Open mike 21/02/2011

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, February 21st, 2011 - 46 comments
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46 comments on “Open mike 21/02/2011 ”

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  1. Kevin Welsh 1
    21 February 2011 at 7:26 am

    I wonder if John Key is going to ask for a freeze on the price of petrol?

    • Lanthanide 1.1
      21 February 2011 at 10:20 am

      Maybe if we were producing so much oil that we exported 95% of it and used 5% for our entire domestic consumption, then yeah, he probably would. But we aren’t an oil state, we’re a milk state.

      captcha: petrol (mind-reading, again)

  2. Todd 2
    21 February 2011 at 7:26 am

    Ah! Another sunny glorious day 🙂

  3. Pascal's bookie 3
    21 February 2011 at 7:55 am

    “There was war in heaven ; Michael’s commander and his angels

    fought against the dragon (Lucifer, Satan, and the apostate princes);

    and the dragon and his rebellious angels fought but prevailed not.” This “war in heaven” was not a physical battle as such a conflict might be conceived on Urantia. In the early days of the struggle Lucifer held forth continuously in the planetary amphitheater. Gabriel conducted an unceasing exposure of the rebel sophistries from his headquarters taken up near at hand. The various personalities present on the sphere who were in doubt as to their attitude would journey back and forth between these discussions until they arrived at a final decision.

    Smackdown! Yo mama! etc.

    ( Crazy ass quote taken from crazy ass site: http://www.truthbook.com/index.cfm?linkID=1832 )

    JFTR my money is on the puddle of pimply faced nerds.

  4. lprent 4
    21 February 2011 at 9:30 am

    Back at work again (yay!). Stops me getting bored and more importantly stops Lyn from getting too paranoid when she has to leave me alone. Punching a keyboard and running the brain at high frequencies isn’t likely to cause problems

  5. Les Howard 5
    21 February 2011 at 9:33 am

    Thought you might like to see this. I found it most interesting.

    The Washington Post

    The Arctic ocean is warming up, icebergs are growing scarcer and in
    some places the seals are finding the water too hot, according to a
    report to the Commerce Department yesterday from Consulafft, at
    Bergen, Norway. Reports from fishermen, seal hunters, and explorers
    all point to a radical change in climate conditions and hitherto
    unheard-of temperatures in the Arctic zone. Exploration expeditions
    report that scarcely any ice has been met as far north as 81 degrees
    29 minutes. Soundings to a depth of 3,100 meters showed the gulf
    stream still very warm. Great masses of ice have been replaced by
    moraines of earth and stones, the report continued, while at many
    points well known glaciers have entirely disappeared.

    Very few seals and no white fish are found in the eastern Arctic,
    while vast shoals of herring and smelts which have never before
    ventured so far north, are being encountered in the old seal fishing
    grounds.. Within a few years it is predicted that due to the ice melt
    the sea will rise and make most coastal cities uninhabitable.

    ====================

    I apologize, I neglected to mention that this report was from
    November 2, 1922, as reported by the AP and published in
    The Washington Post – 88 years ago!

    Please let Al Gore know.

    • The Voice of Reason 5.1
      21 February 2011 at 10:03 am

      And I’ve got a Boys Own Guide to Science from 1903 which states that an atom is the smallest thing in the known world and it definitely cannot be split. What was your point again?

    • lprent 5.2
      21 February 2011 at 10:31 am

      Which is exactly why climate shifts need to be looked at over decades rather than on a year by year basis. The reference you’re looking at referred to observations of a few years, much the same as the predictions of an imminent glacial in the 70’s. It is enough for idiots who want to make or just read headlines and don’t bother with understanding the science (like yourself). It is insufficient for anyone who looks at what time periods is required to actually show a significant trend over the top of usual climate cycles.

      The warmest decades recorded in the arctic have been the last two decades. Now that is long enough to detect a trend over the top of the usual climate cycles.

