by Joe Hillshoist » Mon Jul 31, 2006 10:40 pm
I know these mountains and California both have reputations for supplying the black market with products.<br><br>The war on drugs is the archetype for fascism. Seizure laws, sniffer dogs in public. Police searches without warrant (via helicopter). they are all par for the course really. And although I still choof I haven't done the seed in the ground thing yet this year. That side of it doesn't realy bother me.<br><br>What is disturbing is the data matching and use of multiple gov agencies to attack, well basically hippies and dumb kids who do too much meth. Thats thew thing about Nimbin, its a big tourist town, and backpackers from Europe, the US, and tourists from Asia all go there.<br><br>There are kids in Nimbin whop drop out of high school cos they can go out onto the street and make hundreds of dollars a day dealing pot to tourists at rip off prices.<br><br>These kids are targetted by the dole office and the cops. they are supposed to be getting the dole 3 or 400 bucks a fortnight. So if they get busted with cash then they are assumed to be dealing and assumed to be in breach of their "mutual obligation" to inform the dole office of any extra money they make.<br><br>Fair enough that all those tax payers shouldn't be supporting people who are not struggling for cash. Fair enough that the cops bust drug dealers too.<br><br>But when tpt suck start using multiple agencies to attack people without following the standard protections that 1000 years of common law are supposed to provide (I know thats a crock, but its the lie we base our society on), thats a very bad sign.<br><br>3 years ago when we took the Nimbin demons AFL side to its first ever grand final, we went from winning one game the previous season, to losing the Grannie cos we were too wrapped at being there (If we had won it would have been 13 games in a row, bloody 13), the effect it had on the town was crazy. We could walk into town get free anything at the cafes and pub, kids would be offering us cones as we walked down the street. The cops would wave to us and say well done...<br><br>Funny how sport brings people together. We become aware of what is REALLY important (winning of course <!--EZCODE EMOTICON START ;) --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/wink.gif ALT=";)"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> ). No what really struck me was that we would go out, get smashed up, run our guts out for 2 to 3 hours, and half the town would turn up to watch, win or lose. Because they loved the courage and committment we showed each other and the jumper we were wearing (a jumper that represented the town - all of them.)<br><br>There were people there that spoke to each other at Nimbin games who hadn't talked to each other for 10 - 20 years. Being at the ground in each others company forced them to be civil and in some cases rebuilt friendships that were considered dead.<br><br>I got a similar sense from the world cup.<br><br>but I am still bitter.<br><br>If bloody Gatto hadn't taken that dive over Vince Neil who knows what would have happened. Bloody Italians... I still pay out my Italian friends about their great diving skills and propensity to fall over at the right moment. The worse part is it was 10 seconds before extra time. Not only were we robbed of a chance to go to the semi's, we were actually robbed of watching extra time in a really close and intense game (Thats what really pisses me off). At 4 am that is not a good thing to have happen. PS In that game Tim Cahill had a chance to do exactly what Gatto (I think thats his name, you know who I am talking about), but leapt the defender and tried to actually score. Guess thats the difference between playing the game and playing to win.<br><br>Rant rant rant.<br><br>Apart from that the world cup was great.<br><br>But it seems to be every year.<br><br>There is something about it that brings people together. Anyone born today has a chance to play in the world cup and win it off their own boot. (If we last that long). There is something beautiful about that, its like that sense of possibilty we have as kids, that we can do anything and shake the world with our footsteps (in a good way), do what is physically impossible, or seems physically impossible. Just to show off. So other people can go "Wow, I wonder if I can do that."<br><br>I am glad you had a great time in germany.<br><br>Hows Zidane BTW<br><br>That was a great headbutt, and lets face it, if he really wanted to be nasty about it, he would have hit the guy in the nose with his forehead, not in the chest.<br><br>I know there is no excuse for that sort of behaviour, but personally I think he did the right thing, and wore the consequences. Sure sledging is a part of football, the point being to distract you from the game. It is a test of mental toughness. But that doesn't mean your opponent can stoop to any level to mess with your head. You have to have dignity about your behaviour, no matter what you do.<br><br>Mattarazzo or whatever his name was didn't act with dignity and neither did Zidane, but if Mattarazzo had a bit more couth, or picked an insult that made fun of Z's ugly head or inability to play, neither player would have lost their dignity.<br><br>Then again 10 minutes to go in extra time in a World Cup final. That would be a pressure situation. Dunno how well I'd cope. <p></p><i></i>
