I can’t say I was really surprised when I read this article – “Parrots tend to be lefties” – except perhaps that it wasn’t a more informal news source.
A town gets a bypass, they lose passing trade (local) for the possibility of large global trade (free trade). Now they have to attract travellers to stop at their town and spend, trade. Some of the town fathers choose whores and no parking fees, others want cafes and artists to target the higher spending tourism dollar and want to pay for the up keep of the pavement by parking fees, others still think that they should be the next silicon valley, or financial hub of the world. How do we know which NZ is? Well there’s a risk premium on investing in NZ due to the fact that we don’t have parking fees for capital gain, and so are left destitute, exporting skilled people and putting up brothels. NZ towns know they want parking fees, nice range of cafes, but Wellington Beehives want brothels and no parking fees on capital gains.
Good analogy zb. I would like to include in the advantages to towns., a return on every GST $ spent there from central government to local govt. Reward for increasing business and to help provide needed facilities for the visitors, then available for locals.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/blogs/opinion/4626376/A-future-path-for-New-Zealand
You get the message, I get the message, but it seems the smart people don’t.
If we get lots of weeds maybe we should start weeding.
Maybe we should look at nurturing people and communities, spread the tax burden further (and onto a CGT), and stop the farce that is NZ won’t deal with, that if we wave people through our country faster, they aren’t going to stop! No parking fees on capital gains, the growth farming industry in NZ is capital gain farming, its cheap to take profit, far to cheap to take profit, and that is at the core of why we fall behind Australia and others. We make it too easy to make a bundle of money selling out to foreign investors. We work hard, we have all the resources, education and ability but we don’t get on the race track because someone sold it off.
If one of the top scientists doesn’t get that, and its not rocket science, then it must be too hard for the elite to change direction, to honestly debate, and that’s a national calamity.
I’ve been taught by Callaghan many years ago (as have tens of thousands of NZ’ers) and I like what he has to say. He’s expressed himself rather apolitically here but I doubt that he is actually apolitical.
He’s no idiot, but he idiotically nails the problem without dealing with the underlying realities, that AK housing is even more unaffordable than NY housing, that more of those thousands of NZ’ers he taught have left NZ shores for good. How can you say he did not know that, the lack of a capital gains tax, the lack of credible scientific leaders willing to do some basic diligence into the woeful way NZ is run, for the needs of global speculators. Oh, yeah, that’s it, he gets grants, his daily bread comes from the same system that he is endeavoring to stablize by failing to address the issues facing NZ, or worse addressing them and then come up with nothing substantial worth changing. The guys no idiot alright, and his position is political, he’s providing reassurance and consent to the status quo that even he admits isn’t working. Great teacher, great insight but as a political commentator he suks worse than bad eggs.
John Key has been at pains to say that the Maori Party issues are theirs and theirs alone – nothing to do with him. He has been quick to stick his oar in this morning however.
Well done John (let’s see how the wind blows) Key.
As this blog pursues its endless and boring denigration of John Key it seems to me that the highly intelligent and knowledgeable are forgetting a simple fact of politics in a democracy that you have to have popular support, David Lange and Helen Clark had it and now John Key does. I would have thought that the recent Yahoo poll illustrated how out of touch writers here are and this mornings poll seems similar.. I used to look forward to coming here and reading sensible left wing points of view, rather than the trash-wars at Kiwiblog, but these days it is because I have not deleted the URL from my favourites as I do my daily walk around the sites, ever optomistic.
Orange whip ….I have never voted Labour and the one person I did foolishly vote for once before MMP arrived turned out to be completely ineffectual as a minister in the last Government and now resorts to pointless muck raking.. So OW your cynicism completely misses the mark. Try again.
@jcuknz – not sure who you are directing your comments to – anyone in particular? (Like the addage “you know where the off switch is on the TV,”
similar applies here. But I suspect you cannot help yourself and you will keep passing by… and the truth is the comments about your dear leader are beginning to cut it)
What I do know is that, the leader of our country from 1999 to 2008, was subjected to some of the nastiest commentary from a whole lot of people who should have known better – (O’Sullivan, Armstrong, Young, Hooten, Holmes et al)
– popular? – she started out hugely.
– any truth in comments about her personal life? – none whatsoever, but the lies were constantly peddled, directly or by innuendo.
Boag and Brash had a coordinated attack regarding corruption – was complete bs, you know it, but it all became tiresome and distracting.
Some commenters on this blog site highlight the two-faced nature of our current PM – as someone who is media image driven and appears to be of extremely shallow or immature nature. Time will tell, and all we are doing is highlighting the cracks in the man’s makeup. Remember the campaign about “Trust” (of course you do…) It may come back to bite him yet.
Because I value ‘The Standard’ as the best blog I am aware off, apart from special interest blogs I visit, I made my earlier comment because I think the leader writers are heading up a wrong avenue. My comments were not directed at HC but as I said … a minister … if you had read what I wrote more carefully.. If we are going to have a right of centre government in New Zealand then I am happier with John Key than anybody else. Often people gun for the bad only to get even worse.
Oh right, another morning, another day of watching John Key lead us confidently towards the cliff. Farmers lose a lot of sheep that way. In sheep flocks they often have one called a bellwether. April Fools Day project – hang a bell on his lapel, on his office door, under a whoopee cushion in his seat in parliament chambers etc.
Since sheep are inherently mountain creatures I’m sure they will find a way down the cliff which both the sheep and New Zealanders will find despite the sabotage to the effort by extreme LWNJs with their pathetic bleatings.. Don’t forget that it was a Kiwi who climbed Mt Everest first.
It has been said and often repeated … those going to Aussie raise the IQ level of both countries. It is only the capitalists who bemoan the loss of mugs to buy their products..
We dont want grumpy old pricks like you who want to force us back to the good old days of the 1950’s.
You know where spousal rape was legal, etc.
John key is a nasty person, who hates those who earn less than $50,000 a year. That is a FACT.
[deleted]
[lprent: you are starting to attract my attention. I would suggest pausing to review your writing before sending the send button because you could find you’re unable to use that button shortly otherwise. This appears to me to be pointless abuse. ]
So the middle class burb of Botany is to be ignored by the left, less than 4 weeeks away from poling and there is no sight or sound to be heard of an endanged species …. Labour MP’s.
So Lab only give lip service to those electorates not held by lanb MP’s Mt Albert and Mana
Stuff those that our new policies are aimed at… The Middle Class and immigratnts that came to NZ within the last 11 years. All talk and no action. http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/central-leader/4613862/Mt-Roskill-a-priority-Wood
I bet if Wood said that he was going to campaign full time and not do his constituency duties you would be thrashing him for that. So instead you thrash him for actually trying to do both.
You obviously do not live in Botany because if you did you would have noticed a huge number of Labour billboards go up on Saturday, if you lived in the poorer part your door would have been knocked on, and if you had been to any sort of community activity you would have met Michael.
This complete lack of knowledge on your part does not prevent you from pontificating on how Labour has “abandoned” the electorate when the exact opposite is true.
Do you have strongly held views on other topics you have no understanding of?
MS – Before yo start get some facts without just blasting away. LAb has abandoned the Botany area and the lack of profile (to display I know the area) The traditional site for Lab bilboards cnr Chapel and Santa Anna has the billboard.
Where is the profile say here or on Red Alert? Have a review of the histor of posts re Mana & Mt A to the date of the by election. there were posts 5 weeks out. For Botany nothing, not even a mention of Michael Wood.
Last election Lab had a last minute change from a unionists to an academic.
There are no notices of meetings, and I have never seen or heard of a Lab member visit the area in this, the last election or when it was part of Collins, or for that matter when Ross r held the area domain. For all her shortcommings Pansy did have a physical exposure and held many street corner meetings.
And finally no I would not “I bet if Wood said that he was going to campaign full time and not do his constituency duties you would be thrashing him for that”.
So M.S> where are all the big wigs from Lab? In Mama and Mt A the was an obvious presence. But then that was red territory, this has not been red since boundary changes removed it from Ross Roberstons area.
I hope that you can pick up I am very aware of the area and its history.
Also MS (or anyone else out there )as you have some possable connections with Lab, where are the lists of meetings etc that the public can attend and here what Lab is providing. there is nothing that I can see in the public arena.
There are stories, not confirmed 1st hand yet that JK has already ben seen in the area and participated in a stree meeting.
Not because it was ‘un-PM-like’ John but because it laid bare a bunch of assumptions you make. I mean, you were pretending to be ‘gay’ right? Because only a fag would model clothes. And only poofs walk like that. And if that’s not what you were doing then please enlighten us…
Feminists have over the years sacrificed time, themselves even to progress women’s place upwards in society. There always are a bunch of women who take it all for granted. They then do not impress on their daughters what others have done to provide opportunities to have better lives where they get respect as they move through society.
Police report that 90 per cent of drunk and stupid people at a recent sports match were women. But this isn’t new. I have a copy of a radio documentary on our drinking culture which is very instructive – women who don’t know how much they have drunk, or who they were mingling with, despite the thought at the start of the evening that they should keep count on drinks etc.
No wonder there are rapes etc. To men who are equally drunk and careless, it would seem that the women don’t care what happens to them, that they are out foraging for excitement and experience. So they are given it very happily by males who are then blamed for not behaving properly with these little ‘ladies’ who themselves are acting improperly.
It’s like believing that desire and sex acts rarely occur so can be ignored. That would be obviously incorrect. And then the idea that anybody out in public is always perfectly safe, so being wary and self-protective can be ignored. That’s wrong too. Stats show that young men near pubs etc. are the ones most likely to be assaulted or murdered. The alcohol and the people overusing it result in heightened risk to irrational happenings. It is equitable that women suffer the same effects including attacks, with the extras advantages that a woman’s body provides.
captcha – trusting! ie mix with people you can trust, and be able to trust yourself to look after your own protection. That’s what emancipated women would do.
In particular men have to get it that a woman’s judgement is lacking when they are drunk and this may impair/prevent them being able to give consent to sex. Is it wise for a male to hit on a drunk woman for sex?
Treetop – Why should a drunken male be in a state to be wise about sex any more than a drunken female? Why does he have to think for her? Why as an adult person can she not think for herself?
It gets back to the man being protective of the little woman thing. I thought that women had decided they didn’t want to be protected and patronised. But then they need to take responsibility to safely manage their environment.
But of course women as victim is the refrain, so any criticism to that status is bound to be unpopular. Victimhood means you never have to face the truth of a situation or even consider doing so.
hang on prism, just to clarify, are you saying that if a woman has passed out the guy might reasonably confuse this, in his 3-drink haze, with consent for sex?
So they should just accept that the environment is full of things like rain, dodgy cobblestones, and oh, rapists.
Also, ‘be patronised or raped’, is a pretty fucked up dichotomy.
The thing that is getting people a bit about your position is that you think the consequence for women, (being raped) is equivalent to that for men, (raping someone).
It appears that there can be no rational discussion about the effect of less heavy drinking by women on decreasing rape of women. Pity, it is a shattering, invasive action if it is unwanted sex. But everything discussed must first pass the standards set no doubt by numerous workshops and women’s studies papers. The correct way of thinking is thus, and any deviance is deviant.
“It appears that there can be no rational discussion about the effect of less heavy drinking by women on decreasing rape of women. ”
Oh, RATIONAL discussion. Yep, we’ve all ignored every piece of research you’ve cited or linked to. After all, it’s not like you’ve just been saying that because laddettes are acting unladylike by getting pissed they’re pretty much forcing the poor defenceless drunk men to rape them. /sarc
Seriously, there has been some research on alcohol and sex crime, quite a lot based on US college campuses. I’m sure that there’s been some more produced in the last few years. Care to show anyone you know what you’re talking about? Something better than “I once heard a radio programme that said young women were getting shitfaced” or whatever you started with…
As far as I\’m concerned rape is rape – no matter what, whether the victm is male/female, drunk or not, just like showing your ankles in the old days didn’t mean you were asking for it, nor does being drunk. To me the big issue is that young men and women do not know how they are handling drink – to learn that takes a few times being drunk. While they are in this phase there are perfectly ordinary boys and girls who are not totally comatose having sex but in the morning don’t really know whether they gave consent or not, and if they were not drunk know they would not have; or whether they read the presumed consent properly and if they were not drunk they may have read the situation differently.
This is a fact of life parents should give their sons and daughters, ahead of the ‘situational awareness’ or whatever other excuse is made up to blame the victim. Otherwise some perfectly ordinary boys and girls could find themselves in perfectly extraordinary trouble.
My son the health professional (who has just had fun with his colleagues in Welly, cleaning up after drunks in costume at the 7s,) is fond of saying “It takes two to make a bad sexual decision”. (he’s 24 by the way, not some old git! 😀 )
Making a bad sexual decision is infinitely more likely if you’re trolleyed..
Deb
Both a male and a female have to think for their self. However woman are disadvantaged as they usually are unable to drink as much as a male, most perpetrators of rape are male and usually when a woman is attacked by a male they are overpowered.
Facts are facts and this has nothing to do with a woman being emancipated.
Not only that, but apparently the “90% female” refers to moderately pissed people in the chill-out areas. Not the folk who did not moderate their drinking when they felt they’d had a bit much and then ended up at A&E. The End is NaeNae makes this point.
As for the victim-blaming, prism – get a life. Rape is not the result of being “careless”. A guy doesn’t stumble on the gutter, fall onto a woman and accidentally rape her. Rape, i.e. when he knows the woman is unable to consent or has refused consent, is not just a drunken accident. Arguing “oooo they’re both drunk” kind’ve lumps “he’d had a couple of drinks, she was comatose” with “they’d both had just enough to relax, but not so much that they were going to make major mistakes in judgement”. Unless you have actual data (as opposed to hypotheticals you just assume), I suggest that this grouping might be unhelpful to the discussion.
So I get drunk and stand in the middle of the road, and surprise surprise get run over by a drunk sociopath……I dont think Prism is making a moral judgement here, merely pointing out a known hazard.
Apart from the fact that if you stayed stone cold sober and spent the bulk of your time locked in your own home, Mr Sociopath will probably not dress up as the meter man or plumber or courier or adapt his methods to find some other way of running you over.
The sole culpability for any crime lies with the person who committed the act. They can argue mitigation/deprivation/whatever, but it’s them who should be in the dock, not the victim.
Like most crime, rape is a specific act that is intended. It might be impulsive, but it is still an intentional act. You might argue some generalised personal safety methods, just as you would argue for locking front doors to deter burglars, but the thing is that if someone intends to do something all you might be doing is shifting around who the victim will be, not whether or not there is a victim. And then blaming the victim as somehow contributing to the crime because they happened to match the particular profile a particular criminal got his jollies on and was capable of exploiting is essentially blaming her for not being psychic or living in a state of paranoia.
“It might be impulsive, but it is still an intentional act.”
And then blaming the victim as somehow contributing to the crime because they happened to match the particular profile a particular criminal got his jollies on.
What you’re arguing here doesn’t really make sense. For a crime to happen, there has to be an opportunity and an action. It is easy to see that this is the case – without an opportunity, a crime cannot occur.
