New Zealand Conservative

I noticed that our Technorati links broke maybe three weeks ago, and every-time I visit Technorati their site seems either down or unresponsive, and our blog "does not exist" or if get far enough "has no authority yet". I can't even log a support issue. Anyone else having trouble with Technorati? Check your site details there and see if your data still exists.

Buying life insurance is a bit like taking a bet. The thing is, in order to collect you have to die, which, fraud aside, kind of precludes your personal enjoyment of the proceeds. Flippancy aside, there is this fellow in England, One Jon Matthews, who has turned this on its head. It seems that in 2006 he was diagnosed with mesothelioma, an aggressive asbestos related cancer and given only months to live. Apparently virtually all those diagnosed with this cancer are dead within 24 months of the diagnosis. " Never in 30 years in the business have I been so pleased to pay a winning client £10,000, with, I trust, a further £10,000 to come next year." William Hill spokesman Graham Sharpe Unfazed the hero of our tale approached bookmakers William Hill and placed three bets upon his survival. His first £100 bet at 50/1 was that he would survive until June 2008. He did and collected £5000 last year. Most of which went to charity. He will collect another £5000 by surviving until Mo...

What's up in the last week? I've missed it all, a small blessing I suspect. Metiria Turei becomes co-Leader of the Green Party , so they are back to "one man, one women" as Jeanette heads for the hills. The co-Leader idea is very cute. Why stop there though? Why not "one ginger, one blond and one brunette"? A slap on the pate to the bald demographic I suppose. I wonder if various Gay Groups could summon enough energy to take offense? Along the lines of: "We are offended by the Green's insistence on modeling a party of liberal values on a traditional male-female combination. Why not two males? Or two females? As long as we continue to promote this as a "natural" partnership we are perpetuating the very structure that prevents us moving forward as a society."

A general question to our visitors: If there was absolute proof of God, and that there was an afterlife - a heaven and a hell, would you do things differently? If we knew for absolute certainty this life was all about spiritual development for a next life, do you think other people would do things differently?

This probably wont set the cat amongst the pigeons but it should. A report released yesterday shows the achievement gap between male and female students in New Zealand schools is the higher than for any other OECD country. The Rector of St Bede's in Christchurch suggests it is the lack of male role models in boys lives that lies at the heart of this. And you can be sure he is not far wrong. We can start with the breakdown of the family - and ask who gets custody of the Kids in most cases? It is well established that children raised in two parent households do much better in school and later life than those from single parent homes and that this is exacerbated for boys who in most cases will lose their primary male role model. Our nanny Governments have, over the past thirty years, introduced policy after policy, starting with no fault divorce, to weaken the family unit - to reduce its centrality in our society and relegate it to the periphery - with great success I might add. A se...

It's the Friday leading into a long weekend ... probably means things will be real quiet around these parts. Add to that the desire of the need to talk about the budget (where most NZ political internet seems to be centered), and NZ Conservative will be in a temporary oasis of tranquility for the next couple of days. Maybe. So, to take advantage of the quiet, I Romanised my pseudonym. Lucyna Maria is now Lucia Maria. Of course, changing all the category tags manually is not fun. I'll consider it my penance for earlier in the week.

Margaret Thatcher met Pope Benedict XVI at the end of his weekly general audience today. The 83-year-old former British prime minister, who led the country from 1979 to 1990, had earlier in the day laid flowers at the tomb of John Paul II. An Anglican, it was Baroness Thatcher’s second visit to the Vatican in less than two years, leading some to speculate whether she is thinking of joining the Church. During her previous trip, she also visited John Paul II’s tomb to pay her respects . According to those who were with her at that time, she made it clear in her characteristically loud voice that it was thanks to John Paul that Soviet communism was brought down . Baroness Thatcher also met Paul VI back in June 1977. Related Link: Thatcher Meets Benedict ~ NCRegister

As part of the Dominion Post's Budget 2009 reporting, the paper included the opinions of a "cross-section of Wellingtons" on what they wanted in the budget and their reactions to what they got. What I found really interesting was that none of the cross-section Wellingtonians were married with kids, where the wife stayed home and looked after the kids while the husband went to work. This missing demographic typically earns more than the average and pays a disproportionate amount of tax, so would have been hoping for some form of tax relief. The other thing that really stood out was the "annual income" given for each person or couple. Nowhere was it mentioned how this income was achieved, nor was the amount of tax paid mentioned either. For instance, the solo mum on $60,000 + WFF + child support may not be paying any tax whatsoever, and therefore might quite easily be doing very well, thank you very much. Her hope was that "tax cuts remain in the pipeline...

