Call to ban GTA 4 in New Zealand

I have long been opposed to computer games where the environment is almost indiscernable from the one we live in. This is the intention with games like Grand Theft Auto, where no detail is spared in an effort to transport the player into a parallel world to the one he lives in. In this virtual world, the player is rewarded for breaking laws, hurting and killing people and a host of other morally and ethically questionable actions.

Grand Theft Auto 4 is due to be released in New Zealand this week. Family First is calling for a nation-wide ban on all the Grand Theft Auto (GTA) video games.

Grand Theft Auto IV is scheduled for release this week. It follows on from previous Grand Theft Auto games which included constant graphic violence and sexual situations. Players could re-enact having sex with a prostitute, beating her bloody, taking her money and running her over with a car and shooting at police officers.

Rockstar Games which produces the game says the company is going even further in its pursuit of realism with this latest game in the series and players can buy cocaine, set enemies alight, shoot a policeman, drink drive, and visit strip clubs...

...“It is completely naïve to believe that teenagers and young children won’t have access to and be able to play the game,” says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First NZ. “It is also completely unrealistic to believe that young people will not be influenced in their attitudes and behaviours by constant exposure to this type of material.”

- Family First Press Release 27/04/08

"But what about our freedoms!", you scream. Would you still support people's right to own and play the game if pedophilia was one of the themes? I don't bring this up light-heartedly, however we must ask - if it's wrong to portray that in an interactive video-game, then it must surely be wrong to portray murder and drug-use. Even more so in such a realistic game, set in such a similar World to the one we live in.

On 17 April 2007, I wrote on the subject of violent computer games, and the link with violent crimes, particularly school shootings.

Video games such as Unreal Tournament, F.E.A.R., Half Life, Doom and Quake. These are games that idolise, sensationalise, stylise and glorify violence. Gore (blood) levels can be increased or decreased to suit the gamer. In F.E.A.R., extremely violent acts can be perfomed in explict detail on your victim (ie. a guard). Games such as these are immoral and have been proven to be the cause for gamers getting out there and "playing it real".

- "33 murdered students, Elephant, video games" Star Studded Super Step, 17/04/07

In that post I recommended that people watch the film Elephant, and concluded by saying that it is important that legislators don't swing too far the other way. Where are we as New Zealanders going to draw a line in the sand? Or are we forever going to push moral and ethical boundaries?

In Memory of Baby Miles Ash

I very rarely pick up Christchurch's largest newspaper, The Press. This is due to my general dissilusionment with most mainstream forms of media - but this paper in particular, thanks to it's strong undertones of pro-Government spin. Even less often do I glance at the Family Notices page. However, tonight, intrigued by the several adverts featuring colour pictures of happy couples, I took a look.

Baby Miles Ash's birth notice was the first in the Births column, and read...

Craig and Briar, parents of baby Miles Regan, born on April 17, 2008, at National Women's Hospital (6lb 6oz). Very proud of our precious wee angel.

Very Much loved
wee boy
you will always be
in mummy and
daddy's hearts
and you will always be
in our thoughts,
wondering what
you're doing.
We will miss you
with everything we've got
and can't wait to meet
you there.

Love Mum and Dad

I was confused. This looked more like a death notice than a birth notice. Was it in the Births column? Yes. They must have got it wrong, a mistake... I continued reading down the Births column - and then glanced over at the Deaths. Second on the list was 'Ash, Miles'.

With disbelief and growing sadness, I read the death notice for baby Miles Ash.

17/04/08 - 19/04/08

Dear baby Miles. A very cherished well loved wee man who will be held in our hearts forever.
Love always - Aunty Jess, Uncle Jeremy, and cousins Jaeda and Breana

The poor wee thing only lived for three days. Isn't it amazing, a little boy was born, and two days later he was dead. We all take life for granted so much of the time. Let's stop and think and be thankful for the time we have been given. And let's also remember that we have not been guaruanteed another minute of our lives. In Psalm 39, King David writes...

“LORD, make me to know my end,
And what is the measure of my days,
That I may know how frail I am.
Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths,
And my age is as nothing before You;
Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor.
- Psalm 39:4-6

Companies Cash In on ANZAC Day

What have we become? I was saddened, sickened - to see this advert in the weekend edition of The Press today. "Rally the troops for ANZAC deals" it reads. It goes on to mock the commemeration of the day our brave boys landed on the beach in Gallipoli, many of them losing their lives. "Men can wear flowers" jests the ad.

