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First.
Damn.
That’s the first time I’ve won this race when it’s actually been midnight. Normally it’s sometime in the middle of the afternoon for me.
Has anyone read Triumph of the Airheads? It sounds very latte left.
Oi, mick, are you back in Brisvegas?
Yep, I’m back in Australia for a few weeks. I’m travelling to Sydney for a few days next week, but aside from that I’m in Brisneyland. I head back to Europe on the 10th of February.
Just wondering f any of you smart people out there can tell me what is happening with Iraqui Oil.
How is it managed? Who gets the revenue?
There was a suggestion that US war costs wre to be be repaid from oil revenue. Is this happening? If so does Australia share in this?
As there hasn’t been anything in the news of late regarding the piplines being sabotaged I guess they are secured but by whom?
OIl was supposedly one of the main reasons for the Iraq invasion. A Google search has revealed nothing much comment since 2005.
If/when US pulls out how will they enssure the oil ontinues to flow?
Just wondering.
Returning from his hols, Greg Sheridan wastes no time getting down to tin-tacks. Things haven’t got any better since he tucked into his second helping of Christmas pud.
Yes, those Muzzies have been causing him more sleepless nights. It’s not that he doesn’tthink that there are a few decent Muslim chaps out there, somewhere, surely. And it’s not that Islam hasn’t “produced magnificent cultural artifacts.” But , dammit all, its time to call a spade a spade:
Now, clearly, Greg has done a comparison in his head between Islam and another religion. And perchance might that other religion be Christianity?
Of course, the Wars of Religion of the 17th century killed far more Christians than the present-day jihads have killed all categories of persons. The jihadists have got a lot of catching up to do.
But to what extent were these wars of religion a “perversion” of Christianity? What fundamental doctrines did the Christian denominations change in order to bring an end to these killings? The answer, of course, is that they didn’t. What happened was that ordinary folk and intelectuals alike grew weary of the grandiose and fraudulent claims of the Christian sects. They voted with their feet. The result was, among other things, the Enlightenment. Only then, and after a century of reaction (remember Pius IX?), did the Catholic Church decide it was prudent to tone itself down a bit.
Now I can imagine some of the usual suspects itching to condemn me as a Muzzie-lover. Wrong!
My target is neither Christianity nor Islam. Rather my target is the falsification of history necessitated by Greg Sheridan’s fantasies about the reasons why western culture is more flexible, tolerant and freedom-loving than Islamic cultures.
It happened not because of Christianity, but despite it.
Anyone know who the tallest woman in rock/pop is?
I’ve got Grace Jones at 5′ 10.5″
I found this story, Allan, from AP, and commentary at MoJo blog here.
If you search for Iraq petroleum you’ll find more information.
Also, the despamintor likes me again! W33T!
More on the David Hicks saga. The admissibility of both hearsay evidence and evidence obtained by “coercion” suggests that they’re not interested in a robust judicial outcome, but really just want to be able to air all sorts of wild accusations as “evidence”.
Anthony, Dame Joan Sutherland was 6′2″ according to Wikipedia’s list of famous tall women, blowing electrically-amplified warblers out of the water.
Aimee Mann is 5′11.5″. Wikipedia has Gracey at 5′11″, the same height as Hulk Hogan’s popette offspring Brooke.
Phyllis Hyman appears to be the tallest woman singer listed here, at a whopping 6 ft 2 in.
Followed by Macy Gray and a delightful artist called Maria Mena who has sung lyrics like:
They are 6ft, which is also the height of Ann Coulter, Allison Janney and Maya Angelou.
Alex’s most disturbing music video series continues today with British trip-hop outfit, UNKLE, featuring Radiohead’s Thom Yorke on vocals.
Enjoy. (NSFW)
Dang, I don’t know how I missed Macy and Phyllis.
The famous tall woman that surprised me was Mary Queen of Scots, who was apparently 6ft. I’ve always had an impression of her as dainty: probably because the first movie I saw about her starred Katharine Hepburn at “only” 5′7″, then I saw Vivian Pickles in Elizabeth R (5′5″).
In Gunpowder, Treason and Plot Mary was played by Clémence Poésy (5′7″). At least Vanessa Redgrave was 5′11″, although I think they carefully filmed that one to make her look less tall (fates forfend we see Mary being taller than most of the male courtiers in the 1560s).
Apparently a movie is being filmed later this year with Scarlett Johanssen (5′4″). Maybe they will make all the male actors stand in a ditch like the female co-stars of Alan Ladd had to (5′5″ and a quarter – don’t forget the quarter-inch!). But will they be able to resist the temptation of an utterly ahistoric meeting between Mary Stuart and Elizabeth Tudor?
