Posts by vangam
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I reckon if you walked into any gardening store in NZ and asked around enough you could meet a guy that'd sell you some seedlings..."
Too risky. You should see the looks staff give when one asks for tobacco seedlings!
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Hard News: Switched on Gardener: to what…, in reply to Tom Semmens,
I watch those police/border reality shows from here and Australia, and all the sanctimonious lecturing of the voice overs can’t disguise the utter futility of the amount of time the police and customs spend busting small time drug dealers. The cost to the taxpayer must be prodigious, surely far more than treating it as a medical problem and employing more doctors and nurses and councillors would ever cost. Yet what does all that massive use of authoritarian power mostly net? Old ladies trying to make the pension go a bit further, louts looking for a quick buck, larrikins caught with a tiny or a baggie in their car, a stoner dude supplementing his minimum wage job in a gardening centre, a couple of teenagers at a music festival – that is who the police mostly catch. None of the nickel and dime stuff really justifies the loss of our liberties, invasions of our privacy and draconian sentences that in its impotent fury the state imposes on us all. The futility of the body armour and the assault weapons and the helicopters and the lavish use of manpower without regard to cost is really what these reality TV shows present to a thinking viewer.
beautiful
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Field Theory: In closing, in reply to Russell Brown,
Did no one point out to Brian May that no one wanted to hear him noodling on the guitar for ages?
I think it needed more screeching guitar and distorted feedback, after all, Lou Reed was in town...
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It wont be Godley and Creme, but Stewart and Gouldman, surely?
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Hard News: Keeping our heads on "bath salts", in reply to Scott Chris,
MDVP is really such a poor substitute for cocaine then in a free drugs market no one would use it.
Yes, in a free drugs market. Unfortunately, the situation in NZ encourages risk and the production of poor substitutes. Soon they'll be crushing up disprin and marketing it as some sort of 'buzz', and plenty of mugs will believe it.
Can you believe busineses in NZ test their employees for cocaine? If anyone tested positive for that substance they probably should get a medal, not the sack.
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Hard News: Keeping our heads on "bath salts", in reply to Russell Brown,
MDVP’s main problem seems to be the tendency to compulsive redosing ...
Because its effects are weak and short-lived - it is an incredibly underwhelming experience. Hence the need to keep doing it.
People have been trying to duplicate the effects of coke, smack, acid and ecstasy over the years and most of them fail miserably. In addition, they are frequently more harmful than the Real McCoy.
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Hard News: Drunk Town, in reply to Matthew Poole,
I'm not proposing that they arrest everyone, just that anyone they do arrest for fighting in public be locked up for the night instead of just being warned
Are you saying the police arrest people for violent offences and then let them go with a warning? Doesn't sound like any police force I've heard of.
Just admit it Mathew, you cant seriously defend the 'arrest more people' as a solution to this perceived problem. Just as 'suspend more liquor licenses' wont work - unless of course you want to lock young people out of bar work. Expecting 19 and 20 yr olds to 'police' 40yr old and 50yr old patrons is not only unworkable but also very unfair.
Unlike you, I think we are seeing changes as a result of behavioural campaigns. It is just that these things take years. The attitudes of the young folks these days is much less tolerant of drunken behaviour than it was 20yrs ago.
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Hard News: Drunk Town, in reply to Matthew Poole,
An automatic night in the cells for fighting in public would probably have something closer to the desired offence, especially if coupled with a moderate Summary Offences Act fine.
What? Irrespective of the circumstances? Arbitrary power at its worst, I would suggest.
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I'm with Rich and bob on this. I find the popularity of the more punitive and coercive solutions to be disconcerting. There was a time when the working classes only luxuries were alcohol and tobacco but these are increasingly being put beyond their reach...and people are applauding these measures???
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Hard News: Belief Media, in reply to Russell Brown,
There has been something of a reaction in NZ history against Sinclair’s secular interpretation. Some contemporary scholars believe he underestimates the importance of religion in early NZ; I think it is Dunedin scholar John Stenhouse who leads the charge in this respect.