      It is evident that you are a scientific fuckwit… You quote newspaper sensationalism rather than any actual science

  6. The Economic Illiteracy Support Group 6
    21 February 2011 at 9:40 am

    Just in from the NZ Herald: Limo row mishandled because Govt preoccupied – Key”

    The idea that Key was preoccupied with anything of substance made me laugh and laugh and laugh.

    • mickysavage 6.1
      21 February 2011 at 9:50 am

      The idea that Key was preoccupied with anything of substance made me laugh and laugh and laugh.

      Yep the focus group results are in and Key now understands that the BMW stiff is appalling.

      So time to run the diversion line and use the death of a Kiwi soldier in Afghanistan as political cover.

      Utterly appalling …

      • The Economic Illiteracy Support Group 6.1.1
        21 February 2011 at 10:04 am

        Let’s see, his preoccupation would go something like this:

        [Phone rings in JK’s office]
        “Hi, Obergruppenfuhrer Key here! …. Oh, we’ve lost another soldier in Afghanistan? Shit, that’s not very good. A road accident …. well, that’s better than being killed handing over prisoners to the Afghanis to be tortured, I guess, ha ha … No, I guess that wasn’t very funny …. Are Defence taking care of all the arrangements to bring his body home? Yeah? Good – let me know when I need to call his family, and we’ll do all the usual media statements and stuff …. Yes, my staff will handle the details … I’m genuinely sorry for his family, it’s never easy losing a son on the other side of the world. So thanks for letting me know, coordinate with my office over the media details. Bye!”

        He probably was distracted by yet another unnecessary death in Afghanistan – for about ten minutes. So perhaps the headline should read “Limo row mishandled because of Key’s really short attention span”.

        • Tigger 6.1.1.1
          21 February 2011 at 10:37 am

          Superb, next time I fuck up at work I’m just going to claim I was ‘preoccupied’ and it’ll all be sweet.

    • Colonial Viper 7.1
      21 February 2011 at 12:58 pm

      Brisbane, helping in the clean up and rebuild.

    • Vicky32 7.2
      21 February 2011 at 6:08 pm

      I’ve just seen Fatty Garner opining on the subject this minute! Surprisingly, Phil Goff was allowed to speak without being interrupted mid-word.
      Garner ought to be told not to sound so terribly glad that DPB mothers are going to get pounded…
      Deb

    • Todd 7.3
      21 February 2011 at 7:28 pm

      They need a few to clean their new BMW’s… Is that the relentless attack on unemployment Shonkey was talking about? Or should that be a relentless attack on the unemployed.

  8. brokenback 8
    21 February 2011 at 1:19 pm

    The silence over the stunning victory for Sea Shepherd in the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary over the commercial japanese whaling fleet is hard to comprehend.

    It is a profound fillip for Direct Action , environmental/political, that a bunch of universally condemned “pirates” who’s support stems from the disparate fringes of the counterculture , can defeat a well funded , politically motivated campaign from the world’s second largest economy.

    The fight is not over as this BBC report suggests :
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12502006

    and it’s almost guaranteed that “NZ for Sale” John Key & Murray McCulley will respond to the diplomatic pressure and support the Japanese.

    Unless we make enough noise to spook his already spooked spin doctors.

    Spare a thought for the peaceful cetaceans we worked so hard to protect for the last 30 years and create some debate in their favor.

  9. ianmac 9
    21 February 2011 at 2:00 pm

    No Right Turn makes a point:

    “Barclays Bank has been forced to admit it paid just £113m in UK corporation tax in 2009 – a year when it rang up a record £11.6bn of profits.”

    This is about 1% tax of its profits.
    Wonder how many wealthy entities in NZ get away with 1% or less?

    • Draco T Bastard 9.1
      21 February 2011 at 2:16 pm

      Tax Cheats

      And, yes, he’s correct is saying that we need to have a look at corporations and other businesses and tax laws regarding tax and to change them to ensure that the proper amount of taxes are being paid. Hell, we’ve already had the big Aus banks found guilty of tax avoidance to the tune of several billion dollars.

