General Debate 21 April 2015

Email
Facebook
Twitter
Comment120

Uncategorized
General Debate

Comments (120)

Login to comment or vote

Yoza

This is what out of touch looks like:
Legalizing Marijuana Now More Popular Than All Political Candidates

Now that there have been states where people have been allowed to vote for the legalization of marijuana, that topic has actually become more popular than the candidates themselves.
According to a Quinnipiac University poll conducted in March, in the key swing states of Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida, marijuana is far more popular than all the major political candidates. The survey found that over 80% of people in all states supported medical marijuana, with over 50% also supporting full legalized recreational marijuana.
Meanwhile, all of the major political candidates have the approval of less than 50% of the people polled.

Chris Christie Vows to Crack Down on Marijuana as President

(CNN)Chris Christie would “crack down and not permit” legalized marijuana if elected president, he told conservative Iowa radio host Hugh Hewitt on Thursday.
The pledge from New Jersey’s Republican governor, who is openly teasing a bid for the White House, would be a departure from President Barack Obama, who has made clear that while he doesn’t support full legalization, the Justice Department won’t be getting in the way of the handful of states that have voted to legalize it.

Chris Christie’s Ratings Hit a New Low in New Jersey

According to the Quinnipiac poll, only 38 percent of New Jersey voters approve of the job Christie is doing as governor. This represents an 8-point drop from January, as measured in an earlier Quinnipiac poll. A majority of voters expressed disapproval of Christie’s handling of education, the economy and the state budget.
Christie’s approval score on this new survey is the lowest he has received on the Quinnipiac poll while he’s been in office, and the lowest approval rating for any governor in the nine states Quinnipiac has surveyed this year.
6 12
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 8:00am
Yoza

Iran Warned Houthis Against Yemen Takeover

WASHINGTON — Iranian representatives discouraged Houthi rebels from taking the Yemeni capital of Sanaa last year, according to American officials familiar with intelligence around the insurgent takeover.

The seizure of the capital in September came as a surprise to the international community, as Houthi rebels demonstrating outside Sanaa realized the city was abandoned and effectively unguarded. Despite Iran’s advice, the Houthis walked into the city and claimed it.

The newly disclosed information casts further doubt on claims that the rebels are a proxy group fighting on behalf of Iran, suggesting that the link between Iran and the Yemeni Shiite group may not be as strong as congressional hawks and foreign powers urging U.S. intervention in Yemen have asserted.

“It remains our assessment that Iran does not exert command and control over the Houthis in Yemen,” Bernadette Meehan, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council, told The Huffington Post.

U.S. intelligence officials have warned for months that Yemen’s chaos is a civil war, not a battleground for regional conflict between Iran and the Sunni-ruled Gulf states. They continue to challenge the narrative pushed by Sunni nations, led by Saudi Arabia, who have blasted the Houthi surge and accused the U.S. of abandoning Yemen to a greedy Iran.

“It is wrong to think of the Houthis as a proxy force for Iran,” a U.S. intelligence official told The Huffington Post.
1 15
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 8:04am
Chuck Bird

Notice how the Herald headline misrepresents Nigal Short’s view

Girls don’t have the brains to play chess’

By Leon Watson

1:06 PM Monday Apr 20, 2015

Nigel Short, the British grandmaster, has angered female players by claiming that they are not ‘hard-wired’ for the game, reports Leon Watson.

When Nigel Short, one of UK’s greatest ever chess players, challenged Garry Kasparov for the world title in 1993 the pair met as bitter rivals.

But it appears the British grandmaster has finally found common ground with his Russian opponent – they both believe women are not suited to the game.

Mr Short, who lost to Kasparov in the championships, has claimed men and women should just accept they are “hard-wired very differently”.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=11435528
14 2
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 8:07am
peterwn

So it seems anti-smoking groups are quaking in their shoes as the Government calls for bids to deliver anti-smoking programmes. Those bidding should note that such programmes do not include using taxpayers’ money to lobby the Government for more tobacco taxes or tougher restrictions.
17 0
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 8:10am
kowtow

The EU has come up with a ten point plan to keep the boats coming. How is it people continue to vote for these idiots?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/11548995/Mediterranean-migrant-crisis-hits-Italy-as-EU-ministers-meet-live.html
14 0
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 8:10am
Keeping Stock

Sonic Doom: The Madness and Mayhem of Making Good Times
By Hayden Donnell

The young recording engineer looked in some pain. Tennis balls were being smashed into his body at full speed, in front of a crowd of people. This wasn’t what he’d signed up for. He had been hired to work on one of the most expensive albums in New Zealand music history – the debut by internet entrepreneur and fugitive from US justice, Kim Dotcom.

When the group weren’t recording, though, they indulged in hijinks and hazing. On this day witnesses describe the engineer as being dressed for tennis in a penguin costume. The hitter was an excellent tennis player. According to witnesses, Dotcom looked like he enjoyed the episode.

The young man went to work the next day covered in bruises, pulling up his shirt to show colleagues the blossoming patches of tender purple flesh. It wasn’t an isolated incident. He’d also reportedly vomited after being told to drink a cup of soy sauce during a recording session. Pranks and dares were hazards of the job. Making Dotcom’s Good Times meant enduring some pretty terrible times.

Neil Finn was on tour when he got a message saying he had a new client who had the personalised plate ‘God’. The recording space Finn had built in Newton, Roundhead Studios, had been booked out by a 2-metre-tall German millionaire with a flair for the flashy and dramatic. Security guards milled around as Dotcom strolled into the studio for the first time, reeking of money. It was 2011, the beginning of two years of endless throbbing dance music; of swollen egos, late night tirades and 16-hour working days. I was told stories about the sessions which featured dwarf strippers and golliwog dolls, uncomfortable casual racism and celebrity cameos. Dotcom was set on becoming a recorded artist, and he was doing it the only way he knew how: with unshakeable confidence and incredible extravagance.

http://pantograph-punch.com/post/madness-and-mayhem-of-making-good-times

We’ve already heard the accusations of racism days, but this latest account of Kim Dotcom and the making of Good Times is quite simply so bizarre that it can only be true. The sooner this man is seated on a jet out of New Zealand, the better for all of us.
25 3
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 8:13am
EAD

@ kowtow,

“How is it people keep voting for these idiots”?

