Monday, September 29, 2008

Israeli settlers add insult to injury


Attacks by settler extremists create headache for Govt
YITZHAR - A new dynamic has emerged in the West Bank: Jewish settlers block roads, burn tyres or set fire to Palestinian fields when troops try to dismantle unauthorised settlements. Activists call the tactic "price tag." They say they're creating havoc to try to deter the Israeli security forces from future attempts to remove any of the dozens of squatter camps, or outposts, dotting West Bank hills. Coupled with recent settler reprisal raids in Palestinian villages and a pipe bomb attack that wounded a prominent settler critic, the outpost battle revived debate about the dangers posed by ultra-nationalists.

Incredible isn’t it, not only do Israeli settlers have the audacity to steal and settle land that is not theirs, once forced off from their illegal settlements by the IDF, these Israeli settlers then turn on the Palestinian locals to attack them and make their life in the largest open air prison under a brutal 40 year occupation an even less pleasant experience. Those whacky Israelis.

Frozen Methane megatons threaten mass release


Frozen Methane megatons threaten mass release
Preliminary results from measuring melting methane in the arctic suggests that the thousands of megatonnes of frozen methane may be melting much quicker than previously suspected. A Russian research ship from Stockholm University has recorded chimneys of bubbling methane gas churning up the ocean surface leading to the possibility of a massive jump in temperatures because methane is 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a warming agent, leading to run away catastrophic climate change - and yet politicians in NZ still refuse to take the matter seriously.

Nats say one thing in public and another in private


Sharples says Nats "privately" lukewarm on abolishing Maori seats
Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples says his party receives signals “privately” that the National Party is not too committed on its position of abolishing the Maori electorate seats.

The comments were made during an interview for Alt TV's Let's Be Frank programme, which will screen tonight.

The Maori Party are increasingly seen as potential support partners for a possible National government. However one possible flashpoint on policy is National’s intention to abolish the Maori seats, which provide the Maori Party its Parliamentary representation.

Its policy announced on Sunday is to “begin a constitutional process to abolish the Maori seats once all historic Treaty claims have been settled, which we anticipate will be in 2014.”

Host Martyn Bradbury put to Dr Sharples right wing commentator Matthew Hooton's view that "the desire to dump the Maori seats was simply window dressing for the more meat-eating National fringe than genuine policy," and asked whether the announced policy suggested National were more serious about abolishing the seats.

Mr Sharples replied: “No, I think Mr Hooton is pretty close. That’s the same message we’ve been getting privately, that in fact it’s well off.”

Asked if National leader John Key had consulted the Maori Party over the policy announced on Sunday, Dr Sharples said “He’s told us that is his policy, yes.”

Mr Sharples says the declared policy of abolishing the Maori seats after Treaty claims are settled doesn’t make sense, because the two issues are not related, and are “two different kaupapa.”

Mr Sharples says that the issue of abolishing Maori seats is a “deep structure” issue.

“We’d fight that to death. But the reality is that’s not going to happen in the next three years and we need to fight for the things to benefit Maori and New Zealand today over the next three years – I’m talking about education, I’m talking about health, I’m talking about family strength, I’m talking about community development.”

The interview is scheduled to screen on Alt TV’s Let’s Be Frank at 8.30 pm tonight.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Terence McKenna

Terence McKenna (1946 - 2000)

Terence McKenna was a writer, philosopher , and ethnobotanist. He was noted for his many speculations on the use of psychedelic, plant-based hallucinogens and subjects ranging from shamanism, the development of human consciousness, and novelty theory.

One of McKenna's most widely-promulgated ideas is known as Novelty theory. It predicts the ebb and flow of novelty in the universe as an inherent quality of time. McKenna developed the theory in the mid-1970s after his experiences in the Amazon at La Chorrera led him to closely study the King Wen sequence of the I-Ching. Novelty theory involves ontology, extropy, and eschatology.

The theory proposes that the universe is an engine designed for the production and conservation of novelty. Novelty, in this context, can be thought of as newness, or extropy (a term coined by Max More meaning the opposite of entropy). According to McKenna, when novelty is graphed over time, a fractal waveform known as "timewave zero" or simply the "timewave" results. The graph shows at what time periods, but never at what locations, novelty increases or decreases.

Considered by some to represent a model of history's most important events, the universal algorithm has also been extrapolated to be a model for future events. McKenna admitted to the expectation of a "singularity of novelty", and that he and his colleagues projected many hundreds of years into the future to find when this singularity (runaway "newness" or extropy) could occur. The graph of extropy had many enormous fluctuations over the last 25,000 years, but amazingly, it hit an asymptote at exactly December 22, 2012. In other words, entropy (or habituation) no longer exists after that date. It is impossible to define that state. The technological singularity concept parallels this, only at a date roughly three decades later. According to leading expert Ray Kurzweil), another concept called cultural singularity (essentially cultural dissolution, or language dissolution), parallels this as well. Terrence claimed to have no knowledge of the Mayan calendar, which ends one day before the Timewave graph does: December 21, 2012, this is likely to be true as Mckennas timewave theory was published in The Invisible Landscape 12 years before the book which brought the Mayan calendar into public consciousness.

Its hard to sum up all he has done so i am bringing to you the most interesting sound bites of Terrence. His concepts are mind blowing and he has a message that resonates through all Life, Science, Religion, Revolution, Drugs, Wisdom, Plants, the cosmos and many more. Terrence unlike Timothy Leary took a smarter path to pronounce his ideas, letting time and technology do it for him.


Terence McKenna on the Nature of Time.


Terrence Mckenna on The purpose of psychedelics


Culture Is Your Operating System - Terence McKenna


Terence McKenna's message to Artists


Terence McKenna: The World and its Double


"The real secret of magic is that the world is made of words, and that if you know the words that the world is made of you can make of it whatever you wish"
Terence McKenna

Whitey wins again?


National to dump Maori seats in 2014 and MMP in 2011
National wants to scrap the Maori seats in Parliament once all historical Treaty settlements are sorted. By the party's timeline that process could start in 2014. Leader John Key released Treaty negotiations, Maori affairs and electoral law policies yesterday. Under the first, the party wants to settle all historical Treaty settlements by 2014. The electoral policy would see the seven Maori seats abolished once that is accomplished.

National are well placed to make sure white rule is here to stay, dumping the Maori seats and trying to snuff out MMP eliminates the leaps we have made in representative democracy and will stunt the nation in ways that few political parties have managed to achieve. The misplaced belief that there was ever a promise to hold a referendum on MMP has given legitimacy to dismantling an electoral system that has forced white rich old men to share power in Parliament, by reverting back to Nationals preference of First Past the Post we are taking a great leap backwards, the release of policy that advocates the abolition of the Maori seats has provoked a sharp response from Tariana who I’m sure after her current snuggling with John Key has been taken aback that her possible ‘Treaty Partner’ has medium term plans to not only scrap the electoral mechanism that gives Maoridom a voice, but also change the representative nature of our democracy, when you do a deal with the devil Tariana, the Devil doesn’t change, you do. Of course the abolition of the Maori seats could just be raw meat for National’s more redneck fringe, Mathew Hooten only 3 weeks ago was telling me on Eye to Eye that National had no intention of dumping the Maori seats, they only had the policy to keep the more crazy National supporters happy. With National privately cuddling the Maori Party while publicly threatening them it will be interesting to see how Pita Sharples explains all this on Let’s be Frank on Alt Tv tomorrow night.

