Open mike 22/03/2013

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, March 22nd, 2013 - 110 comments
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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…

110 comments on “Open mike 22/03/2013 ”

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  1. AsleepWhileWalking 1
    22 March 2013 at 6:37 am

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8458171/Evicted-beachcomber-says-he-ll-go-quietly

    This is bullshit. This guy is just spending more time on the beach than others.
    This “eviction” is so that the wealthy people can enjoy uninterrupted views as well as reinforcing the capital model of paying exorbitant rental…to the wealthy! We’ve just come full circle.

    An eccentric living in a hand-made driftwood and tarpaulin home on the foreshore near Oakura has been given his marching orders.

    But Eric Brewer, 62, says he is unfazed at the threat to remove him from his seaside home with the million-dollar views at Tapuae.

    “I’m out of here,” the sickness beneficiary told the Taranaki Daily News team whom he warmly welcomed into his beach bach on a perfect late summer’s afternoon yesterday.

    Averse to paying rent or a mortgage, he has no idea where he will go. He has lived off-and-on at Tapuae for nearly two decades.

    -snip-

    Mr Brewer concedes he is living on the Queen’s Chain but says it is confiscated Maori land.

    “I swear allegiance to this land, not the Queen of England,” he said.

    We need more like him.

    • AsleepWhileWalking 1.1
      22 March 2013 at 6:40 am

      OMG edit function is back!!

      [lprent: Yes. The result of some irritated and coffee concentrated cursing and other hard work. Turns out the the damn thing was trying to access admin functions without defining it as requiring a https connection. It will require some more work to get to play nicely with the rest of the system. But gives me more time to figure out a more elegant solution. ]

    • tc 1.2
      22 March 2013 at 6:48 am

      Like the Californian equivalent, Malibu, where the wealthy keep attempting to secure exclusive use of the beach in contrast to Venice Beach where it belongs to everyone.
      They’re wealthy enough to buy their own but there’s no ‘look at me and what I’ve got’ ‘value in that and Public land is free, just use the system to keep the riff raff out.

    • felix 1.3
      22 March 2013 at 9:32 am

      “The New Plymouth District Council confirmed last night it was taking action after receiving complaints from nearby landowners and the public about “Mr Brewer’s unlawful activities on the land”.”

      Interesting use of the word “unlawful” there. I wonder what they think it means.

      • Draco T Bastard 1.3.1
        22 March 2013 at 10:50 am

        In this case it appears to mean irritating rich people by being poor and on the beach.

        • ghostrider888 1.3.1.1
          22 March 2013 at 11:38 am

          However, from Campbell Live
          Solid Energy : “a culture of extravagance at Stockton”, SUVs for Africa, a 6M machine unused,
          yet, a cut-back on miners per shift hours
          yet more days required of miners to be on site (bussed in)
          from RNZ; Telecom- “too many people at the top-end” (lawyers and accountants among those getting the axe.
          Back to tele,Fontera have re-bottled the Anchor Milk brand (light-blocking) while the executive oncedes upon questioning; Anchor sales have declined vs supermarket / house brands; that they are exactly the same (price premium justified by “all the R&D Anchor carry out; “milk consumption in NZ is flat and declining)
          Obama offered little in speech to Palestinians (little was expected) yet “recovered his voice” when addressing Israeli students.
          14:31 He who oppresses the por shows contempt for their maker, yet whoever is kind to the needy honours God.
          Balaam’s error; the error of consuming greed.
          Smells Like Teen Spirit
          http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ui2a2KTx60s
          ( a mischievious Goodfellow hub indeed; thanks, yet gave the candy away)

      • Murray Olsen 1.3.2
        22 March 2013 at 4:10 pm

        It’s unlawful to have a view that you haven’t paid a developer for. Same principle holds in GI with the evictions.

  2. AsleepWhileWalking 2
    22 March 2013 at 6:47 am

    If the Minister is going to stand up and tell this House that 5,000 people have come off a sickness benefit, I will point out that during that time 7,000 people went on. Sure, absolutely, if they need to access it, they should. But it is absolutely disingenuous for that Minister to try and bandy around numbers as though her reforms have changed the world when in actual fact, for the people who are experiencing it on the front line, they have done no such thing.

    http://www.parliament.nz/en-NZ/PB/Debates/Debates/a/e/d/50HansD_20130320_00000012-Social-Security-Benefit-Categories-and-Work.htm

    • The Al1en 2.1
      22 March 2013 at 7:20 am

      TIM MACINDOE (National—Hamilton West) :
      The other thing I want to say to Asenati Lole-Taylor is just that I believe that all honest work is inherently valuable, and although some is work that a lot of us would shy away from and that some of us are fortunate enough not to have to do, I have nothing but respect for those who are working on some of those humble and at times very, very unpleasant jobs. I am sure that every member of this House would want to support those people, and not in any way undermine their efforts.

      So put your money where your mouth is and pay them a minimum of at least $15ph.
      God told me to tell you to do it. :wanker:

      • bad12 2.1.1
        22 March 2013 at 8:27 am

        Yeah past by 1 vote 61/60 what is best described as the Youth Employment Discrimination Bill should be one of the first of the ugly pieces of National Government legislation that the next Labour lead Government toss in the rubbish bin,
        It’s ugly enough to be giving young people the kick through youth rates but applying those same youth rates to those a year or two older for having been on the dole for a while for no specific reason other than they thunk it makes me think that that particular piece of legislation might better have been named the Molestation of Young People in Employment Bill…

      • xtasy 2.1.2
        22 March 2013 at 8:42 pm

        Yeah, I am waiting to see Tim MacIndoe clean the toilets at public facilities in Hamiltion then, voluntarily or on the minimum wage. Yeah Right, pull out YET ANOTHER TUI Board!

