I'm the proud owner of................

I was looking around for a leather shoe to go clubbing - to get into those fancy places that don't let you wear sneakers. So I went shopping and basically gave up on the snakeskin, tortiose shell, half brown leather shoes. Fell back into my comfort zone and started looking for sneakers.

Lo and behold, in Footlocker they had the new NBA adidas superstar series which were the subject of a previous post. They are going for $160 AUD, a hefty price tag, but I had to have one. They've only got Celtics, Pistons, Bulls and Spurs so far. In the next couple of weeks, they'll hvae the other teams. So i may end up with a New York Knicks one too!

I'm out like NBA Adidas Superstars,

DJ Ho.

The right/wrong to bear arms?

It's wrong to bear arms

April 22, 2007 12:25pm

FOR two months, a couple of years ago, my family and I lived in Virginia in the US.

It was an outer suburb of Washington, really, but very much part of Virginia, the state whose gun laws allowed Cho Seung-Hui to buy a 9mm Glock handgun and kill 30 people at Virginia Tech.

Most weekdays and every weekend, my wife and I would go for long walks. And here's the thing: the Virginians we met were the friendliest in the world.

Not once did we walk without other walkers wishing us a nice day, a good morning, a pleasant stroll.

The paradox is that, undoubtedly, many of these kind people were gun owners.

It would be hard to find a non-American who loves America more than me. I admire its broad generosity, its voluptuous excesses, its high ideals and its immortal idealism.

But it is impossible to admire its gun culture.

The right to bear arms is enshrined in the US Constitution. The relevant provision of the Constitution actually seems to refer to the right of states to have armed forces, but it has been interpreted as meaning an individual's right to bear arms.

It is unrealistic to expect that Americans will ever give up this right. And it's not practical.

There are 300 million Americans and 250 million guns in private hands. Even if they were outlawed, you would never actually get them out of society's hands.

The most that can be hoped for is some more sensible regulation.........

There is a distinct gun culture emerging even in parts of Sydney and I suspect illegal gun ownership is far wider in Australia than we know.

Once guns penetrate a society you can't get rid of them and the international trade in illegal guns is enormous and booming.


Nonetheless, it is right that guns should be as illegal as possible in Australia so that we can retard, if not forever prevent, their spread throughout our society.

But even in America, gun control could make a much bigger contribution to reducing gun deaths.
In those situations, people deranged by anger, booze or drugs, or a combination, use anything that comes to hand - fists, a piece of furniture, sometimes a knife. If a gun is at hand it will be used.

Making it less likely that a gun will be at hand reduces the deadliness when a person lashes out.

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DJ Ho Commentary

This is the 4 straight post i've done with a violence theme. Unfortunately this is the world we are living in right now. Where psychotic students gun down fellow students. Where arguments are resolved by staring down the barrel of a gun.

The profileration of guns in America is a ticking time bomb. Don't they ever do background checks on these people? Why is there a right to bear arms in America? It's a very simple formula: More guns = more deaths.


If there is a gun around, there is the potential for it to be used. Incidents like Virginia Tech show that there must be tighter gun control laws, not just in America but everywhere. People need to be educated about guns, and they need outlets for their frustration. Creative and non-violent outlets.

Students with a disconnect to the rest of the class, that are isolated and show mental issues need to be identified and helped at an earlier stage. Why don't they teach them conflict resolution classes? Didn't anyone ever reach out to the question mark kid? Who is selling them guns?

What a crazy world. Where 32 students can be gunned down by another student.

I'm out like gun control in the U.S,

DJ Ho.

Bad Things Come In 33

The killing of 32 people including the shooter himself at Virginia Tech was........ senseless. Shocking. Disturbing. Tragic. Sad. There is not an exact word I can use to describe it.

I'm out like the lives of innocent students @ Virginia Tech,

DJ Ho.

Update: More d*ckhead behaviour in the City

Remember my last post on violence on George St?

Well here's an update from my night out in the city on Saturday on the long weekend.

Shark Attack

After paintball on Saturday during the daytime, I chilled out at Shark Bar aka Sharkies in the city. As soon as I got there, there was massive scuffle outside between a group of lebbos and what appeared like another group.

