Posts by Craig Young
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I tend to be a latent supporter of pot reform. When the cannabis reform lobby properly organises itself, I'll probably support them. Until then...
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Hard News: Cannabis: The Experiment is Real, in reply to Kumara Republic,
Yes, although more like questionable junk science of dubious toxicological and pharmacological provenance. I do suspect that there is a genetic subset of those who respond adversely to pot and they probably shouldn't ingest it- but then, I have similar adverse responses to the SSRI fluoxetine.
And unfortunately, the pot lobby here in NZ tend to be a pack of tiresome opportunists. The ALCP almost succeeded in knocking its strongest Green supporter out of Parliament in 2005. It's now aligned itself with Libertarianz. If I were the pot lobby, I'd suggest tactical voting for the Greens, as they're obviously the best hope for reform in any future Parliament.
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Unfortunately, given the combination of neanderthal anti-drug populism and counterproductive cannabis lobby fragmentation here in New Zealand, cannabis law reform will remain strictly hypothetical in the intermediate future...
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There will need to be "assay tests" of cannabis purity and other steps taken in this context. Regulating cannabis is necessary to protect consumers, insure it doesn't get into the hand of younger users as well as those with pre-existing schizophrenia. I'm not sure how the latter would be enforced
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Hard News: Narcissists and bullies, in reply to Emma Hart,
And my partner and I have a daughter. I find this situation reprehensible. Granted, there may have needed to be a brief period before the police gathered sufficient information to prosecute these evil misogynist little shits, but they should have acted far sooner than now. As for Facebook, it should have disabled the webpage in question long before now.
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Freeview (my digital provider) now has Al Jazeera's twenty four hour newsfeed as one of the options. Great! Now I can stop missing BBC World News quite so much. I just wish they'd get rid of Choice, that ghastly fundie Firstlight channel and one of the shopping channels. Apart from C4 2 and Parliament TV, it's a wasteland otherwise.
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Hard News: Moving right along?, in reply to Lilith __,
"Family" and "Christian" used to be such nice words until they were hijacked by the raving right. Now "Family Values" conjures up bizarre images of cane-toting, salivating, inanely-grinning men wearing hornrims, cardigans and wanting to ban everything.
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Hard News: Moving right along?, in reply to Russell Brown,
In Worth's case, I suspect that the question of prospective public sector employment for his erstwhile lover may have been the point at which a merely risible case of marital infidelity became something worse and may have been the straw that broke the camel's back. And in Brash's case, there seems no doubt that losing the election due to the Brethrengate bungle was a major motivating factor for his dismissal. I'm broadly defining 'financial irregularity' here- whether offers of employment based on questionable grounds, or questionable donations from shonky right-wing sects.
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Hard News: Moving right along?, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
That, and making rueful Oscar Wilde citations while suffering Catholic Guilt for homoeroticism.
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Hard News: Moving right along?, in reply to Kumara Republic,
This is why Laura Kipnis' feminist analysis of the politics of scandal is so damned good. I agree, when it comes to questions of rape, child sexual abuse or domestic violence, sexual scandals become far, far graver questions. Capillgate was probably one of the worst political scandals to break in this country, due to Capill's serial rape of three female children. Identity fraud does have indirect financial attributes. Usually, though, financial irregularities turn out to be the culpable offence beyond which there is no return- Pansy Wong, Richard Worth, Taito Philip Field, Donna Awatere-Huata, Don Brash (Brethrengate). Granted, Worth and Brash were getting their leg over in the same context, but it turned out to be questionable financial transactions and implied impaired transparency and accountability that made their sins capital offences in terms of their political longevity.