Freaky Friday

Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got; taking a break from all your worries sure would help a lot. Wouldn't you like to get away? Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name, and they're always glad you came. You want to be where you can see our troubles are all the same; you want to be where everybody knows Your Views.


Is a conviction appropriate for punching a child?

Pedantic (Forrest Hill): I would like to stress a point that most are not willing or able to face up to. Children need discipline. How a parent decides to dish it out is their business, and not for parent wannabees to deliberate over. There is no right or wrong way to discipline. Some methods may be more effective, but it remains a punitive measure.

Personally, I attach electrodes to my children's testicles - or, if I'm not near a power point, waterboarding. How about you?

Huggiebear (Ellerslie): It seems ridiculous to convict, yet another broken promise by the National Government [...] But the guy does look like a drugged out aging hippy probably from an unemployed or uneducated working class marginal background. (Ie white trash, something found a lot in Christchurch) He does not strike me as Joe Middle class kiwi more like some fringe activist. How can a 50 year old man have as much hair as a 19 year old university student. Punching 4 year olds, he needs to grow up. I say warn him but don't convict him over it. Just leave the wacky backy alone man! Groovy! You dig?

Not sure quite what he's getting at - cultural profiling of hippies in court? Instead, I just want to point out that Huggy Bear was the bar-owner/underground informant/pimp/drug-dealer from the 70s TV show Starsky and Hutch. Groovy!

Aklr In Exile (Napier): If he did punch the child, then a conviction for assault is appropriate. I'm not sure from what I have heard, whether he actually did this and I suspect the jury wasn't sure either. Erring on the side of caution, a jury would provide a guilty verdict 'just in case' he did it. I'm not sure if this is just.

Classic. 'I don't know what happened. Here's a hypothesis. Now I believe the hypothesis I just made up. An injustice has been committed.'

Concerned kiwi (Auckland Central): Facts in this case are fuzzy to say the least. James Mason flicked his son's ears but denied that he ever punched his son. Yet he is convicted of flicking AND punching. I have not seen a shred of evidence proving that he punched his son. How can the jury find him guilty? If he is guilty only for flicking and not punching then he should be acquited. Punching is so much more serious than flicking. I see an injustice here folks.

You mean that you, a mouth breather who gets all their news from the Herald website, hasn't seen the evidence that a jury saw? Even though they attended a two-day trial and deliberated for nine hours, and you skim-read an atrocious story in the Herald? I see an injustice here folks.

Realist (Auckland): PC world gone mad. And what double standards. If this is 'assault' then I expect boys who fight at school to be prosecuted. Also rugby players who throw a punch - often see by us all on TV. I want them in court too for the sake of fairness.

I can't believe that guy who deliberately drove over some teenagers at a party got convicted. I want everyone who drives down a road in court.


What are you hoping to see in next week's budget?

KC (Franklin) I would make 10,000 non frontline public servants out of the current 40,000 made redundant, the dismantling of the Charities Commission, Families Commission, Sparc, Economic Development Commission along with the sale of Kiwibank, Kiwirail and Air NZ.

The billions in savings produced from these cuts would be fed into the economy by way of progressive tax cuts over time resulting in a 15% top rate for personal and business. GST would also be raised to 15% so the tax system is simplified.

I would privatise 50% of NZ hospitals and 50% of NZ schools so that the public sector would have to compete against the private sector.

The income from the long-term lease of the above public assets would go toward providing catastrophic health insurance policies and education scholarships for those Kiwis that take up the privatised options.

I would dismantle the social welfare system and give all beneficiaries six months notice of benefit removal following an unsuccessful application for continuation of their current benefit.

DPB benefits would not exist beyond one child and it would be compulsory for the father to be named on a birth certificate.

And a Playstation and a red bicycle.

Alex King (North Shore): Space program.

Now that's more realistic.


Can Sri Lanka put the civil war behind it?

Lady Barbie Girl (Epsom): Depends on both sides, really.

Also it should be a warning to all countries bringing in too many immigrants of one nationality. Just like at what it has done of harm to e.g. Fiji, not to mention European countries who encounters hopeless problems with Muslim immigrants. In 10-20 years time the EU will be a battleground because of mindless immigration of people who have not the least desire to integrate.

...

That's probably about enough for this week, with the exception of this last one on punching children. I couldn't tell whether it was serious or taking the piss, but in the grand scheme of things it probably doesn't matter.

Bamm Bamm (Antarctica): Children are pretty much expendable till the age of 12-15, some even older. They are university students.

Silly NZers don't realise how expendable children really are.

Come in my house in the dark unannounced - and I'll shoot you dead. That's how expendable you are.

Try to rob me, and I'll kill you out of spite. No mercy.

Time for people here to toughen up. You weaklings - you know who you are.

I smack and hit kids all the time. Who cares? A conviction for what? Smacking a kid? Get real - talk about a waste of taxpayers dollars.