New Zealand Conservative

Hey I feel kinda the same way about folk like him. Having a mouth doesn't come with a right to partake in shaping the next generation so shut the **** up, already, Richard. From a comment on " MCP Watch: Richard Prosser MP " Richard Prosser is a new New Zealand First MP and he has written a book that has upset some people it seems. Be that as it may the right people to " partake in shaping the next generation " are the parents of those children - anyone want to disagree? Of course some extremely wicked people have infiltrated the education system and think they are the right people to " partake in shaping the next generation " and they teach little girls things like it is perfectly ok to dismember your living unborn child if it is going to get in the way of what you want to do. And other things, nearly but not quite, as vile. The fruits of their endevours are quite plain to see - we are a long way from Nirvana.

Recycled United Nations bumph from Reuters and published on Stuff complete with that wonderful tightly cropped picture and caption to left. The end approacheth and this is our (hot) future. You'll be surprised, no doubt, to learn that the expert panel who produced the report has no less than 56 recommendations that we may avert our doom. As reported we see er well the usual bureaucratic boilerplate Among the panel's recommendations, it urged governments to agree on a set of sustainable development goals which would complement the eight Millennium Development Goals to 2015 and create a framework for action after 2015. Indeed! frameworks for action incorporating sustainable development goals are indeed very useful in providing sustenance for those who produce them but have never really accomplished anything when it comes to the sustenance of the poor in East Africa. They should work with international organizations to create an "evergreen revolution," which...

It's Sundance Film Festival time. An excerpt from a documentary film that is making a splash there. There is a certain inevitability about that I suppose.

Yesterday (January 28th) was the feast day in the Church of Saint Thomas Aquinas, the great philosopher, and a Doctor of the Church. He wrote much about the Nature of God, including his massive Summa Theologica . To that end, this reminded me of a part of a book by another Thomas (Thomas E Woods), called " How The Catholic Church Built Western Civilisation ", where he takes the idea of Aquinas' First Cause and simplifies it for the reader. I will link to the page on Google books HERE , but also excerpt it below - Saint Thomas's views are best understood if we begin with thought experiments from the secular world. Suppose you want to purchase a pound of turkey at the deli counter. Upon arrival there, you find that you must take a number before you can place your order. Just as you are about to take a number, however, you find that you are required to take a number before you can take a number. And just as you are about to take that number, you find that you must ...

"They are going through houses and good properties for a few trees and Maori artefacts." When the Motorway was built in Wellington, the Bolton St Cemetery was in the way of it, so graves were moved, no big deal. But Maori have a pantheist view which means they can decide their land is sacred in a way that a cemetery or homeowner's land isn't. It's superstition really, but pandering to superstition seems to be increasing. Related link: Shock at expressway change ~ Dominion Post

I've just been reading the Government's Green Paper on child abuse and had to stop and post on this doozy of a section that I just found on page 16. This is all about an action plan for helping vulnerable children (ie those likely to get abused). The idea is to legislate a "plan", but not the details of the plan. That way the details can be changed at any time without legislation. Here's the exact bit from the document. The New Zealand Government could make changes to legislation that would: • Set out the requirements for a Vulnerable Children’s Action Plan • Set out the purpose and goals of having such a Plan • Create cross-agency accountability for implementing the Plan by, for example, allocating responsibility for it to a group of government chief executives • Specifically recognise the needs of tangata whenua tamariki and include a process for a partnership with iwi, hapu - and other Ma-ori organisations to address those needs • Mandate regular ...

Neeson says of Istanbul: “The call to prayer happens five times a day and for the first week it drives you crazy, and then it just gets into your spirit and it’s the most beautiful, beautiful thing. “There are 4,000 mosques in the city. Some are just stunning and it really makes me think about becoming a Muslim.” He needs to think about this some more. There's nothing stopping him from praying regularly as a Catholic, which I gather he doesn't really practice. Catholicism is a far more intellectual religion than Islam, so Islam tends to suit those that have trouble with concepts such as The Trinity (three persons in one God) or the Incarnation (the Second Person of the Trinity becoming man). If he stays Catholic, no one is going to make him pray like the almost political nature of Islamic group prayer where if you are not there joining in, people will notice. Hilaire Belloc said of the Islamic religion that "it was a perversion of Christian doctrine". That...

May 1945 and a lovely Red Army soldier directs traffic.

