Public Address | System (Home)

Posted at 9:50AM on 18 Feb 09. Permalink.

Er, the demo is Thursday, not today, right?

Posted at 9:52AM on 18 Feb 09. Permalink.

Okay - I figure you're going to be mentioning it a lot, so I thought I'd correct it this time:

It's section 92A . Or s 92A .

[and not section 92(A), nor S92(a)]

p.s. Here's my entry for the "How do you tell if it's blogging or journalism?" debate:

If it's journalism, you have a sub-editor!

Posted at 9:52AM on 18 Feb 09. Permalink.

Er, the demo is Thursday, not today, right?

Er, yes. Left out the key word "tomorrow". Fixed now, thanks.

Posted at 10:12AM on 18 Feb 09. Permalink.

Jon Stewart is not alone in wondering where the Republicans' newfound passion for fiscal rectitude came from. His Daily Show interview with John Sununu was a cracker.

I can't have been the only person watching that interview and screaming at the set, "where the fuck were you in the eight years before Obama got the keys to the White House?"

The annoying thing is that the stimulus package is far from perfect -- my belief is that "stimulus" is like fucking. It don't matter how big it is, if it's being shoved in all the wrong places.

The Republicans are perfectly entitled to oppose the legislative agenda of the Democrats, but they have nobody but themselves to blame if (most of them) have a yawning credibility gap. OTOH, it's much easier to pay attention to Republicans like Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins and Arlen Specter who are pretty damn popular where it counts (though not with the theo-con establishment in the GOP), not least because they didn't completely pimp their credibility. They did support the stimulus package, but it was qualified and thoughtful support and I think they should be applauded for working with moderates across the aisle to get the worse crap out of the bill.

Posted at 10:13AM on 18 Feb 09. Permalink.

i will be at webstock, so totally supporting the protest in spirit but in body at the town hall

Posted at 10:28AM on 18 Feb 09. Permalink.

If I'm free during the Webstock lunch break, I will *so* be at the demo.

Posted at 10:51AM on 18 Feb 09. Permalink.

I feel for Obama. A president is meant to do what the people want, but fixing a recession/depression is a highly technical job. Probably to most people the actual solution (holding with the hypothetical line that there actually is a solution) will be incomprehensible. As in, it will be incomprehensible how and why it will work. The actual implementation will be comprehensible and will just seem plain wrong in so many cases. Some people will get more money, others will get less. And it may take a very long time.

To me it's not at all clear whether or not this economic meltdown is going to play out at its own pace pretty much regardless of what governments do. Everyone's looking at Obama like he's meant to fix everything. But what is actually broken is widespread beliefs about the value of things, and how much people are entitled to them. People in the USA find it hard to accept that what they make has been massively overvalued for a long time, and they have themselves been massively overpaid. Because they have a massive internal economy this massive discrepancy can perpetuate itself for a very long time, but ultimately (if you believe in fundamental values) a correction has to come some time. That time is now.

Of course it's not just Americans that have been wrong for so long. They're just the tip of the iceberg. They have driven things up so much that most of the world have also been swept up in it.

I could be totally wrong. Maybe this recession will turn out all right in a few years, and all will hail Obama as savior. I definitely hope so, whether it is true that Obama is a savior or not.

Posted at 10:52AM on 18 Feb 09. Permalink.

p.s. Here's my entry for the "How do you tell if it's blogging or journalism?" debate:

If it's journalism, you have a sub-editor!

*cough* Are you sure that sub-editor hasn't been laid off had his job out-sourced to three monkeys and a bucket of poo in another time zone?

Posted at 10:56AM on 18 Feb 09. Permalink.

"Ranapia in fine fettle as debate continues"

Posted at 11:04AM on 18 Feb 09. Permalink.

"But what is actually broken is widespread beliefs about the value of things, and how much people are entitled to them."

That's it mate, this is period of revaluation. That's a debate only one side can really win rationally but will never the less be a painful drawn out affair from those who literally feel invested in the status quo.

