New Zealand Conservative

I have absolutely no idea what bought this song to my mind today, none at all .

Interesting article Talk about a dirty scam. US prosecutors in Florida say at least three people working for a septic tank company duped customers into buying about US$1 million (NZ$1.33m) in unnecessary products — in some cases enough toilet paper to last more than 70 years. Voters in New Zealand say about 120 people working in a debating chamber duped citizens into buying $NZ105 billion in unnecessary products - carbon credits More than a dozen customers were told they needed special toilet paper to avoid ruining their septic tanks because the federal government changed regulations on toilet paper. The federal government does not regulate septic tank products. More than four million citizens were told they needed carbon credits to avoid ruining the planet because the government says so. The government regulates the sale of unnecessary products. The trio pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiring to commit wire fraud The 120 pleaded to be reelected The Miami H...

I was called a cynic yesterday, because of a comment I made about why a lot of New Zealanders were not motivated to vote last weekend. I wasn't one of them, I actually voted for what it was worth - which was diddly. In response to the quoted statement I replied "Yet a million people can’t be bothered walking to the local school hall? Jesus wept." Not really – voting means about as much as a vote for teen idol or who gets evicted from the big brother house this week Your choice is vapid candidate A or vapid candidate B and regardless of who actually gets the most votes both Vapid candidate A and vapid candidate B will be taking their seats in Parliament and voting to pass bills you don’t approve of But In 2009 I also voted in a referendum, a citizens initiated referendum. And along with 1,470,755 of my compatriots, that would be 87.4% of the people who voted, I told the Government they were way out of line with their laws relating to child discipline. Sue Bradfo...

See the sculpture in the middle of all the people letting off green balloons? It's a giant hand holding a tiny little baby, that in real life if you were to use those proportions, the baby could not be anything other than an unborn child.  Born babies are never that small. The first time I saw the sculpture, I was amazed that a pro-life symbol was sitting in front of the local police station.  Later, I heard that it's purpose was actually to draw attention to the care we should give children, that it was an anti-abuse sculpture, not an pro-life one. Looks like I'm not the only one that thought it was the perfect pro-life sculpture, which has annoyed the group the commissioned the sculpture and surprised the artist. The ultimate child abuse is to kill children and abortion fits that description perfectly. Kapiti Voices Against Violence should embrace that aspect of it rather than get all huffy and say that the above use of it is "inappropriate". Relate...

Good citizens who present absolutely no threat to society find themselves before the courts . I do not believe we should be liberalizing euthanasia laws - no, human life is sacrosanct and our laws should recognize this fact. But this gentleman and the doctor a week or so back are not threats to our society, whatever they did or didn't do they will be judged for in the fullness of time by a judge far more competent than any earthly judge as you and I will be also. In an imperfect world run by imperfect people I'm content to leave it at that. Why, I ask, can't the authorities just exercise a little common sense and judgement and avoid these show trials that serve no purpose.

Blog readers may know there is a bit of upset in some quarters that the Conservative Party of New Zealand did quite well on its first outing in a General Election while another so called right wing party didn't and is in fact its death throws despite having an MP - albeit one who doesn't match the critics conception of what an ACT MP should be I'd posit. Indeed on one blog leading this charge freedom of speech seems to have gone west as any commentary on their posts regarding this vanish into the fourth dimension - which is most odd, most odd indeed. There is one nation in the world that exhibits the economic purity that the devotees of ACT and libertarian types so desire, where business can carry on unimpeded by Government regulation perhaps they could emigrate there .

Mighty River Power or Genesis Energy are likely to be the first State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) to be floated in the National-led government's mixed ownership share sell-down, Prime Minister John Key says. Many people vote not so much for particular parties, but against others. For instance, I would absolutely hate having Labour in power again, but I really don't like National either even though I did vote for them in 2008 and again on Saturday for my electorate vote.  But in voting for them, I did not vote for all of their policies - for instance, I really opposed National Standards. I also think many voted National because they wanted them in charge of the country - but not because they agreed with all their policies. The only way to know for sure would be to add a survey of the major polices to the voting system. I bet if that was done the politicians might get a bit of a shock. So now we have John Key saying that he has a mandate for asset sales because his party...

