Archive for the ‘offensive’ Category
Nearly 5 years ago to this very day, I wrote a little something here on the hippy that is one of my favourite posts ever. Back when I had a top-ten favourite list, this particular post was featured prominently.
Its called ASS BOMBS
Don’t worry if you can’t be bothered to re-read it right now, I’ll summarise it for you: I speculated on the lengths future terrorists would have to go through to sneak explosive devices on to planes and the additional security measures that would have to be put in place to maintain safety. This wasn’t long Richard Reid tried to blow up his shoes.
I theorised that a terrorists’ rectum would become a compartment for hiding plastique and airport security screeners would have to play proctologist to make sure all air travellers were not carrying anything up their bottoms. Instead of “take off your shoes and remove all metal objects”, their instruction would be to “bend over and spread those cheeks.”
It would certainly put flying into a brand new perspective. Making sure you wear clean socks without any holes wouldn’t seem so important any more.
It turns out, I was partially right. An alleged Al Qaeda fanatic tried to blow up officials at a meeting in Saudi Arabia with some TNT shoved up his ass, only the idiot left it stuck up there when it detonated and it only killed the bomber. You’re supposed to take it out of your bottom before it goes off.
You can read the report here in The Sun newspaper, under their clever headline; “Suicide Bummer”. Did you see what they did there?
Its unlikely as fuck that Al Qaeda visit my website, so they probably worked this one out on their own. Now that this frightening and icky technique is out there, how long before airports implement new security procedures? Not long is my guess.
Still, there’s an upside. If you’re going to have to display your ringpiece in airports for all to see, anal bleaching is set to be the next big growth industry. They’ll even have a new slogan: “Anal Bleaching…its not just for porn stars any more!”
The National Health Service (NHS) here in the UK has been in the firing line this week as Americans “debate” overhauling their healthcare system in an attempt to extend access to their 50 million residents who have absolutely no cover or access to care.
Americans are being led to believe that the free healthcare available to all of us in the UK is no good. This is so far from the truth that it would be funny, except for the fact that people’s lives hang in the balance.
The UK has a much higher life expectancy than the USA. Check your statistics and see that I’m not lying. The UK also spends less on healthcare per person than they do in the states, yet they yield better results.
Go figure!
The American healthcare system is run like a for-profit business. Think about that, someone profits from your illness and the percentages of profit are obscenely high.
Insurance companies, drug companies private hospitals, private doctors are all in the game to make money from your misery. That can’t be right, can it? Every test ordered that you don’t really need, every over-prescription is money in the bank for someone.
Just ask Michael Jackson if private healthcare on demand is a good thing. Oh wait, you can’t because it killed him.
In America, healthcare is seen as a privilege, not a basic human right. Should one only be entitled to healthcare on the basis of qualifying for insurance, rather than qualifying for need? Shouldn’t everyone have access to healthcare?
Of course they should!
Some of the scenes I’ve caught on television, of the so-called town-hall meetings have been very amusing, well amusing in as much as the ignorance fuelled anger is simply surreal.
It seems to me, that the loudest voices at these town-hall meetings are coming out of the mouths of people with the least information on the subject. These sad, twisted, ignorant people have an unjustifiable hatred of President Obama that is probably rooted in their inherent racism rather than any actual dislike of a new healthcare system.
All you need to do is listen to what they say, their buzz words, like “socialism” and “this isn’t the America I know” to understand just how misguided and ill-informed these folks are on the subject.
Ok, any subject.
At the heart of all of this is FOX News, the biased and unfair pseudo news network owned by Rupert Murdoch. FOX News provide the stilted talking points and their legions of viewers turn up at town-hall meetings, parroting the same lame shit.
I can’t say I’ve looked into it, but I am guessing a wealthy guy like Murdoch must have business interests outside the media world, say perhaps insurance or drug companies. In other words, he may have a vested financial interest in how this debate plays out. And if not him, then some of his rich robber-baron mates have got investments in the medical field. There’s a lot of profit to be protected.
Its funny how SKY News, the sister station of FOX News, under the NewsCorp corporate umbrella is taking a different tack here, righteously defending the NHS against the FOX News inspired attacks. Does one hand not know what the other is doing? Or is SKY simply pandering to their UK-based subscribers?