  3. Morrissey 3
    22 March 2013 at 6:59 am

    “He is ARROGANT, he is MOODY, he is CONTROLLING”
    Bill Ralston’s wife has a go at him on air
    “The Huddle”, NewstalkZB, Thursday 21 March 2013, 5:45 p.m.
    Larry “Lackwit” Williams, Pam Corkery, Janet Wilson

    Anyone who tuned into the usually dire “Huddle” segment yesterday would have heard something remarkable: Bill Ralston’s ghastly wife Janet Wilson took the opportunity to tell the world just what she thought of her husband Bill. However, she wasn’t so unwise as to do it directly; she chose the time-honored technique, widely used in Soviet Russia and other repressive regimes, of allegory….

    LARRY “LACKWIT” WILLIAMS: Okay, ahhhhhhhhhmmm. Julia Gillard. She’s GONE for sure!

    PAM CORKERY: Actually, I don’t think so. Kevin Rudd is extremely unpopular. I predict Gillard will win this leadership vote.

    JANET WILSON: I agree with Pam. I’ve never understood the fascination of the Australian public with Kevin Rudd. [voice thickening to a croak as she becomes emotional] He is arrogant, he is moody, he is controlling.

    [Several uneasy seconds of stunned silence follow…]

    LACKWIT WILLIAMS: Okay, ummmm… errrr….

    By the end of that little contribution, Janet Wilson was snarling, and I’m sure she was shaking with emotion too.

    POINT TO PONDER
    When Pam Corkery appears on this show, the quality improves noticeably. That’s because Corkery, one of the few liberal commentators allowed on, will not be bullied and shut out by Lackwit-Williams and whoever happens to be the other Huddle guest. She insists on making her points clearly and will not allow Lackwit-Williams to laugh her into silence. Today, after her coded attack on her husband, Janet Wilson spoke sensibly and thoughtfully, something she is just not usually compelled to do on this normally pisspoor program.

    • bad12 3.1
      22 March 2013 at 8:10 am

      ???Hah, you have to have a very ‘free thinking’ imagination to make the leap from the Australian politics being discussed in the part of the transcript that you have put up to entertain the belief that Ralston’s wife is talking about Him and not the Australian politicians being discussed,
      Perhaps i am missing something here, are there special code words that indicate we should beleive She is talking of Her husband and not Kevin Rudd…

      • felix 3.1.1
        22 March 2013 at 8:24 am

        Yeah well you also have to have a fairly free-thinking imagination to call it a transcript as Morrissey is known to have quite a different definition of the word to everyone else on the planet.

        • bad12 3.1.1.1
          22 March 2013 at 8:32 am

          Lolz, my bad, it’s my new image, i should have said WTF is that s**t, but, i am trying to do nice lolz,

          Yeah border-line slander seems to be that ones writing style, OK when applied to politicians but i don’t know about radio commenters…

          • Professor Longhair 3.1.1.1.1
            22 March 2013 at 2:28 pm

            1.) …. border-line slander seems to be that ones writing style…

            What, pray tell, was slanderous in suggesting that an angry and emotionally fraught woman was taking the opportunity to publicly excoriate her obnoxious spouse? Of course, she was smart enough to phrase it so that it seemed like a criticism of an obnoxious Australian politician; but smart listeners—and admittedly there are not many of them in that station’s audience—-will have appreciated what she REALLY meant.

            1.) >OK when applied to politicians but i don’t know about radio commenters…

            Oh yes, we need to remember that the afternoon chatterboxes on NewstalkZB are dignified, professional and rigorously dedicated to telling the truth.

            • bad12 3.1.1.1.1.1
              22 March 2013 at 6:01 pm

              Nah what i do remember is Lange versus What’s His Face where the judge set out the difference between what could be slander against a politician and a ‘normal’ person, the latter having far more protection under the law than the former,

              i cannot be bothered to expend the energy necessary to address the other part of your comment, except to say that it is as absurd as the original suggestion that the commenter on the radio station was addressing Her husband and not commenting on Kevin Rudd,and, you must have ‘special powers’ to be able to deduce from the comment made the inference later attributed to what was commented upon as the reason to come to that particular conclusion…

        • The Al1en 3.1.1.2
          22 March 2013 at 8:58 am

          Talking of conspiracy theories…

          I went to pay my website bill after getting the final notice, only to find my payment was bounced back. When I contacted the sales team, they told me I could now no longer pay by bank transfer, as I agreed when I opened the account, because of the unforeseen death of the director.
          So I asked what happens next? Do I just transfer to another place that wants my money? And within a minute I had a transfer key and a goodbye.
          Maybe they just don’t want to make money. Maybe they just don’t want my site on their servers.
          Site down (not that anyone visits) ’til I sort it.

  4. Polish Pride 4
    22 March 2013 at 7:20 am

    I was going to post this also but you beat me to it :)..
    A perfect example for those who say – if you don’t like the system, don’t participate in it. Go and live in the bush or something. To do this is damn near impossible. The system is so pervasive that even when one chooses to this is what inevitably happens
    -In short You cannot be free of the system even if you want to.
    Have a mind to drive up there and build another makeshift beach bach 30 meters down the beach after the council have gone and give it to him to live in and then keep doing it each time he is evicted!

  5. logie97 5
    22 March 2013 at 7:39 am

    Just where do these captains of industry get off?
    One day the masses are going to wake up to the fact that these inflated egos are going to have to stop being able to nominate their worth to an organisation and be paid just a reasonable living wage.

    Telecom have had a succession of leaders who have been paid multi-million annual salaries, after a few years have moved on with massive golden handshakes and then, suddenly, these organisations announce massive layoffs of the ordinary employees … (saying they have to trim the fat).

    These same captains of industry of course join such organisations as the EMA, Round Table etc and dictate to the government what they think nurses, teachers, firemen etc are worth.