Please, commercialise Christmas and Easter if you must, but leave ANZAC day alone.

Bond & Bond, along with many other retailers show a disgusting lack of respect for our soldiers. Their ANZAC day motto is surely "Lest we lose a dollar". The advert here encouragers consumers to go into debt, "get what you want, now!", with not even a thought spared for the terrible sacrifices those soldiers made, that ANZAC day is suposed to commemerate.

Click the image for a larger version, if you can stomach it.

Click here to email Bond & Bond, let them know what you think.

Blues no match for Crusaders Steel

What an excellent game. The Crusaders fought hard against the rowdy Blues, and defeated them! I think I've lost my voice for a day or two, we'll see. Lyd told me I was getting pretty loud - but I couldn't really hear myself. CAN...A...BRYYYYYY!!!. Oh, good times.

The Blues were no match for the Crusaders!

In memory of the brave New Zealand and Australian Soldiers at Gallipoli, a lone soldier played the Last Post as we all stood. No words were said; the silence spoke. I was disgusted at the impudence of a few animals who shouted out the name of their team, as the trumpeter paused during his performance. And no, it didn't seem right to clap at the end, it's a solemn thing. We don't have to defile everything with clapping do we?

Argh, and then the half-time "entertainment", how utterly degrading and repulsive. Couples were asked to start kissing if they saw themselves on the big screen. Not just a peck, we're talking serious snogging here. The thing was rigged, I'm sure of it. They filmed three "couples". First two women, then two men, then a man and a woman. I couldn't care less what they do in the privacy of their own homes, but to have it played on a massive screen when you're at the rugby game is too much. What's the six-year-old girl in front of me, or the four-year-old boy to my right supposed to think. "Mum, what are those two guys doing?". Of course, pretty much everyone was laughing "it's just a bit of harmless fun" they say. Oh yeah?

I feel like ripping into the Paul Kelly Motor Company Dancers, but maybe I should leave that for another time. Apart from all the rubbish, it was a darn good game of Rugby, and...

We Are The Champions, My Friends!!!

Parental Authority and Public Schools

World Net Daily has an article by Monday columnist Vox Day (21 April 08) which looks at the role of the Government in society. An excerpt is below, click here for the entire article.

"...not since the Waco massacre have I been so completely appalled by an American government action. The recent kidnapping of 416 children from their Fundamentalist LDS parents by Texas Child Protective Service agents is a unconscionable abnegation of not only the United States and Texas constitutions, but a rejection of the very meaning of what it is to be an American. For as P.J. O'Rourke rightly declares: "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please."

Contrary to what a disturbing percentage of the voting population appears to believe, "protecting the children" is not a legitimate function of government. The concept appears nowhere in any constitution, and the very idea that the most lethal institution in human history, an institution that has killed more children than any other, can even be used to protect children is inherently oxymoronic. The state does not own the children whose families happen to reside within its boundaries and it does not possess the right to dictate what is and what is not a proper way for a family to raise its children.

Consider this absurd justification for the mass kidnappings offered by Angie Voss, the CPS kidnapper in chief, offered as an explanation for the mysterious preference of the abused women to remain with their supposed abusers instead of availing themselves of government shelters: "This population of women has a difficult time making decisions on their own." If a distaste for decision-making is legitimate grounds for removing children from their mothers, then there won't be a woman in America left with a child to call her own!..."

In another article, (3 March 08), Vox exposes the crumbling public education system in America. He quotes the College of Education at California State University, Sacramento...

There are four main goals that we have and will continue to focus on in the college, which are expressed in the acronym TEACH:
Transformative Leadership
Equity and Social Justice
Action
Collaboration
Human Differences and Diversity

Vox responds,

"Of course, they only teach education, not mathematics, so one shouldn't expect these professional educators to be able to count to five. Perhaps they expect that "one-two-three-many" should suffice for the intellectually lobotomized victims of their trained thought-executioners, after all, we're reliably informed that it's enough for rabbits. A keen observer might also note that nowhere in the concepts expressed by these fiver main goals is anything even remotely related to a traditional education as the average parent understands one to be."

And then a little further down, encourages parents to withdraw their children from such institutions...

