A song that gets into your brain

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

Talk about a dirty scam

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 Herald reported that they worked for FBK Products.

New Zealand Conservative reported that they worked for National, Labour and the Greens.

The trio face up to two decades in prison when they are sentenced in February.

The majority of the 120 face another 3 years of guaranteed employment at salary well above the average National income working on refinements to their scheme

Why I am a cycnic

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 Bradfords anti smacking bill was not needed or wanted.

The government of course gave the voters the finger.

People like Nikki Kaye, people like Jacinda Ardern, people like Charles Chauvel think they know more about how the best way to raise children than people like my mother or myself and my co bloggers here who have actually done it or are doing it. And are quite happy to tell us how it should be done. And to use the power of the law and the courts to enforce their ideas.

And the biggest joke of all - the three mentioned above were in no danger of not being members of the 50^th Parliament of New Zealand. The election for them is just a quaint ritual we go through every three years because their place in Parliament is assured through the list committee regardless of how their electorate actually vote.

Indeed Jacinda Ardern and Nikki Kaye contested the same seat and it was a jolly good show - the battle of the babes as reported by the elite media.

Saturday was closed the final week of Parliamentary Idol, is it any wonder a lot of people just gave a collective yawn.

Giant hand holding tiny baby - what else could it be?

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".

Related link: Anti-abortion stunt 'not OK' ~ Stuff

When you are over governed and live under an inflexible bureaucracy

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.

There is more to life and civil society than economic purity

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.

National - Selling NZ down the river - do they have the mandate?

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 is the largest party able to form a Government, even though the number of people who voted for him are less than 50% of those who voted. And apparently this election saw the lowest turn-out since the 1800's - more than a quarter of eligible voters stayed at home. I'm not sure how that translates into an explicit mandate.

John Key will have the power to force through asset sales, but he can only say he has a mandate with a referendum. Something I doubt he will risk, considering that when polled most New Zealanders oppose the sale of Government assets and his reaction to the last one initiated by the citizens.

Or even better, give us a voter veto as the Swiss have. If you really have a mandate, John, give us the ability to veto any asset sales and let's see just how much of a mandate you really have.

Mighty River, Genesis first off the block, Key ~ NZ Herald
Asset sales: we have a mandate - Key ~ NZ Herald
One million didn't bother to vote ~ NZ Herald

The morning after the night before - Look, Look there goes a cow edition

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. Way way out in the boonies where cell phone coverage is spotty.

In an early report filed before the sun went down a cow ambled past in the background as the man on the spot spouted forth - this was duly noted by the MC in the studio - evidence no doubt about how far off the beaten track this poor reporter had gone to give us the gen on what Phil Goff was doing this election night.

There was great excitement in the studio over some key electorates. Auckland central was one. This was the so called "battle of the babes" being as the candidates contestants were two mildly attractive young women. I say young and young they seem but my mother had had five children by the time she was their age. In any case their back story and life experience this pair are essentially interchangeable - the only real difference is that one is on the red team, the other is on the blue. And regardless of who actually took out the seat both will be MPs in the next parliament. Being as their electorate is not way out in the boonies both were readily accessible by the TV One team and both appeared as studio guests during the course of the evening. The blue team's lady won, by just 543 votes.

An electorate that didn't get much mention was the West Coast - that is a bit further away from Auckland than forty kilometers and really tricky to get too. But interestingly enough in a night which saw Labour crushed this seat changed hands from National to Labour bucked the trend as it were. It would seem the winning candidate was a good fit with the West Coast voters even if he is not a good fit with the modern Labour Party.

The West Coast is where the Labour Party was born of course - you have to wonder what the founding fathers of that party, rugged miners working in conditions that would have modern day OSH inspectors reaching for their smelling salts, would make of their heirs - the leader on his hobby farm, the ultimate in 21^st century urban upper middle class aspiration or Jacinda Arden, the red lady from Auckland central.

Another strange result that the Auckland Punditry seem to have missed is Dunedin South, a seat that would vote for Mickey Mouse if he were the Labour candidate. And they did return Clare Curran as expected but the party vote in that seat went to National which is odd, very odd. And cynical old me wonders if National had stood a credible local candidate instead of importing a paint by numbers identity politics potential list MP to contest that seat what might have happened.

