"They Meant it for Evil but God used it for Good"

Alerted to Pastor Walter Hoye's imprisonment at JillStanek.com, I wrote a letter to him while he was incarcerated in Santa Rita jail, California. Hoye is a huge encouragement, and a shining example of what it means to be a man of conviction. Below is the first bit of the article at WorldMag.com. Be sure to continue reading...

For 19 days in March and April, Walter Hoye was locked in a cell with 29 other prisoners at the Santa Rita jail near Oakland, Calif. There were times when he wished he could have stayed longer.

When the metal door first clanged shut behind him on March 20, Hoye, 52, decided the space was really more of a cage than a cell. A metal grid penning in prisoners. Fifteen bunks lining two walls. Two toilets and a urinal for all 30 men, and a shower that inmates had gradually transformed into a pornographic shrine.

As Hoye made his way to an empty bunk, a few prisoners, mostly black and Latino, dogged his path. "You smuggle in any drugs, man?" one of them asked.

"No," Hoye said quietly.

Then the veteran inmates left him alone, he told me, except for "one of the brothers who was kind enough to help me make up my bed."

A few minutes later, another man walked over to Hoye's bunk and jabbed his finger at a newspaper he was holding. "This you?" he said, eyeing Hoye skeptically.

Hoye peered at the Oakland Tribune headline: "Anti-abortion pastor chooses jail."

"Yeah, that's me," he said.

In the next moment, the inmate was striding up and down the length of the cell, announcing, "Hey, he don't have to be here! He turned down probation! He doing straight time for what he believed in!"

Click here to continue reading...

German Govt. Looking Back to Totalitarian Past

Concerned at any form of teaching which contradicts the ideology of "The State" of Germany, the German Government has banned home-education as well as enforcing a number of other anti-family, ultimately anti-freedom restrictions on its citizens. This is a prime case of a government being scared of its people and acting preemptively to silence objectors. LifeSiteNews reports,

Alliance Defense Fund attorneys are representing two German parents in an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights filed Tuesday. The two parents were convicted under German law when they chose to educate their child at home on the subject of sexuality rather than allow her to participate in a four-day "sexual education" course and related stage production at her school, both of which taught views of sexuality in conflict with the family's Christian faith.

"Parents, not the government, are the ones ultimately responsible for making educational choices for their children," said ADF Legal Counsel Roger Kiska. - LifeSiteNews 22/4/09

I completely concur with the sentiments of Roger Kiska, and with the actions of the girl's parents. The parents have the inalienable duty and inherent right to make choices for their own children. They did not remove their daughter from any other school programs or classes.

(Obviously there are cases where parents are abusive and in these situations the children should be passed over to the care of relatives or the local community.)

It is bad enough that Germany has compulsory school education for all children, but to include such extra-academic subjects as sex-education, and force children to sit through it - whatever their convictions - or the beliefs of their parents, is patently unjust.

Victoria University Student's Assn. a Disgrace

The Victoria University of Wellington Student's Association (VUWSA) has arrogantly presumed to misrepresent its constituents in a libellous attack on the brave soldiers who died for our freedom during WWI, WWII and other wars to date. The VUWSA executive was invited by the Wellington City Council to lay a wreath on the war memorial at the dawn service on ANZAC Day. However "president Jasmine Freemantle [responded that] there was no 'official mandate from students' to recognise Anzac Day." - Stuff 28/04/09

The union's student magazine emergency toilet-paper reserve Salient stated that "Some on the executive said that to lay a wreath would be to condone war." Former student Peter responded, asking if anyone could possibly be so thick as to say that ANZAC Day was pro-war. (quotes from Stuff)

VUWSA president Jasmine Freemantle is pushing her barrow over the members of the union which she is paid to represent (aprox $30,000 pa), ignoring the fact that the majority of them respect their fallen forefathers and desire to honour them on ANZAC Day. This from the VUWSA website,

Jasmine is a member of the Workers’ Party of New Zealand, and has also been involved in a variety of campaigns and movements, such as the anti-war movement and volunteer organising for Unite Union. - VUWSA website

One of the worst things about this shameful fiasco is that students at Victoria University of Wellington have no choice but to become members of the student's association. They are unable to attend university unless they join the union. As such, they are implicated in the disrespectful attitude of their executive, whether they want it or not. Just by the way, the VUWSA is forecasting an income of $1,560,000 from student memberships alone in the 2009 budget.

