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Sick As | May 27, 2005 11:47
Was it wise to continue the meningococcal B immunisation programme through the cold and flu season? Anecdotal evidence suggests that adverse responses to the vaccine have been both more significant and more widespread than the Ministry of Health has indicated.
After his first shot, our sturdy 14 year-old son was off school for three days with bad mouth ulcers and an arm too sore to lift. Our babysiiter ended up in hospital with dehydration. Our boy's second shot came in advance of a flu infection (or possibly before flu symptoms were manifest) and as a result, he's currently as sick as he's been in his life. I really can't see him having his third shot - even though it would seem to be essential for full protection.
This doesn't seem to be an isolated issue. Public Address reader Phil Taylor emailed to say that his eight year old son had been sick since his first shot two weeks ago, displaying many of the symptoms listed in MoH releases on the vaccination programme, adding that "I rang his school in Mt Eden today and 50 kids are sick." Pt Chevalier primary has 100 kids off.
There's a Herald report noting "unprecedented" absences from flu infections. It may be that this winter's flu strain is a particularly nasty one - but it still raises significant questions about whether this is a good time to be pursuing the MeNZB vaccination cycle.
Let me make it clear: I'm not an immunisation conspiracist and I think the wilder claims about this programme can be dispelled by simply reading the literature. This paper from the New Zealand Medical Journal has useful background information, and explains, among other things, the need for three doses, and the findings of local trials.
Properly managed, the adverse reactions to the vaccine don't seem to present a serious health risk. But the anecdotal experience right now suggests that short-term reactions are at the limit of parental acceptability.
At the least, the bland, vague suggestions about potential adverse reactions in the standard consumer advice should be fleshed out. If you dig around the ministry's website you can find the Medsafe data sheet that actually includes the numbers of adverse reactions in the local trials: among them, that 54% of infant displayed "impaired sleeping" and 44% "unusual crying"; 26% of adults suffered headaches; 13% of infants suffered vomiting; 95% of adults suffered pain around the injection site. (There has been no sign of the very rare severe reactions noted in response to a different but related vaccine in Norway.) I just think you have to give people more detailed information, even at the risk of some of them declining the programme.
And just to brighten your day, signs of human-to-human transmission of avian flu are pretty scary. The Chinese government has also denied reports of human deaths from bird flu in a far-flung western province - unfortunately, Chinese government denials are a little hard to really feel comfortable with.
Brilliant stroke of insight! Staging a car race somewhere that actually looks like a race track! And one in West Auckland too! And, of course, a little PR win for the government, which asked Air Force command to think again about allowing the V8 Supercar series to be staged at Whenuapai airbase. The stipulation is that the base must be able to revert to air force use within 24 hours in the event of a "significant emergency" - so, assuming the Indonesians don't invade, it looks like a goer.
Video from Norm: the Reverend Creighton Lovelace of the First Southern Retard Church explains on MSNBC why he put up a billboard declaring that "the Koran needs to be flushed."
The Texas state law attempting to ban gay marriage contains some appropriately numbskulled wording that could be read as also banning heterosexual marriage. Morons.
John Rennie at SciAm Perspectives casts an eye over a recent UK Independent story on possible health risks related to one strain of GM corn. What he might have added was that the coverage of GM issues by the Independent's environmental editor Geoffrey Lean is so reliably hysterical (and often wrong-headed) that it's very difficult to tell if and when he might actually have a point.
And that will do. I've faced facts and handed over my prized bNet Awards tickets to Fiona - I think I'd last about 10 minutes before my head started pounding - so I'll be rugged up warm with the flu today and tonight. I find the symptoms oddly interesting (it's two or three winters since I had a proper flu) but, frankly, I'm a bit over it now. I hear whisky is good, though …
Shooting Down | May 26, 2005 11:27
The health select committee has shot itself in the foot. After sending signals that it would unanimously recommend the removal criminal penalties for the possession of needles used to inject illicit drugs, it has failed to do so, apparently on the advice of the police.