I think we both know the answer to that one.
I’m in a fairly unique position, having lived considerable lengths of time under both healthcare systems. Neither the US or UK systems are perfect, both excel at some things and lack in others, but overall, I know which system I would choose, if I had to…
The NHS all the way!
In the UK, I’ve never had any concerns about insurance, access to the medical system or being able to afford the costs. I’ve for the most part, had excellent care of a world class standard courtesy of the NHS.
In America I’ve been charged one hundred bucks for a wooden tongue depresser — you know what I’m talking about, a wide wooden popsicle stick.
Open your mouth and say “ahhh fuck, you just charged me a Benjamin to do that!”
In my world, life is usually quite simple and this unhealthy debate is no different. What it boils down to is this: “I’ve already got mine, so screw you if you don’t have yours!” It all comes down to compassion and America’s apparent lack of it.
The Christian right in America preach something known as “compassionate conservatism”, but sadly they don’t practise it in any meaningful or tangible way. Where’s the compassion? What would that guy Jesus do?
Jesus would move to the UK, sign on to the dole and get those holes in his hands and feet looked at for free, same for that nasty stab wound in his side.
Universal healthcare is an undeniable right, yet 50 million Americans are being denied it. Any compassionate person would recognise the inequality in the current system and want to do all they could to change it.
Where are all the compassionate folks in America? Don’t they care about their fellow man? Maybe if there are any, they could go to those silly town-hall meetings and shout down all the ignorant idiots that are making America look so stupid.
Oh and while I’m at it, lay off the NHS. Ill-informed opinion does not make a debate, it just makes you look even more like morons to the rest of the (better informed) world.
Hey fuckers! I’m blogging from my iPhone again.
I am having a rather dull and dreary night at work with precious little to actually do.
Covering a war is lively at first and then you settle into a routine. Yes I am as callous and jaded as I sound. I have been covering wars for around 20 years, they’re all pretty much the same. People die, lots of them.
Life is so fragile and we are all so breakable. Its a wonder more of us aren’t killed more often.
The thing about covering wars from a distance, as I’ve mostly done, is you get to see some of the most harrowing scenes of suffering. By the time it arrives on the tv in your living room, its been sanitized and censored, to protect you from images you are likely to find distressing.
I strongly disagree with that. You have just as much right to see the uncensored horrors as I do and my media colleagues should not be denying you from seeing the truth.
I don’t find strong images offensive, but I do think war and the needless slaughter of civilians is extremely offensive.
I guess I picked the wrong job. Or rather the wrong job chose me!
(blogged from my iPhone)
Well fuck me, look who it is!
I mean me. Where the hell have I been?
I’ve been nowhere, doing nothing. Honest, officer, I swear.
That’s not strictly true, because I am still the part time libertycityhippy, so you know where I’ve been hanging out sometime.
I’ve also been working a fair bit, but my schedule has been all over the place without any sort of pattern, rhyme or reason.
I’ve been distracted, I’ve been unfocused, or as it say in the larger, yellow font above, I’ve just been “coasting through life.” That means anything requiring the slightest of effort has been relegated to another day…and when another day comes, I am gonna be one busy hippy.
I wish I could be telling you otherwise, that I’ve been busy recording my album, or writing another book, or providing sexual favours to a small gang of voraciously demanding 16 year old glamour models. I wish I could tell you lots of things, but I won’t lie to you.
I can’t lie to you. It would be easier if I could.
I get up everyday and seem to be busy, I don’t actually just sit in a dark room all the time, yet I couldn’t tell you what eats my time away. Maybe its some time-eating monster from another dimension.
How cool would that be? To be a time-eating monster from another dimension, travelling to north London to eat hippy time. I wonder what time tastes like?
Probably time tastes like chicken. Everything tastes like chicken.
Never mind time monsters, now its just time to meander…
I was very disheartened and sad to read of the passing of George Carlin, yet another big influence on me when I was younger. Along with Hunter S and Kurt V, George Carlin was a hero of my youth.
