Following on from More Evidence of Student Association Delusions of Grandeur, where I shared Auckland University Students Assocation’s (AUSA) unfathomable intentions to incorporate the UN Declaration of Human Rights into their constitution, a fellow student and reader of this blog, brought my attention to today’s email to all University of Auckland students which he described […]
Entries Tagged as 'Social Commentary'
Dear Cabinet,
August 24th, 2009 7 Comments
I am a mother of 4; I am currently doing the last few papers of my law degree at Auckland Uni, I voted “no” in the referendum, I voted for you to govern at the last election. I am sure you are getting a lot of emails, however, as you deliberate as to how to […]
Tags: Referendum · s59 · Smacking
Sunday Study: 666 The Number of the Beast
August 17th, 2009 7 Comments
On 29 March 1982 Iron Maiden released the album The Number of the Beast; this album’s self-titled song was to become one of the most influential heavy metal songs of all time and stirred up a firestorm of controversy. Apparently Iron Maiden’s bassist, Steve Harris, had been up late one night watching Damian: Omen II, […]
Tags: 616 · 666 · Iron Maiden · Nero · Number of the Beast · Sunday Study
Faith and Science Conference Write-Up
August 13th, 2009 13 Comments
The Challenge Weekly has written an article on the recent Faith and Science Conference I participated in. Apart from the unfortunate title, “Conference fuels controversy” which gives a false impression of the largely collegial atmosphere, the mis-characterisation of certain views as deism and the omission of a mention of Dr Jeff Tallon’s memorable talk it […]
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Jim Evans Decisively Smacks John Roughan
August 6th, 2009 11 Comments
On Saturday the NZ Herald’s John Roughan demonstrated why journalists should not engage in legal interpretation in his widely criticised piece on the smacking referendum, “Sinister undertones to referendum instigator.” At the time I struggled to ascertain whether Roughan was being deliberately deceptive or he just didn’t get it. He essentially quoted the non-controversial, much […]
Tags: Jim Evans · John Roughan · Referendum · s59 · Smacking
Key and Goff on Family Matters at the 2009 Forum on the Family
July 30th, 2009 3 Comments
The 2009 Forum on the Family is nearly upon us. This year John Key and Phil Goff are slated to face-off, Lord of the NZ Blogosphere, David Farrar, will be making an appearance, details of the rest of this years lineup are on the poster (click on the image if you cannot read it). You […]
Tags: Forum on the Family · John Key · Phil Goff
A common objection to belief in the God of the Bible is that a good, kind, and loving deity would never command the wholesale slaughter of nations. In the tradition of his popular Is God a Moral Monster?, Paul Copan teams up with Matthew Flannagan to tackle some of the most confusing and uncomfortable passages of Scripture. Together they help the Christian and nonbeliever alike understand the biblical, theological, philosophical, and ethical implications of Old Testament warfare passages.
Dear Mr McCully,
August 26th, 2009 5 Comments
The law criminalises smacking, the best and most faithful reading of the law deems any use of force for the purposes of parental correction criminal; experts in legal interpretation agree on this. The people have objected loudly and all you have done is issue a promise to not enforce the law; a promise that can […]
Tags: National Party · NZ Government · Referendum · Smacking