For the first time since the covid pandemic began I am cautiously optimistic that we may be entering the beginning of the end of it all.
I posted yesterday the conclusions of Chris Martensen of Peak Prosperity that omicron appears to be becoming the dominant variant of covid and, even though it is much more highly transmissible, does not appear to cause the same proportion of hospital cases or deaths.
Of course, a small percentage of a large number may be bigger than a large percentage of a small number; omicron may still have serious consequences for our health system.
But look at the graphs from Worldometer:
[Wouldn’t let me post screen shots of the daily cases and daily deaths graphs but here’s the link:] https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
Daily cases of covid appear to have gone through the roof.
But the world death rate has been trending down for some time.
Perhaps it’s too early to say but maybe omicron is not so deadly, in association with better treatment etc; we may be going to come out the other side of all this in 2022.
Here’s hoping. A happy new year to all on The Standard, and thanks to the moderators and Lprent.
how omicron affects older people, and those with health vulnerabilities
what does 'milder' mean in real terms especially health system impacts (direct and indirect)
what is long covid like from omicron infection? Rates and how it happens for people
we won't know this for some time, eg 6 months
we won't know long term effects (for any covid variant) for years
whether another variant will become dominant that is better or worse than omicron
See why I support the precautionary principle?
There's a huge amount of reckons about omicron, and some of them might turn out to be right (eg it's mild). But once we press the button of loosening up or going back to normal, we can't unpress it. Some people want to take that gamble now, I want us to wait until we know more.
There is a huge statistically based body of work called “the health system” that is a multinational effort that points to omicron being of little harm.
More specifically, as I said in my first comment, we need to know how omicron will impact on older people and those with health vulnerabilities. From what I can tell the South African data doesn't help with that and it's too soon to know from the UK, US etc. Probably not too far away.
“The new virus was detected on four foreign nationals who had entered Botswana on the 7th November 2021, on a diplomatic mission,” said Botswana in a statement. The four diplomats tested positive for COVID-19 on November 11 as they were leaving, and genomic sequencing confirmed the variant on November 24.
Everyone is saying 'Africa is different' and as a continent this is true. The majority of people still live outdoors and the demographics are very different. But this is less true of South Africa as a nation, and a quick look at their data for previous variant waves shows a strong response that is simply not there for Omicron.
Still I've not advocated for rushing to open the border to Omicron either, but how long until you consider we might be certain? And are we going to set an impossible standard to achieve that certainty?
I haven't followed closely enough to have an opinion on timing, but those that have, why not just look at my original list and either think about timing on that basis, or present an argument for how omicron can be managed if we open up instead (don't see so much of that other than 'don't be scare', 'take vit D', vague hand wave in the direction of vulnerable people needing protection).
I'm still in favour of keeping the borders mostly closed (but sorting out the shitshow that is the MiQ lottery), using the longer MiQ stays for people coming across the border. Tightening up on whatever needs to be addressed because of omicron under the traffic light system. After the holidays, more public messaging would help.
And of course alongside that the whole Vit D etc (prevention and treatment), but I won't hold my breath on that one, because it's an impossible standard for NZ at this time 😉
So let's do what we can with the tools we have and the limitations of systems.
Incidentally you may find this reference of interest around the VitD issue:
This succinct but comprehensive review of the evidence found that despite almost complete absence of official government guidelines favoring vitamin D supplements to potentially decrease COVID-19 risk and severity, support among clinicians and other researchers for correcting and preventing vitamin D deficiency with modest daily vitamin D supplementation during the COVID-19 pandemic is very strong, worldwide. The evidence supports recommending 2,000 IU (50 mcg) vitamin D daily for at-risk teens and adults, which is well within safe limits and might dramatically reduce COVID-19 fatalities.
Succinct is one word for it, but it's not a quick read either.
Still I've not advocated for rushing to open the border to Omicron either, but how long until you consider we might be certain? And are we going to set an impossible standard to achieve that certainty?
Seeing what it does in Australia over the next 6-8 weeks would be sufficient to determine if poses a risk to our health systems to the point that it displaces normal loading to the point that people with other critical health issues die of lack of medical attention.
So far that isn't looking good.
The main operational issue is that medical staff with covid-19 (or any other infectious disease) can't attend vulnerable patients. That stresses the remaining staff
NSW is a similar enough state with a more extensive health system. It is also open enough to view the full effects with limited public health measures to see what is likely to happen here.
And that the number of reported cases from PCR testing have jumped from 3763 on Dec 22 to 18278 cases yesterday despite the various PCR testing blockages. It looks like it is still doubling the known community infection rate about every 4 days.
The key measures however are the hospitalisation rate and the staff overload. That isn't looking good at what is still the early surge phase of a variant epidemic.
Hospitalisations have risen to 1,066, up from 901 in the previous reporting period, with 83 patients in intensive care.
There are five times as many people being treated for COVID-19 in the state’s hospitals as there were in mid-December, although the number of people in intensive care has increased at a slower rate.
There isn't enough info to be sure in NSW, but it looks like about a 2 week period from to get from infection to hospitalisation based on the rates of increase. The number of hospitalisations for covid-19 in NSW has risen from 302 on Dec 22 to three times the number. They only had 166 on Dec 15 a week earlier. Can't be sure of the ICU
And here is the important thing.
HSU secretary Gerard Hayes said the increasing number of people being treated in hospital was "more concerning every day".
"I think the key issue here is that while the current variant is not as bad as Delta it will be a larger lot of numbers and the ratio of those numbers to hospitalisations will be potentially the concern."
Mr Hayes said the state's health system would likely reach a critical phase "anywhere within the next two or three months".
Tired and overworked healthcare workers in NSW were left with no choice but to support reducing the isolation rules for asymptomatic staff deemed close contacts of COVID-19 cases.
Under an exemption to the Public Health Order signed by Health Minister Brad Hazzard on Friday night, these staff can now be ordered back to work.
Australian Salaried Medical Officers Federation (ASMOF) NSW president Tony Sara said hospitals were running out of staff and the pressure on the system was enormous.
"We're loading our hospitals with COVID-positive patients who need to be in hospital," Dr Sara said.
"We therefore had to reduce the ISO requirements, we don't agree with it but essentially if the health system is not to collapse then ourselves, the nurses and the HSU [Health Service Union] — we don't have a lot of choice but to agree."
If the rate of hospitalisations keeps rising by 2+ times every week in a nearly fully vaccinated state, you can see why they're worried.
It isn't an issue with how less damaging the omnicron outbreak is. That appears to be about 15-30% of the infection vs hospitalisation rate depending where you look world wide.
It is an issue with the rapid rate of infections rapidly driving up the health system into the ground with larger numbers at a lower rate of infection.
I don't think that vitamin D is going to do much in the short term even if it was efficacious. Not to mention that aussies in summer generate a lot of natural vitamin D along with their sunburn.
No we shouldn’t. Not if it’s curtailing the health, mental and physical, off the young and the healthy who have to pay for the old and the unwell in normal times.
from the observable data we can see it’s of little harm to all. We shouldn’t wait just in case there may be some small unknown that rears it’s head. That is a pointless exercise that, if followed in any path in life, leads to nothing good happening.
you can shut yourself off from society until you are happy to come out, but don’t demand society conform to your caution.
Somewhere else in the world where people want freedoms around Covid but then do their best to stop others exercising their freedom to choose to be vaccinated.
It is certainly a change from a decade ago when we had the nutters from Greenpeace destroying crops because they claimed that GMO would threaten the world's food supply.
In January 2021, a presidential decree in Mexico established the prohibition of genetically modified corn as well as the phasing out of glyphosate by 2024.
The continued use of contaminants like GMOs and glyphosate would put Mexican agricultural biodiversity at risk, jeopardise entire ecosystems and move Mexico away from the path towards food sovereignty and self-sufficiency. Securing the ban of GMOs has been the center of countless battles for Greenpeace Mexico over the past 21 years; battles fought alongside various farmer organisations, consumers, academics, researchers, artists and intellectuals.
The 2021 ban on transgenic corn and glyphosate is an important step to advance towards Greenpeace Mexico’s ultimate goal: transformation of the agri-food system from the roots and producing healthy food that does not harm the environment and guarantees the health of farmers and consumers.
One of the good things about this site are the links on the right hand side that bring to your notice things that you may not normally get to view.
Enjoyed the exHalant post which amongst other things reminds you that the right wants you to give up, to think that things are too hard and to not participate. Thatcher's there is no community.
This was a trend I noticed in the 80's – the move by business to blame government for their failures rather than their own uselessness. Their high indebtedness, their low wages, their lack of savings etc all the governments fault. At the same time blaming the poor for being poor. Both narratives designed to consolidate their own position.
"The most annoying part of extreme narratives, of dumping all ills on “the other”, is it allows people to relieve themselves of that duty: telling yourself something is “too big to combat!”, “it’s too overwhelming!” to do anything about is the easy way out.
And nothing would please those who seed the most distorted of narratives more than for people to continue believing in snake oil salesmen Saviours, those who present themselves as having those “instant fixes” to hyper-complex societal issues. And then: selling you out…."
So a quarter of all public servants are suspect? That's what you get if you apply statistical theory and extrapolate from corrections staff to the whole.
Figures released under the Official Information Act (OIA) show the number of staff investigated, the location and the outcome of misconduct proceedings. Over the period 2015/16 to 2019/20, a total of 2284 staff were under investigation.
So a quarter of the public service is error-prone. To err is human, so one could argue that this sizable minority is intent on demonstrating their humanity.
For instance I have been convicted of being a underage drinker and serving three other minors.
Basically wandered down to our local at the Puhio pub from the farm one night with my siblings. I was on leave from the army. Ran in between some over zealous Takapuna cops (well known dipshits at the time) and the pub owner (a known dipso) that they wanted remove a liquor license from. So they laid charges when I said that I didn't know who I'd been served by (and I didn't actually know, nor did I care, and the dipshits annoyed me).
So months later, I had to take time off from my bar job (still underage) and miss a few university lectures to come up to see a judge to get a fine. With the police still ineffectually telling me that they'd drop the charges if I told them what they wanted to know.
I have also been convicted of driving without a license.
I never bothered to renew the 'lifetime' license I got back in the 1990s. In that case I got another small fine after I undertook not to drive again until I went and re-sat the license. Never bothered to pick up my car from the impound yard. It wasn't work much, and it wasn't worth paying the impound fees. At that point I was working from home and only going to work once a month to see the dev team I was running – I hadn't needed a car for a few years before my niece needed to be dropped home because she was late.
Anyway. You are correct – there are ex-cons here including the sysop. Should I now start discussing what I think of dimwitted fools who think that this is something that is important in the context of this site?
I never bothered to renew the 'lifetime' one I got back in the 1990s. In that case I got another small fine after I undertook not to drive again until I went and re-sat the license.
Interesting – my partner saw that change as a major breach of faith by government and to this day remains very unimpressed.
But in this case it was more like I just didn't get around to it. Mostly because I wasn't driving very much.
I didn't bother to get a license for about another 5 years (2007 according to the license). A friend of mine went to work in China and left me her car to take care of. So I sat the test again in her wee sports car. A few years later she sold it via her dad.
Didn't replace it for a few years as I literally don't need a car that much. I use taxis or just hire a car when I need to. Or borrow my partners vehicle. Or since 2014, a awful lot of flying worldwide for work. Or since 2017 I use a e-bike a lot.
My last car was a cheap discard from a family member. That died in 2019 after I'd put about 15k on its clock after nearly a decade.
Brought a small hybrid during the latest lockdown because my new job has a requirement to go to Hamilton periodically to integrate into the dev team. However it may be a functional lemon because that process appears to have successfully be done online over the last 3+ months.
Nice to drive though. Makes a useful shopping cart to the supermarket.
I do find it difficult to understand why some people seem to treat driving as so much of their identity. They’re pain to park. You have to spend time watching the other idiots on the road. And as for commuting – that is just such a stupid way to waste life time.