The New Zealand Drug Foundation has a pissed-off press release pointing out that "the committee ignored all public health evidence - including from the independent review of New Zealand's needle exchange programme," in its decision.
Let me put it this way, for committee members with comprehension trouble: making the possession of the needles a criminal offence does not, has not and will never stop people injecting drugs. What it will do is encourage re-use of needles, which will exacerbate the overwhelming health issue related to injecting drug use: infection rates of hepatitis C and HIV. Which makes it a bloody odd decision for a health select committee to deliver, doesn't it?
The police appear to have changed their minds in the course of this process, and I'd be interested to know why.
Meanwhile, not so fast on the Newsweek retraction: the ACLU has obtained and released summaries of FBI interviews in which nearly a dozen Guantanamo detainees make claims about the abuse of the Koran, including one who says guards there - yes - "flushed a Koran in the toilet." These are only prisoner interviews and therefore difficult or impossible to corroborate, and at least two of the claims are hearsay, but the list of allegations to the same effect just keeps getting longer. The WaPo story story says:
A Defense Department spokesman was not immediately available for comment today. Pentagon officials have said previously that detainee allegations about the Koran have not been considered credible, although authorities have launched an internal review in the wake of the Newsweek controversy.
Amrit Singh, an ACLU attorney, said in a press release that "the United States' own documents show that it has known of numerous allegations of Koran desecration for a significant period of time."
"The failure to address these allegations in a timely manner raises grave questions regarding the extent to which such desecration was authorised by high-ranking U.S. officials in the first place," Singh said.
The conservative Front Page magazine's investigation, unsurprisingly reaches very different conclusions, on the basis of, er, one memo that said it shouldn't really happen. On this basis, of course, nothing ever happened at Abu Ghraib either. And I guess that nice Mr Karimov in Uzbekistan was just taking out the trash.
Meanwhile, on the grimly humorous front, in the wake of Hamad Karzai's emphatic statement that the recent fatal riots in Afghanistan were nothing to do with the Newsweek story, the White House is claiming that nobody ever said that people lost their lives because of the report. Except, as Editor & Publisher points out, they did. How on earth can you say something so serious one week and flatly deny you said it the next, and not be absolutely crucified in the press?
Meanwhile, Amnesty International releases its annual report by declaring Guantanamo to be "the gulag of our time" and noting that ''there was a huge gap between rhetoric and reality" in US pronouncements on justice and freedom.
Chris Bell had observations about the Slashdot discission on Google's library indexing plans that I linked to yesterday:
Most of the Slashdot discussion seems to revolve around whether or not Google is talking about scanning copyrighted works, which, according to the NY Times etc, it is.
But I heard Professor Dan Atkins enthusing about Google's plans at EDUCAUSE Australasia a couple of months ago. He said it was exclusively about out-of-copyright, academic works in the first instance.
And the initiative is been driven by academics at Harvard, Oxford, the University of Michigan and other universities - so it does have academic value and isn't just another money-making Google rort. They're creating a searchable database (which would be of incredible value to the community at large), according to Atkins, not offering entire works for free.
And Google says any copyrighted works would be limited to bibliographical information and a small amount of selected text. I'm all for authors' rights to copyright protection, but the societal benefits of this initiative seem to outweigh any likelihood of infringement. Universities around the world seem to feel strongly that they're currently being extorted by academic publishers.
Staying with intellectual property issues, the average reader might form the impression from this story noting that "US law enforcers have shut down a computer network that distributed illegal copies of Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith," that the illicit sharing of the movie had been ended in one fell swoop. Hardly. But it does seem likely that the appearance of such an expensive and iconic work as ROTS on BitTorrent networks so early in its theatrical release will prompt further crackdowns. Bit of a bummer for anyone who just wants the occasional innocent fix of The Daily Show …
Lindsay Vette said other parts of yesterday's post "hit a couple of notes with me":
I grew up in Glen Eden, next to a very nice Tongan family that over the years had a lot of family and village members from "home" staying with them while working in NZ. I certainly recall a couple of occasions when the police were there checking on immigration status. I can't imagine how humiliating that must have been for the people involved. And Winston wants to stir all that shit up again! He may be my local MP, but he's not getting my vote.
