Opinions / The Green Finger
recent Opinions/The Green Finger
by Dominic Szekér | 2:39 am, 20/09/2010
Climate change denial: it’s as frustrating, intellectually twisted, and unfalsifiable as creationism, but way more dangerous. Climate change doubt: it’s just lazy.
by Dominic Szekér | 2:10 am, 23/08/2010
Oceans are awesome, in both senses of the word. They are incredibly enormous. Their depths will crush you faster than Judith Collins crushes boy racer cars (but without wasting tax dollars).
by Cameron Birnie | 11:09 pm, 22/08/2010
The 90 000+ classified US military documents released by Wikileaks last week have revealed a refreshingly honest if startlingly grisly picture of the realities on the ground in the ‘War on Terror’ in Afghanistan. Ubiquitous cover-ups of civilian deaths, extrajudicial assassination squads, the rise and rise of the Taliban …
by J.R Holmes | 2:02 am, 09/08/2010
As you read this, look at the date. It’s approximately two weeks before 20 August, right? You have until then to get yourself enrolled, in Dunedin, on the Electoral Roll.
by Dominic Szeker | 1:13 am, 26/07/2010
For most of human history, it was likely that you would live and die a stone’s throw from the place you were born. You would kill your dearest for a mule and ladies would spread their legs quicker than Courtney Love if you had a pony.
The Green Finger - 14
by J.R Holmes | 10:09 pm 11/07/2010
Three Strikes.New Zealand took a new direction on May 25. I have to admit that I have less than no respect for the ACT Party and its policies. But, along with MPs from all parties, I do not dispute the intentions of David Garrett; I just want to respectfully disagree with his legislation.
I will save the ad hominems and scatology for another, less serious occasion. While there is probably a reason for every letter of this paragraph for why this bill potentially and definitely is flawed, I am just going to make one point.
Justice has to be one of the most imperfect, messy, and unsatisfying affairs that humans have the misfortune of dealing with. There is no way one could trivialise the immense burden of responsibility that falls on the shoulders of a judge. Nor could one trivialise the hatred and/or pain of the victim of a violent crime.
Politics is the negotiation between multiple agents. And there are not many things more important or telling about a society than the conditions under which it deprives its members of their freedom. The best guideline under which to operate is to take human rights as an absolute minimum. This advises us that all humans should receive punishment in proportion to the offense they commit.
Under the new law, a person on their third strike gets the same time for robbery (not aggravated) as a person who has a sexually exploitative relationship with a disabled person. Ten years, no parole, regardless of premeditation, cruelty, remorse, pleading guilty, or the wishes of the victim. Completely dissimilar crimes can receive the same sentence. In other words, the bill takes away judicial discretion. This is unfair to a judge who then has to impose an unjust sentence. Nor is violating the right to proportionate justice fair for the victim or perpetrator: “If someone wrongs me, I am entitled to have the wrong remedied, no more and no less.”*
Labour, Greens, and Progressives oppose the Bill, as do National Party coalition partners the Maori Party and United Future, and members of the following groups who made oral submissions in opposition to the bill: the New Zealand Law Society, the New Zealand Police Association, the Human Rights Foundation, the Human Rights Commission, the Council of Civil Liberties, the Salvation Army, the New Zealand Council of Christian Social Services, and Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu. As do I.
*Some things cannot be put better than at norightturn.blogspot.com
