Israel seeks peace

The Arab-Israeli dispute has origins that only the doggedly stubborn use to determine their perspective. The Palestinians who want Israel eradicated (such as Hamas) are dreaming - Israel was, unfortunately, a creation of the UN, supported by both the western powers (US, UK, France and then non-communist China) and the USSR. It had been promised by Britain, the colonial power.

The best option at the time would've been to give Palestine independence, and allow Jews, Arabs and others of Palestine to live together -in a liberal democratic state. However, the Balfour Declaration in 1917 did promise a Jewish national homeland, as long as it did not prejudice Arab communities. The events that followed meant the creation of Israel - which tragically saw some Arabs expelled or fleeing homes in Israel, while some Jews were expelled from Arab states. A unified Israel was not going to happen, as Arab states opposed the establishment of Israel - so the UN partition plan was meant to be a compromise. That plan was what Israel originally intended to be - but the Arabs were not interested in a separate Palestinian state. So then came war, and war, and war and war.

Throughout the last nearly 60 years, Israel has fought for its right to exist. Only the most blinkered socialist would say that it would have been preferable for the authoritarian bully Nasser or totalitarian Asad to replace Israel. Israel has maintained a liberal democratic state, that has allowed Israelis to develop, trade and be reasonably free (although Israeli Arabs tend to feel like second class citizens). Compared to Egypt, which has had three Presidents, none democratically elected - Syria, a one-party state and Lebanon (only recently recovered from Syrian imperialism), Israel was a shining light for individual freedom. Even Nasser would listen to Kol Israel (Radio) to get the truth of the defeat in the Six Day War, because Arab broadcasters were so beholden to state propaganda of success and victory.

The Six Day War was Israel's response to an imminent attack - a wonderful victory over bullies ready to destroy it - and take enough territory for borders that could be readily defended. It also provided the chance for some Zionist plans for greater Israel to be implemented - the West Bank was known by some as Judea and Samaria - sacred Hebrew territory, and settlement were established as part of a grand plan to keep Israeli borders to the river Jordan.

Israel has always been willing to seek peace with security. It surrendered the majority of the land it annexed in 1967 (the Sinai) when it made peace with Egypt - which cost President Anwar Sadat his life due to an Arab extremist assassin. Syria has refused to guarantee Israel peace, which is why Israel retains the Golan Heights. Jordan has made peace in 1994, recognising Israel and refusing any historic claim to the West Bank - so now it is the matter of the Palestinian Arabs.

Until 1988, the Palestinian Liberation Organisation - a terrorist group if ever there was one - refused to recognise Israel's right to exist. At that point, Israel still did not believe that land for peace could work. After the Cold War ended (and Soviet sponsorship of the PLO evaporated), the US pushed for Israel to negotiate with the Palestinians - and President Yitzhak Shamir did not even recognise the Palestinians could be a nation. It was only because the US intervened decisively against Saddam Hussein to roll back his invasion of Kuwait, that Israel commenced peace talks with Palestinians, but not the PLO.

The Oslo Accords in 1993 saw Israel agree to the creation of the Palestinian Authority - allowing Palestinian self-government - an enormous change from the greater Israel envisaged by the Likud party previously. It cost Yitzhak Rabin his life. However, the PLO's corruption and inability/unwillingness to stop terrorism was its downfall. Every time a bus was bombed by Hizbollah, Israel rightfully blamed the PLO for being unable to secure its borders or clamp down on terror.

The second intifada has seen Israel respond with enormous force - which is unsurprising. So Israelis have faced three options:

- Continue to intervene in the West Bank and Gaza, and defend the settlements - maintaining the occupation;

- Negotiate a settlement with the Palestinian Authority for peace;

- Withdraw from Palestinian territory and defend what is left.

Voting Kadima means the third option. Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip because it gave nothing - the land was not important for defence, and it was costly. Better to leave it to the Palestinian Authority to have a go at running everything, and seal the border off if it couldn't stop terrorists slipping into Israel. The strategy for the West Bank wont be far different - abandon vast swatches of the West Bank to the Palestinian Authority - maintain a military presence along the Jordan Valley (which is sparsely populated, but can also control arms into the West Bank), clear out settlements that are not close to Israeli borders and build a wall around what is left.

Given in the first instance, despite much Western Aid, the Fatah (PLO) run Palestinian Authority was a disaster - and now Palestinians have voted for the terrorist thugs Hamas - can you blame Israel? Well, it wont probably work - unless Palestinians start running a civilised operation, Hamas renounces terrorism, recognises Israel and respects all previous agreements - and then starts to negotiate. Only then will Israel consider relinquishing more of the West Bank, moving the concrete wall barrier and talk about the hardest issue of all - Jerusalem.

