NZBC

Mixed lollies

Stephen nominates "The Great Firewall of China" as his headline of the month, but I Googled it and it's been used a few times. However, it did remind me of one a friend told me about. The story concerned thirty or forty Chinese labourers buried in a landslide and the headline was "Sons of Toil 'neath Tons of Soil". I've Googled that too with no result so it may be apocryphal.

Anyway, on to this week's lollies! Stephen points to this Register story about strange Romanian mobile phone activity. Mark likes this piece on the death of the independent bookseller - and of consumer choice.

Chris likes this Atlantic article on the best journalism never published. It includes this version of the Gettysburg Address as it would have been handled on the Boston Globe's copydesk:

Fourscore and seven years ago (can't we just make it 87 years ago?) our father (WHO ARE THEY?? Any mothers???) brought forth on this continent (North America?? Northern Hemisphere??) a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men (people, men and women, what???) are created equal. (Why don't we just say they founded the United States and leave it at that?
Pacing's better.)

Mark likes this on Jewish humour from The New York Times' review of Michael Wex's Born to Kvetch. On Yiddish:

It is, Mr. Wex writes, "the national language of nowhere," the medium of expression for a people without a home. "Judaism is defined by exile, and exile without complaint is tourism," as Mr. Wex neatly puts it.

Mark also likes this Barbara Ehrenreich interview (scroll down) on her new book Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Search for the American Dream. Also this on pick-up king Neil Strauss from our own Kirsty Gunn.

Ciao.

Iraq blows back

There's been an eruption of internet chatter about Iraq this week, which reminded me that I was meaning to post on this story from last Saturday's edition of The Australian.

The subbies did their best with a we-told-you-so tag line that read "There's no longer any doubt that Iraq is the key theatre of war against Al-Qa'ida." But we all know how it got that way.

Interesting points include a deepening of collaboration between foreign and Sunni fighters, concern about "blowback" or the export of trained fighters from Iraq to other countries in the Middle East and into the West, and the war having stimulated the radicalisation and recruitment of potential terrorists.

"The consensus is that we can no longer win in Iraq. We have to redefine winning as getting out ofthere without dramatically increasing the jihadist threat," observes one counter-terrorism expert who has worked with the Bush administration on the way ahead.
The neo-conservative fantasy of Iraq as a beacon of liberal democracy has been abandoned. The best hope is that a strong stable governing regime can emerge to hold Iraq together against the looming secessionist pressures in the Kurdish north and the Shia-dominated south.
Ehud Yaari, one of Israel's leading Middle East analysts, tells Inquirer that while the jury is still out on the American experiment in Iraq, "the verdict is going to be that the experiment fails".

Meanwhile, No Right Turn reminds us of what we can expect when the next tranche of Abu Ghraib pictures are released as ordered by a US court. And has this comment on the response the court decision drew:

But I think the award for the most shameful response goes to CENTCOM commander General John Abizaid, who claimed that releasing the pictures would present "a false image" and distort reality. Which turns reality on its head - now the cover up is the truth, and the truth is the distortion. Orwell's "Ministry of Truth" would have been proud...

Miles behind

How long, in this age of, ah, the internet and stuff, can our TV channels broadcast reality TV programmes such as Rock Star: INXS that run here well behind where they were made.

You'd think they'd learn from the plummeting interest in progs like The Bachelor that viewers just get impatient. And bored.

Mind you, according to the latest issue of TV Guide, the interminable US soap Days of our Lives in NZ is running five years behind the US. Coronation Street, according to those who know such things, is months behind. How people stay glued every week eludes me.

If you need to know who won the right to front INXS (though a rumour printed in the Sydney Morning Herald suggested that they might take more than one of the final three on tour), the answer is here.

And how lame are those local 'star' singing shows? Lame. Still waiting, also, for some real humour from The Unauthorised History of New Zealand. Angela D'Audney was great, but too much is puerile. And not funny.

Blogging v Dogging. Dogging wins

This could almost make me question my life. Almost.