The opportunity does *not* have to be created by the criminal. In the case of home invasion and rape, the criminal has created the opportunity to commit the rape by invading the house. In case of a criminal raping a drunk woman, the woman has created (or greatly eased) the opportunity of the rape happening in the first place.
You might argue some generalised personal safety methods, just as you would argue for locking front doors to deter burglars, but the thing is that if someone intends to do something all you might be doing is shifting around who the victim will be, not whether or not there is a victim.
But this clearly isn’t true. If a door-to-door salesman comes to an unoccupied house, and there’s a window open with valuables in full view of the window, it’s very easy for them to reach in, grab the item and be off. If that same window was shut, then the crime never would have happened. What you’re arguing here is that the door-to-door salesman somehow has a daily quota for burglarising houses that he comes across, and if he doesn’t steal something out of your house because the window was shut, then he’ll keep going door-to-door until he does.
Impulsive crimes are also called “crimes of opportunity” – had the opportunity not existed, the crime would not have happened. This is where people come up with “she was asking for it” when talking about women being raped – clearly she was asking for it if she walked home alone through a dark alley at 2am in the morning. No, not really, it was just a crime of opportunity – if she hadn’t have provided the opportunity, the crime wouldn’t have happened.
There needs to be an opportunity *and* an action for a crime to occur, and because criminals are 100% in control of the action side of things (until proven otherwise), we can lay 100% of the blame on them at all times. But opportunity does also play a role in a crime happening in the first place, to pretend that it doesn’t is illogical.
A number of tories are fond of saying “you make your own opportunities”.
Your door to door salesman didn’t have to reach through the open window. That’s pretty basic. I used to have a job that involved pointing things like that out, and I never nicked a thing. And you’re not asking people to just close a window when they go out, you’re telling women to never, ever, ever get drunk and have a good time because if they get raped, even by someone they thought they knew well and trusted, it’s their fault because they dropped their guard. Nor should they ever go jogging in a park, or catch a taxi, or work late, or meet new people, or go on a date, or have a flatmate, or be a single mum in Rotorua, or wear a skirt, or wear a dress, or wear trousers, or be naked etc etc etc, because it might enable or provoke a rapist, and then it would be their own fault.
But even if you had closed the window, he might have been able to pop the lock with a card. So you need window locks and deadbolts. Or he might have been doorknocking to confirm nobody was home so he could go around back and break a window, so you need bars and alarms. Or he sold you a doctored alarm, so you need a redundant system from another company. So he just burns the place down with you trapped in it and collects the life insurance he took out on you.
The point being that when you’re talking about a general crime situation, saying “you shouldn’t have given them the opportunity” is unproductive because criminals just alter their plans to suit. I doubt that would have been the first or last crime your salesman committed. If there is a specific threat, such as reason to believe a drink-spiker or someone attacking joggers, or burglars posing as door to door salesmen (actually charity collectors is a common one – even if they’re home they might still give you money) is operating in the area, then advice on their current MO can be a public service. Saying people put themselves at risk because they got drunk and so removed themselves to a safe, supervised “chill out” area serves only to assign blame on any victims of a crime which already has a very low reporting rate, and a low conviction rate even if a crime is reported.
Rape is done in secret, it requires the perpetrator to use physical force and NO consent is given. A victim is a person who has been preyed on by an unscrupulous scum bag. The moral here is to have your wits in tact as this can prevent being preyed on, but does not guarantee not being preyed on.
Standing in the middle of the road does not equal being a woman. Even a prostitute is required to give consent to sex.
Rape could happen on nationwide tv and still be rape. Physical force isn’t a necessary condition.
For those who believe that women and girls who are intoxicated and incapable of consent bear responsibility, ask yourself, when men get drunk is that impicit consent for any other men to do what they want with their bodies, or does this little gem just apply to females?
To all above the criminal who commits a crime is the guilty party regardless of the circumstance: and rape is as bad as it gets. On a personal basis you might want to consider whether you would wander drunk into any unsafe environment just because you had an expectation that you should be treated honourably and lawfully? There are dangerous sociopaths out there….they will take advantage. Do you leave your house unlocked? I think not, its an invitation.
The victims of rape and assault have my total sympathy and support. It does not impress me however that they might have made a criminals task easier. Cautious prevention needs encouraging because there is no cure to the damage done by rapists.
Sometimes I might be in a hurry and forget to lock my kitchen door. This does not mean I want to be burgled.
And we’re not talking about 30sec each morning. We’re talking about a lifetime of living like a goddamn puritan because of someone else’s criminal intent. Fuck that – “then the terrorists win”.
And of course nobody here has bothered to actually provide evidence that higher alcohol consumption is associated with higher rates of sexual assault, and (and here’s the pisser) controlled for the fact that a busier social life means meeting more people, therefore more social people meet more rapists.
It’s all very well saying “they’re making it easy”, but you might want some fact before everyone demands a major lifestyle change.
We’re talking about a lifetime of living like a goddamn puritan because of someone else’s criminal intent. Fuck that – “then the terrorists win”.
Nice sentiment, agree to a (very) large degree. You wont however catch me going to sea without a life jacket. Its got a little to do with self preservation in a known dangerous environment. And I dont get drunk in the boat, its a recipe for disaster.
But boaties don’t wear lifejackets all the time. Sometimes they get swept overboard before they can put it on. And sometimes people can drink alcohol on boats, just as long as someone else is running it. And you can always come ashore, whereas a woman (surgery and hormones notwithstanding) will always be a woman.
Sexual attackers are not a force of nature, and can be even more unpredictable than a day on the water. Getting pissed at a venue, acting like a dick, and breaking your leg falling off a table is one thing. Getting pissed at a venue, acting like a dick, and being raped in the toilets is another thing entirely. One is your fault, and I genuinely believe that the latter is not. It is the rapist’s fault.
What is so difficult about *not* getting ‘off your face’ every weekend, and so puritan about being choosy?
Unbelievable! Common sense and civilised behaviour is puritan now? Mad, just crazy…
Actually, (given that I know several people who get happily drunk on 1/2 glass of wine) advocating that women should never risk impairing their judgement in practicality means that all women should be teetotal. Which is puritanical, if not technically Puritan.
It’s about as difficult as jogging daily and eating only healthy food. Because you’re told that if you don’t, and are raped, you somehow brought it on yourself.
“Rape always involves some form of physical force/touching.”
Well obviously you have to touch someone to rape them.
But you needn’t physically overpower someone in order to do it. Threatening them with a gun wouldn’t count as physically overpowering someone, it’s intimidating them with deadly force.
“or does this little gem just apply to females?”
It applies to everyone, it’s just common sense!
Deb
captcha – pushed, as a drunk person can easily be.. even if they think they’re consenting – when they wake up the next morning and think “what have I done, and why did I do it?” then it may not be rape, but it’s not far off..
Sorry – had to go and do some urgent house maintenance.
Women get pissed so ‘no wonder’ they get raped? WTF?
No need to wonder about why it happens in many cases, that’s true. I make my point again that now young women have more freedom, more opportunities to decide on what they want to do in life. It is disappointing to find that many of them want to live like, ‘ladettes’ I think is the term, partying, living loudly in the moment, careless of themselves and their safety. They can’t come the fainting maiden if something sexual happens to them then. There is research into how often unplanned sex takes place after drinking to excess. Too much.
Getting drunk and gormless once or twice is part of learning how much is too much. If it is a regular pattern then that is risk-taking behaviour. Women who take up prostitution have to be careful in their behaviour if they want to be successful at it and also limit the possibility of problems from males. It could be a good idea if they ran workshops for the scatty female amateurs who could learn some pointers.
right, now that’s done, message begins:
So getting drunk once or twice is okay, as long as it doesn’t offend your sensibilities? How often is a woman allowed to get drunk before she is taking a risk? How long before being raped is an expected outcome, rather than a surprise? How many times is a woman allowed to be drunk before you think she becomes at least partially culpable for her own rape?
mcflock – Why are you asking me so many questions? Why not ask yourself how you think rape can be reduced as I have when I suggested that women should set limits on their drinking as if they don’t they are adopting risk-taking behaviour.
You are preaching at me about how unreasonable my viewpoint is. And why is the guy not 100% to blame? It is irrational that some women cannot consider the thought that a woman is not always 100% blameless.
If you want to reduce risk-taking behaviour, it helps to know the actual level of risk, rather than pulling hypotheticals and assumption out of the air..
To reduce sexual crime we need a 100% reporting rate. Blaming victims doesn’t encourage that.
“It is irrational that some women cannot consider the thought that a woman is not always 100% blameless.”
I’m a male. Where my dick goes is nobody’s fault but mine. Sad but true.
If you want to know how a guy can be bit pissed off about this issue, I worked for several years in community safety. I shared offices with youth support staff. A big problem isn’t that the victims are drunk, it’s that the offenders are drunk. You want to lower alcohol-related crime, concentrate on offenders, not the victims.
I’m busy, but I’ll just say, or rather ask, that you think a little bit about how you phrase or think about things in terms of the passive voce and agency.
As to what I’m getting at, women don’t ‘get raped’. People ‘rape them’.
All I’m saying it’s that is not the women who are acting. You are implying that the rapist is just a force of nature, as if they are just there and if a woman chooses to get drunk then rape is something that just happens. It denies the fact that the rapist is the craitical agent here. They are the ones with agency. They own the action. Put it on them. Don’t say women get raped. Say rapists rape women.
Or maybe an analogy might help. In the Jim Crow south, the problem wasn’t ‘uppitty negroes’, it was lynch mobs. Saying that African Americans should have just kept their heads down, crossed the road, averted they’re eyes and sat at the back of the bus, is just not right.
In the same way, the problem here isn’t drunk women, it’s rapists.
argh stuff it – I’m knocking off for the day. Might catch up at home, but have a run of meetings tomorrow. FWIW, I’m trying to break it to the bosses gently that part of the secret to my consistent goal achievement is that a few blog sites keep my brain from fizzing. My healthy indignation kept my blood pressure up for a couple of hours longer than otherwise 🙂
Myself I have been warning you off of unsafe places, placing yourself in danger and you admit to going off to work????? A place that crawls with people who make Al Queada look like Sunday school teachers (another known unsafe bunch). Thats somewhere fraught with danger, to sea for me (with or without life jacket)….
No, finishing work – it’s okay, it was still daylight when I got home and activated my home-defense minefield. Someone sat behind me on the bus, but I took them out with my keychain nunchukas.
Thank golly, my days of rotating 24hr rosters are over. Although it does stuff my sleep/work patterns. Going by my posting patterns, Lynne probably has me pegged as unemployed, or a student 😉
[lprent: I do the frogs eyes trick. If you don’t look like a troll or out of control bot (much the same in my opinion), I don’t start tracking your movement. My attention gets instantly attracted to certain phrases (like my name or handle or some of the hallowed troll phrases indicating a non-functional brain) and comment patterns. But I don’t notice yours when moderating because it isn’t what I am hunting for.. ]
js Lads do get raped at times. But the most likely victim is a woman. If that woman is intelligent she will not facilitate this attack. Another reason for a woman being ‘surprised’ is if she is young and inexperienced. But regular drunks can’t expect huge sympathy though they and their friends demand it.
Cripes dude you’ve been given a hiding to nothing on this today.
Personally I think that every human being should take the practical steps that they can to make themselves a harder target.
Whether or not someone thinks its a shame that society should be like this or where blame should be placed is to me, irrelevant. The overarching principle of watching out for your own and your mates’ backs hasn’t changed in 10,000 years of human society why would it be any different now.
I think the closest explanation of my position that I can come up with is the difference between patient-based health (i.e. doctor looks at patient’s vitals and offers treatment) vs population-based health (look at a population and find differences between groups and outcomes).
Population: Tobacco use is the risk factor. Lung cancer is the measured attributed outcome. If the population, in general, quit tobacco, ~90% of lung cancers would probably be eliminated.
Patient: Patient is diagnosed with cancer. Remembers a cigarette that was smoked near him. Blames self for having that cigarette. Actual cause: Maybe that single cigarette. Maybe atmospheric pollution. Maybe a workplace hazard that remained unidentified.
Crime population: Alcohol use is the risk factor. Crime is the attributed outcome. If the population quit binge drinking, ~80% of crime might be reduced (whatever – dim recollection of some data I read in another career).
Crime incident: Person is assaulted. Was assaulted while drunk. Blames self for being “in that situation” (drunk). But we know that you being drunk is not directly related to someone choosing to assault you. You might piss them off, but it’s their choice to use violence. The actual cause is that person who committed the crime.
And it’s not a predetermined biochemical/genetic interaction that follows the laws of physics and chemistry. It’s an actual choice, as if the normal cigarette who seemed nice and not like the others suddenly chose to be the evil kind that gives you lung cancer. Maybe they did it while they were drunk, but the risk factor was being in the sights of a rapist, and unfortunately rapists don’t wear big signs.
The problem is when the population and patient approaches merge. Saying “alcohol is related to crime, you were drunk, so you are partially responsible for someone raping you” makes it less likely that you will report the offence. Which kind of screws the population-based approach in the areas where it would be valuable. And it also means your rapist won’t be caught. And it makes your aftermath as a survivor even more difficult. That’s the shit that really gets my goat, as folks might have noticed.
Well you picked it. Even in the largest most powerful studies it is difficult to ascertain what relevance, if any, the conclusions have on the decision making around a specific individual.
Its fraught with decision making error and of course you have identified that people can easily place to much faith in a study’s conclusions even if it is actually not relevant to them at all, and end up using its results to criticise themselves.
Even if it is not relevant to their own situation at all.
Ta McFlock,
Feeling a bit downtrodden by life just now, so not really up to this kind of conversation. Luckily, even straight after a hard day’s work you’re up to it and up for it. Kudos! This stuff is wearisome but important (as you know only too well). Can’t keep letting this kind of shit go unchallenged.
As far as I’m concerned rape is rape – no matter what, whether the victm is male/female, drunk or not, just like showing your ankles in the old days didn’t mean you were asking for it, nor does being drunk. To me the big issue is that young men and women do not know how they are handling drink – to learn that takes a few times being drunk. While they are in this phase there are perfectly ordinary boys and girls who are not totally comatose having sex but in the morning don’t really know whether they gave consent or not, and if they were not drunk know they would not have; or whether they read the presumed consent properly and if they were not drunk they may have read the situation differently.
This is a fact of life parents should give their sons and daughters, ahead of the ‘situational awareness’ or whatever other excuse is made up to blame the victim. Otherwise some perfectly ordinary boys and girls could find themselves in perfectly extraordinary trouble.
Oh and never, ever leave a friend who you start the night with alone at the end of the night.
So if a guy chooses to rape a woman, contributory negligence is no defense.
I mean, that’s exactly the same logic as “oh, her skimpy clothes drove the man insane with lust and he had no choice”. I fully get the desire to reduce alcohol abuse in NZ, fair enough. A drunk person inducing their own rape is a nonsensical reason for it, though.
Hang on. Have you lot thought this through.
Does this mean that of the women who dragged me off to bed when I was a drunken teenager.
Were they rapists? There was at least one I would not have slept with sober. Or am I for not ascertaining they were sober enough to give informed consent. I doubt if I was sober enough to make that distinction. I did assume consent when they wrapped themselves around me after taking their clothes of though.
