New Zealand Conservative

Idiot/Savant recently declared National MP Dr Nick Smith and National MP Dr Jonathon Coleman to be misogynists for one of them calling Tizard a witch. I thought he was just a little over the top. Especially considering he wrote a "they were begging for it" post a while ago when Mallard called a certain group of women "chinless scarf wearers". But of course, going over the top works very well if you ration your barbs wisely. Which is why he probably shut down his comments section. But here is idiot again, gushing that Labour list MP Charles Chauvel is keen on lowering the voting age. But dissenting opinion? We'll have none of that in lefty-land - and he deals to Winston Peters with all the cunning of a sewer rat: Rather than the pedophobic attitudes displayed by Winston Peters.. Peters wants to keep the voting age the same. For this opinion, Idiot brands him a "pedophobe". I shudder to think what he'd be called resisting enfranchisement to...

Scientists have made major breakthroughs in isolating the stupidity gene: Macho fathers can be confident their sons will take after them, but their daughters are likely to be weaklings, a study of red deer has demonstrated. "We think it very likely that any fathers who butt heads against their colleagues will have daughters incapable of escaping hound dogs." When asked why these scientists chose deer to study, instead of, say, sheep, or even (deer I say) people they were emphatic that there is no discernible difference between deers and humans. "Even their habitats are the same". [my supposition] Perhaps it comes down to a matter of faith? These "scientists" obviously have great faith the differences between deer and human are not significant. It is a matter of faith that we will continue to believe all research conducted by scientists is good. Apparently, this study proved "evolution can't find an optimum for both sexes". In another stud...

It seems nothing can be done about a known teenage paedophile, apart from one on one supervision until he turns 20, unless he does something . Great. Just wonderful. I would have thought that entering a backyard to play with children was doing something untoward on his part. Yet it's not enough. What is required is a child sacrifice before the police can do anything effective. For more, see Teenage sex predator a 'ticking time bomb'

Children are thought to be better off with the Ministry of Education's radical new plan to improve teaching outcomes. The Education Ministry is to cut the primary school year by a week. The ministry has confirmed a two-week break between terms one and two effective this year would continue in future years. Easter would often occur during that break, but would not next year, ministry spokesman Vince Cholewa said. Normal statutory holidays will apply for Easter. Related Link: Teachers granted an extra weeks stress leave

Idiot/Savant sums it up on Tizard: If you give it out, you get it back. You can't participate in politics in a dirty and underhanded manner and then get upset when people point the fact out or call your motives into question. To do so is purest hypocrisy. But here, I think Tizard is being a little bit too precious, particularly given her willingness to sling the shit around herself." And he rightfully points out that Mallard is nothing but a misogynst. I mean, calling a group of women "chinless scarf wearers". Sounds like another witch hunt from the liberal left. Related Link: How to start a witch hunt Another Related Link: Pure Misogyny

Idiot/Savant seems very upset that Judith Tizard was told to get back on her broomstick. He considers that the inference that Tizard is a witch to be misogyny as only "uppity women" are called witches. Which got me thinking. How does a person leap from a woman being called a witch to considering any one that calls a woman a witch to be misogynistic? Then it struck me - those that consider anything calling to mind a woman to be an insult. Especially if the object of the insult is indeed a woman. In other words, the ultimate insult is to be called a woman. A gender-neutral term is ok, because then the woman is not reminded that she is a woman. All the gender-neutral people are happy because to be a woman of any sort, except a gender-neutral woman, is obviously insulting. So it all makes sense now.

A report has just been released from the Standing Orders Committee for recommendations about television coverage in the House. You can see the the report here . Anyway, one of the proposed conditions of televised coverage is that it should not be used as 'satire, ridicule or denigration'. In other words, politicians don't want us to see them making asses out of themselves; ie, they don't want to be seen in their natural state ;) There goes the freedom of the press. Not surprising that the union is up in arms about it all.