The hypocrisy of pious religious leaders who fail to get the basic tenet of the message that the founder of Christianity was trying to get across to humanity just makes my blood boil. The claiming of moral high ground while utterly rejecting any alternate thinking is just un-Christian in my view.
My personal and family's experiences with the Church of Christ NZ nutters from Mt Roskill only serve to reinforce those views.
There are a lot of genuinely decent religious people out there, but their quiet good work is constantly being undone by the nutters that are getting in the press all the time. The same applies to non-Christian religions as well, unfortunately.
Meanwhile, the "Australian solution" to immigration issues is looking worse and worse. The SMH reports today that more than 200 people are in detention despite being lawfully in Australia. Yesterday, a three year-old girl and her overstayer mother were released from detention after it was revealed that the girl, who had never known life outside, was displaying obvious signs of mental illness. It wouldn't be so bad if John Howard hadn't campaigned on the conceit of moral values. It doesn't matter what her mother did - and the details of the case suggest that most of us would have done the same thing in her position - inflicting psychological damage on a toddler is a grotesque abandonment of any kind of moral values of which I am aware.
And, finally, wasn't the European Champions League final a thriller? I'll succumb now to the flu (upgraded from a cold, unfortunately) and try and knock up something on the tax-versus-spending fight for tomorrow. Later …
"Dawn Raid" is already taken ... | May 25, 2005 10:21
So Winston Peters is promising immigration "hit squads" in the new New Zealand First party policy to be released on Friday. Presumably the phrase "dawn raid" was turned down on the basis that it is now in use by a popular musical entertainment company.
It's hard not to see the timing of the government's announcement of a major review of immigration law, especially where it relates to refugee applications, as an attempt to defuse Peters' policy launch. This does not necessarily signal draconian measures - even Deborah Manning cautiously welcomed the prospect of faster processing of applications - and immigration minister Paul Swain waffled where appropriate on Morning Report today. Peters' behaviour in the same interview was predictably appalling.
The sentencing of former Christian heritage leader Graham Capill on charges of molesting an eight year-old girl may be delayed so police can investigate claims by two women that Capill sexually assaulted them. The women are being supported by the same Anglican vicar who brought the original complaint to the attention of the police.
Meanwhile, stateside, there's the case of Dr. W. David Hager, prominent evangelical Christian doctor, member of Focus on the Family's physicians' panel and the Bush administration's controversial 2002 appointee to the FDA's reproductive drugs advisory panel. Hager claimed in a sermon late last year that he played a key role in the FDA's rejection of a proposal to make emergency contraception more readily available - even though the panel had overwhelmingly recommended that the proposal be adopted. He subsequently credited God for the FDA decision: "what Satan meant for evil, God turned into good."
In the same sermon, he referred to his divorce and claimed that Focus on the Family had estimated the 50 million people worldwide were praying for him during this trying time.
This was apparently the last straw for his ex-wife of 32 years, who has come forward to claim that Hager anally raped her throughout their marriage. The abuse became worse after she developed narcolepsy. She says his response to her protests was to pay her afterwards. Dr Hager regards himself as a specialist in women's health issues. A commentary in the Falls Church News-Press suggests that "the more public the moralistic display, the greater the private demons. People who have true family values live by them, while deviant phonies incessantly talk about them."
The Project on Defense Alternatives has published Vicious Circle: The Dynamics of Occupation and Resistance in Iraq, which suggests that the occupation continues to drive recruitment for Iraq's bloody insurgency. Check Today in Iraq for stories on the recent carnage uptick.
Michael Cullen claims that National could not afford to deliver its promised tax cuts and continue the Working for Families scheme, which has now signed up 200,000 households. He's obviously looking to push back after last week's PR flub on the Budget, but it will be interesting to see if he's right, because it's genuinely hard to conceive of the kind of across-the-board tax cut that would replace the lost income from the scheme: the average household increase in family assistance alone is $28 weekly.
