New Zealand Conservative

The dead have a pretty cushy life. For starters, they don't work (I'm generalizing) and they don't pay tax. According to many, the dead still get to vote, they don't have to pay local body rates, and they seem immune to CPI increases in food. The more I look into it, the more it makes sense to be dead, well, at least for tax purposes. There is precedent of course. Hotblack Desiato , guitar keyboard player of the rock group Disaster Area was dead for tax purposes, and relied on a death-support system to keep him that way. Many famous entertainers ( Gerard Depardieu , Pink Floyd , The Two Ronnies ) move overseas and as far as their home country is concerned, are dead for tax purposes. Now some people might counter that being dead has downsides. For example, whilst they often receive benefits for years after the actual event of the death, they are not entitled to collect benefits. Does the legislation actually specify the condition of being alive in order to rec...

The Green Party says critics of its proposals to regulate the electricity sector should declare any financial relationships they have with industry, claiming many are "in the pockets" of power companies (source: Whoar ) If I understand the Greens properly, they are saying that anyone who has some kind of relationship with the power company are "in their pockets" and incapable of expressing their own opinion, and are not to be trusted or given a voice in this debate. A bit like Jeanette Fitzsimmons, when she had shares in wind farms and was involved in government committees and policy setting for electricity companies. Very good point. Let's broaden it further - anyone who is being bribed by a political party with direct rebates for supporting their plans to control power pricing is obviously in the pocket of that particular political party, and cannot be trusted to express an independent opinion, let alone have the power of the vote. In this case, in t...

On the eve of its 10th birthday , the online music store is dangerously close to running out of music. "In 10 years, we've had 25 billion songs downloaded, and our stock control clerk has advised we are now running extremely low. There may only be another million downloads left in store before the disks run dry." said a spokesperson for Apple. "We are just checking the spare USB drives to see if we've missed any." Unfortunately for Apple, it seems like the majority of the remaining songs are not particularly popular. For example, stocks remain high of 'Some girls dance (with women)' by JC Chasez, and a version of Billy Joel's 'We Didn't Start the Fire' by Carlos Santana on a banjo. "We ran out of 'Stairway to Heaven' three days ago, and 'Bohemian Rhapsody' yesterday. We are just crossing our fingers no-one else tries to click on those links." Apple also have two downloads left of Michael Bolton...

WARNING: THIS IS NOT SATIRE. It is just silly.  But 300 protestors?  Come-on! A massive 300 protesters turned out in NZ's largest city to protest the imminent sale of the nation's Bassets. Basset hound owners are up in arms over plans to sell 49% of the bassets under National Party policy. Does this mean nearly half the bassets will be sold, or just the ears of each basset, whch represents half the size of the basset? "Bassets are something owned by all New Zealanders" said Prime Minister John Key, so this move just opens up the opportunity for mums and dads and kid investors to have a truly great pet without having to actually pay for its upkeep.  For those unable to experience the thrill of taking a basset for walkies, we will keep all the little plastic bags of poo and declare them as dividends." The Labour and Greens have suggested that a new government department would be created to allocate dog walking privileges fairly to the market by reg...

" When you next steal a hat or a cellphone or a jacket or a skateboard you will be sent to the High Court and there you will be sentenced to 14 years' imprisonment without parole," Judge Adeane said . And of course, the bleeding heart liberals are complaining that this is not what the three strikes law is supposed to protect us from. Rubbish. The quote does not convey the truth of the matter. It's not just stealing a mobile phone, it's punching the victim multiple times in the head. It's kicking victims to the ground. It's the 78 other convictions that prove he will keep doing this. It's the sexual assault convictions that they don't want to talk about. Bleeding heart liberals need to start thinking a lot more about what even multiple punches to the head can do to a victim, in terms of anxiety, fear of leaving home, fear of being beaten up again. This guy has a choice, his victims did not. If anyone thinks it unfair that the cons...

I saw an article a few weeks ago (can't be bothered searching for it) complaining that Wellington misses out on central government funding as compared to Auckland and Christchurch. It is a pretty short-sighted thing to say, given Auckland has a huge population and Christchurch is still suffering from the earthquake. What is even more churlish is not to recognize the amount of indirect funding Wellington receives from central government simply by being the Nation's capital, and all the associated apple pies, ice-cream cones and happy meals that  brings us. Arguments to super-size the council (amalgamate) are frequently lacking in substance, and most of the reasons provided are emotive. No medium size meals allowed - we simply must up-size to large fries and tall coke to get a decent McValue Rates Scheme. Never mind that super-sizing a burger combo is still no substitute for sushi with miso soup. There may be a case to be made for council amalgamation, but I'd really...

