It's interesting that a Conservative governement would want to encourage alcohol But anyway, I'm astounded that the government has that much power, seriously being able to pass an act like that is the loophole that gave Hitler the power to do everything. Sure, the Earthquake bill seems like a good idea, but the fact that it exposes what your government can do is astounding, I mean I actually can't believe it. My mouth has not closed since I started typing this VM. So which constitutional acts are immune to this new act? Human Rights? Whatever it is it seems that they could easily bypass it if someone was evil enough. Hate to tell you this Alpha, but WW3 is going to be against New Zealand. And yeah, the matters concerning 'The Hobbit', have been in the news occassionally, mostly because production could move to Ireland or the UK. It seems a shame that Warner Brothers could be moving elsewhere, but I think they do have the right to do what is most conveniant for them. I guess since it's such a huge production there's going to be some upset about it. Of course, in my opinion, changing the law is no way to go about it. Yes, it would result in more people taking NZ as a 'cheap option' but it's at the expense of people's incomes etc.. I can't say I'm surprised, it's the same with every right-winged party in the world. Don't worry, your blowing off steam isn't bothering me.
Yeah, it's very British Commonwealth + a-few-others-that-for-some-reason-play-rugby. I'm not sure if the pool games are up. I really want to watch NZ play a weaker country, ideally the USA. I'm not the biggest rugby fan, but a thrashing is a thrashing. The specific legislation is the Rugby World Cup 2011 (Empowering) Bill. I'll let you judge for yourself. Liquor bill shows 'callous disregard' | Stuff.co.nz To understand why I don't support it, it needs to be viewed in context. The current government has a very worrying attitude toward the law, and is willing to change just about anything to suit populism and/or ideology. There are two prime examples, and they are not the only ones. The first is a change to the Crown Minerals Act, which had a section that established 40% of the conservation estate that could never, ever, be even investigated for mining. The Government, quite contrary to the point of the act, decided to 'value' the minerals under the conservation estate, and came out with the ridiculous figure of $140 billion, and then used that to justify removing the section of the CMA that prevented mining from taking place... So a section of legislation which has the only purpose of preventing mining will be repealed so mining can take place. What is the point of the section in the first place? Thankfully they dropped that idea (but made other subversive changes to the legislation to take control away from the Minister of Conservation). Something they were more successful with was the Canterbury Earthquake Response and Recovery Bill (Editorial : Far-reaching powers hide worrying risks - Christchurch earthquake - NZ Herald News). To quote the article: "This legislation, enacted in a day with the backing of all parties [because opposing parties said they did not want to appear against the rapid recovery of Christchurch], creates an order-in-council mechanism. This allows ministers to relax or suspend potentially every other act of Parliament - barring five dealing with constitutional matters - to the extent they may "divert resources away from the effort to efficiently respond to the damage caused by the Canterbury earthquake". Sounds logical, you might think. But the extent of that legislation is so far-reaching, and it is written so poorly, that some commentators have said that until it automatically expires (I think mid-next year), New Zealand is a dictatorship. If they wanted to, in the name of 'Earthquake Recovery', the government could remove the Crimes Act without debate. Murder would then no longer be a crime. Elections holding up Earthquake Recovery? Never mind them, let's remove the freaking Electoral Act. "It also creates the Canterbury Earthquake Commission ... [which] will advise the Government what orders-in-council are needed to speed up rebuilding. [It] will ... not be able to "be challenged, reviewed, quashed, or called into question in any court"." Oh, and another example. I'm not sure if your media has covered the Hobbit fiasco / union disaster taking place here. Basically an actors' union suggested talks to negotiate fair and standard terms and conditions with respect to employment contracts. They did not rule out industrial action. Then Warner Brothers suggested that because of our 'unstable labour environment', that they may take the film somewhere where the labour unions do what they're told, or where the governments are willing to give larger tax breaks. The union immediately removed its threat of industrial action, but Warner Brothers remained silent. Cue panic over the future of the New Zealand film (and, by implication, tourism) industry. Cue 'let's change the law' PM, and suddenly film workers will no longer be 'employees', but 'contractors' (with fewer rights and no ability to bargain collectively), and the tax break increased. The debate for that legislation? Overnight, under urgency. Warner Brothers are now masters of New Zealand employment legislation. I wonder what they will decree next. I know this probably sounds horribly confusing and uninteresting (and way off topic), but it feels good to let off stream about conservatives, wherever they may lie.