Average Kiwi families could be subject to greater state scrutiny if proposed rules around mandatory reporting of suspected child abuse are introduced. A Families Commission report, released today, says agencies' inadequate systems are putting vulnerable children at risk. It calls for better information-sharing between government departments and enhanced reporting by health professionals to safeguard at-risk children. But it also suggests controversial new measures that could expose innocent mums and dads to greater government intervention if child abuse is suspected. More than 22,000 children suffered emotional, physical and sexual abuse, or neglect, in the last financial year. Every year an average of 10 children die at the hands of their family or carers. And how many of those abused children live with their biological married parents? That is the elephant in the room - children are far more likely to be abused if their parent is a single mother and she has a live in b...

Starbucks Microsoft Nike RealNetworks Group Health Cooperative Concur Vulcan I think this is disgusting that large international companies are seeking this sort of blatant political influence.  They deserve to be boycotted at every opportunity by the majority of people who are against the redefinition of marriage. Related links: Starbucks supports gay marriage legislation Microsoft, Vulcan, other companies support gay marriage

Yesterday I was attacked by occasional commenter, Medusa , who told me to get off my arse and get a real job, the implication being that staying home to raise my children is not worth my time and they turn out just fine if a woman works full-time.  In fact she went further and implied her children would turn out better than mine because she worked while they were growing up!  Anyway, Medusa's comment was incredibly catty and I responded in kind, but, it reminded me of this post that I wanted to write. Namely that feminism has influenced very deeply how most people see women in society and what little value is given to motherhood. Marxism early on recognised the bourgeoisie mother at home as a real obstacle in achieving a socialist society and so worked on making all women think that they would be far more valuable working than staying home raising their children and looking after their families. In other words, becoming a generator of income rather than a raiser and tea...

Well good luck don't let the door hit you on the way out An associate professor, who has worked at the university for almost 20 years, said changes to his timetable had led him to look for a job overseas. Quelle horreur He has to take a class at 8am on one day of the week. He would now be required to take a class at 8am and his last class that day was scheduled to start at 5pm. On another day, he had classes from 9am to 10am and then from 11am to 3pm. Perhaps a few years working 12 hour shifts in a coal mine might bring about a change of perspective? Source: Varsity staff angered by changes to timetables

And as we remember this historic anniversary, we must also continue our efforts to ensure that our daughters have the same rights, freedoms, and opportunities as our sons to fulfill their dreams.” Barack Obama On the Anniversary of Roe V Wade What is anybody's life about? It's the big question. What is your purpose? Do you exist just to satisfy your personal desires? To satiate your lusts whatever they be? Or is there something bigger than yourself? For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? The devastating lie, seductive though it may be, in fullfilling your dreams as an aspiration is that for the vast majority of humanity it cannot be. Only a few can achieve the dizzying heights of rock super stardom while somebody has to dig the coal, milk the cows, seal the roads, dig the drains and all the other things that make the world work. That's ok - most people accept and make the best of what they have got and get on with i...

Apparently the display of the banner at the left is a violation of the US Constitution . But the very same document protects this ( WARNING: do not click on the above link without your barf bag handy. Readers with weak hearts are advised to use extreme caution when following it). I wonder if this is what the founding fathers really had in mind when they were framing it?

Part Two Part Three Part Four I really enjoyed watching the above dramatisation on Polish Squadron 303, the men of whom flew in defence of Britain during the Battle of Britain. Despite losing raw recruits left, right and centre, the British were most reticent in allowing the very experienced Polish pilots into the air, and they were only allowed up when one of the pilots broke off from a training run to engage with the enemy. Even then, it was only when their British commander flew with them did he believe they were actually devastatingly effective. So cool to see it, I highly recommend it.

The University College London Union will probably never see any irony in this. The president of a London university atheist society has resigned over a row about an image of the Prophet Muhammad. The society at University College London (UCL) published an image on its Facebook page showing "Jesus and Mo" having a drink at a bar. The atheist group was asked by the UCL union to remove it, but refused and started a petition defending its freedom of expression. A student Muslim group began a counter-petition asking for its removal. The cartoon in question of course is designed to be offensive to Christians as well as Muslims. "The society was asked to remove the image because UCLU aims to foster good relations between different groups of students and create a safe environment where all students can benefit from societies regardless of their religious or other beliefs." Source: Muhammad cartoon row leads to resignation

The contempt for “women and children first” is not a small loss. For soft cultures in good times, dispensing with social norms is easy. In hard times, you may have need of them. Mark Steyn

The premise behind this would not need stating in the pre Oprah Winfrey world where naval gazing and touchy feely sensitivity didn't rule because it couldn't afford to. In the harsh world of the American frontier or on the Eurasian Steppes the worst thing a man could be was a coward - it was perhaps the one unforgivable sin. Related Post: Don’t know courage until tested

Another image from the 21 st century European Union

There is a little in-joke in the title - it doesn't matter if you don't get it the dancing is the thing.