It's all over for another three years, the country has decided. And I have done my bit, ticked my boxes for what that was worth - not much. I watched the breathless coverage on TV One. It was the best show in town. They had reporters stationed outside John Key's house. A talking head in the studio was expounding on whatever when he was cut short by the MC " have to cut you off there, we are going to (insert whoever the reporter was's name) at John Key's house now ". And to John Key's house we vicariously went. The pizzas had arrived and the man on the spot told us all about it along with images of the pizza mans back and John Key answering the door. This significant development reported and it was back to the talking heads in the studio. They also had a reporter outside of Phil Goff's house which you couldn't see. This was a gig of great hardship, we were told, since Phil Goff lives on a hobby farm forty whole kilometers from Auckland. Wa...

The polls are closed - on TV the pundits are in their element. They will be going into orgasms of excitement as they analyse the results The hopefuls are eagerly awaiting what the voters have dealt out to them today. And at home we are getting comfortable with our chips and popcorn - will the steam be coming out our ears or will we be resigned to whatever the electorate has decided. I'm resigned to what will be. I've ticked my boxes and done my bit, what more can a man do. 7:20 Well aint that interesting - two Epsom voters, one Labour, one Green who both voted for Paul Goldsmith. Don't you just love MMP. 9:15 Eight seats for Winston - OK that sounds like fun

The expense of spirit in a waste of shame Is lust in action; and till action, lust Is perjur'd, murderous, bloody, full of blame, Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust; Enjoy'd no sooner but despised straight, Past reason hunted, and no sooner had, Past reason hated, as a swallow'd bait, On purpose laid to make the taker mad; Mad in pursuit and in possession so; Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme; A bliss in proof, --and prov'd, a very woe; Before, a joy propos'd; behind, a dream. All this the world well knows; yet none knows well To shun the heaven that leads me to this hell. Thus starts Dr. Judith Reisman's paper on the effects of pornography on the brain. She quotes William Shakespeare who describes the madness that takes hold of a man (or a woman) who seeks to quench their lust, yet nothing satisfies. As a content analysis specialist, my task here has been to review evidence from the brain sciences to uncover if and then how ...

Election day and I was going to post about a significant non issue but then I realized it might be construed as being in violation of Paragraph (g) of Section 197(1) of the Electoral Act - even if unintentionally. So instead and to be completely on the safe side, what do you think of Tanya Tagaq's music?

This man beat his wife in Baltimore eighty years ago, and this is how it was dealt with by the courts. Ok I am of the generation who was bought up to believe you never ever hit a girl, you give up your seat on the bus to a woman and you open doors to let them past. And of course in the event of disaster, it was women and children first, the men went down with the ship - the Titanic thing. Anyway today is white ribbon day, where men wear white ribbons to "raise awareness" about male violence against women - an important issue notwithstanding that males are far more likely to die a violent death than women even in these enlightened times when "equality" is everything. The origin of this is the École Polytechnique massacre where a young man of Algerian descent marched into a classroom, herded the "men" out and shot the women. The strange thing about this is the "women and children first, men go down with the ship" thing just no longer see...

Mankind is created in God's image. The Devil loathes this and and is always seeking ways to degrade people. Pornography is really good at degrading people. QED Related: Pornography project given $790,000

Sean Plunket interviews Wylie Coyote Phil Goff . Sean Plunket interviews Road Runner Judith Collins . Meanwhile some people remain in a state of    blissful denial .

