Posts by Hamish
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NZ Idol - more excting than licking the inside of a toilet bowl?
No.
Why are all the people who win NZ Idol Christians?
Something to do with the types of people who vote for NZ Idol I suspect.
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The idea is that host responsibility precludes excess drinking to intoxication
Reece, I'll just quote you again "I had many years experience in hospo ... and saw lots of really dumb stuff mostly perpetrated by teenagers". So again, I say that your proposal to raise the drinking age for off-licenses will not solve the problem you brought up of roudy teenagers in on-licenses.
...as a society we've decided that children need to be nurtured and protected until they are sufficiently developed to be able to look after themselves.
Obviously, we're not monsters, but we're not talking about children (or only about children). Raising the drinking age only impacts on 18 and 19 year olds. Banning party pills only impacts on people above 18. Banning fire-works effects everyone. Do we really need this protection and (again, I keep asking this) at what cost do we buy it?
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(to clarify, saying that the society you see today is not a nanny state, so don't get too comfortable claiming you're fond of it)
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Has anyone been having issues with bandwidth since teleclown 'unleashed' broadband speeds?
If you're not a Telescum customer and you're in a high uptake area then yes, you probably will see slowdown. Xtra customers ultimately get priority at the exchange but you didn't see it when everyone was throttled down. Just another weapon in their anti-everyone-else arsenal.
I'm in agreeance with Te Brown about the split level solution, 18 for bars... I had many years experience in hospo before becoming a school teacher and saw lots of really dumb stuff.
Annnd... they will still be able to drink in bars under that system, so that wouldn't solve the problem.
*shrug* But in other cases I totally buy into the nanny state, so who knows?
Thing is, I don't think we are a nanny state yet, but I believe we are well on the way.
I was trying to make people consider that there is actually a downside to keeping people safe from themselves. I agree that a fireworks ban would probably cut down on injuries, but I strongly argue that the cost to our culture is too high. And it's not only banning fireworks, but the whole ethos around molly-coddling everyone.
Lobotomise everyone and we get the same effect without a lot of pesky law-making.
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That's a good point. And surely if we no longer have these big problems, surely we don't need so many politicians to make up new ones. :D.
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Oo, it might just be me, but IE7 is not liking that oversized link in the title post.
I'm really looking forward to new EML, although screening Friday night is a bit of a bummer - I'm going to have to trundle out the VCR.
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Does that mean the Japanese must be anti-entreprenuerial and risk-averse?
Well, yes. The Japanese were famous for their cradle to the grave corporate culture - not exactly condusive to thinking outside the square.
...I think we're all agreed that we're dealing with morons.
I don't agree... sorry, I'm not trying to be trollish, but letting off fireworks during the day is fun, getting horribly drunk every now and then is fun, experimenting with party pills is fun - to me (and various other significant members of this forum, just read their blogs). While you might not agree on what activities are fun, dismissing the perpetrators as stupid is a mistake.
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I spent my last few years of high school in Germany and completely agree with you about the drinking thing - Germany has a very low drinking age and yet the kids are very sensible about it. But then, you need get a license to go windsurfing on the Rhine and the national past-time seems to be walking in the country side.
That's really what I'm getting at - of course there are down sides to being liberal with what you let your citizens get up to. The consequences are obvious, measureable and popular to grumble about - but there is a cost in surrounding everything in bubble wrap as well. Personally, I think the long term cost to our spirit is too high (yeesh, now that's a bit fluffy, innit).
And about the emerging research about the teenage brain - as true as it may be, it seems to be carted out to justify all sorts of shady causes. 'Underdeveloped', or just wired in a way to keep the rest of us on our toes?
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Call me a pedant, but I cannot see any necessary connexion between fireworks and entrepreneurial flair.
No, but I consider it a symptom of the changing mindset around here.
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...the fireworks seem to be crap compared to what they were
Probably because we already banned all the good stuff years ago (under a National government, if I'm not mistaken).
There are a couple of kids next door that hang around in the street playing games after school. I catch myself thinking that those kids must be causing trouble because they're out being noisy - instead of staying inside watching TV. Now that's depressing.
The bungee jumping, vodka producing, tractor-driving-to-the-South-Pole people are older, wiser, and not affected by these laws...
Not anymore they're not. But you can bet that they were the biggest pyros in their neighbourhoods back in the day.