Author Archive
Sue Kedgley on trench warfare and the value of MMP
A worthwhile interview between Sean Plunket and retiring Green MP Sue Kedgley was broadcast on The Nation today. I’d seen reports of her valedictory statement with ‘parting shots’ about Parliamentary ‘trench warfare’ and nodded in agreement. Much of the time it’s trench warfare in here,” she told Parliament. “The aim is to do battle, to […]
Newly political Peter Leitch – timing is everything
There’s been a dose of opprobrium directed towards a Labour MP Darien Fenton for her Facebook comments (yawn) in reaction to ‘The Mad Butcher’ businessman/philanthropist Sir Peter Leitch publicly endorsing the National Party in the lead up to the General Election. Some of Labour’s political enemies have sought to make it a litmus test, describing […]
Lawyers (and lab rats) have their uses
Despite all the jokes about lawyers (some of them very funny, like Q: Why do some experiments use lawyers instead of lab rats? A: Because there are more of them, there are some things even rats won’t do, and the experimenters prove less likely to become emotionally attached to lawyers than rats) there are times […]
Coincidence
I swear every word of this is true. A couple of days ago I tweeted a link about a ‘Blogger whose poos don’t smell …’ … referring to my post that day about [update:] recent tactics of the VFC anti-MMP campaign … Well, today after I picked him up from school, my son and I […]
Another good graphic
Another in my series of ‘graphics that communicate‘ … this poster design for an upcoming event in Leigh next month really appeals to me: Now the funny things is, I found the poster because this morning Facebook recommended I ‘friend’ Tame Iti (since we have four friends in common) and I wandered over to his […]
How to piss off an All Blacks supporter
Crikey! UPDATE: Apparently the Queenslanders are buying them from a South African T-shirt maker: I made this one off t-shirt for a rugby union mad friend as laugh for his day out with his kiwi mates to the rugby just after the 2007 RWC. To my surprise, four years later, his photo has gone viral […]
Authentic use of a following …
Brooke Fraser gets the value of using her ‘brand’ … and putting her body in the space to support good causes. Here’s what she says about the poverty of Africa, on her way to Ethiopia: “This is my eighth visit to the continent but my first to Ethiopia and I’m expecting it to be a […]
Doing the anti-MMP campaign’s dirty work
I’ve been critical of partisan attack blogging (which I called “fixated, credibility-eviscerating attack blogging“). I am troubled (but not ‘shocked‘ or ‘outraged‘) by a demonstrated lack of what I called ‘fair-mindedness’ and the occasional deployment of untruthfulness (I regard that as a far more serious breach) I observe in some political blogs, some of whom […]
Sad saga of co-operation breaking down
Best line: Julian’s ghostwriter delivered a brilliant first draft of the book, bang on schedule, at the end of March. We read it and loved it. Julian didn’t. He didn’t love it. We’re not even sure how much he actually read. It was an extraordinary reaction to a manuscript he should have been grateful for […]
Formative experiences
Reflecting on why I oppose the National government’s proposed rushed legislation to retrospectively sanctify unlawful police surveillance actions, I found myself remembering back to when I was a sixth-former in Wellington and got a holiday job at the Supreme Court — coincidentally just as an appeal was being heard against the double murder conviction of […]
The gods will offer you chances … for inspiration
OK, I can see I’m the three-million, thirty-seven thousandth (plus) viewer of this Levis ad on Youtube, and sure, it’s corporate propaganda/advertising dressed up in a call to self-expression, inspiration (and, if you’re a paranoid conservative Glenn Beck, a message ‘glorifying revolution’) … but, hey, it works for me. Reminds me of Apple’s ‘Here’s to […]
Laura Norder a surprise election issue?
The Supreme Court’s decision last Friday to declare covert police surveillance videos unlawful unless properly authorized by a court had big implications. Under this country’s Bill of Rights Act, citizens have a right to be free of unreasonable search and seizure by the forces of the state. It seems some aspects of the police’s search […]
Hunting for a word
I mentioned in my earlier post about ‘Black hat’ techniques that What I need is a better word for spin doctor. It seems too passive for the propaganda campaign aspect. ‘Spuiker’ is close in spirit, but not quite right. … Any ideas? The definition I quoted in the tweet above is from wisegeek.com … whose […]
