General Debate 25 January 2010

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starboard

off to Phuket yeehaa !! 32 deg yesterday..ciao x
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January 25, 2010 10:56am
Pete George

What are you off to Phuk?
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January 25, 2010 11:02am
starboard

my liver..
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January 25, 2010 11:05am
MikeNZ

Thank God Muslims are only 36k of our population at present.
I feel for my friends and family in the UK as they have to live in this environment as they are way further down the track of the global Dawa as Melenie Phillips informs us.
http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/5723371/the-thin-blue-line-of-jihad.thtml
Imagine having a political group like that inside NZPolice.
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January 25, 2010 11:13am
Monty

How did Goof enjoy Ratana yesterday – Did he really say “Labour working for the ordinary person” – what an arrogant tosser – no wonder he lingers below 5%.

The Herald reports “To rub his nose in it, Labour leader Phil Goff had to endure a speech praising Prime Minister John Key for being “a brilliant speaker” and “a person who should be admired”.

What a cracking start to the year for what-his-name.
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January 25, 2010 11:14am
Guy Fawkes

Lord Hutton’s report on the ‘mysterious’ death of Dr David Kelly has been consigned to the 70 years silencing order. There was a posse of eminent doctors requesting all the report details in full. They were all unconvinced about the executive summary in its explanation of the hounded scientist taking his own life. Dr Kelly was the man who suggested that the Iraq 45 minutes to launch of WMD on London was sexed up.

So instead of replying to numerous FOI requests, Labour store it away in a secure vault.

Democracy or Murder? Have a look at the online UK papers and make your own mind up.
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January 25, 2010 11:15am
Falafulu Fisi

When I was a kid in the mid 1980s, the music was real. These days, artists are all stage-managed and air-brushed (meaning fake), no real talent at all.

My favorite classic funk group from the era of real music was the Tongan/Samoan group The Jets, which they were awesome (singing , dancing & playing musical instruments). One of my best love song from them:

Make It Real (1988 video – #3 in the US Top-40 Chart)

They were disbanded in the early 90s (I think), but more than 20 years later and members have gained more than a few pounds, they can still sing.

Make It Real (2009 Live Performance Reunion)

A good funky dance live performance from 1989:

You’ve Got Another Boyfriend

The 1980s still rocks.
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January 25, 2010 11:16am
MikeNZ

Climate gate the Christm,as present that keep giving and giving all year round.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/01/ipcc_scientist_admits_glacierg.html
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/01/climategate_just_sign_on_the_d.html
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January 25, 2010 11:16am
MikeNZ

http://spectator.org/archives/2010/01/21/the-chinese-shell-game

and we have a free trade agreement with them?
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January 25, 2010 11:20am
s.russell

Another amazing statement from a Union:
Apparently the Prison Officers’ Union objects to the three strikes law because it will but violent crims in prison, thus endangering prison officers. They should be released to spare the poor prison officers this danger.

See: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10621649&pnum=0
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January 25, 2010 11:22am
MikeNZ

If you or I were to behave in this manner with reports and articles we’d get closed down in a falsh.
But not the IPCC.

http://catallaxyfiles.com/2010/01/22/ipcc-and-peer-review/
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/the_ipcc_scandal_the_african_data_was_sexed_up_too
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January 25, 2010 11:24am
Pete George

Yet another US election.

GOP division could keep Va. seat in Democrats’ hands

Tom Perriello should have almost no chance to win reelection to Congress. He’s a stimulus-backing, health-care-reform-loving, cap-and-trade-supporting liberal Democrat who represents a conservative central Virginia district where antipathy to the president and all things Washington runs high. Perhaps too high. Perriello’s opponents are so divided about who is the best conservative to replace him that they are transforming what should be a gimme for Republicans into a national emblem of GOP strife, potentially setting up a replay of the special election in Upstate New York in November that handed the Democrats a seat.