According to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald, more people know what dogging (watching people have sex in secluded places) means than blogging.

The survey of British taxi drivers, pub landlords and hairdressers - often seen as barometers of popular trends - shows that most people may not have a clue what proponents of the latest Web trends are talking about.
The survey found that nearly 90 per cent had no idea what a podcast is and more than 70 per cent had never heard of blogging.
"When I asked the panel whether people were talking about blogging, they thought I meant dogging," said Sarah Carter, the planning director at ad firm DDB London.
Some 56 per cent understood the phrase "happy slapping" - a teenage craze that involves assaulting people while capturing it on video with their mobile phones - but only 12 per cent knew what podcasting meant and only 28 per cent knew what blogging was

Well, they are Brits after all.

Column Comment 4

The Stratford Theory of Numbers (they're all wrong), why cats are suitable for vivisection, and laddies who lunch, here.

Five minutes with Douglas Rushkoff

Along with William Gibson, magazines such as Wired and bloggers everywhere, Douglas Rushkoff has helped shape cyberspace into something more tangible than a mere buzz word. Of his novel The Ecstasy Club, Gibson, the original cyberpunk, said, “A darkly comic contemporary fable: a brave, very funny, very knowing trip through the neo-psychedelic substrate of the wired world.” We caught up with Douglas for a virtual flat white and asked him to tell us what he’s been up to recently, for NZBC’s very first Five Minutes With. “Five minutes? I guess that means fast answers. Lemme try.”

Max!

Ahh, I can still remember Agent 99's exclamation and the flutter of her eyelids whenever Maxwell Smart said something mildly risque.

Don Adams, the actor who played secret agent Maxwell Smart, someone close to every late boomer's heart, has died. Yes, we are all at Kaos's mercy now.

Like Gilligan, who also popped off this mortal coil recently, his influence in comedy is probably under-rated. Maybe I'm imagining things but I see a bit of the David Brent in him, in the way what he said often fell very flat and the camera just kept running to accentuate his, and our, embarrassment.

Adams was lucky in having Mel Brooks and Buck Henry writing his scripts, but he made the role his and became a sixties icon. Like every great comedy Get Smart produced some great catchphrases like:

"The old Professor Peter Peckinpah all purpose anti-personnel Peckinpah pocket pistol under the toupee trick."

For more, and some tallies, look here. RIP Max.

Bloody critics

They get passionate about film in Bathurst:

A man whose nose was bitten off in an argument over the merits of a violent film [Sin City] denied assault charges in a NSW court today...
The fight began as they left a late night session of the film at Metro Cinema, with Vincze allegedly biting off Turnbull's nose and spitting it away.
Turnbull appeared in court today with his nose, which was reattached by surgeons at Bathurst Base Hospital, still heavily bandaged.

Who's a mug II

It's gone a bit quiet over the Mark Steyn v ABC Media Watch debate we posted on here. There was a lot of noise out of Tim Blair after Steyn's article appeared in The Australian. He thought Media Watch would correct. He noted they didn't respond the same day.

Then, when they did respond, in full, sans correction ... nothing. No more from Blair. No more from Steyn.

Wassup? Am I going to have to call it Media Watch 1; Mark Steyn 0?

George W ha ha

Stephen says "At last a mildly amusing Bush joke":

Donald Rumsfeld is giving the President his daily briefing. He concludes one item by saying: "Yesterday, three Brazilian soldiers were killed".
"Oh no!" exclaims the President. "That's terrible!"
His staff sits stunned at this display of emotion, nervously watching as the President sits head in hands.
Finally, the President looks up and asks, "How many is a brazillion?"

When you're all alone and lonely

REVIEW: Mysterious Skin
*****

I accidentally went to a film about child sex abuse and male prostitution with my daughter. It was great. More

Nuts to that

Once, while walking through the leafy precincts of Auckland's real university, I was approached by an American tourist.

"These things on the ground," he pointed to the acorns lying in their hundreds around the ancient oak trees, "are these pecans?"

