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”.
Stuff has a story this morning about the police juking the domestic violence stats, downgrading family violence crimes to "incidents" so they don't have to be investigated (and so Bad Number doesn't Go Up). That's appalling in and of itself, for the human consequences, and for what it says about ...
Today is a Member's Day, and it looks like its back to local legislation for a while. First up is the committee stage of the highly controversial Canterbury Regional Council (Ngāi Tahu Representation) Bill, which would allow unelected appointees (and a disproportionate number of them, at that) on ECan. This ...
Despite Christopher Luxon’s assurances to the contrary, there is no such thing as “settled law” in New Zealand. Apart from the six provisions that are constitutionally entrenched, legislation can always be amended or overturned by a simple majority vote within our single chamber of Parliament. Luxon’s repeated use of the ...
This is a re-post from the Thinking is Power website maintained by Melanie Trecek-King where she regularly writes about many aspects of critical thinking in an effort to provide accessible and engaging critical thinking information to the general public. Please see this overview to find links to other reposts from Thinking is Power. ...
What a week, month even of deplorable headlines and hysterics we’ve had as a country – and given 2023 is closing in on us (a mere 6 months until Parties shift some gears into election mode really, not that some of them haven’t started already of course), we need ...
Over the weekend, the US Supreme Court followed through on its threat, and overturned Roe v. Wade, effectively outlawing abortion in much of the United States. People were outraged, in America and around the world. And in Aotearoa, this meant a lot of sudden questions for the National Party, which ...
Nothing is evil in the beginning… #TheRingsOfPowerpic.twitter.com/XffZtqp8Yw— The Lord of the Rings on Prime (@LOTRonPrime) June 27, 2022 We have ourselves a new breadcrumb (not a leak!) out of The Rings of Power. It is a fifteen second collection of clips from the original teaser-trailer, together ...
The repeal of Roe vs Wade by the US Supreme Court is part of a broader “New Conservative” agenda financed by reactionary billionaires like Peter Thiel, Elon Mush, the Kochs and Murdochs (and others), organised by agitators like Steve Bannon and Rodger Stone and legally weaponised by Conservative (often Catholic) ...
A Dangerous Leap Backwards: A United States forced to live by the beliefs and values of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries cannot hope to go on leading the “Free World”, or compete economically with nations focused fearlessly on the future. The revocation of Roe v. Wade represents the American republic’s most ...
Now that the right of US women to abortion (formerly protected by Roe vWade) has been abolished, the important role of medication-induced abortion will come even more to the fore. Already, research by the Guttmacher Institute reproductive rights centre shows that over half of US abortions are obtained ...
The government is finally moving to improve transparency over party finances, lowering the donation disclosure threshold to $5,000. This is a good move, though it doesn't go as far as it should. And of course, there's a nasty twist: The rules for larger donations are also changing. Presently parties ...
A rare exposure in Western media of the fact that many residents of the Donbass prefer Russian rule to Ukrainian ultranationalist rule. I don’t know why anyone would take advice from UK’s lame duck Prime Minister and well-known buffoon Boris Johnson seriously, but he ...
Jacinda Ardern will need to deploy every aspect of her starpower if she is to have any hope of rescuing New Zealand’s faltering free trade negotiations with the European Union (EU). The Prime Minister has branded each of her four foreign trips so far this year as ‘trade missions’ – ...
It was sometime in the late 1990s that I first interviewed Alan Webster about New Zealand’s part in a global Values Study. It’s a fascinating snapshot of values in countries all over the world and I still remember seeing America grouped with many developing countries on a spectrum that had ...
Today marks Matariki, the first “new” New Zealand public holiday since Waitangi Day was added in 1974. Officially the start of the Maori New Year, this is one of those moveable beasties – much like Easter, the dates will vary from year to year, anywhere from mid-June to ...
The takeaways from the just released data are:1. Any estimate of GDP is subject to error.2. The 0.2 percent decrease in the March 2022 quarter is not precise and will be revised, with the mild likelihood that it will eventually be higher.3. New Zealand has no ‘official' definition of a ...
Guided By The Stars? This gift of Matariki, then, what will be made of it? Can a people spiritually unconnected to anything other than their digital devices truly appreciate the relentless progress of gods and heroes across the heavens? The elders of Maoridom must wonder. Can Te Ao Māori be ...