But that's MMP for you - a really weird system that saw Labour and Green supporters in Epsom voting for the National candidate while National supporters in the same electorate voted for the Act candidate in order that the best man as they see it win.

Election night open thread

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

Pornography - On purpose laid to make the taker mad

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 pornographic images interfere with cognitive functions, including rational thought and its expression in free speech. For the purposes of this paper, pornography is not limited any currently accepted legal definitions but is characterized as a genre. That is, in its traditional sense, pornography is graphic depictions of sex or nudity, pandered for prurient appeal, rather than for serious literary, artistic or scientific purposes. Herein, pornography is objectively defined as private space behaviors displayed in public space forums in violation of self and species preservation. It proves a very woe.

Therefore, one could easily describe as pornography the recently declined by the Hamilton City Council, Erotica sex-expo. I had to laugh at David Farrar's reaction to this decline - the word "wowser/s" was used three times in his post and his outrage at "moral police" deciding what "consenting adults" could do was palpable. The implication being that there is no harm done by such an event, and even if there were, if a person consents then they should be able to do as they please and the council should stay out of the way.

The problem here is that we've moved past the idea that people should not interfere with what happens in the privacy of the bedroom to taking the bedroom out in public and charging money for access. While morality is always determined by the populace and what they are willing to put up with, there is a deeper truth that morality is always absolute. It seeks our highest good and to flout it is to destroy oneself. The lie is we should put up with what the more moral libertines among us would have us avert our eyes from, ie if we don't like it, we shouldn't look, as has been the subject of a number of controversial sex-scenes that have been shown on television lately in the timeslots when children can watch.

Judith Reisman's paper shows that pornography is not harmless. It literally rewires our brains. What we see becomes reality for us as our brain cannot distinguish fantasy images from real ones.

Since the brain believes what the eyes see, in 3/10ths of a second, real, virtual or pseudo pornography restructures the brains-minds and memories of participants or even casual viewers. That the brain's internal drug store produces mood altering psychotropic drugs, and that right hemisphere emotions including fear, joy, anger, lust (instant rewards) dominate the left hemisphere's cognitive functions of speech, rationality, logic (delayed rewards), further implicates pictorial pornography as causally changing the nature of the polity. The massive quantifiable increases and qualifiably more sadistic and barbaric kinds of sexual crime since 1950, supports the breeding of a sadistic, pedophile consciousness in pornography consumers.

There is a lot more in her paper such as some scary stuff on worsening attitudes towards women and children that can be readily observed in any political debate online involving welfare. And also implications for a free society where brains are working on a constant desire for their drug - sexual stimulation. I also have to mention that impotence one of the direct side-effects of viewing pornography - no man is immune to this effect.

The vociferous attacks by numerous individuals protesting that the Hamilton City Council has no right to decide on the basis of morality what type of groups they will allow to use their event centre shows just how important it is to sex-addicts that no restriction be made on their addiction of choice, no matter the harm to themselves or others.

If the council had declined for a Neo-Nazi group expo, would the same people be jumping up and down about moral police? Or how about a pot-smoking convention. Or even worse in their eyes, an ex-gay ministry church group. Can you imagine the outcry if the council let any of these groups on their premises, but if they denied them, heck, they're doing the right thing!

I just want to finish with a true story given by a young American officer who after spending an hour talking to Dr Judith Reisman, who explained to him the homoerotic nature of pornography. This man went back to his base and gave a talk to his buddies who threw out all their pornographic material. When it came to the choice, once they understood what they were choosing and what type of boys pornography would make them, they threw out the porn and chose to be real men.

Election day diversion

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?

Raising awareness about domestic violence, Maryland 1931

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 seems operant.

I'm fairly sure that men of prior generations would not have meekly left those girls to their fate.

Pornography explained - how do I get my $790,000?

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

Beep beep: Election 2011, two days out

Sean Plunket interviews Wylie Coyote Phil Goff.

Sean Plunket interviews Road Runner Judith Collins.

Meanwhile some people remain in a state of    blissful denial.

Bye Bye Borders :(

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...

Poor Tatyana

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.

A diplomatic triumph recalled

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.

Three wishes and the Government's magic wand

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 implicated in current Child Poverty issues are they not).

It's like those old stories of being granted three wishes by a demon - the wishes get granted but not in the way the beneficiary expected and in a way that leaves him or her far far worse off.

