Author Archive
The same post-election vindictiveness we’re seeing in Washington DC? Probably.
If one loses an election (or the candidate/Party one was hoping would win loses it) there are a number of options for dealing with that. This is all I need to know about the political machinations behind a recent public humiliation … accompanied by a sworn affidavit. Ms Chuang was unable to be reached for […]
How would the locals have dealt with a dead whale a hundred years ago?
I saw this online at the time Couple make whale of a catch from beach, and today came across it again, wondering: How would on earth would people have treated a whale carcass in days gone by? I don’t know. I suspect they would have taken more from the dead whale than a few ‘samples’ […]
The challenge of dealing with a whistle-blower
I referred in this post: Please read this NY Times column — ‘The Banality of Systematic Evil’ to the discomfort that ‘management’ can experience — and the poor decisions they can make as a result — when someone in their organisation highlights wrongdoing. Remember?: “… an accountant was dismissed because he insisted on reporting “irregular payments, […]
This mortgage graphic bears looking at closer
I spotted this entertaining graphic on the NZ Home Loans website. If you understand mortgages, you’ll know the bank doesn’t own ANY of your home (as owner, you merely offer the property as security to the lender for your loan) but it can be good to have a sense of consciousness of your outstanding debt. […]
Speechless
Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates. What a team. – P via Stuff.co.nz
Rihanna at Vector Arena in Auckland last night
I went to this concert last night — and really enjoyed it. Read a review in the NZ Herald Concert review: Rihanna in Auckland (+photos). Here’s one of Sarah Ivey’s pics of this talented (and let’s face it, gorgeous) performer, Rihanna: Well worth going, if you get the chance. – P
The ‘values’ & ‘goals’ of immoral political deceivers
This, from a (typically) excellent politics column by Charles P. Pierce goes some way to explaining why I feel such disdain for the dishonest political ‘operators’ whose activities I observe and highlight here now and then, and whose reptilian coarsening of political ‘debate’ I have come to see as so irredeemably negative. The second basic […]
Exhibiting one’s nature. Not always pretty.
Jobs sometimes avoided the truth. Helmut Sonnenfeldt once said of Henry Kissinger, “He lies not because it’s in his interest, he lies because it’s in his nature.” From Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson p 287 I’m reading this book at present and really enjoying it. I’ve learned when dealing with some people that this phenomenon […]
Echo chamber? Or seeing the world as one wants it to be?
I like receiving Bryce Edwards’ NZ Politics Daily newsletter. It’s a valuable digest of political issues seen through the filter of media coverage, including the blogosphere, and Bryce’s commentary is always worth a read. (Material from The Paepae features now and then too, which I also appreciate.) Yesterday’s missive reflected the theme of the Thorndon […]
Alastair Campbell demolishes the Daily Mail’s deputy editor Jon Steafel (video)
A master class on BBC Newsnight. “The Daily Mail is the worst of British values, posing as the best”.
The self-parody of calling someone ELSE ‘sanctimonious’
Look, let me be very clear about this, as I have said in another context: ‘The left are so sanctimonious’ — is virtually a self-parodying remark, if you possess the self-awareness to perceive it. God knows, there are plenty of times I’ve been accused of being sanctimonious* and of ‘pontificating’ (amazingly, usually by people who […]
Matthew Hooton regrets (cough) using ‘that particular word’. Of course he does.
With all due respect to Radio New Zealand, it seems to me they are indulging a notable double standard with respect to Matthew Hooton, and quite possibly being gamed by the National Party spin doctor. Today’s Nine to Noon political segment began with noble Lynn Freeman reading again Radio New Zealand’s “position” on their ‘commentator […]
Flogging a dead horse? Yeah, consider stopping that.
On a visit to New York City in the lead-up to the 2008 US Presidential election, I was walking along a Manhattan street when someone thrust this flyer into my hand: Wow. The legendary consumer and industrial safety advocate (Unsafe at Any Speed) and left wing political activist Ralph Nader would be speaking that very […]
Matthew Hooton: an apology
Spin doctor and Oscar-nominated* actor Matthew Hooton has added his own apology (well, sorta-kinda) to those of the two media outlets which broadcast his pre-determined, calculated smear of the Leader of the Opposition. Writing in the National Business Review (hilariously in an article he says will be behind a paywall tomorrow morning, Matthew challenged Radio […]
