Hard News: Little pieces of a big picture
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Don't like Prebbleton does they.
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3410,
Given that those who needed it most didn't have electricity, I'm guessing they were glued to their battery radios anyway
That's true, of course. It's just that the tone seemed a bit tailored for the rest of us, rather than the locals.
Islander,
Sorry, yes; Canterbury. -
A woman on the radio yesterday opined that the Te Papa earthquake simulator was nothing like the real thing, which was much, much more violent.
It's a while since I'd been in that simulator, but personally I was glad I had. The real one wasn't so frightening when you knew it would be noisy.
TVNZ's studio is round the corner from my work - between Gloucester and Manchester. When I went walking on Saturday morning it wasn't roped off - but it's about 100m ish from the junction where the jewellery shop on the ground floor and Alva Rados on the top floor.
TV3 I think is in Kilmore, almost opposite where the Repertory Theatre Green Room wall fell into the street. It was open to walk past too - so it may be more a function of power/backup generator availability than being within the cordon - in fact I don't think that side of Kilmore was ever within the cordon.
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went back to the scheduled Saturday Morning With Kim Hill at about 10.30, didn't it? I know Mark Cubey, Kim's producer, was making good use of the internet and Twitter in particular while they were doing their coverage, and they did brilliantly -- but they were also sitting in a studio next to a fully operational newsroom in Wellington taking reports over the phone. It's a different medium.
Radio New Zealand went back to "regular" programming around 10.10, actually, after an extended news bulletin. Felt a bit weird; IMHO we should have kept going with the uh, rolling news. But I don't run News (if I did, just before Sport, we'd have a new section, "And now, Crime").
The newsroom was a lot busier than most Saturdays, for sure. I just took a backseat, covering texts, emails, Twitter, Facebook and feeding any prospects to the news team.
Best text was the one asking if weddings and other functions were still happening.
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So then... who else felt this one?
http://www.geonet.org.nz/earthquake/quakes/3368099g.html
Sure, it's tiny, but some of us have been feeling left out.
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A vaguely Aussie friend posts this image of looky-loos checking out the quake damage
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*nice* photshopping!
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Oh, it happened! A press release from people who really should be allowed to just keep on talking.
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Oh, it happened! A press release from people who really should be allowed to just keep on talking.
What, right through their arse? In Parliament today there was definitely a push from Labour to help everyone, with mention from Goff that if the people of SCF could be bailed, then everyone in CHCH could be assisted with lost wages and support for their damaged homes.Good on Labour.
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nice to know we won't even have to waste any of our own rope on them Emma...
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My first instinct when I read it was I wanted to "kick" the bastard. (Substitute any other physical contact for "kick"). But my symapthy meme set in and I have calmed down now.
Like hell.
How can this prick sleep at night?
He has never been to a public hospital??? Probably born in a log cabin which he helped his father to build. Nah. He didn't even get there. Probably picked up from a cess pit.
I wonder if he has insurance? Which has to be the biggest bloody socialist activity ever invented by fucking capitalists.
If he was bleeding I would have great difficulty stopping to patch him up. But I would.
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apparently those 'coon-skin hats cause some sort of brain contact rabies or something ....
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It is sometimes a little difficult to remain polite in the face of infantile provocation, but I am doing it by envisaging the ways a $50 note can be made into a killing weapon: tightly-rolled lengthwise, with some epoxy-resin, and sharpened at one end, we have a pencil substitute (through cornea into brain.) With a spongiform-foam, crammed down a throat.
More suggestions needed....*
*GAAAHHH! These creatures are wasting our valuable air! -
And right off the Libertarians Home page
That individuals should be left free to make their own choices in life, but should be held responsible for the consequences of their actions .
That people are essentially benevolent, and that charity is a virtue.
That the government is there to protect people against aggressive force but should otherwise be inconspicuous
Gosh. Who chose you to be born?
Who set off the Earthquake? Noddy?
If an "aggressive Force" ain't a freaking earthquake, what the F*&K is?
be·nev·o·lent –adjective
1. characterized by or expressing goodwill or kindly feelings: a benevolent attitude; her benevolent smile.
2. desiring to help others; charitable: gifts from several benevolent alumni.
3. intended for benefits rather than profit: a benevolent institution.Yeah rIght.
