by frog
Published in THE ISSUES by frog on Sun, June 12th, 2011
Tags: general debate
General debate, June 12, 2011
Published: June 12, 2011
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Please use 
on the trolls and those who are unable to keep on topic
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On Q&A both Hone and Kelvin promoted the need for advancing education for the young Maori in Tai Tokerau. Michelle Boag thinks National Standards will do this. National Standards will do nothing for these children, it is good good teaching, useful resourcing and lifting families out of poverty that will really make a difference.
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NASA research points to HAARP causing the Japanese Earthquake and tsunami.
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sprout says “National Standards will do nothing for these children”
Why not. They’ve been great for kids at our school. Helping getting parents more involved, and kids move interested in improving areas they need to improve in.
Research has shown that up to 60% of childrens learning occurs at home and 40% at school. But some parents do little at home.
A major part of National Standards is to get parents more involved with helping in their childrens education.
And you think this will “do nothing”?
You are transparently desperate for National Standards to fail, even if that means kids fail.
Here is a real life school that takes a more positive view, even if they were sceptical at first.
http://www.edgazette.govt.nz/Articles/Article.aspx?ArticleId=8173
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Shocking revelations in the latest Consumer about the ongoing failings of our elderly care. Why won’t National act on advice from the Health and Disability Commissioner, the Auditor General and the excellent report from Sue Kedgley and Winnie Laban?
http://localbodies-bsprout.blogspot.com/2011/06/our-shameful-statistics-for-elderly.html
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Photonz1-The school you referred too are just implementing what most good schools were doing before National Standards and you must remember that the Education Gazette is a Ministry publication that actively promotes the Ministry’s (or the Minister’s) agenda. Here is a link to a video that was paid for by the NZPF. This is a professional organization (not a union or an agreement bargaining authority) that represents most Primary Principals. Listen to this, Photonz1, and try and established where self interest comes through.The biggest concern from these highly respected Principals is the welfare of their children.
http://dx7sco4cu1s2e.cloudfront.net/videos/ourprincipals-1.mp4
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sprout – the link to the principals video is hilarious.
I’ve never heard so many cliches and metaphors used out of context – these people teach our kids? They could do with going back to school themselves.
They couldn’t pinpoint anything specific that they didn’t like – just a load of vague airy-fairy complaints apply to ALL standards including those they use now.
And threats of leaving because the standards are so bad – what a load of nonsense. Our school has implemented them with good results, and better reporting to parents.
Then we have the lies about the curriculum changing to three subjects. That’s complete bullshit.
How embarrassing to put your face to that spin work.
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Before I develop this further what do you think of this plea for a Green and Blue Auckland as opposed to concrete tunnels and canyons.?
submission
There are limitations to developing a compact city because of Auckland’s geography. If we want the world’s most liveable city we should exploit the green and blue spaces that penetrate and punctuate its distinctive form. Rather than urban containment we favour development that recognises the linear nature of Auckland’s setting, its extensive rural hinterland, dramatic coastal and bush-clad edges, and the desire of some residents and businesses to locate ‘outside the city but not too far’. A combination of low impact development and decentralised intensification allows growth while respecting the physical setting.
Green urban form could provide entrepreneurial and economic opportunities and make Auckland more attractive. Respecting geography and committing to a green city can lead to an indigenous urbanism not beholden to Europe. Auckland’s design should be about space, sea and sky; weather and vegetation; and openness. We don’t need the tight, stone-paved spaces of a Siena or Salzburg.
The CBD will only be distinctive if we create more green space, and highlight our indigenous, settler, and Pacific cultures. Public investment and design should focus on spaces of merit and accessibility. The amazing thing about the CBD is that wherever you are, nature is there – through views and proximity to volcanoes, harbours, beaches and parks, and in constantly changing weather.
Let’s not block them out!
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I’ve been working on another website lately, which might interest you. I’m calling it Earth Monitor and it’s designed to collate lots of information on climate change, earthquakes, floods, radiation, food production, debt and recent articles concerning these things. It’s still under construction so I’ll be adding more helpful things over the next few weeks. Check it out…
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I think there are some very interesting possibilities in Owen’s suggestions – how might some of these ideas begin to be implemented?
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Have applied for Sub Editor position on Kiwiblog. Wish me luck!
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fly..i hope you applied as verdant-diptera..
..so the penguin won’t remember old grudges/wind-ups…
phil(whoar.co.nz)
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grudges…whaaa?
‘armless wee beastie like me?
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@greenfly 4:09 PM
I’ve put in a word for you over at the troll farm ‘fly.
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http://whoar.co.nz/2011/i-would-have-loved-to-piss-on-your-shoes/
“…What Mark Schlueb and other fired or resigned journalists wrote to their bosses on the way out.