I used to listen to George Carlin’s albums endlessly with an absolute obsession. His humour, on the surface, could be seen as crude, but when you explored what he was actually saying, it was genuinely profound. His comedy dealt with word-play and idea-play and nothing in this life escaped his critical gaze.
Just off the top of my head:
Words that go together, yet are contradictory:
Jumbo Shrimp
Military Intelligence
But the words he’s most famous for are the following seven:
shit
piss
fuck
cunt
cocksucker (not a bad man, but a good woman!)
motherfucker
tits (sounds like a snack. I’ll have the cheese tits)
And later on he added:
fart
turd
twat
And one that still makes me laugh, “You can prick your finger, but you can’t finger your prick.”
Carlin continued to perform practically right up to his death on Sunday, his final gig was the previous weekend. While in the business for nearly 50 years, his jokes never went stale and he never, ever ran out of material. How could he? The human race excels in stupidity and that could have continued to fuel his humour for centuries.
Sorry to see you go, George. You left your mark on this world and we won’t ever forget you. Something tells me that another generation will be discovering you very soon, thanks to your untimely demise.
Speaking of death (and inappropriate segues), my Logitech Harmony 885 remote bit the big one this week. It thinks its working, when you press the buttons, but it doesn’t seem to be transmitting any infrared signals. This is a bummer of enormous proportions, as it it is the central command for my small, yet perfectly formed media centre. My life is now awash with too many device-specific remote controls.
The upside to this is that the remote is still under warranty and I am waiting for a call back from Logitech support which I hope will result in them sending me a replacement. The first guy I spoke to tried to help me sort it out over the phone, but his remedies didn’t do diddley. I’m missed their return call yesterday, but they should phone me back again later today.
And staying with my electronic theme, I cancelled my Vodafone contract today, in anticipation of having a brand new, shiny, lickable iPhone 3G on launch day, which is 11th July, just over a fortnight from today. Vodafone were surprisingly mellow about my departure, no hard sell, the phone call was brief and painless. Actually, the guy was so nice, I told him I was switching to O2 for the iPhone — usually I don’t tell these people anything, so this is out of character for me. I’m a marketer’s worst nightmare!
Once I get my fancy new iPhone, I’m going to experiment with blogging from it. I’m not sure how it will go, but I like the idea of providing short posts on the fly. We’ll see if the reality keeps up with the fantasy!
I did consider playing around with Twitter, but I got frustrated at the registration phase. The character limit of your screen name on Twitter is far too short and I couldn’t fit northlondonhippy into the tiny little box. None of that matters anyway, I mean who in their right mind would sign up to follow me around on Twitter? How many times can you read: “had a piss, now smoking a spliff”, over and over every day?
While you ponder that, I’m going to go for a piss, then smoke a spliff.
See, I told ya it would be lame…
I haven’t really weighed in on the upcoming US presidential elections yet and I thought it was about time I did.
I think I was waiting for the field to narrow to the final two candidates and like most of the world and media (of which I play a small role), thought it would have been resolved by now. It just goes to show you what the media knows…sweet FA.
Except me, of course with my crystal balls and amazing predictive powers of foresight.
I’ve always joked that newsrooms should replace their forward planning desks with psychics anyway. Just imagine if someone could tell you where to put a TV camera for the next big plane crash or political assassination. Talk about a world exclusive!
And speaking of political assassinations, why are people so obsessed with someone bumping off Barak Obama. You know, some wacko doesn’t have to kill the black candidate. It’s not a rule, or even a suggested guideline. It’s actually reprehensible to suggest it, but the suggestion is out there, far more than you might expect.
My friends over at ANORAK NEWS, have been charting the OBAMA DEATH CULT, thanks to public comments by former Republican candidate Mike Huckabee and now HILLARY CLINTON.
These are just the two most recent and high profile examples, but there are more.
Why is everyone so afraid of an Obama presidency?
I think the answer to that is quite complex and anyone who says its just down to racism, is missing the point. I’m not going to deny there is a racist element to it, because it is certainly a component and for some, the only reason, but there’s more to it than that.
