@No-Quarter said in The Failed policy of Multiculturalism:
It will be interesting to see where he is in another 10 years, and if his name is still Sonny.
Sunni Bill Williams? I'm probably late to the party on that joke.
@No-Quarter said in The Failed policy of Multiculturalism:
It will be interesting to see where he is in another 10 years, and if his name is still Sonny.
Sunni Bill Williams? I'm probably late to the party on that joke.
A man wrote to the NZ Herald yesterday saying that he was at the airport with his wife and young children when they saw Smith "sneak" into a wheelchair access bathroom with a young woman who was not his partner.
"The pair were in the bathroom for 5-10 minutes and from the noises coming out of the bathroom there was absolutely no question what the couple were doing in there.
"Mr Smith then came out of the room on his own straightening up his white checked shirt and black dress pants (the All Blacks uniform they were all wearing at the time).
"About a minute later the young lady comes out of the same toilet cubicle looking equally suspicious. bolded textI myself did not have a problem with this... my wife however is protesting that this is disgusting for a public figure to do this.
From the Herald article.
The most distressing thing about this incident is that it is dividing families.
Kmart is really fucking good for females frittering away money, I can confirm that.
@No-Quarter I expect it would be contempt at a similar level to that expressed by my wife, kids and boss.
@No-Quarter Wags is magnificent. I love the guy. He looks like he is trying at least 10% harder than everyone else. And his aggro is genuinely paying off. His average is now better than Boult's and I think he's 6th all time for NZ (min. 50 wickets) on averages and 12th on wickets (should be up around 8th by the end of the summer unless Boult or Southee pig out on the Bangles).
Yeah, JK ate Campbell's lunch in the GCSB one. Campbell tried his best to land punches all interview and Key just had the bat and pad close together and then left everything outside off stump. A tremendously skilful performance in negating the treachery of the left's most persistent media mouthpiece. Oops, am I using the boxing or the cricket metaphor?
I think it was only a week later when Bridges and Campbell shouted at each other for ten minutes - a completely different game on an equally tough pitch. That one over offshore prospecting?
With all these grammatical errors now in the public domain, the CEO and Board of this esteemed publication will be forced to front the media to apologise for the actions of lazy subeditors. Advertisers and sponsors may tear up contracts and this house of cards will tip over eventually.
@Smudge said in Aaron Smith naughty boy?:
I didn't watch One (sorry, "1") News last night because a) I was out, and b) I hardly ever do anyway, but can someone tell me if Simon Dallow used the phrase "it's not a good look'' at some stage during their expose - disabled toilet and all? From the very few times I've watched during a scandal, It's a favourite of his as he rides his trusty steed named Moral High Horse. I get the feeling it's his own editorialising, rather than anything scripted by the journo.
Simon Dallow? You mean the guy who turned his wife into a lesbian and then fucked half the blonde dolly birds in the newsroom? Yes, Dallow should editorialise about public figures and their private sex lives.
@Billy-Tell That's an epic whinge packed into a short report of a radio interview.
Here's the highlights:
I thought I was at the Colosseum on Saturday night...
deeply, deeply disturbing
The game is in serious trouble, because this is a disgrace
What happened to Robbie Henshaw is a disgrace
I think there was three head injuries, a number of neck injuries
The All Blacks raped my grandma and poured sugar in my petrol tank.
Discrimination against Scots? All I can see is a massive and undeniable bias towards cisgendered men.
Great game from Luatua. Very impressed.
I'm hoping Grammar will be lobbied in term 2 by libertarians to give the OK to a neck tattoo.
@canefan Wouldn't a more innovative tactic been to drop McCullum down the order for the CWC final? The Aussies, after the game, all they talked about was spending the lead up constructing their bowling plan to McCullum in the first few overs to prevent him getting away to a flier (didn't appear to care so much about Guppy or Kane or Rosco and co). So putting us in and getting to bowl at McCullum straight away suited them.
If we'd sent someone else out to open they'd have been (temporarily) fucked.
