Posts by Idiot Savant
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Well they can't *really* do that. But that's the point of investing in funds anyway, that the risk is spread among many investors, many companies and many assets, so that when low probability events strike (such as a company going completely bust), it doesn't wipe out your savings. Many eggs, many baskets, etc.
None of which does you any good if your fund is run by a crook. Which is what happened in 1987, and more recently with finance companies.
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Why are they dependent on one asset class in the first place?
Because they're old enough to remember 1987. Sure, a rental property or your own home may not be the most productive investment, economically speaking - it doesn't employ anyone, and managers don't get bonuses from it. But it is safe. you won't lose your money because the managers are crooks and the market rigged in favour of insiders.
And that's why the proposed land tax won't see a flood of people heading to create a (bonus-generating) asset bubble on the NZX: we just don't trust those scumbags. It speaks volumes that people thought that finance companies making loans on cars and property speculation were a safer bet than the stock exchange.
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So, is the shift from "life with a non-parole period of 25 years" to "maximum sentence with no parole" sufficient to overcome the A-G's BORA concerns about disproportionate punishment?
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For better or worse, I can honestly say that I finally appreciate Rand's contempt.
Filtering out all celebrity-related news might have saved you from that.
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I have written one column where I remarked (2007) on the fact that Myers did not have a knighthood
And a lovely piece of sycophancy it was too.
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the First Against the Wall When the Big Gay Revolution Comes Award for Services to Bigotry goes to Simon Power, for appointing Brian Neeson to the Human Rights Commission.
Human Rights Review Tribunal. The HRC promotes and mediates, the HRRT judges.
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TOO LATE! BWAHAHAHAHA!
Does he rent it to larpers? I can think of a couple of uses for a castle...
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So, how much do you think Myers paid for his knighthood?
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And No Right Turn is all, like, anyone who's not down with this is probably a racist. Sigh ..
Well, old and monocultural - unlike modern New Zealand. I see this (and the noise around it being whipped up by Audrey Young) as being a symptom of intergenerational cultural change. The interesting bit politically is that National, which has traditionally backed the old, is now backing the young - Key has an eye on the future of his party, and its relevance in a multicultural New Zealand (that, and he's a shiny city boy, rather than the usual dead farmer, and so has a very different outlook on life from their traditional base).
As for the disagreement among Maori, KiwiPolitico has a good post on what that's about. But Maori were left to decide, there was a consultative process, and while there are loud objections from the rival UCT camp (who have their own hegemonic project), the tino rangitiratanga flag was widely supported.
Finally, I don't see how flying a second flag diminishes anyone in any way. Its not official (yet...), its not replacing our wretched colonial relic (sadly), and the government is not kicking your door in and forcing you to fly it. If you don't like it, you can always not fly one. Or, you can buy one and burn it - a freedom we do not enjoy with the current flag.
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And compared to the major disappointments for fans of SF TV this year -- FlashForward
I'm actually quite enjoying that one (despite the usual Hollywoodisms about what the FBI actually does). I think its because its based on an actual SF novel, and so part of the SF novel tradition of Big Physics problem, rather than yet another bad and implausible alien invasion plot (I'm beginning to agree with Charles Stross: absent magic, spaceships <A HREF="http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2009/11/the_myth_of_the_starship.html">just aren't physically possible in the sense we imagine them</A>. And anyway, the idea of anyone coming all that way for mere physical resources which are common as muck pretty much everywhere is simply insane).
Plus, the underlying xenophobia in V was really getting to me. they're different and nice, therefore bad!