frogblog

Why would someone who believes climate change is a hoax and human activity is not contributing to climate change, want a carbon tax? Why would you tax fossil fuels if you don’t believe they are doing any harm? Why would a party that has campaigned on a carbon tax since 1993 and accepted […]

Rarely are so few asked to do so much with so little for the benefit of so many, who are ungrateful. That’s how I would describe Pharmac’s calling. Today’s Sunday Star Times spends an inordinate amount of column inches discussing the challenges Pharmac faces. Or does it?
The unattributed comment piece on A11, “Pharmac’s $635 million […]

A lovely story from the Telegraph to lighten your Friday:
When André Tchaíkowsky died of cancer in 1982 aged 46 he donated his body for medical science.
But he added the proviso that his skull “shall be offered by the institution receiving my body to the Royal Shakespeare Company for use in theatrical performance.”
Since then it has […]

I am utterly dismayed after reading a quote from Dr Wayne Mapp in today’s Dom Post, with regards to the NZ response to Japanese whaling:
I’m not really sure what we will be doing.
It doesn’t get any more wishy washy than that from a Defence Minister. Not that I blame Mapp for the sentiment. A decade […]

Another laugh out loud video from Greenpeace Australia. It seems that Rudd wants to pay $1.2 billion in subsidies to the coal industry as part of their emissions trading scheme! At least when we subsidise our polluters, it is because they are trade exposed. Export coal isn’t covered by Kyoto. So what’s up?

It’s official. The electoral commission has published the final results of the election, and the Green Party is up one more MP than previously announced. Kennedy Graham, the number 9 on the party list, is officially in parliament.

Ken teaches (taught?)  international politics and international law at the School of Law, Canterbury and Victoria University, and […]

Things will be a bit sketchy around here at frogblog, as I help the parliamentary team pack up their office and shift further up in Bowen House. With our newer, bigger caucus, we’ll be inhabiting two floors now instead of one.
The views from level 8 were lovely. At almost twice the height, they will be […]

 
I laughed out loud at this image over at Tumeke this morning, in a post from Bomber. I’m not entirely sure who gets the image credit, but perhaps it is best ascribed to John Key himself, as quoted in the NZ Herald:

Do [New Zealanders] want to put in a National government with a fresh view […]

This cartoon is slightly out of date now, except as a tidy explanation of the benefits of two party first past the post presidential style elections so favoured by opponents of MMP.

There is more relevant Christmas themed Captain Capitalism here.

Greenpeace ironically notes that New Zealanders should be seriously alarmed at the prospect of the National-led government damaging the country’s relationship with the United States.
“New Zealand is at serious risk of becoming an international Pariah over climate, and jeopardising its international standing and trade relations. The last thing we want is to become the equivalent […]