Dammit... Got an email update today from Borders bookstore saying that they are leaving New Zealand. Goodbye and thanks. Borders NZ bids you a fond farewell. But fear not! Whitcoulls will continue to fly the flag for great book deals. A sad day.. Borders always had such a huge selection of stuff, and a lot of imports from America that we just didn't see in other stores. I loved going in and browsing in there. Yes, we still have Whitcoulls, but their selection has always seemed quite small to me. I guess that with the advent of ordering via the internet that brick-and-mortar stores can't afford to physically bring in a huge selection of the latest books, or keep a lot of older stock. I have my Kindle reader, of course, but with some kinds of books you need the physical version. So bye bye Borders. Sad to see you leave...

Fletch left a link to this in a comment yesterday. Today it is on Drudge. Tatyana Limanova has achieved world wide fame, her fifteen red faced minutes. It is amazing how this escaped into the world as a viral video - a mid afternoon News item on APEC is not something that normally provides much entertainment value - indeed it would be a big yawn in any language. Poor Tatyana has succeeded in making it very interesting.

Don't worry the world is in the best of hands. This news from the State Department today: U.S. to stop sharing data with Russia under arms pact Apparently the Russians haven't been playing along for some time now. They probably have developed a good insight as to the capability of the current administration through meetings with important members of it - such as this one between the US Secretary of State and the Russian Foreign Minister which went extremely well.

I didn't watch all of that damning TV child poverty doco last night. I watched enough as I could bear. It was made by Bryan Bruce who also made that "Jesus: The Cold Case" thing and whined when TVNZ wouldn't show it on Good Friday when it could cause greatest offense. Anyway a few days out from a general Election and TVNZ obliges by playing his histrionic "Inside Child Poverty". The thing is we all know there is child poverty and we all hate and detest that fact. But Mr Bruce thinks there is some sort of magic fix and the people who can spread the fairy dust to cure this ill are the Government. My friends any thing the Government can do to ameliorate social ills is at best ambulance at the bottom of the cliff stuff - it is. And there is a horrible history of misguided Government attempts to cure social ills with social programs, which at best shift problems but usually create a much worse mess. (DPB, No Fault Divorce etc which are both heavily i...

When a woman suspects there's a rat in a bag she still calls up a man to deal with it. But luckily no rat, it turned out to be four cute kittens .

Expanding on two of Andrei’s links in Today’s Election Campaign Coverage , which I think reveal deeper issues about honesty in the election and the possible rise of extremism in New Zealand politics. “Goff Turns the Worm” It seems Goff, or at least Labour, really was turning the worm. The worm panel was meant to be made up of undecided voters to give an unbiased impression about the impact of the speeches by both leaders. BUT as shown by Kiwi Blog it seems that a number of Labour activists and diehards were part of the worm panel, no doubt cranking it up to high for Goff and turning it down low for Key. This was also picked up by the Whale Oil blog who managed to get a copy of the email used by Roy Morgan research to gather panel members. The Roy Morgan email as quoted from that website: “Hi Everyone, We are inviting people to attend the TV3 leaders debate on 21st November in the studio in Eden Terrace. I have blind copied this email to ensure your privacy. We are putting ...

As I wandered through the city I came upon a boy carrying a dead rat. I reached into my pocket and felt a crumpled $10 note. I pulled it out, showed it to him - "I'll give you this for the rat", I said. He looked at me and shook his head, "No" he said "you can't eat paper".

I cannot believe that National is seriously proposing personality tests for teachers. Who gets to decide what type of personality is the best type of teacher? Is this their way of gradually weeding out the non-compliant teachers who refuse to tow the Government line? Personality tests are so nineties, and yet they are still around. It's as if people don't want to trust the interviewing process any more, they want a test to tell them what the person is like. And National's idea to get 98% of children in early childhood "education", by 2015? More groan. No mention of the fact that the best place for a pre-school child is at home with Mum who teaches their child far more than any early childhood "educator". But if this was acknowledged, then the oh so subtle push to get all women out working for the economy. Yes, Helen Clark, the previous PM voiced it, but National is right on-board with the idea. However, it seems it will be focused on Maori an...

