Open mike 21/09/2012

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, September 21st, 2012 - 80 comments
Categories: open mike - Tags:

Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.

The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner).

Step right up to the mike…

80 comments on “Open mike 21/09/2012 ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. T 1
    21 September 2012 at 6:15 am

    This was amusing:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=U_3Bqh8ZBAg

    (Nick Clegg apologising with subtitles)

  2. Tony P 2
    21 September 2012 at 6:50 am

    From John Minto

    Mike Feinberg from KIPP (Knowledge is Power Programme) is coming to New Zealand next week to promote charter schools for the ACT/National government. KIPP provides a hideous caricature of quality edcuation for kids from low-income communities in the US. Here is a snippet from a KIPP school which gives the flavour of what goes on provided by education researcher Howard Berlak after a recent visit to a KIPP school in San Francisco:

    “When I was there children who followed all the rules were given points that could be exchanged for goodies at the school store. Those who resisted the rules or were slackers wore a large sign pinned to their clothes labeled “miscreant.” Miscreants sat apart from the others at all times including lunch, were denied recess and participation in all other school projects and events.
    . . . . I’ve spent many years in schools. This one felt like a humane, low security prison or something resembling a locked-down drug rehab program for adolescents run on reward and punishments by well meaning people. Maybe a case can be made for such places, but I cannot imagine anyone (including the Times reporter) sending their kids there unless they have no other acceptable options. What is most disturbing is the apparent universal belief by KIPP staff and partisans that standardized tests scores are the singular and most important measure of a truly good education. ”

    Remember this when you hear Feinberg the glossy salesman..

    • ianmac 2.1
      21 September 2012 at 9:47 am

      Thanks for that Tony. Of course some Nz teachers use a punishment/reward system though they don’t call it “punishment” but call it “consequences.” (Heard of Benching?) Not as extreme as the indefensible KIPP system of course.

    • Dr Terry 2.2
      21 September 2012 at 11:07 am

      A genius like the late Gore Vidal would most certainly have been labelled a “miscreant” during his detested schooling days!

    • Vicky32 2.3
      21 September 2012 at 11:36 pm

      “When I was there children who followed all the rules were given points that could be exchanged for goodies at the school store. Those who resisted the rules or were slackers wore a large sign pinned to their clothes labeled “miscreant.” Miscreants sat apart from the others at all times including lunch, were denied recess and participation in all other school projects and events.

      My giddy aunt! That’s insane…

  3. Bored 3
    21 September 2012 at 8:19 am

    run on reward and punishments by well meaning people. Earlier this week I mentioned the nasty authoritarian streak we have in this country: given the “poor are responsible for their own state” attitudes Feinberg will get a ready audience.

    I had the misfortune this week (it was the only station the car radio would pick up whilst driving round Auckland) to listen to 15 minutes of Leighton (?dont know his name but “the Excrable” will do) rant about how we need to take responsibility and kill people who don’t have warrants and rego. FFS. To that we are reduced.

    • Uturn 3.1
      21 September 2012 at 8:25 am

      Did he really say kill? Or was it a general description of acts that would lead to someone not breathing?

      • Bored 3.1.1
        21 September 2012 at 12:07 pm

        No. “Kill” is my metaphor for his desire to punish, he did say words to the effect of confiscate cars, fine $000s dollars etc. The whole thing centred on Leightons desire to make the citizen take “responsibility” whatever that means, and rather than being persuaded and enabled to do so the citizen was to be whipped into compliance. All very misanthropic and coercive.

    • just saying 3.2
      21 September 2012 at 8:41 am

      Got into a major argument last night with a loved one who was regurgitating the talk-back hate-speech that she listens to practically all the time, and quoting from Ian frakking Wishart’s latest nasty, ignorant mixture of untruths and spin.

      Probably shouldn’t have in the circumstances, but it’s not just talk but a means of aggression against targetted scapegoats, and I can’t always stay cool in the face of it.

