Could it have something to do with his pre-fundy history with TVNZ?

*Doesnt extend to vegetables/fruit…or, since this may occur as a possibility, does to crustaceans & molluscs. I shuck my shellfish & deepfreeze for 30 mins. my crustaceans-

Ruth de Souza wrote several years back that "people can like the foods without liking…

Hang on...this sounds like Damascus. He's got the wrong country!

And what of Prosser's beloved pocketknife, and its confiscation at Christchurch Airport that inspired his anti-Islam rant? He wants to sell the knife (still under lock and key at the airport) on Trade Me and give the proceeds to a worthy cause.

"One that sprung to…

It's possible that Prosser might follow his example.

We can but hope.

Hone Harawira is another MP with a…

What gives you that impression? Maybe I've missed something.

The effectiveness of airport security is akin to saying a prayer before flying.

"Counterterrorism in the airport is a show designed to make people feel better," he said. "Only two things have made flying safer: the reinforcement of cockpit doors, and the fact that passengers know now to resist hijackers."

I pretty much agree with that.

It's entirely possible that they used industrial plastic box-cutters, which don't show up on metal detectors anyway. They could probably get through anything less than a full pat-down, and even then you could probably conceal them in your…

I wonder if I'm the only person on earth whose level of fear and alarm actually dropped after one of these swab tests, when…

Security pulled me up, with the line 'Do you have a toy in your bag'. It took me a while – the present was…

It has long been my view that anyone who can take over a plane with a pair of nail clippers probably…

An acquaintance of mine in the NZ military... in transit between Darwin and Port Moresby.... had her nail clippers confiscated.... while being allowed to carry a loaded semi-automatic rifle over her shoulder....

If you're hell-bent on taking over a plane…

Michael Laws is a professional moron – not an MP.

Michael Laws is a professional moron – and former NZ First MP. A non-moronic NZ First MP is known as an oxymoron.

While there's a lot of theatre, to be sure, I don't really mind it. I had eight flights around the continent in January (including Brisbane twice). Five of them involved being waved for bomb screening.…

That sums up most visible 'security'.

Kkicked out a rogue letter of the alphabet that sabotaged the link.

The customs and immigration officials…

That's not all. If you're within 100 miles of the US border, non-Yanks can expect to have their electronic devices automatically seized.

They don't have any security, so you could climb on tooled up like something out of a Quentin Taratino movie and nobody would bat an eyelid (provided the…

Yes, everyone except US and Canadian passport holders. With as much good humour as ever.

As far as I can tell, this is a standard thing at Australian airports (domestic and otherwise)…

knew I'd seen Shearer somewhere before

I have stopped carrying…

That it did not has caused his comments to make news around the world, letting New Zealand become the toast of fascists and the despair of decent people. The nation's reputation is thus damaged and its reputation for tolerance lessened, but it is the harm…

I know a *cough* "confirmed bachelor" who, returning home after a particularly strenuous Sydney Mardi Gras, had…

I read somewhere yesterday – and I…

Michael Laws is a professional moron – not an MP.

Seriously, is that even possible?

My weirdest airport security experience was in Canberra, heading to a domestic flight to Melbourne the day after the delivery of the federal budget. I was pulled aside for a not-really-voluntary (i.e. you can decline, but you’ll…

On a domestic flight, Jetstar(!) objected to my having a lighter in my handbag. So I took it out, in front of the screeners, and put it in the pocket of my jeans. And that was fine.

At every point, airport screening is a farce. It doesn't work well enough to justify 1/100th of the cost of doing it in the first place.

As we left Damscus – having bought a damascus steel sword (replica of course) – we were amused by the airport sign that explicity forbade carrying swords on the plane.

You may recall that Clarkson declared that Muslim women wearing burqas, who did not want to fit in should “go back to Islam or Iraq”.…

If you were completely cynical about the NZ1st party you might suggest this actually is the party line and the reason he didn't get a bollocking is because he said something Winston knew would get votes. Perhaps even he was told to…

True — then again, I'd like to think I'm a pretty informed voter and looking down the National caucus I find myself having a few "who the fuck are you?"…

I can't remember who gave me this insight in the first place: it might well have been someone here. NZFirst voters believe that the more they vote for Winston, the…

Because they're a shambles. I'm presuming they did little or no…

Prosser doesn't "besmirch" New Zealand First. His only mistake was being too honest, and his only real crime embarrasing Winston.

Spot on Craig. They push the button when they want to, right audience, right time, right place. Perfect for the re-recruitment of their voters.