Finally!! Someone in the MSM has written an article in the Dom Post questioning why the Govt is giving so much funding to Family Planning when Family Planning is the root cause (pun intended) of the problem of this country's high rates of pregnancy and abortion. Family Planning's response? More sex education is needed - yeh, right.. As the author points out - Now that statistics show overwhelmingly that its approach has been a disaster, the FPA's self-serving argument is that we're not doing enough. It wrings its hands and says we need to redouble our efforts. In effect it calls for more petrol to be thrown on the fire. Never is there any suggestion of responsibility for the mess it's helped create. The dismal picture of sexual disease and unwanted pregnancy among young New Zealanders will confirm what many have long suspected. Under the guise of encouraging "safe sex" the FPA has in reality been promoting promiscuity, and at the same time vigorously subve...

My friend Bubba was bragging to his boss one day. "You know, I know everyone there is to know. Just name someone - anyone - and I know them." Tired of his boasting, his boss called his bluff, "Okay, Bubba, how about Tom Cruise"? "Sure, yes, Tom and I are old friends and I can prove it." So, Bubba and his boss fly out to Hollywood and knock on Tom Cruise's door and sure enough, Tom Cruise, shouts, "Bubba ! Great to see You! You and your friend come right in and join me for lunch!" Although impressed, Bubba's boss is still skeptical. After they leave Cruise's house, he tells Bubba that he thinks Bubba's knowing Cruise was just lucky. "No, no, just name anyone else," Bubba says. "President Bush," his Boss quickly retorts. Yep", Bubba says, "I know him, let's fly out to Washington." So, off they go. At the White House, Bush spots Bubba on the tour and motions him and his boss over, saying, ...

Not surprising, really. We got pulled up on the following terms: * porn (3x) * abortion (2x) * prick (1x) Probably best that children don't read us.

When children are taught to read via a synthetic phonics system, they read better than their peers who are generally taught either using an analytic phonics or whole language approach. What's more, boys really excel with their reading as they get older, while as the normal reading methods in use in countries such as NZ favour girls. So overall, all children read better, but boys better still with the synthetic phonics approach. Phonics, a teaching method replaced decades ago by whole language teaching, reversed the gender divide in a seven-year British study to be published in a book in August. The study found boys outperformed girls in reading and spelling when they were systematically taught synthetic phonics, an accelerated phonics programme. All students taught the programme read well above the average reading age - but at 11, boys were about 9.5 months ahead of girls. I don't know about everyone else, but this has got me wondering. Given that boys do really well in rea...

When I posted a while back on Cardinal Pell's insistence that all Catholic educators in Australia make a Profession of Faith , I commented that the same sort of thing wouldn't go astray here in NZ (on another thread). That seems to be putting it lightly if the following report is anything to go by. A Report on the Crisis in the Catholic Church in New Zealand I had eleven years of Catholic education, in schools run by the Sisters of Mercy, before I apostatised in my mid-teens. Reading the report, it shows quite clearly that people like me barely had a chance to stay as practising Catholics. I remember quite clearly RE in fifth form consisting of drawing pictures of various Bible scenes. No one took the subject seriously. No wonder there are people like confused socialist Catholic here, and no wonder Moonbats like Joan Chittister are being invited to speak here. Forget about an inquiry, I think NZ needs a full-scale Inquisition .

An interesting article in today's Sunday Star Times: It is time to scrap the term 'nanny state'. I suspect it is a media release direct from the 9th floor, because it has no author name attached to the opinion. At a time when the nanny state is so active, the article makes a feeble attempt to convince people to drop the term. "The nanny state is a cliche and an obstacle to clear thought. It's time to drop it from the political lexicon." Even as the mouthpiece for the government makes those claims, they suggest that people's habits are formed at a young age. The solution? Get the State even more involved in raising children and making laws. It's the only possible solution, and it isn't going to help matters if we bandy about terminology that insinuates their necessary help is not appreciated. Banning pies and adding folate to bread is just the tip of the iceberg. We need to get used to more government intervention and accept it for what it is...

