Posts by George Darroch
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It looks like a National Government would be poised to rip up climate legislation, with "the UN says global warming stopped in 1998" Rodney around the table, and a lot of National MPs who privately agree with him on doing nothing.
Business uber alles, it isn't happening, and even if it is we'll find solutions and invent our way out, and it will be much cheaper in 50 years when the economy is much much bigger. Never mind that this is close to the opposite of the position of highly respected economists and scientists.
(However, the Greens overreaction to GE wins them few friends and squanders their credibility.)
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Isn't there a political LARP game these people could play, while adults get on with, y'know, running a country?
Politics is a LARP, at least for a considerable number of people, playing "the Game". Too much time insulated from the real world for some of these people, especially those who became activists at university and have been plugged into the machine ever since.
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A: "This beer is warm."
B: "Fucking 4th Labour Government!"Oh come on, that's a stretch. The current Labour Government is much more responsible for warm beer, stubbed toes, bad hair days, and the bad weather we've been having lately.
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This is a depressing spectre.
No punking needed here, as Labour have been desperate to get the campaign away from talking about actual policies and visions, into a personality contest between the rock of ages and the flimsy newcomer. A negative campaign works well for an opposition party, for a 3 term party of government much less so.
It has not made sense to me at any time in the last 6 months, when the Labour Party's policy is much more popular with the electorate. It is especially bad with 9 days left.
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Oh, China is well insulated (at least it appears so to me). There's no way I contend that. Australia is also well placed to weather this.
My point was only to say that many other countries are significantly more exposed to the problems of developed countries.
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So far this is whites-only crisis.
No it isn't. Several days ago Indonesia's stock exchange started to plunge dramatically, losing 10% in only a few hours. Trading has been suspended since then, in attempt to prevent the a repeat of the devastation of 1997. In that case; a country with huge currency reserves, a high trade surplus, and low inflation was plunged into a crisis that sent millions into deeper poverty and caused the collapse of the Suharto regime.
Of course, then as now, this was in no way the fault of the Indonesians, rather Americans and Europeans panic selling their way around the world. These things have already started to hurt developing countries, and have the potential to do so dramatically.
It is still the case that when America sneezes on the rest of the world, it catches a cold
In other news, Pakistan is on the edge of bankruptcy. This would normally make headlines, but not right now.
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Life is quiet in this thread. Perhaps this shouldn't surprise us.
We're not on the internet anyway.
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Have a look. It's a very different but much improved (search function! tags!!) Elsewhere
Indeed. I used that search function today, to look for a particular artist. And since I couldn't find him, I'll put in a word for Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu. The best music I've heard this year, in any language.
Life went on.
We went to movies and saw bands play, had dinner with friends, complained about the weather (or went for walks at Mission Bay on fine days), read some very interesting books...
My break is enforced by a thesis and a Firefox add-on, but the results are much the same: less time in the frantic blogomediaplex, and more time for baking pizzas and tending the garden. It's been a very rewarding trade-off.
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Is it fear of a bigoted backlash, or is there a sense that it's not the kind of battle that enough people would organise around?
I haven't had private comment on this particular issue, but very often I get people telling me they would support something if a campaign did the hard work of building support for it...
As for how long? I say it won't be that many years at all before homosexuals have the same rights under the law as anyone else, but every year that isn't the case is a shameful one.
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Mr Catfish sounds a remarkable teenager who was able to put looking after a mate ahead of hormones. Not unheard of, but still admirable.
The whole staunch New Zealand 'mateship' thing, for all its faults (and there are indeed many) certainly has some upsides, and wouldn't have survived as a social institution if it didn't have something to commend it.