Posts by George Darroch
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
I've started asking for people to "be more constructive with your feedback please". Blank stares and twisted smiles.
-
Taxpayers are all,
completely overtaxed.
We reduce taxes. -
Could we not be more imaginative, people? How about moving to, oh I don't know, Russia? And what's wrong with Belgium?
Quite. If I was to move anywhere, it would be to Denmark or Sweden, where the people are lovely and childcare is free. Although I'm already a poster boy for both the left and right (considering I'm already in Australia, but here for a free education I'd have loans for back home).
South Korea and Mexico, people, if you're looking for low taxes in developed countries. Or Dubai and Saudi Arabia, if you don't mind terrible heat and giving up all your freedoms.
-
Mr Key said over-taxation had a huge impact on the decision of New Zealanders leaving the country.
Yes, the ones leaving the country for South Korea and Mexico. Key is entitled to an opinion. He isn't entitled to his own facts.
-
Oh and on the subject of international awesomeness, and we still haven't even signed the disappearance convention yet. Here's hoping that Idiot/Savant's petition makes a difference on that.
-
Go us indeed. And this is what scares me about the prospect of Key and Mapp taking over the foreign policy reigns.
Would they stand staunchly in favour of strong conditions, as the Government is doing?
What does the following mean in terms of direction?
...meet[ing] with the US Administration, and consult informally with
our friends in Congress, to see how we might move forward
on defence cooperation, intelligence arrangements, climate
change, effective counter-terrorism strategies, and a wide
range of other issues where there are common interests.While there is a lot that makes sense in the National Party's defence discussion document (pdf), at least from an small power-realist perspective, however the direction isn't entirely clear, apart from to say that New Zealand should focus more on security and trade. The imprint of the authors, Groser, Mapp and Hayes is obvious - I guess we just have to expect that foreign policy will follow their tendencies.
National's foreign affairs policy is still unreleased, weeks out from the election.
One of the worrying signals is that the United Nations is only mentioned once in the entire 19 page document, and then only in terms of international poverty reduction - which is then dismissed as lesser to security aid, "Africa" is described as an intractable problem, and the island Pacific is painted as an 'arc of instability'. There is no mention of how New Zealand might work with international organisations for international security, and many other things that need discussion in a defence and security context are conspicuously absent.
Hmmm. Surely these issues are as important as when Winston Peters took money from businessmen?
-
Here's more photoshop-truthiness about Palin. For the lolz, of course.
-
I don't have any idea about the truth of the matter (status of the child), but I can tell you that the truth of the matter is likely to quickly come out. Secrets are hard to hide when you're a prominent personality in a very small town.
-
My favourite pic of Palin so farso far
Teh kitteh luvs Palin.
-
By comparison to most here, I was a late adopter.
My first time on the internet was at MOTAT, the museum of science and technology, in 1996. There was an exhibition of various amazing technologies, and the internet was one. I was a 12 year old at the time, and I was interested in cars, so plugged in the address for Ferrari. After about a minute the page came up, and I attempted to watch a short video clip, with no idea about how ridiculous that idea was at the time. Twenty minutes later, about 30 seconds of a car racing round a circuit had been downloaded, in quality that makes YouTube look like cinema.
It wasn't until 1998 that I used the web again, and by then everything seemed fast, efficient, and usable. By 2000 I was living on the internet.