Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: Inauspicious

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  • Simon Grigg,

    Manakura

    Here's a Tone Loc story for you. Go back 18 years to the time when Mr Loc was supposed to play Auckland but cancelled because he had a "sore tongue" (yes, indeedy...that's the best excuse for poor ticket sales I've heard). We were hosting the afterparty and decided to carry on regardless. Who should show but Tone and his minder....an immense black man..six foot something and god knows how many kilos. They sat quietly in the corner. The DJ, Andrew Tidball, a lovely, very humble guy who now runs the Cheese On Toast website, was doing his best to fill a half hearted dancefloor. He then played a track which included the lyrics "all the niggas, all the niggas, all the niggas in the house, get down" (not PC but that's hip hop for you)...Tone whispered to House who sneered then slowly rose and began walking very slowly towards Andrew with a huge frown on his face.

    You could feel both the floor and Andrew shaking, and House's walk seemed to take forever as Andrew awaited.



    When he finally arrived, he smiled, lent over and said "Can You Play Funky Cold Medina?"

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report Reply

  • Simon Grigg,

    James,
    for once you and I agree...she kinda misses the point.... :)

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report Reply

  • reece palmer,

    but in all reality the ncea isn't about the kiddies at all. Give them a sense of pride and make it easier, let the childrens laughter remind us how we used to be... the ncea has a long way to go before it can be ranked as funky cold medina, but I'm mike whitney and I dare you...

    the terraces • Since Nov 2006 • 298 posts Report Reply

  • mark p baker,

    James, your quote
    <quote>Oh no, not the oil nonsense again. The US has been in Iraq for over 3 1/2 years now and how many barrels of oil have they expropriated? That would be none, zip, zero, nada. Iraq's oil is Iraq's oil, to do with as they please, and they are doing just that. The last time I saw some numbers, despite hopeless infrastructure the Iraqi national oil company is back close to or just above the pre 2003 production numbers and planning to greatly expand in the coming years, to sell to whomever they please. Good on them, now Iraqis can benefit from their natural resources."<quote>

    Sorry, but of course it's about the oil. Bush is an oil finger-puppet, owes his election to the industry and had to show willing.
    As for the US expropriating oil, that's a bit naive. Bush was only ever acting to ensure there was a puppet govt that would proect the "free" world's access to cheap and plentiful oil from that part of the world.
    Nothing as crass as taking the oil himself.
    Check out the companies "rebuilding" Iraq's oil industry, and the very American directors of those companies.

    As for the Iraqis now benefitting from their own oil, if anyone believes that I have a big grey bridge I'm selling shares in and can let you all in on the ground floor...reeeeal cheap!

    ParpyKoura • Since Dec 2006 • 11 posts Report Reply

  • James Bremner,

    As far as who the "international left" is, it is a term I have heard used and use for brevities sake, to refer to the many organizations and people around the world that are active on particular issues and are of a left wing persuasion.

    There are so many such organizations and people, International ANSWER, the ACLU, World Cant Wait, George Soros' One World group etc, to name only a very few. If you want to see a comprehensive listing of such groups and people, visit the following site.

    http://www.discoverthenetwork.org/default.asp

    Many of these people and groups are very well funded and very active and effective, and as far as that goes, good on them. They work very hard and get their message across and have a major impact on the world. I don't have a problem with anyone expressing their rational, fact based views in an open and honest way. Unfortunately, many of these people and groups would short of that standard.

    However, my biggest beef with these people and groups is that they focus almost all of their activity on attacking anything the US does or doesn't do, and not nearly enough time and effort protesting the many other much, much bigger problems and much worse situations around the world.

    As the Iraqi PM said over the fuss over Saddam's hanging:

    "In a speech on Saturday, a week after the hanging, Mr. Maliki showed that he remains as angry as the Americans. Hitting out at governments and human rights organizations around the world that have condemned the hanging, he said they were hypocritical. “We’re wondering where these organizations were during the crimes of Anfal and Halabja,” he said, referring to Mr. Hussein’s persecution of Iraqi Kurds. “Where were they during the mass graves and the executions and the massacres that killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis?”"

    The answer to Maliki’s question is “no where”.

    You could also ask where were those from the left when 2 1/2 million North Koreans were starved to death in the 1990s?

    Where has the left been as North Korea has run a horrendously brutal police state as bad as anything Stalin did for something like 60 years?