A Palestinian state will only emerge when it can not be a haven for those bent on terrorism in Israel - and when it can be reasonably uncorrupt and focused on protecting Palestinians, and a shared peace in the Middle East with Israel. Nothing else would contribute to peace in the Middle East and the world more generally than a settlement - but it wont come at the cost of Israeli security. Nor should it. Those supportive of the Palestinian's plight should take time to notice how far Israelis have come. They want to leave Palestinians to govern themselves, and withdraw settlements - the dream of greater Israel is only held by a small minority. However Palestinians have not helped their cause, by having political masters that have been inept and corrupt, and are now advocates for terrorism and Israel's annihilation. Hamas could - if it tried - prove it wants to be competent and uncorrupt - but it will be for nought if it refuses to recognise that Israel, nuclear armed and war wearied, will go away or be defeated or tolerate Palestinian territory being a base for attacks on civilians. Anything less is uncivilised, and Palestinians who cannot understand that deserve to live under occupation. A liberal democratic open tolerant Palestinian state would not threaten Israel, and be a model for its corrupt neighbours like Egypt or despotic regimes like Syria - and would remove one of the reasons Arabs have to remain united, despite their governments' continued pillage and abuse of their people.

Outdoor Recreation abandons United Future

Outdoor Recreation has abandoned its agreement with United Future, because of concerns of its religious overtones. Clearly in denial, Dunne denies this! Claiming it was not unexpected, but he must be gutted. Outdoor Recreation now includes former United Future MP, Marc Alexander, who was one of the more sensible ones who lost in 2005 as United Future voters went back to National. Outdoor Recreation got over 2% at the 2002 election and Dunne would have hoped some of that went to United Future, now as No Right Turn observes, United Future will remain small.

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However, he panders to homophobia and his whole opposition to civil unions was never one of substance, but simply claiming they were a cover up for gay marriage - he never expressed a view on gay marriage himself - but the implication was that he didn't like it. Statements like this from this speech:

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Now while New Zealand society has progressed to a stage whereby we are tolerant of alternative lifestyles, and will willingly respect them as a private affair, many will baulk at the idea that the nature of marriage, an institution that also exists outside narrow legal definitions, is being altered in this way without their consent.

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Well Peter, it was a private member's bill - and if you believe in democracy you'll accept that the people elected by voters chose as they saw fit to represent the views of their voters. If you're upset about government doing things without people's consent, then there is a lot more you can get distressed about Peter - like the taxes of the Labour government you have kept going for two terms now. Many baulked at legalising homosexual acts but you voted FOR it Peter. Snake! Unlike DPF, I don't think Peter Dunne is a good guy at all, but a reasonably sensible man who has been swaying across the political spectrum to stroke his ego - centrist, pro-immigrant, religious right. hmmm.
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United Future has kept Labour in government for two terms now, so why gun enthusiasts would want to support it is beyond me. The United Future website continues to refer to Outdoor Recreation. ACT is now inviting Outdoor Recreation on board, which means ACT will need to be clear on its gun policy. I'd say Libertarianz has a lot to offer them too, with its belief in the right of peaceful people to own firearms.

Dunne the sports socialist

Peter Dunne is bemoaning claims by Trevor Mallard that sports that didn't do as well as predicted in the Commonwealth Games would have funds cut from the state for the Beijing Olympics.

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Well tough Peter - it is not the role of the state to fund athletes. They ought to fund themselves or seek it from sponsorship. This is not east germany or some other old fashioned Cold War battle - it is about people choosing to commit to being their best, and the public shouldn't be force to pay for a particular career in athletics.

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The best way to encourage athletes would be a cut in tax - then there would be more of what they earn, and what their supporters earn to help them on their way.

Sue Bradford hates Chinese workers

Sue Bradford slams Air New Zealand for buying - horror of horrors - foreign uniforms for its cabin crew (made with New Zealand wool). See it is ok for jobs to be created, just not those foreign people who don't look like us - who are more grateful for the work and charge far less for it. She says they are made in China, then says that most of them are being made overseas.

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Well Sue, get ready - so is the fuel, so are the planes, so are the seats on the planes, most of the entertainment on the planes - and half the passengers too. Presumably you'd prefer them all to be locally made.

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Outrageous - Air NZ should buy NZ made planes, using NZ made fuel, seats and only show NZ movies and TV shows and only carry NZ passengers - it can then aspire to be just like Air Koryo.

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More seriously - if locally sourced uniforms were bought, it would cost more - less money for dividends (which go mostly to the government) and fares may increase - but then again, socialists have never cared much for running businesses efficiently.

Commonwealth Games

Good on Melbourne for hosting an exceptionally well run games.

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One question though (I know the answer and it's childish) - why does the United Kingdom get to send seven teams, whereas every other Commonwealth country sends one?

