Oxymorons

29 comments on “Oxymorons ”

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1. tc 1

   26 March 2010 at 10:55 am

   Long may this line of pretzel logic continue from browncoal and crew….excellent.
2. prism 2

   26 March 2010 at 10:58 am

   Browncoal is good – what about Browneel, slippery as a rugby player on the run with the golden goose under his arm instead of a ball.
3. Bored 3

   26 March 2010 at 11:02 am

   Rob, I beg to differ “Most of us can see the bullshit that the Nats are spouting for what it is”….look at the polls. Sad really is it not?
   • r0b 3.1

     26 March 2010 at 11:18 am

     My comment was with respect to this particular issue – mining.

     I agree that in general we are still buying the Nats lines and Key’s smile and wave vacuity. But don’t worry, and don’t mind the polls. Individual issues like this mining fiasco, and the Supercity fiasco, they all add up, and eventually they take their toll…
     • Bored 3.1.1

       26 March 2010 at 11:23 am

       Im with you, just wanted to get a dig at a bigger problem…..general indifference to the things that are important.
       • r0b 3.1.1.1

         26 March 2010 at 11:31 am

         That – that I can’t explain. Wish I could.
         • Draco T Bastard 3.1.1.1.1

           26 March 2010 at 11:40 am

           People are disconnected from their community. They feel powerless within it. This is the result of Individualism/Capitalism and the pushing of the nuclear family rather than the more natural extended family.
   • Jenny 3.2

     27 March 2010 at 10:21 am

     Bored try not to lose heart, MSM advertisers often cynically like to claim: “Public opinion is a manufactured product”.

     But today we have the internet and the alternative media to inform us as well.

     The polls will change, especially if the Nats strike any real hard opposition from the environmental protesters or the union movement, or even democracy protesters against the Super City.
   • Jenny 3.3

     27 March 2010 at 12:02 pm

     Bored try not to lose heart at the polls. Though MSM advertisers cynically like to claim: “Public opinion is a manufactured product”, this is only true up to a point.

     The polls will change, if the Nats come up against hard opposition in the ‘real world’ outside of the control of the marketers, spin doctors and public relations experts and image makers.

     The possible stress fracture points where open organised opposition to the Nats could break out and damage their dream run are building up.

     Here are just a few:

     The possibility of organised anti-mining environmental protests, if the governement persist in their plan to open up National Parks to prospectors and mining.

     Threatened strikes in the health sector against the wage freeze and layoffs, and cuts in services in the other parts of the public sector.

     As a result of the blatant attack on democracy in the Super City, there is a very real possibility of protests from the public and/or strikes by council employees if the unelected managers imposed on Auckland by Rodney Hide, dare without any mandate to impose cuts in services, or enforce user pays, or layoffs, or privatisation of council assets.

     Any of these disputes could blow up in Key’s face, it is only a matter of time.

     The down side is, Key will be counting on the lag time before organised protest against these policies break out, to get him past next year’s elections.

     Therefore it is a race against time for the left, to be able to shift the polls against National, in the meantime we should be should be supporting the spark of any opposition to the Nats policies that do break out.

     To this end I think that the immediate project the left could take up, is to get fully behind the Unite Union’s campaign for a referendum on the minimum wage.

     At this stage with only a limited pool of fifty volunteer Unite Union members the petition looks likely to fail to meet the required deadline.

     However if every LEC and affiliated union decided to organise their own stalls and collect names for this petition as well, it is still possible that the deadline could be met.

     If a referendum was held on this issue, polls show that 60% of the population would support the premise, that the minimum wage should be raised to $15.

     This would be a serious blow to the government’s image because of course, being torys they will expose themselves to the electorate by ignoring the referendum result.
4. mickysavage 4

   26 March 2010 at 11:04 am

   Mining is a green activity. Unbelievable.

   R0b’s headline is an oxy away from being right …
5. tc 5

   26 March 2010 at 11:22 am

   You’ll find it’s a green activity just like overfarming/1080 drops/roads etc….then he wakes up.
6. Galeandra 6

   26 March 2010 at 11:55 am

   Provocative post. Well and wittily done.
7. randal 7

   26 March 2010 at 12:34 pm

   yes indeed. John Key must decide whether he wants to go down in history or just be a flash in the pan.
   his troops are trying every trick in the book because they suspect that he doesnt really have the desire for the long haul.
   and I wouldnt blame him for that either.
   thats why they are making so much noise but they have seriously misread the mood of the country and while they are riding high at the moment they do rememeber the sonthe harder they come the harder they fall.
   • Stacktwo 7.1

     26 March 2010 at 5:42 pm

     I think he’s going to go down in the pan – and I don’t think he’ll look too flash in history either.
8. JB 8

   26 March 2010 at 1:13 pm

   I think you’ve misinterpreted this.

   What he said was that other countries that mine are considered green, not that mining is considered green.
   • r0b 8.1

     26 March 2010 at 2:08 pm

     The headline reads – “Brownlee: Mining seen as ‘green industry’ by some”
     • Bill 8.1.1

       27 March 2010 at 1:03 pm

       But it is a green industry. It must be, because the government itself is right up there on matters of conservation and outrage when idiots ride roughshod over our conservation sensibilities.

       Just witness Wilkinson on the Norwegian tourists who pinged various birds and whatnot on their recent visit here. She is seeking to go to the ends of the earth…almost literally… to pull them to account. She also thinks the skink smugglers got a sentence that was way too light.

