Posts by chris
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I dislike weenies of either stripe pulling these stunts – it’s about ego, basically
I find that a little disparaging Russell. The same insults could be leveled at countless soldiers and leaders from time immemorial. this wasn't a random Twitter hack. This is a war, lack of firearms and violence doesn't negate intent, conviction or justification.
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I got three words on the list! This is my proudest moment since answering 'Dick Van Dyke' to the question: "Name the actor who sings Chim Chim Cher-ee?" on 2ZB in 1984, thereby winning a double pass to watch the rerelease. I'll certainly be paying my internet bill this month!
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You sound like a peacenik Ben. We all know The USA had done absolutely nothing to provoke a terrorist attack such as we saw on 911, and that with the terrorist network responsible levying fallacious charges on the US, we by definition as part of ANZUS were an inevitable target, a very real threat to our nation's security was quite rightly headed off at the cattle stop by the indomitable Helen Clark and history was made.
This war in Afghanistan is of paramount importance to preserving the New Zealand way of life. The 50,000 or so Afghanis killed are unfortunate necessary collateral damage in the quest to break the balls of international terrorism and its hellraiser Obama Sin Laden, And really, who could argue that the world is not a better place and New Zealand not a safer country for our part.
The fruits of our progress in security enhancement will be self-evident when the RWC comes round. In striking contrast to whatever it was that came before, this is really living.
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Good on you for returning to this old chestnut Russell, It was 30 years ago today (or tomorrow figuring the time difference). How sorely his imperatives and challenges are missed.
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No one has laid it out for a long long time.
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Some would call it the presumption of innocence until proven guilty in a court of law, others may call it misogyny. Crazy world...
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I fear my point may have been a little vague.
Despite propaganda to the contrary Hong Kong is part of China, Google has not turned its back on the simplified Chinese language of the mainland and by proxy the material needs of advertisers/ consumers. This amounts to resistance-free tacit support for the censorship modus operandi. As a gmail user I can’t think of much that is significantly less evil than a company upping ship and essentially abandoning it’s clientele to the whims of a Government that is both censoring and hacking the company’s service.
Hillary’s support for Google then was as questionable as everything that’s come to light via wikileaks, and the current US censorship.
Lest we forget China would still be nowhere if it hadn’t been for an outstretched US hand, namely Nixon, whom if I may quote said:
"This was the week that changed the world, as what we have said in that Communique is not nearly as important as what we will do in the years ahead to build a bridge across 16,000 miles and 22 years of hostilities which have divided us in the past. And what we have said today is that we shall build that bridge."
Which brings us back to:
Hillary Clinton might wish to revisit her own remarks
Or perhaps we may need to reconsider how these types of remarks and our interpretations of them are so successful at obscuring the structural integrity of that huge fuck off bridge. The ideological merge is unequivocal from this vantage point.
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Hard News: Wikileaks: The Cable Guys, in reply to Russell Brown,
It's interesting how firmly alongside Google the US government was. Hillary Clinton might wish to revisit her own remarks:
Clinton weighed in heavily on the side of Google, warning that "countries that restrict free access to information or violate the basic rights of internet users risk walling themselves off from the progress of the next century".
That single act prompted a politically inspired assault on Google, forcing it to "walk away from a potential market of 400 million internet users" in January this year,
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It relocated to Hong Kong, where it was able to run an uncensored version of its website in English and Chinese, ending an awkward attempt to reconcile partial adherence to Chinese requirements with western democratic values.
Google.com.hk. which functions in English, simplified and traditional Chinese script, still has ads for Chinese based companies in Chinese script, still provides search results for Chinese based sites, and questionable searches are still blocked in the mainland. Google didn't walk away from 400 million internet users, they merely moved their office. For the mainland user, nothing actually changed. The awkward attempt to reconcile partial adherence to Chinese requirements with western democratic values was in no way ended, it was cemented by a stance which saw Google basically give up on these principles for the Chinese people while retaining focus on their money.
Which sits pretty comfortably with H.R Clinton's current guerre du jour.
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This is great: Thomas Freidman in the NYT imagines a Wikileaked Chinese cable on the US political environment.
Thanks for posting that erm..Brown?(!) I enjoyed that Russell, the tone was a risible, the point(s) seem(s) bang on the money (perhaps with the exception of cellphone coverage which is just flat out exaggeration).