OnPoint by Keith Ng

I'm cheesed off that Dr Cullen has emptied the larder but now there is no whey that he can now claim that he is cellaring his cheese for a mouldy day. I'm sure he will caerphilly try to string that mozarella though.

The Big Cheese Key will be emmental if he can't make holes in Cullen on this budget, edam it! Although it is starting to grate a bit that Key won't get up on this stilton and provolone that he can cut a bigger slice of the Bucheron though!

I'm feta up with politicians!

Too much pork. Where's the beef? It's peanuts. Jam tomorrow. Dividing up the cake. Lolly scramble. Toast.

Screw the cheese. What about the wine?

In fact, looking at the table, it comes out quite nicely: those earning under $40K get cheese. Those earning between $40K and $70K get wine. And those over $70K get both.

Somebody call a cartoonist.

Screw the cheese. What about the wine?

Wine's going to be bloody cheap for the next year or two. Unlike cheese.

What about the whine?

You're in the wrong place. You want talkback radio. down the street, first on the left.

What about the wine?

What has that got to do with the price of chees?

or chees__e__, even

or CHIs, if we still had them

Meanwhile, could someone explain to me how all this cheese isn't going to fatten interest rates and inflation? Sorry, folks, but trying recast a serious question in dairy puns isn't working out.

You're in the wrong place. You want talkback radio. down the street, first on the left.

Who needs talkback? Morning Report's 'listener feedback' ran a charming request for 'the whingers' who should piss off to Zimbabwe or Myanmar and STFU. Gentle listener, to paraphrase Chris Rock, you low-expectation-having mother****er! I'm not inclined to give Helen Clark a cookie for NOT behaving like Mugabe, or the murderous despots who'd rather see the Irawaddy Delta turn into a open grave than surrender the smallest part of their power, because civilized human beings just don't do that shit.

Who needs talkback? Morning Report's 'listener feedback' ran a charming request for 'the whingers' who should piss off to Zimbabwe or Myanmar and STFU. Gentle listener, to paraphrase Chris Rock, you low-expectation-having mother****er!

Yes, I thought the same thing when I heard that.

I somehow doubt Labour would find a winning slogan in "Helen! Not as bad as Mugabe! More generous than the Generals of Myanmar!"

I somehow doubt Labour would find a winning slogan in "Helen! Not as bad as Mugabe! More generous than the Generals of Myanmar!"

Sure, and to reality check the more over-wrought left and right wing-nuts we will have a free, fair and credible election this year (unlike Zimbabwe); the armed forces won't be throwing a military coup if the results aren't to its liking (as went down in the country formerly known as Burma); and whatever the outcome, it won't be the final sign of pending apocalypse.

If I'm thinking of the same Morning Report feedback, I think the point was that "people who are prone to whining in New Zealand should remember there are many people worse off in the world than they are." Which is a reasonable point to make from time to time.

In any case, crazed and inaccurate rhetoric can be found on the other side of the spectrum, case in point the NZ Herald's Your Views section.

See comments along the lines of "I earn $80k a year and this budget will make me worse off!"

Right, and the moon is made of Swiss cheese, I hear.

Mugabe rhetoric:

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0708/S00402.htm

You're in the wrong place. You want talkback radio. down the street, first on the left.

First on the left is actually the Trotter's office. Talkback is first on the right.

I think the point was that "people who are prone to whining in New Zealand should remember there are many people worse off in the world than they are." Which is a reasonable point to make from time to time.

It's also a reasonable point to make in reply that in much of the world, broadcasting or printing criticism of the government has consequences ranging from the unpleasant (having goons torch your office and make obscene and threatening phone calls to your family) to the lethal (imprisonment, torture and murder).

BTW, please bookmark this comment and if there's a change of government, please rub my nose in it if I ever patronise critics of a National-led administration (or a Budget delivered by Bill English) as "whingers". It is perfectly fair game to say an opinion is wrong-headed, but pissing on someone for having the gall to express it is off.

In any case, crazed and inaccurate rhetoric can be found on the other side of the spectrum, case in point the NZ Herald's Your Views section.

See comments along the lines of "I earn $80k a year and this budget will make me worse off!"

I had a look yesterday. It is the place of utter unreason.

More on Mugabe.

House debate on Electoral Finance Bill, July 26, 2007:

Hon BILL ENGLISH: This is straight out of Zimbabwe. In fact, if members read the rules of the former Soviet Union about election campaigning, they will see that those rules were less restrictive than these ones.

John Carter: Mugabe wrote them.

Hon BILL ENGLISH: Mugabe would be proud of this. He cuts out the middle man; he just locks them up.

Talkback is first on the right.

Thought of that a microsecond after I hit post.

Craig - take your points. Just a bit frustrated with swivel-eyed knee-jerk unreasoning lunacy at the moment. And need to vent to complete strangers on the interweb.

How dare English compare New Zealand to Zimbabwe.

New Zealand is one of the freest countries in the world, as measured by Freedom House, Reporters Sans Frontieres, and The Economist.

Freedom in the world
World Press Freedom
Economist 's democracy index (PDF)

Bill English wouldn't know freedom if it pissed on him.

Bill English wouldn't know freedom if it pissed on him.

Before or after one of Helen's jack-booted thugs sets him on fire? ;)

If there's a Stalinist/Mugabeian equivalent of Godwin's Law (ie, Reductio ad Stalinum) the EFB ruckus was overflowing with it.

I expect comparisons to Mugabe from the comments section of Kiwiblog.

OTOH, this explains who RedBaiter is... mystery solved.