Walking with Ghosts

On this whole Boyfriend Thing business

2010-06-21T03:54:00.006+12:00

Happiness is trapped
'tween the wall and the Woman
who steals the blankets.

Know your heroes - Robert Kenneth Nicol

2010-04-21T16:01:00.001+12:00

Another in a continuing series - Robert Kenneth Nicol, 1896-1918.

In August 1918, a group of Dunsterforce men, led by Captain Stanley Savige, decided to protect a ragged column of 70,000 Assyrian refugees, 24 kilometres long.

The band of nine included two New Zealanders, Captain Nicol and Sergeant Alexander Nimmo from the Otago Battalion.

The refugees were trying to move 1000 kilometres from Urmia in Persia (Iran) to the plains of the Diala River, near Baghdad.

"Large bodies of Turkish troops and Kurdish irregulars were raiding the column, murdering the people and carrying off girls to their harems, together with whatever loot they could lay their hands on," Captain Savige wrote in his dairy.

Outnumbered by 100 to one, the men guarded the column from the rear. At the village of Aydisheh on August 5, Captain Nicol moved forward to help control some unruly mules carrying ammunition.

His nephew Lindsay Grigg, 82, a retired surgeon from Canberra, researched the story.

"Three men were attacked from the rear and sides. Captain Nicol went to give support, and caught up with Nimmo from the Otago Regiment," he said.

"He sent Nimmo forward to collect the ammo, said, `Give me your rifle' and gave covering fire. He stood up and was immediately killed. Two sergeants tried to get him. Both had their mounts shot out from under them, but crawled to safety. One of them was almost certainty Nimmo."

Captain's Nicol's body was never recovered. He was 21.

Parody or reality?

2010-03-11T22:42:00.003+13:00

From "My Right Wing Dad":

Ten Basic Principals for Conservatives

1. Obama is president in name only. He is not an American citizen. His color is not the issue. Colored people have rights too. They can be president but they have to be born here. Negroes should be thankful that slavery brought their ancestors here so that they could become American citizens. Obama is not American, so he has no right to be president and he is a socialist and should be impeached.

2. Taxes are what kill this country. We pay taxes and where does the money go? To the government, that’s where. And government can’t do anything right. Besides tax money is spent, spent, spent on entitlement programs for moochers, like welfare and food stamps for people who won’t work for a living.

3. Illegal aliens will bring America down. They come here and have kids and think they can become like us. But they can’t because they are illegal. That means they are breaking the law by being here. They mooch off us and take our tax money and commit crimes and put a burden on all law-abiding Americans. There is one solution: round them up and send them back and seal off our borders. If they have kids here, send them back too. A few massive deportations will send the message that they are not wanted here.

4. There is no such thing as good government. Government can’t do things right. Government should be very small and very powerless. Except for the military which has to be the best in the world to defend our freedoms.

5. America is the best country in the world. Period. No other country comes close. We saved the world in two world wars and we kick ass if anyone tries to mess with us. Europeans are weenies. They expect an easy life and handouts from their government. They should stand up for themselves.

6. Terrorists or anyone who coddles them should be rounded up. Killed, if possible, but at least rounded up and kept in Guantanimo. Use whatever techniques are necessary to get the bastards to talk. I don’t care if you pull their teeth one at a time or chop off a few fingers. Damn it, they are less than human and don’t deserve any rights. And isn’t it interesting that terrorists are muslims? Names like Abdulla and Mohammed and Achmed. You never hear of a terrorist named Jim or Bill. Their religion is a terrorist religion, so they are all the same. They are trying to destroy America and with it our Christian religion.

7. Socialism is bad. Period. It’s like communism, only worse. It makes people dependent and no one will work under socialism. People need incentive to work and make money otherwise they will mooch off the rest of us. So if you think socialism is such a good idea look what happened to the Nazis when they tried it. And the Russians too.

8. Enough about these “gay” people. They are homosexuals and that is a sin. No doubt about it they will go after our kids if you let them. And they should not be in the military. Who wants to serve next to some fag who is looking to satisfy his perverted desires? They should all stop parading around flaunting that they are degenerites.

9. Liberals are worse than dirt. All they want is to give money to “poor people” but we know that really means take money from me and you and give it to those who don’t work for it. And liberals love the homosexuals. And they are all in charge of TV and the movies. They are both against America and the freedoms we stand for.

10. Guns are our only protection against the liberals and the socialists. That’s why they don’t like us having guns. They know that if we have guns they can’t take what we have. If any liberal shows up on my front porch looking for my cash he will be sprouting wings and a harp real quick.

If you believe in these principals, send this to everyone you know. We need to take America back from the socialists and the communists. If you don’t send this, you are just like the socialists and the communists. Stand up for America NOW before its too late!

Now, this lies on the cusp between parody and reality. From what I've seen in literally *decades* on the Internet, these are roughly what American wingnuts believe - even if they tend to be more subtle in expressing them. I'm not kidding - I've seen the "Negroes should be thankful that slavery brought their ancestors here so that they could become American citizens" argument used non-ironically by a wingnut. If you read their rants with a clinical fascination, just these sorts of beliefs bleed through.

The consensus on MRWD is that it's probably a parody - but only because, apart from the (deliberate?) spelling error in the title, it's well written. Make your own mind up - and keep the list in mind as a score sheet when reading wingnuts.

IM IN UR WASTELAND BURYING UR DEAD

2010-02-15T20:59:00.003+13:00

As Trish says, this guy has way, way too much time on his hands.

u can has bukkit, (331)
no can has water,
ha ha no can has bukkit,
just rock and sand.
no stand, no sit,
no shirt, no shoes, no service,
just thunder shaking moutainzes.
no can has water.
no can has water.
actually, no can has rock either.
no can has water or rock,
or for that matter sand.

ceiling cat is watching you masturbate (360)
u and ur dirty friend.

On class inequality and the future of America

2010-01-26T11:54:00.009+13:00

There are three recent observations which need to be considered.

Firstly, this:

Inequality in the US is now reaching (or even surpassing) that of the Gilded Age.

Secondly, what happened then?

Early next week, my new book It Could Happen Here will be released by HarperCollins. The book is an in-depth look , based on a historical analysis, of the implications of our historically high levels of economic inequality for the nation’s ultimate, long-term political stability. As economic inequality grows, nations invariably become increasingly politically unstable: Should we complacently believe that America will be different?

A central conclusion of the book is that once economic inequality reaches a self-reinforcing cycle it is halted only by inevitably controversial, hard-fought, bitterly opposed government action. Senator Jim Webb encapsulated this idea, when he wrote in his book, A Time to Fight: Reclaiming A Fair and Just America:

“No aristocracy in history has decided to give up any portion of its power willingly.”

In 1928, economic inequality was near today’s levels. Franklin Roosevelt succeeded in reversing the trend toward the continuing concentration of wealth, but it was a turbulent battle. In 1936, while campaigning for his second term and speaking at Madison Square Garden, FDR told the crowd:

“Never before in all our history have these forces [Organized Money] been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me and I welcome their hatred.

Thirdly, there's one huge difference between FDR's time and current America - the present American political system is dysfunctional, and unable to handle any major economic or political reforms in the face of entrenched self-interest by powerful minorities.

Simply put, there is no chance of a new New Deal. It's not going to happen. The populist swell is being captured by the Teabaggers, who are useful idiots lead by the coporations and lobbyists funding them to work against the interests of the middle- and working-classes; the Republicans are corporate whores busy sticking spanners in the works whenever they can; and the Democrats are a collection of corporate whores and ineffective blowhards who couldn't organise a piss-up with the Tui Brewery girls giving them instructions.

So where does that leave the US? I don't know, but it doesn't look good. The income equality appears to have surpassed 1927 - and is still accelerating, as seen in the recent recession. There's no room for political solutions. And populist anger is being co-opted by the right, helped by the general ignorance of the sort of people the Teabaggers appeal to and the apparent horror they have for any discussion which involves looking good and hard at income and classes in the US.

My guess is that the economic dysfunctionality will continue to deepen and hurt, but the rage it generates will be channelled towards warfare, scapegoating and still more authoritarian "solutions". Watch for Islam to be blamed for economic problems. If Obama is a one-term loser, as I suspect he will be, the next Republican President will probably be in line with Bush Jr, and the damage to the US irrevocable. I don't want to use the "f" word - but you can see the possibility looming. God knows how China or Europe will react.

Me, I'm going to go play Planetfall and pretend I never had this thought.

On the possibility of annual charity work.

2010-01-25T13:42:00.002+13:00

Well, let's be more exact - I'm more interested in the entertainment value. But the Round The Bays event does help the Heart Foundation this year.

Over the last couple of years I've done this, and enjoyed it quite a lot. And I did a respectable time for a walker rather than a runner - getting some jogging in during the event.

I am currently healing fast, but limited at the moment to staggering for perhaps a dozen steps around the flat. Bugger.

I tell you, when this is all over, I am definitely going to take a couple of weeks off work and have my long-delayed actual vacation. and probably walk the half marathon route just to prove to myself I can do it.

On the desirability of massive retaliation

2010-01-08T21:52:00.002+13:00

It's been nearly two months since my bosses ordered me out of the office in the hopes of recovery at home (that didn't go well, obviously).

So I have now reached the point where I can make it to the nearest busstop (slowly) and get around a bit on crutches outside, greatly increasing my independence. I don't have to rely on friends and family to get every little thing done for me. Hurts a fair bit to walk around any distance though, but between stoicism, sheer manly grit, and that sweet sweet morphine, I can cope.

Yesterday I took myself, my crutches and my horrible horrible beard - hey, I haven't mentioned the beard! It was impossible to sit up and shave while in hospital, and I now look much like Charlie Manson. Bushy untrimmed growth, wild staring eyes and uncertain personal hygiene. I was horribly surprised when part of it grew out grey. In my mind's eye, I resemble Tom Selleck of the Magnum PI days. My friends point out that my mind's eye is completely deluded.

Where was I? Oh yeah - yesterday I took myself, my crutches and my horrible horrible beard back to work to drop off some paperwork. I tried getting there late, but was still ambushed by cow-orkers who proceeded to embarass the hell out of me by pretending to be glad to see me, by being solicitious and opening doors for me, and by complimenting the face fungus.

I can't stand it. I'm going to have to shave it all off, and proceed to be as obnoxious as possible to these people in order to get my life back on its normal keel. Fear and loathing is more than just a book; it's my favourite workplace relationship mode. Besides, I've had people complain the new office is too quiet without me there.

But never mind - the weather is lovely, tomorrow is Saturday, and the bikinis are swarming on the beaches of Oriental Bay. I have no need to worry about work, and I have the perfect excuse to sit down and drool while watching - it's pain from the back, you know. That's my story and I shall stick to it.

On American racism

2009-12-23T21:20:00.003+13:00

Let us try a thought experiment.

Imagine that Hamas has a legitimite gripe with an Israeli general - say, someone they claim is responsible for killing civilians in Gaza - and wish to kill him. On hearing that he is visiting the US, they arrange a bombing. This bombing - which may or may not kill the general - kills 49 American civilians. Images of mangled corpses of women and children fill TV screens.

The response would be obvious. Regardless of whether you supported the right of Palestinians to struggle against Israel or not, such a bombing would be universally condemned. It would be taken as a sign that Hamas was beyond the pale, and needed to be exterminated. Even if it was the other way round, with Israel attempting to assassinate a Hamas leader, it would be universally condemned. No-one has the right to blow up scores of American civilians as part of an assassination attempt, right?

The US just murdered 49 Yemeni civilians - including women and children - trying to kill a Al Qaeda leader.

Now, I was thinking - "would they ever send cruise missiles into NZ?" Would places like Aotearoa, Australia, or Canada ever find 50 civilians murdered in an explosion as the US attempted to kill its enemies?

The answer is, of course, no. For some reason, predominately white, English speaking people would never have to fear the same violence the US feels entirely justified in visiting on Arab countries. I wonder why...?

