Posts by Russell Brown
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Interesting column by Simon Jenkins on the British government's re-classication (upwards) of cannabis in the face of official advice. Reason doesn't have a lot to do with it.
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And then, as long as we maintain multiple copies of ourselves to protect against a system crash, we won't die.
Oh man, the (UK time) most recent episode of Doctor Who examines one dimension of this idea in a really heart-rending way. The "ghost" of a person, left imprinted on a comms device after life has gone from the body; blind, confused, fading to black ...
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Craig Ranapia farewells the late director, and contends that Pollack "did something even more valuable than being a genius". He made films that treated his audience as if they had both a brain and a heart.
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That was a pretty amazing set of articles I linked to previously. Iraq going well, the Taliban getting whipped and Al Qaeda on the ropes. That is all just amazing, and amazingly good, no other words for it.
James, I do appreciate you bringing an alternative viewpoint here, and your even temper in doing so, but there's generational damage been done on all sides here.
There are millions of Iraqis still displaced, many with no homes to go to now that their homes have been seized in ethnic cleansing. 500 of them died in violence last month, a "good" month. The government's attempt to take on Sadr was a debacle, and for all the US fulminating, Iran is the dominant foreign power in Iraq. There are mass protests this week against plans for permanent US bases in Iraq, and the related security accord has been denounced by members of Maliki's own goverment. They're selling more oil, but it seems likely they'll do so in the long term as a friend of Iran.
For the US, there's a trillion-dollar bill, an international loss of credibility, an over-committed military and the highest army suicide rates since records began.
Iz not so grate.
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looks like she's all over, at least according to the Huffington Post headlines
Yes. It's funny how people on the campaign are calling it a "victory party" though.
Surely they're not going to pull that "popular vote" bullshit -- the line where she wins if you only count some of the states and ignore differences in state-by-state rules that make a nonsense of a popular vote count ...
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Which, I assume, means that she wants New Zealand farming to diversify -- away from the areas where it's strongest, and into areas where it's not.
Sue Kedgley mentioned garlic, which is one product where local producers have pushed back against cheap imports.
Chinese garlic is dirt cheap and usually of poor quality, as least for ordinary culinary use. NZ garlic is much more expensive ($10-$18 kg) but also fresher and much nicer. It has made a welcome return to the shelves since it dawned on retailers that people would actually pay for something edible.
I guess the irony here is that if you go to, say Harvest Wholefoods, the shelves are crammed with expensive, imported (usually from the US) products. The not-very-good organic garlic from America can be as much as $25kg.
Sayin'.
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This suggests that, fortunately, the truly crazed Clinton supporters are noisy, but not numerous.
**Clinton donors poised to back Obama**
By Matthew Garrahan in Los AngelesA leading fundraiser for Hillary Clinton says her supporters will back Barack Obama with donations once he finally wins the Democratic presidential nomination, and says Mr Obama could raise as much as $500m to spend on the election campaign.
Mr Obama has raised about $240m to date, thanks in part to an internet campaign that has attracted individual donations from more than 1.5m people.
But Noah Mamet, a Democratic party consultant and fundraiser who has organised high-profile events in Los Angeles for Mrs Clinton, told the Financial Times that Mr Obama’s finances would be boosted by Mrs Clinton’s backers, when he wins the nomination.
“Almost all [Clinton’s] donors will support Obama,” he said, adding that Mr Obama’s online campaign had yet to realise its full potential. “Eighty per cent of people who have given money to the Obama campaign [via the internet] haven’t come close to giving him the maximum amount.
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With regard to Pfleger:
"but his Wikipedia article actually makes him sound quite admirable:"
Well that should tell you a thing or two about Wikipedia, shouldn't it? The guy is a certifiable nut case. Period.
Oh, come on James. Did you read the article? Or was there no need to risk finding out something that might contradict the talking points?
Anyway, he made an apology.
I'm more disturbed by the deluge of hate mail and death threats Pfleger got than by anything he actually said.
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Damian Christie talks to Sarah Helm, the organiser of Youth Week and Hoodie Day about the ideas behind the promotion -- and the media response.
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Obama's has had another nutty preacher blow up in his face over the last few days, another 20 year friend and acquaintance who is a complete loon, called Father Pfleger, and he and his wife have withdrawn his membership from the now world famous Trinity Church.
Thanks James -- it's always handy to get an update on what the right-wing talking points are.
Pfelger's speech taunting Clinton was a calamity, and he's clearly unorthodox, but his Wikipedia article actually makes him sound quite admirable:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Pfleger
Certainly, Obama has closer links to Pfelger than McCain has to Hagee and Parsley, but they're several orders of magnitude crazier than Pfelger is. Parsley is on record declaring that America was created to destroy Islam, and Hagee's opinions on Jews and Catholics are basically fascist.
Bazza will need to change his tune of doom and despondency on these subjects to reflect these new realities, but he has tied himself very strongly to the pessimistic view ...
Haha. Good one. I'd think his challenge revolves more around not blowing the chance to take advantage of unprecedented dissatisfaction with the incumbent.
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