With the recent news of Jesse Ryder going into a coma, one cannot help but wander if alcohol was a potential contributor to the lead up to these events. Why was Ryder out in a bar to begin with? If he'd had problems with alcohol before, would the self control to simply say "no" and move on not be enough? If so, then there's a small chance he may pay for this decision with his life. What about the thugs who decided to assault Ryder without cause? No doubt when this case is eventually processed these men will appear in court. The sentence will not be harsh and a "sorry" will win them a reduced sentence. Yet they may have avoided such date with justice if they had carried their drink more sensibly, instead of marching around in slobbering drunk fashion.
Once again, I'd like to refer any readers interested to my post about alcohol last year
http://newswithmorenews.blogspot.co.nz/2012/08/a-generation-that-is-stupid-enough-to.html
This post debunks the myth that alcohol abuse has always been a problem in New Zealand youth culture. Perhaps they'd like to look back to as recently as the 1970's. Was endless intoxication, massive bar spillovers and brain dead decisions to abuse alcohol dominating news headlines. No.
Raising the drinking age will not make a huge difference in our attitude towards alcohol. But it will make access to such beverages just that little bit more difficult, particularly towards that 13-19 year old age bracket, where many bad drinking habits are formed.
Wednesday, 27 March 2013
Thursday, 21 March 2013
The Te Houtaewa Challenge and personal change
Some of you may know I enjoy running. Yes there has been a long lost relationship between me and running.
The Te Houtaewa challenge is based on the legend of Te Houtaewa, who stole kumura from a local tribe and outran any opposition who tried to catch him. From a legend a race was born. Athletes come from around the world to live up to the legend of the man.
Tomorrow I will become one of those people. What has been memorable throughout the last sixteen months of preparation hasn't been the immense fatigue, mental pain or any other such challenge. None of those ever really last. Right through each training session, various people have volunteered their time to train alongside me.
Seeing some people develop extra willpower, finesse and toughness has been the most inspiring. Something which stands out among these people is courage. It's a really admirable quality of pushing through difficulty, even if it results in extraordinary pain.
One friend could barely run a kilometre when he first started. Now he's comfortably putting in 6km a week. Another had never set foot in a gym; they are now a regular attendee. They chose to transform themselves and have done a great job.
Pushing the envelope is difficult because today we often expect convenience to the easiest route toward happiness. Since beginning these races, I've found its the contrary. Pain and sacrifice are a necessary requirement in achieving long term goals. What is your goal and how badly do you want to achieve it? If you aren't willing to dedicate yourself completely to the goal, start thinking about ways in which you can be. Whether you want to run a marathon, climb a mountain, write a book, get a university degree or release a music album. As infamous cyclist Lance Armstrong says "pain is temporary. If quit though, that lasts forever."
To everyone who has trained with, helped and supported me in the last 16 months, thank you very much. This race has been difficult to prepare for but I feel ready and hopefully you too are ready to take on great challenges. Ultramarathons are about overcoming challenges. You go through pain which is truly horrific but come out the other side a new person. Ttfn and see you at the finish line.
The Te Houtaewa challenge is based on the legend of Te Houtaewa, who stole kumura from a local tribe and outran any opposition who tried to catch him. From a legend a race was born. Athletes come from around the world to live up to the legend of the man.
Tomorrow I will become one of those people. What has been memorable throughout the last sixteen months of preparation hasn't been the immense fatigue, mental pain or any other such challenge. None of those ever really last. Right through each training session, various people have volunteered their time to train alongside me.
Seeing some people develop extra willpower, finesse and toughness has been the most inspiring. Something which stands out among these people is courage. It's a really admirable quality of pushing through difficulty, even if it results in extraordinary pain.
One friend could barely run a kilometre when he first started. Now he's comfortably putting in 6km a week. Another had never set foot in a gym; they are now a regular attendee. They chose to transform themselves and have done a great job.