Obama's Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu, has a new proposal to save the planet. Everybody should paint their roof white, to relect the suns incident energy back into space thus helping to keep our overheating  globe cool. Speaking at the opening of the St James’s Palace Nobel Laureate Symposium, for which The Times is media partner, Professor Chu said that this approach could have a vast impact. By lightening paved surfaces and roofs to the colour of cement, it would be possible to cut carbon emissions by as much as taking all the world’s cars off the roads for 11 years, he said. Eggheads should engage their brains before opening their mouths. White buildings are already common in sunnier climes, to help keep them cool - but makes zero sense in places where home heating is already a significant part of the household budget. Has the good professor never heard of solar heating?  Obama sure knows how to pick 'em.

The new boy racer bill being proposed in Parliament, to crush the cars of persistent offenders even if the car does not belong to them, is ridiculous and ominous. Ridiculous because it punishes the car, not the person. Yeah, that'll stop the car from racing again now that it's crushed. Justine has been served, not. Shades of "Christine*", there. Oh, oh, but the boy racer is being punished. He'll be so upset that his pride and joy has been consigned to oblivion, not to mention the waste of money involved, that he'll reform his life and never race again! Err, yeah ... how does that work again? Especially the part where the car doesn't belong to him? In days gone by, people used to get punished, not their things. If the crime wasn't too bad, a fine would suffice. If the crime was of a type that was criminal rather than just parking for too long on the side of the road, imprisonment was the order of the day. Surely street racing, when obviously dan...

Delicious - Canadian Governor General, Michaëlle Jean, dines upon raw seal's heart Son Excellence la très honorable Michaëlle Jean, chancelière et compagnon principale de l'ordre du Canada, chancelière et commandante de l'ordre du mérite militaire, chancelière et commandante de l'ordre du mérite des forces de police, gouverneure générale et commandante en chef du Canada has caused an upset in EUland by eating the heart from a seal, raw. A seal which she also gutted incidentally. The European Parliament, in its infinite wisdom, recently voted to ban Canadian seal products. This is apparently because the EU is uncomfortable with Canadian hunting methods. However ever mindful of the rights of indigenous peoples, the ban does not extend to the Inuit peoples of Canada. Although just how the good people of Brussels and its dominions will be able to distinguish between a product derived from a seal harvested by an Inuit from the identical product harvested by a greedy, ...

So said St John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, a Father of the Church, and one of the greatest preachers who ever lived. Indeed his name, Chrysostom, means "golden mouthed" in Greek. St John Chrysostom, who is a familiar figure to Christians of the East, and to a slightly lesser extent to those of the West, died sixteen hundred and two years ago. Even in those far off days priests did not always behave as we might wish. And the reason for this is simple to comprehend, priests like all mortal men live in a fallen world and have to negotiate its snares and pitfalls just like everybody else. St John Chrysostom understood this only too well when he said " And all men are ready to pass judgment on the priest as if he was not a being clothed with flesh, or one who inherited a human nature. " But make no mistake about it, the world has always been at war with the Church - the antipathy many the secular have toward the Church is palpable today and there is an...

Moron Feast your eyes upon Mr Malcolm France. Mr France is a candidate standing in the Mt Albert By election under the banner of "People Before Profit". His idea of civilized political discourse is to squash a lamington onto the top of a political opponent's head as he is talking, in this case Act's John Boscawen. By all accounts Mr Boscawen handled this indignity with aplomb carrying on as if nothing had happened. Meanwhile National's Melissa Lee came to the party brushing the debris from Mr Boscawen's head - an adult response to a purile act. Panderer Maori will develop their own infrastructure within Auckland if they are not given seats on the planned super-city, says Maori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples. Speaking after yesterday's hikoi, Dr Sharples was confident that Prime Minister John Key was still open to ideas. But he said if Maori seats were not accepted, Maori infrastructure would grow and Maori would have their own capacity within Auckland....