On trudging up that hill again

2009-12-19T15:31:00.002+13:00

Last summer, I decided to branch out on my exercise. I'd pushed myself into regularly doing 10 km walks and conquering Wellington's hills - I was climbing Mt Victoria three or four times a week, sometimes before going to work. So I borrowed a mountain bike from my uncle, the biking fanatic, and started biking. Towards the end of the summer, I'd worked myself up to 50 km road trips on the weekends (taking the train out to Paraparaumu and biking/walking back).

At the end of it, I tackled the Rimutaka Rail Trail, including biking to it from Upper Hutt and biking into Featherston. Took me hours, I got lost near the end (they could signpost the Cross Creek area better) and had to climb a fence and cut over a farm, and I was cramping up that night badly. But I did it. I'm proud of that.

This summer, I had intended to do it again - starting with reborrowing the bike and getting back into the road work. Additionally I had joined up with a gym to work on the rest of my body. My eventual goal was, in two or three years time, to work myself up into tackling the 150km Otago Rail Trail over three or four days.

I never got to use that gym membership. In between the initial payment and my intoductory session, my back suddenly went into agony, and you know the rest.

Now I get tired stumping around on crutches for 10 minutes. I'm looking at Mt Victoria now and cringing - it took me a long painful time to get my fitness up to the point where it was a pleasure to climb it and now I'll have to do it all again. Starting from learning to walk on my own two feet again.

*sigh*

First you save yourself...

2009-12-17T22:55:00.003+13:00

I've been away.

To be exact I've been away in hospital. On a Wednesday, I was sent home from work with my back problem flaring up. Over the next few days, it got worse and I only got through with the help of a friend. On Monday, I staggered to the GP to get a blood test, and was whipped into an office for an examination. And then an ambulance was called. At the ER, I was stuck quickly in an assessment bed, had saline inserted and was considered stable. Being a busy day, the ER then bumped me down the priority list and I was admitted to a ward in the wee small hours of Tuesday.

It was pretty obvious that it was a bit more than the initial diagnosis of "musculo-skeletal pain". A fair bit was dehydration - saline was pumped into me for three days. I had had a MRI scheduled for later that week; I was bumped up in priority along with the trauma victims and other serious problems, and scanned after hours.

I hate MRIs. As a test it is apallingly stressful; they have to sedate the claustrophobic.

I have an infected spinal disk, pouring pus into abscesses in my back and into my spinal canal. They monitored me for symptoms of nerve damage (past the continual pins and needles in my feet), ready to whip me into major surgery, while pouring huge amounts of antibiotics into me continously, inserting a PICC line after a while. The doctor pointed out the problem was both life and limb threatening. A CAT scan and biopsy got a sample of the bug to see to what it was vulnerable, while ultrasounds and punch biopsies looked at other problems.

I was in hospital for 23 days, most of it confined to bed. I played several long games of Civ 4 and Medieval Total Wat, and got a black belt in sudoku. Some nurses are very good at patient care and some are just petty dictators or mere jobsworths - and so it goes for any profession.

I am now at home, watching DVDs of "Outrageous Fortune" while lying on a couch and very painfully getting around on a walker frame. I have community nurses coming in every day tro check up on me and push antibiotics through the PICC line careful to maintain sterility. I also have clinics and therapists scheduled, contact numbers, and instructions for going straight back if things go wrong. It looks like I'll keep the use of my legs, and wind up with a fused disk.

Being in New Zealand, the stay cost me nothing. In fact, being confined to bed for most of this period helped my bank balance significantly. I had to purchase six drugs from a pharmacy afterwards - 5 of these were subsidised and cost me a nominal $14 (including slow release morphine); one painkiller was not, I chose to keep getting it, and I paid $80 for the privilege of a 2 week supply. I'm on sick leave while I need it, the medical services cost me nothing while things like Meals on Wheels are cheap.

I dunno how much I'd be facing in the US either with or without insurance, especially since some of the other problems were "pre-existing conditions". My worries involve pain and keeping this line into my veins sterile; they do not involve a huge debt, keeping my job despite being off for two months or more, or choices about paying for necessary care to support me at home.

Keep telling us socialised medicine is no good.

BTW, the title comes from a favourite Greg Johnson song.

On matters embarrasing

2009-10-08T23:16:00.003+13:00

In case anyone who might be sending stuff to my real name is wondering why I might not be answering email, it's because I haven't been at work for nearly a week.

After being in a great deal of pain, I am now hobbling around like an old man, but recovering fast. It's just muscular, which is much better than my original fear that the massive and sudden back pain had to do with my kidneys. My blood pressure is fine, and my pee is free from excess glucose, nitrates or blood, lo, pure as the driven sn- well, pure anyway.

To note:

i, Diclofenac sodium (aka Voltaren) is the bomb. Weeee. I thoroughly recommend this cheeky little painkiller. However, be sure to follow the instructions about food and a good quantity of water. I especially emphasise that for those of you who may have no appetite due to pain; the last thing you need is to be reintroduced to what little you've eaten over the last few days.

ii, It is possible to lose 6.2 kg in a week without exercise. It is not recommended. I suspect that as I start sucking down more liquids and stop sweating them out this may correct itself.

iii, A good time to join the gym would have been a week before I actually did - it would have been nice to be aching pleasently from an upper body workout rather than whimpering in agony from my flabby body stuffing itself sitting down. Oh well - should be able to get into the first session next week accoring to my doctor. And I'm still on track to tackle the Rimutaka Rail Trail again at the end of summer.

iv, In US$, costs were as follows:
a) One walk-in (hobble-in) consultation with emergency physician on a Sunday evening, 40 minute wait after initial assessment by nurse, $61.
b) One inspection by the GP I choose four years ago, with an appointment within 24 hours of phoning up, $41.
c) Drugs - 20 x d. sodium 75mg slow release, and 100 generic paracetamol 500mg, $5
d) Sick leave - around 5.5 to 7.5 days fully paid sick leave, depending on how I feel next week, no cost. I have a contract with an "unlimited sick leave" provision, on the assumption that I'm an adult, and the point is to get well first.

Of course, if I had been poor ("community needs"), all but the first would have been free to me. And if I *had* had kidney problems, I'd probably be in a free hospital bed right now.

Oh, the oppression of socialised medicine. Well, single payer medicine.

Embarrassing things to find for the NZ male:

i, Having relative strangers compliment you regarding weight loss over the last couple of years.

ii, Having your more distant friends expressing so much worry about you being sick in your Facebook status reports.

iii, Having your close friends txt you about it.

iv, Having family cite you as an inspiration to them personally.

v, And finding that "I'm a librarian" while reading graphic novels is a great way to sneer down ridicule after hobbling to the local branch library.

Pity there's no way now to just let them go

2009-09-20T10:26:00.004+12:00

From here, via Digby:

In remembrance - September 11th

2009-09-12T10:07:00.003+12:00

On September 11th 1973, a military coup toppled the democratically elected president of Chile, Salvador Allende.

By 7 AM, the Navy had seized Chile's major port, and shut down radio and television stations. The Army closed down most of these in the capital, with the Air Force bombing the rest.

By 9 AM, the armed forces controlled all of Chile but the area around the presidential palace. Allende refused to negotiate and gave a final speech telling the nation about the coup d'etat, and his refusal to resign.

The palace was bombed, and then assaulted by infantry and armour. Allende died, probably by suicide, possibly shot. Around sixty people died on the day.

The military then arrested and imprisoned 40,000 in the National Stadium. It lost 160 and killed thousands in the next few months, and another few thousand were killed by the subsequent Pinochet regime during the next seventeen years. Pinochet tortured tens of thousands during this period.

The population of Chile was under 10 million at the time of the coup.

Two days after the coup, 13th September 1973, the military junta dissolved Congress and banned all political activity. Democratic rule was not restored until 1990.

Also on this day, 11th September 1982, the Multinational Force in Lebanon (consisting of French, Americans and Italians) guaranteeing the safety of Palestinian refugees was withdrawn from Beirut.

Four days later, the Israeli Defense Force surrounded the Sabra-Shatila camps, and started shelling them. The Israelis let 1500 Lebanese Phalangist militia enter the camps. Over the next 48 hours, between 16th and 18th September, the militia murdered hundreds of civilians, including deliberate killings of women and children. The IDF were ordered not to interfere.

The IDF estimates 700-800 civilians were killed, the Red Crescent and journalists estimate over 2000, possibly up to 3500.

Aussie drivers...

2009-09-09T14:11:00.001+12:00

From Stuff:

Australian schoolgirl skipper Jessica Watson, 16, has crashed her yacht on the first leg of her solo around-the-world voyage.

Watson's sloop, Ella's Pink Lady, hit a merchant ship near Stradbroke Island about 2.30am, less than 24 hours after leaving the Sunshine Coast for Sydney.

The Buderim schoolgirl contacted the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), which was monitoring her journey, and was told to turn her motor on and head back to Southport on the Gold Coast.

The teenager was not injured in the collision, but her yacht's mast and bow were substantially damaged.

I tell you, letting teenagers have the keys to ANY vehicle is a bad idea...

On conspiracy theories...

2009-09-05T05:29:00.003+12:00

I've noticed an interesting trend here.

When the biannual film festival starts up, as it usually does with a bang, I've usually got a paper due.

When the Downtown Ministry holds their bookfair, as they are this weekend, I've usually got a paper due.

And when this puppy rolls around again and I start eyeing it to see if I still have the stamina of my long distant youth - you guessed it, there's a paper due that Monday.

Of course, the rational person might say that this has something to do with the numerous extensions and procrastination - BUT THE RATIONAL PERSON WOULD BE IN ON THE EDUCATIONIST CONSPIRACY!!!

It all makes sense. I wonder if it would still make sense if I ever manage to catch up on my sleep?

The top 5 lies about US healthcare

2009-08-21T21:08:00.007+12:00

...and the envelope please...

From Foreign Policy, The Top 5 Lies about Health Care which have been spouted during this debate:

5, NO HEALTH CARE FOR HAWKING OR KENNEDY

4, CANADIANS HEAD TO THE UNITED STATES FOR URGENT CARE

3, HEALTH CARE IN EUROPE ONLY WORKS BECAUSE OF SINGLE-PAYER

2, CANADA AND BRITAIN MAKE YOUR HEALTH CARE CHOICES FOR YOU

and

1, THE UNITED STATES HAS THE BEST HEALTH CARE IN THE WORLD

On the confusions of biculturalism...

2009-08-20T13:13:00.002+12:00

Recent messages:

Me: "Heh. I've just run into a reporter for a Maori magazine with the very Maori name of "Virginia Windsor"".

Assimilated Yank: "Meh. No biggie. I talked to a Beefeater at Buckingham Palace once named Tane Ruakura."

On failing to listen...

2009-08-15T17:18:00.002+12:00

... and making assumptions

I actually know, um, two people like that.

Moral contamination

2009-08-12T09:24:00.001+12:00

With the news that PM John Key is sending SAS troops back to Afghanistan, this story by Jon Stephenson is timely:

The issue of identification is critical. International law, and the New Zealand Defence Force's own rules, say a New Zealand commander cannot transfer prisoners to another country unless he or she is satisfied they will be treated humanely. Clearly it is far more difficult to locate and check a prisoner handed over to the Americans if you don't know his name.

WHAT DID the New Zealand government know about all this, and what did it do about it? Here, much also remains unclear. A top US international human rights lawyer, Michael Ratner, says the New Zealand government should have heard alarm bells as early as Feburary 2002, when President Bush and US defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld said that alQaeda and Taliban prisoners were not entitled to prisoner-of-war status or the legal protections of the Geneva Convention.

"It was obvious to everybody what was going on," says Ratner. "The New Zealand authorities knew that turning prisoners over to the Americans was very likely or very possibly going to cause inhumane treatment."

By March 2002 there were reports in the New York Times and other major media outlets that prisoners were being mistreated at Kandahar. The treatment of prisoners was also raised by SAS boss Jim Blackwell at a meeting he called in April at the air base with other special forces commanders.

The New Zealand defence force's top lawyer, Brigadier Kevin Riordan, says New Zealand took its responsibilities under the Geneva Conventions and international law very seriously.

The fact is that we are contaminated by this torture simply by cooperating with our allies. I suspect there may be questions asked in Parliament, and it may come down to a refusal by NZ or others to hand troops over to the US, an acknowledgment that it has fallen below the level expected of civilised countries.

Close to the edge

2009-08-01T06:13:00.002+12:00

The week has been lousy, and I'm in despair. There's little left. I need some good news soon, please?

So...

2009 (Bill Direen)

We have gone from the ages
Of coal and aluminium
To the slamming of doors in faces.
Faith healers buy their own channels
As landsnatchers grab handfuls of dirt
And puritanical doctors preach:
Look to your body!
All crimes against it
Will be punished!

Our bands have abandoned revolt,
Our cults have rewritten Revelations,
And it was a hasty affair
- the firesale revolution.

The chasm’s getting wider,
And there’s no safety net.

Not... the FRIED SHRIMP!

2009-07-05T17:21:00.003+12:00

I'm at a complete loss for words here...

Really.

Goodbye to Scarlett

2009-06-25T05:13:00.002+12:00

Oh well.

Needless to say, I am not a Masterton woman. However, it occurs to me that the NSB actually *is*...

Oh well. It was nice to dream for a while. Back to work *sigh*.

What Google thinks of you...

2009-06-24T13:20:00.003+12:00

Exploring the new features of Google, I came across the Wonderwheel, which allows semantic navigation based on search terms.

I'm very boring. Litbrit is an isolated little puppy with nobody who likes her. Amanda Marcotte appears to have a fan club, Melissa McEwan is still, alas, still considered to be Amanda's sidekick, The Dark Wraith might be getting fans of Terry Brooks very confused, and PZ Myers isn't an academic at all.

Any other interesting results?

Some nifty statistical sleuthing here...

2009-06-21T18:57:00.002+12:00

I've been suspending judgement on the Iranian election so far; some (few) reports have suggested it might have been a reasonable result.

Now we have this.

So what can we make of Iran's election results? We used the results released by the Ministry of the Interior and published on the web site of Press TV, a news channel funded by Iran's government. The ministry provided data for 29 provinces, and we examined the number of votes each of the four main candidates -- Ahmadinejad, Mousavi, Karroubi and Mohsen Rezai -- is reported to have received in each of the provinces -- a total of 116 numbers.

The numbers look suspicious. We find too many 7s and not enough 5s in the last digit. We expect each digit (0, 1, 2, and so on) to appear at the end of 10 percent of the vote counts. But in Iran's provincial results, the digit 7 appears 17 percent of the time, and only 4 percent of the results end in the number 5. Two such departures from the average -- a spike of 17 percent or more in one digit and a drop to 4 percent or less in another -- are extremely unlikely. Fewer than four in a hundred non-fraudulent elections would produce such numbers.
[...]
But that's not all. Psychologists have also found that humans have trouble generating non-adjacent digits (such as 64 or 17, as opposed to 23) as frequently as one would expect in a sequence of random numbers. To check for deviations of this type, we examined the pairs of last and second-to-last digits in Iran's vote counts. On average, if the results had not been manipulated, 70 percent of these pairs should consist of distinct, non-adjacent digits.

Not so in the data from Iran: Only 62 percent of the pairs contain non-adjacent digits. This may not sound so different from 70 percent, but the probability that a fair election would produce a difference this large is less than 4.2 percent. And while our first test -- variation in last-digit frequencies -- suggests that Rezai's vote counts are the most irregular, the lack of non-adjacent digits is most striking in the results reported for Ahmadinejad.

Each of these two tests provides strong evidence that the numbers released by Iran's Ministry of the Interior were manipulated. But taken together, they leave very little room for reasonable doubt. The probability that a fair election would produce both too few non-adjacent digits and the suspicious deviations in last-digit frequencies described earlier is less than .005. In other words, a bet that the numbers are clean is a one in two-hundred long shot.

That's easily enough evidence to justify a do-over under close outside observation. If Iran was a working democracy. I have to conclude that it isn't, that the Revolution failed, and the kids in the streets are right to fight.

Why the wind is cold

2009-06-19T19:19:00.002+12:00

As an update to the piece below, note this post from Brad DeLong about the worrying state of the US economy.

The money shot is this:

My third--unrelated--point is that the policy innovations of the past year have created a potentially dangerous weakness in the Federal Reserve system. The Federal Reserve's balance sheet has more than doubled over the past year, as it has acquired an enormous and bizarre menagerie of assets. On the liability side, it has funded this acquisition by expanding the monetary base, and has increased private-sector willingness to hold this monetary base by paying interest on reserves. This has added a fourth motive--profit--to the three traditional motives for holding reserve deposits at the Fed: the transactions demand, the emergency liquidity demand, and the speculative demand.

As long as the dollar remains the safest currency in the world, as long as the dollar remains the linchpin of the global financial system, there is no problem in the Federal Reserve's funding by what is essentially overnight borrowing the expansion of its balance sheet and the purchase of private securities that will vary up or down in market price with an eye toward holding them to maturity.

However, at some future time the dollar will cease to be the linchpin of the world financial system, in which case the Federal Reserve's financing its balance sheet via overnight borrowing will leave it vulnerable to the mother of all bank runs. It would be very good to fix this now: to give the Federal Reserve now the option to borrow not in what are essentially demand but rather in time deposits--to grant the Federal Reserve the power to issue its own bonds. This diminishes the chance of a great financial crisis in 2050 or so, with no downside that I can see.

I'd be really dubious about any asset backed by the US government and denominated in dollars right about now. If I had any investments with which to be dubious about.

Cold wind blowing

2009-06-17T22:01:00.002+12:00

From Chris Hedges, the sound of bells.

I especially note the US asking to sit in as observers - and the SCO saying "no". A while back, the wingnuts were freaking out about a New World Currency. They should have been worried about the old ones.

The NZ free trade agreement with China is looking wiser and wiser.

Among the hazards of librarianship...

2009-05-27T18:02:00.002+12:00

...I have to read sentences such as this:

In the post 9/11 era there is considerable opportunity for the media profession to give insight into what has compelled one side to act in a way that has enraged and empowered another side to act in a manner that further caused hostility or anger to become entrenched.

God help us, the person who wrote this is a journalist.

We will notice that it was also a male. This is important - a woman would have notice if she'd skipped that many periods...

Nightmare scenarios - part 1

2009-05-20T09:46:00.001+12:00

Okay, so the nature of the job means I'm a few days behind most magazines, but cover a wide range.

The latest issue of the Listener has a story covering the scope of the power that the proposed Auckland super-city mayor would wield. It's no exaggeration to describe this position as the second or third most powerful in the country in terms of practical politics.

Of the six contenders mentioned with over 5% support, five were pale frail males. No real surprise there.

The sixth was Winston.

Dear God, can no-one put a stake through his heart, cut off his head, and bury him at the crossroads? Please?

There's definitely material for some stand-up comedy in this, if only through screaming in panic on stage for five minutes...

Know your heroes - part of a continuing series

2009-05-11T12:42:00.000+12:00

Philip Mangano - the system got us into this, the system can get us out:

PHILIP MANGANO is credited with beginning to do what was unthinkable only years ago: eradicating homelessness in the United States. The silver-coiffed, dark-suited "Homelessness Czar" was appointed by the former president in 2002, and continues in the Obama Administration.

One of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People in 2007, Mangano has persuaded 350 US jurisdictions to adopt 10-year plans to end homelessness, and spread his ideas to Canada and Australia.

Mangano fashions himself as an abolitionist, intentionally invoking the anti-slavery rhetoric.

The epiphany that convinced the former band manager to dedicate his life to working for the "poorest poor" came when he was watching a Franco Zeffirelli film about St Francis of Assisi. He calls homelessness a "moral, spiritual and humanitarian disgrace", a "human tragedy".

However well-meaning, he condemns attempts to simply help people survive on the streets - or to make them "prove" their fitness for housing through mental health and other programmes - as entrenching the problem.

His first targets were the hardest cases: the 10 per cent of homeless who were long term and mentally ill. Between 2005 and 2007, this group fell by 30 per cent from 176,000 on any given night to 124,000. The total number of people living on the street or in shelters fell 12 per cent to 671,888.

Why? This is why.

Women to avoid - psychics

2009-05-08T12:18:00.005+12:00

Even the sexy, intelligent ones.

Me: "I saw a singer last night that made me run in circles and howl."

S.I.P.: "Hmmm, which singer would appeal? ... Some anonymous red-haired YouTube floozy falling out of her top?"

Me: "How the f**k did you do that?"

(About 1.00 minute in, the singer doing the chorus)

Man, if it were not for her... considerable charms... I'd be terrified of this woman.

Dear Wingnuts - about that medical tourism...

2009-04-09T14:28:00.003+12:00

For years now, whenever comparative studies are bought up showing the problems with the US health system, winguts routinely respond with "what about the hordes of Canadians heading south to use our system, huh?" They never quantify this, of course.

But on quantification:

A report published last month by Deloitte, a consultancy, predicts that the number of Americans travelling abroad for treatment will soar from 750,000 last year to 6m by 2010 and reach 10m by 2012 (see chart). Its authors reckon that this exodus will be worth $21 billion a year to developing countries in four years’ time. Europe’s state-funded systems still give patients every reason to stay at home, but even there, private patients may start to travel more as it becomes cheaper and easier to get treated abroad.
[...]
One motive is to save money. America’s health inflation has consistently outpaced economic growth, making it the most expensive health market in the world. The average price at good facilities abroad for a range of common medical procedures is, by Deloitte’s reckoning, barely 15% of the price a patient would have to pay in the United States (see table)

And for good measure, from Medtral (in a Metro article, Apr 2009, sourced to the American Medical Association):

Surgery costs by country (costs in US$, excluding implants and travel)
Procedure USA India Thailand Singapore New Zealand
Heart bypass 130,000 10,000 11,000 18,500 19,000
Heart valve replacement 160,000 9,000 10,000 12,500 17,500
Hysterectomy 20,000 3,000 4,500 6,000 6,500
Knee replacement 40,000 8,500 10,000 13,000 15,000
Spinal fusion 62,000 5,500 7,000 9,000 7,500

Can't keep a good woman down...

2009-04-01T13:05:00.000+13:00

Clark will be 'spinning wheels' to start UN job:

The United Nations General assembly has approved former prime minister Helen Clark as the new head of the UN Development Programme.
[...]
The position is the third highest in the UN, behind the secretary-general and his deputy.

The former prime minister - from 1999 to 2008 - gained unanimous approval from the 192-nation General Assembly.

The UNDP oversees a global development network with an estimated US$13 billion ($23.12 billion) in resources. It operates in 166 nations.

Clark is, by the way, impressive and articulate in person. I'd place her up against any world leader - the timing wasn't right for her to be Secretary General last time, but she's still in the running for the next opening. Incidentally, the budget for the agency is about a third of total NZ government revenues.

Time to play connect the dots again...

2009-03-30T07:38:00.002+13:00

Detainee's Harsh Treatment Foiled No Plots:

Others in the U.S. government, including CIA officials, fear the consequences of taking a man into court who was waterboarded on largely false assumptions, because of the prospect of interrogation methods being revealed in detail and because of the chance of an acquittal that might set a legal precedent. Instead, they would prefer to send him to Jordan.

Spanish Court Weighs Inquiry on Torture for 6 Bush-Era Officials

LONDON — A Spanish court has taken the first steps toward opening a criminal investigation into allegations that six former high-level Bush administration officials violated international law by providing the legal framework to justify the torture of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, an official close to the case said.

Son of Ex-President of Liberia Is Convicted of Torture

MIAMI — A federal jury on Thursday convicted the son of the former president of Liberia of torturing suspected opponents of his father’s government. It was the first case brought under a 1994 law that makes it a crime for United States citizens to commit torture overseas.

Testimony Is Said to Implicate C.I.A. in Seizure of Suspect in Italy

A former Italian intelligence chief's testimony obtained by Reuters says that this conversation took place about 16 months before prosecutors say the C.I.A. grabbed a radical Muslim cleric in Milan and flew him to Egypt, where, he says, he was tortured.
[...]
A court in Munich issued arrest warrants last month for 13 people suspected of being C.I.A. agents who were accused of kidnapping a German of Lebanese descent and flying him to Afghanistan, where he, too, said he was tortured.

Get those damned kids off my fence

2009-03-16T11:23:00.002+13:00

Rolling-pin gran: I gave it to him

Pensioner Lois Thompson says the kids in her neighbourhood probably think she can be "a bit grumpy" at times.

"I tell them to get off my fence and climb on their own fence," says the 76-year-old.

"They say, 'We haven't got one', so I say to them, 'Well tell your parents to build one'."

Now the Hamilton great-grandmother has cemented her fierce reputation by using her rolling pin to fight off a teenager who tried to break into her house.

[...]

"So I grabbed my rolling pin and really gave it to him," said Mrs Thompson.

"And then I thought, 'Oh, I hope I haven't broken his teeth or his nose', but I really let fly. I hoped I really hadn't damaged him."

After receiving at least three blows to the head, the teenager slumped back on to the doorstep, crying and holding his face.

Police arrived not long after and found that the boy - who had had a "wee accident" and had stripped down to his boxer shorts - was keen to be taken away.

What ever happened to the good old days, when we had real teenage hoodlums?

God Hates Figs

2009-03-15T20:39:00.004+13:00

This is the way you do it:

That ain't the way you do it:

Shouting someone down when they have a right to speak in lieu of dealing with their ideas, however odious, is a failure. It's a failure if Bill O'Reilly does it; it's a failure if a LGBT group does it; it's a failure if Jesus Christ and a choir of angels from above do it. It is contemptible.

It's interesting to note yet again that it is precisely those that would yell the loudest against any attempt to silence their own voices who are most eager to silence the voices of others. I have contempt for Phelps, Sorba and their ilk; I have only slightly less contempt for those who would deny Phelps or Sorba - or any other hatemonger, poltroon or moron - their legitimate right to speak.

"Evil is not the attempt to eliminate the play of another according to published and accepted rules, but to eliminate the play of another regardless of the rules. Evil is not the acquisition of power, but the expression of power." - James Carse, Finite and Infinite Games.

It's interesting to note yet again that it is precisely those that would yell the loudest against any attempt to silence their own voices who are most eager to silence the voices of others.

Mockery, on the other hand, is a perfect way of puncturing the pretense to respectability of the like of Phelps.

Staying right here for the time being

2009-03-02T12:36:00.003+13:00

The New Scientist this week has about given up hope on controlling climate change, and instead is looking at the effects of what now seems inevitable.

Of special interest is this graphic, which lays out the situation in 2100 (or 2050, in a worst case scenario).

This is going to be such an interesting century, in the Chinese sense. I wonder how NZ immigration can best keep the wingnuts fleeing the deserts spreading over their nation out lest they start spreading their stupidity here?

A better metaphor for our lives

2009-02-28T21:31:00.002+13:00

Fuck Atlas shrugging. Catchy title, stupid metaphor.

Would a book entitled "Sisyphus said 'screw this' and went off to play Halo" sell?

Well done, National...

2009-02-26T08:32:00.001+13:00

Government kills pay-equity inquiries:

The Government has axed two investigations aimed at improving the pay of women as it tries to save money by controlling public sector salaries.

The inquiries were aimed at female social workers at Child, Youth and Family, who are paid 9.5 per cent less than their male colleagues, and at inequities in the pay of mainly female school support workers.

Now, I also think we can save a bit more money if we pay Maori workers with muskets and whiskey, and perhaps import Chinese guestworkers for about ten cents a day.

Update - the text of Brian Easton's talk (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)

2009-02-26T08:16:00.006+13:00

Brian Easton's talk to "Drinking Liberally" can be found here - Part 1 and Part 2.

I STRONGLY recommend it for anyone interested in the economics of the current problem, whether Kiwi or otherwise. Part 1 is on world economics, part 2 NZ.

Reaction to the talk may be found here and here.

Seems our Tourist Information Agency is doing a good job...

2009-02-21T14:37:00.003+13:00

Swiped SHAMELESSLY from the Wellingtonista:

As noizyboy says, the translation may not be entirely accurate.

A good summation of how we got here...

2009-02-19T12:29:00.000+13:00

From Bruce Meredith, _NZ Business_ (Feb 09, p.70):

"There is only one place money comes from. Customers.

"The financial markets are not where the money comes from. At best, these markets are enablers - at its core, a simple concept and structure - as long as everyone involved both understands and knows how to play the game.

"Where the wheels fall off is when players in that market either fail or refuse to grasp that concept and set out with one, single minded objective, to use money to make money. Where money is not just the enabler, but is also the product and the result.

"That is when greed and avarice emerge.

"It has happened before in the history of the capitalist model and it will happen again. And it sure as heck is happening now.

"Business has become a dirty word. Capitalism has become a dirty word. profit has become a dirty word. Not because any of those concepts are, in themselves, flawed. Rather, because of in the way a relatively small number of greed possessed fat cats play the game. Their objective is always simple - to make money irrespective of the cost to, or effect on, anyone else.

"When that happens, eventually the model will crash and the little guy ends up paying the price. The assembly line worker at General Motors, the despatch clerk at Fisher & Paykel, the first time home buyer who has to find a significantly greater deposit, putting the purchase of a house out of their reach for the foreseeable future.

"The fat cats don't pay. They board their Gulfstream corporate jets and head to Washington to plead poverty and seek taxpayer handouts. And the most galling and unjust element of this whole sorry saga is that these effects have little or nothing to do with the trading performance of business as a whole. It is not poor business trading performance that has caused what we are currently experiencing. It is nothing more than the effects of spectacular greed and avarice on the part of those who are supposed to be the enablers of business performance - the money men - whether they be retail bankers, investment bankers, finance companies or money market traders. These are the men (and women) who must carry the can for this spectacular global economic mess."

Or, as the Front Lawn said many years ago:

Can you believe this place?
Well can you?
They're making money out of money here,
They're making buildings out of glass.
Their kids look like they stepped out of fashion magazines,
But none of it's going to last.

A thought for anyone having to deal with someone who wants to tell them about Jesus,,,

2009-02-19T10:29:00.000+13:00

Have you ever thought how much "Messiah" sounds like "Mary Sue"?

Something to consider the next time a god-botherer wants to inform you how awesome Christ is, and how He likes this and that, but hates the other...

And all the roads are jammed up with credit...

2009-02-12T20:41:00.002+13:00

I went to a lecture from Brian Easton today, one of NZ's leading (orthodox) economists.

Oh fuck.

There are two problems in general with the world economy - the recession and the credit crisis.

We're better positioned than most for a recession, thanks to a grasping Scottish tightwad who was running our Treasury for years. Importantly, our banks don't seem to have any toxic assets such as those besetting the American (and to some extent Australian) systems. Our finance companies had some; they died. They were unnecessary to our larger economy. Sucks for the investors, but that's what investing means.

However, NZ's unusual position makes the credit problem very very real, our options are limited, and the important decisions are out of our hands. There's a word which was floated which I don't even want to repeat out loud in a wider forum.

On the plus side, I now know what to look for in global economic news.

The new Ambassador to Ankh Morpork...

2009-02-12T10:34:00.000+13:00

Terry Prachett has been knighted.

Might I propose "Vert, a Luggage proper salient" for the coat of arms?

On cautioning against euphoria

2009-02-10T14:31:00.002+13:00

Remember all the joy about Obama being such a change?

Well...

Obama Administration Maintains Bush Position on 'Extraordinary Rendition' Lawsuit

The Obama Administration today announced that it would keep the same position as the Bush Administration in the lawsuit Mohamed et al v Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc.

A source inside of the Ninth U.S. District Court tells ABC News that a representative of the Justice Department stood up to say that its position hasn't changed, that new administration stands behind arguments that previous administration made, with no ambiguity at all. The DOJ lawyer said the entire subject matter remains a state secret.

This is not going to please civil libertarians and human rights activists who had hoped the Obama administration would allow the lawsuit to proceed.

That seems pretty much uncontestable. The Obama Administration just blew the first test on civil rights. Charitably, they've got too much going on and they've been captured in this policy area by the intelligence community which would be embarrassed to have their dirty laundry aired further in public.

There are two things that are going to be more nausating than the oh-so-predictable backbiting and snark on the liberal blogs about this - the crowing on the wingnut blogs, and the whole American torture policy itself.

Oh crap...

2009-02-05T10:17:00.001+13:00

We are fucked now. Forget the recession/depression, this is the worst news you may hear all month.

Millions of tonnes of the potent greenhouse gas methane have apparently begun leaking from the seabed beneath wide areas of the Arctic Ocean, the British Independent reported on September 23.

Scientists on board the research ship Yakov Smirnitsky recently finished taking precise measurements of methane along Russia’s entire northern coastline. Conducted under the International Siberian Shelf Study 2008, the research revealed methane concentrations as much as 100 times background levels, with the largest anomalies tens of thousands of square kilometers in extent.

“We have found elevated levels of methane above the water surface and even more in the water just below”, researcher Dr Orjan Gustafsson of Stockholm University told the British Independent in an email. “It is obvious that the source is the seabed.”

In some places, the gas was evidently bubbling from the sea floor in volumes too great to be dissolved by the surrounding water. Echo-soundings detected “methane chimneys” reaching all the way to the surface.

Positive feedback cycle reached. Kyoto was way too little, way too late.

We're screwed. Time to hunker down and start considering national NZ survival in the face of a world losing, say, half its population.

On comparisons between Presidents

2009-02-02T14:41:00.000+13:00

With the current US President, the mark of the true insider is having his email address.

With the last US President, the mark of the true insider was to have him calling you some stupid name like "Turd Blossom".

Says it all, really.

On writing and sexual frustration

2009-01-27T14:38:00.000+13:00

When Beck Eleven finally gets laid again, The Press is going to be just that little less entertaining. Just saying...

Twenty instructions in Tai Chi (Peter Rawnsley)

2009-01-23T14:19:00.000+13:00

Twenty instructions in Tai Chi (Peter Rawnsley)

Stand and let
gravity fall through you.

Part the mane of the most
beautiful of all horses.

Be a crane alighting
a brief flash of wings.

Turn and brush away
whatever hinders.

Lean back, let your fingers
play the strings of a lute.

Repulse four monkeys
until your mind is still.

Stroke a sparrow's tail
pull down the sky.

Press upon the air
push forward.

Gather like a whip
spiral out, touch.

Let yourself float
drift like a cloud.

Reach high and pat the most
beautiful of all horses

Kick out
the world will part before you.

Bring your fists together
box in your enemies.

Let yourself flow down
like a snake or waterfall.

Stand like a cockerel
on one leg, balanced, still.

Work the shuttle
threading between yin and yang.

Pick a tiny needle
from the bottom of the sea.

Fan out, turn, strike
whatever is an obstacle.

Draw back and apparently
withhold, yet push forward.

Raise, lower, stand
let gravity fall through you.

A brief note to the Yes on Prop 8 campaign

2009-01-16T13:44:00.000+13:00

Item buried in page 6 (local news) for the Press, the major Christchurch daily:

Game of love sees gay MP score the man of his dreams

They met playing together in the country's first gay rugby team - the Krazy Knights - and today the happy couple will tie the knot in a public display of love.

"I said in my maiden speech - we're proof that it pays not to stereotype," Wellington Central MP Grant Robertson said.

The gay Labour politician and former No. 8 is swapping vows and rings with his sweetheart of 10 years, Alf Kaiwai - an ex-halfback - this afternoon in a civil union cermony at Old St Paul's church in Thorndon, Wellington.

This was last week. To the best of my knowledge, my straight engaged friends are still engaged, and my straight married friends are still married. Wellington has yet to sink beneath the waves, and we've been having gorgeous weather recently. This only got recorded because it was an MP and because of the rugby angle.

If you voted Yes on Prop 8, or you have similiar views - grow up. And join the rest of the civilised world.

Battlestar Galactica speculation

2009-01-15T11:20:00.000+13:00

Warning - may be spoilers, may be complete codswallop.

I came up with this as a throwaway on Pandagon, but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense.

The major remaining mystery of Battlestar Galactica as we head into the final season is - who is the fifth Cylon - the one missing between Lee Adama and Tigh in this photo:

Some clues already given:

- It's been noted that "The fifth Cylon will be "organic and satisfying. It won't be some day player from Season 1." says SciFi Channel VP Mark Stern.[5] Stern describes it as "delicious" and "one of those things that are right under your nose and you don't expect it -- but it makes total sense." He says, "it doesn't feel arbitrary, It feels like it could have been planned all along."[6]"

- "The First Hybrid says this about the final Cylon:
"The fifth is still is in shadow, drawn toward the light, hungering for redemption, that will only come in the howl of terrible suffering." (Razor)"

- "D'Anna Biers's vision of the Final Five led her to speak of "the one who programmed us." (Rapture)"

My guess is that the fifth Cylon is, in fact, the Battlestar Galactica itself. I'd rate it at about 30-40% probable - it seems silly on first glance, but the more I look at it, the more it seems possible, and both a twist and an organic part of the whole series.

Consider:
- The purpose of the final Five is to find Earth. If Galactica is pulling their strings, this would explain the musical episode. And what else is more likely to be there if the fleet succeeds?
- The Galactica, using the other four and perhaps Baltar's Number Six as unwitting catspaws, has been manipulating the humans and also manipulating the Cylons, without the Seven being generally aware of what has been happening. The Cylon pursuit of the Fleet has been a spur towards the goal of finding Earth.
- There is no reason why a Cylon should look human - at all.
- The key argument against this theory is that it is a military ship, presumably with every inch maintained on a regular basis. How are you going to hide a Cylon brain on board? This makes sense until you consider that both the ship's chief petty officer and its second in command may have been manipulated - the two people most able to conceal the truth.
- The directors have said that they were leaving clues, and then they came out with the "Last Supper" picture. This conspiciously had an empty place. But, then again, perhaps they're just enamoured with their own cleverness enough to leave the clue in plain sight - look closer and it is not an empty place at all. The Fifth Cylon is right there...

Okay, so it seems unlikely. But, considering it, it is a narratively brilliant stroke, and considerably more satisfying than having Zarek or anyone else turn out to be the candidate. I'd wager on it if anyone would give me two to one odds.

More game-playing foolishness

2009-01-07T12:48:00.005+13:00

Consider this bit of news:

President-elect Barack Obama is resurrecting an idea that fell short of enactment twice in 2008: allowing companies a speedier recovery of their current losses through refunds of taxes they paid on earnings in previous years.

The extension of net operating loss carryback from two years to five, which is favored by Republicans, would provide instant refunds to some of the firms that have been hit hardest by the recession, including large portions of the financial services and real estate industries.

Economically, this doesn't appear to be very clever for two reasons.

Firstly, it fails as an economic stimulus. The research is best illustrated by this, from Firedoglake.

If you are going to try to stimulate the economy, reducing corporate taxes is not the best way to do it.

Firedoglake also points out one means of gameplaying via this provision. Another immediately springs to my mind, and this is the encouragement of exaggerated expenses and valuing losses associated with a specific corporate identity as, again, a means of gaming the system. A company that makes a loss might be considered worth acquiring precisely because that past loss might be offset, post acquisition, against a tax burden on other profits. or you might run global expenses through an American subsidiary precisely to incur a loss.

I'm almost economically illiterate. If I can see the potential for corporate gameplaying involved with this, the smart money must be rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect.

And the very last thing the American corporate and financial structure needs now is yet another reason for people to distrust it.

On belief and blatant untruths...

2008-12-29T00:28:00.002+13:00

From the Daily Telegraph:

Vicar went to hospital with potato stuck in bottom

A vicar attended hospital with a potato stuck up his bottom - and claimed it got there after he fell on to the vegetable while naked.

The clergyman, in his 50s, told nurses he had been hanging curtains when he fell backwards on to his kitchen table.

He happened to be nude at the time of the mishap, said the vicar, who insisted he had not been playing a sex game.

I believe him. Why, I remember this one time when I just happened to be playing a purely innocent game of naked leapfrog with a high school friend of mine back at her place. I happened to slip, and as we were trying to entangle ourselves, purely innocently. mind, her parents walked in. Oh, the unjustness of the accusations that flew...

A thought to warm the cockles

2008-12-27T10:36:00.002+13:00

...of this evil old heart of mine.

For the rest of his life, the entire rest of his life, lo, even when he is eighty or ninety and sitting in a wheelchair, George W Bush is going to have people throwing shoes at him. Not every day, but often enough that he's going to be worried about it every time he goes out in public. You can now threaten him just by slipping off your shoes.

Not nearly as good as the Hague, but still, better than nothing.

Three predictions on the Warren Affair

2008-12-23T23:06:00.003+13:00

I'll make three predictions regarding Obama selecting Rick Warren to give the invocation at his inauguration, assuming he doesn't bow to pressure and replace Warren. This will allow me a "told you so" should they later come true:

i, On Jan 21, nobody is going to care much, if any, about what Warren said. The only interesting thing from his speech will be in comparisons with Lowery, with the latter cleaning Warren's clock.

ii, At some stage within his first term, Obama is going to deliver at least one major step forward for gay rights - whether this be some recognition of civil unions at the federal level, protection against discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, or the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Go read his stance on gay rights.

iii, The people currently screaming "betrayal" and having hissy fits at Obama having a wider perspective than their own interests, important though those interests are, are going to celebrate that achievement, but not reconsider or apologise for their hyperbole on this issue. They're going to keep real quiet about what they've said about Obama over this affair, and never ever admit they were wrong.

Obama has been elected a President of a country of nearly 300 million. He owes the gays, both practically and morally, but that doesn't mean he has an obligation to let them dictate every action. The assumption by any interest group that they can get everything their way is simply goddamned childish - this whole affair reminds me of nothing more than the sort of over the top rubbish you see the NRA pumping out. If a group's sense of self identity can't cope with the President trying to make an ally out of someone useful to him who is hostile to them, even repugnant, then they better turn off the radio and stop reading the newspapers for the next four years, because Obama is going to have to do worse if the US has any chance of pulling out of the crash the Republicans have left it in. Iran springs to mind.

The more I see elsewhere, the more I have to admire the NZ Green Party for their clear-headed approach towards their own interests and coalition politics. The Dirty Hippies have turned out to be role-models for combining idealism with practical, honourable politics, and as a result have had the most influence of any minor party on NZ policy.

Molly Ivins once commented that you have to dance with them that brung you. Obama has stated that the gays are on his dance card, and when the music starts playing on Jan 21st, we can judge whether he keeps up to his promises. He has to dance with his various prom partners; I don't believe he ever promised any of them oral sex in the parking lot before the prom started.

UPDATE: John Cole, as so often happens, says it succinctly.

Unifying Iraq

2008-12-22T07:33:00.002+13:00

News story from Iraq regarding the journalist who threw his shoes at Bush:

In Iraq, the traditional community is deeply rooted in tribal relationships. Whether Sunni or Shi’i (and some tribes contain members of both sects), in Iraqi tradition if a member of a tribe takes an action or is in trouble, members of his tribe will represent him and will be responsible for supporting him. But in Muntather’s case, tribal leaders from throughout Iraq, from the North to South and from East to West, have claimed him as their son. They have said that they want him released safe and sound, offering to pay whatever fine the government will set for him.

Muntather’s actions have, for these days, united Sunnis, Shiites, and Christians. It united Iraqis as Iraqis. And it only took a few seconds. Sunni and Shiite tribal leaders have publicly asked that Muntather not be referred to using his tribal affiliation (Muntather al-Zaidi), because they believe his tribal affiliation now encompasses all the tribes of Iraq: They’ve asked for him to be referred to as “Muntather Al-Iraqi” (Muntather the Iraqi). At the same time, the tribal leaders have said that they hope it is now clear that they have only one enemy — the occupation of Iraq.

On reading the US blogs, I don't know whether the right is deliberately ignoring or actually does not realise just how hated Bush (and by extension America) has become because of this war and occupation.

Good luck to Muntather Al-Iraqi. I hope he has the opportunity to use his fifteen minutes to help keep his country together and his countrymen and women thinking of themselves as a united group, even if just against an alien invader.

Comparing inaugurations, and the cultural benefits of cycling

2008-12-22T06:21:00.003+13:00

Via Balloon Juice, I came across this article:

[Poet Elizabeth Alexander], who has published four collections of poetry, including 2005’s Pulitzer-nominated “American Sublime,” will take the stage along with a host of other celebs, including Aretha Franklin, Itzhak Perlman, and Yo-Yo Ma. She says she’s thrilled at being picked for the inaugural gig.

To clarify, we're talking about these people - Elizabeth Alexander, Arenta Franklin, Itzhak Perlman, and Yo-Yo Ma.

Compare and contrast to 2001:

The eclectic list of artists already announced for the show include country stalwarts Brooks & Dunn and Clint Black, Andrew Lloyd Webber (Margaret Thatcher's favorite contemporary composer) and "two fifths of the 5th Dimension" (no word on the other three fifths) — all topped off with a performance by Latin hunk Ricky Martin.
[...]
High on Dubya's list of favorites is Vegas fixture Wayne Newton, who will serenade the President with his rendition of "Danke Schoen."

Incidentally, in all the history of the last eight years, it is worth remembering public reaction right at the start of the Bush Presidency:

According to organizers and police alike, this year's counter-inaugural protests will be the largest since Richard Nixon took the oath of office in 1973, during the heyday of anti-Vietman war outrage.

This was, of course, before the lazy AWOL bastard got officially turned into "the bestest bravest Presidenting EVAH" for starting a war of aggression over a lie.

The Hague, bitches!.

Personally, I've been on holiday for a week, and hitting the cycling a lot. It's interesting; I've lost enough weight to mitigate the "fat guy on a bike" humiliation factor, and I've been able to notice the various changes even a week of pretty substantial exercise has bought on. My aerobic fitness has been pretty high due to a large amount of walking; the limiting problem was fatigue and pain in the different muscles used in biking as opposed to general exhaustion due to unfitness.

So after only a week with about 5 substantial expeditions (from town to J'ville, Days Bay to Petone, around the Mirimar peninsula, out to Owhira Bay and walking to the seal colony and back, and circling Mt Vic around Oriental Bay), I've actually been able to pay attention to a steady increase in muscle capability which I didn't notice with getting into the walking, where the limiting factor was my crappy aerobic fitness. And I lost one and a half kilos last week.

This bodes well for the suggestion of getting into gym work next year with the help of a co-worker. And, God help me, they're right about having to change exercise patterns to deal with plateaus in weight loss. I hate hurting and sweating, but I do feel better as I continue to look more like a human being again.

But the interesting thing about hitting the road more often was rediscovering the Aro St Video store, hands down the best and most eclectic store in Wellington. There are series and seasons I have yet to see in any of the other stores here - Eureka! House! Battlestar Galactica! I can see what I'm going to be up to in the evenings over Xmas.

Things 90% of the world probably knew, but I did not, and which I did not need to find out due to disillusionment and heartbreak...

2008-12-10T10:18:00.002+13:00

...Anne Rice has become a born-again Catholic.

I fully expect that Marilyn Manson's next album will have a fluffy pink unicorn on the cover.

Unexpected consequences of the housing collapse - West Nile disease

2008-12-09T09:36:00.001+13:00

From the Chartered Accountants Journal, Nov 2008:

"The home repossessions occurring in Southern California due to the sub-prime mortgage debacle have given rise to a health hazard. Many of these homes have swimming pools still filled with water, now stagnant, and in the summer months they provided breeding grounds for mosquitoes. As a result the incidence of West Nile disease has jumped 50%.

The problem is that the vector control districts responsible for spraying are short of funds for this responsibility as property values have fallen and the resultant aggregate $ value of assessed taxes has also fallen. Taxes assessed on the repossessed homes are often not paid and this has also negatively impacted vector district budgets.

As winter approaches this year's problem will abate but the challenge will be the long hot days of 2009."

I suspect we're going to see more problems like this during this recession, including some in NZ. There are two basic indicators of civilization - the delivery of clean drinking water to the citizens, and the removal of sewage. If you want to know just how stressed a particular city or society is, start keeping an eye out for stories about those problems showing up locally or nationally.

Oh-ho - so it's going to be one of THOSE days

2008-12-09T09:20:00.002+13:00

I walk into work. In the space of about three minutes:

i, I get swatted by some young lady in lieu of saying hello,
ii, A silver-haired librarian is dreadfully sarcastic to me before I even open my mouth AND
iii, A woman who has become a grandmother this year greets me by firing rubber bands at me. And then runs.

I am on holiday from next week. I could do with some time away from this place before I crack.

There will be a retaliation for all these crimes...

Same as it ever was...

2008-11-28T09:14:00.005+13:00

Exchange on bus this morning:

"T.!"
"You again?"
"Yeah - I'm working down this end of town, and I got on back in Hataitai."
"Well, I managed to make it this far without you disturbing me."
"I didn't want to wake you - you keep saying how much you need your beauty sleep."

Wonderful. I'm not even into work, and I'm already being harrassed.

So that's an appointment for Sunday lunch, I have a small family thing on Saturday, and I have an eleven year old making very broad hints about birthday presents in my direction - which part of "misanthrope" are people not understanding?

In which the Gods of Karma are tempted...

2008-11-27T20:16:00.002+13:00

I will now trample on one of my superstitious beliefs. Whether it be due to the Wiccan rede, or a belief in karma, or my own personal favourite, that God (if s/he exists) has a really really nasty sense of humour, I believe it is a bad idea to publicly wish ill on someone. Unless it involves George Bush and courts in Geneva.

But, God/Allah/FSM, if you're listening...

IRONY: Ann Coulter's Mouth Wired Shut

nypost.com — Although we didn't think it would be possible to silence Ann Coulter, the leggy reactionary broke her jaw and the mouth that roared has been wired shut.

...would it have been too difficult to throw in just a couple of broken fingers in the accident as well?

Someone who is really old...

2008-11-17T15:32:00.001+13:00

Michael Parkinson has just released his autobiography.

One anecdote involves being asked for his autograph by a relatively unknown young singer called Paul McCartney.

Another involves the lead singer for a band stating that they were "pretty well set up for at least another year". 1965, Mick Jagger, about the Rolling Stones. No, he wasn't being ironic.

Reproductive obsession

2008-11-17T12:58:00.001+13:00

Dear Women's Magazines,

Yes, we get it. Jennifer Aniston has a uterus.

But, for the love of God, unless you yourself are Aniston or John Meyer, or their parents, please stop speculating about the possible contents of said uterus. There's been more written in the last few weeks about the topic than would be found in a obstetrics text.

Can't you go back to badgering Suri Cruise or something?

On voting in New Zealand

2008-11-13T05:26:00.002+13:00

Somebody else's comments swiped directly from Daily Kos and No Right Turn:

Today I voted in the New Zealand general election. I did not have to queue. Instead, the whole process took less than five minutes: walk in, present my EasyVote card (a special ID issued by the Chief Electoral Office, to make it easy for them to cross me off on the roll), get a ballot, tick two spaces, and stick it in a box. At the end of it, they gave me a sticker. It was easy, quick, and painless. And comparing it with reports of American queuing for six hours to vote, have to ask: why do you make it so hard on yourselves?

One reason I've been given for the queues is that in some areas there was only a single polling place serving 15,000 people. This is astounding. My electorate has 49 polling places for 58,000 enrolled voters - or one for every 1,200 people (and I could have voted in any of them). Other electorates are similar. Where-ever there are people, or a school, we stick a polling booth. How hard can it be?

It gets better. I was actually travelling to Wellington today, and I could have voted in any of the polling places in any of the small towns I passed through on the way. It would have meant a trivial amount of extra fuss - booths only have rolls for their electorate, so it would have meant making a declaration that I was enrolled, and it would have meant a delay in counting my vote (as it would need to be checked against the electoral roll to see if it was valid), but it would not have been difficult. I would not have needed a form signed in triplicate in my own blood to prove that I couldn't vote any other way.

Because it is easy to vote (and our elections happen on a weekend, and there is a statutory requirement on employers to give people paid time off to vote), New Zealanders do. Our turnout last election was 81%. Our turnout this time might not be so high - it fluctuates - but should at least be in the high 70's. I compare this to the US turnout of 64%, and again ask: why do you make it so hard on yourselves?

I've described this in other threads when Americans were talking about how crap their system is. The only possible conclusion that can be drawn is simple - the elite, the politicians, especially the Republican Party, simply don't want people voting. Especially the people at the bottom of the pile. This is a sign of a country where democracy is seen as a matter of form rather than substance by the powerful.

Global Gender Gap, 2008

2008-11-13T05:05:00.007+13:00

The latest report from the World Economic Forum is available here.

The Nordic countries jostle around for top place, while New Zealand is as boring as ever:

New Zealand (5) and Australia (21) continue to perform well in the rankings. Both countries have fully closed the gap on the educational attainment subindex and both perform well on economic participation indicators. Between 2007 and 2008, both countries show gains on economic participation, educational attainment and political empowerment.

The US country highlights read:

The United States (27) gains 4 places in the rankings this year, driven by across the board improvements in the four subindexes. Given the very tight differentials between country scores on educational attainment, small improvements in this subindex lead to a marked increase in the ranking on this subindex (from 76th position in 2007 to 1st position in 2008). These gains are accompanied by improvements in both the economic participation and opportunity subindex and in the political empowerment subindex, driven by gains in perceived wage equality for similar work, percentage of women in parliamentary level positions and percentage of women in ministerial level positions. The United States now holds 56th position in the political empowerment subindex up from 69th position in 2007.

Fear of a Black planet, revisited

2008-11-06T14:06:00.000+13:00

This says it best, I think.

My basic emotion is relief. The skill of an Obama administration has yet to be proven. The structure of our government will prove a more able opponent of change than John McCain. But for the first time in years, I have the basic sense that it's going to be okay. Not great, necessarily. And certainly not perfect. But okay. The country will be led by decent, competent people who fret over the right things and employ the tools of the state for recognizable ends. They may not fully succeed. But then, maybe they will. At the least, they will try. And if they fail in their most ambitious goals, maybe they will simply make things somewhat better. After the constant anxiety and uncertainty of the last eight years, maybe that's enough.

Not euphoric. Not excited. Not in awe of the US for finally getting round to having someone non-pasty in power.

If he succeeds fully, given the US's current condition, he will deservedly be one of the top five presidents.

And if he doesn't, if he's a reasonably competent right-of-centre politican (what passes for liberal in the US) struggling with nearly insurmountable problems, at least he'll be someone decent trying to do something worthwhile in a vital position.

Which will make a huge change in itself.

Barack Obama and women's issues...

2008-11-03T15:23:00.000+13:00

"He still has trouble... putting his socks actually in the dirty clothes, and he still doesn't fo a better job than our five-year-old daughter Sasha at making his bed, so you'll have to forgive me if I'm a little stunned at this whole Barack Obama thing."

"After he eats, he doesn't put away the butter"

"Because he's too snore-y and stinky, [his daughters] don't want to ever get into bed with him."

Michelle Obama explaining why the cryptoSocialistIslamicTerroristRadical Barack Obama is entirely unsuitable for the Presidency.

Coming soon as a Fox exclusive...

Warren Ellis on a universal male experience

2008-11-02T05:37:00.002+13:00

"Shopping for clothes is a Boyfriend Thing. You stand around and look blankly at a bunch of pieces of fabric and you look at the price tags and you wonder how something that'd barely cover your right nut can cost the price of a kidney and you watch the shop assistants check you out and wonder what you're doing with her because she's cute and you're kind of funny-looking and she tries clothes on and you look at her ass in a dozen different items that all look exactly the same and let's face it you're just looking at her ass anyway and it all blurs together and then someone sticks a vacuum cleaner in your wallet and vacuums out all the cash and you leave the store with one bag that's so small that mice couldn't fuck in it. Repeat a dozen times or until the front of your brain dies.

"Point being: it's a Boyfriend Thing. And it's not just you, the Boy, who thinks so. Every shop assistant on the way will assume you're the Boyfriend.

"Especially with the laughing and the teasing and the hugging and the kissing and the holding of hands. And the carrying of bags. Very Boyfriend Thing."

- Warren Ellis, _Crooked Little Vein_.

BTDT.

Heh, heh, heh - he said "Eagleburger" (plus - Helen Clark is wrinkly)

2008-11-01T06:15:00.005+13:00

Reading blogs, I ran across the name "Lawrence Eagleburger" today.

This always cracks me up. Back in the eighties, the long-running NZ satire series McPhail and Gadsby had a running joke taking the piss out of trade minister Mike Moore who promoted diversification by making a reference to "lambburgers or venisonburgers".

(Of course, it turns out Moore was absolutely correct, just fifteen or twenty years ahead of his time, as witness the gourmet burger chains).

Anyhow, M&G proceeded to roll out a different burger every week. The Wetaburger. The Gumbootburger. The Kiwiburger - with beak still attached. I loved that. An American named "Eagleburger" can't help but trigger that association.

But, anyhow, the only YouTube clip existing of McPhail and Gadsby is from 1983 covering this piece of feminist history, a "celebration" of the 40th Parliament which had the unprecedented number of 8 female MPs. The audacity!

Prepare to cringe a bit:

The women in question turned out to leave their mark in history. They included the good, the bad, and the unnecessarily airbrushed.

Look, we have a 58 year old woman who has proven to be an effective and, on occasion, tough-as-nails Prime Minister for nine years. Her opponent on the right is a financial wide boy who has repositioned himself as wet just to work off Clark's martinet image.

And yet Labour feels it necessary to airbrush her official portrait back to her late thirties...

Not necessary. I'm tossing up in voting between her and Jeanette Fitzsimmons, and the decision isn't going to be made by who's prettier. Given that NZ voted for Muldoon for so long, and the man looked like the south side of a north-facing bulldog, and given that up to now we've kept returning Clark despite knowing that she looks like, well, a 58 year old woman, couldn't we stop pretending?

Helen isn't young, isn't pretty, doesn't have a good sense of humor, and is not the readiest speaker in Parliament.

What she is is effective, tough and disciplined, politically talented, aggressively intelligent, and concerned with the welfare of her people. I can live with that in a PM.

A modest proposal - a bipartisan approach to dealing with censure of Winston Peters

2008-10-31T10:05:00.000+13:00

From the Sunday Star Times:

"All polls have [Winston Peters'] National opponent, 31-year=old former Crown Prosecutor Simon Bridges, comfortably ahead in the Tauranga electorate which ejected Peters in 2005."

