Posted on 12/08/2006 7:40:22 PM PST by goldstategop
RUSH: Remember a couple weeks ago, I had this most unbelievable press release from Russell Simmons. Russell Simmons had arrived in Africa, nobody cared, but he put the press release out, "I have arrived in Africa," on my charter jet or what have you, and, "I'm here to promote jewelry, the right kind of jewelry." He's promoting his own. He's got a jewelry line now. I thought this was the most self indulgent press release I've ever read. I wish I could remember the thing because it really needs to be read. I don't have it here at my fingertips.
Lo and behold, now some of you may have heard of this, but it's new to me this week, the whole concept of conflict free diamonds. I'm sure it's not new. It has just escaped me. "This holiday season some diamond retailers say they are seeing heightened consumer concern about conflict diamonds. The gems mined in war zones sold to fund armed conflict in Civil War. Sales of so called conflict diamonds have helped finance wars that killed millions in Angola, Congo, Sierra Leone, and Liberia over the past several decades. Efforts to address the problem have been made within the diamond industry. Human rights groups are now taking the issue straight to consumers. With Friday's release of Warner Brothers Pictures' new film, Blood Diamond, diamond retailers are preparing to face more scrutiny than ever before." So they're going to do to the diamond business what they've done to the fur coat business.
We have a couple of sound bites on this. First off from the Today Show today, co host Al Joker was interviewing the writer Sally Morrison about diamonds and Al Joker said, "Look, we're hearing a lot about conflict diamonds. The movie Blood Diamond with Leonardo DiCaprio--" who is a glittering jewel of colossal ignorance in real life "--and Djimon Hounsou. For people who don't understand this, what, quickly, Sally, is a conflict diamond?"
MORRISON: A conflict diamond is a diamond that comes from a part of Africa where there's Civil War going on and the diamonds are being used to fund illegal activity against the government. The good news for consumers is that, thanks to the Kimberly Process, 99.8% of all diamonds in the marketplace now are conflict free. Clearly one conflict diamond is one too many. We all have to work as an industry to eradicate that last .2%, but people can be very confident going to the stores that the Kimberly Process is working and it's a great achievement. Makes it illegal to import conflict stones, and 68 countries around the world are party to this agreement with the UN.
RUSH: All right. I guess this is where I separate myself from this. I'm sorry, I don't relate to this. I think this is just mindless twaddle. This is typical of a bunch of weak kneed liberals trying to make a difference, and trying to make themselves feel, the new castrati on display, make themselves feel noble and moral and superior. "I'm not going to wear stones that come from conflict." Let's not address the whole idea of wearing jewelry in the first place. For crying out loud, folks. I don't even want to go there. I'll really get separation. But this is just nonsensical. This is a world governed by the aggressive use of force. How many of these products are these people not going to be able to buy once they learn about them? I mean, oil leads to the product that powers jet bombers. What, Mr. Snerdley, what?
Am I missing something here? What? How can I say what? This is like, "We've got to divest in South Africa. I'm not going to invest here; I'm not going to invest there." The world is at conflict at all times. The world roils in conflict. Consumers do have collectively a power. But are you telling me that the diamond industry is going to fall for this? Conflict free. And precisely because they're worried sick about it, they'll find a way to market conflict diamonds that aren't conflict diamonds. It's just going to be like buying Priuses, it's not going to make any difference. Not going to stop the wars. Not going to stop the funding for the wars. If the diamonds and their mining result in wars being funded, the funders of the wars will find somewhere else to go to get the money. William Jefferson, Congressman Democrat Louisiana. Who knows? There's any number of places that these people that want to wage war can go get the money. What these people think they're doing is going to stop conflict. "I'm not going to support war. Mr. Limbaugh, I'm not going to support it."
Anyway, if you think I'm wrong about this, we have some advocates. We've got another sound bite. A montage of the actress Jane Fonda and the actress Jennifer Connelly talking about their diamonds.
FONDA: This is not about we don't like diamonds. It's that we have to be conscious of what we're buying and not buying, and buy them only if they're blood free.
Conflict-free Diamonds? Bunkum!
CONNELLY: You know, if I wear diamonds to insist that the diamonds that I wear are conflict free.
FONDA: I'm wearing diamonds. They're conflict free. I have the certificate.
RUSH: Yippee. How can you trust it? "Oh, I have a certificate." Neville Chamberlain had a letter. You talk about white guilt. I mean, that's exactly what this is. Now these Hollywood actress types who don't have time to shave their underarms, two week old growth there, Maggie Gyllenhaal and whoever else, forget what was the other name? Maria Bello. Don't have time to shave their armpits, but this is important, Mr. Limbaugh. This is important. Not only do men have to buy diamonds for women, now they have to make sure they're conflict free. I'm going to go out and I'm going to make it my objective to buy conflict diamonds. Somebody has to be able to support these wars because that's how conflicts are solved.
RUSH: Conflict diamonds. I know exactly what this is. The challenge is going to be exposing it to you as the fraud that it is. So how about this? How about, folks, I spearhead a new movement: Terrorist free oil. Yes, it's a lofty goal. Why should we be buying oil or using any derivatives or refined products from oil where the profits end up in the people who bankroll and fund terrorism? Why, that's war. That's war against us. Well, I guess that's okay. But in all these places where we have no vital interest whatsoever, like Kofi Annan, our old boy Kofi Annan. Listen to this. (story) "Outgoing U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan will ask on Friday how the international community can allow the 'horror' in Sudan's Darfur region to continue and say there is more than enough blame to share around the world." No, I will not resign. "'Above all we must not wait to take action until genocide is actually happening, by which time it is often too late to do anything effective about it,'" except burn the bodies.
