Posts by Kracklite
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Well that’s good. A nice gesture, and as an MP, he has far more disposable income than I do, but I’m concerned about Labour’s zero-risk, paths-of-least-resistance strategy that it has followed. Recent action over CGT bode better in the long run and I’d really like to see more of that attitude. Maybe they’ll actually show it.
I’ll concede that finally, thankfully, they’ve moved from the “I’d so do Liz Hurley too, phwoarrr!” strategy.
But it’s awfully late in the game. It’s easy to blame Pagani for his catastrophic advice (and that is very easy indeed), and while, as you say, Grant Robertson is a man of personal principle, which I will agree on, I don’t know if he’s a man of principle politically.
Funnily enough, I don’t think that politics is all cynical posturing and that all politicians are either sociopaths or naive fools. It’s nice that Robertson personally and discretely supports good causes, but will he risk his political neck for them? Will he risk losing? Everything that he he has done so far suggests that he will not and that is why is despise him.
I might stretch to personal pity for the compromises of faith that he has had to make (I guess that I’m an existentialist).
-
Reviewing the definition of disability that dictates the eligibility for government support – which currently excludes people with autism -would go part way to resolving the situation,” Grant Robertson said.
Oh, a press release about "raising awareness." How quaint - and how useless.
You don't need to forgive my cynicism, and anyway, frankly, the phone's off the hook for Goff's version of Labour. I'm sick of sanctimonious exercises in "raising awareness" and Robertson's theatrical hand-wringing statements that he'd "like" an inquiry and how he really thinks our awareness needs to be raised and how things need to be "reviewed".
Nice try, but far too little, far too late. Goggle is a tool, not a policy. If Robertson were to actually stake something on this instead of hyperlinking, I might respect him.
I was rather impressed by Labour's boldness over CGT and even their belated appreciation of how the media works, and there is even a faint possibility - latest poll notwithstanding - that Labour has the foundation to build on for a position of power come November (thought I rate the probability rather low) but Goff has never been a campaigner for civil liberties - quite the opposite in fact. He is, as Lloyd George said of Lord Derby, is "like a cushion who always bore the impress of the last man who sat on him", and if one were to ever ascribe depth to him, I'd say that he's an authoritarian who simply can't admit the fact.
Robertson's supposed to be my constituency MP, but he won't even reply to me, despite a direct approach. He benefitted personally from Fran Wilde's campaigning, but he hasn't a fraction of her guts.
Civil liberties matter to me - I've not been beaten by police myself, but close friends have for simply voicing their opinions in peaceful protest, and someone who issues silly press releases close to an election when the polls are looking bad looks like someone suddenly finding a cause convenient for his purposes.
Come December, I might consider voting Labour again and come 2014, they might well be worthy of government with an invigorated front bench - and I say that with a full sense of how awful, how cynical, self-serving, unimaginative and how damned incompetent the members of this current government are.
So, I don't need to form my own party, I'll join one: it's called the "Stay at Home and Read a Good Book Until You Take Some Risks and Spend Time Earning That Vote Party"
Deepred: stopped clock and all that...
Bah, humbug.
-
(f) Lhaws.
As that utter, utter idiot and scumbag working for TVNZ, Andi Brotherston, said of Paul Henry, “he’s only saying what everyone thinks.” No, not everyone, but certain coppers.
Mind you, I’m still going for (e) as the primary motive with a major component of (d) and a dash of the others. I’ll draw a bell curve if you like, but I’m not sure how I’ll post it.
It is all extremely disturbing, I have to say. This quote from Battlestar Galactica is particularly apposite:
There's a reason you separate military and the police. One fights the enemies of the state, the other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people.
-
Hard News: Angry and thrilled about Arie, in reply to Russell Brown,
ost of the legal comment I’ve seen suggests that a judge won’t go along with whatever the cops are trying to do here, which makes it all the more odd. What is actually going on?
Ah, well, I guess that I’d call myself an existentialist along with everything else.
So the police are being absolute bastoids - well they don’t surprise me in the least, and it’s not just due to my cynicism.
Here are the reasons that their psychoanalysts, confessors or whatever could give:
(a) Don’t fuck with us, you swine. We’re going to send you a message and you’d better be listening.
(b) If we give them an inch now, they’ll take a mile next time.
(c) As Wellington said, “Never apologise, never explain”. Emphasis on the former. I don’t expect any cop to be as erudite as to know the exact quote, but they will understand the principle instinctively.
