Muse: Merry Darth George Hathos Day!
26 Responses
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I dont believe a word of it Craig – but love Betjeman’s poem.
And for yourself – with thanks for all your posts – a joyous festive season and well-being for yourself and all whom you love throughout this coming year.(As for GG, the less said, the better.)
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Good call, Craig. We can do without the arse-clenching sanctimony a la St Garth and I take this opportunity to wish you and all the readers/posters here all the very best for the 'festive season'.
Make of it what you will, but allow it to make you (all) a better person.
Kia kaha & arohanui. -
Nice fisking, Craig. Darth George jumped the shark a while back, it's just that he's still in denial about it.
Anyhow, happy holidays Craig!
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Good stuff, Craig. Hope to see you at Jackie's picnic in January 2012.
If any of my students were to plaigarise like GG, they would get a big fail and placed on notice.
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Concur with sentiments above. Is it me, or does the reader say in the second-to-last line, "That God was made in Palestine", and not "man"? If so, very interesting revision...
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Craig - I understand you may have the hathos for Witi Ihimaera but why the gratuitous use of his name here?
It looks like your seared mind's eyeballs prevented you from reading Garth George's column in full. Attack his writing or his message by all means, but auto-plagiarism? Plagiarism?
Attribution you suggest is the key, yet he's explicit in stating the bulk of this column is repeated from a Herald editorial he wrote in 1992 - he's come out proudly as the writer of what was presumably an anonymous editorial.
Garth George as if an elderly once-author of pulp fiction sending Christmas presents to his grand-nephews and nieces from the boxes of remaindered books under his bed, with a card saying "Here's one I wrote when I was in my prime, an oldy but a goody. Enjoy!" - bathetic perhaps, but not auto-plagiarism. And if perchance you knew of an earlier source he plagiarised in 1992, then it was repeat plagiarism not auto-plagiarism, and I think you might have told us.
Bah humbug, I say.
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ChrisW, in reply to
Is it me, or does the reader say in the second-to-last line, "That God was made in Palestine", and not "man"?
It's not you - but perhaps the reader said Maid in Palestine, a subtle piece of revisionism, pushing the Marist line :-)
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Craig Ranapia, in reply to
Craig – I understand you may have the hathos for Witi Ihimaera but why the gratuitous use of his name here?
I don't think it's gratuitous at all. George and Ihimaera are both recidivist plagiarists who inexplicably (to me) still have jobs. If APN and the University of Auckland are OK with that, that's their call. (I'm in no position to speculate why Ihimaera's latest novel is published by Vintage rather than Penguin.) But I feel perfect fine about mocking them both in the same breath.
And, yeah, perhaps I've been slightly unfair to George. If you've been in the pundit game long enough, there's a range of subjects and holidays where you're really scratching for anything new to say. An up-front cut and paste from your clippings file is a damn sight less offensive than churnalising another anti-feminist, anti-gay, Green-bashing screed.
But I still say it's possible to be a cranky right-wing gasbag and still follow some basic ethical norms - like properly attributing your quotes and getting basic matters of fact right. Give me a call, New Zealand Herald - I'll do it for a modest fee.
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Oh, look, the Herald is giving us all a late but much-appreciated Christmas gift. He might not be going quietly, but FSM be praised, he's going.
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Sacha, in reply to
glad tidings
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Very good news but he will still be out there, inflaming prejudices in the provinces.
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Joe Wylie, in reply to
He might not be going quietly, but FSM be praised, he’s going.
He also appears to be going soft. Who'da thunk that "sound social science research" had any place in the Darthiverse? Must be what comes of having someone who could look and sound more like someone's idea of a NZer handing out gongs.
Perhaps the grannyman with the red-framed eyeglasses will start quoting scripture now, unless Granny H has decided that he's also dead wood.
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Sacha, in reply to
once can but hope they also put Holmes out of our misery
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I rather like the image of Darth "cringing" like a vampire before the cross at the sight of sloppily-dressed young journos.
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Sacha, in reply to
forelock tugging is a forgotten art
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"If we want a happier and less divided society, then an important step would be to reduce the income differences between rich and poor."
The money quote. Given his history, it appears that both sides now have a good and similar view of the problem.
Shall we attempt to "cure the problem" from the socialist view or the new right view?
Decisions decisions...
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Lucy Stewart, in reply to
Who’da thunk that “sound social science research” had any place in the Darthiverse?
I believe you misunderstand "sound" to mean "good, methodically done" rather than, as intended, "supporting things I already agree with".
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Joe Wylie, in reply to
Reckon you’re right. I’d assumed that Darth associated all forms of social engineering with the dead hand of the Clark/Cullen nanny state, now banished by the potently encouraging presence of John Key. A quick check reveals that it’s only the inept variety that attracts his beady-eyed ire.*
*That picture, FFS. Really, you could poke ’em both out with one finger.
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In other news, an arrest has finally been made in the Turangi child molestation case. Already, as Russell mentioned on RNZ earlier today, Louise Upston and Tau Henare have opened themselves up to contempt of court charges with their Tweets.
The wider issue I fear happening is if acts of moral indefensibility get responded to with equal and opposite moral indefensibility.
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Craig Ranapia, in reply to
Already, as Russell mentioned on RNZ earlier today, Louise Upston and Tau Henare have opened themselves up to contempt of court charges with their Tweets.
Um, yes... and I've been having a rather *cough* interesting exchange with Henare on Twitter. You'd think a list MP who dropped from 26 to 40 would be taking the hint and start working towards a less marginal position next time around.
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>Last Herald column of career
>Closes on the most vexing problem facing New Zealand
>Suddenly it’s unemployment and inequality, not immorality and abortion and the gays as it’s apparently been for the last fifteen yearsI expected a suitable capstone to a decade of trolling every reasonable person in New Zealand and I did not leave disappointed.
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Sacha, in reply to
Good to see you here again, sir. Quiet year?
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Russell Brown, in reply to
I expected a suitable capstone to a decade of trolling every reasonable person in New Zealand and I did not leave disappointed.
Actually, Darth was never a neoliberal and has at various times railed against inequality and deprivation. It's just a shame that most of the time he was blathering about homosexuals and stuff.
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Sam F, in reply to
Quiet year?
I wish. It's been extremely busy and haven't had much time to contribute although I never stopped lurking. Hopefully in the next year I'll have enough braintime spare to not only post more but actually put thought into what I write (rather than drive-by snarkings against easy targets like Garth).
Actually, Darth was never a neoliberal and has at various times railed against inequality and deprivation. It’s just a shame that most of the time he was blathering about homosexuals and stuff.
Precisely, which was what made his run in print so frustrating - occasional glimpses of what we actually needed to read more about.
I obviously jest in referring to it as an intentional troll, but oddly I'd almost rather believe it was that, rather than a seasoned journo managing to mostly waste a decade and a half of column space in a national paper for some mundane reason: maybe because moral panic was easier to write about to a weekly deadline, or because it drew more eyeballs and angry/supportive letters and emails.
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Craig Ranapia, in reply to
Actually, Darth was never a neoliberal and has at various times railed against inequality and deprivation. It’s just a shame that most of the time he was blathering about homosexuals and stuff.
Yeah, a little more Ted Olson and a lot less Michelle Bachmann would have been most welcome.
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