New Zealand Conservative

Today's Dominion Post contains a perfect example of a person who has taken in the media interpretation of Pope Francis and considers that to be the correct one.  Here's Des Darroch of Kilbirnie's, "Point to the Editor", published in the Dominion Post today: Monica Devine (Letters, Dec 30) criticises the rector of St Patrick's College, Silverstream, for allowing same-sex partners to attend the school ball.  Pope Francis, Time magazine's person of the year, responding to a recent question about gay rights said: "Who am I to judge".  Pope Francis needs every encouragement in 2014. There are so many things wrong with Des' interpretation of what Pope Francis said and why he said it and what it might mean, that I really need to break everything down in order to be clear. Pope Francis talking to the press on the plane back to Rome from Rio De Janeiro after World Youth Day, 28 July 2013 On 28 July, 2013, Pope Francis held a press conference du...

Colin Hogg from the NZ Herald comments today on the dross that was served up to us as holiday fare on TV this Christmas season. There's no such thing as bad television. There's just some stuff you wouldn't watch unless your life depended on it, and that's a little hard to imagine. Unless you're a TV critic, of course, and you're viewing your way through that strange and barren time around Christmas and New Year when the channels empty out their rubbish and their recycle bins. It's a cruel and merciless season and if there's anything new at all it's either full of Christmas cheer or it's stuff they didn't want to run when the advertisers were interested. On Christmas Day it would have felt almost irreligious not to watch  The Queen's Christmas Message  (TV One, 6:50) and, anyway, she only talked for 10 minutes and it was about the only time you heard God mentioned during the religious holiday on prime time TV He is right, of c...

I continue to be amazed how many news articles there have been published in the New Zealand news media on Pope Francis.  This is probably because he is considered to be less Catholic than other Popes have been.  For this reason, it is important for those that are really interested in what Pope Francis has to say, to read better news than just the local Stuff, because there is important information being missed out in the more secular NZ press. Compare the New Zealand Stuff article from Reuters with the much more comprehensive AsiaNews.it .  Pope Francis was talking about Saint Stephen's martyrdom, celebrated by the Church as a Feast Day on the day after Christmas.  The day we more commonly refer to as Boxing Day, or the day when everyone goes to the shops to get really good sales items. The Stuff article connects Pope Francis' words to what is occurring in Islamic countries with regards to religious freedom.  However, religious freedom is also under attack...

The link is not related to this book.  Or it is. The Universe as a Hologram: A very interesting theory that sounds a bit like looking into the mind of God (but that's just me). An interesting panel discussion in the link below that discusses the concept and what it means for quantum physics, black holes and our view of the universe. The thin sheet of reality

It's been suggested by the warmists that AGW Scientists are not the sort that make ridiculous statements without having the full force of scientific consensus to fall back on. This list of newspaper articles shows many stories on AGW are laced with thick doses of hype, made by politicians and experts alike in their crusade to justify global taxation schemes. Meanwhile, an ice breaker is caught in the ice during the summer months down in the Antarctic. The larger ice breaker sent to free it has had to turn back. Maybe the science isn't settled after all? On the other hand, do we have the same scientists lining up to announce that man made climate change is the cause behind less extreme weather events? The logic used here is that whenever extreme weather events occur, it must be man made climate change to blame, so I'm presuming the good news for 2013 in the USA can only mean all those extra fuel miles burned up to get to Copenhagen and Kyoto have really paid off for...

NZ is raising more and more of these types of human beings that don't act human, that act like animals with no regard for the safety of the victims, no sense of proportion, no understanding that overwhelming force just to steal is completely unnecessary. My guess is the teenagers involved in the attack on German tourists on Boxing Day have not been raised in proper family structures and act more like animals in a pack, or even zombies, than rational human beings because they just don't know any other way. It's horrifying. Four teenagers will appear in court today charged in relation to the alleged aggravated robbery yesterday of two German tourists camping in Whakatane. The German couple's camping trip turned into a nightmare when they were forced to flee their attackers following the early-morning Boxing Day attack in the Bay of Plenty town. Three of those charged in relation to the the attack are males aged, 14, 17 and 18. The fourth person is a female ag...