"I never bothered to renew the 'lifetime' one I got back in the 1990s."
Snap, same with me, as far as I was concerned, a both parties had to agree when changing a contract. I copped a few fines over the years.
I recall, when introduced, we assured the new photo licences wouldn't be used as I.D.. That didn't last long as the drinking age in puns dropped the licence became a de-facto I.D.
Well, although these are very minor peccadilloes they obviously had a marked effect on you.
That you can recall what happened in such detail after what must be close to half a century would surely show that you did not find your treatment for such trivial things as something to be glossed over. Perhaps that was enough to keep you strictly on the right side of the law in the future. They do seem pretty minor though. You are probably right in your assumption that they were just trying to use you as a pawn in the attempted prosecution of the owner of the pub. They could hardly be concerned with such activities by a kid.
Actually, according to Wikipedia, they were far mote likely to be from the Labour Party.
There are 20 New Zealand politicians who Wiki records as having been convicted of a crime. A quick count shows that there were 9 from the Labour Party and 4 from National. I'm afraid I have to go out and I don't have time to go into more detail but you can see them all here.
You appear to have overlooked the statement at the top of that page that explains why there is a difference
This category includes several New Zealand Labour Party politicians convicted for political activity in World War I.
There are others who were convicted of blatantly political ‘crimes’ related to unionism. Some for having ‘seditious’ books – ie they read things other than the NZ Herald – the paper of the stupid.
Personally I’d class them as political convictions.
On the other hand, I suspect that you neglected to add in the convicted who were members of the Reform or United or any of the parties who became part of the National party. Bearing in mind just how juvenile the National party is compared to Labour, you should add those in.
Plus it was notable just how many National party politicians or proto-National party politicians were convicted of fraud offences. Thereby showing if you want a conman – it pays to go National.
Just have to look at the detail to get the true picture. You can’t be as stupid as a Farrar.
Oh dear PR, I'll never get that image out of my mind when muttering when undoing a recalcitrant screw, I mean nut, I mean bolt ……you know what I mean……
You don't also say 'left hand down bit' like Leslie Phillips' character in The Navy Lark'.
You only get a quarter if you don't understand maths. The correct calculation would be 2,000 divided by the total number of staff employed by corrections in that five years.
For the figures for the two years provided 4% and 10% of those investigated lost their jobs through dismissal or resignation. That would be a pittance of the total staff and from my experience lower than the number of staff pinching money in the bank where I used to work. Those numbers are not well publicised though cause the bank doesn't like you to know – much harder these days with less cash too.
The correct calculation would be 2,000 divided by the total number of staff employed by corrections in that five years.
True; they don't quantify the churn factor. And the numbers found guilty are significantly less than the numbers suspected of wrongdoing, which is normal re comparison to the output of the justice system.
So what we get from the establishment is indication instead of truth-telling. Obviously it would spook the horses to tell the truth about the size of the problem. Better to sustain naive belief that the system works according to plan.
Well done, you get the Sleuth of the Day award already for that. So looks like we can reduce the suspect quota of the public service a wee bit on that basis. I'll leave the maths to you but I'm guessing around 20%…
Thanks for that. Safe to assume a portion of those suspected would be due to vendettas or accusations based on wrongly-interpreted behaviour or statements, so we can reasonably drop the estimate down from 17% somewhat. Around one public servant in 6 or 7 being dodgy is certainly more reassuring than one in four…
except the other way of doing it is that 2284 over 5years is only 540/8000/year, i.e. about 7%.
Which might be more fair, if the bulk of those being investigated are newer workers who screw (lol) up, lose their rag, or whatever. Or just don't document things properly – that can get you in shit in a lot of places, without actually doing anything wrong.
You might find this story interesting (or not) or it might just confirm what you're already thinking.
So I was pretty new and I was in J Block (seg unit in Chch Mens, the real single person, hand cuffed and multiple officer escort type) and one of the things drummed into us in training college was to get to know your prisoners
So I was reading the prisoners in the unit file notes and records and what not, which you're allowed to do if you're working in the unit, you can't just look people up because thats a big no-no, as in you're fired no-no
So about three months later I got please explain (from HR because of course it was) as to why I was looking up this prisoner (reasonbly well known but also because of the timing of when I looked him up and yes I'm being deliberately vague)
I said I was in the unit and then a couple of days later I was told to go to a meeting with management, HR and that I should bring a representative along
As my union rep pointed out that I was only doing what i was taught in training and that approximately 9 other, new, officers were up for the same thing it certainly taught me a thing or two about how Corrections and government departments work
Yeah, there's been a few cases over the last few five years (? who knows time anymore) in various departments where looky-loos have been picked up by centralised IT access logging getting new flags to throw up – but when you patch in something, it can throw a spanner in the works.
The "easy" way around it is to throw in some cross-validation between staff assignments and prisoner units. But then sure as eggs HR and prisoner records will be on completely different systems, and that's if the assignments for each one goes down to sufficient detail.
I wonder if the turnover was higher under National because they sacked the ones who misbehaved, as opposed to the probable Labour approach that the offenders meant well but had been hurt by colonialism and they were really very nice people?
Do your figures help determine whether that hypothesis is true?
My hypothesis would be that national are a bunch of facist fuckers setting nonsense targets and putting in shit like double bunking that would result in higher turnover as people said WTF.
The figures themselves add nothing to either hypothesis.
I have just found out my computer is non compliant for Windows 11. Hell, I'm running a 3.6 quad core processor that Microsoft does not recognise! 32 GB of ram apparently doesn't impress them…and there's a whole host of other things that need to be switched on or down loaded. For the effort, I doubt Windows 11 will be worth it for me. I will move permanently to Linux after 2024 ( when support for Windows10 stops).
If you consult with Google, you will find you can bypass / ignore that Windows 11 non-compliant warning, and install it anyway (bit of mucking around). Whether you would bother is another thing.
Mostly it is just seems to be to turn on the TPM 2 in the bios and enabling secure boot. It is unlikely that anything that is less than about 8-10 years old won’t have those two features.
I fixed my partners Threadripper in about 30 minutes for compliance by doing some reading and reboots. It still didn't install windows 11 – but that is because they haven't done the CPU/board support yet and she doesn't get the download available for a few months.
However unless you play some particular action games or want to run the Adobe suite or one of the other specialist bits of software – then there is no real reason not to flip to linux.
I did that in about 2007. My last windows box ran The Standard for about 6-7 months and died in 2008. I'm now completely kubuntu on my home servers (including the one running this site), my laptop and my finally my work laptop. Really glad about the latter – the blasted company spyware and antimalware made a fast laptop crawl like a Pentium 3.
Interestingly however virtually all industrial automation packages run on Windows platforms exclusively. What we tend to do now is deliver pre-tested VM images that have been correctly configured and tuned – and they run very well.
The last big project I've just come off was running 24 Server 2016 VM's on a fairly modestly powered hardware stack (Dell R610's) and after I fixed up the various cock-ups from my predecessors it ran really well. And very stable. While we all have Windows horror stories from the 90's to re-tell over a beer, it's my modest sense that MS have generally gotten a lot better over time.
I do get the enduring appeal of the various Linux derived distros, but for most of the non-geek world Windows is going to be with us for a while yet.
So, DJ Dimension was allowed into the country three times as a critical worker because he had skills not available in New Zealand.
Really? So there are no DJs here? A slap in the face to all those who are desperate to see loved ones, or doctors and nurses who might be a little more "critical".
I have no problem at all with some artists and sportspeople and politicians, etc being allowed in. It too is part of trying to have some semblance of normal. And yeah we have DJ’s but would you pay to go and see them over and above this one.
Don't know why people are getting het up about it. We can walk and chew bubblegum at the same time. It is well known that some places are reserved for these types of things but the article does go on to point out it wasn't even one of the reserved spots.
I'd be more antsy at those who book rooms who don't then use them frankly. This apparently is quite common.
Hipkins said he understood the DJ had secured a spot in one of the later MIQ lobby releases which were “under-subscribed”, where people had rejected rooms they were offered, wanting to wait until when borders opened.
I don’t believe there is ever low demand for MIQ. We are short of skilled workers, who are critical to our country. Also don’t think all the families who are separated have been reunited
Nothing will change when she dies. There is little value in moving to a republic – particularly if the constitution is written by politicians.
Building in aspects of the Magna Carta, Charter of The Forests, Treaty of Waitangi seems much less of a priority to those advocating for a republic than the notion of survival of the fittest, individualistic crap coming out of America. Have little time for any of the public utterances by anyone so far promoting a republic as the way to go. Many seem to see it as a way of getting rid of the Treaty.
There may be little value in moving to say, a republic but thats never stopped change before….at the very least I expect it will reinvigorate those seeking change (of all manner)
Good question and conclusions I think. Don't jettison anything. The Queen has been a bright star on the horizon trying to maintain a civil approach to life with ethical values and nice hats to boot, or head I should say. Charles is fine, deserving admiration for maintaining royal standards and promoting business along ethical and environmental lines after coping with heartfelt personal difficulties.
People talk about royalty as if it was an old coat hanging in a wardrobe and due to be cleared out by some clutter-buster of the minimalist cell-furnished variety.
'Nothing will change when she dies. There is little value in moving to a republic – particularly if the constitution is written by politicians'
A constitution written for New Zealand would be a disaster. Maori would demand such a constitution be based on the Treaty. Politicians would baulk at anything threatening their absolute power to rule unless there were ''out clauses. '' If a treaty was ever implemented I would like an amendment that allows the people of New Zealand to remove a government by force if necessary should any attempt be made to subvert the constitution. All in all -best leave things as they are for everyone's peace of mind.
JK Rowling has never resiled from her assertion that you can not change biological sex.
Most public figures with something to lose have issued grovelling apologies when they've fallen foul of the new high priests of current correct ideology .Not JK Rowling and for that she deserves every accolade
That's inspiring. Courage in the face of that much public shaming is not a common thing.
You may enjoy this essay on Edward O Wilson’s life:
Edward O. Wilson: I think I may have been the only scientist in modern times to be physically attacked for an idea. The idea of a biological human nature was abhorrent to the demonstrators and was, in fact, too radical at the time for a lot of people—probably most social scientists and certainly many on the far-Left. They just accepted as dogma the blank-slate view of the human mind—that everything we do and think is due to contingency, rather than based upon instinct like bodily functions and the urge to keep reproducing. These people believe that everything we do is the result of historical accidents, the events of history, the development of personality through experience.
Then there are the true heretics,where a wrong constant could be fatal such as Zamyatin.
June, 1931
Dear Iosif Vissarionovich,
The author of the present letter, condemned to the highest penalty, appeals to you with the request for the substitution of this penalty by another. My name is probably known to you. To me as a writer, being deprived of the opportunity to write is nothing less than a death sentence. Yet the situation that has come about is such that I cannot continue my work, because no creative activity is possible in an atmosphere of systematic persecution that increases in intensity from year to year.
Yet oddly enough our ancestors relied on religion to create the grand narratives which held their societies together and drove them to survive and thrive in a very hostile world.
It is of course very easy to discount many of the things they believed in. Like an adult knows there is no fat man in a red suit slipping bright and shiny down sooty chimneys. Yet we know the story meant a great deal to them as a child, and as an adult carries an even greater symbolic weight.
How to resolve this paradox? That the literal narratives of humanity's collective childhood now offends our science informed minds should not cause us to think there is no transcendence.
Religion is story-telling. Beyond religion there is science. Science is storytelling. Beyond science, there is story-telling. Without story-telling, there is unconsciousness. There is no unconsciousness in a conscious universe. Our universe is a conscious one.
There is no unconsciousness in a conscious universe.
That wouldhave to be the case.
Our universe is a conscious one.
Perhaps. The universe could actually be God, or the creator, or one of several creators. We still don't actually know how, or why, our universe came into existence, so stories – or conjectures – are all we have to work with.
Alternatively, the universe might not be conscious. It might just have been created to evolve over time and space without any awareness, as a process, according to laws of physics we still don't understand.
