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Open mike 22/11/2013

Written By: - Date published: 6:37 am, November 22nd, 2013 - 230 comments
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230 comments on “Open mike 22/11/2013 ”

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  1. Morrissey 1
    22 November 2013 at 6:49 am

    Fiftieth anniversary of the death of Aldous Huxley
    Los Angeles, California, 22 November 1963

    On the morning of November 22nd, a Friday, it became clear the gap between living and dying was closing. Realizing that Aldous [Huxley] might not survive the day, Laura [Huxley’s wife] sent a telegram to his son, Matthew, urging him to come at once. At ten in the morning, an almost inaudible Aldous asked for paper and scribbled “If I go” and then some directions about his will. It was his first admission that he might die …

    Around noon he asked for a pad of paper and scribbled

    LSD-try it
    intermuscular
    100mm

    In a letter circulated to Aldous’s friends, Laura Huxley described what followed: ‘You know very well the uneasiness in the medical mind about this drug. But no ‘authority’, not even an army of authorities, could have stopped me then. I went into Aldous’s room with the vial of LSD and prepared a syringe. The doctor asked me if I wanted him to give the shot- maybe because he saw that my hands were trembling. His asking me that made me conscious of my hands, and I said, ‘No, I must do this.’

    An hour later she gave Huxley a second 100mm. Then she began to talk, bending close to his ear, whispering, ‘light and free you let go, darling; forward and up. You are going forward and up; you are going toward the light. Willingly and consciously you are going, willingly and consciously, and you are doing this beautifully — you are going toward the light — you are going toward a greater love … You are going toward Maria’s [Huxley’s first wife, who had died many years earlier] love with my love. You are going toward a greater love than you have ever known. You are going toward the best, the greatest love, and it is easy, it is so easy, and you are doing it so beautifully.’

    All struggle ceased. The breathing became slower and slower and slower until, ‘like a piece of music just finishing so gently in sempre piu piano, dolcamente,’ at twenty past five in the afternoon, Aldous Huxley died.

    http://thedreamatists.wordpress.com/2007/08/06/aldous-huxley-takes-lsd-on-deathbed/

    • vto 1.1
      22 November 2013 at 7:53 am

      some deaths are intensely beautiful..

      like the wilt of a rose..

    • Chooky 1.2
      22 November 2013 at 8:20 am

      …wow what a fantastic way to go into the next realm

    • greywarbler 1.3
      22 November 2013 at 12:30 pm

      Thanks Morrissey that was very touching and hopeful for the rest of us.

    • Dumrse 1.4
      23 November 2013 at 4:25 pm

      I’m guessing the death of JFK 50 years ago simply slipped your mind ?

      • Morrissey 1.4.1
        23 November 2013 at 4:37 pm

        I’m guessing the death of JFK 50 years ago simply slipped your mind?

        A guy who had connived in the assassination of the South Vietnam prime minister (an American vassal) just twenty days earlier, and was actively conspiring to assassinate the Cuban president (who refused to be a vassal) was himself the victim of an assassin’s bullet.

        The biter bit, pure and simple. You can throw all that Camelot hogwash where it belongs—in the same bin as the fulsome tributes for Reagan, Thatcher, Pinochet, Mao and Pol Pot.

        I prefer to focus on people who actually enhanced human life—like great writers, who really could write. Unlike some Pulitzer Prize winners….
        http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2478/did-john-f-kennedy-really-write-profiles-in-courage

        • Dumrse 1.4.1.1
          24 November 2013 at 9:45 am

          Ok, that’s cool. At least I now know there is more to you than just a cut and paste blogger and, I also suspect you research and write for the Herald and TV 3.

  2. Morrissey 2
    22 November 2013 at 7:11 am

    C.S. Lewis died fifty years ago today: Friday 22 November 1963
    CS Lewis’s literary legacy: ‘dodgy and unpleasant’ or ‘exceptionally good’?
    by SAM LEITH, The Guardian, 19 November 2013

    “Aslan is on the move.” That phrase, three decades after I first read The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, still has the power to tickle the hairs on my neck. It testifies to the enduring power of CS Lewis’s recasting of the Christian myth that I’m far from alone. If this were all there were to him, it would still be pretty remarkable that, 50 years after his death, this tweedy old Oxford don should occupy such an exalted place in our cultural life.

    All this week on Radio 4, Simon Russell Beale has been reading The Screwtape Letters – Lewis’s perceptive inquiry into temptation cast as a series of witty letters between a demon and his apprentice. This Friday, his reputation will be crowned with a plaque in his honour, between John Betjeman and William Blake, in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey.

    The tribute might have pleased him, but it’s an odd one: as a poet, Lewis is usually regarded as pretty useless. “He hated all poets because he was a failed poet,” says his biographer AN Wilson. “He hated TS Eliot. He hated Louis MacNeice. There’s a very bad ‘poem’ by Lewis about reading The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock, and it just shows how stupid he was about modern poetry.”

    Lewis has much more than poetry to offer, though. Almost too much: his posthumous reputation is disconcertingly various. As well as a children’s writer, he was novelist, memoirist, essayist, critic, broadcaster and apologist. But the two Lewises that command the biggest followings….

    Read more….
    http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/nov/19/cs-lewis-literary-legacy

    • tracey 2.1
      22 November 2013 at 8:17 am

      does this mean copyright lapses today?

      • Draco T Bastard 2.1.1
        22 November 2013 at 2:22 pm

        Nope. Copyright is, depending upon where in the world you are, death +50/70 years. Apparently the governments of the world are concerned that anyone the author leaves behind won’t be able to live on their own work.

        The really big problem with it is that corporations don’t die and yet corporations now own a lot, if not most, of the copyrights.

    • Chooky 2.2
      22 November 2013 at 8:19 am

      Morrissey….Thankyou for that review of CS Lewis and his writings…i always enjoyed his children’s books and I was a great fan of his popular Christian theology in my teens…….which after doing Comparative Religion at Univeristy i havent read since….however, interesting and understandable that he is still as popular as ever

      …for me now , looking back he remains a very important twentieth century existentialist Christian thinker ….who was wrestling with deep personal, moral and religious issues from the perspective of his time and place….and trying to frame them for the ordinary person …he deserves respect for this. Like Graham Greene, also a man of his time, he was an agonised modernist but a deeply moral and religious man

      …in some ways they are a yardstick from which to view the values inhering in our present society….materialist, social persona and media driven, technologically determined… and more often than not frivolous and amoral.

    • Rogue Trooper 2.3
      22 November 2013 at 12:03 pm

      The Narnia Code : The Seven Heavens .
      “…he loved hiding things.He loved the idea that people learnt more by discovering things themselves, especially hidden things. A lot of the meaning of God, is after all, hidden”.

      • ropata 2.3.1
        22 November 2013 at 12:46 pm

        I love his books, but Lewis had a rather questionable social conscience. In Screwtape Lewis depicts social justice as a deception useful to Hell’s minions:

        About the general connection between Christianity and politics, our position is more delicate. Certainly we do not want men to allow their Christianity to flow over into their political life, for the establishment of anything like a really just society would be a major disaster. On the other hand we do want, and want very much, to make men treat Christianity as a means; preferably, of course, as a means to their own advancement, but, failing that, as a means to anything-even to social justice.
        The thing to do is to get a man at first to value social justice as a thing which the Enemy demands, and then work him on to the stage at which he values Christianity because it may produce social justice.

        The Gospel, while true, is worthless if it fails the test of social justice (loving thy neighbour). Of course, this is Lewis writing as a devil so it can be hard to parse the meaning.

        • Rogue Trooper 2.3.1.1
          22 November 2013 at 1:08 pm

          I have his books, among others…
          Der Antichrist

          • Tracey 2.3.1.1.1
            22 November 2013 at 1:16 pm

            Immanuel Kant was a real pissant
            Who was very rarely stable
            Heidegger, Heidegger was a boozy beggar
            Who could think you under the table

            David Hume could out-consume
            Schopenhauer and Hegel
            And Wittgenstein was a beery swine
            Who was just as sloshed as Schlegel

            There’s nothing Nietzche couldn’t teach ya
            ‘Bout the raising of the wrist
            Socrates, himself, was permanently pissed

            John Stuart Mill, of his own free will
            On half a pint of shandy was particularly ill
            Plato, they say, could stick it away
            Half a crate of whiskey every day

            Aristotle, Aristotle was a bugger for the bottle
            Hobbes was fond of his dram
            And Rene Descartes was a drunken fart
            “I drink, therefore I am”

            Yes, Socrates, himself, is particularly missed
            A lovely little thinker
            But a bugger when he’s pissed

            Read more: Monty Python – Bruce’s Philosophers Song Lyrics | MetroLyrics

            • ropata 2.3.1.1.1.1
              22 November 2013 at 1:30 pm

              Prof. Frederick Dagg of the University of Taihape, The Meaning of Life

            • Rogue Trooper 2.3.1.1.1.2
              22 November 2013 at 1:32 pm

              ! Scurrilous allegations indeed, although, as Sam Hunt pronounced, “I like to drink, it let’s me think, of other people and other places”; thank the Lord for moderation and harm-minimization approaches. Dreadful stuff in excess, the ultimate solvent, with the potential to dissolve everything one has! yet, not as quickly as gambling.
              Hits of the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s, brought to you by Rugby, Racing and Beer “ing up under the strain”. 😀

          • ropata 2.3.1.1.2
            22 November 2013 at 1:21 pm

            Are you saying that Nietzsche = Screwtape ?! haha interesting concept

        • KJT 2.3.1.2
          22 November 2013 at 3:29 pm

          I always thought that Lewis was either, being the devils advocate or attempting to be satirical.
          In the tradition of one of my other favourite writers, Swift!