The internet is a wonderful thing sometimes. Yesterday, I ran across an AI program that generates images via prompt: https://huggingface.co/spaces/dalle-mini/dalle-mini So I have been doing the logical thing with it. Getting it to generate Silmarillion characters in bizarre situations. Morgoth playing golf, and so forth. But one thing I ...
Stashing renewable energy Do a little internet sleuthing on renewable energy via your favorite search engine and you'll find some honest critique and much more dishonest misinformation (aka disinformation) to the effect that photovoltaic and wind generation are fickle energy supplies, over-abundant in some periods and absent in others. There's ...
The current New Zealand First Foundation trial in the High Court continues to show why reform is required when it comes to money in politics. The juicy details coming out each day show private wealth being funnelled into some peculiar schemes in an attempt to circumvent the Electoral Act. Yet ...
As in so many other areas of public policy, attitudes towards overseas investment in New Zealand – and anywhere, for that matter – boil down in the end to ideology. For proponents of the “free market”, there is really no issue. The market, in their view, must never be second-guessed; ...
Selwyn Manning and I discussed the upcoming NATO Leader’s summit (to which NZ Prime Minister Ardern is invited), the rival BRICS Leader’s summit and what they could mean for the Ruso-Ukrainian Wa and beyond. ...
New Zealand’s Most Profitable“Friend” Dangerous “Threat”: This country’s “Five Eyes” partners, heedless of the economic consequences for New Zealand, have cajoled and bullied its political class into becoming Sinophobes. They simply do not care that close to 40 percent of this country’s trade is with China. As far as Washington, London, ...
I have seen some natter around about how The Rings of Power represents the undue and unholy corporatisation of J.R.R. Tolkien. I won’t point out examples, but anyone who has seen YouTube commentary has a pretty good grasp of what I am talking about – the sentiment that ...
2017’s Queenmaker: Five years ago, Winston Peters’ choice ran counter to New Zealand’s informal, No. 8 wire, post-MMP constitution, which, up until 2017, had decreed that the party with the most votes got to supply the next prime minister. Had National not been in power for the previous 9 years, it ...
I've read some bad stuff about long covid recently, and Marc Daalder's recent Newsroom piece about what endemic covid means for Aotearoa got me wondering about whether the government was thinking about it. Mass-disability due to long covid has obvious implications for health and welfare spending, as well as for ...
Last year, a stranded kiwi criticised the MIQ system. Covid Minister Chris Hipkins responded by doxxing and defaming her. Now, he's been forced to apologise for that: Minister Chris Hipkins has admitted he released incorrect and personal information about journalist Charlotte Bellis, after she criticised the managed isolation system. ...
Gil-galad is an Elven Chad Gil-galad is an Elven Chad But Celebrimbor makes them mad Digesting leaks from Amazon Of Isildur and Pharazôn. The hair is short? The knives are keen. The beardless face of Dwarven Queen? With meteor and man-not-named The fandom temper is inflamed. Of Annatar ...
From the desk of Keir "Patriotic Duty" Starmer:“We have robust lines. We do not want to see these strikes to go ahead with the resulting disruption to the public. The government have failed to engage in any negotiations.“However, we also must show leadership and to that end, please be reminded ...
Has swapping Scott Morrison for Anthony Albanese made any discernible difference to Australia’s relations with the US, China, the Pacific and New Zealand ? Not so far. For example: Albanese has asked for more time to “consider” his response to New Zealand’s long running complaints about the so called “501” ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections The Biden administration in April 2021 dramatically ratcheted up the country’s greenhouse gas emissions reductions pledge under the Paris target, also known as its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC). The Obama administration in 2014 had announced a commitment to cut U.S. emissions 26-28% below 2005 levels ...
Walking On Sunshine: National’s Sam Uffindell cantered home in the Tauranga By-Election, but the Outdoors & Freedom Party’s Sue Grey attracted an ominous level of support.THE RIGHT’S gadfly commentator, Matthew Hooton, summed up the Tauranga by-election in his usual pithy fashion. “Tonight’s result is poor for the National Party, catastrophic for ...
Te reo Māori is Dr. Anaha Hiini’s life purpose. Raised by his grandparents, Kepa and Maata Hiini, Anaha of Ngāti Tarāwhai, Tūhourangi, Ngāti Whakaue descent made a promise at the age of six to his late grandmother, Maata Hiini. “I’ve always had a passion for Māori culture. My first inspiration ...