      • aerobubble 3.2.1
        21 September 2012 at 10:37 am

        Personal responsibility. The new metric of the right. Despite the recent
        Law series on TV7 that clearly made the case against arguments of virtue.

        The problem is the turd blossom. Which is a two step, any lie must be
        two lies facing each other off.

        Romney would not be as rich and as successful were it not for the
        structure and nature of the peoples of the USA, so he makes out like a
        Randian superhero that he never had to take no frigging handouts….
        …then he shouts out that the other 50% are losers needing the
        government. Exactly how long would Romney last in Haiti?

        Yesterday in the welfare debate, a government MP declared that
        the reforms to welfare will reduce criminality. Well actually he
        said more like welfare reforms would do away with fraud.
        The two lies, one that there is fraud, not the lapse in personal
        responsibility of welfare recipients too many that is fraudulent,
        and that the reforms which would see more lose entitlements
        (like ACC model) would not create more crime and more costs on
        the state from illhealth, etc.

        Look I’m the first person who would welcome the goal of helping
        people into work, but that’s not what the welfare reforms do, their
        purpose is to lower the short-term costs of welfare, and raise them
        in the medium to long term (when Key has left power).

        Why do they hate so much? Why does Romney low America but
        hate most Americans? Why does Key hate our grandkids, why
        are we bequeathing the coming generations with a resource crisis,
        climate crisis, social and debt crisises????

        • tc 3.2.1.1
          21 September 2012 at 11:21 am

          Personal responsibility….likes J Banks takes for his actions, or P Bennett for hers, or sideshow john for the many lies he’s perpetrated etc etc.

          They’ve got the hypocrasy so ingrained it’s second nature to them.

          • Bored 3.2.1.1.1
            21 September 2012 at 12:09 pm

            Personal responsibility, code for the desire to punish, subjugate and dominate.

            • Colonial Viper 3.2.1.1.1.1
              21 September 2012 at 11:55 pm

              Personal responsibility is a core part of the NZ psyche. The only difference the Left needs to deliver is a social and economic environment where taking personal responsibility delivers substantial rewards.

              100,000 NZers would start work on Monday if there were $15/hr jobs available. Its our failure as a society that they aren’t.

              There’s plenty of work which desperately needs to be done in our community. But our current economic structures means fuck all of that work can be structured as paid jobs.

              • Draco T Bastard …
                22 September 2012 at 12:22 am

                There’s plenty of work which desperately needs to be done in our community. But our current economic structures means fuck all of that work can be structured as paid jobs.

                Our current structures means that things only get done if an owner is making a profit from someone else’s work. If that’s not happening then it doesn’t get done.

          • Draco T Bastard 3.2.1.1.2
            21 September 2012 at 12:21 pm

            Psychological Projection

            Psychological projection or projection bias is a psychological defense mechanism where a person subconsciously denies his or her own attributes, thoughts, and emotions, which are then ascribed to the outside world, usually to other people. Thus, projection involves imagining or projecting the belief that others originate those feelings.

            They probably don’t even realise that they’re projecting their own failings onto others.

            • Jokerman 3.2.1.1.2.1
              21 September 2012 at 2:05 pm

              “Vital Lies, Simple Truths”- The psychology of Self-Deception, is a populist paperback
              -said the joker to the thief..
              (not meaning u D.)

        • SpaceMonkey 3.2.1.2
          21 September 2012 at 2:24 pm

          Why do they hate so much…?

          The “hate” is twinned with “fear”… they hate so much because there’s so much they’re afraid of. The system peddles fear and hate for control… dense emotions that are easy to tap the group conscious into. “Fight or flight” and by the time TPTB have bashed your life around the block a few times… many have no fight left.

