General Debate 6 August 2010

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Don the Kiwi

Happy Hiroshima Day.
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August 6, 2010 8:27am
Lee C

link whore, moi?
http://monkeyswithtypewriter.blogspot.com/2010/08/caption-comp-for-friday.html

I’ve been running with a general growing sympathy for Phil Goff – who is increasingly looking like the fall-guy for his erstwile colleagues . . .
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August 6, 2010 8:39am
jcuknz

Seems like I got the wrong end of the stick yesterday on the Missouri referendum about health … they are not what I called them, perhaps just 29% because the 71% are actually the opposite according to this OpEd in NYT
“But it also seems fair to interpret the vote as a ringing endorsement of Americans’ inalienable right to avoid buying private health insurance and instead get medical care from public emergency rooms where the cost will be passed on to the taxpayers. Maybe it’s time to rethink the single-payer plan now that we have evidence that 71 percent of Missourians support the concept of socialized medicine.
Good on them!
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August 6, 2010 9:07am
Murray

Don, it might be better for them to remember December 7th. If they’d thought ahead and not made an unprovoked attack without a declaration of war then there wouldn’t have been a Hisroshima day.

Cause and effect, history is full of it.

Just like the effect of having the civilised world cut off Japans war industry materials which was their excuse for attacking the US and 25 other nations resulted from Japans imperialist expansonist war into China and Korea.

I’ll be observing Guadalcannal Day in a couple of days time myself. When the Americans stared pushing the bastards back to where they came from.
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August 6, 2010 9:09am
Jibbering Gibbon

And therefore as a stranger give it welcome.
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in yore philosophy.

~ Hamlet
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August 6, 2010 9:29am
Viking2

Where are you all ? ??

No religious nut cases on the job yet?

All gone fishing or some other idle pursuit being such a nice day?

Nah, they wouldn’t go fishing. Can’t brain wash fish.

True True.
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August 6, 2010 9:35am
Viking2

Trouble ahead in housing
By SHANE COWLISHAW – The Press
Last updated 05:00 06/08/2010

The future of state housing in New Zealand looks grim unless there are changes, Housing Minister Phil Heatley says.

“Oh so true, but unfortunately although this has been apparent for 30 years no one so far, including Mr Heatley has had the guts to do what’s right. Mr Clarkson when MP for Tauranga prepared a blueprint for solving this problem but like Williamson (and the leaky building issue), Heately has become moribund by his own fear and failed to listen to a person with idea’s. The steps to fixing this are not huge, are not hard but will require some fortitude not to listen to the whiners and moaners. Just to get results.”

Speaking at a Christchurch Housing Forum event yesterday, Heatley told social workers, property investors and real estate agents that most of the state-housing stock was “disintegrating”.

He said the state-housing model would not meet future demand.

“When I raise my eyes and look to the future of social housing in New Zealand, I’m very concerned,” he said.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/3996395/Trouble-ahead-in-housing
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August 6, 2010 9:35am
Don the Kiwi

Right Murray.

The modern construct of the A bomb being dropped on Hiroshima as being a totally immoral act lacks depth of reasoning. The rationale back in 1945 to use the bomb, was that millions of more lives would have been lost – Japanese and allied – if an invasion of Japan had to proceed; make no mistake, the psyche of the Japanese at that time was such that no-one would have surrendered – even the children were indoctrinated to die for their emperor.

I think – morality aside – the best decision at the time was to use the bomb.

Hindsight is a great teacher.
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August 6, 2010 9:38am
Inventory2

The Laws vs Karam debate is underway on RadioLive, and tempers are just starting to fray …

Listen live here

http://www.radiolive.co.nz/Portals/0/popup/Listen.htm
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August 6, 2010 9:45am
jcuknz

Also from a NYT OpEd >>>Also defeated: Tim James, a candidate for governor who made a splash with an ad in which he spoke to an invisible immigrant and sternly announced: “This is Alabama. We speak English. If you want to live here, learn it.” <<<
No wonder he lost I'd think most there are proud to speak American? 🙂
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August 6, 2010 9:50am
Put it away

The use of a weapon they couldn’t possibly fight against gave them an honourable justification for surrender.
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August 6, 2010 9:58am
Robert Mapplethorpe

Viking2 (2,282) Says:

August 6th, 2010 at 9:35 am
Where are you all ? ??

No religious nut cases on the job yet?

Nope, flocking like bees to a honey pot on the thread about why it is so gay to let poofs marry.
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August 6, 2010 10:09am
Lipo

Interesting comment from the Herald this morning regarding position of and friendship of QC Mr Farmer and Chief Justice Sian Elias
Quote “”While I have no brief for Bill, I do regard Sian as a close friend and I will always put friendship and loyalty above concerns about the ‘system’ which has its own processes for looking after itself.”