Whew, it looks like everything is working now! What have I done, you ask?  Well, I've added the commenting system, Disqus to this blog. After seeing it in action on multiple blogs, I came to like how it allowed me to keep track of commenters across numerous blogs.  Though, I seem to be one of the few people that actually follow others on it. I also liked the ability to reply to comments directly and the voting system.  Having gotten used to voting for really good comments on some blogs, I found myself frustrated when there was no voting ability on others. Most of all, however, I like how it's more connective.  Through being able to see the activity of commenters on other sites, it's makes blogs that use it feel less isolated from each other. Here is my profile on Disqus . If you scroll down, you will see comments I have left on other sites as shown below: I'm also following 10 people, and that allows me to see their comments when I go to my Dashboard ....

Have a wonderful and safe Christmas, everyone! We're off to midnight Mass tonight, for the first time for me in many years, and for the first time ever for my children and husband. Should be good! The commenting does work, so if you don't see it, try using your mobile app for now until I get it sorted out properly.

I'm changing the commenting system over to a 3rd party and have run into some trouble with it, in that what should have been a simple import and change over has not been. It did pop up briefly for me on one post and then disappear again, which is weird. I'll look at it again tonight, but in the meantime, our commenting is not quite available. Or maybe it will just start working by itself. Hopefully! UPDATE : I've been in contact with Disqus support and they've sent me a screenshot of this post with a comment loaded in Disqus. That's the comment I made from the mobile. Apparently it's all working. I haven't had a chance to go through all their suggestions to make it work for me on my desktop, but in the meantime, if anyone out there can actually see the comments, please make a comment and let me know. UPDATE 2 : Interesting. Clearing all my cookies (after just trying the Disqus cookie) allowed me to see the comments. Logging into Google made them...

Image from The Financial Review Good on Tony Abbott!!! A ban on parents smacking their children risks turning Australia into a nanny state , says Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who admits he smacked his own kids. A UN Committee on the Rights of the Child report asks Australia to abolish the right of parents to use reasonable chastisement to discipline children, News Corp Australia reports. The committee would also like teachers and childcare workers to report cases of parents smacking their children . But the idea has not grabbed Mr Abbott. "I was probably one of those guilty parents who did occasionally chastise the children, a very gentle smack I've got to say," Mr Abbott told the Seven Network on Thursday. "I think that we've got to treat our kids well, but I don't think we ought to say there's no place ever for smacks. "All parents know that occasionally the best thing we can give is a smack, but it should never be something that...

Jan Karski, before a wall-map of the Warsaw Ghetto at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum , recalls his secret 1942 missions into the Nazi "prison-city-within-a-city" (From Wikipedia ) Cool. As many readers will know, I am of Polish descent and all things Polish from WWII interest me greatly. The Polish parliament has declared 2014 as “Karski Commemoration Year,” named after legendary anti-Nazi Resistance fighter Jan Karski, who brought the first updated reports about the extermination of European Jews to England, and later to the United States, in the fall of 1942. Karski was also one of the Righteous Gentiles and an honorary citizen of Israel. Last Friday’s decision by the Polish parliament was supported unanimously by all members of both the ruling party and the opposition. It was the result of an intiative by Poland’s Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorsky, and was sponsored by Poland’s President, Bronislaw Komorowski. Throughout the year, Poland’s re...

From NewsTalkZB: There's been a massive change to New Zealand's religious landscape. New census data shows Catholics outnumber Anglicans for the first time in New Zealand history. At the March census, just over 490,000 people identified themselves as being Catholic, compared with 460,000 Anglicans. Unfortunately, last census in 2006, there were 508,437 Catholics in New Zealand, so the top position is not really that much of a newly attained status to celebrate. After the figures were publicised, I was amazed at the number of people who phoned into NewsTalkZB the other day, and believed in God and Jesus and quite a bit of the whole Christian landscape, yet did not want to identify themselves as religious and therefore picked the "No religion" option in the census. As my son says, they're hippies, against authority and human structures, yet people need both in order to flourish. Identifying as religious has now declined overall in New Zealand to below 50...

