Posts by Tom Semmens
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Sacha, both are/were just kids trying to shock people for the hell of it.
If it was a Stormfront party then yes, it would be offensive.
But for God's sake, they are nineteen and twenty year olds at a hostel fancy dress party. Lincoln University should be protecting them, not throwing them to the wolves.
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...Had the cops kept their distance, it's quite possible that we'd have had a few charred sofas, a lot of vomit and broken glass, but few real crimes committed...
Most of the pompous "string 'em up" commentary going on here and elsewhere seems to be based on the assumption some sort of serious lawlessness occurred in Dunedin. Look at the video again, and remember that the cameras only show the worst of the entire night.
Looking at the video, I didn’t see much violence. The mob advance, with a few of the more liquored up or foolhardy capering about in front in a near perfect unconscious echoing of the Roman description of Celtic fanatics (indeed, one imagines the police inspector giving his officers a somewhat similar pep talk as Paulinus when outnumbered 10-1 in his battle with the Iceni in AD60 – "Ignore the racket made by these savages. There are more women than men in their ranks. They are not soldiers - they're not even properly equipped. We've beaten them before and when they see our weapons and feel our spirit, they'll crack”).
The mob then halts a distance collectively judged to be close enough to show their liquored up bravado, but also at a distance that signaled they were not serious about confronting the police. In flight/fight terms, the mob – as someone described them year two accountancy students with mobile phones - was only ever going to run away. They then mill aimlessly about, lobbing the occasional missile in the general direction of the police. The police then advance, and the students predictably turn and flee in panic.
Only one side was organised, equipped and up for a serious fight and that was the police, and they also stuck to the “rules”. One cop got clunked by a lucky (or rather, unlucky) missile but that was the extent of the damage.
All in all, it was a highly ritualised confrontation that any anthropologist would recognise in an instant. Young men away from home blow off some steam with a ritualised behaviour display designed more to generate a collection of war stories to impress young women as anything else is behaviour as old as mankind itself and hardly worth getting so high and mighty as so many seem to be getting over it.
Lincoln students, not to be outdone by their bigger city rivals, sure staked their claim over the weekend.
Yup. Now we are going to be given the unedifying spectacle of a bunch of po-faced middle aged hypocrites, who thought it was enormously funny in their day to wear Sex Pistols tee shirts and engage in petty acts of punk rock vandalism and crime, persecute a bunch of teenagers on their choice of fancy dress costumes. Massive institutional violence against a bunch of kids dressed up as Nazis and Jews – oh, the weeping irony.
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Jeremy Andrew - I agree. But the whole "Hitler was democratically elected" thing is usually a preface to some negative comment about democracy based on that flawed obervation.
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If you want to understand the US right, you have to first understand the Civil war and the failure of reconstruction IMHO. White supremacy, fundamentalist Christianity, parochialism and states rights were what brought about civil war and if you think about it, are very much back on the agenda now. Even a lot of seperatist rhetoric from the US right echo the separatist talk of the 1850's and 1860's.
The decline of the northern industrial powerhouse and the paralell rise of the military-industrial complex in the South has reinvigorated the Confederacy. These "crazies" don't just spring fully armed from the head Athena - they have a tradition and a context. I get the feeling they are are now seeking a re-litigation of the political outcome of the civil war. In Obama, these new Confederates see their worst nightmare coming true - after all, isn't a Negro president the fufillment of every dire prophecy Nathan Bedford Forrest ever made?
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*sigh*
Hitler and the NSDAP got 33% in the 1932 election that resulted in his being appointed Chancellor in January 1933. He then used the Reichstag fire in February 1933 to get the senile Hindenburg to effectively suspend the constitution.
Hitler probably didn't enjoy the "majority support" of Germans until sometime around the reoccupation of the Rhineland, and he probably wasn't even hugely popular until after the victory over the Anglo-French in 1940.
It is ann important point, because the often quoted canard that Hitler was "democratically elected" is frequently used as the launching point for all sorts of arguments that are flawed in the first principle.
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Ross has got umpteen starts all season and has earnt future games in the black jersey. No harm in giving someone else a start given that the tri-nations is gone.
I don't agree with this, not in the context of Hanson's comments about the lineouts being the result of "human error". Frank's is the lifter and Ross the jumper and - in a frankly bizarre move by Hanson - the key lineout caller. The message is crystal clear - they are carrying the can for the line out woes. Frank's is also getting it in the neck for the scrum woes. So how many props is that that Hanson has tried and discarded? Instead of sacking players who kick on willy nilly, perhaps Hanson should look in the mirror for our forward problems.
Tialata has been tried before and found wanting. Same with the - yet again - reshuffled backline. But Smith and co won't select anyone outside their matey group of elite players. FFS, just pick the best specialist centre playing in the ANZC and slot him into the team. Could we do any worse????
To me this team selection in particular is so self-serving, so much in denial, that it is just outrageous. Henry, Smith and Hanson told the NZRFU they were an all or nothing deal. On that basis, I almost hope we lose on Saturday, if that will get rid of the useless bastards currently coaching the team.
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What exactly has Owen Franks done wrong? And Ross?
Hanson's finger pointing at the players and blame shifting last week in the media now makes sense.
It isn't that fat pricks fault, it is the jumper and the lifter to blame.
And yet - again - they hang on to Rokococo. Jesus, what has Rokococo got to do to be dropped?
Absolutely disgraceful and self-serving selection decisions that are the final proof that this current selection panel has completely lost the plot.
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Here is a hint for the NZRFU: Sack Hanson, keep Ross, and get someone who knows something about forward play into the coaching panel.
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Just seen the All Balcks for Saturday...
And...
WTF????? That dopey fat fucker Hanson right royally screws up for years, and our best young lock pays the price??????????????????
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The ETS is a joke. It is only a matter of time before a journalist "discovers" the massive subsidies going to people who don't need them and the whole thing will explode in the governments face.
And as for the Maori Party - every one it's apologists I have seen are turning on them. The scales are starting to fall from the eyes of many.
But more to the point, any attempt to reduce CO2 by emission reduction is doomed to failure. To many people have to much of a vested interest in unfettered capitalism. The only hope we have is to develop sequestration tactics and examine ways to artificially cool the planet.