I think some times it may be more morning after alcoholic remorse or even teenagers misreading each other, than rape.
Considering rape is a crime of power and violence rather than sex.
Okay, this is the “thin ice” area – I’m sure lots of people have consensually shagged other people when sober and regretted it later. I’m also sure lots of people have done exactly the same thing when slightly pissed.
And I’m sure that lot’s of people have apparently “consented” at the time when they were drunk/drugged enough that any commercial contract they signed would have been thrown out. I’m not saying a kiss is a contract (where have I heard that one before?), just if you are talking about “impaired judgement” then any “consent” at the time could plausibly be retracted after the fact.
But I think that it’s all a bit of a red herring to the original sentiment, which I took as: “these women at the sevens are obviously and disgracefully drunk, it’s no wonder they get raped”. So we’re not talking about situations where both people are maybe a bit tiddly but both seem to be having a fine old time. We’re talking about situations where at least one party is obviously drunk, so consent should be assumed to be unavailable until they’ve sobered up. Austin Powers could do it, but apparently the kiwi male is incapable of self control.
There’s also the “ooh she could have defended herself / run away from that horrible man if only she’d been sober” accusation as well. That’s pretty much as stupid, in my opinion.
We’re talking about situations where at least one party is obviously drunk, so consent should be assumed to be unavailable until they’ve sobered up.
I have no idea what kind of parties you go to, but I’m not sure that this ‘waiting until sobre’ you suggest has ever happened at any party that I’ve been too.
Well, if you were at a party where someone was so trollied that they were close to passing out and someone “had sex” with them, I’d suggest that was rape.
The less clear distinctions rest on power dynamics between participants, who’s making what choices, how drunk the drunkest participant is, and then how much more sober the most active participant is in comparison. It’s a case by case basis, but I’d suggest that if you have an ookey feeling about it, then it’s probably not 100%. Like I say, if both people are a little bit tiddly, not so clear cut.
My personal rule of thumb is: “never do while drunk what you can put off until tomorrow, and if it’s unlikely to happen tomorrow in the cold light of sobriety then it’s probably a bad idea”. And it’s not just for sex – it also applies to playing with explosives, hi-jinks in high places, and juggling sharp instruments. God I wish I hadn’t learnt it, as a teenager, by trial and error 🙂
Young women seem intent on keeping up with the lads in the pubs pretty much 1:1 drinks these days. Except the women tend to be about 15kg lighter and like drinking 7% and 8% RTDs or 12.5% wines, whereas the lads make do with 4% and 5% beers and considerably more body weight.
Just do the math on how well that turns out by the end of the night.
With Hone’s ructions in the MP, he’s starting to look more inept than he looks calculated.
But anyway, if he does leave the MP, I’m sure either The Greens or NZ First would welcome his safe electorate seat. It would work out quite well politically with NZ First – it would set up a definite spoiler for National because of Key’s impetuous ruling out of Winston. I guess the problem is whether Winston and Hone would see eye to eye, and whether Winston would let another high profile voice take over his party (then again, Winston is getting pretty old these days and needs some sort of succession plan in place…).
As I’ve said before Lanth, maori seats are NOT cross compatible with general seats.
So even if Hone joined a new party, they can’t do an ACT and piggy back in on TTT being won by Hone.
Maori seats are second class, just like all Maori in this country, or have you not realised that yet?
4) The Electoral Commission must disregard any total under the name of any party that—
(a) has not achieved a total that is at least 5% of the total number of all the party votes received by all the parties listed on the part of the ballot paper that relates to the party vote; and
(b) is a party in respect of which no constituency candidate who is either—
(i) a candidate for that party; or
(ii) a candidate for a component party of that party (being a component party that is not listed on the part of the ballot paper that relates to the party vote but is, in accordance with the details held by the Electoral Commission under any of the provisions of sections 127(3A) and 128A, a component party of that party)—
has had his or her name endorsed on the writ pursuant to section 185 as a person declared to be elected as a member of Parliament.
Now that’s a bit complicated, but it says when the commission is allocating list seats they first disregard the list votes for parties that either:
(a) doesnae get 5%, or
(b) doesnae have a candidate elected to a constituency seat.
The test under (b) is whether or not they have a candidate elected as a MP. says nothing about general vs Maori seats…
Interesting perspective in the Press from Ian Roberts (epidemiologist). He argues that cutting greenhouse gas emissions has considerable health benefits. Then this:
“The experience of Cuba in the 1990s confirms the health effects of reducing fossil-fuel consumption.
During the Cuban energy crisis that followed the cut-off of subsidised Soviet supplies, the proportion of adults who were physically active more than doubled. The population’s average BMI fell by 1.5 units, with a halving in the prevalence of obesity, from 14 per cent to 7 per cent.
Deaths from diabetes fell 51 per cent, from heart disease by 35 per cent, and from stroke by 20 per cent.”
Nothing too surprising, but it’s nice to have the ‘natural experiment’ to make the point pretty conclusively.
The usual suspects will, of course, go wild over suggestions that global warming has something to do with the food crisis; those who insist that Ben Bernanke has blood on his hands tend to be more or less the same people who insist that the scientific consensus on climate reflects a vast leftist conspiracy.
At least one MSM economist understands. Now we need the rest of them, the politicians and the populace to understand as well.
AS can be deduced from that thar movie picture show everyone outside empire central knew what the score was in real time, but you still cannae say it at home. Not really.
It’s kinda amazing how the right there has latched on to the tax raisin, amnesty fer the illegals givin, negotiatin with the dreaded russkie, cutter an runner from the terrists, seller of guns to the perfidious persians, blower out of deficits, creator of whole new government agencies, fake assed old fool that was the Gipper.
But has been also noted by others, everyone needs there heroes. Their mythic leaders. Their iconic stereotypes. And the GOP is no different, It needs them too. The fat that they chose the Gipp, it’s been also noted, is on account of no one else being plausible. The last president the GOP had that rates previous was Lincoln.
And just quietly, in plenty of GOP recesses and corners of ID: the great emancipator? Well let’s just say some are conflicted about how they feel, about the day, he took a bullet in the back of the head. Other that though, the GOP presidential wing a unrelenting tale of shit and botherance, mythic figure wise. Not for them an FDR or a JFK. Not a Teddy nor a Woodrow. Not nothin but a parade of place sitters, ticket clippers and escapers of justice. (There’s Ike of course, but what’d he do aside from give a good speech when he was finished?)
Poor bastards, let them have their raygun.
That said, here’s John Dolan, who taught Ames the shit, tellin it like it was before the myth took hold, just for the record.
I was thinking about ‘the gipper’ over the past few days, and I would love for his supporters to tell me:
1) When he privatised social security
2) When he sold the Tennesee Valley Authority, Bonneville Power Administration, etc
3) When he sold Amtrak
4) When he chopped Aid To Families With Dependent Children (like our DPB)
5) When he privatised the FAA’s air traffic control system (he sacked the controllers, but thats all he did)
6) When he chopped Medicare (that he campaigned so strongly against)
He did his fair share of nasty things, dont get me wrong, but it was Clinton and Bush that took apart America’s institiutions, and Obma is going to finish the job.
On Sunday, America celebrates the 100th birthday of Ronald Reagan, whose presidency is a touchstone for the modern conservative movement. In 2011, it is virtually impossible for a major Republican politician to succeed without citing Reagan as a role model. But much of what today’s voters think they know about the 40th president is more myth than reality, misconceptions resulting from the passage of time or from calculated attempts to rebuild or remake Reagan’s legacy
“Well let’s just say some are conflicted about how they feel, about the day, he took a bullet in the back of the head.”
I remember reading an interesting thing in an ‘anti-conspiracy theory’ book years ago. I forget the author – he was arguing why, psychologically, people like conspiracies.
Part of the discussion was about how people (in the US) concocted conspiracies when liberal figures got shot (JFK, Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy, John Lennon, etc.) but hardly ever when conservative figures got shot. He then off-handedly mentioned the coincidence that G.H.W. Bush’s son, Neil, was to have dined with Scott Hinckley (John’s brother) the night of – or perhaps the night after – the assassination attempt – then added how, despite that coincidence, few people seemed interested in making a conspiracy out of that (because ‘only’ a conservative Republican was shot).
My eyes widened. First I’d heard of that. There was G.H.W. Bush, ex-CIA head, the VP, a (distant) cousin of the Queen of England, with the ‘born to rule’ expectations that only a life of high privilege can bestow, a heartbeat away from the Presidency towards which he’d worked most of his adult life only to serve second fiddle to a Hollywood actor – and the families of the VP and the assassin were intertwined!
Turns out John Hinckley senior was – you guessed it – a Texas oilman and was great friends with G.H.W. and contributed greatly to Bush’s campaign run against Reagan in 1980. Both were a bit upset that Reagan didn’t seem to like the tax breaks for the oil industry on which they relied.
Also, DC was the only place in the US with an insanity defence and, so, provided non-custodial sentences for murder. Fortunately for Hinckley he chose DC for his attempt (Hinckley was released from Federal Bureau of Prisons custody on 18 August 1981.). Unfortunately for many accused felons in the US, after Hinckley’s non-custodial sentence (though, ever since, he has been confined to a – presumably very nice – psychiatric institution with various periods of unsupervised home visits lasting many days) public uproar meant that the insanity defence became harder to use and, in some states, legislation for it was entirely repealed.
Then again, John Hinckley Jnr had stalked Carter as well – he was already a bullet with any old President’s name on it (all for the love of a lady).
Aaahh! The wonderful world of coincidences. Still, when you’ve read about the succession processes of the Kings and Queens of England it would perhaps be even odder if assassination were not part of the ‘career moves’ of the powerful today. Or perhaps the efficacious civilising influence of capitalism and liberal democracy means that it no longer happens now – only back then in the ‘bad, old days’ long before tv, McDonalds and government ‘by the people, of the people, for the people’.
As they say, ‘the truth is out there’. (In that vein, Reagan was injured in the chest by a ricocheting bullet. It was Brady who took a direct hit to the head.)
Not that any of it matters, either way. The ‘good fight’ remains the same, conspiracies or not.
Yowsers. I did not know that. When people write novels as crazy as US political reality, in gets filed under surrealism. I suspect a conspiricy in there somewhere.
Neil Gaimon got it right. The old gods moved to the new world. Also, David Lynch and little Jimmy Ellroy.
Rape is rape. It doesnt matter if women are getting pissed and promiscuous. No means no. That is a fact.
No may mean yes, or maybe down at the rugby club, but everywhere else, sex is only sex when a women wants to be intamite with a guy, not when a guy forces himself on a women, even if the is in a drunken stupor.
Its people like you that make me sick. Why dont you admit that you want to strip women of all rights and priviliges?
millsy – You are getting hot and bothered. I am talking about women making the most of their rights and privileges. They don’t do that when they spend a lot of their free time getting pissed so they can have a good time. I started off saying how women have worked so other women had better chances and how that has advanced women’s position but some don’t value it enough.
Perhaps you can think of a way to ensure that No means No whether or not she is in a drunken stupor. A lock up was used I think at the time of the Crusades. Or perhaps wrap up in duck tape. A sign over the important area declaring ‘Off Limits”. Or a sign saying “I declare my right as a female person to be drunk and not be molested. Trespassers will be prosecuted.”
It’s sick-making that a woman can’t be sure that she won’t be interfered with even if she goes to a spare room to sleep and recover. It happens though. So girls be clever and keep safe might be the motto. Not tub-thumping about women’s rights to get drunk wherever. That’s the last I’ll say on this.
@McFlock… who said “Actually, (given that I know several people who get happily drunk on 1/2 glass of wine) advocating that women should never risk impairing their judgement in practicality means that all women should be teetotal. Which is puritanical, if not technically Puritan.”
I am teetotal! (For reasons connected to the family curse of alcoholism. OK, it may not be very highly heritable, but why take chances?)
It may be, but is not necessarily, puritanical…
I really don’t see why advising women not to get legless is considered offensive?
Deb
Clarification: the issue isn’t whether people in general should be made aware of risky behaviours and encouraged to moderate them. That’s a standard public health practise when linked to clear and measurable harms (i.e actual risk, as in an actual incidence rate and rate-ratio calculation. Not supposition, conservative abhorrence, or blind guesswork).
What I regarded as puritanical was the suggestion that every single individual (rather than general population perspective “what would happen if nobody drank?”), should quit alcohol because of what somebody else might choose to do to them.
What really irritates me in the thread is the suggestion that because a person is drunk, they are forcing somebody else to commit an assault/robbery/rape. That a drunk woman somehow puts a man (sober or drunk) in the position where he can’t resist an urge to “have sex” with her. And that the drunker she is the more responsible she is for the man’s decision. All that it does is shame victims into not reporting the crime because they must have been asking for it. And the low reporting rates do more to enable the crime to be committed than even our current binge drinking culture could ever do.
So what physical safety messages do you think that alcohol education of young people should promote?
With the concerns you have raised around victim shame etc. would you even dare to link the state of being heavily intoxicated as a high risk one associated with increased risk of being a victim of an assault (sexual or otherwise) and the impairment of good, safe judgement?
I note that the MoT has no compunction against ad campaigns which shame drunk drivers who physically hurt and kill innocent people around them (who may or may not be drunk themselves). In fact creating shame seems to be an objective of those anti-drinking ads.
Well, first of all, what’s the actual risk factor? Being drunk or being around drunk people? Or being in low socioeconomic areas? Or being in pubs that sell alcohol to grossly intoxicated people? Or off-license specials that work out to little more than a buck a can?
Basically, with only one exception that springs to mind (ISTR it was called the “Lisa” ad), the LTSA and ALAC ads focus on bad things you might choose to do when drunk, rather than things that might be done to you by someone else (drunk or sober).
Drink-driving is an act you actually choose to do which should scream “this is a dumb idea” to even a heavily drunk person. With a high level of risk.
For many of the ads, I think they’re targetting associates of excess drinkers (beyond the latest run of “don’t bring your mates along” – which also seems to be a reasonably effective attempt, but then I’m no longer 19). Others (especially the drink-driving ads) target offenders. The trouble is in getting good public safety message reception in 15-24 year olds (it tends to either not connect, or connects but quickly desensitises).
One of the best ads I saw was on a pub urinal – a sticker saying something like “if you take a taxi you’re a bloody legend” and a line-drawing of a cab, and when nature took it’s course the heat changed it to a picture of a car wreck and the “if you drink and drive you’re a bloody idiot” tag. Targeted at drunk people, at a venue, at the time they might need it, easy to make out and read, and encouraged (ahem) “active engagement” to see what the message was. Damned fine piece of advertising.
The other approach is to supplement efforts of advertising at young people with work on liquor pricing and enforcement at the licensee end. From my personal perspective particularly enforcement, but I haven’t done too much reading in the pricing area. The 17-22 y.o. risk takers are often extremely price sensitive, so the suggestion seems reasonable on that basis, but then you get the entire “what about rich kids and poor mature people” issue.