Just a thought for you to keep in mind while you tick your selected boxes on Saturday.

Despite nearly forty years of social enginering ........

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.

Leaders Debate Update and the conduct of the Political Left

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 together an audience from a range of backgrounds to attend the debate. It starts at 5.45 pm and finishes at about 8pm. All those attending get $70 to cover travel costs and any expenses incurred.

Refreshments will be provided and I am sure it will be an interesting evening for those who go.

If this sounds like something you would like to do please send me a reply with the best day time phone number to contact you on and I will give you a call in the next day or so.

If you have friends you think would like to go to this please feel free to forward this email to them.

All the best”

Random? Nope. Undecided? Not likely. Orchestrated and manipulated by political activists…you bet.

Even if these well-known Labour people were undecided on what party they would be voting for, ultimately they would be supporting a leftwing party in a political partnership headed by Labour; so will be pro-Goff, anti-Key.

Ultimately I think “The Worm” needs to go as it does have the ability to influence votes, but is far from an accurate indicator.

“You know what really gets me”

Labour has little creditability as in my opinion as they are continuously dishonest.

Labour’s major issue this election is opposing Nationals plans to partially sell state assets but maintain majority control: of course Labour is presenting it as complete asset sales- a gross misrepresentation. Of course most people do not fully understand the policy and Labour is pointing to polls that say 67% of New Zealanders are against the sales so National should not ‘force’ the people into such an unpopular policy.

EXCUSE ME!?! Phil Goff was one of the top ministers in the last Labour government which legalised prostitution, brought in civil unions, outlawed smacking for disciplining of children etc with the full knowledge that the vast majority of New Zealanders were against these things (by more than 67%).

How dare Phil Goff play the man of the people when he forced so much unpopular policy for the social engineering ends of Helen Clark’s Labour-Green government. Remember there was neither popular demand nor referendums calling for these policies; an ideological minority in these parties drove them through. Phil Goff has forced plenty of unwanted things on New Zealanders.

Indeed the passing of these policies, and National ignoring the referendum saying 82% of voters did not want smacking criminalised, show democracy is in a poor state in New Zealand. Our representatives don’t actually represent us.

Of course there are also Labours attack ads which point out over the last 3 years 100,000 New Zealanders have moved to Australia, the rise in living costs due to inflation and how high unemployment is, which is again in my opinion hugely dishonest. We are experiencing a global recession caused by systematic flaws in the global finical markets and Labour is trying to blame National for this? Ultimately Labour seems to have nothing of substance to say, which does not mean people will not be sucked in.

Leftwing extremism?

The second link is to do with Maggie Barry, a well know former TV presenter and National party candidate, being spat at while campaigning on the Northshore, and being asked to leave a café as it was meant to be “Red” i.e. in support of the Labour party (although it turns out this was from mere customers and the cafe owner was quite shocked as it turned out she is a National supporter).

In the article it said she was surprised at the aggression; although should any of us be?

New Zealanders are a pretty well laid back people, indeed so laid back sometimes we can be virtually horizontal. That makes us exposed to what is called “the politics of presence”, which is very much the more active and vocal a group is the more influence it has; even well beyond its numbers. So a small militant movement can push over the passive majority who will complain but that’s all.

I have travelled right across Auckland super city and up north and noticed by far and away those billboards that have been vandalised have been National’s (especially a campaign which attached stickers with slogans negative to National that were designed in such a way to look part of the billboard to discredit them). A visitor to New Zealand might get the impression that the government was unpopular, a view not supported by National might be able to govern alone and John Key being the most popular political leader. The only example of a Labour billboard being vandalised I can think of is one of Jacinda Arden, the Labour candidate for Central Auckland, having “You’re sexy” written on it (and she is, although that’s another matter entirely…).

The leftwing in politics has plenty of activists: from unionists, environmentalists to Maori activists-all know to use extreme tactics in protests. For example the Unite Union, which is very political, has one of its slogans “help us fight Fascism” with a picture of a fist smashing a swastika. Seriously this is New Zealand, where are these Fascists meant to be that threaten our society? Another example is ex-Green Party MP and Mana Party candidate Sue Bradford who used to storm Work and Income offices, which in some instances got very violent.

