Posts by Kyle Matthews
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Why bother, when I have the wisdom of the crowd to guide me?
Ahem.
Even Hard News seems problematic. It's much easier to declare it unreliable than to impart some basic skills in assessing the merit of an article -- as the cornerstone of the vital modern ability to scrutinise information online -- and then how and when to edit.
Good to see you setting that up to walk your talk Russell!
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Connecting people and giving them the opportunity to share and reinforce some very weird views to the point where they may act on them whereas in the past they might not.
Damn, he's onto us. Quick, close down the Te Qaeda facebook group and listed events!
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It's alright. They've shaken hands and made up now. Because it's not okay ...
Classic domestic violence mistake Russell! "I'm sorry Tau, I shouldn't have hit you. But you know how angry it makes me when you talk about my ex-wife in the house..." It's the first blow that's the problem, not what he says afterwards. A TV public figure such as you...
Tau shouldn't take him back. Get that National MP to a women's refuge quick!
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Firstly, most individual cops are politically somewhere to the right of Genghis Khan. Secondly, the interests of the police are to exarcabate tensions, not to diminish them. If a full-on terrorist campaign did kick off in NZ, they'd have more numbers, more pay, better equipment, improved status and more interesting work. (It's far more fun to be foiling shadowy terrorist campaigns than failing to control domestic violence).
Stereotypes about cops are about as accurate as stereotypes about any other group. PA users are all computer geeks. University lecturers are all wafty left-wingers. MPs are all feeding off the public trough.
I have a (retired now) police officer in my family. There's a few cops like you've described above, but the vast majority really aren't into that sort of action. My mother used to sit up waiting for Dad to come home from evening shifts, and if he was ever late home, she'd dread that instead of the door opening with a key, there'd be a knock on the door.
I spent a summer once working for the police compiling the results of a survey of officers on their attitudes to firearms. One of the questions asked was 'do you think NZ police should be permanently armed'. The majority answered 'no'. They were aware that the more they upped the anti, the more likely they'd be facing armed criminals on the job, and that's something they're really looking to avoid.
I don't just base this on surmise and prejudice. A few years ago I spent some time travelling with a Northern Ireland cop. She was mortified at the prospect of the peace process ending her exciting, well paid (GBP30k) job.
I know a cop who left the Northern Irish Police force because he hated what was going on there and felt it was unsafe for him and his family. He moved to NZ and had a wonderful career as Proctor at the University of Otago. You couldn't find a nicer guy. One person does not make a general rule.
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This in itself is, like, totally awesome, but it gets even more awesomer: it's hosted by Dominic Bowden.
Wow. Now he's world famous in EnZed, and taking the world by storm.
I feel stupidly proud, and I think he's terrible at hosting those shows.
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The trouble with this argument is that its really not in the best interests of the various counsels involved to hamstring the police at this stage. If, say, the crown counsel decided their evidence wasn't robust enough and put the kibosh on the operation, and six weeks later an horrific attack occurred then the wrath of the nation, media and politicians would quickly descend on whatever group of lawyers made that call.
I'd imagine the legal call was whether to include the TSA on the warrant, or just leave it with other acts. The warrants were going to be served either way, it's just how many acts were listed on them. So I'm not sure the 'horrific attack' would have happened either way.
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A friend of mine lives in LA. She gets her wireless internet through the telephone/light pole outside the apartment. Apparently the city/county council has them installed and they pay to have a login. Which made sense to me, one good wireless connection could do 50 people rather than 50 people having a connection. And also no need to run wires into the buildings, just lay cables along the street.
Presumably she can move her computer anywhere in the county and it'll still work.
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I had to read parts of that about three times to get my head around it. Interesting!
Can I ask - what's the advantage of laying charges under this Act? Lets say hypothetically, the plot was to kill someone. Conspiracy to commit murder already exists. What advantage would there be in charging someone using this act? Are the penalties harsher? Easier convictions?
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Can I just perform a valuable public service, and draw everyone's attention to "So you want to be a Superhero", which was on C4 last night at 8:30. First show of the season I think.
If you like watching possibly the biggest bunch of harmless weirdos imaginable dress up in superhero costumes and perform stupid tasks trying not to be eliminated by Stan Lee, then this is the show for you.
I was having trouble deciding which was funnier - superhero 'Fat Momma', a large black woman who got extra strong by eating doughnuts, or Nitro G, a comic book nerd who interpreted Stan's instructions of "get changed where no one can see you so you don't reveal your secret identity!" by getting changed in the middle of a park. And then "Major Victory" did his thing, and I fell in superhero love. An ex male stripper, he runs along doing kinda disco dance moves, pointing both fingers at people. On youtube, for compulsory viewing:
Last night's test involved getting changed, and running very fast to a finish line. But there was a hidden test - a girl crying near the finish line! Superheroes who stopped and helped the girl passed, those who ran right past her faced elimination. The superheroes also got introduced to their 'secret lair', and the look of joy on their faces...
People this engrossed in being a superhero make wonderfully bad TV.
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Clearly. I'm questioning whether there ever was a credible threat.
Yeah well that's a fair question. Looking at the article again, it's not exactly definitive on the the threat, where they got this information from etc. The closest they get is:
the Sunday Star-Times has learned police alerted the US after recording threats against President George Bush who was tipped to visit here last month.
They don't seem to provide a source for this information - or even identify which organisation, if any, their source came from.
Looks like a headline they wanted to print, and then had to run a pretty weak story underneath to me.