Posts by Steve Barnes
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Speaker: Honest Bastards & Dishonest Cowards, in reply to Tinakori,
because of debt maturing exceeding projected additional debt.
Why yes of course, how could I be so silly. The debt we will owe exceeds what we think we may owe so is less.
Like if I borrow $10 from you with $5 of that debt projected as future debt then we are quits, yes?.
On the other hand, the one with sleighter fingers, I defer payment of debt on the $10 and forward $5 of the loan on maturity you will owe me $15.
I geddit. -
Speaker: Living under bridges, in reply to James Littlewood*,
a spontaneous surge of bodies gushing forth towards the gateways,
Gateways that are neither wanted nor needed and in the event of crowd panic could become death traps. Have you ever been in a boat when the mast hits the bridge? it makes a hell of a row i can tell you. You might not notice it if you were driving across but walking or cycling you may just panic and you would not be alone, no joking matter.
I am not proposing not mixing pedestrians and bikes, that is not the problem. -
Speaker: Honest Bastards & Dishonest Cowards, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
Of course. The other thing the Clark government did was to encourage (to some degree, at least not prevent) finance companies to take on a secondary banking role, which meant that the inevitable banking crashes were ring-fenced away from the real banks,
Had they not done that we may have found ourselves in a position not too dissimilar to Greece, bailing out SCF was a step in entirely the wrong direction and sending the wrong message.
Our Govt. is now borrowing at unprecedented levels and if this continues and history repeats, which it will, we will be up shit creek. Our currency carries a, roughly, 3% risk on the international markets already, hence the closely matched interest rate, so we will always be behind the 8 ball on borrowing. If we had serious overseas lending and/or investment the boot would be on the other foot but Key's insistence on suspending payments to the New Zealand Superannuation Fund suffocated that possibility, even though that fund is doing really well (The sovereign fund posted a record 25.8% return in the twelve months till 30 June 2013) [1].
I noticed an article in today's National Comic, the Herald, quoting our PM as saying"New Zealand is Samoa's second largest trading partner. The agreement will provide a platform for increased trade and investment between our two countries - and will help assist the economic development of our Pacific Island neighbour."
This is from an Order in Council from 2010 ffs, not the swift act of a progressive and "ashperashunal" government but a good soundbite to link Key with the All Blacks once more.
It is power and profit for these guys as usual, as Mikaere Curtis noted up-threadSimple concepts like national want to remove worker's job security, they love to bribe Big Business, or they are all about transferring wealth to the wealthy
Simple, but people believe Key when he says Labour are useless and with them and the Greens in power NZ would be a basket case.
Well, with Key's legacy that may well turn out to be true. -
Speaker: Living under bridges, in reply to Jolisa,
Cultural musing hat:
This one sprang to my mind...;-)
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Speaker: Living under bridges, in reply to Russell Brown,
Speaking of unloveable opposition, Janette Miller's video response to the resource consent approval, in which she depicts Skypath as a potential "death trap"
Yes, it is a strange video but that is because the production values are not as high as we expect these days, her voice is a little off putting as well.
But the fact does remain, if the Sky Path attracts the patronage required for the Council to not have to compensate the operators then stampede is a real danger.People thronged to the grand opening on May 24, 1883. On that single day an estimated 150,000 pedestrians paid the one penny toll to walk across it. On May 30, 1883, the bridge was, as always, crowded with hundreds of people walking across, it when someone in the crowd shouted out “the bridge is collapsing!” Many in the public were still apprehensive of this gigantic and unprecedented construction of man, and when they heard this cry (untrue though it was), they believed it. In the resulting panic to get off the bridge, 15 people were trampled to death.
10 Tragic Human Panics and Stampedes
PATRICK WEIDINGER NOVEMBER 26, 2010
I do think that this kind of disaster could be at least mitigated if not nullified by having free access and sod the company that wants to make some cash out of it. The Council should, through the poor ratepayer, who actually gets quite a bit for less than the price of a packet of fags a day, stump up the whole amount in the name of public safety, after all, not having to set up toll collection and its associated running costs would save a large amount of the project's cost. -
Hard News: About Campbell Live, in reply to ,
It’d also be good if they don’t decide to start presenting these sorts of things as entertainment ether.
Well, we know their intent is to provide for the lowest common denominator but this stuff we are seeing these days would be an insult to the intelligence of the most subhuman moron.
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Are we allowed to know who complained about the story?.
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Hard News: Potency and purity, in reply to Russell Brown,
consciously targeted at immigrant Chinese workers, whose opium use had become a matter of public alarm.
And that, Sir, is the key, FEAR.
The fear of the majority of society, the fear of foreigners, the fear of youth and their immature and ignorant ways.
If society had unbiased and informed knowledge of drugs and anything else for that matter, then this fear would disappear and be replaced by an enlightened concern but it suits those in power to keep the people scared and nothing beats the fear of the unknown. Keep 'em ignorant of the facts and you have control. -
I just discovered this little site that will be so useful to "churnalists" of the calibre that are being foisted on us at an alarming rate. It is, aptly, called... wait for it...
Muck Rack.... I kid you not.
How long before we see the headline... "Rachel Glucoma, Muck Raker of the year"
The cynicism, it burns. -
Hillary, I can't get that link to work, try this one...
http://www.pundit.co.nz/content/dirty-politics-20
