Seventy-one percent of Americans — almost exactly the percentage that thought Saddam was behind 9/11 —
-think that Iran has nuclear weapons.
It’s a small sample but it is consistent with polls over the last couple years –
– each one showing a majority believing Iran already has nukes – and almost nine out of ten Americans sure that Iran is seeking them.
Indeed talking with “respectable” liberals —
= the type who listen to NPR and watch Jon Stewart —
– I find repeatedly that even folks who don’t want to go to war assume that every reasonable American knows that Iran is on the brink of having nukes –
– if the regime doesn’t already have them.
What’s bizarre about this – other than the fact that there is no credible evidence that Iran has nuclear weapons – is that no one in a position of official authority is claiming it either!
Every report from the International Atomic Energy Agency, even when framed in a way to make Iran seem ominous –
– confirms the “non-diversion” of nuclear materials to weaponization purposes.
The CIA and intelligence community have consistently stood by the National Intelligence Estimate findings that Iran has not sought a nuclear weapon since 2003 –
– (and Iran doing so back then is only suspected based on very scant evidence produced by the Israeli government).
What’s more – in the last week or so – Defense Secretary Leon Panetta stressed that not only does Iran not have nuclear weapons; –
– there is no evidence that Iran even wants nuclear weapons!!..”
Tony Gibson on Radio New Zealand just threatened to sue individuals for alleged losses caused to the company by the industrial action. This has occurred in the past but not for many decades and usually marks the end of the possibility that mediation will solve things. By his comments he is clearly ruling out continuation of a union presence on his watch.
The increase in belligerence is marked. This will end in tears. It is time for Auckland Council to step up.
Well they have to get an increased return 2.2% compared with 18% Tauranga pathetic. It doesnt even cover the cost of capital in the business
. So leaves virtually nothing for Auckland rate payers not a good deal for Auckland Rate payers porductivity must improve, and costs come down. So its competitive with its nearest competition Tauranga.
Its very simple really a business restructure is required ,and that is what is under way ,and will happen
Anyone got the numbers of the cost per container unload maersk pay in East Coast of Oz vs AKL vs Tauranga.
I have read articles stating that it was about $200 less per container that she shipping companies pay in AKL, not sure about TAU.
Had this verified yesterday while down Teal Park, but can’t find the bleedin paperwork! ….
James, you must have them given your frenetic posting against PoAL here, and no-one wants to be caught lying people they dont know, out of their jobs do they James! . Or is your real name Cameron Brewer?
NZ ports have been dropping prices against each other, cutting each others throats in other words, while the shipping lines sit back, smile and rake in the extra profits.
Should be easy enough data to get hold of from the financials, assuming they are public domain.
Seems a little too convenient that the container unload costs have been dropping off, and PoAL CEO is ex Maersk…
James will just put this down to competition though.
God it must feel really good to demonise people he doesn’t even know, out of their conditions!
mr micky it seems that today New Zealanders have either forgotten or never learned the history of the labour movement here and what it was about and what things were like previously.
There is simply no understanding of the constant background almost sub-conscious push to drive wages down and the labour movements historic role in preventing that.
There is however lots of brainlessness. For example, if John Key wants to close the gap with Australia then perhaps he could learn a lesson from their strong labour movement and its positive effect there (you know, like higher wages relative to the entire economy)
A deliberate ignorance of the economic history of NZ has been fostered. The school curriculum has been gutted of references to vital turning points in NZ social and economic history (except for specific Treaty related issues).
You can’t be proud of what your country stands for if you don’t know anything about what it has achieved in the past, against the odds. Wouldn’t want people to think that NZ can stand on its own two feet against the tide, after all.
I’d suggest C.V. doesn’t know what he is writing about. For a start the decision about curriculum is largely outside the hands of politicians. On top of that is the fact that any radical politically inspired change would be resisted fiercely by the left leaning Teacher Union’s. As there hasn’t been any indication of this this is really something that happened in C.V’s little fantasy world.
As there hasn’t been any indication of this this is really something that happened in C.V’s little fantasy world.
You mean apart from the fact no high school pupil can relate anything about the history of the 40 hour week, the minimum wage or the origins of the NZ social security system?
Really? Schools no longer teach NZ’s recent history? Birth of the main political movements and the reasons for those? Surely not.
Yep. There is nothing in the NZ school curriculum on the Great Depression in NZ, for instance. Or any of the major waterfront strikes or major industrial actions. Or how National or Labour were formed or their histories. And certainly nothing on Think Big, Rogernomics etc.
High school economics does contain the usual bullshit neoliberal assumptions, price demand graphs etc, however.
There used to be. Fifth form history compared things like welfare state development and race relations here and overseas. Can’t remember doing strikes.
Note the new curriculum was largely done if not completely done under Labour.
Looking into this a bit further, it appears the curriculum has changed and is much less prescriptive than we might imagine. So it is up to students and teachers to decide what is studied in line with the themes and learning objectives of the the curriculum.
One of the themes is great events and another is differing perspectives. I’d have thought waterfront strike and 40 hour week fit firmly in that. If teachers aren’t teaching them, then perhaps the blame lies with the PPTA.
Not sure we should blame the curriculum, looking back over my school notes and texts a few years back I was struck by the conformist nature of the way it was taught and interpreted. That left me with no doubt as the desired outcome: we were to be conformist parrots ready to be sent out into the “real” world conforming to the prevalent status quo.
I have a kneejerk impulse to agree with the “grimmer” proposition, but my progressive aging could well be responsible for my perception that the little buggers get dumber every year 🙂
About 3 years ago, I saw a talk by the Te Ara historian Malcolm McKinnon about the neglect of the Great Depression in NZ by our academic historians.
He pointed out that there have been only two history books ever published on the topic (‘The Sugarbag Years’ and ‘The Slump’), both by Tony Simpson, who is not an academic.
This is fairly good proof of a general disinterest in this particular research topic in local universities.
By contrast, there have been oodles of books published about NZers in World War I & II.
I teach about the great depression in 5th form history. Sadly though history numbers seem to be down in many schools as students see it as a hard subject and would rather take something they perceive to be easier.
Easy Gos:
1.) Easy access to debt which was then used to speculate on the stock-market (The Fed Reserve (a privately run central bank) kept low interest rates and printed excessive money)
2.) Removal of that easy access to debt (higher interest rates and a decrease in printing of money) resulting in the fall of stock prices
So why doesn’t MUNZ counter with their own court case about bad faith bargaining on the part of POAL mickeysavage? It would be a nice bit of PR and place the POAL management on the back foot.
The trouble is MUNZ PR is appalling. Gary Parsloe’s pathetic attempt at denyinf any knowledge of a blacklisting was a good example of this. His replies just play in to the management of POAL’s hands.
The Labour Party, you say? Are they still around? Last I heard they had given up politics and diversified into selling concealed small arms or something.
Like the way we have an alleged blacklisted ship causing cost and disruption and all the usual suspects are ready with the lines……anyone got any proof this actually occurred and the irony is some of the extra cost comes from that outsourced labour in tauranga.
Have you noticed the traffic numbers on the Standard are really down. Are all the lefties out the country on overseas holidays? Contributing to Global warming oops I mean Cooling oops lets call it another name Climate Change
No, James, I’d say traffic’s down because of the tired shallow responses from reflex rightwing contrarians like you. Your fatuous remark about global warming should help you see what I mean, if you can bear to reread it.
Your comments neither convince nor entertain. There are occasional robust arguments made by commentators from the right so you might consider working out what they’ve got that you haven’t. If you can’t see the difference, then take a hint and pipe down.
Not sure where you’re getting “the traffic numbers” for the Standard.
Unless you’re just judging based on comments. I would suggest that the authors haven’t had a lot of time/interest in writing posts lately and also that the number of idiot rightwing trolls has dropped off so there aren’t as many pointlessly long threads going around in circles.
This goes to what I was stating the other day about MUNZ losing the PR battle. There was that ‘smoking gun’ evidence that suggested that POAL was engaged in bad faith bargaining. Instead of the court case around this being bigged up we have a situation being highlighted where MUNZ possibly being hauled before the courts for illegal behaviour.
Yeah blacklist the port and take it down. Ports cannot run without labour and its time POAL woke up that their confrontational approach will destroy themselves.
A better way of losing the PR battle I cannot think of. Perhaps sacrificing children on prime time television would do it.
You do realise that right leaning people like myself would love to see the Union attempt this because it would just serve to provide evidence for the whole ‘Union’s are wreckers’ meme.
Phillisophically I have nothing against the concept of Trade Unions. In fact they can be incredibly beneficial in helping facilitate effective labour markets.
That stated I dislike closed shops, their overtly political nature, and the way they can stiffle change. I myself would never belong to a Trade Union because of this. However I begrudge noone who has done so and even those who promote Union membership.
The biggest members are Fletchers, Steel & Tube, Todds, two bank CEOs progessive, and two major trucking companies. Most of its members are in professional services or self made entrepreneurs. Quite a lot of industry are not on it. That probably tells you why it has merged.
What gosman will not likely know vto, is that the Poal casual labour force have also joined the strike because they were told they were also going to be sacked…
Gosman uses diversion like “sacrificing children on TV”, but relishes in the destruction of wages/job security of the port workers, therefore likely adding children, he used as a half arsed bad crack, in a way which WILL lower their standard of living, and possibly lead to family stress, abuse poorer health etc
Seems Gosman really has something against children and those he does not even know.
