Posts by stephen walker
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when I landed in Auckland in 1997
i knew there must have been some unrevealed explanation for why i left in 1997...now i know the truth!
my homeopathic remedies unconsciously told me to flee...tiso was on his way. -
Yep. You know who used to turn up in droves to the free monthly drinkies at the NZ Embassy in Tokyo?
New Zealanders. Shameless.
the drinks weren't free. they sold drink tickets for 200 yen each (redeemed for a glass of nz wine or can of nz beer).
that regular meet-up was killed off over a decade ago by the embassy top brass.
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Danielle wrote:
what is, at heart, a giant global pyramid scheme
yes, yes and yes.
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re: public apologies, Charlie Brooker in the Guardian seems about right, ihho:
When did public displays of contrition become the norm? More to the point, who actually appreciates them? Sitting through any public apology is mortifying. It just feels wrong. And unless the poor sod in question is saying sorry for something as momentous as a war crime, it's entirely unnecessary. The public don't need to hear it, because the public isn't as psychotically, self-regardingly deranged as the press. Consequently, these apologies are aimed not at the public, not at the fans or the listeners, but the press. The press demands apologies on its own behalf, regardless of the will of the people. And it does this because it is insane, truly Caligula-level insane.
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re: The Great New Zealand Fishing Scandal, i haven't seen the documentary, but it really is just another case of nz shipping out unprocessed primary products to the world, because, well, someone makes a shit load of money by processing it offshore. wool, meat, forest products, dairy, fish, forest products, petroleum, horticulture, you-name-it. fishing is just the most extreme case because the labour to even harvest is from low-wage countries overseas, and the resource itself (like minerals) belongs to all nz citizens (in theory, mind).
re: Gil Scott-Heron, yeah, i think that one will be on the way to my phonograph sometime soon! (really, they are selling it as an LP, too, very tempting...)
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there's a tactic i've not seen before :)
1. quote someone's previous comment.
2. write some straw-man argument directly below.
3. get pulled up on this little piece of bullshit.
4. deny any wrongdoing followed by more straw-man bullshit!ta-dah!
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and surely to God the National Party has some of them
David Slack rules! OK?
actually, could we just have a revolution and install Mr. S as PM, Generalissimo, and Supreme Leader? maybe not for life, just till he trades in the step ladder?
please!?
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@tim:
learning is a life-long, ongoing and pleasurable experience that is not purely measured in numbers or statistics
Yes!
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a conspiracy is beyond the capabilities of those that aspire to power
gosh, that's an interesting perspective, but it seems to me that Bush, Blair, et al, conspired quite successfully to invade a country for no valid reason whatsoever, resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths and millions of refugees.
and Goldman Sachs, et al, also seemed to have conspired quite successfully to use the collapse of US and European credit markets as a means of facilitating tens of billions of dollars flowing from public treasuries into their own bonus-fattened bank accounts.
but you prefer to think such conspiring for power and monetary gain is beyond their capabilities? mmm, hmm. must be all just cock-ups then, eh?
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@Kyle:
the "captain is in charge" thing seems to be harking back to days gone by. until the mid-70s, international cricket teams didn't have coaches. they had a captain and a manager, but the manager's job mainly consisted of making sure everyone got on the team bus before it left. in the old days, i'm not sure how common it was to have the captain as a selector, although i don't think it was that unusual.