Hard News: Not so much evil as stupid ...
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So not only did we lose we lost due to admisitrative issues overseen by a NZer, who incidentally denied Fiji in a much more faulty refereeing performance a few years back.
Loved Steve Williams, Tiger Woods' caddy speaking on Morning REport this morning. He was asked about the AB performance as someone who knows a bit about performance under pressure.
his comment was the "very very very best of teams have the ability to play their best when it means the most" and "the second half was the true examination of what that team was about and they failed miserably."
He was highly peed off. He did not think a big welcome home was deserved.
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Nick M - thanks for the link to the Age article. It is well written and very moving too.
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So not only did we lose we lost due to admisitrative issues overseen by a NZer, who incidentally denied Fiji in a much more faulty refereeing performance a few years back.
Yep. Tragic, innit?
Loved Steve Williams, Tiger Woods' caddy speaking on Morning REport this morning. He was asked about the AB performance as someone who knows a bit about performance under pressure.
his comment was the "very very very best of teams have the ability to play their best when it means the most" and "the second half was the true examination of what that team was about and they failed miserably."
He was highly peed off. He did not think a big welcome home was deserved.
Heard it. But until he has the nerve to say the same about Michael Campbell, I reserve the right to regard that interview as just a bit glib.
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Reported by a mate on a rugby mailing list I'm on:
Susan was out walking the dog on Sunday afternoon. She was approaching a couple of young teenage girls dressed in young teenage clothing with the painted toe nails and the makeup etc... As she got closer she overheard one of them saying to the other, “...and he’d only reffed a couple of test matches! What the hell was he doing in charge of that game?!” Susan knew instantly that scene could only happen in New Zealand.
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Well, Hamilton teenagers are indoctrinated from an early age...
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Here is another story I heard: The four year old daughter of a female of my acquaintance got up and left the room after the All Black's lost. When her Mum went to see where she was, she was in her room with all her All Black figurines lined up, and she was knocking them over one by one.
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she was in her room with all her All Black figurines lined up, and she was knocking them over one by one.
This made me actually *horrified gasp*
Then I realised how many naughty corners you'd need to put them all individually in Time Out.
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The Midday story on the AB's return to NZ was positively heartwarming. Three thousand fans turned up to cheer them back into the country and hold up signs saying things like "we still think you're the best team in the world". They had obviously been expecting a chilly or non existent reception, and the look on their faces was great.
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Yeah, having had my moan in the other thread, my estimation of my fellow citizens just increased several points.
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Russel of course I can - its patently obvious. If the council takes high rates of homeowners courtesy of house price infalation that their ridiculous policies and tose of their bedpals in Wgtn have caused and then distributes it as low rent housing and rates rebates then that is exactly what they are doing. Cynically buying votes at the expense of the future generations and the future of this country - short term gain for long term pain. Why else did City Vision vote for rates hikes and C&R was the only group to vote against them? don't tell me it was just another in a long line of 'one off" levies to pay for "infrastrucutre".
If the council pulled its horns in it could put several $100K into fixing the water and wastewater infrastruture for the good of all and future generations.
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Meanwhile, the fuckup I noted in the original postis developing into a full-blown palaver ...
STOUSH OVER TOUCH JUDGES ROLES
Thorburn told Radio Sport yesterday there had been a meeting between coaches, referees and touch judges in September to clarify roles - and touch judges were told to focus only on their primary role of keeping touch.Thorburn, a former North Harbour coach, said the pre-tournament directive said touch judges should focus foremost on touch, foul play and kicks at the goal.
It was reiterated verbally they would not be able to interfere on issues of forward passes, offside and crooked lineout throws.O'Brien told the radio station today Thorburn had misinformed the public of New Zealand.
"Touch judges were told to call clear and obvious infringements.
"If they call offside, we want the referee to act on that call."
What the IRB didn't want were marginal calls called because that put confusion into the referees' minds.
"I think it's very mischievous of Peter. I am very disappointed that he has basically, in my view, lied to the public of New Zealand."
Thorburn, who took exception to being called a "liar", told the station later he stood by his version of events at the September meeting.
There was a bit of "scurrying for cover", he said.