Republican leaders in Virginia are backing a moderate state lawmaker, Sen. Robert Hurt, whose record enrages many conservatives, including a disparate band of Tea Party activists. To them, Hurt is not a real conservative because of his past support for tax increases, and they’re promising a third-party challenge if he wins the nomination.

At a time when Republicans are ecstatic over Scott Brown’s astonishing victory in last week’s special election, the race in Virginia’s 5th is a reminder of the dangerous undertow created by the intense passion that motivates the Tea Party movement and other conservatives. That enthusiasm is a boon to Republicans in a liberal place like Massachusetts because conservative are so desperate to win they’re willing to unite behind a single candidate, even if some of that candidate’s positions are anathema to many. Brown, for instance, supports abortion rights.

But in such places as Virginia’s 5th District, conservatives are uncompromising. Their goal isn’t simply to reclaim the seat from Democrats: They want to fill it with only the purest of conservatives.
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January 25, 2010 1:16pm
KiwiGreg

Interesting graph one of our guys just showed me – % of presidential appointments with private sector experience going back to Roosevelt. The % range from <30% for Kennedy to <60% for Eisenhower (52% +/- for GWB).

The Obama %?

5%
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January 25, 2010 3:31pm
Pete George

Private sector experience isn’t always a positive – Cheney’s Haliburton business connections didn’t look good with what he orchestrated as virtual POTUS.

The manner in which he got there is worth remembering.

In early 2000, while serving as the CEO of Halliburton, Cheney headed then-Governor of Texas George W. Bush’s vice-presidential search committee. On July 25, after reviewing Cheney’s findings, Bush surprised some pundits by asking Cheney himself to join the Republican ticket. Halliburton reportedly reached agreement on July 20 to allow Cheney to retire, with a package estimated at $20 million.

A few months before the election Cheney put his home in Dallas up for sale and changed his drivers’ license and voter registration back to Wyoming. This change was necessary to avoid allow Texas’ presidential electors to vote for both Bush and Cheney without contravening the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which forbids electors from voting for someone from their own state for both President and Vice-President.
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January 25, 2010 3:34pm
JeffW

Tragedy about the young girl who was mauled by Pit Bulls. Shame that her parents cannot sue the dog owner for pain and suffering, and medical expenses. If such owners could be sued for megabucks, perhaps they would not own pit bulls. Is ACC no-fault a good thing?

Socialisation of responsibility leading once again to abdication of responsibility.
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January 25, 2010 3:38pm
Kris K

MikeNZ 11:13 am,

Thank God Muslims are only 36k of our population at present.
I feel for my friends and family in the UK as they have to live in this environment as they are way further down the track of the global Dawa as Melenie Phillips informs us.
http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/5723371/the-thin-blue-line-of-jihad.thtml
Imagine having a political group like that inside NZPolice.

In my personal opinion, Mike, Western nations having ANY Muslims in their police force makes about as much sense as having them in their military. Muslims (most/all) in Western nations are first and foremost Muslims – they make no effort to assimilate into their host country, and certainly don’t embrace Western values (the good ones). Just as we see Muslims in the Western military having a conflict of interests when deployed to Islamic nations, so too will Muslim police be in conflict when confronted with Muslim crime. The article you cite hints at this.

Of course, if I had my way we would have no Muslim politicians (Ashraf Chaudhry), and non assimilation of any individual Muslim would lead to the revoking of residency and deportation back to their home country. And they would certainly not be permitted to construct terrorist training facilities … I mean … ‘mosques’ in our country.
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January 25, 2010 4:14pm
KiwiGreg

“Private sector experience isn’t always a positive ”

Obviously the messiah thinks its a big negative. Only those untainted by private sector experience can truly serve the public I guess.
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January 25, 2010 4:17pm
Pete George

What about the wrong sort of Christians Kris? Should they be excluded from our military and immigration? What about atheists?

