New Zealand Conservative

I'm renovating the blog. It's a DIY effort, with absolutely no council approval, no architectural oversight, no certified trades people and no license or permit. Not only that, I've not referred to the RMA at any stage and you are lucky to even get this notice. Frontier blog re-construction. It's still the days that had "those were" in them. This people, is freedom. I just hope the consequences don't take us off-line for long :-) My apo-logies for any in-con-wenience.

"What we don't want is an Americanisation of our laws that encourages people to arm themselves and take the law into their own hands by shooting first and asking questions afterwards. - Phil Goff, 2004 Fast forward a few years, and however the stats are spun, the stabbings, burglaries with assault, murders and police deaths aren't going down. Peter Cresswell and Russell Brown argue about this , and especially where and how the government can reduce domestic violence. I'll come back to this. Meanwhile, in Indianapolis this week: INDIANAPOLIS - A convicted sex offender (Myers) died Sunday during a struggle with a father who found the naked man in or near his 17-year-old daughter's bedroom, police said. and he'd been in jail for 10 years on previous offences... Police said Meyers was naked except for a mask and latex gloves and had entered the home through a window near the girl's bedroom with rope, condoms and a knife. Well, evil intent seems obvious. ...

Who advises the advisors? National show yet again they don't get strategy. The leaders only debate is a great idea for Helen. She's trailing as preferred Prime Minister, and Labour are way behind National in the polls. She's a formidable debater and not afraid of going for the jugular, canny enough to deliver lines that target the swing voters. There's not much upside in John Key testing himself on prime time at this point of the campaign. So why did he agree with Helen? Far better to have some of the minor parties deflecting Helen's talking points. Far better to suggest therefore that he would appear in either format, but would prefer the full representation of all leaders, AND additional time. Having said that, he could have then said, 'so sort it out with Helen and get back to me'. That would have backed Helen into a corner and the longer she pushed to get her way, the worse it would have looked to voters. And the other option then may have playe...

A policeman spotted a guy driving a truck with a live penguin sitting in the passenger seat. The policeman said, "Take that penguin to the zoo, now." Next day the policeman sees the man with the penguin again. The policeman stops the guy and says, I told you yesterday to take the penguin to the Zoo, what on earth are you doing with the penguin in your truck again?" The guy says, "What is there to do? Yesterday I took him to the zoo and today I'm taking him to the movies." So I'm about to install a Linux distribution (possibly in a vmware image or off a 16GB USB stick) to play with. Only question is, which one will VI for my attention? I've had a few recommendations over the years, but now I need the latest and greatest, state of the art, bleeding edge choice with a nice and easy GUI. Do I say ungawa to ubuntu? Tip my beanie to the Red Hat? Suss out Suse? Or place my microscope over the real small distros? Comments anyone?

"The general view was that the most benefit for the viewing public comes from head-to-head debates people have a very clear choice, a Labour-led government or a Right-wing government. Those issues are going to come out." UPDATE: Lindsay Mitchell has a message that you can use to try and force Clark and Key to debate with the minor parties. Part of the message says "This is exactly why New Zealanders voted for MMP. Because they wanted the diversity and representation that the two main parties couldn't deliver." Umm, I think many people hate MMP now, something about the tail wagging the dog. Related Link: Minor parties furious after debate canned ~ Stuff

I've just finished reading One Lord One Faith by Vernon Johnson, an Anglo-Catholic convert to the Catholicism. The book is the story of his conversion after his experience of the supernatural at Lisieux, his reading of the autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux and his subsequent searching through the Scriptures in order to fully investigate the claims of the Roman Catholic Church. He writes: The expression which the supernatural had taken and through which it had made itself real to me was the life of St Therese of Lisieux , a life of love for Our Blessed Lord so absolute, so complete and so consuming that it defied all human analysis and exceeded all human understanding. So stern int it's renunciation that it made one afraid, yet so simple and so human in it's homeliness that one was utterly unable to resist it. It seemed to vanquish time and transcend all human ties. Earth and earthly things only counted insofar as they were in tune with Our Lord's love for her ...

