Posts by Ian Dalziel
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Polity: TPP, eh?, in reply to Alfie,
This surrendering of any pretence of due process can only lead to one conclusion. That the outcome has been predetermined.
Pushing things through 'under urgency' - it's the National way....
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Hard News: Dirty Politics, in reply to Alfie,
New Zealand deserves better than this
I tire of his constant avoiding the present and revisiting the past - case in point over the current tax laws - rather than address the problem that has arisen, he does his shouty Question Time routine about how the laws were introduced by Labour - That was then, this now - no one asked for a history lesson - he is leader of the incumbent Government, a problem has developed with a law that he has to administer, just get on with it instead of wasting time with bluster and childlike pointless point scoring!
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hark! The Herald angles…
Meanwhile back at the NZ Herald slackness still rules the roost two of their ‘name’ columnists turn in poor work: Barry Soper thinks Key plays golf with an ex Israeli Prime Minister (Ehud Barak)Winston Peters raised the hackles in a blazing attack against Barak’s golfing buddy,
That’d be ‘Barack’ (Obama) Barry to his friends, Barry…
…and Brian Rudman launches into an attack on The Nation’s piece on the history of some of our urban statuary and memorials, I suspect without watching the segment in question (and probably spurred on by an equally ill-conceived piece on the whale oil blag – it’s not a blog really is it) – nowhere in the Phil Vine TV piece do they advocate pulling these statues down, in fact they basically say what Rudman wants them to say – which is we should know who these people are and their stories so we learn from the past.
Rudman should just write in the comments section, he’d fit in there with all the other shallow reading reactionaries…
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air ear…
Reef Radio
Sounds like a good listen.
No web presence I suppose – can’t find any playable streams…I’ve been occasionally listening to Blue Mountains Radio 89.1 from Katoomba on line, Paul’s Boutique/Party at 6pm (oz time) on a Tuesday is pretty darn funky!
Hosted by ex-pat Paul Gifford. -
Hard News: Approved by lunchtime, in reply to Matthew Hooton,
it’s all Greek to me…
We’re a democracy not a sciencocracy and the demos are entitled to be slow to reach conclusions
Well done on the neologism ‘sciencocracy’, I’m guessing you meant scientocracy, still a bit of neologism itself, but I don’t think it means what you think it means, it isn’t a rule by scientists.
Scientocracy is the practice of basing public policies on science.
How can any clear thinking person have a problem with ‘evidence based public policy’ – which would obviously be based on ‘advice’ from those best equipped to give it.
I don’t see how the ‘demos’ need to be part of that ‘advice’ process as by the very nature of a democracy they have elected responsible representatives to ease this burden in the face of their ignorance – it’s not a science plebiscite anyone is advocating.Your description of one of the ‘road blocks’ to evidence based decision making’ could also run like this: ‘the fat, lazy, overpaid, underwonked Wellington policy class’.
I suspect you are more of the ’policy-based evidence making’ school at heart.
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intimidation nation...
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/78588657/dirty-politics-author-nicky-hager-takes-further-legal-action-against-policeIn a statement on Tuesday, Hager announced he had filed further High Court proceedings after police released documents to him in February under the Privacy Act, revealing they had obtained his travel information from airlines.
The statement said police asked airlines who Hager was travelling with, where and when he was travelling, and how the flights were being paid for, all to "identify Mr Hager's confidential informants". -
Hard News: Dirty Politics, in reply to izogi,
I have mixed feelings about this thread being used for any and every generic gripe people have about the current government,
Perhaps we just need to have a ‘the usual suspects’ or ‘gripe water’ catch-all thread opened, but I’m not sure if all readers here come through the ‘PA System’ or ‘Cafe’ door, I always look for something recent with passing relevance to comment on – so apologies for thread-jacks in the past in that case.
I’m guessing there will be a ‘Kiwi Tax Haven’ thread along soon…
… I am surprised that John Key was surprised. -
Despite all their own shortcomings in this department The NZ Herald still makes a story out of the Met Service site having a few typos .
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11616531 -
the 'Can't be Stuffed Department' continues...
Today they have a big feature on Peru
with promoting links like:Peruse pulsating Peru
Peru is as complex as its most intricate and exquisite weavings.Yet the story is headlined:
More to pulsating Pura than magnificent Machu Picchu
http://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/destinations/south-america/78376673/more-to-pulsating-pura-than-magnificent-machu-picchuI can find no evidence of Pura being another name for Peru.
Sub editors seem to have joined the legendary city builders that preceded the Inca - a lost race with mythical skills...
This thread is starting to turn into the wonderfully funny book we used to keep in The Press proofreaders room - which recorded the errors we stopped and also the ones we missed - in a special hall of shame. I wonder what became of that after the machines took our jobs.
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