  4. mickysavage 4
    21 September 2012 at 8:22 am

    Radio New Zealand is reporting that NZ was one of only two countries to vote against protection measures (banning gill and trawling nets) for the endangered Maui Dolphin.  Although the vote was confidential the New Zealand DOC representative apparently announced that they were under instructions from the Ministry of Primary Industries to oppose the proposal.

    Mauis dolphins are iconic in New Zealand and are facing extinction. It seems the Government does not care.

    When you add this to the recent cabinet decision to oppose antarctic protection proposed by the US you get the feeling of a regime that it belligerently opposed to environmental measures just because profitability may be affected.

    Neil Abel describes Joyce, Carter and Brownlee as “the dark heart of the anti-environment policy.”  

    In a telling passage he states

    “There is a spirit of anti-environmental policy in our present administration which is centred on an interpretation of economics that has lead to the mine, drill, frack, cut, sell, build-a-road-through-it and ‘let the devil take the hindmost’ strategies that are the extent of our Government’s development inspiration in nearly four years of power.

    An economy that relies on the steady degradation, destruction and using-up of its natural resources cannot by definition bring lasting human prosperity. ”

    A very apt description of this Government.

    • mike e 4.1
      21 September 2012 at 8:32 am

      The reserve bank has gone back wards on inflation control ( returning to the outmoded 2% target .our dollar will now remain higher than need the money speculators will have a field day as they already are we are one of the few dumb arse countries that don’t play the devaluation game the speculators know this so its easy money for them.

      • Draco T Bastard 4.1.1
        21 September 2012 at 12:28 pm

        Well, that’s going to push interest rates up which will make the banks happy – more money for them from printing the stuff.

    • weka 4.2
      21 September 2012 at 9:25 am

      Also of concern is the change in culture at DOC in the last decade. There are still many good people working in DOC, but there is now an ingrained institutional problem, where conservation is segmented, and often takes second place to supposed economic priorities. I’m not sure how many people realise the shift that has happened.

      Why is DOC taking instructions from the Ministry of Primary Industries?  

      • aerobubble 4.2.1
        21 September 2012 at 10:50 am

        Its environmental fraud by parliamentarians, when they degrade the future environment
        for short term profits for a few private companies. Their lack of concern is a fraud
        on the people of NZ who lose environmental wealth, future prosperity from tourism
        and natural wealth (clean water, biodiversity)….

        We are living through an age now typified by massive environmental fraud.

    • Kevin Welsh 4.3
      21 September 2012 at 10:39 am

      I have this song running in my head EVERY time I hear about the lack of environmental accountablity by this government: Midnight Oil put it nicely…

      The tucker box is empty now
      The heart of Kelly’s country cleared
      The gangers on the southern line
      Like the steam trains have disappeared
      Pelicans glide
      Miracles up in the skies
      We vote for a government
      With axes in it’s eyes

      Mountains of Burma
      The road to Mandalay
      In the mountains of Burma
      Light years away
      Mountains of Burma

      Will the sons of Solidarity
      Still march on May Day ?
      Will the sisters of the seventies
      Still fight for equal pay
      There’s no-one on the Reeperbahn
      No more blankets handed out for land
      We feed an economy
      It’s got blood on it’s hands

      Mountains of Burma
      The road to Mandalay
      Mountains of Burma
      Light years away
      In the mountains of Burma
      The road to Mandalay
      In the mountains of Burma
      Hope you’re light years away

      Pack your bags full of guns and ammunition
      Bills fall due for the industrial revolution
      Scorch the earth till the earth surrenders

      Soldiers of armies
      Storm empty fields
      In a traveller’s trance
      On the way to the high frontier
      Sleepwalkers stumble
      Cable cars run aground
      Imaginary enemies
      Form high above the clouds

      It may be about the lucky country, but it is just as applicable here.

