Cognitive Dissonance

So... We have bloggers who think that consensual sex between men is a terrible abomination, but think that parents who force their infant children to be vegan are simply "eccentric" and don't deserve prosecution and punishment when the child inevitably dies.

These people make me ill.

Nutrition Nazis should eat more meat and STFU

A nutritionist says New Zealand's 'vulnerable' should be protected from KFC's newest burger, which has no bun but double the meat.

The controversial Double Down - a bunless burger with two slices of bacon and cheese sandwiched between two slabs of fried chicken - has been confirmed for New Zealand release.

KFC have listened to the hungry consumers of Aussie and NZ and are bringing their iconic and from what I have heard delicious burger to the fair shores of my homeland very soon.
Cactus Kate described it as utter packaged awesomeness when she tried it in the States last year... and I have been harrassing British KFC at every opportunity to bring this here. Maybe Britain is too PC (usually a title I'd associate with NZ) for the Double Down - but soon you lucky bastards will have had one while I waste away over here :)

Of course the nutritionists are way off track on this. Even though KFC have given in to the carb police and taken away the sugary buns, they are on the attack over the idea that Kiwis cannot handle two breasts of chicken at once. WTF does nutritionists mean when they say the vulnerable should be protected over this burger? What is the difference between the Double Down and a Big Mac meal? What is the difference between a Double Down and say 4 pieces of the Colonels great tasting chicken?

Do our nutritionists want a police state where we must only eat "safe" foods? What enjoyment would we get eating Government mandated gruel? What are safe foods? Why do we need protecting from a burger? Surely the very poor - the ones we are told are most vulnerable to unhealthy food, will not be able to afford this? And even if they could, why restrict the eating of something that is so delicious?

Where do these nutritionists come from? Are they kept in grey rooms all day being lobbied by the boring food agencies until they are brainwashed? Were they not allowed to drink bright drinks or eat greasy food as children? If we are not allowed to even make our own decisions on what we eat what sort of society do we live in? We are already attacked on a daily basis by do gooder left-tards on one hand and on the other by moral statist religious nutters too. Is our world just too much fun for these people?

I hope that the UK KFC introduces the Double Down in the next few months so that I can make the trip to try one out. I hope that the NZ KFC doesn't lose its nerve and brings it out in its current form to the hungry and curious masses. Food needs to be fun and this looks like fun! I feel that the Kiwi nutritionalists have been suckered into how awesome this burger is through the clever KFC marketing more than anything else!

See - Controversial burger to come to NZ.. (and not the double pizza/BK/McDs that people scoff on a daily basis)

Also - Nutritionist fears the vulnerable are most at risk from killer burger

TEN things worse for you than the Double Down Including: Burger King tendercrisp salad and a Wendys BLT salad...

This is gold!

The T bomb

Coming to a Parliament near you.... truely the biggest waste of space this parliament has ever seen. She has no problem dipping into the trough - it's not like she is gainfully employed by anybody since being thrown on the unemployment heap after the 08 election!



Hat Tip - Whale Oil @ Gotcha

A bloke called John

Can you imagine Helen Clark acting this human? I'm not a John cheerleader but hands down the best PM I have had in my lifetime. Pity about most of the other MPs around him!


Brilliant pisstake of himself. Exactly the type of person who Kiwis will be proud to have as a PM - and no doubt with the benefits comment, sure to piss off the lefties!

Which is what a National Party PM should be doing every single day!

Earth hour

Tonight at 8.30 I shall be observing earth hour, at exactly 8.30 every single light in the house will be turned on, all of the TV's in the house will be on and I will run as many electrical appliances as possible.

Earth hour is a con, pushed by the same duplicitous wankers who think that only a massive transfer of wealth is going to 'cure' climate change.

Fox and Friends

I have no specific reason for publishing this image. I just thought the two characters went well together.

Hughes around the blogosphere

Oh dear. It has been splashed all over the blogosphere about what is going on with Labour MP Darren Hughes. This tends to stand true to the belief that if you are an elected representative of a political party – you should keep it in your trousers and hands off!

There has been plenty of speculation of what exactly happened and why Phil Goff kept it quiet for 2 weeks. Rather for me to indulge in what, who or how (we know why!) I thought I’d do a review of what other blogs and bloggers are saying:

Whale Oil:What about the “high” standards that Labour have demanded from National constantly over the last two years? If the shoe was on the other foot Labour would be demanding for the MP’s resignation, demanding Key to explain why he hadn’t mentioned it earlier, demanding to know why Key hadn’t acted sooner and only acted after the media found out, and accused National of some sort of cover up!

And more from Whale Oil...
Personally I don’t care one way or another about a person’s sexuality. I care very much though whether there has been an abuse of power or authority. Sexual harassment is not acceptable wither in the heterosexual community nor in the gay community. This is the issue here, along with Labour’s apparent willingness to try to whitewash the issues and now their scurrilous attacks on the alleged victim that they are shopping around the place.

Hear hear!

