Posts by webweaver
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webweaker
Tee hee.
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WORD Mr Slack!
And at the risk of sounding like an idealistic hippy (oh well, what the heck, that's pretty much what I am...)
I want to live in a society where our sick are taken care of properly, where everyone has access to a decent education, where there are libraries and swimming pools and roads without potholes, a decent public transport system, accessible funding for those with special needs and where the rubbish gets picked up regularly (and hopefully recycled).
In a society larger than a small village that requires us to pay taxes to cover the cost of providing those services to all of us - and as someone who earns a reasonable living, I believe it's my duty to pay a reasonably high level of tax. I can afford it - I should pay it.
Assuming the government spends my money wisely, and doesn't go blowing it on rushing off to war or handing out money to select groups of their "friends" while the majority get nothing, I'm cool with that. I don't like paying taxes much, but I don't mind paying them.
The runup to last two elections made me so mad - all those people being interviewed saying stuff like "Well I think I might vote National this time because I want my tax cut" - as if 'their tax cut' was a god-given right, rather than something that has to be paid for by reducing services across the board. Grrr!
It's something that (as a formerly English person) I find very strange about New Zealand politics. How can you not know if you're left-wing or right-wing? How can you vote one way one election, and then vote the opposite way in the next election? Unless you've had a fundamental shift in your world-view, how is that possible? - unless all you're thinking about is looking after number 1 and you're simply voting for the dudes who wave the shiniest baubles in your face.
To me, politics underpins everything in our lives, because the decisions made by whichever party is in power affect us all in fundamental ways. Taxes (and tax cuts) are an important aspect of that.
*sigh* it's gonna be a long 3 years...
Oh, and Craig? How about, instead of trying to give one's tax cut back to the IRD (because realistically they aren't going to accept it, are they?), those of us who didn't want the bloody thing in the first place make an effort to give the equivalent to the charity or charities of our choice - because you know damn well they need it right now. That's what I do - as, it seems, do others here (hi Dan!).
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Sam's right, webweaver: the great genius of MySky is that old folks can use it.
Haha! So can I! It's not the programming/using the gadgets I have problems with (they're like computers once they're plugged in, and I can do computers...) - no I mean literally the plugging in is what causes me the nightmares.
Does the DVD player cable go into the MySky and from there into the TV? Does the stereo go into the amp first and then into the back of the telly? What about my old video recorder?? Does that plug into the telly first, or the DVD player, or the MySky??? Or all three????
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I second that - please tell us more, Geoff.
As for the rest of this conversation - it's all waaaay too gadget-geeky for me! Goes right over my head, it does. All I want to know is do any of these new thingamybobs come with an installer geek person who can plug everything in right? Cos I have so many widgets plugged into so many wotsits I'd be afraid to unplug anything in case none of it ever works again.
Love, computer geek grrl who's hopeless with gadgets and who learned all she knows about TiVo from Sex and the City :)
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You mean the initial details in news reports were very specific, Islander? Specific enough for the family to immediately recognise that it must be Clayton and couldn't be anyone else?
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Oh, one thing that the Weatherstons mentioned that I found quite curious, was their reaction to the initial news report that something bad had happened in Sophie's neighbourhood.
What I mean is, if your son turning out to be a murderer is the very last possible thing you could ever imagine, why the racing around the city trying to find out if your boy is involved in a horrific murder so soon after it happened? Why would you imagine that initial news reports could possibly be referring to him?
Unless of course the specifics of the initial news report were something like "Student living in *whatever her suburb was* murdered by her 30-something economics tutor ex-boyfriend" - ok, then I guess that would narrow the field quite considerably, otherwise - not so much.
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Yes, I saw it. I felt very sorry for them too. I thought they came across very well actually, and they avoided saying anything controversial - which is good - after all, they all have to carry on living in their hometown after all this - and that must be pretty tough going sometimes.
The Banjo killing piece afterwards was a different story though. I was yelling at the TV (at the defence lawyer to be precise). What an utter utter *bleep*!
I confess that that trial kinda passed me by at the time (I don't generally watch much news these days), but OHMYGOD no wonder that poor man's family is distraught! Talk about making shit up! The lawyer's little speech about the events of that night being close to rape got me so angry.
Like, some old guy touches your thigh and as a young, strong, fit individual you're not capable of removing his hand from said thigh, politely saying "no thank you, that's not my style" and walking out of there? Give me a break!
I think the defence of provocation HAS to go, in order to stop any more 'gay panic' defences like that. Completely disgusting - and it pains my soul that a jury on more than one occasion in my fair country had decided that murdering some guy who makes advances is understandable if you're also a guy. Ugh.
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oopsie - that should of course read Graeme Burton, not Mark...
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What's the maximum sentence that can be imposed for murder? What's the maximum non-parole time? I did a quick google but couldn't find the answer.
I did find out that William Bell got the longest sentence ever in NZ - life in prison with a 30 year non-parole period, Mark Burton got life with a minimum non-parole period of 26 years which is the third longest sentence ever, and that in most cases where the sentence is over two years, a person can be considered for parole after they have served one-third of their sentence. Only one-third! Crikey!
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His world-view is so skewed that he clearly doesn't see the world and his place in it the same way that the rest of us do. And for that reason he felt that if he explained it all to us (his intellectual inferiors) we might get a glimpse of why what he did was right.
I think he takes something of a Nietzschean(?) view of the world - Clayton Weatherstone as superman; the rest of us as lower forms of life.
Are you thinking of a Dostoyevskian world view, Stewart? This trial and Weatherston's self-justifications reminded me of Crime and Punishment's Raskolnikov on more than one occasion.