New Zealand Conservative

Supermodel Kathy Ireland appeared on the Mike Huckabee show and talked about becoming a Christian and on how her stance changed from Pro-Choice to Pro-Life. Her defence of unborn life is very cogent and easy to understand. I dove into the medical books [...] What I learned is, at the moment of conception, a new life comes into being. The DNA - the genetic blueprint - is there, the sex is determined, the blood type is determined, the unique set of fingerprints is there. And, I picked up the phone, called Planned Parenthood, 'help me out here, give me your best argument!' And, the best arguments, 'well, it's just a clump of cells if you get it early enough. It doesn't even look like a baby.'  We're "clumps of cells" and that unborn human being does not look like a baby, the same way a baby does not look like a teenager; a teenager does not look like a senior, but that unborn human being looks EXACTLY the way unborn human beings are supposed...

Who would have ever known it? This week is International Marriage Week, which started yesterday apparently. I found out about it here . Some people are putting a lot of effort into redefining marriage, making it into something it is not and never will be. And tomorrow is St Valentines day, a day of Chocolates, Flowers and Hearts, a day celebrating a sweet sickly vision of love and a retailers dream. And a vision that fits in OK with the marriage redefiners narratives quite well. I'm not one for these zzzz days or yyyy weeks really, they usually wash right over me as various causes and agendas vie for attention and usually money. However Marriage is a fundamental and very good thing for both individuals and for society as a whole so its worthwhile bring this to everybody's attention . And hopefully help restore that which we are rapidly loosing. And for inspiration scenes from an Old Believers wedding, a holy thing, to a background score of Enya

I have a special interest in anything Tae Kwon Do (TKD), having spent many, many, many hours in my younger days involved in both TKD as a sport and as a martial art. So when an email arrived in my in-box with the story of Johann Landkroon (aged 19) and his desire to get to the ITF World Championships in September, I thought I'd check it out. The email was discussing an AMP scholarship that is up for grabs (AMP - Doing Your Thing ), and the applicants that have been put forward all have made a case for winning a scholarship for various reasons. This email asked for our blog, or a blog author, to endorse Johann and encourage people to vote for him, as he's pretty close to the lead at the moment and there's only about 3 weeks left for a vote to be registered. Now, I personally am going to give Johann my vote, and I'm going to explain why, but I haven't had a good look at the full range of applicants, and their stories and maybe you might want to check them out ...

I see that in Garth George's column today in the NZ Herald, he makes a point about how people are jumping up and down and making a fuss about the number of deaths from smoking and alcohol when, in comparison, 17,500 abortions took place last year. I think he makes a very good point. I see the liberal bloggers are attacking him again over it. ' Editing The Herald ' blog has a go (I have left a little reply there), and so does The Hand Mirror (calling the column "a pile of dreck", although she has closed comments). The lack of respect these people have for life astounds and angers me...

I was having a discussion with someone on kiwiblog about abortion and one of the many reasons I think it is wrong, so I thought I would expound here some more. One of the arguments put forth by those who argue the case for abortion is that if the abortion is done early enough, then the "cells" are so small that they won't feel any pain so they can be stamped out with little effect on the conscience; also, they say, it isn't even a baby yet. It makes abortion proponents feel better if they can convince themselves that there is some arbitrary point in the life of the baby when it is suddenly a ' baby ' but before that arbitrary point that it's OK to end it's life. I just don't follow that reasoning. If there is any 'instance' when the life of a baby begins, surely it is when the egg and the sperm meet — how can it be any place else? To me, it doesn't matter where along the lifeline of a being you kill it: you're still killing it; if y...

Has anyone else seen the latest TVNZ 'On Demand' advertisement on TV? It's basically asking that at the end of your life when your whole life flashes before your eyes, would you rather see your own boring life or would you rather see yourself surrounded by famous people and actors (because you've been watching TV) as this will somehow be more satisfying to you when 'the end' finally comes. As ad campaigns go, I find it rather ineffective; perhaps it will get more people to stop watching though and actually go and enjoy life, which is a good thing. The idea of having better memories at the end of your life because you'll see the people in the TV shows you've watched is rather cynical though; it reminded me of the video wall in Ray Bradbury's excellent novel Fahrenheit 451 in which people interact with a soap opera that constantly runs and nothing ever happens; it keeps the people sedate. In a case of life imitating art, TVNZ has just started a web-onl...

Far too simple for sophisticates who might learn something useful but probably wont.