I believe that because I actually thought of saying, yes, very tasty local varieties, and you should try one at once, I have been sent a brochure through the post for Collin St Bakery Native Texas Pecan Cakes. I can think of no other reason.

The photos in the brochure make the pies look almost edible, though their splendour gives you some idea why Americans are so round and perhaps why they ask brain-addled questions like, are these pecans?

I thought, because Collin St Bakery is in Texas, perhaps I should order one of these extraordinarily calorific cakes (they deliver worldwide). Perhaps I should do my bit for the poor Yanks. But it's in Corsicana, in Navarro County, which according to the local paper has been largely spared from Rita's fury. So I binned it.

Another sweetie

So-called intelligent design is a bit of a joke here at the NZBC, at least presented outside of RE classes. So here's a quite brilliant tangential spoof of it from the New Yorker. It starts like this:

Day No. 1:

And the Lord God said, “Let there be light,” and lo, there was light. But then the Lord God said, “Wait, what if I make it a sort of rosy, sunset-at-the-beach, filtered half-light, so that everything else I design will look younger?”

“I’m loving that,” said Buddha. “It’s new.”

“You should design a restaurant,” added Allah.

And if you missed Stephen's pointer to The Economist's more even-handed demolition, it's here.

Mixed lollies

Do the five day drag once more,

Know of nothing else that bugs me

More than working for the rich man,

Hey I'll change that scene one day,

Today I might be mad,

Tomorrow I'll be glad,

I've got Friday on my mind

Ah, the Easybeats, another great Kiwi band! Almost as good as that Maori guy from Rongotai, Paul Kelly.

Anyway, the weekend looms and me and my bloggies bring you our special picks of the week (exuberant applause). Chris finds computer jargon a problem and enjoyed this explanation of why the late great Raymond Carver preferred the short story to the novel (via A&L). He also wants to save the semicolon, something my old man would certainly agree with.

Mark hangs around in Pseuds Corner, say no more, and asks why I didn't say this:

Imagine reading Borges for the first time, while listening to the White Album for the first time, and you're also drinking tequila for the first time and as that's happening Stephen Hawking rises from his wheelchair to do kung-fu on Jesus...

Because Tom Phillips did, dearie!

He also found this article on why we swear. I didn't think you needed any fucking reason!

Stephen found Hitchens on Galloway highly amusing, and he is, so I'll quote extensively:

He says that I am an ex-Trotskyist (true), a "popinjay" (true enough, since its original Webster's definition means a target for arrows and shots), and that I cannot hold a drink (here I must protest). In a recent interview he made opprobrious remarks about the state of my midriff, which I will confess has—as P.G. Wodehouse himself once phrased it—"slipped down to the mezzanine floor." In reply I do not wish to stoop. Those of us who revere the vagina are committed to defend it against the very idea that it is a mouth or has teeth. Study the photographs of Galloway from Syrian state television, however, and you will see how unwise and incautious it is for such a hideous person to resort to personal remarks. Unkind nature, which could have made a perfectly good butt out of his face, has spoiled the whole effect by taking an asshole and studding it with ill-brushed fangs.

Stephen also pointed out that Jennifer Aniston is back on the dating circuit ("Now's your chance," is what he said) and also Mark Steyn on the Roberts. He sent me some quotes but in cultural cringe mode I've chosen this one instead:

Ever since prolonged attendance at "the world's greatest deliberative body" during the Clinton impeachment trial, my general line on the U.S. Senate has been to commend the example of New Zealand: They had a Senate, and they abolished it.

Me? I've been too busy poking a stick at an errant Lemur and promoting MSM pride. But can we bloggers strike it rich? Have a great weekend!

New products in NZBC store

The media paranoia of the right has inspired a new NZBC product. Yes, what all you mediaphiles have been waiting for - MSM tees, for guys and gals.

Order now for Christmas and don't forget to check out our extensive range of NZBC branded merchandise in the NZBC store - it's retro and it's kewel.