          He was, of course, a supporter of English style hierarchy on the lines of the “good King” and a, supposedly, benevolent aristocracy. The sort of noblesse oblige we saw from people like Wilberforce.

  3. phillip ure 3
    22 November 2013 at 7:34 am

    given the revelations in britain..about american spooks spooking/data-harvesting all over the british people..

    ..with the connivance of the british prime minister..

    ..and the other revelations about america spying on its’ ‘five-eyes’ spooking partners..

    ..we need to know if the american spooks have been spooking/data-harvesting all over new zealanders..?

    ..how long has this been going on..?

    ..and who approved/allowed it..?

    ..key..or clark..?

    ..phillip ure..

    • greywarbler 3.1
      22 November 2013 at 12:50 pm

      phillip u
      I would say we are being ‘listened’ to here.. Just listen to the awkward replies of Oz to Indonesia about the spying on the President. They are apparently the most important ally and friend that Oz has in the South Pacific. If Oz is not spying on us they think they have already got us connected to enough milking machines. The USA of course has run a practice invasion incursion in Timaru and they would want to assess how that went down.

      http://www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald/news/9384664/Troops-liberate-Mainlandia
      Hundreds of soldiers stormed the port of Timaru and captured the local airport on Saturday -[9 November?] but they were welcomed as liberators.
      (It is due to carry on for three weeks.)

      http://snoopman.wordpress.com/2013/11/11/exercise-southern-katipo-2013-a-comic-book-war-game-script/
      Notwithstanding the boy’s comic book scenario, the coalition of ‘defence’ forces will attempt to overcome a small militia of “bad people” located in a small rural township called Cave, which is Northwest of Timaru, according to The Timaru Herald‘s report of October 15. There is also “Waimate Taliban” in Waimate, a town south of Timaru that is to be suppressed, according to a November 7 report in the Oamaru Mail….

      The C-130’s, along with two Boeing C17 Globemasters, will provide troop mobility and airlift “hardware”. Because C130 Hercules can be equipped with surveillance gathering technology, Exercise Southern Katipo seems to be a means to extend the web of the StratCom’s surveillance reach. StratCom’s base at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska integrates into an entire global network the strike capability of the nine regional combatant commands, including U.S. Pacific Command (or PACOM). Based in Oahu, Hawaii, PACOM not only oversees the Pacific. Its watch includes China, India and the rest of South East Asia.

      Dr Strangeadmire or: How the Media Learned to Stop Investigating and Admire the Empire
      It is also curious that this joint military exercise between nine other countries has received hardly any media coverage, despite the fact that it is the largest ever multi-force exercise in New Zealand, with over 2500 soldiers, sailors and airmen, 20 aircraft including 10 helicopters, three ships and five NZ civil agencies….

      …documentaries that critique why exactly the world is still at war 95 years after the end of ‘the war to end all wars’, such as the documentary Why We Fight, by Eugene Jarecki. Kempster helpfully explained to the Oamaru Mail on November 7 that the military exercise is “a bit like a treasure hunt, they go from place to place getting information and intelligence.”
      Commander Kempster, who sounded more like an interim political governor puppet appointed by George W. Bush’s regime, added positively, “The people of Mainlandia have welcomed us as liberators. We’ve been treated to some great southern hospitality.”

      • RedBaronCV 3.1.1
        22 November 2013 at 7:47 pm

        With that troop level copyright violations in South Canterbury must be extreme. (ref Kim Dotcom 72 police 1 helicopter)

    • Anne 3.2
      22 November 2013 at 12:51 pm

      http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/world/228489/new-claims-over-british-us-spying

      Russel Norman is asking questions. I think it’s time the rest of us started asking questions.

      Some points to ponder:

      The meteoric rise to power of one, John Key. The unprecedented demonising of one, Helen Clark, aided and abetted by a compliant MSM. Interesting in the light of Snowden’s latest revelations.

  4. Bill Drees 4
    22 November 2013 at 7:37 am

    Amy Adams was a fool to even attempt to play the game of “information management” with Cunliffe. Good on him for calling her behaviour out.
    Cunliffe and the Labour Parliamentary team seem to on the ascendant inside and outside the Chamber.
    It a great feeling after a few barren years.

  5. Pascal's bookie 5
    22 November 2013 at 7:50 am

    LOl John key busted in one of his petty little slf serving acts of bullshit:

    Last month Key said he preferred no increase. “If it was my vote, it would be no pay increases, but I don’t get that vote.”

    However, last night his office released his submission on the process, which showed he lobbied for pay increases at around the rate of inflation, making no mention of his preference for no increase.

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/politics/9429896/Politicians-pay-rises-and-more-on-way

  6. ScottGN 6
    22 November 2013 at 7:53 am

    If anyone was ever in any doubt about the Herald online’s editorial outlook then take a look at the sneaky trick they pulled this morning with their article on MP’s payrises. For some reason they’ve chosen a photo of David Cunliffe to accompany the article and emphasis in the article on the payrise the Leader of The Opposition can expect. Never mind that it’s less than what the PM will get and exactly the same as Cabinet Ministers are getting. A deliberate and cynical attempt to link an unpopular issue with Opposition Leader?
    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11160982

    • Colonial Viper 6.1
      22 November 2013 at 7:55 am

      Yeah, that sounds like the Fairfax Editors hard at work.

      • alwyn 6.1.1
        22 November 2013 at 9:53 am

        I didn’t realise that Fairfax now owned the Herald. When did they take over?

        • greywarbler 6.1.1.1
          22 November 2013 at 12:58 pm

          alwyn
          I didn’t realise that you don’t have access to any information gathering devices of your own so are forced to come here to get us to do it for you. Look things up yourself, don’t try to pose devil’s advocate questions to show yourself a smartrse.

          • Draco T Bastard 6.1.1.1.1
            22 November 2013 at 2:59 pm

            alwayn happens to be right. It’s APN that owns the NZHerald. This has been general knowledge for some time.

            • greywarbler 6.1.1.1.1.1
              22 November 2013 at 3:25 pm

              I suggested that alwyn look for himself DTB. Too many RW put statements that should be checked first.

              • alwyn …
                22 November 2013 at 4:02 pm

                I did try Greywarbler. I did try my very hardest but I couldn’t find the information anywhere that Fairfax owned the Herald.
                That’s why I asked. You tell me to look for myself but I’m obviously not as smart as you are. Please tell me I can find that Fairfax owns the Herald? Just the Google query will do.
                Please, pretty please.

                CV. The original comment to you was just a mild joke. Greywarbler is obviously getting a bit up-tight though isn’t he?.

                • Colonial Viper …
                  22 November 2013 at 6:20 pm

                  Ha. You were right mate. APN. Clumsiness on my part.

                • greywarbler …
                  22 November 2013 at 9:39 pm

                  alwyn
                  I have a lot of lemons at present. Thinking we should make some lemon pickle with the crop. Maybe I should stop sucking them and lighten up. And I hate smart arses particularly when I fall into that trap myself. Well can’t be perfect all the time.

    • Bill Drees 6.2
      22 November 2013 at 8:07 am

      To some extent just having his photo there is valuable exposure. It positions him as a real alternative.

    • chrissy 6.3
      22 November 2013 at 8:37 am

      ScottGN

      I thought that was absolutely atrocious. And not so subtle. I wouldn’t even use the herald for toilet paper. They should be honest and change their name to The National Party’s Herald. Please lean to the right when you read this rag.

      • Colonial Viper 6.3.1
        22 November 2013 at 8:44 am

        Mind you the NZ Herald supported the smashing of the waterfront strike so at least they are being consistent.

      • ScottGN 6.3.2
        22 November 2013 at 9:05 am

        We no longer get the print edition of the Herald in the South Island so I don’t know if the same article/photo combo appeared in that as well as the online edition?

      • Watching 6.3.3
        22 November 2013 at 10:23 am

        May I ask why you read the Herald or any newspaper if you hold that opinion. I just do not understand why anyone would give their up their precious commodity of time if the newspaper is not even fit for toilet paper. Why bother!

        However, my point in responding
        1. Is that the newspaper format is negative reporting – car accident on SH1 will be read but an article on cars driving safety on SH1 will send the reader to sleep. If you want to fill yourselves with negative thoughts go read a newspaper. After all, the journalist writing is just somebody with the skills sets to write a 500/1000 word piece that is readable – that’s their skills set nothing more nothing less. Whenever I meet a journalist I don’t think this individual know the answer to all or any question but do acknowledge that their career is about using words to write – so what?.

