Recent Blog Posts (RSS)
Busytown: Testing, 1 2 3 5:53PM on 9 Feb 10
Island Life: What I saw at the step change. 4:36PM on 9 Feb 10
OnPoint: Updated: GST compensation: Can be done? 4:06PM on 9 Feb 10
Field Theory: The Sevens (the bit I missed) 10:36AM on 9 Feb 10
Speaker: The Treaty and Me 2:22PM on 8 Feb 10
View all posts on Public Address
Ads by Scoop
Public Address Cafe (RSS)
System > Public Address Cafe >
Public Address
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 1612
Hard News: Strange Southern Superman
Predictably, Tim Shadbolt was on full noise as he claimed credit yesterday for the Southern Institute of Technology's receipt of $6.5 million from the Quality Reinvestment Fund:
Jolisa
From: Northeast US
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 710
First!
Yikes. "Douchebags" is right. I don't think brownface is any funnier than blackface. [insert hypocritical disparaging remark about New Jersey here]. Or is this some misguided attempt at stylin' ethnic pride, akin to the sunbed girls of Japan and their identification with African American culture? I'm confused!
WS
From: Christchurch
Since: May 2007
Posts: 8
Tim tim tim..what happened to ya mate ?
Feeling a strong urge to email Tim and express my dismay at his defection to the Dark Side I googled him and ended up at this page :
http://www.icc.govt.nz/index.cfm?54C3870D-DADA-2AB5-90F3-CA58026BE6A1
WTF ??? Nothing works and it looks to me like an advert for Tim's After Dinner Speaking Services
If this is the best Invergiggle can do ...
MikeE
From: Kingsland
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 94
I actually know of a Dubstep producer who has a track called "Jersey Bay Guido"...
Made me laugh (if anyone searches for it, its on myspace, the artist being "Claw Dubs")
Che Tibby
From: the back of an envelope
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 1523
WOOT!!
not often i get to say this...
pipped at the post there mr brown.
douchebags? funniest site of 2007.
Che Tibby
From: the back of an envelope
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 1523
not that being the first to notice a slew of self-obsessed umpa-loompa is anything to crow about too much...
Kyle Matthews
From: Dunedin
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 4281
There's much more at Barstool Sports.
The wedding photo at the bottom is the best. How would you feel if your brother turned up for your wedding photos looking like that? I'm surprised you can't see the slap marks on each cheek.
barnaclebarnes
From: Auckland
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 54
Having spent 2 1/2 years living in the armpit of America (New Jersey) I can confirm that this is par for the course. Spending time at the Jersey Shore in summer is an experience not to be missed. Paying 8USD to sit on the beach and people watch puts what we have in NZ in perspective.
Andrew Wilson
From: Aberdeen, UK
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 13
The Guido thing rolled through Something Awful a few months back - I couldn't stop looking at the pictures :)
Paul Williams
From: Sydney
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 1333
I'm pleased that the SIT situation is resolved. SIT's strategy made good sense when demand-driven funding encouraged all institutions to grow by relocating to large population centres and homogenise their products.
I know many advocates of demand-driven funding argue that market approaches lead to better allocative efficiency, which may be true, but was not what was happening; instead there were all manner of frankly faddish programmes being offered with very low labour market outcomes. A classic is in fact from CPIT which pumped hundreds of kids through fashion/design courses that didn't include commercial garment construction and meant few were employable (this particular example I've heard from both the Apparel and Textile Training Organisation and Karen Walker herself).
The new approach to allocating funding may not be perfect, but it at least balances individual aspirations with the needs of the labour market.
Ben Austin
From: London
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 623
Oh man those links were depressing, but this made up for it.
daleaway
Since: Jul 2007
Posts: 178
The Hot Chicks with Douchebags site's message was spelled out long ago by Robert Graves:
Why have such scores of lovely, gifted girls
Married impossible men?
