In the mid 1990’s, this Amsterdam-based band of L.A. expats toured extensively all over Western Europe, playing clubs and festivals, both small and large. They eventually released an album and a pair of singles on Roadrunner Records.
Once described by a reviewer as, “Neil Young meets Patti Smith, smoking a spliff with Dinosaur Jr.,” POP was one of Melody Maker’s Picks of the Year for 1993. That year they played their biggest co-billing for 35,000 people, at the Bevrijdingsdag festival in Haarlem NL, with headliner 2 Unlimited.
Last week, the leading enforcer of the Bad Friday Agreement, called on his foolowers, to inform British Occupation forces in Ireland, of any Irish revolutionary activity in British Occupied Ireland. It's an echo of previous Blueshirt calls after the the Treaty, in the early part of the last century. The activity ordered by Gerry Kelly to his stormtroopers, formerly carried the death penalty, for his numerous comrades, who engaged in such activity, prior to his army, the Provisional IRA surrendering to the British 20 years ago, next week. Below is an article by Gerry Adams, the leading spin doctor of the surrender process, that was sold to the International Corporate Media and Irish people, dressed up as a Peace Process. The actual Process has little, if any resemblance to actual peace processes, that have actually worked elsewhere. British and Irish political prisons, are as full as ever of politcal prsioners, while these informers or touts as they are locally known, are pre-empting many operations, that gives the illusion of some sort of peace. The core issues of the problem, such as Occupation and the resulting sectarian bittereness, remain stronger than ever. The British counterinsurgency activitiy, comes primarily in the form of mushrooming, astroturfing, secret societies, that sell an illusionary Stalinist ideology, that is a distraction, which serves the same purpose, as the Catholic Chuch formerly served, in muffling censorship, of a genuine revolutionary dialectic, for real change in conservative Ireland. Censorship of the dialectic, is the order of the day in the north, while a certain liberation is taking hold in the south. It remains to be seen if the Fascists and fellow Stalinists, two sides of the same coin, will snuff it out, as they formerly did, with their reactionary oppressive censorship and dictatorial jackboot, costing many innnocent Irish lives. Times Article of Gerry Adams
This week marks the 20th anniversary of the 1994 IRA cessation. The Ireland of the early 1990s was a very different place. Political censorship and exclusion was the norm. Successive Irish governments worked with British governments in pursuing a negative agenda which merely fed the cycle of discrimination, resistance and conflict.
Unionist leaders, supported by elements of the British and Irish establishments, opposed any dialogue between the British and Irish governments and republicans. However, by early August 1994, despite continued conflict, there was a feeling among republican leaders that we were driving forward a historic process of change. This had been years in the making. Indeed if we go back to when Fathers Alec Reid, Des Wilson and I started our discussions, over a decade had passed.
Progress on developing the peace process had been made behind the scenes in meetings with John Hume. These later emerged as the Hume/Adams initiative. There was also progress with the Irish government. Martin McGuinness and I had given the IRA our assessment that there was a convergence of views between Sinn Féin, John Hume and the Irish government on a range of issues.
We had achieved agreement on a number of important points. There was an acceptance that partition had failed; there could be no internal settlement within the six counties; the Irish people as a whole had a right to national self-determination; there could be no unionist veto over discussions or their outcome and any negotiated settlement required fundamental constitutional and political change.
We also agreed that there were practical matters of immediate concern to nationalists in the North including parity of esteem, equality of opportunity and equality for Irish culture and identity. IRA cessation
The Irish government had given written assurances that in the event of an IRA cessation, it would end its marginalisation of the Sinn Féin electorate and that there would be an early public meeting between taoiseach Albert Reynolds, John Hume and myself. To show that change was imminent, we worked to develop public manifestations of support for an alternative approach which might convince republicans to back a cessation.