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I've had this argument with Brits - the United Kingdom is ONE country, the capital is London, only the UK can sign treaties with other countries, have diplomatic and trade relations, and sit in the UN and the EU. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (and the Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey) are all regions - with substantial autonomy, but still regions. No different in essence from Tasmania or Quebec.

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It's all very quaint for the English, Scots, Welsh, Ulsterites and the rest to feel some historic nationalism - but Wales hasn't been even nominally independent since 1284, Scotland since 1707 and Northern Ireland since 1800.

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Of course, if the other Commonwealth countries don't mind it, then fine. Korea can send a united team to the Olympics, and it comes from two states which are more different than any of the British nationalities - why can't Britain? Unless it is a privilege of Empire.

BBC public service parties

The BBC spent £238 a head on a party at the Criterion in Piccadilly according to the Daily Telegraph.

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Given the TV licence fee is half that, this is utterly outrageous. I emailed the BBC last week with a question for the head of the BBC as to whether it should be subscription only - with people paying the subscription getting a digital box with a card to watch BBC channels, and if you don't want it - you only get commercial channels. Then a socialist programme director rang me up asking me to clarify my question and argued with me - HELLO I pay your wages you arrogant toad. I'm forced to. I get inane questions like "what about the documentaries people wouldn't pay for" - um yes exactly my point - you make programmes people don't want. Besides commercial TV often produces the same quality or better.

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I like a lot the BBC does - I would pay for it - but I object being forced to pay.

New Zealand and North Korea

Well there you go, the Korean Central News Agency (that's north) has reported that:

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"A friendly meeting took place at the Korea-New Zealand Friendship Haksan Co-operative Farm in Hyongjesan District, Pyongyang, on March 22 on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the DPRK and New Zealand. Present on invitation were members of the visiting New Zealand-DPRK Association. On hand were members of the Korea-New Zealand Friendship Association and officials of the farm. The guests helped farmers in carrying compost. They appreciated an art performance given by farmers and talked with them about the need to boost the relations between the two countries, deepening the friendship. They handed aid materials to the farm. "

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You will hear this on Voice of Korea radio in English on shortwave today only in the news (no there is no way to listen online). Presumably the NZ-DPRK Association didn't ask about the children of political dissidents being kept in gulags, they prefer to carry compost - which wouldn't be hard to find, given that virtually everything ever published in the country is worth less than that. It would have been more helpful had they been able to hand radios to the farmers so they could find out how much they are lied to by their government.

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Still, these are private individuals, not government and it is not for me to ask why they provide propaganda for a regime that is the antithesis of reason and life itself.

Wishart vs. Cresswell

Following on from Clark's comment that Investigate magazine editor Ian Wishart is a "creep", PC gave his own opinion on him calling him a scandal monger and fundamentalist nutbar et al. Wishart is now threatening to sue him for defamation,

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Now I’ve avoided Investigate magazine after seeing time and time again headlines I’d expect to see in a tabloid, and rather empty musings like this.

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His own blog makes banal assertions like:

“There is more evidence for the existence of Christ and a contemporaneous belief of his deity than there is for virtually any other historical figure of his time.”
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Well we know people believe in Christ, but that clever use of language doesn’t get you very far. Christ may well have existed, but just because people believe in the ghost doesn’t mean IT exists. The notion that there is MORE evidence for the existence of Christ than others “of his time” is ludicrous. More than Cleopatra or Caesar? This is like saying that there is more evidence for Churchill than of Stalin or Hitler.

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So I thought I’d read a bit of Wishart, particularly an initially alarming story about hormones in New Zealand beef and lesbian seagulls (bound to excite environmentalists and adolescents alike).

The end of the articles states:

“Increasingly, scientists suspect environmental hormone pollutants caused by human agriculture and industrial waste are working into the animal food chain and creating more instances of so-called “gay behaviour” by animals. The question is, what are the hormones doing to humans?”
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Well the only case cited is of seagulls, and before that of a WWF zoologist more generally concerned about the effects of hormonal contaminants on animals. Fair enough, but the implication here is that hormones we consume through pollution or food could be making people gay. So how is this relevant to New Zealand? How valid are these concerns, or are they just scandal mongering with a joining of the dots as noted by PC?
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It starts with:

"Hormone Growth Promotants .... Known in the industry as HGPs, the official line is that the sex hormones implanted into the ears of cattle are natural or nature identical substances that simply replicate nature, mimicking the hormones lost through castration and equating to other natural dietary sources of hormones such as eggs or soybeans. But how do New Zealanders feel about growth promoting hormones implanted in their meat patties?"
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The "official line" well no Ian, it's the line of the farmers and the producers. You have a better explanation than this? He effectively rubbishes fact by implying the "official line" is like some press statement from Belarus, then "how do New Zealanders feel" should be the test? Well Ian, after reading articles like this, they will feel scared because you were remarkably selective.

