Posts by Steve Withers
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Craig R said: "try joining us in the 21st century where women are allowed to have jobs and opinions without a permission slip from their husbands."
While I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment and have first-hand experience of same, based on her writings for over a decade, I doubt Joanne Black and her husband would have too much to argue about......if you know what I mean.
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I used to subscribe to the Listener, then APN bought them and turned it into a lifeboat for NBR and DomPost writers I never wanted to read in the first place. The last straw was an utterly appalling mess under Deborah Hill Cone's name after she took over from Russell Brown. Horrendous. I let the mags pile up unread after that....and the sub lapse.
Nice to know they are still publishing....But while they read like just another corporate-media National party booster rag, I won't be buying.
The 'old' Listener was a different voice I valued because it was different. Now, it's hard to tell the Fairfax / APN publications apart. They all read like neo-liberal house journals.
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This why I have never voted National. Ever. I've voted left and right - but ideology isn't relevant when the party concerned is hostile to democracy and accountability.
The way they have handled the Auckland Super City is all the evidence anyone should need that they dislike democracy intensely. There is no other way to understand the North Shore having two Auckland City councillors....and 4 National MPs.
I could rage on for hours....but won't. I'm clear enough in my own mind that the people who lead the National Party today are not democrats and are working actively to subvert and limit democracy wherever they can.
I swore off them when I watched them all sit on their hands while Muldoon did huge harm to this country. They haven't changed.
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Booze is so easy to make at home, its look like a complete failure of Kiwi ingenuity to get upset because the government wants to make it more expensive.
1 x 20L bucket.
Some chopped fruit
1 kg sugar
add yeast.Cover....but leave room to breathe.
IN a few days strain it...and it will blow your head off.
Any age can do it.
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Having heard talk-back host, John Banks, push the dump button on an endless stream of callers to his show on the former Radio Pacific because they disagreed with him and challenged his views, I have no interest whatever in voting for the man. If he shows respect for the view of others it's not because it is his nature, it's because he sees advantage in doing so.
Not my Mayor. Not even close.
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At home, I use the Chrome beta for Linux alongside the nightly dev builds of Chromium. The difference between the two is amazing. The nightly builds have been blazingly fast lately.
But at work I'm using Chrome on a Windows Server 2008 system. Must read hard news at home. :-)
Or on my Android phone. I can see the flash content now, if there is any, with Android v2.2 on my Nexus One.
It will be in your stats.
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@amdin: John Key was at least an MP for most of two terms prior to becoming the annointed one for National. I don't consider that to be enough experience. But look at what happened with Don Brash - a newbie too far for the Nats.
I agree absolutely that ignorant voters often cast their ballot directly in opposition to their own interests. I call it "noses all over the floor"....they do it in such large numbers.
Then they wonder why their wages are cut, their hours are longer, their jobs went overseas, they face more and rising user charges for things they already pay for in the first place.... and their kids can't afford to go to Uni or can't get a place...and if they don't go, they can't get more than $12.75/hour in some shit job for an employer who demands they arrive 20 minutes early and leave 45 minutes late and not be paid for it.
D'oh. "He's a nice man."
As for mid-wives...the mothers give birth last time I checked. The mid-wives oversee. :-)
The conflicting interests are more usually commerical interests versus residential interests versus environmental/aesthetic considerations versus cash available and so on around the circle/ring of peoples' collective primary focii.
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Electing neo-phytes sounds attractive....but too often ends in impotence and / or lost opportunities. The Mayor is the effective Chair of the Council and needs to get alongside everyone to find a way through to the best possible outcome for the city in question.
Newbies simply are not qualified. They haven't got a clue...and people who vote for newbies are right there with them on that.
I remember when Brian Mulroney - political neophyte and corporate boss - became Prime Minister of Canada having never held any previous elected office. You'd think he'd been elected Dictator for Life the way he carried on.....just as corporate CEO's are used to behaving: giving orders, not consulting and listening only to their mates and backers....not the people are large. By the end of his second term he had destroyed his party and they won 2 seats out of 300+......after having had the largest majority in Canadian history. His legacy still cripples Canada today.
You want someone there who understands what democracy is (too many do not) and who has worked through those processes and understands they aren't there to dictate.....they are there to lead, listen and facilitate.
Mid-wives to good outcomes.
You wouldn't let an untrained inexperienced person oversee the birth of your children.....and just as certainly you don't want them trying to run a large, complex structure with many diverse and conflicting interests with no previous expereience.
Newbies just can't do that 999 times out of a thousand. I'm not feeling lucky enough to try it.
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I'm unruffled by anything Len Brown has said so far. Yes, he's outraged and disturbed by the NZ Herald's apparent campaign against him - who wouldn't be?
I find Brown to be sincere / genuine and even when he does the heart-dumps, the values they implicitly convey are - to me - worthy values. His obvious passion for his job and his mission is inspiring, to be honest.
As for Mr. Banks, I've never been a John Banks fan - ever. I used to wonder what the people in Whangarei were smoking to consistently re-elect such a person. This will be the first time in my life I actually get to directly NOT vote for John Banks.
Hurrah!
With gusto.....I'll be voting for Brown.
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It's been obvious for several years now that the NZ Herald can't be regarded as a reliable or credible source of news on political matters. Examples are legion even off the top of my head. I'll type as long as I can without going on too long (I hope):
1. Ignoring the cost / risks of doing nothing on climate change while talking constantly about the cost of addressing it.
2. Almost entirely ignoring climate change as an issue until AFTER the 2008 elections.
Both of these were clearly intended to advantage the National Party in the elections and a conservative agenda generally.
3. The two-supplements on consecutive Saturdays before the 2008 elections paying homage to National party leader John Key. Unprecented in my 40 years of observing print media in several countries.
Generally, the Herald can be relied upon to downplay news that is bad for the conservative agenda and play up news that is good for the conservative agenda.
This has become so predictable that when they published a poll recently showing Len Brown leading John Banks by eleven points, I knew - and said so at the time - there would be a media-driven (mainly the NZ Herald) smear campaign against Brown intended to promote the chance of the NZ Herald's clear favourtie, John Banks.
Similarly, when the last Colmar-Brunton polls showed a sharp dip in support for National, I knew - and said so at the time - there would me a media-driven campaign to redress that drop.
Right on cue, the NZ Herald behaved as predicted.
Journalists like to say if everyone hates them, they probably have it about right. In this case, it simply doesn't wash. It's not big deal to conjure up a few conservative voices to "criticise" whatever appears to present the impression of balance. lay that to one side what it is going is staringly obvious: overseas billionaire media owners are picking winners in the NZ political contest...and they will attempt to secure even more control in 2011 by villifying MMP......which in reality is the only thing standing in their way.
They don't have to tell their local editors what to write if they hire the Right editors. Simple as that. I learned that from Rupert Murdoch years ago.
Nothing new here. What is amazing is people's reluctance to see it for what it is: corrupt.