A bout, a man

REVIEW: Cinderella Man
* * * *
In this Depression-era boxing pic by Ron Howard with Russell Crowe, your star again proves that despite his unbotoxed, unpretty, take-it-or-leave-it face, he's got the goods. Renee Zellweger, on the other hand, may have put all her faithful-marriage eggs into the wrong basket. More...

Small screen nostalgia

Have you ever started thinking about a TV show you loved to watch as a child and then hurtled off on a roller-coaster of nostalgia as fragmentary recollections of other serials bubble to the surface of your seething consciousness and trigger further memories? No, it’s never happened to us, either. But our TV correspondent has his doublet in a twist over a strange array of 1960s and 1970s shows, including one called The Flashing Blade. Remember this golden classic?

Labour's biggest scandal

You don't really need a Paintergate, Doonegate or dubious tiling contracts to smear Helen Clark's Labour government. You only need reflect on the fact it threw Ahmed Zaoui, an associate professor in theology, in jail for two years.

Scoop has his address "Peace in Islam" online:

This evening, I would like to speak to you about this question: what is the idea of peace in Islam? Put in a different, though perhaps less precise way, is Islam a religion of peace? My thesis is a simple one – that salaam, which means peace, is at the core of Islam. The Qu’ran, the Muslim Holy Book, and Hadith, the sayings of Prophet Mohammed, are replete with exhortations to non-violence over violence and forgiveness over retribution. The life and actions of the Prophet Mohammed are an example of the value in which Islam holds peace. Thus, when my friend says salaam aleikum to me, he expresses an idea which is central to the Islamic faith.

Very shabby

The good ol' boys over at Sir Humphrey's appear to have gone off prematurely again:

According to a TradeMe thread, Holmes will be running a special on Prime tonight involving video of Mr Peter Davis kissing a man (via Whaleoil). So it seems Roger's eyes weren't deceiving him on election night.

If the rumours are true then a certain political leader has not only been lying about her marriage for several decades (probably quite common in the political sphere), but has been making political hay out of anyone bringing the topic up (not common, and not nice at all).

But will they interview XXXXXX XXXXXX?

Will they indeed? For God's sake get a life! Truly pathetic.

David Farrar comments reluctantly, to his great credit.

Centrebet hedges on NZ election call

Until Saturday, Aussie betting agency Centrebet was claiming it had only been wrong once in 60 elections. But when betting closed last week, it had Don Brash ahead. Is its record now 2 out of 61? We ask the question.

Erratum

This haiku has been
posted on here in error.
I apologise.

I wish I was there

Time for some light relief. In the gentler style of The Royle Family and Phoenix Nights, rather than the full-force laughing bag of Little Britain, The League of Gentlemen and Spaced, Early Doors is yet another piece of British comedy history. And one of those rare things: a memorable night out. In spite of chronicling the desolation of northern British pub life (The Grapes is the kind of boozer you hate being in, which just might be the reason why it becomes your local), this series succeeds in making you wish you were there. And, like the Royles, the characters infect us with new comedy catchphrases, like the toast: “To the regiment… I wish I was there!”

Flat tax key to Schroeder's comeback

I don't know how much attention Gerhard Schroeder was paying to the New Zealand elections, probably very little, but he has confounded the pundits and put the centre left in Germany within reach of another term in government. Slate has an interesting analysis, blaming the right's flirtation with a flat tax policy for a poor finish to an election they should have won easily.

The plan to reduce taxes on income and effectively boost taxes on consumption is unpopular in Germany for much the same reason it is in the United States—only more so. Germans tend to see progressive income-tax rates as part and parcel of a democracy. The notion that a secretary would pay the same proportion of her income in taxes as a CEO doesn't strike Germans as egalitarian, it strikes them as unjust. What's more, the trade-off of taxing consumption rather than income seems counterproductive in a nation where the lack of domestic demand is a continual problem. Germans need more incentives to consume, not fewer.

