The Journal
All writing
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Villainous Capitalism to Blame – Not
Greedy or stupid policiticans, probably… Prime Minister Kevin Rudd gets one thing right in his 7,000 word reiteration of the destructive Whitlam era philosophy that big government, big spending and high taxes are good. The thing he…
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Nyuh Zuhlunders Spuk Funny, eh?
I am a native New Zealander myself. Coming back to NZ this time I was struck by the difficulty I was having in understanding ordinary speech. New Zealanders are inclined to drop the fina consonan of…
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And Now Solis
After Geithner, Daschle, Richardson, Killefer, et al, further consideration of Labor Secretary nominee Hilda Solis has been postponed because her husband ‘only yesterday paid off tax liens, some of which had been pending for up to…
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A Better Package
Interesting to compare New Zealand’s stimulus package with those proposed in Australia and the US. New Zealand has a conservative government made up mostly of people who have actually run things before, including in many cases their…
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Drought Fears – Walk Across The Murray
There’s always something to be scared about. But in the history of things to be scared about, this has to be at the very bottom of the list. The Murray is Australia’s largest and longest river.…
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Lindsay Lohan’s Tantrum Works
Shouting, stomping your feet and screeching at people are an effective way of getting what you want. If you are a two year old. My Mum used to tell me that if we were in a supermarket…
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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.…
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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…
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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…
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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,…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…