I went to see Christmas at the Beehive at Bats last night. It ends tonight, which is a pity as I think heaps of people would love to see it.

I only heard about it on Thursday, and purchased a ticket yesterday to see it at 9 pm. The theatre was packed, including a few ministerial staffers I noticed.

There are 17 actors and a number of MPs are lampooned. John Smythes’ review sums it up well:

‘Tis Christmas at the Beehive and all is not well 
The charm of John Key is losing its spell 
Winston is restless, his spirits on rocks 
As dead David Lange cracks hearty and mocks.

The three living Davids seek leadership traction 
As bright Grant Robertson taps through the action 
Jacinda Adern is a party-girl stressed 
That Nikki Kaye’s party is thought to be best.

Paula Bennett brings news John Banks’s been arrested 
The Johnny and Bill show is now sorely tested 
“Jihad!” cries Chris Finlayson, frocked up to go 
To the ballet or opera or NZSO.

Hekia Parata strides through her crises 
Rendering her leaders quivering micies 
Mistletoe, though, does make them quite frisky 
While Sir Rob Muldoon takes drams of Win’s whiskey.  

Tariana Turia and Pita Sharples 
Have to work hard at not losing their marbles 
While Hone Harawira hovers above 
Fluffing his feathers, both eagle and dove.

Spreading the love with gifts for a new way
Is Russell Norman with Metiria Turei 
While all through the house wafting tinsel around 
Is her worship the mayor, Celia Wade-Brown.

Kanwal Singh Bakshi and Su’a William Sio 
Find common ground: gay marriage? A no-no! 
The Pope happens by midst the gay marriage thing 
Just wanting the masses to kiss his ring.

Todd McClay and John Campbell complete the live cast 
‘Though many more names get a serve or a blast. 
While patchy there’s brilliance enlightening us all 
I say get along: it’s a laugh; have a ball.

The Lange and Muldoon characters were great – captured their voices and personalities so well. Paula Bennett’s character was hilarious. When John Key tells her to sort out WINZ, her answer is “I’m all over WINZ like a cougar at the rugby clubrooms”.

The duet by Bakshi and Sio has you in stiches.

Any MP who watches it is sure to be offended by the character portraying them, but enjoy all the other characters! No one escapes unscathed.

The Pope even make an appearance, backed by the Imperial Death March music from Star Wars.

Anna Turner in Stuff reports:

The courts are not being “tough enough” on a man caught drink-driving for the seventh time, says his partner.

She’s right.

Shayne Kevin Gebbie, 47, was arrested in the early hours of October 28 while driving home drunk from a pub in Rangiora. The police pulled him over in Island Rd, near Kaiapoi, after he nearly hit the patrol car.

His breath-alcohol level was recorded at 1156mcg/L, more than double the legal limit of 400mcg/L.

It was Gebbie’s seventh charge for drink-driving.

If he has been caught seven times, I’d estimate he has driven drunk 700 times or so.

He said he had been drinking whiskey and thought he may have been safe to drive, even though friends told him he had had too much.

“Yes and no,” he said. “I guess I felt all right.”

So he ignored his friends. That suggests little chance of change.

Gebbie, who pleaded guilty in the Christchurch District Court on Wednesday, has been remanded on bail until March 8 for sentencing.

He is not allowed to drink alcohol within 12 hours of driving.

His licence should be gone for good, and he should be told if he is ever found behind a car wheel again he is going to jail. That may sound harsh, but better that him killing someone while driving drunk.

However, Gebbie did not believe he had a problem with alcohol, saying his seven convictions happened over a long period. 

“I’m 47 years old. Those were over many years.”

Sad.

The Northland Bay Chronicle reports:

The country’s newest political party is hoping a name change will increase its support base.

The party with Far North origins has elected a board and adopted a name change from the NZ Rural Party to Focus NZ.

I doubt it. At least a rural party was something people would have some idea of by the name. No one will know what Focus NZ means.

Focus NZ is aimed at securing support from a broad sector of New Zealand and will contest the next general election as a list-only party.

The board has six vacancies, which are aimed to be filled as the party grows, and consists of six members including its Far North founders.

