Posts by Craig Ranapia
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Hard News: The Politics of Absence, in reply to Sacha,
Totally. 'Principle' is the shape of the original Bill, which wasn't.
Sure, but to be fair it was a good day at the office when Power and 115 others voted to put the provocation defense in the septic tank of history. Shame it took the brutal murder of a straight white middle-class woman to put a blow torch to the collective arse, but still...
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Hard News: The Politics of Absence, in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,
I’ll give him his ability to actually use Select Committees for the purpose they were intended, and being respectful enough to listen and be swayed enough to change his view on the right to silence.
I don’t mean to be Grinch-y, but I think it had more to do with Power simply not being able to get the numbers. ACT + Labour + the Maori Party + Greens opposed > National + Peter Dunne in favour. Which is Parliamentary calculus in action (and thank the Gods for that!), but I wouldn’t confuse it with an attack of principle.
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Hard News: The Politics of Absence, in reply to Paul Williams,
it's very good and shows we've lost a very good parliamentarian.
Perhaps, but while I like Simon a lot I don't think his legacy as Justice Minister is that much to be proud of. The right to silence should never have been under threat. Ever.
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Hard News: The Politics of Absence, in reply to Rich Lock,
Quite alright, Craig – I have very thick skin. I barely noticed…
I'm trying to use my powers of snarly hostility for good. Or at least be mean and bitchy on purpose. :)
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Hard News: The Politics of Absence, in reply to Martin Lindberg,
At the risk of being an Ihimaera, I have to admit I stole that line from Kevin Smith's charmingly vile Zack and Miri Make a Porno. (Kevin Smith writes great bad porn dialogue. This should not surprise anyone. Discuss.)
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Hard News: The Politics of Absence, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
But blame the media if you must.
Sorry, Rich, that sounded not only gratuitously snippy but outrageously unfair and hypocritical - given how much time I spend bitching about the lamestream media. :)
My point, and one not made at all well, is how insanely frustrating it is watching the media and politicians point at each other when they're actually in an unsightly circle jerk. You don't like it, all you have to do is take your hand off the other chap's cock, pull up your pants and go home.
Instead of Tapu Misa bitching and whining in her column about the lack of "real" news, how about she have a chat with her editor about the dubious news value of Dan Carter's crotch and Jonah Lomu giving a paid interview to a women's mag. As I said elsewhere, our media is not assembled by magic elves while all the editors are tucked up in bed.
I'd also note politicians don't, never have and never will accept every interview request and media op that comes across their desk. They're not passive victims of the evil media machine, and I just wish they'd stop pretending they are when the current news cycle is not to their liking.
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Hard News: The Politics of Absence, in reply to Rich Lock,
I had the media more in mind when I was talking about the partners being forced into a role that wasn’t necessarily wanted. Seen but not heard. And God help them if they’re not immaculate.
But there I'd agree with you, up to a point. As I said way up thread, I cringed at the sight of Bronagh Key and Mary Goff doing the rounds of the lad(y) mags to prove their husbands are uxorious paragons despite being perfectly willing to colour Liz Hurley white with their love crayons. Or something.
But blame the media if you must. As far as I'm aware, the only time Gordon and Sarah Brown ever did a photo call with their sons was at the very end of his premiereship. I'm sure the usual media/spin thing suspects didn't like that one bit, but they made a choice and stuck it. Only as difficult as you choose to make it, I think.
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Hard News: The Politics of Absence, in reply to Rich Lock,
On your Stepford wives theme, The Guardian has been running ‘Mrs Cameron’s Diary’ for the last year or so, with the running joke being that Samatha Cameron is a Marie Antoinette-style uber-ditz and so clearly the perfect political partner for an Evil Tory.
Ugh. I know imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but Catherine Bennett shouldn’t apply for a job at Private Eye (50 and still every defamation lawyer’s wet dream) any time soon. Even though 99.9% of the topical references are dead as a dodo, Richard Ingrams and John Wells’ Dear Bill and Mrs Wilson’s Diary were not only sharp and genuinely funny, but weirdly affectionate.
(SIDEBAR: What’s more terrifying? a) Private Eye has survived for half a century. 2) Editor Ian Hislop has been on the job for twenty five of them. 3) He’s eight months older than the magazine he edits. 4) He still looks like a faintly malicious baby at the age of 51. 5) All of the above. 6) None of the above.)
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Hard News: The Politics of Absence, in reply to Sacha,
That childish eye-rolling clip yesterday should be repeated rather a lot.
Frankly, and not for the first time, I wish both Key and Goff would remind their caucuses that they're not Tourettes-rotten toddlers and lead by example. The last general debate of a Parliament is never the most seemly affair, but FFS... And politicians wonder why they're not exactly the most-respected of occupational groups. THAT.
(**ETA:** To be fair, Lockwood Smith - and the Assistant Speakers, like Ross Robertson who was in the chair during that incident - have done a good job in reducing the ass-hattery levels. Like requiting Ministers to actually answer questions during Question Time, which his last four predecessors too often seems to regard as an optional extra among all the caterwauling and pointless points of order. Still, I'd be increasingly sympathetic to Question Time and General Debates being conducted in silence. I'm a big fan of the old saw that interjections should be rare, reasonable and preferably witty. No matter what Mr. M. Loaf says zero out of three is bad.)
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Hard News: The Politics of Absence, in reply to Rich Lock,
Imagine the fuss if Bronagh expressed an opinion, or support for ACT. Or Labour.
Well, it was pretty common knowledge that Clementine Churchill was a capital-L Liberal and it's pretty clear (in the biography written by her daughter Mary Soames and) her political opinions, while never expressed in public, weren't kept from her husband and didn't cross the floor along with her husband. Her near-pathological shyness didn't make her the very model of a modern political spouse, either.
In the end, I think you marry a human being not a political party.
And God knows I developed a wee man-crush on Dr. Judith Steinberg Dean, who committed the unspeakable faux pas of saying she though her busy pediatric practice was more important that making cow eyes at her hubby while he hit the presidential primary trail.
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