#1 – they are not idiots, they are doing this intentionally

#2 – this seems to be the nature of “democracy” right across the western world. The only choice you get is which set of rulers carry out the exact same agenda and at what speed. Object and you will have the wrath of the media and political elite onto you.
15 8
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 8:20am
Paulus

Am I the only one who is concerned that the Dignity of ANZAC Day is being eroded by the media fest that is apparent.
I appreciate that it is 100 years since the defeat of the troops in Gallipoli, which seems to override the other fields of War.
From what I can gather a plethora of New Zealand media persons are/have descended on the Gallipoli Peninsula.
As a London WW2 war babe I will march with great Pride and Dignity with the RSA and others wearing my father’s medals.
I hope that this year does not spoil what we have achieved in the recognition of ANZAC Day.
This really New Zealand’s Day of Remembrance, and with respect should be allowed with quiet dignity as it used to be, and not sullied by those seeking to make it something different, like Council’s having a Taxpayer PR Party after the morning services.
24 2
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 8:27am
waikatogirl

NZ has been named as a suitable country to take some of the migrants escaping by boat to Italy.

People smugglers are charging huge amounts of money to horrendously overload unsuitable boats and there are drownings.

Charge the people smugglers, and sort your own crap on the other side of the world. NZ shouldn’t have to clean up other countries mess.
33 2
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 8:29am
Chuck Bird

The Muslims on one of those boat threw the Christians off. Would we want those sort of refugees? I would not mind taking Christian refugees whose lives are seriously under threat.
37 3
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 8:33am
EAD

Hmmmm, 4 downticks for pointing out we are suffering from the illusion of democracy right across the West. Tough audience!

If you are following the UK elections, you know this is most definitely the case where yesterday the BBC held a debate on “climate change” where of course the only acceptable opinion (unless you want to be hounded as a “DENIER”) is by how much your party will destroy the economy in order to combat a non-existent problem.

http://www.breitbart.com/london/2015/04/20/bbc-stages-eco-debate-toxic-waste-gushes-forth/

From the article by Delingpole:
“Will the debate have made any difference to anything, though? Probably not. Like all the other debates we’ve seen on TV so far, it was a hugely dispiriting reminder of the vast gulf that now exists between the mainstream political parties and the people they supposedly represent.

Out in the real world, only a minority think that climate change is a serious threat; out in the real world, most people would much rather have lower energy bills than be forced to subsidise ugly wind farms and solar farms (which they loathe if they’re on their doorstep); out in the real world, people would prefer Britain to be able to decide its own policies on farming, the environment and flood control rather than have them imposed from outside by the EU.

Yet none of the two main parties gives a stuff what these voters think. And the only one that does – UKIP – continues to be treated in this grotesque election cycle not as the truth-tellers they are but as dangerous pariahs”

How’s that for “democracy”?
13 10
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 8:38am
kowtow

Illegal immigrant boats, Tony Abbott stopped them. How hard was that?
20 2
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 8:38am
Griff

The same god chucky.
No difference to me between the groups as potential immigrants both are believers in superstitious nonsense.

I would rather we preserved what we have in New Zealand for future generations to enjoy.

The costs of infrastructure, urban expansion and the impact on our natural environment of a greater population are more of a negative than the dreams of a domestic market and economy of scale are a positive to a rapidly growing population.
11 13
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 8:45am
MT_Tinman

EAD (2,184 comments) says:
April 21st, 2015 at 8:38 am

Hmmmm, 4 downticks for pointing out we are suffering from the illusion of democracy right across the West. Tough audience!

Now it’s five 🙂

Discerning audience.
10 12
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 8:47am
MT_Tinman

kowtow (9,774 comments) says:
April 21st, 2015 at 8:38 am

Illegal immigrant boats, Tony Abbott stopped them.

The Med appears to be stopping the latest lot – without help from Tony 🙂
2 12
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 8:48am
Griff

In The real world EAD.
The debate would look like this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjuGCJJUGsg
5 18
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 8:49am
wiseowl

So the Maori group on the Coromandel that stopped people on the main road and demanded money to pass, have had $66,ooo in grants including $500 for kupahuka costumes from the council.

What is astounding is that from what the council indicates they may be able to extort money this way as long as they have a permit.

FO. The council should not even have rules that allow this type of intimidation .

The big question is, with all the treaty claims why the hell do these people carry on like this.?

More details needed.
36 2
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 8:50am
Padriv Ustoev

Let the bellow article, be an example of what high unemployment can lead to. John Key needs to stop the beneficiary bashing and provide work, or this will happen in NZ

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/04/bitter-and-unemployed-officer-under-saddam-hussein-drew-up-islamic-state-master-plan/
6 4
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 8:54am
Keeping Stock

Hmmmm, 4 downticks for pointing out we are suffering from the illusion of democracy right across the West. Tough audience!

Don’t take it personally EAD. It’d be a boring old world if everyone agreed about everything 😀
10 2
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 8:55am
Colville

Penny is MIA.

Is Ms Nutjob hiding from The Honourable John Banks legal team?
25 0
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 9:07am
MT_Tinman

Padriv Ustoev 08:54

I would agree – were it not for the very low unemployment figures under the Key Government.

Maybe Mr Key just needs to carry on.
7 0
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 9:10am
thedavincimode

It’d be a boring old world if everyone agreed about everything

I disagree.
13 2
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 9:16am
kowtow

The pathetic NZ media love to proclaim how NZ brought about the end of South Africa apartheid. Well done, look at what you created…….

