Aerif
HRH Albha

Well, we don't really have moral conservatives in the mainstream. Alcohol and similar debates (such as tobacco) are generally framed in a personal choice/freedom of the industry vs. societal cost/known drawbacks manner, which correlates to conservatives vs. progressives. So those on the left view the alcohol industry as somewhat exploitative, and the price as too low, while the conservatives maintain its freedom to operate with a reduced level of regulation. No one argues about in a moral sense, and they would be ridiculed for doing so. I'm not sure if that differs elsewhere.

Eh. This government I'm under has just really opened my eyes to the importance of mistrusting government. I don't mean that in a 'big government' sense, but in terms of its sheer legislative power, and how easily it can be exploited. What they are doing isn't neccessaerily ideological, so it's not that I disagree in that capacity... it's just dangerous. It's scary that your Hitler comment is only a mild exaggeration. The only thing protecting important liberties is the hope that the government will choose not to take them away. Really, this is why we have the Governor-General, and he hasn't done anything.

But the PM's popularity is still high. The leader of the opposition has next to no public standing. People don't even know who he is, and think that the previous leader, now the head of the UNDP, still heads the Labour Party.

The PM made his millions (conservative politicians, amiright) on the currency markets. There, he was called the 'Smiling Assassin'. That name still fits, and it really concerns me.

Regarding The Hobbit. I'm not even going to go and watch it, for two reasons. First, because what happened was an outrage. Second, because they got double the public funding they would have if Warners had not exploited the situation. They are not getting any more of my money.

EDIT: Oh, and the excluded five are: the Bill of Rights 1688 [i.e. The English Bill of Rights], the Constitution Act 1986, the Electoral Act 1993, the Judicature Amendment Act 1972, and the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990.

LAWS 179: Elephants and the law: Canterbury Earthquake Response and Recovery Bill: Constitutionally Outrageous

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.

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.

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

It appears I missed your birthday

Happy belated birthday!

Hmm, Commonwealth Games seem to be proceeding well. Are you watching any of it?

Hah, I refuse to vote then. I only took one point! ;-;

It's only you or Hyz. There's no point ducking votes for Joe because he's already won, and I'm not going to vote myself down. =(

I didn't know it was your birthday until a while afterwards. ;-;

Happy Birthday

Oh, well lookie here! Another year, another birthday, and with that another birthday message to ya!

Happy Birthday!

Have a good one!

"...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.

Jeez. Well, it is experience in web design, isn't it? But yeah; I had a job this Summer that was only giving me a few hours a week, and recently got a second job. Hang in there and keep applying places, man. Can you look on Craig's List and like a "Scotland Employment Department" type website? That's how I found my jobs.

Only the awesome ones, like me.

How's it going, man?

Hey, hey, hey... is Scotland in England?

haha thanks. I tend to get that a lot actually

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.