Simple self-sacrifice may be ruled out,
And missionary endeavour, nine times out of ten.
Repeat 'impossible men': not merely rustic,
Foul-tempered or depraved
(Dramatic foils chosen to show the world
How well women behave, and always have behaved).
Impossible men: idle, illiterate,
Self-pitying, dirty, sly,
For whose appearance even in City parks
Excuses must be made to casual passers-by.
Has God's supply of tolerable husbands
Fallen, in fact, so low?
Or do I always over-value woman
At the expense of man?
Do I?
It might be so.
Jake Pollock
From: Itinerant
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 363
HotChicksWithDouchebags gets linked to on Public Address. My habitual web-browsing circle is complete.
Ben Austin
From: London
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 623
Oh and lets not forget the Australian Parliament is being opened today - hooray for the ABC
Paul Williams
From: Sydney
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 1333
The parliamentary opening is the first in Australia's history to include a "welcome to country" ceremony... it's only the 42nd parliament...
Adrian Wills
From: Parnell, Auckland
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 41
Hotchickswithdouchebags.com = My new favourite website...
How fantastic... someone even points out that in one pic, the guy has a traditional Maori WOMAN's tattoo on his chin. Pure gold.
Ben Austin
From: London
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 623
Well Rudd threw down the gauntlet - will be hard not to do something similar for every future opening
Idiot Savant
From: Palmerston North
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 1197
Looks like Ghet will be getting her housing affordability policy. And it looks pretty good, focusing on the real problem: the supply of affordable homes (as opposed to palazzos). Since the market isn't providing them, the government will be building them directly, as well as promoting the not-for-profit housing sector. Throw in a shared-equity scheme, and it looks like a fairly comprehensive solution, and certainly more likely to achieve its objectives than the right's blind faith in the free market.
Gareth Ward
From: Auckland, NZ
Since: Mar 2007
Posts: 1377
Looks like Ghet will be getting her housing affordability policy.
Slightly off-topic, but am curious how shared equity became the headline of that leaked speech - I read the full transcript and there is ONE sentence on it that is actually the 3rd or 4th point of the housing affordability section.
Understand if it was from an official release and the PM's office primed them - but presumedly with a leaked speech all you get is the transcript? So how did that become the huge thing - because now the Herald has led with it, it will become the scene-setter amongst all sides I should think...
Idiot Savant
From: Palmerston North
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 1197
Because housing affordability is a big issue, and of particular interest to underpaid Auckland journalists.
Meanwhile, the circus has begun. "Tired", "out of touch", "waste", "tax cuts". Lots of "we will", but no details on how. You could turn this into a drinking game (and I'm already wishing I had).
At least Winston is entertaining.
Russell Brown
From: Auckland
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 8828
Moderator
And such is the Herald's love affair, it appears, with John Key that the website story on the speech is topped with pictures of both the person who gave it and the saintly Mr Key, even though he is not actually mentioned in the story.
I think this is going to be an interesting test of the Herald's editorial voice, because the housing affordability package looks detailed and technically sound to me. Might the Herald's leader column actually say something positive about the government?
Paul Litterick has a good post on Fran O'Sullivan's last column, where she took what should be a centre-right good news story (more money on roads for Auckland) and resorted to just plain making things up in order to imply that Clark was doing something underhand. About par for a partisan right-wing blog, but embarrassing for the paper of record ...
Gareth Ward
From: Auckland, NZ
Since: Mar 2007
Posts: 1377
Yes, it's amazing to see the comments spark off about how this is going to make people who already own houses so wealthy, when if anyone actually read the speech or the Scoop releases now backing it up, they'd see that the shared equity scheme (a small part of the plan) is only for new builds.
Imagine it will look something like the UK model where new large-scale development projects have some percentage as affordable housing, and some of those are shared ownership with the government.