Best hatchet job I’ve read this week – Joe Queenan on Blood Diamond
I came across this while looking for something totally unrelated and it made my skin crawl. The article is called ‘The trouble with troubled teen programs. How the “boot camp” industry tortures and kills kids.’ http://www.reason.com/news/show/117088.html
Now I don’t wonder why Americans tolerate ‘Gitmo’ or camps to turn gay kids straight. I was going to post on this but I thought I’d get more opinions from LPers.
You’ve repeatedly used the derogatory and bigotted term “muzzies” in your comment. Up until now I’ve assumed you were being “ironic”, implying that this is a term Greg Sheridan would use if he didn’t have a sub-editor.
I’ve seen this tactic employed by many white middle class Westerners over the last 6 years: constantly referring to “brown people” or “towelheads” as if this ironic use of racist language somehow made them “cool” – the “Tarantino Effect”.
But the quote above gives pause for thought. The rejection of being a “muzzie-lover” is stated with such clarity, such desire to be accepted at face value…
… One can only assume that you, Katz, think of Muslims in the bigotted language you condemn in others.
Yes. Congratulations.
None of that is going to change the fact that the Western world experienced the Reformation and the Enlightenment; whilst the Islamic World, once proud carriers of the torch of science, stopped dead in the middle ages.
SO instead of being a bigot why don’t you try supporting those Muslims who want to try Enlightenment?
Nope, but I can tell you the tallest woman in Australian folk/ blues: Margaret Roadknight http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~margretr/intro.htm
I once supported her at the Zoo – and she was at least two inches taller than me.
I’m 6′3″.
i guess we dont have to look far to find the tallest gal in aussie literature
.
Re Iraq’s oil, there’s an informative report on the prospective, secret hydrocarbon law at tompaine.com
Even though the law is secret, it seems that Bush has resiled from attempting to impose PSAs. This represents a huge backdown for Bush.
Moreover, the present government of Iraq has proven itself to be much less than compliant in its dealings with Bush so the secrecy may not necessarily mean complicity with Bush at all.
And finally, the law must be passed through the parliament.
The Sadrists hold the balance of power in the parliament, which makes the timing and apparent targetting of Bush’s “surge” very interesting indeed.
Then you went and spoiled it all by thinking twice.
Beth Orton is six foot.
Just sayin…
And what a great clip that is. Not so much disturbing… the final scene is quite uplifting. Talk about man overcoming machine. I wonder how much influence Thom Yorke had on the making of the film clip… he has an uncomfortable relationship with cars, or so he has said. If you ask me the song and the clip are more radiohead than UNKLE.
I’m not sure if you’ve used this before, but I suggest that any future instalments to your series should include Aphex Twin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7ovoPCZSQw and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cFlaWxWDhI
Pity about shutting down the Strange Alignments thread. I thought Barbara B’s last post was particularly illuminating.
To respond to BB’s last Strange Alignments post:
Again, nice detail BB.
Of course the Shiite Islamists would try to get as much of their way as possible within the constitution-drafting framework imposed by the US.
But the Shiite forces were always going to support the formal acceptance of the constitution because they had confidence in their ability to take control of the political process by dint of electoral success. I reiterate that the Shiite forces did this while at the same time proclaiming their discountenancing of the legitimacy of the US role.
And when they have the opportunity they’ll discountenance the constitution as well. You explain what is likely to happen:
And don’t forget that ethnic cleansing has been proceeding apace in Iraq. A sizeable proportion of the Sunni population don’t live there anyore. Your population figures are way out-of-date. About 1,000,000 Sunni have fled and the secular parties have all but collapsed.
You are incorrect to state that the Shiites were targetted by the US from the
beginning. The US has armed the Shiite militias and the US has overwhelmingly
combatted Sunni insurgency.
Ho ran his own country and he had major backing from the other superpower of the day. The Shiites have none of those trump cards, yet they are playing their hand with surpassing skill.