New Zealand's income gap doubles


New Zealand's income gap doubles
Research by Auckland University academics released on Friday by the Ministry of Education showed the average income gap between those with no educational qualifications and those with a secondary education doubled to $10,396 between 1981 and 2006. The proportion of uneducated couples who were out of work went from 6.9 per cent in 1981 to 16.3% in 2006. The latest figure was an improvement on the 21.8% recorded in 1991. The Gini co-efficient, an internationally recognised measure of income inequality, has gone from 26 in 1981 to 31.7 in 2007. A measure of zero represents perfect equality and 100 is perfect inequality.

Labour released a strategy on Friday that would see the long term unemployed threatened and prodded into work or the suspension of their benefit, the strategy of course won’t work because the underlying problem with the long term unemployed hasn’t been a lack of work, it’s been a lack of personal skills ranging from illiteracy to alcohol addiction and underwhelming educational achievements but no one ever lost a vote from a bit of bene bashing now did they. This latest news that NZ’s income gap has doubled reinforces the importance of universal education and that without massive investment into education the results are a halving of prosperity and a depletion of personal capacity that locks people into a cycle of low achievement and despair, but the pain of those very low on the social strata don’t tend to matter much to those charged with dealing to them.

Friday, September 26, 2008

Every time I succumb...


I try not to waste my time reading those corporate-owned rags they like to call "news"papers but I was waiting for someone in a foyer yesterday and happened to flick through the Herald.

The tragic stabbing of Austin Hemmings was on the front page and it was terrible to see that a man doing a good turn had been killed for his kindness. What I failed to see was why the Herald had to state that the woman he came to the aid of was of "Pacific Island" descent. Like much of New Zealand mainstream news, how was that in any way relevant to the story???

Thursday, September 25, 2008

National and the Maori Party to be the next Government?


Sharples: Clark nears 'end of her time'
The Maori Party has indicated it is positioning itself for a possible support deal with National after the November 8 election. Party co-leader Pita Sharples said he was no longer sure if he trusted Prime Minister Helen Clark, and said she was nearing the end of her time. "She has been a great leader; she has done great things for the country," Dr Sharples said in an interview recorded yesterday for TVNZ 7. "But maybe she is nearing the end of her time." Recent events in Parliament showed Miss Clark was clinging to power, he said. "She is appearing quite desperate ... she is behaving like someone who is really, really desperate to get back into Parliament at any cost." Dr Sharples' outburst was his second attack on Labour in as many days. On Wednesday, he inflamed the row over Parliament's censure of NZ First leader Winston Peters by accusing Maori Affairs Minister Parekura Horomia of trying to bully the Maori Party into supporting Mr Peters.

As we have been predicting on Tumeke for some time, the Maori Party is positioning itself to go with National, and John Key wanting to be the moderator that he has sold himself as wants to make the sweeping move to broaden the National Party well beyond it’s white business and farmer base, the issue could come with the more redneck segment of National becoming incandescent with rage at the mere suggestion, but as the National Party leadership have cleverly calculated, where else will rednecks go to vote? No where, and is ACT ever going to side with Labour – no way, so Key can cut a deal with the Maori Party leaving his own redneck supporters to fry crimson and cut no deal with ACT at all and treat ACT the way Labour have treated the Greens (based on some of the comments about Maori by some of the National Party bloggers on this site, they will be close to combustion at the fury of all of this) The real crunch will be how Maori Party supporters will react, the cost to sit at that table will be great, my predictions – a massive increase in budget for the Maori Affairs department that will allow more grass roots spending on health, education and housing for Maori, Pita Sharples will be the Minister of Maori Affairs (Turiana associate minister of Education?), the Nats will declare that Maoridom need to debate the issue of the Maori seats themselves and give the Maori Party a budget to go out and defend the seats which will in fact be a defacto recruitment program for the Maori Party and the Nats will repeal the Forsehore and Seabed issue on the grounds of property rights, the irony being that it was bloody Brownlee who started the whole ‘Maaaaaaaaaaaaari want the beaches’ bullshit that was the catalyst for Helen’s decision to confiscate via legislation.

The real kicker will be that on the night I believe Labour, the Greens, Progressives and Maori will have enough to form a Government where as National will poll the most on the night and the Maori Party will choose to go with National.

Predictions if National and the Maori Party go into Government:
This will leave the Greens who will have a big increase on their vote to focus on domestic issues like privatization of council assets, the work there will hopefully convince the Greens to seriously start going after the city central electorates.

Phil Goff will be the new leader of Labour and will benefit greatly from the many tensions that will spring up between National and Maori Party supporters and will be on the hunt for any sniff of privitisation to fight the 2011 election.

ACT will be furious that they have been ignored and Rodger Douglas will become instrumental in attempting to destabilize John Key for a possible coup to implement hard right economic policy.

Cops hide bashing tapes


Sergeant fights release of cell assault case video
A police sergeant acquitted of assaulting a prisoner in a cell wants to block the release of video footage shown to the jury.
News media outlets are seeking more than eight hours of footage filmed at the Whakatane police station where Rawiri Falwasser, 20, was badly injured while in custody on Labour Day in 2006. Mr Falwasser has said he feared for his life after being struck with batons and pepper-sprayed. He suffered gashes in his head and arm over an eight-hour period. In June, closed-circuit television tapes of the incident were played to a Tauranga District Court jury that acquitted Sergeant Keith Parsons, 51; Sergeant Earle Busby, 46; Senior Constable Bruce Laing, 53; and Constable John Mills, 39, of nine charges of assaulting Mr Falwasser. His mother, Kihi Falwasser, was not at yesterday's court hearing but said the family wanted the tapes to be released to media: "People need to see it themselves to form their own opinion of what happened inside the cell."


Of all the things that have really surprised me this year one was the Jury letting these 4 cops walk after they bashed the living shit out of Rawiri Falwasser in a Police cell on tape, Christ knows how the Jury came to it’s conclusion but I want to see the tape, as a member of the public and as a taxpayer I want to see how our brave boys in blue deal with one man in the cells, don’t you want to see for yourself if their level of violence was acceptable, isn’t it important now that a benchmark for violence within holding cells has been established that the rest of the public should see what that level of violence is? Shouldn’t we all get to see what is the new standard of treatment cops dish out when it isn’t Police 10-7? The Police claim that it isn’t fair because the media wouldn’t play the full 8 hours before the final beat down by the 4 cops, Alt Tv has no problems playing all 8 hours, just give me the tape. Perhaps we could edit the tape as the basis of a new Police recruitment advert ‘get better work stories’?