In terms of numbers Muzza yup your right its simple. The shipping companies have openly stated it cost them $40 million per year to go to Auckland rather than Tauranga.
Thats why they are moving there not even a intellectual midget like yourself would believe they would move there if it was going to cost them more or would you?
“Intellectual Midget” – We must have met somewhere, i’ve heard the use of that phrase before!
Ok, so you go get the unload figures for the containers in Oz, and AKL/TAU, make sure you get the costs of the unloads per box starting from around 200/2001, and lets see where the revenue streams you use as the basis for your inaccurate percentages, to illustrate efficiency are declining for the PoAL eh James…Oh and dont forget to add the contract labour costs when trying to show how efficient taurangas labour model is eh jimmy!
Run along, you said its easy, so Ill give you an hour!
Muzza
No need to do it they are moving because it costs them less, and they turn the ships around quicker in Tauranga without the threat of Strike Action all the time. Greater minds than yours or mine have already done the numbers, and its better for them to be in Tauranga untill POAL is a stable working environment,with a much better work culture.
What we think doesnt change a thing they hold all the strings ,and the decisions have been made for sound reasons. The Union pharked up in a big way. I saw Helen Kelly in damage control mode the other night trying to turn things around far to late.
Speak for youself Jimmy, more cunning, or devious possibly, but nothing more than that. And Frankly if I have access to the full details to info that would clear the mess up, een someone of your challenged state , could put together a cogent counter strategy
Mind you, you have not answered the question, but nice try. The discussion is about the efficiency you claim, now to be related to the threat of stike action, which of course is you moving the goal posts isn’t it! You have been stating that PoT is more efficient than PoAL, but you have not provided the relevant data have you, and continue to make ignorant comments which affect the livlihoods of real people, who have families, and the inevitable social problems that flow from, situations such as these!
My main contention with all of this, is the lies. If the Poal/Auckland Coucil etc came out and said, we want to break the union, so we can sell off the port, or get rid of it so we can sell the land, I would still disagree with it, but at least there would be cards on the table! We don’t have that or anything like it!
Why do you feel its you are in a position to debate on subject that impact other people ability to earn a living James, really can you give an answer to that?
Where do you see the future being for NZ, int he drive to the bottom of the wages/living conditions game?
Muzza, poor young Jimmy Dipstick has not quite come to grips with a couple of dynamics here…
First, cutting wages is a zero sum game in terms of comparative competitiveness: he seems to think that if you cut the wage bill to become competitive your competitor wont do the same again….
Second, once the wages are cut I really think that the benefit will be passed on to you and me as the ultimate consumer of the services, really really really, the management wont take extra profits at all, really really really..Yeah right!
Muzza
Do I believe they want to sell the Port off no not at all. Do I believe they want to bust the Union completely no not at all
Do I believe they want modified behaviour from the Union and its workers absolutely ,and they have every right to do so they are holding a City to ransom.
Do I believe that long term with the growth predictions that POAL have, and with the land they want to reclaim it will be viable as well as asthetically pleasing to keep the Port in Auckland . I dont should go to Whangarei , but that is totally a different discusion
James again you have avoided the questions, well done!
Let me say it one last time, the problem is having to listen to bone heads such as yourself, and my mate who I spoke with yesterday taking a position against the warfies action, because of LIES!
PoAL is not inefficient James, as per the documentation of Transport NZ, and validated by way of a financial bonus to the warfies by the PoAL management.
Go and do some research into the statutory vehicles which direct the requirements of PoAL, go on I dare ya. Come back and have a proper conversation with some actual information. Ill even give you a hand. ACIL, of which PoAL is inside of , is classified as a PBE – Get on with it!
The Union are taking the only recourse they can on behlaf of their members whose security/livlihoods are under attack, because of lies James!
The truth is what is being held to ransom here, and the rediculous invididuals in the public, supported my the media, who are propagating those lies outwards, it is simply not good enough.
The Council are standing by watching the PoAL waste taxpayers money, and not stepping in to end dispute, instead they stand by, and let the public perception be ingained by the media, while real peoples lives are be farked with! This is not acceptable James, and anyone who bases an opinion or take a position on lack of information, as it relates to the jobs/income of other people, is simply too ignorant for words!
And as an example of how funtastic Housing NZ tenants will find the future 0800 number, I’ve been trying unsuccessfully for the last hour and a half to get through to studylink to find out exactly why I’ve been declined a student allowance after a “helpful” allowance declined letter. Instead I get told to “go online” and then told there’s too many incoming calls and hung up on.
3 years ago, even during peak times, I had no problems with this aside from a long-ish wait on the phone line for 30 minutes at most, possibly because the call centre hadn’t been gutted. And strangely, the WINZ 0800 number’s a hell of a lot easier to get through to…
/sigh
Oh well, there goes my day. Could be worse though, I could be trying to get through to IRD…
I dunno i had the ‘pleasure’ of dealing with the ird last week. Called them @ 7pm was on hold for 5min and sorted after 10min…. exceeded my expectations anyway
I had the same experience last week Nick – so frustrating and it made me really worry for those who are younger and less experienced trying to get through (I don’t mean you as I’m sure you know). Eventually I did and the person was helpful and fixed everything up – sortof. I am so sick of them pushing the website instead of answering the phone but I spose there are only three or so of them in the office now and likely to be two soon.
Finally got through! Really quick too, only got through two pages of the current novel.
And yeah, they’re generally really helpful (once you get through). All I need now is a doctor’s note certifying I can study fulltime and it’ll be sorted.
Now just to kill of that student overdraft with ANZ via a cheap-arse loan from BNZ (working next year, and fuck ANZ, how hard is it to provide a debit card and secure, 2 factor, internet banking?) before it eats me alive…
Unions are a necessary protection from shit head employers typically hiring venerable people at the minimum wage end of the employment market.
I spent several years as a delegate during the early 2000’s and it was an interesting and worthwhile experience.
Being in my early 20’s one thing that I did feel was that some of the older organisers were stuck in a bit of a time warp with regards to how to get things done. It was a very much us and them and fuck the bastards mentality which did no body any good imho.
I found personally our best success came through negotiation, patience and a dash of rat cunning to achieve our aims.
I get the feeling that the maritime union are still stuck in the past to some degree and fail to grasp that there are different ways to achieve their aims. There seems to have been very little strategic planning done with regards to what poal wants to achieve vs how they will respond. Instead they seem to just blunder headlong into the trap set.
They should have been far more organised with regards to the message they wanted to get across and I reckon far more cunning with regards to the types of industrial action taken.
“But let’s see how it goes. I’ve been around those sort of votes before when at the last moment they change,” he said.”
Yes thats right John you have been known to change your vote and stab someone in the back last minute…just like Julia did. No wonder you want to back the snake!
A friend passed on this post detailing how it really is under the National government and CERA after the Ch-Ch earthquakes:
A LITTLE THANK YOU
My shop and our home are now gone.
We received 5 hours to salvage items from the shop.
Everything in our apartment was destroyed in the demolition.
I would like thank those people who made it all happen,
and hope it never happens to you.
The person from civil defence who told be that my warehouse was destroyed when it was not even damaged.
The people from ERNI who never contacted me regarding salvage.
The policeman who accused me of being a looter while salvaging my possessions and who detained me under the civil defence regulations.
The USAR team and the policeman from NSW who took the Santa Claus from my shop and took each others photos with it posed beside wrecked cars.
The engineer from Wellington who insisted in being paid in $250 an hour in cash to facilitate access.
The civil defence employee who acted as safety officer and also insisted in being paid $100 an hour in cash.
The Army person who prevented me from salvaging items but told me I was welcome to pick through the rubble after demolition.
The person from CERA who removed the “approval for salvage” from my file.
The person from CERA who put the building on the urgent list and denied salvage during demolition.
All the people who never kept me informed of what was happening regards demolition and salvage and all those people who promised to get back to me who never did.
You all made this unpleasant episode in our lives just that little bit more unpleasant.
Our thoughts will always be with you.
What sort of Government demolishes a city and then holds the country to ransom to pay for the rebuild?
Who are the National party really working for? because it surely isn’t the people of New Zealand.
Wimp Walloping: Matthew Hooton demolishes Josie Pagani
National Radio, Monday 27 February 2012)
We’ve spoken before of the Bully-Wimp model for media commentators, which was exemplified by the Hannity-Colmes show on Fox News (which is no more). You know how it goes: an obnoxious neanderthal (Hannity) scowls continually and dominates a mealy-mouthed, desperate-to-please “liberal” (Colmes) who ends up agreeing (reluctantly at times) with everything the neanderthal says.
In a New Zealand context, the Hannity figure is played by (among others) Paul Holmes, Bill Ralston, Larry Williams, Matthew Hooton, John Bishop, John Barnett, Michele Boag.
The wimpish Hannity clone is simperingly played by (inter alia) Tim Watkin, David Slack, “Sir” Bruce Slane, Duncan Webb, John Pagani and his wife Josie Pagani.