      • Draco T Bastard 9.1.1
        21 February 2011 at 5:42 pm

        Tax Cheats II

        I think the average kiwi would be appalled to discover that some of our biggest companies are paying a lower tax rate than the average pensioner. It suggests that these companies are conniving to avoid paying their fair share. And that is something we should not tolerate.

    • Rosy 9.2
      22 February 2011 at 12:07 am

      UK Uncut http://www.ukuncut.org.uk/cuts/about protests about these tax cheats at the same time as protesting about the austerity cuts. Their Barclays protest consisted of, among other things having book readings in Barclay branches because libraries are being closed. The aim is to directly link the tax cheats with government cuts that ordinary people are enduring. They’re getting a lot of support and requests for info from the U.S. US Uncut branches are springing up in about 20 states.

      I really admire their approach, it’s hard to ignore the connections with this type of protest so it takes away the criticism of ‘undeserving poor’ and puts the blame squarely on reduced tax income from organisations that restructure to avoid tax obligations. Apparently Barclays have dozens of ‘companies’ in Jersey, Isle of Man and Cayman Islands for no other purpose than to avoid tax.

  10. tc 10
    21 February 2011 at 4:05 pm

    Did anyone read the BS PR fluff granny ran on Mark Hotchin over the weeknd, front page news ?

    He’s not sorry he did it, just that he got caught out, unlike Eric who’s far too slick for that and now he’s attempting a credibility rebuild courtesy of granny hearld.

    As for him claiming he’s got nothing stashed away that’s a tui moment as Daddy definitely taught him the value of family trusts a long time ago.

    I’d like to see someone expose the ‘deal’ they made with Allied as it never/smelt/ended up any good so who really benefitted as it wasn’t Hanover investors or Allied shareholders. I’d suggest the beneficiaries of that deal aren’t a million miles from either party, go Adam Feeny go boy.

  11. higherstandard 11
    21 February 2011 at 4:41 pm

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/middle-east/4680549/Libyan-city-falls-to-opposition-report

    I suspect that Gaddafi will be more difficult to remove than Mubarak

  13. Lanthanide 13
    21 February 2011 at 5:44 pm

    Special court for homeless people where the sentence is to improve themselves:

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/salvation-army/news/article.cfm?o_id=500505&objectid=10688758

    “It’s not touchy-feely justice, he says firmly.

    It is about modernising our approach to justice.

    Prison has not worked for the people appearing here – in fact, prison has had almost no impact at all on these people, he says.

    “These folk, the vast majority of the ones we’ve seen, have had appalling family backgrounds with violence that you’d never get in jail, they’ve been treated appallingly on the streets, they’ve been in institutions that have been enormously difficult experiences for them and jail – it’s no great deterrent.””

    “For every dollar invested, savings of between A$1.70 and $5.90 were predicted.”

  14. burt 14
    21 February 2011 at 6:57 pm

    stuff: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/4684663/Staff-apology-over-sloppy-BMW-deal

    OMG – A PM who has the ability to acknowledge that things could have been done better… How refreshing for that to happen while he is still in office rather than after he was ejected for being an arrogant self serving muppet who is unable to ever admit wrong doing or apologise for mistakes.

  15. Vicky32 15
    21 February 2011 at 7:25 pm

    I just heard something on TV3 that blew my tiny mind – so I switched over – I couldn’t bear to hear the results of their ‘text poll’..
    There is a man, a convicted sex offender, who wants, for reasons that are unclear, to donate a kidney. The tabloid question Clive was asking was “If you were on dialysis and needed a kidney, would *you* accept one from a sex offender?”
    Well, why on earth not?
    Anyone who wouldn’t accept the guy’s kidney because he’s a convicted sex offender, would have to be a thorough-going materialist, who believes everything is genetic, including being a ‘crum’nal’ as it’s pronounced on talkback radio, and that somehow, if you have this man’s organ inside you (oops, that could sound dodgy, but it’s not meant that way), you’ll be tainted by his ‘criminality’.
    I have known a guy on dialysis. He’d have done anything. Why have we become so American? (The question “If you were on dialysis and needed a kidney, would *you* accept one from a sex offender?” seems one that ought to be labelled ‘only in America’, it’s the kind of mad thing they would say. But here? Come on NZ, don’t be pathetic!