Irish America was key to this. The peace process was also now on the agenda of the Clinton administration. A powerful group of Irish Americans had committed to campaign in the US for an end to visa restrictions for republicans; establishment of a Washington office to inform the US media and public on the peace process; to lobby for investment in the North and for the US to act as guarantors of any agreements. The fledgling Clinton administration had indicated positivity.
Events were now moving quickly. We had asked for a visa for Joe Cahill to travel to the US to brief Irish Americans on developments. This would test the Clinton administration’s commitment to the peace process in the face of what would prove to be strident British opposition. Fr Alec, US ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith, her brother senator Ted Kennedy and taoiseach Albert Reynolds spent long hours lobbying for a visa for Joe Cahill.
On Sunday, August 28th, John Hume and I issued another joint statement making clear that agreement threatened no one. It was followed that evening by a statement from Albert Reynolds who said a historic opportunity was opening up and the British had a responsibility to respond on demilitarisation and inclusive all-party talks.
On August 29th, in the face of strident British opposition, visas were granted to Joe Cahill and Pat Treanor to travel to the US. This demonstrated there would be a strong international focus in support of the Irish side in negotiations with the British. I reported to the Sinn Féin ard chomhairle that the final pieces of the jigsaw were coming together but we understood the ultimate decision on a cessation rested with the IRA. Martin McGuinness and I went to meet the IRA leadership again. Martin said the Hume/Adams initiative had given people hope, that more nationalists saw republicans making a real effort to build peace, that Irish nationalism was reasserting itself and that Sinn Féin was growing in strength.
We made it clear that the struggle wasn’t ending and given that the political commitments made were multilateral and public that there was a better chance of delivery than with previous cessations. We argued that it was an opportunity to test the British government’s desire for peace and to reach out to unionists, who we had been meeting at civic, community and religious level for some time.
I made clear that it was a high-risk strategy but that we had commitments from John Hume, the Irish government and Irish America was willing to play its part. We could set in place a process which created the conditions for a just and lasting peace and from there build a pathway to a new all-Ireland republic of equals. A formal proposal was put to the meeting and the IRA’s army council voted to give the process a chance. At 11am on August 31st, the IRA announced “a complete cessation of military operations”. As hundreds of people arrived for an impromptu rally at Sinn Féin’s offices in Belfast cheering their approval, I was struck by the awesome responsibility of it, with the hopes and aspirations of so many pinned on us delivering.
The IRA cessation opened up the space for the development of the peace process. Enormous changes have come as a result of that decision by the IRA leadership. It was quickly followed by the loyalist ceasefire. It has had profound effects on politics in Ireland and in the relationship between Ireland and Britain.
People rightly remember the great political highs of the past two decades, be it the achievement of the Good Friday agreement, the St Andrews and Hillsborough agreements, the decision of Ian Paisley to share power or the decision by the IRA to leave the stage. Risk-laden work
However, none of these or the other fundamental, political, social and constitutional changes which have been effected would have been possible without the difficult and risk-laden work undertaken by Albert Reynolds, Fathers Alec Reid and Des Wilson, John Hume, the Sinn Féin leadership and others such as Martin Mansergh, Seán Ó hUigínn, Niall O’Dowd, Ken Newell and Harold Good in the years before the 1994 cessation.
Twenty years on there is an urgent need for the British and Irish governments to tackle outstanding issues bedevilling the political process in the North and which threaten the progress that has been made. The Taoiseach would do well to emulate the approach adopted by the late Albert Reynolds. Gerry Adams is president of Sinn Féin and TD for Louth Tomorrow in Weekend Review: Northern Ireland, then and now, by Gerry Moriarty, Billy Hutchinson, Anna Lo, Eamonn Mallie, Máirtín Ó Muilleoir, Richard English and more
Guest writer, the Parisian domiciled Frankie McKillen with his views on the drugs issue.
TPQ's Belfast Rockabilly Frankie McKIllen
Fuck it, I quit.
Charlo Greene famously said those words live on KTVA after she reported on a segment about pot to concentrate on legalizing marijuana in Alaska. What she said before dramatically quitting her job was ...
