■ Cogito, ergo sum. I think, therefore I am. (René Descartes, mathematician and philosopher,1599-1650)
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| pn320 |
Most things in life eventually catch up on us.
If you sit at a computer too long, don't exercise and watch your diet and are overweight, you're more likely to have a stroke —and that's what happened to Cameron Slater late last year.
If you use your blog to unethically malign others, you're likely to be fined by the Human Rights Tribunal —and that's what happened to Cameron Slater this year when he was ordered to pay $70,000 compensation for the "extended assassination of businessman Matthew Blomfield's character.
Cameron, unable to defend himself because of the strokes and purportedly unable pay the $70,000 fine declared himself bankrupt in February.
This might have led us to think that the days of the blog were over. But no. The other shareholder in Social Media Consultants Ltd that owns Whaleoil is his wife and fellow blogger Juana Mary Atkins.
She put the company into voluntary liquidation on Monday and set up a new site Wobh Ltd. The future of Whaleoil is still unclear but it continues to publish.
For the present, Whaleoil which was the vehicle for the offending attacks that resulted in the Commission fine, continues unpunished. It still spits out its daily venom about supposed Marxist jihadists, the conscription of jihadists at Christchurch mosques, the Left and big tech companies allegedly stifling free speech, shutting down criticism and debate, and ridiculing the supposedly ridiculous claim that Jacinda Ardern deserves a Nobel Peace prize.
To draw a parallel, if guns as well as gun owners need to be registered, a strong case also exists for a blog as well as its owners to be held responsible for their action.
Whaleoil should be closed down, and its possible surrogate Wobh put under close scrutiny.
It is too easy to declare bankruptcy and escape responsibility.
--ACW
SpinOff/The Bulletin Commends Stuff on Climate Change Articles Thursday 29 November
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| pn192 |
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin, by Alex Braae and supported by Vector.
We're going to lead off today with something a bit different to the usual – we wouldn't normally start with a story about media coverage of a story. I like to think that this publication is generally pretty positive about the quality of NZ journalism. But today I want to talk about a series that in my opinion surpasses everything else published in this country over the past year.
"Of the 40 cents a litre increase in petrol prices over recent weeks, about 30 cents of that has been due to a combination of rising crude oil prices internationally and a weaker exchange rate (which makes imports dearer). The remainder has been adjustments in retailer margins, changes in discounts and an increase in taxes of about 9 cents." -- Eaqub.
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| pn129 |
Jacinda Adern said petrol prices had increased by 38c in the year ending 28th September, of which 6.8c was for the Emissions Trading Levy and GST. These figures were provided by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) and were also used by the Automobile Association to show that tax was not the major factor in the increased petrol tax. (See my posting pn121).
Government opponents, including "hot head" Cameron Slater, immediately attacked these figures because they did not include the 3.5c excise tax and the 10c Auckland Regional Fuel Tax that came in two days later, on September 30th. Mike Hosking said the increase was mainly due to taxes — which it wasn't. (Use "Search the blog" for "pn127".)
We look at these views and then at those with "cooler" heads.
