Telecom to cease funding politics

Well for Telecom shareholders this will be welcome. No more money being wasted on organisations that, with the exception of ACT, are uninterested or downright hostile when it comes to Telecom's property rights.

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Presumably it will hit the Progressives the most, as the smallest party - but Labour will smart from losing $50,000. Telecom says it has nothing to do with government regulation, which may be true, but it should have everything to do with protecting the rights of shareholders. Telecom is hated by most parties in Parliament - National at best engages in economic analysis before considering regulation, ACT tends to oppose it. Of course Libertarianz is the most Telecom friendly political party - in that it supports an open free-market governed by private property, contract and tort law.

Ignore Toll's blackmail

Just a quick comment on the hysteria about Toll saying it will close lots of railway lines. Some very straightforward facts:
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1. Toll can’t close railway lines. They are owned by the government, which bought them back for $1 under the agreement that it would spend $200 million to upgrade it (and paid $81 million for the Auckland network separately). So it is up to Ontrack.
2. If Toll withdraws services, then its agreement with the government means that other operators can provide services. Presumably they will have to acquire rolling stock, but then Toll will have a lot of rolling stock that is of low value on the international secondhand market (wrong gauge, small dimensions).
3. If Toll moves more freight onto the roads then the government will NOT be up for a higher road maintenance bill that comes out of your pocket. Trucks pay road user charges, which broadly pay enough to cover the cost of maintaining the state highway network, and the marginal cost of each additional truck. The extra wear and tear on the roads will be paid for.
4. If the Napier-Gisborne line saw no more freight trains, there would be, on average, an extra truck every hour in each direction on that highway at the most. I think nobody would notice that, and yes the road user charges paid for that truck would cover the cost of maintenance.
5. The Greens claim there is an imbalance between trucks and trains and what they are charged according to the Surface Transport Costs and Charges study. The marginal cost case studies in that report indicate that road freight has lower environmental costs than rail in two out of the three examples measured. It also indicates than in two examples the Road User Charges paid are more than the costs the trucks impose on government. In other words, it is far more complicated that the Greens will say.
6. The trucking industry is not interested in the main trunk line closing, and has said so. It rightfully has argued that if Toll doesn’t want to use it, others should, assuming they are willing to pay
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Lincoln University Professor Chris Kissling wants you to be forced to pay for rail maintenance and presumably a tidy sum to buy the monopoly rights off of Toll. I’m unsure why he thinks that all New Zealanders and businesses should pay for a handful of businesses to get subsidised rail transport. However as he says the rail network is “incomplete”, he must be somewhat mad – given half the network isn’t economic to maintain now, how can it be “completed” and be efficient? Where should lines go? Kaitaia? Nelson? It wasn't economic in the 1960s when railways had a statutory monopoly!
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The answer? Sell the rail network. Then whoever values it the most can use it and charge for its use as it sees fit. Then comes the highways.

Labour attacks free speech - again

Having already suggested prohibiting third parties from funding political parties anonymously, Labour is talking about banning legal companies that produce products that save lives, from advertising. This is even though the products cannot be sold without a prescription from a relevant health professional.
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Labour has support from the Public Health Association, a left wing advocate of state funding and regulation of health care. Apparently the concern is that individuals – clearly too stupid in the eyes of the PHA and the Labour Party to decide what they put into their own bodies – are pressuring doctors to write out prescriptions for medication that may harm them. This ignores the fact that there are also plenty of individuals, who see an advert for medication that may relieve a complaint they have not bothered seeing a doctor about, and then go to the doctor to be checked to see if they are eligible for it.

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Banoholic Sue Kedgley has been pushing this for ages. "prescription medicines, when taken inappropriately, can cause severe illness and even death" she says. Well so can petrol, rat poision, water and "natural remedies".
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Gay Keating says “People may end up paying for medicines that they don't need, and that in the worst case scenario, may actually be harmful to them," well Gay, they might buy shoes they don’t need either, that may be harmful to them – or food, or a car. It is called choice for fuck’s sake.
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Let’s break down the situation simply – there is no force involved, just busybodies who think that consenting adults can’t be trusted to look after themselves. David Farrar says it is an attack on free speech - indeed it is and he takes the line that one should be cautious about restricting it. No Right Turn thinks you need protection from big bad pharmaceutical companies trying to sell you something you might no need - because you're so incompetent. Oops, I mean there are incompetent people, you're not - but hey the state can't make a separate law for you.

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Nevertheless, let's follow this chain of horror that Nanny State just has to stop:
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1. Pharmaceutical company spends its own money developing a drug that has a positive effect upon a medical condition in some way.

2. Pharmaceutical company tests drug to the extent that it can then go through the regulatory hoops to allow it to be legally available in New Zealand.

3. Pharmaceutical company starts selling drug through licenced pharmacists who are competent in dispensing drugs on prescription.

4. Pharmaceutical company uses its own money to pay for advertising on TV channels, radio stations, websites, print media etc. to promote the product. The broadcast advertising is regulated by the Advertising Standards Authority.

5. The product is regulated both as medication and in general contract law.

6. A sane adult sees the advertisement and is interested in spending her own money on the drug because it may have positive effects. She wants to ingest it in her body.

