So when does my biased report become news?

New Zealand Herald reports "Wellington law researcher Moana Jackson has repeated a poll he did of 2000 Maori people in 1988 which found that Maori ranked the police 20th out of 20 occupations, and found that earlier this year the police had climbed to 11th out of 20."

Ignoring that Moana Jackson is an extreme leftwing ethnonationalist activist who believes that Maori should have a separate judicial system, no doubt even if they commit crimes against non-Maori.

After all he also said "Mr Jackson restated his 1988 analysis that high Maori crime rates could not be blamed solely on immediate factors such as poverty or dysfunctional families, but could be traced back to 167 years of dispossession and marginalisation. "If you are dispossessed, if your land is taken, if your power is denied, if your right to say things in your own way and to make sense of the world in ways that are unique to you and your history are taken away," he said, "then you are oppressed.""

It's not our fault we bash our kids, it's cuz we were, I mean are like oppressed eh man? I mean we aint allowed to say things in our own way or make sense of the world in our own way - it's rong bro, just rong. No wonder we bash our kids.

In a separate report, parking wardens undertook a poll proving that they are very popular people, who perform a task that is genuinely respected and admired, but that most of the public think they are underpaid. North Korea undertook a poll proving that Americans are the most hated people in North Korea because of the imperialist murderous tyranny they run in South Korea.

Second chance for Muslims to uphold human dignity

Of course I have these in the wrong order, but the case of the 19yo girl sentenced to 90 lashes and six months in prison in Saudi Arabia again speaks volumes about what could be called a different "civilisation".

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Seven men raped her and her former boyfriend when they were in a car together, understandable since only sluts and perverts meet in a car don't they when they are not married? After all, if all the world did this it would be like the West, and we know how so few people want to emigrate to those countries don't we?

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She was married, and her husband criticised the judicial system, so HER sentence went up to 200 lashes.

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However, the boyfriend is getting 90 lashes too, so Saudi Arabia at least treats male and female rape victims identically - as criminals. The Nazis treated the Jews like this.

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The Saudi Justice Ministry is reported as saying "The Saudi justice minister expressed his regret about the media reports over the role of the women in this case which put out false information and wrongly defend her. The charged girl is a married woman who confessed to having an affair with the man she was caught with."

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No, your stone age legal system can't even distinguish between alleged criminal events and where liability stands. EVEN if we were accept your fascist law, this is what should have happened. The rapes, infidelity and meeting illegally should all have been treated as separate charges, with only the second and third cases treated together. All crimes should have been investigated thoroughly. The husband protesting the sentence should be a mitigating factor in sentencing, and the girl should NOT be punished for what HE says.

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So I expect to see Muslims and "peace activists" marching the streets calling for this woman (and man) to be freed and not to be punished for this victimless crime, for them to be left well alone - but no, the former would rather get agitated about a fucking cartoon insulting their ghost, and the latter.... it's not America so they don't get excited about it.

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UPDATE: So while the NZ government has expressed dismay, Helen Clark has said that "New Zealand fully respects the judicial system of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and notes that the case is still working its way through the courts". SOLO's press release on this is damning and quite right.

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NZ only took a strong stance on nuclear issues and apartheid only when a government was determined to do so, governments that listen to MFAT will always be wishy washy and always want to compromise. Imagine if NZ took a strong stance against governments that punish rape victims, wouldn't you think that might do more good than waffling on about the nuclear phobia?

Chance for Muslims to stand up for human dignity

but I wont expect to see Sudanese flags burnt in the street or thousands swarming onto the streets outraged that a peaceful English woman has been arrested in Sudan for blasphemy and faces 40 lashes and 6 months in prison. I also don't expect the so called "peace movement" to campaign for her either, after all she should respect the laws of the free decolonised country she chose to move to, and be grateful the evil US imperialists haven't destroyed the beautiful culture and traditions of the place.

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Her crime, she allegedly let a class of children choose to name their teddy bear Mohammed. Yes I know, this is worse than a girl being raped.