Jail dirty farmers


Jail call for farmers who pollute
Polluting farmers should be jailed, says Environment Minister Trevor Mallard. He told the Water and Wastes Association conference in Christchurch this week that he supported tougher sentences and even jail for serious water polluters. Exporters who continued to pollute or mismanage water and broke the rules were undermining their own products and the "valuable New Zealand brand". "Regional councils in particular need to be a lot tougher as far as the standards are concerned, and more importantly the enforcement of the standards," Mallard said. "Far too often these days, farmers not always farmers treat fines under the Resource Management Act as a cost of the business. We should prosecute individuals rather than companies change the focus from a fine-based system to the possibility of imprisonment."

The Federated Farmers President has called Mallard’s view on polluting farmers as ‘extreme’ – this coming from an organization who was headed by Charlie Pederson who only a couple of years ago described the environmental movement as a war against humanity, yes the Federated Farmers know all about ‘extreme’ views. Mallard is right but misplaced, it isn’t your humble Framer who is the problem it is the mass production intensive industrial farming companies (usually Fonteera’s biggest suppliers) who are the polluters who constantly get let off the hook for their pollution because of their financial clout.

Capitalism and Bush


Bush backs bailout plan
US President George Bush has made a live telecast to the American public to back a proposed US$700 billion bailout of the country's beleaguered financial system. The plan is currently before the US Congress, where it has become a political football reaching as far as the presidential campaign. Mr Bush warned Americans that their entire economy was in danger.
"The market is not functioning properly. There is a widespread loss of confidence ... America could slip into a widespread financial panic," he said. The president called on Congress to act quickly to approve the bailout.


A bailout that allows the corrupt rich pricks who creamed it off their inane attempts to eliminate the risk of debt by something as flakey as Credit Default Swaps, (which effectively means banks bet against other banks that their weak loans would get repaid or not, nothing better than a gamble, and there are $62 Trillion still outstanding on this financial house of cards), a bailout that buys the shares at top dollar rather than the depleted trash shares they have become, all the while the people on the bottom who are being threatened with losing their homes get nothing. The unregulated greed of cheap money has it’s origins with the Bush Administration, they have used the war on terror as an excuse to decimate the economy and rack up half trillion dollar deficits to squander the economic strength of a superpower into a war that should never have been waged. Bush cracked open the cheap money from Asia to fund his abortion and the rest of the financial world followed. While Bush kept his eye fixed on his ridiculous war the economy turned and in such a super deregulated financial world greed won out to responsible business. How can Bush have any role in the solution when he is so clearly the problem, Jesus wept I can’t wait for this prick to leave office, January can’t come fast enough!

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Black Power Waitangi Tribunal Claim on Alt Tv tonight


Black Power Waitangi Tribunal Claim on Alt Tv tonight

On Greencore tonight host Nandor Tanczos interviews Black Power about their Waitangi Tribunal Claim and the reaction it has caused.

Greencore - Alt Tv's human rights environmental show
Wednesdays 8pm
Sky Digital 65

Novelty theory

"As above so below, as within so without"

Novelty theory attempts to calculate the ebb and flow of novelty in the universe as an inherent quality of time. It is an idea conceived of and discussed at length by Terence McKenna from the early 1970s until his death in the year 2000. Novelty theory involves ontology, morphogenesis, and eschatology. Novelty, in this context, can be thought of as newness, density of complexification, and dynamic change as opposed to static habituation. According to McKenna, when "novelty" is graphed over time, a fractal waveform known as timewave zero or simply the timewave results. The graph shows at what times, but never at what locations, novelty is increasing or decreasing. According to the timewave graph, great periods of novelty occurred about 4 billion years ago when Earth was formed, 65 million years ago when dinosaurs were extinct and mammals expanded, about 10,000 years ago after the end of the ice age, around late 18th century when social and scientific revolutions progressed, during the sixties, around the time of 911, and with coming novelty periods in November 2008, October 2010, with the novelty progressing towards the infinity on 21st December 2012.


McKenna repeatedly describes human cultural development as a succession of historical periods which are "compressed" versions of each other. In this manner, he describes an overall acceleration of human cultural development, which he likens to a "tightening spiral" approaching what he describes as the "transcendental object at the end of the universe". Source - Wikipedia

Capitalism gets chest pains


US bailout concerns hit market
The New Zealand sharemarket followed US and Australian markets lower on concerns about the US plan to bail out its ailing financial institutions, a sharp increase in oil prices and the dampening effect of emergency bans on short selling.
As the big bailout was debated in the US Congress, divisions between the Bush Administration's proposal and the demands of the Democrats spooked markets. The NZX-50 was down 27.53 points, or 0.85 per cent, to 3228.19 after Wall St's Dow fell 3.27 per cent and the S&P 500 fell 3.8 per cent. Oil posted its biggest one day price rise in history, gaining US$16.37 to close at US$120.92 a barrel but was easing in Asia last night.


Who would have thought unregulated and unsustainable corporate greed would have any downside? Here is the thing though, and here is why it could get much worse, much quicker – CDS’s, Credit Default Swaps, these are basically a bet tied to whether a loan is repaid as a risk management to insure against all these dodgy loans they have kept making, the real danger is that they are all off the books so no Bank is sure who has what in terms of CDS’s, and here is the kicker, there are a predicted $62 Trillion worth of CDS’s out there, which means the Trillion the US have put up to stabilize the financial environment will be as effective as pissing on a forest fire if loans continue to default. Capitalism isn’t looking very healthy this week.

Off-Key leader admits his mistake


Off-Key leader admits his mistake
An uncomfortable John Key has confessed he should have told the public earlier about the full extent of his shareholding in rail company Tranz Rail and should never have held the stock for as long as he did after he entered Parliament. The National leader made the admissions yesterday as he came under heavy fire from Labour at a time when he should have been launching attacks on his rival over the Winston Peters donation scandal. With the election just over six weeks away, Mr Key is now the centre of a story which raises questions about how open he has been - just what Labour plans to push in the campaign.

Dumb, dumb, dumb – the real damage here is John Key has been caught out twice on camera and that those images will stick in peoples minds (this issue and the Lord Ashcroft issue). Key gets asked something and trys to side-step the question, only to be caught out by the interviewer which he then accepts and apologizes for not being honest and mistaken, the reality is that Key is going to do this a hell of a lot more, look we forget the guy has only been in Parliament for 6 years, he is still a newbie and if he wins he will be the youngest leader in 100 years of NZ Political history. The issue is this, will the electorate forgive Key’s cock-ups because they hate Helen more, because the level of animosity this Government has been tarred with from pro-smackers, hang em high clubs and Anti-PC puritans is fairly high. The NZers in the middle of this shit storm will need to decide if the devil you know is better than the nice smiling devil you don’t.

The Peters Hubris


Voters can judge me, says Peters
A defiant Winston Peters says he will trust his fate to voters as he joins one of a handful of MPs censured for breaking Parliament's rules. Mr Peters hit out at a privileges committee finding that he knowingly failed to declare a $100,000 gift from billionaire Owen Glenn, claiming he was the victim of a witch-hunt and would be vindicated at the polls. "The court that I will stand before is on Saturday, 8 November, [election day] and I'll place my faith in the people of New Zealand to decide the outcome of this case. "I asked for fairness. I got a farce."

