Author Archive
The sins of the fathers
It was pretty sobering to read of Bernard Madoff’s 46 year old son hanging himself just before the 2nd anniversary of his father’s exposure as a fraud. Consequences. Sad.
In defence of Shaun Stenning — (update: FAKE) Jennifer from Oz
This comment floated in overnight — from ‘Jennifer‘, [who is a sockpuppet. See UPDATE 2 below] in response to last month’s post ‘Is this how Shaun Stenning handles a request for a refund?‘ and, oh, she accuses me of insincerity, to say the least: Hi Peter, It seems you like to play devils advocate don’t […]
History will judge WikiLeaks. And they’ll be seen as right.
‘The Pentagon Papers’ author Daniel Ellsberg has added his voice to support for WikiLeaks … I heard John Pilger on the BBC, doing the same… these men are lions of conscience, and heroes of mine. Whistleblowers aren’t popular. WikiLeaks has teased the genie of transparency out of a very opaque bottle, and powerful forces in […]
Joe Lieberman: I’m with Homeland Security and I’m here to help. Right.
So, remind me how the US, land of free speech is different to, say, China where the internet is censored as a matter of course. Via Salon’s Glen Greenwald we learn that the New York Times has catalogued another bit of heavyweight censorship — guilty without a trial — connected with WikiLeaks… … another company […]
Glenn Beck = fruitcake?
Is it just me? Or is this guy Glenn Beck nuttier than a Christmas cake? Observe the range of emotions he, er, emotes as he tells the horrific (made-up) story of what happens when people who have a ‘Like problem’ — i.e. who don’t click the ‘Like’ button on his Facebook page — they ‘kill […]
Government lapdogs?
TPMMuckraker How Lieberman Got Amazon To Drop Wikileaks
Awesome!
Look what happens when you mess with the Fed: Whoo, boy. U.S. Shuts Down Web Sites in Piracy Crackdown By BEN SISARIO New York Times November 26, 2010 In what appears to be the latest phase of a far-reaching federal crackdown on online piracy of music and movies, the Web addresses of a number of […]
Off with his head
OK, we expect reactionaries like Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly to call for the firing squad for the WikiLeaks source. And ditto whoever writes Sarah Palin’s Facebook stuff (hunt down Julian Assange, the director of Wikileaks “with the same urgency we pursue al Qaeda and Taliban leaders”, describing Assange as “an anti-American operative with blood on […]
Smallest surprise in the world
The day of release of the widely-telegraphed US embassy cables, of course someone will have a crack at WikiLeaks. Thus, the strategy of release to multiple news organisations. They can hardly complain about dirty tricks, when they’re leaking stolen documents. It’s only going to get worse for them. As I noted earlier Julian Assange and […]
U2 360 Auckland
Pretty impressive night, in all ways. Great crowd, too.
TSA – Help you make it to your flight
It’s amazing what can enter popular culture. And how quickly. Now, because of a widely-perceived image as voyeurs (at the very least) and molesters, staff of the US Transport Safety Authority TSA are copping quite a bit of flack. Their heavy-handedness (pun) with ‘pat down’ searches of all sorts of citizens — kids, paraplegics, nuns, […]
Pike River mine disaster
My heartfelt condolences to the families slammed by this gut-wrenching event. Hopes dashed by the second explosion. Awful. And now grief, a companion for life. – Peter
Attention to details
Following up on some people’s sensitivity to Facebook comments, I understand singer Gin Wigmore is very particular about her image — and fair enough, too. That’s an important thing to keep under control. Michelle Hewitson, interviewing her for the NZ Herald, said: [Gin Wigmore] won’t be photographed without hair and make-up, her record company said, […]
Facebook’s tentacles now part of divorce settlements!
Don’t let anybody tell you Facebook doesn’t matter. It seems for a certain type of person, what’s said about them on Facebook really matters. So much so that clauses relating to Facebook are, by the look of things, finding their way into matrimonial settlement agreements, along with who gets the house, the car, the credit […]
Nicely put — Australian Values Statement
I stumbled across this Australian Values Statement and quite like what it’s saying. It seems fair enough to make this an ‘initial communication’ for people considering emigrating to Australia. It seems to me in part a fleshed-out version of the cry of the French Revolution (Liberty, equality, fraternity). I wonder what the background is, how […]
