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2008-01-11T03:51:00.000+13:00

Something you just don't say

2007-10-07T12:45:00.001+13:00

"Never mind, it's only a game."This is why we have Section 123 of the Crimes Act.

Old people have no future

2007-08-18T20:12:00.000+12:00

Old people have no future - at least, no future as participants in the forums at United Future's new website. You see, you have to login to post a comment, and to register you have to provide your date of birth... and the possible birth years only go back as far as 1940. So, if you're 69 you can't Have Your Say or comment on Peter's Position.There's some irony in this, given that "the aim of

Trained circus seals

2007-08-04T19:33:00.000+12:00

What is it with right-wingers and their fetish for trained circus seals?Popular among right-wingers is the following proposed solution to the problem of welfare abuse: make welfare beneficiaries jump through hoops. Exactly which hoops it's thought welfare beneficiaries should jump through depends on the right-winger making the proposal. What particularly irks me is the suggestion put forward

Dildos

2007-07-11T16:24:00.000+12:00

Is the suggestion that someone's problem is nothing a big black dildo won't fix really encouraging a threat of rape?I won't attempt to answer that question, but meanwhile you can play with the big black dildo (click and drag).Hat tip: No Right Turn

Robin Bain is innocent

2007-06-20T19:07:00.000+12:00

13 years ago today, on a cold Dunedin morning, David Bain slaughtered his youngest sister Laniet (2 shots to the head as she lay sleeping, and 1 further shot as she lay gurgling dying), his mother Margaret

Youths

2007-06-17T20:37:00.000+12:00

The following is part of a letter to teenagers from a judge in the Brisbane Juvenile Court.Always we hear the cry from teenagers. What can we do? Where can we go? My answer is: Go home. Mow the lawns — wash the windows, learn to cook, build a raft, get a job, visit the sick, study your lessons and after you have finished, read a book!Your town does not owe you recreation facilities, your parents

Peaceful Pill'O'Clock: Cyanide

2007-06-11T17:29:00.000+12:00

Next week: Pentobarbital (Nembutal®)

Bain bailed

2007-05-16T21:13:00.000+12:00

David Bain is now out on bail and is the darling of the media. He's being treated like a returning hero. Quite frankly, I'm finding it all quite sick-making, considering that (as Tom from Wellington summed it up)The facts strongly suggest that in a moment of madness, he killed his dysfunctional family. His supporters have lost sight of key facts presented in court. That after the family were all

Stuff them, stuff yourself

2007-03-31T01:40:00.000+12:00

It's only been 10 days since we were warned against eating our hot cross buns "dripping in butter" by public health nutritionist and online hazard Bronwen King.Now we're being advised that schoolchildren should eat pies, chips, sausage rolls and chocolate bars only once a term. The Ministry of Health's deputy director general Don Matheson says, "This is not about labelling or a vehicle to inspect

Che Clark

2007-03-29T13:45:00.000+12:00

I fancied that my own LEGALISE SMACK placard (pictured here) would win the prize for best protest sign at Wellington's anti-anti-smacking march yesterday. But now I place it a distant second. The placard above (click for larger version) smokes the competition. What a great work of art.UPDATE: "These sorts of protest gatherings always turn up someone with a single issue. A young shaved head bloke

Kill the poor

2007-01-31T01:17:00.000+13:00

A libertarian government would abolish state welfare. State-sanctioned coercion would be phased out, and the provision of welfare would become the exclusive domain of voluntary charity.This policy always meets the same objection, expressed here by Commie Mutant Traitor.And what happens to the genuinely needy if the voluntary charity of you and your fellow selfless wealthy isn't sufficient to meet

What happened in 1983?

