Monday, April 18, 2005
Act MP Deborah Coddington has decided to quit politics saying she is no longer angry enough to spend her days attacking people.
Aged care in NZ is in crisis, writes Martin Taylor, chief executive of HealthCare Providers NZ (a providers coalition). Since last November, more than 17 rest homes or complexes have gone on the market, and the Methodist Mission has signalled it may sell its Auckland rest homes. Ten years ago, the average age of people in rest homes was 75 - today it is in the mid-80s, but government funding is up to 20 percent below the sector's requirements. (This article in today's Press has no online link.)However, the Council of Christian Social Services warned the same thing last August. Last week, Don Brash pledged extra support.
Five Scottish universities will today launch a major two-year investigation into why Scotland’s population is shrinking and ageing. The £300,000 scheme will include six separate research projects analysing migration and fertility.
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty delivered a speech today at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva calling for an end to Sweden's hate speech law. The Becket Fund is a Non-Governmental Organization in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations. A nonpartisan, interfaith, public interest law firm dedicated to protecting the free expression of all religious traditions, it filed an amicus (friend of the court) brief that helped overturn the judgment against a pastor convicted under the hate speech law.
It is a pity the debate over John Tamihere has obscured the reality of what he told Investigate. Muriel Newman takes up where he left off, and has documented just what's going on behind the scenes in Labour, and where they want to take New Zealand. For instance, she says the Ministry of Social Development Policy and Knowledge Group have undertaken a programme of work – in conjunction with Labour MP Tim Barnett – on issues affecting gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, faáfafine, takatapui, and intersex (GLBT) people. This GLBT policy work programme aims to make progress on overcoming the barriers, which prevent these people from participating in the social and economic life of their communities.
In the document, the Ministry of Social Development claims that the number of GLBT people in the population varies from 3 to 10 percent. That is at odds with Census data that shows that in 2001 only 10,000 people, or 0.3 percent of the adult population categorised themselves as same-sex.
Questions on sexual orientation are in the process of being included in the State Services Commission's Career Progression and Development Survey. It won't be long before the public service is going to be forced to embrace social engineering and political correctness to such an extent that they will be required to report on not only how many women and Maori they employ, but also on how many lesbians, gays and bisexuals. The next step, of course will be employment claims against employers who fail to employ an 'appropriate' quota of homosexuals.
As the OIA reveals, a major objective of the whole Ministry of Social Development work programme is that of "encouraging positive media portrayal of GLBT people and issues" and to "monitor and influence media portrayal of GLBT people and issues".
Proponents of euthanasia have worked with supportive lawmakers in Vermont to introduce a proposed ''Death With Dignity Act.'' The House Human Services Committee held hearings this week on a bill to allow physicians to prescribe lethal doses of medication to terminally ill patients who have less than six months to live.
Hollywood is getting very upset at companies marketing "family friendly" versions of commercial movies, which have removed things like foul language, extreme gore or nudity. Hollywood is suing companies that provide unauthorized edited films. And Congress has waded into the fight with the Family Movie Act, which allows the technology behind the clean-ups.
College freshmen in the USA have some very strong religious values, according to a survey by UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute that analyzed how spirituality figured into the students' attitudes.
In general, the survey indicated that college students are spiritually aware and seeking answers to their spiritual questions. Specifically, researchers found that eight in 10 students attended religious services during the past year and more than two-thirds pray. By a 3-to-1 margin, those with deeper spiritual beliefs were likely to have conservative political views.
Tail-out: Bet you never thought of chess as a contact sport! Garry Kasparov, the world's former No.1 chess player who quit the professional game last month to focus on politics, says he has been hit over the head with a chessboard after signing it for a young man at an event in Moscow. The assailant apparently told the chess champion: "I admired you as a chess player, but you gave that up for politics."
Aged care in NZ is in crisis, writes Martin Taylor, chief executive of HealthCare Providers NZ (a providers coalition). Since last November, more than 17 rest homes or complexes have gone on the market, and the Methodist Mission has signalled it may sell its Auckland rest homes. Ten years ago, the average age of people in rest homes was 75 - today it is in the mid-80s, but government funding is up to 20 percent below the sector's requirements. (This article in today's Press has no online link.)However, the Council of Christian Social Services warned the same thing last August. Last week, Don Brash pledged extra support.
Five Scottish universities will today launch a major two-year investigation into why Scotland’s population is shrinking and ageing. The £300,000 scheme will include six separate research projects analysing migration and fertility.
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty delivered a speech today at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva calling for an end to Sweden's hate speech law. The Becket Fund is a Non-Governmental Organization in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations. A nonpartisan, interfaith, public interest law firm dedicated to protecting the free expression of all religious traditions, it filed an amicus (friend of the court) brief that helped overturn the judgment against a pastor convicted under the hate speech law.
It is a pity the debate over John Tamihere has obscured the reality of what he told Investigate. Muriel Newman takes up where he left off, and has documented just what's going on behind the scenes in Labour, and where they want to take New Zealand. For instance, she says the Ministry of Social Development Policy and Knowledge Group have undertaken a programme of work – in conjunction with Labour MP Tim Barnett – on issues affecting gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, faáfafine, takatapui, and intersex (GLBT) people. This GLBT policy work programme aims to make progress on overcoming the barriers, which prevent these people from participating in the social and economic life of their communities.
In the document, the Ministry of Social Development claims that the number of GLBT people in the population varies from 3 to 10 percent. That is at odds with Census data that shows that in 2001 only 10,000 people, or 0.3 percent of the adult population categorised themselves as same-sex.
Questions on sexual orientation are in the process of being included in the State Services Commission's Career Progression and Development Survey. It won't be long before the public service is going to be forced to embrace social engineering and political correctness to such an extent that they will be required to report on not only how many women and Maori they employ, but also on how many lesbians, gays and bisexuals. The next step, of course will be employment claims against employers who fail to employ an 'appropriate' quota of homosexuals.
As the OIA reveals, a major objective of the whole Ministry of Social Development work programme is that of "encouraging positive media portrayal of GLBT people and issues" and to "monitor and influence media portrayal of GLBT people and issues".
Proponents of euthanasia have worked with supportive lawmakers in Vermont to introduce a proposed ''Death With Dignity Act.'' The House Human Services Committee held hearings this week on a bill to allow physicians to prescribe lethal doses of medication to terminally ill patients who have less than six months to live.
Hollywood is getting very upset at companies marketing "family friendly" versions of commercial movies, which have removed things like foul language, extreme gore or nudity. Hollywood is suing companies that provide unauthorized edited films. And Congress has waded into the fight with the Family Movie Act, which allows the technology behind the clean-ups.
College freshmen in the USA have some very strong religious values, according to a survey by UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute that analyzed how spirituality figured into the students' attitudes.
In general, the survey indicated that college students are spiritually aware and seeking answers to their spiritual questions. Specifically, researchers found that eight in 10 students attended religious services during the past year and more than two-thirds pray. By a 3-to-1 margin, those with deeper spiritual beliefs were likely to have conservative political views.
Tail-out: Bet you never thought of chess as a contact sport! Garry Kasparov, the world's former No.1 chess player who quit the professional game last month to focus on politics, says he has been hit over the head with a chessboard after signing it for a young man at an event in Moscow. The assailant apparently told the chess champion: "I admired you as a chess player, but you gave that up for politics."
