Nicaragua looks to ban all abortions

The Christian right will be thrilled – their poster child for abortion law will now be Nicaragua. No Right Turn rightfully points out that it will really only affect the poor (and probably middle class too - the average Nicaraguan can hardly afford international travel)

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Two weeks before the Nicaraguan presidential elections and the Nicaraguan Parliament has passed a Bill that will ban all abortions, including those in cases of rape or when a woman facing dying during birth. The Roman Catholic Church, ever the force for progress, transparency and secretly fucking the bejesus out of its congregation behind their back, promoted the bill, along with the (get this) liberal party.
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Many Sandinistas also supported it, allegedly out of fear that opposing it would mean they could lose the upcoming presidential elections. This indicates firstly how strong the anti-abortion view holds in Nicaragua, but secondly how inherently intellectually corrupt and power hungry the Sandinistas are. Helen Clark picked coffee beans to support them in their youth – I doubt that she’ll be proud of the Sandinistas now.
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I don’t doubt the Roman Catholic Church wont worry about one of the effects of this Bill, assuming it isn’t vetoed by the President (who supports it). The Daily Telegraph reports:
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Hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the building during the week in Nicaragua’s capital Managua, warning that the measure would effectively mean a death sentence for as many as 400 women who have ectopic pregnancies every year.

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The value of a woman’s life in Nicaragua is low – and I value those lives over the potential lives of embryos anyday. The Roman Catholic Church, essentially an international gang (which covers up the crimes of its members) deserves condemnation over this. Oh and don't think that because Daniel Ortega and the Sandinistas oppose this (they are the poster childs of the left) that they are any good. Given their forcible evacuation of 8500 indigenous people from their land including the murder of 34 of them in the early 1980s. More recently, journalist Carlos Guadamuz was murdered for his reporting critical of Ortega. The real conclusion is that there isn't a lot positive about Nicaraguan politics - on either side of the fence.

Madonna and child

All the hoo ha about this shows how fascinated so many people are with the ephemeral and the cult of celebrity.
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The important questions
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1. Has Madonna used or threatened force to adopt the child? No.
2. Has anyone used or threatened force against Madonna to compel her to adopt the child? No.
3. Is Madonna likely to abuse the child (physically, sexually, neglect)? No.
4. Is the child likely to be better off, overall, if he is adopted by Madonna or not? Almost certainly yes.
5. Has Madonna paid for the child? Unclear. If so, it raises issues about the ethics of parents selling children to all and sundry, including the unscrupulous.
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Interesting but not important questions
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1. Has Madonna bribed any of the Malawian authorities in order to get around laws regarding adoption of the child? Probably not.
2. Has Madonna sold the rights to the story around the child for considerable sums of money? Possibly.
3. Has the father lied about whether or not permission was given for the adoption? Possibly.
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Irrelevant questions
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1. Are there better ways for Madonna to support children living in poverty in Africa? Yes, how much time do you have? Though she appears to be doing more than adopt a child, she seems to have sponsored an charity for orphans to the tune of US$1 million.
2. Is Madonna simply publicity seeking? No, not just publicity seeking.
3. Is Madonna a rather vapid simple headed image conscious entertainer with childlike political views and a big concern for her own guilt about her own ample wealth, when she sees poverty? Absolutely.
4. Does she want to make the rest of the world feel guilty too? Yes.
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So there you have it. I don’t like Madonna, I don’t think she is extraordinarily talented, interesting, intelligent or attractive. She is a good entertainer, and good at shocking people (hardly a great talent, but many Americans seem easier to shock), but her politics are at best naïve, childlike and braindead, at worst counterproductive and quite despicable. She doesn’t believe terrorism is a big threat, but hey she doesn’t use the tube or buses, she is one pinup example of the stupid leftwing celebrity. The "I'm a rich celebrity aren't I good adopting a poor African child" nonsense has a bad smell around it of someone desperately seeking approval for more than singing, hip grinding and insulting George Bush.
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However, she does have a right to adopt the child, and it is most likely to be in the child’s interests – and nobody but the child’s parents have the right to say no. Non-governmental organisations should get out of the way and leave it well alone. There are good reasons to respond to Madonna's publicity by suggesting she could do more good doing other things, but that is not a reason to stop the adoption - it is frankly only the business of her, her husband and the child's family.

