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August 18, 2016 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 18 August 2016

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Nukuleka

The article on Stuff and the Herald about the Japanese pole vaulter whose penis caused him to knock down the bar in Rio is typical of the sexist and hypocritical stance taken by our media. Can we imagine a similar story about a female athlete whose large breasts got in the way of her success? No way. The sky would fall in and John Key would be blamed for his contribution to the rape culture of the universe! Ticky tacky hypocritical journalists.
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August 18, 2016 8:06am
kowtow

One day New Zealand’s “shameful” treatment of its “poor” is front page international news (not to mention our home grown pimp the poor activists) then the next day we’ve got so much room in our state housing we can house the whole bloody world!

“Like the other refugees, they would be living in Housing New Zealand properties, Ms de Klerk said……..

……..In another change the next group of refugees, due to arrive in October, will include Palestinians.”

https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/38-more-refugees-city
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August 18, 2016 8:06am
All_on_Red

You know, there’s been a lot of rumours about Hillary and Bill Clintons having ill health. I just don’t think it’s true. NEITHER Clinton is ill. That’s just how elderly folks look if they’re approaching a Faustian reckoning with Satan in the hereafter.
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August 18, 2016 8:06am
Happychappy

Another day in paradise and another day for the Little man and the left leaning media to drop their drivel on the NZ public.
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August 18, 2016 8:08am
peterwn

Ever notice that MSM keeps referring to ‘pressure is building…’ when some politician spouts forth something. Yesterday’s Dom Post said that ‘pressure was building’ to turn Lambton Quay into a mall (ie kick the buses out) presumably because Bob Jones pushed for it sone years ago and Mayoral Candidate Nichola Young is pushing for it (and lost any chance I would be voting for her). Just where is the pressure? A figment of some MSM journo’s imagination? I doubt there would be much pressure from those who ride the Wellington omnibuses. But then perhaps those promoting the mall do not care about ‘other people’ – the ones expected to use public transport and then put to inconvenience when services are pushed into back streets as Karori, Roseneath and other buses were in the 1970’s.
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August 18, 2016 8:09am
Padriv Ustoev

Meanwhile, the French overreact to women wearing ninja costumes on the beach. When will the western world understand, that their culture and preferences do not matter because they are white. Such injustice.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3744907/Ten-women-forced-Cannes-beach-fined-wearing-burkinis-Islamic-swimsuits-banned-French-town-s-mayor.html
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August 18, 2016 8:10am
Paulus

All on Red

You don’t know how relieved I am to learn from somebody who knows that both Hillary and Bill have a clean bill of health.

Now from New Zealand we have an expert opinion. Great.
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August 18, 2016 8:11am
dave_c_

I hope these plans suffer the same fate the South Island monorail proposal did.

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2016/09/grand-canyon-development-hiking-national-parks-pictures/
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August 18, 2016 8:12am
All_on_Red

Oh and a reminder; any Clinton Foundation donor in the 10 million+ range can join Hillary’s classified intelligence briefing today LIVE on Periscope!
Joe will be there showing everyone who the guy is who carry’s the Nuclear Codes around with him.
Don’t miss it.

NB:Proof of payment to the Clinton Foundation required before link access.
http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/08/15/joe-biden-exposes-military-aide-nuclear-codes-campaign-rally-hillary/
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August 18, 2016 8:13am
dave_c_

I see NZ’s immigrtion rate is higher (per capita) than that of the UK – About time the National Government man up and address this.
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August 18, 2016 8:15am
All_on_Red

It’s not just me Paulus, some of the finest journalistic minds in the United States agree also.
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August 18, 2016 8:16am
dave_c_

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY!
“Any five-year old boy knows that if you put ten marbles into a tin can, you can only take ten marbles back out. Global bankers operate on the belief that they can put ten marbles (dollars) into a tin can (the world) and magically get 11 marbles back out. Thus, the bankers are dumber than five-year old boys! But unlike five-year old boys, the bankers will take your home, your business, and your nation when they don’t get that eleventh marble! And after all that mayhem brought down on the occupants of the tin can there still will be no eleventh marble. It does not exist. It never did, and it never will. That is the ultimate doom of debt-based currency systems. In ages to come economists will look back at this failed experiment in debt-based currency and dump it into the same catagory of human stupidity as Tulipmania and the Great South Seas Company.” — Michael Rivero
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August 18, 2016 8:17am
Albert_Ross

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY!

Any five-year old boy knows that if you put ten marbles into a tin can, you can only take ten marbles back out. Global bankers operate on the belief that they can put ten marbles (dollars) into a tin can (the world) and magically get 11 marbles back out. Thus, the bankers are dumber than five-year old boys!

So there is no more wealth in the world today than there was at the beginning of human history?
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August 18, 2016 8:23am
stephieboy

All on Red, Hilary and now Bill ill. ? Is this some new policy and campaign announcement for the beleaguered Trump. I see they’ve demoted Manafort dogged by his corrupt associations with the former Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych and Putin ,

http://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-trump-overhauls-campaign-team-1471424401

It’s now emerging that Trump himself had his corrupt beady fingers in the Corrupt Putin Pie ,

Donald Trump’s Many, Many, Many, Many Ties to Russia,

http://time.com/4433880/donald-trump-ties-to-russia/?xid=newsletter-brief

Crooked Trump indeed !
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August 18, 2016 8:23am
Garbageman

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11696181
Would be interesting to hear others views on this athlete, 3 times the testosterone no ovaries or womb, internal testes and virtually strolling to victory in the 800m and now under 24/7 guard, personally if I had trained all my life for a shot at the title I would be a bit pissed at having to run next to someone that has this many advantages over their rivals
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August 18, 2016 8:24am
Albert_Ross

Meanwhile, the French overreact to women wearing ninja costumes on the beach When will the western world understand, that their culture and preferences do not matter because they are white. Such injustice..

Since when did the western world’s culture and preferences extend to dictating to women what they must and must not wear in public?
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August 18, 2016 8:25am
Padriv Ustoev

@stephieboy

Hold on about Hillary for a second.

Tell us this instead, what is your stance on the ban of our national garb in France? Are you as enraged as I am?
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August 18, 2016 8:29am
Garbageman

@ Patriv good call by the frogs I don’t go to the beach to perv at bin liners that have somehow escaped the kitchen @ its spelt engorged not enraged
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August 18, 2016 8:33am
RF

I see that sweet cheeks Grant has made a claytons appology concerning the independence of the Govt Stats dept. I am now breathlessly waiting for the air head to make hers.