  6. bad12 6
    22 March 2013 at 8:14 am

    Yay, the edit function is back and working, thank you very much i can now return to bad spelling and mangled English with the ability to amend such…

    • Draco T Bastard 6.1
      22 March 2013 at 11:34 am

      Testing (no HTML)
      Testing (Italics using the editor button)
      <i>Testing</i> (Italics using HTML)
      This is a link (Link inserted using the editor function)

      And, no, I don’t have the WYSIWYG turned on. At least it has an escapse to HTML.

  7. bad12 7
    22 March 2013 at 9:12 am

    So Bill from Dipton, the Minister of Finance is ‘surprised’ by having nearly 10% of Kiwi’s sign up for the preregistration of the legislated theft of Mighty River Power from the other 90% of Kiwi’s,

    This 10% only too happy to be availed the chance to steal off of the other 90% of us are to be given what, 10% of the shares, 20% of the shares???,

    The other 80-90% of the shares will go where, from what Bill says they will be ‘retailed’ on the open market so presumably the ‘mums and dads’ who are the likes of the Goldman Saches US Banking Cartel will swallow the majority of the shares in Mighty River Power,

    Bill’s surprise, sounds like He has promised the ‘banking cartels’ that less than 10% of Kiwis will have the coin to buy into Mighty River so there would be no problem for them through their various Nominee Companies to gain the lions share of the float…

    • Tigger 7.1
      22 March 2013 at 9:38 am

      Yep, call it what it is. Theft. All those ‘law abiding’ citizens are stealing our property. Time for Labour to tell them they’ll renationalise any assets sold…come on DS…want to be a leader then fucking lead.

      • bad12 7.1.1
        22 March 2013 at 10:37 am

        Yes as a starting point of ‘ownership’ Labour should look at the Cullen Super Fund becoming the ‘owner’ of all the shares of the assets that National plan on putting into the hands of the International Banking Cartels,

        We could in the future then have a rational discussion, after the Baby Boomer Retirement Bump has passed about changing the focus of that Cullen Fund being used to pre-fund part or all future retirement from dividends of the assets held by it…

      • David H 7.1.2
        22 March 2013 at 11:03 am

        And have Shonkey ask him if he’s going to pay for them out of secret bank accounts in the USA. A great leader he isn’t.

    • johnm 7.2
      22 March 2013 at 10:08 am

      bad12
      +1

  8. prism 8
    22 March 2013 at 10:47 am

    I have put the point that the wealthy have the option of shunting their children and the guidance of their young ones, to boarding schools. Gina Campbell, daughter of speed record winner Donald Campbell was sent to one at age two when her parents’ marriage broke up. Her father had three marriages, and her mother I think the same. She has written a book Daughter of Bluebird.

    Later she had the experience of her mother needling her ex-husband with great promises to Gina about how she would look after her horse with top class treatment, which caused unrest as Gina thought she was in earnest. When the offer was accepted, the mother withdrew it with numerous excuses.

    Poorer people’s abandonment of a child’s care tend to be obvious, the wealthy can slither out
    from withholding emotional support and guidance to their child untouched by approbrium. ‘Look what I did for you’ is often the comment from parents who have given little personal love and care, but money spent on the child’s living and schooling piles up and is seen as a debt to the parents. The child becomes an object of charity to them with periods of erratic expressions of love and interest from them.

  9. bad12 9
    22 March 2013 at 11:11 am

    Slippery the Prime Minister was yesterday in Taranaki opening a gas fired electricity plant, the cost $100 million and it is capable of powering 70,000 homes,

    In ‘primitive’ New Zealand it’s probably a forlorn hope that all the CO2 being given off as exhaust from ‘wasting’ all that gas will be captured at it’s source,

    Of interest when i was looking for information on this project was the fact that the construction also included a gas storage facility, (an existing played out gas well that surplus gas is being pumped into),

    i have to wonder if the ‘players’ in this gas to electricity game of waste realize that they are building the infrastructure that allows CO2 to be harvested from the atmosphere using the air’s own movement to bring the CO2 to the point of harvest and be turned into the very gas that they are at present taking from the ground and turning into CO2 by burning it,

    Capturing that CO2 and turning it into Methane Gas, (even petrol), is a technology in it’s infancy but at least one country, Iceland, is capturing CO2 from it’s geothermal electricity generation,(yes apparently ‘some’ geothermal electricity generation does produce CO2), and doing just that with it,

    Yes, we can all see the problem with turning CO2 into a fuel and then burning it as a fuel is still releasing CO2 to the atmosphere, BUT, harvesting CO2 from the atmosphere and refining that into fuel to produce electricity may be the way of the future IF the CO2 expelled in the production of electricity is captured at it’s source and refined back into the same fuel burned to create it in the first place…

    • Draco T Bastard 9.1
      22 March 2013 at 12:02 pm

      So, after searching the web I’m figuring that that is 100MW generator. For just a little bit extra we could have had wind turbines with nowhere near as much pollution or need for ongoing importation (we’re almost out of natural gas in NZ) for gas.

      The best thing that can be said about a gas generator is that it’s most likely to be shut down in a few years due of lack of fuel.

      • bad12 9.1.1
        22 March 2013 at 3:08 pm

        Yes wind generation also seems to be on the cards for Taranaki,

        Coastal site eyed for large wind farm,
        http://www.wanganuichronicle.co.nz/news/coastal…wind-farm/1600159

        As far as running out of gas with which to cause even more CO2 to be pumped into the atmosphere, these people seem to think it’s going to be around for a while,

        Tag oil upbeat on well strike/stuff.co.nz,
        http://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/…/tag-oil-upbeat-on-well-strike...

