Posts by Shay Lambert
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Well put sir.
As much as I like watching Bill English squirm at the moment - and on the face of it he does look like he's been caught with his hand in the cookie jar - it's a sideshow. Ever since the UK scandal broke, local media have been smacking their lips waiting for their shot at the big time. It appeals to their over-weaned sense of self importance while pandering to the public's dislike and distrust of politicians.
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self-evident superiority of liberal democracy...once people start questioning it, democracy can fall.
Yet they seem to keep coming back to it...
After the multiple experiments that rose in its place throughout the 20th century, we now know that liberal democracy - even if we can never quite get it completely right - is vastly superior to the alternatives.
There's always some smart arse who thinks they have a better idea for running the show. The problems arise when individuals disagree with their idea. Democracy at least allows for disagreement.
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inertia that can often set in.
One of the great benefits of this current system is the bureaucratic inertia that prevents rapid, revolutionary change - which never seems to work as well as the revolutionaries said it would.
So let us celebrate the faceless bureaucrat, for his/her risk averse unproductiveness is truly the glue that holds our society together.
Disclaimer: I am not, nor have I ever been, a member of the bureaucracy.
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It will be a new political order of demagogues blending loathing of the globalised capitalist elite, discredited traditional deomcratic vehicles and an anti-crime, anti-immigration authoritarianism into a single populist ring wing program.
And yet the response in the US as they hurtled towards the cliff edge was to vote in some relatively unknown black dude who appealed to their better natures.
This system maybe fundamentally flawed but it's the only system that takes into account human nature - both the good and the base. That makes it pretty resilient - don't forget, it took less than a generation to go from the Great Depression, which makes this current crisis look like kiddie's play, to an unprecedented level of capitalist consumerism.
Kafkaesque bureaucracies
Don't knock 'em - lots of people are employed by Kafkaesque bureaucracies. Their work maybe pointless and contribute nothing to society, but no more so than most jobs if you look at them from a high enough perspective.
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And they will definitely win the competition for Player with the best name. Israel Dagg. Awesome.
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He's such a good actor.
He should know. He discovered Ben Affleck after all.
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Chiefs look to be timing the run nicely.
The most gratifying thing about it is the way their pack is performing. Journeymen like Clarke and May are playing out of their skins and they look to have uncovered some real talent in McGougan and de Malmanche (even if he does look like the bad guy from Tango & Cash).
I like Hika Elliot too, and not just because his name sounds like what he is.
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what the fuck is wrong with rugby league players?
Other male team sports in this part of the world have problems too, but for sheer frequency and an undercurrent of casual misogyny, the leaguies are shocking. Greg Bird, Brett Stewart, Michael Crockett, the list goes on, and that's just in the last few months.
Mind you, the NFL takes player misconduct to a whole different level - one in five players charged with a crime. And that include various shades of manslaughter and double homicide - http://www.usatoday.com/sports/comment/jzcol47.htm
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When was the planet destroyed?
You missed a bitchin' party.
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If GE organisms got into the wild and were then found to be hazardous, it could destroy our ability to sell certain agricultural produce overseas.
So could a creepy crawly hitching a ride in a container load of TVs. It's a question of balancing risk and reward - trade is important to our economy so it's worth the biosecurity risk. Likewise, if GE offered big enough opportunities, it may be worth the risk of accidental release.