Posts by Gareth Ward
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
I understand your feeling of distaste. But I honestly don't think it's a (thought)crime to observe the passing parade and wonder whether this particular empress might not be wearing clothes, and may also have neglected to dress her children, who should thus be removed from the float forthwith for their own sake.
No, its not. But it IS a particularly personal subject (I apologise for the use of "smear" before, it detracted from argument) that should not be tossed around as lightly and without basis as Kos did it.
Take an interest - fine. Investigate it - sure. But do it carefully, sensitively and with recognition that the nature and impact of the suggestion is such that you should be pretty solid on the facts before just throwing them up on the interweb.I stress that my criticism is largely levelled at Kos et al who didn't take that approach at all. If Russell, Jolita etc feel that they did and considered the facts were warranted enough to post discussion on then fair enough.
-
What an intriguing billboard - to have a significant impact on migration flows, the yet-to-be-unveiled tax changes will have to be very very big tings indeed...
Perhaps the next one will be:
"We'll change solo-mother beneficiary work rules
Enjoy lower petrol prices" -
Answer: It's a mystery!
So why splash it as appalling innuendo over the web? When it's SUCH a personal smear that extends beyond the candidate to her teenage daughter and handicapped son, you should be treading a hell of a lot more carefully.
Distasteful sums it up. -
pledged to replace it with a serious campaign finance law.
Out of genuine interest Craig - can you point me towards anything on this? Policy would be grand but even just something about the key points he thinks need addressing?
Because I'd like to see that happen myself.
-
The comment seemed rather... unnecessary... to me as well, but was it as stridently anti-female as has been so aggressively argued here?
One hopes she doesn't go like Jenny Shipley, spreading her legs for anyone who could promise another month, another week, another day in power.
While it is unnecessarily sexualised, it doesn't seem to be that different to "Jim Bolger, getting it out for anyone..." beyond the "physics" of sex from each gender.
I don't look to condone unthinking sexual discrimination and certainly recognise it occurs regularly, but this felt more like unthinking sexualisation, rather than discriminatory?
The concepts around power would have been the same regardless of sex - is it not just unfortunate coincidence that the author was 1) discussing the willful abbrogation of power and decency for politics, 2) chose to use crude sexual metaphors to do it and 3) the topic at hand happened to involve a female PM yet he gender was not relevant.If the issue was that the sexual metaphor wouldn't have been used at all if the PM being referenced was male, then I think that's a fair cop.
Note: this whole thing is probably that damnable Devils Advocate in me combining with an entirely unresearched interest in the concepts of male/female power positioning in language. I fear the 1st XV may be about to school me here... I would say "be gentle" but that's probably a little too loaded a comment!! =)
-
Wow, did they REALLY hit the "her handicapped child isn't really hers" story that quickly?
Ick. -
Alaska House Speaker John Harris (R): “She’s old enough. She’s a U.S. citizen.”
Ha, glowing.
-
dc - she reportedly only got a passport last year. You fill in the foreign policy questions that raises!
-
And she was the best they could do?
Given the lack of a meeting, perhaps she was a spreadsheet pick?
=IF(Conservative - Weighting 0.5; Woman - Weighting 0.3; "New, fresh" - Weighting 0.1; Gun-toting photo-ops aplenty - Weighting 0.1) THEN DISREGARD (Corruption; Policy-platform-of-little-appeal-to-women; Passport)That's flippant though - I imagine she's a fairly impressive performer and I actually feel partly sorry for her having been thrust into this.
-
"What the hell is an Aluminium Falcon?!"
Excellent video Craig, ha.