Posts by Stephen Judd
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
"socially aware, culturally sophisticated"
These are weasel terms. What do they mean? From whose standpoint are we to assess awareness and sophistication? I think we can guess which tribe the authors assign themselves to...
The whole "tribes" thing rubs me up the wrong way. Even the word "tribe", with its connotations of loyalty, kinship, and difference from outsiders, offends me in this context.
-
Who was it that said the difference between a liberal and a conservative is having a daughter
Hmm. I preferred the commenter on Pandagon who said "Liberals think a meritocratic society would be a good idea, conservatives think we already have one."
-
Yeah, Jackie, my already large admiration for you has just increased.
-
The other aspect to the ATM comparison is that some unreliability can be an acceptable cost of doing business, and can be managed contractually with the suppliers, or insured against, or simply written off. A vote count cannot be treated that way.
-
-
Argh, right, well let me add that the thing about phone calls from commercially motivated people that really rips my knickers is exploitation of my sense of courtesy via a script
I'm thinking here of conversations that go:
Caller: Can I speak to Mr Judd please?
Me: Yeeessss?
Caller: How are you this evening?
Me: Fine, thank you (__not that you give a rat's__)
Caller: That's great.
[ more chitchat to try and establish rapport ]
...Now look. If you are trying to sell me something, get to the point. Don't try to sucker me into a conversation where my goodwill can be leveraged into feeling that I owe you a sale. That is not what I extend my goodwill for.
Recently a friend of mine explained that they had kept a copy of the famous counterscript by the phone and eventually got to use it. I wish I could remember how it turned out. I'm afraid I don't have the patience, and simply bark "Are you trying to sell me something?" quickly followed by "I never buy things sold by telephone. Goodbye!"
-
Telephone marketing surveys that assume I give a shit what petrol station I go to.
Amazing. I got asked that identical question at least 10 years ago, and the surveyor could not/would not believe that I had no preference but price and proximity. There was no way for her to record "no preference".
I'm afraid that I am the opposite to Haydn. I generally avoid marketing surveys, or give misleading answers, on the grounds that marketing surveys are only there to facilitate my exploitation as a consumer, and I don't see why I should help people be more efficient at extracting money from me.
-
untrue. a nzl academic recently published(? was heard on na.trad) something demonstrating that up to 90% of "promises" made by "politicans" are kept.
the remaining promises were things like "everyone gets a pony".
How different things would be if 10 year old girls could vote.
-
Gareth, yes, it hinges on what "coalition" means, doesn't it. The Greens aren't in coalition with Labour, they're just voting yes on confidence and supply. If that's what it takes, I'm sure we'll hear lots of parsing from John Key as NZF slithers in the back way.
-
Giovanni: pentacoalition? I'm holding out for "quincunx".