        2012-O&G industry kicks off to great start/ energy stream,
        http://www.energystream.co.nz>newscenter

        But, thats not really the point i am making, whats of interest is that it appears much of the present infrastructure of turning CO2 into methane gas, including it’s storage, is already present in Taranaki,

        Here’s the fledgling CO2 to Methane industry in Iceland, the obvious BAD bit of that is to then allow the CO2 back into the atmosphere via burning the methane in vehicle engines,

        What that Icelandic power plant should be doing is simply burning the product made from CO2 in it’s electricity generator, capturing the CO2 produced by having done so and sent that CO2 back through the process of turning it into Methane so as to enable it’s re-burning,

        CO2 to Methanol.com, Iceland converts CO2 into Methanol,
        http://www.co2tomethanol.com/

        Also of interest on that page is the story of the ‘break-through’ science involved in using biological catalysts which enable CO2 to be turned into Methane using Sun-light without the expensive metals like gold previously thought to be the only catalyst able to perform such a function,

        The next part of the jigsaw is of course the separation of the CO2 from the air, again such a ‘science’ is in it’s infancy but a theoretical study i have read, (will try and link to it later), ‘sees’ this to be not necessary as a removal of CO2 from the air at the source of the CO2 emissions but more a case of having the air movement in a place akin to todays wind farms bringing the CO2 to the means of it’s extraction from that air,

        My particular interest in Taranaki at the moment is because the infrastructure present as part of the oil/gas system would also be the infrastructure necessary for a CO2 to fuel industry…

        • ghostrider888 9.1.1.1
          22 March 2013 at 3:50 pm

          got the links sussed then

          • bad12 9.1.1.1.1
            22 March 2013 at 3:53 pm

            Lolz, have i ???, i just ‘hopeded’, haven’t tried them myself as yet…

            • ghostrider888 9.1.1.1.1.1
              22 March 2013 at 3:58 pm

              1 in 4; others appear “expired” this end anyway

              • bad12 …
                22 March 2013 at 4:29 pm

                Grrr, bugger, did you get error 404???, the pages are not expired tho, if you Google the heading above the dud links it should, (hopefully), take you to the page,

                1 out of 4, i spose i should look on the bright side of that, Grrr, that CO2 to Methanol site contains most of the info i am attempting to impart here and the third story on the page is also of interest as little old NZ gets a mention for the technology that is already in place in Taranaki,

                Googling, Converting CO2 to Methanol also provides a zillion pages of useful info on the subject,

                Of course Methanol has a lot more uses than just fuel, most of the plastics made in the world today contain the stuff, and IF we had the cost effective tech that took CO2 from the atmosphere and eventually made plastics with it then we have ‘fixed’ that CO2 for the lifetime of those plastics most of which i would dare suggest will end their existence buried in a landfill…

                • Colonial Viper …
                  22 March 2013 at 11:39 pm

                  Energy. It can be done but the energy required and the cost of that energy is going to be massively prohibitive.

                  • bad12 …
                    23 March 2013 at 12:25 am

                    No not necessarily from what i have read, given that with bio-catalysts and sunlight quite a stream of methane can be obtained from CO2 with little ongoing energy cost the efficacy of doing so will come down to the cost of extracting such CO2 from suitably robust air-flows,

                    The rest is simply the cost of the rest of the process that the 2 methanol plants in Taranaki have been carrying out from time to time since they were built by Muldoons ‘think big’,

                    If a tonne of carbon had a price in NZ as a straight tax, such a tax could then be applied to the extraction of tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere thus lowering the cost of fuels extracted from that carbon,

                    My next dig through the internet mountain of info i think will have to concentrate on both those questions, what price we as a society are willing to pay as tax for a tonne of carbon and what it might cost per tonne to extract such carbon from the atmosphere from suitable sites of high airflow,

                    Obviously the closer all these different ‘processes’ occur to the plants which manufacture methanol the more cost effective and commercially viable they become…

      • alwyn 9.1.2
        22 March 2013 at 4:17 pm

        You have an interesting view on what is “just a little bit extra”.
        Your link give a cost of about $1.75m for a megawatt of nameplate capacity. That’s the average of the range of $1.3m – $2.2m given in your link. However that is the maximum possible generating capacity of the turbine. The actual efficiency of them varies between about 25% and 40% so you would expect to need about 3 times the installed capacity as the power you generate.
        The cost of producing 100MW would then be about 100 * 1.75 * 3 million dollars.
        This works out at about $525m as opposed to the quoted figure of $100m. To Bill Gates, (or perhaps David Shearer), that might be “just a little bit extra” but it doesn’t seem so to me.
        There is also no reason at all to believe that we are just about of natural gas. That canard has been used for years worldwide and we seem to always find more. If the Greens get to ban any exploration or production it might come true but we live in hope that they won’t get the chance to do so.

        • bad12 9.1.2.1
          22 March 2013 at 5:39 pm

          And if the worst case scenario expounded by the climate scientists were to be correct??? what price would you put on your current lifestyles continuance, the very continuance of the life of your grandchildren???,

          Capitalist bean-counters should in my opinion when it comes to the equation vis a vis money over climate simply be abused as the whole money system is a foolish joke clung to by the wing-nuts as an ancient African witch-doctor clung to his baubles of divination…

        • Draco T Bastard 9.1.2.2
          22 March 2013 at 6:04 pm

          Yeah, Ok, I was out on the price. Still say that wind, being renewable and sustainable, would be better option. Price isn’t the best way to choose.

          When will oil, natural gas, and coal peak?
          Globally, gas peaks in the 2020s and we’re a small nation at the bottom of the world with very little reason for people to gas sell to us. We may have a small amount left but I heard a few years ago that the Maui Field was out.

        • Colonial Viper 9.1.2.3
          22 March 2013 at 7:41 pm

          That canard has been used for years worldwide and we seem to always find more.

          Wrong concept. Natural gas economics is crashing mate. The fossil fuel industry will grind to a commercial halt while there are gigatonnes of the stuff left under the ground.

