Posts by Matthew Poole
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OnPoint: Some of My Best Friends are Consultants, in reply to Matthew Poole,
The Chief Ombudsman's comments are also unlikely to encourage National to make the additional funding a priority. Public servants should know their place, and if they get lippy, well, there are ways of dealing with "independent" bodies.
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Hard News: The Very Worst, in reply to Sacha,
Older ones run finance scams.
And get pitiful community work sentences as a “punishment”. Anyone who outright stole millions of dollars from a bank would be doing hard time, and rightly so, but destroy the life savings of thousands and you’re on gardening duty for a few months.
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OnPoint: Some of My Best Friends are Consultants, in reply to Kumara Republic,
Unlikely. The current government are in no hurry to empower the Ombudsmen, as witnessed by their lack of urgency on rectifying the Office's dire funding situation.
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Hard News: The Very Worst, in reply to Keir Leslie,
13 years is a long time to spend in prison.
It’s also the minimum length of time he will spend in prison.
David Tamihere is a great example. Minimum non-parole in 1990 was 10 years. He did over 20 because he refuses to confess to a crime that it’s very doubtful he committed. Whatever the failings of our penal system, and it has many, automatic parole for people on life sentences is not one of them.
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Hard News: The Very Worst, in reply to Kumara Republic,
Just as the TABOR brigade's idol is now behind bars for fraud.
Shame that that won't stop National from pushing for something very, very similar to TABOR for local government.
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Hard News: The Very Worst, in reply to DexterX,
IMHO opinion the length of sentences for violent crime, murder, rape and the abuse of children seem ridiculously light in the context of the damage such crimes occasion
Brad Callaghan’s sentence for the murder and dismemberment of Carmen Thomas seems incredibly insignificant to me.
Murder has a mandatory life sentence (including Mr Callaghan) unless the judge finds that there are significant factors mitigating against it: so far, the arguments against a life sentence have been restricted to being exercised in euthanasia cases, AFAIK.
Callaghan's non-parole does seem light, but Venning J is a solidly respected jurist and is likely to have made the decision based on appropriate case law. The Crown can always appeal, and parole is not guaranteed in any case.For the rest of your list, there's always preventative detention for repeat offenders; another life sentence.
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Hard News: The Very Worst, in reply to Stephen Judd,
Unless there is someone at the Howard League who is as available and as adept at framing things in an emotionally appealing way
Problem: Garth "Rent-a-scare-quote" McVicar is appealing to the nasty, reptilian, fearful brain. Nothing that any Howard League spokesperson has to say can appeal to the same part of the brain, it all relies on logic and reason, and consequently it will fail to gain traction for as long as populist polly tubbies are prepared to hock votes for the price of a few prison cells.
If we could get the discussion away from fear and knee-jerk-ism and move it to evidence-based policy, HLfPR would actually have quotes that the media would use. As things stand, though, the media mostly just gets Howard League quotes as a way of inflaming the "Kill them all, and if we can't kill them then throw away the key" crowd who don't want to have facts intruding on their terrified-and-proud existence.
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Hard News: Belief Media, in reply to Lilith __,
many of the people who complain that Dawkins is offensive seem very free with their insults when describing him.
He describes us, broadly, as unintelligent non-believers in the scientific method, to pick one strand of his dismissals of theism. Are you surprised people throw the insults out when they are first insulted?
Seriously, listen to what Dawkins says about theists as people and imagine that he's talking about you. "Brights". Need I say more? -
Hard News: Belief Media, in reply to andin,
He's a hypocrite
Oh do tell....
He complains about how theists preach loudly and make derogatory claims and statements about those who do not believe, and then very publicly breaks out the derogatory statements about theists.
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Hard News: Belief Media, in reply to Jackie Clark,
Dawkins has always struck me as a condescending and unpleasant arsehole
Ditto (though that's possibly also because I am a person of faith). He is no less offensive and obnoxious than the "in your face" theists of whom he is so derisive, and I know several atheists who consider him a cock. He's a hypocrite, but nobody with a public profile in atheism has ever said as much.