Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: The Wogistan form book

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  • Russell Brown, in reply to Islander,

    Yep.
    Almost all Abrahamic religions are anti-female BUT – Islamic ones are much WORSE in their *physical* control of *all* women (the women dont have to be religious cohorts.)

    Possibly. But there's a big difference between the roles and rights of women in Bosnia, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia respectively. Just as there is between any number of ostensibly Christian countries in Europe, and Nigeria or Uganda.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha, in reply to Robyn Gallagher,

    his suspiciously Islamic looking beard

    miraculously shaved off since yesterday

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha, in reply to Ross Mason,

    the "timing" of Ferrar's comment

    I doubt it was an accident. Bad economic figures that refuse to be smoothed over? Drop something you've been sitting on. Bennett must have run out of targets this time.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • izogi, in reply to Johnny Canuck,

    but there's probably a decent constituency for it. More than the crucial 5% anyway...

    Despicable as I think the man is (and his party for accommodating and defending him), he probably represents at least 1/120th of the populace. I don't know whether to consider it an MMP success or failure, but I tend to think that people over a certain proportion should have an opportunity to have their views aired by parliamentary representatives, even if those views disgust me. Maybe it helps to keep others in touch with what some others think, if nothing else. I just hope that talk is as far as it gets.

    Wellington • Since Jan 2007 • 1142 posts Report Reply

  • Chris Waugh, in reply to izogi,

    I don’t know whether to consider it an MMP success or failure, but I tend to think that people over a certain proportion should have an opportunity to have their views aired by parliamentary representatives, even if those views disgust me.

    +1

    Wellington • Since Jan 2007 • 2401 posts Report Reply

  • John Holley, in reply to izogi,

    I think it shows the success of MMP. Much as most of the country despise Prosser's comments there will be some in total agreement with him.

    MMP means more diverse representation - and not just from the segments of society in the "middle ground." A measure of the success of MMP must surely be views being espoused from the political extremes, both left and right, rather than the shades of grey we got with the old centre-left/centre-right governments we use to get.

    His statements upset most NZers, but surely the fact that he is in a position to make such statements, highlight what a diverse democracy we have?

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 143 posts Report Reply

  • Sofie Bribiesca, in reply to Islander,

    Not quite that simple.Your luggage can be searched and a harmless multi-tool removed.

    I've had a nail file removed whilst in transit outta Brisbane to NZ. There was no choice to check it into luggage. and no choice to post it forward . It was ok though through Dubai and the UK and air planes are the perfect opportunity to get the nails manicured. I like that Emirates and Royal Brunei have metal cutlery although a plastic knife does well for inmates in prisons around the world. Go figure, on your way to disinfecting the feet or retina scans.
    Without knowing Prosser's reason or wanting to give him attention, I suspect he got pissed off with not being trusted which is something that gets many peoples ire up and the consequence was his stoopid story. At least he is now reconsidering writing for that turd magazine because he has seen, or been educated as to the stupidity of his ways so that's a benefit of getting a bollocking from the man with the (plastic) hair. I've had a couple of drinks with him and his lady and he does care (alot) about his appearance and his lady agreed on this issue. Then again, she aint too shabby either.
    News tonight, I think Prosser felt like an idiot. Very sheepish. I figure, if our Government gets away with half the rubbish it spouts, that's permission for the rest of them to be slack if we let them. I'm appalled after watching the Canterbury water anti democratic, autocratic bunch of liars again bill. I can see how others are getting slack.

    here and there. • Since Nov 2007 • 6796 posts Report Reply

  • Allan Moyle, in reply to Rich of Observationz,

    some considered the Waihopai Three to be terrorists. White men with beards, yes; angry, they never looked it.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 104 posts Report Reply

  • Graeme Edgeler, in reply to Sacha,

    miraculously shaved off since yesterday

    The beard has been gone all year.

    Wellington, New Zealand • Since Nov 2006 • 3215 posts Report Reply

  • Joe Wylie, in reply to John Holley,

    His statements upset most NZers, but surely the fact that he is in a position to make such statements, highlight what a diverse democracy we have?

