New Zealand Conservative

Myself and a friend were talking the other day about songs we like that no one's ever heard before. You know the ones; obscure songs off albums that aren't hits per se, but that you always jump to when you put the CD on, or maybe bands you've never heard of. Anyway, here are 10 such songs on my iPod that I like which people may not know of. Got any recommendations of your own? Something Sad, by Timothy B. Schmidt Timothy B. Schmidt is, of course, one of the Eagles. He joined the band just in time to record The Long Run album, after which they all split up (although they are back together and touring again, sans Don Felder). This song is from Schmidt’s solo album ‘Tell Me The Truth’ released back in 1990. It’s reminiscent of the Eagles ‘I Can’t Tell You Why’ with beautiful harmonies. Yes, it’s pop, but nice pop. Skeletons, by Rickie Lee Jones The live version from her album ‘Naked Songs’. It’s just her singing while playing piano in front of a crowd. I’m not sure if ...

Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but when I saw the above magazine when I was waiting at the checkout at Woolworths yesterday, I thought to myself the picture of the Keys was chosen to elicit a specific response from women. And that response was not the one that I had, which was to think to myself that John Key is being made into some sort of Jamie Fraser character (many NZ women will know who Jamie is). The image didn't work on me because I tend to notice body language rather than what the body language is supposed to convey. I don't know, just having John Key running the country should be enough. Trying to let himself be made into someone NZ women swoon over is just too much.

ATEIST An atheist from Whanganui?

The Maori Affairs Select Committee today approved a request from Maori Party MP Hone Harawira to hold an inquiry into “the impact of tobacco use on Maori”. “Tobacco kills 5,000 Kiwis every single year, more than 100,000 New Zealanders in the last 25 years alone. It’s time we held those people responsible for these tobacco deaths, accountable for their actions. How can we if they are dead? “This inquiry is New Zealand’s opportunity to have Tobacco companies explain their actions of promoting and maintaining tobacco addictions which lead to these painful deaths. Oh, I see. “We will also be taking this inquiry on the road to make it easier for whänau to attend, and I have no doubt that by the time we finally get the tobacco company execs in front of the committee, we will have gathered enough testimony to really take them to task. Because it wouldn't be peer pressure that created a pressure to smoke? It wouldn't be the strong role modelling from their own whanau that could be con...

YEAH RIGHT

The school holidays are here! None too soon, really. I'm completely worn out this term. On reflection, it's most likely because at no point were we interrupted by illness or injury, and therefore were able to work, work, work. Apologies to everyone that is waiting for an email reply from me - I needed brain space this week as well. Hence the lack of blogging as well. How has everyone else been? Looking forward to putting the clocks one hour ahead on Saturday night? I'm not, getting to bed early is difficult enough as it is already. And I don't get to sleep in on Sunday mornings. *Sigh* [UPDATE] Just read an article on children being able to write text better using a pen rather than a computer. Something to do with the brain working in a different way. Hah! I am not surprised. My mind engages in a different way when I write with a pen. I find I can do quite a lot of thinking that way as well. So the trend to allowing children to use computers as part of nor...

Sue Bradford is resigning from the Green Party. They seem to be a shade greener than they ever were already. This could be a good thing for them. It certainly makes me hopeful for the future. Hattip: Home Paddock and NotPC

At the most basic level, free trade has done much for civilizations. It gives people a reason to work towards peace rather than war. Free trade provides opportunity and with opportunity flows prosperity. Governments regulate free trade so they can take a cut on the value of the trade and ensure reasonable standards (minimise unethical behaviour and prevent collateral damage). Those reasons are, in moderation, right and proper. Sometimes though governments interfere with trade simply because they are driven by other ideologies. Ones that do not connect trade with prosperity, but simply sees trade as unfair transfers of wealth on the backs of underpaid labour and incorrectly priced resources. Rather than looking at the terms of the trade though, some come to see trade itself as the great evil. Anyway, no time to go on a rant down that particular path. Carbon "Trading" is really just carbon taxing, a new way for government to overly command and control what helps Natio...

