Weka, you're on a Left site with a Rogernome. What do you make of that? Does that make it a Left site? He established it with his computer knowledge. I avoid this site because of that. And am irritated by the prick apparently representing the Left on Nat Rad's Monday politics morning segment. Social democracy is the only Left worth a shit.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
[Let me help you with your avoidance and other issues, have a break from this site because your comments have not sparked joy here in a very long time – Incognito]
Because the world sits back and does nothing! Easy for the NZ government to join in and speak out against the US supplied targets but that is about where morality (and kindness!) runs out.
I believe that no religion should dictate to the state and no politician should use the political platform they have to force their beliefs on others.
Eh? That's exactly what politicians do.
If this wolf in sheep's clothing ever gets near the ninth floor New Zealand will be a carbon copy of current Australia. Morally corrupt, reactionary, and aggressive. Chris Luxon is so like Scott Morrison it's not funny.
I think we saw his campaign for leadership kick off last night, and its almost inevitable that he will take the leadership at some time. He is one of those people that has reached the top of everything he has touched so I have no doubt the Tory leadership will be the next thing.
He's articulate and clear in his thoughts so definitely someone to be concerned with.
His speech tried to push religion to one side but it is clearly something that defines him and something that he can be attacked for and something that he can be brought down on.
You might be looking for the term "moderator". They're the ones with powers of banning and bold-type editing.
But careful, moderators are only human and can get trigger-happy when they get passionate about a position.
Putting up with some foibles along those lines is one of the costs of getting to play in someone else's sandpit and meeting new and interesting people there.
Or you can follow the choice of a few erstwhile commenters who flipped the double bird, covered themselves in comment gasoline, and walked out in a blaze of permaban glory. But in your case, that would make the place less interesting in the longer term.
Mods and admins apparently have interesting arguments about policy in the backend. Meh. Whether or not a particular moderator is a jerk is the backend problem, lol
Don't know what you mean there. You called a comment Islamophobic and then you made some political points about that. If you were intending something other that, it went over my head.
IMO, it was heading in the wrong direction, particularly combined with that ‘political statement’. However, I would not have deleted it, personally, but it was not a reply to one of my comments. I’d rather drop this here & now but we can have a chat in the back-end, if you wish or rather, discuss it with RL in the back-end.
I see no point in getting pulled into your personal crusade, as I’m keen to avoid another futile fight here that sparks no joy and does not contribute anything useful, IMO. This was the gist of my comment, in case you missed it.
You’re entitled to choose which hill you want to die on, if you must insist.
I think another odd thing about his defence of Luxon and Morrison is that they are not traditional Christians. New age Christians such as these two and their stablemate Brian Tamaki is they don’t have a history of Christian values and a culture of giving. The community involvement of these Christian start and finishes at their own community, in contrast to, say, The Sisters of Mercy who have given many, many decades of service to nursing and teaching, and more recently community health and respite care.
The new age, monetised churches of Morrison, Luxon and Tamaki appear to be more about meting your future wife.
Nope! He didn’t ask me what I think of either your or his comment, but it was you who asked me to give my view on his comment @ 4.2.1 and yet, you didn’t ask me about your own deleted comment. I have no interest in playing ball with you or taking sides in this senseless ‘debate’. As I suggested before, let it go; you’re wasting (our) time.
Wasting your time? You don't appear to be doing anything in terms of moderation or you would have cautioned Redlogix.
[you’re now stepping over a line. Don’t tell us how to do our job, and especially don’t tell us when you plainly don’t understand how moderation works on site. Moderating other authors in the front end is reserved for extreme situations, not run of the mill bullshit like this. If you want to have it out with an author, do that and risk the consequences, but don’t start hassling other mods to take futile actions – weka]
It is your problem if you misconstrue words, meanings, intentions and falsely interpret other people’s beliefs. This has zero relation with ChCh, it is a personal problem and you’re projecting.
I've said it many times before, we don't post in a bubble. That's not the first comment by that moderator which punches down and specifically slights Muslims. I'm cursed with a detailed memory if you will.
I don't see the connection with Chch either. People are still free to criticise Islam here, and they're also free to criticise what they see as hypocrisy over how different religious groups are treated. You then get to argue against that, and people get to argue against your arguments, that's how TS works (which is what should have happened instead of deleting your comment. I disagree with both of you fwiw).
So, we’re now being pulled into Muttonbird’s rabbit hole discussing what they want (us) to discuss, which is exactly the futile crap I tried to avoid 🙁
you do get that once you start making it about the author/mod rather than the politics, that this creates problems, right?
All the authors here disagree with each other on politics at some point, and some of us disagree a lot. Commenters likewise. You can argue the politics, but if you want to criticise an author, you need to have something a damn site better than not liking their politics or position on an issue.
Nope. It isn't. You are laughable wrong on this – I have a big problem with fundamentalist zealots who use any religion as a cover for their evil. On this I'm remarkably even-handed, I really don't care what label is being used.
But attacking an MP solely on the grounds of their faith is entirely out of bounds.
Quite the contrary – Islam is a highly diverse religion, with a rich history I could bore you with for hours. (Hell once upon a time I could give you a reasonably decent account of the life and times of the Twelve Imams – and the impact this has had on the political life of Islam ever since.)
And while in the West we are most aware of the visible split between the Sunni and Shi'a traditions (a bit like the split between Catholic and Protestant, but it starts much earlier and is more fundamental in many ways) – in the modern context it's more powerful to think of the difference between the fundamentalist Wahhabist's and the mystical traditions of the Sufi's and the many threads that have spun off from them.
I seriously suggest you just call it a night. The wonderful thing about the internet is that if you wake up in the morning and some dude still really needs to be called a #$!@%@#$%$^, you can always do it while you have a cup of tea and cornflakes.
Not sure that attacking Luxon for his religious beliefs is a good tactic. I'm old enough to remember a 'left' Christianity being a thing with activists who took the Gospels seriously, and also how liberation theology took off in Latin America and was then ruthlessly stamped out. If we look only at the regressive (and frankly heretical) right-wing forms of Christianity now dominant in the US, it's easy to forget this aspect of the past.
