Posts by Craig Ranapia

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  • Hard News: Unhappy Birthday,

    Yes, 2 labels is twice as good!

    Heh... fair ping, Ben. But sometimes you've just got to swallow hard and accept there are some folks in the world you can never, ever satisfy no matter what you do. Personally, I get rather more anxious when the usual suspects at Kiwiblog agree with me -- but I'm just perverse that way.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Hard News: Unhappy Birthday,

    Heh, I get it too. It's always annoying to have the entire contents of your mind given a simple label.

    Meh... the loathing and contempt of the loathsome and contemptible. Not seeing the negatives here.

    Heh, I get it too. It's always annoying to have the entire contents of your mind given a simple label.

    To defend I/S, I don't disagree with you on the substantive point but I tend to give even the best bloggers a subject or person they're allowed to get irrationally cranky about. But just one. :)

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Hard News: A business most feral,

    I think whenever you elect boards of this sort, some are going to fuck up.

    Kyle:

    Entirely fair comment: Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing was ever made, and all that. But what I find enormously frustrating about this whole exercise is that there are people whose lives and well-being quite literally depend on major contracts being awarded on the basis of merit not patronage. Cunliffe can feel as vindicated as he likes (and with some cause), but you can forgive me for reserving my plaudits until someone comes up with a reasonable solution for why places like Hawkes Bay, Wanganui and Capital & Coast are such screaming cot cases. I'm not asking for perfection, just mere competence.

    That is going to require real leadership -- and considerable political courage -- that I would cheer from the rafters wherever it's to be found.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Hard News: Unhappy Birthday,

    Staying with the US, two key Clinton advisors convened a conference call over the weekend to warn reporters that the Obama camp had decided to go "consistently negative".

    Um... OK, first you'd think a campaign that constantly complains Obama gets a soft ride from cock-struck media would congratulate the Chicago Tribune for committing investigative journalism over a span of more than a year. And this was the paper that broke the Rezko story, so no fair-minded person could come from the other direction and say this was some kind of Republican attack machine hit job.

    Just can't win, can you?

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Hard News: A business most feral,

    Why not? I don't get it. Could you be more specific please, Craig?

    I just thought it was a rather peculiar sneer, considering that Public Address readers sure seem to be a pack of shameless elitists who aren't averse to setting the world to rights over a faine whine or six. Not that there's anything wrong with that, as Jerry Seinfeld used to say.

    Oh, fuck off (wow, abuse it's so easy). Socialist oppression, Evelyn Waugh. You should really go for a walk and meet the citizens of New Zealand one day.

    Evelyn Waugh was an enormously funny man, and never more so that when he was camping it up as a bilious reactionary. If you're so concerned about "the citizens of New Zealand" try not being so fucking patronising to those whose voting habits don't meet your approval.

    Here's my class divisions for the human race: Bores, Wankers and Good Folks. You're about as boring - and as big a wanker -- as the usual suspects over at Kiwiblog who froth about Labour voters being a pack of lesbians, school teachers, union hacks and morons who want to keep their welfare payments flowing.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Hard News: A business most feral,

    But gee didn’t Don look good. Why are we still dealing with an Act party? Do the people of Epsom still feel victimized so much they need their own party? Has the price of pool cleaning gone up recently? Maybe we should have a telethon for them?

    Oh, piss off. At least Evelyn Waugh was amusing when he vented his disgust at the idea of vulgar and stupid people electing their governments:

    If I voted for the Conservative Party and they were elected, I should feel that I was morally inculpated in their follies; if they failed, I should have made submission to socialist oppression by admitting the validity of popular election. I do not aspire to advise my sovereign in her choice of servants.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Hard News: A business most feral,

    Oh how the chattering snobs of Havelock North will be busy dissecting the fall-out over their "wain" tonight.

    *cough* Might not be the best place to hoist that particular chip onto one's shoulder. :)

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Hard News: A business most feral,

    Before Cunliffe was Minister of Health, you mean?

    No, I mean while he was part of a government that was supposed to be making sure that this kind of bullshit wasn't going to happen any more. That was trumpeting elected DHBs as some rebirth of community involvement, transparency and all that other good stuff.

    I'm just going to let my jaw sit on the floor for a while, because this story in like leaving fish outside on a hot day -- the stench is getting worse. And I'll be the first to applaud Cunliffe if he's the first health minister I can remember who'd actually step up and say leadership has to come from the top; and ask some politically inconvenient question about whether the DHB model actually works.

    We shall see.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Hard News: Leaving the bunker,

    I doubt that Key would be prepared to risk a 1951 with the PSA.

    Not much of a risk, one would think Deep Red.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Hard News: A business most feral,

    This very clearly was not a good board. Tom S's comments upthread about the local media's performance seem quite relevant.

    Russell: Who would would you actually rate among local media as covering DHB's well - if at all. Not many, if any (your cheque is in the mail, Mr Scribe) as far as I'm concerned. If it bleeds it leads, other wise sod off seems to be the standard m.o.

    It looks like no one comes out completely clean, except perhaps for Cunliffe.

    And just wait a mo', Russell. Before we get together and give Cunliffe a hand job, perhaps there's one or two questions to be asked about how the hell things got this bad in the first place. But, hell, everyone's got something to cover their arses with. I'll just add Hawkes Bay to my list of places not to get sick enough to require hospital care in.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

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