Open mike 23/08/2011

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, August 23rd, 2011 - 43 comments
Categories: open mike - Tags:

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

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

Step right up to the mike…

43 comments on “Open mike 23/08/2011 ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. Bunnykinz 1
    23 August 2011 at 6:39 am

    With another election coming up that he knew he must win, John Key once again made a pact with the Devil. But what price could he afford? He knew there was one thing the Devil wanted, and JK was more than willing to give it to him. In one fell swoop, he signed away the future of New Zealand’s first born child (and all those that follow):

    John Key signs away future of NZ’s first born child

  2. Jim Nald 2
    23 August 2011 at 8:49 am

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/5489154/Keys-earthquake-inquiry-compromise

    So the third lawyer is not really a “totally independent counsel” for the families ?

    How satisfactory is it for the families that a third lawyer, who is not really a “totally independent counsel” for the families, has been put in to babysit the families ?

  3. Jim Nald 3
    23 August 2011 at 8:59 am

    Please excuse this if the following has already been picked up …

    “Education Minister Anne Tolley is guaranteeing that middle and high income earners will not have to pay more for early child care in the next term of a National-led government.”
    Source: Newsroom (a few days ago)

    Are you wary of Nats’ offer of guarantee?

    (‘No GST increase’, anyone?)

    If you wanna swallow this one, take it with a pinch, nay, bucket of salt.

  4. travellerev 4
    23 August 2011 at 10:03 am

    First it’s funny than come the goose bumps
    Every bomb you make,Every job you take Every heart you break, Every Irish wake I’ll be watching you.. Every wall you build, Every one you’ve killed, Every grave you’ve filled, All the blood you’ve spilled I’ll be watching you….

  5. ianmac 5
    23 August 2011 at 10:27 am

    Has anyone read Gareth Morgan’s column 23 August? A remarkable declaration of what should be/is the belief of those on the Left.
    Our tax and welfare policy is in urgent need of reconstruction so it ensures equal opportunity for all to participate and fully realise their potential in society in its widest sense – whether it be the paid or the unpaid workforce.
    and One could be forgiven, in the light of the jargon of government-appointed tax working groups and welfare working groups, for believing that the main tax policy objective is to stop tax dodging and the main redistribution issue is to end welfare bludging. That’s how dumbed-down and myopic the New Zealand discussion on tax and distribution has become.
    and It is not true that those on benefits or not in paid work are inferior, and need to be whipped out of their complacency, that they would be “better” people if they were in paid work.
    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10746808

    • prism 5.1
      23 August 2011 at 10:41 am

      @ianmac (not in Turkey?)
      Woohoo. This is good stuff to read.

      • ianmac 5.1.1
        23 August 2011 at 11:13 am

        Too hot Prism! But what a wonderful country Turkey proved to be, especially outside Istanbul. Recommended destination I reckon. Four weeks in the countryside. Great.

        And wouldn’t be great if Labour/Greens could articulate Gareth’s views to the electorate

        • grumpy 5.1.1.1
          23 August 2011 at 11:59 am

          Last time I was in Turkey (Anatalya), there was a counter at the airport where you could check in your guns. They were put in a stell box and flew up front with the pilot and you picked your gun up again at destination…..

          Do they still do that??????

          • ianmac 5.1.1.1.1
            23 August 2011 at 5:24 pm

            Not that I know of Grumpy. Mind you I have no gun. Turkish Airlines internal flights seemed relaxed and friendly. Travelling by hot air balloon in Capadoccia was dramatic. No flying high in safety but hugging the floor and cliffs of valleys and skimming rooftops and early morning donkeys trotting off to work. Breathless.

      • Colonial Viper 5.1.2
        23 August 2011 at 12:08 pm

        Gareth Morgan hit it out of the park. Government economic leadership needs to be about a lot more than tax levels.

    • marsman 5.2
      23 August 2011 at 11:46 am

      Excellent article!

  6. prism 6
    23 August 2011 at 11:00 am

    Cottonsoft toilet paper made by an Indonesian company has been given a cross by environmental groups. This is another in what seems to be a continuing assault by wealthy powerful Indonesians on their native forests. This causes extreme problems with many of their people in remote areas who are very much dependent on their traditional, ancient ways and food resources and water which are affected negatively by misusing the forests. They are not helped by replanting with plantation trees that change the environmental balance.

