"When a government becomes powerful, it is destructive, extravagant and violent; it is an usurper which takes bread from innocent mouths and deprives honorable men of their substance for votes with which to perpetuate itself." - Cicero
"Government is not reason. It is not eloquence. It is force." - George Washington
"In all that people can do for themselves, the government ought not to interfere." - Abraham Lincoln
"The most cogent reason for restricting the interference of government is the great evil of adding unnecessarily to its power." - John Stuart Mill
"The government's role is whatever the government defines it to be." - Helen Clark

Blogarama

Review Kiwi Pundit

< ? kiwi blogs # >







inHOUSE: Software development and services, web design, computer training, crystal reports, sql, business intelligence and reporting in Wellington, New Zealand

 
Tip of the Iceberg?

Fathers describe their experiences with the Family Court:

A group of angry fathers yesterday told a parliamentary select committee that they have been victimised, intimidated, threatened and harassed in the Family Court process.

One of 12 men making submissions in Manukau on the Care of Children Bill said a Family Court judge had warned him that he faced jail if he spoke out about his treatment.

One father said a non-violence order was taken out against him, even though he had never smacked his children.

Others said they felt that the lawyers who were supposed to be acting for the child had favoured the mother's interests, lied to them and bullied their children into siding with the mother.

The Family Court encouraged legal action rather than deterred it, said one father speaking to his submission.

"We have a culture in the Family Court of generating income," he said.

Although these claims are self-serving and unverifiable, we need the media to be able to observe and report on Family Court cases so we can find out what is really going on.

 
The Oppressed Peoples of Klarkistan

I have created my nation on Nation States. When I selected the national animal, I didn't expect this pleasant surprise:

Klarkistan Decides:
Union delegates on the Dinner Table?

The Issue
In a bid to provide a new revenue stream for Klarkistan's Beef-Based Agriculture industry, it has been suggested that union delegates could be added to the menu.

The Debate
"The fact is, the union delegate population is out of control," says Beef-Based Agriculture spokesperson Naki Nagasawa. "We have to do something about them anyway, so why not market them as tasty snacks? We could have union delegate kebabs, union delegate pies, union delegate-on-a-sticks--the possibilities are endless! Let's not pass up this golden opportunity to provide a feast, if you will, for our economy."

"I agree that something needs to be done about union delegate over-population," says random passer-by Jean-Paul Thiesen, "but eating them? That's kind of gross. Let's just shoot the ones we have to and shovel their bodies into ditches like normal."

"I am shocked and appalled!" declared SPCA President Max Trax. "If anyone needs to be culled, it's us humans. The union delegates were here first, remember? We need to take this as a sign to get our industry--agriculture in particular--to back off. The union delegate is part of what makes Klarkistan a great nation!"

 
Media Cow

New NZ Blog: Media Cow "Prowling for Media Bull in Aotearoa, New Zealand".

Great name, and the content looks good too.

 
A Campaign for Social Justice

We'd like to draw your attention to a troubling injustice being perpetrated in this country and elsewhere.

You will have noticed there is a grossly unfair distribution of physical attractiveness among the members of our society. The young, good looking people who can be seen frequenting bars and nightclubs on Friday evening stand in stark contrast to the plain, old and infirm among us who sit at home alone. The gap between hot and not is vast, and continues to widen.

Although we're sure that Roger Douglas somehow caused this problem, the current Clark government also doesn't seem to care. We hereby call on the government to take urgent action to close the gaps and honour its promise to "take care of the many, not just the few".

The solution is simple: In the same way that the tax system promotes social justice by requiring workers to give 40% of their income to ensure that the needy among us can be taken care of, those fortunate enough to be blessed with youth and good looks should be required to spend two nights a week having sex with those members of society who are unable to find partners by themselves.

Why should an elite minority, many of whom simply inherited their good looks from their parents, enjoy the benefits of a great sex life while others languish in desperate need?

For example, the tall, blonde woman who lives three doors down from me seems to have a new boyfriend every other week. Furthermore, the fact that she has a Swedish grandfather makes this a glaring example of racial discrimination in clear violation of the Human Rights Act 1993. Meanwhile, the fat, hairy guy who lives on the corner has been stuck at home every night watching TV ever since his wife left him due to his drinking problem. That blonde woman can easily afford to give up a couple of nights a week so the fat, hairy dude can have some sex.

Of course, there are some self-centred individuals making the extreme right-wing claim that they have exclusive rights to their own bodies, just as other greedy people claim an exclusive right to their property or the money they earn. These views are misguided. As Sue Bradford of the Green Party explains: "... the key to social responsibility is the just distribution of social and natural resources."

Support the Campaign for Sexual Justice. A caring, compassionate, unselfish, inclusive society demands no less.

 
Boy Troubles

I attended an interesting talk last night by Jennifer Buckingham of the Centre for Independent Studies, on the subject of boys' education. I would summarise it for you, but you can just read this article in the Herald instead.

I know schools could do a lot better, and would do better if the state monopoly were relaxed. However, I don't think evidence of a gender gap necessarily supports the conclusions that Buckingham draws.

