Today’s Daily Blog Watch Round-Up of matters that have attracted the attention, assessments, and articulations of this country’s leading bloggers and on-line satirists…
NZ Left Blogosphere
Anne E on The Hand Mirror asks, Not even one woman? on this year’s New Zealand Society of Authors (NZSA) honorary literary fellows. Other bloggers haven’t noticed. Too busy defending “Odd Future” and their god-given, universal human right, to promote rape culture within New Zealand. Priorities, eh?
And on Whoar, Phillip Ure looks at,
- “..Where Do We Come From?: The 7 Most Intriguing Philosophical Arguments for the Existence of God..”
And most appropriate (see entry below for Open Parachute),
And much more!
Open Parachute has a piece on Quality and selection counts in fluoride research,
“I think the paper most quoted by anti-fluoridation activists must be Choi et al (2012), Developmental fluoride neurotoxicity: A systematic review and meta-analysis. I say quoted but, I suspect, not read. It is always coming up in articles on natural health web sites and continually thrown into blog and Facebook discussions. Often as a link without explanation.
It is also heavily promoted on Twitter. The same tweet is often sent from the same account daily, or more often….”
It may be about time to render an entirely new mental dysfunction; “Cognitive Denial of Reality/Conspiracy”??
Because as sure as Man walked on The Moon; flouride will not make your hair fall out, or willy drop off; and AGW is a reality, some of these Deniers are certifiably demented. (The Mother Ship is calling me…)
On Red Alert, Rajen Prasad suggests that the Minister of Immigration is all at sea over complaints over immigration scams,
“The Catch 22 that the Minister refuses to address is that when victims complain, their visas are cancelled or not renewed. If they don’t complain, they pay huge sums of money to illegal scammers and New Zealand does not get the migrants it seeks to attract. Some of the worst cases being reported to my office are from foreign fee paying students….”
Kiwipolitico’s Pablo checks out Monitoring Syrians and Supplicants, with some excellent analysis,
“In the last nine months the Prime Minister has made repeated reference to would-be New Zealand jihadis joining the fight in Syria. Some are already there and others have been barred from going. They may or may not be Syrian in origin, but his use of the “Syrian trump card” is a naked political ploy designed to use fear-mongering as a justification for extension of domestic espionage and, perhaps, as a way of pre-emptively steeling public opinion against the negative consequences of the inevitable revelations from Edward Snowden about New Zealand’s foreign espionage role within the Five Eyes/Echelon signals intelligence collection network. The trouble with the PM’s ploy is that the proclaimed threat does not match the facts.”
On the issue of John Key supposedly getting his information on Winston Peters from Cameron Slater, Pablo makes this point,
“I have shares in a Bolivian gold mine I am willing to sell at a very affordable price to readers who believe a sociopath was the first source of the Dotcom visit data provided to the PM. Perhaps I am wrong and it is simply too much for domestic law enforcement and intelligence agencies to pursue the monitoring of Dotcom for a supposed copyright infringement when so many Syrian-focused terrorists abound.”
On the Transport Blog, Matt L looks at Big event issues once again, and suggests that the Rugby Nines and Eminem concert public transport congestion has been a re-play of the opening Rugby World Cup event. So either there are too many people in Auckland and we need to do a West Australian-style cull – or this government needs to commit more to public transport.
Hmmm, I’m thinking that culling humans is still illegal (except in wartime, and then it’s policy), so that leaves us with – public transport!
Cafe Pacific reports that Fiji is in from the cold – and courted for the asylum seekers ‘Pacific Solution’,
“THE AUSTRALIAN yesterday featured an “historic come-in-from-the-cold” meeting in Suva between Foreign Minister Julie Bishop with Fiji military-backed regime chief Voreqe Bainimarama in a report by Asia-Pacific affairs editor Rowan Callick.
She revealed to Bainimarama that the past 56 requests for exemptions under the relaxed travel sanctions policy had been granted (except for one on a technicality), with Callick summing up the “warm” meeting…”
AGCSB, protesting and the internetz, and makes a very simple point,
On the Brooking Blog, Roger Brooking looks at Arthur Taylor subject to cruel inhuman treatment – Ombudsman: chief executive implicated,
“[Arthur] Taylor has become something of a ‘prison lawyer’ and for a while was allowed to store his legal files in a separate room. Not surprisingly, Corrections management don’t like him, and in June 2011 he was placed on ‘directed segregation’ after he was allegedly caught with a cell phone in his possession. (If the Department’s cell blocking technology actually worked – current cost $13 million – Mr Taylor would not have been able to use a cell phone, but that’s another story.)”
There more to this interesting story of how the justice system is working (or not working), in New Zealand…
Chris Trotter on Bowalley Road discusses Japanese Pride and recent incursion of whaling boats within our EEZ waters. Chris compares the Japanese entering our EEZ with Chinese vessels entering Japan’s EEZ in 2012, and the intense situation that developed. (More on that issue by Frank Macskasy who was less subtle than Chris on this issue, when he suggested that Japanese Whaling Ships can just p*ss off!)