China is well on the way to taking gold in next years Beijing Olympics. Hard training has paid off, and China says it has not yet peaked. These guys are true champions, and I suspect USA could be fighting India for Silver. CHINA emitted more carbon dioxide than the US for the first time last year, making it the world's biggest producer of the gas blamed for global warming. Related Link: China tops USA to become leading CO2 emitter

The State is at it again. Folic acid is now compulsory in bread. It's to save the lives of a few children, although there is a good chance some pregnant women will not eat that much bread anyway. Making a law to force pregnant women to take folic acid would of course reek of authoritarianism, whereas this move is just typical of the nanny state mentality. Give us this day, our daily bread, and 20 government mandated additives...will it transpire folates make people stupider and more prone to voting Labour? Related Link: Kids forced to eat more folates

John Howard has declared a national emergency [ link ] in the Aboriginal Communities of the Northern Territories. Horrified at the child abuse, he has taken a series of measures including banning alcohol and pornography. Naturally, it is these two specific measures that has raised the issue, and this in turn brings out the arguments around racism, the heavy hand of state intervention and all sorts of accusations against conservatives who can be seen to be flip-flopping compared to, say the recent protest against banning smacking. Let me just say, up front, that I do not agree with Howard's approach. I think it wrong. I'll go into that later. For now, I'd like to spend some time defending these policies in the interests of getting down to a more sensible discussion, as compared to some of the arguments being bandied about on Kiwiblog. [Update: I take that back. There are now some very good points coming out. Redbaiter's and DavidP's for example.] The differen...

Fancy some conversation tonight? What else would you do on the shortest day of the year? I mean, really?

Some Friday morning reading for those of you who are sick of the insane politics around us. When mortals know they're at war, a kind of Emergency Consciousness arises in them. This can be turned to our advantage, by creating anxiety, but it's a very unstable compound because it can also foster self-sacrifice for a higher cause. When they know they're at war, they live with passion and alertness. They don't greedily demand comfort. There are no yuppies on a battlefield. Related Link: On Spiritual Warfare Taking his cue from the new literary genre invented by C. S. Lewis in Screwtape Letters, Peter Kreeft has gathered together fifteen spicy letters from Satan's agents below that allow the reader to spy into Hell's inter-office communication...

The Greens move to ban meat pies in schools because 16 year olds cannot be trusted to make rational decisions about what they eat for lunch. The Greens move to let 16 year olds vote. Because they can be trusted to make rational decisions? Nice one Sue. ( Thanks for that thought , Gerrit. )

Many people seem to dash off a quick post, and fail to check for misteaks. Its' really annoying to some pepul, so's I thought I'd point out common errors in an effort to raise the standards: 1. Verbs HAS to agree with their subjects. 2. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with. 3. And don't start a sentence with a conjunction. 4. It is wrong to ever split an infinitive. 5. Avoid cliches like the plague. (They're old hat) 6. Also, always avoid annoying alliteration. 7. Be more or less specific. 8. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are (usually) unnecessary. 9. Also too, never, ever use repetitive redundancies. 10. No sentence fragments. 11. Contractions aren't necessary and shouldn't be used. 12. Foreign words and phrases are not apropos. 13. Do not be redundant; do not use more words than necessary; it's highly superfluous. 14. One should NEVER generalize. 15. Comparisons are as bad as cliches. 16. Don't use no double...

The Greens are at it again. Whatever happened to the environment? Instead they seem to be focusing on social policy. Now they want to lower the voting age in NZ to 16 and introduce compulsory civics education in high-school, " to make young people understand how the political system works". That could be covered in one line. You vote for people to represent you in parliament and once they are voted in they completely ignore your wishes and represent themselves instead. Simple. Next, compulsory wheat-grass juicing training ... Related Link: Proposal to lower voting age to 16

Here we go. A secular humanist group has put forward a paper to a United Nations NGO detailing exactly how teaching religion to children is being abusive and violating their rights. If the NGO do decide that teaching children religion is abusive, look for a push to amend the UN Convention on Child to include religion as child abuse and remember many countries, such as NZ, are signatories. Game on. NEW YORK, June 18, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Religious education is a form of child abuse and violates the rights of children, contends a thesis to be considered by secular humanists at the Center for Inquiry's congress in Beijing this October. The Center for Inquiry, an organisation recently awarded special consultative status as an NGO at the United Nations (UN) will consider the proposals of Innaiah Narisetti, the chairman of the Center for Inquiry's India chapter, that portend the next stage in the assault on the rights of parents to educate their children. Nasiretti called the ...