Concern to me – If I happen to end up in front of Sian Elias where she is adjudicating on the performance of Mr Farmer, will their friendship out way any other systematic problems that may arise?
Would she side with Mr Farmer based on their friendship rather than admit the system was at fault?
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August 6, 2010 10:09am
Owen McShane

Another 500 lot new town turned down – this time at Omaha.

Over the last couple of months the Environment court has rejected at least five applications for “new towns” averaging around 1000 homes each. That is about 25,000 direct jobs and 150,000 downstream jobs.

But how about this:

The [Omaha] decision was greeted with relief yesterday by Omaha Beach Community president Graham Painter.

“We are pretty chuffed – it’s a clear win.”

He refused to say how much Prime Minister John Key, who is one of the Rodney resort’s 1300 holiday home owners, chipped in for the court battle to stop buildings being constructed to nearly the top of a ridge.

So the PM has helped fund the blocking of a 20,000 job development programme!
These rejections of new housing projects are always written up as a victory for the community – but they are no victory for the unemployed and our building and construction sector.
As the McKinsey Global INstitute said back in 1992 – the Construction sector sucks up young unskilled males like a vacuum cleaner.
So Maori are doubly impacted. They can now give thanks to the PM.
The downstream negative spinoff is that the major residential developers have now given up on planning any new Developments.
They know they will lose because the Act says Landscape is a matter of national importance while employment and affordable housing do not rate a mention. And the Government (Nick Smith) has promised the EDS it will not change this.
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August 6, 2010 10:10am
Falafulu Fisi

IV2, thanks for the tip, I am listening to it right now, with my headphone on. I am running simulation test now, as it can take from 5 to 20 minutes to complete. So, an excuse for me to tune in to the debates between Karam & Laws, where I can just sit and listen but keep an eye on my screen to see if any error pops up indicating if I have an arithmetic underflow/overflow in my program.
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August 6, 2010 10:27am
PaulD

Don the Kiwi 9.38 The A bomb being dropped on Hiroshima being a totally immoral act is not a modern construct. Senior US military leaders at the time have written that they did not support the bombing. The fire bombing of Tokyo did more to end the war than the atomic bombs. The Japanese were trying to surrender.
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August 6, 2010 10:33am
Mr Magister

But Owen, we have that wonderful cycleway to look forward to.
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August 6, 2010 10:43am
Falafulu Fisi

PaulD said…
Senior US military leaders at the time have written that they did not support the bombing.

Can you name some of those military leaders or point links to them?

Anyway, the dropping of the bomb was justified and moral.
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August 6, 2010 10:43am
LC

I thought that the Russians invading was the thing that frightened the Japanese more as they knew that what ever the Russians took they wouldn’t get back…at least they could negotiate with the western allies. The firebombing was causing more casualties than the A bombs, but at least it gave the Japanese a valid (and possibly honourable) means of surendering.
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August 6, 2010 10:49am
Brian Smaller

The Japanese were trying to surrender.

I think you wil find that they were trying to put out feelers to get a negotiated peace that left Japan under the control of the Emperor and the military. Surrender was not on their mind.
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August 6, 2010 10:55am
Fot

Fascinating discussion between Joe Karam and Michael Laws on radio live this morning, obviously, Karam is still pushing the line that David Bain is innocent.

Anybody who has listened to the show can only come to the conclusion that Bain is still as guilty as sin.
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August 6, 2010 11:21am
Jack5

Yeah Fot, Karam is continuing his nasty smear of Robin Bain’s character, all on hearsay. A David Bain supporter phoning in continued the circus with an allegation that Laniet’s crazy lying (about black babies etc) is “consistent with someone who has been sexually molested”.

What garbage – lies are caused by sexual molestation!

Karam also was claiming von Beynen, the reporter who tacked the Bain jury etc, had made various statements to Karam over a beer early in the morning.

I would say Laws was getting the better of it, with Karam repeatedly slipping into ad hominem interjections.

When I looked the voting on the radiolive.co.nz web site was running four to one in favour of Laws.
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August 6, 2010 11:30am
Yvette

Currently 16% believe it was Robin, 84% say David did it.
1 : 4.25
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August 6, 2010 11:46am
Jimbob

Anybody can have an opinion on the David Bain trial, but the facts are that the police stuffed up the evidence, so the only out come was going to be an acquittal. No one can say with absolute cast iron certainty who did it. I think it is time to move on. Also David Bain can not get any compo because of the reasons I have out lined.
Another point I would like to make is that if Western Governments around the World fail to print enough money to avoid a deflationary spiral, it is going to many years of hard times for many people. However the odds are not good, especially in the USA.
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August 6, 2010 11:48am
Fot

“No one can say with absolute cast iron certainty who did it”

Absolute rubbish, there is only one killer and the first jury got it dead right.
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August 6, 2010 11:56am
Viking2

Not so, for there may well be a third party, but the eveidence was mishandles and destroyed. Always believed that their was a third party.
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August 6, 2010 12:04pm
Falafulu Fisi

