Posts by Neil Morrison
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Hard News: Holiday Open Thread 2:…, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
: If you're read my comments on the subject that way, I'm sorry.
no, I didn't take that from your comments Craig. I definitely would have assumed your position to be much more nuanced.
Palin is worthy of criticism in her own right. What has happend in this tragic event I think does not make what she has said worse or better. It was wrong but I'm inclined to believe on what evidnce we have that Loughner might well have done what he has without the Tea Party.
Appearently the most bitter dispute between the left and right in Arizona was illegal immigration and Loughner made no mention of that in his rantings.
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Hard News: Holiday Open Thread 2:…, in reply to Simon Grigg,
It's just not as common as it was twenty years back and before.
ever hear of the 60's?
so, it's now "direct" causal link. silly me, I tought the statement "What matters is that she legitimised a culture of violence where shooting your congresswoman seemed the responsible thing to do." had some sort of causal implication. But clearly no "direct" causal link.
So, why the link if it's not "direct"? Surely an indirect link is just an attempt at guilt by association.
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if no-one is making a causal connection between Palin and Loughner how come the last few comments make a feature of linking the two?
It is possible that there is no connection but whatever, I'm inlclined to wait and see just what this guys motives are. They may or may not suite my political prejudices.
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It might be worth holding off making a causal connection between Jared Lee Loughner's actions and Sarah Palin and the Tea Party movement until the guy's motives are better known.
So far what's come to light about Loughner suggests mental illness.
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Hard News: A few (more) words on The Hobbit, in reply to kevin russell,
Has that job been achieve yet?
might be now impossible to tell. An NZ music quota on facebook?
Social networking-based distribution is causing havoc with the economics of both music and film. Musicians appear to be going back to being on-stage entertainers with greatly diminished earning power. How many albums has Justin Timberlake done in 10 yrs? Not many as there's not much money in it.
And social media sets up communities not base neecssarily on national identity, so funding national culture becomes a bit trickier.
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Hard News: A few (more) words on The Hobbit, in reply to Che Tibby,
an amount running into the 100s of millions?
I see your point. However the tax subsidies to large productions do add value to our economy and it allows the development of skills used on, I hate the expression, our stories such as Eagle vs Shark.
We could partially address that issue by adopting the French state film funding model where that's derived from a tax on box-office takings. So Avatar gets to subsidise the production of French films that not many people go and see. Still, French culture gets the protection it needs and they get to see their stories. And it adds a certain number of jobs to their economy such as intellectual film critics who get to explain what those stories mean.
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This is such a terrible argument.
The other half of the argument, left unsaid in this instance, is that State funding of the Arts is ok if it serves a purpose.
An argument gently mocked here, State funded of course:
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So what if Nana has to wait an extra year for her hip operation?
What could possibly go wrong with a system whereby the State takes the money from you, dear reader, that you would have spent on Art/Entertainment and spends it on health.
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As you might already know, my own opinion of the defendants and their actions is not high. At best, they have behaved extremely foolishly.
I can't recommend highly enough having a look at what happened in New Caledonia during the 80's. Some of the most violent events were the result of foolishness not malevolence.
Of all our neighbouring countries NC is what we could have been like. For better or worse.
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It's part of a disturbing culture of entitlement and taxpayer dependency for film, television and music people who believe they are owed a living. So what if Nana has to wait an extra year for her hip operation?
It was at the point around when film workers got cast as Kulaks in the Great Class War that I thought all hope was lost.