He doesn't even know what he said.
What an arsehole.
Sorry for that PASers. Not like me at all...... -
And he is a Doctor!!! Of medicine! I wonder how long his patient list is???
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And he is a Doctor!!! Of medicine!
Along with Dr Crippen.
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And he is a Doctor!!! Of medicine!
And he pledged fifty dollars! Oh his own money! The man's generosity knows no bounds!
Fifty dollars, wow. The eyes of Cantabrian children will be sparkling tonight. Who has ever even seen fifty dollars...
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What an arsehole.
Ross, you're just not reading the Libertarianz right. You have to read them as comedy. They're gold.
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[an aside] Julia Gillard wins (sort of!)
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After taking on board comments by others about the seeming inequality brought about by the need for house insurance to qualify for assistance from EQC, I have given the matter a great deal of thought.
In the first instance I thought about the origin of the fund and the fact that after the end of WW2 the fund went from being a war damage fund to what is now known as the Natural Disaster Fund (1).
This seemed to point to the fact that, as such, this fund has become general property of the people, in as much as that the fund has passed through generations rather than just the lifetime of those that have paid into the fund. This being so and the fact that you may go through several generations without a major disaster, it seems wrong that someone who has just started insuring their property is entitled to payment whereas someone who has paid insurance for most of their working life and now finds that they can no longer afford such payments, is not entitled. This just seems wrong.
Seeing as a house is the largest investment most people will make in their lives, surely, this investment should not be considered as less important than an investment made from disposable income for, even something as important as retirement funds, let alone a business investment.
It would not take a complex bill through parliament to fix this anomaly.
There is already provision in the Earthquake Commission Act of 1993 to cover any deficiencyDeficiency in Fund
If the assets of the Commission (including the money for the time being in the Fund) are not sufficient to meet the liabilities of the Commission, the Minister shall, without further appropriation than this section, provide to the Commission out of public money such sums by way of grant or advance as may be necessary to meet the deficiency upon such terms and conditions as the Minister determines.
I still have reservations about Local Authorities collecting payments and even more about them holding such funds but that maybe more acceptable than compulsory insurance.
As for those that think this is not the job of Government to look after its more vulnerable citizens I would suggest they move to Australia and stop telling the rest of us what to do. -
Scott Hamilton blogs on the response to the earthquake. Read the whole piece, it draws interesting conclusions, but this part seems especially apposite:
The response to the disaster in Christchurch is a lesson in what the state can achieve when it acts in the interests of vulnerable communities, and draws on the knowledge and muscle of these communities. The political right is fond of denigrating the state by arguing that it is inevitably corrupt and inefficient. For decades, the propagandists of right-wing organisations like Act and the Business Roundtable have been telling us that salvation lies in the weakening of the state, the farming out of even emergency services, and the tearing up of laws that limit what we can do to our physical and natural environment. It's unlikely, though, that we'll hear Rodney Hide or Don Brash telling us that the state shouldn't have led the response to the Christchurch quake, or that the absence of tough building regulations and the Environment Management Act would have protected the city better from the quake. They know that such arguments would be roundly mocked.
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But Wait... There's More
Before the War Damage Fund was even considered there was the Hawke's Bay Earthquake Relief Funds Act 1931 which was enacted to co-ordinate the distribution of " Funds raised wholly or partly by Private Subscription for the Benefit of Persons injuriously affected by the Hawke's Bay Earthquake." so those that HAARP (see what I did there) on about Individual Lberty™ and complain that this is not the business of Government can, as I said, F*#k off to Aus F#*@kin' Stralia.
Yes, Richard McGrath, I'm lookin' at you. -
So the PM has cancelled his trip to Europe and thus his speech at the LSE next week. Probably the right choice but it would have been interesting to hear him speak all the same
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Blimey !, there's some shocking mug-shots on that Libertarianz site.
One or two axe-murderers and cat-stranglers by the looks of it.
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One or two axe-murderers and cat-stranglers by the looks of it.
Indeed. Whilst we are on that subject.
How about Bob "The Re-Builder" Parker with those, permanently "Rolled Up" sleeves?
I can hear the PR guy now "and roll those sleeves up when you're on camera Bob, it makes you look more "Hands On" as we say"
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