Nick Smith spits on property rights... again

Although Stuff reports Nick Smith as "Conservation Minister" (wait till after the election guys), Dr Smith wants to confiscate the property rights of Kaiangaroa Timberlands to protect some douglas firs. He wants them protected, which presumably doesn't mean Kaiangaroa Timberlands has any option on not selling them.
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He wont offer to buy them himself, or set up a charity that seeks to raise funds to buy them.
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No they should be bought with taxpayers funds because they are "part of New Zealand's heritage". Nice.
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Now you know how much better National will be than Labour on property rights, as if you had any doubts. Is it any wonder one of my fastest growing tags is "National party disappoints"?

Are your kids on Adultfriendfinder?

Ok Stuff reports that a man is in prison for having sex with three underage girls, 2 were 14, 1 was 12. However check this out:
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"Davidson initiated contact with the girls through internet websites AdultFriend Finder and Bebo, and by using MSN, email, and text messaging after the initial contact."
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Now the risks of Bebo as a social networking site for young girls are well known, but Adultfriendfinder? What's that then? Well it is a website for adults that want to meet to have a sexual relationship "The World's Largest Sex & Swinger Personals Community" it claims. It asks that all members declare their birthday as it requires that all of its members be 18 or over. Now Adultfriendfinder is free, but as with many such sites you can't do much without having paid membership. For starters you can't see anyone's photos, and you can only send messages to other members if you are very popular or if a paid member has paid to allow standard members to contact them.
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Hmmm, so presumably at least one of these girls of 14, pretended to be 18 on her profile and while posting her picture online couldn't view others. What's that about? Not so innocent? Adultfriendfinder is a blocked site listed with several well known parental control software suppliers, presumably the girl's parents didn't care where she went online.
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Does it justify his foolishness? No, although unless she confessed early on about age, he could well have believed she was 18 as, after all, her profile would have to say that. Adultfriendfinder vets profiles before they are posted too, to avoid the "claim 18 but say I'm younger in the profile" problem, so she must have told him at some point after he started contact.

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So when a 57 year old man find a girl who says she is 18 on an adult contact site, and she's your daughter 14 - you might ask yourself what you did to prevent her going where she shouldn't go, and don't blame the state.
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UPDATE: It is notable that the NZ Herald never mentioned Adultfriendfinder, but did mention the girls pretended to be 18 and 16 online. However, it is an offence to sexually groom those underage even if you don't know they are (which he did when he met them), interesting thought crime that one is.

Burma's bullies let their subjects die

How utterly repulsive it is, day after day people are dying in Burma, not for the want of those willing to help, but because the petty little men who run the military dictatorship refuse to let the US in to help, and are maintaning a bureaucratic process for visas that is insane and proving deadly.
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The BBC reports UN World Food Programme regional director Anthony Banbury saying "We will not just bring our supplies to an airport, dump it and take off".
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The BBC reporter Paul Danahar notes ...Normally after a natural disaster, he says, roads are choked by the relief effort, but those into the Irrawaddy delta are empty.
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Charming really. CNN reports China is urging Burma to open up to aid supplies.
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So what to do? Well it wouldn't be immoral for armed forces from several countries to just enter, provide protection for aid workers, and tell the Burmese authorities that it will use force if necessary if anyone gets in the way of saving lives. The cowardly generals have already been seen on Myanmar state TV in posed shots of them delivering humanitarian assistance. Armed support for aid supplies is possibly the only sensible way forward, and if the regime cries that its sovereignty has been interfered with (and I am sure the so-called peace movement would decry any such action, preferring people to die in peace whilst their government ignores them), then its illegitimacy can be pointed to. The thugs in charge deserve no respect.

The funny old USA - United Sexual Abhorrents

Oh the fuss. Miley Cyrus poses for Vanity Fair magazine in tasteful shots that apparently destroy her image as a good little church going virgin (because of course if you're not you're inferior). That's because, she's 15 and looking sexy. Yes I know I should be shot for that comment too. You see she is Hannah Montana, an incredibly successful child personality.

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She's apparently not allowed to grow up, not allowed to be proud of how she looks and not allowed to acknowledge that yes, she might even be sexually attractive. She's not pregnant, there is no impression at all that she is sexually promiscuous (or even sexual really), BUT she

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Look at the comments that some photos of her provoked, accusations that she is a slut or been abused. It appears so many in the USA haven't grown up. For some there you are either an angel or you're a whore... not much different from radical Islam really.

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Quite simply, it is her body, her choice, if she feels beautiful and happy about who she is and what she does, then good for her. She has harmed nobody, and has spent some years entertaining millions. Begone the repulsive judgmental finger pointers who cast aspersions at someone who is simply becoming an adult - it is you that think the human body is something ugly and vile, and it is you that sees filth in the most natural thing in the world.

NZ taxpayers effectively help pay for Tonga's lavish coronation

It's not new of course. French taxpayers paid for the blood thirsty megalomaniac Bokassa to have a self styled coronation as "Emperor" of the "Central African Empire". This is nowhere near as bad, but you may ask why, according to the Dominion Post, the Tongan government needs NZ$11.5 million a year in taxpayer aid from New Zealand when it can afford to spend NZ$4 million on a coronation of King George Tupou V. Don't forget Tonga is hardly a free country with liberal democracy with an open free media. Although the report says no aid money will be used, this is semantics - because if there was less aid money presumably the coronation would be cut back.

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Even the BBC has the exclusive broadcasting rights - nice to see my TV license fee being used to pay for what is effectively a dictatorship.

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International aid should be non-governmental, it should be voluntary. If you want to aid Tonga, then let reputable aid agencies develop projects and help it, and other poorer countries.