Boosting enforcement resources and maybe bunging in police immediate 3 day closure notices upon witnessing offences x y z of sale of liquor act might be useful. If a party premises operates wed/thurs/fri/sat, and the police find gross disorder on a wednesday, that’ll nuke 3 moneymaking days of the week. I saw a couple of places in the paper for liquor act breaches, and their punishment closures were set during a seasonal downturn, when they usually shut for refits anyway. Not a huge punishment.
Anyway, advertising is one tool, enforcement and price barriers another. The other key course of action, however, is rather than increasing excess drink public safety messages, why not eliminated the competition and re-restrict alcohol advertising? All that cool party social advertising encouraging alcohol consumption basically conflicts with the ALAC message – personally I have no problem with mass-media alcohol advertising bans.
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Kāinga Ora When Chris Bishop asked Bill English to help him do an “independent review” of Kāinga Ora last year, who here could guess that English’s report said exactly what Bishop already indicated?A reminder of how it went down:For the modest payday of $500,000, Bill English was paid from the ...
Patrick Reynolds is deputy chair of the City Centre Advisory Panel and a candidate in this months Entrust election It might surprise you to learn that in Auckland, our harbour city, wrapped around the shores of the beautiful Waitemata, bikes bring as many people to the city centre in the ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew DesslerlinkYou should probably learn the term compound climate event. It refers to the occurrence of multiple weather- or climate-related hazards happening simultaneously or in close succession, leading to amplified impacts. One of the most feared compound events is ...
We must have sympathy for the right.After all, it’s difficult being a conservative these days. Progressive politics are proceeding at a rapid pace. World leaders preaching kindness and compassion are lavished with praise and acclamations. You can’t hit your kids anymore, you can’t hit your dog, you can’t hit your ...
The news that the University of Waikato med school proposal has passed its cost-benefit analysis just two days after the Dunedin Hospital funding crisis announcement may not be linked, but one certainly impacts the other. POLITIK understands that ACT opposes the Waikato proposal and NZ First is lukewarm, but somehow, ...
The word “blow-out” is such a politically loaded term. It carries a strong whiff of extravagance and incompetence. In fact, and with public health budgets in particular, going “over budget” is a sign that reality has finally caught up with what – from the outset – was always a budget ...
Completed reads for September: Old English Genesis A & B (poetry), by Anonymous Old English Exodus (poetry), by Anonymous The Life of St Guthlac of Crowland (poetry), by Anonymous The Death of St Guthlac (poetry), by Anonymous Maxims I [The Exeter Book Maxims] (poetry), by Anonymous Maxims II [The ...
Delightful piece from Hayden Donnell at The Spinoff (how did I miss it?) — Huge opportunity: Could you be the guy standing behind the PM looking furious? OK, so I thought ‘grim’, right? But Hayden has brought receipts, as the saying goes… and his view is ‘absolutely ropeable’. Lol. “Usually ...
Reader Pete Hodgson was in touch after Saturday’s edition to offer his speech notes from the Dunedin rally. They are excellent, they deserve the widest audience. My name is Pete Hodgson, and I chaired or served on the governance group of the new hospital for 6 years until last Xmas. ...
It's official: coal has been eliminated from the UK's electricity system: Britain’s only remaining coal power plant at Ratcliffe-on-Soar in Nottinghamshire will generate electricity for the last time on Monday after powering the UK for 57 years. The power plant will come to the end of its life in ...
..Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.National Party leader (current), Christopher Luxon, speaking at a public meeting in Gore, in January last year:“Now lets be clear, Dunedin Hospital, started under a National Government, mucked around under a Labour Government for ...
The National Party has been promising Dunedin - and the lower South Island - a new hospital since 2008. Despite those promises, the Key government did nothing during its nine years in office, and it was left to Labour to actually start the process in 2017. National promptly criticised them ...
A bit disoriented this morning. I’ll blame Daylight Savings; I slept late. To be fair, it was probably the new mattress. After going to Rotorua the other week, we realised just how terrible ours was.“Scalloped” is a term that will be familiar to guitarists. It describes how some guitars have ...
Over the weekend, the Minister of Transport Simeon Brown proudly announced his new speed-setting rule, a decision that will undoubtedly lead to greater harm on our roads. It’s a tragically predictable decision by a Minister who seems to be on only nodding acquaintance with both evidence and international norms. Fueled ...
Kia ora. Long stories short, here’s my top six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Monday, September 30:Over 35,000 people marched in Dunedin on Saturday to protest against the Government’s plans to downgrade the new hospital being built there.In the scoop of the ...
A listing of 30 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, September 22, 2024 thru Sat, September 28, 2024. Story of the week Given the headlines dominance of hot oceans lofting water into the atmosphere where it then obeys the Clausius-Clapeyron relationship thereby ...
But what a fool believes, he seesNo wise man has the power to reason awayWhat seems to beIs always better than nothingThan nothing at allSongwriters: Kenny Loggins, Michael McDonaldWe begin.“Welcome to Q&A, I’m Jack Tame. Today, for a government that says it’s fixated on waste, what’s the point in a ...
Oh, you should have seen Reefton in 1888. It glowed. It was illuminated by the future.In August of that year — and I am confident I have my facts right because I am quoting directly from the town's own website — Reefton became the first place in New Zealand and ...
Dunedin is not a happy city at the moment. We are used to being ignored in the nationwide New Zealand media – wrong end of the country and all – but the Government’s recent announcement on the Dunedin Hospital rebuild has got people motivated. How motivated? Well, I couldn’t make ...
A nice bit of news. I can report that I have had a short story success – my 3,600 word gothic horror piece, The One Who Saw Too Much, has been accepted ...
And another pitch shattersAnother little bit gets lostTell me what else really mattersOh, such a costLike pebbles on a beachKicked around, displaced by feetOh, like broken stonesThey're all trying to get homeSong by Paul WellerDoes it feel as though your country has been hijacked? That terrible people have taken the ...
Dame Jacinda Adern would not accept “acceptable death rates” during Covid. But in the UK the Tory government said “Let them die”.Additions belowYesterday, when I saw the news that a Timaru factory with hundreds of jobs on the line was going to close, I couldn't help but think:"I'm so glad ...
1. What did the National party promise Dunedin last election?a. We will build the hospital you needb. We will never give you up, let you down, or Rickroll you c. We will bring back John Keyd. Pandas2. What is the National party promising Dunedin now?a. A sawn-off half-pint watery version of ...
Note: This is obviously a very heavy topic — it took me three days to manage to write it — so please read with care. In saying that, in amongst the awfulness I think this piece also contains some hope, and plenty of humanity. Thanks to those of you who ...
We are extremely sad to say that our esteemed Skeptical Science colleague— and good friend to many of us— John Mason passed away on Friday September 20, 2024. Only last week, we blew a horn of appreciation for John's remarkable gift for telling stories about science. Our expectation was that ...
Stagnation and ContractionIn this column I use the less familiar measure of GDP per capita instead of the GDP measure favoured by the commentariat. I became familiar with it when I began doing international comparisons because of the population differences between countries, while I depended upon the measure while working ...
This is embarrassing: I just had to google who Andrew Jassy is.I come to substack to learn terrible thingsIn my defence, they promoted him during the pandemic and I had other things on my mind. Also watching Amazon injure their workers at a rate of over four times the US ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on the latest climate news, including research suggesting a doubling of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could trigger 8° of warming ...
Long stories short, here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa this week, and a discussion above between Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer:A seventh planetary boundary, for ocean acidification will soon be breached, and may have already done so, according to ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford still can’t confirm when the Government will deliver the $2 billion worth school upgrades she cut earlier this year. ...
Labour acknowledges the hundreds of workers today losing their jobs as the Winstone Pulp mill closes and what it will mean for their families and community. ...
In Budget '24, the National Government put aside $216 million to pay for a tax cut which mainly benefitted one company: global tobacco giant Philip Morris. Instead of giving hundreds of millions to big tobacco, National could have spent the money sensibly, on New Zealand. ...
Te Whatu Ora’s financials from the last year show the Government has manufactured a financial crisis to justify making cuts that are already affecting patient care. ...
Over 41,000 Palestinian’s have been murdered by Israel in the last 12 months. At the same time, Israel have launched attacks against at least four other countries in the Middle East including Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Iran. “You cannot play the aggressor and the victim at the same time,” said ...
Associate health minister Casey Costello has made a fool of the Prime Minister, because the product she’s been fighting to get a tax cut for and he’s been backing her on is now illegal – and he doesn’t seem to know it. ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee’s inquiry into climate adaptation is something that must be built on for an enduring framework to manage climate risk. ...
The Government is taking tertiary education down a worrying path with new reporting finding that fourteen of the country’s sixteen polytechnics couldn’t survive on their own,” Labour’s tertiary education spokesperson Dr Deborah Russell says. ...
Today the government announced a $30m cut to Te Ahu o Te Reo Māori- a programme that develops te reo Māori among our kaiako. “This announcement is just the latest in an onslaught of attacks on te iwi Māori,” said Te Pāti Māori Co-Leader Rawiri Waititi. ...
The Government has shown its true intentions for the public service and economy – it’s not to get more public servants back to the office, it’s more job losses. ...
The National Government is hiding the gaps in the health workforce from New Zealanders, by not producing a full workforce plan nearly a year into their tenure. ...
Today, the Crown Mineral Amendment Bill was read for the first time, reversing the ban on oil exploration off the coast of Taranaki. It was no accident that this proposed law change was read directly after the Government started to unravel the ability of iwi and hapū Māori to have ...
Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Justice, Tākuta Ferris, has hit out at the Government, demanding the Crown prove its rights to the foreshore, following the Marine and Coastal Area Amendment Bill, passing its first reading. "Māori rights to the foreshore pre-exist the Declaration of Independence, Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and ...
The Green Party vows to reinstate the oil and gas ban and revoke permits when it returns to government following the coalition’s introduction of legislation to reopen offshore oil and gas exploration this afternoon. ...
The Government’s introduction of its interventions in the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act threatens to throw relations between Māori and Crown into deeper disharmony. ...
Gun lobbyist Nicole McKee and her conflict of interest has struck again, this time removing safety regulations from shooting clubs and ranges in New Zealand. ...
The Green Party says the Government’s retrograde move to tighten up on Work from Home arrangements is the latest in a series of blows to the Public Service. ...
The National Government is oblivious to the impact cuts to services will have on New Zealanders who are doing the hard yards caring for mentally ill family members. ...
National continues to dismantle environmental protections in the interests of rushing through unsustainable development that will ultimately cost communities. ...
The economy has stagnated and the National Government is having to face the consequences of its atrocious lawmaking, as beneficiary numbers skyrocket past even Treasury’s predictions. ...
Today’s GDP figures combined with the injustice of our tax system will mean more pain for our lowest-income households while those at the top remain relatively unscathed. ...
Kia uru kahikatea te tū. Projects referred for Fast-Track approval will help supercharge the Māori economy and realise the huge potential of Iwi and Māori assets, Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka says. Following robust and independent review, the Government has today announced 149 projects that have significant regional or national ...
The Fast-track Approvals Bill will list 22 renewable electricity projects with a combined capacity of 3 Gigawatts, which will help secure a clean, reliable and affordable supply of electricity across New Zealand, Energy Minister Simeon Brown says. “The Government has a goal of doubling New Zealand’s renewable electricity generation. The 22 ...
The Government has enabled fast-track consenting for 29 critical road, rail, and port projects across New Zealand to deliver these priority projects faster and boost economic growth, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “New Zealand has an infrastructure deficit, and our Government is working to fix it. Delivering the transport infrastructure Kiwis ...
The 149 projects released today for inclusion in the Government’s one-stop-shop Fast Track Approvals Bill will help rebuild the economy and fix our housing crisis, improve energy security, and address our infrastructure deficit, Minister for Infrastructure Chris Bishop says. “The 149 projects selected by the Government have significant regional or ...
A new multi-purpose recreation centre will provide a valuable wellbeing hub for residents and visitors to Ruakākā in Northland, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. The Ruakākā Recreation Centre, officially opened today, includes separate areas for a gymnasium, a community health space and meeting rooms made possible with support of ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay, and Rural Communities Minister Mark Patterson announced up to $50,000 in additional Government support for farmers and growers across Southland and parts of Otago as challenging spring weather conditions have been classified a medium-scale adverse event. “The relentless wet weather has been tough on farmers and ...
Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay today welcomed a move by the European Commission to delay the implementation of the European Union’s Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) by 12 months, describing the proposal as a pragmatic step that will provide much-needed certainty for New Zealand exporters and ensure over $200 million in ...
The Government is taking decisive action in response to the Ministerial Inquiry into School Property, which concludes the way school property is delivered is not fit for purpose. “The school property portfolio is worth $30 billion, and it’s critically important it’s managed properly. This Government is taking a series of immediate actions ...
The Government has announced a new support programme for the residential construction market while the economy recovers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk say. “We know the residential development sector is vulnerable to economic downturns. The lead time for building houses is typically 18 ...
Environment Minister Penny Simmonds has confirmed the final appointee to the refreshed Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) board. “I am pleased to welcome Brett O’Riley to the EPA board,” Ms Simmonds says. “Brett is a seasoned business advisor with a long and distinguished career across the technology, tourism, and sustainable business ...
The Government has approved a $226.2 million package of resilience improvement projects for state highways and local roads across the country that will reduce the impact of severe weather events and create a more resilient and efficient road network, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Our Government is committed to delivering ...
Kiwis will see fewer potholes on our roads with road rehabilitation set to more than double through the summer road maintenance programme to ensure that our roads are maintained to a safe and reliable standard, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is a key ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has welcomed the announcement of Sir Jerry Mateparae as an independent moderator, to work with the Government of Papua New Guinea and the Autonomous Bougainville Government in resolving outstanding issues on Bougainville’s future. “New Zealand is an enduring friend to Papua New Guinea and the ...
The latest 2023 Census results released today further highlight New Zealand’s growing ethnic and cultural diversity, says Ethnic Communities Minister Melissa Lee. “Today’s census results are further evidence of the increasingly diverse nature of our population. It’s something that should be celebrated and also serve as a reminder of the ...
Parents and caregivers are now able to claim for FamilyBoost, which provides low-to-middle-income families with young children payments to help them meet early childhood education (ECE) costs. “FamilyBoost is one of the ways we are supporting families with young children who are struggling with the cost of living, by helping ...
This week’s South Pacific Defence Ministers’ Meeting (SPDMM) has concluded with a renewed commitment to regional security of all types, Defence Minister Judith Collins says. Defence Ministers and senior civilian and military officials from Australia, Chile, Fiji, France, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Tonga gathered in Auckland to discuss defence and security cooperation in the ...
Associate Police Minister Casey Costello has welcomed the Police announcement that recruitment wings at the Police College will be expanded to 100 recruits next year. “This is good news on two fronts – it reflects the fact that more and more New Zealanders are valuing policing and seeing it as ...
Introduction Good morning! What a pleasure to be back in the stunning West Coast at one of my favourite events in the calendar. Every time I come back here, I’m reminded of the Coast’s natural beauty, valuable resources, and great people. Yet, every time I come back here, I’m also ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti welcomes new data from Health New Zealand, saying it demonstrates encouraging progress against the Government’s health targets. Health New Zealand’s quarterly report for the quarter to 30 June will be used as the baseline for reporting against the Government’s five health targets, which came into ...