Rick Prelinger, founder of the Prelinger Archives has given a speech to a BBC Creative Archive seminar on the epochal shift from scarcity to an age of plenty. Hat tip to Synthetic Thoughts, which also notes where the Beeb will and won't deploy digital rights management.
On a similar topic, Slashdot has a discussion on book publishers' protests over Google's plans for libraries.
Hey! Norm at One Good Move now has his QuickTime movies inline. Lately posted: Afghan president Karzai saying that recent protests had nothing to do with Newsweek's Koran story (don't expect any retractions) and a good Saturday Night Live cartoon on media distractions.
The Paul Holmes item last night on political blogging was quite good; but Holmesy, mate, I didn't claim to have "altered government policy". We were pressed for examples of where we might have had an influence, and I did think I'd had a bearing on the nature of the official response (ie: not-completely-ballistic) to the party pills issue. But there wasn't actually a policy there to alter in the first place. Speaking of which, hurry up and make the damn things R18 already. And kids, if your friend wants to take 10 party pills this weekend, please, don't let her …
You had to be there | May 24, 2005 10:45
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If the Lions play anything like they did against Argentina this morning, it is going to be a very long tour of New Zealand for them. In scrambling a draw against a largely second-string Pumas side they looked short on pace, cohesion, leadership and commitment. And are there really no better opensiders than Lewis Moody? Presumably they'll improve, but that was very poor.
The strangest sight was that of Clive Woodward delivering instructions on what to do with two late penalties via the suspended Neil Back, who was down on the touchline wearing an earpiece. That seemed like a funny way to develop on-field leadership, and it may be that this massive touring party - now nearing 100 individuals - will collapse under the weight of its own management. I keep expecting that any moment they'll add a specialist bootlace-tying coach.
The All Black selectors have meanwhile declined to give Joe Rokocoko any further chance to show some form, packing him off with the sevens squad to learn how to run, pass and tackle again. If they're to pick the wings on form, Rico Gear and Sitiveni Sivivatu will start the tests, but we'll see. It also looks like the selectors want to start Muliaina at centre rather than fullback - or at least line him up as cover for centre to give themselves an option of selecting another specialist back (Mehrtens?) in the reserves. Probably not a bad idea.
Great Blend 3 on Saturday night was a step up in a number of ways, but it came off very nicely; which, to my mind, shows the value of preparation. I was mostly concerned with keeping up the pace of proceedings and starting and finishing everything roughly on time. There were a handful of no-shows (including my new business partner, who, um, got the wrong night) but we had about 50 more people than we had seating for anyway.
David Herkt was well-primed to talk about High Times The New Zealand Drug Experience, 1960-2005 and the clips from it were effective, as was the video throughout the night. I think I'll make video a regular part of the events from now on. (And thanks to our man from Oceania, who made a good call in moving and resetting the projector 15 minutes before kick-off.)
Everyone on the panel was good, but judging from the response, Gordon Dryden was the star. He is officially a Cool Old Dude. He and John Campbell hadn't met before, and seemed to bond pretty enthusiastically afterwards. Gordon emailed yesterday to say: "As one who's done a fair number of after-dinner speeches, I was amazed that 280-plus intelligent people could stay interested for an hour or so from 9.30."
Absolutely. In fact several people said afterwards that the panel discussion could have gone on longer, but it had already run about 70 minutes and after two hours on stage and weeks of organisation I was running out of steam myself. I wanted to clock off and enjoy the Phoenix Foundation.
Who were beautiful. I've seen them play three or four times and that was way the best. Favourites from their new album: 'Damn the River' and 'Nest Egg'. You-had-to-be-there sight: Tom Scott giving it maximum jive down the front. (Matt Buchanan has a whole lot of pictures of the band in the gallery accompanying this post.)
"You're such a cultural nationalist," Tze Ming told me afterwards.
