17 February 2009

Bye Qantas, hello Jetstar

The end of Qantas flown domestic services in New Zealand (well technically its subsidiary JetConnect), and their replacement by Qantas's low cost carrier Jetstar, will see a big increase in cheap seats on domestic flights.

However, the downside isn't just the end to competition between Rotorua and Christchurch, but also competition at the quality end of the domestic airline market. You see Jetstar is a true low cost carrier. Don't expect free coffee, tea, cookies or water on Jetstar. Expect to be crammed in with 177 people in an Airbus A320. Moreover, members of Qantas Club or top tier Qantas frequent flyers used to the lounges at Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch domestic terminals might ask what happens to them? You wont have premium checkin either.

So Air NZ's 80% hold on the business sector will grow, given Air NZ's most frequent flyers and Koru Club members can sit in the front half of a 737 and get four to five inches more legroom than the back - or more than what Jetstar offers by far.

However, most of you, like Americans and most tourists in Europe, don't give a damn about service or seating. You'll travel like cattle for an hour or more just to get there cheaply. This also is not really about Air NZ - it is about Pacific Blue - for it is the most likely casualty of this move.

UPDATE: Domestic Qantas Club lounges are apparently to stay for now.

So you're having an internet romance

Here are some tips, given recent news:

1. Don't ever ever give out your full name or street address until you actually meet the person concerned. Otherwise your risk a stalker.
2. If all your communications have so far involved text or pictures then use the phone. The phone will tell you at least the sex of the person, and possibly the age. It isn't 100% reliable on sex, and maybe 50% reliable on age, but it will tell you intelligence and articulation.
3. Talk on the phone at least two or three times before meeting.
4. When you meet, make sure it is in a public place, that you can check out the person concerned before you approach her or him, and if it isn't obviously safe (cafe outdoors) tell someone you are doing this. Agree to call your friend after the meeting to say you're ok.
5. Just DON'T travel long distances to meet people unless you are willing to take the risk of profound disappointment.
6. Remember people lie. About age, wealth, intentions etc. Let's take some stereotypical examples:

- Poorer, unemployed men will lie about employment status and prospects. Their inability to communicate fluently will out them;
- Older desperate women will lie about their age. Carefully consider the language they use about culture, life and how reluctant they are to send a photo. Out them by saying age doesn't matter, and if it works then decide if you prefer to say "but honesty does";
- Very keen young women will lie about their age, in the other direction. Out them by saying age doesn't matter, then let them down gently;
- Horny men will lie about how they just want to get laid. They wont expend much effort on you if you string them along, but could be fun to tease by finding out how perverted they are;
- Almost all men want to get laid. The difference is whether they want your mind and heart as well as body;
- Horny men pretend to be women to talk to lesbians online and get their photos, and will evade giving new photos or talking on the phone. That's why the phone is useful;
- Desperate men will pretend to be interested in just about anything to get attention. Probe answers about interests and pastimes to see what there is in it;
- Desperate women will flirt and act slutty excessively, just to get attention, but men probably like that;
- Married and attached men (and women) will pretend to be single, or divorcing, or breaking up. If there are regular times you can't call (nights, weekends), odds are you're the bit on the side. Ring at that time once, unless you want to be the bit on the side.

7. The better the online photo the less likely it is to be true. Ask for a photo to be taken in a certain context, i.e. wearing clothes mentioned, or with the car.
8. If you're sceptical, use a phone or number that you can surrender (e.g. old prepaid mobile) in case the person proves to be a disaster.
9. Be strict about honesty. A person may be a bit shy about some things at the start, but if they haven't owned up to major discrepancies within a week or so, then toss them to one side.

Finally, be realistic. The internet has the whole range of people of the world on it. It will be a numbers game or a matter of being discerning, but by and large most people aren't that imaginative or creative. First above all things, to thine own self by true.

An obituary I missed - Helen Suzman

If most are asked who was South Africa's greatest politican, you'll hear Nelson Mandela. After all he spent much of his life in prison and then enabled the peaceful transition of power from the racial autocracy to the one party dominated democracy. However, if not the the greatest, Helen Suzman deserves the most honourable mention. She was head and shoulders above the intellectually and morally handicapped Thabo Mbeki, and the thieving corrupt scum that make up too many ANC MPs. She was for too long, the sole voice of reason in South Africa's whites only Parliament.

New Years Day saw Helen Suzman pass away. The Economist's obituary tells so much about this remarkable woman.

It talks of her legendary bravery:

"Verwoerd, an earlier prime minister, a man she admitted she was “scared stiff” of, fared no better. “I have written you off,” he told her. “The whole world has written you off,” she retorted.

But also her principled opposition to race based laws regardless of source:

"when the African National Congress, once in power, began to impose quotas for blacks in jobs, she naturally and ferociously opposed it. In many ways black rule proved “a huge disappointment” to her: corrupt, spendthrift, anti-white, and doing little to help the millions of poor blacks whose lot she had tried to improve. Thabo Mbeki’s wilful ignorance over AIDS appalled her.