        2. Reading a daily newspaper will accumulative a lots of hours over the month – so privately add the hours & think what else could I do with those hours. If you have a lifestyle without a huge demand on you time then buy and read the daily newspaper with extras on the weekend.

        3. A newspaper format is about print advertising (i.e. Harvey Norman etc) with stories to link the pages. The newspaper price is a nominal fee so that the newspapers have a vehicle for their advertising business in conjunction with the comments in point 1 & 2 above.

  7. amirite 7
    22 November 2013 at 8:04 am

    And it was inevitable it would have happened, Gerry Brownlee is threatening to seize control of the council:

    Minister berates council
    http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/politics/9429893/Minister-berates-council

    This country is slowly sliding into a dictatorship.

    • framu 7.1
      22 November 2013 at 8:08 am

      wow – that seat that got dedicated to him must have really hit the mark

      (and im being serious here – i reckon basher brownlee is petty enough )

    • vto 7.2
      22 November 2013 at 8:11 am

      That piece is worth reading to get a really good understanding of how Brownlee thinks and goes about things.

      For a start he was “angry”.

      Further on he says this …. ” I’ve bent over backwards, mindful of court instruction,…” which is the most telling of all. He is saying that if it weren’t for courts having told him off and telling him that he has done things plain wrong on several occasions, then he would simply do what he has always done – namely, bully his way through no matter the consequences and no matter the views of others.

      What an arsehole and self-admitted bully.

      Most revealing for the rest of NZ to see.

      • Tiger Mountain 7.2.1
        22 November 2013 at 8:21 am

        Gerry “Sgt Schulz” Brownlee made slow enough going of it with a toadying tory mayor, so now there is a Labour friendly one he seems to have reread his exceptional powers manual and is getting all frisky.

        No, no, no said the right certainly not, when questions were raised about the dictatorial powers granted the minister under the 2010 Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Act and subsequent 2011 Act.

    • tracey 7.3
      22 November 2013 at 8:28 am

      Brownlee upset at a bungle??? Isnt he the Minister for Bungling?

  8. tracey 8
    22 November 2013 at 8:19 am

    and of course Wilkinson reisgned over Pike River, not Brownlee who schmoozed at the opening…

  9. TheContrarian 9
    22 November 2013 at 8:21 am

    “Dotcom says. “All these friends I have that did well in their lives, they want to go out, they want to get drunk, they want to see some pretty girls, they want to spend and they want to impress … in New Zealand you just don’t have the opportunity to do that.””

    What a knob.

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/30004589/dotcom-slams-mediocre-nz-in-book

    • tracey 9.1
      22 November 2013 at 8:29 am

      …wonder why he chose NZ then… if we arent impressed enough by him.

      • Tiger Mountain 9.1.1
        22 November 2013 at 8:38 am

        Dotcom is no leftie but seems a bit of a rebel compared to your average filthy rich bastard, and it was hilarious seeing him with a megaphone next to Bomber Bradbury on Queen St and giving the PM stick in person, not many of us get to do that.

        Should he be more publicly grateful that being an NZ citizen is so far keeping him out of the FBI’s clutches? Yes, and I hope he survives the extradition hearing and puts heavy slipper into the Key gang’s re-election chances.

        • tracey 9.1.1.1
          22 November 2013 at 8:42 am

          a rebel, or self serving? Sure he has stood up, thank goodness cos sadly we need people with money to stand up cos the rest of us cant afford to, but its still to further his own business and personal goals? It’s not altruistic as perhaps, Jane Kelsey’s stand might be.

          • TheContrarian 9.1.1.1.1
            22 November 2013 at 8:49 am

            I find his altruism questionable and think he is a self-promoting wanker.

            • KJT 9.1.1.1.1.1
              22 November 2013 at 3:36 pm

              He is, but I like him.

              At least he is contributing something. For whatever reason.

              Unlike the millionaire Russian gangsters, crooks and money launderers we have also allowed to become residents.

          • Colonial Viper 9.1.1.1.2
            22 November 2013 at 8:50 am

            Dotcom’s right to say that night life in Auckland doesn’t hold up to the standards set in LA, NYC, etc. Or even Melbourne for goodness sakes. Because it doesn’t.

            Starting up a new political party, it’s not a smart comment to put into print, however.

            Because it’s not the “night life” which makes NZ a great place to live and bring up children.

            • Rob 9.1.1.1.2.1
              22 November 2013 at 11:16 am

              Quickly something must be done to solve this blight upon NZ and another failing of our neo liberal paradigm.

              Labour will fix this problem by introducing a new agency, KIWICLUB, to act as a single provider of partying for NZ households. We believe that we have the skills and the ability to make KIWICLUB the best partying hangout the the average Kiwi and expat IT workers can experience anywhere.

            • ropata 9.1.1.1.2.2
              22 November 2013 at 1:06 pm

              Auckland night life doesn’t even hold up to the standard of Courtenay Place. Lots of little incoherent clusters (ponsonby, k road, lower queen st, viaduct, parnell, around vector, kingsland) of which only Ponsonby and the Viaduct have much going on

              • Colonial Viper …
                22 November 2013 at 3:35 pm

                And worse, you can’t really stagger between them (hmmm that’s been done before in the distant past I wager), which is a major benefit of the Wellington layout.

              • KJT …
                22 November 2013 at 3:42 pm

                Wellington needs night life because, unlike the rest of the country, the weather is horrendous and there are no decent beaches.

                North of Upper Hutt, the rest of us are to busy enjoying the outdoors to worry about “nightlife”. 🙂 laughing.

                The best place to stagger from Pub to pub used to be Westport.
                Apart from the problem of not knowing the right knock and tripping over the railway lines on the way home.

                In defense of Auckland, I think there are now almost as many watering holes, and licensed restaurants, around Viaduct Harbour alone than there is in Wellington central.

                • alwyn …
                  22 November 2013 at 4:12 pm

                  You could probably manage to visit all the pubs in Westport without too much trouble, at least in the last 50 years. I hate to think what it would have been like in the late nineteenth century though.
                  It was a student thing in my days at Vic to have an eight ounce beer in each of the Wellington pubs, all in one day. If my memory serves me correctly there were 44 of them. I thought about trying it but I don’t think I would ever have succeeded.
                  I knew people who did though.

        • Watching 9.1.1.2
          22 November 2013 at 10:31 am

          Should he be more publicly grateful that being an NZ citizen

          I don’t think this is correct.

          I am sure Dotcom only has permanent residency, and would be surprised if any minister on their watch would sign off his citizenship. A Dotcom citizenship application will go upstairs because no immigration official is going to embarrass their minister.

          • Ake ake ake 9.1.1.2.1
            22 November 2013 at 11:07 am

            Reportedly, Dotcom received permanent residency on 29 Nov 2010. He can apply for citizenship after five years (after 29 Nov 2015). The application takes about four months to process and there is the standard need to meet the ‘good character’ requirement.

            • KJT 9.1.1.2.1.1
              23 November 2013 at 3:11 pm

              I don’t blame him for being somewhat disillusioned with NZ, after he had a home invasion by the NZ police and the NZ government supporting the US vendetta against him for doing much the same things as Google, Microsoft and facebook.

      • Ennui 9.1.2
        22 November 2013 at 10:43 am

        Commercial reasons I suspect: analogous to Hotblack Desiato spending a year dead for tax purposes.

        http://hitchhikers.wikia.com/wiki/Hotblack_Desiato

      • greywarbler 9.1.3
        22 November 2013 at 1:02 pm

        Let’s not go into defensive mode. Dotcom has been doing a lot for NZ and has put the RW into a spin. He can make some stringent judgments if he wants to, and we should listen and accept there may be something lacking here.

    • BM 9.2
      22 November 2013 at 8:43 am

      Must know he’s going to get kicked out the door, otherwise what a fucking idiot.

    • karol 9.3
      22 November 2013 at 8:49 am

      Pleased to see that NZ is still not quite regarded as the playground for the wealthy.

      If Dotcom really wanted to give back to the NZers who have supported him he’d be looking at decreasing the wealth gap and supporting those in NZ struggling to survive – better use of his time than moaning about lack of super-rich play facilities.

    • Puckish Rogue 9.4
      22 November 2013 at 9:11 am

      If he left he’d take most of Labours funding and half their publicity 🙂

    • weka 9.5
      22 November 2013 at 9:49 am

      “What a knob.”

      For once I completely agree with you TC.

      Publisher Paul Little was reticent about whether he believed the book would leave people feeling more or less sympathetic towards Dotcom as he fights extradition to the United States on copyright charges.

      But he hoped it would have a wide and international audience.

      KDC just did NZ a big favour there. He basically told the rich knob international community that NZ is a boring place to live 🙂

    • millsy 9.6
      22 November 2013 at 11:04 am

      Here’s me thinking that Dotcom was a decent bloke….

