1. To Larry Baldock, my sincere thanks for furnishing Granny Herald with a photo that makes anything I might write about your lust for child-punishing redundant.
2. To the 88%-of-54% who voted “no”, many of whom thought they were just being practical, and fair, and don’t want “good parents” punished, I invite you to consider that people like Larry Baldock don’t actually care what you thought, because all they wanted, and all you’ve actually done is given them more credibility when they say “oh, and not just light smacks, but rulers and wooden spoons too.”*
3. Finally, to anyone who thinks a referendum based on such a loaded question actually means anything, I can do no better than leave you with Sir Humphrey:
Any no-voters reading this? Please feel free to preface your comments with a single incident of a parent being “criminalized” for a “light smack” or GTFO.
*What next? People with intellectual disabilites? Oh, but only when they’re endangering themselves and you can’t reason with them and it’s just transitory (which would seem logically inconsistent with having any disciplinary effect anyway) and sometimes you just get frustrated and lash out but that doesn’t make you a bad person EXCEPT IT DOES.
Great list of suggestions for alternative questions in our upcoming “child discipline” referendum over at The Dim Post. I’m a particular fan of:
Should a smack as part of good parental driving out of devils be considered a criminal offense in New Zealand?
And the commenter who extensively cited Lewis Carroll gets ALL the e-cookies.
So far the leaders of our two major political parties have variously indicated that they agree the question is stupid (but seem to have determinedly avoided pointing out that this is due to our CIR procedures being rubbish in this regard) and probably won’t vote.
Well, I’m going to vote. Because the people who put forward questions like this are not overly swayed by facts. If only 80,000 people actually fill in their ballots correctly and 75% are no-votes, which of those numbers are we going to hear about? The pathetic turnout or the “75% of people think section 59 should be put back into effect!” spin?
Voting yes, for me, isn’t just about supporting a law that is working or making a stand against all violence in New Zealand families. And it’s not just a way of saying “fuck off” to Bob McCoskrie and his ilk (though that’s a bonus). It’s a way of showing them hey, you do NOT speak for the majority of New Zealanders, you do NOT speak for “normal” or “mainstream” or “middle” New Zealand, your ideas are BAD and you should FEEL bad.
Tony Veitch police file released – because, you know, he just snapped and it was totally a one-off mistake and abuse isn’t escalating and long term and isn’t the Granny Herald glad now it ran that bullshit story about “ZOMG they’re charging Our Hero with throwing a glass of water, how TRIVIAL”?
Robbing public transport to pay for roads by Russel Norman over at frogblog. Because Steven Joyce is too stupid to understand that the reason Aucklanders poll in favour of public transport but still use cars is because current Auckland public transport is shit and maybe they’d use it if it got some actual investment oh no there I go being logical again.
And Eddie at The Standard basically sums up my feelings on “Punch in the face” dad guilty. Don’t even get me started on the idiot “commentator” on Sunrise this morning who, in response to Ella Henry’s comments about previous horsewhip/electric cord cases said obliviously, “But they got convicted, didn’t they?” NO YOU MORON, THAT’S WHY THE LAW HAD TO BE CHANGED, FUCKING HELL. I would lament that someone that uninformed is being paid to “comment” on issues of the day, but it’s probably part of some masterful Sunrise plan to plumb Henry-esque depths of stupid in an attempt to steal Breakfast viewers.
We have brought it on ourselves. We have bowed to the blandishments of liberalism, immorality, materialism and hedonism and have set aside most of the moral and legalw strictures which for centuries formed the mortar which held societies together and kept them from self-destruction.
For nearly 50 years, we have presided over the gradual unravelling of the fabric of our nation through the breakdown of the traditional family unit upon which community cohesion has always depended.
You heard it here first, folks: domestic violence never occurred before filthy feminism and its horrific notion that women are people too. Men rape women because they feel threatened, poor things. We should just chillax and accept our natural place in the kitchen and bedroom, pampering those fragile male egos and popping out sproggen.
It’s the standard pompous windbag act from there on in, with no surprises for anyone who’s so much as glanced over one of George’s wankfests before.
But I cannot resist quoting the pièce de résistance at the end:
You can call me a sexist until you run out of breath, but I believe that God left creating woman until last because he wanted to make sure he got it right. The result was the creation of the most perfect and wonderful creature in the world.
GARTH GEORGE LOVES WOMEN! GARTH LOVES THEM MORE THAN YOU DO, STUPID FEMINISTS WITH YOUR STUPID “EQUALITY”! YOU’RE ONLY UPSET AND STRESSED AND ANGRY AT PATRIARCHAL INSTITUTIONS BECAUSE YOU’RE UPPITY BITCHES WHO WON’T STAY IN THE ROLES GOD GAVE YOU!
It is so hard, being an old privileged white man, and it’s your fault, because you sassy females have just turned the placid, happy, Shangri-fucking-La of Western society upside down. And that’s why children get beaten to death. All because you slappers dare to think, to write, to blog, to march, to lobby, to marry and have children at the time of your own choosing or not at all.
I hope you’re ashamed of yourselves, and will appear suitably repentant at our next Premarital Snogging and Foetus Barbeque.
Update: and now this has hit the blogosphere in force, there’s also a round-up of posts at The Hand Mirror, in addition to what I’ve garnered at the end of this post.
…
Via PublicAddress, I learn of a High Court review, instigated by Right to Zygote Life NZ, of the workings of our Abortion Supervisory Committee.
And it’s kind of, do-I-laugh-or-do-I-cry:
In a review of the workings of the Abortion Supervisory Committee, initiated by Right To Life New Zealand, Justice Forrest Miller said there was a reason to doubt the lawfulness of many abortions.
Here’s the deal in the liberal hippie communist paradise of the South Pacific, bastion of human rights and progressive thinking (see also Women’s Suffrage, Abyssinia, nukes, Georgina Beyer):
Concerned of Linwood has a nice piece up about the lobbyists I hate even more than Family First – our own “Sensible” Sentencing Trust.
And in case you were in need of a bit of a giggle, Jolisa over at Public Address brings the goods (hopefully that link works, my computer is being flighty) with her son’s conclusion as to why people* dislike hoodies:
Well, I said, some young people like to wear outfits with hoods, because they think it looks cool. Whereas some older people think the hoods look really dodgy and threatening.
He thought about it for a moment and then lit up.
“Oh, I get it. They think you’re a dementor!”
And for something completely different, a plug for my current webcomic obsession, Darths & Droids: Because The Phantom Menace is just so much better if you assume it was a slightly chaotic RPG campaign. Warning: may contain jokes about dice.
*If by “people” I mean “those who enjoy demonizing Da Yoof and damning their comfortable clothing”.
