Posts by WH
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You can read a summary of the Little Children are Sacred report here, or you can download the full report here.
I haven't read the whole report yet, but I'm encouraged to hear that the Australian state and federal governments are taking action on this, whatever their motives may be. Does anyone have any improvements to the report they wish to suggest?
The Inquiry is, of course, concerned with the Northern territory experience. It is not able to correct, or recommend corrections to, 200 years or 100 years of the disempowerment and institutional discrimination to which Aboriginal people have been subjected. Nor is the Inquiry able to right the political and social wrongs that have led to the dysfunction which now exists to
a considerable degree in the NT. The best it can hope to achieve is to present meaningful proposals that the government might adopt so that Aboriginal communities themselves, with support, can effectively prevent sexual abuse of their children.The themes of the [meetings between stakeholders and the members of the the Inquiry] are reflected throughout Part I of the report generally. Those themes can be reduced to a number of key areas to which our recommendations are addressed. They are:
• Alcoholism
• Education
• Poverty
• Housing
• Health
• Substance abuse
• Gambling
• Pornography
• Unemployment
• Responses by government agencies
• Law and justice
• Rehabilitation of offenders. -
swimming is never so exciting as to warrant wetting your pants while watching it.
This is a luxury normally reserved for the participants :)
I quite like Grant Nisbett's commentary. Even Mexted and Deaker have been improving lately. As for TJ, the Boks did have a player sin binned after receiving repeated warnings for foul play. That aside, it was the best game I've seen in a couple of seasons.
I'm looking forward to seeing these new rules everyone has been talking about.
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What a great test match. That So'oialo can play a bit, except when he doesn't. He had an outstanding game against France in Paris a few years back as well.
Its not cool that the Boks seem to enjoy hating on our captain though. Go the AB's!
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Last night I was out enjoying both the blustery cold and second hand reports of the Warriors' win. I got talking to a colleague who over the last seven years has made $1,000,000 on the property market. Over the same period he's earned about $500,000 in salary. Because of his savvy use of the LAQC structure, he faces a 10% marginal tax rate. (For comparative purposes, a worker on an average income faces a 33% marginal tax rate.)
I respect my colleague's achievement, and I believe that he is entitled to the rewards of his foresight and hard work. On the other hand, I believe that our property market is hurting our economy and disadvantaging ordinary people. IMO we face a problem that only a law change or a market correction can resolve.
My question is this: why was there so much momentum for the politically catastrophic Anti-Smacking Bill but so little behind moves to address a problem that affects so many ordinary New Zealanders?
Is it because almost everyone in a quasi-professional job has a second house or is thinking about getting one?Sue Bradford has frittered away the left's political support on an meaningless personal crusade. IMO it is incumbent on Bradford and her supporters to get it back. She might start by not putting up absurd private members bills.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10447178&pnum=0
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I have a suspicion however that it would be similar to the Reserve Banks intervention in the currency markets. Fiddling at the margins.
However it is done, this is a problem that needs to be fixed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_housing_bubble
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0703/S00615.htm -
I think one possible pitfall of Cullen ending the tax-loss gravy train on investment properties is that the number of people prepared to make properties available for rent will fall, and so will the supply of rental stock. In that case, rents for those who can't or don't want to rent could go up.
I've thought about minimising my own income tax exposure by setting up an LAQC, negatively gearing some rental properties, depreciating everything in sight and waiting for the capital gain.
It would be like having my own little Magnum transaction. O for awesome.
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Its good to see the Reserve Bank recommend a capital gains tax on investment housing, just as Tax Review panel did before it. Surely its past time to address the interest rate and exchange rate problems that our housing market is causing.
It transpires that property investors and Bill English are not so keen, though. Who would have guessed?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/3/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10446337
Has anyone got any thoughts?
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Hey 81stcolumn,
I never said the man was perfect. I say that Blair is basically good.
http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,,2103592,00.html
I agree with almost every word Toynbee has said here.
What does the public think? Every poll shows its deep revulsion against the press, with journalists ranking lower than politicians. [...]
It's a state of mind that drives out balanced analysis: unless there's a "crisis", it won't make the cut. This isn't new or special to the era of a Labour government, but it's got worse and it's done without reader or audience research which might reveal people are equally interested in stories of improvement - or at least of complexity.
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At least yours got away. Not all ears are so lucky.
Albert: “What happened here?”
Pacheco: “He got bit, I think.”
Albert: “Evander Holyfield—LOOK OUT!!—is pushed right here, above us, by Tyson!”
Pacheco: “He got bit in the ear.”
Albert: “Oh, my goodness! He's got a bloody right ear! Holyfield bitten by a dirty Mike Tyson!”
Czyz's response during the replay, after Tyson was disqualified for biting Holyfield the second time:
“If I were Evander, I would have kicked him.”
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You can't believe everything you read.
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5920188/the_press_vs_al_gore
Laters.