In the news today

A hodge podge of stories, with little time to comment on them in depth, but then again perhaps there is no need to.

Linley Boniface fights for the rights of breastfeeding mothers, pointing out that this very natural and healthy practice is increasingly considered an inappropriate activity in public. That's possibly because everything is sexualised as much as possible, so even breastfeeding gets the "ooh err" treatment. Which is ridiculous, but that's modern society for you. So here am I, a male, Christian who sees nothing wrong with breastfeeding in public. And so Linley finishes up with this strange quote: it's particularly ironic that conservative Christians seem to be among the most vociferous opponents of public breastfeeding...". You might need to check your anti-Christian bias meter there Linley, given the Conservative Christians I know have little problem with it.

And Andy Haden has apologised. So everything is alright then.

Dennis Hopper is dead. And so is some-one else famous whose name escapes me at this instant (I'm starving, must be the blood sugar levels). On the other hand I noticed a huge advertisement saying happy birthday to Jim Anderton, and thanks for the long years of service to the country. Couldn't see the Parliamentary Crest, so I wonder whose money paid for that little effort? Well, he's a lucky man to have such grateful fans.

And BP still hasn't managed to plug the gushing oil. This is fairly serious. Lynching them, like some oil consumers wish to do seems to miss the point that they would still expect to buy their oil from elsewhere, rather than not use it at all. Although there would one or two Greens that are prepared to give up using oil, and let the pestilence and mayhem fall where it may. The political fallout can wait though, let's get the well capped. Maybe they should set up a mind fest comprised of the genius and simpleton, NASA rocket scientist and your average oil rig worker and between them apply some creative thinking to solve this problem. Pronto.

There was other bits of news too, but I smell dinner! Later dudes.

The Race Is On

Just quickly, before I dash out the door, thought I'd comment on Helen Clark calling New Zealanders a pack of racists. Well, of course we are in the general sense, because Maori are determined to make everything about race. It ends up sounding racist just stating this fact.

And Andy Haden, as a former All Black and current World Cup Ambassador has tried a "cheeky darkie" style comment that has got him in hot water. Does anyone see the irony, given Maori MP Hone calls non-Maori "White Mother F***ers"? Is that an example of the pot calling the kettle black? Will we apply the same standards of "do nothing" to Haden that we apply to Hone (and Dr Pita Sharples for that matter)?

Although this view that we are racist I disagree with in general. More on that later, gotta race off.

Friday Night Free for All

It's Friday and if not officially winter, it's still doing a good job of feeling like a winter's day. And not the "walking in a winter wonderland" winter's day, but the kind that I remember well from my paper run days many years ago. Bitterly cold, dark and periods of driving rain. I actually had a couple of different types of paper runs. First was the one night a week delivering the local rag - around 200 letterboxes to fill, but first a walk of a mile or so to my delivery area. Then the same again on a Saturday. Plus another occasional run of around 500 letterboxes delivering those plastic bags for clothing collections.

Eventually, I moved to Canada and progressed to a daily paper route of only 50 customers, but the papers were a little bigger. Especially the Saturday Paper - huge and heavy. It was great delivering them because the bag got markedly lighter with every drop off. Although the Winter delivery there provides a whole new level of "cold". I recall one night going door to door to collect the monthly bills (we paper boys also performed the debt collection, which wasn't so bad as tips made the whole exercise worth while) and the temperature was 20 below zero (Celsius). Indescribable. But with all this Global Warming, that shouldn't be a problem in these here parts?

(In my best Yorkshire accent) "Ah lad, back in my day, we had it tooff"

Evening all. Did you have a part time job in your early (or late) teen years? What kinds of jobs have you done? I've been the traditional kitchen hand, butcher's assistant and bartender (for a catering firm specialising in weddings), amongst other things. How about you? What's the strangest or most interesting job you ever had?

ETS (and Kyoto) is like a Nigerian Scam

Once you find out that you've made a deal to pay Nigerian scammers a shitload of money, do you:

a) refuse to back down, and insist you'll honour the agreement, otherwise you fear others will not deal with you in the future,

or

b) cancel, now you know you are being scammed, confident that no one will hold it against you?

