Posts Tagged ‘psycho-babble’
A note on embracing storms
Spotted in Howick this afternoon — a little bit of wisdom from another age (or New Age?) This is good advice. Rather than indulging our reflexive fight/flight/freeze instincts when we strike conflict, it’s best to look for ways to meet other people’s interests — and get your own needs met. Sometimes that means compromise. It […]
“… serious criminal offences …” *
From ACT Party insider Simon Carr’s slender volume The Dark Arts of Politics… In the end, despite attempts at distraction (or bluster) the evidence speaks for itself … and is often inescapable. For my own part, I try to be a reasonable person, remaining open to negotiation where possible. But only up to a point. – P […]
A manifesto
See also James Taylor’s wonderful advice: ‘The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time…’
Misplaced trust (‘I’m telling you this in strictest confidence.’)
Yeah, this happens … JK Rowling on the leak that saw her ‘secret’ pen name John Galbraith leaked to the world (turns out lawyer Chris Gossage, sworn to secrecy, blabbed to his wife’s best friend who tweeted it): Rowling said that “only a tiny number of people knew my pseudonym and it has not been […]
Neutral Tones
I heard an extract of this poem on Radio 4 recently, and was struck. Wow. It’s not that it resonated with any application or relevance to my own life (well, not presently) … I just admired the power of Hardy’s use of language to convey his melancholy. Here’s Sarah Cookson reading it from a 1992 […]
Juxtapositions — David Shearer’s ‘price of power’
If you read The Paepae much you’ll know I’m often struck by humorous or ironic juxtapositions. This, from the latest Auckland Today giveaway, popped out at me. Just the headlines: ‘The personality profiles of top salespeople’ and David Shearer’s column ‘Addressing the price of power’. I don’t know Mr Shearer. I talked with him briefly […]
Public versus private forgiveness. And unforgiveness.
It’s been a while since we’ve discussed forgiveness here, although this post, “Do I believe in the forgiveness of sin?” and this one, Remembering Karla are never far from me … especially when I consider what I’ve learned and observed about the toxic effects of ‘harbouring’ unforgiveness. Last night I read of journalist/blogger/writer Andrew Sullivan’s […]
Sports mascots as racial stereotyping? (Or is that being ‘precious’?)
There’s a fascinating discussion — on Andrew Sullivan’s The Dish website — with input from all sides about the use of Native Americans and other groups as sports mascots. Have a read of it, if that subject interests you. I was struck by the National Congress of American Indians‘ effective use of substitution and juxtaposition to […]
Consequences of our thoughts
Via my (very beautiful) niece* … Twee, but true. – P * This has kicked around in my wife’s family (therefore my kids’ grandparents) for ages. Good advice. from The Twits
Smears, spin and subliminal messages
Some people have expressed concern about how I use language on this blog. This, from Ivan, recently, got me thinking …. I find your posts to often be … sinuous, reptilian, complex and sometimes (seemingly) self-backslapping in nature and like a property developer’s version of an unsolvable rubiks cube. People are scared to admit they […]
Synchronicity. When random song ‘choice’ makes you chuckle …
One of the cool things about having plenty of memory in your iPhone (and why I got a 32GB one) is you can put heaps of music on it (as well as my podcasts etc). Then, as happened today, occasionally the shuffle in my Nike+ Running app tosses up a song I haven’t heard for […]
Sir Robert Muldoon: ‘Always On the Record’
I remember an interchange I had with Sir Robert Muldoon back when I was a young Press Gallery reporter and he resembled an aged warrior chief — still with teeth, and claws and MIND more than sharp enough to puncture those he wanted to, don’t-you-worry-about-that. It’s here, in comments on my post ‘Banks: Doing the […]
Presented without comment. Almost.
Spotted this joke on my son’s placemat at McDonald’s in Coastlands last Sunday on my way home from Wellington. I thought it was funny then, but after Peter Dunne’s announcement of his inexplicable actions, well, it just seems kinda wry now: – P
The right wing is ‘demanding its pound of Crazy’
Sometimes I really like Josh Marshall’s use of language. This is a good example. – P The link he’s referring to is here.