2007-01-22T03:29:00.000+13:00

Today Bailey Junior Kurariki, the country's youngest convicted killer, makes his second appearance before the Parole Board. What are his chances of release this time? Not looking good.It's a good month to be thinking about homicide. A few days ago, the Herald ran the headline Homicide rate soars - but is it? There have been seven homicides so far this year. A few days ago, that was "nearly one

Unhappy tree friends

2007-01-18T12:23:00.000+13:00

It's so frustrating reading stories like this and being left wondering about the important details."The men have been released with a warning," says the Herald. They were arrested forBeing drunkClimbing a treeDemanding to speak to the mediaDemanding to speak to Liam Ashley's parentsBeing a danger to themselvesBeing a nuisance to othersBeing out lateNo reason

Robert Anton Wilson

2007-01-13T23:22:00.000+13:00

I just learnt that Robert Anton Wilson has died.I'm sad. Robert Anton Wilson influenced my thinking more profoundly than any other author. He literally changed my life, and I owe him a debt of gratitude. Thanks, Bob.It's been a while since

"It was the drugs"

2007-01-10T00:45:00.000+13:00

It's the two-year anniversary of this blog. Oh, yeah, and Saddam Hussein was hanged. I know many libertarians who will be celebrating, but I'm not one of them. Don't get me wrong. I'm not shedding any tears and I'm even kind of pleased, but I think that left-wing uber-blogger Idiot Savant is right - not even Saddam

Meth madness

2006-12-07T22:14:00.000+13:00

Last week, New Zealand Police announced that they had located 1000 clandestine drug laboratories since official recording began ten years ago. In 1996 they located just one lab. Lucky lab 1000 was the 184th for 2006."Quality intelligence and increased understanding of the dynamics of illicit drug markets mean we are continually improving our work in zeroing in on the supply chains and networks of

Lest we forget

2006-12-05T23:30:00.000+13:00

Not content with just sitting at the bar drinking and reminiscing, the RSA joins the War on Drugs™.They've given 1,000 copies of the book The Great Brain Robbery - What Everyone Should Know About Teenagers and Drugs to courts around New Zealand, with the intention of helping young people going through the court system to say no to drugs.Don't they know that alcohol is number one on the Danger

Absolutely amazing

2006-10-10T05:35:00.000+13:00

In an interview for Marie Claire magazine, BBC television presenter Graham Norton tells it like it is: "I took ecstasy... It was absolutely amazing. It was just fantastic - really, really fun." And now he's taking the good news to the world - with a little help from his friends in the global media. Around the world, there are 39 stories on this topic (according to Google News), and Stuff.co.nz is

Lawyer jokes

2006-08-31T01:02:00.000+12:00

A Wellington sex store owner is defending his "name and shame" tactics after posting a photo of a man, suspected of shoplifting a penis pump, in his shop window, reports the Dominion Post.Wellington lawyer John Edwards, who specialises in privacy law, said the tactic was risky and delved into a grey area of law. The man in the photo could possibly sue for defamation. "Mind you, truth is complete

Scary fat people

2006-05-15T09:33:00.000+12:00

A Ministry of Health report estimates that more than half of New Zealand adults are overweight or obese.It says a third of New Zealanders over the age of 15 are overweight and 1 in 5 are classed as obese.Health Minister Pete Hodgson describes the situation as "frightening". He calls the situation a "crisis", and says an obesity "epidemic" is the country's most pressing public health challenge. He

Fucked by major burns

2006-04-23T22:50:00.000+12:00

What do Niki Lauda, Hot Lips Houlihan and, now, a growing number of clandestine lab technicians have in common?Drug cooks with acute burns from P lab explosions are bumping other patients off surgery waiting lists and costing taxpayers millions of dollars, says the Sunday Star Times."A 70 per cent burn takes five months of treatment and will cost $700,000 to treat," says Waikato Hospital clinical

Careful with that hydroponic cannabis-growing set-up, Eugene

2006-04-16T13:12:00.000+12:00

Meet the latest weapon in the War on Drugs™, according to NZPA.Among the weapons believed to be found at the address were a paraflare, a fragmentation grenade, thunderflashes, modified thunderflashes to act as a bomb, a large quantity of ammunition and two hydroponic cannabis-growing set-ups.The defence force is checking its weapon and ammunition stocks...Missing any grow lights?

Alcohol linked to drunken rampage

2006-04-16T04:49:00.000+12:00

War on Drugs™ propaganda has hit a low point in the deep South. There's an article in the Southland Times headlined Ecstacy linked to drunken rampage.Last weekend some teenagers attended an unsupervised 18th birthday party at Alexandra's Ice Inline clubrooms. The party got off to an auspicious early start when the 18-year-old hosting the party was taken away by an ambulance when he was so

Which political stereotype is she?