The launch of a new data tool will provide Kiwis with better access to important data, Statistics Minister Andrew Bayly says. “To grow our economy and improve productivity we must adopt smarter ways of working, which means taking a more data driven approach to decision-making. “As Statistics Minister one of ...
The Government is progressing plans to increase the use of remote inspections to make the building and consenting process more efficient and affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “We know that the building and construction sector suffers from a lack of innovation. According to a recent report, productivity ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour welcomes the PPTA putting a proposal to members at its annual conference to change its constitution and allow membership of teachers who work in charter schools. “The PPTA has had a come to Jesus moment on charter schools. This is a major departure from the ...
David Clarke has been announced as the Chief Commissioner of the Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC). David Clarke is a barrister specialising in corporate and commercial law and he has over 20 years experience in governance roles in commercial, public and charitable sectors. He also is a current TAIC Commissioner. ...
The Government has secured market access for New Zealand blueberries to Korea, unlocking an estimated $5 million in annual export opportunities for Kiwi growers Minister for Trade and Agriculture Todd McClay today announced. “This is a win for our exporters and builds on our successful removal of $190 million in ...
Partnership and looking to the future are key themes as Defence Ministers from across the South Pacific discuss regional security challenges in Auckland today, Defence Minister Judith Collins says. The South Pacific Defence Ministers’ Meeting (SPDMM) brings together Defence Ministers, Chiefs of Defence and Secretaries of Defence from New Zealand, ...
In a triple whammy of good news, 1 October heralds the beginning of the funding of two major health products and a welcome contribution to early childhood fees, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says. “Keytruda is the first drug to be funded and made available from the $604 million boost we ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti today opened the refurbished Children’s Unit at Rotorua Hospital, which will provide young patients and their families in the Lakes District with a safe, comfortable and private space to receive care. “The opening of this unit is a significant milestone in our commitment to improving ...
It is now easier to make small changes to building plans without having to apply for a building consent amendment, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Previously builders who wanted to make a minor change, for example substituting one type of product for another, or changing the layout of ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced seven diplomatic appointments. “Protecting and advancing New Zealand’s interests abroad is an extremely important role for our diplomats,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to announce the appointment of seven senior diplomats to these overseas missions.” The appointments are: Andrew ...
The first iteration of the SuperGold Information Hub is now on-line, Minister for Seniors Casey Costello announced today. “The SuperGold Hub is an online portal offering up-to-date information on all of the offers available to SuperGold cardholders. “We know the SuperGold card is valued, and most people know its use ...
A new Contaminated Sites and Vulnerable Landfills Fund will help councils and landowners clean up historic landfills and other contaminated sites that are vulnerable to the effects of severe weather, Environment Minister Penny Simmonds says. "This $30 million fund, part of our Q4 Action Plan, increases the Government’s investment in ...
Associate Health Minister with responsibility for Pharmac David Seymour has welcomed the increased availability of medicines for Kiwis resulting from the Government’s increased investment in Pharmac. “Pharmac operates independently, but it must work within the budget constraints set by the Government,” says Mr Seymour. “When our Government assumed office, New ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters today wrapped up a week of high-level engagements at the United Nations in New York and in Papeete, French Polynesia. “Our visit to New York was about demonstrating New Zealand’s unwavering support for an international system based on rules and respect for the UN Charter, as ...
The Government’s Quarter Four (Q4) Action Plan will be focused on making it easier and faster to build infrastructure in New Zealand as part of its wider plan to rebuild the economy, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says. “My Government has been working at pace to get the country back on ...
New Zealanders will be safer as a result of the Government’s crackdown on crime which includes tougher laws for offenders and gangs delivered as part of the Quarter Three (Q3) Action Plan, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says. “I’m proud to say we have delivered on 39 of the 40 actions ...
The Government is backing a new world-leading programme set to boost vineyard productivity and inject an additional $295 million into New Zealand’s economy by 2045, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay today announced. The Next Generation Viticulture programme will transform traditional vineyard systems, increasing profitability by $22,060 per hectare by 2045 without ...
Over 90 per cent of submissions have expressed broad support for a New Zealand minerals strategy, indicating a strong appetite for a considered, enduring approach to minerals development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. A summary of the 102 submissions on the draft strategy has been published today by the Ministry ...
Catch limits for several fisheries will be increased following a review that shows stocks of those species are healthy and abundant. The changes are being made as part of Fisheries New Zealand’s biannual sustainability review, which considers catch limits and management settings across New Zealand’s fisheries. “Scientific evidence and information ...
The Government is investigating options for a major reform of the building consent system to improve efficiency and consistency across New Zealand, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “New Zealand has some of the least affordable housing in the world, which has dire social and economic implications. At the heart ...
The Government has announced that an initial cost-benefit analysis of establishing a third medical school based at the University of Waikato has been completed and has been found to provide confidence for the project to progress to the next stage. Minister of Health Dr Shane Reti says the proposal will ...
Temporary SetbackLord Kenyon and Lady Charlotte walk down the rampOf their magenta and lime green hot air balloon Hubris,In matching Polar Bear fur coats, wraparound shadesEncrusted with diamonds, and a hundredweightOf subtle and discreet chunky gold accessories.At the bottom of the ramp, a squad of burly Bailiffs wait.“What ho, good ...
A new war in Lebanon has begun, but a dual focus on sub- and trans-national dynamics is required to understand what might come next in the Middle East.Starting with the trans-national matters. On ‘April Fools Day’ this year a region-wide game of cat and mouse began between Israeli and Iranian ...
Stuck on the wall in the women’s changing room at the West Coast Rangers Football Club is the catchphrase: It means more here.It personifies what it means to players to belong to a club in Auckland’s north-west that’s just three years old, but already has a team who’ve fought their ...
MONDAYA cold wind came down from the mountain range of the Sierra Thorndons and swept through the empty main street of Labour City.It had been the exact same weather for over a year.A few old-timers remembered a time of golden weather. Sometimes they thought they might only have dreamt it ...
Inspired by a dictionary’s survey of its online followers, The Detail gathers three professional word-workers to nominate the best and worst of language and the traps of faux erudition, cliche, neuron-breaking elaborate prose, and journalese.Alexia Russell chats with two editors, one who banned overused words and another who makes it ...
Alex Casey meets the Southland principal who wrote and directed a feature length fantasy epic starring the whole school.Ask a primary school principal how many feature films they’ve made, and most will say zero. Ask Steve Wadsworth, principal of Winton School in Southland, and he will say not one, ...
The award-winning broadcaster and journalist looks back on his life in television, featuring early morning All Blacks games, his love for The Repair Shop and why he’s turning into his parents. John Campbell doesn’t remember his first ever appearance on television. “Funny, eh?” the broadcaster chuckles over the phone. All ...
Jenna Todd responds to Kataraina, the sequel to Becky Manawatu’s award-winning first novel Auē.This review contains major spoilers for Auē. Many years after the girl shot the man. I’d almost forgotten who had shot the man in Auē, winner of the Jann Medlicott Acorn Foundation Prize for Fiction in 2020. ...
Big Fan mentor Matthew Young and mentee Jared Frost share their perfect weekend playlist. Breaking into the music industry is no easy feat, but it makes a difference when you have someone who can guide you through the distortion. At Auckland’s Big Fan, a live venue and recording studio, programmes ...
Treasury’s chief economic adviser, Dominick Stephens, believes the government’s tax, health and pension settings are untenable in the long term. Something’s got to give, he tells Bernard Hickey on The Spinoff’s economics podcast When the Facts Change. New Zealand’s ageing population is about to give the government’s finances a ...
Anna Rawhiti-Connell reflects on the week that was. As a teenager in the mid to late 90s, I vividly remember a statistical “urban legend” doing the rounds. “15% of the population is gay, so… [insert number based on how many people were in the classroom] must be gay.” I have ...
An elder scolded me for my inability to speak Cantonese: ‘You must learn.’ My father heard my elder’s words and said nothing. My shame was as much his as it was mine.I have three missed calls from my mother. When I finally call her back, she doesn’t even greet ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kerry Brown, Professor of Employment and Industry, School of Business and Law, Edith Cowan University NT_Studio/Shutterstock Should young people be paid less than their older counterparts, even if they’re working the same job? Whether you think it’s fair or not, it’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jeremy Day, PhD researcher, University of Newcastle Author provided Long-spined sea urchins have emerged as an environmental issue off Australia’s far south coast. Native to temperate waters around New South Wales, the urchins have expanded their range south as oceans warm. ...
You really won’t guess how it ends. Parliament’s Economic Development, Science and Innovation committee today heard public submissions on its controversial Crown Mineral Amendments Bill. That’s the proposed law, explained Gabi Lardies earlier this week, that would see the previous government’s ban on new oil and gas exploration overturned. The ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Kelly, PhD Candidate, University of Technology Sydney Shutterstock Missy Higgins’ recent ARIA number-one album, The Second Act, represents an increasingly rare sighting: an Australian artist at the top of an Australian chart. My recently published analysis of Australia’s best-selling singles ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sara Webb, Lecturer, Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology Greg Rakozy/Shutterstock What does the edge of the universe look like? Lily, age 7, Harcourt What a great question! In fact, this is one of those questions ...
People in our community are worried about their property and possessions as the water rises, and for this we raise the alarm. This is what climate change looks like - more frequent and severe weather, storms, and flooding,” said spokesperson Annabel ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Westaway, Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Archaeology, School of Social Science, The University of Queensland The NSW Education Standards Authority has announced that teaching of the Aboriginal past prior to European arrival will be excluded from the Year 7–10 syllabus as ...
The report states that $2bn of ‘savings’ are now targeted in health, just in this fiscal year (p.57). That’s a huge potential cut and is clearly not possible from just efficiencies. ...
Sophie Turner steals the show in new con-woman drama Joan. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. Joan is Neon’s new six-part British crime drama inspired by the real-life story of Joan Hannington, the woman who became the UK’s most notorious jewel thief. ...
A new poem by by Jiaqiao Liu. cabbage rolls cut out the hard core pile up stalks, bin later. one, two long lines mimic Dani before they ran to stir the marinara Sally stopped stirring. one, two chopping board burnt with a perfect spiral artfully off-centre. you are good at ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Intermezzo by Sally Rooney (Faber & Faber, $37) Here’s a snippet from Rebecca K Reilly’s review ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Park Thaichon, Associate Professor of Marketing, University of Southern Queensland Elizaveta Galitckaia/Shutterstock Building a home can come with hidden costs. Unfortunately, many people don’t think about these costs until it’s too late. Some buyers succumb to the tricks marketers use ...
Bea Bruske, president of the Canadian Labour Congress, told the Ministers that ‘your lack of support for the workers of the PPTA who provide so much to their students shows a lack of leadership on your part. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Nicole Driessen, Postdoctoral researcher in radio astronomy, University of Sydney Kasper Lyngby/Shutterstock The days are getting longer and in Australia, the switch to daylight saving time is almost upon us (for about 70% of the population, anyway). But why ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Nicole Driessen, Postdoctoral researcher in radio astronomy, University of Sydney Kasper Lyngby/Shutterstock The days are getting longer and in Australia, the switch to daylight saving time is almost upon us (for about 70% of the population, anyway). But why ...
Information released under the Official Information Act shows that there were 53,350 taxpayers who reported negative rental income in the 2023 tax year. ...
“These recent figures highlight the financial mismanagement that occurs at Health New Zealand. With news like this, taxpayers are absolutely in their right to demand answers. ...
Not so long ago it was an essential tool to aid in the struggles of coming of age. Now less than a third of New Zealand households still have a landline telephone. On Thursday morning at 10.45, a thrill buzzed in the air, possibly only detectable by journalists. Another tranche ...
The Housing Minister says the plan would lower the risk for developers and ensure houses were ready for buyers to enter the market as interest rates drop. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Harris, Professor of Corporate Law, University of Sydney Shutterstock Capitalism without insolvency is like Christianity without Hell. Those were the words of former Apollo 8 commander Frank Borman, speaking as chairman of Eastern Airlines in the United ...
His world view is famously built on centre-right common sense, with little time for losers and dreamers. Which makes his undying love for the Warriors all the more baffling to this fellow supporter. Hello, my name is Pete, and I am a New Zealand Warriors fan.Actually, it’s a bit ...
I can’t say I was really surprised when I read this article – “Parrots tend to be lefties” – except perhaps that it wasn’t a more informal news source.
[lprent: 🙂 ]
A town gets a bypass, they lose passing trade (local) for the possibility of large global trade (free trade). Now they have to attract travellers to stop at their town and spend, trade. Some of the town fathers choose whores and no parking fees, others want cafes and artists to target the higher spending tourism dollar and want to pay for the up keep of the pavement by parking fees, others still think that they should be the next silicon valley, or financial hub of the world. How do we know which NZ is? Well there’s a risk premium on investing in NZ due to the fact that we don’t have parking fees for capital gain, and so are left destitute, exporting skilled people and putting up brothels. NZ towns know they want parking fees, nice range of cafes, but Wellington Beehives want brothels and no parking fees on capital gains.
Good analogy zb. I would like to include in the advantages to towns., a return on every GST $ spent there from central government to local govt. Reward for increasing business and to help provide needed facilities for the visitors, then available for locals.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/blogs/opinion/4626376/A-future-path-for-New-Zealand
You get the message, I get the message, but it seems the smart people don’t.
If we get lots of weeds maybe we should start weeding.
Maybe we should look at nurturing people and communities, spread the tax burden further (and onto a CGT), and stop the farce that is NZ won’t deal with, that if we wave people through our country faster, they aren’t going to stop! No parking fees on capital gains, the growth farming industry in NZ is capital gain farming, its cheap to take profit, far to cheap to take profit, and that is at the core of why we fall behind Australia and others. We make it too easy to make a bundle of money selling out to foreign investors. We work hard, we have all the resources, education and ability but we don’t get on the race track because someone sold it off.
If one of the top scientists doesn’t get that, and its not rocket science, then it must be too hard for the elite to change direction, to honestly debate, and that’s a national calamity.
I’ve been taught by Callaghan many years ago (as have tens of thousands of NZ’ers) and I like what he has to say. He’s expressed himself rather apolitically here but I doubt that he is actually apolitical.
He’s no idiot, but he idiotically nails the problem without dealing with the underlying realities, that AK housing is even more unaffordable than NY housing, that more of those thousands of NZ’ers he taught have left NZ shores for good. How can you say he did not know that, the lack of a capital gains tax, the lack of credible scientific leaders willing to do some basic diligence into the woeful way NZ is run, for the needs of global speculators. Oh, yeah, that’s it, he gets grants, his daily bread comes from the same system that he is endeavoring to stablize by failing to address the issues facing NZ, or worse addressing them and then come up with nothing substantial worth changing. The guys no idiot alright, and his position is political, he’s providing reassurance and consent to the status quo that even he admits isn’t working. Great teacher, great insight but as a political commentator he suks worse than bad eggs.
John Key has been at pains to say that the Maori Party issues are theirs and theirs alone – nothing to do with him. He has been quick to stick his oar in this morning however.
Well done John (let’s see how the wind blows) Key.