From Paul Quinn (Labour activist) This is a terrible series of events. It appears that the 18-year old was subject to unwanted advances by an MP, which is bad enough. But the fact that the two allegedly met while the MP was acting in an official capacity makes matters significantly worse, elevating it to a serious abuse of position and trust. This, if true, is what makes the story a genuine scandal, whatever the specifics of the incident itself.

Indeed!

James Meager
pro-Labour bloggers have gone on the offensive against abuse complainants and teenagers by refusing to highlight the case and the serious allegations involved.
But what newsworthy concern do we get from The Standard, from No Right Turn, from Tumeke?
Nothing.
Well, not nothing. We get smoke screens and cover ups.

The Standard blogged 5 times since the news was hinted, slinging anti-Government propaganda yet again, and using the Christchurch earthquake to distract from the issue.

Tumeke launches into yet another anti-neoliberal tirade, but fails to touch on the Hughes issue.

Secondly, what are we to make of their silence, when they jumped on Worth, were all over any scandal he was involved in, took it to Pansy Wong, and got stuck into Phil Heatley.

So where are they now, on allegations far more serious than any of those?
My only conclusion can be that they care more about slandering the National Party and worrying about “rich pricks”, than they do about supporting abuse complainants, young people, and the actions of their elected representatives.

For shame?

For shame.
And finally Kiwiblog comments – but will not allow comments. A rare occasion for Farrar!

And finally (over at Whale Oil) Moral Fundamentalist Lucia Marie from NZ Conservative gives us her reasons…in her usual tolerant tone… lol

Any­one following the Roman Catholic sex abuse scandals would immediately see the link between homosexuality and not so much paedophlia, but pederasty. Most, if not all abusive priests were active homosexuals. Of course, this does not mean that all homosexuals are potential abusers, it just means that those that are attracted to children and teenagers tend to be actively homo­sexual as well.

Err right. Somebody should tell the poor dear to have a cup of cocoa and relax....

I was unaware until now that Darren is gay, not that it makes a difference to his performance as an MP. A high flyer – albeit in a party that I do not support. Well liked by his friends and opponents as well and that might be the reason why many right wing blogs have been respectful about this issue until the facts come out. If you are an elected official, the time to play silly buggers has to end as you will be found out. For Hughes, I suspect he is feeling very sorry for himself right now.

Update, apologies to Keeping Stock. I read his post first... and you can see it here. Note in the comments the last "anon" comment doesn't like me, lol.

Also, I have amended the Labour "status" of James as well. Apologies!

Going... going...going.... GONE

Excellent news coming out from international census data from nine countries showing that religion is becoming extinct in 9 countries. This data is based on patterns that have been followed back to about a century and concludes that religion will more or less die out.

The lucky countries are Australia, Austria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Switzerland. All relatively wealthy countries with a well educated population (I will count Ireland as wealthy despite recent economic woes). It makes you wonder if the reason religion is still at static levels in the 3rd world is based on the church taking advantage of their weaker economic levels - kind of how communism was spread in post WW2 European states.

Enlightened populations are no longer looking at a 2000 year old book to decide for them how they should run their lives or which citizens they should or should not associate with. Good for them! How can anybody accept that their lives are pre-determined by a mythical being - when they will create their own economic destiny, no matter who you are in society.

Religion should be relegated to nothing more than a hobby and given the same respect and funding that something like train spotting gets.

No more faith schools, no more indoctrination and children actually get to make a choice whether or not they want to be religious when they are old enough to make the judgement for themselves

And that makes me happy.

Article here

VSM...still coming to a Uni near you

Good grief. There is something dark brewing down at my old University of Otago.

First this fantastic post on OUSA by James Rawiri Meager. And I quote:

As a lot of people will know, enrolment at Otago brings with it compulsory membership of the students’ association, OUSA. This is at the best of times a wonderful organisation which strives to represent students’ issues and is a powerful advocate for student rights.

At the worst of times, it is an out-of-touch, irrelevant bureaucracy bent on collecting revenue from students to arbitrarily redistribute in the form of lucky prize draws.

Time for some context: I used to be a part of this rickety machine and did my best to uphold the values I believe in: responsible governance, restraint of expenditure of compulsory levies, open access to the association governance, freedom of speech and discussion, and relevant advocacy and representation of students.

Sadly, fate conspired against me and I was forced to resign as Finance and Services Officer before the end of my term in 2010. Hopefully my criticisms don’t come across as jilted lover, but more as concerned member.

Stunning stuff, and it leads to a very long article that makes a lot of good sense.
Read the rest of it here.

Now I am a lot wiser than I was years ago when I posted anything that looked like damning evidence, but this is doing the rounds with the Otago students... nothing too awful, but there is a lot of squabbling and disputing on who posted this and why.
From "Postgrad" (postgrad@ousa.org.nz) - "James, why don't you just set up your own Voluntary Organisation for gazeebo lovers and then you can keep the problems of this irrelevant vocal minority to yourselves" From ISP address 118.90.52.246
I have been told it is from Auckland, but even if so, why would somebody say this?

OUSA is in a rotting state of decline. I noticed it when I was studying there and it has progressively got worse. Not because of the people who work there, as many of them are good hardworking people. But the rot sets in as soon as you become unaccountable to your members. No organisation would ever survive if they ignored over 75% of their members on a good day. VSM is going to help keep OUSA alive for decades to come - the sooner the union folk remember this, the better.