If you care about the things that matter here is a site which might help you evaluate which boxes to tick and which ones not to next Saturday. The importance or otherwise of each of the highlighted issues is in the eye of the beholder, of course. It is entirely up to you how you use what has been placed before you in making your choices.

Goff turns the worm What normal person sits in front of a TV pressing a button to express approval or disapproval of a talking head? What value should we place on the opinion of the people who do? Tea tape court case underway A bunch of well paid, comfortably off chatterers gather in august surroundings to primp and posture uttering self important nonsense about nonsense. You are paying for this circus. 'Shaken', 'shocked' Maggie Barry 'spat at' on Shore Intelligent and well reasoned political discourse on display folks. There's more, a lot more but that's enough to be going on with for now. Do you wonder why this country is going nowhere fast?

To save you time and to allow you to spend the evening in good company with your family - I present a summary of tonight's debate compressed into 119 seconds. Hopefully this preview will help you to make some sense of tonight's event.

I accidentally posted soon after my new co-blogger, Vanguard, posted a massive post on his interviews with the Conservative Party, so consider this post a place holder and go and have a look at his post .

Really interesting historical post by John Ansell on New Zealand and the Treaty of Waitangi. EVERYTHING YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT THE TREATY, BUT WERE TOO TERRIFIED OF BEING LABELLED A RACIST TO ASK — Part 1: Maori Ask British for Protection From Maori I'm fascinated by the on-going fear of the French because of their retaliation against the Maori who killed some of their number and also the fact that the British didn't want another colony but were begged by Maori to save them from the French.

The NZ Conservative Blog looks at the Conservative Party We here at the NZ Conservative blog would like to start out by saying we predate the Conservative Party by many years, indeed it is only 3 months old at this point of time. In no way is the blog associated with the political party. Over a week ago I went to the Conservative Party BBQ, which passed as their party's campaign launch, and while I was there I got to use my new found press credentials to talk to the candidates including an interview with Colin Craig himself. The Conservative Party BBQ attracted around 300 people from around the country was heavily attended by party candidates standing in electorates (the party is standing in around 54 of the 63 general electorates). The Candidates I got the chance to talk to many of the candidates, so many in fact names and electorates were getting hard to remember. Frank, standing for East Mangere, highlighted the diversity of the party with people from all ages and et...

Goodness. Don't know what to say really. My folks used to watch this show ('Hour Of Power') on TV a lot. It has been going for years.

Ele's post about the death of little JJ echos all of our despair, certainly mine. It is an unholy thing. How could this be? And yet all around us the babble of an election campaign continues - and babble it is. How is it, I ask, that we do not value our children and how is it I ask that many don't even want to have them in the first place - don't think that it is important to raise future generations? This is a worldwide phenomena - rich people are not having children anymore - it is the poor who do and as people get "richer" they are impoverishing themselves by not having children - it seems. In Russia the loss of population has been identified as a significant problem - the potential wealth of Russia is enormous but the future people to produce it are just not being born. And that is the significance of the video below, filmed just yesterday - effectively public prayers for fertility and lots of babies. New life! It is a holy thing to marry and...

The departments of Pacific Affairs and Women's Affairs come in for a bit of stick in today's SST. Don Brash says of the later "I have never been clear on what its role actually is. It produces a number of reports but I can't think of any policy changes that have been made," While United Future says it would rename the Department "Gender Affairs" . That's thinking out side the box, just think how a new letter head, logo and image could usher in a whole new era in bureaucratic bumph relating to gender relations in New Zealand.

First civil union at Parliament 'fitting' This is an evolutionary dead end of course but our ruling class holds "self fulfillment" and their "rights" in higher esteem than building for the future. It's "not fair" they say that some are excluded from the institution of marriage on the basis of "sexual orientation". In this world there are many things that are unfair, really unfair. Being born deformed and ugly is unfair. Being born to the dysfunctional and being beaten to death before you have your second birthday is unfair. But not being able to wed someone of the same sex? Well just to show how enlightened we are, let's indulge that vanity anyway.