I used to admire Rodney Hide. His blog was the first political blog that I spent quite a bit of time on when I first ventured into the NZ online political scene. It must have been around 2003. Anyway, I thought he was pretty clued on at the time. Now I can only shake my head at reading this sort of thing: I am left wondering if the conspiracy theorists have found a welcoming home with the new Conservative Party. Certainly Craig was anxious not to offend those who believe that governments are mass dosing us, that 9/11 was a government job, and that Nasa staged the moon landings in Nevada. Of course, it could be that Craig genuinely believes such nonsense possible. After all, conspiracy theories have the same amount of supporting evidence as the idea that a supernatural being made the earth and all its creatures in six days in 4004BC and now oversees human affairs. The defining characteristic of the Conservatives may well be gullibility. I consider myself to be a Conservative,...

Rocket Scientists don't always have the answers Religion. It's not rocket science.  It doesn't pretend to be. For some though, science is a religion, or at the least, some imagine science can replace it. I seems some people are waking up to the fact that religion doesn't kill people, politics kills people (The biggest criticism of Islam is it is as much a political system as it is religious.) Getting rid of religion just creates a world of atheists, some of which will find other reasons to run their own power-mad agendas. An article over on Salon discusses  the "new atheists" (Hitchens, Harris, Dawkins and others) are (or were, in the case of Christopher Hitchens) are so fixated on the idea that religion poisons everything, they are unwilling to face up to the flawed nature of human nature, and how this plays out in the real world, not their imaginary world built on biased interpretation of religion.  It's not always about religion, it's m...

Rush Limbaugh - Shock Jock Rush Limbaugh, a shock jock (so guess what's coming next) accuses the Pope of preaching Marxism. That was attack number one. The liberal/progressive media carrying this story likes to represent that Rush Limbaugh speaks for all Conservatives. That was attack number two. Here, the media want to promote the idea that Christian Conservatives are for sticking it to the poor. It's a win-win. Paint the Pope as a Marxist, paint the conservatives as heartless. Rush's comments are dealt with quite easily. His polemic view is simplistic to the point of stupidity. Anyone criticizing excessive greed is not automatically a Marxist. I like the Vatican response: "It does not seem worth the trouble of answering seriously," said a Vatican spokesman. . A quick Google search finds plenty of other places quite willing to take the trouble to answer, although after all is said and done, it really isn't worth taking the time to answer se...

I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the cultural sensitivity that is being brought up is actually invented for political gain. How else to explain the story today that Maori are will be offended that workers ate food outdoors near a place where archeological work was being carried out? A Labour MP has accused Kapiti Expressway workers of being "extremely offensive" to Maori by eating their lunch at a wahi tapu site as historical human remains lay nearby. Darien Fenton said at a transport and industrial relations select committee meeting yesterday that the workers were spotted eating their lunch at the wahi tapu site at El Rancho, Waikanae, which includes the Takamore urupa, and a macrocarpa known as the Maketu tree. But the New Zealand Transport Agency denied that the particular site in question was wahi tapu, and believed appropriate protocols were followed. Ms Fenton told the committee she had spoken to two women from Te Ati Awa. "[They] understood the si...

Luna 2, the first man made object to land on the Moon, sent by the Soviet Union. If what's been spread on the airwaves is to be believed, Colin Craig doesn't believe men landed on the moon. Amazing how what someone says can be spread like Chinese Whispers where it almost takes on a life of it's own. Yet the story, as reported in The Herald is this: Mr Craig's initial comments were made during an interview with RadioLive host Marcus Lush. Mr Craig said he had "no idea'' whether astronauts had landed on the moon, and hadn't had the chance to look into chemtrails - a conspiracy theory that suggests the trails left by aircraft come from the deliberate spreading of chemicals. Asked about the moon landing conspiracy - which suggests the Apollo landings were faked by the US government - Mr Craig replied: "I don't have a belief or a non-belief in these things, I jut don't know." Asked again, Mr Craig said he had "no idea...

Abortion inspires Diabolical behaviour: Buenos Aires, December 2nd, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Extremely disturbing video footage from Argentina shows a mob of feminists at a recent protest attacking and sexually molesting a group of Rosary-praying Catholic men who were peacefully protecting the cathedral in the city of San Juan from threats of vandalism. The women, many of them topless, spray-painted the men’s crotches and faces and swastikas on their chests and foreheads, using markers to paint their faces with Hitler-like moustaches. They also performed obscene sexual acts in front of them and pushed their breasts onto their faces, all the while shouting “get your rosaries out of our ovaries.” (Note: Some of the most graphic content has been removed from the video. Uncensored footage is available here. Viewer discretion strongly advised.) According to InfoCatolica, some of the women chanted a song, with the lyrics: “To the Roman Catholic Apostolic Church, who wants to get bet...

