Posts by TracyMac
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I think if Winston gets in there as a nice bandaid to certain voting sectors, such a combination would prove more intractable to get rid of. And when he is being pandered to with a sufficiently-senior ministry, he does know how to keep his mouth shut. At least about the govt.
And what Craig sez too about Winton's social justice history. I'd rather not have someone with a senior govt role with such obvious biases against queers and immigrants.
As for Jones, I think the only thing "strategic" about his rantings is that the powers-that-be are very obviously not telling him to STFU. A lazy way to appeal to the Green-haters.
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Really nice tribute to Mr Knuckles. I am not really a fan of metronomic 4/4 house (I like breakbeat better), but his style was never metronomic. And kept those feet on the dancefloor, indeed.
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Oooh, no, let's not go anywhere near the idea of "voting tests". A little too reminiscent of the American Jim Crow laws that disqualified many black people from voting for bullshit reasons (people who couldn't read lengthy passages from the bible, when many were substantially illiterate)
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Pox, NZ On Screen may be different. Simple url: http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/take-3-2007
Not available outside NZ
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Don't you simply enter the page URL for the YouTube clip? I.e. what you're pasting in should have no embed code/angle brackets of its own?
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I dislike this whole thing of confusing someone's (admittedly extreme) collecting tastes, and deciding that this is somehow worthy of public or political note.
Would I personally associate with someone with a signed Mein Kampf? No, unless it was alongside a similar collection of signed works by Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill, Mussolini etc, or intended to be. Frankly, I find the whole idea of collecting war memorabilia squicky in itself, and I doubt I'd ever have any close friends who would (except maybe family heirlooms). But it is an acceptable hobby to most.
If it was part of a collection of Nazi memorabilia and nothing else, yes, worthy of note, definitely. Ugh. If it were part of a collection on the massacres carried out by Pol Pot, Mao, Stalin, etc, and nothing else, I would probably have concerns about their fitness for public office. Then again, my very sweet and with-it in-laws have a book case full of stories on serial murderers.
There are plenty of public figures who do distasteful things, but barring any more sinister associations, owning an out-there but historical work is far less morally problematic to me than those who engage in domestic abuse, or who actually hold racist/sexist/-ist beliefs, and who try to retain them in our laws.
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Muse: Guilt By Association Copy, in reply to richard,
But to go out of your way to buy a copy whose main attraction is that it was personally handled by Hitler – I think you are entitled to think there’s something just a little bit sick about that.
Oh please. I wouldn't own a copy myself - I can read it for free if I ever become interested in that nutcase's ravings.
But Dotcom is a collector, and also about the bling-bling. It makes complete sense to me that someone with those traits would totally go for the MOST expensive and MOST rare instance of what he was interested in, if the opportunity arose. No ulterior motive - like a Hitler-shrine in the games room - required.
If you're a collector of pretty much anything, there is plenty of prestige in getting the "best" item possible amongst other collectors. Something I'm sure Dotcom world enjoy.
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Busytown: School bully, in reply to Kumara Republic,
Hah, the worst bullying I experienced - and sustained - was at the decile something-high school I went to (Epsom Normal Intermediate). From the girls. My initial reaction to middle class girly-girl women is still a suspicious one - stemming from those days.
The decile 1 intermediate school I attended the following year gave me no such problems. A bit of teasing for reading "too many" books. One invitation to a fight behind the incinerator, resolved by a handshake when I arrived with quivering knees (I was happy to bestowed the title of "palagi with guts to turn up").
But I fitted into that school better because of my class. Occasionally it does matter more than ethnicity. There were only about 3 (middle class) Maori in my year at the first school I attended - I never observed their being bullied. The right clothes and "attitude" matter, whatever sub-group you're trying to deal with.
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Eleanor Catton did get press when nominated, but definitely not as much as compared to when she won.
I think it's appalling, really, although I wonder if there would have been more publicity if he'd been nominated for a Hugo. As an SF reader, I have to admit I have greater awareness of those nominees (also, in terms of what my friends follow as well) than the A.C. Clarke awards. Although I certainly think it's prestigious enough to be picked up by NZ media.
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Great, let's outsource more social services US-style to another religious "charity". Especially the frigging SA.
Insert disclaimer that I have nothing against Christians in general, and I know that SA workers do good things.
But that organisation stinks for other, more political, reasons. And yes, apologies aside, if an organisation brands whole classes of people as "more sinful" or whatever, then they should not receive public money.