As Andrei talked about in his recent post, the President of the Czech Republic gave an excellent (if hardly reported) speech re: climate change. I thought it worth reprinting the whole thing here. Sorry about any formatting issues. Notes for the speech of the President of the Czech Republic at the UN Climate Change Conference * Václav Klaus Distinguished colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, As responsible politicians, we know that we have to act when it is necessary. We know that our duty is to initiate public policy responses to issues that could pose a threat to the people of our countries. And we know that we have to form partnerships with colleagues from other countrieś when a problem cannot be confined to national boundaries. To help us doing it is one of the main reasons for the existence of institutions such as the United Nations. However, the politicians have to ensure that the costs of public policies organized by them will not be bigger than the benefits achieved. They have to c...

Big talk fest at the UN this week as I am sure you know. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon organized a climate change summit to break the ground for Copenhagen in December when everybody will get together again to set new greenhouse gas targets. One lone voice of sanity from all of this - Czech President Vaclav Klaus who said "It was sad and it was frustrating," said Klaus, one of the world's most vocal skeptics on the topic of global warming. "It's a propagandistic exercise where 13-year-old girls from some far-away country perform a pre-rehearsed poem," he said. "It's simply not dignified." His remarks don't get widely reported of course - he is drowned out by the babble of posing politicians issuing platitudes about getting together to address this problem. And back here in New Zealand Nick Smith is pushing through the new ETS that will "better protect jobs and the environment" . And surely no one in their right mind can...

HP has a post about a guy who was refused service at McDonalds - for his own good of course. KG notices a poll in the Herald in which the majority of respondents would like to see tobacco sales banned . Lindsay Mitchell comments on a Garth George piece , also from the herald, in which proposes raising the age at which a drivers license may be issued. Here is my contribution, a small town mayor in South Carolina who has banned the local police force from chasing suspects on foot after a policeman hurt himself, tripping and falling while chasing a suspect. Enjoy.

There will be many examples of Carbon Tax insanity as the world runs like lemmings towards the high cliffs of Global Warming. Here's a new one that results in taxpayers spending an extra 800 million dollars in TAX PENALTIES on top of the cost of working to improve our forest land. This tax is payable because Department of Conservation decided to cut down what it thinks are bad trees so that good trees might grow in the same place. The incentive to stop carbon pollution must be working. They've decided just to leave the bush alone. Pretty soon, we'll be paying fines if we pull up weeds to allow other plants to grow. This is what DOC are effectively being penalised $800 million dollars for. Although, it's not DOC's money, is it? It used to be ours. The Department of Conservation battles every year to push back the spreading tide of wilding pines, spread as seedlings from poorly-located pine plantations. A lot of them are pinus contorta, written off years ago ...

Little Marcus isn't using a click track to synchronize his drumming in the picture to the left. No - those things over his ears aren't headphones, they are ear muffs to protect his hearing from the "excessive noise" he is making. This picture comes from one of those " you have got to be kidding me! " type articles. This one has the headline " Preschoolers suffer from excessive noise - survey " What I don't get is how generations of Kids have survived preschool without maximum noise level limits being set and protocols for monitoring of them to ensure that they are adhered to in place as recommended in the article.

August 6th - Hiroshima Day. A great day for America to sign an agreement with North Korea dropping all trade sanctions over DPRK's nuclear weapons program and missile testing programs. "Go for it" says Obama. September 17 - The Invasion of Poland by Russia in 1939. A great day for America to scrap the promised missile defence system in Poland and to open up negotiations with Russia to help arm them. "Do widzenia Polska" says Obama. Just one of the above insults is true this year. Which one ? Can we think of other similar acts of un-diplomacy? It's free to play. Leave a comment below. A no-prize if you can match reality.

Is anybody surprised that the so called House of horrors has been burned down? No - I don't think so. That this would happen was as inevitable as the sun rising in the East. The house is a semi-detached property and reading between the lines the people in the other house had moved their property out and were not staying there when the fire occurred. And who, realistically, would want to stay in either house anyway? A bit of huffing and puffing is going on - if the authorities knew it was going to happen why didn't they put a police guard on the place and so forth. Gee how practical is that? How long would you be prepared to see a police officer or officers tied up for guarding a doomed house that everybody wants to see the back of anyway. I'm not a rationalist - I believe there is evil and evil visited that house and that most people want to see that evil cleansed in some sense. I think instinctively just about everybody feels the same way. There is tsk tsking over t...