Student union membership must be made optional; anything less is totalitarian and unjust. Arguments claiming that lack of compulsory membership will lead to lack of representation are frivolous, as individuals should have the right to choose whether or not they wish to be represented at all.

ACT on Campus has been demanding voluntary student union membership for many years now - and this latest display of the injustice of compulsory membership should serve as ample evidence to the Minister of Education, Anne Tolley that it is time to repeal this fatal flaw in student politics.

NZ: Emergency Contraceptives Free + No Prescription Required

On Friday I was at the pharmacy, picking up some outrageously expensive antibiotics. I had just been on the dentist's chair and was standing at the counter waiting for the girl in the white lab-coat to turn around and notice me. The right side of my face was pretty numb, and it was almost closing time. The phone rang and the girl in the white lab-coat went to answer it. I stood resting on one leg, leaning on the counter, flicking my credit-card with thumb and forefinger.

I glanced around the room; a fairly typical chemist's. It was with disbelief that my eyes lighted on a big brown poster hung in a prominent position behind the counter. It read "Emergency contraception available here without prescription". I had heard that this was the case; that contraception could be had without first getting approval from one's doctor, however it was a shock to see it promoted like this. I am not opposed to contraception - unless that contraception is abortifacient (pronounce: abort-if-a-shent). Abortifacient contraceptives are ones that do not merely prevent conception, they in fact destroy a young life.

Emergency contraception differs from other forms of contraception in that it is taken "the morning after", and is intended to prevent the implantation of the embryo in the womb. However in many cases the sperm and the egg have already fused, creating a new embryo: biologically speaking, a new life has begun - a child with separate DNA from its mother. Therefore in many cases, emergency contraception is simply a polite if deceptive way of saying "early abortion".

Incredible to think that a little girl who needs a panadol at school must have her parent's permission, is allowed to be handed an emergency contraceptive pill over the counter without her parent's or her doctor's permission or notice. Maxim Institute summarises the hypocrisy:

In New Zealand, parents must be consulted and their permission sought before their child can be given a Panadol at school. However, a young girl can have an abortion without her parents ever knowing, let alone giving their permission.
Section 38 of the Care of Children Act 2004 says that a girl of any age can give consent to an abortion and that consent operates as if it were given by her parents. Therefore, her parents need never know that their daughter is having such a procedure."
- Maxim Institute

Believe it or not, New Zealand's abortion law does not specify the minimum age at which a girl can have an abortion - or the minimum age at which a girl can have an abortion without her parent's permission or notification. New Zealand's government wants abortions to take place. Why else would they take such extreme measures to enable them to go ahead?

Unsurprisingly then, the fully-government-subsidised and often abortifacient pills are promoted to women of all ages, and every attempt is made to ensure that the pills make it into the hands of those who want them.

What other medication can you get for free - and with no prescription?

$%@#!

Is Al Gore Converting Back to Pro-Life?

I have joined renowned pro-life commentary blog JillStanek.com as an intern. Here is my first post there...

This is the question many pro-choicers are asking, as revelations surface of Al Gore - former US VP and Nobel Peace Prize recipient - aligning himself with an adult stem cell research company.
Andy Coghlan at New Scientist writes:

Gore's venture capital company, Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers is putting $20 million into a joint venture between iZumi Bio, a company in San Francisco, and the University of Kyoto where researcher Shinya Yamanaka discovered how to make [adult] iPS [induced pluripotent stem] cells in 2006. The aim is to produce treatments for degenerative conditions including Parkinson's Disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis [Lou Gehrig's disease, which Stephen Hawking has].

By the same token, many pro-lifers are rethinking their relationship with Gore, viewing him as a potential new ally for the pro-life cause. However this is an unfounded conclusion. [JLS note: At the beginning of his political career, Gore was considered pro-life.]...