Frank also does some Frankly Speaking about the Green Party’s newly announced solar panel policy, and National Energy Minister, Simon Bridge’s, immediate rant against the Green Party. Funny how the Nats seem happy to spend $1 billion in grants for home insulation – but seem opposed to low-interest loans?
Frank also looks at The banning of “Odd Future”. You can tell he’s not impressed.
Gordon Campbell also looks at the banning of Odd Future…
Both seem to be looking at the issue from different perspectives.
Meanwhile, Scott Yorke at Imperator Fish looks at the same issue (the banning of “Odd Future”), likening it to the Second cricket test ends abruptly, after visiting Indians’ visas revoked. Yeah, because cricket and rape culture is one and the same thing. Not sure if that’s funny.
I guess the laughs are slow in coming when someone you know was raped by their own father.
But no, really, sorry, Scott, I’ll try to get a giggle out of it.
Idiot Savant on No Right Turn checks out the following issues;
Yesterday the Auckland Council started wringing its hands over misogynist rap group Odd Future’s planned concert this weekend. Today, the government has responded by banning them from New Zealand. Their reason…?
Last year, in response to an OIA request I made back in 2010, DPMC decided to come clean and proactively release summary information on Cabinet Ministers’ conflicts of interest. But there was a problem: the release only covered the period from October 2012 – September 2013…
Last week the government ended its persecution of the Waihopai Three. So how much did this pointless exercise in vengeance cost…?
A US man has just been convicted for waterboarding his stepdaughter….
In a perfect Valentine’s Day gift, Virginia’s ban on same-sex marriage has been overturned in federal court…
Last year, the government agreed to subsidise foreign-owned Rio Tinto to the tune of $30 million. At the time they were pleading poverty; now its clear that they played us for suckers…
And over at The Standard,
“Fairfax yesterday posted this article where business high fliers were asked what they thought political parties should be talking about this election year. I prepared this post as a fictional interview of ordinary people and their thoughts on what the parties should be talking about as this view should also be heard but then Fairfax posted this article today where real ordinary people were interviewed. The difference in views between the high fliers and the ordinary people is somewhat jarring although the paper could have provided real balance by talking to someone surviving on a benefit.”
“We are standing on the threshold of history — the moment when the Green Party forms New Zealand’s first green government….”
“The latest Fairfax Ipsos poll result has attracted attention in Open Mike. Vern Small has interpreted the results as suggesting that National could win 64 seats. He has anticipated that NZ First will not be in Parliament which I think is dangerous.
Like all polls the results need to be taken with more than a grain of salt. Just before the last election Fairfax had National on 54% which is significantly higher than its election result of 47.21%.
And sometimes the trend is more important.”
“Key also confirmed regular contact with Slater. Jason Ede’s role in Key’s office is becoming clearer. It is now obvious that Key’s office feeds Slater information which Slater then converts into bile, spews over it and throws it around indiscriminately.
This is extraordinarily important. Slater has a stench about him. His blogsite has to be seen to be believed. Between the youtube videos and the naff postings his regular attacks on grieving families suggest there is something not right with him. An association with him has the potential of coming with a huge cost.”
- Rotten –
“Stuff has an astounding interview with John Key where he reveals he has regular catch-ups with Cameron Slater.”
“So, the PM is hinting that his tips about Winston Peters visiting Kim Dotcom 3 times, came from Cameron Slater.
This is the same Slater who said on TV 3′s The Nation that:
Slater: Well, Auckland politics is like where any politics is, in that it’s a dirty, disgusting, despicable game. And it involves dirty, disgusting despicable people at all levels. And to have this sort of high and mighty belief that New Zealand politics is clean, isn’t.”
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Blogpost of the Day
Fightback is supporting Wellington action: Don’t dance with Israeli apartheid,
“Batsheva’s performance at NZ Festival is sponsored by the Embassy of Israel in New Zealand. One of the embassy’s roles is to enhance Israel’s public image in New Zealand by sponsoring Israeli cultural events such as this one. This is part of a deliberate strategy of using arts and culture to whitewash over Israel’s human rights abuses and violations of international law.”
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Quick Quotes
“Create a society that values material things above all else. Strip it of industry. Raise taxes for the poor and reduce them for the rich and for corporations. Prop up failed financial institutions with public money. Ask for more tax, while vastly reducing public services. Put adverts everywhere, regardless of peoples ability to afford the things they advertise. Allow the cost of food and housing to eclipse people’s ability to pay for them. Light blue touch paper.” – Andrew Maxwell (Irish Comedian)
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Thought for the Day
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~ Joe Blogger,
“The Daily Blog Watch” Editor, Imbiber of Fine Sugary Drinks, & Moa-whisperer
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