7. The sane adult visits her GP and requests the drug. The GP makes an assessment as to whether it is a good idea or not, and either chooses not to write out a prescription (adult then either goes to another GP or gives up) or to write on out.

8. Sane adult go to pharmacy and requests the drug on prescription, receives and pays for it.

9. Pharmacist dispenses the drug and provides advice on how to safely use it.

10. Sane adult uses drug.
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Who is forced here? What is going on except that failed head prefects want to interfere in stage 4.
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National has thankfully said it will oppose moves to regulate such advertising even more. Tony Ryall said, in a rush of blood to his head "This is another example of nanny state 'Labour-knows-best"
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"Consumers have a right to know that these pharmaceuticals are available, and can be accessed. Surely we want a health system where people can make choices and play a role in their own healthcare.”
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Stone the crows, he’s got something right!

North Korea's announces nuclear test as New Zealanders donate farm assistance

North Korea's press statement on nuclear tests is out on its official news agency website. So is a press statement on the NZ-DPRK society donating "vehicles and books on agricultural science and technology". The NZ-DPRK society is the apologist society for the North Korean dictatorship - it ignores the enormity of human rights abuses, the totalitarian Orwellian state of North Korea. It would rather donate vehicles and books and engage in dialogue - I doubt if it condemned the gulags where children of political dissidents are kept and worked like slaves 7 days a week. It issued a statement earlier this year condemning the US-South Korean joint military exercises saying:

"These joint military maneuvers are aimed at breaking the will of the Korean people to advance towards a peaceful future, rejecting interference of foreign forces including the U.S., the bulletin noted. "

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North Korea launched the Korean War in 1950 - the Kremlin archives prove it. What peaceful future is there when the state can arrest, detain, imprison, torture and kill you without a fair trial? What peaceful future is there when your relatives, including your children can also be imprisoned and tortured because you dared utter what might be construed as criticism of the "Democratic People's Republic"? However, the NZ-DPRK Society probably has the same view of North Korea's role in the Korean War as the Nazis have of Poland.

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North Korea's nuclear statement contains some odd remarks such as:

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"The DPRK was compelled to pull out of the NPT as the present U.S. administration scrapped the DPRK-U.S. Agreed Framework and seriously threatened the DPRK's sovereignty and right to existence. "

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It threatened withdrawal in 1993, but suspended it while the world tried to bribe it with aid and assistance to develop a light water nuclear reactor. It started breaching the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty in 1992 by refusing permission for International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors to visit all the sites they wished, and has persistently lied about its intentions.

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It also said:

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"The U.S., however, abused the idea of denuclearization set out by the DPRK for isolating and stifling the ideology and system chosen by its people, while systematically disregarding all its magnanimity and sincerity"

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The fact that Bush senior announced the withdrawal of the presence of nuclear weapons from South Korea in the early 90s is ignored.

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It has now said:

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"The DPRK officially announced that it manufactured up-to-date nuclear weapons after going through transparent legitimate processes to cope with the U.S. escalated threat of a nuclear war and sanctions and pressure"

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The US is not going to attack North Korea and never was - because the cost is enormous. It is a shame that it is so - North Korea deserves to be overthrown. It tests missiles that overshoot Japan, it possesses nuclear weapons and it is a state of mass slavery.

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By the way, North Korea issued a press release congratulating Helen Clark on her re-election and Winston Peters on his appointment as Foreign Affair's Minister last year - nice to see how friendly we all are. MFAT's website says "It is difficult to get accurate information on the human rights situation in North Korea". Indeed it is true, although the website doesn't say it is dire. How dire it is can be seen in this book called the Aquariums of Pyongyang - a chilling story from a man who survived a North Korean gulag. If MFAT doesn't think this says enough to at least mention that human rights in North Korea are virtually non-existent, then it is a group of cold heartless bureaucrats.

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North Korea is a warmongering slave state that is inexplicably evil. The New Zealanders who are apologists for it deserve to be outed - and publicly explain why they turn their back to those murdered, tortured and imprisoned by this slave state.

Pregnant women smoking to reduce baby size

If the report in the Daily Telegraph is true, then it is repulsive. Some teenage mothers smoke to have a smaller baby to make labour pains easier. In other works, who cares if the child is damaged.

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Smoking, taking drugs or drinking alcohol when you know you are pregnant is child abuse if the pregnancy goes full term. Simple as that. Pregnant women who do this should lose custody of the child, as if they were giving it to the child after birth.

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If you don't want to be pregnant then you have three options:

- Don't have sex;

- If you do have sex, make sure you and/or your bonk use contraception - if that fails or you forgot to "take it" use the morning after pill;

- Have an early term abortion;

- Have a hysterectomy (probably the best idea for many).

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Of course none of this is very politically correct, because pregnant women who abuse their unborn children are seen as "victims" who aren't "understood". Well, it is rather simple - you have chosen to bring a child into the world - if you recklessly act in ways that damage that child it is abusive - it is violence of the same order as bashing its brain, except you are doing it chemically.

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On top of that if you are that careless or stupid, you are hardly going to be much of a mother are you?