General Debate 23 December 2008

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dave strings

IN my life so far I have witnessed three major humanity changing developments. They are “the pill’ (60s) , the Facsimile Machine (80s) and The Internet (00s). I think I have time for one more, I just wonder what the heck it might be!

I keep yearning for a way to have everyone clearly demonstrate their emotional state on their forehead, so we can understand each other better. But then I wonder what it would be like if the roads we travel on moved, rather than we moved something on them!

WHat do you think it might be?
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December 23, 2008 9:13am
aardvark

It’ll be the move away from fossil fuels.

Electric vehicles, grid-power from renewables and the like. It’s already started and will be a lot further down the track in a decade or so.
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December 23, 2008 9:16am
billyborker

The fruits of bringing democarcy, USA Corporate style, to Iraq.

By Azar Majedi
Nahla Hussain, a women’s rights activist and the leader of the women’s league of the Kurdish Communist Party and mother of two children, was beheaded at her house in Kirkuk, in north of Iraq. She was alone in the house at the time of her death. According to the police some unidentified men entered her house on Thursday night, but the circumstances that led to the attack are unknown.

However, violence against women who do not observe Islamic laws and dress code has become a common phenomenon in Iraq. Women’s rights activists, secularists and communists are under constant threats by different reactionary factions, including the Islamists.

In the context of Iraqi society, “the circumstances that led to her death” are quite well known. Under the rule of nationalist parties in Kurdistan the violence against women has risen dramatically. Just recently the Sharia law became the governing law in Kurdistan. Moreover, since American led attack on Iraq, which unleashed Islamic and tribal terrorism, women have become victims of brutal violence and terrorism. Nahla Hussain was brutally murdered because of her convictions and political activities; this is a well-known fact. She was the victim of misogyny and reactionary forces.

This brutal murder must be condemned by all women’s rights, freedom loving and progressive organisations. We must vigorously demand the arrest and punishment of these murderers by the government of Iraqi Kurdistan. This reactionary government by creating a de facto Islamic state and co-operating with the Islamic forces and exercising tribal and Islamic laws has created a safe heaven for the Islamists and forces of reaction. Women have become the main targets of these forces. These are the conditions that have led to Nahla Hussain’s brutal murder and murder and maiming of hundreds of other women. We should try to put an end to these bloody and inhuman conditions in Iraq.

20 December, 2008

Azar Majedi is President of Organisation for Women’s Liberation-Iran and a member of the coordination committee of the European Feminist Initiative.
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December 23, 2008 9:16am
Ross Miller

Merry Christmas to all you good people out there.

And for the not so good people out there … Woger, Jum, James, Mickey, Rat et al, a Merry Christmas to you too.

And to all of those who abuse children … may you rot in hell.
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December 23, 2008 9:28am
Buggerlugs

WTF is the school trustees association going on about? changing the school day to better suit the needs of children? how about getting the ministry to address the wildly varied quality of teachers first? another fucking organisation in search of a brain. i don’t give a fuck about the school day – but i do care about my eight year old being a better speller than his teacher…the highlight of this year though had to him coming home and saying “9×5=45, doesn’t it, Dad? Miss (X) reckons its 48…”

Three years, two teachers not up to the mark. Worry about that, STA, not fucking around with the hours so those deadheads at Wellington High and other namby-pamby schools can have a sleep-in.
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December 23, 2008 9:41am
aardvark

Hey Buggerlugs — remember that we can’t do *anything* to upset the little kiddies.

First, we couldn’t possibly expose them to the concept of *failure* so we simply introduced the concept of “not achieved”

Now we can’t expect the little darlings to get up too early in the morning so we give them glide-time.

What ever happened to schools being a place that prepares our kids for “the real world”???

In the “real world” you roll up when your employer says you roll up and if you don’t succeed you *FAIL*.

Kits are tough — but we’re making them soft and weak by pretending they’re incapable of coping with the most basic of concepts and hardships.
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December 23, 2008 9:49am
Ryan Sproull

Merry Christmas to all you good people out there.

