Posts by andin
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Time for a highlights package methinks
Ben Wilson 11 days ago"Yes, I think blaming the whole modern condition on baby boomers goes way too far. They’re as much victims of the times as anyone else. It’s them who will need the health care and pensions that can’t be afforded, and a likely scenario is that they will miss out, despite having funded such things for their own elders during most of their lives"
Kyle 11 days go maybe you should be pissed at Ben for having a lighter touch, anyway
"Well that's not true. Baby boomers are starting to approach retirement age. During their peak income years - 40s onwards they had large tax cuts while their parents and grand parents had income testing. The 1980s and 1990s are a generational split in our social contract."
Then Kyle sez 9 days ago
"The fact that you might not have benefitted personally from the changes (like all generalisations it's not universally true) doesn't negate the fact that many baby boomers from the mid-1980s onwards benefitted tremendously from tax cuts. To go back to the original statement. Baby boomers were at the most 40 years old when the 4th Labour government hacked taxes. During the following 25+ years - their peak earning years when people pay the most in income tax, they did not fund the care of their elders as per the social contract that had built up for several decades. Within a few years their parents and grandparents were having to sell their homes to fund their hospital care."
Its as if the world suddenly sprang into life (like a biblical scenario) when Lange's govt gained power. IIRC The country was in the shit after Muldoon's "Think Big" era. Were the IMF or World Bank involved behind the scenes? I have no idea, perhaps a political historian could enlighten me. But the policies enacted then in NZ seem eerily similar to those these organisations were advocating at the time. But hey it was the 80's the hippies had been buried, punk ruled, we can fix it ourselves optimism abounded, the human potential movement and all that. As for me, just so you know, I managed to get a job selling hotdogs to the drunks in late night Sydney. 12 hrs a night, $4 an hour getting insulted by drunken yobs. Yep so my career was really taking off. Just to keep you informed....
Kyle 9 days ago"This particular generation is unique in the period after the creation of the welfare state. Quite a few received a well funded education, graduated from university without student loans, and then when they hit peak earning capacity, the government reduced taxes on them tremendously and brought in user pays. As higher income earners, lower taxes and user-pays works out pretty well. It created tremendous wealth, a lot of which we’ve seen go into the property market and put first homes out of the reach of the next generation."
It almost as if it was ordained. So the labour Govt "hacked taxes' with the express purpose of creating a property boom or human greed (hey common to ALL of us) just took over.You tell me. Those were heady times I guess for some, as I said I, like you, was sitting on the outside looking in.
Anyway enough
Ian"That Tool Aronofsky has a lot to offer and has made some fine movies, including Pi (can’t find the symbol on my keyboard), the Wrestler and Black Swan."
I was referring to the sales pitch for The Fountain. If I had been in the room I would have been laughing and saying "This is a comedy right, it's got to be. Who do you want in the lead Ricky Gervais?"
And from the films you listed it appears I am not a fan of any of Aronofsky's films.
Call me common and coarse if you like, I make no pretensions to be otherwise.
Then back to Kyle"I’ll concede to the sweeping generalisations. But the point I was responding to was a sweeping generalisation about them funding their elder’s care"
Then a little misunderstanding
"And thanks to Kyle for offering an apology.
What is it with people reading into my posts recently things I haven’t said?"OK then how about thanks for making that concession to making a sweeping generalisation.
Well fuck its raining and I wont be working today. So just thought I'd dig a hole and throw myself in it."Is it time to move on?
Yeah fair point."It seems to have slipped into common usage, Thanks Helen Clark.
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Its all just about "crowd control" now, And keeping people off your front lawn.
The new millennium is really starting to kick(haha) in. But then you would expect wild pessimism from me. -
Hard News: A few (more) words on The Hobbit, in reply to recordari,
it did begin to look a bit personal.
I offer an abject apology if it ever was like that, to you Kyle or anyone watching.
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Hard News: A few (more) words on The Hobbit, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
I can see how that would resonate with you…
Whatever do you mean?
That Tool Aronofsky has a lot to offer and has made some fine movies, including Pi (can’t find the symbol on my keyboard), the Wrestler and Black Swan.
Thank you, is all I can say for pointing out my hasty judgement. A career is long as are our years on this planet, unless cut short, and we are adaptable creatures and these times demand that of us.
Yes, Emma's post got me remembering my brush's with death.I hope your year picks up.
Lets find out......
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I just like to read this kind of drivel and laugh.