    I don’t like finding that important native forest is being used to make toilet paper – the extreme insult to this important part of our environment.

  7. Colonial Viper 7
    23 August 2011 at 11:49 am

    Every bomb you make, every job you take

  8. Colonial Viper 8
    23 August 2011 at 12:17 pm

    RWC Cruising for a bigger loss than planned

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10746921

    With 17 days to go until the start of the tournament, and 42 days for the tournament to run, ticket sales were still $30.5 million short of the target.

    If ticket sales reach target, New Zealand will still lose $39 million – shared by the Government and the NZ Rugby Union.

    Seriously abysmal.

    Can the Tory decision makers not get it into their thick skulls.

    When the under class and middle class are always being squeezed with shit depressed wages and hidden inflation they will not buy your crappy $100-$200 tickets.

    And a millionaire still only has one ass, so all they need is one ticket each, even if it is in a Box seat.

    • AAMC 8.1
      23 August 2011 at 1:43 pm

      I live around the corner from Eden Park, I’m fortunate enough not to be struggling to survive – yet. I thought I might take my two kids to one game to give them the experience, England vs Scotland, sounded like an appropriate battle for a couple of Scottish descendants with an English mother. It was going to cost something like $1200 bucks for the four of us. See ya later!

      • Rob 8.1.1
        24 August 2011 at 12:26 pm

        WTF, are you only looking at category A, look at category D tickets , I am sure you will see a remarkable decrease for 2 adults amnd 2 children.

    • travellerev 8.2
      23 August 2011 at 2:39 pm

      Oh yeah, the glory days of billionaire yachting races and sky rocketing real estate prices is long gone.

      I would say that if they get stuck with a big debt that is the clearest signal to Shonkey they’re not buying his shit any more! That mean Rugby has just become like Yachting and Tennis a rich pricks game.

      • Rob 8.2.1
        24 August 2011 at 12:34 pm

        Yeah, come and tell that to the mums and dads and young players that will be out at club and school boy rugby this weekend.

    • prism 8.3
      24 August 2011 at 10:37 am

      @CV It is time for the RWC interests, which includes of course NZ government and all of us subject-population, to offer free tickets to overseas celebrities who might be interested in rugby and have the time to come over from Oz, Hong Kong, USA, Brit and South Africa I suppose. And raffle a few with flights and accommodation so that poorer people from overseas could afford a seat and the advertising would be promoting NZ. Make lemonade out of our perfectly good lemons. And of course have some raffles in NZ without travel and accommodation, they would sell like hot cakes and we don’t want empty seats. So do some lateral thinking you bull-headed rugby twerps and tight-arsed business people.

  9. thejackal 9
    23 August 2011 at 12:53 pm

    The Green Chain

    I watched a great doco last weekend called The Green Chain, which was all about Sawmill Workers Against Poisons (SWAP), an organization comprised of and for people affected by chemical exposure in Sawmills and Pulp and Papermills…

    • vto 9.1
      23 August 2011 at 1:13 pm

      Yes, and get this … workers in NZ handling chemically treated timber at virtually every stage are required to do so in a certain manner (gloves, etc) to avoid / minimise the risk of chemical exposure danger. Yet the residents of NZ are required to install it in the walls of their homes!

      How does that work?

      no treated timber for me thanks ….

      • Colonial Viper 9.1.1
        23 August 2011 at 1:39 pm

        damn leaky wood rot…

      • Draco T Bastard 9.1.2
        23 August 2011 at 3:40 pm

        Having your hands in the poison isn’t quite the same as having the poison in the timber in your home. It can penetrate your hands the same way it penetrates the wood but it’s not gaseous.

        • vto 9.1.2.1
          23 August 2011 at 4:45 pm

          You will have to excuse me if I do not trust the stated state… there are simply too many examples of that being wrong, and with deadly consequences, in the past.

          Think 245T, formaldehyde, asbestos, atomic testing too no less …

          You would have to bet money that it will happen again with the poisoned walls lining our childrens bedrooms.

          Don’t use it!

  10. randal 10
    23 August 2011 at 2:34 pm

    so what about the 210,000 jobs hooton promised on 9-noon yesterday. they will not only fix the leakyhomes they will spread out like army ants and fix everything with their mighty leader hooton in the van. (bedford).