The world has lost a true principled fighter for freedom, a liberal woman in a country once dominated by bigoted conservative men, now dominated by misogynistic socialist corrupt ones.

It is telling that New Zealand's most well known activist against apartheid, John Minto, is so divorced from South Africa that he couldn't himself pen a column about the passing of this hero. South Africa owes far more to Suzman, than this petty socialist activist from NZ.

Scrap the regional fuel tax!

While Canterbury argues about whether to introduce a regional fuel tax to pay for transport projects that users aren't willing to pay for (and understandably so, as motorists of Timaru, where there is hardly any need for new roads wont want to pay for new roads in Christchurch), isn't it time for National to repeal this stupid tax that it voted against?

New Zealanders don't need a 5c/l additional tax on petrol and diesel at the moment, and certainly don't need local authorities planning how to spend money without having accountability to the users (especially with the tax levied at the regional level, when regions like Canterbury extend from Timaru to Kaikoura).

National and ACT opposed the tax when it was before Parliament. So when you voted to change the government, didn't you want change?

Three strikes?

ACT's policy of "three strikes and you're out" has instant appeal to many, as it sounds like it can keep criminals away for good. The Greens call it lynching, but then the response is mainly in reaction to the manslaughter of Pihema Cameron.

So let's stand back a bit.

What is the criminal justice system meant to do? Essentially three things:
- Change the status of an offender to someone who "wont do it again";
- Punish the offender (to be a deterrent);
- Protect society from future offending.

In that sense, the first conviction should be focused on rehabilitation. It would be refreshing to see a focus on that, a focus on the core chance to turn someone around. In that sense, the biggest disaster of the criminal justice system is to put first time offenders in prisons with recividists - where rehabilitation is tempered with learning how to be a real crim. Putting all first time criminals of a certain degree into a similar facility may address this. A second chance at rehabilitation may also be warranted, but the more frequent a re-offender the more the emphasis has to go from rehab to punishment to protection.

The degree of punishment is always with any custodial offence, but the more severe the crime the greater the punishment. Murder must always have the longest sentence for punishment, as it is the crime that deserves the greatest deterrence. However, grievous violent and sexual offences come next. Repeat offenders should get ever more stringent sentences.

Finally, it is clear that the recividist offender who has shown no interest in rehab should be locked away for extensive periods to protect society. There should be no question that someone who murders twice should never be set free. A repeat sex offender should almost certainly be kept from freedom for a substantial part of his life.

So, in the sense that "three strikes and your out" can allow the shift from rehabilitation for the first strike to preventive detention in the last, I support it. However it should not be a blunt tool. Three vandalism offences is not the same as three murders.

So I propose a "points" system. Such a system would see a convict "earning points" for offences. These would be base points for the crime itself, with additional points for the seriousness of the event. Bear in mind that being "out" should means being in prison for at least half of the remaining years of your life, with an option for renewal if it is assessed that the person concerned remains a threat.

You see, for murder it should be two strikes. For vandalism it may be fifty. For serious violent or sexual offences it could be three strikes, for lesser offences against the person four strikes. For theft it could be ten. Whatever it could be, you get the point. Graduated offences depending entirely on the basic victim impact, increased if the commission was particularly sadistic, calculated and repulsive. What? Ten strikes for burglaries? Well yes. It is better than today, when you may get a couple of years, and then another couple of years, so prison becomes a risk of the offending. You see many criminals do a number of tricks. Theft, assault, fraud or others.

So a points system might just address this. The points may add increasing sentences when you get to say 50 points and 75 points as the criminal builds up to being locked away for good. After all, they then can't say they weren't warned.

Oh and yes I assume victimless crimes are not included, such as blasphemy, drugs laws and not conducting postal services without being registered. For locking someone away for good for being a drug addict is hardly the sign of a civilised society.

Wellington's transport priorities for the year ahead

Given that some blogs show a particular interest in this at times, I thought I should give a bit of parochial opinion.

I'll give the Wellington councils their due, the priorities are sensible and well thought out.

The Kapiti Western Link Road (pdf) quite correctly the top priority, as congestion, access and safety issues between Raumati, Paraparaumu and Waikanae are the most serious in the region. What's sad is that the Kapiti Coast District Council remains incompetently divided on this issue - which demonstrates how roads should be run commercially.

There is some agitation that a flyover at the Basin Reserve is number two. The Greens, and anti- road transport lobby have made it their campaign to oppose it, on the spurious grounds that it will damage the Basin, when for over 30 years a similar project has been long planned. The Standard has shown its sense of balance by only quoting information from an anti-flyover site, without giving any proposals to ease congestion at this bottleneck, or reduce traffic on what is the main highway between Wellington airport and the Wellington region (maybe Auckland should have a two lane highway from it's airport?).

