Open mike 26/02/2015
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6:54 am, February 26th, 2015 - 268 comments
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This is a re-post from Carbon Brief by Daisy Dunne Swift global action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions could prevent the “abrupt” collapse of ecosystems, which may otherwise begin within the next few decades, a study finds. The research, published in Nature, finds that uncontrolled climate change would see tropical ocean ecosystems ...14 hours ago - Good riddance
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Sure, we’re all entitled to put our hand out for government support in times of need. No question about that. But THESE GUYS*? What a joke. (Except it’s real. Check for yourself: COVID-19 Wage Subsidy Employer Search) – P * We’ve discussed them before, here, a little bit. ...20 hours ago - Anti-fluoridation propaganda now relies on only four studies. 6: Incestuous relationship of these st...
A Fluoride Action Network (FAN) propaganda video where Paul Connett urges listeners to consider only four studies when considering the possible harmful effects of fluoridation. Paul Connett, director of the Fluoride Action Network (FAN), now claims “You only have to read four studies…” to come to the ...22 hours ago- Men To Boys.
1 day ago- Those people deserve a flat white
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Paul Connet, head of the anti-fluoride propaganda group, Fluoride Action Network, claims that the IQ of children bottle-fed in fluoridated areas drops by 9 points. But he misrepresented the research. There is no observable effect. For earlier articles in this series see: Part 1: Anti-fluoridation propaganda now relies on only ...3 days ago- The Role of Government
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1 week ago- Maybe axing Clark would be unfair. But what about any of this is fair?
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by Daphna Whitmore A third of the world is under lockdown and a clear assessment of this measure to curb the spread of COVID-19 is urgently needed. With any high-stakes decisions it has to be asked what are we dealing with here? Are the measures warranted? Will they achieve their ...1 week ago- Lockdown day 8
I haven’t done a huge amount in the last few days. I’m reading The Poppy War and I’ve sort of poked at a couple of games – I started SOMA but I’m a wimp and I quit while in the first room after the brain scan. I might try it ...1 week ago- Backstage and Theatre
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For those folk who find my other Lock-Down Diary versions too “negative” or otherwise unpalatable… Here’s a photo of my cat, . . Better? Tomorrow’s Sanitised Version: a pretty flower. . . . =fs= ...1 week ago- Life in Lock Down: Day 7
. . April 1: Day seven of living in lock-down… This morning I had a brief chat with one of my neighbours, “D” (social distance between us, a good three or four metres). I learned he had resigned from his previous job and had been hired by another company – ...1 week ago- RIP The Listener, New Zealand’s pioneering voice
Funnily enough, my thought as I start this post is whether it will be well written enough. Or should that be well enough written? Because so much of what I know about good writing came from my two stints at The Listener, which this morning was shut down due to ...1 week ago- OK, Britney: stop sniping at National for doing its job
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Dr Kirsty Ross Children and young people can respond differently in times of distress. This also varies by age and developmental stage, with younger children having more magical and imaginative thinking, and older children having more awareness and knowledge of the issues our communities are facing (which brings up ...1 week ago- Skeptical Science New Research for Week #13, 2020
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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The scale of what we face right now is unlike anything we have ever seen before. Overcoming it is our common purpose. ...2 weeks ago - Winston Peters urging New Zealanders overseas to stay putForeign Minister Winston Peters is encouraging New Zealanders overseas to stay where they are amid the COVID-19 pandemic. "We are reaching a point where the best option for most New Zealanders offshore is to shelter in place, by preparing to safely stay where they are.” "This includes following the instructions ...3 weeks ago
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- Making learning from home accessible to Māori learners and whānauMāori Television to begin educational te reo programmes Ki te Ao Mārama – a new online learning space Thousands of hard copy learning packs ready for distribution Helpdesk and advice service for kōhanga, kura and wharekura Television, the internet and hard copy learning packs are some of the ways whānau ...3 days ago
- New Zealand to provide assistance to Vanuatu following Tropical Cyclone HaroldForeign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced an initial package of support to help the people and the Government of Vanuatu respond to the impact of Tropical Cyclone Harold. “Our Pacific neighbours have been hit by a Category 5 Cyclone at the same time as dealing with the economic impacts ...3 days ago
- Planning for the future of tourismTourism New Zealand to lead work reimagining the way tourism operates in post-COVID-19 world. Ministers to review International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy investment plan. The Government, industry and business are working together to develop a plan for how tourism will operate in a post-COVID-19 world, Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis ...3 days ago
- NZ horticulture sector feeding Kiwis and the world during COVID-19More New Zealanders are taking up the chance to work in horticulture as the sector keeps New Zealanders fed and in jobs during the COVID-19 Alert Level 4 lockdown. “Our horticulture sector has long been one of New Zealand’s export star performers, contributing around $6 billion a year to our ...3 days ago
- Work to repurpose PGF funds beginsThe Provincial Development Unit is working through applications and projects to see where Provincial Growth Fund money can be repurposed for initiatives deemed more critical to fighting the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones says. “We need to be throwing everything we have at ...4 days ago
- A million workers supported by Govt wage subsidyThe Government’s wage subsidy to protect jobs and keep workers and businesses connected during the lockdown has now supported over a million New Zealanders, with $6.6 billion already paid out. “We’re supporting businesses to pay wages, and stay connected with their workers so that we are all in a better ...4 days ago
- Government helps Pacific communities fight COVIDThe Government is stepping up efforts to help protect New Zealand’s Pacific communities in the fight against COVID-19. Cabinet has agreed that $17 million will be allocated to support a COVID-19 Pacific Response Package, which will: Support Pacific health and disability services facing increased demand; Ramp up public health messaging ...4 days ago
- Statement from the Prime Minister on Dr David Clark“Yesterday evening the Health Minister advised me of his trip to a beach during the lockdown and offered his resignation,” Jacinda Ardern said. “Under normal conditions I would sack the Minister of Health. What he did was wrong, and there are no excuses. “But right now, my priority is our ...4 days ago
- Statement from David ClarkLast night as part of my preparation for the Epidemic Response Committee, I provided the Prime Minister with a complete picture of my activity outside my home during Alert Level 4. That included the fact that on the first weekend of the Alert Level 4 lockdown I drove my family ...4 days ago
- COVID-19 mental health support beginsA range of support is being rolled out across New Zealand to help people look after their mental health during COVID-19 Health Minister David Clark said this morning. “COVID-19 has brought a lot of uncertainty into our lives and many of us will be feeling some level of distress or ...4 days ago
- New Zealanders in Peru to be assisted by Government charter flightThe New Zealand Government has made arrangements to charter a flight for New Zealanders stranded in Peru to depart the country, following agreement with the Chilean government to allow the necessary transit through Chile, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters announced today. “Like many travellers around the world at the moment, ...5 days ago
- COVID-19 Hospital Preparation Well AdvancedHospital preparations for COVID-19 are well advanced says Health Minister David Clark. “Hospitals across New Zealand are repurposing buildings and training staff to get ready for COVID-19 patients. This gives me confidence that we are well prepared for any potential increase in COVID-19 patients needing hospital level care,” said David ...1 week ago
- Further measures to support businessesThe Government will be introducing legislation to make changes to the Companies Act to help companies facing insolvency due to COVID-19 to remain viable and keep New Zealanders in jobs. The temporary changes include: Giving directors of companies facing significant liquidity problems because of COVID-19 a ‘safe harbour’ from insolvency ...1 week ago
- Govt’s COVID plan, economic strength recognisedThe Government’s plan to cushion the blow of COVID-19 by supporting incomes, jobs and businesses, and position the economy to recover has been backed by another international report. International credit rating agency Moody’s today reaffirmed its highest Aaa credit rating on New Zealand, saying the economy is expected to remain ...1 week ago
- Government supports air services to offshore islandsThe Government has stepped in to support vital air links to our offshore islands, the Chatham Islands, Great Barrier Island and Motiti Island, Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced today. “As part of our $600 million support package to minimise the impacts of COVID-19 on the aviation sector, the Government has ...1 week ago
- Funding certainty for sports through COVID-19National sports organisations have been given certainty of funding to ensure they can remain viable through the COVID-19 pandemic, Sport and Recreation Minister Grant Robertson announced today. “The global spread of COVID-19 has had a significant impact on sport and recreation in New Zealand, including the cancellation or postponement of ...1 week ago
- Butchers now allowed to process porkChanges have been made to allow butchers to process pork, only for supply to supermarkets or other processors or retailers that are open, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor has announced. “We carefully weighed the risk of allowing butchers to open their shops for retail customers, but the risk of spreading COVID-19 ...1 week ago
- Essential workers leave scheme establishedEssential workers who take leave from work to comply with public health guidance are being supported with a leave scheme to ensure they will continue to receive income, say the Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Iain Lees-Galloway and Minister for Social Development, Carmel Sepuloni. A number of essential businesses ...1 week ago
- Govt WhatsApp helps share COVID-19 informationA Government WhatsApp channel has been launched to help make information more easily accessible and shareable in the fight against COVID-19. Govt.NZ, which is free to use on any mobile device, will carry information and news for the public, businesses, healthcare providers, not for profits and local government. It can ...1 week ago
- Managed departure plan for stranded foreign nationals enables safe, orderly exitThe Government has announced a plan to enable the safe, orderly exit of tens of thousands of stranded foreign nationals from New Zealand during the current COVID-19 Alert Level 4 restrictions, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters has said. “When we moved into lockdown a week ago, the ...1 week ago
- Government delivers COVID-19 support to GPs and PharmaciesHealth Minister Dr David Clark says the Government is delivering on its commitment to support general practice doctors and nurses, and pharmacies on the front-line of our fight against COVID-19. "For us to overcome COVID-19, we need community health services such as general practice and community pharmacy to step up ...1 week ago
- Susan Thomas the new Chief High Court JudgeJustice Susan Thomas has been appointed Chief High Court Judge, Attorney-General David Parker announced today. She replaces Justice Geoffrey Venning who has resigned from the position. David Parker paid tribute to Justice Venning, who he said had stewarded the High Court very capably over the last five years. “On behalf ...1 week ago
- Business Finance Guarantee – applications openBusinesses can start applying to their banks for loans under the Business Finance Guarantee Scheme set up to support the New Zealand economy during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We’re moving quickly to protect New Zealand businesses, jobs and the economy during this unprecedented global economic shock,” Finance Minister Grant Robertson said. ...1 week ago
- Work starts on ways to fast-track consents to boost recovery from Covid-19 downturnWork is underway looking at measures to speed up consents for development and infrastructure projects during the recovery from COVID 19, to provide jobs and stimulate our economy. Environment Minister David Parker said the COVID-19 pandemic is a serious global crisis that will have a wide ranging and lasting impact ...1 week ago
- Advance payments to support contractorsAdvance payments will be made to transport construction industry contractors to retain the workforce and ensure it is ready to quickly gear up to build projects which will be vital to New Zealand’s COVID-19 economic recovery, Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced today. He said keeping the workforce required to build ...1 week ago
- Government seeks infrastructure projectsThe Government has tasked a group of industry leaders to seek out infrastructure projects that are ready to start as soon as the construction industry returns to normal to reduce the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford and Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones say. The Infrastructure ...2 weeks ago
- Health system scaled up to prepare for COVID-19Work to scale up the health system in preparation for COVID-19 was today outlined by Health Minister David Clark, as he reported back to the new Epidemic Response Committee. “We are well placed to contain the spread of COVID-19. We have taken early and decisive action at our borders, and ...2 weeks ago
- Essential media COVID-19 guidelines refinedThe Government is refining its COVID-19 essential business guidance to include the distribution of news publications for communities which are hard to reach. The Minister of Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media, Kris Faafoi, said the move was in recognition of the importance for New Zealanders who might be harder to ...2 weeks ago
- Supermarkets able to open on Easter SundayThe Government is ensuring supermarkets can open on Easter Sunday so we can buy groceries, but stay closed on Good Friday allowing workers to take a break. This provides a balanced approach and ensures we avoid large queues that two days closure may cause. “Supermarkets will be able to open ...2 weeks ago
- New Zealand defence personnel conclude mission at TajiFollowing the successful conclusion of the Building Partner Capacity (BPC) mission at Taji, New Zealand defence personnel are returning to New Zealand from Iraq, in accordance with the Cabinet decision made in June 2019, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Ron Mark announced today. “New Zealand is very ...2 weeks ago
- Will Covid change forever the things we touch?
