“Opinion”

Page B4 of the Dominion Post for Saturday September 2 2006 is entitled “Opinion”.
Opinions expressed include:
On Liam Ashley, the teenage offender beaten to death in a prison van by another prisoner:

• …one important point is being overlooked. If he had not stolen his mother’s car to go joyriding, none of the subsequent events would have happened
• Though it might seem to many that Liam Ashley died in vain, I beg to differ. Many young people today have no idea when they have stepped over the line… This is perhaps a timely lesson to young people – t’s a big bad world out there.

On Olaf Wiig, freed hostage in Gaza, who “converted to Islam” while in captivity:

• Congratulations to [Wiig’s wife]… when her husband Olaf – as a freshly converted Muslim – takes another three wives, she will be muchly relieved of her various home duties
• Olaf Wiig: death or Islam. You choose.

On the New Zealand Council for Civil Liberties ridiculing a proposed ban on hoodies by suggesting it would mean hats, sunglasses and burqas should also be banned:

• In this age of increasing lawlessness and with potential terrorists being apprehended by our closest neighbour, perhaps we would be right to suspect anyone who seeks to conceal their identity from security cameras.
• I keep seeing various pronouncements by the New Zealand Council for Civil Liberties… I cannot help but wonder whether it is a front for a terrorist organisation.

In response to a letter from the Iranian ambassador:

• The leaders and representatives of Arab nations continually blame everyone else for their problems except when they’re fighting among themselves, promoting worldwide terrorism or trying to unsuccessfully wipe Israel off the map…
• The Iranian ambassador’s response exhibits fully his diplomatic skills at avoiding facts and laying blame other than where it belongs. Israel wishes to live in peace within secure and recognised boundaries free from threats or acts of force… (this from Israel’s Honorary Consul; a better pot/kettle juxtaposition I’ve not seen in an age)

(And in the Dom Post’s “Last Word” section that runs on the page, apart from a frankly ridiculous attack on a silly cartoon, there is this piece of mind-numbing idiocy. The Human Rights Commission used the word “cheerios” in a newsletter and was contacted by lawyers protecting the trademark; the Last Word, perhaps in a desperate attempt to Ho Ho the fact that it is the HRC, chooses to lead the item with: “It seems that even cocktail sausages can have rights in these politically correct days…”)