General Debate 10 April 2017

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William of Ockham

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https://tamino.wordpress.com/2017/01/18/global-temperature-the-big-3/
Global Temperature: the Big 3. January 18, 2017 [summary]

NASA and NOAA held a joint press conference; HadCRU released their data at the same time. “third record-hot year in a row” gets the most airtime, it’s the continuing trend (which has been ongoing for 40 years) that’s the real story.

The recent strong el Niño contributed to the extremity of the year’s record, but we’ve had strong el Niño events before. The reason this one beat the pants of all those previous el Niño years is the trend, the persistent warming of the planet caused by greenhouse gases. Also known as: global warming. Anybody who tells you different, is selling something. [graphs]

Note that when we allow for non-greenhouse factors, only NASA data still show 2016 as the hottest year on record. That’s because they all treat the Arctic differently. NASA does the most detailed estimate of Arctic temperature, while HadCRU simply leaves it out — but since the Arctic warmed so much last year, leaving out the fastest-warming region on Earth of course makes your global estimate an underestimate.

And what did happen to the Arctic? [graph]
The yearly average Arctic temperature was an amazing 1.4°C hotter than the year before, and an astounding 1.02°C hotter than any previous year.

What happened to Earth’s overall temperature last year was shocking. What happened to the Arctic was beyond shocking. There will be consequences.
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April 10, 2017 8:00am
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  This is getting a bit tedious William.
  
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  April 10, 2017 8:08am
  - Dafixeruppa
    
    He likes the attention, even though it is all negative.
    Perhaps there should be a rule on the GD that the first 5 posts can’t be more than 2 paragraphs and can’t include any cut and paste.
    
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    April 10, 2017 8:10am
  - jims_whare
    
    I think these posts are WoO completing his daily devotional to his AGW diety.
    
    By preaching his AGW mantras early on to the Kiwiblog heathen he is hoping to convert a few simpletons to his earth worship beliefs.
    
    If he doesn’t his doctrine teaches that the great evil CO2 will devour his AGW diety and plunge the world into eternal darkness and flooding.
    
    Perhaps he should be renamed the High Priest Ockham?
    
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    April 10, 2017 8:23am
    - geoff3012
      
      Fuckwit springs to mind.
      
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      April 10, 2017 8:35am
      - Jack5
        
        Ockham is a dentist. With patients’ mouths stuffed full of gear, he’s used to the conversation being one way.
        
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        April 10, 2017 11:43am
  - Shaun the Sheep
    
    Don’t take this personally Captain, but um … I blame you (and others).
    Every morning the same cringeworthy offerings from WoO, encouraged by a response (however derisory) from you.
    
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    April 10, 2017 2:12pm
- All_on_Red
  
  Meh, Land based data eh Dennis. What’s the margin of error on those Stevenson Screens and Argos Buoy?
  Here’s RSS’s Satellite data
  http://data.remss.com/msu/graphics/tlt/plots/RSS_TS_channel_TLT_Global_Land_and_Sea_v03_3.png
  
  Warming Trend of .135K per decade
  
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  April 10, 2017 8:13am
  - stephieboy
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    A on R , the graphics courtesy of you the Professor of Climate Change ?
    
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    April 10, 2017 8:50am
    - All_on_Red
      
      No, data from Remote Sensing Systems. A very good source.
      How was your time on the naughty step?
      One month next time. Won’t be long before you stuff up again. Lol
      #SlipperySlope.
      
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      April 10, 2017 9:02am
      - stephieboy
        
        A on R , please source your graphics with links in future to assess it’s credibilty .
        
        BTW enjoying the 24 hour 180 degree U turn ( code for flip flop ) by your master over Syria ?
        
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        April 10, 2017 9:09am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        @ stephieboy
        
        A on R , please source your graphics with links in future to assess it’s credibilty .
        
        If you read AonR ‘s link… you would see that the source of the graph is there in it’s URL link.
        All you have to do is look at the start of the URL and check out remss.com
        
        Here, I’ve done it for you
        http://www.remss.com/
        
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        April 10, 2017 9:54am
      - William of Ockham
        
        All_in_Red. You are a simple or garden-variety denier.
        
        Satellites don’t measure temperature. They count photons from excited oxygen molecules.
        
        https://www.reddit.com/r/climate/comments/2s93qh/carl_mears_the_lead_scientist_behind_the_rss/
        
        Carl Mears, the lead scientist behind the RSS satellite data, says temperature measurements using thermometers is more reliable than satellites.
        
        Of course NASA data is made up … no men on the moon either.
        
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        April 10, 2017 4:10pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        Dennis
        NASA uses their ownSatellite with data collated by UAH. Run by DrJohn Christy. For his development of a global temperature data set from satellites he was awarded NASA’s Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement
        Don’t you believe NASAs data?
        “Satellites don’t measure temperature. ”
        You idiot. The instruments on the satellites do.
        From REMSS
        “The temperature of the air well above Earth’s surface (the upper air) is a fundamental climate variable. RSS merges together data from the MSU and AMSU microwave sounders to provide a continuous record of upper air temperature beginning in late 1978 and continuing to the present. Measurements made at different microwave frequencies or channels are sensitive to the temperature of different atmosheric layers. RSS currently provides 10 different data products based on microwave sounding measurements.”
        
        The margin of error on the land based thermometers is significant. Check out the science of Metrology.
        
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        April 10, 2017 4:39pm
      - William of Ockham
        
        Satellites’ instruments do not measure temperature, AND, the temperature derived from the data collected does not give a near-surface temperature – where we live.
        
        Maybe where you live, with your head in the clouds…
        
        Ignorant I might be, but I’m not deluded enough to think I know more then tens of thousands of publishing climate scientists.
        
        You are just a common or garden-variety denier who has been conned by billionaires and their lackeys – like Anthony Watts – who want to keep the oil money flowing into their pockets.
        
        A useful idiot are you, All_on_Red.
        
        But hey, thanks for taking part in my survey. I need data from liar-deniers. Keep it up. Every little bit helps!
        
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        April 10, 2017 5:06pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        Dennis you old fool.
        The reaction called positive feedback is supposed to be taking place in the Troposphere- according to Gavin Schmidt anyway.
        That’s why this data is important. NO evidence of it.
        You don’t even understand the basics of the theory.
        You’re a joke.
        
        Check out this Twitter exchange with Schmidt.
        https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CXyUCGIWsAAqouY?format=png&name=large
        
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        April 10, 2017 5:41pm
- PhilBest
  
  “…The reason this one beat the pants of all those previous el Niño years is the trend, the persistent warming of the planet caused by…”
  
  Natural cycles. We still ain’t anywhere near as hot as geologists say the planet got periodically, millennia before humans were emitting CO2.
  
  This whole thing is a politically motivated fraud and those responsible need prosecuting for fraud and conspiracy.
  
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  April 10, 2017 8:17am
  - Albert_Ross
    
    Read this all the way through, Phil. Bet you can’t.
    
    https://thelogicofscience.com/
    
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    April 10, 2017 8:22am
    - PhilBest
      
      That item is classic tendentious and arrogant assumptions of false premises. I can see that within 5 seconds skim.
      
      If you want to appeal to things like the objective scientific method, that happens to be precisely what the CAGW fraudsters are breaching without a qualm.
      
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      April 10, 2017 9:24am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        I agree…
        
        Maybe it’s compulsory for some Ph.D candidates to have their own blog nowadays.
        
        Chap needs to take some lessons in how to write short and snappy.
        
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        April 10, 2017 9:57am
      - Albert_Ross
        
        Pity; I had thought you one of the more thoughtful and literate commenters round here and would have been genuinely interested in your considered thoughts.
        
        I will try again.
        
        What is your response to the questions put in this extract?
        
        Let’s start with the argument that the current warming is just a natural cycle because the climate has changed naturally in the past. If you like to use this argument, then I have several questions for you. Do you honestly think that climatologists never thought of this? Do you really think that the people who spend their lives collecting those data on past climates never even bothered to check and see if the current warming was part of a natural trend? I realize that I probably sound flippant here, but I’m actually asking these questions sincerely. Do you truly think that the entire scientific community is so hopelessly incompetent and stupid that they never even bothered to check the natural drivers of climate change?
        
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        April 10, 2017 11:49am
      - mikenmild
        
        No, he doesn’t think that. He thinks all the world’s climatologists are participating in an organised, gigantic fraud to make money and/or destroy captalism.
        
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        April 10, 2017 11:59am
      - PhilBest
        
        I do NOT think, or say, that “all the world’s climatologists are participating in an organised, gigantic fraud to make money and/or destroy captalism.”
        
        I think, and say, that a small cabal of scientists with some qualifications in this area, are taking part in a conspiracy with political backing, to pervert “science”, which includes destroying the careers of honest scientists who dare to dissent.
        
        It has always been a total lie that “the vast majority” of anyone has been boots-and-all in the extreme alarmism camp. The vast majority have merely not dared to publicly dissent. But there are THOUSANDS who HAVE; they are not and never have been “just a few fringe cranks” and they never have been driven by “funding from yadda, yadda, yadda”. When there is NO government funding for them, which is what most of the funding IS, then thank goodness they still get some crumbs from somewhere. The funders are noble people on the side of light and truth, whoever they are.
        
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        April 10, 2017 2:41pm
      - William of Ockham
        
        PhilBest. Total fucking nonsense. Amongst publishing climate scientists the consensus is near-unanimous. The more papers published, the less the doubt.
        http://www.jamespowell.org/
        
        Anthropogenic climate disruption is accepted by the global community of scientists, as represented by the Royal Society, National Academy of Sciences, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Physical Society, American Chemical Society … and every scientific institution and society on the planet.
        
        Your claim is an outright lie.
        
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        April 10, 2017 4:31pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        You ignorant old fool. The data is showing no increase in Cyclone or Hurricane activity.
        A study of this in the Atlantic based on 120+ years was published in Nature this year.
        
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        April 10, 2017 4:48pm
      - krazykiwi
        
        Amongst publishing climate scientists the consensus is near-unanimous.
        
        No it’s not. But even if it was, science is nothing to do with consensus. Fixation on consensus breeds conformity, junk science, and ultimately quasi-religious dogma. That’s where your lot have taken us today.
        
        Anthropogenic climate disruption is accepted…every scientific institution and society on the planet
        
        Nonsense. Consider the IPCC. This hopelessly biased organisation was founded to research the extent of human caused global warming when the very existence of such an impact had not been scientifically proven. Despite this massive confirmation bias from day-1, and despite publishing reports and summary for policymaker documents that are contradictory, even the IPCC distances itself from the claim that humans are causing [more | less] [floods | droughts | other extreme weather events]. Even your beloved Nature has published an editorial dashing alarmist hopes of liking extreme weather to ‘climate change’
        
        Let’s take 2016. Some of the un-notable climate events:
        
        1. Northern Hemisphere snow extent was at the second highest on record this autumn
        2. Arctic sea ice extent finished the year at the same level as last few years
        3. Greenland’s ice sheet was growing like topsy
        4. Hurricane activity was completely normal
        5. The US tornado season was one of the quietest on record
        6. .. and so on.
        
        But here’s the kicker:
        
        The more papers published, the less the doubt.
        
        That you believe this makes everything I’ve said above meaningless. The exact opposite is true, but you’ve stopped (or maybe never started) thinking scientifically, and started worshiping at the altar of alarmism.
        
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        April 10, 2017 5:29pm
- VicParking
  
  At least only the first 30 have to read this crap
  
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  April 10, 2017 9:30am
CHFR

Do you sit with a copy and paste ready for the GD Dennis?? Makes for such a predictable start to the day.
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April 10, 2017 8:01am
Paulus

I hope Angry is looking forward to today when the Jury are dismissed as they cannot find him guilty of defaming Rich people in the name of the Labour Party.
Its called qualified privilege which of course applies to anything you want it to. Even the Lawyers cannot decide what it means.
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April 10, 2017 8:03am
MT_Tinman

I notice a headline on a “news” site stating that a picture of the she-devil is attracting bids on an auction site.

I didn’t read the story. I’m not into horror.

One thing I can be certain of is that those who would bid on such a picture are those least likely to honour their bids when the auction finishes.

I wish the “seller” the best of luck.
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April 10, 2017 8:04am
- jims_whare
  
  I reckon the Nats should buy it and put on a bill board on Auckland’s southern motorway to remind voters that the (now) great matron of Labour will be whom they are voting for if they are tempted to given Angry their vote later this year.
  
