Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: The witless on the pitiless, in reply to Che Tibby,
i mean, you’re assuming what OBL might have thought of maori.
we have no evidence that he’d even heard of them. my weak knowledge of his worldview is that OBL would likely just think them to be “potential muslims”.
No, about their culture. He would have despised it, for the reasons I noted. Do you seriously think he'd have embraced a culture in which music plays such a part? In which carvings, and whole houses, are imbued with the wairua of ancestors?
He called on Muslims to attack Australia for its support of another indigenous people, the Timorese in their "separation from the Islamic world". Although you had to love Jose Ramos Horta's response.
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Hard News: The witless on the pitiless, in reply to Che Tibby,
do you think that might be an assumption?
Unless you can find me any evidence that those involved had a clue in that respect, then I think it's a valid assumption.
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Hard News: The witless on the pitiless, in reply to Chris Cormack,
You did describe them as a ‘rush of misguided Maori Sentiment’ which implies to me, that their views are Maori sentiment, if not, then wouldn’t it just be misguided sentiment?
I'm sorry it came across that way, then, because I was well aware of what Henare and Jones had said. So let's try it this way: "Maori who have rushed to offer sympathy for Bin laden seem to have little idea of what he would have thought of their own culture". The comparison to Te Kooti seems particularly inapt in that context.
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Hard News: The witless on the pitiless, in reply to HORansome,
I’ll echo that; it would be more accurate to say “a rush of misguided sentiment” than to label it as being any more Māori than Pākehā in nature.
See above for the reasons I thought it was notable.
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Hard News: The witless on the pitiless, in reply to Chris Cormack,
To describe Dr Walker, Hone Harawira and Willie Jackson as the voice of Maori sentiment is also wrong. Did you need to bring ethnicity into it? Surely you could have made your point without it. I have utterly no doubt there are some Pakeha (you mention one in fact) who are talking the same amount of bullshit.
I understand your point. And there were certainly Maori, including Shane Jones and Tau Henare, who took a very different view.
But when a great Maori historian and a prominent Maori broadcaster come to the defence of the most high-profile Maori politician in the country on a matter like this, it is notable. Dr Walker actually compared Bin Laden to Te Kooti, and Harawira seemed to be linking Bin Laden’s struggle to that of Maori. He offered his mihi in Maori, on Maori Television and not anywhere else.
I didn’t describe them as “the voice of Maori sentiment” or suggest all Maori thought so, but I did say that that none of those Maori making sympathetic utterances seemed to have any grasp of what Bin Laden would have thought about their culture.
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Hard News: The witless on the pitiless, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
That got distorted from being Bin Laden’s family’s view into being Hone’s own view
That's an extremely generous interpretation of what he said, and not one I'm inclined to credit.
Had the US not invaded, such an organisation would never have existed
I believe that’s what I actually said.
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Hard News: The witless on the pitiless, in reply to Che Tibby,
including the american snipers who shot dead women in falluja while pursuing al qaeda in iraq.
In a better world, we'd see a proper reckoning of a lot more than that in Fallujah.
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And hey ho, look what's just turned up from the NZDF in response to our questions:
STATEMENT FROM NZ DEFENCE FORCE RE TIMES TAKEN FOR OIA REQUESTS
The New Zealand Defence Force is aware that some of its responses to Official Information requests received in the past have taken too long.
To ensure our response times are reduced, since November 2009 we have ensured that all parts of the NZ Defence Force are aware of their responsibilities under the OIA.
A new Official Questions system was introduced in 2009, which encompasses the processing of OIA requests, as well as Ministerial correspondence which can also involve OIA requests. This services-based system has improved the processing of requests. An enhanced system is planned for introduction in November 2011.
Rounds of staff training have been undertaken to increase awareness in respect of the OIA and Privacy Act have been conducted. These have included lawyers and staff from the Ombudsmen's office.
A uniformed officer has been posted to the position of Deputy Director Corporate and Ministerial Services in the Office of the Chief of Defence Force, augmenting the Ministerial Coordinators.
The Defence Communications Group has been used in a proactive way to negotiate incoming OIA requests from the media, where it is necessary to focus broadly scoped requests. This approach enables the NZDF to respond more readily to OIA requests from the media.
The items listed above form part of an overall package of measures to improve NZDF performance in processing OIA requests. Additionally, a number of measures are being taken to enhance the accuracy and effectiveness of document handling, which will enhance the processing of OIA requests.
We expect that the combination of such measures will result in improved performance by the NZDF in meeting its statutory obligations under the OIA.
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Hard News: The witless on the pitiless, in reply to Idiot Savant,
Indeed. But even murderous religious fascists deserve a fair trial. Bin Laden was simply gunned down in cold blood.
True. Although Raffi Khatchadourian -- not exactly one of your usual suspects -- had an interesting take on how the Rules of Engagement might have applied in this case, and concludes that:
To be uncomfortable with such operations is, in a sense, to be uncomfortable with war itself. And to accept that the bin Laden raid was legal, is, in effect, to acknowledge publically that what we are actually conducting in Pakistan is a kind of war. In his death, bin Laden has forced this admission from us.
His argument has been both diminished as it's become clear that there was only one guard firing in the compound, but bolstered by the seized evidence which seems to suggest that Bin Laden was actively engaged in combat planning.
But, of course, that wasn't my point.
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Hard News: Asking for a Contribution, in reply to Islander,
A single malt is a single malt BUT - you can blend single malts- this would be something for a hugely experienced cellar-master with an exceptional nose to do- and could be done with the hoard in Oamaru-
Quite. There are a handful of very good blends done by the high-end private bottlers from whatever's to hand. The Adelphi Private Stock blend is $45-50 and it's lovely.
I think making your blends all from the same distillery isn't going to be quite as good though. It helps to have a broad palette to choose from.
Does anyone know if the Oamaru whisky is in big, middling or small barrels? Choosing a special bottling would be fun.