Hard News: Popular Paranoiac Politics
171 Responses
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giovanni tiso, in reply to
While there are many downsides to the name "Test Test", you do receive a copy of almost every mailing and trial product ever sent.
The chap's my neighbour. He has a panda bear named "George Robinson".
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nzlemming, in reply to
A panda conspiracist??? OMG we're doomed.!
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BenWilson, in reply to
They're all conspiracists, lemming. All those clandestine meetings gave them their characteristic dark rings around the eyes.
Edit: Ooops I guess I meant conspirators.
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I can’t believe we’ve got this far without mentioning Zenith Applied Philosophy, which always strikes as the ultimate in extreme cultdom, being that it actually infers on the believers a sense that they are genuinely a higher being (or at least can become one). I don’t know what it was about Christchurch in the early 80s, but from what I’ve heard, it seemed to have a surprisingly fervent (if small) group of followers, with one Dave Henderson being one of its more notable members.
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Matthew Littlewood, 'inculcate' rather that 'infer' (__I__ think) - and Henderson is yet another outed exploiter following ZAP's guildelines...they stank around CHCH in the 1970's & 80's, and the fartemission is still high-
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Joe Wylie, in reply to
I don’t know what it was about Christchurch in the early 80s . . .
It was the centre of the universe.
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That website is quite incredible. I always suspected there was something different about Christchurch…
I think this bit is my favourite:To most Cantabrians, ‘Zenith Applied Philosophy’ (Z.A.P or Zappers) public persona, was its high profile ‘open all hours’ fast food outlets - that proliferated central Christchurch in its heyday, the late 70’s and 1980’s.
Luigi’s Pizza, The Dog House in ‘the square’, Farmer John’s Burger Bar in Papanui Road, The American Burger Bar, The Sandwich Factory, Roasters Restaurant etc.
Z.A.P members were also enthusiastic proselytisers around the streets of Christchurch at this time, approaching strangers with open-ended questions like “are you worried about communists taking over New Zealand?” or simply “do you enjoy reading?”.
How could you resist? Oh, and thanks for the clarification, Islander.
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Joe Wylie, in reply to
How could you resist?
According to a first-hand account from someone who was lured to a phoney lecture on "zen buddhism" back in the 70s, the sight of lecturer John "Ultimate" Dalhoff's massive gut overhanging his Levis proved highly resistable.
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But, this being the internet, the truth is still out there:
It's really impressive when the myth about the Moriori is the most accurate thing in a list of whackjob beliefs.
At last a chance for all those who were considered for Dancing With the Stars, but were rejected because they couldn’t dance.
I don't think you've actually watched Dancing with the Stars. Dancing ability not necessarily required - Rodney Hide for example.
While there are many downsides to the name “Test Test”, you do receive a copy of almost every mailing and trial product ever sent.
And you get to feel special when the roadie does sound check.
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The term “politically correct” is an oxymoron and inappropriate. How can anything derived from or associated with the political sphere or process be correct or appropriate? Political outcomes are mostly always never optimal.
The dilemma is illustrated in the range of scenarios that one can consider arise from the phrases, “giving your dog a bone”, “giving your dog a rubber bone “ and “giving your rubber dog a bone”. It is the circumstance associated with or that give rise to the phrase that are the nitty-gritty of the matter and not the phrase itself.
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David R, in reply to
I usually just treat them with respect as I would any other person and tell them I am not interested.
Did I do the abusing evangelicals story right? -
“ are you worried about
communists taking over New Zealand?”Only insofar as they might fail.
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I would like to point out that Christchurch's ZAP period and general rightwing fruitery-and-nuttery was largely restricted to the eighties. In the late eighties, there was a Great Permian Extinction of sorts after 1987. Lots of Christian Right and raving right outfits went out of commission when the Lange administration won its second term. ZAP seems to have dekitsched to Auckland.
I popped into the Western Destiny Bookshop to read the odd Robert Heinlein novel back in the eighties, before I became more notorious in my own right. Have to say I was somewhat bemused by the propaganda lying around there. It certainly wasn't all libertarian. Some of it was from the US John Birch Society and even the Australian League of Rights. Which is odd, because the ALOR* is anti-monetarist as much as it's neofascist. Leaving me to conclude that the raving right is prehensile when it comes to the question of economic policies.
*The NZLOR is dead.
Craig Y
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All right, yes, there was the CHP, Maxim Institute and Right to Life NZ afterward, but RTLNZ is the only one left at the moment.
Craig Y
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And...
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__Do not calle up that wych ye cannot put downe__
- H P Lovecraft, The Dunwich Horror.and
IA! IA!
PH’NGLUI M’GLUNAFPH DON BRASH OREWA ROTARY CLUB WAGH NAGL F’TAGHN!
THE STARS ARE NIGH TO COMING INTO THEIR RIGHT ALIGN, LO!
