Posts by Joe Wylie
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Were the Kirks Catholics?
Don't know. The contrast of 'Driver' Kirk's proletarian radicalism with the patrician Whitlam version is interesting. Whitlam's faction took on and defeated entrenched socially conservative factions within the federal ALP in the late 60s. Similar shakeouts didn't occur in NZ until the early 80s, after Lange replaced Rowling.
While Whitlam's social reforms were radical by NZ 3rd Labour Government standards, Kirk sent a frigate into the French nuclear test zone, while Whitlam took the lower profile option of providing an Australian navy refuelling ship in support of the NZ action.
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In contrast to the Whitlam government's radical liberalising of Australian abortion law, Kirk's conservatism on this issue, along with his diehard opposition to homosexual law reform, ensured that nothing changed in NZ. Let's not forget that Ruth Kirk was patron of the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child (SPUC)
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Jelly-Shaped People.
Haven't we come a long way. Anyone remember Basil Brush? In an episode where the uppity puppet was captured by Fu Manchu, he refuses the Chinese dishes on offer and asks for jelly babies. To which Fu replies "We do not eat German Children." Tish boom!
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From my limited experience of the breed, it was the casual brutality, glorification of criminality and abuse of women, and utter disdain for the property and human dignity of 'outsiders' that churned my stomach.
Just to endorse that, from my own brief but v. unpleasant experience - when things turn a little sticky with the law/neighbours, the staunch & swaggering 'bros' quickly duck behind the shield of their women & children.
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. We've all seen the Dancing Cossacks Superannuation as (or could see it if we wanted), but I've only ever seen very brief snippets of what appeared to be an anti-Pacific immigration ad.
There was definitely at least one other, though I've never seen it. I was working at Hanna-Barbera's Sydney factory in late '75, and the notorious ads were cranked out with a certain secrecy. When I heard about them I fronted the shifty chap who ran the small commercials division, and was told that they were for the Australian Liberal Party. As Whitlam hadn't been fired at that stage, and my original informant swore he'd been told they were for NZ ("You won't believe the crap they're making upstairs for dumb kiwis"), I paid a return visit. There was no-one about, so I was able to check out the drawings at my leisure. The creepiest thing I recall was a giant stereotyped Viet Cong-ish oriental about to scoop up a little besuited chap clutching a briefcase. Ever since I've been bloody curious to see just how bad it really was.
BTW I believe the ad agency was Colenso.
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Well, I wouldn't say that it's that disturbing an image (SFW).
Applause.
Staying with disturbing mental images for a moment, no prize for guessing what these taste like (SFW0
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She gets to be woken up every hour and tested to make sure all the appropriate bits of her brain are still working, so she's pretty knackered.
Funny, I skimmed through that a bit hastily and read it as " woken up every hour and teased to make sure all the appropriate bits of her brain are still working".
Whatever it takes, great news, all the best.
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Best of luck, Emma, and may I second the remarks about Chch public - all my experiences of it have made me feel very warm and fuzzy about our healthcare system.
Yep.
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Seemed right to drag that up.
Right you are.
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. That's the internet equivalent of throwing your toys out of your cot.
A classic case of packing a sad. Not something you come across every day on teh interhosen. If it weren't so downright wrongheaded it might have a certain old-world charm.