Sporting Life : Big Big Fighters
Talking Sport. Are heavyweight boxers these days are getting way TOO big
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From the Hood : The Irony of Satire
“Only if the sword is very short, and the pen is very sharp.” [Terry Pratchett, The Light Fantastic]
The Erosion Of Justice
As the civil rights we enjoy get whittled away, the pattern is becoming very familiar. Initially, fresh powers of search, detention, use of secret evidence […]
Paula Bennett’s welfare abuse
To date, the government’s response to the recession has been faulted on the demand side – for not giving sufficient stimulus to the economy, as […]
National Education Tests, And Michael Jackson
The current struggle between school principals and Education Minister Anne Tolley over national standards has the hallmarks of a rushed and insuffiently funded process. No […]
The Government’s failure to cope with unemployment
There was a quite telling difference of emphasis on Radio Waatea this morning. While Greens MP Sue Bradford was calling on the government to make […]
Iraq, And Its Foreign Oil Deals
Remember how, when the US invaded Iraq in 2003, critics said it was all about oil? Next week, political events in Iraq – and the […]
David Garrett’s lewdness, and the incredible Christine Rankin
Rodney Hide’s excuses for the lewd comment by his Act party colleague David Garrett – that he is new to Parliament, that he may be […]
Gordon Campbell on Peter Jackson’s review of the Film Commission
The selection of Peter Jackson to lead the ministerial review of the New Zealand Film Commission guarantees the review a prominence that no-one else in […]
John Key’s Zen press conference, and Iran’s stolen election
Faced with the dying embers of the Richard Worth scandal at his press conference yesterday (audio & report, video), John Key reached for gasoline, not […]
Classics : Grasshopper on the Road by Arnold Lobel
Gordon Campbell on Arnold Lobel’s Grasshopper on the Road
On censorship – bring back Worth!
Click to enlarge One downside of Richard Worth’s exit from his ministerial post at Internal Affairs will be to further postpone any fix of the […]
Rodney Hide’s latest plan for gutting local democracy
Rodney Hide’s agenda for local government involves – as Scoop reported six months ago – the importation of an American model that has resulted in […]
Art politics in the 2000s
Helen Clark’s legacy to the arts, and will it survive her?
Smackdown over the S59 law
Why the citizens referendum in July is a futile way to spend $10 million
Countdown Lebanon
Will the Byzantine voting system confound the doomsayers about the election in Lebanon?
Absolute Bollard
Gordon Campbell interviews Reserve Bank Governor, Dr Alan Bollard
Classics : Abel’s Island by William Steig (1975)
Gordon Campbell on the children’s author and illustrator William Steig
Left Coasting : Bus Trip to the Summer of Loss
Rosalea Barker reports from the US about California’s social and budgetary meltdown
From the Hood : How To Misunderstand Satire
satirist Lyndon Hood on the mechanics of the trade
Travelling Light : 37 Hours in Fez, Morocco
37 Hours in Fez, Morocco
Sporting Life : Can Andy Murray break the British hex at Wimbledon?
Lamont Russell on Andy Murray’s chances at Wimbledon
The Complicatist : Lonesome with Elvis…
Lonesome Elvis, and Will Sheff on a soul classic
The Tiananmen Massacre, and Richard Worth
Today is the 20th anniversary of the massacre in Tiananmen Square. In the early morning hours of June 4th 1989, thousands of unarmed students and […]
Gordon Campbell On The Greens Leadership Change
Talk about the bleedingly obvious. In the aftermath of the last election, the Green Party moved a few floors upwards into more spacious digs in […]
The Budget’s tightening noose
Judging by the Budget, the good news is that Finance Minister Bill English is not the beady eyed ‘lets take this theory and see if […]
Budget to push the “P” button?
The tone of the Budget is almost as important as its content, and while everyone – for good reason – is expecting a grim Budget […]
On the power company rip-offs
Spot the difference. A Rotorua couple get $10 million overpaid by Westpac into their bank account and hive off with it, with Interpol and the […]
The need to control loan sharks
As jobs vanish and incomes shrink during the recession, loan sharks can be expected to prey more avidly on poor and vulnerable communities. After all, […]