Sunday, June 04, 2006

No matter how cynical you become, it's never enough to keep up

Today has been
BUT: this almost made my day...Yes I take pleasure out of the simple things in life...

Last week in my politics lecture, Murry McCully and Chris Trotter graced my class with their presense for a panel discussion on the "future of the right." So, anyway, I open up the paper today and read Chris Trotter's article where he mentions me! Not by name though. "Last week, a post-graduate political science student asked me if I thought National would ever again be the 'natural party in government'..."

AWESOME.

Although, he got it wrong, I'm not a post-grad student. Oh well. SIGH.

That discussion was so much better than the one we had on Friday with Mike Smith - secretary of the Labour Party. Mike Smith gave us a small speech about how Labour was truly a social democratic party etc and implied that National was fairly scum, because of it neo-liberal policies.
Then Oliver asked him what evidence was there that Labour had moved away from the neo-liberal reforms of the 1980s, and he went on this tangent about the nationalisation of ACC, then mumbled a bit, said something about Wayne Mapp's 90 day bill, but really didn't answer the question. Sigh.

Has Labour really moved away from neo-liberalism, or has it cleverly disguised it under the term "the Third Way"?

Anywho, I have exam preparation to think about, and a trip to Italy! on the 26th to look forward too. Yay. I'm going on a contiki tour :)

Also got a 'guest post' coming later tonight!

Friday, June 02, 2006

Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.


Ok, so I know that the budget was a little while ago, and Michael Cullen did not include any tax cuts. Boo Hoo. Have a Cry. Call the wah-bulence. Whatever.

I absolutely cannot stand rich people complaining about why they have it so hard in life because they have to pay more tax then others. I cannot stand it when they use the justification: "why should I be taxed more just because I work harder?"

Firstly, it makes huge generalisations that just because one earns more, one is naturally a hard worker. I will concede that higher-paying jobs often require a lot more skill then other low paying jobs, but this is not the arguement. I think the cleaners at univerity work hella hard cleaning up the place. Students are messy, I seriously think that students for the most part take them for granted. Many of these cleaners are at uni at 6am cleaning up our rubbish and because the cleaning companies that employ them are notoriously bad at giving them normal hours, they may not leave uni until 7-8pm that night. Not only that, they are doing the jobs that no one wants such as cleaning toilets, changing "feminine" rubbish bins, cleaning urinals - not exactly fun and easy tasks.

Furthermore, often people who recieve high saleries is because they tend to have a lot more responsibility, not always because they work harder than anyone else. Think about major CEOs, if they fuck up, the company fucks up - when you think about this, its a major burdern on one person, and hence why they can command a higher salery.

Finally, to pay for tax cuts we would effectivly take money from health and education- of course this wouldn't affect the well-off because they don't have to rely on these things as heavily as lower socio-economic groups. However, for people who are less well off, they will have to dig deeper into their pockets just to afford the basic nessessities in life.

Basically, I honestly do not have problem paying taxes. I see it as a way of pooling everybodies resources to look after those in society who have been born into disadvantaged situations. People at all times in their life will be dependent, and I see taxes as a way of ensureing that nobody becomes disadvantaged by social and economic inequalities. The system of cource is not perfect, and I don't think it will ever be, but I believe we are on the right track at least.

Anywho, thats just my rant.

One last thing: To all those libertarian minded people out there, normally I wouldn't mind you responding to this blog, but to be honest, I seen and heard all your arguements. I know exactly what you will say - taxation is theft, Robert Nozick's principles, Ayn Rand is a goddess and I want to have her babies even though she is dead, I will exhume her body, take some DNA, and clone her. It's rather predictable.

Can someone PLEASE come up with an opposing argument from an entirely DIFFERENT perspective? I know a marxist would be against the idea of taxation...

Thursday, June 01, 2006

The girl's guide to dating budding politicos

In the spirit of procrastinating, I decided to write a guide for dating men from the youth wing of some of New Zealand's main political parties. I was orginally going to some how link idealogy to dating, but then it got hard. So i've decided to mainly rely on sterotypes.

If anyone has suggestions that would be great!


The Young Nats

In my opinion, the young Nats have one up on every single other youth wing of any political party in New Zealand. That reason can be summed up in one word: SUITS. It is widely known fact that young Nats wear suits regularly on a ratio of 5:1 to all other political parties combined. Suits are hot. Unfortunately, if you do continue dating one of them, eventually settling down with them, etc, you must be aware that he may end up looking like Don Brash, or Jim Bolger (although he is quite cuddly looking) If you MUST date a young National, go for one that reminds you of Bill English. Why? Because he is lovely. Almost as lovely as curtains. Young Nats also tend to fit certain stereotypes about New Zealand, in that many of them show shocking similarities to rugby players –speaking in a strange language that resembles grunting.



Young Labour

If you have found a straight man in Young Labour, congratulations, there aren’t many. If you have found one of these rare men, they will either be a rabid free-marketers, a muldoonist or someone who still dreams of a proletariat revolution. The Muldoonists* tend to buy you a lot of drinks and food in the spirit of collectivism, but the relationships tend to descend into a frozen state, with your neo-Muldoonist boyfriend crying aloud whenever he is forced to confront the harsh realities of a changing society. Free-marketers tend to believe in the spirit of individualism and more often then not will be terrible at sharing popcorn, cheese-lovers pizza, vegetarian curry, fries etc. They will insist that you must engage with the free-market yourself so you as an individual can buy you own popcorn, cheese-lovers pizza, vegetarian curry, fries etc.


ACT

One of the main differences between Act and National is that ACT tend to have a more socially liberal policy. Therefore young ACT are kinky men. If you get sick of the ‘traditionalist’ approach that you have with your young Nat/Labour boyfriend, the young men in act are the people to go to if you fancy a bit of S&M, role-play, threesomes etc. ACT men also love Ayn Rand, and will often ask you to wear a mask with her image on when you are getting down and dirty.


Greens

The men found in Greens tend to messy in that they are not often inclined to getting haircuts. Often, small creatures are born, live and die in their dreadlocked mop. They also run the risk of smelling. Why? Being environmentally friendly and loving all species under the sun, they cannot bring themselves to shower to get rid of the bacteria that actually live on their skin. Even once they get infested with fleas they cannot bring themselves to douse themselves in flea powder. The men in the young greens however have one thing going for them – the bad boy image. They are almost always radicals, believing in bringing down the ‘man’. This will undoubtedly add some excitement to your life as you will end up picketing big bag corporations, attending protests and getting arrested. Also, they are likely to have the largest amount of pot, and will tend to share it more in the spirit of collectivism.

*I know Muldoon WAS in the National party, but his economic policies were quite left. Furthermore this "muldoonist" referes to a muldoon lover within the Labour party.