I'm still not voting for John Key and National (shouldn't have ignored the results of the smacking referendum John, nor the increasing evidence good parents are being shoved through the wringer from over zealous officials) but the whole "release the tapes" and "John Key stormed out" frenzy the media, the Greens, and Labour have pathetically whipped up has me just putting down a wee note on the blog to remind myself in a few years hence just how far gone the media are in terms of ethical behaviour. Obviously, the recent UK experience with a duplicitous, unscrupulous and unethical media crew hasn't spread to this part of the world as far as the media are concerned. Do we diary our own version of that kind of scandal for a few years time? (Never saw it coming, yer honour). And definitely sic the law on them John, that is more for public interest than so-called public interest the media insist is more important than ending the right to have private co...

Yes, there is an income gap, some people are poor and others are rich. The reasons are many fold why this is so - bad luck, bad management, sheer laziness or some combination of the three may lead an individual into destitution. Likewise good luck, good management, hard work or some combination of the three may lead an individual to wealth. Being poor does not make you a bad person nor being rich make you virtuous and the converse is just as equally true. Anyway in election silly season the income gap becomes a topic of rhetoric as the hopefuls whore for votes. It's boilerplate for Labour but we all need to bear in mind that what they propose is not to make the poor richer but to make the rich poorer. Which is kind of pointless, don't you think?

You get the EU. 21 scientists worked for three years to come up with a ruling that you cannot claim bottled water prevents dehydration. Any vendor of bottled water who makes such a claim can be imprisoned for up to two years. Source: Now barmy EU says you CAN'T claim drinking water stops dehydration

Should Christians break the law " to advance the greater good "? It came up with the destruction of the domes at Waihopai, one of the culprits being a Dominican friar. And again with the vandalism of the National Party signs, organized by an Anglican Priest. To get our heads around this we need to realize that there are God's Laws and there are Laws written by men. The former are inviolate but easy to understand, the later are imperfect, complex and sometimes self contradictory. But unless they contradict God's laws we must obey them - " λεγουσιν αυτω καισαρος τοτε λεγει αυτοις αποδοτε ουν τα καισαρος καισαρι και τα του θεου τω θεω ". But then, let's face it, we live in a society and culture that has turned its face from God. Thus God's commandment "Thou shalt not Kill" while written into our homicide laws is air brushed out off our abortion laws - is it not? It's not easy as we muddle our way through life to keep sight ...

There is this An International Atomic Energy Agency statement says “the continued presence of trace levels of iodine-131 in the atmosphere” are being reported by the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia, Germany, Sweden, France and Poland. Now iodine-131 in the atmosphere is a marker for a Nuclear accident or explosion and the IAEA says it mystified as to the source. And there is this A commander of the Revolutionary Guard killed in an explosion at an ammunition depot west of Tehran was a key figure in Iran's missile programme, the elite military force said . General Hasan Moghaddam was killed alongside 16 guard members on Saturday at a military site 25 miles south-west of Tehran. The Revolutionary Guard said the accident occurred while military personnel were transporting munitions. A big explosion it was, far to big to hide and publicly announced as an ammunition dump explosion. As an historical aside on July 16, 1945 it was announced by the US Government there had been an a...

Lindsay Mitchell has a post up on the World Socialist Website putting the boot into the Mana Party. Actually quite interesting to see what socialists don't like about a Maori nationalist party pretending to be on the left. But this little nugget caught my attention: Recent research by Berl economist Ganesh Nana puts the combined asset base of Maori tribes at $NZ36.9 billion... That's some serious money. Probably why Maori spirituality is now the defacto state religion of New Zealand and why the National Party has had the Maori Party with them in Government ... at a guess. Money talks and attracts important friends.