  Mind you, on the other hand it may cause a number of vehicle crashes so maybe not a good idea.
  
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  April 10, 2017 8:27am
oldpark

Three unanswered questions?
1/ Can one rotten apple destroy a barrel of perfectly healthy apples?
2/ Is there a prominent NZ Rugby Union player,who could be called the enemy within?
3/ Is the rugby player known as S.B. Williams past his use by date,in more ways than just that?
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April 10, 2017 8:06am
- Inandout
  
  He is no doubt a hero in Mt Roskill. Amazing how Muslims flock to a suburb with ‘kill’ in its name; no doubt subliminal.
  
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  April 10, 2017 8:10am
  - MCos
    
    I drove through there twice yesterday. I didn’t want to go that particular way, but something made me do it.
    My great grandfather came from Killkenny!
    OMG
    
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    April 10, 2017 9:09am
    - AgentBallSack
      
      You bastard!
      He killed Kenny!
      
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      April 10, 2017 9:18am
- holysheet
  
  Being the good Moslem he is, SB hasn’t got any money invested in any bank. Why, well because he gives it all away to those poor Syrians and other refugees who are fleeing the shit holes of the middle east. His own home is a hovel, no TV, play station x box etc. He lives like this to show his contempt for the west and it’s luxuries, so prevelent in it’s decadent ways.
  Yeah right, now that would make a tui ad.
  
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  April 10, 2017 8:15am
  - PhilBest
    
    According to the truest, purest Muslims, playing Kuffir sport makes you an apostate anyway.
    
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    April 10, 2017 8:19am
    - MCos
      
      Who gave them a dispensation to play cricket?
      
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      April 10, 2017 9:25am
      - PhilBest
        
        The ones who do are apostates, same as SBW.
        
        Not that Christianity is any different, it too is full of apostates these days. The west is secular-liberal, not Christian, and that goes for every “established” church’s hierearchy (I guess Rome is still faithful on some things but they are all over the place and always were).
        
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        April 10, 2017 2:44pm
  - stephieboy
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    holy turd , very deep , PhilBest and holy turd .
    
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    April 10, 2017 8:52am
    - AgentBallSack
      
      Reported for your disrespect of another commentator and repeated refusal to use the pseudonym he is registered under.
      
      Personal Details
      
      Give other commenters the courtesy of referring to them by the name or alias they use on this blog.
      
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      April 10, 2017 10:48am
- Liberty
  
  He might be very good at playing rugby.
  He should still be out of the team.
  There is no place for cherry pickers in a team sport.
  
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  April 10, 2017 8:20am
  - mikenmild
    
    What a dork. Well, I suppose the are still some who think Michael Jones should never have been picked becasue he wouldn’t play on Sundays.
    
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    April 10, 2017 8:28am
    - SGA
      
      I’m fairly sure that the Goings (Sid, Brian, Ken) didn’t play on Sundays for religious reasons as well. Kimbo will know.
      
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      April 10, 2017 8:34am
      - Kimbo
        
        Correct. Nor train, although Sunday rugby was very rare in those days at least in the Southern Hemisphere an outside of World Cups. More a phenomena of Michael Jones’ era. Sid Going was also known as “Juicy Boy” by the Fijians as an All Black of that era who did not drink alcohol was remarkable! ?
        
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        April 10, 2017 9:14am
      - itstricky
        
        Kimbo thanks for the acknowledgement yesterday.
        
        I shall endeavour to drop in your name sake law judiciously. (Yes I added that one in deliberately).
        
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        April 10, 2017 12:21pm
      - Kimbo
        
        No problem, and as you required nuance and precision, your adverbs were neither unnecessary nor excessive. And outstanding example of good adverb usage. Along with your endorsement of Kimbo’s law there is no doubt you are a prince among men.
        
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        April 10, 2017 12:40pm
    - Liberty
      
      You are wrong as usual .
      Michael stood by his convictions and didn’t play.
      This cherry picker played would have been paid.
      with the sponsors money.
      He is not a team player and should be out the team.
      
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      April 10, 2017 11:10am
      - mikenmild
        
        He negotiated a contract which allows him to opt out of promoting sponsors whose products conflict with his religious beliefs. Are you saying he should not be allowed to negotiate his terms of employment?
        
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        April 10, 2017 11:46am
  - Kimbo
    
    There is no place for cherry pickers in a team sport.
    
    Like, say, Bob Burgess, Graham Mourie and Bruce Robertson declining to play the apartheid-era Springboks on the basis of a personal conscience decision?
    
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    April 10, 2017 12:44pm
    - SGA
      
      Probably add Ken Gray to that too (although he retired completely).
      
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      April 10, 2017 2:55pm
    - Liberty
      
      There is huge difference between not playing because of a personal conscience decision.
      And the living the life of riley and while treating his sponsor with contempt .
      
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      April 10, 2017 4:25pm
- kowtow
  
  TVNZ news were a wee bit naughty last night on the clip about him. Showed him during training wearing the sponsors logo.
  
  When he took the field at the game this week he made a big show of wiping his face ala Muslim style …….it’s all got to be done for the maximum of publicity and for the biggest audience.
  
  (Disclaimer; those footballers crossing themselves when they come on are complete cocks too)
  
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  April 10, 2017 8:27am
  - Nukuleka
    
    So all the footballers who cross themselves, as well as all the athletes we see competing in the Olympics who cross themselves, as well as all those sportsmen and women wearing crosses and crucifixes around their necks, are also to be condemned, all and every one of them for doing so ‘for the maximum of publicity and for the biggest audience’, are they?
    
    What a very cynical and negative view of mankind you must have. Maybe just one or two of them might actually have a deep religious faith and belief that their gifts actually come from God and are acknowledging that belief.
    
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    April 10, 2017 8:57am
    - kowtow
      
      I have no problem with people wearing religious symbols etc
      
      I have a problem with Christians invoking God or making ridiculous ostentatious displays before a football match, neither the time nor the place .
      
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      April 10, 2017 9:16am
      - MCos
        
        What I, and any true blue Kiwi, objects to is the ostentatious simulation of a brain hemorrhage when an opposition player passes nearby in the penalty area.
        
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        April 10, 2017 9:36am
      - Longknives
        
        “I have a problem with…making ridiculous ostentatious displays before a football match, neither the time nor the place ..”
        
        Like that bloody Haka the All Blacks do Kowtow?..
        
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        April 10, 2017 9:38am
  - VicParking
    
    I have no problem with players crossing themselves or knealing to pray so long as they also do it “on their own time”. However SBW only does it for image.
    
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    April 10, 2017 9:36am
- pdm
  
  Oldpark 8.06am
  
  3. Not until after the Lions have been.
  
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  April 10, 2017 9:15am
- Longknives
  
  So the ridiculously well paid Sonny Bill is supposedly ‘Outraged’ and protesting against Capitalism,Banking, Alcohol etc ?
  That’s an exceptionally high horse given his rather chequered history…
  Wouldn’t it be nice if he spoke out against his Islamic ‘Brothers’ getting into Trucks and mowing down innocent children? One might consider the horrendous actions of Islamic Terrorists to be more of a pressing problem than a bank logo on his shirt..But hey- What do I know?
  
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  April 10, 2017 9:34am
Manolo

The “beauty” of importing Islamic barbarians. Merkel has a lot to answer for.
http://dailycaller.com/2017/04/05/germany-moves-to-ban-child-marriages-after-finding-1500-cases-among-refugees/

The German government agreed on a proposal Wednesday to outlaw child marriages after finding more than 1,500 cases of immigrant minors having adult spouses.

The Central Register of Foreign Nationals has documented a surge in child marriages in recent years. As of July 2016, 1,500 minors of non-German background were registered as married, including 361 under the age of 14.
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April 10, 2017 8:07am
Nukuleka

The terrorist attack killing 44 and injuring 100 Coptic Christians in Egypt on Palm Sunday reminds us that the most persecuted religious group in the world are Christians.

Will the MSM be highlighting this inconvenient truth?

Don’t hold your breath.
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April 10, 2017 8:09am
- PhilBest
  
  Even in Luton and Birmingham and similar vibrant multi-culti paradises, Christians are experiencing this persecution – with the local Plods as part of the conspiracy. A deliberate conspiracy from the progressive, PC Left establishment.
  
  The elites behind all this live in toney exclusionary expensive locations, while ordinary working class people are deemed “racists” and guilty of “inciting racial disharmony” when they dare to complain about the new local rape culture and such like.
  
  I have learned things for the first time in the last few days, that sicken me like never before. Leftist progressives are the real Nazis, the term actually is fair when used of them. They have appropriated it to use about their own victims, but this is just like the original Nazis would label and de-humanize their victims. If the term “Nazi” didn’t exist already, the progressive Left would be using something else to de-humanize decent people expressing legitimate concerns and speaking truth.
  
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  April 10, 2017 8:27am
  - jonar
    
    Even in Luton and Birmingham and similar vibrant multi-culti paradises, Christians are experiencing this persecution – with the local Plods as part of the conspiracy. A deliberate conspiracy from the progressive, PC Left establishment.
    
    Have you got some examples of this “persecution”?
    
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    April 10, 2017 12:15pm
    - PhilBest
      
      You won’t read about it in the MSM. Of course the sources that report this stuff are deemed to be “Nazi” and “racist” and “disharmony inciting”. The “British Church Newspaper” covers incidents with monotonous regularity. The Muzzies get away with anything in their public demonstrations, and their behaviour to those they take a dislike to; but watch the speedy shut-downs and arrests of decent citizens trying to express their legitimate concerns, or of Christians trying to spread their gospel “under inappropriate conditions”, like where there are Muzzies who will be “offended”.
      
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      April 10, 2017 3:07pm
- kowtow
  
  Trump bombed one of the few people who really is fighting ISIS. Now the UK govt want Russia out of Syria too .
  
  How thick are these people?
  
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  April 10, 2017 8:29am
  - stephieboy
    
    kowtow, so the US led Iraqi, Kurd and Shia forces fighting ISIS last stronghold at Mosus are all fake ?
    
    Talk about being thick !
    
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    April 10, 2017 8:57am
- krazykiwi
  
  Yes, Christians are recognised as the most persecuted religious group worldwide.
  
  The MSM do appear to be carrying the Palm Sunday bombing story, but the killing of Christans because of their faith is generally not given the prominence of small scale killing of civilians by terrorists. To be fair, Muslims killing Muslims is also generally given the Page-6 treatment
  
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  April 10, 2017 8:35am
  - stephieboy
    
    kazykiwi, it would have to be asked waht are you doing about it apart from posting on your message board .
    
    Recall that is mainly Muslim civilians killed in the chemical attack and the recent USAF attack with civilian casulties at Mosul.
    
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    April 10, 2017 9:01am
    - PhilBest
      
      This so called “western actions that result in Muslim deaths and aggravate Muslims” canard is ridiculous. It is always western actions that are attempting to reduce the rate at which Muslims are being killed by other Muslims. The Muslims that are sore at the west, are always only sore because it was their guys (Sunni, Shia) whose pogrom against the other guys (Shia, Sunni) was shut down.
      
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      April 10, 2017 9:30am
    - krazykiwi
      
      apart from posting on your message board
      
      Quaint. Yes, when I’m not busy listening to the wireless ,or cleaning my gramophone I can be found busily writing things for my message board.
      
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      April 10, 2017 10:55am
  - cha
    
    The Alexandria bomber tried to go through an open gate but was told to go through the screening process. He detonated himself before he entered the church.
    
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    April 10, 2017 12:42pm
- Rachael Membery
  
  Hopefully ANZAC day at Gallipoli will be safe I see that there are advisories.
  
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  April 10, 2017 9:07am
Happychappy

I see Labour wizzard on finance Grant Robertson is ready to play ball with the Unions and Labour’s get the rich prick tactic to in their words balance the economy and give workers more rights so they get a better outcome and wage if they achieve the Treasury Benches in September 2017. With Andrew Little and Grant Robertson in charge if they win the next election could end up with our economy going backwards with fatal consequences for employment in NZ
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April 10, 2017 8:25am
- holysheet
  
  No kidding?
  Where have you been for the past 9 years.
  
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  April 10, 2017 8:29am
  - Happychappy
    
    So you are quite happy to see the Union rule again.
    
