Posts by Tom Semmens
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<blockquote><p>"Testing...HTML 101"</p></blockquote>
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Its occurred to me just now that one of the key reasons BZP has been banned is its delivery mechanism. Normalising pill popping was always going to frighten aging politicians.
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"Actually, I think that's a little unfair. He did wait for research, and his own medical advistory committee recommended a ban."
I have always held the view that Anderton took the scenic route to banning BZP only because he wanted to make sure he had a cast-iron legislative case beyond hope of challenge.
The outcome was never going to be in doubt. Jim Anderton is an old school, Muldoonist prohibitionist, and personally I think he is to old to be making these sorts of decisions anymore.
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Oh the question of whether or not there will be a black market - in the case of NoS and GHB, a ban has clearly worked in reducing abuse. But unlike those two BZP is apparently very easy to synthesise and easy to transport in bulk in socially desirable pill form, and as a class C drug it will attract significantly lesser penalties than meth and MDMA, yet offer significant profits. So its likely you'll see significant illegal manufacture of this drug - a lot of which will be passed off as E to guillable punters.
Anderton has claimed these pills to be dangerous, and they probably are. But thats a spurious reason to ban them, since every drug is bad for you. No one has yet been killed from millions of doses - sure, some have suffered from a cocktail of drugs including BZP, but on an average dose they would seem safer than alcohol on the empirical evidence - If they are so dangerous and have that many victims then I'll invoke the Fermi paradox for Mr. Anderton - "Where are they?"
I can't see how this ban will, on the balance, improve the overall public health of New Zealanders. Whilst a significant number of people will simply stop using BZP, a very large number of people will be exposed to a significantly heightened health risk by taking drugs manufactured under God knows what circumstance containing doses of BZP that may vary wildly from pill to pill.
Mind you, the clubbers of the land are heaving a collective sigh of relief at the prospect of the tidal wave of liquored and BZP'd up North Shore wigga boys and their natural prey the Epsom Girl's Grammar party frock crew that has been threatening to engulf clubland receding back to the Viaduct and Queen Street.
P.S. Reading the comments sections of Stuff and the Herald, I am astonished at the number of people who can't spell "Ecstasy."
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Actually my favourite moment of the test in Durban was the crowd shots after the second All Black try.
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Given Singapore's position as the number one model of how globalisation should be, I get quite frightened at times.
And don't worry about Mike Moore - these days people take his pronouncements about as seriously as they do Michael Bassets. -
Sometimes you wish for Napoleon to turn up with his cannon and turn it on the mob.
When I want honesty in TV, I watch the WWE.
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Oh yes - Thom James, you remind of an anecdote I was going to tell. I took a risk and went to a big fancy dress party at Centro nightclub three years back dressed as a SS Officer, jackboots, riding crop, armband, whole nine yards. I only got one negative comment all night, and to judge by the reaction the ladies still love a uniform. I've never been more popular than when I was a Nazi, which is a bit of a worry now I think about it...
Anyway.
Last year I was in Europe and got an England football shirt for the world cup. I only wore it out once in Auckland, I got abused three times in 15 minutes.
My conclusion? Nazi's are more popular than the three lions in NZ.
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Anne M: No one says working for foreigners is bad per se.
But lets get real here.The red socks, the huge flags, the advertising campaigns - everyone knows that the America's Cup was sold as Team New Zealand, all of us, against the rest. Nationalism was powerfully and knowing invoked to generate support, remember " America's Cup in now New Zealand's cup?" It's not like they went from Kiwibank to the ANZ.
The defectors were already rich men. They knew the popularity and importance of the cup here. They knew its worth to the N.Z. economy. People in such a situation have a public duty of responsibilty to the New Zealand people, yet they made their decision based totally on selfish reasons. So if they don't like being hissed at and reviled by some their fellow countrymen, then tough luck.
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I like calling them Swiss Mercenaries, then I can wish for a maritime Marignano and congratulate myself on my cleverness.
Rich of Observationz: I see the America's cup as an important acquisition for an economy which by dint of distance is always going to be reliant to some extent on event-driven tourism. As a brand it generates huges sums of cash. As an economic nationalist, I want that brand and its cash here. And yes, I know its a brand. But its got thirty four million of my taxpayer dollars behind it. Its got "New Zealand" on it. It would be run here. And Dalton wants to bring back the nationality rule. So it seems far more logical to me to identify with Team New Zealand than it does the way a whole lot of people I know who go into mourning and boo and hiss and behave boorishly when brand Manchester United lose (like, WTF is that all about?)
As a sport, I quite like yacht match racing as a spectacle, to me it has a lot of the tension and slow motion drama of test cricket.