Posts by Craig Ranapia
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Look, I'm also against paedophilia, holocaust denial, anti-semitism, intellectual property theft and offensive body odour. It's a thoroughly disingenuous argument to claim that because someone has not explicitly spoken out against something, it must be assumed that they're "implicitly" for it.
ITA, Kracklite - but sometimes it does help to state the obvious. Personally, I cringe every time I've heard the Maori Party defend military thugs and kleptocrat monarchies... as long as they iz black.
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Then again, Graeme, there are some of us who think 'traitor' is a label that should be applied with as care as 'terrorist'. And every time I hear Ron Mark 'hypothetically' open his mouth, that conviction only becomes more firm.
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I thought that to, the DomPosts justifications for publishing felt pretty weak to me.
Perhaps, but I think it's fair comment to say Phil Kitchin has been around long enough - and Fairfax has deep enough pockets - that this wouldn't go to press unless they were pretty sure they had a defense to publish.
But I do agree with you, Jimmy, that I really hope the DomPost has fairly represented a 100 page + document, and not cherry picked the really scary shit.
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Saying the same kind of stuff in conversation with somebody is considerably scarier, in my view.
Fair point, Finn. I just think in Laura Bush's position, you might be creeped out by someone blathering about putting a cap in yo' man's ass no matter what the medium. :)
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Really? I found the stuff about killing people for practice deeply horrible.
Preaching to the Amen corner there, brother but I still can't quite get over the proposition that being hellishly creepy does not, ipso facto, reach the level of terrorism. Just as having reservations about how the Police handled the raids doesn't justify Greg O'Connor's more demented vapourings over recent weeks.
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Some of the intercepts do read like the kiwiblog comments section on a bad day
Well, I was thinking more about why I tend to avoid American political blogs of all stripes nowadays. But don't get me started about Kiwiblog, where one of the excitable left-wingnuts accused me of giving 'support' to a 'pedophile' recently. Tempted to go hide in a cave next year, because that's when I expect the loons of all complexions to go all the way off their meds.
I'm also pretty curious to see what I/S is going to make of all this . . .
Well, to be fair to Idiot/Savant while he has subjects he gets cranky on (don't we all?) he's a fundamentally sensible chap.
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Shocking as they are, there is nothing apparent in the intercepts that justifies a terrorism charge. The snippets the Dom published are short on concrete planning and long on deranged gibberish.
Well, got to agree with you there and I'm not entirely playing the devil's advocate in saying that I've read some much scarier wing-nutty stuff on various blogs. As it stands: I certainly believe there's a very strong case for some very serious firearms charges. Also hope, as many others have said on PAS, that some sections of Maoridom and the 'activist left' take a good hard look at themselves and chill the fuck out.
And I've got to admit I was rather honked off by this passage in the DomPost editorial Russell linked to:
Some will continue to dismiss much of what was intercepted as the empty talk of people with delusions of guerrilla grandeur. They will say the police should not have taken seriously those who allegedly discussed assassinating National Party leader John Key should he become prime minister at the next election. They will still argue that the police were over-reacting when suspects allegedly discussed creating urban and rural warfare, killing police, removing Pakeha farmers, and committing actions so brutal people would think al Qaeda had arrived.
However, they will find it harder to dismiss what the affidavit says the police surveillance uncovered - trainees at camps in the Ureweras ambushing vehicles and carrying out military-style drills with live rounds, taking part in "terrifying" counter-interrogation training including holding guns to participants' backs and accusing a suspect of being a police informant, throwing Molotov cocktails, posting sentries and carrying out military drills.
That is more than empty talk. Police needed to treat that seriously and needed to investigate. To do anything less would have been to fail in their duty to protect New Zealanders. We believe that the police were right to act.
Excuse me? Has anyone around here is arguing that threats of that nature shouldn't have been responded to - and taken seriously?
And to be quite cynical, I wonder what hasn't been quoted from a 115 page document.
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This article is for you, Craig (tho possibly you have seen it before).
Gee, that's wonderful. Thanks, Deborah.
Haven't see it before - 2003 was a patch when I didn't have a lot of discretionary income for magazines, so The Spectator was it. Jonathan Rauch is great though, and I wish someone would collect his fugitive pieces together in a book.
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That wasn't hacking. Craig just wanted the blue rinse lady to leave him alone!
And those rapacious leeches would take every penny you have. They're fleshy, perfumed pokie machines in fabulously sensible shoes, I tell you! *sob* (Oh, Gods, I'm going to get such an arse-kicking...) :)
Is the Labour party now punishing the NZ Herald by denying its reporters access to political decision makers?
Never heard of a politician who wouldn't prefer your average hack to ixnay the impertinent questions and just transcribe the talking point, and doubt I ever will. All the same, King better get over it pretty fast because access works both ways.
Meaning they should have got it right the first time, right? Meaning they should have redrafted a new bill earlier on, right and listened to a few people, right?
Perhaps even listened to a few people who were never going to tell 'em what they wanted to hear. Crazy, no?
Seriously, this should have been a win-win-win for Labour - and I'd have been the first person to praise a serious package of (IMO desperately needed) campaign finance reforms that nobody 'inside the Beltway' would have been terribly happy with, but still enjoyed broad public support. OK, this can be dismissed as partisan schadenfreude, but it is really hard to feel much sympathy (political or otherwise) for folks who let their paranoia about scarf-wearing weirdos and Amerikkkan bagmentrump every other consideration.
Also, I guess it's hard to address the issues raised by the AG (especially the pledge card rort) when you sincerely think you did absolutely nothing wrong, and everyone who thinks otherwise is colluding with the evil Tories to steal your precious.
Partisan hyperbole? To an extent, but I seriously think its not only the right-wingnuts who really have unresolved grieving issues around the outcome of the '05 general election.
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On a related note, Family First and the catholic church really, really want you to watch Californication. Why else would they put out a press release about perverted sex & drug use in it?
And anyone who thinks Californication is kewl - let alone lets their kiddie winkles watch - has no taste, no mind and serious issues that didn't start when the TV went on. It's painfully obvious that every cable network is looking for the next Sopranos, Deadwood or The Wire__, but they've really got to bring a little more to the table than juvenile provocation.
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