Posts by Bart Janssen
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Hard News: Christchurch: Square Two, in reply to David Haywood,
they won’t get me out of here except in handcuffs.
I bet Emma has a pair
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Hard News: Christchurch: Square Two, in reply to Emma Hart,
“You should just”
The perverse part of me want's to come up with a phrase that starts "you should just ..." but ends up saying you have all my sympathy.
I can't really appreciate what the stress must be like for you all and I know it's different for each and everyone. I really really just want it to get better for you all.
Also there is a part of me that really wants to feel an earthquake and that part of me is jealous. And I know that all of the folks in CHCH will tell me there is nothing fun about feeling all those earthquakes, but that's the nature of curiosity I guess.
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Up Front: Respectably-Dressed Sensible…, in reply to Jackie Clark,
I may just have to do my headbanging dance
Jackie it's Wham so that should be handbagbanging
... living up to my role as a hater
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Hard News: Here's one I prepared earlier, in reply to Deborah,
Raw kina. I lost a kilo in the space of 12 hours. Not very nice at all.
Fresh grapes, first time in 20 years I'd thrown up :(
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Up Front: Respectably-Dressed Sensible…, in reply to Amy Gale,
a PAS Wham! appreciation party
That should take about 15 minutes :P
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Up Front: Respectably-Dressed Sensible…, in reply to Deborah,
I’m sure that many 14 year olds are
And some 18 yr olds aren't. So should we have a "maturity exam" :). I probably wouldn't have passed 'til I was about 25.
This is one area where the law will always struggle, I'd prefer to have law in place that allows judges considerable discretion to decide whether 16+14 is true teen lurv or innocent experimentation or abuse of power. Bags not have that job though.
And yes I now look at young lovers at university and think you're too young! Very sweet, but too young.
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So how about this, I know there are Green party folks who read here, how about you draft a change in the law that does precisely what is above. If you do that and make it part of your platform I'll change my party vote to Green (even though you oppose the science that is my livelihood).
Because sometimes you need to change the law in order to change the culture.
As for understanding ... grief I'm so far from really understanding rape and the suffering that it causes that I can barely know how much I don't understand ... but some of the stories here are helping with that.
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Up Front: Respectably-Dressed Sensible…, in reply to Dinah Dunavan,
we are not ‘animals’
And that is the determinist side of the debate which I knew was a possible path for my thoughts. But I think (and I use the term think to indicate I don't know) that if you are aware of propensities that are genetic then it becomes possible to change behaviour to prevent that propensity from doing harm.
If violence is "natural" then a non- violent society must work very hard to sustain that and must accept that non-violence is easier for some than for others and adjust accordingly.
It is not about excusing rapists, far from it. For me it is about recognising that some people need more than a 45 minute class in sex-ed to actually "get it". It is still all about the perpetrator.
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Up Front: Respectably-Dressed Sensible…, in reply to Emma Hart,
someone had been an arsehole
I can try if you like - I've been told I'm quite good at it :P.
So I kind of feel that with the ideas and experiences shared so far we should have something happening. Yes Demure Lady Perambulation is happening but my cynical side says that won't convince anyone to change policy. This is an election year, surely this is a year we could get a political party interested in standing for something that might work to either reduce the incidence and/or help the victims.
This of course is the side of me that always wants to "fix" things rather than just understand and maybe that isn't appropriate right now.
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Up Front: Respectably-Dressed Sensible…, in reply to Lilith __,
somehere in between
It's always somewhere in between.