Open mike 31/12/2010

22 comments on “Open mike 31/12/2010 ”

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1. jcuknz 1

   31 December 2010 at 7:39 am

   Moderators and others might like to read
   http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/30/opinion/30thu4.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha211
   One persons obnoxiousness is another’s delight. 🙂
   • lprent 1.1

     31 December 2010 at 9:12 am

     We are pretty crankly tolerant most of the time (ie I like telling people what I think of them and their ideas). We ban for behaviour that disrupts other peoples enjoyment of the site (like fatuous graffitti trolling) and for things that attack the site and the authors.

     We have banned fewer and fewer people over the last year because people live within the bounds, and because now the straight trolling has diminished to the point that people have fun tearing into the remaining persistent trolls to help them raise their standard of argument to something that can be discussed.

     With the exception of a small class of repeated idiots that we’ve had to ban too often (about 8), people can come back on to the site under previous or new identities, and regularly do.

     Personally, I rather like having the group of rather strange people of varying opinions around arguing with each other. I just hate reading people doing graffitti
2. john 2

   31 December 2010 at 8:55 am

   2011 Shaping up to be another Oil Price Crisis Year!

   “The Peak Oil Crisis: 2011 – A Pivotal Year?
   Wall Street is getting nervous. As oil prices continue to creep up and as more evidence accumulates that the age of ever-growing energy production and economic growth is coming to an end.(Other commentators are saying it ended in 2008 : Mike Ruppert, and Richard Heinberg).

   The nervousness of course is that once global energy production starts to decline, capitalism as we have known it for the last few centuries will no longer be the same. While some new form of an economic system will evolve, the transition is likely to be long and painful. Many, if not most, jobs in the financial industry will simply melt away. Hence, for many, putting off the fateful day when we have to admit the inevitable is much preferred solution.

   The events of 2008 when oil shot up briefly to $147 a barrel and the global economy trembled for months are still fresh in many minds. The western world’s banking system and Detroit had to be bailed out by the increasingly insolvent U.S. and European governments.Had not oil prices quickly reversed as demand for oil products faltered and oil plunged to $32 a barrel, we would have been living in a different world right now.” refer link:

   http://www.countercurrents.org/whipple301210.htm
   • Draco T Bastard 2.1

     31 December 2010 at 12:35 pm

     Yeah, been watching oil prices recently. They jumped in early December when the cold hit Europe hard and has been sitting around the US$90/barrel since then. The normal yearly price hike is usually in March when the Northern Hemisphere goes into summer and people start using their cars more and going on holiday. If that holds true this year and if present demand remains the same due to the extreme cold that Europe is experiencing then we could be seeing continuous 3 digit prices by the middle of the year.
3. just saying 3

   31 December 2010 at 9:04 am

   Just read the honour’s list. It always bothers me for a variety of reasons.

   But one thing I wish jo/e public would finally, this year of all years, rise up and shout ENOUGH about is “services as a member of parliament” as a qualifying category, for any honour at all. Talk about adding insult to injury! They’re just taking the piss now.
   Time to throw it into the non-category box to reside with with “services to wall-papering ones own lounge” and “services to laying off staff at Christmas” etc…

   Seriously , if any MP actually achieves excellence or benefits the community significantly, let them be honoured for that.

   Happy 2011 standardistas.
   • Logie97 3.1

     31 December 2010 at 9:34 am

     I see old grumpy’s mate Garth George on the list of honours. Says it all really…
     • Draco T Bastard 3.1.1

       31 December 2010 at 12:15 pm

       What for? Being the oldest, most ignorant and opinionated opinion writer in the Granny?
       • Logie97 3.1.1.1

         31 December 2010 at 12:44 pm

         … and don’t forget his informative contributions to public debate with his regular spot as an Afternoons panelist with that sycophant Mora (was his name on the list as well? – maybe next year Jim – after the general election as a reward for your “impartiality”.

         Captcha: successs (three sss – yeah always thought Mora was a snake)
       • felix 3.1.1.2

         31 December 2010 at 1:08 pm

         Nah, for running verbatim defense propaganda without citation as if it were something he wrote himself, and when challenged on it saying “so what who cares”

         http://tvnz.co.nz/media7/s5-e28-video-3958384 (pt 2)
       • Lindsey 3.1.1.3

         31 December 2010 at 2:37 pm

         I wonder if he would still have got the gong if it had been a National MP he agreed should have been “Put down like a rabid dog”. It took several complaints before the Herald agreed that printing letters to the editor suggesting that Members of Parliament be killed was not within their policy guidelines! Shortly afterwards he was retired, but not retired enough as Granny still publishes him.
   • Bored 3.2

     31 December 2010 at 10:37 am

     Its all a bit of a joke…a close acqaintance of mine has been on Coucil and Community Board for over 20 years, taken enormous numbers of phone calls, been interrupted in the street, made herself available and always tried to help these people. And done it effectively, no complaints. Wheres her gong? Another person I know has been doing night shift in old peoples homes cleaning down dementia patients with a level of understanding only a saint could have for countless years, wheres her gong?

