Children’s BBC is shocked and traumatised.
Children as young as 10 are on their way to becoming addicted to shopping, according to a new report.
A thousand girls and boys were asked about their shopping habits and eight out of 10 in the 10-12 age-group said they enjoy shopping.But the same number admitted they buy things they don’t need, in the survey by the National Consumer Council.
The horror! The horror!
Meanwhile the villanous Blithering Bunny revels in the sheer evil of it all.
“Young Emily fell into a cesspit of visiting attractively-presented stores where well-made and stylish consumer goods were available at reasonable prices. Little did she realize the lasting damage that was being done to herself and society as she tried on a wide variety of good-looking clothes, before deciding to purchase some of them. Later on unspeakable evil was done as she listened to music CDs on her new CD player while talking to friends on her new mobile phone. Despite the atrocities she had committed, she wanted to do this again. And again. She knew that she would always be drawn to these shadowy, looming edifices called… shops. Her desires could not be quelled. Nokia and Nike owned her soul and she would not resist”.
Anon, “Did people form right wing views and hence come to the conclusion that ‘coolness’ is financially imprudent and intellectually degrading?
Well for me, I had a casual thought back in the early-mid ’90s when all those actresses and models were signing pledges not to wear fur to save all the poor liddle helpless furry creatures. . .and I asked myself, “Wonder if all these folks will be wearing fur 10 years from now if becomes ‘cool’ again?”
Have you taken a gander at J.Lo in her full-length mink recently?
It’s not very hard to find this kind of behavior pathetic, laughable and just plain disgusting. . . then again, it may just have been the photo I saw of some Spanish fashion models posing in fake suicide bomber kits and nothing else a couple of years ago.
That kind of pushed my internal Barf-o-Meter up to 11, where it’s pretty much stayed since then.
And to answer your question, Anon, it’s rather the other way around. I first recognized that “coolness” is financially imprudent and intellectually (as well as emotionally) degrading, and then formed right-wing views.
When my son was in middle school (11-12-13 year-olds in the US) during the early ’90s, it was the era when “coolness”, especially for boys, was absolutely defined by wearing ultra-expensive Nikes or Reeboks tennis shoes. (Remember the Spike Lee Mars Blackmon commercials for $200 Nikes?) The kids who could afford the Mars Blackmon specials were at the top of the school caste system; the kids who wore “Pro-Wings” (a cheap knock-off brand sold by a discount shoe chain in the US) were bullied to the point of tears. Then there were a few cases of black ghetto kids actually knocking one another off to steal their fabulous Nike specials. . .kids being killed for the sake of “coolness”.
I became a convert to the cause of mandatory school uniforms around that tim
Roxana
“I didn’t say Churchill had a face liek tub of lard – that was Red Ken.”
Sorry for the mixup, I just included your initials in the cut and paste.
OT but when it comes to trendy leftoid political fashionableness this news article practically made me lose my lunch:
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041209/ap_en_mu/sudan_refugees_concert_2
Chrissie Hynde et. al. cryin’ their ever-lovin’ eyes out for the poor miserable refugees from Sudanese Islamofascism. ..NOW the trendy-lefties cry big tears for Sudanese refugees, now that the ones fleeing are the oh-so-fashionable Muslims from Darfur. . .the 2 million Christian and animists from the South who’ve been slaughtered for the past 20 years don’t rate their own concert, that’s for sure. To complete the revolting hypocrisy, this takes place under UN auspices — where Sudan is a member of the Human Rights Committee!
The UN, has-been slapper Chrissie Hynde, the Islamofascist apologist and would-be Rushdie killer formerly known as Cat Stevens — what a bunch of prizes. Where were they all 5-ten years ago when most of the killing was going on in the South?
Susan – I took particular enjoyment in Cat-Yusef “gimme a Fatwa” Stevens-Islam’s boot off the plane spectacle. Shouldn’t have shot his BIG mouth off, advocating assasinations when no one was paying attention, back in the good ol’ pre 9/11 days. Ah, what goes around, comes around.
I read that he actually cried when he was interviewed on some TV newsmagazine — 20/20 I think. Maybe the BBC.
“Those Yanks were so mean to me!”
Oh boo-hoo. At least they didn’t put out a call for you to be assassinated on sight, you pathetic freak. Cry me a river!
Susan – LOL!!! I know, he DID!!! What a loser. I gather he wants a career again, and good news for his fans, he’s graduated from chanting a capella to banging some kind of drum to accompany himself. Seems his version of the RoP doesn’t permit actual singing. His brother, evidently the sane one in the family, lives in NJ. No more family reunions for him, unless they agree to split the difference and meet in Canada!
