Posts by Craig Ranapia
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Paul:
With all due respect, we're just going to have to agree to disagree whet
er or not Rudd's playing exactly the same game - but I have to admit he's coding it more subtly. (And I'd also respectfully suggest the ALP hasn't historically been as fastidious about appealing to sectarian prejudice as Rudd likes to pretend.) I'd just like everyone to stop frolicking in that particular toxic waste dump, not least because it only ends up trivialising both faith and politics.And Paul wrote:
Last election we had the sight of Costello, a high-Anglican, attending a Hillsong service meanwhile numerous Liberals accepted the support of the Exclusive Brethren.Oh please... Do the words 'Ratana Pa' mean anything to you - because seeing who can bring the biggest posse is a politicial farce that's even starting to make most of the Ratana of my acquaintance unconfortable. And I know it's not a comfortable truth to tell, but there are plenty of Labour politicians both here and in Australia who are quite happy to be seen (by the right people, anyway) cuddling up to some very creepy clerics in campaign season when it's politically useful.
By a strange coincidence, while I was in Oz the ABC screened the wonderfulr episode of The West Wing where the (sadly ficiticious) Republican nominee Arnold Vinnick says this:
__"I don't see how we can have a seperation of Church & State in this government, if you have to pass a religious test, to get in this government. And I want to warn everyone in the press & all the voters out there, If you demand expressions of Religious Faith from politicians, you are just begging to be lied to. They won't all lie to you, but a lot of them will, and it will be the easiest lie they ever had to tell to get your votes. So every day until the end of this campaign, I will answer any question anyone has on government, but if you have a quesion on Religion...Please go to church. Thank You."__
And if Mr Rudd wants to play that game, then he's going to be treated by me with the same contempt as anyone else who treats the front steps of a church as a backdrop for a photo op, or dares to even imply the true test of faith is at the ballot box. But I guess the real test is whether enough Christians of good faith - on both sides of the political divide - start pushing back.
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Paul Williams wrote:
Incidentally, Rudd's invocation of Christ was fair enough too, from my perspective, I'm frankly sick to death of Christian meaning moral conservativism.Well, as I've said at great length here and elsewhere I'm sick to death of any politician who has taken the term 'bully pulpit' in directions Teddy Roosevelt never imagined. If Rudd wants to get into a 'my vote is holier than thou' pissing match with folks I wouldn't waste my urine on, it's a free country. But some of us who go to church would actually to see a meaningful distinction between faith and politics (or religiosity and campaign rhetoric, to be harsh) widened, not eroded further. Of course, doesn't doesn't mean folks like Rudd and Tony Abbott should pretend their faith doesn't influence their political views. What I object to is the implication - explicit or implicit - that if you don't vote like them, you're not really a good Christian. That strikes me as rather monstrous spiritual and political arrogance, and to hell with it.
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I'd not look to Australia for meaningful politics, it's just as theatrical and vapid as anywhere else.
Well, up to a point. Putting aside Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbot's recent attack of bickering over where Jesus would put his first preference - which is funny in every sense - Australian politics is a hell of a lot more 'meaningful' than anything going on here. And that's sad.
And just as a request, could PA readers try not to make 'Rove tactics' the political equivalent of "snakes on a plane!"
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Greg:
Basically, I don't blame Helen Clark or John Key for the simple fact that I'm over-weight - and am only moving the cholesterol in the right direction by *gasp* eating properly and exercising more. Strangely enough, I don't think the right has any monopoly on the notion that not every problem in the world can be reduced to a fatuous bumper sticker and legislated away.
As I said, it's not really a jaw-dropper for me that the media (or politicians for that matter) don't always let intellectual rigour get in the way of scaring the shit out of people for fun and profit. It would be a delightful novelty, for example, if some folks would cease to accuse others of being Darth Rove's apprentice, while slagging off anyone who doesn't agree with them as a kitten-eating bastard.
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FFS... I really wish some of the faux outrage flowing around here would kick in when we get another fatuous scare story about the so-called 'obesity epidemic' - another health scare story that ends up being much less than meets the eye. (Gee, you mean that when you consume more calories that you ever expend - and too much of it is made up of sugar and fat - it all goes somewhere. And banning fizzy drinks and treating kids like crackheads when they have a bag of crisps in their lunch boxes occasionally isn't really that useful.) Sorry, Russell, but it's hardly a clutch-my-pearls moment to be reminded the Herald is hardly the gold standard for statistical literacy.
Then again, it has been interesting spending sixteen days in Australia - where the politicians are at least trying (with very mixed results, admittedly) to have a semi-rational debate on shit that actually matters. Like making sure children (and everyone else) will continue to have access to a water supply fir for human consumption.
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Stephen Judd wrote:
Oh, and I'm not worried Anglican vicars. I'm worried about Brian Tamaki. He has blackshirts.Yes, Stephen, and who do you think is more likely to have Helen Clark's diary secretary return his call or get a nice puff-piece in the O'Herald (which is probably real influence in our culture): Brian The Bish, or Anglican Archbishop Whakahuihui 'world without gays' Vercoe? If I was of a left-wing frame of mind, I'd be very worried about the Anglican Church election as its head a man who's left a very long snail-trail of anti-gay, anti-woman and anti-immigrant rhetoric.
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I always think it's odd when liberals are accused - as they frequently are in some circles - of being in league with radical Islamic conservatives. Surely the people who have common cause with religious conservatives are other religious conservatives? Right?
Well, Russell, I think that's a tad naive. It's sure it's going to be enormous fun watching putatively liberal Democrats cuddling up to some very illiberal black churches, Southern evangelicals (who apparently aren't quite as reliably in the GOP column as CW would have you believe), and Jewish congregations as primary season kicks into high gear.
And with all due respect to Mr. Hood, I don't give the proverbial flying frak at a donut whether someone who thinks my dirty faggot arse is better off dead is a Yankee Christian theo-con, a drooling Eurabian fundie, or your common or garden nondenominational bigot.
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And Jane Espenson - curse her talented little typing fingers - also has a fascinating blog, even if you've zero interest in writing for television, as well as co-writing another epsidoe for BSG set to air next month (available here when the season three DVD box comes out, I guess). Dirty Hands sounds like it's going to be quite interesting, as it supposedly turns the focus onto the 'knuckle-draggers' who keep everythigng (more or less) working. It would be nice to see what the rest of the remnants of the human race are up to.
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I'm not quite sure what to think about Heroes - I agree the pompous opening narration has to go, but it's just hiitting all the X-Men cliches a little too neatly (teen angst, unhappy families, the lawman whose abilities see him suspected of a horrible crime, the eerily smart kid, the woman with a nasty hidden personality, dark conspiracies, and some unspeakable fate that's rushing up to hit everyone like a Mack truck), if that makes any sense. I can see why Hiro is the break-out character, because it's the only time the show get loose and goofy.
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Sorry, I'm still in WTF mode about that radio station. OK, I agree someone needs a long holiday at Club Med Gitmo for this, but what kind of person would willingly put themselves through that much pain for... well, a bloody gadget? Pay off the student loan, perhaps. Throw in the balance of the mortgage, and I'll consider anything that doesn't end up with having to dispose of a corpse. But having to put up with that grinding, hideous broken glass in your gut discomfort- fatal or not - for a Wii? Piss off.
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