We've lost a recent post for some reason, which means incoming links from other sites clicking on that post get a page not found error. So I'm repeating the last post title to fix that link until a new one comes along. Here's the last post, which has all the magic keyword: Porn and Marriage And here's a little bit of information on " Lolicon "

But I say to you, that whosoever shall look on a woman to lust after her, has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Ego autem dico vobis : quia omnis qui viderit mulierem ad concupiscendum eam, jam mœchatus est eam in corde suo. Matthew 5:28 Pornography is one of the modern world's marriage destroyers, yet very few people today make the effort to stay away from it.  As Jesus says, if you look lustfully at a woman, you've already committed adultery with her in your heart. Jason Evert in the YouTube clip talks about the destructive effects of pornography on a marriage.  He asks how marriage can last if a man is constantly comparing the images he sees in pornography with his wife, and  how he can be satisfied with her body if he's been trained to become bored with women's bodies in 15 to 30 seconds. Very few marriages can survive infidelity and pornography is a means of being unfaithful, no matter how people rationalise it. If you are shocked by ...

I don't think he's the right guy for the job but this good to see. The whole thing is a circus and the media are the ones who have made it so.

An address at Disney world, Florida in which Tourism is touted as a great hope for the future. Well the USA is a great place to visit - I have been there several times - even been to Disney World, Fla. It's not so pleasant these days I'm told - heaven help you if you have the misfortune to wear a colostomy bag and seek to travel within the borders of the "Land of the free" in these uncertain times. Of course in a time of large scale unemployment and uncertainty over energy supplies, along with the reliance upon sourcing oil from places in unfriendly hands you might think that an administration with its hands on the tiller would welcome the construction of a pipeline from its nearest neighbour. A secure and reliable source of the fuel that powers our civilization. And from a regime that is friendly to the United States. But in Fantasy Land the provision of jobs and securing energy supplies presumably remains a task for Tinkerbell .

Epiphany was Feast with a higher profile than Christmas once upon a time. It is all but forgotten in the West (celebrated on January 6 th ) but not in the East where in many places it was celebrated yesterday, January 6 th as reckoned by the Julian Calendar. You probably wont see this on the TV News - but this is a day to recall the Baptism of Christ and yours also.

Looks like the SOPA Bill has hit a temporary setback: Hat tip Crusader Rabbit Last I heard, the film and media companies were looking to copyright internet protest action, in the vain hope that the internet would actually pay attention to their copyright. Please copy this post, and pass it on. Th, th, th, that's all folks (c) -------------- Further details bitTorrent, file shared and copied from here: Internet Freedom extended a few months. And covered on NZC here: Please look at this broken link

It's in Italian with sub-titles, however, it's still incredibly compelling. Even thought I've already read the transcript in the Dominion Post today, I was hanging onto every word.

Irene Papas was so beautiful and this is so sad. When this movie came out this scene caused controversy in Greece, people said Greeks didn't do things like this. The original writer, Nikos Kazantzakis, claimed it happened in 1910 or so. Who knows, great movie, great scene

Manhood surrendered Manhood intact Update: As more details emerge another name comes to the fore - Captain Roberto Bosio who was on the ship by chance and who took charge after the ships master had failed to “We managed to avoid the worse and have the world crash down around us. I just want to rest and forget. “Don’t call me a hero. I just did my duty, the duty of a sea captain – actually the duty of a normal man. “I and the others with me just did our duty. We looked each other in the eyes for a second and then we Just got on with it.”