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“Compudose is implanted only in the skin immediately beneath the ear of a cattle beast. Disposal of ears of implanted cattle is an issue. NZFSA says they are discarded as waste, rendered or used in gelatin production.”
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Ok so the main issue is that the ears may be used in gelatin, though the hormones spread through the beef. Nothing much more is said on this and then...
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“A further issue is the use of antibiotics. Elanco acknowledges that the implant may be dusted with the antibiotic tetracycline. Derek Moore is unsure if the New Zealand version contains any antibiotic. He suggests that perhaps the implant is coated in talcum powder.”
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Ohhhhh “unsure” and “perhaps” smells of a cover up now, scandal, especially since...
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“In the United States the needle used to insert the implant is also often coated with an antibiotic. Vet Services in the Hawkes Bay are adamant they do not use antibiotics to cleanse needles. But either way the trace use of an antibiotic for non-therapeutic purposes is concerning.”
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Says the non-scientist – even though there isn’t evidence it is used in New Zealand and no evidence of it being harmful if it was used, as the article itself states. The facts are hear, but with a sprinkling of skeptical fear pepper makes it taste a bit foul, so all you non-scientists can go – whoa I don’t use antibiotics unless I’m ill, something wrong here – except by now you’ve forgotten that there is no evidence antibiotics are used in New Zealand at all for this process. In addition...
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“Elanco says it has yet to be demonstrated that non-therapeutic use of antibiotics has a detrimental effect on humans.”
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BUT that’s ok, the whole tone is “can’t be too careful” and you can't trust industry can you now? You know what THEY are like.

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Then we have the comfort that if you really are concerned about it, you can take this advice:

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“New Zealand Beef and Lamb Marketing Bureau advises consumers to look out for their red tick of hormone-free approval. Seager Mason, tech-nical director for BioGro says organic food by definition is free of additives. “The whole point of organics is the system for monitoring the producers. Food producers should always declare the means of manufacture.” He comments that any decision on the safety or otherwise of food ingredients should be made by the consumer not the ‘vested-interest’ producer.
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So first you can avoid beef with hormones in it, then you have an organic producers claiming that producers have vested interests, as if organic producers don’t have a vested interest in raising questions about the safety of their competitors’ typically cheaper products? No, that isn’t even raised. However, organic producers like to raise issues with non-organic produce, especially scaring people into believing what is "really in their food". The whole industry is based on scaring people into thinking non-organic food is bad for you, so why should you be surprised? Wishart ignores this.
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So why are HGPs used?
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“The industry calls them ‘quality enhancers’. In a local trial cattle treated with Compudose had an average weight increase of 23.5% (9). Cattle treated with HGPs grow faster enabling them to be sent to the works in shorter time, lowering the farmer cost of beef raising. It’s estimated that for every dollar spent on an HGP there is a five-dollar return.”
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The first sentence drips of a huge "yeah right" by saying the "industry calls them" and quotation marks around 'quality enhancers', rather than simply explaining the rest of the point. So it produces bigger cattle at lower cost - anything to complain about there?
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Then he makes sense:
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“Consumer choice is promoted as the ultimate freedom. It is the market that must test the validity of claims in support of HGPs. It is the market that must sort out whether consumers really want to eat meat grown with growth promoting hormones.”
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It sure is, as long as the market is free and informed by fact, not fear. The organic sector provides this choice, as to other farmers explicitly growing beef without HGPs - no problem then..

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So what about those lesbian seagulls?
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“A University of California, Davis, study by avian toxicologist Michael Fry in the 1980s determined that estrogenic pollution lay behind the “lesbian behaviour” of seagulls. Significantly, to test their theory, they injected normal seagull eggs with estradiol, the additive being pumped into some New Zealand and Australian beef.
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Pumped into? Injected into ears – but then hyperbole sells more magazines.

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“To connect these effects with estrogenic pollutants, Fry and his colleagues conducted a number of experiments during the 1980s. In one, they injected eggs of contaminant-free gulls with estradiol…When the hatchlings emerged, they exhibited the same array of feminized sex organs as DDT-contaminated Western gulls on Santa Barbara Island, off the coast of California.” The estradiol, and a range of other estrogenic pollutants like DDT, effectively “chemically castrated” the males, Fry says.
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So there you go, because some seagull eggs were injected with estradiol and were chemically castrated, and some NZ cattle use HGPs and this is the same substance, it could chemically castrate your children, maybe turn them (horrors!) gay! See the "joining the dots" that PC mentioned? That is what you may surmise.