Any Sydney-based blogospherians interested in throwing together a Sydney blogosphere-jam band with a view to regularly
staving off the advances of dull middle agestriking FEAR and LOATHING in The Man’s heart, man!!!? Such is all the rage these days, I’m told: teh interwebs as a means for amateur musos to hook up and rip it up.I was thinking ‘unintimidating musical get-together’. Monthly (say). Sunday morning (say). A ‘blogjam’ whereby musically like-minded Sydney bloggers can turn up and plug in and get musicky. I have some general gear and possible access to a pretty big, noise-friendly, non-public venue. It and me are in the inner west, but I’m happy to do it elsewhere if there are better options. I’m no great musician but I love playing with others and I’m intrigued by the idea of a blog-based ‘Zipless Jam’. Especially if we could get a
big melting potpan-spectrum moonbat-to-rwdb line-up happening. I imagine starting with basic guitar-based material: rock, country-rock, acoustic-rock, blues and blues-rock, tending towards the classics…you know, stuff that any Boomer/X-er/Y-er with three chords and a shout can gobble up. I’ve got a 16 track desk, sundry speakers, a few mikes, couple of guitars and amps, a Yamaha DGX-205 for any keys players, various shakers, whackers, thwackers, tooters and jinglers…oh, and a trumpet somewhere. (I see brass sections, string sections, I see multiple dance risers pulsing with semi-nekked humanity…). At a pinch I can borrow a fair (albeit electric) drum kit for any skinners who used to play but swapped your gear for a baby seat, say. Best if y’all contribute your own basic rigs though, obv. As for the mechanics, well, I thought maybe set up a Sydney Blogjam website where we’d ‘dry rehearse’; loosely sort out songs, keys, lyrics, etc in the lead-up to each session. Most casual jams tank when the song suggestions dry up and/or no-one can remember the basic sheets for good kickstarters. This would be very casual and low-key, mind…but one does need to have a basic road map. Another thing about jamming (in my experience) is that someone cheesy has to risk spawning a tumbleweed silence andtry toget the ball rolling. So here’s me trying to get the ball rolling.It could be fun. It could be a non-starter. It’s just a spec Saturday Salon trawl for any Sydney bloggers whose part-time musical bent perks a bit straighter at the possibility of contributing to a blogfest con live music. Even two off-key plinkers on acoustics screeching Blowin’ in the Wind is an advance on a purely passive life soundtrack, after all. BTW…no offence if you’re very good, but I think this kind of thing works best with knockabout plodders and dabblers, rather than the virtuoso shredding type – and certainly no professionals, please (you’d get bored and we’d get shy, fast). Beyond that I’d be not much fussed about your blog-politics, or you personally. We’d be out to make music with each other, not friends. So by all means you could jam ‘in blog character’ if it tickled your avatar-thingy or blogmask. (Ahem…as for me personally…well, I’m neither as mad nor as boorish as my various ancient blogtrails might suggest at first Google, if Googling is your thing. Good days, bad days, rushes of blood…you know how utsy click-top self-publishing can be…anyway, this blog-comment, it’s about TEH MUSIC, MAN!)
So…feel free to email me at jackrobertson at ozemail dot com dot au with any ideas or responses you might have. Or just chuck in your two bobs’ worth on this thread. At minimum to make it worthwhile even first up I think we’d need to have a basic bass, drums, keys, guitars sort of spine in place…and a few blogger(s), male and female, who fancied themselves with a mike and wide-stride rock yarp. (I’m strictly a backing vocalistic, me – backing at least as far away from the mike as Wagga Wagga, say). But at this stage it’s all merely
tinitusa twinkling in my ear, anyway. Certain practical obstacles may prove insurmountable, and I’m v. open to suggestions and comments either way. But…well, I think it could be cool. Even if only once in a while. So…why not let’s make some music!Thanks for the ‘Public Blog-Notices’ space, LP, and pardon the length, as usual.
Bootcamps sure as hell seem like places to be avoided at all costs. Fail to see why the emphasis isn’t put into something constructive like the arts myself but then again I don’t really understand what goes on in the minds of rightwingers and militarists.
I have spent a week off work this week being educated as to why the Federal Government has been able to muster support to pass workchoices. Turns out that if some one leaves a job the “boss has been sacked” and so there is no problem with workchoices because if you don’t like the job just leave.
Must leave bosses quaking in their boots bigtime. With attitudes such as this so prevelant the Federal Government can get away with whatever it likes.
Reminds me of an old drunk I lived beside years ago who had spent all his wages at the Caxton hotel for about thirty years and he was deluded into thinking that he owned shares in the hotel.
It’s all quite sad really.
Rob, it’ll probably get a better audience here if the debate continues. A lot of people tune out of very long threads. If people are on slow connections, they get pretty much unloadable too, particularly once images come into play.
Yes, think of fossilised dial-up losers like me Rob. Id rather a new thread. Specially once Kimski starts posting Dykonic imagery – its a long march to the comment box!
…and i bet Mark’s got the cardboard cut-out in his room to prove it! LoL.
There’s an idea!
I know some commenters here dismiss Leftwrites as loony, but Jeff Sparrow’s recent post on John Howard’s little favour for Catch a Fire ministries is well worth reading.
http://www.leftwrites.net/2007/01/20/youre-going-to-get-burned/
A lot of Leftwrites is well worth a look – Jeff Sparrow writes well and argues cogently, even if I have big disagreements with his politics.
