The poor old media are between a rock and a hard place. On one hand they want to scream about the child-eatings joos, on the other hand their de-facto god: Barrack Obama, has quite vociferously endorsed the right of Israel to protect itself from the daily rocket attacks Hamas & Hezzbullah sends its way.
Ok, let's look at the facts:
The reported, "militant branch of Hamas" (Tui billboard pending) has been firing Qassam rockets into Israeli settlements in southern Israel for several years.
Here's where the "fuzzy facts" are distributed by the media, but here are the actual facts: Qassam rockets are lethal. They are not loaded with water-balloons, they are packed with high-explosives and shrapnel.
This highlights the psychopathic cunning of Hamas. The have attacked a country that is better armed, richer & smarter. In retaliation Hamas "Photoshops" bombsites & uses an equally pathological media to howl about the outrage.
Now, Israel claims that Hamas not only fire rockets at them, they do it from the roof-tops of civilian buildings. Given the blatant "media manipulation" of Hamas, I tend to believe Israel on this one.
Tell me this: if your neighbor posted billboards about how they were going to kill you, your family and everything you stand for, then started throwing hand-grenades into your backyard, what would you do?
What if you went to the police but the police said all they could do was watch your neighbors but not interfere with their right to protest.
The rivalry between Jews and Arabs is ancient, bitter and oft fought. It is a hatred that has been stirred up by many factors, Machiavellian mechaniations of leaders, religion, cunning, greed and pride.
I think it is a mindset that can't be understood by the most in the west. Israel have not just got where they are by flouting immigration laws. They historically belong to this place, it really only became important to Arabs after a dodgey Islamic leader decided to use "Mohammad" (up till then minor at best) to whip up Islamic fervor. Israel has spilt blood for it, they have fought for it even though surrounded, out numbered and out resourced.
The Israelis have conceded huge tracts of land to the Palestinians, but rather than shore-up their own infrastructure, Hamas is acting like a schoolyard bully aided by a media that pretend outrage, but in reality just want to sell more newspapers.
Selection: Not a very big selection of food, plenty of hot & cold drinks.
Service: Prompt, polite and helpful, everything staff should be.
Ambience: Very nice, trendy, Café.
Additional comments: This Café did not display the standard Palmerston North City Council (PNCC) letter grading system, however, a required NZQA certificate WAS displayed. I can only guess as to why a grade is not displayed. That is their right of course, but it does create confusion & hence I had to rate them accordingly. That's a shame because they are definately one of the better Cafés in Palmy.
The PNCC Safe food bylaw (2004) states: "If the Supervisor/s - Manager/s have not completed NZQA Unit 168 or equivalent by the given date, the highest score a premises can obtain is a 3". A score of 3 equates with an E grade, "E = Substandard - where the inspection score is below 6 (Prosectuion or closure is likely)"
Taste: Excellent taste, a little "thin" but not to noticable.
Selection: A huge selection of food, plenty of hot & cold drinks.
Service: Prompt, polite and helpful, everything staff should be.
Ambience: Very nice Café, a few too many tables.
Additional comments: Overall very nice. I went at a very quiet time (Late Sunday afternoon) having been there on many occasions, I know the level of quality is quite variable
Location: K-mart plaza, Church street, Palmerston north.
Cleanliness/Hygiene: Good, tables cleared extremely promptly as well as counter cleaned often.
Price: $4.00
Presentation: Nice, welcoming coffee.
Taste: Ok taste, not great, please read the "Additional comments" section.
Selection: Great selection of both sweet & savoury foods, good drink selection too.
Service: Prompt, relatively polite but not great, please read the "Additional comments" section.
Ambience: Please read the "Additional comments" section..
Additional comments: Ok, at the time of writing this review K-mart plaza is under-going massive rennovations and a number of shops have been moved to cater for the construction process. Greames is one of the affected shops, so in that respect I accept that this may not be the optimal time to review the Café, regardless of that fact they are still a Café and don't offer their services for free! I will review them again at a later date.
Another factor was doing the review on Boxing day, perhaps not the best timing on my part as the Café was unusually busy, but at the risk of repeating myself, I will review this Café again.
