Posts by Danielle
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My experience combines two varieties of intense nerdliness: I met my husband on an Elvis Costello discussion list.
Yes, I feel somewhat sheepish about this.
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Simon, you're being charitable about the new Who album. It is so aggressively bad that I actually grimaced several times.
Music should not make you grimace. Especially not at home, alone, in a comfy chair.
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Perhaps I'm a little bitter: a few years back in the pro-NZ-music community, it was more than your life was worth to mention you were a Dobbyn fan. That broad-appeal populism is never 'cool'. Just ask U2.
(I am also one of the three people in New Zealand who bought Lament for the Numb when it originally came out. I got your back, Dave.)
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It's not an issue with 49, per se: it's that MySky finds it difficult to recognise new episodes of things that are repeated at odd times throughout the week, so certain channels with a lot of repeats, like the Documentary Channel, confuse it a bit. I can't make it 'series link' The Soup on the E! channel for love nor money, and it's also a bit iffy with ESPN shows like the World Series of Poker or Pardon the Interruption. It requires a 20 minute weekly scan of those channels to make sure you're getting everything recorded.
It is still, however, in the top three of consumer products I have ever bought, so don't let that put you off, Tristan. I can't imagine life without it. I haven't watched a single television show as it was broadcast since it was installed.
Oh, small rant about the Beatles Decade documentary: the footage is fantastic, but the lack of rights to *any* music is really off-putting, and the overarching narration is so terribly shonky. It's like they found all this great archival news and advertising footage and tried desperately to create a themed documentary around it. I am, of course, religiously watching every episode - I am such a sucker for any film from that period. But the Tupperware documentary that's also showing regularly on the Documentary Channel covers a bit of the same ground without being so, well, crap.
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OK, so we haven't given up then, James? Round 12! Let's come out swinging! (And I'm impressed that Danyl and Hamish are still fighting the good fight! Right on.)
Did you note that your Times Pic article about levee maintenance etc. is dated June 8, 2004. That would be 15 months BEFORE Katrina. Since when do articles written 15 months before an event constitute an authorative description of what caused the event?
I don't think you quite understand my point. The headline on June 8, 2004 says:
"Shifting federal budget erodes protection from levees;
Because of cuts, hurricane risk grows"In case that isn't clear enough for you, let me quote Walter Maestri, the emergency management chief of Jefferson Parish, who said at the time regarding the funding cuts in the budget for maintenance of the levees: "It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay".
Al Naomi, the Army Corps of Engineers' senior project manager, said:
"I can't tell you exactly what that could mean this hurricane season
if we get a major storm. "It would depend on the path and speed of the storm, the angle that it hits us. But I can tell you that we would be better off if the levees were raised, . . . and I think it's important and only fair that those people who live behind the levee know the status of these projects."The Corps had no budget to maintain the levees, so their horrible engineering technique, as reported by your neighbour (again with the 'I know a guy' schtick, wtf is *with* that?), is sort of irrelevant. See, what *I* was saying, and perhaps you need this explained a little more clearly than I thought, is that this disaster was predicted, in 2004 and earlier, by a bunch of people who probably know what they're talking about. And some federal preparedness to protect a truly internationally beloved city and its people... well, that wouldn't have gone amiss, I'm thinking. Call me crazy.
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I just watched the tiny, tiny TVNZ feed from their website, and despite needing a magnifying glass to make anything out, I started blubbering like an idiot about halfway through, as soon as the singing started. If there's anything sadder or more beautiful than 'Pö Atarau', I'd like to hear it.
(One vote pro-Dobbo, btw. Terminally uncool, but really underrated. He just never seems to run out of those effortless, soaring choruses...)
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FEMA is not responsible for initial disaster response, in New Orleans or anywhere else.
I actually laughed out loud when I read this. FEMA, the *Federal Emergency Management Agency*, when asked before landfall by the governer of the state to take over the disaster response, isn't actually responsible for it? Oh, OK. Silly me.
I have never heard or read anywhere that insufficient or incorrect maintenance had any bearing on the levee failures.
Well, you must have been standing with your fingers in your ears and your eyes closed saying 'lalalalalalala I can't hear you' for the last few years, then, because it was in your local paper the Times-Picayune on June 8, 2004, and widely reported in various media since the storm. With figures and everything.
But pfffft, whatever. I give up too. You're a persistent bugger, I'll give you that.
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Yeah, but it is a pretty bitter pill to swallow if you're meant to answer for your whole country and its horrid foreign policy. It's not only that Americans become unnecessarily defensive (they do!), but also that the people doing the discussing aren't exactly clear about defining their terms. 'Why do *you* do this?' rather than 'why does the government do this?' Plus it's quite hard to turn yourself around if you've been taught from birth that you're a member of the best, brightest 'beacon of freedom' the world has ever seen. I have nothing but admiration for my husband, who is not only able to detach himself from those kinds of myths, but discuss the problems of the US dispassionately. It shows a maturity that I lack: I'll get all het up mentally if someone's snotty about NZ, even if they're right, and then I have to force myself into a more objective, calm frame of mind. So I can empathise with them.
PS Hi Simon! :)
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Ah yes, the time-honoured 'I know a really important guy who was *there*!' argument strategy. Sorry, but no dice. It doesn't make your stance any more convincing.
Here's some rebuttal for you, in double-quick time: *FEMA* was meant to be in charge of the disaster recovery, *not* state and local officials, no matter how lame and incompetent they were; the funding for upgrading the levees was cut by the Bush administration, so *that's* how it's partially his fault; things went so much better in Florida because it was an election year in a swing state; and oh yeah, blaming a bunch of poor people without cars for not leaving the city is really classy of you. Is it their fault that they were stranded without food and water for five days, too?
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James, are you able to provide a citation for your (predictable Republican talking point) assertion about Governor Blanco? According to my sources, she declared a state of emergency on August 26 and asked for full federal assistance on August 27, well before landfall. (My sources, incidentally, include the gubernatorial website and the White House website.)
Additionally, Katrina was a Category 3 storm at landfall and on Tuesday before the levees were breached, most news sites were implying that the storm was a 'narrow escape' for New Orleans. The breach of the levees, which was anticipated for years before Katrina, was the true cause of devastation after the storm. Again, the sheer incompetence of FEMA and the Bush administration both before and after the storm is blurred by these right-wing memes which point the blame back on 'the awesome power of Mother Nature' and 'state and local officials'.
Incidentally, don't assume that you're the only person here with a personal connection to New Orleans. My name is French for a reason.