Island Life: What it don't get, I can't use.
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- Tupolev TU-22M "Backfire" bomber, modified for personal transport with additional fuel tanks replacing the bomb load
- An island. Niue, perhaps.
- A pony.
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Out of leftfield: this might just be me. But how did we end up with a Foreign Minister who attempts to negotiate with a Fijian government created by a military coup, and then calls for the summary deportation of people sheltering Indian overstayers in the same week?
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Comparing like with like.
The two privious Jewish PMs of NZ were the forever forgotten Francis Bell (Mum was Jewish but converted to Christianity)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Bell_%28New_Zealand_Prime_Minister%29And the brilliant Sir Julius Vogel, responsible for opening the immigration doors to my Mums family (from Poland and Blumsky as well who I didn't know has Jewish roots) and Great Works including funding the Railways.
Julius Vogel was NZ PM & Sci Fi author who predicted 2000 a NZ dominated by women in positions of power.
"The awards are named for Sir Julius Vogel, a prominent New Zealand journalist and politician, who became Prime Minister of New Zealand in the 1870s. He also, in 1889, wrote what is widely (though possibly erroneously) regarded as New Zealand's first science fiction novel, Anno Domini 2000 - A Woman's Destiny. The book pictured a New Zealand in the year 2000 where most positions of authority were held by women - at the time of writing, a radical proposition. In 2000, New Zealand's Head of State, Governor General, Prime Minister, Chief Justice and Attorney General were all women, as was the CEO of one of the country's largest companies, Telecom."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Julius_Vogel_Award -
According to Brian Easton, Muldoon was the lowest ranked member of Holyoake's cabinet in the late 60s.
From Wikipedia:
When Lake died in 1967, Muldoon seemed the natural (and only obvious) choice to replace him; at 45, he became the youngest Minister of Finance since the 1890s. However, because Holyoake saw Muldoon as too arrogant and ambitious for his own good, he ranked him only eighth in Cabinet.
He was still quite influential though. That whole decimal currency thing and all that.
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'It's laughter and it's loving I disdain', huh? Nice sentiment for the Families Commission guy...
reminds me of that meme where you put your digital music player of choice on shuffle and count how many songs until you get to one that would see you out of the running for PM.
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Congratulations, Andrew. It's Dunne.
Well that's f*cked Simon & Garfunkel for the rest of us then.
Are you sure it wasn't "I am a Crock"?
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reminds me of that meme where you put your digital music player of choice on shuffle and count how many songs until you get to one that would see you out of the running for PM.
Excellent! I tried it just now.
Song one: 'Girls, Girls, Girls' by Jay-Z.
And I'm OUT. :)
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Song one: 'Girls, Girls, Girls' by Jay-Z.
And I'm OUT. :)
20 very dull* songs in and I finally get 'Opiate' by Tool, which should do it
*I figured Mos Def and Le Tigre were borderline
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Song one: 'Girls, Girls, Girls' by Jay-Z.
And I'm OUT. :)
I figured starting with 'Young Folks' meant that I'm down with the kids like Nandor, 'The Good, The Bad ad The Queen' meant I'm down with the monarchy, and 'No Quarter' means I'm anti-immigrants and that works for Winnie. But I think 'Shitlist' is probably taking things too far. I mean, I'm not running for president.
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reminds me of that meme where you put your digital music player of choice on shuffle and count how many songs until you get to one that would see you out of the running for PM.
Eight songs in - Cock in My Pocket by The Stooges. Another victory for eMusic.
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yeh think you could be on to something David with the PM as accessory thing.
Where did I here the rumour Key came home with a whack of cash for the Nats, had a dinner with Shipley when it was in fashion, the quid pro quo was getting into the House of Lords (strike that) parliament?
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Key was back on mainstream message, and chose "Anchor Me", hoping the kids' parents were reading (whatever happened to Coldplay?).
Polling shows that while mainstream New Zealanders enjoy the musical Cold Players pop group, being seen to support musicians of a local nature may prove to be a more robust stance to take in a chronlogically forward direction.
Our Sound-Alike-Tron 2000 device has detected that the Mutton Bird musical group's song "Anchor Me" shares 78.3% of the same attributes that audiences favour in the Cold Players "Clock" song. Therefore, it is our recommendation that Mr Key's favourite song is now "Anchor Me" by the Mutton Bird.
A compact disc of this song will be provided to Mr Key. It is recommend that he listen to it at least once.
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in a chronologically forward direction
Try "going forward" next time - all of the necessary pomposity and meaninglessness in three less words...
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Try "going forward" next time - all of the necessary pomposity and meaninglessness in three less words...
Your recommendation has been taken onboard and will be considered at our next monthly lexicon review.
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Thank you. It's always good to touch base and work proactively to streamline processes.
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But how did we end up with a Foreign Minister who attempts to negotiate with a Fijian government created by a military coup, and then calls for the summary deportation of people sheltering Indian overstayers in the same week?
