About
Contact
Advertise

Facebook
Twitter

January 28, 2009 7:35am by David Farrar

General Debate 28 January 2009

I’m in a meeting all day so not many posts until tonight.

Share this:

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Reddit
WhatsApp
More

Pinterest
Print
Tumblr

Like this:

Like Loading...

Email
Facebook
Twitter
Comment148

Uncategorized
General Debate

Comments (148)

Login to comment or vote

CraigM

The sun is shining and all is right in my world. I hope everyone is fortunate enough to feel the same way 🙂

Al Gore may have to cancel his “urgent global warming testimony” to the Senate committee because of an ice storm. LOL

Mike Hoskins has succeeded in turning me off ZB. I found him incredibly annoying and more arrogant than Holmes, without any of Holmes’s cheeky charm. Bye Bye ZB.

Can anyone explain Paul Henry to me?
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 8:39am
wreck1080

I agree, but you missed that Mike is also very boring.

He does not have character as with holmes.

ZB need someone with edge, someone who walks the line.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 9:04am
Owen McShane

Interesting research:
Last spring, the Brookings Institution produced a report and study titled “Shrinking the Carbon Footprint of Metropolitan America.”

You can find the press release announcing the study here:

http://www.brookings.edu/reports/2008/05_carbon_footprint_sarzynski.aspx?p=1

Metro Los Angeles had the second smallest total carbon footprint of the 100 largest US cities. And its carbon emissions from highway transportation were the fifth-lowest in the US, one place better than what I thought was more transit-reliant Philadelphia. My wager: All those cars on the freeways aren’t driving as far as the cars around here are.

By comparison, New York’s total carbon footprint was the 4th smallest (though it took top honors in the transportation category).

The metro area with the smallest total carbon footprint? Honolulu.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 9:11am
grumpyoldhori

Who does Obama think he is, a real president with that tan.
Good god he has had the arrogance to tell hard working bankers whose bank has been bailed out to the tune of 45 billion that they cannot have a new toy.
A French made jet costing 50 million.
Damn he will have them in cattle class next, come on Obama you would not have the ability to lose as much money as those bankers would you.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 9:16am
Ross Miller

Having watched what appears to me to be a text book operation by the AOS at the Mangere Burger King one wonders if all the posters whio were so ready to label the police as bozzo, cowboy incompetents might just have something positive to say.

Have very little respect for armchair critics who rush to judgement on the back of media reports and their own bias before all the facts are in the public arena.

Have huge sympathy for the Naitoko family and for the policeman who shot him and nil, nothing, zip, zero for the criminal lowlife whose actions led to this tragedy
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 9:34am
Nookin

Interesting article. Obviously of left orientation. The “something for nothing” syndrome at work.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4830572a28.html
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 9:37am
MyNameIsJack

The World’s best customer complaint letter?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/4344890/Virgin-the-worlds-best-passenger-complaint-letter.html

As I said at the start I love your brand, I really do. It’s just a shame such a simple thing could bring it crashing to it’s knees and begging for sustenance.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 9:39am
MyNameIsJack

“Nookin (43) Vote: 0 0 Says:

January 28th, 2009 at 9:37 am
Interesting article. Obviously of left orientation. The “something for nothing” syndrome at work.
”

Look up Bernie Maddoff to see the true manifestation of the something for nothing syndrome, and see how many righties were suckered in.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 9:41am
dime

i listen to ZB while i get ready for work.. he hade annette king and stephen joyce on this morning (shes way better than that arrogant prick shane jones).

anyway, king made a couple of points

1 – people wanting to break fixed mortgages. apparently the banks should not charge big fees cause “they have had lots of government bail outs around the world”… ummm which banks in this country got bailed out? anyone? why arent banks allowed to be a business? i dont see these whinging people offer to pay more when they are on fixed mortgages and the rates go up.

2 – during these hard times the govt need to look after people on lower incomes. why just them? if youre on min wage – it aint going down any further! how bout the middle class couple on 100k with a dirty great mortgage?

in summary – fuck labour
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 9:41am
expat

>>Look up Bernie Maddoff to see the true manifestation of the something for nothing syndrome, and see how … greedy people were sucked in.

Grow up.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 9:48am
Brian Smaller

Anyone been keeping up with how many Palestinians Hamas has killed in the last few weeks? I see they murdered a Pali aid worker because he worked for an Israeli based aid agency. I was wondering when the outcry from the Hamas-huggers over the massacre of innocents will erupt?
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 9:49am
MyNameIsJack

wassup expat? Did I hit a nerve? How much did you lose? And why do you think that an arsehole isn’t an arsehole if he robs you with a fountain pen instead of a knife?
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 9:55am
davidp

GOH>Good god he has had the arrogance to tell hard working bankers whose bank has been bailed out to the tune of 45 billion that they cannot have a new toy. A French made jet costing 50 million.

That’ll be the same Obama whose supporters set records for their use of business jets…
http://blogs.wsj.com/wealth/2009/01/20/obama-inauguration-sets-record-for-private-jets/?mod=rss_WSJBlog

600 jets flew in to Washington for Obama’s inauguration, double the number that arrived for Bush in 2004. I suppose their occupants all wanted to hear Obama talk about saving the planet by cutting carbon emissions.

Obama might turn out to be a good president. But his supporters scare me. It’s like a cult and, in the case of the jet set, a cult that isn’t even slightly self-aware.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 10:06am
stephen

Obama might turn out to be a good president. But his supporters scare me. It’s like a cult and, in the case of the jet set, a cult that isn’t even slightly self-aware.

Fair enough, but it’d be a tough ask to find a President that didn’t have large groups of weird supporters – Ron Paul was probably the closest to Obama-mania in 2008. Could probably find some pretty scary guys in the ‘here-comes-the-rapture-religious right’ too, but we’re all used to that I guess 😀
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 10:16am
Inventory2

Ross Miller said “Have huge sympathy for the Naitoko family and for the policeman who shot him and nil, nothing, zip, zero for the criminal lowlife whose actions led to this tragedy”

I couldn’t agree more Ross. Likewise the leader writer at the Dom-Post:

http://keepingstock.blogspot.com/2009/01/another-excellent-editorial.html
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 10:21am
adamsmith1922

leaving aside Obama for a moment and the ridiculous Hosking and his white linen shorts for a moment, I came across what looks like a major Labour stuff-up yesterday. One which Phil Goff would appear to be in up to his armpits, unless I misread the material. Not so much because he caused much of the problem, but because he appear not to have done anything to resolve the problem.

See http://adamsmith.wordpress.com/2009/01/27/12923/
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 10:23am
stephen

…the ridiculous Hosking and his white linen shorts for a moment,

Lol, know something we don’t?!
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 10:34am
adamsmith1922

stephen

This morning in Hosking’s segment just before the 6:30 am news much of the ‘discussion’ between Hosking and Bernadine Oliver-Kirby was about the problems of getting stains out of Hosking’s white linen shorts, which he claimed set him off to advantage
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 10:40am
llew

So Bernadine has problems getting the stains out of Hoskin’s shorts? Is that in her job description I wonder?
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 10:45am
Inventory2

Hosking is SUCH a light-weight – with his boofy hairdo et al. I can’t imagine HIM ever calling anyone a “cheeky darkie” lol – at least with Holmes you never knew quite what to expect!!
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 10:51am
PhilBest

MyNameIsJack (160) Vote: 0 3 Says:

January 28th, 2009 at 9:41 am

“Look up Bernie Maddoff to see the true manifestation of the something for nothing syndrome, and see how many righties were suckered in.”

