Open mike 23/03/2013

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, March 23rd, 2013 - 62 comments
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Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.

The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner).

Step right up to the mike…

62 comments on “Open mike 23/03/2013 ”

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  1. Huginn 1
    22 March 2013 at 7:51 pm

    President Obama is in the Middle East – and it’s complicated.
    So here’s a cartoon primer of the entire history of the region, captured in 3.5 minutes and set to a catchy tune that will have you humming along.

    http://blog.ninapaley.com/2012/10/01/this-land-is-mine/

    Sorry about the clumsy link paste, I’m working from an ipad and I just couldn’t make it nice.

  2. Morrissey 2
    23 March 2013 at 6:50 am

    NewstalkZB: Fair and Balanced
    NewstalkZB, Friday 22 March 2013, 7:45 a.m.

    This radio station is the closest thing we’ve ever had in this country to a dedicated government mouthpiece. Day in, day out, hour after hour after hour, host after host, anybody stupid or unfortunate enough to listen to this station for any length of time is subjected to pretty much unremitting pro-government propaganda. Most NewstalkZB hosts don’t even bother to try to hide their overt bias. One of the most flagrant is that dedicated toady Mike Hosking, AKA the King of Contra….

    SIMON BRIDGES: Oh look it’s evidence-based. Youth rates lead to more jobs. It’s evidence-based.

    MIKE HOSKING: [fervently] EX-ACTLY!!!

    Later that day, one Larry “Lackwit” Williams, an extraordinarily dimwitted ex-traffic cop, presides over one of the most unpleasant ten minutes on radio, “The Huddle”, unkindly referred to by sneering sophisticates as “The Muddle”…

    LARRY “LACKWIT” WILLIAMS: Kevin Rudd turned down a poisoned chalice didn’t he? Labor is GONE!

    ELLEN READ: There’s something about that guy I don’t like! He’s just so horrible and creepy. I don’t know what it is.

    LARRY “LACKWIT” WILLIAMS: Gillard is a tough cookie though! I don’t know what it is, but she’s TOUGH!

    ELLEN READ: She’s one tough cookie!

    TIM WATKIN: She’s a tough cookie all right! She’s tougher than Helen Clark! She’s tough as old boots! [snickers nervously]

    The rest of the discussion was equally dire and uninteresting, but there was one highly pertinent (and telling) confession….

    ELLEN READ: I haven’t been in a bookshop for a long, long time.

    NewstalkZB: Tune Your Mind.

  3. Ad 3
    23 March 2013 at 7:37 am

    Armstrong in the NZHerald this morning gives 10 reasons why National remain so popular. The biggest remains the popularity of PM John Key. Is this just intergenerational luck that, comparatively, they have a leader with such skill?

    One other point he raises is that Labour have not yet put “hands on” economic management into broad New Zealand discourse, so in the MSM and in the home and office there remains no economic question mark hanging above the Beehive for the government to answer. Does anyone know if Labour have more housing-type speeches coming up that seek to tilt public discourse?

    • bad12 3.1
      23 March 2013 at 10:41 am

      Yeah, theres a side story to that in the Herald as well, Armstrong,Trevit, and Dann give their ‘ideas’ about why Slippery is so popular as the Prime Minister,

      Armstrong and Trevit just do the gushy thing that if it belongs in print at all it aint a supposed serious daily newspaper as what the Herald would consider it’self to be,

      Dann gets a little closer to the truth with His little essay on ‘it’s the economy’ and ‘when all is said and done people vote with their pockets’

      i have to presume Dann is talking there of the Tory vote where i am sure the majority do vote National based upon economics, (not the economy as Dann suggests), personal economics of course is the nature of the National Party economic voter and i would dare suggest that that vote has held up as the ‘tax switch’ for 40% higher up in the economy is still delivering for ‘them’ sizable gains in their weekly income, the rest of them would be the ‘fanclub’ type voter hearts all a flutter as Slippery does one of His public dances like a loon displays…

    • Colonial Viper 3.2
      23 March 2013 at 11:22 am

      Is this just intergenerational luck that, comparatively, they have a leader with such skill?

