Posts by Steve Barnes
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Thank god, or whoever, this smokescreen is dissipating and we can start looking at what really matters, the election (Our Election, not that other one in that country that's about to go down the gurgler)
National has been very clever, and slippery. How abut this?
Nat guy "Hey, John. What are we going to do when they find out about the Tranz Rail shares?'
JK "Ermmm, ah well I er didn't make on them, errrmmm I er actually lost money"
Nat Guy "Yeah but your trust made a packet"
Crosby Textor Guy "May I interject?"
Nat Guy "Please do, I think we're fucked"
CT "Well winstons a defensive kinda guy, what have we got?"
Nat Guy "well there's that thing about his election petition, nothing ilegal but we could make it look that way and he'll deny it"
CT "exactly, We pile the poo on Winnie and back him into a corner. Labour will stand by him and look bad by association. When the dust starts to settle we out John on the Tranz rail thingy"
Nat Guy "How does that get john off the hook"
CT "It's all about perception. Winnie asn't really done anything but we cloud the issiue, say he's a low life stinkin Badger and he denies it. John, on the other hand, has been a bad bad boy but if he fesses up and says it was just an oversight he looks almost human"
Nat Guy "Yessssss, we likes it my precioussss" -
mice are c**ts
And if Winston gets back in, God help those mice.
-
The largest number of New Zealanders leaving the country (year ended December) was 1979, 64,072 and 82,554 if you count non New Zealanders. Set against arrivals that still gives a number of 42,627 New Zealanders leaving. All under a National Govt.
Tourism and migration 2007
Which is only surprising as National misleads over migration statisticsAnd yes Craig, I concur. If you think the country is going to the dogs, you should stay and fight the damned mongrels.
-
Has anyone noticed that whenever it looks like National are in for a chance at the treasury benches more people pull up their roots and head for foreign shores?
I can remember times when it looked like Labour were going to get in and people headed home. -
Just because something is available to the public (even for free) does not mean is is in the public domain.
Having said that, the intarwebs do make a bit of a mockery of copyright law, but that doesn't mean the law doesn't exist.That was , kinda, my point, that's why I said "in the public domain, as it were." A law that is, virtually, unenforceable and so easily and regularly broken is a bad law. I think a system such as the old TV licencing system, paid through the ISP, is a better way to go.
-
An Old Fable
OLD VERSION:
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his
house and laying up supplies for the winter.The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays
the summer away.Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.
The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.
MORAL OF THE STORY:
Be responsible for yourself!A new version
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his
house and laying up supplies for the winter.The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays
the summer away.The Grasshopper has a trust account stuffed with funds
the funds came from his Grandfather who sold arms and fuel to both sides in the last great Red Ant Black Ant War.The Grasshopper goes to the big City and deals in ant eggs.
As we know, there are good eggs and bad eggs.
The Grasshopper mixes the good eggs with the bad eggs to sell as consolidated egg obligations at a large markup.
The bad eggs infect the good eggs and aquarium owners feed the eggs to their fish.
The fish die.The Grasshopper returns home to find the Ants are still busy making eggs because they were told that was the thing to do by the Queen Ant, because he could sell them to the Grasshopper and support the worker Ants
The Grasshopper no longer wants the eggs, the Queen Ant is ruined and is bankrupted.
The Grasshopper picks up the Ant colony for a pittance as it is no longer profitable.The Ants, now homeless, seek help from the Grasshopper who offers them their own homes on a lease to buy option.
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, paying for his own
house and laying up supplies for the winter.The Grasshopper offers to securitise the ants supplies telling the ant that that was the thing to do
The Grasshopper takes all the Ant's supplies and sells them to Locusts in exchange for a Hedge.The ants no longer have a Queen to lay the eggs and can't afford to continue the lease to buy option.
The ant works hard in the freezing cold all winter long, building his
house and eating old eggs.The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays around of Golf.
The Moral
Never trust a Grasshopper. -
'Real artists' still need to eat.
Back in the day, there was patronage there still is support for artists in this country. The point is, you can't just one day decide to be an artist and expect people to give you everything you desire.
I, for one, find it appalling that some jumped up little smartarse can become a gazilionair just by being pushed by a record company and, maybe, the interwebs will put an end to this and at the same time give real talent a window of opportunity.
The irony is that the free market hates anyone getting anything for free. After all, they need to get their lunch on the expense account eh? -
On the copyright thing, I have always considered that once something is "out there" on the net it is really in the public domain, as it were. Like it or not if you can download, watch, listen or read something from the comfort of your own home then how can anybody say that you are stealing? repackaging, on the other hand, and selling that content to a less net savvy person is just plain wrong. There are questions as to how freely available material can make money for the originator and if it can't then why would they bother to create content?. In my view a lot of stuff churned out for profit is pure Shiite (think boy bands, Iain Wishart and Rocky 12).
Real artists do not need that instant gratification in the form of cash sales per unit. They crave the admiration and acceptance that comes from people seeing, hearing or reading their works and that leads to the fame and fortune that comes to worthy creators.
Well that's what I think anyhoo.
How do you make a question out of that? -
We are five days into a general election campaign -- and if the media isn't actually going to take this seriously, I don't see why anyone else should.
True. I wondered whether our election could pass without anybody taking any interest at all. I mean, with our polling day being three days before the US, confusion may reign for those of a bewildered nature. I can imagine some looking at their ballot paper and wondering where Obama is while they worry about what happened to their life insurance and whether the bloke down the road is a terrorist.
It's all too much (for one thread) I tell you. -
Steve: You really want to troll for a fight, I'll give you one just not now.
Didn't mean to be unkind, you know that was the last thing on my mind.
*earworn inserted*
;-)
It's true though but eh?