Aw, that’s nice.

And for the not so good people out there … Woger, Jum, James, Mickey, Rat et al, a Merry Christmas to you too.

Wait a minute! You’ve forgotten to wish a hearty hell-rotting to child abusers!

And to all of those who abuse children … may you rot in hell.

Oh, thank God. You had me going for a second.
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December 23, 2008 9:51am
Grant Michael McKenna

Thinking of Buggerlugs’ problem, would it be possible to demand that a teacher not be allowed to teach one’s child because of that teacher’s incompetence? Could acourt order be obtained for that purpose? Malicious minds want to know….
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December 23, 2008 10:04am
philu

i am blocked from ‘winners/losers’ thread..

..but surely stephen franks must be the biggest loser..?…(sub-section..waka-hopping..)

..cos’..had franks stayed with act..

..he’d now be an mp..

..doh..!

phil(whoar.co.nz)
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December 23, 2008 10:09am
kiwipolemicist

National plans to make people on the Domestic Purposes Benefit go to work when their children reach school age. That sounds reasonable, the only problem is that beneficiaries will have more children to avoid work.
( http://kiwipolemicist.wordpress.com/2008/11/19/plans-to-get-solo-parents-to-work-will-backfire/ )

I wrote to Paula Bennett, Minister For Giving Away Stolen Money, and asked if beneficiaries who wished to homeschool would be forced to go to work and send their children to a state school (presumably they won’t be able to afford anything else). Her reply said that they’re considering it. This is a serious issue, i.e. will beneficiaries be allowed to raise their children without the state indoctrination that is ruining society and turning children against their parents?

Make a stand for freedom: go to the link below, find Bennett’s contact details, and tell her that parents should be free to raise their children as they see fit (don’t mention the fact that state schools attempt to turn kids into totalitarian drones like herself).

http://kiwipolemicist.wordpress.com/2008/12/22/will-national-force-homeschooling-beneficiaries-to-go-to-work/
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December 23, 2008 10:10am
PhilBest

Dave Strings, one of the interesting points about humanity-changing technological developments, is the increasing rapidity with which they are “democratised”. The privately owned car was the preserve of the wealthy for probably 6 decades, and took most of a century to be “democratised”. The mobile phone, $7000 when it was first introduced; 2 decades later, everyone has one. The Internet? The I-Pod?

So much for “the collapse of capitalism”……….THIS is what capitalism is all about; as Schumpeter said 60 years ago, the genius of capitalism is not that it provides hundreds more pairs of stockings for princesses, but that it provides stockings for all girls including the poorest.

The finance sector is an essential element and a driver of all this; in “The World Economy; a Millennial Perspective” (A truly amazing book); Angus Maddison points out that all flourishing new economic empires were built on trust-based systems of finance. The absence of trust-based systems of finance is probably the major factor, due to culture, for parts of the world remaining stuck in the nasty, brutish past.

In the Western world, the democratisation of trust-based finance over the last 3 centuries, has underpinned an absolutely unique explosion of economic growth and human well-being.

There is no doubt that the finance sector has developed a Frankenstein-like life of its own more recently, with disastrous consequences, but we must not throw the baby out with the bath water, and it is also of vital importance that we are aware of the role that well-meaning political interference plays in setting the stage for these disasters.
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December 23, 2008 10:10am
big bruv

“i am blocked from ‘winners’ thread..”

Gee, anybody else wonder why this might be?

[DPF: he isn’t]
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December 23, 2008 10:11am
Brian Smaller

My kids are at private schools and the teachers are excellent. The only thing is working the extra job to pay for it, as well as being taxed to pay for buggerlug’s daughter’s crap teacher.
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December 23, 2008 10:11am
goodgod

In the “real world” you roll up when your employer says you roll up and if you don’t succeed you *FAIL*.

hmm not entirely true. If you’re capable, when you fail you learn and what you learn may contribute to a future success. I think that’s why the education system turned away from reaching for goals. They didn’t know the purpose of failure. To them is was just bad, ugly marks on the tick sheet, outside the perimeter of control – and bad means don’t look too closey. It’s not such a big jump from not looking too closely to becoming afraid of it. And being afraid of it consigns potentially strong growing minds to the dustbin.

