am getting all the horse puckey i can manage from your servants and mine…

Like or Dislike: 1  0 (+1)

… and market the horse crabapples as fire starters?

Like or Dislike: 1  0 (+1)

Well my impression is that the Greens have a Formal Policy Site – so this one has the possibility to be less codified; to garner ideas.
I’m probably a frequent hi-jacker because there is so much happening out there, that doesn’t make the news.
In NZ one has the opportunity to remain uninformed of many of the unpleasant realities out in the wide world.
Some Posters are too poorly informed to take seriously. And this Blog is better than most of it’s kind.
Though plenty are more diligent and gifted (and possibly serious) than I.
One has the luck to travel and examine a plethora of possibilites, or not.
Certainly I look at NZ through different eyes these days.
Most of all I see possibilities everywhere here.
Might breed some miniature horses on the back lawn…

Like or Dislike: 0  0 (0)

Good call Mark – many of Frog’s posts are very specific and difficult to make more broad, especially once you’ve noticed the “Please stay on topic” instruction at the top of the box
Not surprisingly, I’d like to see (and contribute to) a gardening thread (there’s more politics in a garden than there is in a beehive!)
Labour Party blog? I was sure you’d say ” dull as watching red paint dry”!

Like or Dislike: 1  0 (+1)

Pollan’s ideas are only some of many on the topic of the tyranny of the lawn. There is a strong, unofficial ‘lose the lawn’ movement here in NZ and we’ve erased many a lawn over the years. We have our sights on the rest still. Keep you posted.

Like or Dislike: 1  0 (+1)

Me three – there could be more room for General Categories too.
Media Issues, Health Care – maybe a Sports Page – after all we did our bit for Peace in the Muslim World by losing Twice to the Pakistani Cricket Team in Dubai. Haven’t seen so many happy followers of Mohamet for quite a while.
I went to see Labour’s Blog – dull as watching paint dry

Like or Dislike: 1  0 (+1)

Hell yes, I do reckon every three days…

Let’s do it!

Like or Dislike: 2  0 (+2)

Like or Dislike: 3  0 (+3)

and written in 1989..

slow learners..aren’t we..?

phil(whoar.co.nz)

Like or Dislike: 1  0 (+1)

Phil – re lawns, did you ever read Michael Pollan on lawns?

http://www.michaelpollan.com/article.php?id=33

Like or Dislike: 2  0 (+2)

Frog; Found this Article on an International News Site – (i may have missed Local News)but have seen no word of it here?
Kudos for Minister Mapp?

“Afghan exit plan for NZ troops:
Defence minister Wayne Mapp has admitted that plan includes an
acceptance the Taliban will have to be included in any meaningful new governmentin the country once the Western soldiers leave
http://snipurl.com/t95l7 [http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?”

Not sure how to post the link but the story is on the Information Clearing House site.

Like or Dislike: 2  0 (+2)

Got gold? Are you SURE?

http://www.tungsten-alloy.com/en/alloy11.htm

Like or Dislike: 0  0 (0)

Who says we aren’t religious….

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2009/11/gods-work-and-goldmans-prayer.html

Like or Dislike: 0  0 (0)

heh..!..it’s moving into the ‘wracked-with-guilt-at-no-reply file’..

so..soon..

and me..?

just ‘digging’ life..

and sitting here admiring the micro-ecosystem my front yard has become..

and how much the birds like it..

(and how ‘strange’ my shaven neighbors look..)

phil(whoar.co.nz)

Like or Dislike: 0  1 (-1)

Phil – great bird ballet – we see them down here sometimes, but that’s a spectacular one. There’s a tiny island in a bay here where titi swell in skeins like that in the evening before plummetting down to roost in the ngahere.
Did my email-of-earlier-in-the-week arrive? I’m guessing you’ve been too busy digging to reply

Like or Dislike: 0  0 (0)

this is very cool..!

this is an awe-inspiring/beautiful piece of vid..

as 300,000 birds perform an ariel ballet..

http://whoar.co.nz/2009/300000-birds-move-at-once-video/

phil(whoar.co.nz)

Like or Dislike: 0  0 (0)

food for thought..?

http://whoar.co.nz/2009/comment-whoarwhy-dont-hone-harawira-and-sue-bradford-form-a-new-political-party/

why is nobody talking about the sub-text/’real’ story around this harawira/maori party brouhaha..?

namely..that harawira..for some time..has been complaining long and hard about what he sees as the maori party selling out to a rightwing national government..

and given how harawira calls a spade a spade..

you can bet he has been beating the ears of sharples/turia et.al..

and this is what any ’split’ will be over..

not that paris holiday..

and not his jibe at goff..

and i still reckon harawira and sue bradford should team up in a new ‘workers/battlers-party’..

harawira will win his northern maori seat…(and so get to bring in bradford/a team of mp’s ..on his coat-tails..)

it’s a natural mix..bradford/harawira..

their politics mesh well..

they would each bring their own constituency..

hard to see how they would not get both the northern maori seat…and crack 5%..

the cherry on the cake is that they are both from kaitaia/the north..

