Fisking Garth "Vader" George

Our favourite pensioner commentator in his latest message from the pulpit is blaming the murder of Nia Glassie by her extended family as an outcome of our liberal, secular, hedonist culture and an inevitable outcome since society allowed mixed flatting, gays and contraceptive rights.
The usual convoluted logic is applied to blame modern society, to absolve any pre-1960s society (since no-one got murdered, no child was abused and no drugs were consumed before that dread decade) and to push for a return to paternalistic, repressive and inquisitorial social and familial structures.
The truth, of course, is far simpler in most cases of child abuse and child murder: males who are not genetically related to the children in their household are the greatest threat to the safety of those children. Lions also kill all offspring of their predecessor in their newly acquired pride. It's a simple biological genetic impulse. Not one which should ever be condoned, of course, but certainly bears no relationship with female reproductive rights, the availability of abortion or any of the other "1960s horrors".
(Not that I would absolve any females a priori: Chris and Cru Kahui's parents are arguments against heterosexuality per se.)
In the Glassie case our Garth should look at it much clearly as it is really simple too: if Wiremu and Michael Curtis's mother had had access to safe termination, the world would now be a better place. Those scumbags are the best arguments for legal abortion.

UPDATE 1: The father of the Curtis murder duo got convicted for bashing Nia too. I hope he can watch the fruit of his loins being punked nightly in gaol.

UPDATE 2: Garth George got his arse truly whupped too by some overseas feminists at Feministing who stumbled on his ramblings and sent him dozens of juicy emails. So juicy he filled his latest column with a sample of them. He thinks he has the last laugh by collecting his column fee by getting his readers to write it for him. But the comments are way more apt and readable and funny than what he has ever committed to paper. My favourite one: "When I grow up I want to get paid to write bullshit too." My fisking is small beer compared to those ballbusting ladies!

Pantsdown for a good cause

Belgian TV station Een organised a competition for nude calendars, with entering groups able to donate the profits of their effort to the charity of their choice.
All sorts of professionals took part, from hair dressers to car enthusiasts to nurses to women rugby players. But it wasn't difficult to guess that the top prize went to the firemen from Hasselt (pictured).
The Fotomuseum in Antwerpen is staging an exhibition of all the entries.
A short video report of the proceedings here.

It's that time of year again, I hear you say correctly. So here's the 2009 New Zealand Firefighters calendar with proceeds going to the Child Cancer Foundation.

If you want to research a broader array of men's calendars from around the world, please proceed to here and here (don't let the fact that these sites are in Polish put you off, we can all speak the international language of lust). Links via Abiekt.

Flat earthers on a recruitment drive

The shorter Owen McShane:

"[Brian Rudman] quotes global sea level rises, which are no more than a statistical artifact with no relationship to what is happening on our own coastlines, where tectonic plate and earthquake movements have far more impact."

Translation: Since the Pacific Plate is sinking underneath the Australasian Plate, New Zealand's sea levels are sinking too.

"Also, sea level rising has slowed, not increased as Rudman claims. Sadly, many councils have rushed to regulate coastal development on the basis of these global predictions even though actual measurements show their local sea levels are falling rather than rising."

Translation: Muddle the use of present continous and past tenses to confuse the average reader. The "rising has slowed" is not the same as "levels are falling rather than rising".

"Much "global warming" has been "assisted" by downright fraud and alarmist claims."

Translation: Greenland isn't melting, the glaciers aren't receding. It's all an optical illusion (much like the impression that the earth is round) or a vast leftwing green conspiracy against capitalism.

The Kaukapakapa Green must be strong stuff.

Retro advertising in the modern age

Canadian feminists are up in arms about an advertising campaign by Canadian Club Whisky (the very name will put you off drinking it, no?), which heavily draws on going back to the good old days when men were men and never went camping on a mountain.
One of the poster adverts looks like this:

Silly but I think quite harmless fun.
Inevitably, this being web 2.0, you can spoof up your own advert version using a template.
Here's my favourite (but I have it on very good authority that it doesn't apply to my dad!):

All links via Mark Simpson

Waiheke votes

How Waiheke Island voted: preliminary results per voting booth (only parties that actually got votes are listed: Libertarianz and Workers Party got nil votes).

	ACT	Alliance	ALCP	Social Credit	Family	Green	Progressive	Kiwi	Labour	Mäori	National	NZF	NZP	RAM	Bill & Ben	Republicans	United Future
Oneroa	29	0	3	0	0	166	7	0	285	3	252	28	0	0	2	1	2
Blackpool	20	1	1	1	1	77	4	0	171	11	154	26	1	0	2	0	4
Onetangi	30	1	3	0	0	125	9	0	193	3	179	27	0	0	3	0	2
Ostend	31	0	9	0	0	227	7	2	344	18	258	55	1	1	7	1	6
Palm Beach	6	0	0	0	0	64	0	0	100	5	119	15	0	0	1	0	0
Rocky Bay	5	0	1	0	0	52	0	0	85	3	84	15	0	0	0	0	0
Surfdale	14	0	1	0	0	45	4	1	112	2	128	18	0	0	1	0	2

National won Surfdale and Palm Beach, while Labour won overall. The Greens did exceptionally well, polling above their national average. Denise basically split the vote and caused Judith Tizard to lose the electorate seat (even though these are the party list votes, not the electorate seat votes). Three-horse races are never good.

