Posts by Lucy Stewart
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I'm with you on this one, Craig. The free market ain't so free anymore, but comes at a cost to taxpayers and wage earners?
OTOH: if you want to keep people with degrees here, especially science/eng/tech degrees, you've got to persuade companies to do their R&D here, rather than overseas. In general I'm not a big fan of the taxpayer propping up businesses, but I think R&D is one of the areas where tax credits *are* justified.
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I almost think the decision to cut the R&D tax credit is going to hurt National the most. It's not only short-sighted in terms of growing the economy, it's short-sighted because it's going to hack off businesspeople who otherwise were more likely to be pro-National (as opposed to the tax cut format, which screws low-income families, who I'm pretty sure National saw as Labour voters to begin with.) There is an aspect of give-and-take-away in that employers will save on Kiwisaver costs, but overall it's just not very bright.
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My Google Reader chucked out a link to this very neat word-cloud comparison of the Obama campaign's blog and the McCain campaign's RSS feeds. Ironically, the most telling thing is that when they went to update it a couple of days ago not one of McCain's feeds had been updated. In terms of being hooked in to the internet, there is just no comparison.
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I have a 1970s Braun coffee grinder but it's now a bit long in the tooth and tends to make things a bit coarse. It's a great shade of orange, though
My parents have a gorgeous old ceramic blue and white wall-mounted manual grinder that deposits the coffee in a little glass dish. I don't even drink coffee that much and I want it.
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Once I tried wearing a nice pair of high-heeled lady shoes. My big toe ended up turning bruised and black and the nail fell off.
This seemed rather unladylike.
I occasionally hang round on a Kiwi wedding forum (because sometimes the only other people who will tolerate your whining/glee are other brides) and the shoes the other forum-ites go ga-ga over totally bemuse me, because they're almost all stilettos. High ones. Surely your wedding is the one day you *don't* want to be wobbling around in torture devices?
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I do prefer shoe-wearing (habit, and a very nasty piece of pipi shell half-wy through my foot at a tender age) but I completely sympathise on the not-noticing thing. My sister and my mother adore shoes, and it drives me bonkers. Especially when they tell me I should throw out *perfectly functional* shoes because they're "looking a bit tatty".
1) If there aren't any holes, they're not that tatty
2) Shoes are too bloody expensive for me to be buying a new pair every year. Or every six months, as they seem to think is appropriate.What I really want out of shoes is...no blisters. And no wet feet. I'm pretty much indifferent to the rest. There is one small exception, but that's only 'cause I'm short and they're stable four-inch heels, and I enjoy the sensation of looking people in the eye for the half-hour or so I can stand to wear them.
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Now that it has been convincingly demonstrated that McCain knows more about what is required to lead the US it is obvious that McCain should be president.
Oh, of course. McCain knows how to do everything. Just check out this list. I don't know why the country hasn't fallen in line behind him already - with that list of skills, he's practically *over*-qualified.
(Seriously, sagenz? Just because he repeats "I know how to [fill in blank] over and over does not make him qualified. Or knowledgable. Or anything, actually, except perhaps delusional.)
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But expectations were so low that her high-school-debate styling was greeted as a triumphant performance.
Frankly, that's an insult to high school debaters.
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That will not happen. Whatever Palin's credentials she isn't that stupid (really) and she can talk.
OTOH, every time she's been interviewed in an even vaguely unscripted manner it has not gone well, which is why she has been shielded from the press so much. She got pretty incoherent at some points during the Couric interview - "Putin is rearing his head into Alaskan airspace", anyone? - and she doesn't need to be very incoherent to look bad in a debate.
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All that's needed is the simple statement that no new DPB recipients will be accepted after six months, and that the DPB itself will cease once the children of all existing recipients reach school age.
That shouldn't be so hard, should it?
Yes, because all lower-class women (heck, all women, why not?) will immediately gain access to and education about one-hundred-percent effective contraception, as well as abortion on demand in all parts of the country! Nor will they ever have sex when they're not fully in control of it or able to consider the consequences! Nor will they ever make any mistakes with that one-hundred-percent effective contraception!
I really admire your utopic future's ability to stop anyone anywhere having a child when they're not ready.