Do we see this on the rightwing of New Zealand politics? I would say not so much. Indeed it is debatable if we really have a real political right in New Zealand. The last Labour government passed a number of bills, which were unpopular and/or leftist policies, and the centre-right National party has kept them. This is true even in the case of the anti-smacking referendum, which gave a mandate for the government to drop it. Nationals main political partner the Act party, although economically right is almost as socially liberal as the Green Party (due to its libertarian influence). It’s like rightwing parties in Scandinavia; sure they are right of centre but the centre is firmly rooted in the left wing, so they are in worldwide terms still leftwing.

The main point is we do not see any great ideological crusades on the right, on the Left we see militant environmentalism, Maori sovereignty, radical feminism and some unions which can be positively Marxist in their belief in class struggle.

Don’t get me wrong I am a conversationalist, I do believe there are wrongs that need to be righted in regards to Maori issues (although I oppose the grievance industry), a big fan of women and actually believe in unionism but we are not talking about whether an issue is good or not; we are talking about extremes which are always bad.

To wrap up I don’t think John Key was scare mongering when he said if the left can pull off a victory this election, yes the centre-left Labour party would head it but it would rely on a strong Green party which would have great influence and probably key ministerial roles, the Mana party and New Zealand First if it made it in- there could not be a more unstable government in a time we need stability.

We face the problem on the right of centre were ACT looks like it is facing extinction, so who will be National’s political partner to get the support to form future governments? As for the left of centre Labour will always be doing business with parties like the Greens who are not palatable to most New Zealanders.

All of us have to think long and hard about what the future of the country is coming to.

The true value of money

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".

National wants personality tests for teachers!?

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 and Pacific Islanders whose children presumably have less favourable educational outcomes overall. Any child whose parents don't value education, who don't own literature and read to their children when they are very young will produce children with less favourable educational outcomes, and while early childhood education may help alleviate this problem a little, the ultimate fix is to inspire the parents. That's much cheaper than all this spending on early childhood education.

It seems to me that National is putting in place systems that will further erode parental responsibility for their children and will reduce the quality of teachers by limiting the types of personalities that will go into teaching. I'm sure Labour's not much better, but National seems to me to be more corporate in their educational approach. Which would be fine if you were setting up a business, but not so crash hot when you are dealing with the formation of the nation's children.

Related link: National's education policy 'lowest point' of campaign

An example of political discourse that engages the issues

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.

Today's Election Campaign coverage

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?

Last week of the campaign - Preview of tonight's debate

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.

Vanguard interviews the Conservative Party

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.

History of NZ - Treaty of Waitangi in completely new light

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.

“We’re Conservative”- “So Are We”

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 ethnic groups. Talking with the candidates we discussed a wide range of political issues which were always brought back to central themes, especially family.

So often we talk about young New Zealanders going overseas for economic reasons, although it was not till I talked with one candidate who told me he became politically active after his two children moved to Australia and had families there. This hit home that such economic migration not only takes young Kiwis away but also splits families. He wanted to help make New Zealand a place to draw back the young who settled overseas.

Another candidate, who use to be a police prosecutor, talked about how the anti-smacking law was damaging to the family as it required spouses to testify against the other and children against their parents. One candidate chillingly pointed out such practices were common in former Soviet countries.

The party had at least 4 Pacific Island candidates, all of whom told me Conservative principles were Pacific Island principles. It was discussed how many Pacific Islanders supported the Labour Party as they still view it as the “Old Labour” who looked after the working class- a view many would say was outdated. They outlined how destructive welfare has been on the Pacific Island community and how it negatively impacts on future generations.

Economic issues were also discussed, I was surprised about how strong all the candidates felt about asset sales. I was impressed talking with one of the candidates about economic issues that aren’t widely talked about: such as the leveraging of Gold, Silver and bank assets, the economic future of China from China’s attempts make their currency a trade currency and what will happen to the Chinese economy after the population crash predicted because of the “One Child Policy”. All things that can change the world as we know it but we don’t hear political candidates talking about it.

I asked everyone I talked to “what drew you to the Conservative Party?” in an attempt to identify the major element of their support: the answer by far and the great unifying factor that drew the candidates and members was simple: integrity.

The Party

Many voters who identify as Conservatives are firm believers in Conservatism, have been burned by political parties they supported. Some support United Future which ended up going into coalition with Labour and help bring in much anti-Conservative policy from Civil Unions to legalised Prostitutions. Some supported New Zealand First and which attacked Labour for things like its “gender bending policies” (as Peters himself put it) and then put the most liberal Labour government into power. I was even surprised how many were ex-Act supporters and even election candidates who left over the privileges scandal.