[Update Tuesday 930am, Bail-out rejected Wall Street Crashes 750 points ] Pat yourself on the back. You've just become a historical footnote. Are you feeling "financially distressed"? Well, if not you should be. You should be either "distressed" or "panicked". Distress is what you feel after a speculative bubble implodes but panic is what you experience when what you though was the bottom turns out to be a ledge over a chasm. I'm reluctant to look down. Neville Bennett of the National Business Review has done us the kind service of comparing financial "panics". Yes, it's a "panic". Of all panics from 1847 to 1929, Bennett asserts that 2008 is most similar to 1929 because of the relentless train of morbid news and annihilation of landmark institutions such as Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch. In other words, recollect yourself and prepare dusty anecdotes for future grandchildren, you've just passed through the most vola...

Dr Who has become a favorite show of one of my sons, and I watched about half of it with the boys last night. The familiar badly synthesized shriek to "exterminate" brought back memories from my childhood and I was sucked in. This double-episode final had it all - which naturally meant the end of the multi-verse was nigh and Dr Who and his multi-dimensional team of ordinary people were doing their best to save it. Interestingly, the topic of euthanasia came up. With the Daleks attacking Earth, wholesale destruction had ensued and life looked grim. Earth had been moved to some other part of the galaxy and the human race was deemed to be having a bad time of it, with untold human suffering. So a crack team of secret agents sprung into action to initiate planetary euthanasia. I forget the exact quote, but as the team prepared to explode carefully positioned nuclear bombs that would set off a chain reaction and destroy the planet, the agent explained that this plan had been...

If you haven't figured it out as yet, New Zealand went on to daylight saving today. That means the clocks have been pushed forward one hour so that summer arrives sooner. The days were getting longer anyway, but it now means I definitely arrive home from work in daylight. That's the good part. Getting up earlier will take some adjustment. Phone calls to Australia will only have a one hour differential will have three frigging hours difference for a while, which will make a small difference to my work patterns. How does daylight saving affect our readers?

After Trotter attacking the Maori Party for their traitorous action of censuring Winston Peters [ Tawdry Spectacle ], he continues his attack on the Maori Party with a new article in today's Sunday Star Times. The point of this article is to inform voters that the Maori Party cannot be trusted as a coalition partner, and will try to act undemocratically. The post is devoid of his usual inflammatory rhetoric and he makes his points reasonably well. I wondered for a moment what his purpose was, and it didn't take long to put 2 and 2 together. Trotter is coming to the realisation National can win the election if it finds a coalition partner. The nature of MMP means that they may struggle to govern alone. On reflection, the only potential partners of any strength will be ACT and the Maori Party. ACT is not worth worrying about right now, so it makes sense to him to start poisoning the Maori Party's mana. If he can swing public opinion around to push for a National/Maori P...

Source AFP. Anti-Semitism is alive and well and just like last time we refuse to see it when it's right in front of us. TVNZ's verbal ping-pong machine "Simon and Wendy" missed yesterday's annual celebration of Al-Quds day in Tehran . An industrious militia group used the occasion to launch a book called Holocaust , an event which attracted the Education Minister. The book is a compilation of cartoons and sarcastic comments mocking the WW2 holocaust. No word yet on a reaction from the Danes . Many snaps of the festive crowd here . Earlier in the week Iran's Ahmadinejad used the UN platform to report, "the Zionist regime is on a definite slope to collapse and there is no way for it to get out of the cesspool created by itself and its supporters." How can this nonsense from Iran be construed as "peaceful" and be ignored? Does anyone think the election of Obama will suddenly convince Iran that Israel should not be driven into the sea?

During the last week I've watched both Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting . Overnight Paul Newman has died from cancer, age 83. R.I.P.

