Posts by Mikaere Curtis

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  • Hard News: How many children with cancer…,

    The Herald appear to have been stung by this criticism and have added some research-like components to their story:

    I don't know which is worse: uncritically regurgitating media releases, or resorting to reporting website puffery.

    Speaking of uncritical regurgitation, I heard John Key with Havoc on bfm this morning. He actually believes that, pre-invasion, there was solid evidence that Iraq had WMDs and that it was a platform for international terrorism. The implications are simply scary.

    Tamaki Makaurau • Since Nov 2006 • 528 posts Report

  • Hard News: How many children with cancer…,

    Sorry if this offends you, Russell, but if I was a HNZ manager signing off on the proposal for this event, you bet your arse I'd be raising a red flag around the venue.

    And I bet that the key factor would have been total cost. Seems to me they got a good deal, especially when you factor in the travel savings.

    Teleconferencing definitely has its uses, but there's no replacement for actual facetime. Otherwise, wouldn't Foo Camps be conducted online ?

    Tamaki Makaurau • Since Nov 2006 • 528 posts Report

  • Hard News: O.G.,

    Which part of "deliberately set out to look threatening" do you not understand?

    Andrew, would you extend this to facial moko ?

    The problem with prejudging someone on the basis of appearance is that you aren't judging the factor that actually has consequences - their behaviour.

    So if I and a bunch of other people dressed the same, with our faces partially hidden so you couldn't identify us, started glaring at you territorially, you wouldn't feel intimidated? I'd call it harrasment.

    Isn't the territorial staring (i.e. bahaviour) that is the real problem ?

    Tamaki Makaurau • Since Nov 2006 • 528 posts Report

  • Hard News: Yes we canny,

    What really bugs me is that I had to vote for them anyway because the National Party under Brash was not an alternative.

    From a tactical perspective, I suggest it would have been better to vote for the Greens.

    Why ? Because if the Greens hadn't made the 5% threshold then, in effect, the party votes for the Greens would have been redistributed to the remaining parties. This would have translated to National getting circa 50% of the Green vote (which would have been just under 5%) i.e. 3 extra MPs.

    I'm not saying this because I'm on the Green list, but because I want the Left to vote tactically.

    Tamaki Makaurau • Since Nov 2006 • 528 posts Report

  • Hard News: Yes we canny,

    That is completely unacceptable. The policy that they seem to happily state is the core of the election and ongoing policy platform and they won't reveal it until then? Absurd, absurd, absurd.

    And on Morning Report Key tried to make out that they've had a tax policy for 6 years. So can he tell us anything about it ? No, we'll have to wait until "well before the election", whatever that means.

    It seems to me that the media have for years been running the meme that "We Deserve Tax Cuts and the Goverment Is Being Greedy And Won't Give Them". Just watch any report by Duncan Garner to get the gist. Mediawatch did an excellent item on it last year (IIRC) about the general bias amongst the media which holds that tax cuts are the normal state, and the status quo was an aberration.

    I suspect it is this incessant meme that has coloured a lot of people's thinking about the tax cuts. There seems to be a lot of people saying that they expected more and generally being ungrateful about the level of the cuts being made.

    And finally, is anyone else hacked off because the media won't call Key on his claim that "you've waited 9 years for a tax cut". FFS, Labour campaigned on raising the top tax rate, and it was one of the first things they did after assuming power.

    Tamaki Makaurau • Since Nov 2006 • 528 posts Report

  • Island Life: As seen on TV,

    Cheers guys.

    Hopefully we'll get to finish this campaign without a Corngate/Brethren type calamity falling out of the sky...

    Tamaki Makaurau • Since Nov 2006 • 528 posts Report

  • Island Life: As seen on TV,

    I do like the way DPF campaigned that this law would curtail free speech, yet had no compunction to attempt to silence the EPMU using the very same law. Is he doing it for irony's sake ?

    Tamaki Makaurau • Since Nov 2006 • 528 posts Report

  • Hard News: A night on the town with Mr Slack,

    Well done PA team.

    Tamaki Makaurau • Since Nov 2006 • 528 posts Report

  • Indiana Jonesing,

    Deborah, Danielle (and other PAS women participants) I tautoko the kaupapa of what you are saying. Just because our sexist heritage enables wide variety of abusive terms for women does not mean we need to use any of them.

    The problem with a word loaded with perjoratives is that people can interpret them in a way that is unintended.

    I really hate the use of "witch" as term of abuse. It derives from wicca which means "wise". I have known practicing wiccans and they are all very nice people, and nothing like the vile nature supposed by your use of "witch".

    Could we perhaps agree on some non-sexist epithets for Hillary then?

    IMO, her campaign is marked by an outstanding degree of desperation. So how about The Desperate One ?

    Tamaki Makaurau • Since Nov 2006 • 528 posts Report

  • Hard News: Acid Man,

    I was always very interested that for a long time New Zealand was the only country in the world where the drug of choice after weed was LSD. I think it said something about our national character (in a kind of fractured hologram way).

    Tamaki Makaurau • Since Nov 2006 • 528 posts Report

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