One of the most lacking skills in small business these days is to realise when a product has to be dropped or adapted. People hold onto a temporary success until it’s a permanent failure for fear of the unknown. Had they failed a bit more in early life they’d know when to jump, what the symptoms of an over safe situation were and wouldn’t have to lose their business, or their job, later in life to learn it.

Failure’s fine, it’s the myths surrounding it that need to change. The whole education system needs to be re-structured around learning and teaching to match the student. Not herding 30 tiny minds into a fibrolite box for 8 hours a day. If there’s one area if NZ life that could gain from privatisation it would be schools. Focus on results, not grades. Who cares if little Johnny gets a D in tech drawing, sketching carboard boxes, if his real talent is in exporting, or journalism, or software development. Why the fuck waste hours and hours of his time teaching him to hate the things he doesn’t have a talent for? Children, and their families, need to be allowed to take an interest in what they learn to effect result positively. Allowing them to choose what and where they learn would be a step in the right direction.
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December 23, 2008 10:15am
bearhunter

“i am blocked from ‘winners’ thread..”

Gee, anybody else wonder why this might be?

Bruv, I’m confused. If it’s a winners AND losers thread, Phil would feel right at home at least half the time…
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December 23, 2008 10:17am
PhilBest

We simply do not have the benefit of an example of an true “Capitalist” economy in which the size of the State has been kept to below, say, 10%. It is certain that economic growth rates of 10% per annum and more, would be sustainable indefinitely.

I suggest that one of the major factors in the current economic crash, is that government interference and taxation has distorted the whole incentive structure so much, that there has simply not been enough economic growth and real wealth created through work and production, and what is more, all the incentives, fiscal and monetary and moral (post-Christianity) have been for “Aladdin’s Lamp” type get-rich-quick schemes and beliefs in the same. Wall Street ceased to be “handmaiden to industry” which is what it should be and in which role it is an integral part of growth. But all the notions flying around about the creation of wealth out of nothing, disconnected from work and production, were not so much a legacy of capitalism as a legacy of the simultaneous trashing of the very concepts of the value of work and production by Socialist politics and post-Christian “ethics” and by the finance cowboys themselves operating in that framework of Socialist politics and post-Christian ethics.
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December 23, 2008 10:17am
KiwiGreg

It’s absolutely the case that government interference is one of the factors. US law requiring lenders to allocate funds to minorities irrespective of their credit rating, the crowding out of the private lending providers by Fannie and Freddie (who could buy unlimited market share with cheap government guaranteed funding even though they were notionally “privately” owned) are just two of the factors. Of course there were some pretty spectacular market failures as well.
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December 23, 2008 10:34am
peterwn

Wonder what people think of this (perhaps some may think I should get a one way ticket to the nut-house). Instead of the Government increasing the ACC levy on motor vehicle registration / fuel tax, the additional amount should be funded by a levy on speeding and other ‘moving vehicle’ tickets or prosecutions. This would target the increase to the group more likely to cause accidents. The levy for a drink-drive should be greater than for a modest speeding ticket. This would fit in neatly with the proposed levy on general prosecutions for victim support. In this regard levies for serious driving charges ( eg careless / dangerous driving causing injury / death ) would go to victims as for general crimes rather than ACC.
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December 23, 2008 10:37am
jarbury

The ARC flushing money away: http://joelcayford.blogspot.com/2008/12/arc-couldnt-organise-booze-up-in.html
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December 23, 2008 10:55am
Buggerlugs

peterwn – you may be on to something. unfortunately this means it will be dismissed out of hand by the police, LTSA, and any one else in government with their hand out…might be a better use of the police time though by getting ACC staff to man the speed cameras!
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December 23, 2008 11:06am
PhilBest

