Posts by Russell Brown

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  • Hard News: The People's Choice,

    Best quasi-autonomous blog collective?

    Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: The People's Choice,

    Pfft. Best Blog? I mean, congratulations and all, you know I dig your site Russell, but Public Address still isn't a blog. Hard News is a blog.

    Correct. Not much I can do about it though. They could fix it by calling the category "Best Blog Site".

    I did however enter our individual blogs in the new Qantas Media Awards blog category ...

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: The People's Choice,

    This Neil Finn stuff is a bit weird. I don't know a lot about the NZ music industry (or indeed music) but I find this current kerfuffle very strange indeed - did Helen and Neil have a falling out about something? Has he been approached by National to be parachuted into a high list place next year? I'm a bit unsure as to what his motivation is.

    As I said in an earlier post, I think Neil feels he was stitched up by Labour over the proposed Youth Radio Network, an idea he championed for a long time, but which gave way as a quid pro quo for the voluntary local music targets on commercial radio.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: The People's Choice,

    Having said that, Russell, perhaps The Herald could find a (marginally) less obnoxious and ill-informed rentaquote than Sir Howard Morrison - and, yet again, nice to see the Your Views column remains a shining beacon of thoughtful and temperate debate. "Mean-spirited"? Christ, Finn has much to learn...

    Fair point. I might actually add a little bit ...

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: The People's Choice,

    and I don't have much of an opinion on the former. Probably I should have, but its just not a case I've paid particular attention to over the years

    I placed a lot of stock in the opinion of a lawyer friend of mine who read Karam's book and followed the case and was saying some time ago to me that there was something very wrong there. He's also very critical of Bain's original trial lawyer.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: I'm in yr Beehive tellin yr…,

    How's the head this morning, Russell?

    Decidedly average.

    But you'll have noted that I wrote a blog, posted a guest blog, uploaded a bunch of podcasts and found some evidence for Graeme.

    Because that's the kind of caring blogger-guy that I am.

    Planning on taking the afternoon off though ...

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: I'm in yr Beehive tellin yr…,

    What evidence do I want? The name of a single island from which a single person has been "evacuated" because of rising seas.

    Seems there's more than one:

    Eight years ago, as exclusively reported in The Independent on Sunday, the first uninhabited islands - in the Pacific atoll nation of Kiribati - vanished beneath the waves. The people of low-lying islands in Vanuatu, also in the Pacific, have been evacuated as a precaution, but the land still juts above the sea. The disappearance of Lohachara, once home to 10,000 people, is unprecedented.

    And more to come:

    Dire climate change predictions may seem like science fiction in many parts of the world. But in the tiny, sea-swept Pacific nation of Tuvalu, the crisis has already arrived.

    Tuvalu consists of nine low-lying atolls totaling just 26 square kilometers, or 10 square miles, and in the past few years the "king tides" that peak in February have been rising higher than ever. Waves have washed over the island's main roads; coconut trees stand partly submerged; and small patches of cropland have been rendered unusable because of encroaching saltwater.

    The government and many experts already assume the worst: Sometime in the next 50 years, if rising sea-level predictions prove accurate, the entire 11,800-strong population will have to be evacuated.

    And more (an Indymedia report, and thus perhaps to be approached cautiously, but still quite alarming).

    Gore's "all" remains an obvious overstatement, but his claim doesn't seem entirely incorrect either.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • PA Radio: Craig Ranapia on the Child…,

    Oh, and the transcript:

    180 Seconds With Craig Ranapia
    May 5, 2007

    In the privacy of the bedroom, spanking is not my idea of a good time — but political junkies? Politics at the best of times involves a taste for heavy duty sado-masochism, with an emphasis on verbal humiliation of your intelligence. The passage of Sue Bradford's anti-smacking bill is very far from the best of times.

    Just to add insult to injury (whether you enjoy it or not), Wednesday saw Helen Clark and John Key re-invent themselves as New Zealand’s foremost dominatrix tag-team. A tasteless and over the top extended metaphor?

    No. Because S&M, like politics is largely about role-playing where little is what it appears to be.

    Unless I’ve completely misread the latest amendment — which was passed 117 to 3 in Parliament on Wednesday night – all that has been achieved is to still make smacking illegal, but explicitly hands over discretion to Police not to prosecute if (and I quote) “the offence is considered to be so inconsequential that there is no public interest in proceeding with a prosecution.”

    And it’s just common sense what constitutes ‘inconsequential’, right?

    Well, you don’t have to be some paranoid, far-left cop hater to wonder whether some in the Police have an idea of ‘the public interest’ that is neither common nor sensible. Or whether we really want the judiciary having to walk where legislators fear to tread, because it got thrown in the too hard basket.

    I can understand why political masochism does not extend to the dungeon of trying to define what constitutes a ‘consequential’ level of force just over a year out from a general election. Much easier to hand it off to the Police, and the judiciary who are going to have to settle any prosecutions, who incidentally catch the flack if they screw up.

    But it’s also a slap in the face, and one I don’t welcome, to see our elected legislature play pass the parcel and claim it’s a triumph of common sense over politics as usual.

    Everyone, regardless of their partisan affiliation, recalls names like Delicia Witika, Lilybing Karaitiana, James Whakaruru, the Kahui Twins and so many more with rage, horror and a desperate, soul-destroying sadness. Too many people — myself included — recall others who lives where blighted by horrific abuse by parents unworthy to have custody of a goldfish let alone a human being.

    It seems almost certain that Sue Bradford’s bill will become law, but I don’t believe it will convince any child abuser to stay their hand. Police discretion will inevitably turn out to be misjudged, and some court is going to make a call that will cause entirely predictable outrage from the usual suspect.

    But here’s the hard and ugly truth: You cannot legislate virtue into existence, or make monsters vanish at a stroke of the Governor-General’s pen.

    We fight human cruelty and evil, by a million acts of quiet human courage and kindness. The law is part of that, government has it’s place, but it’s not enough.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • PA Radio: A chat with Ardal O'Hanlon,

    The former Father Ted star talks to Russell Brown about comedy, politics and a cameo in Doctor Who.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • PA Radio: All about Craft 2.0,

    Ryan Hutchings is charmed by Craft 2.0 founders Sue Tyler and Martha Craig.

    From Public Address Radio on Radio Live, 5/5/07.

    Warning: Contains references to "man-jam".

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

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