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3046924/Butchered-street-begged-mercy-Savage-moments-Mozambican-man-bled-death-gutter-victim-South-African-anti-immigrant-violence.html

As Williamsung would say ,what a rainbow!
16 2
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 9:17am
SGA

thedavincimode at 9:16 am

It’d be a boring old world if everyone agreed about everything

I disagree.

No, you don’t.
12 1
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 9:18am
Lucia Maria

Chuck,

I don’t think the view of the guy has been misrepresented. I mean, look at the following:

Speaking in the magazine New in Chess about the lack of women playing the game, Short said: “Why should they [men and women] function in the same way? I don’t have the slightest problem in acknowledging that my wife [Rea] possesses a much higher degree of emotional intelligence than I do.

“Likewise, she doesn’t feel embarrassed in asking me to manoeuvre the car out of our narrow garage.

“One is not better than the other, we just have different skills. It would be wonderful to see more girls playing chess, and at a higher level, but rather than fretting about inequality, perhaps we should just gracefully accept it as a fact.”

His words echo the controversial statement from Kasparov that “women, by their nature, are not exceptional chess players: they are not great fighters”.

I think some of it is that women are less likely to have the type of brain that can play chess at a high level. I remember reading a while back that women’s intelligence is grouped more tightly towards the centre of the bell curve, while as men’s is more stretched out. That means women’s intelligence as a whole is more likely to be average, while as more men are going to be complete idiots, as well as more men being incredible geniuses than women.

However, I would also say that highly intelligent women who could play chess most likely have decided it’s a waste of time and effort (it’s a game, women aren’t as into games as men are), and have diverted their interests elsewhere.
12 2
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 9:23am
mandk

@ SGA

Is this a five minute argument or a thirty minute argument?
4 1
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 9:24am
SGA

@mandk

Is this a five minute argument or a thirty minute argument?

That sketch was running through my mind too!
3 1
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 9:28am
starboard

Nothing to see here..move on ( after you have “given” )
Fuckin rude..why aren’t the msm all over this shit.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/news/67880010/coromandel-groups-roadside-fundraising-on-100km-road-branded-highway-robbery
16 1
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 9:30am
Chuck Bird

@Lucia Maria

The headline “Girls don’t have the brains to play chess” implies that Nigel Short is saying woman are inferior not equal but different as he states in his article albeit with a poor example of ironing shirts..

I believe your comment on the bell curve is accepted.
2 1
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 9:43am
MT_Tinman

starboard (2,603 comments) says:
April 21st, 2015 at 9:30 am

Nothing to see here..move on ( after you have “given” )
Fuckin rude..why aren’t the msm all over this shit.

More to the point, why aren’t the Police all over this?
16 0
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 9:44am
wreck1080

Joining the TPP could make it illegal to fix your own car.

http://www.autoblog.com/2015/04/20/automakers-gearheads-car-repairs/

So, if the TPP gets passed we could have the situation where ford sue the NZ government for not prosecuting people who fix their own cars.
3 4
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 9:46am
Albert_Ross

I see Paulus has got a lot of support for his suggestion that there is only one right and acceptable way to observe ANZAC day, but I’m going to disagree.

Yes, there are people who have different opinions and priorities to you, who react differently from the way you would to the same circumstance, whose behaviour and attitudes are not to your taste.

Would you really have it otherwise?
2 2
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 9:48am
stephieboy

kowtow, in yet another if your pathetic rails and wails you want a return to the good old pre Mandela Apartheid days with maybe some ” seperate development ” applied here in
N Z ?

EAD , we will worry about the direction of your so called illusory Western democracy when they clamp you in irons and March you off to a FEMA concentration camp !
2 8
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 9:48am
Keeping Stock

“I might be arguing in my spare time”… 😀

https://youtu.be/kQFKtI6gn9Y
2 1
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 9:50am
Lucia Maria

Chuck,

The headline “Girls don’t have the brains to play chess” implies that Nigel Short is saying woman are inferior not equal but different as he states in his article albeit with a poor example of ironing shirts..

I think the problem is the headline could be understood either way, depending on your biases.
2 0
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 9:53am
wiseowl

Haven’t you noticed stephieboy.We already have separate development here.
5 0
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 9:57am
EAD

Stephieboy, you laugh about the American police state but why don’t you have a read of yet another horrific death at the hands of insane American cops:

http://www.infowars.com/man-dies-after-cops-break-his-neck-sever-his-spine-bruise-his-brain-snap-his-leg-and-crush-his-larynx/

I bet you this ain’t the “hope and change” Americans voted for when the voted in Obozo. When you look at their out of control police force an their military doing large scale operations in urban areas, you can only conclude that tyranny has finally come to America:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3013900/Fears-martial-law-special-ops-set-swarm-Southwest-operate-undetected-civilians-ve-deemed-HOSTILE-massive-military-exercise.html
6 5
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 9:59am
Griff

EAD
The biggest threat to freedom in the usa?
United States Department of Homeland Security.
I guess obuma could have abolished it….
4 3
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 10:06am
waikatogirl

Albert: people who have different opinions and priorities to you, who react differently from the way you would to the same circumstance.

***
The soldiers fought in both world wars so you can have the freedom to have different views.
Please don’t abuse that right to free speech by using ANZAC day celebrations to make your point about a different war, etc. That is just bad manners.
7 1
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 10:07am
ross411

starboard (2,603 comments) says:
April 21st, 2015 at 9:30 am
Nothing to see here..move on ( after you have “given” )
Fuckin rude..why aren’t the msm all over this shit.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/news/67880010/coromandel-groups-roadside-fundraising-on-100km-road-branded-highway-robbery

Aren’t they? There’s an article on Stuff. Paul Henry devoted serious time to it.
5 2
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 10:41am
ross411

waikatogirl (1,582 comments) says:
April 21st, 2015 at 10:07 am
The soldiers fought in both world wars so you can have the freedom to have different views.
Please don’t abuse that right to free speech by using ANZAC day celebrations to make your point about a different war, etc. That is just bad manners.