National Radio listeners this morning were treated to a particularly excruciating wimp walloping, when National Party hollow man Matthew Hooton eviscerated the pathetic Josie Pagani on the “From the Left and From the Right” segment of Kathryn Ryan’s show.
Hooton, as usual, felt no compunction about using extreme and inaccurate language, and called the Auckland waterside workers “thuggish”. Instead of challenging him, or asking him to explain himself, Pagani slipped straight into her usual doormat role, and claimed that the workers had “scored a bit of an own goal” with the blacklisting threats—and then made a nonsense of her statement by admitting these claims came not from the striking union workers, but from overseas.
Hooton said something else of an extreme and debatable nature about unions, and Josie Pagaini couldn’t agree with him fast enough. “Yeah, I think that’s true,” she gushed, “and I think everybody agrees that has to change.”
Hooton did not concede a single point, and made many extreme and absurd statements, but Josie Pagani never contradicted him.
She’s desperate for him to like her, and obviously prepared agree with anything he says. She would be mortified to hear what Hooton says of her abilities, in private.
Can’t comment on the radio segment as I haven’t heard it yet, but I’m fascinated to learn you have private conversations with Matthew Hooten, Mozza. Can you tell us more about them, please?
Josie Pagani presented herself for further humiliation later in the day, when she and Bill Ralston were on Larry Williams’ ludicrous “Huddle” on NewstalkZB.
Unlike Hooton, who at least has a veneer of civility, Williams and Ralston were boorish and disrespectful of everything she said. There were three topics up for “discussion”…
The first issue was welfare changes. After a long and choleric rant by Ralston, Pagani tried to say something slightly contradictory. Williams broke in after she had spoken a couple of sentences: “No, no, no, no, no.
I forget what exactly the second issue was, but it ended exactly the same way, except the destroyer this time was Ralston, who rudely interrupted her and dismissed everything she had said.
After an ad break, the Huddle returned for the third and final issue: Lucy Lawless. By now, a gun-shy Josie Pagani had figured that if she couldn’t beat Ralston and Williams, she’d join them. “Why on EARTH would anyone want to listen to an ACTRESS?” she laughed, and then remained quiet as the men proceeded to pour scorn over the very idea of anyone protesting about anything.
Although her instincts are no doubt liberal left, Josie Pagani is regularly bullied by the likes of Hooton, Williams and Ralston, and ends up pathetically speaking like someone from the right. She is either too dim or too timid to do anything about it.
Jeez, Morrisey, shouldn’t the issue be the bullying you describe, not the response of the victim? You seem to be well chuffed at their behaviour, presumably because it allows you to continue it online.
Not. When Djokovic had it all over Nadal at Wimbledon last year, did people say Nadal was a “victim”? Or simply outclassed?
Pagani is not a “victim”. She is a political media performance professional who needs to be doing her frakking job when the media spotlight is on her, and if she can’t or won’t do it, she needs to step aside out of the media for someone who can. Maybe her husband?
did people say Nadal was a “victim”? Or simply outclassed?
I appreciate your point, but your analogy has a lot wrong with it: Nadal and Jokovic display style and grace, and they work hard at their profession. The opposite of all this is true of Messrs Williams and Ralston, and of Ms. Pagani.
I find Ralston and Larry Williams shallow and boorish. But now you tell me that transcribing a small fraction of their shallow, boorish on-air antics means that I am “chuffed at their behaviour”. That’s what I call drawing a long bow and missing your target by a good country mile.
presumably because it allows you to continue it online.
If Josie Pagani lacks the wit or the courage to defend herself against such crude bullies, that’s her own fault.
Privatizing the ACC work account was a disaster last time and will be again. There are no benefits to anyone by having competition in this sector as independent reports regularly show. However the value and benefits we get from ACC across all the areas covered depends on the work account to make it viable. There is no way a company running workplace insurance for profit and taking it to Australia can provide the same service for less than ACC can.
Like Charter School and asset sales it is ideology for the sake of ideology and I hope that the current delay becomes a permanent delay.
Hasn’t there been a significant reluctance of Insurance companies to get involved in ACC this time, in spite of the Government plan to increase user charges to allow the private insurers an easier run. The plan has stalled hasn’t it?
Christopher Hitchens has made a career out of offending polite society. Among his greatest hits are his observation that women aren’t funny, his pooh-poohing of the Haditha massacre, and his defense of the jailed Holocaust denier David Irving, who he hailed as a “great historian.” More recently, Hitchens has volunteered himself as the licker of Wolfowitz’s comb, claiming that the corrupt World Bank president “did nothing wrong.”
Hitchens has cast these seemingly untenable positions as “contrarian,” lending himself not only an air of intellectual bravado, but a veneer of integrity as well. Despite his myriad personal flaws and political contradictions, Hitchens has managed to appear principled by trafficking in opinions that consistently outrage conservatives and liberals alike. He poses as a maverick, an intellectually macho literary gun-slinger who loves nothing more than provoking the indignant howls of the madding crowd. For Hitchens, everything is sacred, and therefore, everything is fair game.
Those who have followed the trajectory of Hitchens’ career knew it was only a matter of time before he set his sights on religion. What better way to piss off (and on) the masses than to unleash a full-frontal assault on God himself? So to great fanfare and perhaps nobody’s surprise, Hitchens has produced God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, an atheist manifesto intended to supplement Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion, and (New Age torture fanatic) Sam Harris’ The End of Faith.
Hitchens spares no sacred cows in his latest work. He blasts religion as a form of child abuse, claims Jesus Christ never lived, and declares that those who give their children bar mitzvahs are “planning your and my destruction and the destruction of all hard-won human attainments.” The requisite attacks on Islam, so satisfying to his newfound neo-con pals, are also featured at length.
Hitchens’ book might be mean-spirited and even bigoted; little more than a barely legible screed larded with predictable arguments and a scattershot of pretentious literary references, but who can say its author is unprincipled? This is contrarianism, right?
Please.
God Is Not Great represents little more than the disingenous posturings of a certified fraudmeister who has openly cavorted with the most reactionary elements of the Christian right. If Hitchens had any principles at all – if he truly feared the cultural and political consequences of the encroachment of religion into public life – he would have used his still-considerable influence to support organizations and causes that shore up the wall between church and state and which defend the rights of non-believers. Instead, Hitchens has done exactly the opposite.
In the fall of 2005, Hitchens gladly accepted the invitation of the Family Research Council to speak before its Witherspoon Fellows. Hitchens subsequently regaled an audience of young Christian right cadres with excerpts from his book, Thomas Jefferson: Author of America. For attending Hitchens’ lecture and participating in several similar events, the FRC’s Witherspoon Fellows received academic credit for study at Pat Robertson’s Regent University, a school that has placed 150 of its graduates in Bush administration posts.
Presumably Hitchens was aware of the mission of the James Dobson-founded Family Research Council. How could such an intellectual giant be unaware of the FRC’s charge to “promote the Judeo-Christian worldview as the basis for a just, free, and stable society?” How could Hitchens have missed the FRC’s many “Justice Sunday” rallies staged at mega-churches and telecast across America to advance the confirmation of George W. Bush’s most theocracy-minded judicial picks? (To my knowledge, these rallies occured well after happy hour) And how could Hitchens have been ignorant to the FRC’s vitriolic crusade to ban abortion and undermine gay rights?
Regarding FRC President Tony Perkins’ ties to white supremacists, I would like to paraphrase Scripture and say, forgive Hitchens for he knows not what the hell he is doing. My well-publicized report detailing how Perkins once purchased the phone bank list of former Klan leader David Duke for the price of $82,500 and how he headlined a 2001 fundraiser for the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens had only been out for a few months. Maybe Hitchens was too busy dancing with Wolfowitz to read it.
But there is no excuse for Hitchens’ hypocrisy. With the release of God Is Not Great, Hitchens owes his readers an explanation for his appearance at the Family Research Council, the nerve center of a theocratic movement determined to weaken the foundations of constitutional democracy. Hitchens must explain why he accepted the FRC’s invitation to speak and whether he was paid for his appearance.
While awaiting Hitchens’ response, I will pray that in the future his version of the Straight Talk Express designates a driver.
Update: KKK paypal and friend of the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens, Tony Perkins, has orchestrated the hacking of this post. In doing so, he has drawn greater attention to his links to and ideological support for white supremacists. The photo of Christopher Hitchens posing with the Family Research Council’s Witherspoon Fellows was scrubbed from FRC’s site today out of fear that I would link to it again. Not only does the FRC want to suppress Perkins’ links to white supremacists, it wants to suppress its own association with Hitchens. This begs the question: who embarrasses Perkins more, the Klan or Christopher Hitchens?
But there is no excuse for Hitchens’ hypocrisy. With the release of God Is Not Great, Hitchens owes his readers an explanation for his appearance at the Family Research Council, the nerve center of a theocratic movement determined to weaken the foundations of constitutional democracy. Hitchens must explain why he accepted the FRC’s invitation to speak and whether he was paid for his appearance.
Why on earth should someone refuse a speaking invitation because they disagree on an issue? That would be like someone refusing to talk to a Church group about flower arranging because they happen to be atheist. As for the KKK connection, just a guess, but even Hitch was omnipotent, so just maybe he didn’t know? Meh.