      Anyway, he has heaps of money, there is nothing stopping him from opening his own nightclub…

    • Enough is Enough 9.7
      22 November 2013 at 11:58 am

      The do us all a favour you disgusting wealthy parasite and fuck off.

      Please leave Dotcom. As you have discovered we are not a playground for the rich and do not want to be. We despise the wealthy and the corporate greed you represent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

      • greywarbler 9.7.1
        22 November 2013 at 1:07 pm

        Enough … Speak for yourself. The rich are not to be despised, what is needed is for them to pay their dues and respect their workers and all the people that have had a hand in providing things they have made their wealth out of. Apparently much of the problem with the filthy rich is that they are not investing in actual things, just following their busy lives in tax havens fiddling with the baubles of power.

        • Enough is Enough 9.7.1.1
          22 November 2013 at 1:47 pm

          And when they “pay their dues and respect their workers and all the people that have had a hand in providing things they have made their wealth out of” we will respect them.

          Until that day they are despicable people.

        • Draco T Bastard 9.7.1.2
          22 November 2013 at 10:13 pm

          The rich are not to be despised

          I’m with Enough is Enough.

          what is needed is for them to pay their dues and respect their workers and all the people that have had a hand in providing things they have made their wealth out of.

          And once they do then they won’t be rich and thus it will never happen until we make them.

          We cannot afford the rich and we need to stop pretending that we can.

      • phillip ure 9.7.2
        22 November 2013 at 7:45 pm

        @ enough..

        ..as tonto said to the lone ranger in a moment of peril..when surrounded by other (hostile) native americans..

        ..’what do you mean ‘we’..?..white-man..?’..

        ..i don’t ‘despise’ the wealthy..

        ..they just need to stump up a bit more..eh..?

        ..’cos everything has got out of whack..

        ..(i do ‘despise’ the bankers..tho’..and their ilk in various fields..the slave-wage [email protected] mcdonalds/warehouse etc..those total leech/exploitation business-models..the vivisectors..them too..)

        ..as the new/improved pope said:..tie the corrupt ones to a rock..and throw them in the sea..

        ..like most other social groups..i have met some rich people who were arrogant arseholes..

        ..that i looked at like they were specimans in a laboratory..

        ..and know others who were/are fine upstanding human beings..

        ..who use their wealth as a tool to do good..

        ..it’s a crazy mixed up world..there..enough..

        ..phillip ure..

    • Murray Olsen 9.8
      22 November 2013 at 10:37 pm

      DotCom has stood up against Key and, thanks to him, some pretty dubious arse licking has come to light. He has been more interesting than the Russian mafia and Hollywood types the country is generally sold off to. He can stay. I don’t mind his complaining about the nightlife. The usual billionaire complains about taxation rates or industrial law, and the government bends us over backwards for them. Overall, having DotCom here has been a plus for us.

      • ropata 9.8.1
        22 November 2013 at 10:48 pm

        Is Queenstown better off a now it’s a ski resort for rich Australians?
        Is Auckland better off with a mega casino?
        Are we all better off with Sunday trading?
        Are we better off with mass car imports?
        Are we better off with super motorways and endless carparks?
        Are we better off with international franchises of everything and huge concrete shopping dungeons?
        Are we better off with gated communities and million dollar mansions, while there isn’t enough state housing?

        If DotCom wants more rampant commercialism he just needs to stick around longer. It will come.

  10. bad12 10
    22 November 2013 at 8:34 am

    Passed into Law under urgency this week Slippery’s National Government will now give it’self the ability to ‘review’ all State House tenancies openly trumpeting the intention to kick out 3-4000 of the States tenants,

    Showing His tendency to not only be a hypocrite,(who doesn’t remember Nick Smith’s refusal at one point to move from a Ministerial home citing the disruption to ‘His’ children’s education), the Minister goes on to prove His and the Cabinet’s stupidity by pointing out the law change is necessary because a fishing boat skipper in His electorate is occupying a State House while earning 100 grand a year,

    No Law change and mass disruption of all of the States tenants lives was or is necessary to fix such an anomaly, and i think most here would tend to agree that the purpose and intent of State Housing is not to house those earning 100 grand+ yearly,

    The hint, the clue if you will, for a Minster and a Government without any, clues that is, resides within the terms of the rental of the States housing stock, this simply being 25% of the tenants income up to a set market rent,

    The only change necessary in the terms surrounding the rental of the States housing stock are the removal of the words ”up to a set market rent” which would simply leave the terms of renting a State House as 25% OF INCOME full stop,

    My opinion is that this National Government have made the changes in Legislation not to free up what it says are 1000’s of houses for more deserving tenants, of which there are 10’s of 1000’s, that’s simply an excuse, the smoke and mirrors surrounding the Governments intention to sell to it’s mates 1000’s more of the States housing stock which will be accomplished with a surrounding trail of lies that the houses are too big, too small,or in the ‘wrong place’…

    • Puckish Rogue 10.1
      22 November 2013 at 8:50 am

      Its about time the state housing policy was looked at

      • bad12 10.1.1
        22 November 2013 at 9:06 am

        Have you a clue PR, even just a tiny one, a comment of substance outlining a debatable position formed through knowledge with perhaps the provision of the odd link which expounds upon you point of view,

        If you havn’t, a lucid debatable point to make that is, your continual appearence here at the Standard i would suggest applies to you an epithet the use of which we commenter’s are subtly persauded not to use,

        In other words you are a waste of f**king space and the air in here will be far less toxic if you shut the f**k up and F**k off…

        • Puckish Rogue 10.1.1.1
          22 November 2013 at 9:17 am

          Sure ok, theres a limited amount of stock and theres a large amount of people who need it. If someone is in a situation where they don’t need the home ie single person living in a 2-3 bedroom then that single person should be moved into a single person accomadation and a small family can move into the 2-3 bedroom house

          Or if someone can afford market rent or a mortgage then they should be moved on so someone else that can’t afford market rent can go into the house

          Now someone might say in that case we need more housing stock and that may be thats a seperate issue

          • bad12 10.1.1.1.1
            22 November 2013 at 9:33 am

            Ok, your point about mismatching where a single person is living in a 2-3 bedroom house/flat, do you have the slightest clue about the number of single people who fit the ‘extreme need’ category after an application to HousingNZ versus the number of 1 bedroom housing units HousingNZ possesses,

            Consider the above equation while also ‘thinking’ about the number of 1 bedroom housing units the Government (of any hue), has constructed in the past 30 years,(while you muse over that consider also successive governments have the use of census data , economic data, along with health statistics),

            And now i pose to you the simple question, what 1 bedroom accommodation do you propose the ‘extreme need’ single person occupants of more than 1 bedroom HousingNZ homes ‘move into’…

            • Puckish Rogue 10.1.1.1.1.1
              22 November 2013 at 9:43 am

              I agree these questions and others (people who can afford to rent or pay a mortgage) need to be asked and answered

              Thats why a shake up is needed

              • bad12 …
                22 November 2013 at 9:51 am

                Don’t play f**king head games with me you infantile little wing-nut, i ask you a specific question,

                How do you move tenants from ‘mis-matched’ homes in terms of the number of bedrooms available v the number of bedrooms needed when it is obvious to even the brainless that the State neither possesses or intends to build accommodation that matches current needs…

                • Puckish Rogue …
                  22 November 2013 at 9:58 am

                  As I said previously thats a seperate issue

                  • bad12 …
                    22 November 2013 at 10:04 am

                    ‘It’ is an issue you raised in your comment above, when you have provided me with the answer to the obvious questions i put to you surrounding this part of the points you raise in your comment above we can move on to your education vis a vis the 800 million dollar subsidy the taxpayer forks out to HousingNZ every year and the need for a ‘new model’ for HousingNZ where the housing of people with high earnings would be a welcome relief to the taxpayer…

        • tracey 10.1.1.2
          22 November 2013 at 9:18 am

          remember Rogue doesnt live near poor people so they really only exist as a myth in his head. The state housing sell down will ensure the poor people are not mixing with the well to do… out of sight = able to denigrate and dehumanise.

          • alwyn 10.1.1.2.1
            22 November 2013 at 10:11 am

            When Puckish Rogue, at comment 9.4 above, made a comment that Dotcom leaving would mean he would take most of the Labour Party’s funding with him Te Reo Putake immediately demanded to know whether he had and evidence for that or whether it was merely a “brain fart”.
            Am I allowed to ask whether you have any evidence for talking about where Rogue lives or is you contribution merely an example of what TRP labels a “brain fart”?

            • Te Reo Putake 10.1.1.2.1.1
              22 November 2013 at 10:28 am

              Steady on, old chap, I didn’t demand anything. PR slandering Dotcom and the NZLP by falsely claiming a financial link between them is, however, a lot more serious than tracey’s suggestion that PR has indicated that he lives among the rich. I’m sure PR can see state houses from his backyard. Or on Google Earth. Or just in his head.

