The fearful reaction to the high court decision that people cannot be held in indefinite detention is a classic example

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    fedilink
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    21 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    The manager of one of the caravan parks saw it differently and a notice was stuck on the instrument’s burnished timber: “This piano has been illegally dumped … if you know the owner, ask them to collect it by Monday 4 December.

    But risk assessment has become something of a national preoccupation, and soon there were suggestions: it could lead to vandalism, it may fall on someone, what if sand got in the keys, who would be liable, and the big one, was it safe.

    The words sounded no better coming from her mouth than they had centuries earlier when people deemed criminals were deported to the antipodean convict outposts for the term of their natural lives.

    The search for ways of incarcerating “hardened criminals” could be defined as a national characteristic, remote islands and ankle restraints have proved enduringly popular.

    In February 1788 two convicts, Joseph Hall and Henry Lovell, were found guilty of stealing butter, peas and pork from the larder.

    Charles Darwin reported in 1836 that as a place of punishment the colony had failed but as “a means of converting vagabonds, most useless in one hemisphere, into active citizens of another and thus given birth to a new and splendid country – a grand centre of civilisation – it has succeeded to a degree perhaps unparalleled in history.”


    The original article contains 904 words, the summary contains 222 words. Saved 75%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

    • @kerrypacker
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      11 year ago

      Charles Darwin reported in 1836 that as a place of punishment the colony had failed but as “a means of converting vagabonds, most useless in one hemisphere, into active citizens of another and thus given birth to a new and splendid country – a grand centre of civilisation – it has succeeded to a degree perhaps unparalleled in history.”

      I love that.