Dr Carwyn Jones’ vision is to see Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the law given equal mana. Carwyn who holds a PhD in law and society and currently teaches Ahunga Tikanga (Māori Laws and Philosophy) at Te Wānanga o Raukawa after 15 years at Victoria University of Wellington has devoted ...
Jacinda Ardern’s decision to attend the upcoming North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit in Spain – but to skip the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Rwanda – symbolises the changes she is making to New Zealand foreign policy. The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) starts today in ...
The outlook does not look that promising. Forecasting an economy is a mug’s game. The database on which the forecasts are founded is incomplete, out-of-date, and subject to errors, some of which will be revised after the forecasts are published. (No wonder weather-forecasting is easier.) One often has to adopt ...
by Don Franks It seems that almost each day now another ram raid shatters someone’s shop front and loots the premises. Prestigious Queen street is not immune, while attacks on small dairies have long stopped being headline news. Those of us not directly affected are becoming numbed to this form ...
It’s hard to believe that when we created Sciblogs in 2009, the iPhone was only two years old, being a ‘Youtuber’ wasn’t really a thing and Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok didn’t exist. But Science blogging was a big thing, particularly in the United States, where a number of scientists had ...
For 13 years, Sciblogs has been a staple in New Zealand’s science-writing landscape. Our bloggers have written about a vast variety of topics from climate change to covid, and from nanotechnology to household gadgets.But sadly, it’s time to close shop. Sciblogs will be shutting down on 30 June.When ...
Radical Options: By allocating the Broadcasting portfolio to the irrepressible, occasionally truculent, leader of Labour’s Māori caucus, Willie Jackson, the Prime Minister has, at the very least, confirmed that her appointment of Kiri Allan was no one-off. There are many words that could be used to describe Ardern’s placement of ...
A Delicate Juggler? The new Chief Censor, Ms Caroline Flora, owes New Zealand a comprehensive explanation of how she sees, and how she proposes to carry out, her role. Where, for example, is her duty to respect and protect the citizen’s right to freedom of expression positioned in relation to ...
Good grief. Has foreign policy commentary really devolved to the point where our diplomatic effort is being measured by how many overseas trips have been taken by our Foreign Minister? Weird, but apparently so. All this week, a series of media policy wonks have been invidiously comparing how many trips ...
Where we've been Time flies. This coming summer will mark 15 years of Skeptical Science focusing its effort on "traditional" climate science denial. Leaving aside frivolities, we've devoted most of our effort to combatting "serious" denial falling into a handful of broad categories of fairly crisp misconceptions: "radiative physics is wrong,""geophysics is ...
Mercenary army of bogus skeptics on parade Because they're both squarely centered in the Skeptical Science wheelhouse, this week we're highlighting two articles from our government and NGO section, where we collect high-quality articles not originating in academic research but featuring many of the important attributes of journal publications. Our mission ...
In the latest episode of AVFA Selwyn Manning and I discuss the evolution of Latin American politics and macroeconomic policy since the 1970s as well as US-Latin American relations during that time period. We use recent elections and the 2022 Summit of the Americas as anchor points. ...
The Scottish government has announced plans for another independence referendum: Nicola Sturgeon plans to hold a second referendum on Scottish independence in October next year if her government secures the legal approval to stage it. Angus Robertson, the Scottish government’s constitution secretary, said that provided ample time to pass ...
So far, the closer military relationship envisaged by Jacinda Ardern and Joseph Biden at their recent White House meeting has been analysed mainly in terms of what this means for our supposedly “independent” foreign policy. Not much attention has been paid to what having more interoperable defence forces might mean ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters For those puzzling over the various hurricane computer forecast models to figure out which one to believe, the best answer is: Don’t believe any of them. Put your trust in the National Hurricane Center, or NHC, forecast. Although an individual ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Scott Denning The excellent Julia Steinberger essay posted at this site in May provides a disturbing window into the psychology of teaching climate change to young people. It’s critically important to talk with youth about hard topics: love and sex, deadly contagion, school shootings, vicious ...
By Imogen Foote (Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington) A lack of consensus among international conservation regimes regarding albatross taxonomy makes management of these ocean roaming birds tricky. My PhD research aims to generate whole genome data for some of our most threatened albatrosses in a first attempt ...