    When I lived in Australia during Pauline Hanson's heyday I was surprised by the kind of people I met who claimed to be actually voting for her. All happily agreed that she was a nasty little nobody probably pumped up on prozac, but as they were compelled to vote she offered a means of giving the finger to a party system that they felt had turned its back on them. While they lacked a wider political consciousness they certainly didn't share Hanson's malice towards aboriginals and migrants. They simply didn't care about the broader implications.

    I sensed something similar from the young relative who last election cheerfully told me that he'd decided to vote for Winston after the Banks tea party fiasco, as a way of getting back at Key. Unfortunately for that strategy Winston seems to be effectively nobbled by the behaviour of his shambolic bunch of ring-ins. Not just Prosser. At a time when he should be holding the Government's feet to the fire over Shipley's involvement with Mainzeal, even the ridiculous Brendan Horan is able to spoil his best lines.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

  • Paul Campbell,

    I suspect that Prosser was just following Winston's previous examples slagging off on the Chinese - it's sort of the NZ First party line, probably why he joined it - even the party name sorts of says it. I bet he was surprised when Winston didn't back him to the hilt.

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 2623 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha, in reply to Graeme Edgeler,

    The beard has been gone all year

    Thanks. Must have been library footage - though TVNZ's 6pm bulletin also mentioned no beard today.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Geoff Lealand,

    This really is a distraction from more pressing and serious matters. I fear that it might only increase sales of Wishart's horrible magazine (which I always shift to the comic section in magazine displays).

    Prosser (aka Tosser) is a well-known fruitcake and we should just ignore him.

    Screen & Media Studies, U… • Since Oct 2007 • 2562 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia, in reply to Paul Campbell,

    Which, while cute, is completely inaccurate, old white guys do far more embezzling by several orders of magnitude than anyone does terrorism

    Once could also note that white Catholic men have killed more people than "Muslim-looking" one in terrorist outrages in London by an order of magnitude.

    I actually sympathised with him for having his knife confiscated. I had to hand over a nice little Leatherman on my key ring when leaving Sydney last year .

    Boo-fucking-hoo. Over six weeks last year, I removed my shoes, belt and emptied my laptop bag in enough airports to feel a cordial loathing for airport security. But none of those places were anything less that clear and explicit about what you could and couldn't carry onto your flight -- and, yes, knives were very much on the no-fly list. I'm really sorry if Prosser's white male entitlement gland got well and truly stroked by that indignity, but putting several billion people on a racist no-fly list is really missing the point to a scary degree.

    I'd also respectfully suggest Prosser flashes a pen knife and has a racist temper tantrum at Hong Kong International. I'm sure the discretely but visibly armed employees of the Chinese government will be happy to discuss his inalienable human right to ignore international civil aviation regulations New Zealand is a signatory to.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Joe Wylie, in reply to Geoff Lealand,

    This really is a distraction from more pressing and serious matters.

    Absolutely. Clowns like Prosser and his Australian equivalents - most of whose political careers were over by the mid-2000s - are a convenient smokescreen for the institutionalised nastiness that Key has sold us into with his deal with Gillard.

    Prosser feeds the convenient myth that Australia's - and now NZ's - indefensibly inhumane attitude to refugees is driven by a groundswell from the political fringe, to which the civilised centre must reluctantly respond.

    The reality is that it's been nurtured from the centre, until it's become a bipartisan fait accompli. Philip Ruddock, as John Howard's immigration Minister, pointedly wore his Amnesty International badge throughout the whole manufactured children overboard propaganda exercise. Despite calls for his membership to be revoked he brazened it out.

    Any reaction from David Shearer will be very muted.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia, in reply to Geoff Lealand,

    This really is a distraction from more pressing and serious matters.

    No, Geoff.

    1) We can actually think and care about more than one thing at a time.

    2) Folks like you and me actually have the privilege of not caring about a party of unapologetic racists potentially deciding who’ll form the next government. How about the people who don't?

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia, in reply to Andre Alessi,

    Not news, but Wishart was foaming-at-the-mouth insane on the radio this morning.

    No, Andre, Wishart was a vile bigot, a mendacious hack and a spectacularly disingenuous concern-troll. (I'm sure Helen Clark will be delighted to know Wishart now loathes faith-based misogyny and homophobia.)

    He wasn't insane, or any other euphemism for mental illness. I know I do it too, a lot, but perhaps we could all be a hell of lot more careful about using mental illness as a put down?

