Friday, October 07, 2005
Tasmania's Attorney-General Judy Jackson has given notice to operators of brothels that they will be closed down by police. And she says people who continue to run them will face a $50,000 fine and a five-year jail term. Ms Jackson has abandoned proposed laws that would have legalised brothels because they were not supported in the Legislative Council.
Meanwhile, the mayor of Amsterdam has for the first time admitted that the Dutch experiment to curb abuse by legalizing prostitution has failed miserably. Policemen in Amsterdam's infamous red light district were quoted by Dutch media Friday as saying, "We are in the midst of modern slavery." Due to the legalization of prostitution in the Netherlands in 2000, police are hampered in confronting the horrors that are characteristic of the sex trade.
Most of the commentators on the landmark HIV court case this week seem to be missing the most important point. To recap, Justice Dalley ruled that Lower Hutt man Justin Dalley did not legall have to tell a woman he met over the internet that he was HIV-positive before they had sex. While some American states require people by law to disclose their HIV status before having sex, one has to ask what makes HIV different from other sexually transmitted diseases (many of which are not even notifable)? You could say, the higher likelihood of dying, but the consequences of some of the others are not that good, either. But here's where the point is being missed: if you have casual sex, you are setting yourself up for problems (psychological as well as physical). It doesn't matter whether you know the health status of the other person or not; I can guarantee there are men and women who will continue even knowing the other person has an STI. (There is good research to back up this claim.) Sexual diseases such as chlamydia are at epidemic levels in New Zealand. The only way to bring the level down is to save sex for a committed relationship. You would have thought this is so blindingly obvious that everybody would say it, but all our politically correct "health" professionals are so wedded to an ideology of "safe sex" (which in reality is not all that safe) they can't bring themselves to admit it's the best solution.
"One thing is absolutely certain about this election result," says Gareth Morgan. "Overwhelmingly, New Zealanders want a larger government sector. The only party that offered smaller government was ACT and they were close to annihilation on Saturday 17th. The obvious question is how far can government expand before New Zealanders decide it’s large enough? A similarity between National and Labour was that each promised to expand the government sector faster than the economy will grow over the next three years. All that was at issue was by how much. National’s plans were for government spending to be about 3.5% less than Labour’s four years from now."
Just to complete a week of listing political websites, have a look at Greenie Watch. It's not a new site, but it has a wealth of useful material.
There are signs that the new Saudi king, Abdullah, is allowing more democracy and a better deal for women.
The US Food and Drug Administration is expected to rule soon that milk from cloned animals and meat from their offspring are safe to eat, raising the question of whether Americans are ready to welcome one of modern biology's most controversial achievements to the dinner table. Hundreds of cloned pigs, cows and other animals are already living on farms around the country, as companies and livestock producers experiment and await a decision from the FDA.
The latest edition of Religious Trends, a compilation of Christian statistics published last week, shows that France overtook Kenya last year as the leading destination for British mission agencies.
Stow the pith helmet: In further evidence that Europe is increasingly seen as more spiritually needy than Africa or Asia, in third place is another country with strong Roman Catholic roots, Spain.
It takes a network of 18 close friends and relatives to provide an average person with the emotional and practical support to get through day-to-day life, academics have found. Their study challenges the perception that family structures are breaking down and that people rely far less on support from relatives than in the past.
Shakespeare's plays were not written by the bard but rather a politician descended from King Edward III and John of Gaunt, remarkable new evidence suggests.
Meanwhile, the mayor of Amsterdam has for the first time admitted that the Dutch experiment to curb abuse by legalizing prostitution has failed miserably. Policemen in Amsterdam's infamous red light district were quoted by Dutch media Friday as saying, "We are in the midst of modern slavery." Due to the legalization of prostitution in the Netherlands in 2000, police are hampered in confronting the horrors that are characteristic of the sex trade.