It seems wrong to me to regard comparisons between boys and girls as evidence that boys are being disadvantaged through poor teaching. If Buckingham had instead presented studies showing that boys today are doing worse than boys 10, 20 or 30 years ago, then that would indicate a problem. In fact, I suspect that most, if not all, of the gap is the result of girls doing better. Comparing boys with girls and concluding that boys are being actively disadvantaged is no more valid than claiming that the poor are being disadvantaged by citing the gap between rich and poor.

Girls mature earlier than boys so it wouldn't surprise me at all if it was simply normal and natural for girls to get ahead during high school and boys to catch up later.

 
Eid al-Fitri

Today is the celebration of the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Muslims all around the world will mark the occasion by visiting friends and relatives, offering gifts, forgiving grievances and donating to charity. I, on the other hand, will celebrate by accepting offers of copious amounts of delicious Malaysian food.

There's nothing much wrong with a Muslim flag being flown from the Auckland Harbour Bridge to mark the occasion. Transit needs to get a life. I could accept a hard and fast rule of absolute separation of church and state, but that is clearly not the case at present because there are Christian, Maori and Green spiritual practices all through our laws and government departments.

 
Kiwi Dream Nightmare

What do you do when you're a Green/Marxist urban planner in Auckland? The traffic is gridlocked, you have an ideological hatred for the motor vehicle so more roads are not an option, and public transport is hopelessly uneconomic?

The answer, apparently is to pass regulations that prevent people building single houses and force them to build high density accommodation instead.

The upside is that people will absolutely hate this idea and Council elections are next year.

 
Zaoui

I'm not sure whether Zaoui's detention is unjust, because we don't know what classified information they have. It seems doubtful that one person would be singled out like this for no reason at all.

I do agree with No Right Turn on the latest developments. It sounds like Laurie Greig, the Inspector-General of Security Intelligence, needs to take a long holiday at the very least.

 
Sentencing idiocy leads to double murder

From today's NZ Herald:

William Logan Johansson was a young killer who got a second chance in life. So he used it to mastermind the methamphetamine-fuelled robbery spree in which gunman Ese Falealii shot dead two innocent men last year. Johansson first killed eight years ago when he was one of a pack who beat a young man to death in a drunken fight outside Auckland's Globe Hotel.

He was not sent to jail: he received a two-year suspended sentence and periodic detention. None of the pack received more than 4 years from Justice Sian Elias, now Chief Justice. She described the killing as a double tragedy because it would cast a shadow for the rest of their young lives.

Sian Elias really is appalling. How disgusting is it to use the words 'double tragedy' as if the consequences for the killers were equivalent to the consequences for the victim? Now that Elias is in charge of the Supreme Court, her opportunities to place innocent people at risk of murder or other violent crime have greatly increased.

 
The Politics of Envy

From SFGate, via Instapundit:

About 100,000 people took to the streets of Berlin on Saturday to demonstrate against Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's plans to trim Germany's generous welfare state, the biggest show of public opposition so far to his drive to revive Europe's largest economy.

Answering the call of labor unions and left-wing groups including the former East German communist party, a huge column of marchers snaked through downtown Berlin, chanting slogans and carrying banners that mocked the government's welfare and tax policy, saying "poverty for all" and "Why take from the rich while we've still got the poor?"

I assume that last one is a mis-translation, either that or the subtlety of the message has gone way over my head. Anyway, back to my main point, which is:

Socialism started in the 19th century as a protest against people who contributed nothing to society and just sat on their asses living off the efforts of hard-working people. Today socialists are organizing protests to protect the ability of people who contribute nothing to society to continue sitting on their asses living off the efforts of hard-working people.

Confused? You shouldn't be. There is a common thread that connects the 19th century socialists, the 21st century socialists, anti-Americans, anti-Semites, Islamic terrorists and most other hate groups. It can be expressed in one word: Envy.

If you want stuff that other people have, then you have two basic choices:
a) Produces goods and services that can be traded for the stuff you want
b) Form a mob and use force to take the stuff

If you are going to use b), then you need a damned good justification. Envy alone won't do it. Not even close.

In the past, wars (both military and ideological) were usually won by the side with the most soldiers. In the modern world, wars are won by the side with the most money and the best technology. Those who prefer option a) above will always have more money and better technology than those who prefer option b). The 100,000 people marching in the streets in London and Berlin should think about that.

 
This should finish Dean

From the New York Times via Matt Drudge

In the winter of 1970, a 21-year-old student from Yale walked into his armed services physical in New York carrying X-rays and a letter from his orthopedist, eager to know whether a back condition might keep him out of the military draft.

Dr. Dean got the medical deferment, but in a recent interview he said he probably could have served had he not mentioned the condition.

"I guess that's probably true," he said. "I mean, I was in no hurry to get into the military."

In the 10 months after his graduation from Yale, time he might otherwise have spent in uniform, Dr. Dean lived the life of a ski bum in Aspen, Colo. His back condition did not affect his skiing the way the rigors of military service would have, he said, nor did it prevent him from taking odd jobs like pouring concrete in the warm months and washing dishes when it got cold.

As well as those who fought bravely for their country, plenty of decent people with principles went to prison rather than take part in a war they believed was unjust. Dean gets full marks for honesty, but if you're a draft-dodger and you want to be President, surely it's more effective to lie your ass off about it, as Clinton did.