Armchair Tactician, 39,
Hamilton.
Little was giving evidence yesterday and described the Hagamans negotiating the "wording" of an apology as "bizarre". Little seemed to claim he kept trying to offer wording and a $26,000 sum but they refused and wouldn't talk to him or "negotiate" with him.
In cross examination, it was shown that Little in fact was presented with apology wording and a sum for settlement acceptable to the Hagamans. Little would or could not meet those demands. To me Little thought he could negotiate his way out of saying the exact wording and / or paying the exact sum suggested. He later offered $100k (I'm not sure what the wording or the form of the apology was). The Hagamans got sick of his prevaricating and rejected the $100k offer. They have incurred in excess of $200k legal costs.
As a witness Little's arrogance has been astounding. He has used the platform as a chance to attack the National government rather. The only good thing he's done is publicly pledged to meet the costs himself even if that means remortgaging his family home aka The House That Union Agitation Bought. But you can be sure that the donation hat will be passed around at upcoming Labour party meetings. It will make Destiny Church tithing attempts look tame.
Little's lawyer is John Tizard. I haven't researched his familial relationships, but of course Tizard is a name donkey deep in the Labour Party.
@jegga I sometimes take my coffee with cream. Cream as they say "rises to the top." I never fail to stop and consider for a long moment the symbolism of black brothers once peacefully inhabiting the cup being invaded and subjugated by the cultural jackboot of the overpowering white minority entrenched at the top of the cup.
Sometimes I just avoid confronting my own white privilege, up to four cups a days.
That being said, I should further acknowledge the original cultural appropriation of coffee from the Ethiopians (and latterly from the Yemenis, who although they may have acquired the taste of coffee while slaving).
Coffee related facts from Wiki. Guilt from deep within.
It’s a classic example of a journalist simply regurgitating Barry Battler's rubbish without any fact-checking. That skill is obviously beyond that balding veteran education issues journalist Simon Collins.
The bread winner here moans that he is “paying 33c in the dollar [income tax] plus 15c [GST] on just about everything you purchase. You are really paying half your income, 48 per cent, in tax.”
He’s using his marginal tax rate as an excuse to whinge. Welcome to a progressive taxation system; it’s only been around forever. It’s true that for each extra dollar you earn (such as when you get a payrise) you get stung if you earn at the highest marginal rate, but that ignores the $70k he earns prior to the top rate kicking in (the average tax rate is currently 20% up to $70k going down to 18.5% after the proposed tax cuts). He’s also unaware that his rent is GST-exempt.
Barry Battler is currently taking home about $66,700 of his $92k income (assuming he contributes 3% to KiwiSaver). Of that, just over half ($33,800) goes on rent at $650 / week. So he only pays GST on $32,800 of take home pay i.e. about $4,300. His average tax rate is 29.2% (PAYE + ACC + GST, assuming he spends all of his income). Not the headline 48% tax rate he was screaming.
If the tax cuts go ahead, he’ll pay $1,060 less PAYE, but because he has a higher take home pay, he’ll pay a little more GST - about $140. So he’s $920 a year better off (1% less tax paid overall), and paying an average tax rate of 28.2%.
Here’s a novel solution to your money woes mate – maybe your missus should work.
If he and his wife both worked, and earned only the same income between them (i.e. $46k each), they'd still be way better off.
They’d take home about $73,800 and pay GST on $40,000 after rent. The average tax rate would be 22.4% (PAYE + ACC + GST) – they’d pay $6,200 less tax, which is $7k less PAYE and $940 more GST.
Stuff well onboard too. Great headline:
"Metiria Turei campaigned for political parties but didn't work while lying to Winz"
Her radio interview with the highly sympathetic taxpayer funded leftwing Radio NZ, as reported by Stuff, included this gem:
"(Campaigning) took a little bit of time but this is the thing, people are entitled to have a decent life and I want every beneficiary to have enough money to be financially secure."