We were amused enough by Peters to let him hang around for twenty-odd years, that's how. (That said, I am continually surprised by his general lack of gaffes while representing this country overseas.)
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I admit to having some reservations about a former currency trader running the country. In fact any former investment banker. But what makes a good former career for a PM?
Well, I know Darren Hughes and he's a perfectly nice chap -- and certainly not on the list of MPs I consider a total waste of oxygen -- but I don't want a Prime Minister whose resume outside politics is... one sheet of blank A4. As far as I can tell (and am open to correction if I'm wrong) he graduated from Victoria, became Judy Keel's electorate agent. And that's his life before he became and MP. I don't even think that's particularly sinister, just a wee bit sad. Just as I cringed a little when Bill English cheerfully told an interviewer (and never did it again) that he'd wanted to be Prime Minister since he was eight.
And as for that Tearaway thing, am I the only person who thinks both Key and Clark were engaging in a Olympic-level bullshitting? They've got personae they want to project, and I just don't read things like that looking for any genuine insight. My first '180 Seconds' piece for PA Radio was mockery of Key and Clark's answer when local movie site Flicks.co.nz asked "Notable NZers" to name their favourite and most hated movies. Terrifying banal -- I just wanted to tie them down and make them watch a Russ Meyer boob-a-palooza, then post footage on You Tube.
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Key and Clark's answer when local movie site Flicks.co.nz asked "Notable NZers" to name their favourite and most hated movies.
I know I'm late to this, but ... **Johnny English**???
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I know I'm late to this, but ... Johnny English???
That's when I knew that he was, irrevocably, a lame, tasteless, idiotic cipher. Forever and ever, amen.
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I know I'm late to this, but ... Johnny English???
Oh I know... but didn't you love Clark's choice as well. The Motorcycle Diaries is right-on (and nicely fit in with Che chic) but not actually, you know... radical like something by Mike Leigh (before he got all cheery), Ken Loach or even John Sayles. Exquisitely burnished banality.
And I've been reading a biography of Ian Fleming and the sales of his Bond books weren't that flash in the US, until President Kennedy named From Russia With Love as one of his ten favourite books in an interview in 1861. I can't imagine Helen or John admitting to quite so lowbrow literary tastes. :)
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1861? :)
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Agreed on both Key and Clark with regards to the films, but
I can't imagine Helen or John admitting to quite so lowbrow literary tastes. :)
Actually, a man who publicly picked Johnny English as his favourite film - not just a film he saw recently and which was good for a laugh but, you know, supposedly an actual enduring favourite - might surprise with his honesty.
Here's a possible Friday afternoon bit of fun: you are a media manager for Key (or Helen Clark). They've been asked to pick their favourite book, but they're too busy in Parliament and delegate the job to you. Yikes! What would you pick to convey the right image of your boss? Something local, not too edgy, not too niche? What would it be?
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Here's a possible Friday afternoon bit of fun: you are a media manager for Key (or Helen Clark). They've been asked to pick their favourite book, but they're too busy in Parliament and delegate the job to you. Yikes! What would you pick to convey the right image of your boss? Something local, not too edgy, not too niche? What would it be?
For John Key, Keri Hulme's famous book, "The Bonus People"
(Apologies, Keri)
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And as for that Tearaway thing, am I the only person who thinks both Key and Clark were engaging in a Olympic-level bullshitting?
Q: What is your favourite song right now?
Clark: The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves in Nabucco by Verdi.Will that swing a few marginal seats? Hardly. The PM is genuinely interested in this stuff (hence the Arts & Culture portfolio), just as she is genuinely uninterested in rugby, but has to turn up (I still blame her for Cardiff).
John Key is not interested in movies, music, literature. He used to just say so, when he was an unpackaged newbie, which didn't make me vote for him but that didn't matter: that's who he is, with other interests and strengths. Now the minders have got to him, and he feels he has to fake an intererest in everything.
When Shania Twain was doing her high country photo op with Clark, the press naturally asked Clark if she liked Twain's music and she just laughed and said she was more into Mozart. Key would have been primed by Robyn's Tron and would try and list the songs, probably mangling them in the process.
Moral: better a Philistine than a phoney.
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I too have been pondering why Key wants to be PM. I don't buy the "I'm ambitious for NZ" line, especially given there appears to be nothing specific he is (prepared to openly state) ambitious for NZ to do/achieve/be, or at least nothing that actually means anything real.
On the private jet thing, I thought this was actually quite a savvy answer from Key, sort of a man-in-the-street answer. Saying you'd give it all to charity is the kind of worthy response that people expect from Clark, and although it may be sincere it probably doesn't appeal to those who aren't already supporters. Whereas Key's response would make a lot of people who are heading in National's direction think "now there's an honest bugger, not like a politician at all (a la Don Brash) and actually I'd get a private jet too if I won a billion."
Does rather beg the question though - with all his dosh why doesn't Key already have a private jet? Lack of ambition?
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