Posts by Russell Brown
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Oh, and just to clarify the Wellington date, it's Thursday the 30th. My mistype was there in the post (but not the RSVP pages) for half an hour.
-
Sorry to be an old stick-in-the-mud, but you don't own your Wikipedia entry. If the Mint Chicks can get people to mess with their entry, then can Exxon Mobil hire people to do the same thing?
That said, it's all there in the history and some of it is bloody funny.
What they should do is get someone to build a non-Wikipedia page with the Wiki code and let people go wild there. Then add it as an external link from the "proper" article.
-
Wouldn't want the System crowd to miss out, so ...
-
More seriously, if Key's media advisors are halfway competent they should be anticipating stories like this and shutting them down. And, in a weird way, I think it is an advantage for Key; just as it was very smart from Tim Grosser to say in the face of certain recent allegations "yes, I have smoked pot - not proud of it, but it happened - just not when I was a senior diplomat."
I hope for his sake that's correct.
But wouldn't it be a refreshing change to have a politician admit to past pot use and not immediately rush a qualifier like "I'm not proud of it" or "I regret it now" or "it was foolish of me" or "I didn't inhale"?
Bring on the member who says, "yes, I smoked pot - and, you know, it was really rather fun".
-
We are morally outraged that Air NZ flew Aussies TOWARD Eyerack, but we don't care that Rakon is more directly involved in the War on Terrur, making wobbly things that guide smart bombs used by the USA in the same part of the world?
That's so muddled it's not even a double standard.Sigh ... but Rakon isn't 80% owned by the New Zealand government, is it? Even if you take the view that the charter flight is of no account, it's a bit silly to pretend it's exactly the same thing.
Ahhhh, Big Gay Hel...
Sigh (again) ... Are you sure you didn't click the wrong link and meant to go to some other blog where that constitutes a funny joke?
-
I think I can top that, Richard - was at a stag party last year, where there was a stripper. Ended up getting in touch with my inner prude on the deck, where I shared a cig with her (extremely butch) minder and we marvelled at the mysterious creature that is the straight man. Just don't get the appeal of watching a complete stranger polish a pole with their arse cheeks.
I've found strippers at parties plonking themselves in laps tacky and weird too. But I did once go to Mermaids on a stag night, and was actually surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I decided that the sexual titillation (men and women alike) was like a sort of safe social intoxicant.
[No, really, going back to work.]
-
To be honest, I guess you've got a point
And let it not be thought that I don't think you have a point too. But I'm quite enjoying having an argument.
[Disappears back under gigantic mountain of work.]
-
Oh, and also, just did a Goggle News search.
Total NZ stories on the trans-Tasman spat in the past 24 hours = 24
Total Australian stories = 5
Total NZ stories today = 8
Total Australian stories today = 0
We seem a lot more exercised than they are.
-
The vast majority of work nation-wide on grooming will be done from this government funding - probably a section in the federal police I'm guessing. After all, tracking internet grooming doesn't need to be done locally. 'Ordinary' sexual assault in the real world will be primarily funded at the state level by ordinary state police - both in specialised offices, and with ordinary detectives investigating sexual assaults etc.
I take your point but this is additional funding (the Australia police already do a lot of monitoring of online discussion) for a problem that, in relative terms, barely exists.
But let's do another comparison: the new $40m education campaign to protect children from online sexual predators, part of the same "cleaning up the internet" package, is still more than twice the money the federal government allocated to the National Initiative to Combat Sexual Assault.
Given Australia's serious problem with sexual assault (compare their trends with ours), it's hard not to conclude that the Howard government is seeking political advantage by demonising the internet, when much more serious problems lie elsewhere.
-
That said, on principle I just can't stand being lectured to by that red-cheeked pompous smirker Lord Downer of Baghdad (the man who once saw fit to lecture Nelson Mandela on human rights issues and saw nary a glimpse of irony in his actions).
I confess, that's probably the basis of my response. Downer is a smug, unpleasant, political bully-boy.
There's no denying the cock-up element on this side of the Tasman, but, again, it was Downer who raised the stakes and made it known to journalists. Clark's bite-back is political, but I can understand why she wouldn't want to be patronised by Downer.
Last ←Newer Page 1 … 2098 2099 2100 2101 2102 … 2279 Older→ First