This set the tone for the rest of the night. I must admit, Sharkies is straight up dodgy. All these gangster Asians playing pool, watching TV, trying to dance and generally acting hard. Ok, I might have known a few of them but that's not the point.

This young caucasian male came down the stairs from the Space dance party escorted by two bouncers. Blood was streaming down his face from his forehead. I was in the bathroom where he was getting cleaned up and I overheard that he needed 4 stitches.

So you want to dance/get stabbed?

We went to Pumphouse but unfortunately the line was too long. Instead, we rolled up to Martin Place Bar, which we heard over the wire was quite empty. We quickly found out why.

As I walked up to the bar, there was an ambulance on Castlereagh St. A young white male was in a stretcher. There was a massive wound on the side of his head. Blood was streaming out. His shirt was completely soaked in blood. I saw another Asian male with blood on his hands.

I heard the guy was either stabbed in the head or had a bottle cracked over his head. No wonder no one wanted to go into MPB. One of the bouncers at Red Room who I know said I could get in easy to MPB, but I was like why would I want to go into a place where someone has just been stabbed? Do I really want to dancing around the blood splatter. Plus the whole mood of the place would have changed.

Misc d*ckhead behavior

Later in the night, I was walking down george St with my brother at 3am in the morning. There were 3 or 4 police cars outside Cheers in Chinatown. I heard from a friend that another fight had occurred.

To top it off, the next day i called up my friend who informed me that upon leaving Sharkies at 4am, there was another fight outside.

Wait, there's more. Marie, who was at Pumphouse had a huge bump from guess what? Some idiot had dropped an empty glass bottle of Stollies on to her head from the second floor of Pumphouse. This was not an isolated incident because it also happened to a friend of hers.

What happened to the city? Was it just the effect of Easter and people drinking or is there something more sinister?

I'm out like peace in the City,

DJ Ho.

Is George St getting violent?

Sydney's strip of terror

By Gemma Jones and Henry Budd
April 02, 2007 12:00

Shopkeepers fed up with the sickening violence have spoken out about attacks by teenage gangs who hang around late at night.

Senior police say the strip is one of the worst in the city for alcohol-fuelled assaults because of the number of pubs, clubs and restaurants in the area.

One shop attendant, who asked not to be identified for fear of being attacked, told The Daily Telegraph that brawls and drug deals were frequent.

"Every Friday and Saturday night it's a theatre down here, you just watch the street," he said.

"After midnight, there are four or five fights every night.

"I've seen one person go around to pick the fight and when the fight starts the others jump in so you have got six or seven people on one person," he said.
"They walk up and down and bump into people on purpose to start a fight. It is getting worse."

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Incident 1: Romper Stomper

Last night outside Bar 333, I saw a guy work outta the bar with his shirt off. Now this is a upmarket joint, so I thought this was strange. Then all his mates started filing out the bar and I noticed a trickle of blood around his mouth. They started yelling and posturing and talking to the bouncers.

After 5 minutes, in the open area next to the bar, I see people running and all of a sudden there is all in brawl. I have no idea who's on who's side.

There's one guy on the ground in the fetal position while getting kicked and stomped to the head by 5 other guys. This Indian dude and another Aussie guy are both facing each other with their fists cocked and start swinging. More Aussies guys jump into the fight to pull people off the one becoming someone's doormat.

I actually walked over half for curiousty's sake but also to yell at the guys beating the hell outta the guy on the ground. I actually contemplated jumping in and trying to stop him getting knocked out. It wasn't a fair fight.

About 6 bouncers from Bar 333 run into the various fights and try to stop them. One bouncer has this guy on the ground with his arm twisted in a arm bar position and his knee to the guy's head. Another burly bouncer yells out "we've called the police". The fight gets worse as the bouncers try to break it up. This girl runs into the fracas and bitch slaps this guy. She gets shoved and punched. It's no holds barred on George St tonite!

This goes on for a good 5 minutes. Eventually the fight is broken up and everyone goes their own ways. Apparently there was these two guys with these two girls who were getting the living daylights beaten out of them. And they were still talking trash calling the guys "cowards, come back!!". To top it off, those two girls were still trying to start these guys by running after them and pushing them.