    • prism 9.2
      22 March 2013 at 12:02 pm

      Jokeyhen’s attitude to NZ is that it is a great scenic background in front of which he can perform various celebrity gestures and give out uplifting and soothing speeches about the great conditions we have here. We’re like a unique handbag accessory for this most prominent NZer. The rest of us just have to use plastic ones with folksy pictures or a koru on them.

    • xtasy 9.3
      22 March 2013 at 8:45 pm

      “Slippery the Prime Minister was yesterday in Taranaki opening a gas fired electricity plant, the cost $100 million and it is capable of powering 70,000 homes”

      Slippery failed to do an essential thing: To light a cigarette with an open flame lighter, which could have saved the country from a damned lot of harm. But I suppose, he does not smoke, regrettably.

      • vto 9.3.1
        22 March 2013 at 8:56 pm

        If it costs $1,500 per house to build a power station then wtf are we doing not doing so cooperatively? That is shit all coin. Far less than installing a solar number or something similar, by a large multiple.

        And surely the ongoing cost of running the power station and supplying the fuel is relatively minor compared to the capital cost of construction.

        If so, why on earth would the average hosuehold be paying around $2,500 per annum for electricity?

        Does this not highlight something very very fishy around power companies …………..

        • Draco T Bastard 9.3.1.1
          22 March 2013 at 9:24 pm

          If we paid for the power-stations through taxes and considered them a social good then we don’t need a return (profit) on the capital. At that point all we’d need to cover is the running and maintenance and that spread across all households would be SFA and that cost goes down if we use renewables as there’s no longer any drag from the costs of supplying fuel.

          Conclusion: A state monopoly in power supply and reticulation is the most efficient and cost effective way of supplying power especially if using renewables.

          • vto 9.3.1.1.1
            22 March 2013 at 9:26 pm

            Well yes John Key’s visit today would seem to underscore that reality.

            Why do you think John Key would not recognise it? Blinkers? Paymasters? Dogmatism? Sheer ignorance?

            • Draco T Bastard 9.3.1.1.1.1
              22 March 2013 at 10:39 pm

              All of the above?

              No, I don’t think he’s that ignorant. He’ll know how to get rich which is to get a lot of people to give you a little bit of money (A little bit here, a little bit there and pretty soon you’re talking serious money). As such he’ll know that to keep costs per person down would be to spread them out across as many people as possible.

    • xtasy 10.1
      22 March 2013 at 9:02 pm

      Selwyn Manning at his best, red rattler! Yes, it stinks so much, it is so bloody obvious, but the NZ media and public still have “blind” faith in a PM, like too many Germans once had in Hitler. When will they ever wake up?

  12. ghostrider888 12
    22 March 2013 at 12:09 pm

    Hamra Night -Sa’di Yusef (Lebanon)

    A candle in a long street
    A candle in the sleep of houses
    A candle for frightened shops
    A candle for bakeries
    A candle for a journalist trembling in an empty office
    A candle for a fighter
    A candle for a woman doctor watching over patients
    A candle for the wounded
    A candle for plain talk
    A candle for the stairs
    A candle for a hotel packed with refugees
    A candle for a singer
    A candle for broadcasters in their hideouts
    A candle for a bottle of water
    A candle for the air
    A candle for two lovers in a naked flat
    A candle for the falling sky
    A candle for the beginning
    A candle for the ending
    A candle for the last communique
    A candle for conscience
    A candle in your hands.

    “We keep our hands in our pockets, and, unable to say “yes” to ourselves, we lack a “no” that is sure enough to stand between our best and our worst interests. We are left to make do with plans and policies that have little bearing on the main plot. It is a different play that is being staged, and we are actors and audience both, but unable to change the script.”

    “The willingness to be less than what we could be is endemic. The lack of care and complicity of silence finds us all wanting. We cannot dissociate ourselves from the hypocricies of our governments or the immoralities of our corporations. Nor can we hide behind the screen of busyness, even if we do call it “work and family commitments”. This is classic middle-class camouflage : one of the more altruistic personae of self-interest.”
    -Kerry Flattley
    -Chris Wallace Crabbe.

    Before you go, I need to tell you
    why here tongues turn dry as piki bread.
    No one knows why this story is true.

    but I know there was a woman who
    buried both her hands in blue dough. She said,
    Before you go, I need to tell you

    why Hopi corn grows short, in a few
    spindly clumps, not deep wide and red.
    No one knows why this story is true,

    but I know it is not a lie. New
    seed lay still; the sheep we gave for dead.
    Before you go I need to tell you

    the crater’s spirit gave us breath. Blu
    winds swept ash from the mesa, it bled-
    no one knows why this story is true-

    earth’s sky blood washed ragged furrows. Blue
    corn cracked tucked sharp in this lava bed.
    Before you go, I need to tell you:
    no one knows why this story is true.

    -Peggy Shumaker
    (Hopi corn is a biological riddle. It germinates only in thin volcanic soil and thrives in the sever, unforgiving climate of the high desert.)

  13. prism 13
    22 March 2013 at 12:12 pm

    A NZ living in Victoria has taken a case against the government there of discrimenation because he has been denied a student concession. The case is due to go before the Tribunal some months hence and if it succeeds it could unroll that denial and pay the student some compensation. The final comment was that the Oz government has been concerned about discrimination against NZ in the social welfare sector. Concerned enough to reverse this discrimination? Did Jokeyhen mention it to Gillard? I wonder.

  14. ghostrider888 14
    22 March 2013 at 12:20 pm

    The Point (?)