Most of the commentators on the landmark HIV court case this week seem to be missing the most important point. To recap, Justice Dalley ruled that Lower Hutt man Justin Dalley did not legall have to tell a woman he met over the internet that he was HIV-positive before they had sex. While some American states require people by law to disclose their HIV status before having sex, one has to ask what makes HIV different from other sexually transmitted diseases (many of which are not even notifable)? You could say, the higher likelihood of dying, but the consequences of some of the others are not that good, either. But here's where the point is being missed: if you have casual sex, you are setting yourself up for problems (psychological as well as physical). It doesn't matter whether you know the health status of the other person or not; I can guarantee there are men and women who will continue even knowing the other person has an STI. (There is good research to back up this claim.) Sexual diseases such as chlamydia are at epidemic levels in New Zealand. The only way to bring the level down is to save sex for a committed relationship. You would have thought this is so blindingly obvious that everybody would say it, but all our politically correct "health" professionals are so wedded to an ideology of "safe sex" (which in reality is not all that safe) they can't bring themselves to admit it's the best solution.
"One thing is absolutely certain about this election result," says Gareth Morgan. "Overwhelmingly, New Zealanders want a larger government sector. The only party that offered smaller government was ACT and they were close to annihilation on Saturday 17th. The obvious question is how far can government expand before New Zealanders decide it’s large enough? A similarity between National and Labour was that each promised to expand the government sector faster than the economy will grow over the next three years. All that was at issue was by how much. National’s plans were for government spending to be about 3.5% less than Labour’s four years from now."
Just to complete a week of listing political websites, have a look at Greenie Watch. It's not a new site, but it has a wealth of useful material.
There are signs that the new Saudi king, Abdullah, is allowing more democracy and a better deal for women.
The US Food and Drug Administration is expected to rule soon that milk from cloned animals and meat from their offspring are safe to eat, raising the question of whether Americans are ready to welcome one of modern biology's most controversial achievements to the dinner table. Hundreds of cloned pigs, cows and other animals are already living on farms around the country, as companies and livestock producers experiment and await a decision from the FDA.
The latest edition of Religious Trends, a compilation of Christian statistics published last week, shows that France overtook Kenya last year as the leading destination for British mission agencies.
Stow the pith helmet: In further evidence that Europe is increasingly seen as more spiritually needy than Africa or Asia, in third place is another country with strong Roman Catholic roots, Spain.
It takes a network of 18 close friends and relatives to provide an average person with the emotional and practical support to get through day-to-day life, academics have found. Their study challenges the perception that family structures are breaking down and that people rely far less on support from relatives than in the past.
Shakespeare's plays were not written by the bard but rather a politician descended from King Edward III and John of Gaunt, remarkable new evidence suggests.
Thursday, October 06, 2005
Toddlers who are looked after by their mothers do significantly better in developmental tests than those cared for by nurseries, childminders or relatives, according to a new study. The findings will show that those given nursery care fared worst. They exhibited higher levels of aggression and were inclined to become more compliant, withdrawn or sad. Those looked after by grandparents and other relatives fared a little better. Youngsters looked after by childminders and nannies came second in terms of their development to those who stayed at home with mother. The research, involving 1,200 children and their families in north London and Oxfordshire, is based on a study of the development of children over a four-year period. They were first studied when they were three months old and then at regular periods until they reached the age of 51 months. It was due to be presented to a conference in London this week by one of its co-authors, Penelope Leach, president of the National Childminders' Association.
Muriel Newman, one of the ACT MPs who missed out in this election (and a sad loss to parliament) has started a new website, the New Zealand Centre for Political Debate. It looks to be providing an outlet for people who have become disillusioned with the social welfare system through bad experiences with bureaucracy.
Forty-three percent of US workers said they've faked illness in order to dodge a day of work at least once in the past year, according to a survey by online job board CareerBuilder.com. That's up from 35 percent in last year's survey, the company says. A chance to relax and catch up on sleep was the most popular reason respondents gave for playing hooky. Others said they just didn't feel like going to the office or wanted to catch up on housework and errands.
Yahoo is working with the Internet Archive, the University of California and others on a project to digitize books in archives around the world and make them searchable through any Web search engine and downloadable for free. The project is designed to skirt copyright concerns that have plagued Google's Print Library Project since it was begun last year. The Authors Guild sued Google last week, alleging its scanning and digitizing of copyright protected books infringes copyright, even if only small excerpts are displayed in search results as Google plans.