Obvious, isn't it?

This comment inspired by a comment I made at KiwiBlog on how business really works.

Saturday at the Movies

North Korea, The Restaurant, and a movie.

Groundhog Day!

No seriously, that's the movie tonight. And what else could be more appropriate for a small dash of meta humour?

A Restaurant Tax Story in Pictures

I recently decided to dig up the old restaurant tax story to preserve on this blog as a handy reference. [A Restaurant Tax Story]

Scrubone has decided to add to that story by putting it in pictures - a series of handy graphs illustrating the nature of proportional taxation and the effect of proportional rebates, and notes that the usual complaints about tax reductions "for the rich" are never discussed in context of the proportions they are first applied. No wonder the criticisms often seem faintly ridiculous.

Bad Korea Move

Things are escalating over in North Korea. Sorry world, but you are just going to have to start paying more attention. A while ago I discussed a Good Korea Move from Clinton, with Obama sitting on the sidelines.

Obama is still on the sidelines, and so is the UN. China is urging calm, and North Korea is acting anything but calm.

South Korea have a very difficult time ahead as they balance dealing with their disturbed neighbour and preventing an economic meltdown as business investment (confidence) dries up.

Bad Korea Move coming our way.

Saturday at the Movies

Tonight's Saturday Night Feature is a movie called "A Fistful of Yen", an action packed martial arts saga of classic proportions. But first, a song: "The Humans Are Dead"

A Restaurant Tax Story

(written by Victor Boc, and told on his radio program)

Every day, ten men went to a restaurant for dinner. They always ordered the same meals, and the bill for their food always came to exactly $100.00. They did this day after day, year after year, without variation.

They did not divide the cost of the bill up equally among them, however. Since some of the men were more wealthy than others, they all agreed that an equal split would be unfair to those with less money. So, the men decided to pay the bill in precisely the same way we all pay our income taxes.

North Korea a threat - careful some-one might get killed

Forensic evidence examined by three independent experts and the South Korean government confirms what was suspected all along: the 1200-ton Cheonan was sunk by a North Korean torpedo while cruising in South Korean waters near their common maritime border, with the loss of 48 lives.

That seems like a pretty good reason for the United Nations to spring into some sort of action. Or continue the theme of being useless when it truly counts. No response yet, but that's because Ki Ban Moon is waiting for the official complaint to be filed.

And Obama describes killing 48 people as "threatening". Threatening? Threatening? I'm sure Obama would not like it if his family were threatened that way. But it's important not to take these issues too seriously. It might only encourage more "threatening" behaviour. At least, that's what we are told to believe.

Nigel Latta's review of S59 was bogus

Just noticed via HalfDone that TBR has a news release up showing how Nigel Latta lied on behalf of the National Government on the impact of the S59 (anti-smacking) law change.

Investigate magazine has blown open the smacking debate by publishing documents that show the review headed by Nigel Latta was effectively a farce, and that parents have indeed been prosecuted just for a light smack.

That review, whose findings were announced just before Christmas by Prime Minister John Key and Nigel Latta, claimed to have fully examined cases referred to it by lobby group Family First, and discovered the families had not been “honest” about the events leading up to arrest or CYF intervention.

“In all cases”, stated Latta to journalists, there were serious “aggravating features” that the public were unaware of.

Latta highlighted those “aggravating features” in his report, but a joint investigation by Family First and Investigate magazine has found Latta’s review got its facts wrong, and based its misleading and defamatory findings simply on police or CYF complaint sheets, not the outcome of court cases after the evidence had actually been tested.

The end result: Investigate now has documented proof that ordinary parents have been arrested and prosecuted, ultimately, for simply giving a child a light smack – something both Latta and John Key promised had not happened.

For the Prime Minister, the evidence provides a new dilemma – he has previously stated on record that if a parent is prosecuted for a light smack, he will change the law, “it’s as simple as that”.

Except, John Key is not going to do anything. He KNEW beforehand he was not going to do anything, he was just trying to work out how to sell the anti-smacking law to the public. It was pretty obvious to me that John Key was also lying in the interviews that he did after the referendum results came out.