Pushing the envelope is difficult because today we often expect convenience to the easiest route toward happiness. Since beginning these races, I've found its the contrary. Pain and sacrifice are a necessary requirement in achieving long term goals. What is your goal and how badly do you want to achieve it? If you aren't willing to dedicate yourself completely to the goal, start thinking about ways in which you can be. Whether you want to run a marathon, climb a mountain, write a book, get a university degree or release a music album. As infamous cyclist Lance Armstrong says "pain is temporary. If quit though, that lasts forever."
To everyone who has trained with, helped and supported me in the last 16 months, thank you very much. This race has been difficult to prepare for but I feel ready and hopefully you too are ready to take on great challenges. Ultramarathons are about overcoming challenges. You go through pain which is truly horrific but come out the other side a new person. Ttfn and see you at the finish line.
Monday, 18 March 2013
Almost a year on
After one year, 8,000 page views, 122 comments, and readers from 50 different countries, its amazing how many people have taken to discussing issues which have been posted. These often contentious topics ranged from tattoos to man made climate change to Richie McCaw's memoir "The Open Side." As readers, you've helped me learn a lot and I hope I've done the same for you. Arguing with you has been enjoyable and civilized (99% of the time) and hopefully in real life these can continue.
Since November when I started working for Getfrank, it has been a challenge to contribute effectively to both them and on here, without a compromise in quality of the articles has been challenging. Now that University has gone back into full swing though, I can no longer split my time between both of them. I've decided that at the end of the this month, newswithmorenews will no longer be operational.
I will continue to write for Getfrank for as long as possible and am happy to be a guest blogger in anyone else's blog. But giving 100% in two different writing spheres has drained me.
That said, there's still 12 days left in the month. I will upload anybody who wants to guest posts in this time and discuss any topic which you the readers want me to talk about. I'll even debate something I've argued in favor of from the opposing side if you wish to hear it.
So send me your posts if you want them uploaded, topics you want discussed, and any posts you want me to change my mind and argue against.
Thanks for reading.
Stuart
Since November when I started working for Getfrank, it has been a challenge to contribute effectively to both them and on here, without a compromise in quality of the articles has been challenging. Now that University has gone back into full swing though, I can no longer split my time between both of them. I've decided that at the end of the this month, newswithmorenews will no longer be operational.
I will continue to write for Getfrank for as long as possible and am happy to be a guest blogger in anyone else's blog. But giving 100% in two different writing spheres has drained me.
That said, there's still 12 days left in the month. I will upload anybody who wants to guest posts in this time and discuss any topic which you the readers want me to talk about. I'll even debate something I've argued in favor of from the opposing side if you wish to hear it.
So send me your posts if you want them uploaded, topics you want discussed, and any posts you want me to change my mind and argue against.
Thanks for reading.
Stuart
Can a Green MP really not know who these people are?
In a short series of Facebook message exchanges, Kevin Hague proved himself to be somebody who lacked understanding about where the views of his party came from. I asked him
Who do you politically align yourself with more: Maurice Strong or Anthony Blair?
Who do you politically align yourself with more: Maurice Strong or Anthony Blair?
Mr Hague originally replied
"I don't know either of them sorry!"
After a brief explanation about who the two of them were, he responded.
"Certainly don't align myself with Tony Blair, but Maurice Strong sounds promising!"
It's still surprising that a member of parliament knows next to nothing about the history of their parties. Understanding where your party came from and why they stand for certain values is a good indicator of why you would want to align yourself with that party to begin with. If Mr Hague eventually does research up about Mr Strong, perhaps the answer would have been a lot more interesting.
Road taxes, Youth rates and PhD's
Who can give one example where road upgrades have made any difference to the well being of Aucklanders? Not building new ones altogether, as was the case with the expressway which goes out towards Hobsonville and beyond. No, general road upgrades. Have Auckland's motorway developments done the remotest bit of good for any commuter into the city? How about out of the city? The answer quite plainly is no. Instead of looking at viable options to encourage public transport in some shape or form, Gerry Brownlee is more than content to increase petrol taxes significantly to achieve a rather wicked purpose. Not only will current roads be butchered even more, new roads shall be constructed after much of the beautiful countryside is mutilated.
