Posts by Raymond A Francis
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Hard News: The War Stories, in reply to Islander,
I know that Islander, like you a fair number of local Maori are whanau (Tumaru and Te Maihroa clan) or have some sort of connection
The whiteness is based on the census figures
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Hard News: The War Stories, in reply to BenWilson,
Hard to believe but the local paper claims via a book written by a local boy that Waimate ex residents are more than 1% of the army
Not bad for a small town that is one of the whitest in the country (not that last fact is worth celebrating) but rather the hard time that we had in the 1980s -
Up Front: Gathered Together, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
I agree, how people organise their own lives is their business, has always been my position
If they want to get married, great, if not, so what
That same sex (and all the other varieties) now have the same legal rights is something for all of us to feel good about -
Good to see that the majority of parliamentarians can show some good sense once in a while despite some nasty opposition
On the other hand I wonder just how may same sex marriages there will be as apparently not may went into Civil Unions (anybody know the figures Google doesn’t seem to know)
Less and less heterosexuals have been availing themselves of their rights, so it will be interesting to see how the .07% (12000+ in the last counted census) same sex living together get hitched -
That is ,for someone from the left, a fair summing up of the Lady
Some people seem to have forgotten what a basket case the UK was then
I am sure it could have been do better but it had to be done -
The thing that surprises me about this whole subject is how quickly people seemed to have forgotten (had a brain fade?) the past Prime Minister behaviour when she was given a grilling
Remember "corn gate" or this when describing her interviewer
"a sanctimonious little creep" who forgot she would only answer written questions as anything else was an ambushOf course our PMs should be above this sort of behaviour but it is not something new or only from the right
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Hard News: Neither fish nor fowl,
I have no problem with that, it seems sensible but GHY if you clip me when I am walking across there
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Hard News: Violence in the streets,
Is there something in Christchurch that leads to this sort of stuff, certainly I always feel perfectly when visiting Dunedin, Chch not so much
Something to do with the distinct tribalism of Christchurch or just a bigger city thing?
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Up Front: Oh, Grow Up, in reply to Geoff Lealand,
Have to agree with that
One of the best times I have spent with my oldest son was as an Assistant Winemaker when he knew all and I knew nothing which allowed me to ask why -
Interesting and your last thought on "pit of filth" is a good start
One of the thing that I have noticed during my life (and I am not on the pension yet so I am not that old) is the rapid lengthening of childhood
When you had to wait till you were 21 to drink and vote you just couldn't wait to be an adult
Because most people left school at 15 into paid work they owned houses and were married by their mid 20s, meant they were adult
Now of course you are lucky to be working let alone taking on real debt at that age
It also seems that this slowing of becoming an adult is getting even longer as you can tell by the comments above,
Then there are children who don't or can't leave the nest which in Japan and Europe is seen as a real problemWhether this is good or bad I don't have a strong opinion and with the rising life span probably no big deal anyway, it is just interesting