The flyover would remove a third of the traffic from the Basin Reserve, making it far easier for pedestrians, cyclists and buses to get round. It would remove that traffic from crossings that service three schools. It would enable traffic lights to be removed from the Basin reducing queues that hold up traffic, including buses, from the south. Ignore the ugly artist impressions given by the anti-campaign, let's wait till the NZ Transport Agency gives something credible.

Advancing the rail network upgrade requires more thinking, it is a little odd that a system that claims such strains on capacity needs so much subsidy, when increasing fares at peak times would address this and pay for equipment replacement. Nevertheless, maintaining rail in Wellington is far more useful than any rail in Auckland.

SH2 Melling Interchange and bridge is an excellent project. The number of traffic lights on the Western Hutt Road is ridiculous on a four-lane highway. Once the Dowse Drive upgrade is complete, it will be clear what priority this project should have against other improvements on SH2.

Paraparaumu and Waikanae station upgrades, given the electrification to Waikanae is difficult to argue against, but again the network should be financially self sustaining.

All in all, fairly modest aspirations. Transmission Gully isn't there because it is still at design stage and there is insufficient money to build it. Hopefully Wellington local authorities retain pragmatic modest ambitions in building roads and improving public transport.

Too fat for New Zealand?

Now on first looks I am sure many would say it right to exclude an American woman weighing 135kg from having residency in New Zealand, because of the risk she would pose to claiming under the public health system. The NZ Herald reports that:

"A medical assessor said there was a relatively high probability that the wife would cost the health service more than the threshold $25,000 over the next four years.

He noted that the guidelines said that people with BMI over more than 35 should not be considered."

Keep that fat woman out! I hear it now, hoards saying she'll cost you all.

Well hold on a minute. Let's look at the rest of the details. She applied with her husband and son. On other aspects of the application for residency they scored well:

"The husband was a butcher with an Arts degree and culinary qualification, and the wife who had business qualifications also had 17 year's experience in design.

In fact, if you set aside concern about her cost to the socialist health system:

"INZ concluded that although the couple "had the potential to have a relatively significant contribution to New Zealand through their skills and experience, it was not compelling enough to outweigh the potential cost (the wife) was likely to impose on the NZ health service".

So how about some lateral thinking? How about granting residency to them all, making it clear the wife has no cover for illnesses related to her obesity? She can get health insurance or pay her own way, but other that she isn't covered. The quid pro quo is that she pays proportionately less income tax - equivalent to not contributing to the state health system.

Then New Zealand gets a family with skills, willing to work and look after themselves (more than thousands of locally born people), and taxpayers don't bear the risk.

Indeed, why not offer all migrants the chance to enter and pay no tax for health, education, welfare or retirement?

Why should anyone care if a very obese person migrates, as long as they aren't a charge on you?

Key's corporate welfare?

The NZ Herald reports that the PM is "not ruling out the option of helping Fisher and Paykel".

Which of course means using your money (or at the moment your future earnings) to prop up the company. How's your business doing? Could you do with some help?

Why not ask Santa Claus? After all, you'd think that's where the money is coming from.

Why should YOU be forced to pay to prop up one company? After all, you already do so.

You see if you want to buy a dishwasher or clothes washing machine or dryer from one of F & P's competitors, you'll pay a 5% tariff on top of the market price and GST. F & P's products don't face this (a bit less for countries where there is a free trade agreement like Australia).

So you're already doing your bit, by buying their products instead of facing the punitive tax on its competition or paying a tax for the privilege of buying the competition.

Here's a better idea. Cut company tax. Take the opportunity to drop company tax from 30% to 20%, giving all business a break, and have a substantially more competitive rate than Australia, the USA and most European countries.

Of course the quid pro quo should be simple, eliminate ALL forms of corporate welfare, all subsidies for marketing, R & D and the like. That means abandoning nonsense about building a broadband network that users aren't willing to pay for and telcos don't believe is a worthwhile investment. It means letting business be free to compete.

However, John Key appears more interested making you be a compulsory "investor" in F & P.

Oh and if you want ammunition for the left? Using taxes to prop up big business is just handing them it on a plate (though it's hard to beat the Clark government's support for Toll Holdings in buying the railways for well above market prices just before a recession).

16 February 2009

Kim Jong Il turns 68 and miracles happen

though it is officially his 67th birthday. You see he was born in the USSR in 1941, but history was rewritten to say he was born at "sacred" Mt Paektu in 1942.

Amazing things happen near his birthday:

The Daily Telegraph notes how it is being reported that "An “unprecedented phenomenon of moon halo” was also observed on Sunday evening, making the night view above the leader’s birthplace “brilliant”. “Those who witnessed the opening of willow catkins earlier than the previous years and the unprecedented nocturnal view said excitedly that even the nature and the sky unfolded such mysterious ecstasy in celebration of the birthday of leader Kim Jong-Il"

AP reports South Korean freedom activists are sending balloons over to North Korea with money (North Korean money) to help encourage an overthrow and assist poverty stricken North Koreans to buy food in the workers' paradise.

