I'm not a touchy feely kinda guy but

someone out there may just need this....
















Hope today is better bud!

Oh dear

How long before Winston Peters our foreign minister doesn't blame the media for everything that comes out of his mouth?



How long is a piece of string you ask.....

More developments in keyboard land

Playing Records

Records I played at Supper Club on Friday Night:

Tica - Rock The Cashbah (Smith & Mighty Steppers mix) (Nuphonic) 2001
Dub Syndicate - The Show Is Coming... (On U Sound) 1990
Linton Kwesi Johnson - Reggae Fi Peach (Island) 1980
Sly Dunbar - Sesame Street (Virgin) 1979
Dub Syndicate - Hawai (On U Sound) 1989
Audi Active - Free the Marijuana (On U Sound) 1994
Dub Syndicate - Stoned Immaculate (On U Sound) 1991
African Head Charge - Heading To Glory (On U Sound) 1993
Gary Clail & The On U Sound System - Two Thieves & A Lair (On U Sound) 1989
Singers & Players - Holy Scripture (On U Sound) 1988
Dub Syndicate - North Of The River Thames (On U Sound) 1984
- excert, The Sunworshippers Speak taken from Resurrection: The Amplified Bible Of Heavenly Grooves (Second Coming) 2001
Adrian Sherwood - Zero Zero One (Green Tea) 2001
Dub Syndicate - Jungle (Jungle Mix) (On U Sound) 1996
Omni Trio - London Step (Moving Shadow) 1994

Was good fun, nice to play records I don't listen to much these days.

Beat Boutique

EDIT: Update, gig postponed til later in year

It would be...

6-7 Jason George
7-8 Bob Daktari
8-9 Dj Monkey
9-10 Chris V

Things that go bump in the night

So we had two earthquakes in Auckland last night.

The first I hardly felt and then the second gave the house a good old shake.

Its been a long long time since I last experienced a earthquake - Auckland very rarely has them, when I lived in the Bay Of Plenty they were not uncommon.

I can't believe my old fashioned reaction.... I searched for news on TV..... yeah as if they would interupt some shite program....

An hour later I finally though, doh.. online, yep plenty there.












I feel silly, why oh why would I rely on antiquated media.

Don't do as I do, do as I say

As the Bible tells us:

"He who spareth the rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him correcteth him betimes" (Proverbs 13:24)

"Withhold not correction from a child: for if thou strike him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and deliver his soul from hell." (Proverbs 23:13-14)

Anti-smacking bill set to move forward
NZPA Tuesday, 20 February 2007

Legislation that would restrict parents' right to smack their children looks set to pass its second reading.

Green MP Sue Bradford's amended bill, which is expected to come up for debate tomorrow night, would remove parents' rights to hit their children for "correction".

Parents would only be allowed to use "reasonable force" to prevent harm to a child, deal with offensive behaviour, or stop a child harming others.

Prime Minister Helen Clark today voiced her support for the bill, which was amended by a select committee, especially in light of a recent Unicef report showing high levels of child mortality and abuse in New Zealand.

"There's been a lot of work done on it with the Law Commission. I just don't think it's credible in this day and age with the Unicef report showing that our children face the worst safety conditions in the world not to support (it)."

Labour senior whip Tim Barnett later confirmed the party's 49 MPs would vote to keep the bill alive.

As well as the six Green MPs, five National Party MPs are expected to support the bill at its second reading, along with Progressives leader Jim Anderton, United Future leader Peter Dunne and a clutch of New Zealand First MPs.

However, after that its passage could get more complicated.

National MP Chester Borrows is proposing an amendment that would define reasonable force as light smacking as long as it did not cause anything other than "transitory or trifling" injury such as redness or stinging.

But Ms Bradford today said if Mr Borrows' amendment was successful she would withdraw the bill ahead of its third and final reading as she did not wish to define a level of force against children as acceptable.

Such a definition would amount to "state-sanctioned violence".

Opponents of the bill today pulled out the stops to sway MPs.

Pro-smacking lobby Family First delivered MPs an open letter signed by 1200 New Zealanders, including prominent sports people and broadcasters, calling for the rejection of the bill.

Spokesman Bob McCoskrie said it would outlaw large numbers of law abiding parents.