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So what ABOUT these hormones anyway? Well they actually are about increasing the amount of naturally occurring hormones in cattle that may be reduced due to castration. This article below from Clemson University South Carolina claims that no residues remain in cattle treated with it through the ears.
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The US Department of Agriculture states:
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“The amounts of estradiol, progesterone and testosterone in animals raised using hormones as growth promotants are extremely low compared with their production in humans. Even a young boy would need to eat more than 7000 grams (about 16 pounds) of beef raised using estradiol daily in order to produce a one percent increase in his production of this hormone. A 500-gram portion of beef raised using estradiol contains approximately 15,000 times less of this hormone than the amount produced daily by the average man, and about nine million times less than the amount produced by a pregnant woman.”

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or how about:

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"A one pint glass of milk from an untreated cow contains about 9 times as much estradiol as a 250 gram portion of meat from a steer raised using hormones"

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Or is Ian going to claim that the USDA is in league with the producers of these drugs?

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Well no, the article does contain a link to the NZ Food Safety Authority which defends the use of HGPs here.

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So what does it all mean? It means that you've been eating beef with HGPs in it with no ill effects, your body produces far more estradiol than you consume through beef. That is the fact, but could you sell magazines by claiming that chemicals used in agriculture are harmless? No - people like scandals. A bit like implying that the Clark government is all about some covert gay agenda and was going to decriminalise cannabis - chance would be a fine thing!

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Belarus protest shutdown

The bully of Belarus has his batons on, clearing the protest against the rigged elections in Europe’s most fascist state. According to The Times they have been taken away, I can only hope that they don't disappear - like some other political opponents have.

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It is a shame that more people in Minsk were not willing to stand up for freedom, but the grinding dreariness of Belarus in late winter is hardly inspiring - Belarus should be subject to international isolation. New Zealand should ostracise it economically and diplomatically, as it has Zimbabwe. No Right Turn has also blogged this and supported liberal democracy in Minsk. I suspect Belarus will lose more of its brightest stars to Russia and Ukraine, where there is more freedom and more opportunity - while its sad people continue to exist, not live.

Kember, Sooden and Loney freed

Congratulations on the SAS for rescuing Norman Kember, Harmeet Sooden and Jim Loney from their kidnappers in Iraq. DPF, PC, Whaleoil and Oswald Bastable have blogged on this, but I am pleased at last that the CPT website thanks the soldiers for risking their lives for these misguided peace campaigners.
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As much as I disagree with IFR and CPT, I am pleased that peaceful people have been freed. To paraphrase Voltaire’s famous phrase, I disagree vehemently in what they believe in, but I defend their right to freedom and their own lives. The soldiers who risked their lives for these misguided fools are the true heroes - the soldiers have been thanked after some outrage that it was reported the hostages were "freed" (as if the kidnappers had chosen to do it).

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The so-called “peace movement” is always keen to advocate peace between countries, to exercise moral equivalency in treating evil murdering totalitarians with the semi-free world and to ignore peace within countries (it is “ok” for Iraqis to be attacked by Saddam’s government, but not US forces). Had the peace movement had its way, you wouldn’t be reading blogs, you might be speaking German or Russian, as Europe would be divided between Hitler and Stalin, and the USA may have sat back and negotiated “peace” with evil. War is the second greatest evil in the world, the greatest in when governments turn on their own people.

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Ask yourself whether, truly, politicians in western democracies want war. Bush would have much preferred Saddam to have been overthrown, Libya ended its nuclear weapons programme and normalised relations with the west - which was a relief. It would be a relief if Kim Jong Il ended North Korea's weapon's programme and talked about reform and opening up. The savings to western democracies in reducing military expenditure are appealling to politicians on the left, because money can be funnelled into other spending, and the right, because it can fund tax cuts. War is risky, messy and expensive - and western democracies always fair worse because the media is uncensored - and because only in a free country can people protest against the government's side during war. Notice when the Cold War ended how the US and the UK withdraw massive forces from western Europe, shut down bases (low cost airlines fly to some of those now!), cut weapons and troop deployments - because the threat had gone.

UK Budget yawn

I thought about what to say about this - just more tax and spend, more throwing money at the broken inefficient NHS and the education system, letting Britain slosh around on welfare, a massive inefficient regulatory behemoth of a bureaucracy, dishing out subsidies to whoever shouts the loudest.
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For all I am grateful for with Tony Blair (reforming Labour to not be an outpost of the Warsaw Pact and a solid commitment to enlightenment values and Western civilisation), Gordon Brown reminds me a lot of Michael Cullen, except I think Cullen is better. Brown doesn't ridiculously overspend or ridiculously increase taxes, he doesn't rock the boat, but bit by bit he adds on extra spending, little discounts on taxes here and there, making the state ever more complicated and ever more intrusive. The idea that people should pay for what they use where practicable, and be taxed on a fairly uniform basis is light years away from Brown or Cullen. It is a trend since the end of Thatcher and Ruth Richardson that Budgets have been about satisfying interest groups with axes to grind. Axes they grind at the expense of the silent majority.
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Britain has had its halcyon days of heady reform, which brought it back from the brink - the only thing stopping it being the poor cousin of Europe is that France, Italy and Germany are worse.
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Look at this load of pork and thieving from the budget:
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- free off peak bus travel nationwide for pensioners and disabled people;
- establishing a £1 billion health research fund;
- establishing an International Business Advisory Council;
- increase to Enterprise Capital Funds scheme;
- Money for Elite athletes training for the Olympics
- Increase road tax for large so called "more polluting" vehicles