For those that don't read ZenTiger's satire pieces , it may have escaped your attention that he's just blogged on a very serious piece of news from Australia. Recently, Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell said that there would be consequences for Catholic politicians voting for stem cell research. The Greens have taken this to mean that the Archbishop is interfering in the political process, so have launched an investigation into whether on not his comments were a contempt of parliament. If found guilty, it could result in the head of the Catholic Church in Australia being imprisoned for up to 25 years. If it got that far, it would not be a good look for Australia, given that Pope is visiting next year for World Youth Day being held in Sydney and being organised by the Archbishop's archdiocese. Personally, I think that the idea that a person's religion might actually have a bearing on how they vote is a scary, scary proposition for people like the Greens....

The Australian Greens have declared any-one who liked the former Pope, John Paul II to have suspect moral judgment. Yes, you simply cannot trust a person that praises a Pope. Indeed, they want Labor MP Greg Donnelly removed from the Privileges committee because his morals might get in the way of their proposed lynching. I am concerned about the presence on the Privileges Committee of ... Christian Right Labor MP Greg Donnelly, who made tribute during his inaugural speech to "an extraordinary person, Pope John Paul II" They really are wasting their oxygen. Related Link: Proof cannabis use destroys brain cells

I overhead someone on the train talking to his friend the other day: "You don't give a shit about the environment, do you?" "Nah" he replied rather succinctly. "And you don't believe in Global Warming or Peak Oil. You want to build more roads, and think the RMA should be abolished. You support farmers and actually encourage them to expand their beef production for export. You want to abolish all petrol taxes. You drive a car everywhere rather than walk. You are not averse to Nuclear power. You said the country needs more hydro and coal power stations." "Yeah, and what's more I believe the earth's resources are inexhaustible and that all this Greenie stuff is total hype and they are out of their tree." "So, why are you a member of the Green Party then?" "I like stirring them up at meetings." "Do you realise there are consequences to your belief that the world is an inexhaustible resource to be abus...

Yesterday I read there was some sort of poll given in NZ where 66% of respondents wanted school children taught about all religions. And not only that, but those same people want this to be compulsory! I'm just staggered at the number of people that want this compulsory. What is it with NZ and this strong desire not just to have a good idea (learn about all religions) but then to take it into the realm of compulsion? Do people wake in the the morning here and think, I'm going to have a piece of toast for breakfast. What a good idea. Hmmm, it ought to be made compulsory for everyone to have toast in the morning. Sheesh. Personally, I don't want my children having to learn about all religions. Learning about all religions can create the impression that being religious is just a matter of opinion. Or, it could present the idea that the teacher's religion is the right one and all the others are just a matter of opinion. Do all these compulsion people even think that...

There's me slinging that word culture about again. But the title isn't mine. The author in my link has noted that big familes are under fire. Mums and Dads to families of many children are suffering slings and arrows over their lack of "family planning". Was Hamlet really considering contraception when he uttered "To be, or not to be"? Was Romeo only in trouble because Juliet was? The quality of mercy is rather strained when some people discuss large families. China and the Greens explain it as minimising the carbon footprint. Others declare "how selfish". Rather than bore you with a soliloquy, I'll let Patrick Meagher detail his experience of daring to exceed the 2.1 limit. Can I mention "the end of civilisation as we know it" now? Technically, with family sizes averaging below replacement rates, I might just get away with it. Shock Troops in the Culture Wars

As Zen posted about here , Apple is releasing a version of their Safari browser in a Windows flavor . It got off to a bit of a rocky start, with a hacker - Thor Larholm - finding serious security flaws just two hours after the Beta 3 release for Windows. Because of this I wasn't going to download the browser, but Apple have fixed three of the more serious problems; thus, I thought I'd give it a whirl. I downloaded and installed Safari, no problem. If you've ever used Apples iTunes program, then you'll be familiar with the look of the browser - grey. Anyway, as this is just a first look, I would ask that any users of Safari (Apple users I suppose) correct me if I make any mistakes. Below are the pros and cons I found while using it - Pros The rendering of text in the browser is very nice. Fonts look very smooth and easy to read. The resizing of text boxes. This means if you're typing in a text blog - posting a comment on a blog - you can actually grab the lower rig...