If MPs wanted to reduce child abuse and deaths they would be better off tackling key factors such as family breakdown, substance abuse and poverty.

Ms Bradford's bill was partly sparked by cases where parents successfully defended assault charges -- some involving the use of whips and cords - using Section 59 of the Crimes Act, which allows the use of reasonable force in disciplining a child.

Mr McCoskrie said the group could only find 18 cases where the legal defence of reasonable force had been used in the past 12 years - seven of which were successful.

He said the size of the problem did not warrant outlawing thousands of parents who smacked their children in a controlled and loving way.

"What we object to is the politicians basically saying we don't trust parents to act in the best interests of their kids, so we're going to tell you how to parent your kids and we say to them get out of the home. This is the home invasion bill."

Ms Bradford said she did not believe the bill would lead to a rash of prosecutions by police.

Police were bound to follow public interest prosecution guidelines and in most cases smacking would not meet the threshold, she said.

The bill would remove discrimination against children.

Ms Bradford said she fronted up to the Family First event today but believed they had little credibility.

"I think they have whipped up this campaign of fear and hysteria among ordinary New Zealand parents and that's the basis on which they are campaigning. A lot of it simply isn't true."

Ms Bradford said if the law passed it would help change attitudes around violence.

"Really what this debate comes down to is a choice for MPs tomorrow about whether they support the right of children to grow up free from violence or the right of parents to beat their children."

Children's Commissioner Cindy Kiro today reiterated her support for the bill, while For the Sake of our Children Trust director Christine Rankin said it would potentially penalise good parents.

Our future generations deserve more

As a species we can either stand still and continue with our violent ways or we can evolve past such behaviours and attempt to realise that discipline need not come from violent means

Discipline need not be taught through fear

New Zealand is home to a violent culture, we must find multiple ways to address this, starting with our children

Yes, parenting is not easy
Yes, children will push their parents to the limit

and Yes children can be taught discipline, respect and empathy without violence

Lets enact this law, but lets not leave it there. We need more community support for parents, we need better education so we become better equiped to deal with our little ones when they push and push and push their parents to the limit.

Let us move towards a day when we don't have children in our nation killed by their parents


Fad Gadget - Sleep (Mute Records) 1984

Sleep, baby, sleep
Daddy's out to earn your keep
Sleep, baby, sleep
Mama's sad, hear her weep

Watching over you tonight
I get the feeling that life's alright
You can laugh aloud at those middle-aged fakes
Well I hope you don't make the same mistakes as me

Don't you do as I do, do as I say

Sleep, baby, sleep
Mama's out to earn your keep
Sleep, baby, sleep
Daddy's mad, hear him creep

Watching over you tonight
I get the feeling that life's alright
You can laugh aloud at those middle-aged fakes
Well I hope you don't make the same mistakes as me

Don't you do as I do, do as I say

Sleep, baby, sleep

Why, why, why, why

Why do Auckland ratepayers have to come up with the 150 million shortfall for the rugby world cup?

Why are no countries standing up and telling the US to back off their potential attack on Iran?

Why do people give greenpeace money?

Why are there more questions than answers?

One of them days

It was one of them days, nothing quite seemed to go right yet nothng really went wrong.

You know, you get that feeling that all is not right yet can't for the life of you pin down what it is that is getting on your nerves.


















Maybe it was just a Monday.

In Words even the President might understand

Hon. Ron Paul Of Texas
Before the U.S. House of Representatives 02/06/07

It’s a bad idea.
There’s no need for it.
There’s great danger in doing it.
America is against it, and Congress should be.
The United Nations is against it.
The Russians, the Chinese, the Indians, and the Pakistanis are against it.
The whole world is against it.
Our allies are against it.
Our enemies are against it.
The Arabs are against it.
The Europeans are against it.
The Muslims are against it.
We don’t need to do this.
The threat is overblown.
The plan is an hysterical reaction to a problem that does not yet exist.
Hysteria is never a good basis for foreign policy.
Don’t we ever learn?
Have we already forgotten Iraq?
The plan defies common sense.
If it’s carried out, the Middle East, and possibly the world, will explode.
Oil will soar to over $100 a barrel, and gasoline will be over $5 a gallon.
Despite what some think, it won’t serve the interests of Israel.
Besides-- it’s illegal.
It’s unconstitutional.
And you have no moral authority to do it.
We don’t need it.
We don’t want it.
So, Mr. President, don’t do it.
Don’t bomb Iran!
The moral of the story, Mr. Speaker, is this: if you don’t have a nuke, we’ll threaten to attack you. If you do have a nuke, we’ll leave you alone. In fact, we’ll probably subsidize you. What makes us think Iran does not understand this?