That’s what they say about all wars though. It’s for FREEDOM! Modern wars, primarily driven by the Americans, undermine the difference between wars for obvious good and wars for whatever reason – whether supporting industry or agenda. If you read the modern take on the modern wars, they claim the same benefit the older wars had.

Yet, it is the Americans with the camps where prisoners are abused. It is the Americans who use toxic warfare, with depleted uranium still poisoning the people of Iraq. And slaughtering innocents in the name of good with drone strikes.

How far we’ve come.
1 9
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 10:51am
Shawn Herles

“The Muslims on one of those boat threw the Christians off. Would we want those sort of refugees? I would not mind taking Christian refugees whose lives are seriously under threat.”

If they are genuine refugees then the issue of their religion, or non-religion, should not be a factor.

One of the problems with people smuggling is that it can be difficult to determine who is or is not a genuine refugee.
3 5
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 10:54am
Shawn Herles

“Stephieboy, you laugh about the American police state but why don’t you have a read of yet another horrific death at the hands of insane American cops:”

This is conflating two different things to pretend they are the same.

Police misbehavior is one thing. The “police state” claim is another.

The first is a genuine problem. The second is a purely ideological claim, and a very silly one.

Unlike Western middle class armchair “radicals” who have never known the reality of an actual police state, those who have would know the difference between that and the USA easily.
10 6
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 10:58am
Fletch

re: men, women, and job suitability…

It looks like the U.S Army may have to lower its standards so that women can pass the test for the Marine Corps Infantry Officer Course. Out of 29 women that tried, NONE managed to pass. This is after Obama changed the rules a few years ago allowing women into combat roles. Some roles are just better suited to men. That doesn’t mean that there is ‘inequality’ in theose roles.

Two years ago, Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the nation’s top military officer, laid down an edict on the Obama administration’s plan to open direct land combat jobs to women: If women cannot meet a standard, senior commanders better have a good reason why it should not be lowered.

Today, the “Dempsey rule” appears to have its first test case.

The Marine Corps just finished research to see if female officers could successfully complete its rigorous Infantry Officer Course.

A IOC diploma is a must to earn the designation of infantry officer. Of 29 women who tried, none graduated; only four made it through the first day’s combat endurance test.

[…]

“The pressure is on the services from the White House’s politically correct crowd vis-a-vis Obama’s Pentagon appointees, who will force the services to accept degraded standards,” said Robert Maginnis, a retired Army officer and author of the book “Deadly Consequences: How Cowards Are Pushing Women Into Combat.”

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/apr/19/marine-corps-weighs-lower-standards-for-women-afte/
5 2
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 11:08am
unitedtribes

I was just thinking how good self drive cars will be for the night life industry. People will be able to go out to the pub or restaurant again without worrying about driving home. I wonder who will have the rights to tell Google he’s going too fast, the wrong way or is in the wrong lane?
4 1
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 11:32am
Shawn Herles

The Iran Deal: Oppose, Obstruct, Delay . . . Defeat.

“Today we know that the Obama administration is in the process of striking a deal with Iran. And we know that
the Russian sale of the S-300—a system that would make a strike against Iran’s nuclear weapons program considerably more difficult—is perhaps the first concrete consequence of the Iran deal. If the deal is allowed to go forward, it won’t be the last. As Abrams puts it, “As sanctions are removed, and as funds flow to Iran, it will strengthen its military posture. Iran with an operational S-300 system will feel more immune from attack and is likely therefore to become even more aggressive in its behavior throughout the Middle East.””

http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/iran-deal-oppose-obstruct-delay-defeat_921596.html
4 2
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 11:35am
stephieboy

EAD , Shawn Herles is right in respect of your facility to conflate two separate issues. Yes issues of Police violence is a problem which thank goodness the first amendments protects US citizens so they all can vigorously debate as Infowars , Zero Hedge .Paul Craig Roberts etc. dramatically demonstrates

I have also pointed out to you that countries like Russia also have the same kind of problems with their police but a more coy about publicising them thanks largely to you and the above mentioned . Also when those above mentioned are actually arbitrarily arrested and sent off to FEMA camps then we can begin to take them and youself seriously ! This and inspite of the alledegedly ” sinister”south west military exercise ..
4 2
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 11:59am
Maggy Wassilieff

Peter Ellis Royal Commission of Inquiry request
http://www.parliament.nz/en-nz/pb/presented/petitions/47DBHOH_PET2595_1/petition-of-lynley-jane-hood-and-dr-don-brash-and-807-others
has been declined by M of J
4 1
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 12:08pm
mandk

“If they are genuine refugees then the issue of their religion, or non-religion, should not be a factor”

I don’t agree, Shawn.

Given that there will always be constrained capacity to take refugees, a major consideration must be the ability of candidates to integrate.

I think there is sufficient evidence to show that, compared to other refugee groups, Muslims are simply not interested in integrating. Their beliefs discourages it.
9 0
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 12:17pm
Shawn Herles

I understand your pov mandk, it’s just not one I have the freedom to endorse.

For me, a refugee is a refugee. End of story.

“The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the Lord your God” (Leviticus 19:34)
1 6
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 12:24pm
wikiriwhis business

Conservative voters. The real frauds and beneficiary bums

Taxpayers spend £11bn to top up low wages paid by UK companies

esearch published last week by Citizens UK found that companies in the UK are paying their workers so little that the taxpayer has to top up wages to the tune of £11bn a year. The four big supermarkets (Tesco, Asda, Sainsburys and Morrisons) alone are costing just under £1bn a year in tax credits and extra benefits payments.

This is a direct transfer from the rest of society to some of the largest businesses in the country. To put the figure in perspective, the total cost of benefit fraud last year was just £1bn. Corporate scrounging costs 11 times that.

http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/apr/20/taxpayers-spend-11bn-to-top-up-low-wages-paid-by-uk-companies?CMP=share_btn_tw
3 5
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 12:30pm
Chuck Bird

It seems Ms Adams thinks that the process is more important than common sense and justice.

