Hard News: Scuffling and screaming on The Left
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They're debating the TSAA as we write.
I should clarify. The Committee stage of the TSAA is on now. It is during the Committee stage that Mr Locke's supplementary order paper will be moved and voted on. He has already mentioned it.
I suppose it is possible that the debate will be dragged out longer than today, but that seems unlikely.
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Hunter is definitely from Glenfield.
As for Shortie St stars in Browns Bay cafes, they have long decamped to the West, not sure exactly where, but all the filming is done out that way now - I think the shift happened when MacKenzie drove a truck into the hospital for the Xmas cliffhanger?
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Voting on parts of the SOP is happening now.
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WH,
I think the extremes in society do some important work in helping the moderate majority dwell in a fair&reasonable political climate; the centre of the bell curve is defined as much by the vocal fringes as by the general public.
I agree that those with unconventional beliefs have an equal right to participate in the political process, and I wouldn't say that oestensibly "moderate" views are necessarily better than the alternatives. On the other hand, if you want to engage and connect with others, and therefore participate effectively in the political process, you need to understand (and to some degree empathise with) other people's viewpoints and concerns. I think this imperative tends to herd people towards the middle of the bell curve, and towards more constructive communication styles. Being indifferent to what everyone around you believes in and cares about has unwelcome consequences.
There is a link between an individual's intellectual, emotional and spiritual development. Whatever collateral benefits extremes provide to society, sometimes I wonder whether the social alienation (even dysfunction) of some of those involved is something to regret.
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Brown's Bay is part of the suburban North Shore and the station keeps gentleman's hours.
Ouch... slightly unkind, Russell. There are plenty of suburban stations that are not staffed 24/7, and least anyone complain that I can't give the incumbent Government credit for anything I can literally turn my head 90 degrees to the left and see http://police.govt.nz/district/tasman/release/2475.html. Ten minutes, at most, from Browns Bay - and a damn sight more accesible to the motorway and most of the North Shore than the former HQ in Takapuna.
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...where was the anti-terror hysteria two years ago? I mean the National Front have been committing acts of violence and intimidation, stockpiling explosives and openly boasting of forming a militia and training in the bush.
yes, I don't recall left wing activists getting quite so out of sorts when those NF folk were arrested, prosecuted and jailed.
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Neil - the big difference here would be the police being reactive to acts done & smoking guns clear for all to see.
The cop in charge is Les Patterson http://www.sirlespatterson.com/
if anyones up for a giggle.Do the Firies investigate or the cops?
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The cop in charge is Les Patterson http://www.sirlespatterson.com/
if anyones up for a giggle.LOL poor guy must get that all the time.
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Can I suggest that the throwing of the bomb was extremely well timed to focus the minds of politicians on the TSAA, against the 'woolly headed, Al Qaeda hugging' Keith Locke.
I doubt we'll ever know who threw it (thrown bombs seem to be found usually only when the police have credible information/suspects/tip-offs), so I'm not going to allege anything, but to say that we've lost just another bit of our democratic freedom today after the amendments were thoroughly voted down.
As usual, the National and ACT Parties are happy to protect our freedom to have elections bought, but nowhere to be seen on issues like this. And I have no idea what Labour is thinking. I fail to understand at all what rationale Labour MPs use. I would be genuinely interested to know.
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Reading the parliamentary debates surrounding the bill and amendments gives me little confidence in our elected representatives to deal with the issues, and even more respect for Keith Locke.
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George, you say National and ACT, but I believe Rodney Hide has been quite outspoken against the bill. "Imagine what Muldoon would have done with this", he said. According to I/S, there were 10 votes against Locke's amendments - the Greens only have six MPs so who were the other four?
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The names of two men arrested in nationwide police raids last month who have been fighting to keep their identity secret can now be revealed.
They are Te Rangikaiwhiria Andrew Kemara, 38, and Tuhoe Francis Lambert, 58.
Kemara is "Cyber Hori", the guy who bought all the weapons and other military equipment on Trade Me. He's a former vice-chair of the Maori Internet Society and I think he's also a moderator of the maori.nz domain.
He has also argued on Kiwiblog, trivia fans ...
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The other four votes were, unsurprisingly, the Maori Party. Act didn't turn up.
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Voila..
Ross Himona's company -- what a bummer for him. I used to deal with Ross when I was an IT journalist; very nice guy.
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His TradeMe behavior hardly looks like the work of an actual proper secretive terrorist conspiracy.
Yeah, if you want to buy something under the radar on TradeMe you don't bid on an auction, or click Buy Now. You arrange to meet the vendor and then make them an offer in cash. They then withdraw the item. Since a weapon is something that you might want to inspect first, this hardly comes at a cost, and the vendor is hardly going to get bitter about not having to go down to the Post office and try to sweet talk them into allowing a weapon through the post.
I can't think why anyone who was into their net security would even dream of buying a gun on TradeMe using a consistent login. But perhaps the 'internet security whizz' claim was a puff. Company profiles often are. Actually security whizzes are quite rare and very well paid, in my experience. Also extremely square. Would you really trust a guy with a facial tattoo to be setting up the security on your network? This is a rhetorical question for the prejudice of the masses...
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I'm always of the view that claiming your IT manager to be an internet security whiz is something of an open invitation for anybody that way inclined to try some SQL injection into the contact form. Security is something you do, not claim to do...