And if we are being honest it is the only party that really stands on the platform of Conservative issues through and through. Act is economically conservative, although socially liberal. National is centre-right although has no firm Conservative principles. United Future and New Zealand First creditably is spent for many.

Credit were credit is due the Conservative Party has grown phenomenally in 3 months: 2000 members making it the 4th highest political party membership, by a long way, only beaten by the 2 major parties and the Greens. In three months they are fielding around 54 candidates in the 63 electorates in the country. Many would say seeking to launch a political party to contest an election 3 months before an election was madness, that the progress that has been made would have been impossible.

I believe it was great insight by party leader Colin Craig who managed to tap into those who hold conservative values, but who recently did not have a voice. At one stage United Future was this, now it is effectively a support group for Peter Dunn, effectively an independent MP now who is losing support in his electorate.

In a TV political discussion one commentator labelled the Conservative Party “Christian Heritage 2.0” to which another commentator on the same panel pointing out Christian Heritage received 2.4% of the vote in 1999. This support later defected to United Future which might eventually defect to the Conservatives given time.

But why was the Conservative party labelled “Christian Heritage 2.0”? Perhaps because party leader Colin Craig identifies as Christian, although as stated in past interviews does not attend a church. Frank, a Pacific Island candidate, said (and I am paraphrasing): “Colin isn’t trying to Christianise the country, he is promoting Conservative values held by many”. Indeed the New Citizen Party, made up of Chinese immigrants who merged with the Conservatives, can't be labelled as a Christian group. Their candidates I talked to said traditional Chinese values are basically Conservative values. So yes the party might draw a lot of support from Christians, but they might also draw a lot of support from conservative Hindu’s, Muslims, Atheists, Agnostics, etc as well.

Interview with Colin Craig

I was privileged to get a 7 minute sit down interview with party leader Colin Craig, which was not long but we talked on welfare reform.

“No Freebies” was Craig’s succinctly summary.

He said we were offering the wrong incentives; his example was currently the states funding to put children in day care. Instead the Conservative Party would seek to redirect that day care funding to support mothers who want to stay at home and raise their children, as early childhood research shows this produces better outcomes for kids- a policy based on the facts rather than ideology.

Craig stated a key principle of the parties welfare reform is breaking the cycle of welfare dependency. A prime example Craig points out was the Domestic Purposes Benefit (DPB) and how just as the welfare period is running out they seem to manage to get pregnant again resulting in children from single parent homes, which is not best for the children’s development and with them witnessing their only provider being on welfare adds to the culture of welfare dependency.

Although far from coming across as “beneficiary bashing”, Craig took a position which I have not heard in the welfare reform debate: why throw a woman off the DPB if she finds a working partner as currently happens? As research shows children are raised better with both male and female parent figures and this also gives the children a working role model which could potentially help break the welfare cycle for many.

As we were talking about welfare and family support, this lead me to ask what was the Conservative Parties stance on the ‘Working For Families’ scheme? Very clearly Craig stated the party would seek to do away with it.

Some might ask why this is, but it is pretty clear when around 50% of NZ tax payers effectively receive their tax money back through the ‘Working For Families’ scheme; not only are they not effectively not contributing tax money but the are beneficiaries of welfare themselves.

Time run out, but I was able to get one more question in, as he is running for Rodney:

“Will we see an ‘Orewa speech’?”

(for those who are unaware Rob Muldoon gave a famous speech in Orewa, with a recently past National leader trying to do an “Orewa Speech” to point back to that golden moment).

The answer from Colin smiling was “Oh, no”. Its refreshing that the chance for cynical sensationalism to get attention is not taken by a Politician. Over all he seemed interested in was policy which he cited hard fact to back up.

The Future

I will finish off with some political crystal ball gazing (a hazard of having a Political Studies degree).

Does the Conservative party have a future? The answer is we will see. If Colin Craig wins Rodney he could potentially take two MPs with him. Indeed if many got over the standard New Zealand mindset “I want to vote for them, but don’t think they would get in so will vote for a sure thing” they could probably get 5% of the vote.