Yeah, guilty as charged. But just as much, I'm interested in cultural emergence. I think it would be a suffocating living somewhere where the canon was set in stone.
A gang off us headed off eventually to Shanghai Lil's, where we stayed until they threw us out. It's fair to say I was feeling very fine. It's also fair to say I'm feeling less than fine now that the cold I was fending off all last week has finally come down on me.
Amanda Wheeler from Vortex.net has blogged the evening, and had a great time, apart from those interjections. Robyn Gallagher has a review too. Anyone else out there?
I also chaired a panel on writers in exile on the Friday night at the Readers & Writers Festival, which I found a little strange. The writers were all nice, but we started late, I'm not sure that any of them actually kept to their agreed five minutes' reading (I was told afterwards that no one ever actually does) and I was unused to the sight of members of the audience listening with their eyes shut. The hour was done before we'd really had the discussion we were supposed to have. I felt frustrated, but two people who were in the audience assured me it was perfectly fine as these things go.
I went back up to the green room (where I'd earlier spoken briefly to Alice Sebold and run into my old friend Stella Duffy), forlornly asked whether anyone had a rugby score, then nipped out to catch the second half of the Super 12 semi at Float, alongside boozed, balding men and people thinking about eventually having sex with each other. The Crusaders blew away the Hurricanes and look nigh unbeatable in this competition.
My interview with Anthony Bourdain is in the Listener this week.
As I mentioned earlier, I am currently much taken with the Phoenix Foundation album Pegasus; a bit less so with the Fat Freddy's Drop album, which sort of drifts on by when I play it. Other listening: Arular, the debut album by the British-Sri Lankan dancehall artist M.IA. has some really good tunes, although I suppose to the uninitiated it might just sound like a lot of crashing, bleeping and chanting. And the Lucinda Williams Live at the Filmore double CD sounds quite a lot like Williams' recent albums, which is a testament to the unvarnished nature of her studio work. I like that a lot.
First I was right about Uzbekistan, and now this. Idolblog quotes me from a year ago on the prospects for Ben Lummis with his new record company.
And you might want to watch Paul Holmes tonight. It looks like Alison Mau's blogging report, featuring me and DPF among others, is finally going to air.
Budget Blog: Short Version | May 19, 2005 17:17
First, the government is now officially planning on a mid-September election. Second, this ought to be clear by now: Michael Cullen does not see tax relief as an end in itself, but as an overall policy instrument. I'm surprised and a little disappointed that the bracket adjustment won't happen until 2008, but pleased that they will now be CPI-indexed. At first glance, the tax relief for business looks pretty good for my small businesses, and - subject to accountant's confirmation - more immediately useful than a cut in the headline tax rate.
Cullen has now probably completed the inscription of his legacy as a Treasurer prepared to forgo short-term gain in favour of a long-term vision, and he deserves great credit for that. By the same token, I thought the weirdest part of Don Brash's speech in reply was when he banged on about an improved savings performance having no link to faster economic growth.
Well, no. But Brash cited the United States of an example of an economy with a poor national savings record and robust GDP growth, and Japan and Switzerland as examples of countries with strong national savings and slow growth. I'm not sure if that was wise. The key threat faced by the US results directly from that poor savings record, in combination with huge fiscal deficits and a cohort marching towards retirement. Foreign investors have that economy by the bollocks. Were they to pull the plug, the consequences would be appalling.
So what robust national savings offer is security, and I think that's what Cullen has been pursuing all along. The Superannuation Fund is simply a means of compulsory national saving, and the KiwiSave scheme announced in Budget 2005 is barely less obligatory (although anyone can opt out).
I agree with Chris Trotter that the ability to draw on KiwiSave funds for a first home deposit - and get a subsidy of up to $5000from the government - will appeal strongly to the Labour base, and older voters in particular. It's the contemporary equivalent of being able to capitalise the family benefit.
I'm pleased to see a billion dollars more on health, and the Digital Strategy (which really does make the right noises) given a decent budget, and to see special education funding lifted again. I realise special ed will always be a bottomless bucket, but I'm aware that it was an accident of timing that leaves our family quite well served - the best time to be eligible for any new funding is when it's announced - and I'm glad to see more people get the help they need.