    • tc 4.4
      21 September 2012 at 11:27 am

      ‘There is a spirit of anti-environmental policy in our present administration ..’ and anti democracy, anti evidence/fact based policy etc etc

      It’s that Hollowman policy that’s never uttered in public, only in private gov’t, dining, golf, leisure, business settings etc etc

    • Draco T Bastard 4.5
      21 September 2012 at 12:26 pm

      Mauis dolphins are iconic in New Zealand and are facing extinction. It seems the Government does not care.

      This government doesn’t care about the environment or, indeed, life itself – they only care about getting more money for themselves and their rich mates.

      An economy that relies on the steady degradation, destruction and using-up of its natural resources cannot by definition bring lasting human prosperity.

      QFT

    • BernyD 4.6
      21 September 2012 at 2:32 pm

      No respect for life, it will be a loss to NZ, and our souls.
      They are beautiful creatures who understand, “All for one M8”.
      And I will miss them if they go.

  5. Frida 5
    21 September 2012 at 9:41 am

    Serco – the company currently running one NZ prison in a PPP and contracted to do the same in the new prison being built in South Auckland, currently under scrutiny in the UK for falsifying data in relation to a contract for after hours medical treatment:

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/sep/20/serco-nhs-false-data-gps

  6. Penny Bright 6
    21 September 2012 at 10:24 am

    URGENT!!!!

    (For some reason – can’t post this on facebook)

    PROTEST AGAINST US SECRETARY OF DEFENCE LEON PANETTA!

    TODAY! FRIDAY 21 SEPTEMBER 2012
    1 – 3PM

    OUTSIDE GRAFTON RD ENTRANCE TO AUCKLAND DOMAIN (WAR MEMORIAL)
    (ALONG FROM AK HOSPITAL ENTRANCE)

    AT 2.45PM US SECRETARY OF DEFENCE LEON PANETTA WILL BE LAYING A WREATH INSIDE AT THE AUCKLAND HALL OF MEMORIES!

    If YOU are opposed to this John Key National/ACT Government cosying up to the USA – BE THERE! (If you can!)

    (Media have been alerted)

    Penny Bright

    [lprent: It might have to do with the capitals and repeated explanation marks. I know that when I see them my immediate response is to throttle the noise. I’m sure that if I were coding facebook, I’d get a bit of code to do it for me. ]

    • Kevin Welsh 6.1
      21 September 2012 at 10:41 am

      Penny, are you really surprised you can’t post that on Facebook?

    • A.Ziffel 6.2
      21 September 2012 at 10:46 am

      It would be nice if you could show respect for the fallen by taking your protest somewhere else, like the consulate.

      • kiwi_prometheus 6.2.1
        21 September 2012 at 11:27 am

        It would be nice if Key could show respect for the fallen by taking his PR exercise with a VIP from the world’s No. 1 terrorist state somewhere else.

        • freedom 6.2.1.1
          21 September 2012 at 12:01 pm

          +1

        • A.Ziffel 6.2.1.2
          21 September 2012 at 2:06 pm

          I suspect the wreath laying is not centre stage and that the main PR exercise is the powhiri & meeting at Government House with Coleman.
          Key, in fact doesn’t meet up with Panetta until tomorrow for a barbecue lunch. How big a media event that barbecue is going to be I couldn’t say.

          No doubt, America enjoys being referred to as No. 1.
          As for terroism, perhaps your susceptible to the theory (which I’ve just made up) that the deliberate sinking of the Lexington (one of the missing carriers from Pearl Harbour) by a US destroyer 900 km NE of Rockhampton, was a “false flag” operation designed to inflame anti-Japanese sentiment in Australia & NZ. This then paved the way for the arrival of the 1st Marine division in NZ 3 months later.
          (The marines then went on to Guadalcanal, & this being the 70th anniversary of that campaign, nicely brings us back to the wreath laying)

          So, what’s your preference for the future?
          Cut diplomatic ties?
          Cut trade?
          Ban American film & TV? (please exempt “Breaking Bad”)

          • Vicky32 6.2.1.2.1
            22 September 2012 at 12:08 am

            So, what’s your preference for the future?
            Cut diplomatic ties?
            Cut trade?
            Ban American film & TV? (With an exception for Fringe)

            I’d say all of the above, especially the last, but that’s just me!