But forecasting involves the long view; what about next election? It is true if they fail to get in this election they might fizzle away: but if they could gather such great support in 3 months, think what another 3 years worth of support gathering could bring? The ACT party’s future is looking very dire and perhaps people will go shopping for a future coalition partner for National, or they become a large minor party like the Greens who can survive outside of the ruling government.

Vanguards Voting Advice

My voting advice- every one has their own beliefs, and a conscience they have to answer to. Vote according to your conscience be it what ever political party: as at the end of the day you have to live with yourself. What ever you do, vote!

Crystal Cathedral will be sold to the Roman Catholic Diocese

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.

Seeking Sanctity

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 raise a family and it is a blessing - why has everybody forgotten this? Why is it we are so easily distracted from what is really important?

Update: Virgin Mary's belt arrives in Moscow

United Futures fix for pointless bureaucracy

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.

Pandering to pampered patricians

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.

For the Record

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 conversations.

Can we focus the media on real election issues, rather than this manufactured tripe?

How about the MMP referendum?

The way I understand it, if we do not "vote for change" then the politicians can change the rules around MMP any way they wish, and we get no say after election day. If we vote for change, then what happens next is subject to further public consultation and discussion, which could still result in MMP. So vote for change.

Contra Celsum: Humble Pie
Homepaddock: Something related - Politics of hate
ZenTiger: Why parents are criminals

Labour's solution for closing the income gap

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?

When the lunatics take over the asylum

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

Render unto Caesar

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 of what is important or how we should interact with others as they muddle their way through their lives. We mess up, they mess up, we are all fallen creatures in a fallen world.

But if we stop we can apply the "What would Jesus do" test. Can we see Our Lord Jesus Christ doing this?

If not then we shouldn't either.

A question about Green politics and Christianity: is it possible that the resources in the ground, such as oil are there because the Good Lord wants us to use them.

It is clear to me that exploiting oil, despite some downsides has been for the most part beneficial to humanity, resulting in societies where people no longer live under the shadow of famine while living longer and have more fulfilling lives. And perhaps we should see it as a blessing not a curse and use the extra time given to us as a result for advancing God's agenda rather than our own. (You might like to consider the Parable of the Talents at this point)

Odd, very odd

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 ammunition dump explosion in New Mexico, an unhideable explosion had occurred in the deserts there.

Turned out to be the world's first Atom bomb being tested.

Is it possible that we might not being told something? And has Mossad done something in Iran it's best not talked about?

Maori tribe worth

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.

Media narcissists making the news not reporting it

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 messages are being drowned out in this media babble and to the detriment our democracy.

Now can we just forget about this¹ and move on with the things that really matter - like how we are going to provide education, health care and ways our children can make a living when they are grown.

(1) Regular readers will know that I am neither a National Party partisan nor supporter and that I think it is time for ACT to vanish from the political stage. The reason for moving on is so that we can start engaging in political discourse about things of substance

There but for the grace of God go I

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?

Greens supported by weird Christian Cult?

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?

Our economy is built on fake money

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 I'll add it as a link.

Related link: Ian Wishart's new book released for the election campaign ~ TBR

Looking for TinCanMan

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

Why this gay atheists fantasy woman is a Christian

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 ever came to light, but would result in eternal damnation or perhaps an unhappy plague of this-worldly misfortunes even if it didn't. Never mind if she's crazy. I'm a pragmatist, so what she believes to be true is all that matters.

What is telling, if you read the whole thing, is the acknowledgment that the pairing of a man and a woman differs from same sex pairing because of the reproductive aspect and that because of this there is a greater cost in marital infidelity for such unions (explained in Darwinian terms).

Inadvertently, perhaps, reinforcing why Marriage is a heterosexual institution.

In summary though the author resiles from his conclusions

God, that sounds awful. You know what? Screw my hypothetical genes. If the little baby Berings weren’t really mine because my atheist wife had cuckolded me, then the hussy and I would still have a lot of fun raising our darling heathens together.

Source: Can an atheist and a believer have a happy marriage?

Breaking Glass ceilings

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

“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. Belief always leads to action, that’s why ideas are important. Even Pacifists are not passive, they go out and protest.