And I get my confession!

Result! After countless comments (and Redbaiter proving that he is New Zealand’s most sexually repressed blogger) and judgements from people who really shouldn't be passing judgements on others... we get a confession from Lucia Marie that she actually doesn't like gay people.

Let me quote from NZC as it is pure gold:

First off, I do my very best not to hate anyone. Every person has vices. My vices can be as dangerous to my soul as the unrepentant sex addict's vices can be to his. Vices that are not resisted tend to drown out any hope of redemption, yet that redemption nevertheless exists and is available to all who seek it.

So, I think of the "gay person" as having sexual vices that they have succumbed to, that make it difficult for them to imagine any other way of being. I feel sad for them that this is the case, but also hopeful that God may work a miracle in their lives and maybe help them to hear His voice and take the opportunity of redemption when it is offered.

The unrepentant homosexual who is seeking to change the world into his own image so that his sexual desires are celebrated and victims are offered no matter who they are, I will oppose with every bone in my body. We are at war. Just as in a war, you don't necessarily hate the opposing side, but will engage in an aggressive defence, because if the other side wins, you will be overwhelmed and worse, so it is in this war of ideas that has real consequences for this world, my children and our way of life. To not fight is to give in to those consequences. To say it's because I hate the other side is to deny those consequences. It is to be blind and deaf and dumb, and selfish, so that only your own desires and wants and needs are important and stuff everyone else.

Men are natural protectors. When all is right in the world they channel that protective energy into their societies, their wives and their children. When all is not right in the world, some will protect other men's rights to do what ever they want, in a perverse reverse of the protective instinct that should be directed towards women and children. In doing so, they become predators, not protectors.

So we have the ultimate irony of a man (Clint) attacked a woman (me) for wanting a society in which men act like men, not narcissistic nancy boys that don't give a damn about anyone except for themselves and other men. And so I have to become what is not natural to women, a fighter. Which he objects to and attacks me over, rather than acting like a real man himself.

Yep, the person as I described as a person you'd not like to live next door has come out and stated that she wages a moral war against people because of what they do in their bedrooms. Does Lucia Marie have a peep-hole? Who is the real pervert here?
Is she that naive to understand that homosexuals do NOT have a choice in all this?

To those who said that Capitalism has nothing to do with equality and freedom. What utter nonsense. Capitalism means all citizens have equal opportunities to succeed as economic units. It doesn't matter your colour, race, sexual preference or beliefs - you are part of a system that creates wealth. Any person or persons blocking another’s right to create wealth or to impede in how they live their lives (within legal means) are not capitalists.

Hard-line christians seek to impede many peoples rights to be productive members of society. Lucia Marie has condemned gays and those who have pre-marital sex as sinners. What gives people like her any "moral right" to decide who is better than another person in our society? Regular christians, of whom I have day to day contact with are open to acceptance of others and don't look down at anybody because of what they are.

You do not have to be a christian to help other people nor is there exclusivity for christians to be charitable, do-gooders and protectors. Nor am I anti christian or hate catholics - but they have as much right to tell others how to run their lives as I do. NONE whatsoever.

You have to wonder with all the anger NZC has about gay people that they can't have much compassion for non christians either. Just last week I had a discussion with a person who said the people of Japan deserved to suffer because they were atheists.

The catholic church lost its right to be considered "moral guardians" of society hundreds of years ago. For those who have short memories we can look at recent cases of abuse and how the church deliberately covered over them. Imagine a parent overlooking abuse committed by another parent? Imagine this on a far greater scale. This is what has defined catholism in today’s world. And what about women’s rights? Women are not equal to men in the catholic church either. How can this equate to every citizen being allowed to become equal economic units?

Redbaiter told me I was a Marxist and a "progressive" for telling him that gays and women should be allowed to live their lives the same as men do. If that was the case then you can only imagine what sort of society he and the NZC crowd would want for NZ. I support capitalism because it presents economic opportunities far greater than what a heavy-handed state does. All they are doing is replacing the state with a moral statism, based on a 2000 year old book that is constantly contradicted.

But all this has been worth it as we now see the truth for what it is. Back to regular posting I think! :)

If you are reading this and wonder if all this is in my head - after reading Lucia Maries confession about her war on gays... read also:

The comments on this post by Comrade Redbaiter Russell.

And the rather ironically (or tragically) named "Pinkofreezone" blog.

You'll have to remind me who the real perverts are again... all this obsessing about private bedroom activities seems to really get Redbaiter Russell all wound up!

Mmmmn frothy!

You know you're onto a ratings winner when you grease up a nice honey trap for those so fragile with their beliefs, that you get an entire blog to send its troops to defend themselves. I posted yesterday a few comments that most Kiwis would agree with. I made one mistake - I should have been more clear that I am attacking only the fundamentalist frothing at the mouth christians, not the ones who are perfectly nice people.

Point #1. Hard core fundamentalist christians hate gay people. Lucia Maria and Redbaiter call them pederasts.

