... I'm curious as to what atrocious English you're referring too. I can't see anything wrong in your post, the one you're responding to, or the one that's in response to either.
I also don't know where Lawrence is from, but the article's about Australia... which, these days, is as 'Anglo' as the USA. (which means most of the residents are genetically of European stock and/or have a British culture base)
Personally, i share the opinion on stupid IP laws, and US corporations and 'diplomats' do seem to be largely responsible for their spread... but there's plenty of arse-hattery to be found independent of that in that area too, and the ideas mostly started in Europe.
(does not the term Yankee come from the dutch opinion that the Americans were a bunch of pirates due to a tendency to ignore foreign patents?)
'course, i get to live at the bottom of the pacific, where we only have to worry about our politicians being morons and coping the least useful and compatible elements of American and Scandinavian policy with far more concern for ideology than reality. oh, and our government caving to US intelligence agencies when they freak out after a citizen reports iranians attempting to buy missiles ... it should be noted that no sale took place and the first response to the incident was to get hold of the relevant officials and point out that A: it happened and B: the sale in question would have been entirely legal had it gone ahead and they should fix that. for is trouble the guy got made bankrupt due to dodgy and possibly illegal manipulation of the tax system to get the American spies off the government's back. At the time he was setting up a company with a contract to make unmanned scout drones for the US military, and the only thoughts that had been had about the missile beyond proving it could be built for a couple of thousand NZ dollars was that maybe he could sell it to the US or NZ armed forces...
then again, most of the characters were slime and the main character was completely unaware that it could possibly be different.
he was also about to con a bunch of people into helping colonize venus Before terraforming it (necessary. someone had to be there to do the work to get the terraforming Done). (hey, he worked for an advertising company. what do you expect?)
I'd say the vast majority of the populous is in that situation in most of the western world these days, in reality, no matter what the paper work says. some more than others and the USA seems particularly bad for a country that makes such a big deal about democracy...
(there's a tax on petrol to cover wear and tear on the roads, but because of how the GST (a consumer tax) works, it includes the petrol tax in the price, so you get taxed on that too. and now they're introducing an emissions trading scheme, which amounts to an environment tax most of the time. the impression i get on that one listening to both sides is that it's a nice idea, terribly implemented.)
I'd argue that the problem is the Right, personally...
but that's just because I'm of the opinion that the USA doesn't actually have a viable and meaningful 'left' ...
(certainly not if the polices they try to Export under a supposedly 'left' government are any indication...)
a less bias and humourous take, however, agrees with you. the problem isn't that one side or the other sucks. it's that the people believe that the current sides are meaningful and that either are capable of NOT sucking... and that such broad and all encompassing 'sides' make a scrap of sense in the first place.
any source of authority too large or powerful to be overthrown by an angry mob over the weekend is untrustworthy.
those that are not are less 'trustworthy' and more 'easily replaced'
modern 'democracy's main job is to make it impossible for that to happen. It has nothing to do with representation and Everything to do with stability.
actually, most monopolies in NZ come about due to the limited market size, more than anything. you can remove them, but they promptly reform simply due to the lack of room for competition.
which is why the government tends to heavily regulate them instead.
which is fine until something like this happens... regulatory capture, i think it was?
we also like the idea of being independant from china...
we've had a long history of selling our stuff (other than export products, obviously) to forigeners ending Very badly (starting right back with the reason we were part of the empire, have the treaty of Waitangi, and had a whole bunch of civil wars, leading up to the most recent blatantly obvious example of both American and Australian companies dicking us over with the railways... or the banks...)
heck, even 'free trade' doesn't actually seem to work in our favour most of teh time... not that that stops the government pursuing it with great enthusiasm.
personally, i blame the crony-ism that comes for half of the balance of powers not doing their job (doesn't matter if it's the Governor General or parliament. Both need to do their job for it to work, it doesn't matter which of them isn't, it'll break) combined with 'power corrupts' greed, and the tendency for the more 'right' leaning parties to not actually consider how what they do affects anything other than their pockets.
of course, the more left leaning parties have their issues too (and the tendency to get reelected over and over and over due to not sucking as badly as everyone else doesn't help...)
