Posts by Tim McKenzie
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Maybe they could get Pharmac to branch out and negotiate for a nationwide site license for pro-tools ... or even better spend the money getting some local hackers to produce an open source replacement
I don't know what's needed (or even if this is the best so far), but surely Audacity is at least a start.
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If publicly funded music and TV was required to be released under a Creative Commons licence (or similar), we might get to see and hear a lot more of ourselves, and the per-unit-sold(/downloaded) cost to the government mightn't be so alarming.
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In most churches I can't rally my fellow congregants to roll the minister, rewrite the scriptures, or spend the tithes on high alcohol communion whiskey, but student associations are constituted in a democratic and open way.
Most Baptist churches in New Zealand are run democratically (and, to a large extent, independently of each other). Would you support compulsory membership of a Baptist church? You would be able to lobby fellow members of your chosen Baptist church to sack the pastor, commission a new translation of scriptures to suit your ideology, or use tequila for communion (or even baptism). Do your objections to compulsory church membership really fall away if it becomes compulsory membership of a Baptist church of your choice?
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But surely you can see that there's a problem here with where the money actually goes?
Oh, yes. And the suggestion about publishing ratios is a good one. You already mentioned Charity Navigator, which I often use when I'm giving to US-based charities. I'd love a New Zealand version.
The main point of my first comment was a general theoretical comment, rather than a specific one. But it's a theoretical point that has a practical consequence: I give more to charities because I believe that voluntary welfare is better than the compulsory kind --- all other things being equal. (I still don't give much to charities, though, since I'm on a student allowance (a beneficiary of the compulsorily-funded welfare system), but I'm trying to train myself in the habit of philanthropy.)
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qualms about contributing to a charity that was doing what should properly be done by the state in a civilised country
If people are voluntarily helping each other out, why should the government stop them, by forcing people to help each other out instead?
There might be arguments to be had about the relative quality of government and voluntary welfare. And I'm not arguing that the government should suddenly abolish the welfare system, expecting the voluntary sector to magically instantly take up the slack. But, all other things being equal, I prefer to voluntarily help people out, instead of getting the government to force everyone else to help them out.
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As for secret ballots secure against electoral fraud, I remember being really impressed when I heard about Punchscan a couple of years ago.
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The post starts by explaining that the Chartists wanted to pay MPs so that ordinary folk could become MPs. It seems to end by saying that we should pay MPs lots of money so that rich folk want to become MPs.
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By any chance, did you see this video on a Lairjet?
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We're afraid we can't give you any more information.
We're scared, but not because we're trying to hide anything from you.Or, thanks to BabelFish (via traditional Chinese):
我們的恐懼什么都沒有掩藏。
Our fear is assorted has not hidden.
Or similarly, with Google Translate:
我們的擔心沒有什麼需要隱瞞的。
We have nothing to worry about the hide.