    Where were the anti Vietnam war protestors when thousands of Vietnamese were fleeing from the new Vietnamese "workers paradise" in rickety boats?

    Where was the left when Pol Pot was killing 2 or 3 million Cambodians in his new "agrarian paradise"?

    Where has the left been as Castro has run a brutal police state and run Cuba into the ground for the last 50 years? Where was the left when Che Guevara was killing thousands in cold blood?

    Where is the left that is so concerned about women’s and gay rights in the west, as Islamic countries treat women as chattels, stone women to death for "adultery" which is most likely rape, sentence gays to death for being gay and conduct "honor killings"

    Where is the left as China blocks any UN sanctions on Sudan over the ethnic cleansing in Dafur, so China flow of oil from Sudan is not interfered with?

    Where was the left when Stalin and Mao were killing tens of millions?

    Sadly, as far as I am aware, the answer to all of the above questions is "no where to be found".

    When the left is consistent in its criticism and less the supreme hypocrites so many are today, and have been for decades, then their conceited moralizing will be much less painful than it is today, and perhaps even worth paying attention to.

    Whoops, there goes another long post. Never mind.

    NOLA • Since Nov 2006 • 353 posts Report Reply

  • Michael Savidge,

    Jimmy Jangles in NOLA....

    Must give you credit for your unshakeablility and the quality of your blinkers....

    I can't be fucked debating you so will only say...

    a) wood and trees

    and

    b) Chomsky for President

    Now...resume polishing your weapon!

    Somewhere near Wellington… • Since Nov 2006 • 324 posts Report Reply

  • James Bremner,

    Mark, your quote

    "As for the Iraqis now benefitting from their own oil, if anyone believes that I have a big grey bridge I'm selling shares in and can let you all in on the ground floor...reeeeal cheap!"

    "Al-Shahristani says he hopes to quickly make deals with major foreign oil companies, and use their advanced technology to help Iraq reach its huge potential."
    http://www.iraqdirectory.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=2873

    Al-Shahristani is Iraqs' Oil Minister and is a PhD and scientist who was tortured by Saddam and spent 10 years in Abu Ghraib for refusing to work on Iraqs nuke program in the 1980s and 1990s (read a book about him, "Brighter than the Baghdad Sun").

    Do you think someone who had the balls to risk death and stand up to Saddam Hussein is just going to sit quietly while he and his country get screwed over? Compared with Saddam's tender mercies, nothing Exxon Mobil or the State Dept could offer or do to him would hold much for him to be concerned about. I think you are the guy who would be a taker for a condo development on the Auckland harbor bridge.

    You must think Iraqis are all morons and dupes if they are all just going to sit by and let themselves and their counrty be screwed. Give them some credit, wont you?

    NOLA • Since Nov 2006 • 353 posts Report Reply

  • James Bremner,

    Mikey Savaloy,

    Language young man, language!!

    You are to be congratulated!! Based on your comments, apparenlty you can fit your head, complete with blinkers, up your you know what!! (just joking Russell, just joking)

    Best wishes from NOLA (really!)

    NOLA • Since Nov 2006 • 353 posts Report Reply

  • Michael Savidge,

    James,

    I know I've been bad, what with making with the sarcasm and the naughty words and all....

    But your assiduous analysis and balanced opining just blow my mind out my mouth before tongue can constrain.

    Apologies of course...it's just personal.

    Somewhere near Wellington… • Since Nov 2006 • 324 posts Report Reply

  • Simon Grigg,

    Wow James, that was some rant and either I'm utterly evil as are most folks I know or your post was rather half baked, blinkered (as Michael says) twaddle (and, sorry Russell but I'm trying to be non-trollish here) with holes big enough in it to maneuvre the starship enterprise in at warp speed (for example Pol Pot got the heave ho from the Vietnamese after have been virtually created by the US and with the US moving mountains at the UN and elsewhere to keep him in).

    But what it does illustrate, and I thank you for this, is that we seemingly have no middle ground to carry on our discussion. We share no assumptions and I find the post somewhat, although not unpredictably, scary, being so divorced from the world I've read about, lived in and travelled through for nigh on 50 years.



    I'm off to the beach for a day or two..

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report Reply

  • Danyl Mclauchlan,

    You could also ask where were those from the left when 2 1/2 million North Koreans were starved to death in the 1990s?

    Where has the left been as North Korea has run a horrendously brutal police state as bad as anything Stalin did for something like 60 years. . ?