Posted at 11:11AM on 18 Feb 09. Permalink.

I feel for Obama. A president is meant to do what the people want, but fixing a recession/depression is a highly technical job.

I actually feel sorry for anyone who is trying to make some sense of what the hell is going on while people are at both ears screaming "DO SOMETHING, ANYTHING, NOW NOW NOW!" (And yes, that includes Messers Brown, Rudd and Key.)

Wasn't insufficient thought what landed us all in this illimitable ocean of wee in the first place?

Posted at 11:21AM on 18 Feb 09. Permalink.

That's a debate only one side can really win rationally but will never the less be a painful drawn out affair from those who literally feel invested in the status quo.

I'm not sure if either side can win rationally. Both will surely claim to have won, no matter which way it goes.

I've noticed over the years that people who got paid heaps for something once, will forever think they are worth that money, even after they get laid off. This can harm them for far longer than the few months it might take to find another job if they did not refuse to ever go backwards. It seems to me like the entire industrialized world is currently suffering from this.

Posted at 11:29AM on 18 Feb 09. Permalink.

p.s. Here's my entry for the "How do you tell if it's blogging or journalism?" debate:
If it's journalism, you have a sub-editor!

I like this. By this measure, nearly everything on the Herald website isn't journalism. Stuff is... sometimes.

Honestly, the Herald site is abominable for errors. You could make a fun drinking game out of spotting errors non-stupid subs could have fixed.

Posted at 11:31AM on 18 Feb 09. Permalink.

Rush Limbaugh moving to New Zealand if Obama stimulus means government control.

Posted at 11:34AM on 18 Feb 09. Permalink.

Would Rush Limbaugh qualify for immigration? He is an obese drug addict after all.

Posted at 11:39AM on 18 Feb 09. Permalink.

The annoying thing is that the stimulus package is far from perfect -- my belief is that "stimulus" is like fucking. It don't matter how big it is, if it's being shoved in all the wrong places.

No you're doing it wrong. Stimulus isn't _like_ fucking. It's the thing you're supposed to do _before_ fucking.

Tell your partner there's no need to thank me, public service.

Posted at 11:40AM on 18 Feb 09. Permalink.

Try again with the video.

Rush Limbaugh

Posted at 11:47AM on 18 Feb 09. Permalink.

Christ, there have to be some grounds for keeping him out.

Posted at 11:48AM on 18 Feb 09. Permalink.

Wasn't insufficient thought what landed us all in this illimitable ocean of wee in the first place?

I really don't know. My actual feeling is that it's "thinking you're better than everyone else, when you actually aren't". This applies in particular to goods produced in the first world vs goods from the third world. Whether this is a case of 'insufficient thought', or just 'wrong thought', is perhaps just a matter of semantics.

Further to that, I'm not sure that we're actually in an ocean of wee. A long and drawn out depression is something that is held up as an object of horror, but I'm not so sure. I have always found it curious that all the oldies I've spoken to who actually lived through the Great Depression rate it as one of the best times of their lives. I figure that it's times like these that you really learn what matters in life, and how enjoying life is really not something that requires a great deal of money.

But to everyone who stakes their entire worth on their dollar value, this is a time of wee. This includes a heck of a lot of people from whom we receive our information. That can make it hard to keep a cool head about just how awesome the world still is, and how, despite the economic climate, quite a lot of excellent things are still happening, being made, invented, etc. Despite the Dow slipping something like 40% in the last 2 years, billions of goods have still been made, tons of good art, millions of inventions, theories etc.

Posted at 11:50AM on 18 Feb 09. Permalink.

Back on topic, check The Register's take on the Blackout campaign.

Thanks to news media's Twitterphilia, however, the blackout is getting the kind of international attention that a protest marking a procedural stage in the passage of domestic laws would otherwise not have attracted, or merited.

All very meta.

Posted at 12:05PM on 18 Feb 09. Permalink.

Just downloaded Copywrong Remix Kit. joy.

