Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: Too Good to Be True

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  • Sofie Bribiesca,

    I think I would rather sit in an air tight room of smokers than an airtight room of a single car running its engine with legislated unleaded petrol.

    here and there. • Since Nov 2007 • 6796 posts Report Reply

  • Shep Cheyenne,

    Sofie - that means you would rather suffocate than die of carbonmonoxide poisoning.

    Please don't go into any air tight rooms, we might disagree but not that much :-)

    Since Oct 2007 • 927 posts Report Reply

  • George Darroch,

    I think I would rather sit in an air tight room of smokers than an airtight room of a single car running its engine with legislated unleaded petrol.

    Car exhausts are toxic, and harm us all. They're an elephant in the room that few people talk about. I might say fair enough too - the Kiwiblog right are upset about the right to drive 300kph on a public road - interfering with the precious right to drive and cause harm to everyone is simply unacceptable.

    Never mind that the alternatives are pretty attractive

    WLG • Since Nov 2006 • 2264 posts Report Reply

  • Sofie Bribiesca,

    Cocaine & Heroin I know nothing about, but have had aquantences relay stories. Carribian Coke is superior to the Mediteranian Coke apparently,

    Ah....:-) I wouldn't believe everything you hear either.Mediterranean? We are talking South America for Coca leaf.I don't think exporting the leaf is big business for cocaine manufacturing. .Bulky.I imagine quantity may be the issue for your friend. Know a bit about heroin but don't actually consider it to be the worst drug out there.

    here and there. • Since Nov 2007 • 6796 posts Report Reply

  • Steve Barnes,

    Carribian Coke is superior to the Mediteranian Coke apparently,

    Whaaa....?
    Are you talking about the New Coke that tasted equally as bad as the Old Coke but different? Or Pepsi? How about the fact that burning fossil fuels causes Global warming, as do cigarettes and I would rather sit in a room full of naked Badgers than a non smoker with an annoying attitude. It's ALL wrong I tell you, ALL WRONG!!!

    Peria • Since Dec 2006 • 5521 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    Wait, you're comparing milk to cigarettes?

    No, Kyle. I just don't think we really give shit how many end-users of all those lovely pounds of butter and cheese we'll export to anyone who will pay for the privilege end up in double wide graves. Or does New Zealand diary products contain magic fat I've not heard about?

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Emma Hart,

    Emma - You don't notice that toxic tang when someone comes in after smoking or you entre an empty lift that has just taken smokers back from injesting their cancer rockets?

    Isn't that pretty much what I said? I've frequently shared a small car with two friends who are heavy smokers, and not been able to pick up any kind of 'reek'. And I'm a semi-reformed smoker myself, we're supposed to be really sensitive to the trail of our old addiction.

    The only problem I've had with lifts is being stuck in there with Strong Perfume Woman.

    But every time you open an exterior door in Chch in the winter the smell of smoke wafts in, smokers or not.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    naked Badgers

    WTF?

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    RNZs Kim Hill interview had it that all meth uses would get a psycosis with prolonged use.

    Not just meth -- all amphetamines. Basically, if you take amphetamines constantly over time, you will become psychotic. The big problem with P is that it redefines "constantly" in a really unhealthy way.

    But it's actually amazing how many amphetamines were prescribed as medicine in the US in the 1950s and 1960s.

    For that matter, duramine and tenuate dospan were easy enough to get prescribed as diet pills (apparently exercise and diet hadn't been invented) through until the late 1980s in New Zealand. Plump girls were sometimes very popular in the rock 'n' roll scene.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Shep Cheyenne,

    Emma - I'm just a little suprized as I can't stand it. I must say I don't normally comment on these issues in public to people I don't know, but as the song says "smoke gets in your eyes".
    And as they said in Blazing Sadles "we don't need no stinking Badgers".

    Christchurch has banned open fires, 'clean burning' is the only way to go & yet that programme is nowhere near complete.

    Aucklands air is polluted by exhaust funes, bring on the trains.