Another case of shooting from the lip.
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August 18, 2016 8:36am
Padriv Ustoev

@Garbageman

As red blooded Muslim man I find your comments correct and very offensive.
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August 18, 2016 8:36am
stephieboy

Padriv Ustoev, are you a member of the apparel and dress code police nannies telling people what they should and should not wear ?
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August 18, 2016 8:38am
waikatogirl

The NZ Initiative say 10 years of interest free student loan scheme, instigated by Liabore in 2005 was politically motived, ill targetted and costly to the taxpayer.

Since it’s introduction in 2005 the Govt has written off $6 billion.

Last year alone the govt lent students interest free loans of $1.5 billion and immediately wrote off $650 million of that

Back when interest was accrued half of loans were paid back on average in 7 years

Interest free scheme has not improved the time it takes students to pay their interest free loans back

Rich kids are milking the interest free scheme instead of it attracting the middle class to tertiary study
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August 18, 2016 8:40am
BeaB

It’s hard to stay a listener of Radio NZ. Yesterday the normally knowledgeable and even-handed Jim Mora allowed John Key saying that unemployed in one region may not be able to move easily to a job in another to morph into it’s all very well John Key telling people just to pack up and move. The two leftwing women on the panel were allowed free rein for their partisan rants with few facts and not actually much of value to say about anything. Surely we can expect members of the panel to be at least informed about the topics so they have something useful to contribute.
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August 18, 2016 8:46am
Manolo

More taxes coming?
http://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/national/ets-changes-needed-to-meet-paris-agreement/ar-BBvJHjd?li=BBqdmGR&ocid=mailsignout

The Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) will need to be tweaked to meet climate change commitments under the Paris Agreement, the government says.

The government has announced it will now ratify the agreement before the end of the year – much earlier than initially forecast.
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August 18, 2016 8:48am
Andrei

Chill Stephieboy

BTW do you know who this woman is?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q44lWX8S5L4
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August 18, 2016 8:49am
tom hunter

I see that Bernie Sanders is actually quite cheerful about the ongoing collapse of Obamacare in the USA, with ever more insurance companies pulling out and the government-established “co-op” insurers collapsing (something like 15 out 23 now?).

Anyway, Bernie is willing to be honest and use this government created clusterfuck as a reason for demanding more government, in this case the long-desired Left-wing dream of a 100% Government health care system across the USA. In doing so he re-stated a core belief of Left-wingers everywhere, including New Zealand:

In my view, the provision of health care cannot continue to be dependent upon the whims and market projections of large private insurance companies whose only goal is to make as much profit as possible

The horror. The horror. One commentator had some fun with this stupidity:

In my view, the provision of gasoline cannot continue to be dependent upon the whims and market projections of large private energy companies whose only goal is to make as much profit as possible.

In my view, the provision of housing cannot continue to be dependent upon the whims and market projections of large private realty companies whose only goal is to make as much profit as possible.

In my view, the provision of bread cannot continue to be dependent upon the whims and market projections of large private food companies whose only goal is to make as much profit as possible.

I should note that the second one is effectively exactly what the NZ Left are arguing so it’s less mockery than an accurate description of the “thinking”.

You can substitute your own versions, but rather than mocking left-wingers for this it might be better to ask why healthcare is so unique that profit would screw it up?
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August 18, 2016 8:49am
Padriv Ustoev

@stephieboy

Answer the question apostate! Are you enraged that now your wife and daughter have to dress like the hated infidels when they go to the beach?
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August 18, 2016 8:50am
cmm

@Nukuleka:

It would, however, be Ok to put out an article that says Blacks are discriminated against in pole vaulting due to having bigger dicks.

That would be Ok because it fits the narrative.
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August 18, 2016 8:51am
EAD

What a great and inspiring article:

http://www.theoccidentalobserver.net/2016/08/white-alert-organize-or-suffer-the-consequences/

Mark Westerman in the article notes that many of our people feel daunted by the problems we face. Yes, we face difficult odds and concerted malice, yet rather than turn to bitterness and defeatism, we might take strength from the myths, legends, and histories of our people.

He highlights the example of Anabasis of Xenophon, a soldier in ancient Greece who joined a force of 10,000 Greek mercenaries to serve Cyrus, the king of Persia.

When Cyrus was killed and all the senior Greek leaders slaughtered, the Persians assumed the Greek force would disintegrate and be easy pickings.

Yet the Greeks were men of the West – men of initiative and creativity, with a profound love of freedom. They reorganised and closed ranks, and began what has been described as one of the greatest adventures in human history.

Xenophon and the 10,000 overcame innumerable hardships as they made their way back to Greece, a journey of 1,500 miles, while contending with hostile forces all along the way.

Ingenious tactics saved them many times. For example, when they ran out of arrows, they would taunt their enemies while staying just out of arrow range. As they faced their foes, a rain of arrows fell harmlessly before them, thus replenishing their supply.

Today, like the 10,000, we have been made leaderless, and most of our institutions have betrayed us. As our enemies gleefully predict our doom, let’s recall who we are—men and women of the West—and act accordingly.

To do so will require effort in the following key areas: social cohesion, financial power, legal power, media, and education.

Most importantly, we must overcome our tendency toward hyper-individualism. As Benjamin Franklin stated: “if we don’t hang together, then we shall surely hang separately.

If our history shows anything, it is that we are unsurpassed as an innovative and creative people. Now we must apply that innovative talent to secure our future.
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August 18, 2016 8:53am
Doctor Who

Healthcare is unique because the consumer has to be given what he wants and needs, and he doesn’t fucking well know.
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August 18, 2016 8:56am
Andrei

Yay the gas man cometh –

I was getting worried my supplies where rather low but are now replenished

I will still be able to do my bit for global warming by relaxing in a hot bath, heating my house and cooking my dinner
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August 18, 2016 8:57am
waikatosinger

@stephieboy.