This man knows no shame, I remember a better Winston, a Winston who stuck it to the corporates, who demanded NZ Assets stay in NZ – but then there is this Winston, arrogant, self deluded, just like he was when he was Asian baiting. To come out and claim the ruling was a farce is a farce, sure National had made their minds up before the evidence was heard but so had NZ First and Labour, but the rulings from the other parties who have no axe to grind against Winston made this a fair process and the last audacity is Winston claiming that this process had echoes of Zimbabwe, to compare his petty lies and desperate modesty in hiding shonky deals with equally shonky Billionaires to the horror of abuse that is Zimbabwe is the final nail in a public perception coffin long overdue for the grave.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Tino Rangatiratanga



The words “Tino Rangatiratanga” were used in both the 1835 Declaration of Maori Independence and the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi to denote absolute sovereignty - the power to make and enforce laws - in Aotearoa. What few rights Maori have are slagged off by middle NZ and the media. In many areas Maori groups and land-owners are being corrupted, seduced and blurred by corporate business which will ultimately kill everything our ancestors died to protect. Being overseas always gives you an idea of where you stand contextually in the world and even though no one knows what the fuck im talking about half the time, I do.

Kia mau ki to Maoritanga
Hold fast to your Maori culture

Jamie Woon: Missing person



I'm at the Red Bull Music Academy in Barcelona and have just met Jamie from the UK. When he plays live, you feel like you have been punched in the stomach check his shit out.

This song cuts deep and is my fav. (By the way Jamie is secretly hilarious and we found common ground in the comic genius that is Ralph Wiggum).

Tizard vs. Kaye one on one Alt Tv tonight


National vs Labour, Auckland Central

On Let's be Frank tonight, guest host Martyn Bradbury interviews National Party Auckland Central candidate Nikki Kaye and Auckland Central Labour Party MP Judith Tizard on why Auckland should vote National or Labour.

Let's Be Frank - current affairs as if they mattered.
Tuesdays 8.30pm - 9pm
SKY Digital 65

The Unfortunate yet Penetrable Paradox of Feminine Beauty


After receiving awesome discussion from the mental-detox ladies (and Warren, kia ora!) in relation to my last blog on the over-sexualization of coloured women, I decided that I'd have a crack at articulating my position on the issue of Beauty as raised by Hayley J. This one's for you, girl!

The FEMININE IDEAL is an intangible concept that has been constructed by the media of western culture. This construction can be traced back to the earliest artistic depictions or representations of Aphrodite, the greek goddess of Love, Beauty and Fertility. These depictions of Aphrodite, usually with no clothes, wind-swept hair, and atop some sort of animal or sea shell, changed the understanding of Beauty from something that is experienced or felt, to something that is SEEN, thus giving rise to the notion that Beauty must LOOK a certain way.

Nowadays, as we all know, the bombardment of ideal feminine images is staggering, and such presentation of 'iconic' woman over the years has resulted in the development of eating disorders, skin-lightening ( re. Beyonce white-washing ), self-harm and suicide.

The survival of the FEMININE IDEAL as it has been constructed in western culture relies heavily on a dirty and powerful underlying paradox - that beauty is necessary for women to be validated, but that it will never be ultimately achieved. Artist Martha Rosler describes this paradox that all women face as being a 'simultaneous sinking and swimming' : The BEAUTY swims because she looks so good, and she sinks because she must work hard to maintain the status that her appearance has achieved for her seemingly effortless conformity to pretty picturehood. The NON-BEAUTY sinks because she fails at supreme femininity, yet she swims because in her appearance she has resisted the impractical model.

And so the media perpetually traps women in this notion of the FEMININE IDEAL, a concept that, although is a complete hallucination on our consciousnesses, conveniently controls the unpredictable, mystical and sacred reproductive body of the woman. The media projects 'looking beautiful' as a standard of success, as the ultimate validation by society. Thanks to the media, it is possible to recognize somebody as being beautiful by looking at a picture of them. You don't even have to meet them, get to know them, experience their energy. This is actually really really fucked, huh?! Oh, and the other fucked thing is this: You can never have joy in your own beauty, and when you most have it, is when you most have to try to counteract it, or you are accused of egotism, self-absorption and vanity.

Current feminist scholar Joanna Frueh discusses in her book Monster/Beauty the possibilities of destabilizing both the image and ideology of female beauty in order for beauty to be redefined. She suggests that this can be achieved by making conscious departures from the idea that beauty is dependent on looks alone by creating ourselves as AESTHETIC/EROTIC FIELDS of simultaneously concentrated and resonant sensuousness. Now you know when you meet someone who's aesthetic/erotic field is off the hook right? You know those ones that get labelled as being unconventional beauties, as having something about them that you just can't put your finger on. Well this just goes to show that the media trap of the FEMININE IDEAL is in fact entirely penetrable, and it is penetrable because it's not real.

I try to liberate myself from the FEMININE IDEAL by exercising what I like to call a Ghetto-Wave Feminism (lol!). Woman such as Trina and Lil-Kim inspire me in the strong way that they use the female stereotype that has been given to them by the media (over-sexed black woman), to oppose the oppression that is created by that very stereotype. Trina: "We livin' ghetto fab, we spendin' hella cash, this girl is hella bad, your choice is trailer trash."

John Key and his Thomas the Tank Engine lies


Key accused of lying over rail shares
John Key is struggling to explain why he did not disclose he had a much bigger stake in Tranz Rail, and traded in the shares when he was seeking official information about them and publicly commenting on them.

Finance Minister Michael Cullen said yesterday that Mr Key had lied, covered up the truth and acted unethically over the transactions in 2002 and 2003.

"Clearly, Mr Key was not simply not forthcoming, he actually lied," Dr Cullen said.

The records, unearthed by Labour's researchers, throw Mr Key on to the back foot just as the election campaign starts, and at a time when National was hoping to gain politically from the privileges committee investigation into NZ First leader Winston Peters.

The revelation explains why Labour has been pushing the issue of "trust" so strongly as its main campaign theme.
The records show that Mr Key's family trust bought 30,000 shares on February 15, 2002, for $108,000 and a further 20,000 shares four days later for $72,000.

In July 2002 Mr Key was elected to Parliament and was appointed associate transport spokesman for National. He asked a series of questions about Tranz Rail in October 2002 and again in April 2003.

On May 7, 2003, he bought in his own name 50,000 Tranz Rail shares for about $22,500.

On May 20 he had a meeting with Rail America, which had been interested in bidding for the company but withdrew. Later that month he complained to the ombudsman about Dr Cullen's refusal to release to him information on Tranz Rail.

On June 10 he sold the parcel of 50,000 shares in his own name for $51,000 - more than doubling his money. A day later he quizzed Dr Cullen at a committee about the company, but had to this point never disclosed his shareholding interest.

On June 13 his family trust sold its shares for $48,000 - a loss that meant Mr Key overall made a loss on the transactions.
He said in a June 13 newsletter: "It is critical for our transport strategy that we have an efficient fully operational rail network and I hope that the interest shown by Rail America will be picked up by others."

Mr Key only admitted his shareholding reached 100,000 after being confronted with that number by a One News reporter - first saying it had reached only 50,000.