*sigh* i have this sneaking suspicion that we're going to eventually end up in a defacto single party state simply because every single other party proves time and time again to be utterly incompetent on every level ....
actually, if you go back and look at history, the combination of profit and greed are the single most likely explanation for any such actions other than outright incompetence... which would you rather believe those in charge of such matters are guilty of?
On the post: Rupert Murdoch's Anti-Fair Use Comments Used Against Him In Court Yet Again
Re: Re: Hypocrisy
the definition of 'republican' being 'one who advocates a republic' and a republic being a 'government that is not a monarchy'.
find me an American who's Not a republican, at least in public :D
Democrats in the American sense get an added whammy of hypocrisy, mind you. They're name implies they support democracy... reality says otherwise.
On the post: Australia Once Again Decides You Have No Freedom To Tinker With Your Gaming Console
Re: Re: Re: Land Of The Not-So-Free
I also don't know where Lawrence is from, but the article's about Australia... which, these days, is as 'Anglo' as the USA. (which means most of the residents are genetically of European stock and/or have a British culture base)
Personally, i share the opinion on stupid IP laws, and US corporations and 'diplomats' do seem to be largely responsible for their spread... but there's plenty of arse-hattery to be found independent of that in that area too, and the ideas mostly started in Europe.
(does not the term Yankee come from the dutch opinion that the Americans were a bunch of pirates due to a tendency to ignore foreign patents?)
'course, i get to live at the bottom of the pacific, where we only have to worry about our politicians being morons and coping the least useful and compatible elements of American and Scandinavian policy with far more concern for ideology than reality. oh, and our government caving to US intelligence agencies when they freak out after a citizen reports iranians attempting to buy missiles ... it should be noted that no sale took place and the first response to the incident was to get hold of the relevant officials and point out that A: it happened and B: the sale in question would have been entirely legal had it gone ahead and they should fix that. for is trouble the guy got made bankrupt due to dodgy and possibly illegal manipulation of the tax system to get the American spies off the government's back. At the time he was setting up a company with a contract to make unmanned scout drones for the US military, and the only thoughts that had been had about the missile beyond proving it could be built for a couple of thousand NZ dollars was that maybe he could sell it to the US or NZ armed forces...
i got distracted on a tangent there. whoops.
On the post: Australia Once Again Decides You Have No Freedom To Tinker With Your Gaming Console
Re: That�s Like Saying ...
that said, how good or bad that is depends on what is getting holes blown in it.
On the post: NC State Senator Admits Broadband Companies Wrote His Bill & Says He 'Carries Water' For Companies
Re:
it was unpleasent.
then again, most of the characters were slime and the main character was completely unaware that it could possibly be different.
he was also about to con a bunch of people into helping colonize venus Before terraforming it (necessary. someone had to be there to do the work to get the terraforming Done). (hey, he worked for an advertising company. what do you expect?)
On the post: NC State Senator Admits Broadband Companies Wrote His Bill & Says He 'Carries Water' For Companies
Re: Re: $
I'd say the vast majority of the populous is in that situation in most of the western world these days, in reality, no matter what the paper work says. some more than others and the USA seems particularly bad for a country that makes such a big deal about democracy...
On the post: NC State Senator Admits Broadband Companies Wrote His Bill & Says He 'Carries Water' For Companies
Re: Re:
we get to pay taxes on our taxes :S
(there's a tax on petrol to cover wear and tear on the roads, but because of how the GST (a consumer tax) works, it includes the petrol tax in the price, so you get taxed on that too. and now they're introducing an emissions trading scheme, which amounts to an environment tax most of the time. the impression i get on that one listening to both sides is that it's a nice idea, terribly implemented.)