People should be free to wear what they want. That includes women not being forced to wear bin liners. Paradoxically a law banning bin liners is the best way to protect their freedom to not have to wear them.
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August 18, 2016 8:58am
stephieboy

EAD, in a nutshell, what the West needs is another Adolf Hitler ?

waikatosinger , a rather clever way of saying you can wear what you like but you can’t wear what you like ? Custom and fashion is often an important determinant in what people may choose to wear . No more or no less than wearing a hijab or the latest designer apparel ,

http://s8.favim.com/orig/150716/hijab-muslim-girl-shades-sunglasses-Favim.com-2965068.jpg.
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August 18, 2016 9:08am
Griff

You can substitute your own versions, but rather than mocking left-wingers for this it might be better to ask why healthcare is so unique that profit would screw it up?

You could instead point to the different costs and outcomes around the globe and think about what is best
The USA has a system very much closer to free market profit based system than us.
That means they have a more efficient cheaper system that result in better outcomes right ?
wrong….
Most first world nations have mostly public systems and spend around 10 % of gdp in health care .
We spend 11% in NZ
The USA spends around 17% of its much higher gdp.
Their measurable outcomes are not significantly higher than ours.
In fact in a lot of them they are very much lower
life expectancy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy
Infant mortality
http://gamapserver.who.int/gho/interactive_charts/MDG4/atlas.html?indicator=i1

Yes the rich in the usa can afford lots of expensive testing and better cancer care in old age.
The poor rely on charity for even basic service if it is available.
The number one cause of bankruptcy in the USA is medical bills.

I am a great fan of the free market.
I also believe we should use real world data to drive policy not just ideology.
When it comes to health care the best we can do for all New Zealanders is have a well funded public based system underlying our health care.
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August 18, 2016 9:18am
stephieboy

VIDEO: Trump Caught Knowing Nothing, Mumbles Word Salad

Hasn’t a clue about what is going on in the Ukraine and also strongly suggests and hints his financial links and associations to Putin ’s Russia .

Also, his lack of knowledge of the region is stupefying and rivals Sarah Pallin knowledge that Africa is a country .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52yOdl9_oZ4
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August 18, 2016 9:23am
dave_c_

@Manolo 8:48am

It appears to me that in recent times, perhaps the sole reason we become “Early adopters” for any scheme (Climate or trade), is so the government can reap more tax revenue.

This Paris agreement fits very nicely into that approach.

Of the 180 or so countires signed up, approx only 20 are close to or have ratified it.
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August 18, 2016 9:24am
Albert_Ross

Paradoxically a law banning bin liners is the best way to protect their freedom to not have to wear them.

No, it isn’t. It just substitutes one dress rule for another. The freedom to do only what the law requires you to do is no freedom at all.
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August 18, 2016 9:26am
William of Ockham

Andrei at 8:57 am: “I will still be able to do my bit for global warming…”

You’ll do your bit eventually. You old fuddies will be replaced by young people with minds capable of making the paradigm shift…
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August 18, 2016 9:29am
Andrei

Hasn’t a clue about what is going on in the Ukraine and also strongly suggests and hints his financial links and associations to Putin ’s Russia .

Also, his lack of knowledge of the region is stupefying and rivals Sarah Pallin knowledge that Africa is a country .

Now there is the pot calling the kettle black Stephieboy

Your knowledge of Russia and Ukraine is non existent

I’m surprised you haven’t linked to the story about Wendy Deng (Rupert Murdoch’s ex and supposed girlfriend of you know who) holidaying in Dubrovnik with Ivanka Trump

You are living proof of how dumb modern people are
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August 18, 2016 9:34am
Steve (North Shore)

Three more towns in France to have a burkini ban. Now what would happen if a burkini wearer got in trouble and needed help from a lifeguard to administer oxygen? The head clothing comes off and some mad jihadist lops off the lifeguard’s head?
When in Rome do as the Romans do – conform or return to the shithole you came from
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August 18, 2016 9:35am
dime

Can Hillary stand for longer than ten mins?

How sick is she?

Did bill give her a dose? Or was it the stroke from when she fell down like an old lady
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August 18, 2016 9:35am
Steve (North Shore)

One more comment and I get a virtual chocolate fish?
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August 18, 2016 9:36am
Happychappy

The Media are always looking to gloss the success of Jacinda Ardern but when she gets a towelling in question time at Parliament not a thing said,so if she is as clever as Labour and the Media suggest and the future of the Labour Party why would senior Labour MPs and Andrew Little let her ask a question about what a Left Wing rag The Standard from the UK had to say about National and child poverty.Maybe the Little man is worried about Jacinda’s rise in the Labour Party. Ann Tolley took her to the cleaners when she asked stupid questions
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August 18, 2016 9:37am
Scott

The French are merely looking after their own nation and their own norms and values by banning the burkini.

If you say stuff like “people should be able to wear what they like and the law shouldn’t get involved”, well that’s all well and good when you are dealing with law-abiding Western people. When you are dealing with Muslim people then in that community they will force people to wear the hijab or the burqa or the burkini. There is no individual choice about it.

France is already struggling with Islamisation. It’s nice to see them fighting back and enforcing their own norms and values in their own country. If the Muslims don’t like it then they can always return to whichever Muslim country they came from. That’s real freedom of choice. They can live in a western country according to Western norms and values or they can live in a Muslim country and adher to its norms and values.

What they should not do is come to the west and demand that Western countries change to suit their Islamic values. If they want to live under Islamic values then they should stay in a Muslim country.
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August 18, 2016 9:43am
Inandout

Albert_Ross 8.25: This is a run down on how to dress in Arab countries-

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/advice/dress-code-guide-for-muslim-countries/

The French also have a culture, and women dressed on the beach in black bandages is un-French.
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August 18, 2016 9:45am
doggone7

All_on_Red @ 8:06 am “You know, there’s been a lot of rumours about Hillary and Bill Clintons having ill health. ”

Would you possibly attribute some of the construction and trumpeting of those rumours to have a wee bit to do with ill health? The mental ill health of some perpetrators of the stories?
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August 18, 2016 9:46am
EAD

From Morgoths review comments thread – Interesting to compare news outlets especially to the HeeBeeBC which doesn’t pass up the chance to speak ill of the dead when it an English dead person.

http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/08/16/british-man-stabbed-to-death-by-foreign-nationals-in-cypriot-resort/

“George Low, 22, was enjoying a night out at the end of a week’s holiday in the Cypriot town of Ayia Napa when he allegedly stepped in to stop a group of men who were “disrespecting and harassing” an English girl.