Click here to continue reading the article

There's No Charge for Love

A farmer had some puppies he needed to sell. He painted a sign advertising the four pups, and set about nailing it to a post on the edge of his yard. As he was driving the last nail into the post, he felt a tug on his overalls. He looked down into the eyes of a little boy
“Mister,” he said, “I want to buy one of your puppies.”
“Well,” said the farmer, as he rubbed the sweat off the back of his neck, “these puppies come from fine parents and cost a good deal of money.”
The boy dropped his head for a moment, then reaching deep into his pocket, he pulled out a handful of change and held it up to the farmer.
‘I’ve got thirty-nine cents. Is that enough to take a look?...”

continue reading at ultimatetruth.wordpress.com where I found the story. The picture is of a Spoodle - a cross between a Cocker Spaniel and a Poodle. I visited a home today where there was a bouncy little 10 week old Spoodle named Ollie. Real cute wee number.

Red is the New Blue

Many Kiwis are sick of our new National Government. John Key continues to wilfully ignore the will of the 83% of New Zealanders who are opposed to the anti-family law, labelled by the Green Party as the "anti-smacking law". When asked if he will honour the result of the upcoming referendum on smacking, Key has evaded the question by stating that unless he hears of good parents being prosecuted for a light smack, he is happy with the law. Key is not a fool. He knows just as well as you or I that that is not the point. The fact is that it is illegal to correct your child with a smack - whether or not the police prosecute is utterly beside the point. - more at the Section 59 blog.

Meanwhile, our Minister of Finance Bill English is failing to prepare New Zealand for the full onslaught of the recession. "Mr English said the budget would focus on reprioritising government spending, particularly spending for public services. There would be no room for significant fiscal stimulus in the budget and the rate of increased spending would be lower than in the past." - TV3 23/04/09. Hard as it is to believe, those are English's words "the rate of increased spending will be lower than in the past", i.e. spending will continue to increase.

National is setting our country up for a full-scale depression. What is desperately needed now is a strong dose of ACT policy - the same thing that pulled New Zealand out of the downward spiral set in motion by the 80's Muldoon Government. Below is an excerpt from ACT MP Hon. Sir Roger Douglas's latest press release with his recommendations for the National Government.

Mr English continues to either sit on his hands or move in the wrong direction. While the OECD tells us to sell poorly-managed State assets, National promised to retain State assets – and is now beginning to stack them with political appointments just as Labour did.

The OECD reports that health spending is out of control and can only be tamed by introducing greater public/private competition. National TALKS about allowing competition in health services – but we need action. We need to privatise ACC and utilise private health services before we will see any benefits.

Further, the burgeoning cost of superannuation caused by retiring baby boomers is unsustainable. If we act now, we can decrease the pain in the long term. In the short term, the age of entitlement will have to rise – as the OECD advises – or we will continue to slide behind other nations even faster. In the longer term, we must move away from the current superannuation system towards one that encourages people to save.

When you’re in a hole, you need to look at all possible ways to get out. We shouldn’t ignore advice simply because Mr English doesn’t want to hear it. In fact most of the advice, if followed, would create the kind of growth that occurred from 1984-96. While Mr English is not listening, Labour is moving in the opposite direction to that needed – continuing to have faith in politicians and bureaucrats to spend money more wisely than individuals.

Enough of National thinking they are New Zealand's saviour. They are arrogant and hypocritical just like their predecessors, Labour. We want a government which listens to the people, which refuses to endorse badly written law, and which will protect the country's economy by drastically cutting government spending.

Pro-Choice is Not

"He who defines wins" - the axiom of the founder of Vision Forum, Doug Phillips.  It is high time for the pro-life movement to adopt this maxim for itself.  Below is an excerpt from an email sent out by Cecile Richards of Planned Parenthood to its supporters,

President Obama's nominee for secretary of health and human services, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, is under attack from anti-choice extremists.  They want to block her confirmation, and they're doing everything they can to convince their allies in the Senate to play along.

The US Government is no better, with the Department of Homeland Security raising concerns about "white supremacists' longstanding exploitation of social issues such as abortion", in a report dated 7/04/09.

The US Government its subsidary, Planned Parenthood and the entire "pro-choice" contingent are scared of the pro-life movement, and for good reason. Pro-lifers are correct, and they know that - but because they don't have any answers, they are turning in desperation to labelling us - and then condemning us for that label.

