Tuesday, February 07, 2012
Blind Spots
Silly season's over and Parliament is back in session. Right on time the government spin machine descends on the cut and paste MSM pack like a plague of bastard locusts.
Any novice bug hunter could spot Judith Collins' tracks all over the NZ Government's new War on Drugged Driving. Michelle Duff has a nice bit of propaganda to release just as the posters are rolled out:
Dvaid Farrar Me Toos his vote like a true AOLer. He might look soft and cuddly on the outside, but within lurks the cold hard boiled lolly of vanilla conservatism:
If push comes to shove, I'd rather be driven by a stoner than a drunk. Yeah sure. Ideally I'd rather have a well-rested and sober, alert driver. But we can't all get Parliamentary taxi chits or chauffeured limos to take us from the public bar to the private abode.
As a f'rinstance, say I had to hitch a lift home late one night, broke and legless. If I had an offer home by a rat-arsed drunk or a blazed stoner, I'd always choose the hippie. Who would you choose?
By far and away, the biggest drug driving problem in this country is alcohol. This PR offensive is one big smoke screen for the twin pink elephants in the room; drug snobbery and patch protection.
Lange drove tired and emotionally home like a Fat Stig. Winston Peters has been pinged once or twice, same as his sauced apprentice Michael Laws, aka the Git of Whanganui. Dyson's had her brush with the law, and I bet there's a host of other lawmaking hypocrites in the House of the Rising Glass, but I can't be arsed the hassle of defamation.
My old man made a bit of bread and butter defending drink drivers in court, and he had a bit of experience in the act itself. There's a particular incident involving a Range Rover, a vintage car and a power pole I'd rather not discuss right now. Suffice it to say there was a bit of nudge nudge wink wink at the cop shop the next day. No charges laid.
There's a hell of a lot Freemasons in the police force. Freemasonry at its core is a glorified drinking club. I've known judges to be drunk as lords. Even the prosecuting lawyer at Dakta Green's trial was a bit tipsy by the time the jury had reached their verdicts. No irony there.
Freemasons are one aspect of that great alcohol cult, Judeo-Christians. Jehovah loves his booze. Christ's blood is 12 percent alcohol. It's those heathen Muslims who like the wacky-backy. Or the niggers, wetbacks, brownies, abbos, freaks, geeks or queers.
Driving impairment of all kinds should be treated equally by the law. But leave the moral compass out of it.
Any novice bug hunter could spot Judith Collins' tracks all over the NZ Government's new War on Drugged Driving. Michelle Duff has a nice bit of propaganda to release just as the posters are rolled out:
Dreamy, clammy, drooling or overemotional – the tell-tale signs of a drugged driver have led to hundreds of people being netted since the new laws were introduced.
Figures released to The Dominion Post under the Official Information Act show 514 people appeared sufficiently out of it for police to perform a compulsory impairment test on them since the Land Transport Amendment Act was introduced in November 2009.
Dvaid Farrar Me Toos his vote like a true AOLer. He might look soft and cuddly on the outside, but within lurks the cold hard boiled lolly of vanilla conservatism:
I was a long time advocate that the Police should check drivers not just for excess alcohol, but for drugs which impair driving ability. It is good to see that the law change has produced results. Driving while stoned is a very very stupid thing to do, as responses are so slowed.
If push comes to shove, I'd rather be driven by a stoner than a drunk. Yeah sure. Ideally I'd rather have a well-rested and sober, alert driver. But we can't all get Parliamentary taxi chits or chauffeured limos to take us from the public bar to the private abode.
As a f'rinstance, say I had to hitch a lift home late one night, broke and legless. If I had an offer home by a rat-arsed drunk or a blazed stoner, I'd always choose the hippie. Who would you choose?
By far and away, the biggest drug driving problem in this country is alcohol. This PR offensive is one big smoke screen for the twin pink elephants in the room; drug snobbery and patch protection.
