Posts by George Darroch
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Good luck getting ariound Mt Victoria with them.
If you lived in Lyall Bay however, it would be quite a reasonable position. You've got me though Andrew: a bike cannot do everything a car can. When I lived in Mt Vic, a load of groceries required a bus, a taxi, or sore arms.
If I wanted to travel 100 kilometres in one hour, I couldn't do that on a bike either. Especially not with two kids, a load of groceries, firewood, and couple of sheep in behind.
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Not so great for moving a load of firewood &/or a couple of sheep.
There are a lot of things you can move on a bicycle. Especially if you have a cargo bike, a http://www.metaefficient.com/bicycles/longtail-bikes-a-review-and-buying-guide.htmllongtail bike, or a bike trailer. A good cargo bike will carry two children and a load of groceries in style!
Admittedly, there are occasions when you're going to need a motor vehicle. I needed to move a queen size bed a few weeks ago, so I hired a ute. If I needed to move more, I'd hire a small truck. And if I needed to move a lot on a regular basis, owning such a vehicle would probably make sense. I've owned a van before, because I needed it to do certain things. But it was mostly parked up.
The point is not that bicycles do everything, but that most of the time, people aren't asking themselves "is this really necessary" and "what are the alternatives"?
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If I should ever choose to own and SUV, it is my call. I pay for it, I pay to run it
But ultimately, the problem I and many others have is that you are imposing costs (externalities) on others, when that vehicle is compared to a lighter vehicle that performs almost better under almost all use scenarios. I'm thinking a Subaru Outback here, for arguments sake. Reduced air quality and greenhouse gas emissions, higher road wear and tear, more noise, less safety for pedestrians, cyclists and drivers of smaller vehicles, etc.
That said, I find the preachy tone of those who drive other vehicles but deride SUV owners quite distasteful. A large vehicle that is rarely driven will have much less impact on all the above points than a smaller one driven larger distances. This immodest proposal is worth considering: how many of those kilometres are essential? A person driving a Prius to the shops is much worse than a SUV driver who walks. And don't get me started about Prius drivers who think they're saving the planet!
Lets all consider the alternative. It's pretty good. And the fuel costs are zero.
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And the only country song ever sung that I've liked. All the rest should be killed with flamethrowers.
Well it is a Nine Inch Nails song, produced by Rick Rubin, so the results are predictably heavy.
But the sentiment is fair enough. I slink round the edges of country, taking bites of Townes, Emmylou, Smog, Wilco and Will Oldham. Locally, Grand Prix break my heart.
Smog, I break horses:
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"It is tedious for the young to be constantly reminded what much finer fellows their fathers were and what a much more enjoyable time we had. But there you are; we were and we did".
Well, in my time, we listened to bands like this:
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I'd love to know why Steve Braunias was sacked - some of my fondest memories of the Listener are of his column.
Indeed. The despair induced by picking up the Sunday Star Times on returning to NZ this summer was only alleviated by his sharp wit.
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Mark, I was thinking of a particular post, which was in poor taste, but you've since explained what you were thinking - and I hadn't read all of your subsequent contributions, so I'll take what I said back.
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In all seriousness, I think having Mark and Grant here has been a good thing, despite the poor quality of their contributions. They've allowed me to hone my thinking on the issue in a sane forum (as opposed to most other public debate). I'm sure there are people here who have given much thought to abortion issues, but I can honestly say that I had considered it an issue without much salience in NZ, and therefore not deserving of much attention.
I have, of course, debated abortion, and even took to calling myself "pro-death" for a while, which was a deliberate move to question the terms of the debate. As quickly becomes obvious, terminology matters - as a Marcos has said: "words are also weapons".
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Another reason why we might support fairtrade - small scale farming is more productive, and fairtrade usually targets small scale farmers. Yet more evidence that convinces me that we can do much better than "megadairy" in food production.
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i'll try another example, again tenuous...[continues]
Exactly.
how many times on this thread did anyone mention the rights of the unborn child?
I think that is because most people here think that the rights of a conscious sentient being trump those of a small bundle of cells. This is what a fetus is for the first few months, unless you're one of the "every sperm is sacred" believers, in which case a fertilised egg and unborn child are synonymous.