Voters might support Dean in spite of his promises to increase taxes and regulations and turn his back on people being slaughtered by brutal dictators, but they absolutely will not vote for him if he is perceived as unpatriotic.

 
Latest nonsense from the E.U.

From the Financial Times:

The European Union's racism watchdog has shelved a report on anti-semitism because the study concluded Muslims and pro-Palestinian groups were behind many of the incidents it examined.

Following a spate of incidents in early 2002, the EUMC commissioned a report from the Centre for Research on Anti-semitism at Berlin's Technical University.

When the researchers submitted their work in October last year, however, the centre's senior staff and management board objected to their definition of anti-semitism, which included some anti-Israel acts. The focus on Muslim and pro-Palestinian perpetrators, meanwhile, was judged inflammatory.

"There is a trend towards Muslim anti-semitism, while on the left there is mobilisation against Israel that is not always free of prejudice," said one person familiar with the report. "Merely saying the perpetrators are French, Belgian or Dutch does no justice to the full picture."

Some EUMC board members had also attacked part of the analysis ascribing anti-semitic motives to leftwing and anti-globalisation groups, this person said. "The decision not to publish was a political decision."

Both the findings and the E.U. reaction are sad, but not surprising. Europe is well on the way to becoming the 21st century equivalent of the Soviet Union.

 
'Fair and balanced' in NZ

Prime is now screening Fox News between midnight and 6am. Bet they don't get taxpayer charter funding for it, like TVNZ does for BBC World. Although Fox is certainly no paragon of objective journalism, it will be refreshing to watch international news presented by people who understand that murderous socialist military dictatorships are inferior to democratic government.

 
It's the Commitment, Stupid

How to sell gay marriage.

By William Saletan in Slate.

 
Top 10 repercussions of the All Blacks' World Cup defeat

From St. Molesworth:

1. In a remarkable coincidence all state-owned media misplace all footage of Jim Anderton smugly telling the country in 1999 that we've never won the world cup with a centre right government but we'll win the next one with a centre left one.

2. Apologists claim the muted reaction to the result shows we've "matured as a nation", but in fact we're just more used to losing.

3. Following their total lack of aggression, the All Blacks are adopted as poster boys for NZ's now disarmed "peacekeeping" military forces.

4. NZRFU to take credit for botching the RWC co-hosting rights thereby sparing the nation the embarrassment of losing at home.

5. New Zealand will be in the final but only if you count the Canterbury jerseys worn by the Aussies.

6. Jonah Lomu makes a comeback and is easily able to get around Leon MacDonald on the paddock - even with his dialysis unit attached.

7. New Zealand becomes the newest Australian state, knowing it is the only way they will ever win the Rugby World Cup again.

8. Recognising the electoral risks posed by the woeful All Black performance, Helen Clark takes over the All Black coaching job from 'Mitch' and adopts a similar sounding nickname.

9. The Commerce Commission approves the Wallabies' purchase of a 25% share in the All Blacks on public interest grounds, recognising it is the only way of securing 'substantial and long term benefits for New Zealand rugby'.

10. John Mitchell takes up a new job as spokesman for Maori Affairs Minister Parekura Horomia.

 
Sticks and stones

Remember when, if you complained to your mother about another kid calling you names, you would get a reply that was almost certain to include the phrase 'sticks and stones'. Bullying was an activity that generally resulted in cuts and bruises, or at least somebody running off with your lunch. Those days are well and truly over.

It's now headline news if a kid is subjected to abuse and insults by other students:

Internet Safety Group director Liz Butterfield said it was becoming increasingly common for children to abuse each other through cellphone texting and e-mail, but she had not previously heard of someone devoting a website to such attacks and encouraging others to join in. "It is cyber bullying. I think it's the nastiest kind of thing that you could throw at somebody. I would call it at the very high end of bullying."

We talk a lot at the Internet safety group about how in our society we are lacking a code of conduct or a code of social behaviour for the cyberspace environment, because the technologies have had their impact so rapidly and are evolving so quickly.

Many young people view the cyberspace environment as one where you do have the kind of freedom to say what you like, and they say things they would never say in normal situations.

If Liz Butterfield has never heard of someone devoting a website to attacking someone else, then she needs to actually use the Internet for a while before she opens her mouth again. Publications that exist solely for the purpose of attacking individuals are commonplace in other media as well: for example, this delicate and nuanced offering from a prominent journalist and academic. Maybe they should be asking where these kids get their ideas from.

As for implementing a code of conduct to address the current state of affairs where people are free to say what they like, I'm pleased to exercise my freedom to point out that only a complete moral and mental defective would recommend such an abomination. It's true that people are often less civil on the net than in face-to-face conversation, but there was no code of conduct for face-to-face speech last time I checked.

If the above conduct is 'very high end bullying', I can only assume that 'moderate bullying' is refusing to let another kid join your game of hop-scotch, while 'low end bullying' is a failure to welcome a classmate with a culturally appropriate greeting.

I also noted that Matt Drudge is carrying this story. I hope that doesn't mean there are people out there taking this shit seriously.