Obama represents change and a break from the past. He is, if nothing else, creating an illusion, that he will take America in a different and more progressive and dare I say, liberal direction. Whether or not that is true, remains to be seen, but he is certainly marketing himself that way.
So many people wouldn’t be talking about some nut killing Obama, if they weren’t afraid of him.
I have a silly theory that he might be the anti-christ, but of course I don’t believe in that nonsense any more than I believe in the real one. It always gets a laugh though, except from committed Christians (and shouldn’t they all be?), who give me knowing glances and a couple of leaflets from their church.
Whenever I listen to Obama speak, I actually like what I hear. I realise that’s a politician’s job, but he does do it well. When he says he would talk directly with his enemies, I applaud him, when he says he’ll pull all the troops out of Iraq as quickly and safely as possible, I commend him and when he says he’ll allow the use of medical marijuana, I’d kiss him.
But would I vote for him? If he ends up being the democratic candidate, of course I would, but it doesn’t matter, because I am not a voter. Anything is better than another four years of McBush.
But back to the “kill Obama” sideshow…I found this clip from Fox News especially disturbing. Actually it really fucked me off. See what you think…
I have to say, I was more than a bit miffed at being excluded from the Observer Newspaper’s top 50 list of most powerful blogs. I guess this is just another mainstream media plot to keep my message from reaching a wider audience, but I will not be silenced!
And there’s always next year! Make sure you write your MP or congressperson and point out this horrible injustice.
Ah-hem.
The real reason I’m here is because the pope clearly must read my blog and he doesn’t like it and he doesn’t like me. Well, matey, the feeling is very mutual.
A while back, I confirmed the existence of my band, “the seven deadly sins” when I announced the upcoming release of my album. It seems the pope didn’t like this move and he’s trying to stifle my creativity by updating the 7 deadly sins for our modern age. I guess god has finally made an appearance in the 21st century and about time!
The new top seven sins according to the pope are as follows:
1) Environmental pollution
2) Genetic manipulation
3) Accumulating excessive wealth
4) Inflicting poverty
5) Drug trafficking and consumption
6) Morally debatable experiments
7) Violation of fundamental rights of human nature
Ok, there’s one on that list that wouldn’t be there, if it weren’t for his hatred of me and that’s number 5…drug consumption. The pope’s getting his revenge on me with that one, but it’s not the only one…
Genetic manipulation! My published work in recombinant DNA research is well known and I only missed out on a Nobel science prize because of some ill conceived public comments I made while drunk on power, fame and 151 proof Bacardi!
And yes, I’ve violated the rights of human nature, for according to the catholic church, that’s an easy one as its their definition of sodomy. Oh and before you think I am some sort of ass bandit, sodomy at its most basic definition includes oral-genital sexual contact. Guilty!
The pope is out to get me! He knows my liberal ideas and secular-humanist values threaten his existence as a silly old white man in a white dress!
But never mind him! What about my band?
The drummer, wrath, doesn’t want to change his stage name to “genetic manipulation” and sloth, who never makes it to rehearsals, would have to start showing up…
I’m sure glad I’m an atheist and I don’t believe in any of this nonsense. I mean, come on, eternal damnation? Give me a fucking break!
Sin is far too much fun, anyway. I don’t see anyone stopping, do you?
No, I’m not going to tell you 935 lies. That would be silly and quite frankly, I don’t have the time.
I could, if I so chose, create precisely 935 carefully crafted and exceedingly believable boldfaced lies, but I have no reason to do that. I never have reason to lie to you at all, ever.
I don’t lie.
And I especially don’t lie when I log in and blog onto my own goddamn website.
People who lie, do it for a reason.
Whether it is to obscure the truth to cover some misdeed or intention or accomplish some secret goal or further a private agenda, lies are motivated by something.
Sometimes, even governments lie.
OK, governments lie a lot, but it’s not everyday they get caught.
And it’s not everyday they get caught in 935 of them.
There’s that number again: 935.
I didn’t just pull 935 out of my ass, that would be stupid and potentially painful.
Personally, I’d be worried by anyone who pulls anything out of their ass, but that’s just me. On some subjects I am surprisingly conservative.
