Posts by Matthew Poole
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Hard News: On Freedom, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
Really, dysfunctional countries and ungoverned areas like Zimbabwe or Somalia should be at the top of propertarians’ ‘freedom’ lists. You can do anything you like in those places, subject to a small retainer being paid to appropriate cops and warlords.
Which strongly suggests that they actually did look at more than just property freedoms. Hell, on that ranking NZ is considerably less free than quite a few places because of the RMA (not saying that's in any way a bad thing).
We also have that dirty, dirty socialised medicine, and quite strong controls on firearms ownership. Looked at purely through the lens of libertard ideology we should be ranking a long way down the list. -
Hard News: On Freedom, in reply to Bart Janssen,
My understanding is that in order to progress their careers prosecutors want big flashy cases which they can be sure of winning. As much to do with the way they are promoted and paid as whether they are decent human beings.
The use of “tough on crime” prosecutorial cred as an entrée into elected life is rife in the US. As a federal appointee the prosecutor in this case didn’t need to worry about getting re-elected, unlike in the “justice” systems of most states, but she very likely has her eyes on a tilt at an elected role as a state attorney-general or some other office (state or federal). Or she may be angling for a nice judicial appointment where those “tough on crime” creds hold appeal.
The US system is horribly, horribly broken. That officers of the law and the courts are (in many states) elected is an abomination, in my eyes, and that is compounded by the ways in which the record of a candidate for an office that must be confirmed by the Senate becomes a weapon against them in the eyes of politicians who want punitive sanctions against all convicts.
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Hard News: Fact and fantasy, in reply to Farmer Green,
It’s the media’s hypothesis.
My bad. It's considered extremely bad form to not at least indicate genesis, if not actually provide a link to the source.
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Hard News: Fact and fantasy, in reply to Farmer Green,
Herald is reporting that they died shortly after drinking from troughs that had just been topped up from a portable tank. What’s that do to your nitrate poisoning hypothesis?
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Hard News: Fact and fantasy, in reply to Farmer Green,
The problem is NITRATE from urine deposited in excess of the anion exchange capacity of the soil at some distance from the stream.
Not when it comes to cows shitting in the river it ain't. Nitrate pollution may well be an over-stocking problem, but there's only one cause of shit ending up in waterways and that's cows having access.
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Hard News: Fact and fantasy, in reply to BenWilson,
But this place is chock-full of greenies who fully support permaculture ideals! If you’re going to get disagreement it will be in the detail, rather than the basic ideas.
Dare we suggest that he tackle the biggest site in, err, Kiwi blogging? That would be a "conversation" (one-sided and awful to behold, to be sure) that might actually inform current policy-makers, given that they appear loathe to engage with the intelligentsia who occupy this forum.
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Now we find out that there was a critical flaw in the kiosk implementation that, despite having been fixed, was so serious that to even reveal what it was could compromise the security of the MSD network in future.
#WTFMSD indeed.
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Hard News: Fact and fantasy, in reply to Stewart,
Why do you feel the need to question the commitment and motives of someone you have never met but has been lauded by a friend as an environmentally ‘right-on dude’?
I felt the need to clarify because you left his true motives open to interpretation. He'd hardly have been the first to do the letter of the law and wave that about as a demonstration of how that was the truth of his beliefs about caring for the environment when, really, it was the ranting about how much caring for the environment costs that was the truth.
If he's actually caring about the environment, then good on him. I'm just cautious when confronted with someone who bitches loudly about how much it's costing them to comply with the law but holds up their compliance as a certificate of how they're a good citizen. -
Hard News: Fact and fantasy, in reply to BenWilson,
Depopulating Auckland is a plan I’d never considered…. hmmm, that might work.
At the thorough expense of our economy. Density brings value of employment. The highest-value employment in the whole country is in Auckland's CBD, by a very large margin (from memory it's about 30% higher than the number two). If we're to have a hope of growing our way out of this economic rut into which National has run the country, it will be completely counter-productive to spread our only real city all over the countryside. The agglomeration benefits to economies are thoroughly established, and it's only ignorant hicks like Brownlee and Joyce who think the solution to our economic woes is more farming and Canterbury and urbanising the whole stretch from Hamilton to Whangarei.
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Hard News: Fact and fantasy, in reply to Angus Robertson,
Make the commute expensive.
That has to be the most utterly fucking stupid suggestion I've read yet. Make commuting by private vehicle expensive, by all means, but it's completely unrealistic to demand that people live near where they work, especially in a city where most housing is unaffordable at the entry level and the stuff that is affordable is nowhere near centres of employment.
As an example, partner's sister and BiL bought in Drury, because that's about all they could afford, but he works in the city. They couldn't afford to buy in the city, or close to the city. Are you recommending that he give up his moderately-well paid job in order to get a more menial position closer to home? Or recommending that they forego ownership in order to live closer to town? They have no available middle ground.