This could get very complicated. Did the US exclude anyone of German origin in WW1 and WW2 (about 1/4 the US population)?
Did the British army exclude Catholics from serving in Northern Ireland? Did NATO exclude Christians and Muslims from serving in Yugoslavia?
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January 25, 2010 4:22pm
Pete George

KiwiGreg, lack of experience and conflicts of interest can both be issues. What public sector experience prepares a person to be POTUS? Compared to their political experience? (Yeah, I known Obama didn’t have heaps of that either at higher levels).
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January 25, 2010 4:24pm
Kris K

Pete George 4:22 pm,

You’re certainly predictable, if nothing else, Pete.

(Of course NZ was founded upon Christianity, not Islam.)
And if you want to go down the same road as Europe and the UK, then just keep on peddling your tired old line, Pete.
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January 25, 2010 4:54pm
Pete George

I’m just saying things aren’t so simple, good v bad.

I’m not into Islam at all, but I’m not against freedom of choice for others, if they stay within our laws. There are many Muslims who fear Christians as much as you fear them. What is the score (deaths inflicted) for say, this century, Christian v Muslim. Last century?
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January 25, 2010 5:05pm
Kris K

Pete George 5:05 pm,

I’m just saying things aren’t so simple, good v bad.

I think things are, in fact, that simple.

I’m not into Islam at all, but I’m not against freedom of choice for others, if they stay within our laws. There are many Muslims who fear Christians as much as you fear them. What is the score (deaths inflicted) for say, this century, Christian v Muslim. Last century?

I do encourage you to research the contrast between Westerners killing Muslims versus Muslims killing Westerners.
But if you want to consider Muslims killing Christians in particular I encourage you to go no further than Africa – the genocide perpetrated against Christians by Muslims in that continent is horrific in its magnitude, and largely ignored by the MSM.

And don’t forget that one of the aims of Islam is to cleanse the earth of every last Jew as well.

We don’t need then; we don’t want them.
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January 25, 2010 5:25pm
PaulL

On growth of the state (brought on by this article: http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_id=15328727&source=hptextfeature).

We have aging populations all around the world. Seems to me that we will reach a division between two sorts of countries – those that saved for their retirements, and those that have taxpayer funded pay as you go schemes.

In countries with large savings (Japan, Australia and others), I would expect to start to see the returns to capital drop, and the returns to labour increase. This would be logical as we have fewer and fewer workers, and large reserves of savings. The scarcity of workers should lead to them commanding increasing pay. This will in turn either result in older voters pushing for immigration to hold down wages, or technology that can take on the menial jobs, and therefore push up the productivity of the remaining workers. Look at Japan, with their focus on home help robots – they’ve already worked out they don’t want immigrants. This should be a left wingers dream – increasing the relative earnings of labour v’s capital. Paradoxically, it would be driven by private superannuation, something lefties aren’t much into.

In countries with a pay as you go system, the result will be quite different. There isn’t much capital on hand, so you need to push up the returns for capital so as to get enough to run the country. Much of this capital comes from offshore. Without capital, and the drop in returns to capital that accompanies it’s surplus, wages for the remaining workers can’t really rise – there’s nothing to pay them with. These countries I reckon will be stuck in a cycle of increasing taxes, decreasing productivity, and fights between the retired and those still working. The only real way out is immigration.

Unfortunately NZ has decided to be in the second category. I really think we should be getting a superannuation savings scheme similar to Australia’s.
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January 25, 2010 5:43pm
Bevan

I see Auckland has lost power again! How long has it been now since an issue was identified with Aucklands Power supply? I remember slick willy bringing his own generator during APEC, just in case. Its just fucken ridiculous.
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January 25, 2010 6:34pm
JoeAverage1948

My wife asked me three questions today
A Why do whales beach? do they really want to live here amongst us
B Why did a maori feed kittens to his pit bull????
C Why did a maori twist a kittens head of and throw it across the room in front of his kids and wife??? help please, im lost
it was a struggle to answer, ,why are maoris so cruel to animals and their kids, i struggle with reasons,and why are whales so stupid that they want to live with (humans) ????????????? who kill kittens and kids ,us humans
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January 25, 2010 7:21pm
PaulL

Joe: why did two people, who happened to be part-Maori (probably 10% or less, given percentage in the population), do something that most of us find distasteful? Why do all sorts of people (not just those part-Maori) do horrific things to animals? Why do poor people disproportionately beat their children?