I did reread it and I couldn’t disagree more. Yes, I am fond of Hitch’s work – he was a brilliant stylist. His main flaw was that he was too principled – which meant he found himself unable to back down from positions when he should have known better – the Iraq War being a case in point. His take downs of Mother Teresa and other sacred cows were masterful. He wasn’t a fraud, he was simply more inclined to play the ball than the man in this case.
That should have been “wasn’t omnipotent” – fat fingers on a skinny Mac keyboard rather than a Freudian slip.
No, Hitch was extremely principled man. It’s just that sometimes his principles do not always sit well with your or mine – however this does not prevent him being an very civilised person. Even his ad hominem attacks tended to be well deserved.
His attack on Chomsky relates to the assertion that Osama bin Laden had nothing to do with 9/11. Such a claim is willfully absurd and anyone making it is making a fool of themselves.
Even his ad hominem attacks tended to be well deserved.
Oh? Like calling the mother of a dead U.S. soldier a “sob sister”? No doubt in your world she deserved that.
His attack on Chomsky relates to the assertion that Osama bin Laden had nothing to do with 9/11.
His foolish and groundless attack on Chomsky in 2001 was best summed up by Chomsky himself, speaking to Kim Hill on National Radio. Hitchens, he said, was simply “incoherent.”
Public displays of grief are always questionable – while his argument may not have been overly sensitive, it was sound. Soldiers do a job with the acknowledgment of risk. Wheteher or not I consider the war to have been gist or not, does not change that.
You are obviously a Chomsky groupie – therefore any further attempt at debating you is futile. You have already drunk the kool-aid.
Shhhh, Morissey – you bore me.
I’ve read most of Chomsky, both his neuro-linguistics work and his entries into political commentary. He should stick to his knitting as he makes enough mistaken generalisations there (the errors he makes vis a vis language acquisition are notorious).
I have read most of Hitchens too, and am certainly academically qualified to make judgments on him, and you are are just a mouse gnawing at a dead lion.
Now shoo.
And plaudits to her for being a celebrity who has a brain, and can talk intelligently about issues. Aside from a few honorable exceptions—Elvis Costello, Sean Penn, Vanessa Redgrave and Tilda Swinton—there isn’t much evidence that entertainers do anything as onerous as actually reading a book.
All you have to do is quickly glance at his wikipedia bio to begin to grasp how dodgy this goat-fucker is, and if you want a serious dose of “what the fuck?!” go a read through Orac’s various posts on him. And yet otherwise smart people (and everything in between) will still believe him…
Even when he’s pulling a fairly obvious scam of becoming “members” of his secret society.
And no, taxes on human stupidity aren’t a good thing, because there’s invariably negative results involved, such as poverty (loss of tax, social support costs, health costs) or disability and/or death in the case of alt.med “cures” for terminal diseases.
I was listening to her interview with Marcus Lush and it sounded like she all but pleaded with the police to rescue her.
I’m guessing she thought she’d turn up for a photo op, get hauled off by the police and then fly back to LA the next morning, turns out she had to spend three nights with dirty, smelly tree-huggers instead.
Corporates make money by eliminating jobs, not creating them. Soon we’ll have an economy where none of you worker types are needed. Well, next to none of you. Won;t that be an “efficient” future.
Eliminating jobs through technology isn’t the problem – replacing them is. Capitalists don’t like doing so because it means that they can’t cut wages and whinge about people not working.
Yellow pages was an accident waiting to happen…..telecom must’ve pissed itself at the dosh offered for effectively a brand.
I’ve no idea what the deal was in terms of accessing the core data that telecom owns that drives it so without it they are dead, then there’s the issue that from an IT perspective of transplanting a lung from one body to another.
I always thought the long term play was wait and buy it back for a fraction of sale price……a fool and his private equity money etc etc
Petition forms have been passed on to Labour MP Phil Twyford to present to the House – Tuesday 28 February 2012 – the petition that hopefully will help to force the resignation of John Banks ACT MP for Epsom?
The petition which requests:
“That the House conduct an urgent inquiry into the decisions regarding prosecutions relating to the Huljich Kiwisaver Scheme registered prospectuses dated 22 August 2008 and 18 September 2009″.
ie: How come ACT’s ‘one law for all’ (conveniently) didn’t apply to fellow former Directors of Huljich Wealth Management (NZ) Ltd to current ACT Party Leader – MP for Epsom (and Minister of Regulatory Reform) John Banks, and former ACT Party Leader Don Brash, when they both signed the above-mentioned Huljich Kiwisaver Scheme registered prospectuses dated 22 August 2008 and 18 September 2009, which contained untrue statements?
Arguably not a good look for New Zealand – ‘perceived’ to be ‘the least corrupt country in the world’ (according to the 2011 Transparency International ‘Corruption Perception Index’ to effectively have the balance of power held by a yet-to-be- charged ‘white collar’ criminal?
I’m sure you take your work home with you, too, you silly little mosquito.
And your obsessive worship of Pope Chomsky shows you to be a credulous and not overly broad or critical reader.
Enough. Shoo. Stop wasting both our time.
Where have I shown any sign of “worshipping” Chomsky? The only idolatry evident here is your paean (“masterful”…”extremely principled”…”too principled”…”very civilised”) to that choleric bag of bile you and other worshippers call “Hitch”.
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Al Qaeda=Al CIAda
If you google the assertions made by this Syrian girl you will find they are supported by mainstream publications.
And here is more Mud stream media hype for the annihilation of Iran as it seems we have the “moral” duty to do so.
http://whoar.co.nz/2012/insinuation-as-war-propaganda/
“…Fast forward a decade to the current day.
Seventy-one percent of Americans — almost exactly the percentage that thought Saddam was behind 9/11 —
-think that Iran has nuclear weapons.
It’s a small sample but it is consistent with polls over the last couple years –
– each one showing a majority believing Iran already has nukes – and almost nine out of ten Americans sure that Iran is seeking them.
Indeed talking with “respectable” liberals —
= the type who listen to NPR and watch Jon Stewart —
– I find repeatedly that even folks who don’t want to go to war assume that every reasonable American knows that Iran is on the brink of having nukes –
– if the regime doesn’t already have them.
What’s bizarre about this – other than the fact that there is no credible evidence that Iran has nuclear weapons – is that no one in a position of official authority is claiming it either!
Every report from the International Atomic Energy Agency, even when framed in a way to make Iran seem ominous –
– confirms the “non-diversion” of nuclear materials to weaponization purposes.
The CIA and intelligence community have consistently stood by the National Intelligence Estimate findings that Iran has not sought a nuclear weapon since 2003 –
– (and Iran doing so back then is only suspected based on very scant evidence produced by the Israeli government).
What’s more – in the last week or so – Defense Secretary Leon Panetta stressed that not only does Iran not have nuclear weapons; –
– there is no evidence that Iran even wants nuclear weapons!!..”
(cont..)
phil-at-whoar.
The POAL dispute just got worse.
Tony Gibson on Radio New Zealand just threatened to sue individuals for alleged losses caused to the company by the industrial action. This has occurred in the past but not for many decades and usually marks the end of the possibility that mediation will solve things. By his comments he is clearly ruling out continuation of a union presence on his watch.
The increase in belligerence is marked. This will end in tears. It is time for Auckland Council to step up.
But they won’t… Its seems they are hell bent on the increased return regardless of cost.
Well they have to get an increased return 2.2% compared with 18% Tauranga pathetic. It doesnt even cover the cost of capital in the business
. So leaves virtually nothing for Auckland rate payers not a good deal for Auckland Rate payers porductivity must improve, and costs come down. So its competitive with its nearest competition Tauranga.
Its very simple really a business restructure is required ,and that is what is under way ,and will happen
hey james why do your numbers smell? Oh yeah you pulled them straight from your ass.
Anyone got the numbers of the cost per container unload maersk pay in East Coast of Oz vs AKL vs Tauranga.
I have read articles stating that it was about $200 less per container that she shipping companies pay in AKL, not sure about TAU.
Had this verified yesterday while down Teal Park, but can’t find the bleedin paperwork! ….
James, you must have them given your frenetic posting against PoAL here, and no-one wants to be caught lying people they dont know, out of their jobs do they James! . Or is your real name Cameron Brewer?
NZ ports have been dropping prices against each other, cutting each others throats in other words, while the shipping lines sit back, smile and rake in the extra profits.
Should be easy enough data to get hold of from the financials, assuming they are public domain.
Seems a little too convenient that the container unload costs have been dropping off, and PoAL CEO is ex Maersk…
James will just put this down to competition though.
God it must feel really good to demonise people he doesn’t even know, out of their conditions!
mr micky it seems that today New Zealanders have either forgotten or never learned the history of the labour movement here and what it was about and what things were like previously.
There is simply no understanding of the constant background almost sub-conscious push to drive wages down and the labour movements historic role in preventing that.
There is however lots of brainlessness. For example, if John Key wants to close the gap with Australia then perhaps he could learn a lesson from their strong labour movement and its positive effect there (you know, like higher wages relative to the entire economy)
A deliberate ignorance of the economic history of NZ has been fostered. The school curriculum has been gutted of references to vital turning points in NZ social and economic history (except for specific Treaty related issues).
You can’t be proud of what your country stands for if you don’t know anything about what it has achieved in the past, against the odds. Wouldn’t want people to think that NZ can stand on its own two feet against the tide, after all.
