Posted on 02/17/2009 12:49:43 PM PST by careyb
No offense, but the day we stop doing so, NZ will have to start borrowing from future generations to pay for its defense. Or become a mere county of one of the Asian nations looking for lebensraum.
Funding the armed forces, as it turns out, is one of the 18 things included in article 1, section 8 of the Constitution which limits the authority of the federal government. Had we followed the founders wishes we wouldn't be in the fix we are now.
> No offense, but the day we stop doing so, NZ will have to start borrowing from future generations to pay for its defense. Or become a mere county of one of the Asian nations looking for lebensraum.
The ANZUS Treaty hasn’t been live for nearly 30 years, during which time you could count the number of US warships to visit our ports on the fingers of one hand and still have five left over.
Whether I agree with the foreign policy or not, NZ has tried to navigate a somewhat-unaligned-somewhat-neutral path for the past wee while. I don’t think Wellington has had in mind relying on US protection for quite some time.
NZ’s recent free trade agreement with China is telling, in this respect.
Whether any of this will change under the new government, who can say — it is early days yet.
Knew it got pretty hot in Australia, but didn’t think it was as bad in NZ. It is pretty cold in southern NZ, isn’t it? Glaciers and such?
Yes. Because New Zealand is a long narrow country (two islands) that run pretty much north-south, we get a range of climates. In the far north of North Island the difference between summer and winter is hardly noticeable: it's warm year-round. On the southern tip of South Island the weather is like Seattle's. So if you picture the climate from San Diego to Seattle, that is the range of weather (approximately) that we get.
In Auckland, where I live, winter is definitely colder than summer, but it doesn't snow here. It does snow in the desert to the south of Taupo (halfway down North Island) and on the volcanic mountains around there — that is were we go to ski.
It's not uncommon for us to get “four seasons in one day” in Auckland: we are on a narrow isthmus of land between two oceans, so the weather blows across us very rapidly. If you don't like the weather in Auckland, wait five minutes and it is sure to change!
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