Posts by Kyle Matthews

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  • Hard News: Death Spiral!,

    If the Govt wants to dampen down the housing market they can pass a law requiring all mortgages to be to a value of no more than 75% of the property value. And if they've really got balls they can make it retrospective, thus requiring existing mortgage holders to pay down their mortgages to the 75% level. Which will require some (many?) to actually sell down their property holdings, which should depress the prices.

    I think I speak for about half the homeowners in NZ, when I respectfully tell you where you can shove that idea.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Hard News: Phew, what a scorcher?,

    what till you see the premiums after storm surges flood downtown auckland.

    Well depending on the increase, sounds like a reasonable trade to me.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Hard News: Phew, what a scorcher?,

    Not that NZ is necessarily much better - I recall in the past few weeks a swathe of news stories about how the folks down Dunedin way had never seen snow before & didn't realise how slippery ice is.

    Man, we fooled the media good with that story. All that training of people wandering around saying "hey, what's this white stuff falling out of the sky?" clearly worked.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Hard News: In the Music,

    They will fine you if you do not comply with their demands for 2 copies of each finished recording within six weeks. the fine is $5000 and I assume a criminal record. ie an musician or a label who doesn't give 2 copies to them is as much a criminal as a drunk driver, or other such criminal who cops a $5000 fine, or that's the heavy handed theory, and that's the offensive part.

    This is scare-mongering gibberish.

    What the Legal Deposit do if you don't send them a copy of the published material, is send a letter asking you to send it to them. And then another letter. And then if you still don't send it, you never hear from them again. I'd bet almost no one has ever been pursued via a court of law.

    The idea that the police would get involved and you'd get a criminal record because you didn't send in two copies of a CD you produced - some people really need to get out more.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Hard News: In the Music,

    what reduced burden. I haven't heard hide nor hair of a legal requirement to deposit anything until the fancy booklet arrived in the post, (2 to 3 times if my memory serves me correctly) and prior to that the good old alexander turnball library came to the party every time with full retail purchases of 2 of everything this country made. they offered the cash and didn't ask for freebees. It seems funny and somewhat draconian

    I think you'll find that the reason that legal deposit is required from the publisher, not the archive, is that there's no way archive staff would know about more than 10% of what is published in NZ if they had to go out and find it all themselves. They're not that well funded, and if we want to have a good historical record of culture, then people need to front up with what they produce.

    Personally I'm astonished that they've gone out and bought music previously. I've had to hand over copies for years of publications just because that's what you do. There will be massive gaps of 20th century NZ music if they've just had to go out and find it at the local music store.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Southerly: For Those in Need of Sleep,

    Otherwise your Oedipus will be terrible, so bad that the very smell will cause passing car drivers' feet to swell and spasm on the accelerator and crash their vehicle, leading to the well known problem of Oedipus wrecks.

    Oh look. Now you're just being silly.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Hard News: Death Spiral!,

    Yeah, but didn't the Police Association also tell us prior to the Anti-Smacking Bill that their hands would be tied and by law they would have investigate every reported case of smacking? But once legislation was passed it wasn't all so grim afterall was it?

    I'm all in favour of those at the coalface (in this case the judiciary who will have to action this proposed law change) having an input but surely it is up to the Govt to set the law? That said, I'm also not in favour of bad law ...

    I'm not sure what Greg O'Conner's qualifications are, but I'm not sure if it's fair to compare his opinion on one badly written law, with the chief justice's of the youth court, who I hope we can assume is an above-average legal mind, on a different law.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Busytown: Word!,

    No, second children exist so they can play with the first child and give the parents a freakin' break for 5 freakin' minutes!!

    I think the 'ohmigod' of having your first children be twins is seriously overstated. I'm sure the first year or two would have been hard, but having a permanent playmate for the next ten years... god that'd be a blessing.

    That's assuming that they play nicely with each other more than once a month of course.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Island Life: The Evasive Mr Key Has 2…,

    And for the record, I couldn't really get too upset many moons ago upon discovering the husband...

    Crikey. Bring out the big stick Russell. Craig seems to have some sort of autorespond feature where every time you tell him to stop, he posts another one.

    Stop. S-T-O-P. No really.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Island Life: The Evasive Mr Key Has 2…,

    I don't really like an opposition who attacks the government for their policies and actions, but never puts anything concrete out as an alternative, always trotting out the line that their policy will be out by the election.

    It's entirely negative, and offers nothing positive.

    And where he does give an answer:

    This is a combination of short and long-term solutions; it's about incomes and opportunities. Tax cuts are one solution, but it's more than that. It's about raising after-tax wages, development of better infrastructure, more educational opportunities, and a business environment where entrepreneurship can flourish, all while protecting our unique environment.

    I mean seriously. Michael Cullen or Helen Clark could have given exactly the same answer to a question, and it wouldn't have looked out of place.

    This isn't leadership, it's playing defense and waiting for the other team to turn the ball over so you can score.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

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