New Zealand Conservative

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...

Be very afraid. In a country where you can now get fined for offending a mountain , it is inevitable that the passing of the Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Bill will result in loss of religious freedom . No longer can anyone point to commonsense, because there is none in New Zealand. Anything goes, as long as we have zealots in Government wanting to push a particular agenda, then what is reasonable can no longer be relied upon. God save New Zealand. Related links: Hovering helicopter 'gravely offensive' ~ Stuff, Dominion Post Pilot prosecuted for near landing on Aoraki / Mt Cook ~ DOC Press Release, Scoop

OK, so now schools in the UK are banning children from making best friends , because they might get upset if they have a fight. Society is getting just...just.... I don't have words for it. TEACHERS are banning schoolkids from having best pals — so they don't get upset by fall-outs. Instead, the primary pupils are being encouraged to play in large groups. Educational psychologist Gaynor Sbuttoni said the policy has been used at schools in Kingston, South West London, and Surrey. She added: "I have noticed that teachers tell children they shouldn't have a best friend and that everyone should play together. "They are doing it because they want to save the child the pain of splitting up from their best friend. But it is natural for some children to want a best friend. If they break up, they have to feel the pain because they're learning to deal with it." Russell Hobby, of the National Association of Head Teachers, confirmed some schools were ad...

Unbelievable. Someone who saw a 15 second TV commercial of a mother and her daughter in the back seat of a yellow cab saw fit to complain to the Advertising Standards Authority that they weren't belted in. And instead of treating said complaint according to its merit, i.e. with derision, the ASA actually found that it breached the advertising industry's code of ethics, because it shows "an illegal practice and a disregard for safety" . It did no good that the company behind this ad pointed out that it was filmed overseas in a jurisdiction that doesn't require seatbelts to be worn by backseat passengers or that the vehicle used for filming was an older vehicle and did not have the appropriate belts fitted. They are still in the wrong. Next they will be airbrushing Captain Haddock's pipe out of Tintin books so as not to encourage pipe smoking in vulnerable children. er what's that you say? You're telling me they're doing that already...

Let's start with a sentence from a hot off the press press release just out of the Human Rights Commission office. Why are some female new graduates paid on average $5000 less than male graduates with the same qualification? This sentence is nonsensical. The word "some" implies a subset of "female graduates" defined exactly how? I don't have a clue and neither probably did the writer of this sentence. Of course the paid on average $5000 less is an easily modifiable number based upon how you adjust the membership of your entirely female subset. In reality the number has almost certainly been plucked out of the thin air and is unchallengeable given the weasel word some in the sentence. Anyway the statement has this The Commission has committed to the following: to monitor and report on the new Top 20 equality at work indicators to promote the Pay Equality Bill with politicians, employer organisations and trade unions to advocate for the ne...

Liberal lunacy from NPR questioning whether we are seeing the end of gender, a merging of the sexes if you will. What bollocks, almost invariably one of the first things you notice about someone is their gender, the second their age. When my boy was about three we encountered a transgendered female in the mall. "Why is that man dressed like a lady" he said loudly. We were embarrassed of course - " shh shh " we said our faces glowing reddishly. But the truth of the matter lies there, it is almost impossible to hide either your gender or your age. Sure you can disguise it a bit but the middle aged woman dressed as a teenager is instantly recognizable as such. " Mutton dressed as lamb " we used to say disparagingly in my youth. We are acutely good at making these judgments - its inbuilt. Driving in your car if you see a pedestrian walking along the footpath, without thinking you know both their approximate age (within a decade or less) and their gen...

A nutty editorial in the Christchurch press from a Canterbury University historian. A natural break from our colonial past On February 22, the city's founding father, John Robert Godley, director of the Canterbury Association, was shaken off his pedestal after 143 years standing in Cathedral Square. A statue of early provincial superintendent William Rolleston fell backwards off its plinth to lie beheaded by the forces of nature. British imperial adventurer Captain Robert Falcon Scott's likeness was also knocked over and is in need of repair. These damaged statues are symbolic of the end of a colonial era in Christchurch. In getting back up, regrouping and rebuilding after the earthquakes, it is important to recognise that the city has literally broken free from the past once and for all. February 22 is our postcolonial moment. And so forth until we arrive at this piece of purple prose The felled Christchurch works of art evoke images of statues of former leaders such as Sa...

