Posts by Ben Austin
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It has been an interesting old ride this. On one hand the opponents did very well framing the bill in their own terms - "anti smacking", but on the other hand the supporters basically managed to force everyone to both think what smacking actually means, and to come out and say publically that they don't condone violence on children.
That has to be worth something.
Oh and the term "loving smack" has to win some sort of award.
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I know some farmers claim to have a shoot on sight policy for strange dogs on their property. Not sure if it is just talk or not, but when hydatis or stock killing are valid fears then I suspect not.
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I wouldn't classify University academics as being civil servants. Are universities even actually owned by the state? Or are they just funded by the state? I've heard that in Australia academics at the public universities actually are legally civil servants, and are treated akin to people working for government departments.
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I've never seen a dog control officer police leash or registrations in Wellington, and I've walked dogs a lot there.
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When I grew up we always had lots of farm dogs, that were sort of pets but that also had work to do. We also used to come into contact with lots of neighbouring farm dogs, and hunting dogs too, so we were taught very early on to be careful around dogs, and not to take liberties. When I moved to the city it was quite different, all dogs were pets and therefore dogs were perceived differently. It is the difference between feeling able to pat or approach a strange dog and not.
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dead air? I thought we were all engaging in NZ's version of the culture war, what with smacking, and the like, or was all that just a diversion?
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I remember last time this came up as well - again, the opinion of the my lecturer at time (Palmer Senior) was that if the existing laws (back in 02/03) were enforced then incidents would be less likely. However he went on to make the point that these incidents were very media friendly and were hyped to the point that parliament felt it politic to do something. Kind of sad to see the cycle begining again so soon.
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Speaking of the ODT - Katherine Rich's status as the only remaining National MP supporting the repeal of the amendment led yesterday's paper.
Must be hard to be her right about now I am guessing
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Web 2.0 is dead? But i've not made any money out of it yet!
Perhaps it is dying, but it by no means is dead yet, in fact based on some of the questions I've been gettting from people not interested in tech this last few weeks, and some MSM reports it is just latching on as a mainstream meme (or is the word meme dying too?). So I think the buzzword /movement still has some legs left yet.
I never got into usenet, I was more interested in real time conversations so went to IRC instead. Some of the political channels on various networks have existed since the early 90s. Check out Undernet #politics (for right wing), and #political (for centre), although I should note both are more American than international.
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Craig,
I kind of like the freedom of the Westminster system, for a couple of of reasons. One that it means that the government actually has the power to govern, they have the votes on a week to week basis, if they didn't they wouldn't be in power. In a fixed term situation it doesn't work that way, as the US indicates. Everyone just hangs around waiting for 08/10 w/e and nothing gets done. Secondly I can't think of a Westminster system that does fixed term (its 3am I'm not going looking), so it may just be that our type of government works better with a fluid rather than fixed system. What would the point of the Governor General then, aside from a rubber stamp or figurehead? Given that the only reserve powers that seem to matter or get used are around the formation and dismissal of government.
The triennial thing I am not so sold on, I'd prefer four years. But you will all remember that the several times we have tried to change the term to four years it hasn't succeeded. Can't remember exactly why because i think i was at primary school last time they tried (National iirc).