 
Business as usual

From The Telegraph:

The European Union is failing to keep track of huge annual subsidies, and 91 per cent of its budget is riddled with errors or cannot be verified, a financial watchdog said yesterday.

The European Court of Auditors refused to certify EU accounts for the ninth successive year, saying Brussels has failed to match reform rhetoric with a genuine change of culture. Abuse is said to be endemic in the Common Agricultural Policy, which still consumes almost half the £65 billion budget.

Checks on subsidy claims for suckler cows found that 50.2 per cent of animals in Portugal and 31.2 per cent in Italy were false. The "error rate" in forage and crop acreage was 89.7 per cent in Luxembourg, 42.9 per cent in Sweden, 34.5 per cent in France and 19.2 per cent in Britain, despite increased use of satellite photography to spot fraud.

The court suggested that EU staff were abusing the disability system on a large scale, costing taxpayers £54 million a year. Half the claimants had psychological or stress-related complaints. A court official said: "These are not coal miners or deep-sea fishermen. It's not normal for so many to retire for ill-health."

Most of the invalids are in their 30s or 40s, securing life-time pensions worth 70 per cent of the final retirement-age salaries.

 
Letters to Bush

From The Guardian. I like this one:

Dear Mr President,

Today you arrive in my country for the first state visit by an American president for many decades, and I bid you welcome.

You will find yourself assailed on every hand by some pretty pretentious characters collectively known as the British left. They traditionally believe they have a monopoly on morality and that your recent actions preclude you from the club. You opposed and destroyed the world's most blood-encrusted dictator. This is quite unforgivable.

I beg you to take no notice. The British left intermittently erupts like a pustule upon the buttock of a rather good country. Seventy years ago it opposed mobilisation against Adolf Hitler and worshipped the other genocide, Josef Stalin.

It has marched for Mao, Ho Chi Minh, Khrushchev, Brezhnev and Andropov. It has slobbered over Ceausescu and Mugabe. It has demonstrated against everything and everyone American for a century. Broadly speaking, it hates your country first, mine second.

Eleven years ago something dreadful happened. Maggie was ousted, Ronald retired, the Berlin wall fell and Gorby abolished communism. All the left's idols fell and its demons retired. For a decade there was nothing really to hate. But thank the Lord for his limitless mercy. Now they can applaud Saddam, Bin Laden, Kim Jong-Il... and hate a God-fearing Texan. So hallelujah and have a good time.

Frederick Forsyth
Novelist

 
Heh - Chomksy

The New York Times once said the following about Noam Chomsky:

Arguably the most important intellectual alive, how can he write such nonsense about international affairs and foreign policy?

So anyway, Chomsky's latest book on international affairs and foreign policy has the following quote on the dust jacket:

"Arguably the most important intellectual alive" - The New York Times

When it comes to the emission of rank, unadulterated bullshit, amateurs like Michael Moore and John Pilger still have plenty to learn from the master.

(from Oliver Kamm)

 
Massachusetts legalizes same-sex marriage

From CNN:

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has cleared the way for lesbian and gay couples in the state to marry, ruling Tuesday that government attorneys "failed to identify any constitutionally adequate reason" to deny them the right.

In a 4-3 ruling, the court gave the Massachusetts state Legislature six months to rewrite the state's marriage laws for the benefit of gay couples.

There's no time for the Supreme Court to hear an appeal or for the state constitution to be changed, so some couples at least should be able to marry before this can be reversed. The full opinion is here and the judges certainly don't mince words, e.g.

Barred access to the protections, benefits, and obligations of civil marriage, a person who enters into an intimate, exclusive union with another of the same sex is arbitrarily deprived of membership in one of our community's most rewarding and cherished institutions. That exclusion is incompatible with the constitutional principles of respect for individual autonomy and equality under law.

Without the right to marry--or more properly, the right to choose to marry--one is excluded from the full range of human experience and denied full protection of the laws for one's "avowed commitment to an intimate and lasting human relationship." Because civil marriage is central to the lives of individuals and the welfare of the community, our laws assiduously protect the individual's right to marry against undue government incursion. Laws may not "interfere directly and substantially with the right to marry."

The right to marry means little if it does not include the right to marry the person of one's choice.

In this case, we are confronted with an entire, sizeable class of parents raising children who have absolutely no access to civil marriage and its protections because they are forbidden from procuring a marriage license. It cannot be rational under our laws, and indeed it is not permitted, to penalize children by depriving them of State benefits because the State disapproves of their parents' sexual orientation.

For me, this pretty much hits the nail right on the head.

 
Open Justice

National wants to open up the Family Court:

National MP Judith Collins said she would take proposed amendments to the Care of Children Bill, which updates guardianship laws, to her party to endorse so there can be more access and reporting of Family Court hearings.

At the moment reports of hearings can only be made by news media with the approval of the court. She said the court should be open so most of its work could be scrutinised.

"What we're hearing is that by keeping it closed it means the only people who benefit are the people in the court, and the court system, who are not doing their jobs. By keeping it closed, it is not helping the thousands of parents who go to that court, and it is not helping the children."

Mrs Collins said opening the court would also allow better oversight of the quality of the social workers, psychologists, judges and court appointed counsel for children, who appear in cases.