It seems I am an anomaly. Well I am if you take this research at face value that is. Apparently the more little girls a man has the more to the left his politics will go. Fathers become more Left-wing if they have daughters because girls are more socially conscious, according to research. But despite being the proud father of three daughters I strongly doubt anybody would describe me as a creature of the left. Could it be the fact I also have a son that has moderated this effect upon me and my politics? Or could it be that the whole thing is just a figment of an academics distorted world view. You be the judge.

On Thursday, the New Zealand Health Ministry told our Catholic Bishops that the swine flu restrictions were no longer necessary, despite the fact that we are still on Code Yellow. Had I not checked NZ Catholic's website, I would have had no idea that the restrictions were lifted, as their lifting didn't make quite the same impact in the news as the initial restrictions themselves. And no, I don't really check the NZ Catholic website particularly often, nor do I keep track of the Bishop's media releases, as they hardly ever make them. No mention at all that one of the restrictions is illegal by Church law as I documented in a previous post . While I am happy that the restrictions have been lifted, I am concerned that a precedent has been set that no one has challenged. Therefore, this sort of thing could happen again with the slightest of pretexts. A letter to the Vatican might be in order. Related Link: NZ bishops lift swine flu restrictions ~ NZ Catholic

We can take heart on a slow news Sunday, a cold and wet one at that, that our glitterati are taking an interest in our future. And it was if a ray of sunshine had brightened an otherwise dreary Sunday morn when I read of a barbecue held at the home of Lucy Lawless on Friday. This was no mere social gathering you understand - indeed not, the planet needs saving and who better to do it than the gaggle of New Zealand celebrities who have signed on to Greenpeace's "sign on" campaign and who gathered there to celebrate. It turns out that the warrior princess has teamed up with some health professionals from Shortland street, amongst others to save the planet, And guess who the enemy is folks - it is you and I! The hoi poli who spew the deadly toxin CO 2 into the atmosphere as we go about our everyday business, feeding, clothing and housing our own and, dare I say it, using the occasional plastic shopping bag along the way. And speaking of plastic bags another of the gl...

Since it's the weekend, I just thought I'd post a scan of this picture that was in some advertising literature that came through the mailbox this morning of a very staunch looking John Key (together with some other famous New Zealanders) supporting the Vodafone Warriors. I wonder if Helen would have done it?

Did you know that New Zealand's abortion laws are draconian? Its not an adjective that I had associated with our current abortion laws until I read this mornings Herald where Chris Barton discusses the back and forthing between various courts of Right to Life's case that the current law is being mis-interpreted in a way that makes Abortion on demand the  de-facto status quo. There were 18,380 abortions in New Zealand in 2007. The rate (20.1 abortions per 1000 women in the 15-44 age group) is high compared to other countries, putting us on a par with Australia, the United States and Sweden. Unlike those countries, we have what has been described as "one of the most restrictive pieces of abortion legislation in the Western world" - contained in the Crimes Act and the Contraception, Sterilisation and Abortion Act passed in 1977. Yet despite our draconian law - abortion is a crime unless it is authorised by two certifying consultants - we have one of the highest abortio...

Calling blogger "Right Wing Death Beast" or RWDB (ex Sir Humphrey's blog) - if you are still around, can you send me an email please? Access my email address via my blogger profile. I'll be offline this weekend, but will reply by Monday if you surface.

I hope everyone's in a chatty mood, as I might not really be up for it tonight. My oldest son was flung backwards onto his head this afternoon while trying to hang onto a basketball during a very energetic game with a number of boys, and has since been diagnosed with concussion. He's ok, only blacked out for half a second or so when it happened, and the only symptom he has now is tiredness and a sore ear (plus the egg on the head). I'm thankful he's alright, so far, but also a little on edge. But don't let any of that stop you from saying hello.

Three students who burnt a New Zealand flag on Anzac Day have been temporarily suspended from Victoria University . But not for burning the flag per se . Rather their crime was the breached health and safety standards. "These students have shown a disregard for the safety of others and of university property," dean of humanities and social sciences Professor Deborah Willis said. The students had set the New Zealand flag alight using an accelerant without warning anyone around them or having any means to put out the fire. Go figure.