For me the 'tell' in the linked article on Luxon was that he promoted his record of "getting things done". But the whole of politics is deciding what those things are, not the mere doing of them. It's an attempt to make his political ideology appear natural, inevitable and unquestionable. There is no argument and no alternative – we select our political masters purely on their ability to implement the programme with maximum efficiency. Very, very common trick on the right – and indicates to me that Luxon might be a smooth operator, but has the depth of a pot-plant.
edit
‘Religion’ has become a whitewash for unsatisfactory practices. It is an Authority for almost anything you can think of, with some pertinent verse from the Bible as a generating source.
People who talk about religion now, need to be looked at carefully, as always they should have been. But it has acquired a great PR, and has become a marketing tool, for educational businesses (the school you can trust to teach the Right Way, but wrongs can still happen there under cover). The drive and determination and dislike (three major D's) of Exclusive Brethren worries me. They set themselves against ordinary people who their leaders and teachings despise, but mingle with citizens like 'sleepers' when it suits them to use society or appear good guys in some format. There are other sects that pose a threat, scientology might be one. Actually these groups are just another 'gang' that separates itself from liking society in general, and being part of a community with the culture of being good, positive, and supportive individuals, though living amongst it.
I am concerned about the tax exemption that religions get. Church, religious, big business can reach monopoly position if run under religious or charitable aegis. Then ordinary business finds it hard to compete and can't get a toehold in the market. And so the nation's tax take on business enterprises and GDP generally, is reduced. Think Gloriavalue (a typo that seems applicable there!), low-paid workers who are almost in a Brave New World scenario.
Recent heading Gloriavale profit $2.8m, assets $41m. (The Press Mar.4/2021). These are not huge numbers considering the number of people involved, made larger by the big families they are inclined to have. This is not an ordinary community, and they are not likely to be paying ordinary tax levels. Indeed there was a day of rejoicing some while back when they had a decision on tax that lessened their requirements. Now in Business The Press, Mar.25/21, it reports they have a FernMark export licence.
The 'stealth' businesses and practices like this that continue and multiply, further weaken the nation and its prospects for individual citizens to achieve a reasonable living and individual personal life dstandards. As well we have the world investing here, sucking up resources and trashing the remainder, taking their profits elsewhere.
Our government, like a failing sports administration, sits and watches and calls out mostly from the sidelines, employing others through quasi semi-government agencies with some business approach about which we can know nothing because of its 'commercial sensitivity'. News in The Press Mar.25/21 is CDHB Reports to Stay Secret; Lester Levy is one of 'fixit plumbers' as Commissioner, and he has to try to cut the hospital entity's forecast deficit of $145 million, but CE Peter Bramley is largely in the dark about what.
Our bureaucrats are often imported with experience in stripping away quality as well as perceived fat, and join the exalted ranks of NZ-people-bashers and do well for themselves at it. See recent Chch CEO from Brit, recent Nelson NMIT CEO Sloan also Brit, after two? years left for a superior job in Australia, Joanne Wotsername who defrauded us at various government venues, and after a short period of detention has returned to Brit, changed her name once again and renewed her career. It's a laugh, give it a go to see if you can still manage an ironical one.
If an MP cannot express a basic Bill of Rights Act right such as right to belong to a religion without the hard left jeering at him, then there are plenty of other human rights one could then degrade in Parliament at the same time. Who know some of them may be important to you.
If you want to go toe to toe on whether Christianity was any good for New Zealand over all, why not do a post on it? Then we can all join in with actual facts instead of your thoughtless slurs.
So long as the rest of us don't have to live with any wilder shores of his "faith". And there are a lot of people who subscribe to doing good by their community and fellow people without being anywhere near any faith based beliefs.
In fact it strikes me as more than a little condescending to almost insinuate or imply that only the faith based have the welfare of others in mind…. that would be a change of pace for Nact wouldn't it? Time for some searching interviewing on how he perceives welfare benefits, unions and other people empowering organisations.
… it strikes me as more than a little condescending to almost insinuate or imply that only the faith based have the welfare of others in mind…. that would be a change of pace for Nact wouldn't it? Time for some searching interviewing on how he perceives welfare benefits, unions and other people empowering organisations.
"Where she goes, we go. Where she stands, we stand."
Alwyn, given the context of Savage's speech, "condescending" and "Colonialist" are not words that immediately spring to my mind, but each to their own.
When New Zealand declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939, Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage was recovering from an operation for colon cancer. Acting Prime Minister Peter Fraser issued a statement in his place.
Two days later Savage spoke to the public from his sickbed at his home in Wellington. The address was broadcast on the radio that evening and widely reported in newspapers over the following days.
Savage’s speech was at once an attack on the evils of Nazism and an expression of the country’s loyalty to and support for Britain:
Both with gratitude for the past and confidence in the future, we range ourselves without fear beside Britain. Where she goes, we go. Where she stands, we stand. We are only a small and young nation, but we are one and all a band of brothers and we march forward with union of hearts and wills to a common destiny.
Savage died just over six months later, on 27 March 1940, and was succeeded by Fraser, who led the government for the rest of the Second World War.
He was one of 15 MPs to vote against safe areas around abortion clinics.
Dunno if being in the conservative eighth counts as "extreme", but at least one of his beliefs seems to be at odds with his statement "I believe that no religion should dictate to the state and no politician should use the political platform they have to force their beliefs on others".
Typically petty from the Taxdodgers’ Union. Here they mimic and trivialise messages from children to the PM, for political purposes.
Imagine that, highjacking the innocence of children for dirty political deeds. No wonder they and their masters, ACT and National are at one of their lowest points yet in the eyes of New Zealand voters.
The CAT (sorry missspelled, must try different spell) man or woman or… probably wrote that letter themself. Most of the crossings out will be because they kept jiggling and giggling at their cleverness.
New Zealand maritime workers losing their jobs, being told they cannot leave New Zealand to work. Meanwhile ships taking New Zealand passengers and cargo, in New Zealand coastal waters, are allowed foreign crews, are NZ tax exempt and NZ labour laws exempt.