- Increased landfill tax credit
- Fiddling of stamp duty to increase net revenue (increase threshold, remove exemptions)
- Money for developing microgeneration technology

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Yes I know Cullen does that too, but the tax system in NZ is far simpler, and the subsidies are far lower for businesses and pork. In short, more of the nonsense was ripped out under Douglas and Richardson than under Thatcher.

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£552 billion of Brit's money is being spent by Brown, that's £9200 per person, £516 billion in tax is being raised, which is £8600 per person. So it's borrow and spend. Someone's getting a good deal, since I am paying more than that in income tax alone. The single biggest item is "social protection" at £151 billion - in other words, compulsory social welfare. Health is second at £96 billion, and it continues to disappoint.

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and anyone who thinks National Insurance pays for health and pensions needs to wake up - the total revenue from national insurance contributions is £90 billion. Hiding this cost helps to ensure the average Brit thinks he is paying the full cost of the NHS from national insurance - which is a lie.

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but I did learn the median income is £24000. Translate that into $NZ and you'll see that New Zealand has low incomes, and a lower cost of living (translating £prices into NZ$ prices would drive a kiwi mad here). Dr Cullen's rich tax bracket would hit the average income earner in the UK.

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oh well, it's daylight from 7am till 6pm now :)

ETA to end terrorism

CNN reports Basque separatist terrorist movement ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna) has declared a permanent "ceasefire" as of Friday (ceasefire being the word used by cowardly murderers of innocent civilians who think terrorism is akin to fighting a real war), which is about time.

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It declared a "ceasefire" a few years back that only lasted two years - although this time it appears to be genuinely permanent, a commitment to using democratic means to advance self-government for the Basque people. Frankly, given its appalling conduct in recent years, it has turned off most Basques from it. ETA was founded as a response to the oppression of the Franco regime against the Basque people, it has continued terrorist action, with five bombings last year, none of which claimed any lives.

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I'm not commending ETA at all, it has been responsible for much damage and many injuries and deaths over several decades. One of the worst was a bomb in a supermarket carpark in Barcelona in 1987 killing 21. Amnesty International has for many years called for ETA to cease terrorism. It simply is a relief that it is ending - Basque separatism was never going to happen, and with the European Union, having your own nationstate was increasingly irrelevant. Nationalism is a game played by the ignorant - it doesn't define you, it limits you.

Libertarianz influence

Ten years ago the only people you could hear talking about politicians or bureaucrats suckling off the state tit were Lindsay Perigo and Deborah Coddington, on World Service New Zealand and then Radio Liberty. It was also found in The Free Radical, and in coming years would be the language used by Libertarianz in its many press releases.

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Oswald Bastable has rightfully pointed out how wonderful the Dom Post is in using language such as "He is also young, personable if reserved, and can boast something almost no one else in Cabinet can: that he is a successful businessman and lawyer who did not spend his formative years suckling at the public teat" to describe David Parker.

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Those are words rarely heard from ACT or National - but accurate nonetheless and not the language that people beholden to the sacred state use, but the language of laissez faire free market capitalists.

Muslim religious teachers abusing children in the UK

With a story that harks back to the many cases of Catholic child abuse, the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain is claiming that thousands of Muslim children in the UK are being physically and sexually abused by their religious teachers. It wants a national register of Madrasses (Islamic schools) and greater transparency and accountability for what goes on in Madrasses. It claims some parents are preferring home tuition for fear of what will happen to their children in some schools. The Muslim Parliament, by the way, is a non-governmental forum, and it is indeed courageous, but only right that it speaks out about this - shaming and hopefully encouraging an end to such practices. According to The Independent, around 100,000 children attend Madrasses in the UK - for their sake, those who commit abuse should be swiftly removed from the schools, and parents and children told that they don't need to tolerate this barbarity.