Former National Party candidate Ken Rintoul, a civil engineer, contractor and farmer; and regional councillor and farmer Joe Carr will continue their involvement and are joined by: former Federated Farmers Dairy chairman and primary industries commentator Lachlan McKenzie of Rotorua; former MP and under-secretary for agriculture and forestry and chairman of the primary industries select committee Ross Meurant, who now has business interests in aquaculture in the Middle East; former MP Sandra Goudie of Coromandel who is closely involved with a landowners rights network; and fashion designer and small business manufacturer Marina Koltsova, formerly an architect in Russia who now has New Zealand citizenship and lives in Auckland.

Actually Rintoul is not a former National Party candidate. He sought the nomination for National in 2011, but lost to Mike Sabin. The fact he is in another party just a year later speaks volumes.

For the 65 year old Meurant, this will be his 4th or 5th party. He has been National, Right of Centre, Conservative, NZ First and now this. He was sacked by Bolger for unethical conflicts of interest as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary.

Tracy Watkins at Stuff writes:

A large group of US senators and members of the House of Representatives have already written to US Trade Representative Ron Kirk opposing any moves to open US dairy markets to New Zealand. We know from bitter experience the strength of the US lobby against increased agricultural access.

If there is no dairy access, I think there is no deal. The danger is that either there are loopholes which allow the US to keep blocking free and fairy dairy access to their consumers – or that the US Congress doesn’t ratify the agreement.

As an example of just how far it could reach into daily life, our librarians have joined groups questioning the deal, because of concerns changes to copyright law will push up the cost of buying books.

There is widespread concern, meanwhile, both in the business and web communities, about intellectual property clauses.

Governments tinker in that area at their peril: think back to widespread protests against section 92 copyright law changes that would have seen users have their internet connections cut for taking free downloads of music and movies. The Government was eventually forced to rewrite the law.

This is right on the mark. The concerns over the US proposed IP chapter are widely shared by many businesses, as well as the Internet communities and other groups such as libraries and the Royal Foundation for the Blind.

The concern is that the Government may see the IP chapter as something it can trade off for improved dairy access. So far the Government’s position has been to reject anything which would force a change of our current IP laws. I am hoping that stance remains.

The Greens argue foreign investors will have even greater rights than domestic investors and a company like Shanghai Pengxin, which is behind the contentious Crafar farms purchase, would be able to sue if the Government impinged on their operations by moving to regulate or legislate to clean up water pollution.

That’s their spin.

The Government spin, backed by Labour, is that such a clause is nothing new and is, in fact, included in the China Free Trade Agreement. It is also, as Groser reminds opponents, protection for New Zealand companies overseas from having the plug arbitrarily pulled out from under them.

It’s a pretty standard clause in most FTAs. Without such a clause, then governments can undermine the agreements with other forms of barriers. I’m not that worried over such a clause in the TPP so long as it has the normal exemptions.

But no one is suggesting the US will demand anything as crude as scrapping Pharmac. It will instead seek the ability for either the drug companies or consumer groups to challenge and appeal its decisions.

A leaked 2004 Wikileaks cable, written by then US Embassy deputy chief of mission Dave Burnett notes that “after trying in vain for years to persuade the New Zealand government to change its restrictive pricing policies on pharmaceuticals, the drug industry is taking another tack: reaching out to patient groups with information designed to bolster their demands for cutting edge drugs”.

This is a strategy hardly unique to drug companies. They are one of thousand of groups who try to build up political pressure for the Government to spend more money on an activity.

I’d be surprised if the TPP, if completed, has anything in it which affects Pharmac.

Richard Meadows at Stuff reports:

New Zealand banks are wading into the Novopay disaster to offer interest-free overdrafts to teachers and school staff running short on cash.

Problems with the Education Ministry’s new payroll system have led to thousands of teachers paid incorrectly or not at all.

Some have reported being unable to meet mortgage payments or falling behind on hire purchase or credit card debt as a result of the cashflow squeeze.

The banks participating in the interest-free overdraft offer are ANZ New Zealand, ASB Bank, Bank of New Zealand, The Co-operative Bank, Kiwibank, SBS Bank, TSB Bank, and Westpac New Zealand.

They are offering six weeks of interest-free respite –until January 15 – up to the equivalent of any missed payroll payments.

Affected teachers and school staff have to provide evidence to their bank, for example a letter from their school, detailing how much they are owed.

Their bank will then arrange an overdraft facility on the account to which their salary is paid, or to another account by arrangement.

