Would anyone like a breakfast burrito?

For the record, I initially chipped in too on this one here: http://www.sonicyouth.com/gossip/sho...1&postcount=20

As I've said subsequently, I have taken gast30's considerable mental health problems into consideration on this one. I could comment more on this, I guess, but I have a stinking cold/flu, so am going straight back to bed.

jeezus fucking christ. why are people pestering chris lawrence? what did he ever do to you? build and curate the legendary mustang site? and now he must be the internet's nanny? this is proof that no good deed goes unpunished.

melford, you must visit new mexico some day in september, and have a breakfast burrito made with just-roasted green chile (when you can smell the roasting in the morning air), eggs from the santa fe farmer's market (the best), potatoes (yes, they go in there), good bacon, and a fresh flour tortilla. wash it down with black coffee.

there's not a lot of good food in this desert, but that stuff can be sublime.

Now that does sound delicious. Mmm! You know, I've never actually been to the States so far in my life - have been to South America, but not the USA. A situation that needs to be remedied tout suite once I have the necessary funds available.

the thing with compassion on the internet is that just like in the flesh sometimes you're asked to be sympathetic towards someone who finds it perfectly acceptable to degrade you verbally and then get away with it because apparently you don't have a sense of humour. if that's what gets you going death wishes are only the result of what you were asking for with you own words.

Oh great, now we'll have Thurston barging in here asking why we didn't ask him along instead of his ex-wife. In fact, I can hear Annoyed of Stoke Newington tapping away on his keyboard even as we speak.

Yeah, have to say I actually agree with what you say. I mean, I've banged on at (tiresome) length about the gast fellow already - but as a general rule, if someone without his mental health issues had been coming out with stuff he has been on occasions, I would be far, far less willing to give them any leeway at all, frankly. Whether on the internet or offline.

I know there are issues of "freedom of speech" and what have you - and I do bear in mind that SYG is based in the US, where First Amendment whatnots apply - but on a strictly personal level, I have a severe intolerance towards anyone coming out with bigotry such as homophobia/anti-Semitism etc. I guess for me, being at the receiving end of some very unpleasant and horrible homophobic abuse over the years (and I'm talking about real-life situations here, not the internet etc) has had some bearing on that. To me, it's not "just words" - these things have a real and direct impact on people.

Anyway, enough of this from me for now - back to bed I go - scuse me whilst I blow my nose and cough away.

get
wellsoon
melly

I'm fascinated by the way Yanks and Brits differ on "free speech" issues.

In the US, free speech is holy. It's something everyone can agree on, regardless of political persuasion. In the UK, I've noticed people are a little more willing to shut others up. (This all anecdotal and I have no data to link to.)

Americans talk too much on the internet. Easy.

I'm Italian, btw.

i have the same sorts of anecdotes!

e.g., in england you can go to prison for saying racist shit. which, as a spick, i find hilarious.

Keep this to yourselves (shh!), but I copped a £50 fine recently after posting elsewhere that I thought The Stooges' "Ready To Die" album was "sub-par Williamson riffing with Osterberg coming up with the worst lyrics I've heard since "The Weirdness"". I tell ya, that Igster guy has gone some serious legal clout in the Yoo-Kay. He must be minting it in from them Chrysler ads to be able to afford to clobber me around in the UK courts.

(Current cold status - am now at one stage above "Do Not Resucitate" level)

oh, melly, that… that's just not proper. forgive me, but it's my civic duty to denounce you to the authorities.


ow! i hope you sweat it out good-- best wishes with that!

Right, let's deal with this:

1. Emma West has 2 children, not 5.
2. Yes, I'm well aware of the racist quote, thank you - I have seen the entire video in question.
3. I'm well aware of the EDL's "support" for Emma West (as well as the BNP and National Front) - "support" that Emma, her partner and her family frequently and openly rejected - Croydon BNP still turned up at her court case, in spite of being firmly told by West's family not to do so (Croydon BNP are particularly notorious for being full of virulent anti-Semites - Nick Griffin was a member there when he first joined the BNP from the International Third Position in 1993 - and it was him (with Croydon BNP mainman Bob Gertner) who put out "The Rune" magazine, which got Griffin a criminal conviction for anti-Semitic propagation).

As for how the case developed (including her mental health status) - this article from the Croydon Advertiser (June 7th 2013) covers this pretty well: http://www.croydonadvertiser.co.uk/E...ail/story.html

From the story, here's what West's legal team said of the far-right hijacking her case for their own ends:



And here's what is mentioned about her mental health situation:



Having taken Citalopram myself over several years, I can confirm that mixing alcohol with Citalopram is a definite no-no.


OK then - now: do I feel that Emma West's racist comments on the tram were abhorrent? Absolutely, yes. Do I feel that West has considerable mental health difficuties that contributed to her tram incident? Yes. Do I believe that with the right care and treatment, West will make enough of a recovery to ensure that she realises what she did is utterly wrong, and will then undertake never to do such a thing again, in public or private? Yes, I do.


Whilst racism should rightly be challenged on every level, one must remember that some people coming out with racist views have such deep-seated problems, that you have to ask yourself where on earth they got these ideas from in the first place, and how can we turn them around? And I remember elsewhere online that some people said that "she's from New Addington, they're all like that over there", which I took great fucking umbrage to. Sorry people, but New Addington is not full of racist scumbags - yes, it's a heavily white working class area, but those people by and large are sound on the anti-racism thing - they're more worried about practicalities of day to day life rather than indulging in loonspud "race theories", despite what the BNP and NF loons would have you believe.


Questions, anyone?

A Jew, a gay, and gast30 walk into a bar.

The Jew and the gay walk out.



Thank you thank you, I'll be here all week.

Pfft, what about your joke about a piece of string walking into a bar?

I've paid $20 for your show, and I want you to do the string joke!

Cold update - I've now stopped hallucinating green spiders all over the shop (a la the Happy Flowers' "I Ate Something Out Of The Medicine Cabinet" - http://youtu.be/xsxVTfzkTjo ), and am now into "mild sweat" mode. By this rate, I should be able to manage a nice cup of tea tomorrow morning.