"Actually maybe 100,000 from memory, sometimes 50,000, sometimes 100,000, yep," he said.

"Yeah, sorry, there was 100,000 in total."

He said he had not revealed the size of his parcel before because "no one has ever asked me the number I owned".
He said he had been open about when he sold them.

"I don't ever believe I have traded shares for my own personal benefit with information I have had from Parliament."

Dr Cullen said the issue was not one of insider trading but of ethics. Mr Key had breached Parliament's standing orders by not disclosing his interest.


Well, well, well, well, weeeeeeeeeeell – what do we have here? After attacking Clark viciously over the last month about knowing things and not saying anything over the bullshit Winston sideshow, after John Key told us in Parliament that he didn’t have any personal shares in a company he was asking questions about and only a trust IT NOW TURNS OUT John was lying about all of that and he did in fact have 50 000 personal shares which he sold and doubled his money on. Why didn’t he declare a conflict of interest the way that Richard Prebble did at the Tranz Rail hearing. Richard declared his conflict of interest as a director and shareholder of Mainfreight, at that VERY SAME HEARING John Key DID NOT declare his ownership of Tranz Rail shares. He not only lied about the number of shares he owned, he hid that fact from a hearing where others with conflicts of interest were open and forthcoming and he benefited from his personal sale of the personal 50 000 shares by doubling his money after asking questions about Tranz Rail and then promoting Rail America as a possible owner in his newsletter.

Incredibly, John Key kinda makes Winston look trustworthy, you can’t make this stuff up! King hit by Labour with much more to come, I predict either 10 days out from the election or the Wednesday before the election.

Oil spikes more than US$18


Oil spikes more than US$18
Oil rose more than 10 percent overnight – the biggest one-day gain in a decade – continuing a rally sparked by the United States' rescue plan for its financial sector. Sweeping government measures to rescue the financial system and restore confidence in shaky markets spurred gains across markets on Friday, when oil rose almost 7 percent to cap its biggest three-day rally in a decade. US crude for October delivery, which expires Monday, rose US$11.38 or 10.9 percent, to to 115.93, a barrel by 1740 GMT – the biggest gain since June 22, 1998.

It actually ended jumping $18 in one day, the dizzying highs and sudden lows of the oil market are something that has been predicted by peak oil theorists for some time, as supply starts to recede there are volatile movements and we are playing that out now, this has been exacerbated by everyone desperately trying to get out of the stock exchange into oil. There is no relief for those hoping the oil price crunch was easing.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Love as weirdly defined by Wikipedia


For other uses, see Love (disambiguation).
A drawn heart is an international icon of love

Love represents a range of emotions and experiences related to the senses of affection and sexual attraction.[1] The word love can refer to a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes, ranging from generic pleasure to intense interpersonal attraction. This diversity of meanings, combined with the complexity of the feelings involved, makes love unusually difficult to consistently define, even compared to other emotional states.

As an abstract concept love usually refers to a strong, ineffable feeling towards another person. Even this limited conception of love, however, encompasses a wealth of different feelings, from the passionate desire and intimacy of romantic love to the nonsexual. Love in its various forms acts as a major facilitator of interpersonal relationships and, owing to its central psychological importance, is one of the most common themes in the creative arts.

Spiritual love, or longing for God, is highly valued and sought after by many religions of both Eastern and Western origin.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Perhaps occupation rots the ethical soul of the occupier as much as it does the occupied?


Israelis vote on new leader
Members of Israel's ruling party has voted for a new leader to replace Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who has promised to resign following a corruption investigation in which he faces indictment. But whether Tzipi Livni or fellow cabinet minister Shaul Mofaz secures the support of a majority of the 74,000 members of the centrist Kadima party, Olmert may stay on as caretaker premier for weeks or months – and Israel's fractious coalition politics could yet mean an early parliamentary election.

I haven’t really blogged much on that corrupt old rascal Ehud Olmert, why kick someone when they are down? but it has made me wonder that if perhaps continuing a brutal 4 decade long multiple human rights abusing occupation over land that is not yours in the face of international law makes you a less ethical person? I mean if you are going to humiliate a people and impose unethical group punishment while stealing land, what’s a little corrupt business dealing between friends huh?

Bye bye Olmert, you corrupt old rascal you.

Keywee Dad’s choke on their Weet-Bix


Black Power makes Treaty claim
Black Power has lodged a Treaty of Waitangi claim saying gangs exist because of colonisation. The gang says it is not about seeking compensation or engaging in bitching or whining. But some MPs want the Waitangi Tribunal to boot it out of the process. Wellington gang spokesman Eugene Ryder, who the Herald understands to be a major driver behind the claim, would not provide specifics but said the gang was not seeking money. Gangs did not just appear out of nowhere, the social conditions for them arose out of colonisation, Mr Ryder said. "The object of the claim is education as to why we're in the position we're in. "It's the story of our lives really and the way we're treated. From our perspective there have been multiple Treaty breaches, every article has been broken. "The way we've dealt with the different breaches is to get together with other like-minded people."

This story made me grin until my cheeks hurt, can you imagine some of our more blinkered minded friends in NZ waking up to this story this morning? Red necks would gleam crimson with incandescent rage, blood pressure temperatures would contribute to spikes in global warming as Keywee Dads around the nations breakfast tables struggle for air as they combust with vehement fury over the Weet-Bix. The mere notion that Black Power are even allowed to speak without getting arrested, let alone mention the C word and lodge a claim with the Waitangi Tribunal could be causing anger induced strokes as we speak. I wonder if Leighton Smith and Michael Laws might die live on air this morning?

More Police Powers? You have got to be joking me!


Police bill labelled 'draconian'
A bill extending police powers to spy on suspected criminals and conduct some searches without a warrant is "draconian" election-year pandering, says a civil rights watchdog. The Search and Surveillance Powers Bill, tabled in Parliament by Justice Minister Annette King yesterday, seeks to reform the laws and transfer powers from the Serious Fraud Office, which will soon be disbanded, to the police. Among several controversial proposals are the ability to search without a warrant in certain cases, detain people present at a search and access someone's electronic information remotely. New Zealand Council For Civil Liberties chairman Michael Bott questioned the bill's arrival so close to an election. "It appears to be another macho lurch to the Right by a government attempting to pander to the law-and-order debate in a very simplistic fashion at election time."
The proposals include: The ability to apply for a search warrant electronically or verbally.
A power for police officers to search without a warrant where they think evidence of a serious crime could be endangered in the time it took to get a warrant.
Power to declare an area a crime scene and ensure evidence is not hidden or destroyed while a warrant is secured.
Power to detain people present or who arrive at a search until it can be determined whether they are involved in a crime.
Specific powers for officers to access and copy material held on computers or data-storage devices.
Permission to remotely access computer data in limited circumstances.
Provisions on warrants for placing surveillance devices, including the ability to enter property to place the devices.
The removal of a need for a warrant for surveillance devices in certain circumstances, such as public areas that are already under surveillance.


More Police Powers? Tell me this is a really bad joke, you can smell it’s election year with Labour playing to the ‘lynch-em-high’ brigade by whistling a merry jig of macho raw meat chewing laws from banning gangs to the capitulation of accountability in the Policing Bill by handing all power for career advancement within the Police directly to the Prime Minister.