It’s only when you get posts like Jorge Jorquera’s on Leninism that the satire bells start ringing!
http://www.leftwrites.net/2007/01/19/leninism/
Though obviously Leftwrites commenters themselves didn’t think it was worth much of a discussion…
yes, i find some of the more ‘theoretical’ posts there difficult going. i am also uncomfortable with people characterising themselves as ‘far left’. but i think Jeff’s politics are pretty sound – progressive socialist from what i cen tell.
i think though that many political blogs can tend towards scholasticism, which really is the antithesis of a good discussion site.
I suppose the good thing about the Saturday Salon is that it disappears into the ether forever after the weekends … or is there an archive?
Katz.
“Muzzies”. Not worthy.
What’s got that got to do with the Shiites ability to overturn the Constitution legally? The Kurds would have to agree.
Yes, the middle class professional Sunnis have shown their strong support for the insurgency by decamping to the neighbouring Arab States. Once the insurgency is defeated, or gives in, (judging by the recent reports in Arab Press of divisions widening in the Baath this might be sooner than we think or at least they’ll start killing each other instead of Shiites) … the Sunni middleclass will move back to Iraq and a very well run region they’ll put together too. The Sunni middleclass, the Kurds and the secular Shiites have always had much in common and they will more than balance the Islamists once Baath has come to its senses.
Katz. In August 2003 the Sunni Baathists played the opening bars of the insurgent symphony by, in the space of three weeks:
1. Blowing up the Jordanian Embassy.
2. Blowing up the United Nations compund.
3. Blowing up the Shrine of Iman Ali in Najaf and killing the Ayatollah Muhammed Baqir al-Hakim, brother of the present head of SCIRI, and 100 Shiite worshippers. I believe 8 of Hakim’s brothers have been killed by the Baath, the others in Saddam’s day.
You might like to refresh your memory here: http://www.juancole.com/2003_08_01_juanricole_archive.html
This was the first post invasion mass attack made by the Baath on the Shiites. August 2003. Since then they have blown up, beheaded or murdered tens of thousands of Shiites, including groups of children and most lately the students at a university near Sadr City. This adds to the hundreds of thousands murdered by the Baath prior to the invasion.
Honestly, how long can you keep apologising for the Baath? Did you know anything at all about the country before the US invaded, or before the Gulf War?
The US proved incapable of protecting the Shiites from these attacks, hence the growth of the militias. But it wasn’t until February this year when the Baath blew up the Golden Dome – 2 and half years after that first attack – that the Shiite militias really started retaliating with brutal Middle East rules.
As a result, the Baath are now apparently starting to split. Some of them are beginning to internalise what the Afrikaners did – the jig is up.
Every single post on LP is archived, Barbara. You can either access them via the sidebar by date or search for content.
Agreed!
Barbara B, do you write or blog somewhere? This stuff from you is excellent – you should put it together as a tactical level review of Iraq. I’ve only got a high level view of the situation but I know it’s what happens at the levels you describe that really count on a day to day basis.
Allan Kauter, one of the contributors to Last Superpower has a long, detailed thread about oil and Iraq – it might be worth a look.
I’ve always assumed that the Shiites will overthrow it “illegally” if they don’t get their way by constitutional means. Why do you deny by implication that this is my major thesis?
Huh? Most have run away from Shiite death squads (aka the Iraqi Army). Read Riverbend on this. The rest of your discussion of Baathism is therefore of marginal relevance.
What parallel universe has this emitted from? Since when have I “defended” the actions of anyone, let alone Baathists? This is totally bizarre.
This is quite true. And it serves as a confirmation of my overall thesis. Al Sistani
explicitly instructed Shiites to refrain from retaliation. The US carried most of the burden of fighting the Sunni insurgency. Look at US fury over Falluja as a leading example.
I have no documentation for the following, but my suspicion is that al Sistani has allowed the US to erode its resolve by fighting the Sunni. The rise of Shiite militancy has more or less mirrored the collapse of the US resolve to “stay the course”. In other words al Sistani has allowed his two major enemies to exhaust each other.
So? As I said earlier, I regard the Baathists as marginal to the outcome in Iraq. I don’t know why you assume they have any importance in my thinking. It’s a bizarre misreading of our conversation so far.
In fact some of it is so bizarre, I suspect your bona fides, unless, of course, you are labouring under the misapprehension that the Baathists are Shiites, which would be an elementary error.
Riverbend is a questionable source, Katz, however vivid. Iraq the Model has pointed this out before.
OK Rob, how about this story from National Public Radio, or another of the 208,000 hits acheived by Googling “refugees from Shiite Death Squads”
Contrary to evidence, Rob, I’d like to think that your contributions so far to this thread are not deliberately jejune.
