Posts by Julie Fairey
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Well, I have some pretty strong views on issues like abortion, civil unions, sex outside of marriage, contraception etc, but I would be surprised if people automatically assumed that my partner shared them. I usually find the reverse is the case - there is a high incidence of people assuming that I share his political affiliations and opinions.
So maybe it's refreshing to see people actually considering that what the "little woman" thinks might be influential on her high profile hubby? /tongue in cheek
People do tend to choose partners with similar values, imho. When you are political types then those values would usually include your stanch on various seminal political issues of our times - I personally include abortion on that list, although others may not. For someone who has a staunch pro-life view to be with someone who is staunchly pro-choice... wouldn't it be a bit like a militant Wild Green partnering up with a genetic scientist whose day job is dicing and splicing different genomes together? Would a strong feminist marry a male chauvinist pig?
That said the editing stuff is a worry. Imagine if someone went through a book encyclopaedia in a school or public library and excised information like this, particularly in such an opaque manner?
I am not a techie type person but I am wondering if the IP address could be everyone using one terminal that might be shared, or could represent the staff of a whole office/floor of Parliament?
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Eeek, that should say:
I really enjoyed Magnolia up to a point.
And to further underline my argument - raining frogs? puhlease.
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I really enjoyed up to a point. That would be the point at which it got incredibly silly and just made me feel stupid for not getting it. Not a big fan of filums that make me feel dumb. *grump*
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I work a bit with the school sector in my day job and it is commonly mentioned that one of the reasons for the 9-3 day for the children is some throwback to the days when many families were involved in farming and the kids were actively involved in that work. No idea if it's true, and I know nothing about farming, but I understand the 3pm finish time somehow correlated with getting home to help with the milking?
However I would point out that although the children go to school 9-3 (or thereabouts) those who work in schools generally do much longer hours. Research done last year by one of the teacher unions showed primary teachers doing on average 52 hour weeks IIRC (and that average includes taking into account the school holidays, which are often not very holiday-like for the school staff). Principal workloads were even higher. Support staff who work in schools would do lower hours, but partly that is because schools cannot afford to pay them for the hours they are needed (whereas teachers and principals are salaried).
In regard to the length of the school year, I could rant on and on, but I'll restrict myself to simply noting that several teachers told me that in 2006 (I think) when the break between Terms 1 and 2 was only 1 week in primary both Terms 3 and 4 were much harder to cope with than normal. The observation was that chidren were more likely to catch illnesses, behaviour was worse as the school year ended, and staff were much more stressed out because of the loss of downtime earlier in the year.
On homework, I hates it. I didn't mind doing it as a kid a lot of the time because I was a total geek, but then I seem to recall primary homework being restricted to a spelling list that my mum tested me on (Dad spells October with an M, don't ask), and working on special projects from time to time. Project work I found fun because we got to pick what we were interested in, and I used to try to pick the most obscure topic within the prescribed range.
Talking to teachers and principals about homework evokes some interesting responses - most that I have discussed it with seem to agree with many of those examples quoted already in this thread, ie they don't think it is effective at enhancing learning and would prefer not to set it. However all have mentioned the extreme pressure from some parents to have masses of it, and the squeaky wheel gets the oil often.
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What concerns me about Owen Glenn's honour is that again Labour is showing a startling lack of political nous, which doesn't bode well going in to an election year.
Maybe he deserves one, maybe he doesn't (and certainly, as someone to the left of Labour I have no issues with Don McKinnon getting his gong). But it looks bad. Again.
Thanks for the thorough going over of O'Sullivan's recent witterings, I have been avoiding her stuff for a while and didn't realise quite how bad she had become. Depressing stuff.
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Does anyone else find it spooky that Mediawatch gave Sensing Media it's Worst Media Nonsense of 2007 award this morning?
Do do do do do...
Safe holidays everyone!
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We can also look forward to more crazy talk from EFA opponents, who will try breach the new laws, the election itself and, of course, the appearance of court of people charged subsequent to the October 15 police raids. Things might get a bit bumpy.
And don't forget the Field corruption trial and the ensuing battle for Mangere, where every possible candidate to date looks like varying shades of reasonably hard core Christian.
I also wonder if the EFA opponents will try to dob in (to the police? the Electoral Commission? of course via media release) pretty much any political speech that they disagree with.
Interesting times indeed.
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I went to a psychic years ago, when I was at a bit of a crossroads and trying to make a decision between two alternatives. At the time most things she said to me seemed imbued with great significance.
Part of the fee was that she gave you a tape of the session, which I listened to again about a year later. Nothing at all really made much sense, and certainly there hadn't been any great things she mentioned that came true.
So at the time, and shortly afterwards, I found the experience meaningful, but when reviewing it after time had passed clearly it was largely pointless. I wonder how it would have seemed a year later if the tape had been edited as per Sensing Murder ;-)
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Hear hear Jackie!
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Well if we want to talk a little about hidden agendas and National's policies Ben then maybe we could look at Tony Ryall's blurt about removing the cap on doctor's fees (not in the policy release) and the absence of any mention of the Iraq war from the foreign policy release. Not to mention the internal policy war that appears to be going on about whether National will put bulk funding for schools in their 2008 election policy - Rich says no, but Peachey says yes.
But that would of course be dreadfully off topic, so maybe another time.
Thanks for the back-up Anjum. And for the new phrase - "talk balk radio" indeed!