This new punch to civil liberties allows the Police to break into your home – WITHOUT A WARRANT – and plant secret spy cameras to record you in your own home, until they gain enough evidence to convict you of something. This is arming the police with fishing expedition tools and with a complaints system that can only handle 30% of cases independently you had best hope the media pick up on your story of Police abuse or you’re screwed.

Handing over powers where the Police can access your electronic communications remotely is effectively state sanctioned electronic hacking into your privacy and giving Police discretion to search without a warrant if they think process will slow it down is just a glowing neon sign declaring ‘Open to constant and unrelenting abuse’.

The other major issue will be how the SFO powers will be interpreted by a Police Department that has always pushed for powers to trump our right to silence, watch how they will twist a unique power that was only ever supposed to be used against corporate power into one that will be used against citizens. Here's how the argument will run, ‘Gangs are organized crime, these no right to silence powers are used against organized crime, we now have the power to question anyone we define as in a gang with no right to silence powers. Not a gang member? Don’t care? Well once any group of citizens rights are breached it is only a matter of time before those breaches are taken across the spectrum to all citizens.

Seeing how the Police Bill was rammed through without any changes other than denying the Police the ability to become a political party (a direct threat to the Party’s themselves so that decision was no surprise), my fear is that these new Police powers will be rammed through again with zero discussion and further major erosion of our civil liberties will occur unheralded as the forces of state power continue to grow.

Monday, September 15, 2008

WHERO'S NEW NET...

FREE Pre-show talk with Witi Ihimaera, Albert Belz and Sam Scott- This Wednesday

Join us at the Herald Theatre at 6.15pm this Wednesday 17th September, for a unique opportunity to hear Witi Ihimaera, Albert Belz and Sam Scott discuss the process behind "Whero's New Net", Albert's new play for Massive Company, which has just opened at the Herald Theatre/The EDGE.
The event will be chaired by Terry Snow, Editor and CNZ arts board member.
The evening performance of "Whero's New Net" will follow at 7.30pm, with tickets available from www.the-edge.co.nz or by calling the EDGE box office on 09 357 3355.

Photobucket

A new play by Albert Belz, featuring an adaptation of short stories by Witi Ihimaera Whero's New Net at the Herald Theatre, The EDGE, September 13th - October 4th 2008

Ka pu te ruha, ka hao te rangatahi –
The old net is cast aside, the new net goes fishing.

London. Auckland. Gisborne. Whero Mahana is a musician with songs of grit and tears pulsing through her veins. In London to chase a dream far away from New Zealand, she is presented with a diary that confirms her longing for home. As the lines between her past and present fracture, her father’s stories force Whero to make painful choices about where her dreams really lie. A play about Aroha. ‘Sometimes you gotta step back to go forwards eh?’ .

Directed by Sam Scott. Cast: Wesley Dowdell, Kura Forrester, Bree Peters, Jarod Rawiri, Madeleine Sami, Blair Strang. Tainui Tukiwaho Designed by Tracey Collins Lighting design by Jeremy Fern Music by Tama Waipara

- I hope everyone involved with thementaldetox comes and sees the show, personally, I think it is absolutely one of the best pieces of writing, Albert Belz has created a beautiful masterpiece and the performances by every single member in this cast is mindblowing... go see for yourself!
~ Peace Hayley J.
visit: www.massivecompany.co.nz

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Great Global Warming news for ACT


Glaciers shrinking in Southern Alps
New Zealand's glaciers are showing the lowest total ice mass on record with more than twice the volume of Rangitoto Island melting away in a year. Research released yesterday by the National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research showed the Southern Alps glaciers had lost over 2.5cu km (2.2 billion tonnes) of permanent ice from April 2007 to March this year.
That is the fourth highest annual loss since monitoring started, leaving the glaciers with the lowest total ice mass on record of just 44.9cu km. Niwa principal scientist Jim Salinger told the Herald that was an 18 per cent loss since 1976 when 54cu km was recorded. The 2.2 billion tonnes loss from last year to the end of March was "very significant", he said.


And this will be great news for ACT who only last week were telling NZers that global warming will be a great benefit to NZers and that C02 is really a maligned nutrient that helps grow plants. Of course ACT didn’t really go into much detail beyond that so I’ll assume that they consider the rapid melting of the glaciers as a great opportunity to view mountains without that pesky ice getting in the way, perhaps Rodney Hide will spin this as a great opportunity for business to import and breed mountain goats on the now bare areas.

Claim of corrupt police conduct


Claim of corrupt police conduct
The independent police watchdog is investigating the arrest of a man whose farm was seized under the proceeds of crime act, after claims of corrupt police conduct. Shaun Allen has spent 15 years and a $500,000 Lotto windfall after he came out of jail fighting to clear his name. Mr Allen, who served an 18-month sentence and had his $365,000 Hawke's Bay farm seized after he was convicted of growing marijuana in 1993, says he found evidence of doctored documents and manufactured evidence in the police case. He is planning to apply for a prerogative of mercy, in which the governor-general pardons a person who has been wrongly convicted. "I want to clear my name. When I went to jail it was bad enough, to have my kids come to jail and ask me to come home, that was hard. But even though I'm out, it never leaves me. Day and night, every night, I can't switch it off. I want it to end." Mr Allen had owned his 840-acre farm for just a few months when police raided the property and found 1000 cannabis plants. He has always maintained his innocence and says the crops were being grown by a previous owner or a trespasser. He thinks he was set up by police determined to convict someone. With the help of a team of lawyers and private investigators, he says he has uncovered evidence of corrupt police practice. The Independent Police Conduct Authority has confirmed it is investigating. Police did not return requests for comment. National MP Chester Borrows, a former police officer, said he had seen Mr Allen's evidence and described the case as "very concerning". "There are documents here and procedures here where police have worked well away from the norm," he said.

The concern about allowing the Police to seize peoples property under the proceeds of crime and the drive to lower the legal threshold from beyond reasonable doubt to balance of probabilities is that it builds an incentive for the Police to gather revenue. Now we know the problems this creates with a quota system for traffic tickets, and I imagine the gloves come off with anyone the cops suspect of crime, but the case that needs to be answered here is corrupt police conduct which is an incredibly serious allegation to make, and if someone as staunchly pro cop as Chester Borrows has signaled problems then there really are problems. This could be the first major test of how independent the new police watchdog is and it will be an eye opener to those in the community who act as apologists and defenders of Police in this country.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Georgia Anne Muldrow & Dudley Perkins


"I stand in awe of the great unseen: a beam of light that encompasses all thoughtforms expressing as one's interplanetary notion of reality. i give thanks for the Great Potential: the virtual pulse for all beings of planet earth, the dead, and the elsewhere. kid sankofa calls out to planet earth: sleepwalkers, beware, and be weary of y'allselves, for the great awakening has already begun. YOU LATE! and being early won't help you neither, cause time is a false security that strives to foster an echo of love under the guise of discipline. in other words/worlds, let the fonk will set you free, homie"
- Georgia Anne Muldrow

http://epistrophikpeachsound.wordpress.com

http://www.myspace.com/theworthnothingskrew
http://www.myspace.com/georgiaannemuldrow
http://www.myspace.com/georgiaanddudley
http://www.myspace.com/dudleyperkins



Activate your soul and employ your mind! Most of the Mental Detox crew are obsessed with these guys already but its time to share the brilliance and the energy unlike any other. These guys are a cosmic spin on John & Yoko and make me believe in love between heavies... as well as believe in everything else there ever was. Easily in my top 5 artists/artist combos of all time.