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    April 10, 2017 8:37am
- Paulus
  
  Obviously Robertson has been “advised”by the Unions that if he wants their backing to take over from Angry HE WILL DO AS HE IS TOLD.
  
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  April 10, 2017 10:46am
Tom Barker

Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Call me old-fashioned, but I still prefer to get my information on the climate from climate scientists, and not from hard-right ideologues and disinformation funded by the fossil fuel industry. Each to their own, I guess.
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April 10, 2017 8:27am
- PhilBest
  
  I upticked by mistake, I meant to downtick.
  
  You mean you prefer to be sucked in by a cabal of politically motivated crooks with convenient scientific qualifications, who have hijacked institutions, deploying powerful political support, and hounded out the honest scientists?
  
  It has always been a big lie that some massive majority of scientists were raving alarmists, this is classic lefty manipulation of the truth. The massive majority have always accepted the basic scientific principles, but certainly not the premise that anthropogenic emissions are solely responsible for catastrophic outcomes in climate.
  
  Even the IPCC Report itself, in draft form and the reviewer comments, does not in any way support the shamelessly fraudulent final product from the cabal at the top. The whole process is confidential, and when the IPCC years ago was required to provide access to the info under US right-to-know law, they moved the whole process away from UN HQ in New York, to Geneva. This really, really, sounds like pure, innocent, nothing-to-hide behaviour, dunnit????
  
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  April 10, 2017 8:37am
  - Dafixeruppa
    
    That’s OK, I did the down tick for you…. 🙂
    My good deed for the day
    
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    April 10, 2017 8:41am
    - Paulus Gnome
      
      I’m in
      
      8 2
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      April 10, 2017 9:00am
- krazykiwi
  
  You definitely don’t sound old-fashioned Tom Barker.
  
  Old-fashioned science was about hypotheses and evidence. If you believe we’re heading for a human caused climate catastrophe then it’s certainly not science you’ve been following, it’s quasi-religious dogma.
  
  Each to their own, I guess.
  
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  April 10, 2017 8:41am
  - PhilBest
    
    I wish the obvious KB consensus on this translated into “mainstream NZ centre right political party having some integrity and spine” on it.
    
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    April 10, 2017 9:32am
    - mikenmild
      
      It is just an indication that ‘KB consensus’ is not a consensus based on evidence and rationality.
      
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      April 10, 2017 9:46am
    - Brigitte
      
      Ah yes, consensus. There was a paper who got a chess grandmaster to play against the readership. When asked whether he was scared about losing he responded “a million bad chess players combined are still a bad chess player”.
      
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      April 10, 2017 11:49am
- stephieboy
  
  Tom Barker , thank you for that . It is the nub of the issue . Among the hard right ideologues we can also include the quackery of so called creation science .
  
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  April 10, 2017 9:47am
  - hmmokrightitis
    
    Has the label changed sboy? Wasnt it alt-right a week or so ago? Is that like when “global warming” became “climate change”
    
    Good luck pinning your right wing labels with god botherers. Some of us buy in to fiscal conservatism and social liberalism with zero tolerance for the FSM, which doesnt need a lobotomy unlike the ‘hard left’ (dwindling) masses who arent allowed to speak or think out of line…aka the stranded
    
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    April 10, 2017 10:26am
- Inandout
  
  Lack of food created by the Ice Age brought down prehistoric animals, so one presumes their factories were to blame for the seas cooling through released icebergs. It appears that Earth’s climate has always gone through cycles, and that is understandable when we have a fiercely burning light and heat source so close. However consumer litter is one problem I will acknowledge needs to be addressed.
  
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  April 10, 2017 11:38am
  - Dafixeruppa
    
    Not sure why you got a down tick.
    I think your last line is key!
    
    However consumer litter is one problem I will acknowledge needs to be addressed.
    
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    April 10, 2017 12:23pm
Jazz-Hands Mc Feels

Another nail in the coffin for the fundamental Leftoid article of faith that inequalities in individual outcomes are the result of “systemic/structural biases” etc:

Scientists predict reading ability from DNA analysis alone

The study authors note that although five per cent may seem a relatively small amount, this is substantial compared to other results related to reading. For example, gender differences have been found to explain less than one per cent of the differences between children in reading ability.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/03/170329102506.htm
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April 10, 2017 8:27am
- SGA
  
  I believe that most geneticists favour a “nature via nuture” model, and wince when people try to discount environmental factors out of hand.
  
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  April 10, 2017 8:39am
  - Jazz-Hands Mc Feels
    
    Who cares what you believe?
    
    Links and references to back up your claim, please.
    
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    April 10, 2017 9:13am
    - SGA
      
      Try Adam Rutherford’s book “A Brief History of Everyone who ever Lived” as an accessible source.
      (I think that’s the title – don’t have it to hand at the moment).
      
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      April 10, 2017 9:16am
      - Jazz-Hands Mc Feels
        
        Posting a book title doesn’t cut it, not by a long way – especially one you suddenly get all vague about, lol.
        
        Please post relevant quotes backing your argument with links to the source.
        
        If you don’t know how to do this take a look at my excellent original post as an example of a post with relevant quotes backing an assertion and links to the original source of the quotes.
        
        Cheers.
        
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        April 10, 2017 9:22am
      - SGA
        
        Troll
        
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        April 10, 2017 9:23am
      - mikenmild
        
        Ya reckon?
        One of the Kea identities, I think.
        
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        April 10, 2017 9:48am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  That’s a scary paper.
  
  It’s written in the manner that once a child’s DNA has been scanned, teachers will be able to intervene and deliver extra programmes to assist them with their reading weakness.
  
  However, I expect genetic differences will be offered as yet another excuse as to why some teachers do a lousy job in teaching some children how to read well.
  
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  April 10, 2017 8:55am
  - Jazz-Hands Mc Feels
    
    What’s scary about it?
    
    As for quality of teaching, its easy for parents to blame teachers rather than their own failure to teach their children the value of an education.
    
    Notice how asian kids are seizing the top scholarships at a rate WAY above their % of NZ population. Their parents make them slave away for hours after and before school on homework and extra curricular activities.
    
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    April 10, 2017 9:18am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      What’s scary about it?
      
      You know bloody well what’s so scary about it.
      It’s eugenics – 21st century.
      Anyway, did you read the full paper? (Not the press release)
      
      Look at all the assumptions , provisos and limitations….(especially in section GPS for years of education)
      http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10888438.2017.1299152
      
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      April 10, 2017 11:29am
  - KevOB
    
    The paper is absurd. Academics struggling for research topics, its on par with the AGW meme.
    If only everything was predictable by computer we could even try to model humans. Attempt to associate prescriptive behaviour with a scatter gun model taken to the human genome is mind boggling. Who know what genes are involved and what their dependencies are and cross dependencies. There is likely nothing more complex than biochemistry which the genome expresses.
    
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    April 10, 2017 10:38am
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    But it might be reality – eg dyslexia, adhd, intelligence are all strongly heritable. So much of who we are and what we can do is set in stone by unfair genetics. Should we pretend that everyone is equally gifted when it is patently untrue? Or should we work on identifying the underlying individual potential and optimise individual education to produce the best outcomes?
    
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    April 10, 2017 12:43pm
G152

So.
Question of the week.
Which council should be sued by its rate payers for no upkeep of floodbanks??
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April 10, 2017 8:30am
- holysheet
  
  Neither, its all John keys fault.
  
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  April 10, 2017 8:38am
dime

so the Don may take out NK’s missile program..

this will be interesting.

will that bloated fuck in NK unleash his ground forces on south korea in response? or just eat it up like a piece of 15 day old cake he found behind his laz y boy?
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April 10, 2017 8:32am
- PhilBest
  
  South Koreans have been confident all along that they could waste the North in a conventional war. Even if the NL army is much more numerous, they can’t even feed them properly, their average height is several cms lower, and you can bet that their equipment will be plagued with malfunction.
  
  Even the former USSR at the time it was capitulating, knew that it couldn’t match the West for sophistication and reliability of its basic military gear. Half its trucks were broken down at any one time, for example. Communism always creates outcomes like this.
  
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  April 10, 2017 8:41am
  - dime
    
    oh i agree.. but it will be bloody!
    
    i guess the propel the attack and let them go back to their shit hole.. otherwise its WW3 time.
    
    no way china lets the yanks on the thier border.
    
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    April 10, 2017 8:46am
  - Odakyu-sen
    
    I think the South Koreans are dreading the possibility of reunification. It would be like the reunification of Germany, but much more traumatic.
    There would be a brain drain from north to south. I think the solution is a long, slow integration over at least a generation. Simply opening the borders would invite chaos.
    
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    April 10, 2017 8:57am
  - stephieboy
    
    PhilBest , rubbing you hands with glee in anticipation of yet another bloody war between the two Korea’s
    
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    April 10, 2017 9:05am
    - PhilBest
      
      Always rub my hands in glee at the finish of a Commie regime. Best done without bloodshed, but always the fault of the Commies when it requires bloodshed. Same as a violent criminal who shoots cops when they try to arrest him – it sure ain’t the cops fault.
      
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      April 10, 2017 9:36am
    - 4077th
      
      Or conversely the prospect of freedom, food, shelter and the end to decades of tyranny? I think you will find both sides would be agreed on these points.
      
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      April 10, 2017 10:03am
      - PhilBest
        
        The trouble is the people of NK have been unfree and brainwashed for so long, their heads would explode if they got liberated. Even the few who are brave and ingenious enough to escape, have trouble coping.
        
        There are even anecdotes in abundance, about East Germans still engaging in old habits like hoarding junk “just in case”, decades after the fall of communism.
        
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        April 10, 2017 3:10pm
  - Paulus
    
    I see that some Russian warships have left their “Syrian/Russian” base in Latakia to let the US fleet in the Mediterranean that they will not tolerate missiles into their friends country.
    As expected they will breakdown again before getting too far.
    The Russians will be like pissing into the wind against the US Fleet – not forgetting the UK submarine there too watching them.
    
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    April 10, 2017 10:51am
- Wayne Mapp
  
  There must be just about a zero chance that the US will bomb North Korea’s missile sites.
  
  The reasons are numerous.
  
  There is no legal justification. There are too many of sites. There will be a severe North Korea retaliation. If South Korea invaded the North, it is not guaranteed to beat North Korea. A full on invasion will result in Chinese support (North Korea is an ally). Even in 1951 China was able to push back the US and allies to the 38th parallel.It is exceptionally dangerous to push around a rising power like China by reckless actions right on their doorstep.
  
  I am pretty sure Trump gets all of this.
  
  As has been the case for the last 20 years there will be more talk, some selective sanctions and a North Korea that will continue to act badly. A palace coup is likely sometime in the next few years that will end the regime.
  
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  April 10, 2017 10:28am
  - KevOB
    
    What’s law got to do with might?
    The latest Syria response appears to be a false flag operation. No time was taken to investigate and there is an even a media report of the event before it occurred.
    With that degree of trigger-happyness and self righteousness as justifcation backed up up by a thirsty war machine and the necessity to defend the dollar anything is possible and scarily likely.
    
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    April 10, 2017 10:48am
  - Chuck Bird
    
    A palace coup is likely sometime in the next few years that will end the regime.
    
    Yeah right. If a coup takes place is there and reason to believe that the next dear leader will be any better? Just look at Syria. Asaad is worse than his father.
    
    Like President Trump I was moved by the shocking video of the children after Asaad’s nerve gas attack. Were you or are you more concerned with collateral damage that may be caused by NZ or the US?
    
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    April 10, 2017 10:49am
  - jims_whare
    
    I think it was more about forcing the Chinese to pressure the NK government to chill out on the nukes.
    
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    April 10, 2017 11:02am
  - KevinH
    
    All true Wayne, however there is nothing to stop the Americans intercepting the missles in flight on the grounds that they present a threat to shipping in international waters.
    Secondly a regime change in North Korea could be triggered by using people power. South Korea only has to open it’s borders to get the ball rolling.
    
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    April 10, 2017 11:49am
Manolo

This modern-day sultan will get his wish:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/erdogan-holds-giant-istanbul-rally-week-ahead-referendum-170159256.html
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April 10, 2017 8:40am
Keeping Stock

I almost choked on my early morning cuppa this morning.