Our Two Cents' Worth business podcast answers listeners’ questions around how Covid-19 might change the world. Here: how will it change the design of everyday objects? A couple of weeks ago, Two Cents' Worth listener David Cohen got in touch with a question we loved: Could we find out from other ...15 mins ago - Is Covid-19 the beginning of the end for mass tourism to NZ?
Two Cents Worth answers listeners’ questions around how Covid-19 might change the world. A couple of weeks ago, Two Cents' Worth listener David Cohen got in touch with a question we loved: Could we find out from other TCW enthusiasts how they think Covid-19 could change the world? We asked and ...16 mins ago - China, Covid-19 and the end of globalisation as we knew it
For China, the handling of Covid-19 has been a tale of two halves. Its early failures undermined the possibility of an effective, joined-up international response, writes Jason Young. The Covid-19 pandemic has taken innocent lives, caused untold suffering and put pressure on health care systems all over the world. It ...59 mins ago - Covid-19 live updates, April 11: Apple and Google team up on tracing tech; NZ response wins more int...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level four. The country is shut down, apart from essential services. For updated official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The ...1 hour ago - Endless bummer
For surfers, the lockdown was perfectly summed up in a recent photograph showing perfect barrelling waves and police preventing anyone surfing them. So what is it that draws surfers to the waves? And why are some finding it so hard to break the habit? Jim Kayes went looking for answers. ...1 hour ago - David Slack: Back to the land after lockdown
With agriculture once again New Zealand’s main export earner, are farmers feeling needed again, and what are their prospects once the lockdown eases? David Slack reports from the farm gate. There's a photo of my grandmother and her sisters taken by their father in the late days of the First ...2 hours ago - Island faith: An Easter like no other
Cyclone Harold tore through Vanuatu, Fiji and Tonga in one of the most significant weeks in the Christian calendar. The response, alongside Covid-19, is just beginning. Teuila Fuatai reports. Reports of destruction from Tropical Cyclone Harold were still pouring into Port Vila, Suva and Nuku’alofa on Good Friday. The cyclone’s ...2 hours ago - ‘If you love your parents lock them up!’ The story behind China’s bizarrely aggressive Covid s...China’s culture of catchy slogans has been vital to its Covid-19 recovery efforts. Shanghai resident Asen Velinov explains the rich history behind some of the bizarre slogans seen on social media.“Pick where you will be resting – on your couch, in jail, in hospital or in an early grave.”“Take a ...2 hours ago
- David Galler: Life on the other side of a health crisisWith each new day it is becoming increasingly clear that we cannot and should not return to the normality we have come to know in health, writes ICU doctor David Galler.Over the past few weeks, our lives have been turned upside down and inside out in ways we could never ...2 hours ago
- Short story: My friend Rod, by Eamonn Marra
"I see what people like about Rod. He’s fun. He’s handsome in an over-the-top way. He knows how to have a good time. These are good qualities, but they’re not qualities I value": a story by Wellington writer Eamonn Marra. My friend Rod is convinced I don’t like him. He ...2 hours ago - Home Support Workers Are On The Front Line, So Why Haven’t They Been Paid?
...14 hours ago - The Unity Books chart for the strange week ending 10 April: Other worldsWeek three of our lockdown Top 10s – books about elsewhere, brought to you by the good humans of Unity Books.A reminder that these lists are completely unshackled from space and time and what’s happening in the world of books right now. Take no notice of the numbers, either – ...14 hours ago
- Do Māori Made Easy with me: Week two, day fiveShe’s not a teacher or a fluent speaker – she just wants to practise te reo Māori with you! Join Leonie Hayden as she works through the first four weeks of Scotty Morrison’s Māori Made Easy, thanks to Penguin Random House NZ.Ngā mihi o Te Aranga, happy Easter everyone. We’re still on ...15 hours ago
- NZ lockdown – Day 16: Second death confirmed, cases rise on Good Friday
By RNZ News A Christchurch woman in her 90s who was living in the Rosewood rest home is New Zealand’s second death from Covid-19, the Health Ministry has confirmed. Director of Public Health Caroline McElnay said today the “frail” woman could not have family around her in her last ...15 hours ago - What you need to know about the world of Noughts + CrossesNoughts + Crosses is set in the present day, but if our history had run a wildly different course. Sam Brooks brings you up to speed on what you need to know before you dive into the show.First things first, what is Noughts + Crosses?Noughts + Crosses is a BBC ...15 hours ago
- Covid-19: New Zealand cases mapped and charted, April 10The latest in our new series of charts, graphics and data visualisations by Chris McDowall.This work is entirely funded by the generosity of The Spinoff MembersThese posts collate the most recent statistics and present them as charts and maps. The Ministry of Health typically publishes data updates in the early ...16 hours ago
- You will know the border has been reached when virus vigilantes stop you in the name of health and ...
Good questions were raised by “a Far North man”, who did not want to be named because of his fear of retribution. Talking to the Northland Age late last month, the man said he was ” … scared. Really scared. Not because of some virus. We have ways to deal ...16 hours ago - Second NZ death from Covid-19
The Ministry of Health called an unscheduled Good Friday press conference to announce the news that a second Kiwi has succumbed to the illness. A second New Zealander has died from Covid-19, a woman in her 90s who had been treated at Burwood Hospital in Christchurch. Dr Caroline McElnay, the Director ...18 hours ago - Another streaming service? Yup, but Quibi comes with a twistSam Brooks takes a look at new American streaming service Quibi, and asks what sets it apart from all the rest.So what is Quibi and what makes it different?Quibi is a new streaming service based out of the US with one twist: you can only watch it on your phone. ...18 hours ago
- Dr Ashley Bloomfield saying kia ora 44 timesToday New Zealand begins two desolate days without updates from Ashley Bloomfield. Here’s something to soften the blow.The daily briefings from Dr Ashley Bloomfield, the director general of health, have become a staple in many people’s lives, especially under lockdown. He’s hardly missed a day, but this Easter weekend is ...19 hours ago
- 1.2m Indonesian workers laid off as coronavirus crushes economyBy Made Anthony Iswara in Jakarta The Covid-19 pandemic, which is spreading like wildfire in Indonesia, has taken not just lives but also the earnings of millions of workers, one month after the government announced Indonesia’s first two confirmed cases of the virus. Jumari, a 61-year-old who works in ...19 hours ago
- A meeting of NZ’s children on how to ruin the lives of parents in lockdownA tape recording in a brown paper bag recently landed in Emily Writes’ letterbox. After thoroughly disinfecting it she was shocked to discover what it contained. Today was a normal day, day 8271 of the lockdown, and I saw there was a parcel in the letterbox. Knowing a trip to ...19 hours ago
- Asia’s Leading E-cigarette Brand Proposes Measures To Prevent New Zealand Minors From VapingIn spite of the ongoing COVID-19 lockdown, the New Zealand Parliament’s Health Select Committee is continuing to progress its mandate to regulate vaping and prevent young people from using vaping products. RELX Technology, Asia’s leading independent ...20 hours ago
- The Friday Poem: Once by Vincent O’SullivanA new poem by Vincent O’Sullivan. Once Once in my life I’ve been fishing. A brother-in-law assured, ‘You don’t need to talk out there,’ so we didn’t. After an hour or so he liftedthis reluctant silvery strip from its hook and walloped its head againstthe ridge of the dinghy we sat in for those aeons ...20 hours ago
- OMV Exit Signals End Of Offshore Oil Exploration In NZFriday, April 10: Austrian oil giant OMV has announced today that it’s indefinitely postponing its last remaining oil and gas exploration plans in the Taranaki Basin. Greenpeace is claiming "a win of generational significance" that signals ...21 hours ago
- Week in Politics: The exit plan and life after level 4
Analysis - Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is preparing the country for a marathon recovery and life under "the new normal" is starting to take shape, writes Peter Wilson. ...22 hours ago - Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them*
Misinformation, disinformation and just plain lies about Covid-19 are boiling up on the Internet and spilling over into real life. Peter Bale explains how some powerful forces use the chaos and trolling for their own reasons. Christchurch man Raymond Coombs, 38, thought it would be hilarious to pretend he had Covid-19 and cough over fellow shoppers ...22 hours ago - Like nothing else on Earth: Go Further South is the slow-TV balm we needTara Ward talks to Spencer Stoner, the producer of Go Further South, the slow TV sensation that hits our screens this Easter. Let’s change Good Friday’s name to “Great Friday”, or maybe “Even Better Friday”, because Prime is giving us the television tonic every lockdown needs. Go Further South, the ...22 hours ago
- Recipe: Make your own gheeThis versatile ingredient is brilliant for roasting and frying, and it’s a great way to extend the shelf life of butter. It’s also super easy to whip up at home. Until about a year ago I religiously used olive oil to fry and roast with. I preferred using this oil over ...22 hours ago
- Forget old screen ‘time’ rules during coronavirus. Here’s what you should focus on insteadSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joanne Orlando, Researcher: Children and Technology, Western Sydney University COVID-19 has left parents grappling with the challenges of online learning, entertainment and work. It’s natural the amount of time children spend using screens will now increase. But that’s OK. Screen time recommendations ...23 hours ago
- Coronavirus an ‘existential threat’ to Africa and her crowded slumsSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Sanderson, Professor and Inaugural Judith Neilson Chair in Architecture, UNSW The head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has warned coronavirus poses “an existential threat to our continent”. Evidence from past crises shows not everyone is ...23 hours ago
- Friday essay: today’s grandmothers grew up protesting. Now they have nothing to loseSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gillian Triggs, Emeritus Professor, University of Melbourne Grandmothers as social activists? What a radical idea … but one that is increasingly true of today’s generation of grandmothers. Witness the determination and courage of Karen Nettleton in pulling out all the stops to ...23 hours ago
- Was the Easter bach invasion real?
Holiday towns around the country have been on edge, fearing Easter visits from city folk going to their baches. But in one instance, the fears might have been over-stated. Tim Murphy reports. Truth is the first casualty of war, and we keep getting told we are in a war against ...23 hours ago - With everyone stuck indoors, esports is poised for its time in the sunSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle O’Shea, Senior Lecturer Sport Management, Western Sydney University Against a global backdrop of cancelled sports leagues, and as part of their season opening, National Rugby League (NRL) fans recently packed the stands of Townsville’s new Queensland Country Bank Stadium. Fortunately, professional ...23 hours ago
- What a simulated Mars mission taught me about food wasteSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dianne McGrath, Environmental Engineering PhD candidate; sustainability and food waste expertise, RMIT University As a food waste researcher, I’m interested in how humans prepare food, eat and manage leftovers. This interest is not just confined to Earth – it extends to other ...23 hours ago
- Covid-19 live updates, April 10: No Bloomfield or Ardern on Good Friday in lockdown NZFor all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level four. The country is shut down, apart from essential services. For updated official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The ...23 hours ago
- Old ways inform the new for iwi under lockdown
Kayne Peters leaves his Auckland home to spend the lockdown in his whanau bubble in the King Country and help look after those most in need. Ka mate kainga tahi. Ka ora kainga rua. “One dwelling place is overcome, but the second is secure” This whakatauki or proverb well describes ...1 day ago - Pacific defences: ocean, isolation and lockdown
The natural isolation of small Pacific islands set in the huge Pacific Ocean could prove to be the defining factor if these vulnerable nations manage to remain free of Covid-19. There is every reason to be optimistic if these small nations can keep rigid restrictions in place. Of course, the ...1 day ago - How will we know it’s gone?
