Family First have just released that a private members bill is set to go into the ballot to amend the anti-smacking law. Assuming it is well drafted, ACT’s John Boscawen is the MP parents across the country can thank. While we do not buy into the notion that this law should be changed because the […]
Entries Tagged as 'Public Policy'
Maori and Pakeha are Not Partners to the Treaty of Waitangi
February 11th, 2009 20 Comments
[For the benefit of our international readership: Maori are the indigenous people of New Zealand; Pakeha is a term used to describe Caucasian New Zealanders; The Treaty of Waitangi is a significant founding document of our nation over which many historical and current differences have arisen around its role, interpretation and application.] Recently I read […]
Tags: Jurisprudence · Role of the State · Treaty of Waitangi
Moral Issues and Direct Democracy
December 8th, 2008 10 Comments
I have been involved in a discussion over at MacDoctor Moments on various aspects of the abortion debate, though in this post I don’t want to talk about that issue. In the course of this discussion Chuck advocated for a policy of direct democracy to decide moral issues and it is this that I want […]
Tags: Chuck Bird · MacDoctor · Paul Wolff · Plato · Public Policy · Referenda
Homosexuality and the Right-Wing Socialists
November 18th, 2008 27 Comments
Lately I have been thinking I must write a post about the sacred cow of homosexuality and how it can turn the most ardent liberal into a lefty. I am not the only person to have noticed this phenomena. As Matt once commented, “Christians should be very concerned with people who will sell out their […]
Tags: Cactus Kate · Glenn Peoples · Grant Robertson · Homosexual Conduct · Stephen Franks
And the Left FIGHT BACK!
November 16th, 2008 10 Comments
I stumbled across this nonsense over at Socialist Aotearoa; the same old tired slogans from the student union movement are of course today’s mantra for the grown-up ex-student flunkys who now work in the state sector or for the “real world” unions. The only thing that’s changed is the number of wrinkles and the method […]
Tags: Statist Mindset · Tax Cuts · The Standard
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.
No Defences Permitted for the Accused
June 19th, 2009 36 Comments
In, The referendum campaign is underway, No Right Turn’s Idiot/Savant gives an excellent example of an argument we see coming up a lot in the debate around the upcoming referendum on smacking. In addition to trotting out the standard ad hominem, that everyone who supports the reinstatement of the old section 59 of the Crimes […]
Tags: Bad Reasoning · Crimes Act · Defences · Idiot/Savant · Referendum · s59 · Smacking · Sue Bradford · William Blackstone