Posts by Joe Wylie
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Somalia, anybody?
Funny you should mention Somalia. I heard a Rand devotee* interviewed on Australian radio in the mid-90s. Raising the role, or lack thereof, of altruism in Rand's world view, the interviewer asked what she'd have done for the poverty-stricken locals if she'd found herself in contemporary Somalia. The answer was that she'd have high-tailed it out of there pronto. Enlightened self-interest & all.
*And a devotee he was, as the envy in his tone revealed when he described how an ashtray once used by the goddess has recently sold for a couple of thou.
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. . . sometimes chocolate is chocolate.
And then there's choc, as found in (usually) cheap confectionery and baked goods. I suspect that describing a product as "choc" whatever is a legal nicety which can be taken to mean that it contains no cocoa products, just solidified grease, sugar and chemicals. Does anyone know?
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harnessing public resentment against elites gets you some strange places: look at the incoherent Tea Party movement in the US.
Incoherent is the word, and an incoherent opposition is just what the "pilfering plutocratic elites" cultivate, insofar as they have a plan. Marx would have no trouble analysing the tea party movement: just another example of false consciousness.
The Telegraph, like its Sydney namesake, is an excellent example of a paper that takes its readers' anxieties and delivers them up to those they might otherwise threaten, all the while turning a profit, insofar as that's possible for a newspaper these days. Marx had a genius for analysis - as Claude Levi-Strauss described, like a geologist revealing the earth's history from the strata of rocks. His proposed solutions, though, were - and are - sadly lacking.
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The fact I am an exporters is a lucky chance rather than wish to.
Good on you for saying that. It was certainly the path that led me to being an "exporter" - until the recession of '93 killed the conditions that made that possible, and I turned to earning export dollars for the Australian economy. Now the nicest thing I can say is that it took two Filipinos to replace me (in Manila), and on a personal level, training them was a pleasure.
I had it coming all along, though. I first got into the line of work that enabled me to call myself an exporter back in the 70s, when I was a keen and relatively low-wage replacement for yet another complacent and overpaid American.
While I wish David the best, and may his work situation continue for as long as he needs, I just don't buy the message that it's largely due to his having made the right moral choices.
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Sorry if that was unclear Joe, The Peter Ellis mention was in no way about him per se but by the damage done to him and the children in the process of using the children as pawns in the whole nightmare.
Understood. As for any lingering shame, I hope that some day soon Ellis will receive some form of full exoneration & apology. Until then, Lynley Hood has done a phenomenal job of putting the truth on record.
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You seem to be implying that Peter Ellis is a victim of society's failure to offer some form of early intervention to those afflicted with a 'disposition' to molest children. For the record, there is no evidence that the massive injustice dealt to Ellis stems from anything other than a ghastly moral panic. Unless you're prepared to lend your energies to his full and complete exoneration you'd do well to leave the poor guy out of whatever it is that you're trying to prove.
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Friends on Brainwave were just telepathically conveying the same info... ops, I've said too much.
I did recommend a very effective brand of tinfoil here a while back. Isn't that what figments are for?
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And don't get me started on the reporter who thought he was referring to Mrs Bennett.
I won't, but it's worth noting that they also recorded his reference to Marilyn Munro. It's been corrected now, but that's how it read around an hour ago.
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I just don't think we should label every domestic abuser as cunning and conscious about their plan to abuse someone.
Agree. Just saying that ruthless & cynical controllers do exist.
And would you find me credulous and gullible if I were to tell you that I was a fan of Sensing Murder? Probably. Ah well, I'll live.
Not so credulous that you'd fall for the appalling Shirley Ghostman:
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And what FletcherB said above about the abusers. Aye, I think there's some over-assigning of conscious planned thought to these people. Often it's just not knowing a better way.
FletcherB's observation strikes me as both insightful and generous. In my very humble experience there's a species of abuser with a fine-honed predator's instinct for exploiting insecurity. Combine this with the cynical use of a little psychology, and intellectual sophistication will offer little defence.
I believe that such behaviour is largely learned, both by the perpetrator and victim. Usually there's a parent who's displayed or who has been on the receiving end of abusive behaviour. What I find mysterious is that some people vigorously avoid their parents' mistakes from an early age, while others sadly repeat them.