I was fascinated by the TV news item this week on rocket racing. Shades of Star Wars pod racing!! More info and pics here.
The following has been doing the rounds for a wee while, but it's worth relaying. The Ant and the Grasshopper (New Zealand modern version):
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's
a fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter the ant is warm and well fed. The shivering grasshopper calls a press
conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others less fortunate like him are cold and starving.
TVNZ shows up to provide live coverage of the shivering grasshopper, with cuts to a video of the ant in his comfortable warm home with a table
filled with food. Kiwis are stunned that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so while others have plenty. The Green Party, Maori Party , the trade unions and the CoalitionAgainst Poverty and the usual bunch of professional rioters demonstrate in front of the ant's house.
TVNZ, interrupting an Iwi cultural festival special from a Northland Marae with breaking news, broadcasts them singing "We Shall Overcome."
Sue Bradford rants in an interview with Paul Holmes that the ant has gotten rich off the backs of grasshoppers, and calls for an immediate
tax hike on the ant to make him pay his "fair share." In response to polls, the Labour Government drafts the Economic Equity and Grasshopper
Anti-Discrimination Act, retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The ant's taxes are reassessed and he is also fined for failing to hire
grasshoppers as helpers. Without enough money to pay both the fine and his newly imposed retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the
government. The ant moves to Australia and starts a successful agribiz company. TVNZ later shows the now fat grasshopper finishing up the
last of the ant's food though Spring is still months away, while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant's old house
crumbles around him because he hadn't maintained it. Inadequate government funding is blamed, Winston Peters is appointed to head a
commission of enquiry that will cost $10,000,000. The grasshopper is soon dead of a drug overdose. The Auckland Herald blames it on obvious
failure of government to address the root causes of despair arising from social inequity. The abandoned house is taken over by a gang of migrant
spiders, praised by the government for enriching New Zealands multicultural diversity, who promptly terrorize the community.
Muriel Newman, one of the ACT MPs who missed out in this election (and a sad loss to parliament) has started a new website, the New Zealand Centre for Political Debate. It looks to be providing an outlet for people who have become disillusioned with the social welfare system through bad experiences with bureaucracy.
Forty-three percent of US workers said they've faked illness in order to dodge a day of work at least once in the past year, according to a survey by online job board CareerBuilder.com. That's up from 35 percent in last year's survey, the company says. A chance to relax and catch up on sleep was the most popular reason respondents gave for playing hooky. Others said they just didn't feel like going to the office or wanted to catch up on housework and errands.
Yahoo is working with the Internet Archive, the University of California and others on a project to digitize books in archives around the world and make them searchable through any Web search engine and downloadable for free. The project is designed to skirt copyright concerns that have plagued Google's Print Library Project since it was begun last year. The Authors Guild sued Google last week, alleging its scanning and digitizing of copyright protected books infringes copyright, even if only small excerpts are displayed in search results as Google plans.
I was fascinated by the TV news item this week on rocket racing. Shades of Star Wars pod racing!! More info and pics here.
The following has been doing the rounds for a wee while, but it's worth relaying. The Ant and the Grasshopper (New Zealand modern version):
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's
a fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter the ant is warm and well fed. The shivering grasshopper calls a press
conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others less fortunate like him are cold and starving.
TVNZ shows up to provide live coverage of the shivering grasshopper, with cuts to a video of the ant in his comfortable warm home with a table
filled with food. Kiwis are stunned that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so while others have plenty. The Green Party, Maori Party , the trade unions and the CoalitionAgainst Poverty and the usual bunch of professional rioters demonstrate in front of the ant's house.
TVNZ, interrupting an Iwi cultural festival special from a Northland Marae with breaking news, broadcasts them singing "We Shall Overcome."