            • tracey 10.1.1.2.1.2
              22 November 2013 at 10:36 am

              let’s see…

              me making a comment about PR’s living circumstances versus suggesting a prominent political party has received funding from Dotcom?

              Yup I can see why you would need evidence from me alwyn. I have a request into the GCSB to confirm

              • alwyn …
                22 November 2013 at 10:58 am

                I am merely noting the fact that when anyone on the right, including myself, makes a statement there is usually a raucous demand for evidence of the statement.
                When someone on the left makes a claim, particularly about a person on the right, there is no evidence required.
                I take it from your comment, that you now have a request into the GCSB for some evidence, that in fact your statements must be interpreted, if given with no references, as being things about which you don’t actually know anything?

                • tracey …
                  22 November 2013 at 11:09 am

                  can you post your evidence that whenever “anyone on the right” makes a statement there is usually a “raucus” demand for evidence?

                  When someone claims someone else doesnt live near poor people and both those people are anonymous you ask for evidence. When someone claims that Dotcom has donated to the labour party you don’t.

                  You are right though Alwyn, those on the right are oppressed and misunderstood and poorly treated.

                • McFlock …
                  22 November 2013 at 3:47 pm

                  Puckish rogue is a lying evil little shit.

                  If he said the sky were blue or grass was green I’d want a second opinion and (preferably signed, sworn and witnessed) third-party verifiable evidence..

    • karol 10.2
      22 November 2013 at 8:51 am

      Some very good points there, bad. Hypocrite Smith is another of the Nat nasties.

    • tracey 10.3
      22 November 2013 at 8:54 am

      and Ms bennett meantime is scurrying around focused on saving her political skin…

      her slogan ought to be “let them eat cake”

      • bad12 10.3.1
        22 November 2013 at 9:08 am

        Her thought surrounding the mouthing of the ‘slogan’ tho would have to be ”if only i had not scoffed it all myself”…

        • Puckish Rogue 10.3.1.1
          22 November 2013 at 9:24 am

          Really? You focus on her weight?

          • bad12 10.3.1.1.1
            22 November 2013 at 9:52 am

            F off wing-nut…

          • fender 10.3.1.1.2
            22 November 2013 at 10:02 am

            Where was any mention of weight?

            It says: “if only I had not scoffed it all myself”…

            That could be followed with: And I still need to find room for Colin Craig

          • tracey 10.3.1.1.3
            22 November 2013 at 10:37 am

            agree, leave her weight out of it.

            • Enough is Enough 10.3.1.1.3.1
              22 November 2013 at 12:01 pm

              She is destroying the lives of the children of this country with her approach to her job. And therefore as far as I am concerned she is fair game and any criticism of her is fine by me.

              Much the same as blubber boy

              • North …
                22 November 2013 at 1:05 pm

                April ’14 BM. That’s when KDC opens the dam on ShonKey Python misleading (lying to) Parliament about when he first became aware of KDC’s existence.

              • North …
                22 November 2013 at 1:18 pm

                Her hear Enough is Enough !

                Impoliteness pales against Bullying and Moral Corruption. A fair and hard to miss target on whatever count. Save the tears and clutch the pearls for the countless number of babies locked into poverty by the attitudes and actions of the callous lump.

                • Tracey …
                  22 November 2013 at 1:27 pm

                  you can care about the babies without sinking to their level to do it. Not supporting appearance politics is not synonymous with not caring about the babies

                  • KJT …
                    22 November 2013 at 5:19 pm

                    There is, however, the irony in people who are obviously “well fed” enacting policies which ensure children, are not!

                    • Colonial Viper …
                      22 November 2013 at 5:28 pm

                      Or people who have many houses ensuring that those with none have difficulty getting one. Or people who got their university educations for free ensuring that those without one have to pay for theirs with loads of debt. Or people who had access to masses of cheap resources and oil burning right through it at maximum rate while telling those today who don’t, not to. Etc.

    • millsy 10.4
      22 November 2013 at 11:15 am

      The only winners I see from this policy are private landlords who will end up charging higher and higher rents to a vast pool of vulnerable tenants.

      • bad12 10.4.1
        22 November 2013 at 12:12 pm

        Yes millsy, that is even more true if Slippery’s National government intend as i suggest to flick off the houses they force the current tenants from on the basis that they are unsuitable or unwanted,

        Those tenants who cannot afford the higher rents of course will be forced either out onto the streets or into substandard accommodation for which they will be charged a premium for, there will be no savings to the tax-payer as WINZ will find it’self as is the case with the recently highlighting of the rack-renting of 300 vulnerable tenants in an Auckland ‘holiday park’, propping up the profits of the rack-renters via special needs grants and the like to the tenants,

        The intentions of this abysmal National Government are then exposed when connected to the recent moves to restrict ‘first’ home buyers from entering the housing market, we can see that the intentions far from those stated are to keep the demand for rental housing as high as possible while fostering the buying of investment properties by those who have equity…

  11. Brokenback 11
    22 November 2013 at 9:37 am

    Anardarko and the State
    Facebook ,the source of a few wasted moments ,turned up an interesting debate yesterday.
    Oil &Offshore drilling , It’s been my bread & butter for 33 years . I also know a bit about deepwater , I’ve been working there for 15 years.
    I met /talked and shed tears with the senior ToolPusher on the Deepwater Horizon,the rig that exploded killing 13 people who share my life issues .

    The forum , amongst Rigworkers of Aotearoa , was generally negative towards “the tree huggers” and pro drilling & more importantly the first genuine attempt to delve into the vast area of the unexplored Zealandia geology.
    The consensus was that the public perception is tending negative to anti and that we as a nation should be approaching this new era with Norwegian style management of Offshore drilling.

    The biggest difference between Norway’s management of Oil & Gas resources and New Zealand’s is that Norway retained 100% State ownership [ Statoil] on its large & easy accessible fields in the 1980′ and has allowed foreign & Norwegian corporations to participate by buying into Blocks for big $$ & only to a maximum of 49% . NZ had a similar regime with Petrocorp which developed the Waihapa,kaimiro etc and owned 50 % of Maui.
    The biggest act of thievery in NZ history was the “sale” of Petrocorp in 1987 &88 by Roger Douglas & Prebble et al [ Goff, ,King ….?] for less than 10% of its value based on proven reserves. Since then NZ has been too far & too expensive to explore and under the regime that exists now ,the best New Zealanders can do out of the development of “our” resources is ~15% of the gross production . Small change compared to the huge pile of $petrodollars$ Norway has accumulated .
    I sympathise with most of the sentiments of those brave but foolhardy people out in Tasman protesting against Anardarko .
    I don’t necessarily hold their view on Anardarko [ who are not unique in their way of doing business, its endemic across the whole of the oil business], who are working with our laws[ even if they may have been changed so that greenies can’t stop them drilling] .
    Most importantly I detest our current government who haven’t got a clue about Oil exploration , fracking, shale , onshore , offshore or deepwater but can smell money and all they want is to grab some more for them & a small bunch of extremely greedy scum share the trough with.
    They do not give a damn about you, me , our kids & moko’s .
    If they did they’d be have hired plenty of experts to vet the proposed well engineering & safety case for which they would need to spend the kind of money on compliance checking[people, Jobs spot checks , policing] that the Australians are now with Nopsema after the Montara disaster in the Timor sea .
    The knee jerk reaction to Pike River , setting up High Impact Units for mining & Oil & gas are woefully underfunded, understaffed and need I say it staffed by foreigners .
    All the information , well engineering contingencies , Safety case etc should be available to the public so that we have very little cause to be concerned instead of keeping everything secret .

    • ianmac 11.1
      22 November 2013 at 9:51 am

      A great summary of the issues Brokenback.
      “Since then NZ has been too far & too expensive to explore…”
      Of course this would change in the future as demand/scarcity would make it much more viable. But by then we will have minimal ownership to really capitalize.

    • Colonial Viper 11.2
      22 November 2013 at 10:03 am

      Thanks for your contribution.

    • tracey 11.3
      22 November 2013 at 10:41 am

      Thanks for this brokenback. I have a cousin who has worked on oil rigs since leaving the family farm in otorahonga when he was 18. I appreciate your insight and will do a little reading myself on Norway’s “way”. Wont be following their cue on whaling tho 😉

      • Colonial Viper 11.3.1
        22 November 2013 at 2:06 pm

        Norway’s “way” was set up by an Iraqi immigrant to Norway who knew about the dangers of oil to a democracy.

        Canada has fallen into the trap, ignoring the advice of their own very prominent old time economist, Peter Lougheed.

        http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2012/09/17/Radical-Peter-Lougheed/

        And if you haven’t already, definitely listen to Nikiforuk speak on the topic, and especially on the phenomenon of petrostates.

  12. ianmac 12
    22 November 2013 at 9:43 am

    Colin Craig has repeatedly denied his Christian fundamentalist position by replying to the question with, “I am not a church goer.”
    Well that would be so as most fundamentalist-born-again Christians do no not go to “church” but meet in halls and homes. Surely Colin would not mislead us? As is his right, Colin can worship how and where he likes but surely he should answer the question honestly?

