Labour's latest cutting edge policy - dance!

A Dance Industry Strategy?

Yes Judith Tizard - proving her utter worthlessness as a sucker of the state tit has announced:

Associate Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Judith Tizard launched the Dance Industry Strategy, in association with DANZ (Dance Aotearoa New Zealand), in Parliament's Grand Hall tonight.... "I commend DANZ for taking on the challenge of finding out where the dance sector sees itself, where it wants to go, and how it wants to go forward.

"The Labour-led government promotes cultural expression through writing, dance, theatre, music and the visual arts."

These activities are supported through funding from Creative New Zealand, who fund many of DANZ’s activities, as well as many festivals around New Zealand, and direct funding to national institutions like the Royal New Zealand Ballet and Te Matatini.

So there you go - education, healthcare, law and order, the economy, everything is running tickety boo -so now there must be a dance strategy.

Will there be a strategy for tapestry? A strategy for photography? A strategy for campanology?

Come on National - scrap having a Dance Strategy. There need not be a government strategy for everything, there will be one for masturbation one day at this rate!

Trotter's admiration for threats of violence

Chris Trotter's blog talks of "working class justice":

"the story I was told by a rank-and-filer whose workplace was visited by two burly union organisers. He recalled especially their East-End accents, and the lengths of lead pipe they were carrying. They were there, he said, to “caution” the poor little bloke who was holding-out against joining the union on “conscientious” grounds.

And then there was the hard-bitten union secretary, who responded to one of his members’ demand for a secret strike-ballot with the immortal words : “Ya wanna secret ballot? - Shut yer bloody eyes!”"

In other words out and out thuggery and intimidation. Working class? More like the union mafia. However, Trotter doesn't really speak of how vile it was.

He approvingly talks of it in the comments, saying compulsory unionism was an achievement. Yes - because being forced to join an organisation that you don't want representing you, and doesn't represent your views is an "achievement". Only if you're a fascist.

The vileness of compulsory unionism, how the trade union movement treats people who value their jobs more than they do (the definition of a scab is someone who values the job more than those calling him that), and how willing these savages are to turn to violence.

That's the dark side of the hard left of New Zealand politics. Something Trotter appears to pine for. It's savage, and shows the mentality of those who prefer the fist to the argument to get what they want.

Reason vs the irrational

As the Hadron Collidor was switched on (and yes I know it was funded by taxpayers), few can fail to be amazed at the constant seeking of knowledge by humanity and science, to understand the fundamental nature of the universe.

Meanwhile, sadly the ignorant paid a price, as according to the Times, a teenage girl in India drank pesticide because she was convinced the world would come to an end, after talking to relatives (and reading parts of the local media which were hysterical about it.

What could more starkly show the difference between those who seek to take humanity forward, peacefully, in leaps and bounds, and the superstition bound anti-reality hysterics who spread fear, loathing and doubt.

Though it has always been like that - ancient Greece was the first great attempt to embrace reason, and it took the Enlightenment to throw off the shackles of oppressive Christianity suppressing science and reason - a process that has yet to be completed against all religions and all philosophies of subjectivist irrationality.

North Korea's Aussie mate

On the 60th anniversary of the founding of North Korea - as George Orwell's vision of 1984 in real life, one Australian clearly thinks it was a good idea. From the (north) Korean Central News Agency:

Foreigners Here

Pyongyang, September 8 (KCNA) -- A delegation of the Australia-DPRK Friendship and Cultural Society headed by Raymond Ferguson and a friendship delegation of Donggang City of Liaoning Province, China, headed by Song Shuguan, general manager of the Chaoyuan Fish Breeding Company Ltd., arrived here on Sept. 7 to participate in the celebrations of the 60th birthday of the DPRK.

Who is this prick Raymond Ferguson and why is he a mate of those who enslave children?

Meanwhile, Russia cheers North Korea on - which, given it created the state under Stalin's instructions and orders, and installed Kim Il Sung as his protege, is not surprising, except um didn't the Cold War end 18 years ago?

Kim Jong Il Receives Congratulatory Letter from Russian President

Pyongyang, September 8 (KCNA) -- Chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission Kim Jong Il received a congratulatory letter from Russian President Dmitri Anatoliyevich Medvedev on Monday on the occasion of the 60th founding anniversary of the DPRK.
The letter said:
Please accept my heartfelt congratulations to you on the occasion of the 60th founding anniversary of the DPRK.
A new sovereign state, which had a geographically and historically close relation with our country, was founded in the land of Korea on September 9, 1948.
For the past several decades since the significant day, we have gained weighty and positive experience in the mutual cooperation and implemented a lot of common plans conducive to the welfare of the peoples of the two countries.
It is my belief that the traditional good-neighborly relations between our two countries will continue to grow stronger in the future, too, and thus make a distinguished contribution to ensuring peace, stability and security in the Korean Peninsula and the rest of Asia.
Your Excellency Kim Jong Il,
I wish you good health and greater success in your responsible state affairs and the friendly DPRK peace and prosperity.
Yours Sincerely.

Ugh. Fortunately New Zealand hasn't been mentioned.

Peter Dunne nothing

So with all the goings on about Winston and Labour's role in it, what is Peter Dunne doing? Remaining a Minister outside Cabinet, and United Future still grants confidence and supply to Labour.

Don't forget, United Future has granted Labour confidence and supply in the past TWO Parliamentary terms. It hasn't even suggested withdrawing confidence and supply so that an election can be called immediately.

Of course on current polling, United Future is at the same level as Libertarianz, which suggests that Peter Dunne will be a one man band after the election...

Unless the people of Ohariu-Belmont realise that a vote for Peter Dunne is a vote for Labour, as it has been the last two elections - and remains so.

It is about time that this former Labour MP, who has hitched his political career to the religious right once, and more recently to support Clarkistan, is consigned to political history. United Future is hardly a party of the religious right, it is hardly a party seeking a change in government. His most notable achievement has been to set up a new bureaucracy - the Families Commission.

He may be a one man band after this election, like Jim Anderton, but surely it is time that New Zealand voters gave up on parties that are focused almost entirely on ex Labour/National MPs. Winston should be a goner, Jim Anderton should retire, but Peter Dunne needs Ohariu-Belmont to say no (and please don't mention Transmission Gully).