What would you say of a person who feels it is their right to eat as much food and they want, and after having eaten it, since it is more than their stomach can bear, the person adjourns to the nearest loo and promptly throws up. And then goes back to eat some more? When told that this is a waste of food, that they ought to eat only as much as is needed and no more, that throwing up good food is doing what is unnatural and unhealthy, they reply that they have a right to enjoy food without worrying about gaining weight. Surely everyone has such a right, they say, because as well all know, to gain weight is to risk general ill health and to decrease one's life span. It is far better to eat as much as one desires and then chuck up. Surely? I doubt many people reading here today see the “right” of eating and chucking for the pure pleasure of food as anything less than sheer gluttony and lack of self-control. I’m sure many also will eat that cream donut at morning tea time, kno...

In the United States at the moment, interesting things are afoot. A certain group has distributed flyers to high schools urging tolerance for the sexual orientation of their community. At one high school, Winston Churchill High School, a group within the school was allowed to place trash cans in the school halls to encourage students to dump these flyers with the Principal standing by to make sure this dumping of flyers wasn't disturbed. Who was this group distributing flyers and why are they so hated? (and even compared to the Ku Klux Klan by one teacher). Are they homosexuals trying to push their agenda? No... The group is PFOX - Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays. It seems that it's fine for gays to push for tolerance of people's orientation as long as it's their own orientation; however, when it comes to ex-gays they don't know the meaning of the word 'tolerance'. It seems ex-gays are the object of much discrimination by these cheerleaders of freed...

Dusting off my crystal ball, I see KiwiSaver changing over the next few years. Firstly, a reasonable percentage of people will flock to join KiwiSaver, and some companies will be quick to include it as part of a total wage package. National Super entitlements will be reduced for all the people drawing from KiwiSaver. Once people realise that the more you save for your retirement, the less National Super you will get, the government will move to make KiwiSaver compulsory. Then the issue with super will be "Is 4% enough?" It wont be, of course, so the 8% will eventually become the starting point for new entrants and a new target of 12% of income (or higher) will be the compulsory amount we need to pay to manage our old age. The remaining question will be what to do with the growing underclass that will avoid work because high taxes, compulsory superannuation and the high cost of transport getting to and from work will be a big disincentive to low paid workers, so why work? ...

This blog was created about 4 months ago. The Percipient Internet Society of Standards Authorizing Nobility, Taste and Sophistication (also known as PISSANTS ) have dropped a line that I have failed to demonstrate a suitable appreciation for culture. It is alleged (in polite circles) that I may have also suggested the end of civilisation as we know it is upon us. Obviously, if I were to make such a bold assertion, one would think I could prove that I understand just what cultural bits of said civilisation I was worried about losing. However, I did get marks for mentioning Groove Armada in one of my posts, so one could presume if said PISSANTS had visited my original blog at Swoboda or my other blog at Sir Humphrey's, (both sadly off-line at this time) that references to Pink Floyd and Chee Chee may have counted towards my quota. Meanwhile (for all I know) on another blog somewhere on the internet, I am being chastised for not delving into the details of my sex life becau...

Put the milk on the sill and wait for it to curdle. Oh, no, wait ... I don't think they mean that type of culture! (see FundyPost , and now Not PC hopping on the bandwagon). As Paul at 'The Fundy Post' points out, "These conservative chaps and chapesses, the ones who blog about the clash of civilisations and all that stuff, talk a lot about culture but they never show any evidence that they have any of it." A fair point, methinks. Oh, for goodness sakes! We blog. We choose what we reveal about ourselves. There is a great deal about my every day life that I do not talk about online. Our readers don't come here to hear about my latest designer top that I've sewed or the gourmet dish I served up for dinner the night before or the books on various topics that I'm reading about or the play I went to last week. They can go elsewhere for that. It's all very well to put up a you-tube clip to show that you appreciate culture - but can you sing or dan...