2005-12-14T02:59:00.000+13:00

Pragmatist - You believe that individuals are the rightful owners of their own lives and therefore have inherent freedoms and responsibilities. You maintain that the proper purpose of government is to protect such freedoms and not to assume such responsibilities. However, if you think that you will lose votes by saying so, you will let your principles be sidelined in favour of populism. Your role

Which political sterotype are you?

2005-12-14T00:24:00.000+13:00

Libertarian - You believe that the main use for government is for some people to lord it over others at their expense. You maintain that the government should be as small as possible, and that civil liberties, "victimless crimes", and gun ownership should be basic rights. You probably are OK with capitalism. Your historical role model is Thomas Jefferson. Which political sterotype are you?brought

RIP Nguyen Tuong Van

2005-12-02T21:34:00.000+13:00

The killing of Nguyen Tuong Van today by the government of Singapore has brought out all the usual suspects - including the odious Marc Alexander, former United Future MP and self-styled "victim's advocate". In a New Zealand Herald opinion piece, Alexander writes,There is a universal view that drug dealing is a vile business, one that takes advantage of, and condemns many to, the antithesis of a

Malignant political psychosis

2005-11-05T15:56:00.000+13:00

I love it when Chris Trotter from the Left sounds like a libertarian. Here he is, writing in yesterday's Dominion Post.There have always been those who have resisted the extension of rights which they personally enjoy to groups of people whom they despise. Sadly, the malignant political psychosis which causes so many people to bridle at the thought of anybody else being free, except themselves,

Candidate roundup

2005-09-16T18:25:00.000+12:00

It's the eve of Election '05. If political parties were going to provide the interested public with web site pictures and profiles of their candidates, they should have done so by now. I grade each political party according to how well they have achieved this simple task.99 MP The 99 MP Party has only two candidates, but they don't tell us who their candidates are or say anything about them. But

Wellington Central

2005-09-06T23:28:00.000+12:00

I went to meet the candidates at the Aro Valley Community Centre.What a great night's entertainment. The Wellington Central candidates - Stephen Franks (ACT), Michael Appleby (ALCP), Kane O'Connell (Alliance), Stephen Hay (Anti-Capitalist Alliance), Sue Kedgeley (Greens), Marion Hobbs (Labour), Bernard Darnton (Libertarianz), Mark Blumsky (National), David Somerset (Progressive) and Fiona

Labour executive toy

2005-07-05T22:08:00.000+12:00

Click to activate. (Toy opens in new window.)Enjoy with Internet Explorer or Opera. (Baby shakes in Firefox.)

Billboards

2005-06-06T21:14:00.000+12:00

I'm no fan of National, but I do believe that politicians are like nappies. They should be changed often, and for the same reason.National's billboards have become victims of their own success. The real billboards are here. Parodies are everywhere. (The best ones are here.)

Health education doesn't work

2005-06-05T20:01:00.000+12:00

Sometimes there are clusters of news items on separate but related topics. Here's an example from Stuff's health stories.Smoking still major cause of heart diseaseFewer than half of sexually active teens use condoms'Slip, slop, slap' message ignoredDoctor laments low vaccination turnoutNo doubt, in the wake of these damning headlines, there will be calls from the government's legions of health

Government to cancel rugby games

2005-05-31T01:23:00.000+12:00

That's right. The Government will cancel rugby games, close schools, stop the Cook Strait ferry and divert incoming passenger jets away from Auckland when the impending H5N1 flu epidemic reaches New Zealand.Alarm calls over the prospect of the H5N1 bird flu virus mutating to a human-to-human transmissible form are sounding more loudly by the day. Global epidemics (pandemics) have occurred three

Haggling over the drinking age

2005-05-11T20:30:00.000+12:00

At a dinner party one night, an inebriated Winston Churchill asked the aristocratic lady next to him"Madam, would you sleep with me for, say, ten thousand pounds?"She paused and responded"Well, Sir Winston, I believe I would.""How about for ten pounds?"The lady was indignant."Sir Winston! What kind of woman do you think I am?"To which, Churchill smiled and replied,"Madam, we've already

Not cool for cats

2005-05-06T01:05:00.000+12:00

John Tamihere is in the news again, this time for abandoning his two cats without food or water. The New Zealand Herald rather misses the point, though, when it saysAs if upsetting women, Jews and his boss is not enough, John Tamihere is now on the wrong side of cat lovers.We're not merely upset - we're revolted and violated. Animal cruelty is morally wrong, and is in an altogether different

Is our public health system stuffed?

