Hard News: Holiday Open Thread 2: Chewing over the News
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Russell Brown, in reply to
I believe before Baycorp gets involved the world bank gives you money on the basis that you restructure your whole economy and welfare system and your people riot in the streets.
And you don’t get the money until you can prove that it’s a proper riot in the streets. A few bored kids biffing bottles won’t cut it. iirc, some public shit has to get set on fire.
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In the trite news section, apparently David Bain is short of both cash and a woman in his life. That took Herald space two days in a row.
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Matthew Poole, in reply to
So what does the US do? Their economy is the basis of all the IMF and World Bank recommendations, right down to the effectively-unregulated financial sector, weak employment protections, heavily-privatised provision of essential services, limp environmental protections, etc.
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Matthew Poole, in reply to
3 News is reporting that the autopsy believes a fall combined with his heart condition is what lead to Cem's death. Given that they talked of "injuries", I'm not surprised the Herald kept on with the "suspicious" line. When it takes an autopsy to determine that the injuries were likely accidental the Police would have been remiss to not consider that foul play could've been responsible.
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Joe Wylie, in reply to
I believe before Baycorp gets involved the world bank gives you money on the basis that you restructure your whole economy and welfare system and your people riot in the streets.
And you don’t get the money until you can prove that it’s a proper riot in the streets. A few bored kids biffing bottles won’t cut it. iirc, some public shit has to get set on fire.
I heard of someone who lasted for one mission with Baycorp. The bad debtors set a pair of white English bull terriers onto him, the kind with squinty eyes and horrible genitals. The realisation that there had to be a better way of earning a living came to him as the larger of the pair was hanging as dead weight with its jaws attached to his bum.
That was a couple of decades ago. Presumably Baycorp are rather more hardened up these days.
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The U.S. last (kind of) defaulted in 1933, when it decided to stop paying people in gold.
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Craig Ranapia, in reply to
Given that they talked of "injuries", I'm not surprised the Herald kept on with the "suspicious" line.
Well, I'm not complaining about the Police doing their job -- they have pretty strict rules around how they treat cases like this, and have them for a reason. What doesn't surprise me about too much of the media coverage is that they went with the sensational lead, and buried the far from trivial context when it was reported at all. Sure, I expect the Herald the TV news to be tacky and tone death but it's not a member of my family or a close friend who got the death porn treatment.
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Lucy Stewart, in reply to
So what does the US do? Their economy is the basis of all the IMF and World Bank recommendations, right down to the effectively-unregulated financial sector, weak employment protections, heavily-privatised provision of essential services, limp environmental protections, etc.
As far as I can tell from the news, this has lost priority to some idiotic video the captain of the Enterprise made and got fired for, and the exciting revelation that this year, people will have a whole three extra days to file their taxes.
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Leg-ends and other extrememeists...
I have been sent a pattern for some Tardis socks.
how about gloves?
...if you've got time
on your hands
and you are
making arm-ends!...though those
tubular matrices
can be tricky...purling the wormhole
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Jackie Clark, in reply to
You've been eavesdropping on Megan and I, haven't you, Ian?
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JLM,
Had a nasty moment half listening to the news before, when they said that the chair of the new "Innovation Board" was Sir William Ralston. But it turned out to be Sir William Rolleston. Whew!
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In the trite news section, apparently David Bain is short of both cash and a woman in his life. That took Herald space two days in a row.
It was so absurd I couldn't help but read it. David, if you're out there, my advice is to emigrate to Australia. There's more money, more sheilas, and most importantly, the only shit you'll cop will be the odd sheep joke. Would make a change from having random strangers insult you everywhere you go, surely.
and the exciting revelation that this year, people will have a whole three extra days to file their taxes.
That might actually save my bacon. Squeezing money out of people in North America is taking longer and longer.
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recordari, in reply to
Squeezing money out of people in North America is taking longer and longer.
Ask them to pay you in gold.
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Lucy Stewart, in reply to
Ask them to pay you in gold.
The new head of the House Subcommittee on domestic monetary affairs would be thrilled with that. (No, really. Thrilled.)