Meanwhile scum, like neo-Nazi Holocaust deniers, celebrate his birthday.

You might finally care to read this Foreign Policy article, written by a man who was Kim Jong Il's teacher. Then ask yourself whether the apologists for this regime are worth spitting on.

Tariana Turia sympathises with taggers

So Tariana Turia has, according to the NZ Herald, described taggers "as a misunderstood subculture of artists". Showing her complete lack of understanding of private property (unsurprising really). She also said it was "about resistance". What? Against the government she is a part of? She continues saying it "is about alternative points of view. Some members of our community see it as a crime; others see it as an expression of identity". OK so everything is ok. An alternative point of view would be to vandalise a marae, there is an expression of identity. Damned post-modernist "anything is ok" nonsense.

Brian "don't believe in user pays" Rudman is upset at some of the reactions to the death of Pihema Cameron at the hands of Bruce Emery. He implies the sentence for Emery is too short, because Bailey Kurariki got more - except Kurariki's crime was premeditated. Michael Choy did nothing wrong. Cameron did, and Emery lost it in response.

Emery deserves to be punished. His response was disproportionate. Four years in prison is a heavy price to pay for someone otherwise unknown to the law. It sends a strong signal to others that retaliation for vandalism is not injuries that kill.

However, when Rudman says "Tourists talk about the friendliness of the New Zealanders they meet. But just below the surface there simmers a nasty uncharitable streak that should fill us all with a deep uneasiness. Perhaps it's always lurked there, and it's taken the anonymity of the internet to provide a conduit for it to ooze out. Whatever, it's much more scary to me than the odd tagger abroad at night." He is dead wrong.

The reaction of so many cheering on the unfortunate death of Cameron is over the top, but does not reflect a nasty uncharitable streak. Rather it is the experience of thousands of people sick of spending their time and money to pay for the likes of petty criminals and thugs who couldn't care less what their actions do to others. It could be tagging, it could be smashing fences, it could be car conversion, burglary, smashing windows or intimidating behaviour against yourself or your kids. It's the anti-social behaviour of an underclass that are seen to get relatively light sentences, and who unjustly get taxpayer funded welfare, housing, healthcare and other assistance, without any thanks. In other words, people who if it weren't for the hard work, enterprise and honesty of the average New Zealander, would have to work or die homeless, starving and sick.

Those who carry the underclass want to pay less tax, want to spend less time cleaning up the damage caused, paying higher insurance premiums and fearing those for whom the self sufficient are targets to abuse. Politicians who fail to hear this message fail to understand the deep anger, that Cameron should not have carried in such a terminal way, but what he represented - the underclass which thinks "fuck you" to those who make an honest living.

Tapu Misa in the NZ Herald sympathises with Cameron's family too. She is concerned Emery showed little emotion. Hardly surprising the man who is in shock that he went too far, that his life with his family and career are ruined, and he faces years incarcerated. Why SHOULD Pihema Cameron's life mean anything to Emery? It shouldn't mean anymore than any other anonymous criminal. We'll never really know what words were said between them, or how the boy acted with Emery, but we know Emery is paying for his mistake.

The Sensible Sentencing Trust is backing Emery. Misa claims it is racial saying "perhaps this illustrates the difference it makes when the person involved is someone McVicar can more easily empathise with - a white, middle-aged middle-class businessman". Maybe it is more a matter of a man who did nothing wrong overreacting to what was being done to his property? Certainly he shouldn't be set free - it is entirely inappropriate to allow vigilante justice when people in such circumstances could get it wrong.

However, the Standard thinks it is institutional racism, as does the Hand Mirror. Steve Pierson at the Standard thinks Bailey Kurariki was just an accomplice to a robbery "that went wrong", and says he is less culpable than Emery.

Let's be clear. In one case:
- Boy vandalises, is caught by the victim, victim chases him and stabs him, resulting in his death.

In another case.
- Boy acts as accomplice to a premeditated robbery, those participating beat the victim to death, boy shows no remorse.

They are not the same. However these are the debates that are needed about the role of the state and what the criminal justice system should do. The right to self defence is about exercising a proportionate response in the circumstances as you see them. Killing a tagger is not a proportionate response, but killing a tagger is not the same as a premeditated murder of an unprovoked victim.

Kim Jong Il thanks Hillary Clinton


Dear Dear Leader Vice President Hillary Bill Clinton

Thank you so much for your generous birthday gift offer. I knew the pending missile tests would get your attention. I get so ronery (yes I saw that stupid Team America movie too), sorry little joke. I know Bill loves jokes, like I love ladies. I know you like them too.

I’ll be 67, and there will be a huge party in Pyongyang today because the people here love me (see last year). Sorry you can't come, because you'd see millions out to see me, like the ones for your Great Leader Obama.

It pleases me so much at the magnanimity of the US imperialist aggressors that you want to make peace with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. You have finally recognised that you were defeated in 1953 by the brave Korean People’s Army, much like my father singlehandedly kicked the Japanese scum out of Asia.

