Posts by Ben Austin
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Apple made USB popular?
Are you sure Russell? I got the opposite impression about USB, to me it seemed like the PC market drove USB, remember the iPod’s first few generations needed firewire to operate, which required the purchase of a PCI Firewire card in most cases. In addition a lot of the early cheap USB only printers didn't have Mac support - they were designed just for the cheap mass PC market.
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The next question would be how does a state fit together and reconcile the various different “streams of political authority” in such a way that operates as an effective over-all unit while preserving in reality the autonomy that the constituent units would like. That is the issue in NZ, and I do not think our current structure of government is really suited to being forced into contortions so as to fulfil this.
So we probably need to start afresh, if in fact we ever decide to undertake such a project. However I am not so sure anyone person or group would ever have the political will or ability so as to open and drive such a wide-ranging undertaking – a constitutional reform project outside of a crisis situation is kind of a hard sell, as it should be.
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Hopelessly naïve? Sure, if you forget that between 1991-2003 the residual members of the Coalition that liberated Kuwait were engaged in a terribly destructive containment exercise of Iraq. How many people died in that exercise without need (denied the necessities of life due to sanctions for one)? How much aggravation did this inject into an already volatile region? How much aggravation did this cause at the UN (US/UK vs. Russia vs. France etc) From memory this was one of the most important issues in the Middle East in the late 1990s, given that it seemed the Palestinians looked like they were getting some sort of mutually agreed peaceful resolution.
The invasion of Iraq and the removal of Saddam offered, in theory, a simple solution to this problem. Perhaps there are no simple solutions to such problems. -
People do not always act strictly as rational economic units, so while I’ll admit it may have all been about the oil, there are many other reasons as to why the Iraq war was supported by many people. Maybe the prime mover (Cheney?) was all about the oil, but if you think that is the reason why every person supported the war then you are wrong.
In my case, I supported the war in Iraq because it promised to remove Saddam, a man who had started the Iran-Iraq War, who invaded Kuwait, and committed many atrocities against his own people. The US/UK coalition then spent the inter-war period persecuting Iraq because of Saddam, causing untold misery to its people, and creating instability in the region. Pre – War, I thought the act of invading and replacing Saddam would therefore fix these two issues, as well as punishing an unarguable tyrant. I never thought there was a clear link between Saddam and Al-Queda, nor did I think there were WMD in Iraq.
Of course I didn’t understand quite how bitter the divides were between the various factions/groups/doctrines in Iraq (with the obvious exception of the Kurds), nor did I know the US/UK etc would do such a rubbish job of occupying or whatever you want to call their presence in Iraq. I thought it would be possible to create a stable, federal and preferably democratic Iraq over a period of years in this environment.
So there you have it, one (admittedly unimportant) person who supported the invasion without reference to oil. Call me naïve, but there are other reasons for doing stuff outside of economic necessity.
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There are a lot of stores that sell party pills, or herbal highs, and they are often places like corner stores and sometimes even garages. Either way, they often advertise, or place the product at the counter for either the impulse purchaser or security reasons. So a lot of New Zealanders see such pills on a regular basis, and may well form an opinion, perhaps like “party pills are everywhere, kids could get them”.
If they are banned then the pills will be removed and that will be a very visible action, which will allow the responsible party (or the government) to claim instant credit. Further to this, the actual consumers of party pills appear (anecdotally at least) to be mainly young people, who have little political influence. That makes the ‘Ban Party Pills’ Movement a valuable political position to adopt. With that type of probable outcome who needs sound medical research, or in fact any other detailed investigation?
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Che, beautiful.
Robyn, you clearly need lessons in Emoness
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Jeremy, David is just trying to illustrate the twin goals of synergy and convergence with the restrictive artistic framework that is emo poetry.
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David, that was beautiful. I feel depressed already, as no doubt do all your competitors. Surely no one can beat such a masterpiece?
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Given that ‘emo’ ranked so highly on the word of the year poll, I challenge you all to keep yourself grounded this summer by composing at least two verses of the finest emo poetry and posting it in this thread.
If you are blessed with children or in laws this holiday season feel free to involve them in this exercise
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Graeme,
Having read the full text of the speeches from the Minister, and other MPs I would definately agree that the formatshifting issue is the best way to approach MPs about this. They all seemed highly concerned with it, and the effect on consumers.
There is also the national interest argument - if we are serious about a FTA with the US we shouldn't give away a key bargaining position like this for free. I do not think the US Federal government has the power to make the concessions NZ would want in a FTA deal, over agriculture at least, so I don't think a FTA is a good idea for us, given the concessions we would need to make. Anyway, the IP changes are a big part of any US FTA and NZ will need all the bargaining chips it has, if it treats with the US.