Posts by Steve Barnes
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Oh come on Russell
Arresting people alleged to have been training in the use of "military-style weapons" (one of the news stories mentioned grenades) for political ends would seem to be quite a bit different.
It's the thin end of the wedge and to say "one of the news stories" is a bit disingenuous with regard to your attitude to the MSM. Yes it would seem to be quite a bit different but we all know things are rarely what they seem.
However, I would be the last one to advocate armed stuggle against the colonial powers that be. That would serve no purpose what so ever. It would not surprise me to find a certain Mr Wishart behind part of all this. Do you remember his piece on the NZAIF (armed intervention force) ?
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I love the way the authorities treat cyclists "Here ya go, have a bike lane you can share it with the buses" er! yeah, big metal thing against small fleshy thing, thanks.
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I must correct myself. The raids were, in fact, conducted under the Summary Proceedings Act but any mention of the TSA is scary to me. Having lived in the UK under the PTA (prevention of terrorism act) I have seen many injustices enacted under such laws. I feel sorry for the "averege Joe" in the states on this point too. The quote attributed to Edmund Burke springs to mind "first they came for the communists" etc.
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It seems to me that the fact that the police were using the TSA to conduct these raids sugests the interference of "a foreign power" for us to be seen helping in the "War on Terra" all they are going to come up with is "firearms charges" and maybe stolen goods, drugs and unregistered dogs and such like. Personally I'm not sure which side to be scared of.
btw. this is not a poem ;-)
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Damn it, Daleaway beat me to most of those while I was writing. Liked the Yanks link though, didn't think of that one. :-(
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but couldn't think of an appropriate rhyme for Banks...
On transport we will have "the pony of Shanks"
On development we'll have "the Farm of Tanks"
On infrastructure we'll have "profiteering pranks"
On security we'll have "The City of Angst"
On new ideas we'll have "expressions of blanks"
On social development we'll have "Right wing cranks"
On the relationship with the ARC we'll have "dissent in the ranks"
On sexual freedom we'll have "the City that wanks" -
David Haywood
Love the poem, dude! You should send it to Landfall.
Poem? oh I see, that's cool all we have to do these days to write poetry is to cut and paste from Notepad and the formatting takes care of the rest.
Landfall? was that a typo for landfill? :-) -
An election should have sense of occasion, it should be a community celebration, a celebration of democracy.
The concept of postal voting is totally devoid of any sense of occasion or comunity spirit, which is why there is a minimal turnout for
local elections. When we are given the chance to change the "status quo" we are given a long list of people we know little about and are forced
into a rather blase process of letting the powers that be know what it is that we actually want. We seem to have no interest in who these people
are or what they do until they intrude on our lives in a negative manner. I think we owe more to ourselves and our communities than to allow
those with vested interests to continue to use the present system to further their own interests.
I would suggest that voting in local elections could be facilitated by the use of local libraries rather than the postal vote. Dealing with a
librarian is usually the only time that, as a member of the public, we get to have positive contact with a local public servant. We are more likley to
have contact with a council worker whose duty is to enforce regulation, such as a parking warden or building inspector, than someone who is
actually there to supply any sort of useful service.
On a side note. We were recently asked, on a form, to state the breed of our dog. We were not give the chance of mongrol or mutt
we are only allowed to list two breeds. In our case we stated all the types of breed we knew our dog could have been, Greyhound, whippet,
huntaway, terrier, collie, sheep (she came from the country) and were informed, on the regestration papers, that she was a bloodhound. Go
figure.
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Personally I think the whole Air New Zealand troop carrying saga is a total cock up on the part of labour.
Surely it would have been better to rebuff Nationals attack over this by asking National if it was suggesting government interference in business was a good thing? No laws or international agreements were breached. It was just another opposition beat up and the knee jerk reaction of Labour has done more damage than good. If it ain't damaged don't go into damage control. -
The instability is a function of how much new stuff we're getting every day. It would be nice if it all came out perfect from the word go, but it would cost a lot more, and we'd be waiting a lot longer.
The first operating system that Microsoft delivered was QDOS, which stood for "Quick and Dirty Operating System" It was written in a hurry by some guy to run a project he was working on. This was bought by Bill Gates and Steve Balmer and Licenced to a computer manufacturer (not IBM but by some small company, look I don't have time to look up the details ok, I've got to get to the pub) up until win2000 this was the underlying os. So quick and dirty was the name of the game and we have MS to blame for that. If it had been left to the open source model we may have had it later but not by much and it would have evolved in a much less painful and sordid manner.
Oh, while I'm here I suppose I should put in my 2c worth on the religion thing.
Gods ok, it's his bloody fan clubs that piss me off.
Cher to the Cher
I'm off to have a berr.