In the various attempts to hype vitamin D against covid, studies examining whether vitamin D levels prior to exposure affect the likelihood of getting infected have been somewhat hard to come by.
But one has recently come out. And though the headlines and breathless write-ups scream that it shows that higher vitamin D levels reduce risk of covid for black people, the data really doesn't appear to support that claim. For starters, the line is flat for white people, and the ups and downs in the chart for black people is equally consistent with the hypothesis that it's just noise due to the small numbers involved, and that vitamin D levels are not associated with risk of getting covid.
Consider: the error bars in the chart for black people all include the risk of infection being 7%, regardless of vitamin D level. Furthermore, the claim "the risk of having positive results in Black individuals was 2.64-fold greater with a vitamin D level of 30 to 39.9 ng/mL than a level of 40 ng/mL or greater and decreased by 5% per 1-ng/mL increase in level among individuals with a level of 30 ng/mL or greater. There were no statistically significant associations of vitamin D levels with COVID-19 positivity rates in White individuals." appears to be a straight interpolation of a line between two averaged data points that completely ignores the previous data point in the series, which happens to suggest a low risk of infection with a lowish vitamin D level of 20 to 30 ng/ml.
All in all, this study shows there's likely not a benefit from vitamin D in reducing the likelihood of getting covid. It also illustrates how researchers that get invested in a particular idea get sucked into claiming their results show something that really probably isn't there. Or if there actually is an effect, at best it's likely very small.
Well that's a creative way to read the outcome of the study. Did you not see this statement?
"In this single-center retrospective cohort study, COVID-19 risk increased among Black individuals with vitamin D level less than 40 ng/mL compared with those with 40 ng/mL or greater and decreased with increasing levels among individuals with levels greater than 30 ng/mL. No significant associations were noted for White individuals."
Sounds to me that Viamin D does play a significant role.
A key point is conveyed in the final sentence of that paragraph, which was omitted from the quote : " Randomized clinical trials should examine whether increasing vitamin D level to greater than 40 ng/mL affects COVID-19 risk."
That paragraph was written by the researchers that have been invested for quite a while in the idea that vitamin D is effective against covid, and are fishing for funding to do more studies. So therefore there is a need to present the results in a positive light. It's their motivated reasoning talking, not a skeptical dispassionate look at the actual evidence.
When looking at the results of a study like this, there are always two competing hypotheses. The null hypothesis is "this stuff doesn't do shit, or might even be actively harmful", and should always be considered by far the most likely outcome. This should be the default conclusion if the results are reasonably compatible with this null hypothesis.
The competing hypothesis is the extraordinary claim that "this stuff really truly actually helps". Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Small blips in the data that are within the range of expected random variations for the sample sizes involved, as we see in this study, do not constitute extraordinary evidence. Sorry. Even given how much we all desperately want something, anything, to help fight this disease.
Well at best they should only be here for a limited time and should train locals while they are about it. And we should continue to downsize the population . For every visa granted another could be withdrawn from a less constrained sector.
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Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is methane the ...
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Oh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youOh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youSongwriters: Alexander Ebert / Jade Allyson CastrinosMorena,I’m on a tight time frame this morning. In about an hour and a half, I’ll need to pack up and hit the road ...
This is a post about the Mountain Tui substack, and small tweaks - further to the poll and request post the other day. Please don’t read if you aren’t interested in my personal matters. Thank you all.After oohing-and-aahing about how to structure the Substack model since November, including obtaining ...
This transcript of a recent conversation between the Prime Minister and his chief economic adviser has not been verified.We’ve announced we are the ‘Yes Government’. Do you like it?Yes, Prime Minister.Dreamed up by the PR team. It’s about being committed to growth. Not that the PR team know anything about ...
The other day, Australian Senator Nick McKim issued a warning in the Australian Parliement about the US’s descent into fascim.And of course it’s true, but I lament - that was true as soon as Trump won.What we see is now simply the reification of the intention, planning, and forces behind ...
Among the many other problems associated with Musk/DOGE sending a fleet of teenage and twenty-something cultists to remove, copy and appropriate federal records like social security, medicaid and other supposedly protected data is the fact that the youngsters doing the data-removal, copying and security protocol and filter code over-writing have ...
Jokerman dance to the nightingale tuneBird fly high by the light of the moonOh, oh, oh, JokermanSong by Bob Dylan.Morena folks, I hope this fine morning of the 7th of February finds you well. We're still close to Paihia, just a short drive out of town. Below is the view ...
It’s been an eventful week as always, so here’s a few things that we have found interesting. We also hope everyone had a happy and relaxing Waitangi Day! This week in Greater Auckland We’re still running on summer time, but provided two chewy posts: On Tuesday, a guest ...
Queuing on Queen St: the Government is set to announce another apparently splashy growth policy on Sunday of offering residence visas to wealthy migrants. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, February 7:PM Christopher ...
The fact that Waitangi ended up being such a low-key affair may mark it out as one of the most significant Waitangi Days in recent years. A group of women draped in “Toitu Te Tiriti” banners who turned their backs on the politicians’ powhiri was about as rough as it ...
Hi,This week’s Flightless Bird episode was about “fake seizure guy” — a Melbourne man who fakes seizures in order to get members of the public to sit on him.The audio documentary (which I have included in this newsletter in case you don’t listen to Flightless Bird) built on reporting first ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Karin Kirk The 119th Congress comes with a price tag. The oil and gas industry gave about $24 million in campaign contributions to the members of the U.S. House and Senate expected to be sworn in January 3, 2025, according to a ...
Early morning, the shadows still long, but you can already feel the warmth building. Our motel was across the road from the historic homestead where Henry Williams' family lived. The evening before, we wandered around the gardens, reading the plaques and enjoying the close proximity to the history of the ...
Thanks folks for your feedback, votes and comments this week. I’ll be making the changes soon. Appreciate all your emails, comments and subscriptions too. I know your time is valuable - muchas gracias.A lot is happening both here and around the world - so I want to provide a snippets ...
National’s cuts to disability support funding and freezing of new residential placements has resulted in significant mental health decline for intellectually disabled people. ...