A reminder of the evils that truly plague the world: The Venerable Bede records that Fursey experienced a vision, in which angels carried him out of his body to a great height. Looking down into a gloomy valley, he saw four fires . The first, an angel explained, was Falsehood ; the next Covetousness ; the third Discord and the last Injustice . Gradually these fires drew together into one mighty conflagration. Fursey became alarmed. The angel, though, reassured him: “It will not burn you because you did not kindle it; for although it appears as a great and terrible fire, it tests everyone according according to his desert, and will burn away sinful desires. ” Fursey did not entirely escape, for one of the demons who tortured fallen spirits in the flames thrust a victim against him, causing him to be burnt on his (presumably ghostly) shoulder and jaw. Fursey recognised the man, and remembered that he had appropriated some of his clothes after he died. Restored once more to his b...

Here's a link to the details of SOPA which threatens internet freedom: Stop Online Piracy Act Only problem is, the link may not be working for the next 24 hours as Wiki threaten to go dark in protest against the proposed legislation. Apparently, the legislators are backing off and Obama is backing the winds of change - and doesn't support the legislation, at least in its current form. Text of the SOPA Bill Among other things, the bill grants immunity from prosecution to all of the companies and organisations that jump on the bandwagon and help to shut down a "suspect" site. The implication then being they face prosecution if they don't take any action. There are many sites discussing the negative side of SOPA, so I just want to make one point about legislation such as this. That point is that this type of legislation places the onus (costs and risks) on businesses to enforce government mandates, or they themselves be punished. This has been happening...

Good can come out of evil. After the last few days of being vilified and misrepresented by the misogynists* of A Voice for Men , in researching them I found this wonderful blog, called The Thinking Housewife . Last year she posted a review of a 1950's British movie on aviation which gave a small insight into the mind of the man who took risks of over sixty years ago. The film, released as Decision Against Time in America and directed by Charles Crichton,  is interesting for its portrayal of the almost entirely male world of commercial aviation and for its aerial cinematography, but also for its sensitive exploration of the psychology of the male provider. Though made less than 60 years ago, this is a world in which a female commercial pilot is unimaginable. At the beginning of the story, Mitchell realizes he is unable to afford a better house for his family and that his company faces bankruptcy if its n...

The anwers for yesterdays challenge (as I see them) are below the fold What was interesting but not entirely surprising was the universal misidentification of Jean de Lattre de Tassigny as being Charles de Gaulle. They are pictured together on the left. A mistake no Frenchman would make I'd posit. The other interesting thing was the placement of Lake Ladoga in Finland rather than Russia. The Northern part of the lake is encompassed by Ladoga Karelia, a then disputed region of Karelia which was held by the Finns from 1920 to 1940 and again contested from 1941 to 1944 during the Continuation War after which it was ceded to the Soviet Union. Today it is included in the Republic of Karelia, a constituent part of the Russian Federation. Does this answer represent a cold war reading of age old European tribal and ethnic politics, I wonder? When it comes down to it the Finns found themselves fighting on the side of the Axis, not because of any ideological agreement with the Nazis bu...

Good to see some celebrities not afraid to come out and talk about their faith.

There are great tales of heroism at sea, of captains going down with their ship after ensuring all that could be done has been done. But I guess this is not one of those stories: 'Get onboard, for f--k's sake!'

So - World War 2 was a while ago now. For my kids the Battles of El Alamein and Kursk might just as well be the Battle of Thermopylae. So it goes, things get forgotten as newer events take priority - my youngest studied the 1981 Springbok tour last year - like that's important when compared to El Alamein in Kiwi national consciousness. Kiwis fought and died at El Alamein - what's a minor civil disorder compared with that? Got me thinking though - El Alamein is more on Kiwi's radar than Kursk despite Kursk being fought on a scale that dwarfed El Alamein. At Kursk German casualties alone well outnumbered the total number of men the Germans had on the field at El Alamein. They may have exceeded 500,000 according to some sources. Kursk was a super battle fought on a super scale. But since there were probably no New Zealanders on the field at Kursk and a great many at El Alamein it is only natural as well as right and proper that the latter battle has a higher profile he...

Greece default fears grow Actually this has been the headline of the day every day for the past nine months, Christmas day excepted. It's not only Greece, below a two day old Romanian picture - though Romania's problems are not on our radar yet.

Lucia Maria did a post a few days ago ( True Grown Ups... ) that certainly upset an author called "John the other" on the blog/website of "A voice for men": Real Men are Disposable, so says Maria . Only problem is, I think his interpretation of her post is a little off, and the subsequent extrapolations made by him and others on that thread about what they think she meant are way off the planet. And I'm not talking Earth or Mars. They could be right out by Pluto or coming out of Uranus. Lucia may be from Venus, but they think she's from Planet Man-eater! (I use "they" in the sense I lump most of the commenters in with John's post. Those comments though do not necessarily represent John's opinion. Just read the whole thread and take what you will from it.) John starts off: Lucia Maria recently explained in her January 13 article that grown-up men should quit trying to have human rights, and go back to dying for her convenience. I do...

