Posts by Alfie
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Not a MSM story, but a 2 min video piss-take on the same from the Onion.
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Hard News: Hate and guns, in reply to ,
Chocolate fish for anyone who can guess whether New Zealand gun laws could prevent the same thing happening here.
I'm guessing not on the same scale as it's reasonably difficult to purchase assault rifles in NZ. You need to be a registered collector to obtain one legally.
That said, I knew a guy back in the 80s who owned an M16. He said, "See this little pin? Pull that out and you have a full automatic." In his defense, he was a full-time hunter and used it for shooting goats. But the weapon had been obtained illegally from army stores and sold onto the black market.
He used it one day to shoot his TV. I couldn't disagree with him on that count.
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Hard News: Hate and guns, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
Everyone assumes ‘terrorist du jour’
- which for America today probably means IslamicPredictably, Trump tweeted "Thanks for all the congrats" as if mass murder somehow vindicates his racism. It's becoming increasingly difficult to believe that this dim-witted, orange cartoon character is actually in the running for the office of president.
US gun laws will probably come under scrutiny again, but sure as hell, the issue will be dropped soon after. Because... National Rifle Assn. In both of this weekend's cases, the shooters legally purchased assault rifles. But I'll bet that 50% of Amercians see absolutely no correlation there.
It's worth pointing out that Mateen was investigated twice (2013, 2014) by the FBI for his radical views, and twice they decided there was nothing to worry about. Maybe he should have been on a list which restricted him from buying serious armaments? If such a list even exists in the US.
The result of both FBI investigations also speaks volumes about the actual value of the surveillance state. The Amercians now gather and store so much information about every individual, that they have no practical way of analysing it all. While such a scattergun approach to information collection may prove helpful after an attack, it seems to be pretty much useless in predicting these very American mass slaughters.
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Speaker: Confessions of an Uber Driver…, in reply to goforit,
Just found the NZ idendity of Urban NZ Ltd, it has two directors and because its a NZ Company it has to operated under NZ Laws not Uber Law.
Is this the company you're referring to? If so, it was only incorporated last month.
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Speaker: Confessions of an Uber Driver…, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
A French court fined Uber Technologies [UBER.UL] 800,000 euros
The interesting thing about that case is that it was Uber, rather than the drivers, who were fined. France made unlicenced Uber-Pop drivers illegal last year after those serious protests from taxi drivers.
If only the same laws were applied here. And maybe NZTA could grow some balls and crack down in Auckland as they did in Christchurch.
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One may be a little snowier than the other but this is an easy mistake to make. After all, when you live in Auckland, Queenstown and Queensland must be almost equidistant.
Geography? It's seriously overrated.
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Southerly: I Fell Down, in reply to Bart Janssen,
You know those friends you have, that move away and it’s like years between the times you see them, neither of you are the daily writing to each other types so you have no contact.
And then you are in the same town and you meet up for coffee and the conversations just pick up where you left off as if there was no gap in the friendship at all.
I’ve had a couple of those experiences recently. The first when I was buying milk from my local farm (which coincidentally, is the one which has just been closed down due to TB). I recognised an old friend I haven’t seen for forty years. That was a joyous occasion.
The other person was Wayne – he was my best man when we married in London way back in 1986. I’d made numerous attempts to track him down since we returned to Godzone, but he keeps a ridiculously low profile and had all but disappeared into thin air.
Then last year I remembered he had a brother who worked in computing in Dunedin, so I rang around various IT shops until I finally located Wayne. That meeting was one of those "just like yesterday" experiences Bart described and now we’re best mates again. Life can be wonderful.
I love your engineering days with Bob. Whoever would have thought an LED light bulb could be so hard to break into?
It’s great to see you back David.
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Speaker: Confessions of an Uber Driver…, in reply to BenWilson,
The contract that I can find, which I don’t recall ever being asked to sign, and which carries no signature or any other proof of authenticity from Uber, explicitly removes every possible right, including even the jurisdictional right for the contract to be subject to NZ law.
I’m not a lawyer but I understand that any contract which is not signed by both parties is completely invalid in law and would not stand up in any court.
Uber’s stance that they only provide “leads” to independent contractors is inherently weak. After all, they are solely responsible for collecting all the money and take a decent cut for themselves. And as a company they are inciting law-breaking by encouraging people to drive using their software platform without the relevant P-endorsement, TSL, or COF.
To me, that places Uber fair and square at the heart of a business which makes its money by deliberately encouraging people to break NZ law.
Guilty, your honour.
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Hard News: Dirty Politics, in reply to izogi,
Stuff comment threads, and similar things, are probably minor contributors to dumbing down of the media and general polarisation of opinion.
"The problem with living in the global village, is that it's filled with village idiots."
While that's an old quote, sorry, I can't locate the original source.
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Mediaworks have axed their midday news bulletin. No surprises there. Did anyone ever watch tele at that time of the day?
The same story confirms that Glucina left the premises on Friday, which will have endowed TV3's Friday night drinks with a slight hint of karmic glow.