That still leaves open the question of whether a conscious mind created it, (and for me another question – why?).
The really important thing is that WE are conscious – and able to think about & try to understand and explain these things, don't you think?
I'm reading about Slavoj Zizek's thinking that behind our eyes all is fiction. I like him but he goes OTT. He could stop talking about voids and nothingness behind us, and honour our remarkable flights of fancy, our fantastic abilities to grow our fictions. One author I like has written so much about a fictional family that she has the thought that one day she could hear a knock and one of her characters would drop by to correct some of her story-telling errors.
I believe in the reality of The Standard, in Lynn Prentice, its founder and wish him and Lyn well for 2022, also all the people that I enjoy reading, particularly Robert Guyton, hello there and Robyn too. Ata marie and kia ora to you all.^-!-^
I’m not against religion per se.I can’t quarrel with Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.
Although this would be decried as whataboutism these days
or So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
Organised religion is something else.One Way religion is actually a prescription for the dark ages,Mumbo Jumbo and power dynamics
Now that God is Dead we have rampant materialism , uninformed by ethics or decency
Organised religion is something else. One Way religion is actually a prescription for the dark ages,Mumbo Jumbo and power dynamics
Yes. That gets to the heart of the matter. Stepping back and looking at the grand gamut of world religions it seems as if we took a lantern – a single common source of light and guidance- and then people decorated it to suit the needs and modes of thought of the era they lived in.
At first the decorations add colour and beauty to the lamp, but they accrete over time, filtering more and more of the original idea until it's almost completely obscured by man-made creeds and institutions. To the point now were many people think there is no light to be found.
"Now that God is Dead we have rampant materialism , uninformed by ethics or decency"
What a load of balderdash. The church has often and still continues to be materialistic. Most of the colonists who came to NZ were religious – struggling to reconcile Darwin and God and failing miserably.
History shows the geed of the church – from the Borgias to Robin Hood to churches running orphanages and single women shelters for profit.
The churches are part of and embedded in capitalism and always have been. Even today they do not pay tax as they should.
Capitalism too has waxed and waned – from the excesses of slavery to the cutting off of hands in Belgium to children working in mines. At many, many levels capitalism is much more benign than it once was – though this does still vary widely.
There is no golden age of godliness nor of capitalism. In general the reduction in influence of both in society is a good thing. We just need to take the best bits of both. You can also be moral without believing in god.
Because religion has little influence on moral judgements, say Pyysiäinen and Hauser, the latter hypothesis seems more likely. They argue that human populations evolved moral ideas about behavioural norms — which themselves promoted group cooperation — before they became encoded in religious systems. The researchers suggest that we may possess an innate 'moral grammar' that guides these ideas.
Outside of the experimental realm, observational studies indicate that nonhuman primates are also sensitive to nondistributional aspects of justice and fairness, such as judging the appropriateness of another’s behavior, providing a broader context in which to consider justice or fairness in these species.
Studying other species’ behaviors in these situations allows us to elucidate the evolutionary function of justice and fairness by exploring behaviors that are related, either because the behavior itself is a component of justice or fairness or because it represents a precursor to human behavior.
RL You constantly revert to thinking as an engineer. Religion is of the mind and spirit and thought, cars have had certain thoughts crystallised and turned into material items. Material and mental don't match up in the same way for comparisons.
Material and mental don't match up in the same way for comparisons.
The human mind is not very good at dealing with pure abstractions. It's why most people for instance are not high level mathematicians. Or why most people read the more esoteric works of thinkers like Karl Jung and their eyes tend to glaze over. I know mine do.
Therefore it's helpful to use analogies as a tool to help create the mental bridge between concrete realities we do grasp, and the invisible ones we have more trouble reaching.
It's doesn't mean the analogy is perfect – clue, it never is – but they are a quick shorthand for conveying a much more complex idea. The New Testament for example is full of well loved parables that use just this method.
But good luck in repairing it when all the mechanics are gone.
Based on the last service, it isn't the mechanics going missing that would be the worst issue. It would be the missing person who services the diagnostic electronics that would be the real problem.
I watched the mechanics plugin and run the diagnostic machine and then immediately go to the things that needed attention. Then followed the instructions.
Hopefully there was a real mechanic that had a look at it later for the nasty things outside of sensored equipment. I work with sensors a lot – and I don't trust them a lot.
We just need to take the best bits of both. You can also be moral without believing in god.
We tend to think of the Abrahamic God of the Jews & the Christians (and, less commonly in NZ, Muslims), when we speak of God. But there are other gods or god substitutes in other religions.
Any gods or religions which preach or teach tolerance, forgiveness, respect & consideration for others, and a healthy dose of realism to temper our dealings with individuals or situations where blindly applying those values would see us harmed or walked over, are worth taking the best bits from and applying them to our lives, imo.
And engage in objectively immoral acts as a fervent believer – human nature. Some agnostic, atheist and religious 'beliefs' (couldn't guess as to proportions) can each be 'bent' to serve morally dubious behaviours.
Religious and non-religious beliefs – each to their own, eh?
That interview is a veritable gold mine of nuggests on human nature & human societies, like this:
*we live in a civilization like the Star Wars movie series: we have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and godlike technology. That’s a huge problem! We’re not going to keep our balance and figure out the right things to do as long as we don’t understand or even accept that our emotions are Paleolithic, and that they have an evolved basis.
We have to figure out how our institutions came about and decide whether or not they are really viable for us, whether or not we are going to be viable with them, and start moving in the right directions. And that includes a lot of religious institutions. We’ve finally come to realize that religious belief is very dangerous, especially when people are willing to say that something is God’s will. We’re suffering from that idea all the time.*
Damn right! One of the best interviews I've seen for a long time.
I always said to myself, “Don’t get into a pissing contest with a skunk.” If you ask me what I most resent about that period looking back now, I think the answer is the amount of time I wasted. I spent countless hours talking with journalists who were writing stories about all this. They’d come to me and say, “Well, Professor Lewontin just said so-and-so, Professor Gould just said so-and-so.” Or, “I’ve read in the latest thing that they’ve said this. What do you say to that?” I felt that I couldn’t sit by and let them declare me to be a racist and a proto-Nazi. I couldn’t just say, “No comment.” So, I wasted enormous amounts of energy and time I could have used for something much more valuable. So, my advice would be, this too shall pass. Ignore it as much as you can. Conduct yourself with dignity and with courtesy and let it pass.
The Dean or the President of Harvard never called me in and asked me to straighten myself out. They never said, “You’re giving Harvard a bad name.” It was the other way around.
Admirable, the way he finessed the science/politics interface. I recall buying my copy of Consilience hot off the press & enjoying it while being rather disappointed at his lack of mental adventurism. He showed he was capable of deducing fundamental principles in a multidisciplinary context, with suitable validation – he just didn’t go far enough for my liking.
From the now embarrassingly Woke Scientific American:
We must reckon with his [RO Wilson] and other scientists’ racist ideas if we want an equitable future
Specifically, from one Monica R. McLemore: an associate professor in the Family Health Care Nursing Department and a clinician-scientist at Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health at the University of California, San Francisco.
Critical Race Theory’s wild-eyed out-of-control character assassination in action.
All these mediocre social science academics trying to grift themselves into 'scientists' of some description. They wouldn't know science if it was chewing on their arses.
Richard Lewontin was a groundbreaking geneticist, best known for bringing molecular tools into evolutionary biology and for his advocacy against the use of science to rationalize structural inequity.
JK Rowling has never resiled from her assertion that you can not change biological sex.
Most public figures with something to lose have issued grovelling apologies when they’ve fallen foul of the new high priests of current correct ideology .Not JK Rowling and for that she deserves every accolade.
Rowling will be proven right & be acknowledged as such. It’s just a question of time.
The ideology that insists that gender identity is the same thing as biological sex, & that both can be changed, is completely bogus, biologically inaccurate, & even just General Science will ultimately consign it to the rubbish bin, where it belongs.
Because it’s been so wrapped up in identity politics & refusal to accept it has led the Woke & weird to yell “hate speech”, what it really is, imo, has been lost in the noise. It’s a fad.
It's so depressing that this needs saying in reference to such a mundane commonplace as "Mammals can't change sex." Post-modernism has wrought a colossal failure in western education.
Lol, I must be tired. I came to your comment from the Comments tab and thought for a minute you were talking about Bill Rowling, and that his time might finally have come.
Bill is the other Rowling I have a lot of time for. My mum possibly still has the school prizegiving award that Bill Rowling wrote his congratulations on and signed before giving to me back in 1975, South Westland Area School being full of the kind of plebs a Labour leader felt some responsibility for back then.
cool story! My parents liked him, I was too young to understand what was good about him but remember later feeling like he was the kind of person who should be in politics but couldn't be because of how politics is.
I would say this of course, but I feel like the Muldoon years were an ideal introduction to politics for young NZers. On one side, Bill Rowling, a man of obvious integrity but not a charismatic TV personality, and on the other side Rob Muldoon, a man with appeal only to the ugliest aspects of the psyche but whose bombast and savage mockery made for great TV. Naturally, Muldoon slaughtered Rowling at the polls and introduced a very ugly time for NZ society. You really knew where you stood then.
OKLAHOMA CITY — An Oklahoma lawmaker wants to give parents the right to compel public school libraries to remove books that contains objectionable content of a sexual nature or addresses sexual preferences or sexual and gender identity.
Under Senate Bill 1142, if just one parent objects to a book it must be removed within 30 days. If it is not, the librarian must be fired and cannot work for any public school for two years. Parents can also collect at least $10,000 per day from school districts if the book is not removed as requested.
Critics of the measure say it’s unconstitutional, potentially causing chaos by giving a single parent the power to strip school library shelves. They also said the measure is targeting LGBTQ+ books.
You TERF's have your chain jerked by the Christian Right and you don't even know it. I see Putin supports Rowling now, the guy on the verge of locking up his country's entire LGBT population (if not exterminating them outright), while GC feminists are bankrolled by religious and far right group. A whole stinking Puritan cesspool, all based on biblical teachings about how people should live and what they should look like.
Unfortunately, more and more people see being transgender as an abomination against God and the Bible, and all trans people should be shunned from society. And TERF's are buying into that BS.
“Transgender as abomination….and terfs are buying into that”
there are some people who may see transgender people as abomination etc, but that is not my view or the view of the women (and men) I know who hav concerns about gender ideology.
one of the many concerns I have about the ideology is teaching very young children they can be born in the wrong body and that there are 50+ gender identities, then (and this is the bit that I fine most disturbing) is children as young as 10 years old are being given life altering medication to block their puberty, then cross sex hormones and surgery (e g double mastectomies at 16 years old). There is a growing number of young mostly women who regret this, but are left with irreversible damage, including fertility issues and inability to achieve orgasm,
I will try and post a link to a u tube clip with a 19 year old NZder who was seeing a counsellor aged 13 years and told the counsellor she thought she was bi sexual. The counsellor asked her if she thought she might be born in the wrong body and the girl said no. Then started to question herself. She then medically transitioned at at 19 regrets it. She has had both breast removed, she has a male sounding voice and looks male. This young person is stuck with these changes. Try and watch fives minutes and you will see the problem gender ideology is creating
Unfortunately, more and more people see being transgender as an abomination against God and the Bible, and all trans people should be shunned from society. And TERF's are buying into that BS.
Terf stands for trans exclusionary radical feminists. Radfems aren't buying into religious right morality.
I've not seen any GCFs say they want trans people shunned from society. Most are left wing or centre left and have liberal values that include trans acceptance.
Weka used the word themselves in recent days when describing GC allies in the UK.
To whit "Terf Island"
And I agree, the open hostility is now widely known and is the reason some contributors are no longer here.
[I repeat, you cannot use the word terf when referring to commenters here. It’s a slur. Many GCFs have claimed the word and like many words, including those used as slurs, it has more than one usage and meaning. The word itself isn’t banned here, I’m telling you where the boundaries are on usage. If you want to know more, ask.