To see some more mind-blowing cosmic artwork go to: www.myspace.com/tokiotokio the japanese artist based in seattle who paints the world how I secretly see it. Big sis hooked me on this guy (and everything else, kia ora!) Who can resist Jimi Hendrix coming out of a lotus? Not me.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

The Boondocks

Key gets booed on boot camps


Key gets booed on boot camps
John Key got his first taste of what lies ahead on the campaign trail yesterday when he received a resounding "booing" over his plans for boot camps. Mr Key was speaking to an initially polite audience at the Every Child Counts annual conference, until he mentioned his policy for "Army-style correction" camps for "wayward youth who are going off the rails". He was interrupted by a chorus of booing and jeering, which reignited when he tried to claim "they actually do work". It continued until the Mc, Pio Terei, intervened and asked the audience to listen to his explanation. The ECC is an umbrella lobby group, generally viewed as sympathetic to Labour, and made up of about 380 organisations involved with children, including Plunket, Unicef, Barnardos and Save the Children. Mr Key stuck to his guns and defended his policy with vigour. "Let's say we don't do that. What's option b? We've got an issue with about 1000 young New Zealanders, if we do nothing about them they're going to go into those, in my opinion, those youth gangs that we see and they're eventually going to go on to a life of crime. "That is the probability of where they are going. I'm not going to sit back and let them hang around on the streets of New Zealand until they eventually go out and kill someone. Sorry, I'm going to stand up and do something about it."

And well might they boo, boot camps don’t work and Key played this note as dog whistle politics to energise his conservative base as much as his pointless call to force Solo Mothers into work did but apparently he’s spent too much time in his echo chambers because according to some there John was genuinely surprised that he was booed. Get used to it John, get used to it, while the media are myopic with Winston lying over doing what is the everyday in National to launder $1.7million into anonymous donations, the media focus has gone off the policy that will determine the election but the people effected by that policy haven’t forgotten and while John Key has yet to face a set press conference in over a year he has been lulled into thinking there won’t be much resistance to the crazier parts of his dog whistle agenda.

Policy a shadow of leaked version



Policy a shadow of leaked version
Part one of National's official health policy, released yesterday, is a weak shadow of the big plans outlined in the leaked version made public by the Government on Wednesday. Not mentioned in part one are the new-spending plans in the leaked documents, including the construction of 20 new operating theatres, training an extra 750 health workers, a health-insurance premium rebate for the elderly and a prostate cancer screening programme.

And the reason why it has been ‘left out’ is because the new 20 operating theatres will be National’s PPP’s for health, the last Health Policy announcement was with the great communicator, Tony Ryall in an embarrassing press conference over a year ago where it was revealed by the Journalists present that National’s health policy would actually remove the restrictions on Drs to charge what they like, meaning the costs of a Dr’s visit would actually go up. Neither Ryall nor John Key seemed to be aware that was the result of their policy because National are so dependent for health policy from the private health sector that it really isn’t a policy for the health of NZers, it’s policy for the health of the Private Health Industries profit margins. The press conference was such a shambles it turned out to be the LAST set press conference John Key has held in NZ in over a year now. So I suspect these ’20 new operating theatres’ will be for National’s mates in the private health industry and it will be set up in the exact private public partnership farce that is the National Party code word for privatization.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Peters and the wound of hubris



Peters in the hot seat
Winston Peters made it clear last night he will not go down without a fight. The New Zealand First leader is still denying he sought a donation from billionaire Owen Glenn for his legal bill in 2005 arising from the Tauranga electoral petition but conceded that he spoke to Mr Glenn by phone on a critical date in question. Appearing before Parliament's privileges committee, Mr Peters disputed Mr Glenn's evidence of what that call was about. And he said the Monaco-based billionaire had been coached by Geoff Harley, a lawyer who appeared for Fay Richwhite at the Winebox inquiry. "It's not the first time my memory has been challenged by a wealthy businessman," Mr Peters said.

Well, he wasn’t very good was he? On the issues of substance, like why his lawyer emailed Glenn bank account details right after a phone call, Winston had nothing more credible than to say Glenn may have asked for Mr Henry’s contact details which just doesn’t add up, why would his lawyer send bank account details as an opening email if it was just swapping contacts? Then there were the slip ups, with Winston referring to Owen wanting a position like Mike Moore’s but then questioned latter Winston claims it was like Jim Sutton’s roving trade post but Sutton hadn’t had that position until the middle of 2006, several months before the phone conversation took place. The final home goal was when Winston was asked if he told Brian Henry that Owen wanted his bank details, Winston responded that he remembered telling his lawyer about Owen Glenns “extraordinary” questions about the roving ambassador role but then couldn’t remember the conversation at all to answer the question about the bank account issue.

Do I think Owen Glenn is honest? Sometimes, I think some of what he says is provable, but I also think some things just don’t ring true, Mike Williams asking for a job just doesn’t ring true, claiming Mike invited himself to Nice when Mike has the email with Owen inviting him, and the claim that Labour asked for further cash when really I think Mike was there trying to ascertain exactly what Owen was going to say rather than for cash. Add this to wanting to give a million to have Sir Howard run for parliament and his claim of being offered a cabinet position and you seem to have a Billionaire who loves the media spotlight as much as Winston used to.

Where to now? Helen can’t hang him today and has to wait for another messy and painful weekend of media on the Winston issue because the Privileges Committee is still meeting on Tuesday and her whole defence so far has been due process so she has to grin and bare another torturous weekend of criticism and all of this is to happen with the next major political poll coming out on Sunday. The election date may have just moved to the 15th.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Talmud of Jmmanuel

The "Talmud of Jmmanuel" is the English translation of an ancient Aramaic script, discovered in 1963 in a cave near Jerusalem. The ancient scrolls, written by Judas Iscariot, the disciple of Jmmanuel, had been encased in tree resin and buried for almost two millennia before being unearthed by Isa Rashid, a Lebanese priest of the Greek Orthodox church, and by "Billy" Eduard Albert Meier, a New Age prophet educated by wise celestial teachers from the Pleiades star cluster. The discoverers of the scrolls have since been persecuted by Christian and Jewish orthodox groups and by political shadow governments. Rashid, who had been entrusted with the original scrolls for safekeeping and translation from Aramaic to German, had to flee from Jerusalem to Lebanon to evade his persecutors, who were intent on silencing him and destroying the scrolls. The scrolls were burned and lost in an Israeli air raid on a Lebanese refugee camp in 1974. Rashid and his family escaped, but were assassinated in Baghdad shortly thereafter. A quarter of the original script had been translated into German by then and had been mailed to Billy Meier in Switzerland. Meier edited and published the German version of the "Talmud Jmmanuel" in 1975. So far, Billy Meier has survived more than a dozen attempts on his life.