    The point, I imagine, is
    not to learn to expect
    betrayal, self-deceit, lies
    however thick they collect
    in the cul-de-sac of one’s days,
    half-noticed, half-numbered, half-checked:
    but rather to learn to praise
    fidelity, trust and love
    which in their modest ways continue to be and move
    (however mocked, however derided,
    however difficult, indeed, to prove),
    utterly undivided-
    if inarticulate or mute,
    still mortally decided.

    Neither fashionable nor astute
    this point to take to heart:
    merely final and absolute:

    without it no people, no life, no art.

    -Evan Jones.

    now, back to mischief. 🙂

  15. pollywog 15
    22 March 2013 at 2:12 pm

    Awww nu!!!…Paula Bennett de-friended me on facebook 🙂

  16. chris73 acualy is Dolan 16
    22 March 2013 at 2:30 pm

    And fortunately the American Congress gets something right but for the wrong reasons

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/8459865/Congress-too-scared-to-ban-assault-rifles

    • Draco T Bastard 16.1
      22 March 2013 at 6:06 pm

      Yes, allowing more mass murderers easy access to weapons is obviously the right thing to do.

      /sarc

      • chris73 acualy is Dolan 16.1.1
        23 March 2013 at 8:51 am

        1. Semi-auto rifles account for less than 2% of fatalities (Might actually be less than 1%) in the USA
        2. The gun murder rate has been dropping since the last ban (in the late 80s) was lifted
        3. Making law-abiding citizens criminals won’t help
        4. Prohibition doesn’t work
        5. The “evil” weapons in the USA are available in NZ
        6. There are over 20000 gun laws in the USA, enforce those first before implementing new ones

        • The Al1en 16.1.1.1
          23 March 2013 at 8:55 am

          “1. Semi-auto rifles account for less than 2% of fatalities”

          But 100% responsible for each of those deaths.

          “3. Making law-abiding citizens criminals won’t help
          4. Prohibition doesn’t work”

          Is this also your view in the drugs debate?

          • chris73 acualy is Dolan 16.1.1.1.1
            23 March 2013 at 9:05 am

            Yes

            I think something along the lines of what Portugal is doing is what we should be doing. I would decriminalize all drugs and instead of sending druggies to jail I’d send them to hospitals (maybe set up treatment centers within hospital grounds) for treatment.

            I don’t think giving someone a criminal conviction and sending them to prison is the best way to deal with an addiction.

            Mind you I’d up the sentence term for pushers, dealers and suppliers

            Oh yeah forgot to add that in the UK the overall violent crime rate has risen dramatically since they implemented thier gun bans

            • The Al1en 16.1.1.1.1.1
              23 March 2013 at 9:11 am

              “Yes”

              You must be one of those ‘blue greenies’ some bod was telling us about the other day.

              “and instead of sending druggies to jail I’d send them to hospitals (maybe set up treatment centers within hospital grounds) for treatment.”

              How would you have government pay for that?

              “I don’t think giving someone a criminal conviction and sending them to prison is the best way to deal with an addiction.”

              Agreed, though not all drug users are addicts.

              “in the UK the overall violent crime rate has risen dramatically since they implemented thier gun bans”

              Are you saying the people who now don’t own guns because of that legislation, or those that could have, but now can’t, are thug criminals? Good job they don’t have access to legal fire arms.

              • chris73 acualy is Dolan …
                23 March 2013 at 9:27 am

                I don’t know about being blue-green just that prohibition and “the war on drugs” doesn’t/isn’t working and Portugal seems to be going well so why not try it

                “and instead of sending druggies to jail I’d send them to hospitals (maybe set up treatment centers within hospital grounds) for treatment.”

                How would government pay for that?

                Use the budget that isn’t spent on addicts in prison plus I’d imagine the long-term savings might sway some politicians…(yeah I’m naive)

                “in the UK the overall violent crime rate has risen dramatically since they implemented thier gun bans”

                Are you saying the people who now don’t own guns because of that legislation are now thug criminals? Good job they don’t have legal access to fire arms

                No, I’m saying the UK implemented a big crackdown on firemarms in the wake of Dunblane and the rates of violent crime (knives and box cutters mostly) have massively increased whereas the USA ended its ban on semi-auto rifle sales in the late 80s and violent crime and gun deaths have steadily decreased.

                Are there problems, yes. Is a knee-jerk feel-good ban on semi-auto rifles going to work, no. Are their better ways to deal with the problems, yes.

                Just to note the weapons used at Columbine were a 12-gauge Savage-Springfield 67H pump-action shotgun and a Hi-Point 995 Carbine 9 mm carbine with thirteen 10-round magazines.

                The carbine was developed in response to the ban on semi-auto rifles and capacity of magazine size.

                Also a 9 mm Intratec TEC-9 semi-automatic handgun with one 52-, one 32-, and one 28-round magazine and a 12-gauge Stevens 311D double-barreled sawed-off shotgun.

                It is illegal to cut a barrel down beyond a certain length but it didn’t stop him from doing it.

                • The Al1en …
                  23 March 2013 at 9:45 am

                  “I don’t know about being blue-green”

                  No, I think it was someone with an agenda, making a point, but very badly.
                  Oxymoron if ever I read one.

                  “Use the budget that isn’t spent on addicts in prison plus I’d imagine the long-term savings might sway some politicians…(yeah I’m naive)”

                  It’s an ambitious project and I’m sure quite costly to set up, certainly more than the prison spend. The left are advocates of spend now, reduce long term costs later. It’s all over education, health, welfare, but the right scream about the money and where it’s coming from and keep the status quo.
                  Good luck convincing your tory mp to support Labour and Green policy.

                  “No, I’m saying the UK implemented a big crackdown on firemarms in the wake of Dunblane and the rates of violent crime (knives and box cutters mostly) have massively increased”

                  As those chavs and idiots on the street would ever legally own a weapon before or after legislation, I don’t think there’s a case for linking the statistics.
                  There isn’t really a need for anyone to own guns, especially military grade killing tools. Sport and recreation are not good enough reasons to justify burying school children. Take up golf.

