Posts by Idiot Savant
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However, the concerning thing for me was that he just stood by 'unprotestant' as the NZ flag was burnt.
Well of course he was "unprotestant". He's a Muslim.
And I agree with Kowhai - it is difficult to see what your point is here. In this country, we're free to burn the flag, and no-one is required to pretend to patriotism as a religion, any more than they are required to pretend to Christianity. Those are things I value deeply, and I think they are far more important than any flammable scrap of cloth.
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But it's scary bigots-a-go-go over at Kiwiblog.
You haven't seen the half of it. This one is calling for ethnic clensing...
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Now I have to choice of buying the DVD or downloading the torrent I watch what I want when I want to and ad free.
Ditto. The only thing I do broadcast any more is the nightly news, and occasionally Parliament when I have to be away from the computer. And as a bonus, I don't have to watch crap knock-offs of bad reality TV.
The only way broadcast TV can compete with this is by having good content that I want to watch. And the sooner they figure that out, the better.
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The language of the police case, weirdly hysterical as it was, presumably persuaded the judge that he didn't want to have his name on any calamiry, no matter how unlikely.
Which is a type of authoritarian bullying which has become commonplace in the "war on terror", and is used particularly effectively by the Bush Administration. The latest book by an insider (discussed by Glenn Greenwald here talks about administration officials openly threatening people that if they stand on human or constitutional rights, "the blood of the hundred thousand people who die in the next attack will be on your hands." (original emphasis). That's not something many people are willing to stand up in the face of. But they have to, otherwise government gets everything it wants, with no checks and balances.
(And yes, I know the "one bomb away from victory" quote is scarier. The Bushies really are creepy thugs).
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The right to protest has lost in Sydney. People can protest, but not anywhere where the targets of that protest might see or hear them.
I expect the protest will go ahead, with added banners of "screw the court". And the judge will deserve every bit of that.
Australia has taken a remarkably anti-democratic turn under Howard, and it frightens me.
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What's the point of "snipers on the roof" anyway? To take up all the good spots?
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Yes, but by allowing ppl to 'jump the queue' you encourage others to do the same. Why follow the process if you see others getting refugee status by ripping up their passports and finding Jesus?
As Che has pointed out, not everybody can even get in the queue. More importantly, we cannot turn a blind eye to human suffering for procedural reasons. That sort of thinking leads to humanitarian catastrophe.
(Oh, and BTW, are all those Zimbabwean farmers "que jumpers"? or do you get a free pass if you're white?)
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I consider myself a liberal on asylum and refugee policy, but this guy just doesn't seem like the right case to me.
The problem with being serious about human rights is that you find yourself having to stick up for scoundrels all the time. Panah's a scoundrel. But he is also IMHO at serious risk of persecution if deported, and that is what matters.
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The Australian police's reason for the court case: they are planning to block the road, and therefore expect a "full-scale riot".
We'll have to wait till 16:00 AU time (18:00 NZST) to see if the scaremongering little pricks get away with it, or if the judge makes the obvious response of "so don't block the road, you dumbarses".
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A good half an hour later there was a bloke in a suit knocking on our window. The SIS had left one behind and the door didn't have a handle to open from the outside. Gold pure gold.
So, did you leave them out there to freeze for a while? Smert' shpionam, and all that.