So, National may be about to be whacked around the ears by both the ETS and the anti-smacking law. Not looking good for them, but luckily most of the media is still on their side.

For more details, read BREAKING NEWS: Investigate magazine news release

Budget non-event for me with ETS looming on the horizon

A while back, a small article appeared in the Dominion Post on a happiness survey. Not surprisingly, the survey found that those on in excess of a $200,000 annual income were consistently more happy than any other group. Who said that money can't buy happiness?

I would guess that is because at that level of income, the normal stressors wouldn't apply. A sudden growth spurt by your teenager necessitating a complete new wardrobe every four months would just be an excuse to shop. The car needing major repairs in excess of a thousand dollars might indicate the need to upgrade the car. A tooth imploding without warning, necessitating a root-canal would be paid for as part of that month's expenses. No sense of dread would accompany the power bill or the three-monthly rates bill or even an interest rate rise (unless you are seriously over-mortgaged), or the coming ETS tax.

Two hundred thousand dollars a year means that a single income earner would still get $143,000 net salary per year on the new tax rates. That is nearly $12,000 per month.

I would like to propose, that based on the happiness study (or maybe it was just a survey), be the new standard for entry into the middle-classes. The new mid-point. Where life just works for you, and money is not much of an issue.

I've noticed that there are many among us who think Working for Families is "middle-class welfare". It's not. Welfare, by definition is for the poor only. Any family with children earning less that $143,000 per year after income tax is taken out, is poor. That's why so many mothers work and put their children in daycare, they can't afford not to given the tax benefit of two parents working. The only reason that the goal post hasn't been shifted is that no one likes to think of themselves as poor. And heaven forbid if most of the population of NZ thought of themselves as this way.

Just to clarify, my family does not qualify for Working for Families, nor do I think that it should exist. It would be better for there to be a tax-free threshold for families that takes into account dependant children, and a top-up of welfare, should that also be necessary. So, I'm not arguing for it's continued existence, merely expressing discomfort at the vitriol directed towards it and those families that rely on it.

We also have never earned enough to be in the "happiness band". Though if we had, I suspect we would have blown all the extra money on house renovations and increased our mortgage as well.

Last week I was momentarily stunned by an editorial in the Dominion Post on the budget. One line sprang out at me:

From October, a two-child household will effectively pay no tax until its annual income exceeds $50,000.

Woah, have National introduced a tax-free threshold for those with children? Could that apply to us? No, said Mr Maria, as he was sitting next to me. There is no way National would give a $50,000 tax-free threshold to those with two children. A tax free threshold would be an incentive to earn more, because that threshold would always be there (until the kids grow up) and would not penalise an increase in income, such as what occurs now with WFF. Way too radical.

No, National's plan is to soften us up with minor tax reductions, so we can be socked hard with the ETS when it comes into force in 5 weeks. Apparently it's only going to cost us $3 a week more according to John Key this morning.

"The question is for a household, are they prepared to pay $3 a week for the insurance premium of our environment? I think the answer to that is 'yes'."

"Insurance premium of our environment?" What is that supposed to mean?

I've got a question for John, who thinks the ETS is only to increase my costs by $3 a week. Are you, John Key, willing to fund any shortfall of mine from your own pocket?

No?

Thought not.

Google Pacman!!

For the 30th anniversary of Pacman. Google has turned their logo into a playable game of Pacman (use the cursor keys!). Just go to google.com!

And After the Budget?

My take on the GST rise
"GST should only be increased if it were accompanied by comprehensive tax reforms that saw all tax rates dramatically reduced. It is lower Government spending, coupled with dramatically lower tax rates that would best encourage productivity.

"Just like the Maori Party, ACT must support the increase in GST as part of our Confidence & Supply Agreement with National - but, that doesn’t mean we like it," Sir Roger said. [Roger Douglas - ACT Party]

In theory, I'm in favour of increasing GST in return for lowering income tax rates. And this is what the budget has done, but like ACT, the Maori Party and the Greens I'm suspicious that taking on a bigger GST is really going to stress the lower incomes once other factor kick in. One of the big factors would be the ETS. Unless it too comes with radical tax reform, I'll be fighting hard against an ETS.

