was a nice day.
I harvested the lovely dandelion crop which was growing in the lawn.
I used solar and wind power to dry my clothes.
I ate yummy breakfast at Maranui Surf Lifeclub Cafe in Lyall Bay.
and generally enjoyed the weather.
blah, blah, blah Brash made a political boo boo. I don't care much about the detail. Though I suspect National are mismanaging the handover of power. Won't matter if it doesn't look like infighting, but not a good look regardless.
I am curious about what are appropriate protections on communications with MPs. And what rights the citizenry has to access information about their MPs in order to exercise democracy properly.
For example: your communication with your lawyer is protected against all sorts of investigation. You can talk to your doctor about all sorts of things and expect confidentiality. The openness is necessary for the system to work effectively.
I expect that discussions with Members of Parliament have similarities. If you are a prostitute and a law which affects you is being debated, I think it is important that you can communicate with the MPs. MPs need to be as informed as possible, and possible outing of your communication might impede that.
Which suggests that emails to MPs should be privileged.
However, any communication which involves corruption of a politician should be freely available. If a citizen sends an MP a bribery offer, it shouldn't be privileged.
And copyright seems like a poor method of managing these competing interests.
I think the High Court made the correct decision under the law in giving a preemptive injunction. However I think they failed badly to take into account possible constitutional factors. They could have decided that all communications with MPs in their capacity as a politician are copyright of Parliament. They could have put a rider on the injunction which allowed emails to be published if they were relevant to possible corruption on Brash's part. Or any number of things.
Now, I haven't read the actual judgment, so I'm not sure of my facts in this, but on face value I'm a bit disappointed in them.
I'm not a fan of overpopulation. It seems to be a fine way for people to start to get mean and stupid about overusing resources and generally find ways to make themselves miserable.
So I thought I'd add to the problem.
After 5 years of planning, I'm pregnant.
It's odd so far, but not worse than not being pregnant. Barely felt sick or tired so far. Restricted food is a pain, but enjoying the simple things like how sunshine smells is fair compensation.
It is a lot like going through puberty all over again tho. Which I can do without. I've never been particularly fond of being female, and being pregnant is definitely an experience that happens in a female body.
We've had the first scan (which is what I was waiting for before telling everyone) and bean (code-name for foetus) is doing nicely. I'm astonished at its ability to organise such a complex thing all by itself.
I'm also feeling a little odd about telling people. It's oddly like coming out all over again. Most people have been really happy though. And lots of hugs is nice. No-one has talked to my stomach instead of me so far, for which I am grateful.
is out. and very, very shiny. :)
I've also been hunting down add-ons and have found:
* stylish (lest me override the ugly style-sheets on the reference websites I use at work)
* download statusbar (gets rid of the annoying firefox download popup and puts it into the bottom border of the browser window instead).
I also found lightning (a calendar add-on to thunderbird). Now I have no reason to use Microsoft products. From what I hear about Vista, I think Microsoft's grip on the universe is slipping.
I hope it fails. I think Operating Systems and the basic common data formats for business are basic infrastructure. And like railtracks or the national grid, they benefit the country most when provided at cost. Otherwise someone ends up gouging a monopoly rent off all businesses, and the whole economy suffers. Also, it gives a private company the power to pull the plug on things it doesn't like if it wants to. Too much power in non-elected hands, I say.
Better to try to find some way to use Open Source to produce the common tools.