ER, seriously, MyNameIsJack, have you actually read a list of people suckered by Made-Off? There are an awful lot of wealthy chardonnay socialists on there……..
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 10:52am
stephen

…and charities. Jeez, they just thought it was a normal investment company didn’t they?! Ex-head of the Dow, should be sweet, right?
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 10:54am
stephen

at least with Holmes you never knew quite what to expect!!

Maybe once Hosking gets more jaded.

They do talk about some weird stuff early in the day, would’ve thought that’s because not that many people are up yet…or are they?
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 10:55am
Ryan Sproull

It can’t be a particularly easy job. You’ve got to keep people from switching the station by coming up with stuff to talk about – CONSTANTLY – that will get people calling in who say things that keep people listening. It’s the equivalent of doing stand-up comedy by asking the audience to get up and tell a joke. Also, the audience can leave at any moment. And, you know, fuck that.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 11:00am
PhilBest

DavidP; Ann Coulter NAILS IT in her latest column………READ THIS………

“……It will not be easy for President B. Hussein Obama. More than half the country voted for him, and yet our newspapers are brimming with snippy remarks at every little aspect of his inauguration.

Here’s a small sampling of the churlishness in just The New York Times:

— The American public is bemused by the tasteless show-biz extravaganza surrounding Barack Obama’s inauguration today.

— There is something to be said for some showiness in an inauguration. But one felt discomfited all the same.

— This is an inauguration, not a coronation.

— Is there a parallel between Mrs. Obama’s jewel-toned outfit and somebody else’s glass slippers? Why limousines and not shank’s mare?

It is still unclear whether we are supposed to shout “Whoopee!” or “Shame!” about the new elegance the Obamas are bringing to Washington.

Boy, talk about raining on somebody’s parade! These were NOT, of course, comments about the inauguration of the angel Obama; they are (slightly edited) comments about the inauguration of another historic president, Ronald Reagan, in January 1981……..”

……..!!!!

Read it all:

http://www.anncoulter.com/cgi-local/printer_friendly.cgi?article=294

And the title of Bernard Goldberg’s latest book on media bias?
“A Slobbering Love Affair” – on their relationship with Obama, of course……….

And the media, and Lefties generally, can’t SEE this????
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 11:05am
Brian Smaller

I see that there is now an Obama head dildo out. Made especially for the Media apparently.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 11:12am
Ryan Sproull

It will not be easy for President B. Hussein Obama.

Is Ann Coulter five years old?
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 11:13am
PhilBest

stephen (2215) Vote: 0 0 Says:

January 28th, 2009 at 10:54 am
“…and charities. Jeez, they just thought it was a normal investment company didn’t they?! Ex-head of the Dow, should be sweet, right?”

Yep, a sad lesson in human nature, whether an investment banker or someone with political power………trust can be sadly misplaced. The biggest con job ever pulled on mankind, although there is no one face that can primarily be put to it, is of course, cradle-to-the-grave socialism. Compare the lamented failings of, say, a system based on private health insurance; with State-provided “Free” health care. In every case, the latter merely universalises the failings of the former, as Winston Churchill pointed out, Capitalism is an unequal sharing of happiness, and Socialism is an equal sharing of misery……
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 11:15am
PhilBest

And in anticipation of Stephen’s next line of argument:

The US Health System is already actually around 50% “Socialised”, with “MediCare” and “MedicAid”.

The US Private system actually “carries” substantial bad debt writeoffs because there are laws against determining “ability to pay” and withholding treatment on that basis. Note the hypocrisy inherent in both requiring this of the “Private” system, and using arguments that “everyone needs guaranteed health care” as the basis to provide “Public” care.

Malpractice Insurance costs are exorbitant, a legacy of the habit of exorbitant “settlements” being sought and granted by adventurous lawyers, judges, and juries. This is a feature of the US system that other nations are well advised not to emulate. Note though, the hypocrisy inherent in the fact that “Public Health Care” is never obliged to bear the same penalty burden in the case of malpractice, as is “Private”.

There is NO RATIONING in the US system other than that that has inevitably resulted where the State has become involved MedicAid and MediCare). Patients who need treatment and operations, GET that treatment – fast. Firstly, in a competitive market, hospitals and insurers do not want to get a bad reputation. But besides that, lawmakers have tended to enact mandates that health insurance is to include a lengthy wish list of treatments and interventions – for, say, massage therapy and acupuncture; and in any case, where there have been court cases to decide whether a client is entitled to any particular treatment, the courts inevitably rule in favour of the client and against the insurer. Note the hypocrisy inherent in comparisons between the “cost of private health care in the USA” and that of Public Health Care elsewhere, which does not actually provide the same care, either in amount or quality, that “Private” care is expected to.

The longstanding treatment in the US, of taxation write-downs for employer-provided health insurance, results in the insured individual only bearing around 14% of the true COST of his own “health care”. This tends to incentivise the individual to maximise that “health care”, while increasing systemwide expense extremely disproportionately.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 11:20am
pdm

Mrs pdm and I took a while to warm to Holmes but over the years he became part of our daily lives after the alarm at 6am and the news bulletin. We especially enjoyed his reports on his family holidays and the escapades of Reuben such as retrieving chewing gum from a rubbish bin at Christchurch airport and putting it in his mouth.

Hosking is a turn off and a `motor mouth’ but we do generally enjoy the contributions from Bernadine Oliver Kerby and Kate Hawkesby plus the sports presenters just before 6.30am. Although they are nowhere near as good as when it included Holmes and Tony Johnson or Andrew Saville.

I cannot work out how far to the left Hosking is either but he seems to have a bias that way.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 11:21am
stephen

Re: madoff, I’d always thought that charities played it safe and put all their investments in treasury bonds and the like too…wonder how donors are happy with that sort of (general) practice by charities – and I know they are, because growing endowments through investment is a time-honoured activity in the US. Still.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 11:21am
Ryan Sproull

I see that there is now an Obama head dildo out. Made especially for the Media apparently.

I can’t tell if you’re kidding or not. Seen this? Everyone’s cashing in.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 11:22am
grumpyoldhori

PhilBest, what, Obama was not elected king, damn.
I had this vision of all his white hard working subjects reporting for duty in the cotton fields at six sharp each morning 🙂

On a more serious not is it not time for Rodders to go among all those bloody councils cricket bat to hand and tell the dozy sods to rezone land for housing where it is needed.
Too hard on those sitting on land banks, too bloody bad.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 11:22am
stephen

And in anticipation of Stephen’s next line of argument:

The US Health System is already actually around 50% “Socialised”, with “MediCare” and “MedicAid”.

Well I knew that much, if not the percentage. I actually wasn’t going to go there, but thanks anyway.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 11:23am
PhilBest

Ryan Sproull (1263) 0 1 Says:

January 28th, 2009 at 11:13 am
It will not be easy for President B. Hussein Obama.

“Is Ann Coulter five years old?”