Nothing

I've got nothing

Nothing to write

Nothing to say

Nothing to convey

Nothing to explain

Nothing

On The Stereo

What Bob is listening to whilst in training for his debut boxing match



Albums:



David Kilgour - The Far Now (Arch Hill) 2007

The Recloose Band - Backwards & Sideways (Fingertips) 2007

The Dead C - Vain, Erudite and Stupid (Ba Da Bing) 2006

Lisa Gerrard - Lisa Gerrard (4AD) 2007

Pig Out - Club Poems (Pinacolada) 2006





Mixes:



Matt Drake - Beat Street, 07

Carl Craig - Demon Days, Jan 07

Lil Mark - 2001 & 2004

Frankie Knuckles - WBMX Radio '87

DJ Rahaan - Disco Not Disco 06

rules of thumb

Here are some rules of thumb to keep in mind, thirty-six sure-fire indicators that your empire is falling apart:

You know your empire’s crumbling when the folks who are gearing up their empire to replace yours start blowing up satellites in space. And then they don’t bother to return your phone calls when you ring up to ask why.

You know your empire’s crumbling when those same folks are cutting deals left, right and center across Asia, Latin America and Africa, while you, your lousy terms, and your arrogant attitude are no longer welcome.

You know your empire’s crumbling when you’re spending your grandchildren’s money like a drunken sailor, and letting your soon-to-be rivals finance your little splurge (i.e., letting them own your country).

You know your empire’s crumbling when it’s considered an achievement to pretend that you’ve halved the rate at which you’re adding to the massive mountain of debt you’ve already accumulated.

You know your empire’s crumbling when you weaken your currency until it looks as anemic as a Paris runway model, and you’re still setting record trade deficits. (Hint: Because you’re not making anything anymore.)

You know your empire’s crumbling when “the little brown ones” (thank you George H.W. Bush – certainly not me – for that lovely expression) in country after country of “your backyard” blow you off and proudly elect anti-imperialist leftist governments.

You know your empire’s crumbling when you can’t topple those governments and replace them with nice puppet regimes – like in the good old days – even if you wanted to. And you badly want to.

You know your empire’s crumbling when one of their leaders comes to the United Nations and makes fun of your emperor, calling him the devil, and joking about smelling sulphur where he just stood. And though a few folks cringe, everybody laughs.

You know your empire’s crumbling when just about your entire military land force is tied up in a worse-than-useless war launched on the basis of complete fabrications, that every day is actually making you less – not more – secure from external threat.

You know your empire’s crumbling when almost half the soldiers in that war are high-paid mercenaries, and you don’t dare institute a draft.

You know your empire’s crumbling when you send soldiers into war with two weeks training and a lack of armor, and then you keep them there for three, four and five rotations.

You know your empire’s crumbling when a member of the Axis of Evil can test missiles and explode nuclear warheads, and all you can do about it is mumble some pathetic warnings about how they better not do that again or there will be consequences.

You know your empire’s crumbling when you even think that there is an Axis of Evil.

You know your empire’s crumbling when a rag-tag military hodge-podge of irregulars has you pinned down in an endless fight you can’t win, but also can’t lose.

You know your empire’s crumbling when you’re too dumb to even ban Humvees as a first step toward ending your dependency on a foreign-owned crucial resource.

You know your empire’s crumbling when you trade your prior moral leadership on human rights issues for global disgust at your torture, ‘extraordinary rendition’ (a.k.a. kidnaping for torture) and the dismantling of nine centuries worth of civil liberties progress.

You know your empire’s crumbling when you blow off international law that you once helped create, and undermine the institutions of international governance that you once helped build.

You know your empire’s crumbling when opinion polls confirm that every month you’re more and more despised throughout the world.

You know your empire’s crumbling when you can’t even pull off the hanging of a tin-pot murderous former dictator without turning him into a hero.

