Tuesday, May 17, 2005
Last week I highlighted how the average wage earner has now migrated into the upper tax bracket of the supposedly rich. Here's an illustration of the consequences from Michael Reid. "My mechanic of many years' standing has been in business since 1970. He has worked hard to build-up a reputable and viable small business. As I was paying the bill for repairs to my vehicle, he commented that in consultation with his accountant, he was paying around 25% all-up tax in 1970. That figure is now estimated to have ballooned to around 60%. It is scarcely viable for him to keep operating and to do so, he must increase the volume of work and work longer hours, which of course, takes its toll on both him as well as increases his tax payments still further. If this is true - and I don't doubt it for a moment - and his story is repeated for small businesses all over the country, what's going on is nothing short of robbery. No wonder Labour is sitting on such a huge surplus!"
Marriage statistics released today by Statistics NZ show that the trend towards men and women entering marriage at a later year is increasing. The media age for women in their first marriage is 28 years, and for men just under 30 years. The number of marriages is holding more of less steady, but with increasing population the rate fell slightly last year (not quite the apocalyptic version presented by the newspapers this morning).
In Saturday's Herald, columnist Sandra Patterson highlighted how feminists have now effectively achieved all the goals they set themselves back in the 1970s. Among the women who attended or addressed meetings up and down the country were Helen Clark, Sylvia Cartwright, Marilyn Waring, Cath Tizard, Ros Noonan and Margaret Wilson, who are now some of the most powerful leaders in New Zealand. Their long-term agenda was compiled by Kay Goodger, who is now a senior adviser in the Ministry of Social Development. Goodger called on the radical feminists of the day to do everything they could to replace or sideline the traditional family. "The family distorts all human relationships by imposing on them the framework of economic compulsion, social dependence and sexual repression," she wrote. "Our goal must be to create economic and social institutions that are superior to the present family." The steps she considered that Goodger concluded needed to be taken to overhaul society included making abortion free and on demand, integrating sex education into all levels of the school system and ensuring birth control was freely available. Coercive family laws should be abolished, she wrote, adding that "the rearing, social welfare and education of children should become the responsibility of society rather than individual parents." De facto relationships should have the same status legally and socially as marriage; all laws "victimising" prostitutes should be abolished; and 24-hour childcare should be introduced to free women from "domestic slavery". Mission accomplished.
More than 10 years after meeting their birth mothers, adopted children are still "walking on eggshells" around them. That's the finding of research by Massey University student Julee Browning, who has made what she believes is the first study of the long-term consequences of reuniting adopted children with their birth families in adulthood. New Zealand was the first Western country to allow adopted children to contact their birth parents, under a law passed in 1985. Since then, 31,186 adoptees have used the law to get their original birth certificates, and 8648 birth parents have obtained identifying information about their adopted children. Ms Browning found that, even after many years, adults who had been adopted out as children almost never felt completely at home in the families of their birth parents.
It's been a punishing week for education administrators, what with NZQA CEO Karen Van Rooyen resigning...ndd David Benson-Pope falling on his sword over the tennis ball allegations.
And late last week Deborah Coddington highlighted the madness that passes for teacher training at the Christchurch College of Education. How do you like these sample questions from a list of classroom questions? " * How can you tell if someone is heterosexual (straight)? * What causes heterosexuality? * Is it possible that heterosexuality stems from a neurotic fear of others of the same sex? * 40 percent of married couples get divorced. Why is it so difficult for straights to stay in long-term relationships? * 99 percent of reported rapists are heterosexual. * Why are straights so sexually aggressive? * The majority of child molesters are heterosexual. Do you consider it safe to expose children to heterosexual teachers, scout leaders, coaches, etc?"
The number of New Zealanders waiting for a first assessment on the need for surgery has skyrocketed by 13 percent in the last six months. ACT MP Heather Roy has obtained from the Ministry of Health under the Official Information Act and written Parliamentary Questions, which show that in the six months to the end of March, the number of Kiwis being assessed for surgery has ballooned by 6,245 to 119,696.
Young Aucklanders are signing up for mortgages of up to $1 million, sparking fears an entire generation could be heading for a cash crisis. With the median price for a house in Auckland now at $372,000 - a rise of 16 per cent in the past year - many young couples are being saddled with massive loans they can barely afford, say experts. "It's like we've lost touch with the reality of what can go wrong," says one advisor. "All it would take is for someone to lose their job, get sick, have another baby and suddenly they have a problem."
More than anything else, the current international uproar over allegations (now discredited) that US soldiers deliberately desecrated the Koran, shows the difference in seriousness with which Muslims and Christians treat their holy books. When The Washington Times in 2002 reported that Muslims holed up in Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity had used the Bible as toilet paper, Christian leaders there complained under their breath. Christian and Muslim leaders in America were silent. When, on the first season of Survivor, Rudy Boesch said, "The only reason I'd bring a Bible out here is if … I needed toilet paper," it was played for laughs. There were no deadly riots. When an NBC sitcom plot included a joke about flushing a consecrated Communion wafer down the toilet after a Catholic funeral Mass, there were no riots, even though Roman Catholics believe that the host is the actual body of Christ. If a Christian leader had called for a boycott over such matters, the cry would go out that we are living in a theocracy and trying to ram our beliefs down other people's throats. Are we prepared, though, to say that to Muslims? Or would it offend multi-cultural sensitivities to criticise them?