How will we know when we’ve been successful in stopping Covid-19 within New Zealand? Farah Hancock reports. As the country moves into its third week of lockdown and the daily number of cases continues to drop, how can we be certain it's safe to move levels and how will we ...1 day ago - Let’s not end lockdown early
Are we nearly in the clear? It's too early to tell and we can't take anything for granted, says Professor Nicholas Agar of Victoria University of Wellington. Our nation’s fight against Covid-19 seems to be going well. As a Kiwi, I’m enjoying the global applause for our “go hard and ...1 day ago - At home in an Auckland hotel: My two weeks in Covid-19 quarantineThe government yesterday announced it would step up its arrivals policy to mandate hotel quarantine or ‘managed self-isolation’ for all returning New Zealanders – people like Andrew Todd, who describes what it’s like to live in a Covid-19 quarantine zone.Four weeks ago, I was living in Canada, earning a meagre ...1 day ago
- Photo essay: The lockdown rush hour
Christchurch’s arterial routes, and the air around them, are being transformed by the lockdown. David Williams takes a look As the days shorten, the nightly commute comes ever closer to sunset. That would normally mean thousands of cars lining up at busy Christchurch intersections, sending plumes of carbon monoxide into ...1 day ago - An appointment with Dr Merriman
A doctor's note from novelist Eileen Merriman, a haematologist at North Shore hospital. At the hospital where I work is a critically ill patient infected with Covid-19 in our intensive care unit – younger than me, with no pre-existing medical conditions. And today I overhead a couple of doctors discussing ...1 day ago - Four-legged training buddy helps Black Stick
Every Friday of lockdown, LockerRoom shares posts from Kiwi sportswomen who've caught our eye with novel ways of keeping on top of their game. This week, gymnasts put their own spin on the toilet paper challenge, the Black Sticks captain gets her pet in on lockdown training, and a triathlete ...1 day ago - Iwi lock down their rohe – in pictures
If you’re out on the road this weekend, be prepared to be stopped – and not just by the police. Kayne Peters reports on the official and unofficial roadblocks springing up all over the motu. Iwi across the country have stepped up efforts to secure their borders ahead of Easter ...1 day ago - What’s the plan to keep disabled people safe?
The Covid-19 challenge for disabled people is two-fold: keeping them safe, and ensuring disability support continues to be available to them. What's the plan for this? asks Samuel Murray. While we are rightfully focused on eliminating Covid-19, we need a specific plan that addresses the needs of both the disability ...1 day ago - Non-essential sales continue on Facebook Marketplace
Although New Zealand-based e-commerce companies like TradeMe are toeing the line on non-essential sales, Facebook Marketplace remains a wild west where buying and selling hasn't stopped, Marc Daalder reports Want a pair of high-heeled Converse shoes to wear during lockdown? How about a cashmere scarf or new jigsaw puzzle? You're ...1 day ago - Jacinda Ardern’s war on Covid complacency
Halfway through the lockdown, government restrictions to prevent the spread of coronavirus seem to be taking hold. But the latest suite of measures show the Prime Minister is awake to the dangers of overconfidence, Sam Sachdeva writes “This is going to be a marathon.” Jacinda Ardern’s choice of metaphor to ...1 day ago - Lockdown letters #15: Read all about it in The Daily ChirpResponding to sudden, shocking change requires a double lens, writes Fiona Farrell.Read more from the Lockdown letters here.My granddaughter has been making a newspaper. The Daily Chirp. It’s very small, as befits a newspaper designed for birds, but it contains news (a worrying rise in Tweet-19), “Adds” for birdseed medicine ...1 day ago
- Open or else face funding cut – Minister Tehan’s edict to independent schoolsSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Education Minister Dan Tehan has warned non-government schools that if they fail to open for the next term they will face losing funding. He said on Thursday that “as part of the funding requirement” a ...1 day ago
- Australia’s coronavirus debate turns to the way outSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Remember how last year’s Easter felt bizarre because the country was in election-mode? How normal that seems, now everything is surreal, with the nation “holidaying” in this peculiar, unpleasant limbo. As we contemplate the grimness ...1 day ago
- Politics with Michelle Grattan: MPs Tim Watts, Fiona Martin, Clare O’Neil and Helen Haines talk ab...Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Michelle Grattan talks with MPs Tim Watts (Gellibrand, Victoria), Fiona Martin (Reid, NSW), Clare O’Neil (Hotham, Victoria) and Helen Haines (Indi, Victoria) about how they do their job during the pandemic. They discuss the operation ...1 day ago
- Kāinga Ora apologises after state housing tenants told rent was going upState housing provider Kāinga Ora is phoning 6000 tenants to apologise after many received letters saying their rent would go up. ...2 days ago
- Coronavirus: what causes a ‘second wave’ of disease outbreak, and could we see this in Australia...Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nic Geard, Senior Lecturer, School of Computing and Information Systems, University of Melbourne; Senior Research Fellow, Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, University of Melbourne Following the emergence and rapid spread of COVID-19, several countries have succeeded in bringing local outbreaks under ...2 days ago
- Keith Rankin Chart Analysis – Testing for Covid19
Analysis by Keith Rankin Today’s chart shows the per capita level of testing performed in a number of countries. While the highest testing rate shown is Norway, we should note that Iceland has tested over eight percent of its population; too high to show on this chart. A ...
2 days ago - NZ lockdown – day 15: Number of new coronavirus cases plummets to 29By RNZ News New Zealand has recorded just 29 new cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, but the prime minister says a decision on changing the alert level will only be made two days before the lockdown ends. It is the fourth day in a row there ...2 days ago
- Tropical Cyclone Harold: Aerial footage shows Vanuatu destructionThe Guardian’s Pacific Project disaster video. By the Pacific Project Tropical Cyclone Harold lashed the South Pacific island of Vanuatu, ripping off roofs and downing telecommunications, before moving towards Fiji and Tonga. The powerful cyclone made landfall on Monday in Sana province, an island north of Vanuatu’s capital Port ...2 days ago
- What to do if you’ve been fined for breaching coronavirus restrictionsSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elyse Methven, Lecturer in Law, University of Technology Sydney The message to everyone during the coronavirus pandemic is to stay at home and only leave if you really need to for, say, food, health care or exercise. Police now have powers to ...2 days ago
- Manaaki: The free online service offering businesses support through Covid-19Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Pat MacFie from Manaaki.This week we have another special podcast highlighting some of ...2 days ago
- Some Labour strategists may agree with Peters that the election should be delayed
NZ First leader Winston Peters today said he wants the election held on November 21, Radio NZ reported. He says he believes the health system would be under the pump in September with the winter flu season and the country potentially still dealing with the impacts of Covid-19. Prime Minister ...2 days ago - Crayfish exports pick up but far from normal
New Zealand Rock Lobster (crayfish) are once again heading to China with the first small consignment being airfreighted last week. It was one of the first primary industry sectors in New Zealand to be affected by Covid-19, and as we now know, the sledgehammer that hit this industry was just ...2 days ago - The coronavirus lockdown might help limit this year’s flu season – but you should still get your...Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lauren Bloomfield, Senior Lecturer, School of Medicine, University of Notre Dame Australia Lockdown measures aimed at limiting the spread of COVID-19 should actually help cut the cases of flu this year. That’s because keeping people apart to reduce the spread of coronavirus ...2 days ago
- We could have had 200 new Covid-19 cases today
New modelling from Te Pūnaha Matatini projects the impact of the lockdown, and what our next steps could be, Marc Daalder reports New figures from a team of mathematicians and scientists modelling the way Covid-19 could affect New Zealand indicate the lockdown has significantly dampened the spread of the virus. ...2 days ago - Bernard & Jarrod: RBNZ wants banks to step up
Bernard Hickey talks to Kiwibank chief economist Jarrod Kerr about the latest retail spending data and the Reserve Bank's call for banks to step up as market-makers for corporate and local government bonds. In their latest daily 'Bernard Zooms out to lunch with Jarrod' video, Bernard Hickey and Jarrod ...2 days ago - Easter eggs can bring a little ‘normality’ to kids in isolation. But should we ration them or le...Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Georgie Russell, Senior Lecturer, Deakin University This Easter will be especially challenging, with family isolation and many parents under financial strain, or other stressors. So, many parents will be looking to restore some sense of “normality” by welcoming the Easter bunny into ...2 days ago
- Review: The Beths, live (streamed)The Beths’ live-streamed concert yesterday showed that even in lockdown, music isn’t dead. Here’s why it worked, and where you can see Kiwis live streaming for the next week.Yesterday at 9am, Liz Stokes put a giant pineapple mask over her head and played the Animal Crossing theme on a trumpet ...2 days ago
- New Conservative Leader To Contest Waimakariri ElectorateNew Conservative Leader Leighton Baker has lived in and around the Waimakariri district since 1992 and is revelling in the opportunity to represent the electorate in Parliament after the 2020 general election. “Waimakariri is a diverse district with a strong ...2 days ago
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- Men To Boys.
oh my goodness, as i clutch my pearls, cunliffe has been caught using a cell phone in his car, front page news, end of the world, obviously the police to media hotline is redhot!
did you miss the ‘brighton’ story..?
Yep why investigate possible corruption when they can investigate a talking on the cellphone minor infringement. This story is sourced from Slater as is the picture of the dating site. You would have to wonder at how he “stumbled” on it and I wonder who put it up.
Meanwhile there was a significant development in the Donghua Liu story and questions of when Woodhouse met him to discuss immigration policy and the relationship with the timing of his donation to the National Party.
But of course talking on a cellphone is more serious …
reckon, i don’t believe the chinese dating site for a second, thats gotta be a set up that any idiot can see through, …well most idiots i guess.
The Nats are smarting after the Donghua Liu story hit John Key.
Key is rattled: it showed in his bad tempered performance in Parliament yesterday.
He should have known better than to do that.
However, is there more than meets the eye in this story? The stuff article had me wondering about a few aspects in the story.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/66672455/cunliffe-fined-for-using-cellphone-while-driving
* It says a motorist made the complaint and the complaint said Cunliffe was driving ‘erratically’ which Cunliffe has denied.
Because of the nature of the complaint, I am curious to know WHO the complainant was. Was it a set up ? Was this complainant deliberately following Cunliffe? Was he or one of the accomplices themselves instigate the whole episode? How come the media came to know about this incident promptly? Did the police leak the information or was it the minister of police? Was this to distract the news away from the various messes that the government is in? Is this all part of dirty politics? Something is fishy here.
* The report also strangely said this:
“he admitted he had “made a cellphone call or two” in hands-free mode and had been given an infringement notice. He was fined $80 by a police officer, NZME reported”
If it was in ‘hands-free mode’ as the report says, was that illegal?
Yep it reeks of a set up to me how they just happened to find a witness to comment on his driving.
It definitely is black-ops work.
Cunliffe certainly didn’t call the media!
Had the person following being an ordinary Joe and called Police, because of concerns about his driving, then the matter should be a private matter between Cunliffe and the Police.
If the person is a Nat lackie who followed Cunliife from Parliament in his hire car (he is an Auckland MP) and called the Police then that person would be the source for the Media. Why then did the Police confirm? Is that their normal procedure? No.
This news story required cooperation from both the snitch/lackie and the police.
Dirty Politics continues.
Its the left who always encourage narking and denouncements. You reap what you sow.
cite pls. CF:the greasy cetacean
Slater is a leftie for the purposes of Bedwetter’s feeble stories.
East German Stasi had 189000 informers study says.
I never nark or inform on anyone for that very reason.
Fuck the Stasi, the American driven FVEY apparatus turned on each of us is four or five orders of magnitude more powerful than what the Stasi could ever manage.
You clearly don’t Facebook, email, call or txt your friends and family then.
So, what you’re saying is that if you see a crime or an injustice happening you’re not going to do anything about it? That would probably explain your support of Key and his lies.
This kind of phenomena will increase as trust in the activities and motivations of the authorities decrease.
BTW In know that it’s obvious to you, but the authorities aren’t really interested in correcting “injustice.”
Don’t need authority to point out an injustice and to try and remove it from society if it’s systemic.
You already see it in many areas of the world – including western ones. People seeking justice outside of the official system when they know or feel that the official system has no interest in delivering justice.
Crimes against life or property are a different matter, but I will not report people for arbitrary offences such as exceeding drink driving limits, speeding, talking on their cellphone, any of that stuff. Its just divisive left wing shit that eventually corrodes a country and you end up like East Germany above.
And please stop saying I support Key.
When Little takes power, you may be able to say to most of the other dipshits on Kiwiblog et al that you didn’t see them complaining when Key was doing it, but you won’t be able to say that about me.
Here is just one example.
You managed to contradict yourself in the same sentence. The reason why we have speed and drink drive limits and rules against driving while using the cell phone is because it kills people and often not the person doing the really stupid thing. In other words, these things are crimes against life.