Thanks peoples of the internets. Dinner query resolved. 5″11′ in block cut tig tog. (and wow Dame Joan – she missed a career in lucha libre, gifted opera singer by night-wrestler by ermm night)
Wow, what a fortnight. Pole-flattening ice storms across North America, massive storms across the UK and North Europe, power-killing bushfires in Victoria and flooding in Sar Straya, and that’s not even to mention the comet. You know, in a less enlightened age, you humans would have got the message, just as as the very credulous by indisputably correct Casca did, especially since the news of the day seems to be getting more and more military. Even the Salon threads are getting gun-bloggish? Hey, it’s your planet.
I urge you to take it in the Noel Coward fashion.
Can I just say something?
Katz — as far as I recall all I’ve said on this thread is how good BB’s comments are. How is that rattling your cage?
When was the last time that Grace Jones appeared on stage?, I hear you ask.
According to Wikipedia, in which we all believe, it was on November 3, 2006.
Jones took part in a gathering of people sharing the surname, performing “Slave to the Rhythm” and “Pull up to the Bumper” to a large crowd of Joneses. 1,224 people were gathered that day, breaking the previous record for the largest surname-based gathering.
Which all just goes to show that there is not much point trying to keep up with the ……..
Oh well I’ll just say it anyway:
Katz, Barbara B, David Jackmanson, patrickm: Can you take this somewhere else? You all seem to think that the validity of your arguments relies on, well, verbiage.
I have no doubt that you may all have deep insights into how Iraq is developing. But not one of you have any ability to communicate in a way that is succinct or interesting.
If you want to take this to an academic journal, go find one. Having the most words doesn’t make you the winner.
Oh yes. Rule 1 – Engage the readers.
Groovy. When’s the wedding?
Well…when the state mysteriously withers away, pretty much.
Zoe’s baby has arrived. Piccy
11.25 pm CST and if you gave up on Lleyton Hewitt (again) and switched off the teeve when Gonzalez had won the first two sets 6-2 6-2 , now’s the time to put it back on. Again.
Also, I believe Joni Mitchell is over 6′. Possibly not the tallest, but certainly competitive.
Gah. Sydney FC are in the finals, just. Goodbye Queensland Roar, you had me on the verge of cardiac arrest for most of the second half – next season fellas. NB Terry Butcher: 3-5-2 wasn’t bad in the first half, eh? could work with a decent DM and a RB who isn’t a total nincompoop (i.e. not Iain Fyfe).
I should probably take this to ‘Sidelined’ shouldn’t I?
Christine, I’ll take my lead on where to discuss what from whoever posts the thread, thanks.
PC – a nadal vs federer final or a nalbandian vs federer final?
a roddick vs federer semi should be good.
federer is the simply the most amazingly great all round player. (& he’s sort of “our roger” a bit – with his love of rocket rod and tony roach as his coach.)
If Gonzalez goes on playing the way he played tonight, it’ll be Federer v Gonzalez.
If it’s Federer v that testosterone-crazed arse Nalbandian, I’ll enjoy watching Roger clobber him, but I’m hoping it’ll be Nadal.
“I have spent a week off work this week being educated as to why the Federal Government has been able to muster support to pass workchoices. Turns out that if some one leaves a job the “boss has been sackedâ€? and so there is no problem with workchoices because if you don’t like the job just leave.”
Actually poor steve ran into the mythbuster that nasty bosses are out there sacking poor wretched employees when the truth is it’s the other way round.
As for the drunk at the Caxton, wasn’t he the barman there before he got fired for drinking on the job? The union got him an unfair dismissal payout as usual but he soon drank that away and couldn’t crack another job. Trouble was he believed the leftys from the union that the boss always has the power over him and hence the silly bugger still drinks there.
Leinad, i’m not the best A-League blgger (actually the worst to be honest) but i’ll get up a A-League finals post up on sidelined when I understand what is going on.
That promises to be about 2010 but I’ll try.
Katz, I’m curious as to why you think the Sadrists hold the balance of power in the Iraqi parliament. My reading suggests they have a significant minority within a coalition whose most prominent members are rivals of al-Sadr and his family.
Devil Drink — Speaking of world-weary pre-next-war attitudes, I prefer (to my amazement) the artistic stance of Messrs Brecht and Weil, esp. as interpreted by the angelic/demonic voice of yr own magisterial Oz chanteuse, the saintly Robyn Archer.
There is no whisky in this towwwwn,
There is no whisky in this towwwwn.
Oh, where is the telephone?
Is there no telephone?
Oh, sir, god damn it.
Let’s go to Benares,
Where the bars are plenty.
Let’s go to Benares,
Oh Johnny, let us go.
Funny, and this is rather a tangent, I’ve had La Archer’s voice rattling around in my skull for the last few days, esp. her incredible reading of “Ballad of the Pirates”. This is amazing since I only ever had her stuff on vinyl, many many years ago, (och, memories. let’s not go there, it’s the stuff of vast, weepy David Lean-style widescreen epic heartbreakers in funny period costumes) and have yet to dig it up on CD, though I do believe there’s a good comprehensive compilation available. So, just wonderin’. Is R.A. worshiped down there as a Living National Treasure (justice), or is her work a thing of the past (no justice)?