Everything you've heard is why I, the actual owner of the Alaska Cannabis Club, will be dedicating all of my energy toward fighting for freedom and fairness, which begins with legalizing marijuana here in Alaska. And as for this job, well, not that I have a choice but, fuck it, I quit.
Earlier this year Professor Nutt gave a lecture in the Isle of Man called The truth about drugs. In October 2009 he was the Labour Governments chief medical adviser and was sacked from his job because he wrote paper and claimed that alcohol and tobacco were more harmful than many illegal drugs, including LSD, ecstasy and cannabis. In the paper he argued that some top scientific journals had published "horrific examples" of poor quality research on the alleged harm caused by some illicit drugs, Nutt called for a new way of classifying the harm caused by both legal and illegal drugs. Part of what he said in his report was ...
Alcohol ranks as the fifth most harmful drug after heroin, cocaine, barbiturates and methadone. Tobacco is ranked ninth. Cannabis, LSD and ecstasy, while harmful, are ranked lower at 11, 14 and 18 respectively.
Richard Garside, director for Centre for Crime & Justice Studies had this to say about Nutt's report ...
Professor Nutt's briefing gives us an insight into what drugs policy might look like if it was based on the research evidence, rather than political posturing and moralistic positioning. The Centre for Crime and Justice Studies is a strong advocate of research evidence informing policy making and it is delighted to be publishing this very timely and important contribution by one of the country's top drugs experts.
I personally smoke pot openly, I've never hidden the fact. I'm at a total loss as to why in certain countries it's illegal. It is only a 'gate-way' drug because it's illegal. It doesn't lead people to harder, more harmful drugs. That is one of the biggest myths.
Durham chief constable Mike Barton claimed the war on drugs had failed and decriminalisation was the best way to wrestle power away from criminal gangs. "Not all crime gangs raise income through selling drugs, but most of them do in my experience. "
So offering an alternative route of supply to users cuts off the gang's income stream. If an addict were able to access drugs via the NHS or some similar organisation, then they would not have to go out and buy illegal drugs.
"Drugs should be controlled. They should not, of course, be freely available. I think addiction to anything - drugs, alcohol, gambling, etc - is not a good thing, but outright prohibition hands revenue streams to villains."
What doesn't work is prohibition and the war against drugs is as phoney as the war against terrorism. What is needed is a proper debate with fact not fiction.
the massive profits made in the drug trade would be an incentive not to win the war on drugs as the cash gets woven into the economy one way or the other.
Pablo Escobar had enough cash to finance a small country, after they stiffed him where did all his cash go the same for any drug kingpin they catch or kill.
Any dirty money seized has to end up somewhere I am fairly certain it is not to feed the poor, more likely it ends up funding some covert ops.
I know one bloke who smokes the weed and has done so longer than I care to remember his other drug of choice cigarettes and the drink. I think when they figure out how to get the maximum profit they will make things legal.
The cigarette industry has something in common with the impure dope peddlers they lace tobacco with all sorts of dangerous chemicals with about 70 known to be lethal.
I am not saying weed is chemical free but I don’t know if a person would smoke 20 or 40 joints a day like a chain smoker.
frankie me aul flower, i quit last christmas eve (taxi broke down and i nearly did too) feelin great thank God but still miss it. i do think the skunk thats out there now is lethal and can drive delicate people schizo. I think grass is a very dangerous drug to be honest. I only met a few people who cud have the odd joint and i wish i cud have done that instead of being a big fatskinny baked bean every night. i useta be a total paranoid hemaroid. i took magic mushroooms 20 years ago and i actually wanted to go over to serbia and give some to all the different factions coz i was convinced theyd stop fighting. however the next trip i had was a living nightmare and havent touched them since. i love paris, u are a lucky swine.
Well I had heard the stories of the Ulster pirate Auld Green Beard, but I dismissed them as folklore… are you sure the spliffs have no undesirable effects Frankie?
