The GCSB bill, and my thoughts......

So, here in New Zealand, a lot of controversy has been raised by the implementation of the GCSB bill, which basically allows our government spying agency, the GCSB or Government Communications Security bureau to have more of an ability to spy on us, often without permission.

Now, I have absolutely no problem with this, and this is due to a few reasons. Firstly, if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to worry about. Seriously, regardless of what the GCSB does actually spy on me for (which I will delve into later in this article), I couldn't care less. That's because I have done nothing illegal. So therefore, when i hear people complaining about the bill, I often think that they must have been doing something illegal, and often dismiss them. Probably not the greatest strategy, but seriously, there should be nothing to worry about if you have nothing to hide.

Secondly, many people seem to think that the government wants to know what you are having for lunch, and other personal information. To put it simply, people think that the government simply want to have this bill so they can spy on us for no reason, and for completely irrelevant data. Now I actually like the bill, because the government is able to spy on anything we do, which means that they can stop a large amount of crime, but I also don't buy into the idea that the government wants to know what you are having for lunch. People need to stop perpetuating the idea that the government wants to spy on personal details, all they want to do is spy on you so they can stop crime, there is nothing more to it then that, and therefore I support the bill.

There is also the argument that this bill will start us on the 'slippery slope' or privacy infringements. And again, I don't buy into this argument. Our government is not that of Nazi Germany's, nor that of Zimbabwe, therefore I think this is just one step, and the only step of possible infringement of privacy that will ever happen, because we rely on a democratic process which would never allow further steps to  be made.

Finally, I think the GCSB bill simply clears up a legislation on the powers of the organisation, and allows the GCSB to use its full powers to keep New Zealand a safe and peaceful country.

Well, that's it for me this article, keep reading and have a great day!

Concussions in contact sport

Well, here in New Zealand, the major topic recently in the news has been concussions in sport. Especially rugby. This has also been the centre of much debate in the states, with NFL players developing illnesses such as dementia later in life.

Firstly, before I get into this topic, I would like to clarify. I have enormous sympathy for those who have had their life changed by head injuries, and wouldn't risk it on my worse enemies. I hope that some sort of cure is developed, and the occurrence of the issues can be reduced in all forms of sport.

That being said, I do believe that sports should not be banned due to the occurrence of head injuries (within reason of course). While again, I acknowledge that the injuries are horrific, and life changing, the frequency of them does not justify the complete upheaval of a sport. When players sign up to play any contact sport, they acknowledge the risk, and therefore take into account that they may get injured.

Furthermore, the banning of the shoulder charge also comes under the same banner. Players who signed up to play in the NRL acknowledge the risk of the game, and therefore, the shoulder charge shouldn't have to be banned, because the players realise and know that it will be used, as part of playing the game.

I also think that it is not OK for ex NFL players to sue the NFL. This is because again, they played in the NFL, and must have realised the risk of a full contact sport, and thus acknowledged that risk when they decided to play. Therefore, they have no right to sue, because they took the risk themselves when playing.

While I think the danger of head knocks needs to be reduced and this is occurring in modern day sport, I do overall believe that players take the risk, and therefore must be able to accept the consequences.

Well that's article, I hope you guys enjoyed it, have learnt a bit of my opinion, and most have all have realised the danger associated with playing full contact sport.

Have a great day, and keep reading!

Can the Chargers charge into the playoffs?

Sorry about the long wait between posts, I have been really busy recently, but will work my best to ensure that the page kept up to date.

So, we are on the brink of the new NFL season, with the pre season beginning today, and to be quite honest there are two main questions on my mind, one of them easy to answer, the other, not so much.

The first question is whether or not RG3 will be good to play for the redskins by week 1. I think this will almost definitely happen, and he could probably even play in the pre season, but the Redskins won't want to risk it after last years wild card play-off. I want to see him as soon as possible, but I do not want him to rush into it, as the worst thing for his career right now would be another injury.

Now, onto my second question, and this is indeed quite complex. This question is, as the title suggests, whether or not the Chargers will actually be able to make it into the play-off's.

I think there will be two deciding factors on this. Firstly, the performance of the Broncos, and secondly, the performance of the Chargers offensive line. Personally, I think that the Broncos are going to crush a lot of teams this year, with Peyton and Welker, so the hope of the Chargers there somewhat diminishes, so therefore the Chargers need to bank on gaining a wildcard spot. now relying that other teams do as badly as I hope they do, they will probably get around a 11 and 5 record. This may just be enough to get them into the play-off's in a wildcard slot.

