To Start The Morning...

Hmm, just had Britney's megamix music video on before, had the segment from Toxic, that guy off the Ring and Shortland Street, Martin Henderson, being kissed by Britney - hmm go back to Shorty Martin LOL - but anyways, got me thinking of Shorty Street again, did a check of the IMDb listing, and OMG, it is like I would say all of the acting community in New Zealand has been in it at one time or another - and, for a Kiwi, seeing these actors crop up in the Lord of the Rings trilogy led to a few silly grins LOL. And seeing them crop up every so often on Aussie TV is fun as well - yes, I watched far too much Shorty than was good for me LOL. It's a Kiwi thing, obviously... 'You're not in Guatemala anymore, Dr Ropata.' - anyone, ring a bell, anyone??



Hmm, Karl Urban, who was on Lord of the Rings and Bourne Supremacy, as well as Shorty, was in a Kiwi movie called Chunuk Bair (where I get my username from) - about the hill in Turkey the Kiwis took for a day during the Dardenelles campaign in 1915. Just reading the top google link about Chunuk Bair, omg there were THIRTEEN Allied divisions on the peninsula before the August offensive. They chewed through men like anything during that war...



Short version is, the Kiwis took the highest point on the Dardenelles peninsula for one day before having to withdraw under a withering counter attack by the Turks. The trenches there are still preserved - the Aussies got to Lone Pine, just as tough in the fighting and everything, but it was at a lower altitude lol. Have been to those battlegrounds, is kind of a pilgrimage for young people from this part of the world, Aussie and NZ, very solemn.



Just thought I would also add the overall link to the previous one, about the entire Gallipoli campaign... lest we forget...



And although it is not Kiwi troops involved or anything (we pulled out of the coalition of the willing, once-the-invasion-was-over brigade, last month), that soldier that asked Rummy where all the armour was coming from if not the scrapheaps has caught my interest, and opened up that whole issue (and given me a reasonable segue from the mournfulness of Gallipoli). Some congressional report says that most of the Humvees are armoured, but only ten to fifteen percent of the medium to heavy transport trucks - the supply lines are very vulnerable in this war.



And with Rummy's answer of we send troops to fight with what they have rather than what they want, how the FUCK is this guy still Defense Secretary? Yeah, after Pearl Harbor, after 9/11, after the Lusitania, but umm guys, this was a war you chose yourself, pre emption and all that, find the armour BEFORE you go invading the next country please? And that's another thing, all the armoured vehicles the military has are now going to Iraq, what will happen when Iran or North Korea need a beat down? Or god help us, the next 9/11 type attack happens...



And another neat segue, from hillbilly armour in the scrapyards of Kuwait, to raking the money in for Dubya's presidential inauguration. For $100 000 you can maybe catch a view of the Prez or Vice Prez at dinner (maybe, because there are 3 simultaneous dinners, only two people, four if you wanna see Laura or Mrs Cheney LOL), for $250 000 you can also maybe catch them at lunch. They are expecting to rake in FORTY MILLION DOLLARS - as they say, costs have risen in the past four years LOL. I mean, let's glad hand with all the donators for a day rather than figure out the problems of the country, let alone the world LOL.



Oh, what do you say? The inauguration will have a theme of our heroes in the military? Well, I guess that makes it alright then LOL. Oh, I'm sorry Enron and Mr Lay, your $200 000 from last time around doesn't count in 2005, what with that court mess you're in and everything LOL.



'The entertainment has not been finalized, but organizers expect an appearance by Brooks & Dunn, the country duo whose swaggering, cheerful song "Only in America" was the anthem of the 2004 Bush campaign. The lyrics include these lines: "One kid dreams of fame and fortune, one kid helps pay the rent/One could end up going to prison, one just might be president."'



You're kidding me with those lyrics surely? Sounds like something that could be off South Park or one of those other dangerously blue state liberal things LOL. Saw Team America World Police the other day, the first half was good, exploring the Thunderbirds meets South Park theme, but the second half kept hitting the same points endlessly - yes, we understand you don't like Alec Baldwin LOL, get over it. The funniest part of the second half was the main character/puppet power chucking - yes, we have all been there I am sure, and it is funny to see, but yeahhhhhhh, not as good as the South Park movie. Taking off Thunderbirds worked a lot better than taking off the current geo politic situation guys...



Back to my New Zealand trawling for the day - it has been twenty five years since the Erebus disaster. This being the loss of an Air New Zealand plane that crashed into Mount Erebus during an Antartica sight seeing trip. 257 people dead, worst peace time disaster of all time for the country - I was too young to remember it myself, but it has always been in the near background as it were - there is a audio visual show in the national museum, Te Papa, in Wellington, what it means to be a Kiwi blah blah, one of the most moving moments is when the lights go out and the only thing is the TV coming on with the news that an Air New Zealand plane has been lost - as in unsure of what had happened to it, because even though there was a thought in the back of the mind of the worst, Antarctica isn't the quickest place to do search and rescue.



'Dave Bresnahan, National Science Foundation representative at McMurdo both now and at the time of the crash, spoke of the frustration of not knowing how the crash happened.

"We, just like those in New Zealand, waited and waited and waited," he said. "All afternoon.

"Shortly after midnight we got personnel to the site and learnt that no one survived the impact.

"I can't express how that felt."'