Also giving you a warning: if you actively advocate against a moderation here then expect to get moderated. We have boundaries here for a reason. If you want to make a political argument about the word terf and why it should be used despite it being now largely a term of abuse against women, have at it. But don’t undermine moderation by tossing out your reckons in a casual way. – weka]
A man cannot become a woman and vice versa however transgender people are entitled to the same respect and protections as everyone else but trans woman should not compete against woman
and because some people have a tendency to obtuseness, if a GCF wants to use the term positively this won't be a problem. If you don't understand this, my suggestion is don't use the word at all.
And I agree, the open hostility is now widely known and is the reason some contributors are no longer here.
Snort. Show me your history of supporting women to write and comment on TS, and an understanding of why so many women have left, and I'll start to respect your views. Do the mahi of standing up for people you think are under-represented here rather than just slagging off others, and I'll start to respect you. Atm you just look like you are shitstirring.
Couldn't leave this last night due to maintenance.
Why do you think I want you to respect my views? Is that a pre-condition of not having my anonymity breached by you as you did some weeks ago? Ah no, it's just your crap attempt to paint me as a misogynist.
As for standing up for people who are under-represented on this site:
Well, I did stand up for the trans-woman Joanne before she grew sick of being referred to as a "pervert in a dress" and being told to "apologise for what she had done" and asked that a moderator intervene. That good enough for you?
Or how about the fact that I stood up for the rights of intersex people to have medical terms and language used in an inclusive manner. Because yes, people who are not women can menstruate, get pregnant and give birth. Oh I know, it throws a lot of 20th century feminist theory into the bin but it's a medical and scientific fact.
And that was met with cries of "But they are only a minority" by the GC crew here, showing their true colours.
Or perhaps you would prefer to hear about my past voluntary work for Auckland Action against Poverty (which resulted in WINZ changing one of their policies) and the NZ Prostitutes Collective. Or maybe my ongoing voluntary work with the blind community?
Nah, you're not interested. See ya
[“Is that a pre-condition of not having my anonymity breached by you as you did some weeks ago?”
Explain what you mean, and provide direct evidence, or retract, or face a ban. This is the second mod warning I’ve had to give you in as many comments. Don’t make shit up about me or moderation – weka]
Nope. I was just pointing out that I haven't seen you address the issues for women on this site. I have no idea if you are a misogynist.
If you think the GCFs are wrong, then get in and argue the politics. That's what we do here.
Well, I did stand up for the trans-woman Joanne before she grew sick of being referred to as a "pervert in a dress" and being told to "apologise for what she had done" and asked that a moderator intervene. That good enough for you?
I think you making shit up, or at least distorting what happened. But from what I can tell this is your MO. Instead of pointing to the evidence, you just throw out lazy specious arguments.
And sure, if you don't care if people respect you or not, I can see why you wouldn't respect TS.
I hate how this site has declared war on the transgender community.
From the Policy,
Attacking the blog site, or attributing a mind to a machine (ie talking about The Standard as if it had an opinion), or trying to imply that the computer that runs the site has some kind of mind control over authors and commentators is not allowed. Making such assertions will often get the sysop answering you, because he considers that those are comments directed at him personally. As a computer programmer he knows exactly how dumb machines are. If you’re lucky he will merely give you an educational ban. But sometimes when time is available, he does like to point out in a humiliating manner that machines are not intelligent – and neither is the person expressing that fallacy. .
My emphasis.
If you mean that the people that run the site have declared war on the transgender community, you're bullshitting. The authors cover a range of views on gender/sex issues.
If you are talking about me, then again, bullshitting. I've been careful to be clear that I am talking about gender identity ideology, and that the issue isn't trans people. Don't know what you mean by the transgender community, they're not a hive mind. Maybe you could pay more attention to the politics instead of throwing out lazy slurs.
Millsy, I respectfully ask that you consider watching a little of the clip Bill posted above. Then you might understand where some of us are coming from and what our concerns are.
I thought this was amazing that people voted for J K Rowling.
On another note those young actors who made their career from her work attending a re-union in the US that she has been excluded from……………what a way to treat someone you owe so much to. Likely those young stars wouldn't have a career without her
Can anyone recommend a meeting planner where I can add multiple dates and multiple times zones? All I'm seeing are single dates that mean having to enter lots of dates manually. On a mac.
Yes – another very good point weka. I recall when my father and brother visited us over Christmas here in Australia a few years back – there was this humiliating ritual of informing WINZ so as to be certain they could stop his disability benefit.
Then there is the related story of the numerous people stuck overseas due to COVID, who have turned 65 and cannot apply for the NZ Super they're entitled to.
True, that. Their theory was that you had to be waiting by the phone for when they called with a job that started that afternoon. As if that ever happened.
There’s a high trellis just outside my kitchen window. She & the other pooks (who learnt it off her) would fly up & perch on top of it so they could see when I came into the kitchen.
Then they’d fly down to the ground like that & ask for food (a handful of wheat grains or a grainy bread chunk).
She knew the sparrows would just get out of the way from previous experience.
Hope you have a great 2022, too. It’s been nice getting your supportive comments on my stream & back yard friends. They helped me thru some tuff times & help keep me focused on the wonders of nature & the wonderful range of personalities all animals seem to have.
Ha. Gorgeous. Especially when that big brolga bird is dancing.
Reminds me for some reason of a program I watched on Choice TV channel. Part of a series featuring a zoo somewhere in the UK. They had a pair of young African vultures who were really people-friendly, nice-tempered, & curious. They'd follow the keepers around and watch (& if necessary check out, with their beaks and feet) anything the keepers did.
They make a unique deep booming mating call and we're pretty sure we had one or two males calling from within the parkland next to our unit here in Brisbane this spring.
My partner thinks she caught a glimpse of one taking off one morning, but otherwise in their wild state they're notoriously secretive bird that is extremely hard to spot. We got a chat with one of the local bird watchers one morning who was a bit surprised, but he didn't rule it out.
Which is why this seeing this hand reared bird behaving in the open like Barry here is pretty special.
I can only imagine how terrified these vulnerable people would've been when they were confronted with either staying at home and dying or traveling to dialysis centres and risk contracting Covid and then dying.
The pandemic killed so many dialysis patients that their total number shrunk for the first time in nearly half a century. Few people took notice.
They were COVID-19’s perfect victims.
[…]
“It can’t help but feel like a massive failure when we have such a catastrophic loss of patients,” said Dr. Michael Heung, a clinical professor of nephrology at the University of Michigan. “It speaks to just how bad this pandemic has been and how bad this disease is.”
Before most patients reach advanced kidney failure, they are diagnosed with diabetes, hypertension or a host of other underlying conditions. Their immune systems are severely compromised, meaning they are essentially powerless to survive the most dangerous infections.
Many are old and poor. They also are disproportionately Black, as was Cosey. A 2017 study called end-stage renal disease “one of the starkest examples of racial/ethnic disparities in health.” Those inequities carried through to the pandemic. Dialysis patients who were Black or Latino, according to federal data, suffered higher rates of COVID-19 by every metric: infection, hospitalization, death.
Victimhood is in so they are following the zeitgeist, dialysis people affected by covid 19 who have been overlooked. Feeling goodness and gratitude for life-extending care is pushed aside. And ever older age is taken for granted while at the same time children are being denied secure homes and regular good food and a happy parent with time to love them and help them grow well. Too bad. It's all about 'my' rigjhts to grow and expand all round me and to hell with whatever my rights smother, that's not my affair.
Very wise. You have missed though, a wonderfully idiotic/myopic portrayal of an Elon Musk/Eftpost Brian "3rd wealthiest man on the planet" harpooning/lampooning that would have you shaking your head in wonder.
“In Horizon, Barry suggested that the culture hero—Prometheus or Siddhartha Gautama or Odysseus—is no longer relevant in an age when humanity is exceeding ecological limits. The scale of the problems we face in the Anthropocene, the era in which humans have altered the very bone structure of the planet, are simply beyond the lone hero’s ability to fix. I asked him what stories should replace the lone-hero story.”
“They haven’t been written yet,” Barry said. “We need new narratives, at the center of which is a concern for the fate of all people. The story can’t be about the heroism of one person. It has to be about the heroism of communities.”"
I think some very frustrated scientists and advocates tired of continually shouting into the void between politics and money finally let it all out in a film.
Watch “Death to 2021” – very dark sense of humour. I particularly liked the comedian playing the extremely thick ‘average’ English woman, Hugh Grant as the self-entitled senile anti-woke commentator. Lucy Lu deserves mention for her straight faced forever Washington correspondent. I wound up watching it twice because there were some quirks that I didn’t catch the first time around.
Her character Philomena Cunk does a wonderful take on TV documentarians who are interviewing experts and describing things they know absolutely nothing about. E.g. "Moments of Wonder", 4 and a half minutes about time.
So, how is it that the US sharemarket keeps going up but we have to stay home and there's fewer people not working but the foodbank lines are going round the block?
And why can't they just print money for us ordinary folks?
Anyone read Matthew Hooton's Herald column today? The lead sentence seems to be complimentary of Chris Hipkins. But of course being paywalled could read no further. Chris Hipkins does handle situations well, with humour on occasions, but quite firm when necessary.
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
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Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
"The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
Pacific Media Watch Earthwise hosts Lois and Martin Griffiths. Earthwise presenters Lois and Martin Griffiths on Plains FM 96.9 community radio talk to Dr David Robie, a New Zealand author, independent journalist and media educator with a passion for the Asia-Pacific region. David talks about the struggle to raise awareness ...
Pacific Media Watch Ismail al-Ghoul, an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent who was held for 12 hours at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, says Israeli forces rounded up Palestinian journalists at the facility and made them kneel on the ground for hours, while naked and blindfolded. “The occupation forces handcuffed and blindfolded us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Wood, Program Director, Energy, Grattan Institute chinasong, Shutterstock Electricity customers in four Australian states can breathe a sigh of relief. After two years in a row of 20% price increases, power prices have finally stabilised. In many places they’re ...
Chumbawamba have reportedly issued the deputy PM a cease-and-desist notice after he used their song 'Tubthumping' before his state of the nation speech. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney kitzcorner/Shutterstock The assertion from Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock Why are musicians so keen to get played on the radio? It can’t be because of the money. In Australia they are paid at rates so low they ...
"Farmers make a point not to tell our urban cousins how to live, yet Chlöe from central Auckland is hell-bent on having her say about farmers," says ACT Rural Communities spokesman Mark Cameron. “On her first day in the House as Green ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
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For the first time since the covid pandemic began I am cautiously optimistic that we may be entering the beginning of the end of it all.
I posted yesterday the conclusions of Chris Martensen of Peak Prosperity that omicron appears to be becoming the dominant variant of covid and, even though it is much more highly transmissible, does not appear to cause the same proportion of hospital cases or deaths.
Of course, a small percentage of a large number may be bigger than a large percentage of a small number; omicron may still have serious consequences for our health system.
But look at the graphs from Worldometer:
[Wouldn’t let me post screen shots of the daily cases and daily deaths graphs but here’s the link:]
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
Daily cases of covid appear to have gone through the roof.
But the world death rate has been trending down for some time.
Perhaps it’s too early to say but maybe omicron is not so deadly, in association with better treatment etc; we may be going to come out the other side of all this in 2022.
Here’s hoping. A happy new year to all on The Standard, and thanks to the moderators and Lprent.
things to look out for:
See why I support the precautionary principle?
There's a huge amount of reckons about omicron, and some of them might turn out to be right (eg it's mild). But once we press the button of loosening up or going back to normal, we can't unpress it. Some people want to take that gamble now, I want us to wait until we know more.
There is a huge statistically based body of work called “the health system” that is a multinational effort that points to omicron being of little harm.
'points to'
I want to wait until we actually know. Others want to bet the bank on a maybe.
More specifically, as I said in my first comment, we need to know how omicron will impact on older people and those with health vulnerabilities. From what I can tell the South African data doesn't help with that and it's too soon to know from the UK, US etc. Probably not too far away.