                  • chris73 acualy is Dolan …
                    23 March 2013 at 5:57 pm

                    “military grade killing tools”
                    1. Theres no real difference between an AR-15 (the semi-auto civilian version of the american assault rifle) and a semi-auto rifle, in fact in some cases the semi-auto rifle is a better option

                    2. Their constitution (as I understand it) allows them the right to bear arms for their own protection if their government of the day acts unlawfully and considering what some governments do to their own people I don’t think thats a bad thing.

                    3. I wonder if proudly proclaiming you’re a “gun-free” zone is the smartest thing they could do:

                    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wt1Zy_ASNyA

                    (takes ten minutes but its worth it)

                    • Pascal's bookie …
                      23 March 2013 at 7:11 pm

                      2. Their constitution (as I understand it) allows them the right to bear arms for their own protection if their government of the day acts unlawfully and considering what some governments do to their own people I don’t think thats a bad thing

                      Think about it.

                      Firstly, think about the US Air Force. Then think about the Marine corp, the US Army, and the highly militarized police forces the US federal and state governments have.

                      Now ask yourself what sort of weaponry you would need to fight the US government, and look around to check the availability of such weaponry.

                      What does such thinking tell you about the theory that US citizens are given the right to collect weapons sufficient to beat off their government.

                    • Colonial Viper …
                      23 March 2013 at 7:28 pm

                      2. Their constitution (as I understand it) allows them the right to bear arms for their own protection if their government of the day acts unlawfully and considering what some governments do to their own people I don’t think thats a bad thing

                      Nah that’s bullshit.

                      The original Second Amendment talked about the right to bear arms within the context of a “well regulated militia” i.e. a trained, disciplined and organised state militia for the defence of the state and of the union.

                      Various judicial interpretations in recent decades has turned that into a right to bear arms individually for essentially any individual purpose, and with no connection or participation to any “well regulated militia”.

                      The US gun lobby have made their bed, they will sleep in it.

                      And people forget that there are up to 1M firearms here in NZ. And fuck all people get shot…on purpose.

                    • lprent …
                      23 March 2013 at 10:45 pm

                      Actually I think that if you look at what the makers of the constitution said at the time, the intent was to prevent governments from disarming the local militias. Disciplined formations of men are somewhat different to individual idiots with weapons.

                      From what was recorded, I’d think that they’d have been aghast at the idea of giving the right to bear “semi-auto” weapons (convertable to automatic with a freely available cheap kit) to random nutters who want them.

                    • Pascal's bookie …
                      24 March 2013 at 12:11 am

                      lprent

                      fascinating paper here:

                      http://www.saf.org/lawreviews/bogus2.htm

                      shorter write up:

                      http://www.minnpost.com/eric-black-ink/2013/01/was-second-amendment-adopted-slaveholders

                      Looks at Madison and the arguments he was having in Virginia at the time of ratification. The timeline and evolution of the language of the amendment which he submitted seem to suggest it was mostly about leaving the States with the authority to call out their own militia to put down slave revolts without having to get Congressional say so.

                    • lprent []
                      24 March 2013 at 8:46 am

                      Excellent. I hadn’t run across that before. But it fits.

                      In any case, it is clear that the intent of the framers of the constitution was for a disciplined and well regulated state run militia. The current position that people outside the national guard, state troopers, and other such well regulated bodies should bear arms is a travesty of the wording of the US constitution and the intent of the framers.

                      Gun manufacturer lobby likes it.

                • Draco T Bastard …
                  23 March 2013 at 11:43 am

                  …whereas the USA ended its ban on semi-auto rifle sales in the late 80s and violent crime and gun deaths have steadily decreased.

                  [citation needed]

                  Gun crime statistics by US state: latest data (Unfortunately, that blog isn’t actually dated)

                  Just like the UK, the United States has seen a long-term decline in crime, with firearms offences seeing a steeper fall than other crimes

                  I’d say it’s probably an overall societal effect (i.e, People are just less violent) rather than a change in laws that’s brought about the decline.

                  • chris73 acualy is Dolan …
                    23 March 2013 at 6:02 pm

                    In which case I’d suggest that tightning up and enforcing rules against the mentally ill would have a greater effect on ending mass killings then enacting another law that’d most likely be ignored

                    Also this guy didn’t use guns to kill more then anybody else:

                    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Kehoe

                    And this is interesting reading:

                    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luby%27s_massacre

                    • chris73 acualy is Dolan …
                      23 March 2013 at 7:29 pm

                      To pascals bookie

                      Think about it

                      Think about when it was written, think about what they’d just come through, think about what the government of the day had imposed on them, think about the technology of the time

                      They didn’t know how big the government would become but they did know that the government should fear the people not the other way around, they knew there had to be checks and balances to stop the government of the day (whenever that day is) from becoming tyrannical and guaranteeing the rights of its citizens to bear is the simplest way to ensure that

                      Think about it

                      Now think what the Vietnamese did to americans, think about what the afghanis did to basically everyone that ever messed with them.

                      Technology can and has been beaten by superior tactics, self-belief and knowledge of terrain

                    • Colonial Viper …
                      23 March 2013 at 7:31 pm

                      FFS yeah time to target the “mentally ill” again, that’s a good old canard to trot out, guns don’t kill people, mentally ill people do etc.

                    • Pascal's bookie …
                      23 March 2013 at 8:01 pm

                      Think about when it was written, think about what they’d just come through, think about what the government of the day had imposed on them, think about the technology of the time

                      You have to go back and read some of the (many many) things written at the time to work out what they were up to. There were long arguments about most stuff, and the right to bear arms was no different. The arguments weren’t focused on fighting the US government. A major aspect was the right of the States to have military patrols. Some thought that the States should not have this right, that it was similar to the standing army thing that was part of what the revolution was against. However, others felt the need to have regular armed patrols of the country side. Guess why (clue: these were the slave states).