Mr Low is said to have told them “that’s enough.” Two of the men
disappeared, only to return twenty minutes later with a knife, the
Guardian has reported.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-37104124

A British holidaymaker stabbed to death in Cyprus was involved in a row about urinating in public, police have said. Estate agent George Low, 22, from Dartford, was stabbed in the neck near a nightclub in Ayia Napa on Sunday. Cypriot police said an argument broke out after the alleged attackers took exception to two British men urinating in the street.”

Here’s Savant as to why it’s referred to as the HeebeeBC

http://irishsavant.blogspot.co.nz/2015/04/the-hebebc-anyone.html?m=0
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August 18, 2016 9:46am
Odakyu-sen

“The article on Stuff and the Herald about the Japanese pole vaulter whose penis caused him to knock down the bar in Rio is typical of the sexist and hypocritical stance taken by our media.”

Japanese design, form and function is world-renown for its compactness yet high performance, so I don’t see how this incident could have occurred.
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August 18, 2016 9:49am
tom hunter

Griff (13,957 comments) says:
August 18th, 2016 at 9:18 am
…
You could instead point to the different costs and outcomes around the globe and think about what is best

Or you could try and answer the question that lies at the core: why is healthcare different that profit screws it up?

The USA has a system very much closer to free market profit based system than us.

Their healthcare public/private spend is about 50:50 – whereas NZ’s is about 80:20. This is a huge difference to you? Having half of a market place occupied by government is “close” to a free-market or worse, Dikensian laissez faire?

That means they have a more efficient cheaper system that result in better outcomes right ?

Nobody would describe the US system as “efficient” – but according to you the degree of government involvement in that market, from almost endlessly prescriptive regulations that try to tell doctors, hospitals and insurers exactly what they can and cannot do, to all that government spending that screws any price signals trying to get through the fog. BTW – all insurer’s premium prices have to approved by state boards – something not heard about when those premiums jump by double digits in one year.

And actually – on actual healthcare outcomes like cancer, surgeries and other stuff that makes people’s lives better – the US has better outcomes than the NZ system, let along the godforsaken NHS in Britain.

Don’t tell me – life expectancy and infant mortality?

wrong….
Most first world nations have mostly public systems and spend around 10 % of gdp in health care .
We spend 11% in NZ
The USA spends around 17% of its much higher gdp.
Their measurable outcomes are not significantly higher than ours.
In fact in a lot of them they are very much lower
life expectancy
infant mortality…

Ding, ding, ding, ding……. You’re not a Lefty but you repeat classic Lefty talking points rather than thoughtful analysis.

Life expectancy is vastly more impacted by such “public healthcare” as water treatment, sewerage systems and clean food than the healthcare of hospitals and clinics, which is why there was such a jump in life expectancy when the former were developed. Besides which we’re talking about tiny differences between the US and other parts of the West. Margin of error stuff.

As far as infant mortality is concerned there are huge fudge factors involved because of the definition of a “live birth”, which in the US is far more tightly measured than in say – Cuba! Moreover, infant mortality appears to be more affected by demographics, which is why Utah – operating under the same horrible “private” US healthcare system – has infant mortality rates every bit as good as the likes of Western Europe.

Yes the rich in the usa can afford lots of expensive testing and better cancer care in old age.

The non-rich can “afford” this too because they have private healthcare insurance.

The poor rely on charity for even basic service if it is available.

Crap – and has been crap at least since the start of Medicaid by good old LBJ in 1965: a government-funded healthcare system for the poor. If it does not cover them then it can be expanded – and has been. Charity is been a minor and shrinking component of healthcare for the poor ever since 1965.

I will point out that a huge study completed just a few years ago, that tracked a large sample of US poor over many years (almost a decade I think) who used Medicaid compared to those who did not and had no healthcare insurance, revealed the counter-intuitive truth that the latter had better health outcomes. The authors of the study did not expect this and have since been involved in trying to figure out how to tweak Medicaid to avoid this rather terrible result.

The number one cause of bankruptcy in the USA is medical bills.

Another Left-wing talking point based upon a study that failed to track healthcare insurance coverage timing and failed to consider the other factors that had led to bankruptcy. It “chose” healthcare expenses because it was less a study than a narrative.
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August 18, 2016 9:51am
Nigel Kearney

One more comment and I get a virtual chocolate fish?

Quality before quantity #don’t_be_like_mike
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August 18, 2016 9:56am
All_on_Red

I see Donald Trump is giving speeches about all the drama in Milwaukee.
Frankly it’s just disgusting to see a politician get on live TV and defend police like this. How dare he.Violent criminals resisting arrest have VERY few protections under current law, and Trump has the audacity to pretend that’s not a problem. What a nerve.
As for the rioters stirring things up. Don’t think of it as “calling for people to burn down another neighborhood.” Think of it as “calling for peace in your OWN neighborhood.” ?
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August 18, 2016 9:56am
mikenmild

EAD
Do you chuckle much when your Irish ‘Savant’ makes anti-Semitic jokes?
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August 18, 2016 10:00am
emmess

The article on Stuff and the Herald about the Japanese pole vaulter whose penis caused him to knock down the bar in Rio is typical of the sexist and hypocritical stance taken by our media. Can we imagine a similar story about a female athlete whose large breasts got in the way of her success? No way. The sky would fall in and John Key would be blamed for his contribution to the rape culture of the universe! Ticky tacky hypocritical journalists.

I can imagine how he media would be fawning over him and telling us how inspirational he is if he was a ‘man’ without a penis.
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August 18, 2016 10:05am
tom hunter

And if anybody wants to see what government healthcare in action in the US you have four to look at:

1. Medicare:
For the elderly who no longer have employer health insurance coverage and/or cannot afford private. The system works but is effectively out of control on budgets. The government cannot cut because the oldies will kill them: the system cannot keep going as it is without chewing up almost every dollar the government has within a decade. A third rail created by LBJ.

2. Medicaid:
For the poor who can’t jobs with healthcare insurance and cannot buy it themselves. See above. This one can have spending cut by the government. Unfortunately the doctors who provide services then drop out. Another growing healthcare crisis.