Ooo, sour grapes, Ryan. Ann Coulter is one of the most incisive writers in existence, and Lefties do not like that. Even that column above, quoting old media reports about Reagan’s inauguration juxtaposed with Obama’s inauguration, is that a 5 year old mentality? OK, someone’s got to do it, but why are there so few people doing it that Ann Coulter ends up looking so distinctive, and so many people following the crooked biased line that she sends up so beautifully?
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 11:26am
dime

ryan – i dont recall you asking lefties if they were 5 when they called President Bush “dubya” for 8 years..
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 11:27am
philu

reason number 53 why john key should/must end the madness..(financial..and other..)..

..of pot prohibition..

http://whoar.co.nz/2009/memo-to-john-keya-recent-study-by-the-legal-action-center-found-that-drug-law-reform-coupled-with-some-prison-closures-could-save-new-york-state-around-270-million-annuallyfood-for-thoughteh/

phil(whoar.co.nz)
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 11:28am
Ryan Sproull

ryan – i dont recall you asking lefties if they were 5 when they called President Bush “dubya” for 8 years..

Well, that’s his name for himself. He chose it, he likes it, I say let him.

When political “commentators” call Bush “Shrub”, that’s when I ask the same question: What are you, five?
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 11:32am
dime

philu – what will they save if they legalise rape?

where ya been anyway? busy cause of school holidays?
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 11:33am
PhilBest

grumpyoldhori (565) Vote: 0 0 Says:

January 28th, 2009 at 11:22 am
“PhilBest, what, Obama was not elected king, damn.
I had this vision of all his white hard working subjects reporting for duty in the cotton fields at six sharp each morning…”

You know what, GrumpyOldHori, I grew up under NZ’s State education system being led to believe that slavery was some brief shame on humanity that was perpetrated by white races against black races over approximately 2 or 3 centuries prior to the modern age. I actually experienced considerable perplexity as I read wider and wider (fortunately, I was a passionate reader of history for the sake of enjoyment) as I read about Romans keeping slaves, and the Huns keeping slaves, and the Egyptians keeping slaves, and the Arabs keeping slaves, and the Mongols keeping slaves, and the Maori keeping slaves, and, shock, horror, white slaves being sold in markets in Africa, including Irish girls captured in Berber pirate raids on the south coast of Ireland……and so on and so forth. It actually took years and years for me to discover the blunt truth, and not until I read it stated this bluntly: that the keeping of slaves was the NORM in all humanity until the white races were the FIRST to disavow the practice.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 11:34am
grumpyoldhori

PhilBest Coulter is a female ?
Have you seen the adams apple and the size of her hands ?
If it is a female what the hell is a woman of fifty doing with long hair, or is she trying for the witch effect ?
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 11:34am
Redbaiter

Ann Coulter and Sarah Palin suffer the same fate. The left liberal mainstream media says they’re dumb, so millions of propaganda sucking idiots like Ryan believe it to be true, and repeat it.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 11:34am
dime

ryan – fair enough. so you think its unfair that a person be called by their legal name? 😛
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 11:35am
Redbaiter

Phil, GOH is just a troll. He seeks attention. Nothing more.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 11:35am
Ryan Sproull

Ooo, sour grapes, Ryan. Ann Coulter is one of the most incisive writers in existence, and Lefties do not like that. Even that column above, quoting old media reports about Reagan’s inauguration juxtaposed with Obama’s inauguration, is that a 5 year old mentality? OK, someone’s got to do it, but why are there so few people doing it that Ann Coulter ends up looking so distinctive, and so many people following the crooked biased line that she sends up so beautifully?

She would look a little more distinctive to me if she didn’t taint whatever insights she’s trying to get across with childish nonsense. Perhaps not everyone finds calling Bush “Shrub” or emphasising Obama’s middle name childish, but I have a strong tendency to switch off and use my time better elsewhere when an “article” begins with petty bollocks.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 11:36am
Ryan Sproull

ryan – fair enough. so you think its unfair that a person be called by their legal name?

It’s not really unfair, and it’s not factually inaccurate, it’s just childish. If she’s stupid enough to think that emphasising his middle name means something, she’s not worth reading. If she realises it means nothing, but is writing for an audience stupid enough to think it means something, I’m not her audience.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 11:41am
PhilBest

grumpyoldhori (566) Vote: 0 0 Says:

January 28th, 2009 at 11:34 am
“PhilBest Coulter is a female ?
Have you seen the adams apple and the size of her hands ?
If it is a female what the hell is a woman of fifty doing with long hair, or is she trying for the witch effect ?”

Oooo, as I said to someone a couple of days ago, if you want to start getting personal about the appearance of women in politics, the Left has a near monopoly on the truly vicious looking ones……

And Redbaiter, I don’t regard GOH as the same ilk as sonic or roger nome, I reckon he actually is what he says, he is cynical about a lot of things, including things that you and I are cynical about, and he and I have actually ended up agreeing on a surprising number of things, like the damage that socialism has done to Maori…….
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 11:43am
stephen

that the keeping of slaves was the NORM in all humanity until the white races were the FIRST to disavow the practice.

Whites 1 Others 0
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 11:43am
Owen McShane

Thomas Sowell has a wonderful column in Jewish World Review today.

An extract:
Spending money for infrastructure is another time-consuming way of dealing with what is called an immediate crisis. Infrastructure takes forever to plan, debate, and go through all sorts of hearings and adjudications, before getting approval to build from all the regulatory agencies involved.

Out of $355 billion newly appropriated, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that only $26 billion will be spent this fiscal year and only $110 billion by the end of 2010.

Using long, drawn-out processes to put money into circulation to meet an emergency is like mailing a letter to the fire department to tell them that your house is on fire.

If you cut taxes tomorrow, people would have more money in their next paycheck, and it would probably be spent by the time they got that paycheck, through increased credit card purchases beforehand.

If all this sound and fury in Washington was about getting an economic crisis behind us, tax cuts could do that a lot faster.

Read the whole thing and the point he is working up to, at:
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell012709.php3
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 11:44am
Ryan Sproull

Ann Coulter and Sarah Palin suffer the same fate. The left liberal mainstream media says they’re dumb, so millions of propaganda sucking idiots like Ryan believe it to be true, and repeat it.

Redbaiter, my love,
Heavens above,
How I desire you the most.

I listed the fault
That makes Coulter a dolt,
So I guess you just don’t read my posts.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 11:47am
PhilBest

You know, Ryan, another angle about calling Obama by his middle name, is that the “MSM”, left to itself, would leave us all in complete ignorance about Obama’s background. If it wasn’t for that, he certainly would never have won the presidency at all.

Have you looked at the site “howobamagotelected.com”, read the poll results, and watched the videos, that show up the average level of informedness of Obama voters? This is not just sour grapes, this is the end of democracy, courtesy of the MSM. It is not just that people do not know things about Obama that are true, they believe things about McCain and Palin that are not true. Therefore, I reckon any shock tactics that focus some attention on any aspects of Obama’s background, are fair enough. Like “Barack of the God Damn America Church”, or “Weatherman Associate Barack”, or whatever. And if you want to claim that these things are unfair irrelevancies, imagine for a moment if McCain or Palin had had any similar connections on the far Right………..EH?
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 11:53am
Ryan Sproull

PhilBest,

I’m not a fan of the whole “fight fire with fire” attiudes in politics. If someone is using dirty tactics, their opponent should call them on it, rather than using it as an excuse to sink to the same depths. I would add political commentators who use the term “Caribou Barbie” to the “Shrub” and “look his middle name is HUSSEIN” crowd.

