Politics
My politics are a bit right of center. I am a supporter of Act which is a center-right party in New Zealand. I tend to be opposed to big government, morality based laws, high taxes and subsidies. I favor free trade, individual rights, strong policing (but not harsh sentences or reduced civil rights) etc.Recently (Nov 1999) New Zealand elected a centre-left government. I'm not so optimistic about this. The Alliance (far left member of the coalition) tends to support high taxes, high welfare, big government and tarrifs. It's not good I think, trying to ignore the rest of the world, taxing those who succeed and rewarding those who fail is not the way to keep things going forward. Hopefully they will be kept in check by Labour.
Update (Aug 2000). Things are not looking so good. The Labour/Alliance Government seems to be intent rewarding their supporters ( Greenies, Unions, Teachers, The arts community, over-65s ) at the expense of everyone else. As far as I can tell they are not even helping the poor much and their promises to even out the telecoms market is going slowly. Confidence by business in the government is pretty low and the New Zealand dollar has dropped to it's lowest value for 20 years. I'm also not very happy with Act, it appears to be increasingly concentrating on digging up sleaze and Maori-bashing. From all accounts their are struggles within Act between hard-right and the liberal/libertarian (in most senses) factions.
Economics books I like:
Unfinished Business by Roger Douglas
The Lexus and The Olive Tree by Thomas Friedman
The Sovereign Individual by James Dale Davidson & Lord William Rees-Mogg
and of course 'The Economist' magazine.
Books
I like reading a lot, although I seem to get in less reading than I used to. I have about 300 books (rough guess) mostly science fiction and non-fiction. Favourite authors include J R R Tolkien, Isaac Asimov, Katherine Kurtz, John Brunner, Philip K Dick, Robert J Sawyer,
Books I really Enjoy include:
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien
Edge City: Life on the New Frontier by Joel Garreau
Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa ( translated by Charles S. Terry )
How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They're Built by Stewart Brand
Movies and TV
I watch The Simpsons , The West Wing , CSI and a few other programs. I'm a fan of the Yes Minister / Yes Prime Minister programs.Up until about a year ago I used to go to the movies 2 or 3 times a week but lately this has dropped off to once a month or less.
Some of my Favourate movies are below, I tend to go for weird, sometimes
violent romances. Most of the movies are from the early 1990s when I was
going to just about every movie that came out.
Blade Runner
Everybody likes Blade Runner, don't they? Greatest Movie ever, haunting
soundtrack.
Wild at Heart
For a long time this was my favourate movie. Violent, weird, David Lynch
pic.
Brazil
Monty Python meets 1984
Reservoir Dogs
Nikita
Original French version.
Near Dark
Vampire Western. Lots of style with a classic bar scene but a weak ending.
Highlander
There can be only one, There should have been only one.
Funny Bones
Little seen black comedy with Jerry Lewis and Oliver Platt
A Clockwork Orange
Cheerful musical, watch out for the shrink with the scary hairdo near the
end.
Stalag 17
World War 2 prison camp drama, classic.
Natural Born Killers
I was totally blown away by this, amazing over the top and very cool.
Delecatessin
Seriously Romantic, Black Comedy.
Dead Man
Dark Johnny Depp film.
Bad Boy Bubby
High Brow Australian Culture.
"It is the duty of all men to think God out of existence
" - Bubby
Cyrano de Bergerac
The original french version with subtitles.
Acción mutante
"Oh No!, Not the Stockholm Syndrome" . Very silly, low budget, foreign
action movie.
The Shawshank Redemption
The Usual Suspects
Taxi Driver
Se7en
The Sweet Hereafter
Clerks
Kevin Smith's first film.
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
Fight Club