Posts by Rich of Observationz
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Craig: I don't see how Christian's living in London implies that he supports the undemocratic UK electoral system?
I'd say the UK and the US are about comparable. Bush got the support of 26% of eligible voters vs 21% for Blair, but, in the US, third party voters realise they have nowhere to turn and almost all vote for a major candidate. In the UK, there are the Liberals to vote for, as well as the Scots & Welsh Nats.
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Brazil v Paraguay:
War of the Triple Alliance, see:
Chris Leuchars. To the Bitter End: Paraguay and the War of the Triple Alliance
also
Guerra do Paraguay, [18?]. National Library of Brazil
(Brazil & allies won)South American Qualifiers, 2008
(Paraguay won) -
One of my uni lecturers has announced that using Wikipedia as a reference means you will automatically fail the assigment
Conversely, if a student makes up a reference in a paper to something like:
Smyth et al, Journal of Applied Chronology, May 1973does the lecturer get sacked for not making a trip to the library to validate if the paper really exists?
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The UK is a poor comparison, as they have a particularly low road accident rate, partly because it's hard to get out of second gear, and when they do, it's on a nice safe motorway.
The USA, which has a full-on litigation culture, has a substantially higher road death rate than NZ.
And there were 126 convictions for driving causing death in 1998, last figures I could find quickly. Given that more than half those killed in road accidents are driving the car and hence unavailable to charge, I'd suggest that most of those who kill someone *are* charged and convicted.
Have you considered fact-based argument, Slarty?
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Struggling with the logic.. help... anyone?
My point is that if people in NZ want (and can afford for the most part) a flash telly, and that makes people in China wealthier, so they can afford (for instance) our dairy products, then that's for the most part a Good Thing.
As opposed to having a hugely inefficent television factory in Porirua or wherever (as I think was the approach under Muldoon and his predecessors).
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Craig: so would you have to take a stupidity test to get a passport?
Or just produce a copy of a ballot paper with an X for NZ First on it?
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Slarty: so you want NZers to be watching '80s tellys with a green tinge, and Chinese people to be impoverished rice farmers who can't afford cheese?
And that benefits who?
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I'm not sure what a government might have done about that though.
Fiscal measures:
- removal of negative gearing
- capital gains tax on house sales
- tax on mortgage interest
- tax on house sales (like UK stamp duty)
- GST on house salesNon-fiscal measures:
- controls on non-bank deposit takers (Hanover finance et al)
- increased limits on bank lending
- death penalty for estate agents (what do you mean, for what offence?) -
Scroobius Pip needs to add a new lyric:
"Coffee, just a drink" -
I thought Muldoonist was quite a good description for somebody who plans to borrow money to pork-barrel the construction industry.
It's interesting how Labour are much keener on fiscal probity than National these days.