Pro-lifers do not need to stoop to such levels. However we can - and should call a spade a spade. Pro-choice is not. If the group who believe in the rights of unborn babies are pro-life, then the group who do not belive in the rights of the unborn are pro-death. Pro-lifers are all for informed choice - we believe that in a pregnancy, there are two choices to consider. The choice of the baby (to live), and the choice of the mother (to have the abortion or not).

To be genuinely pro-choice, one would need to respect not only the choice of the mother, but also the choice of the baby. Anyone who promotes the right of the mother's choice alone is not pro-choice, but pro-death.

Click here for Jill Stanek's comments on this issue.
Click here for my sister Lydia's take on it. She also examines the opposition of the nomination of Kathleen Sebelius as Obama's secretary of health.

Cooking with Andy 3

In July 08 we learned how to make Twirly Pasta with Lacerated Greens and Dead Cow. Then in August I divulged a contraband recipie from war-torn Scandinavia; Apple and Honey sandwiches. Now we bring you Cooking With Andy 3, a sensationally simple, and yet unique desert: Poor Old Pears. It's a real quick recipie; not very ponsy, but a healthy snack. You could listen to Bittersweet by Poor Old Lu while you prepare this...

Ingredients
You need some pears.

and a lime. (1 per 4 pears)

Method
Get the skin off the pears. You can use a sharp little knife, or a peeler.
Cut the pears into quarters and put them on a plate nicely.
Cut your lime in half and squash it in your hand to drip the juice over the pear slices.

Disfrutar!

PURE YWNAGE

Just for the record: I coined the word Ywnage. It's a take-off of the popular gamer's term, Pwnage. Quick history lesson. Pwnage is a typo of Ownage. Ownage is the noun form of the verb Owned. When a computer gamer says "I owned you", it means something like "I totally destroyed you". Noobs is another way of writing Newbies (i.e. amateurs), so another common gamers' saying is "I just pwned your noobs!"

lol.


More info at purepwnage.com.

Volition

Volition (n)- The act of making a choice. Volition (Doorpost Finalist 2008) presents a realistic insight into the moral choices faced by men in three unique situations in the last century. Slavery in the United States, the Jewish Holocaust and Abortion.

This cinematically pleasing 15 minute independent film is an inspiration for everyone, but especially as a challenge to the men of my generation; to stand up and be men.

Do not watch this film if you feel unable to handle the truth of its message.

Public Holidays Don't Work

The title of this post is very misleading. I am a supporter of a country having days which it sets apart as public holidays. However, I am opposed to restrictions against working on public holidays. You could rephrase the title then, "On public holidays, don't work".

"New Zealand's Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal Act 1990 specifies three-and-a-half days each year on which most New Zealand retailers must close – Christmas Day, Good Friday, Easter Sunday and until 1pm on Anzac Day." - Department of Labour.

What gives our Government the right to dictate hours or days in which two consenting parties may not conduct business? It is completely tyrannical and unjust for the state to declare that trading on arguably arbitrary days of the year should be illegal, on threat of a fine of up to $1000. Easter Sunday isn't even a public holiday; it is in fact, classed as a "religious day". Why the heck should all non-Christians be compelled to observe a religious day that they do not even hold sacred?

But that is merely the beginning of the traditionalist madness. Some stores are allowed to remain open. Garden centres, petrol stations, daries (corner-stores), souvenir shops, fast-food restaurants and pharmacies are granted exemption from the trading restrictions on these three-and-a-half days. I find it hard to believe that our Parliament is paid with taxpayer dollars to come up with such stupid, pathetic, pedantic and arbitrary legislation as this. Why 1pm on Anzac Day? Why garden centres

Regulatory Reform Minister Rodney Hide - a long-time campaigner against the Easter trading laws - has called the red tape and unnecessary bureaucracy "ridiculous". "Garden centres can open on Easter Sunday but the Mitre 10 hardware shop nearby, which also sells plants, can't," he said in March. - Stuff, 4/10/09

Of all our public holidays, I see Anzac day as being the most worthy of being honoured by the nation with trading restrictions, although even then it is hard to reconcile this with the freedom of the people to go about their business as they see fit. Anzac day is truly an event that our whole country can and should embrace, honouring the brave men and women who sacrificed so much for us; apathetic and ungrateful generations that we are.