Patricia Carol Toia who was born in New Zealand but who was taken to Australia as an infant is back . I guess Australia didn't want her and no wonder given her crime record. The thing is of course she has no connection with this place other than she was born here. Did you know she is so bad that no airline would agree to carry her across the Tasman so a plane had to be chartered especially for her - which doesn't bode at all well for the future. So now she has disappeared from the hotel where she was placed and is on the loose somewhere. But not for long I guess and what was Australia's problem has just become ours.

"Doomed House" - Oswald Bastable 05/09/09 Further reading

I've just finished reading Odd Thomas . It's kept me up the last few nights, being of an unputdownable quality. It's only with force of will that I managed to wrench myself out of it every night until today, to put myself out of my misery, I spent all afternoon finishing it off. And now, I have started reading the next book, Forever Odd , which quite possibly means a very late night for me ...

Wanganuians around the country have been shocked with the discovery of a genuine Maori document (actually, a Maori wood carving) being found in a small Maori Pa on the edge of Wanganui. It dates back to the earliest days of the settlement and clearly indicates that the site of Wanganui was originally called Auckland. [Photo:Pa of Geodetic Surveys and Moa Tax, 1885] It also turns out that this particular Pa was the Pa in charge of Geodetic Surveys and has a full tribal register of chiefs who paid Moa Tax. These tax records confirm the site of Wanganui should actually be called "Auckland". "It's important to use the correct names, and really, the issue is bigger than one letter, and it has always been bigger than one letter", said Michael Laws, Mayor of Auckland (Wanganui). "Obviously, there is a potential for confusion once we rename Wanganui to Auckland because, according to these genuine wood carvings, Northern Auckland has stolen our name. This same d...

September 17, 1939, Poland was invaded from the east by a second totalitarian power, the Soviet Union. That power was finally ousted in 1989, but still thinks it has control over regions it used to dominate. September 17, 2009, on the 70th anniversary of that invasion, Obama let Poland know that US plans for a missile defence system on Polish soil have been scrapped. Coincidence? Or a message. Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate who lost to Obama in 2008, blasted the move as "seriously misguided" and said it would fray ties with Eastern European nations that "are increasingly wary of renewed Russian adventurism." John Bolton, a leading hawk during the Bush administration as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said it was "just unambiguously bad decision. Russia and Iran are the big winners. I just think it's a bad day for American national security." House Minority Leader John Boehner echoed those views. "Scrapping the U.S...

What else can I say? GENEVA — British rock group Duran Duran and heavy metal band Scorpions are among 55 world celebrities who have joined in recording a song to draw attention to the global warming crisis, organisers said on Monday. The song is part of a mass media campaign on the threats of climate change organised by the Geneva-based Global Humanitarian Forum, headed by former UN secretary general Kofi Annan. The song entitled "Beds'r Burning", which was originally recorded by the Australian group Midnight Oil in the 1980s, can be downloaded from the Internet for free and will be presented to the public at a launch in Paris on October 1. "If we do not stop the (greenhouse gas) emissions today, global warming will be still be with us in 40 to 50 years," warned Walter Fust, director of the Forum, at a press conference in Geneva. The media campaign featuring the song is aimed at putting pressure on world leaders to reach an agreement on tackling climate change a...

What the hell is wrong with this picture? What is wrong is that the guys in the picture are being sent home as a punishment for being in this picture. The girly men in the Defense Department who clearly have been emasculated after nine years of Helen Clark have taken a dim view of this photograph . Irrespective of the investigation into whether the acts contravened military law, the NZDF sets and expects very high levels of professionalism and behaviour from its people - this is especially the case in an operational theatre where the protection of information is vital to the overall security of New Zealand interests and activities. On this occasion those standards have not been met and as a consequence these three soldiers will be returned to New Zealand at the earliest opportunity." "Let me be very clear that this is not about a group of young soldiers just taking a photograph of themselves; soldiers have been doing this since the availability of cameras. These three are ret...