Request for Ellis Commission of Inquiry declined
Tuesday, 21 April 2015, 11:28 am
Press Release: New Zealand Government

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1504/S00259/request-for-ellis-commission-of-inquiry-declined.htm
4 1
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 12:32pm
kowtow

Men women job suitability

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3045611/More-25-sailors-airlifted-Royal-Navy-ships-falling-pregnant-including-one-HMS-Lusty.html
3 2
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 12:34pm
Fletch

The ‘Hoff is BACK, in a new music video!
It’s strictly tongue-in-cheek, and meant to look like it was made in the 1980s. It’s for a new crowdfunded movie called Kung Fury, which is itself a pastiche of 80s VHS movie cliche’s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTidn2dBYbY

The trailer for the movie itself. As you can see, it has Nazis (Adolph Hitler as ‘Kung Fuhrer!..lol), time travel, Viking babes with machine guns, dinosaurs, lone-wolf karate cops and all that goodness.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72RqpItxd8M
3 0
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 12:35pm
wikiriwhis business

The DWP’s new solution to the problem of low pay? Blame working families

Over the next year or so, 15,000 working families in receipt of UC will be randomly subject to different levels of ‘in-work conditionality’ requiring them to look for more or better paid jobs. Some will receive the light touch: a couple of phone calls every now and then encouraging them to increase their hours. Others will have to participate in a more intensive programme of ‘challenging’ interviews. All will be at risk of losing at least part of their benefit if they fail to comply.

Welcome to the brave new world of universal credit where the message is loud and clear: doing the right thing now means not just finding a job, but earning ‘enough’. But how much is that? According to the Regulations, most claimants will need a salary of £227 a week, the equivalent of 35 hours multiplied by the national minimum wage, before the pressure to look for more or better paid work is switched off.

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2015/04/dwps-new-solution-problem-low-pay-blame-working-families
1 7
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 12:55pm
Left Right and Centre

I had the pleasure of listening this morning to one of this nation’s leading talkback hosts Sean Plunket on a grand charging crusade to ban freedom of speech, freedom of expression and wind back the societal clock a good fifty years.

Apparently something called Wicked Campers has offended Mr Sean’s moral sensibilities and so he is hellbent on erasing from existence said business using all and any means he can throw at them. The Human Rights Commission. An angry torch-holding pitchfork wielding mob. Join in our Facebook page of hate and disapproval. Let’s call their call centre and blindside one of their employees. “Can I put out their number so that everyone listening can call to finger-wag tut-tut whine complain preach give-them-what-for ? Now – I don’t want you to do anything illegal”. Good advice for your listeners Sean !! Is the business doing anything illigal ?

Mr Sean apparently speaks on behalf of all NZders representing 4.5 million moral compasses.

Entertaining stuff listening to these big bellowing overfed unhealthy chain-smoking lungs blowing up a storm over the airwaves – ROAR !! Don’t let them get away with it – I’m OUTRAGED !! They are ruining this country’s pristine tourist areas with their filth and degredation of women through poor taste unfunny sign written camper vans. Their owner is scum. He’s on a flight, is he ? So – you can tell me he’s on a flight but not where he’s going ? Sean – they don’t have to tell you anything – they’re not **answerable** to you. You’re just another joe-shmoe with the same right to demand answers and information that anyone else does. Full-on jumped jerk mode – worked up like a boiled kettle without a thermostat.

Tabloid style rhetoric shitstorm of over-the-top nonsense.

I feel safe in the knowledge that dictator Sean knows how I and everyone else feels about what is acceptable for this society. I hope the campaign to rid this country of all evil threats to the pristine countryside is highly successful.

Far out – the way he was carrying on – anyone would think he’d been asked to miss breakfast, lunch and his first packet of fags that day.

The society I want to live in considers issues a little more delicately – does not start from a foregone conclusion – snorting condemnation like a bull out of the gate – and is not a one-sided fast-spinning media beat-up mob-gathering propaganda machine.

The camper vans might be in poor taste, dictator Plunket left a sour taste.
12 1
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 1:10pm
RRM

It’s never nice when someone phones you, telling you you’d previously promised them XYZ last week, and that’s now overdue, and you’re holding everything up.

But it IS nice when you can force them to immediately and totally backpedal, just by sending a brief e mail reminding them of what the facts and dates ACTUALLY were… cc’ed to his boss, and your boss.

Thanks for playing! 🙂
6 0
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 1:23pm
starboard

Peter Ellis…huge miscarriage of justice there.
18 2
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 1:23pm
starboard

It started yesterday LRC. Some mustached lesbian phoned in and was blowing on about those wicked camper vans..she was saying how disgusting it was for women , how degrading blah blah. Obviously the fat one has picked it up and decided to run with it.
You’d think he would have other things to worry about..like when was the last time he saw his old fella from under that big shit locker he has to cart around. Busy body.
6 3
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 1:37pm
Chuck Bird

The police heard of Livingstone’s murder suicide plan and could not be bothered formally interviewing Mrs Foot. It then had that evidence could have been put before the court in November when he last breached the protection order.

Livingstone inquest: Father revealed plan to kill his children
By Timothy Brown
12:49 PM Tuesday Apr 21, 2015

“She passed the information on to police, but they did not take it seriously or treat it as a threat as it was hearsay, she said.”

“Mrs Foot had heard Livingstone speak of wanting to kill the children and burn the house down five months before the murder-suicide occurred.

She said she informed police, but was never formally interviewed.”

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11435540
3 1
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 1:45pm
Harriet

“….The camper vans might be in poor taste….”

Wicked Campers got a bashing by the left in QLD – as some kids asked their parents in the car what ‘cum’ ect is. Anna Bligh the feminist Premier then had to have her say on the matter, which the left then turned into a ‘war on women’ narrative – so the QLD police then jumped on board and started to check all the Wicked vans for mechanical faults – pulling a lot of them off the road for a week or so.