You complain about the mainstream media, but that doesn’t make you right-wing, it just makes you allied to a political ideology. Everyone who has a view in politics reckons the MSM is out to get them. At the same time as you complain that no one’s talking about Obama’s background, others are complaining that if Michelle Obama was popping pills and racking up hundreds of thousands of dollars of credit-card debt, it’d be huge news.

One person complains about the MSM pushing “political correctness”, while another person points out how there’s no MSM commentary on the sexualisation of female athletes in the Olympics.

It goes around and around. Can you imagine anyone who cares about politics saying, “If you want the truth, the mainstream media’s the place to look”?
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 12:02pm
PhilBest

Hmmm, there are some ugly truths coming out for the Hamas-lovers:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/hamas-tried-to-hijack-ambulances-during-gaza-war/2009/01/25/1232818246374.html

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,603203,00.html

Like, not all those human shields actually wanted to be martyrs, some of them might have preferred to flee from the impending danger of Israeli counterstrike, and certain armed-to-the-teeth thugs stood in their way……..?

I have one very sick feeling in my stomach……
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 12:06pm
PhilBest

“A Slobbering Love Affair”; by Bernard Goldberg

https://members.humaneventsonline.com/order.php?offer=1497
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 12:11pm
grumpyoldhori

PhilBest. Yep some of the white race gave up slavery first.
But, just look across the Tasman and one finds that slavery was in force well into the twentieth century by whites.
Example being Aboriginies who were not allowed to leave stations, they did not get any wages paid to them.
Queensland at this time reminds one of the deep south of the USA in the sixties, an all white jury finding a copper not guilty of kicking a bloke to death.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 12:14pm
Tauhei Notts

PhilBest,
I doubt if you realise how much your erudite contributions to this Blog are appreciated.
I hope you have a wonderful day.
And, keep up the great work.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 12:21pm
PhilBest

Thanks for that, Mr Notts.

GrumpyOldHori, the Aborigines are a controversial subject. The important thing here is that the social and political trend is weighed heavily in favour of repentance and redress. I very much doubt that any straight out racial injustices could occur today.

As for this being some sort of exemplar of slavery continuing into the modern age, that is going a bit far. Sudan and North Korea are the glaringly obvious cases that come to mind.

I certainly subscribe to the view that cringing liberal socialism is destroying the Aborigines far more effectively than any one-time redneck white supremacism might have, and I suspect you won’t disagree with me on this.

Read THIS, and weep…….

http://www.quadrant.org.au/magazine/issue/2008/12/wadeye-failed-state-as-cultural-triumph

I know it’s long, but it is well written, by a teacher in an aboriginal community.

Sample:

“……Any long-term effort to teach literacy, numeracy and commerce would require a decade or two of massive discipline and paternalism. Adults would have to be required to work, children would have to not only go to school, but also be prepared to submit to the discipline necessary to learn. The whitefellas would have to have the wherewithal to teach white culture and English. But the United Nations would view such an effort as an abuse of human rights and we would be vilified, condemned and subjected to massive litigation. They would call any school like this “a re-education camp”, and the world will no longer tolerate such things.

Civilisation is in fact a very delicate thing. It can be lost in a matter of weeks. If commerce fell, so would compassion. Without the wealth to create leisure time, caught in the daily grind of survival, civilisation begins to slip. Violence becomes an option when your children are starving. Addiction becomes compulsory for those not versed in the art of the soul.

The Intervention is viewed as racist, yet all the “positive discrimination” policies towards Aboriginal peoples over the past thirty years that have produced this terrible situation are not viewed as racist……”
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 1:07pm
Chuck Bird

“It was repeatedly made clear in phone calls to the Chinese company that sold milk formula fatally contaminated with melamine that the chemical should not be used, Fonterra’s chief executive said today

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10553949

This is good enough. This should have been made clear in writting if for no other reason than to protect Fonterra
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 1:24pm
Sonny Blount

Ryan,

Anne Coulter emphasis Obama’s middle name because he requested that the media not use it during the election campaign and they diligently obeyed (obviously because it was considered to have an effect). He then used his full name during the inaugaration. Coulter is making a point about the hypocracy of this and the media rolling over for him.

Personally, I hardly even notice when she uses B. Hussein Obama, and I don’t hear it as a jibe. Or when someone refers to bush as ‘dubya’. I think Bush is much better natured about it though.

As for ‘fighting fire with fire’, I think there are times it has to be done. McCain lost because he was unwilling to attack, and Key won because he stayed clean, so there is a time and a place but not always. Probably because McCain had to be heard above MSM groupthink but Key had enough speaking for him.

The interviews with Obama voters on ‘howobamagotelected.com’ are scary stuff. The media didn’t need to do what they did for Obama to win on his own merit, but the precedents they have set are disturbing.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 1:25pm
Rex Widerstrom

I2: re the DomPost editorial…

The sentiments may be good but the writing is not:

Once McDonald was in custody, a young courier driver, in the wrong place at the wrong time, was found to be dead after a misdirected shot from a police rifle and another motorist peppered with shrapnel but alive.

What?! So other motorists were firing too? Is this the LA freeway not the Auckland motorway?! There’s so much wrong with the structure of that sentence I’ve only highlighted the worst bit, otherwise this comment would become as confusing as the DomPost’s tortured prose.

Is no one sub-editing what appears in our newspapers? Does the editor not have apoplexy at such sloppy writing and dress down those responsible? I worked there under Geoff Bayliss, who’d have demanded a spot of ritual flagellation if that had made it into print, and rightly so.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 1:27pm
stephen

The interviews with Obama voters on ‘howobamagotelected.com’ are scary stuff. The media didn’t need to do what they did for Obama to win on his own merit, but the precedents they have set are disturbing.

This guy Bill Maher was doing snap interviews with both sides’ voters for a good chunk of 2008 – so many idiots voting for personalities and vague themes in American presidential politics, who would’ve thought?! I’m gobsmacked, what a shock. Bill’s Pro-Democrat-as, but at least cynical and a little hilarious.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 1:31pm
Chuck Bird

This is from Family First. It would be very interesting to know what Kiro was paid on her last job. I doubt if she will get anything like 195k in her next job. The same would apply to many similar jobs such as those with the HRC, Ministry of Women’s Affairs and Race Relations

1. Cindy Kiro’s term ending!
Herald on Sunday 25 January 2009

Controversial Children’s Commissioner Cindy Kiro will finish her five-year term in April. The Ministry of Social Development has advertised the high-profile role, with an annual salary of $195,100 . Critics have accused Kiro as being a toothless figurehead, but she has defended her record as an independent voice for children. READ MORE
Family First Comment : Cindy Kiro has been openly hostile towards Family First, and in fact to any people who may have a christian faith – no matter how qualified they are to speak up. Apart from completely misrepresenting the facts in the smacking debate and mispresenting Family First’s position, last February she attempted to discredit the 300,000+ NZ’ers who had signed the petitions on the anti-smacking law by saying that previous generations of parents didn’t parent as positively and were less qualified in knowing how to raise their children than parents of today !!
We also would like to know why she was
– silent after the pathetic sentence handed down to the caregivers of Ngatikauri Ngati who abused the little 3 year old to death
– silent during the Trevor Mallard incident during the “It’s Never OK” Violence Campaign funded by the government.
– silent when the prostitution report from South Auckland was released last year highlighting the number of young teenagers prostituting themselves
– silent when Police refused to prosecute a 21 year old who got a 13 year old pregnant (after starting the relationship when she was 11)
– silent over the recent cancelling of the sentence for a woman who pleaded guilty to infanticide
– silent over the ultimate child abuse of abortion
….yet is more interested in the rights of children to be able to purchase spray cans of paint for the purposes of tagging, and wanting to monitor every child with a social worker as soon as they are born!!!