In fact, as it stands I’d say that there’s enough evidence to say that capitalism itself is a crime against life as it continues to destroy the environment in its drive for profit but I’m sure that we will never see you call for capitalism to be abolished because of that crime.
No it does not. Take the drink driving limit. A person can exceed that limit and drive home every night of their life and never hit or kill or maim anyone. Its an arbitrary amount that has no real relationship to the committing of an offence.
If a person crashes into someone and kills or maims them, and they have been drinking, and the drinking is proved to be an influence, then charge them and make sure the sentence is punitive enough to discourage them and others from taking the risk.
You do not make criminals out of innocent people. Set up roadblocks and carry out suspicionless searches. That is another characteristic of left wing tyranny. It begins small and gets bigger. As in East Germany under the Stasi.
Don’t any of you Leftists know anything of history?
Translation: redbaiter refuses to report violations of laws he is too stupid to understand…
The Stasi were just carrying on the great tradition of Himmler and the earlier brownshirts, A mass informer society.
The spanish fascists were the same for longer.
What Bullshit. Dirty Politics is an organised programme of media dirt designed to attack Labour and distract from National Government incompetence and misdeeds at key junctures.
says in the article that using a handheld phone was illegal. My understanding is that handsfree is legal.
Doesn’t actually say whether the infringement was for the phone or, say, failing to indicate a lane change.
The ODT has (in a reprint of the NZH article):
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/politics/334494/cunliffe-nabbed-using-phone-while-driving
Fuck that shit! You should always indicate before you change lanes whether you think anyone else in nearby or not. Cunliffe sounds like someone trying to excuse pointing a gun at a crowd by claiming he didn’t think it was loaded.
I’m saying this as someone who thought that Cunliffe had better ideas than any other leader in Labour in decades. Little may turn out to be a more effective leader due to less caucus hostility, but I’m yet to be impressed (though still early days).
Also; Clemgeopin, the quote in the ODT (haven’t looked at Stuff yet) is:
Even with a genuine legal hands-free set-up; research demonstrates that phone calls are a distraction to driving competence. Simply using the loudspeaker mode on a normal cellphone would surely be even worse. Not quite as idiotic as txtng while driving though.
Is the timing of media release suspicious? Hell yes. Should that excuse an MP ignoring the law for personal convenience? Fuck no!
lol ah, so he had it on speakerphone.
Amazing the mileage on an $80 traffic ticket, though…
Wouldn’t you be more worried about more serious offending? Like indecent assaults on children?
mickysavage
I’m pretty sure that any comment I might make linking MPs with indecent assaults on children would be breaking name suppression, and don’t want to put TS in that position.
I am perhaps a bit sensitive when it comes to road safety. But I imagine many who have experience with those who have suffered vehicular death or injury feel similarly.
The casualty rate for motor vehicles is higher than all forms of assault (including both your example of; child-assault, and mine of; firearms). In 2010 (most recent year easy to access through Statistics NZ) this was 8.6/ 100000 vs 1.2/100000 (vehicular injury rate at 321/100000). The only good news is that the road toll in 2013 was half what it was in 2000.
http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/snapshots-of-nz/nz-social-indicators/Home/Individual%20safety%20and%20security/m-v-casualties.aspx
http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/snapshots-of-nz/nz-social-indicators/Home/Individual%20safety%20and%20security/death-assault.aspx
McFlock
I suppose it does seem a lot of drama about an $80 ticket. Though if I had my way, driving while phoning would be automatic loss of license (once proven in court, and possibly just a 3month suspension on first offense). I really don’t have a sense of humour about that shit.
You will understand the reason for my bewilderment at David being criticised for this.
Drivers with pets and small kids in the car are just as distracted, if not more so.
We’re not going to start disqualifying them from driving too are we?
Regardless, the way we need to go is to get 90% of private motor vehicle transport off the roads.
I entirely agree with you. If Cunliffe broke the law, he should be ticketed and pay the fine. No issue about that. He should know better.
My issue is about the aspects I have mentioned connected with the news reports in our media, such has HOW and WHY and by WHOM did this leak take place and became public knowledge. Is it legal and fair to do so? Was the police or the minister or the PM involved in this leak of privacy? Have no other MPs ever broken a traffic rule and fined? If any do exist, have all those cases too been exposed in the media?
The stuff link I posted is still as it was in the morning I think. I have now read your ODT link.
I wish our MSM, the journalists, the political commentators are fairer, show more integrity and professionalism and delve deep into HEAPS of other important issues such as the truth and cost behind the Iraq armed deployment, electronic surveillance of all, the Lu donation truth, the bio security inefficiency, the dirty politics, black ops operations, the truth about the Charter schools, the $50,000/day or so spent on a social Welfare Ministry’s CEO visit somewhere, the 43K review cost we have to pay for Brownlee jumping over the security gate without being charged etc just as a few examples
They don’t seem to hold the National Party Ministers and their MPs to the same degree of minute scrutiny as they do for Labour. Something is just not right.
factoids:..
1)..america has only not been at war..for 21 yrs out of the 237 since the founding of the country..
(‘if not them..who..?’..eh..?..)
2)..when national took power there were 40,000 nz’ers on the minimum wage..
..there are now 160,000 nz’ers on the minimum wage..
..(well done john key/the tories..!..eh..?..)
3)..in a country that once had no homeless…
..there are now over 30,000 nz’ers ‘sleeping-rough’..
..(well done both national and labour..!..eh..?..)
4)..alcohol is 114 times more dangerous than cannabis..
5)..cunnliffe has a new nickname..it is the name he is known as on a chinese dating-site..
..meet ‘brighton’…
and if you see cunnliffe out and about..
..can i suggest u call out to him:..’brighton..!..is that you..?’…
oh..!..i almost forgot..!
..we ‘can’t afford’ to do anything about poverty/homelessness..
..but we can afford to spend $65 million to be spear-carriers for the psycopathic/war-mongering fucken americans..
Morning Phil, where did you get the info for your second fact? It is interesting…
morena hutty..
..from q-time @ parliament yesterday…
..and that’s not even going near the abomination that is zero hours-contracts..
Do you know whose speech/speaking it was in? Cheers
don’t quote me..but i think question 4..
..(parliamentary website has full-transcript..u shd b able find it there..)
You mentioned it, you find it.
u get fucked..!..eh..?..
(then get back to me..)
It’s real simple. You made a claim and now you have to back it up.
I’ve looked at question time for yesterday, and can’t find it, phil.
There was one mention of the average wage in regards to benefit levels, and joyce made a passing reference to the starting out wage, but I can’t find anything close to what you mentioned.
oh well..i don’t make things up..it was said..
..(n.b..i am not making the claim..i am reporting what i heard..)
..and if ball-busting over it..surely labour dept stats wd help you..?
Hang on, so now I need to find evidence to support an assertion that you can’t show ever existed?
Whatever you “heard”, it wasn’t where you claim it was said. So at best you’re mistaken about where it was said, at worst you made it up, and the middle ground is that you simply heard wrong.
And you get pissy when people like wayne and northshoredoc just plain ignore you most of the time…
i am possibly mistaken about where i heard it..(i spend my days in a sea of information..)
..but i definitely heard it..
..and if that isn’t good enough for you..
..that’s tough-bikkies..eh..?
..and yep..! northshoredoc just won’t answer about the freebies he gets from big-pharma..(‘conferences’ in exotic-locales being just one..eh doc..?..)
..and ‘wayne’ has been nowhere near general debate since i asked him about the war-crimes committed by nz soldiers (handing prisoners over to be tortured) while he was minister of defence..
..(war-crimes he initially denied..then he just ran to his fox-hole..
..where he has remained ever since..)
i wd like to ask him those questions again..and hopefully get a straight answer from him..
In recent articles on the Minimum wage increases over the last two years:
In April 2014, the min wage rose to $14.25, CTU economist Bill Rosenberg said “…More than 100,000 people were on or close to the new minimum wage…”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/9758228/Minimum-wage-up-50c
However on this years rise to $14.75, Helen Kelly said “…Helen Kelly said over 300,000 workers were on or near the minimum wage.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/better-business/66627971/minimum-wage-rises-to-1475
Seems hard to believe that an extra 200,000 people are ‘on or near’ the min wage in just a year. Suppose it depends on far ‘near’ is from the minimum wage.
Phil, after a lot of reading, your point number 2 does not appear in the transcripts of Parliament for this past week, so if you do happen to remember who/when it was said, just let us know and perhaps we can search the videos for it but I’m not going to do that without a bit more detail.
Seeing as you eventually have admitted you may have misheard or mistakenly assigned the source to question time, why all the animosity? No one was having a go at you, (apart from draco of course but isn’t that what you two do for fun ?)
Asking for more details is something you do all time, so maybe….
🙄
Wayne’s been commenting regularly, just not to you. In fact, I definitely remember correcting you on that claim before, I just can’t remember where. Oh, I know, rather than expecting you to do my work for me, I’ll do the search myself: oh look, it was a week and a half ago. So now I have reason to doubt your memory of what was said on any particular topic, rather than just where it was said.
The fact that you are quite probably delusional is most likely the reason you will not get what you want from folk like wayne or northshoredoc – no matter what they say, even if they are in the right you will merely “hear” what you have already decided to hear and go off on a rabid, unintelligible tangent.
@ freedom..no..i did not mishear..i did not say i misheard..
..i am very certain about what i heard..
..i said i was not sure where i heard it..
…but it was yesterday..
@ flock..
..’wayne’ has not been back to where i can ask him..the general debate..
..asking him where he appeared..wd have been clear thread-disruption..
..i presume yr links are not general-debate..?
lol
I disappeared for a wee while to search @wayne.
How long have you been carrying this torch? Because I’ve got some bad news for you, phil: wayne seems to have commented on an open mike once, in late 2013. And you missed your opportunity to righteously challenge him – for shame.
That single comment is what stands between you and your “back” being complete bullshit.
It seems it might not be all about you…
“and yep..! northshoredoc just won’t answer about the freebies he gets from big-pharma..(‘conferences’ in exotic-locales being just one..eh doc..?..)”
Already answered this a couple of times during your previous diatribes Phil, perhaps you were otherwise engaged or it has slipped your memory.
remind us all..doc..
That’s what the search engine on the site is for phil.
oh..!..u r so coy on this subject..aren’t you..?
..why is that..?
..from memory u said these holidays (sorry..!.’conventions’..) in exotic locales..
..were part of yr ongoing ‘training’..?
..is that correct..?
..and the lobbying/wh.y. from big-pharma reps has absolutely no influences on yr prescribing..eh..?..
“….. from memory ….”
I thought this thread had offered some confirmation that you should not rely on your memory.
u duck and weave like a sweating tory politician..
..don’t you..?
@phil…. no…..eh
‘no’..that you are not ducking and weaving like a sweating tory politician..?
..or ..’no’..that u won’t talk about yr ongoing relationship with big-pharma..?
..btw..when is yr next paid-for-by-drug-company-holiday..(sorry..!..medical-conference..) scheduled..?
..and which exciting/exotic locale will it be in..?
Yes that’s right Phil I’m currently sunning myself in Jamaica – all expenses paid by multinational pharmaceutical companies all in return for changing all my patients onto their drugs once I return to NZ.
They are flying me back via Mars where their hypnotoad overlords will be further indoctrinating me.
astonishing how you seem to so blissfully deny the well-documented phenomenon of the influence big-pharma has over doctors-prescribing..
..and the ‘bribes’ that are given to doctors to achieve those ends..
..are you denying this internationally recognised fact/evil..?
(and maybe not jamaica..but wanaka is nice this time of yr..eh..?..)
i will try again to ask you the question:..what/where was the last ‘conference’ you went to..?
..and what financial-assistance did you receive from big-pharma to attend..?
..and when/where is the next one..?
Melbourne …. and no.
….and not playing this game anymore all your questions have been answered …in all honestly it’s probably more useful trying to have an online conversation with one of your deceased canines than trying to engage with yourself….eh ?
and how much financial assistance from big-pharma did you get to attend..?
..and a slur/slag around my recently deceased 16 yr old dog..?
..that i am still seriously grieving over..?
..really putting the ass/arse in ‘class’..
.aren’t you..?..eh..?
..you fucken shabby piece of crap….
and yes..readers here can see yr evasions..
..and we all know you are just another big-pharma tool…
..pimping their poisonous shit for them…
..bought/owned by them..