As this blog pursues its endless and boring denigration of John Key it seems to me that the highly intelligent and knowledgeable are forgetting a simple fact of politics in a democracy that you have to have popular support, David Lange and Helen Clark had it and now John Key does. I would have thought that the recent Yahoo poll illustrated how out of touch writers here are and this mornings poll seems similar.. I used to look forward to coming here and reading sensible left wing points of view, rather than the trash-wars at Kiwiblog, but these days it is because I have not deleted the URL from my favourites as I do my daily walk around the sites, ever optomistic.
jcuknz, you forgot to do the bit about how you used to vote Labour all the time too etc.
Orange whip ….I have never voted Labour and the one person I did foolishly vote for once before MMP arrived turned out to be completely ineffectual as a minister in the last Government and now resorts to pointless muck raking.. So OW your cynicism completely misses the mark. Try again.
I’d be happy to if I had any idea what you just typed. I think there are some words missing.
@jcuknz – not sure who you are directing your comments to – anyone in particular? (Like the addage “you know where the off switch is on the TV,”
similar applies here. But I suspect you cannot help yourself and you will keep passing by… and the truth is the comments about your dear leader are beginning to cut it)
What I do know is that, the leader of our country from 1999 to 2008, was subjected to some of the nastiest commentary from a whole lot of people who should have known better – (O’Sullivan, Armstrong, Young, Hooten, Holmes et al)
– popular? – she started out hugely.
– any truth in comments about her personal life? – none whatsoever, but the lies were constantly peddled, directly or by innuendo.
Boag and Brash had a coordinated attack regarding corruption – was complete bs, you know it, but it all became tiresome and distracting.
Some commenters on this blog site highlight the two-faced nature of our current PM – as someone who is media image driven and appears to be of extremely shallow or immature nature. Time will tell, and all we are doing is highlighting the cracks in the man’s makeup. Remember the campaign about “Trust” (of course you do…) It may come back to bite him yet.
captcha – incorrect
Because I value ‘The Standard’ as the best blog I am aware off, apart from special interest blogs I visit, I made my earlier comment because I think the leader writers are heading up a wrong avenue. My comments were not directed at HC but as I said … a minister … if you had read what I wrote more carefully.. If we are going to have a right of centre government in New Zealand then I am happier with John Key than anybody else. Often people gun for the bad only to get even worse.
Oh right, another morning, another day of watching John Key lead us confidently towards the cliff. Farmers lose a lot of sheep that way. In sheep flocks they often have one called a bellwether. April Fools Day project – hang a bell on his lapel, on his office door, under a whoopee cushion in his seat in parliament chambers etc.
Since sheep are inherently mountain creatures I’m sure they will find a way down the cliff which both the sheep and New Zealanders will find despite the sabotage to the effort by extreme LWNJs with their pathetic bleatings.. Don’t forget that it was a Kiwi who climbed Mt Everest first.
Yeah that generation of NZ’ers is gone jcuknz, and the remaining ones are moving to Sydney. Almost 600,000 of them.
It has been said and often repeated … those going to Aussie raise the IQ level of both countries. It is only the capitalists who bemoan the loss of mugs to buy their products..
Brave sally jcuknz! Definitely not sheepish.
Piss off jcuknz.
We dont want grumpy old pricks like you who want to force us back to the good old days of the 1950’s.
You know where spousal rape was legal, etc.
John key is a nasty person, who hates those who earn less than $50,000 a year. That is a FACT.
[deleted]
[lprent: you are starting to attract my attention. I would suggest pausing to review your writing before sending the send button because you could find you’re unable to use that button shortly otherwise. This appears to me to be pointless abuse. ]
So the middle class burb of Botany is to be ignored by the left, less than 4 weeeks away from poling and there is no sight or sound to be heard of an endanged species …. Labour MP’s.
So Lab only give lip service to those electorates not held by lanb MP’s Mt Albert and Mana
Stuff those that our new policies are aimed at… The Middle Class and immigratnts that came to NZ within the last 11 years. All talk and no action.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/central-leader/4613862/Mt-Roskill-a-priority-Wood
I bet if Wood said that he was going to campaign full time and not do his constituency duties you would be thrashing him for that. So instead you thrash him for actually trying to do both.
You obviously do not live in Botany because if you did you would have noticed a huge number of Labour billboards go up on Saturday, if you lived in the poorer part your door would have been knocked on, and if you had been to any sort of community activity you would have met Michael.
This complete lack of knowledge on your part does not prevent you from pontificating on how Labour has “abandoned” the electorate when the exact opposite is true.
Do you have strongly held views on other topics you have no understanding of?
MS – Before yo start get some facts without just blasting away. LAb has abandoned the Botany area and the lack of profile (to display I know the area) The traditional site for Lab bilboards cnr Chapel and Santa Anna has the billboard.
Where is the profile say here or on Red Alert? Have a review of the histor of posts re Mana & Mt A to the date of the by election. there were posts 5 weeks out. For Botany nothing, not even a mention of Michael Wood.
Last election Lab had a last minute change from a unionists to an academic.
There are no notices of meetings, and I have never seen or heard of a Lab member visit the area in this, the last election or when it was part of Collins, or for that matter when Ross r held the area domain. For all her shortcommings Pansy did have a physical exposure and held many street corner meetings.
And finally no I would not “I bet if Wood said that he was going to campaign full time and not do his constituency duties you would be thrashing him for that”.
So M.S> where are all the big wigs from Lab? In Mama and Mt A the was an obvious presence. But then that was red territory, this has not been red since boundary changes removed it from Ross Roberstons area.
I hope that you can pick up I am very aware of the area and its history.
Also MS (or anyone else out there )as you have some possable connections with Lab, where are the lists of meetings etc that the public can attend and here what Lab is providing. there is nothing that I can see in the public arena.
There are stories, not confirmed 1st hand yet that JK has already ben seen in the area and participated in a stree meeting.
Yes, but does he know why it was stupid?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/4624669/Key-Catwalk-mincing-a-bit-stupid
Not because it was ‘un-PM-like’ John but because it laid bare a bunch of assumptions you make. I mean, you were pretending to be ‘gay’ right? Because only a fag would model clothes. And only poofs walk like that. And if that’s not what you were doing then please enlighten us…
Fancy Stuff even raising the question! There must be a level of discontent “out there.”
So is he faking the unusually sibilant accent as well to sound even more stereotypically gay ?
Feminists have over the years sacrificed time, themselves even to progress women’s place upwards in society. There always are a bunch of women who take it all for granted. They then do not impress on their daughters what others have done to provide opportunities to have better lives where they get respect as they move through society.
Police report that 90 per cent of drunk and stupid people at a recent sports match were women. But this isn’t new. I have a copy of a radio documentary on our drinking culture which is very instructive – women who don’t know how much they have drunk, or who they were mingling with, despite the thought at the start of the evening that they should keep count on drinks etc.
No wonder there are rapes etc. To men who are equally drunk and careless, it would seem that the women don’t care what happens to them, that they are out foraging for excitement and experience. So they are given it very happily by males who are then blamed for not behaving properly with these little ‘ladies’ who themselves are acting improperly.
It’s like believing that desire and sex acts rarely occur so can be ignored. That would be obviously incorrect. And then the idea that anybody out in public is always perfectly safe, so being wary and self-protective can be ignored. That’s wrong too. Stats show that young men near pubs etc. are the ones most likely to be assaulted or murdered. The alcohol and the people overusing it result in heightened risk to irrational happenings. It is equitable that women suffer the same effects including attacks, with the extras advantages that a woman’s body provides.
captcha – trusting! ie mix with people you can trust, and be able to trust yourself to look after your own protection. That’s what emancipated women would do.
This country has a cultural problem with alcohol and drinking, therefore the politicians solution was to lower the purchasing age.
…buy wineries and kow tow to the beer barons, then reward them and themselves with titular honours
Well, if they are gonna have a War against some drugs, then there has to be medals, what.
The men are blamed for raping people Prism. Seriously bro.
Women get pissed so ‘no wonder’ they get raped? WTF?
In particular men have to get it that a woman’s judgement is lacking when they are drunk and this may impair/prevent them being able to give consent to sex. Is it wise for a male to hit on a drunk woman for sex?
Treetop – Why should a drunken male be in a state to be wise about sex any more than a drunken female? Why does he have to think for her? Why as an adult person can she not think for herself?
It gets back to the man being protective of the little woman thing. I thought that women had decided they didn’t want to be protected and patronised. But then they need to take responsibility to safely manage their environment.
But of course women as victim is the refrain, so any criticism to that status is bound to be unpopular. Victimhood means you never have to face the truth of a situation or even consider doing so.
hang on prism, just to clarify, are you saying that if a woman has passed out the guy might reasonably confuse this, in his 3-drink haze, with consent for sex?
So they should just accept that the environment is full of things like rain, dodgy cobblestones, and oh, rapists.
Also, ‘be patronised or raped’, is a pretty fucked up dichotomy.
The thing that is getting people a bit about your position is that you think the consequence for women, (being raped) is equivalent to that for men, (raping someone).
That’s also, ‘pretty fucked up’.
It appears that there can be no rational discussion about the effect of less heavy drinking by women on decreasing rape of women. Pity, it is a shattering, invasive action if it is unwanted sex. But everything discussed must first pass the standards set no doubt by numerous workshops and women’s studies papers. The correct way of thinking is thus, and any deviance is deviant.
“It appears that there can be no rational discussion about the effect of less heavy drinking by women on decreasing rape of women. ”
Oh, RATIONAL discussion. Yep, we’ve all ignored every piece of research you’ve cited or linked to. After all, it’s not like you’ve just been saying that because laddettes are acting unladylike by getting pissed they’re pretty much forcing the poor defenceless drunk men to rape them. /sarc
Seriously, there has been some research on alcohol and sex crime, quite a lot based on US college campuses. I’m sure that there’s been some more produced in the last few years. Care to show anyone you know what you’re talking about? Something better than “I once heard a radio programme that said young women were getting shitfaced” or whatever you started with…
As far as I\’m concerned rape is rape – no matter what, whether the victm is male/female, drunk or not, just like showing your ankles in the old days didn’t mean you were asking for it, nor does being drunk. To me the big issue is that young men and women do not know how they are handling drink – to learn that takes a few times being drunk. While they are in this phase there are perfectly ordinary boys and girls who are not totally comatose having sex but in the morning don’t really know whether they gave consent or not, and if they were not drunk know they would not have; or whether they read the presumed consent properly and if they were not drunk they may have read the situation differently.
This is a fact of life parents should give their sons and daughters, ahead of the ‘situational awareness’ or whatever other excuse is made up to blame the victim. Otherwise some perfectly ordinary boys and girls could find themselves in perfectly extraordinary trouble.
My son the health professional (who has just had fun with his colleagues in Welly, cleaning up after drunks in costume at the 7s,) is fond of saying “It takes two to make a bad sexual decision”. (he’s 24 by the way, not some old git! 😀 )
Making a bad sexual decision is infinitely more likely if you’re trolleyed..
Deb
Two to make a bad sexual decision. Only one to commit rape, however, which was the topic of the original comment.
Both a male and a female have to think for their self. However woman are disadvantaged as they usually are unable to drink as much as a male, most perpetrators of rape are male and usually when a woman is attacked by a male they are overpowered.
Facts are facts and this has nothing to do with a woman being emancipated.
Not only that, but apparently the “90% female” refers to moderately pissed people in the chill-out areas. Not the folk who did not moderate their drinking when they felt they’d had a bit much and then ended up at A&E. The End is NaeNae makes this point.
As for the victim-blaming, prism – get a life. Rape is not the result of being “careless”. A guy doesn’t stumble on the gutter, fall onto a woman and accidentally rape her. Rape, i.e. when he knows the woman is unable to consent or has refused consent, is not just a drunken accident. Arguing “oooo they’re both drunk” kind’ve lumps “he’d had a couple of drinks, she was comatose” with “they’d both had just enough to relax, but not so much that they were going to make major mistakes in judgement”. Unless you have actual data (as opposed to hypotheticals you just assume), I suggest that this grouping might be unhelpful to the discussion.
So I get drunk and stand in the middle of the road, and surprise surprise get run over by a drunk sociopath……I dont think Prism is making a moral judgement here, merely pointing out a known hazard.
Apart from the fact that if you stayed stone cold sober and spent the bulk of your time locked in your own home, Mr Sociopath will probably not dress up as the meter man or plumber or courier or adapt his methods to find some other way of running you over.
The sole culpability for any crime lies with the person who committed the act. They can argue mitigation/deprivation/whatever, but it’s them who should be in the dock, not the victim.
Like most crime, rape is a specific act that is intended. It might be impulsive, but it is still an intentional act. You might argue some generalised personal safety methods, just as you would argue for locking front doors to deter burglars, but the thing is that if someone intends to do something all you might be doing is shifting around who the victim will be, not whether or not there is a victim. And then blaming the victim as somehow contributing to the crime because they happened to match the particular profile a particular criminal got his jollies on and was capable of exploiting is essentially blaming her for not being psychic or living in a state of paranoia.
“It might be impulsive, but it is still an intentional act.”
What you’re arguing here doesn’t really make sense. For a crime to happen, there has to be an opportunity and an action. It is easy to see that this is the case – without an opportunity, a crime cannot occur.
The opportunity does *not* have to be created by the criminal. In the case of home invasion and rape, the criminal has created the opportunity to commit the rape by invading the house. In case of a criminal raping a drunk woman, the woman has created (or greatly eased) the opportunity of the rape happening in the first place.
But this clearly isn’t true. If a door-to-door salesman comes to an unoccupied house, and there’s a window open with valuables in full view of the window, it’s very easy for them to reach in, grab the item and be off. If that same window was shut, then the crime never would have happened. What you’re arguing here is that the door-to-door salesman somehow has a daily quota for burglarising houses that he comes across, and if he doesn’t steal something out of your house because the window was shut, then he’ll keep going door-to-door until he does.
Impulsive crimes are also called “crimes of opportunity” – had the opportunity not existed, the crime would not have happened. This is where people come up with “she was asking for it” when talking about women being raped – clearly she was asking for it if she walked home alone through a dark alley at 2am in the morning. No, not really, it was just a crime of opportunity – if she hadn’t have provided the opportunity, the crime wouldn’t have happened.
There needs to be an opportunity *and* an action for a crime to occur, and because criminals are 100% in control of the action side of things (until proven otherwise), we can lay 100% of the blame on them at all times. But opportunity does also play a role in a crime happening in the first place, to pretend that it doesn’t is illogical.
A number of tories are fond of saying “you make your own opportunities”.
Your door to door salesman didn’t have to reach through the open window. That’s pretty basic. I used to have a job that involved pointing things like that out, and I never nicked a thing. And you’re not asking people to just close a window when they go out, you’re telling women to never, ever, ever get drunk and have a good time because if they get raped, even by someone they thought they knew well and trusted, it’s their fault because they dropped their guard. Nor should they ever go jogging in a park, or catch a taxi, or work late, or meet new people, or go on a date, or have a flatmate, or be a single mum in Rotorua, or wear a skirt, or wear a dress, or wear trousers, or be naked etc etc etc, because it might enable or provoke a rapist, and then it would be their own fault.