    • Rosie 12.1
      22 November 2013 at 10:45 am

      I understand he is a Baptist and they do attend church – so what is he saying? He doesn’t attend a church but then he expresses the worst kind of prejudices of the church? He’s either in or out isn’t he.Is he apprehensive that he won’t accepted by the mainstream voter?

      The halls and homes type religions. I know someone who is a Christadelphian. Like the Brethren they meet at a hall and there is no priest as such but a council of men. (There are many examples of misogyny in their cult) Also like Brethren they don;’t vote or get “involved in the matters of the physical world”. The children have to marry others of their faith and the pursuit of wealth and display of it is encouraged. It is an incredibly freaky cult and one that makes me worry for my friend who used to be a well adjusted and creative person before she married into the cult.

      In terms of religious/cult groups getting involved in politics I think it’s best when you know what they represent. In that respect, we know what Crazy Colin is about and he can be challenged openly. Unlike the Exclusive Brethren who hid behind nutty pamphlets in the 2005 election campaign.

      • tracey 12.1.1
        22 November 2013 at 10:49 am

        He was raised Baptist but could have taken his own route since. Being upfront is unusual in politicians and a few public figures who have brandished their christianity have fallen quite sharply from grace over the years.

        If he can’t be totally open about his religiosity what does that say? I find it hard to reconcile a guy who ends staff meetings with a prayer with someone who is middle of the road religious.

        • karol 12.1.1.1
          22 November 2013 at 12:10 pm

          Actually I think Craig’s social conservatism is what I would focus on. It’s all there in plain sight.

          I’ve been to work events/meetings with Tangata Whenua who do a prayer at the beginning and end. It’s fairly standard for people working a lot in certain kinds of environments. I wouldn’t read very much into it.

          • Tracey 12.1.1.1.1
            22 November 2013 at 1:05 pm

            outside of meetings in state situations or maori specific, in over 30 years in the workforce I have never attended, nor know anyone who has attended, a workplace meeting which ends in prayer.

            • karol 12.1.1.1.1.1
              22 November 2013 at 1:09 pm

              Had it happen in last few months at a regular meeting – and not by a Christian fundamentalist.

      • Rogue Trooper 12.1.2
        22 November 2013 at 1:20 pm

        I studied with Christadelphians : Elpis Israel is their expositional text, and if you can struggle through that, you are in the ‘club’.

  13. Northshoreguynz 13
    22 November 2013 at 10:30 am

    Rangitoto College has had to cancel Community Ed for next year.
    Perhaps whoever the MP is can campaign for a reintroduction of funds.

    • tracey 13.1
      22 November 2013 at 10:44 am

      will it teach them to invest in the stockmarket? If not, it must go

    • Rosie 13.2
      22 November 2013 at 10:49 am

      And Onslow College in the Ohariu electorate has closed the doors on it’s Community Ed after 30 successful and popular years of provision. Not a word from Dunne on the matter.

      Are Labour planning to reintroduce funding for night classes should they be elected next year?

      • miravox 13.2.1
        22 November 2013 at 12:38 pm

        So short sighted, this government. Happy to keep people from achieving in anything. They’re looking for drones – and that’s all.

        A good question for Labour.

  14. Te Reo Putake 14
    22 November 2013 at 11:45 am

    Facebook boss Sheryl Sandberg on male CEO’s fear of women:

    “The next time you hear a little girl called ‘bossy’, go up to the person who did it – and it may be the little girl’s parents – have a big smile on your face and say ‘Your little girl is not bossy, she has executive leadership skills’,”

    http://www.theage.com.au/it-pro/business-it/sheryl-sandbergs-passionate-plea-for-women-to-assert-themselves-20131121-hv3ox.html

  15. karol 15
    22 November 2013 at 11:50 am

    Good series of tweets from Marama Davidson:

    Privilege of Speech

    can we call what we currently have something else then? I dunno. “Privilege of Speech”?

    On discussion about freedom of speech:

    okay no this is good.Freedom of Speech discussion erupting across our islands. Led by those who have always had the privilege of it.

    “Freedom of Speech” used to maintain oppression:

    Yo all the oppressed, powerless, platformless, resourceless peeps. Your Freedom of Speech is about to be taken away! Quick! Fight!

  16. Ake ake ake 16
    22 November 2013 at 12:12 pm

    While people’s eyes are on the North Island, the new electorate seat and National wanting to gift a parliamentary seat to Crazy Craig, the Labour Party and the Cunliffe leadership should also stay focused on retaining and growing support in the South Island.

    Prediction Number 1:
    A previously strong South Island electorate will be lost by Labour to National at next year’s General Election, no thanks to an increasingly unpopular and ineffectual incumbent and thanks to a far better and more likeable opposing candidate.

    “Immigration Minister Michael Woodhouse, a Dunedin-based list MP who has twice previously stood in Dunedin North said he was committed to standing in the 2014 election but no final decision had yet been made on where.”
    http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/282486/dunedin-north-extended-north

    You heard it first here: Woodhouse will decide to stand in Dunedin South.

    Wake up, Labour.

    • Colonial Viper 16.1
      22 November 2013 at 3:27 pm

      +1

      That’s my prediction too. Woodhouse’s family roots are in Dunedin South anyways. Also, I know that early blue money has been flowing into Dunedin South.

      2011 Nat candidate and carpet bagger Joanne Hayes, from the Manawatu, took the Labour electorate majority down to 4175 in 2011 and helped National win the party vote in Dunedin South in a shock result. Labour’s 4,700 2008 party vote majority went down to about -1,800 in 2011. A huge slide.

      Joanne’s a solid candidate and I reckon she will stand in the North Island next year maybe closer to home.

    • idlegus 16.2
      22 November 2013 at 4:03 pm

      he was born here in south dunedin, poor boy big famly mum was a popular nurse, & all his siblings are really successful people. interesting ake ake ake. for eg, i wont vote curran, but would vote for a labour rep if we had a decent one.

  17. Rogue Trooper 17
    22 November 2013 at 12:15 pm

    ‘Superbugs’ Plague Last Days.

    • greywarbler 17.1
      22 November 2013 at 3:47 pm

      Medical tourism – many going to Thailand I heard. Are NZs going to be threatened by these bugs from people trying to get round the system by going elsewhere.? Someone was saying how good the medial service is there. It might look good but the bugs can’t be seen. Information though is that many people treat themselves with antibiotics like we use aspirin. (And that can be dangerous too.)

      There is an increase in numbers of negative events in NZ hospitals and they are under funding stress, which I bet isn’t keeping up with inflation, not like MPs rises. .07% rise at one hospital for a staff member.

      This is from RT’s link above and I think we should be aware of this.
      Mr Pool had caught a pan-resistant superbug, known as Klebsiella pneumoniae with Oxa 48 resistance, while in hospital in either Vietnam or India.
      These types of superbugs produce an enzyme that destroys the strongest, “last-resort” type of antibiotics, known as carbapenems, and tend to be resistant to all other categories of antibiotics.
      Essentially, if you get infected, there is little hope of survival….

      On an average day, 20 patients are in isolation with super-bacterias ESBL and MRSA. In these cases, the patient has a single room with their own toilet, and staff wear gowns and gloves for all contact. Items that leave the room are decontaminated.

      • Colonial Viper 17.1.1
        22 November 2013 at 3:50 pm

        We’re entering the post-antibiotic age.

        Only your immune system is now smart enough to deal with these bugs. Despite being quite compromised, Mr Pool’s apparently was. For a time at least.

      • Rogue Trooper 17.1.2
        22 November 2013 at 4:20 pm

        ta gw, your hands appear more efficient at typing than my paw (just been collecting the seeds from deadheads, gratefully, and distributing them around the section) More free stuff…like the Poppies. 😉

  18. karol 18
    22 November 2013 at 12:33 pm

    While Titford was claiming victimisation from Maori, the truth was actually the opposite – a long history of abuse and victimisation of others, and selfish corruption.

    RNZ interview with wife Susan Cochrane.

    [audio src="http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/mnr/mnr-20131122-0718-ex-wife_says_titford_scuttled_boat_to_claim_insurance-048.mp3" /]

    The former wife of Northland farmer Allan Titford said her husband told her soon after they married that he sank his own fishing boat to collect an insurance payout.

    Stuff report on the interview:

    In an interview with Radio New Zealand she said that after 22 years of torment it was the fact her children started harming themselves that made her seek help from Women’s Refuge.

    Her children could not understand why she wouldn’t leave Titford and used to encourage her to do so, she said.

    “I finally said to them he’d told me he’d kill my mum and dad and then, if they died, he’d go to their funeral and he’d find us there and get us,” Cochrane said.
    […]
    She said she didn’t tell anyone about her torment because Titford threatened to kill her parents if she did.

    “It was always ‘if you tell anyone I’ll kill you or I’ll kill your parents’ and it took ages before I even told my own kids the reason why I wouldn’t leave,” Cochrane said.