..the hypocratic-oath..eh..?
..you clearly live by it..
@phil……
“..and a slur/slag around my recently deceased 16 yr old dog..?
..that i am still seriously grieving over..?”
Perhaps you should’ve had the dear old thing stuffed and mounted next to your computer ….. then you could commune with it rather than typing your ellipsis loaded diatribes……….eh ?
do you usually hit the turps on a friday nite..?
..is that where u get yr bravado from..?
..and you wouldn’t say that to my fucken face..wd u..?
..u gutless piece of shite…
..and u a north shore doctor…eh..?
..flying the flag for the profession..eh..?
that’s a definition of cowardice..isn’t it..?
..saying something hiding behind a nom de plume..
..that you wd not say to that persons’ face..
..and be assured..
..i wd love to question you about yr big-pharma links..
..face to face..
..but/bet u wouldn’t like that..wd u..?
@phil
Oh dear, what’s with all the ellipsoidal abuse……….eh ?
I thought you didn’t dislike anyone…….eh ?
…. and here’s me thinking that all that pot was supposed to mellow you out…eh ?
….hopefully I never have to have your mug in front of me…if your incoherent tosh on this site is anything to go by……your gobbledegook in person must be completely intelligible dribble……eh.
Poor old pooch having to put up with a human like you, wouldn’t surprise me if the poor old dear gave up the ghost after listening to your rambling on another pot fuelled afternoon………….eh ?
Actually, avoiding being stalked by deranged stoners is a very good example of why some people prefer to use pseudonyms.
a bit more of that piss-bravery in you..eh..?
..and you don’t like yr doctor-infallibility being questioned/laughed at..do ya..
..ya fucken pill-pusher..
Standard Phil – this happens daily.
“I heard something but can’t find any evidence of it but I know I heard it so get fucked and go find the info the supports it.”
“.. this happens daily. ..
..care to cite/link to..oh..!..let’s say just two of these ‘daily occurances’..?
..you bullshit-artist you..
Why should I have to cite anything to you?
@ contrarian..
..maybe not to prove you are a total bullshit artist..’daily occurance’..
..but ok..’total bullshit-artist’ can/will stand..
..your call..
lol
So if you refuse to cite, we should trust you, but when someone else refuses to cite, they’re total bullshit artists.
Fish, meet barrel. You’ll be happy there for a while, no troubles.
This is the most recent report I can find:
It claims 54,000 are on the minimum wage. However, the figure quoted in the previous year’s report was 80K, so they may have changed the recording mechanism. Also, firms are advised to pay marginally more than the minimum so that their workers are less likely to get assistance from MBIE if they need it (they are required to help minimum wage workers, but not necessarily minimum +10c per hour workers).
The effect of raising the minimum also sweeps up groups of workers who used to be above minimum, but who have not kept pace due to not getting annual rises. So that 54,000 probably rose in 2013/14.
However, I can’t see how even the 80,000 figure quoted in 2012 could become 160,000 a couple of years later.
Having said that, Phil’s point remains; under National more workers are on the bare minimum. Not only that, many are on 90 day fire at will contracts, zero hour arrangements and the like, so certainty of employment has also diminished.
“We would love to see wages drop.” John Key, 2008.
the figure quoted was from when the tories came to power..not 2012..
..it was 2008 ’till now…
..40,000 then..160,000 now…
(shall we all have a group-dance on the head of a fucken pin..?..
..oh..!..hang on..!..we’re already doing that..!..)
Er, I was backing you up, Phil.
MBIE said 54k in 2013 and the previous year (2012) they said 80k. I was quoting MBIE, not the Nats.
Which I wrote as: “It claims 54,000 are on the minimum wage. However, the figure quoted in the previous year’s report was 80K, so they may have changed the recording mechanism.”
I think it’s entirely likely that it was 40k when the Tories took over and that it’s got worse since then.
@ trp..
..and i was just correcting yr claim that i had said 2012….
I didn’t claim you said 2012, Phil!
alright..my bad..
No worries, cobber.
His name is Cunliffe NOT CuNNliffe FFS it’s in the papers enough
u get todays’ pedant-award..
..i mean..who cares..?..
..and anyway..i much prefer his chinese-dating-site name…
..’brighton’…
..and i shall call him ‘brighton’ from here on in..
..u ok with that spelling..?
Gosh that is more exciting that TV1 expose a few weeks ago that Cadbury were reducing their bar size!
I almost forgot in the excitement, that John Key is sending our troops into an illegal war in Iraq without UN or Security Council approval.
As our assistance has been requested the UN doesn’t come into it. Of course, the fact that the government was talking about going before the request came does indicate that we would have gone with or without the Iraqi request.
Our assistance was requested by the Shia side of the sectarian Parliament, and no official paperwork drawn up around it. It’s very minimal cover for our intervention in a civil war.
I got the distinct impression that the request from Iraq was done at the behest of the USA to give a cover for their invasion that they weren’t going to get any other way.
Pretty much – I think your conclusion makes sense. And I think the USA already checked in with John Key to ensure that our answer would indeed be “yes.”
The rich praise the rich.
Importing massive amounts of sweatshop produce, building big boxes that close down other retail and destroy town centres, create lousy low paid work.
Yes Tindall really did make life better for thousands of NZers.
The shareholders of the Warehoise.
It’s like the Walmart family being awarded in the US
http://m.tvnz.co.nz/news/top_stories/6242222
Yup and team tindall have been acquiring other niche kiwi etailers etc to ensure the empire of crap continues to prosper. The many brands one owner strategy you see in logistics, booze, dairy products etc.
I only shop at red shed when I don’t expect my purchase to be well made or have longevity but hey that’s the world we live in….never mind the quality feel the width.
i know..!..i am still gathering my (gobsmacked) thoughts over that one..
..and not to mention the third world slave-workers/children he made his money off/thru..
..and you are right..it wd be like america making walton american-of-the-year..
Posted the link to Auckland Conversations last week on the topic of housing, and the introduction to the event was full of praise for Stephen Tindall (who attended) and the Warehouse. (Youth & Community Economic Development – David Turner)
I haven’t heard Len Brown speak in public for a while, and was not impressed. Very sycophantic to business overall, and Tindall and the Warehouse specifically on this occasion. I had to only listen with moderate attention to this lovefest, and so could look at these guys and ponder whether their egos are so fragile they must constantly puff each other up at every opportunity:
“Like me, like me, – I like you – d’ya like me…?”
The Warehouse has some form of school to work programme, called “Red Shirts in Schools”. If you are interested in seeing the disaster that can be if not managed properly – go and have a look at some the Academy schools in the US. Particularly in areas that are struggling.
The feature speaker, David Turner was – by contrast – much more interesting to listen to.
He spoke of the success of the Swiss system which provides long-term and extensive work business relationships to students, and the experience and effort that goes into ensuring apprenticeships and students have a good fit. This includes a vast resource of independent career counselors and a “three strikes and your in” understanding. That is, businesses are aware that some students who have had no prior experience in industry will require three placements before they have the skills and knowledge to be ready to participate.
He also said that businesses meet regularly to discuss the progress of their “apprenticeships” and keep up with the progress of students that have moved on to other placements. While there is some degree of financial strategy, they recognise they are contributing to the common good. When was the last time we heard that phrase in NZ in the same sentence as business?
He also suggested that he believed that fundamentally business owners in Switzerland got involved in these programmes because of their humanity.
And for the RWNJ reading this, the word is not synonymous with public relations.
Without being undiplomatic, he stated that the business relationships in Australia – where he is from – is not set up to do this kind of support, and until it is, it is likely that repeats of past exploitation of young people would happen. He said he was unqualified to comment on NZ, but if business networks were similar it would have to undergo a big change.
Almost worth listening to Len Brown’s valentine at the beginning – to hear the words business, humanity and common good linked together.
(Unfortunately, Len Brown left after his introduction – so missed an opportunity for a bit of education himself.)
Really good stuff on
http://www.norightturn.blogspot.co.nz
Including Cash for Questions in UK,
followed by Money laundering from the National party donations,
Greens actually spent more money on the election than Labour (again Labour not listening on the moral issues here so missing out on votes and donations),
GCSB’s obsession with “network security” (which, thanks to Snowden, we now know means “making sure people don’t plug the backdoors we use”) is killing research and driving tech companies out of the country.
SIS’s slow vetting procedures appear to have interfered with the establishment of IGIS’s office and their recruitment of staff. Vetting is their core function, but apparently it still takes months.
IGIS currently has an own-motion inquiry into the SIS underway “which arose from the regular inspection of intelligence warrants [and] is the first Inspector-General inquiry into the “propriety” of particular activities of an intelligence and security agency”. Which sounds as if SIS are abusing their powers. Unfortunately, as its “operational”, all the details are classified, and we’ll only be getting a summary at the end of it. Its unclear whether the victims of any SIS impropriety will be informed of the violation of their rights so they may take legal action against the spies.
Because they’d only been in the role for seven weeks, the IGIS can not certify that GCSB and SIS are complying with their legislation.
So, it turns out that Sky City’s surprise “cost overrun” on their crony-deal convention centre was their plan all along, and that the government knew about it from the beginning:
Well worth reading!
Here is an article on a crucial aspect of the Iraq conflict that is not getting discussed but is most certainly going to play an ever increasing role in the (re)establishment of a stable Iraq nation.
Iran has always had a hands on influence in many parts of Iraq but appears to be strengthening its presence. As there is little information on this area of the political situation in Iraq, we have no way to know the veracity of the claims, but that can be said of most aspects of this conflict.
http://www.businessinsider.com/how-irans-military-chiefs-operate-in-iraq-2015-2
I adapted the map to show where “behind the wire” puts our troops
Addendum:
“Here is an article on a crucial aspect of the Iraq conflict that is not getting discussed..”
I should have said …discussed in the mainstream public arena and the MSM news services…
“Canada’s electronic surveillance agency is covertly monitoring vast amounts of Canadians’ emails as part of a sweeping domestic cybersecurity operation, according to top-secret documents.”
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/02/25/canada-cse-pony-express-email-surveillance/
Bet the GCSB is doing the same. What are Palintir here for, now?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10899920
i am caught on the horns of a moral dilemma..
..i have been offered (much-needed) ‘dirty money’..
..the facts of the matter are that i have a hellish job keeping up with the costs etc. of running whoar..+ life..on the dole..
..(i actually went totally ‘dark’ on tues…pre-paid electricity ran out sooner than expected..and no money to top it up..that was an interesting 24hrs….)
..and i have received an offer to host some paid-content..for an online gambling casino…
..what to do..?..
..while loathing how the gambling-industry exploits the weakest..
..i am not actually opposed to people having the right to throw their money away in whatever stupid way they choose…
..aarrgghh..!..those horns are sharp..!
hee hee classic dilemma mr ure… whatcha gonna do? Firstly, don’t worry about electricity it is entirely over-rated unless you have a freezer full of food. I know a few who stay off the grid and it works fine…. biggest problem likely to be punching out the daily squawk online.
so, to be or not to be – whether tis nobler to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or to take arms against a sea of struggles…..
you know what you are going to do – you are just temporarily weakened by the devil of temptation.
aye..!
don’t do it!…its the beginning of the end…and you will lose credibility…the great thing about this site is that it is classy and clean ….has no tacky or amoral or immoral ads
chooky..i am talking about whoar..not here..
..’y’know..!..that ‘cartoony-site’ you make sure you stay well away from..?
i know that…if you start advertising gambling that makes it worse…even although i dont look at it
Agree with trp below. It’s well and good to maintain principles and decency – all for it – but you’ve got to live Phil. The constant worry about having no money (been there) means you can’t be much help to anybody let alone yourself. Go for it.
Well, that explains why you didn’t comment on my post on Tuesday, Phil!
For my tuppenceworth, I think you should put the ads up. I don’t see it as a moral compromise or lowering your site’s credibility. It’s just not that kind of website, it’s a news aggregator, not a forum for philosophical discussion. Unlike dope, casino’s are legal, though I wish the situation was reversed.
Use the money to get a regular power account (pre-pay is a total rip off) and maybe think about solar, if that’s possible where you live.
“.. and maybe think about solar..”
i’ll do that after i’ve got the pony all sorted out..eh..?..