Wellingtonians have confirmed they have a higher rate of STV's than FPP. Although very few people admitted to either. I managed to get a hold of the ballot paper, and it explains why the rates go up irrespective of who S-Tees their Vees. Have a look for yourself: WELLINGTON BALLOT PAPER FOR THE BALLOT Please place a number on each line, from 1 to 5, where 1 is the most preferred and 5 is the least preferred. __ I really want FPP __ I really want STV __ I had STV but took antibiotics __ I have been vaccinated against STV __ I select FPP again, because I've already forgotten that it came up first __ Continental Breakfast please __ This is my 2nd choice, even though I've already marked 2 on 3 other items. __ Yes, I don't think parents should be criminalised for smacking Sue Bradford for the purposes of correction. (Please limit your response to one number only here) Special Notes: 1. If you vote 1 for FPP and then vote 2 anywhere else, you obviously don't understan...

Back in the days when ordinary working men would dress up when they went out .. back to the 50's in NZ .. here is a photo of my Dad walking down Courtney Place in Wellington wearing a suit. My Dad worked with his hands, his job was fashioning tools out of metal. But after work he could transform himself into someone who could have also been quite at home in the office. I was reminded of this photo by something Chris Trotter said about being unimpressed by the "enemy". The problem is for Chris and those like him, the enemy has become the ordinary working man. Not impressive or scary or menacing in the slightest. The very ordinariness of the man who works to support his family is terrifying for those on the left who are losing their iron grip on the hearts and minds of those who used to believe in the socialist promise and instead have been bitterly disappointed. Related Link: Chris Trotter - Muppet King ~ NZ Conservative

Lindsay Mitchell is bitching about some NCEA questions that our teen blokes and sheilas have to answer in order to appear edumacated. The gender agenda? It's not a conspiracy theory if you score 80%. I've listed some examples for you, and I do admit to using the satire tag here, but follow the links if you are man enough. But first, get the facts, ya big girls blouse: NCEA GEOLOGY: "Cities can be viewed as gendered, that is, parts of a city can be viewed as masculine and other parts viewed as feminine. Study the 5 photographs and explain from a feminist perspective the way each of the particular urban areas can be viewed." NCEA BIOLOGY: "Bodies can be viewed as gendered, that is, parts of a body can be viewed as masculine and other parts viewed as feminine. Study the 5 photographs and explain from a feminist perspective the way each of the particular body parts can be viewed as distinct parts, or as a whole." MATHS: "Numbers can be viewed as gendered...

I've tried to stay away from commenting in detail on Chris Trotter's blog posts. Since he considers himself a heavyweight in NZ journalism, it would seem a detailed and methodical dissection of his opinion pieces a necessary endeavour. But the more he puts pen to paper and font to screen, the more he simply ends up looking like King of the Muppets. And how does one treat such idiotic posts so seriously? The answer is, one cannot. It starts with his latest blog title: >> I have met the enemy, and he is ….. curiously unimpressive Hold a different opinion and you are the enemy. Meet one sample of enemy and this person is an exact clone of all enemies. Apparently, to Chris, every single right winger in the world has the same shoe size and a single brain cell. >> Being accosted by complete strangers is one of the occupational hazards of being in the public eye Unfortunately, if posts continue of this calibre Chris, being accosted may happen more and more. I'...

I went to the funeral today of the mother of my son's friend. She was only 38 and died of a brain tumour. As I didn't really know her particularly well, her death hasn't really impacted on me. But as I was telling the children on the way back from the funeral, it's a reminder to count our blessings, to be thankful that we are alive. So, how has your day been? [UPDATE] Looks like a number of our regular commenters might be out drinking rather than commenting tonight . It's just too far away for me, guys. Now if some one could bring along a lap top and live blog the event - that could be the best of both worlds. Maybe next time ...