Point #2. Capitalists believe in equality and fairness. Being gay isn't a choice, but NZ Conservative don't carey. When Zen Tiger tried to clarify his points to me (in the last post) not once did he state that he accepted that law abiding people are equal, even gays.

Point #3 If tax paying members of society are judged for their private activities that are perfectly legal - then what sort of nation does NZ Conservative want for NZ?
Should we ban homosexuality? Should we have cameras in our bedrooms watching out for immoral deeds that may offend Lucia Marie? Will Redbaiter be on the streets calling everybody "progressive" if they decide to exercise their legal rights?

Point #4 I even managed to get some new gems out of them. Lucia Marie, who claims to be a good neighbour - unless you're a sinner - has said that anybody having sex outside of marriage is going to hell. Redbaiter doesn't believe capitalism is about equality. It just gets better and better - I should do this more often!

Thank goodness we all live in a society that is more openminded and more enlightened than the ilk that cohabit planet Capill. We believe in giving others a fair chance, we don't like to spy on our neighbours, we all work to be part of society - not picking and choosing what citizens are better than others.

The pick n mix christians are a continual source of humour. One one hand they pretend to support a centre right Government and give the left a beating about rights - yet practise the same bigoted politics towards those who don't fit into their narrowminded world.

Anybody else want popcorn? I am going to sit back and wait for the next onslaught of "tolerance" :)

Gee I wonder

I had to laugh a little bit at the faux outrage from the blog NZ Conservative about who the Kiwi ringleaders could be in the big paedophile bust this week.

For a blog that is so openly catholic to now be all upset about the awful crime of kiddy fiddling is a joke. Plenty of perverts in the catholic church - I'd be willing to wager some of these perverts are part of one of our organised religious movements in NZ.

Lucia Marie, the author of the post is hardly the type of mild mannered christian you'd want to live next door to. If you have the misfortune to read their blog get ready to see her frothing at the mouth over the mention of equal rights to all citizens. For people that apparently are for free enterprise and freedom of choice and expression, ask them how they feel about gay people. You either support freedom for all or you don't. That's why these sorts of people would love the idea of a religious state like Iran, but run by christians, able to administer death penalties to those who don't conform to their narrow-minded moralistic codes.

Don't get me wrong, they have the freedom to believe whatever they like and say whatever they choose. But as long as they insist that they are also part of the VWRC* then it is insulting to all right wingers. Ordinary christians too should be pissed that their beliefs are being misappropriated like this.

Graham Capill is the closest people like NZ Conservative have got to getting one of their own into Parliament. Just like Lucia and her co bloggers, he too was an angry religious nut bar and look what he was into. It would be a tragedy for the right wing for any of us to call them true Capitalists... a better name for them is Capiltalists.

*Vast Right Wing Conspiracy

(update) Get out the popcorn... the comments on this are hilarious...I mentioned above about their closeted frothing... and I got it!

Rebecca Black and Musical Snobbery

It's Friday, Friday, so it only seems appropriate to discuss the new music sensation sweeping YouTube, and the globe. Miss Rebecca Black:

I'm not sure why people think this is bad music. Forty-nine years ago there was another teenager and his band who burst on the scene with a song containing some seriously inane and repetitive lyrics, and singing of questionable quality:

Love, love me do
You know I love you
I'll always be true
So please, love me do.

Not to mention:

She loves you, yeah yeah yeah
She loves you, yeah yeah yeah
She loves you, yeah yeah yeah yeah!

Up against such banality, Friday stacks up pretty well. While I'm not comparing Miss Black to Paul McCartney, or suggesting her career will even last past this single pop gem, it's similar to what the Beatles did with their early material. It's a fun song that's catchy and puts a silly grin on your face. It's a song about being young, sung by someone who is young. How boring would life be if every musical artist tried to be Radiohead?

Yesterday was Thursday, Thursday, today it is Friday, Friday, and the haters can go back to listening to their MGMT albums, or whatever it is the anoraks listen to these days. But we we we so excited and we gonna have a ball listening to this song, because I think it is pretty awesome. :-)

The empty nest part 2

Being mellow did not last long, things are better than I thought they would be.

If I buy a dozen beer and drink two bottles there are still ten left when I go back to the fridge.
I can get on the PC whenever I want.
The shopping bill is less than half what it normally is.
The house is ALWAYS tidy.
The blonde does not have to do two loads of washing a day.
If we do not feel like cooking dinner we don't bother.
The TV channel is always on the station you were last watching.
Nobody is sitting in the lounge driving you nuts while they send and receive txt messages.
And best of all.......you can use the bog whenever you want!

Bliss.

Slimming the State

Was just surfing about and saw this article put out today on slimming the state in the Economist. Excellent reading that also brings a few home truths to both sides of the political debate.

Public-sector reform is gritty work. Do it well, and a state could provide the same services and benefits for less money. Yet politicians also need to tackle the question of whether the state should be handing out so much to so many. Here politics matters much more, both because voters are more protective of their perks and because there are genuine ideological choices to be made. This paper, for instance, would take an axe to industrial subsidies and to tax breaks (the latter are worth $1 trillion a year in America alone); it would also push up pensionable ages much more quickly than most Western governments are currently doing—and index them to longevity.