But on the subject of intentional fabrication by governments to achieve a heinous and immoral goal, I am one pissed-off, bad-assed motherfucka with an attitude and an Uzi.
OK, I don’t have an Uzi. I’d like an Uzi, but my local Uzi shop closed down ages ago and I missed their going out of business sale.
You’d want an Uzi too if you lived in my north London ghetto hell. There’s a shooting or a knifing around here often enough that I’ve lost track of the number of yellow police signs soliciting witnesses to the latest teenaged atrocity.
Yes, I know these teenagers mainly shoot each other, but there’s been a worrying trend in middled-aged white guys getting kicked to death and I don’t want to be one of them.
Hey, I know the security services keep an eye on blogs. Hi guys! I’m on your side and if you’d supply with me a small armoury of weapons, I’d be your bitch. Oh and the promise of a spot in the witness protection programme after I take out some crack house or Al Qaeda cell single handledly!
It could happen!
But seriously, you guys could recruit me. I’d be a great agent and I’d settle for cash. I was only joking about the guns. Well, maybe just a Glock for my trouble, please?
Ah-hem.
935 fucking lies! Get to the point.
Here’s the top of the AP report I’ve been referring to since I started:
“A study by two non-profit journalism organisations found that President Bush and top administration officials issued hundreds of false statements about the national security threat from Iraq in the two years following the 2001 terrorist attacks.
The study concluded that the statements “were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanised public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretences.”
The study was posted Tuesday on the Web site of the Center for Public Integrity, which worked with the Fund for Independence in Journalism.
The study counted 935 false statements in the two-year period.”
Click right here for the source article in full, please.
As someone who never believed a word of what they tried to sell us over Iraq, I don’t find this surprising. What grabbed me is they were able to document it with this degree of accuracy.
Let’s face it, 935 individual instances of 100% lies being peddled as fact to justify a war that was completely unnecessary is astonishing! It should make our collective jaws hit the collective floor.
It should be front page news. It should have led news bulletins around the world.
But did it?
This story hit the wires nearly a week ago. Sorry, my bad for not getting around to do something with it until now, but at least I’ve marked it. I’ve brought it to your attention.
Did anyone else? I know a few newspapers mentioned it, because I read the stories, but I don’t think I saw it on TV.
This is important shit!
George W (for “won’t you be glad when he’s gone gone GONE!”) Bush and cronies all lied. The Bush regime lies. They are documented, undeniable purveyors of utter falsehoods and fiction. They conned us and conned us but good!
I bet Halliburton and Blackwater and the other war profiteers are giggling like schoolgirls all the way to the proverbial bank.
And how much has this abortion of a war cost us decent, tax-paying members of modern society?
And how many hundreds of thousand Iraqi lives were lost? And how many Iraqis displaced and maimed?
And how many soldiers from the coalition of the willing lost their lives or lost their limbs or lost just a tiny, little piece of their souls fighting for liars and cheats and well, just plain motherfucking cunts?
I’m enraged, I’m incensed. And you should be too! This war was fought in our name, to make us safe.
Do you feel safer knowing that an entire generation of people in the Middle East hate you? Not for your freedom (because you hardly have any, anyway!), but because of what your leaders do to them, in your name.
If you were Iraqi and your entire life was fucked hard, fast and without so much as drink bought for you, how would you feel about the people who fucked you? Would you hate them? Would you want to kill them? Would you be willing to give your life to do it?
You’ve lost your job, your home, your savings, your possessions and several close members of your family, like your spouse, or parents, or children. Or maybe all of them. You’re living in some shitty refugee camp in Jordan or Syria, where you’re not wanted by your hosts. You’re life is shit and if someone offered you the option of going to the West and killing the infidel, you very well might think that was the preferable option.
I’m certainly not advocating a career as a suicide bomber, no sensible person would, but I’m empathetic enough to see and feel how someone in that position could reach that rather unhappy conclusion.
Geoge Bush Junior did that. He handed the world enough ammo to hate the West for at least a couple more generations. Thanks, George. Well done! Bet the private sector can’t wait to get their hands on you!
Less than a year! Yippppeee to that, because anybody’s got to be better than Bush the lesser.