So Wicked Campers then came up with a van for Anna Bligh the Premier – the van had a drawing of Anna with her legs apart, with a drawing of an ’empty box’ between them. With the statement underneath reading:

“Don’t forget to tick Anna’s box in March.” 😎

The same will happen in NZ – the wowsers will complain – and MP’s will jump on board with ‘bullying’ and other crap.

The best Wicked van I saw had this written on it:

Sodomy makes your ‘whole week’. 😎
5 2
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 1:57pm
simpleton1

Another answer in that old style that for “Wicked Campers”
Just thought I would bring back this quote I did on the last phase on “When people ask what is political correctness, this is”

“Are there any niggers here tonight”?

Could you turn on the house lights, please, and could the waiters and waitresses just stop serving, just for a second? And turn off this spot.

Now what did he say? “Are there any niggers here tonight?”

I know there’s one nigger, because I see him back there working.
Let’s see, there’s two niggers. And between those two niggers sits a kike. And there’s another kike— that’s two kikes and three niggers. And there’s a spic.
Right? Hmm?
There’s another spic. Ooh, there’s a wop; there’s a polack; and, oh, a couple of greaseballs.
And there’s three lace-curtain Irish micks. And there’s one, hip, thick, hunky, funky, boogie. Boogie boogie.
Mm-hmm.
I got three kikes here, do I hear five kikes? I got five kikes, do I hear six spics, I got six spics, do I hear seven niggers? I got seven niggers. Sold American.
I pass with seven niggers, six spics, five micks, four kikes, three guineas, and one wop.

Well, I was just trying to make a point, and that is that it’s the suppression of the word that gives it the power, the violence, the viciousness.

Dig: if President Kennedy would just go on television, and say, “I would like to introduce you to all the niggers in my cabinet,” and if he’d just say “nigger nigger nigger nigger nigger” to every nigger he saw, “boogie boogie boogie boogie boogie,” “nigger nigger nigger nigger nigger” ‘til nigger didn’t mean didn’t mean anything anymore, then you could never make some six-year-old black kid cry because somebody called him a nigger at school.”

Who recalls that ground breaking comedian of another era ? and the essential reason why he did this gig, answer is in the link.
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2015/04/when_people_ask_what_is_political_correctness_this_is.html
April 21st, 2015 at 12:55 am

Ashley is right, though do not get me going on one of his gigs where the police arrested him in the club.
1 0
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 2:17pm
Ashley Schaeffer

LRC, I gave you an uptick because I hate the PC/Fun Police and the Perpertually Outraged as much as the next sane person, but IMO the Wicked Camper slogans are for adult consumption and while often witty – to me – not the kind of stuff you want to be explaining to your kids. These are the kind of bad taste jokes we love to hear and tell at a party or down the pub, but don’t really need to have pushed in everyone’s face when going about their daily business. Censorship is a slippery slope but a line has to be drawn somewhere on common standards of decency in public.
8 1
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 2:18pm
ciaron

So….
you can’t have words like fuck, cunt tits or cock on a personalized plate, but all sorts of sexual innuendo and not so double entendre on a hire camper is sweet?
5 2
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 2:23pm
waikatogirl

Wicked Campers graphics. Apparently some of the so-called humour is not only not humourous, but downright crass and disgusting. I for one don’t appreciate schoolboy level sick jokes and immature graphics.

F off back to QLD you sick Wicked bastards. Surely NZ’ers can produce better humour than that bunch of Aussie’s sick attempts!
3 4
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 2:28pm
waikatogirl

I appreciate a well told dirty joke, but there is a time and place. Plastered all over vans for kids, etc to see. Nah, that isn’t funny, it’s crass and stupid.
10 1
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 2:35pm
Left Right and Centre

The issue of the camper van signs notwithstanding, who appoints another person in this society judge, jury and executioner with a pre-determined outcome ?

Violent criminals get a trial – they don’t get arrested and sent straight to prison.

It might be popular – it might have a market – an audience – it’s winning the game with an underarm delivery.
2 0
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 2:58pm
Left Right and Centre

News musings . . .

(1) Article: Which is the healthiest of NZ’s popular potato chips?

Isn’t that like asking – ‘which of these revolvers is the safest to play Russian roulette with ?’

(2) Article: Iwi occupy Wairarapa farm sold by trust

Maori protesters have occupied a farm donated to iwi by a Pakeha farmer 50 years ago, but which has ended up being sold off by another Maori organisation to pay its debts.

To pakeha or not to pakeha – that is the question. And should it be used in a sentence with a capital letter ? Any issue with a Maori flavour and caucasian kiwi people become pakeha people. Or Pakeha people. Because P/pakeha is a race that requires a proper noun. How about – non-Maori person ? You wouldn’t call a polynesian heritage person P/pakeha. And what is a neat word to sum up someone who has Euorpean and Maori heritage ? What do Maori call those people in their language ? Maori-Pakeha which means us and not-us heritage ? Part Maori part polynesian ? Maoropoly ?
1 0
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 3:09pm
kowtow

waikatogirl

Camper van graphics.

Agreed 100%.
4 0
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 3:25pm
Rachael Membery

ciaron (1,563 comments) says:

April 21st, 2015 at 2:23 pm

As the owner of two potentially sexually suggestive plates, possibly three, I can’t agree, but definitely agree that those named above as such shouldn’t be allowed. lol I have lickr, hapnis, d0nky, and a fourth smerk, they can make an interesting sentence. 😉

If an explanation is required, I work in the liquor industry, am a spelling Nazi and was sure someone would have spelled happiness as hapenis, I keep donkeys as pets and the last, which was my first one was a bad taste mis-understood Princess Diana joke to doo with a Merc and I was getting one.

As for children asking about spelling in this text age, I would have thought that the answer was easy and good for the children being interested in language.

