worryingly jolly batman

I read throughadoor's comments on Sam in AHBL part 1 and basically his character arc over the last two seasons. (Obviously, major SPOILERS.) For some reason she articulated a lot of stuff that, as soon as I read it, I thought, "oh duh!" and wondered why I hadn't been able to articulate that myself. About the differences between Sam last season and this season. Anyway, that may interest you all as well.

( and a bit about Supernatural S2, related to said comments )

Aaaand a final comment: my one real prediction for this season was that we'd see some kind of prophecy, and we so haven't? So I'm surprised. OTOH, a destiny is a pretty good replacement.

'Fess up: who slipped Helen alcohol today? stuff.co.nz has an article, and well, some of the highlights:

On Don Brash:

"Labour regards Dr Brash as a corrosive and cancerous person within the New Zealand political system."

"What began this appalling slide in political standards was having a polarising leader of the Opposition – a man who I do not believe should be leading anything in New Zealand."

On Labour MP Trevor Mallard, who said some nasty things about dotty old Don:

"He was responding very, very strongly to quite ridiculous and outrageous attacks on me and on the New Zealand Labour Party and we are not going to stand by and have the sort of behaviour go on that has gone on."
c
"Personal attacks form no part of Labour's strategy. That's where Trevor was out of line," and yet,

"He did not start it."

Or, to put it another way: the Opposition made him do it!


Apart from alcohol, I think the whole Davis thing was the absolute last straw. Helen's marriage has always been the target of criticism - much less than Don's ever was - and frankly I think someone just went a little too far.

As for the rest of the article: Labour is not trying to divert attention from the pledge card debacle, because you know what? The Exclusive Brethren thing was exposed before the pledge card thing, in fact before last election. 1.2 million dollars is a really significant sum, literally hundreds of thousands of dollars more than were involved in the pledge card thing. Russell Brown writes about Exclusive Brethren spending here and overseas.

On a more amusing note, scoop.co.nz satire is always good. (So, by the way, is their news coverage. Very thorough, especially of parliament but also national and international news. Plus, they have a category for "strange and bizarre." That's nifty.) Highlight today: Investigate magazine to claim Clark/Brash affair, by Lyndon Hood, which is fairly hysterical.

Attention! Instead of reading the following boring bitching about New Zealand politicians' sex scandals, you should really just read Tze Ming Mok's hysterical latest.


Sometimes when I'm bored on my Thursday evening shift, I write little lists of what I would prefer to be writing an LJ entry about. Sometimes I write the entry, sometimes I don't, but anyway. Tonight's list had just one item: I can't believe I'm writing about Don Brash again.

That's right, boys and girls of the foreign persuasion. Don "My wife is Chinese* so I can't be racist or anti-immigration", "If National loses the 2005 election I will resign," "I lose my debates with Helen Clark on purpose because it's not nice to be rude to women", "Helen knows my party's policy better than I do" Brash, unbeloved, fuddy-duddy, conservative, frankly bad politician Leader of the Opposition, is back in the news. (National did in fact lose the election, and he... did not step down. Hm.)

Unfortunately, I find myself in the position of supporting him. Excuse me while I go bleach my brain.

This is the thing: New Zealand has something of a tradition of keeping its nose out of the private lives of its politicians, and I generally think this is a really good thing. There are exceptions, times when a politician's private life is relevant (and, obviously, things like corruption and all over everywhere) but as a rule, the validity of what a politician is saying should be judged by what they're saying, not by the politician. This is, I believe, part of the reason the NZ parliament includes a rastafarian and an transsexual.

Now, Don Brash is well-known to have cheated on his first wife with the woman who would become his second - and current, Singaporean - wife. The irony of his conservative positions on marriage is not lost on anyone, but it's not usually considered kosher to bring this up in debates. A few days ago it was leaked that Brash is having marital problems (he's taking a sabbatical, I believe, from which I suspect he will not be returning) and someone in Brash's own party basically said in Parliament that he's been cheating again.

(If anyone not a Kiwi is still reading along, there's been a whole heap of shit-slinging in Parliament lately. First Philip Field is being accused of corruption (Tze Ming Mok's analysis of what he's supposed to have done is here, if anyone has a better one gimme a shout), then the Labour party is being accused of breaking laws using the wrong money to pay for some pledge cards (no link because this is pretty cut-and-dried: it clearly wasn't an intentional mistake, I doubt it significantly affected election results, for fuck's sake, Helen, just pay back the money and everyone will call it quits.) THEN Labour basically threatened to loose the hounds dirt files. This is apparently the first taste of that although, as I said, the original volley came from within National.

Also, National has been trying to smear Labour for... some time, actually, and Labour has generally been fairly restrained about responding, so I guess it was time.)

