Posts by Matthew Poole
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Reclassify SUVs as light trucks, so they'll need an HT licence to drive them
That would require reworking the whole classification system for driver's licences, which is based on weight and number of axles. An SUV weighs considerably less than 4500kg, which is the point at which a class 1 licence ceases to be sufficient.
As for the people suggesting that diesel has got so much more expensive because of a conspiracy by the fuel companies to raise the pump price, diesel's global price has gone through the roof, way ahead of movements in petrol prices. At one point diesel was at in the vicinity of USD200/bbl, while petrol's usually only about USD10/bbl more expensive than the crude from which it's made.
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I'm always bemused when new/amended traffic regulations are proposed, to allow the cops to punish some particular form of traffic miscreancy. They don't enforce a lot of the rules that are already there, many of which (such as the intersection blocking rule) would go a long way toward improving traffic flow during rush-hour.
Look no further than the proposed strengthening of penalties for running red lights - 75 demerit points - which may or may not have come into effect yet. The police don't bloody enforce the red light laws now, so what's the point of giving them harsher penalties to not dish out? I fully support the move, as an aside, having been to more than one fatal car crash that resulted from someone failing to obey a red light. But my inner cynic (realist?) says that it's just bloody futile because we're already at a point where the police ignore cars that blaze through red/amber lights right in front of them, despite there supposedly being a push to crack down on such behaviour. -
Jack Coleman of "Heroes" commented in an interview that he was terrified of the show moving to HD because it meant his nose hair would be broadcast to the worl
I remember, back at the very beginning of the high-def DVD wars, seeing a comment from an adult entertainment star to the effect that razor rash and in-grown hairs become much bigger problems with HD porn.
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He quoted a total of 3638 hours coverage of the London games, contrasting that with the 810 hours TVNZ provides from Beijing.
I guess that's what happens when you can just add channels whenever you choose, and all they do is show some particular event. A luxury TVNZ doesn't have.
What's it cost a broadcaster to be allowed to cover the Olympics? I'm guessing it's pretty exorbitant, given that the Games' prime purpose these days is as an advertising vehicle. Is TVNZ locked out of covering '12 because Sky will be there?
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I half caught a news story that there were some changes in this matter either happening or in the pipeline. I believe it was along the lines that where the court had reason to believe that a person might not be the father, they could order a parentage test to take place, previously the mother could refuse. I might be telling accidental porkies though.
No, you're right. Up until recently (and I'm not sure if the law change has yet taken effect) a mother had been allowed to refuse a paternity test and that was the end of the matter. Disputing male still on the hook for child support. The "solution" adopted by at least one judge, in the face of such a bollocks situation, was to pass a custody order on the child in question to make them a ward of CYFS, order the test, then terminate the custody order. With the change, a judge will simply order the test and the mother will be in contempt if she fails to have it carried out.
However, as far as I know this doesn't fix the issue of the disputing male having to pay for the test. Which means that the situation is only a little less unfair than it was previously, because at least there was an avenue by which the tests could be ordered even if it was messy. Not having the money is still not having the money. On that, though, I could be wrong.I've been staying away from the latter part of the thread, at least in part because I can't be fucked reading the diatribes from the two trolls who've dropped in (though Grant may just be seriously stubborn). It's interesting that most PA readers, including all the usual suspects, are very moderate on the issue of abortion rights. I think that's probably reflective of the nature of this blog, and I'd love to see the kind of rhetoric being thrown around on KB and WO and the other right-wing blogs. OK, on second thought, maybe I wouldn't. My masochistic tendencies aren't anywhere near strong enough for that!
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I can only hope Simon Power finds himself having to deal with the manure as the responsible minister, because it takes very little imagination to see some outcomes that the usual suspects aren't going to like at all
He'll just blame it all on Labour, Craig. It's the way it goes. Labour blame National, National blame Labour. And he'll leave the law the hell alone, would be my guess.
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If National's new intake is anything like as conservative as its 2002 rump, then a National victory this election will dramatically shift the Parliamentary balance towards further restrictions and control over women’s' bodies.
It's interesting that National's conservative stripes extend only a very little way when it comes to personal freedoms. They're all for fiscal conservatism, but heaven forbid that the state stay the fuck out of citizens' lives. That's paraphrasing Gordon Campbell's comment in this commentary on the new immigration bill, where he observes that the only party that actually takes an affirmative stance on human rights is the Greens. Even Act don't really want to know about keeping the state out of your business, unless it's your (tax-paying) business that they're keeping it out of.
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I don't know if I could handle abortion being thrown into the election right now. Can't we just have the normal stupid debates?
Can we have a debate at all?! It's hard to debate the merits of different sides when one side is being very light on details.
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I would hope that this ruling might jolt one of the pro-choice members of parliament into drafting sensible legislation around abortion. However what was that about turkeys and christmas?
I imagine Family Fist would be right in behind the religious conservatives in opposing such changes. After all, where else will they get the next generation of whipping boys? :P
Seriously, though, it would be interesting to see how the usual suspects on "moral issues" turn out in the event of a discussion around the current abortion laws. In many ways it's actually nice that we live in a country where it's unknown where most of our elected representatives stand on abortion (except by inference) because it's just a total non-issue.
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Four hours isn't very long to deliberate before getting permission to present a majority verdict. I was foreman on a murder trial, and we deliberated for about 10 hours (that's actual deliberation, because we were out overnight so had the case for about 20 hours) before we managed to resolve everything and return a verdict.
If a jury is still deadlocked after a full day of deliberations, then a majority verdict might be a reasonable resolution. Some people can be very hard-headed in the face of compelling reason. But to allow a cop-out after four hours is just ridiculous.