Dunne just pulled his support for the bill.

Wow... the political equivalent of the kind of chap whose idea of effective contraception is 'I promise I'll pull out before I come'. Funny how often that doesn't work either.

Ow! My Freedomz!!1!!

[Joke does not necessarily reflect opinions]

As if.

followed by an even sketchier, speculative epilogue on national identity.

I'm just a reader, rather than a student, of the texts, but Sinclair's 1986 book on New Zealanders' search for identity, A Destiny Apart, is substantial and, I think, successful. I've quoted ideas in it more than once.

I do take your point, but its a pretty big mistake to confuse historiography with science or the fashion industry.

Ah yup. Cause I didn't pick that point up while doing my two history degrees :) 'Scuse me while I go next door to tell a couple of professors that…

Man, someone still uses Sinclair? Respect and all that, but that book was published a few years ago. There's been a wee bit of thinking about NZ's history since.

Herodotus is really crusty, and in may respects dramatically unreliable in the light of more recent scholarship and intellectual fashions (which…

Sinclair is somewhat conservative in style…

Written on rolls of papyrus, it was.

Papyrus?

Looxury.

We had it on blocs of stone.

I know diversity of voices and all that, but a good set up – knock down just warms the cockles of my heart.

but that book was published a few years ago

1957, I…

This was so long ago we used Keith Sinclair's History of New Zealand as the set text. Written on rolls of papyrus, it was.

I remember that – it was the set text for my first NZ history paper at university, in the distant days of early 2003.

As for…

Written on rolls of papyrus, it was.

Papyrus?

Looxury.

We had it on blocs of stone. Julius Vogel visited us and explained why he'd borrowed all that money.

And Hone Heke was a regular contestant at the wood chopping competiton at the school gala day.

And I second Kyle's argument for learning NZ history in high school

Geebuz I must be getting old now. I'm pretty sure that when I was in 7th form, we did half a year of Tudor and Stuart, and half a year of NZ history. This was so long ago…

half-baked gobbets of Belich and Orange

Ah, jeez. Do *I* have to have a fight with Craig now? Is it my turn? Or are you saying that their interpretation by teachers is half-baked, rather than their ideas?

And I second Kyle's argument for learning NZ history in high school. I'm…

No 7th form history at least gave me nothing useful at all for university, not the least that they taught the Tudors and Stuarts option, as do most NZ 7th form history classes. Not Mr Bailey's fault though, he, I understand would prefer to switch to NZ history.

To be…

My 5th form history teacher, Mr Bailey, would have had something serious to say about that.

Mr Bailey was an excellent history teacher, but not infallible: he was totally wrong about that whole 'you are going to fail university miserably if you skip seventh form!' rant he gave me. Not…

It's not the length ... it's the lack of paragraphing :-)

Just be thankful that I quietly modernised some of Burke's 18th century spelling, punctuation and use of intitial capitals. I still have an essay with the terse annotation, "You've got a way to go before you're competent to start…

It's not the length ... it's the lack of paragraphing :-)

That's what I was thinking. My 5th form history teacher, Mr Bailey, would have had something serious to say about that.

People are losing faith in the currency of politics.

To paraphrase Hannah Arendt, politics exists because each of us have different ideas of how the world should be. It seems to me that a lot of ordinary people's frustration with politics arises from the fact that other people don't share…

Sorry, I know it's a very long quote

It's not the length ... it's the lack of paragraphing :-)

Quoting from the classics, I see.

I generally don't have personal heroes, but Burke comes about as close as possible.

The part about 'cautious experiments, and rational, cool endeavours' is the key bit. Should apply to every major policy change.

Too true Keith, the reason democracy works is because whenever a democratic power is allocated, a check or balance is created to restrict it (we all know the rhetoric of Lord Acton and the fate of Socrates).

Personally, I rather like the rhetoric of Edmund Burke's [[http://pintday.org/ebooks/gutenberg/files/15198/15198-h/15198-h.htm#SHERIFFS_OF_THE_CITY_OF_BRISTOL|__Letter to the Sheriffs…

Um, dude, aren't they still New Zealand's largest ISP? And I've been away for a while, but do they still hold the title of New Zealand's Worst ISP? I would wager that they have the biggest advertising budget of all the ISPs in NZ.

I sooo set myself up for…

Its not so…

You've touched on something I wrote about in my end of year Trans Tasman column – the over inflated political language which has characterised this year.

