NX-Files

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Friday, February 13, 2009

JK & GW on Facebook

 

^ Heh John Key has almost as many fans as George W. Bush on Facebook.

 

But consider this.  Dubba was President of a country with over 300 million people.  John Key is the Prime Minister of a country with just over 4 million people.

 

On a per capita basis John Key would be one of the most popular politicians on Facebook. 

 

 

 

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Dutch MP banned from entering the UK

 
"Dutch politician Geert Wilders says he's flying to Great Britain despite a government order banning him from entering the country, and he's daring the "weak and cowardly" British government to arrest him when he gets there."
 
I was initially going to blog about the entertainment aspect of the stand off between the Dutch politician & the British Government.  If the British Government didn't ban this guy, then it's news worthiness would be greatly reduced.  So I figured these things happen as much for the entertainment value as for anything else. 
But then I looked into why this guy was banned.  See his movie linked to below:
 
 
 
 
Fitna Part 2 (requires Youtube account for age verification)
 
 
Leaves a bad taste in your mouth to say the least.  I can understand why the British government is anxious - but the Dutch MP has a right to express his views freely.  It is a cornerstone of our society & should be as important to us as the Koran is to Muslims.
 
But in saying that all Fitna does is incite anti-Islam feelings.  It's not the religion we should condemn but the people interpreting it.  The old testament of the Bible used to be interpreted more strictly than it is today. 
 
 

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

No. 1 way for Phil Goff to become unpopular...

 
"He also wanted to ensure that its replacement found the right balance between preventing "Exclusive Brethren-type" campaigns without unduly restricting "bona fide" campaigners."
 
Regardless whether Phil's point is valid or not, the mere mention of the Exclusive Brethren is enough to go into complete synapse shutdown. 
 
Not only did Labour beat that dead horse for far too long, they also beat the horse's ghost.
 
If Phil turn's the EFA debate into one about the ineffective, overstated Exclusive Brethren..... then I'm just going to have to leave the country.
 
Because let's face it... the only reason Labour banged on about the Exclusive Brethren was an attempt at moral equivalence for their 2005 electoral rort. 
 
It was wrong then - & it would be ridiculous now.  So please Phil - don't go there! 
 
 

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Labour's irrelevancy

 
Yesterday I asked the question - is there any point in voting for Labour given John Key's masterful ability to get the balance just right. 
 
It appears Kiwiblog and The Standard are thinking the same thing. 
 
 David Farrar:
"In fact it even makes you wonder what Phil Goff has to offer, apart from his daily whine that the Government needs to be doing more."
 
The Standard:
"....but when I see them putting the minimum wage up, dancing with transexuals and hobnobbing with iwi I start to think that old school reactionary right might finally be on the outs and "that nice man, Mr Key" might be the real face of National."
 
Irish Bill wonders why the right hasn't kicked up much fuss over National's apparent left-wing approach to certain issues.  Ignoring Irish Bill's stereotypical perception of centre-right voters (what's up with the left always doing that?) - NX-file's reckons it all comes down to style.  National has stopped the 'lunch box police', canned the idea of forcing people to buy a specific type of light bulb, and had a moderate response to the Israeli crisis as oppose to the lecturing, high horse rhetoric favoured by the former PM. 
 
If Irish Bill reckons Key dancing with transexuals or, Key trying to forge a good relationship with Maori are things that upset the average centre-right voter - then you really have to ask who exactly is the the prejudicious one here.....???
 
 
 

"I've made it quite clear that I want to run an inclusive society and that means inclusive from an ethnicity and from a sexuality point of view."
 
^ If there were any doubts on where the National Party Leader stands on social issues - then John Key's attendance at the Big Gay Out should put to bed any hope of a social conservative agenda.
 
The thing is, John Key may personally harbour social conservative views, but if you run a government with the principle that people are individuals who can do as they like, then it doesn't matter what he really thinks. 
 
So with a socially liberal PM enacting a free market agenda with moderate government intervention - there is currently no point to vote for Labour.  John Key has got the mix just right - something Helen tried to do but failed because she was far more ideologically driven than Key.
 
Though some people are never happy: 
 

"....the Prime Minister's attention was welcomed by many but spurned by Julie Radford-Poupard, of Pt Chevalier.

She said he had a cheek to turn up - "because he didn't support the Civil Union Bill, a fundamental human right of our community - the queer community".

^ Radord-Poupard probably isn't prepared to give John Key a chance because she's intolerant of people from the political right - an ironic contraction for anyone claiming to be a liberal. 