The hardest issue of all to tackle will be the perks that currently flow to the middle classes and the elderly. Benefits that were originally designed for the poor have become sops for the middle class; others are going to the elderly for longer than anyone expected. The “all you can eat” buffet nature of European welfare states not only prompts overconsumption; it also means that even those who do well out of the state have little idea how much it is costing overall. Again, the more transparent and modern the state is, the easier it will be to talk about means-testing currently universal benefits.

Thought provoking and yet exactly what our tax hungry, borrowing addicted Government needs. You can read the whole article here.

Japan and the Rugby world cup.

Imagine this scenario and then tell me how Kiwi rugby fans (and more importantly, Christchurch rugby fans) would have reacted.

Let's imagine that the 2011 RWC had been awarded to Japan (as it should have been) and lets imagine that Kiwi rugby fans were still upset about losing the hosting rights, despite this thousands of Kiwis had booked to fly off to Japan to watch the RWC.

Let's also imagine that Canterbury had not been hit with the twin earthquakes.

Now...how do you think that rugby fans in Christchurch and the rest of NZ would be reacting?, would they still be determined to go to Japan?

The answer to that is a resounding no!

In our arrogance (and we are the most arrogant race on earth when it comes to Rugby despite having an appalling record at the RWC) we would be demanding that the IRB give us the tournament, there is no way that we would prepared to risk being exposed to the dangers of Japan at this time, we would be shamelessly trying to steal the tournament out from under the Japanese and we would be reminding all and sundry that Japan was not safe.

It is time we grew up, we cannot blame anybody for not wanting to come to Christchurch, the sooner we accept that the better.

The National-But-More-Staunch Party?

I am an unashamed supporter of laissez faire political philosophy. I believe that a government governs best when it governs least. And while I believe that the most advanced societies are defined by the level of social and economic infrastructure they possess, that infrastructure is best provided by free enterprise and free markets, not the lumbering hand of the State.

It was for this reason that I supported ACT for many years. However, in the last three years, the disconnect between what ACT says and what it does has grown wider and wider.

In the Consumer Law Reform Bill, we have yet another example. ACT is supposed to be about less regulation and less red tape. And yet Mr Boscawen, with this Bill, is doing the opposite. Nanny will have even more power to ban goods and services, and restrict free trade and commerce.

Now maybe I am wrong about all this. I am sure Nick Kearney and Chris Diack will have some explanation defending the Bill on the basis that the moon actually is made of green cheese, and what superficially appears to be the jackboot of the State is actually a velvet glove, gently caressing us into a more classically liberal era for consumers. But on the basis of this article, the Bill seems to run counter to core ACT philosophy. Just like the gang patch legislation, just like Simon Power's amendments to the justice system, just like denying Maori property rights with respect to beach access. All of which the ACT caucus have suddenly decided to vote for or support in this term.

Do you know what we call a party which only sometimes follows its founding principles, and ignores them when it is not convenient? National. And that is what ACT has become. The National, But (Slightly) More Staunch Party. Two million dollars and all those man-hours every three years to elect a handful of MPs who are acting just like Tories? That's a lot of effort for very little return.

Imagine if all those ACT people had spend the last 17 years staying in Labour, or joining National. They could have stayed as the Association of Consumers and Taxpayers, but instead of burning through the Rutherfords, they could have been quietly working to get decent, laissez faire candidates nominated and into parliament. Instead of five ACT MPs, we might have maybe a dozen National MPs who support free markets and less government. And probably more than a few Labour MPs as well.

Imagine how much better off we would have been now had that happened. Imagine how much good policy would have been implemented. Imagine how much richer New Zealand could be right now. And this is not even an academic exercise - you can see the difference it makes to government in Britain. The Thatcherites, and the Orange Book Liberals never ran off and formed their own party - they stuck with their parties, and the fruit of that is that now Britain has an excellent government which is genuinely committed to liberalisation and reducing in size.

ACT's MPs really should just fold into National, since they are not doing anything much different anyway. And ACT's activists should revert their party back to the Association of Consumers and Taxpayers, and work within National and Labour to get decent people elected and decent policies implemented. This experiment with third party politics is a clear failure.

UPDATE: While not wanting to ape Turia and Finlayson's hysterical reaction to Hilary Calvert's speech, it does tell you how far ACT have strayed when they have gone from wanting customary use settled in court to simply stating that no such right exists. Once again, the implication is that white people have property rights and brown people do not. That is anathema to me, and it should be anathema to any purportedly classical liberal party.

Clicking for Japan? Social activism gets lazy.

Over the past 2 or so weeks there have been some pretty piss poor campaigns floating around the social networks. 5 million "clicks" for Japan... add your favourite cartoon profile image to prevent violence to children, put a fruit in your status to bring awareness to breast cancer.... the list goes on. It's utter nonsense.

There are people out there who are on their feet raising money and awareness for all the ills that society has, why have people got so lazy to think posting the word banana is going to bring about the end of Cancer?

It's as useless as those saying they will pray for the victims of the Chch or Japanese earthquakes - little use that will do. Material goods and support is more useful.

