Posts by Emma Hart
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"If you don't want your child to do the homework the school feels is an integral part of your child's education programme, then perhaps you should find another school. If that's not possible then please don't blame the school if at the end of the year it's discovered your child has failed to acheive."
How about, if your kid doesn't do their homework, they won't be going on that swimming trip next week that the rest of the school is going on? Oh, except the kids whose parents haven't managed to pay their technology fees in the first fortnight of school. They won't be going swimming either.
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feel like you're being interrogated and made to feel grateful to the govt for something you're completetly entitled to?
You should try being sick on Sickness Benefit.
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Although to some extent it's a matter of semiotics, people's interpretation would depend, I guess, a lot on implimentation - is it a case of having to turn up to WINZ and fill in forms, and consequently feel like you're being interrogated and made to feel grateful to the govt for something you're completetly entitled to? Or is it just pop up as part of your tax filing, except you have to throw in a couple of birth certificates? (honest question, I wouldn't have a clue)
As a perfectly happy 'welfare recipient' (though, gosh, thanks to the conservatives for seemingly being much more concerned about my mental anguish than my financial state) I can tell you it's all handled through the IRD, no need to deal with the charming and perfectly logical systems of WINZ at all.
Also, because Mr Chch man has the deposit, he won't be getting the Accommodation Supplement he otherwise would to help pay his rent.
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There's a fantastic playground in Wanganui, of all places.
Deborah, you've made my day. It's great to see that's still there. We used to go there when I was little and we lived in Taihape.
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I'm not sure what the historical reason for having a 9 - 3 (slightly longer for high schools I think) school day. But I'd hope it has something to do with the fact that kids get tired after being in class that long, and keeping them until 5 wouldn't add any 'value' to their school day because they couldn't concentrate at that age.
Which would make slightly more sense if my ten-year-old wasn't being sent home with forty-five minutes homework a night. My partner and I were talking about this just yesterday, and I believe some schools are doing it - running a 'homework club' after school. So the kids are there longer, but when they go home, they can switch off, they're done.
But yeah. We came to the realisation last year when a lovely job came up that I can't go out to work full-time, and probably not until our youngest, special-needs, child has finished high school. No mortgage for us!
I was bummed about Rich's retirement, I really like her.
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Looks like Ghet will be getting her housing affordability policy.
I am SO impressed with your memory.
Now, about that cheese...
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Basically, the "but" acts as a conjunction with the previous paragraph, rather than the preceding sentence.
I have this thing where I scream 'edit' out loud, like 'medic' in a war movie.
It may be that I need to get out more.
But this is fabulous news.
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It is easy to lose sight of the eventual goal, which is the comprehensive defeat of the Republican candidates for Congress, the Senate, and the Presidency.
That really better not be 'the eventual goal'. A step on the way, sure, but breaking stuff cannot be all the Dems have to offer.
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Up to a point, but it's way too easy for Kiwi observers to assume Republicans are just over-caffeinated Tories who go to church a lot, and the Dems are Labour with silly accents. I agree with you that it's unlikely the Dems are going to lose their House majority; there might even be a net gain of a couple of seats. But I don't see any change in a significant caucus of so-called 'Blue Dog Democrats' who are holding fairly conservative districts with very thin majorities.
Indeed. And that's exactly why I'm dubious about regarding the Houses as passive rubber-stamps for a president-driven agenda. When you only have two political options for four hundred million people, there are going to be some pretty deep divisions inside those parties.
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Oh FFS. Yes, it's the *Clintons* that are the most corrupt people in Washington right now. Clearly.
Teehee. Sometimes I wonder if there are people who believe it wasn't Dick Cheney who shot that guy in the face, but Hillary Clinton. On the grassy noll...
Of course they still have to get it passed by both Houses of congress.
Which is pretty much what I meant. You can 'set agendas' all you like, but if you can't get a bill passed? That's why you guys invented the phrase 'lame duck president', right?
I do wonder, if Obama ends up pulling a disaffected Republican vote, whether he could then get a second term, once he fails to deliver them... whatever undefined miracle they're looking for.