I'll be interested to see where John Key finds the fat to deliver an alternative budget encompassing all National's spending promises and its tax cuts. I'm also mindful of Colin James' theories about a generational resistance to nanny-statism, which I think will come to bite Labour in 2008 (yes, I think they'll win this year). The government so often accused of being anti-family will start to look unreasonably biased towards them. But by then Cullen's long-term initiatives will be irrevocable. And even the most feckless young Tories will eventually be grateful for them.
Scoop's Budget page has the full drama.
PS: A couple of people who successfully RSVPd for The Great Blend tomorrow night have asked whether they should have received confirmation emails. No: if the system let you RSVP, you're in. Please try and be early: doors at 8pm, opening remarks at 8.30pm. There'll be time for having it large later on …
PPS: Go see Radar's Timor ODDessy at the Silo Theatre, last night Saturday. I found the documentary-with-live-commentary experience most pleasing. Information and tickets here.
PPPS: One more reader comment on the David Benson Pope business, on the basis that it comes from someone who was there:
There's a dirty part of me that is kind of satisfied seeing an old teacher reduced to tears. I remember that rule crazy fucker walking around assembly almost willing (from the look on his face) that some poor soul had their shirt hanging out so he could get the excuse to drill the little scrote in front of a couple a hundred kids.
He seemed to love that power and I hated him for it...but I'm older now if not slightly wiser in a vague type of way and realise that this use of discipline kept hundreds of kids in line who, like me, didn't want to be there. If he didn't fulfil this role one of his teacher buddies would have got the portfolio of 'discipline dude', which is what BP did when I was there.
Begrudging as I am to acknowledge it, BP's classes had none of the usual bullshit of dealing with assholes who wouldn't shut up and he got some good teaching done. If, retrospectively, I use this bone idle brain of mine (yes I need a new job) I could probably come up with a good handful of teachers who 'crossed the line' in acceptable teacher behaviour especially when I apply today's rules to the bad old days.
I can't however come up with many ex-teachers who would make a good associate minister of education. This man takes no shit (except for now it appears), is extremely competent and, it is my opinion, that he worked his education portfolio in order to improve the education system for all its users. Even a (relatively deviant) ex-student of who didn't like BP can see this. I know its naive thinking but I'd rather trial the bastard on how good a minister he can be instead of how he treated a few kids 20 years ago.
Budging | May 19, 2005 10:19
The Herald this morning is characterising the shift in tax brackets to be announced in today's Budget as similar to those proposed last year by United Future, which suggests that UF will be stepping up to take credit after the announcement. It would seem a reasonable deal for loyalty, even though the changes seem likely to fall short of what was called for.
There have been a variety of reader responses to the Benson Pope story, some of them raising claims about the personal lives of Opposition MPs that I'm not about to run here. Rodger Donaldson mused on potential witch-hunts but said:
It's more interesting (and disturbing) to me that we're seeing the right here appearing to go wholesale for the route of the US right in an effort to get back into power: NBR seems to be suggesting that the economic right ought to embrace Destiny (hey, it worked for the Republicans!); National's clumsy attempts to make the PM's lack of religious belief an issue; and the exposure of personal lives is a huge step up from anything during my adult life.
Partly it concerns me because it goes down a route that gets away from how well people actually do the damn job (who are children better off under? The childless Helen Clark, or the Jim and Jenny show of the 90s?), partly because it can spill into a generally repressive culture as politicians start to sniff around my bedroom to placate the voters they gain with this shit, and partly because if the US is any guideline, the "left" (as much as they have one) is pathetic and impotent when it comes to countering this sort of stuff.
