I still get blank stares when I say the word "wiki".

Which rugby league player holds the record for most number of team appearances?

i've been wonderiing about this.
would PAers agree kiwiblog is the best quality rightwing pol blog site?

i agree about reading opposing viewpoints and the like. but... i barely read pro-left sites these days. cynicism and politics-overload means my uptake of information is…

i believe that is called "damning with faint praise"

Shit. And I started out trying to be nice.

In general I like to look at opinions and comments about news and current events from people I disagree with. I already know what I think about political issues but I'm interested…

he's still head and shoulders above any other right-wing NZ politics site

i believe that is called "damning with faint praise"

Actually I think he's kind of sliding; it's now very much a National Party Blog instead of the blog of someone who supports the National Party – but he's still head and shoulders above…

Try just reading DPFs entries without clicking into the threads

have tried it. makes me want to hurt small animals.

although, i haven't read him for about 6 months. maybe the level of commentary has lifted.

cue: entire room laughing.…

I still get blank stares when I say the word "wiki".

D4J,

About time you showed up.

This debate needs to be dragged back from the left and put where it should be."

You'll miss James Cairney's worthy list and most everything else on there that made sense...

But trust me, this…

we start discussing the pitfalls of blogs, and means to make them work effectively (and not be time-traps or underutilised). in response to the question of "social behaviour" in and around blogs…

there was this really rather good 10 predictions about the child discipline bill by James Cairney:

How do we know that was the real James Cairney posting? :)

Anyway (I feel naughty doing this, but it's worth a look).:

Best DPF comments thread EVER!

And yet, in the midst of the madness, there was this really rather good 10 predictions about the child discipline bill by James Cairney:

1. The Bill will become law.
2. Good parents will…

Anyway (I feel naughty doing this, but it's worth a look).:

Best DPF comments thread EVER!

like the UN.

but useful.

As for your last statement, I've already apologized. Besides I consider you throwing around opinions about something…

I guess I was mainly offended by this:

That at least gives me something to work with; you originally referred to a different post. But you could have just asked me for clarification – I was
saying that there is significant difference between them, it was my main argument,…

I really don't know what it was I said that called for that.

I guess I was mainly offended by this:

Narcissism and autism are sort of similar,

and perplexed by this:

A little more secular materialism might have done Cho some good

Please don't "feel inclined to keep your…

You really have no idea what you're talking about and you'd do yourself a favour if you just stopped, Neil.

I really don't know what it was I said that called for that. I was just expressing my opinion that the diagnosis may have been wrong. I do have some…

we don't even have to imagine Joseph Mengele, Pol Pot or Idi Amin. each of these people likely did have some kind of developmental…

Replace the word 'autism' with 'pervasive developmental disorder' if you like: the fact remains that there are a very wide range of PDD's that affect neurological development in wildly variant ways. Most…

That's true, but the UK has still had a bunch of mass shootings (Dunblane, Hungerford). Virtually evrey industrialised country has. The difference between those places and the US is that everywhere else has tightened up their gun…

I also enjoyed some of…

I'm pretty sure this does happen in NZ (Aramoana), Australia (Tassie), and the UK (I don't like Mondays).

Er ... the last one was a song about a shooting in America.

It's like how some people, when they go to war, they come home and kill their families, or take up sniping random strangers; some people when they get bullied every day for…

care to generalise why this doesn't happen with frequency in say, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Australia, New Zealand?

As far as I'm aware, none of the above countries had a 2nd Amendment. Also, does Bowling for Columbine come to mind? Liberties may have been taken with some of the…

Certainly, although it doesn't really shed any light on what that "something seriously wrong in his head" is. While it's fair to speculate how things…

The US is the largest fully industrialised country in the world by far, and anyone who can breath can own a gun – so they've got more maniacs than most places…

Fortunately in the societies mentioned Che, there has been some effort to keep the safety net a bit wider,and perhaps catching more of the potential risks.

Actually, if he'd had a childhood autism diagnosis in, say California, these days, he'd have automatically become eligible for a range of services (which…

As for pampered, all the tribulations you describe occured after Bryant was jailed. Of course no-one should be forced to suffer like that. My point is that Bryant had no apparent reason, prior to commiting his crime, for holding a major grudge against the world.

Yeah, but doesn't the fact…

The difficulty arises when the environment, mental health and conditioning arrive in a torrid confluence that some are clearly ill-equipped to handle.