I was listening to Rachel Smalley on Newstalk ZB, and she was actually praising Donald Trump for the missile strike on the Syrian air base. She said it was refreshing to see a leader actually doing something in retaliation to Assad’s chemical warfare attacks, instead of just tut-tutting as the UN, Obama and sundry other leaders have done.

Her comments are online now; here’s here opening:

I never thought I would say this, but I stand alongside Donald Trump’s cruise missile strike on Syria. It was the right response.

Trump did what Obama failed to do. He did what the United Nations has failed to do on so many occasions. Trump acted.

He acted in a way that was responsible, transparent and contained, and without risk to civilian life – God knows the Syrian people have suffered enough.

President Assad could be in no doubt what the attack was for, given the missiles targeted the airport where the chemical attack was launched, and it targeted the Syrian jets that are indiscriminately attacking civilians from the air.

Assad’s arrogance in his continual use of chemical weaponry is beyond abhorrent. He knows the United Nations will criticise him, but he knows the bark is never followed by a bite. Well, Donald Trump bit.

The message was clear. If you use chemical weapons, Washington will wade in. It was a one-strike strategy. Stop using chemical weapons or you’ll feel the might of the U.S military.

http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/early-edition/opinion/rachel-smalley-donald-trump-was-right/

I can’t say I’ve had a lot of time for Ms Smalley in the past, but she is dead right on this issue. Kudos for her for expressing her view, even if it puts her out of step with all the other Trump-haters in the media.
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April 10, 2017 8:46am
- NK
  
  He acted after media footage of the victims. Yes, he acted on *true* media reports.
  
  I guess the irony of that escapes most of you.
  
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  April 10, 2017 8:51am
  - Interested Party
    
    Plus getting radar confirmation of the flight times, infra red mappings showing the bombs being dropped, plus onsite confirmation
    
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    April 10, 2017 9:08am
    - Andrei
      
      Really?
      
      Nobody has been to where this occurred except for Islamic terrorists who also actually provided the pictures
      
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      April 10, 2017 9:10am
      - kowtow
        
        Yep , I’m with Andrei. You cant’t engage in an act of war without evidence and on a whim after watching the “news.”
        
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        April 10, 2017 9:22am
    - VicParking
      
      Agreed. The US knows a lot more about whats happening than they let on.
      
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      April 10, 2017 9:45am
  - krazykiwi
    
    Your assertion that Trump ‘acted on media reports’ is nonsense.
    
    Do you think it’s possible that he (and other world leaders) have access to better intelligence than they’d get from reading the morning rag?
    
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    April 10, 2017 9:10am
    - Andrei
      
      he (and other world leaders) have access to better intelligence than they’d get from reading the morning rag?
      
      The morning rag carries the “intelligence” the powers that be want them to.
      
      You know no history – the BBC was set up to manipulate the public and was always infiltrated by British Government spooks controlling the narrative
      
      The Vietnam war was started based on the Gulf of Tonkin incident which never happened the way the media reported it. Eleven years later with 2 million + dead South East Asians, 57000 dead American soldiers and three countries lying in devastated ruins the fiasco came to an end. Everyone was gung ho when Lyndon Johnson invaded Vietnam, not so much later
      
      When Germany invaded Poland the German public were told and believed that Polish troops had entered Germany and killed German soldiers. The dead German soldiers they were shown were in fact Poles who had been murdered by the Germans and put into German military uniforms.
      
      And there are many other examples
      
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      April 10, 2017 9:30am
      - krazykiwi
        
        I don’t doubt the media misreport or fabricate stories. Nor do I doubt the those in power (political or otherwise) can, and do, use that power to manipulate the message. The BBC’s well documented climate change bias shows this.
        
        However the inference made by NK was that Trump acted on media reports alone. Which I call bullshit on.
        
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        April 10, 2017 9:42am
      - Andrei
        
        However the inference made by NK was that Trump acted on media reports alone. Which I call bullshit on
        
        Who knows what information he acted on and how accurate it was – it is not beyond the realms of possibility that he was lied to
        
        The thing is if you watch the posturing at the UN Nikki Haley as she speaks holds up a photo of a dead? child. A heart wrenching picture but this is emotion, not evidence.
        
        If there is real evidence why isn’t she presenting it?
        
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        April 10, 2017 9:48am
      - Dave_1924
        
        Very true Andrei – the media often carry nasty propaganda like the Germans killed all those poor Poles found in the Katyn Forest….
        
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        April 10, 2017 9:57am
      - mikenmild
        
        False flag attacks do actually happen:
        Russian artillery shelled their own village in 1939 to start the Winter War with Finland.
        The Russians executed thousands of Polish officer in 1940 and blamed it on the Germans.
        The Russians blew up apartment buildings in Moscow in 1999 to justify the invasion of Chechnya.
        
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        April 10, 2017 10:01am
      - krazykiwi
        
        The thing is if you watch the posturing at the UN Nikki Haley as she speaks holds up a photo of a dead? child. A heart wrenching picture but this is emotion, not evidence.
        
        I’m guessing that any covert intel the US held wasn’t likely to be displayed at the UN. But I agree re emotion. Many of us are guilty of calls to emotion:
        
        And at the same time don’t seem to give a fuck about the dead babies of Mosul, Sirte or Saana
        
        The fact is you and I are never likely to see verifiable intel, so we’re stuck trying to interpret vast amounts of information/disinformation from public sources. I’m busy trying to increase my understanding by looking at the reaction of other major governments who have their own intelligence capabilities.
        
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        April 10, 2017 10:07am
    - 4077th
      
      I think you are overstating the abilities of the morning rags by referring to their work as “intelligence”.
      
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      April 10, 2017 10:06am
      - AgentBallSack
        
        Welcome 4077th, it’s been a while!
        
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        April 10, 2017 12:18pm
      - 4077th
        
        Am replying to my own comment because I cannot reply to you ABS? It has been a while indeed. Great to see you also!
        
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        April 10, 2017 12:46pm
      - AgentBallSack
        
        Yeah block nesting only works for 3 comments then we all start reporting each other by accident. And it’s bloody hard to know who is replying to whom. Hopefully one of the wordpress fixes coming soon?
        Good to see you too!
        
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        April 10, 2017 2:00pm
- Andrei
  
  It is fucking amazing how uncritically people are accepting that Bashar al Assad is responsible for this without question!
  
  And at the same time don’t seem to give a fuck about the dead babies of Mosul, Sirte or Saana
  
  Well the later is not surprising the media are not talking about these later places at all and what is actually going on there.
  
  Listening to people like Rachel Smalley is about as informative as listening to a sheep bleating
  
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  April 10, 2017 9:08am
  - krazykiwi
    
    If you have solid evidence that the chemical attack wasn’t Assad then I’d be keen to see it.
    
    What I’ve read so far (none of it is privileged intel), suggests that Assad was the perpetrator.
    
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    April 10, 2017 9:18am
    - Andrei
      
      What I’ve read so far (none of it is privileged intel), suggests that Assad was the perpetrator.
      
      Of course that’s because Bashar al Assad is the villain de jour
      
      The war against Syria was planned back in 2004 and has nothing to do with Bashar al Assad and everything to do with geography
      
      But to justify the war against Syria you have to believe that the belligerents are on the side of the angels and not just after controlling Syria’s Mediterranean ports and pipeline routes
      
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      April 10, 2017 9:37am
      - KevinH
        
        Assad is not denying using chemical weapons and the Russians are also non committal.
        To date no evidence has been furnished suggesting ISIS was responsible either.
        
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        April 10, 2017 12:13pm
    - PhilBest
      
      I am no fan of Assad and not known for knee-jerk anti-US-military responses, but it is fair to ask what on earth Assad would think he could gain by using chemical weapons now? Even if it was part of “getting ISIS” and civilian deaths were collateral damage.
      
      If it’s proven, then Assad is definitely a madman and definitely should go.
      
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      April 10, 2017 9:41am
      - Dafixeruppa
        
        I think the problem is that he is a madman.
        
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        April 10, 2017 3:36pm
- dime
  
  the fact that the left are happy makes me scared.
  
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  April 10, 2017 9:43am
- KevOB
  
  Pity, Trump never had Franklin Roosevelt for a mentor.
  
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  April 10, 2017 10:53am
Hugh Pavletich

Housing costs ‘biggest handbrake’ for Queenstown Lakes | Otago Daily Times Online News

https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/queenstown/housing-costs-biggest-handbrake-queenstown-lakes

Finding ways to give the Queenstown Lakes Community Housing Trust ”more firepower and more teeth” is expected to be one of the matters facing the new Queenstown Lakes mayoral task force to tackle affordable housing.

Yesterday, on the eve of the task force’s first meeting in Queenstown, stakeholders and community members celebrated the completion of the trust’s new 44-lot housing development in Shotover Country. … read more via hyperlink above …
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April 10, 2017 9:03am
- Dafixeruppa
  
  Congrats Hugh,
  A short post, with a link easy to read and without screeds of unnecessary unreadable prose to go with it.
  Well done.
  Oh this doesn’t mean that I agree with you, just that your post was better than normal.
  
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  April 10, 2017 9:12am
- Rachael Membery
  
  Don’t you have a hobby?? I am sure we could come up with a few suggestions.
  
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  April 10, 2017 10:59am
Ross12

I’m still not sure President Trump and his team are going about Syria in the right way ( yes, he has warned Assad but I’d prefer see him now go full out on ISIS & co.) but this Syrian guy is very grateful and sticks it well and truly to CNN.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4393938/Syrian-chemical-attack-victim-hits-CNN-journalist.html
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April 10, 2017 9:18am
- stephieboy
  
  We need to give Hillary Clinton a three cheers too. She got in before the President by hours advocating the boming attacks on Assad because of the chemical attacks.
  
  I understand that her remarks prompted Trump’s action . Credit where credit is due .
  
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  April 10, 2017 9:52am
  - Ross12
    
    Dream on stephieboy –you really think President Trump and his team would listen to Clinton.
    
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    April 10, 2017 10:01am
  - 4077th
    
    Hillary who?
    
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    April 10, 2017 10:09am
  - hmmokrightitis
    
    And yet, oddly, bombing attacks take hours to prep for, and launch. Maybe, just maybe, the hasbeen decided to join in and bang the war drum because she knew she needed the publicity?
    
    God I hope the Dems go with her again at the next election. A witless donkey could beat her. Maybe thats Angry’s next step.
    
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    April 10, 2017 10:33am
    - PhilBest
      
      Hillary 2020 – hahahahahaha, that’s such a choice thought, thanks for that! Thinking this through, the Dems really are stupid enough, and you can bet the MSM will be strewing her path with palm branches again when the time comes.
      
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      April 10, 2017 3:13pm
Dave Mann

RIP Sir Douglas Myers… died of cancer at 78yrs after a full life. There’s a good obituary here:
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April 10, 2017 9:20am
krazykiwi

William of Ockham is making ‘Gone By Lunchtime’ an uninspiring achievement
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April 10, 2017 9:32am
- VicParking
  
  I feel sorry for the first 30 who have to read Ockham’s crap.
  
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  April 10, 2017 9:48am
  - stephieboy
    
    VicParking is this one of your inspirations ?
    
    https://www.skepticalscience.com/Monckton_Myths_arg.htm
    
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    April 10, 2017 9:55am
  - krazykiwi
    
    You read that crap? 😯
    
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    April 10, 2017 10:11am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  He’s gone before morning T.
  
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  April 10, 2017 11:32am
rangitoto

TVNZ tell us that the nasty Masters Games participants are going to turn out all the rental accommodation trashers out of their tax payer funded motel rooms. How dear how mean.
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April 10, 2017 10:01am
Tauhei Notts

Travellers’ tales. They can be so boring, but after a week on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula I will tell some.
The Australian is Australasia’s best newspaper by a country mile. What a pleasure to read it while drinking coffee, not up to NZ’s standard. The story about a restaurateur in South Australia, who called a disgruntled aggrieved customer a nincompook. which was the only Aussie story on the Herald’s website last Wednesday, did not rate a mention in The Australian. That paper is not concerned with mindless click bait. Their sports writers are erudite and observant. A little parochial, but they are Aussies. Some of the language they use would be offensive to the Chlitorati who run NZ papers.
White people serve you in service stations, liquor wholesalers and convenience stores. Have residents of the sub-continent not discovered Aussie?
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April 10, 2017 10:10am
- Salacious Crumb
  
  I agree. Wayne Smith is one of the best rugby writers around. You used to occasionally see Michael Bassett pieces pop up there too (not sure about now) but always a considered and well thought out view.
  