A winning formula Dr Manny writes: Over the years, as sperm donation has increasingly become a public matter, more of the children born from donor sperm are attempting to find their biological fathers. As people see this movie over the Thanksgiving holiday, I think that it will open up some broader questions about how we can better regulate this industry. I think the film should also raise discussions about just how much information should be available to children born from donors in order for them to better explore their own identity. I think everybody wants to know about their backgrounds, and for some people, this information might make them feel more whole and create a more stable sense of identity. Is it important to find your biological parents? Is your family tree an artificial construct, potentially filled with pairs of fathers and mothers that are irrelevant to your genetic history? This will increasingly become the case, and even with a certain amount of social condi...

The best decisions are made after a good nights sleep OK the heading is somewhat misleading, but now that you are here, you may as well read the post.  It isn't that long. I saw a billboard advertisement that was supposed to be funny. Girl takes boy to a hotel room (the point of the advertisement), barely knows his name, and so uses a sticky note to remember in the morning. We sow what we reap. By that, I don't mean I blame the women.  I mean that sending mixed messages such as these confuses people and there are no clear boundaries being set on what is moral, and healthy.  The outcome of such promiscuity are many cases of hurt and emotional pain.  Furthermore, the Chads of this world think consent was valid even when the women can't remember his name.  If it is, that's a pretty low bar to set for future interactions.

I could not believe what I read in the paper today. Looks like Peter Dunne is feeling very threatened by Colin Craig and his Conservative Party: United Future leader Peter Dunne is warning John Key he will have a tiger by the tail if he throws his weight behind the Conservatives. Dunne is famous for his dramatic rise in popularity in the 2002 election thanks to his popularity with TV's "worm", which turned his party from a one-man band to an eight-strong caucus. But he has claimed that some of the Christian MPs who rode his coat-tails into Parliament that year believed it was God, not him, who turned the worm. "The explanation I got was I was God's vessel. It was nothing to do with me. I didn't move the worm . . . that was all God's great plan and he used me and the worm debate to achieve the outcome." Many of the MPs whom Dunne took with him into Parliament that year were promoted by Christian backers, and he has since severed contact wit...

Bishop Paprocki in Illinois is brave man: In front of 500 followers, Paprocki asked God to “deliver us from evil” caused by same sex marriage. “I exorcise you, every unclean spirit, every power of darkness, every incursion of the infernal enemy, every diabolical legion, cohort, and faction, in the name and power of our Lord Jesus Christ,” he said. “Be uprooted and put to flight from the Church of God from souls created in the image of God and redeemed by the precious blood of the divine lamb. “Dare no more, oh cunning serpent, to deceive the human race, to persecute the church of God, to shake the chosen of God and sift them like wheat.” “Be gone Satan, father of lies, enemy of human salvation,” Paprocki said at the conclusion of the exorcism. “Give way to Christ, in whom you found no trace of your works. Give way to the one, holy, Catholic and apostolic church, which Christ himself won by his blood.” If only one had been performed in New Zealand by our Bishops, or even one of...

I'm watching this story with interest. From Congregation unite in protest at suspension of parish priest : Only a handful of parishioners remained yesterday to take mass at St John Ogilvie's Church in High Blantyre with Archdiocese of Motherwell acting Bishop Joseph Toal after Father Matthew Despard was removed from his ministry the night before. Before they went into church, people signed a petition calling for the reinstatement of Father Despard, suspended for writing a controversial memoir that claimed there is a culture of homosexual bullying in the Catholic Church . Father Matthew Despard suspended for writing a book about homosexual bullying in the Church Fr. Despard was suspended for writing Priesthood in Crisis , available on Amazon in Kindle format. I bought it yesterday morning and am nearly halfway through.  So far I've read about the incident that occurred that prompted him to write the notes that lead to the book, his experiences in the seminary whic...