Oh, BillyBorker, so THIS was the better future for Iraq, was it?

http://www.oheditions.com/spip.php?page=extrait&id_article=35

“The Black Book of Saddam Hussein”

The difference between then and now, is that Saddam’s regime had a monopoly franchise on the crime, murder, torture, “disappearances”, death squads, and all the rest of it. Were you aware that Saddam’s death squads had “quotas” to fill just like our Cops with their speeding tickets?
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December 23, 2008 11:07am
wikiriwhis business

“IN my life so far I have witnessed three major humanity changing developments. They are “the pill’ (60s) , the Facsimile Machine (80s) and The Internet (00s). I think I have time for one more, I just wonder what the heck it might be!”

I’m hoping very soon for accessible Virtual Reality. Public places where we can simply plug ourselves in to the virtual world of our choice. The paradigm would be astounding. and lets remember, there is very litle, or next to nothing people mock about now. Possibly NZ/ Aus coalition. People still don’t accept that possibility. The Americans are preparing themselves for a pan North America. But something their politicians are still denying. Along with the cashless society.

Now I see two major factors that are slowing public access to virtual reality. The technology could be put in place now.

1) Commercialism. Big business want to utterly squeeze the potential out of gaming before they release VR to the public.

2) The White House will place stringent laws on public use of VR to dictate our minds and how we use our imaginations in the technology. This will have political, social and sexual ramifications world wide.

3) Creativity will explode in cinema, art, writing, poetry, design and wherever else you can imagine. The political and business worlds are not in a rush to be superceded and lets remember, the Bushes and their ilk hate internet. VR will have then seething for the good ol dark ages. I will be surprised if VR will be a common reality within ten yrs.
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December 23, 2008 11:14am
Lee

Good point Phil. Iraq was a violent place under Saddam, and it is a violent place now. The difference is that it at least has a fledgling democracy. Yes it still a long way to go but people like billy do not seem to understand that these things take time. His lot assume that because Iraq is not yet on the same page as a Western nation that therefore the whole thing is a failure. Most importantly it is no longer a military threat to its neighbours or Israel. If people like billy had his way Saddam would still be there threatening to annihilate Israel and giving financial backing to “Palestininian” terrorists.
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December 23, 2008 11:17am
Lee

“lets remember, the Bushes and their ilk hate internet”

Huh? Evidence?

“The White House will place stringent laws on public use of VR to dictate our minds and how we use our imaginations in the technology.”

HUH? EVIDENCE?

Cripes. Have you been smoking something?
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December 23, 2008 11:20am
wikiriwhis business

Lee,

all you have to do is look at the way the white House has dominated the internet.

Oh yes,

and its common knowledge senior REpublicans are not web savvy. John mcCain said he finally got an email started. After how many years of the www?

There used to be a saying that no one owns the internet. I haven’t heard that in many years.

And remember, the internet is not policed by Scotland Yard or Interpol. But by the FBI.

Where do they come from.
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December 23, 2008 11:27am
Buggerlugs

I thought the internet was policed by Lynnette Prentice?
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December 23, 2008 11:45am
Lee

“Lee, all you have to do is look at the way the white House has dominated the internet.”

How exactly??? Give me an example.

“and its common knowledge senior REpublicans are not web savvy.”

Its an opinion, and it contradicts your initial claim.

“And remember, the internet is not policed by Scotland Yard or Interpol. But by the FBI.”

ER…no. That is simply not the case.

Where do you get your information from?
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December 23, 2008 11:48am
francis

Ack, virtual black helicopters everywhere!