New Zealand Bankers’ Association chief executive Kirk Hope said the banks had offered their support to help tide people over the holiday period.

“I encourage affected school staff to get in touch with their bank so they know they’re covered and can have some peace of mind over the holidays,” he said.

A very smart PR move from the banks.

As I understand it any teacher underpaid can also get reimbursed within 24 hours by their school directly – and the school then gets reimbursement from the Ministry of Education.

However relieving teachers who have no main school, are less able to do this easily, so the move by the banks should be of assistance to them especially.

Blair Ensor at Stuff reports:

The right to go jogging in the nude has been upheld by the High Court.

Andrew Lyall Pointon, 47, was wearing only a pair of shoes when he was spotted by a woman while running at 8.30am in a forest near Tauranga in August last year.

The woman, who was walking her dog, was so offended and threatened by what she had seen that she vowed not to return to the Oropi Bike Park.

She should have just let her dog off the leash 🙂

“If it was [offensive] then God wouldn’t have given us genitals,” Mr Pointon told The Dominion Post yesterday. “It is a win for all libertarians and a setback for all conservatives in the country.”

Wellingtonians can relax – I have no intention to follow this libertarian trend!

Justice Heath compared the case with the hypothetical scenario of two patched gang members strolling along the same track.

“It would not be surprising for a person in the position of the complainant to be concerned and discomforted by their presence, and even to feel threatened,” he said.

“However, on any view, their behaviour would not be regarded as offensive behaviour. Should the sight of a naked man, in the circumstances in which the complainant found herself, be treated any differently? I think not.”

I think the Judge is right.

Justice Heath said Mr Pointon was a genuine naturist who had chosen a time of day when it was unlikely children would be on the track.

Which indicates that running naked outside a school is still likely to land you in court.

Mr Pointon’s lawyer Michael Bott – a specialist in human rights and civil liberties – said he could not understand why women were able to ride naked down the main street of Tauranga during the Boobs on Bikes event without intervention and yet days later his client was arrested going about his business in a remote area: “It just appears inconsistent and grossly sexist.”

A fair point – however I thought the women in Boobs on Bikes were topless, not naked? Anyone able to confirm?

Mr McCoskrie said there was a time and a place for nakedness and it was not in a public place.

“It’s offensive to most of the population – that’s why most of us wear clothes.”

I thought it was because of the weather 🙂

NZ First MP Andrew Williams did a release stating:

New Zealand First is accusing the Government of making changes to legislation to give the Prime Minister John Key complete dictatorship over the State Services commissioner.

Associate Finance spokesperson Andrew Williams says clause 6 (j) in the State Sector and Public Finance Reform Bill states that the commissioner must ‘exercise such other functions with respect to administration and management of the Public Service as the Prime Minister from time to time directs’. 

“This clause gives the Prime Minister complete power to dictate to the State Services Commissioner what he wants to see happen.

“It establishes a very dangerous precedent in a Westminster democracy, and is not unlike regimes of the Cold War era.

“With this Bill effectively providing for the unbridled whims of Dictator Key the National Government will continue to run the State Services sector into the ground,” says Mr Williams.

Note the hysterical language about dictatorships and the like. Even if Williams was correct in his assertion, the hysterical language is ridiculous.

The proposed new section 6(j) is:

For the purpose of carrying out the Commissioner’s role, the principal functions of the Commissioner are to … exercise such other functions with respect to the administration and management of the Public Service as the Prime Minister from time to time directs (not being functions conferred by this Act or any other Act on a chief executive other than the Commissioner).

Now let us look at the current State Sector Act 1988. It also has a section 6(j) which states:

The principal functions of the Commissioner are … to exercise such other functions with respect to the administration and management of the Public Service as the Prime Minister from time to time directs (not being functions conferred by this Act or any other Act on a chief executive other than the Commissioner).

That is a massive fail. Williams failed to even check the current law. And if you are going to accuse the Prime Minister of becoming a dictator, well an even bigger fail.

There’s really no excuse for such sloppiness.  Based on Williams press release, and the fact this clause has existed since 1988, I can only conclude that New Zealand has been a cold war dictatorship for the last 24 years, and we never noticed.

Luke Harding at the Guardian reports:

Saudi Arabia has been accused of behaving like Big Brother after introducing technology that alerts male “guardians” by text whenever women under their guardianship leave the country.

