The Journal
2009
-
Battle of the Bagpipes
A brave busker versus the Evil Dunedin Council of Doom (EDCOD, P.O. Box 666, Dunedin Central). Ha ha. I learned the pipes as a teenager, and love pipe music. But I am also a business owner.…
-
Obama Charges World Into Debt
I was in the airport in Auckland the other day and saw this headline. Well, it didn’t actually say that. The magazine was upside down, and that’s what it looked like. It actually read ‘Obama Changes…
-
90,000 Sex Offenders Booted Off MySpace
Given the well documented use of the internet by sexual predators, I don’t know whether to be alarmed that so many registered sex offenders were users of just one of many social networking sites, or delighted…
-
Daschle Out
This is a good thing, not just for Obama’s administration, but for the credibility of the US overseas. Daschle may be talented, but his appointment would not have passed the ‘smell test’. Tax issues with Killefer,…
-
Britney Spears Sued by Former Manager
Poor Britney. She has made some very foolish choices. But it seems to me she is basically a decent person, who like most decent people, assumes everyone else will do the right thing. She does not seem to have…
-
Just Don’t Offer to Pray for Anyone
A community nurse in England has been suspended because she offered to pray for an elderly woman during a home visit. That’s just crazy. I am neither a muslim or a hindu, but if a member of…
-
We’d Be the Heroes. Yes, Sure
Via Kathy Shaidle, this report from the Catholic Register. ‘In elementary school, teachers tried to deprogram students of any anti-Jewish sentiment we might have heard at home. In high school history class, we watched footage of…
-
Amanda Update
I arrived in Wellington last night and was picked up by my father and brother David. After stopping at the Whare Whanau (family house – low cost accommodation for families of patients) we went up to…
-
Nothing for a Day
I will be in transit from Kangaroo Island, South Australia to Wellington, New Zealand, on Monday to be with my sister Amanda in hospital (see posts below). So unless I have longer than expected wait times in an…
-
Peaceful Elections in Iraq
Peaceful, free and fair elections in Iraq, infrastructure being developed, business investment helping to rebuild the economy, people feeling safe in their homes. Now how did that happen? And why doesn’t the mainstream media consider it worth reporting?
-
Real Watch Phones – Cool!
These look great – heaps better than Dick Tracy’s, and heaps heaps better than Maxwell Smart’s shoe phone. They also double as a video camera and MP4 player. And have a bluetooth earpiece so you don’t have to…
-
Bad for Phelps, Bad for Swimming
If it is true that Michael Phelps was smoking dope at a party, then he is a very silly boy. The four year ban for drug taking means that he would not be able to compete in…
-
Octuplets and the Cost of Raising Children
I came across this self-righteous article yesterday. Apparently the mother of the octuplets born in California last week, had once filed for bankruptcy, and already has six children. According to the report this ‘casts an unflattering…
-
No Wonder the Children are Thugs
A group of Melbourne girls invited a sixteen year old intellectually disabled girl to their home, saying they would be her friend. Then they took her to a nearby park where they beat her up so badly…
-
Bring Sean Home
The story of the kidnapping of Sean Goldman has become much more widely known in the couple of days since the US Dateline report on January 30th. For those who don’t know, Bruna Goldman took her…