Posts by James Butler
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Hard News: Occupy: Don't call it a protest, in reply to BenWilson,
It’s taxing something that isn’t money, and could have perverse outcomes, forcing people off land, just because they don’t profit from the land.
On that note it also incentivizes agricultural production at a time when we desperately need to wean ourselves off that particular teat, so to speak.
ETA: Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself (I am large, and I am not an economist).
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Hard News: Occupy: Don't call it a protest, in reply to Rob Stowell,
I’m curious why a land-tax is preferred over capital gains. Any ideas?
It's Simpler To Administer, that holy grail of economists, taxmen, businessmen and no-one else the world over (I think).
(My reservation: it seems to punish hippies, greenies, tree-huggers, indigenous folks , etc- anyone who doesn’t believe forcing land to produce max $ is always its best use.)
Yep, although I'm not sure if it typically applies to land area or value - if the latter, then it might have a larger intensifying effect on sub/urban land than rural, which would be a good thing environmentally speaking. Talking out of my hat here though.
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Hard News: Occupy: Don't call it a protest, in reply to BenWilson,
I guess I'd leave out #7. Not because I disagree, but because it's more ideological than helpful.
Sure it's ideological, but it's also powerfully symbolic, like the various "#occupy"s themselves; the idea that policy comes from within our democratic process, and not from secret deals with foreign powers, is worth reinforcing.
it's not like tariffs and subsidies are the work of Satan, to anyone except neoliberals.
And like any other of his works, politicians of all stripes - even Neolibs - will embrace them if they think it'll win them favour with their constituents. Something National understand very well when it comes to farming and roads.
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Hard News: The Sound of Music, in reply to Russell Brown,
Me too. Although Dan Slevin harshed my buzz by telling me that most of what you hear on the telly is recorded, with a little live voice over the top.
My understanding is that the orchestra is pre-recorded, but the singing is all live - might be wrong though. Could find out, I haz contacts.
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My daughter loved the music at the match we went to; me, not so much. So as long as the IRB's target market is 7 year old girls and not 28 year old men, they're doing a good job.
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Hard News: The Sound of Music, in reply to Grant McDougall,
I agree with the basic gist of your post Russell, but expecting rugby people to know heaps about music is like expecting music people to know heaps about rugby.
I think the point is that Great Big Events claim to have a music person as a creative director.
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Hard News: Thanks, Steve. For everything., in reply to Martin Lindberg,
His pointer has been cast to void *
His process has terminated with status 0
(ETA although depending on what you believe it has not terminated, but now executes in kernel mode)His malloc() has been free()d
He has fallen through in the case of life
His index is out of bounds
He has longjmp()d from this stack frame
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Hard News: Where are the foreigners?!, in reply to Bart Janssen,
Can't decide if this is an accidental or deliberate misunderstanding of Ben's joke...
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Hard News: Where are the foreigners?!, in reply to Simon Grigg,
We've been to New Flavour (formerly the wonderfully named "Manual Noodle House") several times, and been very impressed. However, the first time I was there I noticed that one section of the menu had no English translation like all the others had. Thinking I might be missing out on something, I took a photo on my phone and showed it to a Chinese colleague the next day.
"Oh, that's interesting, I've never seen it put quite like that before" he said.
"Quite like what?" I replied.
"Well, you know sometimes a menu will have a separate section for the really expensive, premium dishes?"
Licking my lips with anticipation, I replied, "Yes?"
"Well, this section is the opposite of that." -
Hard News: Where are the foreigners?!, in reply to Bart Janssen,
Been there [Tasca, Dominion Rd] twice and not managed to find what they are really good at on the menu. I’ve from several people they love it but I’ve only had average food. Service is fine. So what do you recommend Jackie?
*jumps in, uninvited* I like the tapas there, but the mains have always underwhelmed me a bit. Plus I find the usual waiter a bit... overly ingratiating.