The kingdom already bans women from driving and excludes them from most workplaces. It also disapproves of women’s sport. Since last week it has been operating a new electronic system that tracks all cross-border movements.

The system functions even if a woman is travelling with her husband or male “guardian”, with a text sent immediately to the man. Saudi women must get formal approval from their guardians to travel abroad, and have to hand in an infamous “yellow slip”, signed by a male, at the airport or border.

Women in Saudi Arabia are like chattels. Their culture is deeply flawed, to put it mildly.

Women need the permission of their guardian to marry, divorce, travel, study, get a job, open a bank account, have non-vital surgery etc. I suspect slaves only had a few more rights than some women in Saudia Arabia.

If a Saudi woman’s husband dies, and she wishes to remarry – she needs the permission of her son!

And don’t even start me on honor killings or sentencing rape victims to punishments because they were alone with a man.

The NZ Herald reports:

New Zealand is to vote in favour of a resolution giving Palestine UN recognition as a non-member observer state, Foreign Minister Murray McCully has announced.

However Mr McCully said the UN resolution was “a poor substitute for direct negotiations” between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

The United Nations General Assembly is due to vote this morning on a resolution which would see the Palestinian status upgraded role from an observer entity to that of a non-member observer state.

Mr McCully said the primary reason for voting in favour of the resolution is it reflects the long-standing policy of the New Zealand Government.

“New Zealand is a long-standing supporter of the two state solution. We believe that Israel and a Palestinian state should exist side by side, each respecting the other’s right to peace. And we believe that they should arrive at that conclusion through direct talks.

“As I stated in my address to the UN General Assembly earlier this year, we have never regarded a UN resolution as an adequate substitute for direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. That is the only way of achieving a durable solution to this question.

The vote will not achieve an actual Palestinian state. That will only happen when there is a full peace settlement with Israel, which must involve land for peace (but land concessions without peace is not acceptable).

Mr McCully said officials have discussed the proposed text of the resolution with Palestinian representatives, who have “delivered a resolution that is moderate, constructive, and reflects our commitment to a two-state solution”.

“In our explanation of vote to the UN our Permanent Representative Hon Jim McLay will make clear our absolute commitment to Israel’s right to safety and security, and condemn the actions of Hamas extremists in recent weeks,” Mr McCully said.

“However, we will also assert our support for the moderate leadership of President [Mahmoud] Abbas, Prime Minister [Salam] Fayyad and others who are working to make a two-state solution a viable goal.

“The New Zealand Government is under no illusions as to the utility of a UN resolution. It will solve nothing. But in the absence of the direct talks we have called for, we will deal with the UN resolution on its merits.”

Which is code for we don’t think it will achieve anything, but we don’t want to vote against it, as we do support Palestine becoming a state.

For those interested, the only other current non-member observer state in the Holy See. Switzerland used to be one, but joined fully in 2002.

The Cook Islands and Niue are treated as non-member states but this is unofficial.

Taiwan is blocked by China from gaining membership.

Of interest West Germany was an observer only from 1952 to 1973.

TV3 reports:

Minister of Transport Gerry Brownlee in Parliament yesterday compared Auckland’s plan for a city rail link to the infamous monorail episode of The Simpsons.

In response to questions from Labour MP Phil Twyford on the impact of the city’s growing traffic woes, at first Mr Brownlee disputed the economic benefits of the proposed rail link, and questioned the impact it would have on congestion.

But towards the end of his answer, Mr Brownlee slipped in a reference to the classic Simpsons episode Marge vs the Monorail.

“I would consider hiring Lyle Lanley and associates to do a scoping study for us on the city rail link,” he said.

“I know that they’ve done some very good work on some of the projects in Brockway, Ogdenville and North Haverbrook, and if they think this stacks up, we’ll give it some consideration further.”

In the Simpsons episode Lanley is revealed to be a conman, building a cheap and nasty monorail which begins to fall apart on its maiden trip.

Mr Brownlee’s quip appeared to go completely over the heads of other MPs in Parliament. …

Marge vs the Monorail first aired in 1993, and was penned by talk show host and comedian Conan O’Brien. It is often cited as one of the long-running series’ greatest episodes.

