Posts by Idiot Savant
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And "the John Key of old" (i.e. his first few months as Leader) didn't strike me as being the type to use those pointless perjoratives - he seemed a relatively pragmatic and realistic guy then (I heard at least 2 or 3 Havoc weekly interviews where I thought Key provided much more grounded and pragmatic answers in his than Clark did in hers).
There's an election coming up, and Key needs some squid-ink to mask the fact that his party has no policy. Bitch about "bureaucrats" and "high taxes" and "waste" and you don't have to talk about how you'd actually improve the health system, or whether you're going to follow through on climate change, or what you're going to do to relieve the appalling poverty among those excluded from the recovery.
And I think Che's point about contractors is well-made. You need that institutional knowledge, and you need it in-house. If you start getting rid of researchers and analysts, then the ministries can't credibly perform their core function of providing decent policy advice to the government - and they cost more money to do worse work.
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Andy Milne: there are things you can prepare for, and things you can't, but either way, bitching about it doesn't make a blind bit of difference, and is an entirely wasted effort.
To paraphrase The Wire,this is New Zealand; the gods will not save you.
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(Though I'd like to see this advisory issued: Do not go to a toga party commando style. Especially if your self-esteem is going to suffer when a wardrobe malfunction results in pointing and hysterical laughter.)
That, and it's anachronistic. The romans had invented underwear, you know (they'd even invented leather bikinis for women at the gym).
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What you mean the weather Gods of the Manawatu aren't appeased by drunken Massey students torches old couches and rioting in the streets?
I don't think they do that to change the weather; rather its some form of fertility ritual (Orientation is the new Bacchanalia!)
And we haven't had a decent student riot in years :(
Shit, I'm beginning to sound like I belong here. Right, I'm off to Wellington for the weekend, to eat real food, visit real bookshops, and soak up the atmosphere of a civilised town...
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"So, yes, I think a bit of B&W about the weather isn't totally out of order from people whose livelihoods are intimately connected with it."
Maybe they could sacrifice a goat too while they're at it?
Weather happens, and it's no good bitching and whining about it. And if they prepared properly for the inevitable bad weather (definition may vary depending on specific industry), maybe they wouldn't need to bitch and whine so much?
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Why cant we have a proper discussion on the big issues facing New Zealand? Why?
Because that would require a media who could devote the required amounts of time and intellectual effort to learn about those issues. And that just doesn't make sense for media owners - they'd rather have higher profits than good journalism.
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I dunno, Craig. Leaving the morality of prostitution to one side, isn't it relevant and interesting that a senior officer of a company in serious, serious trouble was spending up large on *cough* entertainment on a regular basis?
No, it's neither relevant or interesting. People are entitled to a private life, particularly around their sex lives. Being a company manager, or a politician, or for that matter a journalist does not remove that right. Unless he's stealing from the company to do it, it's no business but his own.
Failign to respect these boundaries would make life pretty unbearable. As I'm sure the Hera;d journalist would complain if it was her private affairs splashed all over the newspaper.
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Oh, yes, Fran was in particularly fine cock-sucking form today. Not.
I was thinking of John Armstrong. Fran O'Sullivan was in sports-commentator mode.
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Hell, today we have Herald columnists using their columns to advise John Key how to lie to the public.
What happened to the media and journalists holding power to account?
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Kyle:
Clearly this proves that not only can statistics say anything, they can also say nothing at all.
Precisely.