Posts by Thomas Beagle

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  • Hard News: The Police Ten 7 State,

    I am shocked by this report.

    The Police hold a lot of power in our society and the need for transparency and oversight is accordingly great. The Police actions are contrary to the principles of open government and the Official Information Act and must cease immediately.

    I am even more concerned that multiple people in the Police hierarchy have conceived of, approved of, and applied these policies. By blocking transparency and seeking to control what is said about them, they have demonstrated contempt for democratic government. They have shown that they are not fit to hold their positions.

    The Police Minister must take strong action to fix this problem and clean the rot out of the Police.

    New Zealand • Since Nov 2007 • 50 posts Report Reply

  • Speaker: Telling Our Own Tales,

    I'm really looking forward to see how Christchurch votes in the general election as I think this will be the real indicator of how they feel about the National government's rebuild efforts.

    Anyone want to predict whether Christchurch voters will vote for National more, less, or about the same as the rest of the country?

    (And yes, this is a comment about politics in relation to a national disaster, but politics is how the country decides what is important and what we should spend our collective resources on.)

    New Zealand • Since Nov 2007 • 50 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: The Big Chill,

    I'm feeling pretty happy with my submission to the Law Commission that a) where possible, protections for journalists should be extended to everyone, and b) if they're not available for everyone, they should be available to anyone "acting in the role of a journalist" regardless of whether it's their 1st or 1000th article.

    http://techliberty.org.nz/new-media-submission-opposes-media-regulation/

    Of course, they ignored it. :)

    New Zealand • Since Nov 2007 • 50 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: The sphere of influence,

    I bet you were really thinking "Sphere of Effluent", right?

    New Zealand • Since Nov 2007 • 50 posts Report Reply

  • Southerly: How I Became a Grumpy Old…,

    I'm still giggling at: "Apologies to Russell for going the way of The Listener in terms of subject matter. The good news is that my house hasn’t made me fat."

    New Zealand • Since Nov 2007 • 50 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: The Language of Climate,

    I'm going to quote myself (because no one else will do it!) from something I wrote in 2008 ( http://thomasbeagle.net/2008/06/03/a-climate-change-manifesto/ ):

    "That humanity would rather ride the spiralling corpse of the current ecosystem down into the abyss than voluntarily give up the modern consumer life style."

    The sad thing for me personally is that I've had a kid since then and when I contemplate their future I feel our collective failure even more keenly.

    New Zealand • Since Nov 2007 • 50 posts Report Reply

  • Feed: Saints Preserve,

    Damn all Aucklanders and their oh-so productive feijoa trees!

    (I think we're going to get two wee feijoas on our Wellington trees this year. Maybe next year...)

    New Zealand • Since Nov 2007 • 50 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Growing up in public,

    I wish I could think up something witty to say about your "Social Media Export" typo.

    New Zealand • Since Nov 2007 • 50 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: The judge is not helping,

    It seems wrong that Slater can't get the same protection that journalists get when he's acting as a journalist.

    It seems especially unfair that any "journalist" republishing wire pieces and industry PR in a newspaper will have those same protections, purely because of their publisher.

    New Zealand • Since Nov 2007 • 50 posts Report Reply

  • Legal Beagle: Think it possible that you…, in reply to Graeme Edgeler,

    The NZ Council for Civil Liberties is not the monolithic body of group-think that you obviously imagine. :)

    New Zealand • Since Nov 2007 • 50 posts Report Reply

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