How many ghosts are there in the past that we are just blithely unaware of? I was just re-reading some of Hilaire Belloc's Survivals and New Arrivals today, and then I came across an article on the 1,400 year war. Belloc said "The whole story of Europe looks quite different when you see it from the point of view of the average cultivated Frenchman or Italian from what it does in the eyes of the average educated English or American Catholic." And then, reading the article I quote below on the 1,400 year war, it seems the point of view of the Hungarian is one that cannot be fathomed by those of us living in an Anglo-Saxon Culture. Having made the mistake of settling in a bad geopolitical neighbourhood, the Magyars would come to see themselves as defenders of the West, to which they did not belong, against the East, to which they did. This resulted in Hungarians having a love-hate relationship with both the East and the West for the next thousand years. “East” meant ...

I hope everyone's getting to use their firewood tonight - it's freezing! Though, we are starting to get cosy over here now that I've turned the fire up and closed all the doors to the rooms we aren't using until later. So, it's chat time - if anyone's around. The other Friday regular is Not PC's Beer O'Clock .

There's an interesting wrangle going on in the EU at the moment. The voting system of the countries in the EU is set to change, except for one minor problem - Poland is threatening to veto it. Under the proposed new “double majority” voting system for the Council of Ministers – the EU’s main lawmaking body – each country is awarded votes directly related to the size of its population. Poland has 27 votes in the Council, compared with 29 for Germany. Under the new voting system, Germany’s share of the vote would sharply increase, since its 82m population is twice that of its eastern neighbour. Warsaw has vowed to fight for “the square root or death” , a reference to its favoured voting formula – based on the square root of a country’s population – which would flatten the difference in power between countries. Berlin has rejected it outright. Related Link: Warsaw digs in over new EU treaty

When you prevent one fat kid from buying a pie, it's discrimination. If you ban them from every-one, it's suddenly a noble cause, for noble reasons. How stupid is that?

The New Zealand Meter Man was thrown from the premises yesterday after repeated attempts to get at the power box and disconnect supply. Winston Peters, a spokesman for the company was quick to condemn the property owner for non-payment of electoral expenses. "We were just doing our job of cutting supply, and it turns out the property owner wasn't as ill and incapacitated as we thought. We were hoping with high electoral prices, he'd be forced to sell and move out and we could use the place as a state owned house and rent it to the Mongrel Mob. But now our meter man's been turfed off the property, we'll have to see if we can cut supply from the substation." said Mr Peters, confident that his company is not bound by any particular code of conduct when considering further action. It was rumoured that the owner of the property had recently moved in after forcibly evicting the previous tenant for non-payment of rent, in spite of a sound tenancy agreement. Rel...

Apple are about to release Leopard, their new operating system that boasts "a new organisational system for the desktop called Stacks and a new folder system which lets users browse files and applications visually" -- I'm not sure just how innovative that actually is, maybe its all in the execution? A bit like their new "Quick Look" tool which Mr Jobs is pretty excited about. On paper, it's a preview tool. That's not so groundbreaking. Still, some say its all about eye candy. We'll see. Also of interest is that Apple have released an XP version of Safari. Now we Firefox users have another choice. I'll keep an eye on our visitor stats and see how Safari fares in the blogosphere jungle. Apple is obviously hoping it can get all of us to change our spots. iPhone anyone? Related Link: Apple on XP Safari

US researchers have for the first time injected human stem cells into monkeys with Parkinson's symptoms, seen as a key step in the fight to find a cure. Whilst we all hope for a cure is found for these monkeys, I'm wondering if human stem cells is the way to go? Why not monkey stem cells? And even if we save the monkeys, what about their natural habitat? We might need stem, branch and trunk cells injected into vast areas pretty soon. But I digress. This is really just a link to Mr Tips' previous post: Scrambled Eggs Related Link: Cells stem from life

Dr Bollard's interest rate hikes haven't worked. What to do? Suddenly, after thinking he only had one tool at his disposal, he remembers that he can also pretend to be a currency speculator. So he drops $300 million from his $3.5 billion kitty. He's only got a pair of fours, but a great poker face. You gotta ask yourself. Do ya think he's feeling lucky? Well, do ya, punk?