However, that relies on them actually winning games, and to do that, the offensive line needs a lot of work. The line completely collapsed last year, and this led Philip Rivers to have one of his worst seasons ever, and pretty much led to the failure of the team. The defence of the Chargers isn't awesome, so they have to win on offence, and to do that they need the offensive line to fire. DJ Fluker will help with this, but to what extent is debatable. Personally, I think someone with his size and ability will help the Chargers greatly. I also think his mental attitude will be great for the team- he cried because he was so happy to be selected by them, and that high up in the draft.

Furthermore, I think players such as Keenan Allen will help the team immensely, and thus the team should have little problem with offensive fire-power, especially considering Antonio Gates is still there.

So overall, what needs to happen? Firstly, some wins against Denver would be great, but I wouldn't get my hopes up about them, and secondly, the offensive line really needs to pick its game up. If they do this, and players like Keenan Allen do well, they should be able to thread enough wins together to make it into the play-off's.

Also, MANTI TEO WILL BE AWESOME!!!!





Well, thats it for today's article, keep reading guys, and have a great day!

My first Political post-somewhat of an explanation of my beliefs.

Hello again everyone (if anyone is reading) :)


So all I have posted about so far is sports, and I think its about time that I posted about my other passions- Politics. As Stated in my first ever post (http://liamsviews.blogspot.co.nz/2013/03/welcome-my-initial-thoughts.html-for the lazy ones), I am support the right wing, and follow the two right wing political parties in New Zealand- ACT and National.

Now I will outline why I am right wing. Firstly, I believe that people should be self sufficient. People should not rely on the government for support, and should work hard for their own living. A majority of beneficiaries are on the benefit, because they didn't want to work hard in school or don't want to work hard now. Why should I work hard in school, only to have to pay for people to be supported in the future. Although yes, I believe that the benefit can give people a helping hand, I really think that the government should institute some sort of "edging system", to make the benefit be what it was supposed to be- a helping hand. In this edging system, you would be paid the full benefit for the first six months, but after that, month by month, it would be slowly reduced. This would encourage people to get off the benefit and look for work.

And then, with the money left over, we could put that money into education or healthcare. That being said, I believe that the sickness benefit is still needed, and should definitely not have an edging system. We need to support the most vulnerable people in society.

Although, I do believe that we need to support kids and the elderly more in society. The pension should be way more than the benefit for the fact that seniors have paid taxes all their life, and are therefore owed it by the government. The most frail people in society should not be starving because the money is being given to people who don't need to be on the benefit. Although, kiwi-saver should solve this problem altogether really. Also, kids should be supported a lot more. While I do believe that parents should take responsibility for their kids, the children do not pick which family they are born into, and there are always going to be bad parents. Therefore we should provide breakfasts etc, so that these children can have productive lives.

Now that I have outlined my thoughts generally, I think I'm going to talk about asset sales.

I am a staunch supporter of asset sales. This is due to a few reasons. Firstly, IT IS ONLY 49%- did the country magically manage to lose its ability to do maths over the night?????/ Seriously, no fat cat corporations are going to be taking over New Zealand with only 49% of a company. 49% is not a majority- I cannot stress that enough.

Secondly, has anyone ever seen a mighty river power hydro station. They are old, mouldy and need to be replaced. I genuinely believe that we are selling off these assets to build new ones. The reason the government isnt telling us this is because they don't want to devalue the shares they are trying to sell.

Finally, National has just as much right to sell our assets as Labour did after Muldoon was in power.

Well that's it for my first political post, I hope you all enjoyed or at least found this post interesting. If you have some gripes, drop a comment :)

I got 99 problems and the quarterback is one.

Hey guys,

because the first round of the playoffs are dragging on a bit longer than i expected, I thought I should do a post on the NFL. In this post I will be talking about the quarterbacks in my favorite teams-Phillip Rivers for the chargers and Robert Griffin 3 for my beloved Redskins.

So first onto Phillip Rivers.

Phillip is really difficult to write on because its hard to tell if he is actually a good quarterback or not. His offensive line sucked last year, and for that reason he was awful and was continuously getting sacked, but that being said, a great quarterback would realise that and start to try moving in the pocket. We really didn't see any of that from Phillip last year. He seemed stagnant in the pocket, an easy target for the defense, and eventually lost confidence due to the continuous flow of failed plays.