Our first gong

Despite our being slagged off as lefties from time to time, Scoop in its wisdom has named NZBC second in the "Best Independent Blog" section of its election bouquets.

I must say the election was a real emotional roller-coaster and like others I probably got sucked in by those wildly swinging polls. While Keep Left NZ is crowing about the accuracy of its rolling polls, as far as I can see no single pollster accurately predicted this result (the Herald's rolling poll got close). As to whether those dodgy polls affected the final outcome we will probably never know for sure.

But ACT is way out on a limb in claiming polling cost it 5 MPs:

The Letter said the Maori Party would create an overhang giving Labour the advantage, Peters would lose Tauranga (first to say so) and Rodney would win Epsom. All media reported TVNZ’s Colmar Brunton poll claiming Richard Worth would receive 44%! Their opinion polling and analysis cost ACT at least 5 MPs but also damaged their own credibility.

ACT's own long-standing ineffectiveness and a strong National campaign cost it those seats. Nothing else. The poll may even have saved ACT's Hide, so to speak, by alerting Epsom voters to the need to vote tactically.

Now, a prediction. I predict the centre left will gain at least one more seat from specials and probably two. Why? Just because I was down casting one myself on Friday and the chatter in the very social queue of Sydney-based kiwis was all about how NZ had done well under Labour, so why change.

It's not a scientific sample, just a gut feeling. People overseas don't get to see Helen in her arrogant moments, nor did they see Labour stuttering badly in the last week of its campaign. They just see the figures for economic growth, employment and so forth and they say, hey, that all looks pretty good from here.

For a more forensic analysis of the results, from left and right, we recommend No Right Turn's post here and David Farrar in numerous posts here.

Mixed lollies

The big event of Friday was a "rematch" between Christopher Hitchens and British MP "Gorgeous" George Galloway. Galloway, when testifying before congress in May showed the yanks a bit of the old Parliamentary tradition (okay, he tore them apart). At the same time he called young Christopher a "drink-soaked former Trotskyist popinjay". The rematch, dubbed the "Grapple in the Apple" is here in MP3 and video. The verdict of the bloggers, for what it's worth, is here.

Slate's Explainer this week is why dead bodies float face down.

There is an election tomorrow, in case you haven't noticed. Rusty Brown gives his round-up here and Gordon King's is, ahhmmm, here.

We respect freedom of speech here at the NZBC. We request you not to publish party political messages through our comments sections (as if you would, gentle readers). But we will not be shutting down our comments sections as Sir Humpty's has done and urged others to do. We believe even on election day you may want to comment on something you have read here. Please fell free to do so.

Screw volatility, the polls are wrong

David Farrar posts on the polls warning about electorate volatility. He quotes Dr Dekel, owner of Digipoll, saying to get a correct picture "when people are shifting their views so quickly, you need a high-speed camera".

Sorry Dr Dekel , the polls have lost a lot of credibility over the last few weeks. This has very little to do with volatility but with some very poor methodologies. Polling isn't a science, it's a craft, and we are seeing some spectacularly bad examples of it.

Cowards for Howard

The cowardly and hypocritical Exclusive Brethren, who in one breath can campaign for New Zealand's rearmament while professing to be pacifists, are making waves in Australia as well.

The Exclusive Brethren, a moralistic sect causing a political furore in the New Zealand general election, has been connected to a campaign for the re-election of John Howard and the self-confessed adulterer Ross Cameron.

But at least free speech is alive and well here. Not.

Old wine

Bugger the polls. Perhaps they're not even representative any more. I've voted because I'll be across the ditch, but there was a moment or two of thought behind my two ticks. To me, it's a choice of the new past and the old past.

Column Comment

Why breakfast is better than dinner for TV1 viewers; why Brash is not Bush; why we can't trust academics; unintelligent design; and Angela D'Audney's legacy to a grateful nation. More

The stakes are high

The Maori blog Te Putatara (The Conch Shell) has an interesting, sad and thoughtful post from Ross Himona about the playing of the race card:

I've seen and experienced a lot of racism in my 62 years, but never such a full-on poll driven cynical assault. And I realised just yesterday that my own overwhelming response is fear as well. I realised that I'm frightened about the consequences of that policy, and of the choices I might have to make that I don't want to make, if they try to implement it.

