Posts by Will de Cleene
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Up Front: Another Brick in the Wall,
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Thank you, Emma, for bringing me to a new plateau of apoplectic rage. I've been continuing research on the history of Deaf education in NZ, and your epistle shows that, like the export sector, NZ's disability support is still living in the 1880's.
I had the displeasure of having a WINZ pet doctor inspect me in Auckland a few years ago to prove my incapacity (Dr Hoadley, I presume). I didn't have my audiogram on me. Thankfully, I wasn't presumed to be wearing fake hearing aids.
Just had a letter from WINZ requiring another doctor examination. This time, they thoughtfully included an email address for Deaf to use. I emailled them asking for the Pet Doctor WINZ to inspect me, and WINZ promptly lost the email. If I hadn't cynically walked into WINZ to double-check, I'd probably have lost my rent money.
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Stranger in a Strange Land is the only Heinlein left in my library. That said, I found Friday's sexual politics about as offensive as the weird fixation Stephen Donaldson has in the Gap Cycle, a series which a fem-mate raved about. Haven't touched the literary genre since.
Futurama has about the right level of kink for my sci-fi diet. More space sitcom, less space opera.
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Legal Beagle: On Burglary, or: Dropping…, in reply to Graeme Edgeler,
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Trespass to what? A field, or someone’s front lawn are unlikely to count as an enclosed yard.
But jumping over someone's fence to skinny-dip in their pool would count as an enclosed yard.
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Legal Beagle: On Burglary, or: Dropping…,
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Is trespass counted as burglary now? Going by the examples you've given, I presume going behind the school bike sheds at night to smoke a spliff is now burglary too.
Has the law just grown another ass?
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Hard News: The Wogistan form book, in reply to TracyMac,
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Just a question on the US situation: are they still fingerprinting everyone (non-US passport holders) like criminals?
That's not all. If you're within 100 miles of the US border, non-Yanks can expect to have their electronic devices automatically seized.
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Hard News: What did you do yesterday?,
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Took advantage of our singular pluralism by blogging on topics which would be illegal to discuss in many other countries.
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Hard News: On Freedom, in reply to tussock,
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That’s just the police. There’s also the courts, the prisons, parole, monitoring and record-keeping. Also, it may be wrong, the police budget is only $1.4 billion per annum, so they’d be using over 7% of their budget on pot.
Yes and no. The $1 billion over a decade does not include those areas and more. Instead of tax revenue accruing from cannabis sales, prohibition has sucked huge wads of taxpayer cash out for neglible gain. You'll find that the cannabis budget is closer to 15 percent of the total police budget than 7.
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Hard News: On Freedom, in reply to Graeme Edgeler,
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A drug possession conviction will not prevent you from being admitted as a lawyer.
The Edge is quite correct. Unlike the lawmakers, the lawyers know what truly matters. Here's the proof from Redmer Yska's excellent history of cannabis, New Zealand Green (1990) pg.141:
In May 1977, a Christchurch magistrate fined a law student $325 for growing 43 plants. Expressing regret at the effect of a conviction on the student's future, he said "laws could be changed through the force of public opinion but in the meantime the law regarding cannabis has to be observed, even though some might think it absurd (NZ Herald 4th May 1977). He cited "practising solicitors who have been convicted of this offence. There has been no question of their being removed from the Law Society's rolls or any disciplinary action being taken against them." Another magistrate added the following day, "I am aware that there is a feeling within the community that the possession and cultivation of cannabis is not a serious matter. But while I am aware of that feeling, until the law is changed my attitude is directed by the legislation of parliament."
That was in 19-freaking-77. The magistrate obviously didn't realise how hard it is for government to admit they made a mistake. Meantime, NZ police spent at least one billion dollars maintaining cannabis prohibition in the last decade.
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Hard News: Cultures and violence,
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There can be unhealthy side effects when you dose a pop culture to encourage every woman to be a warrior princess and every man to be a righteous superhero with god on their side.
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Hard News: This is Your TV on Drugs, in reply to Russell Brown,
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I’ve seen speculation that the federal government will pick a case and invite the courts to find that federal law trumps state law. In which case, all hell will break loose.
I hope it reaches the SCOTUS. Considering the Federal Marijuana Program supplying medical users has existed for decades, there will be some interesting arguments.