Well, if that’s “minor” I’d be interested to see what a major reshuffle looks like.Jacinda Ardern has reminded New Zealand of the steel behind the spin in her cabinet refresh announced today. While the Prime Minister stressed that the changes were “triggered” by Kris Faafoi and Trevor Mallard and their ...
A company gives a large amount of money to a political party because they are concerned about law changes which might affect their business model. And lo and behold, the changes are dumped, and a special exemption written into the law to protect them. Its the sort of thing we ...
Active Shooters: With more than two dozen gang-related drive-by shootings dominating (entirely justifiably) the headlines of the past few weeks, there would be something amiss with our democracy if at least one major political party did not raise the issues of law and order in the most aggressive fashion. (Photo ...
Going Down? Governments also suffer in recessions and depressions – just like their citizens. Slowing economic activity means fewer companies making profits, fewer people in paid employment, fewer dollars being spent, and much less revenue being collected. With its own “income” shrinking, the instinct of most government’s is to sharply ...
In the 50 years since Norm Kirk first promised to take the bikes off the bikies, our politicians have tried again and again to win votes by promising to crack down on gangs. Canterbury University academic Jarrod Gilbert (an expert on New Zealand’s gang culture) recently gave chapter and verse ...
Misdirection: New Zealanders see burly gang members, decked out in their patches, sitting astride their deafening motorcycles, cruising six abreast down the motorway as frightened civilians scramble to get out of their way, and they think these guys are the problem. Fact is, these guys represent little more than the misdirection ...
New Zealand’s defence minister, Peeni Henare, has had a very busy first half of the year. In January, Henare was the face of New Zealand’s relief effort to Tonga, following the eruption of the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha’apai volcano. Then, from March onwards, Henare was often involved in Jacinda Ardern’s announcements ...
James Heartfield wrote this article on intersectionalism and its flaws nine years ago. He noted on Twitter: “Looking back, these problems got worse, not better.” Published 17 November 2013. Is self-styled revolutionary Russell Brand really just a ‘Brocialist’? Is Lily Allen’s feminist pop-video racist? Is lesbian activist Julie Bindel a ...
The New Zealand First donations scandal trial began in the High Court this week. And it’s already showing why the political finance laws in this country need a significant overhaul. The trial is the outcome of a high-profile scandal that unfolded in the 2020 election year, when documents were made ...
The televised hearings into the storming of the Capitol are revealing to the American public a truth that was obvious to some of us from the outset – that the Trumpian “big lie” about a “stolen” election was part of a determined attempt at a coup that would have been ...
When in 1980 I introduced the term ‘Think Big’ to characterise the major (mainly energy) projects, I was concerned about the wider issue of state-led development strategies. From that perspective, the 1980s program was not our first ‘think big’. That goes back to Vogel in 1870, who wanted to develop ...
Malaysia will abolish the death penalty: The government has agreed to abolish the mandatory death penalty, giving judges discretion in sentencing. Law minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said the decision was reached following the presentation of a report on substitute sentences for the mandatory death penalty, which he presented ...
The Petitions Committee has reported back on a petition to introduce a capital gains tax on residential property, with a response that basicly boils down to "fuck off, we're not interested". Which is sadly unsurprising. According to the current Register of Members' Pecuniary and Other Specified Interests, the eight members ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to guarantee that it will complete light rail and improve walking, cycling, and bus journeys across Wellington before digging new high-carbon tunnels. ...
The Green Party is urging Oceans and Fisheries Minister David Parker to commit to stronger ocean protection around Aotearoa and on the high seas while at the United Nations Oceans Conference in Portugal this week. ...
A strong Green voice in Parliament has helped reduce the influence large secret money will have in future elections and finally ensured overseas New Zealanders will retain the right to vote even while stranded by the Pandemic. But, the Government needs to go further to ensure our democracy works for ...
A new poll shows that the majority of people back the Greens’ call on the Government to overhaul the country’s criminally punitive, anti-evidence drug law. ...
The US Supreme Court’s decision on abortion is a reminder that we must take nothing for granted in Aotearoa, the Green Party says. “Aotearoa should be a place where everyone, no matter where they are from, or who they love, can choose what is right for their body and their ...
We’re proud to have delivered on our election commitment to establish a public holiday to celebrate Matariki. For the first time this year, New Zealanders will have the chance to enjoy a mid-winter holiday that is uniquely our own. ...