Heh, Rob, perhaps we should get together and produce an inflation index for BS?

Back of a napkin blueprint:

Run weekly chunks of Hansard…

No, you do not give any benefit of doubt. Your position is that anybody who wishes to engage the debate in an election year must be a politician. That other voices can form no legitimate platform and any outside influence is inherently wrong.

Woah – I gave the benefit of…

Gidday, met you briefly at that Nat end of year do... I was heading for the door at the time.

You've touched on something I wrote about in my end of year Trans Tasman column – the over inflated political language which has characterised this year.

I don't know…

I don't think Telecom has enough money to make people forget what a disaster it is as an ISP.

Um, dude, aren't they still New Zealand's largest ISP? And I've been away for a while, but do they still hold the title of New Zealand's Worst ISP? I would wager…

Contrary to appearances, the debate hasn't been getting more heated. It's been dying a slow, desperate death. Even as the voices grow more shrill and the words more angry, people are becoming more cynical about the debate itself and the institutions responsible for it.

Good point, lets hope we don't…

Was that Monday? Oh man. Thanks, too, for leaving the sombreness behind at Hunter S.

I need, however, to correct one minor point grasshopper.

Thompson wrote 'What Lured Hemingway To Ketchum? in 1964. Hunter strongly identified with Hemingway from the very beginning, even down to re-writing Hemingway's…

And the bottom line, the people who spend the money seem to think that…

I say I say I say I say!

What do you say?

Why do anarcho-syndicalists only drink herbal tea?

I don't know, why do anarcho-syndicalists only drink herbal tea?

Because proper tea is theft!

You wouldn't be planning copyright infringement with that counter-culture operating system, would you, sonny?

Copy-right? See: "guns", "army".

the organ that Paul Holmes would look like if he was fed through a printing press

Love that line.

Raising army. Buying guns. Reinstalling Linux. Will address your concerns shortly. (In January/February, probably.)

Heh... A little more seriously, Keith, I remember giving you mad props when you got your numbers seriously wrong in a tax cut analysis blog. Rather than going into deep denial or trying to defend the…

You wouldn't be planning copyright infringement with that counter-culture operating system, would you, sonny?

Oh look, my queue.

Back on topic.

Even as the voices grow more shrill and the words more angry, people are becoming more cynical about the debate itself and the institutions responsible for it.

In some…

Raising army. Buying guns. Reinstalling Linux. Will address your concerns shortly. (In January/February, probably.)

You wouldn't be planning copyright infringement with that counter-culture operating system, would you, sonny?

Now if what folks are really saying is that there's some causal relationship between dollars spend on an election campaign and votes received, I'm reasonably sure ACT's caucus would be significantly larger.

ACT may have gotten even fewer votes, had it not been for its warchest. The relationship between spending…

I recently rewatched one of his anti-MMP TV spots, and was annoyed all over again at the uber-manipulative insults to my intelligence contained within it.

Indeed, Danielle. I wasn't a fan of MMP then, but I was sure tempted to make Rod Donald a very happy man. It's what I…

But more interesting — and potentially more the target of the act — is stuff like Maxim's shonky "NZVotes" project, which purported to be a educational initiative but was yer basic covert campaign.

But even there, Russell, isn't the problem with the Maxim Institute period more that they were putting…

It clearly shows a good way…

a job which became enormously easier after Shirtcliffe started talking

I recently rewatched one of his anti-MMP TV spots, and was annoyed all over again at the uber-manipulative insults to my intelligence contained within it.

Ironically, Rodney Hide's first foray into the public eye was his job as point man for the Campaign for Better Government, the anti-MMP group fronted by Peter Shirtcliffe and secretly funded by Michael Fay.

I was campaigning (in my own no-budget way) for MMP at the time, a job which…

Awesome post.

I walked into a conversation between Graeme and a National researcher at their Christmas party last week; the legal arguments were amusingly byzantine, but manageably incomprehensible.

We weren't really discussing the EFB – more a hypothetical argument about the meaning of Parliamentary Supremacy, the Bill of Rights 1688, and the…

OK, what does that mean? AFAIK, the only way you…

As it happens, I had a long holiday that finished the other week.

I visited Scandinavia. While I was in Europe I passed through Brussels itself. I spent couple of nights in Singapore.

I come home and some people are comparing this to Zimbabwe…

Have you ever thought about running training courses for newspaper editors?