3. Veterans Health Administration:
Pimped by Jon Stewart and other lefties endlessly during the Obamacare debate: “Should we not provide the same level of superb healthcare to everybody that we provide to our veterans?” (cure huge, liquid eyes). This system is the closest the USA has to NZ or the UK: government-owned hospitals and clinics with government-employed doctors and nurses, funded by government tax.

It’s fucking awful. So awful that even the Democrats finally yielded on ideology and offered the poor bastards using the system, actual cash they can use to avoid and evade if they’re not getting the medical care they need. Like every such system it’s rationed by command and control rather than price – which is why hundreds of vets have died waiting for treatment and why there have been resignations at the highest levels over lies being told about the queues, as well as punishment of whistle blowers. But many doctors and aministrators who connived in this are still on the job, since the VHS cannot afford to fire them.

4. Obamacare:
A pathetic attempt to screw the private sector system into doing what the government thinks is right via almost endless, prescriptive regulation and rigging the price outcomes. The result has been a small increase in the number of poor covered by health insurance, but with tens of millions still not covered – and at the cost of vast increases in medical costs, premiums, excess (your average struggling family has to spend thousands before the insurance kicks in, even on the lowest “Bronze” plan).

Almost every criticism of Obamacare is turning out to be correct, and if the remaining boast is that more poor people have been covered than before – well that could have been done with vastly less pain, screaming and government idiocy by just expanding the program that already existed for the purpose: Medicaid.

The reason it was not, the reason Obamacare never even tried to attack the problem of employer insurance capture or reduced competition leading to screwed prices and service, is that it was never meant to – since the Left don’t think that “Profit”, or the private sector, should be a major part of the system.

That was an ideological choice, not one based on “real world data to drive policy”.
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August 18, 2016 10:11am
big bruv

Every four years two things happen. One is that we see the greatest athletes in the world assemble to compete, the games are always outstanding and if we are lucky in our lifetime we will get to see the exploits of a Spitz, Bolt, Phelps or Comaneci.
The other thing that happens is that most of our narrow minded (Chris Rattue being almost the only exception) sporting media seem to think that they need to hype up the already massively over hyped NZ rugby team lest we all wake up to the fact that rugby is a very minor world sport.

Oh, and one more thing, why is it that all our National sporting teams see a rematch as a chance for ‘revenge’? the game this morning between the embarrassingly named ‘black sticks’ and the GB team was billed as such, perhaps with that mindset it is no surprise that the NZ team were hammered.
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August 18, 2016 10:30am
Griff

Besides which we’re talking about tiny differences between the US and other parts of the West. Margin of error stuff.

ding ding ding

Nope tom I cited a direct compassion with the USA and the rest of the west using reputable sources
yanks die sooner They rate lower on life expectancy in all the surveys in that wiki link .
More kids die young twice as many as we have despite our so called poverty issues.
this is not within the margin of error or due to funny third word accounting .

The non-rich can “afford” this too because they have private healthcare insurance.

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/health-insurance.htm
13 odd percent have no cover
Those who have cheep cover and are diagnosed with a expensive condition soon run out of money due to low spending limits and very expensive free market medical service in the usa .

The bankruptcy figure is sourced from this peer reviewed study in the American journal of medicine .
http://www.pnhp.org/new_bankruptcy_study/Bankruptcy-2009.pdf

They spend twice as much of their GDP as the western nations with a public based system.
Yes we have 20% private care .
Most of that is your basic GP visit that most of us pay near market rates for .Very few in NZ would rely on private insurance or the private system for major medical expense like cancer , hart disease or hip replacement .

Another facet in the usa is the legal costs of the libertarian wet dream.
Sue the arse of your doctor for malpractice and every one picks up the cost due to astronomical malpractice insurance rates for doctors.

The system in the usa is one beloved of many free market ideologues.
Privatize the profits and socialize the losses
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August 18, 2016 10:31am
Scott

Here is a very good article about Trump’s major foreign policy speech. According to this analyst Trump’s thoughts on the major foreign policy issues facing America are “rock solid”. Check out the article here –

http://nationalinterest.org/feature/trump-fighting-radical-islam-rock-solid-17380
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August 18, 2016 10:34am
AgentBallSack

Anyone keen to eat fruit or food washed in water from Hawkes Bay?
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August 18, 2016 10:35am
Manolo

Future jihadists awaiting for Europe to relocate them:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3744313/UK-French-meeting-Calais-discuss-care-unaccompanied-migrant-children.html

British and French authorities will meet in the packed ‘Jungle’ as they discuss how to care for the thousands of unoccupied children across Europe.

More than 4,000 lone children are claiming asylum in the UK, with councils tasked with ensuring they are resettled and cared for.
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August 18, 2016 10:36am
Shawn Herles

Tom,

“Ding, ding, ding, ding……. You’re not a Lefty but you repeat classic Lefty talking points rather than thoughtful analysis.”

Because Griff IS a Lefty. He always has been. He may be “right” on a very small number of issues, but they are not enought to overcome his primary devotion to the cultural Left and it’s causes.

Also, the fact that the US is hardly a free market in health care, is in fact closer to NZ than people think, and has cost issues related to government regulations, has all been explained to Giff before, but he will not allow facts to get in the way of ignorant ranting about the US.
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August 18, 2016 10:38am
AgentBallSack

Rio Olympics 2016: Pole vault penis claim ‘made up’ says Japan athlete Hiroki Ogita

No one cares now the media has had 2 days of cockilation stories.
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August 18, 2016 10:39am
Shawn Herles

“Pole vault penis claim ‘made up’ ”

Well that’s a headline you don’t see everyday! 🙂
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August 18, 2016 10:43am
Griff

More kids die young twice as many as we have despite our so called poverty issues.
this is not within the margin of error or due to funny third word accounting .

opps not true
On rechecking my facts I found
Our infant mortality in NZ is lower than the USA but not twice as low .
We are high compared to other western nations with a public system but still below the usa .
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August 18, 2016 10:43am
starboard

No thanks Ballsack..not unless I want to shit through the eye of a needle at 40 paces.
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August 18, 2016 10:47am
Griff

Because Griff IS a Lefty.

shewn my dear Little god whacker.
If you define left as liberal and right as conservative yip I am firmly a liberal
But we dont get stuck in the paradigm in the rational world .
We leave that to the confused nation of god, guns and glory.
Especially as this nz premier right wing blog is….liberal…..
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August 18, 2016 10:50am
Shawn Herles

“But we dont get stuck in the paradigm in the rational world .”