    I know a few of those old ladies who buy expensive perfume that reacts to smell like a tom cats been traped in their wardrode for a week - urgh.

    Since Oct 2007 • 927 posts Report Reply

  • Shep Cheyenne,

    "prescribed as diet pills (apparently exercise and diet hadn't been invented"

    Yip $3 for 3months supply of my happy pills but no talk therapy allowance.

    Since Oct 2007 • 927 posts Report Reply

  • George Darroch,

    I just don't think we really give shit how many end-users of all those lovely pounds of butter and cheese we'll export to anyone who will pay for the privilege end up in double wide graves.

    My problem is the quality of cheese we send to the world. It's an embarrassment. I live with a Swiss, French, and German, and have had my eyes opened in ways that I never imagined. There's nothing wrong with Colby and Cheddar, but can't we be a little more interesting? After all, we make fine wines, including possibly the best Sauvignon Blanc in the world...

    I should say that I'm vegan, but if cows have to suffer, can they at least suffer for a good reason?

    WLG • Since Nov 2006 • 2264 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    My problem is the quality of cheese we send to the world. It's an embarrassment. I live with a Swiss, French, and German, and have had my eyes opened in ways that I never imagined. There's nothing wrong with Colby and Cheddar, but can't we be a little more interesting?

    Specialty cheeses aren't really Fonterra's bag. Realistically, you need to live in NZ (and possibly in the region of production) to get the good stuff.

    I'm actually a bit disturbed at the disappearance from Woolworths Grey Lynn of a wonderful hand-stretched mozzarella from up Matakana way.

    Of course, cheese people will tell you the real problem is the nanny state's insistence on pasteurisation ...

    I should say that I'm vegan, but if cows have to suffer, can they at least suffer for a good reason?

    That's jolly sporting of you.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • George Darroch,

    That's jolly sporting of you.

    Oh no it isn't. I'm only vegan so I can be morally superior and annoy people at dinner parties. The animals are very much a secondary consideration. </irony>

    Realistically though, I do find many vegans hard to deal with. They may have reasonable points, but they often express them in unreasonable ways!

    WLG • Since Nov 2006 • 2264 posts Report Reply

  • Kyle Matthews,

    I just don't think we really give shit how many end-users of all those lovely pounds of butter and cheese we'll export to anyone who will pay for the privilege end up in double wide graves.

    Umm OK. Does this have anything to do with smoking, or are you track jumping again?

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    Yes, Kyle. And please don't get feline with me, because that's a game you're going to lose.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Jackie Clark,

    As regular PAS know, I'm an alcoholic and my social life would be much more agreeable if so much social intercourse didn't revolve around booze.

    I'm with you on this, Craig. I'm not an alcoholic - I barely drink, never have, and I can't stand the stuff, or what it does to people, at least. I find social environments sodden with booze far harder to navigate than anything else. At least when we smokers indulge, we take ourselves off like the social pariahs we are, and it doesn't affect our behaviour (well, unless you count getting cranky occasionally).

    Mt Eden, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 3136 posts Report Reply

  • Shep Cheyenne,

    Jackie - "we take ourselves off like the social pariahs we are, and it doesn't affect our behaviour "

    You've just taken yourself away - smoking therefore affects your behaviour.

    But yes I know - apart from when trying to give up, or on long distant flights, smokers are quite sane people.

    Since Oct 2007 • 927 posts Report Reply

  • Kyle Matthews,

    Yes, Kyle. And please don't get feline with me, because that's a game you're going to lose.

    Did you want to make the connection between smoking and milk, or just leave it out there?

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report Reply

  • MikeE,

    Mederterrainian Coke? Carribean Coke?

    IT all comes from south america dammit... the only difference is how many adulterants its been cut with.

    sheesh.

    Noob.

    Washington DC • Since Nov 2006 • 138 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    Did you want to make the connection between smoking and milk, or just leave it out there?