Diesel tax evasion in the UK

The UK has the highest rate of diesel tax in Europe, ostensibly to help pay for roads, but in reality most of the revenue goes to government for general spending. One thing New Zealand truck, bus and diesel car owners should be grateful for is road user charges. All revenue from road user charges is dedicated by law to the National Land Transport Fund. Most of that revenue goes on roads, with the remainder going to help subsidise public transport, pay for Police enforcement of traffic laws and those road safety ads you see. Because road user charges vary according to vehicle weight and configuration, and are charged by distance, they are an effective form of user pays that means trucks pay their way in terms of wear and tear on state highways (and half in terms of local roads, as councils pay the rest from rates). You can argue about what the money is spent on, but the money is dedicated to transport (unlike all of the petrol tax).

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However in Europe, the vastly differing levels of diesel tax means there is a black market in smuggling diesel across borders. Trucks with extra large fuel tanks enter the UK and siphon diesel to buyers at vastly reduced cost. In addition, other trucks legally enter the UK and drive on British roads without paying any British tax, effectively using them for free, competing unfairly with British truck operators.

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The UK tax is 47p per litre, that's NZ$1.32 a litre of tax alone!! That is 70% of the cost of the fuel. The EU average is 22p per litre (around NZ$0.62). There are different rates for industrial and residential use compared to road use. Smugglers are selling diesel to British truck operators at around 50p a litre compared to up to 1.04p a litre at the pump.

The solution? Well the Blair government had one - it was going to replace much of the diesel tax (the EU has legal MINIMUM levels of fuel tax that Britain couldn't go below) with a road user charge system for trucks. The trucks would pay by distance and weight, as they do in New Zealand and, in exchange, get fuel tax and licence fee (road tax) refunds. It got held up in bureaucratic red tape, and another move to harmonise fuel tax in the EU at one, lower level was opposed by the House of Lords because it would cost £2 billion in revenue and it thought it wouldn't be good for the environment.

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What rot. The diesel tax smugglers are legitimately bypassing a punitive tax which is stealing from the British road transport industry to fund anything BUT roads in Britain. The UK road transport industry supports tolls because it would mean foreign truck operators would pay the same as they do - but Gordon Brown and Tony Blair are into tax and spend, and the British public likes paying for an unproductive bureaucracy.

French socialists punish ipod and itunes for success

Having managed to achieve unemployment rates of 10%, forecast GDP growth of 1.9%, GDP per capita (on PPP basis) not far above Spain and New Zealand – the anti-success Nazis in France want to punish Apple for the success of the iPod.
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Apple, after years of being ranked as the poor cousin of the IT sector, has had stunning success with the iPod, because it offered people a convenient, easy to use way of storing and listening to vast quantities of music. In association with that is iTunes, Apple’s online music store providing a legal way to buy songs to play on your iPod. However, the French Parliament says this is “anti-competitive” – as if the French Parliament ever produced a single thing that made people’s lives better without stealing it from someone in the first place.
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CNN and the NZ Herald reports The French Parliament has passed a law forcing Apple to effectively open up its anti-copying technology so that iTunes songs can be played on players other than iPods, the same would apply to Sony and its Walkmans and music store.
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Thieving Vichy-like bullies. France has produced much that is good in the world, and has food and wine that is immeasurably better than much of the salty sugary fat laden slop in Britain. They have healthier attitudes to alcohol, sex and aesthetics - I understand why the French can be arrogant about what is French. The language is far more beautiful than most and the passionate "joie de vivre" of the French is an example to the world, compared to the inert mind numbing nihilism of Anglo-Saxons, unless they are drunk and become either obnoxious or perverted. The French don't have page 3 girls in grotty tabloids, because it is no big deal for a woman to show her breasts off on the beach - it is just a fact of life, neither repressed nor obsessed.

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Unfortunately, a great attitude to life is not matched by a lauding of commercial success. Yes innovation is lauded, the French were one-half of the team that made Concorde, the TGV high speed train, its commitment to nuclear power and the Millau Viaduct.

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but IT? Sorry. You see IT innovators that aren't focused on major infrastructure or defence don’t reside in France much, as the tax and regulatory regime punishes success – why should Apple have bothered when the parasitical little busybodies in the French Parliament think those who DIDN’T invent the idea, didn’t make it successful ought to profit from it at Apple’s expense. .

Do you really think there would be iPods, Walkmen, compact discs, cassettes, DVDs, video cassettes or LPs if you let politicians decide? No. They would spend umpteen years arguing about whether it would be too expensive for the poor, whether not enough local content would be available for people to listen to – or whether the machines should have local songs already on them before they are sold blah blah blah.
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France wants the Eurosocialist Union to support such a law – given France’s less than enthusiastic adoption of most European liberalisation measures (ever wondered why France has virtually no low cost airlines?) – the EU should tell France to bugger off and consider liberté as least as much as fraternité and equalité.

Abortion

PC has posted some thoughts recently about this, but I have one.....