This should be considered an absurdity but in our litigious times it is par for the course I'm afraid: Dr Jeffrey John: senior Gay cleric plans legal action after bishop role snub He's entitled to be a Bishop? He's willing to inflict further damage on the Anglican Church to make his point? It is darned hard to bring up our children in the Faith that was handed down to us and this sort of circus does not make it any easier.

An old newsreel on Poles finding refuge in Persia (now Iran) during WWII. Just one minor error that I noticed in what the commentator was saying - the Poles were not pushed out of the Soviet Union by the Nazis - they were released by the Soviets, as they had been prisoners in the Soviet Union right up until the Soviets were attacked by their ally, Nazi Germany. This then necessitated agreements with their new allies, whom they'd been formerly attacking and imprisoning. It seems during WWII, any mention of this embarrassing fact was omitted. Anyway, I was quite excited to find this newsreel on YouTube. My Dad was one of those who made it to Persia as a 14 year old. Actually, he was probably a little younger, but saying he was 14 got him into the Cadets, which didn't make him old enough to fight in the war, but did mean he got vocational training as a welder. For more about my father's family's story, see my experiences of motherhood and conservatism , where I...

Ele lives on a farm so the weather, rain or lack of thereof and so forth is a matter of deep concern to her. Which is why she often does weather related posts - like this one , which prompted me to look up the current weather for Yakutsk and mighty nasty it was there at the time I did it. Today it has improved The weather in our four main centers compared with Yaktutsk at 1500 today. Here are the latest available figures for comparison. So if it is not nice where you are over the next few days you can see how others elsewhere are faring with regard to their weather.

The accused's mother has said that he had been portrayed as a monster by the media and angry locals had abused her family. Beating a sleeping five year old girl to a pulp and raping her in her own bed are the actions of a monster. I think we all agree. Source: Judge's words horrify victim's parents

And here's Carly's Blog: Carly's Voice

This is worse The images of war took much longer to appear but appear they did. Los desastres de la guerra - Francisco Goya

KG sent me this - he saw it on Powerline . I think it may have originated here .

A few days ago Crusader Rabbit linked to two articles related to the website A Voice for Men titled Feminazi "journalist" gets her ass kicked. Big time .  One was an attack on the material contained on the site and the other was an attack on the female journalist who dared to attack the site.  They think the Voice for Men author is winning the argument with the female journalist, however it is early days as she has said that she will go through the assertions she's made in her opening article in more detail in the near future, and therefore there is not a lot of substance to what she's said.  Yet.  I'm sure it will come. I've been thinking about the issues that were brought up by both articles over the last several days.  As there is a bit of a cross-over in the material that I've been reading and this subculture of men who feel disadvantaged and discriminated against by just being men, I thought I'd broaden the perspective a little. In a 190...

The Herald is hand wringing: Attack highlights 'bystander apathy' Meanwhile the BBC reports on the fate of a man who came to the aid of a train conductor: 'Big Man' charged over train eviction 21 st century disconnect.

Just before 5pm today, while I was sitting at the computer writing one of the few posts appearing on this blog today, and trying to maintain a comfortable environment on my lap for the cat, it hailed outside. It's summer time here in New Zealand! Isn't it? Where did this hail come from? Any thing more like this could wreck my tomatoes, of which only one has ripened so far. Normally I have heaps of tomatoes by Christmas, but not this season.

“The Way” is the story of Tom (Sheen), a widower, sometime Catholic and a Malibu dentist, whose son, Daniel (Estevez), decides to leave his doctorate behind and see the world. As Tom drives Daniel to the airport, he scolds him for not taking his place in the world. Daniel answers that he needs to find what that place is and gently suggests that his dad might do the same. Not long after, Tom’s golf game is interrupted by a call with the news that Daniel has died in a small town in the French Pyrenees. Tom leaves immediately to bring his son’s body home. But once there, a kind police detective informs him that in this remote town his son was about to leave on a spiritual pilgrimage to the medieval shrine of Santiago de Compostela, where many believe the relics of St. James the Apostle are interred. Tom has Daniel’s remains cremated and then decides that the two of them together will make this journey, which is also called pilgrimage, the way, or camino. People make this camino ...

