This from another report about the anti-anti-smaking protest (also known as the pro-child-punching protest):
Police made one arrest, charging a 23-year-old anti-smacking protester - who
wore a New Zealand flag towel over his head and introduced himself as Jesus, Son
of God - with disorderly behaviour, obstructing and assaulting police.
With all the protests and carry on, one might not see the furore for the trees.
Check out the (roughly) 12yo boy (photo in the NZ Herald article linked above) with the placard saying "Freedom's Ramparts On The Sea". I don't even know what that means, or how to apply it here.
Also from the article: "One observer estimated that the anti-smacking bill protesters numbered more than 500"
Yeah, well I heard that there were a million people there. Idiots (both Herald and protesters)
I began to wonder, if the bill did go through, whether there would be idiots like those who opened bars where people could smoke after that was outlawed. Idiots who would beat their kids half to death just to thumb their nose at the Government.
For more anger causing comments please see the Herald's comments page. James summed it up thusly:
...my favourite ...
"Why not lower the drinking age/the age of consent/the driverlicensing age/legalise pot and meth and whatever else we need to do to send us into the pits of hell."
The PITS of HELL people! (which, I read in the Dom today, that the Pope has confirmed *does* exist).
For health reasons I'm supposed to be keeping away from things that make me angry. But sometimes it's just so hard: Kentucky's Biblical Creation Museum.
... the Rev. Bill Henard, senior pastor of Lexington's Porter Memorial Baptist Church, said that Sunday school classes and other groups from his church are likely to visit.
"I think people will enjoy ... being able to see a different side from what some scientific findings have shown," he said.
Henard said he believes in the literal story of creation, adding that "I think you would be surprised to know how many people hold to a young-Earth creation"
I wouldn't be surprised, I would be very, very pissed off. Unless it turned out to be two. "A different side from what some scientific findings have shown". Well I suppose that's why everyone likes fiction.
Evidence: Mr Peter Talley, managing director of Talley's Fisheries.
In a speech to 200 high school students at a leadership forum organised by Motueka High School, Mr Talley made known his views on various issues.
Whaling : The Japanese should be allowed to hunt whales because they were doing it sustainably.
Seals : Seals should not be protected because they catch more fish than inshore fishermen, in particular hoki and cod. Humans should have more rights than seals which were a "very destructive animal". Talley also said money could be made from seals as each one was worth $600 for the omega-3 oils in them. He did not suggest they should be hunted commercially.
Animal rights : When a student asked why humans had more rights to fish than seals, Talley answered: "I don't believe in animal rights. I want to kill and eat them."
Environmentalists : "Fishing is New Zealand's fourth largest industry but greenies don't want it." Talley said the animal rights movement was urban-based and unfairly targeted farmers and meat producers.
Art : Graffiti artists were no longer tagging "Ban the bomb" but "Meat is murder", he said.
Organic food : The organic food movement was riddled with fraud. British supermarket Tesco had removed all its organic produce from its shelves for a period because so much of it was not actually organic.
Non-organic food : 70 percent of beef has growth hormones in it and every time people eat chicken they are getting an overdose of antibiotics.
Genetic engineering : Pro-genetic engineering for the reasons above and because it cuts the need to use pesticides, growth hormones and antibiotics.
I’m not entirely sure where to start on this. I understand that Talley obviously has a biased stand point as head of a major fishing company so some of his statements are, in some way, understandable (“New Zealand [has] a fantastic and sustainable fisheries management system”). But…wow…some of this stuff is just…nuts.
Whaling : The Department of Conservation pointed out that we don’t know of Japan’s whaling is sustainable or not. But above that, just because something is sustainable should we do it? Also Mr Talley is implying that whaling is environmentally sustainable, however, recent reports would suggest that it is not economically sustainable. Moreover, once something is found to be unsustainable it is harder to stop (see current poor fishing practices worldwide).
Seals : Our seal population is still returning from nearly being wiped out. I’m not sure where he gets his numbers for seal fish kills but I’m guessing that the seals are much more sustainable and less environmentally destructive than inshore fishermen. So if seals are killing “too many fish” then Talley’s fisheries management system is missing a large variable in its calculation. i.e. “Our management system is perfectly sustainable in this environment, it’s just that the seals kill too many fish.”