I'm just listening to the radio where Tim Fookes compares giving plastic baby toys to children with watching a man getting run over on TV . When did unborn human babies become offensive? In the NZ Herald, the current controversy is explained: Parents are outraged after an anti-abortion stall gave their children plastic foetuses at an A and P show. On Thursday, anti-abortion groups teamed up to exhibit at the the Canterbury A and P Show on a Voice for Life and ProLife stall. Amber Murdoch said her son, 11, arrived home on Thursday with a model foetus after a school outing. "I was shown it at 6 o'clock at night when I got home from work," Murdoch said. "It led to me having a really uncomfortable conversation when I had to explain to him he wasn't actually going to be allowed to play with this thing, and having to explain what abortion was all about." Murdoch said her son also received a leaflet written for women who were pregnant. Murdoc...

I have been doing a lot of listening lately, and yesterday I listened to Tim Fookes' NewsTalkZB Morning programme as people phoned in to give their opinion of that infamous remark made by a defense lawyer on the lines of, if she didn't want sex, she should have kept her legs closed. Tim Fookes was one of those who was incredibly offended by the inference that this is all women have to do to prevent getting raped, and even apologised on behalf of all men. Good on him, I thought. A number of men phoned in and agreed that the sentiment was disgusting and offensive. Then the lawyer in question (Keith Jefferies) phoned in and explained the statement was in his closing arguments and that he didn't believe his client had actually raped the woman, and that the sex was consensual, therefore to prevent consensual sex, all she had to do is keep her legs closed. Dear Tim just didn't get it. Another lawyer phoned in and explained it in more detail to Tim and he still didn...

Labour Party Leader, David Cunliffe has made huge strides in the Labour Party, pushing for 50-50 gender equality to the amazement and delight of many who see gender equality as essential in a balanced society. Insiders say that gender equality in the Labour Party is still not enough, though. They have hinted that Cunliffe has set his sights on a new target - something radical in this day and age, designed to shake society to its foundations and question why we ever thought it acceptable to support gender imbalance at all: Gender equality in marriage and families. (Satire)

Society is to blame - time to get outraged by the message The Roast Busters story has fired up many sleepy liberal and progressive types that don't yet realise it, but they are waking up to conservative values. For example, the letters to the editor and talk back radio linked the story in the same week about the government providing free condoms to 12 and 13 year old's even as others are crying "what went wrong?" Sean Plunket, in today's DomPost editorial hoped to write something that would make a difference, and generate a change of culture, attitude and responsibility in NZ Male society.  Ironically, his article starts with something along the lines of "I don't want to talk about Len Brown and his adultery, I want to talk about something more important."  He failed to see the connection between Len Brown, in a position of power and influence, being defended by liberals that his "private morality" is of no concern to us.   With tha...

"Many of the ills of the modern world — starvation, poverty, flooding, heat waves, droughts, war and disease — are likely to worsen as the world warms from man-made climate change, a leaked draft of an international scientific report forecasts." There you have it folks. You think war is bad? It's worse under CLIMATE CHANGE. You think poverty is bad? Just wait until you experience the type of poverty brought about by CLIMATE CHANGE. The Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will issue a report next March... [Link for the brave] Surely, these are not wild speculations? They used the words "international", "scientific" and "leaked" all in the same sentence! You think the Nobel Peace Prize-winning IPCC's advice smacks of realism and common sense because it is Nobel peace prize quality reliability? Then let me introduce you to Barack Obama, another Nobel Peace Prize winner who, since his Peace Prize w...

Labour's little red book might be modernised The Labour Party are keen to get citizens up against the wall and loving the revolution. Some of their policy proposals are designed to encourage people to vote. Possibly for any other party but them. I don't have a problem with parties having policies to attract their voters, but I do wonder if the policies are consistent with their constant references to democracy and participation. For example, look at these policies and see if you can spot that subtle hint of "Nanny" we saw in the Labour Government of 1999 to 2008. Maori language lessons in schools made compulsory Teachers forced to learn te reo Privatised state assets renationalised (theft by legislation) with compensation based on "proven need" The Government's roads of national significance project dumped in order to force people towards public transport The progressive prohibition of alcohol (banning smoking is already considered a...