Vicious attack on pregnant women with "crowd of bystanders" able to take photos. And a couple of people caught shoplifting , and they try to explain that there has been a misunderstanding, and are actually entitled to take the goods. The video goes viral.

A lot of outrage over tourists giving food to this woman and her fellow tribes people to dance for their cameras. Yes - it is demeaning . And yet such things go on all over the world. There is no country in the world where this doesn't occur in some form or another - and in many cases far more repulsive and degrading than this is. And no one alive in the western world is innocent of participation in such things however vicariously - reality TV is not particularly decorous now is it? Here is a tourist attraction in Amsterdam And that is positively benign when compared to what might be produced in the San Fernando valley in the good old USA - be warned! We are fallen creatures in a wicked world.

Kids scratching through the garbage looking for anything of value that they can use to obtain the essentials of daily life. We are not talking I-pads here, we are talking "their daily bread" . And yet the New Zealand Herald is more concerned about - Ethical shopping: Shop right and protect the orang-utans' forests The reason why our most desperate poor are not anywhere near as desperate as these children is because the dynamic forefathers of this country cleared bush and drained swamps to create pasture for dairy cows thus creating the wealth that provides the education and opportunities that our children enjoy today. Ethical shopping might include buying Indonesian Toilet paper thus providing Indonesia with a little hard currency to help improve the lot of the Indonesian poor? What do you think?

This is just so confusing - well not confusing, it's wrong ! Multiple trips to fertility doctors, three miscarriages and $60-$70,000 out of pocket, Tanya was left with little choice: if she was going to become a mother, she would need a free sperm donor. But for the 39-year-old, the formal process of searching for a suitable candidate on the Free Sperm Donor Register turned into something far from expected - a blossoming new romance. And, despite the relationship, Tanya is determined to be the only legal parent if she does eventually have a baby . There was one important 21 st century ritual to be undergone before they could proceed though. They exchanged STD results before consummating the relationship. Sounds so romantic .

More Alice in Wonderland absurdity from the land of the free. When the companies that supply motor fuel close the books on 2011, they will pay about $6.8 million in penalties to the Treasury because they failed to mix a special type of biofuel into their gasoline and diesel as required by law. But there was none to be had. Outside a handful of laboratories and workshops, the ingredient, cellulosic biofuel, does not exist . That's really really clever, pass a law that it is impossible to comply with then penalize the law breakers. An idea worthy of the Red Queen herself.

The new CEO of Apple, Tim Cook is to receive a US$378M dollar pay packet . This consists largely of shares, but it's still ridiculously huge, and totally unwarranted, IMHO. Particularly when you hear the logic: The compensation is warranted because investors expect Cook to continue releasing the kinds of products that made Apple the world’s most valuable technology company, said Kevin Dede, an analyst at Brigantine Advisors in New York. Do you put down a $378M non-refundable deposit based on expectations that some-one is going to cook up new products? What happened to risk and reward? This really is over-the-top and unnecessary. Almost makes me think all Apple employees need to get a million in stock each to ensure they work harder and smarter.

Longfin eels breed only once , at the end of their life. When they are ready to breed, they leave New Zealand and swim 5000 kilometres up into the tropical Pacific to spawn, probably in deep ocean trenches somewhere near Tonga. When they reach their destination, the females lay millions of eggs that are fertilised by the male. The larvae are called leptocephalus and look nothing like an eel - they are transparent, flat, and leaf-shaped. The larvae reach New Zealand by drifting on ocean currents [which can take 1 to 2 years]. Before entering fresh water, the leptocephalus change into a more familiar eel shape, although they remain transparent for up to a week after leaving the sea. These tiny "glass" eels enter fresh water between July and November each year, often in very large numbers. Eels take many years to grow and it could be decades before an individual is ready to undertake the long migration back to the tropics to breed. The average age at which a longfin eel mi...

Make sure you have some tissues handy You can watch the video and then ..... Discover the background

Pope: Gay marriage a 'threat to humanity' Pope Benedict says gay marriage is one of several threats to the traditional family that undermines "the future of humanity itself". The pope made some of his strongest comments against gay marriage in a new year address to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Vatican in which he touched on some economic and social issues facing the world today. He told diplomats from nearly 180 countries that the education of children needed proper "settings" and that "pride of place goes to the family, based on the marriage of a man and a woman''. Raw meat tossed to enlightened 21st century types who think that babies come from the cabbage patch or something. And from whence they may be distributed to "parents" who want them regardless of gender and/or sexual identity. Still rather than discuss the issues raised by the Pope in an adult manner the easiest thing to do is to change the subject .   Upd...

