When…

I suppose a trucker getting pleasured in an NV cathouse might prevent the prompt delivery of a load of widgets in CA.

Just saying no – but I'll have to sit down and properly digest this evening. Emma's summary suggests there's going to be little (if anything) to substantively quibble with,…

The recommendations are as follows:

– clarification of Section 29 of the Marriage Act to make it absolutely clear that no celebrant is obligated to conduct a marriage that conflicts with their religious views or the views…

he wears cor blimey trousers, and he lives on a council plot?

Interesting input as usual from the usual suspects ;-) and completely ignoring my point thus causing a derailment of the topic at hand. Well done. Only on Public Address could we go from marriage equality to tape…

Oh sure, the eye is the ultimate arbiter of success after all, and so using the eye to decide shape is critical. But I love the design phase as well and often my thoughts about what is possible need to…

That was the point I actually started to enjoy woodwork as a hobby, when I discovered everyone stuffed up and good woodworkers had all these tricks for fixing their mistakes.

I like how you said "when" rather than "if". Confession!

I have! And algebra! I also delve into things from art like golden rectangles and proportions.

Of course knowing how to pull apart and rebuild when all that goes wrong is mportant too.

When I was at school, we learnt proper maths. Divide MCMLXXII by LXC by break time or it's the headmasters office for you, boy.

"NERRRRRRRRRRDS!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hw6zrInbtQE

very good #roots

I am looking forward to seeing the first weddings being celebrated on Saturday 1 June. (Is it inappropriate for me to note that is Queens Birthday?)

Given Parliamentary processes, plus the needs of the bureaucrats to get everything lined up (they…

Hey, Alison. Kevin Hague mentioned he'd read through the submissions from Homosexual Law Reform, and it certainly brought home to him how much less vitriolic things are this time around. I find it "hilarious" the way people…

This has reminded me of making submissions on the Homosexual Law Reform Bill: the mix of ghastliness & random amusement & dealing with the "smiling gentle bigotry". And the importance of being with like-minded people, whether or not they are speaking to submissions.

The part that was amusing, at…

And he will be a wonderful Minister of Health (or other portfolios).

Anthropomorphicistically speaking, yes.

Although picturing the National Party as a person does make my head hurt, I admit. Especially trying to think of it as the sort of person who could be embarrassed.

Snort, we are talking about a political party being ... embarrassed??????

Much as I loathe politicians in general they really do have to put up with some awful crap.

So we chatted away for five or ten minutes, and then my partner said, "Do you know him?" And when I said no, we'd never actually met before, he said, "I just wondered, because he kept…

Also, that mistreated 18y/o is apparently "a Catholic design student from Wellington". They're designing Catholics now? Intelligently I hope.

(Am optimistic about your optimism...)

Well, yes. Part of the chief whip's job is to actually enforce discipline and decorum both in the House and from members on Select Committees. Ideally, I would have liked Bakshi subbed out of the committee full stop and period. But I’m reliably…

The point was not that Woodhouse should do something because the behaviour was offensive to…

Say nothing. Just stare at them in obvious shock. Give it time to sink in. Then say, "Wow. Awkward." Options after this are to respond, highlighting rather than mitigating the awkwardness,…

I think that's a great summary, as well as a good response to make on the spot.

I do find that summarising someone's remarks back to them can be a useful way to point out the problem. The usual…

As Michael Kinsey once said of the first President Bush: "He’s nice enough not to want to be associated with a nasty remark but not nice enough not to make it. Lacking the courage of one’s nastiness does not make one nice.."

Possibly because it's a tactic that is very often aimed at women (although it comes from both genders): it aims to render your argument invalid by virtue of your caring, without even…

Well, Grace, welcome to the world a metric fuckton of GLBT…

The only people who got the Hard Word put on them richly deserved it, and it came from the Chair. Hague is a lovely man. My partner basically apologised to him…

It was easier to cope with the nastier stuff because we were surrounded by…

Yeah, I fucking hope so. I wasn’t the only person who politely suggested to National’s senior whip Michael Woodhouse…