Posts by mark taslov
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Hard News: The Hager saga continues, in reply to linger,
That's really excellent Linger, it's not an easy thing putting ideas out there over the web, potential shot guns round every corner, that's fully formed - bonza!
Also Sacha, 'positive' but with a deep emotional trigger. loving the navigation on this thread, into the great wide open...
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Field Theory: The Force will be with…, in reply to Rich Lock,
Nice Rich, your post reminded me of Casey Pugh’s Star Wars Uncut which was a bit of fun and I see that Empire Uncut has just been released:
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OnPoint: Why Rightwingers Should Support…, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
Thanks a lot for that Ian, that’s an intriguing plot of history.
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Labour Capital Gains tax question #3:
Exemptions: The family home, personal assets, collectables, small business assets sold for retirement and payouts from retirement savings schemes, including KiwiSaver, will be exempt.
Why are collectables exempt? Who can afford collectables? Are vintage cars and planes collectables? Are paintings collectables? Are Ming vases collectables, Nazi memorabilia?
Labour supporters, here’s a chance to tell your story: what does the word ‘collectables’ mean to you, and why did you vote for the gains accrued from the sale of collectables to be exempt from taxation?
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What makes you think NZ cows are “holy’ and thus protected from greed? You live in a world on another planet, I fear.
I live in China, greed being what it is, why would anyone send an army when they can buy the farm for cheaper and still sell the produce back to ‘New Zealanders’ at inflated prices without having to maintain an occupying force, suppress dissidents or attract unwanted international incident? Mongolia is closer to most of the world.
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Legal Beagle: Terrorism is already illegal, in reply to Chris Waugh,
Perhaps I could change that to Ireland? =). I guess we could be a stepping stone to Antarctica or Australia, for armies that have lost their way.
Iceland is however the only NATO member which maintains no standing army,
But yeah, those Germans, ever the threat…
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Legal Beagle: Terrorism is already illegal, in reply to Marc C,
We NEED a defence force, similar to the Swiss, to have at least half a million ready to fight, armed and to take it to the hills if need be, or we will be sold and lost, under commercial and not so commercial sell out agreements.
Yes! New Zealand spends about $3b on defence. Not only could some of that money do a great deal of good in our society, but very little of it seems to be earmarked for actual defence, the RNZAF are assisting in drug busts in Africa ffs, it takes little or no account of the fact that due to proximity issues New Zealand doesn’t even feature on the Risk board. We’re about as strategic a target as Iceland and in 2012 they spent 17,900,000 on defence. We’re just a flaccid remote client state. Our Foreign Policy is pure Boy’s own fantasy, gun love with a dose of sexual harrassment and worse. God help us if sizable deposits of oil or something else precious is ever discovered here.
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Legal Beagle: Terrorism is already illegal, in reply to Marc C,
Problem is, people are now generally so “shallow” and self-centred
I totally agree Marc, as people we chain ourselves to our lifestyles, our reputations our securities and insecurities, our obsessive perceptions of an individual, struggling alone, or in tiny units, we are passive and too easily cowed, yet we know our only strength is in numbers:
The Borg
Resistence is futile! You will be assimilated!
We all know which Borg Sofie means and it is not the ‘good’ Borg*, it’s the 'enemy' Borg that prays on the individual’s needs, anxieties and feelings of isolation. Membership of the ‘good’ Borg, where the sum of the parts is greater than the whole is notably lacking right now.
Society in general could also be described as the Enterprise, we want to be Data or Crusher or Jen Luc Picard; personalities, characters, playing on the holodeck after work, we are not for the most part prepared to assimilate for the greater good, we seldom sacrifice our red shirts and officers salaries to work as a collective unit for the betterment of humanity, that’s why we get knocked off so easily. To do so runs against the grain of this individualistic capitalist agenda.
*that’s one for the affidavit.
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Legal Beagle: Terrorism is already illegal, in reply to Marc C,
but New Zealanders are in their majority, at least these days, what they call “good Germans”, is it not so?
Sorry if I was unclear, looking specifically at Hong Kong’s protesters, as I was and which we can agree would be a more than satisfactory starting point for New Zealanders, what I’m saying is that to successfully demonstrate for the rights of all constituents, for all workers in a democracy, the less of those constituents you piss off in the process, the more support you will have.
OTT
You’d have to be either pretty spun out, indoctrinated or resolutely cocky to call
"we nailed it"
So we spent millions in taxpayer funds to join a security council, whose most notable global accomplishment in recent memory was not only its absolute collective incompetence in failing to hold permanent member countries accountable for unilaterally flouting the council’s own collective resolution.
This has proven pivotal in facilitating the development of the most revered military organisation in world history: a group so deadly that the coalition forming to combat it already contains more countries than opposed Hitler and Napolean combined.
The two members who played the most decisive role in rendering this council impotent are two of our closest allies.
Nailed it.