Translation: “I don’t allow my ideological contradictions to get in the way of my irrational ideology. In my brain, contradicting myself is perfectly rational.” 🙂
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August 18, 2016 10:54am
Shawn Herles

Liberalism is “rational” in the same way that pork is an important part of the Muslim diet. 🙂
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August 18, 2016 10:57am
Shawn Herles

Germany: Muslim arrested for Islamic State plot to explode nail-filled bomb at town festival

“Germany’s slow suicide continues. Every time one of these jihad plots is successful, Angela Merkel should stand up and take a bow.”

https://www.jihadwatch.org/2016/08/germany-muslim-arrested-for-islamic-state-plot-to-explode-nail-filled-bomb-at-town-festival
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August 18, 2016 11:00am
Griff

For any one rational who wants to explore further the difference between liberal/ conservative and the usa and European definitions.
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Liberal
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Conservative
Not for you Shawn as you are and have been for years a lost cause of confused religious based nuttery
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August 18, 2016 11:03am
Griff

Good news

Dairy product prices have soared at the latest global dairy auction, amid signs the worldwide supply glut is easing, bolstering optimism about the outlook.

Overall, prices gained 12.7%, with the all important whole milk powder price up by just under 19 percent.

AgriHQ dairy analyst Susan Kilsby said it’s a stunning result and couldn’t have come at a better time for our farmers.

She believes it’s safe to say the market has turned a corner.

These numbers had been mostly flat since the season started in June

http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/business/whole-milk-powder-price-soars-at-auction/
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August 18, 2016 11:06am
RalphT

starboard (5,222 comments) says:
August 18th, 2016 at 10:47 am
No thanks Ballsack..not unless I want to shit through the eye of a needle at 40 paces.

Starboard, in the light of many of the comments this morning, are you suggesting that this become an Olympic sport?
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August 18, 2016 11:09am
Lance

I’m puzzled?

EAD predicted we were all going to be broke last year.
Dairy was an indicator was just one of many factors that a worldwide economic collapse was a surety.

However the US is doing well, UK doing well (despite Brexit Armageddon fears) and things looking up in general

Did we just misunderstand EAD or was he a false prophet?
They used to stone false prophets in the good old days
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August 18, 2016 11:13am
Morrissey

It’s hard to think of anyone more dishonest and shamelessly partisan than
Kathryn Ryan’s outrageous “U.K. correspondent” Dame Ann Leslie
Nine to Noon, RNZ National, Thursday 18 August 2016, 9:50 a.m.

I only caught the tail end of today’s performance, but that rancid old hypocrite seemed to be in vintage form. Today the object of her venom was not teachers or people from “godforsaken countries” or the Labour Party leader; it was the recently arrested radical preacher Anjem Choudary.…

“…this highly articulate, cold-blooded monster, and I use that word advisedly…. head chopping lunatics… [snarl]…I never appeared with him on BBC television because I REFUSED to collude with him. …[splutter]… He drives me MAD….”

Lest anyone think that such refusal to interview Choudary indicates that Dame Ann Leslie is a decent, principled journalist, refusing heroically to collude with evil, just consider what she said after her visit to the Jenin refugee camp in 2002 after it was attacked by more than 150 Israeli tanks, armored personnel carriers and artillery, backed by F-16 fighter jets, killing more than fifty people: the massacre, she assured her readers, parroting the Israeli regime’s propaganda, “wasn’t actually a massacre”.

Aficionados may like to inspect some further nuggets of Dame Ann gold….
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-03122015/#comment-1104309
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August 18, 2016 11:17am
mikenmild

Lance
It is rather peculiar.
EAD claims to be a financial adviser, with actual clients who pay for his prognostications.
One wonder whether there are a few dissatisfied cases out there now wondering how to convert their reserve stocks of gold, ammunition and baked beans into actual investments.
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August 18, 2016 11:19am
Fletch

If anyone is interested, there is a short video on the BBC website highlighting their Landmark Sitcom Season, which shows some clips of upcoming shows, including the remake of Are You Being Served? (which looks much better than it has a right to), and an update of Porridge (where this time it is the grandson of the character Fletch that Ronnie Barker played who is incarcerated).

They’ve also reshot a couple of episodes of Steptoe & Son and Hancock for which they still had the original scripts, but the recordings had long since been lost.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/aboutthebbc/entries/c4cffab9-1b49-44d6-b102-4a25ff35db63
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August 18, 2016 11:21am
Keeping Stock

@ Lance – maybe EAD got his years wrong, and it’s all going pear-shaped THIS September.

After all, if you listen to Andrew Little, Grant Robertson, Jacinda Ardern or Phil Twyford, New Zealand is going to hell in a handcart. The good thing with that, of course, is that stuff-all people are listening to the abovementioned, or EAD for that matter 😀
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August 18, 2016 11:24am
Griff

They used to stone false prophets in the good old days

Laughter is much more socially acceptable dont ya think lance .
At lest EAD has fronted up.
But I do wish he would learn from his error and realize such webshites are well …..shite.

You can still see the impact of brexit clearly in the uk pound us dollar rate
http://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=GBP&to=USD&view=1Y
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August 18, 2016 11:25am
towaka

For the dairy farmers on KB and for the rest of NZ that seems very concerned with what we feed our cows Professor Keith Woodford has written a very well researched and reasoned opinion piece on PKE use in this country-

https://keithwoodford.wordpress.com/2016/08/17/the-pros-and-cons-of-pke/#more-1497

I made the following comments on his blog..

”Very well researched and logical arguments you make Keith but somehow I think it will fall on ”deaf ears” as we are dealing with emotions and not reason when it comes to PKE use in NZ.

That is what made myself and other Fonterra suppliers so angry last spring with their disingenuous letter to us regarding the PKE ”guidelines”..implying that it was to do with a ”nebulous”grass feed premium they wanted to protect in the market but offering no evidence and also just singling out PKE as a supplement and ignoring all of the other options available like maize silage that can be used instead of grass.