Sue Bradford rants in an interview with Paul Holmes that the ant has gotten rich off the backs of grasshoppers, and calls for an immediate
tax hike on the ant to make him pay his "fair share." In response to polls, the Labour Government drafts the Economic Equity and Grasshopper
Anti-Discrimination Act, retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The ant's taxes are reassessed and he is also fined for failing to hire
grasshoppers as helpers. Without enough money to pay both the fine and his newly imposed retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the
government. The ant moves to Australia and starts a successful agribiz company. TVNZ later shows the now fat grasshopper finishing up the
last of the ant's food though Spring is still months away, while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant's old house
crumbles around him because he hadn't maintained it. Inadequate government funding is blamed, Winston Peters is appointed to head a
commission of enquiry that will cost $10,000,000. The grasshopper is soon dead of a drug overdose. The Auckland Herald blames it on obvious
failure of government to address the root causes of despair arising from social inequity. The abandoned house is taken over by a gang of migrant
spiders, praised by the government for enriching New Zealands multicultural diversity, who promptly terrorize the community.
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
The TV1 satire programme "Face Lift" can be very funny at times, as it neatly skewers the politically correct idiocies of our politicians.
Last night it left behind the funny and descended into the gutter, when it depicted Green Party leader Jeanette Fitzsimons defacating into a pot plant.
The item was utterly gross, the punchline had absolutely no relevance to what had gone before, and the writers/producers deserve to be hit hard.
I suspect Jeanette will not complain, on the grounds she will be accused of "not being able to take a joke". But if she does, I for one will give her my full support.
Last night it left behind the funny and descended into the gutter, when it depicted Green Party leader Jeanette Fitzsimons defacating into a pot plant.
The item was utterly gross, the punchline had absolutely no relevance to what had gone before, and the writers/producers deserve to be hit hard.
I suspect Jeanette will not complain, on the grounds she will be accused of "not being able to take a joke". But if she does, I for one will give her my full support.
Monday, October 03, 2005
I have to give the political commentators for getting one thing correct: the special votes did go the way of Labour and the Greens. David Farrar provides the following analysis:
Labour: On the night got 40.74%. However got 44.26% of specials to get a final result of 41.10%.
National: On the night got 39.63%. However got a dismal 34.47% of specials to get a final result of 39.10%.
NZ First: On the night got 5.84%. However got only 4.64% of specials to get a final result of 5.72%
Green: On the night got 5.07%. However got 7.27% of specials to get a final result of 5.30%.
Maori: On the night got 1.98%. However got a massive 3.34% of specials to get a final result of 2.12%.
United Future: On the night got 2.72%. However got only 2.26% of specials to get a final result of 2.67%.
ACT: On the night got 1.52%. However got 1.46% of specials to get a final result of 1.51%.
Progressive: On the night got 1.21%. However got a miserly 0.78% of specials to get a final result of 1.16%
A new website has been launched to document and monitor New Zealand politics and politicians. TopSpin is a "wiki" (ie, a sort of open-ended document which can be edited by a variety of contributors). Say the authors: "We intend to document all parties and all mainstream media outlets." (TopSpin is the child of a former weblog called Labour Scandals. 'twill be interesting to see whether it maintains that tone. A plea to the originators of TopSpin, if you read this: at the moment the site is exceeding hard to make sense of. We need some frontpage pointers to the items that "the rest of us" will actually come looking for.)
Put the two following items together, draw the parallels with New Zealand (the cohabiting and ex-nuptial birth figures are worse), and you have some disturbing trends to contemplate:
"Man is a social animal – utterly dependent on forming and maintaining relationships with other people. A person who has always been truly alone is one who will be emotionally dead," writes James Q. Wilson. "Of all of the relationships into which people enter, the family is the most important. We are raised by parents, confronted with siblings, and introduced to peers through our familial roots. Indeed, human character arises out of the very commitments people make to others in their family or outside of it. Marriage, of course, is the supreme form of that commitment. When we make marriage less important, character suffers... The problem our society, and indeed any society, faces today is to reconcile character and freedom... for a good life, mere freedom is not sufficient. It must work with and support commitment, for out of commitment arises the human character that will guide the footsteps of people navigating the tantalizing opportunities that freedom offers. Freedom and character are not incompatible, but keeping them in balance is a profound challenge for any culture. One aspect of character that appears connected with marriage – and is even included in the marriage vows of many religious traditions – is loyalty... The fundamental social institution that encourages loyalty is the family..." Wilson goes on to plot how freedom fails as an inevitable consequence of the decline of marriage.