Really? Schools no longer teach NZ’s recent history? Birth of the main political movements and the reasons for those? Surely not.
I’d suggest C.V. doesn’t know what he is writing about. For a start the decision about curriculum is largely outside the hands of politicians. On top of that is the fact that any radical politically inspired change would be resisted fiercely by the left leaning Teacher Union’s. As there hasn’t been any indication of this this is really something that happened in C.V’s little fantasy world.
You mean apart from the fact no high school pupil can relate anything about the history of the 40 hour week, the minimum wage or the origins of the NZ social security system?
So you have evidence supporting this view that no high school pupil can relate that information?
I suspect not.
BTW if the curriculaum has changed who was responsible for implementing this change?
That, I suspect, has more to do with them being young and disinterested than it does with the curriculum.
Yep. There is nothing in the NZ school curriculum on the Great Depression in NZ, for instance. Or any of the major waterfront strikes or major industrial actions. Or how National or Labour were formed or their histories. And certainly nothing on Think Big, Rogernomics etc.
High school economics does contain the usual bullshit neoliberal assumptions, price demand graphs etc, however.
There used to be. Fifth form history compared things like welfare state development and race relations here and overseas. Can’t remember doing strikes.
Note the new curriculum was largely done if not completely done under Labour.
Looking into this a bit further, it appears the curriculum has changed and is much less prescriptive than we might imagine. So it is up to students and teachers to decide what is studied in line with the themes and learning objectives of the the curriculum.
One of the themes is great events and another is differing perspectives. I’d have thought waterfront strike and 40 hour week fit firmly in that. If teachers aren’t teaching them, then perhaps the blame lies with the PPTA.
shoot – back in 5th form English we read Man Alone. Now they don’t even teach about the GD in history?
Not sure we should blame the curriculum, looking back over my school notes and texts a few years back I was struck by the conformist nature of the way it was taught and interpreted. That left me with no doubt as the desired outcome: we were to be conformist parrots ready to be sent out into the “real” world conforming to the prevalent status quo.
Check out the universities. It’s even grimmer.
Really? Care to cite that? You have intimate knowledge of every course in every university in New Zealand? Bullshit.
I have a kneejerk impulse to agree with the “grimmer” proposition, but my progressive aging could well be responsible for my perception that the little buggers get dumber every year 🙂
About 3 years ago, I saw a talk by the Te Ara historian Malcolm McKinnon about the neglect of the Great Depression in NZ by our academic historians.
He pointed out that there have been only two history books ever published on the topic (‘The Sugarbag Years’ and ‘The Slump’), both by Tony Simpson, who is not an academic.
This is fairly good proof of a general disinterest in this particular research topic in local universities.
By contrast, there have been oodles of books published about NZers in World War I & II.
I teach about the great depression in 5th form history. Sadly though history numbers seem to be down in many schools as students see it as a hard subject and would rather take something they perceive to be easier.
Do you teach how it was manufactured?
Hard, really! I had to pick up a subject in 7th form, and saw history as as easy pass option, which is was.
How what was manufactured? The Great Depression? I didn’t realise there was a factory for that sort of thing. Amazing what they make nowdays.
Easy Gos:
1.) Easy access to debt which was then used to speculate on the stock-market (The Fed Reserve (a privately run central bank) kept low interest rates and printed excessive money)
2.) Removal of that easy access to debt (higher interest rates and a decrease in printing of money) resulting in the fall of stock prices
out of interest, how prescribed are the subjects? What proportion of kids would actually learn about the Great Depression these days?
According to cardassian below you are wrong. Not such an unusual occurance for you it is true. Just thought you would like to know.
lol – Gossy stoking the flames of a debate about which, yet again, he knows nothing.
Oooo, no – gosman never said anything, gossy just paraphrases what other people say, so if he paraphrases it wrong it’s the other person’s fault…
So why doesn’t MUNZ counter with their own court case about bad faith bargaining on the part of POAL mickeysavage? It would be a nice bit of PR and place the POAL management on the back foot.
The trouble is MUNZ PR is appalling. Gary Parsloe’s pathetic attempt at denyinf any knowledge of a blacklisting was a good example of this. His replies just play in to the management of POAL’s hands.
It’s time for the Labour Party leader to step up.
Or is he still “keeping his powder dry”?
The Labour Party, you say? Are they still around? Last I heard they had given up politics and diversified into selling concealed small arms or something.
Like the way we have an alleged blacklisted ship causing cost and disruption and all the usual suspects are ready with the lines……anyone got any proof this actually occurred and the irony is some of the extra cost comes from that outsourced labour in tauranga.
Have you noticed the traffic numbers on the Standard are really down. Are all the lefties out the country on overseas holidays? Contributing to Global warming oops I mean Cooling oops lets call it another name Climate Change
No, James, I’d say traffic’s down because of the tired shallow responses from reflex rightwing contrarians like you. Your fatuous remark about global warming should help you see what I mean, if you can bear to reread it.
Your comments neither convince nor entertain. There are occasional robust arguments made by commentators from the right so you might consider working out what they’ve got that you haven’t. If you can’t see the difference, then take a hint and pipe down.
Mint! Comment of the day, so far, Galaeandra.
Not sure where you’re getting “the traffic numbers” for the Standard.
Unless you’re just judging based on comments. I would suggest that the authors haven’t had a lot of time/interest in writing posts lately and also that the number of idiot rightwing trolls has dropped off so there aren’t as many pointlessly long threads going around in circles.
Interesting that the POAL is contemplating taking MUNZ to court over the supposed blacklisting of the Port.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10788307
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2511070/shipping-company-was-union-'threatened-to-blacklist‘.asx
This goes to what I was stating the other day about MUNZ losing the PR battle. There was that ‘smoking gun’ evidence that suggested that POAL was engaged in bad faith bargaining. Instead of the court case around this being bigged up we have a situation being highlighted where MUNZ possibly being hauled before the courts for illegal behaviour.
Yeah blacklist the port and take it down. Ports cannot run without labour and its time POAL woke up that their confrontational approach will destroy themselves.
Excellent C.V.
A better way of losing the PR battle I cannot think of. Perhaps sacrificing children on prime time television would do it.
You do realise that right leaning people like myself would love to see the Union attempt this because it would just serve to provide evidence for the whole ‘Union’s are wreckers’ meme.
Go learn about the labour movement and its history and achievements and place in society gosman. And also learn about the alternative to having one.
But I have vto.
Phillisophically I have nothing against the concept of Trade Unions. In fact they can be incredibly beneficial in helping facilitate effective labour markets.
That stated I dislike closed shops, their overtly political nature, and the way they can stiffle change. I myself would never belong to a Trade Union because of this. However I begrudge noone who has done so and even those who promote Union membership.
The Business Roundtable is a closed shop. Especially the way they stifle change for the better, and their overtly political agenda.
It would be the case if a Trade Union was forced to negotiate with a Business round table affiliated members only.
Which most of the big employers are.
The biggest members are Fletchers, Steel & Tube, Todds, two bank CEOs progessive, and two major trucking companies. Most of its members are in professional services or self made entrepreneurs. Quite a lot of industry are not on it. That probably tells you why it has merged.
I thought they were a closed shop full stop. Haven’t they gone out of existence?
What gosman will not likely know vto, is that the Poal casual labour force have also joined the strike because they were told they were also going to be sacked…
Gosman uses diversion like “sacrificing children on TV”, but relishes in the destruction of wages/job security of the port workers, therefore likely adding children, he used as a half arsed bad crack, in a way which WILL lower their standard of living, and possibly lead to family stress, abuse poorer health etc
Seems Gosman really has something against children and those he does not even know.
COCKHEAD!
Problem is an actual cockhead is capable of giving pleasure but no such possibility from Gossie
In terms of numbers Muzza yup your right its simple. The shipping companies have openly stated it cost them $40 million per year to go to Auckland rather than Tauranga.
Thats why they are moving there not even a intellectual midget like yourself would believe they would move there if it was going to cost them more or would you?
“Intellectual Midget” – We must have met somewhere, i’ve heard the use of that phrase before!
Ok, so you go get the unload figures for the containers in Oz, and AKL/TAU, make sure you get the costs of the unloads per box starting from around 200/2001, and lets see where the revenue streams you use as the basis for your inaccurate percentages, to illustrate efficiency are declining for the PoAL eh James…Oh and dont forget to add the contract labour costs when trying to show how efficient taurangas labour model is eh jimmy!
Run along, you said its easy, so Ill give you an hour!
Chop chop!
Muzza
No need to do it they are moving because it costs them less, and they turn the ships around quicker in Tauranga without the threat of Strike Action all the time. Greater minds than yours or mine have already done the numbers, and its better for them to be in Tauranga untill POAL is a stable working environment,with a much better work culture.
What we think doesnt change a thing they hold all the strings ,and the decisions have been made for sound reasons. The Union pharked up in a big way. I saw Helen Kelly in damage control mode the other night trying to turn things around far to late.
