Posts by Bart Janssen
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Up Front: The Missing Stair and the…, in reply to Heather Gaye,
+1
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Up Front: The Missing Stair and the…, in reply to TracyMac,
I get angrier with the “doing it for effect” kind quicker.
This kind of thing pisses me off. I always have the suspicion that they really do hold those views but frame it as a "joke" if they get challenged. They get the pleasure of stating their repugnant views but can't be admonished because they use the humour defense.
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I don’t think I was ever a missing stair as such but I have certainly been that person you didn’t want in a social group. Because I’d learnt from my family that no statment should ever be allowed to be stand without argument – even if that meant I had to argue a point of view with which I totally disagreed. It made me very unpleasant to be around. I figured it out after the first two flats.
We have slightly broken stairs though in our family group. It can make for very awkward silences after a particularly bad utterance. I used to let them go unchallenged, but now I just call them on bollocks. They know I won’t accept such statements when we socialise. It also helps that the family is now much more diverse.
But they aren’t completely broken and over the years I’ve seen quite dramatic changes. Hence I don’t think they really qualify anymore.
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third-wave sex-pos feministy sexy blogs
I didn't even finish the first sentance before my head started to hurt!
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Hard News: Fluency, ease of manner - and…, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
politicians disregarding advice they find politically inconvenient, but they can do it without being utter cocks
Sadly they don't seem to even worry about that nowadays. If they can avoid looking bad in the last six months before the election they feel thay can do whatever they like for the rest of the term. And yes I mean both National and Labour.
I personally have a lot more respect for people who are willing to say "I don't know, let me ask and expert and get back to you" than someone who exudes confidence while spouting nonsense.
I must be old wanting a genuine statesperson, someone who actually tries to do good, I can't say I'm confident anyone in Parliament today fits that bill.
And yes the Law commission has impressed me too.
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Hard News: Fluency, ease of manner - and…, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
What bemuses me about this is that Key could irrefutably say that Governments receive reams (or would that be Terrabytes?) of advice and opinions every day of the week.
I guess for me this is the bit that defines if someone is a good or bad manager. I don't expect managers to know everything themselves and the same is true of politicians. But good managers will seek advice and heed it. Bad managers make a decision then "consult" until they hear the opinion that supports their decision.
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Hard News: Fluency, ease of manner - and…, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
why only the other day he completely restructured the Ammonium based industries in the US* with a detailed Executive Order.
Wasn't that to stop them blowing themselves up with shody workplace safety?
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Hard News: Fluency, ease of manner - and…, in reply to Bill Patterson,
when Key says the experts “aren’t really experts” he’s dismissing people who are highly respected and spend their entire lives in law and technology.
And this makes me so angry. How does the NZHerald call Key the winner when he comes out and calls these people liars. Surely it is the job of the print media, who have the time to look at the text, to identify outright bollocks by Key.
Seriously these people are genuinely talented in their fields, as talented as Richie McCaw is in his field. They have trained for decades, their expertise has been tested time and again by their colleagues, they really are experts. And our PM gets away with dismissing them?????
Makes about as much sense as me dismissing McCaw because he plays in red!
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But the problem is, this is NOT a high school debate.
It is NOT some game where it doesn't matter if you "win" a debate by successfully defending an amoral position.
Sure all the media types are going "wow wasn't Key amazing", all the politicos are saying how could National lose with this man leading.
But that totally misses the point that John Key was defending an amoral position.
Sure he did better in the "debate" than John Campbell. But this is real life. These are real events occurring. It is your real privacy that is being sold off here.
This isn't a high school where you can grade John Key highly for being a really good debater. This is John Key talking over someone who is raising concerns about a law that will allow future Prime Ministers to use the GCSB to spy on New Zealanders with no oversight.
Far from being impressed, we should be disgusted by him.
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Southerly: My Life As a Palm Tree, in reply to B Jones,
Sticking timid kids into environments that freak them out
Ballroom dancing ... shudder