Posts by rodgerd
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think the modern day equivalent of the Sutch affair are incidents like this one where a researcher was held in jail for six days for downloading an "Al Quaeda Manual".
Bad comparison. Sutch was a well-established intellectual, albeit one who was arguably at the far end of mainstream left politics. The more modern comparison would be someone with the heft of a Ranganui Walker or Gareth Morgan being found with shady-looking contacts with dodgy foreign powers.
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Why don't grass roots members apar to have any concern at all about that?
The grass roots members feel a National government, even an imperfect one, will make them happier than 12 years of Labour government? Just a wild guess.
I mean, I don't have a very high opinion of many of the people around Auntie Helen, not least for their roles in the fourth Labour government, but after Ruth and Jenny I was well and truly pleased to see them on the government benches.
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I hope Russell that we would never suggest hate as a suitable emotion for for any politician
Why? A well-placed bullet in a fancy restaurant could help solve a lot of Zimbabwe's problems. A shot to the back of the head in the 30s could have made Spain a much nicer place. A stray bullet in a German street fight in '23 would have avoided the ruin of much of Europe by Facism and Communism.
There are plenty of politicians who deserve loathing and hatred.
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The Brash interview does rather seem to vindicate the thrust of Labour's election campaign as well - it's pretty clear Brash wanted a right-right wing government, not a centre right one, and that his real agenda that he wanted to push would make the Richardson/Shipley era look rather tame by comparison.
Given that Labour seem to be hoping they can poke Key with the same stick this time around the timing of Brash's interview is... interesting, to say the least.
I'm quite fascinated by how short the leap is for some from a Marxist worldview to the far end of the ideological scale.
It's that old political horseshoe we got in fourth form social studies when discussion Communism and Facism. Or CS Lewis: stident atheist becomes obnoxious Anglican pillock.
Some dreadful people are former Marxists -- Great Global Warming Swindle producer Martin Durkin, revisionist historian Keith Windschuttle.
And, of course, the core of the neo-conservative movement in the States, who are happy to apply the idea of violent revolution for utopian goodness. It's just they now think the US millitary are a better tool than the awakened proletariat.
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A right laugh... unless you were one of the people assaulted, one of the people responsible for explaining to the commuters why services wouldn't be running because of vandalised trains, or one of those commuters...
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there are other forums that offer informed and interesting debate.
Hey, maybe someone will shoot Obama!
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And Simon A is right to consider if the current levels of child and youth obesity is linked to the absence of sport coverage on free to air TV.
Perhaps it's just me, but I tend to suspect that sitting on an ever-increasing arse in front of TV, pay or otherwise, is not, in fact, the best way of combatting youth obesity. Less time watching sport, more time participating, says I.
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This thread is a great example of the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory in action.
Is there any special reason some posters are allowed to shit the place up behind anonymous handles? The rest of us, after all, have to let everyone else know who we are when we act like cocks.
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while I agree that it's nominally a tax on the employer think of it this way - if you quit your job at employer A and are not replaced and take up a job at employer B at the same salary - employer A will pay an amount less proportional to your salary and employer B will pay an equal amount more - in that sense it works the same as normal income tax - it's just calculated BEFORE your gross income rather than after so that it looks on your pay stub like you're paying less tax
That's true, but irrelevant; if anything, it makes New Zealand look worse, since that payroll tax should be depressing Aussie incomes - yet they're still, on the whole, higher than New Zealand ones.
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After venturing that "even $70,000 is a modest income these days"
Off in fucking la-la land.
It's hard to imagine any of New Zealand's major papers running this rather witheringly accurate piece, which, I guess, just shows how out-of-touch they are.