I know some say it’s because you now have Great Leader President Obama, who I see organises the same sorts of displays of public affection and fawning adulation that I and my father long have enjoyed. That shows me how much closer our countries have come. Bush didn’t understand mass adulation like Obama does. Your husband Bill is clever, letting the negro man take over to generate adulation, whilst putting you there as the real General Secretary. You don’t let people out of the family take over now do you? I mean, just because Great Leader President Obama has a background in progressive politics that made me smile don't mean you let the family down.

Anyway your gift is enticing. You want to give us the peace treaty we have long demanded, diplomatic relations and to take money from your taxpayers to help build my socialist economy. CNN said you want to” assist in meeting the energy and other economic needs of the North Korean people”.

That’s wonderful news. The evil Bush overthrew one of our main markets for sophisticated aeronautical delivery devices, the grassroots drugs market is tough, and those Iranians aren’t wealthy enough to buy those new clear materials we try to sell them (your intelligence got the pronunciation wrong). I can’t seem to sell enough vinalon and magnesium clinker to be able to import Hennessy, Mercedes or computers for my humble country houses.

However, I know you’ll love my plans for the economy. There is a great hotel to be finished in Pyongyang, we want to set up a worldwide TV channel to spread the Juche idea of self reliance (which is catching on now capitalism is dead), and there are hardly any statues of me around. We have loads of workers of all ages in mountain camp homes where they eagerly work seven days a week, with enthusiastic supervision, and the lowest carbon footprint imaginable, ready to help build consumer products for your people. I also want faster internet access, so I can see the hard working young Swedish women who do so much to entertain workers of many lands with their lack of modesty. I know you’ll appreciate them.

Your gift it reminds me of the funny gift your husband Bill gave to the Korean nation in 1994. You were to spend US$4 billion giving us light water nuclear reactors and 500,000 tons of free fuel oil paid for by the US taxpayers (and some of your satellites) in exchange for us stopping plutonium enrichment. He’s such a laugh. We figured that since I run and control everything, and Bill joked about that girl (I could teach you all lessons on handling concubines), we could have the gift AND enrich plutonium. We made some weapons, let one go off, and hey we taught that Bush a lesson. I know you appreciate that.

So how about this, give us the aid, the peace treaty, pull your troops out of the south of Korea like we always wanted, and we’ll let you see all the facilities you have talked about. We will report how your aid money is being well spent and the Korean Central News Agency will report how the country is succeeding so well, like it did accurately since the 1950s.

Get the Japanese imperialists to give us compensation too, and hey we can all get together, and have a bomb. I mean, we’ll have destroyed that bomb, and reunited the country too.

Oh and can you make sure you send Trey Parker and Matt Stone to be your first ambassadors? I'm sure they'd like to meet the greatest film director in the world - me! I'd like to correct them on their depiction of my country at my special film production holiday camps.

Regards

General Secretary Kim Jong Il, Chairman of the National Defence Commission, Supreme Commander of the Korean People’s Army

15 February 2009

Able bodied lowlife on invalids benefits

Deborah Coddington in the Herald on Sunday outlines why the government should review every single recipient of the Invalid's Benefit. She talks of the mother of a murderer, who also happens to be a Mongrel Mob member, who verbally abused the wife of the deceased. Someone New Zealand taxpayers are forced to keep housed, fed, clothed, boozed and entertained.

As Coddington says, if the Greens call this beneficiary bashing, let them spend their own money on the likes of them. Good luck setting up the charity called "supporting the underclass trash who help destroy the lives of others".

Big powerful Auckland council run by a celebrity?

The Sunday Star Times suggests this.

However, Aucklanders should say thanks but NO thanks, if what they want is lower rates and for local infrastructure to be provided on the basis of need, user pays and economic efficiency.

A big powerful council will want to get into every aspect of policy.

A celebrity Mayor would find it difficult to resist what they tend to be addicted to - attention and applause. Thousands would run to the Mayor wanting help and the drug of big government - OPM - Other People's Money. After all, what celebrity wants to be Mayor and simply say "no. You should try to convince people to pay voluntarily".

The next battle for Auckland should be about resisting a supercouncil. The Labour government inspired Royal Commission should be ignored. The key issue is what is the role of local government.

That is a debate the Royal Commission never was asked to enter into, because Labour's belief is "whatever the local community empowers it to do" - which of course simply means "whatever councillors want".

THAT ladies and gentleman is the problem of Auckland local government - it has become the hobby horse of far too many power hungry petty fascists, tempered by good natured people who seek good governance. These battles shouldn't happen - local government, if it is to exist, should be confined to "public goods". National could do worse than introduce a new Local Government Bill, that gives councils 3 years to divest themselves of activities that are not "public goods". That same period should include a prohibition on ANY rates increases over that time.

Rodney Hide is Minister of Local Government, you would think top of his agenda would be abolishing the power of general competence - the power that currently gives councils the power to do whatsoever they like, as long as it is ratified as part of the Long Term Council Community Plan. Abolishing this would do more for Auckland governance than any behemoth sized council.