Pam: It was the brother who gave him his first Koran. The bro’s got a few bats in the belfry too. I’d stay away from the whole family, myself.
Re: Yusuf Islam / Cat Stevens. He did write ‘Moonshadow’ and ‘Wild World’ though. Cracking tunes.
John Danforth sounds like a sensible sort of chap:
“At a news conference Thursday, Danforth, the chief U.S. envoy to the United Nations, said that “our view of the performance of the secretary general is that he has done a good job, that he is doing a good job, that we have worked with him, and we anticipate working with him in the future.”
“There is no question that we have heard raised by anybody as to the personal integrity of the secretary general,” the ambassador said. “We are expressing confidence in the secretary general and in his continuing in office.”
“No one to my knowledge has cast doubt on the personal integrity of the secretary general. No one. And we certainly don’t,” he said.
(cont.)
“The US ambassador said that he was moved to come forward with the expression of U.S. support for Annan after the news media and U.N. colleagues interpreted U.S. statements expressing the desire for “an objective and thorough investigation” as not supportive of the secretary-general, and suggested that it “appeared as though what the U.S. really wants to do is to force” Annan’s resignation.”
http://www.politinfo.com/articles/article_2004_12_10_2433.html
Either that or those upcoming Iraqi elections are looking a tad tricky without the UN’s help eh?
Ken
Either that or you were wring all along about US aims and intentions – Agree about Cat Stevens – The thinking man’s Leo Sayer
wrong not wring!
redken
You said that the new Ambassador sounds like a sensible chap because of what he said. What precisely is it about his words that make him out to be a sensible chap?
Pete: He recognised the need to step in to clarify the remarks made and stop some sections of the media running away with themselves with the whole “sack Kofi” thing. And/or there was a realization within the Bush administration that burning its bridges with the UN so close to Iraqi election is not such a good idea.
“Either that or you were wrong all along about US aims and intentions”
I don’t remember saying that the US intention was to discredit Kofi, I think I implied that it might be to discredit the UN as whole but only ‘tentatively’.
redken
For once, I think you have it right.
Bush is showing himself to be graceful, above the fray, not vindictive against Kofi. Especially because he wants Kofi to STFU for a few weeks on Iraq, until the elections are held (Did yiu see that 15 out the 18 Iraq regions are peaceful, and the elections in the other areas will be staggered across 2 weeks to keep a lid on local trouble).
Once the elections are over, poor |Dubya will be forced to yield to public and Congress pressure and let Kofi be hung. Kofi is toast already. Bush comes out smelling like roses. Parfait !
“Bush is showing himself to be graceful”
When he’s not choking on pretzels or falling off his mountain bike. Sorry couldn’t resist.
Now now, red ken – don’t parody yourself.
redken – Look, the mood is this: regardless of party allegiance, most Americans are not going to listen to any politician re the UN. Bush, Danforth, Kerry, whomever, it makes no difference. There comes a point where the train reaches the end of line. Decades of condemnation of Israel while terrorist atrocities are excused away, a blind eye towards all and sundry dictators, countless sanctions imposed and ignored, genocides swept under the rug, massive fraud and subsequent stonewalling (we don’t really believe UNSCAM is an isolated incident, do we?), and entrenched spit in our faces anti-Americanism, has shot the UN’s reputation to s**t. Bush can sit this one out. As taxpayers, and I can’t stress this point enough, no one wants to fund this organization anymore. We don’t get value for our money, period.
Or more likely the Iraqi elections are an unmitigated disaster resulting in a vast upsurge of violence and secessionist movements, the American public starts getting agitated about ungrateful ragheads killing it’s troops, the UN has to step in thus making everybody forget about the godawful corruption and Bush looks like the f*cking imbecile that he is.
cockney
“The UN step in ” ??? What the hell with ? The UN is a toothless wonder, just like nations like France that are basically jealous of US puissance. It is mired in corruption and inefficiency, totally impotent. Dead but not yet buried.
Most of Iraq is peaceful and will stay peaceful. Even Fallujah has now gone quiet. The Shias and the Kurds can’t wait to have free elections, only the Sunnis are split between die-hard Baathists getting Syrian support – and the lumpen mass whi want the shooting and bombing of civilians by Iraqis to stop.
You are a typical leftie. You so hate Bush that you WANT death and destruction over coming weeks. A sick attitude, cheering on terrorists – but typical of the loony left these days.
JohninLondon
I think cockney means the UN will ‘step in’ with a strongly worded statement from Kofi Annan, that’ll put the fear of Allah up the ragheads.
Kofi Jr. will threaten to increase his “consulting fees.”