Posts by bmk
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Hard News: Is that it?, in reply to Rich Lock,
Well the prostitute provided a service. So it's not like the debt magically disappeared.
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Field Theory: How's that working out for…, in reply to Bart Janssen,
The best definition I have heard is that 'if you can smoke while doing it then it isn't a sport'. This removes golf from being a sport which is an added bonus.
As to the sweating thing does it cover nervous/concentration sweat? Because I have played chess tournaments where I have sweated more than from more physical sports.
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Hard News: Science: it's complicated, in reply to Kumara Republic,
And if it's anything to go by, a very close friend of mine, despite graduating with a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Auckland, couldn't secure a single job here. Not even in Australia or Europe either. So he's basically gone freelance and promoted himself, writing scientific documents. While he's not earning to his full potential, it's a start for him
He must have been tempted to turn to manufacturing drugs. I have heard qualified organic chemists are highly sought after by certain criminal organisations.
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Up Front: How About Now?, in reply to Kyle Matthews,
My daughter keeps piping up from her car seat with things she’s been taught about god. Today she told me she loved god more than everyone because god was everywhere and everything. I wish it was illegal to indoctrinate kids like that :(
Man that sucks so much.. I had religious parents when I was young and I always doubted the existence of this 'God' character. I remember expressing my doubts to my mother who told me that the doubts were the devil inside my head and I was evil if I listened to them.
So my mother has been clearly instructed that if she mentions god to my kids she will lose the right to see them. I am just grateful that my ex is an agnostic. Would be horrible to be in your situation.
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Cracker: Another Capital Idea..., in reply to BenWilson,
The most stark example of this is companies that manage to avoid tax altogether because of near complete reinvestment strategy that turns all of their profit into capital.
Well they must by lying about it and falsely claiming it as repairs and maintenance. Because profits being turned into capital get taxed exactly the same as if they were paid out in dividends. I actually think it would be better if they weren't. Say a company invests in new plant/productive machinery - this will help the economy. Whereas if they pay dividends to their shareholders - this money will most likely be consumed on less productive items (and quite likely a large portion will go offshore - be it on overseas holidays, imported cars etc).
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Hard News: Angry and thrilled about Arie, in reply to BenWilson,
I realized it was going too far when I found it in my hand when I woke up one morning.
lol ... that is a sure sign of an addiction getting out of hand. I remember a friend realising his p habit had gotten out of hand when he would fall asleep with his pipe in his hand and wake up clutching it. Burnt holes through his sheets too one time.
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Cracker: Another Capital Idea..., in reply to Lucy Stewart,
I watched a very interesting documentary the other week about the children of the very wealthy in America, filmed and produced by someone of that class; the overriding message ended up being a) how totally, totally out of touch they all were about how overprivileged they actually were compared to the average person and b) how most of them were trying desperately to find any sort of meaning to their lives - when you don't have to work to live well, and you're not content with endless partying, what do you do with yourself? How do you know that any of your achievements are real, rather than tokens to curry influence? (A couple of the interviewees were clearly unable to tell the difference.) Several talked about how they'd actively tried to fail university and been unable to get themselves kicked out because the administration was too worried about losing their parents' donations. When you can't even fail on your own terms...
That sounds eerily like the entire point of Less than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis. One of my all time favourite books even though the characters inhabited a different planet from my own experience.
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Cracker: Another Capital Idea..., in reply to BenWilson,
I can imagine easily spending all the money you earn in the top tax bracket. But I can't imagine that you struggle to get by day to day.
When I was married with two children and studying. Our family had a total income of about 25k before tax. And we got by just - permanent scraping by and living week to week. Was very unpleasant but doable.
So anyone in the top tax bracket should be able to live quite comfortably and shouldn't begrudge the tax they are paying (which I note you weren't).
If I were in the top tax bracket I would be probably spending all my money too just living much more comfortably and wouldn't be worrying about where to find the money to buy a pair of shoe's for my daughter or dread the school stationery list/fees.
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Hard News: Angry and thrilled about Arie, in reply to ChrisW,
Yes Hilary, there’s a way round it, but it’s inconvenient ain’t it! Hence my request for return to plain NZ time display, and see subsequent support and discussion with suggestion for option of re-setting as ‘x time units ago’ as a personal preference for those who might want.
+1. Plain time is much easier. For example I may stop reading at 8pm at night and don’t get a chance to come back on to 5pm the next day. It is much easier for me to find the first post after 8pm than trying to calculate how many hours ago it was or being told unhelpfully ‘a day ago’.
Another possible solution would be a ‘Go to first unread post’ that many other forums use.
Not meaning to complain btw. I love this site and would just like to point out things that would imo improve usability.
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Speaker: John and Phil meet Bob, in reply to Craig Young,
due to the lack of professional medical opinion that supports euthanasia rights or progressive drug policy reform.
Regarding euthanasia yes. But there is becoming widespread support in the medical community for drug reform favouring the harm minimisation model and for it be seen as a medical rather than legal problem. In fact every medical review of drug policy suggests changing it but govts just ignore them everytime - Labour was as bad as National for this. While this approach is preferable I still don't like the idea of non-problem drug users being forced to undergo treatment but I guess this is still preferable to locking them up.
I have a few friends in the States who were keen supporters of Obama and the two key issues that have led to them feeling very disillusioned in him are the non-closing of Gitmo and the Federal raids on marijuana dispensaries in California which he had promised to stop.