Three incidents occurred today that shook rust free. I saw a hard-core crusty old dude at the gym, Neil Armstrong made a rare public appearance , and China launched a mission that is to include a space walk. As someone born after the Apollo Moon landings I find it lame that no significant exploration has happened since then. Even though we now congratulate ourselves on global awareness it is a mediocre fact that only 30 people have ever seen the Earth from a distance sufficient to view it as a blue globe. Of those 30 astronauts (Apollo 8 to 17) only 12 walked on the Moon and of them only eight now survive. They are all aged over 75 years! Grand-dad's generation flew to the Moon and I stumble around thinking a sleek music player, the latest add-on, and espresso coffee is “progress”! One of the eight Moon veterans is Neil Armstrong, aged 78, a certifiable hard-core old dude. Armstrong appeared for the 50th anniversary of NASA and there he said, “Our highest and most important hope is...

I have asked Greg to start posting here, and he has graciously accepted. Welcome, Greg!

Person X: Hello Mr Tiger. That is your name isn't it? ZenTiger: Err, no. It's an alias. For obvious reasons. Person X: Oh, of course. Well can you do it? ZenTiger: Could you be a little clearer? This is a confidential discussion. Person X: Oh, of course. Ahem. Can you please murder the Prime Minister. ZenTiger: Absolutely not. That would be against my moral code. Person X: There's $200 in it for you. ZenTiger: I'm not playing this game. Goodbye. Person X: Can you recommend a contract killer then? ZenTiger: No. P*ss off. Person X: May I remind you the law requires you to recommend an alternative? ZenTiger: How about make them watch Shortland Street re-runs? Person X: Now you are being funny. This is a serious issue Mr Tiger. ZenTiger: Which is why your demands disgust me so much. Related Link: Half Done points out liberal hypocrisy: Respect for Religious Beliefs - Yeah Right Yes, a law change is being considered in Victoria, Australia to FORCE Catholic Doctors...

Catholics have obligations above and beyond other voters. Why? Because they have received the Truth. The following principles apply to them. Catholics who cast a vote for a politician who supports abortion and same-sex 'marriage' "commit moral evil," if a moral candidate is available. Advancing pro-abortion candidates and their aims is incompatible with the Catholic faith. "Voting is a moral act." In some matters of morality, such as immigration, universal health care, and affordable housing, "the use of reason allows for a legitimate diversity in our prudential judgments." Other acts, regardless of the motive or circumstances, always "involve doing evil" and must be opposed: "These choices include elective abortion, euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide, the destruction of embryonic human beings in stem-cell research, human cloning, and same-sex 'marriage.'" "Such acts are judged to be intrinsically evil, that is,...

One track minds lead to all sorts of tragedy. And this time the condom provided no protection. The first story I noticed was the untimely death of a couple who decided to have sex on the train tracks. Yes they used a condom. Yes, the news report found it important to say the condom was found on the male even after the train ran over the couple. Yes, they died. Yes, there's a lesson to learn. Another tragedy of the one track mind; this time in Finland. 10 dead plus the shooter in another school massacre. The shooter was a 22 year old trainee chef. The first report I've read took pains to point out the shooter's profile: An atheist, Saari listed death metal and electronic bands among his favourite music, horror as his favourite movie genre and said his hobbies were computers, guns, sex, and beers. He was looking for a woman but did not want children. Said another report, "He worshiped war, hated mankind and lived alone with his cat." And helpfully: Saari ...

In public Hitler told the world: "I will not war against women and children. I have ordered my air force to restrict itself to attacks on military objectives." But in a secret message his commanders he authorised killing "without pity or mercy all men, women and children of Polish descent or language. Only in this way can we obtain the living space we need." To the men he said: "Close your hearts to pity! Act brutally! ... This is to be a war of annihilation!" The above photo was taken in the opening days of the attack on Poland by the Germans at the start of WW2. Two girls working in potato fields outside of Warsaw were deliberately targeted by low-flying German fighter planes. The girl in the photo is turning over her dead sister's body. This is not an isolated incident. Many such deliberate attacks were made on civilians. I mention all this, because we have gained a commenter who has been taken in by Pat Buchanan's view of history. O...