      Nah, bullshit it’s intergenerational luck.

      A group within National saw the talent and opportunity that John Key represented, talked (bought, strong-armed) the rest of the National caucus and associated powerbrokers in to it, and put him in there.

      In other words, superior networking, initial talent indentification, recruitment and internal political management.

      Many deals were cut…and notice how Bill English came back with a second life after his disastrous defeat as DPM. Again part of the deal making which happened to bring the National caucus together.

      Compare and contrast the Labour approach: who’s the next Wellington staffer we can promote.

      • dumrse 3.2.1
        23 March 2013 at 11:56 am

        FFS, Labor did exactly the same thing except you picked a retired UN wanker.

        • Murray Olsen 3.2.1.1
          23 March 2013 at 6:31 pm

          They must have stopped teaching comprehension by the time you got to school. Or did you only go to laugh at the poor kids?

  4. The Al1en 4
    23 March 2013 at 8:34 am

    The Hearald:
    “Apple’s New Zealand division made sales of $571 million last year but paid only 0.4 per cent of that in tax.”

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10873068

    Plenty of cash left to put up more suicide nets at their factories.
    Maybe peter dunne could prepare some legislation that stops these crooks from ripping off our system, instead of pissing about with smart phones and laptops.
    30% of 571mil, puts into context the alleged robbery committed by beneficiaries, living the dream.

    And while he’s at it, get the class b and c drugs out of our sweetshops, like you promised.
    A bit of passion like the ‘retort’ you gave on back benches will do.
    Where were you?

    • Ed 4.1
      23 March 2013 at 8:41 am

      Tax is of course levied on profits, not on sales – we do not tax banks for example on every deposit. It would be interesting to see the profit on an equivalent wholly New Zealand successful company with sales of $500 million . . .

      Even reducing such tax rorts will be difficult – what could the left do that the IRD are not already being asked to do?

      • The Al1en 4.1.1
        23 March 2013 at 8:51 am

        “Tax is of course levied on profits, not on sales ”

        Of course it is, I misread, but still, knowing how overpriced apple stuff is, their margins would be pretty huge. 30% of 100m, 200m, 300m is still lots and lots of inadequately taxed income.
        That’s an awfully good tax break they’ve got themselves.

        “Even reducing such tax rorts will be difficult – what could the left do that the IRD are not already being asked to do?”

        So NZ needs new legislation to combat mega corps dodgy dealings. Must be doable, but obviously not by dunne.
        What they going to do? Withdraw from the market and turn down half a billion in sales, especially when android is overtaking (overtaken?) as market leader.
        Take our fair share or tell them to fuck off, but doing nothing is almost as criminal and complicit in intent.

        • DH 4.1.1.1
          23 March 2013 at 10:33 am

          “….but still, knowing how overpriced apple stuff is, their margins would be pretty huge. ”

          They make sure their margins are very low. There’s two basic methods for keeping the margins down; transfer pricing and royalties. Not sure about Apple but most of the other big corporates have been using the royalty scam, tax collectors starting wising up to transfer priciing and put the bite on.

          The NZ operation pays a royalty to the parent company for the right to use the brand in this country. The royalty fee goes on the books as an expense and it’s so high they don’t make much profit. The parent that collects the royalties is located in a tax haven.

          It’s bizarre that they get away with paying themselves a royalty but that’s the way it works.

          • mikesh 4.1.1.1.1
            23 March 2013 at 10:58 am

            Royalties should be treated as profit since they don’t actually contribute to production. and profit earned in this country should be taxed.

        • Draco T Bastard 4.1.1.2
          23 March 2013 at 12:24 pm

          So NZ needs new legislation to combat mega corps dodgy dealings.

          Yep and the best way to do it is to design an all new tax system from the ground up and implement it in the next financial year. None of this tinkering around that we’re seeing from the political parties at the moment.