Lange drove tired and emotionally home like a Fat Stig. Winston Peters has been pinged once or twice, same as his sauced apprentice Michael Laws, aka the Git of Whanganui. Dyson's had her brush with the law, and I bet there's a host of other lawmaking hypocrites in the House of the Rising Glass, but I can't be arsed the hassle of defamation.
My old man made a bit of bread and butter defending drink drivers in court, and he had a bit of experience in the act itself. There's a particular incident involving a Range Rover, a vintage car and a power pole I'd rather not discuss right now. Suffice it to say there was a bit of nudge nudge wink wink at the cop shop the next day. No charges laid.
There's a hell of a lot Freemasons in the police force. Freemasonry at its core is a glorified drinking club. I've known judges to be drunk as lords. Even the prosecuting lawyer at Dakta Green's trial was a bit tipsy by the time the jury had reached their verdicts. No irony there.
Freemasons are one aspect of that great alcohol cult, Judeo-Christians. Jehovah loves his booze. Christ's blood is 12 percent alcohol. It's those heathen Muslims who like the wacky-backy. Or the niggers, wetbacks, brownies, abbos, freaks, geeks or queers.
Driving impairment of all kinds should be treated equally by the law. But leave the moral compass out of it.
Sunday, February 05, 2012
Getting what you want
Morgan Godfery over at Maui Street has some wise words for activists of all stripes, not just the silly buggers up at Waitangi:
The great PR guru Thomas Chin of the Distillers Union once said something along the lines that you generally get better results if you befriend your target, not bedevil them. Result?
What do these protestors, and I use the term protestors in its loosest sense, expect to achieve? Actions like the above serve only to reinforce negative opinions and galvanise the public against your cause. Of course, these village idiots wouldn’t know the first thing about making gains for Maori. They know how to make a lot of mindless noise, but they don’t know what progress looks like, let alone how to achieve it.Politics is the art of getting what you want. You do not win an argument by pissing people off without a bloody good explanation. It's part of why the Occupy cause in NZ failed to gain more public support. It's a lesson that a few cannabis activists have yet to learn.
The great PR guru Thomas Chin of the Distillers Union once said something along the lines that you generally get better results if you befriend your target, not bedevil them. Result?
Statistics New Zealand's household expenditure survey shows Kiwis spent 7.2 per cent more on alcohol, tobacco and illicit drugs in 2009-2010, compared with 2006- 2007, while our spending on transport, recreation and culture fell...Another nugget of meaty goodness is Gareth Morgan talking to Chris Laidlaw, explaining why he never took up a career in politics. Pretty often, you can do a lot more public good outside the Beehive than in it, with much less collateral damage.
That did not stop New Zealanders from buying hard liquor, with spending on spirits up by 25 per cent.
Mega City Auckland
You don't have to wait for Karl Urban as Judge Dredd to see a bit of 3D instant justice around these parts. David Fisher continues his gripping look at the MegaUpload saga, this week looking at the military assault on the Chrisco Mansion. Last week's episode here.
The Special Tactics Group, helicopters and a refusal to use door handles characterises the largest domestic assault team since the Ruatoki raids. If it's worth killing, it's worth overkilling, eh. Reasonable force is for commies.
The Special Tactics Group, helicopters and a refusal to use door handles characterises the largest domestic assault team since the Ruatoki raids. If it's worth killing, it's worth overkilling, eh. Reasonable force is for commies.
Wednesday, February 01, 2012
My Own Private I Dunno
Insomnia or narcolepsy; which is worse? If you're a Yank, it's narcolepsy. The US Supreme Court has just ruled that religious schools can override civil laws (in this case the Disabilities Act) and fire a teacher who developed narcolepsy. The Daily Show has more:
I presume John Banks' Charter Schools here will have their own mutant eradication solutions, probably involving a coat hanger.
Adolf was a Lutheran. Goodnight Godwin. Goodnight Yanks.
I presume John Banks' Charter Schools here will have their own mutant eradication solutions, probably involving a coat hanger.