       You see the big picture and the beautiful weaving of a tale here? Tough on crime. Passionate defenders of NZ flora and fauna. Not only that, but the emotive youtube nonsense is dutifully shoved into our livingrooms by the TV news.

       Meanwhile. Mining. It’s green! Objections are emotive and therefore discountable say Nact.

       And then sadly, Metiria Turei played right into the Nacts hands yesterday on student radio, when instead of claiming the right to be intelligent and passionate, she emotively denied that objections to mining are emotive. Repeatedly! So, the only people who are passionate about conservation matters are….drumroll….Nact.

       Question. When are well meaning politicians going to wake up to the cynicism of their environment and get some basic fucking media training on how to subvert your opponents message and elevate your own? The right are getting a free ride. More than that, instances like Metiria’s performance yesterday leave me with images of the Greens and whoever running behind the Nact bike holding the saddle to make sure they don’t lose their balance. And they’re oblivious to the fact that they’re even doing it.
9. Ianmac 9

   26 March 2010 at 1:36 pm

   The Govt guys are not stupid. Some have been around for a long time. I fear that the mining/beneficiary debate is not an accident. If not an accident then what?
10. JAS 10

    26 March 2010 at 1:43 pm

    Have to agree with you there Ianmac, it rings alarm bells for me as to what this publicity is designed to hide.
    • mcflock 10.1

      26 March 2010 at 3:45 pm

      maybe they’re hoping that if they threaten a clusterf%&k of half a dozen simultaneous issues, they’ll look magnanimous when they only stuff up three of them this year.

      Look at Great Barrier: they’ll make a wonderful concession to nature there, and the West Coast mining will go ahead. Start with a high price so it looks like they’ve haggled you down, sort of thing.
11. Dig 11

    26 March 2010 at 1:44 pm

    apparently john key is planning to open the new hut at mount angelus in the nelson lakes national park on the 21st of next month. but hes probably just doing it for the tax payer funded chopper ride.
    • uke 11.1

      26 March 2010 at 2:08 pm

      It’s a steep and sweaty climb up to Lake Angelus. Can’t imagine Key would risk popping a heart valve.
12. rocket 12

    26 March 2010 at 9:17 pm

    John might ride up there in a 100t digger, a few test holes on the way might strike it rich …..could be billions up there ……well maybe a million hahahaha
    • Mac1 12.1

      26 March 2010 at 11:39 pm

      There was a plan/idea to dig a tunnel under the massif of which Angelus is a part to divert the waters of Lake Rotoiti before it becomes the Buller River into Lake Rotoroa, some 600 feet lower, through an hydro-electric dam and then from Rotoroa into the Matukituki through another tunnel, all in order to generate untold amounts of electric power.

      National Park? That didn’t seem to worry the proposers of the idea.

      So John with his digger is not too far fetched. A bit high for the National Cycleway, though as an idea it was away in the clouds, too, come to think of it.
13. eye saw 13

    27 March 2010 at 8:54 am

    while all this was going on the warrantless search and surveillence law and the national assessments bureau were quietly introduced.
    behind the smokescreen.
    when alarm bells ring.
    • Jum 13.1

      29 March 2010 at 9:51 pm

      Eye Saw
      Can they do that without the house vote which includes all parties?
14. richgraham 14

    27 March 2010 at 4:00 pm

    I used to be a miner – mined coal on the West Coast, and copper in Canada. You people writing in to this posting are quite ignorant. You clearly know little about mining, and seem resolutely opposed to it. I think you need a time out – here are some questions for you to consider and research –
    1. the NZ Labour Party began at Blackball, a gold and coal mining township. There is still mining going on in the area – coal and gold – and the miners are probably union members (I was). So, what do you say to those good solid NZers who live by mining – that you are opposed to what they do ?
    2. The miners at Pyke Creek coal mine, mining under a National Park, approved by NZ Labour government – are you going to shut that mine down ?
    I suggest you people are poisoning your own nest, and poisoning the Labour Party’s future prospects. We need mining, for all the good things it produces, for the employment it provides, it is a fundamental part of our civilization and it is not going away, ever. There are some very exciting prospects for our future in NZ from mining – especially exploiting the seafloor volcanic mineral deposits, and the exploitation of the colossal lignite reserves is extremely exciting – lucky Southland.
    Please, some of you, follow your own advice and get out into the real world, and do try to stop being puerile and making remarks like “Has Key ever set foot in our National Parks? Has he ever been more than 100m from the road? Has he ever tramped one of our Great Walks? Has Brownlee? Can either of them use a map and compass? Do these people have any understanding or appreciation of the wonders that they are so eager to desecrate (for so uncertain and so small a return)? I think that the answers are no”.
    Come on Labour wake up !
    • Bill 14.1

      27 March 2010 at 4:09 pm

      that’s. really. rather. rich. graham.

      But at we now we know who the wealthy eighth dwarf was. Heigh-ho, heigh-ho.
    • Jum 14.2

      29 March 2010 at 9:55 pm

      richgraham
      I take it you have no objection to the Schedule 4 area being left alone as originally agreed by all parties including the mining and environmental interests – Nick Smith made a nice speech about how it should never be interfered with.

      Labour has not said mining is completely out. Just not in the sensitive area. I’m sure you’re sensitive enough to agree with than, richgraham.Perhaps you can point that out to your friend Mr Key.

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