And why start the GST increase in the middle of the tax year? Small businesses will struggle with additional transition costs. For those on a 2 monthly payment cycle, it even comes right in the middle of the cycle. I would have liked to see some transition support for moving to the new rate.

My take on the Income Tax Cuts

Comments bug

There is something strange going on with the comments right now.

I get every comment emailed to me, so I know that Ozy made the last comment on Authorities fearful about people protecting themselves. However, the comment doesn't show up (beyond increasing the comment count on the main page) until another comment is made. Then that comment doesn't turn up until another comment is made, etc, etc.

Very annoying, and hopefully it will be fixed soon.

UPDATE: I know, I will start bumping comments to make them show up!

UPDATE 2: Hmmm, didn't work. Must be on a delayed batch post, or something. Maybe my bump will work when I get the email.

UPDATE 3: Here is Ozy's comment for now:

KG I would like to disagree with you but on the whole you are correct.

Your comment that teachers aren't doing a good job is interesting and we could debate till the cows come home. I dont teach a year 10 english class but even in a high decile school that is hard hard work. You have half the class who want to learn, 25% who dont care and then 25% who cause trouble.The odds are against you.

For me however it is not usually the teachers, but the educational experts, curriculum writers and our education system that is more to blame.

An example is that I have reports due in about 2 weeks. I am sure a number of my fellow teachers would love to put the following as a comment
"Jonny is rude and disrecpectful in class.He is arrogant towards teachers and support staff and has little respect for himself and others. His school work is never completed and he has poor work habits......
However, I know what would happen if I wrote a comment like that. Teachers are so controlled by the system it is not funny.

Education is now a broad term. By that I mean kids now learn almost everything but reading and writing. For some,that is good. However, I feel for most this doesn't actually help them in the long run.

Biting the Apple to avoid sin

The players:
Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computers
Ryan Tate, writer for gawker.com

The position
Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computers, says his company will not be a party to the pornography industry and hopes that the iPad and iPhone revolution will help lead to a porn-free world.

The Argument
Does the iPad represent a revolution? That's perhaps too lofty a term suggests Ryan. "Revolutions are about Freedom" Tate writes in an email to Jobs.

Authorities fearful about people protecting themselves

Bullying is a problem. How do the authorities respond to the news that students are arming themselves with knives to protect themselves?

The suggestion that bullying may be connected to these cases is very worrying because the alleged reaction is so extreme and violent

Will a light bulb go off? What if the reaction was considered normal because bullying was seen as extreme and violent?

Condolences to family of Jason Palmer [UPDATED]

My condolences to the family of Jason Palmer, who died yesterday.

Jason Palmer, 33, a former member of the United States Marine Corps who came to New Zealand eight years ago, died yesterday after an inmate at Spring Hill Corrections Facility, about 65km south of Auckland, punched him in the head about 1pm on Saturday.

Mr Palmer was one of three officers unlocking an inmate's cell when the attack happened. The punch threw him to the floor, where he hit his head. He was taken to Auckland's Middlemore Hospital suffering massive head injuries. Life support was turned off yesterday afternoon.

He leaves behind his wife, Tracy, and children Riley, 5, and Abbey, 2.

What a senseless, waste of a life.

UPDATE: The newspaper article that I quoted from has not included another child from a previous relationship that Jason Palmer never got to meet. A son, Taylor Palmer, aged 13.

Related link: Gang link to guard's death ~ Stuff

WELLYWOOD

Well, the hill looks fairly bare at the moment, so maybe several large letters wouldn't go astray. Here's the sign generator to play with. I came up with three signs.

Friday Night Free For All

Evening all. Most of us have got through to the end of the week. I just heard that Sir Robert has won his court case and picked up $100K. Mainstream journalism seems to be suddenly obliged to take care to stick to facts when they offer up their opinion. A very frightening development in the media business. If they cared. I wonder how they'll report it? "Advertising rates to increase dramatically"?

Time to interrupt my Friday ramble. A late start means dinner is behind schedule. Back after I've sorted the Friday night dinner.