Like Martin, I had to have a little "bitch, please..." moment at what was an otherwise excellent editorial. Sorry for sounding like a broken record, but a not-insignificant proportion of the media has been bromancing Peters as some kind of lovable scallywag for the…

Jason Kennedy's open letter.

But does he really besmirch ( love that word ) his party? I would say that he represents his party quite well.

Richard Prosser has shown himself unfit to be a member of Parliament. His obnoxious comments on Muslims are racist and bigoted, insulting a valued part of the New Zealand community and a great world religion. These…

Heh. You have just added a recruit to your underground army!!

@Craig. FGS!! You look like a terrorist! Give the security guys and gals their dues. They know your sort.

yes that's largely my impression – possibly the most efficient airport I regularly travel through, and given that they actually have…

Quite – and I can't help comparing and contrasting the memory of when we flew into Vancouver, and ended…

To be fair, having done HKIA at least thirty times in the past 5 years, (without an issue – I rate it as one of…

Yep. Java at least is both heavily Islam and a far more matriarchal society than any so-called Christian nation I know of.

Fundamentalists and other extremists of all stripes aren't so much mentally impaired…

I hate Richard Prosser's views, and the damage they do by feeding hatred, and thereby making us all less safe.

On a selfish level, it's unpleasant seeing our family name in a disparaging context (the…

No, Andre, Wishart was a vile bigot, a mendacious hack and a spectacularly disingenuous concern-troll. (I'm sure Helen Clark will be delighted to know Wishart now loathes faith-based misogyny and homophobia.)

He wasn't insane, or any other euphemism…

No, Geoff.

1) We can actually think and care about more than one thing at a time.

2) Folks like you and me actually have the privilege of not caring about a party of unapologetic racists potentially deciding who’ll…

Once could also note that white Catholic men have killed more people than "Muslim-looking" one in terrorist outrages in London by an order of magnitude.

I actually sympathised…

Prosser (aka Tosser) is a well-known fruitcake and we should just ignore him.

Thanks. Must have been library footage – though TVNZ's 6pm bulletin also mentioned no beard today.

The beard has been gone all year.

I've had a nail file removed whilst in transit outta Brisbane to NZ. There was no choice to check it into luggage. and no choice to post it forward . It was ok though through Dubai and…

MMP means more diverse representation – and not just from the segments of society in the "middle ground." A measure of the success of…

+1

Despicable as I think the man is (and his party for accommodating and defending him), he probably represents at least 1/120th of the populace. I don't know whether to consider it an MMP success or failure,…

I doubt it was an accident. Bad economic figures that refuse to be smoothed over? Drop something you've been sitting on. Bennett must have run out of targets this time.

miraculously shaved off since yesterday

Possibly. But there's a big difference between the roles and rights of women in Bosnia, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia respectively. Just…

Not quite that simple.
Your luggage can be searched and a harmless multi-tool removed.

There's a bitter joke in there somewhere. And to think, at one point, NZF did have something like policy wonks in its ranks.

Along with all the others. There's plenty of anti-female skew in a wide variety of world religions, some of which we tune out because we're more familiar with it. I mean, there's a perfectly good reason Catholic women…

The problem is that few read the misnamed "investigate" so it probably took that long for…

My – uneasiness- with the whole thing is if an activist pro-Muslim group got entrenchment here.

For me, all fundamentalist sects are nasty & dangerous, but Islamic ones – because of their anti-female skew- are the worst.

I've probably read hundreds of comments to this effect on blogs…

This has been a bugbear with me since I first began to travel by air* – I have, since I was 7 years old, ALWAYS carried knives…

"Banning young muslim men from airplanes is about the same as banning old white men from contact with money because they might embezzle it"

Which, while cute, is completely inaccurate, old white guys do far…

If Prosser has his way, he'll end up getting kicked off a flight for his suspiciously Islamic looking beard, only…

I actually sympathised with him for having his knife confiscated. I had to hand over a nice little Leatherman on my key ring when leaving Sydney last year – though they let…

On any other day, he declares open season on women and gays. But when Islam is involved, he suddenly jumps to their defence. Oh, the hypocrisy!

As for…

Her point is well made.

(Nine to Noon)

Yes, and it contradicts the tidy language in Prosser's brief 'apology' media release. Guy's only sorry about getting caught out.

Kathryn Ryan interviewing Richard Prosser: MP3, 22 mins

(Edited to fix goof-up where I said it was on Morning Report. Thanks for catching it, Sacha.)

Here we go again

we go through this once every 6 months or so. if it's not women wearing burqa's banned from buses, it's cartoons, it's various politicians or…

I'm sure he thought he sounded convincing.

Like it's not the screening he objects to so much as being required to obey the rules.

I can't help noting it would have to be larger than the standard 6cm…