Omicron was first reported back in early November.
Everyone is saying 'Africa is different' and as a continent this is true. The majority of people still live outdoors and the demographics are very different. But this is less true of South Africa as a nation, and a quick look at their data for previous variant waves shows a strong response that is simply not there for Omicron.
Still I've not advocated for rushing to open the border to Omicron either, but how long until you consider we might be certain? And are we going to set an impossible standard to achieve that certainty?
dunno, what would be an impossible standard?
I haven't followed closely enough to have an opinion on timing, but those that have, why not just look at my original list and either think about timing on that basis, or present an argument for how omicron can be managed if we open up instead (don't see so much of that other than 'don't be scare', 'take vit D', vague hand wave in the direction of vulnerable people needing protection).
I'm still in favour of keeping the borders mostly closed (but sorting out the shitshow that is the MiQ lottery), using the longer MiQ stays for people coming across the border. Tightening up on whatever needs to be addressed because of omicron under the traffic light system. After the holidays, more public messaging would help.
And of course alongside that the whole Vit D etc (prevention and treatment), but I won't hold my breath on that one, because it's an impossible standard for NZ at this time 😉
So let's do what we can with the tools we have and the limitations of systems.
Incidentally you may find this reference of interest around the VitD issue:
Succinct is one word for it, but it's not a quick read either.
ta. Let me know if you find some science journalism coverage of that piece.
I expect the mainstream public health organisations will get there in the end.
On reflection and considering the still 'opaque' origin of Omicron, there are good reasons to keep an open mind around the longer term implications.
And this broadly applies to the whole pandemic and every aspect of it.
Seeing what it does in Australia over the next 6-8 weeks would be sufficient to determine if poses a risk to our health systems to the point that it displaces normal loading to the point that people with other critical health issues die of lack of medical attention.
So far that isn't looking good.
The main operational issue is that medical staff with covid-19 (or any other infectious disease) can't attend vulnerable patients. That stresses the remaining staff
NSW is a similar enough state with a more extensive health system. It is also open enough to view the full effects with limited public health measures to see what is likely to happen here.
Looking at the timeline fro NSW
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/458461/fresh-warning-about-omicron-variant-after-cases-skyrocket-in-nsw
It looks like omnicron really broke out of the initial community transfer about 2 weeks ago.
What is noticeable at present is that the lines for PCR testing have gone ridiculous. Also the uncontrolled price of RAT kits with their unreported testing has now gone to directly to price gouging. Which suggests a large epidemic sweeping the state
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-02/covid-omicron-cognitive-leap-into-2022/100734564
And that the number of reported cases from PCR testing have jumped from 3763 on Dec 22 to 18278 cases yesterday despite the various PCR testing blockages. It looks like it is still doubling the known community infection rate about every 4 days.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-02/nsw-records-18278-covid19-cases-two-deaths/100734294
The key measures however are the hospitalisation rate and the staff overload. That isn't looking good at what is still the early surge phase of a variant epidemic.
There isn't enough info to be sure in NSW, but it looks like about a 2 week period from to get from infection to hospitalisation based on the rates of increase. The number of hospitalisations for covid-19 in NSW has risen from 302 on Dec 22 to three times the number. They only had 166 on Dec 15 a week earlier. Can't be sure of the ICU
And here is the important thing.
If the rate of hospitalisations keeps rising by 2+ times every week in a nearly fully vaccinated state, you can see why they're worried.
It isn't an issue with how less damaging the omnicron outbreak is. That appears to be about 15-30% of the infection vs hospitalisation rate depending where you look world wide.
It is an issue with the rapid rate of infections rapidly driving up the health system into the ground with larger numbers at a lower rate of infection.
I don't think that vitamin D is going to do much in the short term even if it was efficacious. Not to mention that aussies in summer generate a lot of natural vitamin D along with their sunburn.
No we shouldn’t. Not if it’s curtailing the health, mental and physical, off the young and the healthy who have to pay for the old and the unwell in normal times.
from the observable data we can see it’s of little harm to all. We shouldn’t wait just in case there may be some small unknown that rears it’s head. That is a pointless exercise that, if followed in any path in life, leads to nothing good happening.
you can shut yourself off from society until you are happy to come out, but don’t demand society conform to your caution.
How is another month going to cause more harm than good in NZ?
Be specific. Not interested in vague generalities.
Oh good, please post the data on older people and those with pre-existing conditions. We'll leave out long covid for now because no-one has that.
Meanwhile, UK is looking at creating temporary hospitals because of the covid demand.
But hey, "little harm".
Anti-vaxxers say the darndest things.
https://twitter.com/taliaotg/status/1476023873191694342
Apparently these deranged fuckwits thought they’d hit the jackpot, a vaccination site.
https://twitter.com/culladgh/status/1476212244723732486
https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-police-appeal-for-information-after-dozens-of-anti-vaxxers-protest-at-testing-site-12505943
Somewhere else in the world where people want freedoms around Covid but then do their best to stop others exercising their freedom to choose to be vaccinated.
It is certainly a change from a decade ago when we had the nutters from Greenpeace destroying crops because they claimed that GMO would threaten the world's food supply.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-07-14/20110714-greenpeace-gm-protest/2794272#:~:text=Greenpeace%20protesters%20have%20broken%20into,crop%20of%20genetically%20modified%20wheat.&text=They%20say%20the%20entire%20crop,of%20Australia's%20first%20outdoor%20trials.
I wonder what they are doing now because it would certainly appear they lost that battle?
https://theconversation.com/from-this-week-every-mainland-australian-state-will-allow-genetically-modified-crops-heres-why-thats-nothing-to-fear-159976
Luddites like the anti-vaxxers weren't they?
Looks like they're winning to me.
https://www.greenpeace.org/international/story/51761/10-inspiring-environmental-victories-2021/
The Luddites were right. Capitalism was killing community and harming livelihoods and workers. Still is.
It's lucky that there are lots of different countries in the world.
I can find a place like Australia where they are doing what I think is sensible.
You can find one like Mexico taking the approach you think is correct.
Meanwhile we can both feel that the world is moving in the right direction.
ok, that's quite funny 🙂
One of the good things about this site are the links on the right hand side that bring to your notice things that you may not normally get to view.
Enjoyed the exHalant post which amongst other things reminds you that the right wants you to give up, to think that things are too hard and to not participate. Thatcher's there is no community.
This was a trend I noticed in the 80's – the move by business to blame government for their failures rather than their own uselessness. Their high indebtedness, their low wages, their lack of savings etc all the governments fault. At the same time blaming the poor for being poor. Both narratives designed to consolidate their own position.
"The most annoying part of extreme narratives, of dumping all ills on “the other”, is it allows people to relieve themselves of that duty: telling yourself something is “too big to combat!”, “it’s too overwhelming!” to do anything about is the easy way out.
And nothing would please those who seed the most distorted of narratives more than for people to continue believing in snake oil salesmen Saviours, those who present themselves as having those “instant fixes” to hyper-complex societal issues. And then: selling you out…."
https://exhalantblog.wordpress.com/2021/12/29/sorry-reality-just-doesnt-care-about-how-contrarians-or-political-ideological-and-religious-absolutists-feelings-deal-with-it/
Good to see some real people recognised…
New Year Honours: Outstanding Kiwis despite the tough times | Stuff.co.nz
Not enough Tories for my liking. Hopefully Luxon will change that.
So a quarter of all public servants are suspect? That's what you get if you apply statistical theory and extrapolate from corrections staff to the whole.
The dept of corrections had 8,000 staff at the start of the period: https://www.corrections.govt.nz/resources/strategic_reports/annual-reports/annual_report_201516/corrections_by_the_numbers
So a quarter of the public service is error-prone. To err is human, so one could argue that this sizable minority is intent on demonstrating their humanity.
Hardly surprising given some of the clowns around these parts who've ended up working as screws.
Yep, one such clown is a regular poster on here.
I wonder what percentage of posters are ex-cons?
Depends on what you consider to be an 'ex-con'.
For instance I have been convicted of being a underage drinker and serving three other minors.
Basically wandered down to our local at the Puhio pub from the farm one night with my siblings. I was on leave from the army. Ran in between some over zealous Takapuna cops (well known dipshits at the time) and the pub owner (a known dipso) that they wanted remove a liquor license from. So they laid charges when I said that I didn't know who I'd been served by (and I didn't actually know, nor did I care, and the dipshits annoyed me).
So months later, I had to take time off from my bar job (still underage) and miss a few university lectures to come up to see a judge to get a fine. With the police still ineffectually telling me that they'd drop the charges if I told them what they wanted to know.
I have also been convicted of driving without a license.
I never bothered to renew the 'lifetime' license I got back in the 1990s. In that case I got another small fine after I undertook not to drive again until I went and re-sat the license. Never bothered to pick up my car from the impound yard. It wasn't work much, and it wasn't worth paying the impound fees. At that point I was working from home and only going to work once a month to see the dev team I was running – I hadn't needed a car for a few years before my niece needed to be dropped home because she was late.
Anyway. You are correct – there are ex-cons here including the sysop. Should I now start discussing what I think of dimwitted fools who think that this is something that is important in the context of this site?
I never bothered to renew the 'lifetime' one I got back in the 1990s. In that case I got another small fine after I undertook not to drive again until I went and re-sat the license.
Interesting – my partner saw that change as a major breach of faith by government and to this day remains very unimpressed.
So was I.
But in this case it was more like I just didn't get around to it. Mostly because I wasn't driving very much.
I didn't bother to get a license for about another 5 years (2007 according to the license). A friend of mine went to work in China and left me her car to take care of. So I sat the test again in her wee sports car. A few years later she sold it via her dad.
Didn't replace it for a few years as I literally don't need a car that much. I use taxis or just hire a car when I need to. Or borrow my partners vehicle. Or since 2014, a awful lot of flying worldwide for work. Or since 2017 I use a e-bike a lot.
My last car was a cheap discard from a family member. That died in 2019 after I'd put about 15k on its clock after nearly a decade.
Brought a small hybrid during the latest lockdown because my new job has a requirement to go to Hamilton periodically to integrate into the dev team. However it may be a functional lemon because that process appears to have successfully be done online over the last 3+ months.
Nice to drive though. Makes a useful shopping cart to the supermarket.
I do find it difficult to understand why some people seem to treat driving as so much of their identity. They’re pain to park. You have to spend time watching the other idiots on the road. And as for commuting – that is just such a stupid way to waste life time.
My current transport most days:
.
"I never bothered to renew the 'lifetime' one I got back in the 1990s."
Snap, same with me, as far as I was concerned, a both parties had to agree when changing a contract. I copped a few fines over the years.
I recall, when introduced, we assured the new photo licences wouldn't be used as I.D.. That didn't last long as the drinking age in puns dropped the licence became a de-facto I.D.
Well, although these are very minor peccadilloes they obviously had a marked effect on you.
That you can recall what happened in such detail after what must be close to half a century would surely show that you did not find your treatment for such trivial things as something to be glossed over. Perhaps that was enough to keep you strictly on the right side of the law in the future. They do seem pretty minor though. You are probably right in your assumption that they were just trying to use you as a pawn in the attempted prosecution of the owner of the pub. They could hardly be concerned with such activities by a kid.
alwyn,I say alwyn…a few ex conservatives no doubt and a number of conservationists…still.
Actually, according to Wikipedia, they were far mote likely to be from the Labour Party.
There are 20 New Zealand politicians who Wiki records as having been convicted of a crime. A quick count shows that there were 9 from the Labour Party and 4 from National. I'm afraid I have to go out and I don't have time to go into more detail but you can see them all here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:New_Zealand_politicians_convicted_of_crimes
Happy New Year.
You appear to have overlooked the statement at the top of that page that explains why there is a difference
There are others who were convicted of blatantly political ‘crimes’ related to unionism. Some for having ‘seditious’ books – ie they read things other than the NZ Herald – the paper of the stupid.