On the school topic, which I find interesting because my kids are in primary, I can understand the impulse to remove things, like competitive grading, that instill in some children the idea that they’re inferior. But I can’t understand the impulse to remove things, like competitive grading, that instill in some children the idea that endeavor has rewards. On balance, I’d rather see competitive grading mainstreamed than not – largely because most children tend to underperform without it – and some other solution for children who cannot perform well in that environment (or whose parents want to continue with the present experiment).
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December 23, 2008 11:50am
Buggerlugs

francis – you’ll love this beauty as well…the kids who disrupt the class get taken out (not in the black helicopter way, mais oui, but out of the class). Good job, you might think. That is, until the other kids discover they have been a) to the park, b) the swimming pool, c) the museum….a recipe for anarchy – lucky most eight year olds don’t think the way I do, even though they can sense there’s some injustice here somewhere…
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December 23, 2008 11:52am
CraigM

Buggerlugs – disgraceful situation. What was the reponse of the principal when you brought it to his/her attention?

Re starting school later. My kids finished their High School years in the USA. They started school every morning at 7.40am and finished at 2.40 pm. They then had to do some form of organised extra activity until 4pm (school sports teams, band, drama etc…every day)

It is very sad when even the much maligned public school system in the USA makes ours look bad.
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December 23, 2008 12:11pm
Grant Michael McKenna

Al Gore polices the internet with Penguins…
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December 23, 2008 12:19pm
Lee

On billyborker’s propaganda,

latest info from Iraq on ABC News is that the murder rate is now below what it was under Saddam.
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December 23, 2008 12:44pm
Lee

“It is very sad when even the much maligned public school system in the USA makes ours look bad.”

A friend of my wife’s family married an American who had been a teacher in the US public school system for over ten years. He took a job teaching here in NZ and quit after a year. When I asked why he said that he found the students here had no respect for teachers and most were simply not motivated to learn. He took more personal abuse from the students here than in a school in an inner city ghetto in L.A.
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December 23, 2008 12:51pm
philu

one of you righties…trying to ultimate-insult me..

..said i am..’the lone voice at the back of the blogosphere’..

..and..upon reflection..

..i really like that as a tag-line..

..it has a certain ‘loner’/fuck the rest of you’ cachet..eh..?

..so..my ‘sign-off’ from now on will change to..

phil(whoar.co.nz) a.k.a…’the lone voice at the back of the blogosphere’..

(btw..’thanks’/cheers’..to that (name i have forgotten) rightie..eh..?.

..and..i think a t-shirt/hat would be appropriate..

..eh..?.)
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December 23, 2008 3:13pm
Owen McShane

maybe being a little older I have seen a few more – the widebodied jet making international travel available to all, Television, the microprocessor leading to the desk top computer, the pill and then the fax, the cell phone, the internet, and of course satellite communications which link them all together.
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December 23, 2008 3:16pm
philu

gee..!..how come no ‘people on-line’ thingamejig..?

..and no monthly visitor numbers from november..?

phil(whoar.co.nz) a.k.a..’the lone voice at the back of the blogosphere’…
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December 23, 2008 3:18pm
Glutaemus Maximus

Pineapple Lumps?
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December 23, 2008 3:21pm
philu

and of course..with the upcoming annual xmas hols news blackout/shutdown almost upon us..

..i should alert readers/news-junkies to the fact that whoar.co.nz does not close down for the duration/zmas hols….

..every day..as you cast your anorexic herald/dominion/whatever to one side in frustration..

..you know you will be able to turn to whoar..

..for that daily roundup of all the interesting/important stuff that has happened in the previous 24 hours..

..hours of posting may vary..as part of the time i will be ‘in the bush’..

..and will have to make my way to the coast each day..for internet acess..

..but i will be there..

..(so don’t worry..!..eh..?

..everything will be ok..

..’the lone voice at the back of the blogosphere’..will see you right..

..eh..?

phil(whoar.co.nz)..a.k.a..’the lone voice at the back of the blogosphere’..
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December 23, 2008 3:26pm
dave strings

kiwipolemicist

If someone wants to teach their children themselves, and is able to get them through the appropriate level of ability testing, then I have no problem with it.

