Posts by tussock
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Why would Colin Craig give up on his push for 5% just because it drops to 4%? Much more likely he grabs 3.5% either way, which gives seats to National. That's the whole point of a threshold, takes away small-party seats and gives them to (most often) the biggest.
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Oh, and one tiny thing to add to my rant on page 1. What MMP with no threshold would have given us as governments over the years, including the pre-MMP ones.
1981: 47 National, 25 Social Credit. No foreign borrowing for think big.
1984: 52 Labour, 15 Bob Jones. Free market reforms still happen.
1987: 54 National, 8 Social Credit. No dumping of valuable assets.
1990: 58 National, 3 Social Credit. National remains left-wing conservative.
1993: 42 Labour, 22 Alliance. The Liberal socialists reform movement.
1996: 41 National, 16 Winston, 6 Christian. Conservative backlash (not).
1999: 47 Labour, 9 Alliance, 5 Winston. Same old stuff.
2002: 50 Labour, 13 Winston. Cannabis Law Reform passes as a private members bill from the ALCP finally progresses to a conscience vote?
2008: 54 National, 5 ACT, 1 Peter Dunne. Minority government!
2011: 57 National, 3 Conservative, 1 Peter Dunne. No asset sales.Slightly fanciful here and there and assumptions assume the same vote which it wouldn't be, but still. Better and more responsive governments all around. A great deal more compromises and conscience votes, less hope for the ideological edge, Greens still kinda screwed, ACT even more screwed.
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@Rich. They're not insurgents, they're the resistance. We (as servants of the US) are the occupation, the government there are our puppet quislings flown in from the US and Britain, former employees of large oil companies, and the locals are resisting our continued presence with the standard guerrilla warfare tactics of the overpowered.
They don't melt back into being farmers, they are farmers. We're killing farmers, because they make up the resistance. This last lot weren't attacking anyone, they were defending themselves from some brown-shirt extra-judicial executions that we happened to be protecting at a distance.
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Reducing the party vote threshold to 4%
What a gigantic waste of time. Way to piss on the opportunity for us to have a representative democracy. Dear Sir or Madam, it's not up to you to decide who's worthy of being elected to parliament, it's up to the FUCKING VOTERS. If people don't want little parties to represent them in parliament they won't fucking well vote for them, eh.
Removing the one electorate seat threshold ("the single biggest factor in public dissatisfaction with MMP at present")
It's not about satisfying the bloody majority, it's about representing the desires of the nation in Parliament. All of us, even the child-molesting Christians and dope-addled pot-heads. Seriously, that's who we're keeping out, the ALCP and the religous flavour of the month.
Why are those people not allowed representation?
And they wonder why people don't vote. Could it be because their vote wouldn't count anyway? Maybe? Do you think? Hmm? Perhaps? Obvious, much?
You know everyone who voted for Colin Craig to stop National selling assets guaranteed that National would be able to sell assets. Nice of the electoral system to decide that for them. It's not like democracy really matters or anything.
And if bloody Winston Peters doesn't want to be in Parliament with less than 5% of the vote he can put himself at #6 on their list. Problem solved. Dick. -
We function perfectly in larger groups, Sacha, we do as everyone else does so as to not be the one who gets burned as a witch for having notably different ideas. Mob mentality. Totally works; not particularly enlightening but.
It's how advisors end up telling Key what he wants to hear, and how he can't hear things that sound different. So saving half an hour on your holiday drive twice a year is totally worth more than schools and hospitals and such, because no one in that room wants to be the witch.
Also, economics are awesome. The massive spending increase by the National government since coming into office has certainly saved us from the horrible state of the US and European economies. Y'all probably thought they'd cut spending in real terms, but out here in the world those tax cuts are spending too (in that they're a cut in negative spending). Obviously it creates a less equitable society, rewards only current status rather than anything practical, has mostly served to shift private debt to the public ledger, but people overall are still vastly better off than if they hadn't done it (not as good as if they'd done something productive with it, but they don't believe in governments doing that sort of thing, and the tax system demands rich folk become landlords rather than entrepreneurs). -
Field Theory: Rules, in reply to Yamis,
So for trying to protect your head and neck you get penalised?!
Putting your hand on the ground unbinds that part of the scrum and drops your shoulder, which requires everyone to back off or else collapse the scum. If anything it’s a means of driving your opponent’s head down first. The safest thing to do is stay bound, as it’s more likely everyone can recover from whatever is happening.
The dick with his hand on the ground is cheating in a way that is dangerous to himself and others.
Oh, and yes, it would be easier to bind without the hit. You can still put the pressure on immediately after coming together. Rather than touch-crouch-pause-engage, it could be touch-crouch-engage-push (moving past contact point before "push" being called is then a penalty offence).
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Do people not now grow the ganja here? I mean, tobacco plants are a bit fussier, but not that much. Poppies aren't even banned here.
It may be difficult to preserve the tobacco traditionally, that being a fairly visible and noxious process, but that's where most of the carcinogens come from anyway, isn't it?
Surely a black market in loose tobacco products would be not only very easy to produce and distribute locally, reducing our trade deficit, but also better for the addicts. The growth in violently possessive underground groups would provide skill training for all our idle youth, the prison industry would thrive, and police would be kept on their toes.
Think of the economic benefits, people! Boost GDP today, break a window.
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@Tim, etc. Under FPP people just get put in safe seats. Look at who the good people of Epsom voted for last election, there's always some group will hold their nose and kiss the toads.
Also, yeh, this idea that morality comes from religion is a lie. It never did, each new religion just claimed long-existing morality as their own, and changed along with society if they wished to survive. It's how Christian doctrine came to disagree with slavery, because the mass working class already did.
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I've heard that story before, only it was different people, and the voluminous creative insulting competition was through the car window after it reversed.
It seems people really don't like being almost run over by someone who doesn't see them, and equally don't like people appearing from nowhere and nearly going under their car, both of which are so clearly the other person's fault.
Also, defensive driving is extra smart when you're a pedestrian. Sometimes the car driver does not see you, and those things weigh well over a tonne.
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If we want the best candidates available for our electorates, and the best candidates available for our party lists, those same people need to be on both bits of paper. It's just that simple.