      • Draco T Bastard 4.1.2
        23 March 2013 at 12:22 pm

        Tax is of course levied on profits, not on sales…

        Unless you’re on PAYE in which case you’re taxed on your full income and not profit which is what would be left after all expenses have been taken out.

    • RedBaronCV 4.2
      23 March 2013 at 12:09 pm

      Maybe the IRD should consider applying some version of the thin cap rules for interest to royalties, management fees and other overseas service fees and maybe even payments for products – some sort of a sliding scale for some of them perhaps.

      • Draco T Bastard 4.2.1
        23 March 2013 at 12:28 pm

        Just make them non-deductible. That’d have to be done at the political level though and I doubt if any party would be brave enough to do it.

      • DH 4.2.2
        23 March 2013 at 12:45 pm

        I think that’s what they’re looking at. I prefer mikesh’s view but I doubt you could write specific enough laws to cover that. It clashes with the likes of franchising and paying for the right to use an established brand is pretty common business practice that’s not intrinsically wrong in itself. These corporates are just abusing a working system for their own benefit.

        They could probably use the likes of the sharemarket to work out an average profit margin on turnover and tax them at that rate as the default minimum. They certainly need to do something, and soon.

    • Colonial Viper 4.3
      23 March 2013 at 7:16 pm

      This is horrendous.

      Import levies on all Apple products please. They do not have a right to sell their product in this country.

      By the way, I presume 15% GST was paid on that $571M sales figure. It would be hard for them to escape that.

      • Herodotus 4.3.1
        23 March 2013 at 8:09 pm

        But the gst on sales is paid for by the purchaser and in this case apple just collect the tax on behalf of the govt and then on the following 28 th of the month pay the tax to the govt. the way you phrased it appears IMO that apple has incurred a tax, which they haven’t.
        For those interested the IRD are taking interest in land transactions and developers, pity this was not 12 years ago with the result that the govts books would have been even more healthy. a
        Think how this untaxed income would have assisted say, health, supporting those in need, pity those in power have self interest over riding what is best for nz.

  5. Penny Bright 5
    23 March 2013 at 9:33 am

    CORRUPT ‘CONFLICTS OF INTEREST’ INVOLVED IN THE PURCHASE BY AUCKLAND COUNCIL OF THE FORMER ASB BUILDING?

    On 21 March 2013, Auckland Councillors discussed at a workshop whether or not to move into the former ASB building at 135 Albert St.

    In the interests of TRANSPARENCY and DEMOCRATIC ACCOUNTABILITY – how about we ‘back up the truck’ and look at how exactly it was decided to spend a stray $100 million (without full public consultation) on the purchase of this property, and for what reason?

    Let’s also have a good, hard look at who has been involved…….
    http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/auckland-council-headquarters-move-vy-124051

    Any untoward conflicts of interest between those who bought this property and those from whom this property was bought?

    Where are the publicly-available ‘Registers of Interest’?

    WHO IS CHECKING?

    I did some checking.

    This is what I found…………….

    AND IT STINKS TO HIGH HEAVEN WITH THE STENCH OF ‘CORRUPT CRONY CAPITALISM’!

    http://www.committeeforauckland.co.nz/membership/member-organisations

    Peter Wall, Director of Auckland Council Property Ltd CCO, is a member of the ‘invitation-only’ / $10.000 per year membership fee private lobby group – the Committee for Auckland, along with Auckland Council CEO – Doug McKay.

    Peter Wall is also:

    EXECUTIVE TEAM OF AUCKLAND COUNCIL PROPERTY LTD

    http://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/EN/ABOUTCOUNCIL/REPRESENTATIVESBODIES/CCO/Pages/council_property.aspx

    “Peter George Wall
    BCA – Bachelor of Commerce and Administration
    ACA – Associate Chartered Accountant

    Peter has enjoyed over 30 years in the Property industry participating in development, investment management and the acquisition and disposal of some $1.2 billion of Property assets. He has held CEO roles in public property companies, operated in UK, France and Canada and for 3 years was Managing Director, Property for Brookfield Multiplex in NZ and he continues to provide consulting services to this company.