Hey a sport Scotland is actually qualified for! Yipee! Though it's quite ironic that this seems to be 'Six-Nations' plus a few other teams which play rugby. I am surprised that the Americans have a team. I'd think that there would be no Americans interested with their own brand of 'football' overshadowing rugby. What sort of legislation are they introducing, and why are you against it?
Oh so it's Glasgow next is it? I wonder how that's going to go? It's funny looking back at the the fuss over the Delhi games, which were all proven wrong. The athletes who pulled out of the games must be kicking themselves. We're hosting the IRB Rugby World Cup next year. It's in the paper pretty much every second day. They're even introducing legislation to speed up developments for it (which I think is abhorrent, but the conservatives in power couldn't give a toss what I think since I'll never vote for them). So be prepared for 'games news overload', and all sorts of crazy stuff. Hopefully by 2014 I'll be done with study and could be in Europe. That'd be one thing I'd try attend.
That's sort of a bitter sweet article, we've been playing 'Flower of Scotland' for years at most sporting events, and even sung it in schools, it's just still not official. Oh well, I'm sure when it comes round to Glasgow 2014 we'll have sorted something out. It would be ironic if the host country had no official anthem. EDIT: Strangely enough, the official page, puts us above you since we won more gold. That's good enough for me.
Hah. But we'd beat you at even that. I feel like bacon and egg pie now. I couldn't find anything about medals per capita, though I saw that Scotland came 10th overall. I suspect Nauru came first per capita . I also found this: Commonwealth Games Delhi 2010: Scotland gets its national anthem
I've not really caught a lot of the games thus far, they're on during mid-morning so I don't really get much of an opportunity to watch the live events. I'm also too upset that countries like Nigeria, Malaysia (and even that hick-country, New Zealand ) have earned more medals than Team Scotland. If only there were a pie-eating contest. *Sigh*
It appears I missed your birthday Happy belated birthday! Hmm, Commonwealth Games seem to be proceeding well. Are you watching any of it?
Oh it's one of there favourite subjects. About half an hour ago, BBC Scotland proudly announced that the Scottish team were now all in Dehli, but cleaned up the mess themselves. I can understand why the athletes are upset about the state of the 'luxury' apartments though, Delhi has had nine years or something to build and perfect the accomodation and it's turned out looking like the scabby end of the slums of London. I think that it would be nice to have flushing toilets after nine years building. Honestly, India should never have been given the games, all of the things you've said has cleared up that they can't take care of their own - let alone guests. The money spent could definetly be put to better use. The poor get poorer...
"...but then I'm in Scotland and we're more concerned about the commonwealth games in Delhi just now." Dear Lord... they're not doing that there, too? I'm so sick of that picture, of the toilet and sink with red dust (or something) in it. And I'm sick of the athlete's and official's attitudes. 'We demand clean facilities! We demand this this AND this!'. FFS, you're a guest! Not only that, but they have the naff to demand all this stuff for themselves, while the workers are paid a pittance, live in slums, and around 75 workers have DIED in the construction of the facilities. And for what long-term gain for the majority of locals? The athletes are instructed to not even leave the 'bubble' -- they won't be spending money in the local economy. Few tourists are going to come -- they're afraid of Mumbai pt.2. I'd be much happier if they started demanding (and offerring resources for) the millions of urban poor in India. I wish they demanded that the Indian government provide reticulated water for its citizens over foreign athletes. The whole thing pisses me off.
I know, it makes us truly blend in with the heathens!
بالطبع لا! يا لها من فكرة سخيفة! ويجد لنا للخروج على هذه المنتديات الاميركية في أي وقت من الأوقات على الإطلاق! Ahh the joys of Google Translate.
I think we push it, just a tad, on American forums... أنا ؟ الإرهابيّ ؟ أبدًا !
But she's such a lovely woman! Her books are the basis of the American Republican Party. And supporting anyone else is just unpatriotic.
