Posts by giovanni tiso
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Hard News: Behaving badly at the bottom…, in reply to Graeme Edgeler,
I don't have the facts on hand to responsibly assert that all of the suppression has been at defence request
Isn't that exactly what you asserted about fifteen centimetres above? (Although yes, that does change the complexion of things)
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When did that transpire?
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Hard News: Behaving badly at the bottom…, in reply to Matthew Poole,
the implication that a judge will come to a conclusion that is supported only by a vast conspiracy of the upper echelons of the establishment is going too far
I swear New Zealanders are fucking adorable. How do you get off living in a country where such presumptions aren't the norm, backed up by reams upon reams of historical precedent?
I'd observe that suppressing the case for why the defendants are not getting a jury trial is troubling, and that putting pressure on one judge ought to be easier than on twelve citizens - but maybe you're right and it's just not how it works.
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Hard News: Holiday Open Thread 1: Beach…, in reply to Russell Brown,
OT, but almost the only thing I can recall from the "Italian Unification" unit of UE History is that Garibaldi was a ginge.
The fierce one was the missus though, and she wasn't red - at least not hairwise.
Is anyone else watching the cricket? Bloody depressing.
If we make Pakistan bat again - which is touch and go, admittedly - at least we'll be better than the Aussies.
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Hard News: Holiday Open Thread 1: Beach…, in reply to Jackie Clark,
They don't call redheads fiery for nothing.
Actually, they do.
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I'm shocked by the disbelief expressed in official reactions in the States. Surely this was the very definition of the phrase "only a matter of time". Which doesn't make it any less horrifying, but.
Oh and on the subject of Palin's gunsights, look at the lovely campaign event Giffords' opponent organised in June of last year.
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Hard News: A few (more) words on The Hobbit, in reply to Steve Parks,
To be clear, that comment about visible Maori culture was from Wellington’s new mayor Celia Wade-Brown, in response to the Lonely Planet judgment, not a comment from Lonely Planet itself
Thank you, that's a relief... I think.
It just worries me that so frequently media refer to our place as Middle Earth...as though an older cultural landscape has utterly evaporated
The Onion's atlas captured this quite well in its making the New Zealand entry all about its being a film location. This included the following caption:
The beautiful landscape of New Zealand, digitally enhanced by the removal of the aboriginal Maori.
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Hard News: A few (more) words on The Hobbit, in reply to Russell Brown,
And it bugs me that he continually implies that Hobbit-style tax breaks come straight off the country’s bottom line. As I understand it, they’re narrowly revenue-positive – ie, compared to the film not being made here – and that doesn’t account for taxes on the personal income and spending of New Zealanders employed, or spin-off benefits in terms of creative infrastructure and tourism.
What about the spin-off negatives? Like fostering the perception that our employment protections laws are for sale, and that we can be held to ransom on little more than a pretence? What about the long-term sustainability of branding the country as a Middle Earth knock-off, a derivative, tacky remake of old England? Quite beside how dispiriting it all is, for a country that no longer than fifteen years ago boasted a tourism interested in Maori and Pakeha culture, it could have fiscal consequences as well when the narrative becomes exposed for the fraud that it is, as it most likely will.
(The Lonely Planet's baffling inclusion of Wellington in the top three amongst worldwide urban destinations for this year included praise of the city's "visible Maori culture". I wonder what the international visitor will make of that once they actually get here. But hey, they might still get treated to a Wellywood sign so that's okay.)
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Hard News: Holiday Open Thread 1: Beach…, in reply to Jacqui Dunn,
I love audio books. I especially love classics in the public domain read by amateur volunteers - the good people at LibriVox, for instance. And the Internet is a trove of podcasts of all kinds - there really is no excuse for listening to Matinee Idle if it's not to your taste.
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I ask becaue for a while there seemed to be a connection between my logging in (albeit simply by returning via a link as you say) and the alert system 'waking up'. But I was never too systematic in my observations I admit.