(i don’t know anything of any personality-issues between the two..)

but to me..on a purely political level..

it’s a no-brainer..

and boy..!..are they/a workers/battlers-party ‘needed’..!

(especially in the north..)

currently all the political parties…are squabbling over that ‘centre-ground..

with even the greens announcing their intentions to squat..

so there is a vacuum there..

a vacuum that could be filled..

and of course..such a party would not have just appeal in the north..

they would have a nation-wide constituency..

phil(whoar.co.nz)

Like or Dislike: 1  2 (-1)

Gerrit

There is not a problem I think, in terms of changing away from the fractional reserve and fiat currency. The issue becomes far more obvious once one does that, but the government has the issuing authority to match it. The real problems are deeper and nastier.

Growing the economy is something I am loathe to do without defining what parts of the economy should be encouraged to grow and why and within what limits. We have to do better than before, but there is a subtle gotcha in the definitions of our money as work which is redeemable in NZ.

The value of our money HERE will thus be different from its value everywhere else. One might think of this as a built-in Tobin tax.

We have to build things HERE, and that is where you and I want growth to occur.
The additional production spawns additional employment, and oppportunity and incentives…

However overall “growing the economy” is a concern for me because I in general reckon that “growth is good” is wrong. It isn’t always… but I have gotten a mite tetchy about calling for more “growth” when the only things that seem to go up are the price of a house, the amount of petrol we burn and the amount of other consumption we borrow to finance.

However, I take your point and would like to see productive investment and growth in the non-agriculture productive sector. Might even make a list of things I’d like us to be able to produce.

The thing is that this is wandering into a “centrally planned economy” meme, and that isn’t a good thing.

Government provides the money supply in the new system, but there would be limits on the total amount available. The decisions about who gets what to build what are exquisitely critical.

To date both private and public decision makers have made errors in this process, and indeed, such a process is fraught with risk and difficulty. That’s why people like to invest in houses instead. Everyone understands houses and you can’t go very far wrong. Except that as a country you get handicapped immensely if that’s all you do.

We got the Aluminium and the hydroelectricity largely correct in our last venture in this direction. We have to continue to get things right, and provide some checks and balances on the process. This is where the model of government providing money to the lending banks makes sense. Those banks can still be private. What they cannot do is create money.

++++++++++++++
The money to loan, the money provided in a given month, is all the lending banks get. Borrowers paying back money is a recycling process… that becomes money again available to loan in addition to the government’s creation (which has to be tied to work energy, electricity produced or to be produced).

The problem is that long term loans, like a 30 year mortgage, would still suffer the “time value of money”. That would actually become far more obvious. I am not certain how to resolve all the questions/values.

How does one value a house, the embodied energy, the embodied work… and the land which has no embodied energy or work? We’d eventually evolve the valuations but getting started IS likely to be rough. Need to take some time to think through most of the economic ramifications. Categorically.

respectfully
BJ

Like or Dislike: 0  0 (0)

so..the new ‘workers party’..led by hone and sue bradford..

would seem to be more on the cards..

eh..?

http://whoar.co.nz/2009/comment-whoarhone-harawira-has-been-asked-to-leave-the-maori-partyand-stand-as-an-independant/

phil(whoar.co.nz)

Like or Dislike: 1  1 (0)

BJ,

Problem I see is in the transition phase from being beholding to the bankers for money supply to one where the people control the banking.

First step must be to stop borrowing from them, at $50M per day currently, down to nothing is my starter.

But then there would not be enough money to pay the tax recipients. So how to transition from a dependent economy to an independent one.

The transition has to be intrinsically linked with the final independent banking plan.

You made a point earlier regarding the environmental issues that we are leaving for our children.

Well we are leaving them with little economic options if we continue to borrow at existing rates ($50M per day and 5.5% interest)

If the economy does not grow, our children will never be free to tackle any environmental issue. Nor for that matter will this current generation.

So while there is no growth we should not be borrowing.

But I can hear the shouts aready from the likes of PhilU who may well be forced to earn their own living.

PS. Good to see the reference to the ArchDruidReport. Great mind thinking reading that blog.

Like or Dislike: 0  0 (0)