Yawning with the Tories

In the UK, with a first past the post electoral system, you really are, by and large, stuck with 2-3 options. There is New Labour (which at best has glimmers of intelligence in Blair, at worst is Nanny State par excellence), the Liberal Democrats (Old Labour with a younger face) and the Conservatives.
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Now the Conservatives for most of the post war period have been just that – conservative. Doing, by and large, very little to roll back the tide of socialism that swept Britain from 1945. The exception was the Thatcher era, when the state leviathan was being operated out, parts privatised, parts shut down, regulations removed and socialism was being wound back – and boy did they wail, scream and gnash teeth. However, it did mean that Labour had to become closer to Thatcher to win power. New Labour accepted the economic reforms and even has accepted the need for private investment in education and healthcare, and business like disciplines on publicly provided services – but it is also the representative of insipid petty fascism.
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The Conservatives have been hamstrung largely due to inept leadership, unwillingness to be bold on policy and unwillingness to engage philosophically on what they stand for. They have stood for tax cuts without saying why it is moral and why it is affordable. They have been anti-immigration almost to the point of obsession and have not looked like a government in waiting, until recently.
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Sadly that government in waiting looks a lot like the current one, with the political correctness about candidate selection, unwillingness to talk about tax cuts and talking about new taxes on aviation (ohhhh maybe not), road transport and encouraging recycling. The Conservative Party under David Cameron is far removed from the Institute of Economic Affairs and Adam Smith Institute in terms of policy – it is, at best, a more radical version of Tony Blair. It is not Thatcherism part two.
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Now the Conservatives DID need a makeover, a makeover that got rid of nonsense old-fashioned bigotry that saw the party being seen (with some truth) as treating women and ethnic minorities as good for baking cakes and doing the cleaning. The homophobia that was only matched by the regular disclosure that some Tory MP had been discovered in a dress and heels tied upside down while a woman in leather calls him a naughty girl, or the like. The Tories needed to be brought into the 21st century and be reminded that being liberal on individual freedom is important. At best this has been sidestepped, although it would appear they are less hung up about sex, drugs and censorship.
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So what have they done? Well, week after week it appears they have adopted style over substance, partly by surrendering to the arguments on the left on tax cuts and deciding to be the “green” party of the UK.
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Tory leader David Cameron is calling for a Climate Change Bill to be introduced to Parliament. Why? The proposed Bill would set up a bureaucracy to set a statutory binding target (on who you may ask? Blank out – never mind) which it will report on annually. So, in other words, more bureaucracy to report on the UK meeting carbon emission reduction targets. So setting aside whether man-made global warming is real, setting aside whether it is practicable to reduce the UK’s contribution to this when the developing world is doing virtually nothing, setting aside whether it is economically efficient and a good use of the property of UK citizens and companies to spend money on reducing their contribution to climate change (it may be better to improve education standards, lock away more louts or give people big tax cuts), (so there are at least three arguments to be made about how damned blind this idea is), this stupid bill assumes the only way man-made climate change can be eased is by reducing CO2 emissions. It ignores other emissions of “greenhouse gases” and ignores planting greenery to offset that. Stupid Conservatives, really really stupid. They talk about investing in high speed trains. Why? Is it better to subsidise how people move about than to give them back their money and face the full cost of transport? Why not stop running the roads like a Soviet style bureaucracy which is a cash cow and constantly begging for maintenance funds, while congestion gets steadily worse?
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The Conservatives have bitten the “saving energy is good” nonsense, when it is clear it makes such a small difference to people’s lives that they can’t be arsed doing it, and this assumes they pay the commercial cost of supplying energy (which, by and large, is true). Beyond that, saving energy is like some wartime conservation measure – austerity for the sake of it, or worse yet “Head Prefect David Cameron” telling you that you “ought to switch off the standby on your TV” for your own good. They even have their own website where you can check how environmentally friendly your car is and more on a Quality of Life Challenge website talking further about how the government “should be doing things” so you don’t hurt the environment more. Comments like this “The fundamental value of being able to produce our own food and other commodities, including bioenergy, has inexplicably been ignored by Government.” tell me a lot. Mr Cameron, your own food production is highly subsidised from Brussels, so people don’t actually pay this “fundamental value”. *vomit*
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The Tories are vapid about the NHS, with weasel words about cutbacks and funding going straight to GPs instead of “through bureaucrats”. Nothing about raising serious questions about a system that has unlimited demands put upon it while everything is free, or about the use of the private sector.
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So what about tax? Well last week a Tory thinktank, the Tax Reform Commission came out with a report (pdf) calling for major cuts in taxes, including increases the tax free income threshold to £7285 per annum (are you listening Dr Brash?), eliminating the bottom tax rate of 10% (as it would no longer be needed) and reducing the basic 22% rate of income tax to 20%, decent cuts in corporate tax (to 25%) , abolish inheritance tax, a load of tax credits (which give special privileges to some not others) and general simplify the tax system. Frankly, it looks like the National Party in NZ wouldn’t be frightened by it, ACT would think it was timid, I think it is, at best, a good first step. To show you how timid it is, the report even said that flat taxes could not be introduced in the UK yet because of the sheer size of its state sector – which tells you how bad it is here.
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So what was the Tory response? Shadow Chancellor George Osborne wasn't too interested:

"stressing again that economic stability come before promises of tax cuts. He made it clear that the report is not a blueprint for the Party's next election manifesto.”
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Essentially tax cuts can’t come at the cost of “cutting public services”, ignoring the dynamic effect of lower taxes on economic growth (and tax revenue) and that so much UK public spending is wasteful. They have surrendered the debate to the likes of the BBC, Guardian and the Independent.
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This is clear in his statement that:
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"We are not going to commit to £21 billion of unfunded tax cuts now or in the future."However, we will rebalance our tax system and shift the burden from taxing families and jobs to taxing pollution and carbon emissions. I want to tax the bad not the good."
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Apparently there is no waste in the system, but wait… now they support pollution taxes. Why? What evidence is there that this will deliver any benefits to the UK?
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So the Tories aren’t supporting tax cuts because of them being “unfunded” as if they have to take money off of someone to give you your money back – when in fact it is your money in the first place. The news is this, they are affordable now – they are more affordable when you cut state spending and subsidies, and represents 1.5% of GDP, when growth is expected to be at 3.5%. In other words this modest step can be afforded by not GROWING spending as much as in the past. The argument that they will hurt public services can be tackled easily by quoting this, but Cameron isn’t even interested in the debate. The cuts would largely benefit people on low to middle incomes, but he isn’t interested in that debate, he wont dare confront the media on this.
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The Tories are no longer the party of less government, but the party of more, but different government.
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The thing is though, it is working with the public. The British public love vapid youthful nothingness. The Conservatives are on 39% in the latest Guardian/ICM poll, Labour on 29% and the Illiberal Demagogues on 22%. However, I think the public would notice little difference with a Tory government – there may be a little less political correctness and little more fiscal prudence, but otherwise you could have woken up and thought New Labour had merely gone a bit further to the right than you expected.

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It is a long way till the next UK election (Blair won last year in case you forgot), and a lot can happen - but the question is whether it would be better to have a David Cameron led Tory government that tinkers a little (or may have a secret agenda to cut the size of the state - yay! but unlikely) or just let Labour rot with a coalition with the Lib Dems? I can't get enthused about Tories that swallow ecological bullshit as fact, turn their back on economic rationalism and are full of as many weasel words as New Labour - perhaps it says more about the UK public that they are so stupid as to be seduced every 9 or so years by this bullshit. Having said that, some leftwing friends of mine would warm to this, the Tories look more Green than Labour.

