Posts by Craig Ranapia
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Caveat emptor and all that...
"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch" is worth keeping in mind to. But I guess teenagers aren't the only folks who have a charming, but utterly misguided, delusion that bad shit only happens to other people. How do you get through that kind of magical thinking? Optimism and self-confidence are wonderful qualities; but like most virtues, they shade into vices remarkably easily.
And sorry for being a Negative Nettie, but I've got to wonder what the long-term economic and social effects are of a debut culture rather than one where 'thrift' (to get really retro) is not only valued but encouraged.
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Meanwhile, if CNN's Virginia exit poll pans out, it looks like the various memes around race and gender are falling apart. Which is not a bad thing, by the way. (Both races have around 40% of precincts reported back. Obama is trouncing Clinton 62-37, with the caveat that some parts of the state expected to heavily favour Clinton aren't in. McCain leading Huckabee 46-45%
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Sorry...
And look at the field there were running against Eisenhower for the nomination in 1952 -- including California Governor Earl Warren, who resigned the next year to become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. (A move Eisenhower allegedly described as ""the biggest damned-fool mistake I ever made.") It's pretty hard to see anyone that would be acceptable to the kulterkampf wing of the contemporary GOP -- and we're talking about a field that included Robert A. Taft, who fought the New Deal every inch of the way. Not exactly a field of limp-dicked, Commie-coddling socialists.
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I understand that, traditionally, the Deputy is chosen to fill the skill gap of the President...
Or you pick the rat-bastard you'd rather have down the hall where their potential for trouble-making is limited. About the only reason I can see for Eisenhower selecting Richard Nixon. Apart from their anti-Communist sentiments, it's rather hard to see much evidence that either man could stand the other.
And looking at the field there were running against Eisenhower for the nomination in 1952 -- including California Governor Earl Warren, who resigned the next year to become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. (A move Eisenhower allegedly described as ""the biggest damned-fool mistake I ever made.")
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3410, I find it hard to see banks as villains.
Certainly not when their sub-prime chickens are coming home to roost like a gonzo re-make of The Birds. Politically speaking, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for either Bill English or Michael Cullen to look voters in the eye and suggest that folks who go on credit-binges they can't realistically service have nobody but themselves to blame.
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It hardly matters in any case. No vote... even though the eventual winner of the US election will happily declare herself to be the leader of the free world.
If you can play the guitar, perhaps we could get a gig playing one of the innagural balls. After that Grammy win, I'm sure the Flight of the Conchords can't fill the demand for Kiwi folk-parody duos. :)
Yes, no, maybe
I don't know
Can you repeat the question?You're not the boss of me now
You're not the boss of me now
You're not the boss of me now
And you're not so bigLife is un-faaaaair
Pair this, with __Istanbul (Not Constantinople)__ and a gem of tortured Franglais or two, we be bangin' yet socially aware!
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I do know though that when one's been away for a good length of time, and made "home" somewhere else, the differences upon return can be quite stark, and it's possible to go through a strange, oscillating "I love it!" / "I hate it!" kind of phase.
And I wonder how much of that is the emotional vertigo of nostalgia getting mugged by reality? One of the glories of the human condition is our instinct to impose order on the apparently chaotic; but as any novelist can tell you, a narrative is as much about what you leave out (and why) as what you put down on the page.
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Interestingly for me, all the vox-pops I've seen unerringly refer to Obama's cross party appeal and maybe this is why he's doing so well since Super Tues?
Well, to be fair to Clinton she does have those vital endorsements from Coulter and Limbaugh. :) Your mileage may vary on whether Ann-droids and Ditto-heads are the kind of cross-party support you'd embrace without a hazmat suit .and a long shower afterwards. But in the end, a vote is a vote is a vote. :)
OK, the obvious caveat is that anyone who takes Ann and Rush at all seriously deserves to have their intelligence insulted. But I can't really see the downside in an Obama/McCain match-up causing the worse and most vocal elements of the rabid right and loony left to go home in a huff and stay there until next January. It at least would offer an opening for the sane people to regain control of the asylum.
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Mr Grumpy is doing some time on the maximum security naughty step. You hardly assert civility by being incivil, but that post just touched a very raw nerve. If you want to talk about 'binary thinking' it's time to get over, how about the notion that people who vote the 'wrong' way don't deserve to be treated with sneering contempt?
I'm obviously no great supporter of Senator Clinton, but I will do those people who are the courtesy of assuming they made a considered decision (though not one I agree with) not necessarily motivated by racism, ageism or misandry. (Though I do believe there have been some racial button cheerfully pushed by Clinton proxies, it would be dishonest to glibly dismiss all criticism of Obama as racist in nature.)
Now, I do have to thank Violet for the heads-up that Obama doesn't extemporize every speech or dash them off himself. I think the point is that he's not hiring the kind of folks who'd write lines as essentially contemptible as this:
Frankly, in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror.
I don't know if you could even call the dog being whistled for there a subtext. Pretty blatant text, and my opinion of McCain will take a serious nosedrive if he starts singing from that hymnbook. Because, Violet, style and substance do have a relationship. Perhaps some of us are ready for politicians who know the difference between genuine policy differences and the Apocalypse.
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The PM's speech gets a good review from ... Family First?
I wonder if McCoskrie's squee-ness is going to abate when he realises which NGO are likely to snaffle up all that lovely lolly? LOL... if they made a biopic about Bob McCoskrie, they'd have to cast Alicia Silverstone in the lead and call it Clueless.
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