The touch judges' secondary role as described by O'Brien was not stated in the list of directives Thorburn had.
"They threw him (Wayne Barnes) in out of his depth and now they are trying to step back and direct their venom at other people rather than accept the responsibility," Thorburn said.
I find the line about "putting confusion in referees' minds" quite bizarre. The mark of a confident referee is that he will listen to a touch judge and if he disagrees, simply say so and carry on.
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Deaker has a book coming out in the next couple of weeks, so I would expect him to try to up his profile with comments that are even more "out there" than usual,
BTW did anyone else catch the decent into laughter that was last night's "the crowd goes wild" on Prime. I still can't get past Mark Richardson's play by play on the Aussie-India Match, ( was it Andrew Symonds that copped the "Chrunchy-the Boof head" label?)
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was it Andrew Symonds that copped the "Chrunchy-the Boof head" label?
Indeed it was, and apt it is too. Every time I see Symond's bat I'm surprised he's not holding a can of XXXX in one hand as he runs between the wickets.
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Every time I see Symond's bat I'm surprised he's not holding a can of XXXX in one hand as he runs between the wickets
Hitler was an Austrian, Napoleon from Corsica, Stalin was Georgian, the guy who invented apartheid whose name I can’t remember was from Holland. All these people took on the stereotypical national identities of their adopted countries to an unpleasant extreme.
Andrew Symonds is from Birmingham.
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Russel of course I can - its patently obvious. If the council takes high rates of homeowners courtesy of house price infalation that their ridiculous policies and tose of their bedpals in Wgtn have caused and then distributes it as low rent housing and rates rebates then that is exactly what they are doing.
Auckland City sold its rental housing stock to the government.
Rates rebates are available only to people low incomes to a maximum of $500 for people on incomes of less than $20,000 pa -- which generally means little old ladies in properties they've owned for a long time.
But they're not offered by the council, but central government, via Internal Affairs and have been since 1973. So forgive me if I continue to think your argument doesn't make sense.
Cynically buying votes at the expense of the future generations and the future of this country - short term gain for long term pain.
Um, and you're going to vote for C&R, which let Auckland infrastructure run down for decades so it could campaign on freezing the rates?
Why else did City Vision vote for rates hikes and C&R was the only group to vote against them? don't tell me it was just another in a long line of 'one off" levies to pay for "infrastrucutre".
Nothing I've read has told me anything about how C&R is going to cut costs enough to significantly cut rates, or even do much to hold increases. Their candidates all say something different. Aaron Bhatnagar slams the Hero parade as an example of wasteful spending, while C&R Western Bays candidates say they'd bring the Hero Parade back like a shot and that anyone who says different is a fuddy-duddy.
Can you see why I can't take these people very seriously?
I'm not over the moon with the current council's performance and in particular with the "charitable payments" dodge with Metrowater. I even considered voting for a C&R candidate. And then I got their campaign material and I thought, why would I vote for this?
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Andrew Symonds is from Birmingham.
My friend Heather, a die-hard Aussie cricket fan who currently lives in London, just tried to kill you by shooting laser beams out her eyes. Frickin' awesome.
To clarify, he appears to be an oik. And I like him. But that may be my Aussie blood coming out.
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Indeed it was, and apt it is too. Every time I see Symond's bat I'm surprised he's not holding a can of XXXX in one hand as he runs between the wickets.
Why do I find that image so incredibly easy to picture?
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Russell, you may be interested to know that Mr Hicks is in fact a C&R candidate. I note he hasn't declared it in his comments.
The thing that bugs me about the billboard campaign is the secrecy. I have no problem with political campaigns, be they via billboard or leaflet or TV or radio or painting yourselves red and running around the local shopping mall. But I don't like not knowing who is doing the campaigning, particularly when rather than advocating a vote for something (in which case you can reasonably make some assumptions about who they are) but instead are asking you to vote against.
I think it's part of an open and transparent democratic process to know who is advocating any position - informed choice is based in part on knowledge of the source of information, so that you can make a judgement about its credibility and honesty.
And that what is lacking with this billboard campaign - honesty.
(And in the interests of honesty I should disclose that a relative and several friends are candidates in the local body elections, mostly for City Vision, and that I have helped out with the CV campaign).
