Posts by Danyl Mclauchlan
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Meanwhile, the Dom Post leads with a story whose headline and body seem to say different things. Were the bombs and guns found in the raids, or were the police just looking for them? Unhelpful.
The story appears to (deliberately?) confuse the weapons found in the Bay of Plenty with the raids made in Wellington and Christchurch, in which the police appear to have merely confiscated clothes and documents. To my knowledge no weapons have been found in any of the raids on peace activists.
I suspect that the police had a genuine investigation into the rather alarming 'freedom fighters' movement in the Bay of Plenty and that their operation has been expanded by the NZSIS who are indulging their long standing delusional fantasies about communists using left-wing activist groups to overthrow the government.
On the other hand, some of the comments over at Indymedia are fairly incendiary - note the similarity to the average kiwiblog nutter?
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I don't know about 'armed sectarian conflict' but I wouldn't be surprised if a couple of folks in the peace movement had come up with the bright idea of throwing molotov cocktails at sites such as the US embassy or the GCSB offices. Kind of surprised it hasn't happened already, actually.
I walked past the Peace Center on Abel Smith St on a regular basis when I lived in Aro Valley - during the last election they had various posters in their windows explaining that refusing to vote was the only real way to change the system. I stopped and chatted to a couple of them now and then - they seemed like your typical dole-bludging commie arts graduates ('You have a job? Man, you're just a brainless SLAVE to the system, say comrade can I borrow some bread?'). I can't imagine they're much of a threat to national security.
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Oh, and may I nominate Anton Oliver for Dork of the Day for this OTT military metaphor:
Glancing through the headlines and leaders around the news websites ( 'National Disaster!' 'Nation in Mourning!''Our Gods Have Fallen!' 'Our National Psyche has been Wounded!') I think there's going to be plenty of competition for that title.
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I think I can see where Craig is coming from (for once) - for those of us not interested in the game the world cup was mostly just an irritating, alienating experience: the saturation level marketing dressed up as nationalism, the irritating conversations with random strangers asking you if you saw the game last night and if not why the fuck not mate, the way the media loses interest in covering any news stories for a good couple of weeks and devotes their energies to an in depth analysis of what color clothes a sports team is going to wear - all of this is just deeply tedious for those of us not invested in the sport, so there's always going to be a certain level of glee from us when the whole thing collapses so spectacularly.
Although I certainly faked a deep sense of sorrow at the changing rooms in the gym this morning - even I'm not that stupid.
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Helen Clark said in her Oxford Union speech this week
"Iraq did not meet our criteria for intervention in 2003 and we did not participate in the war there."
So Helen Clark only two days ago obviously believed the "war" was over just like John Key
She then says "We did, for one year, send New Zealand Defence Force engineers to do civilian reconstruction work, believing that was consistent with the United Nations mandate established in the course of 2003."
So we sent troops after the 'war' was over...
If you read her comments carefully enough - and maybe change around the order of her words a little bit - you'll see she also admitted to starting the Chicago fire.
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Stratfor has seen indications that Iran is planning to up the ante in Iraq by supplying its militant proxies with shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles (SAMs).
I hear they're also planning to burn down the German Parliament.
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Radiohead - Pink Floyd of the 2000's maybe?
One of the lowest points in modern music has gotta be the Pink Floyd reunion - a bunch of leathery skinned sixty-year olds who've spent the last twenty years collecting sports cars and suing each other singing (very badly) about the perils of selling out without a trace of irony - Radiohead would have to make some pretty dreadful mistakes to reach that level of mediocracy.
M.I.A. might be a good bet
I've heard she's astonishingly good live.
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<i>Peter W. Galbraith goes into detail about how the invasion of Iraq has been a strategic gain for Iran.</i>
Vietnam analogy - the current US strategy in Iraq is a little like supporting Ho Chi Minh against Diem to prevent China from increasing its influence in the region.
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*this being 'All my Friends'.
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So I just played this on my PC - it let me unmoved but a couple of students wandered into my office and instantly asked 'what's this? it's awesome!'
I feel so alienated.