    Kyle: I think I have, but I don't really want to waste much time or energy on the wilfully obtuse. If you want to talk about little ironies, I don't think Fonterra goes to an excessive amount of effort to make sure their products don't end up in the hands of the obese or folks with congestive heart disease for whom ingesting processed animal fat is a bad idea. Nor do I think our wine industry really gives a shit if their premium product is getting poured down the neck of violent alcoholics.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    And if that doesn't get through the fog, Kyle, send me a blank video tape and I'll do it in the form of interpretive dance.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Kyle Matthews,

    If you want to talk about little ironies, I don't think Fonterra goes to an excessive amount of effort to make sure their products don't end up in the hands of the obese or folks with congestive heart disease for whom ingesting processed animal fat is a bad idea. Nor do I think our wine industry really gives a shit if their premium product is getting poured down the neck of violent alcoholics.

    They really don't make for a valid comparison Craig.

    Cigarettes are an addictive substance, the addictive levels of which have been manipulated by the producers for decades, with no redeeming features, which have led to the deaths of millions of people around the world through various cancers and other illnesses. They've also been implicated in the various illnesses and deaths of passive smoking.

    The various milk products sold by Fonterra come in a variety of flavours, but they're not addictive, they're not manipulated by their producers to be increasingly harmful to consumers, and indeed, doctors would say that a fair amount of what Fonterra produces, in moderate amounts, is good for you. There's no passive comsumption at all for milk products.

    My point was, and still is:

    If there was no cigarettes in the world today, and then a company came along and said "hey, we want to start selling this tobacco plant for people to smoke", and it was tested by scientists and found to be very addictive and very bad for your health, and somewhat bad for other people's health, it would probably be made illegal to sell and possess.

    Which isn't a story you could start telling about cows milk.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report Reply

  • Nick D'Angelo,

    I nod and wonder exactly what a hot 30yr sister of a friend has been doing for the past decade on luxury yachts.

    There's a clip on YouPorn actually ... (and [seriously], Totally NSFW had the clip of Paris off her nut asking 'Are You My Nigger?' - evidently the reason her and Nicole split)

    :-) I wouldn't believe everything you hear either. Mediterranean? We are talking South America for Coca leaf. I don't think exporting the leaf is big business for cocaine manufacturing. Bulky. I imagine quantity may be the issue for your friend.

    __Quality__, not quantity surely? It's easier to get coke to the Carribean therefore less expensive than getting it to the Med. So the Med coke will be cut (diluted) to recover the transport costs. Bit like Auckland in the 80s (or was I just totally ripped off?) which was much weaker than Sydney.

    Simon Laan • Since May 2008 • 162 posts Report Reply

  • Nick D'Angelo,

    Doh! MikeE already said what I just said.

    And as they said in Blazing Saddles "we don't need no stinking Badgers".

    I thought you had that wrong, since I was certain it was from a Cheech and Chong movie, but Wiki says you're right. Almost. In Blazing Saddles they said 'Badges', it was 'Badgers' in a Weird Al Yancovic movie. Turns out that there's a looong list of movies parodying the original ...

    The original quotation comes from the 1948 film The Treasure of the Sierra Madre with Humphrey Bogart. In one of the scenes in the movie a Mexican bandit leader (Gold Hat played by Alfonso Bedoya) is trying to convince Fred C Dobbs (played by Bogart) and company that they are the Federales.

    Dobbs: 'If you're the police where are your badges?'
    Gold Hat: 'Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges! I don't have to show you any stinkin' badges!'

    This in turn was adapted from B Traven's 1927 novel upon which the movie was based:

    "All right," Curtain shouted back. "If you are the police, where are your badges? Let's see them."

    "Badges, to god-damned hell with badges! We have no badges. In fact, we don't need badges. I don't have to show you any stinking badges, you god-damned cabrĂ³n and ching' tu madre! Come out from that shit-hole of yours. I have to speak to you."

    If anyone feels like slacking I well recommend the wiki link. Everyone from Mel Brooks to The Monkees to Jim Jarmusch to The Simpsons have done it (but oddly no mention of Cheeh & Chong).

    Simon Laan • Since May 2008 • 162 posts Report Reply

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