Those are more useful questions. Stating it like you have will never give any useful answers, because you’re assuming the cause in your statement, so you can only get one answer. And that answer may not be right.

As for the whales, misplaced altruism. Similar to someone running into a burning building to save someone, resulting in them both dying. Or someone swimming out to save someone in a rip, and both dying. One whale is sick, and gets beached. The other whales come because of its distress calls, probably to try to help it. I guess beachings are rare, and things that the pod could help with (maybe shark attacks?) are common, so in an evolutionary sense, coming to the aid of a stricken whale makes sense.

It’s mostly pilot whales that beach, right? I think there’s heaps of them around, so it isn’t like they’re all beaching, just some of them.
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January 25, 2010 7:28pm
PaulL

Beached whales: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beached_whale

Wikipedia knows all, including this: Beached whale is also a slang expression for a fat man or especially a fat woman sunbathing on a beach in a swimming costume.
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January 25, 2010 7:37pm
Pete George

John Banks was on Campbell before talking for “the good people of Auckland” and said Strange had been in his job for nine years – it has actually been two.

Platitudes and bullshit in election year.
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January 25, 2010 8:02pm
Hurf Durf

I love spammed WaPo crap. Almost as good as the rubbish the Herald prints from the soon-to-be-bankrupt Independent.
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January 25, 2010 9:00pm
Tauhei Notts

This is possibly off topic, but I believe that the $270,000,000 raised by Fonterra’s issue of dry shares is a serious indictment of the financial literacy of our country’s dairy farmers.
How an outfit could sell shares and studiously ignore any mention whatsoever of the imputation credits to be attached to the dividends on those shares; it defies belief.
Now, if they were offering shares in the outfit that supplies Fonterra with paper; then I would be in, boots and all.
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January 25, 2010 9:12pm
kiki

Anyone notice Gerry picking winners? Does this mean the free-market ideology is gone? Will they think big next?

http://m.nzherald.co.nz/story/entertainment/10621942/
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January 25, 2010 10:26pm
Kris K

TEST:

DARWINISM, MARXISM & REVOLUTION

You know when the likes of Fredrich Engels, Karl Marx, and Leon Trotsky sing the praises of Darwinism/Evolutionary Theory that you have to pause and ask some pretty serious questions about the motives behind those, including Darwin, who push this theory:

“Darwin, who I am now reading, is splendid”, wrote Fredrich Engels in a letter to Marx soon after ‘On the Origin of Species’ was published in 1859. Both communists could identify with the “survival of the fittest”, and saw that the biological ideas advanced by Darwin could equally be imposed on society at large.

The theme was later elaborated on by Soviet revolutionary Leon Trotsky, who first of all explained why atheism was crucial in the education system:

Religiousness is irreconcilable with the Marxian standpoint. We are of the opinion that atheism, as an inseparable element of the materialist view of life, is a necessary condition for the theoretical education of the revolutionist. He who believes in another world is not capable of concentrating all his passion on the transformation of this one.

Trotsky then wrote that Darwin’s Theory of Evolution must be taught in state schools, not because it is a good theory but because it makes belief in God impossible – and that was the supreme aim of Marxism:

[DARWINISM AND MARXISM

Even if Darwin, as he himself asserted, did not lose his belief in God for all his rejection of the biblical theory of creation,]

Darwinism itself is none the less entirely irreconcilable with this belief. In this, as in other respects, Darwinism is a forerunner, a preparation for Marxism. Taken in a broadly materialist and dialectic sense, Marxism is the application of Darwinism to human society.
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February 24, 2010 4:38pm

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