Posts by Rex Widerstrom
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Russell, belated sympathies and best wishes for your recovery.
As you say, anyone who is struck by incredible pain in the early hours should be checked. I was, and I didn't - even when my waking in a sweat and yelling certain obscenities very loudly as the pain hit disturbed my neighbours enough for them to complain.
As a result I was struck again whilst in Sydney, friendless, partnerless and alone in an office full of people I barely knew. I staggered, doubled up, to the doctor's office on the same floor only to be told the doctorate was in psychology and directed to a GP clinic across the road.
Waiting for Sydney drivers to stop and allow me to cross reduced me almost to tears. The GP sent me to a scan place for an ultrasound which first confirmed the diagnosis and then (turned up a notch I guess) supposedly blasted them. Some drugs and I was back at the office the next day with nothing emerging from any orifice.
Yet it was the worst pain I've ever experienced by a factor of 10... and I've crawled out of several car wrecks, been beaten till my eyes swelled closed, and of course kicked in the nads on occasion.
So the after-effects of yours suggest a further factor of 10. There really ought to be some sort of bravery medal.
Childbirth, schmildbirth :-P
-
I once tried this (writing like Lhaws) many years ago when reviewing one of his soon-to-be-remaindered 'books' for NBR. By the end of it all I felt like my neurons were so scrambled I needed to be strapped into some Joe 90-type mind-altering device and spun round at the speed of light in order to regain the ability to order breakfast, let alone write coherently.
So I stand in awe of you, sir, hat off, bowing low.
Except for this bit...
It is not a real column by Michael Laws -- however closely it resembles his prose style
Prose style?!
-
Kyle Matthews:
They released a list of "one hundred things that you might not have known about the Bush administration".
That's just begging for satire. I'll start:
100: Likes dogs too. In fact, several have been delivered to Dick Cheney's office since he first found he needed a bypass. We're not sure why we've never seen any again, but we're sure he's just cuddling them. And hey, don't be implying anything... he's always eaten his meat raw and piddled on the President's leg.
99: Can finally reveal whole Cindy Sheehan thing was a gag. Income from fried chicken concession on road to 'Western White House' will fund Bush Presidential Library. First shipment of Archie and Jughead comics already ordered.
tag
-
TroyHoward suggests:
During the election all candidates have to be dropped down a stairwell to determine density.
I'm afraid it'd be almost impossible to allow for the differences in mass.
For instance those merely full of hot air would fall at a slower rate than those full of s**t. Then there's the remainder - those full of their own self-importance.
Since the outward appearance is the same regardless of the stuffing, the only way we could get accurate results was via autopsy.
*slaps forehead* Ahhhh now I see where you're going... I like it.
-
Is there actually an argument here for the Register of Pecuniary Interests ... having oversight completely independent of Parliament
Interestingly, Gilbert Myles and I spent a lot of time drafting a Bill which would have imposed all sorts of accountability measures on MPs, including an independent Commissioner for Parliamentary Standards based on the UK model.
Despite Winston's best efforts to ensure he didn't make it to Parliament in 1996 Gilbert did, and took the Bill to the NZF caucus (a caucus which included Winston, Peter Brown, Doug Woolerton and Ron Mark). While being unable to fault the Bill - and indeed praising it for its level of research and skill in drafting (Gilbert actually paid lawyers to do the drafting) the caucus adamantly refused to allow him to put the Bill in the ballot, from which it could have been drawn and become a Private Members Bill.
It seemed odd at the time, but I attributed it to the fact that the malign influence of Michael Laws was still heavily influencing things in the background.
Recent history suggests I was somewhat naive, and the malevolence was clearly endemic.
Meanwhile, the Party (and NZ) has lost a man of undoubted integrity, huge intellect and unrivalled potential. RIP Brian Donnelly, former MP, former Commissioner to the Cook Islands, mate, and truly great New Zealander.
-
Wow, till I read "Transmorgification" I didn't know who'd discovered the concept of Get Out The Vote (GOTV). Here was me thinking they'd been doing it in the US since the days of Huey Long.
Not since "The Demon Profession" have I read such an inspiring tale of one man's pivotal role in history, his unique insights, his incredible tactical prowess, his [enough, I'm going to be sick. Ed.]
-
There's one thing that I really don't understand in all this Palin business...
According to that Alaskan blog 'those who like her are generally appointees who are locally referred to as “Palin-bots”...'
Wait... you mean they missed the chance to coin Palin__drones__?!
-
Craig:
When it comes to the qualities you want from someone with their finger on the button, I don't think standing up at Saddleback and blustering about following Al Quaeda to "the gates of hell" screams sober and considered grown-up to me.
May I please note for the record that my original rhetorical question was whether America couldn't do better than both the alternatives now on offer.
Anyone who, when confronted with GW Bush, doesn't point and laugh (because booting him in the keyster would get you shot) and, what's more, hugs the guy has totally lost it.
Even if you secretly carry a picture of Dubya in your wallet basic political strategy suggests you don't grab-ass the most unpopular man in the country you hope might elect you.
It's just that, for all the "aww shucks, two cute little black kids in the White House" stage-managed "we love you daddy" satellite-linked hype, I don't see anywhere near enough substance.
If only Teddy Kennedy hadn't been a booze hound...
-
Craig Ranapia:
Rex: And once more, I'm going to ask exactly what you call 'necessary experience'. As I've said before, Lincoln's sole experience of federal government before becoming President was two remarkably undistinguished years in Congress. Dick Cheney, on the other hand, has served in every Republican administration for the last four decades - and spent a decade as a Congressman.
I think I'd choose judgement over experience in this match up, if you don't mind.
Sorry, been at a funeral all day (and a wake for much of this evening, so the following may not make much sense).
Yes, Lincoln rose well above his experience and Cheney... well I still think he's an evil bloodless automaton so human experience doesn't really apply :-)
But pointing to extremes at either end of the spectrum doesn't alter the fact that the <i>probability</i> of someone who's done not much at all in Congress for a short while is more likely to flounder when parachuted into Executive Office than someone who's more seasoned in a role more akin to President, such as, say, Governor of a large state.
Okay, now I just know you're gonna mention Dubya. But that comes under the Cheney exclusion - genetic throwbacks with vast war chests from daddy's friends can also be exceptions that prove the rule.
And finally, and utterly irrationally, after years and years and years of observing politicians running for everything from a US city school board to PM of NZ, I just don't get the feeling of gravitas from Obama that I'd like to get from a guy with his finger on the button.
Which doesn't, by a long shot, suggest he's the worst choice Americans could make. But to me, it just suggests that, somewhere, there must have been a better option.
-
McCain, whom I had some hope for based on campaign finance reform but for whom I have lost all respect since "the hug" (barf), the cosying up to the religious right and the drift from principle to populism.
Obama, America's answer to (pre-mid90s) Winston Peters - attractive, heavy on inspiring rhetoric, promising a 'change' which is carefully ill-defined to mean whatever the listener wants it to mean, attractive to people who want to see a minority leader, but lacking much in the way of substance and everything in terms of necessary experience.
And their VP nominees, for a description of which I can't better dc_red's, so I'll repeat it:
[Biden]... With his unnaturally carrot-toned tan, and radioactively glowing teeth, he looks like a cross between a sleazy used car salesman, and something out of Miami Vice.
And yet he's still less creepy than Romney.
300 million people to choose from and these are the people who rise to the pinnacle of US politics?
Any chance they can just draft Josiah Bartlet?