Posts by Ben Curran
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I find the poll of polls that Rob Salmond over at Pundit does to be more informative than individual polls. This one seems like a bit of a huge swing and thus possibly an outlier given the relatively low movement over the past few months. Even that though, without (I think) the current poll, has Labour ticking slightly up and National slightly down. Labour shouldn't be counting chickens on the basis of the one poll though.
I have my own biases, but I'm feeling rather buoyed at the moment by Cuniliffe's speech. Makes it feel like that there is someone in Labour who is capable of looking at the world as it is rather than through Pagani glasses - even if he was part of the governments that made some of the mistakes. I'm more comfortable with politicians who are capable of admitting mistakes. They've a way to go though.
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I wonder if anyone has sat down with McVicar et al. and actually gone through the numbers that show that increasing the imprisonment rate doesn't have much effect on the crime rate.
Not that I expect that it would change his mind (however be nice that would be). I would be nice justification for asking all media organisations to attribute his comments to "Garth McVicar of the Sensible we've seen the evidence and choose not to believe it Sentencing Trust.
Possibly it's my background speaking, but I just don't get the whole idea behind trying to induce a moral panic (lock them all up and throw away the key styles) when the numbers just don't support it.
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Hard News: Belief Media, in reply to Sacha,
No more than any other registered non-profit charitable organisations, totally.
non-profit charitable organisations should have tax breaks for their charitable works. Likewise, the charitable works that churches undertake should be eligible for those same tax breaks. The incomes of churches that does not go towards charitable works however - that I think should be fully taxable.
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Hard News: Belief Media, in reply to Steve Barnes,
People with faith don't have this particular problem.
Unfortunately. It's a wonderful problem to be faced with day in, day out. If you want wonder and excitement these days, that's where it is.
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Hard News: Belief Media, in reply to Deborah,
aren't causing any serious harm, then really, it's none of my business.
I completely agree. It's when it stops being a private thing that it becomes worrying. Especially when it's not flying it's true colours, i.e. my impression of say, Family First has always is a religious advocacy group that is deliberately attempting to present itself as something other than religious and that, I find disturbing.
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Hard News: Belief Media, in reply to Bart Janssen,
To me that's an important part of being a New Zealander (whatever that is), the idea that it's OK if your neighbour thinks something different from you so long as your kids can still play together without causing too much damage to the vege garden.
This, I like. And I think day to day it's mostly true for New Zealanders. I get the impression that when we deal with each other, religion/belief is a private thing. And that's a good thing. It's when it religion/belief starts creeping into the media that it disturbs me - I find that when it plays out in the media, the various belief systems don't play nice. When it creeps into political advocacy, again it doesn't play nice - it's usually about imposing a set of values held by a minority onto the population as a whole.
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Hard News: Belief Media, in reply to Robert Harvey,
The thing which tends to bug me about discussions in which religion is an element, is that people's beliefs seem somehow to have more weight, more significance, than (mere) facts. It's as though more energy is behind things that (by definition) you don't know, than behind things that just are.
Which is what happens, I think when people start confusing the various meanings of respect. If one party is using the term to acknowledge that other viewpoints exist and the other is using it to expect that their ideas be considered more weighty than the facts justify, you get problems - the second party being offended when their ideas are not accorded more weight and taking it as an insult/lack of respect for themselves personally, rather their ideas/beliefs.
It's a tricky line to tread.
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I always find the word respect an interesting one in these discussions. There's a spectrum of meaning attached to the word respect. It can be used to denote due regard for the feelings/rights/traditions of others, in which case I fully condone it's use. It gets tricky when it is confused with one of it's other meanings though - in the sense that it can be used to denote admiration for someone/something.
As someone who doesn't believe religious idea's should be exempt from critical appraisal, I find it troubling when used in that second context - in that sense, religious belief being something I do not have any respect for. Disagree with what you say, yet willing to fight for your right to be able to say it sort of thing.
Anyway, I shall watch with interest. -
It's a grand event, to be sure. Getting there at 8am on Friday means the queue only takes about an hour to get through and you get a whole extra day. And the best way to finish, I've found is to leave late on Sunday and stop for ice cream on the grass at Kawakawa Bay on the way home :)
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A New Zealand version of Fullfact would be a grand idea, I'd quite happily volunteer. Keith Ng would need to be on board as the big gun though.