Not such a bad scheme all up. We seem to vacillate between urban design mania that demands high standards for anything built and limiting the creep of the city on the one hand, and clamouring for free-for-all-development with no costs or pesky restraints. Any walking of the middle ground is tough to pull off but this seems reasonable, if not ground-breaking.
Emma Hart
From: Christchurch
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 2554
Moderator
Looks like Ghet will be getting her housing affordability policy.
I am SO impressed with your memory.
Now, about that cheese...
Russell Brown
From: Auckland
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 8828
Moderator
The demented anger in the comments under Vernon Small's Stuff blog on the speech is unbelievable.
There is the inevitable claim that "New zealand is one of the few socialist (communist) countries left in the world," of course. Yes, that'll be why we've never been out of the Heritage Foundation's Economic Freedom Index ...
If National does become government later this year, they should be worried about having to meet the expectations of the raving nutter vote.
But Small is prey to curious narratives too. "Politically it is obviously an attempt to counter the compassionate conservatism that is becoming a hallmark of John Key’s leadership," he writes. Um, is there some policy with that, or just a lot of soft press and photo-ops?
Idiot Savant
From: Palmerston North
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 1197
Now, about that cheese...
What we need is government provision of cows.
A S
From: Wellington
Since: Nov 2007
Posts: 225
if anyone actually read the speech or the Scoop releases now backing it up, they'd see that the shared equity scheme (a small part of the plan) is only for new builds.
I don't think it is only for new builds. The release by the Minister of Housing implies that it is targeted at high cost areas, rather than to new builds only.
The key problem all of this raises for me, is what effect will increasing the competition for the cheapest (comparatively speaking) houses in a particular area actually have on prices?
Will the people selling cotton on that this increases the level of competition for their house, and thus the potential to hold out for a higher price, or will they consider that they shouldn't seek to capitalise on the extra cash that might float their way?
I hope that normal human nature doesn't kick in, but I suspect it will....
Gareth Ward
From: Auckland, NZ
Since: Mar 2007
Posts: 1377
The demented anger in the comments under Vernon Small's Stuff blog on the speech is unbelievable.
I'm sure this topic has been covered a hundred times here, but I'm still a little floored by just how demented so much commentary is around NZ politics.
I like to think I'm not some Victorian-young-lady-of-the-internet-age who is easily shocked, and I know there are nutters who take advantage of anomie and "go off", but I still end up a little slack-jawed around so much of this...
Idiot Savant
From: Palmerston North
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 1197
The demented anger in the comments under Vernon Small's Stuff blog on the speech is unbelievable.
Only if you never read the comments at Kiwiblog. In addition to raving, the nutters also rove.
dc_red
From: City of Champions, Canada
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 595
But Small is prey to curious narratives too. "Politically it is obviously an attempt to counter the compassionate conservatism that is becoming a hallmark of John Key’s leadership," he writes. Um, is there some policy with that, or just a lot of soft press and photo-ops?
Sheesh, Russell, what more do you want from the man? Don't you remember he was nice to that small girl in that dodgy street in Phil Goff's electorate a while back?
And since then he's further advanced his compassionate and conservative credentials by, umm................
David Slack
From: Devonport
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 582
Moderator
What we need is government provision of cows.
I draw your attention to an old post of mine, and the words of George Bernard Shaw:
I just want to ask: why not distribute it freely? This is very important in New Zealand. A little loss on milk doesn't matter. It is of enormous importance that all your children should be a generation reared from first class children. When you have done this, when you have distributed free milk, which is just as possible as free water, I would then suggest that you should go on from free milk to free bread. If you have free bread, and anybody can go to a store and get it, such a thing as a hungry child will be impossible in New Zealand.
Idiot Savant
From: Palmerston North
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 1197
The key problem all of this raises for me, is what effect will increasing the competition for the cheapest (comparatively speaking) houses in a particular area actually have on prices?
Which is why the other half of the policy is about the government increasing the supply of such homes. if the market won't provide, then the state will ahve to.
Please login to post a reply.