Cough cough splutter? Beneficiaries should be financially secure? WTAF?This is an extremely poor choice of words because she surely can't mean that a person should be able to build financial security (in the normal sense of the concept) on the benefit.
Electoral poison.
@Billy-Tell This political compass test provides one assessment of where political parties in New Zealand sat as at the 2014 general election (20 Sep 2014). Note you can also complete a test to see where you sit individually.
You can see that all NZ political parties except for the Greens, NZ First, Mana and Maori sat quite comfortably on the liberal side of economic policy (i.e. capitalist / free market economy). The social policy side is a little more diverse - all except Green, Mana and Maori sit on the authoritarian side of social policy.
As for how the parties have changed in the three years since, in my view it is certainly quite a bit (though I am more now "woke" than ever)
My personal disclosure: I score about +5 on the economic scale (halfway between centre and right). I score about -2 on the social scale (slightly on the social libertarian side). Therefore my personal political preferences are not represented in NZ and I have to go with the acceptable / least worst option. I come from a socially conservative background but I have become more social libertarian with age (I am 40) and I am a lifetime National voter.
The below is just a few random thoughts if mine that others can pick up on or add to.
National is being pragmatic (not ideological) based on getting re-elected (going for a 4th term which has not happened since 1966), and moving well into the centre left. It has moved ) significantly away from economic liberalism and from its right leaning supporters (they are far closer to Labour now).
National has increased the size of the welfare state, for low and middle income people. For example it pays benefits to a 2 child family which earns 20-30% more than the average household income. It has also gotten far more closely involved in housing issues and machinations of getting more houses built for first home buyers and disincentivising property investors and speculation. (Labour is campaigning on doing the same, but with more houses and more disincentives respectively). Labour for example would also pay young families and retirees a winter bonus to go towards heating their houses.
Socially National now does what suits the electorate, presumably based on hard evidence and polling. They are probably becoming more social libertarian (e.g. this year they issued an official apology to those convicted historically of “being gay” though they are also currently seeking to make beggars illegal. I was happy to hear Bill English use the phrase "personal responsibility" recently (you don't hear that much anymore) when a number of homeless people died after smoking a bad batch of synthetic cannabis.
Personally I am a fan of social pragmatism over social ideology. I don’t however think the government’s role is to get houses built, though I understand why it has become a priority for them.
Labour’s change of leader will mean rebooted policies. I’m not sure if their policies will change a great deal ideologically, they just have potentially a better salesperson.
I struggle to see the Greens as the most socially libertarian party in NZ, as is shown in the graph. On one hand they are very libertarian (e.g. legalise cannabis, woman’s right to choose including not to name the father of her child for benefit collecting purposes, be whichever gender you wish). However, they are very authoritarian on some social / ideological issues and are fulfilling the role of the illiberal / regressive left as seen in other Western democracies: the emotion over environmental issues and climate change, identity politics, class politics. Their Marxist factions are having more sway over the more benign environmental faction.
I would caution that the Greens are nowhere near the level of, say, Evergreen State College though. I do despise them however and I don’t think they have a single advocate on this board.
In short, it’s your call. Just make sure you vote with an informed opinion.
I'd just like to thank Turei for her selfless resignation, which places a third male (if I may be so bigoted as to make that assumption) inside the Greens' list top ten and brings some much needed gender diversity to the party's shop window.
#kapaimetiria
The world seems to be falling over the "outspoken" Emma Thompson's BBC Newsnight interview in which she mentions "the wider problem in the industry."
From the article linked below:
Asked whether there were other men like Weinstein hiding in the entertainment industry, Thompson said there were "many".
"Maybe not to that degree," she continued.
So why doesn't she live up to her "outspoken" nature and just go on and name some of the "many"? Even just the single worst one she knew of (after Weinstein)?
You can't tell me that, right now, if she named someone else whose behaviour was like Weinstein's and her allegations were true, many victims' stories would be flushed out. Surely any actor who'd been harassed in any way is currently effectively immune to career repercussions.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=11932907