The Fountain's theme of fear of death is "a movement from darkness into light, from black to white" that traces the journey of a man scared of death and moving toward it. The film begins with a paraphrase of Genesis 3:24, the Biblical passage that reflects the The Fall of Man. Hugh Jackman emphasized the importance of the Fall in the film: "The moment Adam and Eve ate of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, humans started to experience life as we all experience it now, which is life and death, poor and wealthy, pain and pleasure, good and evil. We live in a world of duality. Husband, wife, we relate everything. And much of our lives are spent not wanting to die, be poor, experience pain. It's what the movie's about."Aronofsky also interpreted the story of Genesis as the definition of mortality for humanity. He inquired of the Fall, "If they had drank from the Tree of Life [instead of the Tree of Knowledge] what would have separated them from their maker? So what makes us human is actually death. It's what makes us special."
Aronofsky sounds like a complete tool. And producers and actors fell for this tosh as well. But I saw this Can we accept that politicians, CEO's, celebrities, and perhaps people in almost any walk of life can achieve many things and still be twits with really poor judgment and fundamentally flawed understanding of the world around them (AKA Stupid).
And it made sense.
Anyway hope you had a few laughs in the filmI did, it got a bit tedious towards the end tho'.
For some reason I just wanted to make it 1200 posts. Must be the OCD kicking in. -
Deepest sympathies Emma, and thank you for introducing us to your mother.
Im glad you were able even to just sit with her as death approached. And prepare in some way for the inevitable.Something we as children did not have the privilege of doing.
All we got at my mothers sudden demise was a young cop sitting rather impatiently to call the ambulance to take away the corpse.
(Perhaps his dinner was getting cold) oops was that bitter and cynical... sorry. -
No Jacqui it must be me who apologises!
I’m rather glad you said this, as I suspect I read your earlier response to mine as being aggressive.
I have been deliberately tart (as Islander said I think) sometimes I fell ashamed to have even shared a planet with some, who I have to share a colloquialism with. And I have had some domestic problems, I don't mean to use that as an excuse. And I hope I don't get mistaken for a bully and incur the wrath those whose site we use. So maybe this may have spilled into my replies.
So I apologise my lack of manners and a confused mind.“Baby boom” is over 60 years old now.
And if someone calls me baby .......one more time!
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Hard News: A few (more) words on The Hobbit, in reply to Jacqui Dunn,
Likewise ditto. I was told it was just my imagination – can’t say I agreed at the time. I haven’t had the experience lately though.
It is a product of your semi conscious state. As others have said it usually occurs in a semi sleep state. It has been leapt upon by various practitioners in meditative states as being something extraordinary (a window into another consciousness if you will). But thats bullshit.
And many thanks Islander.
And thanks to Kyle for offering an apology. -
Hard News: A few (more) words on The Hobbit, in reply to Sacha,
Because that’s what happened in this country when the 40 year olds of the Lange government took over from the 60 year olds of the Muldoon one. And we’re still seeing the political reverberations with Winston and others now.
And that time should be highlighted/seared in our minds. The 80's the era of the long lunch, people living "high on the hog". (I think we should give them name the NZStay-at -homes?).
I heard all about it, caught the tail end, private jets and ....well. And what did the country get, middle men running ex-state assets and prices went up, wages slowly became static. Highlight this as much as you can please, I certainly wont be forgetting it. Thats when I started work on the Time Machine.
Thanks for that SachaGiovanni
Has it now? Because frankly contemporary theories of mind seem pretty convincing to me, and they don’t have all that much trouble in talking about consciousness in concrete terms.
Sorry I wasnt referring to consciousness, yes that is very concrete. I guess it is the use some people put their consciousness to work imagining and thinking it real? (not sure how to say it). I cant really speak for anyone else, or perhaps shouldnt.
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Jacqui
Well I have satisfied myself there is no “there” after life.
Can you tell me how you did this? Without having died yourself?
Is that supposed to be funny? If you have any religious affiliations please declare them now. And it would take more time than I have to devote at the moment. If you are genuinely interested I will write it all down at some later date.
Steve Parks sez
Pointing out that a certain generalised group were the main beneficiaries of some changes isn’t the same as blaming them.
Kyle sez
During the following 25+ years - their peak earning years when people pay the most in income tax, they did not fund the care of their elders as per the social contract that had built up for several decades. Within a few years their parents and grandparents were having to sell their homes to fund their hospital care.
No, not blaming them for anything, except destroying several decades of an apparent "social contract". Now thats loaded language if ever I read it. And forcing parents and grandparents onto the street. Big, big sweeping generalisations I think you have to agree.
Ben
If it’s gone to an afterlife, the corpse could be irrelevant.
But finding "IT" in a living person has proved absolutely fruitless, so if "IT" is not there in a living person, "IT" most certainly wont be there in a corpse.
Please define "IT"