Posts by 3410
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
If National comes up with anything with lyrics that asinine and condescending...
Asinine and condescending billboards okay, though?
-
As you'll appreciate, many (most?) of the suppression orders are being made at the request of the defendants.
I wasn't, actually. It makes a bit more sense now. Thanks for the comments.
-
Graeme,
Could you enlighten us a little bit about the suppression of bail hearing information. How unusual is it? What grounds for it? etc. Thanks for another good article. -
In the One News video, captured from the police vantage point, the incident is swift, and Richards retires. The fact that the police agreed to investigate once they'd seen the TV3 pictures suggests that they didn't fully grasp what had happened at the time.
I don't buy that. What were all those officers within feet of the incident looking at, if not the escalating situation right in front of them?
If anything, it lends credence to claims made by various people that the Police have a preconceived idea of who "the enemy" is.
-
So, any idea why "the Urewera 17" is now "the Urewera 16"?
-
-
Thanks for your support, RB, Kowhai, Craig, etc.
I'm considering lodging a complaint with the Herald. A question: Does the NZH issue more than one (print) edition during any given day, and if so, how does one identify the difference?
I can get copies from the local library, I suppose, but how do I know whether I've checked all published versions?
-
It's going to be a long 12 months or so, isn't it?
Especially for those currently in prison awaiting (for at least six months, it seems) the chance to even answer the charges against them.
The headline of a Thursday 25th, New Zealand Herald article (in their “Crime Story” section) describes Omar Hamed as an “alleged terrorist” (Alleged terrorist's name revealed) despite the fact that he faces no charges under the Suppression of Terrorism Act, merely “three charges of illegal possession of a firearm.”The article further describes Hamed as “a Palestinian, born in Greece, but raised on the North Shore”. I’m reliably informed that Hamed has lived in New Zealand with his fifth-generation Kiwi mother (and not his Palestinian father) since the age of 12 months.
The following day, Friday 26th, this time under a “Terrorism Story” banner, the same story is slightly expanded, under the headline Suspect is member of Palestinian rights group.
The truth is, we’ve got a 19-year-old Kiwi guy whose only charges are that he “was twice in possession of a firearm in Tauranga between January 10 and January 14 this year, then in possession of a semi-automatic rifle in Auckland between September 13 and September 16”. Not "discharging", mind, "posession".
Just where do these pricks at the Herald get off, trying to paint him as some kind of “Palestinian” “terrorist” with the all of the obvious connotations that that carries?
NZH should be ashamed of themselves for peddling such blatant distortions.
-
While the pollies caught by recycled student "humour" could indeed have avoided falling into the trap with a quick Google search...
My point is that if you'd tried a quick Google search on the question of Wikipedia's accuracy you might not be talking about "Wikipedia articles [being] probably, on average, about as accurate as the average Fox News broadcast" a year after that assumption was been widely debunked.
You "suggest that in NZ it goes, from most beliveable to least, print, radio, TV, internet...". You seem to perceive "the internet" as some kind of monolithic beast. Each of these media is merely a vehicle for transmitting material. Whilst the internet may contain a greater percentage of rubbish than the other media you mention - and that's debatable - it makes no sense at all to lumber each source on it with responsibility for that. Credibility - or lack of it - resides with the individual provider, not with the method of dispersal. It's like with people; you don't just say that "People aren't very credible" because many of them spout uninformed nonsense; you grow trust over time with individuals who have built a record of deserving it.
I have a hard time believing that you're "internet-savvy" if you don't understand that.
-
__ RB,
With respect, the only thing you've proved this afternoon is your own prejudice. It's like a straw man factory in here.__ - 3410It's not prejudice. It's an opinion you might wish to discuss. What do you think about the potential for a society with no elected leaders, law enforcement or commerce? How would you achieve it? Would anything but a tiny minority of people really embrace it of their own free will? How do you deal with people who insist on being capitalists or armed robbers?
I'm interested by the ideas outlined in those two manifestos, just not particularly impressed by the thinking.
I did have much more sympathy for the third page I linked to -- and it's interesting that, as Andrew pointed out, it is not unlike the Declaration of Independence. - RB
OK. You quote the Civil Rights Defence Committee's "What is Anarchism?" page, and comment that "It's a bit patronising, isn't it?" Considering the scope of the subject matter, that’s a remarkably weak comeback for one so leaned as yourself, sir. My response would be “If that’s the best complaint you can come up with, I think they’ve done rather well.”
The kind of state violence that is committed daily on the poor all over the world, the poverty and wars are reasons that the state needs to be smashed.. - Radical Youth
I'm just a bit suspicious of utopian solutions predicated on "smashing the state". - RB
“The state” is a social construct (i.e. an idea), not a physical entity. Talking about “smashing” it is a call to overcome one idea with a better one; it is not a call to violence. For example:
“smashing racists” = violent extremism;
“smashing racism” ≠ violent extremism, right?I think “utopian” is a bit strong. Idealistic, perhaps.
Neither of the two local primers I linked to venture on what you'd do should even a few citizens think differently and, say, insisted on comporting themselves as capitalists. It's implicitly assumed that everyone will agree - RB.
The same problem exists in any Western liberal democracy. My guess is that anarchists would consider capitalistic wealth-accumulation a crime, and would treat in much the same way that a Western liberal democracy would treat theft. Besides, I just think it’s a wee bit disingenuous to hold a one page primer to the standard of being a complete exposition of an entire philosophy.
Would [an anarchist society] also contain pockets of, say, armed robbers or simple thieves? - RB
That's another one of the things I love about contemporary society, there are no more thieves, armed robbers or murderers anymore and the political elite work harmoniously with their corporate counterparts for the benefit of humanity *vomits*.- Yoza
There you go again. Dehumanising anyone who participates in democratic politics is a handy way of not having to think about the much messier reality of people's hopes, dreams and motives. Every cop's a bad cop, and every politician is a sock puppet of the capitalist elite. - RB
Yoza’s point is that one should not hold an “an anarchist society” to a standard which one is not willing to equally apply to our society as it now exists if one wishes to make a comparison between the virtues of the two. Your characterization of Yoza’s comment bears very little relation to his comment or the point he or she makes with it.
In the end, we're talking about a 19 year old guy who could be on remand for god know's how long. I've been told (yeah, I know) that Omar Hamed has received a lot of undue bother from the authorities due to his name. If John Minto and Ross Meurant agree that the police are racist, I'd say there's a good chance it might be true.
Just had a thought, regarding the SST's claim of a threat against GWB:
If you're tapping someone's phone, right, how much difference is there between "We're going shooting in the bush" and "We're going to shoot Bush"? Makes ya think.Lastly, sometimes I wish I, too, had the ability to go back and edit my comments. ;)