Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: Things we needed to hear

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  • merc,

    Lone Ranger, look Tonto, the red man is coming, in numbers and they don't look happy with us.
    Tonto; whaddya mean us, white man?
    BTW, Captain and T worked, we recruited alot of muskrats for the cause you know.

    Since Dec 2006 • 2471 posts Report

  • Riddley Walker,

    muskrats? i thought you said meercats. i wondered why you seemed to think their secretions were so fragrant. smelt like crap to me. explains why those Bush for Men toiletries never really took off though.

    Kimosave, you can always tell the Chief after a battle by the number of arrows in his back.
    D

    AKL • Since Feb 2007 • 890 posts Report

  • merc,

    Muskrat Love, one of the greatest songs ever written, by anyone. Now Captain Riddley, everyone knows the Chief was really bonking 99, Max had no idea, and there's that number 9 again, get it?
    Also, I say alot of things, and the voices do too, you're job is to listen, gotit!

    Since Dec 2006 • 2471 posts Report

  • Riddley Walker,

    i liked muskrat susy best. after muskrat jim anderton anyway.

    9 is the trinity of trinities.

    listening. no voices. only research.

    10 4 big buddy. bears in the air. looks like we got ourselves a... oh shit, HAL's here.

    AKL • Since Feb 2007 • 890 posts Report

  • 3410,

    Re: John Key

    Fave movie: Johnny English
    Worst movie: The Exorcist
    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/column/story.cfm?c_id=702&objectid=10432595

    Personally, I fear for a country run by someone with such shockingly poor judgement.

    Auckland • Since Jan 2007 • 2618 posts Report

  • Danyl Mclauchlan,

    Helen Clark chose the bio of young South American revolutionary Che Guevara, The Motorcycle Diaries

    That Clark liked the Che hagiography certainly diminishes my respect for her.

    It's funny that Key didn't like the Exorcist, given it's impeccable conservative values, but his appalling taste in film fits in with my overall Key hypothesis, that's he's a classic autocrat, smart and personable but totally unintellectual. That won't be a problem when he's trying to get elected but I suspect it will get him into trouble when he actually has to run the country.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 927 posts Report

  • Riddley Walker,

    yeah, the Exorcist will be more useful then

    AKL • Since Feb 2007 • 890 posts Report

  • Danyl Mclauchlan,

    yeah, the Exorcist will be more useful then

    The power of Key compels you!

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 927 posts Report

  • Riddley Walker,

    he he. ran out of garlic

    AKL • Since Feb 2007 • 890 posts Report

  • Jackie Clark,

    I, too, was at the Springbok protests - in Auckland, to be more specific, and to be even more specific, down by the timber yards off Morningside Drive. Our job was to distract the police. I was 17 years old and had never been to a protest before - so it was a little scary. I was, however, there with my mother, and two of my sisters so it was less so than being by myself. The scariest thing of all? Being faced off with a line of very young police officers in complete riot gear. Unheard of. And that would have tainted my view of police - except that in my mind, I can still see the police officers who were walking along beside us (to make sure we stayed in formation, I guess) singing "Amandhla.........."

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

  • Nobody Important,

    Hmmm, the one I met down that way turned his back on me and then said "Piss Off". The idiot presumably thought that if I complained he would have deniablity: "I know what the claimant said they heard Guv'nor but can they swear they saw my lips move?" Plonker

    expat • Since Mar 2007 • 319 posts Report

  • Malcolm,

    I was in Biko squad at Eden park. I remember that at the assembly point, people were invited to join the three 'action' squads, but warned they would be involved in confrontation.

    The atmosphere was surreal, in retrospect. The approaches to Eden park were fortified with big steel rubbish bins. It wasn't just shields and crash helmets. People had scrounged up all sorts of things - I some people in lifejackets. One in kendo gear.

    I think by then a lot of people had become politicized. It wasn't just about giving comfort to an oppressive regime. It was about the willingness of cops to beat up New Zealanders, and of many rugby heads to revel in the fact they were shafting their fellow citizens. Even Colins Meads said he would like to whack a protestor. Good ole pine tree. Fasscinating to see interesting how quickly a population can become polarized. It reminds me of the 'Reds' and 'Greens' in the Hippodrome at Constatinople. Or the tribalism on some NZ blogs!

    I think the Springbok tour was the point at which that NZ lost it's holier than thou sense of moral superiority. All of a sudden, we weren't much different from anybody else. The film 'Sleeping Dogs' had, shockingly, imagined a future where riot police beat up protestors on the streets of New Zealand. Then a few years later, it actually happened. It wasn't a loss of innocence so much as a loss of ignorance, and smugness. And I think it primed people to embrace the social and economic explosion of the mid-eighties.

    Since Apr 2007 • 69 posts Report

  • Peter Cox,

    Fave Film: Johnny English
    Least Fave Favourite: The Exorcist

    If National win I'm leaving the country.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 312 posts Report

  • Peter Cox,

    Least Fave Favourite

    Oops. This is what happens when you skip breakfast.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 312 posts Report

  • Robyn Gallagher,

    That Clark liked the Che hagiography certainly diminishes my respect for her.

    Oh, come on. You know she only picked that cos she's hot for Gael Garcia Bernal.

    As for John Key's choice, Johnny English, that sounds like the choice of a) a man who is too afraid to have an opinion, and b) a man who never goes out.

    Since Nov 2006 • 1946 posts Report

  • Peter Cox,

    that sounds like the choice of a) a man who is too afraid to have an opinion, and b) a man who never goes out.

    Perhaps you're right. But still, (and I don't want to come across like a snob), I imagine a life where 'Johnny English' is your favourite film of all time and I gotta say it's a miserable, grey, barely living existence. Maybe we should make a list of actually good family friendly movies that we can send to him to encourage some horizon broadening?

    My suggestions:

    'The Iron Giant'
    'Duma'
    'Whale Rider'

    And if they can handle a documentary:
    'Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill'

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 312 posts Report

  • Leigh Baillie,

    I was there at 11.45pm on January the 20th (my memory fades after years) outside the old Intercontinental Hotel in Auckland at the anti Vietnam demos. I saw the Police that night in what I'd call the first of the modern times of Police *overdoing* their power.
    I was out of the country during the Springbok problems.

    The report is what we needed to hear, well put! Sadly though, but it doesnt surprise me, many current and ex-police are still sitting back denying this is an issue.

    The real truth is much hasnt changed! Maybe there is not the same indulgents in sex parties, but the attitudes arnt much different towards women, young maori (hauled over and indentified because they are there) to name a couple of incidences.

    Now Id like to see some real changes. We wont though, cos the shaved heads, wrap around sunglasses, bulked up men already have their police culture/attitudes set. The women police compensate by wearing Doc Martin Jackboots.

    I'd better stop now I think.

    Paradise, Waikato • Since Apr 2007 • 2 posts Report

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