Good Advice

Mr Key said he thought Tuhoe would get the joke, but it appears they were not amused. Of course they are not amused, he didn't finish with a down trou and a baring of his bum cheeks in their general direction, or taking the Maori flag and shooting it, or offering huge sums of compensation for historical satirical moments. Some good advice for Tuhoe - respect the Pakeha's ability to be irreverent. It's a cultural thing chaps.

Dr McAnulty said people should not eat raw slugs or snails and should ensure they wash their hands after touching them. Fair enough. It wasn't on my list of likely activities, but obviously, some people need to be told.

A new book by Michael O'Brien

One of my favourite authors has a new book out: Theophilos, A Novel.

St. Luke addressed his Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles to a man named Theophilos.

Who was Theophilos? Scripture scholars do not know, making him a fit subject for Michael O’Brien’s vivid imagination. In this fictional narrative, Theophilos is the skeptical but beloved adoptive father of St. Luke. Challenged by the startling account of the “Christos” received in the chronicle from his beloved son Luke and concerned for the newly zealous young man’s fate, Theophilos, a Greek physician and an agnostic, embarks on a search for Luke to bring him home. He is gravely concerned about the deadly illusions Luke has succumbed to regarding the incredible stories surrounding Jesus of Nazareth, a man of contradictions who has caused so much controversy throughout the Roman Empire.

Thus begins a long journey that will take Theophilos deep into the war between nations and empires, truth and myth, good and evil, and into unexpected dimensions of his very self. His quest takes the reader into four ancient civilizations - the Greek, Roman, Jewish, and that of Christianity at its birth, where he meets those who knew this man that some believe is the Messiah.

Ignatius Insight have just published an interview with the author, who reveals how he was inspired to write the book.

I've always been intrigued by the mysterious figure to whom St. Luke addressed his Gospel and the Acts. However, I never considered writing a novel about him, and felt no need to supply an imaginary, speculative "life" for him. The inspiration actually came while I was praying before the exposed Blessed Sacrament three or four years ago. I was feeling unusually exhausted that night, quite brain dead and poor before the Lord, wondering if I would even be able to pray. In all honesty I had felt sure my adoration hour would be extremely dry, without lights or consolations. I'm ashamed to say, all I wanted to do was sleep.

From the moment I entered the chapel, completely to my surprise, a series of vivid images of the life of Christ poured into my interior "seeing." An extraordinary peace came with them, and the dissolving of all sense of time. The scenes were nearly visual and far beyond what I could have produced in my natural imagination. I have rarely if ever experienced anything like it in prayer. Perhaps the closest to it was my novel Father Elijah back in the early 1990s, and certain passages in Island of the World.

I've read both the books he mentions above and they are seriously amazing. On a level beyond the normal book. Even though the writing style in Father Elijah is a little annoying at times (I kept losing track of who was talking in the very long conversations). But, by the time O'Brien wrote Island of the World, his prior novel, he was far more skilled as a writer and there were no more annoying, long conversations. Just an amazing story that took you on a journey of metamorphosis, even through extraordinarily difficult circumstances.

These are Catholic books, written by a devout Catholic with a Catholic point of view. That isn't to say that non-Catholics can't read them, they can. But I think the books kind of choose their readers. Those that can't handle what is in them, can't read them. That's been my experience with the people I've lent them to.

iWorship

Oh, this is too good not to repost here. Four guys in the studio making music with nothing but iphones!

Hattip: MacDoctor

More On Street Preacher UK Arrested By Police For Beliefs

More information on the case of the street preacher who was arrested by police for giving his view that homosexual conduct is a sin. It now turns out that he wasn't originally preaching publicly on the subject until prompted by police to give his view, whereupon he was subsequently arrested and charged.

Hattip: Brendan Malone at Semper Vita

Anglicans argue that having too many kids breaks the commandment to not steal

The Anglican Church [of Australia] wants Australians to have fewer children and has urged the federal government to scrap the baby bonus and cut immigration levels.

The General Synod of the Anglican Church [of Australia] has issued a warning that current rates of population growth are unsustainable and potentially out of step with church doctrine - including the eighth commandment "thou shall not steal", Fairfax newspapers say.

In a significant intervention, the Anglican Public Affairs Commission has also warned concerned Christians that remaining silent "is little different from supporting further overpopulation and ecological degradation".

