Posts by Craig Ranapia
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to nzlemming,
First plus for Labour in a while.
Possibly not. You know something, I really really think Moira Coatsworth needs to tell Andrew Little to STFU. Now. The spectacle of him sniping at Goff and Tizard through the media has been vastly entertaining (well, I would say that) but is remarkably ill-disciplined. As both Labour and National have found to their cost, the best kind of party president is an invisible one.
(Having said that, it's going to be interesting to see how Little handles the step change from the public face of one of New Zealand's largest unions and NZLP president to... well, just another candidate in a not particularly high profile electorate. Not everyone handles the change from big dog to reef fish.)
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Busytown: A new (old) sensation, in reply to Hilary Stace,
Does Janet Frame’s posthumous novel Towards another summer (2007, although written in 1963) count as recent NZ fiction?
I'm pretty sure it does -- and it's on my TBR list -- but I've got to admit that I've got two problems with raiding a writer's desk drawers after they die. One ethical and the other critical. If Frame didn't steer Summer into print while she was alive, and I suspect after the success of her autobiography she could have published a best-selling book of shopping lists, perhaps there was a good reason?
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OnPoint: Everything has changed until 2014, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
So Craig, the NZ economy obeys different, special rules to other nations?
No, Rich – but it might be helpful to be a little cautious about making straight line extrapolations between New Zealand and other countries that exist in their own specific contexts. They do matter – unless you really think a large part of Australia’s economy isn’t a minerals sector New Zealand just can’t emulate no matter how much magical thinking goes on. (And anyone who thinks Oz is a low-tax paradise should share with the group how much stamp duty their paid on their house.)
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Busytown: A new (old) sensation, in reply to Lisa Black,
Yes, Hilary, Maurice Gee has retired.
Good, because Access Road inspired stabbing disappointment that I never want to feel again about a writer I revere.
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Muse: Film Socialism (or, How You'll…, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
Triumph of the Wildebeest?
I have a horrible feeling there's a whole channel on Sky dedicated to precisely that...
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Due respect, but it’s bullshit to say that positivity can’t be a winner.
Change you can believe in
The audacity of hope
Yes We CanIt also helped that the message was being delivered by an adult -- and one whom I may frequently disagree with (insert rant about how feeble Obama has been on marriage equality & DADT) but still doesn't seem to have a psychotic break and new personality every polling cycle.
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BTW, that's a serious question not trolling for a partisan shit-fight because does anyone else remember when Dick Cheney told the soon-to-be-fired Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill that "deficits don't matter"? Funny how quickly that tune changed.
Now, if you want to say that "debt does matter, but priorities matter even more" I'm open to persuasion. I'm just getting a bad case of handwavium poisoning from the political-economist complex.
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OnPoint: Everything has changed until 2014, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
Just apropos of this, a good post by Johann Hari on why the UK (and by extension NZ) doesn’t really have a debt problem.
"By extension", Rich is bullshit. It's a very good polemic (and I haven't checked whether it actually stacks up), but I don't know whether it's a net contribution to worthwhile debate to take a specific response to events twelve thousand miles away and assume it says anything worthwhile about New Zealand.
Still, nice to know debt isn't a problem - or is it only a problem when Bill English does it?
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Kumara Republic,
Precisely. The message has to be be thought-provoking without coming across as pontificating.
Let’s not make them run before they can walk, Red. Goff and Cunliffe should try making a policy announcement with costings that don’t have that notorious Rogernome Brian Easton calling bullshit. Or Goff opening his mouth without begging tto be called a "do what I say, don't say what I do" hypocrite.
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Kumara Republic,
Is “Waitakere Man” the NZ equivalent of Howard Dean’s “Pickup Truck with Confederate Flag” vote?
I hope not, because I think Waitakere is rather nice and the people I know from round there are thoroughly agreeable.
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