Just on a novelty note:
var ingoa = "office";
var paewhakaata = "kingstrat.co.nz";
...I don't think I've ever seen variable names in Maori before. Not a very good practice from a technical perspective but interesting to see.
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Not a very good practice from a technical perspective but interesting to see.
Depends on your technical perspective. If you're writing code so you're the only guy who understands it, it's all good. If you're teaching yourself Maori it's also good. If you want Pakeha code review, it probably doesn't help much. Except in one thing - everyone will always know 'who wrote THAT piece of code???'.
To be honest, I wouldn't be the least bit fazed by Maori variable names. Code's code, and it's usually so friggin cryptic and similar that the Maori would just add color and entertainment.
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Te Rangikaiwhiria Kemara from the kiwiblog thread
Mark said: “Does the Treaty apply to Tuhoe? If not, that would be an interesting constitutional argument.”
It shouldn’t since Tuhoe never signed it, however the assumed complete sovereignty of parliament extends there irregardless due to the government owning a big army and police force to enforce its self beliefs.
When it comes to issues of sovereignty, talk is cheap, constitutional debates are rhetoric, around the world and throughout history, sovereignties have only ever changed hands or reinforced, at the edge of the sword, bayonet or bombs [shrugs].
I suppose it could be argued that he's just trying to state some sort of historical fact. But combine that sort of statement with buying guns and I can see why some people might get worried, talk being cheap and the electoral process mere rhetoric.
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There was a four page article about the state of Maori (in relation to the terrorism arrests) in one of the many Guardian supplements today. It was sort of interesting to read such an article written by (I assume) someone without any of the emotional buy-in one gets from a domestically written article.
Although the huge A3 colour photo of Tame Iti was rather disturbing.
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It was sort of interesting to read such an article written by (I assume) someone without any of the emotional buy-in one gets from a domestically written article.
Grrr... am I the only one who get a wee bit pissed off at the Te Borg shorthand that gets used in pieces like this.
What the frak am I supposed to make of this:
It turns out, though, that there are - and that feelings about them are starting to run dangerously high. Listen, for example, to Allan Hawea, a moderate, law-abiding Maori community worker from the Bay of Plenty. New Zealanders of European extraction, known in Maori as Pakeha, he warns, "can harp on all they like about how tired they are of Maori considering themselves above the law, or how sick and tired they are of hearing Maori bleat on about the race issue. Well, friends, get used to it. We will not have you tell us how we will respond to the issues that concern us. We will decide how we respond. We are not going away. If you find our response unreasonable, illogical, perhaps it is because we have been reasonable and logical for far too long."
Well, it's a point of view. But I really have a very big problem indeed with the descriptors used for Hawea - and what I read as the inference that this is typical of 'moderate, law-abiding' Maori. I personally not only found that quote far from moderate, but hellishly creepy.
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WH,
Mutu also doubts there was "anything remotely threatening going on up in those mountains", in part because "if there was, I think I would have heard about it". But, she concurs, "the whole of Maoridom has been traumatised by these raids. Attitudes are certainly hardening. Eventually, I think, we will get together, and we will discuss how to handle it. And yes, I can see a day we will go back to our land and reclaim it. There will not be military action, because that is not our way, but we will go on to the state-owned farms, into the forests, to the wild places where very few people live, and we will say: 'This is ours, now try and stop us taking it. We've been patient, we've believed your fine words, for too long. We know what is right'".
Sounds like the new Minister for Treaty Negotiations has his work cut out.
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That Guardian story was terrible: I found myself counting the nuances it missed -- such as the "right-wing New Zealand First Party" being led by a Maori and having in recent memory held Maori seats. Would it not have helped to talk to Mark Solomon, Shane Jones, Georgina Te Heuheu or Rob McLeod as well as Margaret Mutu?
And then there were the blithe out-and-out errors like "the news that 17 Maori rights activists had been arrested on weapons and terrorism offences".
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Depends on your technical perspective. If you're writing code so you're the only guy who understands it, it's all good. If you're teaching yourself Maori it's also good. If you want Pakeha code review, it probably doesn't help much. Except in one thing - everyone will always know 'who wrote THAT piece of code???'.
I'm generally of the opinion that it's a bad idea to write code (for paid work, at least) that is only intended to be understood by you. It increases the likely ongoing expenses and risks involved in owning the code for the client, and therefore decreases the value of you writing it.
(As for knowing who wrote a bit of code, that's what version control and comments are for, not weird variable names)
But with that said, in the context above it's fine. All the code is doing is obfuscating an email address anyway, so non-obvious names would be in line with the purpose of the code. And Maori is a cooler kind of cryptic naming than "j" and "k"...
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That Guardian story was terrible: I found myself counting the nuances it missed -- such as the "right-wing New Zealand First Party" being led by a Maori and having in recent memory held Maori seats.
And what the hell is Ron Mark - chopped liver? :) If he's been "reasonable and logical for far too long", reason and logic have no meaning. I've certainly found it in short supply on all sides in recent weeks...
Now, I really have to go work on my PA Radio piece suggesting that Family First and the Catholic Church do have a point, just not quite the one they think. Really don't want to get stuck on this for the third (fourth?) week in a row, because I've sure run out of anything useful to say.
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