Posts Tagged ‘telling the truth’
Propaganda?
Here’s a ‘new’ poster, designed by Shepard Fairey, the guy who adapted an AP photo of Barack Obama into a HOPE poster etc which sold gazillions, sparking AP to come after him for using their intellectual property without acknowledgment or royalties. (I personally think they had a point. Fairey’s unacknowledged use of the AP image […]
The truth can be harsh
Respected business journalist/commentator Rod Oram’s assessment of the collapse of the HUGE South Canterbury Finance and supremo Allan Hubbard’s role in the demise is less confrontational than Bernard Hickey’s Please say sorry and thanks ‘open letter’ piece — but in its way, just as scathing. Failing to respond to criticism has become one of the […]
Please say sorry, and thanks …
I don’t know enough to make a judgement about Allan Hubbard, and I point to this only as an example of a journalist, in this case, publishing his (strong) personal opinions … I find that refreshing and encouraging because it’s clear he’s based them on his own considerable research and experience. Good on you Bernard. […]
A little backlash?
The thoughts I’ve recently shared in these pages about the operations of certain very smooth salesmen have sparked a reaction of sorts. Oh dear. As might be expected, there are indications of some outrage and hurt feelings in the spruiker’s camp … and questions being asked, notably: Ouch! What the hell? What can we do […]
Paranoid (?) but a whistleblower
Over the weekend I read a fascinating profile of WikiLeaks.org founder Julian Assange in a recent TIME magazine. (It’s available online at TIME here.) Here’s a bit that struck me (emphasis mine): Assange has retained a hacker’s mentality. He works from secret bunkers on major leaks and is convinced he is under surveillance from government […]
When ‘gurus’ attack — HOW you do it is important
From a review of The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life … It’s full of tips and advice but the one I like best comes from Buffett via Dale Carnegie, author of How To Win Friends and Influence People: “Criticism is futile, said Carnegie. Rule number one, don’t criticise, condemn or complain.” … […]
Well said, that man.
Sometimes you see what someone else has written and think: “Wow. I couldn’t say that any better.” This, from a rally in support of religious freedom in New York City does it for me… Thank you. One day it could be my freedom under threat from bigots with loud voices.
Wedge issue
In what’s showing up as a litmus test in the run up to the US November elections, my hero Senator Al Franken author of Lies – And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them is, as expected, speaking to uphold and defend the US Constitution.* Franken said conservative opposition to the mosque is “one of the […]
In a nutshell: a matter of trust
This small comment, in the middle of an article discussing Facebook privacy, explains what’s actually lost when certain spruikers (you know who I mean) expand their hyperbole and ‘puffery’ into potentially misleading claims … and then their offerings disappoint repeatedly, as in the case of some whose activities I have highlighted here. “They’ve lost the […]
Kieran Trass: “I was lied to by ‘locusts’ ”
Judging by his latest informercial/newsletter, Property Guru/Property Genie Kieran Trass is not a happy camper … in fact he now says he ‘strongly regrets’ his involvement in a Spruiker Express-type seminar, presumably NZ Property Gurus which we discussed here earlier this year. It’s an interesting read, as you’ll see. I’ve left this extensive quote out […]
Why take any action?
Recently in Why speak up I shared… At any time, in my view, you are either a force for good or ill — opposing evil or assisting it: All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. — Edmund Burke I know I come across as a sort of […]
‘Wretch of the week’ — that’s a nice phrase
I enjoyed satirist Steve Braunias talking with Radio NZ’s Jim Mora on his Eight months to Mars slot this week. As part of it, Steve described his own ‘The Secret Diary of …’ column in the Sunday Star Times as ‘Wretch of the Week’ and disclosed that in getting the voice of the subject right […]
Pattern recognition
An ADHD friend of mine, a medical doctor from New York, once described medical diagnosis as ‘pattern recognition’. That’s why, he said, a competently written computer-based questionnaire can actually be more effective at diagnosing medical conditions than a human being: because the computer will ask ALL the relevant questions, not skipping some that don’t seem […]
Why speak up?
Recent events have seen me revisiting a theme (or meme?) of this blog — and central to my own thinking: WHY SHOULD one speak up about perceived wrongdoing? Let me start by saying this: Life is complicated. Sometimes people and things can appear to be one thing on the surface but as you look closer, […]