My mother was motivated to learn how too spell when her parent used to spell words around her.
1 1
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 3:28pm
Shawn Herles

“(1) Article: Which is the healthiest of NZ’s popular potato chips?

Isn’t that like asking – ‘which of these revolvers is the safest to play Russian roulette with ?’”

Weight Watchers, which my Aunt was on a few years back, make their own brand which taste surprisingly good. I was expecting them to taste like cardboard!
1 0
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 3:32pm
Rachael Membery

A spelling Nazi with sticky keys and who runs out of editing time 😉
2 1
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 3:35pm
waikatogirl

Thanks Kowtow. I’m all for being creative to promote business. I am in business and understand the requirement for clever marketing but there are limits, especially on what are effectively mobile billboards.
2 0
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 3:56pm
Rachael Membery

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11436106

Stalling tactics from Dotcom and Co, so, if we do not cough up legal aid there can be no trial? What a rort!!!
4 0
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 4:44pm
ciaron

Rachel,
I remember some years ago when I was investigating the option of a P Plate, they made it quite clear that anything explicit or suggestive was not allowed. Seems to have relaxed somewhat now, but I don’t really see why the standards applied to what can and can’t go on a plate do not also apply to the rest of a vehicle.
1 0
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 4:59pm
UglyTruth

Fuckin rude..why aren’t the msm all over this shit.

Because fair and honest treatment of the issue would show that the police don’t have any right to stop people for revenue gathering either….
0 7
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 5:10pm
Rachael Membery

ciaron (1,564 comments) says:

April 21st, 2015 at 4:59 pm

I have had some fun with mine lol if I was ever to resell, I think I would find buyers for most, if not all of them.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 5:13pm
Rachael Membery

Left Right and Centre (3,368 comments) says:

April 21st, 2015 at 2:58 pm

If their customers didn’t like them they would go to a different company, I wonder if you can choose a van’s message?

People are funny creatures, even to the point where they prefer some pictures on cigarette packets to others. We like to choose our messages and philosophies.
1 1
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 5:20pm
wiseowl

Left right and centre
I took offense at Punket saying Hillary Barry was the ‘mother of the Nation’ and also a ‘celebrity’.
She is just a newsreader as far as I’m concerned.
5 0
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 5:51pm
stigie

Anyone know what happened to Black with a Vengence ?

Used to give out shit loads of stick as well as take it, i thought he was a good competitor !~
2 2
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 5:52pm
Shawn Herles

“I took offense at Punket saying Hillary Barry was the ‘mother of the Nation’ and also a ‘celebrity’.”

Hillary Barry? The ‘mother of the Nation’?????

LMAO!!! 🙂
5 0
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 5:56pm
Shunda barunda

People are funny creatures, even to the point where they prefer some pictures on cigarette packets to others. We like to choose our messages and philosophies.

Which of course makes it right, that someone chose something, because what we choose is always right.

It’s easy to find another way to skin a cat when you just decide the cat is a banana.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 6:08pm
Rachael Membery

Shunda barunda (3,052 comments) says:

April 21st, 2015 at 6:08 pm

All subjective, personally if we are still taking about the camper vans, I can’t recall any that I have seen, so I can’t have been offended or impressed.

I like to think I would have.
0 1
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 6:17pm
publicwatchdog

Seen this Kiwibloggers?

“Alex Swney pleads guilty to a further $2.5 million fraud

Hamish McNicol · Tuesday April 21, 2015 · 

Alex Swney, the former boss of Auckland business organisation Heart of the City, has pleaded guilty to further fraud charges of more than $2.5 million.

Mr Swney appeared in the Auckland District Court this morning to answer a charge brought by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) of dishonestly using documents.

He has pleaded guilty to the charge and was remanded on bail until his next appearance on April 30.

The maximum prison term for the charge is seven years.

Mr Swney created fictitious invoices while at Heart of the City which resulted in payments of more than $2.5 million to accounts controlled by him.

SFO director Julie Read says the misappropriation increased the cost of the services provided by the organisation and reduced the benefits delivered by it.

“Fraud of this size by employees who are entrusted with the management and expenditure of substantial sums of money is very costly for both the businesses concerned and more broadly for the community as it harms the integrity of these organisations,” she says.

In January, Mr Swney also admitted to charges laid by the IRD covering $1.8 million in unpaid taxes.

He had initially denied the charges last year but after switching lawyers to Murray Gibson changed his plea.

The IRD also alleges Mr Swney owes $1.4 million in penalties and interest.

Mr Swney will be sentenced on four of the original IRD charges this month, after another 34 initial charges were dropped.

He also faces civil proceedings by Heart of the City’s board, which undertook an independent investigation when the allegations surfaced.

Heart of the City is mostly funded by targeted business rates and its purpose is to promote business in the Auckland CBD.

In its most recently available annual report for 2011-2012, the organisation records receiving $4.47 million in revenue.

Earlier this year the association teamed up with Auckland Tourism Events and Economic Development (ATEED) to fund a domestic tourism campaign.

It also had funded the Whitcoulls Santa each Christmas, but NBR Rich Listers the Mansons and SkyCity are now funding the statue for five years.

Mr Swney had been at the helm of the business association for more than a decade.

