Posts by simon g
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I suppose it was inevitable that people would start finding links between road user charges and the anti-smacking law ...
Great (and genuine) Press Releases of our time, no. 253:
Protest action by truckies has gained the support of the Sensible Sentencing Trust who says if effective crime policies were put in place the savings could be spent on road maintenance instead of increasing road user charges to truckies.
Coming soon: Support the Truckies and save the kakapo! My night of top gear top speed passion with a Truckie, by Angel Barbie! Bishop asks: what would a Truckie do?
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I'll see your Convoy, and raise you "Not the Nine O'Clock News": today's earworm.
I like trucking, I like trucking,
I like trucking and I like to truck.
I like trucking, I like trucking,
If you don't like trucking, tough luck. -
More sub-standard-editing:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4605094a10.html
Expert says: Migration will be an election issue.
Headline says: Migration will increase.
Two different things.
See also Herald, TVNZ, also failing basic reading comprehension test.
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As an antidote to all this depressing how-low-can-we-go dirty dancing that dominates politics today, let's console ourselves with the thought that time really does heal - or at least provide perspective. I invite you to go back in time (not on the net, alas, you'll have to rely on memory or paper), and to imagine, circa 1996, the then opposition finance spokesman taking a break from the election mudfight to laud the then Prime Minister in glowing terms:
Jim, we are very lucky to have someone with your skills and your dedication to New Zealand on board with us.
Thus spake Michael Cullen, launching KiwiRail today.
See you all in 2020, for the inauguration of President Clark ("a towering figure on the world stage" - Prime Minister David Farrar).
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Insider
Mike Williams owns his crap (and there's been too much of it). He is a party official, name and face open to the public. Hence the interview on Agenda, for example. No comparison with Crosby whose role isn't even being acknowledged by National at all.
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VirtualMark
If Labour, or any other party, employed people as nasty as Crosby/Textor, that would be a disgrace too. Either you don't know the depths to which they have sunk, or you do know and and just don't care, in which case you are presumably unconcerned to see their tactics as part of our political discourse.
If other parties have employed such people, tell us about it. Otherwise withdraw your smear, not least against Hager, whose reported facts you have not challenged (but feel free to do so).
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Today's values test: which deserves more attention, from voters and media alike?
- the decision by the party leader to employ Crosby and Textor
- the decision by some party official to use a stock family photo in a pamphlet
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This story says that the wife was prevented from using dedicated disabled parking by a young policeman who threatened to arrest her if she didn't piss off. Gawd.
As the two versions of the story can't even agree on the woman's name, I think I might suspend judgement on what the policeman may or may not have actually said.
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Yes, Hadyn, in football it is now standard practice to kick the ball out of play when an opponent is injured. After the injury has been dealt with, the team taking the throw-in will return the ball to the team who kicked it out.
This is not dissimilar to the Oval run-out: player injured, game stops. Effectively, dead ball. In football there have been a few isolated cases of players ignoring the convention and continuing, even scoring, while an opponent is injured. The laws do not prevent this, but the "spirit of the game" (yes, in football!) means that it very rarely happens, and if it does, the "guilty" player takes his place in the hall of shame.
BTW (and anecdotal evidence only), it often seems that this code of honour applies in the top professional games more than in the park kickabouts. Are cameras more influential than salaries?
(oh, and it goes without saying that there are plenty of things in football that are anything but honourable - it's just that this isn't one of them)
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One warm fuzzy for your Friday: I can't recall a sport controversy where there was a lower correlation between nationality/allegiance and opinion. In rugby it's usually close to 100%. But on this one there is a widespread view in England that Collingwood was wrong, and quite a few (though fewer?) Kiwis who don't think our lot would have done anything different. Craig McMillan, as feisty as anybody when he played, was commentating on BBC radio when it happened, and said that he couldn't think of any current international captain who would have recalled Elliot.
Footnote: when there's A Big Talking Point, everything else gets forgotten. Like Elliot running out his partner Styris and starting a mini-collapse from a winning position. He was lucky he stayed out there and became the victim, or we'd all be blaming him for yet another implosion in sight of victory.