Posts by Mikaere Curtis
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Seems like people have been using the word a lot in this thread. We agree that there was nothing whatsoever that was satirical in those email sent to Mr. Laws, correct?
So, how do you classify the comment about red necks and banjos ?
Seems to fit this definition:
A literary technique of writing or art which principally ridicules its subject often as an intended means of provoking or preventing change
-
I don't entirely agree with you Giovanni.
The first email raised a valid point and Law's response was "Maybe you should grow a brain..."
And his second response was "jerk, jerk, jerk".
Had you been the correspondent, at what point would you have determined that Laws had lost his grip (if he ever had any) on rational debate ?
Satire seems as good a response as any, and I don't think it actually has an impact on the content of Law's verbal diarrhoea.
Should we start one, just to mock them?
Yes, lets. I'll put about that there's a secret PAS forum where the secret cabal of Politically Correct meet to plan our agenda...by consensus, of course ;)
-
Yes, it's real. Thanks Russ, for putting this up.
How did someone so stupid get to be mayor?
Perhaps by appealing to a fear that many conservatives share: that there really is a PC conspiracy.
-
A few years ago on Bfm's wire, Dr Barry Lowe was talking about childbirth and said that the optimum age for it was 22. I remember think "wow, how many 22 year-olds do I know who would be ready for parenthood".
Thankfully there's some serious technology to assist the process of childbirth if needed.
On older people and childbearing, I wonder how many generations we need to do this before we start evolving to accommodate it ?
Back on topic...
who were there to show off expensive prams
Heh, we were international early adopters on that one :) Back in '97, we were having our first child up in London and my sister was coming up, so we got her to bring up one of those new-fangled Mountain Buggies. Those things rock, even the first generation ones with fixed wheels.
But, they can't fit through the exits on the Paris Metro, and there's far too many steps in Venice for them to be useful. Very handy in the cobbled streets of Kathmandu, though.
Interestingly, when my brother-in-law took their one trekking in the Himalayas a few years back, it wasn't as apt as the name would suggest. Like Daleks, they are too easily defeated by steps...
Father's Day lounging kind of blew away any intentions of getting to the GLFM, will definitely be going in the future.
-
Also, the gangs themselves are more than happy to refer to police as 'the big blue gang'. I'm therefore quite happy not to buy into that line of argument, myself.
So, being in a gang precludes the ability to undetake critical analysis ? I have a cousin who is a very senior member of Black Power, and some of the stories he has told me about police behaviour leads me to conclude that the concept of a 'big blue gang' is not only apt, but able to be backed up by observed practic.
In many ways it's like the laws against offensive language. They are, to some extent, worth having, because offensive language is very often a precursor to violence, and is certainly used to intimidate people and whip up anger. If it gives the police an ability to immediately defuse a silly situation from going sillier, on account of something which is basically pretty silly in itself, then they are sometimes helping matters quite a lot.
Alternatively, they could simply invoke their power to enfore the Queen's Peace. The problem with these kinds of laws is that they can be selectively applied and are open to abuse. Just this morning on Bfm's Law Line there was a mum telling a story in which daughter's friend was alledgedly being pushed around by some police, swore at them for it, and was arrested for obscene language.
Breaching someone's human rights on the basis of who they associate with, not their behaviour in the instance, is the hallmark of facism not liberalism.
-
Oh, I don't know. We used to have a gang problem in Italy but since we told the mafiosi that they couldn't wear those hats the whole thing has just gone away. Just give the law time to work.
But they didn't include scarves, and now the women have taken over !
-
The irony didn't stop at the colour, either. According to Denis O'Reilly on Checkpoint, the fictitious gang name "Manga Kahu" - the (grammatically incorrect) tranlation Black Power actually use is "Mangu Kaha" - was lifted from the schedule of gangs drawn up by the Wanganui Council.
And now, on day one, some thicko from The Tribesmen has set himself up for a court case that will test the bylaw against the Bill of Rights. Way to make bad guys look like good guys.
If the problem with gangs is their antisocial behaviour, how is being pre-emptively extremely antisocial towards them - based only on what they are wearing, and not their behaviour - going to solve the problem ? All that will happen is that authoritarian absolutists like Laws will feel better about themselves, and the gangs will feel , um, ganged-up on.
-
All the best, Emma.
-
Belatedly for the record Mikaere and all, it seems the Bay of Plenty regional council is the only territorial local authority which has chosen to have specific Maori seats as provided for in legislation - Gisborne does not.
Ta. Teach me to repeat a Michael Laws factoid...
-
This is the money quote from the Herald:
The Prime Minister has chosen the easiest and perhaps the most electorally advantageous course. In doing so, he has overlooked an inclusive approach that is in the best interests of the country.
At my uncle's tangi at the weekend I met Tiipene Marr, a councillor for a Maori constituency on Environment Bay of Plenty (one of two local government bodies with specific Maori seats, the other being Gisborne). He said that when he first joined the council a few years ago, he asked the other councillors to indicate if they had ever been on a marae. Only two had.
This is what we are dealing with - critically out of touch Pakeha institutions. In Auckland's case, historically less that 1% of councillors have been Maori. When faced with an opportunity to choose an option that enjoys significant community support (in addition to the Royal Commission), National's reaction is to pre-empt the Maori seats sub-select committee and implement a broken colonial model.
Has anyone else noticed that Key's circular argument: We can't implement Maori seats in Auckland because we'd need to do it for the rest of the country and we don't want to do it for the rest of the country is suspiciously similar to Rodney Hide's cop out over Twyford's bill to prevent Auckland local body asset sale without an enabling referendum ?