And whoever is next to inhabit that big ol’ white house is going to have their work cut out for them, as the bar has been set really high. They’re going to really have to push it if they want to top 935 lies. Let’s just hope their lies are all about the economy or the environment this time, because I am fucking sick of pointless wars that accomplished absolutely nothing!
It’s always interesting to see what words people stick into Google and other search engines, which lead them to my humble, little website.
I receive a wide variety of statistics via my website hosts, but I always like checking out the search-terms section. It’s always good for a laugh.
This is the current list, for the month of July, to date, counting up from number ten:
10) “north london hippie” – my name, spelled wrong, with spaces. I’m glad it still leads to my site and I’m glad people search for me, even with the mistakes!
9) “billi bhatti” – him off Big Brother, evicted a couple of weeks ago. As you will see, BB names are popular on this list.
8) “purple ohms experiences” – a couple of years ago, I had a bad time on these pills. I took too many, I had an unpleasant experience. They’re legal highs and I think they are still available, now in non-BZP form.
7) “northlondonhippy” – now that’s more like it, spelled correctly, without spaces. I feature twice in my own top ten, which means my brand awareness is high and getting higher. Just like me, I’m getting higher too, right now…!
6) “RooR Pocket Friend” – a fine pipe from my friends at RooR. I’ve written about mine a few times. Usually, there are several RooR-related search terms in the top ten, but when I write about Big Brother, that tends to overtake it. Go figure!
5) “charley uchea tits” – Thus begins the breast obsession at the top of the list, nearly all BB related.
4) “victoria beckham topless” – see, more tits. As if I would post pictures of that beanpole with fake boobs!
3) “chanelle hayes masturbation” — BB related, but not so breast-centric. Does anyone know if these pictures do exist? I wouldn’t post them, but I might like to see them myself, purely for research purposes.
2) “shabnam paryani topless” – I don’t really get this one, especially as it is so high up on the list. Do people really want to see her topless? I don’t even want to see her clothed! She’s scary!! People have very weird tastes and interests, but this is the internet, so I shouldn’t be surprised.
1) “expanding theory” – A while ago, I wrote up a silly little theory about what I thought the effect of the universe constantly expanding would have on us. I was very high at the time and it was total bollocks.
Google doesn’t seem to think so, for if you put “expanding theory” into the world’s largest and smartest search engine, this is what you get as your top hit: CLICK HERE
Go on, check it out. My site is the top hit! Read it!
Do you really think I am an expert on the subject? Should I win a Nobel Prize for innovation in science?
I should very much think not!
I don’t know if you found that interesting, but as always, I am interested in what you have to say. I’d like to take an informal survey:
Please email me with how you found my site. Did you stumble upon me via a search engine? Do you remember what you were searching for? Maybe you saw a link to my site? Where?
However you found me, I’d like to know. Please email me at thehippy@northlondonhippy.com — I won’t spam you or give/sell your address to anyone. I don’t even keep a mailing list. I’m just nosy.
There’s not actually that much in this world that pisses me off, I mean REALLY pisses me off, but I am about to share something with you that made me angry and tearful at the same time.
Please take a few moments to read THIS ARTICLE in today’s Guardian newspaper. Don’t worry, it’s short.
I have so much sympathy for Angel Raich and the problems she’s facing and I have absolute disgust and hatred for the people who are denying her the only treatment that her doctor has prescribed.
This poor woman has a myriad of health problems, ranging from scoliosis right up to a brain tumour. Modern medicine can offer her nothing in the way of hope or even pain relief, but cannabis can. Of this I have no doubts at all.
Thanks to a stupid law, enacted years ago to protect the paper industry and the pharmaceutical industry, a court is trying to prevent her from having the only thing that can do her any good.
Fucking cunts! Fucking cunts run the world!
On behalf of everyone on the planet, Ms. Raich I would like to apologise. I am very sorry for your pain and even more sorry that we live in a society that would prefer to see you suffer and die rather than let you consume a plant which is widely grown, that would offer you a tiny bit of relief.
Free the weed!
Could someone tell me when we all collectively abandoned common sense? Emails to the usual address, please.