A while later, John and I decide to get some food. We walk past the big group of wankers on George St and the guy who was in the arm lock position yells at me to come here. As per usual, I ignore him and he then says to me to give him my shirt. I can see that his mate's shirt had been ripped. Of course, I wasn't going to give it to him. It's one of the my favourite shirts! So I give him the hand sign and wave him off. His other mates yells "Their Asian - triads!" and decide to leave us alone. They proceed to hassle other people for their shirts. Which I thought was quite funny.

Ah, a crazy night on George St.

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Incident 2: The Big Kahuna Burger

Last Friday, i was at Privilege and decided I needed some much needed dinner. I'm in Macdonald's @ Wynard eating my Big Mac burger. I'm all content and enjoying the calories much like Marcus eating the Big Kahuna burger in Pulp Fiction.

On the communal table, there's a young 20 year old asian guy with his girlfriend who i saw at Privilege. He's got this security pass which is tied onto a retractable string.

He suddenly thinks its a great idea to impress his gf by flicking the pass at me and it lands about 30 cms away. Like a yo-yo, he retracts it. I ignore him.

He flicks it at me again. I notice it this time and give him a dirty look.

Marie calls me and I answer the phone. I'm happily chatting to her and ignoring this dickhead. This idiot tells his girl - "maybe he'll notice it this time!" and flicks it at me again. There's only so much I can take.

So I point directly at him and tell him in a loud, slightly aggressive voice bordering on a I'll shove this Big Mac down your throat and the security pass up your ass tone "I wouldn't do that again".

His girlfriend gets concerned and tells him to stop. He also sees the wisdom in not pissing me off. Normally I'm a very calm and passive guy. But don't annoy me when I'm enjoying my big Mac.

His friends show up, a couple of asian guys and some girls. They ask me if the seat is taken and then if there;s anything wrong. I tell his stocky asian friend, your mate is pissing me off because he threw his security pass at me three times. I notice that there is 1 idiot with 3 male friends and 1 DJ Ho.

I decide to not pursue this issue, tell him that everything is cool, and call up some mates to see if they are in the area. Another little ball comes rolling my way. I suspect its from my little friend. Seeing that this guy has a brain the size of a peanut, i stay there, calmly finish eating and walk out.

There's a side of me that says that if he had thrown that security pass at me one more time, I would have run over the other side of that table and banged his head on the table like a door knob.

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Incident 3: Kebabs save the day

About a year ago, I was at George st Macdonald's near the cinema strip. I walk out at 2am in the morning and step on to the pavement. There's one guy with a hat on being pursued by 20 (yes 20 guys) that have just emerged out of Bar Ace or Maloney's. they look like a mix of people from Aussies, Wogs, Lebs. The one lone guy who looks Leb is getting punched to the head, shoved into the wall at Metro. The security at Playtime shove them away because that's their jurisdiction.

This guys is totally outnumbered and in for a massive beating. I couldn't really get a good view, and it wasn't safe to stand in front of MacDonald's. So I crossed the road and stood on the steps of Starbucks to watch it unfold. Quite sadistic actually. The one guy did the best thing he could have done: run into Ali Baba's kebabs which is next door. He had no chance of surviving. By running into the store, the attackers stop pursuing him.

But he had a brain explosion and started taunting his attackers, motioning at them to come in and fight him. So you know what they did? A couple of them started to walk up the steps and almost into the stop but were stopped by the owners of the Kebab shop. Who were more concerned about the loss of business and the potential damage to their store.

At this point, the fight was over and i climbed down from my lofty perch.

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I'm a lover not a fighter.

DJ Ho.

Y speling is o so importtant

NIT title T-shirts are almost heavun

Associated Press

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - West Virginia may have won the National Invitation Tournament, but the Mountaineers' commemorative T-shirts are less than championship material.

They contain a misspelling.

The "West Virginia" printed on the shirts players wore after winning the NIT title with a 78-73 victory over Clemson on Thursday night is missing the last "i" in "Virginia."

WVU sports information director Shelly Poe said the NIT printed the shirts.
Calls to tournament officials were not immediately returned Friday.

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I'm out like the "i" in Virginia,

DJ Ho