    Peter is a past National President of the Property Council in NZ, President and Trustee of the North Harbour Charitable Trust, Trustee of the Graeme Dingle Foundation trust and Chair of the Harbour Access Trust which has as its responsibilities the development of the National Ocean Water Sports Centre at Takapuna and ferry services to Takapuna and Browns Bay.”

    ________________________________________________

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10816011

    Council eyes $122m ASB tower for new HQ
    By Anne Gibson
    5:30 AM Thursday Jun 28, 2012

    The Auckland Council plans to buy new upmarket headquarters so it can quit a civic high-rise block tentatively earmarked for demolition.

    The council has entered private negotiations to buy the ASB Bank Centre, valued by an Australian institutional fund at $112 million, substantially upgrading it for its staff and housing many of them under one roof.
    ………………………………..

    ASB Bank Centre, 135 Albert St.
    Valued at $112 million, owned by Brookfield Multiplex
    31 levels with extensive carparking.”
    ____________________________________________________________

    http://www.business.govt.nz/companies/app/ui/pages/companies/886938
    _______________________________________________________

    BROOKFIELD MULTIPLEX CONSTRUCTIONS (NZ) LIMITED (886938)

    Last updated on 14 Dec 2011

    Company number:886938
    Incorporation Date:17 Dec 1997
    Company Status:Registered

    Company Addresses:Registered Office
    Level 8, 66 Wyndham St, Auckland , New Zealand

    Address for service
    Level 8, 66 Wyndham St, Auckland , New Zealand
    View all addresses

    Directors Showing 2 of 2 directors
    George KOSTAS
    36 Johnston St,, Annandale, Nsw 2038, Australia ,

    Peter George WALL
    233 Beach Road, Campbells Bay, North Shore City, 0630 , New Zealand ”

    _________________________________________

    What role did Peter Wall, Director of Brookfields Multiplex Constructions (NZ) Ltd; member of the ‘Executive Team of Auckland Council CCO, Auckland Council Property Ltd, play in the purchase of the former ASB building, owned by Brookfields Multiplex?

    How DODGY (corrupt?) is THIS?

    Auckland Council – $UPERCITY for the 1%?

    Run by big business and property developers FOR big business and property developers?

    Anyone else got concerns about this?

    Penny Bright
    ‘Anti-corruption campaigner’

    2013 Auckland Mayoral Candidate

    • Tigger 5.1
      23 March 2013 at 12:45 pm

      Thanks Penny. I want to say that I really appreciate your work on corruption. Keep it up.

  6. johnm 6
    23 March 2013 at 10:10 am

    Another dispatch from the artist taxi driver on the U$K’s austerity class war.


    OMFG!!!! The BBC Sucks O Cocks news *Exclusive News*


    BBC Sucks O Cocks News Budget+Obama in Isra-hell


    The Government the dream snatchers

    ”

    MorallyBankruptUK 4 hours ago

    Unless you bought your house or flat 15 years ago or more, then you are priced out of existence in the U.K.

    People need to fucking LEAVE: I left, in 2008. Come to Sweden. You can buy a house here in the countryside for between £15k and £40 (for a REALLY nice one).

    Fucking just up, and LEAVE.

    I don’t regret leaving one fucking bit. The more I see of Britain, the more I realise that it is fucking FINISHED.

    BRITIAN. IS FUCKING FINISHED. YOUR CHILDREN HAVE NO FUTURE THERE. LEAVE.
    · 25 in reply to 1984Nareik (Show the comment)
    Van Couver

    Van Couver 6 hours ago

    YOU, my friend, taxi driver, NEED TO BE ON THE MAINSTREAM NEWS EVERY SINGLE DAY! This news needs to be played over and over again on every single channel on tv. If people can’t see the writing on the wall by now they might as well just walk to the extermination camps and get it over with.”