Here is a statement in Vernon Small's latest offering on "cuppagate". But the real issue is no longer how, or how ethically, the information was obtained. The real issue is what was in it. This just makes me angry . My friends we go to the polls in just under two weeks - we have to decide on who we are going to vote for. Now all the parties need to get their messages out so we can each make an informed and hopefully rational decision on polling day - I know it wont happen that way but in theory anyway. But what is everybody talking about? Private chit chat, of no consequence what so ever, between two politicians. What makes it important to the media? It's all about them that's what! It was a media man who (illegally) taped the conversation, it is media outlets who are privy to what was said and keep dropping hints and leaking its contents to other politicians. It is the media who are keeping this alive to the detriment of all political parties whose m...

When bad things happen to good people - it does not make them criminals. Is it because our supposedly diverse parliament is full of lawyers that when a tragedy occurs there is a need to prosecute? What on earth has charging this poor woman with manslaughter achieved apart from putting money into the pockets of those engaged in the legal profession industry?

Election silly season - it's really depressing what is deemed important by our elites. I was reminded of a piece of nonsense from 2005 - the Exclusive Brethren thing. And how they were cast as a "secretive cult" interfering in the democratic political process. Of course they had just as much right to engage in political dialogue as everybody else but their message was not one the elites wanted heard. Fast forward to 2011 And in this silly season a Green Anglican Priest's political discourse consisted of a major billboard vandalization campaign. Unlike "cuppagate" this Greens scandal has been a two day wonder - the elite media has pretty much moved on. Whereas with "cuppagate" they are doing everything they can to keep alive. And so it was with the "EB" thing back in 2005 - kept alive for weeks. But if it suited the needs of the elite couldn't the association of the Greens with Liberal Anglicanism be cast as sinister?

After reading some of Ian Wishart's new (old and updated) book, Daylight Robbery , I find myself thinking even more that this election is a farce. So, not a lot of election excitement going on in this corner. Have a look at the excerpt: PDF link . In summary, the situation seems to be that our entire economy is built on fake money that is mostly brought into existence when it's loaned to some one. That debt for most of us will only be paid off at the end of our working lives - and maybe not even then. Most of us don't really own anything, the banks do. That's why the whole thing can collapse so easily. To think that when I was a child, my Dad took on a second job to pay off the mortgage. And he did, in two years. Not a chance of my family being able to do anything like that any time soon and we earn more money in relative terms than he ever did. ZenTiger has posted about this stuff before, so it's familiar. When I find one of his posts on this topic ...

If the original Spitting Llama, aka TinCanMan of The TinCanMan blog is still out there, can you please contact me?

Funny stuff, exhibiting no understanding of the Christian faith beyond Dawkinist characatures Now here’s an absurd hypothetical: If I were a single, straight, atheistic male (in reality I'm neither single nor straight), would I be inclined to look for a similarly godless woman with whom to settle down and rear a batch of little baby Berings? I’m torn. Sure, I’d probably be “happier” with a fellow atheist. But there’s also something to be said for marrying a zealot. On the one hand, I’d no doubt be irritated by my very religious wife’s supernatural beliefs. On the other hand, the very fact that she believes strongly in some divinely imposed morality should influence her behavior behind my back. She may well be suffering a very bad case of the dreaded God delusion, but perhaps this isn’t such a bad thing for her atheist husband. After all, my faithful, imaginary wife would then be operating under the assumption that cheating on me would not only hurt her family if the affair eve...

Apparently she entered the Cathedral to the sound of Native American chants and drumsbeats. More: D.C. gets first female Episcopal bishop

“The great struggle of our times is between realism and ideology…” In no other time in history has this maxim been more true. In a time when human knowledge has been expanding at an incredible rate, new frontiers open up and we use our imaginations to see what might be. This is of course what the imagination is for: it creates ideas, it is crucial for human development both as individuals and as a species. The imagination allows us to project our thoughts beyond our current reality to predict, run scenarios or just good old fashion escapism. But the imagination always needs to be brought back to reality when used for practical matters otherwise the results can be dire. The man who sees things that are not there is insane- to live in the imagination is madness; rather mental illness or ideology. There is an order to things: a reality, truth. Ideologies are based on truths but once the world is viewed through a narrow lens people’s views get distorted, their practices become disordered. ...