Personally I’d class them as political convictions.
On the other hand, I suspect that you neglected to add in the convicted who were members of the Reform or United or any of the parties who became part of the National party. Bearing in mind just how juvenile the National party is compared to Labour, you should add those in.
Plus it was notable just how many National party politicians or proto-National party politicians were convicted of fraud offences. Thereby showing if you want a conman – it pays to go National.
Just have to look at the detail to get the true picture. You can’t be as stupid as a Farrar.
/sarc
Whos that? I'd like to compare notes with them, I think it'd be interesting
Whats a screw?
righty tighty, lefty loosey.
How the hell do you know what I say to my wife to initiate marital relations?!?!?
Oh dear PR, I'll never get that image out of my mind when muttering when undoing a recalcitrant screw, I mean nut, I mean bolt ……you know what I mean……
You don't also say 'left hand down bit' like Leslie Phillips' character in The Navy Lark'.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVzmVLUbSos
You only get a quarter if you don't understand maths. The correct calculation would be 2,000 divided by the total number of staff employed by corrections in that five years.
For the figures for the two years provided 4% and 10% of those investigated lost their jobs through dismissal or resignation. That would be a pittance of the total staff and from my experience lower than the number of staff pinching money in the bank where I used to work. Those numbers are not well publicised though cause the bank doesn't like you to know – much harder these days with less cash too.
The correct calculation would be 2,000 divided by the total number of staff employed by corrections in that five years.
True; they don't quantify the churn factor. And the numbers found guilty are significantly less than the numbers suspected of wrongdoing, which is normal re comparison to the output of the justice system.
So what we get from the establishment is indication instead of truth-telling. Obviously it would spook the horses to tell the truth about the size of the problem. Better to sustain naive belief that the system works according to plan.
Nah it isn't hidden or some conspiracy. Turnover is on the SSC website.
Around 10% per annum under Labour, 13% to 16% under the Law and Order Party National.
https://www.publicservice.govt.nz/our-work/workforce-data/drill-down-data-cubes/#s2
Well done, you get the Sleuth of the Day award already for that. So looks like we can reduce the suspect quota of the public service a wee bit on that basis. I'll leave the maths to you but I'm guessing around 20%…
8,000 staff with the lower 10% turnover rate would be 800 per year Over 5 years that would be 4,000 staff so 12,000 total.
17% investigated assuming each staff member was only investigated once which was probably not the case. Lower if you use the higher turnover rates.
Thanks for that. Safe to assume a portion of those suspected would be due to vendettas or accusations based on wrongly-interpreted behaviour or statements, so we can reasonably drop the estimate down from 17% somewhat. Around one public servant in 6 or 7 being dodgy is certainly more reassuring than one in four…
heh
except the other way of doing it is that 2284 over 5years is only 540/8000/year, i.e. about 7%.
Which might be more fair, if the bulk of those being investigated are newer workers who screw (lol) up, lose their rag, or whatever. Or just don't document things properly – that can get you in shit in a lot of places, without actually doing anything wrong.
You might find this story interesting (or not) or it might just confirm what you're already thinking.
So I was pretty new and I was in J Block (seg unit in Chch Mens, the real single person, hand cuffed and multiple officer escort type) and one of the things drummed into us in training college was to get to know your prisoners
So I was reading the prisoners in the unit file notes and records and what not, which you're allowed to do if you're working in the unit, you can't just look people up because thats a big no-no, as in you're fired no-no
So about three months later I got please explain (from HR because of course it was) as to why I was looking up this prisoner (reasonbly well known but also because of the timing of when I looked him up and yes I'm being deliberately vague)
I said I was in the unit and then a couple of days later I was told to go to a meeting with management, HR and that I should bring a representative along
As my union rep pointed out that I was only doing what i was taught in training and that approximately 9 other, new, officers were up for the same thing it certainly taught me a thing or two about how Corrections and government departments work
Yeah, there's been a few cases over the last few five years (? who knows time anymore) in various departments where looky-loos have been picked up by centralised IT access logging getting new flags to throw up – but when you patch in something, it can throw a spanner in the works.
The "easy" way around it is to throw in some cross-validation between staff assignments and prisoner units. But then sure as eggs HR and prisoner records will be on completely different systems, and that's if the assignments for each one goes down to sufficient detail.
I've always thought it'd be really interesting if every CO had to go through a complete pysch evaluation
Also be interesting to know how many Officers have gang links…
I wonder if the turnover was higher under National because they sacked the ones who misbehaved, as opposed to the probable Labour approach that the offenders meant well but had been hurt by colonialism and they were really very nice people?
Do your figures help determine whether that hypothesis is true?
My hypothesis would be that national are a bunch of facist fuckers setting nonsense targets and putting in shit like double bunking that would result in higher turnover as people said WTF.
The figures themselves add nothing to either hypothesis.
I have just found out my computer is non compliant for Windows 11. Hell, I'm running a 3.6 quad core processor that Microsoft does not recognise! 32 GB of ram apparently doesn't impress them…and there's a whole host of other things that need to be switched on or down loaded. For the effort, I doubt Windows 11 will be worth it for me. I will move permanently to Linux after 2024 ( when support for Windows10 stops).
Don't wait to ditch windows, do it now! Ubuntu user for 10 years, it just works. Turns on or off in seconds, not like the fat bloated windows.
If you consult with Google, you will find you can bypass / ignore that Windows 11 non-compliant warning, and install it anyway (bit of mucking around). Whether you would bother is another thing.
Mostly it is just seems to be to turn on the TPM 2 in the bios and enabling secure boot. It is unlikely that anything that is less than about 8-10 years old won’t have those two features.
I fixed my partners Threadripper in about 30 minutes for compliance by doing some reading and reboots. It still didn't install windows 11 – but that is because they haven't done the CPU/board support yet and she doesn't get the download available for a few months.
However unless you play some particular action games or want to run the Adobe suite or one of the other specialist bits of software – then there is no real reason not to flip to linux.
I did that in about 2007. My last windows box ran The Standard for about 6-7 months and died in 2008. I'm now completely kubuntu on my home servers (including the one running this site), my laptop and my finally my work laptop. Really glad about the latter – the blasted company spyware and antimalware made a fast laptop crawl like a Pentium 3.
Interestingly however virtually all industrial automation packages run on Windows platforms exclusively. What we tend to do now is deliver pre-tested VM images that have been correctly configured and tuned – and they run very well.
The last big project I've just come off was running 24 Server 2016 VM's on a fairly modestly powered hardware stack (Dell R610's) and after I fixed up the various cock-ups from my predecessors it ran really well. And very stable. While we all have Windows horror stories from the 90's to re-tell over a beer, it's my modest sense that MS have generally gotten a lot better over time.
I do get the enduring appeal of the various Linux derived distros, but for most of the non-geek world Windows is going to be with us for a while yet.
Thanks for info.
So, DJ Dimension was allowed into the country three times as a critical worker because he had skills not available in New Zealand.
Really? So there are no DJs here? A slap in the face to all those who are desperate to see loved ones, or doctors and nurses who might be a little more "critical".
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300488326/covid19-dj-dimension-on-third-border-exemption-to-nz-since-december-2020
I have no problem at all with some artists and sportspeople and politicians, etc being allowed in. It too is part of trying to have some semblance of normal. And yeah we have DJ’s but would you pay to go and see them over and above this one.
Don't know why people are getting het up about it. We can walk and chew bubblegum at the same time. It is well known that some places are reserved for these types of things but the article does go on to point out it wasn't even one of the reserved spots.
I'd be more antsy at those who book rooms who don't then use them frankly. This apparently is quite common.
Give me nurses over your 'artists' any day.
Yeah, right. Those "essential" acts seemed to have been replaced very quickly by the organisers.
Fat Freddy's Drop for me any day over some celebrity DJ.
Totally agree. Unbelievable this guy has accessed MIQ three times…………
And nurses and other real critical workers, NZ citizens in dire need can't get into our country.
The guy applied for MIQ in November, at a time when there was minimal demand for MIQ places.
I don’t believe there is ever low demand for MIQ. We are short of skilled workers, who are critical to our country. Also don’t think all the families who are separated have been reunited
The Queen is in poor health (so i hear)…..what will NZ do about a Head of State when she dies?
I imagine there is some form of planning in place given the statement from various figures in the past that nothing will occur while QE2 is alive.
Nothing will change when she dies. There is little value in moving to a republic – particularly if the constitution is written by politicians.
Building in aspects of the Magna Carta, Charter of The Forests, Treaty of Waitangi seems much less of a priority to those advocating for a republic than the notion of survival of the fittest, individualistic crap coming out of America. Have little time for any of the public utterances by anyone so far promoting a republic as the way to go. Many seem to see it as a way of getting rid of the Treaty.
Nothing?….I'd be very surprised.
There may be little value in moving to say, a republic but thats never stopped change before….at the very least I expect it will reinvigorate those seeking change (of all manner)
Good question and conclusions I think. Don't jettison anything. The Queen has been a bright star on the horizon trying to maintain a civil approach to life with ethical values and nice hats to boot, or head I should say. Charles is fine, deserving admiration for maintaining royal standards and promoting business along ethical and environmental lines after coping with heartfelt personal difficulties.
People talk about royalty as if it was an old coat hanging in a wardrobe and due to be cleared out by some clutter-buster of the minimalist cell-furnished variety.
'Nothing will change when she dies. There is little value in moving to a republic – particularly if the constitution is written by politicians'
A constitution written for New Zealand would be a disaster. Maori would demand such a constitution be based on the Treaty. Politicians would baulk at anything threatening their absolute power to rule unless there were ''out clauses. '' If a treaty was ever implemented I would like an amendment that allows the people of New Zealand to remove a government by force if necessary should any attempt be made to subvert the constitution. All in all -best leave things as they are for everyone's peace of mind.
Good to see Guardian readers support JK Rowling, despite the loud denunciations of her as a transphobe.
She received many nominations for a Person of the Year poll.
The Guardian for some reason doesn't break down the numbers each person received
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/30/guardian-readers-nominate-their-person-of-the-year
JK Rowling has never resiled from her assertion that you can not change biological sex.
Most public figures with something to lose have issued grovelling apologies when they've fallen foul of the new high priests of current correct ideology .Not JK Rowling and for that she deserves every accolade
That's inspiring. Courage in the face of that much public shaming is not a common thing.
You may enjoy this essay on Edward O Wilson’s life:
Then there are the true heretics,where a wrong constant could be fatal such as Zamyatin.
http://soviethistory.msu.edu/1929-2/proletarian-writers/proletarian-writers-texts/zamiatins-letter-to-stalin/
(name spelling incorrect)
Perhaps one of the greater conceits of the West is that we imagined ourselves somehow immune to these mass failures of the collective psyche.
Who would have thought we in the highly evolved freedom loving west would have been so susceptible to totalitarian thinking .
Like One Way religious thinking
Yet oddly enough our ancestors relied on religion to create the grand narratives which held their societies together and drove them to survive and thrive in a very hostile world.
It is of course very easy to discount many of the things they believed in. Like an adult knows there is no fat man in a red suit slipping bright and shiny down sooty chimneys. Yet we know the story meant a great deal to them as a child, and as an adult carries an even greater symbolic weight.
How to resolve this paradox? That the literal narratives of humanity's collective childhood now offends our science informed minds should not cause us to think there is no transcendence.
Religion is story-telling. Beyond religion there is science. Science is storytelling. Beyond science, there is story-telling. Without story-telling, there is unconsciousness. There is no unconsciousness in a conscious universe. Our universe is a conscious one.
There is no unconsciousness in a conscious universe.
That would have to be the case.
Our universe is a conscious one.
Perhaps. The universe could actually be God, or the creator, or one of several creators. We still don't actually know how, or why, our universe came into existence, so stories – or conjectures – are all we have to work with.
Alternatively, the universe might not be conscious. It might just have been created to evolve over time and space without any awareness, as a process, according to laws of physics we still don't understand.
