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Open mike 18/07/2012
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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Archives · 2012-07-01 to 2012-07-31 · Page 4
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Searching: posts Sorted by: newest Results: 91–120 of 196
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Labour’s review – a good job well done
I've just got my summary report on Labour's organisational review, emailed to me as a member from President Moira Coatsworth, with a link to the website - things have certainly got better since my day! On a quick first look, it seems to be a…
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Dunne clears the competition for his backers
A cynic might ask if Peter Dunne is out to eliminate the competition of his mates and (it is widely thought) donors in the alcohol and cigarette industries by setting ever higher barriers for other legal highs. And I'm that cynic. I'm not against anyone…
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100 academics opposed to league tables
School league tables are harmful to education. Tables based on "ropey data" are even worse. In this open letter 100 academics speak out against league tables. We are a group of New Zealand academics teaching and researching in universities. As a group we are very…
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Health & Safety
Right now 28 miners are stuck down a Waihi mine with a fire causing noxious gases. 15 people are being decontaminated at Tiwai Point after an 'incident'. At 3.30am the driver of a truck-trailer loaded pressurised cylinders died after crashing into Bulls RSA - probably…
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Denialists set to make monkeys of themselves
Could we be about to have our very own Scopes trial? In that famous Tennessee Court Case, the State prosecuted a teacher for teaching evolution. He walked free (on a technicality) and it was a decisive moment in mainstreaming evolution and making the creationists the…
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Not with a bang but a whimper
There's some interesting speculation that the Government could collapse within months. The theory goes that the Government could lose its majority due to 1) the Maori Party walking away over the water rights issue and 2) John Banks being forced to resign over illegally anonymised…
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Asset sale delay likely
Even John Key is now admitting that the asset sale program is facing a serious legal challenge: John Key concedes likely asset sales delay Prime Minister John Key has conceded the first asset sale could be delayed because a legal challenge from Maori over water…
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Open mike 17/07/2012
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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Key’s legacy
Which will be remembered as the greater crime in Key's legacy: selling off our strategically vital and profitable energy assets leading to higher power prices or standing by and doing nothing while another housing bubble fueled by cheap foreign credit leaves us more indebted and…
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Burden of proof
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SI5ulKiZAoE
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Nats blow $216m (so far) planning unneeded roads that won’t be built
RNZ is reporting that National has spent $216m just on the investigation and design stage of its Roads of National Significance so far (and that's only 5 of the 7 projects). Most of it on outside contractors Look, I get this kind of shit can be surprisingly expensive.…
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Darkhorse: Roger’s legacy – the fallacy of economic efficiencies under a neoliberal regime
Darkhorse writes amazingly insightful economic pieces on his ‘How Daft’ blog (the title gives you a clue as to what he thinks of the current state of affairs). The neoliberal experiment has been an abject failure by any rational measure. And there are alternatives. Darkhorse…
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Bullying schools – again
Now the Nats want want editorial control over the school newsletter: Minister to schools: keep politics out of newsletters Education Minister Hekia Parata has told the School Trustees Association to keep politics out of school newsletters. Or - what? What is the threat here? Cuts…
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Long way down
The latest Roy Morgan poll has Labour+Greens neck and neck with National again on 45.5%. The trend is quite clear just looking at the Roy Morgan graphs. National is going down, Labour+Greens is going up. And when you look at the key levels that the…
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Open mike 16/07/2012
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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Alcohol to be banned
The Government announced that it was withdrawing its Alcohol Reform Bill today and introducing prohibition after it realised that alcohol was used by the 'Beast of Blenheim' to stupefy young girls. "It's what we'd do if it was any other drug, particularly as it's associated…
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Don’t it make you sick?
Old rich man, Don Brash, arch-advocate of private property rights, on Q+A arguing against the property rights of iwi because they're Maori. He says we shouldn't have race-based ownership. No-one's arguing for that. Only the Right are making this about race. Iwi are arguing for…
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Sunday Reading
I’m going to try and put up a piece each Sunday of interesting, longer, deeper stories I found during the week. It’s also a chance for you to share what you found this week too. Those stimulating links you wanted to share, but just didn’t…
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Open mike 15/07/2012
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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A confession
I joined Mighty River Power today. They visited and offered me $150 incentive payment, no contract and a cheap rate guaranteed until April 2013. So, I intend to use them through winter, use up my $150 credit, then switch back to powershop when their rates get…
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Day of action against asset sales
Reports of a good turn-out around the country, although bad weather has obviously kept many more indoors. Funny, weren't pro-Government media saying all the fuss would die down after the legislation was passed...
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Water ownership – first principles
When you have the legal power to control aspects of how something is used, those are property rights, and when you have the legal power to exclude use of something by someone -for instance, by allocating exclusive usage rights to someone else - that's ownership.…
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One RoNS down
The Government has binned part of the Northern Wellington Corridor 'Road of National Significance' - the four-lane expressway between Otaki and Levin that would have cost $400m. The government's not getting enough road tax revenue and they had already cut all other transport funding to…
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Police cuts
So the plan to screw down police wages isn't working, and National are having to keep going with their other approach. But not everyone is taking death by 1000 cuts lying down. So apparently the police is no longer a service and should be run…
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Open mike 14/07/2012
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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Labor Right v Greens
There's an extraordinary row going on in the ALP at the moment, with right faction leaders attacking the Greens as financially incompetent and politically marginal. The NSW Labor conference this weekend will debate a motion by the State Secretary Sam Dastyari that Labor not automatically…
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Weekend social 13/07/2012
Weekend social is for non political chat. What's on for the weekend, gigs, film or book reviews, sports, or whatever. No politics, no aggro, why can't we all just get along?
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NRT: Confirmed: Bennett made it up
Last month, Social Development Minister Paula Bennett caused outrage when she suggested somehow banning child abusers from having children. The suspicion at the time was that this was a desperate and cynical attempt to distract the public from the government's hypocritical and deeply unpopular plans…
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Key’s comments a blank cheque for investors
Now, I'm no big city lawyer, but it seems to me that John Key may be walking on some mighty thin ice by telling prospective investors in Mighty River not to worry about the Maori Council's water claim. If it goes wrong, isn't he exposing…