Posts by Kyle Matthews
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It's not a wholesale limitation of rights, it's a limitation of the right to spend money on a certain kind of activity during a certain period of the electoral cycle. But as long as people try to pass it off as "ATTACK ON DEMOCRACY!", "POLITICIANS VS PEOPLE!", there's little room to address the actual debate, which is whether people or groups with substantial wealth should be allowed to use it for electioneering.
Hear hear Keith. I didn't particularly care about the bill either way. But the frothing at the mouth that some people put out in the MSM about it being the worst attack on democracy in the Western World, ever, grated.
If people believe it's important, and should be looked at seriously, then it'd help if they called it a spade rather than a digger, otherwise all we get is arguments over how big a digger it is.
After all, spades need attention too.
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It was the whole bags over the heads advert. It was about as subtle as that Blackadder II show, but more stupid and not so funny. Or not funny at all, except in an 'irony ('like goldy and bronzey, but made of iron') way'.
It clearly shows a good way around the EFB restrictions. Get the other parties to have Shirtcliffe design their campaigns. It'll piss so many people off it'll be like free advertising for yourself.
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If I'm ever uncomfortable here, it's because you never know when someone I went to school with is going to pop up and say 'you were shitty at PE!' (Hi Kyle. :)
In my defence, I should point out that you said it first, and I just confirmed it. Surely it's nice to have people back you up when you're one of a small group of women struggling out there in the white male dominated interweb? ;)
I followed Deborah's link to her blog and read a couple of her posts and comments, and from there Che's and someone else's. I then spent the first couple of hours of the evening mulling over things before posting anything (and making dinner and walking the dog (he's much better after Kennel Club training Danielle!)). This will therefore be my thoughtful and reasonable response, honest.
I think that communities to a large extent make themselves. We're all working within Russell's fairly broad constraints, and mostly we're all here because of him - either because we enjoy reading what he writes, or we enjoy reading what the other people that he's given space to, write. It's fairly liberal, moderately left-wing, often political, but also cultural and technological.
Personally I'm more interested in some blogs than others, which I guess isn't unusual. I never really got into Tze Ming Mok's, though I read it and its comments. But I also struggled with Che's. Both just felt too academic for me to enjoy, after three degrees and a day job working with academics, I don't tend to want to read something that feels like it needs a bibliography afterwards. But that's me, obviously others got a lot more out of them, good for them. I always enjoy Jolisa's, as a parent to two kids it feels like sometimes she's telling my stories, Dave Hayward's are different but very interesting.
Personally I quite like PAS, and as long as people 'play the ball, not the man/woman', I don't mind it being argumentative in the most part. There was a time during the 'terrorism' threads where I just started to feel tired of disagreeing with people that I suspected I wouldn't disagree with much if I knew them better, but mostly the discussion is fairly good natured and generally interesting. Other people obviously feel different, I don't know if that means the culture should shift, or if there should be somewhere else which isn't like that. I guess that's Russell's choice, it's his bag.
I did note that lots of the posters to Tze Ming Mok's final entry were often first time posters who'd registered just to say that they'd enjoyed reading her stuff. Elsewhere it's been said that this is an indication that people in her 'writing sphere' haven't felt comfortable engaging with the system. Maybe that's true, but maybe they just haven't felt the need/desire to say anything until now. Do we know?
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I don't. I think it is staggering that any government would consider spraying huge section of the population without telling them what the hell they were spraying them with.
I personally found the whole thing weird, and it made me really glad that I lived at the other end of the country.
Even if it was entirely benign for humans, used in organic farming etc etc, I'd find having my house, my trees, my vege garden, my dog, and my kids and I sprayed by anything out of a plane really creepy and unpleasant.
At the very least I'd be looking to take my family on a holiday while it was on, even if it was irrational to do so.
But obviously we got some good academic papers out of how it all played out psychologically, and we only sprayed on Aucklanders, so that's ok ;)
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I've bought a vibrator from the supermarket the other day, batteries included. It's ribbed, studded, and has a clit-tickler. My mouth orgasms every time I stick it in with the sleazy mint flavoured paste they recommend. Then I floss, and no one is any the wiser that I wasn't just brushing my teeth.
I'm not sure why I know this, but doctors have warned against using electric toothbrushes on other parts of your body. Apparently kills the sensitive nerves and skin quite seriously.
Umm, yes, back to your gay porn bookshops now.
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So was I :-) You're a good example to yourself. If you can't avoid contradiction in your own beliefs (and I can't when it comes to morals), why think anyone else can?
I think I can. I just haven't found it/expressed it yet.
That's OK. I'm still young :)
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Has that ever stopped them?
No, but I was talking about me, rather than anyone else's messed up world :)
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Police misconduct
They weren't going to be able to get him on misconduct for what he did with LN. There's a statute of limitations on police misconduct of two years from when the NZ Police become aware of the allegations. Senior police were aware of rumours about this stuff years ago, but didn't pursue it properly at the time. That's why he's been pushed to the side and eternally suspended, and then bought out to retire. He probably got his super guaranteed for starters, which is pretty good for NZ cops who have put into it their whole career.
Your comparison is based upon the test of 'proven in court'. Personally, I feel capable of making up my own mind how I feel about Clint Rickards and his actions, whether he gets off or not. The same with the other lot. Walking out of court and getting to say that you've been found innocent, doesn't mean that you didn't commit the crime, and it certainly doesn't guarantee that you're weren't/are not a scumbag.
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same kind of incidents were pretty common in Palmerston North. I have a couple of theories about flatness.
Lack of vision. You can see a lot further standing on a hill :-)
I've heard a number of people say Chch is racist as well. Nothing scientific of course. My ex when she was in NZ (umm, she's part African American, Puerto Rican, and Polish Jew) found Dunedin to be really 'white'. And Christchurch would be pretty 'white' too. A lower proportion of Maori, Polynesian I would guess, and probably other ethnic groups.
I suspect that families that grow up in areas where they have less contact with different sorts of people, tend to have more anger/fears about them. And that comes out sometimes.
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I don't think there's too many people who don't ultimately derive all of their moral intuitions that way, so "it just feels right/wrong" isn't a vote loser, necessarily. For everyone who feels the same intuitions it's a powerful argument.
I suspect I could without too much trouble, poke holes in my 'policies' on the whole matter, myself. Let alone someone talented who believes the opposite, who wouldn't have too much trouble either.
I always find that policies not backed up by philosophies, can easily become contradictions.