    James - I'll answer your 'where has the left' been question with another question: what could 'the left' have done about the famine in North Korea, or Stalinist Russia. The ACLU has a mandate to defend civil liberties in the US, which they mostly do through providing free legal representation in key cases - how exactly could they have prevented Saddam Hussein from gassing Halabja? ANSWER is a bunch of trust-fund kids with spray-cans - I'm curious to know how they could address the problem of Chinas policy towards Sudan trade sanctions?

    The reason that groups protest in the US is because it's a democracy that enjoys free speech and government policy, and the government itself can (in theory) be changed through protest and activism. Demanding that the ACLU stop challenging the Bush Administrations war on civil liberties and 'do something about Castro', or fix the treatment of women in Islamic Society is patently absurd.

    Your argument - that people aren't allowed to complain about an issue because they haven't spoken out or intervened in some other, unrelated matter is a reductio ad absurdum. It's just as easy for me to insist that you have no right to complain about the complaints of the left - after all, you've been tellingly silent on the issue of Mobutus Zaire, or the war crimes committed by the British during their surpression of the Boxer Rebellion. And where were you during the Algerian civil war? Did you fight against Francos facist regime in Spain? And where were you when Peron seized Argentina? Nowhere - that's where.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 927 posts Report Reply

  • Manakura,

    “We’re wondering where these organizations were during the crimes of Anfal and Halabja,” he said, referring to Mr. Hussein’s persecution of Iraqi Kurds. “Where were they during the mass graves and the executions and the massacres that killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis?”"

    The answer to Maliki’s question is “no where”.

    Yeah thats right, god damn those Left handed hippy freaks with their ideals and hypocrisy! They were probably sunning themselves at Baja high on the evil weed while the Kurds were massacred at Halbja.

    Whereas the Right handers were really doing something about the massacres of the kurds, they were um... selling Hussein the gas (US) and helicopters (French) to do it. Truly the Right handers are women and men of action.

    Would you like a sprinkle of Iran Contra scandal to go with that huge plateful of burn?

    Michael, you're an embarassment to all Left handed people everywhere. I think several people on this thread are somewhat divorced from reality (including myself - what kinda fool quotes Whitney in public?) but at least they're having a go at thinking instead of just name dropping. Is that a Che Guevera T-shirt you're wearing?

    Go back 18 years to the time when Mr Loc...

    Heh, what a legendary arsehole, I'd love to see his rider list. Somehow I approve of the sheer bravado of his 'sore tongue' B.S but I disapprove wholly with how the U.S. govt. sold the war in Iraq. I think the difference is dead civillians. I can't believe you guys have been quibbling over whether its 60,000 dead, 1 million or whatever. One Iraqi civillian killed by the US military is as abhorrent as 1 million killed.

    I bet the guy/gal that decided that cluster bomblets should be tennis ball sized and candy coloured was Right handed. The kids love em.

    Whaingāroa • Since Nov 2006 • 134 posts Report Reply

  • Michael Savidge,

    Michael, you're an embarassment to all Left handed people everywhere. I think several people on this thread are somewhat divorced from reality (including myself - what kinda fool quotes Whitney in public?) but at least they're having a go at thinking instead of just name dropping. Is that a Che Guevera T-shirt you're wearing?

    Mr M,

    Twas James that dropped that particular name, I just repeated it to ruin his day...

    Having said that, I'd be stoked to have me boy Choms in charge of tings. With a big whopping stick to back up those quiet words...

    And I wouldn't be seen dead in a Che-shirt...nor Whitney's nor any of those ridiculously over-hyped attention seekers...

    Somewhere near Wellington… • Since Nov 2006 • 324 posts Report Reply

  • Tom Beard,

    http://www.discoverthenetwork.org/individual.asp

    I haven't laughed so much since someone wrote to the Dom describing Michael Bassett as "a left-wing columnist". "Left-wing"! "Columnist"!!

    I love one particular description on the site:

    This section examines activists for leftwing agendas and causes -- egalitarians, socialists, and opponents of American "imperialism."

    Egalitarians? Egad!

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 1040 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    I like this one ...

    This category profiles individuals who identify themselves as part of the “social justice” movement – which is post-Communist terminology for socialism and communism.

    The source material seems to consist greatly of drivel from Michele Malkin, and the definitions are ludicrously selective.

