Posts by vangam
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I guess this has scuppered Jim Anderton's shot at being Chch Mayor.
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The fall of communism and the concomitant discrediting of Marxist theory seems to have sidelined 'class' as a structural force in the modern age. It may not be very fashionable to adopt a class-based approach these days, but I think we neglect it at our peril. It is still very important to our society, even if most of us neglect it as a concept.
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Why are road accidents news?
I'll take the silence on this question to affirm my instinct that driving fatalities possess little, if any, newsworthy content.
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Why are road accidents are news - especially lead-story news?
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I wouldn't claim my nose is infallible. Mostly it's just probability. Smell a herby smell on someone you know doesn't cook, and there you go.
I'm constantly accused of smoking pot due to the strong aroma of the homegrown tobacco I smoke. It seems people smell something unrecognisable and assume it to be marijuana.
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To quote a former meth cook and dealer I interviewed for a Metro feature a couple of issues back (on drug dealers), "I'm yet to meet anyone who has become a better person as a result of heavy use of methamphetamine."
I'm yet to meet anyone who has become a better person as a result of the heavy use of alcohol.
It's not really the point is it?
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I watched the '78 final again recently - it is incredible how dirty the game was back then. The final is full of off-the-ball incidents and in one of the most cynical fouls ever seen on a football field, Pasarella - the Argentenian captain - elbows Neeskens in the jaw as he runs past him, well after the ball has gone.
I just hope since that in the finals of '74 and '78 when the best team lost, that the best team will also lose in the 2010 final, and the Dutch will take home the trophy.
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I didnt see the Paraguay v Italy game in full, but against Slovakia they were impressive. They also beat both Argentina and Brazil on their way to qualifying.
Has anyone looked at the FIFA player rankings on their website? According to their calculations, Chris Killen* has been our best performing player. Go figure.
Pardon me: Vicelich is no.86, and Killen is no.105 on the Castrol Index. Ryan Nelsen is waaay down at 241.
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Diving throws into stark relief a cultural faultline between two definitions of masculinity and confirms some the most deeply held assumptions of Anglo-Saxon superiority over the rest. A New Zealander would no more imagine an All Black taking a backward step from an opponent than a Huscarl would have dreamed of adandoning his brother warriors in the shield wall at the moment of crisis; Whereas the behaviour of the Italians (for example) simply goes to prove the Latins are not made of the same stern stuff as us and come from a history long on treachery, regicide and marrying their close blood relatives.
Well if you want to 'dumb it down', okay, but for me nationality doesn't come into it: some players are worse than others and the English do the diving as much as anyone else, so I'm not sure the stereotype quite holds up. Unfortunately, folks like Blatter & Co. think the bad decisions are just part of the game and, in fact, add to its appeal - not unlike cricket umpiring used to be. We accepted that home teams always had an advantage when it came to lbw's and the like. Cricket is now trying to introduce technology in a way that improves the game, by making it fairer. This is what football needs to do. It is simply plain silly to see games decided by bad refereeing (eg USA v Slovenia) when it could be rectified quickly and easily.
Does anyone give Chile a chance against Spain?
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Don't be mean.... It's just not a nice thing to do.
Yeah, coz there is nothing nastier than suggesting Italy wont make it past the first round in the World Cup.
Cry me a river...