Homepaddock reports on a dinosaur find in Auckland. I don't recall seeing a satire tag, so it could be true: Paleontologists flock to study dinosaurs.

People have got to eat. To eat they either have to grow food or do something useful which they can exchange for food. Squid is good food so some people go and catch squid and exchange it for the things they need to survive and prosper in this sorry world. Some people think catching squid is bad because it impacts on the sealions or something and therefore the Government shouldn't let people catch squid. The people who think other people shouldn't catch squid are very often people who are prospering, they are often employed in secure jobs and paid from taxes extracted from the people who do useful things, things like catching squid funnily enough. Squid that can be consumed in fancy eateries where University lecturers can dine upon dishes like calamari green salad and seafood chowder while lamenting with their colleagues how "greedy humans" are raping the planet. And killing the sea lions and polar bears in order to "line their pockets". Really of...

Google have rolled back their changes automatically changing blogspot URLs from .com to .co.nz to all New Zealand users of Blogger. Did our posts here and on the Blogger support forum and the Alexa support forum have any effect? Maybe. In the meantime, I will claim, Victory! For more information, see Google have stuffed up New Zealand Blogger and Has Blogger changed our Domain Name?

This morning, without any obvious warning, Google decided to implement new region based domain names for all NZ and Australian Blogger accounts. Our post: Has Blogger Changed Our Domain Name? So our assigned URL went from nzconservative.blogspot.com to nzconservative.co.nz for people accessing the .com address in NZ. However, if you live in Australia, you'd instead see nzconservative.com.au. If you happened to be in the USA and accessed our blog directly, it would presumably resolve to the .com address, but one commenter from Texas has noted that by going via a link on an Australian blog, they also get the .com.au address. This change has also affected other NZ blogs such as Contra Celsum, No Minister, Liberty Scott, Oswald Bastable's Ranting and so on. In general terms, this should have no direct impact to our blog. Sure, it makes it easier for the government to apply filters to shut down our blog in NZ, but to complain about that here might get our blog shut down...

A sociologist in England has come up with this (M)onogamy has ostracised men from doing what they most want to do. He writes in his new book The Monogamy Gap: Men, Love, and the Reality of Cheating, that cheating is the norm, not the exception to it, and it’s high time that people start embracing ‘sexually open relationships that coexist without hierarchy or hegemony.’ He's done a study In the study, Mr Anderson surveyed 120 undergraduate men – both gay and straight. He found that 78 per cent of those with partners cheated, ‘even though they said that they loved and intended to stay with their partner.’ In this world there are lots of things I'd like to do - it doesn't make them right. And if everybody did what they wanted to do whenever they wanted to do it - well our civil society wouldn't last very long, now would it? (1) People who do what they like regardless of the effect on other people are called er what's the word ? Psychopaths, that's it, psyc...

Husband admits having two wives . I know why this is wrong and why it is an offense under New Zealand statutes, and English and American ones for that matter. But what harm does it do for this man to marry another woman without divorcing his first wife? Nobody is hurt are they? It is his own private affair and nobody's business but his own? Surely in this modern day and age it is archaic to restrict a man to one wife at a time regardless of whether they all cohabit or not? He wouldn't have committed an offense if he had just shacked up with wife one despite having two children with her now would have he. So what does that piece of paper really mean?

I am alarmed to see our assigned NZ conservative domain name changed from a dot com (xxx.blogspot.com) address to a dot co dot nz xxx.blogspot.co.nz) address. At this stage, it seems to me that Google have arbitrarily changed our assigned domain name without any form of notification or warning. Even though there is a redirect on, I'm not sure if it is also the cause of several issues I've experienced with some browser utilities and have yet to see the impact on our Stat Counter tools. A quick look and it seems Alexa has picked up the change, with our page rank going from 322,000 or so to 16 million, supposedly as it is detecting a new blog. Has anyone else noticed their NZ blogger domains changing? Update: A "planned" event to make it easier to allow different countries to prevent blog sites from publishing content in their country. Read the details here: Why does my blog redirect to a country specific URL? If you want to preserve your blog address you nee...