HOWEVER, I do have a problem with being asked to pay for it twice, the first time through taxes directed toward a state schooling system that is available free to all residents, the second time through welfare to the teaching parent. If you can’t afford to do home schooling on your own money, don’t decide to do it on mine!
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December 23, 2008 4:02pm
LUCY

Does anyone know how much it is costing to change the 7 tunnels between Johnsonville and Wellington due to Dr. Cullens new train carriages being too big to fit in them?
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December 23, 2008 4:50pm
PhilBest

LUCY, I vaguely remember a figure being quoted somewhere, that the cost of each trip taken by passengers at their usual volumes on the Johnsonville line subsequent on the financing of these modifications, was $82. Of which, of course, approximately $3 is covered by the fare; and the difference of $79 is covered by the ratepayer/taxpayer. We are talking thousands of dollars per DAY.

Why the f. there is not a taxpayer/ratepayer revolt over this sort of stuff is absolutely beyond me. We have a whole lot of vocal activists who get all the publicity about needing to get people out of their cars and into public transport, to “save the environment”, yet it is a certainty that at these sorts of costs, far more harm is being done to the environment in keeping a line like Johnsonville open compared to everybody just using their cars. This possibly applies to a lot of rail services.
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December 23, 2008 5:04pm
LUCY

The majority of people in Wellington who use public transport take the bus including those who live in Johnsonville.

I will never understand why Cullen bought the trains (I never understood anything the Labour party did and I dont think they did either) but why oh why would you buy trains too big to go through the tunnels?

My understanding is they have to strenghten the walls and then lowe the floors by 60cm. In the mean time the train service is out of action for 6 months or so and guess what? They are using buses. No income for 6months just one hell of a lot of expenditure.
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December 23, 2008 5:21pm
peterwn

Lucy – The Johnsonville train service is suspended 28 December 2008 to 5 February 2009 to enable tracks to be lowered and loops extended. The tightest period is likely to be 27 Jan – 5 Feb when schools are back, but then tertiary students will not have started then.

However I very strongly suspect that the work is ‘misguided,’ the busway idea should have been given proper consideration but Ontrack and Labour ministers would not even entertain the idea (the Railways have always been ‘protective’ of their patch). The idea I think was that buses would run one way at peak periods and return ’empty’ via SH1 whichwould not be congeted in the direction of travel.
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December 23, 2008 5:50pm
thedavincimode

philu says:

“i am blocked from ‘winners/losers’ thread..”

That’s just outrageous Phil. I can’t understand why anyone would want to block you from the losers’ thread.

“..but surely stephen franks must be the biggest loser..?”

Well no, wouldn’t that be you Phil?

“..cos’..had franks stayed with act..

..he’d now be an mp..

..doh..!”

Well perhaps. His situation might conventionally be described as a consequence of a decision he has made. It will be interesting to see what his reaction will be. Will he run the risk of self-destruction and just go back to work? Or will he take the safe option and justify his decision on being a drug addict “in recovery” (which of course is all good)?

Great to see that you have taken time out of your busy day to put shit on someone that works for a living. Top effort. Take the rest of the year off (but perhaps you already have??).
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December 23, 2008 8:28pm
stuarts-burgers

Goodgod 10.15 am I agree about small business, the other problem is that because of others failure and your perceived success you do not want to make any changes.

He did xyz and failed so I will not do xyz and so therefore I will not fail.

The problem he also did ABC ( wine women and song) but the “successful” small business man does not do ABC and can not relate this to the failed business’s failure.
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December 23, 2008 10:05pm
Seamonkey Madness

Darren Hughes on Breakfast this morning, sucking off the taxpayers tit at their champagne breakfast shindig. He in the fucking Opposition!!!

