Posts by Joe Wylie
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Speaker: The Spirit Level, in reply to Lucy Telfar Barnard,
Because some (a few) people choose a simpler and/or lower consumption life, then all people who live with less must have chosen to live that way.
And because everyone starts from scratch with middle-class values already hard-wired in, right?
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Speaker: The Spirit Level, in reply to Sacha,
Nothng new about 'the deserving poor' as a notion
How about the undeserving disabled? For example, Christchurch's "skinhead" community, most of whom, IMHE, appear to be in receipt of some form of disability benefit.
When activism focuses on what can be immediately changed, i.e. those social attitudes that disadvantage the disabled, people whose "bad attitude" is often a symptom of their disability seem to fall into the "undeserving" too-hard basket. There were few voices of protest over the Chch Press's voyeuristically lurid coverage of this unfortunate woman's highly public decline.
When society seeks to balance the rights of those whose disability can render them socially disruptive with community safety, the burden falls unfairly on the poor. During Tim Barnett's last term as MP for Christchurch Central I visited his office with a friend who'd sought his help in dealing with a neighbour's dangerously intrusive behaviour.
When I suggested that we as a society have a level of responsibility in accommodating the socially disruptive, Barnett offered that such problems usually occurred in "low-income areas". The implication was that nice people such as those present didn't normally have to worry too much about such things.
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Hard News: Victoria Crone and what…, in reply to Ben Ross,
She probably have the entire mess cleared up within 6 months.
Sounds like the kind of endorsement that Rodney Hide's fanbase were once so fond of making.
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1982 was the heyday of PEP schemes, where those drawn from the ranks of the unemployed were generally paid the award wage of the union of whichever local authority provided the bridging finance. With the Auckland City Council it was the Northern Regional Local Government Officers' Union.
As Colin Scrimgeour noted with heavy irony in a radio interview from around that time, Muldoon would probably be remembered as NZ's last genuinely socialist Prime Minister.
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Hard News: Art with a job to do, in reply to tussock,
Like, you put the Rugby emblem on the NZ flag, you're there. Most people want to vote for the winner and so there it is, y'all knew it was going to win too. Curia told Johnkey and he told the rest of us, not exactly a secret.
The same school of thought that attempted to micromanage public participation in Canterbury's earthquake recovery by focusing on the hapless Roger Sutton's "personality".
At the time of the lead-up to the introduction of decimal currency
"these proposed designs were highly criticised by the public after they were published in the Evening Post. The rugby player drew the sharpest criticism of all."Perhaps the same fine official minds that floated the idea that we should have zeals instead of dollars also advised the Holyoake Government that putting a footy player on the 20 cent piece would deliver them a thousand-year reich.
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Hard News: Art with a job to do, in reply to Ross Francis,
I expect many of the non-voters, the informals and quite a few of the fern voters to vote for the current flag.
There was a grey-haired guy soliciting toots from passing traffic by waving the current flag outside the Hornby Mall about an hour ago. He seemed to be getting an enthusiastic response.
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Hard News: Art with a job to do, in reply to George Darroch,
The flag is not clothing, unless you're Australian.
Fifteen years ago, during the first week of the Sydney olympics, I was waiting with the crowd on the ferry for the gangway to be put in place at the Manly wharf. Off to my left I noticed a middle-aged guy in full tourist kit, Akubra-style hat, souvenir t-shirt, bum bag, the whole bit.
What caught my shocked attention was his face. The whole right side appeared to be a mass of hideous deep blue bruising, with patches painted with red mercurochrome. Whatever horrible thing had befallen him, how come he wasn't swathed in bandages like the Mummy? Then I noticed the white stars. He'd had himself face painted with the Australian flag.
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Hard News: Art with a job to do, in reply to Matthew Hooton,
Do you see how haughty and arrogant that makes people towards their fellow citizens when they attack so pretentiously the fern-based designs that so many people chose? And also out of touch with the country in which they live?
Lord Haw-Haw of the Grammar Zone.
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Hard News: Art with a job to do, in reply to Russell Brown,
This remix happened too.
That cat on the left certainly looks as if he believes he got the cream.
So the world has Grumpy Cat, but we have Grateful Hua. -
Hard News: Art with a job to do, in reply to Lilith __,
At least laser kiwi knows it's silly.
Nothing says punch above your own weight like laser kiwi.