The problem is not just with Dr Kiro but with the office itself. Children’s interests are best served in the context of their own family . Government support for children must be through their families, not apart from families. Any office or structure which even appears to separate children from their parents and families will be destructive in the long run – no matter how well intentioned. Laws are already in place which protect children in seriously dysfunctional families.

If the National government is serious about doing away with unecessary governmental spending , this would be a good place to start – rather than just cancelling a few conferences. So why are they advertising for a new Commissioner?????
READ MORE “Parents deserve the right to raise their children.”
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 1:46pm
big bruv

Did anybody else see Paul Henry’s quite extraordinary interview with Public Health Association Director Dr Gay Keating on TV One this morning?

This stupid Shelia had the audacity to defend the health system and the overflowing bureaucracy, she even went as far as to suggest that front line services might have to be cut before any of the bureaucracy gets the push.

She was also dead against any of them losing their jobs, she would rather see them “redeployed”.

This is the type of person and the type of thinking that Key and co must eradicate from our public service.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 2:00pm
davidp

PhilBest>that the keeping of slaves was the NORM in all humanity until the white races were the FIRST to disavow the practice.

Abe Lincoln, of course, took the US to war to abolish slavery. I’m confused about how the modern left view war as a method of ending tyranny… there seemed to be little opposition to the Clinton administration bombing Serbia in order to stop the Serbs murdering Bosnians or to NZ invading Indonesia in order to free the East Timorese, but on the other hand the left are bat shit crazy about George Bush liberating Iraq from Saddam or Afghanistan from the Taliban.

But if we can ignore their inconsistency and assume that Lincoln being a Republican would be automatically sufficient to produce opposition, then it is quite possible that in an alternate 1860s America, Lincoln would have been vilified in quite deranged terms as Bush has been. Maybe negotiation and compromise would have been the preferred “peace process” alternative to a civil war. And the compromise might mean there would still be slaves in the US 150 years later. Only the slaves would have access to government health programs, and their owners would be queuing up for subsidies as some sort of “stimulus” package.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 2:02pm
getstaffed

Chuck – interesting. My view on kids is that the only thing they really really need is to be unconditionally loved, and yet this the only thing the state can’t provide. Instead it weighs in with structure, people, programes, rules etc, all of which are designed to mask the consequences of parents failing to love their kids.

Of course strong families don’t fit with a socialist agenda. Strong families represent an authority structure that the state doesn’t control.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 2:02pm
workingman

I found a link to this photo of the recent US president’s inauguration ceremony. The level of detail in the photo is quite stunning. I zoomed in to the far right of the photo and you can see quite clearly the crowd behind the lake. As another viewer has commented you can almost read the music sheet of the military band that is beneath Obama’s stage.

http://www.davidbergman.net/blog/2009/01/22/how-i-made-a-1474-megapixel-photo-during-president-obamas-inaugural-address/

hat tip to http://www.coyoteblog.com/
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 2:11pm
big bruv

Great pic workingman.

Check out Supreme court judge Clarence Thomas, I am sure he is sleeping…lol
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 2:19pm
sbk

1 reason ” why john key should not end the madness of pot prohibition”….PhilU
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 2:22pm
gd

Owen I like others have argued that tax cuts are the way to fix the problem But the pollies and civil servants wont because it puts cash in the hands of the citizens and takes away their control

Infrastructure spending means they still get to keep their hands oin the levers of power. And thats what its all about POWER. Even JK and Rodders still have a deep down need for command and control all be it a much less form than Clark and Cullen.

The thought of the citizens having their hands on cash and being able to spend or save it without nanny state dictating is a frightening thought for all pollies and civil servants.

hell imagine if we made better decisions with the cash than they did.

Scary stuff
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 2:23pm
Sonny Blount

There have been several studies confirming a left-wing bias in the media. Even though journalists might be conscioulsy trying to be objective, they cannot eliminate their subjective bias. Sometimes when you hear these panels of journalists on National Radio and the like talking about an issue, the liberal perspectives seem to never enter their mind. They also misinterprete why conservatives come to the opinions they have.

http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/polisci/faculty/groseclose/Media.Bias.8.htm

It is the nature of the industry that it will always attract more people whose beliefs tend to the left, when these people spend their working lives with other left-leaning people their beliefs reinforce each other. The job also requires people to be alarmist and fearful, which drags opinion to the left.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 2:23pm
getstaffed

New Zealand’s Aggressive Rate Cuts Fail to Shake Off Recession

Jan. 28 (Bloomberg) — New Zealand, which has cut interest rates by more than almost any other nation in the past six months, may face another year of recession as the deepening global slowdown reduces exports of meat, wool and timber.

Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard will lower the official cash rate by 1 percentage point to 4 percent tomorrow, according to economists. That would bring total reductions since June 30 to 425 basis points. Among 54 central banks monitored by Bloomberg, only Moldova will have cut rates by more.

Those poor fix-interest earners in Moldova!
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 2:31pm
llew

Abe Lincoln, of course, took the US to war to abolish slavery.

Hey waitaminnit David, didn’t he go to war to preserve the Union? He was against slavery, but compromised by offering that states who already had slavery could keep it.

The South took the war to Lincoln by attacking Fort Sumter in 1861..

In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to “preserve, protect, and defend it.”

I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearth-stone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.

http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/1inaug.htm
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 2:32pm
Ryan Sproull

Ryan,

Anne Coulter emphasis Obama’s middle name because he requested that the media not use it during the election campaign and they diligently obeyed (obviously because it was considered to have an effect). He then used his full name during the inaugaration. Coulter is making a point about the hypocracy of this and the media rolling over for him.

Not that I would be surprised, but could you give me a reference on him requesting his middle name not be used? As for hypocrisy, it would be a legal requirement to use his full name, rather than his decision, but people were doing this B-HUSSEIN-O thing long before he won the election, let alone was inaugurated.

Personally, I hardly even notice when she uses B. Hussein Obama, and I don’t hear it as a jibe. Or when someone refers to bush as ‘dubya’. I think Bush is much better natured about it though.

Well, as I said above, Bush calls himself Dubya. I doubt Obama spends a lot of time ignoring his first name in favour of his middle one. And I notice when she uses B. Hussein Obama because it’s unusual, so it stands out. You wouldn’t see Clinton being called W. Jefferson Clinton, or Bush being called G. Walker Bush.

As for ‘fighting fire with fire’, I think there are times it has to be done. McCain lost because he was unwilling to attack, and Key won because he stayed clean, so there is a time and a place but not always. Probably because McCain had to be heard above MSM groupthink but Key had enough speaking for him.

