Gun ownership in New Zealand has a varied and interesting history which can be broken down into three distinct historical periods. When white folks came to New Zealand they brought lots of guns with them; Parliament enacted laws requiring licences and registration for gun ownership – which were promptly ignored by
Recently I celebrated my birthday; a certain milestone was reached and, despite my aversion to ever spending money if it can be avoided, decided to splash out and host a party attended by various lifelong friends. Lots of my friends rather liked some of the obscure music which was playing;
Last week Sean Plunket had on his show a couple of self-styled “investment advisors”. Taking a look at their website, they appear to be life insurance salesmen who also peddle KiwiSaver (hardly Warren Buffett). Another red flag casting doubt upon their usefulness was some of the things they said to
I have long had a nausea-inducing contempt for weak, useless men; any male who isn’t masculine and doesn’t display traditional male attributes doesn’t cut the mustard with me. Examples of this include those feeble useless sops who let themselves get walked all over by wives and divorce
As I write this, facebook.com is alive to the sounds of National Party MPs crowing that the ban on cellular telephones has come into force in schools; something fully supported by your favourite capitalist. In recent days they’ve been crowing about a 2030 target to get 80% of
The left have always been racist: they consider anyone non-white to be inferior and requiring ‘educated’ white liberals and left wingers like themselves to run their lives for them. It has never crossed their minds that Maori, or Islanders, or black people might be intelligent, aspirational for themselves and their
In 1975 the US Senate conducted a major investigation into the activities of the CIA; it was known as the Church Committee after its chairman Frank Church. During the course of this investigation a great deal of concerning stuff came to light which shocked America and led to greater oversight
Los Angeles prior to World War II was a bit of a joke; it was isolated and difficult to get to; it had Hollywood but not much else. If you research the 1930s golden age of Hollywood you will be hard pushed to find a single movie actually set in
Former Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam was an MP for twenty-six years for Werriwa. Successive boundary changes, which always move Australian electorate boundaries slightly westward, means the current electorate of Fowler, rather than Werriwa itself, more closely resembles the area he represented back in the day. The incumbent MP for
Many years ago at the ripe old age of eight years, I decided to live forever. Apart from an incurable blood disorder (haemophilia), and a rather unfortunate mistake by a pissed surgeon during an operation in 2000 which took three years to recover from, my plan is working quite well.
A curious thing emerged during the 1980s that has continued through to the present day. In popular music, Whitney Houston’s “Saving All My Love for You”, started the trend of yodelling. You can hear them all doing it if you listen closely. In acting, Michael J Fox in Back
Failed Labour nonentity Grant Robertson made a comment in his valedictory speech to parliament saying the tax system is very unfair. Let us take a look at that contention and see if there is anything in it. One of its implications is the usual socialist chestnut that all your money
The Easter holiday weekend was most enjoyable. We have been pottering about the South Island visiting some places we haven’t been for a while. Due to my not wanting to spend money if I don’t have to, or as little as possible, our accommodation has been backpacker hostels
On Thursday JM White wrote a thoughtful essay attacking Roger Douglas and his disastrous economic policies: the chickens of which have come home to roost in recent times. Predictably, the ‘true believers’ who swallowed it whole 40 years ago jumped in to defend him in the comments. There seems to
Imagine you have some friends at your house for a social gathering. Suddenly a gun-toting criminal bursts in the door with a shotgun, takes aim at one of your chums and opens fire. Your friend is lying on the floor, dead, with a gaping hole in his chest. Shocking and
One of the more prominent Australian politicians during the 1980s and 90s was a man called Neal Blewett. He was Minister of Health, Minister of Trade, and Minister of Social Security during the Bob Hawke and Paul Keating Governments between 1983 and 1994. As long serving Health Minister Blewett oversaw