Quite right. Nice to see that National has finally woken up to the issue, some other MPs have been on this for years. The current situation is utterly indefensible and every party should be calling for the Family Court to be held to the same standards of open justice as other courts. There's also no reason why name suppression should be the default. It probably should be a little easier to get name suppression in the Family Court but only if people apply for it in the normal way.

There's a Law Commission report on the Family Court which is available here (938K PDF).

 
Scary

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

Battelle Memorial Institute says it is building the world's fastest supercomputer.

The machine, expected to be capable of 1000 trillion operations per second when completed in 2008, is being built at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.

Never fear, we programmers have been honing our skills and we're confident we can produce new operating systems and applications that are sufficiently clumsy and inefficient that you won't even notice any difference.

 
Silent Majority

From The Guardian:

A majority of Labour voters welcome President George Bush's state visit to Britain which starts today, according to November's Guardian/ICM opinion poll.

The survey shows that public opinion in Britain is overwhelmingly pro-American with 62% of voters believing that the US is "generally speaking a force for good, not evil, in the world". It explodes the conventional political wisdom at Westminster that Mr Bush's visit will prove damaging to Tony Blair. Only 15% of British voters agree with the idea that America is the "evil empire" in the world.

The ICM poll also uncovers a surge in pro-war sentiment in the past two months as suicide bombers have stepped up their attacks on western targets and troops in Iraq. Opposition to the war has slumped by 12 points since September to only 41% of all voters. At the same time those who believe the war was justified has jumped 9 points to 47% of voters.

This swing in the mood of British voters is echoed in the poll's finding that two-thirds of voters believe British and American troops should not pull out of Iraq now but instead stay until the situation is "more stable".

(from Jeff Jarvis)

 
Shocked and Dismayed

As if George Soros isn't enough, the Guardian has more evidence of the corrupting influence of money in U.S. politics:

Acting with the tacit approval of Blair supporters, who were enraged when Mr Bush imposed tariffs on imports of British steel to shore up his vote, the former trade and industry secretary will call for sanctions to be imposed on four key marginal states which the president will need to win.

The states - and the exports to be targeted - are:

· Florida and its citrus products. The state was the scene of the "hanging chad" saga in the 2000 presidential election, after Mr Bush and Al Gore virtually tied there;
· Wisconsin and its apples and paper. Mr Gore won this state by a tiny margin;
· Tennessee and its chemicals. Mr Bush scored a narrow victory in Mr Gore's home state;
· Iowa and its agricultural equipment. This state will play a key role when the nominations battle starts in January.

So, basically, they want to make E.U. consumers pay more for a wide range of goods in order to remove Bush and replace him with a Democrat who will likely support even greater tariffs and subsidies.

 
Master and Commander

This should be a better film than some others that have been released recently.

Geitner Simmons has some historical background with great pictures, although I suspect the reality was somewhat less beautiful than the artists' impressions would suggest.

Randy Barnett at Volokh liked it as well.

 
Saddam and Al Qaeda

Stephen F. Hayes has a long article on Saddam and Al Qaeda links in the Weekly Standard:

OSAMA BIN LADEN and Saddam Hussein had an operational relationship from the early 1990s to 2003 that involved training in explosives and weapons of mass destruction, logistical support for terrorist attacks, al Qaeda training camps and safe haven in Iraq, and Iraqi financial support for al Qaeda--perhaps even for Mohamed Atta--according to a top secret U.S. government memorandum obtained by THE WEEKLY STANDARD.

According to the memo--which lays out the intelligence in 50 numbered points--Iraq-al Qaeda contacts began in 1990 and continued through mid-March 2003, days before the Iraq War began. Most of the numbered passages contain straight, fact-based intelligence reporting, which in some cases includes an evaluation of the credibility of the source. This reporting is often followed by commentary and analysis.

If true, this provides extremely strong support for the 'terrorism sponsorship' justification for the war.

 
Brownlee to replace Smith

It sounds like Gerry Brownlee will replace Nick Smith today as National's deputy. No real reasons have been given, but obviously there must be lots of stuff going on behind the scenes. On past performance at least, it's hard to imagine that the change will benefit National. Politicians sometimes make the mistake of thinking that parliamentary debates actually influence voters. Outside of parliament, the only thing that Brownlee has said or done that I can recall, is the award of civil assault damages against him.

 
Rugby

I think it's a bit rich to blame society for the All Black's loss. England and Australia didn't win the games due to their government's superior foreign policies either. I seem to remember it was only a few months ago the All Blacks went to Australia and crushed them by 40 points.

For me, the big difference between the two teams in the All Blacks-Australia match was intelligence. A team coached by John Mitchell and Robbie Deans is probably never going to play as intelligently as a team coached by Eddie Jones, especially after a concerted effort to oust any player with thoughts and ideas of their own (e.g. Randell, Oliver, Cullen). When we can't win a game with individual ability and talent, we don't win at all.

Rueben Thorne is an awful captain. If he was any more like a statue then pigeons would land and shit all over him. The contrast with Gregan is amazing. The biggest problem, though, is not that Thorne is a lousy communicator, it's that he doesn't really have a clue what the team should be doing so he simply has nothing to say.