The hundreds of jobs lost needlessly as a result of the Kinleith Mill paper production closure will have a devastating impact on the Tokoroa community - something that could have easily been avoided. ...
Today Te Pāti Māori MP for Te Tai Tokerau, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, released her members bill that will see the return of tamariki and mokopuna Māori from state care back to te iwi Māori. This bill will establish an independent authority that asserts and protects the rights promised in He Whakaputanga ...
The Whangarei District Council being forced to fluoridate their local water supply is facing a despotic Soviet-era disgrace. This is not a matter of being pro-fluoride or anti-fluoride. It is a matter of what New Zealanders see and value as democracy in our country. Individual democratically elected Councillors are not ...
Nicola Willis’ latest supermarket announcement is painfully weak with no new ideas, no real plan, and no relief for Kiwis struggling with rising grocery costs. ...
Half of Pacific children sometimes going without food is just one of many heartbreaking lowlights in the Salvation Army’s annual State of the Nation report. ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report is a bleak indictment on the failure of Government to take steps to end poverty, with those on benefits, including their children, hit hardest. ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill which would restore decision-making power to local communities regarding the fluoridation of drinking water. The ‘Fluoridation (Referendum) Legislation Bill’ seeks to repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 that granted centralised authority to the Direct General of Health ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill aimed at preventing banks from refusing their services to businesses because of the current “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework”. “This Bill ensures fairness and prevents ESG standards from perpetuating woke ideology in the banking sector being driven by unelected, globalist, climate ...
Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
Today marks a historic moment for Taranaki iwi with the passing of the Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill in Parliament. "Today, we stand together as descendants of Taranaki, and our tūpuna, Taranaki Maunga, is now formally acknowledged by the law as a living tūpuna. ...
Labour is relieved to see Children’s Minister Karen Chhour has woken up to reality and reversed her government’s terrible decisions to cut funding from frontline service providers – temporarily. ...
It is the first week of David Seymour’s school lunch programme and already social media reports are circulating of revolting meals, late deliveries, and mislabelled packaging. ...
The Green Party says that with no-cause evictions returning from today, the move to allow landlords to end tenancies without reason plunges renters, and particularly families who rent, into insecurity and stress. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
A bill to make revenue collection on imported and exported goods fairer and more effective had its first reading in Parliament, Customs Minister Casey Costello said today. “The Customs (Levies and Other Matters) Amendment Bill modernises the way in which Customs can recover the costs of services that are needed ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Department of Internal Affairs [the Department] has achieved significant progress in completing applications for New Zealand citizenship. “December 2024 saw the Department complete 5,661 citizenship applications, the most for any month in 2024. This is a 54 per cent increase compared ...
Reversals to Labour’s blanket speed limit reductions begin tonight and will be in place by 1 July, says Minister of Transport Chris Bishop. “The previous government was obsessed with slowing New Zealanders down by imposing illogical and untargeted speed limit reductions on state highways and local roads. “National campaigned on ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has announced Budget 2025 – the Growth Budget - will be delivered on Thursday 22 May. “This year’s Budget will drive forward the Government’s plan to grow our economy to improve the incomes of New Zealanders now and in the years ahead. “Budget 2025 will build ...
For the Government, 2025 will bring a relentless focus on unleashing the growth we need to lift incomes, strengthen local businesses and create opportunity. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today laid out the Government’s growth agenda in his Statement to Parliament. “Just over a year ago this Government was elected by ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour welcomes students back to school with a call to raise attendance from last year. “The Government encourages all students to attend school every day because there is a clear connection between being present at school and setting yourself up for a bright future,” says Mr ...
The Government is relaxing visitor visa requirements to allow tourists to work remotely while visiting New Zealand, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis, Immigration Minister Erica Stanford and Tourism Minister Louise Upston say. “The change is part of the Government’s plan to unlock New Zealand’s potential by shifting the country onto ...
The opening of Kāinga Ora’s development of 134 homes in Epuni, Lower Hutt will provide much-needed social housing for Hutt families, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I’ve been a strong advocate for social housing on Kāinga Ora’s Epuni site ever since the old earthquake-prone housing was demolished in 2015. I ...
MONDAYSheriff Seymour rode slowly down the main street of Dodge on his faithful white horse Atlas Network.He liked what he saw.Children were being fed free lunches prepared by kind people who collected the scraps from an offal rendering plant.“Very strongly flavoured liver, such as ox liver, can be soaked overnight ...
Once upon a time it was all about being an astronaut, a firefighter or doctor; but these days kids have their sights set on becoming vloggers or YouTubers.That’s according to a 2019 study by Lego that surveyed 3000 children between the ages of eight to 12 from the US, the ...
Madeleine Chapman reflects on the week that was. From the moment I started high school and realised almost every other girl in my year was at least partially interested in what the boys were up to, I realised that I would be single for life. The feeling wasn’t one of ...
The Pacific profiles series shines a light on Pacific people in Aotearoa doing interesting and important work in their communities, as nominated by members of the public. Today, Selina Alesana Alefosio.All photos by Geoffery Matautia.On a bright Sunday morning from her grandparent’s home in Pito-one, I spoke with ...
The White Lotus star reflects on her life in TV, including the local ad reference that doesn’t work in Australia, and her bananas co-star on Neighbours.Morgana O’Reilly was scrolling her phone next to her sleeping son on an idle Saturday morning when she got the call confirming that she ...
Claire Mabey explores the pros and cons of puff quotes on book covers.In January, Publishers Weekly put out an article by Sean Manning – publisher of Simon & Schuster’s flagship US imprint – in which he said he’d “no longer require authors to obtain blurbs for their books”.The ...
New Zealand’s Entomological Society is hosting its annual bug of the year contest. Here are some of the insects in the running. For some reason – perhaps humans’ inherent competitiveness, the idealisation of democracy, the need to demarcate winners and losers – one of the best ways to get people ...
A journey along the border, with words and illustrations by Bob Kerr.The Spinoff Essay showcases the best essayists in Aotearoa, on topics big and small. Made possible by the generous support of our members.The Sunset Limited leaves Union Station New Orleans on time at nine in the morning. We ...