    Not long after she left Titford her mother died and the next day Titford drove through Hikurangi looking for them, she said.

    Her children spotted him and were so terrified they jumped into a shop to hide from him.

    The family went into hiding with the help of Women’s Refuge until Titford was charged and bailed on the condition he stay south of Hamilton.

    Thank goodness for Women’s Refuges. They need on-going support and funding.

    • miravox 18.1
      22 November 2013 at 1:05 pm

      “Thank goodness for Women’s Refuges. They need on-going support and funding.”

      I’m all for Labour’s plan for gender balance, if women MPs support this, because so far not a lot has been done a lot to safeguard women who leave abusive partners.

  19. lprent 19
    22 November 2013 at 12:38 pm

    How are people finding the site speed this morning. It has been slower than I’d have liked this week because the file server was having problems providing the files to the web servers. So I upgraded that last night.

    Looks like we now have the required expansion abilities that I will need for an election year…

  20. marty mars 20
    22 November 2013 at 12:47 pm

    JMG has a very interesting article up – well worth a read.

    All of the abstract conceptions of classical Roman culture thus came to cluster around the civil religion of the Empire, a narrative that defined the cosmos in terms of a benevolent despot’s transformation of primal chaos into a well-ordered community of hierarchically ranked powers. Jove’s role in the cosmos, the Emperor’s role in the community, the father’s role in the family, reason’s role in the individual—all these mirrored one another, and provided the core narrative around which all the cultural achievements of classical society assembled themselves. The difficulty, of course, was that in crucial ways, the cosmos refused to behave according to the model, and the failure of the model cast everything else into confusion. In the same way, the abstract conceptions of contemporary industrial culture have become dependent on the civil religion of progress, and are at least as vulnerable to the spreading failure of that secular faith to deal with a world in which progress is rapidly becoming a thing of the past.

    http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.co.nz/2013/11/toward-green-future-part-three.html

    • fender 21.1
      22 November 2013 at 1:02 pm

      Or employment opportunities dictating where those feet go, from the article: “Fewer New Zealanders are leaving for Australia as that country’s job market cools down….”

  22. greywarbler 22
    22 November 2013 at 1:10 pm

    Winston Peters good on Radionz this morning. His usual well spoken self making points about Kiwi Rail and they were good ones. He is good value despite pop-up quirks that are off putting.

    • Naturesong 22.1
      22 November 2013 at 3:12 pm

      I’d love to see him as Speaker.

      He’d be awesome!

    • Colonial Viper 22.2
      22 November 2013 at 3:14 pm

      mentored by none other than Sir Rob 😉

    • Tim 22.3
      22 November 2013 at 5:18 pm

      Yes – he was brilliant. Quinn I think (I hope) realises his spin doctoring hasn’t/ won’g ekshly cut it – although don’t be surprised if they try it on.
      One point Winnie made that interested me (hopefully some1 can verify it) is that SINCE the wobble introduction, the ship has actually carried less freight across the ditch than it would have had they left the fooking thing alone!

      Boozie Boy Allan aye …… experts in ALLLLLLL ‘enterprises’, and masters of none.

    • millsy 22.4
      23 November 2013 at 12:28 am

      One of the best PM’s we never had IMO.

      But, as always, things happen, life gets away from you, bad choices are made, etc.

    • Colonial Viper 23.1
      22 November 2013 at 3:15 pm

      I think Australia are about to get a whole lot of new Indonesian vistors

    • emergency mike 23.2
      22 November 2013 at 4:56 pm

      Ah… So good to Mr spin-genius claiming with a shit-eating grin that it’s not his fault and he has nothing to apologise for if people ‘imagine’ that he was referring to anyone in particular when he said “Apology demanded from Australia by a bloke who looks like a 1970s Pilipino [sic] porn star”. This after a bunch of racist tweets about Indonesian leaders.

      Classic narcissist, never wrong. Except when it becomes front page news in Indonesia, then it’s:

      “Apologies to my Indonesian friends – frustrated by media-driven divisions – Twitter is indeed no place for diplomacy.”

      Classic narcissist, ‘it’s not my fault, I’m the victim here’.

      That video of Mark Textor thinking he’s being clever but actually looking like an idiotic arsehole by trying to lawyer-talk his way out of it will be around forever. This little piece of schadenfreude has made my day.

  24. North 24
    22 November 2013 at 4:01 pm

    What an absolute hoot ! From NZ Herald – the madly pompous patronising old ego-fool Tea Party phallus Bill O’Reilly on Fux News – lashing Kiwi blogger Paul Casserly:

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=11161334

    Interestingly, scroll down to the top of the smaller Fux News video in the article and what do we see ? Somethng about visiting Whale Oil in NZ for the best news.

    Whale Fux Oil. Figures huh ?

  25. Morrissey 25
    22 November 2013 at 4:38 pm

    Lethal hypocrisy at its most loathsome:
    Israel’s manipulation of humanitarian aid
    by Ramona Wadi, Middle East Monitor, Thursday, 21 November 2013

    As Israel’s heavily publicised humanitarian mission in the Philippines commenced, the IDF has been constantly updating its achievements in the ravaged land through a twitter account which briefly utilised the hashtag #IDFWithoutBorders, until activists exploited the irony implied within the chosen vocabulary, relating the implied lack of confines to Israel’s unbridled usurpation of Palestinian land and expanding territorial borders.

    Social media has been inundated with examples of gratitude and assimilation which competently portray the propaganda campaign. A baby named Israel by ‘the thankful mum’, children photographed while holding the Israeli flag; and the teaching of the Hebrew language to students emphasise an expected compliance, as opposed to collaboration, in return for its involvement in the Philippines. IDF officials have been emphasising their selective implementation of humanitarian work, clearly eliminating its atrocious human rights violations against Palestinians from the equation: “Saving lives is not only a motto but a way of life”. “Medicine is a bridge between people.” For a passive observer, the rhetoric, combined with photography depicting the IDF contingent as actively involved in internationalism would undoubtedly influence public opinion with regard to the application of humanitarian aid.

    However, any merit of Israel’s venture in the Philippines must be questioned in light of its manipulation of internationalism, international law violations and the blockade on Gaza – issues which are conveniently relegated to the periphery while promoting the colonising power’s alleged ‘moral army’. The exhibited propaganda dictates a restricted perception of the Israeli army in an attempt to disassociate the same entity from its human rights violations against the Palestinian population.

    – See more at: http://www.middleeastmonitor.com/articles/middle-east/8427-in-defiance-of-internationalism-israels-manipulation-of-humanitarian-aid#sthash.mfxzVogG.dpuf

  26. LynWiper 26
    22 November 2013 at 4:39 pm

    Papers came in the mail today. Voted! Simple question with a yes/no answer. Shouldn’t be any confusion. A big tick in the NO box.

    • chris73 26.1
      22 November 2013 at 4:54 pm

      and I’ve ticked yes although it doesn’t matter because it won’t change anything

      • Tim 26.1.1
        22 November 2013 at 5:29 pm

        ….. No – it won’t change anything till 2014, or perhaps 2017
        When it duzzz, stuffed-pig squealing will be deafening.

        Ohhh ahhhh booo hooo, they stole my property from the thiefs!
        The bloody cheek of those hard left economic illiterates! Those poor ‘job-creators! How on Earth are they going to vest in “schools, hospitals @ roads” now! It’s sebbatajjj aye Chris!

        • chris73 26.1.1.1
          22 November 2013 at 5:48 pm

          naah not really, worst case is that Labour will buy back the shares at the price they were sold (don’t want to scare off too many foriegn investors) so I get my money back + the dividends so I come out ahead

          Its all good 🙂

    • karol 26.2
      22 November 2013 at 5:12 pm

      Not in my mail box today. I see John Key is trying to soften the impact of the no vote, and maybe also hope the idea that the result is a foregone conclusion will stop people voting..

  27. Rogue Trooper 27
    22 November 2013 at 6:50 pm

    Go Figure 😎

  28. Zorr 28
    22 November 2013 at 7:00 pm

    http://ruminator.co.nz/david-cunliffe-thems-fighting-words/

    There seems to be a bit of a flare up about this?

    For a Friday afternoon, my brain is dead and I see Cunliffe making a fish-based pun on Collin’s chances floundering and that he calls her a fish in the middle of it. Am I now part of the problem if I can’t find the sexism that is so apparently inherent to I/S?

    • Zorr 28.1
      22 November 2013 at 7:03 pm

      As an addendum, I think the point raised in the comments below explaining “old trout” is appropriate and clarifies a lot of it to me but I find it difficult to get angry over a line like that when the Nats are so willing to brand anyone who doesn’t agree with them as an “extremist” “fundamentalist” “terrorist”

      • karol 28.1.1
        22 November 2013 at 8:45 pm

        Basically, though, I think there’s no need for ad hominems – stick to attacking Collins for her politics. There’s plenty of material there.