This Café suffers by doubling as the enterance/exit for the management of K-mart Plaza, even more problematic due to the tiny size of this Café and the number of tables.
Location: K-mart plaza, Church street, Palmerston north.
Cleanliness/Hygiene: Good, tables cleared promptly, being such a small Café, the impression of clutter is doubled.
Price: $4.60
Presentation: Ok, not great, but tidy.
Taste: Excellent taste, no problems there!
Selection: Great selection of both sweet & savoury foods, good drink selection too.
Service: Prompt, relatively polite (more on that later).
Ambience: Busy, a little too contrived.
Additional comments: Gawking staff: because Cafés' tend to hire young (I know, not always, but the trend is there), their social graces can be lacking. I'm not a wall flower, I accept that aside from being physically disabled, I am also unusually tall at 6'5". I'm used to it when little kids do it and teenagers are in that "grey area" of being between children & adults. Asides from those 2 exceptions, I try not to presume to know why someone may be looking at me (I am a impressive man after all). But I don't extend that tolerance to the staff where I pay to relax. You may think I'm being too sensitive but disabled people will know INSTANTLY what I am saying. I have 1 other exception, but I think you can figure that one out.
Like a skit from "Monty Python's Flying Circus" at the height of their comedic existence, the e m p h a t i c, brow-beating media in New Zealand went, almost, unchallenged deliberately along with their demonisaton of Fijian military Commander "Frank" Bainimarama - in direct opposition to facts.
This is a beat up on Fiji, I believe the NZ media is attempting to punish Fiji because of their audacity to call the NZ media on their manic manipulation of the REAL issues in Fiji.
I also believe the NZ media has bought, hook, line & sinker, the socialist lies of Bainimarama's opponents, mainly because it suits the lazy medias agenda.
The rejoinder to "Follow the money" is far more relevant to the environmental rape of Fiji than it ever was to the Watergate scandal.
Bainimara stepped in because he (and many others) saw what was happening to Fiji, he stood up against a corrupt government that were selling off the birth-rite of Fijians to the highest bidder.
So rather than buying back the stolen assets and further disadvantaging taxpayers (Not that the NZ Labour buying back the iron albatross of Kiwirail bothered about that), Bainimarama did a far more effective thing & removed the source of the problem, expelling the corrupt Fijian government in a bloodless coup.
As for the claims (by 1, yes one) Fijian blogger that the Acting NZ High Commisioner to Fiji is to be expelled by the big, nasty Fijian overlord, well, the simple facts are that she has not been, days after the "deadline" was reached. Did the NZ media's link to Google go down for the week?
Lefty bloggers are still bleating about the evil anti-democratic Fijian Darth Vader, have they forgotten that the price of democracy is vigilance such as the type Bainimarama is currently doing!
Perhaps Churchill should have just asked Hitler to stop too? Woops, did I break an academic convention by mentioning the "H" word?
I am not a crook!, the famous claim of US President Richard Nixon - but William Mark Felt knew differently!
Having the courage to stand up and say, "This is wrong" takes strength of character, not just against someone who took your lunch out of the fridge at work, but against the leader of the free world! It is a thankless task, inevitably exposing the whistle-blower to the wrath of superiors and ridicule of colleagues. Even with the right to "blow the whistle" entrenched in the country's law.
Fortunately Felt was EXACTLY that type of person to stand up when an injustice took place. An Ex-Navy man that had risen to the dizzying heights of the second in command of the United States' Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) in the days of J. Edgar Hoover.
Felt was vital in exposing the infamous 1973 Watergate scandal (named after Washington's Watergate hotel where the events were first observed). Nixon's henchmen bugged the campaign headquarters of their political opponents, the henchmen were caught in the act by the police but Nixon nearly managed to cover up the damaging story. If Felt didn't have access to the information he did, the whole event may have never appeared in the Nation's newspapers. But make it the story did,
After a chance meeting at the Whitehouse, Ex-Navy man and now novice US journalist Bob Woodward made an impression on Felt. Although many years older than Woodward, Felt connected with the young journalist and after a few informal meetings, told Woodward he had some information to pass to him. At Felt's insistence, Woodward concealed his source's identity with the rather tongue-in-cheek moniker of Deepthroat (the title of a well known porno film of that era) and took the story to his editor at the Washington Post newspaper.
