Posts by Rich of Observationz
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Just to point out that if you acquire music in lossless (flax/wav) you can transcode to anything easily. Converting between two compressed formats isn't recommended.
So I try and buy everything in Flac / Wav at the fastest bit rate available.
-
how difficult it would be for determined voters to get John Key out of Parliament under MMP
He's the MP for Helensville, with 74% of the votes. I can't think of any electoral system that would change this.
Contrast this with local councillors, who are mostly independent. Michael Lhaws is a Whanganui councillor, and there's very little most of us can do to get rid of him.
(I think the easiest way would be for parliament, under a conscience vote, to pass a Bill of Indictment allowing for his public vivisection, with an appropriate advice from the Attorney General that this conflicts with every single clause of BORA, but that we shall do it anyway).
-
Witb the exception of gambling, all of the 'conscience' issues are also those of fundamental human rights. People have the right to life, the right to decide what to do with their bodies, the right to observe their own religion or none.
An MP has every right to make a personal decision not to drink, not to have an abortion and not to shop on a Sunday. What we are talking about isn't them exercising that right, it's them forcing others (using the state's monopoly of violence) to adhere to their personal moral views.
It's quite reasonable that a political party should insist that its MPs align to the parties principals regarding such issues - indeed, I'd be loath to vote for a party that didn't.
-
I had a thought a while back about NZ chasing expats for student loan payments.
As I understand it, foreign courts will enforce debts and contracts, but they won't enable a country to impose arbitrary taxes on its former residents. (So if the UK decided it wanted to make me liable for income tax on my NZ income, the NZ courts wouldn't help them).
I reckon it would be possible to argue in an overseas court that the student loan is actually a disguised tax - it's collected by IRD, payments are based on income and the terms are regularly changed by statute. If large numbers of overseas defaulters are getting chased for payment in full, it's quite possible they might club together and hire a lawyer to test this.
-
Fay and Richwhite
I just wonder how long it will take people to realize that a foreign-domiciled capitalist isn't going to be a better steward of anything because they were born in Auckland rather than Shanghai.
-
Could he not have said something sooner?
People have political journeys.
In the early 80's, the NZ Labour party was 'entryised' by socially liberal right-wingers like Roger Douglas, for whom the Muldoon National party was an unacceptable berth. More left-wing social liberals went along because they wanted social reforms and tolerated right-wing economics - possibly they believed in trickle-down, or thought the economic changes were inevitable and better implemented by Labour than National.
There was a general belief in the late 20th century that capitalism was the best and only means of social organisation and the task of social democrat parties was to regulate and ameliorate its excesses. Since then, we've had the dotcom crash, the security obsession, the banking crash, Southern European debt 'crises' and the revelations of Murdoch's corruption.
That little lot has convinced many (including me) that we've gone beyond a world where a bit of twiddling around the edges will sort everything out. If people in NZ Labour are finally seeing this, that can only be a good thing - and this goes well beyond the horserace politics dearly loved by the NZ media love.
-
Why not tax the lot of us for a 'recreation tax'
I think that already happens.
-
Hard News: #JohnDotBanks and all, in reply to Joe Wylie,
Do they have people like that in other countries?
Jeffrey Archer, Ian Paisley, most of the US Republican Party, Zamzami Abdelbari. I could go on.
-
I'm wondering if the cops had a tap on Dotcom's phone in conjunction with the FBI investigation stuff? And if so, is the evidence admissable for other purposes?
-
Hard News: Killing Volume, in reply to Martin Lindberg,
I don't believe that a computer is the end-all for media consumption
Ok, so I was exaggerating for effect. (Having just got a Kindle I think I'll be buying real books for a while yet).
But I don't think it's really disputed that magazine revenues (sales/advertising) have been suffering, and that the younger end of the market (which I don't fit into) have the most alternative calls on their eyeballs.