Within 25 years almost half of all UK men in their mid-forties and over a third of women will have never married, Government figures now show. And the number of cohabiting couples will have almost doubled from 2 million to 3.8 million in 2031. Jill Kirby of the Centre for Policy Studies commented that "parents moving in and out of different relationships" will have a greater impact on children in the future than divorce. She said a lot of women in their 40s and 50s will be living alone. But Robert Whelan of Civitas said the escalating numbers of babies born outside of marriage and brought up by one parent was the most serious figure. From a figure of 32 per cent in 1994, this rose to 42 per cent last year.
There is sometimes a fine line between efficient administration and bureaucratic overkill. A disaster such as Hurricane Katrina can quickly determine which is which. This New York Times story of the $100 million dollars of taxpayer money spent on unused ice should become a fable for our times.
Labour: On the night got 40.74%. However got 44.26% of specials to get a final result of 41.10%.
National: On the night got 39.63%. However got a dismal 34.47% of specials to get a final result of 39.10%.
NZ First: On the night got 5.84%. However got only 4.64% of specials to get a final result of 5.72%
Green: On the night got 5.07%. However got 7.27% of specials to get a final result of 5.30%.
Maori: On the night got 1.98%. However got a massive 3.34% of specials to get a final result of 2.12%.
United Future: On the night got 2.72%. However got only 2.26% of specials to get a final result of 2.67%.
ACT: On the night got 1.52%. However got 1.46% of specials to get a final result of 1.51%.
Progressive: On the night got 1.21%. However got a miserly 0.78% of specials to get a final result of 1.16%
A new website has been launched to document and monitor New Zealand politics and politicians. TopSpin is a "wiki" (ie, a sort of open-ended document which can be edited by a variety of contributors). Say the authors: "We intend to document all parties and all mainstream media outlets." (TopSpin is the child of a former weblog called Labour Scandals. 'twill be interesting to see whether it maintains that tone. A plea to the originators of TopSpin, if you read this: at the moment the site is exceeding hard to make sense of. We need some frontpage pointers to the items that "the rest of us" will actually come looking for.)
Put the two following items together, draw the parallels with New Zealand (the cohabiting and ex-nuptial birth figures are worse), and you have some disturbing trends to contemplate:
"Man is a social animal – utterly dependent on forming and maintaining relationships with other people. A person who has always been truly alone is one who will be emotionally dead," writes James Q. Wilson. "Of all of the relationships into which people enter, the family is the most important. We are raised by parents, confronted with siblings, and introduced to peers through our familial roots. Indeed, human character arises out of the very commitments people make to others in their family or outside of it. Marriage, of course, is the supreme form of that commitment. When we make marriage less important, character suffers... The problem our society, and indeed any society, faces today is to reconcile character and freedom... for a good life, mere freedom is not sufficient. It must work with and support commitment, for out of commitment arises the human character that will guide the footsteps of people navigating the tantalizing opportunities that freedom offers. Freedom and character are not incompatible, but keeping them in balance is a profound challenge for any culture. One aspect of character that appears connected with marriage – and is even included in the marriage vows of many religious traditions – is loyalty... The fundamental social institution that encourages loyalty is the family..." Wilson goes on to plot how freedom fails as an inevitable consequence of the decline of marriage.
Within 25 years almost half of all UK men in their mid-forties and over a third of women will have never married, Government figures now show. And the number of cohabiting couples will have almost doubled from 2 million to 3.8 million in 2031. Jill Kirby of the Centre for Policy Studies commented that "parents moving in and out of different relationships" will have a greater impact on children in the future than divorce. She said a lot of women in their 40s and 50s will be living alone. But Robert Whelan of Civitas said the escalating numbers of babies born outside of marriage and brought up by one parent was the most serious figure. From a figure of 32 per cent in 1994, this rose to 42 per cent last year.
There is sometimes a fine line between efficient administration and bureaucratic overkill. A disaster such as Hurricane Katrina can quickly determine which is which. This New York Times story of the $100 million dollars of taxpayer money spent on unused ice should become a fable for our times.