Lupin 3, what you wrote here:
misstates the influence of Moqtada. It is true that he cannot force the UIA to do his will. But that isn’t the source of his power.
Sadr controls about 30 members in the Iraqi parliament. Without those 30 votes Maliki cannot pass legislation against the opposition of the non-Shiite parties. One vital piece of legislation that this may stymie is the Hydrocarbon Law which will establish the rules for exploitation of Iraq’s oil, as discussed in posts above.
Late last year Moqtada instructed his members to boycott parliament until Maliki agreed to tell the US to end its military occupation of Iraq.
However, as recently as yesterday Moqtada instructed his members to resume parliamentary attendance. On the face of it this appears to be a backdown by Moqtada. But who knows, this story mentions only 6 of his 30 members.
She is by me, JPZ, and the last two shows I saw were booked out here in her home town of Adelaide. She is having a bit of a lull at the moment after resigning from the directorship of the Liverpool Arts Festival (some kerfuffle or other about funds and directions, she’s got a good international rep as a high-end arts festival director) but she does still sing and do shows. She and Paul Grabowsky did a season in New York a couple of weeks after 9/11, I don’t know if you saw that?
Ahem: Some Memories of Robyn Archer for JPZ:
As she is a home-town gal, I remember her as a young teenager singing country music on early local television. I went to see and hear her perform all through the 1970s, starting with the time she played Eve (Eve of Eden, that is) in a university revue in the early 70s, walking down the keyboard of an old piano wearing nothing but a pair of bright-green knickers and her own waist-length red hair and carrying a pizza, though I now have no idea why Eve would have been doing such a thing.
In 1974 she was the hired entertainment for my child-husband’s workplace Christmas do (lots of very dirty songs), and in 1976 she gave an all-Brecht-and-Weil concert at the Art Gallery here, just her and a pianist. (Somewhere in there she graduated with first class Honours from my own old university department, four years ahead of me, which means she must also have studied Old and Middle English plus at least one foreign language at university level, as required for Honours at the time.)
At the Adelaide Writers’ Week in 1978 she gave a concert — first half the Australian women’s poems she’d recorded and set to music (the album was called Wild Girl in the Heart, you might have it), second half 60s rock’n'roll to which everybody danced.
Still in the 70s, I saw her do her Berlin cabaret show Tonight: Lola Blau, and her Tragic Girl Singers show (Judy Garland, Patsy Cline and so on) in A Star is Torn, both entiely self-devised, self-written and one-woman performed. The last concert I went to, here in Adelaide a few years ago, she sang a highly politically charged program in four or five different languages, everything from ‘Masters of War’ and ‘A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall’ to semi-comic virtuoso highlights including ‘Vaya Con Dios’ a la Patsy Cline and ‘Nessun Dorma’ a la (au?) Pavarotti. She also reprised some of the early country music ( see above) including some cowboy yodelling.
She directed two Arts Festivals here, in 1998 and 2000, and I went to a presentation she gave when she was first appointed, to a small invited audience of arts locals, and she gave this staggering speech about international best-practice arts and festivals, in which she made not a single concession intellectually and which I could only just follow.
I’ve also seen her quietly wander into a room where a theatre group was giving a presentation as part of their application for an arts grant, and at question time proceed to grill them (nicely) about the props, the computer music, a small technical detail about the set, the key the main character was singing in, and the intellectual basis of the script.
You have excellent taste.
Yes.. Yes Robin is a pedigree lesbian performer South Australians (where she was born and trained) think Robin is the bees knees but unfortunately she spends more time as an Arts administrator rather than performer these days and gets plenty off side.
Mentioning RA sent these words through my head. My patrickm loves it when i sing the first but is not so keen when i go the double standard refrain.
ohh give me that old soft screw you know i like it from you
oh do, oh do, oh do me, oh do me, oh do
oh give me that old soft fuck you know it’s just my luck to find someone as fine as you.
I like your dignity your magnaminity
I like your style
I like the way you hold it up just for a little while..
I’d like to do it again, again, and again and maybe baby then
If i could persuade you we could revel in the old soft screw
Ohh we could revel in the old soft screw…
Or this
Neurotica suburbia you’re quite a girl
Your life is so full it’s such a whizz and a whirl
With your babies and your unit and your old TV
Well hell how happy can one woman be…
One of her classics for last.