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  April 10, 2017 10:45am
Michael

I don’t know for sure whether climate change is being caused by humans or whether it is just a natural event, but last year was the hottest on record according to NASA and also the National Oceanic and Atmospheric administration,both reporting independently, and they should know.
Prior to that 2015 was the warmest year on record and prior to that 2014 was the warmest year on record.
No doubt there will be some uninformed or misinformed kiwibloggers who will disagree with the NASA figures but I know who I would rather believe. Personally I am not too worried about climate change because at my age it ain’t going to affect me. But young people should be getting a bit worried.
http://www.space.com/35370-how-nasa-knows-2016-was-hottest-year.html
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April 10, 2017 10:14am
- krazykiwi
  
  Michael, last year’s El Nino was one of the strongest ever recorded, and UAH v.6 and HadSSTv3.1 datasets now show global temps returning to pre El Nino levels.
  
  Young people do not need to be worried. The theory of human-induced cataclysmic climate change has been invalidated by observational evidence, and humans will continue to adapt to the natural, gradual changes in our climate.
  
  Despite this, the billions of dollars wasted trying to prop-up the theory will continue to give rise to scare stories.
  
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  April 10, 2017 10:36am
  - jonar
    
    Despite this, the billions of dollars wasted trying to prop-up the theory
    
    Who’s funding this global conspiracy?
    
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    April 10, 2017 11:04am
    - krazykiwi
      
      You and I
      
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      April 10, 2017 11:35am
      - Albert_Ross
        
        By which I presume you mean Governments are using taxpayers’ money to try to persuade most of the world’s scientists to falsify their results and draw untenable conclusions from the evidence.
        
        Could you explain further?
        
        If governments had it in their power to corrupt most of the world’s scientists into fabricating scientific evidence – don’t you think that what they would want, would be evidence that enabled them to stop implementing massively expensive and politically unpopular policies?
        
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        April 10, 2017 1:34pm
      - krazykiwi
        
        No, I’m not going to explain that further. The origins of all this are way, way beyond science and into the realm of using fear to control populations. It’s not a new phenomenon.
        
        “Since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved — Niccolò Machiavelli, 1513
        
        Feel free to do your own research on this topic.
        
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        April 10, 2017 1:44pm
      - Dafixeruppa
        
        For Albert:
        For many years the supposedly preeminent scientists around the world (or should I say across) believed that the earth was flat.
        Then along came a young fellow and showed that it was actually round.
        For many years now we have supposedly preeminent scientists telling us that the earth is doomed due to Global warming and a smaller group saying that it’s not. Who do we believe?
        Fortunately time will tell us who was right. Unfortunately in the meantime we may end up paying colossal sums of money to solve what may not be a problem.
        
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        April 10, 2017 3:34pm
    - itstricky
      
      China
      
      https://mobile.twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/265895292191248385?lang=en
      
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      April 10, 2017 12:18pm
      - stephieboy
        
        Donald Trump and his science of climate change .A China conspiracy .
        
        LOL
        
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        April 10, 2017 12:59pm
    - UrbanNeocolonialist
      
      Not (much) conspiracy, just individual scientists responding to a political funding system that massively rewards promotion of imminent catastrophes, inevitably biasing the ‘science’ produced.
      
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      April 10, 2017 2:07pm
  - Brigitte
    
    They might have “returned to pre-El Nino levels”, but that is still tenth of a degree hotter than the 1998 temperature (another really large El Nino). So in less than 20 years a massive El Nino high is comfortably passed by a normal year. So no worries then, brain switched off mode?
    
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    April 10, 2017 11:58am
    - Dave Mann
      
      One TENTH of a degree…. really… you’re getting your knickers on a twist about one tenth of a degree?
      
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      April 10, 2017 12:16pm
      - Brigitte
        
        Try re-reading my comment. You’ve certainly proven the brain switched off mode however.
        
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        April 10, 2017 12:30pm
- krazykiwi
  
  Also, before you uncritically accept the word of NASA and/or NOAA, read up on funding-induced confirmation bias, and take a look at how NOAA scientists manipulated climate records . That’s the tip of the iceberg.
  
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  April 10, 2017 11:26am
  - jonar
    
    http://www.factcheck.org/2017/02/no-data-manipulation-at-noaa/
    
    But in interviews with the Associated Press and E&E, an online energy and environmental news outlet, Bates said he had not accused his colleagues of data manipulation.
    Bates told the AP on Feb. 6 that there was “no data tampering, no data changing, nothing malicious” involved with his colleagues’ study. “It’s not trumped up data in any way shape or form,” he said.
    Rather, Bates claimed Karl and his group hadn’t followed NOAA protocol in “the way data was handled, documented and stored, raising issues of transparency and availability,” the AP reported, adding that Bates thought the study was rushed “to influence the December 2015 climate treaty negotiations in Paris.”
    
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    April 10, 2017 12:48pm
jims_whare

Just thinking about the Edgecombe flood, I suspect the local Regional Council were blowing smoke and mirrors over calling the flood a 500 year flood.

The issue is that the stop bank was scoured out by the flow – the river did not over flow it.

To me that means the stop bank may well have contained the water if it was built strong enough.

Because its construction failed then the river flooded Edgecombe – perhaps unnecessarily.

I think there is a lot of butt covering going on here by the council to divert public attention from the possibility that their stop bank construction was defective (and the cause of the flood) and to try and minimise any legal risk they may have.

Hopefully someone will have a closer look at this – not just rely on the Regional Council to say everything is fine.
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April 10, 2017 10:18am
- Tauhei Notts
  
  I am surprised that the Matahina Dam on the Rangitaiki River was not used to mitigate the downstream effects. That is, open the floodgates some when the rain is predicted, then close the floodgates when the rain actually came.
  The comments by Whakatane District Council people have put my bullshit detectors on high alert.
  
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  April 10, 2017 10:24am
  - Paulus
    
    As I understand the owners of the Matahina Dam – Trustpower are entirely under the control of the Regional Council.
    Trustpower are in themselves controlled by their licence under the RMA.
    The Council tell them what to do and when – and they have to do it.
    
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    April 10, 2017 10:58am
    - Rachael Membery
      
      I believe that the dam was opened days before and that it still wasn’t full even after the cyclone tail event.
      
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      April 10, 2017 11:03am
- Rich Prick
  
  Section 148(1) of the Soil Conservation & Rivers Control Act 1941 (yes, we have such a thing) keeps Regional Councils immune from liability for overflows etc, except where it can be shown that the council was negligent in some way. I guess some will be looking very closely at the mode of the failure. The District Council has no flood control responsibilities under the Act.
  
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  April 10, 2017 10:49am
- KevinH
  
  There certainly were a number of angry Edgecumbe residents at the meeting in Whakatane yesterday who are blaming the council for not taking action immediately and also for not keeping them adequately informed.
  Bill English hinted this morning on TV1 that an inquiry may be conducted.
  However multiple factors contributed to the flood event beginning with the high rainfall, a faulty stopbank, and an inadequate disaster relief plan.
  
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  April 10, 2017 12:06pm
Michael

I will check in again this arvo just to see if the comment I made earlier is hidden due to low credit rating.
I sometimes wonder if William of O’s first up comment isn’t automatically down ticked by a number of kiwibloggers just because it is made by him. A sort of knee jerk reaction, if you understand my meaning.
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April 10, 2017 10:28am
- rightoverlabour
  
  Hi Michele The difference between you and W of O is you are prepared to be swayed by the data and the scientific evidence ( as I am). I believe there are too many eminent scientists out there in a range of fields that who are being cautious about the models and the theory that says CO2 is the cause of heating to just say they are deniers and skeptics and need to be silenced as their science does not fit the narrative. W of O and Griff are as bad as the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages. ( I am a Catholic)
  
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  April 10, 2017 11:15am
  - Albert_Ross
    
    there are too many eminent scientists out there in a range of fields that who are being cautious about the models and the theory that says CO2 is the cause of heating
    
    Please provide references to the work of three of them.
    
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    April 10, 2017 11:43am
    - krazykiwi
      
      Freeman Dyson
      Bjorn Lomborg
      Richard Lindzen
      Roy Spencer
      William Harper
      etc etc.
      
      Feel free to do your own research
      
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      April 10, 2017 11:53am
      - mikenmild
        
        None of those people are eminent scientists. Some of them are not even scientists at all.
        
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        April 10, 2017 12:04pm
      - krazykiwi
        
        Yawn….
        
        Timothy Ball
        Don Easterbrook
        William Kininmonth
        Tim Patterson
        Murray Salby
        Fred Singer
        Willie Soon
        Judith Curry
        etc etc
        
        Like I said, feel free to do your own research
        
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        April 10, 2017 12:09pm
      - mikenmild
        
        How many people on your list would you describe as experts on climatology? None, one or two?
        
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        April 10, 2017 12:13pm
      - chiz
        
        mm:
        
        None of those people are eminent scientists.
        
        Freeman Dyson is an eminent scientist. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society for example.
        
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        April 10, 2017 12:37pm
      - jonar
        
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeman_Dyson#Climate_change
        
        Dyson agrees that anthropogenic global warming exists, and has written that “[one] of the main causes of warming is the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere resulting from our burning of fossil fuels such as oil and coal and natural gas.”
        
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        April 10, 2017 12:54pm
      - krazykiwi
        
        Do your own research milky. Perhaps you could hold that obviously important eminence standard against the so-called 97%
        
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        April 10, 2017 12:56pm
      - stephieboy
        
        Freeman Dyson’s contary claims about climate change refuted here ,
        
        https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/news-blog/freeman-dyson-and-the-irresistible-2009-04-30/
        
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        April 10, 2017 1:00pm
      - krazykiwi
        
        jonar, CO2 is indeed increasing, but global temperatures are not doing anything other than move in a manner naturally anticipated as our world exits the last inter-glacial. The observed evidence makes a mockery of the vast array of IPPC models predicting non-linear CO2/temperature correlation, while instead the planet greens and food production expands.
        
        The game is up.
        
        The king has no clothes.
        
        And the folks who continue to bleat about impending annihilation just look more silly by the day.
        
        Fun times.
        
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        April 10, 2017 1:09pm
      - jonar
        
        CO2 is indeed increasing, but global temperatures are not doing anything other than move in a manner naturally anticipated as our world exits the last inter-glacial.
        
        https://grist.org/climate-energy/global-warming-is-nothing-new/
        
        It is true that 20,000 years ago the temperature was some 8 to 10° C colder than it is today. But to draw a line from that point to today and say, “look, 20K years of global warming!” is dubious and arbitrary at best.
        
        If you have look at this graph of temperature, starting at a point when we were finishing the climb out of deep glaciation, you can clearly see that rapid warming ceased around 10,000 years ago (rapid relative to natural fluctuations, but not compared to the warming today, which is an order of magnitude faster). After a final little lift 8,000 years ago, temperature trended downward for the entire period of the Holocene. So the post-industrial revolution warming is the reversal of a many-thousand-year trend.
        
        A closer look at today’s trend, within the context of the last 1,000 and 2,000 years, makes it even clearer that today’s trend is striking — opposite to what one would expect without anthropogenic interference.
        
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        April 10, 2017 2:12pm
    - rightoverlabour
      
      How about some of these, there are only about 9,029 with PhDs out of the 31,487 that signed this. Trivial number really…
      
      http://www.petitionproject.org/
      
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      April 10, 2017 2:16pm
      - krazykiwi
        
        The usual suspects will now… link to something showing somewhat subjectively, that somehow this petition is invalid because some signatory at some time or another worked for some oil company.. or bleat some other dismissive deflection.
        
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        April 10, 2017 4:25pm
Michael

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ockham/
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April 10, 2017 10:33am
krazykiwi

I went looking for comment from world leaders about the Syria strike. Turns out I didn’t need to look far:

How the world reacted to Donald Trump’s missile strike on Syria

France and Germany issued a joint statement saying that Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president “bears full responsibility” for the precision strike which used sea-launched cruise missiles to destroy a Syrian airbase.

Meanwhile Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council welcomed the move and said the EU will “work with the US to end brutality in Syria”.
:::
The strikes were also welcomed by Turkey, as a “very positive” step to punish a war crime and repeated Turkey’s long-standing calls for a no-fly zone and safe zone in Syria so that “similar massacres do not happen again.”