Neville Peat is the 2024 recipient of the Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement in nonfiction. He’s written 56 books, mostly on natural history; this excerpt is from The Falcon and the Lark: A New Zealand High Country Journal, first published in 1992. The falcon wintering on the Rock and ...
It was a light-hearted gesture Greta Pilkington will be forever grateful for – thanks to an Aussie rival who jumped in when the Olympic sailor couldn’t be at her own graduation.Pilkington, then 20, had been leading a double life – while qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics in the ILCA ...
I was born in the back of my grandfather’s ute, by an overgrown windbreak in a remote place called Wahi-Rakauyou can’t find on a map. I was born a girl but given the man’s name Harvey, as my dad always wanted a violent-minded boy to one day help him ...
“We’re not here to interfere in people’s property rights,” Ngāi Tahu’s Te Maire Tau has told the High Court.Tau, a historian, Upoko (traditional leader) of Ngāi Tūāhuriri, and a university professor of history, is the lead witness in a case designed to force the Crown to recognise the tribe’s rangatiratanga ...
Pacific Media Watch Trump administration officials barred two Associated Press (AP) reporters from covering White House events this week because the US-based independent news agency did not change its style guide to align with the president’s political agenda. The AP is being punished for using the term “Gulf of Mexico,” ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific Presenter/Bulletin editor France’s top diplomat in the Pacific region says talks around the “unfreezing” of New Caledonia’s highly controversial electoral roll are back on the table. The French government intended to make a constitutional amendment that would lift restrictions prescribed under the Nouméa Accord, which ...
By bringing these global voices to the fight for free expression in New Zealand, we’ll continue to protect and expand our culture of free speech, says Nathan Seiuli, the Free Speech Union's Events Manager. ...
The issue is no longer a hypothetical one. US President Donald Trump will not explicitly suggest death camps, but he has already consented to Israel’s continuing a war that is not a war but rather a barbaric assault on a desolate stretch of land. From there, the road to annihilation is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cecelia Cmielewski, Research Fellow, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University To be selected as the artist and curator team to represent Australia at the Venice Biennale is considered the ultimate exhibition for an artistic team. To have your selection rescinded, ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Danielle Ireland-Piper, Associate Professor, ANU National Security College, Australian National University A Victorian government decision to allow dingo culling in the state’s east until 2028 has reignited debate over what has been dubbed Australia’s most controversial animal. Animals Australia, an animal welfare ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hassan Vally, Associate Professor, Epidemiology, Deakin University Overnight, Robert F. Kennedy Jr was confirmed as the secretary of the US Health and Human Services Department. Put simply, this makes him the most influential figure in overseeing the health and wellbeing of more ...
Everything you missed from day five of the Treaty principles bill hearings, when the Justice Committee heard eight hours of submissions.Read our recaps of the previous hearings here.It was another work from home day for the Justice Committee, the only people in Room 3 being security guards, committee ...
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In its eagerness to appease supporters of Israel, the media is happy to ride roughshod over due process and basic rights. It’s damaging Australia’s (and New Zealand’s?) democracy.COMMENTARY:By Bernard Keane Two moments stand out so far from the Federal Court hearings relating to Antoinette Lattouf’s sacking by the ...
“The reality is we’re getting poorer. The government this year is leaning heavy on chasing economic growth, which is absolutely the right thing to do.” ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 The Vegetarian by Han Kang (Granta, $28) Han Kang’s astounding novel was based on an ...
This new docuseries about two single comedians looking for love is also a joyful celebration of female friendship. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. “How many people do you think are boning right now?” Kura Forrester asks Brynley Stent as the bright ...
A new poem by Freya Turnbull. Hunger Song – After Kaveh Akbar (Untitled With Hunger And Matcheads) I hold my age in ripped fishnet hold an empty vessel oldyoung body cracks like gunshot like killa i was a father ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dominik Koll, Honorary Lecturer, Australian National University View of the Pacific Ocean from the International Space Station.NASA Earth must have experienced something exceptional 10 million years ago. Our study of rock samples from the floor of the Pacific Ocean has found ...
Troy Rawhiti-Connell reviews Kia Tupu Te Ara, a documentary chronicling the meteoric rise of Aotearoa’s groundbreaking metal band. “Two brothers attempt to storm the world of thrash metal with the Māori language, despite the fact they’re both still teenagers,” reads the synopsis of Kent Belcher’s documentary, Kia Tupu Te Ara. ...
Three freelance writers have been awarded grants to work on their ambitious journalism projects. In January, The Spinoff announced the Vince Geddes In-Depth Journalism Fund, supported by the Auckland Radio Trust (ART). The fund was established to provide much-needed financial and editorial support to talented freelance journalists, empowering them to ...
Weka, you're on a Left site with a Rogernome. What do you make of that? Does that make it a Left site? He established it with his computer knowledge. I avoid this site because of that. And am irritated by the prick apparently representing the Left on Nat Rad's Monday politics morning segment. Social democracy is the only Left worth a shit.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
[Let me help you with your avoidance and other issues, have a break from this site because your comments have not sparked joy here in a very long time – Incognito]
See my Moderation note @ 11:16 pm.
Hmmm, maybe this is why RNZ is full of pro business whinging these days–much of the actual working class do not have the time or resources to issue media releases and develop political strategies like serial property owners and “scumlords” do.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/439097/more-than-a-third-of-people-living-pay-day-to-pay-day-study
…and Auckland Central Green MP Chlöe gently socks it to Labour on housing…
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018788954/enough-from-investors-nz-should-pay-attention-to-mum-and-dad-renters-swarbrick
Because the world sits back and does nothing! Easy for the NZ government to join in and speak out against the US supplied targets but that is about where morality (and kindness!) runs out.
Scumo 2.0 says:
Eh? That's exactly what politicians do.
If this wolf in sheep's clothing ever gets near the ninth floor New Zealand will be a carbon copy of current Australia. Morally corrupt, reactionary, and aggressive. Chris Luxon is so like Scott Morrison it's not funny.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2021/03/national-mp-christopher-luxon-fiercely-defends-his-christian-faith-in-maiden-speech.html
Savage, Fraser and Nash would have fulsomely approved.
