Craig M. Ranapia
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craigmranapia.bsky.social
Craig M. Ranapia
@craigmranapia.bsky.social
"This heaven gives me migraine."

Old enough to know better at the ends of the earth (New Zealand). I am large and contain multitudes, all of them intensely irritating. (Same-sex) married. Catholic. Conservative-ish. Cis-male. Jane Austen cultist.
Not just specific war crimes, but crimes that eighty years ago at the Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals, Axis military leaders were prosecuted, convicted and executed for.
To put a finer point on this whole thing: "Two people with direct knowledge of the operation" — presumably uniformed military leaders — are accusing the U.S. Secretary of Defense of personally ordering specific war crimes. That's a historic accusation.
Textbook war crime/extrajudicial killing

"Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck. The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack ... ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions."

Report by @alexhorton.bsky.social @ellenwapo.bsky.social o.bsky.social
November 29, 2025 at 12:29 AM
Reposted by Craig M. Ranapia
...This photo of Ant with the Headless Chickens in 1990 is by Jonathan Ganley; the Headless Chickens story is by Russell Brown.
Our thoughts are with his family, and many friends. 2/2
www.audioculture.co.nz/articles/inc...
Incubator - Article | AudioCulture
Incubator control room, mid-1990s. Incubator Studios was not a typical professional recording studio. Apart from anything else, it was situated in a six-bedroom flat. Yet it became a key part of Auckl...
www.audioculture.co.nz
November 28, 2025 at 6:57 AM
Reposted by Craig M. Ranapia
We are terribly sad to hear that Ant Nevison has passed away. He played guitar in Headless Chickens, co-founded Incubator studio, was a highly respected film soundie – and an excellent human being... 1/2 audioculture.co.nz/profile/head...
November 28, 2025 at 6:57 AM
Feeling irrationally angry about having to blow $100 replacing my perfectly functional if elderly 3G flip phone before the network is shut down.
a man with a beard wearing a t-shirt that says here 's a tech tip on it
Alt: a man with a beard wearing a t-shirt that says here 's a tech tip on it
media.tenor.com
November 28, 2025 at 8:46 AM
Necessary Addendum: I don't say this anywhere near as often as I should, but every podcast requires MASSIVE investments of time, energy and creativity - especially when you don't have corporate backing. It's seen (or heard) and appreciated.
Sad that @charliejane.bsky.social & @annaleen.bsky.social are calling time on OUR OPINIONS ARE CORRECT - one of my faves in the SFF pod space. But true as it ever was that the secret to a long life is knowing when its time to go... Time for archive surfing!

www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/shownotes
Episodes — our opinions are correct
www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com
November 28, 2025 at 8:37 AM
Sad that @charliejane.bsky.social & @annaleen.bsky.social are calling time on OUR OPINIONS ARE CORRECT - one of my faves in the SFF pod space. But true as it ever was that the secret to a long life is knowing when its time to go... Time for archive surfing!

www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/shownotes
Episodes — our opinions are correct
www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com
November 28, 2025 at 8:24 AM
When is it not the season for an elaborate straight-faced black comedy where Tom Cruise utterly fails to get what he really wants for Christmas: A spite shag after his wife hurt his feelings?
One of the reasons why EYES WIDE SHUT has become such an unlikely Christmas movie is that it’s basically the IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE of fucking. www.vulture.com/2019/06/eyes...
November 28, 2025 at 5:51 AM
Depressing to think you could do a not-asinine adaptation of Ira Levin's THE STEPFORD WIVES and the 1972 novel would only require minor and mostly cosmetic tweaks to be "relevant" AF in 2025.

#BookSky #MovieSky #FilmSky
giphy.com
November 28, 2025 at 5:06 AM
But remember folks, it's indecorous to notice that this geriatric shithead is increasingly incapable of sustaining a train of thought without it derailing into a nightmarish explosion of crass word salad.
Trump calls Tim Walz “seriously retarded”
November 28, 2025 at 4:56 AM
Happy to stand corrected - not least because I'm too old to be misplacing shade. But Dog in Heaven, people, this was a leade that shouldn't have been buried. Talking up public transport is part of your job!
It's a bit buried in the middle of this unnecessarily long story, but it's there:
“If you can, travel outside of those peak times and also catch public transport, there's a great train station at Sylvia Park, and then it's a very short five-minute walk across to Ikea,” Howard said.
November 28, 2025 at 2:02 AM
Reposted by Craig M. Ranapia
so anyone who has like an ounce of experience with the outdoors knows bamboo actually burns really poorly. Also anyone who has been following this and isn't a racist freak knows this was almost certainly an issue of the cladding like Grenfell was but I know that doesn't get the weird sinophobia hit!
November 27, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Traditions are fine things, but do Americans *have* to mark Genocidal White Supremacy Day by opening their gobs to projectile mouth-shart incredibly racist bullshit every damn year? Asking for the rest of the planet...
November 28, 2025 at 12:07 AM
To put it bluntly, Labour leaders in Australia and the UK had the great good fortune to be facing opponents about as palatable as pulled pork sliders at a Jewish-Muslim pot luck.

