Posts by Joe Wylie
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Legal Beagle: Kim Dotcom vs. The Teapot Tapes, in reply to Kyle Matthews,
Well that was some awful wikipedia reading on my part :(
I didn't know about Watt. Remember how Harry Duynhoven was briefly outed as a Dutch double agent, despite being NZ born? I think it took a bit of quick retrospective legislation to avoid a by-election and allow MPs to hold dual citizenship.
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Legal Beagle: Kim Dotcom vs. The Teapot Tapes, in reply to Kyle Matthews,
Most recent PM born outside of NZ was Michael Joseph Savage . . .
His successor Peter Fraser was born in Scotland. The most recent foreign-born PM was the Englishman Walter Nash.
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Capture: Two Tales of a City, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
Far out, thanks Ian.
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Capture: Two Tales of a City, in reply to Rob Stowell,
... the one-time strange bike shop on the opposite corner that looked like a demented magician had retired there, bringing with him the contents of a medieval midden.
A pity that Streetview didn't catch the bike shop while it was open. There was usually a range of mostly 70s vintage bikes for sale out on the footpath, with non-medieval prices. The grey-haired guy who seemed to function as the public face of the operation was in the habit of riding his bike straight off the street and in through the front door. His response to any mildly technical question was "I'll ask Dad," followed by his popping out the back to the presumed workshop.
Anyway, that shop featured in a remarkable photo exhibition at the COCA galley in about 2006. Unfortunately it's too far back to be archived on COCA's website. I believe there was more than one photographer involved. There were at least one hundred pictures, all black and white, each with a detailed accompanying description, sometimes of several paragraphs, often quoting the subject of the shot. Some featured people in their home or business, for example Alice's Video, while others, like the bike shop, were simply streetscapes. I do hope it's safe somewhere, because it's a fabulous record of a vanished world.
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Legal Beagle: Kim Dotcom and the GCSB, in reply to Lucy Telfar Barnard,
However, I do object to be told I'm swapping one bedtime story for another.
No-one here, as far as I'm aware, has characterised local intelligence operatives in infantile pop culture terms. Like most of those who presume to indulge in a little high-handed deconstruction, you object when it's done to you. If that kind of casual presumption of informed superiority is all the go amongst your GCSB acquaintances then us lesser mortals have yet another reason to feel uneasy.
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Legal Beagle: Kim Dotcom and the GCSB, in reply to Lucy Telfar Barnard,
I know it's natural to be suspicious of spies, but really guys, they're not 007 or Alias or Men in Black or Moulder and Scully or Reilly or any of the pop-culture representations of the business, they're just a bunch of civil servants doing their jobs and going about their lives.
Oh come on Lucy, if you're going to attempt condescension surely you can do better than offer one bedtime story view as a substitute for another. Like Banks's abandoning of Dotcom in his hour of need, there's every evidence that these spies operate in a fawning and suspicious culture of nice-up-nasty-down. Once it became known that Dotcom was damned in the eyes of the all-powerful US, caution went out the window.
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Capture: BOTY Potty., in reply to Kebabette,
There was a kea in our library yesterday.
Brilliant.
Finally a proper kea to eclipse Kuki, the abominable Sesqui 1990 avian sasquatch or 'mascot'. Despite being described in its promo pack at the time as 'fun-loving' and 'cheeky', Kuki was the soulless spawn of consultants and event managers. Instructions for licensed operators of the Kuki costume stipulated that children must never see the kea impersonator partially suited. Presumably doing so would lead to one's kea license being revoked.True to the lingering Sesqui curse, Kuki items on TradeMe never sell.
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Speaker: The Democracy-Free Zone, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
..what would happen if all the children turned up to class and the teachers continued to teach in their schools as usual...
...maybe a 'management/staff' buyout
- instant community owned charter schools!They'll sack the school board and appoint a commissioner, as happened in April when the far North Moerewa School continued classes in defiance of the Ministry of Education. This was a personal initiative of the Blairite import Secretary of Education Lesley Longstone. Her having been in NZ only since last November and never having visited a rural NZ school seems to be treated as a kind of asset by those driving the anti-democratic agenda. She appears to be valued because her total ignorance of such things gives her the necessary ruthlessness to attack a predominantly Māori school.
Elsewhere, Gerry Brownlee appears to have attempted a little Paula Bennett style dirt-digging in a failed effort to discredit his Christchurch critics. From his past performance in attempting to silence Lianne Dalziel by releasing her personal information, it's standard Brownlee modus operandi.
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OnPoint: Because Statistical Rigour, in reply to Hilary Stace,
Back in the 80s at Auckland's Avondale College the 'specials' were let out 20 minutes early so they could make it home without being rolled for their bus fare, which the bullies reputedly fed to the spacies machines. As special classes were thinly spread it could be an awfully long walk home.
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Speaker: The Democracy-Free Zone, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
Yesterday I noticed what must be advance spin for either asset sales or an upcoming Ayn Rand movie - a plane towing a sign saying 'Money is Good' also posters about town... Did I also see a poster saying 'Money is Bad'?
What is reality?A pertinent question for those venal and troll-duped souls who turned out in Albert Park.