A decent goalkicker would help as well, why does everyone like Aaron Mauger instead of Daniel Carter?

 
Political Survey

There's another political quiz which claims to be 'an open, honest version of politicalcompass.org.'

Here's my result:
left/right: -0.4786 (-0.0288)
pragmatism: +4.8601 (+0.2925)

No Right Turn has other NZ bloggers scores and a graph.

 
Great moments in socialized healthcare

I see that the government is acting on it's promise to reduce hospital waiting lists:

The Hawkes Bay District Health Board's "catch up and keep up" plan, approved at this week's board meeting, means 302 people will be told they no longer qualify for surgery.

They will be sent back to their GPs to discuss alternative care.

Another 206 patients will be transferred from the surgery waiting list to an "active review" list and will be checked every six months in case their condition deteriorates.

Socialism equals death, as a number of these poor people are unfortunately going to find out.

 
One-Nil

First victory for the Prostitution Law Reform Act:

William Gillanders, 59, a masseur, appeared in Christchurch District Court yesterday charged with assisting a person under 18 to perform a commercial sexual service and earning from that service.

There will be far fewer places for such people to hide now that the majority of the industry is operating legally.

 
Yeah right II

Also from the Herald:

The Government moved rapidly yesterday to play down suggestions that motorists pay an extra 15c a litre for petrol to fix Auckland's transport woes.

But while ruling out such a hefty fuel tax hike, senior ministers left open the prospect of a smaller rise.

Since only one quarter of petrol taxes are currently spent on roads, it's transparently obvious that a higher tax is not required. I can accept that there are externalities associated with road use, e.g. air pollution, policing, medical costs arising from accidents and so on. However, these costs plus roading don't add up to anywhere near the amount taken in petrol tax.

Furthermore, if Aucklands roads are crowded, then almost by definition they are paying a higher share of petrol taxes per mile of road than other areas. Petrol taxes taken from Aucklanders are paying for the long stretches of road in the South Island that lie empty most of the time, not that Aucklanders are complaining about that. More spending on Auckland's roads will not mean the rest of the country subsidising Auckland drivers, it will mean Auckland drivers subsidising the rest of the country less than they do at the moment. And this is coming from a life-long Wellingtonian.

 
Yeah right

From today's NZ Herald:

Local Government Minister Chris Carter publicly thanked Carolina Anderson and her family for turning a tragic dog attack into "something beneficial for New Zealand society" as new dog control measures were passed into law yesterday.

The problem is there's little in the Act that would have prevented the attack on Carolina Anderson. It's just more hassles for law abiding citizens with well-behaved dogs. Those causing the problems mostly don't register their dogs now, and they certainly won't do so after this legislation takes effect.

 
Sex offender supervision

The government wants to retrospectively introduce mandatory supervision for sex offenders, after their sentences are completed. Some thoughts on this:

It's misleading to suggest that the proposal 'breaches the Bill of Rights'. The Bill of Rights Act simply doesn't apply to areas specifically covered by other Acts of Parliament. I would prefer it if the Bill of Rights trumped all other legislation, but it doesn't work that way.

What's more significant is that the proposal is in violation of Article 11 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I'm surprised the media haven't picked up on this. It's pleasing to have established the precedent that the U.N. can be ignored whenever we don't agree with them.

Goff's use of the Lloyd McIntosh example to support the change is transparently dishonest, since McIntosh was already subject to supervision when he committed the subsequent assault. The McIntosh case supports the idea that parole should be abolished completely.

Overall, I'm leaning towards supporting the proposed change. As usual with laws that infringe on civil liberties, there are two problems to watch out for:

- The law is being sold to the public on the basis that it protects society from serial child sex offenders, so we need sufficient reporting and transparency to guard against use of the new powers against other people. If the police start harassing anyone who once had consensual sex with a 15 year old then that practice must be identified and stopped.

- I doubt that all convicted child sex offenders can be supervised all the time. Therefore decisions on the severity of punishment are effectively taken out of the court system and handed over to bureaucrats or the police. It's not clear to me how they will decide which offenders will be supervised and how much, and whether judicial review will be available. It seems very likely, one way or another, that lawyers will make money from this at the taxpayer's expense.

 
Pew Poll on U.S. Political Landscape

Very interesting data, from The Sock Thief

I especially like the part where it's a tie when they ask whether people prefer Bush or an unnamed Democrat, but as soon as they mention any of the Democrats by name, Bush leaps out to a big lead.

 
Universities, speech and funding

Very interesting discussion on this topic, see:

No Right Turn: here, here, here, here and here
RBC: here, here and here
NZPols: here and here

Might as well throw in my two cents worth.

What is the difference between the state punishing speech that it disagrees with, and the state forcibly taking people's money and using that money to subsidise speech that it supports? I would suggest there's not that much difference. One is a punishment for undesired behaviour and the other is a reward for desired behaviour. The effect is largely the same.

Therefore, a government that funds universities and respects freedom of speech, ought not to make funding conditional on viewpoint in any way. The system of life tenure in the U.S. works pretty well. An illustration of this is the way that tenured faculty members blog under their real name, while untenured faculty (especially the right-leaning ones) use pseudonyms.