David Farrar at Kiwiblog commented in his Annual Rant on Easter Trading, "I doubt there is any law as inconsistent and illogical as our current Easter shop trading laws... And that is before we even deal with regional anomalies. Shops in Queenstown can open, but not Wanaka. Taupo is okay, but not Rotorua". Fellow-Christian blogger Dave at Big News writes, "As far as I'm concerned, if [Easter Sunday] is not a public holiday, the shops can stay open, and I don't care what other Christians think of that." Dave should probably be consistent and go further to say that shops should be be open or close at their own discretion.

Lucyna Maria at NZ Conservative blog takes up the (surprise!) conservative line, "All I really have to say is that if NZ enforcing a religious holiday that harks back to the distant past when Sunday was a no-work day and one of the last vestiges of our Christian heritage, if that is a bad thing, then God help us... Seriously, there are worse things than having one Sunday of the year enforced as a mandatory day off". Lucyna employs a bad argument though. The fact that there are "worse things" than banning trading on Easter Sunday does nothing to redeem an inane law. And who's to say that "enforcing a religious holiday" necessarily entails criminalising people who wish to trade on that religious holiday?

Laila Harre, spokeswomen of the National Distribution Union says, "Our Easter trading laws are not just silly rules, they are there to ensure a bare minimum of non-trading days that celebrate and encourage family life, community activity and religious observances over narrow commercial interest." - Stuff, 9/4/09

Finally, I must disagree with my friend Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First...

The two bills before Parliament that would extend shop trading to all or some locations on Good Friday and Easter Sunday have not had time to be debated and therefore won’t apply this Easter.
“That is great news for workers,” says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First. “As families throughout NZ take time out for family holidays, camps, reunions, Easter church events, cultural and recreational events over this Easter weekend, kiwis employed in the retail industry should also be able to enjoy the public holidays and extended weekend.”
...For the sake of families and the well-being of our nation, keep the public holidays. - Family First, 5/4/07

I agree that we need to keep our public holidays, however it is small-minded to presume that the only way that families will be able to enjoy a public holiday is to ban them from working on those days.

Click here for a list of New Zealand's public holidays.

Abortion Affects Women: New Counter

I attended Right to Life's AGM on Wednesday night. The guest speaker that evening was Carolina from Post Abortion Trauma Healing Service (PATHS). It was an incredibly informative presentation. I gained a much fuller understanding of what abortion really does to women, and it really impacted me.

• Abortion is part of the spectrum of pregnancy loss, but it is hardly ever recognised: grief is very often supressed.
• Women don't set out to kill their babies - the abortion choice is often made under extreme pressure, and within a very short time-frame.
• A battle goes on inside: the heart says "don't do it", but the mind says "it's the only thing I can do".
• They thought it was a "choice", but it wasn't really:  there are a multitude of outside pressures and influences which affect a woman's choice.

Cycling home after the meeting, I realised that the very popular abortion counter could be adapted into a new counter which focuses on the number of women who have been affected by an abortion since you opened this webpage. It is important not to sidestep the issue and ignore what abortion does to pre-born babies. But at the same time, there are an equal number of women out there who are going through a stressful - or often traumatic; physically or mentally damaging experience.

Let's get the message out there that abortion is not the simple, safe procedure that it is often made out to be. Abortion does affect women, and often leaves them with intense feelings of guilt and sorrow, with the knowledge that they have been a part of the killing of the life that was growing inside them.

:'(

Missing Data from 2007 Abortion Report

On 17 June 2008, the Abortion Supervisory Committee reported to Parliament with the abortion statistics for New Zealand for 2007.  However Right to Life was concerned at the lack of various tables and figures in this report, and so requested that the information be released.

Below are some of the disturbing and previously unreleased statistics (all for 2007):

• 4,380 women had their second abortion.
• 1,485 women were having their third abortion.