The indoctrination of the young continues in America, as children in a girls school in New York were told to ask each other for a lesbian kiss and to pretend they were on a lesbian date, all as part of a "anti-bullying presentation". Parents of children attending a Red Hook, New York, middle school are outraged after a recent anti-bullying presentation at Linden Avenue Middle School. The workshop for 13 and 14-year-old girls focused on homosexuality and gender identity. They were also taught words such as "pansexual" and "genderqueer." Parents say their daughters were told to ask one another for a kiss and they say two girls were told to stand in front of the class and pretend they were lesbians on a date. "She told me, 'Mom we all get teased and picked on enough. Now I'm going to be called a lesbian because I had to ask another girl if I could kiss her,'" parent, Mandy Coon, told reporters. Coon says parents were given no...

Ben Uffindell, writer of the "The Civilian" is reportedly thinking of quitting blogging, following the hint of legal action over a recent post lampooning Colin Craig. Whilst he has kept a brave face, insiders say the stress caused by the emails has actually hit Ben pretty hard. "He talks tough, but he is really quite sensitive.  This has hurt him more than you will know, but don't quote me on that." His faith in satire as a comedic medium has been sorely tested as a growing percentage of the population has argued that everything he is written is substantially true.  A recent post about Bob Parker returning to [outer] space was meant to be a joke, but Bob confirmed today that he was indeed from the planet Tharx.  However, his Tharxian code of honour prevented him from suing The Civilian.  Although Bob did have the option of sucking Ben's brains out through his nostrils, if he so chooses.  Satirical analysts have noted that the follow up posts were ...

No dissent will be tolerated, especially when a Catholic Archbishop says that Christians with homosexual tendencies need to be celibate: BRUSSELS, April 23, 2013 ( LifeSiteNews.com ) - In an astonshing display of gentleness in the face of a vile attack, the head of the Catholic Church in Belgium, Archbishop Andre-Joseph Leonard , remained calmly seated with eyes closed in prayer Tuesday as four topless women attacked him with shouts and curses and doused him with water. [...] The four women , representing the pro-abortion and homosexual group FEMEN, took to the stage where they disrobed to reveal black-painted slogans on their bare chests and backs , such as ‘my body my rules,’ and 'anus dei is coming.' They also held signs reading ‘stop homophobia’. The women doused the archbishop with water from bottles formed in the image of the Virgin Mary. For most of the attack, which lasted a number of minutes before the women could be forced off stage, Archbishop Leonard s...

I'm not a huge fan of satire. At times it can be funny, and I must admit that I don't mind the odd bit of it, but I'm of the opinion that if a person posts satire, then they should clearly label it as such. For that reason, we on our blog have a satire tag, and I have insisted from time to time that some of our authors also put the word SATIRE in the blog title, especially if the piece in particular warrants it. Satire could be said to be a form of lying, and as such, should be clearly identifiable. The worry I have is that some people may not realise that a particular post is satire and take what is written as truth, when it definitely is not. For this blog, that means that there is a potential loss of reputation for perceived lack of truthfulness, and worse, is out of step with our Catholic faith. From the Catechism, The Eighth Commandment: You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.253 It was said to the men of old, "You shall not swear falsel...

SATIRE - Just barely. I join in commiserations with the government today, who accidentally convicted a convicted murderer, in spite of trying to hide the information so he could continue to kill with impunity. I think though that we have to view this unfortunate finding of "guilty" as an aberration, because many other criminals manage to rack up multiple convictions without actually having to spend time in jail, repay fines, or be restricted from further criminal activities. The numbers are actually huge, but of course, are private, protected and privileged information. Here is an actual quote to do with the case, which is apparently true, but hopefully will be redacted, censored and given name suppression before the public wise up: Today, Christchurch police confirmed that they knew of McLaughlin's dark past, but were unable to tell anybody about it - even Jade's mother, Tina who had become worried about McLaughlin's behaviour after ending a four-week rel...

