Posts by Kracklite

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  • Hard News: Do you like what we've done…,

    An effluvium of niceness, indeed, but one point regarding the ergonomics, I do miss the ability to select specific pages.

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    Is not as convenient as

    1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6… 394

    when you have to spend significant periods offline and then need to catch up in a hurry.

    I've always wanted to be able to jump back through a discussion - well done.

    Unless I'm missing sumfing (probably).

    The Library of Babel • Since Nov 2007 • 982 posts Report

  • Hard News: Unreasonable people vote,

    Please! Laws stories require health warnings...

    Too true. Sorry, I was getting all anthropological there.

    The Library of Babel • Since Nov 2007 • 982 posts Report

  • Hard News: Unreasonable people vote,

    Not to mention this. More detail than I want or need to know, but his narcissism, his lack of compassion, his use of people... bozhe moi...

    The Library of Babel • Since Nov 2007 • 982 posts Report

  • Hard News: Unreasonable people vote,

    Herald editorial all out of love for Key over his government's drink drive limit intransigence.

    If the Herald on Slumday said anything nice about me...

    I was interpreting that as an assessment of a shift in the wind, irrespective of whether the wind is right or wrong in blowing the way it does. Ascribing intellect or motivation to gasses is absurd, is it not?

    Related: it's also an interesting clinical example of Key's passive-aggressive approach: he won't say "No", because people won't like him if he says "No", but he will say, "Weeeellll, we need another study...." The same as with Auckland's transport solutions as proposed by Len Brown.

    The Library of Babel • Since Nov 2007 • 982 posts Report

  • Hard News: Unreasonable people vote,

    Well, the mixture of false modesty and real vanity aside, it's a variation on (help me someone) "A fanatic is someone who, having forgotten his aims, redoubles his efforts."

    Autopedantry in action:

    while riding tigers

    whilst riding tigers.

    I like "whilst". And "whom". Nice words, much underused.

    The Library of Babel • Since Nov 2007 • 982 posts Report

  • Hard News: Unreasonable people vote,

    I can't for the life of me understand why the Party of Palin isn't being confronted with its own record.

    To misquote Lawrence Olivier, why don't you try cognitive dissonance, dear boy?

    Paranoid rage is not merely a symptom, it's a strategy (ahem, if I weren't pseudonymous, I'd name it ........'s Law: "The symptom becomes the strategy"). Both at the level of grand political campaign strategy and personally.

    Or, because that well-known river in Africa is a mighty flood, because some people who think that cynicism is the new machismo have become intoxicated by the short-term applications of the slogan, "perception is reality" and think that all of the chickens will come home to roost... another day, and on the heads of their opponents and because when that happens, it can be/has been spun as their fault, or at least, "they're not doing enough". Because, in case of emergency, they think that you must exaggerate your posturing... because if it works with the majority at the ballot box on the day, that makes it right. Because "I am good and bad people are wrong and I am not wrong because I am good." Because if you are inarticulate, slogans are as good as fists. Because, because, because.

    One of my favourite bloggers ripping into Stewart's rally.

    Good and right points all, and I agree, provisionally, but the (unstated) implication is that revolutionary change of the system is all that can suffice and I happen to think that revolutions tend very quickly to spin off in the wrong direction. Sowing wild winds while riding tigers and all that.

    Still, there are revolutions that become apparent as such in retrospect - the Industrial, the Computing...

    If a short-term plea for sanity becomes a propagating meme, I'll be happy-ish.

    BTW, there's been a paraphrase lately of what was originally a satire of Fabianism, so for historical rectitude (without attribution):

    What do we want?
    Gradual change!
    When do we want it?
    In due course!

    The Library of Babel • Since Nov 2007 • 982 posts Report

  • Hard News: A few (more) words on The Hobbit,

    Shock, horror! Hitler was Schicklgruber, Stalin was Jughashvili, Shakespeare was Marlowe! Hang on...

    The Library of Babel • Since Nov 2007 • 982 posts Report

  • Hard News: A few (more) words on The Hobbit,

    Ian, you have a very scary knowledge of baaaad movies.

    Quothe Benjamin Disraeli: "I rather like bad wines; one gets so tired of good wines."

    Your geography is correct. I did live on Boston Tce for a while - very nice it was too - and I rather like where I am now with the greenery and birdlife (hung out the washing this morning with a Tui watching me and serenading from not much more than three metres away).

    However... Wales has as its vegetative emblem the Leek, England the Rose, Scotland the thistle... and Aro Valley has mildew.

    The Library of Babel • Since Nov 2007 • 982 posts Report

  • Hard News: A few (more) words on The Hobbit,

    @ Gio

    Ah, The Far Side...

    It's said that the surest guide to the morale of any office is whether the cubical-dwellers post Far Side ( =good) or Dilbert ( =bad) cartoons. Now that Gary Larson's retired, would it be XKCD?

    The Library of Babel • Since Nov 2007 • 982 posts Report

  • Hard News: A few (more) words on The Hobbit,

    Rather a good discussion on Mediawatch (mp3).

    BTW, I've been critical of the paleoleft rather than rightist representation of the situation simply because that's what I've been reading. I do not listen to talkback radio or watch broadcast TV - I live in a damp gully in Aro Valley and get terrible reception for most channels... much to my relief when I hear about what does get broadcast - and God/Cthulhu/Omega Point forbid that I read Kiwibog)

    The Library of Babel • Since Nov 2007 • 982 posts Report

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