    • todd 15.1
      21 February 2011 at 9:06 pm

      Could I chop it out of him myself?

    • Jum 15.2
      22 February 2011 at 12:38 am

      While you’re in there, poking about, take both.

      PS Haven’t you read the story ‘The Hand of Cain’? The killer’s hand is stitched on and takes over the mind of the person who then goes on to kill…

  16. Chris73 16
    21 February 2011 at 8:50 pm

    So I was over at whaleoil (big surprise) and I was watching Citizen A which he posts and it struck me how interesting it was that Cameron Slater and Chris Trotters views were more in sync with each other than (as one might expect) the opposite.

    • lprent 16.1
      21 February 2011 at 9:06 pm

      It is the repobrate factor. While I detest Camerons public personas and his unwarranted attacks on this site, me, my previous company and anyone else that he feels offended by. I do booze with Chis occasionally (coming to think of it, the night before having a heart attack) and enjoy his ability to argue constructively. but he is a bit of a conservative.

      But by the same kind of shallow criteria you could look at my business orientated attitudes and say I have a lot of attitudes in common with John Key. Or that because of my attitudes on programming over the decades that I am similar to Assange.

      I guess you’re probably right if you want to be simple and shallow…

    • The Voice of Reason 16.2
      21 February 2011 at 9:07 pm

      That’s less of a surprise than you might think, Chris. Trotter is rather conservative, in a Jim Anderton sort of way.

      • Chris73 16.2.1
        22 February 2011 at 1:30 pm

        I think it means that liberals and conservatives have more in common then they’d like to admit

  17. Deadly_NZ 17
    21 February 2011 at 9:11 pm

    Why does this sort of thing give me the creeping heebee jeezuz?

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/4682723/Compromise-likely-for-US-trade-deal

    And what does Key mean by “difficult tradeoffs” And as this is all done in secrecy behind closed doors. I wonder what the price will be for our trading soul.

  18. Drakula 18
    21 February 2011 at 10:07 pm

    Deadly; The reason that you are getting the heebee-jezuz is that you are human and reacting to one of the must cynical sell-offs in the history of this country.

    This NAT/ACT government is only continuing what the Shipley National government was going to do in the 90’s and that was to introduce the Multilateral Agreements on Investments.(MAI)

    Under the MAI transnational corporations would be able to set up shop in this country without being under the auspices of our sovereignty but adhering to the rules of the World trade Organisation.

    Such transnationals would under that agreement be able to import workers at a fraction of the wage to that of the domestic workers and the compromises would not end there. Such companies would ignore domestic laws.

    Under this TPP’s agreement I think that there are going to be the same deals that is why it’r all discussed in secracy.

    If the government has signed away our soveriegnty that’s when everybody needs to hit the streets; never mind about the November election it will be too late!!!!!!!!!

    • Campbell Larsen 18.1
      21 February 2011 at 10:33 pm

      Drakula – you have a dramatic sounding name but you are correct – The TPP cannot be binding if the people have not been involved in the discussions regarding the terms – what we have now is a farce – whereby our sovereign rights are ignored and immoral and unjustifiable conditions and sanctions are imposed upon free peoples the world over without consultation and without mandate. Democracy is a myth told at bedtime to children who cannot bear to hear the truth.

      • Campbell Larsen 18.1.1
        21 February 2011 at 10:58 pm

        To be fair – it is not the people who are the children – it is those that seek to rule on behalf of the people – the suppression of information around issues such as food supplies, energy, response to transmissible diseases and desperate migratory peoples, is a desperate ploy by those who fear free and open dialogue – these topics are the very thing which may save us from catastrophe, yet our so called leaders seemed determined to make these issues the last shame that we humans will enable – I wait patiently to see this conundrum turned into a virtue – but as yet I’m still waiting.