Posts by Matthew Poole
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Legal Beagle: Coalition of Losers, in reply to Graeme Edgeler,
As far as it goes, I think that whoever forms the government can claim a mandate to run the country as best they see fit within the rough bounds of their stated policies. In National's case, that doesn't extend to a mandate to cut taxes if the trade-off is increasing GST after saying that they wouldn't increase GST. They have a mandate to cut taxes, because that's consistent with their stated policies, but increasing GST was categorically ruled out pre-election.
Similarly, reintroducing capital punishment would be a significant deviation from the stated policies of any party, even the the neo-fascists masquerading as Act.In the historic context, Labour '84 could claim no mandate for any of their neo-lib bullshit because they'd never said anything about it - and I don't buy the snap election as any kind of excuse for that failing. In '87, assuming they didn't make statements to the effect of having forsaken the neo-lib ideology (I'm not old enough to remember), they could've claimed the election victory as a mandate for more of the same. What did National say in '90 about the neo-lib scorched earth policies that they followed?
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Hard News: Floating the idea, in reply to Sam F,
And I could never quite buy Ashton Kutcher as a PJ in The Guardian a few years back
That wasn't a "real" PJ. The guys in USAF Pararescue, who go in behind enemy lines - swim, walk, jump - to effect rescue of military personnel, would likely be quite offended at being mistaken for the nonetheless-heroic USCG rescue swimmers. Especially since it was USAF PJs who went down in the perfect storm.
Another good book on the PJ's is That Others May Live (the PJs' motto). They're some seriously gutsy, seriously insane guys and girls.
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Hard News: Floating the idea, in reply to Sam F,
Ah, Fentanyl – that would be what they give to US soldiers in lollipop form when they get hit?
Sure would. Interesting article generally about how rough it is as airborne rescue in Afghanistan.
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Hard News: Floating the idea, in reply to Jacqui Dunn,
Entonox isn't a pain inhibitor, unlike morphine, so its effects aren't the same.
Agreed on the drugs. I have a glaring one-hour blank spot in my memory, commencing with "If that's pain relief, it's not working" to the nurse as they were drugging me up before the reduction and ending with me back in the cubicle in ER admissions, shoulder reduced and x-rayed, and arm in a sling. Nothing in the middle. Fentanyl (synthetic opioid approximately 100 times more potent than morphine) and midazolam (benzo with amnesiac qualities) according to my discharge paperwork. Fantastic stuff.
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Hard News: Floating the idea, in reply to Sam F,
Having been subjected to a dislocated shoulder, fortunately almost directly across the road from Auckland Hospital so the ambulance ride (there was no way I was rising from my position in the gutter and walking back up the road!) was mercifully brief, I can sympathise completely. I have an incredible tolerance for morphine (no idea why, I just do) to the point where it does nothing for me, and by the time they got to the point of doing my consciously sedated reduction I was crying from the pain despite sucking back entonox like there was no tomorrow. That was only 1 1/2 hours from time of impact, so I dread to think what another hour would’ve been like.
I was given pain relief right from the get-go: Entonox as soon as they got me into the bus, even before we’d taken my shirt off, and morphine was prescribed by the first doctor who saw me on arrival. So I don’t buy the potential surgery line, unless the complicated mechanism of injury (mine was a simple over-the-handlebars fall from my bike, followed by immediate self-immobilisation courtesy of how I landed and “It fucking hurts and it feels really weird, don’t touch it!” self-preservation) indicates that surgery is likely. However, given how much it hurts it’s a pretty dramatic breach of ethical principles not to be trying to expedite assessment as much as possible.
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Hard News: Floating the idea, in reply to Jackie Clark,
I am a huge fan of non coddley parenting, believe me.
However, in the case of Muriwai, Piha, and the other usual suspects, the life guards would really much rather that you coddled your children to within an inch of being publicly disowned. "We're not here to be your babysitters" is one of the regular messages that comes away from Piha Rescue, along with "This beach is really, really bloody dangerous if you don't know about ocean swimming."
I think SLSNZ would do well to put up big multi-lingual signs along the road frontages at those beaches, with a message along the lines of "Sea conditions at this beach can be difficult, and require experience. Novice swimmers should go no further than waist depth, remain between the flags, and be prepared to leave the water."
Or, in a less-politic fashion, "Respect the water at this beach, or be prepared to drown." -
Hard News: Floating the idea, in reply to Paul Williams,
It's possible it was children under 10, or 12, free, as I'm somewhat younger than you. A 70s baby, but only by a matter of months. Or it could simply have been that the Manurewa pool (and, thinking about it, Totara Park also) were outright free.
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Hard News: Floating the idea, in reply to Paul Williams,
I also grew up in the 80s, and remember going to the Manurewa pool and never paying a thing. Groups of children would just wander in and out with nary a cent exchanged. Maybe it was only adults who had to pay?
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Hard News: Floating the idea, in reply to Tamara,
Do the objectors even have children?
Probably. But being Herald employees they likely could afford to send their children to swimming lessons, so it would've never been an issue. Being too poor to learn to swim is a problem for those brown types in South Auckland, not the "proper" citizens of other parts of Megatropolis.
I lived in Manurewa for the first 11 years of my life, and found the concept of paying to go to a council-owned swimming pool when we moved to Hamilton to be completely absurd. I understood that places like Waiwera cost, but the Hamilton pools have the council logo plastered all over. Council pools were free, right?
In a country with a drowning rate as high as ours (it's one of the highest in the world, I believe), it's definitely worth investigating how to make swimming accessible to everyone. If parents can't swim, then they're probably not going to teach their kids how to swim even if there's a beach handy. Swimming pools have lifeguards, and swimming lessons, and that applies to the residents of Takapuna and Remmers just as much as it applies to those who reside in Otara and Manurewa.
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Hard News: Holiday Open Thread 2:…, in reply to Angus Robertson,
Two unsubstantiable claims side by side.
The US President is:
- a practicing Muslim.
- a murderer, a torturer, a war criminal.Do you deny that torture is a war crime?
Do you deny that the CIA and military intelligence, agencies of the US Executive, used torture in Iraq?
Do you deny that there is some degree of evidence that the torture was carried out in accordance with a policy, rather than ad-hoc by some rogue CIA and MI officers?
Do you deny that there is some degree of evidence that the policy was promulgated from the White House?Which part of suggestions that Bush II is a war criminal do you consider to be of the same degree of accuracy as suggestions that Obama is a Muslim?
For one there is objective, accepted fact (torturing PoW’s is a war crime, and there was torture of PoW’s in Iraq at the hands of US military and CIA personnel), and some degree of evidence that would support at least an initial court hearing.
For the other there is “His father’s a Muslim, his middle name is ‘Hussein’, ergo, he’s a Muslim.”