That still leaves open the question of whether a conscious mind created it, (and for me another question – why?).
The really important thing is that WE are conscious – and able to think about & try to understand and explain these things, don't you think?
– Carl Sagan
I like that. Carl Sagan was without equal in explaining the cosmos to mere mortals like me.
Indeed. "a" way. The "universe" and its composite elements know also, in their own way. Ours is a funky little knowing-niche though, that's for sure!
There is nothing that is unconscious and unknowing, imo.
It seems to me the universe is evolving and we along with it, toward a tremendously creative point (or plane, or x-dimensional form 🙂
And the rate of evolution is speeding up noticeably 🙂
I'm reading about Slavoj Zizek's thinking that behind our eyes all is fiction. I like him but he goes OTT. He could stop talking about voids and nothingness behind us, and honour our remarkable flights of fancy, our fantastic abilities to grow our fictions. One author I like has written so much about a fictional family that she has the thought that one day she could hear a knock and one of her characters would drop by to correct some of her story-telling errors.
I believe in the reality of The Standard, in Lynn Prentice, its founder and wish him and Lyn well for 2022, also all the people that I enjoy reading, particularly Robert Guyton, hello there and Robyn too. Ata marie and kia ora to you all.^-!-^
Thank you, greywarshark – Robyn and I both wish you all the best for the coming/imminent new year 🙂
RL re religion
I agree with you
Organised religion is something else.One Way religion is actually a prescription for the dark ages,Mumbo Jumbo and power dynamics
Now that God is Dead we have rampant materialism , uninformed by ethics or decency
Organised religion is something else. One Way religion is actually a prescription for the dark ages,Mumbo Jumbo and power dynamics
Yes. That gets to the heart of the matter. Stepping back and looking at the grand gamut of world religions it seems as if we took a lantern – a single common source of light and guidance- and then people decorated it to suit the needs and modes of thought of the era they lived in.
At first the decorations add colour and beauty to the lamp, but they accrete over time, filtering more and more of the original idea until it's almost completely obscured by man-made creeds and institutions. To the point now were many people think there is no light to be found.
I do like your light allusion.
There's a great deal that's illuminated by looking toward the light.
Thank you.
"Now that God is Dead we have rampant materialism , uninformed by ethics or decency"
What a load of balderdash. The church has often and still continues to be materialistic. Most of the colonists who came to NZ were religious – struggling to reconcile Darwin and God and failing miserably.
History shows the geed of the church – from the Borgias to Robin Hood to churches running orphanages and single women shelters for profit.
The churches are part of and embedded in capitalism and always have been. Even today they do not pay tax as they should.
Capitalism too has waxed and waned – from the excesses of slavery to the cutting off of hands in Belgium to children working in mines. At many, many levels capitalism is much more benign than it once was – though this does still vary widely.
There is no golden age of godliness nor of capitalism. In general the reduction in influence of both in society is a good thing. We just need to take the best bits of both. You can also be moral without believing in god.
You can also be moral without believing in god.
You can drive a car without knowing how it works too. But good luck in repairing it when all the mechanics are gone.
https://www.nature.com/articles/news.2010.55
and
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3690609/
As to the analogy:
good luck in repairing it when all the mechanics are gone.
One could always just read the Haynes Manual
RL You constantly revert to thinking as an engineer. Religion is of the mind and spirit and thought, cars have had certain thoughts crystallised and turned into material items. Material and mental don't match up in the same way for comparisons.
@gw
Material and mental don't match up in the same way for comparisons.
The human mind is not very good at dealing with pure abstractions. It's why most people for instance are not high level mathematicians. Or why most people read the more esoteric works of thinkers like Karl Jung and their eyes tend to glaze over. I know mine do.
Therefore it's helpful to use analogies as a tool to help create the mental bridge between concrete realities we do grasp, and the invisible ones we have more trouble reaching.
It's doesn't mean the analogy is perfect – clue, it never is – but they are a quick shorthand for conveying a much more complex idea. The New Testament for example is full of well loved parables that use just this method.
I don't get it.
Where have the mechanics…gone?
Based on the last service, it isn't the mechanics going missing that would be the worst issue. It would be the missing person who services the diagnostic electronics that would be the real problem.
I watched the mechanics plugin and run the diagnostic machine and then immediately go to the things that needed attention. Then followed the instructions.
Hopefully there was a real mechanic that had a look at it later for the nasty things outside of sensored equipment. I work with sensors a lot – and I don't trust them a lot.
We just need to take the best bits of both. You can also be moral without believing in god.
We tend to think of the Abrahamic God of the Jews & the Christians (and, less commonly in NZ, Muslims), when we speak of God. But there are other gods or god substitutes in other religions.
Any gods or religions which preach or teach tolerance, forgiveness, respect & consideration for others, and a healthy dose of realism to temper our dealings with individuals or situations where blindly applying those values would see us harmed or walked over, are worth taking the best bits from and applying them to our lives, imo.
Absolutely As well as accepting morals change – sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse.
Ameliorating the excess of both religion and capitalism are both good things.
Generally society continues overall to get better. There are blips along the way.
Perhaps we can lean towards believing in being good to each other even if we don't believe in god. It tends to have cost benefits.
And RL I have used analogies a lot hadn't you noticed.
A simple joke for people with warped minds.
Graffiti on wall. 'Men prefer good-looking grils.'
Reply – You are referring to girls I think.
Reply – What about us grils?
And engage in objectively immoral acts as a fervent believer – human nature. Some agnostic, atheist and religious 'beliefs' (couldn't guess as to proportions) can each be 'bent' to serve morally dubious behaviours.
Religious and non-religious beliefs – each to their own, eh?
Perhaps one of the greater conceits of the West is that we imagined ourselves somehow immune to these mass failures of the collective psyche.
Oh shit, did we what. Rowling's treatment is one of the big examples of how we're not immune.
RL upthread
Thanks for that EO Wilson piece
Good read
👍🏼
That interview is a veritable gold mine of nuggests on human nature & human societies, like this:
*we live in a civilization like the Star Wars movie series: we have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and godlike technology. That’s a huge problem! We’re not going to keep our balance and figure out the right things to do as long as we don’t understand or even accept that our emotions are Paleolithic, and that they have an evolved basis.
We have to figure out how our institutions came about and decide whether or not they are really viable for us, whether or not we are going to be viable with them, and start moving in the right directions. And that includes a lot of religious institutions. We’ve finally come to realize that religious belief is very dangerous, especially when people are willing to say that something is God’s will. We’re suffering from that idea all the time.*
Damn right! One of the best interviews I've seen for a long time.
Admirable, the way he finessed the science/politics interface. I recall buying my copy of Consilience hot off the press & enjoying it while being rather disappointed at his lack of mental adventurism. He showed he was capable of deducing fundamental principles in a multidisciplinary context, with suitable validation – he just didn’t go far enough for my liking.
.
RL
From the now embarrassingly Woke Scientific American:
Specifically, from one Monica R. McLemore: an associate professor in the Family Health Care Nursing Department and a clinician-scientist at Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health at the University of California, San Francisco.
Critical Race Theory’s wild-eyed out-of-control character assassination in action.
I mean for chrissakes … give me strength !
All these mediocre social science academics trying to grift themselves into 'scientists' of some description. They wouldn't know science if it was chewing on their arses.
This isn't exactly a new claim:
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01936-6
He was also a colleague of Wilson's and made the same claim before 1986 very publicly
Well said. She's certainly showing immense courage.
Courage, mon (mom) brave!
JK Rowling has never resiled from her assertion that you can not change biological sex.
Most public figures with something to lose have issued grovelling apologies when they’ve fallen foul of the new high priests of current correct ideology .Not JK Rowling and for that she deserves every accolade.
Rowling will be proven right & be acknowledged as such. It’s just a question of time.
The ideology that insists that gender identity is the same thing as biological sex, & that both can be changed, is completely bogus, biologically inaccurate, & even just General Science will ultimately consign it to the rubbish bin, where it belongs.
Because it’s been so wrapped up in identity politics & refusal to accept it has led the Woke & weird to yell “hate speech”, what it really is, imo, has been lost in the noise. It’s a fad.
It's so depressing that this needs saying in reference to such a mundane commonplace as "Mammals can't change sex." Post-modernism has wrought a colossal failure in western education.
Lol, I must be tired. I came to your comment from the Comments tab and thought for a minute you were talking about Bill Rowling, and that his time might finally have come.
Bill is the other Rowling I have a lot of time for. My mum possibly still has the school prizegiving award that Bill Rowling wrote his congratulations on and signed before giving to me back in 1975, South Westland Area School being full of the kind of plebs a Labour leader felt some responsibility for back then.
cool story! My parents liked him, I was too young to understand what was good about him but remember later feeling like he was the kind of person who should be in politics but couldn't be because of how politics is.
Muldoon destroyed him-'keep NZ Rowling…downhill'!
I would say this of course, but I feel like the Muldoon years were an ideal introduction to politics for young NZers. On one side, Bill Rowling, a man of obvious integrity but not a charismatic TV personality, and on the other side Rob Muldoon, a man with appeal only to the ugliest aspects of the psyche but whose bombast and savage mockery made for great TV. Naturally, Muldoon slaughtered Rowling at the polls and introduced a very ugly time for NZ society. You really knew where you stood then.
Too bad she wasn't as outspoken when they burned her books in the Bible Belt.
Someone mentioned book burning?
Yup, woke mobs are the real book-burners.
/
OKLAHOMA CITY — An Oklahoma lawmaker wants to give parents the right to compel public school libraries to remove books that contains objectionable content of a sexual nature or addresses sexual preferences or sexual and gender identity.
Under Senate Bill 1142, if just one parent objects to a book it must be removed within 30 days. If it is not, the librarian must be fired and cannot work for any public school for two years. Parents can also collect at least $10,000 per day from school districts if the book is not removed as requested.
Critics of the measure say it’s unconstitutional, potentially causing chaos by giving a single parent the power to strip school library shelves. They also said the measure is targeting LGBTQ+ books.
https://www.mcalesternews.com/cnhi_network/oklahoma-bill-gives-parents-the-right-to-have-a-book-removed-from-a-school-library/article_2cd5f468-641c-11ec-9674-475897eac565.html
…just one parent…
The world has gone crazy.
You TERF's have your chain jerked by the Christian Right and you don't even know it. I see Putin supports Rowling now, the guy on the verge of locking up his country's entire LGBT population (if not exterminating them outright), while GC feminists are bankrolled by religious and far right group. A whole stinking Puritan cesspool, all based on biblical teachings about how people should live and what they should look like.
[Terf is a slur, and a sexist one at that. https://terfisaslur.com/
You can’t use it on this site when referring to other commenters, any more than you could could call someone here a slut or a fag. – weka]
[RL: I saw this earlier and it sent my mod senses tingling, but I didn’t act. Now I wish I had.]
"you terfs have your chain jerked by the Christian Right and you don't even know it"
That just shows me Millsy you have no understanding of the issues around gender ideology and their demands and how this is impacting women.
The 'demand' to be left alone.
Unfortunately, more and more people see being transgender as an abomination against God and the Bible, and all trans people should be shunned from society. And TERF's are buying into that BS.
there are some people who may see transgender people as abomination etc, but that is not my view or the view of the women (and men) I know who hav concerns about gender ideology.
one of the many concerns I have about the ideology is teaching very young children they can be born in the wrong body and that there are 50+ gender identities, then (and this is the bit that I fine most disturbing) is children as young as 10 years old are being given life altering medication to block their puberty, then cross sex hormones and surgery (e g double mastectomies at 16 years old). There is a growing number of young mostly women who regret this, but are left with irreversible damage, including fertility issues and inability to achieve orgasm,
I will try and post a link to a u tube clip with a 19 year old NZder who was seeing a counsellor aged 13 years and told the counsellor she thought she was bi sexual. The counsellor asked her if she thought she might be born in the wrong body and the girl said no. Then started to question herself. She then medically transitioned at at 19 regrets it. She has had both breast removed, she has a male sounding voice and looks male. This young person is stuck with these changes. Try and watch fives minutes and you will see the problem gender ideology is creating
This one?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmEao1QHiPI
Thanks Bill for posting. Yes that is the clip. I was unable to post it.