Chop Chop theres a good lad
Speak for youself Jimmy, more cunning, or devious possibly, but nothing more than that. And Frankly if I have access to the full details to info that would clear the mess up, een someone of your challenged state , could put together a cogent counter strategy
Mind you, you have not answered the question, but nice try. The discussion is about the efficiency you claim, now to be related to the threat of stike action, which of course is you moving the goal posts isn’t it! You have been stating that PoT is more efficient than PoAL, but you have not provided the relevant data have you, and continue to make ignorant comments which affect the livlihoods of real people, who have families, and the inevitable social problems that flow from, situations such as these!
My main contention with all of this, is the lies. If the Poal/Auckland Coucil etc came out and said, we want to break the union, so we can sell off the port, or get rid of it so we can sell the land, I would still disagree with it, but at least there would be cards on the table! We don’t have that or anything like it!
Why do you feel its you are in a position to debate on subject that impact other people ability to earn a living James, really can you give an answer to that?
Where do you see the future being for NZ, int he drive to the bottom of the wages/living conditions game?
Muzza, poor young Jimmy Dipstick has not quite come to grips with a couple of dynamics here…
First, cutting wages is a zero sum game in terms of comparative competitiveness: he seems to think that if you cut the wage bill to become competitive your competitor wont do the same again….
Second, once the wages are cut I really think that the benefit will be passed on to you and me as the ultimate consumer of the services, really really really, the management wont take extra profits at all, really really really..Yeah right!
In short Jimmy Dipsitck believes in fairy tales.
Muzza
Do I believe they want to sell the Port off no not at all. Do I believe they want to bust the Union completely no not at all
Do I believe they want modified behaviour from the Union and its workers absolutely ,and they have every right to do so they are holding a City to ransom.
Do I believe that long term with the growth predictions that POAL have, and with the land they want to reclaim it will be viable as well as asthetically pleasing to keep the Port in Auckland . I dont should go to Whangarei , but that is totally a different discusion
james111. What you believe is irrelevant. This is class war.
Double post
James again you have avoided the questions, well done!
Let me say it one last time, the problem is having to listen to bone heads such as yourself, and my mate who I spoke with yesterday taking a position against the warfies action, because of LIES!
PoAL is not inefficient James, as per the documentation of Transport NZ, and validated by way of a financial bonus to the warfies by the PoAL management.
Go and do some research into the statutory vehicles which direct the requirements of PoAL, go on I dare ya. Come back and have a proper conversation with some actual information. Ill even give you a hand. ACIL, of which PoAL is inside of , is classified as a PBE – Get on with it!
The Union are taking the only recourse they can on behlaf of their members whose security/livlihoods are under attack, because of lies James!
The truth is what is being held to ransom here, and the rediculous invididuals in the public, supported my the media, who are propagating those lies outwards, it is simply not good enough.
The Council are standing by watching the PoAL waste taxpayers money, and not stepping in to end dispute, instead they stand by, and let the public perception be ingained by the media, while real peoples lives are be farked with! This is not acceptable James, and anyone who bases an opinion or take a position on lack of information, as it relates to the jobs/income of other people, is simply too ignorant for words!
And as an example of how funtastic Housing NZ tenants will find the future 0800 number, I’ve been trying unsuccessfully for the last hour and a half to get through to studylink to find out exactly why I’ve been declined a student allowance after a “helpful” allowance declined letter. Instead I get told to “go online” and then told there’s too many incoming calls and hung up on.
3 years ago, even during peak times, I had no problems with this aside from a long-ish wait on the phone line for 30 minutes at most, possibly because the call centre hadn’t been gutted. And strangely, the WINZ 0800 number’s a hell of a lot easier to get through to…
/sigh
Oh well, there goes my day. Could be worse though, I could be trying to get through to IRD…
I dunno i had the ‘pleasure’ of dealing with the ird last week. Called them @ 7pm was on hold for 5min and sorted after 10min…. exceeded my expectations anyway
Good to hear, because last I heard, it was a pain in the arse to get through to them.
Still no luck with studylink though :/
I had the same experience last week Nick – so frustrating and it made me really worry for those who are younger and less experienced trying to get through (I don’t mean you as I’m sure you know). Eventually I did and the person was helpful and fixed everything up – sortof. I am so sick of them pushing the website instead of answering the phone but I spose there are only three or so of them in the office now and likely to be two soon.
Finally got through! Really quick too, only got through two pages of the current novel.
And yeah, they’re generally really helpful (once you get through). All I need now is a doctor’s note certifying I can study fulltime and it’ll be sorted.
Now just to kill of that student overdraft with ANZ via a cheap-arse loan from BNZ (working next year, and fuck ANZ, how hard is it to provide a debit card and secure, 2 factor, internet banking?) before it eats me alive…
Unions are a necessary protection from shit head employers typically hiring venerable people at the minimum wage end of the employment market.
I spent several years as a delegate during the early 2000’s and it was an interesting and worthwhile experience.
Being in my early 20’s one thing that I did feel was that some of the older organisers were stuck in a bit of a time warp with regards to how to get things done. It was a very much us and them and fuck the bastards mentality which did no body any good imho.
I found personally our best success came through negotiation, patience and a dash of rat cunning to achieve our aims.
I get the feeling that the maritime union are still stuck in the past to some degree and fail to grasp that there are different ways to achieve their aims. There seems to have been very little strategic planning done with regards to what poal wants to achieve vs how they will respond. Instead they seem to just blunder headlong into the trap set.
They should have been far more organised with regards to the message they wanted to get across and I reckon far more cunning with regards to the types of industrial action taken.
John Key backing Gillard….
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10788309
“But let’s see how it goes. I’ve been around those sort of votes before when at the last moment they change,” he said.”
Yes thats right John you have been known to change your vote and stab someone in the back last minute…just like Julia did. No wonder you want to back the snake!
A friend passed on this post detailing how it really is under the National government and CERA after the Ch-Ch earthquakes:
A LITTLE THANK YOU
My shop and our home are now gone.
We received 5 hours to salvage items from the shop.
Everything in our apartment was destroyed in the demolition.
I would like thank those people who made it all happen,
and hope it never happens to you.
The person from civil defence who told be that my warehouse was destroyed when it was not even damaged.
The people from ERNI who never contacted me regarding salvage.
The policeman who accused me of being a looter while salvaging my possessions and who detained me under the civil defence regulations.
The USAR team and the policeman from NSW who took the Santa Claus from my shop and took each others photos with it posed beside wrecked cars.
The engineer from Wellington who insisted in being paid in $250 an hour in cash to facilitate access.
The civil defence employee who acted as safety officer and also insisted in being paid $100 an hour in cash.
The Army person who prevented me from salvaging items but told me I was welcome to pick through the rubble after demolition.
The person from CERA who removed the “approval for salvage” from my file.
The person from CERA who put the building on the urgent list and denied salvage during demolition.
All the people who never kept me informed of what was happening regards demolition and salvage and all those people who promised to get back to me who never did.
You all made this unpleasant episode in our lives just that little bit more unpleasant.
Our thoughts will always be with you.
What sort of Government demolishes a city and then holds the country to ransom to pay for the rebuild?
Who are the National party really working for? because it surely isn’t the people of New Zealand.
I bet they all fronted up to the memorial services and shed their crocodile tears for the TV cameras.
Wimp Walloping: Matthew Hooton demolishes Josie Pagani
National Radio, Monday 27 February 2012)
We’ve spoken before of the Bully-Wimp model for media commentators, which was exemplified by the Hannity-Colmes show on Fox News (which is no more). You know how it goes: an obnoxious neanderthal (Hannity) scowls continually and dominates a mealy-mouthed, desperate-to-please “liberal” (Colmes) who ends up agreeing (reluctantly at times) with everything the neanderthal says.
In a New Zealand context, the Hannity figure is played by (among others) Paul Holmes, Bill Ralston, Larry Williams, Matthew Hooton, John Bishop, John Barnett, Michele Boag.
The wimpish Hannity clone is simperingly played by (inter alia) Tim Watkin, David Slack, “Sir” Bruce Slane, Duncan Webb, John Pagani and his wife Josie Pagani.
National Radio listeners this morning were treated to a particularly excruciating wimp walloping, when National Party hollow man Matthew Hooton eviscerated the pathetic Josie Pagani on the “From the Left and From the Right” segment of Kathryn Ryan’s show.
Hooton, as usual, felt no compunction about using extreme and inaccurate language, and called the Auckland waterside workers “thuggish”. Instead of challenging him, or asking him to explain himself, Pagani slipped straight into her usual doormat role, and claimed that the workers had “scored a bit of an own goal” with the blacklisting threats—and then made a nonsense of her statement by admitting these claims came not from the striking union workers, but from overseas.
Hooton said something else of an extreme and debatable nature about unions, and Josie Pagaini couldn’t agree with him fast enough. “Yeah, I think that’s true,” she gushed, “and I think everybody agrees that has to change.”
Hooton did not concede a single point, and made many extreme and absurd statements, but Josie Pagani never contradicted him.
She’s desperate for him to like her, and obviously prepared agree with anything he says. She would be mortified to hear what Hooton says of her abilities, in private.
Can’t comment on the radio segment as I haven’t heard it yet, but I’m fascinated to learn you have private conversations with Matthew Hooten, Mozza. Can you tell us more about them, please?
Sorry, Te Reo but (to quote the great Sid Hudgens) my contacts are all off the record, on the QT, and very hush-hush.
Nice.
it wasn’t ‘from the left and from the right’..
