Posts by Craig Ranapia
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I knew you'd say that ;-)
Oh, you bet your arse I would, I've had too much toxic waste sprayed in my direction from all sides for too long not to think there's always loons on all sides of every debate. (And sorry, I don't think pro-repeal advocates can say they had nothing to do with the often obscenely shrill and poisonous tone the 'smacking debate' took.)
Yeah, I'm inclined to say a plague on all your houses - and I hope it's one of those particularly viruses that turn your internal organs to pudding. :)
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3410:
I was, but I copped so much negativaty that I just shut up about it pretty quicklyDitto. I guess it's rather amusing being slagged off as a tool of the far-left anti-family "Liarbore dykeocracy" and a glove puppet o Far-right Amerikkkan Kristian fundamentalist child killers - but it got really tired, really quickly. Russell is absolutely right about one thing: This whole debate did bring bring some very weird people roaring into the limelight. I just respectfully disagree with him that National is the only party to this that should have a good hard think about the company it keeps. As I'll be asking in my PA Radio slot, when do we get the law banning the long-term abuse of the public's intelligence that was coming from all sides.
Hey, one bright spot: Perhaps froth-lubricated BDSM gang-bangs can now return to the boudoirs, chat rooms and *cough* erotic emporiums of consenting adults where they belong.
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He also mentioned that they will be guided by Court decisions and potentially the Police Complaints Authority decisions regarding the definition of acceptable force...
Oh, Jesus, Joseph, Mary and all the angels and saints... did Broad really bring the PCA get into it? (The PCA which, I think it's fair comment to say, has much more serious operational and credibilityissues to deal with than playing grandmaster-level pass the (ticking) parcel with the Commissioner of Police. )
It would have been absolutely fabulous if (sorry for sounding like a scratched record) if the legislature has the testicular fortitude to actually legislate "the definition of acceptable force". Instead, the more I think about it the more I suspect we're being handed the worse of all possible worlds.
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Fantastic. He did it three times and admitted twice that he didn't know.
Which puts Brian exactly where? Oh, in the same boat as everyone else.
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But is there any outcome you'd be remotely happy with?
This might sound strange, but I'd actually have been a lot happier to see the amendments proposed by Key and Burrows either voted up or down, and if it passed Sue Bradford followed through on her threat to withdraw the bill. (Then again, I could have done without the whole Fawlty Towers-esque exercise of kinda-sorta pretending the whole exercise wasn't designed to ban smacking depending on who you're talking to. IMO, Bradford and other S. 59 repeal advocates did their own cause a profound disservice by not arguing their own cause honestly and unambiguously.)
I agree with Graeme Edgeler - who is very far from a far-right fundie child killer. And I'd add this, which I don't think GE is totally on board with, there is a case for Police having discretionary powers. But they should be strictly limited, and are no substitute for the legislature actually legislating in as clear and unambiguous a manner as humanly possible.
I'm not uncritical of the Police, civil servants (such as the Auditor-General and Chief Electoral Officer) and the judiciary by any measure, but I do feel a lot of sympathy when they're pissed on from a great height by politicians (of all stripes) when they've got to clean up the mess their political lords and masters leave behind.
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Oh, and another cynical thought: Isn't it funny how the NZPF never seems to consider it 'in the public interest' to prosecute politicians -- or political parties -- for any damn thing? Perhaps I've just answered my own question...
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With all due respect, Russell, could we draw some meaningful distinction between the Police Association and the New Zealand Police Force? One of the more delightful ironies of the last twenty four hours is the' U-turn' on the part of folks who had little, if any, confidence in the Solomon-like exercise of discretionary powers by the Police -- at least when it came to breeches of electoral law, 'prina facae' cases against senior politicians, the recent resurrection of 'sedition' as a catch-all for people you can't mail any other way, allegations of rape and sexual abuse against senior Police managers...
Hey, you've got to admire the adroitness with which both Clark and Key kicked for touch. But please don't expect me to applaud the latest round in what's been a three ring circus of spectacular intellectual and political dishonesty from all sides.
I just hope we're not going to hear any bitching and whinging when the Police don't exercise their discretion to politicians' liking. And I do hope we're not going to be back here in two years wondering why breeches of this law are so much more 'inconsequential' when you're a white,middle-class, tertiary education professional. You know, like the good old days when a law student with a joint in his jeans pocket would get diversion, while the brownie from Otara would have no such luck?
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Paula:
Re: The Maori Party. Well, you're right - up to a point. Much as I hate to admit it, Turia does provide a mouthpiece for a nasty strain of "brown neck" bigotry that exists in Maoridom -- and in the end, you've just got to say Parliamentary democracy is a fine and wonderful thing worth dying for, even when it makes you want to smack your head against a brick wall.
Having said that, as it looks increasingly likely that the Maori Party will hold the balance of power after the next general election - no matter who wins - I do really hope we're going to see *cough* a lot less of Miss Turia's brand of playing the racist card at every turn, the 'Yellow tide' anti-immigrant rhetoric, her frankly bizarre and sinister brand of Maori eugenics, and an end to the Maori Party acting as apologists for the likes of Robert Mugabe and every titled kleptocrat and armed thug in the Pacific.
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Deep Red:
I'm glad dollar Tuesday down at the local video store is working out for you, but do you think it might be wise to take the mound of horror DVDs back and let's start having some semi-adult political discourse? I know porn star politics is about the best you can expect in Budget season -- where we're expected to faint at the size of Cullen's bullet points, and not ask too many questions about whether it's actually going to do any good whatsoever. But this stuff -- monetary policy, the role and nature of government, and whether it can actually have any meaningful influence on a complex beast like an economy, and whether political needs and reality are even on the same planet -- actually matters.
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Um, yes... one thing I'd like to see on the political tip is the Maori Party deciding whether they really want to be taken seriously - if they decide to go for the former, then a little caucus discipline really needs to come into play. Turia's essays in Rousseau-and-water 'noble savagery' run the gamut from A(sininse) to B(arking mad) and there's only so many times Pita Sharples can follow up behind with the rhetorical pooper-scooper.
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