Posted on 01/30/2007 4:18:03 AM PST by naturalman1975
> Does NZ still ban US warships from making port calls if the ships are nuclear powered?
Yes and no. For better or for worse, New Zealand does not favor nuclear power of any description. So all nuclear weapons-capable vessels, and all nuclear powered vessels, are prohibited from NZ waters -- not just US vessels.
So, if the vessel is Chinese or French or Martian -- it does not matter: if it is nuclear powered or nuclear weapons-capable, it must not enter NZ waters.
In practical terms, this has meant that the US Navy does not visit New Zealand. Not because they are not welcome: they most certainly are: providing their vessels are not carrying nuclear weaponry nor are powered by nuclear power.
The US Navy does not, as a matter of policy, confirm or deny whether their vessels are nuclear-powered or nuclear-weapons-capable. So, as a practical outcome, UN Navy vessels do not visit.
Not everybody in New Zealand agrees with this particular anti-nuclear stance: I certainly don't. Nuclear fission is a perfectly clean way to power modern naval vessels: much safer than diesel from an environmental-impact viewpoint.
In the same way that modern nuclear reactors are a reasonably good way to generate lots of electricity. Instead, we will use coal and hydroelectric power. And, as a result, pay $600 per month for electricity over the winter periods. Again, not everybody in New Zealand agrees with this stance: again, I certainly don't.
Kiwis are so level headed. A chip on each shoulder.
I have an ex-pat friend living in NZ that says it's a beautiful country full of lazy mouth breathing retards feeding off the public teat.
I don't know. I've never been there.
I will! Thanks.
They'll only keep this up until they need us.
> Screw those scumbags.
I got a much better idea: Screw you, instead. What gives you license to dismiss all four million of us as "scumbags"?
More to the point, what did *I* ever do to *you* to give you licence to bad-mouth my Country and treat us so disrespectfully as you have?
Show me just *once* a post I've made that was disrespectful to America. You can't because I haven't. Would it be fair play for me to dismiss you as a "Buffoon"?
Get a grip. You ever heard of a thing called "rhetoric"?
I would never disrespect every person in any one country, and in my post I certainly wasn't referring to all New Zealanders any more than I was referring to every citizen in old Europe. My disgust is aimed strictly had the loudmouth socialist malcontents who holler and spit and blubber on about America.
Yeah, I realize that's not everybody.
> My disgust is aimed strictly had the loudmouth socialist malcontents who holler and spit and blubber on about America.
Fair enough. I share your sentiments and can see precisely where you are coming from.
I have a healthy distaste for anyone who hollers and spits and blubbers about America, too. And I care not from whence they originate: show me one nation -- just one -- that gives as selflessly to the rest of Humanity as the Americans do.
I love America, almost as much as I love my own Country, New Zealand: as an immigrant I am here by choice. So, naturally, when people climb into New Zealand unfairly I get feeling, well, protective and maybe a bit riled, too... after all, America doesn't own the patent on Patriotism.
Gordon Sinclair gave a superb radio editorial many years ago, in 1973, called simply "The Americans". I was a kid back then, growing up in Vancouver BC, but I remember it as if it were yesterday: it had *that* kind of lasting impact in Canada back then. You'll find it here:
http://www.phillytalkradioonline.com/comment/usa.html
In a nutshell, it describes my sentiments exactly.
Kind regards
*DieHard*
If I was to believe everything that American Socialists (Democrats) say about America, then my view of America would be extremely negative, and I would have no problems believing Americans are the nastiest people on earth.
However I know different, becuase I don't rely on what American Socialists say about their own country. Personally I don't believe there is en endemic of "cheap-shots" in NZ against Aus and the US. This guy is a politician after all, and well known for making controversial statements. Makes the political scene more interesting.
As for the Australians, they need to learn to be less sensitive :)- they're basically our cousins anyways, and they should know by now that an insult can never pass as a joke.
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