Spineless Cameron on Wilders

David Cameron can lamblast the downfall of society, with the latest news of a 13yo boy fathering a child of a 15yo girl - par for the course of the chav underculture in Britain - because he's a Tory toff and the sons and daughters of the privileged never get pregnant, at least not in The Sun. It's an easy target, who is offended by damning teenagers?

So the testicular capacity of the Conservatives when it comes to Islamists is a little different. The Tories sat on the fence, far more interested in attracting Muslim votes than being principled. George Osborne questioned the wisdom of it, in terms of attracting publicity, but he wouldn't talk of freedom of speech.

The Tories aren't any more interested in this than Labour.

14 February 2009

The trial of Duch


Notwithstanding Zimbabwe's horror, it is cold comfort to recall the regime that almost certainly represented the zenith of the philosophy of Marxism-Leninism.

The one regime that ran the steamroller over society, not caring the bones it broke in the process, to make all as one. It eliminated money, as an instrument of capitalism. It executed all those who were educated, it worshipped the illiterate manual labouring peasant, and damned those who had other skills, languages or abilities. It was the ultimate regime of backwardness, it was anti-technology, anti-trade, anti-foreign and anti-capitalist. Mass manual labour was meant to bring happiness, 1975 was designated Year Zero, and around 2 million people died of famine or executions.

It was Democratic Kampuchea, now again Cambodia - run by the Khmer Rouge. Many on the left cheered its victory, including Keith Locke, who undoubtedly ignored the hazy reports from the Khmer Rouge controlled parts of the country of brutal oppression. Images that can be seen in China Pictorial weekly propaganda magazines of the age - peasants disturbingly subdued all dressed identically, with images of Saloth Sar (Pol Pot). Even the vile linguist Noam Chomsky, who evades like a weasel the fact he claimed reports of massacres and brutality in Democratic Kampuchea were CIA propaganda.

Ironically, the communist regime of Vietnam overthrew the Khmer Rouge, because of border incursions, the particular nationalist brutality of the Khmer Rouge against the Vietnamese, and knowledge of the horror that had damned its neighbour.

I need not tell the story of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. The film "The Killing Fields" tells part of it. The book by Haing Ngor "Surviving the Killing Fields" tells you far more about the brutality, inhumanity and bloody minded sadism of the regime.

Phnom Penh was evacuated of virtually all residents, except for some belonging to the regime, and for a prison set up there. Tuol Sleng was set up as S-21, an interrogation centre and prison. Few left alive. 17,000 went through it, the numbers who survived are no more than 20. The man who led S-21 was Duch. He is a mass murderer and sadist. He forced prisoners to torture each other. He demanded confessions that prisoners worked for the CIA or KGB, and would torture until they said so - if they didn't, they would be killed. If they did, they would be left to die of their horrible injuries. He took photos of them all before they were tortured and executed. Tuol Sleng today is a museum of the horrors of the Khmer Rouge, with the eery photos of those who were murdered there covering the walls.

Duch converted to Christianity in the 1990s and has begged forgiveness, but so few of his victims are alive to even offer it. Cambodia finds it difficult to confront its past, with all too many of those in power today having had some role in "Democratic Kampuchea". So it is pleasing regardless to read in the Times that he is about to go on trial. Never, ever should the perpetrators of sadistic tyranny feel they can get away with it, plead forgiveness and all will be well. Cambodia lost nearly 1 in 3 of its citizens because of the Khmer Rouge.

As a footnote, Malcolm Caldwell, a Scottish academic and Marxist, thought the world of the Khmer Rouge. He wrote glowingly of the peasant revolution, and loved it so much, he went there to see it for himself. The Khmer Rouge murdered him on that trip, following days when he was awe inspired by what he saw. Such poetic justice.

Zimbabwe's new government in crisis already

Zimbabwe's secret police have already arrested an MDC MP designated to be Deputy Agriculture Minister for "treason" according to The Times. Roy Bennett, who had his coffee plantation stolen from him by Zanu PF thugs in 2003, was about to fly to South Africa to spend the weekend with his wife. He fled Zimbabwe following accusations he was plotting to assassinate Robert Mugabe, and returned to be an MP again after the power sharing government had been set up.

Zanu-PF has shared nothing but titles. Tonight the BBC, banned in Zimbabwe, had to meet Morgan Tsvangarai in a "safe house" to conduct an interview with him.

Zimbabwe needs a true revolution, and wont be on the path to justice, prosperity and freedom until the Marxist Zanu-PF gangsters are defeated, arrested, tried and imprisoned.

Too often today many think that it is impossible to judge, to say good or evil. However in Zimbabwe Zanu-PF is dripping with evil, from the blood of those murdered, the property of those robbed, those bullied, tortured, imprisoned and the sheer pillage of a country by gangsters - and the destruction of its infrastructure, and the health of its people.