Purveying such blatant spin like that and treating the shareholders like idiots was another example of how out of touch the Fonterra management is with their owner/shareholders..just imagine what the anger levels would be like with farmers if Fonterra tried to ”enforce” the 3kg/day limit in the middle of a drought where you quite rightly point out is when PKE is so useful.”
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August 18, 2016 11:26am
Manolo

@KS: Do not disparage EAD. Following his infallible advice, I sold ALL my investment portfolio August last year and bought gold.

I’m glad I paid attention to our own oracle. No kidding. 😀
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August 18, 2016 11:30am
Griff

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/new-zealand/stock-market
http://goldprice.org/
http://www.anz.co.nz/personal/migrants-travel-foreign-exchange/fx/exchange-rate-graphs/nzd-usd/

opps manolo
I did not
And boy am I happy at that.
Shares have this funny thing called dividends so not only do you make a tax free capital gain but you also get income as you go.
Gold costs money to own* and the income from the capital gains is taxable.
https://www.ird.govt.nz/resources/6/8/68f902b9-e40b-407c-9df6-b4e19b3c625f/pub00227.pdf

*If you dont have the physical gold you are at risk of your brokers bankruptcy leaving you out of pocket .
This has happened often in the past.
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August 18, 2016 11:45am
Garbageman

Poor old Morrissey are the 10 yokels over at the Stranded not entertaining enough for your anti Jewish baiting bs @ linking to that shit hole isn’t going to improve your visitor stats to much im guessing
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August 18, 2016 11:51am
Manolo

@Griff: Mate, I’ll be entering a mosque to pray to Allah before I take EAD’s financial advice!
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August 18, 2016 11:53am
Griff

Fair enough Manolo I apologize for thinking you are an idiot .
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August 18, 2016 11:58am
stephieboy

Hello, deniers Climate change is a figment of our imagination ?

Climate Change Opens Up the First Luxury Cruise Route in the Arctic

“On April 13, coast guard officials from the US and Canada will train for a cruise ship catastrophe: a mass rescue from a luxury liner on its maiden voyage through the remote and deathly cold waters between the Northwest Passage and the Bering Strait.

The prospect of just such a disaster occurring amid the uncharted waters and capricious weather of the Arctic is becoming all too real.

The loss of Arctic sea ice cover, due to climate change, has spurred a sharp rise in shipping traffic—as well as coast guard rescue missions—and increased the risks of oil spills, shipping accidents, and pollution, much to the apprehension of native communities who make their living on the ice…..”

http://www.wired.com/2016/03/climate-change-opens-first-luxury-arctic-cruise-route/

The North West Passage took Roald Amundsen 3 years to first successfully navigate solely by ship. 1906 – 9.
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August 18, 2016 12:08pm
Morrissey

Something called “Garbageman” seemed a tad bewildered @ 11:51 a.m……

….your anti Jewish baiting….

My post pointed out the hypocrisy of one Dame Ann Leslie, who as far as I am aware, is (nominally if not in practice) a Christian.
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August 18, 2016 12:11pm
Morrissey

When will Cuba follow the lead of the Polish government?

The Polish government has approved a new bill that foresees prison terms of up to three years for anyone who uses phrases like “Polish death camps” to refer to Auschwitz and other camps that Nazi Germany operated in occupied Poland during the second world war…..

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/16/poland-approves-bill-outlawing-phrase-polish-death-camps

Surely it’s long past the due date for Cuba to take similar steps to prevent the hated Guantanamo Bay Prison being associated with Cuba, rather than the outlaw regime that is responsible for it.
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August 18, 2016 12:31pm
Garbageman

Bewildered some days possibly but not today, your slimy tactics have been on display for all to see many times you should go back to being a tv or radio critic (gosh that was enthralling stuff) you weren’t quite a shit at that, emphasis on the quite
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August 18, 2016 12:40pm
Johnboy

Having watched the odd Japanese porno I’d have thought any Japanese man whose dick was considered enormous enough to unhinge a large bit of stuff would be crying his praises not his woes! 🙂
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August 18, 2016 12:55pm
Jack5

The Greens and other peaceniks seem to be out to hijack the Kiwisaver scheme.

If a person wants to put their savings into a Kiwisaver account that, seeking high returns, invests in armament making, or tobacco smoking, that’s the business of that person.

The Greens are attacking Kiwisaver funds that do this as though they were taxpayer property. They aren’t. They are contractors to individual savers.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11696300
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August 18, 2016 1:01pm
tom hunter

@Griff

I cited a direct compassion with the USA and the rest of the west using reputable sources

I did not make an argument about problems with life expectancy numbers, which are relatively easy to measure (relatively), consistent and easy to understand. You’re confusing it with my argument about infant mortality.

But in any case my comment about “margin of error” is to make the point that the differences in life expectancy between developed nations are so small as to not be explicable with “Public Healthcare”. That is not a scientific argument but a political and ideological one.

For example, NZ is almost 3% better than the US on this measure – but Japan is 2.6% better than NZ again. Does this mean they have a better public healthcare system than we do? Would that difference not come down to things like diet, lifestyle, genetic mix of the population and other demographic factors? It would – and the same questions would normally arise in looking at the gap between the US and NZ.

But Socialist fanatics who hate the idea of profit in healthcare don’t want to have the debate. Becuase it’s the USA they want to focus on Public Healthcare as the primary factor.

More kids die young twice as many as we have despite our so called poverty issues.

I have no idea where you get this from: NZ 4.6, USA 6.17, Luxembourg 4.28 per 1000 live births and within one year of birth.

Similar factors are at work with these infant mortality stats – and that’s aside from the definitional problems. Looking at the Wikipedia link on this measure, it records deaths before the age of five? That’s just stupid, given the number of non public/private-healthcare factors that intervene after one year, or even a few months. And the result is that NZ is 5.7, USA 6.5 and Luxembourg 1.9! (the latter must have really safe superhighways – or perhaps nobody there drives their kids anywhere).

Taking the Wiki link with Luxembourg at 1.9, do you want to argue that their healthcare system is 3.4 times better than ours? Or would you perhaps think it might have a lot to do with other factors such as our far more diverse population and size? And again, if you’re willing to ask those questions of NZ vs Luxembourg why not apply the same curiosity to the USA vs NZ or vs. Germany.

… from this peer reviewed study…

You often repeat this like a mantra. You do know what peer review is, no? It means an article has been reviewed by peers and no stupid errors have been found in data or argument.