No surprise here - the utterly politically correct New Zealand Geographic Board has decided that Wanganui is spelled W h anganui. Government appointed nobodies exercising their power telling people how to spell things, particularly when they know their decision will get right up the noses of the majority of people who live in Wanganui. What a crock

In order to reduce undesirable population, the Communists of old either worked people to death, used them as cannon fodder or just starved them. Today's Communists are far more sneaky. We are told that there are too many people on the planet, that it's doomed unless we do something. Such as pay more tax and reduce our population via contraceptive means . Voluntarily of course. At this point. We are told that health costs too much. Not everyone can get the treatment they want. Except abortion, there's always enough money for abortion. And free condoms. But real health spending costs too much. There's always a crisis in health. Not enough money for government health systems, too many patients want too much treatment. Not enough beds, never mind that health bureaucrats most likely outnumber doctors, in a sense helping create the crisis in the first place. We are told there will be too many old people for the younger generations to support, that in the future gov...

This is a TVNZ picture, ie taken by State Owned media of Greenpeace wackos boarding a ship to stop it going about its lawful business of landing stock food in New Zealand. There actually no point trying to reason with these morons - the stock food in question is Palm Kernel Extract (PKE) which is the residue after Palm Oil is extracted from the fruit of Elaeis guineensis. Indeed the majority of PKE is burned, in situ as it has little economic worth. But entrepreneurial types in the third world developed a market for it as stock food, thus providing additional revenue to the under developed (UN speak for poor) regions where Palm Oil is grown. Make no mistake about it, the reason why these cretins are doing this is not because PKE wrecks the planet. It is rather that these spoiled brats hate free enterprise and entrepreneurship, most especially when it has the potential to raise the poor from a state of poverty. Its a crying shame that the penalty for piracy on the high seas, which ...

Pollution in China Pollution in New Zealand

Patrick Swayze is dead. On an unrelated note, so is my Ipod. It's not even a year old. Related Link: Stars pay tribute to Patrick Swayze ~ NZ Herald

IN times gone past, conquered nations would have to pay sometimes quite exorbitant tributes to their conquerors. Probably in exchange for being mostly left alone after being conquered. In current times, that tribute will translate to tax. I suppose we should be thankful we are not being asked to offer up our first born. Which brings me to the emissions trading scheme which seems to be the world's biggest con going on right now. Who exactly have we been conquered by and what are they going to do to us if we don't pay? What's interesting is how the public is starting to become aware of the massive price increases coming for no apparent purpose and how the man on the street is going to react to that. At least if we were conquered by an invader who demanded our money, it could be seen to be going somewhere reasonable. But in this case ... where's it going? Public to pay the tab for polluters ~ Stuff

Researchers are claiming that they may have found a drug that wipes bad memories . At least, if you give it to rats it makes them forget that a beep is associated with intense pain, and they take the hit all over again. My goodness, they've synthesized a treatment for socialism and the taxation system. That's not the only flaw in their logic though. On the other hand, logic might not be a problem if they've already administered the drug to their financial sponsors.

A great photograph from another time. Questions Who is this man? What is he doing? What might be the media reaction to this photograph in these enlightened times? A possible clue in answering (3) may lie in this Oswald Bastable post

Nanny Goff has apologised on behalf of Nanny Labour for Nanny State politics. No more light-bulb and shower head legislation at the National level. It will now be delegated to local government. So, for a whole day Labour was sorry and NZ was Nanny free. It only lasted a day. Already Goff is suggested extra taxes ( what a capital idea ), because extra taxes help fund extra government, and extra government helps nanny us. Goff will also need to raise extra taxes to pay for free condoms , another Nanny knows best initiative released only a day after being Nanny free. Thus, Labour have redefined the Nanny State (in their tiny minds) - more tax and the government will only give you free stuff, which you don't have to use if you don't want it, although you have to pay for others to use it if they want it. They really are clueless.