No apologies have been made either by Mr Brownlee to struggling families who can barely afford to drive. With 3c increases next year and the following year, these motorists can only hope petrol prices fall internationally to compensate for this rise. Otherwise, expect to see more cars by those who can afford it.
How can a party which repeatedly promises a brighter future claim that having more cars on the road is more beneficial for anyone? The reason public transport remains so bad is because no National party leader with power can acknowledge that cycle ways and a national railroad may actually be a better, more efficient form of transport than more cars.
As youth rates are set to be debated, it seems almost ironic that the woman who campaigned against them was one Sue Bradford. While Ms. Bradford was full or propaganda about many issues, I applaud her for setting out a simple argument about youth and adults being entitled to the same pay for doing the same job. If Mr. Key would like to inform us about whether he received a youth wage, perhaps that could shed some light on a rather sneering opinion he holds that teenagers should be underpaid.
The other day, whilst surfing Youtube I saw a woman continuously listing off a multitude of so called "climate scientists," professing that their books had to be right because they had the word "Dr" in front of their name. Would someone care to explain what suddenly makes someone with a PhD an absolute genius? The Bradford creature (mentioned above) nearly has a PhD and she is anything but intelligent. Paul McKenna (author of "Hypnotic Gastric Band") has two PhD's, yet he cannot see that book is only a short term solution to a long term problem. No, a PhD simply shows someone can, with an extreme amount of discipline and hard work, conduct high amounts of research in a very specific area and draw conclusions which add to human knowledge. If that's intelligent, then so is writing a book such as Tim Noake's The Lore or Running (1,000 pages of running know how) or Michael King's A History of New Zealand. Each man undertook an astronomical volume of reading and research to compile these two books. There are many other examples. Phillip Pulman (The Golden Compass), Stephen King (with his book 11/22/63) and countless others (which I'm happy to list if you want).
***I've expanded on some areas in the PhD section on the back of one posters comment.***
No apologies have been made either by Mr Brownlee to struggling families who can barely afford to drive. With 3c increases next year and the following year, these motorists can only hope petrol prices fall internationally to compensate for this rise. Otherwise, expect to see more cars by those who can afford it.
How can a party which repeatedly promises a brighter future claim that having more cars on the road is more beneficial for anyone? The reason public transport remains so bad is because no National party leader with power can acknowledge that cycle ways and a national railroad may actually be a better, more efficient form of transport than more cars.
As youth rates are set to be debated, it seems almost ironic that the woman who campaigned against them was one Sue Bradford. While Ms. Bradford was full or propaganda about many issues, I applaud her for setting out a simple argument about youth and adults being entitled to the same pay for doing the same job. If Mr. Key would like to inform us about whether he received a youth wage, perhaps that could shed some light on a rather sneering opinion he holds that teenagers should be underpaid.
The other day, whilst surfing Youtube I saw a woman continuously listing off a multitude of so called "climate scientists," professing that their books had to be right because they had the word "Dr" in front of their name. Would someone care to explain what suddenly makes someone with a PhD an absolute genius? The Bradford creature (mentioned above) nearly has a PhD and she is anything but intelligent. Paul McKenna (author of "Hypnotic Gastric Band") has two PhD's, yet he cannot see that book is only a short term solution to a long term problem. No, a PhD simply shows someone can, with an extreme amount of discipline and hard work, conduct high amounts of research in a very specific area and draw conclusions which add to human knowledge. If that's intelligent, then so is writing a book such as Tim Noake's The Lore or Running (1,000 pages of running know how) or Michael King's A History of New Zealand. Each man undertook an astronomical volume of reading and research to compile these two books. There are many other examples. Phillip Pulman (The Golden Compass), Stephen King (with his book 11/22/63) and countless others (which I'm happy to list if you want).
***I've expanded on some areas in the PhD section on the back of one posters comment.***
Saturday, 16 March 2013
Idiot/Savant and James Robins the same person? Almost seems possible
I'd like to draw attention to two rather hysterical left wing columnists. One is Yahoo blogger James Robins, whose generalisations and continuous attempts to smear his opponents (or enemies as he takes all criticism personally). The other happens to be a fellow commentator with me on Getfrank. A blogger living in exile known as Idiot/Savant. He has his own blogs pace and claims to be irredeemably liberal.