Okay, that is a very longwinded lot of paragraphs for me to get around to saying: I don't like Don Brash. I think he's not a very good politician and on those occasions when he does manage to articulate opinion I invariably find myself in vehement disagreement (Orewa nearly gave me apoplexy); he certainly managed to revitalise failing National support but he did it in a way that really altered the shape of Parliament, to a shape I don't like (polarised, virtually two-party); and above all, I think that he should have done as he said he would and resigned after National lost the 2005 election. However! If you are going to question Brash's fitness to lead his party, there are a million and one good reasons to do so, like he's a crappy speechmaker, a hopeless debater, he has no control over his party and backbenchers (which, well, sort of proved that), he frequently doesn't know his own policy, even just that he's hopelessly out of touch and old fashioned.

But for god's sake, stay out of the man's bedroom.

Just as I believe the fact that Tim Barnett has sex with men should not be a factor in judging his fitness as a politician, I do not believe Brash's (condemnable, BTW) sexual misconducts should be brought into the limelight. It's not relevant and I want fairness to go both ways. (Although he does look pretty awful in light of the fact that his party is the one that bangs on (and on and on and on) about the sanctity of marriage.)

But if you do want to talk about it, Russell Brown discusses who he was doin' and why it was a problem.

Um, okay, that's more than enough time devoted to Don Brash's - eww - sex life. Let's talk about Bob Clarkson, shall we? Or, rather, let's let amarynth talk about Bob "I had to be told to stop talking about my testicles in public" Clarkson's latest idiocies, because he is smrt and put it very well.

No more politics for another six months, promise.

*Singaporean, in fact

Fanon I don't get: Sam & Dean speaking Latin.

Or, rather, I do get it because
a) that would be hot
b) fandom in general is made up of geeks. Geeks think obscure knowledge is hot and/or really freaking cool.
c) Latin! Latin is cool.
d) It's not *that* unreasonable. And it would be very useful, I mean, I think it would be a smart skill.

But I was rewatching Shadow last night and Meg speaks in Latin quite a lot in that episode, including a really kind of short phrase when she phones demon papa. And the phrase she uses is [something something] pater me audi. (I went and checked Super-Canon for a transcript; the Shadow transcript just has "Meg says stuff in an ancient language" which, well, ta for that; the Scarecrow transcript says "Tire quiero patem me a di.") My best guess is "te requiro pater me audi." Of course I could be totally wrong and it's not Latin at all; if, however, I'm right, this says... well, it appears to say "I demand that you hear me, father." Mind you, "pater me audi" says exactly the same thing a hell of a lot more quickly (literally, "hear me, father.") and I have a feeling the actual phrases used is kind of ungrammatical, but it's been a while since sixth form Latin, so I'm probably wrong.

Anyway, the point is? It's been nearly three years since I last studied Latin and the phrase "pater me audi" is distinctive and fairly easy to translate. But Sam goes on to say this:

     SAM: She was communicating with someone.
     DEAN: With who? With the Daeva?
     SAM: No, you said those things were savages. No, this was someone different. Someone who’s giving her orders.

So Sam's justification that Meg was speaking to demonpapa was Meg's later conversation in English - and nothing to do with the fact she addressed her mysterious boss-person as "father." Call me crazy, but that seems like way better evidence. I mean, he seems to be extrapolating, guessing, not having certainty - but if he could translate "pater me audi" he would have been certain.

... So now I really want a definitive translation of that Latin, and the rest of what she uses in the ep; or at least confirmation that, yup, it's Latin...

[note for my own purposes: my post in spn_possession on this subject.]

I have a cartoon on my door. Well, I have several, actually, but only one's relevant here. It's a Slane cartoon from the New Zealand Listener of October last year, just after the general election. It shows a carpark with a desk in a parking space; on the wall above the desk is the legend "RESERVED: MINISTER OUTSIDE CABINET." Sitting with his feet on the desk, dressed in a fabulous pinstriped suit and puffing away on a cigar is, of course, the Right Honourable Winston Peters, Minister for Foreign Affairs.

I'd take a moment to explain the true phenomenon that is Winston to those of you who are unfamiliar with his exploits here in New Zealand but, well, it would be very difficult. I will say briefly that he is a consummate politician, usually characterised as right-wing and somewhat populist; he leads the New Zealand First party, which runs mostly on a fairly racist anti-immigration policy. He is... well, he's a character in New Zealand politics. In the last election, Labour entered into extensive negotiations with Winston Peters that somehow culminated in him being given the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs and Racing- although he's not part of the government, and on issues that are not in his portfolio he is allowed to criticise the gvt. So he's in an interesting position, and I think most NZers viewed his appointment as a likely trainwreck - but probably an entertaining one.