There is no point in attempting to fix such a lethally poisoned institution. Let the male teachers withdraw en masse from the system; they are not wanted anyway. Let no child be left behind as the illiterate and innumerate graduate with their meaningless degrees. Let the universities continue to devolve into remedial reading programs for unmarried women. Embrace the failures of the system with enthusiasm, because the sooner complete control is turned over to the cave-dwelling control freaks who seek to run it, the sooner the schools will collapse in ruins. Knowledge will still be accessible to those who seek it.

One cannot fix what is not broken, and the schools are working as they are designed to work. This is not a battle that can be fought and won; it is not a battle that should be fought. Homeschooling is but a stop-gap; in the long term, it is technology that will put an end to the 100-year American experiment with Prussian pragmatism. But until that day, do whatever you must to extricate your children from the system, teach them well and watch with confidence in the future as the professional educators immolate themselves and their system in a self-administered act of faith.

Click here for the entire article.

Beijing Olympics 2008, an inside look

I recently received this email from a friend in China. The subject line read stand for Olympics , stand for Beijing!!!  The email is below, verbatim, and is worth a read.  No comment.

these days some so called tibetan 's and  a few parts westen people want to split our contry by destroying the olympics torch and politize the Olymoics   and  put huge hummen right presuse on us  and want all the country not to attend Beijing during the game time unless we have to agree with them.

these jurks dont know any of our history and some people just believe it in some person's bare words.

they r afraid of ours power  and we r becoming more stronger, they want to beat us by catch    their last straw and last chance  we r not some so called person think we r and we r peace makers and dont want hurt any contry and any peaceful lovers . but if  they ignore our kindness and friendly  , we have to raise up and firght for ourselves and our contry , we can not stand any un frinedly deeds and behaviers .

my dear friends , if u ever been to china , if u know what china really is , what our chinese people really r, pls tell the people around u no matter who r friendly with us or not, just tell the truth , i 'll apreciate it very much , thanks a million!

and I will like all the chinese people try our best to protect our contry and Olympics and  insist to tell the truth around the world.

Gone Baby Gone

Ben Affleck's debut as a director is impressive. His brother, Casey Affleck who is cast in the leading role as private detective Patrick Kenzie lives up to his high reputation. Following their work with director Gus Van Sant, these two brothers form a well qualified movie-making team. I had hoped that Ben Affleck would at least appear in a cameo role, however he stayed behind the camera for the duration of the 114 minute movie.

Grating and heart-rending, but well-handled, the film's subject is child abduction. Mercifully, the horror is almost all in the unknown, standing alongside the actors as they question the fate of the child. The viewer will from time to time lower his head and bring his hand to his eyes, overwhelmed by the reality of the few mental images which are implied. "I don't wanna find a little kid after they've been abused for three days." says one of the detectives before she agrees to take the case. Get out there and look for her! screams the viewer, while at the same time, imagining himself in the same situation.

The star studded cast is excellent. Ed Harris plays an undercover police officer, and with the grey goatee and moustache, you would swear that he was an older Viggo Mortenson. Hardened veteran and cynical of anyone younger than himself, Ed steals the role. Casey plays a pensive, driven man who is determined to play life by the rules, even if it doesn't feel right. Morgan Freeman is gold, as usual, and for what feels like the umpteenth time, takes to the screen as chief of police. Michele Monaghan, in arguably her breakthrough role is cast as Patrick's girlfriend, and brings balance and empathy to the movie.

Painfully ironic that it is young Madeline O'Brien who plays the part of the missing girl. Just turned six years old, Madeline is the epitome of innocence and cuteness. Her one-word script is marvelous and well-delivered. Keep an eye on this young star!

This film is entirely unsuitable for children, due to the emotive theme, the frequent swearing and violence. However the mature movie-critic will walk out of the theater, a myriad of questions in his head, mixed feelings, and a refreshed realisation of the depravity in our society. Gone Baby Gone is a film that you will want to watch more than once.

Parkour

This guy is cool.

The Family

The two dolls chatted as the six-year-old girl looked on. Different dolls they've got these days. The two Barbie-esque dolls sported little clothing, and a professional tan. Entirely immersed in her imaginary world, she reposed on the floor, in the departures lounge of Christchurch airport. Her four-year-old sister ran restlessly here and there, climbing up onto one of the blue chairs and then complaining about something, perhaps that her sister was playing with dolls, and she wasn't. Something small like that, like little children do. Early forties and grey hair balding, Dad sat, all but dead to the activity around him, filling out slips of paper and slotting them into the passports for each member of his family. Mum leaned back in her chair, nodding occasionally at her youngest daughter, enjoying her few moments of relative rest. It's not everyday you see the dad organising stuff. The two matching backpacks lay on the ground, and it appeared that each of these was full of dolls and a blanket.