Read it. And weep.

It is said that in later years when Jim Bolger's strategists suggested playing the race card he responded that it might be OK to play it on the Saturday, but what would they do on Monday.

I never thought I'd credit Bolger with wisdom, but there you go. Times change.

Steyn vs ABC: who's a mug?

I don't know if you've been following the ongoing clash between prolific right-wing columnist Mark Steyn and the ABC's Mediawatch, but it's a damn good stoush.

Mediawatch had a go at one of Steyn's columns, which claimed terrorist Mohammed Atta's obsure meeting with a certain Jonelle Bryant was the "defining encounter of the age" not the meeting between Atta's jet and the World Trade Center. That's quite a claim.

Mediawatch, however, pointed out that Atta could not be shown to have been in the US at the date of that encounter. Steyn responded robustly, as always. Then there was a pause. Mediawatch did not respond that night on its show nor the following week.

On Monday it did, rather well in fact.

Maybe Defence is lying. Maybe the Pentagon is covering up. Maybe the immigration records are wrong. Maybe it's safer to rely on Mark's Steyn's hunch that Mohammed Atta slipped across the Canadian border, (or was it the Mexican?) earlier than we thought. But as Mark admitted in a different article for The New York Sun he simply doesn't know

And

We'll keep it simple Mark. Before you say a meeting is the defining encounter of the age, more important than 9-11, check out the evidence, official or otherwise, that it's not a hoax and tell your readers what you find.

Don’t look a gift scotch in the mouth

You’d be right in thinking that a 30-year-old Berry Brothers’ Bunnahabhain single malt is something special. And you can probably figure out for yourself that telling my favourite whisky retailer that it tasted “most interesting” was a big mistake. To make matters worse, I added that to my untrained palate it had the strongest bourbon notes I’ve ever tasted in a malt, in spite of being from a sherry cask. “It almost has a sour mash taste,” I blathered, “a hint of Jack Daniel’s”. Even now, a week after I finished drinking it, the empty bottle still has the whiff of JD…

I’ll get me kilt.

Spoilt for choice

She's a hard road finding the perfect party: Duncan Robertson reports that the voters of Epsom are spoilt for choice this election, and not in a good way.

Deborah! Really!

Something weird is going on over at Deborah Hill Cone's place, now called "Eating a Big Sausage Pizza in the MILF Cruiser". The subject matter is, well, very peculiar and the writing style seems different.

Today we went shopping and I got some cool new stuff. I got a Bedtime Bear cuddle pillow! Marked down to $4.48 from $17.99! I was stealin' it from 'em, totally.

Deborah clearly doesn't Google herself all that often either.

Maybe if you have Deborah's site on your blogroll, fellow bloggers, it could be time to take it off. Oh, and whatever you do, don't open those links, at least not at work or when there's anyone around. You've been warned.

9/11: four years on

It is four years since the attack on the World Trade Center. Our world has changed hugely since that day, almost all for the worse. I still remember my youngest daughter's reaction to it. She said "Dad, this is the first thing that's ever happened in my life." She was 14.

The toll from 9/11 is much higher than the 3000 that died on the day and it is still rising. It was a day of great sadness and also of great bravery. It was a day that produced some amazing, unbelievabe scenes and equally amazing stories. Here are a few to mark it.

Perhaps one of the best known is the story of former FBI man John O'Neill who was chasing Bin Laden before most people knew he existed. He was drummed out of the bureau and took a job in security. His first day on the job was 9/11. The job was as security chief at the World Trade Centre and he died four years ago today.

