January 29th, 2009 at 7:00 pm by David Farrar
- Alf Grumble MP blogs on how a South Korean has been prosecuted and faces up to five years jail for his pessimistic financial blogging. If Bernard Hickey was in South Korea I reckon he’d be facing 25 years to life
- Adam Smith blogs on how the UK Government has backed away from its plans to force ISPs to disconnect Internet users on the basis of allegations of copyright infringement. Now we just need the NZ Government to do the same, but sadly not looking positive.
- Bill Ralston blogs on the killing of Halatau Naitoko and says “Police instructions are quite clear on the use of “deadly force”. You can shoot at an offender to defend yourself or others if you fear death and cannot protect yourself in any other way. You can shoot if you think the offender is likely to kill someone and you cannot delay or arrest him in any other way. You can shoot if that person is likely to kill and is escaping arrest. On all three counts the officers were within their right to shoot at that maniac. Unless the Police Conduct Authority exposes some completely reckless act of negligence by police it would be completely unfair to charge the cop who fired the fatal shot.”
- Matt Nolan blogs on how stupid Phil Goff’s idea is that banks should be forced to allow people to break fixed rate contracts without penalty and says it is as sensible as say “I tell you what, while we’re at it why don’t we also make it that employers can break contracts and make employees reapply for their jobs when wage rates are falling (when unemployment is high)?”
- No Right Turn updates us on the situation in Canada with the constitutional crisis over the Government losing the confidence of the House just weeks after being sworn in. The latest is the Liberal Party has now backed down from rolling the Government (a sensible move as they faced a massive backlash for breaking their word not to go into coalition with the NDP) and the Conservative Government will pass its budget with the support of the Liberal Party.
- Graeme Edgeler makes the case for NZ to consider a limited use of grand juries in cases such as the Halatau Naitoko shooting, as superior to havign the Police and Crown Law decide unilaterally whether to lay charges or not lay charges. Stephen Franks blogs on the issue also.
- Scrubone responds to a post on the Standard about how superior “progressives” are to “conservatives”. He points out that despite liberal headed househodls earning 6% more, conservative headed households in the US donate 30% more to charity and that people wh reject the notion that it is the Government’s job to reduce income inequality give four times as much as those who accept it. So in summary he says conservatives walk the walk while liberals talk the talk.
- Colin Espiner is back from holiday and is looking on the bright side of life.
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January 29th, 2009 at 7:11 pm
I like that copyright infringement act. Most bandwidth seems to be used on downloading movies/music etc…
Once the ISP’s cut off all those bittorrenters, my connection speed should increase a fair bit. It seems to die in the afternooons when the kiddies get going.
woohoo!!
Vote:January 29th, 2009 at 7:13 pm
And, still smarting from a fall in the Tumeke! blog ratings war, monkey boy asks the really cutting edge questions – http://monkeyswithtypewriter.blogspot.com/2009/01/who-is-sexiest-female-blogger.html
Vote:Lee – MWT
January 29th, 2009 at 7:47 pm
“liberals vs conservatives” – Who is superior?
Well it depends if being clinically mad is superior or not.
“The roots of liberalism – and its associated madness – can be clearly identified by understanding how children develop from infancy to adulthood and how distorted development produces the irrational beliefs of the liberal mind,” he says. “When the modern liberal mind whines about imaginary victims, rages against imaginary villains and seeks above all else to run the lives of persons competent to run their own lives, the neurosis of the liberal mind becomes painfully obvious.”
Vote:http://www.wnd.com/index.php/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=56494
January 29th, 2009 at 8:01 pm
“And, still smarting from a fall in the Tumeke! blog ratings war, monkey boy asks the really cutting edge questions”
Such as … “now where’s the best place to peddle a link or two to get my numbers up?”
Of course, this is the pot talking to the kettle
Vote:January 29th, 2009 at 8:43 pm
He points out that despite liberal headed househodls earning 6% more, conservative headed households in the US donate 30% more to charity . . .
An oft cited datapoint that omits the fact that conservative people are usually religious and tend to tithe, the proceeds of which mostly go into the coffers of the local megachurch, not orphans in Africa.
Vote:January 29th, 2009 at 9:13 pm
I agree with Matt Nolan but he should realise Philin Froth is just doing what comes naturally for socialists, screw around with other peoples money. I read today in our local rag how many are trying to get out of their fix term mortgage loans. Much the same sort of deal is now happening in the dairy industry where some are trying to get out of fixed contracts for palm kernel. Many have enter into tonnage contracts for the supply of palm kernel ( supplementary animal feed ) but with the drop in payout the feeding of palm kernel at the present price is uneconomic. But if the payout had continued to climb whats the bet these farmers would not be offering the palm kernel company more for it’s product
The banks have a reluctance to drop floating rates on overdrafts. I have fixed loans with a bank and fixed one just before the interest rate crash, I just have to live with it. But I would expect a serious drop in the interest rate when and if I fix my next loan. The banks have a reluctance to drop floating rates on overdraft and are slow on fix terms, they should be careful they could kill off the golden goose. Before I fix another loan I will be visiting other banks to see if they want my business and what they are offering. I’m pretty sure I would have no problem refinancing. I strongly suspect I’m not alone in this approach.Yes greed may be good at the movies but banks should remember that their customers vote with their feet. Unfortunitly for the palm kernel companies they will be experiencing the same phenomena.
Vote:January 29th, 2009 at 9:29 pm
The exact question I posed on that post, Danyl. Couldn’t find the exact study, and the news report didn’t say, but I suspect a large amount of that total ends up exactly where you mention.
Vote:January 29th, 2009 at 10:03 pm
And what exactly does the “local megachurch” do with the money? It may surprise you, but most people don’t support churches where the pastor spends all the money on themselves. Believe it or not, that same religious motivation to give also covers making sure the money goes to real need.
Then on the other hand we have John Edwards, running a anti-poverty charity while taking $400 dollar haircuts.
Vote:January 29th, 2009 at 10:06 pm
Of course Bill Ralston is entirely correct!
Vote:January 30th, 2009 at 8:09 am
Yes Gooner, he’s correct, but he did it in such a way as to expose the total unlikelihood of any investigation by the Police Conduct Authourity discovering any unbecoming Police conduct.
The next closest thing would be for a Labour Party Complaints Committee to find that a Labour MP had committed acts unbecoming for a Labour MP.
Vote:January 30th, 2009 at 8:47 am
scrubone, I doubt that anyone would argue churches are totally useless, but they’re as prone to spending money as stupidly as anyone else – Gareth Morgan during his Africa sojourn:
Vote:January 30th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
More importantly (more important than the amusement of political junkies anyway) it provides bi-partisan, centrist, sensible stability to government in a time of some economic difficulty and Canada gets a working budget in a timely fashion.
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