Posts by Grant McDougall
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Key's performance in the media just demonstrates how woefully ill-equipped for the job he really is. Challenge a position or question the detail and he falls to pieces - every time.
He is mediocre at taking a firm stance, isn't he? He probably does have his own personal views on issues. But when it comes to giving a clear answer on them, he hesitates, as if he's calculating which answer will be the most appealing and popular to potential voters, rather spitting out a clear answer.
As a result of such frequent hesitancy, he always ends up in a muddle, looking silly.
He's failed to give clear answers on being for or against the '81 Springbok tour, whether he believes in God and now the slightly-more complex issues of Auckland airport and the Treaty of Waitangi.When he was being interviewed in Parliament's lobby the other day, he equivocated; Bill English was right next to him, looking like he was gagging to give a firm, clear answer, but must've known that if he did, it'd over-shadow Key.
I don't agree with English on a lot of things, but at least you always know where he stands. With Key you simply do not. -
...into his fucking fool head...And if you think that makes me a liar, then leathery titties.
Craig, I have no qualms with you argueing your case, but would you please have a little more dignity in doing so. Please do not swear, it lowers the tone of PA, I reckon. You've been swearing like a potty-mouthed teenager of late and I find it unbecoming of you and unnecessarily detracting of your arguments.
(I can swear like a wharfie myself as well, but don't feel the need to do so here, ok?).Also, please refrain from personal insults; again, they are unbecoming and detracting. Play the ball, not the man, please.
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...my buddy Richard Ram...
Wreck Small Speakers On Expensive Stereos!!!
(If anyone can - ahem burn me a copy of their album, it'd be appreciated. :)
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Perhaps she was hoping to be a part of a Velvet Revolution and she has dejectedly concluded that it's not worth hanging around for something as slight as a Beige Makeover.
I reckon this is what it's boiled down to. She's just said on RNZ National that bulk funding is "not in my thinking" - whereas it patently is Alan Peachey's. Again, this is a case of the National party putting on a nice face publically, trying not to frighten the horses, saying "No!, of course we're not going to privatise / bulk fund / insert other topic here" then, when they do, show their true colours.
Rich stood up to Don Brash against his hard-line welfare policies, was the only National MP to vote against the anti-smacking bill (before Key decided the party should vote for it) and is against bulk funding.
Key's not prepared to tolerate someone not towing the line and she's probably been discreetly told to jump before she's pushed.Also, while being an MP is tough on families, etc, I doubt it's been financially tough. She and her husband, Andy Rich (early-mid '90s Otago forward) live in deepest Maori Hill, hardly a sign they're on the bread-line.
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A reader emailed me recently:
Russell, can you please take that offensive ad for Jack's Point off your blog. This development is one of the worst imaginable - destroying a pristine lake edge so a few absurdly wealthy individuals can play golf in their backyards.
IIRC, this the property block being developed by Dunedin businessman Alan Dippie. Dippie owns several prominent local businesses. I worked for one for a little while and a mate of mine worked for the same business for several years before finally getting frustrated with it once and for all and going out on his own.
I met Dippie once and he came across as a pompous, arrogant and snobby.
My mate was of the view that Dippie never spent enough money on essential tools and machinery, when it would've been wise to have done so. There were other things he said, but hey, the libel laws 'n' all...;) -
...and sure as eggs, Winston Peters has started to whip up his typical brainless redneck nonsense by saying she shouldn't have been let into the country and that it was a "serious terrorist incident." I wonder if he can spell "hyperbole"?
I doubt he would've gotten as excited if she'd been European and it was a person with mental health issues losing their self-control, not religious zealots wanting to become martyrs.
I agree with the above comments on Paul Henry, too. Sure, it's shooting fish in a barrel territory, but he really is an odious individual.
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Bridges...the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol, England, really is a remarkable object, both as an engineering feat and for how cool it is.
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The NZ Herald says the arrested woman is Somalian. I can just see the rocket scientists that vote for NZ First and take talk-back radio seriously really foaming at the mouth about immigration, terrorism and the sky falling in.
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One of the small joys of taking regional Link flights (and there are few enough) is that no one seems to think it worthwhile to run a security screen: so, no queueing, no fetching your laptop out of your bag and no worrying about your scissors. But there's always someone who spoils it, isn't there?
I'm pleased that the media (from what I've seen so far) has shown restraint on this. Rather than peeing their pants with excitement and screaming "TERRORISM!!!!" they've managed to show some control and dignity.
I'm pleased they've taken a realistic perspective on this; one person got a bit silly on a small plane and some people received cuts. It's not like it was Te Quada or somesuch simultaneously taking over some jets and crashing them into the Sky Tower, for example.
Also, in terms of the actual crime, the fact it occured on a plane aside, it's a minor, common incident that sadly occurs as a matter-of-fact around dairies, pubs, streets, etc, day in and day out.The same show features an interview with Amsterdam-based Kiwi Adam Hyde of FLOSS Manuals
So that's what Adam's doing these days. I knew him when he was involved in student radio in Hamiltron and Auckland in the '90s. (He co-ordinated the God Save The Clean tribute album to The Clean, also). Then I heard he went to Brisbane. Thanks for that, Russell.
That creative team should make Labour political ads this year...
I was talking to someone on Labour's list a month or so ago and by his own admission Labour's advertising in the 2005 campaign was "crap". They were good advertisements for New Zealand, but poor adverts for Labour, compared to National's far simpler, clearer, stronger ads.
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O'Sullivan, from behind a lipstick smeared half empty beer glass "You know what's wrong with this country George?"
George, propping up the bar with a leather patched corduroy elbow "PFFFraaaaarp"I "get" your joke, but sadly George is a reformed alcoholic and now tee-total. This of course helps partially explain what a chronic, santimonious bore he is. Maybe he's just a teetotaltotalitarian? :)
Maybe he's our age's answer to T.S Green?