Category: imported_weekly
Zombie science, defn: Science that is dead but will not lie down. It keeps twitching and lumbering around so that (from a distance, and with your eyes half-closed) zombie science looks much like the real thing. But in fact the zombie has no life of its own; it is animated and moved only by the incessant pumping of funds. - Dr Bruce M. Charlton.[1]
When a man, a business, or an entire society is facing bankruptcy, there are two courses that those involved can follow: they can evade the reality of their situation and act on a frantic, blind, range-of-the-moment expediency - not daring to look ahead, wishing no one would name the truth, yet desperately hoping that something will save them somehow - or they can identify the situation, check their premises, discover their hidden assets, and start rebuilding. - Ayn Rand
On Friday 3rd April 2009 the Australian Government endorsed the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This move fulfilled an election promise made by Kevin Rudd, to overturn Australia’s opposition to the Declaration.
Last month UMR Research released a report on New Zealanders’ living preferences. The results showed that 49 percent of us live in the suburbs, 20 percent live in small towns, 17 percent live in rural areas, and 13 percent live in the central city. In response to the question where would you like to live, 39 percent said the suburbs, 26 percent wanted to live in a rural area, 22 percent in a small town, and 11 percent in a central city area. 2 percent were unsure.[1]
Whether we are talking about freedom or oppression, democracy or dictatorship, free enterprise or communism, ideas have the power to shape nations and profoundly impact on the daily lives of citizens. As the famous nineteenth century French writer Victor Hugo stated, “There is one thing stronger than all of the armies of the world and that’s an idea whose time has come”.
In the seventies, the famous writer and philosopher Ayn Rand described the pervasive danger of the welfare state:
The 2009 International Climate Change Conference, hosted by the Chicago-based free market think tank the Heartland Institute, was held in New York last week. It drew together over 700 attendees including world-leading climate scientists, legislators, researchers, policy-makers, and media representatives in order to share new research and fresh insights into the climate change controversy.[1]
With the economic crisis delivering more bad news each day, we must keep reminding ourselves that change brings opportunity. The return of frugality and thrift is good for discount businesses, the slump in the New Zealand dollar is giving exporters a real boost, low interest rates are assisting those with debt to repay their loans, and global uncertainties are encouraging New Zealanders overseas to return home.
As the government progresses it’s so-called “razor gang” line-by-line review of government expenditure, it will be interesting to see whether those controversial and costly policy areas, that are clearly long overdue for reform, go under the microscope.
Ironically it has taken the South African Rugby Union (SARU) to expose the fact that racism exists in New Zealand. Sadly, in these politically correct times, anyone who dares to comment on this dark national secret risks being attacked as a racist. With successive governments entrenching racism under the guise of cultural sensitivity and bogus Treaty partnerships, it is indeed a tragic indictment of our society that it has been left to South Africa to expose the truth.
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