2005-04-17T13:30:00.000+12:00

Do we need to spend more tax money on our public health system? Do we need to throw more good money after bad? Do we need another poke in the eye with a sharp stick?Senior clinicians issue health warning - our overstretched health system is compromising safe patient care. Here's an expensive socialist proposal - let's ramp up public health care funding so that by 2010 we're spending 50% more on

Retro Ken

2005-04-12T20:38:00.000+12:00

Congratulations to former trade unionist Ken Douglas, who has lost 68 kg since a "stomach stapling" operation in December 2003, and now weighs a sensible 83 kg."Red Ken" paid for the $20,000 operation himself - but now, true to form, he is suggesting that the Government should pay for others to have the operation to get more people back into work.A $20,000 intervention that is going to get

Dunne Day

2005-04-06T23:28:00.000+12:00

United Future leader Peter Dunne is congratulating himself after his New Zealand Day Bill passed its first reading in the House this evening. The proposal to rename Waitangi Day to New Zealand Day now goes to the justice and electoral select committee for public consideration.Well, I'll tell you what I think. It's a dumb idea.You see, it's been tried before. The Labour goverment under Norman Kirk

Namblaphobia

2005-04-03T19:29:00.000+12:00

What a blessing that the rushes of blood to the head over the Jim Peron affair are now subsiding. Twenty years ago, in San Francisco, Jim Peron expressed the view that adult-child sexual relationships are not always abusive, a view also espoused by NAMBLA, the North American Man/Boy Love Association. He now rejects his former view as mistaken and bad.Classical liberals and sundry defenders of

Fundamentalist building blocks

2005-03-27T22:11:00.000+12:00

The devil may have all the best songs, but the Christian political parties have the best web sites. Check out Destiny New Zealand's web site. Superb front page using Macromedia Flash. Slick, professional design, in smiting black, red and white.Christian Heritage New Zealand's web site used to look like this - clean and wholesome - an elegant simplicity of design. I much prefer the old look to the

Mark Lundy

2005-03-20T17:59:00.000+12:00

The front page of today's Sunday Star Times features a story about Mark Lundy. Lundy was convicted in 2002 and sentenced to 25 years behind bars after being found guilty of bludgeoning his wife, Christine, and seven-year-old daughter, Amber, to death in their Palmerston North home in August 2000.There have always been question marks over the safety of the Lundy verdict. Despite this,The Court of

Publicanism

2005-03-18T19:03:00.000+13:00

Publicanism is New Zealand's newest political movement. WIN is a political party formed by publicans John van Buren and Geoff Mulvihill, who are angered by the Smokefree Environments Amendment Act 2003. This despotic piece of legislation came into force on 10 December last year, and made it illegal for publicans to allow patrons to smoke inside their establishments. WIN say they stand for freedom

Same here

2005-03-11T18:58:00.000+13:00

In Queensland, Australia, for a few days. I picked up Wednesday's The Courier-Mail and read, on page 3, the headline Long waiting lists stretch patience.A Brisbane plant operator has been told he may have to wait up to 10 years for surgery at a Queensland public hospital, with almost 15 months of this time spent waiting to get on a waiting list for the operation...Health Minister Gordon Nuttall

Citizen to go

2005-02-28T12:54:00.000+13:00

The Dominion Post says that John Burrett, the notorious "bunker-in-the-bush" kidnap plotter, is to be deported.Immigration Minister Paul Swain—whose Rimutaka electorate includes where the bunker was built—personally signed Burrett's deportation order.Permanent removal of a criminal through deportation has the one big advantage of the death penalty, without the killing. But, to my mind, there's a

Republic of New Freeland

2005-02-15T12:34:00.000+13:00

Click to fly the flagShould the design of the New Zealand flag be changed? That's the question the people at the NZflag.com Trust would like to see on a referendum at the next election. It's all a bit of a hullubaloo. The right time to change the flag is when we become the Republic of New Freeland. Bring to light that day of joy!Meanwhile, here is my proposal for our new flag. The new flag has