The only justice today could come if the country was invaded, the Zanu PF bandits were rounded up and incarcerated for their crimes. One wish for 2009 is the death of Robert Gabriel Mugabe.

FOOTNOTE: However if you can't kill the bastard, at least laugh at him. Hugo Rifkind brilliantly satirises Robert Mugabe's diary in "My Week" in the Times. My favourite is:

"I call up Tsvangirai to suggest that, if he isn’t keen on massacres, how about a land grab? Just to show he’s one of the team now.
Tsvangirai says there won’t be any land grabs either, because a new day has dawned for Zimbabwe. To illustrate this, he says, he will today be arriving at the Chikurubi maximum security prison in Harare. “But of course you will!” I say, delighted. “For this is where I have designated your new offices and sleeping quarters!”
Tsvangirai adds that, after a couple of hours, he will also be leaving the Chikurubi maximum-security prison in Harare. “Oh,” I say.
"

Fitna - see it here.

Fitna - the Dutch film by MP Geert Wilders. Warning this film contains graphic images. The film considers Islamism to be abhorrent to modern liberal democracies, and considers it as malignant as Nazism and Communism.

The House of Lords saw it last night. This film is the excuse given by the British government, supported by the so called Liberal Democrats, to ban Geert Wilders from promoting it in the UK - because he was branded an "extremist" and "peddling hate". Of course he was peddling hate - hatred of Islamism, not Muslims.

PART ONE



PART TWO



Maybe Muslims who are offended by this film might spend time focusing on attacking those who they say are damaging their religion, they might wage war against those they know who incite violence and hatred - and stop wondering why the rest of the world is scared when a segment of Islam so openly seeks to wage war on us all.

13 February 2009

Tragic family doesn't get it

Pihema Cameron shouldn’t have been a vandal. Bruce Emery was trying to defend his private property, but went too far and stabbed the boy, which killed him. Rightfully, Bruce Emery deserves punishment for a disproportionate response, but as Cactus Kate points out, where was the slightest bit of remorse from Cameron’s family for the boy being a vandal? None, at all. The loving mother was absent, not even in the country at the time.

What’s more disturbing is if you watch this NZ Herald video of the family after the trial. At just after 2:00 a rather dopey looking girl (she looks stoned to be honest) to the right of the mother (left on screen) appears to threaten Emery saying “(unclear) is after you cunt”. Like some gang threat against the guy when he comes out?

This family, which doesn’t teach respect for others or their property. Leanne Cameron said “maybe one of his should die then maybe he could get “over it”", before quickly realising how bad that sounded and said “not saying we’d do it, we wouldn’t do it”. She’d only be happy if Emery had “three months to live”. One of them said “the law sucked”. Well clearly that’s what Pihema Cameron thought when he was breaking it. Although grieving brings out strong emotions, can one at least hope a bit of thinking would see them realise - damned Pihema doing no good, why did he get up to that? Why NOT say "Pihema shouldn't have been doing what he was doing"?

What’s bizarre is the Police saying they were concerned, in prosecuting, about the message of people carrying knives in the street. What the hell is the context here? Young people roaming the streets with knives are nothing like a man bringing a knife from his kitchen on his own property to chase a vandal (who appears to have confronted him instead of run away). Have the Police got a damned clue?

Yes it is sad the boy died, but the best thing his mother could do for his memory is to damned well make sure none of the rest of her kids are criminals, and inculcate values of respecting other people's property. A culture of treating others and their property as if they are fair game to do whatever you like has to end.

Maiden speech: Catherine Delahunty: Addict of compulsory collectivism

Before I catch up with the ones from late last year, there is Catherine Delahunty, who presented her maiden speech yesterday.

I previously called Delahunty our newest enemy of reason. She hates democracy, believes Maori crime is due to racism, and thinks of everyone as members of groups. Collectivist par excellence.

Her maiden speech said it all. Countless mysticism, references to tribalism, and even anthropormophising inanimate objects. She has demonstrated exactly what I foretold, an enemy of reason and individualism.

For starters, she thinks that those New Zealanders not born of Maori descent are enjoying “colonial privilege”. What does this mean? That it could be taken away from us?

“We are citizens of the nation of Aotearoa New Zealand and we are Pakeha. I’ve been told one meaning of Pakeha is "of a different breath". We enjoy ongoing colonial privilege, but we have an opportunity to take responsibility for this and work for a justice-based peace. This justice is desperately needed from Ruatoki to Gaza.”

Justice based peace? What does she want taken from you? What about Gaza Catherine? Palestinians control it, but their government used it to attack Israel. Was that ok Catherine?

However I didn’t need to know when she lost her virginity “I embrace this new chapter with all the illusions of a maiden. Last time I was a maiden was 40 years ago. It’s refreshing to revisit that time of passionate conviction, when it was our unique duty to resist the system while wearing a lot of black clothing.” What? Duty imposed by whom? Ah the sacred collective you want us to live under perhaps?