It’s a great sledge when the other side don’t even realise they have been sledged.

The Independent reports:

She is the internet phenomenon, a Czech-born swimwear model whose website commands a million clicks a month from male admirers around the globe. He  was one of them – a 68-year-old British academic, originally from Kidderminster, who for 11 love-struck weeks believed he was courting on-line the former Miss Bikini World, Denise Milani, and was about to start a new life with her in South America.

This is Ms Milani.

I can understand being 68 and being keen to shack up with the lovely Ms Milani. I less understand how you can possibly think she would be meeting dates through Internet Dating, let alone that she has fallen in love with a 68 year old man she has never met!

Yesterday however, Professor Paul Frampton was sentenced to nearly five years in a notoriously tough Argentinian jail after being found guilty of drug trafficking by a Buenos Aires court – the victim, he claimed, of an elaborate international honey trap set by gangsters pretending to be Miss Milani.

A bit like the Sharon Armstrong case.

He initially travelled to La Paz, Bolivia, thinking he was going to meet her for the first time. Instead he was greeted by a middle-aged man who gave him a suitcase it was claimed belonged to Miss Milani. The following day he flew to Buenos Aires where he was instructed to fly on to the Belgium capital Brussels where he was told he would finally meet his new girlfriend.

Even if one thought Ms Milani was ready and willing to ravish you, then warning bells should definitely have gone off when she doesn’t meet you and some man gives you a suitcase to take through customs!

However, after a 36-hour wait for an e-ticket to be sent to him, he decided to abort the plan and fly back to the USA via Peru. He was arrested at the airport and two kilogrammes of cocaine was found hidden in gift wrapping paper hidden inside the lining of his suitcase.

Pity he didn’t dump the suitcase.

Ben Chapman-Smith at NZ Herald reports:

Facebook’s “tiny” and “barely believable” tax bill this year makes a mockery of New Zealand’s tax loopholes for multinationals, says the Labour Party.

In a statement entitled “Facebook’s tiny tax bill demands action from Dunne”, Labour’s Revenue spokesperson David Clark said the social media site’s New Zealand arm paid a mere $14,497 last year.

Its tax bill in the 2010 financial year was an even smaller $5238, he said.

“For a company that has 2.2 million users in New Zealand and makes billions worldwide, that’s barely believable.”

Sigh – I thought Labour got the Internet. the Internet does not have boundaries. If NZ advertisers choose to advertise on Facebook, that does not mean Facebook pays tax in New Zealand. Just as if a US client pays me for market research in the United States, I pay tax in New Zealand not the US.

But hey if Labour really thinks that Facebook is a tax evader, then they could just boycott it in protest!

The reality is we are in a world where global Internet companies will of course locate in low tax countries. That is one of the reasons who we should have globally competitive tax rates – both companies and individuals are highly mobile in today’s world.

New Zealand can pass as many laws as we want, but we can’t force global companies to register in New Zealand as taxpayers just because they have NZ customers. What would we do – ban Google and Facebook from being accessible in New Zealand because their advertising revenues are not taxed here?

APNZ at NZ Herald report:

A campaign has been launched to demand equal pay for women after finding that, on average, men are paid at least 10 per cent more than women.

Women should be paid the same as men – of course. But I am unsure that this is an issue that can be solved centrally.

A recent study fund that around 60% of men do not just accept a salary and terms offer but try and negotiate it upwards. By contrast only 10% of women do the same. So reversing that 90% of women just accept what is offered as opposed to 40% of men.

I’d say the best way to close the pay gap is for individual women to be more assertive in pay negotiations.

“Pay equity is a structural problem that requires structural solutions.”

I’m not at all convinced that is the case.

Bernard Orsman at NZ Herald writes:

Auckland has a choice if it wants to open up more of its waterfront – let the port expand into the Waitemata Harbour or lose cargo to Tauranga and Northland.

An independent study on freight demands of the three North Island ports shows Auckland cannot open up Captain Cook and Marsden wharves to the public without having to fill in more of the harbour or limit the amount of cargo it handles.

That would lead to the economic benefits from Ports of Auckland going to Port of Tauranga and Northport.

I think the long-term future is to move the Ports of Auckland to another location. It is silly to have prime beautiful waterfront land taken up by a commercial port. The same goes for Wellington.

