Be interesting to see how that vote would have turned out had it been run under STV. Someone run out and interview a dozen Sweeny supporters and see if they would have ranked Hubbard or Banks higher.

In this morning's post I've advanced the view that under STV Banks wouldn't…

ah yes, the curse of democracy: does one vote for the candidate one wants, or does one vote strategicly ...?

Be interesting to see how that vote would have turned out had it been run under STV. Someone run out and interview a dozen Sweeny supporters and see if they…

You can't read everything, but you have people for that.
It's your job (my job) to train those people to analyse and distribute accordingly. They need to know I need to see for my decision and what I need to see…

If an Inuit converts to Judaism are they then racially Jewish and not Inuit?

No, they'd be an Inuit who believes in Judaism.

Can Roman Catholics be both a race and an ideology?

No, because Catholic belief (although it started amongst Europeans) is spread around many different ethnic groups. There…

It's a different kettle of fish but the 9/11 attack could have gone differently if people who should have been reading reports issued to them actually did.

I think it's relevant. If you're going to make an issue of the unheeded reports before 9/11, then you can't give Peters' office…

I've googled without success but wasn't there also another incident a few weeks back when Peters had failed to read a paper or press release issued to him? I recall him smirking on One News (walking into the House) when he was caught out having earlier in…

"What – as Minister – have you done to ensure that security assessments are read, analysed, prioritised and communicated within your organisation in a timely manner?"

It's fine to…

Jewishness is both a race and a...

Jewishness is both a race and a (religious) ideology – you can be one and not the other. Moreover, you can choose the ideology bit but not the race bit.

People have every right to their ideologies, however crazy. Others have…

Oct. 10 (Bloomberg) — Doug Howlett, New Zealand's record try-scorer in international rugby, was arrested yesterday on suspicion of criminal damage after an incident at the team hotel in London

Not all of the All Blacks were taking the defeat lying down – [[http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4232896a10.html | Doug Howlett allegedly decided to…

I would have the same opinion about most of these "cultural events"

Scare quotes around cultural events. Uh-oh. This doesn't look promising.

i fail to see why local or central government has to pay for people's hobbies unless it has an economic return for the country as a whole. The…

In the age of professionalism, it is beyond me why the same touchies and the referee are not kept together as a unit for all games. Combinations, as Grahame Henry found out, are important in the big games.

that Auckland hadn't had pretty

heh.... that auckland had pretty...

I find the line about "putting confusion in referees' minds" quite bizarre. The mark of a confident referee is that he will listen to a touch judge and if he disagrees, simply say so and carry on.

I've watched matches a couple of times in rugby where the touch judge…

Auckland City sold its rental housing stock to the government.

Who, if memory serves, did not want to buy them but were over a barrel. I heard at the time, but do not know how true, that Auckland hadn't had pretty much been gifted those properties by the government years…

City vision wants is to…

Russell, you may be interested to know that Mr Hicks is in fact a C&R candidate. I note he hasn't declared it in his comments.

And I feel bound to note that his posts bear out everything I've been saying about this year's C&R.

I find the line about "putting confusion in referees' minds" quite bizarre. The mark of a confident referee is that he will listen to a touch judge and if he disagrees, simply say so and carry on.

No this is one of the saner things Paddy has said over the…

The thing that bugs me about the billboard campaign is the secrecy. I have no problem with political campaigns, be they via billboard or leaflet or…

Indeed it was, and apt it is too. Every time I see Symond's bat I'm surprised he's not holding a can of XXXX in one hand as he runs between the wickets.

Why do I find that image so incredibly easy to picture?

Andrew Symonds is from Birmingham.

My friend Heather, a die-hard Aussie cricket fan who currently lives in London, just tried to kill you by shooting laser beams out her eyes. Frickin' awesome.

To clarify, he appears to be an oik. And I like him. But that may be my Aussie…

Every time I see Symond's bat I'm surprised he's not holding a can of XXXX in one hand as he runs between the wickets

Hitler was an Austrian, Napoleon from Corsica, Stalin was Georgian, the guy who invented apartheid whose name I can’t remember was from Holland. All these people…

was it Andrew Symonds that copped the "Chrunchy-the Boof head" label?