If you’re not filled with contempt for your boss, there’s either something wrong with you or you’re a working journalist.
Reporters and editors like to think they don’t have bosses – believing almost to a one that they answer to a higher authority, namely “Journalism.”
The guy who signs their checks? A paper-pusher. The people who try to give them orders in the newsroom? Subhuman obstructions to ignore.
Only when a journalist is fired or quits does the complete fury he feels for those quacking mallards who have made his life miserable begin to surface.
Instead of verbally venting after getting sacked, the smart journalist takes a road trip and works through his anger by killing chipmunks and other small game.
Only greedy, slightly stupid journalists accept severance packages. They almost always come with do-not-disparage clauses – which are known to cause cancer in journalists.
Some journalists settle the score with their “bosses” immediately.
But my favorites are those who take weeks, months, or even years to settle the score with the institution or individual that they think tormented them.
In honor of every journalist who flipped the boss off on the way out the door – I’ve collected a few of their best kiss-off notes and gestures from the recent past.
If, after reading, you don’t turn in your badge and burn every bridge and causeway behind you and fill with sewage every tunnel and viaduct that connects you to your former place of employment – I’ve failed in my mission…”
phil(whoar.co.nz)
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Very kind of you Toad. If I win the position, I’ll see you right.
I suspect David has softened his views of me and quietly yearns for my company.
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Yah
Greenfly as sub ed on KB!
That will give those leftie trolls something to munch for lunch.
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Hey Pent – long time no squabble!
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“NASA research points to HAARP causing the Japanese Earthquake and tsunami.”
But the article linked to is a mismash of ideas and coincidences. The H in HAARP stands for high frequency, which has a specific meaning – radio frequencies in the range 3-30MHz, i.e. between the AM broadcast bands (which are medium frequency – defined as 0.3-3MHz) and the TV and FM broadcast bands (which are very high frequency – defined as 30-300MHz – or higher). But half the article is about low frequency or extremely low frequency radio signals which have nothing to do with HAARP.
And then there is the laughable idea that a few megawatts of radio frequency energy in the ionosphere can trigger the release of hundreds of megatonnes of stored energy in a fault line 10+ kilometres of rock and water below the ionoshere where the radio waves do not penetrate.
I am just not buying it.
Trevor.
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look..!..the likes of barunda/photonz are defined..
http://whoar.co.nz/2011/dont-let-the-trolls-get-you-down/
“…A troll is someone “who constructs the identity of sincerely wishing to be part of the group in question – including professing or conveying pseudo-sincere intentions –
- but whose real intention(s) is/are to cause disruption and/or to trigger or exacerbate conflict for the purposes of their own amusement”…”
(that pretty much sums it/them up..eh..?..)
phil(whoar.co.nz)
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(this one is kinda interesting..)
http://whoar.co.nz/2011/environmental-activism-needs-its-own-revolution-to-regain-its-teeth/
“…Forty years ago, Friends of the Earth announced its arrival in the UK with a handful of placard-waving volunteers dumping 1,500 non-returnable Schweppes bottles on the front steps of the company’s head office – and demanding that government and industry set up a nationwide recycling network.
The media went bonkers. The protest made front page news and the evening TV bulletins. It was the shock of the new.
Try the same trick today, and only a few passers-by would pay any attention. The media is saturated with protest. Revolution in the Middle East what’s making the news, not stunts and marches in central London.
The UK environment movement has grown into a behemoth. Organisations like FoE, Greenpeace, RSPB and WWF have membership in the millions, employ thousands of intelligent staff in modern offices – and spend over £100m annually.
They work hard on environment and development issues together, run information-rich websites – and endlessly lobby government and industry to green the economy and embrace sustainability.
But tactically, the movement has stalled.
Despite numerous campaign successes over the years, the most serious problems – climate change, deforestation, ocean degradation, chemical contamination, species extinction – continue to get worse.
Commitment to the cause is not enough…” (cont..)
phil(whoar.co.nz)
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‘fly
I foolishly gave up cruising the worlds oceans and now own my business working 18/7. Stupid thing to do in current times but I back myself to make it work.
Not much time to comment but do enjoy your personal blog Must be one of your 12 followers. Good grief that is a scary thought.
Anyway my regards.
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Great to have you back on dry land pentwig and to hear that you are backing yourself.
Re the blog (that’s where I back myself) – I sensed you were there – it was the tang of salty sea air and the slap of waves against a metaphorical hull that alerted me (Don’t sell the yacht).
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why not just give up on the fetid-swamp…?
and relocate/rebuild another christchurch…
..in northland..?
..no more liquefacation…no more poverty in northland..
..and it is so much warmer up there…
phil(whoar.co.nz)
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Phil, please remind me how many earthquakes Napier/Hastings have had since 1931? The answer to that question will show you that we shouldn’t be too hasty in making any decisions about relocating Christchurch.