I'm just stunned.

Related link : Anglicans argue for fewer kids ~ Sydney Morning Herald

Saturday at the Movies

A bit of French and Saunders and Tolkien?

Greece Sold To Major Blogging Consortium

I'm proud to announce that NZ Conservative has purchased the country of Greece today, for an undisclosed sum (actually, it was NZ$11.50).

I'm not quite sure what we will do with the country now that it is ours, but I had the cash and thought "why not"?

The first order of the day was to get Greece out of debt. This was easily accomplished by suing the EU for collective use of Pythagoras' theorem without royalty. The EU hadn't realised it, but they had created such convoluted copyright laws they walked right into it.

CEO versus teacher pay rises

Gordon Campbell thinks that the push for teachers to get pay rises of 4% is fine, especially as CEO's have averaged a 5% pay rise, and their salaries are considerably higher. You can read about the reasons, the outrage and the justifications on the link I just provided.

I just have a couple of comments that cover things Campbell didn't explore in his article:

Friday Night Free For All

Friday again. The week has several things to talk about: the UK Election, an upsurge of vampires, mining on conservation land, taxes, traders and warriors, John Key being criticised (unfairly) for attending the funerals of the NZDF airmen, and many other newsworthy stories.

All became rather abstract and unimportant for me, as I sat around waiting for my sister to come through major surgery. She has, and is doing well but the journey she is on with this illness is not a short trip. I hope there are plenty more opportunities to stop and smell the roses.

Hope your week was good, although that is a relative term. Freedom is a funny thing. Sometimes the only freedom you have is to decide how you are going to feel about something.

Feel free to drop by and say hello.

REAL Type Comes To The Web

Excellent news. Type companies are putting their fonts online which web designers can reference when creating a site. Fonts may be licensed from Webkit (and there is a free 'Trial' option which allows two fonts to be used from quite a large library, as long as monthly traffic is under 5GB).

No more sites where the main reader typeface is Arial, Verdana, or Times New Roman.

Auckland Rates Revolt Brewing

I see that a rates revolt is brewing in Auckland. Citizens and councils are considering a plan whereby any rates paid are put into a temporary financial management fund or escrow until there has been more time and thought given about the so-called Super City.

Citizens and councils are considering a legal rebellion 'No vote, no pay' local body boycott , writes John Landrigan.

Sire, sire, the peasants are revolting.

$134 million win - do you have a ticket?

Prime Minister John Key and Whanau Ora Minister Tariana Turia Thursday announced $134m in spending on the programme over the next four years, drawn from the Government’s $1.2b Pathway To Partnership fund.

The programme seeks to appoint whanau ‘navigators’ to monitor up to twenty families each and liaise with health and welfare providers for them...The $134m would be a starting point and would not include funding for existing contracts.

Turia added that figure would rise over time to a value of $1b as Housing, Justice and police agencies are integrated.

$134 million for 20 families? I wonder how the 20 families were selected? Was it last week's Lotto draw, a scratchie or every-one who had $100 to win on "Whar Lap" on the 4th race last Tuesday at Trentham?

Turia says it's not about the money. That's because it's not hers, and tax is a bottomless bucket.

I hope that $134 million includes some very detailed reporting on where the money went, and what the outcomes were, in a very open and honest and transparent way. This is a grand experiment, and it deserves a peer review. That is, we all need to peer very closely at the results.

And how do you get a ticket to this particular lottery? Can Women's Weekly do a profile of the 20 lucky winners and interviews on how it changed their lives?

Traders and Warriors and the Prime Minister

Here we go again. A week ago I defended the Warrior class from those who venerate the Trader. That discussion was esoteric and abstract. Today, we see the practical application.

When the three NZDF airmen tragically died on ANZAC day, John Key cancelled his plans to attend a trade delegation and headed back for the funeral. He has received unjustified criticism from a few people who broadly argue that the trade was more important than showing respect for some fallen warriors. They are wrong.

Murderer let off again

A burglar who terrorised a woman has dodged jail, despite a previous conviction for attempted murder after stabbing a sleeping teenager in his bed.