That good old double standard, raise it high, raise it high
That flag of sexist attitudes let it fly, oh let it fly
This army has two sets of rules depending on your sex
So you better do what the General says or else he’ll have your necks…
something something he’s a young buck brave and bold
If a woman does exactly that she’s a slut a tramp a moll
Male and female are viewed differently by society’s every eye so raise the good old double standard high, high, high
The song the menstruation blues was really out there but i can’t remember the words off the top of my head and given i have the vinyl of Ladies Choice and haven’t heard it for years – but it is worth digging out. I’ve always wanted to see her perform but have not had the chance to date.
not patrickm at all but his very naughty identity stealer.
Thank you, wasn’t quite clear on that point.
Okay, If we pre-suppose (a) the Kurds would declare their independence and take Kirkuk and the Shiites would let them, (b) or the Shiites would defeat the Kurds in a civil war(c) the neighbouring states, Egypt, Saudi, Gulf, Jordan, Turkey, Syria wouldn’t have a say in it, (d) The US would stand by and let it happen and (e) the UN wouldn’t have a strong view of a legal constitution voted on under UN subervision being overthrown.
Riverbend writes superbly from the perspective of a privileged Sunni probably Baath family background. Most recently she has only emerged to denounce Saddam’s trail and then his execution. Can’t recall when she has ever so much as acknowledged Baath responsibility for the crimes against the Shiites and Kurds. But perhaps she’s always regarded them as “marginal to the outcome”?
Sorry, must have misunderstood.
btw, you still haven’t answered my question: what, if anything, did you know about Iraq, Saddam, regime prior to the US invasions last year or Gulf War?
>
JahTeh [12:46pm Saturday] :
re boot-camp brutality for teenagers and Gitmo. Why the surprise?
Everybody chucks off at Australia being founded by convicts – without bothering to look about how and why these people became convicts in the first place or how much control they had over what happened here. Had the American colonists lost their Revolutionary War, those who weren’t hanged would have been been “transported” to Australia (lovely term that, a euphemism to match “ethnic cleansing’ two centuries later). Much of the traditional Australian dislike of authority and intolerance dates from the Convict Era.
America is said to have been founded by “free men” who were “escaping religious persecution” in the Old World. That was true only in part. As for the rest, they were nothing but murderous religious fanatics following brutal perversions of their “religion”. After the horrors of the Wars of Religion and the Thirty Years War, Europe was well rid of them [see Katz' comment 9:13am Sat.]. They had far, far more in common with the terrorists and Jihadists of today than they ever did with decent Christians. America was fertile soil for these apostles of the Anti-Christ. Their malignant, cruel influence has grown powerful and now infests every aspect of American life …… the non-rehabilitative brutalizing of troubled teenagers, the turning of soldiers from warriors into torturers, the abrogation of every code of conduct from the Ten Commandments to the Geneva Convention ….. wherever you look in American life today, you’ll find ot in the shadow of these Servants of Satan and Enemies of Liberty.
When such people completely dominate any regime, it inevitably becomes oppressive and savage …. so, why the surprise?
Katz said:
I presume this presupposes that every single other party in the Parliament, including the Kurds is also blocking this hypothetical legislation in this hypothetical vote?
Well it’s also true that Maliki couldn’t pass legislation without the Kurds vote, against the opposition of the rest, also without the Sunni (Iraqi Accord Front) vote against the opposition of the rest. Also without the Sciri vote etc ..
Just as Howard couldn’t pass legislation if the Nationals voted with Labor in our national parliament.
You do love these extreme scenarios!
More on oil.
Rob said:
.
Do you think I should apply to Mark to become an LP blogger?
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/012007A.shtml
Jesus, Graham (4:57).
That’s quite a tirade.
Robyn Archer once drove a van into the Northbridge Arts Centre underground carpark in Perth one car in front of me. It was about 15cm too tall for the entrance, and got jammed, and I had to wait ages to get in.
True story.
BB, do mean what I’ve learned about Iraq since “Shock and Awe”? Or do you mean what I now know about Iraq before the fall of Saddam?
I’ll assume the former, it’s more challenging.
Better to say what I did and didn’t know.
1. I didn’t know the demographic ethno-religious maek-up of Iraq, i.e., proportions of each major group. (I knew where they lived.)
2. I knew about Baathism throughout the ME owing to a previous occupation.
3. I knew something about the nature of the Iranian Shiite Islamic revolution by the same means.
4. I didn’t know how important were the shrines in Iraq to the Shiites. The emotional outpouring associated with the Pilgrimage to Najaf in 2003 was my first indication of just how powerful was the sense of Shiite identity in Iraq. I’m pretty sure it took the Bush clique by surprise as well. 1,000,000 people walking there for the first time legally for decades. Enormous.