I read on Facebook the other day where a christian gentleman said the earthquake in Japan happened because they were non christians. A couple of us reacted appropriately to this idiot but everybody else, all christian, sat back and chose to ignore the comments.

And people wonder why religion is becoming less and less relevant to people today.

The empty nest

Well the day has finally arrived, the day I have felt unsure about for some months now.

The 'kid' is off to the UK, back home to play cricket in the northern summer and to spend some time with his birth father and the rest of his family.

It only seemed like yesterday that the little chap stepped off the plane at Auckland airport in the middle of January (2000), he could not work out how it was so warm in the middle of what he thought must still be winter, I can still see his face as he gripped my hand tightly while his mother and I passed through immigration.

Pretty soon he lost his accent, he found it a lot safer in the playground if you did not sound different to the other kids, it's funny what sticks in your mind at times like this, for some reason I still remember the first parent teacher evening that his mother and I attended.

We met the teacher (an Englishman with a bone carving hanging around his neck) who proceeded to tell us how well the 'kid' was doing in class, according to the teacher he was "miles ahead of his Kiwi classmates", the teacher could not be more pleased....however, there was one issue that was "deeply concerning".
Naturally I asked what this issue was, the teacher then told us (in the gravest possible tones) that the 'kid' might have to repeat this school year if his Maori did not improve......immediately the bloody started rising, I could feel my face getting redder and redder.

Before I could say a word I felt a sharp pain in my shin, I was about to open my mouth when my shin was attacked again, I looked across at the 'kids' mother who was ignoring my obvious pain and very sweetly asked of the teacher "I am not sure I understand", "it is fairly simple" said the condescending prick of a teacher, "we place great importance on Te Reo and correct Maori pronunciation, clearly 'the kid' is well behind the rest of the class"

By this stage I could take no more, after bending as much of my shins behind the protective legs of the chair I said to the teacher "surely you are joking?", the kid is Scottish, how the hell do you expect him to be able to spell Wanganui let alone say it?", the teacher was not swayed by this argument, he felt it vital that 'the kid' have a good grounding in Maori before he was allowed to progress.

Sadly, at this stage I lost it, I said to the teacher "mate, you are a Pom right?, a Londoner if I am not mistaken" "yes" was his reply, he added "but I fail to see..." "never mind that, let me finish please, can tell me how to spell Auchterarder (a small Scottish town near Perth) and can you please pronounce it for me?" again the prick came back with " I fail to see the relevance Mr Bruv", my reply was short and less that sweet "the relevance you liberal fool is that 'the kid' has been in NZ for three months and you want him to be fluent in a language that will be of no use to him in this county let alone his own should he ever decide to return, not only that but you want him to live up to a standard that you yourself cannot reach given that Scotland is part of the UK and you have no bloody idea how to spell or pronounce some of it's place names"

Clearly this liberal wanker was not used to be spoken too like that, he pushed back his chair and said " I think it might be better if we left things at that", "so do I" was my reply, 'the kids' mother stood up and said "I am going to take this up with the head teacher, frankly we both feel this is ridiculous", the teacher said nothing in reply.

The rest of the time passed quickly, the usual battles with the first painful years of being a teenager, the moody and uncommunicative days, the days when he seemed to be the same old little kid that he used to be and the other days when he became sub human.

The terrifying days teaching him to drive, the learner licence and the shitty moods when I would not let him within a hundred miles of my car, buying his first car for him and then the day he turned 18........being woken by the neighbour to tell us that for some reason 'the kid' was sleeping on the grass outside the house and "I think he might be a bit drunk", trying not to laugh out loud as hit mother dragged him into the house while she worked herself into a fit of rage that only the Scottish can manage.

Now the house seems empty, do I feel sad about that?....not really, certainly I am excited for 'the kid' to be travelling half way around the world on his own and to be doing something that I so enjoyed for many years, will I miss him?.....not sure about that either, I know his mother and I will be a lot richer now we do not have to fork out to feed the eating machine that an 18 year old boy is.....yeah I will miss him, and yes I know he will be back again once or twice before he finally leaves for good but the first time they go is a real reminder that they are no longer kids and in some ways a reminder of your own mortality.

So..to sum it all up, sad...no, mellow...hell yes.

New Contributor

I would like to welcome Blair to the blog family. It is a pleasure to have Blair contributing (already at a break neck speed) here. Blair and I have similar political philosophies and currently Blair is based in the US so will add insight on US politics as well as his knowledge and interest in NZ politics and other international issues.

Happy reading!

A Bigoted Column From Tapu Misa

This is one of the most appalling pieces of writing I have ever seen. It's the sort of thing that one would expect from The Hand Mirror, or one of those fringe left wing blogs, but it seems scarcely believable that such a logically flawed, lowest common denominator column could appear in New Zealand's biggest daily newspaper.

Misa spends the first half of the column talking about how terrible Christian bigots are. Which they are, of course, although they are still only a tiny minority, and the Westboro folk are universally loathed by almost everyone in the United States, including nearly all of those people whom Misa would herself probably label religious fundamentalists.