Mum got up and walked the few paces into the center of the lounge to throw something in the rubbish-bin. The youngest girl followed, and in the long, drawn-out fashion well-known by mums all around the world, informed her mother and the everyone else in the room, that she “needed a drink”. “I'm thirsty Mum”, she complained. Despite her desperate, heart-rending plea, her mother patted the child on the head as she walked back to her seat. Dad was still busily writing away, the very epitome of orderliness.

Muffled words came over the loud-speaker, would passengers in seats thirty to eleven please board now. Mum and the two girls got out of their seats, the girls crouching down, and Mum crouching down behind them, pointing over their shoulders at something interesting at the back of the room. What are they looking at? A middle-aged flight-attendant was walking up the high-durability carpet towards their end of the room. Big sister skipped off to play with her dolls again as Mum had a word with the four-year-old. “When we get on the plane, people aren't going to be very happy if you're screaming”, she warned her.

Back at the seats now, Dad wrapping up his task, and Mum pulled Teddy from out of one of the bags. Moth-eaten and thread-bare, patches of fur missing, the large pink teddy-bear was hardly brand-new. Head and limbs coming off with just the string inside holding them all in one piece. Masterpiece. Dad stacked up the passports and dropped his parker into his shirt pocket. Mum ensured that the girls had all their dolls and blankets tucked into their backpacks. The girls had a brief discourse over whose backpack was whose. The family was mobilised, and with mum and dad in the lead, the two girls took up the rear-guard as they headed for gate 19, somewhere behind those postered room-dividers. Teddy held on tight to the little hand of the four-year-old girl, and as the family disappeared around the corner, waved me goodbye.

Cuppa v.2

see Cuppa v.1

Head down to the shop and pick up a packet of this great tea. It should cost you just under $4 for a pack of 20, so that's about 20c a cup.

While you let the tea brew, start the video buffering. I'd give it about 4 minutes, then lose the tea-bag and sit back... :) The live version of Brothers in Arms isn't quite as good, but it's nice with the orchestra.

Achievements in Iraq

from The Wall Street Journal 7 April 08 (hat-tip: Whaleoil)

"...Gen. Petraeus will be the first to acknowledge that the gains in Iraq have come at a heavy price in blood and treasure. We mourn the loss and pain of the civilians and service members who have been killed and wounded in Iraq, but adamantly believe these losses have served a noble cause.

No one can deny the dramatic improvements in security in Iraq achieved by Gen. Petraeus, the brave troops under his command, and the Iraqi Security Forces. From June 2007 through February 2008, deaths from ethno-sectarian violence in Baghdad have fallen approximately 90%. American casualties have also fallen sharply, down by 70%.

Al Qaeda in Iraq has been swept from its former strongholds in Anbar province and Baghdad. The liberation of these areas was made possible by the surge, which empowered Iraqi Muslims to reject the Islamist extremists who had previously terrorized them into submission. Any time Muslims take up arms against Osama bin Laden, his agents and sympathizers, the world is a safer place...

...In recent months, the Iraqi government, encouraged by our Ambassador in Iraq, Ryan Crocker, has passed benchmark legislation on such politically difficult issues as de-Baathification, amnesty, the budget and provincial elections. After boycotting the last round of elections, Sunnis now stand ready to vote by the millions in the provincial elections this autumn. The Iraqi economy is growing at a brisk 7% and inflation is down dramatically...

...Today's antiwar politicians have effectively turned John F. Kennedy's inaugural address on its head, urging Americans to refuse to pay any price, or bear any burden, to assure the survival of liberty. This is wrong. The fact is that America's prosperity at home and security abroad are bound together. We will not fare well in a world in which al Qaeda and Iran can claim that they have defeated us in Iraq and are ascendant."

Click here to read the entire article

Love

Let me not to the marriage of true minds (Sonnet CXVI)

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

-- William Shakespeare


"he had a pretty good grasp on what was what, did the bard"
- Evan

Gerry

Trailer for Gerry, 2002. Directed by Gus Van Sant, starring Matt Damon and Casey Affleck. Excellent movie.