Adolf was a Lutheran. Goodnight Godwin. Goodnight Yanks.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Mormon Off
It seems it's that time of the Mormon calendar around here when those cycling Jesus Freaks turn up at the doorstep. Accordingly, I am now sufficiently motivated to perform a little experiment called Project Rude Awakening.
If writing No Junk Mail on the letterbox stops the mounds of consumerist crap cluttering my mail hole, would a No Jesus Freaks sign work too?
Let's call it a test of very limited sovereignty. I'll let you know how it goes, and whether it also works on Brethren, Buddhists, Krishnas and Scientologists too.
If writing No Junk Mail on the letterbox stops the mounds of consumerist crap cluttering my mail hole, would a No Jesus Freaks sign work too?
Let's call it a test of very limited sovereignty. I'll let you know how it goes, and whether it also works on Brethren, Buddhists, Krishnas and Scientologists too.
Friday, January 27, 2012
Illegal Cheese
As a burned out hospo droid, I have a great deal of sympathy for artisan cheesemakers and other foody micro-producers with the new Food Bill before parliament. This yak on Nine to Noon's slot today has not eased my mind. The surreal ordeal of Biddy Fraser-Davies of Eketahuna, a hard cheese maker with a herd of three cows, has to be heard to be believed.
And now, here's Chef:
And now, here's Chef:
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Food Fight
Anyone who grows or eats food should have a listen to food activist Raj Patel's Feeding Ten Billion. It's about 45 minutes long and covers the myth of the Green Revolution, Mathus, Food Sovereignty, Feminism and the Malawi Food Crisis. Stay tuned til the end, where a question is answered with a Time Bandits reference.
Or you can read Patel's essay in Foreign Policy here.
And now, here's various post-WWII conflicts played out by national dishes of their combatants:
Or you can read Patel's essay in Foreign Policy here.
And now, here's various post-WWII conflicts played out by national dishes of their combatants:
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
John Key Defends War on Clouds
John Key today stood by the government's decision to declare a War on Clouds, after reports of a military exercise in Coatsville, outside of Auckland last Friday.
"Every Kiwi loves a summer in the sun. Clouds cause interference, blocking full access from the Sky," said Key. "Even a small cloud can block the full dominance of Sky. Therefore, it is in this country's best interests to remove any clouds."
The prime minister released details of the military exercise, which used a top secret piece of US equipment called a cloudbuster or Orgone Device.
"The USOD J. Edgar Hoover was kindly loaned to us by the United States government," said Key. "It is the same class of machine used to keep the sky above Hollywood free from clouds for years, and we are happy with its deployment here in New Zealand."
"Specially trained agents from Langley, Virginia were flown in to demonstrate the Orgone Device. These men were specially chosen for their highly repressed sexual energy, which is channelled through the J. Edgar Hoover and converted into Orgone. Clouds are eliminated without due process by the Orgone," explained Key.
When challenged by media on the bias of strict cloud regulation while Sky remains an unregulated monopoly, Key defended the government's stance by saying that you can't build a brighter future with clouds, but you can with a Sky portfolio.
This story was proudly brought to you by our sponsor:
"Every Kiwi loves a summer in the sun. Clouds cause interference, blocking full access from the Sky," said Key. "Even a small cloud can block the full dominance of Sky. Therefore, it is in this country's best interests to remove any clouds."
The prime minister released details of the military exercise, which used a top secret piece of US equipment called a cloudbuster or Orgone Device.
"The USOD J. Edgar Hoover was kindly loaned to us by the United States government," said Key. "It is the same class of machine used to keep the sky above Hollywood free from clouds for years, and we are happy with its deployment here in New Zealand."
"Specially trained agents from Langley, Virginia were flown in to demonstrate the Orgone Device. These men were specially chosen for their highly repressed sexual energy, which is channelled through the J. Edgar Hoover and converted into Orgone. Clouds are eliminated without due process by the Orgone," explained Key.
When challenged by media on the bias of strict cloud regulation while Sky remains an unregulated monopoly, Key defended the government's stance by saying that you can't build a brighter future with clouds, but you can with a Sky portfolio.