A new website Climate Realists has been launched by some beef and cattle farmers off the East Coast of the North Island. There is a petition form there that you can download and post. Ian Wishart, author of Air Con and editor of Investigate magazine has launched a new 'freezine' called Climate Reality . I'm sick of all these climate change believers. Now they've defaced statues around Wellington with their 'Sign On' cast, including Three former Prime Ministers, a giant Buzzy Bee, John Plimmer (and his dog) and even Ghandi. Perhaps they think this is helping save the world but it just leaves me shaking my head. Idiots. [Correction] The new website above was mentioned in the TGIF editorial by Wishart, but it was not launched by him as I first posted. It was in fact launched by a couple of sheep and beef farmers farming off the East Coast of the North Island of NZ. Apologies for the error. I confused the two as being related (thanks Zen).

I see John Key has joined the bleating about the undie 500 . Get a grip people, students are young, they let some steam out from time to time. Its a nuisance that's for sure but not much more. Its not as though its a new phenomena either - in my days at Otago we had sky rocket fights, launching them at each other with vacuum cleaner pipes. Its ancient history now. It caused much hand wringing from the authorities and in the media back then. And they were having 'student riots' at Oxford back in Elizabethan times - the remedy back then would have been the birch applied to the naked posterior of the worst offenders I believe, ouch! Anyway fines will be meted out, life will go on and twenty, thirty years from now the magistrate dishing out whatever penalties apply to rowdy students then will be being handed out by someone who is an Otago student today more than likely. So it goes.

Some school girls were very angry with Wanganui Michael Laws. So they poked him with a stick. They said things like "I am angry with your ability to challenge this serious subject." and "I am a child from the Otaki school, whom is very angry with what you are saying." Whom indeed. He was accused of theft: "We as Maori strongly advise you to put the letter 'h' back. Another student pointed out the historical precedent: "As you are the mayor of Whanganui (sic) you need to uphold the Treaty of Waitangi by ensuring the change is made to the name." The student was of course speaking of the mythical 4th article of the Treaty of Whaitangi that many believe exists. It mandates use of the letter H in all New Zhealand place names, as well as other provisions, such as the letter a at the end of all sentences, e.g. "You going to Whellington, a? Paula Bennett, Minister for Social Development and Employment and quite appropriately, Youth Affair...

Michael Laws has written a very interesting opinion piece in today's Sunday Star Times, on how the real battle lines in politics are not in the right vs left spectrum, but fought on liberal vs conservative lines. Of course, this is something that yours truly figured out a number of years back and hence the title of this blog. But to have a political commentator bring this way of thinking out into the mainstream - this is is good, very good. Because once what is happening politically is identified as liberal vs conservative, liberals will not be able to hide behind either aspect of the spectrum. Their activities will be more out in the open. It will be more obvious that voting in a different Government doesn't stop the liberal advance, because liberals are strong in the whole spectrum of economic politics. Anyway, Michael, if you're getting a hammering now, you haven't seen anything yet. Identifying yourself as a conservative either gets you ignored or jumped on fr...

History, as they say, is written by the victors. When we look back at the past we are reliant on the written records of the period and upon later interpretations of these by people whose views are colored by the times in which they live and their own personal agendas. Case in point - This apology issued by Gordon Brown to Alan Turing which I learned about from this post by DPF . DPF writes What I did not know is that Turing was gay, and he was effectively castrated in 1952 for being gay. Turing had a brief consensual relationship with an Arnold Murray, who then broke into his house with an accomplice and robbed it. The Police investigated and when the homosexual relationship between Turing and Murray became evident, charged Turing with gross indecency. He was convicted and given a choice between imprisonment, or chemical castration via oestrogen hormone injections. Two years later he killed himself. Right from the get go this story seems implausible to me. I do not think this really...

