Written By: - Date published: 8:25 am, May 20th, 2009 - 86 comments
What’s wrong with The Herald? Their articles Jimmy Mason on the father who punched his child in the face – and pulled him by the ear, and picked him and his brother up on their bikes and slammed them down – has described him as the ‘ear-flick’ father. The headline today is ‘Ear flick father …
Written By: - Date published: 8:34 am, April 20th, 2009 - 32 comments
Why are the questions in citizens-initiated referenda always written by idiots? You want people to vote for your cause, right? So frame the question so people who agree with your position tick the ‘yes’ box. Simple? But they keep getting it backwards. Remember the first one? “Should the number of professional firefighters employed full time …
Written By: - Date published: 10:11 am, October 31st, 2008 - 31 comments
So, you’re talking with someone about politics and they say something really dumb and wrong and you know it’s wrong but you don’t have the arguments and facts at your fingertips to make a decisive point. That’s where our election series, The Standard line, comes in. The info you need in bite-size form. Today: Nanny State …
Written By: - Date published: 9:37 am, August 25th, 2008 - 57 comments
[I do love the idea that someone would go to the zoo merely to hurl insults at the apes]
Written By: - Date published: 12:05 pm, July 2nd, 2008 - 13 comments
TVNZ7 have some great content. Looks like some serious effort’s going into their advertising as well. Here’s one that caught my attention the other day. If your eyesight’s anything like mine you might want to click for a larger version.
Written By: - Date published: 9:27 am, June 27th, 2008 - 46 comments
A good cartoon by Mike Moreu this morning about Key’s confusing stance on the smacking referendum. Though of course, as a_y_b pointed out yesterday, this approach isn’t at all confusing if all you’re trying to do is to win an election by accentuating and exploiting negative perceptions of your opponent.
Written By: - Date published: 11:15 am, June 26th, 2008 - 43 comments
In line with Ministry of Justice advice, the Government has decided not to hold the child discipline referendum at the same time as the election. You can read the entire advice document here: Holding a referendum at the same time as the general election is not recommended because “From 1999, we know that voters would …
Written By: - Date published: 10:40 am, June 26th, 2008 - 11 comments
Colin Espiner’s just posted an entry headed “National’s position on smacking confusing”. It is – but only if you’re expecting philosophical consistency. Key’s approach isn’t at all confusing if all you’re trying to do is to win an election by accentuating and exploiting negative perceptions of your opponent. For the time being, this is National’s …
Written By: - Date published: 1:32 pm, May 29th, 2008 - 16 comments
I’d thought at the time that it seemed a little odd for David Farrar to pass up a free hit regarding the Family First commissioned study on smacking. The headline in Granny Herald was: “Poll shows we’re still smacking our children”. What an opportunity! Turns out though, that it was Farrar’s company, Curia, that did …
Written By: - Date published: 10:06 am, May 15th, 2008 - 74 comments
A man has been convicted of assault for hitting his daughter because she was dating a Muslim. You can’t assault someone, the law worked. Good, right? OK. Now, let’s imagine that this had taken a place a year ago and the daughter, who is 20 years old, was 15 instead and, so, a child in …
Written By: - Date published: 12:45 pm, April 29th, 2008 - 93 comments
Family First’s petition for a referendum on reversing the amendment to s59 of the Crimes Act that removed the defence of reasonable force for assault on a child (try saying that three times fast) has failed to get enough signatures. It needed 280,275 signatures and seemed to have enough but the Office of the Clerk …
Written By: - Date published: 8:34 am, April 15th, 2008 - 56 comments
Just what you may have been waiting for: www.righttosmack.co.nz While we want the government to interfere with people’s private activities to some small degree; (outlawing homosexuality, stopping abortions, abolishing civil unions, abolishing legalised prostitution, etc.) – we will not tolerate being told we cannot use force and violence as part of loving correction and discipline! …
Written By: - Date published: 4:10 pm, February 26th, 2008 - 55 comments
National Party blogger David Farrar points to a criticism of the repeal of s59 by Sacha Coburn (“a Christchurch businesswoman, lawyer and mother”): The Government should read this column and be afraid… The whole column is worth a read. And Sacha Coburn will not be an exception – there will be many more like her …
Written By: - Date published: 10:05 pm, February 16th, 2008 - 11 comments
It’s been a few days now since the announcement of Katherine Rich’s decision to stand down from politics, but articles such as in today’s NZ Herald continue to try and explain “why”. Perhaps they also have that sense that her departure could be a turning point, the significance eluding us until we’re further down the …
Written By: - Date published: 5:45 pm, January 29th, 2008 - 57 comments
Mike Moreu from The Press is shaping up to be quite a fine cartoonist. Here’s his take on the Religious Right’s petition to restore the riding crop lady‘s right to beat her children. Meanwhile the folks over at Newzblog have done a great send-up of the increasingly incoherent Garth McVicar from Sensible Sentencing and the …
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