Animal rights : I have never heard a less convincing argument about why animals shouldn’t have rights* than: “because I don’t believe in them”. “I want to kill and eat them” is even less so.
Environmentalists : I’m sure that this gross generalisation, “Fishing is New Zealand's fourth largest industry but greenies don't want it” is sure to create many comments. Like this one from Les Mathieson: “About time someone told the other side of all the green rubbish that gets taught these days.” Or this one from Dan Manson: “The greenies do a good job but at the end of the day their beliefs, are just that. Their beliefs only. In hotter years to come it will be the greenies fault that NZ will have animals running around like they own the places they are living in whilst humans will starve and die due to their inability to be able to hunt, kill, and feed themselves or their families”. Actually Dan’s reads like it might be sarcasm but…
The Greenpeace spokesperson said it best when she said “[Talley] forgot to mention that pigs can fly”
Art : I had no idea that Peter Talley was a follower of street art. Of course, no one has written "Ban the bomb" for a VERY long time (except in a retro fashion). And I’m happy to excuse the "Meat is murder" phrase if he keeps saying things like “I want to kill [animals] and eat them”.
Organic food : To say that the “organic food movement is riddled with fraud” because of a few dishonest companies is like saying that the film industry is full of cheap, poor quality DVDs because of a few pirates. Both industries are actually trying to stop the dishonest versions. Tescos would’ve been right to remove organic produce that they were suspect about until a proper certification. This protects their customers. However, to not reinstate real organic food after certification would just be stupid.
Non-organic food : It’s good to see that Talley doesn’t actually hate the idea of organic food. However, he mentions meat and chicken being full of antibiotics etc what about fish? As a wild catch it is by definition organic. But the “organic food movement is riddled with fraud”. Oh, what to believe?
Genetic engineering : Better the devil you know than…
I dunno maybe he was drunk. Still I hope the teachers at Motueka High School have been teaching their kids to think (I really like the fact that one kid asked Talley why seals had less rights to fish than humans). I hope the kids listened to his arguments and then proactively went and looked for information about the issues. I hope.
*This is a Wikipedia link so the views expressed may be biased one way or another and aren’t necessarily my views.
I’ve got a little plan in the works that I’ll lay out here soon, but for now a little angriness.
Here on the Sportsfreak forums some idiot called DArcy is talking about gay sportsmen and women. A fairly good post on the topic was written on the Sportsfreak website a while ago (Sportsfreak is also home to the excellent piece about “New Laddism”).
DArcy claims to have read a book called “'Why men don't listen and women can't read maps” and from that he gives the following:
although the percentage of homosexuals in the general population would suggest that our sports teams should be equally dosed with said folk, this is not the case due to one simple fact. does anyone want to know? it also covers why lesbians are more prevalent in sport.He continues:
Nope, but carry on:it's a gene thing biff. we all start life as women. after a few weeks in the womb the chromosomes get busy on it and we lean to chick or bloke. blokes hunt. chicks nurture. the more feminine a man becomes, the less likely he is inclined
to indulge in hunting related tasks, ie sport..not as much testosterone you see. reverse that for women....too much testosterone, more of a tendancy to indulge in hunting related tasks.....make sense?
I don’t know if he ever was making sense. Gay men don’t have much testosterone?generalisation. take an average sized room filled with males and females, generally the males are taller and broader. i base my previous posts on this.
because in the cave days, men chased lunch, we've developed a spacial ability beyond that of women. distance, velocity, angles etc all assist us in hunting, a key to survival. women looked after the kids, and developed superior language skills, peripheral vision etc, more, but different keys to human survival. these tendencies are still reflected in the modern era. eg, men dominate darts and snooker, even though strength is not a key attribute in these pursuits, women can't compete, as they dont possess the primeval skills that we developed as hunters.....
am i still making sense?
It also gives you hair and large organs (both internal and external). But no where does this say that it makes you dextrous and able to hunt animals. Sure men have more testosterone than women (in general) and so make better athletes due to bigger muscles, bones, hearts, lungs etc but this has nothing to do with someone’s sexual orientation.
Testosterone also effects libido (more testosterone, higher libido). Even the most conservative gay-hating Christians have never accused gay men of having a low libido (often it’s the opposite). Moreover has DArcy ever heard of “bears”?