You know your empire’s crumbling when you’re the richest country in the world, but nearly 50 million of your people don’t have basic health care coverage.

You know your empire’s crumbling when the World Health Organization ranks your healthcare system 37th ‘best’ in the world, just above Slovenia, and just below Costa Rica. (And far below Colombia, Cyprus, Saudi Arabia and Morocco.)

You know your empire’s crumbling when instead of making it easier for citizens to obtain a higher education, you’re making it harder and more expensive.

You know your empire’s crumbling when your government gives tax breaks to industries as a reward for exporting your jobs elsewhere.

You know your empire’s crumbling when the so-called ‘opposition’ party can’t even turn that obscenity into a viable campaign theme and use it to clobber the worst emperor in your history.

You know your empire’s crumbling when your middle class has been stagnant for three decades, while the wealth of the hyper-rich continues to climb through the roof.

You know your empire’s crumbling when your reaction to that is to exacerbate the problem by enacting tax policies that massively increase further still the gap between the rich and the rest.

You know your empire’s crumbling when the predatory class has taken over your government and is stripping the country of everything not bolted down to the floor. And then it sells the floor itself, as well, to your rivals.

You know your empire’s crumbling when you’re spending tens of billions of dollars you don’t own on new nuclear warheads and space weapons that don’t work, to be used against an enemy you don’t have.

You know your empire’s crumbling when one of your cities drowns and your government does next to nothing before, during and after.

You know your empire’s crumbling when a massive environmental nightmare is looming around the corner, and your emperor not only ignores it, but claims it isn’t real while taking steps to exacerbate it.

You know your empire’s crumbling when your emperor is warned by a CIA briefer of an imminent terrorist attack of vast proportions, and responds by remaining on vacation and dismissing the briefer with the words: “All right. You've covered your ass, now.”

You know your empire’s crumbling when the same emperor drops everything to fly across the country from his vacation home in order to sign a bill intervening on the wrong side of a personal medical drama involving a single family.

You know your empire’s crumbling when gays and immigrants are used as diversionary issues to keep people from thinking about the pillaging of their country and their wallets actually taking place. And it works.

You know your empire’s crumbling when people are getting more religious and less scientific, not the other way around.

You know your empire’s crumbling when your political leaders start to be chosen by dynastic rules of succession.

And you especially know your empire’s crumbling when the most idiotic child of one of the least accomplished leaders in its history is not only crowned as the next emperor, but is even revered for a time by most of the public as a great one.

Rome? Britain? Spain?

At this rate we’ll be lucky to end up like Belgium.

David Michael Green

Bob the Builder

Every year I go through periods where I play at being a urban planner, a city builder. (please excuse the shitty lack of paragraphs, blogger don't like me today)

I play out my fantasies via a computer game, Sim City, perhaps one of the all time great games and one of the few that doesn't rely on violence or other such attractions for its entertainment value.

It must have been 1989 or 90 when I first came across this game, then it was very simplistic compared to todays version. Whilst the basic premise remains the same, the game has been developed and expanded over the years until its become pretty bloody flash.

The current version (4) was released back in 2003, so in real terms its old as, yet it is not dated or redundant. For many reasons, one being the nature of the game play and its addictive nature - perhaps addictive isn't the right word. More the time required to build a city or region is such that one needs to invest many, many hours into ones city.

Now I'm quite a keen 'gamer', I can't think of a better way to compliment a pile of CDs that require listening to than a game, reading is cool but often you lose yourself in a book to the point where you stop hearing the music you want to hear, or much of it. With games I find even when engrossed up to ones armpits in sanitation and setting new taxation rates for industry I don't lose track of what I am also listening to.

The thing about Bob's gaming habits, is one; I am crap at games, shockingly terrible to put it mildly. I have this inbuilt nature that always wants to do one thing and the game requires one to do the oppositie to achieve the 'results' as set by the game, these winning results are often not what I am in the game for. Thus I find means to customise the game to play the way I want - this can be in the form of MODS (user made modifactions) that change the nature of the game and addins/ons that add elements to the game to either dress it up, add things that enhance the game that didn't come with it and other small tweaks.

