Posts by linger
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Hard News: Interesting Britain!, in reply to Katharine Moody,
Not necessarily, remembering that Sinn Fein refuses to take its seats in Parliament, reducing the threshold for majority by a few seats in practice; thus all that's needed (on paper) is strict whipping of Con members -- something they are reputed to enjoy...
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There's always the possibility that Uncertainty-Modal was trying to lose (without, of course, being able to declare that). Brexit is going to be one hell of a mess (seriously, what "negotiations" are even possible now?), and if she has any self-awareness at all, it surely must have started to dawn on her that she's still utterly unprepared for it.
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Light banter
not that oxymoronic
True; I have corrected that overstatement accordingly.
But there’s similar play in most of the metaphors we use for light.
Compare a “shed load” = a load left behind – whether on the road by accident, or in a large purpose-built storage facility (for an absolute shedload of stuff).
A “thrown shoe” or “cast shoe” similarly is one lost (though possibly also one freshly made, depending whether we're working with clay or metal). And of course “cast” can also be a particular shade, or viewed in light of a certain colour, hence the “bias” reading. -
A Google search for "I merely want to shed light on" will provide little genuine illumination. It is worth remembering that shed light (on) can be read in the sense of ‘remove illumination’ as well as the usual interpretation of ‘provide illumination’ on a topic. It all depends on your perspective.
Similarly, casting (a) light (on) can refer to ‘projecting a bias’. -
Hard News: Stupidity and ignorance have…, in reply to Rob S,
Nah, we’ve been through this before: the usual version of the Cnut story gets his actual motivation backwards (the story is actually about demonstrating humility by showing his followers that he was merely human), and so to compare Trump to Cnut is to seriously denigrate Cnut. (Or in other words: Trump truly lacks the warmth and depth to be a Cnut.)
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Hard News: Rugby Now, in reply to Dave Patrick,
you probably couldn’t have had 3 Super teams in the top half of the North Island
Given that that accounts for half the total population of NZ, I reckon we bloody well could have, except that on the same basis we would have at most two teams for the whole of the South Island.
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Hard News: Friday Music: Asking the…, in reply to Hugh Wilson,
One question at least has already been answered here -- but otherwise, I have to admit I'd have never heard of the original.
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Hard News: Rugby Now, in reply to dave stewart,
Soccer participation has been higher than rugby participation in NZ for quite some time now. It is frustrating to watch the media rediscover this fact every few years and react as if it’s a shock (or some fatal blow to our national identity).
Yet somehow it hasn’t translated into a proportionate growth in spectator numbers, broadcast media attention, sponsorship money, or development programs feeding the national team (which also possibly shouldn’t be a surprise: those all form a self-reinforcing network, and it’s hard to grow one part without the others). -
It's not a fair contest.
Stupid, uninformed, uncritical and unquestioning ... is persuasive because it sounds simple and certain. It's also bullshit; but it's often hard to tell when delivered at speed. And because no forethought has gone into it, it can be delivered at speed.
Coherent conclusion, based on careful assessment of evidence ... at best, takes a lot longer to achieve and then deliver; at worst, also sounds hedged and uncertain.
The ability to combine analytical skills with plain speaking is regrettably rare (though there's a fair concentration of such individuals among the regular PA contributors) . -
Uh, whoops, we actually had a thread open for that topic.