Fully approved.
Fulsomely but not necessarily fully. They were still different parties. Luxon would not describe Christianity as "applied Socialism".
More of a Prosperity Gospel type
I think we saw his campaign for leadership kick off last night, and its almost inevitable that he will take the leadership at some time. He is one of those people that has reached the top of everything he has touched so I have no doubt the Tory leadership will be the next thing.
He's articulate and clear in his thoughts so definitely someone to be concerned with.
His speech tried to push religion to one side but it is clearly something that defines him and something that he can be attacked for and something that he can be brought down on.
something that he can be attacked for and something that he can be brought down on.
He should convert to Islam – then he could do no wrong.
What a bad faith, distasteful and diversionary comment.
Would anyone on the left dream of suggesting that a Muslim MP 'could be brought down because of his religion'?
Of course not – the blatant double standard is obvious.
(And just to save you wondering – I am neither a Christian nor a Muslim.)
Wasn't there an Islamic MP who abstained from I think the prostitution legalisation vote? One of those conscience bills.
If one's religious beliefs aren't relevant to one's politics, don't vote along those lines.
If one does vote according to one's religious beliefs, don't pretend otherwise.
[RL: Deleted.]
That's really interesting that RL would delete criticism of his comment.
I'm surprised he hasn't deleted his comment from the sunny Gold Coast.
All power to the authors here, no matter how objectionable their views are.
OM does not have an Author as such so your comment makes no sense. I’d suggest you let it go rather than picking a fight with no winners.
And what do you think of RL's comment at 4.2.1?
This is a hill I'll happily die on with respect to that author/commenter. I believe he's a wrong 'un.
You might be looking for the term "moderator". They're the ones with powers of banning and bold-type editing.
But careful, moderators are only human and can get trigger-happy when they get passionate about a position.
Putting up with some foibles along those lines is one of the costs of getting to play in someone else's sandpit and meeting new and interesting people there.
Or you can follow the choice of a few erstwhile commenters who flipped the double bird, covered themselves in comment gasoline, and walked out in a blaze of permaban glory. But in your case, that would make the place less interesting in the longer term.
Mods and admins apparently have interesting arguments about policy in the backend. Meh. Whether or not a particular moderator is a jerk is the backend problem, lol
Mostly most authors try to not have interesting arguments in the backend 😉
Yup, we’re either too busy or having avoidance issues 😉
there's not really any hill to die on though. McFlock summarised what will happen, and then you just won't be here.
fwiw, I can't see much wrong with the comment given it's OM and given the context of TS debate generally.
I'm genuinely surprised by that. You are usually very sensitive to intent in speech.
Don't know what you mean there. You called a comment Islamophobic and then you made some political points about that. If you were intending something other that, it went over my head.
Best to ignore and let it go, I’d say. It’s not worth the energy fighting figments of somebody else’s imagination.
I thought it was worth noting that there didn't appear to be a reason for deleting the comment (in terms of TS norms).
IMO, it was heading in the wrong direction, particularly combined with that ‘political statement’. However, I would not have deleted it, personally, but it was not a reply to one of my comments. I’d rather drop this here & now but we can have a chat in the back-end, if you wish or rather, discuss it with RL in the back-end.
I see no point in getting pulled into your personal crusade, as I’m keen to avoid another futile fight here that sparks no joy and does not contribute anything useful, IMO. This was the gist of my comment, in case you missed it.
You’re entitled to choose which hill you want to die on, if you must insist.
It's RL's Crusade, in fact.
I think another odd thing about his defence of Luxon and Morrison is that they are not traditional Christians. New age Christians such as these two and their stablemate Brian Tamaki is they don’t have a history of Christian values and a culture of giving. The community involvement of these Christian start and finishes at their own community, in contrast to, say, The Sisters of Mercy who have given many, many decades of service to nursing and teaching, and more recently community health and respite care.
The new age, monetised churches of Morrison, Luxon and Tamaki appear to be more about meting your future wife.
Nope! He didn’t ask me what I think of either your or his comment, but it was you who asked me to give my view on his comment @ 4.2.1 and yet, you didn’t ask me about your own deleted comment. I have no interest in playing ball with you or taking sides in this senseless ‘debate’. As I suggested before, let it go; you’re wasting (our) time.
Wasting your time? You don't appear to be doing anything in terms of moderation or you would have cautioned Redlogix.
[you’re now stepping over a line. Don’t tell us how to do our job, and especially don’t tell us when you plainly don’t understand how moderation works on site. Moderating other authors in the front end is reserved for extreme situations, not run of the mill bullshit like this. If you want to have it out with an author, do that and risk the consequences, but don’t start hassling other mods to take futile actions – weka]
Wasting time commenting is still wasting time.
If you prefer, I could waste my time moderating, but that is an offence here 😉
You don’t take gentle hints kindly.
Let it go!
mod note for you Muttonbird.
Ta
Gee, thanks. Just surprised after Christchurch this stuff still gets through.
It is your problem if you misconstrue words, meanings, intentions and falsely interpret other people’s beliefs. This has zero relation with ChCh, it is a personal problem and you’re projecting.
I've said it many times before, we don't post in a bubble. That's not the first comment by that moderator which punches down and specifically slights Muslims. I'm cursed with a detailed memory if you will.
I don't see the connection with Chch either. People are still free to criticise Islam here, and they're also free to criticise what they see as hypocrisy over how different religious groups are treated. You then get to argue against that, and people get to argue against your arguments, that's how TS works (which is what should have happened instead of deleting your comment. I disagree with both of you fwiw).
So, we’re now being pulled into Muttonbird’s rabbit hole discussing what they want (us) to discuss, which is exactly the futile crap I tried to avoid 🙁
Good night.
you do get that once you start making it about the author/mod rather than the politics, that this creates problems, right?
All the authors here disagree with each other on politics at some point, and some of us disagree a lot. Commenters likewise. You can argue the politics, but if you want to criticise an author, you need to have something a damn site better than not liking their politics or position on an issue.