             

        • Vicky32 6.2.1.3
          22 September 2012 at 12:06 am

          It would be nice if Key could show respect for the fallen by taking his PR exercise with a VIP from the world’s No. 1 terrorist state somewhere else.

          + 100,000!

    • Dr Terry 6.3
      21 September 2012 at 11:17 am

      Key and his lot are, as usual, hoping to have it both ways as concerns relations with the US and China. Again, a very dangerous bit of gambling!

    • freedom 6.4
      22 September 2012 at 7:03 am

      Hi Penny. The post is up on fb. On the Stuff.co.nz fb page there is a ‘posts by others’ button. This takes you to a separate display of posts. There is also a ‘post by friends button’ More separstist behaviour in the media.

  7. Jokerman 7
    21 September 2012 at 10:50 am

    the lunartic is Off the grass( one week, researchers, and unsettling)

    Corrections staff are identifying less staff ratio/increased physical and sexual assaults in Serco prisons.

    “supported living” is preferable to in-valid; yet still more freakin labels upon people

    Kapiti local bodies requesting Booze Barn be a “responsible’ corporate citizen;”oxymoron”.
    (what is it about this government that they desire to keep facilitating the pouring of ethanol down our young people’s throats, clouding their brains and setting them up for failures and damage?)

    let us not take our eyes of that which is above us-Fermi paradox (thanks DtB, had forgotten that one)
    (He is everywhere and everything to me-Third Day,Öfferings)
    -follow another human and u will only see their shadows on the cave wall

    now, Kapital is ‘flying’ out of France (surprise, surprise) and yet the tax reforms only affect 1000’s

    along with increasing suggestions of the challenges for demokracy by free speech
    yet is speech free when cliches, platitudes and populist jingos etc are resorted thru?

    Wittgenstein (in 90 minutes with a cup-a-tea)

    I am about to commence “The Great Partnership”-Jonathan Sacks
    after that? “Changing the World Through Kindness”
    (gotta brace myself for the Anatomy of Human Destructiveness-Erich Fromm)

    is it just a blog? may be a distributed mind..now,… there are a whole-lotta-thoughts Rosie

    re telegraphing punches? Politics Is a dirty business (soiled) seeds fall where the may,
    some on the path, some amongst rocky places, some amongst the thorns,
    yet,
    many fall on good soil (just saying)
    -many of the “cats” have softened their look, yet cats still claw and bite
    however, our glorious leader is still poncing about like some thing from The Great Gatsby/Vile Bodies

    “When the owners of the slave girl realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them to the marketplace to face the authorities. They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice” Act 16:19

    -years ago, when i was in treatment, WINZ staff acknowledged even then, that many people in New Zealand Aotearoa (thats one of my tells) would require supplementary redistributed income to flesh out what they earned through employment

  8. ianmac 8
    21 September 2012 at 11:01 am

    Am I missing something but Bryce Edwards Political Roundup seems to have stopped with Tueday 18 September “Tide Turns against Banks.”
    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10834800

  9. felix 9
    21 September 2012 at 11:01 am

    I wonder how much currency trading John Key does these days.

    I wonder what bets he’s taken on the NZD.

  10. Jackal 10
    21 September 2012 at 11:14 am

    Listener editor government apologist

    The idiot editor is clearly basing her assumption that beneficiaries won’t be bashed by the government’s repressive welfare policy changes on nothing more than her own ivory tower ignorance…

  11. Dr Terry 11
    21 September 2012 at 11:19 am

    Nobody with a little intelligence would subscribe to the Listener.

    • Arthur 11.1
      21 September 2012 at 11:35 am

      Couldn’t agree more, I subscribed to the Listener for more than 30 years, gave it up prior to the 2008 election when it became overloaded with right wing apologists.