It took several weeks of steady research but Woodward finally had the bones of a story to take to his editor. Woodward was only a junior reporter for the newspaper so the editor teamed him up with Carl Bernstein, a seasoned journalist. After a year or so of digging and fact checking (going to Felt when a dead-end was met), the whole scandal was eventually uncovered and Nixon would be forced to resign as President.
Woodward was not handed the whole story by Felt in a neatly typed manuscript, but with the veteran Benstein now on-board, a new sense of life was breathed into the story. Woodward was convinced by Bernstein to re-approach Felt and "Milk" him for further information. Somewhat reluctantly, Felt agreed to further meetings with Woodward and a covert signal was agreed on to meet in a specific location (a poorly lit parking building) and Woodward (alone) would meet Felt and have his facts either confirmed or denied.
Although often being credited with the phrase, "Follow the money", Felt never said it and the famous clue was actually coined by Alan J. Pakula, director of, "All the President's men", the 1976 movie of the Watergate scandal starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman [As a footnote - Redford paid US$450 000 for the rights to the story of the scandal, he funded the making of the movie and co-starred alongside Hoffman, making a huge box-office hit].
Although over the years several people had deduced the source must have been Felt, it was not until 2005 that Felt himself confirmed that he was the source known as "Deepthroat". A massive testimony to the Journalistic integrity of Woodward, Bernstein & the Washington Post.
William Mark Felt Senior (1913-2008)
It's interesting: if New Zealand reporters did that kind of investigative reporting here, who knows what political scandals they'd dig up. Instead they froth at the mouth over allegations of 20 year-old "rape" cases made by proven liars and domestic abuse by sports presenters.
I do it almost unconciously now... what is their letter... why is it taking so long to clear the tables... is the cup clean... what's the ambience like...
I started ranking Cafés in Palmerston North earlier this year, I found it to be useful, so I'm going to continue it in this blog.
Perhaps my biggest peeve, is having to get up from where I am sitting and going to get another cup of coffee (or whatever). So I appreciate good service, so much so I don't mind paying an extra fifty cents or so.
To rate a Café I'll order a flat white in a medium sized cup, to have there, no added sugar.
Location: Cnr square & Main streets, Palmerston north.
Cleanliness/Hygiene: Very good, empty tables cleared of dishes quickly. Tables looked clean.
Price: $4.50
Presentation: Great.
Taste: Excellent - very enjoyable coffee, not too bitter, not too sweet.
Selection: Wide range of beverages and food with an open kitchen with wide selection of food there too. I found the selection of food in the glass cabinet a little... lacking.
Service: Excellent service. There is a very fine balance between getting patrons to buy things, but not "hovering", They have it nailed! maybe a little too hover-y, but I'd rather that than not having my needs meet.
Ambience: Overall ok but a little tightly packed.
Additional comments: In my opinion, the best Café in Palmerston North... but for 2 things. Firstly price, secondly space (or more accurately: lack of).
Cleanliness/Hygiene: Very good, empty tables cleared of dishes quickly. Tables looked clean.
Price: $3.50
Presentation: Great.
Taste: Excellent - very enjoyable coffee, not too bitter, not too sweet.
Selection: Wide range of beverages and food with an open kitchen with wide selection of food there too. I found the selection of food in the glass cabinet a little... lacking.
Service: Good service. I have been there quite a few times, generally the service is good, a few times my order has been mistaken. Sometimes the staff seem more interested in chatting with each other & less concerned with the patrons.
Ambience: OK, a lot of noisey children frequent the place, but it is inside a McDonalds restaurant!.
Additional comments: Surprisingly good! Once you get over the "fish-bowl" feeling of being in a glass walled Café, you can appreciate it more. I wouldn't go there to have a quiet, relaxing coffee, but it is a sociable place.
Presentation: No fancy design in the froth, no spillage marks
Taste: Clean, pleasing taste.
Selection: Wide selection of coffees and beans, plenty of food and bottle drinks for sale too.