..and i am well aware glo-bug pre-pay is a total gouge..
.the power company forced me onto it..against my will/protestations..
..(their reason..?..my payments were not always on the day..(tho’ i note my power had never been disconnected..the bills were paid..)
..this is one of the ways the poorest get fucked over…
..and here’s another one…!
..fucken animal control..and the fascist bitches (yes..!..i meant to say that..!..stick yer fucken p.c..!..) that drive around in those red vans..
a few months ago..they came to my house..having received a complaint that my dogs weren’t registered..
..my old dog had been registered..but it had expired..and the little one wasn’t..
..i pointed out that it wasn’t deliberate..more an outcome of poverty..
..(and i noted that the old-dog was on her death-legs..was nearly gone..(she died about three weeks later..)
..and this meant nothing..despite this fascist-bitch agreeing that yes..she was clearly near the end..
..so i went and borrowed the money to get both dogs registered..
..and then..here is the kicker..!
..as well as these two horror-shows talking to me in a way they would never address say..a gang-member..?
..(the true mark of the coward-bully..the careful selection of who they will fuck over..)
..i maintained politeness..(with great difficulty..)
..and then..two weeks later..hand-delivered to my letterbox..
..two tickets..back-dated..for $300 each..for having unregistered dogs…
..(a malicious afterthought..?..it was never mentioned to me..)
..i was unable to pay that $600 fine..
..so it has worked its’ way thru the system..
..and i have just been told it + the requisite penalties – will be taken from my benefit..
..(so that was over $1,000 ..that they screwed me for..seems fair..?..eh..?..).
..i see in the media that there will be an inquiry into animal-services auckland..and how they operate..after allegations of cruelty by their officers..
..i would like to give evidence to that inquiry..
..about what would seem to be their ‘normal-practices’..
..because if these pieces of human excrement did this to me..
..you can bet that is what they are doing to everyone,..
(except gang-members..!..of course..!..)
…sounds pretty bad alright!….and for many a dog or pet companion is crucial for emotional health when you are down and out ( the people who enforce these rules male or female have to be callous…no other person could do the job)
….maybe yu or others should keep a poverty diary somewhere on line….so people can see in detail what a hard struggle it is…even in New Zealand
I have some idea because i was brought up by a solo parent, who had a professional job, but it was still a struggle ….and i also have a very well educated professional friend who has a long term chronic health problem and is invalided in a state house which could be sold out from under him
….the day to day worry and grind of poverty and living on benefits should be chronicalled for all to see in dairy form…maybe 7 people each take a day of the week?
(btw…where is Xtasy these days ?)
+1 on xtasy. Was wondering the same thing just the other day. Would like to hear from them again.
Things sound a tad grim sorry to hear Phil, however your a stoic chap and harvest
time is near, just remember to give the taxman his share and all will be fine. Take the money from whoever is trying to scam your morals.
I would rather dog owners were registered, I think its sucks they fine you on your own property. Caught in public would be inline with cars. You don’t get fined for having an unregistered car on your property only in public.
Maybe we could fund raise for you, say if you had a wash, a short back and sides, a shave and if you get a real job a hold it we could top up your pay.
Have you looked at applying for jobs in your area? Works for me
…..what
…. fucking work
……..it’s oppression is work
…..enslavement I tell ya
….for whoars sake s
Hot war on it’s way
http://www.tfmetalsreport.com/podcast/6645/another-vital-jb-sfc
Another Vital JB-SFC
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By Turd Ferguson | Wednesday, February 25, 2015 at 8:46 am
I cannot emphasize strongly enough how critically important it is for you to listen to these weekly Ukraine discussions and last night’s episode was no different. Please make the time to give this a thorough listen.
Among the topics covered last evening:
– The inside details of the peace negotiations held last week in Minsk
– A thorough summary of the devastating UAF retreat from Debaltsevo
-The increasing possibility of a coup to depose Ukraine president Poroshenko (and it is this possibility and aftermath that has me most concerned right now)
-The ongoing demonization of Russia and Putin by the war parties of the west
Any bets on what the MPs’ salary numbers will look like by the end of the day ?
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/regulation/public/2013/0462/latest/DLM5736806.html
“After the last round of wage rises, authority chairman John Errington warned the gulf between Cabinet ministers and top executives was growing and would be addressed in the next determination.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/66672796/mps-in-line-for-a-pay-rise
Will the Ministerial Salary break the $300,000 mark ? Or will it slip in at $295,000
(allowances taking it closer to $350k+ of course )
+ I’m picking the base MP rate to hit $155,000
and when you think of the incompetent clowns pulling down $300 grand..
(we’re looking at you..!..foss-the-hapless..!..and the minister with the faraway-eyes..!..)
” the gulf between Cabinet ministers and top executives”
I read this line and just about threw up…. a Minister occupies a wholly different role in society than a ceo, different responsibilities, different obligations, different purposes, different organisations, different people, different powers…….
there is no comparison
shit of the horse
And, of course, the employers of MPs don’t get a say in how much we should pay them. I think this should be determined by referendum.
The senators of Rome sit back in their luxurious bubble while the serfs in the provinces slowly starve.
doing the commentaries on q-time means i see the disconnect between how people are suffering..
..and how these fucken clowns spend their days point-scoring against each other..
..seemingly oblivious to the shit so many nz’ers are going thru..
..(and it is not just the fucken tories..!..it is also the useless arse-wipes in give-the-poorest-fuck-all!/no way will we legalise cannabis!..mine/drill/spying on nz’ers’is ok with us!..
..fucken labour..!
..the disconnect is the size of cook straight..
and we know many of them are truly fiddling …
I wonder if Bill English is going to say no thank you since he is so concerned about the growing debt and the need to cut government expenses.
It will be interesting to see if any MP is going to say no thank you.
The PM has answered with the usual pathetic line ‘i don’t want it but my hands are tied’
If the ministers and MP are not paid a good salary how will you get competent managers?
Oh but wait……
How soon before we see a law like this? 🙁
Pesky damn science folk and all their facts pfft who needs that sort of hassle when you are trying to make some bloody money!
http://inhabitat.com/house-passes-bill-that-prohibits-expert-scientific-advice-to-the-epa/
Here’s hoping the veto promise is kept.
Just put down the book Science for Sale – by David L Lewis, a microbiologist who previously worked for the EPA in the 1990’s.
Don’t agree with all his scientific positions – at the end he makes statements about climate change that are not founded in any studies – but the history he outlines about his employment with EPA, and his treatment is very interesting.
Also, he studied the likelihood of infection from endoscopes, and attempted to have the accepted sterilisation of the equipment improved, as current practices not only did not remove all infectious material, practitioners were not even following that.
He suggests that most ethical scientists left or were pushed out in the early 1990s.
The revolving door of corporate execs and government panels is as dangerous as it is extraordinary. Thanks for the tip, will see if the local library has it/can get it in.
I have it from the Auckland City libraries, so it’ll be back in circulation there in the next week or so…
Business don’t like science as it gets in the way of them doing whatever they want. Same can be said of some politicians who only do the bidding of business anyway.
Women are more likely to be religious and so vote more conservatively. Power, money, are harder to obtain for women. So of course conservatives pander to companies and individuals who like them want to stifle change. And hey who wants change. But everyone who loathes change also wants to chase profits and wealth where it enriches themselves, so its not about companies or theists being anti-science, its about hypocrisy, taking the bounty of science and using the wealth created to shout how loathsome science is. You see the history of conservativismis the history of hypocritical lying two faced anti freedom,anti american, anti anything that gets in their way. imho its stupidity but others would call it a opportunity to scare the begeezous out of their comfort fantasies.
Climate change,banking collapses, economics of oil peak, its all revenge on the stupid, and they deserve to have truth spoken to them.
For those of you who have argued the Greeks achieved what they wanted during the recent negotiations here is a reality check
http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21644592-deal-struck-extend-bail-out-after-greece-caves-now-syriza-must-answer-its
Viva la revolution indeed.
Nope some of us did not see a revolution in Greece, just a slight shift.
http://libcom.org/blog/alternative-voting-systems-are-no-alternative-21022015
But, into whose arms does this deal push Greece Gossy? Out of the EU, and towards Moscow? I also think the Germans may have just played the fubar play. Austerity is a loss loss solution – the ultimate degenerate play to support greed culture – it’s time as a economic solution appears to be limited – as it’s being exposed for what it is.
You do understand the notion of “war” versus “battle” right Gos?
So it seems to be that muslims do not accept responsibility for jihadists, despite some/many suggesting that they should shoulder more of the responsibility because they share the same religion. And those that do suggest they are more responsible have been pilloried and even fired – evidence the crazy pastor down south http://www.anglicantaonga.org.nz/Features/Extra/Apology
On a few occasions on here last year it was strongly suggested, and accepted by many, that men should shoulder more of the responsibility for the actions of rapists because they share the same gender.
These two things don’t add up it seems. The cogs don’t mesh, the standards vary, the eyes refuse to see, the mind refuse to think ….
Cunliffe is also an example of this confused, mixed-up and wrong-headed thinking, when he apologised for being a man. If he was also a muslim would he have apologised for being a muslim?
So who is right? Both propositions cannot be right.
“On a few occasions on here last year it was strongly suggested, and accepted by many, that men should shoulder more of the responsibility for the actions of rapists because they share the same gender.”
That’s not how I would put it. I would say that men have a particular responsibility that women don’t because its men’s business (how men relate in the world). And I would say that women have been shouldering the burden way more than is ok because in the past men haven’t been taking their responsibilities seriously. So it’s more about evening up the load.
And by men, I mean men collectively. Obviously it varies hugely when it comes to individuals. But essentially we have rape culture, it’s not enough to say that that’s soley about men who rape, it’s about the things that promote rape, and of course men as a class have huge influence on that, including in ways that women don’t.
tl;dr, women are already doing the work, when are men going to step up.
hi weka,
to be blunt, your comments , to me, are reminiscent of the statement (forgive me i do not recall who said it) “all men are rapists” from the ’80s.
“women are already doing the work, when are men going to step up.”
who are raising these men who are doing the raping?
to be blunt, your comments , to me, are reminiscent of the statement (forgive me i do not recall who said it) “all men are rapists” from the ’80s.
Which means that you truly don’t understand what I meant 🙂
(the statement “all men are rapists” is by a fictional character in a novel by Marilyn French. In order to understand why the character said that, you really need to look at it in context. It’s not what you think it is).
“women are already doing the work, when are men going to step up.”
who are raising these men who are doing the raping?
Presumably their parents. Are you suggesting that men rape because of their upbringing?
My statement about women doing the work refers to the women that have been doing the anti-rape work for decades (eg Rape Crisis). Where are the men’s organisations doing this work?
hi weka,
perhaps you are right, i may have got the wrong end of the stick about your comment.
re the all men are rapists, i do recall that line being used (it may have been by a spokesperson from womens refuge) and getting repeated in the media, causing a stir, both because of the provocative nature of the comment and also how it was defended.
it was in a climate where peter ellis was able to be convicted in the chch civic creche case.
i am suggesting that men rape partly because of their upbringings, and i feel it is a lack of parents as opposed to a parent contributes to this.
(a male in the household showing respect to women).
to the best of my knowledge there are a few male groups (manline, court appointed anger management groups), all running on a tenuous shoestring budget. relying on goodwill of volunteers, much like rape crisis, i suspect.
i would also point to groups like scouts and sports teams where civics, self esteem, cooperation are encouraged in our boys/young men.
“So it seems to be that muslims do not accept responsibility for jihadists, despite some/many suggesting that they should shoulder more of the responsibility because they share the same religion.”
I think you are confusing responsibility and blame (which also explains your views in gender). I see Muslims being responsible when their communities work towards reducing fundamentalism. Men can do the same in reducing rape culture. That’s a different thing than Muslims being to blame for jihadists or men being to blame for individual rapists.
The bishop in your link appears to be blaming individuals for other individuals’ actions over which they have no control. He also appears judgemental (Jews should have learned lessons from the holocaust) and hypocritical (why aren’t individual Muslims doing more to prevent their fundamentalists). Hard to tell from such a short article though.
Cunliffe didn’t apologise for being a man. He apologised for the fact that domestic/sexual violence against women is overwhemingly done by men. And then he told men to wake up and man up and start doing the right things.