This story was proudly brought to you by our sponsor:
Used without permission from DeepRed.
Friday, January 20, 2012
Measures and counter-measures
This just in. File sharing website MegaUpload has been shut down by US law enforcement. A police raid in Auckland today arrested the site's founder and three others. The US probably going to seek extradition proceedings. In response, Anonymous is attacking the whitehouse.gov site, after taking out the DoJ, Universal Music Group, RIAA and Motion Picture Association of America.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
SOPA Blackout
This site would be blacked out in support of the anti-SOPA/PIPA, but the HTML hurts my head. So instead, I'm raping The Oatmeal's Intellectual Property below:
Please don't shut my blog (or Blogger) down because of my harmless IP cloning. Stop SOPA/PIPA. While you're at it, can you kill the IP trolls in the TPP too?
Please don't shut my blog (or Blogger) down because of my harmless IP cloning. Stop SOPA/PIPA. While you're at it, can you kill the IP trolls in the TPP too?
Monday, January 16, 2012
Beauty Contest
Edge.org has asked a whole lot of great wonks what their favourite most beautiful theory is. Some say DNA, some say string theory, and that's fair enough. I'm a supporter of string theory, if for no other reason than the solace in thinking that parallel universes exist where some of my personal relationships have had happy endings.
But the winner for me is Feynman Diagrams, indirectly mentioned by Timo Hannay:
Just to nudge you, the clip above includes the best observation of the NZ character since Irish comedian Dave Allen desribed NZers as the most balanced people in the world, with chips on both shoulders.
But the winner for me is Feynman Diagrams, indirectly mentioned by Timo Hannay:
I would like to propose not only a particular explanation, but also a particular exposition and exponent: Richard Feynman's lectures on quantum electrodynamics (QED) delivered at the University of Auckland in 1979. These are surely among the very best ever delivered in the history of science.He's not wrong. The Douglas Robb Memorial Lecture with Feynman is one of the most important moments in NZ's scientific history, yet it passed by without so much as a blip at the time. Go on, have a taste of genius and beauty with one of the smartest guys of the 20th Century:
Just to nudge you, the clip above includes the best observation of the NZ character since Irish comedian Dave Allen desribed NZers as the most balanced people in the world, with chips on both shoulders.
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Walking in Light
You can tell a lot about a place by the way it treats its outcasts. It speaks volumes that Wellington has borne witness to some of NZ's most colourful homeless. Robert Jones, aka The Man with the Bucket, passed on some time ago. His images still adorn Chris Parkin's Museum Hotel, a testament to a particular age.
Blanket Man, aka Ben Hana, was a tragedy with a completely different spin. Today he stopped spinning. Every Wellington person worth their salt has a tale to tell about him, and I hope a statue of him is placed inconveniently as a traffic island in his memory; legs akimbo, some booze, and his can-pipe his faithful companions.
Rest easy, Ra-loving Diogenes of Poneke.
Blanket Man, aka Ben Hana, was a tragedy with a completely different spin. Today he stopped spinning. Every Wellington person worth their salt has a tale to tell about him, and I hope a statue of him is placed inconveniently as a traffic island in his memory; legs akimbo, some booze, and his can-pipe his faithful companions.
Rest easy, Ra-loving Diogenes of Poneke.
Saturday, January 07, 2012
Accentuating the obvious
The latest non-news is a study appearing in the Lancet journal pointing out NZ and Australia are the world's biggest consumers of cannabis.
I can't be arsed writing up a long post explaining that NZ's isolation, shift work culture and naturally uptight and repressed nature contributes to this reputation for the love of drugs. Instead, since a picture is worth a thousand words, here's 7000 words in 7 pictures. Click the images to embiggerate.