  7. johnm 7
    23 March 2013 at 11:12 am

    A good example of the elitist NeoLiberal Washington Concensus mind f*ck that John Yankee has signed up to:

    “Chavez Wasted His Money on Healthcare When He Could Have Built Gigantic Skyscrapers”
    “Associated Press business reporter Pamela Sampson (3/5/13):” :

    “Chavez invested Venezuela’s oil wealth into social programs including state-run food markets, cash benefits for poor families, free health clinics and education programs. But those gains were meager compared with the spectacular construction projects that oil riches spurred in glittering Middle Eastern cities, including the world’s tallest building in Dubai and plans for branches of the Louvre and Guggenheim museums in Abu Dhabi.”

    Paul Craig Roberts:
    http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2013/03/12/hugo-chavez-paul-craig-roberts-4/
    “Chavez was a friend of truth and justice, and this made him unpopular throughout the Western World where every political leader regards truth and justice as dire threats.

    Chavez was a world leader. Unlike US politicians, Chavez was respected throughout the non-western world. He was awarded honorary doctorates from China, Russia, Brazil, and other countries, but not from Harvard, Yale, Cambridge, and Oxford.

    Chavez was a miracle. He was a miracle, because he did not sell out to the United States and the Venezuelan elites. Had he sold out, Chavez would have become very rich from oil revenues, like the Saudi Royal Family, and he would have been honored by the United States in the way that Washington honors all its puppets: with visits to the White House. He could have become a dictator for life as long as he served Washington.”

    Shows the unbelievable meanness of spirit and money grubbing darkness of John Yankee not to have gone to Chavez’s funeral.

    “President Franklin Delano Roosevelt understood that security for the rich required economic security for the underclasses. Roosevelt established in the US a weak form of social democracy that European politicians had already understood was necessary for social cohesion and political and economic stability.

    The Clinton, Bush, and Obama regimes set about undermining the stability that Roosevelt provided, as Thatcher, Major, Blair, and the current prime minister of the UK undermined the social agreement between classes in the UK. Politicians in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand also made the mistake of handing power over to private elites at the expense of social and economic stability.

    Gerald Celente predicts that the elites will not survive the hatred and anger that they are bringing upon themselves. I suspect that he is correct. The American middle class is being destroyed. The working class has become a proletariat, and the social welfare system is being destroyed in order to reduce the budget deficit caused by the loss of tax revenues to jobs offshoring and the expense of wars, overseas military bases, and financial bailouts. The American people are being compelled to suffer in order that elites can continue with their agendas.”

    “Politicians in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand also made the mistake of handing power over to private elites at the expense of social and economic stability.”

    • johnm 7.1
      23 March 2013 at 11:32 am

      The NeoLiberal disaster in the U$K by George Monbiot

      “The model is dead; long live the model. Austerity programmes are extending the crises they were meant to solve, yet governments refuse to abandon them. The United Kingdom provides a powerful example. The cuts, the coalition promised, would hurt but work. They hurt all right – and have pushed us into a double dip recession(1).

      This result was widely predicted. If you cut government spending and the income of the poor during an economic crisis, you are likely to make it worse. But last week David Cameron insisted that “we will go on and finish the job”(2), while the chancellor maintained that the government has a “credible plan, and we’re sticking to it.”(3)”

      http://www.monbiot.com/2012/07/30/scorched-earth-economics/

      “A programme that promised freedom and choice has instead produced something resembling a totalitarian capitalism, in which no one may dissent from the will of the market and in which the market has become a euphemism for big business. It offers freedom all right, but only to those at the top. ” Got that John Yankee!?

    • Murray Olsen 7.2
      23 March 2013 at 6:56 pm

      I sometimes wonder if the elites have made a conscious decision that their forces of repression are so strong and technically sophisticated that they no longer need to scatter any welfare crumbs around to keep the peasants happy. They certainly like loosening the leash on their attack dogs now and then, presumably to teach us all our place via routine bashings of John Minto, the piracy against Elvis Teddy, and the invasion of Tuhoe land.

