Posts by Moz
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Envirologue: Swamp Monsters – the…, in reply to Ken Sparks,
Collins is doing her best here to make sure politicians rank as low as they possibly can on the 'most respected' list.
I thought it was mutual respect? They treat us like sheep, in response we regard them as scum...and vote for them anyway. Baaa.
As Mal Webb says "respect can't be demanded, it has to be inspired"
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Envirologue: Swamp Monsters – the…, in reply to Kumara Republic,
Anarchist activism...Does that include monkeywrenching?
It's not really a good idea to talk about specifics, but yes, monkey wrenching is a common tactic. But it has to be done carefully, and remembering that the usual goal is to get the public onside and/or a law change. Or in this case, have the law enforced.
NFA in NZ is an interesting example, arguably the turn-around came when a major bit of monkeywrenching backfired. Luckily for us it was allegedly the logging company that did it, and the blowback from that stunt got a law change. But it all did depend on a bunch of people willing to live in a subtropical rainforest (the West Coast: putting the sub in subtropical since 1845) for as long as it took. Note that the snail occupation a few years later failed, despite same technique in the same area.
In Oz there have a been a few similar campaigns, and the ones that work have either been publicity-oriented (Franklin) or brutal (the GECO assaults, Bombala firebombing). The latter is almost amusing - after rounding up a bunch of anti-logging types the plod "discovered" (ie, the attacker complained to too many people that no f*** greenie was gonna get the credit) that the log truck was firebombed in retaliation for the owner shagging someone else's wife. Still got a bunch of native forest declared off limits to loggers, though.
You'd really want to sit down and work out a cunning plan, and decide what you want to have happen. IMO one good outcome would be a new Labour govt deciding to take a stand by banning export or confiscating logs that have dubious provenance. Labour have form on this (NFA above), so it's slightly plausible. What you need is a protest and an arrogant idio... ok, what you need is a protest :)
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Speaker: Abortion: morality and health, in reply to Iain Thorpe,
I've always thought that free speech is probably the single most important right in our society
Free speech doesn't mean Russell is required to provide a platform for someone to speak. It's the government not persecuting you for saying things, and just as importantly, not persecuting the people who point and laugh when you do.
As far as abortion goes, I've mellowed in my old age. I no longer go out of my way to actively endanger anti-abortionists, I just point out that they're at best wilfully ignorant arseholes. In the same way as "but free speech" is the weakest possible defence ("it's not illegal to say that"), "abortion should be banned" translates to "child rape victims should be forced to carry the resulting pregnancy to term and give birth, even if it kills them"... that's close to defining the top of the arsehole scale.
This is something that affects my vote, and my support for political parties. I have (and probably will again), specifically donate and add a note with my donation when parties commit to liberalising abortion. Yes, including the McGillicuddy Serious Party. Even to the extent of sending Jamie Whyte a supportive note.
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Polity: Unity, success: Chicken, egg?, in reply to Pharmachick,
I don't believe in communism
You don't think it exists, or you think that it's the only political system that can help disadvantaged people?
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Polity: Unity, success: Chicken, egg?, in reply to Bart Janssen,
Only if you perceive life as some kind of grammar school sporting event
Brilliantly put. I wish I'd thought of that, but now you point it out I think you're absolutely right.
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Speaker: Abortion: morality and health, in reply to Lilith __,
Eggs and sperm and zygotes and embryos and fetuses are all human.
My fingernail clippings are possibly human, depending how silly people want to get with the definitions. I'd rather stick with "sometime between conception and adulthood", if we can. Probably narrowing it to "sometime between viability and birth", if we can simplify things that far.
One problem that anti-abortion laws can run into is criminalising miscarriages, which has happened in parts of the USA. The slavers sometimes claim that's accidental, other times claim it's a deliberate punishment for poor women who have the temerity to get pregnant. I consider it awful, regardless of intent.
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Speaker: Abortion: morality and health, in reply to kiwi_guy,
If a women CHOOSES to be sexually active she can take RESPONSIBILITY for that, not the tax payer.
Exactly. And abortion is a useful part of taking responsibility. Not everything people do goes to plan, and the more we can help everyone recover from mistakes and more on, the better off we are.
As Alice said, adoption is an alternative to pregnancy. Banning abortion means force pregnancy, which civilised people recognise as slavery.
Now, if you were actively campaigning for better support for people who are pregnant or have kids but are struggling, I'd be more inclined to accept that you have the needs of kids at heart. Ideally you'd also want support for people who foster or adopt kids, but that's very much step two. But instead you seem to want to use deprivation as motivation. Last time we tried that it didn't work so well, lots of desperate mothers and kids being killed. Hardly "pro-life", as the anti-woman campaigners would have us believe.
The DPB "lifestyle" is contrasted with the no-DBP deathstyle, not "poor but happy", and if generousity is taken to the extreme becomes the Paula Bennett success story of "solo mother gets generous benefit that allows her to go to uni and make something of herself".
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Polity: Unity, success: Chicken, egg?, in reply to Pharmachick,
There are winners and losers in life. Learn how to pick yourself up when you "lose" and don't throw a hissy fit
If only I had some aspirational figures to look up to in the "not throwing a hissy fit when you lose" department.
Unfortunately right now I have people like "state house" Key and "DPB Degree" Bennett. And don't we see some spectacular tantrums when Ms Bennett doesn't get her own way. She's not one to let minor legalities and moral questions stand in the way of a good vindictive spray. Is that the sort of thing I should be looking up to, do you think?
FWIW, I started life as a winner and have kept it up, bar the odd misstep that luckily I had family to help me recover from. But most of that had nothing to do with me, how hard I worked, or how well I "picked myself up", it was all about having people around me to help.
I think my obligation is to help others in return. I try to vote for politicians who accept the same obligation.
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It’s time someone reminded politicians that winning elections isn’t their job, governing is.
There have been a few anti-slavery petitions over the years, and some members bills recently. Unfortunately the pro-slavery activists have better SEO skills so it's hard to find much info. I think what we're seeing is as much a reaction to recent bills proposed to decriminalise abortion. Unfortunately it's emotive and goes against the evidence, but that sums up the anti-abortion arguments in general.
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Speaker: Abortion: morality and health, in reply to kiwi_guy,
Abortions should be permissible only in cases of rape or serious threat to the woman's health.... I should hope it is made harder to have a baby on the DPB
So, women should be forced to have babies but we should punish those babies by starving them to death? How does that fit any morality? I suppose other than "women should be punished".