Bloody gingas!
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December 24, 2008 8:40am
billyborker

goodgod (841) Vote: 7 1 Says:

December 23rd, 2008 at 10:15 am

Failure’s fine, it’s the myths surrounding it that need to change. The whole education system needs to be re-structured around learning and teaching to match the student. Not herding 30 tiny minds into a fibrolite box for 8 hours a day. If there’s one area if NZ life that could gain from privatisation it would be schools. Focus on results, not grades. Who cares if little Johnny gets a D in tech drawing, sketching carboard boxes, if his real talent is in exporting, or journalism, or software development. Why the fuck waste hours and hours of his time teaching him to hate the things he doesn’t have a talent for? Children, and their families, need to be allowed to take an interest in what they learn to effect result positively. Allowing them to choose what and where they learn would be a step in the right direction.

So how do you propose little Johnny decides what he wants to learn? Is it OK if he decides he doesn’t want to learn to read?

And how do you know little Johnny is no good at drawing cardboard boxes until he is exposed to it? Or that he is good at journalism, unless you propose we go down the route of identifying “talent” at kindergarten, maybe the same way the Chinese find their athletes? Still and all, free market fundamentalists and china are a good fit,
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December 24, 2008 8:50am
expat

“billyborker (79) Vote: 0 0 Says:
December 24th, 2008 at 8:50 am

goodgod (841) Vote: 7 1 Says:

December 23rd, 2008 at 10:15 am

Failure’s fine, it’s the myths surrounding it that need to change. The whole education system needs to be re-structured around learning and teaching to match the student. Not herding 30 tiny minds into a fibrolite box for 8 hours a day. If there’s one area if NZ life that could gain from privatisation it would be schools. Focus on results, not grades. Who cares if little Johnny gets a D in tech drawing, sketching carboard boxes, if his real talent is in exporting, or journalism, or software development. Why the fuck waste hours and hours of his time teaching him to hate the things he doesn’t have a talent for? Children, and their families, need to be allowed to take an interest in what they learn to effect result positively. Allowing them to choose what and where they learn would be a step in the right direction.

So how do you propose little Johnny decides what he wants to learn? Is it OK if he decides he doesn’t want to learn to read?

And how do you know little Johnny is no good at drawing cardboard boxes until he is exposed to it? Or that he is good at journalism, unless you propose we go down the route of identifying “talent” at kindergarten, maybe the same way the Chinese find their athletes? Still and all, free market fundamentalists and china are a good fit,”

Which doesn’t mean to say Borkmeister, that teaching in NZ does not need to change focus to better serve the kiddies and society.
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December 24, 2008 8:56am
billyborker

And how do you know little Johnny is no good at drawing cardboard boxes until he is exposed to it? Or that he is good at journalism, unless you propose we go down the route of identifying “talent” at kindergarten, maybe the same way the Chinese find their athletes?

Too hard for you expat?
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December 24, 2008 8:59am
expat

Perhaps less MoE policy analysts pushing PC shlte into the education curriculum and more focus on traditional learning as well as newer subjects that kids enjoy.
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December 24, 2008 9:00am
expat

Bork bork borkie, I realise its probably early for you, only on your first soy latte and all. But why not look at ways to improve NZ’s edyukashun sistim? Are you opposed to improvements?
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December 24, 2008 9:05am
jcuknz

This afternoon I returned to Dunedin from Invercargil and as each group of cars caught up with me, I was doing about 90<100k most of the time on the open road, I found a bloody idiot close up on my tail and they just sat there. Several times I pulled over to let the convoy through and on one occasion of perhaps nine or ten only two were maintaining anything like the 2 second separation as I followed some three or four seconds behind the tailend charlie. Pisses me off no end and is so dangerous and stupid practice.

Some years ago I came up with the idea of ‘Hi-Rail’ buses which would pick fares up from near their homes and then use the railway to avoid the conjested roads and then once in town go to a ueful drop-off point in the city. I’m sure that with modern GPS technology the safety issues of numerous vehicles on rail could be overcome. While I guess it is a good idea to lower the rails through the tunnels, it has been done around the country for the newer 9ft containers, one would have thought that the operating restrictions of the route would have been considered before purchase.
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December 26, 2008 8:01pm

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