If the extreme left-wing bias in some university departments is considered unhealthy and a poor use of taxpayers' money, a better approach would be to change the way academics are appointed and granted tenure. At the moment, it's a closed shop - new academics are appointed by existing academics. Once you achieve a critical mass of faculty with a particular viewpoint, then it's difficult for those with alternative views to get jobs.

I don't know exactly how you would set up a system of academic appointments that is optimal for selecting candidates based on merit; maybe some kind of board made up of staff, student and community representatives might work. There must be better options than the state rewarding or punishing speech according to its content.

 
Supreme Court Judges announced

They are Gault, Keith, Tipping, Blanchard and Elias - the four most senior Court of Appeal judges plus the Chief Justice who is automatically included. It's good news that Margaret Wilson didn't appoint the kind of people she really wants on the court, although it would have saved people some time if the Act had stipulated from the beginning that existing Court of Appeal judges would be appointed.

Of course, there will soon be forced retirements due to the ridiculous age limit of 68, but for the time being this is good news.

 
NZ Blogosphere graph

At No Right Turn.

 
Xenophobia NZ style

This absolutely disgusts me, I would like to fisk the entire article but I'm too angry to do it properly, so let me just summarise it for you:

New Zealand für New Zealanders, Amerikaner raus!

 
Oops

The Herald has obtained some confidential papers from Act's caucus retreat, see here and here. Some excerpts:

"If a centre-right Government is to win, then we must destroy Labour's economic credibility and establish ours. This will not be easy. Labour has high economic credibility. Act has never had economic credibility."

"Our objective is to have National voters think Act for the list."

New Zealand First: "This party is feared by many Act supporters. Act needs to repeat that we do not support Mr Peters' extreme statements on immigration. Act does not support populist tax and spend. But we can say, 'Mr Peters can contribute to resolving Maori and treaty issues. Act can work with New Zealand First on crime issues'."

Greens: "The Greens are Labour's weak points. Labour cannot govern after the next election without the Greens.

United Future: "I think they are a waste of centre-right space."

"Let's try to destroy the United Party by getting the 'Future Party' to fight with the 'United Party'."

Working with Winston Peters in any way would be a mistake. He's utterly poisonous. Apart from that, there's very little that a potential Act supporter might object to.

 
Political Compass

Here's where I stand according to The Political Compass:



I think this is about right. Can anyone explain the significance of the following question:

"When you are troubled, it's better not to think about it, but to keep busy with more cheerful things."

 
Hearts and minds

Even the Arab News is starting to come around:

At issue here is whether the Iraqi people have benefited from the overthrow of the Baathist regime and whether the American occupation will eventually benefit their country even more. I’m convinced — and berate me here from your patriotic bleachers, if you must — that what we have seen in the land between the Tigris and the Euphrates in recent months may turn out to be the most serendipitous event in its modern history.

One need offer no apology for saying that the supreme virtue of this war is that Saddam Hussein was gotten rid of. Period. The very man who had established arguably the closest approximation of a genuine fascist state in the Arab world, that sustained itself on fear, repression, genocide, cult of personality and wanton murder — a state whose law was that those who rule are the law.

Washington may not succeed in turning Iraq into a “beacon of democracy” but it will succeed, after all is said and done, in turning it into a society of laws and institutions where citizens, along with high-school kids, are protected against arbitrary arrest, incarceration, torture and execution.

Read the whole thing. (from Andrew Sullivan)

 
Thank you, Milton Friedman

NYT column by Virginia Postrel on the influence of Milton Friedman.

 
US Sperm Exports Explode; Canadians Upset

From the excellent Marginal Revolution, this story about how the Canadian government is so worried about the increasing level of imports of high quality U.S. sperm that they are contemplating a law to ban the use of any paid-for sperm.

 
Salesman of the Year?

The Australian reports this story from Finland where a bank manager was able to convince three armed bank robbers to take out a loan instead of robbing the bank.

 
Closing the gaps

Tamaki College has been accused of genocide:

The board of Auckland's Tamaki College wants students to focus more on academic achievement and has stopped them from entering next year's Auckland secondary schools Maori and Pacific Islands event.

"This decision was made in consultation with the board of trustees, many of whom are Maori and Pacific Islanders and who believe that education should be the main priority.

Because of the intense training needed for the festival, students were falling behind in their homework and turning up to school late or not at all", Mrs Pamaka said.

Professor Pita Sharples, a Maori educationist and kapa haka expert, found it hard to believe such a decision was being made in the 21st century.

"That decision is a reflection of racial and cultural arrogance, it is cultural genocide."

That's right: Hitler, Stalin, Mao and the board of Tamaki College. Somebody call the Hague.

I hope Tamaki College is prepared for a big jump in enrolments next year. There aren't many parents who think taking part in a festival is more important than academic success.

 
Awatere-Huata

I have no real opinion on this, it depends on too many facts that have yet to become publicly available. I'd like to make two points though:

- The Electoral Integrity Act is a steaming pile of crap that was cooked up as a result of Jim Anderton's frustration at being unable to control a dissenter within his party. It will be even worse, though, if parties can expel an MP and then claim that the resulting funding loss triggers the 'proportionality of parliament' clause in the Act. That would effectively give parties licence to discard an MP and bring in a new one whenever they please.