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Just to get the facts right here, the Queen St upgrade is largely paid for by the special rate paid by CBD businesses. They have the equivalent of a Mainstreet scheme where they pay a special rate for upgrading work in the Heart of the City area.
This is their upgrade, they wanted it, they are paying for it. -
I find the line about "putting confusion in referees' minds" quite bizarre. The mark of a confident referee is that he will listen to a touch judge and if he disagrees, simply say so and carry on.
No this is one of the saner things Paddy has said over the past couple of days. When refereeing, lines of communication and the question of who is in charge require a deceptively difficult balancing act. The referee has to have dominant 'management' of the game, and this can be undermined by incessant calls by the touch judge. Likewise, when refereeing you are doing multiple things at once, so TJ calls need to be clear and most of all the TJ needs to be certain about them. Sometimes (eg with inexperienced referees, or no/dodgy communications gear) you need to manage the expectations of the teams down a level or two.
So what Paddy said today (as opposed to yesterday) makes sense, although using the word 'liar' is a bit strong, and who knows what was actually said at the briefing.
None of which exonerates the IRB referees from making the appointment (NB I don't think Paddy was on the appointments committee), and if we believe what Paddy says today, then there was a serious failing of communication between the three officials, given that they are at the elite end. Paddy telling NZers to 'grow up' seems fairly hypocritical, looking at what his organization contributed to the game.
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Russell, you may be interested to know that Mr Hicks is in fact a C&R candidate. I note he hasn't declared it in his comments.
And I feel bound to note that his posts bear out everything I've been saying about this year's C&R.
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Russel, I am not going to fib - we have had 15 years of continuous rates rises from both C&R and City Vision. Both because of rabid house value rises and increases in the "rate". Our rates have gone up 400% in that time since the split them into 3. My son and I went into this campaign because this is unsustainable for everyone and because C&R have had a cleanout and a mindset change over the rates issue.
If we hike rates this much over 15 good years but dont fix the basics then what the heck is going to happen when we have a downturn. Little or none of the rates have been spent on your beloved infrastruture so they are still bleating about having to put rates up to fix the pipes and roads. Our position is that enough is enough and essential services will have to take priority over handing out money to community groups like lollywater.
We will work with anyone to achieve this and and we wil work to keep C&R on task.
As for the hero parade - I can only speak for myself and I will not hold the purse strings since I'm running for the ADHB. - its like a conscience issue I guess - I have no strong feelings either way as long as council doesnt have to pay for it and they pay something if council has to clean up afterwward.
I would have the same opinion about most of these "cultural events" - i fail to see why local or central government has to pay for people's hobbies unless it has an economic return for the country as a whole. The social return is enhanced by people paying for it themselves.
I will be applying the same principles to my time on the ADHB if elected - that I will be giving local and cnetral government a bolloxing for spending on feel good vote catching money wasting incentives while the basics such as waiting lists and high tech capitalisation are left unattended to.
Ryan and I have spent a lot of time out and about talking to people about these issues with a good reception. I even convinced a communist to vote for me :lol:
So the proof of the pudding will be in the eating. We will do our bit to keep C&R focused on the basic services the coummunity wants and needs in the hope it wont be left to the next generation. We are trying to change the gimme mindset here and go for sustainablity.
Cheers.
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BTW I know of no-one in C&R who had knowledge of this poster campaign. My guess is that is was fueled genuine anger over the way Dominion road small businesses have been treated over sginage - get out and talk to them they are spitting tacks!
City vision wants is to have its cake and eat it too - anti-small business but business must pay.
I want everyone to be treated fairly and equally and a phased in return to universalism, as far as possible.
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Here is another story I heard: The four year old daughter of a female of my acquaintance got up and left the room after the All Black's lost. When her Mum went to see where she was, she was in her room with all her All Black figurines lined up, and she was knocking them over one by one.
Aw! My own story is worse. During that fateful test my 19 month old learned the f-word.
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Auckland City sold its rental housing stock to the government.
Who, if memory serves, did not want to buy them but were over a barrel. I heard at the time, but do not know how true, that Auckland hadn't had pretty much been gifted those properties by the government years ago, but the council was in no mood to give them back.
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