Posts by Rich Lock
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This one, I think.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4662160a1823.html
Quote from the article:
"Willis then spoke about being almost a missionary as he represented the "western" world against the might of the African distance runner. The man didn't just win a medal, he gave half the world hope."
Not entirely clear whose words are whose.
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Aw yeah, but he had help ;-)
Heh. I've always wondered a bit how his main partner Matthew Pinsett (only four consecutive golds, the slackarse) feels about it all. Despite his own Herculean feats, there will always be that implication that he's in second place.
I don't know if there's any other swimmers at this games who are also smashing the previous world records (perhaps Hayden could crunch the stats..?), but even if they are, they're inevitably doomed to the footnotes of History as Mr Phelps hogs all the glory (as well as all the pies). Must piss you off a bit.
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michael phelps? meh.
who was the african distance runner who won gold for 4 olympics straight? in a field where you could probably only win two medals in a games?
*that's* a great athlete.
Mr Tibby, Ladies and Gentlemen, for your pleasure and amazement, allow me to present to you, Sir Steven Redgrave.
Five golds in five consecutive olympiads.
Now, that's a great athlete.
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Well, two questions have today been answered to my complete satisfaction. And funnily enough, the answer to both is the same.
1) Who ate all the pies? (Michael Phelps)
2) Why is there a world food crisis (Michael Phelps)
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Dunno if this has been posted up already, or if this is the right place, but some of you might get a grin out of this:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2008/aug/12/bushlol?picture=336501045
George Bush at the olympics, given a LOLcat makeover.
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I guess we can honestly and honourably disagree on policy
Craig, if I didn't think that, I wouldn't go to the trouble of responding.
Love your work, blah blah blah, and have once or twice had cold water poured on my warm fuzzy preconceptions and assumptions in your unique manner.
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Thanks, Rich, and I'd like to order a round of fuckupachinos for the folks who just trot out another guilt-trip on sole parents who do work and aren't miserable abusive monsters.
OK, Craig, fair point. Make mine a double.
However, my assumption is/was that the majority of solo parents in that position need as much help as they can get, not an extra layer of everyday grief and hassle. I think it is reasonably fair to assume (ass-u-me) that the vast majority are going to be single mothers who, if they work, are going to have to take whatever shithouse job is offered at minimum wage and deal with a lot of the sort of shit that Suze has described - they're not going to be doctors/lawyers/accountants/people with the guts, chutzpah, pigheadedness and social network neccesary to maek it an easy ride.
Adding an extra straw to that camels back seems more than a little unfair to me.
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Dickens was a great novelist (though one who, in my view, was highly uneven and somewhat over-rated), but you might as well hold up Gone With The Wind as a historically and sociologically reliable document of the American Civil War and Reconstruction, as opposed to a vastly entertaining piece of melodramatic fiction.
Craig, that's a little disingenuous. Sure, Dickens was a fiction author, but it wasn't as if he was writing about Surrey being invaded by Martains who stroll around in tripods, a bloke who sails around in a submarine taking revenge on the world for reasons unknown, or a lost world somewhere in South America where dinosaurs still exist*.
The conditions he wrote about actually existed and were pretty widespread. They weren't total fantasy.
*and for those who want to know what I'm on about:
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_worlds
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20,000_Leagues_Under_The_Sea
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lost_World_%28Arthur_Conan_Doyle%29 -
I can't really imagine what it would have been like as a kid to have grown up feeling a bit like a stigmatised powerless political football.
My wife, a lot of her friends, and a lot my friends in the UK all grew up in one parent households (maybe a dozen people in all that I know?). In all cases, the 'one parent' was the mother, the dad being a feckless idiot who was usually drunk, abusive, or both. Either way, hardly ever around or providing any assistance of any sort.
Anyone who thinks bringing children up by yourself isn't a full time job needs a big cup of wake the fuck up.
Anyone who thinks that there won't always be quite a few people (mothers) in the same position due to the inherent messy nature of human existance and reationships needs a second cup.
Most of the people I know from single-parent families grew up in the days when the UK Tories were spinning the line that single-mothers-on-the-dole were responsible for all of societies evils.
Being of the generation that I am, we all started getting interested in politics/voting/etc around the same time (mid-'90's).
The UK Tories have been out of power since 1997. Funny that.
As i said in another thread, I'll be voting for a yellow dog before the National party gets my vote.