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| Speech from the throne, in the 150 most-used words |
Rather than listen to the prime minister attempt to murder the English language today, I read his speech from the throne instead, then fed it into the Mangle-wurzelator. As you can see, the key to a brighter 2013 will consist of "New Zealand Government's progress, continue also better public services, new support Christchurch Government, reduce people next".
I'll be following the roll-out of work in prisons to other incarceration sites. It's good that the inmates are getting more active, rather than seeking apparent redemption in boredom. One large concern bothers me, in that this shouldn't be some cheap-ass scheme to be exploited for slave labour like the US Prison Industrial Complex.
It would be good to think that at least some of their earnings were put aside as savings for their inevitable release from prison. Instead of dumping them on the street and hoping they won't fall back to old ways, perhaps they might just bootstrap themselves to a better life.
I didn't bother reading David Shearer's speech. The reflections of others are dire enough. The auto-cue at Labour's Summer Camp was delving into lampoon-proof self-saucing satire as it was.
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Lockwood Smith is getting kicked upstairs to the Brits, following his stint as the best Speaker the House has seen in living memory. Although communications to his office still didn't handle metaphors well. i.e. the small burning effigies of Richard Nixon were never going to incite a riot, Mr Smith. No more than lighting a cigarette would, at least.
It's all downhill from here as the Nat talent tank runs dry and David Carter proves not just reluctant, but outright hostile to the idea of being the big wig and woolly throne Speaker.
Can't say the Greens or Labour are thrilled with the set-up either. The Speaker's choice is a consensus of Parliament by means of a convention that Key has ignored this time. Winter is coming.
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The Herald gives a bible basher a pulpit, where she goes on to explain how her Missionary position stopped cannibalism in Papua New Guinea. One antidote to this sermon is the simplistic but nonetheless gripping tale of how Christianity brought guilt and other plagues to Tahiti, in Paradise Lost.
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Has Israel jumped the gulag? Evidence that Israel has broken the Nuremburg Laws on forced medication, whilst simultaneously implying a white supremacy eugenic charter. HT Tyler Cowen.
Time to Byrne one down:
