Not PC
RMA replacements " look like an improvement (which wouldn't be difficult), but it still relies excessively on trusting politicians"
"A climate-risk industrial complex has emerged in this space and a lot of money is being made by a lot of people."
So let’s review what Australia’s media ban has actually accomplished here...
"mRNA vaccines weren’t the problem. The virus was."
Those RMA Replacements: "not a sort of RMA 3.0, but a TCPA 4.0 plus a separate environment thing."
"The New Zealander prides himself on his common sense"
RMA Announcement: Live blogging
One step forwards, three steps back.
Ardern: "The myth-making begins immediately."
Spotify Wrapped? No. "A massive thumbs up to anyone that bought a physical copy of anyone’s record this year."
"Liberal democracy is a superpower that can make a country, or a continent, great. The world needs to have at least one such liberal democratic power, to a serve as a refuge, a protector, and an example for the rest of the world."
Yes, let's keep piling on Anne Salmond.
The open society is the successful society
"The result is not just boring playgrounds. It’s bored kids, with fewer chances to learn to solve problems."
"Every so often, a critic of 'universal reason' appears who, in the course of denouncing it, inadvertently demonstrates why we need it."
'Power-sharing' in the classroom
"High house prices are nature’s most reliable contraceptive"
Regional shambles
Austerity, what austerity?
15 YEARS AGO (LIBERTARIAN SUS ): Let's make Christmas more commercial!
A Thanksgiving Sermon
"This pathetic and muddled belief in the power of credit to cure all economic ills is perennial in New Zealand"
Let’s talk about Steve Witkoff
'Storm' by Lucien Levy-Dhurmer
"The end is nigh – not for the world, but for the climate industrial complex."
There is "no evidence of a global acceleration in sea level rise because of climate change."
"No wonder the Trump/Mamdani meeting went so well—these 2 are kindred spirits"
"There are two Putins."
To remain independent from politics, a central bank must be less political
Were Māori environmentalists?
"Be interesting."
Ergonomics with Aristotle: "The distinctive work of humans, based on our nature, is thus to reason—that is, to think."
"The difference between a thief and a politician..."
"Real liberalism has been tried." And it was good.
Ukraine betrayed. Again.
Should we end capitalism? Or embrace it.
Marx's inner contradictions explained
Meaning
Phew! Lucky our own media are always impartial, eh.
"There may be damage – serious damage – to public trust and confidence in the Police when the rot and corruption are present at such a high level."
She makes a good point
"MAGA, a movement built around the personality of one man, never amounted to a coherent political force or even a workable coalition."
The oxymoron of 'smart active government'
Seeking to find a te reo word to describe the unfamiliar concept of property rights has made for a disastrous confusion
Have political parties begun to get some rat cunning into how to best manipulate MMP to their advantage?
The "principals' revolt" is "a small group of people…making a lot of noise"
"The excessive and inappropriate use of name suppression"
"Since wealth is the only thing that can cure poverty..."
If you're complaining about the price of butter, here's a data point to keep in mind ...
Laughter
"An AI developer who trains on pirated or paywalled material can’t launder infringement through the word 'training' "
Jacinda: "Rarely has a person seemed so suited for a job"
"The issue is never the issue. The issue is always Revolution."
“‘Emergencies’ have always been the pretext on which the safeguards of individual liberty have been eroded"
"Trump is effectively admitting he has no idea who he’s pardoning, but he’s doing it to help his corrupt sons."
"Te Pāti Māori’s obsession with dividing people by ancestry belongs in the past. The rest of us should be focused on equality before the law."
"Interestingly, the right didn’t take the leftist ideas that were intended to build something; they took just the ideas intended to destroy."
"Capitalism created Poland's miracle, and socialism created Venezuela's catastrophe."
Science + mysticism = ?
"This is [is this?] the sound of a bubble popping."
It's not our holiday.
Taxation v Charity
Finding "the meaning of life" in dirty work
Real Public Health Threats vs. Climate Hysteria: "It is vital that governments focus on real pollutants, not imagined ones."
A Resounding Win for Milei’s Reform Agenda in Argentina
"Yet today protectionism is being used by some American politicians as a cheap form of nationalism..."
"'Real Socialism' has never been tried..."
"Why Secularists Calling for a Christian Revival Are Wrong"
Moral Hazard + Bubble = ?
The dawn of the post-literate society (and the end of civilisation?)
"That’s the real lesson. Market power in technology is temporary because the underlying technology isn’t."
Labour "recognises NZ’s infrastructure crisis. But has no idea how to fix it."
Pay no attention to the (mad) men behind the curtain.
"My strong preference is to disestablish the Broadcasting Standards Authority..."
"New Zealand's unique welfare problem isn't disability or unemployment. ... It is the high rate of sole parenthood"
No Kings
"The Broadcasting Standards Authority is a creature from the past which should not exist in a free and democratic society."
Rights
"Why are leading institutions so biased against fossil fuels?"
"Israel surrendered"
"Ideas, especially philosophical ones, are fundamental to economic growth."
"...one of the infinite ways that man can choose to be an imbecile..."
“Once you learn to think, conformity becomes a difficult habit to adopt again."
'Why Cynicism is Just Moral Cowardice'
Good advice.
"Decide together to be Separate?"
"This is why I focus on prosperity-building instead of complaining all the time about the past."
Stolen Land?
"Suddenly, the race is on to be skeptical."
"The apocalypse was always a decade away. ."
'Degrowth' says we're running out of land to feed everyone.
Tom Waits's Thought for the Day: On gentlemen
"In New Zealand, moving a water tank on the marae can require council consent. Meanwhile, the Squamish are building apartment towers on their own land on their own authority."
What's humanity's greatest ever invention?
"Welcome to the world of reality - there is no audience."
"...a deeper issue about how our educational institutions have prepared (or misprepared) us for life in the adult world."
"Things and Actions are what they are"
Have you been workslopped?
"What 'social justice' advocates want is not justice, but to be in charge of deciding who gets what."
He's right, you know
"Do I think it’s a good idea to scrap art history? No, I think it’s a terrible, tragic idea."
Recognition => Consequences
"That’s how Netflix erases Citizen Kane and Casablanca. It can’t deny the greatness of these films. But it can act as if they never happened."
FACT CHECK: "The United States is one of the only developed countries where health care is mostly left to the free market." ANSWER: FALSE
Don't make fun of the despot
Your "unlived life"
"The pandemic pulled back the curtain for a moment. When everyone worked from home, it became obvious who was actually doing things and who was just... there."
'Dictator from Day One'
"There are some rivalries in sports that stand the test of time..."
"The single biggest reason why social media is now a dead-end for musicians is that people can’t remember the names of artists or the titles of songs they like."
"You can't punish the innocent for the crimes of the guilty."
"Take, for example ... GDP."
"The fundamental error of Keynesian central banking is the pretension that the business cycle can be comprehended, assessed and expertly managed by what amounts to a monetary politburo of 6 government apparatchiks on the Reserve Bank's Monetary Policy Committee."