I propose that, regardless of whether National or Labour lead the next government, the following should be considered if Peters and New Zealand First are no longer in power:

i, Cease all political squabbles involving donations and forgive NZ First any irregularaties relating to their coffers.

ii, Invoke the Biosecurity Act.

iii, Stick a stake through Peters' heart (if it can be found), cut off his head, fill his mouth with holy wafers, burn the body, and scatter the ashes at a crossroads.

iv, Pray.

Fear of a black planet

2008-10-29T14:09:00.000+13:00

Something people seemed to have missed.

Forty years ago, 17 October 1968, three men stood up on a podium at the 1968 Mexico Olympic games. The gold medallist for the 200m run was Tommie Smith, and the bronze medallist was John Carlos. Both were black.

And you've probably seen that picture of them raising their fists in salute of black power.

After that, they got sent home by the International Olympic Committee and the American team. There were death threats. Carlos' first wife killed herself because of the backlash. They couldn't find jobs, and struggled to feed their families. Smith's mother, age 57, died after receiving a parcel of dead rats in the post.

Smith is now a professor of sociology. He has never been inducted into the US Olympic Committee Hall of Fame, despite his 1968 achievement.

And now Barack Obama looks set to become President of the US, and I have to tell you, the screams of barely muted racist horror at the prospect from certain areas of the right sound sweet.

I bet Smith is going to be laughing his athletic ass off when that result is announced...

Greenspan - "I was wrong"

2008-10-24T11:05:00.000+13:00

Now, this is interesting. Alan Greenspan has admitted that his ideology of the past 40 years was flawed, and needed to be changed in light of the recent financial meltdown. He doesn't seem to have mentioned the recurring cycle of bubbles and crashes which might prompt government.

Well, regardless of any other bones you might pick with Greenspan, this puts him head and shoulders above the Bush Administration and the wingnuts who support them. Congratulations, Alan.

All this and braaaaains too...

2008-10-22T12:16:00.005+13:00

This is entirely sick and twisted.

I want one!

I want you to know I am not making this up...

2008-10-20T09:30:00.002+13:00

Joseph Hatch, 1837-1928. Mayor of Invercargill, 1877, and MP for Invercargill 1884.

Made his money from 1890-1920 by boiling penguins for oil. I am not making this up. Macquarie Island, about 200,000 a year, killing off about three million of them. Elephant seals as well, but penguins proved more economic.

There must be some way to work "penguin-boiler" into teh conversation around here...

On imagining $30 million

2008-10-20T08:46:00.002+13:00

Well, the good news is I managed to get 5 numbers and the Powerball.
Now, I just have to work on getting them all on the SAME line.

Pity. I have now officially reached the age in which I engage in Real Estate Porn, an activity for which I have previously twitted particular women of a Certain Age. They had a habit of drooling of pictures of English country estates.

I, much to my shame, spent hours over the weekend spiritually masturbating over pictures of multi-million dollar apartments in Brisbane. Down to the point of considering furniture and home-area networks.

I feel so sticky.

Jump, you bastards, or we'll have you jogging as well!

2008-10-17T16:35:00.004+13:00

Associated Press - Porky porpoises

"Dolphins at a Japanese marine park are on a diet after developing potbellies and struggling in their performances. Kinosaki Marine World said its 19 dolphins have been on a diet since August, when they started failing to hit jumping targets."

This is what losing looks like...

2008-10-17T15:17:00.002+13:00

George Bush, 21 Nov 2005:

George Bush: 'We will stay in Iraq until we have achieved victory'

Our goal is to defeat the terrorists and allies - and their allies at the heart of their power. And so we will defeat the enemy in Iraq.

BBC World News, 17 Oct 2008:

The US says it is considering a draft agreement with Iraq on the role of its troops there after the UN mandate for their presence expires later this year.

Details have not been released, but officials say it would see US combat forces withdrawn from Iraqi towns and cities by the middle of 2009.

Iraq Today:

Thursday Oct 16th 2008
A roadside bomb in Baghdad's central Palestine Street area [...]
#4: A roadside bomb targeted an army patrol in Waziriyah [...]
#5: An adhesive bomb detonated under a civilian car [...]
#1: A suicide attacker disguised as a soldier [...]
#1: A roadside bomb detonated in Buhriz town (about 3 miles south of Baquba). [...]
#1: A suicide car bomber detonated near Balad police station around 4 pm. [..]
#1: Seven Iraqi soldiers were wounded by a hand grenade in eastern Mosul, [...]
#2: Two people were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded west of Mosul, police said.
#3: Two children were wounded by an improvised explosive device [...]
#4: Four civilians were wounded when Iraqi troops fired shots [...]

Wednesday Oct 15th 2008
MNF-Iraq is reporting the death of a Multi-National Division - Baghdad soldier [...]
[...] a body and four wounded persons as a result of a bomb explosion [...]
[...] an adhesive bomb stuck to a sedan detonated in Karrada neighborhood [...]
Five mortar rounds landed in an unoccupied area [...]
#6: Two roadside bombs exploded in quick succession [...]
#7: Three policemen were wounded when a bomb exploded [...]
#8: Three policemen were wounded on Wednesday in a bomb explosion [...]
#9: A least four civilians were wounded when mortars fell [...]
#1: A bomb went off on Wednesday morning in Baquba [...]
#1: A civilian was killed on Wednesday by unknown gunmen [...]
#1: Iraqi national guards found 22 unknown bodies in a mass grave[...]
#2: Major-General Ali al-Hamdani, [...] injured in a roadside bomb blast[...] #1“An explosive charge went off targeting an Iraqi army vehicle patrol [...]
#2: “Nine civilians were injured in a roadside bomb blast [...]
#3: Police killed one attacker when gunmen attacked their patrol [...]
#4: A police patrol mistakenly opened fire in central Mosul [...]
#6: Two children were wounded in a bomb explosion in Mosul, [...]
#7: One gunman was killed in clashes with police in southeastern Mosul,[...]

Tuesday Oct 14th 2008
CNN is reporting the death of a U.S. - led coalition soldier [...]
The Washington Post is reporting the deaths of three ISAF soldiers [...]
AMS issues fatwa prohibiting long-term pact:
Iraqi official calls U. S. troop accord unlikely: [...]
Five Turkish soldiers wounded in PKK attack in Turkey:
Moldova to pull out of Iraq by yearend:
#2: Three civilians were injured by a roadside bomb in Talbiyah [...]
#4: Five persons were injured on Tuesday night [...]
#1: Police forces found two bodies, one male one female, [...]
#1: Iraqi police said eight mortar rounds landed in the U.S. base Anaconda [...]
#1: Two separate roadside bombs wounded five civilians [...]
Five civilians were injured by a bomb in Tuz Khurmatu market place
#1: An explosion struck a secondary pipeline transporting unrefined gas [...]
#1: A bomb went off on Tuesday in front of a church in central Mosul,[...]
#2: One civilian was killed and another wounded in a drive by shooting [...]
#3: Two policemen were wounded when a bomb hit their patrol [...]

Connect the dots.

How to maintain a reputation as a literary maven in one easy lesson...

2008-10-16T11:32:00.001+13:00

...fake it.

Dispatch from the class wars...

2008-10-16T10:33:00.002+13:00

From the Guardian:

Super times for superyachts as billionaires buy into maritime bling

Monte Carlo boat show finds demand for floating palaces higher than ever
[...]

While others panic about the financial crisis, this weekend's Monaco Yacht Show proved that the mega-rich have never been richer. Yacht brokers describe an eastern European new rich, boosted by oil wealth, keen to outdo their rivals. Middle Eastern viewers and occasional Latin Americans are following suit.

As the number of multi-billionaires grows, the superyacht industry is enjoying such a boom that demand for the most expensive models outstrips supply. Boats built to personal specifications have grown to such vast proportions that the labels superyacht and megayacht are no longer enough. Those on the dockside now talk of the gigayacht - multi-storey, 120-metre floating mansions that resemble cruise liners. The cost of the biggest new boats exceeds €200m

200. Million. Pounds.

This is going to make it difficult for the hordes of peasants with pitchforks and flaming torches.

But we'll figure out a way, you fuckers, we'll figure out a way...

Huge amounts of drugs and drink to drown the heartache...

2008-10-16T10:10:00.002+13:00

"Scarlett Johansson has married actor Ryan Reynolds in a hush-hush ceremony in his native Canada."

Why, Scarlett, why? Weren't the letters enough to intrigue you? The threats to your dog not sufficient motivation? The soaking in gasoline and offer to immolate myself outside your house not sufficient proof of my devotion? We both know your heart said "Yes, yes", even if your lawyer said "Restraining order!"

And with a Canadian, no less!

Once again, we must turn to modern ballads to express our feelings.

Spending tomorrow for tax cuts today (with Southpark)

2008-10-11T15:38:00.006+13:00

Interested in a simple explanation comparing the effects of National vs Labour tax proposals?

Watch this.

Also useful - Paul Krugman's "Pop Internationalism".

New Zealand suffers from a basic macroeconomic flaw - we use way too much overseas capital. We must increase domestic savings. Kiwisaver is one component of such an effort.

And National want to gut it in order to win this election. If you have children aged 12 or less now, they won't be thanking you for this by the time they enter university. Indeed, I expect that it will form a major part in any first year essay on "Why is the NZ economy so fucked up now?" come 2015.

But, hey, Helen Clark is just too annoying - time for a change, right?

Me, I'm going to complete my qualification and position myself to shift to Australia if need be...

In the long run, we're all dead anyway - so why not party?

2008-10-07T14:47:00.003+13:00

Now that we've established that (i) Wellington has not blown into the sea (yet) and (ii) I am a credulous fool (and, S. - "gullible" is SO in the dictionary!), via the Wellingtonista:

Forwarded without further comment

2008-10-07T14:30:00.003+13:00

From: Richard MacLean [mailto:Richard.MacLean@wcc.govt.nz]
Sent: Tuesday, 7 October 2008 1:36 p.m.
Subject: Bogus Wellington storm-damage report - please ignore

NEWS RELEASE
1.30PM - 7 October 2008

Bogus storm-damage report - please ignore

A bogus storm-damage report is circulating today on email groups around Wellington - containing information from a storm in August 2004.

Advice from Wellington City Council is to ignore the email - a copy of which is attached below.

The email contains extensive lists of streets closed by slips around Wellington, reports of damage at Wellington Airport, details of extensive delays to trains and buses, school closures, and 'huge seas' blocking Moa Point Road.

The City Council has received a number of calls from people anxious about the emailed report - headed WELLINGTON WEATHER WARNINGS - however we stress that the information is entirely incorrect.

While there have been strong northerly winds in the Wellington region today, and heavy rain - none of the incidents on the email being circulated have occurred. They all occurred during a fierce southerly storm in August 2004.

The City Council will attempt to find out how and why the email was initially circulated - but in the meantime our advice is please ignore it.

For further details please contact:
Richard MacLean - Wellington City Council Communications, tel 04 801 3578 or 021 227 8180.

These are my testicles. Please kick.

Ah, Wellington - known for its perfect weather...