Traditionally, human technologies have been aimed outward, to control our environment, resulting in, for example, clothing, agriculture, cities and airplanes. Now, however, we have started aiming our technologies inward and using them to shape human beings. We are transforming our minds, our memories, our metabolisms, our personalities and our progeny. Serious people, including some at the National Science Foundation in Arlington, consider such modification of what it means to be human to be a radical evolution -- one that we direct ourselves. They expect it to be in full flower in the next 10 to 20 years.
Public-opinion researchers in the US are having trouble taking the nation's temperature because of the rising rate of people who have nothing but a cellphone in the house.
Labour approved a discussion paper that proposed legalising brother-sister sex for over-20-year-olds, according to official documents released by National’s Law and Order spokesman, Tony Ryall. “When asked in Parliament this morning why he had approved the paper, Justice Minister Phil Goff said ‘because it was an issue’. Official documents show that Labour’s advisers wanted to remove brother-sister sexual relationships for those over 20 from the offence of ‘incest’. The advisers also suggested this may mean that a pregnancy arising out of a brother-sister relationship would no longer be grounds for a lawful abortion.
A pioneer researcher into the connection between abortion and breast cancer says an overwhelming amount of evidence collected in nearly 50 years of studies demonstrating a conclusive link has been systematically covered up by biased scientists, government agencies and the news media using fraudulent data to deceive women about potentially life-and-death decisions.
Meanwhile, French research shows that having an abortion may increase the risk of giving birth prematurely in subsequent pregnancies. The study found that women who gave birth very prematurely – at between 22 and 27 weeks gestation – were 70 per cent more likely to have had an abortion compared to those who gave birth within two weeks of their due date. Those who gave birth between 28 and 32 weeks were 40% more likely to have had an abortion, according to the study, published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
While researching his soon-to-be published book 'Apostolic Genius', Alan Hirsch stumbled upon some notable discoveries by important observers of the global Christian scene. In 2001, Professor David B. Barrett and Todd M. Johnson had mentioned there were already 111 million Christians without a traditional local
church. According to Barrett, these Christians reject historical denominationalism and all restrictive central authority, and attempt to lead a life of following Jesus, seeking a more effective missionary lifestyle. They are the fastest-growing Christian movements in the world. Barrett estimates that by the year 2025, these movements will have around 581 million members, 120 million more than all Protestant movements together. Hirsh, who has invited all of Australia's missionary movements to a conference in Victoria, believes that these new Christian movements "are simply under the radar of traditional Christianity", at least as long as it holds on to the classical Constantine church structure (pastor + building + programme = church).
Marriage statistics released today by Statistics NZ show that the trend towards men and women entering marriage at a later year is increasing. The media age for women in their first marriage is 28 years, and for men just under 30 years. The number of marriages is holding more of less steady, but with increasing population the rate fell slightly last year (not quite the apocalyptic version presented by the newspapers this morning).
In Saturday's Herald, columnist Sandra Patterson highlighted how feminists have now effectively achieved all the goals they set themselves back in the 1970s. Among the women who attended or addressed meetings up and down the country were Helen Clark, Sylvia Cartwright, Marilyn Waring, Cath Tizard, Ros Noonan and Margaret Wilson, who are now some of the most powerful leaders in New Zealand. Their long-term agenda was compiled by Kay Goodger, who is now a senior adviser in the Ministry of Social Development. Goodger called on the radical feminists of the day to do everything they could to replace or sideline the traditional family. "The family distorts all human relationships by imposing on them the framework of economic compulsion, social dependence and sexual repression," she wrote. "Our goal must be to create economic and social institutions that are superior to the present family." The steps she considered that Goodger concluded needed to be taken to overhaul society included making abortion free and on demand, integrating sex education into all levels of the school system and ensuring birth control was freely available. Coercive family laws should be abolished, she wrote, adding that "the rearing, social welfare and education of children should become the responsibility of society rather than individual parents." De facto relationships should have the same status legally and socially as marriage; all laws "victimising" prostitutes should be abolished; and 24-hour childcare should be introduced to free women from "domestic slavery". Mission accomplished.
More than 10 years after meeting their birth mothers, adopted children are still "walking on eggshells" around them. That's the finding of research by Massey University student Julee Browning, who has made what she believes is the first study of the long-term consequences of reuniting adopted children with their birth families in adulthood. New Zealand was the first Western country to allow adopted children to contact their birth parents, under a law passed in 1985. Since then, 31,186 adoptees have used the law to get their original birth certificates, and 8648 birth parents have obtained identifying information about their adopted children. Ms Browning found that, even after many years, adults who had been adopted out as children almost never felt completely at home in the families of their birth parents.
