Posts by dc_red
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The current flag (a "defaced ensign" I believe it is called in official flag talk) is insipid, uninspiring and, frankly, a disgrace. Still Granny Herald was quick enough to point out that a majoirty of people who had never been asked to think about the issue of flag design for more than 30 seconds didn't support a change.
Almost anything would be an improvement, providing it can't be used to embarass the country on the sports field (the silver fern on a black background is arguably too close to a white feather, and there should be no "circle" shapes which suggest "zero").
For some reason Ozis seem to like their flag. Perhaps it's the Confederation Star which livens it up.
But a union jack on a boring blue background, with a few poxy stars thrown in? Yawn.
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John Key's own Helensville electorate is not all glamour and lifestyle blocks either, remember. Head 'over the hill' at Helensville and there's a side of Helensville where youth can (and do) run amock too.
Indeed, Martin, and don't forget some rather dubious parts of Massey are included in Helensville too. You wouldn't always want to wander the streets of Royal Heights at night. Especially on a weekend. Why, I saw all sorts of stuff going down in the carpark outside the rugby club in Moire Park just last night.
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It was not an accident that Key chose a street in Clark's own electorate.
It is actually in the Mt Roskill electorate (Phil Goff's territory), albeit barely. If you scan to the NE corner of this map from Elections NZ you can see it.
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I note John Howard did not add to his comments that "there is also a small proportion of the White (Christian or post-Christian) Australian community who are complete fucking morons too." Y'know, in the interests of balance and all that.
But lest we get too high & mighty, part of the difference between NZ and Australia in terms of inclusiveness/racism/multiculturalism might be that their right-wingers are in power, and ours just missed out.
Don Brash dabbled in Howardesque rhetoric from time to time, but for a true exponent see the great white hope from East Coast Bays.
Had a good laugh / terrible groan at Danyl's account of a restaurant experience. But kiwis are plenty good at snarling at people they think are Americans.
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Frankly I'm over the bullshit. NZ does have good players out there playing state cricket, they just never get a chance to step up because Bracewell (and Fleming) can't bring themselve to dump the non-performers. IMO Astle must go, the Marshall twins should be playing state cricket for at least another season and preferably county cricket before they are allowed back in, McMillan has talent to burn but leaves his brain at the rope, MacCullum needs to be batting at 6 or 7 where keepers normally bat. Vettori et al are bowlers and should not be seen at the batting crease if Flemming et al do their job properly!
Who do you replace them with - why not some young players who have performed at state level and maybe could learn to step up. Some with good young eyes like Jesse Ryder and for gods sake why can't we have a real opener like Craig Cumming open the ODI innings. Or pick someone who has shown guts and brains to play the right cricket for the situation.
Bart - generally agree with your comments. While Astle is in absolutely atrocious form at the moment, it is worth bearing in mind that he was the best ODI batsman in the world in the 2006 Calendar year (limited to those who had played 5 or more games). He averaged 58.60 with a strike rate of 81.16. Mike Hussey was second.
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Re the cricket: at the moment we field and bowl reasonably well most of the time. So if only we could bat, we'd be competitive. Which raises the question of how we got to this state of affairs. The injury to Styris sure hasn't helped, but you'd think that adequate cover could be provided by McMillan, Fulton, Los Marshalls, and so on. I'm clutching at straws here! Lou Vincent anyone?
Leg Break: I've always felt that Fleming is over-rated as a captain. Specificaly, he has very little ability to respond to adverse circumstances in the field ... in fact, he seldom appears to try, instead adopting his "stunned mullet" impression. But clearly our current problems don't really relate to bowling/fielding, so leadership when in the field is neither here nor there.
Interesting stat on the radio yesterday: Ponting has captained Ozi in 126 ODIs in which there was a result. Ozi have won 101 of them. So we shouldn't feel too bad.
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and another key issue is the status of the James Henare centre (a research entity) which has been shut down in all but name. (So it looks good in the uni website and in the brochures, but has no staff, and is actually conducts no research).
A skeptic might point out it conducted precious little research even when it did have staff.
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The "shock horror growing marijuana indoors what will the deviants think of next" story is now in the NZH ... under the Strange but True category. Go figure. PC Plod in Queenstown found an almost unbelievable 25 plants being grown indoors. Clearly a criminal operation of the highest order.
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I don't really do live music, so Back to Brash for a minute: I did think there was something in the story. Not a front page, mega-headline something - but a something nonetheless. The guy will never do any work as an MP again, will never speak in parliament again, and yet is enjoying full pay for the prolonged parliamentary recess.
That's a very different situation from the four weeks annual leave enjoyed by Joe and Jane Sixpack (even if they accumulate it and cash in after a hypothetical resignation).
It might be useful to have a rule or guideline that an MP who resigns/retires stops being an mp immediately following their final address in parliament. Once they're out of the building, they're out of a job. If Brash had been replaced by the next person on the National list, you'd think at least she'd be doing some genuine MP business over the break.
It doesn't seem quite right that while most of the populace reluctantly trundle back to work after unsatisfying, all-too-brief summer breaks, Brash is still drawing a public pay cheque. For god's sake man, you resigned - move on. The same would go for any other MP in the same situation.
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If my physical attributes/genetic makeup mark me as Caucasian, and I state that "New Zealander" is my ethnicity, it's pretty damn hard for someone with different physical attributes than me to argue they are also a New Zealander by ethnicity.
Says who? Can a black Dutch person in New Zealand not write in "Dutch"? Can an Asian Canadian person in New Zealand not write in "Canadian"? Of course they can if they want to, and feel that's accurate. Or should they really be writing in "African" and "Asian" for all eternity?
Once again, I wrote in "New Zealander" and am happy for anyone else who feels that's the best description of their ethnic identity to do the same. I might be slightly surprised if say, someone fresh off the boat from Liverpool or Tierra del Fuego did this, but if a long-term resident of the country who felt like a New Zealander, but happened to have, say, one parent from Ghana and another from Guernsey, did so, I wouldn't give a toss. It's not a particularly exclusive category.
As stated before, there is no reason why NZer cannot become an ethnicity. Sure its a nationality as well, and that should always be its primary usage, but the two can merge to some degree.
Exactly. Just like Samoan. Tongan. Dutch. Niuean. and the various other ethnic examples on the form.