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Rachel Prosser, in reply to Geoff Lealand,

    It's harder to ignore, when you happen to share the same last name. (No relation!)

    I hate Richard Prosser's views, and the damage they do by feeding hatred, and thereby making us all less safe.

    On a selfish level, it's unpleasant seeing our family name in a disparaging context (the views he expresses are far from our family's views. In fact, they are as far from our value system as islamist terrorists' views are far from the values and views of every person I have known who is muslim)

    Christchurch • Since Mar 2008 • 228 posts Report Reply

  • Kumara Republic, in reply to Craig Ranapia,

    He wasn't insane, or any other euphemism for mental illness. I know I do it too, a lot, but perhaps we could all be a hell of lot more careful about using mental illness as a put down?

    Fundamentalists and other extremists of all stripes aren't so much mentally impaired as they are personality impaired. And that personality impairment just happens to be narcissism.

    The southernmost capital … • Since Nov 2006 • 5446 posts Report Reply

  • Johnny Canuck, in reply to Craig Ranapia,

    I’d also respectfully suggest Prosser flashes a pen knife and has a racist temper tantrum at Hong Kong International. I’m sure the discretely but visibly armed employees of the Chinese government will be happy to discuss his inalienable human right to ignore international civil aviation regulations New Zealand is a signatory to.

    Absolutely: my abiding memory of security at Hong Kong International is that they were both very numerous and very serious. Obviously even low-level tomfoolery will get you in trouble at any airport nowadays, but Hong Kong seems to take that to a whole new level. Best behaviour!

    Vancouver BC • Since Feb 2013 • 25 posts Report Reply

  • Simon Grigg, in reply to Russell Brown,

    But there's a big difference between the roles and rights of women in Bosnia, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia respectively.

    Yep. Java at least is both heavily Islam and a far more matriarchal society than any so-called Christian nation I know of.

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report Reply

  • Simon Grigg, in reply to Johnny Canuck,

    Obviously even low-level tomfoolery will get you in trouble at any airport nowadays, but Hong Kong seems to take that to a whole new level.

    To be fair, having done HKIA at least thirty times in the past 5 years, (without an issue - I rate it as one of the world's more efficient) the one airport that leaves it in the proverbial when it comes to overreaction is Brisbane. Try landing there in any aircraft which has a an overwhelming % of non-Anglo passengers and observe the way the security treat everyone on the aircraft as Osama's right hand.

    It's the only airport I've seen arriving passengers asked to disassemble their cameras...

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia, in reply to Simon Grigg,

    Brisbane. Try landing there in any aircraft which has a an overwhelming % of non-Anglo passengers and observe the way the security treat everyone on the aircraft as Osama’s right hand.

    Quite - and I can't help comparing and contrasting the memory of when we flew into Vancouver, and ended up in customs the same time as flights from Mumbai and Paris. it was kind of nice being a rainbow coalition of the bored and exhausted, without the kind of delightful ethnic profiling Prosser is so hot for.

    And I guess that's why I get a little impatient with folks who think Prosser's racism -- and Winston's passive-aggressive bullshit -- isn't a big deal, and we should all move on and focus on "real issues". Sorry, this guy is a member of Parliament. If next year's general election is tight, we could see a party of unapologetic racists in the box seat again. And I've next to no confidence either Key or Shearer would have the spine to say they have no place in any government.

    I have the enormous privilege of not having to give a shit about anything Prosser and NZ First say or do. I suspect most PASers are too.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Paul Campbell, in reply to Simon Grigg,

    To be fair, having done HKIA at least thirty times in the past 5 years, (without an issue - I rate it as one of the world's more efficient)

    yes that's largely my impression - possibly the most efficient airport I regularly travel through, and given that they actually have a 5pm rush, when all that transit screening backs up, they have to be.

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 2623 posts Report Reply

  • Ross Mason, in reply to Geoff Lealand,

    which I always shift to the comic section in magazine displays)

    Heh. You have just added a recruit to your underground army!!

    @Craig. FGS!! You look like a terrorist! Give the security guys and gals their dues. They know your sort.

    Upper Hutt • Since Jun 2007 • 1590 posts Report Reply

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