Posts by Russell Brown
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We may differ on the concrete details, but I'm surprised you appear to dismiss without argument this second point - the need to say "Enough!" And I'm disappointed you and your readers appear to think the status quo is good enough.
It's not.
No, it's not, but fulminating won't change it. And, again, you seem determined to ignore the implications of the statistics you actually quote.
You're citing an increase in recorded violent crime and steadfastly ignoring what that crime is.
In 2007, there were 6252 additional violence offences recorded. 5810 of them were reported incidents of family violence, for which there is far less tolerance than was once the case.
There's an elephant in the room trying to get your attention.
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Oops, I'll try that again.
Why not read my response, and find out.I read it, Peter. There's a lot of fulminating, the inevitable quoting of Ayn Rand, the equally inevitable victim-play (__please__ don't compare yourself with murder victims, even metaphorically, just because someone finds fault with your argument) and not a single thing that would have prevented the murders in question.
You're citing an increase in recorded violent crime and steadfastly ignoring what that crime is. In 2007, there were 6252 additional violence offences recorded. 5810 of them were reported incidents of family violence, for which there is far less tolerance than was once the case.
There's an elephant in the room trying to get your attention.
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Fortunately for me, the knives in this case are just metaphorical. I say that because five Aucklanders and their families and friends are less fortunate than I -- five people including Austin Hemmings have died from real knife attacks in Auckland city since mid-July.
Was he trying to miss the point there?
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Another thumping snap poll on the debate for Obama, this time USA Today/Gallup:
The poll, taken Saturday, found 63% of those surveyed watched the first debate in Oxford, Miss. By 46%-34%, those who watched said Obama did a better job than McCain. Obama led McCain, 52%-35%, when they were asked which candidate offered the best proposals for change to solve the country's problems.
Something happened there, and we might find ourselves talking about it as a campaign turning point.
Or maybe Bristol's wedding to Levi will trump all. For. Fuck's. Sake.
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For musicians, except the very, very successful, the money doesn't come from albums, or lyrics, or music. It comes from touring. Getting out there in front of the fans. Ridiculous term durations don't help that situation.
It's actually the very, very successful that gain the most from touring -- hence Madonna signing a record deal with a concert promoter when her Warner contract expired.
Copyright is very important to smaller artists, __if_ they write songs. Rights fees and other publishing receipts are what keep many NZ artists going. Retail sales, not so much.
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Basically I couldn't resolve the outright lies presented as news with my understanding of the facts.
You may recall me trying vainly to point out during the allegedly out-of-control wave of murders in South Auckland this year that the murder rate in Manukau police district had actually plummeted in the last full year, and was a fraction of that for Wellington, the 2007 murder capital of New Zealand.
And before that there was the "wave" of murders in January that were pretty much in line with normal summer trends. Poor old Annette King was mocked for pointing out that we kill each other in the hot sun, but she was actually right.
Sigh ...
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- People are reporting more violence to the police, resulting in more convictions (my pick).
I think there are two main factors.
One is the increased likelihood of the reporting of family and household violence. This seems to have been driven by the public awareness campaigns and a change in police practice around this kind of offending.
Also, any fool could have predicted an increase in less serious violent street crime, because the "baby blip" generation of 1989-91 has reached the age of committing street crime.
You could also surmise along these lines with respect to the 1970s crime wave: the baby-boomer cohort reached crime-committing age.
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From the Herald this morning, quoting a researcher on something that has always been apparent to anyone prepared to look up the numbers:
Crime rocketed in the 1970s and has been trending down since.
I blame the baby boomers.
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There is an abundance of research out there showing that your brain makes irrational shortcuts which are very useful to your survival as a savannah ape, and somewhat of a hindrance in a technological environment, and this sort of fear partly stems from that.
Kathy Sierra had some related stuff in her Webstock presentation earlier in the year. She also cautioned against having a muted TV flickering in the corner of the room/in your peripheral vision. It will raise your anxiety, she reckons.
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The strap lay on the desk in front of him. It was a formidably solid-looking lump of leather; I could almost have mistaken it for a piece of wood. It bore the inscription: "Approved by the Department of Education, Wellington."
I am minded now to wonder what would have happened at primary school if I had politely but firmly declined to extend my hand for strapping, explaining that it was wrong.
I wasn't troubled by the presence of corporal punishment at secondary school: Burnside High had already abolished it, and your story reminds me why that was such a good idea.
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