Larry, Daitih & grouch... I bet you'd all love to grow a beard like mine. And before anyone ask 'is it photo shopped?' Nope. It's totally natural and Daithi is on the right path. It's a side effect from smoking too much Purple haze.. Any resemblance to Gerry Adams is down to the lighting.
Ghengis Paterson and Reichsführer-SS PSNI Baggot, the unelected, unaccountable, English warlords overseeing the British peace process in Occupied Ireland, have decided as a humane PR gesture, to allow children to sit beside the chimneys of the mortuary at Auschwitz, to bid farewell to their their Irish parents as they ascend into heaven. As was announced yesterday the British government plans gas the Irish in Germany after they lease their Auschwitz concentration camp as part of the solution to the Irish problem. The Irish children will be placed on top of the state of the art gas chamber called, "The Little Green House," a luxurious gassing facility with green smoke from the fine dust of the mortal Irish parents, ascend into heaven as the British sanitize Ireland by exterminating all of the remaining Irish.
Nazi-like British Sinn Fein plan to appropriate everything the Irish own, amounting to trillions of Euros. They also plan to confiscate all records relating to Irish investments, bank accounts, deeds and insurance policies. It is believed that Lord Muck and his power sharing partner of the family Robinson have already approached the British Government and will be requesting the Queen on her forthcoming visit, that all insurance claims due on life insurance policies owed to the Irish by British companies, be paid directly to the Executive in Stormont, until any missing Irish policy holders can be located.
To further sanitize the process this modern form of gas genocide will be conducted, with high tech efficiency and friendly SS PSNI staff, have been instructed to assist the Irish holidaymakers, declared Reichsführer-SS PSNI Baggot's press secretary from London yesterday, assuring the public that all SS PSNI staff will be busy, working hard to ensure an enjoyable camp experience for the Irish genocide. Like the last engineered slaughter of an estimated 6.5 million Irish at the hands of the British Empire, it will not be permitted to call it genocide but simply an Irish cull, as was the case with famine last time Irish extermination was attempted.
It is understood that Ghengis Paterson and Reichsführer-SS PSNI Baggot, are considering a cull of all of the 80 million Irish diaspora worldwide, based on the sheer scale of the green menace posed by the Irish, which threatens all of the free world at this time. The 'final Irish solution' is to be screened as a series by the BBC to also solve their problem of falling ratings with embedded pundits, commentary and spin doctors to ensure the world has a thoroughly British take on proceedings. Whole families worldwide will be herded into their sitting rooms by the BBC world service, to watch lethal doses of the BBC on their TV screens, switched on by high-ranking BBC executives.
After many attempts of ethnically cleansing Ireland of its Irish inhabitants nuisnace, the plan by the two Englsih warlords was sold to the BBC to notch up some fantastic ratings with the new Irish series. A BBC spokesperson was quoted as saying, "To up our dying ratings, we realised what was required was something never done before, like turning mass-killing of the Irish into mass-entertainment. The series will be called the Irish Internment of the Ghengis Paterson Reich. It will be very good box-office and it will save us from having to pay actors."
Like the current short-sighted strategy of political internment in occupied Ireland, the British didn’t envision in their last Irish holocaust, bringing eager revolutionaries into the Young Irelanders, the Fenian Brotherhood or the Irish Republican Brotherhood. Those who died in the last Irish holocaust provided martyrs for Ireland's cause, to drive the British off Irish soil whatever the cost, by any means, which later gave birth to the contemporary Irish Republican Army. The great hunger as the last Irish holocaust became known, brought a harvest of death that is still with us in modern-day Ireland but then unaccountable english overlords like Ghengis Paterson and Reichsführer-SS PSNI Baggot wouldn't know or care much about that.
This song is not plagiarised, we have traditon in Ireland where such material is our heritage. Like Rockall it belongs to all of the Irish people. You'll get pheck all from me or Rockall !