Incog, my reply was to your comment, but I was speaking to MB 🙂
You would have instantly detected an attack on a Muslim MP 'to use his religion to bring him down' as wrong and objectionable. And rightly so.
Yet for some reason an attack on an MP because he is a Christian goes totally unremarked by most people here except Ad and AB.
Yet somehow you managed to get that completely arse about.
This isn't about Chris Luxon, sunshine. This is about your clear and apparent issue with Islam, and Islam alone.
Nope. It isn't. You are laughable wrong on this – I have a big problem with fundamentalist zealots who use any religion as a cover for their evil. On this I'm remarkably even-handed, I really don't care what label is being used.
But attacking an MP solely on the grounds of their faith is entirely out of bounds.
What zealots were discussed on this thread before you brought them into it?
I believe when you see Islam all you see are zealots and that is a problem.
Quite the contrary – Islam is a highly diverse religion, with a rich history I could bore you with for hours. (Hell once upon a time I could give you a reasonably decent account of the life and times of the Twelve Imams – and the impact this has had on the political life of Islam ever since.)
And while in the West we are most aware of the visible split between the Sunni and Shi'a traditions (a bit like the split between Catholic and Protestant, but it starts much earlier and is more fundamental in many ways) – in the modern context it's more powerful to think of the difference between the fundamentalist Wahhabist's and the mystical traditions of the Sufi's and the many threads that have spun off from them.
The former gave us ISIL, the latter something the West could genuinely do well to pay a lot more attention to.
I remember you once said you deleted more comments than you posted.
Perhaps you should have done that at 9:27am today.
I seriously suggest you just call it a night. The wonderful thing about the internet is that if you wake up in the morning and some dude still really needs to be called a #$!@%@#$%$^, you can always do it while you have a cup of tea and cornflakes.
But most jerks ain't worth it.
Bit of a risky move (politically and otherwise) in NZ, don’t you think?
Do no wrong, you say?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infallibility_of_the_Church
"He should convert to Islam – then he could do no wrong"
I wouldn't be so sure about that. There were a lot of pretty nasty comments made about Tim Groser when he was a Cabinet Minister, weren't there?
A lot of them were on this Blog, often by people who still contribute their opinions here.
A few names that come to mind are Stuart Munro, Blazer, Jenny, cleangreen and Cinny.
I think Stuart was probably the most vituperative.
If you want to see them just put Groser in the search box.
Not sure that attacking Luxon for his religious beliefs is a good tactic. I'm old enough to remember a 'left' Christianity being a thing with activists who took the Gospels seriously, and also how liberation theology took off in Latin America and was then ruthlessly stamped out. If we look only at the regressive (and frankly heretical) right-wing forms of Christianity now dominant in the US, it's easy to forget this aspect of the past.
For me the 'tell' in the linked article on Luxon was that he promoted his record of "getting things done". But the whole of politics is deciding what those things are, not the mere doing of them. It's an attempt to make his political ideology appear natural, inevitable and unquestionable. There is no argument and no alternative – we select our political masters purely on their ability to implement the programme with maximum efficiency. Very, very common trick on the right – and indicates to me that Luxon might be a smooth operator, but has the depth of a pot-plant.
edit
‘Religion’ has become a whitewash for unsatisfactory practices. It is an Authority for almost anything you can think of, with some pertinent verse from the Bible as a generating source.
People who talk about religion now, need to be looked at carefully, as always they should have been. But it has acquired a great PR, and has become a marketing tool, for educational businesses (the school you can trust to teach the Right Way, but wrongs can still happen there under cover). The drive and determination and dislike (three major D's) of Exclusive Brethren worries me. They set themselves against ordinary people who their leaders and teachings despise, but mingle with citizens like 'sleepers' when it suits them to use society or appear good guys in some format. There are other sects that pose a threat, scientology might be one. Actually these groups are just another 'gang' that separates itself from liking society in general, and being part of a community with the culture of being good, positive, and supportive individuals, though living amongst it.
I am concerned about the tax exemption that religions get. Church, religious, big business can reach monopoly position if run under religious or charitable aegis. Then ordinary business finds it hard to compete and can't get a toehold in the market. And so the nation's tax take on business enterprises and GDP generally, is reduced. Think Gloriavalue (a typo that seems applicable there!), low-paid workers who are almost in a Brave New World scenario.
Recent heading Gloriavale profit $2.8m, assets $41m. (The Press Mar.4/2021). These are not huge numbers considering the number of people involved, made larger by the big families they are inclined to have. This is not an ordinary community, and they are not likely to be paying ordinary tax levels. Indeed there was a day of rejoicing some while back when they had a decision on tax that lessened their requirements. Now in Business The Press, Mar.25/21, it reports they have a FernMark export licence.
The 'stealth' businesses and practices like this that continue and multiply, further weaken the nation and its prospects for individual citizens to achieve a reasonable living and individual personal life dstandards. As well we have the world investing here, sucking up resources and trashing the remainder, taking their profits elsewhere.
Our government, like a failing sports administration, sits and watches and calls out mostly from the sidelines, employing others through quasi semi-government agencies with some business approach about which we can know nothing because of its 'commercial sensitivity'. News in The Press Mar.25/21 is CDHB Reports to Stay Secret; Lester Levy is one of 'fixit plumbers' as Commissioner, and he has to try to cut the hospital entity's forecast deficit of $145 million, but CE Peter Bramley is largely in the dark about what.
Our bureaucrats are often imported with experience in stripping away quality as well as perceived fat, and join the exalted ranks of NZ-people-bashers and do well for themselves at it. See recent Chch CEO from Brit, recent Nelson NMIT CEO Sloan also Brit, after two? years left for a superior job in Australia, Joanne Wotsername who defrauded us at various government venues, and after a short period of detention has returned to Brit, changed her name once again and renewed her career. It's a laugh, give it a go to see if you can still manage an ironical one.
The Brits have a pert saying – 'What a shower'.
If an MP cannot express a basic Bill of Rights Act right such as right to belong to a religion without the hard left jeering at him, then there are plenty of other human rights one could then degrade in Parliament at the same time. Who know some of them may be important to you.
