Hemp products were seized by NZ Customs upon importation by 'the hemp store aotearoa'.
The Hemp Store are contesting the Customs action in court with regard to the legality of the seizure. The products in question only contain trace amounts of psychoactive product, lower than the allowed level of 0.35%. Customs identified the Hemp products as "containing cannibis". A smoking mixture called "Knaster" and hemp tea tested in Germany as well below the threshold.
In the news NZ's most wanted man
A very dangerous criminal is on the loose possibly in South Auckland. His history of shooting first may seems like a bad movie to most of us, except his victims. Fine defaulters South Island fine defaulters have been asked to pay up in a "name and shame" campaign. So, if you are very desperate to want to get your name in the paper, the courts may oblige.
Child care There is some discussion in the Government about child care that seeks to define a "father" as not necessarily being male. Peter Dunne, the unlikely partner to the Labour coalition, with his "Christian values" opposes same sex couples. It could be argued that his approach to parliament is more feminine than his coalition partner, Helen Clark, who has "fathered" one of the most successful Governemnt in NZ history.
A law expert believes that the right of representing self at trial is costly and dangerous. That may be true, but perhaps there are other lessons in NZ's recent 7 week extended self defence conducted by John Burrett.
The nature of Mr Burrett's conduct that "extended the trial" is seen as a costly result of self indulgence by a man seeking to prove that he indeed was prepared to waste the time of others. Mr Burrett would have done well to have hired himself a lawyer. Compare his potential for incarceration to that of the Dog Bite Bust.
These fine Gents had a nightmare incident with their dog attacking a child that they initially tried to distance themselves from, and then one admitted to; and the other was found guilty and now is doing two months in Mt Eden jail, only to be injured, possibly seriously, by other prisoners.
These fine Gents have representation. They now carry a certain notoriety beyond their contribution to society. Yet, the hand of justice, having smote each may be seen to have cured them of their idiocy, if not their irresponsibility.
They can feed stories to the buttocks of the media and from that, recover payments they can then very pubilcally give to charity. And bask in the cafe's of Ponsonby.
Whereas Burrett, now having proven his value to the world by defending himself with the side society may rightfully wish to segregate itself from, may be seen to have invented the entire rationale for being charged in the first place.
Afterall, the police prevented them from actually committing the crime they were observed planning. With the sentencing now imminent, no public sympathy can support Mr Burrett.
That is not to say that an appeal in Burrett's case may become necessary, and Burrett may consider, for goodness sake, getting a good lawyer.
One could of course argue that there may be a place for idiots defending themselves in the court room. When a jury is picked from everyday people, it seems natural enough that an individual may defend themselves.
One only has to recall the genuine mess Bill Clinton made of his presidency to see the folly. Representing oneself may be a sure fire way to lose a case, and perhaps that is why it should remain a right.
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Bustedinfo has asked for some funding to carry on with its research and to continue to report on the grey matter of the law.
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Nobody really likes scam merchants, ripping of hundreds of hopeful usually shy people, who get lured into a corner to be electronically shaken down.
Here are some electronic scams you can observe as they get cracked down upon by the FBI:
PayPal do pay their vendors, with a US$25 minimum transfer. Their exchange rates are caculated in America and may cost more than you expect, and this encourages you to hold and spend PayPal (US$) dollars in credit at PayPal. Hence PayPal achieve international leverage.
We have received thousands of dollars from our websites, safely, via PayPal. Because we can vouch for their on line success, it gives the user security in the transaction. We have tried and will report on an alternative to PayPal with a similar set of rules but so far a poor response time.
Money on the web requires proof positive of identity, and that can be achieved by locking information together. This is done with complex data matrix maths that results in a one way encryption of the data, and its timestamp.
This is used as a sort of alphabet soup cypher to strain the message through. The result is a secure stamp.
Such computer forensics can employ a filter, and listening in onto the internet can find and trace connections and a history of connection. It therefore becomes also true that the citizenry are more at risk of attack by the state at this time than before.
The idea of tracking every citizen comes from a Government that feels out of control of forces active in the community.
It would seem that individual control is lost in direct proporation to the public freedom granted. Is that a bad thing? The heads of state are bound by protocol while gutter snipes snare rats. It has to be that way, according to the politicians. They need life's little luxuries to rule.
Who is actually in control, the watchers, or the watched? It bears considering that if any deed performed on the internet is verifiable; that this changes the role of the "watchers" from enforcer/restrictor to that of participator. Public thinking can be replaced with fake public thinking, just like it can on any other medium.
The politics are guided by a value to the minds that act on it.
Attempts to remain a liberal democracy may not survive the popularity of terror as a guiding force that directs the politics of the day. Placing of a people into a state of fear paralyses their ability to be rational in their democratic choices.
Our democratic choices lead us to select leaders that make laws. Some of these laws have been enacted to defeat an unknown enemy, as in the renamed Total Information Awareness program in America. It was renamed The Patriot Act and now moves are occuring to cement it into American normality.
The erosion of civil rights may indeed catch a few terrorists, but it has also placed innocents into incarceration. Freedom is not available to all citizens equally. And that creates a problem. Our best lawyers examine individual cases and we evolve better laws.
What is the effect of the Government having a complete awareness of every citizen's deeds? Is this our democratic choice? If your freedom is threatened, defend it.