Amazingly, he's proved to be rather good at it and relatively scandal-free - relative to a career in which he has consistently harassed the leaders of his party (when he was affiliated with National), protested, tantrumed, quoted unnamed sources and, let us never forget, had speeding tickets and free seafood meals. And today I was amazed to find this article on Scoop.co.nz which quoted Peters' response to Bob Geldof's criticism of New Zealand's international aid contribution. I was amazed because I agree with Peters. A lot. While more aid can always be given, New Zealand has a pretty good track record; our aid as a percentage of GDP is reasonably significant, our aid is mostly untied, and we contribute to peacekeeping and free trade. We also do a lot of work in the Pacific. I am inclined to think that to Mr Geldof, "third-world countries" really means "Africa." Indeed I think that most people, when considering global poverty, think first of Africa. In New Zealand we are a lot more aware, by dint of proximity, of the plight of Pacific nations.

And now, having effectively written an ode to Winston Peters, I'll leave you with a few words from Kate Camp.

Winston Peters with apologies to Robert Frost

I have been one acquainted with the right.
I have walked out in rain, and back with Regaine
I have gutdragged the final Marlboro Light.

I have Brylcreemed the thinning old campaign
I have whizzed by the traffic cop on his beat
And wound down my window, unwilling to explain.

I have been one acquainted with the right.

-- Kate Camp

So I was thinking about Bechdel's law earlier. In a comic strip by Alison Bechdel, a character explains that she only watches a movie if it
"one, it has to have at least two women in it, who
two, talk to each other about,
three, something besides a man."

And then I was thinking about Firefly, as you do, and I was thinking... does Firefly ever meet the standard? Even in Inara's lesbian sex scene they talk about men. Inara and Kaylee have conversations - about Mal, or occasionally Simon. Does Zoe ever converse alone with anyone other than Mal or Wash? And then I was thinking about Angel, and I'm pretty sure that fails in almost every episode (many of them right at the first step.) And then I was thinking about Buffy, and then I got depressed, because I have a sinking feeling that even Buffy the Vampire Slayer wouldn't meet the standard more than 50% of the time.

Dear f-list, please tell me I am wrong and give me evidence?

Also! Fandom questions!

( fanfic100, for blueyeti )

( crazy space incest for sixth_light )

( doctor/rose for bad_mushroom )

Dear wider world:

"maori spirits": not universally evil, also, not often called spirits. Also, Maori do not have shamans or medicine men or live in teepees, and they never have. Ever. Kaumatua is not a difficult word to find and it would be so much better than shaman, thanks.

Also, enough of the soul-eating Maori monsters!11!!1. If you want to incorporate that aspect of Maori culture, great, good for you, but get it right. Otherwise, don't use it in fic, don't use it in fanworks, and DON'T, DON'T, DON'T use it in actual published work - and published only a few years ago, I might add - that you want to get money for. (*cough* Gotham Knights 16-17. The thing that pissed me off the most about them is that it was half-right- some (some) of the art was pretty good (and then some was awful. There's a whole goddamned wiki page on ta moko and it even has pictures! But it is fairly recent, so.)

And may I just add? I know next to nothing about Maori culture and history, I don't speak te reo and I don't even know my mihi. So if I can tell that it's appalling, so can everyone else. JUST SAY NO to using a culture you know nothing about.

NO LOVE
Me

This PSA was brought to you by Gotham Knights 16-17 (Devin Grayson, Roger Robinson), and then seeing it once to many times as a gimmick. And I really like GK, so it pissed me off more than normal. NO MORE EATING BRAINS, WORLD, OKAY?

ETA: THIS IS ME PUBLICALLY DEFENDING keymash's HONOUR, BY THE WAY. I was busy sleeping when she was being given the inappropriate smackdown by my brother and his friend, who are clearly unable to distinguish IRONY from LJ comments. So, *ahem*, I have known keymash for, like, at least over a year and she was so totally making a joke oh my god. A satire, even. *shakes head*

That said, I am sort of glad because that was very funny.

Indulging in a little navel-gazing of the ethnic type, as Pakeha New Zealanders are so wont to do, especially in the weeks leading up to our census. Cut for length, but I think it's sort of interesting, and if you're a Pakeha New Zealander I'd love to know what you think. Or even if you've never heard the word Pakeha before.

For those of you who have not been following the debate (Tze Ming Mok and Russell Brown of Public Address have both posted on the topic over the last few days: what do Caucasian New Zealanders, who are born here, put as their ethnicity on their census form? The option given on the census form is “New Zealand European”, but historically a reasonably significant percentage have ticked “other” and put either Pakeha- the Maori word for white person, derived from an older word for pale-skinned fairies in Maori mythology- or “New Zealander.” The recent debate has been sparked by an email forward urging white New Zealanders to put down simply “New Zealander” as their ethnicity.

( More learned people than I have discussed why New Zealander is not an ethnicity )
Damn. Why is it so much easier to navel-gaze about my own ethnicity than it is to, you know, actually write real essays? 1500 words in forty minutes, man, If I could do all my assignments like this… I could completely turn this into an essay, people.