Posts by Craig Ranapia
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Hard News: Calling the race before it's over, in reply to DexterX,
A better view.
And an interesting one, but here's the thing. Sorry, Chris, but most voters don't know - and care even less -- about taking the internal temperature of any political party. And they don't have to; like it or not, parties don't get to determine the criteria they're judged on. It's not pretty, perhaps it's not fair, but there you go and here we are.
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Hard News: Calling the race before it's over, in reply to Russell Brown,
I agree. facing a vote sooner rather than later is one thing, but planning to “discipline” Cunliffe is unhelpful.
Then again, it’s not particularly helpful to be responding to your leader’s keynote conference speech (and a non-trivial policy announcement, incidentally) with “oh, the ideas were fine”. Gee, that wasn’t only half-arsed and half-hearted but too damn clever for his own good. I’m going to wear my flack jacket to bed for saying this, but it reminded me a lot of the good old days when Maurice Williamson could have been knifed on the conference floor and nobody would have seen nothing.
Clark did something like this with Cullen, and that ended up working well. It’s a sign of confident leadership.
Then again, whatever else you'd say against Cullen (and I've got a lot) I've never had anyone seriously suggest to me he is, or was, the kind of chap who got his political jollies playing Murder in the Dark.
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Hard News: The Big 2012 US Election PAS Thread, in reply to webweaver,
For example, he repeated that old Republican lie about how Obama never made a single vote as a a Senator because he was far too busy preparing to run for President. Completely untrue.
Now, you could fairly make the point that due to the nature of the primaries Obama did miss more votes in the 110th Congress that I'd like. 303 out of 657 recorded roll call votes. But you'd also have to note that was more than Clinton (303) and significantly less than McCain (420). Or would that take some work?
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Hard News: Party on, dudes, in reply to Tim Michie,
I don’t want to wring your neck Craig.
Give me time. :)
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Hard News: Party on, dudes, in reply to Jolisa,
and spending more time writing elsewhere
And that can't be looked past either. Without Public Address, I wouldn't have been asked to be the House Tory on Public Address Radio (joke!), which lead to this and this and, less directly, this. And while I really need to pull finger from arse and start turning drafts into posts, I'm incredibly proud to have been asked if a quote from my post-review of Elizabeth Smither's Commonplace Book can be used as a blurb on her next book of poems, due out from AUP next April.
It's kind of nice to know you're not talking to yourself. :)
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Emma bait. :) Patriotic store window, Taschen Books, Østergade 2A, Copenhagen. April 28, 2012
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Hard News: Party on, dudes, in reply to Bart Janssen,
PAS is the only forum where I feel like I need to think my opinion through before I post
But PAS is also a place where you are allowed to have your opinion changed and admit it. It’s OK to be wrong here. That really is an important thing.
Couldn't agree more - but there's something else about PAS that's also incredibly valuable. It's never wrong to remember that one size, one perspective, doesn't fit all. There are times I'd like to wring the neck of each and everyone of you (and I'm sure the feeling is entirely mutual), but if your ideas can't survive being tested, challenged and having the piss taken without mercy, what the hell use are they?
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Top to bottom:
1) Park bench, Hamilton Square, Birkenhead, Wirral. May 16 2012
2) & 3) Brick Lane, London, May 28 2012
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‘Tintin, Snowy & Captain Haddock in The Calculus Affair’, Rue de l’Étuve 33, Brussels, May 13 2012. (Part of the Brussels Comic Book Route)
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Hard News: Crossing the line into idle bigotry, in reply to Russell Brown,
It’s civics, bro.
It's also how a non-trivial number of religious folks (even Muslims, Angus) live in a non-theocratic civil society. Some of my co-religionists really need to get a grip on that then take a vow of silence -- but I guess that's one of the less desirable consequences of living in a society where even the village idiot gets to stand in the public square and shout at anyone who cares to listen.
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