Field Theory: Pimpin' Ain't Easy
50 Responses
First ←Older Page 1 2 Newer→ Last
-
Well hey, if I was Campbell I'd be loving all this free publicity. At least that way if the brothel didn't go ahead, I'd be able to say 'Hey, I'm the TKD brothel guy', not 'Hi I do TKD and want to go to the Olympics, can u givs me munies plz?'
-
Not on topic, but here is a funny little story about the Ashes test. I've spent the last few weeks looking after my Mum after she was taken a bit poorly recently, and last night I tuned into the last day of the test to see if the English could hang on. Now, to put it mildly my mother doesn't like cricket.
Mum: "Do we have to watch this"
Me: "Yes, not for long."
Mum: "I don't mind, i'ts just I think it is so boring."
Me: "OK"
Mum: "I don't even know who is playing"
Me: "England and Australia"--long silence--
Mum: "where are they playing?"
Me: "Cardiff."
Mum: "Do they play there much?"
Me: "No."
Mum: "Well, I've never watched a single game of cricket. I can't see what anyone see's in it."
Me: "OK"--long silence--
Mum:"I suppose I don't mind a little bit of the cricket they play in the uniforms, is that this?"
Me: "No that's one day cricket"
Mum: "Oh. I don't know the difference."*Camera cuts briefly to a shot of Ponting.*
Mum: "I can't stand that Ricky Ponting"
-
That's great Tom. It's how 99% of sports fans operate. Don't know the sport, don't care for it but OH I HATE THAT ** MOTHER F4751234732!
-
When I watched the item on 3News last night two things struck me:
1. Two talking heads from Taekwondo and the Olympic committee going tut tut tut. There was no talking head representing the sex industry to provide an alternative viewpoint.
2. I can't take a businessman with that kind of haircut seriously!
-
Tom S,
That's gold.
-
Two talking heads from Taekwondo and the Olympic committee going tut tut tut.
I feel sorry for TNZ they have struggled to keep up and have little or no money. I take exception to the NZOC taking a stance though, given that they are to some extent responsible for the problem.
-
Quite by chance this morning I read an old article called 'In praise of Iverson' , by David Halberstam. He wrote 'The breaks of the game' - often called the best basketball book ever written.
It includes this quote:
But here is what we should remember, and it was something pointed out to me years ago by Roger Angell, the gifted New Yorker writer, when I asked him what a player on the Red Sox was really like. "They are what they do," he answered, wiser in the ways of being around big time athletes than I.
That was it. They are what they do. Which strikes me as wise and as good a definition for measuring an athlete as we have. We do not, after all, have to buy the goods they flack for, the sneakers, and the soft drinks, the sunglasses, the telephone services. We do not have to hold them up to our children as role models. We are free to tell our children that John Lewis, the heroic Georgia congressman, or my friend Ron Ridenour, the grunt who blew the whistle on My Lai who died a few years ago, are better role models than any athlete.
'They are what they do' is a wonderful phrase for athletes.
-
When I watched the item on 3News last night two things struck me:
On TV One they had quite a nice balanced report (I thought). TNZ put forward their points and the reporter asked fairly decent questions.
-
-
But I think Robyn's nailed it above: the guy's using the sport angle to advertise his new business venture, rather than the other way around. Voila, lots of free publicity for his new knob-polishing operation.
Really Jack -- no media report I've seen has disclosed the location of the bloody place. Epic fail is how the kids put it, I believe.
I'd also like to note a very specific hypocrisy on the part of Taekwondo New Zealand. If Campbell is not "normal" or "an acceptable role model" in the eyes of right-thinking folks, neither is putting $22K a year through the pokies -- which is the amount TNZ received last year from this organisation to "support the 2008 NZ World Junior Championship team and 2008 Commonwealth Championships teams".
I'd also like to know what the NZOC considers an acceptable band of "normal" -- straight, married accountant? Will they want to go through prospective athlete's financial records, run a background check?
-
Meanwhile, what are the odds of having an Olympics without running scandals around corruption-tainted bids and athletes who become suspiciously pee-shy because their piss is so hot it glows? That's what REALLY brings the Olympic movement into disrepute, if anyone is paying attention.
