Posts by giovanni tiso

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  • Field Theory: The Master Plan: No one…,

    I can't think of a single sports competition that doesn't enter a knock-out phase in some way at the finals.

    Aside from all the national soccer leagues in Europe, you mean?

    And if a team wins all their games all year but then loses the big one, that loss probably says as much about them as every win.

    Oh, that's just rubbish. A league is a campaign that rewards consistency. An American style regular season followed by playoffs competition rewards peaking at the right time. They're simply two different formats. A team can win the former even while losing the last game or two to inferior competition, and is none the lesser for it. Of course in the latter format you don't get points for just winning the regular season, since that's not the ultimate prize. So I think the Patriots lost deservedly, in the same way that Inter won deservedly in Serie A in spite of their end of the season collapse.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report

  • Hard News: Weekend Warriors,

    Meh... I don't really want to relitigate the '05 election, but let's not pretend Labour was exactly a bullshit-free zone.

    I didn't mean to suggest otherwise, to the contrary, Orewa led (and it should be no excuse) to Labour doing some spectacular bashing of its own. Bipartisan whack-a-maori, it was truly something to behold there for a while. I thought I might seize some land myself, it was so popular.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report

  • Hard News: Weekend Warriors,

    Last election was dirty because politicians were targeting vulnerable sections of the population. Maori. Immigrants. Solo mothers. Somehow, amazingly, it didn't work.

    You meant to write that it did work, but wasn't enough to put National over the top, didn't you? Because I can't quite think of a more successful and game-changing piece of bashing as Orewa the first.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report

  • Hard News: Go Us,

    there will be reasonable people with interesting and relevant questions, you are also more or less certain to get people who do not really want to ask questions at all, but to drone on about some peripheral issue.

    I saw Rod Oram interview Joseph Stiglitz during readers and writers week and that was precisely the problem: some people asked great questions, whereas Rod Oram droned on and on.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report

  • Hard News: Go Us,

    he’d be saying, ‘Listen, [God] is gonna deal with all the inhabitants of the earth. He is gonna strike out His hand against, yes, Wasilla; and Alaska; and the United States of America. There’s no exceptions here — there’s none. It’s all.’

    I really fail to see how this is the same as what Wright said. What Kroon seems to be saying is that the day of reckoning will come for all humankind, including the good people of Wassilla and Alaska and the United States. Straight out of scriptures. Wright was making a rather more pointed argument about the confusion of religion and government, concluding that God ought to damn America "as long as she tries to act like she is God and she is Supreme". Singling America out for special, privileged damnation. Not the same thing, although of course personally I agree almost entirely with the latter (except for the whole God exists business) and not at all with the former.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report

  • Hard News: Go Us,

    But KOS came to the story as a result of rumours from Alaska (allegedly via a Republican source) that it was Bristol who had taken an inordinate amount of time off school (5 months) with 'mono' and that it was Bristol who was pregnant. Which turned out to be correct.

    I'm sorry to beat on this dead horse, but I can't let this notion that the Kos diary was "partly right" go unchallenged. The story (which has finally been pulled - cowardly bastards) alleged that Bristol took - if I remember correctly - eight months off school with mono, not five. But even if it were in fact five, the periods wouldn't match. She was supposed to have taken that time off to conceal a pregnancy that finished in April, remember? Whereas in fact she's been pregnant since April, so it makes absolutely no sense.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report

  • Hard News: Go Us,

    They did an extra show on Friday, which might have something to do with it.

    Ah, yes. They went Tue to Fri that week in the US, instead of Mon to Tue, and that threw C4 out of synch. I expect they'll catch up next time there's a hiatus.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report

  • Hard News: Go Us,

    I think the DS missed the Monday show the week they went to Denver.

    Sorry, no, it didn't. All C4's fault.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report

  • Hard News: Go Us,

    someone at C4 stuft up and ran a filler episode thinking DS was on hiatus

    I think the DS missed the Monday show the week they went to Denver.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report

  • Hard News: Go Us,

    The Ninth of September!

    No, you're kidding right?

    Insofar as I got the date wrong. But they sure did explain it.

    "And kill us they did, this time on US soil. It was on September the eleventh... 9/11".

    Then they showed Giuliani at Ground Zero but not Bush, which is extraordinary.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report

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