Note: I write this post as the only non Roman Catholic contributor to this blog. The News media are doing everybody a disservice with the manner of their reporting of the Irish clergy abuse scandal. The problem is the conflation of serious incidents with those which are not greatly out of whack with the times in which they occurred. The report is massive and covers a period of over thirty years, multiple institutions and describes the grim childhood environments of underprivileged Irish children who had the misfortune to end up in care - and grim it is, especially from our 21 st century perspective. However while there are cases of sexual and severe physical abuse recorded, the bulk of what is contained in the parts that I have read is not terribly different from the childhood experiences of many children of that era, some of whom were came from privileged backgrounds. For example Roald Dahl's description of his time at Repton School, which co-incides with the early period covere...

Chris Ripke is a well-known artist in the city. His studio is near a mosque in Insuindestraat. Shocked in 2004 by the murder of director Theo Van Gogh by an Dutch Islamist, Chris decided to paint an angel on wall of his studio and the biblical commandment "Gij zult niet doden," thou shalt not kill. His neighbors at the mosque found the words "offensive," and called the mayor of Rotterdam at the time, the liberal Ivo Opstelten. The mayor ordered the police to erase the painting, because it was "racist." Wim Nottroth, a television journalist, camped out on the spot in protest. The police arrested him, and his film was destroyed. Ephimenco did the same in his own window: "I put up a big white sheet with the biblical commandment. Photographers came, and the radio. If you can no longer write 'do not kill' in this country, then you are saying that we are all in prison. It is like apartheid, whites living with whites and blacks with blacks. There is ...

This English public service ad has upset some people - I don't know what to think, really - is it worthwhile or is it just don't we have any taboos left in a voyeuristic world where anything and everything can be filmed and distributed? Don't watch it if you are easily upset.

My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind. --Albert Einstein It’s intriguing that the best place to view total solar eclipses in our Solar System is the one time and place where there are observers to see them. It's intriguing to think of the conditions required to make it possible. It's intriguing to think of what we can learn from them. It's intriguing to think that this is only one of many reasons we can call Earth a privileged planet. We may have frail and feeble minds (relative to the mind of God), but we seem to be getting all the help we need to use them well. On the other hand, as Einstein once said: Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.   It’s intriguing that the best place to view total solar eclipses in our Solar System is the one time and place where there are ob...

A couple of weeks back, all the NZ media carried the story that the Catholic Church here was taking every precaution against the spread of swine flu by altering a number of common Mass practices. Those practices were: 1. Shaking hands at the Sign of Peace. 2. Sharing the Precious Blood to all communicants from the Chalice. 3. Communion on the tongue of the Body of Christ - communion is to be on the hand only. This weekend's NZ Catholic lauded such measures, especially since the Bishops "moved swiftly". The angst at the ban on reception on the tongue was mentioned, and so were some of the more sensational aspects of the conversation on this matter that had preceded the editorial on the NZ Catholic blog site: Being Frank. Here is where it gets interesting. Actions 1 & 2 are non-controversial. 1: There is no need to shake hands at the Sign of Peace; not to mention the fact that the Vatican is looking at moving this part of the Mass out of the Eucharistic prayer because...

This isn't a post about Homosexuals in the military, well it is but only in just in passing. What has engendered this post is a story that came out last Sunday in GQ claiming the Donald Rumsfeld adorned the covers of intelligence briefings delivered to George W Bush with relevant Biblical quotations. Unsurprisingly this has got the usual suspects excited . Now there is a every chance that these covers are bogus, such things are happen from time to time. But this post isn't about that either. Rather it is this passage from the NYT in their retailing of this story that got me thinking Still, the publication of the cover sheets may raise more questions about the proper role of religion in the military, and whether a Christian-influenced culture, rather than a neutral one, permeated some corners of the military. The issue flared at the Air Force Academy four years ago, when the football coach posted a locker room banner for “Team Jesus,” and there have been lawsuits against th...

Well, we can't have a NZ Music Month without a coup d'etat, can we? Related Link: Doctor I like Your Medicine - Coup D'etat, 1980

Billyborker's solution to child abuse: 1. Change drug policy to one of harm minimisation. That would see marijuana treated more liberally than alcohol, for example. What percentage of child abusers also have drug and alcohol problems? The suggestion seems to be that less penalties for dealing or using dope is going to reduce child abuse. Really? 2. Eliminate the tax concessions given to religious bodies, thus allowing the rest of us to get a decent tax cut when we no longer have to subsidise parasitical religions. Is BB driven to child abuse because he can't get a decent tax cut? Is the theory that closing down the local church run Soup Kitchen will end child abuse, because some-one on a benefit could have got a better tax cut? Ultimately, the suggestion here is therefore to end all tax concessions for all charity work. To end child abuse. Ahem. 3. Prohibit any form of religious instruction to anyone below the age of 16. This will aid in the development of critical think...