There is not contradiction between all these things. The bishop was blaming individuals for things outside of their control. Everyone else is saying x, y, z isn’t ok, let’s work collectively to change that.
Mike Hosking must be a wonderful chap. It says so at the “disclaimer” at the bottom of his applause for his hero Key.
” Mike’s insightfulness and knowledge makes him one of New Zealand’s most successful broadcasters.”
Mike Hosking is just another schoolyard loudmouth, it says more about the people that actually listen to his rantings/opinions then what comes out of his mouth.
He’s not credible and only has his presenter/commentator status because people higher up think he’ll attract viewers/listeners to their medium. More punters = more cash in advertising. I’d rather listen to commentators like Rod Oram / Dame Anne Salmond , at least they are credible, can back opinions with researched facts and are not in it for the show.
Mmm, seem to have my grumpy hat on today, again..
Just finding the media more and more disappointing these days and getting sick of pointing out inconsistencies / false truths to friends. Like asking people if they know the full “I’m ashamed to be a man” quote when they bring it up. Once they realise what he actually said in context, opinions change very quickly.
yea and what’s happened to the best journalist /writer in NZ ..Wayne Brittendon?
my little scooter-dog really really loves porridge…(loaded with fruit etc..)
..and he is just getting all waggy…saying ‘thanks..!’..
World’s first grid-connected wave power station switched on in Australia
More renewable energy successfully connected to the grid. Will be interesting to see how this goes.
Not also that that project was only possible due to government support.
It’s a military project. At least they get it.
Creationism in New Zealand schools.
Xians, this is why people don’t trust you: telling lies to four year old children is bearing false witness.
Still think if they going to do this. I should have the opportunity to teach Atheism in schools.
I even have a name for the programme.
Children positivity classes – God is dead, and I killed him.
if there is no god then how could you have killed him?
huum, tricky question that!
Let me guess:
God created everything, including adam (this one, but that one too).
When adam got some ‘education’ and reasoning ‘power’, he became cleverer than God and stronger than God and killed him easily without bullets, just with his own powerful thoughts! Cool ye? God of course disappeared from adam’s life while adam was still alive.
But, (there is always a but! ask PG)
God did not really kick the bugger(strike out!) bucket at all. Having been rejected, He waited patiently for adam to die too, hoping to meet the poor soul once again someday sometime somewhere somehow.
just saying….
Easy. You point out that god was only ever an incorrect belief system that has now been replaced by actual research and facts.
lol – actual research and facts eh – what disproves god?
Disproving the beliefs that surround the god phenomenon. The existence or not of god(s) is immaterial to the human condition.
I would have thought that one was even harder and well beyond ‘easy’ if it could be achieved at all.
No, it’s easy – we’ve already done it after all. The problem is that some people refuse to believe.
Materialists, measurementalists and the acolytes of scientism have always been such a self righteous bunch, in my experience. Forever wanting to force their own beliefs on to others, looking down on those heathen who refuse to adopt the faith, insisting that their way of looking at the universe and all the rich phenomena within it is the one and only way, and declaring knowledge from all other sources and especially from prophets without PhDs false and misleading.
Wow, that makes me think that you lot have a heck of a lot in common with the fundamentalist Christians. You guys should get together and compare notes.
Would you prefer to build a house using measured strengths or just believing that a 4×2 is strong enough to hold up a skyscraper?
Once we have things measured then they’re no longer beliefs. That’s the point. And at that point if you don’t accept them then you’re being delusional.
I have no faith in PhDs. What I do is accept the facts that the research has shown. Creationism has nothing to back it, no research and no observable data. In fact, the observable data precludes Creationism and many other items of faith within religious doctrine.
What other sources of gaining quantifiable knowledge are available?
Ahhhh, the delightful certainty of the measurementalist. (I made the term up myself, it’s actually an offshoot of the managerialism which has plagued western civilisation for the last 20 years).
So, according to your statement, once you have successfully measured something it is transmogrified and becomes sanctified in the faith as a known “fact”.
Such a fascinating belief system you have.
You are treading close to heresy here! Do you dare imply that there are types of knowledge which cannot be quantified (measured)???
+100 CR
It is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that anything so mind-bogglingly useful [as a babelfish] could have evolved purely by chance that some have chosen to see it as the final proof of the NON-existence of God. The argument goes something like this:
But, if he gets killed on a zebra crossing, it proves that God does not exist because zebra crossings are definitely meant to stop people dying on zebra crossings.
“what disproves god”
It isn’t about disproving god, god must be proved. Not the other way round.
why?
Burden of proof. The burden rests on the person making the positive assertion not the negative.
Well you need to take that up with draco – he said, “Easy. You point out that god was only ever an incorrect belief system that has now been replaced by actual research and facts.”
Take it up with me. The person making the extraordinary claim: that a god-creature exists in the form they assert (as opposed to the ones people from other countries propose), has to provide the evidence.
Actually, they don’t. unless they foist the performance upon children
When they demand the right to child victims, the crimes act provides the solution. Strangle the last priest with the entrails of the last homeopathist.
Fuck that. Why should someone from a different belief system have to satisfy the tenets of your belief system to be seen as valid.
What children should be taught, and what they will rarely be taught, is how to critically and creatively think about things beyond the realms of materialism and logic.
Homeopath.
By the way, its science and technology which is losing credibility in the world right now, not homeopathy.
🙄
Says an anti-science conspiracy theorist.
“By the way, its science and technology which is losing credibility in the world right now, not homeopathy.”
Bahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahha! Homeopathy is complete horseshit
Just as the complex mechanism of a watch requires a magician to hit it with a mallet, so too the complex nature of the universe requires a roll of multicoloured handkerchieves to surreptitiously unravel…
lol but where did that watch and handkerchiefs (never would have believed that that was how you spell that word but there you go) come from. Anyway my original comment was about the killing god bit – I’m struggling to engage with this stuff tbh
This might help
The horologist is the watch’s god…
Existential kicking-around is fun, but largely pointless (other than as a logical exercise). I generally figure that if I wait a few decades (hopefully that long) I’ll find out either way, or not (as the case may be) 🙂
In the meantime, good to live a good, kind and ethical life anyway.
” god must be proved”
Only upon your dead body, like the saying goes. Until then, it is for each one to believe or not whatever one thinks or feels is ‘true’.
Is science the most powerful thing in the universe?
Anyway, as an aside, I have a plan for my dead body and science.
Most powerful? Doubt it.
Most curious and inquisitive? Probably.
Science is great. But no one, including Science, can ever in this life ‘PROVE’ or ‘DISPROVE’ there is a God, if there is a God, who is more powerful and the most powerful of all. Transcending dimensions, if you believe in the scientific theories of dimensions. Beyond the realm of known physics and science.
As an aside, for the curious:
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ciencia/ciencia_hyperspace02.htm
Oh you could prove it alright, if only you had evidence of one, (just one) phenomenon with no possibility of rational explanation.
Sixty thousand years, no evidence. Does that make deist mumbo-pocus less credible than 9/11 conspiracy theories much?
May be, by definition of divine and God, you shouldn’t expect any such worldly explanation or proof because God by definition transcends our dimension, reasoning, brain power, science and he/she/it is not of this world. So one has to have faith or a sense of life, soul, God, ethics, morals, conscience….or not.
Is human evolution complete?
OAB, why should anyone bother to submit to you types and categories of evidence that your personal belief system finds acceptable and valid?
How is it that your personal belief system led you to be so totally incurious and close minded? Is this really how science and technology advanced so far over the last 500 years of western civilisation?
How is it that someone like you knows so much better and so much more confidently than scientific geniuses like Einstein and Newton?
Well, Einstein’s work superceded Newton’s, and when he said “God does not play dice”, he was wrong, as delayed choice quantum erasure demonstrates.
That said, it’s pretty clear from your comment that you haven’t the first idea what I’m talking about. Again. Thus you twist my words into a new shape all your own.
In the first place I’m not asking you to submit evidence. I couldn’t give a toss about the brainless witterings of an anti-science fundie.
Secondly, I’m simply observing that if all phenomena are explicable by “natural” causes, there’s no room for miracles, and your sky fairy is just as bound by universal laws as the rest of us.
As for incurious, fuck off Tat.
Clem, there are masses of things that are “beyond the realm of known physics and science.”
Some, like out-of-body experiences, are replicable and as yet unexplained. Others, like dark matter, are areas of pure conjecture arising from observed phenomena.
This is called “the god of the gaps” – asserting that deity exists in the unknown, and then finding that the unknown keeps getting smaller.
Transcendental experiences lead deists to assert deity, and yet some of the oldest books in the world explain such things as evidence that everything is connected, and urge us to “trust in our senses”, while explicitly denying the existence of gods.
Meanwhile, religion is an accident of birth. Perhaps I’d be more accepting had I been born a Viking.
With my “logical paradox disruptor cannon”.
single shot or rapid fire?
a couple of shots, then 15 minutes to reload.
“Children positivity classes – God is dead, and I killed him.”
Attaboy, get in with the fundamentalism while they’re so impressionable.
This one was disturbing
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/66533678/playground-preacher-upsets-parents
What they really think.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/02/idaho-republican-backs-faith-healer-parents-if-i-want-to-let-my-child-be-with-god-why-is-that-wrong/
This is worth a look
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) makes recommendations for
routine vaccination of adults in the United States
http://www.globalresearch.ca/u-s-government-moves-on-nationwide-adult-vaccination/5432582?print=1
Q. How much control could the pharmaceutical companies and those behind them gain from a medical dictatorship ?
A. 🙄
A2. probably not nearly as much as they’d get from treating an unvaccinated population
Smackdown! Use the chair! Actually, stuff the chair, use the pre-frontal lobotomy; it’s not like anyone will notice the difference.
….and punch the silly little docy face between the rolling eyes
🙄
Hope the computer screen is sturdy !
+1 there McFlock!
Q. So you are in favour of the direction this indicates doc ?
A. I’m concerned that the Blackcaps game plan for Saturday might be too dependent on a top of the order blitz.
Not a “medical dictatorship”, a corporate dictatorship. Hence the TTPA. If the government introduces regulations which limit the use of, and hence the profitability of, a given drug, corporations have the rights to get those regulations re-examined and potentially rescinded.
Do you still entertain the notion we might sign up to that?
It is a real and present danger, yes.
+100 Murphey
Yep. I have appreciated a lot of the material and links that The Murphey has pointed out.
Interesting stuff in Holland.
Student protesters – showing some defiance.
http://libcom.org/blog/student-protests-escalating-amsterdam-25022015
interesting coming from Holland….usually it is France with the student protests
fail newkeyland
http://www.amnesty.org.nz/news/new-zealand-rejects-international-recommendations-address-inequality
fix our issues up here before making worse issues for others.
+100 ….good points
http://i.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/66672796/10k-payrise-tipped-for-Backbench-MPs
Shit I’m in the wrong job I got $15 a week extra this year ..
It’s because they deserve it….right???
It’s a tuff job no doubt but they seem to get pretty big raises fairly often, I’d have a crack for 100k . not sure which party would have me though.:-)
I notice our leader is making a bit of political hay going round saying he doesn’t want it but can’t do anything about it , funny he seems to be able to change laws when it suits him.
Steve Keen: Rethinking Economics at the London School of Economics
strange in a stranger land
give the kid an overdose, pump his stomach and the charge the parents for the pumping ffs
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11408317
yeah that seems a bit like a panelbeater smashing your windscreen and charging you for the new one…
No McFlock it has to be more personal and intimate than that. It’s like a hospital that amputated your leg wrongly, and then charged you for the surgery and the legal counsel they needed to answer your complaint.
The mother said she commented on the size of the syringe for the little boy, you would have thought it would have prompted a check by the nurse who was either distracted, rushing, or robotic. 85 mils instead of, appropriate for the child/s weight, a tenth or a hundredth of that.
Just putting one aspect of it it in more identifiable terms. Frankly, I’m intrigued that he was billed for the cost of their misconduct, in addition to being concerned that the misconduct occurred in the first place.
I’ve no idea what it’s like to have a limb amputated, correct one or otherwise.
The bit that concerns me in that article is this:
Which tends to indicate that they were using hand-written documentation and that is just not acceptable. Some peoples handwriting is just simply unreadable and so we need to remove that from the equation.