The portion of the ancient script that was saved runs parallel to the gospel of St. Matthew and appears to be its source document. The philosophical contents of the teachings of Jmmanuel, however, deviate significantly from the severely redacted version in the biblical text. James Deardorff, professor emeritus from the Oregon State University, is a stout proponent for the authenticity of the 1963 archaeological find of the Aramaic scrolls, and has spent the last 16 years studying and carefully comparing its text with the biblical scriptures. He found overwhelming evidence that the writer of the Gospel of Matthew "used and altered the Talmud to suit his theology, making changes, insertions and omissions, in a manner that precludes reversing the arguments to claim a literary hoax." Professor Deardorff also found ample evidence that the Talmud's German translation derived directly from an Aramaic source, in support of Meier's first-hand witness testimony.

When Dr. Dietmar Rothe, a physicist and engineer, first came across a copy of the Talmud of Jmmanuel (TJ) in 1996, he immediately recognized the great philosophical and spiritual value in the wisdom contained in the teachings of Jmmanuel, most of which are not in the Bible, others only in distorted form. Being fluent in German and English, he also found that the English version of the TJ’s second edition needed revisions in many places to bring out the true meaning contained in this wisdom. Over the next four years, he spent many hours in collaboration with Heidi Peters (who consulted with Billy Meier on the meaning of difficult German passages) and Prof. James Deardorff to make the English text conform accurately with the original.

Dr. Dietmar Rothe Speaks About The Talmud of Jmmanuel

This totaly blew my mind in a spiritually scientific non religious way!

Thank you driver!


My German homegirl once told me when she first moved to NZ and people yelled out 'thank you driver' on the bus, she assumed that she had a phenomenally popular bus driver who everyone knew. No one would bother to show such random appreciation in Berlin and she couldnt believe it when we told her it was just a thing everyone does here. She was surprised and thrilled even squeaking her very own exit shout-out the following morning.

I yell this 4 times a day because I have to catch 2 buses to get to Dominion Rd from Grey Lynn. This is a 10 minute drive by car. I been bussing everywhere in this fine land of ours since I was 10. I don't have an automobile, I don't have a licence, its partly eco footprint, cant be fucked walking, and the fact that once I realised I could survive the art of bussing from out south into the city as a pre-teen (4 stages and 70 minutes later) I could survive anything.

When people talk about public transport overseas, how cheap, convenient and accesible it is a lo-fi girl like me gets watery eyes. I went to Korea and Japan earlier in the year and the modes over there blew my mind. Every 1 second a train takes you to exactly where you need to go for a cheap price that lasts you all day. The tube in London disturbed me but I appreciated its curt convenience all the same. Everything seemed to.... work.

In Aotearoa everyday I'm on some clunker-mobile that needs a face-lift or I'm on some wanna-be MOTAT future bus. Every six months the price goes up (probably to install plasma screens that loop ads about the bus wtf). Our public transport system seems to be run by stoners ("hey sorry I'm late maaaaan") and any city council move to improve it seems like they've also had hash cookies, except they've watched Blade Runner twice beforehand (Britomart must be on some delayed gratification trip cos I'm yet to see the difference between the bus system today and when I was a kid).

At present, Auckland has a population of 1.3 million with an increase rate of 2% per year where the car-growing rate is about 4% i.e. twice the population growth. In fact people are facing traffic congestion all over the region in motorways and also in arterials. Congestion cost is about $1.00 billion a year in Auckland region.


Hey, um if you wanna get people using public transport, saving petrol, the planet and minimising cars on the road - how bout you make it so that our buses don't resemble the friendly erratic hick that stops to pick up the hitch-hiker in the Colgate Saturday Night feature.

Confused but bus-rider 4 life.
Auckland

Monday, September 8, 2008

Your Parliament just voted in a Police State – and you aren’t even aware of it!


Policing Bill To Become Law
Police today welcomed the passing of the Policing Bill, following conclusion of its third reading with near unanimous party support in the House. Acting Commissioner Lyn Provost says it is an historic day for New Zealand Police and all the communities it serves. "Receiving such a resounding vote in Parliament is a welcome indication to Police that the new legislation is well balanced and widely supported." The Policing Bill now requires Royal Assent to formally become the Policing Act 2008. "I extend my thanks to everyone who had input into the Bill's development - including Police staff, service organisations, members of the public, government and non-government agencies, and those who guided the Bill through the select committee and parliamentary process," Acting Commissioner Provost says. A comprehensive implementation plan is well advanced within Police to effect the many changes the new Act will introduce following Royal Assent.

Unbelievable! Are you kidding me? WTF! When my co-blogger Tim Selwyn brought this to my attention months ago I argued that there was no way this could go through. I did not think for a minute we would be so stupid to give the Prime Minister of the day such unregulated power by appointing the Police Commissioner and the Deputy Commissioners while relegating the Police Minister under the Prime Minister. Meaning the Police are answerable to the Prime Minister and the Prime Minister hires and fires those who run the policy, it is a closed relationship that does as my co-blogger points out “invites political manipulation, under-performance and ultimately corruption”.

The exacerbating factor is that we are realigning accountability right when the Police are about to execute and mug the Serious Fraud Office of it’s existence and it’s no right to silence powers. As the Police immediately attempt to use this newly acquired power they will turn from white collar corporate crime to ‘da gangs’, so a power created to acknowledge the difference in power relationship between the state and the corporation is about to be used between the state and the individual within a system controlled by the Prime Minister of the day.

This is not acceptable in a country that likes to think of itself as fair and democratic, this is the sort of structure that builds a Police State.

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Thursday, September 4, 2008

You know my eco steez

One of the things holding the eco revolution back from a global embrace (apart from corporations, government policy, humans, technology and consumerism of course)is....

FASHION.
Come on you know its true.

Eco-friendly clothes are too busy 'breathing' to be bangin.
Eco-friendly decor usually means curled out fork-mobiles and pseudo-ethnic shit soaked in liberal guilt.
Eco 'gossip' usually means you are a professional buzz-killer at parties.

Well I am starting to see these old truths evaporate as a genuine eco-media has been emerging. This new-wave is catering to the often overlooked and forgotten greeny....

The cool one.

My fav site so far would have to be www.g-spotting.blogspot.com
Check out this Chrome-free sustainable Hess Natur Fur Vest for the fashionista that just can't give the Mariah Carey life up.















And my fav, for the coffee head who wants to look like they don't give a fuck when secretly they do!



















Then there's www.ecorazzi.com which is like where NW and trashy celeb hating meets environmentalism! They have fashion, music, film/tv,animals, events, shopping and gift-giving... where I found my future dinner-set.


Finally there is the awesome, self-proclaimed hip & easy www.lazyenvironmentalist.com
The site pledges to many relieved readers:
"No guilt-trips. Never any sacrifice. We offer insights into cutting-edge products and services, emerging trends, and innovation underway to bring our lifestyles into balance with nature"

Heres a cool talk the founder and lazy environmentalist Josh Dorfman gave in the Google Authors series.