So Kofi Annan. No mention of Iraq. No mention of North Korea. This is not quite his farewell speech but it's close. Nothing about Iraq. Nothing about North Korea. Nothing about Iran. No, we got to go to Darfur. Why? No US vital interests are at stake.
I was talking to a friend of mine on an instant message chat this morning. Don't worry, nothing in it for you Foley hunters. This guy says, "You know what really bugs me about this war and this whole study group is if the President were a Democrat, the Democrats would be all for the war in Iraq." I said, "No, they wouldn't. It's different now." He cited Kosovo and Clinton. I said, well, the difference, with Kosovo, we had no vital interest in Kosovo. We were humanitarian. Meals on wheels. In Iraq, US vital interests are at stake. The Democrats cozy up to our enemies: Ortega, Hugo Chavez, the Soviets. We start defending ourselves where there are vital interests, and they get upset. Here's Kofi, Darfur. We have to go to Darfur. We don't have enough troops. We're short. Gotta go to Darfur. Have to stop the genocide there. Kofi Annan. Ladies and gentlemen, it is plain to see here what the purpose of the Left is, and it is not anything to do with building this country up or protecting it. So oil for terrorists. No oil for terrorists. Conflict diamonds. No conflict diamonds. No oil for terrorists. Or no terrorist oil, however you want to put it.
There's a way to do that, by the way. And the way to prove my point about this is, our own. ANWR, Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of California. Can we do it? No way. We'd destroy the environment, destroy America. We’d pollute. No, we will use oil for terrorists. Now we've got conflict diamonds. This is not the first time this has come up, ladies and gentlemen.
(Playing Dolphin-free tuna spoof)
Remember this? We couldn't eat tuna that was caught in a net. It wasn't fair and they caught dolphins at the same time and the dolphins drowned in the net. Dolphin free tuna. Conflict diamonds. These things just repeat, ladies and gentlemen. And remember, the objective here is to stop conflict. If you think a bunch of gaudy baubles being worn by a bunch of women who are mined in a non conflict area are going to stop wars, then you don't understand men.
FONDA: "This is not about we don't like diamonds. It's that we have to be conscious of what we're buying and not buying, and buy them only if they're blood free."
These people, the libs sound more stupid by the day! They're more concerned about carats than about living, breathing human beings. They spout this nonsense to feel morally superior and to look down upon those they consider beneath them. Like the world really cares what they think! The world is governed by the aggressive use of force and libs are oblivious to the fact that even oil involves people being killed to produce it to power everything that makes life comfortable. But hell's bells, you won't see them lose precious sleep over that. In their tiny minds, the purity of their precious diamond carat comes first.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
There's money to be made in making suckers feel guilty.
Wearing fur is OK now, so the liberal fashionistas had to find another cause to whine about.
...that said, there are some promising technologies for synthesizing higher quality diamonds than are typically found in nature. No telling what this "Kimberly process" is.
And Jane "I have the certificate!!" Fonda.....what a stupid, irrelevant ass she is.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
How in hell could anybody tell if a diamond is "conflict free"
and who would believe a hip hop guy anyway. The whole genre is dominated by street thugs.
If I wasn't still waiting for my turn to marry Liz Taylor, I'd be chasing Ted Turner.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
When I heard this on Rush today, I finally understood the ads I have been hearing on TV, "We sell only Russian diamonds."
I have dodged the bullet on that one. Now I have a perfectly good reason for not buying that diamond brooch my wife wants for Christmas. It could contain "conflict Diamonds"
Damn'd if I'll be a party to that!
In May 2000, responding to a growing grassroots movement on "blood diamonds," governments and the diamond industry came together in the South African town of Kimberley to combat the trade in diamonds from conflict zones. The result of these negotiations was the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, setting up an internationally recognized certification system for rough diamonds and establishing national import/export standards. In November 2002, 52 governments ratified and adopted the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, which was fully implemented in August 2003.
The Kimberley Process was seriously flawed from the beginning. The Kimberley system of "voluntary self-regulation" on the part of the diamond industry has meant a significant lack of transparency and independent monitoring efforts. The World Diamond Council, initially established to represent the diamond industry at the Kimberley Process, has failed to coordinate effective industry monitoring. Governments, too, have been uninterested in monitoring and regulating the diamond trade. Some say the Kimberley Process amounted to little more than a public relations stunt for the diamond industry, and recent reports by Global Witness and other NGOs have found little evidence of genuine attempts to deliver on industry commitments.
No, it's not! Avoid the "conflict free" diamond huntress. :)
FONDA: "This is not about we don't like diamonds. It's that we have to be conscious of what we're buying and not buying, and buy them only if they're blood free."
I wonder if Fatwah Fonda eats Vietnamese food? Even if she doesn't, she helped perpetrate goods that we buy in America from Vietnam that were secured on the backs of massive amounts of blood shed when we left them stranded to face their enemies alone because of people like her whining about how unjust the war was. Their blood is on her hands, and now she's stating we need to buy 'blood free' stuff? She can take a flying leap! http://sacredscoop.com
Bump for later.
I'm sure the mafia believes in "voluntary self-regulation" for all their business ventures.
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