Posts by BenWilson
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I can't stop checking Waitakere. Go Carmel! Go Westies!
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MMP is not out of woods yet. Those are advance votes only. Polling was showing it pretty safe though.
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Hard News: Democracy Night, in reply to Sacha,
Is that advance votes only, though?
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Tomorrow I shall be pointedly Labouring in my garden. The garden is Green. I will be growing tomatoes.
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Fuck it, I have to decide at some point. Shearer+Green+MMP (2nd STV). What I liked about the Labour policy is Green policy too, and has been for some time. I'm not so much of an environmentalist, but when you stack environmentalism up as a counter to environmental plunder, you end up somewhere sane in between.
I feel NZF's vulnerability and that them getting in would probably make for a more hobbled National party, but I just can't stomach Peters. I would not cry to see him in parliament, but I will not give him my support. If I am telling Epsom voters not to tactically vote Banks, to be consistent, I have to avoid doing the same thing myself.
Mana seems like a close policy fit, but I want to wait and see what they actually advocate for a few years first. I fell for that one with ACT, way back when I thought liberalism meant more than the free market, and good on Brash for finally even mentioning the embarrassment of weed prohibition, right at the moment that ACT's entire voter base shows that was never the kind of thing they were about. Mana could be about social justice, or they could be about highly authoritarian ideas.
ETA: I have split my vote this way 3 times now. 2002, 2005. Only last time did I double tick Labour.
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It also makes the point that a lot of modern weapons are designed to incapacitate or injure humans, and have a psychological element to them that doesn't affect the walking dead.
Yes, no one expects a zombie wave. Having said that, massive waves of armed combatants in WW1 were effectively cut down using weak old machine guns. Since the undead do not tool up, and will go straight toward any sounds of combat, any line of people with modern automatic weapons should be able to kite them into kill zones and just keep hosing away until they run out. Even just using batons, a group of people lined up should be able to beat down any horde advancing on them - ancient infantry battles were like this and even small weaponry, tactical and strategic advantages were often decisive. It's not fiction that the 300 defended a pass against hundreds of times their numbers at Sparta. Any alley way in which desperate living humans faced an undead horde would end up piled high with corpses.
I'd back the living against the undead, even more than I'd back humans against animals.
True, but the influenza virus doesn't chase you around the city on two legs, so it's swings and roundabouts.
Being chased, you have a chance to evade, and even to kill the chaser. Sneezed at by a friend or loved one, no chance.
Not very confident about China though. That’s probably wall-to-wall walkers.
Yeah, Kung Fu walkers at that. Their style is strong.
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Hard News: Last Words, in reply to Sacha,
Stil, can't complain about the MP I have. David Shearer, who should canter home in Mt Albert, strikes me as one of the most genuine people I've met in politics. He's hardworking, humble and intelligent.
I'm a little worried that he doesn't have an especially developed television presentation yet, though. He would need to work on that.
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I've been trying to convince people who usually can't be arsed to vote that there is one vote that will count for a lot in this election - MMP. While they're there, they might as well flick one off to whatever party is most closely aligned, even if not really representative of them.
Also, despite the polls, I do think it's going to be close. If National can't govern alone, it will need to convince one coalition partner to work with it, and that might not actually happen. They have quite literally eaten the entire right wing vote pool. Even if they win an outright majority, it's likely that this election will be a structural loss to the right, which will definitely temper their ability to do anything really unpopular.
So I'm nowhere near as gloomy about this as die-hard Labour supporters are. Indeed, if National gets to govern with the barest of majorities, cobbled together with some minor party, they could be virtually powerless to bring about any unpopular policies, and the recession will grind out support for the party of the wealthy class.
There is every chance that the next few weeks are going to be even more interesting than the last 4.
I'm still undecided about who to party vote for, but it will be to the left.
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it is imperative that zombies are dealt with quickly, or else we are all in a great deal of trouble
The viral spreading of the undead infection has never been convincing. Truly virulent infections are spread by the living - infections that kill you, and require you to be dead before you can spread them, can't infiltrate populations. The most dangerous viruses are the ones with a long infectious period before you show any signs. Zombieism strikes me as easily containable. Probably the only public measure needed would be to suggest that anyone infected should ask to be tied up, hand and foot, in the final stages of their death. That spares even the grossness of having to smash their heads postmortem. They could most likely get proper funerals, if a cure is not found.
Anti zombie combat is also quite easy. Only with massive weight of numbers are they any threat at all, and even then, finding a simple defensive line will enable even the most lightly armed defense to inflict 100% casualties. Climb to a vantage point, somewhere narrow if you have few numbers, and keep braining them until there's none left. There's no trick too simple to slaughter zombies, they just don't defend themselves.
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I don't believe that unfettered market capitalism is a good model, but nor would I be in favour of a government monopoly where you could only get your electricity from one supplier.
I'm not sure how happily the two can co-exist, given that government suppliers can leverage government support to give them a colossal advantage over private. Private electricity supply is not illegal in this country, so there must be a reason that it doesn't just spontaneously form - the main one I see is that such projects are highly risky, with low return, for long periods of time, so investors just aren't to be found. Once they are built, and have a proven revenue stream, like our current ones, of course plenty of people are happy to privatize those profits.
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