Those with a background in biology are welcome to comment (as are those without but please no “un-experts”)
Last night, thanks to the fabulous Queen of the Bloggers, we went to a free preview screening of The Illusionist. I had missed the Prestige and had heard “good things” about this film so was quite excited. I came away slightly disappointed.
Unfortunately someone had the projector set for the wrong screen size and for the first 10mins there were guffaws as the actors looked like fat munchkins. Then to add insult to injury the establishing scenes for two main characters contained clear shots of a dangling boom mic. This meant that the film took some time to get its momentum back.
The beginning showed promise (that is the piece after the projector was fixed). It had the feel of The Princess Bride, which is always a good thing. However, the story felt clunky in parts.
Paul Giamatti stood out (again) from a pretty good cast, with a deep baritone and the most constant accent. And Edward Norton is always good value.
I just found the story to be too predictable and then found the direction to be heavy-handed in showing the audience what they had already figured out. However, the inevitable sex scene did reveal something: the audience are treated to ambiguous shots of flesh and Edward Norton’s four foot high blurry nipple, but no story development.
Also the director, Neil Burger (also the writer), wanted it to feel like a turn of the century film with those “iris in” wipes (I think that’s what they’re called), so he put in two of them, one somewhere near the beginning and another somewhere near the end, but not as bookmarks, just, y’know, when he remembered.
The story is very good but was just told in a clumsy fashion and the magic is kinda cool too. I don’t know maybe I was too critical, other people in the cinema seemed to like it.
The Raconteurs have become a casualty of my iPod. They were put on there when their album (Broken Boy Toy soldier*) came out last year but I didn’t listen to it, being a randomise junkie, until just recently.
See the iPod has completely changed how I listen to music. I don’t mean that I’m able to wander around town more, but that I don’t really listen to albums as album anymore.
Artists and producers slave (I assume) to carefully craft a collection of songs so as to elicit moods and thought patterns in their listeners or to match it perfectly to a movie**. Yet here I am listening to my homemade playlists and usually on random.
So the Raconteurs managed to slip past my playlists and sat in the bowels of my iPod until one day I remembered them, and LO!, their sound brought great joy to me and my lady.
I have since remedied the situation with a “Good New Stuff” playlist (that I listen to on random). But to create the list I have to listen to the album three or four times. Another case of me outsmarting myself.
*See, it's so bad I got the name wrong: Broken Boy Soldiers
**Seems as a good a time as any to say that I hate Pink Floyd as much as I hate the Eagles
When I'm not writing scripts or doing paid work (or trying to ignore both of those tasks), I'm screen printing t-shirts. I've got Craft 2.0 on the weekend and I need a decent batch to sell there.
The above photo is just part of my "catalogue". My kitchen is currently filled with screens and ink and squeegees. Drying tshirts are everywhere! I'm REALLY looking forward to Sunday when I'll only have 2 or 3 things to do.
I hate that the word "fro" is in my spell checker.
And that sentences like "...and fro example..." aren't picked up by the grammar checker either.
Fucker.
With all of the modifications aroud the blog I thought I may as well spill the beans about something. I've been incredibly busy of late and somethings have to fall by the wayside. One of these is a blog I was secretly writing for a very long time and only a few people knew about...
The Batblog
I had a loyal (and surprisingly large) readership and I tried to keep it going but I really didn't have time anymore. Please go over and have a read of the archives, I think they're pretty good (if a little geeky).
All "good" things must come to an end.
As such I am changing my template. Blogger has been nagging me about it for a while so I suppose I should (if only to shut them up). So if things look garish around here...make that, if things look MORE garish around here, please be forgiving.
The Hell Hamsters can now be seen in Melbourne at the Angry Film Festival.
...just got a lot of things on my plate at the moment.
If you look closely you'll be able to just make out that my screenwriting progress bars are moving (and in a positive direction).
I'm still angry at news stories and even more so at the media itself, I just haven't had time to write about it.
I'm still screen printing T-shirts this time to sell at Craft 2.0 (Therein is a long saga about stolen ideas blah blah so I won't go into it).
Tiki Party went well though. Good time had by all. Same with the Carnival(e). Still haven't found a good snap of the young lady on the roof.
And all my sports related items are now spoken into a recording device and posted on the net through my podcast.
So that's all. Back to the paying work. (which is also heavy at the mo)