    • tc 11.2
      21 September 2012 at 11:55 am

      Bit harsh Dr T, it still has some good stuff that it probably copy’s paste’s from better outlets but it defenitely took a right turn politically some years ago with NACT spinsters like Billie (how to break a working engine) Ralston and Jane (you have diplomatic immunity) Clifton.

      Most publications serving their masters interests did..

      Anyone done some objective analysis on the publications the NZX swallowed up under Mr Smarmy boy Weldon’s watch to see if tone/direction has altered…..they were mainly rural publications that had some anti Fonterra listing angles at times… funny that.

  12. captain hook 12
    21 September 2012 at 12:34 pm

    so has Len Brwon got the intestinal fortitude to fire the management of P.O.A. L.
    when is he going to do it?

    • Jackal 12.1
      21 September 2012 at 12:47 pm

      You do realize that the Council OK’d the POAL policy to kick the Union workers in the guts captain hook? Any pretext of caring that Len Brown showed when it became apparent in the media that POAL are a bunch of nasty bastards was simply grandstanding. The mayor will do nothing!

    • BernyD 12.2
      21 September 2012 at 12:48 pm

      He can’t bud, it’d be shareholder vote stuff, not a singular individuals’ call.
      And while the actual definition of “Shareholder” remains ambiguous, everyone keeps missing the point.
      It’s a power stuggle between the people who have that implied power and the ones they represent.

  13. tc 13
    21 September 2012 at 12:47 pm

    The Chasers crew returns to ABC on Oz TV monday with their “Hamster Wheel”

    ‘The timing of last year’s episodes turned out to be a gift, coinciding with another chapter in the long-running Julia Gillard-Kevin Rudd leadership saga, the circus of an anti-carbon-tax rally in Canberra led by Sydney radio shock-jock Alan Jones, and the appointment of blowhard conservative Paul Henry to lead Channel Ten’s (failed) assault on the breakfast-TV market.’
    AND
    ‘If A Current Affair was the gift to us in 2006, Paul Henry is the gift to us in 2012,” Licciardello says. ”He’s an interesting media performer because he’s both intentionally and unintentionally funny.’

  14. captain hook 14
    21 September 2012 at 1:48 pm

    berny d I know that but the management have managed to convince themselves that they are the owners when they are not.
    they need to be removed so that decent people with the public good at heart are installed.
    this charade must stop and the thieves relieved of their positions.

    • BernyD 14.1
      21 September 2012 at 2:02 pm

      I hear ya, but like I said, who’s going to instigate the shareholder vote?
      The workers union just needs to keep operating in good faith.

      “Trustworthy” is a 2 way street, if the company itself has funding issues, it should be open about that at the negotiating table.

      And as long as they keep paying, the workers are gauranteed too continue, it is their livelihoods afterall.

      The company itself will continue to function. That’s the objective surely?

  15. captain hook 15
    21 September 2012 at 2:22 pm

    Of course it is important that the company keep going because Auckland is a major entrepot but that does not mean that jumped up accountants can sit there and scheme on how to take it out of public ownership and into their own grubby little hands.
    What the fuck is going on in this world?

  16. Jokerman 16
    21 September 2012 at 2:30 pm

    basis for the “sun”: maybe it is all wind
    btw, the reignited fatwa upon Rushdie may not be the Moor’s last sigh

    “they” label the ‘left’ ‘thought police’: how about thought facilitators?

    to the Social Security recipient ‘label-ers’; do ‘they’ consider all the voluntary intellectual and vocational services many recipients of Social Security provide to Their community??

    Yep. 5 new State Houses for the Chathams. Are they considering Transportation as mentioned by an earlier poster?