It does not mean it is correct. It is an argument. Here is the counter-argument:

First, they fail to provide a causal relationship to support the claim that medical spending contributes to “half of all bankruptcies” (54.5 percent). Our analysis of their data finds a causal link in only 17 percent of personal bankruptcies.

Again it is a matter of mindlessly reading tables of stats while failing to ask questions about causality. You do this so often, Griff. It’s almost as if you’ve got the answer for causality already pre-determined and now it’s just a simple matter of finding the stats to prove it.

Very few in NZ would rely on private insurance or the private system for major medical expense like cancer , hart disease or hip replacement

🙄
FFS! That is precisely where private health insurance would best be targeted. You’re argument is exactly the same as arguing that car insurance should focus on petrol and maintenance, leaving crash repairs to a goverment-owned, nation-side network of bodyshops.

That is exactly back-to-front on how an insurance market place should operate.

Another facet in the usa is the legal costs of the libertarian wet dream.

Given the degree of public involvement that I’ve told you about I can’t say that I’m aware of any libertarian who thinks the US healthcare system was a “wet dream”. But being critical of a badly flawed private sector system is not the same as thinking the solution is the sort of 100% socialist insanity promoted by Bernie and more than a few US Lefties in the Democrat Party.

And yes, they are exactly the same solutions as pushed in other areas such as housing and heavy industry – and in areas where you mostly reject their solutions because you’ve thought about them.

Which brings me back to the core question you refuse to think about: why is healthcare different?

Sue the arse of your doctor for malpractice and every one picks up the cost due to astronomical malpractice insurance rates for doctors.

Now there’s a thought. Destroy a major revenue stream of tort lawyers in the USA by going full Socialist healthcare. You are aware that tort lawyers are major contributors to the Democrats, yes? That’d be a fun fight to see.

The system in the usa is one beloved of many free market ideologues.

Another comment as stupid as saying that the system is a “wet dream” of libertarians. Free market ideologues don’t “love” the US healthcare system but think it has been rather fucked up for some years now, which – as above – is not the same as thinking the solution is the sort of 100% socialist insanity.

Privatize the profits and socialize the losses

Of which Obamacare is the prime example: TARP for health insurance companies, who were both greedy enough and stupid enough to jump in bed with Obama, Pelosi and Reid. The usual story of business people who could care less about capitalism: American businessman selling the rope and so forth.

Of course events move forward with the wave of huge proposed mergers that Obamacare has given incentive to, and we wind up with Blue Human Cross Blue Aetna Shield, they’ll be little change if a future US government announces that they’re “nationalising” the thing.

The cynical wonder if that was the plan all along.
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August 18, 2016 1:05pm
Manolo

@Johnboy: I always suspected you were a bit of a geisha connoisseur!
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August 18, 2016 1:06pm
Odakyu-sen

That reminds me.

Tokyo for the Summer Olympics in 2020.

I predict that from April 2018 onwards (in the Japanese spring) you are going to see the start of a “visit-Japan” program the likes of which you have never seen before.

The tooling-up has already started. In Tokyo in June I was amazed at the number of hotels that offered “Free Wi-Fi.” (Non-nationals are still prohibited from buying SIM cards that would enable cheaper voice calls within Japan, but this will change.)

BTW, I’m off to Japan tomorrow for 9 days of motorcycle touring. (My wife has given me a shopping list and detailed instructions to follow.)

I may be able to drop into Kiwiblog while on the road (if the Wi-Fi works).
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August 18, 2016 1:08pm
Odakyu-sen

Manolo,

For all you connoisseurs out there. Please be sure to know the difference between a Maiko and a Geisha.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJnXwyN4qPk
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August 18, 2016 1:12pm
Johnboy

Watch out for potholes Odakyu old chap. Wouldn’t want you doing a catapult and hitting your bits on the handlebars! 🙂
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August 18, 2016 1:12pm
Johnboy

I did that once on the beach down at the end of the coast road. The lovely nurse’s at Hutt Hospital did wonders massaging life back into my joystick. 🙂
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August 18, 2016 1:15pm
Odakyu-sen

Johnboy,

I am looking forward to the (what I remember as being) excellent mountain roads in Japan.

You have a point. What with the government spending cutbacks, the roads I fondly remember from my youth may have deteriorated. Never mind, my experiences in New Zealand have prepared me for truly nasty country roads (potholes, corrugations, gravel–no dead possums or loose sheep or cows, mind you).
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August 18, 2016 1:16pm
Garbageman

http://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2016/08/weedkiller-cancer-concerns-debunked-councils-should-use-it-to-save-money/
Good article here on the lies perpetrated by the Green Taliban and their tame media dogs
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August 18, 2016 1:19pm
Johnboy

You shouldn’t need to wear a face mask either. The radiation should have dropped to safe levels after 70 years unless you pop up to Fukushima! 🙂
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August 18, 2016 1:21pm
Inandout

The TV1 Breakfast hosts have been confirmed.

‘Up at eight, you can’t be late
for Hillary & Son, he won’t wait.
Watch them run down to platform one
And the eight-thirty train to Hillary & Son.
Hillary & Son, the work’s never done, there’s always something new.
The files in your head, you take them to bed, you’re never ever through.
And they’ve been working all day, all day, all day!
There’s a five minute break and that’s all you take,
for a cup of cold coffee and a piece of cake.
Hillary & Son, the work’s never done, there’s always something new.
The files in your head, you take them to bed, you’re never ever through’.
11 0
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August 18, 2016 1:22pm
Johnboy

Wonderful lyrics old chap!!!! 🙂
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August 18, 2016 1:28pm

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Here We Go: No Pennsylvania Results For Several Days!
Utopia
A SUBMISSION ON LONG TERM TAX AND OTHER POLICIES
NZCPR
Govt to spend $2m on a maths teaching pilot (and pupils might learn that 2 + 2 is not as culturally obvious as it seems)
Point of Order
THE BIG DAY
No Punches Pulled (Bob Jones)
What would Sumner say about Trump and Vance’s pro-tariff rhetoric?
Not PC
Top 14 Predictions for Round 10
Stats Chat
NZ media’s “propagandisation” of the US Election
Bob McCoskrie's McBlog
US military-industrial-sports complex.
Kiwipolitico
Pretty (il)legal
Croaking Cassandra
Where are the food carts?
Offsetting Behaviour
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

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