Posts by Ben Austin
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IIRC the latter two are interesting, especially if one reads about the Education Act debates of the 19th century - spefically the place of religious instruction in state schools. Based on that I'd should be safe in making the statement that at no point has bible studies in schools been a government policy in NZ.
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I'd like such a list with reasons attached ideally.
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ugh, wish I'd previewed that before posting...oh well
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So I was listening to the Panal yesterday afternoon and the principal of Shirly Boys High School was on, and after he said his piece on the topic of the moment he then launched into an impassioned plea for solid government family friendly policies. He went on to explain that many of the discipline problems of today were a result of not having family friendly policiys (ones that supported a mum, dad and kids). So this begs the question - exactly what are 'family friendly government policies' that these people keep asking for, and did we ever have them (given the assumption that a point in the past the family unit was strong and everyone was happy and more moral? Or are they wanting something else entirely new? (like a paterfamilias?)
This sort of ties into the debate in this thread, given the strong 'family is the fundamental building block of society' positions of many of the anti amendment organisations.
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Now in hindsight that was a rather catty comment. My apologies.
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I'd like some ca$h (see what I did there?) to study just how deeply the Simpson's has colonised the part of the brain that looks for examples or witticisms.
I'll need some assistants, preferably ones that are either EU citizens of culturally distinct regions (preferably in the EU15, not the new guys, soz), US Defence Dept cleared and who have Web 2.0 savy. That way I should have my funding secure.
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The airline industry is a target of convenience I guess. International air travel (and it only seems to be these that are seriously targetted by the new security) only happens from a few points, so it is very easy to set up security measures. Plus the measures touch a lot of people, as international travel is rather popular, especially amoung media savvy types likely to talk loud and often. So it is very easy to say "we are doing something about terrorism and security" then point to the airport.
Plus after the 70s/80s hijackings, Sept 11, and the shoe bomber the public is well and truely comfortable with the idea of dangerous travel situations. Why are say the shipping industry safe? Well, I'd put that down to the failure of Speed 2: Cruise Control at the box-office. Perhaps if they'd used competant script writers, director, and actors we'd all be enjoying the spectacle of cruise ship patrons forced to carry ziplock bags.
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Good point about the ports. However I don't really know why the ports that are usually used for such p2p traffic are chosen. Is there a clear technical reason, or is it convenience, tradition, or what? Perhaps if monitoring or taxing started up on the current common ports, others would soon be used? I really don't know enough about this to keep talking, without treading ever more closely to having a "the Internet is made up of Tubes" moment.
Like Stephen said - the franchise is ruined. But what does this mean? Does it mean that the record industry pushing albums/tracks out through their distributors (be that itunes, or a truck) is over? Does it mean that the paid for music mass market is over? Maybe it can mean a bit of a) and a bit of b) depending on who you are and where you live?
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I guess I've been pretty lucky so far. My experiences with the police are all pretty good. Not that I'm really in much contact with them due to my pious nature.
Although they do ask some pretty searching quesitons when one applies for an arms licence.
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How do we collectively make contributions to terrestrial tv? Do you mean the now abandoned licensing fee or stateowned BCL/TVNZ/NZonAir?
I remember the first time I ever got binned by the licence people. I was watching TV at my Harbour Tce flat in Dunedin with my flatmates and a middle aged guy knocked on the door and asked me if we had a TV, which he could clearly see from his position. One minute later I was signed up to the regime and received a backdated invoice in the post a week later. I was a little stunned by the whole process to be honest.