Even with “very significant operational efficiencies”, the study said, Ports of Auckland would still need extra berth and storage space by 2041 to cater for growth.

And the public won’t wear a growth in area in its current site, so a new location is the only way to expand.

Simon Collins at NZ Herald reports:

The ban made all tobacco products and lighters “contraband”, imposing disciplinary consequences if prisoners or guards were found with them.

Dr Lukkien said the ban was effective. Confiscations plunged from 569 lighters and 237 tobacco items in the first month of the ban to two lighters and 12 tobacco items in June this year.

Nurses in all prisons offered nicotine-replacement patches and lozenges to all smokers for up to 12 weeks.

Dr Lukkien said some prisons held barbecues and concerts to involve prisoners in “celebrating” going smokefree, rather than seeing it as a hardship.

A second evaluation, completed this year by Wellington-based Litmus Ltd and Kaipuke Consultants, found that half of the prisoners who had been smokers said they either would not or might not start smoking again after leaving jail.

Excellent. They’ll save money and be healthier.

“Improvements in prisoners’ self-esteem and confidence were also evident. Health staff reported prisoners telling them that having given up a nicotine addiction means that they feel they can give up other addictive behaviour also.”

And drug and alcohol addiction is a major issue with prisoners.

AP report at Stuff:

Britain needs a new independent media regulator to eliminate a subculture of unethical behaviour that infected segments of the country’s press, a senior judge has said at the end of a year-long inquiry into newspaper wrongdoing.

Lord Justice Brian Leveson said a new regulatory body should be established in law to prevent more people being hurt by “press behaviour that, at times, can only be described as outrageous.”

But UK Prime Minister David Cameron balked at that idea, warning that passing a new law to set up the body would mean “crossing the Rubicon” toward state regulation of the press.

I agree with Cameron that it is undesirable to have the state regulating the media. The ball is in the UK media’s court to set up a new regulator along the lines recommended by Leverson.

The full report is here. He notes:

the press is given significant and special rights in this country which I recognise and have freely supported both as barrister and judge. With these rights, however, come responsibilities to the public interest: to respect the truth, to obey the law4 and to uphold the rights and liberties of individuals. In short, to honour the very principles proclaimed and articulated by the industry itself (and to a large degree reflected in the Editors’ Code of Practice).

Do we have that reflected in codes here?

Turning to the Press Complaints Commission (PCC), I unhesitatingly agree with the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition who all believe that the PCC has failed and that a new body is required. Mr Cameron described it as “ineffective and lacking in rigour” whilst Mr Miliband called it a “toothless poodle”. The Commission itself unanimously and realistically agreed in March 2012 to enter a transitional phase in preparation for its own abolition and replacement.

A fascinating recommendation here:

I have recommended as a first step that political leaders reflect constructively on the merits of publishing on behalf of their party a statement setting out, for the public, an explanation of the approach they propose to take as a matter of party policy in conducting relationships with the press.

Not quite sure what this would be. Would a political party have to state that their general approach is to take journalists out for boozy lunches so they write nice things about them? 🙂

Some key recommendations:

• An independent self regulatory body should be governed by an independent Board. In order to ensure the independence of the body, the Chair and members of the Board must be appointed in a genuinely open, transparent and independent way, without any influence from industry or Government.
• The requirement for independence means that there should be no serving editors on the Board.
• The Board should not have the power to prevent publication of any material, by anyone, at any time although
• The Board should have the power to impose appropriate and proportionate sanctions, (including financial sanctions up to 1% of turnover with a maximum of £1m), on any subscriber found to be responsible for serious or systemic breaches of the standards code or governance requirements of the body.
• The term ‘off-the-record briefing’ should be discontinued. The term ‘non-reportable briefing’ should be used to cover a background briefing which is not to be reported, and the term ‘embargoed briefing’ should be used to cover a situation where the content of the briefing may be reported but not until a specified event or time. These terms more neutrally describe what are legitimate police and media interactions.

Our own media regulation in New Zealand is also being reviewed by the Law Commission, whom I expect will publish a final report next year.

A reminder that summer is on the way.  One of the peculiarities of NZ is that a lot of plant pollination is undertaken by native flies.  We have relatively few native bee species.

