Posts by Greg Wood
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Pardon the exaggeration, but I'm beginning to think this stuff might be the Springbok Tour or No Nukes moment for this age. There's an aspect of the hideous treatment of our "natural environment", which so strongly defines our view of ourselves that is being viewed as a disgusting travesty by a lot of regular types who otherwise can't form a coherent argument around child abuse, bloody cyclists, binge drinking and the Asian invasion, and if the comments under that Herald editorial are anything to go by, there are a lot of "middle-class New Zealanders" who are actually, genuinely pretty pissed off by this shooting of yet another messenger. The comments are a straw (man) poll, yes, but given the state of the usual collection of bile and vomit that collects in that arena, I'm given to wondering if the kraken of Regular Kiwis might've been woken. Now, where's my motorcycle helmet?
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A hearty, hug-based congrats. Too much history and goodness to share; just, yay.
I must say I am almost daily thankful for the time I finally heard from you that morning after the night before on Simon's balcony with All The Whisky in Singapore.
I really thought I'd broken the Public Address System forever.
As for ways of keeping you up:
- Keith's "just throw money at me for this one" currently suits my ADD-ish modus operandum
- But I'd pay an ongoing sub for sure
- But how to share the wealth? I'd like to think we'd have something like the Flattr model as an ongoing micropayments option for a community: http://flattr.com/
- Better still though, surely, would be a remote-triggerable whisky dispenser in your office: write great post => lots of clicks => satisfying reward; would attract likeminded friends to join in the celebrations.Righto!
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Hard News: Why did Stephen die?, in reply to BenWilson,
It's a scary thing when you can't walk away from someone you'd otherwise walk away from, because this time they happen to be a police officer. The same "you looking at my girlfriend?" eyes, the same "you spill my pint?" forward aggression in any other person and you could genuinely call the cops. But when the aggressor *is* a police officer -- well that's when it gets genuinely, properly scary.
I've had my share of proper out-and-out weirdness from the police as well as some truly angelic moments. But being hit in the nuts with a pool cue by an off-duty cop for looking at him and his mates while they smoked a joint, then told to "fuck off out of town because I'm back on duty in the morning and I'll be hungover and looking for trouble" kinda upset me. Who do you talk to about things like that? And that's why this story scares me.
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I get hives even reading the snippets you've posted here, Russell, so how you manage to repeatedly unpick columns like Roughan's without resorting to an epic string of four-lettered words or just going batshit crazy, I don't know -- but keep it up!
Current Affairs on behalf of the underdog, portraying rogues in the service of entertainment could describe Fair Go -- but even Fair Go goes out of its way to balance the story, and the mining subsidies story was one that could've done with some balance.
That said, I enjoyed the non-partisan way the lunchboxes / KidsCan story was conducted. "Whoever's at fault, it's not these kids. Let's help them first, then sort out what the hell is causing it, maybe while they're eating their lunch." - lovely.
Can't wait to see the Campbell interview. Does he (and his show) have a credo? A mission statement? A written-down purpose?
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Field Theory: Never alone with Metenolone, in reply to Sacha,
Sacha (and everyone!) -- it's about to happen. You really want to check out Channel 4's amazing game-changing Paralympics ad: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/paralympics-channel-4s-superhuman-effort-7956894.html
Reframed my view entirely.
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I dreamt last night that Fairfax used the data to show quite graphically and with righteous anger how ridiculous it would be to try to compile league tables, and the resulting disgust amongst regular parents rolled the government.
Any offers for a syndicated psychic column accepted.
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Oh big sis, you big meany! How do you do it?
<Heads for the loo for a great piratical rumbustification of a howl>
...I may be some time.
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My Gabriel and Ruby cried at the breakfast table this morning, while I warmed my tears over the toaster. It was tough explaining to a 4 year old boy ("She ...died?! Forever?!") that there won't be any more Margaret Mahy books written; there was some solace in the fact that there will be more Great Piratical Rumbustifications to go and see. And Ruby, god bless her, expressed desperation to become Ruby Mahy, and make Gabriel happy again. But till then, it's going to be hellishly tough at storytime for this 5-year-old Daddy.
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Devo, a winery act... my 13-year-old self just turned in his velcro-and-domes geometric shirt. Speaking of younger selves: I might just have to pop in to PSC on Sunday for a wee dram to say, I dunno, "thanks" to Big Matt for Being There, back in the day.
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Hard News: Moving from frustration to disgust, in reply to Ross Mason,
After all, you hired him to tell you like it should be.
C'mon - you're talking about the Prime Minister who heard from his Chief Science Advisor about the clear evidence for the failure of boot camps to have any effect at all over a long period, and replied "Well evidence is all very good, but we've seen results with our own eyes."
This government is a bunch of idealogues hell-bent on being in power at any cost. It includes a Minister of Finance who hazards guesses. A Minister of Education who doesn't read the reports. A Minister of Transport who takes flights of fancy over benefit-to-cost ratios for massive motorways in the face of a massive global swing towards public transport. A Minister of Tourism who's happy to lead a government that won't do a thing about water quality in our lakes and rivers. A Foreign Affairs Minister who goes missing in action. And don't get me started on the way they're being lead by a Prime Minister who used to be a merchant banker, and who is happy for his ministers to lie about accepting money from Bond villains as long as they don't actually break the law... Yeah, I'd trust this lot to look after our kids, as much as sell off our assets... oh, and look: they're ramming that through six weeks early while playing games on their fucking iPads. At about this point, someone usually pops up and asks "what can a regular person do about the whole thing?".
I can leave the country. Why should I not take my three crazy early-days kids and my large tax contribution elsewhere? Tell me.