Al Giordano @ The Field: Interesting updates on Iran and background

Al Giordano at The Field has some very interesting commentary on the state of play in Iran. For anyone interested in thoughtful analysis and deep background, I would recommend that you visit his site. In a post from 23 June, Al’s talking about the situation in Iran from an informed perspective that certainly accords with my own [...]

Iran update #1: Real revolution will not be taking the bus either

Mousavi suporters have called for a general strike to begin in Iran today (Tuesday Iran time). This is the way forward. In 1979 it was the industrial working class and in particular the oil workers who led the revolution until it was hijacked by Islamic fundamentalists. This could be the beginning of a new uprising of [...]

The revolution will not be Twitter-ized

You will not be able to stay home, brother. You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out. You will not be able to lose yourself on skag and skip, Skip out for beer during commercials, Because the revolution will not be televised. Revolutionary black musician Gil Scott Heron released “The revolution will not be televised” [...]

Karl du Fresne sees some sort of reddish light down a dark blue tunnel

I must be the first to congratulate Fairfax columnist Karl du Fresne for a well-considered column about the collapse of newspapers: Why newspapers are falling over – and why we still need them Intent on maximising profit, the new breed of proprietors have slashed costs and shed staff. Inevitably, their papers have suffered. It’s a vicious circle: profits [...]

Garth George duped by Wikipedia

Ah, the tricks of the trade.  You can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but how easy is it to trick an old dog? Here at AUT we always tell students that “Google is not research” and that “Wikipedia is not a reliable source [...]

Political economy now: “Obey ye the market” [not]

In the shadow of my previous post I bring you Frank Stilwell and Political Economy Now. I actually helped design and produce this badge. It’s a collector’s item now. I wear mine with pride. My roots go deep and the history of this struggle has recently been published. Players of political economy Frank Stilwell | May [...]

Old habitus die hard, diehards just get older. Goldfish bite back

For the record, I started on this post way back at the end of March. I last worked on it before today on the 2nd of April. I was hoping to wait till I had more time, but some things just can’t wait. I have broken my vow of silence, now it’s back to the [...]

Leave of absence

I’m too busy-wired-baffled-tired-weird right now to spend any time with you in this virtual embrace. Why not take a [twitter]card so you’ll know when EM’s back in the saddle. To be real, I’m so busy with end-of-semester, marking, planning, Oman, book, reviews, journal articles and entertaining Nedska [just a few days, six bottles of gin and 12 [...]

The Veitch story-when too much information is barely enough

So the New Zealand police were forced to release documents relating to the Tony Veitch assault trial to the news media under the Offical Information Act, after journalists asked for it. According to the Dom Post there is an injunction in place preventing further disclosures from the 358 page police files. There will be hearing next [...]

Global news meltdown and Kiwi exceptionalism

I’ve just come in from the New Zealand Writers and Readers’ Festival. I was on a panel this afternoon with Rhonda Sherman of the New Yorker and Pamele Stirling, editor of The Listener. The chair was Nicola Legat and the crowd was great. I reckon about 300 people; which was more than I’d expected. So, [...]