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Several parents complained about this to the authorities, and like the jackbooted faith based fascists that they are, they arrested her.

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According to the Daily Telegraph:

"She asked one of the female pupils to bring in a teddy bear and asked the students to name it. "They came up with eight names including Abdullah, Hassan and Mohammed," said the school’s director, Robert Boulos. Twenty of the 23 children opted for Mohammed and the toy was taken home by a different pupil each weekend to record a diary of the bear’s "activities"."

She clearly is the devil incarnate for starting a new life being a teacher in an impoverished country.

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It speaks volumes of priorities in a country which ranks 141st out of 177 in development, that letting children name a teddy bear Mohammed is a reason to inflict violence upon someone. In fact, it probably reflects one of the reasons why it has such low development.

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UPDATE: Substantial efforts are being made by the British government to get her released, and some statements from British Muslim representatives have indicated that this appears to be a misunderstanding and they are calling for her to be released. Apparently the Ministry of Religious Affairs in Sudan is "unhappy with the unlawful way in which she has been treated". She hasn't even been charged and she is being held in a police cell! The Daily Telegraph also reports the boy who suggested Mohammed's name did so because - it is his OWN name.

A seed planted in Australian politics perhaps?

Silly me, freedom loving Australians did have an option to vote for, well in some electorates.

47 electorates had candidates for the Liberty & Democracy Party, a party that looks somewhere between ACT and Libertarianz. On top of that, LDP stood for the Senate, where there is always a far higher chance of smaller parties holding representation. In fact, all minor party Senators will be needed by Labor to get legislation through the Senate in this term.

This is the first time the party has stood for the federal elections nationwide (previously it only stood in ACT). So how did it go?

Well for a first time standing, for House of Representatives candidates, it got 0.1% of first preferences, actually about half of the votes of the redneck bigots at One Nation. Not too shabby when so much attention is given to the big two parties and a bit less to the Greens and Democrats.

For the Senate it did slightly better, with:

0.23% in ACT (the capital votes for freedom?)

0.21% in NSW

0.1% in Vic, WA and Tas

0.16% in QLD

0.12% in SA

More detailed results on Labor Party Broadcasting, I mean ABC's website here.

So, I'm hoping after this early start that the LDP in Australia can grow bigger and better. Under Labor, and with the Liberal Party in disarray, Australia could do with a decent third party of freedom as a foil to the Greens.

A constitution but...

Not PC's excellent post reminding us that government needs to be restrained by a constitution reminds me also about my wariness of the republican movement and those who talk simply about such things. Arguing about a republic and a written constitution is a bit more than simply saying it's a good idea - you have to know what the purpose of the constitution is for.

Simply codifying convention would be virtually meaningless. A constitution is a statement about the role of the state and the limits of the role of the state, and what freedoms and rights the state guarantees to its citizens. In New Zealand there are a handful of wildly disparate views of this. Think of those who, like followers of a faith, want to include the Treaty of Waitangi, assuming somehow that this will do something about the state other than accentuate ethnic division. Others will see it as a chance to enshrine not rights against people doing things to other people, but in favour of the state doing things for people. Put the Greens, Maori Party, Labour, NZ First, National and Libertarianz in the same room and you'll get very different answers - most fundamentally conflicting.

You see, this is not something that should be left to politically appointed commissions or groups of nodding heads from people who follow the same vision. It needs to be evolutionary, and indeed until politicians start respecting property rights and individual freedoms more widely, a constitution would merely entrench nanny state.

So for now, the matter of shackling the state should be a point of debate and discussion. I wouldn't give anyone on the left a chance to ever start creating a constitution worth wiping my arse on. A constitution should be about two things: What the state can't take do, and the creation, maintenance and checks and balances on that state. Unfortunately, with a Prime Minister who declares "the state is sovereign", and around five political parties happy to keep her in power, one way or another, precious little evidence of the former exists in the minds of the majority of existing MPs.