If Craig can't handle satire, he is unsuited to be a Party Leader. And it seems like my choice of political parties that would be capable of representing my views is moving from near zero towards absolute zero. I hope Craig can move the Conservative Party from being about him to being a full blown party, which could bring some balance and help enable common sense. Another angle to this story Update 26/4/13 - Maybe my initial impression above was wrong. I'm having second thoughts: If a man brings a knife to a fight, bring a lawyer

Our society seems to think all change is good. Everything old is v1, and useless and anything that is worth anything has to be new and v2. Because a progressive thinks, “Well, you know, we must progress. We can make changes and all this discussion only slows us down. We must always remember that, at the end of the day, the sun will rise.” But, at the end of the day, the sun sets. PS: A useful guide to conspiracy theories (Hattip - Your NZ Blog)

Christian symbols from an army chapel on base in Afghanistan were removed after an American atheist soldier complained. He didn't like the cross markings on a door and claimed it made him feel like a second class citizen. (He's probably the type of guy that thinks Christian marriage isn't threatened by the existence of gay marriage, but these doors...) I note though that all other doors on the base were marked with absolutely nothing - the sign of secular atheism. In any case, the Army agreed: “It inflames this Muslim versus Christian mentality,” Yes indeed, the army is working off the assumption that the Taleban will not be so inflamed if American soldiers are shooting to kill on an equal opportunity basis that stresses secular adherence and atheism.  Go USA. Story: Army removes crosses The caption relates to a different story: Army Removes Bible Reference from Rifle Scopes . The enemy can now be killed in an non-denominational way. Glad we sorted that out.

When millions of dollars are handed out in settlement of sex abuse cases involving thousands of people, it is increasingly likely that some priests will be the victims of false accusations. Rev. Gordon MacRae is one of them. On September 23, 2012, Rev. Gordon MacRae will mark eighteen years in a cell in the New Hampshire State Prison. Father MacRae is 59 years old. The crimes for which he was accused and convicted are claimed to have occurred when he was between 25 and 30 years old. Brought with no evidence or corroboration whatsoever, the claims were accompanied by lawsuits settled by his Diocese for hundreds of thousands of dollars despite evidence of fraud. [ link ] People riding the money bandwagon is very common on court actions involving massive settlements: After the disastrous 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, damage and loss settlements by British Petroleum (BP) have swelled to $8.5 billion. In the wake of those settlements, however, federal prosec...

The above cartoon by Tom Scott was published in the Dominion Post on the Thursday morning last week following the final vote in Parliament to re(un)define marriage. Tom Scott's bias is obvious.  He refers to the bill as the "Marriage Equality Bill" rather than the Marriage Amendment Bill, and those 44 MPs who stood firm against the forces of imaged progress are drawn as dinosaurs, ie, of the type that will soon become extinct. Except, societies that don't restrict sexual activity to marriage (real marriage between a man and a woman) are the ones that will die out.  Really, Tom Scott's cartoon should have also shown the supposed "champions of progress" as barbarians , people who have inherited civilisation but don't really understand it and so will destroy it without even knowing they are doing so. From Judaism's Sexual Revolution: Why Judaism Rejected Homosexuality: Societies that did not place boundaries around sexuality were stymie...

Kim Hill is one of those interviewers that seems to delight in tying up her victims in knots, while seeming to remain objective. However, when she tried this technique with John Lennox, he showed her up by pointing out what she was doing and bringing her back to the point, while also in a very nice way, exposed her ignorance. It was a delight to listen to. I would especially recommend this interview to those that would like to understand the necessity of faith for science to flourish. Related link: John Lennox's books on Amazon Saturday Morning with Kim Hill ~ Radio New Zealand

I was somewhat surprised when Labour and Greens announced their plans to regulate the electricity prices. The timing of this announcement (i.e. now) will take millions, if not billions off National's partial asset sale pricing, meaning the tax payer loses out. They will blame that on John Key pushing ahead with the sale, which he's mad enough to do because listening to the public no longer seems to be a requirement for anything our government does. And the flip side for the Greens and Labour, is they are offering an early election bribe to low income earners that the price of power will be lower after all of their bureaucratic manoeuvrings.  It wont be. The whole plan boils down to Labour and the Greens combining to form some kind of "Hulk". And what does hulk do? Hulk Smash. MacDoctor is back with a short lesson on economics . No Minister: J'accuse  Homepaddock: 70's socialism  Hulk's friend: Iron Man 3

From people that profess sincerity around granting 'marriage equality' to homosexuals, is the implicit suggestion that they are respectful of different lifestyles, and this respect is partly what justifies their support for redefining marriage. And yet, sometimes their arguments reveal a total lack of respect for certain groups in society that shows them up to be hypocrites. Consider Matt McCarten reporting back on a Priest who spoke to him: The irony of having a young virgin man in a frock, not permitted to marry, employed by what many would say is an anti-women institution riddled with suppressed homosexual men and paedophiles, preaching to me on the threat of gays to heterosexual marriage, was lost on him. Well, the irony of Matt mocking the priest by suggesting that a man wearing a frock is somehow demeaning whilst he professes to stand up for transvestites was lost on him. The irony of mocking some-one for taking a vow of celibacy, whilst arguing that "each t...

