Posts by Danyl Mclauchlan
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OTOH, some of those Your Views people really don't even want to know what's going on. They're just angry people.
My quick scan-through impression of the Your Views posters was that most of the ex-pats in Asia, the US and Europe seem pretty cool (left for work, travel etc) and most of the ex-pats in Australia are dicks (left because of the fuckin' theiving Maaris etc).
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My theory is that you don't give a rats about the "h" deal
If you watched Laws on the news last night he really seemed genuinely gutted. I think if he was exploiting bigotry for political advantage he's be delighted at the chance to play the victim, a la Larry Baldock after Key refused to change the smacking law. Instead he's devastated. I don't think Laws is playing the race card, I think he personally really hates Maori people and culture and is furious at the idea that they might prevail over him.
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Do you know if Telstra Clear will ever offer some kind of PVR deal? I can't see anything on their site.
I'm asking you 'cos you know about these things.
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Anyone know if he's still an Act member?
ACT didn't stand anyone in Rotorua last year and he's not on any of the party lists.
It's probably worth googling all the ACT candidates prior to the next election. Back in the day if a party stood someone crazy the local paper would report on it and the rest of the media would pick it up; not so much anymore.
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One company was producing a dimmer bulb wasn't it?
I have 90% CFLs in my house, but dimmer switches in the lounge and I can honestly say I've never seen dimmer CFLs for sale. I'm sure I can source them on the internet someplace, but I'm a lazy, lazy man and not really inclined to buy my lightbulbs over the internet. There were other arguments against them as well - recessed lights, they take a while to warm up so aren't very good for external lighting, or hallways. My point is that it would have been a lot smarter to create economic incentives than a fiat ban - because you know what? That ban has now been rescinded, so it got them LOTS of terrible press coverage yet gained them nothing, while a less prescriptive policy would still be in place.
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What does it say about a government that thinks it needs to take such an easy choice out of the hands of ordinary New Zealanders? Do they think we are stupid?
I'd even go so far as to say it would have been a good idea to put a surtax on the old bulbs and a subsidy on the CFLs to give people ecomomic incentives to change, while still leaving people with a choice. My Father was very angry with the lightbulb ban, not because he's a climate change denier but because almost every light switch in his house is on a dimmer switch, CFLs blow up if you put them into those sockets and he was going to have to get his whole house rewired. He wasn't terribly impressed with the Green/Labour position that anyone protesting the ban was a far-right flat earth luddite.
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Dismiss that as electorally stupid if you want, but a lot of the unpopular social engineering was the right thing to do.
No one is disputing that civil unions were the right thing to do: National didn't campaign against it, Labour haven't apologised for it. You're trying to reframe the debate to more defensible territory.
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it would seem this government is capable of much the same arrogance as the late-stage labour government was.
You're not wrong there - after years of insisting that Clark and her party were the most corrupt party in our history, worse than Stalin, Hitler, Mugabe etc, the current right-wing talking point is that the current government is _no less ethical__ than the former.
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What, specifically, are you talking about here?
Let's take the EFA. Seems to me a scientific approach to the issue of election funding would have been a comparative study of other countries, and/or an independent body to study the problem with the government seeking to build consensus around the recommendations.
Instead Clark rewrote the laws around election funding to suit herself and her party and to handicap her political opponents. Her reaction to any criticism of such actions was that all of the (MANY) detractors of the bill were part of some right-wing conspiracy and not worth listening to. Goff - to his great credit - apologised for the whole, loathsome fiasco almost as soon as he became leader.
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As both an historical Labour supporter and a scientist I would be thrilled to have seen Labour become the 'party of good science', what they've actually been is the party of 'we'll do whatever we think is right and anyone who doesn't agree can go fuck themselves', which is somewhat less appealing.