In an effort to make the world a better place, a person will identify the problems and seek to solve them, or at least rally against them. This has lead to many ideologies seeking revolution- for example Communism is usually associated revolution and the toppling of the old order. Communist revolutionaries sort to make the world a better place, to bring in the “New Man” although they ended up bringing in some of the greatest horror stories in history- examples of which:

*The programs which killed millions in the Soviet Union

*the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia with its genocide and trying to over turn civilisation

* in China the ‘One Child Policy’ with its millions of forced abortions as well as a number of ramifications which will devastate China and potentially the entire world (China will have a massive population collapse, ending its status as an economic power).

The old saying “the road to Hell is paved with good intentions” is so true, statements of “we meant it for the best” so hollow.

Why do people believe in such flawed ideologies? Because they contain truth; indeed sometimes some quite profound insights. But reality is systematic and when truth is taken out of place, ignored or distorted error enters in and that’s were the damage is done. No more so than when the error has to do with the human person, as it always becomes dehumanising.

To quote another saying “the truth will set you free”. Living conformed to reality, to truth, is the way to happiness: error enslaves and damages a person, could you really call that freedom? The only ‘ugly truth’ is that there is error and its crimes.

It is the human vocation to be truth seekers, and from this happiness and fulfilment comes; do not people of all cultures turn to wisemen to try and find happiness? Does not the truth inspire us to great acts? When art captures truth do we not find beauty? Be on watch for error in ideology as it will destroy what is good, truth and beautiful.

The great struggle of our time is between realism and ideology: seek truth and the good and beauty that goes with it, and fight a ceaseless war with error.

Clare Curren on the Catholic Church and radical reform of the world's financial systems

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's directed her right into the Labour Party. 

Perhaps that’s why I’m a member of the Labour Party instead. There’s a set of values that underpin the broader Catholic Church and christianity generally which Labour shares.For social justice, and against greed.

I find this quite revealing and in line with what I've been reading about misdirected faith - when a person of faith loses their faith in God, they direct their faith towards improving the world at the expense of the greater good.  Instead of aiming for heaven, they aim for heaven on earth.  They become utopians, believing that we can create the perfect society here on earth if only the population would co-operate. 

There is a large group within Catholic circles in New Zealand that believe the Church is all about "social justice and against greed" rather than people's souls.  I think this could be because a number of those in authority in NZ no longer believe in personal sin.  Not that any of them have come right out and said this explicitly, but when one NZ Bishop doesn't think there is any one in Hell and another introduces Joy Cowley as a speaker at the Sacred Heart Cathedral when her beliefs aren't Catholic at all, you'd really have to wonder.

I've listened to sermons that sounded like party political broadcasts and they are boring with a hint of nausea.  But when the sermons are actually on Christ and His Gospel and Truth, it shines.  They grab you and command attention.  No need to teach priests how to speak to stop their parishoners from going to sleep, the subject matter does that for you.  The priest who believes is on fire; the guy who's just spouting the formula, heavily laden with social justice themes drones one into insensibility.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen warns us in his book, Those Mysterious Priests, on the danger of this type of politicisation of the Church, a danger that in his time was still to be a future possibility. When Bishops act more like politicians than spiritual leaders we really have to worry, but the signs that things are turning this way, especially in New Zealand are already there.

The gravest danger facing the Church in the future is the politicalization or the turning of theology into politics, seminaries into schools of social service and the preaching of the Word of God into the vague notion of "presence". An intellectual amnesia makes some in the Church forget the demonic power that is hidden behind the exousiai or the powers of the world (1 Corinthians 15:24). Forgotten, too, is the fact that prayer is the most important political action the Christian can possibly take. Prayer-life is far more important that all the protests, burnings, demonstrations, praying on Fifth Avenue for TV cameras and fasting on City Hall steps to the utter oblivion of: "When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites. They make their faces unsightly so that other people (NBC, ABC, and CBS) may see they are fasting" (Matthew 6:16). In almost every instance where priests and religious have divorced the Christ Who is Offerer and Offered, it has resulted in a decline of prayer, a betrayal of revealed truth or apostasy. What is actually going on is a sacerdotal vulgarisation of political extremism. Because the Church has sometimes been behind in implementing social justice, some clerics soaring from ignorance to rapture, turn pulpits into secondhand revolutionary verbiage and vacuous sociological rock and roll. They become the tails of kites, and homiletic spray guns. When the Anti-Christ appears he will be, as St Thomas Aquinas warns, a Potestas Politica, a Political Power."

