Open mike 25/12/2015

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, December 25th, 2015 - 36 comments
Categories: open mike - Tags:

open-mike-hollyOpen mike is your post.

Merry Christmas one and all!

36 comments on “Open mike 25/12/2015 ”

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  1. John Shears 1
    25 December 2015 at 8:15 am

    Seasons Greetings to all and the very best for 2016.

  2. BLiP 2
    25 December 2015 at 9:17 am

    ‘

    Merry Christmas – EVERYONE – and all the best for 2016.

  3. te reo putake 3
    25 December 2015 at 10:19 am

    Greetings to all Standarnistas, have a great day comrades.

  4. r0b 4
    25 December 2015 at 10:43 am

    Merry Christmas you mad buggers!

    • lprent 4.1
      25 December 2015 at 10:53 am

      You too, you young sod 😉

      And to everyone else

      • Anne 4.1.1
        25 December 2015 at 11:26 am

        May I ask one of you authors to guest post Incognito’s comment (below) – perhaps over the weekend? It is very good and so topical. Thanks.

        http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-24122015/#comment-1112263

        Oh, and don’t stuff yourselves with too much food and good wine – remember, there’s another day tomorrow. Now I’m off to do exactly that….

        Merry Xmas.

        • mickysavage 4.1.1.1
          25 December 2015 at 11:38 am

          Good idea.

        • veutoviper 4.1.1.2
          25 December 2015 at 12:33 pm

          I also support this – an extremely good and thoughtful comment from Incognito.

          My very best wishes to everyone for this special time of year, and for 2016.

          AND a very big thank you to all those people who keep TS a special place to come – and particularly to Lynn for letting us be part of TS and all his time and efforts keeping the site running; and all the authors (who I will not attempt to name for fear of missing someone!) And my fellow commenters.

          I have been keeping a list of and links articles etc that have popped up over the last week or so which people here might be interested in and might have missed in the lead up to the holidays, the Hager and Dotcom decisions etc. I will drip feed these onto Open Mike over the next week or so.

          • Incognito 4.1.1.2.1
            25 December 2015 at 11:07 pm

            Thank you veutoviper for your supportive comment. My best wishes to you for the coming year. I look forward to your list appearing on TS over the next little while.

        • Ant 4.1.1.3
          25 December 2015 at 5:58 pm

          When survival was the daily task of early hominids concepts such as ‘work’ and ‘employment’ were non-existent. You hunted, gathered, fended off wild beasts and sought shelter for your people.

          The model presented (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anthony-de-villiers/as-it-is-in-heaven_b_8375662.html) explores the human condition in a perfect world and lands us right back where we started.

          • Incognito 4.1.1.3.1
            25 December 2015 at 11:52 pm

            Thank you Ant for this interesting comment and that link. As you do on Christmas Day, I’ve been doing a little reading on Utopia and I came across some of the writings and work of Zygmunt Bauman. The planet described in the Huff Post link sounds very much like a “classical Utopia”: a reliable, predictable, more secure World that can be trusted and that is not subject to uncertainties and thus more fear-free.

            In his book Liquid Times: Living in an Age of Uncertainty Bauman quotes Italo Calvino, The invisible cities (Le cittĂ  invisibili):

            ”The hell of the living is not something that will be: if there is one, it is what is already here, the hell where we live every day, that we form by being together. There are two ways to escape suffering it. The first is easy for many: accept the hell and become such a part of it that you can no longer see it. The second is risky and demands constant vigilance and learning: seek and be able to recognize who and what, in the midst of the hell, are not hell, then make them endure, give them space.”

            I tend to interpret the return of the mission back to Earth [referring to the Huff Post piece] as the second option in the above quote and that they (we?) are by no means “right back where we started”. I think the author of the Huff Post would lean a similar way; the clues, as I see them, are in the first and last sentences of his blog.

        • Incognito 4.1.1.4
          25 December 2015 at 11:00 pm

          Thank you Anne! I hope you enjoyed Christmas Day in good company with some food and a glass of good wine or two. I personally quite like the GewĂŒrztraminer variety.

  5. mickysavage 5
    25 December 2015 at 11:22 am

    To friends and whanau Nollaig Shona!

  6. miravox 6
    25 December 2015 at 11:58 am

    Frohe Weihnachten from a Winter-ish Vienna… I’m pretty sure I’ve had colder Christmases in Wellington.

  7. Molly 7
    25 December 2015 at 12:06 pm

    Merry Christmas to all the Standardistas.

    Thanks for keeping me (somewhat) sane for another year, and ensuring my sense of humour continues apace with my cynicism.

    Especial thanks to lprent, the authors and the regular commenters who make this site my first stop in the mornings.

  8. joe90 8
    25 December 2015 at 12:09 pm

    A merry Sufi Christmas to all.

  9. Olwyn 9
    25 December 2015 at 2:22 pm

    Wishing all Standardistas a wonderful Christmas and New Year, and thanks to everyone, especially lprent, for another year of great conversation.

  10. Olwyn 10
    25 December 2015 at 2:28 pm

    And it would hardly be Christmas without Shane and Kirsty

  11. left for deadshark 11
    25 December 2015 at 2:34 pm

    Peace everyone.

    • ianmac 11.1
      25 December 2015 at 2:47 pm

      But not too peaceful for too long. There’s the enemy gloating on the horizon.
      Otherwise relax for now.
      “We’ll meet again,
      Don’t know where,
      Don’t know when….”

  13. Once was Tim 13
    25 December 2015 at 4:51 pm

    Since Christmas is the time we at least SAY Krillipsy type platitudes, and at least (hopefully) think about other people within our Public…… many thanks, Kia Kaha’s, etc. to City Missions, Sikh and other temples, Salvation Armies, Refuges and any other charities who’re doing the work of our government (as it claims its 1st world status) has become a necessity.

  14. millsy 14
    25 December 2015 at 8:09 pm

    Merry Christmas from Taranaki. Which turned out a fine day with no gales for the first time this season.

  15. Ian 15
    25 December 2015 at 9:56 pm

    Cool, calm and collected, babe.

    Nice.

  16. Manuka AOR 16
    25 December 2015 at 9:58 pm

    Here is the audio (only) of the original John Lennon version of Happy Christmas (War is Over):

    https://archive.org/details/HappyXmaswarIsOver

  17. Manuka AOR 17
    26 December 2015 at 1:00 pm

    One more Christmas song/ Video – This released by Veterans for Peace UK: “Christmas Truce”. Singer is Fenya
    http://veteransforpeace.org.uk/2015/christmas-truce-video/

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