Friday, April 04, 2003

Star(f)bucks: Who drinks coffee at this place anyway, I mean for gods sake it's the shitey-ist coffee there is (I know this because I tried it once). Now if you want a decent coffee go to Lido (Victoria St, Wellington, NZ - even the French love it), or Marios (Brunswick St, Melbourne), or Brio (Bronte Beach, Sydney), or, The Chocolate Fish, (Karaka Bay Rd, Scorching Bay, Wellington, NZ), anywhere except Starbucks.

I think this is cashing in on laziness. Stick a Starbucks cafe on the corner of a busy road and people would rather drink shite coffee out of stupid looking thick lipped mugs whilst sitting in commercially viable yet banal sterile and uninspiring environments listening to some trite overexposed "latest groovy sound" because they're too dog-arse lazy to walk an extra 3 mins down the road.

It's an unfortunate commentary on the state of our society - consumed by consumerism, the competition is the colour TV, feed-em mediocrity, shite coffee and fat, takeaway or sit in - as long as you don't mind sitting on moulded plastic seats designed for people 3 times smaller than those that use them.

...now what's going on at Bahgdad Airport...

Wednesday, April 02, 2003

This doesn't make me think at all. The lengths some people go to.

:: click here
The asia-pacific, and I guess the world, appears on the verge of mass hysteria... "SARS".

It apparently will kill 4% of those who contract it. Roughly four in every hundred people will die that become infected. It's interesting how the emergence of this virus occurred almost simultaneously with the start of the Iraq invasion - The doomsday freaks will be having a field day. Of course the end is nigh, just look at the evidence - and it was all predicted of course by Revelations, and Nostrodamous... well, actually it was predicted in my world by microbiologists.

...joining the list of doomsday crack pots may well be the anti-GE fringe. "see this is what happens if you tamper with nature" This must have been caused by genetic engineers trying to cross a pig with a chicken.

...other conspiracists might have Saddam Hussien releasing thousands of chickens into mainland China infected with this bizzare virus.

Yeah right, I'm off to have a Tui.

Monday, March 31, 2003

I find it hard to swallow the "western" moral high ground regarding "tactics" in this war. Now the west are "appalled" at what they are calling terrorist actions by Iraq in declaring the proposed usage of suicide matyrs against the invaders. What the hell do the US and Brits expect - that the Iraqi people would sit down and die? May I remind you of the words of Winston Churchill to his good British subjects in Britains darkest hour - World War Two.

“We shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.”

The US and British are using highly sophisticated smart weaponry and technology to fight this war - the Iraqis have, at best, a bunch of moderately trained para-militaries armed with 30 year old AK47s and a few RPGs. An analogy might be drawn with the Zulu wars. Anyway since when did we bomb Sicily to get rid of the Mafia?

I'll tell you something for real. If someone invaded my country I pull out the 22mm and find out how to make explosives with blood and bone.

War is always ugly. Don't kid yourself that there might be any rules in war.
I'm up on the hills, playing little boy soldiers,
Reconnaissance duty up at 5:30.
Shoot shoot shoot and kill the natives,
You're one of us and we love you for that.

Think of honour, Queen and country,
You're a blessed son of the British Empire,
God's on our side and so is Washington.
Come out on the hills with the little boy soldiers.

Come on outside - I'll sing you a lullaby,
Or tell a tale of how goodness prevailed.

We ruled the world - we killed and robbed,
The fucking lot - but we don't feel bad.

It was done beneath the flag of democracy,
You'll believe and I do - yes I do - yes I do -
yes I do ....

P.Weller 1979





Sunday, March 30, 2003

what I really wanna know is this ...

The US seems so adamant about enforcing UN resolutions right. I mean the invasion of Iraq was justified by the three boys (George, Tony and John) as necessary because Saddam didn't comply with the previous UN resolution that ordered him to disarm.

But, there has been a UN resolution in place for 25 years (Resolution 242) ordering the withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from the Palestinian occupied territories - whos out there enforcing that one?

I found an interesting little factual discussion about this on the NZ News Site Scoop - check it out.
gym...
day one. I've gotta run down to the chemist - one nostril is blocked, and I need that spray stuff that clears your sinuses. the things we do. Mind you, ya gotta breath.

It was Salam Pax's blog that inspired me to start this web log. http://dear_raed.blogspot.com/ Blog on Salam - you are a brave inspiration. I know many New Zealanders (and of course many other people around the planet) wish peace to come to your part of the world as soon as possible.

ok - off to the chemist.