If you want to go toe to toe on whether Christianity was any good for New Zealand over all, why not do a post on it? Then we can all join in with actual facts instead of your thoughtless slurs.
Pretty good way to alienate the christian left, I'd've thought.
So long as the rest of us don't have to live with any wilder shores of his "faith". And there are a lot of people who subscribe to doing good by their community and fellow people without being anywhere near any faith based beliefs.
In fact it strikes me as more than a little condescending to almost insinuate or imply that only the faith based have the welfare of others in mind…. that would be a change of pace for Nact wouldn't it? Time for some searching interviewing on how he perceives welfare benefits, unions and other people empowering organisations.
My bold.
How would you describe somebody who said that their parties' Social Security Policy was simply "Applied Christianity" I wonder.
That is how Micky Savage (the real one) classified his intentions in the 1930s.
He also said of Great Britain 'Where she goes, we go; where she stands we stand"
Was he condescending do you think? And a Colonialist to boot?
Alwyn, given the context of Savage's speech, "condescending" and "Colonialist" are not words that immediately spring to my mind, but each to their own.
He was one of 15 MPs to vote against safe areas around abortion clinics.
Dunno if being in the conservative eighth counts as "extreme", but at least one of his beliefs seems to be at odds with his statement "I believe that no religion should dictate to the state and no politician should use the political platform they have to force their beliefs on others".
Typically petty from the Taxdodgers’ Union. Here they mimic and trivialise messages from children to the PM, for political purposes.
Imagine that, highjacking the innocence of children for dirty political deeds. No wonder they and their masters, ACT and National are at one of their lowest points yet in the eyes of New Zealand voters.
https://twitter.com/TaxpayersUnion/status/1374495984856694797
The
CAT(sorry missspelled, must try different spell) man or woman or… probably wrote that letter themself. Most of the crossings out will be because they kept jiggling and giggling at their cleverness.Incepted?
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/incept
That is a cute font they found, tho.
Lol. I didn't pick that one up. Can't get good people, eh?
Does the tax payers union get its pedagogy from children, as per the Cambridge meaning of incept?
Ah, the taxpayer-funded taxpayer's "union". Shine on, you crazy diamonds.
McF
Puts them on a par with a six year old who is learning words.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/439114/dhbs-dermatology-gap-forces-kids-to-miss-school-for-months-doctor
THIRD WORLD COUNTRY…Fourth…fifth…
New Zealand maritime workers losing their jobs, being told they cannot leave New Zealand to work. Meanwhile ships taking New Zealand passengers and cargo, in New Zealand coastal waters, are allowed foreign crews, are NZ tax exempt and NZ labour laws exempt.
Can't leave, or can't come and go at will?
Weren't allowed to leave for their FIFO job. Trying to find out how many have been affected now.
In the various attempts to hype vitamin D against covid, studies examining whether vitamin D levels prior to exposure affect the likelihood of getting infected have been somewhat hard to come by.
But one has recently come out. And though the headlines and breathless write-ups scream that it shows that higher vitamin D levels reduce risk of covid for black people, the data really doesn't appear to support that claim. For starters, the line is flat for white people, and the ups and downs in the chart for black people is equally consistent with the hypothesis that it's just noise due to the small numbers involved, and that vitamin D levels are not associated with risk of getting covid.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2777682 (charts and data accessible via clicking on a tab to the right of the article text)
Consider: the error bars in the chart for black people all include the risk of infection being 7%, regardless of vitamin D level. Furthermore, the claim "the risk of having positive results in Black individuals was 2.64-fold greater with a vitamin D level of 30 to 39.9 ng/mL than a level of 40 ng/mL or greater and decreased by 5% per 1-ng/mL increase in level among individuals with a level of 30 ng/mL or greater. There were no statistically significant associations of vitamin D levels with COVID-19 positivity rates in White individuals." appears to be a straight interpolation of a line between two averaged data points that completely ignores the previous data point in the series, which happens to suggest a low risk of infection with a lowish vitamin D level of 20 to 30 ng/ml.
All in all, this study shows there's likely not a benefit from vitamin D in reducing the likelihood of getting covid. It also illustrates how researchers that get invested in a particular idea get sucked into claiming their results show something that really probably isn't there. Or if there actually is an effect, at best it's likely very small.
Well that's a creative way to read the outcome of the study. Did you not see this statement?
"In this single-center retrospective cohort study, COVID-19 risk increased among Black individuals with vitamin D level less than 40 ng/mL compared with those with 40 ng/mL or greater and decreased with increasing levels among individuals with levels greater than 30 ng/mL. No significant associations were noted for White individuals."
Sounds to me that Viamin D does play a significant role.
A key point is conveyed in the final sentence of that paragraph, which was omitted from the quote : " Randomized clinical trials should examine whether increasing vitamin D level to greater than 40 ng/mL affects COVID-19 risk."
That paragraph was written by the researchers that have been invested for quite a while in the idea that vitamin D is effective against covid, and are fishing for funding to do more studies. So therefore there is a need to present the results in a positive light. It's their motivated reasoning talking, not a skeptical dispassionate look at the actual evidence.
When looking at the results of a study like this, there are always two competing hypotheses. The null hypothesis is "this stuff doesn't do shit, or might even be actively harmful", and should always be considered by far the most likely outcome. This should be the default conclusion if the results are reasonably compatible with this null hypothesis.
The competing hypothesis is the extraordinary claim that "this stuff really truly actually helps". Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Small blips in the data that are within the range of expected random variations for the sample sizes involved, as we see in this study, do not constitute extraordinary evidence. Sorry. Even given how much we all desperately want something, anything, to help fight this disease.
After reviewing the meaning of a Simpson's paradox, can you give an argument for accepting the categorised conclusions over the aggregate conclusions?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simpson%27s_paradox
Meanwhile, the steady erosion of capacity left DPH at black alert the other day.
We can't really go on like this.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/439139/overseas-building-staff-granted-expemtions-to-work-on-state-house-construction
One step forward two steps back.
Well at best they should only be here for a limited time and should train locals while they are about it. And we should continue to downsize the population . For every visa granted another could be withdrawn from a less constrained sector.