Personally, I think Phillip is a good player, and he will be able to show that this year with DJ Fluker. Phillip has shown us in the past that he is very talented, and as long as the Chargers manage to surround him with decent players. That was why this years draft for them was awesome. Tom Telesco managed to grab an awesome WR in Keenan Allen and DJ Fluker to work the o-line.

That being said, I really think that Phillip needs to prove himself this year. At least beating the Broncos once would be a start, and greatly reducing the number of sacks would even be better. If he doesn't, I think the Chargers need to start looking at trading up a few places in the 2014 or 2015 draft to get a 1st overall Quarterback- (maybe my favorite quarterback form Oregon- Marcus Mariota?). But Rivers is still fairly young, and for that reason should be able to get a few more years in with the Chargers, and maybe, hopefully win a Superbowl ring.

Now Onto my favorite Quarterback in the league, Robert Griffin the third. I just cant get over how awesome he is. He is an amazing passer, and probably the most talented runner in the league. He is actually like a hybrid between Michael Vick and Tom Brady or Peyton Manning.

I am deeply worried however, that he could have a sophomore slump next year. Teams may find out how to shut him down, or he could get injured or even worse not entirely recover from last years injury. That being said  I'm sure that he will do well, and have a stunning year in Washington (hopefully).

Also, I hope that the Redskins manage to hold onto Kirk Cousins  He was an awesome backup last year, and if RG3 gets injured, he may be able not only to win some games, but get them into the playoffs- I genuinely believe he has that sort of ability. I also hope that the Redskins manage to hold onto Morris (man they had an awesome draft last year didn't they), he was genuine offensive dynamite, and managed to keep a lot of the pressure off RG3.

As for my general thoughts on the drafts of both teams, they are quite mixed.

The Chargers started off amazingly, grabbing Fluker, Teo and Allen was genius, and in particular I like the pick of Teo. They managed to get a first rounder in the second round with him, and I believe he will stabilize he Chargers defense which quite frankly sucked last year. (Remember the Baltimore game). Seriously, people should stop making such a big deal about the whole catfishing thing, and just let him play, and hopefully play well. The only problem I have now is the fact that I want to buy his Jersey :).

As for Allen, he is awesome, another first round quality player, and I believe that he will put some much needed zing into the Chargers offense, which quite frankly also sucked last year. Him along with Fluker (who has the coolest smile in the world) should do a world of good for the Chargers point scoring abilities.

Sadly however, I wasn't too impressed with the rest of the draft for the Chargers. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't amazing. They also needed to address the o-line far more. Apart from that, Telescos first draft was great.

With the Redskins, I don't really have much to say about their draft. Obviously they lost their first round pick to get RG3 ( that was totally worth it), so therefore their draft wasn't to exciting. It was a good draft nonetheless, and I am sure that barring massive disaster, the Redskins should be able to preform well this year.

Well that's it for this post, I hope you enjoyed it and thanks for reading!

My views on the first round of the NBA Playoffs

Hey guys, sorry for the long delay between posts, been really busy lately.

Anyway, I thought I'd do an opinion piece on who I think will win their match-ups in the first round of the NBA playoffs. Obviously some of these results will most likely be clear cut, but I thought that seeing as I will be posting about the next rounds later on, I thought that I better establish who I expected to do well in the Playoffs and in particular, the first round.

Eastern Conference:

• Miami Heat Vs Milwaukee Bucks :

Obviously, this is one of the more clear cut rounds. Although Milwaukee has shown some promising signs this year, I really cant see them getting up against the favorites to win the NBA this year. Maybe if they had been taking on another team, they might have made it into the second round, but I really cant see them beating the Heat. As for the Heat, I can see them easily winning the east, unless New York fires effectively.

My call for the result: a 4-0 sweep by the Heat 

• New York Knicks vs Boston Celtics:

This is a tougher call for me. Although the Celtics have been really good in the past, they haven't seemed to be able to fire this year, and really only just managed to get into the playoffs, thanks to a weak East. I can definitely see the Knicks winning this one, they are playing well, and Carmelo is looking good. I can see the Knicks making it to the Eastern Conference finals with the Heat. 