There's the first problem. Some-one breaks into a house to kill some-one is not a burglar. Some-one who chases a women out of the house attempting to catch her was not looking to steal property - they could have made a grab for valuables and run off.

Smoking!

At least two robberies reported of cigarettes since the tobacco tax rise a few days ago. It's dangerous to work a convenience store. It might explain why John Key prefers a visit to Afghanistan than a walk down to the shop for a loaf of bread and a mugging.

Community Consultation under threat?

Kent Duston, Acting President of the Mt Victoria Residents Association makes some observations about the Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill, which is designed to “improve transparency, accountability, and financial management in local government.”

Has it really come to this?

A street corner preacher was arrested and locked up for seven hours for saying that according to the Bible homosexuality is a sin.

Dale McAlpine was handing out leaflets to shoppers when he told a passer-by and a gay police community support officer that, as a Christian, he believed homosexuality was one of a number of sins that go against the word of God.
Mr Mcalpine said that he did not repeat his remarks on homosexuality when he preached from the top of a stepladder after his leafleting.
But he has been told that police officers are alleging they heard him making his remarks to a member of the public in a loud voice that could be overheard by others.

Mr McAlpine has been charged under the Public Order Act of 1986, an act designed to deal with football yobbos but which has now been deployed to shut down those who would quote Holy Scripture in public.

How long before St Paul's Epistles to the Corinthians and the Romans are banned as offensive?

Can't be too far away if this incident is any anything to go by.

Mining Protest Biggest in History

Almost as big as the Boobs on Bikes parade, and nearly as much as 1/30th of the number of people that voted against the anti-smacking laws, organisers claim the protest march in Auckland on Saturday was the biggest in history.

Some 50,000 people walked down Queen Street to protest against mining in conservation land. If we also include the protesters who tunneled under Queen street in protest, we can probably add another 2,000 people, 61 rabbits, 16 badgers, 34 gophers, 128 moles and 2 groundhogs to that number.

Although I think the groundhogs were professional protesters and the moles were traitorous insiders actually working for mining interests.

When is it time to stop drinking?

OK, so I don't smoke but I'm against the latest set of tobacco price rises. That's a little bit liberal. But I'd quite happily agree to make it illegal for those under 18 to smoke. I thought it was, but it isn't.

But what about drinking? The idea of closing down for business at 2am or 4am would hit the vampire community where it hurts, but as voting is always held during daylight hours, I doubt National would suffer a back lash from the blood sucking lobby. Vampires, that is, not the pro-tax groups, they would undoubtedly love to suck the blood out of us via a tap on the wallet.

The shoe is on the same foot

Finlay MacDonald is outraged in today's SST. How dare National take on Labour's role of the Nanny! How dare they go along with Helen Clark and the Green's anti-smacking bill even after a referendum result of 88% gave him the mandate to reverse it! How dare Key put up tobacco taxes!

So many things that Labour could be promising to do in the next election are now under threat - the drinking age, the driving age, cell phone use, pub closing times, folic acid in bread - will there be any nappy unpinned, any freedom left unfettered by the time Labour arrive to govern?

Blog Stats for April 2010

Author activity is down considerably this month, and so is the visitor count. On the plus side, we passed our 200,000th unique visit mark in the past week which is some sort of milestone on the internet highway.

With the media attention on the Catholic Church, one of our old posts has a high visit count for the month: Vatican City and the Age of Consent and also another post has found high hits: The Latest Papal Scandal - The Facts.

My satirical post, New Scandal Rocks the Church caught a momentary blip, but might pop up again when the Pope visits the UK. Although now that the entire foreign office has been exposed as completely anti-Catholic, one has to suspect that sort of virulent anti-Catholicism persists across all UK government departments. (Note: That sentence was satire. Nod if you get it.)

We started the month with Easter, and ended with a discussion on wondering how far left of Labour is John Key? With signing on to the UN DRIP in secrecy, then pushing through new taxes on tobacco under urgency, and pushing for a comprehensive new range of taxes called "ETS", and looking to raise the drinking age and the driving age to a more "responsible" age, I'm expecting the age of consent and voting age to be lowered in an ironic twist that demonstrates principles are only found in schools, and other places with spelling issues.

Anyway, the stats for April are