No, not asking about the Supercity. Just an amusing video, especially if you have a daughter with a penchant for horses. My favourite line? "Whose side are you on?" My Little Pony

Civil liberties groups have reacted angrily to US President Barack Obama's decision to revive military trials for some Guantanamo Bay detainees. Mr Obama has previously denounced the Bush-era judicial system, but in a statement said new safeguards would ensure suspects got a fairer hearing . New rules include rejecting statements obtained from harsh interrogations and limitations on using hearsay evidence. "It's disappointing that Obama is seeking to revive rather than end this failed experiment," said Jonathan Hafetz, a national security attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union. Meanwhile , " A former Afghan inmate at the US prison in Guantanamo Bay has joined the Taleban's high command in Pakistan. UK officials say Mullah Abdul Kayum Zakir, who was released last year, is now closely involved in planning attacks on British and other Nato forces in Afghanistan. Perhaps another fair trial is in order? Cancel the guy's probation, and get him back...

Today's topic is a scare that has been around for quite a long time but one that has never really got off the ground - Oceanic Acidification. The most likely reason for this is the lack of dramatic images, such as the carving of icebergs into the ocean, which are available to the global warminists to scare the guano out of the gullible. "We can choose to make a difference. Just don't drive. Turn off the power. Think about all those millions of plankton making their complex and perfect skeletons. Think about that exhaust, puffing out the back of every car, each little bit of CO2 heading into the air, into the sea, a little drop of poison for our planet. Each of us can make small differences. Think about what you could do, today, to save just one plankton, just one coral. Because a sea without shells is like springtime without birds.". Associate Professor Abigail M Smith Geochemist, Marine Science Department, University of Otago. Additionally first victims of Oceanic...

Back from Sydney. Very pleasant weather, some excellent food, and familiar places. Missed out on most of the news in NZ this week, but I did hear a snippet on the police investigation into the leaked emails which Brash insisted the Police investigate. Apparently, Brash had this weird idea that the police would be interested in solving crimes. Imagine. Throw in potential issues of National Security (if you excuse the pun) and I guess he thought they might bring in Columbo or some-one of that nature. Instead, (from what it sounded like on the news snippet) a mostly blank file has been revealed, with a single peace of paper and some detailed notes: We haven't got a clue. We can't really be bothered. See if you can stall until the issue goes away. Well lets make sure the issue doesn't go away. Instead we have various idiots stating that leaks and theft are good for the country. Obviously, the police don't think a crime was committed, and that is why they didn't b...

This is just plain creepy , A Christchurch dungeon owner ordered to serve nine months' home detention for injuring two teenagers in bondage and discipline sessions has had his convictions quashed on appeal and a new trial ordered. In November last year, Richard Jeffrey Barker was convicted in Christchurch District Court on one count of injuring with intent to injure, and one of wounding with intent to injure. He was acquitted on five counts of indecency. The charges arose after the girls, aged 15 and 17 , were scarred during a sadomasochism session in a dungeon at his suburban Linwood home in 2006. Using a scalpel, Barker carved his pseudonym, Dragon, on to the shoulder of the 15-year-old and cut a design into the breast area of the 17-year-old girl while she was in bondage, the court was told. Defence counsel Tim Fournier said the girls had given "fully informed consent" for what took place. But Judge Kevin Phillips said Barker, in his 50s, could not use the defence of c...

I'm over here in Sydney, noticing that the war on drugs crosses all borders. Arguments for making illegal drugs legal to have parity with alcohol have taken a different turn. Instead, why not add so many taxes to alcohol, that it's cheaper to buy other drugs and risk going to jail? The latest information is that not only underage girls engage in binge drinking, but middle age women do too. Thus, they say, higher taxes are justified. What? I missed the part where men get a discount. I guess men might also be buying for women, but even so, that's just harsh. And if they are putting up taxes on alcohol at the same time as announcing soaring unemployment and a huge deficit of billions and billions of dollars, isn't that only going to drive people to drink? I think they planned this. They've put up the super scheme by $32 dollars a week. Coincidentally, the same price as a bottle of cheap sherry. This is going to decimate the wine market. The only way to compen...

