Posts by Bart Janssen
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Hard News: Change for the Better, in reply to Hilary Stace,
his vacuous rants
The problem is that his rants are not vacuous, they are in the full of incitement to do harm. In this case to cyclists. But also to do harm against refugees. To do harm against those with different political opinions.
He's gone from merely trying for clickbait, essentially trolling, to actually defining groups of others (the poor, the unemployed, maori, cyclists) that according to him it is OK to hate and denigrate.
That's more than just despicable, it's dangerous.
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Hard News: A cog in the Mediaworks machine, in reply to Alfie,
Pimp My Flag is going gangbusters at the moment!
To be fair, it benefited from the audience tuning in for the upcoming episode of “Panda, what panda?”
And don't forget the ever popular "Where in the world is Gerry?"
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Hard News: The Police Ten 7 State, in reply to TracyMac,
I don’t think the PS should be paid peanuts
I agree. I also know that senior executives have some legal liability responsibilities that deserve compensation. And the some of the jobs they have to do are just shit.
But that might add up to $200k maybe $300k.
I really like the idea of linking highest salaries to the lowest in any organisation. If the boss wants a pay rise she/he needs to figure out a way of paying the lowest more first.
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Legal Beagle: Voting in the Flag Referendum, in reply to Carol Stewart,
perturbed by the resemblance between the fern designs to the logos
That's my problem, five logos.
We didn't get flags that embody New Zealand, we got logos designed by marketing wonks who think they will sell product.
Also, ferns are compound leaves that have alternate leaflets (science nerd).
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Hard News: The Police Ten 7 State, in reply to Dismal Soyanz,
If they were to stick to this literally, it would be less of an issue.
That might be true if they were a private company. But they are The NZ Police, funded by taxpayers. As such they have no right to withhold data (except where privacy is an issue).
They certainly have no right to demand to massage the findings from any data. They have every right to respond if they disagree with findings but that is completely different.
On this issue The Police are utterly and completely in the wrong and doubling down on that mistake is just stupid management.
My guess is someone imported this contract from some business and forgot that The Police are a public service, now they are too embarrassed to admit that they stuffed up.
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Hard News: The Police Ten 7 State, in reply to Russell Brown,
Can you ask Mark Evans to send me some olives when he gets all the way to Spain.
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Hard News: The Police Ten 7 State, in reply to Idiot Savant,
the rest of the research contract (including the veto on publication) sounds like standard commercial research boilerplate.
Except the police force is not a commercial company. They are public servants who fulfill a very specific and privileged role in society. That role needs constant scrutiny because of the power that the police have.
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The police do a shit job that is critical to society. They need the support and trust of the public.
Blocking academic research and perverting the OIA system undermines that trust in a critical area.
You don't get a better police force by preventing research into the success of their methods.
As a scientist and a citizen I strongly object to this behaviour by the police. Our politicians need to step in and remind the leaders of the police that they work for the public, we pay their salaries and submit to their authority IF AND ONLY IF we trust them. An open and honest assessment of their performance by independent academics is essential to that trust.
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Legal Beagle: Voting in the Flag Referendum, in reply to izogi,
Surely the best way to replace the government is to provide a decent alternative for people to vote for
Sadly it seems that no matter how you vote you end up getting politicians.
To be be less trite - there is at present in NZ far too few people in politics who are genuinely there to do the best (they think) for the country AND who are competent.
It can't simply be that only selfish dishonest people can succeed can it? But looking at things like this flag debacle and you can't help but lose faith in our system.
It's deeply frustrating. Part of it must be about the environment in WTGN, I certainly couldn't tolerate the crap that goes on at question time. But part of it must be the way parties select candidates and then the way the population selects parties/candidates.
I also have a nagging suspicion that some of the problems with NZ politics are the fault of the bureaucracy that surrounds the MPs.
I feel that there are more days now that I don't believe our democratic system actually works at all, that shouldn't happen.
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Legal Beagle: Voting in the Flag Referendum, in reply to Rosemary McDonald,
an all time low
yeah nah - this is the dude who used rape as a political ploy two weeks ago
And last year excused persistent sexual harassment as horseplay
And excused the actions of the roastbusters
I genuinely believe he has no idea what is moral or not, for the most part that is merely disgusting since the rest of the party and parliament prevent him doing much real harm.
At some point you'd expect the National Party to become concerned but I guess they see him as a means to an end