Has anyone here played with Microsoft Songsmith? That is a whole new world of copyright nothingness. Music that makes it self. It is a truly awful program that my band is hoping to use to make an EP, if the mint chicks don't beat us to it....

Posted at 12:08PM on 18 Feb 09. Permalink.

< I have always found it curious that all the oldies I've spoken to who actually lived through the Great Depression rate it as one of the best times of their lives. I figure that it's times like these that you really learn what matters in life, and how enjoying life is really not something that requires a great deal of money. >

Actually Ben, my theory is that people tend to think well of the period of their lives when they were young, fit, and relatively good looking, whenever it happened.

For evidence, listen to people, now in their forties, enthuse over getting to a performance of a reformed band that was World-Famous-in-Dunedin in the early 1980s. Or more starkly, listen to people who served during the Second World War, it all can sounds rather like a positive time with the lads. Check out Spike Milligan's memoirs; by volume much of them are devoted to Milligan's times with the guys he was serving with. Not so much about battle fatigue.

With enough distance, anything you survive seems to be rich with lessons, and not that bad really. While at the time, I'm sure the 1929 depression (or World War Two for that matter) was a long time of uncertainty and going painfully short in areas for a large number of people. I'm not convinced what is happening now is at all comparable to those years. And I bloody hope not.

Posted at 12:08PM on 18 Feb 09. Permalink.

In today's Questions for Oral Answer:

**12. CLARE CURRAN** to the Minister of Commerce: Does he intend to respond to public concerns expressed about the implementation of section 92A of the Copyright Act, which comes into force next week; if so, what will be his response?

Posted at 12:17PM on 18 Feb 09. Permalink.

Would Rush Limbaugh qualify for immigration? He is an obese drug addict after all.

Indeed. Just a couple of days ago a 135kg American was denied permanent residency due to obesity.

The story suggests the NZIS cut off is a BMI of 35.

Posted at 12:24PM on 18 Feb 09. Permalink.

The story suggests the NZIS cut off is a BMI of 35.

It used to be possible to buy your way into the country regarding of any of that, though. That's how retirees managed to come to these shroes. Is that no longer the case? I doubt that he would lack the funds.

Posted at 12:29PM on 18 Feb 09. Permalink.

regarding = regardless

Posted at 12:30PM on 18 Feb 09. Permalink.

Actually Ben, my theory is that people tend to think well of the period of their lives when they were young, fit, and relatively good looking, whenever it happened.

Definitely occurred to me, so I usually follow up with "what was better about it than the time just before?", to which the response is usually of the type "the parties".

I'm not saying that we should definitely crank up the recession a notch, just so that in feeling the pain we will appreciate life more. It's more of a "it's not quite as disastrous as it might seem from the hype". It would be better if it didn't happen. But maybe it has to happen.

Either way, I'm mostly interested in the extent to which public opinion on the performance of the President on 'solving the recession' is being tracked. It sort of sets up a dynamic in which the performance of the President hangs on being able to sort out something that may actually not be soluble. It also seems to in some strange way absolve the public themselves of their part in the bubble.

Posted at 1:01PM on 18 Feb 09. Permalink.

You could make a fun drinking game out of spotting errors non-stupid subs could have fixed

Except you'd be pissed before you got below the front page fold.

Posted at 1:12PM on 18 Feb 09. Permalink.

If it's journalism, you have a sub-editor!

I agree about the Herald - was reading the paper version of the HOS and found a tonne of glitches - and not that it's journalism, but whatshername Glaucoma's column's particularly full of typos.

Posted at 1:13PM on 18 Feb 09. Permalink.

In today's Questions for Oral Answer:

12. CLARE CURRAN to the Minister of Commerce: Does he intend to respond to public concerns expressed about the implementation of section 92A of the Copyright Act, which comes into force next week; if so, what will be his response?

Does Simon Power have to say much more than "better than my predecessor, who said [insert quote here}"? Of course, he does but I do hope Labour doesn't try to occupy non-existent moral high ground here. As DPF quite properly observed, that's a posture only the Greens can credibly adopt.