Posts by Stephen Judd
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Did anyone else see the takedown of Mister Pip, inexplicably buried in the "Indulgence" section of the weekend DomPost, which argued convincingly that it was just another patronising tale, that the author had failed to convincingly portray the POV that the characters would really have, and generally deconstructing all the colonial white man's burden baggage in the novel? I thought it deserved greater prominence than being sandwiched between the recipe of the week and the kitty pictures.
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There are similar studies about homicides that attempt to examine the effect of guns and the conclusion is that gunshot wounds are more likely to be fatal, and people seem less inhibited about shooting than, say, stabbing. So more guns = more homicides.
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The very concept of soccer mom (or nascar dad, or whatever) is patronising, so I don't feel too bad about that. But amen to the "lazy borrowing".
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Today was the first time I ever heard "soccer mum" and I don't like it. It doesn't evoke anything for me.
Readers of "Next" magazine, possibly?
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And I wince every time anyone's lawyer tries to make a direct link between this and Parihaka. The Government can't maintain a position for one term, little own 128 years.
The Government can't, but the Crown can, and some people would say it has.
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The bit at the bottom of the Scoop article George Darroch linked to might explain the "peace activist" link.
One of the flatmates of the raided Symond’s St apartment, Gary Cranston, said that six police raided the house in the morning.
He also said that while he was not involved with planning the upcoming training camp in the past they have involved teaching campaigning skills, media skills and there have definitely been no weapons.
“We are peace activists,” he said.
If I were a committed peace activist maybe I would regard teaching non-violent techniques to other groups as a very proper thing to do.
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On a pedantic note, isn't "sectarian" conflict between religious groups, or sects? Violence in Iraq is sectarian (Sunni vs Shia), violence in Northern Ireland is sectarian (Protestant vs Catholic), but I wouldn't characterise a struggle between Maori nationalists and the state as sectarian.
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There's no scenario that you could think of where a few dozen sovereignty activists suddenly commit violent acts, shoot someone, and then hundreds more join them in.
No, but I can think of one where a few Pakeha vigilantes start patrolling with their own guns, and then someone gets shot (no doubt by mistake), and then your activists say "see, we were right" and a few more doubters join them, and then some skins from out of town come in to make trouble just as things are calming down, and ...
Timely intervention can stop these things from happening. And maybe, that's what we're seeing. Or not. There is a terrible absence of facts at this point.
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Steve: Really?.
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What I'm thinking now is that if this turns out to be serious, this should put paid to further calls for increases in police powers, because it would be an example of existing power working well.
Ooh Craig, the fire brigade turn up to every alarm, even when there's no fire. How's that analogy working out for you?