Epic Fail

lprent posted at the standard;

A Potty Peer making money off future misery.

He gets all worked up because Christopher, Viscount Monckton of Brenchley makes about $23,000 NZD per speaking engagement.

Which got me thinking, how much is Al Gore charging per day. Well I found this little gem;
Al Gore's $100 Million Makeover.

A l Gore is a funny guy. And, for his $175,000 speaking fee, he tells this story: after leaving the White House and heading back to Tennessee sans motorcade...

That's USD remember, that converted at today's rate is circa $238,000 NZD and that was in 2007.

Looking at that it appears Lord Monckton is just covering costs but if Lord Monckton is profiteering then what the hell is lprent's team up to?

Perhaps Lord Monckton hasn't got so much smoke and mirrors to cart around with him.

Rocky learns the fun way.

Yesterday 5 people got arrested protesting with megaphones outside the ASB Tennis stadium in Auckland. Rocky though that perhaps if she went there today and did the same thing there might be a different outcome. Gee shucks, she got arrested.

I bet she never saw that coming.

No Right Turn: Absolutely ignores intent.

No Right Turn: Absolutely outrageous

Idiot/Savant paraphrases what Rocky has to say when he says this;

"So the message seems to be that you are free to speak, but only if no-one can hear you. This is as outrageous as it is ridiculous. Again, the law as interpreted by the Supreme Court sets a very high bar on the level of disruption which must be tolerated in public space. And merely making noise to send a message that people do not want to hear does not cut it."

But there is a question Idiot/Savant probably won't answer. If expecting to be arrested which John Minto did ( as evidenced by his comment here at the standard ) then arguably in the context of ‘Disturbing the peace’ expecting to be arrested provides the guilty mind. Doing the action that (rightfully or wrongfully) got you arrested (while expecting to be arrested) is the guilty hand.

So is causing the police to arrest and process half a dozen people that needed to be extracted from trees etc in itself disturbing the peace ?

Seriously disruptive technology.

On stuff today: Google unveils iPhone rival.


There has been burblings about this for a while, it's certainly not news to the tech followers that this was going to happen. While phone buyers ponder do they go out on a limb with a new device might find this disruptive, think about the mobile device developers trying to second guess a whole new product from a very sucessful advertising empire. iPhone developers: how do you feel? Windows mobile developers: Where do you fit?

Next distruption stop, also on stuff; Microsoft ,HP team up on tablet. Well I guess that's where the Windows mobile app developers go, Java monkeys - take your chances one way or another - I can't see google and Apple working together for code portability so choose carefully.

Against anything that improves educational outcomes.

In response to this prep-school spin from NRT;

Since the beginning of the state education system, there has always been a parallel private system, catering to those who thought that any school which accepted ordinary children was not good enough for their little darlings, who could not possibly mix with the peasants lest they be contaminated.

What is he trying to say ? - look at it simply and it becomes obvious;

The private schools are funded directly by parents who also fund the state schools with their taxes. These parents feel strongly about the education of their children and even though they are required to pay thousands of $$$ a year in fees while still paying their taxes to support a system they do not use, it pisses Idiot/Savant off because the private schools produce better academic results than the 1 size fits all debacle that has no accountability.

Unfortunately, the government funds this snobbery.

OMG, the state collects tax payers money from parents who don't use the state school, and lots of it then a tiny fraction is allocated back to private schools.

...but they're now also giving out $2.6 million a year in "aspire scholarships" to poor children

That is so wrong because poor children should go to poor quality schools and get a poor quality education so they stay poor.... Any other explanation ?

The message behind this is clear: the public education system isn't good enough,

Got it in one. Well done Idiot/Savant, you tried to bury that fact in prep-school level spin but it still stands out like dog bollox as a fact that needs to be addressed.

...and everyone should instead aspire to go to a private school.

Well as they produce consistently better academic outcomes - YES they should aspire to having a choice and being able to afford to do the best by their children.

...This is not something we should be paying for.

I can see why a lefty would say that, educated voters won't vote for policies and ideologies that have failed again and again.

...The sole purpose of private schools is to promote the snobbery of the rich.

Policies of envy alive in well in lefty-la-la land. I think the private schools actually exists to educate kids - but I guess if you love mediocrity you would make an insane comment like that.

...Instead of funding that, we should be putting that money into improving our public education system so that it delivers for every child.

Well this is a first, Idiot/Savant almost gets over his envy and remembers what school is about. Promising start but then he looses it again.

...And if the wealthy want to exclude themselves from that so they can think they are better than the rest of us, they can pay for it themselves.

Idiot/Savant - wake up. The rich do pay for it and they pay for the public system they do not use. These scholarships (irrespective of how the kids are chosen) are allocated to kids who are probably not even funding their share of the public system. But I guess like I said before you simply don't want poor kids well educated or they might not vote for a dim-bulb lefty party. Which will be why this quote was never put into Idiot/Savant's prep-school hack of theHerald article.

"It's purely about increasing educational opportunities and choice for those students who wouldn't normally have the ability to go to a private school."

You are a muppet - you prove again why you won't allow comments on your MSM newsleter.