 

Sunday, January 25, 2009

John Key’s GSOH

 

The Prime Minister’s son likes to keep the Prime Minister on his toes.  Max Key’s nick-name for his father is ‘Captain Tubb’ – a reference to his expanding waistline. 

I thought that John’s self deprecating response was just great:

"It's Max's to speak to, but I'm growing in stature in more ways than one," he said yesterday.

Heh.

With regards to exercise, I recommend he finds an exercise he enjoys and tries to do it as often as he can – then it doesn’t seem like a chore.  For example running or a treadmill is mind numbingly boorrrring. 

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Monday, January 19, 2009

Spot the difference....


Below is Dr Brash's original post to the New Zealand Herald (courtesy of WhaleOil).







Now, compare the above post with an extract from the article penned by the NZ Herald.










The difference is that the Herald article left off Dr Brash's third reason "the gross over-spending of the legal limit in the 2005 election".

The Herald article would've been read by a great deal more people, so why they left off what I consider to be Helen's more serious infraction is beyond me.

Misrepresenting and/or selectively quoting Don Brash seem to be the media's favourite past time when he was leader of the opposition. In contrast Key and Clark were given a much easier ride.


Saturday, January 17, 2009

"You've got to be joking!"

 

h

…… was Dr Brash’s response to the suggestion that Helen Clark is our country’s greatest living New Zealander.   NX agrees whole-heartedly!

The fact that she only achieved 33% of the vote and was subsequently booted out of office should indicate what the majority of New Zealanders feel about her. 

So why then would you nominated her….. for her long list of achievements?  Please… thanks to her complex nanny state programmes New Zealand now has to go into more debt just to pay for them.  So, is it her longevity?  Well anyone that has read my blog would know my feelings on how Helen achieved her third term. 

So I’m totally with you on this one Dr Brash – You’ve got to be joking!

 

brash

 

 

I've done a couple of these quizzes now and I always seem to end up in roughly same place - centre right with libertarian leanings.  Which is probably exactly where I want to be.    A lot of issue's I'm neutral on and there were only a couple of issues I took a strong stance on.   

My philosophy is continually evolving, but lately I've been thinking that society wouldn't need as many rules or big government if people did the right thing.  Personal responsibility, personal freedom, and tolerance is the best way to foster a social conscious - all of which tend to be centre-right philosophy.  I think compassion, the most noble of human qualities, is less likely to be born out of a nanny state where it's always someone else's responsibility, always someone else's problem. 

In saying that, one has to be realistic.  People won’t develop a social consciousness if they have to worry about putting food on the table.  And then there’s greed.  So that is why I believe in a progressive tax structure – which one could argue is socialism.  The left is also good at promoting tolerance and social inclusion.  New Zealand is fortunate that the current and former leaders of the National party have been socially liberal; John Key and Don Brash.

To sum up, government should set the rules to allow everyone to stand on their own two feet and then leave it up to us.

 

political_matrix

 

Thursday, January 8, 2009

The Situation in Gaza

 
I found this comment by John Ansell on Kiwiblog insightful.
 

1. A majority of Palestinian voters elect a terrorist government.

2. Democratically-elected terrorists suicide bomb innocent Israelis.

3. Israel puts up a wall to keep the terrorists in. End of suicide bombings.

4. Democratically-elected terrorists fire rockets at innocent Israelis.

5. Israel fires back - with interest. (The same disproportionate approach was the only way the Americans could defeat the disproportionately stubborn and suicidal Japanese in WWII.)

6. Dozens of innocent, and probably just as many not-so-innocent, terrorist-voting Gaza civilians are killed, along with many more cowardly terrorists who hide behind them.

7. Democratically-elected terrorists keep firing rockets at innocent Israelis.

8. Israel invades Gaza to wipe out rockets. Likely to succeed. Palestinians increasingly resemble the Black Knight in Monty Python and Holy Grail. Israel wins another war and withdraws.

Question to critics of Israel: what would you do to defend your citizens against vicious terrorists who, like the Japs in WWII, are happy to use their own people as cannon-fodder and refuse to see sense?

 

I'm not hugely pro one side or the other, but I agree with John's point that civilian causalities are part'n parcel of elected a terrorist government.  Maybe they should've had a little bomb or a skull'n crossbones next to the Hamas party on the ballet sheet. 

If I were Palestinian, I would be very unhappy with Hamas's failure to advantage a peace deal.  Hopefully they'll consider that the next time they vote.