I don't read Red Alert, I don't even go there.  I treat it like one of the inner circles of Hell, a place to be avoided at all costs ... Well, not really quite like that.  I find socialists drop dead boring.  Years ago when I was really trying to understand their logic, I tried reading some heavy duty communist rantings and couldn't go on.  It was not at all captivating in the way that something that is good and true is.  And after a number of years on the Blogosphere I've found that many socialists are just as boring as the communists rantings I tried to read all those years ago.  When it comes down to it, socialists do not have a good plan for the world, therefore it's best not to listen to them. Now to Clare Curren of Red Alert, to whose post FairFactsMedia notified me of the other day.  Clare says that though she was brought up Catholic, she "can't quite do the God thing."  But her Catholic upbringing still directs her in some way and so it'...

So Phil Goff thinks that Labour's election policies are "applied Christianity". He really needs to read one of my old posts, Confused Catholic thinks Jesus was a Socialist . Furthermore, real applied Christianity is not coercive and is not funnelled through the government. While we are encouraged to directly help our neighbour, to donate money to good causes, to try and live good lives and not lie, cheat or steal, we can't force people to do good to others. Somehow, I don't think any Labour politician can stand on their record there. I don't see much leading by example. Instead, Labour's "applied Christianity" is going to justify raising taxes so that Labour can further encourage disintegration of the family unit so that Socialist Man can eventually emerge. Labour has done quite a bit over the years in this regard, so saying that their policies are "applied Christianity" are a joke. Related link: Labour leader Phil Goff is ...

Bryce Johns that is - with his illicitly recorded tape of the two Johns. He is implying that it contains stuff that would embarrass and/or humiliate them. Personally I think it is time for ACT to go and I would rather Mr Key had kept them at arms length and that National would seriously campaign to win the Epsom seat - but he didn't. Here is what that scuzz bag has to say after implying it contains stuff that could affect the outcome of the election if published "It's in the public interest and we would love to publish it but ethically we are the ones that have made the right call here by not doing it." Taking the high ground? - NOT! Ethically Mr Bryce you could have either (a) Published a full transcript and worn the personal consequences which would, deservedly in my opinion, follow. Or (b) Decided it was unethical to listen to private conversations surreptitiously obtained and destroyed it without listening to it . Having a bob each way in th...

For those who need a respite from election silly season with all its ephemeral banalities, timeless treasure

Rioting students overturning a news van. There is nothing particularly unusual in that - we've seen it before many times. What makes this a little unusual is the reason for the riot, the sacking of a beloved football coach. The reason why the coach was sacked? He was informed of an assistant coach sodomizing a 10 year old boy in the showers and did nothing! Yesterday Ele posted at HomePaddock about asset sales . I left a comment Governments shouldn’t be engaged in commercial enterprise anyway – its not their brief. People are essentially corrupt, a fact we have to live with because it’s not about to change anytime soon but to limit the damage this causes is to dilute and spread power as widely as possible. Ele, who has a lovely soul and who sees people as essentially good, as I do to, took exception, perhaps to my use of corruption - you can read the thread. I quickly realized, of course, that were engaged in a misunderstanding of semantics. For me "corru...

The world's a safer place today after the Parisian police arrested four Chinese Nationals and seized 270 tonnes of contraband Eiffel towers. The French authorities don't want unlicensed people selling tourist tack on their streets it seems. Illegal street vending in France carries of maximum six-month jail sentence and a 3,750 euros fine. A police source said the aim of the operation is to dismantle supply networks as well as fight against the vendors. During March and September 2011, 4,000 illegal street vendors were detained including 1,200 who were taken into custody. It's comforting to see the authorities in times of economic meltdown are still on the case and not letting entrepreneurship get out of hand.