..it was:..
..from the right..and from the far-right…
..josie ‘let’s not give any more money to beneficiary-families!’ pagani was speaking for the right..
..and hooton for the far-right…
phil-at-whoar.
Josie Pagani presented herself for further humiliation later in the day, when she and Bill Ralston were on Larry Williams’ ludicrous “Huddle” on NewstalkZB.
Unlike Hooton, who at least has a veneer of civility, Williams and Ralston were boorish and disrespectful of everything she said. There were three topics up for “discussion”…
The first issue was welfare changes. After a long and choleric rant by Ralston, Pagani tried to say something slightly contradictory. Williams broke in after she had spoken a couple of sentences: “No, no, no, no, no.
I forget what exactly the second issue was, but it ended exactly the same way, except the destroyer this time was Ralston, who rudely interrupted her and dismissed everything she had said.
After an ad break, the Huddle returned for the third and final issue: Lucy Lawless. By now, a gun-shy Josie Pagani had figured that if she couldn’t beat Ralston and Williams, she’d join them. “Why on EARTH would anyone want to listen to an ACTRESS?” she laughed, and then remained quiet as the men proceeded to pour scorn over the very idea of anyone protesting about anything.
Although her instincts are no doubt liberal left, Josie Pagani is regularly bullied by the likes of Hooton, Williams and Ralston, and ends up pathetically speaking like someone from the right. She is either too dim or too timid to do anything about it.
Jeez, Morrisey, shouldn’t the issue be the bullying you describe, not the response of the victim? You seem to be well chuffed at their behaviour, presumably because it allows you to continue it online.
Not. When Djokovic had it all over Nadal at Wimbledon last year, did people say Nadal was a “victim”? Or simply outclassed?
Pagani is not a “victim”. She is a political media performance professional who needs to be doing her frakking job when the media spotlight is on her, and if she can’t or won’t do it, she needs to step aside out of the media for someone who can. Maybe her husband?
“Maybe her husband?”
I think that pretty much proves my point, CV.
🙂
“Maybe her husband?”
He’s just as useless. Williams is the only one who ever calls Hoots on his bullshit.
[Mike] Williams is the only one who ever calls Hoots on his bullshit.
Actually, Laila Harre was more than a match for Hooton, and so was Andrew Campbell.
Both Paganis are worse than useless.
did people say Nadal was a “victim”? Or simply outclassed?
I appreciate your point, but your analogy has a lot wrong with it: Nadal and Jokovic display style and grace, and they work hard at their profession. The opposite of all this is true of Messrs Williams and Ralston, and of Ms. Pagani.
You seem to be well chuffed at their behaviour,
I find Ralston and Larry Williams shallow and boorish. But now you tell me that transcribing a small fraction of their shallow, boorish on-air antics means that I am “chuffed at their behaviour”. That’s what I call drawing a long bow and missing your target by a good country mile.
presumably because it allows you to continue it online.
If Josie Pagani lacks the wit or the courage to defend herself against such crude bullies, that’s her own fault.
You’re missing the point. You’re the bully, pal.
Could you explain how I’m the bully?
Right now, your analysis is pretty much on the level of, say, Larry Williams. In other words, risibly inadequate.
You identify with people you acknowledge are bullies and claim the recipient is at fault. You’re a sad wee fuck, Morrisey.
Could you point out just where (and more precisely, how) I “identify with” these bullies?
Also note that Hooten seems to think we vote for Prime Ministers.
He complains that the ALP are showing disregard for voters by treating the office of PM as just another party-appointed position.
Which in reality it is. (Technically appointed by the Crown via the GG, but that’s a mere formality).
Privatizing the ACC work account was a disaster last time and will be again. There are no benefits to anyone by having competition in this sector as independent reports regularly show. However the value and benefits we get from ACC across all the areas covered depends on the work account to make it viable. There is no way a company running workplace insurance for profit and taking it to Australia can provide the same service for less than ACC can.
Like Charter School and asset sales it is ideology for the sake of ideology and I hope that the current delay becomes a permanent delay.
Hasn’t there been a significant reluctance of Insurance companies to get involved in ACC this time, in spite of the Government plan to increase user charges to allow the private insurers an easier run. The plan has stalled hasn’t it?
The Contrarian Delusion: How Hitchens Poisons Everything
by MAX BLUMENTHAL
April 30, 2007
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/max-blumenthal/the-contrarian-delusion-h_b_47295.html
Christopher Hitchens has made a career out of offending polite society. Among his greatest hits are his observation that women aren’t funny, his pooh-poohing of the Haditha massacre, and his defense of the jailed Holocaust denier David Irving, who he hailed as a “great historian.” More recently, Hitchens has volunteered himself as the licker of Wolfowitz’s comb, claiming that the corrupt World Bank president “did nothing wrong.”
Hitchens has cast these seemingly untenable positions as “contrarian,” lending himself not only an air of intellectual bravado, but a veneer of integrity as well. Despite his myriad personal flaws and political contradictions, Hitchens has managed to appear principled by trafficking in opinions that consistently outrage conservatives and liberals alike. He poses as a maverick, an intellectually macho literary gun-slinger who loves nothing more than provoking the indignant howls of the madding crowd. For Hitchens, everything is sacred, and therefore, everything is fair game.
Those who have followed the trajectory of Hitchens’ career knew it was only a matter of time before he set his sights on religion. What better way to piss off (and on) the masses than to unleash a full-frontal assault on God himself? So to great fanfare and perhaps nobody’s surprise, Hitchens has produced God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, an atheist manifesto intended to supplement Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion, and (New Age torture fanatic) Sam Harris’ The End of Faith.
Hitchens spares no sacred cows in his latest work. He blasts religion as a form of child abuse, claims Jesus Christ never lived, and declares that those who give their children bar mitzvahs are “planning your and my destruction and the destruction of all hard-won human attainments.” The requisite attacks on Islam, so satisfying to his newfound neo-con pals, are also featured at length.
Hitchens’ book might be mean-spirited and even bigoted; little more than a barely legible screed larded with predictable arguments and a scattershot of pretentious literary references, but who can say its author is unprincipled? This is contrarianism, right?
Please.
God Is Not Great represents little more than the disingenous posturings of a certified fraudmeister who has openly cavorted with the most reactionary elements of the Christian right. If Hitchens had any principles at all – if he truly feared the cultural and political consequences of the encroachment of religion into public life – he would have used his still-considerable influence to support organizations and causes that shore up the wall between church and state and which defend the rights of non-believers. Instead, Hitchens has done exactly the opposite.
In the fall of 2005, Hitchens gladly accepted the invitation of the Family Research Council to speak before its Witherspoon Fellows. Hitchens subsequently regaled an audience of young Christian right cadres with excerpts from his book, Thomas Jefferson: Author of America. For attending Hitchens’ lecture and participating in several similar events, the FRC’s Witherspoon Fellows received academic credit for study at Pat Robertson’s Regent University, a school that has placed 150 of its graduates in Bush administration posts.
Presumably Hitchens was aware of the mission of the James Dobson-founded Family Research Council. How could such an intellectual giant be unaware of the FRC’s charge to “promote the Judeo-Christian worldview as the basis for a just, free, and stable society?” How could Hitchens have missed the FRC’s many “Justice Sunday” rallies staged at mega-churches and telecast across America to advance the confirmation of George W. Bush’s most theocracy-minded judicial picks? (To my knowledge, these rallies occured well after happy hour) And how could Hitchens have been ignorant to the FRC’s vitriolic crusade to ban abortion and undermine gay rights?
Regarding FRC President Tony Perkins’ ties to white supremacists, I would like to paraphrase Scripture and say, forgive Hitchens for he knows not what the hell he is doing. My well-publicized report detailing how Perkins once purchased the phone bank list of former Klan leader David Duke for the price of $82,500 and how he headlined a 2001 fundraiser for the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens had only been out for a few months. Maybe Hitchens was too busy dancing with Wolfowitz to read it.
But there is no excuse for Hitchens’ hypocrisy. With the release of God Is Not Great, Hitchens owes his readers an explanation for his appearance at the Family Research Council, the nerve center of a theocratic movement determined to weaken the foundations of constitutional democracy. Hitchens must explain why he accepted the FRC’s invitation to speak and whether he was paid for his appearance.
While awaiting Hitchens’ response, I will pray that in the future his version of the Straight Talk Express designates a driver.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/max-blumenthal/the-contrarian-delusion-h_b_47295.html
Update: KKK paypal and friend of the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens, Tony Perkins, has orchestrated the hacking of this post. In doing so, he has drawn greater attention to his links to and ideological support for white supremacists. The photo of Christopher Hitchens posing with the Family Research Council’s Witherspoon Fellows was scrubbed from FRC’s site today out of fear that I would link to it again. Not only does the FRC want to suppress Perkins’ links to white supremacists, it wants to suppress its own association with Hitchens. This begs the question: who embarrasses Perkins more, the Klan or Christopher Hitchens?
Why on earth should someone refuse a speaking invitation because they disagree on an issue? That would be like someone refusing to talk to a Church group about flower arranging because they happen to be atheist. As for the KKK connection, just a guess, but even Hitch was omnipotent, so just maybe he didn’t know? Meh.
You need to read the article again, this time intelligently.