Apparently, new understandings of how to interpret the way the Soviet Union acted in the world from the perspective of mostly those acted upon is considered "rewriting history". Well, all I can say to that, is if the history that is written down is dead wrong, then maybe it needs to be rewritten! I grew up knowing that the Soviet Union was a major aggressor during WW2 and beyond. Having a Dad who was deported to Siberia by the Soviets in a railway cattle car, during winter, when he was a child, along with his whole family, tends to cement a certain finality on this perspective. Moreso, even, when you know you may have known your Grandmother and a number of your Uncles and Aunts, if they had not starved to death in Kazakhstan, courtesy of the the same Soviets. Trying to tell one such as I that the Soviets were the West's allies tends to elicit a certain incredulity, at first, that a person should be so gullible. Unfortunately for me, the extent and the sheer number o...

A man breaks into a house with a hammer, smashes his way through the doors, including a barricaded bedroom door, and uses the hammer to target an attack on the victim's head. Grindrod pleaded guilty to the [lesser] charges when a charge of attempted murder was dropped. So, what exactly does it take to be charged and found guilty of attempted murder? A death? Maybe the judge thought he didn't try hard enough? A premeditated visit with a weapon. An hour long walk that failed to diminish his rage. Breaking down the front door. Breaking down the barricaded bedroom door. Deliberately targeting the head with a claw hammer. Ripping out a bathroom vanity and attempting to crush the victim's head with it. Repeatedly yelling "I'll kill you" or words to that effect. Only failing to kill the man because the Police got there in time. Not a bad effort, surely? Trevor Grindrod threw everything into his rampage against a man he saw as a rival for his former girlfriend'...

So Margaret Thatcher did not want the Berlin Wall to come down and even pleaded with the Soviets to do all in their power to prevent it. Well, colour me not surprised. I wonder what other dirty little secrets exist of this nature. Two months before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Margaret Thatcher told President Gorbachev that neither Britain nor Western Europe wanted the reunification of Germany and made clear that she wanted the Soviet leader to do what he could to stop it. In an extraordinary frank meeting with Mr Gorbachev in Moscow in 1989 — never before fully reported — Mrs Thatcher said the destabilisation of Eastern Europe and the breakdown of the Warsaw Pact were also not in the West’s interests. She noted the huge changes happening across Eastern Europe, but she insisted that the West would not push for its decommunisation. Nor would it do anything to risk the security of the Soviet Union. Even 20 years later, her remarks are likely to cause uproar. They are all the more ...

Eight years ago today I awoke to the news 2993 had been killed in an atrocity without precedent in modern times. It was a "where were you when you heard" moment. So how does the New Zealand Herald choose to remember this event? With an AP story titled: The date all US Muslims dread . Today is not about Islamic grievance politics it is about the 2993 innocent people going about their daily business murdered by Islamic terrorists. Unbelievable.

Polish Hussaria, used in the Battle of Vienna, September 11, 1683. This battle marked the beginning of the decline of the power of the Ottoman Empire.

The issue of Caster Semenya's gender is back in the news. Previously I posted on her stunning performance in Berlin at the World Athletics championship which aroused suspicions that she may in fact be a male. She did indeed have testosterone levels more in keeping with a male than a female and now it is being reported that she has testes and not ovaries. A sad outcome. How this will be handled remains to be seen but the precedent set at the Asian games when Santhi Soundarajan suggests that she will be stripped of her medal. Of course had she been born a male and have completed gender reassignment surgery she could compete as a woman under current rules which has always struck me as odd, so if a genetic male can compete as a woman why can't Caster Semenya who has apparently always lived as one?

"Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue with that; I'm right and I will be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first - rock 'n' roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me." John Lennon - March 1966 This is a question posed by Stuff this morning in the lede to an article based on an interview with a visiting Sociology Professor. Chris Rojek is Head of Department and Professor of Sociology and Culture at Brunel University in the UK. His thesis is that since most of us no longer look to the Church, that would be organized religion in sociology speak, celebrities have replaced the saints as our role models. This is a concept that has some merit, I suppose, but it is sad to think that the heroes of the church many of whom were martyred for their faith have been replaced by utterly banal celebrities...