Gays prefer Kerry to Obama

Every last little electoral demographic is being poured over in the USA to determine who likes what more than the next guy, presumably to better hone the messages for the intended target next time.
A "surprising" factoid came to light that 2004 presidential candidate John Kerry scored better with teh gayz than Obama did this year, 7% better.
Why would that be?
My hunch is that, putting my shallow thinking cap on, we have to look at what Kerry and McCain have in common, rather than what sets Obama apart from McCain for gays. And that's rather obvious: they both have glamorous, filthy rich wives. Cindy "Anheuser-Busch" McCain and Teresa "Heinz" Kerry. Perhaps many (closeted and otherwise) gay men quite fancy the life of a kept boy by a rich woman, and then be able to do what you like. Not my idea of a good life but maybe many think it's less arduous than being married to a career wife such as Michelle Obama or Hillary Clinton.

What my version parliament would look like

Nothing riles democratically minded people more than the notion that one vote is worth more than another. Hence the derision with which various electoral systems that produce large power in a small number hands are met, be it the US electoral college system or the British First-Past-The-Post (FPP).
New Zealand got rid of FPP several elections ago, and of course many are still pining for the good old days when a few well drawn rural electorates could ensure (twice) that the natural party of Government prevailed, even if its total number of votes didn't. The peasants got sick of tugging their forelocks and ushered in MMP (modelled on Germany).
So last night's result is a good indicator of what is currently wrong with MMP and what needs changing to ensure something resembling our democratic ideals.
First there is the two-seat "overhang", extra seats that are created because some parties win more electorate seats than their party vote entitles them to.
Then there is the 5% threshold for party votes to guarantee seat allocation.
And third the "coat-tail" seats, when parties get extra seats because they won one electorate but not 5% overall.
All these flaws were in play last night: the Maori Party got 2 overhang seats, ACT got 4 coat-tail seats and NZF got no seats at all despite polling higher than ACT nationally.

So time to get rid of these flaws and this what a democratic parliament should look like based on last night's results (it is a moot point that had these flaws been removed, people would have voted differently because there would be no longer need for "tactical" voting). Percentages translated into seats by multiplying by 1.2. The last figure is the difference with the current outcome. Since the threshold is 0.8% this parliament would have 117 seats (using the Swedish rounding of percentage fractions). (UPDATED with the final results on 23 November)

National: 44.93% = 53.92 seats = 54 (-4)
Labour: 33.99% = 40.80 seats = 41 (-2)
Green: 6.72% = 8.06 seats = 8 (-1)
ACT: 3.65% = 4.38 seats = 4 (-1)
Maori Party: 2.39% = 2.87 seats = 3 (-2)
Progressive: 0.91% = 1.09 seats = 1 (-)
NZ First: 4.07% = 4.88 seats = 5 (+5)
United Future: 0.87% = 1.04 seats = 1 (-)

So a National/Act/UF Government would still be possible.
Anyway, on another note, one of the faux electorate contests took place in my own with the sitting Labour member ejected by the Green candidate splitting the vote to let the Tory girl in. Three-horse races are never conducive to good outcomes.
So we're off to celebrate with the Green Party on Waiheke. Perhaps I could lobby my old mate and freshly minted Green MP Kevin Hague to draw up a Private Member's Bill to remedy those MMP flaws, preferably before the Tories throw the whole thing out and go back to shire rule.

Fewer are clinging bitterly

The United States of America finally dragged itself into the 20th Century with the election of a non-Caucasian president. Maybe next time round they will manage to get with the play of the 21st Century by electing a woman. Hell will freeze over, of course, before they will ever join the Enlightenment and actually elect a queer person (Lincoln excepted, perhaps) or, even more unimaginable, an atheist.
Considering the outcome of the latest cultural war battle, the gay marriage referendums in California and Florida, America is obviously not ready for a real kind of change.
We can be rather smug in New Zealand on that score, even though there has never been a Maori (or, to my knowledge, queer) Prime Minister. But we have already managed to get women twice - and the choice on Saturday is far broader than what was on offer in that democratic bastion of consumer choice, USA.

How's that Iceland going?

One of the prominent casualties of the financial crisis so far (if you discount the failure of US banks such as Lehman Brothers) is Iceland.
Jon Danielsson of the London School of Economics wrote a great summary of the Icelandic crisis for the BBC and you have to feel sorry for the 300,000 Icelanders (even though they do hunt whales!) who fell victim to this particular kind of greedy capitalism by their banks and the failure of proper regulation of assets and debt obligations and guarantees by their Government.
But what really scares me are the many aspects of that crisis that are applicable in New Zealand too:

"The key factor in Iceland's failure has been the monetary policy pursued by its central bank, in particular inflation targeting, similar to the UK. [...] Such a policy has a sound foundation in economic theory and is often appropriate for large countries. In the case of Iceland, it was disastrous."

