Posts by Rich of Observationz
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I would argue that politicians like Sanders and Corbyn as well as parties such as Syrisa and Podemos are merely re-establishing a left-of-centre alternative that had disappeared.
The Attlee government, for instance, introduced a comprehensive health service, free education, welfare benefits and nationalised the key industries of the day. They did this in a country that had been brought to the edge of bankruptcy by the costs of fighting WW2, and they weren’t afraid to take the wealth of the aristocracy to fund these social programs.
Those politics were mainstream in 1945, and for some years afterward. While the right may have got away with imposing a settlement where electors have the choice of two hard right ideologies (Cameron/Blair), they haven’t and can’t destroy the concept of democratic socialism.
(One could make the same points in a US context around FDR vs Clinton/Obama).
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Can they both lose?
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Hard News: Dirty Politics, in reply to Alfie,
I had previously understood the name suppression was under the section that protects the identity of victims.
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Since 58% of Wellingtonians support legal weed, can't we have it just for us, with some sort of pass system to stop people from other areas coming to buy it?
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Hard News: Media Take: Crime and punishment, in reply to Russell Brown,
Lead? Mercury maybe? And there’d be a detectable quantity of that in most houses – somebody will have broken a fluorescent tube at some stage. Maybe they just check for “chemicals” – bound to be some of those around.
(In fact, there are a whole lot of nasties that weren’t recognised when widely used.
Leaded paint, obviously.
Tetrachloromethane was a popular spot remover until the 70s, with a caveat that you shouldn't smoke while using it as the cigarette would oxidise the CCl4 to phosgene.
Not to mention pesticides.
Even good old petrol is 1% benzene, which has been known as a toxic carcinogen for a long time – so if the bikies who lived in the house rebuilt motorbikes in the living room, as is traditional, they probably caused more serious contamination than smoking P).
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I've often wondered about these meth testing and cleaning companies.
Those who watch this stuff will remember the storyline in Breaking Bad about a fumigation company that our heroes used as a cover for their meth lab operations. Well, what kind of companies also get to seal buildings and go in wearing protective clothing? Plus, the houses are already contaminated, obfuscating the evidence.
Just a plot suggestion, your honour..
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A nine-year-old petitioned Parliament for the testing of people driving on foreign drivers licences in New Zealand
I guess at nine one wouldn’t be too fussed about one consequence of that, which would be that NZers would no longer be able to drive overseas. (There is a reciprocal treaty by which we accept visitors home licenses. Withdraw from that, and our licenses wouldn’t be valid overseas. It takes several months to get a driving test appointment in many countries and most, like the US and UK, only issue licenses to residents).
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I'd suggest there were two fairly separate groups opposed to change: conservatives who identified with the old flag and it's imperial links, and liberals opposed to anything from John Key. (and design snobs, who form a statistically insignificant outlier).
Add to that Maori people who as David notes, saw the new flag as not representing their community. (And/or, as Andrew Little suggested, having an affinity for the British monarchical link).I would imagine that a future left-wing government would have less problem changing the flag, especially if a suitably elaborate and inclusive process was followed, and Gareth Morgan paid for it.
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Or you could read the judge's full sentencing report (available here, R v Kerr).
It amazes me that people feel themselves able to decide on matters of guilt and sentencing on the basis of a few hundred words of (often biased and sensationalised) summary in a newspaper when the actual case will typically have involved weeks of proceedings and hundreds of pages of evidence.
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Actually harming people physically, probably.
I don’t know what good filling the jails does. Maybe there should be some sort of sentence of perpetual bankruptcy for greed based cases like this.