Posts by InternationalObserver
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Plus if I did want to gamble, I'd use the financial futures markets, where the odds are a damn site better than any casino offers.
Speculating in Oil futures seems to be money for jam. If you say it will $100 a barrel by the end of the year it will be a $100 a barrel by the end of the year. And if the price stalls, just get your chums in the media to get excited about a possible supply threat in Iraq/Mexico/Columbia due to whatever the latest instability is (weather, political, or labour/civil unrest) whether real or imagined. And then BANG!! you're off and running again ...
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All I know about Browns Bay is that it's the "small town" outside of Auckland ... I'm gonna guess it's not known for Tuhoe radicals? ...Random acts of bloody dangerous violence by middle class kids.
Geez those Tuhoe Terrorists are smart. Straight out of the pages of "How To Start A Class War"... dressing up as Shore Boys and blowing up a Police Station. Does anyone know where Tama Iti's kids were that night?
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the 9.30pm timeslot is a bit close to family viewing times
Oh, so C4 were well out of order with their screening of the SouthPark movie the other night at 8.30pm? Which pretty much launched straight into
f#ck
c%ck$ucker
lickmyb@lls
@rseholeOf course they didn't have the balls to say cnut.
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I live up the hill from Helen Clark...
Don't diminish yourself. It's NOT called Eden Hill but Mount Eden! It's a small mountain!!
And since Graeme brought up TV News Bollocks, let me highlight this failure by TV3 on Sunday night to even cover the basics from Journalism 101.
Their lead story was viewer video of an accident at a 'Fireworks Display' (of the kind the ban fireworks brigade want us all to be satisfied with). Where did it happen? In Auckland, according to the lead-in from the newsreader. Auckland's a big place but maybe the story itself will tell us? Er, no.
The closest we got was half way thru:
The Howick Lions, who organise the annual event, have launched an investigation
Oh, so it must be out East, near Howick? Er, no. Because at the end of the story we're told:
Just a few hours later it was thick toxic smoke and raging flames which lit up the skies as fire tore through the nearby Cornwall Park Bowling Club.
Oh, so it was somewhere near Cornwall Park? Where? Mt Smart Stadium (Penrose)? Waikeraka Park (Onehunga)? We're never told.
It turns out (watching TV1 on Monday) it was at Alexandra Park. Gee TV3, I know it was the weekend but surely some of your news staff know how to write an informative story?
And in other news: Middle East tensions remain high after a bomb went off, killing civillians.
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</hipocrite alert>
I'll actually be watching because one of the side characters (the agent) was interesting. But then I'm a sucker for spanking (it's always funny on TV). The sex is fairly explicit for MSTV. -
My point being that some of those 'frauds' weren't that complex. They didn't need to be.
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there has been amost no attempt by the government to implement any kind of regulation on the production and sale of party pills.
I gotta agree with you there Rich, and to me that would seem to be the obvious solution to the problem. But since the party pill lobby don't donate to the poltical party like the liquor lobby do, there will be no sensible policy.
But I can't agree with your other point:I think those pokie bars full of braindead morons suck, but there's a simple answer - don't go to them. People should be free to do what they want without there having to be a "community benefit".
RB answered first, and stole my thunder, but I would also add that Pokies are addictive, and have hooked a lot more ppl than the Horse Racing (equally moronic) ever did.
The irony is that the interested parties who want to keep the pokies in pubs invariably argue for the community benefit of the revenue they raise for sports teams etc. Unless, of course, the money is actually going to people running complex frauds involving fake invoices and stuff ...
My brother was actually on one of those 'committees' that aportion the 'proceeds' to 'community groups' a few years back. He and his mates formed their own club, and sought funding for what was essentially a 3 day 'sports fishing trip' up North. Hired Boats and accommodation all to be paid for by the funds sought. But they were an officially registered club so they met the criteria for funding. And by 'fishing trip' I mean 'drinking binge'.
And when his application came before the committee he declared his interest, recused himself, left the meeting room, the funding was approved, and he came back in. He said it was like musical chairs because everyone on the committee had a pet project, all seeking big bucks. Then Toddy got arrested and they all resigned (one by one, so no-one would notice) from the committee. The govt had signalled that the gravy train was over.
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I don't think the show was canned after 6 eps, just that television without pity weren't going to bother recapping episodes anymore. The ep I saw was the last one recapped by TWP, but I don't recall the Australian channel referring to it as 'the final episode'.
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It seems that the rate of cigarette smoking amongst young New Zealanders has increased. One theory is that the kids don't like the man telling them not to smoke, so they're sticking it to the man by lighting up.
Ah, peer group pressure. S'pose it's better they rebel by smoking ciggies than Weed or P.
the Herald should spend a lot more time debating the merits of 24 hour off-licences and allowing anyone with an indoor lavatory and no serious convictions to put up their shingle as a "sports bar" in your local suburban shopping strip than on BZP.
Yes, when is the govt going to call 'time' on that 'experiment' in 'free market' de-regulation'?? Ditto for the Pokie machines. Is there any demonstrable community benefit to either? Both appear to suck dry the wallets ('scuse my mixed metaphor) of those that can least afford it.
I was also bemused the other day by a comment a Queenstown business woman made on the TV News after the council decided to limit alcohol consumption to 4am (instead of the current 7am/24 hr limit). She was worried that young people wouldn't come to Queenstown if there wasn't anything to do. Eh?
So they're not coming to ski? They're coming to party?
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My view remains similar to that of Matt Bowden: you're not going to stop people taking recreational stimulants by simply making them illegal -- we know that. And, rather than letting cowboys like these London Underground idiots run so-called "trials" with dangerous chemicals, it might just be better to swallow hard and pursue a proper approval process for chemicals that have no therapeutic value apart from enhancing a night out.
That makes as much sense as not invading Iraq. Obvious to everyone but the politicians,
Chris Knox's theme tune for the 2008 Labour campaign ... I think it's going to work for them.
What, like get them elected? That's one powerful song ...