Posts by Jonty
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@ Bart <I really can't guess what will come next, how many MPs will be named or will they quietly not be selected in the next candidacy round?>
A contributor to BBC's World Have Your Say predicted that little will come out of the H of C committee hearing as the interviewees know where all the members' skeletons are buried :--)
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@Matthew poole:
<Rodney’s gone already, which spares him an ignominious ejection, but he was only the puppet master in this farce.>No, Rodney was only the puppet. The puppet masters are the gang waiting in the wings – waiting to privatise Auckland's assets – a process delayed only by Len Brown's trumping the robotic Banks. But they haven't gone away. Just waiting and watching for Brown to fall flat on his face with this cock-up.
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OK -- I've taken the drugs in a darkened room -- the figures don't look any better?!!
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Great letter in the NY Times yesterday:
'No man is an island, entire unto himself:...Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.'
Mr. Osama bin Laden has been removed from this Earth in much the same manner as those he was minded to dispatch while he lived. Quickly, with little warning and no alternative other than to face the finality of death itself.
This, however, is unlikely to be the end of the matter. The legacy he has left behind is guaranteed to cause more deaths and destruction in the days ahead. There is a distinct tendency in the nature of Man to have one such violent death presage the need for so many more; that the ancient imperative of 'blood will have blood' is as true today as it has ever been.
After millenia of blindly following and reaping the rewards of this grim maxim, it might just be in everyone's interests to stop, think and then approach certain situations with methods far better than those used in past or even present times.
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<They could have instead explained their logic and hoped the public would vote for them. That they believed, probably rightly, that the public would have voted them out should have made them question their decision. But instead it made them choose to try and hide or spin their decision.>
... or they could have followed the British example.
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<Furthermore, being practical, if the Americans think that imprisoning Assange is going to stop Wikileaks, they're mad.>
I think many in positions of power are mad -- and what's more they want revenge.
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I have the gravest concerns for Assange's future. If he is sent to Sweden to stand trial it's almost certain that he will be rendered to the Americans, and he won't see the light of day for many years as their legal juggling, by deferring a trial, will keep him imprisoned, with all the horrors that will be for him. Even the loopy presidential hopeful Sarah Palin is calling for a Special Forces unit to go and assassinate him. So much for democracy in the land of the free.
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Personally, I feel RadioNZ (with one or two minor exceptions) has maintained a consistent quality of news and analysis over the years, whereas TVNZ has steadily declined. If, as an earlier post suggested, this is a precursor to privatisation, then we will all be the losers. One only has to listen to other radio stations to understand to ghastliness of what we will be in for. Can you imagine a time when our only access to public radio debate will be in the hands of such intellectual titans as Holmes, Laws, Smith, Woodham, et al? The dumbing down of NZ will then be almost complete. RadioNZ would rate as one of the best radio stations in the world, despite it's occasional oddities, but they are our oddities and we love it regardless. It, together with the Concert programme, is an oasis of sanity in a crass, commercial world.
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Wasn't Haden one of the Cavaliers back in 1981(?) who crept out of the country under cover of darkness to play the Boks in SA in the face of world-wide condemnation of the then reviled apartheid system? He and his mates were rewarded with 5-star treatment and diamond cuff-links.
Haden has always been an arrogant, egotistical, self-opinionated twerp who has delusions of grandeur. Another ex-AB for whom there is always a sweet reward in NZ society after retirement -- whether they have any aptitude for the job or not. -
<As an aside: if anyone's interested, I've found a supplier of vuvuzelas within NZ. I bought one yesterday: it's tremendous fun. I'm planning on bringing it to meetings this week.?
I'm sure you'll get a few suggestions on what to do with it :--)