Well, the debate on the redefinition of marriage is over, and gay people, under the eyes of the state are able to use the word marriage alongside hetero-sexual couples. At an individual level, I can understand the joy and comfort this brings to many sincere people on the other side of the debate, and especially to gay people who have entered into a lifelong commitment with one person in the full sense of "for better or worse, until death do us part". I am happy for you. I am also grateful, that in spite of many bad things about the quality of the debate, we at least had one. There is much to criticize (and that might be explored in future posts), but for this post, I think it is also worth acknowledging that there was at least a little bit of effort to discuss this issue. To me, the debate, in the simplest form, was a debate where one point of view focused on defining marriage as something based on mutual love and commitment between any two people OR that the definiti...

It's a very stupid argument to pretend that your opposing party thinks the sun will not rise if x or y happens. I have NEVER heard anyone use this argument, although I hear the reverse plenty from people who are avoiding making serious points by dancing around with comments like this. So let's get this clear: The Aztecs occasionally missed a sacrifice, and the sun did rise. The Roman Empire withered and died, and the sun did rise. Hitler killed 11 million or so in concentration camps, and the sun did rise. Stalin worked another 30 million to death, and the sun did rise. 17,000+ abortions in NZ last year, and the sun did rise. Children killed in mass shootings, and the sun did rise. Friends and family diagnosed with cancer, and the sun did rise. A piece of legislation passed, and the sun did rise. No-one really expected otherwise. Seriously. The actual argument being made is "I don't foresee any negative consequences in action x", or perhaps "...

Lucia wrote a post countering Willie Jackson's call to make the Maori language compulsory in schools. In essence, she said: "I grew up bilingual. I also did very well at school, much to the surprise of many of my teachers....However, I would never call for learning any language to be made compulsory...When it comes down to it, the choice of a language ought to be decided by the parents, not by the State." In response, this comment threat was left on our blog today: "Fuck you ur such a racist bitch I'll stomp your face in u ugly dirt mouth rat I will shove a knife in ur sons throat and cut his lungs out so he can't speak like you." Firstly, it should be very clear that Lucia's words are not racist. Secondly, these are the words of a sick person. What kind of character acts like this? Who knows what other sorts of things he thinks he is permitted to do? Who knows what he will go on to do with his life? The newspapers are filled with stor...

LudditeJourno starts her post with this: So now we’re beyond Marriage Equality, what next? The indicators of homophobia, biphobia and transphobia are still all around us. Who gets bullied at school? Who disproportionately wrestles with mental health issues, depression, anxiety, self-harm and suicide? Who has hate graffiti on their walls? Who is targeted for violence on the streets, in their workplaces, from their families? Who is not able to look at any media, anytime, and see someone who looks a bit like them, wrestling with some of the things they think about? That last bit is about heteronormativity , for when we look at the media, most of the time it shows heterosexual relationships.  Then the post goes quite a bit into personal experience, some of which is to do with kids being kicked out of home when their parents discover their homosexuality, or more to the point, just whom their son or daughter loves. That's awful, in my opinion to turf a child out of the home ...

I said that this was the end-game of same-sex marriage on Face Book last night on a conversation on Pat Brittenden's page , and since then, Brendan Malone has found (or created) this wonderful graphic that proves this is the direction that activists (not your general garden variety supporter), want to take marriage - to it's destruction. Audio of the talk . Personally, I think any country that have undefined marriage have destroyed it already in that country, for marriage is no longer marriage when you say two of the same-sex can get married. The reality and the definition no longer match, therefore marriage no longer exists in law.

Marriage no longer exists legally in New Zealand. We just have an undead corpse hanging around.

That's what I think as well - on NewsTalkZB today, the afternoon show was about the manner of our democracy and how it's not working for us. Parliamentarians should be worried that this is the issue that is triggering that type of conversation. Here's the link to the YouTube page of other speeches .  Just refresh every once in a while for more.

