Posts by Matthew Poole
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Terry, the short version is that NZTA reminded staff that they're expected to adhere to certain codes of conduct. As are all employees of any organisation, though not always formally-defined conditions. In the case of NZTA, breaking the law and carrying out actions that directly contravene the position of your employer is generally a no-go area and won't be supported by the employment PTB as anything other than a breach of your obligations. Freedom of expression doesn't include the freedom to break employment conditions without repercussions.
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Well, if National's keen on saving money, they could start by doing everything possible to encourage the public sector to drop Microsoft products, in light of failed negotiations with the SSC for an all-of-government discount. Quite why we persist in sending so much bloody money into the coffers of a foreign company when there are cheaper, viable alternatives is rather beyond me. But I guess that wasting money in support of capitalism ranks ahead of real savings that go to support some commie notion of open systems.
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I just really can't see how they could possibly spin that? Where would the benefit be in handing over a full monopoly of the most basic necessary to service to private owners? It wouldn't make water cheaper at all, and that's pretty much the only benefit privatisation can bring.
Gareth, Gareth, Gareth. Free market uber alles, ja?
Seriously, Rodders doesn't give a fuck about actual benefit for the prolles, all he cares about is his precious ideology of privatised everything. That water privatisation has seen people killed in rioting is completely irrelevant in the face of such intractable logic as "The market is always right."
How would they spin it? National managed to convince people that electrickery would get cheaper through their machinations with ElectriCorp. I'm sure Rodney et al could find a way to gloss over the ugly truths that've come from Bolivia and other countries that've had their water privatised, and paint it as a panacea for all our ills. We might even get ponies! -
I really lament the polarising and the aggro.
At least some of it comes from car drivers who cannot abide being overtaken by cyclists while they're stuck in traffic. I once had a friend arguing with me as to the legality of cyclists passing stationary cars up the left. The Road Code is actually silent on the matter, but given the exhortations for cyclists to keep left it seems silly to then complain if they take it to the logical conclusion.
Yes, cyclists can be somewhat blase about following the law. However, given the significant lack of courtesy displayed by many drivers that's hardly surprising. If drivers expect cyclists to obey every intersection we encounter, maybe they should stop running red lights, failing to indicate, and generally acting like caged douches!
Can't remember if it was here that I saw it pointed out, but most adult cyclists are also motorists. It's just a shame that most motorists aren't also cyclists.
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Also, the new council is having various parts of Waikato that weren't in the ARC area appended
And other parts are going to Environment Waikato. Not sure about the relative sizes, but the transfer is not all one-way. There are logical reasons for doing it, and it was the Commission that made the recommendations rather than it being some (not-so-) secret NAct conspiracy to gerrymander the new electorate.
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Isn't MedOx, even for hospitals, delivered in cylinders that get linked into the distribution system? Large cylinders, to be sure, but cylinders all the same.
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Well, except for the tens of thousands of lambs that die terrible deaths from prolonged exposure in the godforsaken, treeless paddocks of the South Island every time it snows in August and September. Which it does pretty much every year.
Yes, but they'd die even if they weren't being farmed. Just in smaller numbers, and without the economic impact. Sheep die on the hills of the UK, too. And hypothermia is a much gentler death than in the jaws of a lion or wolf.
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As the source of the earlier comment about suicidal cows (that's where steak comes from, right?), I do stand by what I said to Simon. Keeping the price down is not sufficient reason to "farm" pigs. It is, however, the unfortunate reality of an open border that an increase in the price of domestic product will simply open a gap for cheaper, imported meat. And we can't do anything about that without turning our back on the open borders mantra that we have to preach if we're to have any chance of improving not only our own farmers' lot but also the lot of farmers in the third world.
I guess we could try some sort of phytosanitary measure, but that'd be a hard sell in the inevitable WTO complaint given that we don't currently have anything of that sort. -
And those documents are interesting. What they tell me is that of those 16 countries, NZ is 6th for deaths-per-100,000 of population from handguns, and has some of the strictest requirements for getting a handgun. The only box that's not ticked, being "Medical/Psych Report", is somewhat covered under what's involved in getting a firearms licence in the first place.
Let's face reality: our firearms laws are not woefully inadequate, no matter what Alpers might have to say. Getting any kind of MSSA or handgun legally takes time, and lots of paperwork. If you buy rifles and shotguns, your details will be recorded, and there will be an associated paper trail. If your firearms are stolen, there is a legal requirement to advise the police. There's a legal requirement to advise the police of a change of address. There are storage requirements. And, lastly, firearms crime is not a huge problem here. A single incident should not be sufficient justification to try an experiment that's failed, horribly and expensively, in the countries that have tried introducing such measures within the last decade. We've got enough other stuff to spend money on, and if we held true to Canada's form we could afford the Waterview tunnel option with the sums that would be wasted.
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Of course observing the existing laws and having those faceless beuracrats tracking down expired lifetime license holders could be a good start too.
You mean as they've been doing? From 50,000 people who didn't renew their licences in 2002, they've whittled it down to around 1,000 who they "can't find". That sounds remarkably like "those faceless beuracrats" [sic] doing precisely what you want.