5. I should have known just how resilient were those Shiite forces in the face of Saddam’s repression, but didn’t.
6. I didn’t know how important oil revenue patronage was to the social support systems was. This revenue was dispensed through the tribes. It clearly bought support and a measure of security to many Iraqis. The US abolished this with dire consequences. This money was clearly the glue that stuck Iraq together under Saddam. When it dried up, Iraq flew apart.
7. Overarching all of that, I knew about how little stomach the US has for long-term garrison commitments like Iraq.
What didn’t you know?
Dr. Cat — that’s quite a marvelous treasure-trove of (is this a word?) Archeriana. Thanks for sharing it and clueing me in; very cool; more to say later about it, I reckon; right now though I’m a bit too rattled.
Graham Bell — re: yrs of 4:57 p.m. That’s quite a lot of strong medicine for one gulp, and most of it’s actually, one way or another, sort of mistaken. Take a good deep breath and then just chill, my friend. There are indeed a lot of very stern criticisms that are very much warranted, but the structural truth you’re aiming at isn’t anywhere nearly as infernal as it’s sometimes interesting to think it is; reality is just too durn complicated to have it structured that way… Meantime, nasdarovye, me bud…
Katz said:
Thanks. Basically you hadn’t given Iraq a moment’s thought before the invasion.
Generally I find the pro war Left like the people at LP had widespread knowledge of Iraq prior to invasion and therefore were committed to the overthrow of the regime well before 1991 or 2003 because they had been long aware of its fascist nature and similarities to the Afrikaner oppression of blacks. (Myself having been a student of Iraq for more than 30s years for instance.)
Much if not most of anti war left, in contrast, were uninformed or quite ignorant and as result overwhelmingly see it through the prism of anti Americanism or anti Bushism or relate it to Vietnam.
Explains why the anti war Left position is so contradictory to the position it took on South Africa, even though the situation was so similar.
What a load of tosh.
I opposed apartheid.
I would have been against the US invading South Africa in the cause of ending apartheid.
Not that was ever an option because for all their failings, the US presidents between 1948 and 1993 were at least grown-ups.
Katz, we’ve obviously all erased from our memories that 101st airborne assault on pretoria and the rescue of nelson mandela from robben island by US special forces.
Dr Cat says: more yellow tank tops and hot, sweaty spainards inside them….(i’ll go with that).
Jo, surely you remember the Special’s classic?
Free Nelson Mandela
Free, Free, Free, Nelson Mandela
Free Nelson Mandela
Twenty-one years in captivity
Why can’t we invade with some RPGs
Hey All At Saturday Forum,
hell I’m late and it’s Monday. Here was me thinking I’d do a weekly Sat. forum thing. Next week, I sort of promise, my sort of’s being better than a politicians firm pre-eloral ones,
Tim.
j-p-z:
Yeah. Oversimplified. I’m lucky because I know that when the current madness is over there’ll be a lot of Yanks – and truly devout Christians amongst them – who will work hard to put The Great Republic back together again. Come on Hilary; come on Barack!!
And, wishing I had a glass of the liquid handicrafts of those fine Hillbilly folk with which to do it, I wish you “Na Zdro’wie!!” too.
I’m going for Gore. Bring him on in.
Never mind Hillary, Barack and Al; Andy Murray, who has not dropped a set so far in the tournament, has just beaten Rafael Nadal in the first set, in a tiebreaker. Definitely worth a look.
Everyone:
I’ll annoy all of you with my version of an American Dream-Team:
Barack H. Obama [Pres], Hilary R Clinton [VP], John McCain[Defense], John Kerry[State], A Schwartznegger[Treasury], Gore[Reconstruction and Environment], Edwards[Space](why not?), ……. and Mori [Ambassador to Australia].
Enjoy!
A Christopher Hitchens bit – just for Pavlovas Cat .
http://www.city-journal.org/html/17_1_urbanities-steyn.html
I’m interested Barbara B
Having been a student of Iraq for thirty years, and having supported the invasion, are you starting to think all that study may have been wasted?
The Yanks are still doing aerial bombings of civilian cities after 4 years, and Bush is calling for more troops. And now that Zarqawi is gone, its all Iran’s fault.
I’d like to think if I studied something for thirty years I could pick a winner at the end of it.
Jimmy Carter says Israel has got some similarities to the Afrikaner oppression of blacks with their treatment of Palestinians. Here’s a prediction: it would be a disaster to invade Israel, hang the leaders and instal a majority Hamas government to rule over the Bedouins, Jews, and Palestinians. Its just a hunch I have.
I also think the left did not support South Africa, but did not call for an invasion with countless thousands to be slaughtered. But that doesn’t mean it supported apartheid. Neither did it with Iraq. I think your analogy is a bit wrong. The “antiwar left” have been watching Washington for decades. I don’t think there are any surprises with the Iraq invasion, except that it is even worse than predicted.