Posts by Simon Grigg
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Hard News: A few (more) words on The Hobbit, in reply to Russell Brown,
But show me the rule that would exclude Annabel Fay without unfairly penalising the independent record label (Siren) that is the party actually applying for and receiving the funding. Would record labels have to find out whether anyone in a band they want to sign has rich folks?.....
.....And – although realistically only the most successful records fully recoup – the funding is also recoupable. Much as I think Fay’s music is absurd and her father a wretch, her record is probably more likely to recoup than most.
Word.
I have my own serious reservations about the way the NZOA has worked in recent years as anyone who knows me well or has read the infamous c%#$^^^t thread will perhaps be aware, but Drinnan managed to miss every one of those concerns in that misfire. The target is so large to be able to miss it so badly is some feat.
That said, I don't think Chris' report goes far enough, but that may be more his terms of reference (or the fact that he's shooting from an inside position as former head of EMI) which seemed to call for a fine tuning review rather than the more radical reflection I think is needed.
There is arguably more meat in Rob Mayes' independent report and it's only 10 pages long. I understand he's had off the record support from former NZoA board members.
OTOH, I was very pleased to see Brendan get a gong thingy at NY despite my personal conviction that our awards system is mostly quite silly.
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my friends and I remarked how the place looked like Khao San Road
A vaguely feral remnant of the 70s? Nah, Pons has far more style than that unpleasant wee enclave.
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Hard News: The Wellington Cables, in reply to Stephen Judd,
I think there is a middle ground where it was both a bad thing for the Israelis to do and a highly opportune event for the NZ government.
Yeah, of course. The irony though lies in the US comment that such is but a 'flap'. Have you been through the US immigration process since 9/11?
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Hard News: The Wellington Cables, in reply to giovanni tiso,
So long as you're not there to sell lamb.
lamb flaps...
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I've not read through all the NZ cables linked by Danyl but I assume this is in there too:
US diplomats disparaged New Zealand's reaction to a suspected Israeli spy ring as a "flap" and accused New Zealand's government of grandstanding in order to sell more lamb to Arab countries, according to leaked cables.
The arrest and conviction in 2004 of two Israeli citizens, who were caught using the identity of a cerebral palsy sufferer to apply for a New Zealand passport, caused a serious rift between New Zealand and Israel, with allegations that the two men and others involved were Mossad agents.
"The New Zealand government views the act carried out by the Israeli intelligence agents as not only utterly unacceptable but also a breach of New Zealand sovereignty and international law," New Zealand's then-prime minister, Helen Clark, said after the arrests.
But US officials in Wellington told their colleagues in Washington that New Zealand had "little to lose" from the breakdown in diplomatic relations with Israel and was instead merely trying to bolster its exports to Arab states.
NZ gets upset by the severe abuse of the global passport system and it's, were are told, all about selling stuff to the non-Israeli Middle East. I'm guessing there will be no issue for me going into the US next time on a stolen passport then?
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Bringing it all back home again: Michael Moore on Rachel Maddox talking about this cable.
The arrogance shown in some of these Wellington cables appals (but doesn't surprise).
Moore claims not to know where NZ is.
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Hard News: Wikileaks: The Cable Guys, in reply to Sacha,
The Pentagon’s planners have war-gamed an attack on Iran several times in the past fifteen years, and they just can’t make it come out as a US victory.
Yep. I think you'd be a brave person to say that there are not powerful but frustrated elements in DC who would just love to go in, but any rational look at it says no.
What the Gulf rulers want or don't want really doesn't come into it.
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Hard News: Wikileaks: The Cable Guys, in reply to Kyle Matthews,
The only thing they considered was surgical air strikes on key nuclear facilities
Dropping bombs on Iran, surgical or not, isn't an attack? The Iranians may wish to differ. I suggest their reaction would not be quite so defined or relaxed.
'Oh, it's not an attack - they merely took out our multi-billion Rial nuclear plants'
I'm pretty sure exactly such an attack is pretty much what we were discussing. I don't think anyone here has suggested a full on invasion was ever seriously on the table and some of reasons why, including the desire / need to avoid a third conflict (well 2nd and 1/2 as it would envelop Iraq rapidly) were mentioned up-thread.
Gwynne Dyer lays it out reasonably well here
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Hard News: Media 2011, in reply to Kyle Matthews,
given that the people mad enough to do it (the US legislature) have no power to make it happen.
I think it's unlikely but I also think the US legislature really have little to do with whether such a thing would happen, and would very likely rubber stamp it if it did.
Also bear in mind that Obama has this year authorised something that even Bush seemed unwilling to do, the extra-judicial assassination of a US citizen.
Given the past decade, I've considerably less faith in the SCOTUS than you have, I'm afraid.
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Southerly: The Dalziel Salon, in reply to Russell Brown,
at Rip It Up
The Dalziel grin and irreverent quips (along with the soundtrack driven by Murray's awful Bob Seger records) rather defined that loft.