Front page on the Dom Post is a plea to let a frail old man off from killing his wife. Apparently, a murder/suicide without the suicide. The Green Liberals think there is no such thing as a loving smack, and it must be made illegal. Yet they suggest a loving kill is a fundamental right. Go figure.

The lunatics are truly in charge of the asylum. A report issued by the prestigious London School of Economics has concluded "Contraception is almost five times cheaper as a means of preventing climate change than conventional green technologies" The logic is impeccable the less people there are the less impact people with have on the environment, with the obvious corollary - no people, no environmental impact. Its bonkers of course, while the purpose and meaning of life maybe obscure, the old "why are we here" question, it is clear that we have a drive to procreate, to leave a legacy of children and grandchildren to carry on when we have gone. Put it down to Richard Dawkins' selfish gene if you will or take it from the Biblical injunction "be fruitful and multiply" but whatever view you take the only reason you, me and ridiculous pointy headed professors are here is because our ancestors procreated. The silliest thing of all, and the most worrying ...

According to the Herald today , Police in the near future may be given more powers for minor crimes to free up court time and expenses - Police officers would become prosecutor and judge, dispensing on-the-spot punishments for minor crimes under plans to turn patrol cars into "mobile stations". The proposal - an attempt to reduce costs and manpower, save time and free up police stations and courts - is one recommendation to be presented to Government in the police Fit for the Future project. Well, that sounds a bit like comic anti-hero Judge Dredd, whose favourite phrase was "I am the LAW". The Judges (in comicbook 2000AD) were the law-enforcers of the future - judge, jury and executioner. I'm in two minds about this. On one hand, maybe it will free up time and money, but on the other it opens up a HUGE opportunity for corruption in the Police force, doesn't it? Especially if the powers they may be given are expanded as time goes on.

For those that want proof of a recent degeneration of culture, I offer the above as representative of this trend. This pile of rubbish won the Trust Waikato National Contemporary Art Award 2009. A number of people are naturally outraged. For $15,000, I might try entering a half eaten bowl of mushroom soup next year and see if the judge of the competition is silly enough to award me first prize. The odds are probably better than winning Lotto. Peter Cresswell has written a post on the apparent purpose of pretending rubbish is art . In summary, he believes that this type of art only exists to provoke reaction. Getting back to my bowl of mushroom soup, how about flooding art awards of this type with rubbish entries? Think of the reaction that would provoke ... and some lucky sod might come away with a sizeable prize. I think the purpose is more sinister. Pretending rubbish is art is a way of degrading man, changing how we think of ourselves. If all we can do is produce rubbish r...

Prime Minister John Key today released Terms of Reference for a review of policies and procedures used by the New Zealand Police and Child, Youth and Family around the issue of smacking. "That's because smacking is against the law , as is all discipline, said Sue Bradford." This review will look at the policies and procedures of the Police and CYF, including the referral process between the two agencies, to identify any changes needed to ensure good parents are treated as Parliament intended,” Mr Key says; although the obvious law change that is needed will go unheeded. Sue Bradford was quick to interject that good parents are not those that smack. Those that smack are by definition, and by law, criminals and child abusers. Those types of parents will be dealt with harshly. John Key was quick to assure parents that he would probably change the law in some way if he had absolute proof that good parents were unfairly punished for breaking the law. Sue Bradford explaine...

Wow, Anne Tolley travelled to America to visit the radical shaker upper of schooling in Washington DC , in order to get some idea of how to fix NZ's schools. I'm impressed. I wrote about Rhee back in December last year . While I don't think public schooling can be fixed, it can certainly be improved. Paying good teachers more and firing the bad ones would be a great start. Fast tracking new aspiring teachers with Master's Degrees ... mmmmm, just get rid of the need for a qualification altogether. In my opinion, the biggest thing the Government could do would be to leave schools alone and let parents decide which schools are worth supporting and which are not. Get rid of the odious reporting that the Government requires, let teachers teach and not be bureaucrats. Give principals the power to approve pay rises for teachers they want to keep and the power to fire those they don't want. Let them hire who they want, without any need for teaching qualifications (t...