     Time to make it universal orscrap the whole fekkin thing.
   • BLiP 3.3

     31 December 2010 at 1:12 pm

     So, New Zealand, tell me: who most aspires you: Michael Hill, jeweller, or Alison Holst, cook?
     • Logie97 3.3.1

       1 January 2011 at 12:57 am

       Now that we have seen the list of those who are happy to have their name in lights,
       what might be more meaningful would be a register of those more honourable people who declined their nominations.
4. Ed 4

   31 December 2010 at 9:18 am

   I’ve just read about the result of yet more complaints about Paul Henry:
   http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv/4503422/Paul-Henry-let-off-over-Jesus-Christ-comment

   I am appalled that a comment accusing another country of torture was assessed on the basis of whether the statement was advocating torture – or have the newspaper mis-reported the decision?
   • Bored 4.1

     31 December 2010 at 12:30 pm

     Talking of “celebs” hows this for starters…
     http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10697229
     Now if it were you or me it would be straight into print, photo included. Where do these “D” raters get off? Pathetic that the judiciary go along with this arrogant nonsense.
5. travellerev 5

   31 December 2010 at 11:33 am

   Here’s to all of you at the Standard!!

   May you flourish in the new year and have many fiery discussions on your blog as the election nears.
   And thank you from me for allowing me to have a platform for my (don’t I know it ) controversial points of view.

   Here’s is a little video dedicated to all of us: Think different
6. joe90 6

   31 December 2010 at 11:46 am

   The Poorhouse: Aunt Winnie, Glenn Beck, And The Politics Of The New Deal

   from
7. Draco T Bastard 7

   31 December 2010 at 12:52 pm

   The 2010 Climate B.S. of the Year Award

   More highlighting of the lies and misrepresentation by ACC deniers.
8. just saying 8

   31 December 2010 at 1:35 pm

   http://www.tumeke.blogspot.com/

   Bomber’s ‘War on News Awards 2010 above, are worth a look. I’ll leave a little taste:

   “The Cameron Slator annaugral what-did-you-think-they-were-going-to-do-when-you-openly-pissed-into-the-face-of-800-years-of-legal-tradition-by-breaching-suppression-orders-you-dumb-clown-cha-ching-that’ll-be-ten-grand Award for stupidity beyond the call of ideology this year goes to Anne Tolley for poisoning education with National Standards that have nothing to do with actual educational achievement and has everything to do with introducing competition into education via league tables by stealth.

   Academic’s called National Standards possibly one of the worst things ever to happen to education in NZ, while Anne Tolley nonchalantly went about gutting adult education while handing private education an extra $35 million. Brothers and Sisters, Anne Tolley is to education what Tony Veitch is to blind dates, Stalin himself would bow at Anne Tolley’s attempt at mutilating one of the best public education systems in the world merely for dogma. Ha Ha.
9. Draco T Bastard 9

   31 December 2010 at 2:01 pm

   John Armstrong has this to say about Jonkey:

   That so many of his colleagues have been caught exploiting their privileges to the max may one day come back to bite the Prime Minister, who has largely driven efforts to clean up this unholy mess.

   Yeah, he’s tried real hard, like written new rules to make it much easier for the politicians to rip us off.
10. Draco T Bastard 10

    31 December 2010 at 4:34 pm

    Paul Krugman’s The New voodoo

    How did Republican leaders reconcile their purported deep concern about budget deficits with their advocacy of large tax cuts? Was it that old voodoo economics — the belief, refuted by study after study, that tax cuts pay for themselves — making a comeback? No, it was something new and worse.

    Voodoo economics, AKA, neo-liberalism and which is slavishly followed by National and Act and which has proven itself false yet again under their management.

    To be sure, there were renewed claims that tax cuts lead to higher revenue. But 2010 marked the emergence of a new, even more profound level of magical thinking: the belief that deficits created by tax cuts just don’t matter.

    Seen that before to – under Reagan in the 1980s.

    For example, Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona — who had denounced President Obama for running deficits — declared that “you should never have to offset the cost of a deliberate decision to reduce tax rates on Americans.”

    But this is new and blatantly stupid. Effectively, he’s saying that you don’t actually have to pay for anything which, IMO, is what the right always say although not usually in such a blatant way. Their point that big government costs too much and wages are too high is a complaint about how much having a viable community actually costs and, as such, is showing their belief that it shouldn’t actually be paid for (especially by them).

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1. thestandard: posted on 30 December 2010 at 5:01 pm

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