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So given that Cameron has inherited the Blair legacy, there isn't a lot to hope for in terms of political change in the UK. I'd rather have National anyday (and that's not easy to say!).

Tutu criticises South Africa

For some time now it has become apparent that South Africa under the ANC is creeping more and more along the path towards corruption, authoritarianism and a rampant abuse of power. This is because the "democracy" of South Africa has little to limit it when the black underclass repeatedly thanks the ANC by voting for it election after election. The ANC believes it has a right to power, it actively excludes the opposition parties from having equal coverage on state TV and radio, and simply accuses the Democratic Alliance of "racism" whenever it criticises them, which is simple nonsense. The New Zealand left who campaigned so hard for ANC led government (opposing apartheid) have now largely ignored the "new" South Africa now that their friends are in power.

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For those who forget, the Democratic Alliance has as its origins the Progressive Party - the main white opposition party under apartheid that campaigned to abolish apartheid, institute an independent judiciary and liberalise the economy. Its policies are perhaps best described as liberal centre-right, liberal on economic and social matters.

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So for Bishop Desmond Tutu to now criticise where things are in South Africa is notable. He refers to its rampant murder and rape rates, including rape of infants, the braindead legends that sex with virgin girls "cures HIV" and the government's sheer ignorance over HIV which has resulted in a death sentence for millions of South Africans. He talks of bureaucrats now acting as they did under apartheid, with little regard for citizens.

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He calls for people to hold themselves in high esteem and respect others - given that the ANC and South African government are Zimbabwe's biggest international defenders, I doubt that much will change for the better. Watch South Africa slide further and further towards being an authoritarian one-party state - which is, after all, the philosophical home of the ANC.

Drinking age nonsense

If ever you saw the craven populist driven unprincipled nannying of politicians in action it would be the bill on raising the drinking age.
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Only ACT and the Greens are consistently opposing this ridiculous kneejerk reaction – the sort of bill dreamt up by talkback listeners, but actually dreamt up by a failed MP – Castro loving Matt Robson, who lost his seat with the drop in votes for the so-called “Progressive” Party in 2005. The Progressive Party is about as Progressive as the dark ages – the dying remnants of conservative protestant socialism that redistributes to the poor and tells them not to be naughty – the Salvation Army must love the Progressive Party.
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Wowserism, on a grand scale. The petty narrow minded joyless protestant view of life seen through the eyes of politicians, all thinking they know what is best for young adults. These are the people who react simply to their electorate’s concerns about the minority of young people abusing alcohol by “passing a law”. You can almost hear their knuckles dragging as they vote for it.
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The Drug Foundation and ALAC, both state funded organisations, are naturally supporting this – since their whole raison d’etre is to support any reduction in supply of alcohol. The message they all want to promote is “alcohol is bad” and wow, that message works when the people voting for it have access to a subsidised bar within the building in which they work.
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The hypocrisy is incredible. You see socialist Nanny Statists, who don’t like people making money from alcohol (Martin Gallagher) and conservative Christian naysayers who don’t like people having too much fun (Gordon Copeland), deciding it is moral to arrest 18 year olds for attempting to purchase a drink they can consume at will.
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The same Parliament that wants to prohibit irresponsibility, subsidises it on a grand scale every year through welfare.

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Not PC and the Greens largely agree with me on this, as does SpanBlather, David Farrar and Tumeke. No Right Turn suggests you lobby a series of MPs, particularly National ones, which I fully endorse (but as he said don't waste your time with Anderton and Nick Smith isn't worth .... (he riles me up too much sanctimonious little prick)). One of those times when the liberal left and libertarians take a similar view on personal freedom.

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Worth noting that the UK easily has a similar "drinking problem" to NZ, but deals with the main issue (obnoxiousness) through Anti Social Behaviour Orders (which are a watered down form of criminal sanction). I think the answer is simply ensuring some police presence in major drinking areas on Friday and Saturday nights so that it deters violent behaviour and there can be intervention when such things happen. The other answer is for parents to take responsibility for those that ARE kids - but well, Labour hardly encourages that with its middle class welfare for families.