The Magpie Said

CANTA is the magasine put out by the compulsory student union at the University of Canterbury. In the 25/May 09 issue of CANTA the political commentator Hayden Munro (aka the Magpie) wrote an article entitled "Ok, this could get kind of tricky" which he has also posted on his blog. In his article he discusses minority politics in general, the "Christian Right" and more specifically, myself. It is essentially a response to an article of mine that was published in the previous edition of CANTA which discussed abortion law in New Zealand. Hayden is not only on the ball when it comes to discussing this subject, but he does so in an impressively balanced and reasoned way. I'll let you have a read of the article - all I want to do here is address one or two comments in the article which Hayden's thrashed out onto the keyboard perhaps a wee bit too quickly.

"Andy is... strongly against any gay marriage"

As far as I know I haven't stated this anywhere. Just to be clarfiy though, I believe homosexuality is immoral, but if two homosexuals wish to enter into a civil union - to be officially recognised as a couple before the State, I have no problem with this. However the issue of gay marriage is so convoluted that I will not deal with it right now.

yellow card: that's not on!

"...even intelligent, dedicated activist’s [sic] like Andy can slip into really rabid rhetoric. Insinuating that Helen Clark shouldn’t try to save a dieing [sic] friend, since she believes in abortion, is not going to win you any friends amongst moderates."

That's just bad logic. One thing I try hard to avoid is rabid rhetoric, character slurs, exaggerations and the like. Helen Clark should be commended for attempting to resucitate her dying friend. However I was questioning the inconsistency in her actions rather than implying that she should have left her friend to die.

My major ideological disagreement with Hayden in this article though, deals with the issue of homosexual couples adopting children. He states that legislating against this would "deny them the chance to raise a family, one of the fundamental joys in life". Heck yeah, I completely agree. But that's their problem. I stand by my comment on 4 May, "It is empirically evident that two homosexual adults are unable to provide children with the stability and security that is essential for every child as he or she grows up." Raising children isn't a flippin' game or an experiment or a right. Rather, it is a privilege.

But what's with the magpie? Hayden's weekly column is named "Quardle Ardle Oodle Wardle Ardle Doodle" and is a reference to a famous New Zealand poem. Flicking through the glossy colour pages of half-clothed drunken students, bizarre and disturbed cartoons, screeds of large advertisments and (almost always) boring opinion pieces is Hayden's political column which is more often than not a good read in a particularly mind-numbing lecture. Anyway, oneday the overpaid staff at CANTA may get their act together and regularly upload Hayden's column which you should be able to find here.

Polygamy Next up on Labour's Agenda

The maiden issue of Ian Wishart's compelling new weekly newspaper, TGIF (Thank God it's Friday) launches with a killer of a expose on the deceit, and the dark agenda of the Labour Party.  Family First has the article on their website (click here to read it).  Seriously, read it.

I'm not surprised in the least by revelations of Labour's agenda to legalise polygamy and "so on" as Ruth Dyson so vaguely puts it.  If adultery is all ok, if homosexual relationships are to be officially recognised under the law, why should it come as any surprise to us that now they want to legalise polygamy?  Bob McCoskrie of Family First responded “I don’t think it’s surprising, the argument for civil unions was all about taking down boundaries."

Dyson made the comments in a speech given to Victoria University students back in May, but at the time the media did not pick up on her dangerous and revelutionary propositions.  Laughable, is the despicable response of Ruth Dyson's spokesman Rob McCann who denied the existence of her speech after hurriedly deleting it from off the Beehive website.  "Unfortunately for your story", he responded to Ian's request for more information on the speech, "that was not the speech the minister delivered".  Of course, Rob was not reckoning for Google's amazing Cache.  You can view the cached page by clicking here.

It just sickens me to think of the pack of low down, lying beurocrats up in Wellington.  For the most part, they are nothing more than a parasite on the wallets of hard-working Kiwis.  They are using our money for their dark and immoral agenda.

Click here to download a complimentary copy of the first issue of TGIF.