Nicely put. What I find chilling is that in the case of Cho, the Columbine perpetrators, Martin Bryant, and the whole Aum Shinrikyo cult, this provides the catalyst…

I'm not talking from much of a knowledge base but [...]

You should've stopped there. As an ASD person myself, I can confidently say that you don't know what you're talking about.

Amen. You really have no idea what you're talking about and you'd do yourself a favour if you…

I'm not talking from much of a knowledge base but [...]

You should've stopped there. As an ASD person myself, I can confidently say that you don't know what you're talking about.

I'm not sure if "pampered" is the right word Joe. I doubt you'd swap your life for his.

Well, naturally.
While the term simpleton may be somewhat unclinical and pejorative, I believe it aptly decribes Bryant. I'd be inclined to doubt that claimed IQ of 66 though – Bryant was,…

I'm really tempted to make a few unwarranted generalisations about liberals who blame "The System" rather than accept that some people are just evil.

care to generalise why this doesn't happen with frequency in say, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Australia, New Zealand?

(and apologies for bad typing in previous…

Cho is guilty of the greatest mass murder in our history by a lone gunman and he is responsible for…

You read any James Lee Burke books, Che?

nope. but might look them up. glad to see a suggestion its not just my impression of texas isn't just my own.

if you already have a penchant for self-isolation (for any of the reasons being discussed here), then being exposed to…

I believe what the aunt said was that Cho suggested to her that he might be autistic.

No, she said he was diagnosed after the family settled in the US. A HuffPo story has more detail than most of the coverage:

The first and most obvious of Cho's symptoms -…

i had the umm... "privilege" of attending an extremely wealthy high school in texas. there were a lot of good people in there, but some of the wealthiest kids were complete assholes.

pretty much the same kinds of characters you get at any nzl college, but with this particular arrogance…

The pampered simpleton Martin Bryant's 'alienation' didn't prevent him from begging his jailers for any scrap of news that might confirm his expectation that his crimes had made him some kind of hero.

Pardon!? Bryant has had a horrible life, including repeated psychiatric admissions as a child. His IQ was…

How do authorities decide that? They can't in many cases until it is too late. Clearly Cho was in the system that failed him and ultimately all his victims.

You may be right to treat this as a mental health issue, but did the 'system' also fail the Columbine perpetrators,…

but then that might raise all sorts of thorny questions about the extent to which secular materialism leads to alienation and disengagement,

"Disenagement" has hardly the word for killing 32 people. A little more secular materialism might have done Cho some good – he seemed much more like a religious…

I believe what the aunt said was that Cho suggested to her that he might be autistic.

The childhood autism diagnosis was stated as a fact by the aunt, and it does actually fit the characteristics I cited.

You know far more about autism than me and that diagnosis may well be correct but it might have been wrong. My understanding is that autism is "a-social" rather…

The problem is that most folks can't even begin to imagine a situation or series of events that would cause them to kill so indesciminantly. If they can't imagine how they…

As far as I'm concerned pontificating about how capitalism might be too blame, and your suggestion that 'maybe valuing the latest bling/car/status symbol isn't really enough to keep everyone wanting to play nice' is worthy of just as much contempt as the…

pretty much the same kinds of characters you get at any nzl college, but with this particular arrogance…

no doubt. and why?

Maybe because he was a selfish, self-obsessed psychopathic dick?

no doubt. and why? it's always easy to attribute mistreatment to difference, but as RB notes everyone is different one way or another – yet not all are ostracised or disengaged to such an extent. was…

i could never condone Cho's actions but the need to pathologize him rather than question whether he is partly a product of his world is interesting.

The comments posted to some of the YouTube instances of his video (via NBC) were interesting, if a little alarming. There are tortured kids…

I'd be very cautious about any diagnosis of autism with Cho Seung Hui. He appears to me to have been narcissistic with a huge sense of entitlement and (therefore) agrievement. Those aren't as far as I know characteristics of autism.

Narcissism and autism are sort of similar, but narcissists see…

..... or in this case the not-ok corral.

thereby turning the campus into the ok corral.

on the one hand, yes of course his behaviour was completely patholgical, outrageous and unforgivable. but the message i got from his 'press kit' was about one profoundly alienated kid living in a world…

Narcissism and autism are sort of similar, but narcissists see…

Fair enough, Russell, but I'm sure as hell not comfortable with the level of post-mortem…