Posts by Craig Ranapia
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FFS, I have a certain degree of respect for Greg O'Connor but let's be perfectly clear about what the Police Association is - it's a trade union. O'Connor is a union boss/spokesman, and it's job to advocate for the interests of his members.
Nothing wrong with that, but all too often I wish he'd choose to do so without sounding like... well, an unmedicated blog comment.
Sorry to write Greg a reality check, but if he wants to get up in my grill and say I'm 'anti-cop' or 'pro-crim'... hold my gold, girlfriend, because this bitch slaps back. Here's a theory: Could it be possible that the NZPF enjoys extraordinary levels of public respect because it is open to criticism and scrutiny, not in spite of it?
And here's another radical notion: Respect is earned, not a matter of divine right. I don't like being subject to criticism - especially when I think it's ill-founded or malicious. But who does? Last time I looked, the Police are civil servants - and nobody who works for me is beyond criticism.
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You probably don't have the lowest either. And don't let me get on the subject of Mallard.
I won't Andrew, because then I'll start, and Russell is going to end up forcing me to drink one of those puke-flavoured alco-pop whatsits. :)
It also means the PN electorate might just be in play. It's very red, but Simon Power (whose home in Milson is now within the new electorate boundary IIRC) might have a chance against a new candidate.
That would be interesting, but I suspect two things: 1) If I was a campaign strategist, I don't know whether I'd want Simon too tied down in what would be a pretty tough race. AFAIK, the only way Rangitikei's coming back into play is if Power rapes a kitten on Shortland Street and/or Labour selects Jesus.
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So what, one of the guys asks, would you be doing today if you weren't here talking to us? Well," says the officer. "I do have two murders to investigate," and he turns and leaves the room.
I would say that's a fabulous punchline, but I'm still looking for the joke...
Broad has been very careful in public not to over-egg things; its the leaks to the media which are doing that.
Well, I never thought I'd write this I/S but I'm a little less inclined to be generous to Broad. Is it beyond his capabilities to put out a STFU memo, because I don't think I'm the only person who think the leaks - regardless of the source - could come back to bite the Police, and Broad in particular, in the arse. HARD. As the Prime Minister used to like to say, the best strategy is to under-promise and over-deliver.
If nothing else, I think Clark and Key have proved the value of saying 'no comment' and meaning it. Which is a nice segue to...
And I expect I'm not the only one wishing Ron Mark and Pita Sharples would both STFU and stop politicking until there are a few more facts to discuss.
Preaching to the choir, baby. The really depressing thing about their respective performances is that I know they're actually capable of better. The more paranoid elements of the loony left and the rabid right that have come out to play this week, not so much.
I probably don't have the highest opinion of Maharey among PA readers - but he's the first resignation announced recently I'd consider any kind of loss to Parliament.
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Screw the RWC, bugger The Booker here's something to have a patriotic geek-gasm over:
Karl Urban is strapping on a stethoscope to play Leonard "Bones" McCoy, the Starship's Enterprise's medical officer, in J.J. Abrams' "Star Trek" feature for Paramount.
[...]
Abrams has been furiously casting "Trek," with John Cho, Simon Pegg and Eric Bana joining the film last week.
Also on board are Zoe Saldana as the young Uhura, Anton Yelchin as the young Chekov and Zachary Quinto as the young Spock. Leonard Nimoy, who originated the role of Spock, also will be part of the film.
The movie is expected to shoot from November-March.
Plot details are begin kept under wraps, but it is understood that the movie chronicles the early days of the Enterprise crew.
The character of McCoy, originated by DeForest Kelley, didn't trust advanced technology and frequently sparred with Spock in debates of logic vs. emotion. Bones also was responsible for several of "Trek's" catchphases, including "He's dead, Jim" and "Dammit Jim, I'm a doctor, not a ...," ending in a profession in which he had no training.
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Police raid organic vegetable growers.
Damn right - those bloody things leave bruises when they're thrown at your head. (Sorry, chaps and chapesses - you've got to laugh occasionally, or you'd just cry all the bloody time. Been there, done that, it sucks.)
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LeGuin does do that sort of sci-fi thing heaps better.
Up to a point. Even the woman who wrote The Wizard of Earthsea, The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed has me head for the exit when she gets on her soapbox. It's what I call the Dickens Effect - yes, I agree being beastly is just... well, beastly. But could you show us by getting on with the fraking story, rather than grinding to a halt so you can tell us dim peasants what we're too thick to notice for ourselves?
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So ... can someone tell me why the Booker Prize is considered the pinnacle of world literary achievement, when it's only open to work in English and excludes three-quarters of the World's population (including American novelists)?
Astute and aggressive promotion, and the kind of civilized knife-fights the Brit-literarti do so well breaking out like clockwork. And with all due respect to the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction the Booker has a significantly lower crap count. (I admire Philip Roth, but you've got to wonder whether The Plot Against America - which is "moralising sci-fi" that would give Lessing and Atwood pause - mainly got the Pulitzer as a boo ya sucks to Dubya.)
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Stephen Judd:
I read it, thought it was rather interesting but rather disquieting but I'll have another look so my response is a little more specific. Sorry to digress, but I'm currently re-reading Neil Gaiman's __A Game of You__ - and was interested by criticism that it was also 'patronising' that a heterosexual man (which Gaiman is) was writing a story from the POV of female characters (including a lesbian couple); and that it was even homophobic that a transgendered character dies near the end. Not least because women and GLBT critics have been some of the staunchest defenders of the work. What should matter isn't that the creator fits into the 'correct' box of ethnicity, gender or sexuality; but that they bring to the table all the insight, empathy and pure skill they can.
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You didn't expect anything else, did you?
They gave a Booker to The Bone People.
Ouch. I'm going to steal that, and don't expect attribution or actual money. :) Still, you've got to love a country where when it comes to dealing with disappointment: Arty-Farties 1; Rugby-Heads nil.
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Oh, so that's my fault too, is it?
Straight White Man, everything is your fault. Now I have to go construct an elegantly paranoid three minute rave about how the Booker Prize judges are incompetent to judge graffiti on a toilet wall. A black day for New Zealand literature, I'm depressed and gutted wah wah...
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