From the Guardian: Is it homophobic to split up gay penguins? Of course an equally pertinent question might be: Is it animal cruelty to take a species that in nature forms pair bonds with members of the opposite sex and confine it with members of its own sex only? Which is what happened here though the Guardian goes out of its way to mislead you over this.

As Europe pays China to manufacture refrigerants that nobody will ever use in order to save the planet ( see post below ) and as nations are going bankrupt and loosing their sovereignty in the process, it is nice to know that there are people who are not facing hardship, the loss of their life savings and still have money to spend. Like whoever paid $4.34 million for this photograph at an Art Auction in New York last night.

Ok it works like this (1) The Western world pays a levy for releasing carbon and this levy is used to pay other people, like the Chinese to clean up their act (2) Now the Chinese make HCFC-22 with a "potent GHG" by product HFC-23 for which they will get paid from the levy if they destroy it rather than releasing it into the atmosphere. (3) And because they get paid for destroying something they have manufactured - they make more of it. The more they make and destroy the more money they make. In fact the money being paid to China for the destruction of HFC-23 is double the value of the refrigerant they are making. It's worthwhile making the refrigerant even if there is no market for it! . (4) Of course when the West belatedly wakes up to this fact they say we wont pay for HFC-23 destruction anymore - well the Chinese know what to do . Aint you glad that you are part of this money go round. And Australian readers aint you thrilled your Prime Minister has just b...

Even though I could have voted today (or yesterday for that matter) or I could tomorrow I'm going to wait 'til the official day and tick my boxes in the local primary school hall. Ah - but what boxes to tick? That is a very vexing question to say the least. Today the nice Mr Goff is suggesting a chicken in every pot a living wage for all is on his agenda if elected. And meanwhile the nice Mr Key is promising that people wont have to wait as long to get their hemorrhoids sorted if we give him our tick. Both very noble objectives that I can support as I'm sure you do to. But how to choose between them?

Government employees tasked with keeping a temperature controlled environmental chamber for rare snails at an appropriate temperature for their charges gets it wrong and kills them all . Those who would like to hand control of the world's temperature to the UN might like to reconsider their position.

Life in Obama's America means new taxes. Here's a beauty, a 15c tax on Christmas trees. Its very necessary you need to understand, it's needed to fund a bureaucracy to promote the "Christmas Tree Industry" . There is no satire tag to this post because er well it isn't satire - it's for real.

DPF has a post up tagged inappropriate humour. It mocks the mentally disabled with the "C" word, click here if you want to view it in its glory or don't as you choose. It's boundary pushing, a progressive pastime, " let's see what we can break today " sort of thing. But break progressive taboos and your goose will be cooked . The new "C" word begins with "F" and ends with a "g" it seems. Well I suppose if the traditional shock words have lost their punch through overuse we need replacements..... Another example here .

Just a whiff but that is refreshing after all the banality we have been enduring. The ETS should be axed of course but hopefully batting it's full implementation further into the future will buy the time needed to consign this nonsensical idiocy into the dustbin of history. The fact that it has got as far as it has shows that rationality is not a feature necessary for Government policy to proceed but we all knew that already anyway. Source: National's moderate approach to emissions scheme

From here: ORLANDO WOMEN’S CLINIC ADVERTISES $50 COUPONS FOR DISCOUNT SUNDAY ABORTIONS

This picture is from clean green Mali. The women are skinny not because they diet but most likely because they are infested with bilharzia, a parasite picked up from snails that live in their clean green waterways. These women will be lucky to see their fiftieth birthday, the life expectancy in their green clean country with its clean green waterways being 52.61 years according to the latest estimates. Of course there is no industry to speak of in Mali and agriculture is er well basic and at a subsistence level so there is no money for things like water reticulation (which could deal with the bilharzia) or sewerage which would help eliminate some of the other maladies that blight the lives of the people of Mali. The truth is, my friends, life for people in New Zealand in 1900 was not that much different than the life these people are living today - a little better perhaps but not much. The difference is that today we have money to pay for water reticulation and sewerage so we ...