"I would no more think that National's polling over 50 percent than I thought there were fairies at the bottom of the garden, that is not reality," Miss Clark said. Coming from Broomstick 1, I'm not so sure her version of reality is any clearer than those in this recent poll. Perhaps Helen is confusing polling with the actual voter turnout and results. The outcome there is still any-one's guess. I think NZ is about 50% left, 30% right and 20% clueless. Arguably, that 50% left could be broken down into 20% die-hard socialist and 30% clueless-but-loyal, but that is not important right now. It's the standard 20% clueless that will continue to shape the political landscape, made all the more delicate by MMP. For example, in spite of the hammering Winston has taken with his credibility in tatters, and a parliamentary censure in spite of backroom pressure exerted on the minor parties, he still only needs his die hard supporters to cast their vote in the usual w...

Sigh. Glass chalices are not allowed. I'm going to have to start making a list. Related Link: QUAERITUR: can glass chalices be used? ~ What does the prayer really say?

A real abortion battle is heating up over in Victoria, Australia. The new bill before the state government wants to make it mandatory that if you are a doctor who cannot in good conscience refer a woman to an abortionist, that you will therefore refer her to someone who doesn't have the same moral qualms. This is a major problem for Catholics and for Catholic hospitals, who provide a third of all hospital services in Victoria. So, Catholic hospitals are likely to tell their doctors to either break the law if it is passed. Either that or the hospitals will close down. Looks like Catholics are growing spines over in Oz. Related Links: Catholic hospitals threaten to defy abort law ~ The Age Australian Archbishop Says Catholic Hospitals Set to Close in Face of Mandatory Abortion Bill ~ LifeSiteNews

Having lived in Sydney for several years, I remember this clearly. It's all fair dinkum, cobber: A very loud Texan Engineer was visiting Australia, and talking big about all of the large civil works in the USA that he was involved in. To be polite his Australian counterpart took him on a tour of some of Sydney's larger constructions. First he took him to the Sydney Tower. The Texan exclaimed, "What’s that!” In reply the Australian said, "That's the Sydney Tower. 305 metres high". "Hmmph" said the Texan, "How long and how many men did it take to build?” The Australian replied, "About 7 years with 1000 men." The Texan replied, "Well in Texas we would've done it in 2 years with 500 men." Next they went to the Sydney Opera House. "What's that" said the Texan. "That's the Sydney Opera House" came the reply. "Hmmph" said the Texan, "How long and how many men did it take to build?” T...

More and more people use electronic money to pay the bills. I've noticed people using EFTPOS for a $2 purchase. So I was wondering, how much cash do our readers tend to keep in their wallet? Are you worth holding up for a prompt payment, or will you be tortured for your pin number? I'll kick off a survey in the sidebar, but leave comments here if you feel so inclined.

This is my second post with the same name of "New Zealanders are getting poorer!" and I now stand vindicated by the assertions of my first post on this subject. I asserted a little while back that if the gap has closed between the rich and the poor in NZ, then this is not a good result as trumpeted by a bureaucratic arm of the NZ Government. No, instead this closing of the gaps most likely means that all New Zealanders are getting poorer. I was correct. We are getting poorer. Especially in relation to the rest of the world. All this redistribution is just resulting in less incentives for those who can earn more to do so. Most people in NZ are poor. I would define poverty as needing money from the government because your own income is insufficient for your needs. Given the number of "middle-class" welfare recipients, it seems there are very few people who don't rely on the government. Our aim ought to be self-sufficiency, not redistributionism. Related Lin...

Helen Clark has accused John Key of lying over how many shares he sold off at a loss. John Key agrees he got the total number of shares wrong, but they were sold off at a loss and the shares were listed on the public share register. Helen will have none of that. As staunchly as she believes Winston, she is dead set cert that Key is lying about this. I thought Helen was simply attacking him to divert attention from Winston Peters who was found lying over accepting donations, taking money from special interest groups, failing to meet his minimum requirements as a Minister of the Crown with regard to declaring gifts and donations, and working with Labour President Mike Williams to milk the same donors. But I realise now it wasn't an attack. It was a swoon of admiration. I think she's actually sizing up John for a position in Cabinet. Winston is obviously her rock solid choice for Foreign Affairs. You reckon she wants Key in as treasurer? Cullen better lie, cheat and steal...