>>T he nurses discussed that it was a large dose but neither checked with the anaesthetist.
I wonder if there was a feeling of we mustn’t appear stupid by the nurses?
And won’t ACC cover the expense as it was a medical mistake?
Sorry, but the likelihood of the error was a pre-existing condition.
@ In vino
+1
If unsure, ask. I wonder why they didn’t? Only takes 5 mins to confirm a dose…
How to rid NZ of pests, rodents etc, drugs that irreparable cause rodents to miscarry would lead to a aging pop who could not reproduce.
While Key talks about the Iraq deployment being the ‘price of the club’, it will be ordinary people in Iraq who pay that price not people like him or his kids (can anyone imagine Max or Stephanie Key on the frontline?)
Veteran anti-imperialist activist Don Franks on the deployment:
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/02/25/war-pigs/
The General Theory of Employment by J Keynes
It’s a shorter, more easily read version of The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money
it wd seem the green party male co-leadership contest is now a two-horse race..
http://whoar.co.nz/2015/new-zealand-parliament-list-of-questions-for-oral-answer-thursday-26-february-2015/
I was disappointed by the much talked about Shaw. What was with the shiny suit, more fitting for the ACT party, the fit was terrible. This guy is a non event and should be kept to making Norman’s morning coffee. It will be the Nat/Greens if this guy is made co leader.
i am aware he is a rightwinger..and dresses/looks like a young-tory-spiv..(think simon bridges..)
..and wd leap at the chance of a coalition with the tories…
..(and that if he did that..it wd cause the green party to implode..)
..and that he is most probably the most rightwing green party member in the country..
..i am not endorsing him..
..just pointing out that he was competent in his questioning of joyce..(who doesn’t usually divert from serial-sneering at any questioners..)
..and that it is likely a two-horse race between him and hague..
..(but if you watched the encounter between shaw and joyce..and thought shaw didn’t do ok..
..yr ideological-lenses are clearly affecting yr judgement-calls..)
I just think it was average at best, considering he wants to be leader. The other bloke has better creds although mollyhawk Hughes still fancies his chances.
i agree that dr no should get it..
..and hughes has the unfortunate-blessing/curse of a young/baby-face..
..and as one similarly cursed/blessed i can tell him he can console himself with the fact he will appreciate that more and more..the older he gets..(heh..!)
..when all the craggy-faced ones are looking like shit..he won’t..
..but as for gravitas..?..nah..!..
..he always seems so ‘perky’..
..and he does try just a little bit too much/hard..
@ In vino
+1
i was very impressed with Shaw’s end of year speech to parliament ….is he really, really a right winger?
….I mean can Shaw be more right wing and wissey wussy than the Little Labour Party putting in Shearer instead of Norman or Metiria Turei on the spy committee …..and taking paid advice from right wing journalist David Cohen?…pot calling kettle black?
….really what is needed for the Green Party is someone with the charisma and abilities of Shaw to sock it to John Key Nactional…Shaw does have this ability
…it has to be proven Shaw is a right winger and worse than the Labour Party before he is discounted imo…where is the proof ? I say…or is it just a smear campaign against someone with considerable ability who really can stick it to both Nactional and Little Labour ?
Shaw is getting extremely experienced help from strong and longtime right activists.
Shaw might want to post here to prove such fears wrong.
+100 Ad….yes I for one would be very interested to see Shaw’s real colours flying from the mast…he must come clean as to where he stands if he expects to get the Green vote for co-leadership…and he must be held to account to be true to his word
…sometimes people who come from the right of the spectrum ( either by birth or education privilege or profession position) are nevertheless true democrats and Lefties eg Tony Benn ….so it does not pay to right them off without evidence…the Greens need the best and truest person for the job
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jan/15/tony-benn-saw-ttip-coming-70s
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Benn
@ Ad re your statement: “Shaw is getting extremely experienced help from strong and longtime right activists”
….where is the EVIDENCE?!
….we have evidence Little and Labour got paid advice/help from right wing journalist David Cohen…the same journalist who dissed and smeared Hone Harawira?
Did anyone else notice in Parliament yesterday, when Key was questioned about the Lui donation dinner, he said he was there in his capacity as leader of the National Party! Wearing another hat again, other than that of PM!
Key gets caught out time and time again, yet nothing happens to him! Who or what is protecting him?
When is this SOB going to trip up?
,i>”when Key was questioned about the Liu donation dinner, he said he was there in his capacity as leader of the National Party!”
Yeah right!
If any one, any one at all, believes that Liu invited Key as the leader of National party and not because he is Prime Minister, then such a person is not only an idiot, but a stupid idiot.
And is Liu such a nice innocent man that he would invite Key and his little boy Ross, to eat some dumplings and stuff, without having any ulterior dodgy motives like cash for favours? If yes, he should be knighted if not cannonaded as our very first Saint of Aotearoa NZ, along with Key and Jamie. Three in one, like the three way handshake for the troty. Cool bananas!
The Phantom Underclass
That article mentions a study that shows that even poor people think that there are people who are work shy. The study couldn’t find these work shy people though.
Right wingers going batshit crazy on Twitter in 1936;
Sean Hannity & co. freaking out about Triumph des Willens‘ Oscar loss
Salon, February 23, 1936
http://www.salon.com/2015/02/23/sean_hannity_and_others_freaking_out_about_american_snipers_oscar_loss/
Divisive film Triumph des Willens took home a single Academy Award on Sunday night. Naturally, Sean Hannity and others were quick to come up with their reasons why this movie, which is about their favorite politician, did not nab top honors: “liberal Hollywood.”
Hannity took to Twitter to share this “hot take.” Here were the right’s reactions to Triumph des Willens‘ loss:
Sean Hannity: Triumph des Willens snubbed by liberal hwood Predictable. #CluelessOscars
6:07 PM – 23 Feb 1936
Terri Green @TerriGreenUSA
Follow
Hey @TheAcademy from Americans all over this county you know who won at the Box Office? Triumph des Willens
6:12 PM – 23 Feb 1936
Ernesto @Liberty4480
Follow
#Oscars1936 snub of #TriumphDesWillens is as bad as giving #wilson #NobelPeacePrize. Not surprised w #Hollywood #liberalbias #tcot #p2
6:12 PM – 23 Feb 1936
Brandon Morse @TheBrandonMorse
Follow
Don’t worry about #TriumphDesWillens not winning an Oscar folks. It already won the award for best MUTHA FUCKIN MONAY! #Oscars1936
7:17 PM – 23 Feb 1936
Spencer Hawes ✔ @spencerhawes00
Follow
Triumph des willens got absolutely robbed imho. Incredible story of an even more incredible man. #RIPHorstWessel
6:10 PM – 23 Feb 1936
http://www.salon.com/2015/02/23/sean_hannity_and_others_freaking_out_about_american_snipers_oscar_loss/
Triumph des Willens (1935) – Triumph of the Will
what is barker whining about..?
..he helmed the biggest-choke in nz sporting-history..
He sure did. This taxpayer gravy train has to stop. $100 million feeds a lot of kids. How on earth kiwi’s are easily conned is beyond me, the egotistical captains of industry must be laughing their heads off.
Bullshit they were out walleted the yanks did shit to there boat that was’nt covered under the rules , the fact that the holders w
right the rules is problem.
Team NZ were outsailed and Barker should have been fired long ago.
So if you don’t win you get sacked in you’re world ,I’m guessing you’re a key voter with that attitude.
Its not a union. He’s not a cleaner.
Its a multimillionaire’s play world. He’s paid to win. He didn’t.
Bet he’s been turning down big money offers from other syndicates for years to sail for nz.
when you’re a 3 time loser ,you really should change your name to…second.
Hi Phillip Ure,
Your opinion may carry some weight if you were to become a productive member of our society.
How many years now have you been sucking on the public tit ?
When did you last do an honest days work and receive a pay check ?
C’mon Phil, tell us, what year was it when you were last paid for honest work ?
Cricko, we live in a society predicated on a unchanging pool of the unemployed that keeps wages down, workers subservient and poverty permanent. The real question isn’t about Phil, it’s about you. If you’re that fucken clever, why don’t you offer Phil a job?
Hi te reo putake,
I’m personaly not in a position to offer Phil Ure a job.
However, people must apply for a job in order to be offered a job.
Thats the way it normaly works.
A bludger who sits on his arse, pontificates upon the shortfalls of others, and is happy to believe that his fellow citizens owe him, is never likely to apply for a job.
Ask your mate Phillip Ure what year was it when he last even applied for a job.
Get my point ?
Nope. You’re pointless. I think there is a lot to be said about the dignity of work, but equally, I have no problem with those who aren’t, or can’t, be a model worker. Phil annoys me regularly, but I have more respect for him than I’ll ever have for you.
What have I done to earn your disrespect ?
What has Phil Ure done to earn your respect?
How do you feel about those who could work but don’t and choose to be bludgers, just because they can ?
Do they have your respect ?
There’s a search function up on the right hand side. Enter ‘cricko’ and you’ll see why you haven’t earned my respect. Phil ‘works’, just not for someone else and (unless he’s taken the casino’s coin 😉 ) not for profit. From what little I know of him, I think he probably could do a ‘job’, but I know nothing about his circumstances, where he lives, what job options there are in his community.
Phil seems to me to very capable of holding down a job, but everything I know about how WINZ are geared to punishment these days suggests to me that there must be valid reasons why that’s not an option.
If you want to stand in judgement, then more fool you.
You’re assuming all people are put together the same and can deal with getting up in the morn to go do something that in a lot of cases is drudgery
I give Mr Ure a bit of stick on occasion but the world is a richer place with people in it that refuse to bow down to the norm.
I’d rather a few of my tax dollars go to him than fucking sky city.
b waghorn
You can’t be serious.
So, if tomorrow I decide I can’t deal with going to work any longer to support my family because it’s just drudgery.
Then thats OK with you and you’ll pay for me and my family because I make the world a richer place ?
How can I get in contact with you, because I’ve had a gutsfull of working. And I hate Sky City,
Your a bit of a twister of words I doubt people decide they can’t deal with stuff .
cricko
Everyone has something useful to do in society. For you it is working at some job that you can manage. For somebody else it is coping with an chronic illness and working when there is work available that that person can do. If they are using their brain to think and communicate information that is helpful to society, then that could be the best thing that they can do.
You obviously have trouble understanding how society works and how people’s
needs and abilities differ and you want simple answers, so stick to doing simple jobs that you can manage.
Jobs are way overrated.
People should be supported to do worthwhile work, for themselves, for their communities, and for NZ however.
+100 CR
WTF is a “pay check”?
It’s a fucking Americanism is what it is, like “full spectrum dominance” and “total information awareness” and all the other lovely things they’ve brought to the language.
Ok, I meant pay ‘cheque’
Big point scored by Saarbo,
maybe the first ever.
Well done Saarbo.
Your as smart as a tack.
Huge win.
Bet it made your week.
Since when did becoming a wage slave become such a point of pride???
+100 CR…what about all the creative people out there…and the caregivers?
hey cricko,
can i reccomend a couple of looks on you tube at guy standings lectures.
he highlights (amongst other things) how tories see the monetary system as rewarding ‘good’ people and punishing’bad’ people.
ie if you have money you are ok.
he also points at the lack of empathy or compassion that right wing folk show.
also the need for a ubi ( an idea supported by hard right folk such as milton friedman).
please have a look, its ok to be a tory, honest.
phillip is a very productive member of society …it is just that he doesn’t get enough money for it…we need a UBI
http://www.bigkahuna.org.nz/universal-basic-income.aspx
Oh piss off there isn’t enough work to go around, what with slave import labour, zero hours work. Obviously Phil is making a sacrifice so others can at least say they are working to idiots like you. Thanks Phil.
i hafta say i am humbled by the words of support from all..chrs..
..(and i wanta know how the hell can i lay into waghorn again..?
..when he/she has said something both intelligent and civilised..
..he/she has messed with my assumptions..)
i am watching top gear..
st petersburg is a very cool looking city…
City of Shadows: http://www.alexeytitarenko.com/
Nice work there!
Baltic definitely next big tour.
a heads-up for david mitchell fans (old and new..)
..he is on a new show on tvone @ 10 pm..
..called ‘was it something i said?’…
It was very good. As was the New Zealand comedy show before it.