The age of the PMLs by Trevor Plumbly
And the meek shall suck it up! It’s a time for forgiveness and tolerance, but I reckon it’s getting a bit tougher. The odd ratbag doesn’t worry me much, most seem to have some sort of excuse for their conduct, but Power Mad Loonies are self-made and there’s no way I’m going to kiss any of those bastards under the mistletoe (metaphorically of course). We’ve got the UN, NATO and the rest of the alphabet soup of protective agencies to stop us from slaughtering each other, but there are also deluded PMLs… Read More
Tough on the causes of crime by Susan Grimsdell
What makes a youth offender? I can never understand how people can vote for someone who doesn’t ever spell out the detail of what he (in this case) is going to do. Tama Potaka has just won the by-election in Hamilton West and all I’ve heard so far is that he is going to be “tough” on crime. What specifically does that mean? Shariah law perhaps? Nobody wants to be the victim of crime. But surely to reduce crime, we have to first understand what causes it? My son, and probably your… Read More
Free speech and hate speech by Susan Grimsdell
Absence of respect It’s interesting that those who clamour for the right to say anything they want are almost always people who want to say cruel hateful things about other people. They demand the “freedom” to spew out whatever racist, sexist, anti-semitic, anti-gay messages they want, whether in person or on social media. I’ve never heard anyone shout out for the right to express kind, generous, tolerant, respectful messages. We should remember how damaging hate speech is, and if anyone doesn’t know how to identify hate speech, the simple test is –… Read More
A helping hand for the rich by Susan Grimsdell
We all pay taxes and I’m only too happy to do so. As Oliver Wendell Holmes said, “Tax is the rent we pay to live in a civilised society”. Our accumulated money pays for schools, health care, and thousands of other amenities, as well as providing us with money when we are unemployed, sick or old. Share the pot fairly My taxes go into a huge pile of money we call “government” money. Of course we know it’s actually ours, that we’ve handed it over in order to meet the needs of… Read More
On a train going nowhere by Trevor Plumbly
Looney tunes Recent events have caused me to ditch the ‘Pennies from heaven’ stuff and I’m beginning to think the world’s going to hell in a handcart. ‘Imagine all the people, living for today’ sounded good, but I reckon that’s what’s causing most of the problems: too many people talking at the same time. There’s little doubt that democracy was a pretty good way to run things until politicians realised its potential. It was OK in Ancient Greece when a tiny percentage ran things while the rest didn’t know or care what… Read More
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