Posts by Stewart
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There seems to be (or have been) a culture within police investigations of determining a 'main' suspect and then abandoning other lines of enquiry and focussing on those lines of enquiry that strengthen the case against this main suspect.
I don't know if this is a costing issue (too costly to continue pursuing leads other than those incriminating the main suspect?) or a cultural one whereby the 'gotcha' blinkers go on and alternative lines of enquiry are deemed unproductive or unimportant.
Not so much a case of 'fitting someone up' as determining a suspect and then moulding the inquiry to convict the suspect.
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Hard News: Belief Media, in reply to Russell Brown,
I went to one such rally, at the Christchurch Town Hall, and that was the end for me.
The one I went to was at the Wellington town hall and I was an eager-to-please 12 or 13-y-o who got sucked in with the emotion of the moment. Commit in haste & repent at leisure...
Once I was old enough to realise how contrived the whole scene was I felt very pleased that I had walked away from it all. Happy to have some similar values, but not happy to be part of their way of walking in the world.
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I'd just like to say that while I am not religious in any regular sense I have an appreciation for the natural world that borders on reverence and I would like to be a better person in terms of adhering to the principles that are attributed to Jesus Christ.
But, in truth, I am a selfish, self-indulgent bastard with attitude. Falling short, as it were.
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I find organised religion repellent in most cases - I have a sincere belief that any true religious feeling should come from within rather than being imposed (for some level of 'imposed') from without.
Being raised in an essentially secular household who nonetheless were dragged along to church on Sundays until we were about 12, I saw the hypocrisy of many members of the congregation 1st-hand and I stopped attending church. Then, shortly after starting secondary school a good mate got me into going to Bible Class (I vaguely think I saw it as a way to meet girls who I wouldn't ordinarily encounter) and I got sucked into Youth For Christ which at that stage was led by Ian Grant who has since featured in various family-focused organisations.
The YFC tactic for garnering new recruits was basically to stir up the emotions in big rallies & get the non-committed to "come forward to receive jesus christ as your personal saviour" and I wasn't strong enough to resist the mob hysteria (collective will, call it as you see it). It only took a couple of weeks & I realised I had been conned & it wasn't for me, but I have since had a distaste for the method of recruitment, especially when it seems they are preying on young people at a particularly vulnerable time in their lives.
Since then I have had a deep cynicism for all forms of organised religion and a distrust of the adherents thereof. Most of them are genuine in their beliefs, no doubt, but it strikes me that the basis is all wrong. Or maybe just wrong for me.
<rant>
As for the term 'Christian', I believe it is often a complete misnomer. Many of the so-called Christians of a more fundamentalist bent have no truck with the tolerance, compassion and love that the bible tells us were characteristics of Jesus Christ and are instead deeply mired in the judgemental, vengeful and downright nasty elements that comprise much of the Old Testament. I'd like to see 'Christians' being sub-classified into OT and NT branches where the NT ones believe in the values espoused as being Jesus Christ's values, and the OT's being the vengeful nut-jobs.</rant>
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Cripes, Tom, food that is back from the future. Smart stuff!
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Is this thread-jack into food topics a sign that we have waited long enough for the official Food Blog?
(I'm a big haggis fan & enjoy liver & kidneys but not keen on brains or tripe. Last time I tried tripe I chewed it for a while, swallowed it and a moment later it just popped back into my mouth! I figured my body was trying to tell me something so have given tripe the big swerve ever since.)
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"Trust us"???? I wouldn't even trust that shower of bozos to look after a goldfish.
And to think they intend to go through with this charade after admitting that the fiscal gain will be less than the value of the dividends if they were to stay as SOEs just beggars belief.
The opposition should be flaying them in the House over this, raising the issue to levels where everyone in NZ can see what a shower of wankers* are currenly running the show.
* My opinion & not necessarily the view of the blog host...
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A heart-sinkingly awful display of 'the cost of everything and the value of nothing'.
I fucking despair of this lack of cultural understanding - and I'm a bit of a philistine compared to most on PAS.
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Good to see you back, Hadyn, & looking forward to more sports stuff (rugby esp, but I also like your take on roller-derby).
I owe you a debt of thanks for broadening my beer horizons. I thought I had left good beer behind when I returned to NZ but your missives from Beervana, etc prompted me to make more effort & now I spend more than I should through beerstore.co.nz but at least I'm getting decent (tasty) beer & ale and not subsisting on Steinies alone.
So thanks. -
Hard News: European Horror Stories, in reply to Angus Robertson,
Yeah, especially when it is someone else's austerity...