Milkshake

Recently it occurred to me that dumb advertising bugs me.
I bought my first bottle of milk in Fonterra, the dairy farmers' collective, have been plugging recently. It was more expensive than before; I should have expected that.
The advertisement is dumb. Transparent cows, hollow and half filled with milk, tryind desparately to avoid sunlight. For goodness sake, there is so much wrong with this.
Cows are made of meat and bone and sinew and skin. They are not hollow.  Anthropomorphising them dissociates the link between cows and cheap beef mince.
Cows hold about twenty litres of milk in their udders before it becomes very painful. They do not hold the hundred or more  litres and it does not slosh around theiir bodies
Cows seek shade for their own comfort, even though we breed them with black hides and cut down trees to make the grass grow better. They don't seek shade so their milk tastes better to us.
Cows lactate for the benefit of their offspring, not for humans. It is a curiosity of nature that we drink the milk of other species.
Once it gets to our houses, milk spends most of its time in the fridge. Once the door of the fridge is shut it is totally dark on the inside. Whether the milk bottle is opaque or not becomes irrelevant.

Triple layer light-proof milk bottles. Pointless technology introduced solely for the purpose of justifying price increases.


Kelis - Tasty, 2003

Big Yellow Taxi

They certainly did pave paradise and put up a parking lot, if you consider the the CBDs of Auckland and Wellington are paradise.  Or once were.
Now, having paved it, the government that believes in less tax and fewer taxes is considering including carparks in FBT calculations.  So that'll be more tax revenue and more taxes, again, then.  Thanks National.
If National were committed to making either Auckland better places to live and work, it would be sensible to implement policies that reduced the need for carparking in the CBDs.  Instead they are stretching the boundaries of Auckland and suggesting that the ratepayers should bear the costs.  Unbelievable.

Joni Mitchell - Ladies of the Canyon, 1970

You're Gonna Get Done

I'd like to say I shook my head in disbelief when I heard John Banks would not be prosecuted for his actions around his return on his 2010 mayor campaign.  But to be fair, I expected that he wouldn't be prosecuted, and that shows a deep vein of cynicism on my part.  I have a deep and seething anger over this.

So let's lay out the facts.  John Banks received almost $100,000 in donations where he knew who the donor was.  That's almost two years pay at the average wage.

An assistant filled out the declaration on the donations to the campaign.

Bank's probity extended only to asking the assistant whether the declaration was correct.

Once he had been told the declaration was correct, he signed it as being true and correct, without any further checking.

And apparently that satisfies the letter of the law.

We are asked to believe that Banks knew the law very well and ensured that he obeyed the letter of it, if not the spirit.  And that's despite the obfuscations that resulted from the initial questioning of the declaration; all the claims from Banks that he could not remember.  And we are asked to believe the fault lies with the law, not the man.  But there are too many problems.

Declarations should never be made lightly.  They deserve and require thorough reviews and checks to ensure their veracity and consistency, their accuracy.  When they are declarations relating to the institutions of our society, elections and democracy in this instance, they are even more important.  A properly made declaration shows the person making it means what they say, and says what they mean.

In stretching the law to its limits, in meeting the letter of the law but avoiding the spirit of it, Banks has shown himself to be contemptuous of the institution of democracy; a petty egotist.

Blaming the law is weak.  ACT have trumpeted the idea of personal responsibility, in the past.  Banks could accept personal responsibility in this instance, if he had any courage in his convictions.  But apparently he has none, and it is my hope that his lack of courage will bring the final curtain down on the disgrace that the ACT party is today.  His credibility is blown; the right will need to start a new fringe party.

Primmers - AK79, 1979

Hello Are You There

John Banks, he's kept his head down, presumably so National don't lose their ability to pass legislation.  Here's there because the PM, courtesy of some studious looking the other way with his hands over his ears while chanting "la la la I can't hear anything", has not lost confidence in Mr Banks.
It all came back to a question of whether Mr Banks had acted within the law, or not.  Here's Mr Key quoted on Stuff:

Key said he had not spoken directly to Banks but the ACT leader had given ''an absolute and categorical assurance to my office'' that he acted legally.

So, just the legal test, then.


But when it comes to moving people off ACC (and into the caring arms of WINZ), a legal and moral test applies, according to Mr Key.  Have a listen to him on the radio this morning - the section in question is between 2:09 and 2:30 running time.


Now that's as it should be with ACC.  We collectively gave up our right to sue, and in exchange gained an entitlement to ACC.


The standard required of ACC staff, according to Mr Key, is higher than the standard required to hold a ministerial warrant, even though the impact of decisions made by ACC staff affect many fewer people.  Surely Mr Key should have equal or higher standards for himself and his ministers.

Consolidated - Play More Music, 1992

Tell Me What To Do

A quick question - would a true liberal party allow party votes, and the idea of collective caucus responsibility? Surely to be truly liberal it would require every vote, even as part of government, to be a conscience vote.

The Front Lawn - Songs From The Front Lawn, 1989