Proposed new legislation to reduce the risk that timber imported into Aotearoa New Zealand is sourced from illegal logging is a positive first step but it should go further, the Green Party says. ...
On World Refugee Day, the Green Party is calling on the new Minister for Immigration, Michael Wood to make up for the support that was not provided to people forced to leave their home countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. ...
This week, we’ve marked a major milestone in our school upgrade programme. We've supported 4,500 projects across the country for schools to upgrade classrooms, sports facilities, playgrounds and more, so Kiwi kids have the best possible environments to learn in. ...
We’ve delivered on our election commitment to make Matariki a public holiday. For the first time this year, all New Zealanders will have the chance to enjoy a mid-winter holiday that is uniquely our own with family and friends. Try our quiz below, then challenge your whānau! To celebrate, we’ve ...
The Green Party says the removal of pre-departure testing for arrivals into New Zealand means the Government must step up domestic measures to protect communities most at risk. ...
The long overdue resumption of the Pacific Access Category and Samoan Quota must be followed by an overhaul of the Recognised Seasonal Employers (RSE) scheme, says the Green Party. ...
Lessons must be learned from the Government's response to the Delta outbreak, which the Ministry of Health confirmed today left Māori, Pacific, and disabled communities at greater risk. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to withdraw the proposed Oranga Tamariki oversight legislation which strips away independence and fails to put children at the heart. ...
As New Zealand reconnects with the world, we’re making the most of every opportunity to show we’re a great place to visit, trade with and invest in as part of our plan to grow our economy and build a secure future for all Kiwis. Just this week we saw further ...
Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs Aupito William Sio has been appointed by the United Nations and Commonwealth as Aotearoa New Zealand’s advocacy champion for Small Island States. “Aotearoa New Zealand as a Pacific country is particularly focused on the interests of Pacific Small Island Developing States in our region. “This is a ...
An estimated 100,000 low income households will be eligible for increased support to pay their council rates, with changes to the rates rebate scheme taking effect from 1 July. Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta has announced increases to both the maximum value of the rates rebate, and the income threshold ...
A long-standing physical activity programme that focuses on outcomes for Maori has been expanded to four new regions with Government investment almost doubled to increase its reach. He Oranga Poutama is managed by a combination of hapū, iwi, hauora and regional providers. An increase in funding from $1.8 million ...
The Government is progressing a preferred option for LGWM which will see Wellington’s transport links strengthened with light rail from Wellington Station to Island Bay, a new tunnel through Mt Victoria for public transport, and walking and cycling, and upgrades to improve traffic flow at the Basin Reserve. “Where previous ...
To Provost Muniz, to the Organisers at the Instituto de Empresa buenas tardes and as we would say in New Zealand, kia ora kotou katoa. To colleagues from the State Department, from Academia, and Civil Society Groups, to all our distinguished guests - kia ora tatou katoa. It’s a pleasure ...
On June 28, 2022, a meeting took place in Madrid between the President of the Government of the Kingdom of Spain, Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón, and the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, who was visiting Spain to participate in the Summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as one ...
A six-fold increase in the Aotearoa New Zealand-Spain working holiday scheme gives a huge boost to the number of young people who can live and work in each other’s countries, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says. Jacinda Ardern and Spanish President Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón made the Working Holiday/Youth Mobility Scheme announcement ...
A significant barrier has been removed for people who want to stand in local government elections, with a change to the requirement to publish personal details in election advertising. The Associate Local Government Minister Kieran McAnulty has taken the Local Electoral (Advertising) Amendment Bill through its final stages in Parliament ...
New financial conduct scheme will ensure customers are treated fairly Banks, insurers and non-bank deposit takers to be licensed by the FMA in relation to their general conduct Sales incentives based on volume or value targets like bonuses for selling a certain number of financial products banned The Government ...
Legislation that bans major supermarkets from blocking their competitors’ access to land to set up new stores paves the way for greater competition in the sector, Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs Dr David Clark said. The new law is the first in a suite of measures the Government is ...