Japan‘s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also expressed support, saying the strikes were “a means to prevent further deterioration of the situation”, while Israel‘s president Reuven Rivlin said the strike was an “appropriate response” to the “unthinkable brutality” of the chemical attacks that served as “an example to the entire free world” to support steps to end atrocities in Syria.
:::
Meanwhile the UK and Australia were among the countries backing Mr Trump’s move as an “appropriate” and “just” response.
:::
Saudi Arabia said on Friday it “fully supports” the strikes, saying it was a “courageous decision” by President Donald Trump
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April 10, 2017 10:44am
- AgentBallSack
  
  Great strategy move by President Trump.
  And as I predicted, he is already making moves towards the Korean Peninsula. No longer will the world be threatened by batshit cult of personality leaders.
  A situation the UN has allowed to prosper to enable and justify their own existence.
  
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  April 10, 2017 10:55am
  - krazykiwi
    
    A situation the UN has allowed to prosper to enable and justify their own existence
    
    Odd isn’t it? The UN was established to stop these despots and dictators from gaining ascendancy. Turns out it’s run by them.
    
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    April 10, 2017 11:03am
- 4077th
  
  This weeks news later this week just before easter…CNN reports children killed in local village where a stray tomahawk missile struck. Pictures shown of missile debris conveniently uncovered during the search for more bodies… CNN, making (up) news since..well, forever!
  
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  April 10, 2017 11:07am
VicParking

It seems the plan with Super Rugby is for the NZ teams to beat the f**k out of each other and end up with lots of tired and injured players so that when the internationals come around the AB’s are weak and under strength.
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April 10, 2017 10:52am
- Keeping Stock
  
  If anything Vic, the Super Rugby derbies have hardened our players, and that’s why we have moved on ahead of South Africa and Australia.
  
  I also do not underestimate the impact of the new teams being added in South Africa and Australia in recent seasons. Their talent poll was thin to begin with, but now has been spread wafer-thin, and it shows at test level. Remember, New Zealand had five teams when Super Rugby began in 1996, and we still have five teams. The competition to make those teams ensures that there is a constant supply of Super Rugby-ready talent, except at the Blues perhaps.
  
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  April 10, 2017 12:21pm
AgentBallSack

Isn’t Auckland a complete shit hole? It astounds me anyone with an IQ over 70 would want to live there.

$150 parking fines for parking for 100 seconds

23 year old property investors buying 3 homes, further adding to the misery of housing

The Southern Motorway, that world renowned free flowing transit way down from 3 lanes to 2 for a whole year.

Phil Goff as Mayor

Freeloading Penny Bright still in the house she refuses to pay rates for.

The Warriors.

ad infinitum.
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April 10, 2017 11:06am
- Rachael Membery
  
  I am sure that he is renting the houses out, good tenants have to have somewhere to live.
  Bad tenants…..?
  Why are so many Maori tenants, surely settlement money, most iwi have had some, should be given to members to use as a deposit, or houses can be put at Marae.
  I believe that Tainui is investing in housing, let iwi be the landlord for their hapu, isn’t that a win win?
  
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  April 10, 2017 11:20am
- 4077th
  
  I feel a need to leap to our collective defence ABS, to be fair, the numptie who got clamped suffers the same laziness as the Labour twonk who chose park in a mobility space last week. Diddums! Got a fine for being a lazy bastard.
  
  Is it an accident that these so called “property investors” are asian looking? I think not, this smells like some wonky NZ Horrid attempt at linking Phil Twatford’s tall tale about Chinese sounding names.
  
  Turns out the section of motorway is between Royal Road and Lincoln Road so about 2km’s. That said who is he twat that thought this was a good idea? Probably another high viz vested clip board worrier with his panties in a bunch about a bit of dust.
  
  Phil Goff…nuff said. Agreed! I hear a faint Churchill quote off in the distance.
  
  Ms not so Bright frequently pushes her sorry barrow here. Fortunately most treat as the white noise that it is.
  
  Why on earth people bother with following the Warriors after persistent failure is beyond me. So, agreed. That one is a given. Cheers!
  
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  April 10, 2017 11:21am
  - AgentBallSack
    
    Auckland could be a great city I have no doubt about that.
    Its infrastructure is under a huge strain though, NZ needs to stop immigration to our major cities until we can cater for the increasing burden. Therefore immigration needs to have a caveat of being only to small cities (such as Levin or Palmerston North) and have skills that are needed in those regions. Not this “anyone can come” mentality that’s prevalent at the moment.
    
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    April 10, 2017 11:30am
    - Albert_Ross
      
      What “anyone can come” mentality? Have you any knowledge at all of NZ’s immigration criteria?
      
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      April 10, 2017 11:40am
      - AgentBallSack
        
        Yes. Apply for schooling here on spurious reasons then work under the table at nights as a prostitute or Indian cook. We take all comers as long as you pay the fees.
        Immigration NZ style.
        Do you even real life bro?
        
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        April 10, 2017 12:26pm
      - Albert_Ross
        
        Yes, I even real life bro – I went through the immigration process myself a few years ago.
        
        And you? What exactly is your “real life” knowledge based on? Did you get into NZ by the means you describe, are you an immigration adviser, do you work in the immigration department, do you employ people like those you describe, do you run one of these spurious schools?
        
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        April 10, 2017 1:18pm
      - AgentBallSack
        
        Albert,
        Born and bred Kiwi. My ancestors arrived on the 2nd ship into Petone. And I admire that you came through the proper channels to live in our great country. You obviously passed the skills and character tests.
        However I think our immigration system is being rorted by the “The Great Education Payola”. When it’s affecting natural citizens rights to live and work in their own country by stealth.
        Just my thoughts though, I am just a tax paying kiwi, working hard to provide for my kids.
        
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        April 10, 2017 2:16pm
      - MCos
        
        I lived in Wellington for many years, biking to work into some howling gale or other. I’d go home at night and retrieve the washing from round the neighborhood and see where the trampoline had gone.
        I’d flatten out the soggy Dompost and read how some crazy woman in Auckland wouldn’t pay her rates and think, thank God I don’t live up there.
        In those days I couldn’t even spell Japher – now I is one!
        
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        April 10, 2017 2:55pm
- ztev
  
  abs as clueless as ever.
  Every one of your items is just another cat up the stupid tree.
  
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  April 10, 2017 11:56am
  - AgentBallSack
    
    I would have thought you were a Wellingtonian like me, ztev! What with your interest in all things Labour Party.
    
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    April 10, 2017 12:23pm
    - Dafixeruppa
      
      NO NO NO!!! keep him away from Wellington.
      How many times do we need to tell you that we already have enough nut jobs here.
      Saying that, I was an Aucklander, then I came to Wellington for a visit, saw the light and stayed.
      
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      April 10, 2017 12:32pm
      - Paulus Gnome
        
        I moved the other way mainly as it is warmer; I bet you don’t live on the south coast with a view of the Kaikouras and where the insulation was sarking.
        
        Island Bay, great place to grow up with real cultural and ethnic diversity provided by the Italians, Greeks and Dutch, Berhampore for the Indian experience and Newtown for the Island boys.
        
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        April 10, 2017 1:27pm
      - Dafixeruppa
        
        Nah, I have a house overlooking Porirua harbour, a bit warmer and on the north side of the hill away from the sub zero southerlies.
        
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        April 10, 2017 1:32pm
- Scott
  
  Now agent don’t be getting down on the Warriors!? They have won their last 2 games and look pretty good. That Foran guy seems to have a lot to do with it. But they had 13,500 spectators yesterday who left happy with the Warriors dealing with a competent Eels outfit.
  
  So there may be a lot of things wrong about Auckland, but let’s give the Warriors their due mate.
  
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  April 10, 2017 12:38pm
- krazykiwi
  
  Well if things are so bad, Aucklanders could move to another place 🙂
  
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  April 10, 2017 1:24pm
  - AgentBallSack
    
    As an eminent Australian once said.
    Fuck off, we’re full!
    
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    April 10, 2017 2:05pm
Hugh Pavletich

THE DEMOCRATIZATION OF INFORMATION & DEMISE OF DEFERENCE …

A REVOLT AGAINST DEFERENCE … FRANK FUREDI … SPIKED

http://www.spiked-online.com/spiked-review/article/a-revolt-against-deference/19611#.WOqwN_l97X5

NIGEL FARAGE SPEAKS TO HILLSDALE COLLEGE – YOUTUBE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPSFt9qUSzk

HOOVER INSTITUTIONS VICOR DAVIS HANSON SPEECH ON TRUMP 2016 VICTORY – YOUTUBE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7pQdqPzozc
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April 10, 2017 11:36am
- Dafixeruppa
  
  Aww and then you went and broke it again.
  Now what did I say about A sensible heading, a link and a clean summary?
  
  Back to the naughty corner again
  
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  April 10, 2017 12:31pm
Jack5

Ah, the dividends of diversity.

African gang bashes woman in Melbourne.

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/woman-kicked-unconscious-as-gang-terrorises-melbournes-northwest-20170408-gvgurr.html
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April 10, 2017 11:41am
- ztev
  
  When I lived there, it was a range of gangsters shooting each other and the police shooting anybody and everybody.
  In that time the Victoria police had shot and killed more people than all other Australasian police forces combined, and they were well ahead.
  Armed guards were everywhere, banks, shops, an amoured car would have 3 or 4 armed guards to make a bank delivery
  
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  April 10, 2017 12:01pm
- stephieboy
  
  Jack5 this of course does this Melbourne vicious killing is not worth a mention by you ?,
  
  http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/australia/89221869/Brother-hunted-for-violent-death-of-his-brother-at-Australian-shopping-mall
  
  Nor these assorted notorious killers ?
  
  http://www.news.com.au/national/crime/never-to-be-released-the-aussie-criminals-so-dangerous-theyll-be-locked-up-forever/news-story/ee4e80daa6057211455a3c873235ec69
  
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  April 10, 2017 12:41pm
- Scott
  
  Jack 5 – if you read the article they could be of African appearance or Pacific Island appearance. Not that Pacific Islanders would ever be involved in anything violent???
  
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  April 10, 2017 12:41pm
Fletch

A must see video of why you should never use a live interview for propaganda purposes if you don’t know what the person is going to say 😛

A CNN anchor interviews a Syrian refugee, first playing him a soundbite from Hillary Clinton saying that if Trump cares about Syrian babies so much, he should let more into the country. The anchor then asks the refugee what he thinks about it, and the refugee says he thinks Trump did the right thing, and

“if you really care about refugees, help us stay in our country. We don’t want to come to the United States. We want to stay in our country. We don’t want to become refugees. If you really care, help us establish safe zones. President Trump – what you did sir, was amazing. What you did was a powerful message of hope for a lot of people inside and outside of Syria. Please don’t stop on this. Please help Syrians stay in their country. Please establish safe zones. Please take out Assad air force”.

https://twitter.com/acejayhawk71/status/850441891187490816/video/1

You should see the reporter’s face…lol
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April 10, 2017 12:47pm
- cha
  
  Please take out Assad air force”.
  
  Remember this, Fletch?.
  
  https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C8_A8oaXsAIzrMV.jpg
  
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  April 10, 2017 12:50pm
  - Fletch
    
    cha, I doubt very much whether CNN would have purposely chosen to interview anyone that was going to be sympathetic to Trump. The anchor’s face says as much.
    
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    April 10, 2017 1:01pm
    - cha
      
      Because sympathy for tRump is all that matters, right.
      
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      April 10, 2017 1:10pm
- Jazz-Hands Mc Feels
  
  “if you really care about refugees, help us stay in our country. We don’t want to come to the United States.”
  
  This is why I feel sorry for the refugees, they are being used by the Globalist Leftoid alliance, “Bomb them and invite them”, to flood the West with non whites because of some sick twisted belief that whites are inherently evil and must be reduced to a minority status or even eliminated in their own homelands.
  
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  April 10, 2017 2:30pm
Manolo

Even Longknives will enjoy the try:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7xfAs-Yqhk
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April 10, 2017 12:52pm
- Longknives
  
  It’s a beaut Manolo!
  
  Reminds me alot of a try the All Blacks scored years ago when Walter Little ran it out from the 22…
  
  Will try and find-
  
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  April 10, 2017 2:13pm
  - Longknives
    
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpbUeZi22s4
    
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    April 10, 2017 2:13pm
Stars And Stripes

Auckland car wash underpaid staff, fined $241,450
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11835411
‘Manukau Auto Valet director and major shareholder Dharmesh Kumar pleaded ignorance”.

