Posts by Keir Leslie
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Hard News: The Crazy Gang Nation, in reply to Kyle Matthews,
It's almost like the time three politicians managed to drive the NZ economy off a cliff by (as Easton puts it) a very impressive piece of political leverage.
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Hard News: Another Saturday Night, in reply to Bart Janssen,
I think one reason we apply such a high scrutiny is that cops get away with all sorts of stuff (like, seriously, this?) and there’s a need for independent accountability.
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Hard News: No Red Wedding, in reply to Stephen Judd,
Not an ironic zing: merely a moderately teasing rejoinder.
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I don't know. I think that alcohol's different from tobacco, in that lots of people consume alcohol in a responsible and safe way. Very few people consume tobacco in a safe, responsible way. So the policy response has to be different and take that into account.
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Hard News: Local interest, in reply to Rob Stowell,
Rob --- which ward are you in? Because putting aside the other candidates (I don't know) the People's Choice candidates will take a strong stance against wasting money on stadia and convention centres. (As Paul McMahon always says, roofs for houses before roofs for stadia.)
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Hard News: No Red Wedding, in reply to Stephen Judd,
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Hard News: No Red Wedding, in reply to Andrew Geddis,
Well, there's two questions. One is whether is whether acupuncture is better than a placebo; the other is whether acupuncture causes pain relief as effectively as a placebo (which are broadly accepted to relieve pain). The evidence is mixed on the first, and reasonably clear on the second.
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Hard News: No Red Wedding, in reply to Andrew Geddis,
Or yes: the NICE in the UK appears to disagree. It’s not as simple as “acupuncture doesn’t work”. (To be clear: acupuncture theory is unscientific nonsense. But it might still work. I don’t know. It’s not clear. There appears to be the possibility it does work.)
And this?
All good doctors are empathetic and patient-centered.
Is both question begging and pretty insufferable, and let’s be totally blunt contradicted by the massively dickish
No doubt acupuncture will continue to exist on the “High Streets” where they can be tolerated as a voluntary self-imposed tax on the gullible (as long as they do not make unjustified claims).
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Hard News: No Red Wedding, in reply to Cecelia,
Just to note, acupuncture does help with certain medical conditions.
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Hard News: No Red Wedding, in reply to Bart Janssen,
Thing is, Green policy isn’t policy at all. It’s a religious recitation of belief*. It’s what ends up in the coalition agreement that matters, and that stuff’s way less kooky.
(And I say that as someone who is broadly a fan of Green kookery.)
* in the sense that it's basically a formal statement of position without any real relation to action, not implying it's religiously based!