Posts by Joe Wylie
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Hard News: Hate and guns, in reply to Katharine Moody,
As I said in my first post, the societal problems as I see it, are almost intractable - too big and too complex to comprehend or legislate for. Hence central government becomes more and more authoritarian and less and less effective.
Perhaps we're not that different. I believe that Federal Street in downtown Auckland was named in anticipation of NZ joining a bunch of neighbouring British colonies to form the Australian Commonwealth. While the local dissenters won the day, states' rights can still be a source of contention in Australia.
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Hard News: Hate and guns, in reply to Gabor Toth,
This is important when entering into any discussion with or about the gun lobby or pro-2a individuals as they will generally ignore any argument when basic terms are used incorrectly. The same applies to when discussing an issue with people from a military background; e.g. get the word “battalion” confused with the word “company” and they will often ignore everything else you say regardless of how sound and rational your point of view is.
IMHE when a group places that level of importance on jargon it's because its purpose is to exclude outsiders. Folks like that are hardly likely to be open to reasonable discussion with anyone whose viewpoint differs from theirs.
As for those of the military persuasion, you might recall the case of Haane Manahi a few years ago. While attempts to have his WW2 heroism posthumously recognised date back to the days of the Shipley Government, it was the Clark Government in 2007 that eventually succeeded in presenting his case.
Manahi held the now obsolete rank of Lance Sergeant at the time of his heroic deeds. Because the armchair military buffs at the Kiwiblog end of the blogosphere had never heard of such a rank, and because the official presenting his case was a woman, it was immediately ridiculed as a case of what would some silly bitch know.
If you've actually made any headway on the gun reform issue by employing precise terminology it would be nice to know about it, but I'm not holding my breath.
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Hard News: Hate and guns, in reply to Katharine Moody,
The 'melting pot' that was once its strength is now a weakness.
Surely the 'melting pot' only ever really referred to white folks. In the era of economic expansion in which it served as a convenient label, Jim Crow laws still governed much of the South.
They might be better off as a number of independent countries...
Things probably looked that way to many in the 1860s, or in 1932, when Douglas MacArthur deployed tanks and a cavalry charge against the Bonus Army in Washington DC. It's a solution that might well have appealed to supporters of the status quo during the civil rights struggle of the 1960s.
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Hard News: Friday Music: Roger writes…, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
The past eh?
You're damned if ya go there and damned if ya don't...Perhaps the dearth of decent Toy Love reviews back in the day illustrates how little such things really mattered to a band's career. One I do recall was the Wellington 'reviewer' who lifted whole chunks from the NME, simply replacing Mekons with Toy Love. Being a sensitive artist he used his influence at the record store where he worked to have Rip It Up banned from the shop after the magazine outed him.
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Access: Fighting seclusion with…, in reply to Hilary Stace,
Yay Robert won.
Far out. And thanks once again for the heads up on Becoming A Person.
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Hard News: Friday Music: Roger writes…, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
Reminds me a bit of his Toy Love non-review back in 'the day', which was largely about what a bad night he was having -
The one of a Maidment gig, where Chris was described as a Reginald Perrin lookalike? Memorable mostly because Toy Love reviews were rather thin on the ground back then.
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Southerly: I Fell Down, in reply to Paul Campbell,
I've always thought the way that Key keeps snuggling up to Ma is quite cute...
Perhaps he'll flog DOC off to Jack Ma. Maggie would love the photo op.
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Hard News: Hate and guns, in reply to izogi,
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Southerly: I Fell Down, in reply to Paul Campbell,
The way I see it those of us in the West have a lot of privilege, we've built a civilisation on the backs of exploiting the 3rd world, I think it's time we shared the wealth.
I guess the late Australian Ken Morley was driven by similar sentiments when he befriended the young Jack Ma on a visit to provincial Hangzhou in 1985. An avowed lifelong socialist, Morley shouted Ma his first overseas trip and, thanks to a generous cash gift, enabled him to buy his first humble apartment in China. These days Alibaba founder Ma vies for top spot among China's 50-plus billionaires.
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Hard News: Hate and guns, in reply to Moz,
You might note that while they're still small, they have members in NSW parliament so we have allowed "recreational shooting" in state parks and there is fighting about allowing it in national parks.
Upper house only, much like Fred Nile and the onetime dregs of Pauline Hanson's One Nation. I'd suggest that's more a reflection of NSW's convoluted electoral laws - and compulsory voting - than of any genuine reflection of the popular will. Journalist and documentary maker Jenny Brockie described meeting Shooters Party voters who genuinely believed that the Australian Constitution guaranteed them the right to bear arms (it doesn't).
Presumably they were related to the guy she once filmed raising unintentional laughter in a suburban Sydney court with a loud "Objection your honour!" Because he'd seen it on an American TV show he'd figured it was legit in Oz.