    The liberalisation of retail (FDI) in Indian is very sad. How many times must the sub-continent be colonised?
    interestingly, an Indian aquaintence informed me that many Indians go into Health Professions out of
    Vocational Altruism
    (Brahmen respect falling-maybe the Aryan taint)

    Apparently live-stock thefts are ever-increasing in Hawkes Bay and gutted carcasses left near residential areas. Man, imo, this type offence is likely to get worse.

    Max Keiser on RT continuously discusses the eventuation of Gold Standard-based currencies once more. May be why there are so many newspaper advertisements seducing people to relinquish theirs. (as is often stated, u cannot eat it though) Nom Nom!

    John Bradshaw on “The Family”

    Love? Agape`

    Hookie! $13.50 may buy 1-6 second-hand books

    i pray all these new educationalists serving masters are instilling Self-mastery

    remember the is/ought fallacy too Tory Trolls

    (John Key, the man who sold the world)

    • BernyD 16.1
      21 September 2012 at 3:03 pm

      Can u own a “Gravitional Conflagration” ?, question of the day?
      Go Winston Peters: At least he’s trying to contribute too informed debate.
      Go Greens: They’re always civilised.
      Go Labour: Their questions are designed to inspire constructive debate.
      Go Mana: Their responses are designed too inform us and contribute too constructive debate
      Go Everyone else: There’s a civilised debate happening.

      Go Nats: We don’t debate, we “Lead M8”, (Pending debate)

      • Jokerman 16.1.1
        21 September 2012 at 8:06 pm

        Demotics Bud (Uturn to thank for that one) never forget a-muse

        btw, let us all stare at the S(u)n.hee hee

    • Uturn 16.2
      21 September 2012 at 7:26 pm

      to the Social Security recipient ‘label-ers’; do ‘they’ consider all the voluntary intellectual and vocational services many recipients of Social Security provide to Their community??

      Compassion for other people is relatively easy, relatively speaking. Compassion for oneself, not so easy. Which person can love the other by not wishing to change them?

      The labellers suffer from a deficit or lack of compassion for themselves. Which person can love themselves by not wishing to change anything?

      Aspiration – to what? Imperfection? More perfect than perfection itself? “…do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.” Mathew 6 :3

      “Heaven arms with compassion those it would not see destroyed”.

      The labelled need to understand that they can reject the label and stop the cycle. Though in our “christian times” the labelled have their work cut out. It won’t stop the hate banging on the windows, but at least it can be seen as outside banging on the windows, no need to invite it in.

      “Sleep without dreaming, awake without anxiety.”

      No one need do anything to make oneself worthy in the eyes of another; do only for the other, anything else is by-product, not focus.

      “…do not worry …for the day is its own trouble.” Mathew 6 : 25 – 34

      • Jokerman 16.2.1
        21 September 2012 at 7:58 pm

        all ways, compassion, moderation (work in progress) and humility (more work in progress)
        -acculturated memory fades over time. U started it!

        love your neighbour as yourself is easy-peasy; it is the hurtful, harmful Romans that lead me to want overturn the tables of the money-exchangers

        Heke tipu oranga, he taonga tuku iho, ka pakanga ake, aue te aiotanga, te manawanui.

        -Persist in the battle and journey for wellbeing, it is a treasure handed down from the heavens, then comes confidence and peace.

        Te Mauri Ora!

  17. Dave Kennedy (bsprout) 17
    21 September 2012 at 2:49 pm

    As Parata releases the National Standards data she just reveals what was already known and her Government refuses to address the real causes of under achievement. Of course the cheapest solution is to just blame the teachers again.
    http://localbodies-bsprout.blogspot.co.nz/2012/09/natiional-standards-solve-nothing.html

  18. Draco T Bastard 18
    21 September 2012 at 4:08 pm

    People really need to watch this documentary. It’s about the level of extinctions going on right now.

    • Draco T Bastard 18.1
      21 September 2012 at 4:33 pm

      Dolphin vote ‘tarnishes NZ’s reputation’

      New Zealand is the only country to vote against further protection for the critically endangered Maui’s dolphins at the world’s largest conservation summit.