I also depending on what it is I am seeking from my diversion and game, cheat. In the case of Sim City my cheating is simply, gaining money from, as I like to call them, silent investors, rather than only from those whom inhabit my city and thus can be taxed, making it easy as to build a major metropolis quickly and easily.

Sim City is a game that is built for add ons, being a city building program new buildings are a must. And wow there is no shortage of material on the net for one to add to your game/city. Since buying Sim City 4 and its Rush Hour Expansion in '03 I have accumulated 1.2 gig of addons to it. These are mainly buildings (hundreds of) which I can place in my city. Most grabbed from Simtropolis an amazing resource for city builders.

I've only just discovered some New Zealand items on Simtropolis (a few pictured here), which has got me quite excited - yes I am that sad! Now if I had the inclination and time I might go that extra step and work out how to create my own custom content, however I am lazy and prefer to grab from the multitude of amazing things other have built.

Now I've been in my current phase of building since January and have created two city states that suck the kumara - I did say I am crap at these games... a city builder I so am not. Having said that each and every time I don hard hat and roll up my sleeves I learn more about urban development (well in the context of te game) and as I learn my cities slowly get better in design and more attractive to, at least, my eye.

I haven't considered giving up the day job just yet to move into urban planning, but I do feel after 17 years, I am close to actually making one city that isn't complete pooh. If my current level of interest doesn't wan, I do feel it is time to embark on the quest for one city of mine to reach 10,000,000 inhabitants and hopefully also be pleasant on the eye. (previous best approx 3 million). I am now deciding on if I should use a Auckland region map from Simtropolis for my development or to do as I have before, slowly create my own landscape as I build my city....

Today's silent dilemma, one that I shall wrestle with as I go about my daily grind and shall hopefully have settled by the time I get home and am bored enough with telly and mucking about to settle in for a evening of construction.

For a glimpse of what can be done with this game check this dudes Dubai, one word - wow! (please note the link may not always work as this site restricts non members access due to demand).

Now to decide if the Dead C compilation I have just got, is the perfect aural background to sucessful city building..... I think it could be and dozens of sane minds would no doubt disagree.

In short, Bob is a sad sad man and the child that resides within is skipping with joy at that fact.

righto, thats enough of an insight into a part of my world that I rarely mention to others, see you in the nightclub I shall place somewhere on the waterfront (perhaps by my sky tower) of my yet to be built megalopolis, your shout of course..

How Not to Inflame Iraq

By Javad Zarif Iranian ambassador to the United Nations

02/08/07 "New York Times" -- - BEFORE the United States invaded Iraq on false pretexts nearly four years ago, the overwhelming view of analysts and diplomats was that war would plunge the region and the world into greater turmoil and instability. Echoing the views of my colleagues from the region and beyond, I told the Security Council on Feb. 18, 2003, that while the ramifications of the war could go beyond anyone’s calculations, “one outcome is almost certain: extremism stands to benefit enormously from an uncalculated adventure in Iraq.”

This assessment came not from any sympathy for the former Iraqi dictator or his regime. Certainly Iran — which had suffered the carnage of an eight-year war with Iraq in the 1980s, and on which Saddam Hussein unleashed chemical weapons — had no affinity for him. Rather, it was based on a sober recognition of the realities of the region and the inescapable dynamics of occupation.

Now the United States administration is — unfortunately — reaping the expected bitter fruits of its ill-conceived adventurism, taking the region and the world with it to the brink of further hostility. But rather than face these unpleasant facts, the United States administration is trying to sell an escalated version of the same failed policy. It does this by trying to make Iran its scapegoat and fabricating evidence of Iranian activities in Iraq.
The United States administration also appears to be trying to forge a regional coalition to counter Iranian influence. But even if it succeeds in doing so, such a coalition will prove practically futile, dangerous to the region as a whole and internally destabilizing for Iraq. By promoting such a policy, the United States is fanning the flames of sectarianism just when they most need to be quelled.

Coalitions of convenience like the one the United States government now contemplates were a hallmark of American policy in the region in the 1980s and 1990s, and their effect then was to contribute to the creation of monsters like Saddam Hussein, Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Short memories may be responsible for this ill-advised return to old habits.