Greetings and Happy New Year to all of my beloved hippyfans! May this year be better than the last one!
Yes, 2006 sucked the big one, but now it’s relegated to history, which is exactly where that shitty year belongs.
You don’t need me to tell you how crappy 2006 was; every other form of media has done the entire ‘year in review’ thing to death. I won’t go there.
For me, 2006 had a couple of minor highlights, but overall it wasn’t anything special. Mostly, it was just another year.
It was another year full of death, destruction and despair. The weather turned angry, the death toll in Iraq continued to climb and our personal liberties continue to be methodically stripped away. I’m sure none of that will happen in 2007!
2006 ended with three famous people kicking the bucket. Celebrity deaths tend to come in threes anyway, which is a real nightmare for the PR people that coordinate these things, but somehow they manage.
Gerald R. Ford, former president and VP, not elected to either office, granter of a pardon for Richard M. Nixon (who despite his own protestations to the contrary, was a crook), popped his clogs at the age of 93. The papers keep calling him “the accident president”, but let’s face it, he’s a footnote to a footnote and he’ll get his big state funeral and that will be that. His wife, Betty is more significant, with her Betty Ford Centre and good work highlighting the problems of substance abuse. I thought she was dead too, but I saw her on TV the other day. Sorry, Betty.
The next death was the godfather of soul, Mr. James Brown. Brown was about as influential as you can be in music. If you have ever heard a hip-hop or rap record made in the last 20 years, then chances are you, you’ve heard samples from James Brown’s music in the backing tracks. Try Googling “Funky Drummer”, the most sampled drum beat in the history of sampling comes from this track.
I was working the night before Brown died and I caught a news wire that said he had been admitted to hospital with pneumonia, but was expected to be released in time to perform the following Saturday. That was enough for me not to think he was going to die. By the time I got home, it was breaking news that he was dead. Ooooops, I guess I shouldn’t believe everything I read.
Except of course on the northlondonhippy website!
James Brown was a one of kind, wild man and damn he liked to party! He was a true original and will be missed very much.
The third celebrity death is the one I find the most troubling and I’m not really sure why. Something was decidedly unsettling about the execution of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and I’m sure I’m not the only one to feel this way.
I’m not going to debate whether or not he deserved to be executed. He was an evil dictator, responsible for the deaths of thousands of people on Iraqi soil. He was a criminal and a thug.
I’m more interested in how it was done, in such a pitiful and pathetic manner. I’m more interested in the speed in which the death sentence was carried out, as if it needed to be done as soon as possible.
Now that we’ve all seen both videos, the official execution film shot by the Iraqi government and the camera-phone video, shot by a witness, we know exactly just how half-assed the entire thing was and how it lacked in dignity.
You can argue that Saddam didn’t show any mercy or dignity to any of his victims. I’d agree with that. But we’re supposed to be better than that. We’re supposed to rise above the behaviour of our enemies.
We’re supposed to do a lot of things.
Saddam Hussein was an evil man, a dictator, and a morally reprehensible piece of shit that got his just rewards. Saddam Hussein was also a human being, a father, a son, a former president and leader of a sovereign country, who at a minimum deserved to be treated some minor level of respect and dignity.
A society can be judged how it treats it enemies and in this execution, we weren’t any better than the man we put to death. He may have deserved to die, but he didn’t deserve to be taunted and ridiculed in the last moments of his life. No one does.
Let’s look at it another way: If you feel that a president deserves to be put to death for being responsible for the illegal, unsanctioned killings of thousands of people on Iraqi soil, then Saddam shouldn’t be the only one swinging by the neck, should he?
I’m not joking. Isn’t it time George W. (for warmonger) Bush should be sent to The Hague and be put on trial for crimes against humanity? He won’t face the death penalty there, which is far more mercy than he showed his sworn enemy, who tried to kill his daddy.
No, I don’t want to bring Saddam back; the world is better off without him. But then, that would be true if he remained in prison until his natural death as well. Killing Saddam was blood lust and victor’s privilege. It righted no wrongs.
Two wrongs only make another wrong.
Will 2007 be any better? As a constantly disappointed optimist, I can hope.