      • Anne 28.1.2
        22 November 2013 at 9:20 pm

        I gather Cunliffe was invited to submit a post in reply to one by Judith Collins that appeared some weeks ago. The original is said to be tongue in cheek, so I guess Cunliffe replied in kind. Searched The Ruminator but can’t locate the Collins post.

    • karol 28.2
      22 November 2013 at 7:38 pm

      “old trout” is most often used as a slang term for “silly old woman”.

      I suspect an older association with women and fishy smells.

      • Captain Carrot 28.2.1
        22 November 2013 at 11:44 pm

        Are you saying cunners called her a c..t?

        [lprent: I thought I knew that silly smug snideness with no actual content or apparent intelligence. You are still banned under another name. And I see that you since still haven’t written anything of value confining yourself instead to flame starters. So an auto-spam is called for.

        I allow you to carry on reading the site despite being tempted to test the new exclusion tool. ]

    • BM 28.3
      22 November 2013 at 8:31 pm

      Face it, Cunliffe is a complete fucking numpty with the political nous of Aaron Gilmore.

      Labour basically gifted the election and probably the next two when they installed Cunners as leader.

      • McFlock 28.3.1
        22 November 2013 at 8:36 pm

        lol

        Not even john banks is as bad as gilmore was.

        • BM 28.3.1.1
          22 November 2013 at 8:48 pm

          Honestly, some of the stuff he comes out with, you seriously WTF at.

          The thought of that tool bag being with kilometers of the levers of power is fucking terrifying and to be honest the fact the such a complete fuck knuckle can even get in a position to become prime minister is a sad indictment on our political system.

          • McFlock 28.3.1.1.1
            22 November 2013 at 8:59 pm

            Well, can I suggest that (just to be on the safe side) you emigrate as soon as possible?

          • karol 28.3.1.1.2
            22 November 2013 at 9:01 pm

            🙄

            Cunliffe didn’t talk about fancying Liz Hurley. Or make a joke about Maori and cannibals. Or call Hillary President Clinton. Or post a photo of himself with the Queen on Twitter. Or say the Roast busters should just “grow up”.

            • greywarbler 28.3.1.1.2.1
              22 November 2013 at 9:43 pm

              Watch out BM better check through your hats now to see which one you will be eating next November.

          • Anne 28.3.1.1.3
            22 November 2013 at 9:23 pm

            Couldn’t agree more BM. JK is an embarrassment all round.

        • idlegus 28.3.1.2
          22 November 2013 at 8:52 pm

          “zip it sweetie” – & how they all laughed

          • BM 28.3.1.2.1
            22 November 2013 at 8:58 pm

            As I read on Kiwi Blog maybe all the National guys should address the labour and green female mps as old trouts or maybe even bush pigs until the next election.

            Darien Fenton and Carol Beaumont look like a couple of tough old razor backs I’m sure they wouldn’t be too fussed with the Male National Mps taking the piss out of the way they look

            I’m sure all the left women would find it rather amusing.

            • Anne 28.3.1.2.1.1
              22 November 2013 at 9:27 pm

              And what about those large, ample bosomed bottle blondes on the other side. I’m sure they could take a joke against themselves.

            • fender 28.3.1.2.1.2
              22 November 2013 at 9:44 pm

              Collins deserved it for this: “David Cunliffe – no one would argue that Cunners (the more affectionate term for him) is anything but intelligent – least of all himself.”

              Note the reference to the silent ‘tea’.

              [lprent: I see you found my troll trap 🙂 ]

          • Rogue Trooper 28.3.1.2.2
            22 November 2013 at 11:10 pm

            “You need just enough of that sticky stuff
            to hold the seams of your fine blue jeans”

            Velcro Fly

      • ScottGN 28.3.2
        22 November 2013 at 10:19 pm

        Not such a numpty not to have figured out that a nice little bit of wedge politics on a Friday arvo might help him get back some of those male voters who apparently shifted over to National in the wake of the so called man ban issue that surfaced at the Labour Party Conference. The bigger the fuss the better it is for Cunliffe. The only surprise was that Judith Collins walked in to it so readily.

        • Anne 28.3.2.1
          22 November 2013 at 10:35 pm

          Farrar at Kiwiblog bawls out Cunliffe for inferring Collins is an old tr–t. How about a Standard author bawl out Collins for inferring Cunliffe is a c–t.

          Tit for Tat! Ooops… not you Tat. 🙂

      • emergency mike 28.3.3
        23 November 2013 at 12:18 am

        “Face it, Cunliffe is a complete fucking numpty with the political nous of Aaron Gilmore.”

        Uh huh, coz Cunliffe totally comes out with the “Go get me your most expensive bottle of wine bitch, don’t you know who I am,” lines.

        Oh wait, no that was Aaron Gilmore, the National MP that resigned in the house crying like a child.

  29. Penny Bright 29
    22 November 2013 at 7:25 pm

    FYI

    ‘Open Letter’ – request for NZ Serious Fraud Office to conduct an urgent inquiry into alleged bribery and corruption, involving Auckland Mayor Len Brown and Sky City Auckland.

    Lisa Prager and myself, (Penny Bright), hereby formally request the NZ Serious Fraud Office (SFO), to conduct an urgent inquiry into alleged bribery and corruption, involving Auckland Mayor Len Brown, and Sky City Auckland.

    …….

    http://www.pennybright4mayor.org.nz/open-letter-request-for-nz-serious-fraud-office-to-conduct-an-urgent-inquiry-into-alleged-bribery-and-corruption-involving-auckland-mayor-len-brown-and-sky-city-auckland/

    _____________________________________________________________________________

    For your further information, I am registered to attend the Australian Public Sector Anti-Corruption Conference (including workshops) on 26 -28 November 2013.

    http://www.apsac.com.au/2013conference/program.html

    It should be a FASCINATING 3 days……

    Penny Bright

  30. chris73 30
    22 November 2013 at 9:35 pm

    The Labour Party’s finance spokesman David Cunliffe has apologised to the National Party’s Judith Collins after saying humans would probably die out if she were the last woman on earth.

    Invited onto Paul Henry’s radio show, David Cunliffe was asked if he had ever thought about who he would mate with if he and his fellow mps were the last people left on earth, and this was his response.

    “I have thought that if Judith Collins was the last woman on earth, the species would probably become extinct.”

    – I think Cunliffe secretly fancies JC…

    • Murray Olsen 30.1
      22 November 2013 at 11:41 pm

      Cunliffe was just saying that he wouldn’t have sex with a woman just for the sake of it. Unlike the NAct scum, he would need to respect, love, and have common ground with any sexual partner. I don’t see why he apologised really. The toxic gnome should have apologised for asking such a stupid question.

  31. Ake ake ake 31
    22 November 2013 at 9:47 pm

    HAHAHA

    Preciously false Collins is a laugh.

    Cunliffe was being polite and very restrained. There are many other more descriptive nouns and adjectives that her own current and former colleagues would have used that she would be really familiar with 🙂

    • chris73 31.1
      22 November 2013 at 10:48 pm

      Although considering its Cunliffe he’ll probably say something nice about her to a different audience 🙂

      • North 31.1.1
        22 November 2013 at 11:01 pm

        You’re a nutter Piss73. Give the missus a serious seeing to when she got home late with the Maccers dinner and no dipping sauce didya ? You being too bone idle or unartful to peel some spuds while ya waited, as you related yesterday or the day before ? Walked home for that matter while you drove to and from work in the Grandly asprayshinul Vitara angling at the stylish Maori Land Bruiser VX, as you also related yesterday or the day before ?

        Ake ake ake……obviously don’t know or care to know about the zoo of Judge Judy’s current colleagues but certainly there are many former colleagues in Auckland who always saw her as a self promoting baggage and a not too gifted one at that.

      • fender 31.1.2
        22 November 2013 at 11:05 pm

        Yes he could mention how nice it is when she exits the room.., or he could tell the penguins that he’s found someone capable of reversing rising temperatures just by making eye contact..

    • Captain Carrot 31.2
      22 November 2013 at 10:59 pm

      Yes but Cunliffe’s colleagues say similar things about him but do it quite publicly

  32. North 32
    22 November 2013 at 11:16 pm

    ShonKey Python on TV tonight – “I don’t comment on security matters.”

    Where the fuck is the fiduciary in this ? “I don’t comment…….”. When it’s probable that a foreign power has been spying on Kiwis, and the jerk knows it.

    Where the fuck is the fiduciary here ?

    Is this simpering Hawaii ponce a traitor or is he a traitor ?

  33. gobsmacked 33
    22 November 2013 at 11:56 pm

    Judith Collins’ cabinet colleague, Michael Woodhouse, has proper respect for the ladies …

    http://dunedinelection2008.wordpress.com/2008/10/06/giving-pragmatic-conservatism-a-bad-name/

    (Ms Collins was not available for comment, ever)

  34. webpage 34
    27 November 2013 at 6:03 am

    I’ve been surfing online more than 4 hours today, yet I never found any interesting article like yours.
    It’s pretty worth enough for me. In my opinion, if all webmasters and bloggers
    made good content as you did, the web will be a lot more useful than ever
    before.

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