Posts by Public Servant on a tea-break.
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"To me - one of these approaches is the one that a man who realised it isn't ok to break a woman's back would take, and the other, well the other is not how any man I would respect would act."
Entirely right Mr Pound. My impression is we have seen a PR campaign to protect a media asset. And a vicious campaign, in which Veitch's victim, who seems to have been left with ongoing suffering, has been roundly attacked as part of the plan to protect Veitch.
I'd hate it to happen to someone I cared about. I hate to see it happen to anyone at all.
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I will be very interested to watch the discussion page on this matter.
Yesterday, I held my nose, and checked the NZ herald's 'Your views' thread on this subject. There seemed to be a number of commentators on that thread who said essentially 'I don't watch sports, or Veitch, but he has done his time, and now should return to broadcasting'.
The comments seemed almost as if they came from the same PR office, they were so similar, striking the same core message.
I'm wondering if the same will happen here.
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Say, did anyone else check the 'Top Troll' site? Dearie, dearie me.
I just thought, if only we could enter Dad4Justice - that title could be won by a local boy.
It's all about "Putting New Zealand on the map" people.
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<However David shameless baby photo blogging is a whole 'nother story...>
Now, let's not judge to harshly. As I recall, had David not published photographs of that poor wee child, that boy would have been eating cold sand for Christmas last year, all because of his good for nothing Daddy...
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<Indeed. Randy Jones -- who used to be the cowboy and now runs the Village People -- plays the doorman and is on the dancefloor in that sequence.>
Thought he was familiar.
He must be getting on by now, but I guess 'You can't stop the music... Nobody can stop the music...'
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<Did I spot Ron Jeremy in there at one point, or was that just a Freudian reaction of some kind?>
I don't know, and I feel no shame in not knowing.
However, that aside: isn't the dude in the front of the Conga line with a moustache and the aviator sunglasses one of the Village People?
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<They formally adjudicate every 4 years. But right now there seems to be interest in getting them to adjudicate every day. Same goes for the markets, which seem to get 'consulted' every day. If the market goes up, then they're happy with progress. If it goes down, they're unhappy.>
Yeah, but who can blame them? I think everyone wants to adjudicate on everything every day. After all that’s what brings us to sites like Public Address regularly, so we can be informed on current events and issues, and there-by make judgements. The media relies on adjudication to give their stories edge. Polling companies are a source of adjudication.
I'd suggest that formally the four yearly vote is the important one, but the polls can encourage, or discourage individual politicians. For example, America's polls leading up to the last election discouraged a lot of Republican politicians from being photographed next to G W Bush, or seeming to agree with him at all.
So public polls do have an influence on politics, but only as part of the 'reading of intestines' that people like to do about politics.
Thanks for the exchange Ben.
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Hey Ben
<Put it another way again. If the public doesn't know shit about how the credit crisis came about, then why care what they think about how to get out of it?>
Good point. I'd argue, in this case, that it is important to know what the American public thinks about how to get out of it in a political sense.
Economists can make informed statements the effectiveness of any plan to resolve the American financial position supported by their theories, right now, historians will be able to judge (and argue) about it in the future, supported by results. However, it is the American public that adjudicates whether the plan presented by their elected officials should continue based on how good or bad the poll ratings are.
Polling the public isn't a measure of how good the plan is. It's a prediction of how long that plan will run, and how much it will, or will not be, compromised to fit other views.
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<Definitely occurred to me, so I usually follow up with "what was better about it than the time just before?", to which the response is usually of the type "the parties".>
Thanks Ben, I’ve just had some happy memories from those magical three months when I was young, and good-looking and invited to fun parties, where I must have been far more charming than I am now. Ahh, memories, in the misty corners of my eyes…
<It also seems to in some strange way absolve the public themselves of their part in the bubble.>
The public, not being economic experts, probably don’t see it that way
The fear of recession has struck a public who don’t individually think they have done anything wrong. They didn’t commit fraud, they acted on an understanding of the World. Most took on debt that could be serviced from the income they received, or enjoyed a life style as good as they could afford, and it all seemed sensible. Now, there is a fear amongst the public about being laid off or facing a drop of income owing to a retracting economy they are feeling a bit panicy because they don’t know what they can do. These people don’t feel as if they did anything different or wrong, so why would they think it is it their fault?
The interest in what the American president does is more a reflection of how the American public is looking for leadership out of their current worry. And what is true of Americans can be said to be doublely true of New Zealanders, as we are trying to assess the performance of our ministers as well as how the American government's going. Because we know that what happens overseas is of great importance to us.
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< I have always found it curious that all the oldies I've spoken to who actually lived through the Great Depression rate it as one of the best times of their lives. I figure that it's times like these that you really learn what matters in life, and how enjoying life is really not something that requires a great deal of money. >
Actually Ben, my theory is that people tend to think well of the period of their lives when they were young, fit, and relatively good looking, whenever it happened.
For evidence, listen to people, now in their forties, enthuse over getting to a performance of a reformed band that was World-Famous-in-Dunedin in the early 1980s. Or more starkly, listen to people who served during the Second World War, it all can sounds rather like a positive time with the lads. Check out Spike Milligan's memoirs; by volume much of them are devoted to Milligan's times with the guys he was serving with. Not so much about battle fatigue.
With enough distance, anything you survive seems to be rich with lessons, and not that bad really. While at the time, I'm sure the 1929 depression (or World War Two for that matter) was a long time of uncertainty and going painfully short in areas for a large number of people. I'm not convinced what is happening now is at all comparable to those years. And I bloody hope not.