Service: Great, prompt and welcoming and curteous.
Ambience: Large shop, eclectic but nice, the Café has a somewhat coffee gourmet feel.
Additional comments: I asked for a medium sized cup and was shown a medium sized cup, however when the coffee arrived at my table it was in a small sized cup.
I asked for a glass of water and was brought a glass and a chilled bottle of water - no extra cost.
I did over hear (and they were talking quite loudly) the two staff members discussing another staff member, not a good look.
Although i really liked this Café and wanted to give it a higher score, because it had no City Council grade displayed (possibly because of it's 'newness') I couldn't.
Location: Inside the main entrance of the Palmerston north public library
Cleanliness/Hygiene: Ok
Price: $3.50
Presentation: No design in the froth, no spillage marks.
Taste: Nice taste, nothing special.
Selection: Excellent selection of beverages and food.
Service: Pretty good.
Ambience: Nice modern Caféin a big space.
Additional comments: Because of the location can be a little noisey. coupled with the sometime raucus talking in the kitchen. Water available for free.
Presentation: No design in the froth, no spillage.
Taste: Nice, but nothing special.
Selection: Wide selection of beverages and food.
Service: Polite and modern, cashier read my order back to me to confirm, excellent.
Ambience: Hip and modern, extremely stylish.
Additional comments: Arguably the most popular Café in Palmerston north, suffers from being too cramped and the outside tables are seated close to a round-a-bout on the road, I find it un-nerving to see cars pointed straight towards me as they navigate around the traffic island. Because it is so busy, at peek times it can be a little too noisey.
Well, Labour got thrown out (with a very satisfying thud) & National got voted in led by John Key who was grinning like a Cheshire cat that had swallowed an annoyingly elusive red Canary. That's what I, we, the majority of voters wanted to see, but someone really should tell Labour and the media. Clark (The Geppetto to Goff's Pinocchio) is so used to bullying people that she's busy telling the National Government how they should react to Fiji, on a issue that has yet to be confirmed!
To a certain extent I can appreciate that the medias' job is to question politicians', you know, fourth estate & all that guff...
But even giving voice to that concession makes the foghorn of hypocrisy blare out. Politicians', not just a certain political party, are the fodder for our limp... wristed literary "guardians" (who really only guard their bank accounts). But you see, the Red rapists have a corral of tame Walter Mittys' busy spinning news into a techni-colour coat of half truths, deceptions and out-right lies from the bowels of Bowan house. Their pre-made or "canned" stories appeal to an increasingly Google based "fourth estate" with a permanent link to www.research.com.
A newly elected Government comes in, with the audacity to honor its' election promises and address the poor state of education that led to our pathetic "Fourth estate" and what does the mainstream media do? It continues to sell its' soul to the weak, pathologically corrupt Labour party. The same party that took Saddam Hussein's burning oil fields and used them to set fire to New Zealand's economy.
I'm sad to say it but our journalists major in the minors, caught-up in the need to place well in the rat-race. Like Polar bears eating from a garbage dump, they have taken the path of least resistance for an easy meal and have become oblivious to their pathetic existence. But then, like a moment of lucidity to an Alzheimers patient, they jump up with excitement, only to sink back into their armchair with a confused expression on their face, their Labour party nurse giving them a pill and patting them on their head.
This is why I think we need a World Cup for politicians, a competition where the Governments' from around the world defend their political view points, a competition where minnows like the Green Party do not form the back-line for our government, but are treated as they really are: in a different league! A competition where even the prettiest player is only as good as the results they bring in and a competition where the whole team is vital, not just the front row.
It's so cathartic to rant, good for the heart, but "If you see Kay..." is not going to be all about politics, far from it! I'll be commenting on a wide range of subjects, everything from computers to genetic engineering (without the hysteria).
So to change tacks and cool down a bit: Photography is my hobby, I really enjoy it and probably spend too much on it.. so I'll be dishing up a collection of my favorite photographs, so to start the ball rolling, here's a picture of a Miniature Fox-Terrier.
A touch of Photoshop magic & it's a photo that's hard to forget!
= 6.5/10