(d) Oh shit, if we back down now we look like wimps
(e) Oh shit, if we back down now, we are wimps
“Option (e)” is where the dread of cognitive dissonance kicks in, that that’s powerful indeed.
-
Hard News: Angry and thrilled about Arie, in reply to Sacha,
+1
-
Hard News: Angry and thrilled about Arie, in reply to Islander,
My hairdresser jokes, when hanging up my coat and satchel, that I must fill them with bricks. Well, I think, carrying all the extra weight keeps me fit.
At the very least, it's made me appreciate the importance for having totems, talismans and rituals in many so-called "primitive" cultures (so-called by people who wear ties and carry smartphones, or have titles, or wear medals).
-
people think that I’m witty and confident in social situations.
Your mileage may vary on this, by the way. I’ve had students compare me to Heath Ledger’s version of the Joker, Hannibal Lecter and Tony Soprano in tones that suggested that they were saying so to compliment me.
-
Portmanteau reply here.
Craig: dangerous
Abso-fucking-lutely right!
Sofie: So what about the jewellery maker in the flat in Wellington?
My impression, from my now rather attenuated links with the radical community in Wellington, is that the police used this as an opportunity to settle a few scores against people who’d been irritating them for years. It stinks. See my reply to Craig.
I’m surprised that they didn’t arrest Kevin Bacon. (Six degrees and all that….)
Morgan, Islander: Silencers are normal for people targeting rabbits/hares/possums in any rural situation.
Agreed. I’m a townie myself, purely because my work requires it, but I am often surprised by people who find it difficult that to many people, guns are simply tools like vacuum cleaners and power drills. I’m against firearms on principle, but for a lot of people, not all food comes from the supermarket or a delicatessen and that is entirely normal for them. Owning a gun, even a silencer, does not automatically make one a terrorist.
Russell: His younger brother experiences something more like a red mist.
Best of wishes. It takes time to learn techniques. I never leave the house without one more layer of clothing than is necessary, a hat, sunglasses, an iPod and every pocket filled with notebook, pencil and whatever simply so that I can walk down the street - and I’m “high functioning” and people think that I’m witty and confident in social situations.
I also spend a lot of time with a blood alcohol level that would lose me my license if I’d ever had one in the first place.
I suggest looking for techniques, objects, rituals or whatever. I don’t view the actions of someone with OCD for example as being someone who needs to have their OCD “cured” if it doesn’t interfere with their functioning in all other areas of their life – it may well be the only thing that enables them to function. What works might be as simple as a talisman, a pair of iron balls, something to grip (keys in the pocket, a rubber ball…). Temple Grandin’s autobiographical writings might give some suggestions.
My iPod seems to be my most effective tool – it provides me with a structured aural environment that I can focus on while all the random stimuli of traffic and pedestrians bombard me.
(As an aside, I’m reminded of R. Lee Ermey’s audition tape for Full Metal Jacket – supposedly he was filmed being bombarded with oranges or baseballs while delivering a stream of abuse for an entire quarter of an hour without pausing or repeating himself. Those oranges are life for an aspie – all the time waking, sober. When it’s good, they’re interesting oranges.)
-
Speaker: John and Phil meet Bob, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
Well, the self-conscious giggle was a mistake that seriously undermined the clip, but the shift in tone from "hat" to "pearls" worked for me. Maybe it's the uncanniness of seeing someone too familiar played by another person?
well, for more disturbance, Gary Oldman as George Smiley?:
-
Speaker: John and Phil meet Bob, in reply to Russell Brown,
Key’s evasive style, including those couple of irritable refusals to answer at all, “seemed to work, family first didn’t seem to realise there were no commitments.
There seem to be some politicians, such as Key and George W Bush, who are superb receptacles or projection screens for people’s expectations. They can simply allow themselves to be assumed to be whatever their audience wants them to be. The very shallowness that so frustrates some instead allows others to believe in them because they appear and use the right body language, smile and nod and make the right eye contact, they could read a takeaway menu (in the right tone of voice, with a few crucial and uncontroversial key words).
I don’t mean to patronise the people who go to such meetings with genuine good intent and who don’t have PhDs, but much communication is based on nonverbal (and nonliteral) cues, that once they have been assimilated, can be hard to shift. Goff may win on points when one scans a transcript, but Key may get the gestalt.
By the way, I love this trailer:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/video/2011/jul/07/iron-lady-margaret-thatcher-trailer
I’m no fan of Thatcher, but this looks like a film I’ll be seeing.