  8. just saying 8
    23 March 2013 at 11:55 am

    Beneficiary burned alive

    An invalid beneficiary from Gore died from burns after he tried to light a cigarette while connected to an oxygen supply, an Otago-based coroner has found….

    The headline on the top of the front page of the herald right now.

    Could they have whistled that dog any harder than they have?
    Apparently his beneficiary status was so relevant that it needed to be stated twice in the first six words.

    Cruel, hateful stuff.

  10. prism 10
    23 March 2013 at 12:56 pm

    Will I be able to see my past comments in future? I can’t at moment even though I ticked the comment button.

    • r0b 10.1
      23 March 2013 at 1:06 pm

      Top right of the page, search field, tick comments and freshness, enter prism and click search.

      It should work but at the moment that returns no results. Problems with search – lprent, if you’re about?

    • lprent 10.2
      23 March 2013 at 1:59 pm

      Fixed. I managed to upgrade the search plugin that I modded for the site. Overwrote the mods.

      • prism 10.2.1
        23 March 2013 at 3:36 pm

        Hi lprent
        Now there is no recent comments list. Still – just saying – Don’t worry be happy.

        • lprent 10.2.1.1
          23 March 2013 at 10:51 pm

          I have been showing one all day. But most likely it is a missing box. That is likely to a bad cached copy of the jQuery javascript. Try pressing Shift when hitting the Refresh button. That will cause the cached items will load.

          Does the box show up, or is it just old comments?

  11. ghostrider888 11
    23 March 2013 at 1:04 pm

    more from “the machine”; The details of 9700 EQC homeowner claiments e-mailed externally.

    Anno Domini- 16000dead pigs recovered from the river tributaries supplying water to Shanghai.

  12. NickS 12
    23 March 2013 at 2:21 pm

    Welcome to the Patriarchy, part [depressingly large-number here]:
    http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2013/03/22/adria-richards-did-everything-exactly-right/

    T_T

    Somedays…

  13. Morrissey 13
    23 March 2013 at 2:45 pm

    CRIME WATCH

    It appears that burglars in the Bay of Plenty are targeting the particularly stupid….
    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10873122

  15. North 15
    23 March 2013 at 5:15 pm

    ON THE PERILS OF WORKING FOR SLY JUDY

    There was a girl called Sue
    Sport gave her endless fame
    In fact she was so very good
    They made of her a Dame

    Then ‘long came Sly Old Judy
    Offering big flash earn
    Said Susy Girl I’ll do it Ma’am
    But really I must learn

    Don’t worry girl you’re sporty
    The people love your name
    Race relations ain’t no thing
    It’s just my shitty game

    Now Susy she worked very hard
    And she hit her straps
    She respected every race
    Sly Judy thought that crap

    Bugger bugger bugger shit
    Fumed Sly One nearly cracking
    I’ll bloody well finish this
    She’ll get a public smacking

    Never trust a sporting girl
    I yearn for bum so skinny
    I’ll dash her off a nasty note
    And chuck her in the Binnie !

  16. Benjamin B. 16
    23 March 2013 at 7:44 pm

    Comments RSS question. I go to the end of http://thestandard.org.nz/the-human-cost/ and click on the “Comments RSS” link http://thestandard.org.nz/the-human-cost/feed/ . That takes me to http://feeds.feedburner.com/CommentsForTheStandard which has comments for all articles but doesn’t seem up to date. So what do I do to get comments on a specific article?

    One reason I’m asking is that email notifications didn’t work when I left a comment some weeks ago.

    • lprent 16.1
      23 March 2013 at 10:33 pm

      The RSS all gets redirected through Feedburner because they do a single pickup and feed it out to multiple readers. This causes a major reduction on the load on the database server because on average we have a RSS pickup from either a human or more commonly a bot every few seconds. But we don’t control their pickup schedule.

      The e-mails are off because I moved the server at the start of the year and didn’t have time to put them back on or test them. My work project finished a few weeks back. So I’ve been working through the backlog of maintenance tasks that have accumulated from the last year..

