Legal Beagle by Graeme Edgeler

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Legal Beagle: Questions, but no answers, with thanks to David Simon for opening my eyes

57 Responses

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  • Bart Janssen, in reply to Tom Semmens,

    play the game

    Let me say this clearly.

    The job of governing the people of New Zealand is NOT A GAME.

    I appreciate that generations of grammer school boys have tried to simplify the difficult, complex and important task of developing law and policy that improves the quality of life for New Zealanders into A GAME. Because that way they could justify their presence in parliament.

    I appreciate that compromise is an important part of the task. But that is not the same as bullying and game playing.

    People who don't understand that, like you, like our media, are a part of the problem and they need to step aside for people better able to understand the very real gravity of the jobs involved, both for the MPs and media.

    People like you who stand back and say "it's just the way it's done" are enabling a destructive force in society. You pretend importance and gravitas by calling me naive for not knowing the rules of the game, what you miss is that I'm am fully aware of the game and its rules - what I am saying and what you are not able to hear is that I believe we should not be playing the game at all.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 4461 posts Report Reply

  • Brent Jackson, in reply to Bart Janssen,

    Hear, hear.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 620 posts Report Reply

  • Tamara, in reply to Bart Janssen,

    absolutely spot on!

    New Zealand • Since Oct 2010 • 115 posts Report Reply

  • Adam H, in reply to Bart Janssen,

    I was hoping someone would ask about the Saddam Hussein reference.

    Because that's the thing: it results in a war that no-one wins in the end.

    Auckland • Since Oct 2014 • 27 posts Report Reply

  • Shaun Scott, in reply to Bart Janssen,

    Thank you. What I feel, but more eloquently and clearly expressed .

    Intelligence. Kindness. Compromise. All essential in political discourse ( and human relationships)- and sadly lacking in the"gotcha!", Trumpian, click-bait driven MSM environment in which we live.

    Dunedin • Since Dec 2008 • 90 posts Report Reply

  • Ian Dalziel,

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/99390271/phil-quin-apologises-for-calling-green-mp-golriz-ghahraman-a-genocide-denier

    But as Jonathan Swift said back in 1710:

    Besides, as the vilest Writer has his Readers, so the greatest Liar has his Believers; and it often happens, that if a Lie be believ’d only for an Hour, it has done its Work, and there is no farther occasion for it. Falsehood flies, and the Truth comes limping after it; so that when Men come to be undeceiv’d, it is too late; the Jest is over, and the Tale has had its Effect…

    aka Quin's 'dead cat' is still bouncing...

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 7953 posts Report Reply

  • Tom Semmens,

    When I was younger and did a spot of deer stalking we would kit up in our swanndri bushshirts and shorts, grab our trusty bolt action rifles plus 20 rounds and hike into the ranges to perhaps bag ourselves a deer, but mainly to get away and eat simple food and drink some rum in a rusty hut. A nice gun was nice, but an old sporterised .303 would do just as well. It was tool, for a job to be done should the opportunity present itself.

    A few years back, I noted a guy about to go bush standing on the side of the Taupo road. He looked like a Serbian warlord, full matching Russian style camo, jungle boots, and military style webbing and he was equipped with two SKS self-loading rifles. I wondered at the change in the type of bloke who goes shooting these days.

    The point is that the contagion of the US obsession with firearms as a marker of the wider culture war around identity -with all the attendant attitudes – for a particular section of society has certainly now got a decent foothold in NZ. So there isn’t much point in “negotiating” with the gun lobby in the assumption they are a bunch of aesthetic collectors, grizzled farmers and salt of the earth hunters and trappers who will see reason when you tell that as a result of a massacre you will require new rules around some of their tools. The gun nuts are fundamentally unappeasable, because gun control is just another front in the endless culture wars.

    Military style weapons in particular have become a symbol of power and ego for the gun nuts, and by extension crazy crackpot white power types.

    Sevilla, Espana • Since Nov 2006 • 2217 posts Report Reply

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