• Only TEN abortions were performed because the mother's life was at risk.
• 18,138 (98.7%) or abortions were performed on the grounds of "Danger to Mental Health [of the mother]"

For every three live births in New Zealand, there is approximately one abortion. 66,110 live births, 18,380 abortions recorded in 2007. 98.7% of these abortions are justified on the grounds that the mother's mental health would be at risk if the pregnancy was taken to completion. However, a vast majoity of these abortions are illegal, because New Zealand's law states that an abortion is only justified if it "is immediately necessary to save the life of the patient or to prevent serious permanent injury to her physical or mental health." - Contraception, Sterilisation, and Abortion Act, Section 37 (2) 1977. The Crimes Act also, states that the only exception where an abortion is justified is if it is, "in good faith for the preservation of the life of the mother" - Crimes Act 1961, Section 82 (2) - Killing unborn child.

The law allows for an abortion only if it is for the purpose of preserving the life of the mother, or for preventing serious permanent injury. If the law was being carried out faithfully, then the number of abortions would be closer to 10, than to the horrific figure of 18,380.

Click here to download the missing tables in PDF format.

Did you know? New Zealand law states that a child is not a "human being" until it is outside of its mother. That is absolutely arbitrary, and complete bollocks. Where you are has nothing to do with what you are.

Easter

Easter is literally central to the Western World. The flag of England is a red cross on a white background. The cross is also present in the flags of many other Western countries, including New Zealand. Time is measured from when Jesus (the central figure of Easter) was born. B.C. means Before Christ, while A.D. stands for Anno Domini, which means "In the year of our Lord". Easter is an important time of year for supermarkets, bakeries and chocolate factories. I've worked at a supermarket and observed the frenzied purchase of pallet loads of Easter-eggs and bunnies and other boxes of chocolates. I've worked at a bakery, baking thousands of hot cross buns. My sister is in the kitchen, icing yet another tray of hot-cross buns before she puts then in the oven. Harvey Norman is advertising Easter Deals on a range of electrical equipment. Someone on Facebook had the witty status message, "Dave hopes you are having a good Friday".

But what is Easter?

About 2009 years ago, a Jewish woman named Mary found she was pregnant - even though she hadn't yet had sex with her fiance, Joseph. God sent an angel to tell Mary that her baby was the long-awaited Messiah. Messiah is the Jewish word for Christ, and means "Saviour". Jesus was a member of the Trinity: one of the three persons of God. God the Father sent God the Son to the Earth, to be born as a man. Jesus was all God and all man at the same time. You will notice in the Bible that He is refered to sometimes as the Son of God, and other times as the Son of Man.

God is absolutely holy, and cannot stand sin. However we humans are sinful (click here to confirm), and therefore, God must punish us for this by sending us to hell. Because we are sinful, even though we may often do good things, we can never be perfect - which means that we can never satisfy God.

Because Jesus was God, he never sinned while he was on Earth. And because Jesus was man, he experienced the things that all of us experience. Jesus was crucified on a cross (a common method of Roman execution) on a Friday afternoon - but his physical suffering was just one aspect. God also poured out all his anger and judgement on Jesus at that time, to pay for the sins of Christians. Jesus did not stay dead though. God resurrected Him back to life on the following Sunday morning. Jesus had defeated death and paid the penalty for the sins of all those who put their trust in Him.

Christianity is the only religion which says that good works cannot make a person right with God. Christians are not "good people"; they are not holy. They are just like all other people in the World. The only difference is, that instead of ignoring God, or trying to please God by doing good things, they actually put their trust in Jesus' death on the cross.

On the last day of the World, the Bible tells us that God will judge everyone. Christians will be confident, because they know that when God looks at their heart, instead of seeing their sinfulness, He will only see Jesus' perfect righteousness in its place.

Only Christians will be saved, and allowed to enter Heaven. Everyone will live forever, however Christians will be the only ones who live happily forever. People who have refused to acknowledge God, and to honour and obey Him will be given what all people in the World actually deserve: the punishment of spending eternity in Hell.

Easter is a celebration of Jesus' sacrifice which has opened the way for people to be made right with God.

-----------------------------------------

This account may sound far-fetched to you. But don't try and tell me that the theory of evolution - or any other religion is any more believable.

To become a Christian, you need to pray to God, repenting of your sin and asking for forgiveness. You also need to turn your back on your old way of life. As the Apostle Paul said, "we have been saved, but this doesn't mean that we can just go on living as we used to". It is also important to read the Bible regularly (daily is best), to remember to pray to God with requests and thanks, and also to find a church nearby which teaches from the Bible.

