Posts by Michael Stevens
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RSVP .
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Bill who...?
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The idea that Maori seats are a taonga depends on just how you see that concept of taonga.
They are deeply undemocratic, and should go. And I don't accept that only Maori have a right to decide on them.
I want to see the best possible representative system for the country, and I think STV gives the best value for the vote. But it needs an upper house of some sort. The select committees here were supposed to provide some level of supervision over our MMp system but have failed in that dismallyAnd yes Keith, one contentious thread at a time ;-)
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On those pesky Maori seats and that overhang
This is why I hate MMP. Should have been STV.
Look at the totally disproprtionate, distorting and dangerous (3Ds!) influence wielded by the extremist religious parties in Israel, another MMP country.It's getting that representational balance right, but not letting*cue cliche* tail wag the dog...
Kill MMP: STV and an Upper House please.
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As a flaming homosexual (the way Homer Simpson likes them) I laughed my arse off at the Kimmel response. As did everyone I sent it to or who sent it to me.
I didn't view it as homophobic at all, just a very funny piss-take.
And I think your comments about the way reality TV has influenced people's views of gays in the west anyhow are accurate. And also the Simpsons and other ordinary shows too. In fact my reaction to the Kimmel clip was "My, aren't we mainstream now". I'm sure there are still some angry queer theorists on various campuses who'd disagree, but - meh - who listens to them?
It still can be a big deal for some people, and is still hard if you're in a small town, but it's a different world from the one I came out in 1979.
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Opera did use to be "popular" in a wide sense. Osbert Sitwell talks of hearing farm labourers whistling Verdi in pre WW1 italy in his autobiography.
Kiri didn't handle this well, and she may be an arrogant cow, but at her peak her voice was one of the finest around. -
Ah, good old netscape. Good times, good times...
I liked it. And I can remember coming back to Auckland Uni one year and finding that all the PCs in the labs had suddenly moved from Netscape to explorer. -
Well, I've always voted left, but I can't quite commit to labour at the moment.
The corrupt use of parliamentary money and the way they reacted to the Auditor General's report "How DARE he tell us we've been naughty! Doesn't he know who we are?" - that didn't impress me at all.The EFB - yes, we need electoral finance reform, but this is just a self-serving dog of an act. So Greens are out, any party that supported it.
But just who to vote for instead? That's the issue.
And which big city doesn't have people drinking and drugging too much? Not denying what he's seen, but you know, isn't this sort of worldwide?
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The Treaty meant one thing when it was signed, something else 50 years ago, something else now, and will mean something else again in a few more decades. It's all a movable feast really, and so are the celebrations/protests etc that go on around it.
Me, I can't get too worked up about. Our founding day though? Doesn't feel like it to me.
But it's nice to have a day off in Summer ;-)
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Why don't I care about Waitangi Day at all?
It doesn't stir any emotions in my heart. I don't get moved by the history. It's just another day off in summer, which I do like.
But it really doesn't register for me in the way that say, ANZAC Day does.