    Honestly, if that site wasn't so funny, it would really be quite creepy. James, please tell me you don't actually take this vindictive tosh seriously.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Manakura,

    http://www.discoverthenetwork.org/individual.asp

    I haven't laughed so much since someone wrote to the Dom describing Michael Bassett as "a left-wing columnist". "Left-wing"! "Columnist"!!

    Hilarious, is it a satirical site? I hope not, it's even funnier if someone is serious about it. This is particularly good:

    For an explanation of this picture grid, click here.

    Ha! Hilarious. They might as well put up a rolling banner saying Do you love GW Bush and have trouble understanding the recipe for cooking toast? If so, this is the website for you

    The obbsessive compilation of bio data of all these apparent threats to civilisation kinda reminds me of those freaky religious family values types that obsessively document pornography. The organsier(s) must be a deep-cover Left hander in deep deep denial: Not in the closet, rather deep in the walk-in wardrobe, Narnia styles.

    No James please tell me you do take this vindictive tosh seriously. The worlds needs people like you to cheer them up on shitty rainy days... rather like today in Auckwoodland.

    Whaingāroa • Since Nov 2006 • 134 posts Report Reply

  • Manakura,

    Has anyone had a play with the conspiracy theoryJava map function yet:

    http://www.discoverthenetwork.org/Thinkmap%20SDK%202.5%20Standard%20Edition/webapp/TM-1VER/index.asp?keyword=Davis

    Its quite a fun game, sort of like the 'link 2 disparate movie stars in six steps game'. The graphics suck, but i went from ex-Black Panther Angela Davis to Bonnie Rait in to easy steps! I challenge anyone to get from Ghandi to Bill Clinton in six mouse clicks or less...

    Whaingāroa • Since Nov 2006 • 134 posts Report Reply

  • Danyl Mclauchlan,

    Has anyone had a play with the conspiracy theoryJava map function yet:

    That is SO cool. Now I see how John Kerry is linked to Pearl Jam, who are linked to R.E.M, who are controlled by Greenpeace and Fidel Castro.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 927 posts Report Reply

  • Manakura,

    That is SO cool. Now I see how John Kerry is linked to Pearl Jam, who are linked to R.E.M, who are controlled by Greenpeace and Fidel Castro

    Yes, you can literally see the link - according to the java map they are all connected by thin grey lines. I'm not sure if this is literally what they mean, or whether they're evoking a spiders web, which in turn links to web of deceit, which is connected to Charlotte's Web, Charlotte is a girls name starting with C, communist starts with C and Angela Davis is a communist girl. Holy shit, I can see the matrix.

    See. They. Are. All. Out. To. Communise. You.

    Whaingāroa • Since Nov 2006 • 134 posts Report Reply

  • Tom Beard,

    Has anyone had a play with the conspiracy theoryJava map function yet?

    To be fair, that sort of "conspiracy" analysis is based on left-wing sites that have been around for a while: things like "They Rule" which allow you to look for the linkages between the politically and financially powerful. Of course, those linkages are based on real data (directoriships etc), rather than some incredibly vague criteria (what exactly is the link between REM and Pearl Jam?). And They Rule has better graphic design (well, you know these pinko lefties). And oh yes, the people they're talking about have actual power and money and stuff.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 1040 posts Report Reply

  • Manakura,

    The Find Connection function on They Rule is quite fun. The only thing that lets the site down is its apparent grounding in measurable reality. Would be much more fun if they just made shit up like the Discover Left site does.

    Whaingāroa • Since Nov 2006 • 134 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    (what exactly is the link between REM and Pearl Jam?).

    They both know Neil Finn?

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Andrew Myhre,

    It's hard to be pleased about his execution when he wasn't allowed to provide a statement about US support for his regime over the last two decades. I couldn't care less whether he's dead or alive, as long as he isn't in power and as long as the equivalent bastards in the US government are likewise held responsible for their own affairs.
    Why would anyone be pleased about someone being killed?

    UK • Since Nov 2006 • 6 posts Report Reply

  • Robyn Gallagher,

    Here's a Tone Loc story for you.

    Simon, thank you so much for that story. I'm sure you have many more like it, but I did delight in this one.

    I'd rather have Andrew Cheese on Toast DJing than Tone Loc MCing any day.

    Since Nov 2006 • 1946 posts Report Reply

  • Michael Savidge,

    Somewhere near Wellington… • Since Nov 2006 • 324 posts Report Reply

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