Trivial pursuit
A government is set to crack down on NGOs engaged in politics, and environmental watchdog Greenpeace is worried. Before anyone circulates a petition to impeach President George W. Bush, the menace to NGOs is from the New Zealand Government. (Hat tip: Russia Blog) TV.NZ reports:
A new law could strip charities of their tax-free status if they get too involved in politics. The move has led to fears that charities such as Greenpeace and the Sensible Sentencing Trust may be less inclined to speak out. Charities are often driven by people with a burning desire to fight for a cause. Having a cause can be difficult to separate from being political, but that is what the Charities Commission may soon be asked to do. ...
From next February, the commission will have new powers to strip charities of their tax-free status if they become too heavily involved in politics. "If there is any hint of political taint in this, New Zealanders will stand up in droves and change it," says Garth McVicar of the Sensible Sentencing Trust. Labour is already moving to strip the Exclusive Brethren church of its rights to deny union officials entry into their work places on religious grounds. The government denies it is an attack on civil liberties.
Belmont Club quiz. Has an NGO ever sunk or crippled a United States warship; if so which and where? Bonus question. Has a government ever sunk an NGO ship? If so, which and where?
posted by wretchardthecat at 10/29/2006 10:16:00 PM
17 Comments:
France sank the Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior in 1985 ... in New Zealand.
Wouldn't it make more sense to ban the French from New Zealand?
USS Cole. 10/12/2000. The Aden port in Yemen.
In a whimsical little operation, the French DGSE sunk the Greenpeace ship the "Rainbow Warrior". 7/10/85 outside of Auckland, New Zealand.
What color piece of pie did I win?
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Seven seconds you beat me by, nahncee. . . . though I did get the first part of the question. Maybe we can have a rematch of literature or "sports and leisure".
Best,
RC
PS Hmmm, maybe I got the questions reversed. First Greenpeace and then the Cole would be the correct progression.
I'd say UFOs abducted the USS Cyclops in the Bermuda Triangle, but it wasn't a warship.
Aliens are an NGO, right?
j/k
Go ahead: TRY not to smile!
RWE:
Game Called on account of Plane
I smiled.
When Greenpeace tried to stop Trident missile launches off of Cape Canaveral in thc 80's, the USN ran at least one operation with SEAL teams trying to hook on steel cables to the Greenpeace Zodiac inflatable boats to tow them away - backwards.
But I don't think they sank any.
Prohibiting tax-subsidies to highly politicized --an invariably leftwing--
non-governmental organizations (NGOs) is not "muzzling" them, merely ensuring that taxpayers need not accommodate partisan agendas with which they substantively disagree.
One analogy would be radically skewed contribution of Union Members' forced dues to extremist causes favored by their malfeasant officers.
Indisputably in the same vein, why not invoke "Establishment of Religion" clauses, which prohibit Government subsidies to maintain or promote sectarian ends of any Church? What justifies taxpayer contributions to the Church of Global Warming, the Church of PETA, the Church of Unitied Feminists? What, you say, these are mere "secular faiths", lacking dogma, hierarchies, true believers ready to excommunicate adherents with whom Orthodoxy disagrees? Puh-lease...
if radical activists respond, "It's only words", intending to claim public support for private ends as usual, then of course "mere words" will be sufficient to deny them that very privilege.
"NGOs" indeed! Call yourself a Human Rights or Animal Rights or Rights Rights organization, spew vile anti-Semtic, racist, Islamofascist and totalitarian propaganda, slandering and vilifying your opponents-- but don't act surprised when rational citizens cut off your subsidies, seeing you quite plain for who and what you are.
Wait a minute: What About the USS Cole?
Isn't Al Queda an NGO?
Maybe we need a new designation.
NGOs are organizations like the Boy Scouts, the Salvation Army, and the National Rifle Association.
Supra Government Organizations (SGO's) are like Greenpeace, The Sierra Club, Earth First, and Al Queda, - and probably the BBC, Reuters, and CNN as well.
Not sure where I would put the Red Cross. They are more of an SGO but I would hate to lump them in with those others... but if the Foo defecates...
Is the ACLU an NGO? Whether it is or not, it deserves have something explosive happen to it, too.
Is something weird being added to the Kool Aid in New Zealand, since they seem to keep coming up with new laws that no one else even thought of, let alone thought was necessary?
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Strangely enough, French commandoes sank the Greenpeace ship, "Rainbow Warrior", in New Zealand back in '85
Would you consider Al Qaeda an NGO? They nearly sank the USS Cole in Yemen.
Catherine,
I like your NGO redistribution program... put 'em where they're need most. Great.
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Y'know, all the sympathy that I have for the US following 9/11 evaporates as soon as I read the comments here.
It does return some short while later after I leave.
Oh, and BTW get your facts right - Rainbow Warrior was tied up at wharf in Auckland Harbour. Not "outside". So reocon has no cigar either.
And yes, if you come closer I can still smell the uranium on your breath.
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