Click for larger, higher res image

Fox News reports:

Angus T. Jones, who has played the role of Jake Harper on the hit CBS show since 2003 and reportedly earns $350,000 an episode, is featured in a new video for the Forerunner Christian Church, in which he calls the sitcom “filth” that contradicts his devout Christian values.

That’s not all. The 19-year-old actor even urges fans to stop watching.

“I’m on ‘Two and a Half Men’ and I don’t want to be on it,” he said. “If you watch ‘Two and a Half Men,’ please stop watching it and filling your head with filth. People say it’s just entertainment. Do some research on the effects of television and your brain, and I promise you you’ll have a decision to make when it comes to television, especially with what you watch.”

Jones goes on to express guilt that his profession may be inflicting serious damage on its audience.

“If I am doing any harm, I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to be contributing to the enemy’s plan … You cannot be a true God-fearing person and be on a television show like that. I know I can’t,” he continued. “I’m not OK with what I’m learning, what the Bible says and being on that television show.”

I wonder if Jones has asked to be released from his contract? To go on taking $350,000 from a show you denounce as filth is rather hypocritical.

Personally I’ve hardly watched it since Charlie Sheen left. It just isn’t the same without him.

Hat Tip: Bob McCoskrie

On Tuesday night I went to Downstage to view Richard Meros salutes the Southern Man. My review of the previous Meros play on his desire to become Helen Clark’s young lover is here.

You get greeted at the door by Richard Meros (played by the talented Arthur Meek), and once you are all settled in, Meros begins his one hour presentation on how the Southern Man is the salvation for the NZ economy.

He starts by ascertaining the intellectual level of the audience and asks everyone with a Bachelor’s degree to stick their hand up. Only in Wellington could well over half the hands be up, and then you’re asked to keep them up if you have Honours, a Masters and finally a Doctorate. Again I suspect only in Wellington would you still have over half a dozen hands still up.

Those of us without degrees (such as me) were asked to translate the down to earth language for the intellectual elite 🙂

The powerpoint presentation that is at the heart of the show has been masterfully put together. There is some nice choreography as Meros ducks behind the screen so he is in silhouette, and he ducks under and around various images as they fly in.

Meek is an adept performer and a boisterousness audience shouted out occasionally, and he worked that all into the performance.

The central premise of the show is that the New Zealand economy is facing disaster. and the answer to our problems lies with the mythical Southern Man who is compared to actual mythical heroes such as Hercules.

The show is funny and engaging, albeit not as side split-tingly funny as the Helen Clark production was. It’s an amusing journey through many New Zealand stereotypes and even sacred cows, with a tinge of politics weaved through it.

The script is put together by playwright Meros himself, director Geoff Pinfield and Meek. In a q+a after the show (Meros appearing in silhouette to protect his actual identity – which worked well until Pinfield called him by his actual first name!) they spoke about how they put the show together, and what it means for the liberal Clark loving Meros to now be idolising the Southern Man.

A lively quick show, which was a lot of fun. It’s on until Saturday night.

Charley Mann at The Press reports:

Those who enjoy a glass or two should ignore the ”badly overstated” warnings about alcohol over the festive season, a University of Canterbury academic says.

The flurry of alcohol warnings ahead of Christmas were overstated and incorrect, said economics lecturer Dr Eric Crampton. ”Nobody warns us about the warnings.”

“And there’s danger in that … since some of the warnings are either false or badly overstated.”

Indeed.

Crampton said health warnings on alcohol focused ”exclusively” on curbing the harm experienced by heavy drinkers but ignored the enjoyment for moderate drinkers. This risked doing more harm than good, Crampton said.

”It is hard to open the paper without finding dire warnings about alcohol’s costs to the country. But how often do we hear that drinkers earn more than non-drinkers?

“Or that light drinkers have lower mortality risk than non-drinkers? Or that light-to-moderate drinking predicts better ageing outcomes?

Fundamentally alcohol is very different to tobacco. Tobacco kills you, even in moderation. Almost everyone who smokes wants to give up smoking. Very few moderate or light drinkers want to give up alcohol.

Hence the focus should be on heavy or binge drinking, not on demonising alcohol overall.

Michael Forbes at Stuff reports:

Justice Minister Judith Collins says it is important that Kiwis retain the right to be idiots and make fools of themselves.

Ms Collins made the comment during her speech at a NetSafe conference in Wellington today, where she reinforced the her view that a hard line should be taken on cyber-bullying and harassment.