      Well, we now know, without a doubt, where this governments priorities lie and it isn’t in maintaining life on this world.

      • muzza 18.1.1
        21 September 2012 at 6:32 pm

        Something is not right with this – Who else voted, where is the full list, and what does it mean in terms of the votes made supposedly from NZ.

        Does our vote against mean that the protection will not go ahead?

        More details required!

        • Draco T Bastard 18.1.1.1
          21 September 2012 at 9:08 pm

          Well, considering this:

          The Antarctic Ocean Alliance released maps earlier today that show that New Zealand’s proposal will maintain the status quo, leaving the majority of the Ross Sea’s biodiversity hotspots and the most heavily fished areas open and vulnerable to exploitation.

          I think we can assume that this government will say that they’re putting in place protections for the environment but what they will actually mean is that they’ll be putting in place protections for the fishing industry.

          Does our vote against mean that the protection will not go ahead?

          Well, I don’t think it was actual international law that was being voted upon so we’re not bound by it.

  19. BernyD 19
    21 September 2012 at 4:12 pm

    Strange new species discovered off South America, The Planet is still trying for us.
    Speaks volumes about the Tenacity of the Life engine we live on.
    She’d even work with us given a quantified chance.
    But it has to be a real, future oriented request.
    The will is obvious, life will continue.

    • muzza 19.1
      22 September 2012 at 9:18 am

      If thats the spieces I think you are referring to, you can be reasonably assured that unless its some kind of hoax, that it came from a laboratory somewhere!`

  20. fatty 20
    21 September 2012 at 6:30 pm

    Breaking The Set is a new current affairs/news show on RT to replace the Alyona Show…worth a watch.

  21. Jokerman 21
    21 September 2012 at 7:11 pm

    paraphrased- “…the 21st Century conception of the world is one of 3rd Century before Christ;..the age of the Stoics, Sceptics, Cynics, and above all, the Epicurean.”

    -The Great Partnership: God, Science and the Search for Meaning.-Jonathan Sacks.
    (is shaping up to be a really helpful book, …if one is interested. consistency being the hobgoblin of the small minded and all that-Emerson)

  22. Penny Bright 22
    21 September 2012 at 7:18 pm

    US Secretary of Defence Leon Panetta is staying at Langham Hotel – 83 Symonds St Auckland City (close to K Rd)

    http://auckland.langhamhotels.co.nz/locate/location_map.htm

    PROTEST & SHOW THAT NOT ALL NZers SUPPORT COSYING UP TO THE U$A!

    OUTSIDE LANGHAM HOTEL

    83 SYMONDS ST

    8pm – 10pm!

    PLEASE FORWARD!

    A few of us had an effective protest outside the entrance to the Domain (where Panetta laid a wreath at 2.45pm at the Auckland Hall of Memories).

    The entourage could not miss these banners – both going into and coming out of the Domain.

    http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151035361951790&set=p.10151035361951790&type=1&theater

    (Got coverage on TV1 )

    Will bring same banners tonight!

    WHO CAN COME?

    IT’S REALLY IMPORTANT!!!

    Arguably the most significant US visit for 30 years?

    Thanks

    Penny Bright

  23. OneTrack 23
    21 September 2012 at 8:06 pm

    National standards results out today don’t look too flash. John Key should be taking urgent steps to improve them.

  24. Penny Bright 24
    21 September 2012 at 11:47 pm

    PROTEST AGAINST U$A SECRETARY OF STATE LEON PANETTA, OUTSIDE THE LANGHAM HOTEL FRIDAY 21 SEPTEMBER 2012!

    http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=240589602730915&set=a.198880766901799.39744.100003396314895&type=3&theater

    Penny Bright

The server will be getting hardware changes this evening starting at 10pm NZDT.
The site will be off line for some hours.