PH = √ (e 2 + ve 2 )(d2) + (cg + dr) 2 + π {(4<s>2)(4<p>2)} 2 + (vi + t + te) 2 + {(4<c>2)(4 2)} 2 (e) is eye contact (1=none; 5=direct) 5; (ve) is verbal greeting (1=totally inappropriate; 5=totally appropriate) 5; (d) is Duchenne smile - smiling in eyes and mouth, plus symmetry on both sides of face, and slower offset (1=totally non-Duchenne smile (false smile); 5=totally Duchenne) 5; (cg) completeness of grip (1=very incomplete; 5=full) 5; (dr) is dryness of hand (1=damp; 5=dry) 4; (s) is strength (1= weak; 5=strong) 3; (p) is position of hand (1=back towards own body; 5=other person's bodily zone) 3; (vi) is vigour (1=too low/too high; 5=mid) 3; (t) is temperature of hands (1=too cold/too hot; 5=mid) 3; (te) is texture of hands (5=mid; 1=too rough/too smooth) 3; (c) is control (1=low; 5=high) 3; (du) is duration (1= brief; 5=long) 3. Can you guess what this is? No - Stuff has the story (Sans formula) here. Do you think in the real world this has ...

Well, I called it during the smacking debate, assuming that making a somewhat ridiculous analogy would clearly illustrate how the government should not interfere to an insane degree in the private lives of families. Expecting perfection in human relationships, they continue to make more and more things illegal, on the basis you can legislate morality and virtue. This is what I said during the smacking debate: Imagine if all arguing between couples was made illegal? Well, that's what the French Government are doing :

Two bored 9 year old boys vandalized a local cemetery. The picture in the paper showed a typical cemetery scene, with large traditional tombstones. One was around 5 feet high and in the shape of a cross. Some of the graves had wrought iron fences around them. As I said, a typical cemetery. Except to the reporter, this one was significantly different. Not just any dead people were buried there, but Maori dead people. So the whole tone of the story took on a new slant. "Boys smashed up a Maori Cemetery" ... "At first the boys, who are not Maori, did not seem to realise the full impact of their vandalism" ... "They did not understand the gravity of their actions. Maori take this very seriously." ... "The Maori families had starting repairing..." I'm astounded at the slant on this article. You think a European family would not be upset that a family member's grave stone had been vandalized? The use of the word "Maori" in thi...

Delicious - Canadian Governor General, Michaëlle Jean, dines upon raw seal's heart Son Excellence la très honorable Michaëlle Jean, chancelière et compagnon principale de l'ordre du Canada, chancelière et commandante de l'ordre du mérite militaire, chancelière et commandante de l'ordre du mérite des forces de police, gouverneure générale et commandante en chef du Canada has caused an upset in EUland by eating the heart from a seal, raw. A seal which she also gutted incidentally. The European Parliament, in its infinite wisdom, recently voted to ban Canadian seal products. This is apparently because the EU is uncomfortable with Canadian hunting methods. However ever mindful of the rights of indigenous peoples, the ban does not extend to the Inuit peoples of Canada. Although just how the good people of Brussels and its dominions will be able to distinguish between a product derived from a seal harvested by an Inuit from the identical product harvested by a greedy, ...

Back from Sydney. Very pleasant weather, some excellent food, and familiar places. Missed out on most of the news in NZ this week, but I did hear a snippet on the police investigation into the leaked emails which Brash insisted the Police investigate. Apparently, Brash had this weird idea that the police would be interested in solving crimes. Imagine. Throw in potential issues of National Security (if you excuse the pun) and I guess he thought they might bring in Columbo or some-one of that nature. Instead, (from what it sounded like on the news snippet) a mostly blank file has been revealed, with a single peace of paper and some detailed notes: We haven't got a clue. We can't really be bothered. See if you can stall until the issue goes away. Well lets make sure the issue doesn't go away. Instead we have various idiots stating that leaks and theft are good for the country. Obviously, the police don't think a crime was committed, and that is why they didn't b...

You don't see the honorific Mrs used very often these days - especially not in the print media where it is usually reserved for elderly matrons. So I was highly surprised to see it used twice in a BBC story about Iceland joining the EU when referring to Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir. Mrs Sigurdardottir was elected last month on a wave of discontent over the dire state of Iceland's economy. and Mrs Sigurdardottir said a bill authorising EU accession talks would be introduced when Iceland's parliament - the Althingi - resumed sitting on Friday. Now this is a completely novel use of Mrs. Indeed Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir was married to Steinar Jóhannesson but has long since divorced him and is currently civil unionized to Icelandic playwright Jónína Leósdóttir, her election causing excitement in some circles - based solely on her gender and sexuality. Given the divorce customary usage would dictate she be formally addressed as Mrs Jóhanna Jóhannesson if she had kept h...