One might observe that it’s terribly convenient that when a right-wing candidate wins, they “stayed clean”, and when a right-wing candidate loses, it was because he did the same. It’s very arguable that the McCain campaign stayed clean. Let’s not forget the whole “Obama wants to teach sex-ed to preschoolers” ads.

The interviews with Obama voters on ‘howobamagotelected.com’ are scary stuff. The media didn’t need to do what they did for Obama to win on his own merit, but the precedents they have set are disturbing.

Interviews with anyone selected for idiocy are generally scary. It helps to remember that any number of sensible interviewees would not have been included on the site, because it would undermine the purpose of the site. No doubt you’ve seen this collection of interviews, which were clearly selected for hilarious ignorance. But if you uncritically took that as a representative sample of the population, it would seem “scary stuff”.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 2:44pm
Sonny Blount

>This guy Bill Maher was doing snap interviews with both sides’ voters for a good chunk of 2008 – so many idiots voting for >personalities and vague themes in American presidential politics, who would’ve thought?! I’m gobsmacked, what a shock. >Bill’s Pro-Democrat-as, but at least cynical and a little hilarious.

Taken by themselves, the videos on howobamagotelected are meaningless. You could create any impression you care for with a dozen interviews. They are used to illustrate the results obtained by the two independants polls of 512 and 1000 voters described on the site. While I think Obama would have won regardless, I don’t think its a healthy direction for the media to take.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 2:50pm
Ryan Sproull

Sonny,

I don’t think you’ll find that “the average American is silly” is a very contentious issue here. Nor “the average Kiwi is silly”, for that matter.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 2:51pm
llew

this collection of interviews,

That was funnier than than Phil’s – were they Nader voters or something?
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 2:52pm
Ryan Sproull

llew,

I think it might have been a Chaser’s War on Everything bit.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 2:59pm
getstaffed

New Zealand’s Aggressive Rate Cuts Fail to Shake Off Recession

Jan. 28 (Bloomberg) — New Zealand, which has cut interest rates by more than almost any other nation in the past six months, may face another year of recession as the deepening global slowdown reduces exports of meat, wool and timber.

Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard will lower the official cash rate by 1 percentage point to 4 percent tomorrow, according to economists. That would bring total reductions since June 30 to 425 basis points. Among 54 central banks monitored by Bloomberg, only Moldova will have cut rates by more.

Spare a thought for those poor souls living on fixed interest income in Moldova 🙂

Lower borrowing costs have failed to spark the economy, which slumped into a recession in the first quarter of last year and may not resume growing until 2010 according to government forecasts. Economists predict Bollard will cut the rate to 3 percent by June and even then the recovery hinges on a revival in global demand to spur exports and revive business confidence.

My mortgage is up for renewal in the next month. Might lock in 6 months only (ref Jun comment).
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 3:07pm
PhilBest

Ryan, I think what you are saying, and I don’t disagree with it, is that the price of freedom is vigilance; and if we trust the MSM, among other institutions, we risk paying a price for that. I think you are being a bit cavalier about the actual situation regarding the media coverage of Obama and his opponents, this has long since gone well beyond a simple matter of the viewpoint from which one approaches the issues. I am sure that you see that clearly and are merely playing your usual game of devils advocate.

Sonny Blount and other good guys who haven’t read very much on this, it is unfortunately possible that even you have not grasped the extent of the hoodwink that has gone down over this particular “America’s First Black President”. “The Closing Argument” by John Perazzo, is a very good collation of the various strands of information on Obama that were available thanks to a small minority of investigative journalists. (Stanley Kurtz at National Review Online was one especially persistent digger). I could point you to a lot more, including a book or two, but Perazzo has done such a good job, it would be unnecessary.

Lefties and Obamaniacs, which includes a lot of quite centrist people like David Farrar himself, will dismiss this as far-right conspiracy theory nonsense. Knowing the tactics of Obama and his team and his MSM slavish supporters, I am certainly inclined to give the benefit of the doubt to people like Perazzo and Kurtz rather than Katie Kouric and Frank Rich. I am deadly serious about just how much damage may well result from a man like this having become President of the USA. It is nothing to do with his skin colour, I would regard John Edwards and Bernie Sanders and Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi and Ted Kennedy and Barney Frank and Joe Biden, as similarly unfit. And Obama, compared to them, is like Keith Locke compared to Russell Norman – if you thought Russell Norman or Bernie Sanders were bad, Keith Locke or Barack Obama are actually worse.

http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=2336
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 3:13pm
Sonny Blount

I don’t think you’ll find that “the average American is silly” is a very contentious issue here. Nor “the average Kiwi is silly”, for that matter.

Agreed. Which is why decent media coverage is important.

That video was a good chuckle.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 3:14pm
Ryan Sproull

Phil,

To some extent I am saying that about vigilence.

You realise that, “If you thought Russell Norman or Bernie Sanders were bad, Keith Locke or Barack Obama are actually worse” won’t hold much weight with people who actually think Russell Norman and Bernie Sanders are kind of awesome.

All you’re really saying is, “If you agree with me on Norman and Sanders, you’ll really agree with me on Locke and Obama!”
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 3:21pm
PhilBest

On slavery and the US Civil War, yes, Abe Lincoln wanted to keep the Union together, but it was the issue of slavery that was the cause of division in the first place.

Had the Civil War never been fought, and the Northern States had permitted the Southern ones to continue with the practice of slavery, how much longer might it have lasted, and from which directions in “the world community” at the time, would pressure and condemnation have come?

Well, yes, the Northern States; Great Britain:, and…….and…….and……..well, h’mmmmm…….

France? Perhaps. How were things going in their colonies? Spain? Same. The Arabic races? Islam? Yeah, Right. The Africans themselves? Hey, the whole infrastructure for the trade in slaves existed intact in Africa since ancient times; I know when I was a dumbed-down kid I had been led to believe that evil white guys set it up for the sake of the cotton industry in the USA; that just happens to be a big fat lie of the cultural self-hate brigade. And as I posted above, white people captured by Berber pirates were a regular feature at those slave markets, too. In fact, the story of the shutdown of the Berber Slave capturing industry late in the 1800’s, by the navy of the young United States of America, is a fascinating one. (“From the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli……” – why does the US Marines Hymn refer to Tripoli – this was long before “Operation Torch” in WW2…..)

Anyway, the point to grasp is that the abolition of slavery was something that was spreading the world at that time, FROM Great Britain (The Royal Navy shut down the Caribbean based slave trade at cost in blood and treasure, too) TO its colonies and spheres of moral influence; read; Protestant Christianity and from thence to the rest of the world. That is something we should be celebrating, not teaching the kids (even back when I was a kid) that slavery was something uniquely perpetrated by us evil white men against noble black men.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 3:30pm
Brian Smaller

PhilBest – you are right about the Slave Trade. In Africa it could not have happened except for the native African infrastructure set up to keep it going. Local kings sold their neighbours, war captives and own people. I saw a doco on the Black slavers of the 18th and 19th centuries, many of whom sent their kids to England for education. The slave trade still exists in parts of Africa now.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 3:38pm
Brian Smaller

Funny, I thought Obamas real name was Barry Sontero or something like that.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 3:39pm
PhilBest

Ryan Sproull (1273) Vote: 0 0 Says:

January 28th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
Phil,

“To some extent I am saying that about vigilence.