All good. Saw it a few weeks back. "Disturbing" to say the least.
Terf stands for trans exclusionary radical feminists. Radfems aren't buying into religious right morality.
I've not seen any GCFs say they want trans people shunned from society. Most are left wing or centre left and have liberal values that include trans acceptance.
You just don't know what you are talking about.
Better watch out, Millsy doesn't like being challenged
And without prompting, out comes the name calling. So tolerant. So inclusive.
And without prompting up pops the know-it-all preachiness of those excited to overturn the patterns of aeons of evolution.
Fyi, 'TERF' is a misogynist slur. If you're not a misogynist, avoid using it.
mod note for you millsy. I need an acknowledgement from you that you have seen this mod note and I really don't want to have to chase you up on it.
Ok – I won't use that term again.
I hate how this site has declared war on the transgender community.
Actually Mills, you should.
Weka used the word themselves in recent days when describing GC allies in the UK.
To whit "Terf Island"
And I agree, the open hostility is now widely known and is the reason some contributors are no longer here.
[I repeat, you cannot use the word terf when referring to commenters here. It’s a slur. Many GCFs have claimed the word and like many words, including those used as slurs, it has more than one usage and meaning. The word itself isn’t banned here, I’m telling you where the boundaries are on usage. If you want to know more, ask.
Also giving you a warning: if you actively advocate against a moderation here then expect to get moderated. We have boundaries here for a reason. If you want to make a political argument about the word terf and why it should be used despite it being now largely a term of abuse against women, have at it. But don’t undermine moderation by tossing out your reckons in a casual way. – weka]
A man cannot become a woman and vice versa however transgender people are entitled to the same respect and protections as everyone else but trans woman should not compete against woman
mod note Cinder, I need an acknowledgement you have seen this.
Acknowledged, and a reply for you below
and because some people have a tendency to obtuseness, if a GCF wants to use the term positively this won't be a problem. If you don't understand this, my suggestion is don't use the word at all.
Snort. Show me your history of supporting women to write and comment on TS, and an understanding of why so many women have left, and I'll start to respect your views. Do the mahi of standing up for people you think are under-represented here rather than just slagging off others, and I'll start to respect you. Atm you just look like you are shitstirring.
Couldn't leave this last night due to maintenance.
Why do you think I want you to respect my views? Is that a pre-condition of not having my anonymity breached by you as you did some weeks ago? Ah no, it's just your crap attempt to paint me as a misogynist.
As for standing up for people who are under-represented on this site:
Well, I did stand up for the trans-woman Joanne before she grew sick of being referred to as a "pervert in a dress" and being told to "apologise for what she had done" and asked that a moderator intervene. That good enough for you?
Or how about the fact that I stood up for the rights of intersex people to have medical terms and language used in an inclusive manner. Because yes, people who are not women can menstruate, get pregnant and give birth. Oh I know, it throws a lot of 20th century feminist theory into the bin but it's a medical and scientific fact.
And that was met with cries of "But they are only a minority" by the GC crew here, showing their true colours.
Or perhaps you would prefer to hear about my past voluntary work for Auckland Action against Poverty (which resulted in WINZ changing one of their policies) and the NZ Prostitutes Collective. Or maybe my ongoing voluntary work with the blind community?
Nah, you're not interested. See ya
[“Is that a pre-condition of not having my anonymity breached by you as you did some weeks ago?”
Explain what you mean, and provide direct evidence, or retract, or face a ban. This is the second mod warning I’ve had to give you in as many comments. Don’t make shit up about me or moderation – weka]
Nope. I was just pointing out that I haven't seen you address the issues for women on this site. I have no idea if you are a misogynist.
If you think the GCFs are wrong, then get in and argue the politics. That's what we do here.
I think you making shit up, or at least distorting what happened. But from what I can tell this is your MO. Instead of pointing to the evidence, you just throw out lazy specious arguments.
And sure, if you don't care if people respect you or not, I can see why you wouldn't respect TS.
thanks millsy.
From the Policy,
My emphasis.
If you mean that the people that run the site have declared war on the transgender community, you're bullshitting. The authors cover a range of views on gender/sex issues.
If you are talking about me, then again, bullshitting. I've been careful to be clear that I am talking about gender identity ideology, and that the issue isn't trans people. Don't know what you mean by the transgender community, they're not a hive mind. Maybe you could pay more attention to the politics instead of throwing out lazy slurs.
Millsy, I respectfully ask that you consider watching a little of the clip Bill posted above. Then you might understand where some of us are coming from and what our concerns are.
I thought this was amazing that people voted for J K Rowling.
On another note those young actors who made their career from her work attending a re-union in the US that she has been excluded from……………what a way to treat someone you owe so much to. Likely those young stars wouldn't have a career without her
Can anyone recommend a meeting planner where I can add multiple dates and multiple times zones? All I'm seeing are single dates that mean having to enter lots of dates manually. On a mac.
Probably should write a post about this and flesh it out, but this is a good start.
https://twitter.com/wekatweets/status/1476665327014461453?s=20
Yes – another very good point weka. I recall when my father and brother visited us over Christmas here in Australia a few years back – there was this humiliating ritual of informing WINZ so as to be certain they could stop his disability benefit.
Then there is the related story of the numerous people stuck overseas due to COVID, who have turned 65 and cannot apply for the NZ Super they're entitled to.
True, that. Their theory was that you had to be waiting by the phone for when they called with a job that started that afternoon. As if that ever happened.
https://i.imgur.com/9V0xMCz.gif
'Yes and leave a big buffer around the sides as we never know if Mt Pook Airlines is going to be able to finesse a pinpoint landing…….this time'
Hi Gezza (12) … was Pook going after food, or the other birds?
Look forward to more videos and stories from Gezza's Stream next year. Take care and all the best for 2022
That was Sweety Pook, mary.
There’s a high trellis just outside my kitchen window. She & the other pooks (who learnt it off her) would fly up & perch on top of it so they could see when I came into the kitchen.
Then they’d fly down to the ground like that & ask for food (a handful of wheat grains or a grainy bread chunk).
She knew the sparrows would just get out of the way from previous experience.
Hope you have a great 2022, too. It’s been nice getting your supportive comments on my stream & back yard friends. They helped me thru some tuff times & help keep me focused on the wonders of nature & the wonderful range of personalities all animals seem to have.
Try this one for size
Ha. Gorgeous. Especially when that big brolga bird is dancing.
Reminds me for some reason of a program I watched on Choice TV channel. Part of a series featuring a zoo somewhere in the UK. They had a pair of young African vultures who were really people-friendly, nice-tempered, & curious. They'd follow the keepers around and watch (& if necessary check out, with their beaks and feet) anything the keepers did.
They make a unique deep booming mating call and we're pretty sure we had one or two males calling from within the parkland next to our unit here in Brisbane this spring.
My partner thinks she caught a glimpse of one taking off one morning, but otherwise in their wild state they're notoriously secretive bird that is extremely hard to spot. We got a chat with one of the local bird watchers one morning who was a bit surprised, but he didn't rule it out.
Which is why this seeing this hand reared bird behaving in the open like Barry here is pretty special.
Agree 100% with your comments Gezza re animals and nature. Great teachers.
I can only imagine how terrified these vulnerable people would've been when they were confronted with either staying at home and dying or traveling to dialysis centres and risk contracting Covid and then dying.
The pandemic killed so many dialysis patients that their total number shrunk for the first time in nearly half a century. Few people took notice.
They were COVID-19’s perfect victims.
[…]
“It can’t help but feel like a massive failure when we have such a catastrophic loss of patients,” said Dr. Michael Heung, a clinical professor of nephrology at the University of Michigan. “It speaks to just how bad this pandemic has been and how bad this disease is.”
Before most patients reach advanced kidney failure, they are diagnosed with diabetes, hypertension or a host of other underlying conditions. Their immune systems are severely compromised, meaning they are essentially powerless to survive the most dangerous infections.
Many are old and poor. They also are disproportionately Black, as was Cosey. A 2017 study called end-stage renal disease “one of the starkest examples of racial/ethnic disparities in health.” Those inequities carried through to the pandemic. Dialysis patients who were Black or Latino, according to federal data, suffered higher rates of COVID-19 by every metric: infection, hospitalization, death.
Their deaths went largely unnoticed.
https://www.propublica.org/article/they-were-the-pandemics-perfect-victims
Victimhood is in so they are following the zeitgeist, dialysis people affected by covid 19 who have been overlooked. Feeling goodness and gratitude for life-extending care is pushed aside. And ever older age is taken for granted while at the same time children are being denied secure homes and regular good food and a happy parent with time to love them and help them grow well. Too bad. It's all about 'my' rigjhts to grow and expand all round me and to hell with whatever my rights smother, that's not my affair.
Anyone watched "Don't Look Up" yet?
not a chance. I value my nervous system.
It's no more disrhythmic than what's happening outside of the theatre…in fact… 🙂
true, but then I don't livestream that into my five senses for a couple of straight hours at a time in a highly dramatic way. And I build in buffers.
Very wise. You have missed though, a wonderfully idiotic/myopic portrayal of an Elon Musk/Eftpost Brian "3rd wealthiest man on the planet" harpooning/lampooning that would have you shaking your head in wonder.
is it satire?
I can save it for when I am feeling more resilient.
Perhaps read this instead, weka?
It's marvellous.
“In Horizon, Barry suggested that the culture hero—Prometheus or Siddhartha Gautama or Odysseus—is no longer relevant in an age when humanity is exceeding ecological limits. The scale of the problems we face in the Anthropocene, the era in which humans have altered the very bone structure of the planet, are simply beyond the lone hero’s ability to fix. I asked him what stories should replace the lone-hero story.”
“They haven’t been written yet,” Barry said. “We need new narratives, at the center of which is a concern for the fate of all people. The story can’t be about the heroism of one person. It has to be about the heroism of communities.”"
https://emergencemagazine.org/essay/an-unbroken-grace/
Oh! wonderful quote. I utterly agree. I will read that, thank-you!
Yes.
I think some very frustrated scientists and advocates tired of continually shouting into the void between politics and money finally let it all out in a film.
Politics and money… pop-culture and tech-religion too!
Yes! absolutely – musk-petersen personified was a smarmy highlight.
Next on my list.
Watch “Death to 2021” – very dark sense of humour. I particularly liked the comedian playing the extremely thick ‘average’ English woman, Hugh Grant as the self-entitled senile anti-woke commentator. Lucy Lu deserves mention for her straight faced forever Washington correspondent. I wound up watching it twice because there were some quirks that I didn’t catch the first time around.
Diane Morgan.
Her character Philomena Cunk does a wonderful take on TV documentarians who are interviewing experts and describing things they know absolutely nothing about. E.g. "Moments of Wonder", 4 and a half minutes about time.
I enjoyed that. Very funny. 😀
Will check out some of the other Philomena Cunk clips.
The apocalypse is coming. At some point.
The Apocalyptic Comedy of Frankie Boyle – YouTube
LMAO…the guy's an optimist
https://www.twitter.com/covid19nz/status/1476691085912993798
So, how is it that the US sharemarket keeps going up but we have to stay home and there's fewer people not working but the foodbank lines are going round the block?
And why can't they just print money for us ordinary folks?
Answer:
Government Spending & Stock Market | Mo Amer: Mohammed In Texas – YouTube
The biggest 'confidence' trick in history.
AND they had over 500,000 covid case yesterday!!!
Surely warrants a travel ban à la southern Africa, a lot of those new cases are omicron.
Anyone read Matthew Hooton's Herald column today? The lead sentence seems to be complimentary of Chris Hipkins. But of course being paywalled could read no further. Chris Hipkins does handle situations well, with humour on occasions, but quite firm when necessary.