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Being libertarian I am naturally inclined to believe that up to a certain point - abortion on demand, but not publicly funded, should be allowed. That certain point is when the foetus can either be viable outside the womb or when a conscious faculty exists.

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So... abortion on demand - it is ok to abort a foetus because it is female or male.

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Comfortable with that? I'm not - but I'm not prepared to use the law to stop it. I think many doctors would refuse to do it, but it makes you think.

Auckland's socialist transport czars

Mike Lee and Dick Hubbard both want you to pay for electrifying Auckland's rail network, whether or not you'll ever use it, you might be in Wellington, Wanganui, Whakatane or Winton, and regardless of whether there are net economic benefits in doing it.

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Both are under the delusion that somehow, a network that the Prime Minister once described as being so good that "most Aucklanders don't live within coee of a railway station", will relieve Auckland traffic congestion. No proper peer-reviewed modelling has been carried out that demonstrates this beyond a tiny margin of error.

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Dr Cullen has said the government (you) will pay the full cost of double tracking the Western rail line and other track improvements that are essential if the system is going to run at any reasonable frequency - while Auckland Regional Transport Authority (ARTA) will have to pay for station and train upgrades itself. Fare paying passengers can't even pay for the cost of running the trains (around 20%) so don't even think anyone wants them to pay for the upgrade. Clearly the private sector doesn't think it could attract many motorists or bus passengers so it wont invest. So the question is why should you?

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Well you Aucklanders elected Regional Council Chairman Mike Lee and Mayor Dick Hubbard - they want your income taxes and GST to pay for a big electric railway. They think Wellington is getting a better deal, when in fact it is only getting $65 million of taxpayers money for its rail system (the rest comes from a fare increase, rates and is approved funding from Land Transport NZ from petrol tax). Somehow electrified railways reduce urban sprawl - which is apparently bad -far better to have people live on tower blocks near railway stations (although few MPs or Aucklanders want to do that).

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Lee and Hubbard should butt out - Auckland's congestion is hampered by them both managing most of Auckland's road network not as a business, but as a political toy. If they want to see how public transport can work, they might look at the bus stations partly funded by North Shore City Council along the Northern Motorway. The car parks are filling up every morning as bus services, run by private companies (albeit some subsidised) get patronised - and that is before completion of the busway that will speed them past the traffic congestion approaching the bridge.

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If Hubbard and Lee stopped thinking about flash shiny sexy trains and thought about simple measures to improve the efficiency of the existing roading network, they could make quite a difference to Auckland traffic. If they supported replacing petrol tax with variable user charges it would make an enormous difference. The ARC will hold up the Avondale extension of SH20 because it supports a route that is 33% more expensive with little difference in traffic effect - Auckland City Council opposed the Victoria Park Viaduct duplication project, until Transit changed plans to make it a tunnel, effectively doubling that cost - and you think these bodies are good custodians of your money?

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but they wont support user pays - they are socialists - bent on making you pay for what they want other people to use.

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Nowhere has a new world (North American/Australasian) city invested in new rail and reduced traffic congestion, and spending a fortune on a railway to take people to where only 12% of Auckland jobs are certainly wont do it.

Bush will defend Israel

As he should. Iran should understand that in no uncertain terms the price of an Iranian attack upon Israel will be an attack in kind from Israel and the US.

The Daily Telegraph quotes him "I see a threat in Iran. The threat is, of course, their stated objective to destroy our strong ally Israel. I've made it clear and I'll make it clear again, that we will use military might to protect our ally Israel,"

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This should be wholeheartedly endorsed by the EU and New Zealand, among others. Iran’s threats to eradicate Israel are contrary to the much loved UN Charter, and hardly peace-loving. May any leftists who hate Israel consider that attacks on Israel don’t discriminate between Jews, Palestinians and Israeli Arabs. Israel has never had aggressive intent against Iran.

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The point of Bush’s message is clear – it is futile for Iran to develop nuclear weapons, for if it does it will at the very least face war with the US if it uses them, at the very least may risk air strikes to destroy them. The mullahs in Iran should be overthrown by the Iranian people, but barring that there should be a clear deal – open up your nuclear programme to inspections, make peace with Israel, cease supporting international terrorism – and an end to sanctions and renewal of diplomatic relations. There is a path to peace, Iran can embrace it - the so-called "peace movement" should be encouraging it along that path.

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UPDATE: Oops I typed Iran instead of Israel at the top DOH!

Quotes from Stalin

Next time you see a successful company kowtow to government, apologise for its success, seek to be regulated and show guilt for selling products to customers at a price they are willing to pay and profiting from it, think of this quote:

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"When we hang the capitalists they will sell us the rope we use. "

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Alexander Lukashenko learnt from Stalin:

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"It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything. "

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and finally, why free speech matters:

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"Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas. "