It's been a punishing week for education administrators, what with NZQA CEO Karen Van Rooyen resigning...ndd David Benson-Pope falling on his sword over the tennis ball allegations.
And late last week Deborah Coddington highlighted the madness that passes for teacher training at the Christchurch College of Education. How do you like these sample questions from a list of classroom questions? " * How can you tell if someone is heterosexual (straight)? * What causes heterosexuality? * Is it possible that heterosexuality stems from a neurotic fear of others of the same sex? * 40 percent of married couples get divorced. Why is it so difficult for straights to stay in long-term relationships? * 99 percent of reported rapists are heterosexual. * Why are straights so sexually aggressive? * The majority of child molesters are heterosexual. Do you consider it safe to expose children to heterosexual teachers, scout leaders, coaches, etc?"
The number of New Zealanders waiting for a first assessment on the need for surgery has skyrocketed by 13 percent in the last six months. ACT MP Heather Roy has obtained from the Ministry of Health under the Official Information Act and written Parliamentary Questions, which show that in the six months to the end of March, the number of Kiwis being assessed for surgery has ballooned by 6,245 to 119,696.
Young Aucklanders are signing up for mortgages of up to $1 million, sparking fears an entire generation could be heading for a cash crisis. With the median price for a house in Auckland now at $372,000 - a rise of 16 per cent in the past year - many young couples are being saddled with massive loans they can barely afford, say experts. "It's like we've lost touch with the reality of what can go wrong," says one advisor. "All it would take is for someone to lose their job, get sick, have another baby and suddenly they have a problem."
More than anything else, the current international uproar over allegations (now discredited) that US soldiers deliberately desecrated the Koran, shows the difference in seriousness with which Muslims and Christians treat their holy books. When The Washington Times in 2002 reported that Muslims holed up in Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity had used the Bible as toilet paper, Christian leaders there complained under their breath. Christian and Muslim leaders in America were silent. When, on the first season of Survivor, Rudy Boesch said, "The only reason I'd bring a Bible out here is if … I needed toilet paper," it was played for laughs. There were no deadly riots. When an NBC sitcom plot included a joke about flushing a consecrated Communion wafer down the toilet after a Catholic funeral Mass, there were no riots, even though Roman Catholics believe that the host is the actual body of Christ. If a Christian leader had called for a boycott over such matters, the cry would go out that we are living in a theocracy and trying to ram our beliefs down other people's throats. Are we prepared, though, to say that to Muslims? Or would it offend multi-cultural sensitivities to criticise them?
Traditionally, human technologies have been aimed outward, to control our environment, resulting in, for example, clothing, agriculture, cities and airplanes. Now, however, we have started aiming our technologies inward and using them to shape human beings. We are transforming our minds, our memories, our metabolisms, our personalities and our progeny. Serious people, including some at the National Science Foundation in Arlington, consider such modification of what it means to be human to be a radical evolution -- one that we direct ourselves. They expect it to be in full flower in the next 10 to 20 years.
Public-opinion researchers in the US are having trouble taking the nation's temperature because of the rising rate of people who have nothing but a cellphone in the house.
Labour approved a discussion paper that proposed legalising brother-sister sex for over-20-year-olds, according to official documents released by National’s Law and Order spokesman, Tony Ryall. “When asked in Parliament this morning why he had approved the paper, Justice Minister Phil Goff said ‘because it was an issue’. Official documents show that Labour’s advisers wanted to remove brother-sister sexual relationships for those over 20 from the offence of ‘incest’. The advisers also suggested this may mean that a pregnancy arising out of a brother-sister relationship would no longer be grounds for a lawful abortion.
A pioneer researcher into the connection between abortion and breast cancer says an overwhelming amount of evidence collected in nearly 50 years of studies demonstrating a conclusive link has been systematically covered up by biased scientists, government agencies and the news media using fraudulent data to deceive women about potentially life-and-death decisions.
Meanwhile, French research shows that having an abortion may increase the risk of giving birth prematurely in subsequent pregnancies. The study found that women who gave birth very prematurely – at between 22 and 27 weeks gestation – were 70 per cent more likely to have had an abortion compared to those who gave birth within two weeks of their due date. Those who gave birth between 28 and 32 weeks were 40% more likely to have had an abortion, according to the study, published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
While researching his soon-to-be published book 'Apostolic Genius', Alan Hirsch stumbled upon some notable discoveries by important observers of the global Christian scene. In 2001, Professor David B. Barrett and Todd M. Johnson had mentioned there were already 111 million Christians without a traditional local
church. According to Barrett, these Christians reject historical denominationalism and all restrictive central authority, and attempt to lead a life of following Jesus, seeking a more effective missionary lifestyle. They are the fastest-growing Christian movements in the world. Barrett estimates that by the year 2025, these movements will have around 581 million members, 120 million more than all Protestant movements together. Hirsh, who has invited all of Australia's missionary movements to a conference in Victoria, believes that these new Christian movements "are simply under the radar of traditional Christianity", at least as long as it holds on to the classical Constantine church structure (pastor + building + programme = church).