Some people get so offended on behalf of other people. And that, I think is the key difference over the PC nature of some of these recent "offendings". There's the Mayor offended by the KKK outfit, on behalf of black people in America. There's some-one complaining about pink vests criminal taggers have to wear for an hour or two and there's the TV program advertising using Jews as the butt of their jokes, which is truly tasteless as we now expect from most TV advertising. It's all bad form, and it's proper to shake ones head in disbelief. However, some of the professed outrage are from people who seem to be merely using it to satiate their own need to feel outraged as only the Politically Correct Police types know best. See Catholics got offended over the Bloody Mary episode on South Park, and rightly so. It was something that directly impacted them, and they had every right to speak out. The Jews were quick to confirm that the TV program had gone to...

When you are a pseudo intellectual PC socialist it is very hard to judge how worthy art is. But somebody without talent has to do it. One thing is clear to such people though: you take tax money and you give it to those projects supposedly most artistically deserving. Thus, under new Arts Council requirements in the UK, organisations applying for grants are being asked to state how many board members are bisexual, homosexual, heterosexual, lesbian or whose inclinations are “not known”. Audrey Roy, the director of grants, said that the council needed to understand who its audience was and to whom its funding was going. “We see diversity as broader than race, ethnicity, faith and disability,” she said. Actually, it almost seems as if they see diversity only in terms of sexuality. Question 22 of the Grants for the Arts forms, relating to sexual orientation, was not compulsory, she added. Except the form states that it must be answered. Ah, "optional but mandatory" - a pseu...

Idiot/Savant seems very upset that Judith Tizard was told to get back on her broomstick. He considers that the inference that Tizard is a witch to be misogyny as only "uppity women" are called witches. Which got me thinking. How does a person leap from a woman being called a witch to considering any one that calls a woman a witch to be misogynistic? Then it struck me - those that consider anything calling to mind a woman to be an insult. Especially if the object of the insult is indeed a woman. In other words, the ultimate insult is to be called a woman. A gender-neutral term is ok, because then the woman is not reminded that she is a woman. All the gender-neutral people are happy because to be a woman of any sort, except a gender-neutral woman, is obviously insulting. So it all makes sense now.

A report has just been released from the Standing Orders Committee for recommendations about television coverage in the House. You can see the the report here . Anyway, one of the proposed conditions of televised coverage is that it should not be used as 'satire, ridicule or denigration'. In other words, politicians don't want us to see them making asses out of themselves; ie, they don't want to be seen in their natural state ;) There goes the freedom of the press. Not surprising that the union is up in arms about it all.

When you prevent one fat kid from buying a pie, it's discrimination. If you ban them from every-one, it's suddenly a noble cause, for noble reasons. How stupid is that?

Yep, here's another one . These activists just keep pushing, pushing pushing their little agendas. Philly City Council Ends 79-Year Boy Scout Lease Over Refusal to Accept Homosexual Leaders By Gudrun Schultz PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania, June 1, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Philadelphia City Council voted yesterday to end a nearly 80-year-old lease held by the Boy Scouts local branch over the group's adherence to a national policy banning actively homosexual leaders. The ongoing dispute pitted the Scouts' Cradle of Liberty Council against homosexual activists over the organization's refusal to adopt an official policy welcoming homosexuals into leadership. The City, under pressure by activist groups, wants the Scouts to either alter the organization's policy or start paying market rent for the use of the historical Beaux Arts building, where the Scout headquarters has been housed since 1928 for a nominal rent. The resolution permitting the city to end the lease was intro...

According to the Reuters video story HERE , Madrid in Spain have introduced new unisex 'cross now' figures at the traffic lights of their pedestrian crossings; apparently, women were complaining that the figures on the signs were only men. The police chief notes, "It doesn't require a lot of expense to not discriminate in traffic safety". A Madrid town resident (obviously female) says on the video, "It's fantastic, but there's still a lot to fight for. There are many things that need fighting for so women can finally be valued for what we are worth." I'm not sure what to think about this; I've never seen hordes of women waiting to cross because the sign said only the men could go or who felt they weren't valued enough because of the signs. It doesn't looks as clear as the 'stick figure' to me: what do you think?