johansensen

I just looked at this LJ again for the first time in ages... it was interesting, albeit more than a little depressing, to see where I was at mentally and emotionally a year ago (and to consider my ultimate lack of progress since then). However, while I don't plan to keep posting entries to this account (if I feel the need to blog I generally use myspace now- http://www.myspace.com/johansensen ), I felt it was probably most prudent to remove a couple of my old entries. It was sad to have to delete them, but I felt that it was probably most imprudent of me to post them in the first place, just because they could be so unbelievably compromising if any of my friends happened to stumble across them, which is unlikely but possible. So there's really only one entry left other than this one, seeing as I didn't think Don Brash would take it personally. ;)

So yeah, for further blogging goodness just add me on Myspace, although I don't tend to blog much anymore, not least because all the friends I was bitching about here actually have me added on Myspace...

This post won't have much relevance to anyone outside New Zealand... suffice it to say that the elections are coming up, and there's a big televised debate between the leaders of the two main parties, and Don Brash, leader of National, the right-wing opposition party, is getting his arse soundly caned by Helen Clark, Prime Minister and leader of Labour, the left-wing party that is currently in power. This is largely because Brash sucks at debating, while Helen is very good indeed, but it's also because Brashie seems very reluctant to give a straight answer to anything. Whenever he's asked about how a vote for National will benefit Maori/poor people/insert minority or other group not really supported by National here, he just says that it's because National wants the best for all New Zealanders. Really impressive, Donny boy. And no, we weren't looking for real answers. Of course not.

It's fairly pointless, really... they don't have half enough time to cover much, and it isn't helped by the gigantic ad breaks in the middle. Bleh.

I've been trying to write down good quotes from the debate, but it was all too rushed... the only one I managed to get down was this one from Helen Clark, which I think has a degree of truth to it...

"It's interesting to see that National can offer 3 billion dollars in tax cuts and call it 'policy', while Labour's 300 million for helping out young people is called a bribe..."

And while I think Labour's 300 million for student loan aid is a bribe, I don't think it's half as much of one as National's tax cuts, and more importantly I think it will really benefit NZ, whereas tax cuts are just going to make the rich richer and the poor poorer. And I think I'm qualified to say that, given that my family would benefit from National's tax cuts if they happened, as we're in the top tax bracket (but only just).

And I find it rather ironic that 70% of people who have voted thus far in TVNZ's little online poll say that they considered Brash to be the winner of the debate. Wha!? Brash performed terribly! He tripped over his words, dodged questions left right and centre... even if I didn't think he was a slimy bastard, I would still have said that Helen won, because she was much better in that debate, whether you like her politics or not. I guess it shows how useful these idiotic polls are... sigh...