On the post: NC State Senator Admits Broadband Companies Wrote His Bill & Says He 'Carries Water' For Companies
Re: Re: Re:
but that's just because I'm of the opinion that the USA doesn't actually have a viable and meaningful 'left' ...
(certainly not if the polices they try to Export under a supposedly 'left' government are any indication...)
a less bias and humourous take, however, agrees with you. the problem isn't that one side or the other sucks. it's that the people believe that the current sides are meaningful and that either are capable of NOT sucking... and that such broad and all encompassing 'sides' make a scrap of sense in the first place.
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Re: Re: Nice sentence
On the post: Is Free Parking Costing Us Billions?
Re: Milk Money
there's only so much oil to be had and air quality does go down a lot in places where there's a lot of cars.
that aside, the USA is far from the only place where not enough people think about what they're doing when it comes to voting :)
On the post: The Need For Anti-SLAPP Laws: Developer Sues Author, Publisher, Academic Who Praised Book & Reporter That Reviewed Book
those that are not are less 'trustworthy' and more 'easily replaced'
modern 'democracy's main job is to make it impossible for that to happen. It has nothing to do with representation and Everything to do with stability.
On the post: Don't Put The Words 'Rugby' 'World' And 'Cup' Together In New Zealand, Or You Might Get Fined
Re: @ NZ Citizen
which is why the government tends to heavily regulate them instead.
which is fine until something like this happens... regulatory capture, i think it was?
On the post: Don't Put The Words 'Rugby' 'World' And 'Cup' Together In New Zealand, Or You Might Get Fined
Re: Re: Never associate me with an Australian.
And Kiwis don't much like being mistaken for Australians either.
On the post: Don't Put The Words 'Rugby' 'World' And 'Cup' Together In New Zealand, Or You Might Get Fined
Re:
we've had a long history of selling our stuff (other than export products, obviously) to forigeners ending Very badly (starting right back with the reason we were part of the empire, have the treaty of Waitangi, and had a whole bunch of civil wars, leading up to the most recent blatantly obvious example of both American and Australian companies dicking us over with the railways... or the banks...)
heck, even 'free trade' doesn't actually seem to work in our favour most of teh time... not that that stops the government pursuing it with great enthusiasm.
On the post: Don't Put The Words 'Rugby' 'World' And 'Cup' Together In New Zealand, Or You Might Get Fined
Re: Rugby World Cup - bah humbug
of course, the more left leaning parties have their issues too (and the tendency to get reelected over and over and over due to not sucking as badly as everyone else doesn't help...)
*sigh* i have this sneaking suspicion that we're going to eventually end up in a defacto single party state simply because every single other party proves time and time again to be utterly incompetent on every level ....
On the post: Pentagon Takes Head In Sand Approach To Wikileaks: Blocks All Access To Troops... Though Everyone Else Can Get In
Re: Re:
well, until you realise how completely made of fail the idea of congress (or any democratically elected body on a large scale) is.
On the post: Pentagon Demands Wikileaks 'Returns' Leaked Documents; Does It Not Know How Digital Documents Work?
Re: Re: Re: Re: Funny...
On the post: Pentagon Demands Wikileaks 'Returns' Leaked Documents; Does It Not Know How Digital Documents Work?
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Funny...
can you see where this becomes a problem? :)
On the post: Pentagon Demands Wikileaks 'Returns' Leaked Documents; Does It Not Know How Digital Documents Work?
Re: Re: Re: Re:
On the post: Pentagon Demands Wikileaks 'Returns' Leaked Documents; Does It Not Know How Digital Documents Work?
Re: Re: Re: Re: "bizarre" ... "all just posturing" -- But WHY?
(well, this and the ridiculous number of friendly fire incidents in joint operations...)
On the post: Big Name Authors Realize Their Old Contracts Don't Cover eBooks; Route Around Old Publishers To Release New Versions
Re: Re: I'm sorry, I could be misreading you...
not that it's much of an issue.
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