Wireless power is something that resonates with me. Those pesky cables disturb the Feng Shui of my desk area. So what drives people to invent useful stuff like wireless electricity (or WiTricity)? Some might say necessity: Professor Soljacic’s inspiration for WiTricity grew out of his frustration at having to find a plug to charge his mobile phone. “It was probably the sixth time that month that I was awakened by my cell phone beeping to let me know that I had forgotten to charge it. It occurred to me that it would be so great if the thing took care of its own charging.” Sounds like good old fashioned laziness to me. But if it sorts my desk out, I'm not knocking it. Actually, having my phone stop beeping in the middle of the night would be cool too. Related Link: Click here to read about the breakthrough, or perhaps instead figure out a way of doing it without clicking, and let me know

I recently put up a link to Pontifications which then promptly disappeared, much to my disappointment. But, having done number of google searches over the last month to see if it came back again at a different site, I found I was rewarded for my perseverance today, as it is indeed back at a different site address. The old site will apparently come back eventually and a new one for Pontifications is up . So, if you were curious, it is worth a visit.

Despite the Bollard and the Reserve Bank's best efforts to cool the property market, house values are still rising. "There's something going on here that I just don't understand" said Bollard, as he hinted interest rates of 20% might sort the problem. "I have no idea really, but like an elevator, there are only two directions I can go with this. I have a hunch that going up is a step in the right direction." Related Link: Bollard Baffled by Buoyant Buying of Buildings

Greg Carvell was attacked by two maniacs. The first came at him with a machete and a clear intent to do GBH (grievous bodily harm) and the second tried to take his money and basic freedoms. Ultimately, he was grudgingly allowed to defend himself against a maniac. It is unfortunate he found it as difficult to defend himself from the state. The system is still broken. NotPC - Great News . TV NZ - Charges dropped against Greg Carvell TBR - Leave the poor guy alone

It seems it's just not fair! Nelson [Education Minister] is also quiet about Cardinal Pell's insistence that Catholic schools commit to a vow of fidelity by adhering to church teaching on homosexuality, birth control and women's ordination. So failure to adhere to Australian values, like equality for women and homosexuals, are suddenly not worth Nelson's successor, Julie Bishop, insisting on threat of financial excommunication. Still, I have no objection to Catholics, Muslims or the Brethren running schools for their own flock. I do object to the double standards alleged conservatives apply to different religious groups. It is interesting to see a national broadsheet publishing editorials defending Pell's recent comments threatening adverse religious communal consequences for NSW Catholic MPs voting in favour of embryonic stem cell research. Pell is defended for doing his job to explain and uphold Catholic principles, to remind Australian Catholics of the rules tha...

I'm not sure what has happened to Murray, so Friday chat time is on here tonight.

NZ Police have issued an alert to all citizens to be on the look-out for a suspect they say is armed and extremely dangerous. Already Police have responded to dozens of reports of assault since late yesterday, all believed to be the work of one man. "It's pretty serious, and we'd advise all people to keep a careful look-out, especially in downtown Wellington. The last reported sighting was on the corner of The Terrace and Bowen Street, but strangely, reports have come in from several areas." said Inspector Oberac, from Wellington Central Police Station. "I've interviewed several victims and it hasn't been pretty. Some were simply kicked in the guts, but a few have had their balls severely bruised. The perp apparently had them by the short and curlies, then put the boot in", added Inspector Oberac. There seems to be no connection between the victims, although they all have mortgages or are involved in exporting goods from New Zealand. The inspecto...

Dr Bollard has again raised interest rates. For some reason, he has decided all good Kiwis with mortgages should be sending as much money as possible to overseas Banks. By reducing our disposable income by giving it half of it to the bank in the form of interest and half of it to the government in the form of tax, we save the economy. Cullen's sitting on a surplus, the Banks are creaming it on mortgages and there's not enough money left over to pay the electricity bill, let alone fill the pot with instant noodles for dinner. Related Link: Kiwi Battlers attacked by the Reserve Bank

When it's one of Helen Clark's ministers - Benson-Pope, Dover Samuels, Taito Phillip-Field, David Parker etc - she is quick to say "wait until the investigation is over" and "every-one is presumed innocent until proven otherwise". But when it is any other person or group she can gain political mileage from, she is very quick to leap in with the judgments. As is the case with Electra cutting power to the Muliaga household on the day of the death of Folole Muliaga. Electra do have a case to answer for their part in this, but it is beyond inappropriate for Helen Clark to be leading the witch hunt. The one pledge Helen Clark will never make is to refrain from hypocrisy. [Thanks to Ted3001 for raising this excellent point]