THE GREAT OLD ONE SHALL ARISE FROM BEING DEAD-BUT-DREAMING!
WOE UNTO YE WHO UNBELIEVE!
THE THING THAT SHOULD NOT BE, HE RISES!
IA! DON BRASH F’TAGHN!Now here's something that would
be hard to put down...A panda conspiracist??? OMG we’re doomed.!
Black and White
and Red all over? -
The Name of the Roadies *
And you get to feel special when the
roadie does sound check....and if you are of the Emo /Goth persuasion
the roadie will give you the special attribution
of "Test test, wan too..."* Is it Lola?
an Umberto Umberto Echo? -
@ Craig Y: unfortunately, although movements like the ones you've mentioned have dissolved, a lot of them seem to regroup under different umbrellas with slicker PR machines, like FF, FtSoOC, et al. The SPCS still exists even after Patty Bartlett left the scene.
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Yes, but in the case of the Christian Right, the recession is having a decided effect. Family First and Right to Life New Zealand are the only ones showing any semblance of activity. SPCS does still exist but it's slumped in a corner, trying to smuggle copies of Bunyan's "Pilgrims Progress" into prisons at present.
Craig Y
PS:
IA! IA!
PH’NGLUI M’GLUNAFPH MAD MOO CENTRE FOR POLITICAL 'RESEARCH WAGH NAGL F’TAGHN!
THE STARS ARE NIGH TO COMING INTO THEIR RIGHT ALIGN, LO!
THE GREAT OLD BORE SHALL ARISE FROM BEING DEAD-BUT-DREAMING! (IE: LIVING IN WHANGAREI)
WOE UNTO YE WHO UNBELIEVE!
THE THING THAT SHOULD NOT BE, SHE RISES!
IA! MOORIEL NEWMAN F’TAGHN!Craig Y
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Russell Brown, in reply to
I can’t believe we’ve got this far without mentioning Zenith Applied Philosophy, which always strikes as the ultimate in extreme cultdom, being that it actually infers on the believers a sense that they are genuinely a higher being (or at least can become one). I don’t know what it was about Christchurch in the early 80s, but from what I’ve heard, it seemed to have a surprisingly fervent (if small) group of followers, with one Dave Henderson being one of its more notable members.
Also, former Act vice-pres and anti-commie-panty-sniffer Trevor Loudon still proclaims himself a "student" of ZAP. No other party would elect someone as nutty as that to national office.
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3410,
“are you worried about
communists taking over New Zealand?”Yes. Like Fran O'Sullivan, I am most concerned about...
an increasingly socialist-minded New Zealand
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Sam F, in reply to
an increasingly socialist-minded New Zealand
In the words of Dan Sloan, commenting on this story via Facebook:
I look forward to living in a world with interest on student loans, 20% GST, means-tested retirement and where house prices escalate to preserve current returns after a CGT has been deducted. Oh wait, no I don't. Too bad anyone born after 1980, we're baby-boomer collateral damage.
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Kumara Republic, in reply to
In the words of Dan Sloan, commenting on this story via Facebook:
I look forward to living in a world with interest on student loans, 20% GST, means-tested retirement and where house prices escalate to preserve current returns after a CGT has been deducted. Oh wait, no I don't. Too bad anyone born after 1980, we're baby-boomer collateral damage.
And I equally look forward to bodyguards and barbed wire contractors becoming the new plumbers.
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What's with all these people saying Auckland should fund the whole tunnel by flogging off assets? NZ's been down the "short-term cash, long-term pain" path before, and it hasn't ended well. How many billions a year do we send to Aussie banks' shareholders?
Why didn't she suggest that Northland stump up some asset sales to fund their own damned highway for holiday-makers?
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Sacha, in reply to
The "sell public assets" cry is hardly novel for unrecosntructed neolib tossers from the time of big shouldered suits and bigger hair. They have no shame about repeating their exhortations to faith despite real-world evidence of failure. You'd think the biggest economic collapse for 80 years might have brought some humility.
Solid analysis by Joshua Arbury of the comparative economic cases of the Auckland train tunnel and Puhoi holiday highway - with clip of further recent bullshittery by the Minister in Parliament.
In short, while the CBD tunnel is definitely the more expensive project, its benefits – no matter which way you measure them, are enormously greater than the benefits of the Puhoi-Wellsford road. Under none of the scenarios for including wider economic benefits does the holiday highway make economic sense, just as under all the scenarios we see the CBD Rail Tunnel making economic sense.
There are other matters that make me think Puhoi-Wellsford’s cost benefit ratio is enormously inflated (like the unrealistic time savings and the fact that the effects of tolling haven’t been considered), but even with the most generous interpretation of that project’s economic benefits, it simply can’t compare to the CBD Rail Tunnel on all measures.
So why are we building it first again?
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