Posts by Keith Ng
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You don't make friends with salad, Andrew, so I'm pretty sure you don't make Free Trade Agreements with salad, either.
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Skin colour does not matter, and it is no more a fit subject for debate than the average religion or political affiliation of potential immigrants. These things are properly the domain of the individual, not of society as a whole.
But for some, skin colour (or to be precise, language and cultural practices) does matter. It's a truth that needs to be acknowledged. And you don't change their minds by banishing them from the debate, you change their minds by showing them what an inclusive society is genuinely about.
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Think Empire Strikes Back.
http://images.wikia.com/starwars/images/3/35/HanPopcicle.jpg
Maybe a few disfiguring blows from a sledgehammer, then encased in carbonite (or whatever molten plastiky thing you have on hand)?
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Actually, what would be super helpful is if you could let me know if you come across a significant statement that has the waff of bullshit. I can take it from there...
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Well, now they're haltingly reading out transcripts of John Key interviews with all them um/ah/er conversational noises left in.
I'm gleefully guilty of that. From an article I wrote in 2006:
“It points to imperfections in earlier planning. Mmm.” Energy Minister David Parker nods approvingly at his own summation of the Auckland blackout on 12 June.
It was a beautiful "mmm".
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Cheers, Ben!
First, this was not the system in its normal state. It was in a stressed state.
Huntley was running far below capacity because the river temperature was too high, and therefore it couldn't be used for cooling (this was the biggest factor). New Plymouth (was it NP? The place with the asbestos, anyway) was retired ahead of schedule last year. Pole 1 was down. This is the maintenance season, when many plants were taken offline for maintenance ahead of winter. Lakes were low, and hyrdos were being conserved for winter.
Spot prices were high. But they should be - because the system is in a stressed state. Moreover, they were high for 6% of the time.
If we accept that there will be random fluctuations in the quantity supplied, and that the price mechanism should be used to manage that, then occasional high prices (e.g. During peak periods while the system is in a generally stressed state) is simply a part of that.
If the price level is "too high" - that spot prices are too high for too long - then that will encourage more investment in generation capacity. The market hath spoketh.
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Keith -- if you refrained from retorting with "no, buddy, you're the one who needs to sharpen up and not talk crap when you get caught out", you're a better man than me.
Hardly. I knew that quote was going to be pure comedy gold when I printed it alongside the actual figures, and I was high on the fumes of my future self-satisfaction.
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...by framing it as an ad hominem, we lose sight of what we actually want from our Opposition. While this might not be an especially popular view, I actually appreciated that Key didn't start shooting his mouth off as soon as the AIA story broke. Ideally, you'd prefer him to have an informed opinion on the issue, but at least he didn't cop out with the reactionary tactics we've come to expect from Brownlee et al. And yet he was briefly pilloried for it.
Yeah - same with the flip-flopping charges. I'd much rather see people change their positions to suit the facts, rather than change the facts to suit their positions. The former being, you know, *rational*.
Not having a definitive position early on was a PR failure, but we can blame the press gallery for equating PR failures with an actual failure in leadership.
Perhaps that's the sad thing. As much as the spin-doctors see politics as an exercise in PR, so do many gallery journalists. ("Helen Clark has done the wrong thing here in not stamping out the issue before the story broke", etc.). That's my fundamental gripe, really.
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Was there allmost a 'chuck you down the stairs moment' in Brownlees comments?
"..With all due respect – we can terminate this interview if you want – but you've got to sharpen up a bit here.."
It was a cute moment, really. I was thinking 'right - I have authoritative, definitive evidence sitting right in front of me, and you're trying to convince me that I'm wrong. Who do you think you are? Winston Peters?'
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What I want to know is, are Asians more or less likely than the general population to commit bicycle-related crime? Eh? Eh?
Psssh. What would an Asian do with a bicycle, anyway? That shit's for peasants.
And damn you and your work habits, Russell. I read that NZPA report at Wellington Airport, and by the time I sat down in Auckland with a cup of coffee to read the report properly, you'd friggin' finished.