I was looking for something that described marriage as being an ontological change and found the following comment by The Chicken on WDTPRS from last year on same-sex marriage and how it is not based on anything real, as marriage is. It's just brilliant, so I thought I'd post it here. I especially like how he calls those who would change marriage to be two of the same-sex to have a "God complex". God made certain immutable laws (from our perspective) called, in toto, the Divine Law. These are usually given through revelation – principally, from Scripture. He also created Nature according to those laws so that the so-called Natural Law is a manifestation of the Divine Will (Law), but only a subset of it, since Natural Law is finite and Divine Law is, essentially, simple, infinite, and eternal. Man, being made in the Imago Dei with free will is endowed, in a like manner, to construct or “posit” laws to govern the Earth and all therein that he was given to...

I'm not overly disturbed, because this is the issue that will get it all out in the open and the only way to clean wounds is to expose them first. This undefining of marriage is pretty much at the end of the destruction of the understanding of marriage over the centuries in Christendom, starting with Henry VIII when he wanted to be able to divorce his wife in order to "marry" the woman he was having an affair with. It's only been in recent times, however, with no-fault divorce and the widespread use of contraception, thus separating procreation from sex in all instances and therefore also from marriage, that we as a society have really lost our way. Undefining marriage is just one of the final steps. We are going to have to rebuild from here.

The internet and twitter is flooded with news that one or more bombs have gone off at the Boston Marathon - a world famous, and international event that is going to impact many people across the globe. There are deaths and many injuries. Who did this evil? Unknown at this time. My thoughts and prayers go out to those affected. CNN - Boston Marathon Explosions near the finish line

The Sensible Sentencing Trust is in trouble with the NZ Government (Sunday Star Times, A2, April14) You see, the NZ Government believes it is important to release known pedophiles into the community and then move them around in secrecy so as to allow them to have a greater chance of re-offending on the hapless public. [ like here ]   Of course, this isn't a page one story, and the focus is on reporting on the actions of the Sensible Sentencing Trust, not broadcasting NZ Government policy on hiding and protecting pedophiles. The interesting thing is that the man doesn't even appear to have legally obtained named suppression. Without any evidence to say otherwise, in spite of requests for this information from the Sensible Sentencing Trust, the government has sided with the pedophile without any sort of due process. Not only that, the government believes that making payouts to pedophiles is more important than victim compensation. He's already received $15,000 and i...

When she becomes a joint applicant and unites with her applicant in unholy legal matrimony . Or is it the other way around and she is the applicant and it is the other who becomes her joint applicant ? It is all so confusing On the other hand in most other lands a girl can still aspire to be a bride and most beautiful besides.

He's a very good speaker, and having heard him tonight talk about his conversion from atheism back to Catholicism (yes, he's a revert like me), I urge all of you interested Aucklander to get along and listen and support him with numbers. There will be protestors, apparently, as well.

David Farrar gives examples of some anti same sex marriage correspondence to Parliamentarians so commenters can point and laugh at the crazies. Except the real craziness is occurring around what happens to those who oppose to same-sex marriage. If you don't agree with it, expect to be ostracised, or worse, fined, because of your views. One of the leading neurosurgeons in the world, is being ostracised for his views on traditional marriage, which now make him an unacceptable graduation speaker for the modern American university. BALTIMORE, April 11, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Famed pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson announced Wednesday that he will not speak at graduation ceremonies for students at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and School of Education. Dr. Carson , who rose from poverty to become one of the leading neurosurgeons in the world , was slated to give the commencement speech at Johns Hopkins, where he has practiced since 1977. But homosexual activist...

Many of you may have heard the annoying KiwiSaver advertisement that plays on the radio, that sounds like a happy song, but is in effect a song of doom. It basically repeats with, I'm going to work till I die, over and over again. I actually don't know how it finishes anymore, because the ad offends me so much that I turn off the radio every time I hear it now. So, whatever advertisements are after it, I don't hear them, because the radio is off and sometimes doesn't even get turned on again. You hear that, NewsTalkZB!!! It offends me on multiple levels. The first, the implication that working until you die is not good. But working is good. People who retire and have nothing to do tend to die faster than if they just kept working. Retirement can be a death sentence. Then there's my dad, who died at age 65/66* of cancer. He got the diagnosis, retired and then died six months later. He effectively worked until he died. Finally, there's all the mo...