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself." -- John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) Readers have already noted I have used (agreed with) quotes from famous opponents of Conservative or Christian thinkers. Bertrand Russell was the last, and you can add John Stuart Mill to the list. Mill had lots of interesting things to say about man, morals, faith and politics. Some good, some bad. Mostly bad. Unless you are a hedonist, and your moral code comes down to whatever makes you happiest. Naturally, what makes you happy can cause great distress to others, so Mill convinced himself that certain refined people, such as ...

Yesterday I went to Mass at my local church which I've been avoiding whenever possible over the last few months. It occurred to me when Mass was over, after the liturgical abuses I had noticed this time around, that I really was at Calvary again in a more real way than normal. Though, rather than actively calling for Our Lord's death, most of the people and the priest seemed indifferent to what the sacrifice actually meant. The mandatory hello, how are you right after the processional hymn and before Mass "officially" starts I find disrupts the start of Mass from being something prayerful to being something focussed on the community. The encouragement for the congregation to say "Through him, with him, in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honour is yours, almighty Father, for ever and ever." That is the Priest's part alone. For the first time yesterday, I noticed the Priest purposely left out his part after the Our Father and went ...

DPF has written a post on the family friendly ratings Family First have given to NZ's political leaders. In the course of the discussion, the question was asked, what is conservatism? Is it or is it not synonymous with being on the "right" side of politics. The best explanation of what I consider to be conservatism are summarised by Russell Kirk in The Ten Conservative Principles . I've made a condensed summary of that summary, which will give those of you that don't want to read the expanded definitions a quick idea of what the principles are. However, I'd recommend reading the article as I've just picked the sentences that best represented the idea, but in doing so each point is incomplete. 1) There exists an enduring moral order - order is made for man, and man is made for it: human nature is a constant, and moral truths are permanent. 2) Adherence to custom, convention, and continuity - order and justice and freedom are the artificial products of ...

Sorry everyone, got tied up making home-made pizza and then distracted by planning for next week's maths. Chat is now on if anyone's still around. UPDATE: Go on over to No Minister where the FNFFA has been going for a couple of hours already. And read about Adolf's near miss with death. Pretty scary stuff!

I thought I'd lost the above photograph. I found it a couple of days ago in a packet of photos after it had disappeared from a drawer I remembered putting it in several years ago. There is no other copy that I am aware of, so it's loss was devastating. Now that I've found it, I'll tell you all about it! This photo was taken in Persia during WW2. I'm not sure what year, but it was during the time that the Polish 2nd Corps, under Lieutenant-General Władysław Anders was in training in Persia. The men all had to be fattened up, you see, as they'd been starved during their time in the Gulags in the Soviet Union. My Dad is the boy on the left. He was too young to be in the army as a soldier, so instead was put into the army cadets and trained in fitting and welding. My Aunt, the girl in the front, was sent to New Zealand in the boat of Polish children that lived in the Pahiatua camp for Polish orphans in the central North Island. My Aunt was considered an orp...

Many people in NZ consider the sexuality of their politicians to be irrelevant. If they do the job well, who cares who they go to bed with is the common refrain. Well, on the Kapiti Coast today we can see the effect of having a lesbian mayor. Our council is trying to make it legal to be completely naked on all Kapiti Coast beaches as long as the nudity is not "lewd". Just merely being naked on a beach is not considered lewd behaviour. This is fully supported by our mayor who has said that "There will be no signage, they will have free rein. The beach is a place for the general public, as long as they are not being offensive they can be clothed or unclothed. The Human Rights Act supports anybody being there." I have two children whom I have been teaching all of their lives as to what is and isn't appropriate in public. We live right by the beach and spend quite a bit of time there during the summer. What am I supposed to do when naked people turn up? Tel...

It's that time of week again!