Samurai slasher

2005-02-13T19:36:00.000+13:00

I asked a psychiatrist her opinion on the Samurai slasher case. "Methamphetamine psychosis," she declared without hesitation. "It's the most dangerous drug there is."How dangerous is it, really? In a December 2004 report entitled "Injury and Other Harms Associated with Methamphetamine Use: A Review of the Literature," a

Two kinds of people

2005-02-06T13:56:00.000+13:00

There are two kinds of people in New Zealand. Those who divide New Zealand into two kinds of people, and those who don't. Don Brash, with his "one rule for all", is one of those who doesn't. Helen Clark and her Labour government are an example of those who do.There are right ways and wrong ways of dividing New Zealand into two kinds of people. The Herald gets it wrong today. The paper says, "Life

Flying low

2005-01-31T22:17:00.000+13:00

A light plane that crashed in the Gibbston Valley near Queenstown on Saturday, killing two people, had been on a police cannabis reconnaissance flight, says ONE News.Apparently, it's not the first time that aerial cannabis law enforcement has turned to tragedy. Twelve years ago two officers and two civilians were killed when a spotter plane collided with a helicopter above Auckland. The latest

Brash bashes beneficiaries?

2005-01-27T14:34:00.000+13:00

'Beneficiary-bashing' is a popular New Zealand phrase. Lately we're also quite fond of 'Brash-bashing'. Alliteration is fun! Yesterday, the Dominion Post headlined with "War on Welfare" but I think "Brash Bashes Beneficiaries" would have been better. It's not bashing, though. For bashing you need a stick, not a carrot. Brash thinks that in some cases, benefits are an incentive to be on welfare.

A sign of the times

2005-01-22T01:14:00.000+13:00

"Unlocked cars contribute to the growing crime rate!" reads this warning sign by the train station car park. There's something not quite right about this sign. And it's not so much what the police say, as the way they say it. Unlocked cars don't commit crimes. Criminals do. And criminals are responsible for 100% of thefts of and from unlocked cars, not the unfortunate car owners. Yet the sign

Essential viewing

2005-01-15T21:54:00.000+13:00

I read in the Dominion Post that a severely arthritic Christchurch woman has won a landmark case in the High Court over Work and Income New Zealand (WINZ). The court ruled that WINZ must pay the woman a special benefit to cover repayments on a loan she took out to pay everyday expenses and medical costs after becoming a beneficiary. "Accommodation costs and hire-purchase arrangements for

Don Brash tsunami

2005-01-13T02:03:00.000+13:00

Soon after the Boxing Day tsunami struck, the Ayn Rand Institute issued an uncharitable op-ed saying that the United States government should not give any money to help the tsunami victims, because the money is not the government's to give. This is like claiming that because there's nothing wrong with eating meat, it's OK to slaughter and dine upon the family pet. Whatever the merits of that

Ghoul rush

2005-01-02T18:35:00.000+13:00

"Foreign tourists sunbathe on Patong Beach, Phuket, apparently unconcerned as Thai workers pick through tsunami debris behind them," reads the caption to this picture from the front of today's Sunday Star Times. Are these people for real? The government has pledged $5 million in aid on our behalves. That may seem like a lot of money, but it's only $1.25 each. Please do give generously to a

Health costs

2004-12-30T01:32:00.000+13:00

I've been reading the Health and Independence Report 2004. This year the government has budgeted $9.92 billion for health, which is $200 per month per New Zealander. $200 per month will buy you UltraCare, "the ultimate Southern Cross plan that provides extensive cover for almost all of the costs of medical treatment and full cover for private surgery, up to a maximum of $60,000 per operation.

Leave the truckies alone

2004-12-28T03:33:00.000+13:00

"Fears of drug use among truck drivers are spurring police and freight companies to consider random testing of commercial drivers for narcotics," according to the Sunday Star Times. This is wrong on so many levels. There's nothing to fear. Truck drivers have used speed (amphetamines) for decades. Speed keeps them alert and awake, which is better than being asleep at the wheel. We give ordinary