 |
On Mar 6, 11:37 pm, Liberty <libert...@live.com> wrote:
> RIP Owen McShanehttp://www.kiwiblog.co.
I remember Owen McShane being humiliated when he came on Chris
Laidlaw's programme one Sunday a few years ago. The topic was what the
government should do about New Zealand's transport infrastructure. One
of the participants was Merv Smith, an extremely well informed railway
enthusiast and also, unfortunately for McShane, someone who does not
suffer fools lightly.
For most of the discussion, McShane had nothing to say, until suddenly
he swooped in from left field with a gem for the ages. Speaking slowly
and with maximum gravitas, McShane said: "There's a simple answer to
the problem of a national roading network. Why don't they just rip up
the Main Trunk railway line, and use what remains for a national
highway?"
There was an audible gasp from everyone else in the panel. Possibly
none of them had ever before encountered full-blown lunacy at such
close quarters. After the gasping, there was a burst of incredulous
laughter.
Then Merv Smith decided it was time to front up to McShane's moronic
full toss and dispatch it to the boundary. "Turn the Main Trunk
Railway into a road? There are thousands of bridges on it! How wide is
this road going to be?"
McShane idiotically tried to say something, but he had been destroyed,
as surely as Dan Quayle was destroyed by Lloyd Bentsen in 1992.
The tributes to him on Kiwiblog are full of hot air and resemble the
empty tributes to Whitney Houston. Some of them are inadvertently
funny, however.
One mourner notes without irony that he/she "heard him call Leighton
Smith recently."
Another mourner rhapsodizes about how McShane was "so knowledgeable, a
good communicator, had common sense. Will be missed by all right
thinking people."
Another one reckons that McShane was an "articulate and well balanced
commentator on a wide range of public policy issues, particularly the
RMA and urban planning." (What's the bet this mourner would have
supported McShane's brilliant vision for the Main Trunk line?)
Perhaps most hilariously of all, one bloke/blokess opines that McShane
was an "independent thinker" and an "advocate for rational thinking".
> RIP Owen McShanehttp://www.kiwiblog.co.
I remember Owen McShane being humiliated when he came on Chris
Laidlaw's programme one Sunday a few years ago. The topic was what the
government should do about New Zealand's transport infrastructure. One
of the participants was Merv Smith, an extremely well informed railway
enthusiast and also, unfortunately for McShane, someone who does not
suffer fools lightly.
For most of the discussion, McShane had nothing to say, until suddenly
he swooped in from left field with a gem for the ages. Speaking slowly
and with maximum gravitas, McShane said: "There's a simple answer to
the problem of a national roading network. Why don't they just rip up
the Main Trunk railway line, and use what remains for a national
highway?"
There was an audible gasp from everyone else in the panel. Possibly
none of them had ever before encountered full-blown lunacy at such
close quarters. After the gasping, there was a burst of incredulous
laughter.
Then Merv Smith decided it was time to front up to McShane's moronic
full toss and dispatch it to the boundary. "Turn the Main Trunk
Railway into a road? There are thousands of bridges on it! How wide is
this road going to be?"
McShane idiotically tried to say something, but he had been destroyed,
as surely as Dan Quayle was destroyed by Lloyd Bentsen in 1992.
The tributes to him on Kiwiblog are full of hot air and resemble the
empty tributes to Whitney Houston. Some of them are inadvertently
funny, however.
One mourner notes without irony that he/she "heard him call Leighton
Smith recently."
Another mourner rhapsodizes about how McShane was "so knowledgeable, a
good communicator, had common sense. Will be missed by all right
thinking people."
Another one reckons that McShane was an "articulate and well balanced
commentator on a wide range of public policy issues, particularly the
RMA and urban planning." (What's the bet this mourner would have
supported McShane's brilliant vision for the Main Trunk line?)
Perhaps most hilariously of all, one bloke/blokess opines that McShane
was an "independent thinker" and an "advocate for rational thinking".
|
- show quoted text -
persuasion, but I used to read his articles in NBR and found them
interesting. He was certainly one-eyed about RMA, but no one, surely,
thinks that it is not badly broken. He was in favour of smaller
government and we all want that, don't we?
Cheers,
Cliff
--
The ends justifies the means - Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli.
The end excuses any evil - Sophocles
|
- show quoted text -
- show quoted text -
|
- show quoted text -
here going back to 1998. He was a master at pointing out circular
arguments and how trying to "save" the planet or some imagined scarce
resource inevitably had the effect of destroying something else equally
or more precious to the would be saviour.
We're much the better for the time he spent here.
JC
>
> Cheers,
>
> Cliff
>
|
On Mar 7, 9:25 am, Enkidu <cliffp@bogus> wrote:
- show quoted text -
without doing any research. Merv Smith, unlike "liberal" commentators
like Chris Trotter and Tim Watkin, was not afraid to show him up for
what he was.
>
> but I used to read his articles in NBR and found them
> interesting. He was certainly one-eyed about RMA, but no one, surely,
> thinks that it is not badly broken.
live in China, where planners have a similar disregard for law and
democracy.
>
> He was in favour of smaller
> government and we all want that, don't we?
opposition was purely ideological.
- show quoted text -
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/nz.general/dmvfVwG5Wj0/wvhbUxm_hOEJ;context-place=msg/nz.general/x4x3KKFsrUk/72jMnHwMRnYJ
No comments:
Post a Comment