  11. the pink postman 11
    23 August 2011 at 4:36 pm

    Im glad the so ncalled Aspergers case has been abolished .The whole affair has been a blot on the NZ justice system . This unfortunate young man has been through hell and

  12. Vicky32 12
    23 August 2011 at 5:55 pm

    I was just moved to wonder why, when I heard a nasal Noo Yawk voice, the teenage girl with the Amy Winehouse hair-do, advertising Southern Cross Travel Insurance, has, despite her NZ origins described in the story she tells,  such a heavy and obviously fake American accent. “My friend and me were in a ski boat eccident in Toyland, and so I was rully gled we had… blah blah..” Bizarre, the NZ pronunciation, with the American tones…
    Years ago, advert voice overs were always male, no matter what the product was – because, I read, only male voices have authority. Is it that nowadays, ad agencies feel that only American voices have authority?

  13. rosy 13
    23 August 2011 at 6:19 pm

    Figures from Statistics NZ today, however, show 3113 Kiwis left for Australia last month, the highest July net emigration to Australia since records began in 1978, and that in the year to July 2011 41,462 Kiwis relocated across the Tasman.

    Did I miss this piece of news on 19th Aug or was in not picked up by the by the stuff and herald websites?

  14. uke 14
    23 August 2011 at 8:10 pm

    Fed secretly loaned trillions to big banks:
     

    The US Federal Reserve Board secretly handed out trillions of dollars in virtually free loans to major American and European banks at the height of the financial crisis between 2007 and 2010, according to an article posted Sunday by Bloomberg News.
    …
    The Bloomberg report sheds additional light on the manner in which the American capitalist state, under Bush and then Obama, looted the public treasury to bail out the financial elite, and the colossal scale of the sums involved. Money–taxpayer money, that is–was no object when it came to protecting the wealth of the parasites who triggered the financial crash and economic slump with their Ponzi schemes. Yet when it comes to helping millions of families losing their homes to foreclosure or providing jobs to the unemployed, the universal cry is “There is no money!”
    …
    Now the Obama administration in the US and its counterparts across Europe are seeking to impose the full cost of the bankrupting of the state on the working class, demanding the destruction of all of the social gains achieved by workers in the course of the 20th century.

    • vto 14.1
      23 August 2011 at 8:57 pm

      Now remember that the Federal Reserve is a privately owned organisation.

      And also remember that the way the money the Federal Reserve lends / lent to these banks is created is by simply ‘issuing’ these loans (i.e. printing it). Nothing else.

      And then ask yourself ……………… what the fuck ?

      it
      is
      as
      simple
      as
      that

      And then go and tell as many people as you can. The public (peasants) are slowly cottoning onto this the world’s biggest ever ponzi scheme.

      • Colonial Viper 14.1.1
        23 August 2011 at 9:06 pm

        And also remember that the way the money the Federal Reserve lends / lent to these banks is created is by simply ‘issuing’ these loans (i.e. printing it). Nothing else.

        Bearing in mind of course that “printing it” these days just means adding a few electronic zeroes to their current account.

    • Colonial Viper 14.2
      23 August 2011 at 8:57 pm

      You’d think that the US Fed could bail out Greece’s US$500B in debt by giving them a loan at 0.25% p.a. then.

      But no, helping the people of Greece from the malfaescence of their leaders is clearly not a priority like helping fucking Goldman Sachs and Commerzbank is.

  15. Draco T Bastard 15
    23 August 2011 at 8:29 pm

    Is Profit All You Need To Succeed?

    Profit … Profit’s the measure of social good you do,” is how Kevin defined a good company. It’s a succinct answer, and it’s the classical answer of economists. You’re not going to have a business for long if you can’t turn a profit, so it’s obviously a key criterion for the GOOD Company Project.

    This is the problem with modern economics – it sees profit and GDP as the only measure by which anything can be measured. But, as the RWNJs are prone to point out (but not actually apply), one size doesn’t fit all and the forced measuring of a public good into monetary terms only completely misses a lot of the actual value of that public good.

  16. thejackal 16
    23 August 2011 at 9:39 pm

    National’s Social Media Failure

    Yesterday Bomber Bradbury over at Tumeke had a great post about the way political parties use Facebook to communicate with the people they’re representing. There were some clear winners, which was great to see. Not only has the left wing embraced social media effectively, they actively communicate with people to gauge what the public thinks…