Posts by Rich of Observationz
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At the risk of crossing the streams with the copyright debates, Richard Stallman currently has a boycott out on the purchase of Harry Potter books, and not just because the average geek should know better anyway.
Stallman always reminds of the UK leftist (mentioned in a book by Mark Steel I think) who refused to travel on the Jubilee Line in London because to do so would be to endorse the monarchy. Even at the cost of considerable detours when attempting to get from Canary Wharf to Waterloo.
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I loved TSH too mostly because I had a very strong sense of having known most of the characters and therefore having to uneasily wonder if people in my circle would behave the same way given the same set of circumstances.
Yes, that's what makes a book for me. That's why I like Banks - the characters have this reality around them. (Obviously relatively few of my friends have the plate/maggot thing going on. Or have murdered siblings my floating them off over the ocean in a hot air balloon. But some of them work for evil huge global businesses that have secretly existed since the Romans).
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but the concept of three tax tiers, income splitting etc are ones I support.
How would that be simpler than the current system? You'd have to file a tax return to split a couples income (and who would be allowed to do that? Would one be able to share income with flatmates?).
I think our system is as simple as can be achieved with fairness, given that it doesn't require tax returns from ordinary employees. (A flat tax would be simpler, as would arbitrary confiscation of assets from the rich - but probably less fair).
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like amending the Electoral Act to protect Harry Duynhoven's arse and avoid a by-election nobody was keen to fight
From wikipedia:
His father was from the Netherlands, and Duynhoven had possessed citizenship from birth, but had temporarily lost it due to a change of Netherlands law. According to electoral law, applying for foreign citizenship would require Duynhoven to vacate his seat. The law was seen by many as misguided, however, and Duynhoven, with his huge majority, was almost certain to re-enter Parliament in the event of a by-election. As such, the government passed an act retroactively amending the law.
I don't see why this would be contentious, except due to the natural desire of opposition to use any hold they can grab against the government. I don't think there's been any serious suggestion that Duynhoven might be advancing Dutch interests against those of New Zealand?
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"Primary Colours" by Joe Klein is possibly one of the dullest books ever written. The author was supposed to have remained anonymous because he was sharing secrets of the press room, but I would have thought it was more from a desire not to be associated with literary anaesthesia.
I also thought that the Da Vinci Code was a perfectly good read for an airplane trip (and a reasonable film) and don't understand how people got all worked up coz it wasn't a historically true documentary. Most novels aren't.
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The commission's big job in the past couple of years has been developing and executing the family violence campaign. Everything I've seen tells me they've done a notably good job at that.
Which couldn't be done within the Ministry of Justice like the rest of crime prevention?
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And PA tags are case sensitive.
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<QUOTE>FFS, people, it was a close election not something important like the All Blacks getting knocked out of the RWC!</quote>
Yeah, that happens every four years. Elections are every three.
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Ireland got around the issue of Parliamentary sovereignty by enacting their constitution through a popular vote that was outside the parliamentary system. (The Dail proposed the new constitution, but did not enact it as an Act). So the Irish constitution is built on a "blank sheet" that doesn't derive from previous parliaments.
They also assured the acquiesence of the judiciary by requiring them all to sign up to the new constitution in order to remain in office.
Britain, OTOH accepts the European Court of Human Rights. While this process is often so slow as to be ineffective, it provides some checks. I doubt the UK could abolish parliament, for instance, without isolating itself from the European Union.
Personally, I think we do need a written constitution. I'm with Billy Bragg when he said (roughly) that Parliament defined it's rights with respect to the King during the English Civil War, but that what has never been defined are the rights of the people with respect to Parliament. Maybe we should take the Irish approach?
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That would be a poetic way for chooks and pigs to exact their revenge on us humans.
ROFL!