Aardvark Daily

New Zealand's longest-running online daily news and commentary publication, now in its 23rd year. The opinion pieces presented here are not purported to be fact but reasonable effort is made to ensure accuracy.

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Let's ban vans!

22 August 2017

Once again I read the sad news that a bunch of "terrorists" with scant regard for human life, have driven a van into a crowd of people, this time at a bus stop in France.

It seems that motor-vehicles are now "the weapon de jour" amongst the terror-set and despite (or perhaps because of) their bulk and weight, they seem quite effective as a method of mass-murder and injury.

Should we ban vans?

I think not, and I'm sure that you'd be hard pressed to find anyone, anywhere in the world who would support such a move. After all, vans are an important tool for the transport of people and goods. There are literally millions of vans in service around the world and it is only a very, very small percentage which are used for these evil deeds by terror groups.

Should we fit all vans with some kind of technology which would allow a law-enforcement officer (LEO) to disable its motor and lock its brakes with the push of a button?

Let's face it, if this technology had been "standard equipment" of late then many lives could have been saved from these ghastly terror attacks against groups of innocent men, women and children.

Forums are up!

Yes, people have been complaining about the lack of forums for months now so I finally got off my chuff and finished the transition to the new server and the commissioning of the new forums.

Unfortunately you will have to re-register, it just wasn't practical to transition the IDs from the old server -- although the old stuff will be maintained in a "read-only" capacity for some time to come.

So, if you want to "have your say" then register at the new forums using the magic word Aardvarkroxs when asked for it.

Take a moment to introduce yourself to the rest of the Aardvark community and pretty shortly I'll be expanding the number of forums to encompass a number of areas that are regularly discussed on this site.

The contact form is not yet working (got to rejig the CGI scripts) but if anyone wants to email me they can send their communications to editor at this domain or PM me via the forums.

Oh yes, if anyone wants a bit of a plug then the sponsorship space is now up for grabs. Until someone is prepared to offer a donation for the use of this space, I'm happy to offer a free plug to anyone who wants to send me a suitable 150x150 graphic and link.

Stay tuned!

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