The second half of the column makes a vast leap in both topic and logic to Wisconsin and Governor Scott Walker. This is bizarre in the extreme. I am presuming that, yes, Governor Walker is a Christian, but that seems to me to be the only connection. Walker has never made any pronouncement of God being on his side. He has never conflated his union-busting with Christianity. Misa has no quote from Walker to suggest any of those things. She simply states:

"When it comes to religious nutters, we have nothing on America. The most religious of Western nations excels at breeding the seriously theologically ignorant and misguided. If only they weren't so supremely confident of God's approval as well.

Wisconsin's union-busting Republican Governor Scott Walker is a case in point."

How? She never says. She just tells us that he is theologically ignorant, misguided and supremely confident of God's approval. All without any quote from Walker or anything showing his actions as an example of bigoted Christians.

All Christians, of course, do act as they feel God would have them act, but none but the most foolhardy would dare say with certainty that any given political policy they adopt has His 100% backing. They just try and do the right thing and act under faith, and there is nothing fundamentalist, nor bigoted about that. It certainly has nothing to do with anti-homosexual bigotry.

What Misa's opinions amount to are in fact bigotry themselves. She is taking the anger that one rightly and naturally feels towards one small minority and trying to broaden that and direct it against a man and his supporters who have nothing to do with that minority. It is no less bigoted than someone assuming she is a lazy DPB-bludger because of the colour of her skin.

But not content with such bigotry, she compounds it by giving a complete misreading of the situation in Wisconsin and what it is about. She goes on at length about poverty in the United States and the necessity of unions and then does the very thing she baselessly accuses Governor Walker of - implies that it is "Christian" to "support the rights of workers". Which sounds like as fundamentalist a statement as anything from Fred Phelps. She appears to have no real understanding of what has actually been going on in Wisconsin.

The reality is that there is a huge budget shortfall in Wisconsin that it is Governor Walker's "Christian duty" to eradicate. How can he do it? Well right now in Wisconsin if you are a teacher, you get hugely disproportionate benefits relative to your fellow "Badgers". The generous pension scheme means you can retire at 50 if you want. So there are people in menial private sector jobs, paying tax on their income until they are 65, just so a teacher earning more money than them can retire on 90% of their salary fifteen years before them. This, as endorsed by Tapu Misa, is Christianity in action, so it would seem. These ridiculously extravagant pensions and benefits are a huge drain on the Wisconsin State government, and brought about largely through the forced collective bargaining which has just been abolished. Both the benefits and the bargaining laws needed to change.

The response from the unions and from the Democratic Senators has been anything but Christian. The protests have been violent and comparisons with Hitler are a frequent theme of placards. All in the name not of poor workers paying taxes to keep the cartel going, but in the name of the very upper middle class public sector workers who are leeching the government and the underclass dry. But Misa ignores all this in favour of a few general statements about unions and poverty which fit better in a Billy Bragg song than in a serious column in a reputable newspaper.

I'm struggling to find anything of merit in this column. Misa is clearly a smart woman who can and should do a lot better than this. But if she is going to write such poorly thought out nonsense, the Herald editors should look seriously at whether she should be retained.

The Man Who Wasn't There

Some interesting analysis of Goff at what might be ACT's last ever annual conference.

"He would do quite well if he was just Phil Goff and backed him­self .. It doesn’t seem he’s been given the chance to be his own man."

The major flaw in this, of course, is that Phil Goff has played so many different roles in his forty year political career, that it is impossible to know who the real Goff is.

Is it the long-haired left wing radical chum of Helen Clark who once tried to fly the North Vietnamese flag from the cenotaph?

Is it the young turk who helped Lange and Douglas initiate right wing reforms as New Zealand's youngest ever cabinet minister?

Is it the hard-nosed, tough on law and order front bencher of the Clark years?

Or is it the dithering, born-again leftie who can't seem to get his story straight from week to week, whom we now see before us?

Goff is the reason why term limits are a good idea, and why nobody should hold a ministerial or prime ministerial warrant for more than two terms of office. To beggar Oliver Cromwell, he has been too long in this place for any good he has been doing lately - and been there to the point where the "real" Phil Goff barely exists any more. If he ever finds himself, it is not going to be as Leader of the Opposition, and if the voters ever find him, it will only be through some cataclysmic failure on National's part - probably involving John Key raping children with cancer.

Parsons does get some things right though: If Andrew Little is the answer, the question must have been pretty stupid. Little is already perceived poorly by retaining his union leadership at the same time as the Party Presidency, which has created substantial conflicts of interest for him. He's also not been very clever about his seat selection - Labour are not going to win New Plymouth in this electoral cycle and he is going to end up high and dry on the list. This lowers his credibility (and Brash suffered from the same problem).

No, about the only thing that could save Labour would be if Clark came back from exile to lead the party again. What does it say about the Labour Party that she is still by far the best possible person to lead it?!

Europe Needs to Lead On Libya

While Obama's new hobby has made me dislike him less, he is fast going down in history as the most politically impotent US President of all time. There's no greater example of this than how his regime has dealt with Libya.