You realise that, “If you thought Russell Norman or Bernie Sanders were bad, Keith Locke or Barack Obama are actually worse” won’t hold much weight with people who actually think Russell Norman and Bernie Sanders are kind of awesome.

All you’re really saying is, “If you agree with me on Norman and Sanders, you’ll really agree with me on Locke and Obama!””

Yes, that is well put, Ryan.
Sanders chances of becoming President of the USA……..? Or Edwards, or Pelosi, or Biden, or Kennedy, or Reid, or Frank? Precisely what I am getting at, is that there was a pretty reliable rule of thumb one could go by pre Obama, that no candidate who was “too far left” by some pretty predictable standards, would have had a cooee of becoming President of the USA. However, give the Quisling MSM in the USA an even more “too far left” candidate who just happens to be a handsome and charismatic (articulate? – depends what you’re listening for) black man, and watch the propaganda machine go……..even then, I didn’t believe they’d get away with it. The timing was lucky, too; Bush’s unpopularity, the Republicans “Democrats in drag” big government, Bush’s and the Republicans mishandling of the looming financial crash (it is a tragedy they didn’t listen to Ron Paul years before); and McLame as the candidate, the guy responsible for McCain-Feingold……….

Anyway, the result is either “The Black FDR” or “The Black Vidkun Quisling” as President, and only time will tell which.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 3:41pm
llew

I know when I was a dumbed-down kid I had been led to believe that evil white guys set it up for the sake of the cotton industry in the USA; that just happens to be a big fat lie of the cultural self-hate brigade.

Um… did they not teach you Roman & British history at that school for dumbed down kids? The story of Moses? Or did they really tell you the USA invented slavery?
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 3:47pm
PhilBest

I should add that I do not mean “The Black FDR” as a compliment, either. Think the best part of a decade, of policies that make an already bad depression worse and longer, ending only with a major war.

And “The Black JFK” he is NOT. Think “Ask not what you can do for your country, but what your country can do for you by playing Robin Hood…..”
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 3:49pm
workingman

Has anyone noticed that Poneke’s blog is now only viewable if you log in? I know DPF requires you to log in to make a comment, but to log in to even read the blog seems to be taking the blog a bit too far.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 4:05pm
PhilBest

I am being strictly honest about the impressions I gleaned at school regarding slavery, Ilew. A lot of what you “learn” is like water off a duck’s back. There are some things, though, that the prevailing fashion ensures that the impressions are seared in, deliberately so. I certainly do not recall the aspect of slavery in Roman or other early times ever being dwelt upon to the extent that I took it in. I discovered the broader application of slavery for myself, only gradually, over many years of my own reading of history, and even then I did not grasp the blunt point that slavery was the norm in humanity and the repudiation of it by Anglo Saxons in the 18th and 19th Centuries was the dawn of a unique new phenomenon, until I read that, specifically spelled out in that way, by a maligned non-PC author.

I remember learning a lot more about evil Imperialistic white men, regarding, say, South Africa, but again, the normal state of humanity never entered into it. I do not recall ever being taught to count our blessings at living in such a peaceful and prosperous age, or that most people in history lived nasty, brutish and short lives, irrespective of the skin colour of the people doing the “oppressing”. If anything, it was our era that we were taught to criticise, and past eras that were romanticised.

Any teachers reading this, could take the point on board.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 4:06pm
AG

PB:

“However, give the Quisling MSM in the USA…”

This rather tiresome “It’s all a media plot! People are stupid and easily mislead! If only the “facts” I wanted reported got full coverage then the world would be different!” makes you sound exactly like … Noam Chomskey of the right. No doubt you’ll give me some webpage reference to set me straight, after cutting and pasting some 1000 words of it into the comments box and thereby f*cking up the flow of this thread. But before you do so:
(1) Is there an irony that you think the MSM has no redeeming features, given that you’re posting on DPF’s blog (which relies so heavily on the MSM for its content)?
(2) What say you of the Economist Magazine’s decision to endorse Obama, and it’s latest edition noting that “For the left, the list of Mr Obama’s betrayals—real or anticipated—is getting longer. His economic advisers are nearly all centrists. Far from bringing capitalism to heel, he is planning to save it. His choice for attorney-general, Eric Holder, used to work for big corporations, making him a “poster-child for…selling out,” grumbles David Corn of Mother Jones, a progressive magazine. Unions fret that Mr Obama will not campaign hard enough to increase their clout. Greens worry that he will not move fast enough to rescue the planet. The National Organisation for Women complains that his economic-stimulus package will pump too much money into male-dominated industries such as construction, leaving only scraps for teachers and social workers.” Is the Economist (i) part of the evil MSM (in which case, is there ANY source aside from Ann Coulter (FFS!) you’ll accept)? (ii) lying about Obama not being the far-left threat you make him out to be?
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 4:12pm
MyNameIsJack

And now B Hussein O has banned smoking in privately owned appartments.

http://www.theage.com.au/world/californian-smoking-ban-hits-home-20090127-7qxa.html
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 4:48pm
Rex Widerstrom

gd notes:

Infrastructure spending means they still get to keep their hands oin the levers of power. And thats what its all about POWER. Even JK and Rodders still have a deep down need for command and control all be it a much less form than Clark and Cullen.

Once again gd squarely hits the target. Politicians are politicians first, left or right second. And the lifeblood of politicians (and their armies of civil servants) is control over the rest of us – it’s only a matter of degree.

I’d go one step further than your tax cuts idea though, gd. In Australia the exhaust manufacturer Tenneco and the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union have teamed up and put a radical proposal to Rudd. Instead of handing out money direct to beneficiaries as he did before Christmas (which resulted in a sharp rise in pokie machine takings… now there’s a surprise… and a rush on plasma TVs), they’re suggesting the government step in and directly save the jobs of the company’s workers by “provid[ing] accredited training and also pay[ing] the wages of the company’s 600 workers for days the company is forced to halt production”.

A tax cut isn’t much use to someone who’s lost their job… or who gets a cut but then loses their job a few months later. Letting industry direct where the surplus is best spent to keep the greatest number of people employed (and thus money flowing into the economy through purchases) during a downturn, preserving the company so that it can employ again when the upturn comes, seems eminently sensible to me, though I suppose some will see it as otherwise.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 4:52pm
llew

I certainly do not recall the aspect of slavery in Roman or other early times ever being dwelt upon to the extent that I took it in.

Moses? Spartacus? … this doesn’t reflect very well on your schooling Phil, I’ll ask my daughter what they’re teaching her these days (although she’s seen Amazing Grace, Spartacus & is familiar with the Moses story, so she’s probably aware slavery wasn’t invented in America.)
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 5:01pm
AG

MyNameIsJack
“And now B Hussein O has banned smoking in privately owned appartments.”

On the assumption that post this is not a very subtle satire of the “Obama is the Devil” crowd, you are a complete idiot. Did you actually READ the story you linked to?

“That letter caught the attention of members of the Belmont City Council, which passed the law in October 2007, barring smoking anywhere in the city of about 25,000 except in detached homes and yards, on some streets and pavements, and in designated outdoor areas.”