Here is a nice graphic showing the top eight consumers of particular drugs around the world:
A map of Drugs World with tranqs, trips, uppers and downers as compass points:
Here's the Nutt-Blakemore Drug Harm Index (again):
This one is fairly self-explanatory:
Here are the policy alternatives for cannabis regulation:
NORML's guide to cannabis laws in the US:
And finally, here's a break-down of cannabinoids and their particular medical uses:
I can't be arsed writing up a long post explaining that NZ's isolation, shift work culture and naturally uptight and repressed nature contributes to this reputation for the love of drugs. Instead, since a picture is worth a thousand words, here's 7000 words in 7 pictures. Click the images to embiggerate.
Here is a nice graphic showing the top eight consumers of particular drugs around the world:
A map of Drugs World with tranqs, trips, uppers and downers as compass points:
Here's the Nutt-Blakemore Drug Harm Index (again):
This one is fairly self-explanatory:
Here are the policy alternatives for cannabis regulation:
NORML's guide to cannabis laws in the US:
And finally, here's a break-down of cannabinoids and their particular medical uses:
Wednesday, January 04, 2012
Mental Notes
There's no news here as holiday season continues. To fill in what could be a long blank before any new news is forthcoming, here's some links.
# Rolling tobacco is now a tenth of the price of cannabis, as the goverment excise tax reaches stupid heights. Unless you're a frequent flyer. Duty free for the flying suits. Tax is only for the poor. Thank you very much Maori Party. Mad stats lapped up by baby journos get a holiday kicking from Eric Crampton at Offsetting Behaviour.
# MacDoctor has the completely reasonable idea to make injuring a person with a firearm whilst drunk an offence. Hey, we do it for drink drivers. Why should drunk killers get a free pass? Now if there's only something we could do about the golfers...
# Team eXiled has launched a Media Transparency Project to out pimped journos and advertorial editorials. What with all the partisan hacks in this country giving each other back rubs and media skills training, we could do with a bit of that here too.
# Matt Taibbi gets all existential over the US election whilst looking at the Iowa primary. Can't say I blame him. I've almost stopped reading Andrew Sullivan out of ennui over the 2012 circus.
# And what to make of the looming merger of the NZ Business Roundtable and the NZ Institute? ManBearPig anyone? Arts & Letters Daily to the rescue with a think tank link.
# A&L Daily also links to two reviews of Alex Rosenberg's atheist manifesto. The antidote to this book seems to be the 1933 classic, Bertrand Russell's The Scientific Outlook. Scientific determinism is a dead end.
Anyway, back to eating the organic plums from the backyard orchard. That's the really great thing about childhood obesity and helicopter parenting. The neighbourhood kids don't climb the fruit trees.
# Rolling tobacco is now a tenth of the price of cannabis, as the goverment excise tax reaches stupid heights. Unless you're a frequent flyer. Duty free for the flying suits. Tax is only for the poor. Thank you very much Maori Party. Mad stats lapped up by baby journos get a holiday kicking from Eric Crampton at Offsetting Behaviour.
# MacDoctor has the completely reasonable idea to make injuring a person with a firearm whilst drunk an offence. Hey, we do it for drink drivers. Why should drunk killers get a free pass? Now if there's only something we could do about the golfers...
# Team eXiled has launched a Media Transparency Project to out pimped journos and advertorial editorials. What with all the partisan hacks in this country giving each other back rubs and media skills training, we could do with a bit of that here too.
# Matt Taibbi gets all existential over the US election whilst looking at the Iowa primary. Can't say I blame him. I've almost stopped reading Andrew Sullivan out of ennui over the 2012 circus.
# And what to make of the looming merger of the NZ Business Roundtable and the NZ Institute? ManBearPig anyone? Arts & Letters Daily to the rescue with a think tank link.
# A&L Daily also links to two reviews of Alex Rosenberg's atheist manifesto. The antidote to this book seems to be the 1933 classic, Bertrand Russell's The Scientific Outlook. Scientific determinism is a dead end.
Anyway, back to eating the organic plums from the backyard orchard. That's the really great thing about childhood obesity and helicopter parenting. The neighbourhood kids don't climb the fruit trees.
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