Posts by Russell Brown
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OnPoint: Dear Labour Caucus, in reply to Deborah,
Thanks, Russell.
It's nice to see those words.
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OnPoint: Dear Labour Caucus, in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,
I thought that was the cruxt of a lot of this. People are worn out and tired .They all need a break. Tempers fray.
Yeah, I think so. I'm really looking forward to some quiet time.
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OnPoint: Dear Labour Caucus, in reply to giovanni tiso,
I’m not being grumpy – although I can’t say I enjoyed the treatment I got by Damian and Emma on this thread,
No, that’s understandable, and I’m sincerely sorry about that. But you describing Damian as hiding “under the blankets” (like a big sook or something?) was just the last thing I needed to see after explaining I was feeling tired and stressed and asking everyone to show good grace. C’mon.
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OnPoint: Dear Labour Caucus, in reply to giovanni tiso,
But feel free to inform Damian that he can come out from under the blankets,
Could you please not phrase it as yet another dig at him? Please?
I’m not taking part in further threads on PAS. As soon as people stop calling me out I’ll stop popping up in this one, promise.
I can only respectfully ask you to reconsider.
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OnPoint: Dear Labour Caucus, in reply to Deborah,
On “Don’t be a dick about it”. I like your reframing of it, Russell, as “show good grace to each other”. The latter emphasises reciprocity, but the former doesn’t. The former is one group of people telling another group of people how to behave, and it comes from a position of power.
The full phrase is "don't be a dick" and I always thought it meant what I said above. Gio's been holding forth recently (here and in other venues) about what a ghastly concept it is and I've tried to take it on the chin. But I honestly think it works pretty well. The evidence being the large and active community of people who, usually pretty successfully, debate here. I'm not aware of any other local site that operates as well.
Example: Emma's Slutwalk thread. That topic turned into a clusterfuck pretty much everywhere else, but it didn't here -- in part because Emma and I took turns hovering over it as moderators. I had to utter the odd admonition, which didn't always go down well, but I had an idea of what we needed to avoid.
I’m going to put another comment up in a moment that is back on topic, but I think that there is something that people here might turn their minds to over the next few weeks, and that is the extent to which PAS is a bit of a closed shop at times, and if you don’t hold the same views as the main grouping here, then it can be difficult.
Feel free to let me know what to do about that. I do try and weigh in on behalf of someone who's being pilloried (to some extent I thought that was the case with Damian, who I could see was upset), but there's always the risk there of others thinking that person is getting special favours (that's a fairly common accusation too).
I've been briskly informed in this thread about what's incumbent on me -- not that I have any idea how I might go about much of it. I've had personal emails from people taking completely different views of what's gone down here. (including Damian, who says he won't be participating in any further in discussions here and will not open comments on any further blog posts he makes). I've lain awake questioning my own judgement, and feeling pissed off. And I'm just really, really tired.
So, everyone, I would regard it as a Really Fucking Big Christmas Favour if you could all just show good grace to each other.
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OnPoint: Dear Labour Caucus, in reply to Deborah,
David Cunliffe has put together a very useful career as a lawyer (I think), a diplomat, a business analyst, and a minister – all very useful skills for a politician. Focusing on just one aspect of either man’s career does not do them justice, at all.
Oh god ... I only used it in an example of how someone could be characterised in a particular way based on a limited number of data pieces. I did make it clear that wasn't what I thought.
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What amazes me is that through all this you've remained the delightful man you are.
I hope you all have a great Christmas, David. Will we see you in Aucks this summer?
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Hard News: It was a munted year, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
Russell, I believe you accurately repeated what Parker was reported to have said
He actually seems to have been reported to have said "trunk", "trunks" and "truck".
Clearly, Bob's diction has slipped since his TV days.
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Hard News: It was a munted year, in reply to Samuel Scott,
love the word ‘mounted’
But you're not loving autocorrect right now, huh?
Let me un-munt that for you.
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In other news, I'll be on Morning Report discussing "munted" and the other WOTYs at about 8.50am.