New Zealand, facetiousness aside, is gorgeous. And not only can you do what Radfem said, you can experience several, widely varying weather systems in the process!

Yes, there’s much more discussion of wind patterns there than here. And I remember running on the beach in South Brighton and it was sunny when I started and within 15 minutes, an easterly brought in a storm that dropped the temperature about 30 degrees and it hailed. In January, which isn’t winter there. I had to remember what street post I had left my shoes by as running barefoot in the shorts seemed like a good idea at the time.

Icy toes by the time I found them and the the sun came out again.

Another time my sister had the kids on the beach near her house and the sun got so hot during their brief time, they literally couldn’t walk back on the sandy trail without burning feet. So my sister had three kids and I had to run back to get my shoes and we both had to carry them all back.

NZ is awesome. It’s home to Pineapple Lumps, Tim Tams, the pavlova, bungy jumping, the Coast to Coast, Split Enz, Crowded House, Shihad, Elemeno P, L&P and Outrageous Fortune. We’re also nuclear free, the first country in the world to give women the vote and we make Monteith’s beer.

Americans have options, that’s all I’m saying.

Also, I third the GFY to Freddy. Seriously, it’s attitudes like those that give the US the bad reputation it has, despite its many good people.

…well, I’m pretty sure Bush had something to do with f-cking up the reputation too, but I digress… :-)

Seriously, those elections were so disappointing. John Key is an absolute moron and I can only hope that my soggy, chilly geographical cousins get as bored of him in 3 years as they did with Helen Clarke in 10.

Also, you’ll never find better possum-fur gloves anywhere.

Gee, wouldn’t it be nice if we had some kind of reserve military force whose entire stated purpose was to be ready to defend against invasion or other disasters on US soil, that could provide a line of defense without tapping into the rest of the military’s resources or imitating a police state?

New Zealand, facetiousness aside, is gorgeous. And not only can you do what Radfem said, you can experience several, widely varying weather systems in the process!

There are plenty of arguments against having that presence, but why get hysterical. (Also, I know the post is a bit facetious, but still)

Jill’s post is certainly facetious, but my quip was a little less so. With an economy being mismanaged and many civil liberties slowly but surely being hemmed in, is it unreasonable to consider seeking citizenship elsewhere? If the United States of America were a company, and I were its employee, my resume would currently be plastered all over the Internet.

“after years of prodding by Congress and outside experts” The whole of congress? And which ‘experts’?

Ditto “…defense analysts said.” Which analysts would those be? And what are there quals for being a quote here?

I think encouraging military engineers with experience with actual disasters to communicate with FEMA is a good idea

But how does Gordon England go from ‘our current guardsmen aren’t trained/equipped well enough to do this’ to ‘we need 20k more untrained people’?

Allergy season near Cape Foulwind, eeeeek! Bad stuff.