One of the obnoxious techniques used by "progressives" to rebuild society in their desired image is the redefinition of the English language. And so it is with the word family. Indeed leftism identified the family as one of the obstacles that lay in the path of the implementation of its agenda many years ago. Those blessed with a good family life are more contented than those who are not. And therefore less inclined to rock the boat. The Leftist agenda cannot proceed without a pool discontented and unhappy people, which is why the traditional institution of the family has been under assault for the past forty years. An assault that has been all too successful it seems. All this springs to mind with the latest brouhaha over Christine Rankin's appointment to the families commission, that political sop that Labour created to placate Peter Dunne. And I cannot, for the life of me, see this commission doing anything to restore the traditional family to a place of preeminence...

Well this has set the cat amongst the pigeons You have to say it - she is not a "until death do us part" kind of woman. So what's really on the go here? Liberal parochialism or the Manchurian candidate on a mission to eliminate the families commission altogether?

Sometime during 1818, William Miller, a veteran of the 1812 war, determined that Christ's second coming would occur in 1843 based upon his interpretation of scripture. Initially he kept this to himself but from 1822 onwards he went public with his ideas. And many were receptive. During the 1830s his movement grew and the date was further refined until it was finally pinned down to be October 22 1844. Well October 22 1844 came and went and nothing particularly spectacular occurred. The Millerite movement withered but didn't die - offshoots are still with us such as the Seventh Day Adventists and there is also a connection with the Baha'i faith. The events of October 22 1844 became known as "The great disappointment" in Millerite circles. There is something deeply compelling about "end of the worldism" to the human psyche it seems. Every age produces its own version and it is not particularly hard to identify how it has been reworked to match the eth...

You don't see the honorific Mrs used very often these days - especially not in the print media where it is usually reserved for elderly matrons. So I was highly surprised to see it used twice in a BBC story about Iceland joining the EU when referring to Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir. Mrs Sigurdardottir was elected last month on a wave of discontent over the dire state of Iceland's economy. and Mrs Sigurdardottir said a bill authorising EU accession talks would be introduced when Iceland's parliament - the Althingi - resumed sitting on Friday. Now this is a completely novel use of Mrs. Indeed Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir was married to Steinar Jóhannesson but has long since divorced him and is currently civil unionized to Icelandic playwright Jónína Leósdóttir, her election causing excitement in some circles - based solely on her gender and sexuality. Given the divorce customary usage would dictate she be formally addressed as Mrs Jóhanna Jóhannesson if she had kept h...

The Libertarianz have been quick to issue a press release capitalizing on the tragic death of Senior Constable Len Snee. The thrust of their press release was that if all drugs were legalized, then Snee would be alive. Oh really? Putting aside the tastelessness of their epic media release * , let's look at their argument.

Get this; Chris Comeskey, the lawyer leading the defense team for Nai Yin Xue , wants legal aid money to investigate the potential jurors for this gentleman's trial. It seems a new company, Verdix investigations, has been set up explicitly for the purpose of investigating potential jurors. Headed by Stephen Cook, an ex Sunday newspaper journalist turned private investigator, Verdix will perform background checks on potential jurors to weed out "rogue jurors". And it is this company Chris Comeskey seeks to employ, but on the taxpayers dime naturally. Well the jury system and the attendant selection process may not be perfect but this will do nothing to improve it, the reverse in fact. A real clue to the thinking behind this lies in this statement from Chris Comeskey himself. "For example it would be no good for me to be a juror on a case involving child rape allegations because I have children." What would he do, try and stack the jury with pedophiles? And you c...

