Award time

While the fecking rain appears and disappears to ruin the bbq in South Canterbury, a few awards:

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1. Best left wing blog: No Right Turn. Frankly the competition is pretty slack, but more often than not there is some decent argument and thought that goes into this blog. I'd rather read this than all the others combined, because it isn't part of the Labour party felchocracy. I may more often than not disagree, but I would rather disagree with someone with arguments I think are wrong than a fawning idiot.

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2. Best new word of the year: Felchocracy (n) 1. Participating in politics by engaging in support for one party to the extent that you are willing to swallow whatever shit it excretes, and spit it in the face of all others.

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3. Best non-left wing blog: Not PC. I did think hard about this, as PC is a friend of mine, but it is consistently one of the most pithy well balanced and thoughtful blogs on the freedom side of the fence.

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4. Smartest kid I know: My niece Jennifer. At 7 she is more articulate, thoughtful and mature than plenty who are 10 and counting. I can only wish her the best for the coming year, she's top of her class (which I understand isn't hard given the state of better state schools), precocious and very cute to boot. She'll outgrow Napier quicker than her peers, I only hope that she knows - politely - how much better she is than them. As long as she can avoid the provincial NZ diseases of mediocrity, pregnancy, welfare and drug addictions - she'll be fine, unfortunately too many of her peers wont.

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5. Book of the year: Richard Dawkin's The God Delusion. I've devoured half of it on my trip so far. Absolutely gripping, entertaining and insightful. Some of the answers are not a mystery (if God created the universe, who created God? Same problem). He should produce a kids version for distribution to all schools. He gives most of the answers. I believe Objectivism gives the rest. Religion isthe second greatest cancer in the world, only second because it is a subset of the first - irrationality.

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6. Best new blog: Pacific Empire. Damned good stuff in this, thoughtful and debatable too. A few young guys who enjoy a good bit of mental gymnastics.

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Anyway enough of that, have a Happy New Year wherever you may be... I may add random ramblings at times or not... just expect not too much until after the New Year.

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but if there is one single thing to take away from this, it is to be yourself and be true to yourself. Nothing is more important to live for than your own happiness - there is nothing else. Respect the right of others to do the same.