In 2007 he unsuccessfully ran for mayor of (then) Auckland City Council, which he lost to John Banks. ”
__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Penny Bright

http://www.pennybright4mayor.org.nz
1 13
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 6:18pm
stigie

Will John Bank’s legal team be suing you Penny for defamation for what you put that man and his wife through ?
15 2
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 6:38pm
Rachael Membery

stigie (1,805 comments) says:

April 21st, 2015 at 6:38 pm

Is Penny claiming some victory, again?
8 1
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 6:56pm
Griff

No Rachael
Dont expect us to read it for you.
Read it your self and explain to us.
If you must.
4 0
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 6:58pm
stigie

@Rachael
No doubt she will do as long as she thinks the right are corrupt !~
5 2
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 7:03pm
stigie

http://liberation.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451d75d69e20120a5acf814970c-320wi

Thought you would like to have a look at this Griff, but dont get too carried away ole chap !~
2 2
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 7:15pm
Griff

Get some real powerporn stigie
1 0
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 7:23pm
Rachael Membery

Griff (9,302 comments) says:

April 21st, 2015 at 6:58 pm

I do not willingly go to the martyr’s or masochist’s chair lol The brief look I took had the words Mayor and corruption so I did wonder if she was inferring that all Auckland Mayoral candidates are corrupt in her opinion? That inference could of course be problematic ;).
1 1
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 7:23pm
rightoverlabour

I’m all for paying some koha to the scum that are robbing people on the road in the Coromandel. Lead and copper are both valuable metals. We’ll make it a quick, short, sharp payment delivered by my favorite friends, Smith and Wesson. Now eff off back to your holes you mangy mongrels and let civilized people go about their lawful pursuits unhindered.
2 1
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 7:29pm
Griff

So it was the usual white noise from miss penny self-important pubic watching dog.
Did she say when her house is up for auction?
That is the news we are all waiting for.
As the day may be an entertaining interlude and all round popcorn feast. I for one are looking forward to being in the peanut gallery to witness the auction of the defaulters abode.
7 1
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 7:31pm
Keeping Stock

@ Penny – Swney has admitted his crimes, and will pay the consequences. I hope you are so triumphant in posting a story when charges are laid against those who conspired to concoct a cock-and-bull story to discredit John Banks.

In the meantime, any news on when you are going to pay your eight-year rates arrears, plus interest. As an Auckland business ratepayer, subsidising your ongoing rates avoidance is getting a little tiresome.
10 1
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 7:33pm
Keeping Stock

PS: I’m sure I speak for many here when I note how much we are looking forward to your apology to Hon. John Banks when the Court of Appeal orders that there be no retrial in the Dotcom donations case.
10 1
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 7:39pm
Fletch

Hillary Clinton’s motorcade pulls a ‘Helen Clark’, hitting 92 MPH in a 64 MPH speed zone, and then (after she has been to the function and leaves) 73 MPH in a 55 MPH zone – no flashing lights from her detail or anything. And does she get arrested or stopped? Nope, nothing.

Democratic Presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton’s security detail led a handful of journalists on two lengthy high-speed chases to homes of influential Democrats on Monday.

Her lone official appearance on her first day in New Hampshire was a carefully stage-managed small-business roundtable in Keene.

But a lunchtime visit to a main-street bakery and two more appointments later in the day were off-the-books and under the public’s radar.

If police radar had been engaged, however, it would have clocked Hillary’s signature black conversion van Scooby,’ for the uninitiated – hitting 92 mph in a driving rainstorm on Interstate 89, where the top speed limit is 65.

After Clinton emerged from Whitney Brothers, a children’s furniture manufacturer, her black Chevy conversion van raced an hour north to the town of Claremont, hitting 73 in a 55 mph zone.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3048056/Scooby-hits-road-92-MPH-Secret-Service-zooms-Hillary-dinner-driving-rain-following-secret-afternoon-house-party.html

One law for them, a different law for everybody else.
6 1
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 7:52pm
stigie

An apology from the narcissist Penny Bright to the Hon. John Banks is a laughing matter KS !~

Bwhahahahahaha.
6 2
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 7:54pm
Johnboy

This pathetic Anzac crap is getting totally out of hand! 🙂

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/67929204/anzac-warning-on-wellington-traffic-expect-biggest-disruption-ever
1 3
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 9:07pm
Johnboy

This pathetic Jigaboo tolerance crap is getting totally out of hand! 🙂

http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/news/67880010/coromandel-groups-roadside-fundraising-on-100kmh-road-branded-highway-robbery
11 2
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 9:08pm
Johnboy

This whole NZ society that lauds spear-dancing over intellectual achievement is getting totally out of hand! 🙂
8 2
Log in to Reply
Report
April 21, 2015 9:14pm

More comments:

1
2
›

Add a Comment Cancel reply

Login to comment or vote

« Thank goodness they were rumbled

Quote of the week »

Donations

You can now donate to Kiwiblog

Exclusive content from DPF on Patreon

Become a Patron!

Highlights

The Kiwis are fleeing
Inflation by term
Houston we have a problem
Our immunisation disaster

Never miss a post

Email Address

Links

Dr Bryce Wilkinson: New Zealand's productivity puzzle
Breaking Views
Animals
No Minister
Wash Post admits reality: ‘Amid explosive demand, America is running out of power’ – U.S. ‘power grid’ being pushed ‘to the brink. Utilities can’t keep up’ – ‘It is staggering’ – But WaPo frets energy shortage ‘threatens to stifle the transition to cleane
Utopia
Word of the day
Hompaddock
Populist Extremism and Culture Wars on the rise in NZ? We’ve been here before, but why it’s different this time
The Daily Blog
A crisis of ambition
Point of Order
Open mike 20/04/2024
The Standard
A who's who of New Zealand's dodgiest companies
No Right Turn
"Under a better Resource Management system [sic], there would be no need for fast-track approval processes."
Not PC
Again, hate crimes are not necessarily terrorism.
Kiwipolitico
Despair - construction consenting edition
Offsetting Behaviour
RACIST ADVERTISING
No Punches Pulled (Bob Jones)
Is the state coming for churches?
Bob McCoskrie's McBlog
Super Rugby Predictions for Week 9
Stats Chat
Coalition Promises
NZCPR
Tougher than that
Croaking Cassandra
ABs stripped of 2011 title after try disallowed
Imperator Fish
Legal Beagle: Election '23: The Special Votes
Public Address
Making this movie might have been a mistake
Liam Hehir
Why I am retiring from political blogging
Kiwi FireWalker
Angie Warren-Clark: Meet the Newbies
Dan Moskovitz