2008-10-07T13:14:00.004+13:00

Weather update 7 Oct 2008 approx 1 pm

Updates on storm as follows

Slips

Makara Rd, Homebush Rd, Fairview Cres

Trees Down,

Plimmer Steps, Mahoe St, Tawa, Kimberley Way Karori, Herald Mitchell St, Branscombe St, Arlington St Karori, Shortt St, Moffat St, Abel Smith St, Barnard St, Oban St, Tarikaka St, Houghton bay Rd, Taiaroa St, Beacon Hill Rd, Rintoul St, Konini St, Waipori St, Cnr Townsend Rd, South Karori Rd, Constable St, St Michaels Cres, Chater St, Mark Ave, Bell St, Mortimer Tce, Akaroa Dr, Hallswater Dr, Mornington Rd, Glen Alton Ave, Boundary Rd

Lines Down

Milne Cres, Lyall Bay Rd, Ellice St, Washington Ave, Carlton St, Cheeseman St, Para St, Wingfield Pl, Ohariu Road, Makara Rd, Cheeseman Rd, Akatea St, Ellice St, College St, Barnard St, Kekerenga St, Mark Ave, Bedford St, Amristar Rd, Glen Alton Ave

No Power

Severn St, Queens Drive, Darlington Rd, No Power in most parts of Wadestown, College St, Lucknow Tce, Simla Cres, Helston Rd

Road Closures

Onslow and Ngaio Road.
Moa Point Road is closed due to huge seas breaking over the southern end of the Wellington Airport runway.
Stewart Duff Drive, on the eastern side of the Airport, is closed because cladding is being blown off a hangar.
The Hutt Road is closed between Ngaio Gorge Road and Onslow Road because of lifting roofing at the Placemakers site.
Makara Road and Ohariu Valley Road closed by fallen trees and power lines.
A big slip has closed Homebush Road, Khandallah

Sewerage

Raw sewerage flowing down Wakefield Street Clutha Ave Nicholson Rd

Other

Public access to the Basin Reserve has been closed. Approximately 15 windows in the RA Vance Stand have blown out.
Fulton Hogan working on Airport roof which is lifting
Council Parks staff have closed off the walking tracks on Tinakori Hill due to the danger caused by many falling trees.
Power poles are in danger of toppling on the seafront at Lyall Bay.
No power to about 40 homes in Karori
Hutt Motorway one lane north bound reopen between Melling and Maungaraki but south bound closed

Traffic lights out
bowen/glenmore/tinakori

Trafic lights facing wrong way
Kent and Majoribanks St

All Trains Cancelled

Buses from Hutt Valley cancelled

Glass all over footpath and road in Cambridge tce Northern Landfill
closed closed the transfer station Not operating Library Mobile bus -
Karori Today All flights cancelled the rear section of roof of Shed 6,
on Waterfront has lifted and gone the South end of Events centre Roof is
lifting and is likely to go vehicle entry to Waterfront including
Dockside, Shed 5 and the Helicopters is now closed.
Johnsonville badly affected No Power

Onslow College closed, other schools will follow Raroa Intermediate
closed Pump stations out Johnsonville Library closed - no power Flooding
in Hutt - Locations Affected WAIWHETU Haywards Tce and Wainui Rd.
SEAVIEW / EASTBOURNE
Eastern Bays Marine Drive - debris and surface flooding Croft Grove -
surface flooding WESTERN HILLS
SH2 - slips and debris between Melling and Haywards
SH2 - Maungaraki and Melling one lane north bound re-opened> WAINUI HILL
RD - Gracefield Road on and off ramps closed. Gracefield Road closed
between Bell Rd and Wainuiomata Hill Rd closed.
RIVERSIDE CARPARK - is now being closed
BLOCK ROAD - is now closed
Road to Eastbourne closed
Electricity has been cut to parts of Korokoro, Petone, Naenae, Melling
and Coast Road Wainuiomata.
Other parts of the city may also be affected by power cuts

I do so love springtime in the Capital City - it's so bracing...

"As God is my witness, I thought this turkey would fly!"

2008-10-06T11:15:00.001+13:00

An American Carol - Opening Weekend 3-5 Oct 2008.

Opening Weekend:$3,810,000
(1,639 theaters,$2,325 average)
% of Total Gross: 100.0%

Bowling for Columbine - opening Weekend 11-13 Oct 2002.

Opening Weekend:$209,148
(8 theaters,$26,143 average)
% of Total Gross: 1.0%
= Worldwide:$58,008,423

An Inconvenient Truth - Opening Weekend 24-26 May 2006

Opening Weekend:$281,330
(4 theaters,$70,332 average)
% of Total Gross: 1.2%
= Worldwide:$49,749,351

Gosh, I bet each and every one of the 1,639 theatre managers who choose to air THAT piece of crap have some explaining to do to their bosses.

Hmm - anyone care to explain how, if Hollywood is controlled by liberals, "An American Carol" managed to get such a huge initial opening - without previews for the critics?

BTW, production budget is not available, but judging from Zucker's other movies, would run in the $20-$40 million. Judging from the opening weekend performance, it's going to die almost immediately, and gross around $10 million altogether. This doesn't even begin to consider the outside production expenses.

Why don't studios make conservative orientated movies? Because they lose money, big time.

Ragnar Danneskjöld lives!

2008-10-03T12:29:00.002+13:00

Many times on the Internet, libertarians have been pointed at the one true utopia, the only country on Earth which follows their mantra of the minimum possible government, the glorious paradise that is Somalia.

And now we see news that entreprenuers are following in the footsteps of one of the characters of "Atlas Shrugged", liberating goods funded by government theft.

I think we should applaud these independent libertarians, and all those on the Net who aspire to turn their own countries towards this model of freedom.

Memory failure

2008-10-02T11:16:00.002+13:00

Memory failure

There’s a poem by Sappho;
I read it once.
She talks about her lover leaving.

Like clutching harder and harder
On the blade cutting into your hand.
Like the coldest winter day
Beauty in the eye and your lungs freezing.
Like the tsunami charging in
The rush of power and the loss of hope.
Like the whisper through the lines;
The things unsaid, the things never to be said.

I’d like to send it to you,
but

I can’t remember the title,
and I can’t find it again.
It’s out of reach
as well.

B.order/line (Will Christie)

2008-10-02T10:39:00.002+13:00

B.order/line (Will Christie)

this is the event of fire
sleeping in
town and the roof is phat with birds
it is a very dogged
lust that wolves us

lying beside u
feels in motion
like the photo of a fall
the language body seethes
u make me
nerve us

u
come a bit close
r
desire's a pleasure
that erases
evidence of its own fullness
danger sharpens the attention
I love because u r
mined

this is a stroke of the heart
your context is coming loose
I am an object
with feelings
increase yourself to my needs

Surrrrrrrrrreeeeeee....

2008-10-02T09:28:00.002+13:00

All I'm saying is that, if you're put under pressure and you immediately start talking about dungeons and sex, trying to claim that they were only cucumber dungeons doesn't cut it. There's psychotherapy in your future...

The next 5000 days...

2008-09-30T11:03:00.004+13:00

The web is about 5,000 days old. I was there when it came along - I remember starting to notice it when Lynx replaced Gopher on the local university systems. I was too busy playing MUDs to pay too much attention, of course.

Watch this talk by Kevin Kelly. It may be the most important thing you watch this year.

Now, consider the summary list at the end and the messianic language it is couched in.

Let me ask one question - how would a mitochondria describe a person?

A brief note on the etiquette of anal penetration

2008-09-25T10:36:00.004+12:00

Imagine, on some long Saturday evening, you are relaxing and watching television when your lover/partner/spouse walks into the room. They stand in front of you, blocking American Idol or whatever the hell you watch on a Saturday night, and proceed to pull a long plastic glove onto their right arm, and make a fist.

Then they bring out the KY, and start slathering it all over the glove. You can't help but noticing, in a rather horrified fashion, that they've made sure to lubricate it well over half way to the elbow.

Then they tell you to stand up, drop your pants, bend over, and grasp your ankles firmly.

There are two important things to note at this point:

i, You have a perfectly good right to ask "Why?" AND
ii, "There's not enough time to explain" is NOT a good enough reply.

What does an apogee look like?

2008-09-24T09:20:00.003+12:00

A decade ago, 1998, I started mentioning my theory that US had reached its apogee, the maximum level of power, and was on the downward part of the curve. At the time, this seemed pretty presumptious, but then again, what exactly would an apogee look like? You'd expect it to look much like the previous few rosy years, with perhaps a small but niggling indicator showing some problems.

In my particular case, I chose the net return on national investments. In 1998, this flipped - the US was paying more out to foreigners who owned US assets than it gained from owning overseas assets. It had moved from a bank balance in the black to an overdraft.

I thought this would grow slowly over the next couple of decades before people would start to notice. I didn't expect the Bush administration to come along and fuck things up quite as thoroughly as it did. Hell of a job, Georgie.

And now this news:

Check out the chart showing the recent spikes in the US 10-year credit default swap. In other words, the market is now pricing-in the genuine possibility that the US will struggle to pay-back some of its long-term T-bills.

That possibility is still deemed to be quite low. But the ultimate financial question – until recently, unthinkable – is now being asked. Yes siree, the mighty US government could default. That’s how much the world has changed.

Welcome to the world run on the Euro.

Placing promises of tax-cuts in context

2008-09-18T09:50:00.008+12:00

From G-Blog, National Monopoly:

An observation on feminists' supposed commitment to equality...

2008-09-18T09:11:00.004+12:00

...from personal experience, even the most assertive and independant woman will arrange to have at least two burly males around when it comes time to move house. And we fall for it every time out of our desire to be helpful. Curse the wiles of the whole wretched species.

I feel so used.

And sore.

A brief lesson on the Newtonian laws as they apply to politics...

2008-09-16T16:24:00.002+12:00

For every action, there is a reaction.

Even if they are your supposed allies. And you will notice the words "equal" and "opposite" do not apply in politics.

Just saying...

You know all those song lists people keep compiling...

2008-09-11T11:29:00.002+12:00

...you might want to reconsider before posting.

From here:

What your music says about you

Indie: Devotees have low self-esteem and are not very hard-working, kind or generous. However, they are creative.

Rock 'n' Roll: Fans have high self-esteem and are very creative, hard-working and at ease with themselves, but not very kind or generous.

Blues: High self-esteem, creative, outgoing and at ease with themselves.

Classical: Classical music lovers have high self-esteem, are creative and at ease with themselves, but not outgoing.

Heavy metal: Very creative and at ease with themselves, but not very outgoing or hard-working.

Reggae: High self-esteem, creative, outgoing, kind, generous and at ease with themselves, but not very hard-working.

Country & Western: Very hard-working and outgoing.

Dance: Creative and outgoing but not kind or generous.

Rap: High self-esteem, outgoing.

Oooookay...

Why looks matter in politics...

2008-09-10T09:39:00.002+12:00

If you look like this, you can only rise so far:

If you look like this, however, the Republican party will embrace you and the media will love you.

Even if you have essentially the same policies...

On dying for a good cause

2008-09-07T19:34:00.003+12:00

At around 3 or 4 this morning, a blue warehou was happily swimming around Cook Strait. Shortly afterwards, it was very surprised to be hauled into the air by a net, bonked on the head, and put on ice. I know it was surprised because I saw the impression on its face.

At about 7.15, as I was leaving the house for a long, long walk, the fishing boat was tying up at the dock outside the Sunday market outside Waitangi Park. At about 11.00, I finally got to the market, and saw the fish gutted and filleted in front of my face. I purchased it, some fresh red peppers and fresh green capsicum at the market (along with other stuff - including three or four kilos of fresh oranges).

At about 2 p.m. I finally got home, along with groceries and a haul of books from the local market. The fish goes in the freezer, the groceries in the fridge.

At 6, the oven top is heated up and some oil goes in the pan. At 6.02 half of the fish went in the pan. One pepper, one capsicum, an onion, some Korean fish oil and a lot of pepper.

Oh, God, I'd forgotten how good really fresh fish is. The only thing missing is some mushrooms. Something to consider for Tuesday or so when the rest of the thoroughly surprised fish gets hauled out.

My friend, you died in a good cause.

What works against terrorism

2008-09-05T16:21:00.002+12:00

There's been a report recently of a Rand Corporation study. It surveyed almost 650 terrorist groups that operated between 1968 and 2006. This is how they died:

43% ceased after a transition to the political process.
40% were destroyed by effective police work.
10% dissolved after victory.

And 7% were defeated militarily.

Note that - police work destroyed 40% of them, the military destroyed 7%. And this is the Rand Corporation saying this, not some leftist peace institute.

Feel free to cite these figures the next time wingnuts start getting erections over weapons.