Posts by Steve Barnes
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Hard News: Softly, softly, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
the Bretons trying to slaughter the Normans. Not to mention the continuing Friesland/Holland civil war in the Netherlands.
Nah, just send a drone man, JK's down with that.
"Yeah, he'll be up on them like a motherfucker"
(sorry, been watching the Wire again.) -
Crimea River
I said from day one that Russia had no real interest in occupying The Ukraine Peninsular, let alone the whole country, it was just so last century.
The fact that there was division amongst the people of the region over whether to move toward Europe or stay as a de facto part of Russia was going to come to a head at some point and it was in nobody’s interest for it to escalate into anything greater but something had to happen. If Putin had sent in troops officially there would have been far more reason for the West to fear occupation and have to react in some way or appear “weak”. Putins masterstroke was to support those that supported Russian alliance over the Europeanisation of the region by fudging the origin of the troops. Of course everybody with half a brain could see they were Russian troops in everything but uniform but the plausible deniability of Putin’s actions allowed the region some relief from the potential seriousness of the inevitable conflict.
There will, inevitably, be casualties but I believe major conflict has and will be avoided and I would like to think that, for once, the US has trodden reasonably carefully regardless of the jingoistic ranting we have had from the usual sources, I’m looking at you Fox News and to be honest, I too am a little bewildered about the Pilger article. For such a distinguished journalist to come across as an Alex Jones soundalike left me feeling like the world had finally reached some kind of reason crisis, I know the US and their allies do some batshit crazy things but that was a whole lot of stupid being guessed at there.Talking of batshit crazy. The US “War on Terror”, which, by the way, is about as effective as their “War on Drugs” and claiming just as many casualties, has taken a trip down scary street with the cowardly use of drones to murder innocent civilians, innocent until proven guilty means it can be nothing less than murder. Regardless of whether or not they were “Kiwis” John Key’s response to Jeremy Scahill’s observations was nothing short of appalling. His claim that Scahill was wrong in telling us that he knew about the attack is the kind of dismissive remark we have become used to from this obnoxious little man and to claim that he had no prior knowledge of the drone strike is as unbelievable as his ignorance of Kim Dotcom’s existence. If Key did, in fact know then he is as guilty as the man who ordered the strike, it is not a “mere” War Crime as we are not at war, it is murder.
Roll on September. -
Hard News: The problems inherent in the system, in reply to BenWilson,
Brilliant, like toadally.
Anyone that can use the term "Anal Tearing" in a cannabis legislation argument gets my vote any time. -
Hard News: What rules are these?, in reply to Martin Lindberg,
There are literally hundreds of magazines, websites and TV channels almost exclusively dedicated to this, so there certainly is a lot of interest by the public (not the same as public interest, I guess).
Which always makes me think "Why the fuck? What is wrong with you people? are your lives so miserably hollow, fatuous, empty and worthless that you need to constantly live your pathetic little lives vicariously through so called celebrities?"
Notice I only think this, if I were to have said it out loud at the supermarket checkout I may well be pushing up the proverbial daisies by now. I suppose it is just a more socially accepted form of porn and if that is the case then the likes of Runting are no better that "up skirt" photography perverts and the consumers of their filth just as guilty of enabling as child porn downloaders. -
Why does Bob want people to die?
Family First?.
Bob, you are one sick puppy. -
Hard News: The problems inherent in the system, in reply to Bart Janssen,
All too often the extreme views such as McCoskrie's lack any evidence of empathy at all - maybe we need to teach it in schools.
Funny yo should mention that...
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Hard News: A law gone awry, in reply to BenWilson,
Just been doing a bunch of this in a statistical data analysis course.
Damn it Ben how do you think I can argue that from a quantum psychology pov?.
The trouble with statistics is they are only understood by statisticians.
But, and it is a big wobbly but, if you include enough non random null hypotheses to your core data you could prove anything, right?. -
Hard News: A law gone awry, in reply to BenWilson,
Hence my whole point. It’s not about whether it is a factor, it’s about how much it’s a factor
Well, yes, I couldn't not agree with you, nah yeah but...
figures from Waikato police that showed cannabis was a contributing factor in more fatal road crashes than alcohol
is still bullshite in my humble opinion.
I see your point and raise you one. It is a matter of public perception in the end, just as it is a matter of public perception that Judith Collins has a conflict of interest but it is in the interest of the National party that they deny that. How is it in the interest of the police that the public perceive cannabis to be more harmful and dangerous than it really is? surely it would be of greater benefit if cannabis were legalised, they would have less "crime" to "solve" and therefore their job would become easier. Could it be that if cannabis were legal they would get less funding?
We could argue the intricacies of the why's how's and wherefores until the cows came home and their wheels fell off but you would have to be really stoned to think cows have wheels. Eh? -
Hard News: A law gone awry, in reply to BenWilson,
But in the end, with enough data, it will probably be shown that the chance of an accident is increased by using cannabis, with very high levels of certainty.
Not so, well not without massaging the figures to the point of getting the result you want anyway.
I would posit the proposition that the majority of people who have just smoked cannabis to the level that could influence their driving can't be fucked to even get in a car, let alone drive it. Therefore actually reducing the chance of an accident.
Cannabis isn't a "get up and dash about" kind of drug and this should be taken into account. The other point I was alluding to in regard to the article was that The 2012 United Nations Drug Report found New Zealand had the highest use of cannabis in the world – between nine and fifteen percent annually, much higher than the international average of three to four percent. so the likelyhood of finding cannabis in someones system in this country, particularly since it remains in fatty tissiue for days, is far higher that for most other substances. -
Hard News: Snowden and New Zealand, in reply to Matthew Poole,
Unclassified is a classification
Like I said "nitpick" but it is still lazy and allows abuse of the OIA by smart arsed bureaucrats.
As to“Unclassified” != “not yet classified”
what are you saying here, sounds the same as what I said.
Really don't need to argue, like I said, nitpick. Just a pet peeve of mine, language laziness, probably an Americanism.