It seems that in Britain, the head of religious broadcasting of Channel 4 is using his position to show Islam in a positive light and other faiths in a negative light. Can't say I'm surprised. The television channel, whose head of religious broadcasting is a Muslim, is said by several Roman Catholic priests to be unfair in its treatment of different faiths. They claim it recently showed a whole season of broadly positive programmes on Islam while a "Da Vinci Code-style" documentary on Christianity cast doubt on the validity of the Pope. In addition, they say the Channel 4 website treats the history and beliefs of Islam more reverently than it does Christianity. Related Link: Channel 4 accused of pro-Muslim bias by Catholic priests UK Telegraph

In my latest book buying spree from Amazon, I've acquired How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization by Thomas E. Woods. I'm looking forward to reading it. However, I was inspired to put this post up due to a comment by Liberty Scott on his blog . Though it has always been like that - ancient Greece was the first great attempt to embrace reason, and it took the Enlightenment to throw off the shackles of oppressive Christianity suppressing science and reason - a process that has yet to be completed against all religions and all philosophies of subjectivist irrationality. Mr Dennis has already made a very good comment refuting this statement, but I thought I'd give him a hand from the synopsis of the aforementioned book. By far the book’s longest chapter is "The Church and Science." We have all heard a great deal about the Church’s alleged hostility toward science. What most people fail to realize is that historians of science have spent the past half-ce...

Incredible. The Midnight Sun is reporting that paedophilia is now constitutionally legal in the EU under the terms of the Lisbon Treaty. Of course, the Lisbon Treaty needs to be accepted by each nation state and so far, not going too well on that point. The crucial point is that sexual orientation is the Trojan horse for this legalisation. Page 412 Article 21 of the Charter of the Lisbon Treaty is identical to Article 2-81 in the EU Treaty of 2004 and states, “Any discrimination on the basis of. sexual orientation or any other factor is prohibited”. In all previous treaties, such as the Nice Treaty, there is a protocol which excludes paedophilia from the prohibition of discrimination (NJS 16 AUG). Related Link: EU Legalises grabbing our kids ~ The Midnight Sun UPDATE: The original post at the Midnight Sun has been taken down due to a misinterpretation or misapplication of the clauses involved. Given that the Netherlands has a paedophile political party , the idea that this gap exi...

Forget tasers - every police man or woman needs a gun in order to protect themselves from NZ's increasingly dangerous criminals. Related Link: Two questioned after policeman chased, shot dead

A couple of days ago Fran O'Sullivan called John Key "New Zealand's conservative leader". On No Minister (I'm sorry, can't find the post). But unfortunately New Zealand's conservative leader John Key would rather indulge his crush on Obama, than directly mix it by contesting Helen Clark with a clear agenda of his own. I commented then that John Key was not a conservative and over the last few days I've been thinking on the absurdity of this assumption. I think it rests on another assumption, that there is choice in politics. It is natural to assume that if one major party is one way, then in order to give balance and choice, that the other major party is another way. But has anyone seen any sort of differentiation from National showing how they will be different from Labour over the last year or so? Case in point is the anti-smacking legislation. I see in the Dom Post today that a father has been fined for belting his daughter. No indication th...

Climate bill likely to be passed into law today ~ National Business Review

Tim Selwyn is reporting that the collation of site stats to create a NZ blogosphere ranking is taking him days. So I thought I'd start posting my stats to help him out. Although, I'm also thinking that either a program to generate these across the blogosphere, or a more quickly derived formula would be the way to go. It took me a while to work out how the stats were derived, and it seems to me the Alexa stats are off (higher) compared to our Site Meter stats, by about 10-20% (from two months data). The way I read it, Tim uses site stats when available, and Alexa estimates when not. Unless Alexa matches exactly with the site meters, then there will be an unfair disparity between scores, especially if the difference is 10 to 20%, as my small sample indicates. On the other hand, Tim sampled a dozen or more sites and found a much smaller difference. His graph is here: Tumeke Blog Traffic Another wrinkle across meters is the way unique visits are measured. The unique count ...