How surprising, another Indian employer involved in screwing over his workers.
Following in well worn footprints with these stories appearing on nearly a weekly basis now.
Something for the unions to get involved in but alas no as that would be racist.
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April 10, 2017 1:03pm
- cha
  
  Were the underpaid staff union members?.
  
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  April 10, 2017 1:11pm
  - Jazz-Hands Mc Feels
    
    I bet they were all Colourfuls on dodgy visas.
    
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    April 10, 2017 2:03pm
- kowtow
  
  Funny thing is in the last few years when the news reports these employer abuse cases ,its been almost exclusively part of the diversity dividend……
  
  But I don’t get it , the media , pollies , uni types etc keep telling us that third world immigrants are good for us, we can learn so much from them ,that we’re enriched by them and yet when they do the kind of stuff here that they do in third world countries they get charged to court ……
  
  Is someone lying about this enrichment and diversity thing?
  
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  April 10, 2017 1:25pm
  - Jazz-Hands Mc Feels
    
    “Is someone lying about this enrichment and diversity thing?”
    
    The Globohomo Bathhouse Alliance is hell bent on replacing white populations with Vibrants.
    
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    April 10, 2017 2:05pm
- ex-golfer
  
  The employer simply hasn’t got used to the fact that what you can get away in employment-lawless Dehli, you can’t get away with in protectionist New Zild.
  I do wonder how many of these staff do it on purpose knowing they will get a huge payout by going through the employment court process.
  
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  April 10, 2017 6:39pm
Rachael Membery

This is nice for ANZAC day
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11835532
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April 10, 2017 1:39pm
Manolo

The future of Mt Roskill? These buggers start early, don’t they?
http://dailycaller.com/2017/04/08/idaho-refugee-boys-admit-to-sexually-assaulting-five-year-old/

Three refugees, ages 14, 10 and seven, pled guilty to sexually assaulting a five-year-old girl in Idaho.

The boys, one from Iraq and two from Eritrea, entered their guilty plea last week but the case’s resolution received almost no national attention.
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April 10, 2017 2:26pm
Rachael Membery

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/91390066/jury-deliberations-to-resume-in-labour-leader-andrew-littles-defamation-trial
Just goes to show, if you look hard enough….
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April 10, 2017 2:42pm
Michael

I see I only got six down ticks re my post on climate change, and there was quite a bit of discussion re the pro’s and con’s.
Whatever the reason for the increase in temperature I don’t believe New Zealanders have too much to worry about, at least for a century or two. We could probably do with a bit of warming up,specially the South Island. But countries where the temperature already gets up to over 40 degrees centigrade might have a problem in the not too distant future. And of course those living on low lying islands could have a problem as well if sea levels rise as predicted. And will there still be a Great Barrier reef?
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April 10, 2017 2:47pm
- Dafixeruppa
  
  Sorry, I had to down tick you because you sounded sad over only have 6… 🙂
  
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  April 10, 2017 3:23pm
- William of Ockham
  
  Great Barrier Reef is finished.
  
  https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/apr/10/great-barrier-reef-terminal-stage-australia-scientists-despair-latest-coral-bleaching-data
  
  https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/apr/10/australias-politicians-have-betrayed-the-great-barrier-reef-and-only-the-people-can-save-it
  
  Hundreds (maybe thousands) of millions of people will be displaced before the end of the century, as the temperatures soar. Remember New Zealand cannot defend itself.
  
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  April 10, 2017 4:37pm
  - All_on_Red
    
    I think you’ll find there’s a fair bit of dispute over the extent and severity of the bleaching.
    That aside.
    “As the temperatures soar”
    How much by 2100?
    
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    April 10, 2017 5:00pm
    - William of Ockham
      
      If I wanted to know I wouldn’t ask you, buddy. You haven’t got a fucking clue.
      
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      April 10, 2017 5:12pm
    - krazykiwi
      
      AoR – I think he’s unhinged. Seriously. The ranting, ad-homs, ludicrous claims citing The Guardian and Wikipedia. As the world continues to wake up to the scam, people like Denis will get more extreme, and more angry. I shouldn’t treat it as sport … but I can’t help myself 🙂
      
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      April 10, 2017 5:38pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        He won’t answer the question because he is a Catastrophist and he will reveal that he is the one who is an extremist.
        He gets wound up eh. Funny as. In his Dennis persona he got lots of strikes because he lost the plot.
        He’s probably breaking the rules using a new identity.
        
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        April 10, 2017 6:19pm
Michael

I see our PM has criticized SBW’s decision to cover up a bank sponsors logo. So I guess he wouldn’t be too happy about South African cricketers Hashim Amla and Imran Tahir, both muslims , who refuse to wear clothing with the Proteas’ main sponsor Castle Lager on their jerseys. They have been given special dispensation to wear different uniforms to other members of the South African cricket squad.
Personally. if I had ever been asked to wear a jersey with a logo I didn’t agree with I would have asked for a dispensation. If I hadn’t been given one then I may well have pulled out of the team. I remember many years ago Rothman’s cigarette company was sponsoring a harrier relay. We were all supposed to wear a singlet or T-shirt we were given with Rothman’s name on it. I was anti smoking so I just wore a plain singlet. No problem.
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April 10, 2017 3:10pm
- kowtow
  
  You still took part in the event they were paying for.
  
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  April 10, 2017 7:35pm
Keeping Stock

The Andrew Little jury is doing a thorough job. I wonder if they have yet moved from whether or not the comments were defamatory to how much to award in damages.
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April 10, 2017 3:22pm
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  But they’re unable to reach a unanimous decision.
  This was predictable as there were bound to be a couple of unflinchable lefties on the jury who will think the sun shines out of Angry’s bum.
  Let’s just hope that a majority verdict is reached and that the damages are enough to have the prick out on the street.
  
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  April 10, 2017 3:53pm
- ztev
  
  Shopkeeper, read the story.
  have not gone past first step, which I think is qualified privilege.
  
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  April 10, 2017 4:17pm
  - Nostradamus
    
    Ztev:
    
    You must be delighted at the prospect of a new trial closer to the election?
    
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    April 10, 2017 5:48pm
    - Keeping Stock
      
      So must Grant and Jacinda. Even more so if Earl Hagaman passes away before then.
      
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      April 10, 2017 6:01pm
  - Keeping Stock
    
    Labour leader Andrew Little could face a further trial after a jury was unable to decide on most defamation claims against him by hotelier Earl Hagaman.
    
    In a partial victory, Little was cleared of defaming Lani Hagaman in any of the six instances the Hagamans had claimed he defamed them over.
    
    However, the jury was unable to decide whether Little had defamed Earl Hagaman in most cases. For one of the six, it found by majority verdict that the comments were defamatory of Mr Hagaman, but the jury could not decide whether Little’s defence of qualified privilege would apply so no verdict was possible.
    
    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11835615
    
    If he is sensible, he will have already instructed his brief to settle this pronto, without going back for another trial. This one, and all the to-ing and fro-ing beforehand will have cost him a bomb already; I doubt whether he’d get any change out of $200k for a five day High Court trial.
    
    PS – does calling people names make you feel superior? If so, that probably says way more about you than it does about me 😎
    
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    April 10, 2017 6:00pm
    - Nostradamus
      
      Keeping Stock:
      
      does calling people names make you feel superior?
      
      “Shopkeeper” – I don’t think Ztev likes the fact that you employ people and pay tax. Have you considered starting a union instead? 🙂
      
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      April 10, 2017 6:05pm
    - Rachael Membery
      
      Points of law are sometimes best kept for Judges, but then who amongst us knows why they went with a jury.
      Nice to see it second up on One.
      
      Fred Dag and Murray Ball will be able to have a laugh together.
      
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      April 10, 2017 6:36pm
stigie

I want the unionist bastard taken to the cleaners KS..?
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April 10, 2017 3:24pm
- ztev
  
  Its the Hagamans who could walk away with nothing if jury cant agree.
  They could do a last minute deal before jury returns.
  $10K plus a weak apology.
  hahahahaha
  
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  April 10, 2017 4:19pm
  - ztev
    
    Jury finds Little not guilty of defamation Lani Hagaman
    Find he did defame Earl but cant agree whether he has a defence.
    
    Bad news for the hoteliers
    
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    April 10, 2017 5:01pm
Nostradamus

Jury unable to reach unanimous verdict in Labour leader Andrew Little’s defamation trial, deliberations to continue

The jury in Labour leader Andrew Little’s defamation trial has indicated it cannot reach a unanimous verdict – but will continue attempts to reach a majority decision.

After more than 12 hours of discussions across Friday and Monday, the jury foreperson said the 12 members could not reach agreement on the first question of a four-step process in whether Little defamed Scenic Hotel Group founder Earl Hagaman or his wife Lani.

However, the foreperson said the jury believed it could reach a majority verdict – where at least nine people agree – for some of the allegedly defamatory statements, as is allowed in civil cases.

It looks as though Zt(r)ev only managed to get 3 Labour voters on the jury!
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April 10, 2017 3:30pm
- RF
  
  I have no intention of second guessing the legal process however I do believe it will be a Guilty verdict.
  
  The 3 hanging out will be Labour followers in spite of the Judge asking politics to be put aside.
  
  Somehow I could not see all 12 agreeing.
  
  If you think about it that sums up Angrys leadership popularity.
  
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  April 10, 2017 4:20pm
- The Virgin
  
  Yes, BUT if in the view of the foreman; ‘the jury believed it could reach a majority verdict – where at least nine people agree – for some of the allegedly defamatory statements, as is allowed in civil cases’, then clearly there is a labour traitor amongst the jury who will negotiate agreeing to a guilty verdict but minimal costs awarded.
  
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  April 10, 2017 4:30pm
  - ztev
    
    Tough tittie.
    Did someone not tell Earl that in your last days you dont want to try the vagaries of a jury case.
    
    They should have settled rather than try their luck one last time.
    
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    April 10, 2017 4:34pm
    - stigie
      
      Tosser !~
      
      13 0
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      April 10, 2017 4:43pm
    - krazykiwi
      
      ztev, you are scum.
      
      Seriously, you mock a dying man who was due an apology 12 months ago. He quite reasonably requested the apology back then, and Little ignored him.
      
      Leftist bully-boy tactics are why your team is led by someone less popular that many of the worlds worst dictators.
      
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      April 10, 2017 4:48pm
    - Longknives
      
      Stay classy Ztev!
      You really are a credit to then Labour Party..
      
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      April 10, 2017 5:52pm
Stars And Stripes

Sterilising the poor: a civilised solution?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/africa/91390601/sterilising-the-poor-a-civilised-solution

Article here from some bedwetter at the UN who goes on about all the injustices in South Sudan and how sterilisation of the poor is not the answer.
Of course his solutions to the problem revolve around airy fairy crap such as addressing cultural and societal values and education.
Yeah whatever but if it inevitably means the white man has to give money or soldiers to stop these primitives butchering each other then do as required and see if I care really.
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April 10, 2017 3:39pm
Nostradamus

Support for class action lawsuit: Edgecumbe resident

Whakatane District Council community board member Graeme Bourk today said more than 100 residents of the devastated Bay of Plenty town had already signalled an interest in joining a class action.

“It’s right in the infant stages, where we are just getting things off the road and seeing how many people are behind us – and there’s a lot. But once it starts getting out, I would say we’ll have five to six hundred people. There are people who are under-insured and they need some way of getting their money back.”

Apparently the Bay of Plenty Regional Council and Matahina Dam operator Trustpower will be asked to help these “under-insured” people…
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April 10, 2017 3:55pm
- ex-golfer
  
  Are they going to be arguing that the respective Councils were responsible for a 1 in 500 year dump of rain on their region?
  
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  April 10, 2017 6:34pm
Manolo

Vlad in bed with the mulklahs:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3293221/russia-and-iran-say-they-will-respond-to-american-aggression-following-air-strike-in-syria/

Russia and Iran have said they will respond to further American military actions following the air strike in Syria last week.

In a joint statement, the command centre for the two countries and allied groups said “we will respond to any aggression”.
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April 10, 2017 3:58pm
Rodney Randall

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nEGdKeT4B0

Canada’s Islamophobia Problem. – Sargon of Akkad

Sound familiar?

