Brilliant post.

It is sickening to see New Zealand students laughing at and making light of the Holocaust. If they really understood what happened this would never have occurred. Stereotypes should only be used to criticise/draw attention to racism not to perpetuate it.

The Lincoln University party makes me ashamed to be a Kiwi.

<quote.Straight off the plane, I could walk into The Listener and Kevin Ireland (with us still, I hasten to add) and Robin Dudding were there on the subs' bench, and my mate's grand-dad was Allen Curnow. That's quite something in comparison to living in a place where the canon was beyond reach</quote>

While I see your point, I don't agree that this is an advantage of New Zealand that can't be gained elsewhere particularly university towns around the world. I live in Oxford where I am in constant contact with amazing intellects - Richard Dawkins was at dinner the other night as was Ian McEwan, Philip Pullman and Lord Bingham on other occasions. And Roger Bannister attends the church down the road. If you live in New York you can go to book readings every night of the week and met famous authors.

I mention this not to boast but to give examples of how much I would miss culturally and intellectually if I went home. Sure, New Zealand has wonderful landscape but the macho rugby culture, small cultural scene, lack of intellectual rigour and analysis in mainstream media make me dread going back. There is only a few "major" art galleries or museums in Auckland and Wellington combined.

While I agree that it may be easier to make a difference in New Zealand and become a leader or starter in a particular field, there is also not much room for many people in those fields. There is only room for a couple of "famous" or "respected" poets or playwrites in New Zealand. And if you are an academic, only a couple of people in each field.

You also forgot to mention Elizabeth Dole - the Republican Senator from North Carolina who got defeated by Democrat Kay Hagan. Hagan was given little chance against Dole but after Dole ran the a nasty smear campaign against Hagan the voters expressed their disapproval. It was great to see.

He appeared in court so he could be indicted but he is not yet on trial. Thus there is no court file yet.

"I think everyone has missed the boat a little bit, or been misled by the Police version of who has copies of the charges and caption summary (aka Police summary of Facts). A copy is always kept on the Court file, and unless the Judge has directed that the file not be searched (very seldom done) then it is open to a member of the media to ask the registrar (or deputy registrar) to view the caption summary. While it may have been the Veitch team who released the "glass of water" details(it was clearly in their interests to do so), I have no doubt that the caption summary on the Court file was also seen. This is Court Reporting 101."

Justin - it is not in front of the court yet therefore there would be no court file.

Some people argue that certain types of children can only be disciplined by being hit.
I would rather risk a child who can only be disciplined by being hit NOT being hit and running wild than hitting a child who could have been disciplined by another means.

Hitting a child teaches them that physical violation is an acceptable way to get what you want.

Hitting a child is also ineffective in changing behaviour long-term since the child feels like he has done his punishment as soon as the hitting is over with unlike having to earn back parental trust through good behaviour etc. If hitting worked then a parent would only need to hit their child once. Parents who hit their children appear, anecdotally, to hit them all the time.

I would advocate for having the hitting of any human being simply included under the "self-defense or defense of another" provision of the Crimes Act. For example, if a child is about to run in front of a car or put its hand on a hot element then you could hit them to stop them doing so since "time out" would obviously not be effective in such circumstances.

Just some rambling thoughts.