Mr. Robins embodies a lot of mainstream opinions, constantly finding a way to bash conservatives. He calls people like me truth benders and seeks to justify it with clumsy rhetoric. This hush talk from him that the child discipline bill was never intended to eliminate smacking as a form of discipline falls flat. Ms. Bradford's intentions were clear from day one. Redefining the bill was done in an effort to condemn any parents who used force of any kind to discipline their child. I posted a response to Mr. Robins about Ms. Bradford's recent comments. Surprisingly no response came. Even a brain surgeon has time to send a text.
Idiot/Savant meanwhile happens to suffer from the same closed mind liberal attitudes Mr Robins has. In a small post on his blog "no right turn," Wellington's drought is brought up. After talking about reducing water usage to 30L a day, he states golf courses will be exempt, before snidely saying droughts "couldn't possibly be allowed to interfere with rich wankers playing golf."
Whilst I may indeed be wrong, there is no doubt both bloggers have striking similarities in their writing. Both often resort to conventional wisdom (which is almost always wrong). Both men are quite bloodthirsty creatures. Mr. Robins says in one blog "I’m all for killing vile Islamofacists" and "gunning them down is good thing (however somber)." Idiot/Savant takes to calling anyone who disagreed with the "gay" marriage bill some rather rude names. "Meanwhile, Labour's Damien O'Connor, Ross Robertson, and Su'a William Sio still voted against the bill. Time to de-select these pricks already. Labour wouldn't accept those spouting racism or sexism, and it shouldn't accept bigots either."
Something disturbs me about these strange creatures. As there are so many similar undertones in their writing, I can't help but think they are two blogs by the same person. One requires a bit of civility but my feeling is that anyone who talks with James Robins in real life hears a lot of rude words coming from his mouth.
http://norightturn.blogspot.co.nz/
http://nz.news.yahoo.com/opinion/post-list/-/blog/jamesrobins/
Mr. Robins embodies a lot of mainstream opinions, constantly finding a way to bash conservatives. He calls people like me truth benders and seeks to justify it with clumsy rhetoric. This hush talk from him that the child discipline bill was never intended to eliminate smacking as a form of discipline falls flat. Ms. Bradford's intentions were clear from day one. Redefining the bill was done in an effort to condemn any parents who used force of any kind to discipline their child. I posted a response to Mr. Robins about Ms. Bradford's recent comments. Surprisingly no response came. Even a brain surgeon has time to send a text.
Idiot/Savant meanwhile happens to suffer from the same closed mind liberal attitudes Mr Robins has. In a small post on his blog "no right turn," Wellington's drought is brought up. After talking about reducing water usage to 30L a day, he states golf courses will be exempt, before snidely saying droughts "couldn't possibly be allowed to interfere with rich wankers playing golf."
Whilst I may indeed be wrong, there is no doubt both bloggers have striking similarities in their writing. Both often resort to conventional wisdom (which is almost always wrong). Both men are quite bloodthirsty creatures. Mr. Robins says in one blog "I’m all for killing vile Islamofacists" and "gunning them down is good thing (however somber)." Idiot/Savant takes to calling anyone who disagreed with the "gay" marriage bill some rather rude names. "Meanwhile, Labour's Damien O'Connor, Ross Robertson, and Su'a William Sio still voted against the bill. Time to de-select these pricks already. Labour wouldn't accept those spouting racism or sexism, and it shouldn't accept bigots either."
Something disturbs me about these strange creatures. As there are so many similar undertones in their writing, I can't help but think they are two blogs by the same person. One requires a bit of civility but my feeling is that anyone who talks with James Robins in real life hears a lot of rude words coming from his mouth.
http://norightturn.blogspot.co.nz/
http://nz.news.yahoo.com/opinion/post-list/-/blog/jamesrobins/
Thursday, 14 March 2013
Is "gay" marriage losing momentum, or are some polls not reflective of the New Zealand population?