It was telling that Obama waited nearly a week before making any public statement on what was going on. Pick any previous President, even the hapless Jimmy Carter, and this would be unimaginable. Reagan would have had an aircraft carrier in the Gulf of Sidra the minute the protests flared. He would have publicly called for democracy and constitutional reform in Libya. All Obama did was call for the Libyan government to respect peaceful protest. He is radically redefining America's role in the world, and not for the better.

As Khaddafy loyalists are recapturing cities from the rebels and starting to clamp down on them, Hillary Clinton came out today pouring cold water on the idea of a No Fly Zone, something which she also shot down British PM David Cameron on last week. It appears that the US is prepared to sacrifice the potential for real positive change in the Middle East, and let the dictators win.

Fortunately, Europe has shown signs of taking the leadership position that America seems to have abdicated. France has now recognised the rebels as the official government of Libya, and Sarkozy is looking like he may step into the vacuum. He needs to join with Britain and Germany, and do so. Khaddafy is a vile and bloodthirsty man, and his time is come, and if we do not help those in Libya who seek freedom and democracy, that light may be extinguished. It is time for Europe to step up and do what Obama has thus far refused to do.

Sir Rogers budget statement

More commonsense from a man who is not respected enough in New Zealand and who will be sorely missed from our Parliament.

Football... who wants to win the damn thing?

Ahhh yes, one of my favourite things to do in this country is sit back and watch a good football game. When I arrived here in 03, I was thrilled that I finally had the opportunity to come to England (a country I have always wanted to visit) and have a pint of something bitter and watch as much football as I could fit into a day.

Pity that at the moment, my beloved Arsenal is beginning to worry me. Good to see the Scum United get beaten by a rejuvenated Liverpool, and that we have not gone into freefall just yet – but at the moment I am not too sure we’re going to win the title at all just yet. Too many distractions like the FA cup and Barcelona as well!

I was going to write a long winded post about the football but it’s such a lovely “spring” day here in London and there’s nothing better than some sunshine after a lot of grey and cold. Plus, my predictions will be busted after we play Barca this week! Going by now United got thrashed and Sunderland keeping us to a draw, I wonder who wants to win the Prem league? I just hope nobody else sneaks in and wins it!

I just hope we win a trophy this season, we sure as hell deserve it.

Topless Feminists... thankfully not in NZ (NSFW contains breast overkill)

If there was a cause I'd be very happy to stand up for, it would be to ensure that none of our New Zealand feminists followed the path of the feminists of the Ukraine and went topless in order to object against issues that offended them.

Our Ukrainian sisters, well a couple of them - otherwise known as Femen - are protesting against the Rocks' "Win a wife" competition which is being run to great publicity and fanfare (thanks to our Kiwi feminists) in NZ. Im pretty sure that if there was little reaction to this competition then it would have died and went away.

Commercial radio is all about the buzz and publicity and they have received it in spades. Of course the poor winner is about to head into a wretched cold snap that has lingered in these parts of the world into March and no doubt (as I blogged not too long ago *with sexy photos) will come to a dead-end and not be taking the woman of his dreams back to shaky old New Zealand. No chance unless "Winemaker Greg" has the means available to transport his new wife back to NZ, and then the question would beg why he didn't just make this trip himself without entering this competition?

Stuff that, you came here for the photos! Be grateful that not one single member of the Hand Mirror took action like this. If anything, these pics show that Ukrainian women - even the man hating ones - have a lot more class and looks than their Kiwi womynist comrades.. even if our Kiwi girls are more red than they are!

The Stranded... taking the O out of the country

Last week, as we all know. Christchurch suffered a tragic natural disaster. There was grief, misery and a lot of deaths. People up and down the country - and around the world have been touched by this event and have opened up their hearts and wallets to ensure that the city will be reborn again.

This wasn't a time to make political points and most certainly a time to start playing politics while our second biggest city was knocked off the radar and we start to bury our dead.

When events present themselves like this, it is time for people to stand up and be counted - and for others to show their true colours.

Enter stage left - Labour funded blog the Standard. While people were still trapped inside buildings they had already started their political attacks on National and John Key. It started with "Everything NACT does is a lie" a sad hate spewing attack on welfare reform and the usual Crosby Textor bullshit. The comments were full of the usual lefty drones accusing the Government of hating the poor.

After they got little reaction about this they decided to scrape the barrel to the very bottom. They decided to post that the VSM law changes would have meant the clean up effort would have NEVER have had happened, because students would not volunteer to help the rescue and clean up efforts. This shits in the face of the individuals who got off their asses and organised a volunteer army - and the mere fact that UCSA students got involved in it is more a coincidence than because all students were forced to join a union. The post and the vile comments that followed, attacking Sir Roger Douglas, National, ACT etc showed the true nature of the fuckwittery of these idiots.

Posts like this have had many people seething, myself included. While the nation mourns its dead and is fearful of what future our 2nd biggest city has - the far left have decided to be cowardly, spiteful and without any class whatsoever.
Cactus Kate has summed up the thoughts of many people in the NZ Blogosphere here. I agree completely. They have gone too far, I want them all named and shamed as people did with the looters of Christchurch.

Even from the other side of the world I understand how hard it has been for Kiwis, such a pity that these idiots have decided to use the crisis to make the cheapest political points possible.