So, a city council in California bans smoking in apartments, and this somehow is the fault of the President of the USA, despite the fact he has NO AUTHORITY WHATSOEVER TO INTERVENE IN THIS ISSUE. It’s like blaming John Key for the Greymouth Council making a by-law prohibiting cafes from setting tables on the side-walks.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 5:02pm
transmogrifier

Sonny Blount (25) Vote: 3 0 Says:

January 28th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
“There have been several studies confirming a left-wing bias in the media. Even though journalists might be conscioulsy trying to be objective, they cannot eliminate their subjective bias. Sometimes when you hear these panels of journalists on National Radio and the like talking about an issue, the liberal perspectives seem to never enter their mind. They also misinterprete why conservatives come to the opinions they have.

http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/polisci/faculty/groseclose/Media.Bias.8.htm

It is the nature of the industry that it will always attract more people whose beliefs tend to the left, when these people spend their working lives with other left-leaning people their beliefs reinforce each other. The job also requires people to be alarmist and fearful, which drags opinion to the left.”

I have no real comment to make about the media – to be honest, a lot of the complaints from left and right about the media are the result of selective memory and the tendency to remember examples that prove your point than the ones that don’t, and I really do think that arguments about reporting is one huge diversion tactic aimed at reducing all idealogical discussions to simple “are to”, “are not” dichotomy slanging matches.

Rather, I just appreciate the irony of someone posting this here, on a Kiwiblog comments sections, which – in my limited exposure so far – is exactly what you describe above, except right-leaning (especially about the beliefs reinforcing each other; the thumbs up thumbs down system here is even starker in its naked us or them hive mentality, be it left or right).
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 5:05pm
transmogrifier

That’s the beauty of blog comments sites though, isn’t it? You put up a link, misinterpret its contents and be safe in the knowledge that many of the people who want the misinterpretation to be true won’t bother to follow it.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 5:08pm
MyNameIsJack

got it in one tm, got it in one.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 5:11pm
grumpyoldhori

PhilBest. a black JFK , nope cannot see that.
Obama’s wife looks like she could dish out a mean right if he was caught doing what JFK was often up to.
Ask what you could do for America is what all those women must have been thinking.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 5:14pm
transmogrifier

Actually, I’m interested in knowing whether skewing news to be “alarmist and fearful” really does drag opinion to its left. I mean, it’s not as if the left are the ones with reputations for being tough on crime, or being concerned about national defence, or being any good at keeping the economy afloat. Surely the more the media produces fear in its audience, the more it is advancing the cause of the right?
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 5:18pm
AG

Sonny Blount

“The job [i.e. journalism] also requires people to be alarmist and fearful, which drags opinion to the left.”

Actually, no. {And Transmorgifier … this may interest you, too].

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7623256.stm
“Scientists studying US voters say our political views may be an integral part of our physiological makeup.
Their research, published in the journal Science, indicates that people who are sensitive to fear or threat are likely to support a right wing agenda.
Those who perceived less danger in a series of images and sounds were more inclined to support liberal policies.”

However, matters may be a little more complicated than this:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080924124549.htm
“Political conservatives operate out of a fear of chaos and absence of order while political liberals operate out of a fear of emptiness, a new Northwestern University study finds.
“Social scientists long have assumed that liberals are more rational and less fearful than conservatives, but we find that both groups view the world as a dangerous place,” says Dan McAdams, study co-author and professor of human development and psychology at Northwestern University. “It’s just that their fears emerge differently.””
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
January 28, 2009 5:19pm

More comments:

1
2
›

Add a Comment Cancel reply

Login to comment or vote

« For those with a lot of spare time

Fonterra Director implicated in Sanlu scandal »

Donations

You can now donate to Kiwiblog

Exclusive content from DPF on Patreon

Become a Patron!

Never miss a post

Email Address

Join 37.4K other subscribers

Highlights

Health Target 5 – elective treatments
Health Target 4 – Specialist appointments
Health Target 3 – Emergency Dept Waiting Times
Health Target 2 – Immunisations

Top Stories

General Debate 21 November 2024
General Debate 22 November 2024
The newest Green MP
Imagine a different scenario
The progressive NZ media
Great progress
What do NZers think of the Mongrel Mob and Black Power
Hot off the Press: Term 3 School Attendance Data
Home detention for meth dealing
A cunning plan?

Recent Posts

Secret lawyers 22 November 2024
Do the KCs believe in democracy 22 November 2024
The newest Green MP 22 November 2024
About time 22 November 2024
The $800,000 lotto draw for researchers 22 November 2024
General Debate 22 November 2024 22 November 2024
A cunning plan? 22 November 2024
Hot off the Press: Term 3 School Attendance Data 21 November 2024
Great progress 21 November 2024
Judge gets it right 21 November 2024
Imagine a different scenario 21 November 2024
The progressive NZ media 21 November 2024

Recent Comments

Secret lawyers
GPT1
Secret lawyers
Nigel Kearney
Do the KCs believe in democracy
Tom Hunter
Secret lawyers
fernglas
Secret lawyers
sirknz
Do the KCs believe in democracy
wilderbeast
Do the KCs believe in democracy
Tom Hunter
The $800,000 lotto draw for researchers
NeverMindTheBollocks
The $800,000 lotto draw for researchers
NeverMindTheBollocks
The $800,000 lotto draw for researchers
NeverMindTheBollocks
About time
NeverMindTheBollocks
Do the KCs believe in democracy
Tom Hunter
Do the KCs believe in democracy
Mike
The newest Green MP
Skippytony
The newest Green MP
Toes on the nose

Links

Justice in Brazil
No Right Turn
"Seymour is only doing openly what M?ori nationalists and their Pakeha allies have been doing, quietly for the past 50 years."
Not PC
A Written New Zealand Constitution?
No Minister
Daily review 22/11/2024
The Standard
Do the KCs believe in democracy
Utopia
More young offenders will get boot camp, bus drivers will get some protection – and there’s relief for southern farmers
Point of Order
Sowell says
Hompaddock
New Zealand government urged to back ICC arrest warrants for Israeli leaders without equivocation
The Daily Blog
The transgender agenda sunk Kamala
Bob McCoskrie's McBlog
SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT
No Punches Pulled (Bob Jones)
What does “reciprocity” mean in New Zealand laws?
Croaking Cassandra
A Day of Reckoning
NZCPR
Media Link: “A View from Afar” on the US elections.
Kiwipolitico
This will not end well
Offsetting Behaviour
Top 14 Predictions for Round 10
Stats Chat
Tory Whanau may have to sell Wellington mayoralty to make ends meet
The Civilian
The Accidental Engagement
Imperator Fish
Legal Beagle: Election '23: The Special Votes
Public Address
Making this movie might have been a mistake
Liam Hehir
Why I am retiring from political blogging
Kiwi FireWalker
Angie Warren-Clark: Meet the Newbies
Dan Moskovitz

editor@kiwiblog.co.nz

PO Box 12270, Thorndon, Wellington 6144

Facebook
Twitter
FourSquare
Instagram
LinkedIn
Google+

© 2003-2024 David Farrar

Archives
Disclosure Statement
Editorial Policy
Privacy Policy
Complaints Policy
Comments Policy

Design by cre8d

%d