Indeed it was, and apt it is too. Every time I see Symond's bat I'm surprised he's not holding a can of XXXX in one hand as he runs between the wickets.

BTW did anyone else catch the decent into laughter that was last night's "the crowd goes wild"…

STOUSH OVER TOUCH JUDGES ROLES
Thorburn told Radio Sport yesterday there had been a meeting between coaches, referees and touch judges in September to clarify roles – and touch judges were told to focus only…

she was in her room with all her All Black figurines lined up, and she was knocking them over one by one.

This made me actually *horrified gasp*

Then I realised how many naughty corners you'd need to put them all individually in Time Out.

Susan was out walking the dog on Sunday afternoon. She was approaching a couple of young teenage girls dressed in young teenage clothing with the painted toe nails and the makeup etc... As she got closer she overheard one…

So not only did we lose we lost due to admisitrative issues overseen by a NZer, who incidentally denied Fiji in a much more faulty refereeing performance a few years back.

Yep. Tragic, innit?

Loved Steve Williams, Tiger Woods' caddy speaking on Morning REport this morning. He was asked about…

Loved Steve Williams, Tiger Woods' caddy speaking on Morning REport this morning. He was asked about the AB performance…

One of the major causes of the demise of the late great Hero Parade was the vitriolic homophobia that the organisers had to face from C&R councillors when they were trying to get…

Of course accusations of covert influence are a classic slander against Jews, whereas with the Brethren it appears to be an established fact...

And I think alleging that anyone is "waging war" against the Brethren is overstating the case just a wee bit, for goodness sake ...

City vision's policy is to raise rates and user charges and then subsidise their voters out of council income.

Can you even come close to backing up that claim?

For goodness sake, the whole CitRat campaign in Western Bays is basically "the council isn't spending enough money on you" (actually,…

Of course accusations of covert influence are a classic slander against Jews, whereas with the Brethren it appears to be an established fact...

Nonetheless I too would prefer that the issue was about "anonymous donors", not the Brethren bogeymen.

The whole anti nutbar brethren campaign is pretty disturbing. Imagine what it would be like everyone replaced "brethren" with…

http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/a-decision-that-affects-the-lives-of-real-people/2007/10/07/1191695736091.html

which I thought was lovely.

Hmmm. I'm not sure evoking the Brethren is a good idea. And as I/S notes in an update to his No Right Turn blog, this would appear to fall well within the relatively loose restrictions of the Local Electoral Act 2001.

Of course it's legal. So was the Brethren's campaign…

Maybe, but they'd also have to cut off its head and bury it face-down at a crossroads.

With holy wafers in its mouth...

Why is it so much easier on Buffy?

a sheer lack of time have kept from from doing much with the humans.org.nz site lately, but we're fully back in action this week

I mentioned it to Russell in an email, but for everyone else, next Thursday's Oprah episode is about autism.

There's a lot of dross on Oprah…

Actually, the Hero Parade was always quite fun. If I vote for C&R, will they help bring it back?

And then get to play guitar like Robert…

With you on that. The crap he was spouting on national radio last night and this morning was just atrocious. How many elections can retirement homes around New Zealand lump us with this moron?

Yes. Although the interview was funny for all the wrong reasons, and Sean Plunket was in…

"Don't vote City Vision. They are the fun police."

I think we could use some fun police after the trials this year. Maybe they could hire bouncy castles for their parties and make balloon animals instead.

God, I can only hope the electorate is finally going to wake up to Peters and finally put a stake through the heart of his political career.

With you on that. The crap he was spouting on national radio last night and this morning was just atrocious. How many elections…

Maybe, but they'd also have to cut off its head and bury it face-down at a crossroads.

And then get to play guitar like Robert Johnson?

Yes, it is serious — shouldn't someone have the wit to tell the boss about this stuff? — but damn, it was also funny.

Perhaps not quite so funny for MFAT secretary Simon Murdoch who was (not to put too fine a point on it) comprehensively shat while being in…

On the rugby that piece by Inky was definitely one of the best.

There is also a wider issue which is the death…