Hard News: See you Latta, Bob ...
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Caleb, classic:
One of its findings was that "members of the public feel more confident expressing opinions on others' motivations and tactics than they do expressing opinions on scientific issues".
I feel that way all the time. Despite the fact I'm no denier, one of the things I find most compelling about the science is the lengths that some people have gone to cover up climate change. It's totally the wrong way to understand science, but I'm guilty. When you're no specialist in a science, it comes down to who you trust, and I don't really trust people with financial agendas.
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Ben Wilson wrote :
... and I don't really trust people with financial agendas.
I always find it amusing how those opposing the science behind climate change, always argue that the scientists are falsifying their data so as to get funding for their research. I find that statements along these lines, just cast doubt on the commenter, because they imply that that is what the commenter would do if they were in the same situation.
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So. naked women are a public danger now? They might breastfeed or something?. And lower family values or something. Hmmm.
Though the headlines tend to invite that sort of "WTF?" reading, I imagine that nakedness per se would not be the issue. Not even nudists would tend to wander the streets of Papakura naked, so it wouldn't be a stretch to assume that something is wrong. The woman is likely to be in distress, perhaps as the result of an assault, so some action by the police (who are likely to have more information than we do) seems prudent.
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Brent, it seems like a rearguard action. Tar the enemy with your own brush. This is why I say it's not a good way to understand science, better would be to actually learn about it. Unfortunately I find it extremely boring science. It's not science about how to make things happen, it's science about how it does happen, and how to keep it that way. It's not science where there's profound breakthroughs in understanding here and there, it's about the accumulation of a massive pile of evidence, the very sorting of which is the work of a lifetime, let alone the collection of it. This counts against the perception, I think. "What can you do with your climatology?" "Um, well I can tell people that we're wrecking the planet". "Riiiight, hey where is the robot exhibit?".
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Yes Tom, it was the Herald I was cocking a snoot at rather than the woman in question.
A headline such as... Man Eating Bare Spotted in Kingsland should be read as "Man Drinking Beer Spotted in Kingsland" Because It Will Happen, you mark my words.
5ish at the Neighbourhood bar anyone?.
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I agree with Russell; I was inclined to give John Key a good deal of credit for how he handled the results of the referendum, and the whole passage of the legislation, until he made this unfortunate comment which has just re-muddied the waters. It's kind of analagous to the PM encouraging drivers to exceed the speed limit - though not by more than 10 km/h, mind.
Especially since one of the mantras of the right is "Parliament makes the law, the judiciary only interprets it". Activist judges = bad, and what have you.
Now the PM claims not only to make the law, but to offer the definitive interpretation, too. An interpretation that is not strongly supported by, umm, the legislation he actually voted for.
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Another thread would be interested to know that the ninth-bestselling NZ novel of 2009 is The Trowenna Sea, mostly by Witi Ihimaera.
Since he was going to buy all remaining stock, shouldn't we have expected the run would sell out?
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An interpretation that is not strongly supported by, umm, the legislation he actually voted for.
But it probably is supported by many of the people who voted for him. To which does he owe his allegiance? The law or the voters? He finds the middle path, the path of least resistance, relaxes, and flows down it.
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So. naked women are a public danger now?
The Police cordoned off the area because it is a crime scene.
Join the dots. The resulting picture does not look pleasant. -
Angus: it's really simple. The police decide whether the case merits prosecution, then the court decides whether the case is proven and, if so, what a suitable punishment is.
How can the court possibly make any decisions unless the case is brought before it, which implies a decision must be made to do so?
(Maybe we should have an independent crown prosecutor, as in many overseas jurisdictions, but that's a different matter)
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Some of us just think it's safer if the law (or the Prime Minister) doesn't encourage people to hit their children.
Um... I'd like the Prime Minister (and Sue Bradford and everyone else who isn't on anti-psychotics) to keep repeating that swatting your kid on the backside is not going to have you dragged off to one of these non-existent Feminazi gulags...
until he made this unfortunate comment which has just re-muddied the waters.
Here's a dirty little secret Carol -- you can't make a stangant cess pool "muddier". Sooner or later, you've got to give up trying to reason with the unreasonable or outright dishonest.
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Let's be blunt about this.
Militant fundamentalists are profoundly morally calloused to the suffering and brutalisation of anyone who experiences family violence of any kind whatsoever.
Back in the eighties, Patricia Bartlett disgusted me profoundly by campaigning against the criminalisation of spousal rape that National Party Attorney-General Jim MacLay. Throughout the eighties, they engaged in repetitious puerile dykebaiting of feminists involved in domestic violence prevention work. Then they tried to attack the credibility of statistics and professional practice based on the acknowledgement of high levels of father/daughter incestuous rape within society. Hell, their mates in the male backlash micro-'movement' still do.
Why do I suspect that their current probelting mania is little different from this? Two words. Brenda Bishop.
But hell, McCoskrie and co are poorly educated populist scientific illiterates. No, they won't shut up about this, any more than the geriatric womenhating bigots in Right to Life New Zealand ever shut up when it comes to their desire to return us to the days of backstreet abortions and female fatalities as a consequence.
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(Maybe we should have an independent crown prosecutor, as in many overseas jurisdictions, but that's a different matter)
We do have crown prosecutors. I presume the difference here is that they get involved after the investigation, whereas some places overseas they get involved more while the police are still doing their work.
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Is this the right place to post this?
Poll finds smacking making comeback
Brought to you by Family First and Curia Market Research, no less.
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