klen dool posted:

What the gently caress of course people in the army get to decide if they go to a specific war or not. If they think the war is somehow wrong, they have an obligation to society to refuse.

BARONS CYBER SKULL posted:

Prime Minister John Key said last August that when the SAS handed someone they had detained to other units, they made sure that person would not be tortured.

what a good bloke



oh you mean they didn't make sure?

oh and they were directly responsible for multiple deaths and maimings because of their actions?

oh well let's have a beer and let Slavvy's Just World of Good and Evil sort everything out

bobbilljim posted:

in a way, he has to prove that he was wrongfully imprisoned, which you could take to mean that he must prove he didn't do it

Infotainment! posted:

We live in a 21st century capitalist democracy. Equality is having everything you hold dear about your identity used to market bullshit. Seriously.

dusty posted:

/for the record I don't think intersectionality and the existence of trans discrimination is reason enough to invade the safe space of a marginalised group with violent protest. gently caress em, what sicko oval office thinks its a swell idea to invade a pride parade and fight with security guards?

BARONS CYBER SKULL posted:

He worst band is Rubicon, by the way.

Vagabundo posted:

You fucker, I came to say that.

Mike Hosking posted:

A political correspondent on this paper on Tuesday afternoon was lamenting the media's inability to get access to John Key's speech to the House on sending troops to Iraq before he'd actually given it.

John Armstrong was right to point out that this was unusual, but he was wrong to go on to suggest that this meant the Prime Minister was losing the argument.

The poll numbers tell us that he isn't.

Forty eight per cent in favour, 42 per cent against according to a One News Colmar Brunton poll out on Monday night.

I would have guessed pre-poll it would be 50/50, there are no real winners in going to war and even in the most profound of conflicts there has been, and always will be, a good proportion of people who argue that war is no answer.
So with a comfortable majority supporting the move, I'd be feeling pretty bullish that I'd done the right thing.

But having said that, I'd feel pretty bullish I'd done the right thing because it is the right thing to do.

It is the right thing to do no matter what the numbers.

And in that, it's a bold move.

...

But doing nothing has never been all that complicated. Perhaps the saddest comment, politically anyway, came from Peter Dunne when he talked of his opposition by, among other things, suggesting we were a long way away from all this.

Almost as though he had never been on a plane or had the internet.

Almost as though, if you hunkered down in your lounge and pretended none of this was happening, it might go away.

For Peter's edification, this is a very small world and we're part of it.

Call it a club if you want - and by the way far too much has been made of all that "club" talk, did it mean 5 Eyes or the Western Alliance?

Who cares? It means the people who don't like the beheadings and the burnings and the apocalyptic cult that is wreaking havoc all over the planet.

You can't pick and choose the parts you want to take part in, in a complex relationship - not on a personal level, not on a geo-political level.

The world is inter-linked.

Much has been made of the so-called soft sell the Government has been engaged in. I have never thought this really needed selling.

Doing the right thing is not all that complicated to understand.

fong posted:

possibly going to meet JK in a few weeks, what should I do?

other than have a beer with him like the good bloke deserves

WarpedNaba posted:

Not very often I think "All that photo is missing is an armed hand grenade."

Infotainment! posted:

We basically live in an ongoing civil war between artists and farmers. Every 9 years the balance of power flips from one to the other. Right now the farmers are at the pinnacle of their turn.
In short this means the economy, quality of life, quality of governance, respect for human rights, infrastructure and employment are all hosed due to unbelievably myopic thick shitedness.
If you are American please don't say "it's literally lord of the rings!!!11!!" when you arrive. The cultural cringe will make the testicles of any New Zealander in earshot ascend into their stomach.
But at least it's not Australia.

Butt Wizard posted:

People who have to meet other people for a living are either condescending shitheels or make an effort to actually have a chat with you & Key is really good at coming across as the latter. You also have to remember that he's following on from English & Brash so he's def. an improvement for a National leader.

fong posted:

Jacobin posted:

In other news drivers taking it upon themselves to aggressively confiscate the keys off of tourist drivers deemed terrible vigilante style is now an established thing particularly in the SI

WarpedNaba posted:

Exhale the grass

Butt Wizard posted:

I'm cool with legalised weed but it shouldn't be something you can drive under the influence of or operate heavy machinery, etc.

I don't even know how you would measure that.

xiw posted:

I enjoyed counterprotesting Chapman's white pride march a year or two ago. They decided to march on Merivale for some reason? Anyway I will forever treasure Chapman trying to argue that his lot are totally not nazis, while this guy stood behind him:

Exclamation Marx posted:

all of nz's islands are bad imo

Vagabundo posted:

Oh yeah, I forgot to add that the dumbshit who gave out a girl's number without her knowledge or consent did so because she kicked him in the balls last year. For gently caress's sake.

oohhboy posted:

I rather have poo poo Stirrer Winston than any National candidate.

Vagabundo posted:

It's not like state schools are perpetually strapped for cash and desperate for resources. poo poo, teaching is an easy job and it's basically like babysitting, right? It's not like I'm responsible for the learning of over 100 kids, using my own money to acquire teaching resources or every-day things like stationery for the students or even occasionally acting as a social worker and/or counsellor for them, keeping an eye out for any red flags that may pop up that the school might have missed because some kids really keep poo poo that we should know about to themselves, or stay up until the wee hours of the morning assessing their work and providing them with feedback and constructive criticism or using my free time putting together activities for a Y10 class that are "mixed ability" but contain kids that have a reading age of about 5 that they can engage with, while trying to find ways to get them to try and read a novel. Nope.

Vagabundo posted:

Oh, what I described is every-day stuff. One of my Associate Teachers when I was a Student Teacher gave me a bit of advice that I see the value of every day - "Sometimes you just can't afford to care in this job." I've got kids with family members that were murdered, and there are times when my students take time off because of drama at home. The point my AT was making was that pretty much every kid walks into class with some sort of baggage, and when we start having to counsel them, it ends up bogging us down and it leads to burn out. If they've got issues, I will be mindful of them, but I can't let that dictate how I interact with them in class. Sometimes, that can actually be beneficial to them, because stuff like "I'm the kid with the dad that got murdered" doesn't end up becoming an albatross around their neck.

BARONS CYBER SKULL posted:

As you grow up you realize the teachers you hated at school because they were "assholes" probably had it worse than some moron loving kid who hated school did.

Infotainment! posted:

I saw one riding a unicorn with Bigfoot one time.

bobbilljim posted:

get rid of electorates

one vote

for the party you want

bobbilljim posted:

instead of candidates or party names, you have to put a tick next to a summary of the party's policies that you like the most


they are then legally bound to follow through when in power



still, people would find a way to ruin that wouldn't they

Vagabundo posted:

Get rid of people, all of them.

BARONS CYBER SKULL posted:

John Key, a robot made flesh by Newstalk ZB

WarpedNaba posted:

Funny they mention North Korea but not the South. Eh.

Still, not sure why people care about spying on friendly countries: The more we know about them, the friendlier we are!

SeekOtherCandidate posted:

Depends on the way the election is organised. Some you only need to do 1, some the number of seats available, sometimes some other arbitrary number, sometimes every seat. Gotta check each election, because they all run under different rules.