A streetfighter-driven Labour would by now be replaying the image of Gerry Brownlee beating up on an OAP and asking if this was how National planned to sort out the problems of the elderly, or putting the acid on [potentially defamatory passage snipped here - RB]
Newstalk ZB has run a story saying that "Opposition MPs who are former teachers are looking deep into their pasts amid talk the Government is looking for retribution over the allegations leveled against David Benson-Pope. In private, some confess to fearing that anything considered an 'incident' could come back to haunt them …"
But John Armstrong writes in the Herald that although "Labour has its own stockpile of allegations" relating to Opposition members, it has made a strategic decision not to start flinging them, at least for now.
Reader Ben Wilson said:
I don't think character assassination is going to work too well for the Nats, and is a sign of complete absence of popular policy.
It works nicely in FPP and similar systems, where embittered voters failing to vote for their traditional party are effectively passing votes to their opposition. But here if people can be trained to distrust Labour on character, that doesn't automatically push them to National.
Philip Temple, on the other hand, wrote that "Benson-Pope is an arch denier - witness his statements over the Ahmed Zaoui affair - and it is this for which he deserves censure," and referred to further rumours about bullying circulating in Dunedin.
Ian Orchard said:
When are they going to learn? Never deny anything in the House. Always say "I have no recollection of such & such, it was a long time ago." (Except maybe stuff you did yesterday)
A Herald editorial today says that Benson Pope's ministerial career is probably done for - as much because of his those blanket denials in the House as the alleged conduct in the 1980s - but Garth George, as I thought he might, rides to the minister's defence.
James Littlewood said:
Although some of what's been said about him is weird, it's all unexceptional. Schools are places of longstanding institutionalised sadism ... ask anyone who went to Auckland Boys Grammar. OK, so it don't make it right. But I think the real test will be if anyone calls his bluff and takes their complaint to the cops.
Which is pretty much what has happened, with the solicitor general referring the allegations to the commissioner of police. Curiously, that's not enough for Rodney Hide, who wants a full-blown public inquiry. Hide's rhetoric over this - and his bitching at the Speaker yesterday - suggest that he regards this as politically very important to him, which is a bit sad. Still, when some in your own party want to replace you with John Banks I guess you get a bit twitchy.
Karl had comment on the coverage:
Suddenly John Tamihere's paranoid rants about Rodney Hide and Duncan Garner seem to have a hint of truth. One week Rodney Hide and Judith Collins mount a well-informed, co-ordinated attack in the house on David Benson-Pope. The following week Duncan Garner leads 3 News with an item, using the same information, that he says he has been investigating for 3 months. I may be paranoid, but I now seriously doubt the impartiality of 3 News.
I'm sure Garner has been consulting with Hide on this - and I think it has all been long and carefully planned, from the Parliamentary sting to the sudden willingness of the former students to talk on camera - but I also don't think this is a kind of story that any reporter can walk away from. I think Campbell Live has handled the story reasonably well, following up the Hide interview the next night with one from former pupil John Whitty, who declared that Benson Pope's harsh discipline had been the making of him, and accused the other former students of being liars.
My response, in the end, is that I'm very glad to have attended a high school that got rid of corporal punishment in the 1970s - and consequently enjoyed a drop in all kinds of school violence, including playground bullying. The idea that a clip around the head is assault but caning isn't is quite a difficult one to sustain morally.
There are quite a number of reasons to dislike the expelled British Labour MP George Galloway, but it's hard not to admire the rhetorical flourish of his testimony this week to a US senate committee. He really did, as the Americans say, hand Senator Norm Coleman his ass. One Good Move has a particularly fluent excerpt, and also a Hardball interview with Coleman (who seems to have trouble speaking in sentences) and then Galloway.
It seems Galloway was terminating with extreme prejudice before he even got into the hearing, informing Christopher Hitchens that he was "a drink-soaked former Trotskyist popinjay ... Your hands are shaking. You badly need another drink."
It was left to The Scotsman to point out that Galloway did not entirely dispel the cloud over his name.
The Columbia Journalism Review has a well-considered response to some of the tosh that has been written and spoken (including the ludicrous and paranoid allegations on Instpaundit) since Newsweek's Guantanamo whoopsie became apparent. Worth reading.
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