But even if you had closed the window, he might have been able to pop the lock with a card. So you need window locks and deadbolts. Or he might have been doorknocking to confirm nobody was home so he could go around back and break a window, so you need bars and alarms. Or he sold you a doctored alarm, so you need a redundant system from another company. So he just burns the place down with you trapped in it and collects the life insurance he took out on you.
The point being that when you’re talking about a general crime situation, saying “you shouldn’t have given them the opportunity” is unproductive because criminals just alter their plans to suit. I doubt that would have been the first or last crime your salesman committed. If there is a specific threat, such as reason to believe a drink-spiker or someone attacking joggers, or burglars posing as door to door salesmen (actually charity collectors is a common one – even if they’re home they might still give you money) is operating in the area, then advice on their current MO can be a public service. Saying people put themselves at risk because they got drunk and so removed themselves to a safe, supervised “chill out” area serves only to assign blame on any victims of a crime which already has a very low reporting rate, and a low conviction rate even if a crime is reported.
I’m not sure I get the analogy.
Does ‘standing in the middle of the road’ = ‘being a woman’?
Rape is done in secret, it requires the perpetrator to use physical force and NO consent is given. A victim is a person who has been preyed on by an unscrupulous scum bag. The moral here is to have your wits in tact as this can prevent being preyed on, but does not guarantee not being preyed on.
Standing in the middle of the road does not equal being a woman. Even a prostitute is required to give consent to sex.
Rape could happen on nationwide tv and still be rape. Physical force isn’t a necessary condition.
For those who believe that women and girls who are intoxicated and incapable of consent bear responsibility, ask yourself, when men get drunk is that impicit consent for any other men to do what they want with their bodies, or does this little gem just apply to females?
http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2009/10/rape-culture-101.html
To all above the criminal who commits a crime is the guilty party regardless of the circumstance: and rape is as bad as it gets. On a personal basis you might want to consider whether you would wander drunk into any unsafe environment just because you had an expectation that you should be treated honourably and lawfully? There are dangerous sociopaths out there….they will take advantage. Do you leave your house unlocked? I think not, its an invitation.
The victims of rape and assault have my total sympathy and support. It does not impress me however that they might have made a criminals task easier. Cautious prevention needs encouraging because there is no cure to the damage done by rapists.
Sometimes I might be in a hurry and forget to lock my kitchen door. This does not mean I want to be burgled.
And we’re not talking about 30sec each morning. We’re talking about a lifetime of living like a goddamn puritan because of someone else’s criminal intent. Fuck that – “then the terrorists win”.
And of course nobody here has bothered to actually provide evidence that higher alcohol consumption is associated with higher rates of sexual assault, and (and here’s the pisser) controlled for the fact that a busier social life means meeting more people, therefore more social people meet more rapists.
It’s all very well saying “they’re making it easy”, but you might want some fact before everyone demands a major lifestyle change.
We’re talking about a lifetime of living like a goddamn puritan because of someone else’s criminal intent. Fuck that – “then the terrorists win”.
Nice sentiment, agree to a (very) large degree. You wont however catch me going to sea without a life jacket. Its got a little to do with self preservation in a known dangerous environment. And I dont get drunk in the boat, its a recipe for disaster.
But boaties don’t wear lifejackets all the time. Sometimes they get swept overboard before they can put it on. And sometimes people can drink alcohol on boats, just as long as someone else is running it. And you can always come ashore, whereas a woman (surgery and hormones notwithstanding) will always be a woman.
Sexual attackers are not a force of nature, and can be even more unpredictable than a day on the water. Getting pissed at a venue, acting like a dick, and breaking your leg falling off a table is one thing. Getting pissed at a venue, acting like a dick, and being raped in the toilets is another thing entirely. One is your fault, and I genuinely believe that the latter is not. It is the rapist’s fault.
What is so difficult about *not* getting ‘off your face’ every weekend, and so puritan about being choosy?
Unbelievable! Common sense and civilised behaviour is puritan now? Mad, just crazy…
Actually, (given that I know several people who get happily drunk on 1/2 glass of wine) advocating that women should never risk impairing their judgement in practicality means that all women should be teetotal. Which is puritanical, if not technically Puritan.
It’s about as difficult as jogging daily and eating only healthy food. Because you’re told that if you don’t, and are raped, you somehow brought it on yourself.
Rape always involves some form of physical force/touching.
Regardless of the gender, rape is unacceptable and there are barriers to reporting the violation.
“Rape always involves some form of physical force/touching.”
Well obviously you have to touch someone to rape them.
But you needn’t physically overpower someone in order to do it. Threatening them with a gun wouldn’t count as physically overpowering someone, it’s intimidating them with deadly force.
6.2.3.2.1.1 “Physical force isn’t a necessary condition.” I disagree with this.
Pointing a gun is no different to using any other non physical means to intimidate with deadly force.
what about abuse of religious authority?
What about using authority to intimidate, e.g. a police officer?
If these count as “physical force”, then you’re using a pretty wide broom.
“or does this little gem just apply to females?”
It applies to everyone, it’s just common sense!
Deb
captcha – pushed, as a drunk person can easily be.. even if they think they’re consenting – when they wake up the next morning and think “what have I done, and why did I do it?” then it may not be rape, but it’s not far off..
Sorry – had to go and do some urgent house maintenance.
Women get pissed so ‘no wonder’ they get raped? WTF?
No need to wonder about why it happens in many cases, that’s true. I make my point again that now young women have more freedom, more opportunities to decide on what they want to do in life. It is disappointing to find that many of them want to live like, ‘ladettes’ I think is the term, partying, living loudly in the moment, careless of themselves and their safety. They can’t come the fainting maiden if something sexual happens to them then. There is research into how often unplanned sex takes place after drinking to excess. Too much.
Getting drunk and gormless once or twice is part of learning how much is too much. If it is a regular pattern then that is risk-taking behaviour. Women who take up prostitution have to be careful in their behaviour if they want to be successful at it and also limit the possibility of problems from males. It could be a good idea if they ran workshops for the scatty female amateurs who could learn some pointers.
preamble: “unplanned sex” =/= “rape”.
right, now that’s done, message begins:
So getting drunk once or twice is okay, as long as it doesn’t offend your sensibilities? How often is a woman allowed to get drunk before she is taking a risk? How long before being raped is an expected outcome, rather than a surprise? How many times is a woman allowed to be drunk before you think she becomes at least partially culpable for her own rape?
And why is the guy not 100% to blame?
mcflock – Why are you asking me so many questions? Why not ask yourself how you think rape can be reduced as I have when I suggested that women should set limits on their drinking as if they don’t they are adopting risk-taking behaviour.
You are preaching at me about how unreasonable my viewpoint is.
And why is the guy not 100% to blame? It is irrational that some women cannot consider the thought that a woman is not always 100% blameless.
If you want to reduce risk-taking behaviour, it helps to know the actual level of risk, rather than pulling hypotheticals and assumption out of the air..
To reduce sexual crime we need a 100% reporting rate. Blaming victims doesn’t encourage that.
“It is irrational that some women cannot consider the thought that a woman is not always 100% blameless.”
I’m a male. Where my dick goes is nobody’s fault but mine. Sad but true.
If you want to know how a guy can be bit pissed off about this issue, I worked for several years in community safety. I shared offices with youth support staff. A big problem isn’t that the victims are drunk, it’s that the offenders are drunk. You want to lower alcohol-related crime, concentrate on offenders, not the victims.
I’m busy, but I’ll just say, or rather ask, that you think a little bit about how you phrase or think about things in terms of the passive voce and agency.
As to what I’m getting at, women don’t ‘get raped’. People ‘rape them’.
Pb I’ll read up on google about the passive voice and agency as soon as I get time. If I ever learned about these it has been forgotten.
All I’m saying it’s that is not the women who are acting. You are implying that the rapist is just a force of nature, as if they are just there and if a woman chooses to get drunk then rape is something that just happens. It denies the fact that the rapist is the craitical agent here. They are the ones with agency. They own the action. Put it on them. Don’t say women get raped. Say rapists rape women.
Or maybe an analogy might help. In the Jim Crow south, the problem wasn’t ‘uppitty negroes’, it was lynch mobs. Saying that African Americans should have just kept their heads down, crossed the road, averted they’re eyes and sat at the back of the bus, is just not right.
In the same way, the problem here isn’t drunk women, it’s rapists.
Wow.
You haven’t answered my question prism.
Are the “lads” “asking” to get raped by getting drunk? If not why not.
I’m assuming you are a man. If you get drunk are you happy for that to be taken as consent for any other man to rape you.
And as for describing rape as “unplanned sex. What’s murder – unplanned suicide?
lol – js gave me an unplanned end to my grumpiness.
There’s a run of these:
nuking a city – “unplanned parkland creation”
dumping toxic waste – “unplanned aquafer supplementation”
assault – “unplanned cosmetic surgery”
argh stuff it – I’m knocking off for the day. Might catch up at home, but have a run of meetings tomorrow. FWIW, I’m trying to break it to the bosses gently that part of the secret to my consistent goal achievement is that a few blog sites keep my brain from fizzing. My healthy indignation kept my blood pressure up for a couple of hours longer than otherwise 🙂
Myself I have been warning you off of unsafe places, placing yourself in danger and you admit to going off to work????? A place that crawls with people who make Al Queada look like Sunday school teachers (another known unsafe bunch). Thats somewhere fraught with danger, to sea for me (with or without life jacket)….
No, finishing work – it’s okay, it was still daylight when I got home and activated my home-defense minefield. Someone sat behind me on the bus, but I took them out with my keychain nunchukas.
Thank golly, my days of rotating 24hr rosters are over. Although it does stuff my sleep/work patterns. Going by my posting patterns, Lynne probably has me pegged as unemployed, or a student 😉
[lprent: I do the frogs eyes trick. If you don’t look like a troll or out of control bot (much the same in my opinion), I don’t start tracking your movement. My attention gets instantly attracted to certain phrases (like my name or handle or some of the hallowed troll phrases indicating a non-functional brain) and comment patterns. But I don’t notice yours when moderating because it isn’t what I am hunting for.. ]
“I do the frogs eyes trick”
Cool: zen and the art of comment moderation…
js Lads do get raped at times. But the most likely victim is a woman. If that woman is intelligent she will not facilitate this attack. Another reason for a woman being ‘surprised’ is if she is young and inexperienced. But regular drunks can’t expect huge sympathy though they and their friends demand it.
Cripes dude you’ve been given a hiding to nothing on this today.
Personally I think that every human being should take the practical steps that they can to make themselves a harder target.
Whether or not someone thinks its a shame that society should be like this or where blame should be placed is to me, irrelevant. The overarching principle of watching out for your own and your mates’ backs hasn’t changed in 10,000 years of human society why would it be any different now.
I think the closest explanation of my position that I can come up with is the difference between patient-based health (i.e. doctor looks at patient’s vitals and offers treatment) vs population-based health (look at a population and find differences between groups and outcomes).
Population: Tobacco use is the risk factor. Lung cancer is the measured attributed outcome. If the population, in general, quit tobacco, ~90% of lung cancers would probably be eliminated.
Patient: Patient is diagnosed with cancer. Remembers a cigarette that was smoked near him. Blames self for having that cigarette. Actual cause: Maybe that single cigarette. Maybe atmospheric pollution. Maybe a workplace hazard that remained unidentified.
Crime population: Alcohol use is the risk factor. Crime is the attributed outcome. If the population quit binge drinking, ~80% of crime might be reduced (whatever – dim recollection of some data I read in another career).
Crime incident: Person is assaulted. Was assaulted while drunk. Blames self for being “in that situation” (drunk). But we know that you being drunk is not directly related to someone choosing to assault you. You might piss them off, but it’s their choice to use violence. The actual cause is that person who committed the crime.
And it’s not a predetermined biochemical/genetic interaction that follows the laws of physics and chemistry. It’s an actual choice, as if the normal cigarette who seemed nice and not like the others suddenly chose to be the evil kind that gives you lung cancer. Maybe they did it while they were drunk, but the risk factor was being in the sights of a rapist, and unfortunately rapists don’t wear big signs.
The problem is when the population and patient approaches merge. Saying “alcohol is related to crime, you were drunk, so you are partially responsible for someone raping you” makes it less likely that you will report the offence. Which kind of screws the population-based approach in the areas where it would be valuable. And it also means your rapist won’t be caught. And it makes your aftermath as a survivor even more difficult. That’s the shit that really gets my goat, as folks might have noticed.
Well you picked it. Even in the largest most powerful studies it is difficult to ascertain what relevance, if any, the conclusions have on the decision making around a specific individual.
Its fraught with decision making error and of course you have identified that people can easily place to much faith in a study’s conclusions even if it is actually not relevant to them at all, and end up using its results to criticise themselves.
Even if it is not relevant to their own situation at all.
Ta McFlock,
Feeling a bit downtrodden by life just now, so not really up to this kind of conversation. Luckily, even straight after a hard day’s work you’re up to it and up for it. Kudos! This stuff is wearisome but important (as you know only too well). Can’t keep letting this kind of shit go unchallenged.
As far as I’m concerned rape is rape – no matter what, whether the victm is male/female, drunk or not, just like showing your ankles in the old days didn’t mean you were asking for it, nor does being drunk. To me the big issue is that young men and women do not know how they are handling drink – to learn that takes a few times being drunk. While they are in this phase there are perfectly ordinary boys and girls who are not totally comatose having sex but in the morning don’t really know whether they gave consent or not, and if they were not drunk know they would not have; or whether they read the presumed consent properly and if they were not drunk they may have read the situation differently.
This is a fact of life parents should give their sons and daughters, ahead of the ‘situational awareness’ or whatever other excuse is made up to blame the victim. Otherwise some perfectly ordinary boys and girls could find themselves in perfectly extraordinary trouble.
Oh and never, ever leave a friend who you start the night with alone at the end of the night.
Even though IMO, the women are (in these contexts) guilty of contributory negligence..
Deb
Meh – short version in wikipedia is close enough. After that I’m pretty much done with this.
“The defense is not available if the tortfeasor’s conduct amounts to malicious or intentional wrongdoing, rather than to ordinary negligence.”
So if a guy chooses to rape a woman, contributory negligence is no defense.
I mean, that’s exactly the same logic as “oh, her skimpy clothes drove the man insane with lust and he had no choice”. I fully get the desire to reduce alcohol abuse in NZ, fair enough. A drunk person inducing their own rape is a nonsensical reason for it, though.
Hang on. Have you lot thought this through.
Does this mean that of the women who dragged me off to bed when I was a drunken teenager.
Were they rapists? There was at least one I would not have slept with sober. Or am I for not ascertaining they were sober enough to give informed consent. I doubt if I was sober enough to make that distinction. I did assume consent when they wrapped themselves around me after taking their clothes of though.
I think some times it may be more morning after alcoholic remorse or even teenagers misreading each other, than rape.
Considering rape is a crime of power and violence rather than sex.
Okay, this is the “thin ice” area – I’m sure lots of people have consensually shagged other people when sober and regretted it later. I’m also sure lots of people have done exactly the same thing when slightly pissed.