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Jackel, best of luck on your website, think you might have your work cut out for yourself. Plenty to post on, no shortage of material. Perhaps you would like to start with the collapse of the Carbon credit market and how the Ostriches in power won’t mention such things.
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are napier/hastings also built on a fetid/drained-swamp…?
phil(whoar.co.nz)
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could goffs’ handling of the hughes-case be heralding his own demise..?
phil(whoar.co.nz)
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Young People Dying
There’s no doubt that the death of King’s College student David Gaynor is a tragedy. It appears that the young man died from alcohol poisoning. This is the fourth such death in seventeen months for the college that is attended by students from wealthy families. There are now hundreds of articles concerning the death with the story gripping the Television News and radio stations like an virus.
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Napier, apart from the hill and a strip of flat land where the original town was, is built on land heaved up by the 1931 earthquake. It hasn’t had another big earthquake, but from time to time gets smaller ones – or used to when I lived there as a child.
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Janine, that is exactly it – Napier/Hastings haven’t had an earthquake since 1931; similarly, once this batch of earthquakes die down, then I am confident that Christchurch will not experience an earthquake again in our lifetimes.
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“..I am confident that Christchurch will not experience an earthquake again in our lifetimes…”
are you the anti-ken ring..are you…?
the yan to his yin…
phil(whoar.co.nz)
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excellent..i just heard on nat-rad that the mana party has a vice-tax policy…
a 20% tax on the profits of the booze/tobacco/gambling industries..
..with that money directed to fix up the messes they make…
..i hope the green party will swing in behind this…
..eh..?
phil(whoar.co.nz)
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Phil, don’t misquote me – I specifically said once this current batch of earthquakes die down. It could potentially be a year or two before that happens – but once that happens, then my comment stands true. Napier/Hastings has not had an earthquake in 80 years; Wellington has not had one in 156 years; San Francisco had an 83 year gap between their two, and so on and so on.
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rightwing sense of humour bye-pass at birth..
the poor luvvies can’t help themselves…
..as funny as a fart in a sleeping-bag…eh..?
..those rightwingers..
..(but like germans..they like slapstick..if any…people must be hurt..)
phil(whoar.co.nz)
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Loosing Our Power
Hekia Parata took up parliamentary time today to promote a website that is meant to help people choose the cheapest power supplier. She was asked a patsy question by National MP Jonathan Young to allow her to go on about how great our power companies are and that National is increasing competition. There’s one thing that she missed out though; privatisation hasn’t delivered cheaper power to the masses at all…
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Obviously not a fan of Airplane!, Naked Gun, Scary Movie or My Boss’ Daughter
Except that power hasn’t really been privatised – three of the four main generators are still state owned.
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Just as serious is that power companies have been run as corporates.
I.E. by Managers and Directors more intent on their own remuneration than the benefit of customers and owners.
The same problem is obvious in Ports of Auckland where managers are proliferating like fleas while frontline staff and customer service are being decimated.
In both cases the customers and owners are the same people.
SOE’s have Management more interested in their own gains from privatisation than best serving the customers/owners.
The cult of Management, where Managers and directors give themselves 14% pay rises, while skilled staff are cut in numbers and pay, is one of the tenants of Neo-Liberalism responsible for rising costs, inequality and reductions in service.
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“…Airplane!, Naked Gun,..”
simplistic/broad-brush slapstick…
..as subtle as a sledghammer…
..the german-s.o.h…
q.e.d..
phil(whoar.co.nz)
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Christchurch is likely to be affected by the Alpine fault when that goes. It is just a matter of time before that fault lets rip with a quake around magnitude 8. If I recall correctly, the prediction was a 50% chance in the next 50 years and a 75% chance in the next 100. However distance will help soften the blow to Christchurch.
Trevor.
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(key explained..)
http://whoar.co.nz/2011/ayn-rands-poison-gop-faces-backlash-for-their-obsessive-worship-of-a-psycho-ed-perhaps-the-only-item-of-any-interest-in-that-sycophantic-interview-on-the-nation-was-the-facts-tha/
“…It’s dangerous for a political party to think of the public as “parasites,”-
- and people with tons of cash as “producers” who should govern.
Some say that maybe it is a bad idea to base a political party’s ideology on a belief that altruism, democracy and Christianity are “evil.”
Others say that maybe it is a bad idea to base a country’s policies on fictional novels rather than science and history.
Still others say is it a bad idea for national leaders to think of most of the public as “parasites” while saying people with tons of cash are “producers” who should govern.