Other Christian bloggers' Easter posts:
There they Crucified Him - Scrubone

Weekly Joke

I'm not generally a fan of "Christian jokes", but this one's passable; more of a laugh at American culture than anything else really. Found this joke at Constant Joy - click here for more.

---

The minister was preoccupied with thoughts of how he was going to ask the congregation to come up with more money than they were expecting for repairs to the church building. Therefore, he was annoyed to find that the regular organist was sick and a substitute had been brought in at the last minute. The substitute wanted to know what to play.

"Here's a copy of the service," he said impatiently. "But, you'll have to think of something to play after I make the announcement about the finances."

During the service, the minister paused and said, "Brothers and Sisters, we are in great difficulty; the roof repairs cost twice as much as we expected and we need $4,000 more. Any of you who can pledge $100 or more, please stand up." At that moment, the substitute organist played "The Star Spangled Banner."

And that is how the substitute became the regular organist!

Helen Clark has Made NZ a Better Place

Former Prime Minister Helen Clark says she leaves Parliament knowing she has played a part in "making New Zealand a better place". - Stuff

"The only way Helen Clark has made New Zealand a "better place" is by leaving it!" - Whaleoil

I completely agree. What has Helen Clark done to make New Zealand a better place? All she has done is to maintain the status quo in some areas, and ramp up government involvement interference in many others. Along with many other Kiwis, I am sick of hearing Clark's lies and having New Zealand's society and economy crippled by her nine-year government dictatorship.

Good on Clark for landing this the job as head of the United Nations Development Programme. I don't hate her, but I am delighted that she is leaving.

Cherishsiliala Tahuri-Wright

Three-year-old Cherishsiliala Tahuri-Wright died from severe head injuries on 17 February. The police have charged a 56-year-old woman with her murder. The day following the incident, the Manawatu Standard reported, "A neighbour who saw the girl laying in a bed at her grandmother's house said she was bruised, bloodied and gasping for breath."

And yet, rather than focus on the depravity of the low-life who bashed up this helpless little girl and left her to die of her wounds, the majority of the media goes on a witch-hunt after the St John Ambulance service. The deputy-mayor of Poriru-cum-family spokeswoman said, "It really pisses me off to think they dicked around for a couple of hours while a little girl was dying," said family spokeswoman and Porirua Deputy Mayor Litea Ah Hoi. You don't have to be Einstein to work out a child with head injuries has to go straight to hospital any parent would know that instinctively." - Stuff .Where's the outrage over the brutatlity against this little girl? There is a lot of attention paid to the alleged pathetic response time by the ambulance service, while the murder itself is brushed over.

However the man heading up the murder inquiry, Detective Senior Sergeant Craig Sheridan had a different view on the incident and said that "the ambulance response had been first rate". He understood the delay was because of the time it took to stabilise Cherish for transport. - TVNZ

In his usual irreverent style, Whaleoil commented back in March "She was also doomed by her first name, continuing the trend of tragic circumstances befalling people with silly first names." Obviously Cherishsiliala did not die because she has a silly name, but Whaleoil is pointing out that a high percentage of child abuse victims do have less than desirable names. The naming of children is not something that you would want to legislate on - at least within the bounds of decency. Nonetheless, giving a child a ridiculous name does them a decided disservice.

Dave at Big News looks at three hypotheses as to the cause of Cherishsilial's death. He concludes,

Then there is a third hypothesis. She was killed by a relative after that relative gave her severe head injuries. That relative has been charged with murder and is now in custody. Had her relative not given her severe head injuries, the the ambulance would not need to have been called. They would not have need to have "dicked around" trying to stabilise the poor kid her due to her horrific - and later fatal - injuries before taking her to hospital. Had Ah Hoi's relative not given this kid severe head injuries, the little girl would be alive today.

Which is the whole point. But our government doesn't get it. Instead of toughening up on sentencing for violent crimes, and adoption ACT's 3 Strikes and You're Out policy, Minister of Health Tony Ryall announces just over a month after the anniversary of this girl's murder that the government will be injecting $10 million into the ambulance sector. - InfoNews