The NZ Labour Party and Chris Hipkins presume the same stars will align for them. I really wish they'd stop it. #nzpol
a man is standing in a tunnel and talking to a woman .
Alt: a man is standing in a tunnel and talking to a woman .
media.tenor.com
November 27, 2025 at 11:54 PM
THIS. I know it sounds insufferably pretentious, but democracy doesn't work when one or more components (like a loyal opposition that checks, balances and opposes the government) just can't be arsed coming to work. #nzpol
Labour conference this weekend, so presumably we'll start to get concrete action soon after that.

I'm not a Labour person, but I definitely want Labour to be the most active/appealing version of itself. #nzpol

I'm not certain it'll actually *happen,* but hey there's always hope.
November 27, 2025 at 11:46 PM
Reposted by Craig M. Ranapia
has labour tried running against national?
November 27, 2025 at 9:20 PM
'Tis the season to be sad that "no kink at Thanksgiving" snowflakes have ruined everything. EVERYTHING.
November 27, 2025 at 9:16 PM
Congratulations to the Trump Administration for getting into the Thanksgiving spirit by being not only predictably racist but lying about it.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
National Guard shooting: Trump says US should ‘re-examine’ all Afghan refugees after suspect named
President targets those who entered US in Biden’s term, despite reports suspect was granted asylum in Trump 2.0
www.theguardian.com
November 27, 2025 at 8:46 PM
"Expect 40-minute queues just to exit motorway, an hour to find a park when Ikea opens next week"

The store is a 350m walk from the Sylvia Park train station - which this story curiously fails to mention What's that about?

www.stuff.co.nz/home-propert...
Expect 40-minute queues just to exit motorway, an hour to find a park when Ikea opens
Aucklanders won’t know what’s hit them when Ikea opens its doors for the first time on December 4, and we’re not talking about the Swedish meatballs.
www.stuff.co.nz
November 27, 2025 at 8:31 PM
Oh, bless. Many thanks to Martin Van Beynen for the much needed comic relief in what's been a pretty grim spell. #nzpol
OPINION: Speculation about Luxon’s hold on the National Party’s leadership could become a self-fulfilling prophecy. It needs to stop.
Rolling Luxon gathers too much dross
OPINION: Speculation about Luxon’s hold on the National Party’s leadership could become a self-fulfilling prophecy. It needs to stop.
dlvr.it
November 27, 2025 at 8:15 PM
Every month or so, I get a charming form letter from Te Whatu Ora reminding me how long I've been on the waiting list for a consult with an opthamology specialist to perhaps schedule eye surgery. Fifteen months and no end in sight.

Pardon my Anglo-Saxon, but fuck these shitheads. #nzpol
November 27, 2025 at 1:55 AM
The only thing I know about Ryan Lizza is that he's not the guy who was fired by The New Yorker for jerking off during a staff Zoom meeting. He just gives off that kind of energy.

Happy to leave it there - decomposing in the gutter.
a woman sitting in a car with the word blissfully unaware in yellow
Alt: a woman sitting in a car with the word blissfully unaware in yellow
media.tenor.com
November 27, 2025 at 1:46 AM
"Choose among the errors
given to you
but choose right.
[...]
The right error
should you miss it
may never come again."

Hans Magnus Enzensberger, 'Lighter Than Air: Moral Poems' (trans. David Constantine)
November 27, 2025 at 1:40 AM
Another day, another reminder that the chosen heterosexual lifestyle is so decadent and depraved there should be a law against it. Lots and lots of laws.
November 26, 2025 at 9:06 PM
THIS. Also don't think an awful lot of us don't see how much of this closing ranks around another spectacularly entitled and privileged bougie white woman is being served by those who can't be seen for dust when the slut-shaming industrial complex has another woman of colour in its sights.
She is literally doing a book tour for her memoir about her affair. The publisher is Simon & Schuster
November 26, 2025 at 8:27 PM
Apropos of absolutely nothing, Elphaba’s Sex Cardigan is now the name of my next electrothrash Disney/showtune covers band.

www.theguardian.com/film/2025/no...
Sex cardigans: can the Wicked sequel make bulky knits strangely alluring?
It’s not the sexiest of garments. It arguably looks more like a discarded fishing net. And yet it has cast a spell over the internet
www.theguardian.com
November 26, 2025 at 8:19 PM