Another security man died that day too, and his story, told here beautifully as a romance, is even more amazing, but perhaps less well known. His name was Rick Rescorla. As a young man he fought in the first pitched battle the Americans faced in Vietnam, Ia Drang, which was immortalised in a rather average film starring Mel Gibson called We Were Soldiers. His best friend, Dan Hill, fought beside him and later converted to Islam. He later went to Afghanistan and fought with the Northern Alliance.

Finally, the picture above is of a sculpture by artist Michael Richards. It is of himself as St Sebastian, except pierced here by planes rather than arrows. Richards had a studio on the 90th floor of one of the towers. He died on 9/11 too.

Wot a Wonka

FILM REVIEW
* * *
Johnny Depp is not channelling Michael Jackson, despite the white make-up, high-pitched voice and look (top hat, gloves, flamboyant full-length suit). And his evil little giggle pulled me out of the idea that he was a more effeminate Edward Scissorhands. This Wonka is a connoisseur of schadenfreude. More

Mixed lollies

Film buff Mark notes that Francis Ford Coppola has revisited his "Gone with the Wind for teenagers", 1983's The Outsiders. He also offers some very geek humour, an email exchange between open source fanatic and Microsoft enemy Eric S. Raymond and a hapless Microsoft recruiter.

Me, I've discovered Austrian artist Egon Schiele, whose bio is here and a good selection of his paintings can be found here. I particularly like "Death and the Maiden", "Embrace", "The Family" and this self portrait. But there are lots of other great ones.

Also why do they speak that way in New Orleans?

Chris likes Russell Hoban, but we all knew that. He also likes FedEx furniture and the legal rejoinders.

Crucial stories lost in the election flood

As the hysteria of the election reaches new heights, the NZBC has to question the media's priorities. There are so many stories going by the wayside that deserve better treatment than the increasingly inane ravings of the party politicos.

Just today, for instance, the Payroll People of the Year were named following National Payclerk Day:

Our pay lady - she never makes mistakes
This really is amazing 'cos she drinks her beer by the crates
She's never really sober but that's OK with us
You wouldn't want to mess with her - she's built just like a bus.

Or there is the fast-breaking Subaru Top Weekend story:

Only those 200 keen skiers and snow boarders who made it to the top carpark by 8.30am got the benefit of the best carparks on the mountain.

And how can we ignore Witness Systems' launch of the first end-to-end workforce optimisation solution? Goddamit, hold that front page.

These stories and more simply haven't got a run. Why? The media's obsession with bogus polls, the Exclusive Brethren and the cost of interest-free student loans.

Who should own the tussocks anyway?

Yahoo!'s disgrace

Yahoo! has been accused of providing the information that allowed a Chinese journalist to be jailed for ten years. I guess, that's the price you pay to do business in China. It's too high a price, in my opinion, but I'm sure Yahoo!'s shareholders will disagree.

The criticism from Reporters Without Borders marks the latest instance in which a prominent high-tech company has faced accusations of cooperating with Chinese authorities to gain favor in a country that’s expected to become an Internet gold mine.
Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo and two of its biggest rivals, Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp.’s MSN, previously have come under attack for censoring online news sites and Web logs, or blogs, that include content that China’s communist government wants to suppress.

When asked about the company's efforts to censor internet content in China recently, CEO Terry Semel said:

It's just really important for us to have good relations and good partnerships with governments all over the world.

Is it that important, Terry? Privacy International is calling for a boycott.

Update: Yahoo! has admitted it provided the evidence, but says it was only following orders.

"To be doing business in China, or anywhere else in the world, we have to comply with local law," [Yahoo! founder] Mr Yang said, in response to a question about his company's role in the case.

What a good law-abiding corporate citizen he is.

Campaign humour

Keepleft is asking the hard questions: Who's not pulling Don Brash's strings? While a shadowy group calling themselves the Lisa Simpsons have a not-so-secret agenda, replacing Uncle Don's pan with Mr Burns, all across the shore.

The right are not amused, as usual. These damn vandals are showing no repect for private property! Their capacity for humour seems to have declined markedly since ... yesterday.

Little buddy no more

Take a moment from your out-of-breath spectatorship of electoral polls. Gilligan's dead.