But who can forget that Saddam Hussein used the very same scare tactic, invoking the “Iranian threat” to extort money, loyalty and military hardware from the region and the world, only to turn them later against his suppliers? Who cannot remember that to contain the supposed “Shiite Crescent” after the 1979 Iranian revolution, the extremism of the fundamentalist Salafi movement was nourished by the West — only to transform later into Al Qaeda and the Taliban? Why should the same policy in the same region produce any different result now?

There are already indications that extremists are exploiting the most emotional sectarian and ethnic divides in the region in an effort to sell possible collaboration with old and new occupiers of Arab lands to a restive, frustrated and resentful populace. Such a shortsighted campaign of hatred will compound regional problems, and it will have global implications, from the subcontinent to Europe and the United States, long after the current crisis in Iraq ends.

We need to remember that sectarian division and hatred in Iraq and the wider region was most recently instigated by none other than the leader of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The shameful legacy of Mr. Zarqawi and his collaborators should have been buried with him. To that end, all of us in the region need to set aside shortsighted schemes and engage with the government of Iraq in a common effort to contain sectarian violence.

The Persian Gulf region is in dire need of a truly inclusive arrangement for security and cooperation. Only through such regional cooperation, with the necessary international support, can we contain the current crisis and prevent future ones. I wrote in these pages almost four years ago that the removal of Saddam Hussein provided a unique opportunity to finally realize the long sought objective of regional confidence-building and cooperation, as well as to reverse the dangerous trend of confrontation, exclusion and rivalry.

We have lost many valuable opportunities to effect this arrangement, with hundreds of thousands of innocent lives shattered in the interim. The forthcoming meeting of Iraq’s neighbors, to be held in Baghdad next month, will be a good place to begin this difficult but necessary journey toward regional security.

The American administration can also contribute to ending the current nightmare — and preventing future ones — by recognizing that occupation and the threat or use of force are not merely impermissible under international law, but indeed imprudent in purely political calculations of national interest. As authoritative studies have repeatedly shown, no initiators of war in recent history have achieved the intended results; in fact, in almost all cases, those resorting to force have ultimately undermined their own security and stature.

When 140,000 American troops could not bring stability to Iraq, and in fact achieved exactly the opposite, an additional 20,000 soldiers with a dangerous new mandate can only be expected to worsen tension and increase the possibility of unintended escalation. Only a reversal of the logic of force and occupation can dry up the hotbeds of insurgency.

Similarly, forging imaginary new threats, as the United States administration is now doing with Iran, may provide some temporary domestic cover for the failure of the administration’s Iraq policy, but it can hardly resolve problems that — as widely suggested — require prudence, dialogue and a genuine search for solutions.

We all need to learn from past mistakes and not stubbornly insist on repeating them against all advice — including the advice George Bush gave as a presidential candidate in 2000: “If we’re an arrogant nation, they’ll resent us; if we’re a humble nation, but strong, they’ll welcome us.”

Fun in the sun

Featuring:
12.00 - 12.40, The Artisan Guns

1.00 - 1.35, Collapsing Cities

1.55 - 2.35, Farmer Pimp

2.55 - 3.35, Kolab

3.55 - 4.35, Motocade

4.55 - 5.40, dDub

6.00 - 7.00, SJD

Friday Frolics

Iran

There is a lot of speculation regarding a potential immanent attack on Iran by either the USA or Israel, possibly/probably both.

I can't help but read dozens of articles on topics such as this and whilst I don't discount the writings and authors I am reading and in many cases follow regularly anyway, I am unsure.

For this time last year almost the exact same articles were being written, differing scenarios with the same result, either a Israeli air attack on Iran's nuclear facilities or a 'baby' nuke attack by the US on the same facilities.

I watch the reports of the US moving another carrier group to the area and how they will be installing patriot missles in key Arab states in the Gulf.

I read about the build up and preparation in Bulgaria and Romania. The Israeli air force doing their practice runs for a potential mission and all the political and strategic reasons for such an attack.

Yet still I don't quite believe.

If there is no attack, then diplomacy still has a chance before the entire region collapses into chaos, as it increasingly seems to be doing.

Its a wait and see, I guess. For there is little else I can do....

I could dig a bomb shelter, not that New Zealand is under threat... and as I don't have a back nor front yard or anywhere I could dig i have for now discounted such building of shelters.

Lets hope for the best

In the meantime I shall continue to read and hope