My call for the result: Knicks take it 4-2

•   Atlanta Hawks vs Indiana Pacers:

Wow, this one is a toughie. Possibly without Granger, the Pacers have lost a lot of firepower, but to be honest the Hawks didn't have much in the first place. I think however, that the Pacers have learnt to play without Granger, and for some reason I can see them absolutely annihilating the Hawks. But after that, I cant see the Pacers going much further in the playoffs.

My call for the result: Pacers sweep the Hawks 4-0 

• Brooklyn Nets vs Chicago Bulls

I have been really impressed with the nets this year, and have been stunned by their sudden revival. I'm also a fan of Jay-Z so that sort of adds to it I guess. Although they have a talented squad, I really cant see the Bulls winning this without rose, although I can see it being a close series. For some reason, as long as they don't get put up against an uber team next round, I think they could do quite well in the playoffs.

My call for the result: 4-3 Nets

Western Conference:

• Oklahoma City Thunder vs Houston Rockets

While the Rockets have been pretty good this year, especially with James Harden, they are nowhere near as good as the Thunder, and I believe without stronger players to back up Harden, the Rockets will be absolutely destroyed. KD and Russell Westbrook are simply to good. I can see the Thunder taking on the Spurs in the Western Conference round.

My call for the result: Thunder sweep the Rockets 4-0.

• San Antonio Spurs vs Los Angeles Lakers:

Easy win for the Spurs, the Lakers without Kobe will be smashed. Spurs will take the title. Nuff Said.

My call for the result: 7-0 Sweep by the Spurs, oh wait, they can only win four times, I mean 4-0 sweep :)

• Denver Nuggets vs Golden State Warriors:

This is another tough pick. Although the nuggets have been really good this year, I think Stephen Curry is good enough to help carry the Warriors. As long as he can stay healthy, and the Warriors start getting into some good form, I can see them getting past this round, but i really think they will be crushed by the Spurs in the next round.

My call for the result: 4-3 to the Warriors.

• LA Clippers vs Memphis Grizzlies

 Easy pick. While Memphis are a good team, the Clippers have been awesome this year. Paul and Griffin have really fired, and I cant see Memphis even winning one game. As for the Clippers future hopes, I can see them challenging Oklahoma in what could turn out to be an interesting series, but I don't think they have the experience to beat a side that has already been to the finals.

My call for the result: 4-0 to the Clippers.

Overall, I think this years playoffs could be very interesting, and of course, exciting. I will update you guys with my picks for the next round, thanks for reading, and have a good day!

Brittney Griner- going to the NBA?

So, recently, Mavericks manager Mark Cuban announced that if the time was right, he would draft Griner most likely in the second round. If not, he would invite her to summer camp.

Now, I'm split in my opinion on this.

Part of me thinks that it would be great. I genuinely think that if anything Griner could generate a lot of media interest in the NBA, which is why Cuban wants her. She can dunk (unlike most woman) and the actual fact that she is a girl, would make watching the Mavericks interesting ( if that is even humanly possible). I also think she has a genuine skill level, and may be able to average something like four points a game. And I think it would be interesting playing as her in NBA 2k14. And, that being said, she does look hilariously similar to Joakim Noah.

The other part of me says an absolute no. And this is due to a few reasons.

Firstly, he physicality. No matter what way you look at it, women are smaller than men, and therefore she would most likely have problems, especially in the post against much taller male counterparts. I.E Dwight Howard. Also, her vertical is nowhere near high enough to be able to jump over these guys. And while she can dunk, lets be honest, it is nothing more than a rimgrazer. She usually struggles to make the dunk.

Secondly, she really wouldn't be suited to her position in the NBA. She is a center, and while she is relatively tall at 6 foot 8, she needs to be a lot taller to make up for the physicality of her male counterparts. That would leave her having to move to a power forward or small forward position, although these don't really suit her either. Because she really cant shoot being a center, she has gotten herself between a rock and a hard place. She isn't tall enough to be a center, yet she cant shoot well enough to be a PF or SF.

Finally, and although I'm definitely not a sexist, she is a girl. This brings a whole new set of rules about it regarding to fouling etc, and this could complicate things.

But overall, I think she would be an interesting edition to the NBA, and If I lived in the States, I would definitely pay to see her play.

I genuinely wish her the best in her basketball career, and even if she does not make it into the NBA, she will be a star in the WNBA, most likely picking up a lot of new fans for the league, which would ultimately be good for everyone involved.

Oh well, that's it for this short post, make sure that you keep reading, and more importantly, thanks for reading.