Already, with Clare Curren's understanding of the the values that underpin both the Church and the Labour Party, we can see the Catholic Church here in New Zealand has lost her way.  The Church is not so much for "social justice" as she is for human beings loving their neighbour as themselves, and she is not so much Just against greed, as she is against people committing any of the capital sins: pride, greed, gluttony, lust, sloth, envy, wrath.  I'd say the Labour Party, while seeking to show itself to be against greed, is totally on board with practising and encouraging envy.  Without their envy politics, I doubt they'd even survive.


Now Clare Curren, in her post got a little excited about a document released recently by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

Tonight Last night I watched a programme on Sky News (Australia) called Mamamia where a pannelist referred to this article, where the Vatican (or  the social justice branch of the Vatican) called for morality to be put back into the heart of economics. And radical reform of the world’s financial systems, including the creation of a global political authority to manage the economy.
I’m not sure morality was ever in the heart of economics. But mark my words. There’s a change happening in our world.
Greed is not ok. Poverty is not ok.
Politicians, social justice activists and those of many religious faiths across our world are forming a new community as we speak. I support that community as long as it’s not driven by vested interests and greed. And the Vatican needs to demonstrate that to the world.

I'm not surprised that Laborites who have transferred their faith into political action would find the document exciting.  How could a socialist resist the force of Catholicism calling for a world wide financial authority.  It would be more than their dream come true and a strong step towards global governance.   The problem is that the members of the Council who released this document went way over the mandate of the Church and suggested solutions that are contrary to what Pope Benedict XVI has written about.  And now the Vatican has swung into full on damage control.

Related link: Something's got to change ~ Red Alert

Goff is a confused Catholic

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 describing the party's election policies as applied Christianity ~ Radio New Zealand

An old post of mine: How to create Socialist Man ~ Sir Humphrey's

A funny system of ethics

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 this manner is just repellent.

A breather

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

The evil men do

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 "corruption" means the sickness of sin which all people are subject too.

And this means in part that we can be blinded by our own self interest or the interests of others close to us. And when confronted with a choice between good and evil we have the capacity to lie, even to ourselves that the action we are taking is for the greater good. This is the lifelong struggle we all face, no matter how essentially good we are.

The people caught up in this maelstrom at Penn State, apart from the sodomizer himself are in Ele's words "the better people"" highly respected, accomplished and honoured - as of course was the sodomizer. And yet they slipped up badly, really badly. And in the cold light of day we wonder why.

But there is great evil in the world and we do close our eyes to it or even participate because we are caught up in events beyond our control and we want to survive and prosper, if we can.

That is why a civilized people, the Germans, were able to close their eyes to the Holocaust which is what most of them did.

Massive bust by Parisian Police

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.

Question of the Day

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.

I wouldn't have bought it even if I could have afforded it.

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.

Why we need a Carbon trading scheme

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 bought you on board so you can pay your share.

Election 2011 - the second day you could have voted

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?

How can we expect Government to set the world's temperature when ....

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.

How big Government grows

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.

Funny old world

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.

At last - a rare breath of common sense in our election campaign.

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

It's come to this

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

Our clean green future after the Greens clean green policies are implemented

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 don't have to concern ourselves over water born diseases too much - in fact we don't give them much thought because apart from a rare case of giardiasis we never see them. And our life expectency is 80.3 years old or so.

And do you know who generated the wealth that enabled us to do this?

Those filthy polluting dairy farmers for the most part.

The unconcious truth

There are some unpalatable truths buried in the excerpt below

A Christchurch woman, whose hand was nearly severed in a machete attack, made a "horrendous" decision to terminate her pregnancy.

Mother-of-two Samantha Ericson, 39, was attacked at her Hornby home in March. Her left hand was almost cut off in the bloody assault.

(Snip)

Ericson was also shocked to discover she was five weeks pregnant a few weeks after the attack.

She was concerned she would not be able to care for the child because of her injuries and worried it might suffer birth defects given the amount of drugs she was on, and decided to have an abortion.

"It was a huge decision. What do I do now? If the baby came out normal I didn't know if I'd be able to hold it. Would I be able to do daycare of that child, the way my hand is? There were a lot of ifs. It was huge. The two children I have mean the absolute world to me," she said.

"To have to bury one of them [her unborn child] was horrendous. It's something I need to live with for the rest of my life."

Source: Anxious victim ends pregnancy