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recordari, in reply to
The new head of the House Subcommittee on domestic monetary affairs would be thrilled with that. (No, really. Thrilled.)
But that would intimate that they had any gold, which they don't, rumour has it.
Wait, it's way too early in the year for either Ron Paul or Gold Conspiracies. I've already been sent to the Naughty Chair once today. Back I go.
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Matthew Poole, in reply to
Ah, the gold standard. The fall-back of anyone who doesn't completely understand the concept of a closed system. It's awesome if you don't trade with any other countries, I guess, but unless you produce lots of gold yourself your economy is fucked.
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Apparently silly .... is that the N word is 'more' offensive today than it was over a hundred years ago and thus one of the most challenged books of the last century in the US will be censored in the next reprint
[url/http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jan/05/huckleberry-finn-edition-censors-n-word]
Huckleberry Finn rewritten to have no more text naggers
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dead pan...
I guess, but unless you produce lots of gold yourself your economy is fucked....
...Apparently silly …. is that the N word is ‘more’ offensive today than it was over a hundred years ago...
Nugget?
....another one for the wordpile
no clemency for Clemens, I see....or I have I got the wrong end of the stick...
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Lucy Stewart, in reply to
It’s awesome if you don’t trade with any other countries, I guess, but unless you produce lots of gold yourself your economy is fucked.
The Spanish Empire tells us that even if you produce lots of gold (and/or silver) yourself (for a variation of "produce" meaning "steal and enslave people to dig up for you"), your economy is still fucked. Although, to be fair, that could also have been the massive inbreeding among the leadership.
Apparently silly …. is that the N word is ‘more’ offensive today than it was over a hundred years ago and thus one of the most challenged books of the last century in the US will be censored in the next reprint
I'm pretty sure it's definitely more offensive than it was over a century ago. That's rather the point of the new edition. And, no, reclamation/ironic usage by black Americans doesn't count in this context. Which said, the getting rid of it is still of dubious use - you lose half of what the book can teach you - but it's not censorship, either; it's a stupid editing decision. Censorship implies a governmental/official action which isn't present here. It's one edition. There'll be plenty of unchanged ones available.
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Although, to be fair, that could also have been the massive inbreeding among the leadership.
And a few, shall we say military misadventure's.
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Joe Wylie, in reply to
The Spanish Empire tells us that even if you produce lots of gold (and/or silver) yourself (for a variation of “produce” meaning “steal and enslave people to dig up for you”), your economy is still fucked. Although, to be fair, that could also have been the massive inbreeding among the leadership.
According to Norman Lindsay's The Magic Pudding:
"O Caribbee! O Barbaree!
O shores of South Amerikee!
O, never go there: if the truth be told,
You'll get more kicks than Spanish gold.'"Like Huck Finn, Lindsay's 1918 Australian kidlit "classic" has its offensive passages, notably:
So I'll tell you what I'll do
You unmitigated Jew,
As a trifling satisfaction,
Why, I'll beat you black and blueAn expurgated version has long been available, and was presumably the one with which the unhappy Jewish grandfather who wrote an aggrieved letter to the Sydney Morning Herald a few years back was familiar. Unfortunately the copy he bought for his American relatives contained the offending text, leaving them rather underwhelmed with the glories of Australian childrens' lit.
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@lucy not having the basic human right to be offended makes any comparable word use study tricky. I thereby waggishly contend that the wicked N word has not significantly changed in it's offensive capabilities over the past 100 years.
But I do agree that it is not wholesale censorship. Just the niggardly dumbing down of a book the helped educate our humanity away from the nigritudes of racial prejudice. I am pretty sure Clemens would have not aproved of the blinding politically corrected light of redacted history.
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I would take gold, if they paid on time. I have a funny feeling that if they actually sent me gold bars in insured registered mail it would get here quicker than an international telegraphic transfer always seems to. The cost would also be about the same.
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Matthew Poole, in reply to
Just the niggardly dumbing down
Can't use that word either. Sounds too much like t'other.
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Er, yeah. You know, that website makes me think that banning niggardly is a really really good idea. It would piss off exactly the right sort of people.
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