He used to frustrate the hell out of everyone, particularly the poor Professor. The Prof was the best one, a sort of predigital McGyver, who invented a radio out of coconuts and braided tree fronds. But in a recent tabloid get-together he looked by far the shabbiest. Maybe because he never got to shag Mary Ann. Hopefully Gilligan did. More

They're all coming out to play

Hot on the heels of revelations concerning the Exclusive Brethren, yet more shadowy groups are entering the political fray. The NZBC calls on United Future and Peter Dunne, assuming they are not quite the same thing, to come out and make clear their exact relationship with the Society for the Promotion of Community Standards Inc, which appears to:

a) support his campaign

b) is behind a smear campaign accusing Labour of a secret "homosexual" agenda

A key Labour Party goal in the 2005 election is to boost not only the number of active homosexual strategists, like Mr Chauvel, within its parliamentary ranks, but to place them into as many influential positions as possible, including statutory bodies. One key to the success of Labour’s social engineering legislative programme(eg. prostitution reform, civil unions etc.) has been the influence of “gay” MPs such as Tim Barnett and Cabinet Minister Chris Carter and the transsexual MP Georgina Beyer who have been able to push the “gay” ‘rights’ cause using the Human Rights Act 1993.

What exactly does Mr Dunne know about this campaign? More precisely, what does he know about this group's freakish punctuation? Is United Future running a secret grammar agenda? United Future, it's time to "come" 'clean'.

There's only one poll that counts - TV3's

It looks as if the last few polls or so were all rogue and actually nothing much has changed in two weeks. That's my considered analysis, but not being a statistician, maybe someone can tell me what the odds are of having four rogue polls in a row, all roguishly showing some fictitious swing to the centre right.

TV3's prestigious and authoritative scientific poll puts Labour well ahead and romping home powerfully, manfully, the way a real working man's party should. Headmistress Helen is up 2% as preferred PM to 39%. Clearly Kiwis think she did a damn good job sorting out that rude Air New Zealand pilot.

Labour: 45% (up 6)
National:35% (down 5)
Greens: 7% (up 1)
ACT: 2.4% (who cares?)
Maori: 1.7%
United Future: 1.5%
Etc

That means Labour would have 57 seats and the Greens 8 and they could form a government on their own, but they'll probably let Jim Anderton stay on. If he says "please".

I hereby state that if Labour does not win this election, well, I'll bloody well move to Australia.

Meanwhile, Rob Hosking has new revelations about Brash's "hard right" agenda - brilliant.

Friday, September 30, 2005

Mixed lollies

Iraq blows back

Thursday, September 29, 2005

Miles behind

Blogging v Dogging. Dogging wins

Column Comment 4

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Five minutes with Douglas Rushkoff

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Max!

Bloody critics

Who's a mug II

George W ha ha

Monday, September 26, 2005

When you're all alone and lonely

Nuts to that

Sunday, September 25, 2005

Another sweetie

Friday, September 23, 2005

Mixed lollies

New products in NZBC store

A bout, a man

Thursday, September 22, 2005

Small screen nostalgia

Labour's biggest scandal

Very shabby

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Centrebet hedges on NZ election call

Erratum

Monday, September 19, 2005

I wish I was there

Flat tax key to Schroeder's comeback

Our first gong

Friday, September 16, 2005

Mixed lollies

Screw volatility, the polls are wrong

Cowards for Howard

Thursday, September 15, 2005

Old wine

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Column Comment

The stakes are high

Steyn vs ABC: who's a mug?

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Don’t look a gift scotch in the mouth

Spoilt for choice

Monday, September 12, 2005

Deborah! Really!

Saturday, September 10, 2005

9/11: four years on

Wot a Wonka

Friday, September 09, 2005

Mixed lollies

Thursday, September 08, 2005

Crucial stories lost in the election flood

Yahoo!'s disgrace

Campaign humour

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

Little buddy no more

They're all coming out to play

There's only one poll that counts - TV3's