedule it, the button changes from “Publish” to “Schedule”, and yes that has to be pressed 😈
I’m getting an effect of tiny white balls falling over my screen from the top noticeable against a dark background. Christmas snowflakes? How cute. By the way Happy Christmas to all and a 2013 year that offers improvements and hope for good direction and achievements in 2014.
Yep. It was a feature that snuck in on wordpress 3.5.
Up in this hemisphere I thought it would be psychological air-conditioning in the sweltering heat. Down in those chilly northern climes it might be a different story as I suspect the storms will be extreme in their winter this year.
It will turn itself off on Jan 4
In these northern climes it makes up for the rain outside when it should be snowing 😉
Actually I suspect that they will get some quite large snowstorms this year. The oscillating jetstreams have more energy at this phase of the solar cycle and on top of the warming of the Arctic, they’re quite a bit further south. So they’re pushing cold air from the Arctic further south and then it hits more wet air coming up off land and the gulf stream….. Guess what I think will happen.
I agree. We’ve had snow much earlier than usual this year, but have hit a warm-ish period so it’s raining. Pretty boring just before Christmas. It’s an odd climate here with the continental effect enhanced by mountain ranges creating foehn winds up from the desert and then the Siberian/Artic blasts coming the other way.
I’ve been looking around for some graphics of how the oscillating jetstreams are (mis)behaving this year, but there’s not a lot beyond the focus of Britain’s early summer rains.
Umm. I will try to track some down. Was last looking at it when Sandy hit the US. Usually NOAA is the best source.
You saying the outside of the screen will be twitching and black dots will rain across the screen from different directions – whenever I’m at the Standard……until Jan 4?!
Anything I can do to mitigate Lprent?
Ok – that isn’t the effect it is meant to be happening. Sounds like a meteor shower. What browser and operating system?
I’ll turn it off.
Many thanks for turning off the storm LPrent!
No, it’s just irritating.
Grinch 😀
WITCH TRIAL
Witness | Pfc. Bradley Manning’s Testimony, Article 13 hearing Nov. 29 and 30, 2012
US v. Pfc. Bradley Manning is being conducted in de facto secrecy. For more information on the lack of public and press access to United States v. Pfc. Manning, visit the Center for Constitutional Rights, which filed a petition requesting the Army Court of Criminal Appeals (ACCA) “to order the Judge to grant the public and press access to the government’s motion papers, the court’s own orders, and transcripts of proceedings, none of which have been made public to date.”
This transcript of Pfc. Bradley Manning’s testimony at his Article 13 motion hearing was taken at Fort Meade, Maryland on November 29th and 30th, 2012.
[DEFENSE EXAMINATION OF PFC. BRADLEY MANNING ON NOVEMBER 29, 2012]
Defense (Coombs)
Pfc. Manning I know this is a little nerve racking. So what we are going to do, is we are going to ease into this, and just take a little bit of time. Okay?
Pfc. Bradley Manning
Yes, sir.
Defense (Coombs)
Alright, I want to first start off by asking some questions about when you were detained in Iraq. Okay?
Pfc. Bradley Manning
Yes, Sir.
Defense (Coombs)
Alright, do you recall the date that you were initially detained by [Army] CID?
Pfc. Bradley Manning
It was May 27 of 2010.
Defense (Coombs)
And, how did CID first approach you?
Pfc. Bradley Manning
CID first came to– well I was first in the Supply– I was in the Supply office at the Brigade annex, which was a separate building from Brigade headquarters at FOB Hammer in Iraq, and I was– and then, I was escorted by the Supply NCOIC [Non Commissioned Officer in Charge] to an interview room. It was a conference room that had been turned into an interview room. And, I knew that–
Defense (Coombs)
When you walked in, what did you see– when you walked into that?
Read more…
http://www.alexaobrien.com/secondsight/wikileaks/bradley_manning/witness_profiles_us_v_pfc_bradley_manning/pfc_bradley_manning_testimony_article_13.html
Bradley Manning – does he have a support group – like amnesty international?
Manning has supporters from all over the world. Luckily for him, he has not had to rely on the U.S. branch of Amnesty International, which is a compromised and confused organization, to put it very charitably….
http://electronicintifada.net/content/amnesty-urged-reject-tainted-funds-leonard-cohen-concert/978
Anyone else hear this Mad, Bad and Sad Santa?
NewstalkZB, Thursday 20 December, 10:40 a.m.
NewstalkZB’s notorious supercrank Leighton Smith never turns down an opportunity to turn any occasion into a soapbox for his crazed theories about the world.
But you would have thought that station management would have warned the old loon that it was off-limits to attempt to pound his anti-science, anti-reason, anti-academic agenda into the heads of children, and that it was distasteful, even immoral, to dress a global warming denier up as St. Nick and let him loose on a programme aimed at little children.
Apparently, however, anything goes at NewstalkZB. Absolutely anything….