In doing so, she pointed to reports out of Britain this week where a woman was found guilty by a jury of racially abusing her New Zealand-born neighbour by calling her a “stupid fat Australian” during a drunken tirade.

Ms Collins said that while the Government was considering a range of initiatives and law changes to stamp out cyber-bullying, she did not want to see people’s freedom of speech restricted to that extent.

“I don’t think that’s something we want to see in New Zealand. I do think it’s important to retain the right to be idiots and to make fools of ourselves,” she said.

“But when it goes too far, particularly the sort of bullying that ends with young people committing suicide, that’s where we need to be very-much focused.”

There definitely is a case for some law changes. But we do need to be aware that the proposed Communications Tribunal with proposed powers to order material to be taken down does pose significant free speech issues – and it is important we get the balance right.

In August, the Law Commission released its report on harmful digital communications, which recommended a new electronic communications offence for those aged 14 and over and the establishment of a Communications Tribunal to enforce apologies, take-down and cease-and-desist orders, and unmask anonymous offenders.

Brian Edwards has a blog post on anonymous bloggers. He says:

More contemptible by far than the anonymous correspondent is the anonymous blogger, particularly in a democracy like New Zealand where freedom of speech is limited only by the laws of defamation.  Such lack of spine contrasts starkly with the courage of those anonymous bloggers and pamphleteers who are the advocates of freedom and democracy in totalitarian societies.

The irony is that those who blog under their actual names tend to be much better and effective for it. When you know that your words will be linked to you, you tend to take greater care in what you say.

Bob Jones writes in the Herald:

After many petitions over the years, the Muldoon government announced in 1976 that it would now have equal status with that other preposterously worded anthem, God Save the Queen, as our joint national anthems. Save the Queen from what? Scurvy, being eaten alive by a flock of frenzied flamingos, bursting into flames? We’re not told.

Aside from its totally over-the-top excessive use, which negates what one would assume ought to be a specialness, my other objection to our anthem is the preposterous lyrics. Targeting a mythical entity, God, it consists of a medley of pleadings, plus bragging about our wonderfulness. Like the Australian anthem, it is hugely embarrassing. I especially scorn the, “Peace not war shall be our boast” in the third stanza. In fairness to Bracken, he was not to know that over the next 130 years, we would be declaring war on numerous Africans, Asians and Europeans. Muldoon even wanted to chime in against Argentina 30 years ago but was knocked back when the Brits assured him Nepal’s Gurkhas had the matter in hand.

Picture the scene in the Kaiser’s palace in Berlin in August 1914. A lackey enters. “Puzzling news, sir. Apparently something called New Zealand has just declared was on us.”

The Kaiser looks astonished. “Have the bloody Dutch gone mad?”

“No, no. It’s somewhere near Colombia, we think. Heinrich’s looking it up now.”

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why have they declared war on us? I’ve never heard of them.”

“No idea, sir.”

And so our “Peace not war shall be our boast” anthem chanters participated in the most disgracefully pointless mass killing in human history.

Just for a moment, ignore the reality that as Einstein correctly said, “religion is simply childish”, and the fact that space research has now covered billions of miles in every direction without spotting an old bearded bugger in a nightie and sandals, let alone several billion harp-playing angels. Let’s pretend instead that there actually is an all-powerful God, able to control earthly events. Well, put yourself in his place, perhaps sitting quietly having breakfast with Mrs God or enjoying a round of heavenly golf, if enjoyment is possible with the certain knowledge of 18 holes-in-one, or whatever God gets his kicks from, and being constantly interrupted by earthly snivelling to change his mind about this and that, which is what prayer essentially constitutes. Wonderful though God supposedly is, even he would eventually snap and lash out with a few city-destroying earthquakes, volcanoes, floods and whatnot, and who could blame him? So in the interest of giving God a bit of peace and quiet, everyone of a mystical disposition should show some consideration and knock off this constant skyward braying. It’s not doing you any good.

Surely it’s time, after 156 years, for a fresh competition for a new national anthem, or at least its lyrics, cutting out the witchcraft references, given that we’re a secular nation.

I have long thought we could do with a better national anthem. The lyrics aren’t so much the issue for me, than the music. Some of the great anthems of other countries such as France are wonderfully stirring and poignant.