Posts by Mark Easterbrook
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A better question might be: "If the police could attract more recruits who are Public Address readers, would we start to move towards a more modern, intelligent police force?"
A campaign like the 'better work stories' one is aimed at attracting different kinds of people who might not have considered it as an option in the past. A bit like politicians and teachers, often the best people to be police officers are the ones who didn't start out wanting to be one.
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I'll get to the best party if i can remember it, but I do remember a party moment that's worth sharng in these anti-police times. It was the very earlier 90s, before the traffic cops and police merged.
It was in Whangarei, and a sole traffic cop and a St Johns crew were trying to deal with the results of a minor smash outside a very drunken party. Their efforts were being hampered by a drunk, obnoxious bogan hurling abuse at them from the driveway. In those days, the traffic cops couldn't enter private property, so he was having a ball taunting them.
Until the police arrived. He spotted them and scapered up the drive about 2 seconds too late. They pursued him, restrained him with a fairly minimal amount of force, and directed him back down the driveway to the street.
Once there, they made him apologise politely to the St Johns crew for abusing them, then let him go.
Straight-laced and fair policing at its finest.
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Kate M for McIvor?
(Just asking...) -
I'm even a little prudish about the likes of High 5 - their music is no more annoyingly saccharine than any other kiddie/tweeny stuff, but they way they dress, I think, is inappropriate for young kids - girls in particular.
I never thought I'd see the day I defended Hi 5, but...
...as a regular vewer (my 3 yr old son loves it) I think that the producers go to great lengths to keep the girls' clothing decent. Every mini skirt has tights or leggings. Every potentially skimpy top has a more demure top underneath, or a sports bra engineered for zero inappropriateness.
If you think Hi 5 is dodgy, put it up against the Sugarbabes "Push the Button", aimed at kids not much older. That one makes my skin crawl.
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Slightly off-topic, but connected to Jeremy's post above, has World of Warcraft made it onto the fundy radar? All the same issues they had back in the 80s with D&D, 7 million 'converts', played over the morally-corrupting internet...
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What does my head in is the mainstream media's constant reference to "anti-smacking" legislation.
I was listening to bFM news the other morning, to a news item about Sue Bradford's bill. Something seemed odd or missing - then I realised that they had not inserted the now-standard, extremely loaded and unobjective, "anti-smacking" descriptor.
Good work the b.
The smacking issue came up in the weekend with non-parent friends, who were asking about how we discipline our 3 year old. I could say with all honesty a) I do smack him sometimes; and b) as effective punishments go, it is useless.
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Way back in my primary school days, our one hour per week of "Bible" was delivered by kindly old men who had seen action in World War 2, worked as missionaries later in life, and who had a real love of sharing the morally-grounding lessons to be learnt in Bible stories.
I wonder who does it now? I worry that it's the same kind of aggressively missionary people who attend churches more concerned with condemning 'wrong' (and sucking in wealth) than teaching 'right'; the ones who are right now flooding university campuses during Orientation and 'making friends' with slightly bewildered first years.
And for the record, the one family at our small country school who sat out those lessons were Brethren, but the non-Exclusive variety that don't get much press.
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Sorry, Whoever.
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However the lovely lady in this is, I bet her twenty-something kids would love seeing those shorts.
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I'd just like someone to explain how they would get private enterprise involved. There are already companies out there doing their 'responsible citizen' bit, but I would imagine that if a company's managment is already so inclined, they're already doing something. It's sounds callous, but if there's no direct profit involved, and a diminishing return on PR spin, I'd imagine an awful lot of companies won't suddenly become philanthropically inclined.
I haven't got a clue about economics - can someone with a head for these things explain whether there is a way, through tax deductability or something, that providing social services could be seen as smart business?