The Government has announced an end to the requirement for border workers and corrections staff to be fully vaccinated. This will come into place from 2 July 2022. 100 per cent of corrections staff in prisons, and as of 23 June 2022 97 per cent of active border workers were ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta has concluded a visit to Rwanda reaffirming Aotearoa New Zealand’s engagement in the Commonwealth and meeting with key counterparts. “I would like to thank President Kagame and the people of Rwanda for their manaakitanga and expert hosting of this important meeting,” Nanaia Mahuta said. “CHOGM ...
Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty officially launched the new Monitoring, Alerting and Reporting (MAR) Centre at the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) today. The Government has stood up the centre in response to recommendations from the 2018 Ministerial Review following the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake and 2017 Port Hills fire, ...
Transport Minister Michael Wood has welcomed the announcement that a 110km/hr speed limit has been set for the SH1 Waikato Expressway, between Hampton Downs and Tamahere. “The Waikato Expressway is a key transport route for the Waikato region, connecting Auckland to the agricultural and business centres of the central North ...
Following feedback from the sector, Associate Minister of Education Jan Tinetti, today confirmed that new literacy and numeracy | te reo matatini me te pāngarau standards will be aligned with wider NCEA changes. “The education sector has asked for more time to put the literacy and numeracy | te reo ...
$4.5 million to provide Ukraine with additional non-lethal equipment and supplies such as medical kit for the Ukrainian Army Deployments extended for New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) intelligence, logistics and liaison officers in the UK, Germany, and Belgium Secondment of a senior New Zealand military officer to support International ...
Changes to electoral law announced by Justice Minister Kiri Allan today aim to support participation in parliamentary elections, and improve public trust and confidence in New Zealand’s electoral system. The changes are targeted at increasing transparency around political donations and loans and include requiring the disclosure of: donor identities for ...
The Labour government has announced a significant investment to prevent and minimise harm caused by gambling. “Gambling harm is a serious public health issue and can have a devastating effect on the wellbeing of individuals, whānau and communities. One in five New Zealanders will experience gambling harm in their lives, ...
The Government has widened access to free flu vaccines with an extra 800,000 New Zealanders eligible from this Friday, July 1 Children aged 3-12 years and people with serious mental health or addiction needs now eligible for free flu dose. From tomorrow (Tuesday), second COVID-19 booster available six months ...
The Government is investing to create new product categories and new international markets for our strong wool and is calling on Kiwi businesses and consumers to get behind the environmentally friendly fibre, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor said today. Wool Impact is a collaboration between the Government and sheep sector partners ...
At today’s commemoration of the start of the Korean War, Veterans Minister Meka Whaitiri has paid tribute to the service and sacrifice of our New Zealand veterans, their families and both nations. “It’s an honour to be with our Korean War veterans at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park to commemorate ...
Minister of Tourism Stuart Nash and Associate Minister of Tourism Peeni Henare announced the sixth round of recipients of the Government’s Tourism Infrastructure Fund (TIF), which supports local government to address tourism infrastructure needs. This TIF round will invest $15 million into projects around the country. For the first time, ...
Matariki tohu mate, rātou ki a rātou Matariki tohu ora, tātou ki a tātou Tīhei Matariki Matariki – remembering those who have passed Matariki – celebrating the present and future Salutations to Matariki I want to begin by thanking everyone who is here today, and in particular the Matariki ...
Oho mai ana te motu i te rangi nei ki te hararei tūmatanui motuhake tuatahi o Aotearoa, Te Rā Aro ki a Matariki, me te hono atu a te Pirīmia a Jacinda Ardern ki ngā mahi whakanui a te motu i tētahi huihuinga mō te Hautapu i te ata nei. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister David Parker will represent Aotearoa New Zealand at the second United Nations (UN) Ocean Conference in Lisbon, Portugal, which runs from 27 June to 1 July. The Conference will take stock of progress and aims to galvanise further action towards Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14, to "conserve and sustainably use ...
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Austria Centre, Vienna [CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY] E ngā mana, e ngā reo Tēnā koutou katoa Thank you, Mr President. I extend my warm congratulations to you on the assumption of the Presidency of this inaugural meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. You ...
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[CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY] Nga mihi ki a koutou. Let me start by acknowledging the nuclear survivors, the people who lost their lives to nuclear war or testing, and all the peoples driven off their lands by nuclear testing, whose lands and waters were poisoned, and who suffer the inter-generational health ...
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OP-ED by Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana is an Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana is the United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). ...
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Al Qaeda=Al CIAda
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCqmI1SQB5o&sns=fb
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?