      • Benjamin B. 16.1.1
        24 March 2013 at 12:44 pm

        Right OK I’ll just check back for comments. Thanks a lot for all your work on this site.

        • lprent 16.1.1.1
          24 March 2013 at 2:59 pm

          I checked. The comment RSS seems to pick up about every 15 minutes.

          The email is a pain as I want to keep the actual server locations anonymous behind cloudflare. Looks like I will have to build an internal vpn network so I can spool messages at the local server level, transport to and release from a public network. Digging my way to simpler solution.

  17. chris73 acualy is Dolan 17
    23 March 2013 at 7:52 pm

    Colonial Viper …
    23 March 2013 at 7:31 pm

    “FFS yeah time to target the “mentally ill” again, that’s a good old canard to trot out, guns don’t kill people, mentally ill people do etc.”

    I would suggest that most if not all the mass killings are done by those who are mentally ill.

    I would also suggest that part of the problem is if anyone suggests taking away a right from the mentally ill (like maybe the right to bear arms…) then you got a lot of well meaning idiots piping up and saying how bad it is…

    But I do agree with you on one thing and that is guns don’t kill people.

    • McFlock 17.1
      23 March 2013 at 7:59 pm

      well, that’s a “no sane scotsman” argument if ever there was one.

      • Pascal's bookie 17.1.1
        23 March 2013 at 8:48 pm

        lol.

        TBF, I know Scotsmen and ‘sanity’ is a sassenach tool of oppression.

    • Colonial Viper 17.2
      23 March 2013 at 8:46 pm

      I would also suggest that part of the problem is if anyone suggests taking away a right from the mentally ill (like maybe the right to bear arms…) then you got a lot of well meaning idiots piping up and saying how bad it is…

      You still on about this “Mentally ill” bullshit?

      Do people who keep assault weapons in their bedroom along with several thousand rounds of ammo, automatically count in your criteria?

      • Pascal's bookie 17.2.1
        23 March 2013 at 8:49 pm

        People who store rifles to fight the US government? Yep, totally sane. *side-eye*

      • Colonial Weka 17.2.2
        23 March 2013 at 8:57 pm

        Where is the original comment that chris quotes? Can’t find it on this page.

      • chris73 acualy is Dolan 17.2.3
        23 March 2013 at 9:36 pm

        Do people who keep assault weapons in their bedroom along with several thousand rounds of ammo, automatically count in your criteria?

        Do you think people who commit these mass killings are sane or have a mental illness?

    • Colonial Weka 17.3
      23 March 2013 at 8:55 pm

      “I would also suggest that part of the problem is if anyone suggests taking away a right from the mentally ill (like maybe the right to bear arms…) then you got a lot of well meaning idiots piping up and saying how bad it is…”

      Citation needed 🙄

      To get a firearms licence, you need a medical certificate. If you have a psychiatric condition then your doctor has to put that on the certificate. That’s not an automatic disqualification, but it will make the scrutiny much closer. In NZ I think this is as much about preventing suicide as anything.

      • Colonial Viper 17.3.1
        23 March 2013 at 9:06 pm

        I mentioned somewhere else that NZ has almost a million firearms. And very very little problem with deliberate shootings. (Accidental and self harm are another issue).

      • chris73 acualy is Dolan 17.3.2
        23 March 2013 at 10:20 pm

        Thats my point from earlier in the discussion. They don’t need to ban firearms so much as they need to start enforcing the laws they already have.

  18. Colonial Viper 18
    23 March 2013 at 9:12 pm

    2243 additional US gun deaths since Newtown shootings 98 days ago

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/22/gun-deaths-us-newtown_n_2935686.html

    In contrast, we’ve probably had around 100 road fatalities in that same timeframe.

  19. Colonial Viper 19
    24 March 2013 at 12:32 am

    Hmmm. Cyprus has just passed banking and capital controls, irrespective of what the powers that be in the EU and Russia decide.

    This is going to be a very interesting (and not in a good way) year.

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