She antropormorphises a mountain and a river, which explains why she is with the Greens who sometimes prefers inanimate objects to human beings:

When I left this cold city, at 17, I went to live with a mountain” Lunatic!
In the 1990s, thanks to Gordon and Greenpeace I met a river.” No that's called drowning, it interferes with oxygen to the brain.

She goes on about beneficiary rights. Talks of Pakeha as racist wine drinkers,.She thinks of prisons as places where victims of capitalism go – not people who steal, assault, rape and murder. Maori are the victims, Pakeha are the wealthy thieving colonialists. A simple world for a simple woman.

However, it’s near the end that her real hatred for individual achievement and judging people on what they do, not who they are, comes out.

She says “For Leo and every tiny person starting out in life, you deserve something so much more precious than individualism.” What is MORE than that? What is more than realizing your full potential, enjoying life and being yourself? Well if you’re Catherine, you pigeonhole as a matter of course. Individuals make life too complicated if you spend your life stereotyping men and women. You need to belong to a collective approved by her to fight science, pollution, production, technology, culture or whatever else is part of her list. She fought nuclear weapons as a child allegedly.

Then she says:

“In a healthy group the individual can thrive, it is not a war between nanny state and the free market, the real struggle is between earth-based collective well-being versus a polluted globalised greed

No it isn’t Catherine. It is between respecting individual rights and extending private property rights over the world, which provides a way to address pollution. It is about adults interacting voluntarily versus the statist collectivist anti-reason violence promoters like the Green Party.

It ends on the most bizarre linkage "The international financial crisis is inextricably linked to climate change and if we can’t work the linkage out then Papatuanuku will spell it out for us."

Yep, you stick with that Catherine, go back to living with your mountain and meeting rivers - another MP who cares so much about the planet, but who seems to spend so little time on it - except that she prefers the planet to meeting individuals.

Be grateful the Greens are in Opposition now.

Britain bans anti-Islam Dutch MP

Today according to CNN, Dutch citizen and MP Geert Wilders was stopped from entering the UK at Heathrow Airport. Why? Because the UK government thinks a man who simply states he hates Islam (not Muslims), and that he wants an end to Muslim immigration to the Netherlands is spreading "hate".

Jacqui Smith, Home Secretary said his opinions "would threaten community security and therefore public security" in the UK according to the Daily Telegraph.

Since when do opinions threaten community security? That's the language that you hear from North Korea, China, Burma, Iran or Saudi Arabia.

What fucking country is this Jacqui Smith? Since when are YOU the arbiter of "opinions"? Oh and how do you cope with the thousands of Islamists in the country? How do you control yourself with the BNP? No - a Dutchman who criticises a religion is fair game.

Wilders was entering the UK (bear in mind that there is meant to be freedom of movement within the EU) to promote his film - Fitna, which criticises Islam.

So apparently, you can't enter the UK if you criticise a religion?

Ah but isn't Wilders some racist fascist? From the far right? No. Put down the Guardian (which calls him far right) and stop believing the nonsense that everyone who isn't a leftwing post-modernist "all opinions are valid" halfwit is a fascist. Wilders is closer to being libertarian.

Wikipedia has his political platform, which is essentially shrink the state, tough on crime and migration. He also wants to ban additional Muslim migrants and have the state pay for existing ones to leave (though not forcibly deport).

He has, of course, upset a lot of Muslims. While he appears libertarian, calling for banning the Koran erodes that, but he notes that Mein Kampf is banned and he treats the Koran as similar. However, he is clear that he hates Islam, NOT Muslims. He says the Koran contains terrible things, is a fascist book that incites hatred and that Mohammed would today be hunted down as a terrorist (let alone a pedophile).

So yes he is radical, and no I don’t agree with all his policies. However, he is no fascist, he is not promoting hate of people, he is promoting hatred of a religion – and one that is entirely justified.

As usual, Muslims in Britain are getting offended by his views. Which is their right, and tough. Live with it. Britain was a free country, where people can express openly opinions on politics and religion, and put up with whether or not it offends others. I'm an atheist, I find there is something in all religions I know that I despise, and I'd rather children were not raised under any religion. In a free society I can have that view and people can agree, disagree, be offended or ignore it.

There is NO evidence that he would incite violence against Muslims, NO evidence that he would incite hatred through hating Islam. It is like saying that hating the North Korean government means hating Koreans, or hating the Chinese government is anti-Chinese.

Wilders describes Gordon Brown "Europe's biggest coward". He's right.

Freedom has slipped back another notch in the UK today. If you wanted further proof that the Gordon Brown Labour government is uninterested in defending the values of this country from the fear and hatred spread by Islamists, you can see it plain and simple.

And sadly, it just adds fuel to the likes of the British National Party – a party of explicit bigotry, racism and knuckle dragging losers – who will ask why Islamists are appeased, but those vehemently against them are banned.

UPDATE: Chris Huhne, Liberal Democrat MP has proven clearly that the Lib Dems are no party of freedom. Brainless git.