                      On the technology of the time, irrelevant. Unless you are suggesting that the constitution only allows muskets? Or that citizens should indeed be able to buy and maintain private air forces and set up SAM sites?

                      Now think what the Vietnamese did to americans, think about what the afghanis did to basically everyone that ever messed with them.

                      Technology can and has been beaten by superior tactics, self-belief and knowledge of terrain

                      Dude please. This is bloody “Wolverines!” nonsense. You cannot compare Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan or anywhere else to a supposed attempted overthrow of the US Federal Govt.

                      -You’ll note that not one of those wars were an existential war for the US. They were wars they could afford to lose.

                      -You’ll note that the opposing forces in those wars had better knowledge of the people and terrain, not something the US lacks in the US.

                      -You’re still left with the problem that rifles are not what you need. If the US gun nuts were serious about defending themselves from the government, they’d be buying different things.

                      If they were serious they would revolted years ago, like maybe when Bush declared that a President could just call a citizen an enemy combatant, and they’d lose all their legal rights. Or when Obama said he could put them on kill lists. Neither of which are subjected to any checks or balances. Just a President’s say so. How does that compare to King George/ what are they waiting for?

                      They are basically role playing at being rebels. It’s a hobby. They are not a threat to their government

                      Here’s a good read on what they should be buying if they’re serious;

                      http://www.exile.ru/articles/detail.php?ARTICLE_ID=7322

                    • Colonial Viper …
                      23 March 2013 at 8:34 pm

                      GIs who’d seen what an RPG hit could do to an M113 got in the habit of saying, “I’ll walk, thanks.” The RPG warhead does something called “spalling,” which means the warhead turns the aluminum side armor of an APC into molten shrapnel which goes zipping through the guts of everybody inside like a Benihana chef’s knife, only it’s a knife as hot as the surface of the sun.

                      Thanks for the link…hey M113’s isnt’ that what the NZ Army used to drive around in?

    • just saying 17.2
      22 March 2013 at 4:30 pm

      Did the post Peters referred to really say that NZanders spend 27 days per year on overseas hols?

      Btw, LPrent – when I leave the page (to follow a link for example) I am no longer able to return to the same place in the page I left. I’m returned to the top. It’s happened a quite a few times now.

    • xtasy 17.3
      22 March 2013 at 9:07 pm

      Another disgusting OIA fob-off, and I have had them also. Now surely, there is no great difficulty in “collating” that information, as the PM himself could easily offer it, and if need be, airline tickets must exist and can be presented. The whole OIA process these days is ridiculous, it is not worth pursuing anymore. The DICTATORSHIP in AOTEAROA NZ is WORKING!

  18. vto 18
    22 March 2013 at 4:26 pm

    Is Cyprus about to implode across our screens? It is surely way too late now to take that money off depositors – you would think that sort of thing must be done overnight, not a week later. Otherwise the time gets people to thinking about reaction………

  21. Draco T Bastard 21
    22 March 2013 at 6:17 pm

    Scientists find visions of a benevolent future society motivate reform

    Activists, take note: People support reform if they believe the changes will enhance the future character of society, according to a study published online this month in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. Namely, people support a future society that fosters the development of warm and moral individuals.

    So one wonders how National and their ever present outright nastiness ever manages to get voted in to power.

  22. bad12 22
    22 March 2013 at 6:53 pm

    Ouch, rumor via TV1 news is that Telecom will likely be cutting up to 2500 jobs in May, the flow on effects of that are a horror story,

    Bill from Dipton was saying on the last Q+A that the welfare budget would probably have to have more money this year, wonder if the Finance Minister had prior knowledge…

  23. karol 23
    22 March 2013 at 7:21 pm

    Campbell Live – cyclist funeral. Heartbreaking. She was well loved.

    • Colonial Viper 23.1
      22 March 2013 at 7:33 pm

      Was this RL’s relative 🙁

      • karol 23.1.1
        22 March 2013 at 7:35 pm

        I think so. Big funeral.

        • Anne 23.1.1.1
          22 March 2013 at 9:10 pm

          Yes it was. Saw notice in the Herald this week.

        • xtasy 23.1.1.2
          22 March 2013 at 9:14 pm

          That is why I gave up cycling around Auckland many years ago. It is too damned dangerous. In many European countries cycleways are clearly separated from the main road, and well marked and mostly well maintained, so no such close encounters with cars or trucks would usually happen.

          But the cycleways in NZ, I am talking about Auckland by the way, are not quite as bad as they used to be, but still leave cyclists exposed to immense risks and danger.

          NO, I won’t cycle in Auckland again, unless the whole infrastructure gets improved and car drivers are held more accountable for their negligence and dangerous driving.

  24. xtasy 24
    22 March 2013 at 11:50 pm

    My previous enthusiasm and sympathy for Brazil has been more than moderated over recent days. While I love the culture and spirit of people there, the newest top 50 of their “hits’ shows how corrupt and Americanised that society is. Even their own performers are rather up themselves and believing they are better than others. In some cases they may be, but not in all. I am disappointed, and the commercial world is taking its toll all over the place. It is rot, rot and more rot, not quality aand skill.

    • Colonial Viper 24.1
      23 March 2013 at 12:19 am

      Don’t be too harsh mate that’s like judging NZers via the GC

    • Murray Olsen 24.2
      24 March 2013 at 12:59 am

      The top 50 hits will be those that get promoted on tv, especially by Rede Globo (think Murdoch in Portuguese). Brazil is a large and complex country, with the cultural differences from north to south being something like Invercargill to PNG. East to west isn’t much different. There are things about Brazil I absolutely love, and things I hate, but none of those things have much to do with the top 50.

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