Our Reserve Bank has an identical inflation targeting policy, and we're a midget country too.

"In a small economy like Iceland high interest rates both encourage domestic firms and households to borrow in foreign currency, and also attract currency speculators."

The infamous Belgian dentists and Japanese housewives have been doing brisk business in the NZ$ carry trade over the years.

"This brought large inflows of foreign currency, leading to sharp exchange rate increases, giving the Icelanders an illusion of wealth.
The speculators and borrowers profited from the interest rate difference between Iceland and abroad as well as the exchange rate appreciation"

Our illusion of wealth is expertly reflected in our recent huge house price inflation. New Zealanders almost never borrow money to invest in income generating companies. Houses are what all that cash went into. So much more comfortable to be a landlord than an entrepreneur.

"These effects encouraged economic growth and inflation, further leading the central bank to raise interest rates. The end result is a bubble caused by the interaction between domestic interest rates and inflows of foreign currency."

NZ interest rates are still among the highest in the developed world.

"The exchange rate was increasingly out of touch with economic fundamentals, with a rapid depreciation of the currency inevitable. This should have been clear to the central bank, which wasted several good opportunities to prevent exchange rate appreciations and build up reserves."

Did our Reserve Bank build up sufficient foreign reserves when the currency was high? Our dollar has certainly tanked recently, despite the high base rate.

"The second factor in the implosion of the Icelandic economy this week has been the size of its banking sector. Before the crisis, the Icelandic banks had foreign assets worth around 10 times the Icelandic GDP, with debts to match."

New Zealand has barely any banks it actually owns. The vast majority of our banking is controlled by Australian-owned banks. But our foreign debt certainly is massive (over 100% of GDP) and annual current account deficit touching 10% of GDP. Is our economy robust enough when the foreign creditors come urgently knocking to call in their debts as they may need all the cash they can to cover their positions?

"The original cause of the Icelandic crisis was a combination of inappropriate monetary policy and an outsized banking system. Throughout this year, the Icelandic currency has been falling due to the currency speculators running for shelter. This has caused doubts about the Icelandic economy and its banking sector. What eventually tipped the balance was the current extreme global financial uncertainty, the mishandling of the crisis by the Icelandic authorities and the overreaction of the UK authorities."

All sounds horribly familiar to me. But the end game touches on the positives too:

"Fortunately, the long-run macroeconomic potential is good. Iceland is a natural resource-based economy, with plenty of untapped natural resources and well educated workforce."

There are quite a few lessons to learn by New Zealand from Iceland. And add to that, Iceland can be fast-tracked to European Union membership (as it is already in the EEA/EFTA) if it wanted to. Which makes it all the more urgent to look at our options too.

Still time to be bitter and clinging?

A two-year long, three-ring circus, every four years. You wish you could away from it at the other end of the world but there is nowhere to run and hide anymore.
And what a contrast with a subdued, cheap and short electoral cycle in New Zealand. And so much more democratic too (not completely though: we'd have to wait for a full list electoral system by getting rid of all the general and Maori electorate seats). Whatever happened to the one-man-one-vote credo? The political filtering is not only done by money but by distorting political systems too. It's sad to see no-one in the US is bitter about that.

20 random questions meme

From Gaynz.com's forum:

1] Favourite Possession? My library
2] Sexiest style of underwear as worn by another person? Jockstrap or commando
3] Do you go to a hygienist at the dentists regularly? Please explain your attitude to dentistry? Annual checkups, more regular sessions at the periodontist, my gums are more trouble than my teeth
4] If you were an animal and wanted to have sex with another animal, what would that animal be? Dolphin
5] What is the Christian name of your ideal man? Linus
6] Which recording star do you really care about? Bjork, David Bowie
7] Beach wear? Baggies, Speedos, Trunks, etc? Sunglasses? Other? I only go to nude beaches
8] Have you ever measured your penis? Of course, you need to do so to avoid complaints
9] Helen or John? Russel "Don't be a whinger, vote ginger!" Norman
10] Name the physical space in which you lost your gay virginity (e.g: car, bed, behind the sand dunes, alleyway) My own bed
11] What was the last piece of food you put in your mouth? A Tim Tam chocolate biscuit with a pink centre (don't ask!)
12] Is oral sex satisfactory? When it's done rightly
13] What was the last piece of music you downloaded? Never done that (I'm old!)
14] Do you use an alarm to wake you in the morning? What is it? clock radio, Radio New Zealand Morning Report
15] How many people of a different racial group than you have you had sex with? Most of them (not pygmies or eskimos yet)
16] Auckland or Wellington? Why? Auckland, but I live a safe and sane distance away from it
17] Ideal Job? The one I have
18] The thing you'd like to find in an antique/second-hand/memorabilia/op-shop shop? A lost Vermeer painting
19] Would you have sex with an All Black even if you weren't attracted to him but he asked? If you had sex with an All Black would you be you be bottom or top or what? I'm not in a position to turn down offers of sex. I would top Dan Carter but would consider playing versatile with Richie McCaw
20] Last fast-food franchise visited? Last order? Burger Fuel, a carbon seaside and spud fries without salt