I am talking about the Republican Party’s embrace of Ayn Rand and her cruel philosophy…”
(ed:..and of course what compounded that sorry excuse for an interview is that the hapless interviewer seemingly missed that rand-revelation…
..and didn’t follow up on it…digging to find what our free-market-’producer’-prime minister actually believes..
..and thinks about us ‘parasites’…
..i dunno about you…
..but i find the news key is a rand-ite..is somewhat disturbing..
…and it does explain so much about him…
(and this is still my favourite quote/observation on the writings of rand:…)
“There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year-old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged.
One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world.
The other, of course, involves orcs….”
(and no..he hasn’t read marx…so he dosen’t know where he is taking us…eh.?..
..but we now know he is taking the rand-route to get there…
..and what the hollow-man believes in…)
phil(whoar.co.nz)
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http://whoar.co.nz/2011/fox-viewers-are-truly-ignorant-people/
“..Tim Dickinson, at Rolling Stone, said that Fox News has a “viewership that knows almost nothing about what’s going on in the world.”
That’s because Fox News viewers actually do not want to know what is really going on in the world.
They honestly want to believe the lies that are being broadcast by Roger Ailes and company at Fox News.
Roger Ailes is truly a propaganda genius.
Like Joseph Goebbels and other expert propagandists of the past, Roger Ailes has mastered the art of fear mongering – and has successfully tapped into the primal fears of America’s conservative base.
I re-read Dickinson’s excellent exposé on Roger Ailes last weekend.
What I found to be most revealing in my second read was not the details of Ailes’ background (which were very well presented)-
- but rather Dickinson’s analysis of the audience that Ailes has so successfully exploited.
Fox viewers are truly ignorant people…
In fact, a study by the University of Maryland reveals, ignorance of Fox viewers actually increases the longer they watch the network.
That’s because Ailes isn’t interested in providing people with information – or even a balanced range of perspectives.
Like his political mentor, Richard Nixon, Ailes traffics in the emotions of victimization.” ” (cont..)
phil(whoar.co.nz)
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I wouldnt mind seeing a seperate debate setup for the new Arms Amendment Bill being pushed through parliament at the moment.
Apprently Keith is a big supporter of it and being a gun owner myself ive got my own realistic views on it. It would be nice to understand the logic behind it all and have some healthy debate from shooters, non shooter and gunphobics.
My view, I dont think making up laws to cover cosmetic appearance of guns will have any effect on the criminals who use them or how dangerous a gun is. We should be concentrating on how unlicensed people are getting them in the first place ?
Fact is most firearms these days are designed for the civilian market, and have never seen use in any military. They may share some cosmetics and technolgy features. but they are certainly not full auto 30 round magazines.
How about making a simple rule, if you use a firearm in the commission of a crime then you serve a long time behind bars.
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so..curmugeon…let’s look at where you are coming from…eh..?
you with your judgmental/scornful attitudes towards beneficiaries..eh..?
now..given yr chosen moniker..i’m picking you are north of 50..
..and given your scorn at my asking had you ever lived on a benefit..
..i am picking you are in the wealthiest percentile….
…and i am also assuming you were born/grew up here…
now..given who you are/your age…you and your parents grew up in the golden years of the welfare state…eh..?
…and you personally…did quite well out of that..didn’t you…?
..lots of ‘benefits’…eh..?
..you had free university education…(didn’t graduate with an eye-watering debt..)..eh..?
getting yr first home was a doddle..eh..?
..every school had a dental clinic….
..new zealand had highest standard of living in the world..eh..?
you’ve had it really sweet…eh..?
..and now you sit in yr position of privilege…
(are you pulling down the pension yet..?..need it do you..?..)
..and want basic support taken away from sole-mothers/fathers raising their children…
…y’know what…?
..you make my fucken skin crawl…
..greedy/selfish/smug/arrogant/preening/provincial-philistine…eh..?
and too gutless to sign yr own name to yr hate-message..eh..?
you are old enough to recognise the potency of ‘gutless-wonder’…eh..?
phil(whoar.co.nz)
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Fluff and a Jab
Green Party MP Metiria Turei asked some very important questions of John Key in Parliament today. Once again, the Prime Minister wasn’t there so Bill English tried to answer for the absentee leader.
In one particular answer given by the flailing Bill English, he said that the Government was helping to reduce the huge divide between the haves and have-nots ie disparity by improving immunisation and the Green’s inspired home insulation scheme. He must be joking!
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So the Green Party has no interest in promoting a Blue Green Auckland and prefers a CBD covered with horizontal and vertical slabs?
How can this be so?
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“..How can this be so?..”
marxist-leninist conditioning…?
..they were big on ‘slabs’…
phil(whoar.co.nz)
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Yes, Halle Nuestadt was ‘slab city’. See:
http://www.fig.net/pub/fig2010/ppt/ts02e/ts02e_mcshane_ppt_4624.pdf
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