Author Archive

The Spruikers’ Lament

Q: Why is that guy Peter picking on us? A: There can be only one reason: He must be in ‘direct competition’ with us! Yeah! Oh yes. Actually, maybe there’s another reason: He’s a hypocrite. That’s it. A nasty hypocrite. Because (how does it go again? Oh yes, I remember…) He’s in the exactly the […]

Bailing for Julian (Assange)

December 14th, 2010 2:58 AM WITNESS STATEMENT OF MICHAEL MOORE WITNESS STATEMENT (CJ Act 1967, s.9 MC Act 1980, ss.5A(3)(a) and 5B; Criminal Procedure Rules 2010, Rule 27) ____________________________________________________________ STATEMENT OF MICHAEL MOORE Aged: Over 18 Occupation: FILM MAKER AND AUTHOR ____________________________________________________________ This statement (consisting of 2 pages each signed by me) is true to […]

A brief note about comment moderation

I recently had cause to mention our comments policy at thePaepae.com, saying I’m not a big believer in censorship, but there are limits: That’s not how I try to play it at thePaepae.com, Jen. I’ve actually stopped some comments alleging ‘criminal’ actions by Shaun Stenning from appearing, but generally, this site goes pretty much uncensored […]

D is for unintelligent

If you use any of these ‘most commonly used passwords‘, take yourself outside and give yourself a good smack. Duuuumb. 1 012345 2 password 3 12345678 4 lifehack 5 qwerty 6 abc123 7 111111 8 monkey 9 consumer 10 12345 … Demonstrating why you should not use the same password for multiple websites, the hackers […]

Safe investing means doing your homework

My earlier post ‘Good advice: Google the salesmen and their get-rich-quick scheme‘, included the suggestion that a bit of research and homework could save a lot of pain and regret: look at the track records of these guys and their previous ‘enterprises’? Do some due diligence and don’t believe the hype. I’ve been struck by […]

The sins of the fathers

It was pretty sobering to read of Bernard Madoff’s 46 year old son hanging himself just before the 2nd anniversary of his father’s exposure as a fraud. Consequences. Sad.

In defence of Shaun Stenning — (update: FAKE) Jennifer from Oz

This comment floated in overnight — from ‘Jennifer‘, [who is a sockpuppet. See UPDATE 2 below] in response to last month’s post ‘Is this how Shaun Stenning handles a request for a refund?‘ and, oh, she accuses me of insincerity, to say the least: Hi Peter, It seems you like to play devils advocate don’t […]

History will judge WikiLeaks. And they’ll be seen as right.

‘The Pentagon Papers’ author Daniel Ellsberg has added his voice to support for WikiLeaks … I heard John Pilger on the BBC, doing the same… these men are lions of conscience, and heroes of mine. Whistleblowers aren’t popular. WikiLeaks has teased the genie of transparency out of a very opaque bottle, and powerful forces in […]

Joe Lieberman: I’m with Homeland Security and I’m here to help. Right.

So, remind me how the US, land of free speech is different to, say, China where the internet is censored as a matter of course. Via Salon’s Glen Greenwald we learn that the New York Times has catalogued another bit of heavyweight censorship — guilty without a trial — connected with WikiLeaks… … another company […]

Glenn Beck = fruitcake?

Is it just me? Or is this guy Glenn Beck nuttier than a Christmas cake? Observe the range of emotions he, er, emotes as he  tells the horrific (made-up) story of what happens when people who have a ‘Like problem’ — i.e. who don’t click the ‘Like’ button on his Facebook page — they ‘kill […]

Government lapdogs?

TPMMuckraker How Lieberman Got Amazon To Drop Wikileaks

Awesome!

Look what happens when you mess with the Fed: Whoo, boy. U.S. Shuts Down Web Sites in Piracy Crackdown By BEN SISARIO New York Times November 26, 2010 In what appears to be the latest phase of a far-reaching federal crackdown on online piracy of music and movies, the Web addresses of a number of […]

Off with his head

OK, we expect reactionaries like Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly to call for the firing squad for the WikiLeaks source.  And ditto whoever writes Sarah Palin’s Facebook stuff (hunt down Julian Assange, the director of Wikileaks “with the same urgency we pursue al Qaeda and Taliban leaders”, describing Assange as “an anti-American operative with blood on […]

Smallest surprise in the world

The day of release of the widely-telegraphed US embassy cables, of course someone will have a crack at WikiLeaks. Thus, the strategy of release to multiple news organisations. They can hardly complain about dirty tricks, when they’re leaking stolen documents. It’s only going to get worse for them. As I noted earlier Julian Assange and […]

U2 360 Auckland

Pretty impressive night, in all ways. Great crowd, too.