For anyone who is interested in the NZ Herald digital poll about same sex marriage, you can find it at the bottom of http://www.nzherald.co.nz/ 's page. At the time of writing 52% of people do not support the bill. A select committee was established to hear submissions from both sides of the argument. Here is a breakdown of the submission.
Submissions
21,533 Total
10,487 For
8148 Against
2898 Unique submissions
220 Heard by committee
Two things stand out. For people in favor of allowing homosexuals to marry, support in most polls appears to still favor them. More submissions to legalise the bill were put forth than those against it. However, what also stands out is the decline as a proportion of people who appear to be against the bill. Last year, Colmar Brunton allegedly did a poll for TVNZ, with the results showing about two thirds in favour and one third opposed to it. Within the small space of 8 months, people may be changing their minds.
The New Zealand herald poll is not the first to show people voting in favor of keeping marriage between a man and a woman. Yahoo also had a similar poll. 62% of people voted "no" to change the definition of marriage, 34% voted yes, 4% were undecided.
Those two polls aside, there is still a relatively strong backing from politicians, who passed the bill in its second reading. Polls on stuff.co.nz and TVNZ show that it's visitors are quite happy the beehive voted in favor of it.
I'm not sure whether these inconsistent poll results spurred the select committee to rush the bill through in a mere seven months. I'd also be interested to know what the enutre homosexual community in New Zealand think of this bill? (not just noise makers like Ms Wall and Kevin Hague) Will a majority of them make use of it? Is there a requirement to change the law? Do they want to get married rather than enter a civil union? These are serious questions which only homosexuals themselves can answer.
If anyone, (whether in support of "gay" marriage or against it)tries to drag me into this discussion, they will be left in the rain; I'm raising an issue of people changing their minds on the bill, not the positives and/or negative of introducing marriage "equality."
But, in case they try, here is my answer. Same sex marriage is an immensely trivial issue in the wider scope of things. It amazes me that anyone can argue this issue is as important as rebuilding Christchurch, helping hardworking parents provide for their children or working towards fixing New Zealand's horrendous drinking problem. Apart from a few tree hoppers in the each political Party and those sneering youth wing leaders (who I have not seen making speeches outside parliament on any of the issues mentioned above) you won't see many people disagreeing there.
Submissions
21,533 Total
10,487 For
8148 Against
2898 Unique submissions
220 Heard by committee
Two things stand out. For people in favor of allowing homosexuals to marry, support in most polls appears to still favor them. More submissions to legalise the bill were put forth than those against it. However, what also stands out is the decline as a proportion of people who appear to be against the bill. Last year, Colmar Brunton allegedly did a poll for TVNZ, with the results showing about two thirds in favour and one third opposed to it. Within the small space of 8 months, people may be changing their minds.
The New Zealand herald poll is not the first to show people voting in favor of keeping marriage between a man and a woman. Yahoo also had a similar poll. 62% of people voted "no" to change the definition of marriage, 34% voted yes, 4% were undecided.
Those two polls aside, there is still a relatively strong backing from politicians, who passed the bill in its second reading. Polls on stuff.co.nz and TVNZ show that it's visitors are quite happy the beehive voted in favor of it.
I'm not sure whether these inconsistent poll results spurred the select committee to rush the bill through in a mere seven months. I'd also be interested to know what the enutre homosexual community in New Zealand think of this bill? (not just noise makers like Ms Wall and Kevin Hague) Will a majority of them make use of it? Is there a requirement to change the law? Do they want to get married rather than enter a civil union? These are serious questions which only homosexuals themselves can answer.
If anyone, (whether in support of "gay" marriage or against it)tries to drag me into this discussion, they will be left in the rain; I'm raising an issue of people changing their minds on the bill, not the positives and/or negative of introducing marriage "equality."
But, in case they try, here is my answer. Same sex marriage is an immensely trivial issue in the wider scope of things. It amazes me that anyone can argue this issue is as important as rebuilding Christchurch, helping hardworking parents provide for their children or working towards fixing New Zealand's horrendous drinking problem. Apart from a few tree hoppers in the each political Party and those sneering youth wing leaders (who I have not seen making speeches outside parliament on any of the issues mentioned above) you won't see many people disagreeing there.