Just heard on the radio that the siege is over - the gunman Jan Molenaar, has been found dead. As far as I know, two officers and one civilian are in hospital, two in critical condition and one serious, but stable. My prayers are with their families. Update: Herald Online Has the news Related Link: Armchair reporting from NZC

If I read the news report correctly, self defence, and the protection of your property is still highly illegal in New Zealand. Here were the chain of events: 1. A couple of guys are drinking and being noisy at 1am. 2. They wake the neighbour, who I'll call Terry. 3. Terry looks out of the window to see them tossing beer bottles on to his lawn 4. Terry yells out for them to stop 5. They SMASH THEIR WAY INTO THE HOUSE looking for a fight 6. Terry defends himself against TWO MEN with a Maori War Club, getting in a few good hits and sending them outside. 7. They get their cars and do wheelies on his lawn. 8. Terry fires a warning shot with his .22 and tells them to scram. 9. All parties go to bed. 10. Three and a half hours later an Armed Defenders Squad arrive, arrest Terry and throw him in jail. He's been charged with grievous bodily harm and reckless use of a firearm. 11. The two other guys have not been charged. No littering, no reckless use of car on private property, no bre...

What a powerful statement . And yet, doing the wrong thing seems infinitely better than setting us back on the road to doing the right things. Doing the wrong thing becomes a belief that to be sustained must be weighed against the problem of simply doing nothing. The opposite of doing nothing should not be doing the wrong thing.

The Privy Council has announced the "Muslim" name is unlawful and offensive. Furthermore, restricting the term "Muslim" to mean only people that are Muslim breaches the right to equality of non-Muslims, who by definition were excluded from sharing the term "Muslim" through no fault of their own. ----- The actual complaints arose from our Commonwealth cousins in Trinidad and Tobago, who have a 30% Muslim population. The stupidity of the Privy Council decision beggars belief. The Trinity Cross can be awarded to ANYONE, if they are judged worthy of the honour. An award that can go to anyone, is by definition not discriminatory. The Privy Council deserve an award. The "Natural Dhimmi" award. It's not given as an offensive religious symbol, but rather as a barcode etched into the subservient forehead of successful candidate. It makes sorting so much easier in the future. Full story here: Crusader Rabbit - Show us your cross

I've been so busy working, I'm only partially aware of the crisis in Napier. I basically am ignorant of all the key points (which qualifies me to blog about this), except one that I heard in passing from others at work - that a dead man remains on the property. That they haven't figured out a way of retrieving this body angers me. I'm sure they have the reasons, and I don't particularly want to criticise the people that are in the midst of the crisis, I'm just reporting my feelings. My feelings say get a tank or a LAV in there as a shield, and retrieve this man and return him to his family. Now. If the shooter cannot let them recover the fallen, he has little sympathy from me. Time to bring it on and end this. That's what my feelings say. UPDATE 6PM NEWS: Body just recovered. Now that wasn't so hard, was it???? [And I don't mean that literally]

The latest issue of Wel-com, the official Catholic newspaper of the Wellington and Palmerston North Dioceses, offers the spiritual journey of a self-described activist for change in the Church, which makes wonder, yet again, why this is even tolerated by the bishops, let alone allowed to be published. Moyra Pierce has written her journey in " Paul's conversion inspires reflection in Mt Victoria . It seems her opinion has not changed at all from the interview she gave two years ago to a Catholic nun on Ms Pierce's thesis on Generation X'ers in the Catholic Church. The wierdest thing she said, outside of the obvious heretical opinions, is that she didn't have children - she "reproduced". Must be one of those feminist terms. Summary of the highlights of the You-Tube interview: Was there a different kind of Catholicism emerging with Gen X? Asked only those who self-identified as Catholic [Didn't matter if they didn't go to church] . Post 65 children...

“Like a weaned child on its mother’s lap.” (Ps 131:2) by the Most Reverend Athanasius Schneider, Auxiliary Bishop of Karaganda, Kazakhstan John Paul II in his last encyclical, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, has left the Church an ardent admonition that resounds like a veritable testament: By giving the Eucharist the prominence it deserves, and by being careful not to diminish any of its dimensions or demands, we show that we are truly conscious of the greatness of this gift. We are urged to do so by an uninterrupted tradition, which from the first centuries on has found the Christian community ever vigilant in guarding this “treasure.” Inspired by love, the Church is anxious to hand on to future generations of Christians, without loss, her faith and teaching with regard to the mystery of the Eucharist. There can be no danger of excess in our care for this mystery, for “in this sacrament is recapitulated the whole mystery of our salvation.” (n. 61) Knowledge of the greatness of the Eucharisti...