And I’m sure that lot’s of people have apparently “consented” at the time when they were drunk/drugged enough that any commercial contract they signed would have been thrown out. I’m not saying a kiss is a contract (where have I heard that one before?), just if you are talking about “impaired judgement” then any “consent” at the time could plausibly be retracted after the fact.
But I think that it’s all a bit of a red herring to the original sentiment, which I took as: “these women at the sevens are obviously and disgracefully drunk, it’s no wonder they get raped”. So we’re not talking about situations where both people are maybe a bit tiddly but both seem to be having a fine old time. We’re talking about situations where at least one party is obviously drunk, so consent should be assumed to be unavailable until they’ve sobered up. Austin Powers could do it, but apparently the kiwi male is incapable of self control.
There’s also the “ooh she could have defended herself / run away from that horrible man if only she’d been sober” accusation as well. That’s pretty much as stupid, in my opinion.
I have no idea what kind of parties you go to, but I’m not sure that this ‘waiting until sobre’ you suggest has ever happened at any party that I’ve been too.
Well, if you were at a party where someone was so trollied that they were close to passing out and someone “had sex” with them, I’d suggest that was rape.
The less clear distinctions rest on power dynamics between participants, who’s making what choices, how drunk the drunkest participant is, and then how much more sober the most active participant is in comparison. It’s a case by case basis, but I’d suggest that if you have an ookey feeling about it, then it’s probably not 100%. Like I say, if both people are a little bit tiddly, not so clear cut.
My personal rule of thumb is: “never do while drunk what you can put off until tomorrow, and if it’s unlikely to happen tomorrow in the cold light of sobriety then it’s probably a bad idea”. And it’s not just for sex – it also applies to playing with explosives, hi-jinks in high places, and juggling sharp instruments. God I wish I hadn’t learnt it, as a teenager, by trial and error 🙂
That’s all very well if you plan to stay up drinking all night, but I’m not always up for that these days…
You lucky sod. I must have been ugly then (I certainly am now). Must have been awful for you.
Young women seem intent on keeping up with the lads in the pubs pretty much 1:1 drinks these days. Except the women tend to be about 15kg lighter and like drinking 7% and 8% RTDs or 12.5% wines, whereas the lads make do with 4% and 5% beers and considerably more body weight.
Just do the math on how well that turns out by the end of the night.
With Hone’s ructions in the MP, he’s starting to look more inept than he looks calculated.
But anyway, if he does leave the MP, I’m sure either The Greens or NZ First would welcome his safe electorate seat. It would work out quite well politically with NZ First – it would set up a definite spoiler for National because of Key’s impetuous ruling out of Winston. I guess the problem is whether Winston and Hone would see eye to eye, and whether Winston would let another high profile voice take over his party (then again, Winston is getting pretty old these days and needs some sort of succession plan in place…).
As I’ve said before Lanth, maori seats are NOT cross compatible with general seats.
So even if Hone joined a new party, they can’t do an ACT and piggy back in on TTT being won by Hone.
Maori seats are second class, just like all Maori in this country, or have you not realised that yet?
That’s not I how understand it. I’m not saying your wrong, it’s just the first I’ve heard of it:
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1993/0087/latest/DLM310034.html?search=ts_act_electoral_resel
Relevant bit, as far as I can tell:
Now that’s a bit complicated, but it says when the commission is allocating list seats they first disregard the list votes for parties that either:
(a) doesnae get 5%, or
(b) doesnae have a candidate elected to a constituency seat.
The test under (b) is whether or not they have a candidate elected as a MP. says nothing about general vs Maori seats…
meh, got may ors and ands a bit muddled there.
last bit should read:
Hone has just been suspended from the Maori Party caucus.
I see what looks suspiciously like some sorta socialism just won the superbowl
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Bay_Packers#Public_company
don’t nobody tell Glenn Beck
Interesting perspective in the Press from Ian Roberts (epidemiologist). He argues that cutting greenhouse gas emissions has considerable health benefits. Then this:
“The experience of Cuba in the 1990s confirms the health effects of reducing fossil-fuel consumption.
During the Cuban energy crisis that followed the cut-off of subsidised Soviet supplies, the proportion of adults who were physically active more than doubled. The population’s average BMI fell by 1.5 units, with a halving in the prevalence of obesity, from 14 per cent to 7 per cent.
Deaths from diabetes fell 51 per cent, from heart disease by 35 per cent, and from stroke by 20 per cent.”
Nothing too surprising, but it’s nice to have the ‘natural experiment’ to make the point pretty conclusively.
Droughts, Floods And Food
At least one MSM economist understands. Now we need the rest of them, the politicians and the populace to understand as well.
There was a cough and splutter on TV3 News tonight, Peter Dunne woke up , and spluttered a few words about NZ day…
I see it’s ronny raygun’s birthday and the folks at empire central are getting all dei-ariffic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yovzZkf6OFQ
AS can be deduced from that thar movie picture show everyone outside empire central knew what the score was in real time, but you still cannae say it at home. Not really.
It’s kinda amazing how the right there has latched on to the tax raisin, amnesty fer the illegals givin, negotiatin with the dreaded russkie, cutter an runner from the terrists, seller of guns to the perfidious persians, blower out of deficits, creator of whole new government agencies, fake assed old fool that was the Gipper.
But has been also noted by others, everyone needs there heroes. Their mythic leaders. Their iconic stereotypes. And the GOP is no different, It needs them too. The fat that they chose the Gipp, it’s been also noted, is on account of no one else being plausible. The last president the GOP had that rates previous was Lincoln.
And just quietly, in plenty of GOP recesses and corners of ID: the great emancipator? Well let’s just say some are conflicted about how they feel, about the day, he took a bullet in the back of the head. Other that though, the GOP presidential wing a unrelenting tale of shit and botherance, mythic figure wise. Not for them an FDR or a JFK. Not a Teddy nor a Woodrow. Not nothin but a parade of place sitters, ticket clippers and escapers of justice. (There’s Ike of course, but what’d he do aside from give a good speech when he was finished?)
Poor bastards, let them have their raygun.
That said, here’s John Dolan, who taught Ames the shit, tellin it like it was before the myth took hold, just for the record.
http://exiledonline.com/reagan’s-cheshire-snarl/
I was thinking about ‘the gipper’ over the past few days, and I would love for his supporters to tell me:
1) When he privatised social security
2) When he sold the Tennesee Valley Authority, Bonneville Power Administration, etc
3) When he sold Amtrak
4) When he chopped Aid To Families With Dependent Children (like our DPB)
5) When he privatised the FAA’s air traffic control system (he sacked the controllers, but thats all he did)
6) When he chopped Medicare (that he campaigned so strongly against)
He did his fair share of nasty things, dont get me wrong, but it was Clinton and Bush that took apart America’s institiutions, and Obma is going to finish the job.
We fought a war on lies and lies won, the real Reagan.
repost
Five myths about Ronald Reagan’s legacy
“Well let’s just say some are conflicted about how they feel, about the day, he took a bullet in the back of the head.”
I remember reading an interesting thing in an ‘anti-conspiracy theory’ book years ago. I forget the author – he was arguing why, psychologically, people like conspiracies.
Part of the discussion was about how people (in the US) concocted conspiracies when liberal figures got shot (JFK, Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy, John Lennon, etc.) but hardly ever when conservative figures got shot. He then off-handedly mentioned the coincidence that G.H.W. Bush’s son, Neil, was to have dined with Scott Hinckley (John’s brother) the night of – or perhaps the night after – the assassination attempt – then added how, despite that coincidence, few people seemed interested in making a conspiracy out of that (because ‘only’ a conservative Republican was shot).
My eyes widened. First I’d heard of that. There was G.H.W. Bush, ex-CIA head, the VP, a (distant) cousin of the Queen of England, with the ‘born to rule’ expectations that only a life of high privilege can bestow, a heartbeat away from the Presidency towards which he’d worked most of his adult life only to serve second fiddle to a Hollywood actor – and the families of the VP and the assassin were intertwined!
Turns out John Hinckley senior was – you guessed it – a Texas oilman and was great friends with G.H.W. and contributed greatly to Bush’s campaign run against Reagan in 1980. Both were a bit upset that Reagan didn’t seem to like the tax breaks for the oil industry on which they relied.
Also, DC was the only place in the US with an insanity defence and, so, provided non-custodial sentences for murder. Fortunately for Hinckley he chose DC for his attempt (Hinckley was released from Federal Bureau of Prisons custody on 18 August 1981.). Unfortunately for many accused felons in the US, after Hinckley’s non-custodial sentence (though, ever since, he has been confined to a – presumably very nice – psychiatric institution with various periods of unsupervised home visits lasting many days) public uproar meant that the insanity defence became harder to use and, in some states, legislation for it was entirely repealed.
Then again, John Hinckley Jnr had stalked Carter as well – he was already a bullet with any old President’s name on it (all for the love of a lady).
Aaahh! The wonderful world of coincidences. Still, when you’ve read about the succession processes of the Kings and Queens of England it would perhaps be even odder if assassination were not part of the ‘career moves’ of the powerful today. Or perhaps the efficacious civilising influence of capitalism and liberal democracy means that it no longer happens now – only back then in the ‘bad, old days’ long before tv, McDonalds and government ‘by the people, of the people, for the people’.
As they say, ‘the truth is out there’. (In that vein, Reagan was injured in the chest by a ricocheting bullet. It was Brady who took a direct hit to the head.)
Not that any of it matters, either way. The ‘good fight’ remains the same, conspiracies or not.
Anti-spam: seek – and you shall find?
…Neil, was to have dined with Scott Hinckley…
Yowsers. I did not know that. When people write novels as crazy as US political reality, in gets filed under surrealism. I suspect a conspiricy in there somewhere.
Neil Gaimon got it right. The old gods moved to the new world. Also, David Lynch and little Jimmy Ellroy.
@ prism.
Rape is rape. It doesnt matter if women are getting pissed and promiscuous. No means no. That is a fact.
No may mean yes, or maybe down at the rugby club, but everywhere else, sex is only sex when a women wants to be intamite with a guy, not when a guy forces himself on a women, even if the is in a drunken stupor.
Its people like you that make me sick. Why dont you admit that you want to strip women of all rights and priviliges?
millsy – You are getting hot and bothered. I am talking about women making the most of their rights and privileges. They don’t do that when they spend a lot of their free time getting pissed so they can have a good time. I started off saying how women have worked so other women had better chances and how that has advanced women’s position but some don’t value it enough.
Perhaps you can think of a way to ensure that No means No whether or not she is in a drunken stupor. A lock up was used I think at the time of the Crusades. Or perhaps wrap up in duck tape. A sign over the important area declaring ‘Off Limits”. Or a sign saying “I declare my right as a female person to be drunk and not be molested. Trespassers will be prosecuted.”
It’s sick-making that a woman can’t be sure that she won’t be interfered with even if she goes to a spare room to sleep and recover. It happens though. So girls be clever and keep safe might be the motto. Not tub-thumping about women’s rights to get drunk wherever. That’s the last I’ll say on this.
@McFlock… who said “Actually, (given that I know several people who get happily drunk on 1/2 glass of wine) advocating that women should never risk impairing their judgement in practicality means that all women should be teetotal. Which is puritanical, if not technically Puritan.”
I am teetotal! (For reasons connected to the family curse of alcoholism. OK, it may not be very highly heritable, but why take chances?)
It may be, but is not necessarily, puritanical…
I really don’t see why advising women not to get legless is considered offensive?
Deb
Clarification: the issue isn’t whether people in general should be made aware of risky behaviours and encouraged to moderate them. That’s a standard public health practise when linked to clear and measurable harms (i.e actual risk, as in an actual incidence rate and rate-ratio calculation. Not supposition, conservative abhorrence, or blind guesswork).
What I regarded as puritanical was the suggestion that every single individual (rather than general population perspective “what would happen if nobody drank?”), should quit alcohol because of what somebody else might choose to do to them.
What really irritates me in the thread is the suggestion that because a person is drunk, they are forcing somebody else to commit an assault/robbery/rape. That a drunk woman somehow puts a man (sober or drunk) in the position where he can’t resist an urge to “have sex” with her. And that the drunker she is the more responsible she is for the man’s decision. All that it does is shame victims into not reporting the crime because they must have been asking for it. And the low reporting rates do more to enable the crime to be committed than even our current binge drinking culture could ever do.
So what physical safety messages do you think that alcohol education of young people should promote?
With the concerns you have raised around victim shame etc. would you even dare to link the state of being heavily intoxicated as a high risk one associated with increased risk of being a victim of an assault (sexual or otherwise) and the impairment of good, safe judgement?
I note that the MoT has no compunction against ad campaigns which shame drunk drivers who physically hurt and kill innocent people around them (who may or may not be drunk themselves). In fact creating shame seems to be an objective of those anti-drinking ads.
Well, first of all, what’s the actual risk factor? Being drunk or being around drunk people? Or being in low socioeconomic areas? Or being in pubs that sell alcohol to grossly intoxicated people? Or off-license specials that work out to little more than a buck a can?
Basically, with only one exception that springs to mind (ISTR it was called the “Lisa” ad), the LTSA and ALAC ads focus on bad things you might choose to do when drunk, rather than things that might be done to you by someone else (drunk or sober).
Drink-driving is an act you actually choose to do which should scream “this is a dumb idea” to even a heavily drunk person. With a high level of risk.
For many of the ads, I think they’re targetting associates of excess drinkers (beyond the latest run of “don’t bring your mates along” – which also seems to be a reasonably effective attempt, but then I’m no longer 19). Others (especially the drink-driving ads) target offenders. The trouble is in getting good public safety message reception in 15-24 year olds (it tends to either not connect, or connects but quickly desensitises).
One of the best ads I saw was on a pub urinal – a sticker saying something like “if you take a taxi you’re a bloody legend” and a line-drawing of a cab, and when nature took it’s course the heat changed it to a picture of a car wreck and the “if you drink and drive you’re a bloody idiot” tag. Targeted at drunk people, at a venue, at the time they might need it, easy to make out and read, and encouraged (ahem) “active engagement” to see what the message was. Damned fine piece of advertising.
The other approach is to supplement efforts of advertising at young people with work on liquor pricing and enforcement at the licensee end. From my personal perspective particularly enforcement, but I haven’t done too much reading in the pricing area. The 17-22 y.o. risk takers are often extremely price sensitive, so the suggestion seems reasonable on that basis, but then you get the entire “what about rich kids and poor mature people” issue.
Boosting enforcement resources and maybe bunging in police immediate 3 day closure notices upon witnessing offences x y z of sale of liquor act might be useful. If a party premises operates wed/thurs/fri/sat, and the police find gross disorder on a wednesday, that’ll nuke 3 moneymaking days of the week. I saw a couple of places in the paper for liquor act breaches, and their punishment closures were set during a seasonal downturn, when they usually shut for refits anyway. Not a huge punishment.
Anyway, advertising is one tool, enforcement and price barriers another. The other key course of action, however, is rather than increasing excess drink public safety messages, why not eliminated the competition and re-restrict alcohol advertising? All that cool party social advertising encouraging alcohol consumption basically conflicts with the ALAC message – personally I have no problem with mass-media alcohol advertising bans.