It seems to me that you have some sort of sick regard for that fraud. (The use of the worshipful moniker “Hitch” is the giveaway here.)
I did reread it and I couldn’t disagree more. Yes, I am fond of Hitch’s work – he was a brilliant stylist. His main flaw was that he was too principled – which meant he found himself unable to back down from positions when he should have known better – the Iraq War being a case in point. His take downs of Mother Teresa and other sacred cows were masterful. He wasn’t a fraud, he was simply more inclined to play the ball than the man in this case.
That should have been “wasn’t omnipotent” – fat fingers on a skinny Mac keyboard rather than a Freudian slip.
he was a brilliant stylist
True.
His main flaw was that he was too principled
Not true.
His take downs of Mother Teresa and other sacred cows were masterful.
Oh really? Have you read his splenetic and puerile attempt to demean Noam Chomsky in Hitch 22? How “masterful” was that?
He wasn’t a fraud, he was simply more inclined to play the ball than the man in this case.
“In this case”? It was an aberration, was it? Your assessment of Hitchens is indulgent and willfully blind.
No, Hitch was extremely principled man. It’s just that sometimes his principles do not always sit well with your or mine – however this does not prevent him being an very civilised person. Even his ad hominem attacks tended to be well deserved.
His attack on Chomsky relates to the assertion that Osama bin Laden had nothing to do with 9/11. Such a claim is willfully absurd and anyone making it is making a fool of themselves.
Even his ad hominem attacks tended to be well deserved.
Oh? Like calling the mother of a dead U.S. soldier a “sob sister”? No doubt in your world she deserved that.
His attack on Chomsky relates to the assertion that Osama bin Laden had nothing to do with 9/11.
His foolish and groundless attack on Chomsky in 2001 was best summed up by Chomsky himself, speaking to Kim Hill on National Radio. Hitchens, he said, was simply “incoherent.”
Public displays of grief are always questionable – while his argument may not have been overly sensitive, it was sound. Soldiers do a job with the acknowledgment of risk. Wheteher or not I consider the war to have been gist or not, does not change that.
You are obviously a Chomsky groupie – therefore any further attempt at debating you is futile. You have already drunk the kool-aid.
You are obviously a Chomsky groupie
I read him, yes. You obviously have not.
Your recycling of the “drunk the kool-aid” quip shows not only that you haven’t read Chomsky, but that you aren’t serious.
I doubt you’ve read much of Hitchens either. You certainly show no sign of reading him with any degree of acumen.
Shhhh, Morissey – you bore me.
I’ve read most of Chomsky, both his neuro-linguistics work and his entries into political commentary. He should stick to his knitting as he makes enough mistaken generalisations there (the errors he makes vis a vis language acquisition are notorious).
I have read most of Hitchens too, and am certainly academically qualified to make judgments on him, and you are are just a mouse gnawing at a dead lion.
Now shoo.
Lucy Lawless – Hero of the Week
In fact this award is for everybody involved in trying to save the Arctic. Keep up the good work.
And plaudits to her for being a celebrity who has a brain, and can talk intelligently about issues. Aside from a few honorable exceptions—Elvis Costello, Sean Penn, Vanessa Redgrave and Tilda Swinton—there isn’t much evidence that entertainers do anything as onerous as actually reading a book.
And in the great Kangaroo boxing match, the judges have scored it Gillard 71, Rudd 31. Both camps are claiming victory!
Use the Facebook App on Your Smart Phone? Congrats, their reading your TXTs!
http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/6485221/Facebook-app-accessing-texts-report
Untrustworthy corporate scum of the Earth.
never ever ever trust someone or something that is bigger than you.
Like your parents?
Like elephants.
Also, be very wary of anything and anyone smaller than you, like spiders.
Yeah we’re pretty screwed if they put weapons on these
Fuckwit of the Week:
Kevin Trudeau
All you have to do is quickly glance at his wikipedia bio to begin to grasp how dodgy this goat-fucker is, and if you want a serious dose of “what the fuck?!” go a read through Orac’s various posts on him. And yet otherwise smart people (and everything in between) will still believe him…
Even when he’s pulling a fairly obvious scam of becoming “members” of his secret society.
And no, taxes on human stupidity aren’t a good thing, because there’s invariably negative results involved, such as poverty (loss of tax, social support costs, health costs) or disability and/or death in the case of alt.med “cures” for terminal diseases.
Mike Moore, NZ’s US Ambassador, showing his corporate sponsors colours yet again
A champion of the neoliberal freemarket cartel through and through
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10788367
And good Trilateral Man, as well..
Really batting for NZ that bastard!
Beat up churnalism.
http://www.wita.org/en/cev/1146
How very refreshing and admirable to see someone accept responsibility.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/6487061/Engineer-breaks-down-accepts-blame
Look who it is…
lol much?
heh..!..that is funny..
..phil-at-whoar.
Some people learn over time. RWNJs keep the same wrong thoughts always.
Besides, she was paid to do a job – doesn’t mean that she believed in the product.
zOMFG I bet she drives a car too!!!
Oh fuck so do I. On roads.
That means I can’t ever complain about the government OR the oil industry.
Wow. What, twenty years decades ago? when very few people were talking peak oil, ocean acidification and the atmospheric worry was the ozone hole.
I was listening to her interview with Marcus Lush and it sounded like she all but pleaded with the police to rescue her.
I’m guessing she thought she’d turn up for a photo op, get hauled off by the police and then fly back to LA the next morning, turns out she had to spend three nights with dirty, smelly tree-huggers instead.
That’ll learn her.
You’re thinking of Russell Crowe.
For all his faults hes a damn fine actor, “At my signal, unleash hell”
I enjoyed that movie…”the time for honouring yourself is almost at an end…highness”
Are you allowed to enter the US with a conviction for burglary?
Yes, that’s how IMF and Goldman Sachs executives can freely travel to and from the US.
How the haunting happens on the Internet. Big brother was watching her. What a hoot!
Yellow Pages to cut 20% of its workforce
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/6487927/Yellow-Pages-to-cut-125-jobs
Corporates make money by eliminating jobs, not creating them. Soon we’ll have an economy where none of you worker types are needed. Well, next to none of you. Won;t that be an “efficient” future.
Eliminating jobs through technology isn’t the problem – replacing them is. Capitalists don’t like doing so because it means that they can’t cut wages and whinge about people not working.
Yellow pages was an accident waiting to happen…..telecom must’ve pissed itself at the dosh offered for effectively a brand.
I’ve no idea what the deal was in terms of accessing the core data that telecom owns that drives it so without it they are dead, then there’s the issue that from an IT perspective of transplanting a lung from one body to another.
I always thought the long term play was wait and buy it back for a fraction of sale price……a fool and his private equity money etc etc
Petition forms have been passed on to Labour MP Phil Twyford to present to the House – Tuesday 28 February 2012 – the petition that hopefully will help to force the resignation of John Banks ACT MP for Epsom?
The petition which requests:
“That the House conduct an urgent inquiry into the decisions regarding prosecutions relating to the Huljich Kiwisaver Scheme registered prospectuses dated 22 August 2008 and 18 September 2009″.
ie: How come ACT’s ‘one law for all’ (conveniently) didn’t apply to fellow former Directors of Huljich Wealth Management (NZ) Ltd to current ACT Party Leader – MP for Epsom (and Minister of Regulatory Reform) John Banks, and former ACT Party Leader Don Brash, when they both signed the above-mentioned Huljich Kiwisaver Scheme registered prospectuses dated 22 August 2008 and 18 September 2009, which contained untrue statements?
Arguably not a good look for New Zealand – ‘perceived’ to be ‘the least corrupt country in the world’ (according to the 2011 Transparency International ‘Corruption Perception Index’ to effectively have the balance of power held by a yet-to-be- charged ‘white collar’ criminal?
For more background information – please feel free to check out http://www.pennybright4epsom.org.nz
Cheers!
Penny Bright
” that hopefully will help to force the resignation of John Banks ACT MP for Epsom?”
‘Tell her she’s dreamin’
We’ll see………………
🙂
Penny Bright
Funny how the people who talk about individual responsibility the most, are the ones who never take responsibility for anything.
LIAR WATCH
Populuxe1
The Standard, February 28, 2012
1.) “I’ve read most of Chomsky…”
2.) “I have read most of Hitchens too.”
I’m an academic, you dick. It’s my job.
I’m an academic, you dick.
You don’t write like one.
It’s my job.
You show no evidence of having done your job. Your comments on Chomsky are ludicrously ill-informed.
I’m sure you take your work home with you, too, you silly little mosquito.
And your obsessive worship of Pope Chomsky shows you to be a credulous and not overly broad or critical reader.
Enough. Shoo. Stop wasting both our time.
“obsessive worship of Pope Chomsky”
Where have I shown any sign of “worshipping” Chomsky? The only idolatry evident here is your paean (“masterful”…”extremely principled”…”too principled”…”very civilised”) to that choleric bag of bile you and other worshippers call “Hitch”.
You forgot “alcoholic”, “chain-smoker” and “occasional supporter of misbegotten wars”.
Gosh it’s easy to attack someone who’s dead, isn’t it?
We owe the dead nothing more than the truth.
Why would you think that I care if Hitchens or anyone else is an alcoholic or a smoker?