Glen Beck says here about the explosion of the number of government agencies:

Ob@ma, FDR and Regulations
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August 6, 2010 12:04pm
GerryandthePM

In Nagasaki, the Nagasaki Peace Gardens are built over the top of a museum which tells the story of the Nagasaki bombing on August 9, 1945.
In this museum are many “before and after” photographs, and artefacts from the aftermath.
On display is a full scale cutaway model of “fat boy”, the Nagasaki bomb which packed the equivalent force of 24 kilotonnes of TNT, compared with the 17 kt equivalent of “little boy” dropped over Hiroshima three days earlier.
On the wall behind the bomb is a large timeline display of the events leading up to the date of the atomic bombing.
This timeline records the dates, over about two years, on which the Allies made important decisions, and the influences, in preparation for the attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The obvious omission in the chronology is the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1944.
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August 6, 2010 12:06pm
Viking2

why don’t some people just mind their own boody business. Nosy Parkers cause a lot of strife sometimes and a lot of cost when the police also don’t bother to get their stuff right.

Celebrations lead to arrest
By KELLY LONEY – Taranaki Daily News
Last updated 05:00 06/08/2010

A Turkish “delight” has turned into a court case and sleepless nights for a Hawera couple.

Kebab shop owner Allaetin Can has found himself charged with assaulting his wife Elmas after a passerby saw what he thought was a violent fracas.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/3996441/Celebrations-lead-to-arrest
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August 6, 2010 12:06pm
Robert Mapplethorpe

GerryandthePM (324) Says:

August 6th, 2010 at 12:06 pm
The obvious omission in the chronology is the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1944.

How can they omit something that did not occur?

maybe you need to go back to school and learn some history.
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August 6, 2010 1:33pm
Manolo

UN’s comrades trying to create taxes to combat global warming. Ah, the thieves!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100805/ap_on_sc/climate_change
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August 6, 2010 1:37pm
Mr Magister

Over the last eighteen months I have become very disappointed in National and John Key, but I was reminded this lunchtime of the worst of Labour and how glad I was to see the back of them.

I attended the Dunedin Neurosurgery rally at midday, which chiefly entailed thousands of people joining hands around Dunedin Hospital. As we stood on the south-facing cold side of the building, a couple of Labour supporters came by holding their red banner aloft.

No problem with that in principle: it is good to see support for local neurosurgery services from all quarters.

But, as they walked past, one yelled: “Join the Union! Cheap job insurance!”

All the folk around me were horrified at this vile political hijacking of a community event.

Unfortunately, that is the type of bullying thug that the Labour Party attracts and is why they must never again have a say in how our lives are run.
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August 6, 2010 1:40pm
RightNow

Some golf ball manufacturers have even started including dimples with sharp corners rather than circular dimples since research indicates that these polygonal shapes reduce drag even more.

Aerospace engineers explain why dimples on golf balls reduce drag:
http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/aerodynamics/q0215.shtml
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August 6, 2010 4:32pm
WebWrat

Swine flu in Wallywood according to the news tonight.

Must be because there are so many troffing pigs up there.
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August 6, 2010 6:32pm
krazykiwi

@WebWrat – Mrs krazykiwi visited a school in the Wairarapa yesterday. Half the students & teachers were absent, half the remainder were coughing. I’ve told her that determination to do a good job does not require putting her immune system to the test and suggested that she decline to visit schools where there’s obviously an outbreak of some description.

@RightNow – a chap I went to high school with had huge dimples and he was the fastest sprinter in our year. I now know why 🙂
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August 6, 2010 6:41pm
WebWrat

Tell her to stay away from the Beehive Krazy, be worse there.
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August 6, 2010 7:01pm
Viking2

What swine flu in the beehive. Well pigs, troughs et al. Usually not associated with worker bees though.
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August 6, 2010 7:52pm
Steve

“Swine flu in Wallywood according to the news tonight.

Must be because there are so many troffing pigs up there”

There is a cure – freezing works
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August 6, 2010 7:53pm
Jack5

New topic for a mo….

Pansy Wong’s husband and Jenny Shipley with links to Chinese out to buy Crafar farms (link below).

Two terms for a National-led coalition? I dunno … on the other hand ex Labour minister Jim Sutton is wimping on the issue.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business-editors-picks/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501981&objectid=10663971
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August 6, 2010 9:04pm
MikeNZ

http://www.pmo.gov.il/PMOEng/Communication/Spokesman/2010/08/spokestatement040810.htm

sad that no one will listen for they all have blood on their hands.
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August 6, 2010 11:15pm
Manolo

The stench of corruption all over this, when an accomplished crook lends a hand propping an aspiring one:
http://michellemalkin.com/2010/08/06/no-shady-banking-buddy-left-behind/
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August 7, 2010 5:58am

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