Posts by Kyle Matthews
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How many degrees of separation from objectionable activities are needed to make people comfortable?
Well people are currently up in arms over a commercial airliner taking soldiers of an allied country, to Kuwait, a country which borders another 'friendly' country, which is currently occupied and in civil war mess. I'm not sure if the soldiers were fighting soldiers as compared to logistics, engineers, medical etc, but it's not exactly Air NZ doing HALO drops over Baghdad.
Compared with Rakon who received a couple of Technology New Zealand grants, and who supply oscillators used in GPS systems, particularly 'smart' bombs. You don't have to look far to see what a mess they have tended to make, and not only of enemy soldiers, but also civilians. That's only two degrees - Rakon to Rockwell Collins, who make the bombs, to the military.
Or Right Hemisphere, a company that produces software for major aerospace and defense companies world wide. They got an interest free loan of $8 million US from our government in 2006. That's also only two degrees.
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would I be correct in my guess that all those who dont see what all the fuss is about ( in regards to air Nz) are the same people who supported the original bogus invasion of Iraq??? .
I don't see what the fuss is about, and I'm a (relatively inactive at present) peace activist. Or more, I think the fuss is most likely hypocritical and Air NZ is catching flak because they're a large and well-known government owned asset.
Sigh ... but Rakon isn't 80% owned by the New Zealand government, is it? Even if you take the view that the charter flight is of no account, it's a bit silly to pretend it's exactly the same thing.
I'm fully in favour of the NZ government either divesting or banning companies it's a significant owner of from any engagement in Iraq. I'm not aware of them having done that. Have they gone through the superfund and made sure they're all clean? What about any funding to start up exporting businesses that are in the military line?
And, are there rules about businesses trying to maximise profits for shareholders? What rights do the owners of the other 20% have?
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You forgot to mention that he kept his eyes closed
And he never inhaled.
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And IMNSHO, the turnout three years ago - and the issues around counting the votes in some parts of the country - doesn't give New Zealanders a great purchase on the moral high ground to patronise the Yanks.
Well, IMNSHO, the difference there is, while our most recent local body elections were a cock-up, the votes were eventually counted, and the correctly elected people were put into their seats.
There's plenty of evidence to say that the opposite took place in Florida.
There's a vast gap between 'not particularly competent with a new voting system in a local body election' and 'stole the American presidential election through having friends and relatives in the right place'. A vast gap.
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The plane didn;t go to Iraq so you could equally leave that word out as well and substitute it for Kuwait, or Dubai, or Bahrain, or Beirut.
I don't think anyone believes they were going to Kuwait, and no further. They were going to Kuwait to deploy elsewhere, it's my understanding that was Iraq.
That's irrelevant though. The question is, should the government get huffy because one NZ business has had some involvement in a war, and not apply those same rules to other NZ businesses?
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Though most of your WAN article was good Russell. This sort of filtering is an interesting response (not sure if I agree with it in principle), but the practical result doesn't look too good.
I thought this paragraph was a bit disingenuous though:
I was unable to find any record of a single sexual assault initiated via internet contact by a stranger in Australia, but the government’s own crime surveys indicate around 70,000 sexual assaults annually in the real world, almost all by people known to the victim. And yet the government’s funding boost for police teams to detect grooming is nearly three times the entire $16.5 million founding budget for its National Initiative to Combat Sexual Assault.
The vast majority of work nation-wide on grooming will be done from this government funding - probably a section in the federal police I'm guessing. After all, tracking internet grooming doesn't need to be done locally. 'Ordinary' sexual assault in the real world will be primarily funded at the state level by ordinary state police - both in specialised offices, and with ordinary detectives investigating sexual assaults etc.
I can only guess, but if you totalled up the funding spent nationally on policing real world sexual assaults, and compared it with funding spent on 'grooming' the former would be many many times the latter.
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I really don't understand why the government got up in arms about Air NZ flying troops to Kuwait, and them not being informed. There's a fair few companies in New Zealand directly, or indirectly involved in supporting weapons systems, technology, or operations directly or indirectly in Iraq. If the government doesn't want them doing that, then they should ban all of them, or none. Or, buy them up, rather than owning 80% and expecting the owners of the other 20% to miss out on business.
Personally I'm all in favour of businesses not being allowed to support the war in/on Iraq, but how about a little consistency?
It's absolutely a domestic issue however. The government never said that they didn't want to carry Australian troops, and they never said that the Australians did anything wrong. They said that Air NZ, and MFAT did something wrong, involving a contract with Australian troops, to Iraq. You could replace 'Australian' in the story with 'American' or 'British', the important part of the story is Air NZ, MFAT, and Iraq, Downer shouldn't have bothered opening his mouth.
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Kyle I think the good people of Manukau and Waitakere cities, and parts of Franklin district, may have issues with you cutting them off along with Auckland City if you dig at Drury. Severing the bridges at Mangere and Pakuranga would be more effectively targeted at Banks ;-)
I'm with that in principle, but sometimes you just have to deal with the fact that you're neighbours and you'll catch their flak. Besides, it's too difficult to cut off Manukau and Waitakere properly, we might just have to take down the Harbour bridge, and sacrifice west and south Auckland as 'irretrievably infected'.
After all, every state in America suffers internationally because Florida couldn't count chads. Them's the breaks.
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If Auckland puts Banks back in again, I think the rest of the country will have to cut it off. A hoofin' big canal across the island somewhere near Drury. And a DMZ with mines.
But we'll start up a ferry service to connect Northland back up, because it's nice up there. And their rugby team is good fun too.
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He also gets the majority of his information from the trade union bar in Auckland, with his sources being whoever happens to be around at the time. This might go to explain how he is so often so incredibly wrong.
In the 1990s he lived in Dunedin, and I think he got a fair portion of his information from the corner bar of the cook every Friday afternoon.