There's no pleasing some people. Working from home creates too big a carbon footprint, so lets all do the commute and sit in a cubicle chained to a desk to do our bit for the environment announces new research. [Read: Stunning new research to match IPCC quality ] This just seems to fit the world view from those people that winge about everything and anything. Pathetic really. No real consideration of all the other factors that make the entire article speculative. I suspect the actual research is just as shoddy. Did they assess car usage in getting to work, for example? Modern office planning is actually catering for reduced head counts due to rotating staff (on road, at meetings, working at a client site and working from home) which allows canny organisations to reduce overall floorspace, share meeting rooms rather than everyone having a big office) and using less electrical resource (laptops with built in power saving modes, that are de-plugged and taken off-site with the employ...

Accusations of historic abuse of indulgences seems to pop every once in a while. I've already discussed indulgences in detail on the yet to be resurrected Sir Humphreys, but, its seems there is a need for a re-visitation. So, if you want to join in the discussion, required reading is the Wikepedia page on Indulgences and the Catholic Answers page on Indulgence myths (with NIHIL OBSTAT, free from doctrinal errors and IMPRIMATUR).

Heh. Just after I throw out the line "Green's need to think globally" they wind up their Nelson Conference with Russel Norman's speech: "Green globalisation – engagement and self-reliance" They recommend that mankind adopt energy efficient technology - so they can take credit when mankind does what it has always done - invent and adopt increasingly efficient technology. They recommend we share social and natural resources fairly [so] people don’t have their oxygen turned off because they can’t pay the electricity bill . Are they so sure Folole Muliaga had collected all of the social welfare funds she was entitled to that could have enabled her to pay the electricity bill? Given that IRD issue crippling and often fatal financial penalties every day for paying a tax bill late, does nationalizing the grid guarantee customers will pay on time, and that a government department will not overstep the bounds of human decency? ACC any-one? They ask Why is it t...

One of the real downsides of living out of the city, is that when you do want to go into the city to visit your mother on the last day of a long weekend, you realise that you will most likely be stuck in traffic with all the returning holiday-makers, and then you think, just build the highway (Transmission Gully) already! So, long story short is, the kids have been taken to the pool by their dad, and I'm doing more washing. Probably a good thing, anyway. My older son had run out of socks.

Sir Humphreys seems to be no more. Maybe it will reappear. I'm guessing that the major problem to resurrecting it is financial support and knowing who to pay to get the site going again. In the meantime, I'll be going through the Google cache saving my posts here. There are a few that I spent a lot of time on that I don't want to lose. Any old posts saved here will be tagged Sir Humphreys . Here's my farewell. I cannot continue to post at Sir Humphreys, so this is my farewell post. My first Sir Humphreys post was on March 29, 2005 nearly two years ago. I feel from that time that I have helped build Sir Humphreys into what it is now, so it is with great sadness that I am having to move on. I’ve realized over the past two years that I’ve been blogging politically, that the fight for Western Civilisation is not an economic one. Socialism vs Capitalism hides the real battle - the social battle. Utopians have been working to change society over generations for a long tim...

The Greenies figure that if NZ becomes carbon neutral, then we've done our bit to save the planet. That other countries will follow suit based on our sterling example. It is of course, total rubbish. Christ Trotter has his usual rant in the Friday DomPost. He fumes that Helen Clark has lost a marketing opportunity to support the Happy Valley anti-coal mine protesters, by (naturally) flying in on a gas guzzling helicopter and giving a talk that is more about politics than action. And Chris calls for our electricity output to be seriously curtailed with the typical voice of a lefty who makes demands to cut electricity and then gets annoyed when the poor have their electricity cut: It is neither ethical nor moral to tear up and pollute the wild and beautiful places of this earth, or contribute to the potentially fatal heating of its atmosphere Whilst these people congratulate themselves on having hatched the perfect plan to save the environment, they fail to acknowledge the realit...