Posts by Craig Ranapia
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Um... then again, if Michael Cullen is going to leading the 'charm offensive' I do hope he's going to try much harder to put the emphasis on the former. Taking my partisan hat off for a moment, I've said for a long time that he's a very smart man -- though I guess where you draw the line between 'sharp wit' and 'snide bitch' is a matter of preference, and your mileage may vary - but like many smart people, the condescension and intellectual arrogance has to be guarded against. The problem with true believers of all stripes is they can't win an argument they don't even think has to be made, let alone won.
Meanwhile, I think politicians and commentators of all stripes might care to meditate on this observation Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. made in a letter to Harold Laski:
His account of the Communists shows in the most extreme form what I came to loathe in the abolitionists--the conviction that anyone who did not agree with them was a knave or a fool. You see the same in some Catholics and some of the 'Drys' apropos of the 18th amendment. I detest a man who knows that he knows.
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Ben:
I don't really see how your argument extends out to this specific case - I don't think it's entirely facetious to point out that the American Constitution was designed to place checks and balances and diffuse power, while a Westminster-style legislature depends on 'precedent' (which was basically be ignored and abused at will) and the concentration of powers that are wide open to abuse by an unrestrained executive.
You also wrote, Secondly I can't think of a Westminster system that does fixed term Hum... for over a generation we were also the only Westminster-style legislature that didn't consider having a vagina an instant disqualification from voting. Didn't mean that womens' suffrage was a bad idea.
As I said, Ben, I'd like someone to seriously argue that there was some pending constitutional crisis that justified the snap elections of 2002 and 1984 -- as opposed to two troubled Governments hoping to catch the Opposition flat-footed. Clark got away with it; Muldoon famously did not.
Call me naive, but I think we need a slightly better justification to dissolve the Government than Muldoon's infamous "It doesn't give my opponents much time either."
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If the promoter as a part of that contract has stipulated that the ticket cannot be resold, then a scalper will surely be going to hell.
He/She does not have any moral right to make a profit by allowing a third party to access the event because the contract that he/she entered into with the promoter specifically says that the ticket buyer is not buying the right to do that.
Well, I certainly hope Campbell Smith has never, every purchased a second-hand book, CD or DVD.
The last time this came up, Alex, I pointed out that I brought two tickets to The History Boys at last year's Wellington International Arts Festival. When my partner and I were unable to attend, I sold them to a workmate for a modest (but hardly exorbitant) profit that was satisfactory to both parties. She and her husband had a fabulous time, I made a bit of cigarette money, nobody connected with the sold out season was deprived of a penny by my actions.
Even in the realms of hyperbole, I think there's much better reasons why I should be consigned to perdition eternal.
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Possibly part of the problem is the US's system of fixed elections, you know, elections are always in November, and are every 2 / 4 / 6 years.
Ben, to be honest that's the one feature of the US electoral system I really do like. Sorry, but I don't think anyone - least of all Helen Clark herself - would seriously argue that there was some looming constitutional crisis that demanded a snap election in 2002. One electoral reform I'm like to see is the election date fixed at the first Saturday in November every three years, unless the Government loses a confidence vote or is unable to secure supply. Full stop.
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It claims they believed there was fraud, but not enough to turn the result.
Hum... Having done a few E-Days as a scrutineer, and a few rounds of postal ballots in local body elections, I think you could fairly say there's potential for massive electoral fraud in our system. The difference is, I think, there's public confidence in the competence (and more importantly) the political independence and integirty of our electoral agencies.
I appreciate that it's a good thing that we make it easy for electors to register and cast votes. Doesn't mean I don't feel a spasm of anxiety when it's revealed someone got their dog on the roll, or when a whole ballot box goes missing.
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Perhaps that was simply a matter of prudence, given that the news was hearsay, but I'm not sure I'm any more comfortable with the a-word being whisked away than I am with it being sensationalised.
Fair enough, Russell, but I'm sure as hell not comfortable with the level of post-mortem parlour psychoanalysis going on at the moment, and I'm not sure I'd really like to see ill-informed and dubious claims of 'autism' (whatever that means once it's gone through the media grinder) thrown into the mix either.
And has anyone else noticed a frankly bizarre media/blog huff-and-puff about whether Asian films turn Asians into homicidal loons. I'm a huge fan of Asian genre films, but must admit that I didn't share Quentin Tarantino's
admiration for Park Chan-wook's Oldboy or the other two films in his 'vengeance trilogy' which have apparently found an audience on the festival circuit here. Tracing influences is one thing, but there's some very long and poor-reasoned bows being drawn by people who should know better.Until then, I look forward to the next college-educated white man who beats or murders his wife being described as a 'copycat' obviously acting out what he learned reading all that awful Shakespeare, Homer, and Dickens.
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Paul:
Point taken, but around April 25th my mind turns to the fact my father's 21st birthday was marked by the armed forced of the Third Reich trying to splatter his brain all over the sands of North Africa. (Around the same time, real Stalinists were racking up their own impressive death tolls.) I don't think functionally retarded commentators in blogs compare, or anyone needs to get down to their level to expose their wretched idiocy.
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Anyway, found this interview with Melanie Phillips from The Guardian last year. She seems so stressed-out and paranoid I sort of feel sorry for her.
Yes, I've only had the blog up for four days and am already considering 'resting' her off the blogroll - though given the bitch pack mentality of the British commentariat (both left and right) when someone goes off the reservation, it's a miracle there aren't more paranoid, stressed-out wrecks out there. And, I never thought I'd say this but it's a shame Boris Johnson left The Spectator to focus on the day job -- not exactly the best occupant of the editor's chair over ir's 179 year history, but Matthew d'Ancona doesn't really get the difference between editing a magazine and his previous gig as opinion editor on the Daily Torygraph.
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But it is quite fun to call the Righties "fascists" and sit back to watch the righteous indignation fly.
*sigh* Yeah, whatever gets you through the night and doesn't require AA batteries. Personally, I'd rather leave the casual use of that kind of language to people who have some first hand experience of the real deal. Otherwise, it's all too much like being trapped in an episode of The Young Ones.
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You can toss the re-militarization of Japan into that list of yours too....an issue causing a great deal unrest here in Asia, far more so than Sino military expenditure or loopy old Kim.
Hum... Well at least Japan has a constitution and a functional democracy (both imposed under an American-lead occupation, in one of those delightful yet uncomfortable ironies history will keep dumping in your lap), which makes me a damn sight more comfortable with what's going down in Tokyo than anything in Pyongyang or Beijing. Still, it's a safe assumption I'd take a slightly different position if New Zealand has ever been invaded by Jaoan.
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