LEIGHTON SMITH: Ummmm, ahhhh, ummmm…. Here’s a letter, Santa, and I’d ummmmm, aaaahhhh, really ahhhhhmmmm like to, ummmmm, hear what you have to ummmm, say. It says: “How is the state of the polar ice-cap, given that we are told so much about global warming?”
SANTA CLAUS: Oh there is no problem here in the North Pole! There’s PLENTY of ice! All this talk of global warming! What a lot of nonsense!
LEIGHTON SMITH: Thanks for clearing that up, Santa. You’re quite right, this global warming is a load of nonsense. Okay, ummmm, ahhhhh, on the ummmmm…. phone we have another child. Jessica, what do you want to ask Santa?
INTERESTING FACT:
One of NewstalkZB’s many mottoes is “Tune Your Mind.”
Morrissey Thanks for the reports from the front. How you can bear to listen to it beats me. You deserve a medal. Watch out that you listen extensively or you will suffer a bad case of post traumatic stress disorder – too much could blow your receptor valves.
And that bit about Tune Your Mind. Makes me think of the old large console radios that had a function of a green light that brightened as you turned the knob to the optimum station reception. Guess now we’ll have those transplanted in our young so we can receive the sacred murmurings of our old western gurus like Leighton Smith. China had Confucius, Greece had Socrates, we have LS.
Thanks for that, Mr. Nose. I sent an admonitory e-mail to the great broadcaster, but he did not deign to reply.
Luckily for aficionados of the unhinged rant, however, I have a few of his on-air comments and e-mails from some time back, relating to other topics. If you or anyone else is interested, I will give them another airing.
Just for a laugh.
The Alleged “Lump-of-Labor Fallacy”
So, the Lump of Labour Fallacy starts off as anti-worker PR and then gets picked up as gospel by the economists but never actually questioned. Sounds like almost everything in economics – stated as fact and yet reality differs and yet the economist fail to note the differences.
Another ‘FarCup’ by the big man with the big stick in chch, his appeal has been lost on the
re-zoning near the airport.
This story is on the TV3 web site.
Sorry can’t link.
Lies and hatred from a coward and a bully. 2 more months untill the Messiah returns
[lprent: Context free silly comment – moved to OpenMike. ]
Oops
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/rebuilding-christchurch/8104255/Brownlee-changes-unlawful-Court-of-Appeal
Is this it VV
Berlin to buy back grid and go 100 percent renewable
Well, at least some governments are waking up to the lies of the neo-liberals. Unfortunately, our government happens to be the neo-liberals and they’re the source of the lies and the actions that doom us to increasing poverty.
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
This could be put to Key by one of our esteemed regular interviewers of our PM, say like that radio station The Rock. Ffs.
And here is what Bill English is up to, no doubt hoping to slide this in ‘under the rader’ at this time of year.
Hidden deep in the Business section of Stuff today
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/8101449/Possible-sale-of-three-SOE-power-companies
For this “… the market’s suggesting it might be possible…”
Read … the brokers and investment banks want to get in as quickly as possible.
For fucks sake that is like listening to real estate agent advice. They only aim for their fee.
The market, the market, the market is best,
So up with the market and down with the rest.
(Apologies to Flanders and Swan)
Treasury advise against the sale of all three power companies due to flat market and low return rate from the sale.
Hopefully the referendum will stall the sale and or polarise the electorate. Roll on 2014.
Possibly the most encouraging global-Left news all year.
Great stuff.
What do folks think of this one?
Road rage man seeks job back or $600,000
By Matthew Theunissen
Guy Hallwright was convicted of causing grievous bodily harm with reckless disregard.
Former Forsyth Barr financial analyst Guy Hallwright is seeking his job back or about $600,000 in lost earnings after being dismissed following his conviction for running over a man with his car.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10855219
________________________________________________________________________________
Wonder what the sentence had been if a patched gang member had done the same thing to Guy Hallwright?
Let’s change the scenario…….
‘Mongrel Mob member XXXXX – in a fit of ‘road rage’ – runs down senior Forsyth Barr analyst Guy Hallwright, and breaks both his legs.
Mr Hallwright has multiple operations since the 2010 incident.
Mongrel Mob member XXXXX is sentenced to 250 hours community work, disqualified from driving for 18 months and ordered to pay victim Guy Hallwright $20,000 reparation after a jury finds he unintentionally ran Hallwright down with his car in September 2010.”
Seems to be QUITE a different story/ sentence if you swap the patched jacket for a pin-striped suit ……?
Penny Bright
‘Anti-corruption campaigner’
http://www.dodgyjohnhasgone.com
Was this a first time offence for Guy Allright! Some leniency to suit guy please! /sarc
Facebook is so intensively tracking readers and commenters on this site, for profile details, with background scripts they use to do this. It is a real worry.
Like a WSJ article on 07 Dec. rightly reported, the internet is anything but free and anonymous anymore, and rather becoming a large grazing ground for information gathering for commercial profiling, advertising and so forth.
I just wonder how many here are aware of this.