Posts by Lucy Stewart
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The killer saying "oh, you're putting that on, it's not that sad". Fuck off.
It certainly makes his claims of remorse less, shall we say, substantial. The whole "oh, let's all be sensible and focus on what the kid was doing out at night" - it smacks of an attempt to deflect attention from the fact that *someone was killed* that I find really contemptible.
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But I love that a newspaper that often reads like the Sensible Sentencing Trust newsletter has found a convicted killer they can get the hankies out for...
It's all about the fair and balanced reporting, Craig. Bay for the blood of some, bring out the hankies for others, and it all comes out even.
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Our anniversary: the 15th.
My birthday: the 20th.
St. Valentine's Day: what is that?For us, it's:
My birthday: 4th
His birthday: 13th
Valentine's Day: 14th
Our anniversary: 17thWe've never done anything for Valentine's, but there's quite enough celebration exhaustion with the rest of it.
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I used to get a bit of stick at work for not participating in karakia or powhiri. My excuse was "it's not culturally appropriate for me to mouth religious or cultural views that I don't share" and I still stand by that.
The Maori classrooms at my school had a whole lot of Bible verses (in Maori) tacked up on the walls. At age sixteen, I thought this was weird, given that we were there to learn the language. Looking back, I'd consider it a fairly clear contravention of the supposed secularity of public education. Mind you, it wasn't like we were being proselytised, it was just...there.
It seems to be part of a larger thing where Christian prayers are totally acceptable as long as they're in Maori - even in situations where many people would object to Christian prayers in English. The best example I can think of is a family I know - atheists all - who switched from a non-religious grace to a Maori grace, and seemed totally unaware of the fact that whether you're thanking "te Matua, te Tama, me te Wairua Tapu" or their English equivalents for your dinner, it's still, you know, explicitly religious. But it's in another language, so it's okay!
Or something.
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I remember thinking at the time that Clark's response to Brash's outburst was probably the best one she could give, under the circumstances - it would be laughable to expect her to endorse such an attack on herself, and lashing out in return would have been far worse.
I have to say I didn't know about Waitangi Day having been previously called New Zealand Day - it perhaps puts into perspective a sign I saw outside a bar in Christchurch, conspiculously advertising "no surchage on New Zealand Day". At the time I thought it was a rather stupid attempt to ignore the cross-cultural elements of the day, rather on a par with those who put their ethnicity on the census as "Kiwi", but perhaps I was a little uncharitable. Still odd, though.
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Bloody hell, Lucy, you weren't joking! "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.” My Inner Janeite is outraged, but the other part that loves me some zombie ultraviolence is going to track down his prissy arse and eat it.
I would never joke about something that serious, naturally. *grins*
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So are God, the Novel and Even Worse Remakes of Slasher Movies that Hurled Woman-Hating Chunks In The First Place. The world is full of dead things that won't lie down, and the zombie apocalypse hasn't even started yet.
You'll probably want to avoid that zombie version of Pride and Prejudice they're releasing, then.
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Mmmm, evil Willow...
Why is it that Vamp!Willow keeps appearing to derail PA threads?
(I mean, I know *why* they then get derailed, because, hey, Willow in a corset. I just wonder why it happens so often.)
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I blame Lucy.
I am about five pages and two days late for this, but - did *I* mention the Marshall twins first? I think not.
There's a famous old photo (well, two actually) of Stalin strolling along the Volga with his chief of police, in one of them, and then the exact same photo without the other guy - Nikolai Yezhov his name was - who had since become the kind of person who should be erased from history. Such were the Orwellian ways of totalitarianism, and we can almost laugh at their quaintness these days.
On a total aside, Guy Gavriel Kay's most famous book, Tigana, is partly based on this idea - the erasure of people from history - and I think he even talks about this photo in the introduction. It's a very powerful concept, not so much because people succeed at it - not today, anyway - but because they try.
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Which is why legislation could also target power output / power to weight ratios. It wouldn't be that difficult to come up with some policy options around this.
I've personally always been in favour of speed limiting on cars sold for private use; let's face it, if the speed limit is 100kmph, there is no earthly reason why you could possibly need to go over, say, 120. It's not going to solve the problem, by any means, but it would certainly cut down on the most egregious speeding.
I'd also be in favour of, after the second impounding, people being forced to sell their car and use the money to pay off any outstanding fines. It avoids the dubious aspects of Judith Collins' crushing proposal while still enforcing a penalty.