Yes, according to today's news, cabinet is looking at holding another referendum on MMP. Cabinet has started discussing the referendum on the electoral system that National promised it would hold, Prime Minister John Key said today.Under the campaign pledge a referendum would be held before or at the same time as the 2011 general election, asking voters whether they want to change from MMP to another system.If a majority want a change, a second referendum would be held offering options to replace MMP. OK, I have to ask, will they take any notice of the results though? John Key really came through on the last one, didn't he?

Green MP Sue Kedgley, said " There is no safe level of exposure to mercury. " And yet there obviously is safe levels of exposure, because the mercury contained in CFL light bulbs is, according to Sue, apparently safe , even if broken around children (an occurrence not uncommon in a child's bedroom). So I agree with Sue's first statement, that there is no safe level of exposure to mercury. I disagree with her second press release that there is a safe level of exposure to mercury. Maybe one day, they will campaign against CFLs? Meanwhile, some 50,000 protesters including many Greens are protesting in Germany against nuclear energy. Seems that the government may not be in a position to mothball the nuclear power plants by 2020. Any such switch will also imperil Germany's committment to reducing greenhouse gases. Seems that nuclear could be the new clean green - but this is a price too high for many. Maybe they need to refuse to use any form of energy whatsoev...

"[Attacks on marriage and family] include promotion of sex education at schools. We have to remember who was the first to introduce the idea of sex education. It was communist ideologue Gyorgy Lukacs in Hungary, who thought promiscuity was the best method to fight the institution of marriage, in order to fight Christianity." Related Link: Polish Bishops Emphasize Catholic Pro-Abortion Politicians Excommunicate Themselves ~ LifeSiteNews

The stats for August. Page Loads : 13615 (9171,9800) Average per day - 439 (296, 327) Unique Visitors : 6819 (5182, 5982, 6387, 6241) Average per day - 220 (167, 199, 208, 206) Posts : 79 (64, 47, 71, 90) Comments : 621 (391, 429, 472, 524) Most comments for one post: 60 (43, 36, 77, 47) Technorati Authority : 22 (20, 35, 44, 45) Alexa Ranking : 364270 (344000, 302376, 294661, 335135) NZ Alexa Ranking : 622 (610, 593, 644, 475) Here's my calculation for the Tumeke NZ Blogosphere Statistics based on the following formula: + 220 (Daily Unique visitor traffic from Statcounter) + 22 (Technorati Authority) + 18 (Posts: 79/31*7) + 44 (Comments: (60+46+36+35) /4)* = 304 (230, 278, 306, 312)

The stats for July. Page Loads : 9171 (9800) Average per day - 296 (327) Unique Visitors : 5182 (5982, 6387, 6241) Average per day - 167 (199, 208, 206) Posts : 64 (47, 71, 90) Comments : 391 (429, 472, 524) Most comments for one post: 43 (36, 77, 47) Technorati Authority : 20 (35, 44, 45) Alexa Ranking : 344000 (302376, 294661, 335135) NZ Alexa Ranking : 610 (593, 644, 475) Here's my calculation for the Tumeke NZ Blogosphere Statistics based on the following formula: + 167 (Daily Unique visitor traffic from Statcounter) + 20 (Technorati Authority) + 14 (Posts: 64/31*7) + 29 (Comments: (43+27+24+21) /4)* = 230 (278, 306, 312)

I really shouldn't read Wel-com, the official newspaper of the Catholic Dioceses of Wellington and Palmerston North. Not only are many of their articles heretical (like this recent one about the priesthood ), but they give an insight into the workings of the Dioceses that is frankly, depressing. The impression I get is that Wellington and Palmerston North do not agree with Pope Benedict on anything, and whatever direction the Holy Father is trying to move the universal Church, they are right there actively undermining him in this tiny section of the globe. Communion on the tongue? Icky . While as addition of Maori chanting to the elevation of the host, never mind that adding or removing words from the liturgy is expressly forbidden - yes, let's go for it, because it highlights our country's difference from the rest of the world! The karanga takes the place of the traditional ringing of the bells at consecration. The caller rises to proclaim the call: ‘Haere mai e Hehu e…...