Posts by Steve Withers
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I bought a Freeview terrestrial box last weekend and now have perfect reception on all the channels it provides.
My bunny ears had delivered 2, 3 and 4 well and the rest fair to poor. Not it's all good.
Looking forward to seeing Media & as it is meant to be seen - on the telly.
:-)
TVNZ 7 is showing a lot of promise. Keep up the great work!
Steve
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Re the polls: My own observation on polls is that for years the Colmar-Brunton poll favoured National by 6 to 8 points.
Then, the (overtly pro-National) Fairfax Media group began publishing polls that tend mirror the C-B poll result.
Then, the (overtly pro-National) Herald also published the Herald-Digipoll that also mirrors the C-B poll.
But Roy Morgan and the TNS polls tend to provide quite different results to the other three.
The Roy Morgan poll has been consistently the most accurate over time. The C-B poll (and now its mirrors) have tended to favour Naitonal by 6 to 8 points right up to the day we vote.....and then they (may) narrow toward the actual result - presumably in order to reain some tiny measure of cred in saying they 'called" the election.....never mind they were way out of the park for the other 2 years and 11 months.
The C-B poll bias to naiotnal is a matter of public record for several elections now.....roughly -> ever since Labour became the leading party in Government.
This isn't written about much in the press because they are all owned by the media commissioning the polls....and Fairfax and APN favour National.
The ListenNBR once wrote a story about the flakey polls, but as far as I know, have not done so since APN bought them.
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One the main post: Whoever has been writing the Herald editorials appears to most often be yearning for a National win and chiding the Nats for not being radical enough. The theme that voters must be lied to and mislead for their own good is a persistent one. With that in mind, it is no surprise that the Herald loves the National Party and devoted last week to a series that was little more than a pamphlet / day for the Nats.......starting with "Swing to the Right" Saturday before last, while reporting what was, until then, the lowest poll for the Nats in months. But together with the Morgan poll and the TV3 poll today, perhaps the Herald's 43.5% for the Nats was the early indication of a shift being bedded.
But the Herald made excuses for that poor showng and described the swing to the left as a swing to the right.
Par for the course at the Herald these days.
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May I suggest that those most keen to do away with parole be given jobs in our prisons? I'd like to see them front up every day to people who have no hope of getting out early (after several / many years)for "good behaviour".
Granted the numbers are small if this one change was brought in. But the bidding war will be underway........won't it.
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Re: Stephen Franks - I'm always fascinated by the way self-styled champions of self-reliance and initiative steadfastly refuse to accept the responsibility for the dumb things they say.
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Given the way things have gone for the past decade, it is almost certain that what needs to be done will be what is not done. Despite the Tech Crash in 2000, Bush went ahead with his tax cuts in 2001 even though they were based on the no-longer prosperous assumptions applying PRIOR to the Tech Crash.
Similarly, National is promising tax cuts even though they are predicated on the formerly prosperous environment applying PRIOR to the implosion of the property bubble, the consequent finance company crashes and the recession now underway.
Voters are just as much to blame as the vast majority know next to nothing about most of this and lack the education and skills to even understand the explanations without undertaking extended remedial tuition in how the world REALLY works. instead, they cling to the same preconceptions and misconceptions that underpin most of what now passes for right wing "thought".....a word I use reluctantly.
As for NZ's indebtedness, our government books might look good but everything else is going to hell in a hand cart. Bernard Hickey recently highlighted NZ's debt (non-governmental) is now greater - per capita - than the United States and lenders elsewhere could begin to look at us as a poor credit risk.
We are far from safe. Through our local banks we have collectively borrowed $138 billion for mortgages alone from the financial system that is now in disarray.....
How interest rates on that money can avoid going up is unclear. Lendors have been walking naked in a blizzard of risk for too long already.
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Trotter seems to be something of a newbie where blogging is concerned. He seems to take every word incredibly seriously and exhibits that newbie excitability that we all learn to shed soon enough (or go insane). There are 6 billion of "them" and only one of Trotter. He can't win them all and shouldn't try.
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I'd do at least $100. The best model IMHO is to initially put money in to provide seed cash for starting a business that will ultimately be self-funding and compounding the resources available to it.
Seeking bequests and endowments to build the fund more rapidly. I can see anyone other than the Right who control the major newspapers in NZ perceiving value in this.
It my even be that the growing fear of a competitor NOT funded by overseas billionaires might rein in the propaganda excesses of the local voices of aforementioned billionaires.
The Herald right now is generally appalling. The DomPost used to look bad by comparison, but they are neck and neck now for being overt propaganda organs for the folks would like to own everything.....
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Got me wondering.....
Is there any other public opportunity for celebrating sex, sexuality and eroticism? Or is the Steve Crowe event all there is?
Is there any way to celebrate these generally wondeful things that WON'T be seen as dirty and exploitative by someone?
Just wondering.
I do reject the "all sexuality is dirty" or "Sex is slavery nonsense".
I do admit to be profoundly affected by the Da Vinci Code's portrayal of many ancient religions as equally honouring the masculine and feminine aspects of humanity. It seemed so much more natural, positive and healthy than the twisted ideas abroad today......where women who enjoy sex are skanks and men are philanderers.
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I lost my regard for many journalists simply by reading the daily newspaper in the town I lived in for over 20 years: The DominionPost.
In the late 80s and early 90s, the Dom was a champion of MMP and electoral reform. In 1990, Richard Long became the editor and the Dom became a rabid opponent of MMP and electoral reform....and generally listed to the Right. It has stayed that way ever since.....growing worse over time.
While individual journalists may have preserved some semblance of balance or impartiality (I differentiate between the two), overall their newspapers have not.
Moaning about advocacy in blogs ignores the reality that the monopoly media outlets in each of our cities very much lead the way.
For example, the NZ Herlald has become a shameless shill for the National Party overall while only John Armstrong seems to be able to maintain something resembling a reporter's eye.....rather than an advocate or apologist's eye. The coverage today in the Herald about Georgia is almost exclusively from the hawkish Telegraph......an outlet generally in favour of war and half-truthes than a balanced view.
I've begun my own blog in an effort to seek out those other reports that our newspapers don't carry. The ones that contain information that can be verified that lends perspective to the apparently illogical and one-sided view we are fed by outlets with an agenda to push. By contrast, the Sunday Star Times ran a pair of articles that lent a very different perspective to events in that country.
You'd think the war-mongering Bush like would have fallen out of favour......but apparently not.