- 'Presumed innocent until proven guilty' is a principle of the justice system. The state should not punish people until they have been found guilty by a court of law, however you and I and the Act party are under no such constraint. We can and should form opinions about guilt or innocence in the same as we form other opinions, by choosing the position that best fits the available evidence. We are then fully justified in taking action based on that opinion. There's no reason for us to presume anything.

 
Top lawyer escapes conviction

From the Herald:

Criminal lawyer Christopher Harder has escaped conviction for assault after claiming he had been using a weight-loss drug at the time that could cause agitation and overreaction.

The 55-year-old was discharged without conviction after volunteering to pay a $1000 donation to the SPCA - apparently because Mr Hart is a horse-lover - and $500 in court costs.

Harder also argued that a conviction might prevent the overseas travel that has seen him offer to act as a negotiator in various conflicts around the world.

So basically he avoided conviction on three grounds: drug use, a payoff, and arguing that a criminal record would be too inconvenient for him. If an unemployed gang member from Wairoa tried to use those arguments to defend an assault charge, he would be laughed out of court. How about one law for all?

 
F**k

Interesting article about Robert Fisk in the San Francisco Chronicle.

It's a stretch to suggest that conservatives dislike Fisk because of his views on Israel and Palestine. It's perfectly possible to be sane, rational and extremely pro-Palestine, e.g. Hitchens. I would suggest that Fisk is the target of ridicule because he ignores evidence that doesn't support his ideology and fabricates evidence that does, all the while masquerading as a reporter when he's really an opinion writer.

(link via Romenesko)

 
Mallard's School Closures

The Sunday Star Times is reporting Axed schools cost taxpayers millions. I haven't seen any cost-benefit analysis for all these school closures, but it does seem that simply down-sizing schools that have falling rolls is a reasonable alternative. There are some economies of scale from amalgamating schools, but especially in rural areas this means that kids may have to travel a lot further. Maybe they could merge the school administrations while keeping separate physical locations?

If the facts are as outlined in the article it's hard to see how anyone benefits from the closures.

 
Employment Relations Act puts $300 million film at risk

From The Dominion Post:

New Zealand efforts to secure a $300 million movie version of children's classic book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe could be seriously undermined by an Employment Court decision that may affect the way film crews are hired.

Judge Coral Shaw ruled that contrary to industry understanding a technician who was made redundant from the Rings movie production was in fact an employee and not an independent contractor.

In her decision Judge Shaw said evidence that Mr Bryson required some training and was expected by Three Foot Six to keep regular work hours suggested it "treated him as an employee in this regard".

I don't know exactly what sort of employment arrangements are common in the film industry, but in IT, if everyone who has received training and is expected to keep regular hours is now legally an employee, there are an awful lot of businesses that need to start worrying about PAYE, ACC, annual leave, sick and other leave, and holiday pay, as well as saving up for fat redundancy payouts.

I fail to understand why redundancy provisions and a guarantee of continuity of employment cannot be bargained for and included (or not) in employment agreements, in just the same way as other terms and conditions.

 
Open letter about ‘GM’ from UK scientists

From EnviroSpin Watch:

Dear Prime Minister

The results of the Farm Scale Evaluations of three GM crops announced on 16th October were reported across the media as “the end of GM in the UK”. In fact the FSEs did not assess the effects of genetically modifying the crops, but rather the impact of different types of weed control. They had little to do with genetic modification, its processes or potential.

However the government’s reaction to the latest misleading reports on GM was to remain silent. Since 1999, the government has sponsored several protracted deliberations on GM but has consistently neglected opportunities to address any of the unsubstantiated assertions about the process of genetic modification and possible risks.

We feel you should be aware of the consequences of this ongoing failure to respond and to give a lead:

1. Demoralisation
Some scientists are leaving the UK, but many more are thoroughly demoralised by hostility to the work they do, which is continually misrepresented and even sabotaged. This is despite the new scientific opportunities afforded by developments like genomics. Those who have contributed many hours to public communication and government-sponsored deliberations feel undermined by the government’s failure to contradict false claims about ‘Frankenfoods’, health risks and ‘superweeds’.

2. Declining contribution to scientific development
Work on the basic science of genetic engineering and its applications to plants is being scaled down. This will inhibit our ability to contribute to scientific knowledge internationally, and to meet challenges like yield improvement, drought tolerance and reduced reliance on pesticides.

The government’s many initiatives in this prolonged deliberation on GM crops have been structured in a way that makes it impossible to clarify the nature of the scientific work or its opportunities. Genetic engineering of plants has been reduced to a matter of consumer preference; the public has been misinformed; and the efforts of scientists to communicate about genetic engineering have been misused.

For those of us who have spent our lives ‘doing research, publishing research and teaching research’ in the UK, it is distressing to experience such a backward slide; for others of us, and our students just starting out, it is deeply discouraging. More importantly, for society as a whole, if the same framework is applied in future decision-making, we risk seeing other technologies lose out to prejudice and procrastination.

[Signed by 114 UK scientists]