Devoid will be having orgasms.
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April 10, 2017 4:25pm
Hugh Pavletich

Supply of land for housing a ‘huge advantage’ for Christchurch | Stuff.co.nz

http://i.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/91290452/supply-of-land-for-housing-a-huge-advantage-for-christchurch

Christchurch Councillor Vicki Buck is talking nonsense on the subject of affordable housing.

To rate as ‘affordable’, housing must be at or below 3.0 times annual household incomes.

As this year’s Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey ( http://www.demographia.com/dhi.pdf ) clearly illustrates, Christchurch housing is rated ‘severely unaffordable’ at 5.9 times annual incomes.

What part of 3.0 does Councillor Buck not understand ?
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April 10, 2017 4:31pm
- Rodney Randall
  
  Councillor Vicki Buck voted in favour of removing 36 car parks from Hereford Street from the river end to Latimer Square.
  
  She thinks the ‘Accessible City’ is simply wonderful!
  
  In fact it is rumoured she is starting up a rollerskating hire shop on the city fringe where people can park their cars, hire a pair of skates and roll on in to the cbd to do their shopping.
  
  Manji voted in favour of the removal of lanes, after expressing concerns at the 1 .9 mill cost for this section of roading.
  
  Crs Cotter, Clearwater, Turner, Scandrett Livingstone, Galloway, Templeton, Keown Buck, Dalziel, Templeton, Gough, Manji, (and the other silent crs just there to collect the cheque) all voted in favour…except Johanson and East
  
  C.C.C. is an abortion
  
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  April 10, 2017 4:39pm
- wiseowl
  
  Hugh
  Strange how the discussion on housing problems in Australia mirrors all the same issues as here.
  Cost of building a house includes something like 30% cost attributable to government (and they can’t blame RMA)
  Negative gearing becoming a big discussion point and a figure being talked of , 11,000 millionaires have moved to Australia in the last few years.
  The open border policies of current governments are screwing kiwis and Aussies alike.
  
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  April 10, 2017 8:51pm
Jack5

More Coalition koha for the Maori Party.

The Government is to bring home the bodies of NZ soldiers killed in South-east Asia. Maori have been pressing for this.

More Maori ceremonial stuff as the coffins arrive home and arrive home and arrive home.

Like the piece on TV at the weekend commemorating the NZ Army mining companies’ work in France in World War 1. Overwhelmingly those soldiers were white miners from Otago, the West Coast, and Waihi, with a quite small number of Maori pioneers (construction soldiers) helping. The centrepoint of the NZ ceremony, or at least that televised, was Maori.

Like the celebration to mark the centennial of the Australian and NZ mounted division, which fought in Egypt and Palestine. The NZ soldiers in this were overwhelmingly white farm boys, but at the ceremony at the imposing memorial in West Australia, the NZ presence was dominated by Maori in ceremonial gear.

Surely the cost of bringing home the dead would be better spent on the surviving veterans of the South-east Asian campaigns. They didn’t get a lot of support once the peacenik fashion took hold in NZ.

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/328544/govt-to-bring-home-bodies-of-dead-soldiers
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April 10, 2017 5:14pm
- Rachael Membery
  
  Bring them home, there must be identifiable remains, we bring our soldiers home now.
  My problem is that this will no doubt spark up Pike River.
  
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  April 10, 2017 6:28pm
- mikenmild
  
  I think this is a good move in a limited case. The soldiers buried in Malaysia are not in Commonwealth War Grave Commission Cemeteries, so there have been some concerns (although reports were conflicting) about whether the graves were properly tended.
  
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  April 10, 2017 7:41pm
  - Stars And Stripes
    
    Don’t forget also that if they are bought back to NZ it will make it much more accessible for some useless bum(aka peace activist) to burn a flag on them or maybe even desecrate them.
    The distance at the moment is an impediment as payment of plane fares requires a job and that’s not really a fair go for any honest bum.
    
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    April 10, 2017 7:55pm
    - mikenmild
      
      Can you cite any instances of desecration of our war graves. I cannot recall any.
      
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      April 10, 2017 8:01pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        In Libya
        http://www.mch.govt.nz/news-events/news/rsa-appalled-desecration-nz-war-graves-libya-0
        
        In France
        http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/1437571/France-sorry-for-desecration-of-40-graves-in-war-cemetery.html
        
        In London
        http://www.flava.co.nz/news/shocking-graffiti-attack-on-anzac-war-graves/
        
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        April 10, 2017 8:09pm
      - Stars And Stripes
        
        Where do you want me to start?
        http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/77975444/vandalism-at-auckland-rsa-seen-as-desecration
        
        http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8036032/Idiots-scaled-scaffold-to-deface-war-memorial
        
        http://m.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=3505367
        
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        April 10, 2017 8:13pm
    - mikenmild
      
      Sigh. Desecration of war graves. Note to Maggy: read S&S’s comment more carefully. He is worried that people might desecrate the graves here in New Zealand, when such an action is unknown.
      
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      April 10, 2017 8:18pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        Yes, I read s&S comment, but I wanted to clarify your statement…. “our” means belonging to us, NZers… and these war graves are ours, even tho’ they are in other lands.
        
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        April 10, 2017 8:28pm
      - mikenmild
        
        Yes, I was replying to his foolish comment that the graves of those remains repatriated from Malaysia would be at risk.
        He really is an idiot, isn’t he?
        
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        April 10, 2017 8:43pm
      - Stars And Stripes
        
        My turn to go sigh now MM.
        It was sarcasm but obviously wasted as you seem to have been antagonized instead.
        Never mind you will feel more positive in the morning after some sleep.
        
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        April 10, 2017 8:57pm
      - mikenmild
        
        Just trying to help Maggy – she probably takes your bullshit at face value.
        
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        April 10, 2017 9:00pm
      - Stars And Stripes
        
        Oh that cut like a knife.
        Usually those sorts of insults are saved for EAD so I must really be in your bad books now.
        
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        April 10, 2017 9:04pm
      - mikenmild
        
        Well, EAD is by no means the only fool on Kiwiblog.
        
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        April 10, 2017 9:08pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        @mikenmild
        Just trying to help Maggy
        
        You are such a gentleman,
        
        she probably takes your bullshit at face value
        but no need to hide behind my skirt to launch your insults to S&S.
        
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        April 10, 2017 9:10pm
EAD

Just as Reid and I feared – Trump is likely another NWO stooge:

http://irishsavant.blogspot.co.nz/2017/04/hope-dies.html?m=0

Abridged:

Whatever lingering hopes I had for Trump are dying fast. One retreat/betrayal after another. Using the farcical pretext of civilian casualties Trump has ordered missile strikes on Syrian forces while the Administration daily ramps up the anti-Russian rhetoric. A farcical pretext, and seeing Nikki Haley (known to her Indian parents as Nimrata Randhawa) holding up pictures of disfigured children at the UN brought back chilling memories of Colin Powell brandishing similar fabrications to get the Iraq war started. What happened to the campaign promises to work with Putin in solving the Syrian crisis and eliminate ISIS?……………..

Now maybe, just maybe, Trump is playing a long game. Maybe the crushing power of the MIC-Ziocon-Wall Street nexus has dawned on him and he’s retrenching. But I’m not optimistic. As the great Enoch Powell once observed “History is littered with wars which everybody knew would never happen.”
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April 10, 2017 5:51pm
- wiseowl
  
  EAD
  Something has definitely happened to him.
  When McCain and Lindsay Graham and Schumer are agreeing and the likes of Laura Ingraham and Ann Coulter are questioning what the hell he is doing then something major has happened.
  
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  April 10, 2017 9:01pm
  - mikenmild
    
    Could simply be he is as flaky and unstable as his critics maintained.
    
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    April 10, 2017 9:05pm
stigie

Any predictions with the financial markets EAD over the bombing in Syria ?
Would hate to see Nasska again carting baked beans and sardines up into the snowline along with a pick and shovel. You know the poor bugger busted his gut last time and has just recovered from the last prediction..?
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April 10, 2017 6:39pm
- Nostradamus
  
  Stigie:
  
  You could introduce Nasska to your horse-and-cart mate Lewis Stanton. The horse and cart would solve Nasska’s logistical problem. As a demonstration of his gratitude, Nasska could let Lewis sleep under a hedge (or gorse bush) on his farmland somewhere!
  
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  April 10, 2017 6:45pm
  - stigie
    
    I’ve bloody tried Nostra, he does feel quite sorry for Lewis though and willing to transport some top Eketahuna hay down to the Top of the South. I am a bit puzzled, i didn’t know whether it was for Lewis or his nag !~
    
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    April 10, 2017 6:52pm
  - nasska
    
    I understand that Lewis is due for a bit of a windfall soon after he sues the arses off the clowns in the Nelson City Council. With luck he might get a shot at the sisterhood in the SPCA too.
    
    He’ll probably be able to afford a bit of prime waterside real estate where he & Barney can see their lives out in peace. 🙂
    
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    April 10, 2017 6:56pm
    - Nostradamus
      
      Nasska:
      
      Is this “windfall” you speak of bodily wind from Lewis’ rear-end, or a financial windfall that Stigie will generously contribute to through his rates bill? 🙂
      
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      April 10, 2017 7:02pm
      - nasska
        
        Our erstwhile friend will no doubt have to pay his share due to the bureaucratic pricks Nostra.
        
        Poor old Lewis drove proudly into Nelson with Barney, his cart & trailer only a couple of years ago. He has been reduced to living rough on the street, he’s been arrested, imprisoned, assaulted, had his few possessions impounded & deprived of the company of his horse.
        
        I understand that by chance stigie is a wealthy man but he will probably have to dig deep to allow the Council to compensate Lewis.
        
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        April 10, 2017 7:11pm
    - stigie
      
      They are banging through new bylaws at the moment Nasska and what i’ve heard so far, its a bloody shambles. When you have some Green Councilors pushing their own barrows to get into parliament, its not going down that well with a lot of folk !~
      
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      April 10, 2017 7:05pm
      - Nostradamus
        
        Stigie:
        
        Thankfully Kiwiblog is a broad community so you have experts (like Penny) to advise you on how to avoid your ratepayer obligations!
        
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        April 10, 2017 7:11pm
      - krazykiwi
        
        Nostradamus, encouraging you-know-who out is akin to longing for a round of whack-a-mole. Good fun if you can get it.
        
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        April 10, 2017 7:21pm
      - stigie
        
        I wonder what she charges ? //
        
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        April 10, 2017 7:24pm
      - Nostradamus
        
        krazykiwi:
        
        You make a fair point. Someone clicked his heels 3 times the other day, mumbled “Yoza”, and – hey presto! – the guy immediately appeared. It was spooky, I tell you!
        
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        April 10, 2017 7:25pm
VicParking

I pay each year a thing called insurance. It covers me for loss from fire and FLOOD. I also pay tax. Why should I pay with my tax for someone who is too stupid to insure their stock ($100k) which they kept in a shed??????.
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April 10, 2017 6:54pm
Nostradamus

Gold Coast man flees into ocean after racking up $621 seafood bill, police say

An aspiring rapper gorged himself on seafood and alcohol at a Gold Coast restaurant and then fled into the surf without paying his $621 bill, a Queensland court has heard.

Terry Peck, 33, allegedly devoured two lobsters, 17 oyster shooters, a baby octopus, and several beers at Main Beach’s Omeros Bros Restaurant before making his getaway.

The staff from Main Beach restaurant took off in hot pursuit.

Peck, who goes by the name 2pec, ran onto the beach and into the surf, and efforts to cajole him back to shore were unsuccessful.

Two police jumped on a lifeguard’s jet ski and arrested him in the ocean.

Sounds like a missed opportunity. Someone could’ve spear-fished his arse and hauled him back to shore… it would’ve been a fitting (and memorable) end to his seafood meal!
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April 10, 2017 7:23pm
Manolo

The endless joys of European multiculturalism:
http://www.lastampa.it/2017/04/08/esteri/lastampa-in-english/turin-yearold-girl-forced-to-leave-school-and-get-married-rlq2w3AJ6fBj6sObUBr4zJ/pagina.html

Rashida, few days ago, called the 114 childhood emergency number saying that her parents wanted to give her as a spouse to an unknown 25-year-old man.

Rashida is only 15 years old and she is a freshman in high-school. She lives in Turin, and she has Egyptian origin.
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April 11, 2017 7:07am

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