S U N K _ C O S T S

A rarely coherent collection of notes on politics, economics, and history. All opinions presented are mine and are not guaranteed to be any good.

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Opposing reason is, by definition, unreasonable.

Steven Pinker

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This Government has the capacity to make its own distinctions between good advice and bad advice. Advice we disagree with is bad advice; advice we agree with is good advice.

Bill English

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Money’s the cheapest thing. Liberty and freedom is the most expensive

Bill Cunningham

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We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time.

T. S. Eliot

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For at 60, more than at 50, comes the realization of the transient nature of all earthly glories and successes, and the ephemeral quality of sensory joys and pleasures, when compared to intellectual, moral, or spiritual satisfactions

Lee Kuan Yew

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Reporting the 1987 demonstrations against the authoritarian Chun regime, The Economist asked, "What happens when tear gas meets the middle class in Seoul?" The answer was soon clear: tear gas losses.

Samuel P. Huntington

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New Zealanders don’t ask for much: someone to love, somewhere to live, somewhere to work and something to hope for

Norman Kirk

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Credit: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

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Water, water everywhere

UNLIKE so many countries these days, New Zealand is blessed with an abundance of freshwater. Its temperate climate, regular rainfall over much of the country, 3,800...

It’s rather nice to read about New Zealand from an outside perspective

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There are three kinds of intelligence: one kind understands things for itself, the second appreciates what others can understand, the third understands neither for itself nor through others. The first kind is excellent, the second good, and the third kind useless

Niccolò Machiavelli

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Ahhh, I’m highly jealous of Labour leader Andrew Little getting to meet Thomas Piketty. Even more impressive is the collection of translations of “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” behind the two of them. I see 21세기 자본...

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As with just about everyone, especially the British tabloids, I thought this was going to be a disaster. Well it looks like I was wrong. Miliband again surprises and straddles the fine line between stiff, Westminster politician and emulative clown. He even seems to impress Brand, who I’m not politically a fan of but I do respect has a large and disenfranchised following. I imagine, if watching this video inspired someone to vote, it would probably be to vote for Ed.

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Tomorrow 100 years will have passed since Kiwi soldiers landed at dawn on Anzac Cove at the start of the Gallipoli campaign. That generation has now passed on and there is a dwindling number left of those who served in World War Two who are now all in their nineties. On Saturday, tens of thousands of New Zealanders, young and old, will gather at war memorials around the country to honour those who served and died for New Zealand. For many of us, our foremost thoughts will be around members of our own families who fought and died in the two world wars and subsequent conflicts. My grandmother lost her older brother in the First World War and her youngest son, my uncle, aged just 19 years in the Pacific in World War Two. Their photos are still on our walls at home. I remember the sadness in my grandmother’s voice when she talked about losing those near and dear to her who she loved. It’s difficult to imagine how hard it is for a mother to lose her son. Sadly, a generation later I saw that pain again when my sister lost her son killed in action in 2007 in Afghanistan. Watching with my family as his casket was lowered from the military plane, which brought his body home, was a tragic and sad occasion that I will never forget. Anzac Day is the time when all of us remember the New Zealanders who laid down their lives for their country and their mates. Those of us who never ourselves had to experience the sacrifice and trauma of fighting a war remember with gratitude those who suffered and died for a better world for subsequent generations. Anzac Day is not, however, a time when we glorify war. Gallipoli was an ill-thought out campaign in which tens of thousands died and suffered horribly for no good effect. The survivors of Gallipoli were then dispatched to Europe to be shot, shelled and gassed in their thousands in the awful battles on the Western front. New Zealand lost over 18 000 of its young men in the First World War, a higher casualty rate per head of population than any other country except Russia. Taking those who were wounded into account, over 60 per cent of the 100 000 who left our small country to go to the war became casualties. The Great War, supposed to be the war to end all wars, simply planted the seeds for another war that engulfed the world 21 years later. In the Second World War, we lost over 12 000 men. Nazi ideology in Europe and Japanese invasion of the Pacific threatened our values and way of life. We needed to protect ourselves against aggression and the threat the Axis Powers posed to humanity. A good friend of my father’s, Jack, who is still alive came from a Christian Pacifist family and was initially imprisoned for refusing conscription. As he thought more and more about what was happening in the war, he decided he was wrong. He joined the army and later won the military cross for gallantry in the Italian campaign. Both his initial and his later decision required courage. There are clearly times when we have to stand up and fight for what is right. Regrettably, there are many other occasions where conflicts could have been resolved without resort to war. Too often politicians have been gung ho about sending other people to their deaths in wars without thinking about consequences or other possible options. On Anzac Day, we remember those who sacrificed their lives but also commit ourselves to learn the lessons of the past and strive to create a more peaceful future.

- Phil Goff, Labour Party Spokesperson for Defence and Member of Parliament for Mt. Roskill

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All politics is local

Thomas (Tip) O’Neill Jr.

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Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind

Albert Einstein

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Audrey Young: Today I'm embarrassed John Key is Prime Minister - National - NZ Herald News

Today I'm embarrassed that John Key is Prime Minister. I have not felt that in the past six-and-a-bit years he had led the country. But to learn today that he pulled a waitress's pony-tail on several occasions at his local cafe makes me cringe. It is one of those stories that denigrates him and his office.

It really feels like after six and a half years of John Key being unable to do anything wrong (even when he was doing A LOT wrong) that the tide is turning.

This story is blowing up everywhere, not only right throughout the NZ media but also...

The Guardian - New Zealand prime minister John Key apologises for pulling waitress's hair

ABC - New Zealand PM John Key apologises over ponytail bullying claim

BBC - New Zealand PM John Key apologises for hair-pulling

No guesses for what will be running top of the 6pm news