Rock On Rockall
Oh the empire is finished no foreign lands to seize
So the greedy eyes of England are looking towards the seas
Two hundred miles from Donegal, there's a place that's called Rockall
And the groping hands of Whitehall are grabbing at its walls
Oh rock on Rockall, you'll never fall to Britain's greedy hands
Or you'll meet the same resistance that you did in many lands
May the seagulls rise and pluck your eyes and the water crush your shell,
And the natural gas will burn your ass and blow you all to hell.
For this rock is part of Ireland, 'cos it' s written in folklore
That Fionn MacCumhaill took a sod of grass and he threw it to the fore,
Then he tossed a pebble across the sea, where ever it did fall,
For the sod became the Isle of Man and the pebble's called Rockall.
Oh rock on Rockall, you'll never fall to Britain's greedy hands
Or you'll meet the same resistance that you did in many lands
May the seagulls rise and pluck your eyes and the water crush your shell,
And the natural gas will burn your ass and blow you all to hell.
Now the seas will not be silent, while Britannia grabs the waves
And remember that the Irish will no longer be your slaves,
And remember that Britannia, well, - she rules the waves no more
So keep your hands off Rockall - it's Irish to the core.
Oh rock on Rockall, you'll never fall to Britain's greedy hands
Or you'll meet the same resistance that you did in many lands
May the seagulls rise and pluck your eyes and the water crush your shell,
And the natural gas will burn your ass and blow you all to hell.
Most of us are aware of the battle between the traditional media and bloggers regarding content is particularly of a political nature. It is about political control and manipulation of public opinion. It is my considered opinion that the Spitzer affair, stinks to high heaven, not just of hypocrisy but of payback, for house cleaning previously conducted by Spitzer in New York.
Political control of the masses it appears, is now conducted to a large extent, by the media at the behest of huge agencies, with considerable resources. A free press, an important part of a healthy democracy, has been compromised. This is my principal interest in journalism, rather than profit. My previous involvement in writing articles, of a harmless sporting nature in the BBC, included emails and phone calls from detectives, to desist from contributing, in a solely sporting debate. I am aware for quite some time, that British agencies have a particular interest in silencing me.
The extent of subtle but considerable censorship of our apparently free press, is to say the least alarming, from my brief experience. The said parties with a vested interest in this particular censorship, can rest easy, in that I cannot at this juncture be bothered, nor have I the time, to contest their assertions. They can also however be certain, that I will not continue to be censored in the future, on matters of importance to me. For the benefit of those within Now Public, who created this discord, below is a recorded history of finality to the Rockall matter. My StumbleUpon Page
Why anyone would disagree with her morals to help sufferers I do not know.
She knew to stand against child abuse in roman catholic church. In my view it was NOT against the chruch itself but against the people involved in the scandals coming out around that time.
Sinéad O'Connor is a Irish singer and songwriter.
On October 3, 1992, she appeared on Saturday Night Live as a musical guest. She was singing an acappella version of Bob Marley's "War," which she intended as a protest over the sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church, by changing the lyric "racism" to "child abuse." She then presented a photo of Pope John Paul II to the camera while singing the word "evil," after which she tore the photo into pieces, said "fight the real enemy," and threw the pieces towards the camera.
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My StumbleUpon Page
7 Comments :
the massive profits made in the drug trade would be an incentive not to win the war on drugs as the cash gets woven into the economy one way or the other.
Pablo Escobar had enough cash to finance a small country, after they stiffed him where did all his cash go the same for any drug kingpin they catch or kill.
Any dirty money seized has to end up somewhere I am fairly certain it is not to feed the poor, more likely it ends up funding some covert ops.
I know one bloke who smokes the weed and has done so longer than I care to remember his other drug of choice cigarettes and the drink. I think when they figure out how to get the maximum profit they will make things legal.
The cigarette industry has something in common with the impure dope peddlers they lace tobacco with all sorts of dangerous chemicals with about 70 known to be lethal.
I am not saying weed is chemical free but I don’t know if a person would smoke 20 or 40 joints a day like a chain smoker.