-
I'd also like to note a very specific hypocrisy on the part of Taekwondo New Zealand. If Campbell is not "normal" or "an acceptable role model" in the eyes of right-thinking folks, neither is putting $22K a year through the pokies -- which is the amount TNZ received last year from this organisation to "support the 2008 NZ World Junior Championship team and 2008 Commonwealth Championships teams".
I run a sports organisation that receives a considerable amount of money from foundations that run gambling machines. We wouldn't exist without this funding. Lots of sporting organisations have moral concerns about using pokie money, but there's very few other options in New Zealand. If the pokies didn't exist, sports in NZ would be horrendously affected and the government would need to step in to provide some other source of funding.
There's no relationship between that and what sportsmen and women do in their jobs. Just because they're both moral issues doesn't mean that a sporting body has accept both or neither.
-
I run a sports organisation that receives a considerable amount of money from foundations that run gambling machines. We wouldn't exist without this funding.
Indeed -- and most sportsmen and woman aren't in a position to pull tens or hundred of thousands of dollars out of their arses either. All I'm saying is that if you want to subject people to a moral sniff test, you shouldn't object to being put under the same microscope. While citing the Olympic Charter is all well and good, a pretty basic ethical norm to me is that you practice what you preach. And putting tens of thousands of dollars through a slot machine is no more "normal" and "acceptable" to most than giving blow jobs for money.
Personally, being a brothel-keeper is not my idea of making a living or ethical investment. But having been too close to a family thoroughly fucked by gambling addiction, I'm not comfortable with any organisation I'm involved with depending on pokie profits either.
-
The only sponsorship deal so far that has made me yell at the TV was when I saw Sarah Ulmer's unholy union with McDonalds. Talk about not being a good role model for kids!
Are you suggesting that Sarah Ulmer can do wrong? I humbly submit that you are in error.
-
Are you suggesting that Sarah Ulmer can do wrong? I humbly submit that you are in error.
I'm much more annoyed by the Evers-Swindell twins pimping for red meat. But isn't the first rule of advertising that it's better to be loathed than die unnoticed? :)
-
And Kyle, don't get the impression that I'm not totally respectful of what volunteers like you do -- often with bugger all appreciation. I certainly get that when survival is at stake, you have the luxury of being too snooty about where the latest lifeline is coming from. I just wish that so many sports clubs, community groups and even schools weren't so dependent on gambling profits.
-
I just wish that so many sports clubs, community groups and even schools weren't so dependent on gambling profits.
I'd be fully in favour of that as well. It would have to be done in a similar way to the smokefree shift. The government would have to set up a funding body which provided a similar amount of money to that no longer available from gambling sources.
Pokie machines turn over approximately 1 billion dollars a year, and according to the Charity Gambling Association, distribute $270 million to community organisations. That's a lot of spare change for the government to find, particularly given that the government also earns $270 million directly from pokie machines.
-
Really Jack -- no media report I've seen has disclosed the location of the bloody place. Epic fail is how the kids put it, I believe.
Pedant's point: the name of the place was noted in the SST report in Emma's post - 25 Cross Street, which is obviously also its street address.
-
Pedant's point: the name of the place was noted in the SST report in Emma's post - 25 Cross Street, which is obviously also its street address.
Pedant's Counter-point: Hadyn's post. We're easy to tell apart: Hadyn's the one with the tattoos.
-
Bugger. Sorry Emma and Hadyn for the mistake.
-
I believe it's spelled 'pendant'.
-
We're easy to tell apart: Hadyn's the one with the tattoos.
Counter-counter-point: So do you. Unless you going for the uberpedantry of "tattoo" vs "tattoos".
Spent about six hours under the needle yesterday. In a lot of pain right now.
-
Counter-counter-point: So do you. Unless you going for the uberpedantry of "tattoo" vs "tattoos".
I think it's the only identifier (think harder, Emma, we're both pakeha too) that you couldn't use to tell me and Hadyn apart.
David Haywood has suggested I get the ISBN of my forthcoming book tattooed somewhere on my body. It's a bloody tempting thought.
-
I believe it's spelled 'pendant'.
How meta of you.
-
ISBN - I Suffer Bloody Needles...?
David Haywood has suggested I get the ISBN of my forthcoming book tattooed somewhere on my body. It's a bloody tempting thought.
I suggest tatting the number on your spine...
...a contrapuntal complement to your "Dewey" eyes?yrs
Librar Ian
from the stack
Post your response…
This topic is closed.